Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - June 2024 - 8

TECHNICAL INNOVATIONS
SIMULATION
Cloud simulation assists active-safety
development for electric refuse truck
Volvo FH and FM heavy-duty trucks use NCA lithium-ion batteries
supplied by Samsung SDI.
North America's first electric, fully integrated custom cab and
chassis refuse collection vehicle - slated for initial customer
deliveries in mid-2024 - is equipped with a standard advanced
driver-assistance system (ADAS). " A typical garbage truck uses
commercial off-the-shelf active safety technologies, but the
electrified McNeilus Volterra ZSL was purpose-built with active
safety technologies to serve our refuse collection customer, "
said Brendan Chan, chief engineer for autonomy and active
safety at Oshkosh Corporation, McNeilus' parent company.
" We wanted to make the safest and best refuse collection
truck out there. And by using cloud-based simulation, we
could accelerate the development of ADAS and other technologies, "
Chan said in an interview with Truck & Off-Highway
Engineering during the 2024 dSPACE User Conference in
Plymouth, Michigan.
Cloud-based simulation runs helped engineers in multiple
Peter Granqvist, senior
vice president of Volvo
Group Electromobility
Technology, said that
he's " not excluding
anything " when it comes
to battery chemistries.
ways, including determining where to position cameras and
sensors for the ADAS technologies. Since a typical refuse collection
route involves hundreds of stops and starts in dynamic
residential areas, cramped alleys and busy business zones,
Production in Mariestad is expected to begin in 2028, with a
ramp-up to full-scale production during 2029. Battery cells produced
at the plant (up to 300,000 tons per year) will be used
across Volvo Group product categories, including trucks, buses,
construction equipment and marine and industrial applications.
Volvo Group has its own battery assembly plant in Ghent,
Belgium, where cells and modules from Samsung SDI are assembled
into battery packs for the Volvo FH, Volvo FM and
Volvo FMX heavy-duty trucks. In 2025, the Ghent plant will
begin to produce battery modules. The battery-module manufacturing
line will be able to use battery cells both from partners
and, eventually, from Volvo's plant in Sweden.
Granqvist admitted that Volvo engineers are learning as
they go in the quickly evolving battery-technology landscape.
" We are used to development cycles that are much, much
longer than what this industry is evolving. We are almost on a
monthly basis reviewing what new players are out there, who
can produce in these regions, can they get more range, is this
safer, can it be lighter. It's a continuous iteration, " he said.
" And then it's a balance between having something that is
safe, solid and robust versus something that is stretching in
terms of the performance ... We don't know [what the future
holds] but we are trying hard to understand. "
Ryan Gehm
8 June 2024
Multiple sensors are located on the exterior body of the new McNeilus
Volterra ZSL. Its electrified drivetrain features two Allison e-Gen Power
100S e-axles in a tandem configuration and a 150-kW lithium-ion battery
pack that can achieve a 90% charge in four hours with Level 2 charging.
dSPACE's Aurelion sensor simulator is shown demonstrating support for
dynamic weather conditions.
TRUCK & OFF-HIGHWAY ENGINEERING
FROM TOP: SAE/RYAN GEHM; SAE/RYAN GEHM; OSHKOSH; dSPACE
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - June 2024

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