Intergrated Mobility and Advanced Propulsion Systems Design Tool

Advanced propulsion systems, including hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), will play an important role in future Army vehicles. The existing mobility analysis tool NRMM II is not able to analyze or design HEV systems, due to its fixed structure. SystemsTechnology, Inc. proposes to develop an Integrated Mobility and Advanced Propulsion systems design tool (IMAP) that will have modeling tools that are flexible and easy to reconfigure, analyzing tools that are integrated with NRMM II, and designing toolsthat provide optimization capabilities to users. All of the tools are integrated into a unified software package, which is equipped an engineer-centric user interface that will result in a faster and more efficient design and analysis process. In Phase Iexisting software components and modeling approach will be evaluated. A sample problem will be selected and analyzed using the non-integrated software tools and a rapid prototype visual interface will be developed. The Phase II objective is to developand validate a prototype of the integrated software package. An integrated tool for predicting mobility performance of HEVs does not currently exist and has many potential military applications. Existing users of NRMM II (such as TACOM) will haveincreased capabilities. The larger market for the IMAP, however, resides in commercial vehicle manufacturing where the commercial benefits include better assessment techniques for vehicle performance and powertrain efficiency in off-road conditions.