Revolutionizing Greenhouse emission testing

European legislation is now tougher and Austrian company AVL is here to help with M.O.V.E., a pioneering solution which measures emissions under real conditions.

With the official publication of the “RDE package 1” on 31st March 2016 the long awaited start of RDE testing is now fixed. Twenty days from the release in the official journal of the European Union monitoring tests will be required in conjunction with type approval certification of new vehicle types in the European Union. This event, on 20th April 2016, marks a milestone in the development of RDE for LDV and is the first of a series of four RDE packages to fade-in real world testing of passenger cars in Europe.

The RDE emission legislation is a big challenge for the passenger car industry and the test systems suppliers. It adds the “road” as a new test environment with all the variability of real world driving. From now on vehicles need to be optimized over the entire operating range which will increase the development effort and the amount of data dramatically. Leaving the well-conditioned surroundings of a test-bed, measurement under real driving conditions reveals new challenges for the test equipment such as vibrations, inclinations, accelerations as well as temperature and pressure drops. Moreover, an efficient pre-treatment is necessary to ensure precise and reproducible measurements for the entire bandwidth of possible real driving conditions.

The Austrian based company AVL, developed M.O.V.E. iS, a com- plete solution for Real Driving Emissions testing.

This solution was designed especially for all touring cars, from city cars to SUVs. Its primary aim is to measure NO/NO2 and CO/CO2 emissions, the quantities of fine particles, as well as the exhaust gas flow emitted by the vehicle. Installed on the rear of the vehicle on the tow hook, the measuring instrument uses cutting-edge technology, such as UV or infrared sensors or high precision exhaust gas flow sensors.

M.O.V.E. is more than a sophisticated device. A control unit (the AVL M.O.V.E System Control) records all the data and enables to monitor emission tests from a laptop placed inside the car, via a user-friendly interface. Connected to the measuring device via Wi-Fi or an Ethernet cable, it can follow the entire process: the user can start or stop the measurements and carry out all the necessary steps. 

Finally, a software developed by AVL, (the Concerto M.O.V.E.) processes automatically all the data after the test and automatically generates the final report for the type approval authorities. It only takes a few minutes to obtain the required information.

Measuring the actual emissions of a vehicle involves a number of technical challenges. The first one is to be able to comply with all legal requirements, by supplying extremely accurate data. To achieve these results, the measuring device needs to be rugged (externally fitted, it has to function in temperatures ranging between -7 and +35 degrees at altitudes of 0 to 1350 m), be robust* and lightweight. It also needs autonomous batteries were it power-supplied by the vehicle, this would modify the vehicle’s performance and therefore its emissions. 
* Binding criteria which drove AVL to choose LEMO connectors.

The M.O.V.E. solution is marketed all over the world, wherever stringent emission legislation comes into force. This is the case in Europe, in Korea, in Japan, in China and in the USA. Designed for and together with car manufacturers, it takes into account all their requirements and helps them to further enhance engine performance.

AVL is the world's largest independent company for the development of powertrain systems with internal combustion engines as well as instrumentation and test systems. With M.O.V.E iS, AVL is the clear global marked leader in the field of RDE testing solutions. 

To provide accurate measurements, M.O.V.E. needs to be rugged, robust and lightweight.