Data Connectivity Solutions for Industrial and Commercial Vehicles

Agricultural, construction and other heavy-duty vehicles are typically built to last several years or more depending on the type of vehicle. So, manufacturers must be able to design for future trends to give customers the most long-term value. The pace of technology change makes this a difficult task, but one advantage the industrial and commercial transportation industry has is it can use the knowledge and technology from future-focused applications already proven in the automotive industry.

As automated functionality and data, connectivity demands continue to increase in the industrial and commercial transportation sector, the CAN bus protocol is quickly reaching its limits. To stay on top of megatrends driving these demands—such as green, safe, connected, and productive—designers must consider incorporating Ethernet systems in their designs now to be able to meet customer demands in the near future and beyond.

Industrial and commercial vehicle designers are working to make the next generation of trucks, buses, and off-road vehicles safer, greener, more connected and more productive. To make this happen, they are introducing advanced automated functionality, which was previously developed only for passenger vehicles, to help increase productivity and drive down the total cost of ownership.
Driver assistance and automation features, infotainment options, 360-degree camera systems, high-speed vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication, and a wide range of essential safety features are becoming standard requirements for new heavy-duty vehicles. Currently, the industry is at level 2—partial automation. In four to five years, we expect the market to be at level 4, with a high level of automated function in most new vehicles. This means functional safety must be integrated not only into the design but also as part of the development and quality management process in order to meet ISO 26262 as well as future standards.
Commercial vehicles of the future will “know” more about their environment and the route ahead, as well as send feedback to a home base that can be analyzed and acted upon to improve performance and productivity. These technologies and the ones mentioned below deliver increased driver satisfaction, better productivity and lower total cost of ownership (TCO) for vehicle owners, and far greater performance feedback for manufacturers.

All these trends and technologies require a sophisticated network infrastructure that can handle increased data demands to make all communication possible—within the vehicle, from one vehicle to another, or between the vehicle and another location such as a depot or control center and even the manufacturer. This network needs to transmit high-speed data with low latency while operating in harsh conditions. So far, CAN bus architectures have been able to serve as the backbone for a vehicle’s network. As designers look to incorporate more automated features for safety and productivity, the data bandwidth required for advanced vehicle functionality is too great to be served by CAN alone. The transition to Ethernet has begun, first in areas where higher bandwidth and performance are required and eventually replacing CAN as automation becomes more prevalent and more power and bandwidth needs to be integrated throughout the system.

Currently, most sensor and connectivity systems in vehicles for ADAS are dedicated systems. One function or application, like adaptive cruise control, has sensors for radar/lidar and connectors that feed into one electronic control unit (ECU). As automated functions increase in these vehicles, sensor fusion—where data from several sensors can be combined and analyzed—becomes increasingly vital to collect more accurate positioning and environmental information. For example, while in passenger automobiles sensors are needed to detect obstacles on solid roads, in construction, mining, and agriculture, sensors need to detect material properties as well. If a farm combine is crossing a field harvesting crops and an obstacle that looks like a stick is detected in its path, it needs to know whether that object is a lightweight stick that can be easily handled by the machine or a stray steel pipe that could potentially damage the combine and put it out of service for repair, and then take action accordingly. Accomplishing this accurately and quickly requires additional computing power.

In this fused model, sensors are interconnected across multiple or all applications in the vehicle leading to one ECU. The higher amount of data being processed requires more bandwidth, and that higher bandwidth requires connectors and cables that can handle more speed as well as an Ethernet network that can handle up to 1 Gbit per second of data to transmit information reliably.

The transition to these types of technologies and automated functions brings a whole new challenge for engineers to design vehicles that can perform reliably and stand the test of time even in the harshest environments.

As industrial and commercial vehicle designers look to upgrade the connectivity systems and networks in their vehicles, many high-speed data applications can be designed using connector technology that has been developed over the past few years for use in the automotive industry. However, the environments and challenges that commercial vehicles face are often much harsher in comparison to what cars and light-duty trucks may see. For applications where dust, dirt, moisture, extreme temperatures, and high-vibration are common, our new connectors, such as sealed enetSEAL+ and Heavy Duty Sealed Connector Series with MATEnet inserts can be used. enetSEAL+ connectors can be used for applications requiring up to 100 MB per second of data connectivity, while the Heavy Duty Sealed Connector Series with MATEnet inserts can be used to transfer up to 1 gigabit per second.

To stay competitive in the market and ahead of automation trends and functionality that enable safety, productivity and sustainability, designers and manufacturers must incorporate Ethernet in all their latest designs to be able to handle the increased data connectivity requirements. The best way to do this is to consult early on with engineering experts, like those at TE, who can advise on the topology and technology needed to design and manufacture the innovative components that enable increased sensing and computing power while maintaining signal integrity in harsh conditions.