32 VDI AWARDS
Innovation of the Year
Whether hardware or software, engineering or computing, this category recognises innovative ideas that advance and enhance vehicle dynamic setups
Winner: ZF Flying Carpet 2.0
ZF won this category last year with its
sMotion fully active damping system, and has
successfully defended its title with Flying Carpet
2.0, a predictive chassis concept that brings
together the company’s various active and
semi-active vehicle motion control systems into
one design. As its name suggests, the chassis
design is intended to isolate passengers from
unpleasant vehicle movements, partly through
the use of advanced sensors, a smart control
unit, and intelligent actuators, which predict
and respond to bends, bumps and potholes
in the road. The design is intended to lay the
groundwork for future automated vehicles.
When passengers in cars today work, read
or watch fi lms rather than watching the road
ahead, unwanted car body movements caused by
potholes, bumps or bends, or abrupt braking or
accelerating, can lead to motion sickness. This
is an inconvenience today, but such activity
will be far more central to the autonomous
car passenger experience, which is where the
Flying Carpet 2.0 concept comes in, controlling
almost all longitudinal, transverse and vertical
movements of the vehicle.
At the heart of the design is the sMotion
fully active damping system, which uses four
VehicleDynamicsInternational.com •May/June 2020
actuators to adapt the suspension movements of
each individual wheel according to the driving
situation and road surface. The actuators do
not just control hydraulic resistance levels to
respond to incoming stimuli – they also have a
compact, external electric motor and pump unit
with integrated electronics that works as a bidirectional
actuator. These units can elevate the
vehicle wheels upwards together or push them
downwards, individually and actively.
For example, when cornering, the two inner
wheels can be retracted and the outer wheels
extended to help counteract pitching, rolling
and lifting movements.
The concept also addresses ride comfort
through the AKC (Active Kinematics Control)
active rear-axle steering system, designed to
enhance safety, dynamics and manoeuvrability.
At low vehicle speeds, the system makes it
easier to manoeuvre by steering the rear
axle in the opposing direction to the front
wheels. If the vehicle is moving faster, the
system steers the front and rear wheels in the
same direction to provide greater directional
stability. When used in conjunction with
sMotion active damping, AKC can prevent power
oversteer on tight bends. Supplemented by ZF’s
steer-by-wire power steering system and IBC
(Integrated Brake Control) active brake system,
the combination of these four integral chassis
components can add comfort to most
driving situations.
Runners up:
• University of Waterloo corner modules
• Bridgestone Enliten tyre
• Hyundai-Kia predictive gearbox
• Continental plastic air spring
• Monroe RideRefine SDD
The Jury
• Choi Joo-sik, Autocar Korea
• Robert Bielecki, Oponeo, Poland
• Christophe Congrega, L’Automobile
Magazine, France
• Hormazd Sorabjee, Autocar India
• Brian Cowan, freelance, New Zealand
• Carl Cunanan: C!, Philippines
• Frank Markus, Motor Trend, USA
• Padraic Deane, managing editor,
Automotive Publications, Ireland
• Tarcisio Dias de Araujo, Mecânica Online,
Brazil
• Jim Kenzie, Toronto Star, Canada
• Nikos Kounitis, 4Wheels, Auto Bild Hellas,
Greece
• Nicol Louw, Car South Africa
• Marco Marelli, freelance, Italy
• Marc Noordeloos, freelance, USA
• Sergio Oliveira de Melo, El Informador,
Mexico
• Tomaz Porekar, Avto Magazin, Slovenia
• Alvaro Sauras Alonso, Autofacil and
CAR&Tecno, Spain
• Jürgen Zöllter – freelance, Germany
• Mohamad Sheta, Al-Masry Al-Youm
Newspaper, Auto Arabia, Middle East Auto
News Agency
• Gábor Szécsényi, Az Autó and Retro Mobil,
Hungary
• Oleg Vasilevsky, Auto Bild, Ukraine
• Adam Gavine, Vehicle Dynamics
International, UK
How the judging process for the Vehicle Dynamics International Awards works
Nominations are received from VDI ’s expert readership of chassis and dynamics professionals, and from the editorial team. From that list of entries, a shortlist of eligible finalists is created for
each category, and this shortlist is evaluated by our international, independent judging panel of automotive journalists, to decide the winners.
/VehicleDynamicsInternational.com