1. Measurement, data acquisition and storage

Figure 1 shows the general layout of a test bench automation system.

The rapid development of PC computing power has enabled them to be used for test bench control systems. As early as the 1980s, the first PCs had been used as acquisition tools, but it was only with the advent of more advanced systems such as MS-WindowsÒ that software was able to take off, thanks to its user-friendliness, and assume total responsibility for the test cell.

Nevertheless, data acquisition on an engine dyno requires a real-time computer operating system to ensure the accuracy of calculations made from data taken at the same instant. D2T's Morphée ^® software features a patented real-time kernel, and therefore does not...