The Design of Electric Motor Car’s Body Network Based on CAN-bus

Distributed Control
Wang Jianfeng , Wang Dafang , Xiong Jie
Harbin Institute of Technology, Weihai 264209, China
E-mail: wjfeee123@163.com

Abstract: CAN-bus is a typical bus control technology, and is now widely applied in many areas.In view of the
characteristics of the electric vehicle body, this paper puts forward a plan that applies CAN-bus technology to build
electric vehicle body network. In terms of the electric vehicle body system,it needs to resolve several issues: One is to
simplify electronic wiring harness as far as possible, and the other is to ensure the normal data communications. In this
article, the body electrical is divided into different nodes in accordance with the principles of proximity, each node
controls a certain area of electrical equipment, and at the same time, communicates with other nodes through CAN bus.
CAN bus used SAE1939 agreement and defined message through this agreement. Each body node of the circuit includes
main circuit board and extended board. The main circuit can achieve the requirements of data communications; the
extended board can achieve the expansion of body electrical. The circuits are divided into several modules in application
with circuit modular design approach. Every module was respectively developed by embedded software system through
some software development tools, at the same time, tested the entire body CAN network communications systems. After
the test, the entire body of communications network can meet the requirements.

Key Words: Distributed control, CAN bus, Electric car and Body network

1. INTRODUCTION 2. CAN BUS AND AGREEMENT

Energy and environment are the two fundamental
problems of the modern world’s sustainable development.
With the development of economy, the quantities of
vehicle maintained a rapid growth year by year, the
problem of energy and environment becomes austere day
by day. Electric motor car has many advantages such as
non-polluting, high energy efficiency, energy
diversification, simple structural parts, convenient to
maintain,etc. It’s a good way to relieve the energy and
environment problem which becomes more and more
serious. In order to decrease weight, This electric motor
car adopts electric equipments as many as possible to
replace the traditional mechanical and hydraulic
equipments. The increase of electric equipments not only
decreases the weight of car, but also brings forward a
higher demand to the car’s communication system.
Vehicle bus technology is just such a kind of technology
that can meet the car’s communication demand. Using car
bus system can build multi car network subsystems. To
the electric motor car’s body network, it also can be
divided into multi subsystems, its integrated function,
message safety and real-time performance and reliability
are all depended on the cooperative work of the
subsystem. The distributed network based on CAN-bus
system is an ideal way to make the subsystem work
cooperatively.
This paper,using CAN-bus technology [1], [2] and
controlling the nodes through distributed control method
[3],builds an electric motor car’s body network system.
CAN,which is the short of Controller Area Network, is
the most mature and developable bus technology. It’s a
serial communicational network efficiently supports
distributed control and real-time control. Controller Area
Network has many special characteristics so that it can be
popularly applied in cars.
CAN bus defines the physical layer and data link layer,
but does not regulate the application layer [5]-[8], CAN
bus protocol architecture is shown in Figure 1. Various
CAN networks support different communication speed.
To the electric car’s body network, SAE1939 agreement
entirely meets the car body electrical equipments and the
network nodes communications requirements. The SAE
J1939 is based on CAN agreement. It gives a further
refined definition of CAN agreement’s extended frames.
In the SAE J1939,one data message contains a protocol
data unit PDU (Protocol Data Unit), PDU is formed by 7
fields: the priority composed of CAN message arbitration
domain (P), bit to retain (R) , data page (DP), the format
domain (PF), a specific domain (PS), the source address
(SA) and data domain composed of data field (DF). They
will be packaged into one or more CAN data frames, and
then transferred to the network through physical media.
The content of other messages is in line with CAN2.0B
norms.
Tab. 1: the message style of J1939
S S I
Data
O 11bitID R D 18bit ID
F R E
domain
D S
P R PF PF PS DF
P A
17~1 15 7~
28~26 25 24 23~18 0~64
6 ~8 0

978-1-4244-2723-9/09/$25.00 
c 2009 IEEE 3712
 definition of the application layer of the nodes is shown in
3. OVERALL DESIGN PROGRAM Table 2.
In this system, SAE1939 agreement is used to connect the
low-voltage electrical system of the body. Design Left front Right front
principles of body network are shown as follows:
(1)Do not change the original electric equipments; only
modify the automotive wiring harness in order to reduce
Instrument
costs.
(2) The network should have interfaces and can be
extended.
(3)Can communicate with vehicle control systems. Left back Right back
(4) Meet the environmental requirements of
communication systems, such as high temperature and
have a high reliability.
Low speed CAN
The car body electric equipments do not need real-time High speed CAN
ability of the message, but have a large number of Body central controller/gate
messages. Through distributed control systems these
Fig.1: the body network topology structure
electronic control unit are separated with the vehicle drive
system in favor of ensuring the real-time ability of the
Tab. 2: the unit of automotive body network
drive system. In the design process, the system interface is
Full name Remarks
reserved; the system can be expanded when needed.
Body Control Unit(BCU) MASTER
The car body network uses distributed control based on Meter(M) SLAVE0
CAN bus due to the multi components of the electrical Front Left(FL) SLAVE1
system and the uneven distribution. Body network is Front Right(FR) SLAVE2
divided into a number of nodes, each node is connected Rear Left(RL) SLAVE3
through the CAN bus and realize data communications. Rear Right(RR) SLAVE4
The division of the node is in accordance with the CAN message should be defined after the definition of
principles of proximity, those close to each other is network nodes and is 8 bytes long. When defining
defined as an electrical node. In accordance with this message, the node priority level should first be defined.
principle, the body network is divided into the central The central node of controlling information has the
controller / gateway, left front node, left back node, the highest priority level 3, the controlling information from
instrument screen node, right front node, right back node, the left front node to the right front node has the priority 4,
and so on. The topology structure of car body network status information from BCU to the engine Motor has the
node is shown in Figure 1. priority 5,the body node status information has the
To the entire network, the definition of application layer priority 6. For this 6 nodes, its address is defined as
protocol, which is the definition of the arbitration field follows: central control node 0xA0; left front node 0x80;
identifiers bit and data field in the CAN data frame right front node 0x81; left back node 0x82; right back
,should referred to CAN bus SAE1939 agreement. The node 0x83; instrument display node 0x84. Message
definition is show in table 3:

Tab. 3: the definition of automotive body network’s message

Message
Message name Sending node Receiving node Message ID
length
0x0C00FFA0
Car Switch BCU broadcast P R DP PF PS SA 8
0x3 0x0 0x0 0x00 0xFF 0xA0
0x140084A0
Engine Status BCU Meter P R DP PF PS SA 8
0x5 0x0 0x0 0x00 0x84 0xA0
0x140184A0
BodyStatus1 BCU Meter P R DP PF PS SA 8
0x6 0x0 0x0 0x01 0x84 0xA0
0x140284A0
BodyStatus2 BCU Meter P R DP PF PS SA 8
0x6 0x0 0x0 0x02 0x84 0xA0
0x1400A080
Front Left Status FL BCU P R DP PF PS SA 8
0x6 0x0 0x0 0x00 0xA0 0x80

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 0x1400A081
Front Right Status FR BCU P R DP PF PS SA 8
0x6 0x0 0x0 0x00 0xA0 0x81
0x1400A082
Rear Left Status RL BCU P R DP PF PS SA 8
0x6 0x0 0x0 0x00 0xA0 0x82
0x1400A083
Rear Right Status RR BCU P R DP PF PS SA 8
0x6 0x0 0x0 0x00 0xA0 0x83
0x10008180
Front Right Switch FL FR P R DP PF PS SA 2
0x4 0x0 0x0 0x00 0x81 0x80

4. DESIGN OF THE HARDWARE OF
CONTROL SYSTEM
The control system of body network is to mainly accept
input and send control signals to the corresponding
equipment. When a device is out of order, it can show
fault information timely, and cut off the electricity. The
control system should have the communications interface
in order to communicate datas [9] among the nodes. The
control system is divided into power management
modules, power monitoring module, the switch input
module, analog input module, logic control modules,
motor drive module, lamp driver module, CAN
communication modules, and other modules as to the
features of body network. The control system board
structure uses two-tier boards. One is the main circuit
board[10], including logic control modules, power
monitoring module, power supply deal part, CAN
communication modules, RS232 interface module, BDM
programming module, which realizes the main logic
control ; The other one is the expansion board, including
power management modules, switch collection modules,
high-power driver device module, lamp drive module and
the motor drive module, and so on ,which connects
external power components.
Logic control module is the center of the whole control
system. It should have a strong anti-interference
capability, high working reliability, the appropriate
calculate speed and low price. This paper uses Freescale's
MC9S12DP512 [11] microcontroller. Logic control
module circuit is shown in Figure 2:
THE (1) cut off the channel where the electromagnetic
radiation goes into the internal control system and has
moderate effect;
(2) increase the quality of electromagnetic devices
sensitive to the electromagnetic effect;
(3) From the entire system and design of circuit, take
measures such as shield protection to protect the most
sensitive devices and modules.
5. SOFTWARE IMPLEMENTATION
Software environment is based on Metrowerks Inc.
Personal Computer C language integrated software
environment IDE, it is a powerful embedded software
development tools, support software simulation. In
accordance with the network of the body topology
structure, the whole network is divided into five nodes,
each of the five nodes respectively needs software
programming. As the definitions of the four body nodes
and instrument display node are very similar, here we
only deal with central control node and right front
programming node.
The central control node includes the main program, the
initialization module, CAN message sending and
receiving module, switch volume collecting module,
switch volume processing module, CAN message
data-processing module. The main program is the core of
this software, and is responsible for scheduling and
allocation of the node. Main function diagram is shown in
Figure 3.
The software design of body node is mainly to collect
signal and control electric equipment. The software
design of body node is modular, the program will be
divided into CAN message sending and receiving module,
switch volume collecting module, switch volume
processing and coding module, CAN data-processing and
coding module, the output driver module, main module
and system initialization Module 5. The main function
diagram is shown in Figure 4.

6. THE BODY NETWORK COMMUNICATIONS

TEST

When the body electric equipment and the nodes circuit

are connected as the body CAN network through CAN
Fig.2: completed circuit board
bus, we need to test the communication system of the
whole network, including CAN communication interface
In order to suppress electromagnetic interference, the module, the switch volume collecting module, light driver
system uses three measures: module, motor drive module and other function module
test.

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CAN communications interface module is mainly to test
whether the body network can achieve reliable CAN
communication. CAN communication uses high-speed
CAN mode at the rate of 250kbps. The test message is
shown in Figure 3. CAN message data field is shown in
Figure 4 From the map, we can see the sending and
receiving data frames are same, and prove that the CAN
node can send and receive the right CAN message.
The switch volume collecting module is composed of
MC33972 and single-chip SPI interface. The test of this
module is realized by measuring the SPI interface SCLK
and the SS signal. MC33972 send the disruption
information through its No. 31 pin to the single chip
resulting in the interruption, and then exchange data with
the MC33972, and acquire 24bit switching volume
information through the SPI interface and interruption
processing functions. SPI interface SCLK and SS signal is
shown in Figure5.
Fig.3: CAN testing message
Fig.4: CAN message frame data field
Fig.5: the message of SCLK and SS of SPI interface
2009 Chinese Control and Decision Conference (CCDC 2009)
As can be seen, when the SP4 pin is grounding, the
electric level of the S0 pin changes from high to low, and
the MC33972 chip is connected, and the 24-bit clock
signal is sent through the SCK0 pin in a row, the single
chip Send 24-bit control command to the single-chip
MC33972 through the MOSI0 pin, the control signal is
shown in Figure 6. When the MC33972 is sending the
24bit switch state data, the single chip and MC33972 are
set to falling edge clock signal, the SPI interface SCLK
and SS signal is shown in Figure 7. The 6th data bit is just
the SP4 state, this shows that when the SP4 is "off" the
corresponding data is 1, proves that the system hardware
design, the MC33972 initial set-up and the processing
function of the switch volume break-off is absolutely
correct. Figure 8 is the detected SPI interface SCK and
MISO pin signal when SP2, SG13 switch are grounding at
the same time, the signal is fully conform to the system
requirements.
Fig.6: the SPI interface SCLK and the MOSI control single
Fig.7: the message of SCLK and MOSI when SP4 is closed
Fig.8: the message of SCLK and MOSI when SP4 and SG13 are closed
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 Motor drive module is detected by measuring the
relationship between the quantity of the output feedback
simulation voltage and the drive current at different work
states. The feedback simulation voltage of the motor
which drive the door glass is shown in Figure 9. The
driving current of the test motor is sh1985102419851024
own in Figure 10. From the chart, we can see the driving
voltage and driving current is proportional, indicating that
the drive module of the motor is normal.
Fig.11: the input and output in normal state

Fig.12: the input and status output in normal state

Fig.9: feedback voltage in normal state

Fig.13: input and output in open circuit state

Fig.10: feedback voltage when motor is locked

The light driver module is mainly to control the lights

circuit. Through measuring whether the control system
can control the lights in accordance with the instructions
and the status of the feedback lights, we can measure the
accuracy of the drive module. It is generally divided into
three working conditions for testing, including normal,
open circuit, circuit overloading, and other working
conditions. The test is shown in Figure 11-14. The test
showed that the lights drive module can control the lights Fig.14: input and output when overload
effectively in different work conditions.
7. CONCLUSION
Using CAN bus technology, we can realize the
establishing of electric vehicle body networks. And using

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distributed control system, the body network of cars is
divided into a number of nodes. Through this, we can not
only meet the communications requirements but reduce
the weight of the body harness. In the practical electric
vehicle manufacturing process, we can greatly reduce the
manufacturing cost. In the design process of the body
nodes, the expansion interface is set aside for the
convenience of increasing electrical equipments.
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