A new (in India) acronym called ARP made a sudden appearance in a recently-launched affordable car in the Indian market.
Quote:
Originally Posted by blackwasp The Ford Freestyle is on sale in India... What you'll like:
• Titanium+ variant gets 6 airbags, ESP, ARP & HSA |
This, to me, was an exciting little string of letters, which however did not stir many souls. In fact, multiple professional reviews of the Ford Freestyle across India only mentioned the acronym in passing, and no one thought to test out the system and assess its advantages.
So what is Active Roll-over Protection (ARP)?
ARP (the specific name) is a system
patented to Ford Technologies LLC, with modifications and changes to the various systems over the last 20+ years. ARP is designed to reduce the risk of on-road rollover situations in case of dynamic (e.g. lane change) and steady state manoeuvres (e.g. vehicle turns with constant radius and increasing vehicle velocity).
Multiple other patents filed by various other manufacturers of automobiles and automotive control systems utilize similar principles to reduce chances of vehicle roll-over, except that the specific sensors and control modules are designed a little differently.
Quote:
(ARP) is a systerm and a method for mitigating vehicle rollovers; the method comprises monitoring a vehicular tilt and sensing a vehicular rollover in a particular direction, through a tilt sensor. Further, the system determines an occurrence of a rollover according to a calculated tilt threshold, through a central processing unit. Steering the vehicle in the sensed direction of the rollover, accelerating the vehicle in the same direction, and braking the vehicle upon sensing a decrease in the rollover, all being controlled through a controller, enables the vehicle to eventually stabilize and return to track.
|
How do rollover mitigation systems work?
A couple of videos to explain the process of how rollover mitigation works:
The easiest video to understand the concept is by Mazda, whose Roll Stability Control (RSC) is similar to Ford's ARP.
Volvo was perhaps the first car manufacturer to incorporate rollover mitigation systems in its SUVs, and it's called
Roll-Over Protection System (ROPS). This utilizes the Roll Stability Control (RSC) function and has been designed to help minimize the risk of a rollover in emergency maneuvers or if a skid should occur.
The system uses a gyroscopic sensor that registers the amount of change in the lateral angle at which the vehicle is leaning. Using this information, the controller unit calculates the likelihood of a rollover. If there is an imminent risk of a rollover, the stability system is activated, power to the engine is cut and the brakes are applied to one or more of the wheels until the vehicle regains stability.
Bosch, among a plethora of automotive control systems, also designs and manufactures components as well as software for rollover mitigation systems.
In fact, Mahindra's latest XUV5OO sold in India now comes equipped with Bosch's Rollover Mitigation System - and that costs ~3x the price of the cheapest car in India with such a system (the Ford Freestyle).
Earlier models of the XUV5OO sold in India probably did not have the rollover mitigation system (owners please correct me if I am wrong), though the models exported to Australia (and probably South Africa) did (Australian Vehicle Standards Rules and Australian Design Rules make it mandatory for all new vehicles on sale since 2011 to be equipped with rollover mitigation function - including the now-discontinued Suzuki A-Star, called the Alto there, and the Celerio that is being currently sold in Australia).
Here's a Bosch video about the XUV5OO with ESP and TCS, but no mention of rollover mitigation.
What is different between ESP & ARP?
Both
ESP and
ARP (or other acronyms carrying out similar functions), as well as
TCS (traction control system),
ABS (anti-lock braking system),
EBD (electronic brake-force distribution),
BA (brake assistant) and
HHC (hill hold control) /
HSA (hill start assist) /
HDC (hill descent control) are part of the
active safety functions of a vehicle, using
automatic brake-system operations through electronic control, using a variety of
sensors to detect
• wheel speed at all the wheels
• brake pedal and the force applied to it
• steering angle
• accelerator pedal
• tilt / dive, yaw, lateral acceleration & roll
• torque to each driven wheel
Based on the inputs received by the different sensors, an electronic control module and its software is capable of braking one or more individual wheels as well as reducing engine power as required, thus making the act of driving a car by an average driver (or even an expert driver) much safer and more controlled.
To sum up, the confidence and speed of Gaurav Gill while driving the top-end Freestyle up Kolli Hills may not be as high as portrayed in Ford's advertorial video, without the active safety features of the car, including ARP & ESP - which means that the lower versions of the same car would not perform as safely around corners as the one equipped with ARP + ESP does.
However, Ford has just proved that the latest vehicle safety technologies need not make a car frighteningly expensive to buy. It is time that all other manufacturers follow suit, and equip ALL their cars with active safety functions.