Search Results

In this paper we are presenting the concept of automated park and charge functions in different use scenarios. The main scenario is automated park and charge in production and the other use scenario is within automated valet parking in parking garages. The automated park and charge in production is developed within the scope of the publicly funded project E-Self. The central aim of the project is the development and integration of automated driving at the end-of-line in the production at Ford Motor Company's manufacturing plant in Cologne. The driving function thereby is mostly based upon automated valet driving with an infrastructure based perception and action planning. Especially for electric vehicles the state of charge of the battery is critical, since energy is needed for all testing and driving operations at end-of-line.

In electrified vehicles, auxiliary units can be a dominant source of noise, one of which is the re-frigerant scroll compressor. Compared to vehicles with combustion engines, e-vehicles require larger refrigerant compressors, as in addition to the interior, also the battery and the electric motors have to be cooled. Currently, scroll compressors are widely used in the automotive industry, which generate one pressure pulse per revolution due to their discontinuous compression principle. This results in speed-dependent pressure fluctuations as well as higher-harmonic pulsations that arise from reflections. These fluctuations spread through the refrigeration circuit and cause the vibration excitation of refrigerant lines and heat exchangers. The sound transmission path in the air con-ditioning heat exchanger integrated in the dashboard is particularly critical. Various silencer con-figurations can be used to dampen these pulsations.

To shape future mobility MAHLE has committed itself to foster wireless charging for electrical vehicles. The standardized wireless power transfer of 11 kW at a voltage level of 800 V significantly improves the end user experience for charging an electric vehicle without the need to handle a connector and cable anymore. Combined with automated parking and autonomous driving systems, the challenge to charge fleets without user interaction is solved. Wireless charging is based on inductive power transfer. In the ground assembly’s (GA) power transfer coil, a magnetic field is generated which induces a voltage in the vehicle assembly (VA) power transfer coil. To transfer the power from grid to battery with a high efficiency up to 92% the power transfer coils are compensated with resonant circuits. In this paper the Differential-Inductive-Positioning-System (DIPS) to align a vehicle on the GA for parking will be presented.

In the evolving landscape of automated driving systems, the critical role of vehicle localization within the autonomous driving stack is increasingly evident. Traditional reliance on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) proves to be inadequate, especially in urban areas where signal obstruction and multipath effects degrade accuracy. Addressing this challenge, this paper details the enhancement of a localization system for autonomous public transport vehicles, focusing on mitigating GNSS errors through the integration of a LiDAR sensor. The approach involves creating a 3D map using the factor graph-based LIO-SAM algorithm based on GNSS, vehicle odometry, IMU and LiDAR data. The algorithm is adapted to the use-case by adding a velocity factor and altitude data from a Digital Terrain model. Based on the map a state estimator is proposed, which combines high-frequency LiDAR odometry based on FAST-LIO with low-frequency absolute multiscale ICP-based LiDAR position estimation.

The conventional process of last-mile delivery logistics often leads to safety problems for road users and a high level of environmental pollution. Delivery drivers must deal with frequent stops, search for a convenient parking spot and sometimes navigate through the narrow streets causing traffic congestion and possibly safety issues for the ego vehicle as well as for other traffic participants. This process is not only time consuming but also environmentally impactful, especially in low-emission zones where prolonged vehicle idling can lead to air pollution and to high operational costs. To overcome these challenges, a reliable system is required that not only ensures the flexible, safe and smooth delivery of goods but also cuts the costs and meets the delivery target.

Abstract. With the COP28 decisions the world is thriving for a future net-zero-CO2 society and the and current regulation acts, the energy infrastructure is changing in direction of renewables in energy production. All industry sectors will extend their share of direct or indirect electrification. The question might arise if the build-up of the renewables in energy production is fast enough. Demand and supply might not match in the short- and mid-term. The paper will discuss the roadmaps, directions and legislative boundary parameter in the regenerative energy landscape and their regional differences. National funding on renewables will gain an increasing importance to accelerate the energy transformation. The are often competing in attracting the same know-how on a global scale. In addition the paper includes details about energy conversion, efficiency as well as potential transport scenarios from production to the end consumer.

Autonomous driving is a hot topic in the automotive domain, and there is an increasing need to prove its reliability. They use machine learning techniques, which are themselves stochastic techniques based on some kind of statistical inference. The occurrence of incorrect decisions is part of this approach and often not directly related to correctable errors. The quality of the systems is indicated by statistical key figures such as accuracy and precision. Numerous driving tests and simulations in simulators are extensively used to provide evidence. However, the basis of all descriptive statistics is a random selection from a probability space. The difficulty in testing or constructing the training and test data set is that this probability space is usually not well defined. To systematically address this shortcoming, ontologies have been and are being developed to capture the various concepts and properties of the operational design domain.

EU legislation provides for only local CO2 emission-free vehicles to be allowed in individual passenger transport by 2035. In addition, the directive provides for fuels from renewable sources, i.e. defossilised fuels. This development leads to three possible energy sources or forms of energy for use in individual transport. The first possibility is charging with electricity generated from renewable sources, the second possibility is hydrogen generated from renewable sources or blue production path. The third possibility is the use of renewable fuels, also called e-fuels. These fuels are produced from atmospheric CO2 and renewable hydrogen. Possible processes for this are, for example, methanol or Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. The production of these fuels is very energy-intensive and large amounts of renewable electricity are needed.

Increasing urbanisation and the growing environmental awareness in society require new and innovative vehicle concepts. In the present work, the design freedoms of additive manufacturing (AM) are used to develop a front axle wheel suspension for a novel modular vehicle concept. The development of the suspension components is based on a new method using industry standard load cases for the strength design of the components. To design the chassis components, first the available installation space is determined and a suitable configuration of the chassis components is defined. Furthermore, numerical methods are used to identify component geometries that are suitable for the force flow. The optimisation setup is selected in a way that allows to integrate information, energy and material-carrying conductors into the suspension arms. The conductors even serve as load-bearing structures because of the matching design of the components.

This paper proposes a novel approach to the design of a Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) specifically tailored to embedded systems, placing a significant emphasis on time-controlled hardware access. The general concept and utilization of a HAL in industrial projects are widespread, serving as a well-established method in embedded systems development. HALs enhance application software portability, simplify underlying hardware usage by abstracting its inherent complexity and reduce overall development costs through software reusability. Beyond these established advantages, this paper introduces a conceptual framework that addresses critical challenges related to debugging and mitigates input-related problems often encountered in embedded systems. This becomes particularly pertinent in the automotive context, where the intricate operational environment of embedded systems demands robust solutions. The HAL design presented in this paper mitigates these issues.

Reducing CO2 emissions in on-the-road transport is important to limit global warming and follow a green transition towards net zero Carbon by 2050. In a long-term scenario, electrification will be the future of transportation. However, in the mid-term, the priority should be given more strongly to other technological alternatives (e.g., decarbonization of the electrical energy and battery recharging time). In the short- to mid-term, the technological and environmental reinforcement of ICEs could participate in the effort of decarbonization, also matching the need to reduce harmful pollutant emissions, mainly during traveling in urban areas. Engine thermal management represents a viable solution considering its potential benefits and limited implementation costs compared to other technologies. A variable flow coolant pump actuated independently from the crankshaft represents the critical component of a thermal management system.

The production of electric vehicles (EVs) has a significant environmental impact, with up to 50 % of their lifetime greenhouse gas potential attributed to manufacturing processes. The use of sustainable materials in EV design is therefore crucial for reducing their overall carbon footprint. Wood laminates have emerged as a promising alternative due to their renewable nature. Additionally, wood-based materials offer unique damping properties that can contribute to improved Noise, Vibration, and Harshness (NVH) characteristics. In comparison to conventional materials such as aluminum, ply wood structures exhibit beneficial damping properties. The loss factor of plywood structures with a thickness below 20 mm ranges from 0.013 to 0.032. Comparable aluminum structures however exhibit only a fraction of this loss factor with a range between 0.002 and 0.005.

As vibration and noise regulations become more stringent, numerical models need to incorporate more detailed damping treatments. Commercial frameworks, such as Nastran and Actran, allow the representation of trim components as frequency-dependent reduced impedance matrices (RIM) in frequency response analysis of fully trimmed models. The RIM is versatile enough to couple the trims to modal-based or physical components. If physical, the trim components are reduced on the physical coupling degrees of freedom (DOFs) for each connected interface. If modal, the RIMs are projected on the eigenmodes of the connected component. While a model size reduction is achieved compared to the original model, most numerical models possess an extensive number of interfaces DOFs, either modal or physical, leading to large dense RIM which triggers substantial memory and disk storage.

Expansion chamber mufflers are commonly applied to reduce noise in HVAC. Dissipative materials, such as microperforated plates (MPPs), are often applied to achieve a more broadband mitigation effect. Such mufflers are typically characterized in the frequency domain, assuming time-harmonic excitation. From a computational point of view, transient analyses are more challenging. A transformation of the equivalent fluid model or impedance boundary conditions into the time domain induces convolution integrals. We apply the recently proposed finite element formulation of a time domain equivalent fluid (TDEF) model to simulate the transient response of dissipative acoustic media to arbitrary unsteady excitation. As most time domain approaches, the formulation relies on approximating the frequency-dependent equivalent fluid parameters by a sum of rational functions composed of real-valued or complex-conjugated poles.

Meta material has been known for many years and the physics are well known since decades. But the challenge has always been to put the know how into (mass) production. This was the reason why no meta material has found its way into the automotive industry so far. But now things have changed: meta material became Meta Design and is going into serial production in 2024. Meta Design is a tunable spring mass system with foam acting as the spring and heavy layer as the mass. Meta Design is characterized by cavities in the foam and concentrated masses of the heavy layer as functionalized mass pins. By tuning the size of the cavities and the weight of the mass pins the acoustic performance can be adjusted to the requirements of each individual car line. After preliminary simulations, flat samples were tested in the lab. The next step was launched: the production and testing of a handmade prototype part of a firewall insulation for a Mercedes-Benz A-Class.

This study explores the feasibility of using a sustainable lignin-based fuel, consisting of 44 % lignin, 50 % ethanol, and 6 % water, in conventional compression ignition (CI) marine engines. Through experimental evaluations on a modified small-bore CI engine, we identified the primary challenges associated with lignin-based fuel, including engine startup and shutdown issues due to solvent evaporation and lignin solidification inside the fuel system, and deposit formation on cylinder walls leading to piston ring seizure. To address these issues, we developed a fuel switching system transitioning from lignin-based fuel to cleaning fuel with 85 vol% of acetone, 10 vol% of water and 5 vol% of ignition improving additive, effectively preventing system clogs.

Broadband active noise control algorithms require high-performance so multi-channel control to ensure high performance, which results in very high computational power and expensive DSP. When the control filter update part need a huge computational power of the algorithm is separated and calculated by the server, it is possible to reduce cost by using a low-cost DSP in a local vehicle, and a performance improvement algorithm requiring a high computational power can be applied to the server. In order to achieve the above goal, this study analyzed the maximum delay time when communication speed is low and studied response measures to ensure data integrity at the receiving location considering situations where communication speed delay and data errors occur.

Reductions in powertrain noise have led to an increased proportion of road noise, prompting various studies aimed at mitigating it. Road excitation primarily traverses through the vehicle suspension system, necessitating careful optimization of the characteristics of bushings at connection points. However, optimizing at the vehicle assembly stage is both time-consuming and costly. Therefore, it is essential to proceed with optimization at the subsystem level using appropriate objective functions. In this study, the blocked force and energy-based index derived from complex power were used to optimize the NVH performance. Calculating the complex power in each bushing enables computing the power flow, thereby providing a basis for evaluating the NVH performance. Through stiffness injection, the frequency response functions (FRF) of the system can be predicted according to arbitrary changes in the bushing stiffness.

Centrifugal fans are applied in many industrial and civil applications, such as manufacturing processes and building HVAC systems. They can also be found in automotive applications. Noise-reduction mea- sures for centrifugal fans are often challenging to establish, as acous- tic performance may be considered a tertiary purchase criterion after energetic efficiency and price. Nonetheless, their versatile application raises the demand for noise control. In a low-Mach-number centrifugal fan, acoustic waves are predominantly excited by aerodynamic fluctu- ations in the flow field and transmit to the exterior via the housing and duct walls. The scientific literature documents numerous mech- anisms that cause flow-induced sound generation, even though only some are considered well-understood. Numerical simulation methods are widely used to gather spatially high-resolved insights into physical fields.

Although structural intensity was introduced in the 80's, this concept never found practical applications, neither for numerical nor experimental approaches. Quickly, it has been pointed out that only the irrotational component of the intensity offers an easy interpretation of the dynamic behavior of structures by visualizing the vibration energy flow. This is especially valuable at mid and high frequency where the structure response understanding can be challenging. A new methodolodgy is proposed in order to extract this irrotational intensity field from the Finite Element Model of assembled structures such as Bodies In White. This methodology is hybrid in the sense that it employs two distinct solvers: a dynamic solver to compute the structural dynamic response and a thermal solver to address a diffusion equation analogous to the thermal conduction built from the previous dynamic response.