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A compact sized vehicle that has a narrow track could solve problems caused by vehicle congestion and limited parking spaces in a mega city. Having a smaller footprint reduces the vehicle's total weight which would decrease overall vehicle power consumption. Also a smaller and narrower vehicle could travel easily through tight and congested roads that would speed up the traffic flow and hence decrease the overall traffic volume in urban areas. As an additional benefit of having a narrow track length, a driver can experience similar motorcycle riding experience without worrying about bad weather conditions since a driver sits in a weather protected cabin. However, reducing the vehicle's track causes instability in vehicle dynamics, which leads to higher possibility of rollovers if the vehicle is not controlled properly. A three wheel personal vehicle with an active tilting system is designed in MapleSim.

Due to rising fuel prices and environmental concerns, Electric Vehicles (EVs) and Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs) have been gaining market share as fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly alternatives. Lithium-ion batteries are commonly used in EV and HEV applications because of their high power and energy densities. During controls development of HEVs and EVs, hardware-in-the-loop simulations involving real-time battery models are commonly used to simulate a battery response in place of a real battery. One physics-based model which solves in real-time is the reduced-order battery model developed by Dao et al. [1], which is based on the isothermal model by Newman [2] incorporating concentrated solution theory and porous electrode theory [3]. The battery models must be accurate for effective control; however, if the battery parameters are unknown or change due to degradation, a method for estimating the battery parameters to update the model is required.

The analysis of nickel metal hydride (Ni-MH) battery performance is very important for automotive researchers and manufacturers. The performance of a battery can be described as a direct consequence of various chemical and physical phenomena taking place inside the container. In this paper, a physics-based model of a Ni-MH battery will be presented. To analyze its performance, the efficiency of the battery is chosen as the performance measure, which is defined as the ratio of the energy output from the battery and the energy input to the battery while charging. Parametric sensitivity analysis will be used to generate sensitivity information for the state variables of the model. The generated information will be used to showcase how sensitivity information can be used to identify unique model behavior and how it can be used to optimize the capacity of the battery. The results will be validated using a finite difference formulation.

The analysis of nickel metal hydride (Ni-MH) battery performance is very important for automotive researchers and manufacturers. The performance of a battery can be described as a direct consequence of various chemical and physical phenomena taking place inside the container. In this paper, a physics-based model of a Ni-MH battery will be presented. To analyze its performance, the efficiency of the battery is chosen as the performance measure, which is defined as the ratio of the energy output from the battery and the energy input to the battery while charging. Parametric sensitivity analysis will be used to generate sensitivity information for the state variables of the model. The generated information will be used to showcase how sensitivity information can be used to identify unique model behavior and how it can be used to optimize the capacity of the battery. The results will be validated using a finite difference formulation.

A two-passenger all-wheel drive urban electric vehicle (AUTO21EV) with four direct-drive in-wheel motors and an active steering system has been designed and developed at the University of Waterloo. A novel fuzzy slip control system is developed for this vehicle using the advantage of four in-wheel motors. A conventional slip control system uses the hydraulic brake system in order to control the tire slip ratio, which is the difference between the wheel center velocity and the velocity of the tire contact patch along the wheel plane, thereby influencing the longitudinal dynamics of a vehicle. The advantage of the proposed fuzzy slip controller is that it acts as an ABS system by preventing the tires from locking up when braking, as a TCS by preventing the tires from spinning out when accelerating.

The recent increase in oil prices and environmental concerns have attracted various research efforts on hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) which provide promising alternatives to conventional engine-powered vehicles with better fuel economy and fewer emissions. To speed up the design and prototyping processes of new HEVs, a method that automatically generates mathematics equations governing the vehicle system response in an optimized symbolic form is desirable. To achieve this goal, we employed MapleSimTM, a new physical modeling tool developed by Maplesoft Inc., to develop the multi-domain model of a series-HEV, utilizing the symbolic computing algorithms of Maple software package to generate an optimized set of governing equations. The HEV model consists of a mean-value internal combustion engine (ICE), a chemistry-based Ni-MH battery pack, and a multibody vehicle model. Simulations are then used to demonstrate the performance of the developed HEV system.

Because of its widespread use in almost all the current electric and hybrid electric vehicles on the market, nickel metal hydride (Ni-MH) battery performance is very important for automotive researchers and manufacturers. The performance of a battery can be described as a direct consequence of various chemical and physical phenomena taking place inside the container. To help understand these complex phenomena, a mathematical model of a Ni-MH battery will be presented in this paper. A parametric importance analysis is performed on this model to assess the contribution of individual model parameters to the battery performance. In this paper the efficiency of the battery is chosen as the performance measure. Efficiency is defined by the ratio of the energy output from the battery and the energy input to the battery while charging. By evaluating the sensitivity of the efficiency with respect to various model parameters, the order of importance of those parameters is obtained.