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Low pressure cooled exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) to suppress engine knocking is increasingly being used to downsize engines and increase the compression ratio to improve thermal efficiency. This study aims to develop an ignition system to extend the EGR limit and EGR operation area. The ignition system must be improved to enhance ignitability of a mixture of fuel and air. In this paper, we focus on ignition energy of the ignition coil and summarize experimental results on a test dyno obtained by using reinforced conventional ignition coil on the basis of ignition energy and engine speed. As engine speed (mixture flow velocity between ignition plug electrode-gap) and EGR ratio were increased, the secondary energy requirement of the ignition coil was increased. This increase was considered to be caused by an increase of mixture flow velocity at the plug gap and a decrease of laminar flame velocity as EGR ratio increased.

New ride control and handling control are developed, and installed in a system using only vehicle height sensor as dedicated sensors and pressure control type semi-active damper. Bi-linear optimal control is applied for controlling ride comfort control constructed observer which is inputted vehicle height sensor for calculating state quantity then used output of the observer. Behavior of vehicle was investigated by vehicle experiment and formalized to further improve the feeling of roll generated by handling control and devised and applied semi-active suspension control method which transiently realize the behavior. Proposed semi-active suspension system not only achieves damping performance as well as skyhook control, but also improves smooth ride comfort and handling performance including roll feeling. In this report, we describe aim, feature and effect of this system.

This paper presents an electrically driven intelligent brake system that has been developed for electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles, which are expected to penetrate markets rapidly amid the ongoing energy paradigm shift. This brake system achieves a cooperative energy regeneration function and high responsiveness while providing braking performance, system reliability and vehicle mounting ease equal to that of conventional brake systems with a vacuum booster. This paper outlines the newly developed brake system and describes various issues involved in cooperative regenerative braking along with the technologies that were applied to address them.

This paper presents the electrically driven intelligent brake system that has been developed for electric vehicles, which are expected to penetrate markets rapidly amid the ongoing energy paradigm shift. This brake system achieves a cooperative energy regeneration function and high responsiveness while providing braking performance, system reliability and vehicle mounting ease equal to that of conventional brake systems with a vacuum booster. This paper outlines the newly developed brake system and describes how to decide the target brake force which is achieved a regenerative braking capability for recovering energy efficiently without sacrificing braking.

An electrically-driven, intelligent brake unit has been developed, to be combined with a regenerative braking system in electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) which went into production in 2010 - 11. The brake pedal force is assisted by an electrically driven motor, without using vacuum pressure, unlike conventional braking systems. The actuator can be implemented to coordinate with a regenerative braking system, and to have adjustable pedal feel through use of a unique pressure-generating mechanism and a pedal-force compensator. In this paper, we describe features of the actuator mechanism and performance test results

In order to satisfy increasing customer demands on ride quality as well as expectations for off-road performance of sport-utility vehicles (SUVs), it is necessary to develop technologies which offer enhanced levels of both performances. For ride quality, it is important to minimize body roll angle during cornering, which is achieved by suppressing suspension travel, and also to reduce vertical motion during straight-ahead travel. While for off-road performance, it is necessary to allow a long suspension stroke to allow a high level of off-road traction by delivering driving force reliably to the surface. These two performance parameters require a tradeoff with respect to vehicle roll stiffness. To reconcile these conflicting performance requirements, for first time in the world we adopted for production vehicles the system which connects the four shock absorbers together.

Semi-active suspension systems have traditionally used accelerometers mounted on the wheel and body to sense vehicle motion. However, the cost and weight of these sensors and their associated bracketry and wiring must be considered when deciding to adopt a semi-active suspension system on a particular vehicle. In previous report [1], Authors have described a Bi-Linear Optimal control algorithm [2] by which sprung mass motion is estimated using height sensor signals and a Kalman filter. Such an algorithm would eliminate the need for additional accelerometers and their associated hardware, resulting in a cheaper and lighter system. In this report, the Authors propose a method of improved ride comfort and reducing tuning time of this algorithm by improving the sprung mass motion estimation method.

In response to the growing demand for fuel economy, we are developing a high-efficient variable displacement pump for hydraulic power steering systems. In order to develop a quiet variable displacement pump which generates lower noise for better vehicle interior sound quality, we have been developing a simulation tool which includes hydraulic analysis, vibration analysis, and vehicle interior noise analysis which combines simulation outputs and measured noise transfer functions of the targeted vehicle. This paper provides both validation results of the simulation tool and application examples to design improvement to conclude the effectiveness of the simulation tool developed.

It is well known that improving NV performance and weight saving are reciprocity. Brake squeal free is one of the top priority issues during development of brake system. To date, complex eigenvalue analysis has been utilized for prediction of brake squeal. It solves the structural instability problems by modal coupling which is the phenomenon that natural frequencies of normal modes are quite consistent. The positive real parts of complex eigenvalues are identified as instable vibration which causes brake squeal. On the other hand, the needs for light-weight brake system are higher than before due to recent trends of economizing fuel consumption and high driving performance. In order to obtain coexistence of brake squeal free with weight saving, shape optimization technique has been proposed for complex eigenvalue analysis.

This paper presents the “Virtual Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (vFMEA)” system, which is a high-fidelity electrical-failure-simulation platform, and applies it to the software verification of an electric power steering (EPS) system. The vFMEA system enables engineers to dynamically inject a drift fault into a circuit model of the electronic control unit (ECU) of an EPS system, to analyze system-level failure effects, and to verify software-implemented safety mechanisms, which consequently reduces both cost and time of development. The vFMEA system can verify test cases that cannot be verified using an actual ECU and can improve test coverage as well. It consists of a cycle-accurate microcontroller model with mass-production software implemented in binary format, analog and digital circuit models, mechanical models, and a state-triggered fault-injection mechanism.