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The new wireless rotor electrical machine has all the coils placed on the stator. The laminated wireless rotor serves as a magnetic field switcher. A wireless rotor is cold, and it facilitates machine cooling. The model of the wireless rotor machine includes electrical and mechanical components. The wireless rotor machines can find an application in practice because they have advantages over existing devices. In modeling, we use a new approach. We consider a motor as a natural control system with torque feedback. Such an approach simplifies analyses and adjustment of the operation of an electrical machine. First, we analyze an open-loop control system without torque feedback. In this case, by changing the rotor speed under external torque, we can receive the torque-speed motor characteristics. After some adjustments to the open-loop system, we can consider the close loop control system with torque feedback. We use a space vector representation for sinusoidal electric components.

The engine operating point (EOP), which is determined by the engine speed and torque, is an important part of a vehicle's powertrain performance and it impacts FC, available propulsion power, and emissions. Predicting instantaneous EOP in real-time subject to dynamic driver behaviour and environmental conditions is a challenging problem, and in existing literature, engine performance is predicted based on internal powertrain parameters. However, a driver cannot directly influence these internal parameters in real-time and can only accommodate changes in driving behaviour and cabin temperature. It would be beneficial to develop a direct relationship between the vehicle-level parameters that a driver could influence in real-time, and the instantaneous EOP. Such a relationship can be exploited to dynamically optimize engine performance.

As intelligent automated vehicle technologies evolve, there is a greater need to understand and define the role of the human user, whether completely hands-off (L5) or partly hands-on. At all levels of automation, the human occupant may feel anxious or ill-at-ease. This may reflect as higher stress/workload. The study in this paper further refines how perceived workload may be determined based on occupant physiological measures. Because of great variation in individual personalities, age, driving experiences, gender, etc., a generic model applicable to all could not be developed. Rather, individual workload models that used physiological and vehicle measures were developed.

This paper describes the design and application of a business simulation to help train employees about the new business model and culture that for an automotive supplier company that designs connected vehicle and other advanced electronic products for the automotive industry. The simulation, called SIM-i-TRI, is a three to four day collaborative learning activity that simulates the executive, administrative, engineering, manufacturing, and marketing functions in three divisions of a manufacturer that supplies parts and systems to customers in industries similar to the automotive industry. It was originally designed to support the new employee orientation at the Tier 1 supplier and to provide the participants a safe environment to practice the lessons from the orientation. The simulation has been used several times a month in the US, England, and Germany for over four years.

The automotive industry is expected to accelerate the transition to revolutionary products, rapid changes in technology and increasing technological sophistication. This will require engineers to advance their knowledge, connect and integrate different areas of knowledge and be skilled in synthesis. In addition, they must learn to work in cross-disciplinary teams and adopt a systems approach. The College of Engineering and Computer Science (CECS) at the University of Michigan-Dearborn (UM-Dearborn) responded by creating interdisciplinary MS and Ph.D. programs in automotive systems engineering (ASE) and augmenting them with hands-on research. Students at the undergraduate level can also engage in numerous ASE activities. UM-Dearborn's ASE programs offer interesting and possibly unique advantages. The first is that it offers a spectrum of ASE degree and credit programs, from the MS to the Ph.D. to continuing education.

The urban trams with a low floor are more convenient for the passengers, and with a high floor - more cheaply and more technologically during manufacturing and operation. The combined advantages those and others in themselves are trams with average height of a floor, but for this purpose it is necessary to lower height of tram carriages, that is reached by application of electric motors with a small stator external diameter. It is offered in this the perspective electric drive on the base of the synchronous motor with independent excitation. The salient rotor poles of the motor do not contain windings. The motors stator is carried out on the base of the stator body of regular AC electric motor. The multiphase winding is located in the stator. A winding section, which conductors settle down above the between rotor poles, carry out a role of the excitation winding, and others, which conductors lay above poles, - a role of the armature winding.

This paper presents results of a study conducted to compare driving behavior and performance of drivers in two different fixed-base driving simulators (namely, FAAC and STI) while performing a same set of distracting tasks under geometrically similar freeway and traffic conditions. The FAAC simulator had a wider three-screen road view with steering feedback as compared to the STI simulator which had a single screen and narrower road view and had no steering feedback. Twenty four subjects (12 younger and 12 mature) drove each simulator and were asked to perform a set of nine different tasks involving different distracting elements such as, using a cell phone, operating the car radio, retrieving and selecting a map from map pocket in the driver's door, collecting coins to pay toll, etc.

A vehicle model is an important factor in the development of vehicle control systems. Various vehicle models having different complexities, assumptions, and limitations have been developed and applied to many different vehicle control systems. A 14 DOF vehicle model that includes a roll center as well as non-linear effects due to vehicle roll and pitch angles and unsprung mass inertias, is developed. From this model, the limitations and validity of lower order models which employ different assumptions for simplification of dynamic equations are investigated by analyzing their effect on vehicle roll response through simulation. The possible limitation of the 14 DOF model compared to an actual vehicle is also discussed.

With recent advances in microprocessors and data storage technologies, vehicle users can now bring or access large amounts of data in vehicles for purposes such as communication (e.g. e-mail, phone books), entertainment (e.g. music and video files), browsing and searching for information (e.g. on-board computers and internet). The challenge for the vehicle designer is how to design data displays and retrieval methods to allow data search and manipulation tasks by managing driver workload at safe acceptable levels. This paper presents a data retrieval menu system developed to assess levels of screens (depth of menu) that may be needed to select required information when a vehicle is equipped with the capability to access audio files, cell phone, PDA, e-mail and “On-star” type functions.

Vehicle roll dynamics is strongly influenced by suspension properties such as roll center height, roll steer and roll camber. In this paper, the effects of suspension properties on vehicle roll response has been investigated using a multi-body vehicle dynamics program. A full vehicle model equipped with front MacPherson and rear multilink suspensions has been used for the study. Roll dynamics of the vehicle were evaluated by performing fixed timing fishhook maneuver in the simulation. Variations of vehicle roll response due to changes in the suspension properties were assessed by quantitatively analyzing the vehicle response through simulation. Critical suspension design parameters for vehicle roll dynamics were identified and adjusted to improve roll stability of the vehicle model with passive suspension. Design of Experiments has been used for identifying critical hardpoints affecting the suspension parameters and optimization techniques were employed for parameter optimization.

This paper presents results of a research project conducted to develop a methodology and to refine the specifications of a small, low mass, low cost vehicle being developed at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. The challenge was to assure that the design would meet the needs and expectations of customers in three different countries, namely, China, India and the United States. U.S, Chinese and Indian students studying on the university campus represented customers from their respective countries for our surveys and provided us with the necessary data on: 1) Importance of various vehicle level attributes to the entry level small car customer, 2) Preferences to various features, and 3) Direction magnitude estimation on parameters to size the vehicle for each of the three markets.

Although computer models for vehicle and sub-system performance simulations have been developed and used extensively in the past several decades, there is currently a need to enhance the overall availability of these types of tools. Increasing demands on vehicle performance targets have intensified the need to obtain rapid feedback on the effects of vehicle modifications throughout the entire development cycle. At the same time, evolution of the PC and development of Web-based applications have contributed to the availability, accessibility, and user-friendliness of sophisticated computer analysis. Web engineering is an ideal approach in supporting globalization and is a cost-effective design-analysis integration business strategy. There is little doubt that this new approach will have positive impacts on product cost, quality, and development cycle time. This paper will show how Microsoft Excel and the Web can be powerful and effective tools in the development process.

This paper discusses the evolution of graduate education in manufacturing engineering and the curriculum needed to educate manufacturing engineers in the automotive industry. This paper examines the master's and doctoral curriculum in manufacturing engineering at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Finally, it proposes future direction for graduate education in manufacturing that will be needed for the automotive industry of the future.

This paper presents a real-time computer system for the control of refrigerant flow in an automotive air conditioning system. This is an experimental system used to investigate the potential advantages of electronic flow control over conventional flow control (using an orifice tube or thermal expansion valve). Two features of this system are presented. First, the system organization is described. Second, the control and interface software are presented. The emphasis is on the software. The system is organized as a closed loop control system. The inputs to the controller are measurements of the refrigerant system. In particular, thermocouples are used to measure the refrigerant temperature before and after the evaporator. The analog thermocouple signals are converted to digital form by an off-the-shelf, portable, data acquisition system (DAQ). Via a parallel port link, these digital measurements are transfered to a laptop computer.