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Predicting fuel economy during early stages of concept development or feasibility study for a new type of powertrain configuration is an important key factor that might affect the powertrain configuration decision to meet CAFE standards. In this paper an efficient model has been built in order to evaluate the fuel economy for a new type of charge sustaining series hybrid vehicle that uses a Genset assembly (small 2 cylinders CNG fueled engine coupled with a generator). A first order mathematical model for a Li-Ion polymer battery is presented based on actual charging /discharging datasheet. Since the Genset performance data is not available, normalized engine variables method is used to create powertrain performance maps. An Equivalent Consumption Minimization Strategy (ECMS) has been implemented to determine how much power is supplied to the electric motor from the battery and the Genset.

A comparison of welding techniques was performed to determine the most effective method for producing aluminum tailor-welded blanks for high volume automotive applications. Aluminum sheet was joined with an emphasis on post weld formability, surface quality and weld speed. Comparative results from several laser based welding techniques along with friction stir welding are presented. The results of this study demonstrate a quantitative comparison of weld methodologies in preparing tailor-welded aluminum stampings for high volume production in the automotive industry. Evaluation of nearly a dozen welding variations ultimately led to down selecting a single process based on post-weld quality and performance.

Substantial fuel economy improvements for light-duty automotive engines demand novel combustion strategies. Low temperature combustion (LTC) demonstrates potential for significant fuel efficiency improvement; however, control complexity is an impediment for real-world transient operation. Spark-assisted compression ignition (SACI) is an LTC strategy that applies a deflagration flame to generate sufficient energy to trigger autoignition in the remaining charge. Operating a practical engine with SACI combustion is a key modeling and control challenge. Current models are not sufficient for control-oriented work such as calibration optimization, transient control strategy development, and real-time control. This work describes the process and results of developing a fast-running control-oriented model for the autoignition phase of SACI combustion. A data-driven model is selected, specifically artificial neural networks (ANNs).

In the U.S., the teenage driving population is at the highest risk of being involved in a crash. Teens often demonstrate poor vehicle control skills and poor ability to identify hazards, thus proper understanding of automotive indicators and warnings may be even more critical for this population. This research evaluates teen drivers’, between 15 to 17 years of age, understanding of symbols from vehicles featuring advanced driving assistant systems and multiple powertrain configurations. Teen drivers’ (N=72) understanding of automotive symbols was compared to three other groups with specialized driving experience and technical knowledge: automotive engineering graduate students (N=48), driver rehabilitation specialists (N=16), and performance driving instructors (N=15). Participants matched 42 symbols to their descriptions and then selected the five symbols they considered most important.

Driving inattention caused by drowsiness has been a significant reason for vehicle crash accidents, and there is a critical need to augment driving safety by monitoring driver drowsiness behaviors. For real-time drowsy driving awareness, we propose a vision-based driver drowsiness monitoring system (DDMS) for driver drowsiness behavior recognition and analysis. First, an infrared camera is deployed in-vehicle to capture the driver’s facial and head information in naturalistic driving scenarios, in which the driver may or may not wear glasses or sunglasses. Second, we propose and design a multi-modal features representation approach based on facial landmarks, and head pose which is retrieved in a convolutional neural network (CNN) regression model. Finally, an extreme learning machine (ELM) model is proposed to fuse the facial landmark, recognition model and pose orientation for drowsiness detection. The DDMS gives promptly warning to the driver once a drowsiness event is detected.

The advancements in automation, big data computing and high bandwidth networking has expedited the realization of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). IIoT has made inroads into many sectors including automotive, semiconductors, electronics, etc. Particularly, it has created numerous opportunities in the automotive manufacturing sector to realize the new aura of platform concepts such as smart material flow control. This paper provides a thought provoking application of IIoT in automotive composites body shop. By creating a digital twin for every physical part, we no longer need to adhere to the conventional manufacturing processes and layouts, thus opening up new opportunities in terms of equipment and space utilization. The century-old philosophy of the assembly line might not be the best layout for vehicle manufacturing, thus proposing a novel assembly grid layout inspired from a colony of ants working to accomplish a common goal.

This research proposes a control system for Spark Ignition (SI) engines with external Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) based on model predictive control and a disturbance observer. The proposed Economic Nonlinear Model Predictive Controller (E-NMPC) tries to minimize fuel consumption for a number of engine cycles into the future given an Indicated Mean Effective Pressure (IMEP) tracking reference and abnormal combustion constraints like knock and combustion variability. A nonlinear optimization problem is formulated and solved in real time using Sequential Quadratic Programming (SQP) to obtain the desired control actuator set-points. An Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) based observer is applied to estimate engine states, combining both air path and cylinder dynamics. The EKF engine state(s) observer is augmented with disturbance estimation to account for modeling errors and/or sensor/actuator offset.

This paper outlines a real-time hierarchical control allocation algorithm for multi-axle land vehicles with independent hub motor wheel drives. At the top level, the driver’s input such as pedal position or steering wheel position are interpreted into desired global state responses based on a reference model. Then, a locally linearized rigid body model is used to design a linear quadratic regulator that generates the desired global control efforts, i.e., the total tire forces and moments required track the desired state responses. At the lower level, an optimal control allocation algorithm coordinates the motor torques in such a manner that the forces generated at tire-road contacts produce the desired global control efforts under some physical constraints of the actuation and the tire/wheel dynamics. The performance of the proposed control system design is verified via simulation analysis of a 3-axle heavy vehicle with independent hub-motor drives.

Fuel cell vehicles are entering the automotive market with significant potential benefits to reduce harmful greenhouse emissions, facilitate energy security, and increase vehicle efficiency while providing customer expected driving range and fill times when compared to conventional vehicles. One of the challenges for successful commercialization of fuel cell vehicles is transitioning the on-board fuel system from liquid gasoline to compressed hydrogen gas. Storing high pressurized hydrogen requires a specialized structural pressure vessel, significantly different in function, size, and construction from a gasoline container. In comparison to a gasoline tank at near ambient pressures, OEMs have aligned to a nominal working pressure of 700 bar for hydrogen tanks in order to achieve the customer expected driving range of 300 miles.

This study investigates the use of machine learning methods for the selection of energy storage devices in military electrified vehicles. Powertrain electrification relies on proper selection of energy storage devices, in terms of chemistry, size, energy density, and power density, etc. Military vehicles largely vary in terms of weight, acceleration requirements, operating road environment, mission, etc. This study aims to assist the energy storage device selection for military vehicles using the data-drive approach. We use Machine Learning models to extract relationships between vehicle characteristics and requirements and the corresponding energy storage devices. After the training, the machine learning models can predict the ideal energy storage devices given the target vehicles design parameters as inputs. The predicted ideal energy storage devices can be treated as the initial design and modifications to that are made based on the validation results.

This paper argues the importance of engineering heuristics and introduces an educational data-driven tool to help novice engineers develop their engineering heuristics more effectively. The main objective in engineering practice is to identify opportunities for improvement and apply methods to effect change. Engineers do so by applying ‘how to’ knowledge to make decisions and take actions. This ‘how to’ knowledge is encoded in engineering heuristics. In this paper, we describe a tool that aims to provide heuristic knowledge to users by giving them insight into heuristics applied by experts in similar situations. A repository of automotive data is transformed into a tool with powerful search and data visualization functionalities. The tool can be used to educate novice automotive engineers alongside the current resource intensive practices of teaching engineering heuristics through social methods such as an apprenticeship.

Phase change materials (PCMs) are extensively used in many engineering areas for thermal management purposes. This paper investigated the application of PCMs for vehicular systems, especially for the thermal protection of vehicle lighting systems based on light emitting diodes (LEDs). Lighting systems based on LEDs offer many advantages, however, also pose a smaller margin of error for thermal management. This paper analyzed the combined use of PCMs with metal foam for cooling systems. The cooling performance was studied numerically under different porosity values of the metal foam, and different boundary conditions. The cooling performance was also compared to a solid metal sink system (SMS) and was found to offer several distinct cooling characteristics.

Vehicle safety remains a significant concern for consumers, government agencies, and automotive manufacturers. One critical type of vehicle accident results from the right or left side tires leaving the road surface and then returning abruptly due to large steering wheel inputs (road runoff and return). A subset of runoff road crashes that involve a steep hard shoulder has been labeled shoulder induced accidents. In this paper, a limited authority real time steering controller has been developed to mitigate shoulder induced accidents. A Kalman Filter based tire cornering stiffness estimation technique has been coupled with a feedback controller and driver intention module to create a safer driving solution without excessive intervention. In numerical studies, lateral vehicle motion improvements of 30% were realized for steering intervention. Specifically, the vehicle crossed the centerline after 1.0 second in the baseline case versus 1.3 seconds with steering assistance at 60 kph.

Over the last decade, tremendous amount of research and progress has been made towards developing smart technologies for autonomous vehicles such as adaptive cruise control, lane keeping assist, lane following algorithms, and decision-making algorithms. One of the fundamental objectives for the development of such technologies is to enable autonomous vehicles with the capability to avoid obstacles and maintain safety. Automobiles are real-world dynamical systems - possessing inertia, operating at varying speeds, with finite accelerations/decelerations during operations. Deployment of autonomy in vehicles increases in complexity multi-fold especially when high DOF vehicle models need to be considered for robust control. Model Predictive Control (MPC) is a powerful tool that is used extensively to control the behavior of complex, dynamic systems. As a model-based approach, the fidelity of the model and selection of model-parameters plays a role in ultimate performance.

Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) algorithms are extensively utilized within the field of autonomous navigation. In particular, numerous open-source Robot Operating System (ROS) based SLAM solutions, such as Gmapping, Hector, Cartographer etc., have simplified deployments in application. However, establishing the accuracy and precision of these ‘out-of-the-box’ SLAM algorithms is necessary for improving the accuracy and precision of further applications such as planning, navigation, controls. Existing benchmarking literature largely focused on validating SLAM algorithms based upon the quality of the generated maps. In this paper, however, we focus on examining the localization accuracy of existing 2-dimensional LiDAR based indoor SLAM algorithms. The fidelity of these implementations is compared against the OptiTrack motion capture system which is capable of tracking moving objects at sub-millimeter level precision.

This paper presents a cohesive set of engine-in-the-loop (EIL) studies examining the use of hierarchical model-predictive control for fuel consumption minimization in a class-8 heavy-duty truck intended to be equipped with Level-1 connectivity/automation. This work is motivated by the potential of connected/automated vehicle technologies to reduce fuel consumption in both urban/suburban and highway scenarios. The authors begin by presenting a hierarchical model-predictive control scheme that optimizes multiple chassis and powertrain functionalities for fuel consumption. These functionalities include: vehicle routing, arrival/departure at signalized intersections, speed trajectory optimization, platooning, predictive optimal gear shifting, and engine demand torque shaping. The primary optimization goal is to minimize fuel consumption, but the hierarchical controller explicitly accounts for other key objectives/constraints, including operator comfort and safe inter-vehicle spacing.

With the dramatic increase in vehicle technology, the availability of a wide range of powertrains, and the development of advanced driver assistant systems (ADAS), instrument cluster interfaces have become more complex, increasing the demand on drivers. Understanding the needs and preferences of a diverse group of drivers is essential for the development of digital instrument cluster interfaces that improve driver’s understanding of critical information about the vehicle. This study investigated drivers’ understanding and preferences related to powertrain and ADAS symbols presented on instrument clusters. Participants answered questions that evaluated nine symbol’s comprehension, familiarity, and helpfulness. Then, participants were presented with information from the owner’s manual for each symbol and responded if the information changed their understanding of the symbol.

Collaborative robots are more and more used in smart manufacturing because of their capability to work beside and collaborate with human workers. With the deployment of these robots, manufacturing tasks are more inclined to be accomplished by multiple humans and multiple robots (MH-MR) through teaming effort. In such MH-MR collaboration scenarios, the task distribution among the multiple humans and multiple robots is very critical to efficiency. It is also more challenging due to the heterogeneity of different agents. Existing approaches in task distribution among multiple agents mostly consider humans with assumed or known capabilities. However human capabilities are always changing due to various factors, which may lead to suboptimal efficiency. Although some researches have studied several human factors in manufacturing and applied them to adjust the robot task and behaviors.

In this work, two blends of isopropanol, n-butanol, and ethanol (IBE) that can be produced by metabolically engineered clostridium acetobutylicum are studied experimentally in advanced compression ignition (ACI). This is done to determine whether these fuel blends have the right fuel properties to enable thermally stratified compression ignition, a stratified ACI strategy that using the cooling potential of single stage ignition fuels to control the heat release process. The first microorganism, ATCC824, produces a blend of 34.5% isopropanol, 60.1% n-butanol, and 5.4% ethanol, by mass. The second microorganism, BKM19, produces a blend of 12.3% isopropanol, 54.0% n-butanol, and 33.7% ethanol, by mass. The sensitivity of both IBE blends to intake pressure, intake temperature, and cylinder energy content (fueling rate) is characterized and compared to that of its neat constituents. Both IBE blends behaved similarly with a reactivity level between that of ethanol and n-butanol.

Spark-assisted compression ignition (SACI) leverages flame propagation to trigger autoignition in a controlled manner. The autoignition event is highly sensitive to several parameters, and thus, achieving SACI in production demands a high tolerance to variations in conditions. Limited research is available to quantify the combustion response of SACI to these variations. A simulation study is performed to establish trends, limits, and control implications for SACI combustion over a wide range of conditions. The operating space was evaluated with a detailed chemical kinetics model. Key findings were synthesized from these results and applied to a 1-D engine model. This model identified performance characteristics and potential actuator positions for a production-viable SACI engine. This study shows charge preparation is critical and can extend the low-load limit by strengthening flame propagation and the high-load limit by reducing ringing intensity.