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In diesel engines with a straight intake port and a lipless cavity to restrict in-cylinder flow, an injector with numerous small-diameter orifices with a narrow angle can be used to create a highly homogeneous air-fuel mixture that, during PCCI combustion, dramatically reduces the NOX and soot without the addition of expensive new devices. To further improve this new combustion concept, this research focused on cooling losses, which are generally thought to account for 16 to 35% of the total energy of the fuel, and approaches to reducing fuel consumption were explored. First, to clarify the proportions of convective heat transfer and radiation in the cooling losses, a Rapid Compression Machine (RCM) was used to measure the local heat flux and radiation to the combustion chamber wall. The results showed that though larger amounts of injected fuel increased the proportion of heat losses from radiation, the primary factor in cooling losses is convective heat transfer.

In this paper, we will introduce a stereo vision system developed as a sensor for a vehicle's front monitor. This system consists of three parts; namely, a stereo camera that collects video images of the forward view of the vehicle, a stereo ECU that processes its output image, and a near-infrared floodlight for illuminating the front at night. We were able to develop an obstacle detection function for the Pre-Crash Safety System and also a traffic lane detection function for a Lane-Keeping Assist System. Especially in regard to the obstacle detection function, we were able to achieve real-time processing of the disparity image calculations that had formerly required long processing times by using two types of recently developed LSIs.

One primary result of the reduction of platinum group metals (PGM) within a catalytic converter is the decline in NOx conversion efficiency. This paper hypothesizes that the primary factor of this decline to be hydrocarbon (HC) poisoning. To maintain high NOx conversion efficiency as the PGM reduces, Rh activation improvement becomes significant to overcome the HC poisoning. Analysis of the Rh deterioration mechanism found that it is effective to separately arrange Rh and CeO2 on the converter, avoiding the Rh deactivation. By this improvement, we improved the catalyst activity at less than 25% of the original Rh loading.

Since drowsy driving is a major cause of serious traffic accidents, there is a growing requirement for drowsiness prevention technologies. This study proposes a drowsy driving prediction method based on eye opening time. One issue of using eye opening time is predicting strong drowsiness before the driver actually feels sleepy. Because overlooking potential hazards is one of the causes of traffic accidents and is closely related to driver cognition and drowsiness, this study focuses on eye opening movements during driving. First, this report describes hypotheses concerning drowsiness and eye opening time based on the results of previous studies. It is assumed that the standard deviation of eye opening time (SDEOP) indicates driver drowsiness and the following two transitions are considered: increasing and decreasing SDEOP. To confirm the hypotheses, the relationship between drowsiness and SDEOP was investigated.

This paper proposes a theory to analyze the collision avoidance capability of automated driving technologies. The theory gives answers to a fundamental question whether automated vehicles fall into extreme conditions at all rather than another question how a vehicle reacts under extreme conditions (is it as safe as driver?). The theory clarifies the following matters: There are two types of hazards to cause collisions, cognitive hazards and behavioral hazards. Cognitive hazards are handled by controlling the upper limit speed of the automated vehicle including when stopped. There are two methods for handling behavioral hazards, preparation and response. The response known well is the coping method activated when the hazard is detected in the dynamic (operational) level. The preparation is the coping method operating at all time in the semantic (tactical) level.

A molded headliner made from polypropylene, which we developed for the first time in the world, was adopted in May 1987 for TOYOTA COROLLA. The new material with high stiffness and light weights, has a sandwich structure consisting of PP-sheets and a PP-foam sheet. We have thus succeeded in the production of the new headliner in which each layer is laminated without any adhesive. A unique resin used for PP-sheets as surface skins was developed with high impact, thermal and fire resistances. Further, a PP-form core sheet with soft-feel and good moldability was also developed. As a result, we established proper conditions of molding this material and succeeded in producing stable superior parts with high quality and short cycle-time. Finally new molded headliner is comparable to the suspended type headliner in respect to weight and production cost.