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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.

Fire protection, active and passive, has been, and is, an important area of concern during the design, development and deployment phases for all modern ground vehicles. All US military vehicles carry handheld fire extinguishers, and many tactical and all combat vehicles have automatic fire protection systems that protect the crew, engine, and in some cases, external components such as fuel tanks and wheels, from potentially catastrophic combat events involving fire. Vehicle designs also mitigate fire hazards by separating the vehicle occupants from the most flammable materials, e.g., fuel and ammunition, as much as practical. Explosion protection of the crew and passengers in military vehicles is a unique application with unique requirements that must balance suppression actions with safety limits.

The AMT (Automated Manual Transmission) has attracted increasing interest of automotive researches, because it has some advantages of both MT (Manual Transmission) and AT (Automatic Transmission), such as low cost, high efficiency, easy to use and good comfort. The hill-start assistance is an important feature of AMT. The vehicle will move backward, start with jerk, or cause engine stalling if failed on the slope road. For manual transmission, hill-start depends on the driver's skills to coordinate with the brake, clutch and throttle pedal to achieve a smooth start. However, with the AMT, clutch pedal is removed and therefore, driver can’t perceive the clutch position, making it difficult to hill-start with AMT without hill-start control strategy. This paper discussed about the hill start control strategy and its functioning.

Individuals in the United States consume twice as much energy as those in any other region. Solitary workday commutes in light vehicles are the leading reason for this difference. An electric vehicle design is proposed to help catalyze more social, higher occupancy, commuting habits - through application of existing technology. Performance criteria are: 1) attract passengers to the suburban front yard at 6:30 AM, 2) match market leading crash test performance, cargo capability, and sense of freedom, and 3) deliver easier parking, better acoustics and better passenger mile efficiency. A vehicle as a rolling event venue determines a large windscreen, side-by-side upright seating arrangements, and acoustic excellence -an experience where there are only good seats. These requirements force a decision to close the wake along a vertical line to form a narrow wake. The chassis is platform batteries with dual motor electric rear drive and undetermined front drive.

Partially automated driving involves the relinquishment of longitudinal and/or latitudinal control to the vehicle. Partially automated systems, however, are fallible and require driver oversight to avoid all road hazards. Researchers have expressed concern that automation promotes extended eyes-off-road (EOR) behavior that may lead to a loss of situational awareness (SA), degrading a driver’s ability to detect hazards and make necessary overrides. A potential countermeasure to visual inattention is the orientation of the driver’s glances towards potential hazards via cuing. This method is based on the assumption that drivers are able to rapidly identify hazards once their attention is drawn to the area of interest regardless of preceding EOR duration. This work examined this assumption in a simulated automated driving context by projecting hazardous and nonhazardous road scenes to a participant while sitting in a stationary vehicle.

Data from a full-scale vehicle burn test involving a cargo van illustrated how temperature distributions changed over time, the manner in which fire spread, and how patterns produced correlated to the origin of the fire. The fire was initiated on the driver’s side of the engine compartment and initially grew slowly with the high-temperature zone near the area of origin. Once the peak temperature reached about 540°C, the rate of flame spread increased such that over the next 4 minutes the fire spread across the entire engine compartment. In the next stage of the fire, which occurred shortly after full involvement of the engine compartment, the fire spread into the passenger compartment. A strong vertical temperature gradient developed from the ceiling to the floor and as the passenger compartment became fully involved, the passenger compartment temperatures both increased and became more uniform.

This study presents a hybrid optimization approach of TOPSIS-based Taguchi method and entropy measurement for the determination of the optimal suspension parameters to achieve an enhanced compromise among ride comfort, road friendliness which means the extent of damage exerted on the road by the vehicles, and handling stabilities of a self-dumping truck. Firstly, the full multi-body dynamic vehicle model is developed using software ADAMS/Car and the vehicle model is then validated through ride comfort road tests. The performance criterion for ride comfort evaluation is identified as root mean square (RMS) value of frequency weighted acceleration of cab floor, while the road damage coefficient is used for the evaluation of the road-friendliness of a whole vehicle. The lateral acceleration and roll angle of cab were defined as evaluation indices for handling stability performance.

The paper is focused on both the subjective and the objective ride comfort evaluation of farm tractors. The experimental measurement of the relevant accelerations occurring at the tractor body, at the cabin and at the seat was performed on a number of different farm tractors. A subjective rating of the ride comfort level was performed by considering five different drivers. The comfort index was computed according with ISO 2631 and other standards. The acceleration of the seated subject was computed by means of a proper mechanical model of a farm tractor and derived at different positions on the subject body. It turned out that the acceleration of the lower torso was particularly relevant for establishing a matching between the subjective perception and the objective measurement and computation. A number of indices have been derived from the measured data which are able to correlate the subjective driver feeling with the measured accelerations.

The stiffness of the frame has a great influence on the ride comfort of the heavy truck. Reducing frame thickness was proved to be unacceptable in terms of ride comfort, which is verified by the testing results. The truck frame was reinforced in order to improve the ride comfort. The modal analysis showed that the pitch frequency of the vehicle has increased 0.5 Hz and the frequency response has decreased by 20%. In order to research the influence of frame stiffness on the heavy truck ride comfort, a detailed model including a flex frame, chassis suspension, cab suspension, driveline, etc., was built by MSC.ADAMS. The Simulation results showed that the ride comfort can be improved by reinforce the frame, and the ride comfort can be improved by 5%∼10%. The results of this study need to be further examined through field testing.

In an effort to support design and testing activities at product development lifecycle of the engine, proper duty cycle is required. However, to collect data and develop accurate duty cycles, there are not any vehicles equipped with prototype engines at customers. Therefore, in this paper, discrete duty cycle development methodology is studied to generate trailer truck engine usage profile which represents driving conditions in Turkey for engines in development phase. Cycles are generated using several vehicles equipped with prototype engines and professional drivers that can mimic customer usage. Methodology is based on defining real-world customer driving profile, discretizing real-world drives into separate events, collecting vehicle data from each discrete drive, determining the weight of events by conducting customer surveys and creating a representative reference usage profile with data analysis.

Several studies in the field of hedonics using subjective responses to gauge the nature and influence of odors have attempted to explain the complex psychological and chemical processes. Work on the effect of odors in alleviating driver fatigue is limited. The potential to improve road safety through non-pharmacological means such as stimulating odors is the impetus behind this paper. This is especially relevant in developing countries today with burgeoning economies such as India. Longer road trips by commercial transport vehicles with increasingly fatigued drivers and risk of accidents are being fuelled by distant producer - consumer connections. This work describes a two stage comparative study on the effects of different odors typically obtainable in India. The stages involve administration of odorants orthonsally and retronasally after the onset of circadian fatigue in test subjects. This is followed by a small cognitive exercise to evaluate hand-eye coordination.

The ride comfort of heavy trucks is related to many factors, which include vehicle operating scenarios and vehicle structure parameters. An investigation of the influence of different factors on the ride comfort of heavy trucks was conducted. Based on the elastic theory of a uniform Euler-Bernoulli beam with both ends free, a 6 degree of freedom (DOF) half rigid-elastic vibration model of the vertical dynamic response was developed. The rigid-elastic model is more suitable to describe the actual movement of heavy trucks. The DOFs include vertical displacements of the body and each of two axles, the pitch displacement of the body, and the first and second order bending displacements of the body. The root mean square (RMS) values of body accelerations, dynamic deflections and relative dynamic loads form the evaluation index. Based on the rigid-elastic model, the influence of different factors on the ride comfort of heavy trucks is analyzed in the frequency domain.

This paper presents payload estimation based on experimental friction coefficients identification. To estimate exact payload mass, dynamic mathematical model such as actuator dynamics and front linkage dynamics is derived by using Newton-Euler method. From the dynamic equation, nonlinear terms are analyzed and transformed. And a friction model is derived from the experiments with various conditions which have three states; boom joint angle, head and rod chamber pressures. It can identify friction coefficients and compensate friction forces. In addition, the accuracy of payload estimation system is verified through the field test.