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Visual Place Recognition (VPR) excels at providing a good location prior for autonomous vehicles to initialize the map-based visual SLAM system, especially when the environment changes after a long term. Condition change and viewpoint change, which influences features extracted from images, are two of the major challenges in recognizing a visited place. Existing VPR methods focus on developing the robustness of global feature to address them but ignore the benefits that local feature can auxiliarily offer. Therefore, we introduce a novel hierarchical place recognition method with both global and local features deriving from homologous VLAD to improve the VPR performance. Our model is weak supervised by GPS label and we design a fine-tuning strategy with a coupled triplet loss to make the model more suitable for extracting local features.

High-speed vehicles in low illumination environments severely blur the images used in object detectors, which poses a potential threat to object detector-based advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving systems. Augmenting the training images for object detectors is an efficient way to mitigate the threat from motion blur. However, little attention has been paid to the motion of the vehicle and the position of objects in the traffic scene, which limits the consistence between the resulting augmented images and traffic scenes. In this paper, we present a vehicle kinematics-based image augmentation algorithm by modeling and analyzing the traffic scenes to generate more realistic augmented images and achieve higher robustness improvement on object detectors against motion blur. Firstly, we propose a traffic scene model considering vehicle motion and the relationship between the vehicle and the object in the traffic scene.

In order to avoid the influence of the change of the camera pitch angle and the variation of the height of the ground on the ranging accuracy, improve the real-time performance of the algorithm by substituting the current widely-used monocular vision ranging algorithm which builds the optical model based on the shadow of the vehicle floor and the lane line, as well as avoid the classification of vehicle detection, a vehicle distance measurement algorithm based on monocular vision and license plate width is established. Firstly, the target image acquisition and preprocessing are studied. Then the paper studies the license plate image location segmentation method based on accelerated template matching. On this basis, the algorithm for obtaining the ratio of license plate width to image width is studied, and the function of vehicle distance and license plate ratio width is established.

With the development of economic globalization, the speed of development of container terminals is also very rapid. Under the pressure brought by the surge in throughput, the unmanned and intelligent terminals will become the future development direction of terminals. As the cornerstone of the unmanned terminal, the positioning technology provides the most basic position information for system scheduling, path planning, real-time correction, and loading and unloading. Therefore, this paper is aimed to design a low-cost, high-precision, and easy-to-maintain unmanned dock positioning system in order to better solve the problem of unmanned dock positioning. The main research content of this paper is to design a positioning algorithm for unmanned terminal Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) based on single-line lidar, including point cloud data acquisition, background filtering, point cloud clustering, vehicle position extraction, and result optimization.

Rotating flow inside an internal combustion engine cylinder is deliberately engineered for improved fuel-air mixing and combustion. The details of the rotating flow structure vary temporally over an engine cycle as well as cyclically at the same engine phase. Algorithms in the literature to identify these structural details of the rotating flow invariably focus on locating its center and, on occasion, measuring its rotational strength and spatial extent. In this paper, these flow structure parameters are evaluated by means of complex moments, which have been adapted from image (scalar field) recognition applications to two-dimensional flow pattern (vector field) analysis. Several additional detailed characteristics of the rotating flow pattern - the type and extent of its deviation from the ideal circular pattern, its rotational and reflectional symmetry (if exists), and thus its orientation - are also shown to be related to the first few low-order complex moments of the flow pattern.

Highly accurate parking slot detection methods are crucial for Automated Valet Parking (AVP) systems, to meet their demanding safety and functional requirements. While previous efforts have mostly focused on the algorithms’ capabilities to detect different types of slots under varying conditions, i.e. the detection rate, their accuracy has received little attention at this time. This paper highlights the importance of trustworthy slot detection methods, which address both the detection rate and the detection accuracy. To achieve this goal, an accurate slot detection method and a reliable ground-truth slot measurement method have been proposed in this paper. First, based on a 2D laser range finder, datapoints of obstacle vehicles on both sides of a slot have been collected and preprocessed. Second, the Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN) algorithm has been improved to efficiently cluster these unevenly-distributed datapoints.

The exhaust aftertreatment strategy is one of the most fundamental aspects of spark ignition engine technologies. For various types of engines (e.g., carburetor engine, PFI engine and GDI engine), measuring, purifying, modeling, and control strategies regarding the exhaust aftertreatment systems vary significantly. The primary goal of exhaust aftetreatment systems is to reduce the exhaust emission levels of NOx, HC and CO as well as to lower combustion soot. In general, there is a tradeoff among different engine performance aspects. The exhaust catalytic systems, such as the three way catalyst (TWC) and lean NOx trap (LNT) converters, can be applied together with the development of other engine technologies (e.g., variable valve timing, cold start). With respect to engine soot, some advanced diagnosing techniques are essential to obtain thorough investigation of exhaust emission mechanisms.

Based on the similarity theory and conservation equations, some of the important dimensionless numbers in diesel combustion are deduced and discussed. Existence of similarity is theoretically proved in diffusion (or mixing-controlled) combustion and premixed combustion as well as in spray mixture formation processes in different size diesel engines. With the prerequisite of geometric similarity, scaling rules for some parameters including engine speed, injection pressure and injection duration are established to realize the similarity between large-bore and small-bore diesel engines. To verify the similarity theories, the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation are conducted, and three scaling rules, which keep the engine speed, injection pressure and lift-off length constant, respectively, are compared under the conditions of the light load (0.3 MPa IMEP) and high load (1.55 MPa IMEP) operations.

Centrifugal Pendulum Vibration Absorber (CPVA for short) is used to absorb torsional vibrations caused by the shifting motion of the engine. It is increasingly used in modern powertrains. In the research of the dynamic characteristics of the CPVA, it is necessary to obtain the real motion of the pendulum to compensate the fitting performance of mathematical model. The usual method is to install an angle sensor to measure the movement of the pendulum. On the one hand, the installation of the sensor will affect its movement to a certain extent, so that the measurement results do not match the actual motion. On the other hand, the motion of the pendulum is not only the rotational motion around the rotational axis of the CPVA rotor, but also has translation relative to it. As a result, it is difficult to obtain accurate motion only by the angle sensor. We proposed a non-contact centrifugal pendulum motion measurement method.

Recently, all world countries facing the stringent emission regulations have been encouraged to explore the clean fuel. The diesel from indirect coal liquefaction (DICL) has been verified that can reduce the soot and NOx emissions of compression-ignition engine. However, the atomization characteristics of DICL are rarely studied. The aim of this work is to numerically analyze the inner nozzle flow and the atomization characteristics of the DICL and compare the global and local flow characteristics of the DICL with the NO.2 diesel (D2) at engine conditions. A surrogate fuel of the DICL (a mixture of 72.4% n-dodecane and 27.6% methylcyclohexane by mass) was built according to its components to simulate the atomization characteristics of the DICL under the high-temperature and high-pressure environment (non-reacting) by the Large Eddy Simulation (LES).

For an in-line diesel engine with four cylinder operating in four-stroke mode, the second-order reciprocating inertia forces generally cannot be well balanced with direct approach. The unbalanced second-order inertia forces are the main reason to cause vibration and noise in a diesel engine within low frequency range. The more superior tone quality for modern diesel engine has been expected even for bus application all the time, and there are tougher requirements for truck noise in developed countries, i.e. in Europe and USA. In present research a unique crankshaft system configuration was proposed, which including opposed piston, inner and outer connecting rod, and crankshaft but running in two-stroke mode, to eliminate the second-order inertia force considerably rather than by adding an extra balance shaft mechanism.

During the launch of a car, severe torsional vibration sometimes may occur in its driveline due to somewhat the slipping of the clutch, its intuitive sense for an occupant is the longitudinal vibration of the vehicle, referred to as the launch shudder whose characteristic frequency is from 5 to 25 Hz generally. As the main vibration sources of the driveline and its crucial nonlinear components, the variable stiffness and backlash of the gear meshing are considered, their impacts on the launch shudder are analyzed in this paper. Conformal mapping, finite element method and regression method etc. are the main approaches to calculate the variable meshing stiffness of a gear pair. If this stiffness is get, it can usually be substituted for its approximate analytical expression, just with finite harmonic terms, in Fourier Series form into Ordinary Differential Equations(ODEs) to calculate the vehicle responses with its nonlinearity considered.

Emissions of diesel engine have been received much more attention since the Volkswagen Emission Scandal. The Euro VI emission standard has already included cold start emissions in the legislative emission driving cycles which is one of the hardest part of emission control. High altitude performance is also considered in the latest regulations which will be stricter in the future. Heating the coolant is one of the most common method to improve the cold start performance. But researches focus on the emission of a diesel engine in different coolant temperature at high altitude which up to 4500m have not been seen. The present research investigated the effect of coolant temperature on performance and exhaust emissions (gaseous and particulate emissions) during the cold start of a diesel engine. A plateau simulation system controlled the inlet and exhaust pressure to create altitude environments from 0m to 4500m, and the coolant temperature was controlled from 20°C to 60°C.

In order to explore approaches for improving object detection accuracy in intelligent vehicle system, we exploit super-resolution techniques. A novel method is proposed to confirm the conjecture whether some popular super-resolution networks used for environmental perception of intelligent vehicles and robots can indeed improve the detection accuracy. COCO dataset which contains images from complex ordinary environment is utilized for the verification experiment, due to it can adequately verify the generalization of each algorithm and the consistency of experimental results. Using two representative object detection networks to produce the detection results, namely Faster R-CNN and YOLOv3, we devise to reduce the impact of resizing operation. The two networks allow us to compare the performance of object detection between using original and super-resolved images. We quantify the effect of each super-resolution techniques as well.

This work investigates the suitability of n-butanol for enabling PCCI, HCCI, and RCCI combustion modes to achieve clean and efficient combustion on a high compression ratio (18.2:1) diesel engine. Systematic engine tests are conducted at low and medium engine loads (6∼8 bar IMEP) and at a medium engine speed of 1500 rpm. Test results indicate that n-butanol is more suitable than diesel to enable PCCI and HCCI combustion with the same engine hardware. However, the combustion phasing control for n-butanol is demanding due to the high combustion sensitivity to variations in engine operating conditions where engine safety concerns (e.g. excessive pressure rise rates) potentially arise. While EGR is the primary measure to control the combustion phasing of n-butanol HCCI, the timing control of n-butanol direct injection in PCCI provides an additional leverage to properly phase the n-butanol combustion.

Three-phase sequential turbocharging system with two unequal-size turbochargers is developed to improve fuel economy performance and reduce emission of the automotive diesel engine, which satisfies wide range of intake flow demand. However, it results in complicated transient control strategies under frequently changing operating conditions. The present work aims to optimize the control scheme of boost system and fuel injection and evaluate their contributions to the improvement of transient performance. A mean value model for diesel engine was built up in SIMULINK environment and verified by experiment for transient study. Then a mathematical model of optimization issue was established. Strategies of control valves and fuel injection for typical acceleration and loading processes are obtained by coupled calculating of the simulation model and optimization algorithm.

The increasingly stringent emission regulations have mandated the use of CCRT (catalyzed continuously regeneration trap) made by upstream DOC (diesel oxidation catalyst) and downstream CDPF (catalyzed diesel particulate filter) for heavy-duty diesel vehicles, which is proved to be the only way that can efficiently control the gaseous and particulate emissions. The performance of after-treatment is greatly influenced by the running conditions of the diesel vehicle and its exhaust parameters, so this paper intended to use grey relational analysis to study the correlation between running conditions (velocity, acceleration, VSP (vehicle specific power)), exhaust parameters (exhaust flow rate, DOC inlet temperature, concentrations of CO, THC, O2 and NOX) and the performance of DOC and CCRT based on chassis dynamometer test. Results showed that the effect of DOC on CO and THC is mainly affected by exhaust flow rate, exhaust temperature and THC concentration.

The present work proposed to implement oxy-fuel combustion mode into a homogeneous charge compression ignition engine to reduce complexity in engine emissions after-treatment and lower carbon dioxide emission. The combination of oxy-fuel combustion mode with homogeneous charge compression ignition engine can be further optimized by the utilization of direct high temperature and pressure water injection to improve cycle performance. A retrofitted conventional diesel engine coupled with port fuel injection and direct water injection is utilized in this study. A self-designed oxygen and carbon dioxide mixture intake system with flexible oxygen fraction adjustment ability is implemented in the test bench to simulate the adoption of exhaust gas recirculation. Water injection system is directly installed in the combustion chamber with a modified high speed solenoid diesel injector.

Flash boiling spray has been proven to be a useful method in providing finer fuel droplet and stronger evaporation in favor of creating a homogeneous fuel-air mixture. Combustion characteristics of flash boiling spray are thus valuable to be investigated systematically for aiding the development of efficient internal combustion system. An experimental study of flash boiling spray combustion in a SIDI optical engine under early injection has been conducted. The fuel, Iso-octane, was used across all tests. Three fuel spray conditions experimented in the study: normal liquid, transitional flash boiling and flare flash boiling sprays, within each case that Pa/Ps ratio was set in (>1), (0.3~1), and (<0.3) respectively. A small quartz insert on the piston enables optical access for observing combustion process; non-intrusive measurements on flame radicals has been carried out using a high-speed color camera.

Lift-off length is defined as the distance from injector hole to the location where flame stabilized on a high injection pressure direct injection (DI) diesel spray. In this paper we used the high-speed (40 kHz) Schlieren and time-averaged OH chemiluminescence imaging technique to simultaneously measure the flame lift-off locations on a DI diesel spray in an optically accessible and constant-volume combustion vessel. The time-resolved development of the diesel spray acquired from the high-speed Schlieren imaging system enabled us to observe the instantaneous spray structure details of the spray flames. The OH chemiluminescence image obtained from a gated, intensified CCD video camera with different delay and width settings was used to determine the quiescent lift-off length. Experiments were conducted under various ambient temperatures, ambient gas densities, injection pressures and oxygen concentrations.