Search Results

This paper proposes a novel method of verifying comprehensive driver model used for the evaluation of driving safety systems, which is achieved by coupling the traffic simulation and the driving simulator (DS). The method consists of three-step procedure. In the first step, an actual driver operates a DS vehicle in the traffic flow controlled by the traffic simulation. Then in the next step, the actual driver is replaced by a driver model and the surrounding vehicle maneuvers are replayed using the recorded data from the first step. Then, the maneuver by the driver model is compared directly with the actual driver's maneuver along the simulation time steps.

The development of electric vehicles has been progressed, rapidly, to achieve Carbon neutrality by 2050. There have been increasing concerns about Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) performance due to increasing power for power trains of vehicles. Because same power train system expands to some vehicles, we have developed numerical simulations in order to predict the vehicle EMC performances. We modeled a vehicle which has inverter noises by numerical simulation to calculate electric fields based on GB/T18387. We simulated the common mode noise which flows through the shielding braid of the high voltage wire harnesses. As a result, it is confirmed a correlation between the electric fields calculated by numerical simulation and the measured one.

This paper presents an experimental comparative study between the OCTOGONAL-Gate Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) nMOSFET (OSM) and the conventional SOI nMOSFET (CSM) considering the same bias conditions and the same gate area (AG), in order to verify the influence of this new MOSFET layout style to handle high current for automotive modules. Analog integrated circuits (ICs) design tends to be considered an art due to a large number of variables and objectives to achieve the product specifications. The designer has to find the right tradeoffs to achieve the desired automotive specification such as low power, low voltage, high speed and high current driver. SOI MOSFET's technology is required to provide the growth of embedded electronics. This growth is driving demand for power-handling devices that are smaller yet still provide high current driver capabilities.

Interior permanent magnet machines are being widely used in hybrid vehicles owing to their compact size and high power density. Vehicle level application requires the motor to operate at high speed beyond the base speed of the motor. This is accomplished through flux weakening control. Nonfunctioning of inverter switches and/or gate driver circuit during flux weakening could give rise to a potential fault scenario called Un-Controlled Generation (UCG). This paper gives a detailed background of UCG and its impact on the high voltage and propulsion systems. In further sections the details related to modelling and analysis of UCG will be discussed. Finally, the paper will conclude with simulation results and comparison of the results with motor dynamometer test data.

With rapid increase of vehicles on the road, safety concerns have become increasingly prominent. Since the leading cause of many traffic accidents is known to be by human drivers, developing autonomous vehicles is considered to be an effective approach to solve the problems above. Although trajectory tracking plays one of the most important roles on autonomous driving, handling the coupling between trajectory-tracking control and ESP under certain driving scenarios remains to be challenging. This paper focuses on trajectory-tracking control considering the role of ESP. A vehicle model is developed with two degrees of freedom, including vehicle lateral, and yaw motions. Based on the proposed model, the vehicle trajectory is separated into both longitudinal and lateral motion. The coupling effect of the vehicle and ESP is analyzed in the paper. The lateral trajectory-tracking algorithm is developed based on the preview follower theory.

In today's motorized society, various automotive technologies continue to evolve every day. Amid this trend, a new concept with respect to automatic transaxle gear-shifting has been developed. In order to materialize a new concept for shifting operation with a universal design in mind, a system has been developed: a shift-by-wire system developed specifically for hybrid vehicles. The greatest advantage of this new system is the lack of constraints associated with the conventional mechanical linkage to the transaxle. This allows freedom of design for the gear selection module. A revolutionary improvement in the ease of shifting has been realized by taking full advantage of this design freedom. In addition, this system contributes to an innovative design. For improved ease of operation, the operation force of the shift lever of this system has been dramatically reduced. For parking, the driver can engage the parking mechanism of the transaxle at the touch of a switch.

New engine controls have been developed for the turbocharged Lexus NX200t to improve driving power by reducing engine torque output lag. Drive power management functions have been centralized in an integrated drive power control system. The newly developed controls minimize the potential reduction in drivability associated with the adoption of a turbocharged engine while improving fuel efficiency. General driveability issues commonly associated with a turbocharged engine include sudden increases in drive power due to the response lag of the turbocharger, and higher shifting frequencies if this response lag triggers a disturbed accelerator operation pattern by the driver. The developed technologies detect and control sudden increases in drive power to create the optimum drive power map, and reduce unnecessary shifts even if the driver's accelerator operation is disturbed.

Future automobiles are required to support an increasing number of complex, distributed functions such as active safety and X-by-wire. Because of safety concerns and the need to deliver correct designs in a short time, system properties should be verified in advance on function models, by simulation or model checking. To ensure that the properties still hold for the final deployed system, the implementation of the models into tasks and communication messages should preserve properties of the model, or in general, its semantics. FlexRay offers the possibility of deterministic communication and can be used to define distributed implementations that are provably equivalent to synchronous reactive models like those created from Simulink. However, the low level communication layers and the FlexRay schedule must be carefully designed to ensure the preservation of communication flows and functional outputs.

During the early phase of vehicle development, one of the key design attributes to consider is visibility for the driver. Visibility is the ability to see the surrounding environment as one is driving. This need should drive the vehicle design enabling a move favorable view for the driver. Certain vehicle characteristics such as the size of windshield and the design of the pillar influence the perception of visibility for the driver. One specific characteristic influencing satisfaction is forward up vision, which is the subject of this paper. The objective of this project was to analyze the influence of forward up vision on driver satisfaction under real world driving conditions. Other influences such as the positon of the occupant in the seat was also studied. This study was supported by research, statistical data analysis and dynamic clinics.

During the early phase of vehicle development, one of the key design attributes to consider is visibility for the driver. Visibility is the ability to see one’s surrounding environment while they are driving. Therefore, it is one of the key requirements to be considered during the vehicle design. Certain vehicle characteristics such as the size of windshield and the design of the pillars influence the perception of visibility for the driver. One specific characteristic influencing satisfaction is A-pillar obscuration and location, which is the subject of this paper. The objective of this project is to analyze the relationship between the A-pillar obscuration/location with the driver satisfaction under real world driving conditions, based on research, statistical data analysis and dynamic clinics. Other influences, such as the position of the occupant in the seat was also studied and captured in this paper.

The Rx400h, which was put on the market in 2005, realized overwhelming power performance with the adoption of a high-voltage system, high-power output motor, and 3-motor type 4WD. Toyota has been working on a solution to increase the output power of the motor, i.e., the development of system stabilization technology. This paper introduces high-speed power balance control, which keeps the balance of power constant regardless of rapid changes in the number of motor rotations resulting from slipping tires or other factors, along with sensor error compensation control, which suppresses cyclic power fluctuation resulting from errors in the position sensor of the motor.

Twent-two participants of varying ages detected roadside targets in two consecutive dynamic evaluations of a horizontally swiveling headlamp vehicle and a vehicle with the same headlamps that did not swivel. Participants detected targets as they drove unlighted low-speed public roads. Scenarios encountered were intersection turns, and curves with approximate radii of 70-90m, 120-140m, 170-190m, and 215-220m. Results from the first study found improved detection distances from the swiveling headlamps in left curves, but unexpectedly decreased detection distances in larger radius right hand curves. The swiveling algorithm was altered for the second study, and the headlamps used did not have the same beam pattern as in the first study. Results from the second study again found improved detection distances from the swiveling headlamps while in the larger radius right hand curves fixed and swivel were not statistically different.

The purpose of this study is to propose braking characteristics that are easy for drivers to handle in a system in which braking and driving operations are performed by hand. Genetic algorithm optimization of braking characteristics showed that the best deceleration tracking was achieved by an FG diagram with a logarithmic function shape. In contrast, the slope of the optimal FG diagram tended to decrease as the driver's proportional gain increased.

This study aims at the development of a projection pattern that is capable of shortening the time required by a driver to perceive a pedestrian at night when a vehicle’s high beams are utilized. Our approach is based on the spatio-temporal frequency characteristics of human vision. Visual contrast sensitivity is dependent on spatiotemporal frequency, and maximum contrast sensitivity frequency varies depending on environmental luminance. Conventionally, there are several applications that utilize the spatio-temporal frequency characteristics of human vision. For example, the National Television System Committee (NTSC) television format takes into consideration low-sensitivity visual characteristics. In contrast, our approach utilizes high-sensitivity visual characteristics based on the assumption that the higher contrast sensitivity of spatio-temporal frequencies will correlate more effectively with shorter perception times.

We investigated a lighting method that supports pedestrian perception by vehicle drivers. This lighting method makes active use of visual characteristics such as the spatio-temporal frequency of contrast sensitivity. Using reasonable parameter values derived from preliminary experiments using a Campbell-Robson chart, we determined a suitable lighting pattern that improves the driver's pedestrian perception. In order to assess the influence of visual characteristics on a reaction-time-dependent task, such as pedestrian perception in nighttime, tests were performed in the target environment, the results of which validated the proposed method.

In recent vehicles, E/E architecture is defined and used as a platform to accommodate various electronics features for better development efficiency, lower cost and higher quality. As electronics features increase and integrated control systems make vehicle electronics more complex, good electronics platforms are vital for today's and future vehicle development. This paper first describes the evolution of vehicle electronics and its recent trend and then addresses the challenges facing vehicle electronics: ✓ More integrated control systems ✓ More software ✓ More networks ✓ Shorter time to market Finally, why JasPar1), Japan Automotive Software Platform and Architecture, was founded and how it is organized will be described including the working group activities on FlexRay implementation.

This paper describes impact kinematics and injury values of Hybrid III AM50, THOR AM50 and THUMS AM50 in simulated oblique frontal impact conditions. A comparison was made among them in driver and passenger seat positions of a midsize sedan car finite element (FE) model. The simulation results indicated that the impact kinematics of THOR was close to that of THUMS compared to that of the Hybrid III. Both THOR and THUMS showed z-axis rotation of the rib cage, while Hybrid III did not. It was considered that the rib cage rotation was due primarily to the oblique impact but was allowed by flexibility of the lumbar spine in THOR and THUMS. Lateral head displacement observed in both THOR and THUMS was mostly induced by that rotation in both driver seat and passenger seat positions. The BrIC, thorax and abdominal injury values were close to each other between THOR and THUMS, while HIC15 and Acetabulum force values were different.

This paper discusses radio usage habits observed during analysis of 700 hours of video sampled from the 100-Car Naturalistic Driving Study database. Analysts used large-scale printouts of each vehicle's radio faceplate and recorded interactions based on video analysis of hand movement and location (without the assistance of audio recordings). The duration and specific manipulations or adjustments were recorded for each interaction. The results summarize the length and type of interactions, most often-used controls, and total percentage of time drivers interacted with the radio.

The basic goals of privacy and authenticity of personal data are summarized, and examples of potential threats to privacy in telematics applications are provided. Probable telematic transactions for the automotive environment are analyzed for typical versus necessary personal content. The question of privacy versus confidentiality versus security versus authenticity is discussed in the context of system design and service provider responsibilities. Several examples of how current telematic systems address privacy are provided, and worldwide trends in architectures followed the "designed in privacy" concept are briefly described.

Toyota Safety Sense is a safety system package developed to help drivers avoid accident types with a high frequency of occurrence. This paper deals with pre-collision system which forms the core of Toyota Safety Sense, especially Toyota Safety Sense P which uses a combined sensor configuration consisting of a monocular camera paired with millimeter wave radar, in order to achieve both high recognition performance and reliability. The use of a wide-angle monocular camera, millimeter wave radar integrated in the front grill emblem, and a collision determination algorithm for pedestrian targets enabled the development of a pre-collision system comprising detection capability of crossing pedestrians. Toyota has developed warning and pre-collision brake assist for driver to assist in avoiding a collision effectively; In addition, Pre-collision brake has achieved high level of performance for the drivers who cannot avoid a collision.