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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.

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.

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.

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.

As automakers continue to develop new lightweight vehicles, the application of multi-material parts, assemblies and systems is needed to enhance overall performance and safety of new and emerging architectures. To achieve these goals conventional material selection and design strategies may be employed, such as standard material performance indices or full-combinatorial substitution studies. While these detailed processes exist, they often succeed at only suggesting one material per component, and cannot consider a clean-slate design; here, multi-material topology optimization (MMTO) is suggested as an effective computational tool for performing large-scale combined multi-material selection and design. Unlike previous manual methods, MMTO provides an efficient method for simultaneously determining material existence and distribution within a predefined design domain from a library of material options.

In recent decades, significant technological advances have made cruise control systems safer, more automated, and available in more driving scenarios. However, comparatively little progress has been made in optimizing vehicle efficiency while in cruise control. In this paper, two distinct strategies are proposed to deliver efficiency benefits in cruise control by leveraging flexibility around the driver’s requested set speed, and road information that is available on-board in many new vehicles. In today’s cruise control systems, substantial energy is wasted by rigidly controlling to a single set speed regardless of the terrain or road conditions. Introducing even a small allowable “error band” around the set speed can allow the propulsion system to operate in a pseudo-steady state manner across most terrain. As long as the vehicle can remain in the allowed speed window, it can maintain a roughly constant load, traveling slower up hills and faster down hills.

This study evaluated the effectiveness of alternative workload-based interventions intended to restore driver alertness following drowsy episodes. Unlike traditional drowsy driving studies, this experiment did not target sleep-deprived individuals, but rather studied normally rested drivers under the assumption that low-workload environments could trigger drowsy driving episodes. The study served as a proof of concept for varying the nature and onset of countermeasure interventions intended to disrupt the drowsiness cycle. Interventions to combat drowsiness attempted to target driver workload, either physical or cognitive, and included two primary treatment conditions: 1) physical workload to increase driver steering demands and 2) trivia-based interactive games to mentally challenge drivers. A benchmark comparison condition using music was also investigated to contrast the relative influence of workload-based interventions with passive listening to musical arrangements.

General Motors has pursued research to develop systems intended to assist drivers in recognizing people or objects behind them when they are backing, and this paper summarizes results from this research. We are currently working with ultrasonic rear parking assist systems, rear radar backing warning systems, and rear camera systems, which are briefly described and their utility for assisting drivers in recognizing people or objects behind them discussed. Our research on driver performance with a prototype long range backing warning system found that audible and visual warning combinations may not be effective in warning distracted drivers about unexpected objects. Driver expectancy is thought to play a significant role in this result. However, further research found drivers were more likely to notice an unexpected obstacle behind their vehicle with a prototype rear view video camera system compared to ultrasonic rear parking assist and trials that had no system.

Sixteen participants aged 55–65yrs provided deBoer scale ratings of discomfort glare for a vehicle with horizontally swiveling HID headlamps and a vehicle with the same headlamps that did not swivel in eight scenarios staged in a darkened parking lot. Participants, who were seated in the driver’s position of a stationary vehicle and instructed when to look, viewed the oncoming test vehicles in scenarios of 180m left turn, 180m right turn, 80m left turn, 80m right turn, left turn beside participant vehicle, crossing left in front of participant vehicle, right turn beside participant vehicle, and straightaway, in counterbalanced presentation orders. The swiveling headlamp vehicle provided statistically lower glare ratings in both 180m curves and the 80m right curve and statistically lower or similar in the intersection scenarios than the fixed headlamp vehicle.

In this paper, a newly developed three-dimensional (3D) bird's-eye view map drawing technique for car navigation systems is described. Conventional navigation systems give pseudo-perspective views which can not express ruggedness like hills and valleys. Our newly developed navigation system can display undulation of the land from viewpoints above and behind the current position, so that ups and downs of roads along with the driver's destination can be seen easily. The 3D-road map is not only effective during navigation but also during route planning, because it assists in searching for fine views before travel. In order to achieve the 3D-map view, we developed graphics software libraries, which work on a 32-bit RISC processor and on a low-cost graphics accelerator LSI with texture mapping capability. The graphics software libraries are constructed with three stages, the perspective projection stage, visible-surface determination stage, and rendering stage.

The problem of high fatal accident rates due to drunk driving persists, and must be reduced. This paper reports on a prototype system mounted on a car mock-up and a prototype portable system that enables the checking of the drivers’ sobriety using a breath-alcohol sensor. The sensor unit consists of a water-vapor-sensor and three semiconductor gas sensors for ethanol, acetaldehyde, and hydrogen. One of the systems’ features is that they can detect water vapor from human-exhaled breath to prevent false detection with fake gases. Each gas concentration was calculated by applying an algorithm based on a differential evolution method. To quickly detect the water vapor in exhaled breath, we applied an AC voltage between the two electrodes of the breath-water-vapor sensor and used our alcohol-detection algorithm. The ethanol level was automatically calculated from the three gas sensors as soon as the water vapor was detected.

Autonomous Driving (AD) and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) are being actively developed to prevent traffic accidents. As the complexity of AD/ADAS increases, the number of test scenarios increases as well. An efficient development process that meets AD/ADAS quality and performance specifications is thus required. The European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP®1) and the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA®2) have both defined test scenarios, but some of these scenarios are difficult to carry out with real-vehicle testing due to the risk of harm to human participants. Due to the challenge of covering various scenarios and situations with only real-vehicle testing, we utilize simulation-based testing in this work. Specifically, we construct a Model-in-the-Loop Simulation (MILS) environment for virtual testing of AD/ADAS control logic.

Many countries including India have aggressively aimed to implement electric vehicles (EVs) usage from 2030 onwards. Companies such as General Motors, Uber, Waymo and Nissan etc. are exploring the realm of autonomous vehicles (AV) for use as taxis as early as 2019. Above facts logically arrive at the solution of Autonomous EVs as taxis. With the commitment towards enabling an all-electric future, there exists a need to provide suitable infrastructure for recharging. Major urban cities located by the shoreline such as New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Los Angeles etc. have been facing the space crunch, with real estate prices sky-rocketing exponentially. With this premise, the operating company would need a large amount of space to store their EVs for charging which attributes to a longer downtime. This brings a need for an economical charging location that has a reduced usage of urban infrastructure and energy consumption.

Hood latches are provided with a secondary latch mechanism in order to restrain hoods in the event of an incomplete closing operation. It is important thus to understand the aerodynamically induced loading conditions the latch and hood will be subject to in order to design the hood and hood retention system to withstand those loads. In this paper a method of collecting load and displacement data from actual vehicles is presented, as well as an analysis of the results and the implications for hood and latch design.

Reductions of hardware costs as well as implementations of new innovative functions are the main drivers of today's automotive electronics. Indeed more and more resources are spent on adapting existing solutions to different environments. At the same time, due to the increasing number of networked components, a level of complexity has been reached which is difficult to handle using traditional development processes. The automotive industry addresses this problem through a paradigm shift from a hardware-, component-driven to a requirement- and function-driven development process, and a stringent standardization of infrastructure elements. One central standardization initiative is the AUTomotive Open System ARchitecture (AUTOSAR). AUTOSAR was founded in 2003 by major OEMs and Tier1 suppliers and now includes a large number of automotive, electronics, semiconductor, hard- and software companies.

A virtual power window control system was built in order to look into and demonstrate applications of microcontroller models. A virtual ECU simulated microcontroller hardware operations. The microcontroller program, which was written in binary digital codes, was executed step-by-step as the virtual ECU simulation went on. Thus, production-ready codes of ECUs are of primary interest in this research. The mechanical system of the power window, the DC motor to lift the window glass, the H-bridge MOSFET drivers, and the current sensing circuit to detect window locking are also modeled. This means that the hardware system of the control system was precisely modeled in terms of mechanical and circuit components. By integrating these models into continuous and discrete co-simulation, the power window control system was analyzed in detail from the microscopic command execution of the microcontroller to the macroscopic motion of the window mechanism altogether.

A totally integrated vehicle electronic control system is described, which optimizes vehicle performance through use of electronics. The system implements efficient coordination of functions of the engine, drive-train, brakes, steering, and suspension control subsystems to give a smoother ride, better handling and greater safety. The principles of the system are based on control and stability augmentation strategies. Each subsystem has two observers which control the force of the actuators according to the vehicle dynamics. The system features a driver support system which allows the average driver to employ the full performance potential of the vehicle in exceptional situations, and an artificial response control system to ensure optimum response and comfort. Application of the system allows the driver to experience a new level of performance and a marked improvement in handling quality and ride comfort.