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A flag is a global boolean variable used to achieve synchronization between various tasks of an embedded system. An application implementing flags performs actions or events based on the value of the flags. If flag variables are not implemented properly, certain synchronization related issues can arise which can lead to unexpected behavior or failure of the underlying system. In this paper, we present an automated verification technique to identify and verify flag usage patterns at an early stage of code development. We propose a two-step approach which consists of: a. identification of all potential flag variables and b. verification of flag usage patterns against predefined set of rules. The results of our experiment demonstrate that the proposed approach reduces the cost and complexity of the flag review process by almost 70%.

This paper presents a vehicle dynamic simulation using a finite element method for performing more accurate simulations under extreme operating conditions with large tire deformation. A new hourglass control scheme implemented in an explicit finite element analysis code LS-DYNA(1) is used to stabilize tire deformation. The tires and suspension systems are fully modeled using finite elements and are connected to a rigid body that represents the whole vehicle body as well as the engine, drive train system and all other interior parts. This model is used to perform cornering and braking behavior simulations and the results are compared with experimental data. In the cornering behavior simulation, the calculated lateral acceleration and yaw rate at the vehicle's center of gravity agree well with the experimental results. Their nonlinear behavior is also well expressed.

Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) promises automated and highly efficient charging of electric and plug-in-hybrid vehicles. As commercial development proceeds forward, the technical challenges of efficiency, interoperability, interference and safety are a primary focus for this industry. The SAE Vehicle Wireless Power and Alignment Taskforce published the Recommended Practice J2954 to help harmonize the first phase of high-power WPT technology development. SAE J2954 uses a performance-based approach to standardizing WPT by specifying ground and vehicle assembly coils to be used in a test stand (per Z-class) to validate performance, interoperability and safety. The main goal of this SAE J2954 bench testing campaign was to prove interoperability between WPT systems utilizing different coil magnetic topologies. This type of testing had not been done before on such a scale with real automaker and supplier systems.

This paper describes a low-cost 48 × 48 element thermal imaging camera intended for use in measuring the temperature in a car interior for advanced air conditioning systems. The compact camera measures 46 × 46 × 60 mm. It operates under a program stored in the central processing unit and can measure the interior temperature distribution with an accuracy of ±0.7°C in range from 0 to 40°C. The camera includes a thermoelectric focal plane array (FPA) housed in a low-cost vacuum-sealed package. The FPA is fabricated with the conventional IC manufacturing process and micromachining technology. The chip is 6.5 × 6.5 mm in size and achieves high sensitivity of 4,300 V/W, which is higher than the performance reported for any other thermopile. This high performance has been achieved by optimizing the sensor's thermal isolation structure and a precisely patterned Au-black absorber that attains high infrared absorptivity of more than 90%.

The SKY Project (Start ITS from Kanagawa, Yokohama) was launched in October 2004 in Yokohama, Japan in order to contribute to the local community by reducing traffic accidents and congestion. SKY is a private sector collaboration between Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., NTT DoCoMo, Inc., Panasonic Corporation, and Xanavi Informatics Corporation (now Clarion Ltd.). Support has also been provided from the public sector, namely the National Police Agency of Japan (NPA) and the Kanagawa Prefectural Police. Through the use of in-vehicle technology and an Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) that communicates with the infrastructure, information on nearby vehicles and the surrounding traffic environment can be utilized to reduce traffic accidents, shorten travel times, and increase fuel savings. These are the goals of the SKY project. This paper shows the results of early stage testing and the introduction of newly started trials.

Nissan has developed a second generation ceramic turbocharger rotor which provides greater reliability and higher performance than a conventional ceramic rotor. The new rotor is made of silicon nitride, which has demonstrated sufficient strength in vehicle applications. The bonding technique for joining the ceramic rotor to the metal shaft has been confirmed through experimentation to have sufficient reliability. The second generation rotor is featured by the low stress design and higher dynamic strength, and two factors contribute to its higher reliability. The rotor shape was optimized on the basis of results obtained in two analyses of particle impact resistance and applied combined stress. Test results show that the reliability of the second generation rotor have been substantially improved over those of the conventional rotor now being used on production vehicles.

New image processing procedures for speckle photography and holographic interferometry are described. The algorithm for speckle photography measures the displacement value and direction automatically within the accuracy of ±5% over a range of 10 µm to 150 µm. This algorithm has adopted the Maximum Entropy Method to measure fringe intervals with high accuracy. The algorithm for holographic interferometry detects the fringe line and determines the displacement distribution with an operator's assist. Through the experiments, it was shown that these procedures are effective and accurate for vibration and deformation analysis.

Electric Vehicle distinctive techniques in order to enhance the vehicle dynamic performance have been studied and applied to Nissan LEAF. From the viewpoint of performance design parameters, this paper introduces the application items focusing on effectuality for the vehicle behavior by means of the yawing motion and the rolling motion control of its vehicle. As the result, the effects of vehicle performance are shown in experimental data.

Although automotive electronics was initially applied as a substitute for mechanical parts, this technology has the potential to achieve effective combinations of mechanical functions. A case in point is the successful resolution of fuel consumption and exhaust emission problems by effectively integrating engine control and catalyst technologies. LSI technology has also been incorporated into automotive electronics and established as a fundamental engine control tool. Thanks to LSI technology, particularly the use of microprocessor techniques, conventional machine design problems have been transformed into logical design ones. In the next stage of application, automotive electronics is expected to provide further benefits including a more comfortable ride, an improved human-machine system interface, and an advanced communications system between vehicles and other telecommunications stations.

This paper reports about a trial for miniaturization of an air-cooled inverter integrated with motor, which is realized by reduction of the total volume of smoothing capacitor. An integrated system prototype was constructed with a disk-shaped inverter positioned at the rear end of the motor. We examined the possibility of using a ceramic capacitor, which features a higher heat-resistance temperature, lower internal resistance and higher capacity density than a film capacitor. At the same level of capacitance, the volume of a ceramic capacitor is less than one-half that of a film capacitor, enabling the size of the smoothing capacitor to be reduced to approximately one-fifth that of the currently used device. A suitable circuit configuration and physical layout of distributed smoothing capacitors and corresponding power device modules are proposed and demonstrated.

There are two primary technical issues in the application of position sensorless control to generators for 100% electric-drive hybrid vehicles. The first is the risk of losing control when position sensorless estimation methods are changed in accordance with the generator speed, while. The second is the reduction in the maximum torque if the rate of change in the generator speed is extremely large in a relatively low-rotation-speed area. This study proposes countermeasures for each issue and their effects examines them via simulations and experiments.

In general, the improvement of vehicle body stiffness involves a trade-off with the body weight. The objective of this research is to derive the lightest-weight solution from the original vehicle model by finding the optimized spot-weld layout and body panel thickness, while keeping the body stiffness and number of spot welds constant. As the first step, a method of deriving the optimal layout of spot welds for maximizing body stiffness was developed by applying the topology optimization method. While this method is generally used in shape optimization of continuous solid structures, it was applied to discontinuous spot-weld positions in this work. As a result, the effect of the spot-weld layout on body stiffness was clarified. In the case of the body used for this research, body stiffness was improved by about 10% with respect to torsion and vertical and lateral bending.

Three Japanese automobile manufacturers-Mitsubishi Motors Corp., Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., and Toyo Kogyo Co., Ltd.-have been making efforts over the past three years to design and develop effective thermal reactor-exhaust gas recirculation and catalytic converter systems suitable for small engines. The work is being done by members participating in the IIEC (Inter-Industry Emission Control) Program, and the exhaust emission levels of the concept vehicles developed by these companies have met the goal established by the IIEC Program at low mileage. Each system, however, has a characteristic relationship between exhaust emission level and loss of fuel economy. Much investigation is required, particularly with respect to durability, before any system that will fully satisfy all service requirements can be completed. This paper reports the progress of research and development of the individual concept vehicles.

The effect of the introduction of low-emission vehicles on potential air quality improvement in the Los Angeles area was predicted using a three-dimensional airshed simulation model. The simulations were based on ozone concentration estimates made on the basis of data released by the California Air Resources Board concerning projected quantities of emissions from various sources in 2010. Analyses were made of three scenarios. One assumed that LEV, ULEV and ZEV regulations were enforced as planned, a second assumed that these planned regulations were modified; and a third assumed that emission levels from various sources were reduced in line with the goals of the Air Quality Management Plan formulated by the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

This paper presents the technologies incorporated in an electric vehicle (EV)/hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) inverter built with power semiconductors of silicon carbide (SiC) metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) instead of conventional silicon (Si) insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs). A SiC inverter prototype of 2.9 L in size for driving an 80-kW motor was fabricated and evaluated on a motor test bench. The SiC inverter prototype attained average efficiency of 98.5% in the Worldwide harmonized Light-duty Test Cycle (WLTC) driving mode. The two main technologies achieved with this SiC inverter prototype are described. The first one is a new direct-cooled power module with a thick copper (Cu) heat spreader located under the semiconductors that improves thermal resistance by 34% compared with a conventional direct-cooled power module.

The durability test with road-load input is necessary for evaluating durability of body and chassis structure in automotive applications. This paper shows the method to analyze road-load input to a suspension system for development of a simple component level bench test. This method enables the extraction of the essential inputs to evaluate the durability of suspension parts using the transfer function (frequency response function) measured by Multi-axial Road Simulator and wheel force transducers. These extracted inputs contribute to development of a new realistic component bench test.

An investigation was made of the relationship between the driving speed at the time of impact and the injury levels suffered in accidents. The results showed that a 5 km/h or more reduction in collision speed tends to mitigate injury severity. Using sensors and brake actuators already in practical use, we have started to research a braking system aimed at reducing the collision speed by at least 5 km/h in rear-end collisions. The system estimates the risk of a collision with the vehicle ahead. If it judges there is a very high possibility of a collision, it applies the brakes.

Achieving a multi-cylinder engine with excellent noise/vibration character sties and low friction at the main bearings requires an optimal design not only for the crankshaft construction but also for the bearing support system of the cylinder block. To accomplish that, it is necessary to understand crankshaft system behavior and the bearing load distribution for each of the main bearings. Crankshaft system behavior has traditionally been evaluated experimentally because of the difficulty in performing calculations to predict resonance behavior over the entire engine speed range. A coupled crankshaft-block analysis method has been developed to calculate crankshaft system behavior by treating vibration and lubrication in a systematic manner. This method has the feature that the coupled behavior of the crankshaft and the cylinder block is analyzed by means of main bearing lubrication calculations. This paper presents the results obtained with this method.

Nissan is offering navigation systems in some domestic production models. These systems, which show drivers the vehicle's present location on a CRT map display, free them from anxiety about getting lost when traveling in an unfamiliar area. It is expected that future navigation systems will incorporate two key capabilities. One will be a route guidance capability, which will not only indicate the present location but also select the optimal route to the intended destination and guide drivers there by indicating which direction to take at each intersection along the way. The second capability will be a communications link with the roadside infrastructure for receiving outside information such as traffic congestion data and incorporating that information into route guidance. Nissan has established the core technologies of these navigation capabilities in the past ten years through the development of conceptual prototypes and experimental systems in government-sponsored projects.

In order to enhance product attraction, it is important to reduce the impact noise when a vehicle go over bumps such as bridge joints. Vehicle performance to transitional noise phenomena is not yet analyzed well. In this paper, a prediction method is established by vector composition and inverse Fourier transform with the combination of Multibody Dynamics (MBD) and FEM. Also, a root cause analysis method is established with the following three mechanism analysis methods; transfer path analysis, mode contribution analysis, and panel contribution analysis.