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SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) plays a key role in autonomous driving. Recently, 4D Radar has attracted widespread attention because it breaks through the limitations of 3D millimeter wave radar and can simultaneously detect the distance, velocity, horizontal azimuth and elevation azimuth of the target with high resolution. However, there are few studies on 4D Radar in SLAM. In this paper, RI-FGO, a 4D Radar-Inertial SLAM method based on Factor Graph Optimization, is proposed. The RANSAC (Random Sample Consensus) method is used to eliminate the dynamic obstacle points from a single scan, and the ego-motion velocity is estimated from the static point cloud. A 4D Radar velocity factor is constructed in GTSAM to receive the estimated velocity in a single scan as a measurement and directly integrated into the factor graph. The 4D Radar point clouds of consecutive frames are matched as the odometry factor.

Multi-Target tracking is a central aspect of modeling the surrounding environment of autonomous vehicles. Automotive millimeter-wave radar is a necessary component in the autonomous driving system. One of the biggest advantages of radar is it measures the velocity directly. Another big advantage is that the radar is less influenced by environmental conditions. It can work day and night, in rainy or snowy conditions. In the expressway scenario, the forward-looking radar can generate multiple objects, to properly track the leading vehicle or neighbor-lane vehicle, a multi-target tracking algorithm is required. How to associate the track and the measurement or data association is an important question in a multi-target tracking system. This paper applies the nearest-neighbor method to solve the data association problem and uses an extended Kalman filter to update the state of the track.

The use of virtual prototyping early in the design stage of a product has gained popularity due to reduced cost and time to market. The state of the art in vehicle simulation has reached a level where full vehicles are analyzed through simulation but major difficulties continue to be present in interfacing the vehicle model with accurate powertrain models and in developing adequate formulations for the contact between tire and terrain (specifically, scenarios such as tire sliding on ice and rolling on sand or other very deformable surfaces). The proposed work focuses on developing a ground vehicle simulation capability by combining several third party packages for vehicle simulation, tire simulation, and powertrain simulation. The long-term goal of this project consists in promoting the Digital Car idea through the development of a reliable and robust simulation capability that will enhance the understanding and control of off-road vehicle performance.

Wheel Aerodynamics is an important part of vehicle aerodynamics. The wheels can notably influence the total aerodynamic drag, lift and ventilation drag of vehicles. In order to simulate the real on-road condition of driving cars, the moving ground and wheel rotation is of major importance in CFD. However, the wheel rotation condition is difficult to be represented exactly, so this is still a critical topic which needs to be worked on. In this paper, a study, which focuses on two types of cars: a fastback sedan and a notchback DrivAer, is conducted. Comparing three different wheel rotating simulation methods: steady Moving wall, MRF and unsteady Sliding Mesh, the effects of different methods for the numerical simulation of vehicle aerodynamics are revealed. Discrepancies of aerodynamic forces between the methods are discussed as well as the flow field, and the simulation results are also compared with published experimental data for validation.

Fuel cell reactors, as the core components of fuel cell vehicles, have a short life problem that has always limited the development of fuel cell vehicles. The life attenuation curve of fuel cell shows nonlinear characteristics, and there is no model that can accurately predict its effect. This paper is based on the experimental data of the vehicle fuel cell reactor, which is derived from the 600 h durability test run by a 4 kW fuel cell reactor. The relevance vector machine, as a Bayes processing method that supports vector machine, is a data-driven method based on kernel functions. The regression model is established by the relevance vector machine, and the super-parameters are found by genetic algorithm, because the kernel function strongly affects the nonlinearity of the curve, and the decay curve of fuel cell reactor performance is predicted according to four different kernel functions.

In order to reduce fuel consumption, companies have been looking at hybridizing vehicles. So far, two main hybridization options have been considered: electric and hydraulic hybrids. Because of light duty vehicle operating conditions and the high energy density of batteries, electric hybrids are being widely used for cars. However, companies are still evaluating both hybridization options for medium and heavy duty vehicles. Trucks generally demand very large regenerative power and frequent stop-and-go. In that situation, hydraulic systems could offer an advantage over electric drive systems because the hydraulic motor and accumulator can handle high power with small volume capacity. This study compares the fuel displacement of class 6 trucks using a hydraulic system compared to conventional and hybrid electric vehicles. The paper will describe the component technology and sizes of each powertrain as well as their overall vehicle level control strategies.

In this work, the influences of various real-timely available energy management strategies on vehicle fuel consumption (VFC) and energy flow of a range-extender electric vehicle were studied The strategies include single-point, multi-point, speed-following, and equivalent consumption minimization strategy. In addition, the dynamic programming method which cannot be used in real time, but can provide the optimal solution for a known drive situation was used for comparison. VFCs and energy flow characteristics with different strategies under Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Cycle (WLTC) were obtained through computer modeling, and the results were verified experimentally on a range-extender test bench. The experimental results are consistent with the modeled ones in general with a maximum deviation of 4.11%, which verifies the accuracy of the simulation models.

Modeling plume interaction and collapse for direct-injection gasoline sprays is important because of its impact on fuel-air mixing and engine performance. Nevertheless, the aerodynamic interaction between plumes and the complicated two-phase coupling of the evaporating spray has shown to be notoriously difficult to predict. With the availability of high-speed (100 kHz) Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) experimental data, we compare velocity field predictions between plumes to observe the full temporal evolution leading up to plume merging and complete spray collapse. The target “Spray G” operating conditions of the Engine Combustion Network (ECN) is the focus of the work, including parametric variations in ambient gas temperature. We apply both LES and RANS spray models in different CFD platforms, outlining features of the spray that are most critical to model in order to predict the correct aerodynamics and fuel-air mixing.

Distributed drive electric vehicle (EV) is driven by four independent hub motors mounted directly in wheels and retains traditional hydraulic brake system. So it can quickly produce driving/braking motor torque and large stable hydraulic braking force. In this paper a new control allocation strategy for distributed drive electric vehicle is proposed to improve vehicle's lateral stability performance. It exploits the quick response of motor torque and controllable hydraulic pressure of the hydraulic brake system. The allocation strategy consists of two sections. The first section uses an optimal allocation controller to calculate the total longitudinal force of each wheel. In the controller, a dynamic efficiency matrix is designed via local linearization to improve lateral stability control performance, as it considers the influence of tire coupling characteristics over yaw moment control in extreme situations.

Life prediction is a major focus for a commercial fuel cell stack, especially applied in fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV). This paper proposes a data driven fuel cell lifetime prediction model using particle swarm optimized back-propagation neural network (PSO-BPNN). For the prediction model PSO-BP, PSO algorithm is used to determine the optimal hyper parameters of BP neural network. In this paper, total voltage of fuel cell stack is employed to represent the health index of fuel cell. Then the proposed prediction model is validated by the aging data from PEMFC stack in FCEV at the actual road condition. The experimental results indicate that PSO-BP model can predict the voltage degradation of PEMFC stack at actual road condition precisely and has a higher prediction accuracy than BP model.

Designing a vehicle for superior crash safety performance in consumer rating tests such as US-NCAP is a compelling target in the design of passenger vehicles. In today’s context, there is also a high emphasis on making a vehicle as lightweight as possible which calls for an efficient design. In modern vehicle design, these objectives can only be achieved through Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) for which a detailed CAD (Computer-Aided Design) model of a vehicle is a pre-requisite. In the absence of the latter (i.e. a matured CAD model) at the initial and perhaps the most crucial phase of vehicle body design, a rational approach to design would be to resort to a knowledge-based methodology which can enable crash safety assessment of an assumed design using artificial intelligence techniques such as neural networks.

“LIN-BOX” is designed as a development tool for simulation, implementation and test of the automotive LIN (Local Interconnect Network) control devices or entire network. The tool can be used to simulate master and/or slaves around LIN system. The configurable signal processing makes it possible to simulate and test the communication behavior. LIN-BOX monitors the bus traffic in the vehicle. The data on LIN bus can not only be shown on various windows but also written into log files. LIN-BOX has been used by several cases for debugging and validation, the result shows that it is a powerful tool for LIN cluster design, simulation and test.

A methodology has been developed for identifying the combination of battery characteristics which lead to least-cost electric vehicles. Battery interrelationships include specific power vs, specific energy, peak power vs. specific energy and DOD, cycle life vs. DOD, cost vs. specific energy and peak power, and volumetric and battery size effects. The method is illustrated for the “second car” mission assuming lead/acid batteries. Reductions in life-cycle costs associated with future battery research breakthroughs are estimated using a sensitivity technique. A research prioritization system is described.

When performing trajectory planning for robotic applications, there are many aspects to consider, such as the reach conditions, joint and end-effector velocities, accelerations and jerk conditions, etc. The reach conditions are dependent on the end-effector orientations and the robot kinematic structure. The reach condition feasibility is the first consideration to be addressed prior to optimizing a solution. The ‘functional’ work space or work window represents a region of feasible reach conditions, and is a sub-set of the work envelope. It is not intuitive to define. Consequently, 2D solution approaches are proposed. The 3D travel paths are decomposed to a 2D representation via radial projections. Forward kinematic representations are employed to define a 2D boundary curve for each desired end effector orientation.

Multiple actuators equipped in electric vehicles, such as four- wheel steering (4WS) and four-wheel drive (4WD), provide more degrees of freedom for chassis motion control. However, developing independent control strategies for distinct actuator types could result in control conflicts, potentially degrading the vehicle's motion performance. To address this issue, a model predictive control (MPC) based steering-drive cooperated control strategy for enhanced agility and stability of electric vehicles with 4WD and 4WS is proposed in this paper. By designing the control constraints within the MPC framework, the strategy enables single-drive control, single-steering control, and steering-drive cooperative control. In the upper control layer, a linear time-varying MPC (LTV-MPC) is designed to generate optimal additional yaw moment and additional steering angles of front and rear wheels to enhance vehicle agility and lateral stability.

The research and development of data-driven highly automated driving system components such as trajectory prediction, motion planning, driving test scenario generation, and safety validation all require large amounts of naturalistic vehicle trajectory data. Therefore, a variety of data collection methods have emerged to meet the growing demand. Among these, camera-equipped drones are gaining more and more attention because of their obvious advantages. Specifically, compared to others, drones have a wider field of bird's eye view, which is less likely to be blocked, and they could collect more complete and natural vehicle trajectory data. Besides, they are not easily observed by traffic participants and ensure that the human driver behavior data collected is realistic and natural. In this paper, we present a complete vehicle trajectory data extraction framework based on aerial videos. It consists of three parts: 1) objects detection, 2) data association, and 3) data cleaning.

The active engine mount (AEM) is developed in automotive industry to improve overall NVH performance. The AEM is designed to reduce major-order signals of engine vibration over a broad frequency range, therefore it is of vital importance to extract major-order signals from vibration before the actuator of the AEM works. This work focuses on a method of real-time extraction of the major-order acceleration signals at the passive side of the AEM. Firstly, the transient engine speed is tracked and calculated, from which the FFT method with a constant sampling rate is used to identify the time-related frequencies as the fundamental frequencies. Then the major-order signals in frequency domain are computed according to the certain multiple relation of the fundamental frequencies. After that, the major-order signals can be reconstructed in time domain, which are proved accurate through offline simulation, compared with the given signals.

The Modular Automotive Technology Testbed (MATT) is a flexible platform built to test different technology components in a vehicle environment. This testbed is composed of physical component modules, such as the engine and the transmission, and emulated components, such as the energy storage system and the traction motor. The instrumentation on the tool enables the energy balance for individual components on drive cycles. Using MATT, a single set of hardware can operate as a conventional vehicle, a hybrid vehicle and a plug-in hybrid vehicle, enabling direct comparison of petroleum displacement for the different modes. The engine provides measured fuel economy and emissions. The losses of components which vary with temperature are also measured.

Mobility assessment for combat vehicles is often a great challenge for the military due to various subjective attributes. The attributes' characteristics vary significantly depending on the vehicle type and its operating environments such as terrain, weather, and human factors. A clear definition and relationship between multiple attributes including human factors is necessary to assess mobility. To the best of authors' knowledge, many existing mobility assessment techniques use complex analytical methods and focus on individual attributes. In this paper, for the first time, the authors propose a novel approach to define vehicle mobility and its influencing attributes using qualitative linguistic fuzzy variables, which are defined as having values between 0 and 1. The authors also propose a fuzzy logic mobility (FLM) model and a simulation approach to assess a combat vehicle's mobility.

As a critical technology for autonomous vehicles, high precise positioning is essential for automated container terminals to implement intelligent dispatching and to improve container transport efficiency. Because of the unstable performance of global positioning system (GPS) in some circumstances, an ultra wide band (UWB) positioning system is developed for autonomous trucks in an automated container terminal. In this paper, an asynchronous structure is adopted in the system, and a three-dimensional (3D) localization method is proposed. Other than a traditional UWB positioning system with a server, in this asynchronous system, positions are calculated in the vehicle. Therefore, propagation delays from the server to vehicles are eliminated, and the real-time performance can be significantly improved. Traditional 3D localization methods based on time difference of arrival (TDOA) are mostly invalid with anchors in the same plane.