Search Results

With the development of intelligent vehicle and active vehicle safety systems, the demand of sensors is increasing, especially in-tire sensors. Tire parameters are essential for vehicle dynamic control, including tire pressure, tire temperature, slip angle, longitudinal force, etc.. The diversification and growth of in-tire sensors require adequate power supply. Traditionally, embedded batteries are used to power sensors in tire, however, they must be replaced periodically because of the limited energy storage. The power limitation of the batteries would reduce the real-time data transmission frequency and deteriorate the vehicle safety. Heightened interest focuses on generating power through energy harvesting systems in replace of the batteries. Current in-tire energy harvesting devices include piezoelectric, electromagnetic, electrostatic and electromechanical mechanism, whose energy sources include tire deformations, vibrations and rotations.

An identification method using recursive least-squares method with moving data window and reduced-order disturbance observer iteratively is proposed in this paper to identify fast time-varying braking force in the electronic mechanical braking system (EMB). For the type of EMB which generates braking force by balls screw and motor mounted beside wheel, the actuator will go rapidly to eliminate clearance at beginning of braking process by means of raising the braking response speed, and at the same time, increasing the motor output torque which might be far larger than required. The proposed identification method is able to identify the point of contact between the brake pads and the disk in time by identifying the change of break force, and the torque of motor will be changed in time to reduce the braking force overshoot so that brake locking is avoided.

Lane-changing systems have been developed and applied to improve environmental adaptability of advanced driver assistant system (ADAS) and driver comfort. Lane-changing control consists of three steps: decision making, trajectory planning and trajectory tracking. Current methods are not perfect due to weaknesses such as high computation cost, low robustness to uncertainties, etc. In this paper, a novel lane changing control method is proposed, where lane-changing behavior is analogized to parallel parking behavior. In the perspective of host vehicle with lane-changing intention, the space between vehicles in the target adjacent lane can be regarded as dynamic parking space. A decision making and path planning algorithm of parallel parking is adapted to deal with lane change condition. The adopted algorithm based on rules checks lane-changing feasibility and generates desired path in the moving reference system at the same speed of vehicles in target lane.

Although energy harvesting systems are extensively used in different fields, studies on the application of energy harvesters embedded in tires for vehicle control are rare and mostly focus on solving power supply problems of tire pressure sensors. Sensors are traditionally powered by an embedded battery, which must be replaced periodically because of its limited energy storage. Heightened interest in vehicle safety is expected to drive increased design and manufacture of in-tire sensors, which in turn, translates to rising demand for power generation in tires. These challenges emphasize the need to investigate the substitution of batteries and in-tire energy harvesting systems. Current in-tire energy harvesting methods involve piezoelectric, electromagnetic, and electrostatic power generation, whose energy sources include tire vibrations, deformations, and rotations. Piezoelectric harvesters are generally compact but operate for short durations.

A hydraulic chamber is embedded in serial with the accumulator of a normal mono-tube magnetorheological fluid damper (MRFD). The damper stiffness can be adjusted by changing the accumulator volume with the hydraulic chamber. The hydraulic chamber is connected to an electric pump and controlled by the braking-by-wire (BBW) system. A modified bi-viscosity magnetorheological fluid (MRF) model that explicitly includes the parameter of control current is proposed. A dynamic model of this hydraulic MRFD is subsequently set up based on the MRF model. Experiments are conducted to validate the model and simulations are carried out to study the influences of accumulator volume on the external performances. Results show that the hydraulic chamber is able to provide rapid variations of the external force through accumulator volume changes.

In a monotube magnetorheological fluid damper (MRFD), there usually exists a compensation chamber with designated initial gas pressure. This enclosed compensation chamber works as an air spring to some degree to provide force to the working piston. In this work, in order to extend the external damping force range and improve the controlling efficiency, a structure of MRFD with three additional accumulators is proposed. These additional accumulators are connected to the atmosphere through an air pump and the compensation chamber with a barometric valve. The external damping force range thus can be rapidly adjusted through mode shifting with this configuration. A mathematical model of this damper with coupled effects between the air and the magnetorheological fluid (MRF) is developed. Comparing the bench tests results with some simulation outcomes, the simulation model of this MRFD is validated.