A design methodology for mechatronic vehicles: application of multidisciplinary optimization, multibody dynamics and genetic algorithms

A design methodology for mechatronic vehicles is presented. With multidisciplinary optimization (MDO) methods, strongly coupled mechanical, control and other subsystems are integrated as a synergistic vehicle system. With genetic algorithms (GAs) at the system level, the mechanical, control and other relevant parameters can be optimized simultaneously. To demonstrate the feasibility and efficacy of the proposed design methodology for mechatronic vehicles, it is used to resolve the conflicting requirements for ride comfort, suspension working spaces and unsprung mass dynamic loads in the optimization of half-vehicle models with active suspensions. Both deterministic and random road excitations, both rigid and flexible vehicle bodies and both perfect measurement of full state variables and estimated limited state variables are considered. Numerical results show that the optimized vehicle systems based on the methodology have better overall performance than those using the linear quadratic Gaussian (LQG) controller. It is shown that the methodology is suitable for complex design optimization problems where: (1) there is interaction between different disciplines or subsystems; (2) there are multiple design criteria; (3) there are multiple local optima; (4) there is no need for sensitivity analysis for the optimizer at the system level; and (5) there are multiple design variables.     

A design methodology for mechatronic vehicles: application of multidisciplinary optimization,multibody dynamics and genetic algorithms

A design methodology for mechatronic vehicles is presented. With multidisciplinary optimization (MDO) methods, strongly coupled mechanical, control and other subsystems are integrated as a synergistic vehicle system. With genetic algorithms (GAs) at the system level, the mechanical, control and other relevant parameters can be optimized simultaneously. To demonstrate the feasibility and efficacy of the proposed design methodology for mechatronic vehicles, it is used to resolve the conflicting requirements for ride comfort, suspension working spaces and unsprung mass dynamic loads in the optimization of half-vehicle models with active suspensions. Both deterministic and random road excitations, both rigid and flexible vehicle bodies and both perfect measurement of full state variables and estimated limited state variables are considered. Numerical results show that the optimized vehicle systems based on the methodology have better overall performance than those using the linear quadratic Gaussian (LQG) controller. It is shown that the methodology is suitable for complex design optimization problems where: (1) there is interaction between different disciplines or subsystems; (2) there are multiple design criteria; (3) there are multiple local optima; (4) there is no need for sensitivity analysis for the optimizer at the system level; and (5) there are multiple design variables.     

基于中国人体驾乘姿态的汽车人机空间布置研究

合理的人机空间布置对汽车的舒适性与安全性至关重要,人体驾乘姿态是汽车人机空间布置的依据。文章设计试验,扫描得到500样本分别在8辆车中的驾乘姿态数据,对数据进行统计分析,建立驾驶员座椅适宜线方程与中国人体2D模板,基于标杆车进行验证,结果显示,方程及模板精度较高,符合中国人体驾乘特征。该研究为汽车人机空间布置提供理论依据,为研发适合中国人驾乘的车辆提供支撑,对建立中国汽车人机设计体系具有重要意义。     

新能源汽车技术专业“小课时、多门数”课程实施的探究

自我国实施新能源电动汽车战略以来,新能源汽车数量持续快速增加,新能源汽车市场对新能源汽车相关专业人才的需求也急剧加大。新能源汽车市场急需懂专业、有素养、技术水平高的高素质人才服务新能源汽车市场的维护、营销等需要。新能源汽车是在传统汽车的基础上发展起来的,采用了新技术、新方法,技术路线复杂,涉及到计算机编程、高压、电池、维护、充电、电机、发动机等各方面的知识。相比传统汽车专业,新能源汽车技术专业需要学生在有限的校园生涯内掌握更多、更复杂的知识,需要学生学习的知识范围更广。采用"小课时、多门数"的课程设置可通过凝炼课程内容、精减单门课的课程学时、增加课程门数、扩展学生学习知识的广度,有效解决学生在有限的校园生涯内学习更多知识的问题,满足新能源汽车市场对复合型人才的需要。     

现代汽车仪表板成型与加工工艺技术综述

仪表板系统是汽车内饰系统中最关键的系统,因为仪表板是驾驶员和用户最直观、最近距离接触的零部件,其造型风格、外观质量以及功能配置等因素直接影响着驾乘人员对车辆的品质感受。集舒适性、美观性、功能性、装饰性、安全性于一身的特质也决定了仪表板在设计开发中涉及到的工艺更广泛、更复杂。为了使仪表板能够在驾驶舱内呈现良好的效果,汽车工程师们从成型工艺、加工工艺、表面装饰工艺3个维度进行了深度的挖掘,开发出多种适合不同级别、不同配置、不同功能定义的车型的工艺,使得开发人员在设计开发过程可以根据不同需求进行合理选择。     

对新能源汽车发展的几点思考

为了研究新能源汽车发展，通过对传统能源和传统动力汽车现状的阐述，分析了新能源汽车发展的可能性。，在进行各国对新能源汽车政策分析的基础上，结合现阶段电动汽车动力电池的现状，对新能源汽车将来的发展趋势做了预测，在研究分析的基础上，对中国汽车工业的发展提出了建议，为研究新能源汽车发展的方向和汽车企业制定战略计划提供参考：     

Literature review and fundamental approaches for vehicle and tire state estimation*

ABSTRACT

Most modern day automotive chassis control systems employ a feedback control structure. Therefore, real-time estimates of the vehicle dynamic states and tire-road contact parameters are invaluable for enhancing the performance of vehicle control systems, such as anti-lock brake system (ABS) and electronic stability program (ESP). Today's production vehicles are equipped with onboard sensors (e.g. a 3-axis accelerometer, 3-axis gyroscope, steering wheel angle sensor, and wheel speed sensors), which when used in conjunction with certain model-based or kinematics-based observers can be used to identify relevant tire and vehicle states for optimal control of comfort, stability and handling. Vehicle state estimation is becoming ever more relevant with the increased sophistication of chassis control systems. This paper presents a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art in the field of vehicle and tire state estimation. It is expected to serve as a resource for researchers interested in developing vehicle state estimation algorithms for usage in advanced vehicle control and safety systems.     

复杂动态环境下智能汽车局部路径规划与跟踪算法研究

路径规划及路径跟踪控制是智能汽车研究的关键技术，而复杂、时变的交通环境给智能汽车的路径规划与跟踪提出严苛要求。针对现有局部路径规划方法只适用于较为简单的工况，无法应对多车道、多静/动态障碍等复杂工况的问题，提出一种基于离散优化思想的动态路径规划算法。该算法利用样条曲线曲率变化均匀的特性，在s-ρ曲线坐标系中生成了一组参数化候选路径簇；考虑动态碰撞安全影响，在碰撞带约束下结合道路法规限制及车辆动态安全要求，规划车辆速度；此外，综合考虑静态安全性、舒适性、目标车道、道路占用率等影响因素，以选择最优路径。在路径跟踪层面，基于预瞄理论设计鲁棒性好、跟踪精度高的分数阶PID路径跟踪控制器，以跟踪误差最小为目标，采用粒子群优化算法对分数阶PID控制器参数进行整定。最后，基于Simulink/CarSim建立联合仿真平台，设计多车道，多静/动态障碍的复杂工况以验证该算法的有效性。研究结果表明：由于在评价函数中引入动态安全评价指标、目标车道评价指标以及道路占用率指标，极大地提升了规划器性能，使车辆在行驶过程中根据驾驶环境自主调整速度，降低换道次数，从而保证智能汽车的主动安全性能，提升了通行效率，使该算法能够较好地处理复杂动态环境下的避障问题。     

浅谈商用车主驾驶座椅扶手设计

随着商用车的发展,人们对驾驶舒适性的要求越来越高,通过增加座椅扶手功能提高长时间驾驶的舒适性,减轻疲劳成为产品提升的重要方向。文章主要从座椅扶手的应用、布置设计、扶手使用舒适性分析、行车操作舒适性分析等几个方面进行分析,阐述了商用车扶手设计的思路及注意要点,从理论上分析商用车座椅配备扶手功能的可行性。     

Collaborative merging strategy for freeway ramp operations in a connected and autonomous vehicles environment

In a connected vehicle environment, vehicles are able to communicate and exchange detailed information such as speed, acceleration, and position in real time. Such information exchange is important for improving traffic safety and mobility. This allows vehicles to collaborate with each other, which can significantly improve traffic operations particularly at intersections and freeway ramps. To assess the potential safety and mobility benefits of collaborative driving enabled by connected vehicle technologies, this study developed an optimization-based ramp control strategy and a simulation evaluation platform using VISSIM, MATLAB, and the Car2X module in VISSIM. The ramp control strategy is formulated as a constrained nonlinear optimization problem and solved by the MATLAB optimization toolbox. The optimization model provides individual vehicles with step-by-step control instructions in the ramp merging area. In addition to the optimization-based ramp control strategy, an empirical gradual speed limit control strategy is also formulated. These strategies are evaluated using the developed simulation platform in terms of average speed, average delay time, and throughput and are compared with a benchmark case with no control. The study results indicate that the proposed optimal control strategy can effectively coordinate merging vehicles at freeway on-ramps and substantially improve safety and mobility, especially when the freeway traffic is not oversaturated. The ramp control strategy can be further extended to improve traffic operations at bottlenecks caused by incidents, which cause approximately 25% of traffic congestion in the United States.     

Investigation of active torsion bar actuator configurations to reduce vehicle body roll

The increasing popularity of sport utility/light-duty vehicles has prompted the investigation of active roll management systems to reduce vehicle body roll. To minimize vehicle body roll and improve passenger comfort, one emerging solution is an active torsion bar control system. The validation of automotive safety systems requires analytical evaluation and laboratory testing prior to implementation on an actual vehicle. In this article, a computer simulation tool and accompanying hardware-in-the-loop test environment are presented for active torsion bar systems to study component configurations and performance limits. The numerical simulation illustrates that the hydraulic cylinder extension limits the active torsion system’s ability to provide body roll angle reduction under various driving conditions. To compare the control system’s time constant and body roll minimization capabilities for different hydraulic valve assemblies and equivalent hose lengths, an experimental test stand was created. For a typical hydraulic pressure and hose diameter, the equivalent hose length was not a key design variable that impacted the system response time. However, the servo-valve offered a quicker transient response and smoother steady-state behavior than the solenoid poppet actuators that may increase occupant safety and comfort.     

Investigation of active torsion bar actuator configurations to reduce vehicle body roll

The increasing popularity of sport utility/light-duty vehicles has prompted the investigation of active roll management systems to reduce vehicle body roll. To minimize vehicle body roll and improve passenger comfort, one emerging solution is an active torsion bar control system. The validation of automotive safety systems requires analytical evaluation and laboratory testing prior to implementation on an actual vehicle. In this article, a computer simulation tool and accompanying hardware-in-the-loop test environment are presented for active torsion bar systems to study component configurations and performance limits. The numerical simulation illustrates that the hydraulic cylinder extension limits the active torsion system's ability to provide body roll angle reduction under various driving conditions. To compare the control system's time constant and body roll minimization capabilities for different hydraulic valve assemblies and equivalent hose lengths, an experimental test stand was created. For a typical hydraulic pressure and hose diameter, the equivalent hose length was not a key design variable that impacted the system response time. However, the servo-valve offered a quicker transient response and smoother steady-state behavior than the solenoid poppet actuators that may increase occupant safety and comfort.     

Structured H2 Optimization of Vehicle Suspensions Based on Multi-Wheel Models

Summary Various control techniques, especially LQG optimal control, have been applied to the design of active and semi-active vehicle suspensions over the past several decades. However passive suspensions remain dominant in the automotive marketplace because they are simple, reliable, and inexpensive. The force generated by a passive suspension at a given wheel can depend only on the relative displacement and velocity at that wheel, and the suspension parameters for the left and right wheels are usually required to be equal. Therefore, a passive vehicle suspension can be viewed as a decentralized feedback controller with constraints to guarantee suspension symmetry. In this paper, we cast the optimization of passive vehicle suspensions as structure-constrained LQG/H2 optimal control problems. Correlated road random excitations are taken as the disturbance inputs; ride comfort, road handling, suspension travel, and vehicle-body attitude are included in the cost outputs. We derive a set of necessary conditions for optimality and then develop a gradient-based method to efficiently solve the structure-constrained H2 optimization problem. An eight-DOF four-wheel-vehicle model is studied as an example to illustrate application of the procedure, which is useful for design of both passive suspensions and active suspensions with controller-structure constraints.     

基于安全、轻量化、可靠性多目标的新能源汽车电池包壳体开发

电池包作为新能源汽车的动力源,是新能源汽车最重要的部件之一,而电池包壳体对电池包乃至整车起重要保护作用,是新能源汽车的关键部件。电池包壳体质量占整车的2%～6%,电池包壳体对汽车轻量化同样起到重要作用。基于全球汽车产业的节能减排发展目标,从安全性、轻量化、可靠性3个角度出发,论述了新能源汽车电池包壳体开发的行业发展现状,展望其未来的发展趋势,同时针对这一领域存在的共性关键技术问题进行了讨论。     

Regenerative braking strategies,vehicle safety and stability control systems: critical use-case proposals

The sustainable development of vehicle propulsion systems that have mainly focused on reduction of fuel consumption (i.e. CO₂ emission) has led, not only to the development of systems connected with combustion processes but also to legislation and testing procedures. In recent years, the low carbon policy has made hybrid vehicles and fully electric vehicles (H/EVs) popular. The main virtue of these propulsion systems is their ability to restore some of the expended energy from kinetic movement, e.g. the braking process. Consequently new research and testing methods for H/EVs are currently being developed. This especially concerns the critical ‘use-cases’ for functionality tests within dynamic events for both virtual simulations, as well as real-time road tests. The use-case for conventional vehicles for numerical simulations and road tests are well established. However, the wide variety of tests and their great number (close to a thousand) creates a need for selection, in the first place, and the creation of critical use-cases suitable for testing H/EVs in both virtual and real-world environments. It is known that a marginal improvement in the regenerative braking ratio can significantly improve the vehicle range and, therefore, the economic cost of its operation. In modern vehicles, vehicle dynamics control systems play the principal role in safety, comfort and economic operation. Unfortunately, however, the existing standard road test scenarios are insufficient for H/EVs. Sector knowledge suggests that there are currently no agreed tests scenarios to fully investigate the effects of brake blending between conventional and regenerative braking as well as the regenerative braking interaction with active driving safety systems (ADSS). The paper presents seven manoeuvres, which are considered to be suitable and highly informative for the development and examination of H/EVs with regenerative braking capability. The critical manoeuvres presented are considered to be appropriate for examination of the regenerative braking mode according to ADSS. The manoeuvres are also important for investigation of regenerative braking system properties/functionalities that are specified by the legal requirements concerning H/EVs braking systems. The last part of this paper shows simulation results for one of the proposed manoeuvres that explicitly shows the usefulness of the manoeuvre.     

悬架弹性元件最佳刚度分布的工程设计方法

基于车辆系统动、静力学分析及优化设计原理,提出了一种旨在揭示汽车悬架弹性元件最佳刚度分布的工程设计新方法,可确定满足整车平顺性和操纵稳定性协调设计要求的悬架弹性元件的刚度特性,从而为弹性元件的结构优化设计提供了目标依据,并通过一个工程实例验证了所提方法的有效性。     

汽车结构耐撞性设计与优化研究综述

汽车的碰撞安全问题是汽车行业一直重点关注的问题之一,开展汽车结构的耐撞性设计已成为提升车辆碰撞安全性的重要手段。文章对国内外汽车结构耐撞性设计与优化的研究成果进行回顾与总结,鉴于碰撞过程的强非线性与众多设计准则相互耦合等特性,重点对近似多目标耐撞性优化方法及其应用进行综述,并分析存在的问题和进一步深入研究的方向。     

车辆随机输入的动态仿真和试验研究

按汽车行驶平顺性评价方法，应用MATLAB工具箱编制了针对五自由度汽车模型的随机输入动态仿真程序，通过仿真可直接获得给定测点的加权加速度均方根值分量的最大值和总加权加速度均方根值，仿真结果与随机输入行驶试验结果基本吻合，证明仿真方法是正确的，该程序可用于汽车悬架系统参数的设计和平顺性的评估。     

基于车联网的汽车自动换道方法研究

为弥补现有汽车自动换道时未考虑周围车辆运动状态变化以及舒适性差和通行效率低等方面的不足,同时提出了在车联网条件下的汽车自动换道方法,主要包括动态轨迹的规划、前馈与反馈相结合的PQ跟踪控制策略两部分,开展Carsim和simulink联合仿真以及实车验证结果表明,与传统非动态自动换道方法相比,该方法能有效解决在换道过程中周围车辆车速变化及车辆突然闯入等情况的难题,明显提高了换道过程中的安全性,由数据分析可知在保证车辆舒适性、稳定性的同时,换道时间缩短了20%,有效提高了车辆换道效率。     

Conceptual design of high-speed semi-low-floor bogie for train-tram

Train-tram railway vehicles implement the connection between urban tramlines and the surrounding railway network. Train-tram railway vehicles, which use existing infrastructure, can help to avoid large investments in new railways or tramlines and make interchanges between city center and surrounding cities unnecessary. However, present train-tram rail vehicle cannot carry out the integration of operating by means of high speed in intercity railways with operating on small radius of curvature in inner city tramlines. This paper aims to develop a new model for solid wheelsets train-tram railway vehicles, which will not only pass the curve of 25mR radius of curvature traveling on inner city tramlines with the speed of 18 km/h, but also can travel on straight railway with 200 km/h high speed between intercity. In this paper, a new train-tram model, including five car-body and five motor bogies with ten traction motors, is addressed. Expect as a real rail vehicle testing, this study prefer virtual simulation, which is an effective way to show the rail vehicle performance, such as ride stability, ride comfort and ride safety, by means of evaluating the dynamic characteristics of rail vehicle. Moreover, Design of Experiment (DOE) method is used to optimize solid wheelsets bogie system on improving passenger comfort, safety and stability of train-tram. Parameters of components of bogie system are tuned to minimize the derailment coefficient and the ride comfort index. The results shows that the best comfort index for passenger and minimum derailment coefficient are found. The results also show that this optimized new train-tram model is reliable and practical enough to be applied on real rail vehicle design.