Development of an electric booster system using sliding mode control for improved braking performance

Brake systems of the future, including BBW (Brake-by-Wire), are in development in various forms. In one of the proposed hydraulic BBW systems, an electric booster system replaces the pneumatic brake booster with an electric motor and a rotational-to-linear motion mechanism. This system is able to provide improved braking performance by the design of controllers with precise target pressure tracking and control robustness for better system reliability. First, a sliding mode controller is designed using the Lyapunov function approach to secure the robustness of the system against both the model uncertainty and the disturbance caused by the master cylinder and mechanical components. Next, a simulation tool is constructed to validate the electric booster system with the proposed controller. Finally, the electric booster system is implemented into an actual brake ECU and installed in a vehicle for testing under various braking conditions. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed controller produces faster pressure build-up performance than the conventional brake system, and its tracking performance is sufficient to ensure comfortable braking.     

New metal fitting geometry and optimization of the swaging parameters for an automobile power steering hose

To solve the power steering (PS) hose oil leakage problem in automobile applications, a new geometry design of the metal fitting is required, and the swaging conditions applied to the PS hose should be optimized. In this study, a new metal fitting geometry for the PS hose was proposed. A CAE simulation for both the proposed and the conventional metal fittings was conducted, and both the stress and the strain in the PS hose were compared. An experimental verification was also performed with these two different metal fittings. Additionally, the swaging conditions were optimized by the durability cycle time, which was measured in an impulse test of the swaged PS hose. For a more economical production, practical working conditions were also recommended and experimentally verified.     

Combustion characteristics of LPG and biodiesel mixed fuel in two blending ratios under compression ignition in a constant volume chamber

This study aims to investigate the combustion characteristics of mixed fuel of liquefied propane gas (LPG) and biodiesel under compression ignition (CI) in an effort to develop highly efficient and environmentally friendly mixed fuelbased CI engines. Although LPG fuel is known to be eco-friendly due to its low CO₂ emission, LPG has not yet been widely applied for highly efficient CI engines because of its low cetane number and is usually mixed with other types of CI-friendly fuels. In this study, a number of experiments were prepared with a constant volume chamber (CVC) setup to understand the fundamental combustion characteristics of mixed fuel with LPG and biodiesel in two weight-based ratios and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) conditions. The results from the current investigations verify the applicability of mixed fuel of LPG and biodiesel in CI engines with a carefully designed combustion control strategy that maximizes the benefits of the mixed fuel. Based on the results of this study, ignition is improved by increasing the cetane value by using higher blending ratios of biodiesel. As the blending ratios of biodiesel increased, CO and HC decreased and CO₂ and NO_x increases.     

Optimized dynamic battery model suited for power based vehicle energy simulation

Ever increasing demand for the petroleum is causing faster than expected oil shortages in the supply and demand balance around the world and furthermore, many specialists in the field of oil production such as Association for the Study of Peak Oil and World Energy Outlook are claiming that the petroleum is around the peak of its production (Figure 1). Such shortage made the greatest impact on the gasoline price hikes at the gas pump and thus, this impact was felt by the consumers severely and became the greatest motivation for automotive industries to strive to pioneer the researches for the next generation vehicle configurations ranging from HEV, PHEV, Pure EV to FCHEV (collectively noted as xEV). While the great deal of researches has been carried over the last few decades, it is still far from mass productions for consumer use except for the HEV mainly due to the high cost involved with other types of xEV configurations. Therefore, it is critical to design the vehicle to maximize the use of each component at its highest point regardless of any cost scenarios and it is clear that this optimization can only be achieved through the accurate energy balance simulation for a specific target vehicle prior to the actual hardware implementation. In this paper, it is our intention to introduce modified dynamic battery modeling scheme that would provide a more accurate way of simulating the battery behavior when used in the vehicle energy simulation system. Starting from a typical battery dynamic model to predict the voltage given an imposed current request, we have introduced a new scheme to establish the relationship between the voltage and the power (rather than the current) requested by the vehicle simulation system. The proposed scheme handles the power request from the vehicle simulator considering the dynamic battery characteristics and in turn, contributes to the better estimation of the current integrated energy usage and battery SOC level in the given battery dynamic system used in the vehicle energy simulation system.     

Development of an electric active rollcontrol (ARC) algorithm for a SUV

Cornering maneuvers with reduced body roll and without loss in comfort are leading requirements for car manufacturers. An electric active roll control (ARC) system controls body roll angle with motor-driven actuators installed in the centers of the front and rear stabilizer bars. A vehicle analysis model developed using a CarSim S/W was validated using vehicle test data. Two ARC algorithms for a sports utility vehicle (SUV) were designed using a sliding-mode control algorithm based on a nonlinear roll model and an estimated lateral acceleration based on a linearized roll model. Co-simulation with the Matlab simulink controller model and the CarSim vehicle model were conducted to evaluate the performance of two ARC control algorithms. To validate the ARC performance in a real vehicle, vehicle tests were conducted at KATECH proving ground using a small SUV equipped with two ARC actuators, upper and lower controllers and a few subsystems. From the simulation and vehicle validation test results, the proposed ARC control algorithm for the developed ARC actuator prototypes improves the vehicle’s dynamic performance.     

In and out vision-based driver-interactive assistance system

The overall driving environment consists of the Traffic environment, vehicle and driver states (TVD). advanced driver assistance Systems (ADAS) must consider not only information on each of the TVD states but also their context. Recent research has focused on making more efficient and effective assistance systems by fusing all the information from the TVD states. Based on this research trend, this paper focuses on decision-level fusion to estimate the level of danger of a warning by using visual information of the traffic environment and the driver state. The driver state consists of the gazing region and the facial feature points that are obtained using the active appearance model (AAM). The traffic environment state consists of time to collision (TTC), time to lane Crossing (TLC), and lane color information, which are obtained from the environment in front of the vehicle, i.e., position of lanes and other vehicles. Warnings against lane-off, collision, and driver inattention are generated by fusing this vision-based information from inside and outside the vehicle. The experimental results prove that our vision-based interactive driver assistance system reduces most useless warnings.     

Electro-hydraulic braking system for autonomous vehicles

Reducing the number of traffic accidents is a declared target of most governments. Since dependence on driver reaction is the main cause of road accidents, it would be advisable to replace the human factor in some driving-related tasks with automated solutions. To automate a vehicle, it is necessary to control the actuators of a car, i.e., the steering wheel, accelerator, and brake. This paper presents the design and implementation of an electro-hydraulic braking system consisting of a pump and various valves, allowing the control computer to stop the car. It is assembled in conjunction with the original circuit for the sake of robustness and to permit the two systems to halt the car independently. This system was developed for installation in a commercial Citroën C3 Pluriel of the AUTOPIA program. Various tests were carried out to verify its correct operation, and an experiment showing the integration of the system into the longitudinal control of the car is described.     

On-line modeling of non-stationary network traffic with schwarz information criterion

Modeling of network traffic is a fundamental building block of computer science. Measurements of network traffic demonstrate that self-similarity is one of the basic properties of the network traffic possess at large time-scale. This paper investigates the change of non-stationary self-similarity of network traffic over time,and proposes a method of combining the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and Schwarz information criterion (SIC) to detect change points of self-similarity in network traffic. The traffi...     

Parallel-pipelined architecture of H.264 deblocking filter with adaptive dynamic power

In H.264,the computational complexity and memory access of deblocking filter are variable and depend on the video contents. In this paper,a pipelined VLSI architecture of deblocking filter with adaptive dynamic power is proposed. It avoids redundant computations and memory access by precluding the blocks which can be skipped. And the vertical and horizontal edges are simultaneously processed in an advanced scan order to speed up the decoder. As a result,the dynamic power of the proposed architecture can be ...     

Gait analysis in primary total knee arthroplasty with and without patellar resurfacing: A randomized control study

It is still controversial whether or not to resurface patella during primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA). One of the reasons may be insensitive measurement tools. We conducted a randomized controlled study to compare kinematic and kinetic parameters of resurfacing and nonresurfacing patella with the Vicon gait analysis system. The results show that patient post-operative gait of the two groups improved compared to pre-operative gait. Part of gait parameters, knee flexion at heel-strike, double limb support time and maximum adduction angle appeared to be statistically difference in 3 months, but 12 months later, the gait parameters of the two groups had no significant difference. Therefore, it seems that the final function of knee after TKA is not related whether or not to resurface patella.