Evasive manoeuvres with a steering robot

In the pursuit of an objective rating on vehicle stability performance, it is always desirable to reduce disturbances and inconsistencies during experimental evaluations, especially the ones introduced by human drivers. This paper presents the development of a steering robot designed for closed-loop steering tasks during evasive manoeuvres. It describes the controller structure and discusses experimental results, in addition to simulation/vehicle model verifications and theoretical control analysis.     

Wheel-rail contact models for vehicle system dynamics including multi-point contact

Advanced modelling of rail vehicle dynamics requires realistic solutions of contact problems for wheels and rails that are able to describe contact singularities, encountered for wheels and rails. The basic singularities demonstrate themselves as double and multiple contact patches. The solutions of the contact problems have to be known practically in each step of the numerical integration of the differential equations of the model. The existing fast, approximate methods of solution to achieve this goal have been outlined. One way to do this is to replace a multi-point contact by a set of ellipses. The other methods are based on so-called virtual penetration. They allow calculating the non-elliptical, multiple contact patches and creep forces online, during integration of the model. This allows nearly real-time simulations. The methods are valid and applicable for so-called quasi-Hertzian cases, when the contact conditions do not deviate much from the assumptions of the Hertz theory. It is believed that it is worthwhile to use them in other cases too.     

Fuzzy-logic applied to yaw moment control for vehicle stability

In this paper, we propose a new yaw moment control based on fuzzy logic to improve vehicle handling and stability. The advantages of fuzzy methods are their simplicity and their good performance in controlling non-linear systems. The developed controller generates the suitable yaw moment which is obtained from the difference of the brake forces between the front wheels so that the vehicle follows the target values of the yaw rate and the sideslip angle. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed control method when the vehicle is subjected to different cornering steering manoeuvres such as change line and J-turn under different driving conditions (dry road and snow-covered).     

柴油机曲轴有限元计算与台架试验数据对比分析

目前，国内柴油机行业普遍使用的曲轴弯曲疲劳强度试验台架，均采用音叉共振板结构。该试验台架对于大多数常规结构曲轴的连杆轴颈圆角疲劳强度的测定是比较准确的，但对于有些特殊结构曲轴的试验，却未能取得理想结果。以某曲轴台架试验、台架仿真模型及有限元计算模型数据为基础，分析对比了不同模型数据的差异及产生原因。     

汽车筒式液阻减振器技术的发展

分析了汽车乘坐舒适性／行驶平顺性和操作稳定性对筒式液阻减振器特性的要求，提出汽车在不同行驶工况减振器特性的要求是不的；分析了被动式减振器的发展历程及非充气和充气减振器的特点，阐述了机械控制式可调阻尼减振器，电子控制式减振器以及电流变和磁流变液体减器等的结构特点，工作原理及其动态特性；分析了筒式液阻减振器其于经验设计／实验修正开发方法的缺点，阐述了基于CAD／CAE技术的现代设计开发方法的过程及其关键问题，最后分析了我国筒式液阻减振器技术的发展状况及问题，展望了减振器技术的发展前景。     

Neuro-Fuzzy Control of a Tracked Vehicle Featuring Semi-Active Electro-Rheological Suspension Units

This paper presents vibration control of a tracked vehicle installed with electro-rheological suspension units (ERSU). As a first step, an in-arm type ERSU is designed, and its spring and damping characteristics are evaluated with respect to the intensity of electric fields. Subsequently, a 16 degree-of-freedom model for a tracked vehicle equipped with the proposed ERSU is established followed by the formulation of a neuro-fuzzy controller. This controller takes account for both ride quality and steering stability by adopting a weighting parameter between two performance requirements. The parameter is appropriately determined by employing a fuzzy algorithm associated with two fuzzy variables: the vertical speed of the body and the rotational angular speed of the wheel. Control performances to isolate unwanted vibration from bump and random road excitations are evaluated through computer simulations. In addition, maximum speed of the vehicle with 6 Watt power absorption is investigated with respect to the road roughness.     

Dynamics of Tracked Vehicles

This paper provides a brief review of the state-of-the-art of tracked vehicle dynamics, including mobility over soft terrain, ride dynamics over rough surfaces and manoeuvrability. It is found that considerable progress has been made in the development of analytical frameworks for evaluating and predicting tracked vehicle mobility over soft terrain, taking into account the characteristics of terrain response to normal and shear loading. Certain computer simulation models for tracked vehicle mobility have been gaining increasingly wide acceptance by industry and governmental agencies in product development and in procurement. It is also found that most of the research on tracked vehicle ride dynamics and manoeuvrability is confined to operations on rigid surfaces. To achieve a realistic evaluation and prediction of the dynamic behaviour of tracked vehicles in the field, the key is to have a better understanding of terrain response to dynamic vehicular loading, including its dynamic stiffness and damping. Challenges that face vehicle dynamicists in this emerging field are identified.     

Approximate network loading and dual-time-scale dynamic user equilibrium

In this paper we present a dual-time-scale formulation of dynamic user equilibrium (DUE) with demand evolution. Our formulation belongs to the problem class that Pang and Stewart (2008) refer to as differential variational inequalities. It combines the within-day time scale for which route and departure time choices fluctuate in continuous time with the day-to-day time scale for which demand evolves in discrete time steps. Our formulation is consistent with the often told story that drivers adjust their travel demands at the end of every day based on their congestion experience during one or more previous days. We show that analysis of the within-day assignment model is tremendously simplified by expressing dynamic user equilibrium as a differential variational inequality. We also show there is a class of day-to-day demand growth models that allow the dual-time-scale formulation to be decomposed by time-stepping to yield a sequence of continuous time, single-day, dynamic user equilibrium problems. To solve the single-day DUE problems arising during time-stepping, it is necessary to repeatedly solve a dynamic network loading problem. We observe that the network loading phase of DUE computation generally constitutes a differential algebraic equation (DAE) system, and we show that the DAE system for network loading based on the link delay model (LDM) of Friesz et al. (1993) may be approximated by a system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs). That system of ODEs, as we demonstrate, may be efficiently solved using traditional numerical methods for such problems. To compute an actual dynamic user equilibrium, we introduce a continuous time fixed-point algorithm and prove its convergence for effective path delay operators that allow a limited type of nonmonotone path delay. We show that our DUE algorithm is compatible with network loading based on the LDM and the cell transmission model (CTM) due to Daganzo (1995). We provide a numerical example based on the much studied Sioux Falls network.