A summary of the formation and seasonal progression of the Northeast Water Polynya

A summary of the seasonal development of the Northeast Water Polynya ice cover characteristics is presented. This is based primarily on satellite remote sensing observations, with some in situ measurements, including both new and published data.     

Vibration Control of a Passenger Vehicle Utilizing a Semi-Active ER Engine Mount

This paper presents vibration control of a passenger vehicle using an electronically controllable electro-rheological (ER) engine mount. A mixed-mode ER engine mount operating under the flow and shear modes is devised and manufactured. After establishing the dynamic model of the proposed ER engine mount, both field-dependent displacement transmissibility and dynamic stiffness of the ER engine mount are empirically evaluated. The ER engine mount is then incorporated with a full-vehicle model in order to investigate vibration control performance at the driver's seat position. The governing equation of motion of the full-vehicle model is formulated by considering engine excitation force, followed by designing a skyhook controller to attenuate unwanted vibration. The controller is implemented through a hardware-in-the-loop simulation (HILS), and control responses such as acceleration level at idle speed are evaluated in the frequency and time domains.     

Importance of Addressing Human Systems Integration Issues Early in the Science and Technology Process

Historically, human systems integration (HSI) and other operational issues are not addressed during the science and technology (S&T) phase because the focus is on technology development. That view is to solve the "tough science" first, and the rest is simple application by a program office or operational forces. An imbalance between technology development efforts and total system performance considerations, e.g., total ownership cost, workload, manning, training, operational concept, skills, and human performance, leads to suboptimal solutions at best, and at worst prevents the technology's benefits from transitioning out of S&T at all. If HSI is not addressed during the S&T phase, the responsibility falls to the acquisition programs to ensure that operator, maintainer, and total system performance are optimized in the final design. By this point, cost and schedule constraints can make this prohibitive, limiting the options to either using a legacy system or accepting the technology with suboptimal performance and high life-cycle costs (because design problems lead to manpower, training, and human error problems). However, if the S&T community uses HSI in their technology readiness level evaluation criteria, the Department of Defense can reduce its out-year costs and recapitalize that funding to buy required weapons systems and platforms while still reaping the tactical benefits that a new technology offers.     

Study on lateral dynamic characteristics of vehicle/turnout system

Based on Chinese No. 12 high speed, single-way swing nose rail concrete sleeper turnout, a comprehensive vehicle/turnout system coupling dynamic model has been established in this paper, and the lateral and vertical dynamic characteristics of vehicle/turnout systems have been simulated while the car passes through the turnout zone on divergence. These dynamic characteristics show that the lateral impact and vibration of the systems caused by the wheel/rail contact and irregularity are very intensive, especially at the switch zone and nose area of the turnout, and the lateral dynamics of the turnout system, such as lateral stability, vibrating responses, impacting and the allowable passing velocity force between the wheelsets and the switch rails are much more complicated than that of the vertical ones.     

A Human–Automation Interface Model to Guide Automation Design of System Functions

A major component of the US Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) will be a fleet of eight different manned ground vehicles (MGV). There are promises that "advanced automation" will accomplish many of the tasks formerly performed by soldiers in legacy vehicle systems. However, the current approach to automation design does not relieve the soldier operator of tasks; rather, it changes the role of the soldiers and the work they must do, often in ways unintended and unanticipated. This paper proposes a coherent, top-down, overarching approach to the design of a human–automation interaction model. First, a qualitative model is proposed to drive the functional architecture and human–automation interface scheme for the MGV fleet. Second, the proposed model is applied to a portion of the functional flow of the common crew station on the MGV fleet. Finally, the proposed model is demonstrated quantitatively via a computational task-network modeling program (Improved Performance Research and Integration Tool). The modeling approach offers insights into the impacts on human task-loading, workload, and human performance. Implications for human systems integration domains are discussed, including Manpower and Personnel, Human Factors Engineering, Training, System Safety, and Soldier Survivability. The proposed model gives engineers and scientists a top-down approach to explicitly define and design the interactions between proposed automation schemes and the human crew. Although this paper focuses on the Army's FCS MGV fleet, the model and analytical processes proposed, or similar approaches, are appropriate for many manned systems in multiple domains (aviation, space, maritime, ground transportation, manufacturing, etc.).     

Aesthetic markets and a new automated people mover

Research literature suggests that aesthetic response toward a transportation system may be colored by non-aesthetic values. Photographic depictions of downtown street scenes with and without automated people mover guideways were shown to various community groups. Measures of external utilities—stakes in the local community and in public transportation—bore no relationship to aesthetic assessments of either guideway scenes or street scenes without a guideway. In contrast, aesthetic background and interests depressed evaluations of both guideway and non-guideway scenes. Aesthetic background evidently influences aesthetic assessments of elevated guideways in urban streets far more than do non-aesthetic utilities. This suggests that planners of new transportation systems need to address aesthetic impacts apart from other impacts and that aesthetic criteria will be applied more stringently by some community groups than by others.     

Assimilation of buoy and satellite data in wave forecasts with integral control variables

The quality of numerical wave forecasts can be improved significantly by assimilating wave observations prior to the forecast. In the present study a technique for such assimilation is developed that exploits (a) the efficiency of a limited number of integral control variables, and (b) the effectiveness of variational (model-consistent) assimilation. The formal procedure is independent of the type of control variables and of the wave model (moreover, no adjoint wave model is required). In the present study, integral control variables are chosen to represent large-scale errors in the driving wind fields and uncertainties in the wave model. The assimilation technique is validated with observations of the ERS-1 satellite altimeter and two waverider buoys in two consecutive storms in the Norwegian Sea. The assimilation of the observations reduced the errors in the forecasted significant wave height at the buoy locations typically from 25% to 12%. For low-frequency waves the effect of the assimilation is similarly significant at one buoy location but marginal at the other buoy location.     

Effect of traffic information on commuters' propensity to change route and departure time

Considerable public and private resources are devoted to the collection and dissemination of real-time traffic information in the Chicago area. Such information is intended to help individuals make more informed travel decisions, yet its effect on behavior remains largely unexplored. This study evaluates the effect of traffic information on travelers' route and departure time changes and provides a stronger basis for developing advanced information systems. Downtown Chicago automobile commuters were surveyed during the AM peak period. The results indicate that a majority of the respondents access, use and respond to information. For example, individuals use travel information to reduce their anxiety—even if they do not change travel decisions; this indicates that information may have “intrinsic” value. That is, simply knowing traffic conditions is valued by travelers. More than 60% of the respondents had used traffic information to modify their travel decisions. Multivariate analysis using the ordered probit model showed that individuals were more likely to use traffic reports for their route changes if they perceived traffic reports to be accurate and timely, and frequently listened to traffic reports. Respondents were more likely to change their departure times if they perceived traffic reports to be accurate and relevant, and frequently listened to traffic reports. The implication for Advanced Traveler Information Systems are that they may be designed to support both enroute and pre-trip decisions. ATIS performance, measured in terms of accuracy, relevance and timeliness would be critical in the success of such systems. Further, near-term prediction of traffic conditions on congested and unreliable routes (where conditions change rapidly) and incident durations is desirable.