Discomfort of vertical whole-body shock-type vibration in the frequency range of 0.5 to 16 Hz

Shock-type vibrations are frequently experienced in vehicles excited by impulsive input, such as bumps in the road, and cause discomfort. Current national and international standard weightings were primarily developed for assessing exposure to sinusoidal or random vibrations and not impulsive excitations or shocks. In this experimental study, various shock signals were systematically produced using the response of a one degree-of-freedom vibration model to hanning-windowed half-sine force input. The fundamental frequency of the shock was varied from 0.5 to 16 Hz at a step of 1/3 of an octave. The magnitude estimation method was used for fifteen subjects to compare the discomfort of shocks with various unweighted vibration dose values between 0.35 ms^−1.75 and 2.89 ms^−1.75 at each frequency. The equivalent comfort magnitude of shock showed greater sensitivity at frequencies less than 0.63 Hz and at the resonance frequency of the human body between 5.0 Hz and 6.3 Hz. The frequency weighting constructed by using both the equivalent comfort magnitude and the growth rate of discomfort obtained in this study was compared with the current standard weightings, W_b of BS 6841 and W_k of ISO 2631. The derived weightings for shock were applied to the acceleration of the shocks, and an enhanced correlation was proved between the magnitude estimations and the weighted physical magnitude of shock.     

Assessing air quality and health benefits of the Clean Truck Program in the Alameda corridor,CA

In this paper, vehicle microscopic simulation and emission models were combined with an air pollutant dispersion model and a health assessment tool to quantify some social costs resulting from urban freight transportation in the Alameda corridor that links the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to downtown Los Angeles. Traffic on two busy freeways, the I-710 and the I-110, and some heavily trafficked arterial roads was analyzed to estimate the health impacts caused by drayage truck emissions of particulate matter (PM) for four different years: 2005, which serves as a baseline for various pollution inventories, as well as 2008, 2010 and 2012. These years correspond to deadlines for the Clean Truck Program (CTP), which was put in place to improve air quality in the Alameda corridor. Results show that the health costs from particulate matter (PM) emitted by drayage trucks exceeded 440 million dollars in 2005. However, these costs decreased by 36%, 90%, and 96% after accounting for the requirements of the 2008, 2010, and 2012 CTP deadlines. These results quantify the magnitude of the social costs generated by drayage trucks in the Alameda corridor, suggest that these costs justified replacing drayage trucks operating there, and indicate that the Clean Truck Program likely exceeded its target.     

MPC-BASED steering control for backward-driving vehicle using stereo vision

We propose a steering control algorithm for autonomous backward driving in a narrow corridor. Passable spaces are detected using a stereo camera, and the steering angle is controlled by a model predictive controller (MPC). For passable space detection, an UV-disparity map is calculated from the original disparity map. Information regarding passable spaces collected by the stereo camera is used in steering control. Backward driving requires the driver’s preemptive actions, which can be learned by experience because of the non-intuitive responses (the initial motion of the vehicle is opposite to the driver’s steering angle input). This occurs because a backward-driving vehicle is a non-minimum phase system. One of the most popular steering control algorithms is Stanley method, which is based on the feedback of lateral displacement error and heading angle error. The method is very intuitive and works well for forward driving, but it exhibits significant undershoot for backward driving cases. Furthermore, the method does not explicitly consider any constraints on control inputs and states. We designed a steering controller based on the MPC technique that requires future information but can handle constraints explicitly. Because we have near-future information from the stereo camera under limited passable spaces, MPC can be effectively implemented. We performed several simulations and experiments to show the performance and superiority of the suggested method over a simple feedback-based control algorithm.     

Direct tire force generation algorithm based on non-iterative nonlinear inverse tire model

The function of vehicle dynamics control system is adjusting the yaw moment, the longitudinal force and lateral force of a vehicle body through several chassis systems, such as brakes, steering and suspension. Individual systems such as ESC, AFS and 4WD can be used to achieve desired performance by controlling actuator variables. However, integrated chassis control systems that have multiple objectives may not simply achieve the desired performance by controlling the actuators directly. Usually those systems determine the required tire forces in an upper level controller and a lower level controller regulates the tire forces through the actuators. The tire force is controlled in a recursive way based on vehicle state measurement, which may not be sufficient for fast response. For immediate force tracking, we introduce a direct tire force generation method that uses a nonlinear inverse tire model, a pseudo-inverse model of vehicle dynamics and the relationship between longitudinal force and brake pressure.     

Optimal assignment for check-in counters based on passenger arrival behaviour at an airport

Establishing how to utilize check-in counters at airport passenger terminals efficiently is a major concern facing airport operators and airlines. Inadequate terminal capacity and the inefficient utilization of facilities such as check-in counters are major factors causing congestion and delays at airport passenger terminals. However, such delays and congestion can be reduced by increasing the efficiency of check-in counter operations, based on an understanding of passengers' airport access behaviour. This paper presents an assignment model for check-in counter operations, based on passengers' airport arrival patterns. In setting up the model, passenger surveys are used to determine when passengers arrive at the airport terminals relative to their flight departure times. The model then uses passenger arrival distribution patterns to calculate the most appropriate number of check-in counters and the duration of time that each counter should be operated. This assignment model has been applied at the Seoul Gimpo International Airport in Korea. The model provides not only a practical system for the efficient operations of time-to-time check-in counter assignments, but also a valuable means of developing effective longer-term solutions to the problem of passenger terminal congestion and delays. It also offers airlines a means of operating check-in counters with greater cost effectiveness, thus leading to enhanced customer service.     

Applications of wavelet transform for analysis of freeway traffic: Bottlenecks, transient traffic, and traffic oscillations

This paper demonstrates the capabilities of wavelet transform (WT) for analyzing important features related to bottleneck activations and traffic oscillations in congested traffic in a systematic manner. In particular, the analysis of loop detector data from a freeway shows that the use of wavelet-based energy can effectively identify the location of an active bottleneck, the arrival time of the resulting queue at each upstream sensor location, and the start and end of a transition during the onset of a queue. Vehicle trajectories were also analyzed using WT and our analysis shows that the wavelet-based energies of individual vehicles can effectively detect the origins of deceleration waves and shed light on possible triggers (e.g., lane-changing). The spatiotemporal propagations of oscillations identified by tracing wavelet-based energy peaks from vehicle to vehicle enable analysis of oscillation amplitude, duration and intensity.     

Sensitivity analysis for reducing critical responses at the axle shaft of a lightweight vehicle

Critical responses are frequently detected at the coupled torsional beam axle (CTBA) of a lightweight vehicle. However, the freedom to modify the design of the axle shaft is limited because the suspension system must satisfy other vehicle requirements such as steering performance. Conventional sensitivity analysis cannot provide practical information about the resonant behavior because the analysis only identifies the contribution of the axle shaft to the behavior. This paper presents a novel sensitivity analysis based on transmissibility ratios (TRs). The vehicle components other than the axle shaft that can be modified to control the critical spectra are identified using acceleration responses. A multi-body vehicle model is constructed to simulate the proposed design modifications, and the simulation results show that the vibration of the axle shaft is considerably reduced by the modifications. Because the TRs on the CTBA are effectively minimized through the modified design strategy, the resonant response from the axle shaft can be controlled efficiently.     

Development of control logic for hydraulic active roll control system

Developed in this research is a control logic for the ARC (Active Roll Control) system that uses rotary-type hydraulic stabilizer actuators at the front and rear axles. The hydraulic components of the system were modeled in detail using AMESim, and a driving logic for the hydraulic circuit was constructed based upon the model. The performance of the driving logic was evaluated on a test bench, and it demonstrated good pressure tracking capability. The control logic was then designed with the target of reducing the roll motion of the vehicle during cornering. The control logic consists of two parts: a feedforward controller that generates anti-roll moments in response to the centrifugal force, and a feedback controller that generates anti-roll moments in order to make the roll angle to follow its target value. The developed ARC logic was evaluated on a test vehicle under various driving conditions including a slowly accelerated circular motion and a sinusoidal steering. Through the test, the ARC system demonstrated successful reduction of the roll motion under all conditions, and any discomfort due to the control delay was not observed even at a fast steering maneuver.     

Optimal design of an engine mount using an enhanced genetic algorithm with simplex method

This study provides an analysis of the applications of optimization routines for designing fluid mounts. After summarizing the concept of fluid mounts and their dynamic characteristics, we review the importance of the notch and resonance peak that occur in dynamic stiffness of fluid mounts. Fluid mounts are tuned for specific application so that their notch frequency coincides with the disturbance frequency, by selecting the proper parameters for the mount. Additionally, the mount parameters are selected such that the notch remains as deep (close to zero) as possible and the resonance peak is kept as short as possible. The notch depth and resonance peak present opposing requirements for the selection of mount parameters in the sense that lowering one will result in increasing the other. Using a bond graph model, this study will evaluate the effect of various parameters on the mount notch depth and resonance peak height characteristics. The results show that different parameters can have a varying effect on the notch frequency and depth, as well as the resonance frequency and peak height. The results of the study are extended by examining the effectiveness of two different optimization methods—namely, the Enhanced Genetic Algorithm (EGA) and Sequential Quadratic Programming (SQP)—for selecting the combination of parameters that can yield the deepest notch and shortest resonance peak. Using two different design cases, the study shows that SQP exhibits much more sensitivity to the initial conditions that are selected for the mount parameters than EGA. Both methods, however, are able to converge to an optimal solution within the constraints that are selected for the parameters. For both cases, EGA is able to converge to the set of parameters that provide a deep notch and a short resonance peak.