Automotive Engineering Commons^™

Comparison Of Methods For Estimating Instantaneous Turn Radius Of Ackermann Steering Vehicles, Kenneth Gennaro Stutts

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The instantaneous turn radius of an Ackermann steering vehicle is the distance to a point in space about which the vehicle will travel in an arc during a turn. There are at least six ways to estimate instantaneous turn radius and each method uses different inputs and has distinct advantages and disadvantages. In this thesis, six different methods will be used to estimate the instantaneous turn radius of a vehicle traveling on a closed circuit. This testing will clarify similarities and differences between the methods. This thesis clarifies which method will be the most appropriate for a given set of …

Effect Of Passive Clean Air Injection Into The Wake Region Of A Moving Ground Vehicle, Angelos Kaminis

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The wake region on a moving ground vehicle is responsible for 70% of the aerodynamic drag when the speed of 90km/h is achieved. The topic of wake region manipulation has been revisited multiple times and with varying techniques. When manipulating the flow utilizing a fully passive method, pressure drag can be reduced, increasing the overall performance of the vehicle. To ensure high velocity fluid injection, a venturi shaped roof was implemented with an inlet size of 352mm x 12.7mm, and 2 outlets of size 88.011mm x 25.4mm resulting in an area of 4,470.959 for both inlet and outlet to maintain …

Automated Scenario Generation Using Halton Sequences For The Verification Of Autonomous Vehicle Behavior In Simulation, Andrew Ferree

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

As autonomous vehicles continue to develop, verifying their safety remains a large hurdle to mass adoption. One component of this is testing, however it has been shown that it is impractical to statistically prove an autonomous vehicle’s safety using real-world testing alone. Therefore, simulation tools and other virtual testing methods are being employed to assist with the verification process. Testing in simulation still faces some of the challenges of the real world, such as the difficulty in exhaustively testing the system in all scenarios it will encounter. Manual scenario creation is time consuming and does not guarantee scenario coverage. Pseudo-random …

Active Management Assistant System For Embry-Riddle Ecocar 3 Hybrid Supervisory Control System, Matthew Nelson, Blair Cutting, Michael J. Aleardi

Student Works

The Embry-Riddle EcoCAR 3 team is developing a prototype hybrid Chevrolet Camaro utilizing a customized vehicle powertrain controller. This controller is serving to ensure system safety, vehicle operation, and consumer drivability while also incorporating advanced driving aids to achieve both the desired performance levels one expects from a Camaro as well as vehicle efficiency. This vehicle must reach the team set vehicle technical specifications of a 4.9 second 0 to 60 time while maintaining a 53 miles per gallon gasoline equivalence rating.

In order to reach the efficiency goal, the team is developing an Active Management Assistance System utilizing computer …

Application Of Floating Pedal Regenerative Braking For A Rear-Wheel-Drive Parallel-Series Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle With An Automatic Transmission, Dylan Lewis Lewton

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

As the world continues to move further away from our reliance on fossil fuels, hybrid vehicles are becoming ever more popular. Braking is a system on both hybrid and normal vehicles that involves a significant amount of power and energy. A hybrid can recapture some of that energy using regenerative braking. In this thesis, a method is devised to blend hydraulic and regenerative braking in the most effective manner. A MATLAB Simulink model was built to simulate a parallel-series plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. The model allows for the implementation of a regenerative brake controller that utilizes floating pedal regen, custom …

Traction And Launch Control For A Rear-Wheel-Drive Parallel-Series Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle, Adam Michael Szechy

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Hybrid vehicles are becoming the future of automobiles leading into the all-electric generation of vehicles. Electric vehicles come with a great increase in torque at lower RPM resulting in the issue of transferring this torque to the ground effectively. In this thesis, a method is presented for limiting wheel slip and targeting the ideal slip ratio for dry asphalt and low friction surfaces at every given time step. A launch control system is developed to further reduce wheel slip on initial acceleration from standstill furthering acceleration rates to sixty miles per hour. A MATLAB Simulink model was built of the …

The Design Of A Racing Simulator: A Three-Phase User Testing Approach, Jakob E. Rouleau, Eric J. Wach

Human Factors and Applied Psychology Student Conference

No abstract provided.

A Biomimetic, Energy-Harvesting, Obstacle-Avoiding, Path-Planning Algorithm For Uavs, Snorri Gudmundsson

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This dissertation presents two new approaches to energy harvesting for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). One method is based on the Potential Flow Method (PFM); the other method seeds a wind-field map based on updraft peak analysis and then applies a variant of the Bellman-Ford algorithm to find the minimum-cost path. Both methods are enhanced by taking into account the performance characteristics of the aircraft using advanced performance theory. The combined approach yields five possible trajectories from which the one with the minimum energy cost is selected. The dissertation concludes by using the developed theory and modeling tools to simulate the …

Development Of A System Architecture For Unmanned Systems Across Multiple Domains, Charles Randall Breingan Jr.

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

In the unmanned systems industry, there is no common standard for systems components, connections and relations. Such a standard is never likely to exist. Needless to say, a system needs to have the components that are required for the application, however, it is possible to abstract the common functionality out of an individual implementation. This thesis presents a universal unmanned systems architecture that collects all of the common features of an unmanned system and presents them as a set of packages and libraries that can be used in any domain of unmanned system operation. The research and design of the …

Run-Time Hev Engine-Generator Power-Speed Optimization For Fuel Consumption And Emissions Reduction, Chester Paul Rowe Ii

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

As fuel economy and emissions standards become more stringent, Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) using series architectures are being increasingly explored. Due to the decoupling of the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) from the road, the primary control challenge in this architecture is the optimization of an ICE control law. A run-time Genset speed controller is presented for use during the charge-sustaining mode in a Series PHEV to find the optimal operating parameters for a conventional diesel engine coupled to an electric generator in terms of minimized fuel consumption and emissions generation. On board vehicle sensors provide real time data to …

Development Of A Hybrid Vehicle Powertrain Test Laboratory, Bennet Samuel Soundarraj

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

During the last two years, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has installed and tested a fully functional eddy-current chassis dynamometer testing facility on campus. An automotive test facility requires a systems engineering approach to install, calibrate and commission a chassis dynamometer. This thesis shows that, the dynamometer test facility was successfully installed, commissioned and documented to safely support the power train development and testing. We can currently test the EcoCAR vehicle and a number of other front-wheel-drive vehicles at our university campus using the eddy current chassis dynamometer.

Development Of A Supervisory Control Unit For A Series Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle, Brian Neal Harries

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

A Series PHEV was chosen, as ERAU's entry into EcoCAR2 through a multidisciplinary architecture selection process. The series architecture was chosen for its mechanical feasibility, consumer acceptability and its performance on energy consumption simulations. The Series PHEV architecture was modeled using Matlab, Simulink, and dSPACE ASM tools, to create a plant model for controller development. A supervisory controller was developed to safely control the interactions between powertrain components. The supervisory control unit was tested using SIL and HIL methodologies. The supervisory controller was developed with an emphasis on fault detection and mitigation for safety critical systems. A power management control …

The Engineering Process For The Design Of A Motorcycle Chassis And Suspension, Derek J. Noce

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The thesis objective is to define and establish an engineering process for the design of a modern motorcycle chassis and suspension. The engineering process focuses on the interdisciplinary fields of engineering dealing with design and structural optimization. Specialized software, such as Motorcycle Kinematics, MATLAB, CATIA, HEEDS Professional, and NASTRAN are utilized. Motorcycle Kinematics is used to set up the preliminary motorcycle geometry, and MATLAB is a used to analyze the kinematics and stability of the motorcycle based on this geometry. CATIA (Computer Aided Three-Dimensional Interactive Application) is used to graphically illustrate the geometry of the motorcycle in three dimensional space. …