Actuators for Intelligent Electric Vehicles

This book details the advanced actuators for IEVs and the control algorithm design. In the actuator design, the configuration four-wheel independent drive/steering electric vehicles is reviewed. An in-wheel two-speed AMT with selectable one-way clutch is designed for IEV. Considering uncertainties, the optimization design for the planetary gear train of IEV is conducted. An electric power steering system is designed for IEV. In addition, advanced control algorithms are proposed in favour of active safety improvement. A supervision mechanism is applied to the segment drift control of autonomous driving. Double super-resolution network is used to design the intelligent driving algorithm. Torque distribution control technology and four-wheel steering technology are utilized for path tracking and adaptive cruise control. To advance the control accuracy, advanced estimation algorithms are studied in this book. The tyre-road peak friction coefficient under full slip rate range is identified based on the normalized tyre model. The pressure of the electro-hydraulic brake system is estimated based on signal fusion. Besides, a multi-semantic driver behaviour recognition model of autonomous vehicles is designed using confidence fusion mechanism. Moreover, a mono-vision based lateral localization system of low-cost autonomous vehicles is proposed with deep learning curb detection. To sum up, the discussed advanced actuators, control and estimation algorithms are beneficial to the active safety improvement of IEVs

Study of tooling concepts for manufacturing operations in space Final report

Mechanical linkage device for manufacturing operations with orbital workshop

Kinisi: A Platform for Autonomizing Off-Road Vehicles

This project proposed a modular system that would autonomize off-road vehicles while retaining full manual operability. This MQP team designed and developed a Level 3 autonomous vehicle prototype using an SAE Baja vehicle outfitted with actuators and exteroceptive sensors. At the end of the project, the vehicle had a drive-by-wire system, could localize itself using sensors, generate a map of its surroundings, and plan a path to follow a desired trajectory. Given a map, the vehicle could traverse a series of obstacles in an enclosed environment. The long- term goal is to alter the software system to make it modular and operate in real-time, so the vehicle can autonomously navigate off-road terrain to rescue and aid a distressed individual

The 29th Aerospace Mechanisms Symposium

The proceedings of the 29th Aerospace Mechanisms Symposium, which was hosted by NASA Johnson Space Center and held at the South Shore Harbour Conference Facility on May 17-19, 1995, are reported. Technological areas covered include actuators, aerospace mechanism applications for ground support equipment, lubricants, pointing mechanisms joints, bearings, release devices, booms, robotic mechanisms, and other mechanisms for spacecraft

New trends in electrical vehicle powertrains

The electric vehicle and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle play a fundamental role in the forthcoming new paradigms of mobility and energy models. The electrification of the transport sector would lead to advantages in terms of energy efficiency and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, but would also be a great opportunity for the introduction of renewable sources in the electricity sector. The chapters in this book show a diversity of current and new developments in the electrification of the transport sector seen from the electric vehicle point of view: first, the related technologies with design, control and supervision, second, the powertrain electric motor efficiency and reliability and, third, the deployment issues regarding renewable sources integration and charging facilities. This is precisely the purpose of this book, that is, to contribute to the literature about current research and development activities related to new trends in electric vehicle power trains.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Collaboratively Navigating Autonomous Systems

The objective of this project is to focus on technologies for enabling heterogeneous networks of autonomous vehicles to cooperate together on a specific task. The prototyped test bed consists of a retrofitted electric golf cart and a quadrotor designed to perform distributed information gathering to guide decision making across the entire test bed. The system prototype demonstrates several aspects of this technology and lays the groundwork for future projects in this area

Experimental testbeds for real-time motion planning : implementation and lessons learned

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2009.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 103-107).A fundamental step in research on autonomous robotic systems is the actual development and test of experimental platforms, to validate the system design and the effective integration of hardware and real-time software. The objective of this thesis is to report on experimental implementation of platforms and testing environments for real-time motion planning. First of all, robust planning and control system using closed-loop prediction RRT approach was implemented on a robotic forklift. The system displayed robust performance in the execution of several tasks in an uncertain demonstration environment at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, in June, 2009. Second, an economical testbed based on an infrared motion capture system is implemented for indoors experiments. Exploiting the advantages of a controlled indoor environment and reliable navigation outputs through motion capture system, different variations of the planning problem can be explored with accuracy, safety, and convenience.(cont.) Additionally, a motion planning problem for a robotic vehicle whose dynamics depends on unknown parameters is introduced. Typically, the motion planning problems in robotics assume perfect knowledge of the robots' dynamics, and both planner and controller are responsible only for their own parts in hierarchical sense of the framework. A different approach is proposed here, in which the planner takes explicitly into account the uncertainties about the model parameters, and generates completely safe plans for the whole uncertain parameter range. As the vehicle executes the generated plan, the parameter uncertainty is decreased based on the observed behavior, and it gradually allows more efficient planning with smaller uncertainties.by Jeong hwan Jeon.S.M

ACAP: The Autonomous Cargo Aircraft Project

Development of autonomy in fly-by-wire aircraft has long been limited to multi-million dollar systems, or large remotely operated vehicles due to regulatory restrictions and the difficulty of designing a system around existing light aircraft. This report summarises the development of an experimental, optionally piloted aircraft with the capability of fully autonomous decision making and controlled flight. Particular time is spent discussing the safety features of the mechanical and electrical systems, as well as a novel control system design for light aircraft autopilots. This phase of the project included independant ground tests of all electromechanical systems, and simulator tests of all autoflight software. The next phase of the project will include flight testing