Hybrid Cfd-Nnarx Modelling Of Single Mrf Valve For Visual Servoing.

Magnetorheological fluid (MRF) actuator emerged in the last decade as a potential system to replace electro-hydraulic servo system in precision applications. A complete closed-loop control system is necessary to support the accuracy of the system. Modelling of the valve is a crucial task in developing an optimal control system for the valve, but the knowledge of fluid behaviour inside the valve channel remains scarce. This research aims to develop a plant model of MRF actuator using the system identification approach, where the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) result is used as an input. The plant model is then used to design a closed-loop control system for the MRF actuator. To achieve this objective, a 3D CFD model was developed, and a steady state analysis was run to study fluid behaviours in the channel. Transient analysis with dynamic input was further performed to study the correlation between the current input and the volume flow rate as an output. Neural network nonlinear autoregressive network with exogenous inputs (NNARX) used data from the CFD to identify the plant model of an MRF valve. The result acquired from the CFD simulation and plant model gave good agreement with the experimental result with an error of less than 3%. The velocity in the MRF valve reduced 85% when the current varied from 0 to 0.8A. The hybrid CFD-NNARX model shows a small deviation from the experimental result with an average error of 4%. As a conclusion, the hybrid CFDNNARX has been proven useful in modelling the MRF actuator. The main contribution of this work is the plant model of an MRF actuator, which can be utilised as an input in controller design process of MRF actuator

Brake Steer Torque Optimized Corner Braking of Motorcycles

This thesis deals with the Brake Steer Torque (BST) induced stand-up tendency of Powered Two Wheelers (PTW) and measures to lower the associated risk for running wide on curve accidents with sudden, unforeseen braking. Focus is set on the BST Avoidance Mechanism (BSTAM), a chassis design that eliminates the BST through lateral inclination of the kinematic steering axis. A simple mathematical model is used to identify its main influences on the driving behavior and derive an optimized system layout. Its theoretical potential is evaluated against the standard chassis using different cornering adaptive brake force distributions and riding styles. For the first time ever, a motorcycle with state-of-the-art brake system (Honda CBR 600 RR, C-ABS) is equipped with a BSTAM and tested in corner braking experiments. Compared to the baseline, it is significantly reducing BST related disturbances and improving directional control. The gained insights can be stepping stones to enhance PTW safety by enabling future assistance systems with autonomous corner braking

Sensitivity analysis and optimal design of conventional and magnnetorheological fluid brakes

Mechanical and electrical brakes have dominated the braking industry for many years and will most likely continue to do so for the foreseeable future due to their low cost and adequate operating performance, wide range of applications, vehicle engineering, civil engineering, and biomedical engineering. Simple mechanical drum brake and magnetorheological (MR) fluid brake have presented in the current work. The main objective of this work is to increase braking torque, and to develop a new optimal design of MR fluid brake with better design and design control of the MR fluid design. To do so, four important steps have been accomplished. In the first step, a mathematical modeling of the conventional frictional brake and MR fluid brake has been developed to study and specify all design parameters. In the second step, a nondimensional, closedform analysis and a Taylor series expansion have used to examine the effects of perturbing dimensionless design parameters on the overall brakes performance. In the third step, two optimal designs for MR fluid brakes have been developed by taking advantage of sensitivity analysis and the design of experiments method also known as the Taguchi method. In the fourth step, controlling a MR fluid brake is performed by using two parallel PI controls for controlling the magnetic current and MR fluid thickness simultaneously. It was concluded that sensitivity analysis is a good method for identifying the parameters that have the greatest impact on brake performance and can be used as one method for the designer to obtain an optimal design. Four nondimensional design parameters were successfully used to describe the conventional frictional brake and seven nondimensional design parameters for MR fluid brake. Only two parameters for the conventional brake and five parameters for the MR fluid brake affect the performance and the others can be neglected. Two new designs for the MR fluid brake are presented and shown to be very simple in design, low in cost by removing a lot of additional auxiliaries for the frictional brake, and easy for control. By simultaneously controlling the MR fluid thickness and the electric current, a large range of brake torque is achieved without increasing the radial envelop for the brake, and saturation conditions in one controller are compensated for by the other controller. High angular velocities of the brake are primarily controlled by increasing the MR fluid thickness, while low angular velocities are primarily controlled by increasing the electric current. Good transient responses for regulating a constant speed (high, moderate, and low), and good stability while seeking to track a sinusoidal input have been achieved. In summary, the proposed control system for the MR fluid brake has demonstrated good controllability for the MR fluid brake.Includes bibliographical reference

A Framework for Life Cycle Cost Estimation of a Product Family at the Early Stage of Product Development

A cost estimation method is required to estimate the life cycle cost of a product family at the early stage of product development in order to evaluate the product family design. There are difficulties with existing cost estimation techniques in estimating the life cycle cost for a product family at the early stage of product development. This paper proposes a framework that combines a knowledge based system and an activity based costing techniques in estimating the life cycle cost of a product family at the early stage of product development. The inputs of the framework are the product family structure and its sub function. The output of the framework is the life cycle cost of a product family that consists of all costs at each product family level and the costs of each product life cycle stage. The proposed framework provides a life cycle cost estimation tool for a product family at the early stage of product development using high level information as its input. The framework makes it possible to estimate the life cycle cost of various product family that use any types of product structure. It provides detailed information related to the activity and resource costs of both parts and products that can assist the designer in analyzing the cost of the product family design. In addition, it can reduce the required amount of information and time to construct the cost estimation system

Definition and verification of a set of reusable reference architectures for hybrid vehicle development

Current concerns regarding climate change and energy security have resulted in an increasing demand for low carbon vehicles, including: more efficient internal combustion engine vehicles, alternative fuel vehicles, electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles. Unlike traditional internal combustion engine vehicles and electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles contain a minimum of two energy storage systems. These are required to deliver power through a complex powertrain which must combine these power flows electrically or mechanically (or both), before torque can be delivered to the wheel. Three distinct types of hybrid vehicles exist, series hybrids, parallel hybrids and compound hybrids. Each type of hybrid presents a unique engineering challenge. Also, within each hybrid type there exists a wide range of configurations of components, in size and type. The emergence of this new family of hybrid vehicles has necessitated a new component to vehicle development, the Vehicle Supervisory Controller (VSC). The VSC must determine and deliver driver torque demand, dividing the delivery of that demand from the multiple energy storage systems as a function of efficiencies and capacities. This control component is not commonly a standalone entity in traditional internal combustion vehicles and therefore presents an opportunity to apply a systems engineering approach to hybrid vehicle systems and VSC control system development. A key non-­‐functional requirement in systems engineering is reusability. A common method for maximising system reusability is a Reference Architecture (RA). This is an abstraction of the minimum set of shared system features (structure, functions, interactions and behaviour) that can be applied to a number of similar but distinct system deployments. It is argued that the employment of RAs in hybrid vehicle development would reduce VSC development time and cost. This Thesis expands this research to determine if one RA is extendable to all hybrid vehicle types and combines the scientific method with the scenario testing method to verify the reusability of RAs by demonstration. A set of hypotheses are posed: Can one RA represent all hybrid types? If not, can a minimum number of RAs be defined which represents all hybrid types? These hypotheses are tested by a set of scenarios. The RA is used as a template for a vehicle deployment (a scenario), which is then tested numerically, thereby verifying that the RA is valid for this type of vehicle. This Thesis determines that two RAs are required to represent the three hybrid vehicle types. One RA is needed for series hybrids, and the second RA covers parallel and compound hybrids. This is done at a level of abstraction which is high enough to avoid system specific features but low enough to incorporate detailed control functionality. One series hybrid is deployed using the series RA into simulation, hardware and onto a vehicle for testing. This verifies that the series RA is valid for this type of vehicle. The parallel RA is used to develop two sub-­‐types of parallel hybrids and one compound hybrid. This research has been conducted with industrial partners who value, and are employing, the findings of this research in their hybrid vehicle development programs

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae - Electrical and Mechanical Engineering

Series Electrical and Mechanical Engineering publishes original papers and surveys in various fields of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering

Power transmission systems: from traditional to magnetic gearboxes

L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen