Qualitative Adaptive Identification for Powertrain Systems. Powertrain Dynamic Modelling and Adaptive Identification Algorithms with Identifiability Analysis for Real-Time Monitoring and Detectability Assessment of Physical and Semi-Physical System Parameters

A complete chain of analysis and synthesis system identification tools for detectability assessment and adaptive identification of parameters with physical interpretation that can be found commonly in control-oriented powertrain models is presented. This research is motivated from the fact that future powertrain control and monitoring systems will depend increasingly on physically oriented system models to reduce the complexity of existing control strategies and open the road to new environmentally friendly technologies. At the outset of this study a physics-based control-oriented dynamic model of a complete transient engine testing facility, consisting of a single cylinder engine, an alternating current dynamometer and a coupling shaft unit, is developed to investigate the functional relationships of the inputs, outputs and parameters of the system. Having understood these, algorithms for identifiability analysis and adaptive identification of parameters with physical interpretation are proposed. The efficacy of the recommended algorithms is illustrated with three novel practical applications. These are, the development of an on-line health monitoring system for engine dynamometer coupling shafts based on recursive estimation of shaft’s physical parameters, the sensitivity analysis and adaptive identification of engine friction parameters, and the non-linear recursive parameter estimation with parameter estimability analysis of physical and semi-physical cyclic engine torque model parameters. The findings of this research suggest that the combination of physics-based control oriented models with adaptive identification algorithms can lead to the development of component-based diagnosis and control strategies. Ultimately, this work contributes in the area of on-line fault diagnosis, fault tolerant and adaptive control for vehicular systems

Modeling and Control for Vision Based Rear Wheel Drive Robot and Solving Indoor SLAM Problem Using LIDAR

abstract: To achieve the ambitious long-term goal of a feet of cooperating Flexible Autonomous Machines operating in an uncertain Environment (FAME), this thesis addresses several critical modeling, design, control objectives for rear-wheel drive ground vehicles. Toward this ambitious goal, several critical objectives are addressed. One central objective of the thesis was to show how to build low-cost multi-capability robot platform that can be used for conducting FAME research. A TFC-KIT car chassis was augmented to provide a suite of substantive capabilities. The augmented vehicle (FreeSLAM Robot) costs less than $500 but offers the capability of commercially available vehicles costing over$2000. All demonstrations presented involve rear-wheel drive FreeSLAM robot. The following summarizes the key hardware demonstrations presented and analyzed: (1)Cruise (v, ) control along a line, (2) Cruise (v, ) control along a curve, (3) Planar (x, y) Cartesian Stabilization for rear wheel drive vehicle, (4) Finish the track with camera pan tilt structure in minimum time, (5) Finish the track without camera pan tilt structure in minimum time, (6) Vision based tracking performance with different cruise speed vx, (7) Vision based tracking performance with different camera fixed look-ahead distance L, (8) Vision based tracking performance with different delay Td from vision subsystem, (9) Manually remote controlled robot to perform indoor SLAM, (10) Autonomously line guided robot to perform indoor SLAM. For most cases, hardware data is compared with, and corroborated by, model based simulation data. In short, the thesis uses low-cost self-designed rear-wheel drive robot to demonstrate many capabilities that are critical in order to reach the longer-term FAME goal.Dissertation/ThesisDefense PresentationMasters Thesis Electrical Engineering 201

Semi-Physical Real-Time Models with State and Parameter Estimation for Diesel Engines

Increasing requirements for the reduction of fuel consumption (CO2) and emissions require a precise electronic management of combustion engines. Engine-related measures to meet these requirements lead to an increase in variability and system complexity. To cope with increasing system complexity, model-based development methodology has proven effective. In this context, virtual development with real-time models plays an increasingly important role. The corresponding models can either be derived theoretically on the basis of known physical laws (white-box models) or obtained experimentally on the test bench by mathematically modeling the measured input and output behavior (black-box models). Both types of modeling have their advantages and disadvantages. A semi-physical modeling methodology is presented that combines the advantages of theoretical and experimental modeling and overcomes their disadvantages. The goal is to find suitable, simplified equation structures and to determine their unknown parameters experimentally by real-time capable, recursive parameter estimation methods. This leads to physically interpretable real-time models that are able to adapt their parameters according to the current engine operating behavior and thus offer good transferability to other engines. The semi-physical modeling methodology is applied to the air system and combustion of a common rail diesel engine with a variable exhaust gas turbocharger and high- and low-pressure exhaust gas recirculation. The focus lies on the derivation of semi-physical real-time model for the combustion and its underlying processes inside the cylinder. A semi-physical model approach for modeling the dynamics of combustion chamber processes is developed and combined with state and parameter estimation methods. This model approach enables crank angle-resolved calculation of the in-cylinder gas states and the determination of the characteristic combustion components of diesel combustion (premixed, diffusive combustion and burn-out). The technical implementation is realized close to the pressure indication system of the engine test bench, enabling a crankshaft-resolved model adaptation based on measured in-cylinder pressure. Model identification is performed using combined state and parameter estimation in steady-state engine operation. Model parameters are estimated perpetually for each duty cycle and converge to a constant value within 30-60 engine duty cycles. Final estimation results are stored as functions of engine operating point using experimental modeling. In this way, semi-physical real-time models are created directly online during the measurement. The treated method is considered as an extension of the functionality of conventional pressure indication systems. Furthermore, the derived semi-physical models are used for real-time engine simulation in the context of hardware-in-the-loop testing of ECUs. The research project (Project No. 1231) was financially and advisory supported by the Research Association for Combustion Engines (FVV) e.V. (Frankfurt am Main, Germany)

Fully Onboard AI-Powered Human-Drone Pose Estimation on Ultralow-Power Autonomous Flying Nano-UAVs

Many emerging applications of nano-sized unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), with a few cm(2) form-factor, revolve around safely interacting with humans in complex scenarios, for example, monitoring their activities or looking after people needing care. Such sophisticated autonomous functionality must be achieved while dealing with severe constraints in payload, battery, and power budget (similar to 100 mW). In this work, we attack a complex task going from perception to control: to estimate and maintain the nano-UAV's relative 3-D pose with respect to a person while they freely move in the environment-a task that, to the best of our knowledge, has never previously been targeted with fully onboard computation on a nano-sized UAV. Our approach is centered around a novel vision-based deep neural network (DNN), called Frontnet, designed for deployment on top of a parallel ultra-low power (PULP) processor aboard a nano-UAV. We present a vertically integrated approach starting from the DNN model design, training, and dataset augmentation down to 8-bit quantization and deployment in-field. PULP-Frontnet can operate in real-time (up to 135 frame/s), consuming less than 87 mW for processing at peak throughput and down to 0.43 mJ/frame in the most energy-efficient operating point. Field experiments demonstrate a closed-loop top-notch autonomous navigation capability, with a tiny 27-g Crazyflie 2.1 nano-UAV. Compared against an ideal sensing setup, onboard pose inference yields excellent drone behavior in terms of median absolute errors, such as positional (onboard: 41 cm, ideal: 26 cm) and angular (onboard: 3.7 degrees, ideal: 4.1 degrees). We publicly release videos and the source code of our work

ReSCon '12, Research Student Conference: Book of Abstracts

The fifth SED Research Student Conference (ReSCon2012) was hosted over three days, 18-20 June 2012, in the Hamilton Centre at Brunel University. The conference consisted of 130 oral and 70 poster presentations, based on the high quality and diverse research being conducted within the School of Engineering and Design by postgraduate research students. The conference is held annually, and ReSCon plays a key role in contributing to research and innovations within the School

Fully Onboard AI-powered Human-Drone Pose Estimation on Ultra-low Power Autonomous Flying Nano-UAVs

Many emerging applications of nano-sized unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), with a few form-factor, revolve around safely interacting with humans in complex scenarios, for example, monitoring their activities or looking after people needing care. Such sophisticated autonomous functionality must be achieved while dealing with severe constraints in payload, battery, and power budget ( 100). In this work, we attack a complex task going from perception to control: to estimate and maintain the nano-UAV’s relative 3D pose with respect to a person while they freely move in the environment – a task that, to the best of our knowledge, has never previously been targeted with fully onboard computation on a nano-sized UAV. Our approach is centered around a novel vision-based deep neural network (DNN), called PULP-Frontnet, designed for deployment on top of a parallel ultra-low-power (PULP) processor aboard a nano-UAV. We present a vertically integrated approach starting from the DNN model design, training, and dataset augmentation down to 8-bit quantization and deployment in-field. PULP-Frontnet can operate in real-time (up to 135frame/), consuming less than 87 for processing at peak throughput and down to 0.43/frame in the most energy-efficient operating point. Field experiments demonstrate a closed-loop top-notch autonomous navigation capability, with a tiny 27-grams Crazyflie 2.1 nano-UAV. Compared against an ideal sensing setup, onboard pose inference yields excellent drone behavior in terms of median absolute errors, such as positional (onboard: 41, ideal: 26) and angular (onboard: 3.7, ideal: 4.1). We publicly release videos and the source code of our work

Symmetry-Adapted Machine Learning for Information Security

Symmetry-adapted machine learning has shown encouraging ability to mitigate the security risks in information and communication technology (ICT) systems. It is a subset of artificial intelligence (AI) that relies on the principles of processing future events by learning past events or historical data. The autonomous nature of symmetry-adapted machine learning supports effective data processing and analysis for security detection in ICT systems without the interference of human authorities. Many industries are developing machine-learning-adapted solutions to support security for smart hardware, distributed computing, and the cloud. In our Special Issue book, we focus on the deployment of symmetry-adapted machine learning for information security in various application areas. This security approach can support effective methods to handle the dynamic nature of security attacks by extraction and analysis of data to identify hidden patterns of data. The main topics of this Issue include malware classification, an intrusion detection system, image watermarking, color image watermarking, battlefield target aggregation behavior recognition model, IP camera, Internet of Things (IoT) security, service function chain, indoor positioning system, and crypto-analysis

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