Eddy current based, contactless position transducer for a gas handle

In electric vehicles, it is normal to have an electronic set value for 'gas' and for 'brake'. Traditional potentiometers with sliding contacts are not reliable. Magnetoresistive sensors or hall effect sensors need a magnet on the moving part. The proposed sensor just needs iron on the moving part. It uses an oscillator circuit where the absorbed current is an indication of damping, so how close the iron is to the sensor. The component cost is low and the output has a soft gradual change with the displacement

Laser measuring system for wire-wrapped frame assemblies

The laser measuring system is designed to automatically measure and record the distances between small diameter wires on a wire wrapped grid frame assembly to an accuracy of 0.00635 mm (0.00025 in.). The system utilizes a helium-neon gas laser beam as the measuring instrument with a remote interferometer and retroreflector, a light source and photodetector to detect the wire positions, in conjunction with recording, display and printout units. The laser measuring system is utilized to perform precise automatic measurements for wire application machines or as an automatic feedback device for positioning wires and/or to adjust them for out of tolerance conditions

A series elastic brake pedal for improving driving performance under regenerative braking

Electric and hybrid vehicles are favored to decrease the carbon footprint on the planet. The electric motor in these vehicles serves a dual purpose. The use of electric motor for deceleration, by converting the kinetic energy of the vehicle into electrical energy to be stored in the battery is called regenerative braking. Regenerative braking is commonly employed by electrical vehicles to signi cantly improve energy e ciency and to help to meet emission standards. When the regenerative and friction brakes are simultaneously activated by the driver interacting with the brake pedal, the conventional haptic brake pedal feel is disturbed due to the regenerative braking. In particular, while there exists a physical coupling between the brake pedal and the conventional friction brakes, no such physical coupling exists for the regenerative braking. As a result, no reaction forces are fed back to the brake pedal, resulting in a unilateral power ow between the driver and the vehicle. Consequently, the relationship between the brake pedal force and the vehicle deceleration is strongly in uenced by the regenerative braking. This results in a unfamiliar response of the brake pedal, negatively impacting the driver's performance and posing a safety concern. The reaction forces due to regenerative braking can be fed back to the brake pedal, through actuated pedals that re-establish the bilateral power ow to recover the natural haptic pedal feel. We propose a force-feedback brake pedal with series elastic actuation to preserve the conventional brake pedal feel during regenerative braking. The novelty of the proposed design is due to the deliberate introduction of a compliant element between the actuator and the brake pedal whose de ections are measured to estimate interaction forces and to perform closed-loop force control. Thanks to its series elasticity, the force-feedback brake pedal can utilize robust controllers to achieve high delity force control, possesses favorable output impedance characteristics over the entire frequency spectrum, and can be implemented in a compact package using low-cost components. We introduce pedal feel compensation algorithms to recover the missing regenerative brake forces on the brake pedal. The proposed algorithms are implemented for both two-pedal cooperative braking and one-pedal driving conditions. For those driving conditions, the missing pedal feedback due to the regenerative brake forces are rendered through the active pedal to recover the conventional pedal force mapping. In two-pedal cooperative braking, the regenerative braking is activated by pressing the brake pedal, while in one-pedal driving the activation takes place as soon as the throttle pedal is released. The applicability and e ectiveness of the proposed series elastic brake pedal and haptic pedal feel compensation algorithms in terms of driving safety and performance have been investigated through human subject experiments. The experiments have been conducted using a haptic pedal feel platform that consists of a SEA brake pedal, a torque-controlled dynamometer, and a throttle pedal. The dynamometer renders the pedal forces due to friction braking, while the SEA brake pedal renders the missing pedal forces due to the regenerative braking. The throttle pedal is utilized for the activation of regenerative braking in one-pedal driving. The simulator implements a vehicle pursuit task similar to the CAMP protocol and provides visual feedback to the participant. The e ectiveness of the preservation of the natural brake pedal feel has been studied under two-pedal cooperative braking and one-pedal driving scenarios. The experimental results indicate that pedal feel compensation can signi cantly decrease the number of hard braking instances, improving safety for both two-pedal cooperative braking and one-pedal driving. Volunteers also strongly prefer compensation, while they equally prefer and can e ectively utilize both two-pedal and one-pedal driving conditions. The bene cial e ects of haptic pedal feel compensation on safety is evaluated to be larger for the two-pedal cooperative braking condition, as lack of compensation results in sti ening/softening pedal feel characteristics in this cas

Power quality and electromagnetic compatibility: special report, session 2

The scope of Session 2 (S2) has been defined as follows by the Session Advisory Group and the Technical Committee: Power Quality (PQ), with the more general concept of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and with some related safety problems in electricity distribution systems. Special focus is put on voltage continuity (supply reliability, problem of outages) and voltage quality (voltage level, flicker, unbalance, harmonics). This session will also look at electromagnetic compatibility (mains frequency to 150 kHz), electromagnetic interferences and electric and magnetic fields issues. Also addressed in this session are electrical safety and immunity concerns (lightning issues, step, touch and transferred voltages). The aim of this special report is to present a synthesis of the present concerns in PQ&EMC, based on all selected papers of session 2 and related papers from other sessions, (152 papers in total). The report is divided in the following 4 blocks: Block 1: Electric and Magnetic Fields, EMC, Earthing systems Block 2: Harmonics Block 3: Voltage Variation Block 4: Power Quality Monitoring Two Round Tables will be organised: - Power quality and EMC in the Future Grid (CIGRE/CIRED WG C4.24, RT 13) - Reliability Benchmarking - why we should do it? What should be done in future? (RT 15

Retention and application of Skylab experiences to future programs

The problems encountered and special techniques and procedures developed on the Skylab program are described along with the experiences and practical benefits obtained for dissemination and use on future programs. Three major topics are discussed: electrical problems, mechanical problems, and special techniques. Special techniques and procedures are identified that were either developed or refined during the Skylab program. These techniques and procedures came from all manufacturing and test phases of the Skylab program and include both flight and GSE items from component level to sophisticated spaceflight systems

A dependable anisotropic magnetoresistance sensor system for automotive applications

The increasing usage of electronic systems in automotive applications aims to enhance passenger safety as well as the performance of the cars. In modern vehicles, the mechanical and hydraulic systems traditionally used have been replaced by X-by-wire systems in which the functions are performed by electronic components. However, the components required should be reliable, have a high-performance, low-cost and capable of operating for a long time in a highly dependable manner despite the harsh operating conditions in automotive applications. Dependability represents the reliance that a user justifiably poses on the service offered by a system, being this especially important in safety-critical applications in which a failure can constitute a threat to people or the environment. An Anisotropic Magnetoresistance (AMR) sensor is a type of magnetic sensor often used for angle measurements in cars. This sensor is affected by performance degradation and catastrophic faults that in principle cause the sensor to stop working suddenly. Therefore, the sensor dependability should be improved in order to guarantee that it will satisfy the continuous increasing dependability as well as accuracy requirements demanded by automotive applications. This research proposes an AMR sensor system that includes a fault-tolerant approach to handle catastrophic faults and self-X properties to maintain the performance of the sensor during its lifetime. Additionally, an interface with the IEEE 1687 standard has been considered, so the sensor is able to communicate with other components of the system in which it is integrated

Integrated braking control for electric vehicles with in-wheel propulsion and fully decoupled brake-by-wire system

This paper introduces a case study on the potential of new mechatronic chassis systems for battery electric vehicles, in this case a brake-by-wire (BBW) system and in-wheel propulsion on the rear axle combined with an integrated chassis control providing common safety features like anti-lock braking system (ABS), and enhanced functionalities, like torque blending. The presented controller was intended to also show the potential of continuous control strategies with regard to active safety, vehicle stability and driving comfort. Therefore, an integral sliding mode (ISM) and proportional integral (PI) control were used for wheel slip control (WSC) and benchmarked against each other and against classical used rule-based approach. The controller was realized in MatLab/Simulink and tested under real-time conditions in IPG CarMaker simulation environment for experimentally validated models of the target vehicle and its systems. The controller also contains robust observers for estimation of non-measurable vehicle states and parameters e.g., vehicle mass or road grade, which can have a significant influence on control performance and vehicle safety

Technical Design Report for the PANDA Micro Vertex Detector

This document illustrates the technical layout and the expected performance of the Micro Vertex Detector (MVD) of the PANDA experiment. The MVD will detect charged particles as close as possible to the interaction zone. Design criteria and the optimisation process as well as the technical solutions chosen are discussed and the results of this process are subjected to extensive Monte Carlo physics studies. The route towards realisation of the detector is outlined

Bubble memory module

Design, fabrication and test of partially populated prototype recorder using 100 kilobit serial chips is described. Electrical interface, operating modes, and mechanical design of several module configurations are discussed. Fabrication and test of the module demonstrated the practicality of multiplexing resulting in lower power, weight, and volume. This effort resulted in the completion of a module consisting of a fully engineered printed circuit storage board populated with 5 of 8 possible cells and a wire wrapped electronics board. Interface of the module is 16 bits parallel at a maximum of 1.33 megabits per second data rate on either of two interface buses

Conceptual design study for an advanced cab and visual system, volume 2

The performance, design, construction and testing requirements are defined for developing an advanced cab and visual system. The rotorcraft system integration simulator is composed of the advanced cab and visual system and the rotorcraft system motion generator, and is part of an existing simulation facility. User's applications for the simulator include rotorcraft design development, product improvement, threat assessment, and accident investigation