Safe Control of Manufacturing Vehicles Research Towards Standard Test Methods

The National Institute of Standards and Technology‟s Intelligent Systems Division has been researching several areas leading to safe control of manufacturing vehicles to improve automated guided vehicle (AGV) safety standards. The research areas include: AGV safety and control based on advanced two-dimensional (2D) sensors that detect moving standard test pieces representing humans; Ability of advanced 3D imaging sensors, when mounted to an AGV or forklift, to detect stationary or moving objects and test pieces on the ground or hanging over the work area; and Manned forklift safety based on advanced 3D imaging sensors that detect visible and non-visible regions for forklift operators. Experiments and results in the above areas are presented in this paper. The experimental results will be used to develop and recommend standard test methods, some of which are proposed in this paper, and to improve the standard stopping distance exception language and operator blind spot language in AGV standards

Architecture and Information Requirements to Assess and Predict Flight Safety Risks During Highly Autonomous Urban Flight Operations

As aviation adopts new and increasingly complex operational paradigms, vehicle types, and technologies to broaden airspace capability and efficiency, maintaining a safe system will require recognition and timely mitigation of new safety issues as they emerge and before significant consequences occur. A shift toward a more predictive risk mitigation capability becomes critical to meet this challenge. In-time safety assurance comprises monitoring, assessment, and mitigation functions that proactively reduce risk in complex operational environments where the interplay of hazards may not be known (and therefore not accounted for) during design. These functions can also help to understand and predict emergent effects caused by the increased use of automation or autonomous functions that may exhibit unexpected non-deterministic behaviors. The envisioned monitoring and assessment functions can look for precursors, anomalies, and trends (PATs) by applying model-based and data-driven methods. Outputs would then drive downstream mitigation(s) if needed to reduce risk. These mitigations may be accomplished using traditional design revision processes or via operational (and sometimes automated) mechanisms. The latter refers to the in-time aspect of the system concept. This report comprises architecture and information requirements and considerations toward enabling such a capability within the domain of low altitude highly autonomous urban flight operations. This domain may span, for example, public-use surveillance missions flown by small unmanned aircraft (e.g., infrastructure inspection, facility management, emergency response, law enforcement, and/or security) to transportation missions flown by larger aircraft that may carry passengers or deliver products. Caveat: Any stated requirements in this report should be considered initial requirements that are intended to drive research and development (R&D). These initial requirements are likely to evolve based on R&D findings, refinement of operational concepts, industry advances, and new industry or regulatory policies or standards related to safety assurance

ICT Infrastructure for Cooperative, Connected and Automated Transport in Transition Areas

One of the challenges of automated road transport is to manage the coexistence of conventional and highly automated vehicles, in order to ensure an uninterrupted level of safety and efficiency. Vehicles driving at a higher automation level may have to change to a lower level of automation in a certain area under certain circumstances and certain (e.g. road and weather) conditions. The paper targets the transition phases between different levels of automation. It will review related research, introduce a concept to investigate automation level changes, present some recent research results, i.e. assessing key performance indicators for both analysing driver behaviour and traffic management in light of autonomous vehicles, an initial simulation architecture, and address further research topics on investigation of the traffic management in such areas (called "Transition Areas") when the automation level changes, and development of traffic management procedures and protocols to enable smooth coexistence of automated, cooperative, connected vehicles and conventional vehicles, especially in an urban environment

Developing a distributed electronic health-record store for India

The DIGHT project is addressing the problem of building a scalable and highly available information store for the Electronic Health Records (EHRs) of the over one billion citizens of India

Summary report for a hydrogen sensor workshop: Hydrogen safety sensors and their use in applications with hydrogen as an alternative fuel

On May 10, 2017, a Hydrogen Sensor Workshop was held in Brussels, Belgium. The workshop was jointly organised by the sensor test laboratories at the Joint Research Centre (Petten, Netherlands) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (Golden, Colorado, United States), with assistance from the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking. The purpose of the workshop was to bring together stakeholders in the hydrogen community with an interest in hydrogen sensors, with a special focus on the ability of existing hydrogen sensor technology to meet end-user needs in applications for hydrogen as an alternative fuel. Participants included sensor manufacturers, end-users, and experts from sensor test laboratories. The main performance gaps hindering the deployment of hydrogen sensors were discussed. From the end-user perspective, numerous gaps were identified in which existing sensor performance capability does not fully meet their needs. For most safety applications, the metrological performance of current hydrogen sensors is adequate, but improvements are still needed. The most critical metrological gap remains sensor lifetime, which includes both the functionality (i.e., does the sensor work) of the sensor and long-term signal stability (i.e., does the sensor need to be recalibrated). Also, for many applications, such as process control and critical safety scenarios, faster response times and improved sensor accuracy are necessary. Maintenance and calibration requirements were identified as a key issue. Certification requirements of hydrogen safety sensors were also identified as a critical barrier. Sensor manufacturers noted that the cumbersome certification requirements can significantly impact sensor cost, especially for a limited market. The complex certification requirements also impacted end-users who often found that sensors with required listings are not available. Simplifying and harmonizing certification requirements were identified as a critical topic requiring further attention and support. In terms of standardisation, the performance requirements for sensors for automotive applications were also mentioned as a critical gap,JRC.C.1-Energy Storag

A Framework for Integrating Transportation Into Smart Cities

In recent years, economic, environmental, and political forces have quickly given rise to “Smart Cities” -- an array of strategies that can transform transportation in cities. Using a multi-method approach to research and develop a framework for smart cities, this study provides a framework that can be employed to: Understand what a smart city is and how to replicate smart city successes; The role of pilot projects, metrics, and evaluations to test, implement, and replicate strategies; and Understand the role of shared micromobility, big data, and other key issues impacting communities. This research provides recommendations for policy and professional practice as it relates to integrating transportation into smart cities

Vibration-Induced Discomfort in Vehicles: A Comparative Evaluation Approach for Enhancing Comfort and Ride Quality

This article introduces a methodology for conducting comparative evaluations of vibration-induced discomfort. The aim is to outline a procedure specifically focused on assessing and comparing the discomfort caused by vibrations. The article emphasizes the metrics that can effectively quantify vibration-induced discomfort and provides insights on utilizing available information to facilitate the assessment of differences observed during the comparisons. The study also addresses the selection of appropriate target scenarios and test environments within the context of the comparative evaluation procedure. A practical case study is presented, highlighting the comparison of wheel corner concepts in the development of new vehicle architectures. Currently, the evaluation criteria and difference thresholds available allow for comparative evaluations within a limited range of vehicle vibration characteristics

Closing the Certification Gaps in Adaptive Flight Control Software

Over the last five decades, extensive research has been performed to design and develop adaptive control systems for aerospace systems and other applications where the capability to change controller behavior at different operating conditions is highly desirable. Although adaptive flight control has been partially implemented through the use of gain-scheduled control, truly adaptive control systems using learning algorithms and on-line system identification methods have not seen commercial deployment. The reason is that the certification process for adaptive flight control software for use in national air space has not yet been decided. The purpose of this paper is to examine the gaps between the state-of-the-art methodologies used to certify conventional (i.e., non-adaptive) flight control system software and what will likely to be needed to satisfy FAA airworthiness requirements. These gaps include the lack of a certification plan or process guide, the need to develop verification and validation tools and methodologies to analyze adaptive controller stability and convergence, as well as the development of metrics to evaluate adaptive controller performance at off-nominal flight conditions. This paper presents the major certification gap areas, a description of the current state of the verification methodologies, and what further research efforts will likely be needed to close the gaps remaining in current certification practices. It is envisioned that closing the gap will require certain advances in simulation methods, comprehensive methods to determine learning algorithm stability and convergence rates, the development of performance metrics for adaptive controllers, the application of formal software assurance methods, the application of on-line software monitoring tools for adaptive controller health assessment, and the development of a certification case for adaptive system safety of flight