Cooperative look-ahead control for fuel-efficient and safe heavy-duty vehicle platooning

The operation of groups of heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) at a small inter-vehicular distance (known as platoon) allows to lower the overall aerodynamic drag and, therefore, to reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. However, due to the large mass and limited engine power of HDVs, slopes have a significant impact on the feasible and optimal speed profiles that each vehicle can and should follow. Therefore maintaining a short inter-vehicular distance as required by platooning without coordination between vehicles can often result in inefficient or even unfeasible trajectories. In this paper we propose a two-layer control architecture for HDV platooning aimed to safely and fuel-efficiently coordinate the vehicles in the platoon. Here, the layers are responsible for the inclusion of preview information on road topography and the real-time control of the vehicles, respectively. Within this architecture, dynamic programming is used to compute the fuel-optimal speed profile for the entire platoon and a distributed model predictive control framework is developed for the real-time control of the vehicles. The effectiveness of the proposed controller is analyzed by means of simulations of several realistic scenarios that suggest a possible fuel saving of up to 12% for the follower vehicles compared to the use of standard platoon controllers.Comment: 16 pages, 16 figures, submitted to journa

FuSSI-Net: Fusion of Spatio-temporal Skeletons for Intention Prediction Network

Pedestrian intention recognition is very important to develop robust and safe autonomous driving (AD) and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) functionalities for urban driving. In this work, we develop an end-to-end pedestrian intention framework that performs well on day- and night- time scenarios. Our framework relies on objection detection bounding boxes combined with skeletal features of human pose. We study early, late, and combined (early and late) fusion mechanisms to exploit the skeletal features and reduce false positives as well to improve the intention prediction performance. The early fusion mechanism results in AP of 0.89 and precision/recall of 0.79/0.89 for pedestrian intention classification. Furthermore, we propose three new metrics to properly evaluate the pedestrian intention systems. Under these new evaluation metrics for the intention prediction, the proposed end-to-end network offers accurate pedestrian intention up to half a second ahead of the actual risky maneuver.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, 5 tables, IEEE Asilomar SS

Implementation of probabilistic approach to rock mass strength estimation while excavating through fault zones

Purpose. The paper addresses the rock mass state estimation while excavating a cross-heading through the area of regional fault “Bohdanivskyi” based on probabilistic approach to assessing the rock strength. Methods. The boundaries and fault zone extension are specified based on geological service database. This hazardous fault area has been confirmed, and the expected water inflow and methane emission have been identified based on the probe holes drilled ahead of the advancing face. To assess the strength of rocks, the statistical strength theory is used. Numerical simulation is performed using finite element method that is well-tested in geomechanical problems. Findings. The technique of rock mass strength estimation using structural factor based on statistical strength theory has been implemented to improve the adequacy of mathematical modeling. Numerical simulation of geomechanical processes based on finite element method and Hoek-Brown failure criterion is carried out. The changes of rock stress-strain state while excavating the cross-heading through various sites of the fault zone are determined depending on the level of rock disintegration. Originality. New regularities of rock mass behavior within the fault area are determined based on developed technique of rock strength assessment considering the rock mass disintegration and watering. Practical implications. Estimation of rock failure has resulted in designing the combination of support systems comprising metal sets, rockbolts and shotcrete.Мета. Стаття спрямована на оцінку стану породного масиву при проведенні відкаточного квершлагу через зону великого регіонального геологічного порушення “Богданівський” скид на основі ймовірнісного підходу до оцінки міцності гірських порід. Методика. Межі зони геологічного порушення визначалися із використанням бази даних геологічної служби. Значення очікуваного водотоку та наявність метану визначалися із використанням методу пробного буріння попереду вибою. Для оцінки міцності гірських порід використана статистична теорія міцності. Чисельне моделювання проводилося з використання добре апробованого в задачах геомеханіки методу скінченних елементів. Результати. Методика оцінки міцності масиву гірських порід, що заснована на статистичній теорії міцності, була використана для підвищення адекватності математичного моделювання. Виконано чисельне моделювання геомеханічних процесів на основі методу скінченних елементів і критерію міцності Хока-Брауна. Визначено зміни напружено-деформованого стану порід при проведенні відкаточного квершлагу через різні ділянки зони геологічного порушення в залежності від ступеню дезінтеграції порід. Наукова новизна. Встановлено нові закономірності поведінки породного масиву в зоні геологічного порушення на основі оцінки міцності порід, що враховує ступінь дезінтеграції й обводнення породного масиву. Практична значимість. Адекватна оцінка міцності породного масиву і ступеня його зрушеності дозволила розробити комбіноване кріплення, що включає металеву арку, анкерну систему та шар торкретбетону.Цель. Статья направлена на оценку состояния породного массива при проведении откаточного квершлага через зону крупного регионального геологического нарушения “Богдановский” сброс на основе вероятностного подхода к оценке прочности горных пород. Методика. Границы зоны геологического нарушения определялись с использованием базы данных геологической службы. Значения ожидаемого водопритока и наличие метана определялись с использованием метода пробных бурений, выполняемых впереди забоя выработки. Для оценки прочности горных пород использована статистическая теория прочности. Численное моделирование выполнено с использованием метода конечных элементов, хорошо апробированного в задачах геомеханики. Результаты. Методика оценки прочности массива горных пород, основанная на статистической теории прочности, применена с целью повышения адекватности математического моделирования. Выполнено численное моделирование геомеханических процессов на основе метода конечных элементов и критерия прочности Хока-Брауна. Определены изменения напряженно-деформированного состояния пород при проведении откаточного квершлага через различные участки зоны геологического нарушения в зависимости от степени дезинтеграции пород. Научная новизна. Установлены новые закономерности поведения породного массива в зоне геологического нарушения на основе оценки прочности пород, учитывающей степень дезинтеграции и обводнения породного массива. Практическая значимость. Адекватная оценка прочности породного массива и степени его нарушенности позволила разработать комбинированную крепь, включающую металлическую арку, анкерную систему и слой торкретбетона.This work was supported by PJS Company “DTEK Pavlohradvuhillia”, grants No. 050420/372-PU-SHUTr. The authors would like to thank all technical staff of the mine “Samarska” for the help during the in situ observation

Analysis and observation of grid connected single phase inverter integration

A single-phase grid connected with a photovoltaic (PV) power system that will provide high voltage gain with state model analysis for the control of the system has been presented. In addition to the solar panels, the system is equipped with a dc–dc converter, which allows the panels’ maximum power point to be tracked, a singlephase inverter and PI controller, all connected to a single-phase utility grid. The maximum power point is maintained with a perturb and observe method. A PI controller is used to control the power injected into the grid. The controller is used to generate PWM and also controlling extra power. The maximum power delivered, and it is synchronized with help of PWM to improve the power quality and system efficiency. In this project the design separated in closed loop and open loop designs. The result in both designs are different where is the voltage will be increase up to 3.214% more in closed loop design. Also, the power will increase up to 27.78% in closed loop design

A Learning-Based Framework for Two-Dimensional Vehicle Maneuver Prediction over V2V Networks

Situational awareness in vehicular networks could be substantially improved utilizing reliable trajectory prediction methods. More precise situational awareness, in turn, results in notably better performance of critical safety applications, such as Forward Collision Warning (FCW), as well as comfort applications like Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC). Therefore, vehicle trajectory prediction problem needs to be deeply investigated in order to come up with an end to end framework with enough precision required by the safety applications' controllers. This problem has been tackled in the literature using different methods. However, machine learning, which is a promising and emerging field with remarkable potential for time series prediction, has not been explored enough for this purpose. In this paper, a two-layer neural network-based system is developed which predicts the future values of vehicle parameters, such as velocity, acceleration, and yaw rate, in the first layer and then predicts the two-dimensional, i.e. longitudinal and lateral, trajectory points based on the first layer's outputs. The performance of the proposed framework has been evaluated in realistic cut-in scenarios from Safety Pilot Model Deployment (SPMD) dataset and the results show a noticeable improvement in the prediction accuracy in comparison with the kinematics model which is the dominant employed model by the automotive industry. Both ideal and nonideal communication circumstances have been investigated for our system evaluation. For non-ideal case, an estimation step is included in the framework before the parameter prediction block to handle the drawbacks of packet drops or sensor failures and reconstruct the time series of vehicle parameters at a desirable frequency