Development and Experimental Validation of High Performance Embedded Intelligence and Fail-Operational Urban Surround Perception Solutions of the PRYSTINE Project

Automated Driving Systems (ADSs) commend a substantial reduction of human-caused road accidents while simultaneously lowering emissions, mitigating congestion, decreasing energy consumption and increasing overall productivity. However, achieving higher SAE levels of driving automation and complying with ISO26262 C and D Automotive Safety Integrity Levels (ASILs) is a multi-disciplinary challenge that requires insights into safety-critical architectures, multi-modal perception and real-time control. This paper presents an assorted effort carried out in the European H2020 ECSEL project—PRYSTINE. In this paper, we (1) investigate Simplex, 1oo2d and hybrid fail-operational computing architectures, (2) devise a multi-modal perception system with fail-safety mechanisms, (3) present a passenger vehicle-based demonstrator for low-speed autonomy and (4) suggest a trust-based fusion approach validated on a heavy-duty truck.

Systematic synthesis and multi-criteria evaluation of transmission topologies for electric vehicles

The focus on the expansion of the electrification of vehicles becomes stronger. Thus, the development process of powertrains of those cars needs to be more dynamic to react to the new challenges. One way to accelerate the development is to automate predevelopment and evaluation at an early stage. An automated method to synthesize transmission topologies and pre-design gears for the generated topologies for electric vehicles is presented within this paper. The method contains two internal evaluations—one after the topology synthesis and the second after the initial design of the gears. The results of the method are gear ratios and gear data for the single transmission steps of each topology. The inputs and boundary conditions can be easily changed and fitted to specific requirements for all use-cases. Here, the process is explained, and the methods' results are validated using state-of-the-art passenger vehicle transmission. As for electric trucks, no state-of-the-art electric powertrains exist; the method is subsequently applied to find topologies for a heavy-duty truck. Extracts of the results are presented. The application for trucks is carried out within the publicly funded research project “Concept ELV2”. In general, the method is capable of synthesizing transmissions for any given vehicle and motor combination.

Research and Analysis of the Propagation of Vertical Vibrations in the Arrangement of a Vehicle Seat—A Child’s Seat

This paper deals with the issues of the impact of vertical vibrations on a child seated in a child seat during a journey. Its purpose was to assess the impact of fastening the child seats and road conditions on the level of vibrations recorded on child seats. The paper describes the tested child seats, the methodology of the tests and the test apparatus included in the measuring track. The tests were carried out in real road conditions where the child seats were located on the rear seat of a passenger vehicle. One was attached with standard seat belts, and the other with the ISOFIX base. When driving on roads with three types of surface, the following vertical accelerations were measured: seat of the child seats, the rear seat of the vehicle and the ISOfix base. The recorded accelerations were first analyzed in the time domain and then in the frequency domain. Three indexes (r.m.s, rmq and VDV) were used to assess the vibration comfort. Research has shown that the classic method of fastening a child seat with standard seat belts is more advantageous in terms of vibration comfort. Calculated indicators confirmed the negative impact of separating the child seat from the rear seat of the vehicle using the IQ ISOFIX base.

Design improvement of an airbox for a passenger vehicle

The purpose of an airbox is to provide the engine with a clean air flow for combustion. The high velocity of the fluid flow across the airbox will create a pressure drop resulting a decline in the vehicle’s performance. This project collaborates with an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) to develop a numerical simulation model for a new airbox design and to compare its pressure drop with OEM production design. Reducing the pressure drop across the airbox can increase the efficiency of a vehicle, hence, reducing CO2 emissions. This research focuses on the passenger type vehicle as it is the highest source of carbon dioxide (CO2) being emitted for road transportation and these pollutant emissions have also caused many health problems on human. ANSYS Fluent program was used to carry out Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation for both OEM and the new design. Then, the same simulation setup was used for the new design. The inlet size of the new design is larger when compared to the OEM design. After analysing both models, it was determined that the main reason behind the pressure loss was caused by the shape of the airbox and turbulent flow inside. The new airbox design shows reduction of 96% in the pressure drop within it and in return, enhancing the performance of the passenger vehicle. This conclude that numerical simulation model is able to provide a good indicator for the designer to choose the best design and proceed with fabrication and conduct actual test, thus saving a lot of prototyping and repeated testing cost.