Optimisation of Grease Dispensation for Heavy-duty Mining Excavators

This work deals with improvement of the control of lubricant dispensation for automatic centralized lubrication system on heavy-duty mining excavators. The method adopted toachieve this includes analysis of mechanical, electrical and electronic components of the existing system. Subsequently, modifications were made on the system. Mechanical and electrical components were selected to control dispensation of lubricant whilst electronic components were selected to interact via communicating electrical signal to electrical components. Grease manifold block and current regulating solenoid valve were selected to work with a grease control module that communicates with a motion logic control module through a control area network connected to excavator joystick and pedal. Lubricant savings of 60.80 cm3/min (0.0608 litres/min) which amounts to annual savings of $ 62,102.09 per annum, can be made with the proposed modification in a typical mining excavator.

A Design of a Lightweight In-Vehicle Edge Gateway for the Self-Diagnosis of an Autonomous Vehicle

This paper proposes a Lightweight In-Vehicle Edge Gateway (LI-VEG) for the self-diagnosis of an autonomous vehicle, which supports a rapid and accurate communication between in-vehicle sensors and a self-diagnosis module and between in-vehicle protocols. A paper on the self-diagnosis module has been published previously, thus this paper only covers the LI-VEG, not the self-diagnosis. The LI-VEG consists of an In-Vehicle Sending and Receiving Layer (InV-SRL), an InV-Management Layer (InV-ML) and an InV-Data Translator Layer (InV-DTL). First, the InV-SRL receives the messages from FlexRay, Control Area Network (CAN), Media Oriented Systems Transport (MOST), and Ethernet and transfers the received messages to the InV-ML. Second, the InV-ML manages the message transmission and reception of FlexRay, CAN, MOST, and Ethernet and an Address Mapping Table. Third, the InV-DTL decomposes the message of FlexRay, CAN, MOST, and Ethernet and recomposes the decomposed messages to the frame suitable for a destination protocol. The performance analysis of the LI-VEG shows that the transmission delay time about message translation and transmission is reduced by an average of 10.83% and the transmission delay time caused by traffic overhead is improved by an average of 0.95%. Therefore, the LI-VEG has higher compatibility and is more cost effective because it applies a software gateway to the OBD, compared to a hardware gateway. In addition, it can reduce the transmission error and overhead caused by message decomposition because of a lightweight message header.

Concurrent Estimation of a Vehicle’s Mass and Auxiliary Power

The goal of this paper is to estimate the mass and auxiliary power of a vehicle simultaneously. Auxiliary power is the portion of the load power that is consumed by any auxiliary devices such as A/C compressor which is connected to the engine directly. This estimation has many potential applications especially in power management control systems of hybrid and plug-in-hybrid vehicles to improve their efficiency. The parameter estimation algorithm is based on power balance of the vehicle. That is, total generated power by the engine should be equal to the power required for moving the vehicle plus the power consumed by the auxiliary devices. After developing the system model, Kalman filter is applied for the estimation of the auxiliary power and vehicle mass. The proposed estimation algorithm uses the signals available through the vehicle control area network (CAN), and no extra sensor is required. It is assumed that the road grade is provided by a Global Positioning System (GPS) installed in the car. Simulations are presented to show the performance of the estimation algorithm in both city and highway driving cycles. The estimated and actual results are in very good agreement.