Mixed Fuzzy-Logic and Game-Theoretical Approach to Justify Vehicle Models for Servicing the Public Bus Line

One of the main problems to be solved by the transport operators is the substantiation of the vehicle models servicing the transport lines. A gametheoretical approach is proposed in this paper to justify the bus model choice based on the passengers’ preferences and the structure of the passenger flows. To estimate the customers’ preferences, the membership functions for fuzzy sets of the optimal vehicle models were defined. The simulation experiment aiming to estimate the city fleet structure in terms of the vehicles’ capacity was conducted for the Talas city (Kazakhstan) based on the proposed approach with use of the corresponding software implementation of the developed mathematical models. As a result of the experimental studies, the impact of the passengers’ flow structure and the number of carriers on the rational structure of the city bus fleet was studied in the paper.

Adaptive Cruise Control for Intelligent City Bus Based on Vehicle Mass and Road Slope Estimation

Adaptive cruise control (ACC), as a driver assistant system for vehicles, not only relieves the burden of drivers, but also improves driving safety. This paper takes the intelligent pure electric city bus as the research platform, presenting a novel ACC control strategy that could comprehensively address issues of tracking capability, driving safety, energy saving, and driving comfort during vehicle following. A hierarchical control architecture is utilized in this paper. The lower controller is based on the nonlinear vehicle dynamics model and adjusts vehicle acceleration with consideration to the changes of bus mass and road slope by extended Kalman filter (EKF). The upper controller adapts Model Predictive Control (MPC) theory to solve the multi-objective optimal problem in ACC process. Cost functions are developed to balance the tracking distance, driving safety, energy consumption, and driving comfort. The simulations and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) test are implemented; results show that the proposed control strategy ensured the driving safety and tracking ability of the bus, and reduced the vehicle’s maximum impact to 5 m/s3 and the State of Charge (SoC) consumption by 10%. Vehicle comfort and energy economy are improved obviously.

Stability and Ride Comfort Performance of Three-Axle City Buses due to the Third Axle Position: A Comparative Approach

The efficiency of public transport is fundamental for the city traffic. Taking this as a goal and linking with the financial and structural situations of each market, new technologies regarding city buses have emerged in recent years and one of them is studied in a comparative way in the present work. A new city bus which has 15 meters length, front-engine and three-axles. The great difference of this vehicle is the positioning of the third axle near to the front axle of the vehicle instead of the traditional configuration whereupon this axle is located near the rear axle. With the aid of MATLAB/Simulink, the two mentioned vehicle models were generated with eighteen degrees of freedom and were tested in two different manoeuvrers, passing through a bump and then a sequence of turns. At the end of the work, it was possible to conclude that the new city bus presents less oscillations in terms of roll and pitch angles in addition to smaller vertical displacements for the same proposed manoeuvre, which leads to greater passenger comfort.

The method of optimizing the main technical parameters of the promising city electric buses of ONC Type

Problem. City electric buses of the ONC type, which are widely used for passenger transportation on city routes, even if the permissible gross weight is increased by 1500 kg, have significantly lower passenger capacity than the high-class buses on the basis of the bodies of which they are created. This is due to the fact that the mass of traction batteries is much greater than the mass of the power unit with all its city bus systems. Goal. The goal is determining the optimal values of the main technical parameters of promising electric buses already at the stages of development of sketch proposals or sketch projects. Methodology. The work is based on the analysis of technical parameters of city electric buses of modern designs and regulated technical requirements for high-capacity passenger wheeled vehicles, the dependences of their passenger capacity on the dimensional parameters of the body, the weight of the equipped electric bus without the weight of traction batteries and the autonomous mileage of electric buses. Results. Three variants of a technique of optimizing the parameters of the designed city electric buses on one of the set parameters – the nominal passenger capacity, average daily autonomous run or length of a body of an electric bus are developed. Originality. An algorithm for determining the optimized parameters of the designed electric buses at the stage of development of sketch proposals and sketch projects is proposed. Practical value. The proposed method provides the design of promising competitive city electric buses of ONC type, which are most suitable for use in the cities of Ukraine, with a given or maximum possible nominal passenger capacity in terms of providing a given or maximum autonomous mileage and equality of passenger capacity, determined by passenger area mass.

User Satisfaction of the Free Shuttle Bus Service in Petaling Jaya

Public transportation brings more convenience to customer in urban and rural areas. In Malaysia, awareness of using the PJ City bus by passengers in Petaling Jaya is still limited. Many passengers are still unsatisfied with the services provided because the shuttle bus is zero-priced services, so the quality of services are always questioned by access users. Therefore, this current study is to investigate the influences of value, quality and reputation of free shuttle (PJ City) bus services towards customer satisfaction. Understanding what customers expect is very important as it will help to improve the services. Data were collected from users of PJ City bus using a survey questionnaire. The finding further revealed that, value positively influenced the satisfaction of customers. So, it is important for the service provider to enhance its value to the customer.

Determination of the Topography and Draining of the Site for the Benin City Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Station

The reconciliation of engineering designs that do not have survey information, that involve accurate configuration of the proposed constructions at their respective locations on-site requires first a topographic survey to obtain the perimeter survey plan, which in turn, shows the area, shape, perimeter and orientation of the site; spot heights plan showing the existing ground levels thereby used to decide on suitable gradients and determine appropriate finished ground surface, coordinates of the turning points of outlines of the proposed constructions and their respective elevations. For that reason, this study determines the topography and drains the site for the Benin City Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) station in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State. A topographic survey was carried out to produce topographic plans. The accuracy of the survey was computed to determine its reliability. The perimeter survey plan was plotted using AutoCAD Civil 3D Land Desktop Companion 2009 to present the area, shape, perimeter and orientation of the site. The TIN method was used for the computation of the volume of earthworks. The existing and the finished ground surfaces, vector, as well as the flow direction plans, contour plans and the 3D surface maps were plotted using Surfer 11 to show graphically the existing and the proposed topography of the site. A network of drainages was established to drain the site. The study has shown that the site can be drained in two ways, into the moat behind it and existing drainage along Obakhavbaye.

Semi-Markov Model of the System of Repairs and Preventive Replacements by Age of City Buses

The paper presents a mathematical model of the system of repairs and preventive replacements by age of city buses. The mathematical model was developed using the theory of semi-Markov processes. In the model developed, four types of city bus renewal processes are considered and three types of corrective repairs and preventive replacement. Corrective repairs are considered in two types: minimal repairs (repairs carried out by the Technical Service units) and perfect repairs (repairs carried out at the stations of the Service Station). The models of restoration systems that use semi-Markov processes in which minimal repairs, perfect repairs, and preventive replacements by age, have been examined in the literature to a limited extent. The system under consideration is analysed from the point of view of two criteria: profit per time unit and availability of city buses to carry out the assigned transport tasks. Conditions of criterion functions’ extremum (maximum) existence were formulated for the adopted assumptions. The considerations presented in the paper are illustrated by exemplary results of calculations.