Design of a Human-Powered Roll Stabilization Attachment for Utilitarian Two-Wheeled Vehicles

This paper describes the motivation and development of a human-powered roll stabilization attachment for utilitarian two-wheeled vehicles. The proposed design has been built and tested by the authors in both on- and off-road conditions. It provides balance by providing a rolling platform underneath the two-wheeled vehicle (motorcycle) for the user to push against with their feet. This platform is placed under the driver’s sitting position and is towed from a three degree-of-freedom joint behind the front axle (i.e. one of the implementations uses a ball hitch joint). Fifty eight percent of the world’s motorcycles are in Asia Pacific, and Southern and Eastern Asia. In most of those countries, motorcycles greatly outnumber cars and many of these motorcycles function as utility vehicles. The uses of motorcycles include transportation of goods on the bike frame, transportation of goods on a trailer, and even pulling agricultural implements in farms. If no modifications are made to the motorcycle, at slow speeds operators of motorcycles must drag their feet on the ground and lightly push upwards as needed to retain balance. Attaching conventional outrigger wheels, similar to a motorcycle side-car, can negate some of the advantages of motorcycles that users value by: (A) preventing leaning into turns when rigid outriggers arms are used, (B) significantly increasing complexity and mass when outrigger arms mounted on suspension systems are used, and (C) increasing the vehicle’s width such that it can no longer travel between car lanes or between rows of growing crop. An additional design consideration for balancing motorcycles is the user’s need for quick conversion between a statically balanced vehicle and a vehicle can lean dynamically in turns, for example for someone who wishes to operate a motorcycle on farms but also travel quickly between agricultural fields. This conversion convenience is affected not only by the ease of attaching and detaching the balancing system but also by the ability to comfortably carry on the balancing system on the motorcycle even when it is not being used, such that it can be deployed when it is needed. This paper describes a design for a human-powered roll stabilization attachment that address these concerns and other identified user needs. It also provides with general equations to design similar human-powered roll stabilization systems for motorcycles.

Numerical Co-Simulation of Drag Torque in the Gearbox Combined Multibody Dynamics With Moving Particle Semi-Implicit Method

In the gearbox, lubrication is an important technical measure to improve the friction state of the friction pair and ensure the smooth operation of the mechanical system, and it also plays an important role in cooling, sealing, rust prevention, shock absorption and force transmission. Common lubrication methods in automobile gearbox include dip lubrication, splash lubrication and forced lubrication, but dip and splash lubrication often result in oil churning power loss of the gearbox, and predicting this loss at design stage can help designers to modify the design and improve efficiency. In this paper, the moving particle semi-implicit method is applied to analyze the churning loss of a single helical gear in the transmission system, and the accuracy of the simulation results is verified by experimental data. This research can provide an effective new approach to study the oil churning power loss of gear in transmission.

Teleoperated Vehicle-Perspective Predictive Display Accounting for Network Time Delays

Variable network time-delays in data-transmission is the major problem in tele-operating a vehicle. Even on LTE network, variability of these delays is high (70–150 ms ping). This paper presents an innovative approach of providing the remote operator a forecasted video stream which replicates future perspective of vehicle’s FOV upon reception of maneuvering commands. First, vehicle position is predicted accounting for its speed and data transmission delays. Then perspective image transformation2 is performed to get exact new perspective of vehicle FOV corresponds to the predicted position. This approach addresses both issues, time-delays as well as its variability. Only one display, which shows frontward FOV is availed for mock-up.

Effects of Surface Condition on Traction of Two-Wheeled Inverted-Pendulum Transporters

Self-balancing transporters apply wheel torque in order to accelerate, turn, and regain balance. However, these control efforts require sufficient traction between the wheels and the ground so that appropriate wheel-ground forces are generated. When this is not the case, the stability is compromised and machine behavior can be unexpected and destabilizing. Experiments were performed to quantify the reduction in wheel-ground friction that can occur in common real-life conditions, such as on wet surfaces or surfaces with debris. A simulation has been developed to show that common transporter motions that are safe on dry surfaces lead to unstable or unpredictable behavior when the available wheel-ground friction is reduced by amounts similar to those seen in the experiments.

Coordinated Model Predictive Control on Multi-Lane Roads

There are significant economic, environmental, energy, and other societal costs incurred by the road transportation sector. With the advent and penetration of connected and autonomous vehicles there are vast opportunities to optimize the control of individual vehicles for reducing energy consumption and increasing traffic flow. Model predictive control is a useful tool to achieve such goals, while accommodating ego-centric objectives typical of heterogeneous traffic and explicitly enforcing collision and other constraints. In this paper, we describe a multi-agent distributed maneuver planning and lane selection model predictive controller that includes an information sharing and coordination scheme. The energy saving potential of the proposed coordination scheme is then evaluated via large scale microscopic traffic simulations considering different penetration levels of connected and automated vehicles.

Leveraging Animations to Enhance Learning Through Virtual Product Dissection

Product dissection, in either physical or virtual form, has been found to be an effective learning tool. With the rapid growth of technology, effective virtual education tools have the potential to continue increasing in value. Although physical product dissection is often implemented in the classroom, there are some limitations to employing these tools. One such limitation is the inability to see into a product and view the internals of a product while it is functioning. Recent research has found that students who dissect physical or virtual products have similar conceptual understanding of products after dissection. Although there are promising findings for virtual dissection, there is still room for improvement in these virtual environments to enable better understanding of products. One way this may be possible is through the addition of animations, which show the functions of the internal components in a product, a capability that is currently not offered in virtual product dissection tools. These animations have the ability to show how a product works in ways unobtainable through physical product dissection and currently unavailable in virtual product dissection. Therefore, this research aims to explore the impact that animation in virtual product dissection has on learning and cognitive load for engineering students.

Developing an Interview Protocol for an Engineering Capstone Design Course

In a multifaceted course such as senior capstone design, it is integral to ensure students are receiving a value adding experience. In most universities across the United States, senior capstone design is a multiple semester sequence where design is heavily emphasized and students are encouraged to test their skills, both technical and nontechnical, by solving and implementing solutions to real industry problems. Given the nature of design courses, the takeaways are not things that can be measured solely through the use of a letter grade. Rather, an in-depth reflective interview must be performed to fully comprehend what students received from the course. In this study, an In-Depth Interview Protocol was developed to understand the effectiveness of engineering design courses and improve design education as a whole. This paper outlines the phases that contribute towards the development of an effective interview protocol for implementation in senior capstone design curriculum. The formulation and considerations are outlined with respect to design curriculum and student success. This protocol will be utilized to perform a Reflection Interview for each senior design project team at the end of the spring 2019 semester. The assignment is not graded and is inquisitive on the students’ perceptions of motivation during their time at Florida Tech. The qualitative data gathered will be eligible for further studies and analysis.

On the Use of Multi-Disciplinary Optimisation Methods for Road Vehicle Passive Suspension Design

Two widely used decomposition-based multi-disciplinary optimisation (MDO) methods, namely analytical target cascading (ATC) and collaborative optimisation (CO), are applied to the design of the suspension system of a road vehicle. Instead of directly optimising the spring stiffness and the damping coefficient, three parameters of the spring and three parameters of the damper are selected as design variables. Discomfort, road holding, and the total mass of the spring-damper system, are considered as objective functions. An investigation is completed to analyse the performance of the two decomposition methods compared with the conventional all-in-one (AiO) formulation in terms of efficiency and applicability.

Modal Analysis of a Utility Bicycle From the Perspective of Riding Comfort

The correlation between the modal properties and the comfort characteristics of a utility, step-through frame bicycle are investigated. In-plane modal testing of the vehicle is carried out both without and with the rider, and the major differences between the results obtained with the two conditions are highlighted. In order to have an insight into the contribution of the various bicycle components to the transmission of vibrations, the frequency response functions (FRFs) between the main interface points in the vehicle structure are measured and studied. Finally, the modal characteristics are compared with road tests data, emphasizing the relationship between the in-plane vibration modes and the main peaks in the acceleration power spectral densities (PSDs) measured on the road.

Embedding Cybersecurity Into Design Education: Increasing Designers’ Awareness of Cybersecurity Throughout the Design Process

As more digital devices with sensing capabilities are introduced into users’ daily lives, the risks of threats to data and privacy and security have increased. While cybersecurity has been acknowledged as an important concern in developing products with digital services, currently available design methodologies and practices offer limited effective guidance to designers to explicitly address cybersecurity issues. In this paper, we present a case study from a product design course at the University of California, Berkeley, where the course’s teaching team implemented an intervention in the form of cybersecurity-focused educational materials into the design process. The baseline and post-intervention survey results indicate that the cybersecurity intervention throughout the course had positively influenced the students’ awareness of cybersecurity (p < 0.001, SD = 0.79, 26% increase in score, Cohen’s d = 0.81). The intervention provoked the designers to consider and include aspects of cybersecurity in developing their design solutions throughout most of the design process. However, their increased awareness aside, the extent of the student teams considering cybersecurity had tapered off over the 6-week design course with little noticeable influence in the final design.