Design Of Control Unit Research Articles

Design of a Hydraulic Control Unit for a Two-Speed Dedicated Electric Vehicle Transmission

Two-speed automatic transmission is one solution to increase the economic efficiency and dynamic performance of battery electric vehicles (BEV). Hydraulic control unit (HCU) is a key component in automatic transmissions, which determines the quality of shifting directly. Based on the structural scheme and shift logic of a two-speed dedicated electric vehicles transmission (2DET) with two wet clutches, we designs a 2DET hydraulic control unit composed of three subsystems: pressure regulating and flow control system, shift operated and control system and cooling and lubrication system. The results of the experiments, including the valve body bench test, transmission bench test and vehicle test, show that the design of hydraulic control unit meets the requirements.

A new design of electronic control unit involving microcontroller to determine important parameters for target species in forest.

Forests, a valuable source provided by nature to living beings, are indispensable for many living organisms; hence, it is important to ensure the sustainability of forests. Determining the factors that exposure threats to the forests, executing protective methods against them and putting these methods into practise are important for the ecological cycle. Bark beetles, which have destructive effects on the ecosystem, are one of the factors that expose a threat to forests. Therefore, monitoring of these species and determination of effective control strategies are increasingly gaining importance in forestry. Conventional pheromone traps, which are being currently used, provide limited information on flight times of target species. Therefore, the technological development of the capture systems of these traps will determine future control trends. Hence, pheromone traps with electronic control unit were prepared in earlier (ѵ1) and new designed (ѵ2) versions. In ѵ2, 97.5% of target species were counted, and instant temperature, humidity and time parameters at the time of capture were recorded at a practiced field work for the system. In addition to the instant parameters recorded in ѵ2, an anemometer used for measuring wind speed, which is considered to have influence on the behaviour of target species, was incorporated into the system. In the trials, the counting success rates under daylight and darkness conditions for Ips sexdentatus adults were 98.1 and 97%, whereas the counting success rates for Pityocteines curvidens adults, which are smaller in size, were 96 and 99%, respectively. In conclusion, data obtained by recording the amount of target species along with the capture moment and parameters related to this will be very useful and provide determinative in the management of target species.

Toward an optoelectronic-based visual prosthesis: control unit design and validation

We propose a control unit intended for light stimulation of optical nerves (LiSON), which is an optoelectronic-based visual prosthesis. The device is composed of an image sensor array to capture the scene and a miniaturized laser array to stimulate the neural cells forming the optic nerve. The adopted optical stimulation technique is intended to avoid the signal overlapping caused by conventional direct stimulation pathways, and thus improve the image quality. The presented control unit consists of averaging and subtracting the received optical data to reproduce the behavior of bipolar cells, followed by a voltage-controlled oscillator acting as ganglion cells used to transform the signal in a pulse train. The control unit prototype contains an image sensor of 9 × 9 pixels array to validate the operation principles of the proposed system. The chip was fabricated in 0.13 µm CMOS standard technology, and the measurements meet the expectation.

An Energy-Efficient, Inexpensive, Spinal Cord Stimulator with Adaptive Voltage Compliance for Freely Moving Rats.

This paper presents the design and fabrication of an implantable control unit intended for epidural spinal cord stimulation (ESCS) in rats. The device offers full programmability over stimulation parameters and delivers a constant current to an electrode array to be located within the spinal canal. It implements an adaptive voltage compliance in order to reduce the unnecessary power dissipation often experienced in current-controlled stimulation (CCS) devices. The compliance is provided by an adjustable boost converter that offers a voltage output in the range of 6.24 V to 28 V, allowing the device to deliver currents up to 1 mA through loads up to $25 \mathrm {k}\Omega $. The system has been fabricated using discrete components, paving the way to an inexpensive product that can easily be manufactured and batch produced. The control unit occupies a total volume of ~13.5 cm3 and therefore fulfills the size restrictions of a system to be implanted in a rat. Results indicate that by adjusting the voltage compliance a total power efficiency up to 35.5% can be achieved, saving around 60 mW when using lower stimulation currents or operating on smaller impedances. The achieved efficiency is the highest compared to similar stateof-the-art systems.

An external control unit implemented for stimulator ASIC testing

This paper presents the design and development of an external control unit (ECU) for a stimulator ASIC testing purposes. The ECU consists of a graphical user interface (GUI) from the PC, a data transceiver and a power transmitter. The GUI was developed using MATLAB for stimulation data setup. The data transceiver was designed using hardware description language (HDL) Verilog code and was implemented in a Virtex-II Pro FPGA board. The overall stimulator ASIC design architecture and its operation for an epiretinal implant application are briefly explained to correlate with the ECU’s design requirements. The flexible multichannel stimulator ASIC was successfully fabricated in a 0.35μm AMS HVCMOS technology. Conducted simulation and measurement results on stimulation waveform generation, supply voltage compliance and external control of supply voltage adaptation validate the functionality of the designed ECU and the stimulator ASIC.

Design of prototype dual axis tracker solar panel controlled by geared dc servo motors

Sunlight sensing for maximum illumination, providing initial position and delays of PV panel, design of an adequate control unit for minimal consuming servo motors are the main challenges of solar tracking systems. That is the objective of this paper to design and implement an automatic control for directing maximum solar illumination to a photovoltaic (PV) panel. The proposed prototype dual axis solar tracker panel is used to optimize the conversion of solar energy into electricity by orienting the panel toward the real position of the sun, at a cost of mechanical complexity and maintenance need, for the best efficiency. In hardware development, two geared DC servo motors are pulse width modulation (PWM) controlled by a drive unit moving the panel using four light dependant resistors (LDR) to provide analog signals processed by a simple and low energy ATMEGA328P microcontroller with Arduino. For the software part, after data processing, a C++ programming controls two DC servo motors to position light sensors in the most favorable direction, where solar panel and sensors will be perpendicular to the sunlight

Digital Generator Control Unit Design for a Variable Frequency Synchronous Generator in MEA

Variable frequency power generation systems have been adopted for modern aircraft power systems, thus, a new generator control unit (GCU) must be designed to regulate the output voltage and obtain high quality power supply under a wide frequency range from 360 Hz to 800 Hz. In this paper, a dual digital signal processor (DSP) structure-based GCU was proposed. Multi-loop control structure was adopted with the controller parameters varying adaptively at different working conditions to obtain better performance. Different root-mean-square (RMS) calculation algorithms have been compared and the final RMS calculation scheme was determined to realize the trade-off between accuracy and computing efficiency. Experimental results show considerable performance improvements of the generator output voltage under various operating conditions with the proposed GCU.

The ARIEL Instrument Control Unit design

The Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey mission (ARIEL) is one of the three present candidates for the ESA M4 (the fourth medium mission) launch opportunity. The proposed Payload will perform a large unbiased spectroscopic survey from space concerning the nature of exoplanets atmospheres and their interiors to determine the key factors affecting the formation and evolution of planetary systems. ARIEL will observe a large number (>500) of warm and hot transiting gas giants, Neptunes and super-Earths around a wide range of host star types, targeting planets hotter than 600 K to take advantage of their well-mixed atmospheres. It will exploit primary and secondary transits spectroscopy in the 1.2-8 um spectral range and broad-band photometry in the optical and Near IR (NIR). The main instrument of the ARIEL Payload is the IR Spectrometer (AIRS) providing low-resolution spectroscopy in two IR channels: Channel 0 (CH0) for the 1.95-3.90 um band and Channel 1 (CH1) for the 3.90-7.80 um range. It is located at the intermediate focal plane of the telescope and common optical system and it hosts two IR sensors and two cold front-end electronics (CFEE) for detectors readout, a well defined process calibrated for the selected target brightness and driven by the Payload's Instrument Control Unit (ICU).

Implementation of Locally-Clocked XBM State Machines on FPGAs Using Synchronous CAD Tools

Controllers based on Synchronous Finite State Machines (SFSM) are widely used in the control unit design of complex digital systems. These systems can present serious problems related to the global clock. In this context, the asynchronous paradigm shows interesting features that fit as an alternative for the design, despite of the difficulties of the application of asynchronous logic. An interesting architecture for the Asynchronous Finite State Machines (AFSM) is based on local clock, because it reduces the requirements of asynchronous logic. This manuscript proposes a novel architecture of local clock for AFSMs, which is described by a popular specification known as Extended Burst-Mode (XBM). This architecture presents a better latency time when compared with other local clock architectures. Furthermore, the manuscript proposes a “necessary and sufficient” condition for local clock AFSMs to be synthesized completely on the proposed architecture by using only conventional tools. Through a case study, we present the architecture, its robustness, the synthesis procedure and a comparison with other local clock architectures, highlighting its advantages.

Hardware Design and Software Development for a White LED-Based Experimental Spectrophotometer Managed by a PIC-Based Control System

In this paper, the design and testing of a PC-interfaced PIC-based control unit used to manage an absorption spectrophotometer, employing a white LED as light source, are described. LED technology allows to perform the absorption measurements reducing the analyte temperature variations and thus noise generation, which occur if a Xenon light source, usually employed, is used; also thanks to LED technology, the system results low cost, easy to use and with a low power consumption. The realized spectrophotometer can be used for atmospheric and industrial pollutant detection or for indoor air monitoring (e.g., in hospital rooms), being able to detect particulate matter, pesticides, volatile organic compounds as well as pollution produced by heavy metals. The realized system manages the different required functionalities, such as acquisition and processing, via firmware, of raw data provided by sensors, actuation of mechanical devices (stepper motor and solenoid valve), and synchronizing and controlling the data exchange between hardware sections, microcontroller, and PC. Both hardware and software sections were designed carrying out the appropriate tests to verify their proper operation. Results confirm the correct system functioning and interaction, via PC terminal, between user and the realized control unit.

Design of EMB-Based Moore FSMs

The complexity of algorithms implemented in digital systems grows. Methods are developed for most effective use of both hardware resources and energy. For engineers the problem of hardware resources optimization in design of control units is still an important issue. The standard way of implementing the control unit as a finite-state machine (FSM) is not satisfactory as it consumes considerable amounts of field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA) resources. This paper is devoted to the design of a Moore FSM in FPGA structure using look-up tables and embedded memory blocks (EMB) elements. The problem background is discussed. The method of the design of Moore FSM logic circuits with EMB based on splitting the set of logical conditions and the encoding of logical conditions is presented. Examples of design and research results are given.

Development of a Flexible, Extendable, and Low-Cost Control Unit for Surface Drifters

AbstractAn extensible, low-cost drifter control unit (VELELLA) design is presented, developed for use in drifters that are deployed in inland water bodies or near-coast regions. The control unit is custom built from basic components built around a small footprint microcontroller, making use of a GPS receiver for position tracking, a Global System for Mobile Communications [Groupe SpécialMobile (GSM)] radio for data transmission, and two sensor buses to handle analog and digital data generated by an arbitrary array of external sensors. A cloud-based data collection platform has been implemented to receive and store data transmitted over general packet radio service (GPRS) from the drifter. The control unit was found to perform satisfactorily in operational testing, providing data at subhertz frequency for position and temperature during extended time. However, some issues related to temporary data loss and power consumption spikes were identified, indicating that some further development of the control unit is required to achieve a production-ready platform for extensive and prolonged field operations.

Design and Statistical Validation of Spark Ignition Engine Electronic Control Unit for Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing

This paper presents the design and statistical validation of a Spark Ignition Internal Combustion Engine Electronic Control Unit (ECU), implementing ignition and fuel injection algorithms in an automotive grade Freescale Power PC microcontroller. Crankshaft position, intake manifold temperature and pressure, coolant temperature and throttle position were instrumented. In addition a communication interface using CAN protocol was developed for the real time acquisition of the parameters, through which engine performance in a linear range at constant load was validated comparing the design with the manufacturers ECU. Statistical analysis shows that for future hardware-in-the-loop testing, variation introduced by the hardware is negligible and will be solely due to the improvement proposals or model selection.

Mechanical design of an electronic control unit using axiomatic principles

If the engine of the car can be considered as the heart, then the E.C.U’s represents the brain of the car. Electronic control units (E.C.U’s) are electronic devices which control the way different components of a car (engine, windows, airbags, etc.) react in some situations (overheating, button pressed by a passenger, crash, etc.). Axiomatic design is a set of principles that theorizes the act of conceiving a new project. Based on two axiom this method comes into designers help, giving them the option to reach in a short period of time a fully functional and compliant product without supporting the design of the product on chance, past experiences or “try and fail” principle.

VLSI Implementation of a Cost-Efficient Micro Control Unit With an Asymmetric Encryption for Wireless Body Sensor Networks

This paper presents a very large-scale integration (VLSI) circuit design of a micro control unit (MCU) for wireless body sensor networks (WBSNs) in cost-intention. The proposed MCU design consists of an asynchronous interface, a multisensor controller, a register bank, a hardware-shared filter, a lossless compressor, an encryption encoder, an error correct coding (ECC) circuit, a universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter interface, a power management, and a QRS complex detector. A hardware-sharing technique was added to reduce the silicon area of a hardware-shared filter and provided functions in terms of high-pass, low-pass, and band-pass filters according to the uses of various body signals. The QRS complex detector was designed for calculating QRS information of the ECG signals. In addition, the QRS information is helpful to obtain the heart beats. The lossless compressor consists of an adaptive trending predictor and an extensible hybrid entropy encoder, which provides various methods to compress the different characteristics of body signals adaptively. Furthermore, an encryption encoder based on an asymmetric cryptography technique was designed to protect the private physical information during wireless transmission. The proposed MCU design in this paper contained 7.61k gate counts and consumed 1.33 mW when operating at 200 MHz by using a 90-nm CMOS process. Compared with previous designs, this paper has the benefits of increasing the average compression rate by over 12% in ECG signal, providing body signals analysis, and enhancing security of the WBSNs.

Sine Inverter Controller with 8 Bit Microcontroller

This article describes the design of a sine wave inverter control unit. We will define the basic principles and requirements to control and maintain a good quality of inverter's output. The solution that can achieve full 8 bit output resolution with 10 bit measurement and regulation time shorter than mains period is proposed. Furthermore, the possibilities and ways of implementing the control unit using the 8 bit microcontrollers are described, so it is possible to gain a complete understanding of this issue.

Design and analysis of a moment control unit for agile satellite with high attitude stability requirement

A moment control unit is developed and verified by numerical simulation. This moment control unit is employed as an actuator for the satellite attitude control. It contains four control moment gyroscopes (CMGs) to realize the rapid attitude maneuver and a vibration isolation system for each CMG. This unit can not only reduce the required electronics for each CMG and thus the weight, but also improve the stability of the satellite attitude. The design of the structure is presented first. This structure not only holds and protects the CMGs, but also isolates the vibrations caused by each CMG. Then, a dynamic model of a single CMG with a vibration isolation system is formulated, and the time- and frequency-domain characteristics of this dynamic model are discussed. Numerical simulations of a satellite attitude control example are then used to evaluate the system. The new moment control unit occupies less volume than previous designs, and the results show that the new design improves satellite pointing performance because of the vibration isolation.

A multi-input and multi-output design on automotive engine management system

Lookup table is widely used in automotive industry for the design of engine control units (ECU). Together with a proportional-integral controller, a feed-forward and feedback control scheme is often adopted for automotive engine management system (EMS). Usually, an ECU has a structure of multi-input and single-output (MISO). Therefore, if there are multiple objectives proposed in EMS, there would be corresponding numbers of ECUs that need to be designed. In this situation, huge efforts and time were spent on calibration. In this work, a multi-input and multi-out (MIMO) approach based on model predictive control (MPC) was presented for the automatic cruise system of automotive engine. The results show that the tracking of engine speed command and the regulation of air/fuel ratio (AFR) can be achieved simultaneously under the new scheme. The mean absolute error (MAE) for engine speed control is 0.037, and the MAE for air fuel ratio is 0.069.

Examining the Modular End of Line Control Unit Design Criteria for Vehicle Sliding Door System Track Profile

Examining the Modular End of Line Control Unit Design Criteria for Vehicle Sliding Door System Track Profile

A Determinate Radiation Hardened Technique for Safety-Critical CMOS Designs

Soft errors have been a critical concern for reliability of advanced CMOS designs due to technology scaling. Moreover, along with the rapid growth of medical, automotive, and aerospace electronics, extremely high demand on reliability becomes the paramount concern, superior to cost and performance, on these safety-critical designs. Triple modular redundancy (TMR) is widely used to mask virtually all soft errors but typically incurs high power and area overheads. Therefore, in this paper, a determinate radiation hardened technique for safety-critical CMOS designs is proposed and consists of three hybrid strategies combining gate sizing, supply voltage (V D D ) scaling and threshold voltage (V t h ) scaling to prevent soft errors from occurring. A STA-like method that computes the required pulse width of a transient fault along the propagation path is also developed in this framework. Simulation results show that the proposed technique can effectively eliminate all soft errors on ISCAS'85 circuits and a controller area network bus electrical control unit (CAN-bus ECU) design for automotive electronics when the deposited charges range from 35 fC to 132 fC. Furthermore, the strategy using all three techniques, simultaneously improves power and area overheads by 3.3X and 2X, respectively, compared with TMR.