Vehicle Ride Research Articles

Analysis of User’s Comfort on Automated Vehicle Riding Simulation using Subjective and Objective Measurements

The naturalistic study investigated the potential influence of personal driving preferences (assertive and defensive driving style) on users; comfort when being driven in an automated vehicle with a defensive driving style. Adopted the Wizard of Oz design, the study involved three phases: pre-, during, and post-driven to measure their comfort, perceived safety, and likeness as well as motion sickness propensity through self-report questionnaire and heart rate variation. After answering a set of questionnaires, participants were exposed to simulated driving in an automated vehicle with a defensive driving style. A statistical analysis produced no statistically significant difference between assertive and defensive participants. This indicates an overall preference, perceived comfort without severe motion sickness propensity to the defensive driving style of the autonomous vehicle, regardless of participants’ personal driving styles.

New Integrated Full Vehicle Suspension System for Improvements in Vehicle Ride Comfort and Road Holding

New Integrated Full Vehicle Suspension System for Improvements in Vehicle Ride Comfort and Road Holding

Design and Development of a Rendering System for Vehicle Riding

This paper propounds the design and development of a web-based system for a car rental company. It enables admin to rent a car that can be used by a customer on a payment basis. The car information can be added to the system or existing car information can be edited or deleted too by the administrator. The GSM/GPS based content alert for car rental system making the car available for every common man with a minimum cost and effective use of time, Therefore, this application helps the customers to be comfortable and to have the privacy ride as traveling became the part of life. This system makes processing tasks easier and eliminates the traditional record-keeping process. Hence this system enhances the car and customer management and provides customer satisfaction thereby maintaining customer retention.

Numerical Investigation of the Influence of Tire Deformation and Vehicle Ride Height on the Aerodynamics of Passenger Cars

Wheels and wheel houses contribute up to 25% of the total aerodynamic drag of passenger cars and interact in a complex way with their surroundings. Rims and tires induce complex flow separation mechanisms in a highly unsteady regime and the proximity to the ground enhances these phenomena. To have a clearer understanding of the flow mechanisms that develop around wheels and inside wheel houses, the effect of tire deformation and vehicle ride height on the aerodynamics of passenger cars has been investigated with unsteady CFD simulations. Tire deformation is modelled with an empirical formulation that provides close-to-real deformed shapes, while vehicle ride height changes are made by applying vertical translations the vehicle body. Slick tire geometries and closed rims have been analysed and their rotation has been modelled with a tangential velocity component applied to their surface. The investigation has been conducted in three steps: different car heights and tire deformation levels have been investigated separately and then combined, classifying the results on the basis of the drag of the vehicle. Results show that even small tire deformation levels can significantly affect the aerodynamic drag, thus deformation should be included in simulations and treated with caution.

Examining factors influencing the adoption of solo, pooling and autonomous ride-hailing services in Australia

While ride-hailing has become ubiquitous in most metropolitan areas, it is still unclear how it prevails in the regional areas, especially after the emergence of new services of pooling or self-driving rides. This paper contributes to this knowledge gap by examining the regional/metropolitan dimension in the factors influencing the frequency of ride-hailing use and the demand for pooled and autonomous vehicle (AV) rides in Australia. Through individual-level survey data, we found that there is indeed a divide between factors affecting not only the frequency of using ride-hailing in the status quo but also in the future adoption of new services of pooled and AV-based services. Using the hybrid discrete choice model, we identify several latent psychological constructs that influence the use of ride-hailing services, namely being pro-technology, pro-pooling, pro-AV, anti-driving and security-cautious traits. Moreover, the results of multivariate models point to different observed and latent characteristics influencing the adoption of pooled and AV ride-hailing services for various trip purposes. In line with the literature, it was found that the socio-demographic characteristics that affect the frequency of use or adopting pooled and AV services in future include gender, age, income, education attainment, employment status, car ownership, and the current travel behaviour. We also found that ride-hailing in Australia has played more as a substitution role for public transport, private car and taxi than as a complementary role or feeder of the public transport system, both in the metropolitan and regional areas.

Vehicle Ride Comfort Control in the Post-Braking Phase Using Residual Reinforcement Learning

Vehicle Ride Comfort Control in the Post-Braking Phase Using Residual Reinforcement Learning

SUSPENSION FAULT DIAGNOSTICS USING VEHICLE PITCH AND ROLL MODELS

The vehicle suspension system, including springs, dampers and stabilizer bars are critical to vehicle riding and handling experience. Automatic fault detection, isolation and failure prognosis of the suspension system will greatly improve vehicle perceived quality, serviceability and customer experience. In our previous work [1], a static diagnostic approach using a ramp with the known slope is proposed. Even though the method can effectively isolate the suspension system faults to each vehicle corner, it requires additional setups at dealerships. In this work, a passive approach using the vehicle pitch and roll models is presented, which can accurately isolate broken springs, leaking dampers, and broken stabilizer bars. Some enabling conditions are proposed to improve the overall algorithm robustness. The proposed solution is verified using the data collected from a test vehicle.

Design Optimization of an Integrated E-Type Multilink Suspension Wheel-Side Drive System and Improvement of Vehicle Ride Comfort

Distributed-drive electric vehicles constitute an important research direction for the future development of electric vehicles. In this regard, the integrated suspension wheel-side drive system has considerable development potential because it can address the lack of driving smoothness and the grounding deterioration caused by the excessive unsprung mass of the distributed-drive system. However, a complete and systematic description of the design of such a system is not available in the literature. Therefore, this paper proposes a design process for an integrated E-type multilink suspension wheel-side drive system and a method to improve the vehicle ride comfort. Based on a configuration analysis of the E-type multilink suspension using the orientation feature set method, the ADAMS platform was used to optimize the hard point coordinates of the suspension with the integrated E-type multilink suspension wheel-side drive system as the object, and the spring stiffness and damper were designed considering the driving smoothness and the grounding of the vehicle. The bushing stiffnesses were determined through tests, and the feasibility of each bushing installation was determined via elastic kinematic simulation of the integrated E-type multilink wheel-side drive system; then, optimization design of bushing stiffness was carried out for ride smoothness. Then, a lightweight design of the gears’ reducer was performed. Finally, the specific structural design and strength verification of the key components of the designed system were conducted. The results indicated that the strength of each component of the wheel-side drive system met the requirements. Thus, the overall design process of the integrated suspension wheel-side drive system was improved. This study can therefore serve as a reference for the integrated design and vehicle ride comfort improvement of wheel-side drive systems and suspensions.

Pedestrians’ Injury Severity in Traffic Accidents in Spain: A Pedestrian Actions Approach

Road traffic accidents are currently between the seventh and tenth leading cause of death in the world, with approximately 1.35 million people killed per year. Despite extensive efforts by governments, according to the World Health Organization, road accidents still cause far too many deaths, especially among pedestrians, cyclists and two-wheel motor vehicle riders, who together account for almost 50% of road traffic fatalities. In particular, Spain had 410,974 traffic accidents between 2016 and 2019, involving 722,516 vehicles and 61,177 pedestrians with varying degrees of injury. This study uses the Bayesian network method to understand how the pedestrians’ responsibility and actions at the time of the traffic accident affect the injury suffered by said pedestrian, also considering the variables of the road infrastructure and vehicles at the accident site. The results confirm that the variables linked to the unsafe behavior of pedestrians, and their responsibility in traffic accidents, increase the risk of suffering serious or fatal injuries during an accident; for example, if a pedestrian is distracted this increases his/her probability of suffering a severe injury (27.86%) with respect to not being distracted (20.73%). Conditions related to traffic in high-speed areas, areas with no or poor lighting, and areas lacking sidewalks, also record increases in pedestrian injury, as is the case in the age group of pedestrians over 60 years of age.

Paediatric off-road vehicle injury in rural and regional Australia.

Off-road riding of quad bikes and motorcycles is common among children across rural and remote Australia, but is a significant source of injury and hospitalisation. An in-depth analysis of paediatric off-road vehicle crashes was undertaken to inform injury prevention countermeasures by characterising injury patterns and sources of injury. This is a prospective in-depth case series. Participants are children aged 16 and under who have been hospitalised due to injury sustained from the use of an off-road motorcycle or quad bike in New South Wales, Australia. Crash investigation techniques (medical data, structured interview, vehicle and crash site inspection) were used to ascertain details of the crash event, protective gear, injury information and contributory factors. Thirty children were recruited, 27 boys and 3 girls, ranging in age from 4 to 16years, having crashed on off-road motorcycles (n=27) or quads (n=3). Most (73.3%) were participating in unstructured social riding. A total of 67 separate injuries were observed, with overall Injury Severity Scores between 1 and 35. There were high rates of wearing helmets and motorcycle-specific garments. The most commonly injured areas were the upper and lower extremities. The most common sources of injury were from impacting the ground, obstacles/other riders or the vehicle. This study demonstrates the patterns of riding and injury in rural paediatric off-road vehicle riders, occurring despite high rates of helmet/protective gear use. This underscores the need for investigation into the injury mitigation and fit properties of protective gear and the inherent risks for physically and developmentally maturing children.

Older Adult Willingness to Use Fully Autonomous Vehicle (FAV) Ride Sharing.

In the United States, older adults (age 65 and older) rely on private automobiles for transportation. For those who stop driving, access to alternative modes of transportation is important for health, wellbeing, mobility, and independence. This paper explores older adult willingness to use fully autonomous vehicle (FAV) ride sharing and the features or services of FAV ride sharing that would make them willing to take a ride. These data were gathered as part of a larger qualitative research study designed to explore the factors affecting older adult use of ride share services. For the larger study, we conducted 68 telephone interviews with older adults, and 10 in-person focus groups with 56 older adults, including individuals who both used and never used ride share services. We used a convenience sample recruited by study partners, including ride share and transportation services and a recruitment firm. The predominant thematic findings of the qualitative analysis included a desire for a proven safety record in terms of performance and technology, followed by dependability and accuracy of FAV ride sharing. Older adults’ concerns about FAV ride sharing included safety concerns and preferences for social interaction with drivers. Ride share services that use FAVs in the future may need to tailor transportation offerings for older adults to increase their willingness to use FAVS to support their mobility and social needs.

Linear Quadratic Regulator Based Control Device for Active Suspension System with Enhanced Vehicle Ride Comfort


 
 
 The suspension system is required in an automobile in order to absorb shock that comes from various type of disturbances such as irregular road profile, engine vibrations and wheel. Besides, the suspension plays an important part in enhancing the passenger ride comfort. The suspension will make sure that the tire is always contacted with the road for a better grip and braking. Conventionally, passive suspension has been used in car manufacturing that leads to huge vibrations that affect the ride quality. This is because ride comfort of passengers gets affected by overshoot and settling time of vehicle under vibration. Therefore, a good controller design is required to minimize the vibrations. In this research, an active suspension of quarter car model that considers only vertical movement is utilized in the suspension system. This paper presents a Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) method to enhance the vehicle ride comfort towards the vibration of the suspension system. The control design approach is then compared with the classical control which is the Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) that is set as a benchmark control. The results for both controllers are evaluated through simulations in MATLAB and Simulink Software. Other than using the passenger vehicle parameters, the parameters of bus are also tested into the system to investigate the vehicle performance by taking the bumps and road pavements as road disturbances. The results obtained from the simulations show that the responses of the quadratic based approach give the significant improvement in minimizing the vibration and fast settling time compared to passive and PID control.
 
 

Artificial Intelligence for Damage Detection in Automotive Composite Parts: A Use Case

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">The detection and evaluation of damage in composite materials components is one of the main concerns for automotive engineers. It is acknowledged that defects appeared in the manufacturing stage or due to the impact and/or fatigue loads can develop along the vehicle riding. To avoid an unexpected failure of structural components, engineers ask for cheap methodologies assessing the health state of composite parts by means of continuous monitoring. Non Destructive Technique (NDT) for the damage assessment of composite structures are nowadays common and accurate, but an on-line monitoring requires properties as low cost, small size and low power that do not belong to common NDT. The presence of a damage in composite materials, either due to fatigue cycling or low-energy impact, leads to progressive degradation of elastic moduli and strengths. Since there is a well-known relationship between the elastic modulus reduction and the amount of damage, the stiffness degradation can be used for the scope of detecting the position and the amount of damage that has taken place. Relying on these concepts, a novel strain-based damage sensing procedure is here proposed, that can identify damages in composite structures by processing strain measures from a distributed sensors network. To achieve this result a combined Machine Learning pipeline, composed by Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and One Class Support Vector Machine (OC-SVM) is proposed. First, PCA learns a linear transformation on the undamaged measurements to reduce the data dimensionality; secondly, OC-SVM trained to detect anomalies in the projected components. A cross-validation procedure is used to find the optimal pipeline configuration. The methodology is virtually tested on a carbon fiber suspension. The results suggest dropping the first components of the PCA to feed the classifier. In addition, results show the capability of the algorithm to detect anomalies in the component strain response.</div></div>

Study of Suspension Parameters Matching to Enhance Vehicle Ride Comfort on Bump Road

In this study, the parameters of the MacPherson front suspension and the E‐type multilink rear suspension are matched to enhance the vehicle ride comfort on bump road. Vehicle vibration and suspension stiffness are analyzed theoretically. In the simulation study, the influence of the front and rear wheels on the vehicle vibration is considered, so the time‐domain curves of the front and rear seat rail accelerations are processed by adding windows with two different window functions. The resulting ΔRmsLocal and ΔRmsGlobal are used as evaluation indexes of the vehicle ride comfort. The sensitivity analysis yields the magnitude of the influence of the suspension parameters on the evaluation indexes. In addition, the trends of ΔRmsLocal and ΔRmsGlobal with bushing stiffness at different vehicle speeds are discussed. The results show that longitudinal ΔRmsLocal and ΔRmsGlobal of the seat rails are influenced by the bushings mostly, while the vertical ΔRmsLocal and ΔRmsGlobal of the seat rails are influenced by the spring and shock absorber mostly. The trends of ΔRmsLocal and ΔRmsGlobal with bushing stiffness are influenced by the speed of the vehicle. Finally, the vehicle ride comfort is enhanced after optimization and matching of the suspension parameters by NSGA‐II optimization algorithm.

Prediction of Collision Avoidance Ability of Two-wheeled Vehicle Riders Using Driving Behaviors and Emotional States

Prediction of Collision Avoidance Ability of Two-wheeled Vehicle Riders Using Driving Behaviors and Emotional States

Fault Diagnostics and Prognostics for Vehicle Springs and Stablizer Bar

Vehicle springs and stabilizer bar are critical suspension components impacting vehicle riding and handling experience. Diagnostics and prognostics of springs and stabilizer bar can improve customer perceived quality, reduce repair cost and increase up-time for fleet vehicles. It’s even more important for autonomous vehicles, since there is no human driver to sense fault symptoms. Currently, there is no production solution to automatically diagnose and prognose spring and stabilizer bar failures, and most research work is suffered by various noise factors. In this work, a novel solution based on static ramp test is proposed to isolate and localize spring and stabilizer bar faults. With limited number of longitudinal and lateral acceleration measurements, the solution can quickly and effectively isolate faulty spring, disconnected stabilizer bar, loose bushing and loose end link. The validation results from a MY17 Bolt EV demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed solution.

Kewenangan Aparat Kepolisian dalam Pengawalan Konvoi Kendaraan Bermotor Berukuran Besar di Jalan Raya

It is common for a large motorbike convoy to cause accidents, both between large motorbike riders and other vehicle riders. This is due to the fact that the speed of the large-sized motorbikes itself can be said to be quite fast, coupled with the behavior of some of these riders who sometimes like to run red lights and put aside the traffic signs, which often results in accidents. Based on this factual background, the legal issues examined in this study are: What is the authority of the police in escorting large motorbike convoys and what is the responsibility of the police in implementing the convoy when accident victims occur on the road. The type of research used in this research is normative legal research. The results of this research are that the authority of the police apparatus in providing escort for large motorbike convoys is the provision of Article 14 letters a and 18 paragraph (1) of Law no. 2 of 2002 concerning the National Police of the Republic of Indonesia and Article 12 letter e of Law No. 22 of 2009. These provisions basically constitute the authority of the police apparatus to carry out the regulation, guarding, escort and patrol of community and government activities as needed, and to give the authority to act according to their own judgment in the public interest. The responsibility of the police is to carry out the convoy in the event of a victim of an accident on the highway in order to maintain order and ensure security, safety, orderliness and smoothness of road transportation.

Evaluation of Vehicle Ride Height Adjustments Using a Driving Simulator

Testing of vehicle design properties by car manufacturers is primarily performed on-road and is resource-intensive, involving costly physical prototypes and large time durations between evaluations of alternative designs. In this paper, the applicability of driving simulators for the virtual assessment of ride, steering and handling qualities was studied by manipulating vehicle air suspension ride height (RH) (ground clearance) and simulator motion platform (MP) workspace size. The evaluation was carried out on a high-friction normal road, routinely used for testing vehicle prototypes, modelled in a driving simulator, and using professional drivers. The results showed the differences between the RHs were subjectively distinguishable by the drivers in many of the vehicle attributes. Drivers found standard and low RHs more appropriate for the vehicle in terms of the steering and handling qualities, where their performance was deteriorated, such that the steering control effort was the highest in low RH. This indicated inconsistency between subjective preferences and objective performance and the need for alternative performance metrics to be defined for expert drivers. Moreover, an improvement in drivers’ performance was observed, with a reduction of steering control effort, in larger MP configurations.

Airbag Helmet: Design and Analysis of Helmet Piezoelectric Accelerometer

The author invented an airbag helmet to provide effective protection for two-wheeled vehicle riders. This paper illustrates the desion and analysis of this Helmet Piezoelectric Accelerometer. Analysis is based on the finite element model of solid mechanics (e.g. linear elasticity and piezoelectricity) with a carefully selected software of COMSOL Multiphysics. Finite element analysis method helped the author to reduce the need for physical prototypes in design process. With a high degree of accuracy, the author modeled complex material physical deformations with detailed visualization and solved the problem. Equations were used for calculation during the process. This paper provides the design of comsol-based solid mechanics and piezoelectricity simulation and simulates the process of converting the mechanical vibration into voltage signals by using piezoceramics, so as to supply power to the airbag accelerometer and release the airbag in time. The reliability and safety of the design are verified by means of the mechanical and electrical simulation. In case of a traffic accident, the airbag will inflate instantly and form a balloon-shaped helmet wrapping the rider’s head to secure the head effectively.

Robust H-infinity Controller in a MRF Engine Mount for Improving the Vehicle Ride Comfort

In this paper, a robust controller is designed with the help of a Magnetorheological fluid (MRF) for a semi-active engine mount. To do so, an 8-DOF vehicle model is chosen in which the road roughness and engine vibration are the disturbance inputs to the system and the mass of the vehicle is taken into accounts as an uncertainty. In addition, the maximum magnitude and frequency of the force applied to the vehicle body by the actuators are limited in the ranges of 0~1500N and 0~10Hz, respectively. To validate such a design, the proposed controller is compared with a PID controller. The comparison results show that the proposed controller has a good performance while dealing with uncertainties such a way that using it leads to transmitting the engine vibration frequency less than 6%. It is also shown that the vibrations due to disturbances entering the system are effectively reduced in the system including the proposed controller.