Emerging Technologies of Hybrid Vehicles

Dr. Chris Mi,

University of Michigan-Dearborn

Abstract: Hybrid-electric vehicles are one of the fastest growing automotive segments and present both opportunities and challenges. Hybrid vehicles are more fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly than conventional vehicles, By optimizing the power intake, the engine operation can be kept within the range designed for  best fuel economy and lowest emissions, while the motor/generator system will either provide additional power or generate electricity. Because of these advantages, hybrid vehicles have attracted worldwide interest in the automotive industry. The most popular hybrid, Toyota Prius has sold over 100,000 units in 2005. Some experts predict that hybrid vehicles will take at least 10 percent of the total vehicle market share in the next 5 years. This workshop will be very timely discussion on both the auto companies’ vision, as well as customers’ perceptions. The US military, especially the US Army, is interested in HEVs as a solution in reducing its fuel costs. Currently, the US Army has approximately 250,000 vehicles that consume about 200 million gallons of fuel per year for an estimated cost of $3.5B annually. Initiatives to achieve 30% reduction in yearly fuel consumption will lead to a vast amount of savings for the Army. One unique feature of HEVs is their capability to run in silent mode. The conventional heavy-duty trucks, such as the HMMWV, use diesel engines that are very noisy. By using the battery in the hybrid system, the vehicle can run silently for an estimated range of about 24 miles. Another reason for the Army’s interests in HEVs is the capability to supply auxiliary power. The HEV may be used to supply power to command centers and missile-defense shelters and to run weapon systems therefore eliminates the need for and cost of portable generators that need to be transported into the battlefield. This workshop will look at issues that may constrain the development of hybrid vehicles. Discussions will include: power electronics circuits including silicon carbide use in HEV; thermal management of HEV components and systems; power management of HEV; plug in hybrid; battery and ultra capacitors; etc.

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A Modular Approach to Unmanned Ground Systems Assessment

Carl P. Evans III,

Applied Perception, Inc.

Abstract: In September 2005 the United States Army’s Tank-Automotive Research, Development, and Engineering Center (TARDEC) instituted a ground mobility, robotics systems integration and evaluation laboratory: The TARDEC Robotics Skunk Works. The goal of this laboratory is to integrate and assess new and developing unmanned systems technologies to support efficient transitioning of the technologies to ATO and PM/PEO programs. The first unmanned system to enter the TARDEC Robotics Skunk Works will be the Tactical Amphibious Ground Support System – Common experimental (TAGS-CX) platform. This modified COTS platform is developed with modularity and interoperability as the key design requirements. The overall TAGS-CX concept is to have one general purpose, high-mobility platform that provides a standardized mechanical, electrical, and messaging interface to allow numerous heterogeneous “plug-and-play” payloads to be installed. By standardizing at each of these levels, the TAGS-CX platform can be easily configured for a number of different missions, a capability not provided by any presently available unmanned ground system. Possible payloads may include lethal and less-lethal weapons modules, a manual drive-by-wire module, combat casualty care modules, storage modules, fuel modules, and serial manipulator modules. The Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems will enable this “plug-and-play” capability by providing a standardized C2 interface for the OCU, TAGS-CX platform, and the payloads. We will present the overall design and concept of operations of the TAG-CX platform and discuss some of the payloads that are being developed

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Introduction to the FC-NET C++ Implementation

of the WSTAWG Operating Environment (OE)

Glenn Humphrey, OAR Corporation

Joel Sherrill, OAR Corporation

Andrew Oelkers, DCS Corporation

Abstract: In this workshop, we will present the capabilities of the FC-NET C++ implementation of the Army's Weapon Systems Technical Architecture Working Group (WSTAWG) Operating Environment (OE) specification.  The OE and its associated Application Programming Interface (API) provide a standard interface to a set of distributable objects that implement common, low-level software services.  The OE specification is designed to be scaleable, extensible, and language independent, and will facilitate application reuse throughout the Army weapon systems domain and especially within the system of systems concept envisioned for the Future Combat System (FCS).

The focus of this workshop will be on how and when these capabilities can be used in applications.   The functionality of each OE object class will be presented and design patterns will be described that illustrate how these object classes can be used to implement common application functionality.

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Real-Time Positioning

David M. Bevly

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Auburn University, AL  36849-5341

 

Abstract: The Global Positioning System (GPS) has provided the ability to determine a body¡¦s position, velocity, and attitude anywhere on the surface of the globe, which has led to many advances in land, marine, and air navigation systems.  With the absence of Selective Availability (SA), a GPS receiver can provide three-dimensional velocity measurements with accuracies of 3 cm/s (1ƒã, horizontal) and attitude measurements with an accuracy of 0.4 degrees.  Furthermore, GPS can be augmented with inertial sensors in order to decrease GPS errors and provide measurements between GPS outputs as well as during loss of GPS signals.   

The first part of this workshop will cover the origins and basics of GPS, the various measurements possible using GPS, as well as the measurement limitations and accuracies of various differential correction techniques.  The second part of the workshop will introduce Inertial Navigation System (INS) sensors such as accelerometers and rate gyroscopes found in typical Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs).  Basic models and error sources of the IMU as well as their affect on navigation accuracy will be discussed.  Various methods of blending GPS with the IMU in a Kalman Filter, including loose and tight coupling as well as ultra-tight or deeply integrated, to overcome the inherent limitations of each sensor will be presented.  Ultra-tightly coupled and Deeply Integrated GPS/INS is currently being pursued as a method to increase the jamming resistance of GPS on high-dynamic platforms in hostile environments.  While the IMU measurements can be noisy and biased, integration of these sensors with GPS velocity measurements can provide high update, non-biased estimates of vehicle states for the control systems as well as provide data during short GPS outages. 

The final part of the workshop will discuss a few of the possible vehicle states and parameters that can be measured or estimated using GPS such as vehicle sideslip and tire and terrain parameters for intelligent and autonomous vehicle control systems.  The integration of INS and GPS can be used to provide an unbiased, high-update estimate of vehicle states such as position, velocity, and attitude. This blended solution thereby provides accurate data for modeling autonomous vehicles.  The ability to accurately determine the vehicle states as well as the vehicle model on-line, during changing environments, can lean to an increase in the control performance of a vehicle.  Additionally, some approaches of augmenting GPS and INS with other sensors such as Lidar and Vision will be introduced.  Current and future application of GPS for remote navigation as well as autonomous control of unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) will be provide throughout the workshop including presentations of experimental results.  Both military and commercial applications of UGVs will be discussed with examples from the DARPA Grand Challenge and John Deere¡¦s Autosteer tractors.  Future applications include the GPS/INS solution in the Autonomous Navigation System (ANS) of Future Combat Systems (FCS), robotic convoys, and intelligent highway systems. 

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