Agenda, Abstracts & Presentations

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Abstract:
 

Plan.
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Abstract:

On-board diagnostics (OBD) for vehicle engines has become increasingly important because of environmental legislative regulations such as OBD II. OBD also helps in better maintaining and protecting the engines.

While diverse methodologies for diagnosis have been used for civilian as well as military vehicles, the selection of these methods has been increasingly challenging due to the requirements of the environmental regulations or, in case of a military vehicle, diagnosis of engine faults states. It is vital to know the general condition of a combat vehicle before it goes on a critical or dangerous mission. While emissions might not be an important issue for military vehicles, the amount of emissions or their change over the short term can indicate problems in the entire powertrain.

A majority of the OBDs on today’s vehicles are based on either limit checking on the sensors or on active diagnosis. In active diagnosis, the engine is probed in such a way that possible faults are revealed. However, active diagnosis can only be performed under special operating conditions such as engine start-up and idling, since these methods may interfere with the normal engine operation during driving. As stricter environmental regulations are being legislated (along with stricter fault diagnosis guidelines for military vehicles), the above diagnosis techniques may not be sufficient to guarantee optimal performance of the engine control and diagnostics system. An enhanced diagnosis methodology is therefore needed that does not rely on special operating conditions (active diagnosis) and still provides robust and accurate diagnosis of faults. This is particularly important for military vehicles operating in a combat situation when the accuracy and reliability of the engine fault diagnosis are of utmost importance. Model-based fault diagnostics methodologies can be used to provide robust fault diagnosis of the engine in all vehicle operating conditions, including combat situations.

This workshop will present an overview of the current state of model-based On-Board Diagnostics systems, followed by in-depth analysis of various model-based diagnosis methods that are currently being developed. The workshop will then focus on the principles of modelbased fault diagnosis. Design examples of model-based fault diagnosis for an automotive engine will also be presented and discussed. Finally, some results of model-based OBD system simulation will be presented for evaluation and validation purposes.

WORKSHOP OUTLINE
The workshop is divided into two sections:
Section 1 (2 hours)
1. Overview of the Model Based On-Board diagnostics systems for Military vehicles.
2. Analysis and design of model based On-Board diagnostics systems.
3. Evaluation of the performance of model-based OBD system via simulation.
Break: 15 minutes.
Section 2 (2 hours)
1. Principles and practices of model-based On-Board diagnostics.
2. Accurate and robust fault detection and isolation methodologies using model based approaches.
3. Review of examples on model-based On-Board fault diagnosis for an engine.

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Abstract:

The department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan-Dearborn has been developing over the years a mechanics-based methodology capable of firstly quantifying vehicle damages caused by hostile environment and secondly predicting the residual life of the damaged vehicle structure. Conventional method of damage assessment applies the concept of damage tolerance which is essentially based on the concept of fracture mechanics. The concept suffers two shortcomings. Firstly it is confined to structures with pre-existing macro-crack. Secondly, the concept is limited to structures made of brittle materials. Damaged vehicles may not necessarily contain a pre-existing macro-crack and the material used for the vehicle may exhibit ductile behavior. This is especially so as the next generation of army vehicles may be manufactured with advanced lightweight materials such as aluminum and steel displaying marked ductility.

Another conventional method of damage assessment is based on the concept of S-N Diagram. Unlike the concept of fracture mechanics, the method is limited to structures without a pre-exiting macro-crack. The S-N diagram is generated from one-dimensional simple test specimens. The fatigue damage of two or three dimensional structures subjected complex loading is often approximated by reducing the three-dimensional stress-strain state to an 'equivalent' scalar stress/strain parameter. The parameter is then applied to replace the stress/strain range measured from the uniaxial test results. The inherent theoretical limitations of the method are well known due to its approximated equivalent scalar parameter. In addition, when the loading is complex, there is additional uncertainty on reducing the complex service loading to uniaxial one.

In view of the shortcomings of the conventional methodologies, we have been developing a new method/tool based on the emerging theory of damage mechanics. The theory is able to quantify structure damages with or without the presence of a macro-crack. Furthermore, it can be applied equally well to predict the residual life of the structures made of either brittle or ductile materials.

The new methodology applying theory of damage mechanics is mechanics-based as it employs the thermodynamics theory of irreversible processes. A set of internal state variables are introduced to not only quantify the degree of damages but also monitor the progressive damages at subsequent loadings. The latter is critical to provide a predictive capability of the vehicle residual life.

As the stress-state of a vehicle may be three-dimensional in nature due its service loading, a generalized constitutive equation of elasticity and plasticity coupled with damage are for the first instance derived. A set of new damage effect tensors is defined to describe material damage and incorporated in the constitutive equations. The constitutive equations derived enable the formulation of a damage dissipative potential function and a damage criterion for marco-crack initiation to determine vehicle residual life.

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Abstract:

This short course presents the theory of hybridizing energy storage, in vehicle or other power systems, in order to optimize their weight, volume, cost, or other indices. The theory presented is used in a simulation algorithm that optimizes the battery and ultracapacitor mass, volume, and cost for any desired vehicle- or mission-based power profile. This algorithm is the basis of a simulation package, developed by Prof. Ehsani's Advanced Vehicle Systems Research Group at Texas A&M University. The performance of this simulation package is demonstrated in several mission case studies.

When designing energy storage for power systems that use electrical energy storage systems, there are numerous choices to be made regarding mass, volume, and cost restrictions. In addition to various battery technologies, ultracapacitors have emerged as a high-power, low-energy device. Often, there is no simple way to determine which energy storage technologies offer the best combination of characteristics for specific vehicle or mission needs. The software presented is capable of modeling multiple battery technologies operating in tandem so as to obtain the high power capability of ultracapacitors and high energy storage capacity of batteries.

The simulation operates by utilizing battery and ultracapacitor models applied over a time-based power profile. A range of battery and ultracapacitor combinations (such as 60% battery and 40% ultracapacitor by mass) is used to traverse the power profile. The mass is found iteratively so as to determine the minimum amount necessary to complete the power profile while reducing excess mass. The minimum mass at each battery/ultracapacitor ratio is used to construct a plot, from which minimum cost and volume plots can also be constructed based on raw material estimates.

The simulation can support both passively- and actively- connected energy storage technologies. That is, the simulation can model the connection of a parallel-connected battery/ultracapacitor (common voltage) system with no power flow control capability. Alternatively, the simulation can enact an active control technique, distributing power between the battery and ultracapacitor according to a set of rules. While the passive technique is cheaper and simpler in terms of power electronics i nvestment, the active technique can allow further reduction of battery/ultracapacitor mass compared to the passive counterpart.

In order to meet the requirements of a mission, the simulation breaks the mission power profile into discrete timesteps. The battery and ultracapacitor state of charge (SOC) is carried into and affected by subsequent timesteps. If the SOC becomes low enough that it cannot provide the required power to satisfy the timestep needs, the mission simulation is aborted and a larger initial mass is assumed. If an entire set of mission timesteps is completed without exceeding battery or ultracapacitor design parameters, the mass is deemed sufficient, and if necessary, a smaller mass is attempted to ensure that there is no excess mass.

Although the simulation was designed with advanced military and commercial vehicle applications in mind, the package is applicable to any battery-based power system that has a characteristic mission power profile.

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Development of Wireless Protocols for Automotive Applications
Nizar Al-Holou, Ph.D., Utayba Mohammad, Cristian Balas
University of Detroit Mercy

Abstract:

With the rapid advances of information technology including, computing, sensing, and communication, engineers are looking for creative approaches to bring these technologies into the vehicle. However, due to the fact that automotive environment is very noisy; the requirements are different from typical applications. Therefore, there are interesting challenges to provide wireless communication in and between vehicles.

The wireless communication in vehicles can be classified as in-vehicle (Intra-Vehicle) and Inter-Vehicle (between vehicles) communications. Intra-Vehicle communication has special requirement that are imposed by both its wireless nature and the in-vehicle control systems demands. A low power consumption technology that enables using batterydriven devices is very much desirable. As a consequence, short-range communication (less than 10ft) is implied, which is desirable, to alleviate channel interference problems. From control systems point of view, the used protocols should be fault tolerant and has deterministic nature to insure delivering critical data at the right time. On the other hand, Inter-Vehicle communication requires mid size range (10-300ft), consequently high power, high bandwidth, and an ad-hoc network capability to allow the continuously changing network topology.

Potential Intra-Vehicle communication protocols are 802.15.1/BlueTooth, IEEE 802.15.4 /Zigbee, and UWB over Bluetooth. Potential Inter-Vehicle communication protocols are IEEE 802.11P, 802.11N, and 802.11e.

This workshop will discuss these protocols and their applications to automotive environment. Moreover, the results of the research project, that is funded by TARDEC, will be discussed. A part of which was to explore the establishment of efficient intra and inter vehicle communication protocols.

This workshop will attempt to address the following issues:
1. The automotive environment and the requirements,
2. In vehicle (Intra-vehicle) communication requirements,
3. Inter-vehicle communication requirements,
4. Discuss potential protocols for Intra-vehicle communication such as IEEE 802.15.1/BlueTooth, IEEE 802.15.4/Zigbee, UWB,
5. Discuss potential protocols for Inter-vehicle communication such as IEEE 802.11P, 802.11N,
6. Demonstration of test beds for selected protocols such as Zigbee.

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Automotive Fuel Cell Power Electronic Converters
Babak Fahimi
University of Texas at Arlington

Abstract: With depleting oil reserves and increasing emissions, the automotive industry is being compelled to seek out for alternative sources of renewable fuel to drive their vehicles. With regulatory measures toward Green Economy Drive, emerging and environmentally friendly technologies such as fuel cells appear as viable solutions for better fuel conversion and reduced emissions. Technology development delivering fuel cell system efficiencies of 60% and above, exceeding the present 32% - 35% efficiency of Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) and, with no emissions, is likely to stimulate automotive manufacturers to utilize fuel cell technology.

One of the major problems associated with fuel cells is that, by nature, an electrochemical process, have long time constants. This is caused by slow fuel supply regulation and hydration control in the process of energy transformation. This long time constant along with changing output voltage with load elevate control problem in downstream converters and loads. In addition, current ripple produced/transferred by the downstream converters are not acceptable as current ripple shorten the cell stack life-span. To suitably accommodate these issues, front end DC/DC converter and DC/AC inverters are required that can also meet the requirements for automotive power system where there is presence of high power traction load, number of non-linear loads and, power-on-demand and load dump operating scenarios.

The tutorial will introduce the fuel cell technology, fuel cell power conversion systems and their application to automotive systems highlighting the technology restraints and drivers. Fuel Cell performance characteristics and operating constrains critical to the front end DC-DC converter design would be discussed. The tutorial will focus towards identifying fuel cell power electronics converters for automotive application involving DC-DC isolated/non-isolated, multilevel inverters, synchronous rectifiers, resonant converters, interleaving and component sizing. Fuel cell power converter design criteria and control for fuel cell voltage dynamics, ripple restrains, load dump, transient response with/without energy storage and energy management systems and reliability would be presented along with system design and operating issues related to fuel cell and fuel cell converter interaction. The tutorial will conclude with design examples on automotive fuel cell DC/DC power bus conditioner and fuel cell traction drive system.

Seminar Topics

1.	Introduction (15 Minutes)
	1.1	Fuel Cell Technology
	1.2	Types of Fuel Cells
	1.3	Basic Fuel Cell Power Systems
	1.4	Fuel Cell Technology for Automotives
2.	Automotive Fuel Cell Technology  - Restraints & Drivers (15)
	2.1	Technology Restraints
	2.2	Competing Technology Assessment
	2.3	Benefits & Technology Drivers
	2.4	Technology  Overview - North America
	2.5	Technology Overview - Europe & Asia-Pacific
3.	Fuel Cell Characteristics - Ballard Nexa 1.2kW Unit (20)
	3.1	Operation and Performance Characteristics
	3.2	Modeling Fuel Cell Electrical Circuit
	3.3	Fuel Cell Time Constant
	3.4	Effect of High Frequency Loads
	3.5	Impact & Operation with Current Ripple
4.	Fuel Cell Power Conversion Systems (40)
	4.1	Identify Power Electronic Converters for Fuel Cell
	4.1.1	DC/DC
	4.1.2	DC/AC
	4.2	Evaluation of pros & cons of different Topologies
	4.3	Topology Comparison Matrix
5.	Major Issues with Power Conditioning Systems for Automotive Application (30)
	5.1	Transient Response & Control 
	5.2	Reliability & Fault Tolerance
	5.3	Isolation & EMI
	5.4	Efficiency
6.	Fuel Cell Power Electronic Converter Implementation (20)
	6.1	DC/DC Converter Implementation Issues
	6.2	DC/DC Converter Control System Design Challenges with Fuel Cell Source
	6.3	Digital Control of DC/DC Converter
	6.4	Design Issues for DC/AC Inverters
	6.5	Fuel Cell Current Ripple Problems & Solutions 
	6.6	Fuel Cell Output Voltage Dynamics Constraints
	6.7	Integration of Power Conditioning System Control with Fuel Cell Controller
7.	Fuel Cell System and Converter Interaction (20)
	7.1	Static & Dynamic Modeling
	7.2	Fuel Cell Response with and without Converter
8.	Fuel Cell Converter Subsystem in Automotive Energy Management System (20)
9.	Fuel Cell Power Conversion Systems in Automotive Application (40)
	9.1	Design Example 1 - Automotive Fuel Cell based Traction Drive System
	9.2	Design Example 2 - Fuel Cell DC/DC Power Bus Conditioner
10.	Questions & Answers (20)

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Congestion Control in Heterogeneous Network Environment
Nirwan Ansari
New Jersey Institute of Technology

Abstract:

TCP has become the de facto congestion control standard used in most applications. It was originally designed primarily for the wired networks in which, random bit errors, a characteristic usually exhibited in the wireless network, are negligible, and congestion is the main cause of packet loss. The emerging wireless applications call for a calibration of this congestion control standard for the heterogeneous network environment. In this tutorial, following a brief introduction to TCP, we analyze the problems that TCP exhibits in the wireless IP communication environment, and illustrate the viable strategies by detailed examples.

Tentative Outlines (4 hours)

• TCP/IP Overview
• Heterogeneous Networks
  • Network characteristics
  • Congestion control issues
  • TCP performance degradation in heterogeneous environment
• Current Solutions to TCP Enhancement in Heterogeneous Environment
  • Different TCP Wireless Applications
  • Implementations of Wireless TCP
• TCP-Jersey
  • Achievable rate estimation
  • Congestion warning
• Future Research Issues

Group discussion will be facilitated at various points of the lecture.

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Electrical Power Generation and Distribution for Vehicular Systems
Hamid A. Toliyat
Texas A&M University

Abstract:

A major goal of the TARDEC is research toward combat readiness and future war fighting superiority of army forces. The proposed full day (8 hours) tutorial covers various electiric power generation and distribution systems for land/sea/space applications. Therefore, the aim of this tutorial is to present an overview of the electric machines and power electronics systems that can be applied to electric and hybrid electric vehicles.

In series hybrid systems, all the torque required to propel the vehicle is provided by an electric machine. On the other hand, in parallel hybrid systems the torque obtained from the heat engine is mechanically coupled to the torque produced by an electric machine. In electric vehicle, the electric machine behaves exactly in the same manner as in a series hybrid. Therefore, the torque and power requirements of the electric machine are roughly equal for an EV and a series hybrid, while they are significantly lower for a parallel hybrid. However, the requirements of the electric machine for a parallel hybrid are dependent upon the control strategy used in these vehicles. Several electric machines are capable of meeting the drive requirements of EV’s and HEV’s, as will be explained in the tutorial.

As discussed above, one of the greatest challenges in developing a compact traction motor lies in matching of its characteristics to automotive torque-speed curves. In the tutorial, the particular torque-speed requirements of EV and HEV will be introduced. Then, an overview of different electric machines will be given. The characteristics of dc commutator, induction, permanent magnet, brushless dc, switched reluctance, and the synchronous reluctance machines for EV and HEV applications will be discussed. This discussion will include considerations of efficiency, weight and volume, basic cost, robustness and torque speed. Application of different control strategies on vehicle drives, such as open-loop, closed-loop, and vector control will also be elaborated.

Fault tolerance as it is a vital requirement in military applications. Examples of re-organizing controllers will be demonstrated to illustrate the significance and practicality of this concept. In this second part of the tutorial, our research results on fault tolerant and multiphase motor drives over the past 15 years will be discussed. Research results of several Ph.D. students over the past several years will be provided.

Power electronics is a new and growing area in electrical engineering. Recent advances in high power devices permit the control and flow of electric energy efficiently. The digital nature of power switching devices makes the control of electric power switching circuits convenient with microcomputer control. Power electronics has wide spread applications in today’s industry such as transportation, etc. Basic theoretical methods of calculation and design of important power electronic circuits such as ac voltage controllers, ac to dc uncontrolled and controlled rectifiers, dc to dc choppers, and dc to ac inverters will be covered.

AC to AC matrix converters have shown a number of advantages due to their direct conversion process. These advantages include great size and weight reduction, bi-directional power flow, sinusoidal input/output currents, high temperature operation capability, and high efficiency. Despite all these merits, industry acceptance of the matrix converter has been held back because of economical aspects of the large amount of switches and questionable system reliability concerning direct ac/ac conversion. Practical implementation of the converter is therefore focused on aerospace and army applications, where size, weight and efficiency are critical as well as the ability to operate in extreme conditions. For those applications, high system reliability is paramount. Thus, this seminar is aimed at methods to increase the reliability of the matrix converter motor drives. In this talk, a fault-tolerant control method is proposed for the three-phase matrix converter drive. The new topology and control scheme is developed to regulate the output phase currents in the case of system faults. Using the proposed method, disturbance-free operation is possible by maintaining the same magneto-motive force (MMF) in the motor under the loss of a phase in either the converter or motor

This seminar is prepared such that practicing engineers and graduate students can absorb it entirely. It is designed for engineers who are interested in various electric power generation and distribution systems for vehicular applications. Following is a summary of this one-day tutorial and the timing and detailed list of topics.

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Abstract:

This presentation will cover the basics of RFID sensor, RFID sensors available in the market. Selection criteria of the sensors, Applications for RFID technology, and a simple RFID sensor kit will be covered.

Radio frequency identification (RFID) first appeared in tracking and access applications during the 1980s. These wireless AIDC systems allow for non-contact reading and are effective in manufacturing and other hostile environments where bar code labels could not survive. RFID has established itself in a wide range of markets including livestock identification and automated vehicle identification (AVI) systems because of its ability to track moving objects with GPS technology. Ways to integrate GPA, RFID and Power management ICs plays an important role in military tracking applications.

Outline of Workshop
Introduction to RFID technology
Tags: Active and Passive
Readers/Writers/Antennas

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Autonomous Navigation in Vehicular Systems
Kimon Valavanis
University of South Florida

Abstract: (coming soon)

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Abstract:

Automakers are scrambling to implement advanced safety and engine management systems to make vehicles safer and more fuel-efficient, as well as meet growing consumer and government demands. Continuous demands for fuel efficiency mandate "drive-by-wire" systems that eliminate camshafts, power-sapping belt drives and pumps, and a great deal of unnecessary weight. The demand for drive-by-wire and many new features such as telematics, entertainment, multimedia, pre-crash warning, remote diagnostic and software update, etc. will significantly increase the complexity of in-vehicle communication networks. New types of communication networks will also be necessary to satisfy the requirements of safety and fuel efficiency, and meet the demand for new features. Drive-by-wire and active collision avoidance systems will require fault tolerant networks with time-triggered protocols to guarantee deterministic latencies. An industry consortium, consisting of BMW, DaimlerChrysler, General Motors, Motorola, Philips, Volkswagen and Robert Bosch is the big driving force behind time-triggered protocols. Various time-triggered protocols have already been developed for drive-by-wire applications. Among them, TTP, TTCAN and Flexray are the most widely researched protocols. This workshop will present detailed descriptions of TTP, TTCAN and Flexray protocols. The advantages and disadvantages of TTP, TTCAN and Flexray will also be discussed in the workshop. Several examples will be shown for better understanding of TTP, TTCAN and Flexray.

The duration of the workshop talk will be four hours.

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Research Opportunities and Auto-id Applications for DoD
Sunil Sheoran
Accenture Inc.

Abstract:
For past few years, auto-identification and more specifically RFID has been enjoying the golden time of attention due to numerous factors. RFID along with other sensor technologies will definitely change our world, not necessarily the way you think. The purpose of this presentation is to provide an analysis of cutting edge research and current state of auto-id industry and brainstorm the research ideas relevant to VI. Although the focus is to identify the research items relevant to VI, the presentation will also review the DoD's auto-id policies, priorities and future direction. Industry thought leadership, lessons learned from implementations, comparison to related technologies and demonstrations from leading research institutes will be analyzed to provide a context to the technology. The last part of the presentation will provide an opportunity to brainstorm the research ideas for VI in a facilitated session.

Outline

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Abstract
(coming soon)

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