The promise of fuel cell-based automobiles

Fuel cell-based automobiles have gained attention in the last few years due to growing public concern about urban air pollution and consequent environmental problems. From an analysis of the power and energy requirements of a modern car, it is estimated that a base sustainable power ofca. 50 kW supplemented with short bursts up to 80 kW will suffice in most driving requirements. The energy demand depends greatly on driving characteristics but under normal usage is expected to be 200 Wh/km. The advantages and disadvantages of candidate fuel-cell systems and various fuels are considered together with the issue of whether the fuel should be converted directly in the fuel cell or should be reformed to hydrogen onboard the vehicle. For fuel cell vehicles to compete successfully with conventional internal-combustion engine vehicles, it appears that direct conversion fuel cells using probably hydrogen, but possibly methanol, are the only realistic contenders for road transportation applications. Among the available fuel cell technologies, polymer-electrolyte fuel cells directly fueled with hydrogen appear to be the best option for powering fuel cell vehicles as there is every prospect that these will exceed the performance of the internal-combustion engine vehicles but for their first cost. A target cost of $ 50/kW would be mandatory to make polymer-electrolyte fuel cells competitive with the internal combustion engines and can only be achieved with design changes that would substantially reduce the quantity of materials used. At present, prominent car manufacturers are deploying important research and development efforts to develop fuel cell vehicles and are projecting to start production by 2005.     

High accuracy path tracking for vehicles in presence of sliding: Application to farm vehicle automatic guidance for agricultural tasks

When designing an accurate automated guidance system for vehicles, a major problem is sliding and pseudo-sliding effects. This is especially the case in agricultural applications, where five-centimetre accuracy with respect to the desired trajectory is required, although the vehicles are moving on slippery ground. It has been established that RTK GPS was a very suitable sensor to achieve automated guidance with such high precision: several control laws have been designed for vehicles equipped with this sensor, and provide the expected guidance accuracy as long as the vehicles do not slide. In previous work, further control developments have been proposed to take sliding into account: guidance accuracy in slippery environments has been shown to be preserved, except transiently at the beginning/end of curves. In this paper, the design of this control law is first recalled and discussed. A Model Predictive Control method is then applied in order to preserve accuracy of guidance even during these curvature transitions. Finally, the overall control scheme is implemented, and improvements with respect to previous guidance laws are demonstrated through full-scale experiments.     

Design and evaluation of an active electromechanical wheel suspension system

This paper presents an electromechanical wheel suspension, where the upper arm of the suspension has been provided with an electric levelling and a damper actuator, both are allowed to work in a fully active mode. A control structure for the proposed suspension is described. The complex design task involving the control of the electric damper and its machine parameters is tackled by genetic optimisation. During this process, these parameters are optimised to keep the power dissipation of the electric damper as low as possible, while maintaining acceptable comfort and road-holding capabilities. The results of the evaluations carried out demonstrate that the proposed suspension can easily adopt its control parameters to obtain a better compromise of performance than that offered by passive suspensions. If the vehicle is to maintain acceptable performance during severe driving conditions, the damper has to be unrealistically large. However, if the electric damper is combined with a hydraulic damper, the size of the electric damper is significantly reduced. In addition, the design of the electric damper with the suggested control structure, including how it regenerates energy, is discussed.     

Energy storage devices for future hybrid electric vehicles

Powertrain hybridization as well as electrical energy management are imposing new requirements on electrical storage systems in vehicles. This paper characterizes the associated vehicle attributes and, in particular, the various levels of hybrids. New requirements for the electrical storage system are derived, including: shallow-cycle life, high dynamic charge acceptance particularly for regenerative braking and robust service life in sustained partial-state-of-charge usage. Lead/acid, either with liquid or absorptive glass-fibre mat electrolyte, is expected to remain the predominant battery technology for 14 V systems, including micro-hybrids, and with a cost-effective battery monitoring system for demanding applications. Advanced AGM batteries may be considered for mild or even medium hybrids once they have proven robustness under real-world conditions, particularly with respect to cycle life at partial-states-of-charge and dynamic charge acceptance. For the foreseeable future, NiMH and Li-ion are the dominating current and potential battery technologies for higher-functionality HEVs. Li-ion, currently at development and demonstration stages, offers attractive opportunities for improvements in performance and cost. Supercapacitors may be considered for pulse power applications. Aside from cell technologies, attention to the issue of system integration of the battery into the powertrain and vehicle is growing. Opportunities and challenges for potential “battery pack” system suppliers are discussed.     

轨道车辆泡沫夹芯中顶板夹层设计与优化

轨道车辆的生产中大量采用平板铝合金或玻璃钢板件,产品质量偏重且材料容易出现下垂,满足不了车体轻量化与美观的需求。通过仿真与试验结合的方式研究酚醛泡沫、聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯(PET)泡沫、聚氯乙烯(PVC)泡沫夹芯中的面板厚度、芯材模量对中顶板质量及下垂挠度的影响,测试了不同复合夹芯板的平拉强度、平压强度以及弯曲强度。结果表明:经过芯材选型优化后,平拉强度≥2 MPa、平压强度≥2 MPa、弯曲强度≥25 MPa、面密度≤7.5 kg/m²、下垂挠度≤2 mm的泡沫夹芯为中顶板的最优结构组成。     

机动车辆装载问题的一种混合遗传算法实现*

针对货物装载地和运送目的地均已确定情况下的车辆装载问题,给出了基于遗传算法求解的数学模型,并对基本遗传算法的各个算子针对问题的特点提出了改进方法,同时引入启发式策略,形成了一种混合遗传算法.该算法的特点是各个算子都以提高算法收敛速度和解的最优性为目标,同时种群大小是动态变化的,以求在保证群体多样性的同时加快收敛速度.实验结果表明,该算法对求解此类问题是有效的.     

考虑电动汽车时空接入随机性的充储电站有序充放电分散式优化

针对电动汽车时空接入的随机性,提出一种基于改进拉格朗日对偶松弛法的充储电站有序充放电分散式优化调度方法.首先,根据出行链和马尔可夫决策理论,建立计及出行路径随机性的电动汽车时空接入模型和不同温度及交通路况下的电动汽车单位行驶里程能耗模型;其次,考虑电动汽车的充放电约束、充储电站和配电网的运行约束,构建以充储电站收益最大化为目标函数的充储电站侧优化数学模型;然后,基于改进拉格朗日对偶松弛法,提出该模型的分散式优化求解方法;最后,以某典型城区道路拓扑为例,对比分析不同出行路径、温度、交通路况和调度策略下各充储电站的收益、负荷曲线和计算效率.算例结果表明:所提方法综合考虑多种环境因素,使充储电站的调度结果更加全面实际,且计算效率得到了大幅提升.     

基于时空特性以及需求响应的DG和EV充电站多目标优化配置

针对可再生分布式电源(DG)及电动汽车(EV)大规模接入给配电网带来的用电量增长以及电压波动问题,提出一种基于时空特性以及需求响应的DG和EV充电站多目标协调优化配置方法.通过提取城市路网的拓扑结构,监测路网流量,基于交通规划软件TransCAD进行起讫点(OD)矩阵反推,构建出行概率矩阵以描述用户的出行特性;基于蒙特卡洛方法模拟EV的时空分布特性,考虑EV、DG与常规负荷的时序特性,并基于改进K-means算法构建风-光-负荷的典型运行场景;兼顾电网侧与用户侧,以综合效益、系统负荷波动以及充电耗时成本为目标,构建DG和EV充电站的多目标联合配置模型,并采用改进粒子群优化算法进行求解.结合IEEE 33节点配电网与某城区主干道路网模型进行仿真分析,结果验证了所建模型的有效性与可行性.     

Learning control in spatial coordinates for the path-following of autonomous vehicles

We prove the existence of a P-type (proportional-type) space-learning control, which, on the basis of a kinematic third order nonlinear model of an autonomous nonholonomic vehicle and by a proper choice of the proportional control gain, guarantees asymptotic tracking of planar curves whose uncertain curvature is L$L$-periodic in the curvilinear abscissa. The behavior of a human driver, who repetitively learns the correct action from the past experience in the space, is mathematically reproduced. A stability analysis is presented while simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the presented approach.     

Robust control of variable speed autonomous underwater vehicle

Set point tracking control of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) via robust model predictive control (RMPC) is considered. Input-constrained RMPC with integral action, which has been developed in our previous work, is used to control the AUV in this study. In order to derive a RMPC control rule, non-linear dynamics of AUV with six degree of freedom is linearized at certain operating points. So, horizontal and vertical plane dynamics of system are represented by linear models which have polytopic uncertainties. Since the derived control rule will be used in real time, the computation time should be reduced. To overcome this computational time problem and get rid of trial–error step of Algorithm 1, a new algorithm is proposed here. The simulations are carried out using the control rule based on this algorithm and these results are presented.