Development of an automated testing system for vehicle infotainment system

A current premium vehicle is implemented with a variety of information, entertainment, and communication functions, which are generally referred as an infotainment system. During vehicle development, testing of the infotainment system at an overall level is conventionally carried out manually by an expert who can observe at a customer level. This approach has significant limitations with regard to test coverage and effectiveness due to the complexity of the system functions and human’s capability. Hence, it is highly demanded by car manufacturers for an automated infotainment testing system, which replicates a human expert encompassing relevant sensory modalities relating to control (i.e., touch) and observation (i.e., sight and sound) of the system under test. This paper describes the design, development, and evaluation of such a system that consists of simulation of vehicle network, vision-based inspection, automated navigation of features, random cranking waveform generation, sound detection, and test automation. The system developed is able to: stimulate a vehicle system across a wide variety of initialisation conditions, exercise each function, check for system responses, and record failure situations for post-testing analysis.     

Synthesis of N-(2 amino benzothiazole) methacylamide monomer and its copolymers for antimicrobial coating application by RAFT polymerization

Monomer with thiazole moiety was synthesized and copolymerized with butyl acrylate and methyl methacrylate by reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer emulsion polymerization. The chain transfer agent was synthesized using N-ethyl piperazine, carbon disulfide, and ethyl 2-bromoisobutyrate. The wt% of monomer was varied from 3, 5, 7, 9, and 12 respectively. A antimicrobial activities of monomer and its copolymers were screened against E. coli, B. subtilis, C. albicans, and Aspergillus niger microorganisms. The synthesized monomer and chain transfer agent were characterized by ¹H NMR, FTIR, and mass spectral analysis, whereas emulsion copolymers were characterized for their molecular weight, particle size, and FTIR analysis.     

Design of protection and control scheme for hybrid nanogrid

Nanogrid is “The new ray of hope” for people living in remote isolated locations as well as where power supply reliability is poor. A nanogrid is a small power capacity distribution system with the ability to operate standalone or with a utility grid. It consists of local power production supplying local loads and energy storage systems. In this paper, an innovative inverter design is presented, which converts the power in a single stage. It is superior to the traditional two-stage inverter system and can supply hybrid loads (AC and DC loads) with a single input. System AC and DC bus voltages are regulated under both steady-state and dynamic load variation conditions in the nanogrid. Simulation results are presented which confirm the suitability of the inverter and its control strategy for a hybrid nanogrid system.     

Effects of incorporated imine functionality and dispersed nano zinc oxide particles on antimicrobial activity synthesized by RAFT polymerization

Polymer Bulletin - Xanthate-mediated block copolymers of butyl acrylate with varying concentrations of glycidyl methacrylate, i.e., 3, 5, 10, and 12 % having fixed molecular weight, i.e.,...     

Dissolution of Wollastonite in a Packed Bed Contactor

In a packed-bed reactor grains of the calcium silicate mineral wollastonite dissolved incongruently. A silicon-rich residue layer appeared to form on the grain surfaces and this quickly limited the overall rate of mineral dissolution. Approximately 54% of the silicon associated with the dissolved calcium was retained on the grains and about 46% went into solution with the calcium. As the amount of Ca dissolved per unit area of grain surface approached approximately 0.5?μmol/cm2 the effluent concentration of Ca decreased to a value that was significantly less than the equilibrium concentration (approximately 300?μmol/L) and the effluent pH decreased from approximately 10 to slightly greater than the influent value of 6.8. The effluent Ca and Si concentrations were effectively predicted by a finite difference model that used layer-by-layer calculation of a residue layer mass transfer resistance (for the Ca ion) acting in series with an extraparticle mass transfer resistance. The effluent pH was predicted using chemical equilibrium calculations and the assumption that the dissolved Si controls the proton balance across the column.     

An Event-Based Sediment Yield and Runoff Modeling Using Soil Moisture Balance/Budgeting (SMB) Method

Water Resources Management - The Soil Conservation Service Curve Number (SCS-CN) method is frequently used for the estimation of direct surface runoff depth from the small watersheds. Coupling the...     

Mitigation of harmonics in three-phase ac system using current injection technique for ac-to-dc converter

This paper presents a new approach to eliminate harmonics and to improve power factor of a three phase front-end uncontrolled rectifier. A high-power-factor is achieved by injecting high-frequency triangular current from the output of three-phase inverter. The high frequency (HF) current modulates the rectifier input voltage resulting in conduction of diodes into each switching cycle. The resulting ac input line current is continuous and sinusoidal in shape with significant reduction in current harmonics. All the switches are operated at zero-voltage switching (ZVS). The diodes of the rectifier are also operated with soft switching at turn-on as well as at turn-off. Varying switching frequency with fixed duty ratio regulates the output voltage. The proposed ac-to-dc converter also maintains high-power-factor even for unbalanced input supply voltages. The analysis of the converter is carried out on a single-phase basis, using different operating modes in one switching cycle of injected current. Theoretical results based on analysis are verified initially through digital simulation, and confirmed by using an experimental prototype of 2.5 kW.     

UV-curable behavior of phosphorus- and nitrogen-based reactive diluent for epoxy acrylate oligomer used for flame-retardant wood coating

Multifunctional phosphorus and nitrogen containing tris-diethanolamine spirocyclic pentaerythritol bisphosphorate reactive diluent (TDSPBRD) for epoxy acrylate oligomer was synthesized from spirocyclic pentaerythritol bisphosphorate diphosphoryl chloride, diethanolamine, and allyl chloroformate. The synthesized reactive diluent was utilized to formulate ultraviolet (UV)-curable wood coating. The weight fraction of reactive diluent in the coating formulation was varied from 5 to 25 wt% with constant photoinitiator concentration. The molecular structure of the reactive flame retardant was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and ³¹P NMR spectral analysis and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDAX). Further, the effectiveness of the flame retardant behavior of the coatings was evaluated using the limiting oxygen index and UL-94 vertical burning test. Thermal stability was estimated from thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry. The effects of varying the concentration of TDSPBRD on the viscosity of the coating formulation along with the optical, mechanical and chemical resistance properties of the coatings were evaluated. The coatings gel content, water absorption behavior, and stain resistance were also studied.     

Mixing of medium viscosity liquids in a stirred tank with fractal impeller

Mixing of viscous liquids in a stirred tank is a daunting task. The present paper explores the possibility of using a fractal impeller for mixing of viscous liquids in a stirred tank. The analysis includes power consumptions characteristics, mixing characteristics and the flow patterns in the stirred tank. Ultrasonic velocity profiler (UVP) was used to measure the local velocities in the stirred tank. Fractal impeller found to exhibit different power consumption characteristics than known for conventional impellers. For the range of viscosities 0.58–0.192 Pa s, mixing time found to be directly proportional to the power consumption per unit mass. The normalised mean radial velocity profiles were found to be independent of fluid viscosities studied in the present work.     

Probability based vehicle fault diagnosis: Bayesian network method

Fault diagnostics are increasingly important for ensuring vehicle safety and reliability. One of the issues in vehicle fault diagnosis is the difficulty of successful interpretation of failure symptoms to correctly diagnose the real root cause. This paper presents an innovative Bayesian Network based method for guiding off-line vehicle fault diagnosis. By using a vehicle infotainment system as a case study, a number of Bayesian diagnostic models have been established for fault cases with single and multiple symptoms. Particular considerations are given to the design of the Bayesian model structure, determination of prior probabilities of root causes, and diagnostic procedure. In order to unburden the computation, an object oriented model structure has been adopted to prevent the model from overly large. It is shown that the proposed method is capable of guiding vehicle diagnostics in a probabilistic manner. Furthermore, the method features a multiple-symptoms-orientated troubleshooting strategy, and is capable of diagnosing multiple symptoms optimally and simultaneously.