Contact bridging dampers for back-up on automated highways

Automated Highway Systems (AHS) are under development to address congestion, inefficient energy use and inadequate safety margins. As more intelligence is applied to highway and vehicles, the system increasingly relies on secure communications and control, with potentially hazardous consequences in the event of technical failure. The authors propose an active, intelligently controlled extended fender which permits vehicles to operate in lengthy, stable platoons in direct but 'soft' contact, allowing fault support for an AHS. Simulation studies have indicated that stable operation may be retained with only a simple 'leader' broadcast signal and that good longitudinal ride quality is also retained, providing results similar to the fully co-operative system. The device also provides potential for additional safety in the event of a collision and for selective power reduction for a co-operative system at steady speed     

Application of the “Contact Convoy” Concept to Hybrid Electric Vehicles

This paper applies an intelligent intervehicle device (termed a ldquobridging damperrdquo) to a convoy of in-contact vehicles. The field of application is backup for future automated highways and operation of novel guided systems using vehicle-following control. The vehicle represented in computer simulations is a parallel hybrid electric automobile. Using the advanced vehicle simulator (ADVISOR) model, the vehicle representation is tuned to achieve matching of the overall force and power characteristics and the same performance over an urban driving cycle. The model for which a dedicated Matlab Toolbox was constructed is described. Simulation results compare the vehicle-following control on its own with a passive damper and a ldquoquasi-activerdquo damper that is controlled in collaboration with the vehicle's drivetrain. Using transient disturbances in the form of wind gusts and short gradients, power peaks and longitudinal ride quality (vibration dose value) are used to evaluate the performance.