Handling Qualities of a New Last-Mile Vehicle

This paper assesses the vehicle dynamics of a new cargo bike concept developed for euro pallet sized cargo. The cargo bike developed is for last-mile delivery. Different aspects of manoeuvrability and stability are examined using a series of manoeuvres based on tests from the automotive industry combined with bicycle industry regulations. These manoeuvres objectively evaluate and determine the handling capabilities of the cargo bike concept. Those tests can be compared using the results of the benchmark vehicles. The results conclude the new cargo bike has proper vehicle dynamics above the majority of benchmark vehicles but there is still room for improvement.

Determining the approach speed envelope of carrier aircraft

Many factors,such as deck motion and air wave,influence the determination of the approach speed which has an important effect on landing safety. Until recently,there are no design criteria about approach speed of carrier aircraft in the current standards and available publications. Therefore,the requirements of stall margin, longitudinal acceleration ability,altitude correction and field-of-view on approach speed were researched. Based on the flight dynamics model,the flight simulations were conducted to study the effect of the response time of engine,wave off requirements,elevator efficiency and deflection rate on the approach speed. The results presented that the approach longitudinal acceleration and altitude correction ability had crucial influence on the approach speed envelope of the aircraft. The limitations of the control requirements,field- of- view requirements and gear were also given through the simulation and analysis. Based on the above results,the approach speed envelope were determined.

Investigation into Pilot Handling Qualities in Teleoperation Rendezvous and Docking with Time Delay

Teleoperation rendezvous and docking can be used as a backup for autonomous rendezvous and docking（RVD） for an unmanned spacecraft when the autonomous system is failure or for guiding the chaser docking with an uncooperative target.The theoretical model for analyzing the handling qualities in teleoperation RVD process is established based on the previous studies conducted by National Aeronautics and Space Administration（NASA）.The predictive factor is introduced to describe the pilot＇s predictive ability in the teleoperation tasks with time delay,which interrelates with the skills of a pilot and the predictive assist approach used in the tasks such as the predictive display method.Based on the semi-physical simulation system in our laboratory,900 experiments at two levels of time delay are carried out by 18 volunteers for validating the established model.The experimental results demonstrate the correctness of the theoretical model and indicate that a skilled pilot has a predictive ability of approximately 0.9 in teleoperation RVD tasks.The theoretical analysis shows that the handling qualities are greatly affected by the time delay and the predictive factor,and it is impossible to achieve a teleoperation RVD task for the skilled pilot when the time delay is larger than 9.0 s.