Safe Motion Planning and Control Framework for Automated Vehicles with Zonotopic TRMPC

Model mismatches can cause multi-dimensional uncertainties for the receding horizon control strategies of automated vehicles(AVs).The uncertainties may lead to potentially hazardous behaviors when the AV tracks ideal trajectories that are individually optimized by the AV's planning layer.To address this issue,this study proposes a safe motion planning and control(SMPAC)framework for AVs.For the control layer,a dynamic model including multi-dimensional uncertainties is established.A zonotopic tube-based robust model predictive control scheme is proposed to constrain the uncertain system in a bounded minimum robust positive invariant set.A flexible tube with varying cross-sections is constructed to reduce the controller conservatism.For the planning layer,a concept of safety sets,representing the geometric boundaries of the ego vehicle and obstacles under uncertainties,is proposed.The safety sets provide the basis for the subsequent evaluation and ranking of the generated trajectories.An efficient collision avoidance algorithm decides the desired trajectory through the intersection detection of the safety sets between the ego vehicle and obstacles.A numerical simulation and hardware-in-the-loop experiment validate the effectiveness and real-time performance of the SMPAC.The result of two driving scenarios indicates that the SMPAC can guarantee the safety of automated driving under multi-dimensional uncertainties.

Deep neural network-enabled battery open-circuit voltage estimation based on partial charging data

Battery management systems(BMSs) play a vital role in ensuring efficient and reliable operations of lithium-ion batteries.The main function of the BMSs is to estimate battery states and diagnose battery health using battery open-circuit voltage(OCV).However,acquiring the complete OCV data online can be a challenging endeavor due to the time-consuming measurement process or the need for specific operating conditions required by OCV estimation models.In addressing these concerns,this study introduces a deep neural network-combined framework for accurate and robust OCV estimation,utilizing partial daily charging data.We incorporate a generative deep learning model to extract aging-related features from data and generate high-fidelity OCV curves.Correlation analysis is employed to identify the optimal partial charging data,optimizing the OCV estimation precision while preserving exceptional flexibility.The validation results,using data from nickel-cobalt-magnesium(NCM) batteries,illustrate the accurate estimation of the complete OCV-capacity curve,with an average root mean square errors(RMSE) of less than 3 mAh.Achieving this level of precision for OCV estimation requires only around 50 s collection of partial charging data.Further validations on diverse battery types operating under various conditions confirm the effectiveness of our proposed method.Additional cases of precise health diagnosis based on OCV highlight the significance of conducting online OCV estimation.Our method provides a flexible approach to achieve complete OCV estimation and holds promise for generalization to other tasks in BMSs.

Geometry Design and Tooth Contact Analysis of Crossed Beveloid Gears for Marine Transmissions

Beveloid gears,also known as conical gears,gain more and more importance in industry practice due to their abilities for power transmission between parallel,intersected and crossed axis.However,this type of gearing with crossed axes has no common plane of action which results in a point contact and low tooth durability.Therefore,a geometry design approach assuming line contact is developed to analyze the tooth engagement process of crossed beveloid gears with small shaft angle for marine transmission applications.The loaded gear tooth contact behavior is simulated by applying a quasi-static analysis to study the effects of gearing parameters on mesh characteristics.Using the proposed method,a series of sensitivity analyses to examine the effects of critical gearing parameters such as shaft angle,cone angle,helix angle and profile-shift coefficient on the theoretical gear mesh is performed.The parametric analysis of pitch cone design shows that the dominant design parameters represented by the angle between the first principle directions（FPD） and normal angular factor are more sensitive to the shaft and cone angles than they are to the helix angle.The theoretical contact path is highly sensitive to the profile-shift coefficient,which is determined from the theoretical tooth contact analysis.The FPD angle is found to change the distribution of contact pattern,contact pressure and root stress as well as the translational transmission error and the variation of the mesh stiffness significantly.The contact pattern is clearly different between the drive and coast sides due to different designed FPD angles.Finally,a practical experimental setup for marine transmission is performed and tooth bearing test is conducted to demonstrate the proposed design procedure.The experimental result compared well with the simulation.Results of this study yield a better understanding of the geometry design and loaded gear mesh characteristics for crossed beveloid gears used in marine transmission.

Gearbox Deterioration Detection under Steady State,Variable Load, and Variable Speed Conditions

Multiple dominant gear meshing frequencies are present in the vibration signals collected from gearboxes and the conventional spiky features that represent initial gear fault conditions are usually difficult to detect. In order to solve this problem, we propose a new gearbox deterioration detection technique based on autoregressive modeling and hypothesis testing in this paper. A stationary autoregressive model was built by using a normal vibration signal from each shaft. The established autoregressive model was then applied to process fault signals from each shaft of a two-stage gearbox. What this paper investigated is a combined technique which unites a time-varying autoregressive model and a two sample Kolmogorov-Smimov goodness-of-fit test, to detect the deterioration of gearing system with simultaneously variable shaft speed and variable load. The time-varying autoregressive model residuals representing both healthy and faulty gear conditions were compared with the original healthy time-synchronous average signals. Compared with the traditional kurtosis statistic, this technique for gearbox deterioration detection has shown significant advantages in highlighting the presence of incipient gear fault in all different speed shafts involved in the meshing motion under variable conditions.

Comparison of microstructures and mechanical properties of composite extruded AZ31 sheets

The microstructures and mechanical properties of the composite extruded AZ31/AZ31 and AZ31/4047 Al sheets were investigated and made a comparison to the conventional extruded AZ31 sheet.Owing to the introduced intense shear deformation at the interface during the composite extrusion,grain refinement and tilted texture were detected in AZ31 layers of the AZ31/AZ31 and AZ31/4047 Al sheets,while the conventional extruded AZ31 sheet exhibited a relative coarse,inhomogeneous microstructure and strong basal texture.The compressiontension yield ratio was increased gradually from the AZ31 to the AZ31/AZ31 and AZ31/4047 Al sheets.Besides,the AZ31/4047 Al sheet could successfully accomplish the whole bending forming process at room temperature,while the AZ31 and AZ31/AZ31 sheets were both bend-formed to failure with significant cracks in the outer tensile region under the identical bending parameters.Moreover,under the same bending strain,both the outward offset degree of strain neutral layer and the sheet thickening were more serious in the AZ31/4047 Al composite sheet than those of the AZ31 and AZ31/AZ31 sheets.The foremost reason was the quite wide gap of material properties between Mg alloy AZ31 layer(tensile loading in the outer region)and Al 4047 layer(compressive loading in the inner region).

Optimization of mechanical and damping properties of Mg-0.6Zr alloy by different extrusion processing

In this study,the optimization of mechanical and damping capacities of Mg-0.6 wt.%Zr alloys by controlling the recrystallized(DRXed)grain size under varying extrusion processing parameters including extrusion temperature T and strain rate was investigated.The relationship between the DRXed grain size and damping properties of the studied alloy was also discussed.The DRXed grain size of the as-extruded Mg-Zr alloys decreased as the extrusion temperature T decreased and the strain rateεincreased.As the DRXed grain size decreased,the strength and elongation of the as-extruded alloys exhibited improved performance through the grain refinement mechanism,while the damping properties deteriorated.The extrusion temperature of the Mg-Zr alloy had relatively greater effects on the mechanical and damping properties than the strain rate.The results of the present work indicate that alloys with appropriate mechanical and damping properties may be obtained from controlling the DRXed grain size by careful tailoring of the extrusion process parameters.

Enhanced mechanical properties of Mg-3Al-1Zn alloy sheets through slope extrusion

A novel extrusion approach,entitled slope extrusion(SE),was employed to manufacture AZ31(Mg-3Al-1 Zn,wt%)alloy sheets.The microstructures,textures,and mechanical properties were investigated,compared with those of the AZ31 sheet fabricated by conventional extrusion(CE).Through the combination of finite element simulation and actual experiment,the ultimate results indicated that significant grain refinement(from 9.1 to 7.7 and 5.6μm)and strong basal texture(from 12.6 to 17.6 and 19.5 mrd)were achieved by the SE process.The essence was associated with the additional introduced inclined interface in the process of SE,which could bring about more asymmetric deformation and stronger accumulated strain along the ND when compared with the process of CE.As a consequence,the SE sheets exhibited a higher yield strength(YS)and ultimate tensile strength(UTS)than the counterparts of the CE sheet,which was mainly assigned to the synergistic effects from grain refining and texture strengthening.

Three-Dimensional Conjugate Tooth Surface Design and Contact Analysis of Harmonic Drive with Double-Circular-Arc Tooth Profle

A three-dimensional conjugate tooth surface design method for Harmonic Drive with a double-circular-arc tooth profle is proposed. The radial deformation function of the fexspline (FS), obtained through Finite Element (FE) analysis, is incorporated into the kinematics model. By analyzing the FS tooth enveloping process, the optimization of the overlapping conjugate tooth profle is achieved. By utilizing the hobbing process, the three-dimensional machinable tooth surface of FS can be acquired. Utilizing the coning deformation of the FS, simulations are conducted to analyze the multi-section assembly and meshing motion of the machinable tooth surface. The FE method is utilized to analyze and compare the loaded contact characteristics. Results demonstrate that the proposed design method can achieve an internal gear pair consisting of a circular spline with a spur gear tooth surface and the FS with a machinable tooth surface. With the rated torque, approximately 24% of the FS teeth are engaged in meshing, and more than 4/5 of the tooth surface in the axial direction carries the load. The contact patterns, maximum contact pressure, and transmission error of the machinable tooth surface are 227.2%, 40.67%, and 71.24% of those on the spur gear tooth surface, respectively. It clearly demonstrates exceptional transmission performance.

Gear Pitting Measurement by Multi-Scale Splicing Attention U-Net

The judgment of gear failure is based on the pitting area ratio of gear.Traditional gear pitting calculation method mainly rely on manual visual inspection.This method is greatly affected by human factors,and is greatly affected by the working experience,training degree and fatigue degree of the detection personnel,so the detection results may be biased.The non-contact computer vision measurement can carry out non-destructive testing and monitoring under the working condition of the machine,and has high detection accuracy.To improve the measurement accuracy of gear pitting,a novel multi-scale splicing attention U-Net(MSSA U-Net)is explored in this study.An image splicing module is first proposed for concatenating the output feature maps of multiple convolutional layers into a splicing feature map with more semantic information.Then,an attention module is applied to select the key features of the splicing feature map.Given that MSSA U-Net adequately uses multi-scale semantic features,it has better segmentation performance on irregular small objects than U-Net and attention U-Net.On the basis of the designed visual detection platform and MSSA U-Net,a methodology for measuring the area ratio of gear pitting is proposed.With three datasets,experimental results show that MSSA U-Net is superior to existing typical image segmentation methods and can accurately segment different levels of pitting due to its strong segmentation ability.Therefore,the proposed methodology can be effectively applied in measuring the pitting area ratio and determining the level of gear pitting.

On Energy Assessment of Titanium Alloys Belt Grinding Involving Abrasive Wear Effects

Improved energy utilisation,precision,and quality are critical in the current trend of low-carbon green manufactur-ing.In this study,three abrasive belts were prepared at various wear stages and characterised quantitatively.The effects of abrasive belt wear on the specific grinding energy partition were investigated by evaluating robotic belt grinding of titanium plates.A specific grinding energy model based on subdivided tangential forces of cutting and sliding was developed for investigating specific energy and energy utilisation coefficient EUC.The surface mor-phology and Abbott–Firestone curves of the belts were introduced to analyse the experimental findings from the per-spective of the micro cutting behaviour.The specific grinding energy increased with abrasive belt wear,especially when the belt was near the end of its life.Moreover,the belt wear could lead to a predominance change of sliding and chip formation energy.The highest EUC was observed in the middle of the belt life because of its retained sharp cutting edge and uniform distribution of the grit protrusion height.This study provides guidance for balancing the energy consumption and energy utilization efficiency of belt grinding.

Model of Surface Texture for Honed Gear Considering Motion Path and Geometrical Shape of Abrasive Particle

Gear power-honing is mainly applied to finish small and medium-sized automotive gears,especially in new energy vehicles.The distinctive curved surface texture greatly improves the noise emission and service life of honed gears.The surface texture for honed gear considering the motion path and geometrical shape of abrasive particles has not been investigated.In this paper,the kinematics of the gear honing process is analyzed,and the machining marks produced by the abrasive particles of honing wheel scratching abrasive particles against the workpiece gear are calculated.The tooth surface roughness is modeled considering abrasive particle shapes and material plastic pile-ups.This results in a mathematical model that characterizes the structure of the tooth surface and the orientation of the machining marks.Experiments were used to verify the model,with a maximum relative error of less than 10%when abrasive particles are spherical.Based on this model,the effects of process parameters on the speeds of discrete points on the tooth flank,orientations of machining marks and roughness are discussed.The results show that the shaft angle between the workpiece gear and the honing wheel and the speed of the honing wheel is the main process parameters affecting the surface texture.This research proposes a surface texture model for honed gear,which can provide a theoretical basis for optimizing process parameters for gear power-honing.

Design of Linear Functional Noncircular Gear with High Contact Ratio Used in Continuously Variable Transmission

Continuously variable transmission(CVT)of noncircular gear has the technical advantages of large bearing capacity and high transmission efficiency.The key technology of CVT with noncircular gear has been broken through some countries,and is in the stage of deep application research.Although the characteristics and design methods of noncircular gear pairs have been continuously studied in China,the noncircular gear CVT is still in the preliminary exploration and research stage.The linear functional noncircular gear pair,whose transmission ratio is a linear function in the working section,to realize continuously variable transmission was the research object in this paper.According to the required transmission ratio in the working section,the transmission ratio function in the non-working section was constructed by using a polynomial.And then the influence of pitch curve parameters in the working section on which in the non-working section was also analyzed to obtain the pitch curve suitable for transmission of this gear pair.In addition,for improving the stability and bearing capacity of gear transmission,the noncircular gear pair transmission with high contact ratio was designed.Furthermore,the accurate value of the contact tooth length was calculated based on the gear principle and the characteristics of the involute tooth profile,from this the contact tooth length error was calculated by comparing the accurate value with its actual value obtained by the rolling experiment.Finally,an indirect method to verify the contact ratio by detecting the contact length error of the tooth profile was proposed.

Surface reconstruction,modification and functionalization of natural diatomites for miniaturization of shaped heterogeneous catalysts

Since the discovery of mesoporous silica in 1990s,there have been numerous mesoporous silica-based nanomaterials developed for catalytic applications,aiming at enhanced catalytic activity and stability.Recently,there have also been considerable interests in endowing them with hierarchical porosities to overcome the diffusional limitation for those with long unimodal channels.Present processes of making mesoporous silica largely rely on chemical sources which are relatively expensive and impose environmental concerns on their processes.In this regard,it is desirable to develop hierarchical silica supports from natural minerals.Herein,we present a series of work on surface reconstruction,modification,and functionalization to produce diatomite-based catalysts with original morphology and macro-meso-micro porosities and to test their suitability as catalyst supports for both liquid-and gas-phase reactions.Two wet-chemical routes were developed to introduce mesoporosity to both amorphous and crystalline diatomites.Importantly,we have used computational modeling to affirm that the diatomite morphology can improve catalytic performance based on fluid dynamics simulations.Thus,one could obtain this type of catalysts from numerous natural diatoms that have inherently intricate morphologies and shapes in micrometer scale.In principle,such catalytic nanocomposites acting as miniaturized industrial catalysts could be employed in microfluidic reactors for process intensification.

A Multi-mode Electronic Load Sensing Control Scheme with Power Limitation and Pressure Cut-off for Mobile Machinery

In mobile machinery,hydro-mechanical pumps are increasingly replaced by electronically controlled pumps to improve the automation level,but diversified control functions(e.g.,power limitation and pressure cut-off)are integrated into the electronic controller only from the pump level,leading to the potential instability of the overall system.To solve this problem,a multi-mode electrohydraulic load sensing(MELS)control scheme is proposed especially considering the switching stability from the system level,which includes four working modes of flow control,load sensing,power limitation,and pressure control.Depending on the actual working requirements,the switching rules for the different modes and the switching direction(i.e.,the modes can be switched bilaterally or unilaterally)are defined.The priority of different modes is also defined,from high to low:pressure control,power limitation,load sensing,and flow control.When multiple switching rules are satisfied at the same time,the system switches to the control mode with the highest priority.In addition,the switching stability between flow control and pressure control modes is analyzed,and the controller parameters that guarantee the switching stability are obtained.A comparative study is carried out based on a test rig with a 2-ton hydraulic excavator.The results show that the MELS controller can achieve the control functions of proper flow supplement,power limitation,and pressure cut-off,which has good stability performance when switching between different control modes.This research proposes the MELS control method that realizes the stability of multi-mode switching of the hydraulic system of mobile machinery under different working conditions.

Design and Experimental Testing of an Electric Field-Driven Droplet Injection Device

The properties of droplets produced by existing on-demand injection systems are typically determined by the nozzle diameter,i.e.,only droplets with size larger than this diameter can be obtained.To solve this problem,a system for electricfield-driven droplet injection and deposition was developed,and the related performances were compared with those of a standard pneumatic system.The results show that the diameter of droplets gen-erated accordingly can be significantly smaller than the nozzle diameter.In particular,the effects of frequency and duty ratio on the number of droplets were studied by assuming microcrystalline wax as work material.A deposi-tion matrix was obtained by using a nozzle with a diameter of 200μm.The average diameter of the matrix was 80.17μm with a standard deviation of 2.65μm and the average spacing was 301.25μm with a standard deviation of 6.80μm.Four deposition states after droplet injection were considered and verified under different velocities of F60,F10,F3,and F0.We also provide an explanation for the existence of a series of inclined columns showing up during the deposition processs.

“Smart”micro/nano container-based self-healing coatings on magnesium alloys:A review

Coating technologies are a commonly used way to protect metals against corrosion.However,with more and more severe service environments of materials,many protective coating systems often are not environmentally friendly or toxic as in the case of chromates.Based on the world’s abundant ideal magnesium(Mg)and its alloy,the smart self-healing anticorrosive coating can autonomously restore the damaged part of the coating according to the environmental changes,strengthen the corrosion protection ability,and prolong its service life.This paper reviews the research progress of smart self-healing coatings on Mg alloys.These coatings mostly contain suitable corrosion inhibitors encapsulated into micro/nano containers.Moreover,the different self-healing mechanisms and functionalities of micro/nano containers are discussed.The micro/nano containers range from inorganic nanocontainers such as mesoporous nanoparticles(silica(SiO_(2)),titanium dioxide(TiO_(2)),etc.),over inorganic clays(halloysite,hydrotalcite-like,zeolite),to organic nanocontainers such as polymer microcapsules,nanofibers,chitosan(CS)and cyclodextrin(CD),as well as,carbon materials such as graphene and carbon nanotubes and hybrids such as metal organic frameworks.The functioning of micro/nano containers can be divided in two principal groups:autonomous(based on defect filling and corrosion inhibition)and non-autonomous(based on dynamic bonds and shape memory polymers).Moreover,multi functionalities and composite applications of various micro/nano containers are summarized.At present,significant progress has been made in the preparation methods and technologies of micro/nano containers.Achieving long-term self-healing properties of coatings sensing of coating failure and early warning after self-healing function failure can be expected as the main development direction of self-healing corrosion protection coatings in the future.

Strength-ductility balance of AZ31 magnesium alloy via accumulated extrusion bonding combined with two-stage artificial cooling Author links open overlay panel

AZ31 Mg alloy with heterogeneous bimodal grain structure(smaller grain size of 5-20µm and coarser grain size of 100-200µm)was subjected to accumulated extrusion bonding(AEB)at 250℃combined with two-stage artificial cooling in this work,viz.local water cooling and artificial cooling.The microstructure developed consecutively as a result of discontinuous dynamic recrystallization(DDRX)for the AEBed samples.{10-12}tensile twinning also played an important role for the AEB with local water cooling at the initial extrusion stage in the container.Local water cooling could further reduce the DRXed grain size to~2.1µm comparing that without water cooling.And the grain growth rate was reduced by artificial cooling out of extrusion die.Under the combination of two-stage cooling,the fine DRXed grains at sizing band were almost retained with average grain size of~2.3µm after the sheet out of extrusion die,and the unDRXed grains with high residual dislocation density accumulation were also reserved.The tensile tests results indicated that a good strength-ductility balance with a high ultimate tensile strength(319 MPa vs.412 MPa)and fracture elongation(19.9%vs.30.3%)were obtained.The strength enhancement was mainly owing to the grain refinement and local residual plastic strain reserved by the artificial cooling.The excellent ductility originated from fine DRXed microstructure and ED-tilt double peak texture.

An Improved Coupled Dynamic Modelling for Exploring Gearbox Vibrations Considering Local Defects

Gearbox is a key part in machinery,in which gear,shaft and bearing operate together to transmit motion and power.The wide usage and high failure rate of gearbox make it attract much attention on its health monitoring and fault diagnosis.Dynamic modelling can study the mechanism under different faults and provide theoretical foundation for fault detection.However,current commonly used gear dynamic model usually neglects the influence of bearing and shaft,resulting in incomplete understanding of gearbox fault diagnosis especially under the effect of local defects on gear and shaft.To address this problem,an improved gear-shaft-bearing-housing dynamic model is proposed to reveal the vibration mechanism and responses considering shaft whirling and gear local defects.Firstly,an eighteen degree-of-freedom gearbox dynamic model is proposed,taking into account the interaction among gear,bearing and shaft.Secondly,the dynamic model is iteratively solved.Then,vibration responses are expounded and analysed considering gear spalling and shaft crack.Numerical results show that the gear mesh frequency and its harmonics have higher amplitude through the spectrum.Vibration RMS and the shaft rotating frequency increase with the spalling size and shaft crack angle in general.An experiment is designed to verify the rationality of the proposed gearbox model.Lastly,comprehensive analysis under different spalling size and shaft crack angle are analysed.Results show that when spalling size and crack angle are larger,RMS and the amplitude of shaft rotating frequency will not increase linearly.The dynamic model can accurately simulate the vibration of gear transmission system,which is helpful for gearbox fault diagnosis.

Research advances in magnesium and magnesium alloys worldwide in 2020

Research on magnesium alloys continues to attract great attention,with more than 3000 papers on magnesium and magnesium alloys published and indexed in SCI in 2020 alone.The results of bibliometric analyses show that microstructure control and mechanical properties of Mg alloys are continuously the main research focus,and the corrosion and protection of Mg alloys are still widely concerned.The emerging research hot spots are mainly on functional magnesium materials,such as Mg ion batteries,hydrogen storage Mg materials,and bio-magnesium alloys.Great contributions to the research and development of magnesium alloys in 2020 have been made by Chongqing University,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Central South University,Shanghai Jiaotong University,Northeastern University,Helmholtz Zentrum Geesthacht,etc.The directions for future research are suggested,including:1)the synergistic control of microstructures to achieve high-performance magnesium alloys with concurrent high strength and superior plasticity along with high corrosion resistance and low cost;2)further development of functional magnesium materials such as Mg batteries,hydrogen storage Mg materials,structural-functional materials and bio-magnesium materials;3)studies on the effective corrosion protection and control of degradation rate of magnesium alloys;4)further improvement of advanced processing technology on Mg alloys.

Design and Optimization of Wheel-legged Robot:Rolling-Wolf

Though the studies of wheel-legged robots have achieved great success, the existing ones still have defects in load distribution, structure stability and carrying capacity. For overcoming these shortcomings, a new kind of wheel-legged robot（Rolling-Wolf） is designed. It is actuated by means of ball screws and sliders, and each leg forms two stable triangle structures at any moment, which is simple but has high structure stability. The positional posture model and statics model are built and used to analyze the kinematic and mechanical properties of Rolling-Wolf. Based on these two models, important indexes for evaluating its motion performance are analyzed. According to the models and indexes, all of the structure parameters which influence the motion performance of Rolling-Wolf are optimized by the method of Archive-based Micro Genetic Algorithm（AMGA） by using Isight and Matlab software. Compared to the initial values, the maximum rotation angle of the thigh is improved by 4.17%, the maximum lifting height of the wheel is improved by 65.53%, and the maximum driving forces of the thigh and calf are decreased by 25.5% and 12.58%, respectively. The conspicuous optimization results indicate that Rolling-Wolf is much more excellent. The novel wheel-leg structure of Rolling-Wolf is efficient in promoting the load distribution, structure stability and carrying capacity of wheel-legged robot and the proposed optimization method provides a new approach for structure optimization.