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Thesis Abstract:
The vision for the future automotive chassis is to interconnect the lateral, longitudinal, and vertical dynamics by separately controlling driving, braking,
steering, and damping of each individual wheel. Drive-by-wire technology currently exists on concept vehicles for electronic control and actuation of braking,
steering, suspension, and drive systems. These technologies elicit strong interest from the automotive industry, but mostly are not yet commercially available.
Chassis systems developed today are distinguished by the way the individual subsystems work in order to provide vehicle stability. However, the maximum
benefit can only be achieved if these subsystems are integrated and networked together. This requires an overriding driving dynamic controller, which monitors
and coordinates the behavior of individual subsystems and assigns priority access to the network, depending on the respective situation. Only in this way
can the highest level of active safety, ride quality, and driving pleasure in every possible driving situation, up to the limits of adhesion, be accomplished.
The objective of my research is to study an analyse appropriate suspension systems for an electric vehicle, which is equipped with direct drive in-wheel motors.
I am also focusing on effective control strategies to integrate different active chassis systems, such as advance torque vectoring and active steering system, to
improve driving dynamics and safety, based on the philosophy of individually monitoring and controlling the tire-road forces in every direction.
I am also part of theme E of the "Auto21" project, Collaborative Design Tools for Distributed, Multi-disciplinary Design Projects. Here, researchers from six
different universities and some industry partners across Canada are developing and demonstrating collaborative design tools for multi-disciplinary design teams.
As a demonstrative design project, we are developing a fully electric drive-by-wire vehicle from scratch. This joint venture project aims not only to demonstrate the
collaboration between industry and researchers throughout the Network, but also to develop an ideal experimental test-bed for advanced chassis control management
systems.
Areas of Study:
- Vehicle Dynamics
- Advanced Stability Control Systems
- Electric Vehicle
- Design Optimization
- Control Strategies
Publications and Presentations:
- Hulla, A., Jalali, K., Hamza, K., Skerlos, S., Saitou, K., 2003, "Multi-criteria Decision Making for Optimization of Product Disassembly under Multiple Situations, " Environmental Science and Technology, Special issue on Principles of Green Engineering, vol. 37:23, pp 5303 ?5313.
Other Information:
[ Motion Research Group ]
[ University of Waterloo ]
[ 200 University Ave. W. | Waterloo, Ontario, Canada | N2L 3G1 ]
[ real.uwaterloo.ca/~morg ]
[ www.uwaterloo.ca ]