Seminar: Novel Sensors, New Estimation Algorithms and Active Controls: Technologies for Improving Highway Vehicle Safety and Mobility

Abstract:

There are approximately 35,000 traffic fatalities in the U.S. every year.  Technologies being developed by researchers to improve vehicle safety include electronic stability control systems, active rollover prevention, collision avoidance, lane departure avoidance, and cooperative vehicle control.  The first part of this seminar describes interesting sensing and estimation solutions that can significantly improve the effectiveness of these active safety systems.  The solutions discussed here include piezoelectric tire deformation sensors, observers for parameter varying nonlinear systems, and unknown disturbance observers for predicting and preventing tripped rollovers.  The second part of the seminar focuses on a new magnetic sensor system for detection of an imminent unavoidable crash and new active methods for occupant protection in an unavoidable crash.  The final part of the seminar describes the development of a new class of narrow commuter vehicles designed to address traffic congestion, improve highway mobility and provide very high fuel economy.  A prototype narrow vehicle with stability-enhancing automatic tilt control has been developed at the University of Minnesota.  Results will be presented from a research project focused on making this narrow vehicle as safe, comfortable and easy to drive as a regular passenger sedan. 

About the Speaker:

Dr. Rajamani obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California at Berkeley in 1991 and 1993 respectively and his B.Tech degree from the Indian Institute of Technology at Madras in 1989.   Dr. Rajamani is currently Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota.  His active research interests include sensors, estimation and control design for automotive and biomedical applications.

Dr. Rajamani has co-authored over 100 journal publications and is a co-inventor on 9 patent applications.  He is the author of a popular book “Vehicle Dynamics and Control” published by Springer Verlag.  Dr. Rajamani has served as Chair of the IEEE CSS Technical Committee on Automotive Control and on the Editorial Boards of the IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology and IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics.  Dr. Rajamani is a Fellow of ASME and has been a recipient of the CAREER award from the National Science Foundation, the 2001 Outstanding Paper award from the journal IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, the Ralph R. Teetor award from SAE, and the 2007 O. Hugo Schuck Award from the American Automatic Control Council.

Hosted by Professor Junmin Wang