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Modern advances in the technical developments of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) have elevated autonomous vehicle (AV) operations to a new height. Vehicles equipped with sensor based ADAS have been positively contributing to safer roads. As the automotive industry strives for SAE Level 5 full driving autonomy, challenges inevitably arise to ensure ADAS performance and reliability in all driving scenarios, especially in adverse weather conditions, during which ADAS sensors such as optical cameras and LiDARs suffer performance degradation, leading to inaccuracy and inability to provide crucial environmental information for object detection. Currently, the difficulty to simulate realistic and dynamic adverse weather scenarios experienced by vehicles in a controlled environment becomes one of the challenges that hinders further ADAS development.

The advancement of Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) technologies offers tremendous benefits. ADAS features such as emergency braking, blind-spot monitoring, lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control, etc., are promising to lower on-road accident rates and severity. With a common goal for the automotive industry to achieve higher levels of autonomy, maintaining ADAS sensor performance and reliability is the core to ensuring adequate ADAS functionality. Currently, the challenges faced by ADAS sensors include performance degradation in adverse weather conditions and a lack of controlled evaluation methods. Outdoor testing encounters repeatability issues, while indoor testing with a stationary vehicle lacks realistic conditions. This study proposes a hybrid method to combine the advantages of both outdoor and indoor testing approaches in a Drive-thru Climate Tunnel (DCT).

The emergence of autonomous driving technology has tremendous mobility and social-economic benefits. Autonomous vehicles (AVs) rely on various sensors for environmental and traffic data. However, the sensor performance and reliability degrade in adverse weather conditions, which poses a challenge to the safety of AVs. Existing active mitigation strategies such as wipers and water jets are active, complex, and expensive to implement. This study investigated soiling mitigation via a passively rotating lens with the goal to maintain Advanced-Driver-Assistance-System (ADAS) sensor visibility in the rain. The concept of rotating lens has merely been lightly explored in the literature but never studied in detail with realistic continuous rain simulation to verify soiling mitigation effectiveness. An optical camera in place of a frontal vehicle ADAS sensor was integrated into a rotating lens for visual characterization.

The development of modern autonomous automotive technology depends heavily on the reliable performance of external sensors that are vulnerable to soiling. Existing active cleaning devices, such as washers and wipers, are relatively complex and expensive. Furthermore, little research has been done on alternative soiling mitigation strategies and devices for sensors. With the emerging trend of replacing side-mirrors with camera monitor systems, it is important for such systems to stay clean in adverse weather in order to provide critical navigation information. To meet this need, a passive aerodynamics-based cleaning device was investigated. A converging vent device was integrated into the side-camera housing and the subsequent degree of soiling was estimated at a wind speed of 20 m/s (72 km/h), representing urban and suburban driving speeds. The vent outlet height and outlet jet angle of the vent device were varied and the variants were compared to the non-vented reference model.

It is well known that the underbody region of a tractor-trailer is responsible for up to 30% of the aerodynamic drag. This is the highest drag created by any region of a tractor-trailer. There are a number of underbody drag-reduction devices available on the market but they create a few operational issues, such as low ground clearance and ice collection, which inhibit their mass market appeal. In this paper, a novel concept of an underbody aerodynamic device is developed and investigated. The underbody device is a combination of a ramp and a side skirt; which are optimized simultaneously. In addition, the device is made collapsible to facilitate easy storage when not in use (i.e., city driving). NASA’s Generic Conventional Model (GCM); a 1/8th scale model of a generic class-8 tractor-trailer is used to evaluate and optimize the concept. The GCM allows the concept to be applicable to a wider range of tractor-trailers.

Wind tunnels with integrated aerodynamic and thermodynamic testing with yaw capabilities are not common. In this study however, an integrated aerodynamic and thermodynamic testing system with yaw capabilities is developed and applied in the climatic wind tunnel at the University of Ontario-Institute of Technology (UOIT). This was done by installing an incremental force measuring system (FMS) on the large turntable that features a chassis dynamometer. The testing system was utilized to implement an integrated aero-thermal test on a full-scale race car. An efficient testing protocol was developed to streamline the integrated testing process. The FMS was used to enhance the test car’s stability, cornering speed, and fuel efficiency by using aerodynamic devices. These objectives were achieved by installing a high rear wing to increase the rear downforce, a modified front splitter extension to produce a front downforce gain, and front canards to contribute to drag reduction.

Underbody vehicle flows are poorly understood given the comparatively small field of research to draw upon; even more so in the case of crosswinds. With the advent of electric and hybrid electric vehicles and their increased cooling demands, there is a need for a link between the aerodynamic flow field and the thermodynamic response. Thus underbody research considering a yawing vehicle was conducted on a Chevrolet Aveo5 hatchback. The vehicle was outfitted with a heat source to provide a baseline analysis along thermocouples, pressure probes and flow visualization tufts. The climatic wind tunnel at the University Of Ontario Institute Of Technology's Automotive Centre of Excellence provided video data of the tufts and thermal imaging data of the heat source.