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Autonomous driving has witnessed many developments in the past decade. Most automotive manufacturers and technology companies have been investing in the software and platform development of these vehicles, and long strides have been made in this domain. Nonetheless, academia has been partially isolated from the practical efforts of these developments, due to the cost involved in converting a standard vehicle into a drive-by-wire platform suitable for self-driving vehicular research. In this paper, a low-cost autonomous vehicle platform is developed and the process for converting a Polaris Gem e2 FMVSS-500 vehicle to brake-by-wire, throttle-by-wire, and steer-by-wire is elaborated. The tools and the procedures followed here were all conducted by students, in house, and can be easily duplicated for other FMVSS-500 compatible vehicles.

A muffler attached to an engine attenuates sound over a dedicated frequency range. This research involves the development of an active muffler that is keyed to the revolutions per minute (rpm) of the engine and suppresses the fundamental frequency being exhausted through the tailpipe. The active muffler consists of a tracking side-branch resonator terminated with a composite piezoelectric transducer. The use of an exponential horn as a resonating cavity and terminated with a composite piezoelectric transducer is presented. This would create Electromechanical Active Helmholtz Resonator (EMAHR) creates a notch that can be moved between 200-1000 Hz. The use of acoustical-to-mechanical, mechanical-to-electrical, and analog-to-digital transformations to develop a system model for the active muffler are presented. These transforms will be presented as two-port network parameters. The use of two-port networks to model the electroacoustic system are a defining factor in the analysis.

In the present study by the University of Idaho Clean Snowmobile Challenge (UICSC) team, the necessity, history, and research of noise reduction strategies in two-stroke snowmobile exhaust is presented. Testing and design is discussed to show the decision making process of College Design Series (CDS) teams. The UICSC CDS team is comprised of mechanical, electrical, and computer engineers. The development from static to dynamic noise cancellation is explained as a proof of concept and to further demonstrate CDS design. The study presents math models that validate the noise reduction technique. The noise reduction includes a mechanically active quarter-wave resonator (MAQR). Viability is given for the design and is presented with supporting implementation data. Control for the resonator platform is discussed. It is proven that mechanically active noise cancellation is an effective, lightweight, and simple solution to noise cancellation.

Fuel economy and energy consumption in hybrid electric powertrain vehicles are highly dependent on managing power flow requirements. This opportunity has been minimally addressed in previous vehicles entered in the Formula Hybrid SAE competition. This paper outlines a method for determining an optimal rule-based energy management strategy for a post-transmission parallel hybrid electric vehicle developed at the University of Idaho. A supervisory controller determines the proper power split ratio between the available power sources (electrical and thermal). A GT-Suite model was used to simulate powertrain performance based on inputs of a numerically predicted engine performance map, an electric motor characteristic curve, vehicle data, road load parameters derived from a roll-down test, and vehicle driving cycle.

Over the last five years the Vandal Hybrid Racing team at the University of Idaho has developed a compact, lightweight, and mass centralized vehicle design with a rule-based energy management system. Major areas of innovation are a close fitting frame design made possible by the location of major components and engine modifications to improve performance. The innovative design features include a custom designed engine, battery pack and simplistic hybrid coupling system. The vehicle also incorporates a trailing link suspension, and realization of a rule-based Energy Management System (EMS) which determines the power split of the combustion and electric systems. The EMS oversees the operation of the Lynch electric motor and the YZ250F engine that is housed in a custom crankcase. The battery pack can initially store 2 MJ of energy in a single 50 lb. lithium polymer battery pack that is located underneath the cockpit.