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In order to meet increasing demands for safety and comfort in a vehicle compartment, automatic adjustment of seat, mirrors, steering wheel has been developed. The multiplex wiring system was constructed for the automatic adjustment of the cockpit elements to drivers preferred positions or to physique-matched settings based on ergonomic data. This paper describes the construction of the multiplex system and functions of automatic adjustment of the cockpit elements for comfortable driving position and better visibility.

Crash mechanisms of automobile were simulated by a nonlinear, three-degrees-of-freedom system. Crashworthiness of vehicle structures was obtained analytically, as well as experimentally, and was represented by nonlinear springs. Analytical results were compared with full-size experiments of barrier and rear-end collisions. It was shown that the automobile crash mechanisms may be explained by a simple model, and that a theoretical computation may be feasible to obtain the crashworthiness of vehicle structures.

Vehicle energy in head-on or rear-end collisions is mainly absorbed by the front or rear longitudinal members. This paper describes the methods of calculation of crush load and the energy absorbed during the static and dynamic crush of the sheet metal members with closed-hat section together with attached flanges or walls. Calculated results were compared with experiments including full-size automobile collisions. It is expected that the analysis considering the strain rate sensitivity will provide more accurate design information for improved automobile crash-worthiness.

The postcollision motion starts immediately upon completion of a collision impact where the vehicles obtain new sets of velocities through an exchange of momentum. Similitude with model study and fullscale automobile experiments indicate that the post-collision trajectory is essentially a plane motion, governed by inertia and tire friction. Trajectories depend on many parameters (such as tire friction coefficient, front wheel steering angle, vehicle geometrics, and whether wheels are locked or free to rotate) but not on the vehicle weight. Theoretical computation of trajectories are compared with experiments.

Application of active control technology to an automobile has been considered to be effective to drastic improvement in vehicle dynamics (1,2,3,4)*. This paper studies maneuvability and stability of vehicles with active-controlled suspension and four wheel steering system. System construction and effects of the active control are also described.

Demands for Faster, safer, and more comfortable mobility under various road, weather and/or driving conditions have led to advanced engineering Features, such as 4WD, 4WS, and ABS. However, simple combination of these advanced components tend to induce the deterioration of the vehicle performance under certain conditions due to the interference among the related functions. This paper describes these conflicting areas and proposes newly developed integrated system in an effort to achieve the compatibility of each function among 4WD, 4 independent suspensions, 4WS, and ABS. The integrated system of these advanced engineering features has resulted safer and faster mobility in reasonably higher cost efficiency by the sophisticated system construction.

For safety, high performance, and easy to drive reasons, various types of four wheel drive (4WD) systems, which utilize a center differential or viscous coupling unit between the front and the rear axles, have been introduced into passenger cars in recent years. This paper describes the vehicle behaviour of various types of 4WD passenger cars under the condition of acceleration, deceleration, cornering, and braking, in addition to the vehicle response to disturbance from the road surface, by both theoretical and experimental approaches.