Model Based Monitoring and Control in Automotive and Manufacturing Applications

申请人的研究兴趣涵盖自动化，制造技术和智能材料领域。 该提案侧重于三个实际的工业应用：用于内燃机的电磁阀致动（伊娃），更可靠的压电燃料喷射器，以及计算机数控（CNC）机床的高速轮廓。 伊娃旨在取代内燃机中的凸轮轴。 虽然这项技术有望减少15%以上的燃料消耗和排放，但其可靠性和成本一直令人望而却步。 此前，申请人 设计了一种新颖的伊娃系统，该系统比传统的伊娃系统更容易控制，并且提供更灵活的气门升程曲线。他现在将优化这个系统，以实现两倍的效率和一半的原始大小。这些变化将使新的伊娃系统适用于商业发动机。 申请人的第二个项目旨在提高压电燃料喷射器的可靠性和准确性。 尽管压电式喷油器与传统的电磁式喷油器相比可以提供上级动态特性，但是它们的性能会随着温度和老化而改变。 这些变化损害了具有压电喷射器的发动机的效率。 申请人将开发新的监测技术，以根据用于驱动注射器的电压和电流信号来测量温度、位置和注射器健康状况。 这项工作的成果将提高汽车发动机的可靠性和效率。 该计划的第三个项目侧重于提高激光加工中心等高速数控机床的精度和速度。 这里的目标是设计一个控制系统，自动最大限度地提高切割操作的速度。 这是一个困难的问题，其中来自机器结构的约束，选择的驱动器类型，所需的刀具路径和外部干扰都必须考虑在内。 这项技术的受益者是机床制造商和制造业。

The applicant's research interests span the areas of automation, manufacturing technologies, and smart materials. The proposal focuses on three practical industrial applications: electromagnetic valve actuation (EVA) for internal combustion engines, more reliable piezoelectric fuel injectors, and high speed contouring of computer numerical control (CNC) machines. EVA aims to replace the camshafts in internal combustion engines. Although this technology promises to reduce fuel consumption and emissions by more than 15%, its reliability and cost has been prohibitive. Previously, the applicant designed a novel EVA system that is easier to control and that provides more flexible valve lift profiles than conventional EVA systems. He will now optimize this system in order to achieve twice the efficiency at half its original size. These changes will make the new EVA system suitable for use in commercial engines. The applicant's second project aims to improve the reliability and accuracy of piezoelectric fuel injectors. Even though piezoelectric injectors can provide superior dynamics compared to conventional electromagnetic injectors, their performance changes with temperature and aging. These changes compromise the efficiency of engines with piezoelectric injectors. The applicant will develop new monitoring techniques to measure temperature, position, and injector health from the voltage and current signals used to drive the injector. The outcome of this work will improve the reliability and efficiency of automotive engines. The third project of this program focuses on improving the accuracy and speed of high speed CNC machines such as laser machining centres. The aim here is to design a control system that automatically maximizes the speed of the cutting operation. This is a difficult problem where constraints from the structure of the machine, the type of drives chosen, the tool-path required, and external disturbances all have to be taken into account. Benefactors of this technology are both machine tool builders and manufacturing industries.