Automated design synthesis of mechatronic vehicles with integrated control systems

本研究旨在开发一种改进的机电一体化车辆集成控制系统的自动化设计综合方法，包括差动制动控制、主动转向控制和主动侧倾力矩控制。该方法将用于车辆设计综合的自动化，使机械子系统和控制子系统同时优化。这个提议的新方法将建立在申请人以前对机电一体化车辆设计方法的研究基础上。在现有的方法中，将原始设计问题分解为两级优化。然而，这种方法并不适用于集成电路的机电一体化车辆的设计综合。究其原因，一是系统级的优化算法难以协调大量的设计准则和约束，这是由于原有的系统设计在单一的子系统层面上被分解为众多的子系统设计；其次，从功能设计的角度来看，集成控制系统往往被分解成多层次的体系结构。为了扩展现有的研究方法，本研究将集中在以下三个方面：(1)车辆设计目标的分解：本研究将推导出考虑机械子系统和控制子系统的系统设计目标分解方法。(2)自动化动态建模：将多体动力学、符号公式和模块化建模技术相结合，在多层次优化中生成不同层次的设计评估模型。这些模型将包括车辆级和子级模型，它们将保留相应的机械和控制特性。(3)设计框架：整合多层次优化制定方法、动态建模技术和搜索算法，构建新型设计框架。总的来说，这项研究有望为由机械、控制和其他相关子系统组成的复杂机电系统的自动化设计综合提供有价值的技术和指导方针。

This research aims at developing an improved method for the automated design synthesis of mechatronic vehicles with integrated control systems (ICSs), involving differential braking control, active steering control and active roll moment control. The method will be used for automating the design synthesis of vehicles so that the mechanical and control subsystems will be simultaneously optimized. This proposed new approach will build upon the applicant's previous research in design methodologies of mechatronic vehicles. In the existing methodology, an original design problem is decomposed into a two-level optimization. However, this methodology is not suitable for the design synthesis of mechatronic vehicles with ICSs. The reasons for this are twofold:  firstly, the optimization algorithm at the system level has difficulties coordinating a large number of design criteria and constraints, resulting from the decomposition of the original system design into the many subsystem designs at the only subsystem level; secondly, from the perspective of functional design, the integrated control systems are frequently decomposed into multi-level architectures.    In order to extend the existing methodology, the proposed research will focus on the following three original investigations: (1) Decomposition of vehicle design targets: the research will derive a systematic design target decomposition approach considering both mechanical and control subsystems. (2) Automated dynamic modeling: multibody dynamics, symbolic formulations and modular modelling techniques will be integrated to generate various models for design evaluations at various levels in the multi-level optimizations. The models will include vehicle-level and sub-level models, which will retain the corresponding mechanical and control properties. (3) Design framework: a novel design framework will be developed for integrating multi-level optimization formulation methods, dynamic modelling techniques and search algorithms.      Overall, this research is expected to yield valuable techniques and guidelines for automated design syntheses of complex mechatronic systems consisting of mechanical, control and other related subsystems.