In 2001 the law about barrier free for traffic came into force in Japan, and the passenger ships and car ferry in new regular service must adopt the rules. The car ferry "Lilac" was designed and built with consideration of barrier free, and was the first large car ferry adopted rules above mentioned. In this paper her outline is described, and facilities for barrier free are explained.

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Motored wheelchair is a useful mobility tool for severely disabled persons. But, its maximum speed is limited to 6km/h, and therefore such persons' life style and activity area is limited to close area of their residents. If they use an automobile in which they can get on while on their wheelchair and they can drive by joystick, their QOL must be raised. In this paper, the authors propose such type vehicle named EVD, and R&D of prototypes and their evaluation show its feasibility and effectiveness.

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In this research, the examinations aiming to design a barrier freed and universal designed taxi vehicle were held. To start the discussion, the problems of the present taxi vehicles were reconfirmed. On the other hand, the process that is necessary for designing the vehicles was acquired from PPP, a guideline for designing UD products. This new guideline for designing UD vehicles was named VPP. Based on these elements, the designing plan for UD taxi was proposed. Additionally, in order to decide on the products' specific shapes and other specifications, utilization of the human motion analysis method was proposed, and according this method, the vehicles' frameworks and specific measurements were actually decided. Through the examination using a Mock-Up, it was confirmed that desirable vehicle design was obtained.

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The meeting for research and development "Next generation City Bus (NCB21)" consists of members from the universities, the manufactures and government offices. This group has developed the driveline, which is the suitable for the series hybrid system used in-motors. As the starting and the stopping occur frequently in the urban transportation, the energy efficiency of the series hybrid system can be increased by the electric energy recovered through regenerative braking. As the result, the series hybrid system is effective in the city traffic conditions. The driveline will enable to adopt the different devices for vehicle power source, and this system can apply easily to the city route hybrid-bus, the fuel cell bus, the trolley bus, the light rail transit (LRT) and the dual-mode trolley bus which uses properly the electric power and other power supplies. The authors evaluated the performance and the characteristics of the motor drive system in this paper. The conclusions are described as follows; (1) The characteristics of the driving motors, riding comfort will be improved the acceleration becomes smooth by no gear-shock and the high torque at low speed. Then, the service to the standing passengers, the aged and the handicapped parsons improves remarkably. (2) If this motor drive system adopts public transportations as the city route hybrid-bus, the trolley bus, LRT and others. The width of the passage on the (rear) axle has enough width and the movement of the wheelchair becomes easily from front to rear. That public transportation contributes to the barrier-free. (3) In case of the series hybrid system used the diesel engine for power source, the displacement volume of the engine has been able to reduce to 1/2-1/3 by planning to make the suitable system. Therefore, it is possible to use much more effectively the unused space of the bus and also to reduce the emission gas (NO_x, PM) and fuel consumption.

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Two auto accidents involving heavy duty trucks, occurred in the same season and in the same place on a mountainous road within two years. Where the trucks rolled over and slid off the road and down a hill. These accidents were caused by a problem with the braking system called "Fade Phenomenon". These accidents took place in the same place as others in the past where braking system problems such as "Vapor Lock" or "Fade Phenomenon" had occurred. Therefore, an examination of these factors took place. The results showed that such accidents are influenced by the road environment and weather conditions.

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In this study the axial crushing mechanism of bulbous bow were investigated using a series of experiments with large scale bulbous bow models and finite element analysis (FEA). Four kinds of models were collapsed quasi-statically by rigid board in the experiments. The collapse mode and load-displacement curves calculated by FEA were compared with those by experiments. Good agreement between FEA and experiments are obtained. Folding mechanism of outer shell became obvious by observing those results carefully. Moreover it is found that the simplified method, developed by one of the authors, could estimate mean crushing force in fair accuracy.

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Trail-pedestrian collisions can lead to large human and cost problems. Based on the accident analysis, about 45% of railway injuries and fatalities are from train-pedestrian collisions. In order to clarify the injury process of the pedestrian, multi-body simulations were conducted. The head and chest of the pedestrian are directly impacted by the train, and the pedestrian is projected forward the train. Modifying train front geometry can prevent running over of pedestrian, though it is still difficult to prevent injuries to pedestrian from the ground contact.

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Some experimental investigations were carried out to get the relation between the safety limit of excitation displacement value and excitation frequency. In this experiment, the video images by two high-speed cameras were obtained and the strong reproducibility of an derailment phenomenon was checked. The simulations were performed using the mechanism analysis program DADS (Dynamic Analysis and Design System). The converted result of model experiment and a simulation result showed the tendency similar to the simulation result of Railway Technical Research Institute.

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It is necessary to examine the appropriate tie down system to wheelchair user for safety when the wheelchair users ride on the bus. We developed the three point tie down system for the wheelchair in consideration of the practical use of the bus. Then, we executed the traveling test for the performance confirmation of the three point tie down system. In addition, we executed the sled test which assumed the current regulations and the traffic accidents. As a result, it has been understood that the three point tie down system for wheelchair has a superb performance.

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This paper proposes the new risk assessment method for logistic machinery. The establishment of safety measure for the nearby operation of dangerous parts of logistics such as the maintenace or the trouble shooting was the most important problem for securing safety of operators. The "management division" control which devided the safety measure into 4 types such as division B (intrinsic safety), division 1 (isolation between machine and human), division 2 (machine stop) and divisions3 (nearby operation of dangerous parts) was proposed. The quantitative evaluation list of the risk which evaluated the rank of safety measure of every hazard factor or every life cycle operation was also proposed in this study.

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This paper describes safety evaluation of power reed switches applied for logistic machinery. The reliability evaluation of the switch of its field failure rate level is 4.8 (Fit) or less, but the actual failure rate to danger for its safety evaluation has not been determined as of the date of this paper. Subsequently, the result of failure rate to danger is 2×(10)^<-10> (1/h) or less from the initial elevator field data observed. In view of these facts, redundancy and compatibility checking must be done within the limits of residual risk factors that the authors make a proposal.

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This report proposes a new safety design supporting system which is called the "imformation shared development model". The "information shared" means that the machine designer and user share the information by using the latest information technology such as the database (DB) or the virtual factory (VF). The systematic cooperated safety design between designer and user was executed by sharing the databese of labor accidents or safety measures. The evaluation of safe design was also executed by sharing the software tools of virtual factory. The "development" means that the supporting system develops itself by the integration of the knowledge of safety design. The design principle of new supporting system was based on that the knowledge developed by the interaction of inside of the database and the inside of the head of the designer. The new supporting system was applied to the real production line or robot systems, and it was proved that this system has a ability to evaluate not only the validity of safety design but also the appropriateness of human sutability.

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In this paper, the relation between the longitudinal acceleration and the changes in attitude were studied. to define the criteria of riding quality of standing passengers on railway vehicle. In the front report, we reported that longitudinal acceleration, pressure distribution on the sole and move distance of body were measured in the field running tests. In this report, analyzed data about the field running test are shown. And, it is cleared that the center of gravity of the load which depends on the sole are good criteria for changes in attitude of the standing passengers by the data obtained by the stationary ramp equipment.

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This paper describes an improvement effect of stability of driver-vehicle system by controlling steering characteristics. We focus on relationship between the steering gain and spin evasive action performance. Experiments to investigate the relationship were carried out using a fixed type driving simulator. The results show that to increase the steering gain is effective to improve the spin evasive action performance, but to increase the gain too much is not effective when a driver, for example, is going to adjust a direction of the vehicle to return the former lane.

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The driver handling operations when the unstable vehicle is spinning are analyzed. The handling operations are obtained using the assumption that the driver controls the unstable vehicle with bang-bang control. It is found that the obtained operations with bang-bang control comprise the counter steer operations but the operations with yow rate feedback control do not comprise. For settling time, yaw rate feedback control needs longer time than bang-bang control.

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This paper describes effects of variable gear-ratio characteristics of the cable type EPS on vehicle yaw rate gain characteristics. At first, static gear-ratio characteristics according to torsional rigidity of cable are analyzed. Next, influences of the characteristics on a vehicle yaw rate response are examined in order to clarified an appropriate value of the cable rigidity. Finally, yaw rate gain of a vehicle installed on the cable type EPS which has the appropriate rigidity are calculated. As a result, it is theoretically confirmed that the variable gear-ratio characteristics of the cable type EPS according to vehicle velocity and steering wheel angle improve vehicle yaw rate gain characteristics based on vehicle velocity and lateral acceleration.

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This paper is concerned with a driver model of heavy duty vehicle for longitudinal control, using the multiple regression analysis. Firstly as a longitudinal control, modeling of a fore-and-aft operation is constructed for each gear based on experiment data for heavy duty vehicle. Next, the gear change model is constructed to select a longitudinal control model. Using the factor analysis for the model, the relationship between input and output is analyzed. Finally, it is found that the driver's control for longitudinal direction is described using this driver model.

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This study deals with information process of a driver that can concern with learning process. Normally driving performance of novice drivers is not so reasonable. And then percentage of traffic accident for such driver is higher than 20%. However after many practice, they will be expert drivers. Therefore it is important to define the learning process of the driving. Information processing of the driver is confirmed using the multi-regression analysis. As the result, it is shown the relationship between driver's input and output. Finally using the function analysis of the relation, it is found the effect of each on the output.

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This research deals with the evaluation method for man-machine system using the vital reaction. In the evaluation, it is important to know not only the performance of a machine but also the mental condition of the operator. However, it is not established to construct the evaluation method yet. Therefore, in this study, we considered the evaluation method for the mental state of a driver, especially for the pleasure to the controllability of a car.

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The purpose of this study is to analyze human pilot behavior at landing operation. The pilot model is constrtucted using neural network, and is trained with the results of the simulator tests. The inputs to this model are observation cues such as the horizon and the runway, and pilot control inputs. The outputs are the control column angle and the engine throttle angle. Finally, the importance of each input is evaluated using Contribution Ratio Analysis and Sensitivity Analysis from the obtained neural network models.

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We analyzed the drivers' braking behavior in view of the level of over-reliance on the system, for designing Forward Collision Avoidance Assistance System (FCAAS). In a condition when the system was activated at the timing showing Time to Collision is less than 1.7s, no driver showed the over reliance on the system. In this condition, the drivers' braking timing was earlier than the system operation. We think that Time to Collision will be an effective state variable for the analysis of the reliance level on the system, and the timing standing at Time to Collision is less than 1.7s is one of the optimal conditions for the onset of FCAAS, in view of minimizing the over reliance on the system.

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This paper focuses on the driver's impression to the false alarms of driving support system related to the intelligent transport systems. The hypothesis is proposed that the driver tends to have not so bad impression to false alarms when the driver finds it difficult to detect the phenomena that system needs to alarm, compared with the other situation that driver finds it easy to do that. For proving this hypothesis, experiments of tracking previous vehicle at the same headway distance with correcting the headway by alarm system, which has some false alarms, are carried out. According the analysis of these experiments, our hypothesis is partially verified

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This research deals with considering about interface between driver and vehicle in order to make a plan for the driver support system using analysis of vital reaction of driver. As the first stage of this research, the measurement method for the vital reaction especially for face temperature of a driver are focused on the possibility of estimation of driver's condition. And, the method is checked at the viewpoint of mental stress by using of comparison to the heart rate variability, which is a typical index for the mental stress. Three kinds of experiments to measure the face temperature are carried out, one is for the effect of emotional history of a panel at admiration of a video movie in a room, the next is to check an effect of daylight at running condition on the straight course of a highway, and last is to check the possibility to measure the mental stress of a driver during driving. Finally, it is found that the face temperature is able to estimate the mental stress of the driver.

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Recently, much driver support systems are developed, for example, the lane keeping systems, the adaptive cruise control systems, and so on. It is important to consider not only the performance of the system, but also the characteristics of a driver. Therefore, this study examined the characteristics of a driver while following a previous vehicle. At first, to get the data of the characteristics of a driver, we took experiment. And, we construct the driver model, which has relationship between heart rate and vehicle behavior. Finally, we examined the factor of the heart rate during follow the previous vehicle, using this model.

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A user's trust in an automatic system is important for application of the system. The trust is not yet, however, measured in the pervious researches on driver assist systems which are automatic systems in ITS. In this paper, we conduct the driving simulator experiment for the low-speed ACC system as one of the driver assist systems and measure the trust of the drivers. Consequently, the followings are clarified : The trust varies dynamically and it is reduced by generating of a temporary system error. The trust is recovered by continuing a normal run, and the variation becomes small.

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We analyzed the driver's braking behavior during the system-limit-warning, meaning the system is inevitable to avoid the collision on the preceding vehicle, when the driver was using Low Speed Adaptive Cruise Control. It was observed that the drivers are judging the system-limit condition, not only by themselves but also by the system-limit-warning. Driver's braking behavior was delayed when the assumed delay time, meaning driver's braking latency, was set at less than 1.2s in Stopping Distance Algorithm. We also analyzed the driver's braking behavior in the false warning condition. Driver's braking behavior during the false warning was extremely delayed when the assumed delay time was set at less than 1.0s. In the designing of warning timing by use of Stopping Distance Algorithm, one of the optimal warning timing is 1.2s, when we focus on not only the normal condition that the warning system operate accurately but also the false warning condition.

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The purpose of this study is to examine with emphasizing visual information about method of driver's information processing in different situations. Firstly, it seems that visual information is the most important for drivers, because the information takes about 90% in the total driver's information. And also, the objects in the environment are constructed by some elements, color, size, relative position, relative velocity, and so on. Therefore, we constructed a driver model which reproduced driver's control action including expression of some objects. This model was constructed by neural network system, and expressed some objects by vector composition in the input layer. And, we expressed a driver's information processing using the factor analysis to the model, and analyzed about influence of the environmental information. At the result, this analysis expressed the processing quantitatively, and showed about the influence.

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This study deals with evaluation of mental workload for machine operators using vital reaction especially to use the heart rate variability. The frequency analysis for R-R interval of an electrocardiogram is used in order to get the RSA peak which is the typical index for mental workload. In this study we paid attention to this RSA. Therefore the experiment for the driver using driving simulator has been done by change of respiratory frequency and volume as parameters. A linear malt-regression equation by using of the parameters is constructed in order to analyze the effect of them to the RSA. Finally, it is found that the RSA as an index of mental workload has to consider the effect of both frequency and volume of the respiration.

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To maintain an elevator component part, one of the three maintenance methods is applied : Time Based Maintenance (TBM), Condition Base Maintenance (CBM), and Breakdown Maintenance (BM). For each of various parts, which have different failure characteristics, it is very important to select the proper method among the three methods. In this paper, the failure characteristic of an elevator part is modeled, and the maintenance cost and the quality cost (the loss evaluated in terms of cost, to be incurred when an elevator breaks down) are derived theoretically under each of the three maintenance methods. Then, the approach to identify the cost-minimized maintenance method and to determine the optimal maintenance cycle is developed. Finally, from numerical experiments, it is shown that the proposed approach can design a more cost-effective and better maintenance method than the one given by Online Quality Engineering.

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The estimation of the rope lateral vibration is one of the key issues to produce a compact size of the elevator shaft. For the elevator shaft design, the clearance between the rope and other elevator devices has to be considered carefully. The main cause of the rope lateral vibration is the building swing motion by wind or earthquake. But in some conditions, the rope vertical motion induces the lateral one. To evaluate the above behavior, the vibration equations for lateral and vertical motion of the elevator rope are derived. The derived equation of lateral vibration shows characteristics of parametric excitation system, which causes internal resonance in some conditions. In this paper, the transient behavior of the elevator rope vibration is estimated, while the elevator car moves and the rope length changes gradually.

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The management of static wheel load of rail vehicle is becoming an important matter in view of running safety. The conventional methods of adjusting the static wheel load is carried out visually by insertion of lining plates to the primary suspension springs and to the bolster springs to keep their height to predetermined dimensions. In the adjustment work for the primary spring for example, quantity of liners to be inserted for each primary spring is largely relied upon sense and experience of the maintenance worker. It is general that the management of the static wheel load is closely connected with the management of the height of suspension; it is, however, not visual management value. The management of the static wheel load based on the height of suspension is more difficult than the predetermined dimension method. We, hereto, explain about a calculation method for forecast of static wheel load, and also show that our calculation model indicates how much affect on the static wheel load taking the eccentricity of C. G. of the vehicle itself, the distortion of the superstructure of the vehicle and the distortion of the bogie truck frame, respectively, into consideration. We also show an example of the calculation result (i.e. thickness of liners to be inserted) to optimize the wheel load ratio of the right and left wheel for an in-vehicle.

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The pantograph is using conductive parts called a contact strip for a contact portion with overhead wires in order to take in electricity. What became thin is exchanged each time for the article of consumption worn out while a panhead runs. Since it was the work which must reach the roof of a train in order to inspect, the pantograph contact strip automatic measurement equipment using the ultrasonic sensor was developed, and it has already introduced. However, since the decline in the rate of detection accompanying quality-of-the-material change of a contact strip had become a problem recently, we tackled this improvement and got the result.

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We have evaluated reliability and availability of EMU in East Japan Railway Company corresponding to RAMS concept determined in an European standard. According to the results, we have identified the particular parts to influence the reliability and availability. To improve the reliability and availability, we have developed advanced commuter train, named AC Train and estimated its effect by adopting new systems.

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Recently, many Japanese heritage railways attract social interest and is supported by many people. But, continuation of these heritage railway's management has many complex problems. The most important problem is the succession of technology and skill of maintenance for rolling stock to the next generation. In this report, 1) Outline of an Japanese heritage railway given an example, 2) Working contents of maintenance and repair for rolling stock, 3) Consideration and proporsal for succession of technology and skill to the next generation, are explained.

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This paper focuses on the tire force characteristics related to the vehicle speed. We constructed a mechanical tire model using a Voigt-Type viscoelastic spring system for the tread rubber. And, we analyze the force distribution along the contact length, the dependence of vehicle speed to the tire forces and the moments to a change in side slip angle and coefficient of viscosity. Finally, it is shown that the tire model has good agreement with actual measurements results qualitatively, and also it is found that the characteristics of lateral force have independence to the vehicle speed.

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This paper focuses on application of fluid/structure interaction to tire analysis, such as hydroplaning analysis and prediction of tire traction on snow. Tire deformation is calculated by FEM, and fluid flow is calculated by FVM. Furthermore the fluid/structure interaction between tire and fluid is considered, in which the Lagrangian mesh (tire) and the Eulerian mesh (fluid) are defined independently and their coupling is computed. The complex fluid/structure interaction such as road/tire interaction could be analyzed. Predicted results are in good agreement with experimental data.

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This paper presents development of dynamic tire tester with rotating drum made of steel. The dynamic property of tire is very important for vehicle dynamics. Recently the authors have been studying on the dynamic simulations by multibody dynamics, virtual proving ground by driving simulator and ITS (Intelligent Transport System). The developed machine will be used to examine tire model and several research projects. The most important characteristics of the developed machine is to measure seven channel date, drum rotational frequency, lateral and longitudinal axial forces of tire, vertical load of tire, vertical stroke of tire, steering torque, and steering angle under the dynamic input of steering and load. Using this machine, the basic steady-state and dynamic characteristics of comering force by tire were measured. It was found that these experimental results are reliable.

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This paper presents experimental results of the proposed method for friction control between wheel and rail using fullsize test stand. Water based friction modifier is sprayed on rail wheel of the test stand before curve running test. Experimental results show that the Friction Control can reduce the lateral force of front-outside wheel and longitudinal forces of rear wheels, which produce ill-suited phenomena in sharp curve.

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This paper presents experimental results of the proposed method for friction control between wheel and rail using scaled model vehicle in order to improve the curving performance at the very tight curve section. The friction modifier that is one of the solid lubricants is used on only inner rail surface at the curve section. The experiments with scaled model vehicle were carried out based on anther experiments for basic frictional characteristics with two-roller-rig testing machine. Experimental results showed the proposed method was effective on the reduction of the lateral force on outer rail and wheel and affect its posture in curve section.

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Using a real full-scale wheelset and a roller rig, the authors investigate characteristics of creep force generated on a contact surface between wheel and rail, especially under condition that a flange of the wheel contacts the rail at one point. The condition has been made by giving imbalance of left and right wheel load and yaw angle of the wheelset, which are the important factors to cause a flange climb derailment. As the first report, the way and some results of the experiment are described.

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This paper introduces experimental set-up for corrugation development on the flexible rail. The wheel drives on the track, which have flexible rail in part of track with longitudinal slip. There is the ruggedness at the center of flexible rail to generate the longitudinal slip. This experimental equipment also can generate the longitudinal slip by the slip generator that gives difference between wheel rotation and wheel velocity. So corrugation develops on the flexible rail gradually. We measured the corrugation profile by laser displacement sensor.

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