Nowadays, the purpose of the modern autopilot system is developing not only to keep a ship's course to the desired one but also to track the trajectory to make her navigate to the given line due to rapid development of global positioning system (GPS). The author's concerning has also changed to an automatic ship's guidance problem using a high speed computer and the GPS. This paper surveys the author's works on the first purpose of the autopilot system, ship's course keeping control one and also his recent researches on the ship's tracking or guidance problem including a ship's minimum time maneuvering problem and minimum time berthing one.

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Electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles and fuel cell vehicles are expected as the one of the low-emission and high-efficiency vehicles to improve global warming problems. This paper describes the high efficiency of the electric power train in EVs, hybrid vehicles and fuel cell vehicles, and also describes feature, problems to be solved and technical view on these vehicles. In the present technical conditions, we will be not able to replace conventional internal combustion engine vehicle with EVs, due to power less batteries. We will also have many hurdles to jump over before we put fuel cell vehicle to practical use, and have to choose hybrid vehicles as the practical high efficiency vehicle to reduce the CO_2 emission in the tail pipes. So, this paper describes hybrid system configurations and state of the art of main components of hybrid vehicles and future of their technologies. And this paper also describes possibility of the plug-in hybrid vehicle that is expected to become popular in Europe and U. S.

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The Drying Toilet system has revolutionized how the disposal of excrement and sewage from trains will be conducted, by eliminating the time consuming task of drawing excrement and sewage from trains within maintenance depots. Heat is used to reduce excrement and sewage into a fine carbide powder, which is automatically collected within a non-flammable storage bay for clean and easy disposal. The following summary represents the development of the Drying Toilet System for railcars.

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In this paper, it is aimed to model the aerodynamic force acting on a train-set at high speed in tunnel sections. An analytical model of the aerodynamic force is developed from the pressure difference between car-body sides measured on rear vehicles in a test train. The running simulation of 8-car train with using this aerodynamic model shows following results. The simulated car-body vibrations of rear vehicles in a train correspond to the tendency of practical ones. The separation of airflow at the tail end of train increases the yawing vibration of the tail car while it gives little effect on the car-body vibration of adjoining car. And, assumption that the aerodynamic force does not have moving velocity may enlarge car-body vibrations most remarkably.

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This project studied the low cogging torque DC blushless motor for EPS system that would not cause steering feel to decline even when the vehicle was operated with a low steering angle at high vehicle speeds. The magnitude of cogging torque was predicted using FEM analysis. However, there was the large difference between FEM analysis and actuality. We analyzed this difference theoretically with a formula of cogging frequency and inspected the mechanism with the actual motor. As a result, if the connections were uniform at all of the junctions between the stator cores, the cogging torque target could be achieved.

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Recently, electric vehicles have received people's attention with growing concern about environmental problems. Direct-wheel-drive electric vehicles with in-wheel motors have the potential of advanced motion control. The application of electric motors will be expanded to heavy load vehicles. This paper proposes a method of optimal wheel torque determination for multi-wheel vehicles with independent wheel drive. The slip velocities and frictional forces on tires defined a frictional work done by all the tires in the vehicle system. The frictional work was minimized to obtain sets of optimal wheel torque distribution and steering angles. Numerical simulations were performed for the optimal solutions of an eight-wheel-vehicle with three different steering conditions: (a) front-four-wheel-steering, (b) all-wheel-steering, (c) front-four-wheel-steering with rear-wheel-steering in restricted angles.

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This paper describes a method of torque distribution and control for independent wheel drive vehicles for offroad use. Adequate torque distribution to the wheels is important for the performance of off-road vehicles. The models of torque distribution to the front and rear wheels based on the wheel speed or the vertical load on the wheels have been proposed for off-road driving. In order to examine the proposed model, numerical simulations were conducted with a vehicle motion model in the pitch-plane. The numerical results were compared with the data of conventional vehicles in terms of driving efficiency on rough ground. The results demonstrated that the proposed torque distribution model based on the vertical load on the wheels is useful for the efficient driving of off-road vehicles on rough ground.

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In many years, active controls of automobile suspension were studied for improved ride comfort and compatibility between stability and isolation. However, active control uses so much energy that active suspension hasn't been put to practice use except for some luxury cars. Authors fundamentally study on energy saving control of automobile suspension using electromagnetic damper, which can convert vibration energy of vehicle to electric energy. In this paper, authors propose energy saving control of automobile suspension considering velocity feedback gain of not only sprung mass but also unsprung mass. Electromagnetic suspension system is modeled as quarter-car model, and then validated by experiments.

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This paper focuses on a design of a highly efficient Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) transportation system. Therefore, we first attempt to construct the detailed system management models, such as agent cooperation, container storage scheduling, and container transportation planning. Then, we optimally design the systems that are constructed with the use of the management models. Comparisons of the systems are made to evaluate operation efficiency based on the total construction cost. Finally, we make clear the highly efficient management model for the AGV transportation system, and discuss a need to take into consideration the efficient system management methodology.

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In order to redesign an existing AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle) transportation system in a port terminal, it is needed to adequately evaluate and analyze the system. For this purpose, this paper proposes the design support methodology for an actual transportation system. In the methodology, an optimal design methodology that has proposed by the authors is used to take into account bottlenecks in the transportation system. These bottlenecks are the traffic congestions caused by the AGVs. Also, this paper describes a logic tree based on the idea of the MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive) in order to ease the bottlenecks.

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This study deals construction of a Traffic simulator for the evaluation tool of traffic flow. As the first step of in this study, in order to take decision-making of a driver into consideration, the right-turn action model in a crossing was built. This traffic simulator was built by the driver model, which used to as Fuzzy and the vehicles model of cross direction control. Finally, the constructed traffic simulator is described real traffic flow.

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In a factory, a continuous thin steel plate subjected to iron and steel processes supported by rollers tends to experience plate vibrations that lower the quality of the surface finish. In the plating process, rollers negligibly support the steel plates. Therefore, plating nonuniformity due to the generation of vibrations and other factors prevents an increase in productivity. To solve this problem, we developed a noncontact guide system in which electromagnetic and permanent magnet forces are applied at the edges of the steel plates. However, it will be necessary to develop a control system that takes into consideration various parameter errors, such as nonuniformity of resistance change for an actual continuous thin steel plate process by heat of electromagnet. In this study, we confirm the suppressive effect of a sliding mode control theory that has robustness in mass variation.

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For thin steel plates which are used in many industrial products including those of the automobile industry, we have proposed a magnetic levitation control system and confirmed its realization by means of the digital control experiment. However, in the case in which only the levitation control is applied to the steel plate, it has no horizontal restraining force on the direction of travel. Therefore electromagnetic actuators are installed in order to control the horizontal position movement of the levitated sheet steel. The electromagnetic attractive control forces of the actuators are given for the two facing edges of the levitated sheet steel, from the horizontal direction. In this paper, the suppression effect of bend of the plate in the horizontal noncontact positioning control is reported.

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In the thin steel plates which are used in many industrial products, including those of the automobile industry, flaws on the plate surface and peeling during the surface treatment process are induced due to the use of many rollers in the conveyance process. These lead to deterioration of the quality of the plate surface. In order to solve this problem, the authors proposed a levitation control device for a rectangular sheet steel by the hybrid actuator using five electromagnets and thirty permanent magnets. However, it is necessary to consider elastic vibration and deflection of a thin steel plate under magnetic field by using permanent magnets. For fundamental consideration of the permanent magnets system, experiments were performed for an elastic steel beam. To consider the interaction of a permanent magnet, the attractive force of a permanent magnet of the steel plate, the elastic vibration, and the deflection calculated by the finite element method, and examined the optimal placement.

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In JR-East, it is pushed that the development of Shinkansen for high speed operation. It is very important to verify the reliability of the bogie at high speed in advance. Therefore, long-term reliability test of bogie was carried out. It seems that so long-term examination on test stand does not have an example.

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We have been developing a gauge change train systems for through-operation between Shinkansen lines and conventional lines. The 1^<st> Gauge Changing Train Set (GCT) was completed in 1998 to confirm the basic efficiency of the systems. The GCT was an experimental 3-motor-car electric multiple unit (EMU) train. It was designed to run at a maximum speed of 300km/h on Shinkansen lines, and 130km/h on conventional lines. It works under a catenary voltage of AC25kV, 20kV and DC1500V. It had been tested for basic and endurance performance at high speed. We are now designing the 2^<nd> GCT for developing new gauge-changing bogies. It will be completed and started to test in late 2006.

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Dealing with lightening is required to enable further speed-up in Shinkansen Rolling Stock and the unsprung mas needs to be decreased. The increase of brake energy by the speed-up gives damage to the brake disk and brake lining.Therefore, these need a drastic change. So, brake disks made of aluminum composite material was developed. Full-scale aluminum composite disks were made and then tested in full-scale dynamometer to adopt the disks in Shinkansen. As the result, the friction characteristics were approximately same compared with those of forged steel disks which have been used in Shinkansen Rolling Stock.

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Tilting system of rapid transit railway vehicles like Tokaido Shinkansen require capability which can be processed at high speed, and which treat extensive data. For this reason, tilting system combined with digital-ATC and control-transmission-system was developed. Moreover, control apparatus considered as the composition of a completeness double system, and important input and output gave high reliability and high safety, such as supervising by comparing. As a result of these consideration, tilting system more suitable on high-speed huge organization vehicle possessing the high reliability and the high safety was realizable. This paper describes fail-safe control especially in tilting system.

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It is necessary that wheel tread profiles have the balance between running stability and curving performance. We have studied how to increase curving performance without decreasing running stability by changing arc wheel profile by numerical simulation. In this paper, we would like to examine the effect and its mechanism of the changed arc wheel profile by experiments. As a result, the arc wheel profile with the longer distance between the tire flange and the rail reduces side thrust without decreasing running stability. This result agrees with the analysis by numerical simulation.

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This paper describes the development of the new propulsion system utilizing permanent magnet synchronous motor for high-speed train over 400km/h speed. Development concept and feature of the developed equipment is described in detail. High efficiency of the permanent magnet synchronous motor enables to employ the self-ventilation with the equivalent size to that of the forced ventilation induction motor and to save the motor blower space. The test result shows the motor efficiency reaches 97% and the developed system has adequate output power required to high speed train over 400km/h speed.

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East Japan Railway Company and Hitachi have been developing a new Converter-Inverter with water and natural ventilation cooling system. The system is applied to the E954 series Shinkansen preliminary. Circulated water that refrigerates the Converter-Inverter is cooled down by natural ventilation and it allows to dismantle the blower. The system contributes weight and noise reduction. In this paper, we will introduce "ventilation system structure" and "cooling capability of the system" based on its test run results.

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We introduce to the Shinkansen Advanced train Information Management System (S-AIMS) in E954 Shinkansen. Reliability and maintainability are improved from previous train information management system in the S-AIMS. The S-AIMS is related with speedup of the Shinkansen, and the feature is complicated powering and braking control.

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Turbulent flow is generated in the flow of the air between the vehicle and ground if Shinkansen runs at high speed, and it causes the snow accretion to the bogie in the snowfall section. Then, it was tried to decrease the snow accretion of the bogie by improving the aerodynamic characteristic around the bogie, and controlling the disorder of the flow. We analyzed the aerodynamic characteristic around the bogie by using the fluid numerical value calculation of three dimensions and the wind tunnel test and clarified the snow accretion mechanism to the bogie. As a result, the expectation that the snow accretion of the bogie was able to be decreased was obtained because the shape of the underfloor equipment cover was changed, and the effect was verified.

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A power collection system is one of the primary sources of Shinkansen's noise. Reduction of aerodynamic noise from pantographs has been addressed, for it is essential for increase of maximum speed of Shinkansen. In this article, we investigated the sound source of pantograph type PS207, with which train type E2-1000 is equipped, and we take measures to reduce of noise sources. We found that the narrow area on the base frame has been found to be a significant sound source as a result of exploration of the sources of the pantograph noise. To reduce the noise from that area, the lower arm was designed to be cantilevered. Additionally, a pantograph whose lower arm is covered with a windshield has also been developed, resulting in more effective noise reduction.

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In order to detect over speed of a car, the governor is installed in the elevator. Therefore, when forced vibration by mischief of a passenger occurs, it is important to prevent emergency stop operation. As one method to achieve this, we proposed detecting system of car vibration by mischief of a passenger. This system must set a reasonable level for various elevators. Therefore we made a model to evaluate behavior of an elevator with force vibration by mischief of a passenger, and confirmed the effectives of model by comparison with experimental result.

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We have developed an active roller guide system to suppress the lateral vibration of high-speed elevators. Lateral vibration is mainly caused by guide rail deformation and guide rail alignment error. We proved that the active roller guide system is theoretically better than other active vibration isolation methods from a point of electric consumption view. We have developed an original digital-filtering algorithm that enables to avoid waste of electric power due to low frequency noise of accelerometers. These optimum designs enable the development of low electricity consumption system. We manufactured an active roller guide and conducted experiments with actual elevators in experimental towers. Experimental results show that the active roller guide system is capable of reducing the lateral vibration of elevator cars to nearly half with low power consumption.

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Steering reaction torque is one of the important information for drivers since it has significant influence on the maneuverability of the vehicle. Even with today's advanced simulation technology, however, it is very difficult to simulate factors such as the accurate steering feeling. The ultimate purpose of this study is to evaluate steering feeling using developed steering Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulator. In this report, the difference between the results of simulator testing and actual vehicle testing was investigated. And the complement element is installed into HIL simulator to evaluate steering feeling as actual vehicle testing.

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This paper examines the feasibility of electric power steering system in improving vehicle stability. The electric power steering is the device that decreases the driver steering workload by using an electric motor. In this research, the vehicle dynamics is improved by the method of controlling electric power steering. This paper proposes the feedback control of steering reaction torque for improving vehicle stability. Therefore, the feedback control that utilizes the force on the steering tie rod is proposed for disturbance rejection. Finally, the experiment by using Steering-Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulator (HILS) is conducted to prove the validity of the controller.

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This paper presents the method for prediction of train ride comfort using a motion simulator that can reproduce the acceleration same as actual train with high precision. The motion simulator used in this study can produce not only the acceleration of actual train but also that analyzed virtually with computer simulation. We can evaluate train ride comfort with body sense before the route of rail track is designed using this method. Two track profiles with several curves are compared from the point of view of train ride comfort experimentally. One profile is designed observing former law and another is designed with exception. The results show both of them have no problem about ride comfort.

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This paper concerns with construction of a riding simulator for two-wheeled vehicle. To analyze the rider's control behavior, the riding simulator constructed with this research can simulate two-wheeled vehicle movement between input and output. Furthermore, this simulator is planned for analyzing riders' human factor and also for the HMI. In the control system design, it is planned by newly using DSP for the reliability of experimental conditions, and for efficient change of the vehicle parameter for the simulation. As a result, the riding simulator system with good experimental efficiency was constructed.

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