Vehicle control technology is advancing rapidly, leading to autonomous driving and improved safety. Learn about mechanical engineering principles and applications.
Mechanical engineering is a very broad field. When most people think of mechanical engineering, they think of cars, ships, heavy equipment, and plants, but there are more areas where mechanical engineering is used than these typical examples. I would like to give a brief introduction to the field of control engineering, which has been attracting attention recently.
In the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, there is a course called “Systems Analysis”. The general content of this course is to look at the machine we are dealing with as a single system and find the relationship between input and output. We create a mathematical relationship between input and output and enter the relationship into a program called ‘MATLAB’. MATLAB is a program that makes it easy to do numerical analysis. By entering a complex relationship and graphing the distribution of output values for input values, we can visualize and confirm the phenomenon we want to observe.
Let’s apply this to cars. The inputs are the driver’s steering wheel, accelerator, and brake movements. The outputs are the engine power (acceleration), the resulting vehicle speed, and the vehicle’s position over time. By obtaining the relationship between the inputs and outputs using MATLAB, including the interactions of all parts of the vehicle, mass and resistance, etc., the movement of the vehicle according to the driver’s operation can be simulated. This is the basis of the vehicle control field.
Now, let’s say we apply this technology to a real situation. For example, suppose an obstacle suddenly appears in front of the driver. If the driver’s reaction speed is slow, an accident may occur immediately. At this point, if a program predicts a collision based on the relative speed and current distance from the object in front of the car by attaching an infrared sensor to the front of the car and brakes itself before the driver does, it will be possible to prevent accidents.
Currently, many automakers are actively researching this type of control technology. For example, Tesla’s autonomous driving system already uses advanced control technology to enable automatic highway driving, automatic lane changing, and intersection guidance. These technologies go beyond convenience and play a role in reducing various risks that can occur while driving.
ACC/CA (Adaptive Cruise Control and Collision Avoidance) is a program that automatically drives on the road while adjusting the distance to the vehicle in front. In this case, the input and output elements are similar to those described above, but the distance to the vehicle in front (output) again becomes the input signal to adjust the accelerator and brakes. As a result, the driver sets the desired destination, and the car calculates the distance to the vehicle in front using the sensors on the road and repeats the process of driving itself. Drivers can reach their destination without having to perform any driving maneuvers other than setting their destination.
Such technology can also be used in everyday life. For example, it can reduce driver fatigue in the complex traffic conditions of urban centers and help drivers maintain concentration during long-distance driving. It can also play an important role in reducing the number of traffic accidents, which is of great benefit to society.
When we watch science fiction movies, we can imagine things that are often impossible in the physical world, such as cars that float in the air. However, the control technologies introduced above, such as ACC/CA, have often appeared in science fiction movies, but are now close to being realized in the real world. The development of the machine itself also contributes to the development of scientific civilization, but its usefulness will be even greater if it is supported by such control technology. In the future, more research and development will be carried out, and control technology will make our lives more comfortable and safer.
