In September this year, University of Alabama at Birmingham professor and Tire Technology Conference Short Course lecturer, Vladimir Vantsevich is hosting the Agile Ground Vehicle Dynamics, Energy Efficiency, and Performance in Severe Environments International Symposium in Birmingham, Alabama.
This engineering symposium will provide an opportunity for the vehicle dynamics community to meet with professionals from all over the world to learn about and discuss leading-edge research and engineering accomplishments and future trends in:
– Manned/unmanned agile ground vehicle dynamics
– Vehicle energy efficiency
– Vehicle performance in severe environments
VDI asked Vantsevich about this emerging field:
How did you first become interested in agile ground vehicle dynamics?
During my research work I realized that the scale of milliseconds should be applied to manage dynamics by sensing the environment and controlling vehicle forces while they are forming under the action of impacts. You can draw some parallels between steady-transient-agile vehicle dynamics and macro-micro-nano-systems.
Why do you believe the field is becoming more important?
Mechatronics-based novelties in vehicle technology can be more efficient in safety, energy consumption, and performance if they provide pre-emptive and precise interactions in the human- vehicle-road environment. A world’s Who’s Who in vehicle dynamics and system design is working in this direction and you can see those renowned names in the Symposium program.
What is your own research focusing on at the moment?
Hyper-dynamics, pre-emptive tire slip sensing and tire damping control, and agile and individual wheel power distribution control for vehicle energy efficiency and performance enhancement.
In mainstream automotive, much of the research is on fuel efficiency now. Are research dollars hard to come by? Why should governments and industry continue to invest?
Overall, we should leave the Earth in a better state than we found it for coming generations. Moreover, since agile dynamics technology makes vehicles safer and more economically valuable, companies will be willing to utilize it.
What do you personally hope to gain from the conference?
As a member of the Symposium team, I look forward to forming main directions and discussing future trends in agile vehicle dynamics and learning from other researchers and engineers. I also want to see young generations – students of various education levels, engineers just starting out and postdocs – getting inspired by agile dynamics.
Interested parties can find out more or register for the Symposium here.
In February 2014, Vantsevich will run the Intelligent Vehicle-and-Tire Systems for Energy Efficiency & Safety Short Course at the Tire Technology Expo & Conference in Cologne, Germany. For more information, or to register, click here.
