Research Team
(1) The Special Vehicle Research Team
The special vehicle research team is mainly engaged in the teaching, research, experiment and related product development of armored and normal vehicle engineering.
At present, the special vehicle research institute has 29 faculty members, including 6 professors, 12 associate professors, 3 senior engineers and senior laboratory technicians.1 people is selected for “100 million talents project in the new century”, 4 people are selected for “Cross century outstanding talents”, 4 people were selected into the “511 talent project of the national defense science and technology industry”, and 3 people were selected as the chief scientist of “973 Projects”. There are also one “Yangtze River scholars and innovation team development team”, and one “National defense science and technology innovation team” in the special vehicle research institute.
Fig. 1 Members of special vehicle research institute.
Through the efforts of several generations, the whole staff's age structure and knowledge structure are constantly optimized.It has formed an academic team with young people, high educational level, active academic thinking and a certain influence in the automobile industry.
At present, the special vehicle research institute is mainly responsible for the teaching tasks of the specialized courses of armored vehicle engineering and the specialized courses for the graduate students of vehicle engineering.Armored vehicle engineering is a senior technical personnel training base for armored vehicle engineering research and development.In the “eleventh five-year plan” and “twelfth five-year plan”, armored vehicle engineering major has been awarded the major construction of national defense key construction and the specialty of the higher school of the ministry of education. “Tank Theory” was awarded the national quality course in 2008.The professional core curriculum teaching team was awarded the excellent teaching team of Beijing in 2010.The relevant teaching achievements were awarded with 1 second prize of Beijing teaching achievement and 3 awards of the school teaching award.One person was awarded the Beijing teacher of teaching and one of the outstanding teachers in Beijing.
(2) Automobile Research Team
The research of Automobile Research team mainly focus on area of theory and application technology of intelligent vehicle and technology of intelligent chassis (which includes lateral control, longitudinal control and vertical control of vehicle). Automobile Research Institute has more than 20 researchers, which includes 4 professors, 10 associate professors, 5 lecturers, 2 senior engineers and 1 advanced technician.
Figure 2: Group photo of Automobile Research Institute researchers
Currently, the research platform includes State Key Laboratory of Vehicle Transmission, Unmanned Vehicle Technical Key Laboratory of Ministry of Industry and Information, Ground Unmanned Platform Defense Science and Technology Innovation Team, Bionic Robot and Key Laboratory of System Education Department.
Focusing on major development needs of vehicle industry and military vehicles, Automobile Research Institute combines military use and civil use and actively research on intelligent vehicle theory and application frontier technology. The research includes many emerging technologies such as intelligent driving, active safety, automatic driving, driverless driving, network driving, intelligent transmission and control, new steering system, intelligent suspension, test and evaluation of intelligent activities, behavioral decision combining traffic scene and so on.
Automobile Research Institute combine intelligent control, artificial intelligence, large data technology with intelligent vehicles and mainly focus on the research of unmanned driving technology, multivariable large data machine learning, large data intelligent technology, cognition and understanding of environment perception and driving scene and state estimation and motion control based on vehicle dynamics and kinematics.
Considering the need of intellectualization of new energy vehicles, Automobile Research Institute pays attention to the study and industrialization application of intelligent driving control technology of hybrid electric vehicles, pure electric vehicles and new power source vehicles.
Automobile Research Institute includes two groups, the intelligent vehicle research group and automobile overall and chassis control research group, respectively.
The intelligent vehicle research group, which is one of ‘subject special area’ founded in 2005, is formed by Automation Steering Group of State Key Laboratory of Vehicle Transmission and Robot Center of Beijing Institute of Technology. This group is a research institute which starts the study of vehicular drivetrain automation and driverless vehicle at a relatively early time in our country. Through the efforts of generations, this group have achieved leading success in this area and gained unique dominant position in the area of military-civil vehicle. Being one of the earliest ground-based driverless technology research teams in China, the study of driverless technology starts in 1990, since then, this group win ‘The third award of the Scientific and Technological Progress of the State’ and the first and second award of ‘Future challenge for smart cars in China’. At the same time, the group starts the research of automatic transmission technology in 1980. Currently, a series of fruits has been achieved and used in a series of equipment. The study is also used in industrialization application of new energy commercial vehicles.
The automobile overall and chassis control research group is founded during ‘the ninth five-year plan’ period. It has undertaken the overall design project of light parachute assault vehicle, airborne tractor, autonomous Vehicle and so on, laying the foundation of automobile overall theory and technology area. In recent years, focusing on the mobility of wheeled off-road vehicle, this group has undertaken many state pre-research projects and enterprise projects including research on light / heavy high maneuvering oil and gas suspension, active control of suspension, multi wheel / full wheel steering, ABS/ASR of wheeled-vehicle, vibration and noise control and so on. This group has gained rich experience in the area of vehicle dynamics analysis and control. At present, combining the advantage of current theory and technology, this group focuses on the emerging area of vehicle industry and research on electrification, line control and intelligent control of chassis. To improve the safety, comfort and economy efficiency of vehicle, this group undertake overall research on active steering, active suspension, active braking and other subsystem of chassis, providing safe and intelligent control stability guarantee for unmanned / manned vehicle in special conditions.
(3) Electric Vehicle Engineering and Technology Research Team
Electric Vehicle Engineering and Technology research team has 36 faculty members, including 6 professors, 14 associate professors, of which 1 Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, 1 Changjiang Scholar and 1 expert of "Thousands of Foreign Experts Plan". Currently, there are 229 graduate students in EVETC. Additionally, EVETC is one of the earliest organizations that conducted research on electric vehicles in China. As early as the late 1950s, the laboratory began to introduce the Soviet-made electric drive military vehicles for electric drive research. Since 1992, it has begun to participate in the research and development work of electric vehicles organized by the original State Commission of Science and Technology for National Defense Industry. Since the national "8th Five-Year Plan", its R&D work on electric vehicles have been strongly supported by Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, General Armament Department and Beijing Municipal Government. It has accumulated abundant research achievements in the scientific research of electric vehicles, industrialization and demonstration operation. Meanwhile, the laboratory has a profound research foundation in electric drive technology, and it is the authorized testing base of drive motors of the national 863 Project. Moreover, it has successfully developed more than 20 kinds of electric vehicle products such as pure electric tourist buses, pure electric low-floor buses, hybrid power electric buses, fuel cell vehicles and pure electric cars, of which 10 kinds of these vehicle products are listed in China's national automobile product announcement. Furthermore, it has developed quite a few key parts of electric vehicles with independent intellectual property rights, such as enhanced magnetism motor and controller for vehicle, permanent-magnet synchronous motor drive system, integrated electric drive mechanical automatic transmission system, standardized battery system and battery management system supporting rapid replacement, electric power steering system, APU system, high performance vehicle control system, fuel cell system. In the history of Olympic Games, EVETC carried out the emissions-free electric bus project in the central area for the first time, fulfilled the commitment of the Chinese government and achieved the state’s highest goal of “zero anchor of round-the-clock services of Olympic Games”, which generated a major response at home and abroad and received national recognition. Relevant technological achievements have been applied in batches in Shanghai World Expo, Guangzhou Asian Games and "10 Cities and 1000 Vehicles" Project. So far, the laboratory has formed a thorough technical system, and the technologies centered on the overall design of electric vehicles, vehicle control system, motor and motor control, power battery group and management, electric pile charging, electric power steering have been popularized and applied in a multiple of cities, mainly in Beijing.
By tackling hard-nut problems of science and technology and making technological accumulation for a long term, EVETC has obtained a large number of intellectual property achievements, published more than 20 academic monographs and over 600 academic papers, and received over 70 authorized patents as well. It has presided over the drafting of a number of national standards and established Beijing local technical standard system for electric vehicle charging stations. Besides, it has formed more than 30 special technical specifications and enterprise standards for electric vehicles, obtained 30 software copyright registrations, and in addition, its research achievements have won 2 second prizes of National Invention Prize, 1 second prize of National Prize for Progress in Science and Technology, 3 first prizes at ministerial and provincial-level and multiple other provincial and ministerial prizes.
Figure 3: Group photo of laboratory faculties and staff
(Note: as the research center of national "211" universities, Electric Vehicle Engineering Technology Center (EVETC) of Beijing Institute of Technology has adhered to the "training China's senior automotive professionals" since its inception. At present, there are 6 professors, 14 associate professors and 15 lecturers in the laboratory, and the team owns strong teaching and scientific research ability, and has more than 220 studying masters and doctoral candidates)
Representative Research Achievements
(1) Key Technologies for Pure Electric Buses and its Application in the Zero-Emission Project of Beijing Olympic Games
Key contributions:
1. Energy saving technologies
1.1 High-integration vehicle architecture;
1.2. Digitalized network control technique;
1.3. Regenerative Braking;
1.4. Integrated electric drive system;
1.5. Novel air conditioning technique;
1.6. Light-weight vehicle body design.
2. Battery system design
2.1. Battery pack suitable for fast battery-swap;
2.2. High efficiency battery management system;
2.3. Battery system safety-related techniques.
3. Electric city bus application mode
Figure 4: Key Technologies for Pure Electric Buses and its Application in the Zero-Emission Project of Beijing Olympic Games
One key powertrain product and its application for electric vehicles
Key innovations:
1. Novel enhanced magnetism electric motor;
2. Clutch-free shift-by-wire transmission;
3. Energy management for electric drive system;
4. Electric drive test technologies.
Figure 5: One Key Powertrain Product and Its Application for Electric Vehicles
(2) Caterpillar Vehicle Torque Converter and Its Design Theory(The second prize of 2006 National Science and Technology Progress Award)
The torque converter is an important component of the tracked vehicle transmission system. The torque converter enables the tracked vehicle to obtain excellent performance in three aspects: stable start, stable operation at low speeds, improved maneuverability and passability in complex areas; It has the functions of vibration reduction and dynamic load reduction to increase the service life and reliability of the transmission system and realize the reliable driving of 10,000 kilometers of tracked vehicles. The hydraulic torque converter is a comprehensive transmission device of hydraulic machinery to realize the power shift and automatic transmission without cutting off. However, the development of torque converters faces three major challenges:(1) The internal flow path of the high-power hydraulic torque converter is composed of space-distorted thick blades and inner and outer annular surfaces. The liquid has three-dimensional viscous flow in the flow channel, with strong nonlinearity, and the design theory is complex;(2) The power per unit volume is large, the rotation speed is high, the internal force is large and complex, the working wheel and blade are easy to produce cracks, and the structural design is difficult;(3) It is difficult to cast the flow channel consisting of thick-spaced blades and the logarithmic spiral curve type one-way coupling is difficult to manufacture.
This achievement puts forward the theory of multi-objective optimization and characteristic prediction of the cascade parameters of crawler vehicles for high-power hydraulic torque converters, and creates a three-dimensional parametric design and integrated manufacturing method for space blades and runners and their molds,and then the hydrodynamic torque converter serialized spectrum and series torque converter designs for the chassis-based chassis power range were realized.The technical parameters such as torque converter efficiency, maximum input speed, and maximum input power proposed by this result have reached the international advanced level.
(3) Comprehensive Drive Technology and Application of Tracked Vehicle Hydraulic Machinery (The second prize of 2012 National Science and Technology Progress Award)
The transmission is a core system that realizes variable speed driving, flexible steering, deceleration braking and many other operating conditions. Transmission is the key to achieving high maneuverability of tracked vehicles and has an important impact on the performance of tracked vehicles. By the end of the 20th century, the transmission equipment provided by China's tracked vehicles was still a single power flow and component arrangement, which could not meet the high mobility requirements of vehicles. Hydraulic machinery integrated transmission is able to realize the advantages of multi-flow compound transmission, automatic shifting, and stepless steering, and it is the mainstream for the development of international tracked vehicles. However, there are four key issues that must be solved in the development of integrated transmission technology for hydraulic machinery:(1) How to achieve multi-function and multi-functional integrated integration under strong constraints? (2) How to achieve multi-speed transmission and automatic shifting? (3) How to achieve stepless steering and pivot steering?
This result put forward the theory and method for integrated integrated design of hydraulic transmission systems, realized comprehensive integration of various hydraulic, hydraulic, and mechanical transmission forms, such as straight shifting, stepless steering, automatic shifting, and deceleration braking. It also created a multi-degree-of-freedom, high-speed, wide transmission range, multi-speed transmission method and technology, and proposed a multi-degree-of-freedom transmission design method, then solved the traditional method is difficult to achieve the optimal solution of multi-freedom speed optimal solution; It created the theory and technology of high-power zero-differential dual-flow infinitely-variable steering, solved the problems of dynamic power balance and accurate control of steering radius in the steering process, and realized continuous steerless steering of tracked vehicles and centered steering of narrow roads; It also created an electro-hydraulic automatic manipulation design method and technology that adapted to the all-terrain complex environment, proposed a multi-parameter shift strategy, solved the problem of cyclic shifting, and achieved the stability of automatic shifting of off-road vehicles. The research results have reached the international advanced technology level in such technical indicators as transmission power, transmission efficiency, and maximum speed.
Figure 6: Simulation of Hydraulic Machinery Comprehensive Transmission Characteristics