Application Of Mechatronics In Automobiles Engineering Essay

Application Of Mechatronics In Automobiles Engineering Essay Most of them spend lot of time with their Automobiles. Every ones expectations is for better performance, safe to drive, user friendly and security in the ongoing development of Automobiles. Modern mechatronics can be applied to make their expectations come true with smarter mechanisms, via improved efficiencies, speed controls and system interaction. Disclaimer I declare the following to be my own work, unless otherwise referenced, as defined by the Universitys policy on plagiarism. Introduction Before the evolution of Information technology and microprocessor embedded mechanical systems, Mechatronics was simple and mainly focused on servo-technology, such as automotive door openers, servo valves and AC/DC servo motors etc. Nowadays the mechanical systems are reliable, accurate and have a very high efficiency especially in automobiles with electronic engine controls technology that enabled the on-impact triggering of airbags, evolution of sophisticated sensors, active and passive safety devices has predicted a record in car navigation system. 4.0 Applications 4.1 Car engine management Fig: 1 Car engine management Car engine management system consists of many electronic control systems involving microcontrollers, the engine control system being one, its aim is to control the amount of fuel to be injected into each cylinder, ignition, Engine revolution limit, turbochargers wastage control, variable cam timing and gear controls. The system consists of sensors supplying, after suitable signal conditioning, the input signals to the microcontroller and its providing output signals via drivers to actuate actuators. Figure: 1 shows some of these elements in relation to an engine. The engine speed sensor is an inductive sensor, basically a toothed metal disk mounted on the crank shaft and stationary detector that functions to cover a magnetic coil through which the current passes through, as these metal teeth begins moving past the coil, the magnetic field is distracted and thus a wave of pulses in the current is created. The temperature sensor is usually a thermistor whose resistance varies according to the temperature. The mass air flow sensor may be a hot wire sensor, as air passes over a heated wire it will be cooled, the amount of cooling depending on the mass rate of flow. When temperature reaches more than 300 centigrade the sensor becomes permeable to oxygen ions and a voltage is induced between the electrodes. [Ref 5] 4.2 Electronic stability control These control system uses sophisticated sensors, the cars central computer and mechanical actions for a safe drive. The electronic stability control system doesnt work by itself, it also uses the cars other safety and regulatory devices, to correct problems before they get into accidents. 4.2.1 Yaw control sensor This sensor is located as close as possible to the centre of the car. If the experiences a movement in vertical or side by side axis the Electronic stability system detects that car is swinging, as soon as it detects it activates the brake system and reduce the throttle to lower the speed. The sensor differentiate between the direction of the steering wheel and the direction the car is headed, the cars computer then makes necessary corrections to bring the vehicles direction of travel in line. [Ref 1] Fig: 2 Sensor fusion of a car ESC (Electronic stability control) information fed into the cars central computer through 3 types of sensor 4.2.2 Wheel speed sensors Wheel speed sensor is used to measure the speed of the wheel with which the computer can then compare to the speed of the engine. This sensor is located at each wheel. [Ref 1] 4.2.3 Steering angle sensors It measures the direction the driver aims to drive the car, if it is deviated from the cars actual direction, the ESC system will come in line. This sensor is located at the steering column of a car. [Ref 1] 4.2.4 Rotational speed sensors The sensor consists of a magnetoresistive sensor element. The frequency of the digital current output signal is proportional to the rotational speed of the gear wheel. 4. Cruise control acceleration and deceleration The cruise control system controls the speed of a car by adjusting the throttle position. Instead of pressing a pedal, cruise control actuates the throttle valve by a cable connected to an actuator. The throttle valve controls the power and speed of the engine by limiting how much air the engine takes in. In Figure 3, you can see two cables connected to a pivot that moves the throttle valve. One cable comes from the accelerator panel, and another from the actuator. When the actuator is engaged, it adjusts the throttle by moving the cable connected to the pivot, when the cruise control system is engaged the pedal moves up and down since the actuator also pulls on the cable that is connected to the gas pedal. [Ref 2] Fig: 3 One cable is connected to the gas pedal, the other to the vacuum actuator. In most of the cars the throttle unit is controlled by the actuators powered by engine vacuum. These systems use a small, electronically-controlled valve to regulate the vacuum in a diaphragm. This works in a similar way to the brake booster, which provides power to the brake system. [Ref 2] Fig: 4 The electronically-controlled vacuum actuator that controls the throttle 4.3.1 4.4 Airbag Inflation The goal of an airbag is to inflate rapidly during automobile collision and prevent the passengers from striking interior objects. Majority cases of death are due to air bags and seat belt is not worn. There are three parts to an airbag that help to achieve its function Fig: 6 the airbag and inflation system stored in the steering wheel Fig: 7 the airbag and inflation system stored in the steering wheel The bag itself is made up of a thin nylon fabric, which is folded into the steering wheel or dashboard or, more recently, the seat or door. Advance systems have solid state crash sensors that contain a piezoelectric crystal or a micro machined accelerometer, a device used to measure acceleration or vibration shock built into a microchip that produces an electrical signal when jolted. The airbags inflation system is by the reaction of sodium azide with potassium nitrate to produce nitrogen. Hot blasts of the nitrogen inflate the airbag. [Ref 3] 4.5 Power door locks In this system the door lock/unlock switch actually sends power to the actuators that unlock the door. In more complicated systems, the body controller decides when to do the unlocking. The body controller is similar to a computer which monitors all of the possible sources of locking and unlocking signal in a car. The system monitors the radio frequency and unlocks the doors when the correct digital code is received from the radio transmitter. When the actuator moves the latch up, it connects the outside door handle to the opening mechanism. When the latch is down, the outside door handle is disconnected from the mechanism so that it cannot be opened. Fig: 8 Inside a car door In a specific interval of time, the body controller supply power to the door lock actuator to unlock the door. The construction of actuator system is very simple. A small electric motor turns a series of spur gears that serve as a gear reduction. The last gear drives a rack-and-pinion gear set that is connected to the actuator rod. The rotational motion of the motor is converted to linear motion by the rack in order to move the lock. [Ref 5] 4.6 Conclusion Mechatronics can be defined as the intersection of mechanics, electronics, computers and controls. The synergistic use of aspects of each of these fields in designing products and processes is driving advances in automobiles the actual cars and components, as well as the equipment needed to build, diagnose and service them.

Truth and Goodness in Immanuel Kant and St. Thomas Aquinas Essay

Immanuel Kant and St. Thomas Aquinas account for the existence of truth in sharply contrasting ways. Kant locates all truth inside the mind, as a pure product of reason, operating by means of rational categories. Although Kant acknowledges that all knowledge originates in the intuition of the senses, the intelligibility of sense experience he attributes to innate forms of apperception and to categories inherent to the mind. The innate categories shape the â€Å"phenomena† of sensible being, and Kant claims nothing can be known or proved about the â€Å"noumena,† the presumed world external to the mind.1 Aquinas agrees that all knowledge comes through the senses, but disagrees with Kant in arguing that categorical qualities do not originate in the mind but inhere in the objects themselves, either essentially (determinate of their mode of being) or accidentally (changeable without loss of essence by the object).2 Aquinas further agrees with Kant that all the kn owledge derived from sense experience is knowledge of the essence of things only insofar as it is understood by reason, and thus sense experience is insufficient to constitute knowledge by itself.3 But Aquinas defines knowledge as conformity by the mind to things as they really are, and thus believes the external world is knowable by the mind, both in the essences of things (what they are) and in the act of being (that they are).4 Moreover, for Aquinas, entities are related to each other analogously according to their modes of being, since being is a quality that all existent things share. Thus, being in general is knowable systematically according to a language of existential analogy.5 Kant, in contrast, begins with the assumption that metaphysics is invalid as knowledge... ... 25 Immanuel Kant, Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, Translated James W. Ellington, 3rd ed. (Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing, 1993), 9. 26 Immanuel Kant, Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics, 842. 27 Immanuel Kant, Introduction to the Metaphysicsof Morals, IV, 24, quoted in Heinrich A. Rommen, The Natural Law: A Study in Legal and Social History and Philosophy (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1998), 89. 28 Immanuel Kant, The Philosophy of Law. An Exposition of the Fundamental Principles of Jurisprudence as the Science of Right, quoted in Rommen, 88. 29 Heinrich A. Rommen, The Natural Law: A Study in Legal and Social History and Philosophy (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1998), 119-121. 30 W. Norris Clarke, S.J., The One and the Many: A Contemporary Thomistic Metaphysics (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2001), 12.

Values Attitude and Lifestyle

Vals – Values attitude and lifestyle December 18, 2011 by Hitesh Bhasin Vals which is also known as values attitude and lifestyle is one of the primary ways to perform psychographic segmentation. All three terms are intangible in nature and therefore give an idea of the inert nature of the consumer. If you know what your consumer is thinking, you would know what kind of promotions or communications will attract him most. And how do you know what the consumer is thinking? By determining his vals –   Values, attitudes and lifestyle. VALS is different for different people.Lets take income as an example. If you are a person with high income your lifestyle would probably include habits of the SEC A class such as dining out of home frequently and that too in top class restaurants, wearing only branded clothes and buying the best cars out there. Whereas if you are a middle class income group consumer, you would be more wary of spending money and would rather concentrate on s avings. So now how does VALS affect a marketer? Lets say you were a banker. What would you sell someone who had a high income lifestyle?You would sell them investment options and would also dedicate a relationship manager to take care of their needs. In fact, the bankers also have a term for high income individuals known as HNI –   high networth individuals. But, if your lifestyle was that of a low income customer, you are more likely to be targeted for savings History of the term VALS  Ã¢â‚¬â€œÃ‚   VALS is actually a proprietary term of SRI international. The term was developed by Social scientist and futurist Arnold mitchell. Arnold mitchell actually developed the vals framework to determine different classes of people who had varying values, attitudes and lifestyle.These people were determined by the resources they had at their disposal as well as the amount of primary innovation they could accept or create. Thus the people with low resources were low on innovation and the ones with higher resources were higher in innovation. This formed the basis of the VALS framework. The VALS framework Image source – SRI International As mentioned in the history of VALS, The VALS framework was developed keeping a consumers resources as well as his capacity to accept innovation in mind.The X axis consisted of primary motivation (explained below)  and the Y axis consisted of resources such as income, education, confidence etc. Thus these two factors were determined to be critical to define the values attitude and lifestyle of any consumer. Resources –   Included resources available to an individual such as income, education, intelligence, emotional support, etc. Primary motivation –   Which determined what actually drives the individual. Is it knowledge, the desire to achieve something or is it to be social.After researching above 1500   consumers, Arnold mitchell actually divided consumers into 9 different types based on the amount of resources they had as well as their capacity for primary motivation. These classes of consumers based on their VALS were. Innovators –   The class of consumer at the top of the vals framework. They are characterized by High income and high resource individuals for whom independence is very important. They have their own individual taste in things and are motivated in achieving the finer things in life. Thinkers –   A well educated professional is an excellent example of Thinkers in the vals framework.These are the people who have high resources and are motivated by their knowledge. These are the rational decision making consumers and are well informed about their surroundings. These consumers are likely to accept any social change  because of their knowledge level. Believers –   The subtle difference between thinkers and believers is that thinkers make their own decisions whereas believers are more social in nature and hence also believe other consume rs. They are characterized by lower resources and are less likely to accept innovation on their own.They are the best class of word of mouth consumers. Achievers –   The achievers are mainly motivated by –   guess what  Ã¢â‚¬â€œÃ‚   Achievements. These individuals want to excel at their job as well in their family. Thus they are more likely to purchase a brand which has shown its success over time. The achievers are said to be high resource consumers but at the same time, if any brand is rising, they are more likely to adopt that brand faster. Strivers –   Low resource consumer group which wants to reach some achievement are known as strivers. These customers do not have the resources to be an achiever.But as they have values similar to an achiever, they fall under the striver category. If a striver can gain the necessary resources such as a high income or social status then he can move on to becoming an achiever. Experiencers –   The group of c onsumers who have high resources but also need a mode of self expression are known as Experiencers. Mostly characterized by young adults,  it consists of people who want to experience being different. This class of consumers is filled up with early adopters who spend heavily on food, clothing and other youthful products and services.Makers –   These are consumers who also want self expression but they are limited by the number of resources they have. Thus they would be more focused towards building a better family rather than going out and actually spending higher amount of money. Making themselves into better individuals and families becomes a form of self expression for the Makers. Survivors –  Ã‚  The class of consumers in the Vals framework with the least resources and therefore the least likely to adopt any innovation. As they are not likely to  change their course of action regularly, they form into brand loyal customers.An example can include old age pen sion earners living alone  for whom the basic necessities  are important and they are least likely to concentrate on anything else. Thus the vals framework  can be used primarily to classify consumers based on their values, attitudes and lifestyle. Once the classification has been done, you know which types of customers you want to target. Depending on your target customers vals, you can make up your marketing strategy and your promotional message such that it hits your audience at the right spot.

Schizophreni A Psychological Disorder - 1224 Words

Schizophrenia is a serious psychological disorder that affects over 24 million people around the world. This psychological disorder affects people of various ages. This particular disorder is predicted to affect nearly 1 in 100 people will develop Schizophrenia. â€Å"Schizophrenia is a psychological disorder characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and or diminished, inappropriate emotional expression (Abel et al., 2010; WHO 2011pg. 631)†. People with Schizophrenia encounter sensory experiences without sensory stimulation. In some episodes, the person may taste, fell, or see things that are not really there. These disorganized thoughts cause episodes or a breakdown due to the inability to focus on a set of sensory stimuli. Many studies have shown that schizophrenics experience difficulty in controlling the input of relevant and irrelevant information from their environment. This occurs because of a central deficit in the regulatory functions of atte ntion.† Schizophrenics are unable to protect themselves from sensory input, are flooded by auditory and visual stimulation (Mosher, 1971 p.13)†. Schizophrenia is a disorder that usually begins during the teen through adulthood cognitive developing stages. This disorder affects both female and male and can either appear suddenly or slow developing. The slow developing stage is considered to be chronic and the recovery stage is not very promising. The research that has developed over the years pertainingShow MoreRelatedSchizophreni A Psychological Disorder1495 Words   |  6 PagesSchizophrenia is a mental disorder that became prominent within the 1900 s characterized by various positive, negative, and cognitive symptoms. Coined in 1908 by Paul Bleuler, it is a prominent entry within the DSM and is prevalent throughout the world. It affects both males and females rather equally, though there are slight variations in its mean age of development. Regardless, schizophrenia is a seriously debilitating psychological disorder that is highly heritable, produces a wide range ofRead MoreSchizophreni A Psychological Disorder1028 Words   |  5 Pages2016 Assessment Research paper Schizophrenia is a psychological disorder which about one percent of the population (John et al., fid. 2001) Morbidity is caused by the negative and positive symptoms. Research has shown that disability and impairment is caused by cognitive impairment in schizophrenia. It is by a group of disorders which and it s largely unknown. It involves a set of disturbances of perception, thinking, social behavior andRead MoreSchizophreni A Complex Psychological Disorder990 Words   |  4 Pagesloses it unity. Originally it was meant to describe patients whose thoughts and emotions seemed disconnected or disrupted. Unlike the meaning of the word schizophrenia, it has nothing to do with split personalities. Schizophrenia is a complex psychological disorder that can be characterized into 4 different categories; paranoid-type, disorganized-type, undifferentiated-type, and residual-type. All 4 types of schizophrenia have their own symptoms and treatment. According to Melissa K. Spearing from