Center for Smart Vehicle Concepts (SVC) Proposal # 1238286 Singh
This proposal seeks funding to establish a single-site Phase II I/UCRC for Smart Vehicle Concepts (SVC). The center mission focuses on precompetitive technology and research of common interest; smart vehicle components and sub-systems (ground and aerospace vehicles); new smart material-based actuators and sensors; new devices for vehicle development work; superior dynamic response and quiet and smooth operations; improved performance; enhanced safety; and higher energy efficiency.
The proposed Phase II Center will focus on novel and emerging trends in automotive and aerospace vehicle design where smart structures, next-generation suspension or mounting devices, vastly improved actuators or valves, and intelligent sensors will be integrated to develop vehicle components or sub-systems of the future. In order to achieve its objectives, the Phase II Center will cooperate with its industrial partners to conduct R&D and education in 4 strategic thrust areas: (1) Interfacial Mechanisms; (2) Adaptive Noise, Vibration, and Harshness; (3) Safety; and (4) Energy. The site will focus on active material based composites, piezoelectric and magnetostrictive materials, ferromagnetic shape memory alloys, and MR fluid based devices, and achieve force, motion, noise & vibration control performance goals including superior spectral bandwidth. The SVC will continue to be the only major center in the U.S. that can provide to industry and other educational institutions world-class information, thereby enabling the forces and motions necessary for 21st century automotive and aerospace systems.
The OSU team is uniquely poised to develop and grow the center, with interdisciplinary emphasis on modeling, simulation, design, and control of smart vehicle subsystems and components. By providing not only technical results and solutions but also being a major educational and training source, the SVC will help the U.S. automotive (and even aerospace) industries to remain competitive in an increasingly difficult global economy. The Ohio State University has an excellent track record in research, education and cooperation with vehicle industry. This cooperation will represent a unique synergy in research and education that will benefit not only the proposing universities, students, community, but also the industry and the U.S. economy at large. The researchers at OSU will aggressively work to recruit women and minority undergraduate and graduate students to participate in the SVC through existing outreach campus organizations and targeted recruitment activities.
