Society of Automotive Engineers - Australasia
ABN: 95 004 248 604
Address: PO Box 103, Werribee Vic 3030
Phone: 0403 267 166
Email: info@sae-a.com.au Web: www.saea.com.au
Rose De Amicis
Email: rose@sae-a.com.au
Cara Coughey
Email: events@sae-a.com.au
Adrian Feeney Board
Mohammad Fard Technical Director
Sam Lagozzino Membershp & Events
Bernie Rolfe FISIT & SAE Liaison
Greg Shoemark Gov’t & Industry Liaison
James Soo Autonomous/EV Vehicles
Richard Taube Board Director Michael Waghorne Finances Gary White Board Director
Mandy Parry-Jones
Trading Terms Media
Email: mandypj@optusnet.com.au Mobile: 0409 806 986
Brigid Fraser
Email: fraseram@optusnet.com.au
Mobile: 0413 009 122
Jill Johnson Jill Johnson Media
Email: jj@jilljohnsonmedia.com.au
Mobile: 0409 217 624
Excellerate Australia
On Monday, 3 October, I had the honour of opening the 21st biennial Asia Pacific Automotive Engineering Conference (APAC21) with an audience of more than 180 delegates, I hope you were one of them. It proved to be an absolutely amazing conference, on two levels; it was the first face-to-face gathering of such significance since Covid, and it put SAE-A on the map as a credible global player representing the automotive industry in Australia
That day was the culmination of a journey that started in 2018 when it was proposed to the SAE-A board that we should host this conference, a conference that would make EV/AV technology its central theme.
By any standards this was a large undertaking, and an equally significant risk, but the support was unanimous and so the process began. Little could we have known what lay ahead, a pandemic like nothing we have seen before, right in the middle of the original scheduled date of October 2021. The entire world was thrown into lockdown and no one was allowed to travel within Australia, let alone enter or leave our shores.
During that period, we made two decisions from which we never wavered: firstly, that the event would proceed, albeit delayed (by one year as it turned out); and secondly, that it would be a face-to-face conference, and not even a hybrid combination was acceptable.
So, three years after the APAC20 conference in Thailand and we had our face-to-face conference, and it was a great success.
I wish to take this opportunity to thank some key people for their amazing efforts:
• The Technical Committee chair, Professor Mohammad Fard, whose tireless work almost single handedly managed to bring this conference to reality
• To his hard working and creative committee who was always supportive of Professor Fard and offered valuable insights into the running of such an event, always willing to volunteer for any task that was required
•
To Mohammad’s PhD students who worked tirelessly in the background, making many impossible things possible.
• To the SAE-A board, who at all times supported this event and the Technical Committee, even through those troubled and challenging COVID times
•
To our event management team, KE Creative and its managing director, Nadia Kentera and her staff
• And finally, to the presenters and delegates for showing such faith in our untiring belief that this event must proceed in its original form.
The key to our success was the quality and quantity of the program with three panel sessions led by experts in their respective fields. We also had four keynote speakers, with our main drawcard, Remi Bastien formerly from Renault who provided the delegates with some important insights in the future challenges of autonomous vehicles in our society.
The rest of the conference consisted of four concurrent sessions of presentations of papers on a variety of topics pertaining to the conference theme, with a total of 69 presenters, from 13 countries, including 40 from Australia. It was certainly a quality packed program which attracted over 180 delegates from 13 countries, of which 130 were from Australia
The success of this event has encouraged the board to offer more of these events in the future, perhaps not as big but certainly more often and more targeted to our local requirements, this conference was by any standards a remarkable success
So, we now turn our attention to another popular SAE-A event, our annual Formula SAE University program that again returns to a face-to-face event at Winton Raceway from December 8 to December 11. We will have more to say shortly but please save the date and join us either as a spectator or better still a volunteer, you will not be disappointed.
Among the many guests, dignitaries, and attendees at the SAE-A’s APAC21 conference was a very special industry keynote speaker Remi Bastien who attended from Paris, France.
Mr Bastien recently retired from the Renault Group after 39 years serving as Vice President for Research and Innovation, Global Director Autonomous Driving Prospective (Nissan/Renault Alliance), and Vice President Automobile Prospective for Renault.
He is chairman of Next Move (French cluster dedicated to mobility issues), delegate general and treasurer of FISITA and a member of the Shift Project – a think tank for sustainable economy.
Mr Bastien was member of the EUCAR council, chairman of VEDECOM (French cooperative research institute) and director of the program “Power Electronics” for the French automotive Industry and French electronic industry.
After returning to Paris Mr Bastien sent this note to Adrian Feeney.
“I want to send you all my warm greetings from France (not from Sydney!) where I landed yesterday morning.
On behalf of FISITA, I want to congratulate
you for this very successful congress with very good papers and with a perfect organization. You have addressed most of the important challenges of our industry in a very open-minded spirit.
Again, I want to thank you for your trust and your kind invitation, and I hope that my keynote was in line with your expectations. I do think that engineers have huge power to transform our society, and accordingly a huge responsibility.
Such conferences are so important to share knowledge and to help to focus on the highest priorities. My message was to make sure that we do not raise technology because we can, but only because this will be useful for humanity and compliant with the life on our planet to serve our children and grandchildren’s future.
I am sure that our community is motivated to give engineers their right place and endorse their responsibility and your congress was a strong promoter for these stakes.
Formula SAE-A has been embraced by universities since its 2000 inception, providing an exciting, challenging and realistic platform which enables the students to put into practice the outcomes of their studies.
Each December, thousands of students, volunteers and spectators get to experience around 35 university teams pitting their machines head-to-head in this educational program. The event also attracts teams from across the world including UK, Germany, India, Japan, New Zealand and the USA.
The competition provides an environment for students to develop problem-solving and outcome-focused management skills within a resource-limited organisation that the industry is seeking in the next-generation STEM workforce.
Through Formula SAE-A we are creating the next innovators, superstars and leaders of tomorrow’s mobility and transport technologies sector.
Come to one or more days of the event which is on from 8-11 December at Winton Raceway, Benalla, Victoria to watch or even better you can be a participant by volunteering to assist (see advertisement on page 28 for more information).
I want also to congratulate Danielle and Georgia for their full involvement to make the organization fluent and stressless.
FISITA will go on to support APAC and wish a huge success for APAC22 in Korea, and FISITA will be very happy to help and contribute.
Finally, I want to thank you again so much for your so kind hospitality. Everything was perfect!”
Very kind regards. Rémi BASTIEN General Delegate and Treasurer FISITA
Each year, SAE invites engineering students and mobility professionals to participate in an annual survey to improve the offerings from SAE International.
This includes the type of information published, the programs provided, and the opportunities offered to affect change in the global industry – decisions surrounding each of these areas are directly influenced by the input received through this survey.
Please click below or cut and paste the URL into your browser complete the survey: https://sae.qualtrics.com/jfe/ form/SV_6Jap8oloz082xam?Q_ DL=J4eKEqKegX1SlZY_6Jap8oloz082xam_ CGC_CzAkrvwTGifZV8g&Q_CHL=email
As a token of the SAE International’s appreciation, it is offering all respondents who complete the questionnaire a chance to win one of five US$250 Amazon gift cards.
Australia passed the symbolic wooden gavel to Korea at the end of APAC21 which was in Melbourne, and so the conference will go to Jeju Island off the coast of South Korea in 2024 to be hosted by the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers (KSAE).
The Great Voyage to Future Mobility Evolution (Digital Transformation, Electrification, Carbon Neutrality, Mobility for Human Life) is the banner under which this next event will be held.
APAC, the Asia Pacific Automotive Engineering Congress exists to advance the development of automotive engineering and the automobile industry internationally.
Held every two years, APAC provides excellent opportunities for automotive experts to present the latest product and development innovations and to exchange information in the field of mobility, connected cars and automotive technology as a global challenge for industry, users and society.
The inaugural APAC was held in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1981 under the name of the International Pacific Conference on Automotive Engineering. It was initiated by four countries, the US, Indonesia, Australia
and Japan. South Korea and China joined the following year then Thailand, Vietnam and Sri Lanka in the 1990s, India in 2004, and Iran in 2005, with a total of 11 countries now represented.
The name was changed to the Asia Pacific Automotive Engineering Conference in 2007 to better reflect the Asian region.
Mr Sangsoon Kwon President of KSAE was at APAC21 and accepted the gavel that represents the conference from SAE-A Senior Vice President Greg Shoemark.
By March next year KSAE will issue a call for
papers and the official website will be live by November then it is full steam ahead.
“Thank you, thank you for your kind introduction,” Mr Kwon said. “I would like to especially thank you Adrian and your team for organising very excellent international seminar teaching.
“A lot of good quality papers presented… unforgettable.”
Mr Kwon went on to describe Jeju Island and explained that as a location for APAC22 it presents an easy to reach location just off the coast of South Korea and it requires no visa.
The SAE-A would like to welcome the following new members:
Corporate Member
Grandyarra
Professional Members
Matthew Clarke Hardik Shamjibhai Shankla Mark Roberts Jonathon Larvin
Students Members Dawood Abbas Daniel Ace-Heaton Oskar Adderley Nicholas Allard William Bai Samuel Baker Max Barker Liam Barnes Alexander Betts Julian Blair Yasmin Blakemore Phillip Bothma Rudolph Bothma Christopher Briggs Joseph Broadhurst Floyd Bromley Ethan Buchan Duc-Tri Bui Cian Butler
Aqua Cahalan Tony Cai Dylan Cassell Mukul Chadha David Chambers Vicki Cheah Dermott Chiang Jayden Clarke
Ben Coleman Nick Coles Dante Condidorio Max Contessi Ben Cornish Brendan Craig Glen Crawford Gabriel Csizmadia Willem De Blanc Daniel De Maio Jacob Ditter Hamish Doherty Abraham Doss Ryan Driscoll Hugo Efendie Thomas Elia-Abbot Thomas Ellis Sonya Emmett Muhammad Fazidan Natalie Florenca Benjamin Foote Daniel Gale Jonathan Gallagher Tom Garnett Elaine Garrett Iresh Geeanee Jacob Giudici Christian Goiak Aidan Graham Lucas Gruwez Terry Gu Jess Gugliotta Julian Haddad Udayanaga Halim Cameron Hart Jeremy Hatley
Lachlan Hayes Zack Hender Joel Hercus Matthew Hindson Alex Hughes Amarnath Ilangovan Jessica Irons Tristan Italiano Alfie Jacques Nayana Jayawardhana Joshua Jenkins Thomas Jessop Oliver Johnson Aryaman Kathuria Reiley King Ruard Koekemoer William Kuplis Caleb Lever Mia Liao Jan Fredrich Lim Sedtha Lim Siwei Lin Henry Liu Lawrence Lo Luke Logan Utsav Lohchab Jon Loughron Erin Lumsden Calum MacDougall Lachlan MacPhee Daniel MacRae Jacob Mahoney Erfan Mangani Briana Marino Till Markwitz Cameron Marsland
Max Materia James Mattiske Dylan Maxwell Thomas McFarlane Aiyana Menezes Emilee Metcalfe Zachary Meyer Tom Miller Sharif Mohdar Aditya Murray Darcy Nelson Riley Newick Tony Nguyen Cody Nicholas Patrick Noble Corey Ogden Han Yu Ooi Joshua Perin Jonathan Perrone Callum Peterson Aleksander Pollok Zac Poxon Kim Quaghebeur Ella Reade Sonja Rehbock Nihar Ringe Luke Roberts Avon Rowse Jonas Rutherford Sanjeev Sai Christian Sanderson Alexander Saribalas Reinier Scheepers Deepa Selva Robert Seres
Jeet Shah Mayuran Siwananda Sarma Ewan Sloan Connor Smith-Birch Daniel Spencer Song Vine Srengsros Tarun Srinivas Roger Sun Lachlan Taylor Theo Taylor Meng Chun Teoh Mridula Thomas Kieren Tirikawala Bastian Tovey Hamish Towers Ronald Tun Shreyas Uppuluri Ashley Ure Morgan Ure Nicolas Vidal William Voss Zane Walker Jia Qi Wang Joseph Warren Janodi Weerasinghe Gary White Prashan Wickramaratne Eric Wildschut Ezekiel Willmott Eric Wong Mackenzie Yandell Ben Yeap Ahmad Amiruddin Zulkernain Nurul Izzah Zulkernain
More information at www.saea.com.au/membership
Electric vehicle take up in Australia is improving but now the real dilemma is about keeping them on the road.
State governments have begun to push to construct and support the expanding network of electric vehicles; WA and NSW in a more concerted fashion than Victoria and Queensland.
• Western Australia is building one of the world’s longest continuously connected electric highways, installing 98 Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) stations over 6,600kms and costing a total of $43.5 million.
• Queensland has $10 million co-funding commitments for contribution towards building fast charging infrastructure for local government and industry throughout the state.
• Victoria is investing $19 million for the rollout of EVSEs for the Victorian Government’s commercial EV fleets and destination charging throughout regional Victoria.
• NSW has an investment of $149 million in developing charging network across the state, including co-funding private industry development of fast-charging stations.
Clayton Utz recently reviewed the challenges for Australia’s electric vehicle charging infrastructure in a short report which also showed how some overseas countries are dealing with the challenges.
As an example, in the US the government has:
• committed to the goal to build the first US national network of 500,000 EVSEs along the US’s highways by 2030; and
• secured $7.5 billion USD for EV charging infrastructure, of which:
• US$5 billion is to fund the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program for individual states to build out their charging networks; and
• US$2.5 billion is to be offered in competitive grants to support community and corridor charging in underserved and overburdened communities.
The US is probably closer to Australia in terms of the types of problems encountered due to distance, Europe is not.
In the Clayton Utz article the author, Peter Holcombe Henley, said that despite commitments to the roll-out of fast and standard EVSEs across Australia and overseas, there is a growing chorus of discontent from EV owners, who complain of EVSE outages, unavailability and impact on travel plans, which is now receiving media attention.
Flooding, equipment damage or failure, missing parts and delayed maintenance responses are all cited as reasons for outages by EV users. While some of these problems are inevitable, outages for the same issue can last for weeks, if not months, permeating the whole charging network, causing unreliability for consumers.
As consumers, councils, governments and other corporations make the full-time switch from traditional internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) to EVs, the reliability and maintenance of EVSE will become an increasingly critical factor in the pace of EV uptake.
As Clayton Utz is essentially a law firm its focus was more on the legal implications of this new infrastructure.
A key lesson from this emerging issue is to provide greater focus in the procurement process to the operational phase of an EVSE install. However, a proper maintenance and service structure is not always a simple task to achieve.
To do so, parties must navigate a variety of commercial and legal complexities including:
• identifying who takes the long-term risk of EVSE availability: is it a fuel company, an energy provider, a commercial retailer or government agency?
• understanding an asset’s life-cycle management from station design and installation to operations and refresh/ decommissioning.
• ensuring both software and hardware support, particularly for EVSE software licensed and supported by a third-party provider.
• aligning various contractual and financial incentives to achieve a commercial and viable support and maintenance outcome throughout the equipment’s lifecycle; and
• providing an effective, reliable and appealing end-user outcome and experience.
A variety of installation and service models are available in the market currently, which range from:
• a basic EVSE installation service, where customers buy the EVSE outright and may receive ongoing product warranties and basic software support; to
• a full infrastructure-as-a-service subscription model, where the customer has no ownership and simply pays a periodic fee for a guaranteed level of EVSE availability and performance.
Factors to consider in entering such contracts include:
• Is the EVSE providing a standalone service, or is it intended to support other commercial or operational benefits?
• Is there opportunity to levy usage fees on some or all users of the EVSE, and will those fees apply to unknown third parties/the general public, or to employees / contractors for whom other charging frameworks may be available?
• What is the physical layout of the facility, and are existing facility management arrangements sufficient to accommodate longer-term support and maintenance arrangements for EVSE?
• How scalable is the EVSE offering, and how many EVSE installations can be made before the existing electrical infrastructure of a site needs to be enhanced?
Mr Henley said that substantial EVSE installations may require electricity network connections to be upgraded.
For example, as part of the Victorian Government’s Zero Emissions Bus Trial, electrical substation upgrades have been required to provide necessary power requirements to bus depots. As hub or depot EVSE installations increase in other transport sectors (such as hire cars and logistics/ corporate fleets), significant further upgrades are likely to be required.
Since 2021, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has been funding projects to expand the public charging network to address EV charging blackspots, increase public take-up and better understand how the emerging market will function.
Significantly, the projects are also designed to ensure renewable energy is used to power all charging sites and aims to provide insights into the impact of public fast charging on the electricity grid.
The outcomes of ARENA’s analysis will be critical in informing how energy and transport sectors can integrate renewable energy generation into an enhanced grid infrastructure to support decarbonisation goals, and in identifying the legal and commercial risks and opportunities this presents.
Much of the focus in the past was on range phobia but those days are fading into the background as more charging stations open throughout Australia. Our wide brown land will soon be dotted with accessible charging stations.
Australia has more than 3,000 EV public charging points, included in this is an increase of 85 percent in EV fast chargers. As of January 2022, there were 293 fast charging locations (50kW or above) around Australia and 1580 regular charging stations (below 50kW), this is up 29 percent.
According to the Electric Vehicle Council, 700 new fast charging locations will be added across Australia over the next five years. Each location will have multiple charging points to accommodate many vehicles.
There are many EV charging infrastructure providers operating within Australia, including Chargefox, JET Charge, Tritium, EVSE, EVIE,
Schneider Electric, Keba, EVERTY, NHP Electrical Engineering and eGo Dock.
JET Charge will supply the 42 Kempower C-Stations along the new EV highway in Western Australia.
The project is one of the world’s longest single EV infrastructure projects. Once the EV highway is completed, drivers will be able to access 98 EV chargers spread across 49 locations, no more than 200km apart.
These 42 Kempower C-Stations combine a charging power unit and charging satellite into a single unit. Depending on the site they will deliver 150kW of power dynamically to two outputs and can be upgraded up to 200kW with four out-puts.
JET Charge selected the Kempower C-Station for the EV highway project due to its robust design, dynamic power management, high voltage and practical driver interface experience. The modular design architecture easily allows for future expansion.
Following a major funding injection from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), Evie plans on installing 400 new EV chargers across Australia and the company is also partnering with AMP Capital to deliver fast charging sites in shopping centres in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia and New Zealand.
In stage one of Evie’s rollout the network will expand across 16 shopping centres with two charging bays per site, with the ability to scale up in the future as more EVs hit the road.
Evie has already partnered with fast food giant Hungry Jacks and has begun to install fast chargers at its restaurants and it is partnering with Ampol to install ultra-fast charging stations.
The first of these is at Ampol’s Avenel site in Victoria which is branded Caltex, and it will have two available bays for EV owners, with charging to be delivered in around 15 minutes using Evie Networks’ ultra-fast 350-kilowatt Australian-made, Tritium technology.
Avenel is the first of six ultra-fast charging sites and will form part of the ultra-fast charging network connecting the east coast of Australia from Cairns to Adelaide.
Called AmpCharge it will see these chargers also installed at service stations in Alexandria and Northmead in NSW, Altona North in
Victoria, Belmont in WA and Carseldine in Queensland.
Alan Stuart-Grant, Ampol’s Executive General Manager, Strategy and Corporate Development, said the pilot would provide an opportunity to test how EV charging can be integrated into a traditional service station forecourt.
“Ampol’s national network of retail sites, along Australia’s major highways and close to existing high-traffic road infrastructure in metropolitan areas, makes us uniquely placed to play a key role in the delivery of EV charging,” he said.
An agreement was reached between Ampol and ARENA to roll out charging infrastructure to its existing retail network. This is believed to be a first for a local petrol retailer.
In Victoria the state government is investing in new electric vehicle initiatives with $5 million going towards a fast-charging network and $3 million in charging grants.
The Destination Charging Across Victoria Program will mean that drivers in any Victorian town will be one hour away from a
fast-charger, with 141 electric vehicle fastcharging stations being installed across the state. Destinations include shopping complexes, public parks, community centres, libraries, and tourist hot spots such as the Great Ocean Road, Melbourne Zoo, the MCG, and Queen Victoria Market.
The initiatives − part of Victoria’s $100 million Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) Roadmap − will significantly ramp up the state’s charging infrastructure and make it easier for Victorians to purchase an electric vehicle.
ARENA has announced $871,000 in funding to Intellihub for an Australian first deployment of 50 electric vehicle (EV) chargers installed on street side power poles for EV owners without off-street parking across New South Wales.
Intellihub will install EV chargers on power poles across nine local government areas in New South Wales to cater for EV owners who live in apartments, townhouses or units that do not have access to EV charging on-site.
Intellihub’s $2.04 million project is supported by Schneider Electric who will provide the EV charging infrastructure, and EVSE who will
be managing the charging service. Schneider Electric’s EV chargers will allow for convenient top ups, as well as overnight charging.
Origin Energy will supply 100 percent GreenPower for the project, meaning all of the energy required to charge the vehicles will be matched with the equivalent amount of certified renewable energy added to the grid.
The nine local councils taking part in the project include Waverley, Woollahra, Randwick, Lake Macquarie, Ryde, Singleton, Parramatta, Northern Beaches and Inner West local councils.
The trial aims to highlight that there are currently no regulatory barriers to using existing infrastructure that already has power running to it, such as street power poles, and will also help to understand the impact of EV chargers on the electricity network.
If the trial is successful, then Intellihub aims to pursue a wider rollout of chargers to more local councils on a commercial basis.
ARENA CEO Darren Miller said power pole charging provided the perfect solution to increasing public EV chargers.
“Not all electric vehicle owners have the ability to charge their vehicle at home, which is why we’re excited to partner with Intellihub on this trial that utilises street side power poles, providing a great opportunity to pair with EV charging.
“We look forward to seeing the results of the trial from Intellihub and hope to see it rolled out right across Australia.” Mr Miller said.
Intellihub CEO Wes Ballantine said: “It’s expected that as many as 10 percent of new car sales in Australia will be electric vehicles by 2025. That equates to an extra 120,000 new EVs on our local streets each year. It’s likely that many of these car owners may be unable to charge their EVs from home.
“Power poles line most of our public streets and that presents an opportunity for the EV charging market. They’re an accessible, safe, and practical option for EV charging.”
A free app for iOS, Android and the internet called PlugShare allows users to find charging stations in Australia and worldwide. There are around 300,000 monthly active users who plan their trips finding charging stations on the way and pay directly for their charging use through the platform.
It is expected that soon Google Maps in Australia will roll out its EV charging station finder that has been released in the UK and the US making it even easier to get plugged in.
One of the world’s largest renewable hydrogen plants is due to be built in the Pilbara, after the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) conditionally approved $47.5 million towards ENGIE’s renewable hydrogen and ammonia project near Karratha in Western Australia.
The $87 million Yuri project includes a 10 megawatt (MW) electrolyser to produce renewable hydrogen, 18 MW solar PV system to power the electrolyser and an 8 MW/5 MWh lithium-ion battery for firming, it will supply hydrogen and electricity to Yara Pilbara Fertilisers at its neighbouring liquid ammonia facility. Once completed, the project will be Australia’s largest electrolyser, capable of producing up to 640 tonnes of renewable hydrogen per year.
The project is supported by the Australian Government with a $47.5 million grant. The project is also receiving $2 million funding from the Renewable Hydrogen Fund as part of the Western Australian Government’s Renewable Hydrogen Strategy.
The project is expected to commence
Manufacturers in the Northern Territory will get access to a multi-milliondollar advanced manufacturing facility housing robotic and bespoke automation products and services. This will support the implementation of technology such as robotic welders, automated pick and pack systems and product inspection services.
The project will see Diverseco and Charles Darwin University (CDU) co-develop four new robotic and automation micro credential qualifications tailored to the region, and boost local skills and knowledge in advanced processes and machinery for the industry.
“This exciting collaboration will support the advancement of the NT’s manufacturing industry by leveraging its manufacturing capabilities in the defence, transport, logistics, agriculture, mining and waste industries,” Minister for Advanced Manufacturing Nicole Manison said. “Growing the Territory’s advanced manufacturing industry is a key part of our strategy to grow the economy to 40 billion by 2030 and create more jobs.”
construction in October and be completed by early 2024.
ENGIE Renewables Australia Pty Ltd (ENGIE) has formed a subsidiary called Yuri to develop the project. Mitsui & Co Ltd (Mitsui) has agreed to acquire a 28 percent stake in the Yuri subsidiary subject to satisfaction of certain conditions under its investment agreement. ENGIE and Mitsui intend to operate the Yuri project through this joint venture company.
Electrolysers can utilise renewable electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The renewable hydrogen produced can be used as a feedstock for chemicals such as ammonia, combusted for heat or electricity generation, or used as a zero emissions transport fuel.
In December 2020, the Office of the NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer published the Australian Semiconductor Sector Study that examined Australia’s semiconductor sector’s capabilities, needs and opportunities.
The primary objective was to determine if, where and how NSW and Australia could increase participation in the global semiconductor value chain.
A primary recommendation of the Australian Semiconductor Sector Study was that a Semiconductor Sector Service Bureau (S3B) be established.
S3B will enhance the capability, workforce, market connectedness and competitiveness of NSW and Australia’s semiconductor sector, as well as addressing market frictions and failures that curtail NSW and Australia’s ability to participate in global semiconductor markets.
S3B will be primarily funded by the NSW Government and in an address to the International Conference on the Physics of Semiconductors 2022 it was announced that the S3B would be led by a consortium comprised of leading experts from the University of Sydney, UNSW Sydney, Macquarie University, CSIRO and the Australian National Fabrication Facility.
S3B will help local manufacturers play a role in global supply chains, creating new jobs and new revenue streams. It will help local manufacturers forge connections in the booming global semiconductor market, which is forecast to be worth $1.46 trillion by 2030.
The Hydrogen Knowledge Centre, part of CSIRO’s Hydrogen Industry Mission, has been designed to foster collaboration between the growing Australian hydrogen industry, government and research and development (R&D) ecosystems, by providing regularly updated information on policies, projects, research and resources.
Australian Manufacturing Week was held over four days in Sydney’s International Convention Centre with 170 exhibitors across a range of sectors who presented their latest technology and services to attendees from every state across Australia and all around the world.
In fact, more than 2000 attendees came from Australia, with 1649 CEOS, general managers or owners.
The shift toward a clean energy economy has lithium classed as a critical metal and Australia is becoming a manufacturing hub for lithium-ion batteries as it is the largest producer of lithium, producing around half the world’s lithium as hard rock lithium concentrate.
In 2021, Western Australian mines produced about half the world’s lithium, at an estimate of 55,000 metric tons. The last 12 months have seen an increase in lithium battery manufacturing in Australia.
In 2021, Energy Renaissance based in the Hunter Region in NSW, became Australia’s pilot lithium-ion battery production facility.
Cathode Precursor Pilot Plant
CSIRO Chief Executive Dr Larry Marshall said Australia is well placed to use hydrogen to create billions of dollars of GDP growth through long-lasting jobs, exports and domestic use, while helping drive down emissions.
“CSIRO began research into hydrogen fuel to help catalyse a new industry in Australia that would fill the economic gap being created by the transition away from fossil fuels. Australia is now realising the potential for hydrogen to reduce its emissions and create new economic wealth, thanks to early investment in research,” Dr Marshall said.
“With a strong coalition of partners from government, research and industry, we launched our Hydrogen Industry Mission last year – the first of our missions.
“We’re seeing the hydrogen industry in Australia go from strength to strength –Australian hydrogen production for export and domestic use could generate significant economic growth while helping drive down emissions.”
“The Hydrogen Knowledge Centre will be a central point of critical information for hydrogen R&D in Australia. It will help avoid duplication, and will foster the Team Australia approach needed for Australia to take a world-leading role in developing and exporting hydrogen.”
Across the Hydrogen Knowledge Centre, users can access a broad range of information, from interactive modelling tools forecasting the future cost of hydrogen, based on technology deployment and energy use, through to educational
resources explaining the basics of hydrogen and its use in the energy mix.
A new module – HyLearning is now accessible in addition to two existing modules, HyResource and HyResearch.
A new Industry Map, also part of the knowledge centre, will highlight all of the current projects across Australia, and allow users to filter searches by project proponents, end-use and development status.
The Knowledge Centre will also feature resources developed by partners and collaborators in the Australian hydrogen industry.
CSIRO Hydrogen Industry Mission spokesperson, Dr Vicky Au, said the new map showed 85 current hydrogen projects being driven by industry across Australia.
“These resources are being developed with state and federal governments, industry and R&D partners to capture and promote hydrogen projects and industry developments across Australia,” Dr Au said.
“The delivery of the knowledge centre is an important milestone for our Hydrogen Industry Mission because it helps connects the dots for all the players involved across the sector.
According to Australian government estimates, Australian hydrogen production for export and domestic use could generate more than $50 billion in additional GDP by 2050.
More information is available at www.research.csiro.au/hydrogenknowledge
The Future Battery Industries Cooperative Research Centre (FBICRC) has launched its flagship project in Western Australia. The Cathode Precursor Production Pilot Plant is backed by 19 industry, research and Government participants, representing a major step in Australia’s journey to expand its presence throughout the global battery value chain. The first of its kind in Australia, the plant will establish the technology and capabilities for Australia to design and build cathode precursor manufacturing facilities on a commercial and industrial scale.
Scotland and Australia agree to help each other build ships
Scottish and Australian researchers have struck a new agreement to strengthen collaboration on modern manufacturing methods that could be adapted to shipbuilding and marine operations underway in both hemispheres.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow and Flinders University in Adelaide and BAE Systems is key to the establishment of the Advanced Manufacturing Research Exchange to foster closer working relationships and facilitate the development of international best practice for shipbuilding manufacturing methods and processes. This includes exploring innovative applications of advanced manufacturing, digital tools and Industry 4.0 in shipbuilding, spanning automation and robotics, simulation and modelling, materials and light weighting, as well as welding and joining technologies.
An exchange of expertise and collaboration at the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland and the Factory of the Future at the Tonsley Innovation District in Adelaide will help drive the growth of advanced manufacturing for shipbuilding in the UK and SA, by strengthening prospects for the adoption of groundbreaking manufacturing technologies and processes.
Nissan Australia has announced that it has given the green light for Premcar to develop and produce the newest model to join its successful Nissan Warrior program: the Patrol Warrior.
Wheel, tyre and suspension enhancements are set to feature in the Patrol Warrior’s forthcoming Australian engineering program, giving it even greater ground clearance, a wider stance and enhanced ride and handling.
These enhancements, along with the Patrol’s 298kW/560 Nm 5.6-litre directinjection V8 engine, will create the ultimate Warrior.
Australia’s peak National, State and Territory automotive representative organisations reached a historic agreement at an industry summit on critical positions and pathways to achieve the considered and practical transition and electrification of the national motor vehicle fleet.
The Patrol Warrior program is expected to take around 12 months to complete before production commences at Premcar’s Epping (Victoria) manufacturing facility.
The Patrol is the latest Nissan nameplate to join the company’s Warrior model series, a Nissan-specific OEM-level new-vehicle enhancement program produced and delivered by Premcar.
It involves creating market-specific versions of new-model Nissan vehicles using extensive automotive design and engineering development, which requires gruelling testing programs for prototype vehicles and components, government mandated new-vehicle certification, and secondary vehicle manufacturing, all of it done by Premcar in Australia.
This latest new-vehicle enhancement program with Nissan is a significant force behind Premcar’s ongoing expansionrelated investments in personnel, manufacturing facilities and production technologies.
Representing thousands of businesses that make, sell, distribute, provide novated leasing, service, repair, supply aftermarket parts, components, and accessories, dismantle, recycle, and train tens of thousands of automotive professionals, the peak organisations developed and agreed to more than 25 principles including:
• Embracing the electrification of the Australian motor vehicle fleet
• Mandating CO2 targets, not Electric Vehicles (EV) targets.
• Supporting the Federal Government in developing a National Zero and Low Emission Vehicle (ZLEV) Electrification Transition Strategy
• Considering the entire registered vehicle fleet and the needs and requirements of Australians who own and operate them
• Maintaining the safety, security, service, repair, and efficiency of the legacy Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) fleet
• Opposing the introduction of bans that
limit consumer choice and remove options for meeting car owners’ needs and Australia’s emission reduction targets
• Ensuring Government targets and milestones are ideally Federally led (or at least nationally consistent), are realistic, supported by facts and sound qualitative data, and applied to an Australian context.
The organisations welcomed and congratulated the Albanese Labor Government for its decisive action in fulfilling its Fringe Benefits Tax exemption for Electric Vehicles promise.
Automotive organisation leaders shared and discussed comprehensive global and domestic data analysis on the future production and delivery of ZLEVs past 2030 (particularly to the Australian market); impacts and use of targets, milestones, incentives, subsidies, and penalties; jobs and skills; tariffs and taxation; fuel standards and security; legacy fleet management and maintenance; and awareness and education.
It was reported in the Australian Financial Review that Energy Minister Chris Bowen said he wanted to see an EV manufacturing sector set up in Australia, as the energy crisis accelerates the country’s move to renewable power and transport.
Mr Bowen was attending a global clean energy forum in Pittsburgh where he roadtested an electric Ford FT150.
With Australian electric car sales at only two percent and Labor’s target for 50 percent of all new cars sales by 2030 to be electric, Mr Bowen said he wanted to see EV manufacturing take off in Australia with government help.
“We can make electric vehicles in Australia.
Not only do I think that, so do the electric vehicle manufacturers,” Mr Bowen told The Australian Financial Review.
“There’s work to do to make that more viable in Australia, but the economics of an electric vehicle are a lot different to the economics of making internal combustion engine (cars).”
At Ford’s Proving Ground in Australia, Ray, Rosie and Roberto are integral members of Ford’s safety team, helping to develop the very latest in crash protection features and advanced driver assist systems.
Deployed to work on Next-Generation Ranger and Everest, they’re placed in harm’s way every single day, can work 24/7 if required, and only take short breaks to recharge. They don’t even need a lunch break.
This cutting-edge robotic trio are tasked with helping Ford test driver assist systems, like Enhanced Pre-Collision Assist1 with Enhanced Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB)1, LaneKeeping System with road edge detection1, Evasive Steer Assist1, Reverse Brake Assist1 and more.
Each robot plays a crucial part in driver assist technology testing; Rosie is a Guided Soft Target (GST) vehicle, Ray is a Vulnerable Road User (VRU), and Roberto is an in-car driving robot.
The robots ensure Next-Gen Ranger and Everest’s Advanced Driver Assist Systems (ADAS)1 can handle a multitude of scenarios involving other road users, including vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists.
Ford ADAS engineers used to rely on towed soft targets to test and tune systems like Enhanced Pre-Collision Assist1 with Enhanced Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB)1 but driver error and even weather conditions could cause inconsistencies in tests and stretch out testing programs.
Ford’s three robots ensure a broader range of DAT tests can be replicated with perfect precision at day or night.
Rosie and Ray robots have the ability to be precisely synchronised with a test vehicle, whether it’s being operated by a robot driver (Roberto) or a human, allowing for complex ADAS1 scenarios to be created.
When fitted with a full-sized soft target, Rosie (the GST robot) carries the same radar signature as a real car.
This allows the ADAS to perform a variety of real-world tests to ensure systems like Enhanced Pre-Collision Assist1 with Enhanced Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB)1 work correctly.
To ensure accurate coordination with Rosie and Ray, Ford’s in-car driving robot Roberto, equipped with sophisticated motion control technologies, is fitted to the test vehicle to control the steering, brakes, and accelerator.
For additional safety on-site, an engineer remains in the driver’s seat to take control of the test vehicle if needed, while another engineer keeps a watchful eye on either Ray or Rosie and can take manual control if required.
Similarly, Ray, the Vulnerable Road User with Launch Pad, allows the team to test for a variety of pedestrian, children and cyclist scenarios at both day and night.
These robots are the same as those used by colleagues in other markets, which means that Ford can share data, scenarios and perform tests in Australia to support teams in Europe and America to ensure driver assist technologies meet Ford’s test criteria but also global NCAP protocols.
Electric truck manufacturer SEA Electric has extended its commitment to the Australian market by doubling the size of its local assembly facility for zeroemission trucks in the Melbourne suburb of Dandenong.
Its present plant now covers 8,000m2 on a total site of 15,000m2, giving SEA Electric the capacity to produce eight trucks per day, or up to 2,080 units per annum.
Founded in Australia in 2012, SEA Electric released its first electric commercial products in 2017, while last year it launched its new range of medium and heavy-duty electric cab chassis models, distributed and supported by an extensive dealership network.
“Australia doesn’t need to search the world to attract EV manufacturers – SEA Electric is proud to be a global leader in commercial eMobility technology, homegrown here in Victoria,” said Tony Fairweather, SEA Electric Founder and CEO.
Following the announcement of a strategic partnership with Keolis Downer, Australia’s largest private provider of public transport, BusTech Group will manufacture 16 new electric buses for operation on Queensland roads. The $15.6 million deal with Keolis Downer will also create the state’s first 100 percent electric bus depot in North Lakes at the home of Hornibrook Bus Lines.
Following their recent partnership, Volgren and Wrightbus will build and deliver two hydrogen powered fuel cell buses to Transdev’s Capalaba depot in Brisbane.
The Queensland Deputy Premier Dr Steven Miles announced a $1.5 million commitment for the buses under the State Government’s Hydrogen Industry Development Fund. Transdev will match the $1.5m investment to purchase the two hydrogen fuel cell buses to service the eastern suburbs of Brisbane.
Yuri Tessari, Volgren’s Chief Commercial Officer, said the buses would be one of the first hydrogen bus bodies in Australia to be built locally, and the first to be powered using European chassis technology.
A new poll from the Climate Council of more than 2,000 Australians says that eight out of 10 people believe governments must invest more in public transport, particularly sustainable options. Seven in 10 are keen to see Australia’s entire bus fleet electrified and run on renewable energy as soon as possible.
In the future, SEA Electric will utilise the batteries within vehicle-to-grid (V2G) functional trucks on-site, where the trucks could provide power grid stability by feeding energy back at times of peak demand or grid disruption.
The local range of SEA Electric badged trucks, the SEA 300 EV and the SEA 500 EV, are available in a range of models from 4.5t GVM vehicles capable of being driven on a car licence, through to 22.5t three-axle rigid trucks.
SEA Electric and leading civil construction firm Demsey Wood have introduced New Zealand’s first electric traffic safety vehicle, complete with a truck-mounted attenuator.
Joining Dempsey Wood’s Temporary Traffic Management Division, the SEA Isuzu FSD EV entitled “BIG EV”, is specified with a SEADrive 120-25 power-system as assembled by Blackwells Isuzu in Christchurch, with assistance provided by SEA Electric’s New Zealand Aftersales team.
Funding assistance for the project came from New Zealand’s Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority.
From SEA Electric’s perspective, the build is yet another example of the adaptability of the SEA-Drive power-system across a broad array of final application possibilities.
“It was no small task for Dempsey Wood to take on industry leadership with the build on
this large attenuated truck,” said Stephen Fairweather, General Manager, SEA Electric (NZ).
“It required foresight to consider the total cost of ownership benefits of converting to EV, as well as understanding the many advantages that this truck brings to their business.
“This build shows what is possible in the construction space, both here in New Zealand, and across the world.”
Elsewhere in New Zealand, SEA Electric was showcased at the New Zealand Electro Mobility Summit from August 11-12, with a SEA 300-85 EV on display, with Stephen Fairweather featuring on the event’s summit panel.
Volta Trucks has confirmed that the first Volta Zero vehicle has been completed at the company’s contract manufacturing facility in Steyr, Austria.
The UD Trucks Gemba Challenge kicked off as a part of UD’s global aftermarket competition.
Volta Trucks’ contract manufacturing facility is run by Steyr Automotive, formerly MAN Truck and Bus Austria. Steyr Automotive was appointed in August 2021 following an extensive tender and based on their long experience of commercial vehicle manufacturing, existing infrastructure, and consequent speed to market. Steyr Automotive offers Volta Trucks more than 100 years of manufacturing experience building large commercial vehicles.
Steyr Automotive has reserved a capacity of 14,000 vehicles per year for Volta Trucks from their total available production. Over time, manufacturing the Volta Zero will create 510 jobs, plus 180 jobs in the building of the cargo boxes.
The landmark vehicle, the first of a series of second-generation ‘Production Verification’ prototypes, will form part of a Pilot Fleet of trucks. These will be loaned to customers for extended periods in late 2022 and early 2023 to allow fleet operators to understand how the first purpose-built full-electric medium duty commercial vehicle will integrate into
Foton Mobility and Transit Systems have two hydrogen buses in Australia. The hydrogen buses are equipped with the fuel cell system developed by SinoHytec using the Toyota fuel cell.
The hydrogen fuel cell buses have been added to Transit Systems growing green fleet of sustainable transport solutions, which now includes 60 electric buses and two hydrogen buses.
Neil Wang, CEO, Foton Mobility Australia said the hydrogen buses are in their infancy in Australia, but they have great potential.
their operations. To meet these deadlines
Volta Trucks has confirmed that production of customer specification vehicles is on track.
The 16-tonne Volta Zero has now completed a rigorous program of hot weather testing.
Taking place over six weeks at the purposebuilt Nardo Technical Centre in Southern Italy, the hot weather testing program was designed to ensure that the Volta Zero will deliver high levels of reliability and durability when series production of customer specification vehicles starts early next year.
The Vehicle Development team at Volta Trucks completed more than 2,500km of customer-focused driving cycles at motorway, town and city speeds. Undertaken in temperatures of up to 39 degrees Celsius during the day and 28 degrees Celsius at night, the air conditioning system and thermal management of the battery and powertrain of the Volta Zero have been fully evaluated and pushed to the extremes to ensure optimum operational reliability.
Gemba loosely translates to “the place where value is created.” For UD customers it reflects the hard work that goes on behind the scenes to create a strong dependable ownership experience and is the cornerstone on which the UD brand is built.
The Gemba Challenge pits service and aftermarket teams against technical challenges in the workshop. The competition culminates in a global final where aftermarkets teams from around the globe face off over workshop tasks.
Australia is fielding 46 teams in this year’s competition with a total of 164 competitors, the second round of the competition closed on August 2. The teams are vying for a guaranteed place in the global final to be held in Ageo, Japan in late October.
“Given our vast land and need for immediate carbon emission reduction in the transport area, hydrogen fuel cell buses are an important part of the mass transport landscape.
“Our bus operator clients are ready to make the leap to hydrogen and have scope to
include them in their fleet. Transit Systems is the first client to take on the Zero Emissions challenge in battery electric buses – and now in hydrogen city buses.”
Foton Mobility Australia is the sole Australian distributor.
Victorian manufacturers and businesses will benefit from new funding which will assist them to compete for lucrative defence contracts.
Minister for Industry Support and Recovery Ben Carroll announced that $10 million from the Andrews Labor Government’s Victorian Land Systems Fund will be used to support local businesses to join Hanwha Defense Australia’s supply chain to deliver the $1 billion LAND 8116 Self Propelled Howitzer program.
The funding, which will be distributed through a targeted investment stream and the Supply Chain Uplift Program, will maximise the value of Hanwha’s defence contracts to the state.
The Supply Chain Uplift Program provides grants of up to $100,000 for Victorian small to medium-sized businesses to improve their capability through activities like upgrading business systems and facilities, gaining international accreditations and certifications, or undertaking research and product development.
Hanwha was the successful bidder for LAND 8116 and is one of two final bidders for the multibillion-dollar LAND 400 Phase 3 Infantry Fighting Vehicle program being selected by the Commonwealth Government.
Hanwha is also establishing a $170 million Armoured Vehicle Centre of Excellence at the Avalon Airport Industrial Precinct with support from the Government, further boosting the state’s defence capabilities and creating more than 300 highly skilled local jobs in design, engineering and advanced manufacturing.
More than 6,300 businesses provide services and manufacturing in Victoria’s defence sector, including equipment across military vehicle production, maritime design, aerospace components and cyber security.
The sector contributes $8.4 billion to the Victorian economy each year and supports around 24,300 jobs across the defence industry.
Applications for the Supply Chain Uplift Program opened in mid-September 2022.
Northrop Grumman Corporation has unveiled Australia’s first MQ-4C Triton autonomous aircraft during a ceremony at its high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) aircraft production site in California.
The event, attended by Australian, US government and defence officials, highlights the continued progress of the MQ-4C Triton program for both the Royal Australian Air Force and US Navy.
“Today marks a significant milestone for Australia and the MQ-4C Triton program,” said Tom Jones, corporate vice president and president, Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems. “As we get ready for final system integration and flight test, we are one step closer to delivering this extraordinary maritime awareness capability to Australia.”
Australia is a cooperative program partner in the Triton program and was critical in helping
shape the requirements for the system. As partners, US and Australian defence forces will be able to share data collected by their respective Tritons, a critical ability in one of the world’s most strategically important regions.
“Triton will provide the Royal Australian Air Force with an unprecedented capability to monitor and protect our maritime approaches” said Air Marshal Robert Chipman, Chief of the Royal Australian Air Force. “Triton will work alongside the P-8A Poseidon and this unmanned aircraft system will allow us to cover significant areas, at longer ranges and has the ability to stay airborne longer than a traditional aircraft.”
Raytheon Missiles & Defense, in partnership with Northrop Grumman, has been selected to develop the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM) for the US Air Force (USAF).
HACM is a first-of-its-kind weapon developed in conjunction with the Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment (SCIFiRE), a US and Australia project arrangement.
Under this contract, the Raytheon Missiles & Defense and Northrop Grumman team will deliver operationally ready missiles to the USAF.
The Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile is an airbreathing, scramjet powered munition.
Scramjet engines use high vehicle speed to forcibly compress incoming air before combustion, which enables sustained flight
at hypersonic speeds – Mach 5 or greater. By traveling at these speeds, hypersonic weapons, like HACM, are able to reach their targets more quickly than similar traditional missiles, allowing them to potentially evade defensive systems.
Raytheon Technologies and Northrop Grumman have been working together since 2019 to develop, produce and integrate Northrop Grumman’s scramjet engines onto Raytheon’s air-breathing hypersonic weapons. Their combined efforts enable both companies to produce air-breathing hypersonic weapons, the next generation of tactical missile systems.
Showcasing the latest in aviation, aerospace, defence and space technologies The Avalon Australian International Airshow and Aerospace & Defence Exposition is one of the Indo Pacific’s most prestigious events and the most comprehensive aviation, aerospace and defence exposition in the southern hemisphere.
ASDAM has confirmed the acquisitions of TAE Aerospace and RUAG Australia, further enlarging the ASDAM Group which already includes Marand and Levett.
Under the agreement, the chief executive officer of TAE, Andrew Sanderson, will be appointed CEO of ASDAM and join the board.
Meanwhile, Rohan Stocker is expected to continue as CEO of Marand and Levett and serve as an executive director on the ASDAM board.
Away from the public flying displays, Avalon’s international industry exhibition, conference program, innovation awards, STEM and Careers and Skills programs enable critical engagement and promotion for industry.
The event will run from 28 February until 5 March 2023 with the first three days closed to the public until 3 March.
The 2019 event, which was the last held, attracted participants from 37 countries, including:
• 698 participating companies
• 161 official industry and government delegations
• 38,952 attendances across three dedicated industry days.
The show is a platform for industry at all levels to promote to customers, partners and suppliers, providing unrivalled access to the region’s aviation, aerospace, defence and space community.
With a range of indoor and outdoor display options, air display flights and promotional opportunities, the exposition incorporates an industry exhibition to feature Australian and international companies, with formal business
to business and business to government networking programs.
Avalon hosts multiple concurrent conferences and expo streams, across the spectrum of Defence, Airlines, Business and General Aviation, Sport and Recreational Aviation, Airports, MRO, Space, Unmanned Systems, Air Safety and Ground Equipment.
The event is collaboratively conducted on a well-established foundation of longstanding relationships with a wide range of strategic stakeholders, including:
• The Royal Australian Air Force
• The Australian Army and the Royal Australian Navy
• State and Federal Governments
• Defence Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group (CASG)
• Defence Science and Technology Group (DST)
• Australian Trade Commission (Austrade)
• Team Defence Australia
• National aviation, aerospace, maritime and defence industries and industry associations.
ASDAM is Australia’s largest supplier to the F-35 program. Its existing customers include Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Honeywell, and Pratt & Whitney.
Operating from 20 locations in Australia and the United States, ASDAM has approximately 1,000 employees.
“Marand, Levett, TAE and RUAG Australia are all outstanding businesses in their own right. Their combination within ASDAM creates a leading Australian engineering and sustainment partner across aerospace and defence programs,” Steve Sargent, chairman of ASDAM, said.
ASDAM is a leading sovereign defence, advanced manufacturing and sustainment company. It provides end-to-end capability across design, engineering, manufacturing, assembly and sustainment.
ASDAM now includes Marand, TAE Aerospace, RUAG Australia and Levett Engineering and services a number of defence and non-defence programs, and has long term relationships with governments, defence prime contractors and other industrial customers.
ASDAM is Australia’s largest supplier to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program.
Dv Multimatic Motorsports has completed an initial aerodynamic evaluation test at Catesby Tunnel, a newly-opened aerodynamic testing facility owned by ARP (Aero Research Partners). It is the first facility of its kind in the UK and only the second in the world.
In order to perform a full correlation check, the team ran its Mazda DPi race car through the tunnel at speeds of up to 120mph, comparing the results to a comprehensive set of data previously gathered from 40 percent scale and full-size wind tunnel testing, as well as Computational Fluid Dynamics development and five years of competition in IMSA’s top level championship. Initial results indicate a high level of correlation to that existing performance data.
The Catesby facility began its life as a dual rail Victorian railway tunnel, with the first steam locomotives running through it in July 1898. “Compared to conventional wind tunnels, this is better because it’s real,” said Multimatic Motorsports boss, Larry Holt, explains.
“In a moving ground plane wind tunnel, the car is stationary and the wind is blown over it by a massive fan and flow conditioning
set-up, and a belt is arranged to move under the car at a coordinated speed. It’s a very sophisticated configuration but the car is still stationary and that constitutes the not totally real piece. What Catesby facilitates is the measurement of the aerodynamic performance of a vehicle actually moving through the real world.
“The problem with a car moving through the real world is that it is subjected to influences like gusting wind, rain and other changing environmental conditions that effect air density; all of the variables that come with testing in the real world.
“Catesby provides the real world without the weather. You have a moving car, a real road surface, a controlled environment and we can run 24 hours a day, whatever the season. It is a perfect 2.7kms of controlled atmosphere. That’s the kind of consistency you need when you are chasing incremental gains.”
Located just a few miles from Daventry in rural Northamptonshire, Catesby Tunnel, is situated in the UK’s Motorsport Valley and just a short drive from Multimatic Motorsports’ UK headquarters in Brackley. Holt understood the advantage of the tunnel before it was completed and has locked down a significant amount of Catesby’s available tunnel time for development of future race, road and the incredible track-day cars created by Multimatic Special Vehicle Operations.
Toyota plans to invest US$7.7 billion dollars to produce more batteries for electric cars in Japan and the United States. With this investment, Toyota will increase its battery production to 40 gigawatt hours in the two countries, starting from 2024.
Over the past few months, Toyota has been working hard to electrify its cars. Last December, the group said that all of its new vehicle sales in Western Europe would be zero-emission models by 2035. It comes as the company’s former research and development 3.6-hectare site opposite Monash University’s Clayton campus was sold back to the university for $66 million. The land holding was closed in 2016 when Toyota made the decision to stop local manufacturing in Australia.
“Toyota intends to continue its efforts to build a supply system that can steadily meet the growing demand for BEVs in various regions, including the supply of automotive batteries from its partners,” the company said in a statement.
The move will help ensure crucial supply as the company continues the roll out of its electric-only models in global markets – the dedicated electric vehicle BZ4X SUV is now on sale overseas and expected to be available in Australia in 2023.
Minister for infrastructure Catherine King said a local Tesla manufacturing plant would be “absolutely” welcome in Australia when releasing a consultation paper for a new national electric vehicle (EV) strategy.
The consultation paper seeks views on proposed goals, objectives and actions for the National Electric Vehicle Strategy, to ensure Australians can access the best transport technologies and help meet emission reduction targets.
Minister King’s statement indicates the Federal Government’s enthusiasm to ramp up local car manufacturing, including manufacturing EVs, and reduce emissions in Australia.
The paper stated, “Australians are being sold some of the highest emitting cars in the world.
On average, new passenger vehicles in Australia have around 20 percent higher emissions than the United States, and around 40 percent higher emissions than in Europe. We need to catch up to the rest of the world when it comes to transport emissions.”
The paper also notes ramping up local manufacturing as a key goal; other goals include making EVs more affordable, expanding EV uptake and choice, reducing emissions, and saving Australians money on fuel.
Ms King’s comments come as Robyn Denholm, Tesla board chair, spoke about reviving Australia’s auto industry by manufacturing EVs.
“Australia is in a unique position because we have the minerals here that other countries
don’t have,” Denholm said to the National Press Club in Canberra recently.
“The supply chains for the electric vehicle and the lithium-ion storage batteries that are key for renewable energy are being formed now. “I do think the private sector and government need to work together. I don’t think that incentives are required because most business people will see the exponential growth that’s going to happen over the next period of time in those minerals.”
At the unveiling of the consultation paper, minister for energy Chris Bowen commented on realistic expectations of manufacturing EVs in Australia.
“The economics of electric vehicle manufacturing are very different to traditional internal combustion engines, whether it’s full vehicles or those components of vehicles along the way,” Mr Bowen said.
“And as I said at the outset, the more we have an electric vehicle market in Australia, the more that will support electric vehicle components and indeed, potentially more in due course – manufacturing.”
This 1932-established college is one of the best institutes for a degree in automotive engineering.
Founded in 1885, Georgia Institute of Technology, or simply Georgia Tech, is among the top 5 engineering schools in the US.
As one of the most consistently ranked places for engineering and computer science programs, Kettering boasts the #1 college by salary potential in Michigan.
Kettering University’s Automotive Engineering Design under the Department of Mechanical Engineering is one of the institute’s most exciting programs for budding automotive engineers.
Aside from courses in chassis/engine design, automobile performance, and transmission design, you also get exclusive access to facilities and labels like:
• e-Design/e-Manufacturing Studio
• Energy Systems Lab
• Crash Safety Center
• Advanced Engine Research Lab
• DENSO International Dynamic Systems Design Studio
• The Center for Fuel Cell Systems and Powertrain.
Heart Aerospace is investing heavily in the production of battery-driven planes in Gothenburg, Germany and expects to grow the company to 500 people within three years.
Together with airport owner Castellum, it is investing in a new campus for the electric aircraft industry at Säve airport.
Heart Aerospace currently has 130 employees from 23 different countries, who are developing the firm’s first model, a battery driven regional plane for up to 30 passengers, ES-30.
Heart Aerospace’s new facility at Säve airport, which will be called “Northern Runway”, includes new headquarters, a research and development centre, a prototype hangar, a test-flight hangar, as well as a final assembly hall. Säve has no commercial flight traffic, which gives the company good access to its own runway.
The venture is perhaps the most exciting the European aviation industry has seen in decades with 21 established airlines, airport owners and leasing companies from around
the world part of a board advising Heart Aerospace on the design of its concept. Air Canada and Swedish Saab announced that they are joining as shareholders.
With a mission to advance the development and adoption of technologies that improve Australia’s transport systems, through high impact R&D collaborations, we have focused on applied R&D that delivers implementable output. We congratulate our partners for initiating over 60 applied research projects last financial year. However, even with this success, we ask ourselves, ‘Could we do more?’
We are partnering with many companies and most state governments. Most of their initiatives are directed, appropriately, to their own objectives, but that leaves open the possibility in the future to combine initiatives into programs of national improvement. We see opportunities for national cohesion in key project areas. These could be achieved by extending existing work from a local focus to a national approach.
In short, we ask: how can we upscale innovation to deliver national as well as local benefit?
Connected and automated vehicles (CAV) present an immediate opportunity for such upscaling. We are celebrating the completion of Queensland Department of Transport and Main Road’s (TMR) Cooperative and Automated Vehicle Initiative (CAVI) which “… test[ed] cooperative and automated vehicle technologies that make roads safer and contributing towards our vision of zero road deaths and serious injuries on the state’s roads.”
The success of this project now challenges us to consider how national adoption of this accident-reducing technology could proceed.
iMOVE was an active supporter of the world-leading Ipswich Connected Vehicle Pilot, which was a core component of CAVI.
The iMOVE Co-operative Research Centre is now halfway through its ten-year term. The first five years have been characterised by strengthening interest from the transport sector in emerging technologies and the contribution they could make to Australia’s transport ecosystem.
In this project 350 participants had their cars retrofitted with connected vehicle technology, enabling the cars to communicate with roadside infrastructure and transport management systems.
Communication scenarios in the trial included Turning Warning for Vulnerable Road Users, Advanced Red Light Warning, Road Works Warning, Road Hazard Warning, In-Vehicle Speed advice, and more. Over the 12 months of the trial the participants undertook 2.7 million kilometres of connected driving, resulting in more than 49,000 driving hours, and 95,000 messages provided via the in-vehicle system.
The impressive finding was that Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS), as deployed in Ipswich, have the potential to reduce crashes by up to 20%. That figure alone presents a compelling case for further exploitation of this technology, and an extension to roads and intersections across the country. This is particularly so in light of the national road toll which has continued at 1100-1200 deaths per year for the last decade.
“Australia needs to be bold and show leadership. We are morally obliged to make sound investments that can address the road safety pandemic, and without leadership, the market will not respond,” said Miranda Blogg, Director of CAVI.
The good news is that work is underway in some other states to learn from the Queensland experience, but the bad news is that that current endeavours are fragmented and small scale.
“Trials in other jurisdictions (such as NSW) were underway, so our team consulted with them to share their learnings (and ours). This enabled us to structure our efforts in a meaningful way to achieve the outcomes we intended,” said Blogg.
Two states communicating is a good start, but upscaling to all Australian states and territories will be necessary to deliver the full national benefit.
We already know that upscaling C-ITS will require significant resources and a broad range of expertise. The CAVI program included a number of individual but co-dependent projects addressing particular areas such as security, ‘high definition’ mapping and assessing current infrastructure for suitability for CAVs. Some of this expertise is in very short supply in Australia, and so it is incumbent on us to find a way by which those scarce resources can be deployed for the national benefit beyond the limits of the Ipswich trial.
C-ITS is but one of many technologies that are being trialled across the transport system. Australia is large in kilometres but small in population so, to derive full benefit from all the research and experimentation underway we need to intensify our collaboration.
And collaboration is something we will most definitely be encouraging at our upcoming iMOVE Conference 2022: Collaborating our way to a sustainable transport future, taking place in Sydney on 14 and 15 November 2022. We hope you can join us as we work together to create a better transport system.
Over the three days of this noteworthy conference attendees from 12 different countries shared the trends, the possibilities, the safety, the governance and a global view of mobility.
Photos: Kun Zuo RMIT, Mandy Parry-JonesSharing was done in so many different ways both formal and informal; through keynote speakers, through conference papers, through panel events, through sponsors and their displays, and while mixing over lunches and dinners.
Overall, the conference featured four keynote speakers, three panels, 69 presentations of which 55 were full papers and nine were abstracts, five were papers delivered by students. There were 12 countries represented and more than 180 participants.
Day one and the conference was officially opened by Adrian Feeney, followed by Murli Iyer and Dr Raman Venkatesh Chief Operation Officer of SAE International. For more than 116 years the SAE has worked to revolutionize transportation and mobility with events such as these.
“The theme of this year’s conference is Harmonizing the Future of Mobility,” said Mr Venkatesh in his opening address. “Mobility and transportation mean different things to different people from the movement of humans and goods to the critical infrastructure needed to make this a reality.
“It is the mission of the SAE to advance mobility knowledge and solutions for the benefit of humanity. Our efforts are global and span all mobility sectors and allied technologies. There is no question that the definition of mobility continues to evolve.
“SAE’s work in the mobility spaces crosses commercial, agricultural and military sectors among several others. This puts us in a unique position to identify solutions and technologies that overlap traditional boundaries.”
He went on to say that sustainability is the prime topic, the most important as it impacts the future of the earth.
After the opening addresses the first keynote address was delivered by Remi Bastien on Automated Driving for Sustainable Mobility followed by the first of three panel sessions, which was chaired by Gary White.
Mr White introduced a positive focus to our local and global region and what’s happening across that landscape saying that we need technology, not for technology’s sake, but to deliver impact, solve problems and identify
APAC21 was the fourth time that Australia was chosen to host this prestigious eventRemi Bastien delivering his keynote address Automated Driving for Sustainable Mobility.
solutions. As Murli Iyer had said in his opening address, engineers are here to serve the mobility community to help them serve the world.
Kazu Kato of NHK Spring Company presented the second keynote address on the difficulties and solutions involved in the design of comfortable seating for autonomous vehicles.
Following lunch four concurrent streams were available: Digital Transformation in Automotive Industry, Electric, Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Technology, Vehicle Dynamics & Control, and Formula SAE, EV & AV. Each stream consisted of papers delivered by engineers from Australia, Austria, South Korea, and from students from the universities of Swinburne, RMIT and Monash. Altogether attendees had the chance to learn from 16 subject matter experts.
On day two there were another four concurrent sessions on the topics of Automated & Connected Mobility, Mobility Comfort, Vehicle Crash Safety, and Manufacturing & Materials with 33 presentations delivering ideas and research from countries such as South Korea, Australia, China, the Czech Republic and the US.
Professor Thilo Roth welcomed us back into the plenary space and shared an exceptional view which brought together the academic, the entrepreneurial and the commercial. A snapshot of his presentation is in the following pages.
David Young’s panel – Vehicle Technology in Australia: Trials, Policy and Regulation in Australia was well received as was the announcement of federal legislation to allow autonomous vehicle legal testing from circa, 2026.
Day three started with a panel chaired by Paul Nation from the ADF titled Defence – Land Assets which was followed by four concurrent sessions covering Emerging Transport Technology (Aviation, VTOL and Drones), Human Factors & Ergonomics, Emissions and Pollutants Caused by Vehicles, and Vehicle Software and Electronics.
Two tours were available at the end of the final day one to Directed Technologies and the other to RMIT Digital Manufacturing facility. Finally at the conclusion of day three everyone met together for the closing ceremony during which the three-day event was summarised by Danielle Storey who had also invited attendees to share one word that to them summed up their experience of APAC21.
The range of words was symbolic of the differing views offered by speakers and panels alike with the most used word ‘insightful’ but closely followed by informative, imaginative, invaluable, extraordinary, diverse, refreshing and gourmet.
Tucked away and almost secret was the venue for the APAC21 formal dinner, a doorway next to and part of the Regent Theatre easy to miss but spectacular in its design when it caught your eye.
In and down the first flight of stairs into a remarkable entrance hall and then down another short staircase into the first of the reception rooms – dark, moody and sumptuous in its design.
Here dinner guests were treated to canapes and drinks and the chance to mingle before heading into the formal dining room.
Tables were lavishly decorated, and the service was exceptional.
A welcome to country started the formalities which were brief with the aim to allow guests
to talk amongst themselves to network and to exchange ideas and information.
An Aboriginal dance troupe entertained with a number of different traditional dances which were impressive for both Australian and overseas guests and conveyed the depth of the Aboriginal culture.
This is a condensed version of the keynote address by Prof Thilo Roth presented in the afternoon of Day 2 of the conference, the presentation was almost an hour long.
Professor Thilo Röth, has been a professor at FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences in the Department of Aerospace Engineering since January 2001 and has headed the Automotive Technology Laboratory (ATL) since 2007.
He is a member of the European Centre of Mobility (ECSM) at FH Aachen, chairman of the board of CAR e.V. (euregional cluster based in Aachen) as well as shareholdermanaging director of ACA-Invest GmbH.
For more than 20 years, his fields of activity have been located between science and entrepreneurship. In addition to a large number of research projects in lightweight vehicle construction, Professor Röth has been researching the mobility of the future for more than 10 years.
In addition to the project SkyCab, his projects include “ShareEuregio” (crossborder car sharing with electric vehicles and eBikes) and the Humanhybrid (the pedelec car).
Prof Roth started at Ford and worked until 1988 on crash worthiness. He was also the founder of a company that focussed on lightweight structures, vehicle concepts working with such notable companies as Porsche, Mercedes and Ferrari until 2018.
Professor Thilo Roth travelled all the way from Germany to present at APAC21 and so in his presentation relied upon German figures and statistics but that in no way detracted from his presentation.
“I’m a car guy. I mean, I know the German government wants to get us all bicycles and I say no. I think we can do it differently” Prof Roth emphasised.
On one side there is energy on the other side we have to have a change in mobility thinking he said.To get to a sustainable future we have to bring these two worlds together. And in the future, there are new transport possibilities.
He said that in Germany there is a high motivation to get away from the current dependency on traditional fuels.
“In 2008 I had a CO2 footprint of 25 tonnes, but the good news is I’m now down to 16 tonnes,” Prof Roth explained but then added that he wanted to get down to two tonnes.
Ten years ago, in Germany there were 41.7 million cars for 83 million people and now the country sits at 48 million cars and Prof Roth said he was surprised that the numbers were rising but said that in the future he is sure they will drop especially because of a change in mobility behaviour.
But he then asked: “What is the perfect mobility?”
He jokingly answered with ‘beam me up Scotty’ from Star Trek. Since that is still not a viable offering, he described the various personal and public transportation options available.
“So, now the question is, what is better individual transportation or public transportation?” asked Prof Roth.
“I still think it’s worth fighting for individual transportation. The only thing is we have to make it sustainable, and we have to keep it affordable.”
When you want to get from A to B, Prof Roth said the journey starts in your brain. First you look at how far, then how fast you need to get there, how much will it cost and then sustainability, is it safe, is it comfortable and private, do I get wet and believe it not excitement.
Now these aspects relate to the majority of people however, their importance changes according to age and circumstance. Prof Roth explaining that for him it was very much about time and the excitement of the journey but for one of his PhD students it was very much about sustainability and cost with the other points much less important. He challenged the audience to review their priorities.
“When we are designing devices for mobility, we have to consider how human beings are thinking,” he said.
“The most money you’re spending is for your housing second, the most money in your life, you’re spending is for your cars. Do I really need to invest all this money all this capital in having my own car?”
He then went on to explain the contemporary modes of using cars in Europe such as car sharing and free-floating where cars are kept on the street – you grab them using your mobile phone – you drive them and then leave them. Not dissimilar to the current electric scooter options in the Melbourne CBD. There is also the concept of station based vehicles where you return the car back to base and another that is basically a car share that comes with an apartment.
Prof Roth then delved into detail about options for the future of mobility from Sven the car sharing vehicle, Robotaxis to Twike X and Skycab touching on mobility and sustainability theories and business plan models.
In the future thinking will centre around selling mobility not selling cars he said.
Danielle Storey, the emcee for APAC21 was on stage for this panel session which was extremely well attended with the largest of the conference rooms filled to the brim. As our mobility changes it is of the highest importance that our policies, regulations and other related areas keep pace.
“We’ve got some incredible experts here on this stage all mic’d up and ready to go. I’m going to tell you a little bit about David, and then I’m going to hand over to David for him to introduce his experts,” Ms Storey said by way of introduction.
“David Young is an engineer with over 15 years’ experience in the areas of vehicle safety design … his career in automotive engineering was kicked off in 2006 when he undertook research to complete a PhD examining vehicle crash worthiness and that was completed with Monash University.
“Since then, his career included time working in industry research in the public sector for the past three years. David has been working with one of our sponsors the TAC – the Transport Accident Commission Road Safety team. During his time his focus was on a range of projects and funding activities with many of those around advanced vehicle safety technologies, connected and automated vehicle technologies and more. His current role is Manager Vehicle Safety, Innovation and Technology at the TAC.”
Sitting two across from Mr Young was Dr Jonathan Spear CEO of Infrastructure Victoria. Dr Spear has
led Infrastructure Victoria’s work on Victoria’s 30year infrastructure strategy, research programs and the provision of independent advice to the Victorian government. Before joining Infrastructure Victoria, he held senior leadership policy strategy and legal roles in the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet, and the Department of Justice, Victoria Police, and Slater and Gordon lawyers. Dr Spear holds a Doctor of Philosophy and History, Executive Master Public Administration, Master of Laws, and a Bachelor of Arts.
Samantha Cockfield was next detailing her work as head of road safety at the TAC. Ms Cockfield has been involved in that for many years beginning as an economist working on the development and evaluation of accident black spot programs. She has since developed behavioural programs, including many of the TAC public education programs and the delivery of the TAC road safety strategy, which spans road infrastructure, vehicle safety initiatives, and a range of programs designed to improve reviews.
Then it was Miranda Blogg, the director of the Cooperative and Automated Vehicle Initiative, at Queensland’s Department of Transport and Main
Vehicle Specialized Voice Recognition System (South Korea) Sungsoo Park
APAC-21-122 A user-personalized Model for Destination Prediction with Navigation logs (South Korea) Chang Woo Chun
APAC-21-127 High Definition mapping for C-ITS (Australia) Varun Srirama
APAC-21-131 Ipswich Connected Vehicle Pilot – Safety Evaluation of Vehicle to Infrastructure applications (Australia) Merle Wood
APAC-21-134 Forecasting near-term (to 2031) uptake of technologies to support transport agency decision-making (Australia) Andrew Somers
APAC-21-135 Supporting Automated Driving through Investments in Physical Infrastructures (Australia) Robert Kochhan
APAC-21-151 Ipswich Connected Vehicle Pilot - System Performance (Australia) Miranda Blogg
APAC-21-154 Designing and Deploying Service-Oriented Architectures with Model-Based Design (Australia) ABSTRACT ONLY Alex Shin
APAC-21-173 Assistance System for Pedestrian Overtaking based on Individual Risk Estimation (Japan) Manh-Dung VU Digital Transformation in Automotive Industry
APAC-21-106 Virtual Gearshift (South Korea) Jiwon Oh
11. APAC-21-125 Omni-Aware: Learnings from a roadside adaptation of automated vehicle LiDAR (Australia) David Johnston
12. APAC-21-126 Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems research within the AIMES Environment (Australia) Ada Lin
13. APAC-21-160 Enhanced Virtual Products and their Influence in Automotive Development, Manufacturing and Testing Processes (Austria) Alexander Kreis
14. APAC-21-188 Gearshift Schedule with Takagi-Sugeno Fuzzy Logic Interference on Two-speed Evs (Australia) Haiping Du Electric, Hydrogen, Fuel Cell Technology
15. APAC-21-110 Sustainable Circular Economy - The Hybrid & EV Battery and the Bess Pilot Program (Australia) Dickson Leow
16. APAC-21-115 A Study on developing high heat conductive Al casting alloy by using thermodynamic simulation (South Korea) Hee Sam Kang
17. APAC-21-124 Optimum Life for Minimum CO2 in Light Duty Vehicles - Comparison of EVs with ICEs on Biogas or CNG (Australia) Harry Watson
18. APAC-21-146 Novel Assessment Approaches to Support Accelerated Automotive Battery Design and Development Using Tailored Mission Profiles (Austria) Muamer Majetic
19. APAC-21-198 Data-driven analysis of Australian EV charging and driving behaviours (Australia) ABSTRACT ONLY Kai Li Lim
Emerging Transport Technology (Aviation, VTOL and Drones)
20. APAC-21-176 Crashworthiness Review for Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing Vehicles and Implementation of the Automotive Safety Approach (Germany) Lucas Laarmann
Roads. In this role she manages the delivery of a number of pilot projects aimed at exploring emerging vehicle technologies that have the potential to improve road safety projects.
Ms Blogg is a license civil engineer of more than 25 years’ experience and holds a PhD in Civil Engineering Traffic from the Queensland University of Technology. Ms Blogg has held various roles in the United States and regularly worked on projects within the National Cooperative Highways research program and Transit Cooperative research program.
21. APAC-21-178 A Conceptual Design of Barking Drones Fleet Management to Detect and Repulse Cattle (Australia) Man (Annie) Liang
22. APAC-21-186 The Threat From Above To Terrestrial Transport (Australia) Simon Watkins
23. APAC-21-192 Fast-tracking the development of autonomous vehicles, drones and robots via engineering simulation (Australia) ABSTRACT ONLY Thomas Benke
24. APAC-21-149 Battery-Electric and Internal Combustion Engine Vehicle Emissions in Australia, Considering Energy Mix and Positive Energy Roads (Australia) Robert Kochhan
25. APAC-21-159 Life-cycle assessment - based evaluation of greenhouse gas emissions of conventional, hybrid and electric cars (Austria) Mario Hirz
26. APAC-21-185 Statistical Analysis and Impact Forecasting of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles on the Environment: Case Study in the State of Maryland (USA) Alireza Ansariyar
27. APAC-21-136 Supporting Driver Training - From Vehicles with Advanced Driver Assistance Systems to Fully Autonomous Vehicles (Australia) Mohsin Murtaza
28. APAC-21-142 EEG-Based Driving Fatigue Detection by using the Topological Data Analysis (TDA) (China) Zhengqing Liu
29. APAC-21-190 Comparison of Four Steering Angle and Lateral Position Measures of Driving Performance (Australia) Jinhui Xu
30. APAC-21-194 Investigation on the Acceptance of Autonomous Vehicles (Australia) Abdulaziz Ayedh A Aldakkhelallah
Finally, it was James Hurnall Director of Policy at ANCAP who has a demonstrated history of working in the automotive industry. He has been the director of policy for ANCAP Safety Australia’s independent vehicle safety authority, working with ANCAP on Australia’s new car assessment program since 1993. Mr Hurnall has held roles as head of engineering and regulatory roles, including technical director for the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.
After the panel delved deeper into their current roles the floor was open to questions and the first few centred around the who was to become responsible in the case of accidents involving AV technology.
And what is happening in America more often now as people are overestimating the capability of autonomous systems – the example was given of a Tesla that crashed as the driver slept.
The panel discussed the question in terms of what happened when other technologies were introduced such as ABS, and it revolved around the idea that people just assume that the car can do all that it has to.
Part of the solution brought forward was to educate people about the capabilities of the vehicle and their responsibilities concerning its control.
Several more questions were handled by the panel and finally one came regarding policy which had everyone sharp and alert.
The question was what are some of the policies that are being work on at different levels of government in anticipation of the increasing levels of vehicle automation.
The panel agreed that that this was a topic on which many conversations were needed now and into the future and no definitive answer was appropriate as it was an evolving situation.
Work has been done by Infrastructure Victoria as it took into account a variety of assumptions of the way in which automated vehicles might work at level 4 and 5 and about how they were going to perform in a transport modelling sense.
However, it is early days and policy
makers need to see over time how these vehicle scenarios play out in reality as larger numbers of automated vehicles enter the market.
The National Transport Commission has taken the lead in this respect as directed by the transport ministers in trying to work through some of the nuts and bolts of the regulatory proceedings. This was around responsibility and insurance, about access to data, about standards when they enter the market. And those that are being considered for adoption in future years.
Questions flowed quickly from then on and after almost an hour the panel closed having been challenged on everything from policy settings for an emerging new vehicle culture and automated vehicles, ANCAP car ratings and how to incentivise the take up of new vehicle ownership to introduce better safety measures, the growth market of commercial vehicles in particular pick-ups and utility vehicles and how these vehicles differ from passenger cars in terms of safety.
APAC-21-129 Lightweight and Economical Panoramic Sunroof Frame: Design of Long and Flat Glass Fiber-Reinforced Plastic (South Korea) Kyeong-Bae Seo
APAC-21-132 A Study on 48V Heating Glass Technology of Mild Hybrid Vehicle (South Korea) Nakkyong Kong
APAC-21-143 Optimization of Acoustic Properties for Multilayer Acoustic Absorber by using Genetic Algorithm (China) Zhengqing Liu
APAC-21-144 Optimization of Silicone Artificial Leather to prevent soiling seat trim cover (South Korea) Hyerin Choi
APAC-21-147 The Study on Optimization to Weight Reduction of Battery Case (South Korea) Geonhee Cheon
APAC-21-165 Exploring integrated seating structures in a two-dimensional space (Australia) ABSTRACT ONLY Shuan Whimpey
APAC-21-171 A Small-Size Reverberation Room for Sound Absorption Assessment (Australia) Yujun Zhao
APAC-21-196 Research, development and implementation of an accelerated fatigue testing procedure for a vehicle carrier system (Australia) Shilei Zhou
APAC-21-119 Development of an intelligent air cleaning system (South Korea) Dong won Yeon
APAC-21-128 A Development for slim and light weight cushion-linked back recliner rear seat (South Korea) Donghwan Kim
41. APAC-21-138 Development of a testing methodology for Autonomous Vehicles (Australia) ABSTRACT ONLY Andrew White & David Hicks
42. APAC-21-168 A novel automotive HVAC system for inhibition of evaporator contamination (South Korea) Young Wook Kim
43. APAC-21-187 The benefits of variable stiffness and variable damping suspension system on motion sickness (Australia) Yulin Liao
44. APAC-21-189 Analysis of the performance of Melbourne’s High Capacity Metro Train’s suspension system under irregular track conditions (Australia) Youwei Song
45. APAC-21-195 Intelligently Integrating Connected and Autonomous Vehicles in Las Vegas Medical District (USA) ABSTRACT ONLY Sama Khazraeian
46. APAC-21-113 A Study on Crash and Stiffness Structure of Door for B Pillar-Less Vehicle (South Korea) Je-won Choi
47. APAC-21-123 Rubber is not Rubber (Effect of tyre state on emergency braking) (Australia) Shane Richardson
48. APAC-21-130 The evolution of ABS performance in emergency stopping events (Australia) Tia Gaffney
49. APAC-21-137 Design and Crash performance comparison study of Monocoque and Spaceframe BIW (South Korea) Do Hoi Kim
50. APAC-21-152 Automated safety assessment of passengers in vehicles with non-standard seating configuration in rear impact (Czech Republic) Luděk Hynčík
51. APAC-21-108 Research on Integrated Performance Design for the xEV Braking System (South Korea) Wook Hyun Han
52. APAC-21-114 Proposal of CAT Model Based Benchmarking and System Characteristic Optimization Method for Developing Vehicle Handling Performance (South Korea) Jin Hee Lee
53. APAC-21-148 An autonomous vehicle at the handling limit: A hierarchical controller based on the Quasi-Steady-State model (Australia) Kyle Tucker
54. APAC-21-150 The development of hybrid chassis components applied by the GFRP and steel (South Korea) Pankeun Jeong
55. APAC-21-167 Prediction of Vehicle Vibration Discomfort using a Transfer Matrix Method (Australia) Jianchun Yao
Formula SAE, EV and AV
56. APAC-21-SP1 AVR in Vehicle Design for Remote Working (Team Swinburne Formula SAE)
57. APAC-21-SP2 Using Computer Aided Engineering to analyse the success of an Overall Vehicle Specification in a Formula Student setting (RMIT University)
58. APAC-21-SP3 Implementation of a Baraja Spectrum-ScanTM LiDAR. (Monash Motorsport)
59. APAC-21-SP4 Embedding a wireless sensor network in an F-SAE AV to aid the core ‘detect, classify, and predict’ operation (FSAE Team Swinburne’s research program)
60. APAC-21-SP5 Development of an autonomous pipeline for a Formula Student racecar (Monash Motorsport)
Formula SAE-A is Australasia’s premier design, construction, and on-track student event highlighting the performance of electric and internal combustion cars from leading university teams around the world. This year some teams will take the opportunity to demonstrate their autonomous vehicles. Being a volunteer offers you a great opportunity to experience all the action with 800+ students; see the latest global automotive technologies at play and share your passion and experience in the industry with the next generation. Join in the excitement with industry leaders, motoring enthusiasts and students at this epic event for one, two or all four days!
Volunteers are supplied with on-the-job training, commemorative attire and meals. Plus take satisfaction in knowing that your involvement is helping advance the development of our future engineers, as well as supporting the local region and SAE-A.
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Vehicle crashworthiness is defined as a measure of ability of a vehicle structure to protect the occupants in crash events. Crashworthiness is a measure of vehicle’s structural ability to plastically deform and yet maintain a sufficient survival space for occupants in crashes involving reasonable deceleration loads. The goal of crashworthiness design is to achieve an optimized vehicle structure that can absorb crash energy by controlled vehicle deformation while maintaining adequate space so that the residual crash energy can be managed by restraint systems to minimize crash loads transfer to occupants (1). Crashworthiness measurement of any vehicle is governed by different safety regulations across different countries depending on the markets where the vehicle is intended to be sold. Apart from the regulatory requirements, consumer group protocols like NCAP, IIHS etc. also measure the crashworthiness of the vehicles.
The assessment is primarily based on occupant injuries and with different crash dummy types. For any vehicle, depending on the market where it is to be launched, vehicle level safety targets are defined at initial vehicle development phase by the vehicle manufacturer. The vehicle safety targets are cascaded to structural targets which influences abd constrain the vehicle structural development
In real world scenario, some of the side crashes involve a vehicle travelling sideways into roadside objects such as trees or poles. Often this is the result of loss of control on the part of the driver, owing to over speeding, misjudgment of a corner or because of a skid in slippery conditions. In such accidents the nature of loading on the vehicle is localized which results in significant structural deformations.
To set the structural targets for such complex and high severity crash condition, very detailed understanding of occupant injury mechanics has to be developed by considering effect of different parameters on occupant injury performances. The paper describes the effect of below mentioned parameters on occupant injury performance in Side Pole crash test.
➢ Peak Structural intrusions
➢ Occupant package space – occupant to interior trims space
For structure performance target setting, the effect of the parameter has been evaluated for its contribution in occupant injury performance.
The side pole test used is a perpendicular side pole crash at 29 kmph (NCAP) using simulations is being described.
To evaluate and decide on structure targets for side pole crash, sensitivity study of each of the parameters was carried out digitally to evaluate effect on occupant rib deflection.
To study the effect of peak structure intrusions, two digital models of same vehicle were used. model A “Baseline vehicle design” and model B “Model A with Stiff structure with addition of reinforcements to reduce peak structure intrusions”.
Figure 1 shows structure intrusions in lateral direction at center of the pole at thorax mid-level for Model A and B. The structure intrusions in model B are significantly lower as compared to Model A.
Side pole crash is one of the most stringent loadcases for vehicle structural development. Due to its localized nature of loading, concentrated localized deformations are observed on the vehicle structure. Developing the vehicle structure for structural integrity and occupant injuries with such local deformation is a challenge. The vehicle structure development is done based on the cascaded structure level targets, which are set based on benchmarking studies, learnings and experience. The structure target setting based on benchmarking will not always be effective as the occupant injury performance depends on many vehicle specific aspects such as occupant package, occupant position with respect to B-pillar, interior packaging and local component stiffness etc. To set the structural targets, CAE based studies were carried out for side pole crashes to evaluate the effect of different parameters affecting occupant injury performance. The paper evaluates the sensitivity of different parameters on occupant injuries and process to set the structure targets for achieving the desired occupant injury performance. The structural targets set using the process are validated with physical side pole test.
Effect of lateral clearance between the dummy and B-pillar or Door on rib deflection is studied in this section.
Different occupant simulations were carried out to study the effect of “occupant package space” on rib deflection performance. All other parameters are maintained same for performing this study.
Seat Centerline to Trim at Shoulder -30 , -15 , +15 , +30
Seat Centerline to Trim at Thorax -30 , -15 , +15 , +30
Occupant simulations were carried out with two models keeping same restraints and collision parameters.
The rib deflection curve for Model A and B are shown in Figure 2. Model A and Model B have significant difference in structure intrusions however, there is not a significant difference observed in terms of rib deflection.
The peak structure intrusions take place at a later in time than the peak injuries.
Based on this observation the peak structure intrusions do not have significant influence on occupant injury performance.
Seat Centerline at Trim to Abdomen -30 , -15 , +15 , +30
Seat Centerline to Trim at Pelvis -30 , -15 , +15 , +30
The comparison of occupant injuries with change in lateral clearance between seat to B pillar trim is shown in Figure 4
The Rib deflection is observed to be very sensitive to lateral clearances. It is clearly observed that the rib deflection is decreasing with increase in the distance between dummy and trims i.e. when more space available for occupant energy absorption.
As the occupant space has significant impact on occupant injuries, this aspect is studied further in detail. In side pole crash, the occupant lateral space available for dummy movement can be divided in two phases.
Phase 1 – Upto first 20 ms i.e. till the time airbag is fired and gets fully deployed. In this phase occupant starts moving towards door trim and the movement depends on global deceleration of vehicle.
Phase 2 – Occupant Energy absorption phase. In this phase occupant interacts with the side airbags. The side airbag absorbs the occupant energy in this phase thereby controlling the occupant injuries. Figure 5 shows the movement of dummy in phase 1 and phase 2.
Figure 6 shows the structural intrusions comparison for these three structures. Deceleration levels for all these three models measured at non struck side B pillar bottom is shown in Figure 7. From comparison, it is seen that the stiffer structure shows higher deceleration levels and vice versa.
structure intrusions are observed to be on higher side and no modifications are done for improvement. With all these considerations, vehicle prototype was built for physical test. Physical testing was carried out and the occupant injuries were found to be within the target limit. With this, the findings from the study on occupant space, deceleration levels and structural intrusions are verified.
It was observed that the injury parameters are higher with stiffer structure. Refer Figure 8 for Rib deflection comparison. Higher deceleration of the vehicle during first 20msec resulted in higher occupant displacement and early interaction with deploying airbag. This is causing higher initial peak in occupant injury.
Based on above analysis it is clear that the peak structure intrusion does not play significant role for occupant injury performance in side pole crash.
The occupant space is a very critical design parameter that should be considered for controlling the occupant injuries in side pole crash. Sensitivity studies should be carried out in initial phase of product development to define the occupant space targets based on performance requirements.
The vehicle deceleration in phase 1 is important for effectively utilizing the available occupant space. This aspect should be considered while designing the vehicle for side pole crash.
It is clear that the occupant space consumed in phase 1 is not playing any role in occupant energy absorption. In order to effectively utilize the initial occupant space the dummy movement in the first phase should be minimized. This will ensure in higher space for occupant energy management.
To understand the occupant displacement in first phase, the effect of deceleration of vehicle during first 20 ms is studied. For this study, three models of same vehicle with different stiffness was analyzed viz. Baseline structure, stiff structure and very stiff structure.
Therefore, Deceleration of vehicle during first 20 ms is to be controlled to minimize the occupant displacement towards door and B-pillar.
The findings of this study are physically validated in the side pole crash test. Number of digital iterations are carried out to define the package space requirements for targeted occupant injuries.
The deceleration levels are maintained as per the learnings from the study. The
1. WANG Dazhi, DONG Guang, ZHANG Jinhuan, HUANG Shilin “Car Side Structure Crashworthiness in Pole and Moving
Deformable Barrier Side Impacts” State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety and Energy, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
2. Euro NCAP Pole Impact Testing ProtocolVersion 5.2
3. Safety Companion, Safety WissenRegulation and consumerism tests, 2013 edition
4. Side Impact NPRM DOT-NHTSA, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking- FMVSS 214-D-Side Impact Protection [S],2004.
