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Intelligent Transportation Laboratory
Scope
The mission of the ITL is to improve road transportation safety through development and application of state-of-the-art sensors, actuators, and control systems.
In addition to the above mentioned categories of interest, the functional performance areas of ride and handling are of prime interest in passenger as well as race industry. Through the accumulation and use of subjective and objective test data, it is possible to develop ride and handling performance metrics that will allow synthesis of all chassis subsystems for optimum ride and handling performance.
Equipment
The lab will eventually become a state of the art R&D laboratory for road-tire-vehicle dynamics and control studies. In addition to the equipment that will be built as needed and purchased as the budget allows, several software packages will be developed in order to simulate tire-vehicle handling and ride performance, develop control algorithms, and process the measured road data.
One such equipment which is under construction is a Simbuck which will embed brake system hardware in the loop for development of VSC and ABS control algorithms. The Simbuck will be capable of connecting to the Motion Base Simulator for a more realistic control algorithm evaluation environment.
A tire force and moment test trailer is also being designed and build which will allow tire testing in most on and off road conditions.
Brief Biographies
 Dr. Taheri is an Associate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Virginia Tech. He is the director of the Intelligent Transportation Laboratory (part of Virginia Tech's Center for Vehicle Systems and Safety). Dr. Taheri conducted research in tire-vehicle dynamics and chassis development in the automotive industry for 18 years before becoming a faculty member at Virginia Tech. His research expertise is in tire-vehicle dynamics, controllable chassis subsystems, objective vehicle measurement and data analysis, and steering and suspension synthesis.
Seyed Hossein Tamaddoni is a PhD student in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Virginia Tech. Hossein completed both his BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering at Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran. He is now working with Dr. Taheri as a research assistant at the Intelligent Transportation Laboratory (ITL). He is working toward development of an integrated chassis control algorithm to improve vehicle stability/rollover.
Ben Duprey is a graduate student in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Virginia Tech. Ben completed his undergraduate studies at the Rochester Institute of Technology where he received his Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering. He now works with Dr. Taheri at the Intelligent Transportation Laboratory (ITL), and is developing chassis and brake control models for heavy trucks as a stepping stone to implement real-time traffic information via GPS technology.
Derek Fox is a graduate student in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Virginia Tech. Derek completed his undergraduate studies at Virginia Tech, where he received his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. He now works with Dr. Taheri at the Intelligent Transportation Laboratory (ITL). He is developing vehicle models for simulation, analysis and control of vehicle rollover specifically applied to military trucks.
Josh Caffee is a graduate student in the Mechanical
Engineering Department at Virginia Tech. He completed his undergraduate studies
at Virginia Tech where he received his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical
Engineering in 2008. Josh is now working with Dr. Taheri as a graduate research
assistant at the Intelligent Transportation Laboratory (ITL). He is working
toward development of an intelligent-tire-based integrated chassis control
algorithm to improve vehicle stability/rollover.
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