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Purpose: Nanoxel®-M is a low-molecular-weight, non-toxic, biodegradable, docetaxel-loaded methoxy-poly (ethylene glycol)-block-poly (D,L-lactide) (mPEG-PDLLA) micellar formulation. We conducted a multicenter trial to evaluate the safety and toxicity of Nanoxel®-M and the quality of life (QoL) of Korean breast cancer patients treated with this formulation.Methods: Patients received adjuvant Nanoxel®-M with a schedule comprising four alternating cycles of doxorubicin with cyclophosphamide, followed by either Nanoxel®-M or Nanoxel®-M with cyclophosphamide after surgery for early breast cancer. We analyzed hematological and non-hematological toxicity profiles and alterations in patient QoL using the Korean version of the European organization for research and treatment of cancer core 30-item quality of life questionnaire. Fifty-five operable breast cancer patients with stage II or III disease were enrolled from four centers in Korea.Results: Regarding safety and toxicity profiles, grade 3/4 toxicity presented as anemia in 0.5%, neutropenia in 61.8%, febrile neutropenia in 4.5%, mucositis in 1.4%, and edema in 0.5% of patients during 220 total cycles. However, all-grade thrombocytopenia was not observed among hematological toxicities. No grade 3/4 nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hand foot syndrome, dyspnea, allergic reaction, edema, or peripheral neuropathy were observed. Furthermore, no vehicle-related hypersensitivity reactions occurred when using Nanoxel®-M.Conclusion: Our findings indicate that Nanoxel®-M could be used to treat operable breast cancer patients, compare favorably with docetaxel in terms of hypersensitivity reactions and the incidence of taxane-induced peripheral neuropathy, and is associated with a similar incidence of febrile neutropenia.

Purpose: It is known that as the T stage of a carcinoma progresses, the prognosis becomes poorer. However, there are few studies about factors that affect the prognosis of T4 advanced colon cancer. This study aimed to identify the prognostic factors associated with disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) in T4 colon cancer.Methods: Patients diagnosed with stage T4 on histopathology after undergoing curative surgery for colon cancer between March 2009 and March 2018 were retrospectively analyzed for factors related to postoperative survival. Primary outcomes were DFS and OS.Results: Eighty-two patients were included in the study. DFS and OS of the pathologic (p) T4b group were not inferior to that of the pT4a group. Multivariate analysis showed that differentiation (hazard ratio [HR], 4.994; P = 0.005), and laparoscopic surgery (HR, 0.323; P = 0.008) were significant prognostic factors for DFS, while differentiation (HR, 7.904; P ≤ 0.001) and chemotherapy (HR, 0.344; P = 0.038) were significant prognostic factors for OS.Conclusion: Tumor differentiation, laparoscopic surgery, and adjuvant chemotherapy were found to be significant prognostic factors in patients with T4 colon cancer. Adjuvant chemotherapy and curative resections by laparoscopy might improve the prognosis in these patients.

Kriging has been more and more widely used as a method to construct surrogate models in a variety of areas within the engineering field. The universal Kriging is less appealing than the ordinary Kriging in the case that an informed decision could be hardly made to select the variables for capturing the global trends in responses. The Penalized Blind Kriging (PBK) systematically carries out model selection with penalizing the likelihood function, which leads to improving the predictive performance of a universal Kriging model. However, the PBK demands the execution of an iterative algorithm, which involves repeatedly solving a possibly time-consuming optimization problem to find a varying optimal solution to the correlation coefficient vector. In this paper, the Lasso Kriging (LK) is proposed to not only improve the predictive performance but avoid the iterative computation. The LK selects the important variables fundamentally by solving a Lasso problem using the LARS algorithm with CV. The one-standard error rule is employed to compensate for less penalizing the regression coefficients than the PBK does. Given the selected important variables, unknown Kriging parameters are estimated in the same manner as in the universal Kriging. A linear and a nonlinear mathematical problem and seven highly nonlinear benchmark problems are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the LK concerning the model selection and predictive performance as well as the computational efficiency. The LK proves to be an effective approach that both improves predictive accuracy as much as the PBK does and requires a little more computational complexity than the universal Kriging.

Purpose: To identify factors significantly associated with the mortality of patients with left colonic perforation, and to compare the outcome of Hartmann’s procedure (HP) and primary repair (PR) or primary anastomosis (PA) in patients with left colonic perforation without factors associated with mortality.Methods: This retrospective study included patients who underwent surgery for left colonic perforation from January 2009 to February 2018. Preoperative factors related to postoperative mortality, including vital signs, laboratory findings, and intraoperative findings, were analyzed by type of operation. The chi-square, Fisher exact, and Mann-Whitney U-tests were used to analyze the data.Results: Ninety-one patients were included (36 men, 55 women), and 15 (16.5%) died postoperatively. Prognostic factors were age, leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, bleeding tendency, acute kidney injury, hemodynamic instability, and the existence of feculent ascites. Leukopenia and longer operative time were independent risk factors for mortality. Seventy-nine patients did not have leukopenia and 30 of these patients who underwent PR without diversion were excluded from the subanalysis. HP was performed in 30 patients, and PR with diversion and PA with or without diversion were performed in 19. Compared to the other operative methods, HP had no advantage in reducing hospital mortality (P=0.458) and morbidity.Conclusion: Leukopenia could be an objective prognostic factor for left colonic perforation. Although HP is the gold standard for septic left colonic perforation, it did not improve the hospital mortality of the patients without leukopenia. For such patients, PR or PA may be suggested as an alternative option for left colonic perforation.

Objective The aim of this study was to identify predictive factors for pathologic central lymph node metastasis (CLNM) in patients with clinically negative CLNM (cN0) papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) to suggest a specific group of cN0 PTMC patients who benefit from prophylactic central lymph node dissection (CLND). Background PTMC have excellent prognosis, however, 8% have recurrent disease. Recurrence is associated with regional lymph node metastasis. It has been reported that pathologic CLNM is found in 30 to 65% of cN0 PTMC patients. However, prophylactic CLND for cN0 PTMC remains controversial. Methods We reviewed the records of papillary thyroid carcinoma patients with a tumor size on preoperative ultrasonography (US) of ≤10 mm and negative CLNM on preoperative physical examination, US, and positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT), who underwent total thyroidectomy or thyroid lobectomy with prophylactic CLND between April 2010 and February 2013. In total, 163 patients were included. We evaluated the relationship between preoperatively assessable factors including age, gender, body mass index, preoperative metformin use, primary tumor size through preoperative US, the maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) of the primary tumor through preoperative PET/CT, and the bilaterality of the primary tumor and pathologic CLNM. Results A SUVmax of the primary tumor of >3 was an independent preoperatively assessable factor predictive of pathologic CLNM in cN0 PTMC patients. Conclusions Prophylactic CLND might be considered in cN0 PTMC patients with a SUVmax of the primary tumor of > 3 to reduce the risks of residual CLNM and recurrence.

Summary: Background/Objective: Axillary lymph node staging (ALNS) is an important step in the treatment of breast cancer and sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is a standard procedure for ALNS. Recently, the use of positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) for whole body staging in patients with breast cancer has been increasing. The negative predictive value (NPV) of the specific diagnostic modality is the crucial value for excluding axillary lymph node metastasis (ALNM) and guiding the decision not to proceed with axillary lymph node dissection. The aim of this study was to identify patient groups in which PET/CT yields a high NPV for ALNS. Methods: We reviewed data from the records of 262 patients with breast cancer who underwent PET/CT before surgery between February 2009 and March 2018. We searched for factors associated with pathological axillary lymph node metastasis in patients with negative ALNM on PET/CT. Then, we calculated the NPV of PET/CT for ALNS in the patient group without the identified factors and in all patients. Results: Age ≥75 years and tumor size on ultrasonography (US) ≥ 15 mm were the associated factors; the NPV of PET/CT in patients without these factors compared to all patients was 97.2% versus 88.7%. Conclusion: The NPV of PET/CT for ALNS in patients younger than 75 years and with tumor size on US

Purpose: Adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) is recommended for patients with stage II colorectal cancer with adverse features. However, the effect of adjuvant treatment in elderly patients with high-risk stage II colorectal cancer remains controversial. This study aimed to investigate the oncologic outcomes in elderly high-risk stage II colorectal cancer patients who underwent curative resection with or without AC.Methods: Patients aged over 70 years having stage II colorectal adenocarcinoma with at least 1 adverse feature who underwent radical surgery between 2008 and 2017 at a single center were included. We compared recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) between patients who received more than 80% of the planned AC cycle (the AC+ group) and those who did not receive it (the AC− group).Results: The AC+ and AC– group contained 46 patients and 50 patients, respectively. The log-rank test revealed no significant intergroup differences in RFS (P = 0.083) and OS (P = 0.122). In the subgroup of 27 patients with more than 2 adverse features, the AC+ group (n = 16) showed better RFS (P = 0.006) and OS (P = 0.025) than the AC− group. In this subgroup, AC was the only significant factor affecting RFS in the multivariate analysis (P = 0.023). AC was significantly associated with OS (P = 0.033) in the univariate analysis, but not in the multivariate analysis (P = 0.332).Conclusion: Among elderly patients with stage II high-risk colorectal cancer, the AC+ group did not show better RFS or OS than the AC− group. However, selected patients with more than 2 adverse features might benefit from AC.

Electric vehicles (EV) become more popular and are expected to increase considerably over the next decades. EV charging loads are flexible and can be controllable compared to the offices and factory loads. Therefore, utilities will manage the controllable EV loads to smooth and reduce total peak loads using the time of use (TOU) price plan. A charging scheduling algorithm is necessary to find the best charging strategy with the TOU price. We propose an optimal charging scheduling under the assumption of a day-ahead future electricity price market. The dynamic programming methodology is used to find an optimal charging schedule to minimize the total charging electricity price, considering system efficiency and TOU price. The proposed scheduling algorithm is implemented on an electronic control unit and verified by computational efforts and simulation results.

Purposes To identify factors significantly associated with mortality of patients with left colonic perforation, and to compare the outcome of the Hartmann procedure (HP) and primary repair (PR) or primary anastomosis (PA) in left colonic perforation patients without factors associated with mortality. Methods This retrospective study included patients who underwent surgery for left colonic perforation from January 2009 to February 2018. Preoperative factors related to postoperative mortality, including vital signs, laboratory findings, and intraoperative findings, were analyzed by type of operation. The chi-square, Fisher exact, and Mann-Whitney U tests were used to analyze the data. Results Ninety-one patients were included (36 men, 55 women), and 15 (16.5%) died postoperatively. Risk factors were age, leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, bleeding tendency, acute renal failure, hemodynamic instability, and existence of generalized peritonitis and feculent ascites. Advanced age, leukopenia, and acute renal failure were independent risk factors for mortality. Seventy-nine patients did not have leukopenia, and among them, 30 patients who underwent PR without diversion were excluded from the sub-analysis. HP was performed in 30 patients, and PR with diversion and PA with or without diversion were performed in 19. Compared to the other operative methods, HP had no benefit for reducing overall mortality (p=0.458) and morbidity. Conclusions Leukopenia could be an objective prognostic factor for left colonic perforation. Although HP is the gold standard for septic left colonic perforation, it did not improve overall mortality of the patients without leukopenia. For such patients, PR or PA could be a good option for left colonic perforation.

Purpose The aim of this study is to determine the predictable factors that affect the clinical course, especially the hospital stay, the operation performed, and to determine factors that will be helpful in deciding whether in-hospital or outpatient treatment is appropriate. Methods We retrospectively collected medical data for patients who had been diagnosed with acute diverticulitis at Inje University Sanggye Paik Hospital between January and December 2016. In total, 117 patients were enrolled in this study. We examined clinical factors, including age, sex, body mass index, pain, body temperature, white blood cell count, C-reactive protein, nil per os (NPO) time, hospital duration, computed tomography (CT) findings, location of diverticulitis, operation performed, and presence of comorbidity (e.g., hypertension and diabetes mellitus). Results In the multivariate analysis, the statistically significant factor related with hospital duration was the presence of perforation on the CT scan (P < 0.001). Longer NPO time was related with pain score (>7) (P = 0.011). Operations were mainly performed in patients with left-sided colonic diverticulitis (P = 0.012). Conclusion We suggest a perforation finding on the CT scan, a severe pain score at least above 7 on a numeric rating pain scale, and a left-sided lesion are absolute indications for in-hospital management.

Purpose The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the perioperative carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) ratio could be used as a determinant for adjuvant therapy after curative surgery in stage II colorectal cancer. Methods Data for 119 patients with stage II colorectal cancer who underwent radical surgery between 2010 and 2013 were collected. The perioperative CEA ratio was defined as the postoperative/preoperative serum CEA level, and the patients were grouped according to their perioperative CEA ratios: high ratio (≥0.5) and low ratio (

This paper presents a model-based gain scheduling algorithm of a PI-based EGR controller for light-duty diesel engines. In order to capture nonlinear characteristic of the EGR system, we have proposed a new scheduling variable to illustrate the static-gain of the plant model as a linear function. The proposed scheduling variable is composed of the air-tofuel ratio of the exhaust gas and the pressure ratio between the exhaust and intake manifolds. Using the scheduling variable, a static-gain model achieved 0.94 of the R-squared value with 810 of steady-state measurements which include key engine operating conditions. Based on the model of the static-gain parameter, the gains of the PI controller are decided by Skogestad internal model control (SIMC) tuning rule in real-time. Through various scenarios of engine experiments, the proposed gain scheduling algorithm represented that the PI gains were successfully adapted according to the changes of the engine operating conditions.

Appendectomy, which comprises most benign intra-abdominal surgeries, is currently assisted by laparoscopy in most cases. However, many patients complain of postoperative shoulder or subcostal pain after laparoscopic surgery. In some cases, the pain lasts even several weeks after surgery. This study aimed to analyze unmodifiable clinicopathological factors of patients who underwent laparoscopic appendectomy and to minimize preoperative and postoperative discomfort.Patients admitted for laparoscopic appendectomy for acute appendicitis with an American Society of Anesthesiology (ASA) grades I and II, and ages 12~70 years were enrolled in the study. Postoperative shoulder or subcostal pain was assessed using the visual analogue scale (VAS) for pain and analyzed with the clinicopathological factors of the patients, including age, sex, weight, height, body mass index (BMI), and abdominal circumference (AC) difference.Of the 124 patients, 40 complained of postoperative shoulder or subcostal pain with a VAS score of ≥4. The risk of the postoperative shoulder or subcostal pain increased in women (The risk of postoperative shoulder or subcostal pain after laparoscopic appendectomy was significantly increased with lower weight.

A smart regenerative braking system, which is an advanced driver assistance system of electric vehicles, automatically controls the regeneration torque of the electric motor to brake the vehicle by recognizing the deceleration conditions. Thus, this autonomous braking system can provide driver convenience and energy efficiency by suppressing the frequent braking of the driver brake pedaling. In order to apply this assistance system, a deceleration planning algorithm should guarantee the safety deceleration under diverse driving situations. Furthermore, the planning algorithm suppresses a sense of heterogeneity by autonomous braking. To ensuring these requirements for deceleration planning, this study proposes a multi-level deceleration planning algorithm which consists of the two representative planning algorithms and one planning management. Two planning algorithms, which are the driver model-based planning and optimization-based planning, generate the deceleration profiles. Then, the planning management determines the optimal planning result among the deceleration profiles. To obtain an optimal result, planning management is updated based on the reinforcement learning algorithm. The proposed algorithm was learned and validated under a simulation environment using the real vehicle experimental data. As a result, the algorithm determines the optimal deceleration vehicle trajectory to autonomous regenerative braking.

This paper presents an integration method of AUTOSAR-compliant ECUs which can evaluate resource constraints in an early-stage of development. There are three types of resources for an ECU (timing, memory, and interface) which should be carefully managed for successful ECU integration. The proposed method consists of three steps: measurement, prediction, and evaluation. In the first step, a method to measure resource factors for AUTOSAR-compliant software architecture is introduced. Based on the method, a worst-case execution cycle of a runnable, memory section usages of a software component, and interface of legacy ECUs can be obtained. In the second step, the obtained factors are quantitatively predicted according to the architectural designs of the integration ECU. In the case of the timing resource, the worst-case execution time of the integration ECU can be precisely predicted by a proposed empirical model. In the last step, the resource constraints such as CPU, memory, network utilizations can be evaluated with predicted resource factors before implementation. The proposed method was applied to the integration of an in-house engine management system composed of two ECUs. The method successfully provided quantitative measures to evaluate architectural designs of three different integration scenarios.

We show that computational load can be reduced when a programmable co-processor is used for a time-critical system design. We analyze the real-time performances of a diesel engine management system by applying a programmable timer co-processor. In order to verify the performances caused by the co-processor, we investigated the timing parameters such as the process time, execution period, and processor utilization, according to a changing task structure. The processor utilizations of the tasks were found to be reduced within the range of 0.65% to 33.68% on worst-case execution period condition. These results show that an appropriate task construction considering the co-processor characteristics can lead to improvement in real-time performance from parallel processing on par with a multicore processor system even under limited conditions.

Current diesel engines commonly employ a variable geometry turbocharger (VGT) to improve drivability and fuel efficiency, and this paper addresses model-based feedforward control of the VGT based on empirical models of compressor and turbine efficiencies to improve transient response. Though compressor and turbine efficiencies affect compressor air flow and turbine power, respectively, it is challenging to understand exactly the compressor and turbine efficiencies in real engines. In order to cope with this problem, we propose empirical models of compressor and turbine efficiencies. The input states are proposed based on maps of the compressor and turbine efficiencies, which are provided by turbocharger manufacturers. Parameters of the efficiency models are identified with 225 data of steady-state engine experiments to reflect engine operating conditions. The proposed compressor and turbine efficiency models were applied to the model-based VGT feedforward control algorithm to verify the effectiveness of the efficiency models. The proposed modelbased VGT feedforward control algorithm based on the compressor and turbine efficiency models was experimentally verified with 2.2 L common-rail-direct-injection diesel engines.

This study proposed a gain scheduled controller for exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and variable geometry turbocharger (VGT) systems with a model-based gain scheduling strategy to manage strong nonlinearity in diesel engines. The feedback controller uses a gain scheduling strategy to obtain appropriate controller gains of the PI controller under various engine operating conditions. The gain scheduling strategy is designed using the proposed static gain model that predicts varying static gains of EGR and VGT plants. The static gain model uses scheduling variables derived from indirect measurements of the EGR mass flow such as the pressure ratio of the intake and exhaust manifolds and the exhaust air-to-fuel ratio. The scheduling variables are effective to reduce a large static gain dispersion caused by various operating conditions of the EGR and VGT actuators. With the predicted static gains of the plant, a Skogestad internal model control (SIMC) method determines PI gains in runtime. The proposed control algorithm is evaluated through engine experiments. The experimental results proved that the integrated absolute error (IAE) and overshoot of the gain scheduled feedback controller are significantly reduced compared to the fixed gain controller.

This paper presents a simplified decoupler-based multivariable controller with a gain scheduling strategy in order to deal with strong nonlinearities and cross-coupled characteristics for exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and variable geometry turbocharger (VGT) systems in diesel engines. A feedback controller is designed with the gain scheduling strategy, which updates control gains according to engine operating conditions. The gain scheduling strategy is implemented by using a proposed scheduling variable derived from indirect measurements of the EGR mass flow, such as the pressure ratio of the intake, exhaust manifolds, and the exhaust air-to-fuel ratio. The scheduling variable is utilized to estimate static gains of the EGR and VGT systems; it has a large dispersion in various engine operating conditions. Based on the estimated static gains of the plant, the Skogestad internal model control (SIMC) method determines appropriate control gains. The dynamic decoupler is designed to deal with the cross-coupled effects of the EGR and VGT systems by applying a simplified decoupler design method. The simplified decoupler is beneficial for compensating for the dynamics difference between two control loops of the EGR and VGT systems, for example, slow VGT dynamics and fast EGR dynamics. The proposed control algorithm is evaluated through engine experiments. Step test results of set points reveal that root-mean-square (RMS) error of the gain-scheduled feedback controller is reduced by 47% as compared to those of the fixed gain controller. Furthermore, the designed simplified decoupler decreased the tracking error under transients by 14–66% in various engine operating conditions.

This paper describes robust multi-input, multi-output controller for the exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and variable geometry turbocharger (VGT) systems of passenger car diesel engines. The air-to-fuel ratio of the exhaust gas and boost pressure of the intake manifold were selected as performance indicators in this paper. To enable the online calibration of the controller, proportional–integral–derivative (PID) was used as a feedback controller. Using quantitative feedback theory (QFT), two control loops for air-to-fuel ratio and boost pressure were independently designed with linearized models and parameter uncertainties. The prefilters and PID gains of two control loops were designed for satisfying required robust stability and tracking performance using the QFT design framework. Furthermore, the problems originated from the cross-coupled dynamics between the EGR and VGT systems were mitigated by a static decoupler. Using the proposed design steps, PID and decoupler gains of the representative 15 engine operating points which are mainly used in New European Driving Cycle were obtained. The proposed controller was validated through various test conditions of engine experiments. From the step responses and transient experiments, it was demonstrated that the required robustness and tracking performance were successfully achieved.

Since the fuel injection pressure in diesel engines is one of the main parameters which determine the emissions and the fuel efficiency, a precise control algorithm for the common-rail pressure is a required priority for improving the engine performances. This paper proposes a coordinated common-rail pressure control strategy for passenger car diesel engines using a metering unit and a pressure control valve. The metering unit, which is located at the high-pressure pump, adjusts the inlet fuel flow for the common rail using a first-order polynomial equation that describes the relation between the inlet fuel flow and the outlet fuel flow for the common rail. The injected fuel flow is used as the input for the control algorithm to determine the driving current of the metering unit. The designed control strategy for the metering unit effectively reduces the rail pressure wave generated by the high-pressure pump. Furthermore, since the inlet fuel flow is adjusted according to the injected fuel flow, the proposed control algorithm shows a robust performance to the injection disturbance. The pressure control valve located on the common rail adjusts the outlet fuel flow of the common rail. The control algorithm for the pressure control valve is designed using quantitative feedback theory to assure robustness even when the variation in the plant characteristics (such as the static gain and the time constant) is caused by the metering unit operation. Engine experiments proved that the proposed control strategy can reduce the variation in the steady-state rail pressure to less than 10 bar; in addition, the proposed rail pressure controller has a good degree of consistency under various engine operating conditions.

Apart from parametric uncertainty, model form uncertainty as well as prediction error may be involved in the analysis of engineering system. Model form uncertainty, inherently existing in selecting the best approximation from a model set cannot be ignored, especially when the predictions by competing models show significant differences. In this research, a methodology based on maximum likelihood estimation is presented to quantify model form uncertainty using the measured differences of experimental and model outcomes, and is compared with a fully Bayesian estimation to demonstrate its effectiveness. While a method called the adjustment factor approach is utilized to propagate model form uncertainty alone into the prediction of a system response, a method called model averaging is utilized to incorporate both model form uncertainty and prediction error into it. A numerical problem of concrete creep is used to demonstrate the processes for quantifying model form uncertainty and implementing the adjustment factor approach and model averaging. Finally, the presented methodology is applied to characterize the engineering benefits of a laser peening process.

This paper proposes a decoupler design method to reduce interaction between exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and variable geometry turbocharger (VGT) systems in passenger car diesel engines. The EGR valve and VGT vane are respectively used to control air-to-fuel ratio (AFR) of exhaust gas and intake pressure. A plant model for EGR and VGT systems is defined by a first order transfer function plus time-delay model, and the loop interaction between these systems is analyzed using a relative normalized gain array (RNGA) method. In order to deal with the loop interaction, a design method for simplified decoupler is applied to this study. Feedback control algorithms for AFR and intake pressure are composed of a compensator using PID control method and a prefilter. The proposed decoupler is evaluated through engine experiment, and the results successfully showed that the loop interaction between EGR and VGT systems can be reduced by using the proposed decoupler. Furthermore, it presents stable performance even off from the designed operating point.

This paper proposes a common rail pressure control algorithm for passenger car diesel engines. For handling the parameter-varying characteristics of common rail systems, the quantitative feedback theory (QFT) is applied to the design of a robust rail pressure control algorithm. The driving current of the pressure control valve and the common rail pressure are used as the input/output variables for the common rail system model. The model parameter uncertainty ranges are identified through experiments. Rail pressure controller requirements in terms of tracking performance, robust stability, and disturbance rejection are defined on a Nichols chart, and these requirements are fulfilled by designing a compensator and a prefilter in the QFT framework. The proposed common rail pressure control algorithm is validated through engine experiments. The experimental results show that the proposed rail pressure controller has a good degree of consistency under various operating conditions, and it successfully satisfies the requirements for reference tracking and disturbance rejection.

To preserve the fun of driving and enhance driving convenience, a smart regenerative braking system (SRS) is developed. The SRS provides automatic regeneration that is appropriate for the driving conditions, but the existing technology has a low level of acceptability and comfort. To solve this problem, this paper presents an automatic regenerative control system based on a deceleration model that reflects the driver&rsquo, s characteristics. The deceleration model is designed as a parametric model that mimics the driver&rsquo, s behavior. In addition, it consists of parameters that represent the driver&rsquo, s characteristics. These parameters are updated online by a learning algorithm. The validation results of the vehicle testing show that the vehicle maintained a safe distance from the leading car while simulating a driver&rsquo, s behavior. Of all the deceleration that occurred during the testing, 92% was conducted by the automatic regeneration system. In addition, the results of the online learning algorithm are different based on the driver&rsquo, s deceleration pattern. The presented automatic regenerative control system can be safely used in diverse car-following situations. Moreover, the system&rsquo, s acceptability is improved by updating the driver characteristics. In the future, the algorithm will be extended for use in more diverse deceleration situations by using intelligent transportation system information.

This paper presents a feedforward control algorithm for the EGR and VGT systems of passenger car diesel engines. The air-to-fuel ratio and boost pressure are selected as control indicators and the positions of EGR valve and VGT vane are used as control inputs of the EGR and VGT controller. In order to compensate the non-linearity and coupled dynamics of the EGR and VGT systems, we have proposed a non-linear model-based feedforward control algorithm which is obtained from static model inversion approach. It is observed that the average modeling errors of the feedforward algorithm is about 2% using stationary engine experiment data of 225 operating conditions. Using a feedback controller including proportional-integral, the modeling error is compensated. Furthermore, it is validated that the proposed feedforward algorithm generates physically acceptable trajectories of the actuator and successfully tracks the desired values through engine experiments.