Lorenzo Berzi

University of Florence | UNIFI · Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale

This article presents an analysis of energy consumption for battery electric motorcycles (BEM) based on vehicle configuration and driving cycles. The study investigates the impact of two architectures: rear-wheel regenerative (RWR), and two-wheel regenerative (2WR) on consumption. For the analysis, the study considered the effect of various paramet...

Multi-modal battery-operated trains are gaining an increasing favor and diffusion, as a sustainable alternative to Diesel-Electric and Diesel-Hydraulic Powertrain that are conventionally used on not electrified or partially electrified lines. In this work authors examine how current improvements on battery technologies are going to increase perform...

Lithium-ion battery cells are considered the best solution for energy storage systems in Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs), due to their high energy density, high lifecycle, and low aging impact. Battery performances are strictly connected to operating conditions, especially temperature. Modern Battery Thermal Management Systems (BTMSs) optimize bat...

This study concerns the comparative investigation of two advanced lateral stability automotive controllers with respect to a commercial solution. The research aims to improve the stability performances achieved by a combined tracking of yaw rate and side-slip angle through the application of optimal efforts. The proposed solutions are based on Line...

A fast and reliable recharge of the electric public transportation system is a fundamental prerequisite for extended electrification and decarbonization of public transportation systems. As a part of continuous research cooperation, authors have proposed and tested different fast recharge technologies that have been tested on the fleet of electrica...

Textile dryers are energy-consuming machines that are widely diffused in the textile industry Authors are currently working on the complete redesign of a sustainable drier which is completely rethought to maximize productivity and sustainability. In this work, the authors focus their attention on modeling and design of winding and transport of the...

Assessment of railway wheel slide protection (WSP) systems involves the execution of complex experimental activities that are quite expensive and time-consuming, since they involve the physical reproduction of degraded adhesion conditions on a real railway line. WSP is devoted to regulating applied braking forces to avoid excessive wheel sliding in...

The mortality of road accidents quadruples when, in addition to motorists, a motorcyclist is also involved. The higher mortality is influenced by the greater exposure of the rider to injuries during the impact. This problem can be mitigated by reducing, even slightly, the impact’s speed. Bench tests carried out by previous studies showed a consider...

The PROTEUS project involves the construction of a self-propelled and floating amphibious machine for near shore geological surveys. In this context, the development of a wireline core drilling device was tackled, evolving with respect to existing models and responding to the specificities of the new application. In the preliminary phase, comparati...

The ongoing electrification of road vehicles needs to be supported by proper growth of charging infrastructure. In this context, dynamic wireless charging can provide a number of advantages, main being the possibility to extend vehicle range without increasing on board battery capacity, potentially reducing cost, mass, and tank-to-wheel energy cons...

Object of this work is the design and the simulation of a hybrid UAV with VTOL capabilities that has been designed for landing on naval moving platforms. The work is focused on the innovative propulsion layout adopted on the UAV. Authors discuss how adopted low level control strategies can exploit the innovative features of the proposed system assu...

Correctly reproducing the roll effects to obtain a realistic riding experience is still an open issue in motorcycle simulators. This goal becomes more challenging if the motorcycle simulator uses a car dynamic model, such as the simulator of the MOVING. This study has defined a control logic integrated with the pre-existing model to reproduce the e...

Motorcycle simulators are employed for rider training, studying human-machine interaction, and developing assistance systems. However, existing simulators are either too simple and, therefore, unsuitable or significantly complex, with higher hardware costs and familiarisation times. This study aimed to use a tuned single-track car model as the basi...

The development of the blue economy involves the construction of marine infrastructures (harbors, marine wind farms, underwater data centers, etc.). All these activities require a geological investigation of the sea bottom. For nearshore and very near-shore applications the most common solution is represented by the adoption of fixed jack-up platfo...

High-performance Permanent Magnets (PMs), both as sintered metal and bonded metal-polymer, are necessary for modern industry. PMs using Rare Earth Elements (REEs) for wind power generation provide efficiency and power density. As a drawback, REEs are critical due to cost, environmental and social impacts related to their production. Component optim...

Roads are a strategic asset of a country and are of great importance for the movement of passengers and goods. Increasing traffic volume and load, together with the aging of roads, creates various types of anomalies on the road surface. This work proposes a low-cost system for real-time screening of road pavement conditions. Acceleration signals pr...

Diesel multiple units (DMU) offer an affordable alternative to electric trains on lines in which infrastructural and maintenance costs of electrification are not justified. A further improvement of sustainability involves the abandonment of internal combustion engines in favour of an electric power train sustained by an on-board storage system. In...

Trenchless technologies represent an innovative opportunity to improve quality, sustainability and overall costs of many construction works dealing with installation of various kind of ser-vices and utilities especially in crowded urban environments where interactions of conventional construction yards with surrounding community should produce an a...

The aim of this chapter is to investigate how hybridization should help to improve efficiency and sustainability of heavy vehicles including public transportation systems, trucks, and tracked machines. Fundamental concepts are introduced and illustrated through a gallery of examples mainly related to previous research experiences of authors.

The capability to assess and monitor the state of health (SOH) of lithium-based cells is a highly demanded feature for advanced battery management systems. Due to the existing relation between SOH and internal impedance, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) methods are adopted for SOH diagnosis. Nevertheless, accurate EIS tests demand expen...

Mechanical recycling of common materials such as plastics requires appropriate material segregation, which is usually performed adopting processes similar to those developed for mineral engineering industry. Due to the need to increment amount and quality of selection products, such processes – still developed through trial-and-error approach – are...

Newly electric vehicle architectures require intensive virtual and physical testing for safety assessment, due to the increasing relevance of By-Wire systems and the presence of innovative control algorithms for ordinary driving scenario, potential emergency situations or Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems implementation purpose. To reduce the deve...

Trenchless excavation will play a key role in the development of smart cities allowing a fast and sustainable improvement of underground infrastructures. Directional drilling machines are a fundamental tool in this process allowing the installation of pipes, ducts and cables with a relatively free trajectory. In the optic of a progressive decarboni...

This paper presents the design procedure of an electric circuit that can perform the battery state diagnosis and, simultaneously, provide its charging. A fast and embedded impedance measurement method is also proposed; this is based on a broadband current signal excitation on the battery during the constant current charging phase. The proposed solu...

Cartesian Manipulators are still widely used in many application sectors, due to their relatively simple construction and easy controllability. In this work authors present a study concerning the revamping of an existing manipulator, in which it’s shown how an integrated mechatronic design affecting structure, actuation and drive system can produce...

This paper proposes a hybrid storage for urban transport systems in order to reduce recharge time and increase its life and reliability. Proposed system is applied to a pre-existing electric vehicle, introducing through proposed revamping procedure a methodology for a fast integration of proposed systems on different vehicles. Finally, the system i...

Diffusion of electric and hybrid vehicles is accelerating the development of innovative braking technologies. Calibration of accurate models of a hydraulic brake plant involves availability of large amount of data whose acquisition is expensive and time consuming. Also, for some applications, such as vehicle simulators and hardware in the loop test...

Demand for urban mobility continue to be on the rise and the changing landscape has profound repercussions on a varied range of issues as well as health, safety, water, transport and energy consumption. For this reason, to achieve sustainable urbanization, cities must generate better employment opportunities, expand the necessary infrastructure, en...

Research question / Starting point for investigation: The application of Autonomous Emergency Braking on Motorcycles (MAEB) relies on the solution of a number of open research questions. The collision represents a dangerous and safety critical event to be avoided with high priority. However, focusing on the triggering methods, the recommendation fr...

A thorough assessment of Life-Cycle effects involved by vehicle lightweighting needs a rigorous evaluation of mass-induced consumption, on which energy and sustainability benefits during use stage directly depend. The paper proposes an analytical calculation procedure to estimate the weight-related energy consumption of pure Electric Vehicles (EVs)...

As electric mobility becomes more important every day, scientific research brings us new solutions that increase performance, reduce financial and economic impacts and increase the market share of electric vehicles. Therefore, there is a necessity to compare technical and economic aspects of different technologies for each transport application. Th...

A rapidly shifting market and increasingly stringent environmental regulations require the automotive OEMs to produce more efficient and low-emission electric vehicles. Regenerative braking has proven to be a major contributor to both objectives, enabling the charging of the batteries during braking on one side, and a reduction of the load and wear...

As a part of a National research program (Ricerca di Sistema 2015 and 2017), ENEA has proposed an innovative hybrid storage system that allows a fast recharge of electric public transportation vehicles. In order to demonstrate the feasibility of this idea, researchers of University of Florence have implemented the proposed system on a existing elec...

Application of regenerative braking on electric vehicles have a large impact on several aspects of design, implemented functionalities and overall performances of road vehicles. In particular, multi-quadrant capabilities and improved control performances of modern electric drives can be fully exploited to improve vehicle efficiency, stability and o...

The paper contributes at filling the lack of knowledge on Photovoltaic (PV) panels recycling through the analysis of a mobile mechanical treatment plant developed within the context of a European project. The process, the machinery installed in the system and their main functionalities are described. The data are used to perform a Life Cycle Assess...

Regenerative braking influences several aspects of design and performances of electric vehicles. Improved performances of modern electric drives can be exploited to optimize vehicle efficiency, stability and environmental impact. Braking plant is devoted not only to stop the vehicle but also to the actuate many on board safety related systems. As a...

Development of electric vehicles is not only an opportunity in terms of environmental sustainability but it also offers interesting possibilities in terms of control performances that can be achieved by on board systems devoted to increase vehicle safety and stability by modulating longitudinal efforts applied to tires. It’s not only a matter of pe...

Modern electric vehicles are complex mechatronics systems whose behaviour is highly influenced by the concurrent action of mechanical and electrical systems interfaced with complex control logics aiming to improve several aspect concerning energy management, vehicle stability, comfort and guidance. As a partner of the European Project Obelics (Opti...

Cost and reliability of energy storage systems are key factors for the electrification of road vehicles such as buses. In this work, authors propose a hybrid storage system in which a relatively small electrochemical battery is coupled with an array of super-capacitors. Super-capacitors are sized in order to store the energy needed to perform the t...