Zachary D. Asher

Zachary D. Asher
Western Michigan University | WMU · Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Bachelor of Science, Master of Science, Doctor of Philosophy

About

70
Publications
39,414
Reads
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790
Citations
Introduction
Dr. Zachary D. Asher is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Western Michigan University and the director of the Energy Efficient and Autonomous Vehicles (EEAV) Lab. For more information about our research and publicly available copies of all publications, please visit our website: https://wmich.edu/autonomous-vehicles

Publications

Publications (70)
Article
Full-text available
Current state-of-the-art (SOTA) LiDAR-only detectors perform well for 3D object detection tasks, but point cloud data are typically sparse and lacks semantic information. Detailed semantic information obtained from camera images can be added with existing LiDAR-based detectors to create a robust 3D detection pipeline. With two different data types,...
Article
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External human–machine interfaces (eHMIs) serve as communication bridges between autonomous vehicles (AVs) and road users, ensuring that vehicles convey information clearly to those around them. While their potential has been explored in one-to-one contexts, the effectiveness of eHMIs in complex, real-world scenarios with multiple pedestrians remai...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
div class="section abstract"> Traditional autonomous vehicle perception subsystems that use onboard sensors have the drawbacks of high computational load and data duplication. Infrastructure-based sensors, which can provide high quality information without the computational burden and data duplication, are an alternative to traditional autonomous v...
Article
Full-text available
Safe autonomous vehicle (AV) operations depend on an accurate perception of the driving environment, which necessitates the use of a variety of sensors. Computational algorithms must then process all of this sensor data, which typically results in a high on-vehicle computational load. For example, existing lane markings are designed for human drive...
Article
Full-text available
Advancements in driving automation systems such as Lane Keeping Assist has shown improvements in safety by reducing traffic accidents. Nonetheless, despite the promise of these technologies, some studies have shown statistical data that such systems have a poor resilient operation. Therefore, there is a need to design more robust and resilient Adva...
Chapter
The development of novel vehicle control systems that improve Fuel Economy (FE) is of significant interest, owing to the economic, environmental, and social implications of transportation. These control methods can either alter driver behavior, vehicle dynamics, or powertrain operation. This review focuses on the Eco-driving (ED) application for Au...
Chapter
Deployment of newly developed autonomous vehicle (AV) technology on public roads may result in exposure to the public of high levels of danger. A proactive metric, as opposed to a reactive metric, is required to evaluate the safety of an automated system without relying on the rate of vehicle accidents and fatalities relative to the number of miles...
Conference Paper
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div class="section abstract"> Contemporary ADS and ADAS localization technology utilizes real-time perception sensors such as visible light cameras, radar sensors, and lidar sensors, greatly improving transportation safety in sufficiently clear environmental conditions. However, when lane lines are completely occluded, the reliability of on-board a...
Conference Paper
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div class="section abstract"> Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAV) provide new prospects for energy-efficient driving due to their improved information accessibility, enhanced processing capacity, and precise control. The idea of the Eco-Driving (ED) control problem is to perform energy-efficient speed planning for a connected and automated vehic...
Conference Paper
div class="section abstract"> Modern vehicles use automated driving assistance systems (ADAS) products to automate certain aspects of driving, which improves operational safety. In the U.S. in 2020, 38,824 fatalities occurred due to automotive accidents, and typically about 25% of these are associated with inclement weather. ADAS features have been...
Chapter
Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) generally utilize cameras to provide limited automation functions to enhance driver safety.ADAS uses computer vision (CV) to extract vehicle surrounds, lane boundaries, drivable regions, and nearby objects. ADAS systems fail, however, when the vehicle is operating in adverse conditions (e.g., obscured lane...
Article
In the U.S., over 38,000 fatalities occur every year due to automotive accidents where 24% of these accidents are attributable to inclement weather. Automated driving systems have shown to decrease up to 21% of potential collisions, however, these systems do not operate in inclement weather. The camera’s reliance on clear lane line detections cease...
Article
Full-text available
Connected autonomous vehicle (CAV) technology has the potential to enable significant gains in energy economy (EE). Much research attention has been focused on autonomous eco-driving control enabled by various methods. In this study, the state of the literature on autonomous eco-driving control is reviewed, an overall systems’ description of eco-dr...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) typically utilize cameras to provide limited automation features to improve driver safety. ADAS utilizes computer vision (CV) to extract vehicle surrounding information. However, when the vehicle is operating in bad weather (e.g., obstructed lane lines), ADAS products fail. We have developed a new technique...
Article
Full-text available
Commercialization of autonomous vehicle technology is a major goal of the automotive industry, thus research in this space is rapidly expanding across the world. However, despite this high level of research activity, literature detailing a straightforward and cost-effective approach to the development of an AV research platform is sparse. To addres...
Article
Autonomous vehicles (AVs) have the potential to vastly improve independent, safe, and cost-effective mobility options for individuals with disabilities. However, accessibility considerations are often overlooked in the early stages of design, resulting in AVs that are inaccessible to people with disabilities. Vehicles serving people with disabiliti...
Conference Paper
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Heavy-duty commercial vehicles consume a significant amount of energy due to their large size and mass, directly leading to vehicle operators prioritizing energy efficiency to reduce operational costs and comply with environmental regulations. One tool that can be used for the evaluation of energy efficiency in heavy-duty vehicles is the evaluation...
Conference Paper
div class="section abstract"> Today’s Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) predominantly utilize cameras to increase driver and passenger safety. Computer vision, as the enabler of this technology, extracts two key environmental features: the drivable region and surrounding objects (e.g., vehicles, pedestrians, bicycles). Lane lines are the mo...
Article
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In this study, a thorough and definitive evaluation of Predictive Optimal Energy Management Strategy (POEMS) applications in connected vehicles using 10 to 20 s predicted velocity is conducted for a Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV). The presented methodology includes synchronous datasets gathered in Fort Collins, Colorado using a test vehicle equipped...
Article
Full-text available
Eco-Driving is a critical technology for improving automotive transportation efficiency. It is achieved by modifying the driving trajectory over a particular route to minimize required propulsion energy. Eco-Driving can be approached as an optimal control problem subject to driving constraints such as traffic lights and positions of other vehicles....
Article
The use of new vehicle technologies such as fuel cell hybrid electric and fully electric powertrains for biomass feedstock supply is an unexplored solution to reducing biofuel production cost, greenhouse gas emissions, and health impacts. These technologies have found success in light-duty vehicle applications and are in development for heavy-duty...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
div class="section abstract"> Autonomous vehicle technology has the potential to improve the safety, efficiency, and cost of our current transportation system by removing human error. With sensors available today, it is possible for the development of these vehicles, however, there are still issues with autonomous vehicle operations in adverse weat...
Article
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Widely published research shows that significant fuel economy improvements through optimal control of a vehicle powertrain are possible if the future vehicle velocity is known and real-time optimization calculations can be performed. In this research however, we seek to advance the field of optimal powertrain control by limiting future vehicle oper...
Article
Full-text available
In-motion charging of electric vehicles (EVs) using wireless power transfer (WPT) represents an alternative to both traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) transportation and long-range EVs. This study focuses on understanding the economics, environmental impact, and infrastructure rollout of in-motion WPT applied to the U.S. transportation fl...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Space debris threatens operation in space, requires perpetual tracking costs, and adds complexity to mission design and planning. To combat these issues, researchers have investigated numerous debris field removal techniques including sequential debris object removal using a single spacecraft. But, the analyses developed so far typically require hi...
Conference Paper
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As individual engineering disciplines and applications mature, there is an increased need for multidisciplinary education and application competencies. As an example, a course on modern automotive vehicles must now incorporate electrical propulsion in addition to mechanical propulsion to reflect the current state of the art. Systems engineering pro...
Conference Paper
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In-motion wireless power transfer (WPT) has been demonstrated as a safe and viable technology for operating and recharging electric vehicles while meeting consumer demands. In this research, in-motion WPT is applied to an electrified class 8 line-haul truck and evaluated for economic and environmental impacts. The results of this in-motion WPT truc...
Conference Paper
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Vehicle control using prediction based optimal energy management has been demonstrated to achieve better fuel economy resulting in economic, environmental, and societal benefits. However, research focusing on prediction derivation for use in optimal energy management is limited despite the existence of hundreds of optimal energy management research...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The environmental implications of converting vehicles powered by Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) to battery powered and hybrid battery/ICE powered are evaluated for the case of Chile, one of the worldwide leaders in the production of lithium (Li) required for manufacturing of Li-ion batteries. The economic and environmental metrics were evaluated...
Conference Paper
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Application of predictive optimal energy management strategies to improve fuel economy in hybrid electric vehicles is an active subject of research. Acceleration events during a drive cycle provide particularly attractive opportunities for predictive optimal energy management because of their high energy cost and limited variability, which enables...
Conference Paper
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Modern vehicles have incorporated numerous safety-focused Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) in the last decade including smart cruise control and object avoidance. In this paper, we aim to go beyond using ADAS for safety and propose to use ADAS technology to enable predictive optimal energy management and improve vehicle fuel economy. We co...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
High accuracy hybrid vehicle fuel consumption (FC) and emissions models used in practice today are the product of years of research, are physics based, and bear a large computational cost. However, it may be possible to replace these models with a non-physics based, higher accuracy, and computationally efficient versions. In this research, an alter...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Studies have shown that obtaining and utilizing information about the future state of vehicles can improve vehicle fuel economy (FE). However, there has been a lack of research into whether near-term technologies can be utilized to improve FE and the impact of real-world prediction error on potential FE improvements. In this study, a speed predicti...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Autonomous vehicle development has benefited from sanctioned competitions dating back to the original 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge. Since these competitions, fully autonomous vehicles have become much closer to significant real-world use with the majority of research focused on reliability, safety and cost reduction. Our research details the recent c...
Presentation
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This presentation shows some of the initial research efforts from our group. Initial energy requirements and proposed methods are presented.
Chapter
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When the sensors and signals that enable connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) technology are combined with vehicle electrification, new vehicle control strategies that improve fuel economy (FE) are possible through perception, planning, and a control request issued to the vehicle plant. In this chapter, each CAV technology that could contribute t...
Article
Full-text available
Fuel economy (FE) improvements for hybrid electric vehicles using a predictive Optimal Energy Management Strategy (Optimal EMS) is an active subject of research. Recent developments have focused on real-time prediction-based control strategies despite the lack of research demonstrating the aspects of prediction that are most important for FE improv...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Optimal energy management of hybrid electric vehicles has previously been shown to increase fuel economy (FE) by approximately 20% thus reducing dependence on foreign oil, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and reducing Carbon Monoxide (CO) and Mono Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) emissions. This demonstrated FE increase is a critical technology to be i...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Previous research has demonstrated an increase in Fuel Economy (FE) using an optimal controller based on limited foreknowledge using methods such as Engine Equivalent Minimization Strategy (ECMS) and Stochastic Dynamic Programming (SDP) with stochastic error in the prediction signal considerations. This study seeks to quantify the sensitivity of pr...
Conference Paper
This study seeks to develop an understanding of the sensitivity of sensing and prediction-derived vehicle fuel economy improvements to prediction signal quality. The trip pattern identification type of scenario control was selected for in-depth study. For this scenario control, we developed real-world derived drive cycles to test and demonstrate th...
Thesis
Full-text available
Space debris poses an escalating threat to operational satellites, especially in the LEO belt. Sequential debris object removal using tether capture and tether momentum exchange is a potential solution to the debris problem. This concept uses a tether to capture a debris object and exchange momentum between the spacecraft and the debris in order to...

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