Braking Dynamics of Auto-Rickshaw

Auto-rickshaw is one of the most customary modes of transport in urban as well as rural areas of India. The safety of this vehicle is of prime concern. The braking system plays a vital role in the safety of any vehicle. This work is carried out in order to analyze the vehicle behavior during braking maneuver since the literature survey carried out had fewer details about the braking performance of Auto-rickshaw. Bajaj RE was chosen in particular for our study because it is widely used. Stopping distance analysis is utilized in order to estimate the vehicle braking performance. The straight-line braking performance is studied with the help of a 3-DOF mathematical model of the vehicle developed which includes the surge, heave and pitch motions. This model is formulated based on the Newtonian approach and is built on Simulink environment. The complete brake system is developed and coupled with the mathematical model. The Pacejka tire model is implemented in order to obtain accurate results. The vehicle parameters such as C.G. location and inertia were obtained experimentally and passed into the model. The inputs provided to the model are initial vehicle velocity, pedal force and loading conditions. The simulation results include vehicle deceleration, velocity, stopping distance, pitching of the vehicle, etc. In order to validate the results obtained through simulation, experimental analysis is performed with the help of VBOX Test Suite. The test results comprise vehicle velocity and distance covered. The simulation and test results are compared for different input conditions and discussed. For a minute variation in MFDD, the variation in simulation and test results were very close i.e., for distance travelled and time taken were respectively -0.25% and 3.34%. A particular scenario was simulated and validated with standards [7].