The continuing trend of consumers to seek safer products has caused
the automotive industry to provide safer vehicles. Improvements in
today's cars have allowed for better traction control and thus safer
handling by use of Electronic Slip Protection, Traction Control,
Active Suspension, and AWD systems. Among other safety features,
the industry has turned to All Wheel Drive (AWD) systems to provide
consumers with a safer alternative to two wheel drive vehicles.
These AWD systems can reconfigure the vehicle's torque distribution
to help the vehicle sustain traction even in slippery conditions.
Our student group was given the opportunity to explore
and design a new and innovative electronically controlled AWD system
coupler. This coupler would be used along with sensors that monitor
wheel speed and other vehicle information. All of the available
information would be processed and used to send the appropriate
amount of torque to each wheel to enhance vehicle acceleration and
stability. In recent years there have not been any significant
advancements in AWD couplers, most companies just make minor
adjustments to existing ideas to avoid patent infringements. TRT
Auto systems has explored the available alternatives for couplers
and brainstormed different implementations.
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