Social Collaboration Course

Ono Sokki has established a course on "Social Collaboration on Vibration Measurement and Control for Electric Vehicles" with the Graduate School of New Frontier Sciences at the University of Tokyo, conducting research aimed at realizing a clean and comfortable electric vehicle society. This time, we spoke with Professor Hiroshi Fujimoto and Specially Appointed Lecturer Eiji Nagai, who are in charge of the course, as well as employees from our company participating as students, to learn about the research content and the role of this course.

Oda: I originally joined Ono Sokki because it was a company that dealt with sound and vibration measurement instruments that I researched in university, but during the training after joining, I discovered the joy of being involved in automotive testing.
Additionally, since our company has many opportunities related to the automotive industry, I wanted to acquire knowledge about automobiles from the beginning, so I was in charge of the electrical design of testing equipment mainly for the drive system. I saw the recruitment for this social collaboration course on the company bulletin board, became interested, and applied because I wanted to take on the challenge.

Oda: We are engaged in research that utilizes a low-inertia dynamometer from Ono Sokki to design and evaluate a vibration suppression controller for PHEVs equipped with e-Axles. If this controller can be realized, it will contribute to the improvement of the 'ride comfort' of electric vehicles, including EVs.

Fujimoto: As the automotive industry moves towards electrification, the focus of research is shifting from internal combustion engines to motors. Consequently, the frequency bands targeted in vibration control research and development are also shifting to higher ranges, and it has become clear that conventional models in MBD will not suffice. This necessitates modeling at high frequency ranges, and accurate measurement of frequency characteristics using low-inertia dynamometers becomes crucial for this modeling.
This research aims to establish new methodologies to address the challenges associated with electrification. As motors become the primary power source, I believe that this new vibration suppression control method will gain increasing importance and attention, and I have high expectations for it.

Nagai: This research is a collaborative project between us and a domestic automobile manufacturer, and the initial trigger was their consultation with us about vehicle vibration suppression methods.

Fujimoto: Academically speaking, there are passive and active methods for vibration suppression, but I believe that the active methods we are researching this time can fully utilize the performance of the motor. However, while the automotive industry is focusing on motor research, active methods are still not very mainstream. Ideally, active vibration suppression control should be tailored to the characteristics of the vehicle, but in the automotive industry, the manufacturers that design vehicles and those that design motors are separate, making it quite difficult to realize this. At such a time, after consulting with an automotive manufacturer and coincidentally discussing the social collaboration course with Ono Sokki, I thought, 'If that's the case, we might be able to pull it off,' and embarked on the research.

Fujimoto: In the design of controllers, it is necessary to repeatedly evaluate the design values not only through simulations but also by measuring actual prototypes and revising the design values based on those results. During the measurement phase, we used the equipment and devices from Ono Sokki.

Nagai: There were also parts regarding the interpretation of the analysis results that we could not determine on our own, so we received advice from an employee of Ono Sokki, which was very helpful.

Social Collaboration Course

Exploration of new technologies through industry-academia collaboration.

Towards the establishment of a new method that contributes to electrification.

First, I would like to ask Mr. Oda. In what capacity are you participating in this course?

What kind of work were you doing at our company before studying abroad?

How long has it been since you participated?

What kind of research are you conducting?

Research that could only be undertaken because of industry-academia collaboration.

What was the reason that led you to start this research?

Our company is able to contribute to research that supports the future of automobiles.

We are also pleased to contribute to new technological research. As mentioned earlier, our facilities are being used in this research.

Our employees and products are active in various places.

Will the success stories of this course be spread in the future?

This course is scheduled to continue until March 31, 2029. We aim to continue fostering collaboration between industry and academia to create new innovations.