The Steering Committee of the CVDC met on Thursday, 8 April at the new Firestone Industrial Products Technical Center (FTC) in Arnhem, Netherlands. Seven of the CVDC’s member organizations met to discuss what was a successful year for research in the CVDC. This past year the CVDC produced 11 papers published in internationally reviewed journals or conferences.
David Cebon, Will Midgley, and Jonathan Miller talked about progress in MEng projects, the actively steered B-double project, regenerative braking of heavy vehicles, and an advanced pneumatic actuator for heavy-vehicle braking, respectively. Leon Henderson, a new postgraduate at Cambridge, made his CVDC debut and introduced his preliminary work on emergency braking strategies for heavy vehicles.
Arvin-Meritor, Firestone, Goodyear, Haldex, and Volvo all presented on new developments in their respective corporations at what was the first non-Firestone meeting held at the FTC. The FTC was first opened in 2008 and members were given a fascinating tour of the new facility.
The members in attendance approved the Core Program of Research for 2011, though uncertainty remains over the continuity of postdoctoral funding beyond this autumn.
The next CVDC meeting will be held in mid-October 2010 at MIRA, hosted by Haldex. This meeting promises to be a unique, 2-day session encompassing both a CVDC meeting and a demonstration of members’ experimental project vehicles.
Presentations from this meeting and the above mentioned papers are available in the Members’ Area.
Further information on the CVDC can be found here.