Zero-emission travel, noiseless power trains and driving comfort are big advantages for electric vehicles (EV). One drawback, however, is the limited range that results from the use of smaller batteries to keep the cost down. In the day-to-day usage of such full electric vehicles (FEV) the driver has to recharge the vehicle quite. Using cables to connect vehicles in an outdoor environment is very unattractive for reasons of safety and soiling especially during winter with cold wet days. Additional drawbacks are liability issues with cables lying in the street and modification of the urban landscape. Battery recharging every day by cable could slow the growth of urban FEV fleets. The WIC2IT project offers a solution to expand FEV growth even faster by offering wireless charging. The ease-of-use of such charging systems insures that vehicles are connected to the grid more often since the driver just has to park the vehicle on the right spot and does not have to handle any bulky, heavy, dirty cables. The major challenge here is to insure that different vehicles are able to use charging spots whenever a parking space with such a spot becomes free. Successful interoperation means that even newer vehicles can be charged inductively at spots with older systems that were not specifically designed for the particular vehicle. The same is true for vehicles that might come from different manufacturers. Differences may occur since it is important to allow a free market and maximum design freedom for both vehicle manufacturers and suppliers of charging equipment. A second challenge within the scope of interoperation is in the knowledge of electromagnetic radiation. WIC2IT looks at the effect of electromagnetic radiation on living beings in order to gain valuable experience that will help determine the extent of design freedom and thus support the standardization process to make wireless charging reality in EU.

Gasoline direct injection (GDI) is among the technologies with a strong potential for improving the efficiency of spark-ignition engines. Considering the evolution of pollutant regulations, transient phases will play an increasingly critical role, and recent research has shown that transient phases are responsible for high particulate emission levels of GDI engines. The exact reasons of this observation are poorly understood, and classical design techniques that have proved their adequacy for optimising stabilized GDI operating points do not allow mastering these issues. In this context the objective of ASTRIDE is to contribute to a better understanding of the mixture preparation and the formation of liquid films during cold transients of internal combustion, gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines. Recent work has indeed shown that transients are responsible for important levels of soot particle emissions in such engines. The reasons for this are poorly understood, and classical design techniques having proven their adequacy for optimising stabilized operation of GDI engines fail to master them. The highly innovative work proposed by ASTRIDE is based on a combined usage of experimental techniques and Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) for studying transients in a single cylinder GDI engine, in a breakthrough approach as compared to classical techniques. This work will in particular profit from the innovative development of an analysis method of fast PIV velocity measurements for quantifying transient aerodynamics, and of a LES methodology for engine transients. This will be supported by experimental and modelling work concerning the characterization of sprays generated by last generation multi-hole injectors, their impact on a wall, the formation and evolution of a film, as well as of the evaporation of a film in a simplified configuration representative of the GDI context. The thus acquired understanding of the specificities of interactions between in-cylinder aerodynamics and the spray in GDI transients, and of their impact on the film formation and evolution, will be capitalised in the form of models for system simulation. The work proposed by ASTRIDE hereby aims at developing and validating breakthrough design tools that could contribute after the project to the emergence of GDI engines exhibiting soot particle production levels inside the cylinder that would be sufficiently low in order to avoid the negative impact in terms of cost and efficiency generated by the usage of soot particle filters in the exhaust.

In a Virtual Reality simulation, haptic devices are supposed to allow a more tangible and physical interaction with the virtual environment. To date, efficient haptic devices do exist and can be purchased along with industrial applications, but they suffer from several drawbacks. Particularly, they ususally have to be permanently held by the user and do not allow for touching virtual object in a natural fashion. Yet, many applications require hand-free interaction. This is particularly the case with simulations that require tactile exploration of the physical properties of virtual objects, or simulations that require a high fidelity haptic feedback. Due to the lack of relevant solutions, it is still to date impossible to carry on such a natural haptic interaction in a virtual reality simulation. Encountered-type haptic devices (ETHD) are an alternative category of haptic devices that may address that requirement. They rely on a mobile physical prop, usually actuated by a robot, that constantly follows the user hand, and encounter it only when needed, e.g. to simulate a contact between the user and the virtuel environment. Just as the lobby-boy, in the Grand Budapest Hotel movie, is supposed to anticipate any customer wishes, our Lobby-Bot robot is supposed to anticipate any motion of the user in the simulation. However,quite a few limitations still have to be overcome prior to a real industrial usage involving ETHD may be considered. Lobby-Bot project will address these issues along with 2 axes: a first one dealing with robot control, and the second one dealing with interaction techniques adapted to ETHD. User security is a primary topic when operating an ETHD. To deal with this constraint, we choose to use a cobot to move the prop, for which we will develop specific path planning algorithms taking into account the cobot low velocity, as well as collision between every robot segment and the whole user body. These algorithms will make use of user activity prediction models in order to both specify a target location for the prop and a user-safe trajectory to reach that location. From a software point of view, we also will study novel 3D interaction techniques to compensate for intrinsic ETHD limitations. These interaction techniques will allow for 1) handling potential delays between the ETHD and the user, 2) increase the diversity of shapes and textures that can be simulated by using an appropriate pseudo-haptic feedback, 3) surface followthrough by using ad-hoc feedbacks. The results will be integrated into an ETHD prototype. The prototype will be used to validate the benefits of ETHD when used in an industrial use-case (perceived quality in an automotive interior) . This use-case can not be simulated with current technologies. By leading the prototype integration, CLARTE will be able to carry on the protoype pre-industralisation at the end of the project. Beyond perceived quality assessments, ETHD will open new perspectives for the field of virtual prototyping. Many use-case that can not currently be handled through simulation will become accessible (e.g. ergonomic assessment of a virtual prototype, product customization, usability...).

The project SILMARILION aims at demonstrating a set of battery components suitable for 700Wh/L cell, using the following full cell level approach: -New cation-deficient Li-rich positives, targeting a specific capacity >= 250mAh/g -µm-size Silicon from low cost milling, blended with graphite to achieve an electrode with > 1000mAh/g -screening of electrolyte components and assess interface with active materials -focus on electrode formulation in order to determine the more suitable set of binders and conductive additives -correlate the complete cell properties to active materials & interfaces ageing, thanks to advanced characterization techniques such as NMR and EELS (i.e. highlight the importance of full cell configuration vs half-cell). -Demonstrate the achievements at prototype level with 3 generations of 18650-like cells, in order to reach a durability target of 20% energy loss after 1000 cycles at C/2 at room temperature and 20% energy loss after 400 cycles at 45°C. -explore some power/energy ratios.