Subash Mannamparambil Unnikrishnan

Background

Subash brings a diverse spectrum of industrial vehicle R&D experience, spanning from optimising purely mechanical systems to developing sophisticated embedded software solutions for automotive applications. After completing a BTech in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Calicut and an MTech in Engineering Design from Amrita University, Subash began his career in 2009 as a scientist at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)—one of India’s most prestigious central government organisations. There, he worked on analysing and optimising the kinematics of the hydro-pneumatic trailing arm suspension system for the Main Battle Tank.

After over six years in this role, Subash pursued further specialisation by studying Automotive Engineering at Cranfield University (2015-16), gaining specific expertise in Vehicle Dynamics Control applications. In 2017, he joined Continental Automotive as a Technical Specialist, initially working as a base developer for Active Yaw Control (AYC), a critical safety function within electronic braking systems. He advanced to the role of Senior Technical Architect, where he led a team in developing vehicle models for V&V testing and supported test automation efforts.

To continue advancing his expertise, Subash is currently pursuing a PhD in Cooperative Motion Control of Connected and Automated Vehicles from Jan 2022. He is passionate about sharing knowledge and currently offers a popular online course on Vehicle Dynamics & Control, alongside managing a YouTube channel dedicated to clarifying some of the automotive industry’s most challenging concepts.

Research opportunities

Autonomous Vehicles Cooperative Control

Vehicle Dynamics & Control

Hydro-pneumatic Suspensions

Current activities

Subash is currently working on Cooperative Control of Connected and Automated Vehicles going through multiple intersections in an urban setting. A centralised control framework is developed where multiple road vehicles pass through an urban road network with multiple intersections. The solution for an optimal comfort travel for each vehicle is developed starting from initial time optimal solutions of individual vehicles and then relaxing the time to account for delays caused by potential conflicts at the intersections and at the connecting roads. Considering the various needs of travel for each vehicle in terms of comfort, energy efficiency and performance, constraints on maximum velocity, maximum acceleration and maximum jerk are taken into account while finding the optimal time solution. Point masses are considered for dynamics for obtaining the initial optimal time solution. Acceleration at the initial and final states of all the connecting roads and intersections are assumed as zero. Solutions are calculated for all routes with the same distance from origin to destination. The vehicles are scheduled by a program based on custom made algorithm using priority-wise philosophy. Both intersection conflicts and connecting road conflicts are resolved by separate programs based on custom made algorithms. The repetitive nature of generating an intersection conflict while resolving a connecting road conflict and vice versa is also addressed. The trajectory for each vehicle is generated after all the conflict resolutions which consists of the position, velocity acceleration and jerk variation with respect to time. Trajectory can only be generated if the initial and final conditions are feasible. In case of infeasibility, the initial optimal solution function is called again to find a feasible initial state or final state for velocity. After scheduling and resolving conflicts the minimum time route is chosen for the vehicles if more than one route is present. Solution for single lane traffic without overtaking is developed. The backbone of the framework is a custom-made analytical solver for optimal time solution, which is much faster than the compared numerical solvers off the shelf.