Good comfort for the driver of a construction machine is crucial. Gearshift comfort is an important part of the total comfort. Volvo Construction Equipment Components has a simulation environment of the powertrain, SimPow, which is implemented in Matlab/Simulink. SimPow is mostly used for simulation of control strategies and performance. In order to be able to study gearshifting comfort, Volvo has an interest in developing new models for SimPow.

Heavy duty vehicles often have problems with traction during the winter periods. For vehicles that can lift tag axles it is possible to increase the normal force on the driven axle by lifting one or more tag axles, this will then increase the propulsive force of friction. This however increases wear on both road and vehicle. A possibility to reduce the wear while achieving nearly equivalent traction compared to lifted tag axles is to allow the vehicle to regulate the normal force by lowering the pressure in the air suspension associated with the tag axles or by the lifting of these axles. The vehicle would then by itself be able to set just the right amount of normal force on the drive wheels to avoid unnecessarily high normal forces while maintaining sufficient traction.The purpose of the report is to find out which parameters affect heavy duty vehicles when driving on slippery slopes and how traction can be improved.

When farm animals are transported there are several factors that can affect their welfare. If the vehicle has an accident the welfare of the animals transported will probably be compromised. The aim of this study was to make a survey of accidents with animal transportation vehicles in Sweden. The survey included the number of accidents from January 2000 to May 2014, the cause of the accidents and how the animal welfare was affected by the accident. The authorities which were likely to have reports about accidents involving animal transports were contacted. There were no collected records about transportation accidents and the authorities referred to eachother for information.

When the emissions from the diesel trucks today accounts for a large part of the total emissions from the road traffic, the trend with a more extensive use of diesel trucks for transportation will therefore lead to increasing carbondioxide emissions to the atmosphere. Because of the fact that technical progress in the form of optimized engines and shifts in the means of transport sometimes result in even greater emission levels, other solutions to this problem must be studied to decrease the emissions of carbondioxide from the diesel trucks. The purpose of the thesis is to show how a decrease of the carbondioxide emissions from diesel trucks in Sweden can be achieved in a costeffective way by the use of a carbondioxide tax and a differentiated vehicle tax. The method used in order to fullfill the purpose of the thesis is studies of literature, mainly of public government reports. Literature of enviromental economics will be used to show the need of a tax and how to determine the dynamic effective carbondioxide tax in steady-state.

The purpose of the present study was to examine effects of driver, vehicle, and environment characteristics on Collision Warning System (CWS) design. One hypothesis was made that the capability of collision avoidance would not be same among a driver, vehicle, and environment group with different characteristics. Accident analysis and quantitative analysis was used to examine this hypothesis in terms of ?risk? and ?safety margin? respectively. Rear-end collision had a stronger focus in the present study.

The combat mission is an extreme situation with high demands of the soldier. Killing might very well be necessary. Before a mission a soldier can experience stress due to these factors. The purpose of this paper is to find methods to handle stress due to an upcoming combat mission and to the prospect of having to kill. The main questions of this essay: -How can certain parts of the physiological psychology improve a soldiers ability to perform a mission? ? Is the Swedish soldier mentally prepared to kill? The theory for this essay has been described using litteratur by experts within the field, and the results thereafter discussed.

Obemannade flygfarkoster har varit omtalat sedan kriget mot terrorn startade 11 september 2001 och det förekommer fortfarande frågor kring hur systemet nyttjas och om det är moraliskt korrekt. Det finns många användningsområden för farkosterna som exempelvis lägesuppfattning, sökandet av försvunna personer, attackuppdrag med flera. Studien undersöker hur farkosterna används inom attackföretag samt den militära nyttan av systemet. Eftersom det finns olika uppfattningar kring hur systemet används i krig och konflikt så kommer studien att redogöra för olika uppfattningar samt att konkretisera dessa.Det moraliska synsättet på Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle, UCAV, i konflikt och krig skiljer sig åt. De som talar emot systemet menar att detta i sig är hotet och inte hur det nyttjas.

A lot of habitats have declined or disappeared as the old cultural landscape changed to the modern agricultural landscape of today. Places such as power line corridors, racing tracks, gravel pits and military training sites have become refuges for many species associated with the old cultural landscape. These sites have been exposed to ecological disturbances that create the same type of habitats that were found in the old cultural landscape.The military training sites in Sweden has an impressive diversity of species. Disturbances from the military exercises have created habitats that are important for a wide range of species.The purpose of this thesis is to study some of the ecological disturbances occurring in the military training sites of the Swedish Armed Forces and examine how they affect different types of habitats. The thesis explains through litterateur and field studies the reason to the rich biodiversity often found at military training sites.

The Swedish market for vehicle inspection is re-regulated since June 2010. More than four years after the re-regulation there are eight companies in the market. Two of these companies are a result of the former monopolist's owners divided the business among themselves. The remaining six companies have entered the market through acquisitions or by building up their business from scratch, these are known as new entrants in the study. The competition has developed slowly and the former monopolist still has the highest market share.

In motorsports competition, safety reasons require that the vehicle is equipped with some form of protective roll cage. The roll cage should withstand the forces involved in a collision to protect the driver and the co-driver from the vehicle body deformation. The roll cage also works to protect the vehicle from excessive deformations to more easily make any repairs afterwards. For the roll cage to be certified and approved for motorsports competition, it requires that the cage is built after one of the recommended options. One of those options is to design the roll cage like a cross-construction at the driver and co-driver doors.

The aim of the Master?s Thesis work is to study and develop algorithms for autonomous travel of a UGV (Unmanned Ground Vehicle). A vehicle for the mounting of sensors has been constructed in order to perform the work. Since the UGV is to be used outdoor in urban areas, GPS can be used. To improve precision and robustness, inertial navigation is used in addition to GPS, since GPS reception is likely to be diminished in such areas.

As trucks are getting more and more advanced, information about their weight has become a key factor for controlling them in a more fuel efficient and safe manner. Knowing the mass of a heavy duty vehicle in real time has been a difficult challenge for the truck manufacturers. With the processing power for electronic control units in trucks steadily increasing, more advanced algorithms for calculating the mass has been developed, but at the moment there still is a wish for better performance.Since there is a lack of good information regarding the external forces acting on the vehicle, forces that depends on the slope of the road, foundation of the road and the wind, the methods have to be able to disregard these. Such an approach, based on an indirect least square solution, has been evaluated in this thesis. The results have been promising and based on these a recommendation about further evaluation has been made..

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze two factors contributing to child labor in Ghana, one of the world's largest producers of cocoa. These two factors are: poor countries economic and political dependency on the rich countries, political leader?s ambitions and decisions. We will also describe and analyze the UN's efforts and measures to combat child labor. The method we used was a case study of child labor in Ghana?s cocoa industry together with interviews.

Nynas produces bitumen at two refineries in Sweden. The bitumen is shipped to seven depots along the swedish coast line, and from the depots special trucks handle the transportation to customers. Recently Nynas has transformed its supply chain and closed down a few depots. At the moment the company is considering a further reduction of the number of depots. In connection to these discussions an analyse of the companys distributionsystem and of possible changes is required.

Transportation represents 10-15 % of wood supply costs. It is therefore important to improve efficiency in the transport system to decrease these costs. The aim of this study is to map the timber vehicle routing processes used by a sample of timber hauling contractors and to identify possible links between the vehicle routing process and service and economic variables. The study was carried out at Södra Skog in autumn 2008. 15 timber hauling contractors were sampled and interviewed about their work with timber transports.