Automated vehicles (AVs) are expected to lead the evolution of mobility. Motion sickness, known as car sickness, is one of the main issues AVs will face, and could jeopardise their wide impact. However, a limited work has been done on how the optimisation of suspension dynamics could contribute. In this direction, this paper explores the mitigation of car sickness and the improvement of ride comfort through the optimisation of passive suspension systems. More specifically, a half car model, which represents a passenger vehicle from IPG/CarMaker, is used to optimise front suspension system for minimising comfort, but also maintaining vehicle handling while the vehicle is driving over two different road classes. The evaluation of comfort is conducted using the common standardised metric suggested by ISO-2631. After having obtained the optimum design solutions, the optimal solutions are simulated using IPG/CarMaker by assigning the road profiles on a 23 km long countryside road path. Then, vehicle accelerations are transferred to the occupant's head using appropriate models from the literature for both back-on and back-off sitting conditions. Afterwards, car sickness and ride comfort are further assessed to explore in detail how the tuning of the suspension systems through optimisation has minimised the first and enhanced the latter. For the assessment of car sickness, a three dimensional detailed biomechanical human model is used. The results imply that the pitch velocity seems more suitable, as a cost function for optimising the suspension systems with regards to motion sickness mitigation. Therefore, it should be considered either on its own or in combination with metric suggested by ISO-2631.

The high proliferation of converter-dominated Distributed Renewable Energy Sources (DRESs) at the distribution grid level has gradually replaced the conventional synchronous generators (SGs) of the transmission system, resulting in emerging stability and security challenges. The inherent characteristics of the SGs are currently used for providing ancillary services (ASs), following the instructions of the Transmission System Operator, while the DRESs are obliged to offer specific system support functions, without being remunerated for these functions, but only for the energy they inject. This changing environment has prompted the integration of energy storage systems as a solution for transfusing new characteristics and elaborating their business in the electricity markets, while the smart grid infrastructure and the upcoming microgrid architectures contribute to the transformation of the distribution grid. This review investigates the existing ASs in transmission system with the respective markets (emphasizing the DRESs’ participation in these markets) and proposes new ASs at distribution grid level, with emphasis to inertial response, active power ramp rate control, frequency response, voltage regulation, fault contribution and harmonic mitigation. The market tools and mechanisms for the procurement of these ASs are presented evolving the existing role of the Operators. Finally, potential barriers in the technical, regulatory, and financial framework have been identified and analyzed.