2024

On the 8th of October 2024, ACG organized the introductory workshop of the CSF-supported research project "Design of Autonomous Vehicle Active Seat Suspension Mechatronic System (DAVAS)." The workshop featured presentations on the previous related research of the project team, the project structure, goals and methodology, and initial results, along with invited lectures of experts from TU Delft and Rimac Technology.

On July 22nd, 2024, Prof. Joško Deur visited the Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU Prague), Czech Republic. He delivered two lectures: "Energy-efficient Straight-line Driving Torque Vectoring for Electric Vehicles with Multiple Motors and Disconnect Clutches" and "An Overview of Recent Automotive Control Activities at the University of Zagreb", and discussed opportunities for future joint collaborative projects.

  1. On July 17th, 2024, Prof. Joško Deur visited the Technical University of Darmstadt (TU Darmstadt), Germany, where he delivered an invited lecture entitled "Energy-efficient Straight-line Driving Torque Vectoring for Electric Vehicles with Multiple Motors and Disconnect Clutches", had lab tour visits, and participated in bilateral meetings to discuss ongoing and future collaborations.

On July 2, 2024, Prof. Joško Deur visited the Faculty of Engineering, University of Rijeka and delivered a lecture on recent ACG research activities in the field of automotive controls.

Ivan Cvok, Ph. D. has become an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Department of Robotics and Automation of Manufacturing Systems, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, University of Zagreb.  

On May 28, 2024, in the Gray Hall (Siva vijećnica) of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER) in Zagreb, Dr. Davor Hrovat, a retired Henry Ford Technical Fellow, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and an Adjunct Distinguished Professor at the University of California, San Diego, delivered a lecture titled "AUTOMOTIVE COMPUTER CONTROL SYSTEMS: A RETROSPECTIVE ON THE PAST 40+ YEARS".

Since January 2024, ACG have been granted a four-year research project named “Design of autonomous vehicle active seat suspension mechatronic system - DAVAS”, funded by the Croatian Science Foundation (CSF)

Since January 2024, Ivo Grđan joined the ACG team as an Assistant on courses in the field of Electrical Engineering and Electric Machines, and as a Researcher in the field of electric machines and their vehicle applications.

2023

In the week of October 9, 2023, Prof. Joško Deur visited the research group of Prof. Aldo Sorniotti at Politecnico di Torino. During his visit, he delivered a lecture on "Energy-efficient Straight-line Driving Torque Vectoring for Electric Vehicles with Multiple Motors Equipped with Disconnect Clutches." He also presented broader ACG group research results

In the week of July 17th, 2023, Prof. Joško Deur visited Prof. Steven Peters's research group at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, where he delivered an invited lecture entitled "Optimal Control of a Battery Electric Vehicle Heating and Air-conditioning System." In the same week, he also made visits and gave lectures at the Vienna University of Technology, Austria, and the Schaeffler Group in Morbach, Germany.

Jure Soldo, Ph. D. left the ACG in January 2023 to join the company AVL AST d.o.o. Croatia.

2022

Prof. Taehyun Shim from the University of Michigan-Dearborn gave a guest lecture entitled "Enhancement of Steering Feel of Electric Power Assist Steering System" on October 14, 2022. 

On the 13th of October 2022, ACG organized a final full-day workshop of the ACHIEVE research project. Apart from the project team’s presentations, the workshop included invited lectures of researchers from industry and international Universities/Institutes.

Prof. Joško Deur has been enumerated in the prestigious list encompassing the top 2 percent of the most cited scientists worldwide for the year 2021. The list was compiled based on Scopus database data and published by a research group from Stanford University, CA.

In the week of September 26th, 2022, Asst. Prof. Branimir Škugor was visiting the research group of Prof. Steven Peters at the Technical University of Darmstadt and presented the research results of the project ACHIEVE and broader ACG group research results.

During the week of September 5th, 2022, Prof. Joško Deur visited Prof. Kambiz Ebrahimi's research group at Loughborough University, UK. He delivered an invited lecture entitled "Adaptive and Predictive Control of PHEV Powertrains" at the Powertrain Modelling and Control (PMC) Conference, showcasing the results gained through ACHIEVE project. He also gave a lecture on "Data-driven Modeling of Dry Clutch Wear and Coefficient of Friction" and a survey presentation on recent ACG research activities. 

Jakov Topić, Ph. D. left the ACG in July 2022 to join the company dSPACE Engineering d.o.o.

After being with ACG for 6 years as a project assistant and contributing significantly to wider group activities, Ivana Mijić left the ACG in July 2022 to join the Croatian Hydrocarbon Agency.

Filip Maletić, Ph. D. left the ACG in July 2022 to join the company AVL AST d.o.o. Croatia.

In July 2022, the ACG website was redesigned to enhance the clarity and accessibility of information, as well as to improve user experience.

In June 2022, Zvonimir Dabčević joined the ACG team as a Research Assistant working on the project hOListic & Green Airport (OLGA) supported by the European Commission through Horizon 2020.

Since March 2022, the ACG has been cooperating on the project entitled „Design of Automated Driving Systems Based on Estimation of Wheel-road Contact Features for Handling Emergency Situations“ (acronym: AVEST) within the scientific-technological Croatian-Hungarian cooperation, financed by the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia, and Ministry of Human Resources of the Republic of Hungary.

Ivan Cvok left the ACG in March 2022 to join the company Rimac Technology d.o.o.

In the week of March 21, 2022, Asst. Prof. Branimir Škugor was visiting the research group of Prof. Theo Hofman at Technical University of Eindhoven, and presented the research results of the project ACHIEVE.

2021

A new university study program in Mechatronics and robotics was launched at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture with the start of the academic year 2021/22. The ACG group has constituted the graduate program on Transport Systems Mechatronics to be started in the academic year 2024/25.

Since October 2021, the ACG has been cooperating on H2020 project hOListic & Green Airport (acronym: OLGA) supported through European Commission European Green Deal. Our main activities relate to planning of airport-city and intra-airport bus transport system electrification, as well as planning of airport e-hub.

Since May 2021, Daria Matković joined the ACG team as an Assistant on courses in the field of electrical engineering and electric machines, and as a Researcher in the field of electromobility.

Since March 2021, Matija Jagar joined the ACG team as a Project Assistant working on dry clutch experimental characterization.

Since January 2021, Mate Ćorić joined the ACG team as a Project Assistant working on the project Safe Speed Anticipating for Encountering Pedestrian Crossing supported by Ford Motor Company.

Since January 2021, Lea Pavelko joined the ACG team as a Ph.D. student supported through the CSF programme Young Researchers' Career Development Project – Training of New Doctoral Students, and engaged on the project Safe Speed Anticipating for Encountering Pedestrian Crossing supported by Ford Motor Company.

2020

Prof. Joško Deur participated in the Croatian radio broadcast "Drag mi je Platon" on December 18, 2020 and spoke about Electromobility and Autonomous Vehicles.

In Oct 2020, we have published a journal article in the Inaugural issue of ASME Journal of Autonomous Vehicles and System.

The ACG team has won the Best Conference Paper Award at the IEEE-sponsored International Conference on Smart Systems and Technologies 2020 (SST 2020) held in Osijek, Croatia, 14-16th of October 2020. The awarded paper, presented by Branimir Škugor, Ph.D. is entitled „City Bus Mass Estimation based on GPS and CAN-Collected Tracking Data“.

2019

On November 29, 2019, the ACHIEVE project team gave a presentation related to driving cycle synthesis at the International Workshop on Advanced Cooperative Systems organized within the CRE-DATACROSS project.

On November 14, 2019, the research team member Jure Soldo presented his poster on the topic of the ACHIEVE project, as part of the Project Day Event organized within the 100-years celebration of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture.

Since November 2019, Prof. Joško Deur has been a member of Editorial Board of World Electric Vehicle Journal.

The project leader, Prof. Joško Deur, talked about the project ACHIEVE (and electric vehicles in general) in the Radio Sljeme programme "Iz svijeta znanosti" on November 7, 2019.

In 2019, we have launched the elective technical course "Electromobility". The course deals with fundamentals of electromobility, including modeling, tracking and management of electric vehicle fleets.

Since October 2019, Mislav Hihlik joined the ACG team as a Ph.D. student supported through the CSF programme Researchers' Career Development Project – Training of New Doctoral Students and got engaged on the project ACHIEVE.

Since July 2019, Vladimir Macura joined the ACG as a Project Assistant working on dry clutch wear and coefficient of friction testing and modeling project supported by Ford Motor Company.

Professor Joško Petrić, one of the founders of ACG and a longtime contributor, esteemed colleague and dear friend, passed away after a brief illness in July 2019.

The ACG team was awarded the best paper award at the international conference "13th International Conference on Bond Graph Modeling (ICBGM), Summer Simulation Multi-Conference 2018", held in Bordeaux, France, July 9-12, 2018. The awarded paper titled "Bond Graph Analysis of Automatic Transmission Double-Transition Shift Dynamics" was presented by Prof. Joško Deur.

Since September 2019, Prof. Joško Deur has been a member of Editorial Board of Vehicle System Dynamics journal.

After receiving his Ph.D. Degree, in January 2019, Vanja Ranogajec left the ACG to join OMCO Croatia d.o.o.

2018

On December 22, 2018, Prof. Joško Deur gave a public introductory lecture on the ACHIEVE project, presenting the project scope, main goals, expected contributions, work plan, and project team.

Prof. Joško Deur participated in the Croatian radiotelevision broadcast "In the World of EU Funds" on October 6, 2018, and spoke about the project QUIET.

Since October 2018, Ivan Cvok joined the project team as a Ph.D. student supported through the CSF programme Young Researchers' Career Development Project – Training of New Doctoral Students and engaged on the QUIET project.

Prof. Joško Deur has become an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, Area: Vehicular Electronics.

We have purchased a fully-electric moped for the main purpose of forming an experimental platform for Li-Ion battery modeling and estimation research. In the meantime, the moped has been equipped with a custom telemetric tracking system and precise battery sensors.

Since March 2018, Valentino Štahan joined the ACG team as a Project Assistant working on automotive mechatronics projects supported by Ford Motor Company.

Since January 2018, Igor Ratković joined the ACG team as a Project Assistant on H2020 project Qualifying and Implementing a User-centric Designed and Efficient Electric Vehicle (acronym: QUIET).

2017

Since October 2017, the ACG has been cooperating on H2020 project Qualifying and Implementing a User-centric Designed and Efficient Electric Vehicle (acronym: QUIET) supported through EC PPP Initiative Green Vehicles. Our main activity relates to design of optimal control system for EV cabin thermal comfort.

Since May 2017, Ivana Mijić has joined the group as a Project Assistant. She has been engaged in laboratory and data processing activities on several projects, as well as in carrying out projects' administrative work.

In 2017, we have launched the elective technical Course under the title "Control of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles". The course deals with modeling and optimal control of electric and hybrid vehicle powertrains.

Laboratory of Transport System Mechatronics has been established by the ACG at the University of Zagreb-FMENA in July 2017. Presently, the laboratory is located in the ground floor of the Faculty’s North Building (room D-104) and includes a number of currently exploited automotive mechatronics test rigs.

2016

In October 2016, Branimir Škugor defended his doctoral thesis entitled "Modelling and optimal charging of an electric delivery vehicle fleet".

Since July 2016, Filip Maletić joined the ACG team as an Assistant on courses in the field of electrical engineering and a researcher on automotive mechatronics projects.

Milan Milutinović left the ACG in July 2016 to join the Croatian Metrology Institute.

Since June 2016, the ACG has been cooperating as a partner on EU-Interreg CE project Smart Solutions supporting Low Emission Zones and other low-carbon mobility policies in EU cities (SOLEZ) and coordinating two work packages (WPs) related to Development ICT tool for planning the city bus transport electrification.

2015

In November 2015, Prof. Joško Deur delivered a lecture entitled "A Brief Overview of the E-Mobility Sector" at the conference "The Future of E-Mobility in Croatia," organized by the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham)  in Zagreb. The lecture highlighted key advancements and challenges in the field of electromobility.

In November 2015, Center of Research Excellence for Data Science and Cooperative Systems has been established (acronym: ACROSS – Data Science). The center brings together leading Croatian researches from 13 scientific institutions, including Prof. Joško Deur.

In September 2015, Mihael Cipek defended his doctoral thesis entitled "Modeling, analysis, and optimal control of hybrid electric vehicle powertrains".

News about HAWE project entitled „Cheap and renewable electricity anywhere“, in which realization the ACG team participated, is published on the European Commission website in the category Research & Innovation.

ACG has established cooperation with Ford Motor Company’s research centers in Dearborn and Cologne through the project entitled "E-Clutch and its Actuator Modeling and Controls".

In March 2015, Matija Hoić defended his doctoral thesis entitled "Modeling of Dry Dual Clutch Dynamics".

At the beginning of 2015 Vanja Ranogajec joined the ACG team as a Ph.D. student supported by the Croatian Science Foundation and engaged on the project of automatic transmission shift control.

Since January 2015, the ACG team participates as a subcontractor in PoC5 project entitled "System for telemetric temperature measurement for rotational drivetrain elements" coordinated by the research group from Faculty of electrical engineering and computing and supported by Business Innovation Croatian Agency.

2014

The ACG team has won the Best Paper Award at the 9th Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES2014), Venice-Istanbul, September 20-27, 2014. The awarded paper, presented by Mag. Ing. Branimir Škugor, is entitled „Dynamic Programming-based Optimization of Charging an Electric Vehicle Fleet System Represented by an Aggregated Battery Model“, and it is related to research conducted through the i-RESEV project.

The ACG team has contributed the article entitled Clutch actuation to the Encyclopedia of Automotive Engineering published by John Wiley. The encyclopedia is deemed to provide for the first time a large, unified knowledge base laying the foundation for advanced study and research in automotive engineering.

Our article entitled "Application of Computational Optimal Control to Vehicle Dynamics" has been published as a contribution to the edited book Optimization and Optimal Control of Automotive Systems published by Springer and edited by H. Waschl, I. Kolmanovsky, M. Steinbuch, and L. del Re.

The 2nd workshop entitled "TOWARDS INTEGRATION OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES INTOTHE ENERGY SYSTEMS WITH A HIGH SHARE OF RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES" was organized on Friday, January 24, 2014, where the research results of the 2nd project year were presented. Also, a round table on e-Mobility was held, including presentations by several entities from industry.

2013

The ACG team has been awarded the Best poster award at the 8th Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES2013) held in Dubrovnik, Croatia, September 22-29, 2013. The awarded paper is entitled „Multi-mass Dynamic Model of a Variable-length Tether Used in a High Altitude Wind Energy System“, and it is related to research conducted through the HAWE FP7 project.

The ACG team organizes International Summer School on "INTEGRATION OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES INTO THE ENERGY SYSTEMS WITH A HIGH SHARE OF RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES", Dubrovnik, September 17-27, 2013.

The ACG team organizes Special Session on "Integration of Electric Vehicles into Energy Systems with a high share of Renewable Energy Sources" to be held within the 2013 SDEWES Conference, Dubrovnik, September 2013.

Vladimir Ivanović, Ph.D. left us to join the Ford Research and Advanced Engineering in January 2013.

2012

The first workshop entitled "TOWARDS INTEGRATION OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES INTO THE ENERGY SYSTEMS WITH A HIGH SHARE OF RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES" was organized on Friday, December 7, 2012, where the research results of the first project year were presented. Also, a round table on e-Mobility was held, including presentations by several entities from industry.

Prof. Deur has joined four-year COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Action TU1105 entitled "NVH Analysis Techniques for Design and Optimization of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles", as a member of Management Committee.

Since January 2012, ACG has been working together with the Energy System Planning Group on the three-year research project “ICT-aided integration of Electric Vehicles into the Energy Systems with a high share of Renewable Energy Sources” funded by the Croatian Science Foundation (CSF).

ACG, along with the Energy System Planning Group, participates as a partner on the collaborative programme “Optimization of Renewable Electricity Generation Systems Connected in a Microgrid” supported by the Croatian Science Foundation. The ACG research activities include modeling and control of electrical energy storage systems.

ACG team members have been awarded the second and third best paper awards at 10th International Conference on Bond Graph Modeling and Simulation (ICBGM 2012) conference held in Genoa, Italy, June 8-11, 2012 as a part of a larger SCS SummerSim Conference.

We have published a chapter in the UNESCO's on-line encyclopedia EOLSS (Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems), with the title “Fundamentals of Electrical Drive Controls”.

Mirko Čorić joined the ACG team as a junior researcher and is working on optimal control of vehicle dynamics.

2011

ACG has joined the AVL AST University Research Program (Platinum Partnership Level), and received the AVL Cruise simulation software package for the purpose of hybrid electric vehicle control research.

We have published a monograph entitled “Modeling and Control of Electronic Throttle Drive: A practical approach – from experimental characterization to adaptive control and application”.

Since January 2011, Vladimir Ivanović has been on a post-doctoral specialization with the Ford Research and Innovation Center in Dearborn, MI, USA.

2010

Our student Bojan Tepeš received the Rector’s Award from the University of Zagreb for the exceptional student project entitled “Optimal Control of Automotive Power Train with Automated Transmission”. Project was supervised by Prof. Joško Deur, Ph.D. and Prof. Josip Kasać, Ph.D.

Milan Milutinović joined our group in November 2010 as a department assistant to work on automatic transmission modeling and control.

Since October 2010, ACG has been cooperating on EU-FP7 project High Altitude Wind Energy (HAWE) and coordinating two work packages (WPs) related to mechatronic systems of ground and airborne units.

ACG has been awarded a three-year Ford URP project entitled "Characterization, Modeling, and Control of Dry Dual Clutch".

2009

AGC has been awarded three-year project “Characterization, Modeling, and Control of Dual Dry Clutch”. The project is supported by Ford Motor Company through their University Research Program.

We have established cooperation with Crosco Integrated Drilling & Well Services Company through a R&D project “Active Damping of Oil-Well Drill String Torsional Vibrations”.

Mihael Cipek joined our group as a research assistant in October 2009 to work on modeling and control of hybrid vehicles.

2008

We have designed several new experimental setups related to automotive power trains.

2007

The Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture's student magazine I3(2007, No.4) has published an article about our research activities.

In June 2007, Danijel Pavković defended his Ph. D. Thesis entitled "State Estimation of Automotive Drive with Control Applications".

2006

We have established cooperation with Jaguar Cars Research Center through the projects on Active Differential Dynamics Modeling and Global Chassis Control.

Joško Deur has received National Science Award for 2006 in the category of Annual Award for exceptional achievements in the field of technology sciences.

On February 15, 2006, the Croatian daily newspaper "Jutarnji List" published an article about ACG with emphasis on experimental electric vehicle.

We have published/are publishing a series of international journal papers.

2005

On November 16, 2005 the Croatian radiotelevision broadcasted a video about our research activities in the "Znanstvena petica" show.

Mario Hrgetić joined our group as a research assistant in October 2005 to work on estimation of vehicle dynamics variables.

We won a Best Paper Award at 19th IAVSD Symposium that was held in Milan, Italy, 2005.

We organized a Mini Track on Automotive Control that will be held in conjunction with the IEEE International Symposium on Industrial Electronics.

We built up an experimental electrical vehicle. The project is supported by Ford Research Centers from Aachen, Germany, and Dearborn, MI.

Danijel Pavković won National Science Award for Young Researchers.

Since 2005 the elective Technical Course "Automotive Mechatronic Systems" has been regularly held by ACG. The course deals with the basic concepts of automotive mechatronic system design, with emphasis on control-oriented modeling and control of automotive powertrains and vehicle dynamics.

2004

In July 2004, ACG researchers visited Ford Research Center (FFA) in Aachen, Germany, University of Karlsruhe, Germany, and the company TNO Automotive, the Netherlands, and gave presentations on tire-road friction modeling and estimation (photography).

We have published/are publishing a series of international journal papers.

Pierre-Aime Boisson, a graduate mechanical-engineering student from Toulon, France was with our group in June/July 2004, working on tire-road friction modeling.

2003

Vladimir Ivanović joined our group as a research assistant in November 2003.

Darko Horvat left us to join an OIL & GAS Engineering company in August 2003.

Danijel Pavković presented his M. Sc. thesis on electronic throttle control "Identification and Control of Electronic Throttle Drive" on Friday, May 30, 2003. Congratulations from the ACG members!

Vladimir Ivanović presented his M. Sc. thesis "Identification and Speed Control of an SI Engine for Idle Operating Mode" on Friday, May 16, 2003, and became a mechanical engineer. Congratulations from the ACG members!

The web site of Automotive Control Group was posted in May 2003.

2001

The Automotive Control Group was established in January 2001.