Abstract: A vibration isolation technology for precise position
control of a rotary system powered by two permanent magnet DC
(PMDC) motors is proposed, where this system is mounted on an
oscillatory frame. To achieve vibration isolation for this system,
active damping and disturbance rejection (ADDR) technology
is presented which introduces a cooperation of a main and
an auxiliary PMDC, controlled by discrete-time sliding mode
control (DTSMC) based schemes. The controller of the main
actuator tracks a desired position and the auxiliary actuator
simultaneously isolates the induced vibration, as its controller
follows a torque trend. To determine this torque trend, a
combination of two algorithms is introduced by the ADDR
technology. The first torque-trend producing algorithm rejects
the disturbance by counteracting the perturbation, estimated
using a model-based observer. The second torque trend applies
active variable damping to minimize the oscillation of the output
shaft. In this practice, the presented technology is implemented
on a rotary system with a pendulum attached, mounted on a
linear actuator simulating an oscillation-transmitting structure.
In addition, the obtained results illustrate the functionality of the
proposed technology.
Abstract: This paper features a comparative study performance of sliding mode controller (SMC) for closed-loop voltage control of direct current to direct current (DC-DC) three-cells buck converter connected in parallel, operating in continuous conduction mode (CCM), based on pulse-width modulation (PWM) with SMC based on hysteresis modulation (HM) where an adaptive feedforward technique is adopted. On one hand, for the PWM-based SM, the approach is to incorporate a fixed-frequency PWM scheme which is effectively a variant of SM control. On the other hand, for the HM-based SM, oncoming an adaptive feedforward control that makes the hysteresis band variable in the hysteresis modulator of the SM controller in the aim to restrict the switching frequency variation in the case of any change of the line input voltage or output load variation are introduced. The results obtained under load change, input change and reference change clearly demonstrates a similar dynamic response of both proposed techniques, their effectiveness is fast and smooth tracking of the desired output voltage. The PWM-based SM technique has greatly improved the dynamic behavior with a bit advantageous compared to the HM-based SM technique, as well as provide stability in any operating conditions. Simulation studies in MATLAB/Simulink environment have been performed to verify the concept.
Abstract: Two-wheel inverted pendulum robot (TWIPR) is designed with two-hub DC motors for human riding and motion control evaluation. In order to measure the tilt angle and angular velocity of the inverted pendulum robot, accelerometer and gyroscope sensors are chosen. The mobile robot’s moving position and velocity were estimated based on DC motor built in hall sensors. The control kernel of this electric mobile robot is designed with embedded Arduino Nano microprocessor. A handle bar was designed to work as steering mechanism. The intelligent model-free fuzzy sliding mode control (FSMC) was employed as the main control algorithm for this mobile robot motion monitoring with different control purpose adjustment. The intelligent controllers were designed for balance control, and moving speed control purposes of this robot under different operation conditions and the control performance were evaluated based on experimental results.
Abstract: Sheet Molding Compounds (SMCs) with special microstructures are very attractive to use in automobile structures especially when they are accidentally subjected to collision type accidents because of their high energy absorption capacity. These are materials designated as standard SMC, Advanced Sheet Molding Compounds (A-SMC), Low-Density SMC (LD-SMC) and etc. In this study, testing methods have been performed to compare the mechanical responses and damage phenomena of SMC, LD-SMC, and A-SMC under quasi-static and high strain rate tensile tests. The paper also aims at investigating the effect of an initial pre-damage induced by fatigue on the tensile dynamic behavior of A-SMC. In the case of SMCs and A-SMCs, whatever the fibers orientation and applied strain rate are, the first observed phenomenon of damage corresponds to decohesion of the fiber-matrix interface which is followed by coalescence and multiplication of these micro-cracks and their propagations. For LD-SMCs, damage mechanisms depend on the presence of Hollow Glass Microspheres (HGM) and fibers orientation.
Abstract: A high-speed current mirror with low-power method of adjusting current gain is presented. The current mirror provides continuous gain adjustment; yet, its gain can simply be programmed digitally, as well. The structure features the ever interesting merits of linear-in-dB gain control scheme and low power/voltage operation. The performance of proposed structure is verified through the simulation in TSMC 0.18 µm CMOS Technology. The proposed tunable gain current mirror structure draws only 18 µW from 0.9 V power supply and can operate at high frequencies up to 550 MHz in the worst case condition of maximum gain setting.
Abstract: In this work, we propose the concept and geometrical design of a soil moisture control system (SMCS) module by following the product development approach to develop an inexpensive, easy to use and quick to install product targeted towards agriculture practitioners. The module delivers water to the agricultural land efficiently by sensing the soil moisture and activating the delivery valve. We start with identifying the general needs of the potential customer. Then, based on customer needs we establish product specifications and identify important measuring quantities to evaluate our product. Keeping in mind the specifications, we develop various conceptual solutions of the product and select the best solution through concept screening and selection matrices. Then, we develop the product architecture by integrating the systems into the final product. In the end, the geometric design is done using human factors engineering concepts like heuristic analysis, task analysis, and human error reduction analysis. The result of human factors analysis reveals the remedies which should be applied while designing the geometry and software components of the product. We find that to design the best grip in terms of comfort and applied force, for a power-type grip, a grip-diameter of 35 mm is the most ideal.
Abstract: This study presents performance analysis results of
SMC (Sliding mode control) with changing the chattering functions
applied to slip suppression problem of electric vehicles (EVs). In
SMC, chattering phenomenon always occurs through high frequency
switching of the control inputs. It is undesirable phenomenon and
degrade the control performance, since it causes the oscillations of the
control inputs. Several studies have been conducted on this problem
by introducing some general saturation function. However, study
about whether saturation function was really best and the performance
analysis when using the other functions, weren’t being done so much.
Therefore, in this paper, several candidate functions for SMC are
selected and control performance of candidate functions is analyzed.
In the analysis, evaluation function based on the trade-off between
slip suppression performance and chattering reduction performance
is proposed. The analyses are conducted in several numerical
simulations of slip suppression problem of EVs. Then, we can
see that there is no difference of employed candidate functions
in chattering reduction performance. On the other hand, in slip
suppression performance, the saturation function is excellent overall.
So, we conclude the saturation function is most suitable for slip
suppression sliding mode control.
Abstract: Tissue engineering includes combination of materials and techniques used for the improvement, repair or replacement of the tissue. Scaffolds, permanent or temporally material, are used as support for the creation of the "new cell structures". For this important component (scaffold), a variety of materials can be used. The advantage of some polymeric materials is their cytocompatibility and possibility of biodegradation. Poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) is a biodegradable, semi-crystalline thermoplastic polymer. PLLA can be fully degraded into H2O and CO2. In this experiment, the effect of the surface modification of biodegradable polymer (performed by plasma treatment) on the various cell types was studied. The surface parameters and changes of the physicochemical properties of modified PLLA substrates were studied by different methods. Surface wettability was determined by goniometry, surface morphology and roughness study were performed with atomic force microscopy and chemical composition was determined using photoelectron spectroscopy. The physicochemical properties were studied in relation to cytocompatibility of human osteoblast (MG 63 cells), rat vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC), and human stem cells (ASC) of the adipose tissue in vitro. A fluorescence microscopy was chosen to study and compare cell-material interaction. Important parameters of the cytocompatibility like adhesion, proliferation, viability, shape, spreading of the cells were evaluated. It was found that the modification leads to the change of the surface wettability depending on the time of modification. Short time of exposition (10-120 s) can reduce the wettability of the aged samples, exposition longer than 150 s causes to increase of contact angle of the aged PLLA. The surface morphology is significantly influenced by duration of modification, too. The plasma treatment involves the formation of the crystallites, whose number increases with increasing time of modification. On the basis of physicochemical properties evaluation, the cells were cultivated on the selected samples. Cell-material interactions are strongly affected by material chemical structure and surface morphology. It was proved that the plasma treatment of PLLA has a positive effect on the adhesion, spreading, homogeneity of distribution and viability of all cultivated cells. This effect was even more apparent for the VSMCs and ASCs which homogeneously covered almost the whole surface of the substrate after 7 days of cultivation. The viability of these cells was high (more than 98% for VSMCs, 89-96% for ASCs). This experiment is one part of the basic research, which aims to easily create scaffolds for tissue engineering with subsequent use of stem cells and their subsequent "reorientation" towards the bone cells or smooth muscle cells.
Abstract: This paper presents a low-area and fully-reconfigurable Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) hardware design for 3GPP-LTE communication standard. It can fully support 32 different FFT sizes, up to 2048 FFT points. Besides, a special processing element is developed for making reconfigurable computing characteristics possible, while first-in first-out (FIFO) scheduling scheme design technique is proposed for hardware-friendly FIFO resource arranging. In a synthesis chip realization via TSMC 40 nm CMOS technology, the hardware circuit only occupies core area of 0.2325 mm2 and dissipates 233.5 mW at maximal operating frequency of 250 MHz.
Abstract: Due to increasing environmental awareness jute fibers are more often used in fiber reinforced composites. In the Sheet Molding Compound (SMC) process, the mold cavity is filled via material flow allowing more complex component design. But, the difficulty of using jute fibers in this process is the decreased capacity of fiber movement in the mold. A comparative flow study with jute nonwoven reinforced SMC was conducted examining the influence of the fiber volume content, the grammage of the jute nonwoven textile and a mechanical modification of the nonwoven textile on the flowability. The nonwoven textile reinforcement was selected to support homogeneous fiber distribution. Trials were performed using two SMC paste formulations differing only in filler type. Platy-shaped kaolin with a mean particle size of 0.8 μm and ashlar calcium carbonate with a mean particle size of 2.7 μm were selected as fillers. Ensuring comparability of the two SMC paste formulations the filler content was determined to reach equal initial viscosity for both systems. The calcium carbonate filled paste was set as reference. The flow study was conducted using a jute nonwoven textile with 300 g/m² as reference. The manufactured SMC sheets were stacked and centrally placed in a square mold. The mold coverage was varied between 25 and 90% keeping the weight of the stack for comparison constant. Comparing the influence of the two fillers kaolin yielded better results regarding a homogeneous fiber distribution. A mold coverage of about 68% was already sufficient to homogeneously fill the mold cavity whereas for calcium carbonate filled system about 79% mold coverage was necessary. The flow study revealed a strong influence of the fiber volume content on the flowability. A fiber volume content of 12 vol.-% and 25 vol.-% were compared for both SMC formulations. The lower fiber volume content strongly supported fiber transport whereas 25 vol.-% showed insignificant influence. The results indicate a limiting fiber volume content for the flowability. The influence of the nonwoven textile grammage was determined using nonwoven jute material with 500 g/m² and a fiber volume content of 20 vol.-%. The 500 g/m² reinforcement material showed inferior results with regard to fiber movement. A mold coverage of about 90 % was required to prevent the destruction of the nonwoven structure. Below this mold coverage the 500 g/m² nonwoven material was ripped and torn apart. Low mold coverages led to damage of the textile reinforcement. Due to the ripped nonwoven structure the textile was modified with cuts in order to facilitate fiber movement in the mold. Parallel cuts of about 20 mm length and 20 mm distance to each other were applied to the textile and stacked with varying orientations prior to molding. Stacks with unidirectional orientated cuts over stacks with cuts in various directions e.g. (0°, 45°, 90°, -45°) were investigated. The mechanical modification supported tearing of the textile without achieving benefit for the flowability.
Abstract: A two wheel inverted pendulum (TWIP) vehicle is built with two hub DC motors for motion control evaluation. Arduino Nano micro-processor is chosen as the control kernel for this electric test plant. Accelerometer and gyroscope sensors are built in to measure the tilt angle and angular velocity of the inverted pendulum vehicle. Since the TWIP has significantly hub motor dead zone and nonlinear system dynamics characteristics, the vehicle system is difficult to control by traditional model based controller. The intelligent model-free fuzzy sliding mode controller (FSMC) was employed as the main control algorithm. Then, intelligent controllers are designed for TWIP balance control, and two wheels synchronization control purposes.
Abstract: This numerical study investigates the travelling wave’s appearance and the behavior of Poiseuille-Rayleigh-Benard (PRB) flow induced in 3D thermosolutale mixed convection (TSMC) in horizontal rectangular channels. The governing equations are discretized by using a control volume method with third order Quick scheme in approximating the advection terms. Simpler algorithm is used to handle coupling between the momentum and continuity equations. To avoid the excessively high computer time, full approximation storage (FAS) with full multigrid (FMG) method is used to solve the problem. For a broad range of dimensionless controlling parameters, the contribution of this work is to analyzing the flow regimes of the steady longitudinal thermoconvective rolls (noted R//) for both thermal and mass transfer (TSMC). The transition from the opposed volume forces to cooperating ones, considerably affects the birth and the development of the longitudinal rolls. The heat and mass transfers distribution are also examined.
Abstract: This paper presents an enhanced efficiency simultaneous dual band energy harvesting system for wireless body area network. A bulk biasing is used to enhance the efficiency of the adapted rectifier design to reduce Vth of MOSFET. The presented circuit harvests the radio frequency (RF) energy from two frequency bands: 1 GHz and 2.4 GHz. It is designed with TSMC 65-nm CMOS technology and high quality factor dual matching network to boost the input voltage. Full circuit analysis and modeling is demonstrated. The simulation results demonstrate a harvester with an efficiency of 23% at 1 GHz and 46% at 2.4 GHz at an input power as low as -30 dBm.
Abstract: In this paper, a low voltage high performance current mirror is presented. Its most important specifications, which are improved in this work, are analyzed and formulated proving that it has such outstanding merits as: Very low input resistance of 26mΩ, very wide current dynamic range of 8 decades from 10pA to 1mA (160dB) together with an extremely low current copy error of less than 0.6ppm, and very low input and output voltages. Furthermore, the proposed current mirror bandwidth is 944MHz utilizing very low power consumption (267μW) and transistors count. HSPICE simulation results are performed using TSMC 0.18μm CMOS technology utilizing 1.8V single power supply, confirming the theoretically proved outstanding performance of the proposed current mirror. Monte Carlo simulation of its most important parameter is also examined showing its sufficiently resistance against technology process variations.
Abstract: One of the biggest challenges entering a market with a carsharing or any other shared mobility (SM) service is sound investment decision-making. To support this process, the authors think that a city index evaluating different criteria is necessary. The goal of such an index is to benchmark cities along a set of external measures to answer the main two challenges: financially viability and the understanding of its specific requirements. The authors have consulted several shared mobility projects and industry experts to create such a Shared Mobility City Index (SMCI). The current proposal of the SMCI consists of 11 individual index measures: general data (demographics, geography, climate and city culture), shared mobility landscape (current SM providers, public transit options, commuting patterns and driving culture) and political vision and goals (vision of the Mayor, sustainability plan, bylaws/tenders supporting SM). To evaluate the suitability of the index, 16 cities on the East Coast of North America were selected and secondary research was conducted. The main sources of this study were census data, organisational records, independent press releases and informational websites. Only non-academic sources where used because the relevant data for the chosen cities is not published in academia. Applying the index measures to the selected cities resulted in three major findings. Firstly, density (city area divided by number of inhabitants) is not an indicator for the number of SM services offered: the city with the lowest density has five bike and carsharing options. Secondly, there is a direct correlation between commuting patterns and how many shared mobility services are offered. New York, Toronto and Washington DC have the highest public transit ridership and the most shared mobility providers. Lastly, except one, all surveyed cities support shared mobility with their sustainability plan. The current version of the shared mobility index is proving a practical tool to evaluate cities, and to understand functional, political, social and environmental considerations. More cities will have to be evaluated to refine the criteria further. However, the current version of the index can be used to assess cities on their suitability for shared mobility services and will assist investors deciding which city is a financially viable market.
Abstract: An innovative approach to develop modified scaling free CORDIC based two parallel pipelined Multipath Delay Commutator (MDC) FFT and IFFT architectures for radix 22 FFT algorithm is presented. Multipliers and adders are the most important data paths in FFT and IFFT architectures. Multipliers occupy high area and consume more power. In order to optimize the area and power overhead, modified scaling-free CORDIC based complex multiplier is utilized in the proposed design. In general twiddle factor values are stored in RAM block. In the proposed work, modified scaling-free CORDIC based twiddle factor generator unit is used to generate the twiddle factor and efficient switching units are used. In addition to this, four point FFT operations are performed without complex multiplication which helps to reduce area and power in the last two stages of the pipelined architectures. The design proposed in this paper is based on multipath delay commutator method. The proposed design can be extended to any radix 2n based FFT/IFFT algorithm to improve the throughput. The work is synthesized using Synopsys design Compiler using TSMC 90-nm library. The proposed method proves to be better compared to the reference design in terms of area, throughput and power consumption. The comparative analysis of the proposed design with Xilinx FPGA platform is also discussed in the paper.
Abstract: This paper presents Differential Evolution Algorithm (DEA) based Variable Structure Position Control (VSPC) of Laboratory DC servomotor (LDCSM). DEA is employed for the optimal tuning of Variable Structure Control (VSC) parameters for position control of a DC servomotor. The VSC combines the techniques of Sliding Mode Control (SMC) that gives the advantages of small overshoot, improved step response characteristics, faster dynamic response and adaptability to plant parameter variations, suppressed influences of disturbances and uncertainties in system behavior. The results of the simulation responses of the VSC parameters adjustment by DEA were performed in Matlab Version 2010a platform and yield better dynamic performance compared with the untuned VSC designed.
Abstract: The inverted pendulum system is a classic control
problem that is used in universities around the world. It is a suitable
process to test prototype controllers due to its high non-linearities and
lack of stability. The inverted pendulum represents a challenging
control problem, which continually moves toward an uncontrolled
state. This paper presents the possibility of balancing an inverted
pendulum system using sliding mode control (SMC). The goal is to
determine which control strategy delivers better performance with
respect to pendulum’s angle and cart's position. Therefore,
proportional-integral-derivative (PID) is used for comparison. Results
have proven SMC control produced better response compared to PID
control in both normal and noisy systems.
Abstract: In this paper, a comparative performance analysis of
mostly used four nonlinearity cancellation techniques used to realize
the passive resistor by MOS transistors, is presented. The comparison
is done by using an integrator circuit which is employing sequentially
Op-amp, OTRA and ICCII as active element. All of the circuits are
implemented by MOS-C realization and simulated by PSPICE
program using 0.35μm process TSMC MOSIS model parameters.
With MOS-C realization, the circuits became electronically tunable
and fully integrable which is very important in IC design. The output
waveforms, frequency responses, THD analysis results and features
of the nonlinearity cancellation techniques are also given.
Abstract: Although there has been a growing interest in the
hybrid free-space optical link and radio frequency FSO/RF
communication system, the current literature is limited to results
obtained in moderate or cold environment. In this paper, using a soft
switching approach, we investigate the effect of weather
inhomogeneities on the strength of turbulence hence the channel
refractive index under Qatar harsh environment and their influence
on the hybrid FSO/RF availability. In this approach, either FSO/RF
or simultaneous or none of them can be active. Based on soft
switching approach and a finite state Markov Chain (FSMC) process,
we model the channel fading for the two links and derive a
mathematical expression for the outage probability of the hybrid
system. Then, we evaluate the behavior of the hybrid FSO/RF under
hazy and harsh weather. Results show that the FSO/RF soft switching
renders the system outage probability less than that of each link
individually. A soft switching algorithm is being implemented on
FPGAs using Raptor code interfaced to the two terminals of a
1Gbps/100 Mbps FSO/RF hybrid system, the first being implemented
in the region. Experimental results are compared to the above
simulation results.