Rigid body attitude estimation based on the Lagrange–d’Alembert principle

Estimation of rigid body attitude and angular velocity without any knowledge of the attitude dynamics model is treated using the Lagrange–d’Alembert principle from variational mechanics. It is shown that Wahba’s cost function for attitude determination from two or more non-collinear vector measurements can be generalized and represented as a Morse function of the attitude estimation error on the Lie group of rigid body rotations. With body-fixed sensor measurements of direction vectors and angular velocity, a Lagrangian is obtained as the difference between a kinetic energy-like term that is quadratic in the angular velocity estimation error and an artificial potential obtained from Wahba’s function. An additional dissipation term that depends on the angular velocity estimation error is introduced, and the Lagrange–d’Alembert principle is applied to the Lagrangian with this dissipation. A Lyapunov analysis shows that the state estimation scheme so obtained provides stable asymptotic convergence of state estimates to actual states in the absence of measurement noise, with an almost global domain of attraction. These estimation schemes are discretized for computer implementation using discrete variational mechanics. A first order Lie group variational integrator is obtained as a discrete-time implementation. In the presence of bounded measurement noise, numerical simulations show that the estimated states converge to a bounded neighborhood of the actual states.     

First-principles study of impurity segregation in zirconia,hafnia, and yttria-stabilized-zirconia grain boundaries

The impurity segregation behavior in symmetric tilt Σ5 (310)/[001] grain boundaries (GBs) of cubic ZrO₂, HfO₂, and yttria-stabilized ZrO₂ (YSZ) were studied using first-principles calculations. The substitutional impurities, including divalent (Mg, Ca), trivalent (Al, Y), and tetravalent (Si, Ti) elements, were considered. It is found that divalent and trivalent impurities tend to segregate to a narrow region within 4 Å of the GB plane, while the tetravalent impurities have a much more scattered segregation profile extending 8–15 Å from the GB plane. For ZrO₂ GB, the calculated grain boundary impurity enrichment factor for yttrium dopant is about 1.7, which is in good agreement with the experimental value of 1.9. For YSZ GB, there exist a strong GB segregation tendency for Mg, Ca, and Si, and a very weak segregation tendency for Ti in the YSZ GB, which is consistent with experimental findings.     

Qualitative vision-based navigation based on sloped funnel lane concept

Intelligent Service Robotics - Funnel lane is a map-less visual navigation technique that tries qualitatively to follow a path that has been recorded before by a camera. Unlike some other methods,...     

Predicting the combined effect of TiO2 nano-particles and welding input parameters on the hardness of melted zone in submerged arc welding by fuzzy logic

Submerged arc welding (SAW) is a high-quality arc welding process used in heavy industries for welding thick plates. In this process, selecting appropriate values for the input parameters is required for high productivity and cost effectiveness. A very important weld quality characteristic affected by welding input parameters is the hardness of melted zone (HMZ). This paper reports the applicability of fuzzy logic (FL) to predict HMZ in the SAW process which is affected by the combined effect of TiO₂ nano-particles and welding input parameters. The arc voltage, welding current, welding speed, contact tip-to-plate distance, and TiO₂ nano-particles were used as input parameters and HMZ as the response to develop FL model. A five-level five-factor central composite rotatable design (CCRD) was used in the experiments to generate experimental data. Experiments were performed, and HMZs were measured. The predicted results from FL were compared with the experimental data. The correlation factor value obtained was 99.99% between the measured and predicted values of HMZ. The results showed that FL is an accurate and reliable technique for predicting HMZ because of its low error rate.     

Free vibration analysis of functionally graded plates with multiple circular and non-circular cutouts

Cutouts are inevitable in structures due to practical consideration.In order to investigate the free vibration of functionally graded plates with multiple circular and non-circular cutouts,finite eleme...     

Studies on the properties and structure of electron‐beam crosslinked low‐density polyethylene/poly[ethylene‐co‐(vinyl acetate)] blends

Blends of low‐density polyethylene (LDPE) and poly[ethylene‐co‐(vinyl acetate)] (PEVA), crosslinked by electron‐beam (EB) radiation, formed separate crystalline lattices with a homogeneous amorphous phase. The crystallinity of the EB‐exposed samples slightly decreased, as verified by a slight reduction in the densities and melting heats and temperatures of the samples. The results obtained from both gel content and hot set tests showed that the degree of crosslinking in the amorphous regions was dependent on the dose and blend composition. The molecular weights between the crosslinks, measured from creep data, showed that an increasing PEVA content resulted in tighter network structures, thus supporting the idea that the crosslinking density at a given irradiation dose depends on the amorphous portions of the polymers. Addition of trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate as a radiation sensitizer enhanced the gel content of the neat polyethylene significantly, while the addition of an antioxidant showed the reverse effect. A significant improvement in the tensile strength of the neat PEVA samples was obtained upon EB radiation up to 210 kGy. The irradiated LDPE/PEVA blends showed improved tensile strength and elongation at break when compared to LDPE. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry     

IDFC: A new approach to control bifurcation in TCP/RED

The main objective of this research is to analyze the bifurcation phenomenon in Internet congestion model for Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) with Random Early Detection (RED). This problem can be divided to many categories considering different viewpoints. Different approaches of modeling (continuous and discrete models) and various system structures (control in end node or routers) are some of these categories. The most significant method in control of such systems is Delayed Feedback Controller (DFC). In this paper, a discrete model is considered and a new algorithm Integral DFC (IDFC) is presented that has many preferences over similar algorithms, which are illustrated by simulation results and analytical discussions.     

Efficiency improvement of genetic network programming by tasks decomposition in different types of environments

Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines - Genetic Network Programming (GNP) is a relatively recently proposed evolutionary algorithm which is an extension of Genetic Programming (GP). However,...