Magnebike: A magnetic wheeled robot with high mobility for inspecting complex‐shaped structures

This paper describes the Magnebike robot, a compact robot with two magnetic wheels in a motorbike arrangement, which is intended for inspecting the inner casing of ferromagnetic pipes with complex‐shaped structures. The locomotion concept is based on an adapted magnetic wheel unit integrating two lateral lever arms. These arms allow for slight lifting off the wheel in order to locally decrease the magnetic attraction force when passing concave edges, as well as laterally stabilizing the wheel unit. The robot has the main advantage of being compact (180 × 130 × 220 mm) and mechanically simple: it features only five active degrees of freedom (two driven wheels each equipped with an active lifter stabilizer and one steering unit). The paper presents in detail design and implementation issues that are specific to magnetic wheeled robots. Low‐level control functionalities are addressed because they are necessary to control the active system. The paper also focuses on characterizing and analyzing the implemented robot. The high mobility is shown through experimental results: the robot not only can climb vertical walls and follow circumferential paths inside pipe structures but it is also able to pass complex combinations of 90‐deg convex and concave ferromagnetic obstacles with almost any inclination regarding gravity. It requires only limited space to maneuver because turning on the spot around the rear wheel is possible. This high mobility enables the robot to access any location in the specified environment. Finally the paper analyzes the maximum payload for different types of environment complexities because this is a key feature for climbing robots and provides a security factor about the risk of falling and slipping. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Fuzzy motion control strategy for cooperation of multiple automated vehicles with passengers comfort

This paper considers motion control for a cooperative system of automated passenger vehicles. It develops a cooperative scheme based on a decentralized planning algorithm which considers the vehicles in an initial open chain configuration. In this scheme the trajectories are intersections-free, and each trajectory is planned independently of the others. To ensure the stabilization of each vehicle in the planned trajectory, a fuzzy closed loop motion control is presented, where, based on the properties of the Fuzzy maps, the Lyapunov’s stability of the motion errors is demonstrated for all the vehicles. Based on the ISO 2631-1 standard, the saturation property of the Fuzzy maps guarantees low values of longitudinal and lateral accelerations, to ensure comfort of the human body during the motion. The validity of this control algorithm is supported by simulation experiments.     

A systematic literature review on IoT-aware business process modeling views,requirements and notations

Software and Systems Modeling - The Internet of things has been adopted in several sectors both influencing how people work and enhancing organizations’ business processes. This resulted in...     

Simplified analytical models for compressed concrete columns confined by FRP and FRCM system

In order to consider the response of concrete columns confined by FRP and FRCM system, proper models have to be formulated. In this context the present paper shows a generalized criterion for the determination of the increase in strength, in ductility and in dissipated energy for varying corner radius ratio of the cross section and fiber volumetric ratio. The procedure is based on the best fitting of several experimental data and unlike the usual empirical approaches available in the literature, the proposed technique relates the confinement effectiveness to a single parameter representative of the relative stiffness between the original concrete core and the reinforcement system. Furthermore, the proposed analytical models overcomes the limit of many empirical or semi-empirical models given in the literature that are applicable only to specific cases. A comparison with same available models confirm the reliability of the proposed procedure.     

Evaluation of potential anti‐cancer activity of cationic liposomal nanoformulated Lycopodium clavatum in colon cancer cells

Research dealing with early diagnosis and efficient treatment in colon cancer to improve patient''s survival is still under investigation. Chemotherapeutic agent result in high systemic toxicity due to their non‐specific actions on DNA repair and/or cell replication. Traditional medicine such as Lycopodium clavatum (LC) has been claimed to have therapeutic potentials against cancer. The present study focuses on targeted drug delivery of cationic liposomal nanoformulated LC (CL‐LC) in colon cancer cells (HCT15) and comparing the efficacy with an anti‐colon cancer drug, 7‐ethyl‐10‐hydroxy‐camptothecin (SN38) along with its nanoformulated form (CL‐SN38). The colloidal suspension of LC was made using thin film hydration method. The drugs were characterised using ultraviolet, dynamic light scattering, scanning electron microscopy, energy, dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy. In vitro drug release showed kinetics of 49 and 89% of SN38 and LC, whereas CL‐SN38 and CL‐LC showed 73 and 74% of sustained drug release, respectively. Studies on morphological changes, cell viability, cytotoxicity, apoptosis, cancer‐associated gene expression analysis of Bcl‐2, Bax, p53 by real‐time polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis of Bad and p53 protein were performed. Nanoformulated LC significantly inhibited growth and increased the apoptosis of colon cancer cells indicating its potential anti‐cancer activity against colon cancer cells.Inspec keywords: cancer, biological organs, cellular biophysics, drug delivery systems, drugs, nanomedicine, genetics, DNA, molecular biophysics, biochemistry, lipid bilayers, toxicology, suspensions, colloids, light scattering, X‐ray chemical analysis, solvation, enzymes, nanostructured materialsOther keywords: energy dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy, in vitro drug release, morphological changes, cell viability, cytotoxicity, apoptosis, cancer‐associated gene expression analysis, Bcl‐2, Bax, real‐time polymerase chain reaction, western blot analysis, Bad protein, p53 protein, scanning electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, ultraviolet scattering, thin film hydration method, colloidal suspension, nanoformulated form CL‐SN38, 7‐ethyl‐10‐hydroxy‐camptothecin, anticolon cancer drug, colon cancer cells HCT15, cationic liposomal nanoformulated LC, targeted drug delivery, therapeutic potentials, Lycopodium clavatum, traditional medicines, cell replication, DNA repair, nonspecific actions, high systemic toxicity, chemotherapeutic agents, patient survival, colon cancer treatment, colon cancer diagnosis, CL‐LC, potential anticancer activity     

Hybridized electronic states between CdSe nanoparticles and conjugated organic ligands: A theoretical and ultrafast photo-excited carrier dynamics study

Formation of densely packed thin films of semiconductor nanocrystals is advantageous for the exploitation of their unique optoelectronic properties for real-world applications. Here we investigate the fundamental role of the structure of the bridging ligand on the optoelectronic properties of the resulting hybrid film. In particular, we considered hybrid films formed using the same CdSe nanocrystals and two organic ligands that have the same bidentate dithiocarbamate binding moiety, but differ in their bridging structures, one bridged by ethylene, the other by phenylene that exhibits conjugation. Based on the results of photo-excited carrier dynamics experiments combined with theoretical calculations on the electronic states of bridged CdSe layers, we show that only the phenylene-based ligand presents a strong hybridization of the molecular HOMO state with CdSe layers, that is a marker of formation of an effective bridge. We argue that this hybridization spread favors the hopping of photo-excited carriers between nanocrystals, which may explain the reported larger photo-currents in phenylene-based hybrid films than those observed in ethylene-based ones.

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Plasmon hybridization engineering in self-organized anisotropic metasurfaces

Nano Research - The engineering of self-organized plasmonic metasurfaces is demonstrated using a maskless technique with defocused ion-beam sputtering and kinetically controlled deposition. The...