Liquid Marble Patchwork on Super-Repellent Surface

Liquid marble (LM) is a droplet that is wrapped by hydrophobic solid particles, which behave as a non-wetting soft solid. Based on these properties, LM can be applied in fluidics and soft device applications. A wide variety of functional particles have been synthesized to form functional LMs. However, the formation of multifunctional LMs by integrating several types of functional particles is challenging. Here, a general strategy for the flexible patterning of functional particles on droplet surfaces in a patchwork-like design is reported. It is shown that LMs can switch their macroscopic behavior between a stable and active state on super-repellent surfaces in situ by jamming/unjamming the surface particles. Active LMs hydrostatically coalesce to form a self-sorted particle pattern on the droplet surface. With the support of LM handling robotics, on-demand cyclic activation–manipulation–coalescence–stabilization protocols by LMs with different sizes and particle types result in the reliable design of multi-faced LMs. Based on this concept, a single bi-functional LM is designed from two mono-functional LMs as an advanced droplet carrier.     

Stiffness improvement of swirl gripper based on gap height and force estimation

The swirl gripper is an electrically activated noncontact handling device that uses swirling airflow to generate a lifting force. This force can be used to pick up a workpiece placed underneath the swirl gripper without any contact. It is applicable, for example, on a semiconductor wafer production line, where contact must be avoided during the handling and moving of a workpiece to minimize damage. When a workpiece levitates underneath a swirl gripper, the gap height between them is critical for safe handling. Therefore, in this study, we develop a theoretical model of the swirl gripper, based on which a method to estimate the levitation gap height by detecting pressure at two points is proposed. Experiments indicate that the estimated gap height can track changes in actual gap height accurately in real time, when the gap height is relatively small and the inertia of airflow in the gap is negligible. In addition, the force between the gripper and workpiece can also be estimated using the detected pressure. As a result, a desired relationship between the force and gap height can be achieved by adjusting the rotating speed of the fan according to the real-time estimated force and gap height using a microcontroller. The control system was experimentally verified using a desired linear relationship. Because the stiffness of the force decreases with increasing gap height for a constant gripper fan rotating speed, the linear relationship between the force and gap height, which means a constant stiffness, is expected to enhance handling stability of workpieces.     

Survey of domestic food purchases and related home handling practices in the Abruzzo region (central Italy): Data collection and analysis through a language-independent classification system

A telephone survey was carried out on 13,486 randomly selected households located in the Abruzzo region (central Italy). Three questionnaires were specifically designed in relation to three different groups of foods (Meat and meat products, Fishery products, Fruit and vegetables). Questions were mainly focused on the amount and number of purchases, type of retailer, and home food handling practices with respect to the week prior to the interview. Data were classified according to a multilingual thesaurus system (LanguaL). Results allowed to estimate domestic purchases (in kg) per capita for different food categories. The category “Red meat/Cattle” accounted for a large part of purchases in the “meat and meat products” group (10.9 kg per capita/year; 32.2% of purchases in the group) while the category “Fish or related organism/Fish” was the most purchased in the “fishery products” group (6.9 kg per capita/year; 63.3%). The aggregation of more detailed characteristics enabled the identification of popular categories of foods, such as “Red meat/Cattle/Divided into pieces” (25% of the “meat and meat products” group). Significant differences (p < 0.05) were found between the four different provinces (L'Aquila, Chieti, Pescara and Teramo) with respect to “Poultry/Chicken” and “Red meat/Cattle” categories. Householders were also asked about post-purchase food handling practices that might be hazardous to food safety. More than 20% of those surveyed stated that they thawed frozen meat at room temperature. The degree of doneness after cooking of different food categories was generally high: over 90% of products purchased in the majority of meat and fish categories were properly cooked. However a noticeable proportion of householders (about 15%) reported medium or rare cooking of “Red meat/Cattle” and “Red meat/Swine”. Differences (p < 0.05) were also found between consumers of different ages, with people over 65 years old being more prone to freeze meat and cook it thoroughly.The survey was carried out in a specific geographic area and on a statistically significant sample of households, thus allowing a collection of data on domestic habits relating to food purchases and home food handling practices. This information should be included in the framework of quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) models as a measure of the actual exposure of consumers to pathogenic microorganism. The LanguaL system also proved to be a practical language-independent method useful not only to identify and describe food items but also to classify them according to specific food safety characteristics.     

黑龙江荒沟抽水蓄能电站主变压器运输方案论证与研究

抽水蓄能电站一般地处偏远山区,大件运输较为困难,且为节约投资,地下主变压器洞室尺寸及运输通道一般较小,因此主变压器运输较为复杂和困难.针对荒沟抽水蓄能电站主变压器洞及主变压器搬运通道已经完成开挖支护的基础上,取消永久搬运轨道,优化主变压器运输,结合国内大中型主变压器厂家运输方案,论证和研究荒沟抽水蓄能电站取消搬运轨道的合理性与可行性.     

Weighted Superposition Attraction (WSA): A swarm intelligence algorithm for optimization problems – Part 2: Constrained optimization

This paper is the second one of the two papers entitled “Weighted Superposition Attraction (WSA) Algorithm”, which is about the performance evaluation of the WSA algorithm in solving the constrained global optimization problems. For this purpose, the well-known mechanical design optimization problems, design of a tension/compression coil spring, design of a pressure vessel, design of a welded beam and design of a speed reducer, are selected as test problems. Since all these problems were formulated as constrained global optimization problems, WSA algorithm requires a constraint handling method for tackling them. For this purpose we have selected 6 formerly developed constraint handling methods for adapting into WSA algorithm and analyze the effect of the used constraint handling method on the performance of the WSA algorithm. In other words, we have the aim of producing concluding remarks over the performance and robustness of the WSA algorithm through a set of computational study in solving the constrained global optimization problems. Computational study indicates the robustness and the effectiveness of the WSA in terms of obtained results, reached level of convergence and the capability of coping with the problems of premature convergence, trapping in a local optima and stagnation.     

软件功能安全验证活动的应用

软件功能安全验证活动对提高安全关键系统的安全性具有重要作用,它贯穿于软件安全生命周期的各个阶段。通过对各阶段输出文档的审查和分析,可尽早发现软件问题,降低软件修复成本。完整的问题闭环处理流程可有效解决软件验证活动中发现的问题,给出各方均满意的处理结果。     

基于重要度排序的配电自动化终端优化布局方法

针对配电自动化终端优化布局问题，提出了一种基于重要度排序的终端优化布局方法。首先以等年值综合费用为目标函数，供电可靠性和投入产出比为双重约束建立了配电自动化终端优化布局模型。然后通过分析配电自动化终端对供电可靠性提升的影响，给出各个节点的“二遥”及“三遥”终端安装重要度定义及计算公式。最后采用枚举法确定最优终端安装数量，基于节点终端安装重要度排序确定终端的最优安装位置。该方法考虑了已布局节点对剩余节点终端安装重要度的影响，能够在降低计算量的同时兼顾布局合理性。运用所提方法RBTS-BUS2系统及扩充模型进行终端优化布局并与智能优化算法的布局结果进行对比，验证了本文方法的有效性及优越性。     

双机器人系统运动协调仿真与实验研究

针对具有重量大、形状不规则特征的物品,采用双机器人协同作业是该技术领域的研究热点问题之一。运用ADAMS软件对双机器人虚拟样机进行运动学仿真分析,模拟空间搬运轨迹,对DREE末端点的运动轨迹曲线进行同步误差分析。搭建了实验平台,对双机器人同步搬运箱体进行实验验证。实验结果表明:双机器人协作搬运箱体时,在水平方向和垂直方向的轨迹误差均小于±2.8mm,较好地满足同步搬运作业工艺要求。     

航空影像处理与应用

简述航空影像数据的获取手段,针对不同的影像产品通过不同的处理方法来获取相应的数字产品,并简述了这些数字产品在城市规划建设中的应用。