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Mechanical Engineering

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Brigham Young University

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2004

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Coordination Variables And Consensus Building In Multiple Vehicle Systems, Tim Mclain Nov 2004

Coordination Variables And Consensus Building In Multiple Vehicle Systems, Tim Mclain

Faculty Publications

Much of the research focus in the cooperative control community has been on formation control problems. This focus may be due to the fact that the group control problem can be reduced to well-established single-agent control problems by employing a leader-follower type control strategy. For example, single-agent path planning and trajectory generation techniques can be employed for the leader, and conventional trajectory tracking strategies can be employed for the followers. Indeed, formation control problems are much like linear systems theory: we search where the light is the brightest. It can be argued that formation control problems are the simplest type …

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Initial Experiments In The Cooperative Control Of Unmanned Air Vehicles, Derek R. Nelson, Timothy W. Mclain, Reed S. Christiansen, Randal W. Beard, David Johansen Sep 2004

Initial Experiments In The Cooperative Control Of Unmanned Air Vehicles, Derek R. Nelson, Timothy W. Mclain, Reed S. Christiansen, Randal W. Beard, David Johansen

Faculty Publications

This paper addresses cooperative control for a team of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs). Specifically, a team of three small UAVs is controlled to perform a cooperative timing mission. Starting at loiter locations distributed around the periphery of a 2 km square battle area, the UAVs cooperatively plan paths to arrive at a target at the center of the battle area in sequence at 10 sec intervals. Cooperative path planning is performed using the methodology of coordination variables and coordination functions. Coordination and waypoint path planning are centralized on a ground station computer. Experiments have been performed using BYU’s fleet of …

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Percolation Paths Of Three-Dimensions In Sensitized Stainless Steel, Alisa J. Millar Henrie Aug 2004

Percolation Paths Of Three-Dimensions In Sensitized Stainless Steel, Alisa J. Millar Henrie

Faculty Publications

The study of three-dimensional percolation paths through materials is important in its contribution to understanding defect sensitive properties of materials. This work shows the importance of grain boundary character in modeling defect sensitive boundaries. Also presented are trends of percolation of sensitized grain boundaries in 304 stainless steel (304SS). Of particular interest is how open paths form in a three-dimensional model created through serial sectioning. Evidence is presented that triple or quadruple points that contain typically two boundaries with special character that intersect the percolation path break up the path. Some boundaries with no known special qualities; they are not …

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New Stereology For The Recovery Of Grain-Boundary Plane Distributions In The Crystal Frame, Brent L. Adams, Ryan J. Larsen Jul 2004

New Stereology For The Recovery Of Grain-Boundary Plane Distributions In The Crystal Frame, Brent L. Adams, Ryan J. Larsen

Faculty Publications

One of the authors (RJL) is grateful to the Office of Naval Research for fellowship support. BLA acknowledges the support of the NSF through the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, Carnegie Mellon University (Grant No. DMR-0079996). A new experimental method is given for recovering the probability-distribution function Sv(ns/g). The function Sv(na/g) is the grain-boundary area per unit volume as a function of grain-boundary plane orientation (na), given a lattice misorientation (g) between the adjoining grains. The grain-boundary normal (na) is expressed in the crystal frame in which the misorientation g originates. The proposed method recovers the three-dimensional Sv(na/g) function …

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Measuring The Five-Parameter Grain-Boundary Distribution From Observations Of Planar Sections, Brent L. Adams, Bassem S. El-Dasher, Gregory S. Rohrer, David M. Saylor Jul 2004

Measuring The Five-Parameter Grain-Boundary Distribution From Observations Of Planar Sections, Brent L. Adams, Bassem S. El-Dasher, Gregory S. Rohrer, David M. Saylor

Faculty Publications

One of the authors (DMS) thanks his colleagues at NIST, Edwin R. Fuller, Jr. and Grady S. White, for their helpful advice and criticisms, as well as Mark D. Vaudin and James A. Warren for their critical review of this manuscript. This work was supported at CMU by the MRSEC program of the National Science Foundation under Award No. DMR-0079996. A sterological method is described for estimating the distribution of grain-boundary types in poly-crystalline materials on the basis of observations from a single planar section. The grain-boundary distribution is expressed in terms of five macroscopically observable parameters that include: three …

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Unmanned Air Vehicle Testbed For Cooperative Control Experiments, Timothy W. Mclain, Randal W. Beard Jul 2004

Unmanned Air Vehicle Testbed For Cooperative Control Experiments, Timothy W. Mclain, Randal W. Beard

Faculty Publications

This paper describes the MAGICC Lab unmanned air vehicle (UAV) testbed at Brigham Young University. Motivation for pursuing experimental research with UAVs is given as well as a historical perspective of the UAV testbed development. Lessons learned through the development and use of the testbed over the past several years are summarized.

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Experimental And Numerical Investigation Of Turbulent Flow Induced Pipe Vibration In Fully Developed Flow, Matthew T. Pittard, R. Daniel Maynes, Jonathan D. Blotter, Robert P. Evans Jun 2004

Experimental And Numerical Investigation Of Turbulent Flow Induced Pipe Vibration In Fully Developed Flow, Matthew T. Pittard, R. Daniel Maynes, Jonathan D. Blotter, Robert P. Evans

Faculty Publications

Flow-induced pipe vibration caused by fully developed pipe flow has been observed but not fully investigated when turbulent flow prevails. This article presents experimental results that indicate a strong correlation between the volume flow rate and a measure of the pipe vibration. In this work, the standard deviation of the frequency-averaged time-series signal, measured using an accelerometer attached to the pipe, is used as the measure of pipe vibration. A numerical, fluid-structure interaction (FSI) model used to investigate the relationship between pipe wall vibration and the physical characteristics of turbulent flow is also presented. This numerical FSI approach, unlike commercial …

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Gradient-Based Non-Linear Microstructure Design, Brent L. Adams, M. Lyon Apr 2004

Gradient-Based Non-Linear Microstructure Design, Brent L. Adams, M. Lyon

Faculty Publications

The support of this research by the Army Research Office is gratefully acknowledged. M. Lyon is supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Fourier analysis is implemented on the orientation distribution of a polycrystalline microstructure. The linearity and convexity of the Fourier space, with respect to orientation, allows one to consider all possible distributions by considering all linear combinations of single-grain orientations. The limits of the Fourier space are therefore defined by the solutions to a set of linear programming problems. A unique approach to the linear programming, similar to the Krylov subspace methods for obtaining solutions to …

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Development Of Commercially Viable Compliant Mechanisms Using The Pseudo-Rigid-Body Model: Case Studies Of Parallel Mechanisms, Christopher A. Mattson, Larry L. Howell, Spencer P. Magleby Mar 2004

Development Of Commercially Viable Compliant Mechanisms Using The Pseudo-Rigid-Body Model: Case Studies Of Parallel Mechanisms, Christopher A. Mattson, Larry L. Howell, Spencer P. Magleby

Faculty Publications

Analysis and synthesis of compliant mechanisms has recently been the subject of significant study in the research community. This focus has led to a number of design approaches for developing compliant mechanisms. This paper describes the value of using the Pseudo-Rigid-Body Model (PRBM) to design compliant mechanisms for commercial products. Application of the PRBM is illustrated through the development of two parallel mechanisms: a bicycle derailleur and parallel-motion bicycle brakes. The PRBM allows compliant mechanisms to be modeled and analyzed as rigid-body mechanisms and significantly reduces the complexity of analysis. Mechanisms with straightforward properties are used to demonstrate the use …

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Coordinated Uav Target Assignment Using Distributed Tour Calculation, David H. Walker, Timothy W. Mclain, Jason K. Kowlett Jan 2004

Coordinated Uav Target Assignment Using Distributed Tour Calculation, David H. Walker, Timothy W. Mclain, Jason K. Kowlett

Faculty Publications

In this chapter a method for assigning unmanned aerial vehicle agents to targets through the use of preplanned vehicle tours is presented. Assignments are based on multi-target tours that consider the spread of the targets and the sensor capabilities of the vehicles. In this way, the individual agents and the team as a whole make better use of team resources and improve team cooperation. Planning and assignments are accomplished in reasonable computational time through the use of heuristics to reduce the problem size.

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Microstructure Design Of A Two Phase Composite Using Two-Point Correlation Functions, Brent L. Adams, H. Garmestani, G. Saheli Jan 2004

Microstructure Design Of A Two Phase Composite Using Two-Point Correlation Functions, Brent L. Adams, H. Garmestani, G. Saheli

Faculty Publications

This work has been funded under the AFOSR Grant no. F49620-03-1-0011 and Army Research Lab contract no. DAAD17-02-P-0398 and DAAD 19-01-1-0742. Two-point distribution functions are used here as to introduce "Microstructure Sensitive Design" in two-phase composites. Statistical distribution functions are commonly used for the representation of microstructures and also for homogenization of materials properties. The use of two-point statistics allows the composite designer to include the morphology and distribution in addition to the properties of the individual phases and components. Statistical continuum mechanics is used to make a direct link between the microstructure and properties (elastic and plastic) in terms …

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Microstructures By Design: Linear Problems In Elastic-Plastic Design, Brent L. Adams, B. Henrie, M. Lyon Jan 2004

Microstructures By Design: Linear Problems In Elastic-Plastic Design, Brent L. Adams, B. Henrie, M. Lyon

Faculty Publications

Materials microstructure is considered to be a design variable in the methodology called microstructure sensitive design (MSD). Based upon existing homogenization relations, relating the first-order representation of microstructure (the local state distribution function) to elastic and yield properties, the paper describes the construction of properties closures. These establish the theoretically-possible combinations of properties achievable by the set of all possible microstructures, which is called the microstructure hull. Exemplary homogenization relations are shown to be, typically, hypersurfaces (often hyperplanes) in the Fourier space in which the microstructure hull resides. All points lying on (or to one side of) the hypersurface, that …

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