Engineering Commons^™

An Electro-Oculogram Based System For Communication And Control Using Target Position Variation, Ronan Fitzmaurice, Ted Burke, Annraoi De Paor

Conference Papers

In this paper we describe a novel mode of human computer interaction based on gaze tracking using the electro-oculogram (EOG). Despite the relative simplicity of recording this signal, it is often discounted as a reliable method of gaze tracking because of problems arising from changing sensitivity and DC drift. We describe an original technique, Target Position Variation (TPV), which addresses this issue by presenting moving icons which, when followed with the eye, create a corresponding pattern in the EOG signal which can be used to infer the correct gaze position and to compensate for variations in sensitivity.

Physical Layer Of Wireless Ad-Hoc Control Networks, Shengrong Bu, Fazel Naghdy, Philip Ciufo

Faculty of Engineering - Papers (Archive)

A new concept called Wireless ad-hoc control networks (WACNets), designed for distributed and remote monitoring and control is explored in this work. It is suggested that ad-hoc control networks are the next stage in the development of distributed control and monitoring. WACNet explores a framework for organic, evolutionary and scalable method of integrating a large number of nodes with sensing and/or actuation, local intelligence and control, data processing and communication capabilities. A combination of IEEE 1451 compliant Smart Sensor and Bluetooth standard is employed to develop the first generation test-bed for the study of WACNets. The concept is introduced and …

Evaluation Of Control Techniques For Dip Transfer Gas Metal Arc Welding, Gary Dean, John Norrish, Christopher D. Cook

Faculty of Engineering - Papers (Archive)

Dip transfer gas metal arc welding (GMAW) is used extensively for high productivity welding of thin sheet steel, and is also useful for positional welding of thicker section steels. Unfortunately in the past, the process has gained a reputation for fusion defects, which becomes more apparent when welding traditionally difficult materials such as coated steels. This reputation can be attributed in some instances to the method of control used and the changeable nature of variables crucial to controlling heat transfer during the welding process. The paper examines the relationship between weld fusion, heat input and current for coated steel welding …

Dynamic Channel Allocation For Mobile Cellular Systems Using A Control Theoretical Approach, Yaya Wei, Chuang Lin, Raad Raad, Fengyuan Ren

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The guard channel scheme in wireless mobile networks has attracted and is still drawing research interest owing to easy implementation and flexible control. Dynamic guard channel schemes have already been proposed in the literature to adapt to varying traffic load. This paper presents a novel control-theoretic approach to dynamically reserve guard channels called PI-Guard Channel (PI-GC) controller that maintains the handoff blocking probability (HBP) to a predefined value; while it still improves the channel resource utilization.

Model-Based Adaptive Control Of Piezoelectric Actuation Systems, Hwee Choo Liaw, Denny Oetomo, Bijan Shirinzadeh, Gursel Alici

Faculty of Engineering - Papers (Archive)

This paper proposes a model-based adaptive control methodology for piezoelectric actuation systems to follow specified motion trajectories. This is motivated by a search for an effective control strategy to deal with the problem of parametric uncertainties such as disturbance and hysteresis effects. The proposed adaptive law is formulated by combining a parameter compensator and a conventional PD feedback control for a system to drive its position tracking error converging to zero. The fundamental concept lies in the properties of a quasinatural potential function, which allows a saturated position error function in the control formulation. Implementation of the control law requires …

Robust Control Framework For Piezoelectric Actuation Systems In Micro/Nano Manipulation, Hwee Choo Liaw, Denny Oetomo, Bijan Shirinzadeh, Gursel Alici

Faculty of Engineering - Papers (Archive)

Micro/nano manipulation has been identified as one of the key enabling technologies for many emerging challenges. Within this scope, piezoelectric actuators have played major roles in achieving the required nano-resolution motion. This paper proposes a robust control framework for piezoelectric actuation systems to follow specified motion trajectories. The basic concept associated with this methodology lies in the specification of a target performance and the robust control scheme formulation for piezoelectric actuation systems to ensure the convergence of the position tracking error to zero. This control methodology is attractive as its implementation requires only the knowledge of the estimated system parameters …

Parameters Affecting Mine Gas Drainage And Outburst Control Research, Najdat I. Aziz, F. Sereshki, Dieter Bruggemann, Ian Porter

Faculty of Engineering - Papers (Archive)

Removing gases form mine environment represents the most important challenge that any mine operator is faced with. The ease with which the challenge is met and addressed depends on better understanding of the various parameters. Coal permeability and porosity is one of the key factors affecting the drainability of the coal. Coal matrix structure and coal mineralization provide a key to various issues related to effective drainage. Abnormal geological intrusions such as faults and dykes are likely to adversely affect the drainability of the coal seam. A combination of coal permeability, volumetric matrix change and petrography studies has been found …

Coverage Path Planning And Control For Autonomous Mobile Robots, Mohanakrishnan Balakrishnan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Coverage control has many applications such as security patrolling, land mine detectors, and automatic vacuum cleaners. This Thesis presents an analytical approach for generation of control inputs for a non-holonomic mobile robot in coverage control. Neural Network approach is used for complete coverage of a given area in the presence of stationary and dynamic obstacles. A complete coverage algorithm is used to determine the sequence of points. Once the sequences of points are determined a smooth trajectory characterized by fifth order polynomial having second order continuity is generated. And the slope of the curve at each point is calculated from …

Sliding Mode Control Of A Piezoelectric Actuator With Neural Network Compensating Rate-Dependent Hysteresis, Shuanghe Yu, Bijan Shirinzadeh, Gursel Alici, Julian Smith

Faculty of Engineering - Papers (Archive)

Piezoelectric actuators (PEA) are the fundamental elements for high-precision high-speed positioning/tracking task in many nanotechnology applications. However, the intrinsic hysteresis observed in PEAs has impaired their potential, specially, the motion accuracy. In this paper, the complicated nonlinear dynamics of PEA including hysteresis, creep, drift and time-delay etc. are treated as a black-box system exhibited as rate-dependent hysteresis. The multi-valued hysteresis is analyzed as a single-valued function so that a neural network (NN) can be built to model the hysteresis and its inversion. A sliding mode controller (SMC) augmented with inverse hysteresis model is then developed to compensate the hysteretic behavior, …

Modelling And Control Of A Suspension System For Vehicle Applications, Padraig Dowds, Aidan O'Dwyer

Conference papers

This paper discusses the modelling of passive and active suspension systems in a car, and the subsequent design of appropriate feedback controllers for the active suspension system. The models will be investigated using a quarter car model and a full car model approach.

Electronic Commerce Negotiation In A Supply Chain Via Constraint Evaluation, R. Wilhelm, B. Chu, R. Sun

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

Negotiation is of critical importance in e-commerce applications where the supply chain is dynamic and reconfiguring. In this research supply chain negotiation problems are addressed as constraint-satisfaction problems. In general each negotiation is handled in the largest scope possible to avoid the suboptimality that can result from many local solutions. This global approach, however, must be balanced with time constraints that apply in e-commerce supply chain execution. In this paper, we describe a new approach for e-commerce supply chain negotiation via constraint evaluation. As well, results from prototype software, distributed across the internet, are discussed. Beyond the general formulation, we …

Control And Topology Improvements In Half-Bridge Dc-Dc Converters, Songquan Deng

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Efficiency and transient response are two key requirements for DC-DC converters. Topology and control are two key topics in this dissertation. A variety of techniques for DC-DC converter performance improvement are presented in this work. Focusing on the efficiency issue, a variety of clamping techniques including both active and passive methods are presented after the ringing issues in DC-DC converters are investigated. By presenting the clamping techniques, a big variety of energy management concepts are introduced. The active bridge-capacitor tank clamping and FET-diode-capacitor tank clamping are close ideas, which transfer the leakage inductor energy to clamping capacitor to prevent oscillation …

Optimal Operating Strategy For Wells With Downhole Water Sink Completions To Control Water Production And Improve Performance, Ozan Arslan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Downhole water sink (DWS) technology is an alternative to conventional limited-entry completions to control water production in wells with bottom water drive. DWS wells comprise two completions: the bottom completion produces water and keeps the top completion open to oil inflow. The system performance depends on careful manipulation of the top and bottom rates to maximize oil productivity and produce oil-free water from the bottom completion. Conventional nodal analysis cannot provide a solution for DWS wells because the critical rates for water coning change with water drainage rate. A reservoir simulator is used to model two-phase flow to the dual …

An Open Architecture For Versatile Machine And Actuator Control, Michael Scott Baxter

Theses and Dissertations

Automatic control technology increases usability, reliability and productivity in manufacturing, transportation, and climate control. There are many additional areas of modern life that could benefit through automatic control; however, current automation components are too expensive or aren't sufficiently flexible. For example, the cost of current commercial motion control components precludes their use in an average home. This thesis describes an automatic control methodology that is low cost and is flexible enough for a wide variety of control applications. Typical applications could include:

- Home lighting, security and appliances

- Commercial building heating, ventilation and air conditioning

- Industrial machine tool …

Seasonal Aeration Rates For The Eastern United States Based On Long-Term Weather Patterns, Michael D. Montross, Samuel G. Mcneill, Thomas C. Bridges

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

Most aeration fans are sized to produce a minimum airflow rate of 0.1 m³/min/t (0.1 cfm/bu) in on-farm grain storage structures. At this airflow rate a significant amount of time is required to move a cooling front completely through a bin. The desired grain temperature and prevailing weather conditions will have a significant effect on required fan size. Thirty years of weather data were analyzed for the eastern United States to determine the amount of time available in temperature windows between 0 to 15.C and 0 to 17.C. Contour maps were generated with ArcMap 8.3 for the percentage …

Bie6300 - Irrigation & Conveyance Control Systems, Spring 2004, Gary P. Merkley

Biological and Irrigation Engineering - OCW

This is a course regarding measurement of flow rates and water levels. Calibration, design, and selection of open-channel flow measurement structures. Design of irrigation conveyance and distribution system infrastructure.

Control Loop Performance Assessment: A Classification Of Methods, Niall O'Connor, Aidan O'Dwyer

Conference papers

This paper presents an overview of a number of controller performance assessment techniques. The techniques discussed are divided into five categories, namely, time domain assessment, frequency domain assessment, minimum variance control (MVC) as a benchmark, statistical analysis, and other more ‘problem specific’ assessment techniques. Recent work, by various authors, in each of the five categories is outlined.

Novel Control Techniques For Co2 Shielded Gas Metal Arc Welding, Dominic Cuiuri, John Norrish, Christopher David Cook

Faculty of Engineering - Papers (Archive)

The control strategies that have been developed over the past four decades to control the inherently unstable metal transfer in the CO2-shielded GMAW process are described. The fundamental reasons for poor arc stability with CO2 as a shielding gas are discussed. From an understanding of the process behaviour, a new process control technique is proposed, and the future direction of research in this area is discussed.

Fast Convergence Control Approach For High Dimensional Chaotic Systems, Hsun-Heng Tsai, Chyun-Chau Fuh, Pi-Cheng Tung

Journal of Marine Science and Technology

A simple and efficient method for controlling high dimensional discrete-time chaotic systems is proposed in this paper. This method is implemented similar to the OGY method, and is feasible for practical experiments. The key component is to assign the eigenvalues of a linearized map by using the well-known pole placement technique. According to the Cayley-Hamilton theorem, the trajectory will converge to the desired fixed point after n iterations at most (n is the dimension of the map), if the real trajectory of the chaotic system falls within the neighborhood of the desired fixed point. The proposed approach improves the convergence …

Adaptive Neural Network Identifiers For Effective Control Of Turbogenerators In A Multimachine Power System, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy, Ronald G. Harley, Donald C. Wunsch

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper provides a novel method for nonlinear identification of multiple turbogenerators in a five-machine 12-bus power system using continually online trained (COT) artificial neural networks (ANNs). Each turbogenerator in the power system is equipped with all adaptive ANN identifier, which is able to identify/model its particular turbogenerator and rest of the network to which it is connected from moment to moment, based on only local measurements. Each adaptive ANN turbogenerator can be used in the design of a nonlinear controller for each turbogenerator in a multimachine power system. Simulation results for the adaptive ANN identifiers are presented

Closed Loop Identification Of A First Order Plus Dead Time Process Model Under Pi Control, Tony Kealy, Aidan O'Dwyer

Conference papers

Abstract -- This paper discusses the estimation of the parameters of a first order plus dead-time process model using the closed-loop step response data of the process under proportional plus integral (PI) control. The proportional gain and the integral time, in the PI controller, are chosen such that the closed-loop step response exhibits an under-damped response. From this response data, five characteristic points are used to determine a second order plus dead-time model and subsequently, the frequency response of the closed-loop system. Knowing the dynamics of the closed-loop system and the dynamics of the controller, the open-loop dynamics of the …

Mr Damper And Its Application For Semi-Active Control Of Vehicle Suspension System, G Z. Yao, F F. Yap, G Chen, Weihua Li, S H. Yeo

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

In this paper, a semi-active control of vehicle suspension system with magnetorheological (MR) damper is presented. At first a MR damper working in flow mode is designed. Performance testing is done for this damper with INSTRON machine. Then a mathematical model, Bouc–Wen model, is adopted to characterize the performance of the MR damper. With optimization method in MATLAB^® and experimental results of MR damper, the coefficients of the model are determined. Finally, a scaled quarter car model is set up including the model of the MR damper and a semi-active control strategy is adopted to control the vibration of …

Thermophysical Properties Of Slags For Process Control, Brian J. Monaghan, Robert F Brooks

Faculty of Engineering - Papers (Archive)

Thermophysical properties have been shown to be important in a number of industrial processes. Unfortunately, for a number of properties there are scant data available and/or the data that are available are 'of dubious quality. In the Thermo-Physical Property Group at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) the aim has been to develop measurement techniques capable of working in the difficult environments that are typical of industrial processes. This paper presents current developments at NPL in techniques to measure the thermal diffusivity of liquid slags using a laser flash and insights into the copper smelting process using interfacial tension techniques.

Multiple Model Networks In Non-Linear System Modelling For Control – A Review, Ruiyao Gao, Aidan O'Dwyer

Conference papers

Non-linear processes, by their nature, are non-uniform and invariably require custom designed control schemes to deal with individual characteristics. No general theory deals comprehensively with the wide range of non-linear systems encountered. In an attempt to accurately model non-linear dynamical systems, a wide variety of techniques have been developed such as non-linear auto-regressive moving average with exogeneous inputs (NARMAX) models (Chen and Billings, 1989), Weiner models (Schetzen, 1981), Hammerstein models (Billings and Fakhouri, 1982) and Multiple Layer Perceptron (MLP) neural networks (Narendra and Kannan, 1990). While the accuracy of such models offers a potentially significant improvement over linear models, the …

Dynamic Modeling And Analysis Of Oscillatory Bioreactors, Yongchun Zhang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Dynamic modeling of bioreactors is a challenging problem. The complexity of first principle models also make model validation and analysis very difficult and model-based controller design practically intractable. This thesis has focused on finding an effective tool for model dynamic analysis, construction of low-dimension model and simple and effective controller design. The validity of a biochemical reactor model often is evaluated by comparing transient responses to experimental data. Dynamic simulation can be rather inefficient and ineffective for analyzing bioreactor model. Bifurcation analysis is found to be a powerful tool for obtaining a more efficient and complete characterization of the model …

Computing The Shape Of The Image Of A Multi-Linear Mapping Is Possible But Computationally Intractable: Theorems, Raul A. Trejo, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In systems without inertia (or with negligible inertia), a change in the values of control variables x1,...,xn leads to the immediate change in the state z of the system. In more precise terms, for such systems, every component zi of the state vector z=(z1,...,zd) is a function of the control variables. When we know what state z we want to achieve, the natural question is: can we achieve this state, i.e., are there values of the control variables which lead to this very state?

The simplest possible functional dependence is described by linear functions. For such functions, the question of …

Wiener Model Identification And Predictive Control For Dual Composition Control Of A Distillation Column, H H J Bloemen, C T. Chou, T J J Van Den Boom, V Verdult, M Verhaegen, T C. Backx

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The benefits of using the Wiener model based identification and control methodology presented in this paper, compared to linear techniques, are demonstrated for dual composition control of a moderate-high purity distillation column simulation model. An identification experiment design is presented which enables one to identify both the low and high gain directions of the distillation column, properties which are important for control and hard to identify in a conventional identification experiment setup as is demonstrated in the paper. Data from the proposed experiment design is used for indirect closed-loop identification of both a linear and a Wiener model, which shows …

Crop Updates 2000 Cereals - Part 3, Roslyn Jettner, Blakely Paynter, Glen Mcdonald, Pierre Fievez, Ian Foster, David Tennant, Wal Anderson, James Ridsdill-Smith, Celia Pavri, Ross Chapman, Senthold Asseng, Steve Carr, Brad Nutt, Lindrea Latham, Roger Jones, Anyou Liu, Clinton Revell, David Ferris, Roy Latta, Lisa-Jane Blacklow, Chris Matthews, Ted Woodburn, Paul Yeoh, Ian Rose, Anita Lyons, Simon Cook, Matthew L. Adams, Robert J. Corner

Crop Updates

This session covers eighteen papers from different authors:

BARLEY AND OAT AGRONOMY

1. Unicorn barley must meet malting specifications to be a viable option, Roslyn Jettnerand Blakely Paynter, Agriculture Western Australia

2. Optimum oat seed rates, Glenn McDonald, Agriculture Western Australia

3. Production and Quality of export Oaten Hay (1998 and 1989), Pierre Fievez, Pierre Fievez and Associates

FROST

4. Climatology of Frost in Southern Western Australia, Ian Foster, Agriculture Western Australia

5. Flowering calculator, David Tennant, Agriculture Western Australia

6. Some options for managing the risk of frost damage, Wal Anderson, Agriculture Western Australia

PASTURE

7. …

Developments In Blast Furnace Process Control At Port Kembla Based On Process Fundamentals, Robert Nightingale, Rian Dippenaar, Wei-Kao Lu

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

This article is based on a presentation made in the "Geoffrey Belton Memorial Symposium," held in January 2000, in Sydney, Australia, under the joint sponsorship of ISS and TMS.

Boundary Control For Automated Sweeping Of Finite Element Meshes, Robert A. Kerr

Theses and Dissertations

Finite element analysis depends greatly upon a high-quality mesh to be able to provide reasonably accurate answers to engineering problems. Models that need to be analyzed using finite element analysis are becoming increasingly more complex, and correspondingly harder to mesh with good quality. Skew is one quality metric which can cause problems with finite element analyses. This thesis explains how skew is calculated, discusses two common sources of skew: multiply-linked surfaces with interval constraints, and biased edge meshes. Two methods of lessening skew in surface meshes are then presented: the skew control algorithm, and the curve morphing algorithm. These algorithms …