scholarly journals System-Level Testing and Evaluation Plan for Field Robots: A Tutorial with Test Course Layouts

Robotics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
William R. Norris ◽  
Albert E. Patterson
Keyword(s):  
Functional Performance ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Testing Procedure ◽  
Robotic Systems ◽  
System Level ◽  
Field Robots ◽  
Field Robotics ◽  
Performance Requirements ◽  
Control Schemes ◽  
And Behavior

Field robotics is a very important sub-field of robotic systems, focusing on systems which need to navigate in open, unpredictable terrain and perform non-repetitive missions while monitoring and reacting to their surroundings. General testing and validation standards for larger robotic systems, including field robots, have not been developed yet due to a variety of factors including disagreement over terminology and functional/performance requirements. This tutorial presents a generalized, step-by-step system-level test plan for field robots under manual, semi-autonomous/tele-operated, and autonomous control schemes; this includes a discussion of the requirements and testing parameters, and a set of suggested safety, communications, and behavior evaluation test courses. The testing plan presented here is relevant to both commercial and academic research into field robotics, providing a standardized general testing procedure.

scholarly journals Aircraft Requirements for Sustainable Regional Aviation

Aerospace ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 61
Author(s):  
Dominik Eisenhut ◽  
Nicolas Moebs ◽  
Evert Windels ◽  
Dominique Bergmann ◽  
Ingmar Geiß ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Systems Engineering ◽  
System Level ◽  
Policy Initiative ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Calculation Methods ◽  
Figures Of Merit ◽  
Performance Requirements ◽  
High Level ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
The Eu

Recently, the new Green Deal policy initiative was presented by the European Union. The EU aims to achieve a sustainable future and be the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. It targets all of the continent’s industries, meaning aviation must contribute to these changes as well. By employing a systems engineering approach, this high-level task can be split into different levels to get from the vision to the relevant system or product itself. Part of this iterative process involves the aircraft requirements, which make the goals more achievable on the system level and allow validation of whether the designed systems fulfill these requirements. Within this work, the top-level aircraft requirements (TLARs) for a hybrid-electric regional aircraft for up to 50 passengers are presented. Apart from performance requirements, other requirements, like environmental ones, are also included. To check whether these requirements are fulfilled, different reference missions were defined which challenge various extremes within the requirements. Furthermore, figures of merit are established, providing a way of validating and comparing different aircraft designs. The modular structure of these aircraft designs ensures the possibility of evaluating different architectures and adapting these figures if necessary. Moreover, different criteria can be accounted for, or their calculation methods or weighting can be changed.

scholarly journals Clinical academic research in the time of Corona: a simulation study in England and a call for action

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amitava Banerjee ◽  
Michail Katsoulis ◽  
Alvina G. Lai ◽  
Laura Pasea ◽  
Thomas A. Treibel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Academic Staff ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
System Level ◽  
Clinical Activity ◽  
Infection Rates ◽  
Community Needs ◽  
Academic Workforce ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

AbstractBackgroundCoronavirus (COVID-19) poses health system challenges in every country. As with any public health emergency, a major component of the global response is timely, effective science. However, particular factors specific to COVID-19 must be overcome to ensure that research efforts are optimised. We aimed to model the impact of COVID-19 on the clinical academic response in the UK, and to provide recommendations for COVID-related research.MethodsWe constructed a simple stochastic model to determine clinical academic capacity in the UK in four policy approaches to COVID-19 with differing population infection rates: “Italy model” (6%), “mitigation” (10%), “relaxed mitigation” (40%) and “do-nothing” (80%) scenarios. The ability to conduct research in the COVID-19 climate is affected by the following key factors: (i) infection growth rate and population infection rate (from UK COVID-19 statistics and WHO); (ii) strain on the healthcare system (from published model); and (iii) availability of clinical academic staff with appropriate skillsets affected by frontline clinical activity and sickness (from UK statistics).FindingsIn “Italy model”, “mitigation”, “relaxed mitigation” and “do-nothing” scenarios, from 5 March 2020 the duration (days) and peak infection rates (%) are 95(2.4%), 115(2.5%), 240(5.3%) and 240(16.7%) respectively. Near complete attrition of academia (87% reduction, <400 clinical academics) occurs 35 days after pandemic start for 11, 34, 62, 76 days respectively – with no clinical academics at all for 37 days in the “do-nothing” scenario. Restoration of normal academic workforce (80% of normal capacity) takes 11,12, 30 and 26 weeks respectively.InterpretationPandemic COVID-19 crushes the science needed at system level. National policies mitigate, but the academic community needs to adapt. We highlight six key strategies: radical prioritisation (eg 3-4 research ideas per institution), deep resourcing, non-standard leadership (repurposing of key non-frontline teams), rationalisation (profoundly simple approaches), careful site selection (eg protected sites with large academic backup) and complete suspension of academic competition with collaborative approaches.

Formation Control of Non-Holonomic Mobile Robots Moving on Slippery Surfaces

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Violet Mwaffo ◽  
Pietro De Lellis ◽  
Sean Humbert
Keyword(s):  
Formation Control ◽  
Deterministic Model ◽  
Sufficient Conditions ◽  
Robotic Systems ◽  
Control Input ◽  
Stochastic Disturbances ◽  
Driving Speed ◽  
Control Schemes ◽  
Mean Square Convergence ◽  
Double Integrator

Abstract In this work, we analyze the decentralized formation control problem for a class of multi-robotic systems evolving on slippery surfaces. Grounded on experimental data of robots moving on a gravel surface inducing slippery, we show that a deterministic model cannot capture the uncertainties resulting from the kinematics of the robots while, instead, a model incorporating stochastic noise is capable of emulating such perturbations on wheel driving speed and turn rate. To account for these uncertainties, we consider a second order non-holonomic unicycle model to capture the full dynamics of individual vehicles where both actuation force and torque are subject to stochastic disturbances. Upon reducing the input-output dynamics of individual robot to a stochastic double integrator, we investigate the effects of these perturbations on the control input using concepts from stochastic stability theory and through numerical simulations. We demonstrated the applicability of the proposed scheme for formation control notably by providing sufficient conditions for exponential mean square convergence and we numerically determined the range of noise intensities for which team of robots can achieve formation stabilization. The promising findings from this work are expected to aid the design of robust control schemes for formation control of non-holonomic robots on off-road or un-paved surfaces.

Persepsi Masyarakat Mengenai Peranan Vegetasi Kawasan Sabuk Hijau Di Sempadan Sungai DAS Wae Batu Gajah

MAKILA ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-28
Author(s):  
Sitna Marasabessy ◽  
Bokiraiya Latuamury ◽  
Iskar Iskar ◽  
Christy C.V. Suhendy
Keyword(s):  
Formal Education ◽  
Open Space ◽  
Testing Procedure ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Green Belt ◽  
Minimum Requirement ◽  
Environmentally Sustainable ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Hypothesis Testing Procedure ◽  
And Behavior

Green open space is at least a minimum requirement for an environmentally sustainable city at 30% of the total area. Pressure on green free space, especially the Green belt area in the river border, tends to increase from year to year due to an increase in urban population. Therefore, this study aims to analyze people's perceptions of the green belt vegetation's role in the watershed of the Wae Batu Gajah watershed in Ambon City. The research method uses descriptive methods that describe a situation based on facts in the field and do not treat the object, with the hypothesis testing procedure using Chi-Square. The results showed that the community's socio-economic parameters consisting of age, formal education, and occupation had a significant influence on the understanding of the green border of the river. In contrast, gender and marital status parameters have no significant effect on understanding the green belt border. Formal education can influence attitudes and behavior through values, character, and understanding of a problem built in stages in a person. The type of work a person has for a long time working will affect the environment's mindset and behavior. The poor only have two sources of income, through salaries / informal business surpluses for basic needs.

Incubator Platform for Multidisciplinary Innovation in Research and Education

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 29-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ethiopia Nigussie ◽  
Liang Guang ◽  
Alexey Boyko ◽  
Antti Hakkala ◽  
Petri Sainio ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Academic Research ◽  
Real Life ◽  
System Level ◽  
Multicultural Teams ◽  
Engineering Research ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Research And Education ◽  
Distributed Networking ◽  
Career Skills

In this article, an incubator platform concept is presented to demonstrate the authors’ approach in meeting the enormous challenges faced by future multidisciplinary research and education. The abstraction level of laboratory projects needs to be raised to a level where the researchers and students have the opportunity to deal with hands-on real-life system-level problems and decisions, while simultaneously various fundamental key technologies of the information society are integrated into the systems. Their approach is concretized by an Incubator experimental platform. Facilitated by this environment, researchers, engineers and students can join their efforts in developing next-generation products in a well-organized manner. The targeted products must meet the increasingly important special characteristics required for the digital era – self- and context-awareness, built-in information security, distributed networking, enormous scalability and device interoperability. Many projects are today developed by distributed multicultural teams, so it is a necessity that the development can also be implemented in co-operation of several universities in different countries, in order to promote the career skills of the students. The incubator platform proposed in this article is able to provide viable answers and solutions to all the mentioned challenges in engineering research and education, coupling the curriculum tightly to top-class academic research.

scholarly journals Reduced-Reflection Multilayer PCB Microstrip with Discontinuity Characterization

Electronics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 1473
Author(s):  
Aleksandr Vasjanov ◽  
Vaidotas Barzdenas
Keyword(s):  
Printed Circuit Boards ◽  
Dielectric Material ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
System Level ◽  
Reference Plane ◽  
Impedance Change ◽  
Circuit Boards ◽  
Impedance Mismatch ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Technology And Communication

In the era of technology and communication, printed circuit boards (PCBs) can be found in a myriad of devices—from ordinary household items, to state of the art custom metrology equipment. Different types of component for wireless communications are available and come in various packages, supplied by multiple manufacturers. The signal landpads for some high-frequency connectors and components, encapsulated in larger packages, are usually wider than the controlled impedance trace, thereby introducing unwanted impedance mismatch and resulting in signal reflections. The component land pad and microstrip width a discrepancy issue can be found in both complex high-density industrial devices and system-level academic research papers. This paper addresses the topic of compensating discontinuities, introduced by signal pads, which are wider than the target impedance microstrip, characterizes the difference between the compensated and uncompensated microstrip with discontinuity, and proposes a generalized guideline on compensating for the introduced impedance change in multilayer PCBs. The compensation method is based upon carefully designing the stackup of the PCB allowing for a reference plane cutout under the discontinuity to even out the impedance mismatch. A 6-layer PCB with IT180A dielectric material containing three structures has been manufactured and characterized using an Agilent E8363B vector network analyzer (VNA). A 4–12 dB improvement in S11 response in the whole frequency range up to 10 GHz, compared to that when no compensation has been applied, was observed.

Resilient Self-Reproducing Systems

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amor A. Menezes ◽  
Pierre T. Kabamba
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Failure Modes ◽  
Approaches To Learning ◽  
System Level ◽  
Reproductive Capacity ◽  
Reconfigurable Robots ◽  
Control Schemes ◽  
Learning And Adaptation ◽  
Payload Mass ◽  
System States

This paper is motivated by the need to minimize the payload mass required to establish an extraterrestrial robotic colony. One approach for this minimization is to deploy a colony consisting of individual robots capable of self-reproducing. An important consideration once such a colony is established is its resiliency to large-scale environment or state variations. Previous approaches to learning and adaptation in self-reconfigurable robots have utilized reinforcement learning, cellular automata, and distributed control schemes to achieve robust handling of failure modes at the modular level. This work considers self-reconfigurability at the system level, where each constituent robot is endowed with a self-reproductive capacity. Rather than focus on individual dynamics, the hypothesis is that resiliency in a collective may be achieved if: 1) individual robots are free to explore all options in their decision space, including self-reproduction, and 2) they dwell preferentially on the most favorable options. Through simulations, we demonstrate that a colony operating in accordance with this hypothesis is able to adapt to changes in the external environment, respond rapidly to applied disturbances and disruptions to the internal system states, and operate in the presence of uncertainty.

Multiscale Control to Meet the Conflicting Nanoscale Performance Requirements

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huzefa Shakir ◽  
Won-Jong Kim
Keyword(s):  
Degrees Of Freedom ◽  
Reference Model ◽  
Control Strategies ◽  
Mass Model ◽  
Integral Term ◽  
Six Degrees Of Freedom ◽  
Performance Requirements ◽  
Model Following ◽  
Control Schemes ◽  
Domain Performance

In this paper, we consider the problem of designing a multiscale control for plants with conflicting time-domain performance requirements. These results follow from the conventional optimal proportional-integral (PI) control. Four different design methods are proposed: (1) a controller-switch technique which makes use of employing two different controllers designed to meet two different performances and are switched during the course of operation, (2) an integral-reset scheme, which resets the integral term in the control law when the new reference point is reached, (3) controller-switch and integral-reset schemes put together to take benefits of both of them, (4) a model-following approach that uses a dynamic reference model without increasing the overall dimension of the system. The objective of the last scheme is to make the output of the plant track the output of the model as closely as possible. Stability analyses and a comparison between the performances of these methods are given. All these methods give better performances as compared with conventional control schemes. Block diagrams are given and step responses are obtained to demonstrate the proposed methods. A six degrees-of-freedom (DOFs) magnetically levitated (maglev) stage with a second-order pure-mass model has been used to demonstrate the capabilities of the aforementioned control strategies. These strategies are not plant-specific and may be generalized to any higher-order plant.

A Model for Capturing Product Assembly Information

2005 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sudarsan Rachuri ◽  
Young-Hyun Han ◽  
Sebti Foufou ◽  
Shaw C. Feng ◽  
Utpal Roy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
System Level ◽  
Assembly Model ◽  
Product Model ◽  
Collaborative Environment ◽  
Mechanical Assemblies ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
Electromechanical Products ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Product Assembly

The important issue of mechanical assemblies has been a subject of intense research over the past several years. Most electromechanical products are assemblies of several components, for various technical as well as economic reasons. This paper provides an object-oriented definition of an assembly model called the Open Assembly Model (OAM) and defines an extension to the NIST Core Product Model (NIST-CPM). The assembly model represents the function, form, and behavior of the assembly and defines both a system level conceptual model and associated hierarchical relationships. The model provides a way for tolerance representation and propagation, kinematics representation, and engineering analysis at the system level. The assembly model is open so as to enable plug-and-play with various applications, such as analysis (FEM, tolerance, assembly), process planning, and virtual assembly (using VR techniques). With the advent of the Internet more and more products are designed and manufactured globally in a distributed and collaborative environment. The class structure defined in OAM can be used by designers to collaborate in such an environment. The proposed model includes both assembly as a concept and assembly as a data structure. For the latter it uses STEP. The OAM together with CPM can be used to capture the assembly evolution from the conceptual to the detailed design stages. It is expected that the proposed OAM will enhance the assembly information content in the STEP standard. A case study example is discussed to explain the Usecase analysis of the assembly model.

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