Alignment Error Modelling, Analysis and Experiment of the Deep-Water Bolt Flange Automatic Connection Tool

A deep-water bolt flange automatic connection tool plays a very important role in the process of offshore oil exploitation and transportation. In the connection process, the alignment error of bolts and nuts is the key factor to ensure the connection process is successful. Using the kinematics modeling method, this paper created the alignment error model of the deep-water bolt flange automatic connection tool and analyzed the influence of manufacturing accuracy on the alignment error of bolts and nuts through computer simulation software. Based on the error matching design method, the manufacturing accuracy of parts were optimized with a part-size-based priority sequence to ensure the bolt–nut alignment error was within the allowable limits. The land tests, the pool tests and the sea test were carried out. The test results showed that the bolt and nut can be connected in the subsea environment reliably.

ON MINIMIZATION OF IMPACT OF MAGNETIC ELEMENTS ADJUSTMENT TOLERANCES ON BEAM ORBIT DEVIATIONS IN SYNCHROTRONS

Рассматривается задача минимазации отклонений орбиты пучка заряженных частиц в синхротронах, вызванной погрешностью юстировки квадруполей. Разработан метод оптимизации траектории орбиты, основанный на применении роевых вычислений и метода градиентного спуска. Приведены результаты численных экспериментов. The problem of minimizing the deviations of the orbit of a beam of charged particles in synchrotrons caused by the alignment error of the quadrupoles is considered. A method for optimizing the orbit trajectory based on the use of swarm computations and the gradient descent method has been developed. The results of numerical experiments are presented.

The Design and Implementation of a High-Precision Positioner Fixture

In this paper, a novel positioner fixture with a high repeated positioning accuracy and a high stiffness is proposed and investigated. A high-precision end-toothed disc is used to achieve the high repeated positioning accuracy of the designed positioner fixture. The mathematical models of the cumulative error of the tooth pitch, the tooth alignment error and the error of the tooth profile half-angle of the end-toothed disc are analyzed. The allowable tolerance values of the cumulative error of the tooth pitch, the tooth alignment error and the error of the tooth profile half-angle of the end-toothed disc are given. According to the theoretical calculation results, a prototype positioner fixture is fabricated and its repeated positioning accuracy and stiffness are tested. The test results indicate that the stiffness of the proposed positioner fixture is 1050.5 N/μm, which is larger than the previous positioner fixtures of the same type. The repeated positioning accuracy of the proposed positioner fixture in the x, y and z directions are ± 0.48 μm, ± 0.45 μm and ± 0.49 μm, respectively, which is significantly higher than the previous positioner fixtures.

IVUS Longitudinal and Axial Registration for Atherosclerosis Progression Evaluation

Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging offers accurate cross-sectional vessel information. To this end, registering temporal IVUS pullbacks acquired at two time points can assist the clinicians to accurately assess pathophysiological changes in the vessels, disease progression and the effect of the treatment intervention. In this paper, we present a novel two-stage registration framework for aligning pairs of longitudinal and axial IVUS pullbacks. Initially, we use a Dynamic Time Warping (DTW)-based algorithm to align the pullbacks in a temporal fashion. Subsequently, an intensity-based registration method, that utilizes a variant of the Harmony Search optimizer to register each matched pair of the pullbacks by maximizing their Mutual Information, is applied. The presented method is fully automated and only required two single global image-based measurements, unlike other methods that require extraction of morphology-based features. The data used includes 42 synthetically generated pullback pairs, achieving an alignment error of 0.1853 frames per pullback, a rotation error 0.93 and a translation error of 0.0161 mm. In addition, it was also tested on 11 baseline and follow-up, and 10 baseline and post-stent deployment real IVUS pullback pairs from two clinical centres, achieving an alignment error of 4.3±3.9 for the longitudinal registration, and a distance and a rotational error of 0.56±0.323 mm and 12.4±10.5, respectively, for the axial registration. Although the performance of the proposed method does not match that of the state-of-the-art, our method relies on computationally lighter steps for its computations, which is crucial in real-time applications. On the other hand, the proposed method performs even or better that the state-of-the-art when considering the axial registration. The results indicate that the proposed method can support clinical decision making and diagnosis based on sequential imaging examinations.

Alignment of scanning lidars in offshore wind farms

Long-range Doppler wind lidars are applied more and more for high resolution areal measurements in and around wind farms. Proper alignment, or at least knowledge on how the systems are aligned, is of great relevance here. The paper describes in detail two methods that allow a very accurate alignment of a long-range scanning lidar without the use of extra equipment or sensors. The well-known so-called Hard Targeting allows a very precise positioning and north alignment of the lidar using the known positions of the surrounding obstacles, e.g. wind turbine towers. Considering multiple hard targets instead of only one with a given position in an optimization algorithm allows to increase the position information of the lidar device and minimizes the consequences of using erroneous input data. The method, referred to as Sea Surface Leveling, determines the leveling of the device during offshore campaigns in terms of roll and pitch angle based on distance measurements to the water surface. This is particularly well suited during the installation of the systems to minimize alignment error from the start, but it can also be used remotely during the measurement campaign for verification purposes. We applied and validated these methods to data of an offshore measurement campaign, where a commercial long-range scanning lidar was installed on the transition piece platform of a wind turbine. In addition, we present a model that estimates the quasi-static inclination of the device due to the thrust loading of the wind turbine at different operating conditions. The results show reliable outcomes with a very high accuracy in the range of 0.02° in determining the leveling. The importance of the exact alignment as well as the possible applications are discussed in this paper. In conclusion, these methods are useful tools that can be applied without extra effort and contribute significantly to the quality of successful measurement campaigns.

Comparison of an oblique single cut rotation osteotomy with a novel 3D computer-assisted oblique double cut alignment approach

An oblique double-cut rotation osteotomy (ODCRO) enables correcting a complex bone deformation by aligning, in 3D, the distal, middle and proximal bone segments with a target bone, without intersegmental gaps. We propose virtual preoperative planning of an ODCRO. To minimize a residual translation error, we use an optimization algorithm and optimize towards bone length, alignment in the transverse direction, or a balanced reconstruction. We compare the residual alignment error with an oblique single-cut rotation osteotomy using 15 complex bone deformations. The single-cut approach was not feasible in 5 cases, whereas the ODCRO procedure was feasible in all cases. The residual alignment error was smaller for the ODCRO than for the single-cut approach except for one case. In a subset for length reconstruction, the length error of 7.3–21.3 mm was restored to 0.0 mm in 4 of 5 cases, although at the cost of an increased transverse translation. The proposed method renders planning an ODCRO feasible and helps restoring bone alignment and lengthening better than an oblique single-cut rotation osteotomy. Awareness of the challenges and possibilities in preoperative planning of an ODCRO will be of value for future alignment surgery and for patients.

Understanding Jig Alignment Error Occurrences for Substrate 1-Map Strips

Singulation is a process in a semiconductor industry where high dense strips were singulated into single units. Jig saw singulation was the updated technology where strips were seated and vacuumed on a rubber nest jig during singulation. Jig saw singulation is also practical for high volume manufacturing as it demands minimal indirect materials. To cut the strips, jig alignment with the strip was measured by the machine to ensure that the rubber nest jig will not be cut and damaged while the strip is being singulated. However, with the different upstream process that the strip undergone, machine prompt frequent jig alignment errors when the machine detected that the strip saw street has high displacement with the recorded alignment of the saw street of rubber nest jig. Through this study, the authors have driven to understand the jig alignment errors occurrences as well as the assistance that can be made for the strip to be processed. The authors also included the study of the risks that might be imposed on both rubber nest jig and the affected strips, as well as the recommendations when jig alignment errors were encountered.

Alignment-Free Sensing Module for Absolute and Incremental Lines in Linear Positioning System Based on Tunneling-Magnetoresistance Sensors

An alignment-free sensing module for the positioning system based on tunneling magnetoresistive (TMR) sensors with an absolute-incremental-integrated scale is demonstrated. The sensors of the proposed system for both lines consist of identical layer stacks; therefore, all sensors can be fabricated in identical processes from thin film deposition to device patterning on a single substrate. Consequently, the relative position of the sensors can be predefined at the lithography stage and the alignment error between sensors caused by the manual installation is completely eliminated. Different from the existing sensing scheme for incremental lines, we proposed to utilize the magnetic tunnel junctions with a perpendicular anisotropy reference layer and an in-plane anisotropy sensing layer. The sensors are placed parallel to the scale plane with magnetization of the sensing layer in the plane, which show the capability of polarity detection for the absolute line and reveal sinusoidal output signal for the incremental line. Furthermore, due to the large signal of TMR, the working distance can be further improved compared with conventional sensors. In addition, the cost of the positioning system is expected to be lowered, since all the sensors are fabricated in the same process without extra installation. Our design may pave a new avenue for the positioning system based on a magnetic detection scheme.