Flocking Control of Multi-Agent Systems with Permanent Obstacles in Strictly Confined Environments

Considering the application of flocking control on connected and automated vehicle (CAV) systems, the persistent interactions between CAVs (flocking agents) and road boundaries (permanent obstacles) are critical, due to flocking behaviors in a strictly confined environment. However, the existing flocking theories attempt to model and animate natural flocks by only considering temporary obstacles, which only describe interactions between agents and obstacles that will eventually disappear during flocking. This paper proposes a novel flocking control algorithm to extend existing flocking theories and guarantee the desired flocking coordination of multi-agent systems (e.g., CAV systems) with permanent obstacles (constraints). By analyzing comprehensive behaviors of flocks via Hamiltonian functions, a zero-sum obstacle condition is developed to ensure the satisfaction of permanent obstacle avoidance. Then, an additional control term representing the resultant forces of permanent obstacles is introduced to tackle interactions between agents and permanent obstacles. Demonstrated and compared through simulation results, a CAV system steered by the proposed flocking control protocol can successfully achieve the desired flocking behaviors with permanent obstacles avoidance in a three-lane traffic environment, which is failed by existing flocking control theories solely considering temporary obstacles.

A Short Update of Frankel Functional Regulator

A removable appliance is a device that modifies mandibular posture and transmits the resultant forces created by muscles and soft tissues to underlying and surrounding anatomical structures in a controlled manner. The resulting variation of the neuromuscular environment thus produces the required tooth movement along with the needed advancements in growing patterns. The necessity and requirement of early treatment is to modify the existing and developing malocclusions and muscular derangements before the attainment of growth completion of permanent dentition. Frankel Function Regulator (FR) is a device which functions on the principle of functional orthopedics in unity with muscle gymnastics (muscle exercises) and thereby results in morphological changes in both the jaws hence re-establishing the desirable normal occlusion.

Experimental tests of industrial-scale ripping of soil

Ripper attachments should ensure destruction of firm, frozen or rocky soil. Industrial rippers have the ability to forcibly penetrate the working body into soil in contrast to agricultural tillage machines. The ripper attachments have two-sided force closure. The resultant forces acting on the working tool from the side of soil depend on such ripping parameters as ripping depth and angle. Currently, these dependences are mainly studied experimentally. The article presents the experimental results on the ripping resistance force as a case-study of a tractor-mounted dozer–ripper manufactured at the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant. The scope of the experiment covers three ripping depths and eight angles. It has been experimentally found that the dependence of the ripping resistance force on each of these parameters is quadratic. The authors propose to study the ripping process using a complex parameter which is a product of the ripping depth and the ripping angle. The use of the complex parameter in the two-factor analysis allowed reducing the degree of the studied dependence while preserving the required accuracy. The complex parameter reflects the relationship between the design parameters of the ripper tooth, ripping depth and angle. The article shows that the vertical penetration resistance linearly depends on the horizontal traction resistance. The authors obtained this dependence for loam of medium density. The authors’ approach makes it possible undertake optimization of ripping process subject to soil type.

The Role of Calender Gap in Barrel and Screw Wear in Counterrotating Twin Screw Extruders

It has been known in the industrial sector that in closely intermeshing counterrotating twin screw extruders, large separating forces develop in the calender gap, which push the screws towards the barrel wall. The result is significant wear in the region defined by 30°- and 60°-degree angles from the vertical. In the present investigation, pressures were measured around the barrel in extrusion of two rigid PVC resins in a laboratory extruder of 55 mm diameter and the forces on the screw core were determined. Numerical flow simulations were also carried out using the power-law viscosity parameters of the resins. From the experimental results, it was determined that the resultant forces are in the 30 degree angle direction, and from the computer simulations, the angle is between 18° and 25°. It is argued that the resultant force angle will be somewhat larger in large diameter extruders, due to the additional contribution of gravity.

A Biomechanical Analysis of Wide, Medium, and Narrow Grip Width Effects on Kinematics, Horizontal Kinetics, and Muscle Activity on the Sticking Region in Recreationally Trained Males During 1-RM Bench Pressing

Grip width has been found to affect lifting performance, especially around the sticking region; however, little is known about the kinetics and muscle activities that could explain these differences in performance. This study aimed to investigate the effects of grip width on the joint, barbell kinematics, and horizontal kinetics, analyzed in tandem with the effects of muscle activation around the sticking region in the one repetition maximum (1-RM) barbell bench press. Fourteen healthy bench press-trained males (body mass: 87.8 ± 18.4, age: 25 ± 5.4) performed 1-RM with a small, medium, and wide grip width. The participants bench pressed 109.8 ± 24.5 kg, 108.9 ± 26.4 kg, and 103.7 ± 24 kg with the wide, medium, and narrow grip widths. Furthermore, the wide grip width produced 13.1–15.7% lateral forces, while the medium and narrow grip widths produced 0.4–1.8 and 8.5–10.1% medially directed forces of the vertical force produced during the sticking region, respectively. Horizontal forces did not increase during the sticking region, and the resultant forces decreased during the sticking region for all grip widths. The wide and medium grip widths produced greater horizontal shoulder moments than the narrow grip width during the sticking region. Hence, the wide and medium grip widths produced similar shoulder and elbow joint moments and moment arm at the first located lowest barbell velocity. Furthermore, triceps medialis muscle activity was greater for the medium and narrow grip widths than the wide grip width. This study suggests that the sticking region for the wide and medium grip widths may be specific to the horizontal elbow and shoulder joint moments created during this region. Therefore, when the goal is to lift as much as possible during 1-RM bench press attempts among recreationally trained males, our findings suggest that bench pressing with a wide or medium grip width may be beneficial.

Evaluation of web reinforcements in prestressed concrete box girders through shear-transverse bending domains

In concrete box girders, the amount and distribution of reinforcements in the webs have to be estimated considering the local effects due to eccentric external loads and cross-sectional distortion and not only the global effect due to the resultant forces of a longitudinal analysis: shear, torsion and bending. This work presents an analytical model that allows designers to take into account the interaction of all these effects, global and local, for the determination of the reinforcements. The model is based on the theory of stress fields and it has been compared to a 3D finite element analysis, in order to validate the interaction domains. The results show how the proposed analytical model allows an easy and reliable reinforcement evaluation, in agreement with a more refined 3D analysis but with a reduced computational burden.

Platform Centered Reduction: a Process Capturing the Essentials for Blade-Damper Coupled Optimization

The purpose of this paper is to develop an attractive tool for designers in the initial design phase of the damping of turbomachinery blades through dry friction underplatform dampers. The paper shows how, to this purpose, certain reasonable simplifications are introduced in the procedure and in the model, leaving the customary full high fidelity computations to the final design verification analysis. The key simplifications here considered are: the blade neck is modelled with Euler beam finite elements (FE) to speed up the updating of its dimensions during the optimisation process; the contact forces exerted by the dampers on the blade platform are represented by the resultant forces and moments applied to a reference point on the platform, associated to its displacements and rotations; the airfoil, which, due to its complex shape, is considered fixed during the coupled optimization of the damper, is obtained from a full 3D FE model after a component mode synthesis reduction. It is shown that the process captures the essentials of the nonlinear dynamics of the blade-damper problem without sacrificing in any way the accuracy of the results. This hybrid model is then employed in the process where the domains of optimal matching between the damper and the blade is searched for by exploring the influence of blade neck thickness (flexibility) and damper mass. Such a purposely simplified process allows a clear identification of relationships between relevant blade features and response with a focus on fatigue life.

Platform Centered Reduction: A Process Capturing the Essentials for Blade-Damper Coupled Optimization

The purpose of this document is to continue along the line of research of the authors in the direction of developing an attractive tool for designers in the initial design phase of the damping of the turbomachinery blades. In particular, in order to guide their initial choice of a dry friction underplatform damper in the most appropriate way. The paper shows how, to this purpose, certain reasonable simplifications are introduced in the procedure and in the model, leaving the customary full high fidelity computations to the final design verification analysis. The key simplifications here considered are: – the blade neck is modelled with Euler beam finite elements so to speed up the updating of its dimensions during the optimisation process; – the contact forces exerted by the dampers on the two sides of the blade platform are represented by the resultant forces and moments applied to a reference point on the platform, associated to its displacements and rotations; – as an improvement to the model proposed in the paper presented at Turbo Expo 2019, the airfoil is now obtained from a full 3D FE model after a component mode synthesis reduction; this choice is justified by the facts that the airfoil is by large the item with most complex shape and that during the coupled optimization of the damper the airfoil is considered to be of fixed shape. It is shown that the process captures the essentials of the nonlinear dynamics of the blade-damper problem without sacrificing in any way the accuracy of the results. This hybrid model is then employed in the process where the domains of optimal matching between the damper and the blade is searched for by exploring the influence of blade neck thickness (flexibility) and damper mass. Such a purposely simplified process allows a clear identification of relationships between relevant blade features and response with a focus on fatigue life. At the same time, it allows an assessment of the interplay between blade parameters and damper parameters in determining the modal features and the damping capabilities. It is shown how different matching solutions may be identified depending on the expected forcing level on the blade.

Control of trotting gait for load-carrying quadruped walking vehicle with eccentric torso

Aiming at the problems of common methods in trotting gait control of a load-carrying quadruped walking vehicle, a control method, combining virtual model and centroidal dynamics, is proposed. The control of the walking vehicle is divided into two parts, meaning the motion control of the vehicle body and the motion control of the swing leg. The virtual model control method is used to work out the accelerations of the vehicle body, while the centroidal dynamics approach is used to obtain the resultant forces acting on the vehicle. Next, quadratic programming is used to distribute the resultant forces to the foot-ends of the supporting legs. Last, combining the Jacobian matrices of supporting legs, the vehicle body’s motion control is achieved. The virtual forces, acting on the swing leg foot-end, are obtained using the virtual model control method. Combining the swing leg’s Jacobian matrix, joint torques of swing leg are worked out. Simulink and Adams are adopted to jointly simulate omnidirectional trotting of the vehicle, under the condition of fixed and shifting position of eccentric weight. The effects of the virtual model and centroidal dynamics control method are compared with that of the virtual model control method. The results show that the errors of roll angle and pitch angle are reduced by 50%, 89% and 50%, 80%, respectively, as derived by virtual model and centroidal dynamic control method, under the two conditions. The proposed control algorithm is proved effective.