Enhancement of dynamic performance of wave energy converter by introducing a flow control

The stabilization of power take-off (PTO) is imperative especially under circumstances of fluctuating input wave energy. In this paper, a flow control valve is introduced to optimize the transient process of the hydraulic PTO, which can contribute to a quicker adjustment and a stronger stability. Under variations of input power and load torque in transient process, an open-loop control method and a closed-loop control method are proposed as the opening law of the above valve, and the hydraulic motor speed, the pressure at the accumulator inlet and the generated power are chosen as indicators to examine the regulation performance. Then, the synergic effect of the flow control valve and the accumulator in the transient process is discussed. The effectiveness of the two presented control methods on the fluctuation suppression is respectively tested and compared in both regular wave and irregular wave situations via simulation. To validate the practical effectiveness of the proposed methods, field experiments are conducted. The results demonstrate that the open-loop control can only improve the damping ability of the hydraulic PTO in the speed raising stage, while the closed-loop control can improve the stability both in the speed raising stage and in the load increasing stage.

Age and Not the Preferred Limb Influences the Kinematic Structure of Pointing Movements

In goal-directed movements, effective open-loop control reduces the need for feedback-based corrective submovements. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of hand preference and aging on submovements during single- and two-joint pointing movements. A total of 12 young and 12 older right-handed participants performed pointing movements that involved either elbow extension or a combination of elbow extension and horizontal shoulder flexion with their right and left arms to a target. Kinematics were used to separate the movements into their primary and secondary submovements. The older adults exhibited slower movements, used secondary submovements more often, and produced relatively shorter primary submovements. However, there were no interlimb differences for either age group or for the single- and two-joint movements. These findings indicate that open-loop control is similar between arms but compromised in older compared to younger adults.

Hierarchical Modular Battery Equalizer With Open-Loop Control and Mitigated Recovery Effect

In this manuscript, an advanced battery equalizer with open-loop control is proposed. This equalizer is based on a two-layer hierarchical modular architecture. The top stringto- module (S2M) layer consists of a half-bridge inverter and a voltage multiplier (VM) rectifier, and the bottom cell-to-cell (C2C) layer is implemented by bidirectional buck-boost units. Without state-of-charge (SOC) estimation, the battery charge can be automatically transferred from high-voltage cell-modules/cells to low-voltage ones. Only a pair of symmetrical pulse width modulation (PWM) driving signals with fixed switching frequency and duty cycle are required.This reduces the control complexity remarkably. Meanwhile, the balancing current of each balancing path naturally attenuates with the convergence of cell-module/ cell voltages. This ensures a fast balancing of cell-module/cell with large voltage mismatch. The battery-recovery-effect induced balancing error is also effectively mitigated. Moreover, simple control facilitates a simultaneous module and cell voltage balancing in static, charging, and discharging conditions. The operation principles are analyzed in detail. An experimental platform with eight series-connected batteries is built and tested. The measured results well validate the theoretical analysis. Both cell and module voltages automatically converge with clearly mitigated recovery effect.

Cortex-independent open-loop control of a voluntary orofacial motor action

Whether using our eyes or our hands, we interact with our environment through mobile sensors. The efficient use of these sensory organs implies the ability to track their position; otherwise, perceptual stability and prehension would be profoundly impeded. The nervous system may be informed about the position of a sensory organ via two complementary feedback mechanisms: peripheral reafference (external, sensory feedback) and efference copy (internal feedback). Yet, the potential contributions of these mechanisms remain largely unexplored. By training rats to place their vibrissae within a predetermined angular range without contact, a task that depends on knowledge of vibrissa position relative to their face, we found that peripheral reafference is not required. The presence of motor cortex is not required either, even in the absence of peripheral reafference. On the other hand, the red nucleus, which receives descending inputs from motor cortex and the cerebellum and projects to facial motoneurons, is critical for the execution of the vibrissa task. All told, our results demonstrate the existence of an open-loop control by an internal model that is sufficient to drive voluntary motion. The internal model is independent of motor cortex and likely contains the cerebellum and associated nuclei.

Cortex-independent open-loop control of a voluntary orofacial motor action

Whether using our eyes or our hands, we interact with our environment through mobile sensors. The efficient use of these sensory organs implies the ability to track their position; otherwise, perceptual stability and prehension would be profoundly impeded. The nervous system may be informed about the position of a sensory organ via two complementary feedback mechanisms: peripheral reafference (external, sensory feedback) and efference copy (internal feedback). Yet, the potential contributions of these mechanisms remain largely unexplored. By training rats to place their vibrissae within a predetermined angular range without contact, a task that depends on knowledge of vibrissa position relative to their face, we found that peripheral reafference is not required. The presence of motor cortex is not required either, even in the absence of peripheral reafference. On the other hand, the red nucleus, which receives descending inputs from motor cortex and the cerebellum and projects to facial motoneurons, is critical for the execution of the vibrissa task. All told, our results demonstrate the existence of an open-loop control by an internal model that is sufficient to drive voluntary motion. The internal model is independent of motor cortex and likely contains the cerebellum and associated nuclei.

Research on system modeling and motion control simulation of automatic power trowel

Aiming at the problems that the existing control researches on the power trowel are limited to the analysis of the motion principle and the open-loop control of some mechanisms, taking a hydraulically-driven ride-on power trowel as the research object, the closed-loop control method of the point-to-point motion of the power trowel is studied. After analyzing the motion principle of the power trowel, based on the assumption of elastic deformation of concrete, the dynamic model of a single trowel is established, and the relationship between the driving force, driving moment and hydraulic moment, velocity, and angular velocity of the trowel is obtained. The whole machine motion equation of the power trowel is deduced, the point-to-point state feedback control algorithm of the power trowel is studied, and a simulation model is built to verify the accuracy of the system model of the power trowel and the effectiveness of the control algorithm. This research can provide reference for the control method design of other complex motions of the power trowel.

Precision open-loop control of piezoelectric actuator

Due to space constraints, some micro-assemblies and micro-operating systems cannot install sensors, so it is challenging to achieve closed-loop control. For this reason, a precision open-loop control strategy for piezoelectric actuators is proposed. Firstly, based on the PI model and the proposed threshold partition method, the hysteresis model of the piezoelectric actuator with rate-dependent and few operators is established. Then the hysteresis error of the piezoelectric actuator is compensated by the inverse model obtained. Secondly, the creep model of the logarithmic piezoelectric actuator with simple expression and few parameters is established. Then, a creep controller without demand inverse is designed to compensate for the creep error of the piezoelectric actuator. Finally, a ZVD (Zero Vibration Derivative) input shaping method with good robustness is given to eliminate the oscillation generated by the piezoelectric actuator under the action of the step signal. The experimental results show that the displacement error of piezoelectric actuator is reduced from −9.07 to 9.46 μm to −1.22 to 1.78 μm when the maximum displacement is 120 μm after hysteresis compensation; after creeping compensation, within the action time of the 1200 s, the displacement creep of the piezoelectric actuator was reduced from 5.5 μm before compensation to 0.3 μm; after the oscillation control, the displacement overshoot of the piezoelectric actuator is reduced to 0.6% of that before control.