A single and double closed-loop compound anti-sway control method for double-pendulum bridge cranes locating at random position

In the assembly workshops of some heavy special equipment, the bridge cranes for payload lifting often needs to be located frequently. However, the locating position is often determined by the operator, which is random and results in significant payload oscillation and difficulties in trolley positioning. Furthermore, in practice, the bridge crane always exhibits more complicated double-pendulum dynamics compared with single-pendulum crane. To solve these problems, this paper establishes the double-pendulum model of bridge crane. Derived from the proportional-derivative (PD) control, the single closed-loop is designed based on the hook oscillation during acceleration and transporting; when locating, the double closed-loop is presented by utilizing the position and the hook oscillation. Combining the two control methods, a single and double closed-loop compound anti-sway control (SDCAC) method for the bridge crane is proposed. On this basis, to improve the performance of the SDCAC system, the sequential quadratic optimization (SQP) method is adopted to optimize PD parameters. Besides, a novel bumpless transfer control method is proposed to realize the smooth transition between the two control modes. Finally, the simulations and experiments are conducted. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Public contestation practices in Russia in 2000–2020

The article analyzes the influence exerted by the limitation of legal opportunities for public contestation in the 2000s on the scope of mobilization and the repertoire of public contestation practices. The term ‘public contestation’ is used to describe forms of individual and collective political activity focused on criticizing, denying and resisting the current government project, including by introducing alternative projects. The public contestation includes constructive actions of political actors not related to causing damage or disposing of political opponents. The paper is based on political and legal analysis and on some elements of event analysis.In the 2000s, the scale of public contestation on discursive and protest platforms was smaller than over the next decade, which did not create any needs for detailed regulation of such activities. At the same time, changes in political and legal opportunities in the electoral and party field were quite intense throughout 2000–2020. The most popular forms of public contestation were public events (in 2011–2018), as well as discursive activity on the Internet and in mass media (after 2018). During the above mentioned period, we see the biggest changes in legal opportunities in this field and increasing penalties for respective violations. The electoral field shows the pendulum dynamics: decreasing and increasing opportunities in 2000–2011 and 2012–2019, respectively. A meaningful factor of narrowing legal opportunities for public contestation is the potential financial, organizational and information support of public contestation practices by foreign entities.

A low-cost method for carrying loads during human walking

ABSTRACTHumans often perform tasks that require them to carry loads, but the metabolic cost of carrying loads depends on where the loads are positioned on the body. We reasoned that carrying loads at the arms’ center of mass (COM) during walking might be cheap because arm swing is thought to be dominated by passive pendulum dynamics. In contrast, we expected that carrying loads at the leg COM would be relatively expensive because muscular actuation is necessary to initiate and propagate leg swing. Therefore, we hypothesized that carrying loads at the arm COM while swinging would be cheaper than carrying loads at the leg COM. We further hypothesized that carrying loads at the arm COM while swinging would be more expensive than carrying loads at the waist, where the mass does not swing relative to the body. We measured net metabolic power, arm and leg motion, and the free vertical moment while subjects (n=12) walked on a treadmill (1.25 m s−1) without a load, and with 8 kg added to the arms (swinging versus not swinging), legs or waist. We found that carrying loads on the arms or legs altered arm swinging amplitude; however, the free vertical moment remained similar across conditions. Most notably, the cost of carrying loads on the swinging arms was 9% less than carrying at the leg COM (P<0.001), but similar to that at the waist (P=0.529). Overall, we found that carrying loads at the arm COM is just as cheap as carrying loads at the waist.

SINDy-PI: a robust algorithm for parallel implicit sparse identification of nonlinear dynamics

Accurately modelling the nonlinear dynamics of a system from measurement data is a challenging yet vital topic. The sparse identification of nonlinear dynamics (SINDy) algorithm is one approach to discover dynamical systems models from data. Although extensions have been developed to identify implicit dynamics, or dynamics described by rational functions, these extensions are extremely sensitive to noise. In this work, we develop SINDy-PI (parallel, implicit), a robust variant of the SINDy algorithm to identify implicit dynamics and rational nonlinearities. The SINDy-PI framework includes multiple optimization algorithms and a principled approach to model selection. We demonstrate the ability of this algorithm to learn implicit ordinary and partial differential equations and conservation laws from limited and noisy data. In particular, we show that the proposed approach is several orders of magnitude more noise robust than previous approaches, and may be used to identify a class of ODE and PDE dynamics that were previously unattainable with SINDy, including for the double pendulum dynamics and simplified model for the Belousov–Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction.

A smooth polynomial shaped command for sloshing suppression of a suspended liquid container

A smooth polynomial shaped command with an adjustable command time length is proposed for eliminating the residual vibrations of a multi-mode system. The ability of eliminating jerks and vibrational modes, regardless of their number, offers the most advantage of the proposed command. A numerical simulation is conducted to test the command’s effectiveness by eliminating the residual sloshing oscillations of a liquid-filled container conveyed by an overhead crane in a rest-to-rest manoeuvre. The governing equations of the liquid free-surface level are derived by modelling the sloshing dynamics by a series of mass–spring–damper harmonics. The proposed model accounts for the coupling between the pendulum dynamics and the sloshing equivalent mechanical model. The command’s robustness to the system parameters’ uncertainties, liquid depth and cable length, are investigated as well. The ability of adjusting the command length and retaining higher sloshing modes in command-designing are also outlined.

Semi-Supervised Manifold Alignment Using Parallel Deep Autoencoders

The aim of manifold learning is to extract low-dimensional manifolds from high-dimensional data. Manifold alignment is a variant of manifold learning that uses two or more datasets that are assumed to represent different high-dimensional representations of the same underlying manifold. Manifold alignment can be successful in detecting latent manifolds in cases where one version of the data alone is not sufficient to extract and establish a stable low-dimensional representation. The present study proposes a parallel deep autoencoder neural network architecture for manifold alignment and conducts a series of experiments using a protein-folding benchmark dataset and a suite of new datasets generated by simulating double-pendulum dynamics with underlying manifolds of dimensions 2, 3 and 4. The dimensionality and topological complexity of these latent manifolds are above those occurring in most previous studies. Our experimental results demonstrate that the parallel deep autoencoder performs in most cases better than the tested traditional methods of semi-supervised manifold alignment. We also show that the parallel deep autoencoder can process datasets of different input domains by aligning the manifolds extracted from kinematics parameters with those obtained from corresponding image data.

Quadrotor UAV Control for Transportation of Cable Suspended Payload

Payload transportation with UAV’s (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) has become a topic of interest in research with possibilities for a wide range of applications such as transporting emergency equipment to otherwise inaccessible areas. In general, the problem of transporting cable suspended loads lies in the under actuation, which causes oscillations during horizontal transport of the payload. Excessive oscillations increase both the time required to accurately position the payload and may be detrimental to the objects in the workspace or the payload itself. In this article, we present a method to control a quadrotor with a cable suspended payload. While the quadrotor itself is a nonlinear system, the problem of payload transportation with a quadrotor adds additional complexities due to both input coupling and additional under actuation of the system. For simplicity, we fix the quadrotor to a planar motion, giving it a total of 4 degrees of freedom. The quadrotor with the cable suspended payload is modelled using the Euler-Lagrange equations of motion and then partitioned into translation and attitude dynamics. The design methodology is based on simplifying the system by using a variable transformation to decouple the inputs, after which sliding mode control is used for the translational and pendulum dynamics while a feedback linearizing controller is used for the rotational dynamics of the quadrotor. The sliding mode parameters are chosen so stability is guaranteed within a certain region of attraction. Lastly, the results of the numerical simulations created in MATLAB/Simulink are presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.