Optimal Tuning of Fuzzy Logic Controller Based Speed Control of DC Motor

Fuzzy logic controller (FLC) has become popular in the speed control application of DC motors with automatic adjustment function. In this article, the performance of a specific FLC controlled DC motor is studied. The exceed speed is observed with a stabilization time, thus confirming the FLC behavior. Therefore, FLC must be set to obtain the required performance by applying appropriate expert rules, the minimum overshoot and installation time can be maintained within the required values. With the help of FLC, the manual adjustment function is gradually eliminated, and the intelligent adjustment function is at the center position, and the performance is satisfactory. FLC DC motor speed control is implemented in MATLAB environment. The results show that the FLC method has the smallest bypass, smallest transient and steady-state error, and shows higher FLC efficiency as compared with other conventional controllers.

Analysis of Existing and Proposed 3-Bit and Multi-Bit Multiplier Algorithms for FIR Filters and Adaptive Channel Equalizers on FPGA

Different multiplication algorithms have different performance characteristics. Some are good at speed while others consume less area when implemented on hardware, like Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)-the advanced implementation technology for DSP systems. The eminent parallel and sequential multiplication algorithms include Shift and Add, Wallace Tree, Booth, and Array. The multiplier optimization attempts have also been reported in adders used for partial product addition. In this paper, analogous to conventional multipliers, two new multiplication algorithms implemented on FPGA are shown and compared with conventional algorithms as stand-alone and by using them in the implementation of FIR filters and adaptive channel equalizer using the LMS algorithm. The work is carried out on Spartan-6 FPG that may be extended for any type of FPGA. Results are compared in terms of resource utilization, power consumption, and maximum achieved frequency. The results show that for a small length of coefficients like 3-bit, the proposed algorithms work very well in terms of achieved frequency, consumed power, and even resource utilization. Whilst for the length greater than 3-bit, the Pipelined multiplier is much better in frequency than the proposed and conventional ones, and the Booth multiplier consumes fewer resources in terms of lookup tables.

An Analysis of Enterprise Resource Planning System Usage to Improve Business Process Performance

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is an information system which integrates business functions and processes. ERP systems are widely used in different commercial organizations and industries. For a number of reasons, ERP can be the cause of success in an organization and help improve individual’s performance in an organization by supporting better decision making. It is especially useful in helping an organization improve its productivity, reduce its operational cost and improve quality by efficient use of resources and effective communication. ERP implementation strategy greatly influences an industry‘s business process performance and can help lower organizational resistance to it. It also plays a vital role for business process performance because there is a passionate reaction to ERP that is a characteristic response to change connected with new innovation in an organization. This work is conducted to evaluate the ERP implementation and its influence on enterprise infrastructure, especially how the business performance is improved. The method used in this study is survey based, using interviews from more than 100 experts from different organizations in Karachi, Pakistan. The results show significant role of ERP system in raising business process performance of the organizations. Overall, ERP system impacts heavily an industry in terms of business process performance and also helps improve individual performance, considering how organizational resistance is managed using various strategies and communicating well.

Towards Social Networks Integrated Domain-Specific Business Directories: A Design Science Approach

This research work relates to the paradigm of business pages hosted on social networking sites, as they are increasingly gaining attention among business organizations as a potential source of their community outreach. However, the social networking sites whilst offering several necessary community services, are currently lacking the support for the domain specific features of specific types of organizations such as research and innovation laboratories, educational and training institutes and many others. Undertaking a design science research approach, we investigate the stated problem in more detail in a specific type of organizations termed as Innovation Laboratories. As a result, we propose designing domain specific business directories while simultaneously integrating them with the business pages hosted on existing social networking sites. We demonstrate the feasibility and application of our proposed model through a web-based tool named as “SIDIL - Social networks Integrated Directory of Innovation Laboratories”. The tool has been evaluated by the experts running Innovation Laboratories and found effective in achieving its objectives. As a conclusion, we present a motivation towards designing next generation of online and integrated business networking platforms.

Characterization of RF Power Amplifier for Narrow and Wide Band Memory Polynomial Implementations

Linearly efficient RF power amplifiers have a tremendous role in wireless communication and radar systems as they lie at the front end of most RF systems. In today’s world of wireless communication, it is not an easy task to design a RF power amplifier that is linearly efficient. There are two main key challenges that one face for making RF power amplifier’s behavior linearly efficient. First is to characterize RF power amplifier’s coefficients smartly. Second is to propose an approach that works on input signal and make its behavior inverse to that of the designed amplifier behavior so that overall response of the system becomes linear. For countering first challenge, most advanced universally accepted algorithms like Memory Polynomial, Generalized Hammerstein, Cross-term Memory Polynomial and Cross-term Hammerstein are implemented to design RF power amplifier models. For countering second challenge, latest DPD algorithms are implemented which make net response of a system linear. The memory models for modelling RF power amplifier are categorized for narrowband and wideband applications. The narrowband power amplifier models include Memory Polynomial and Cross-term Memory Polynomial models whereas wideband power amplifier models include Generalized Hammerstein and Cross-term Hammerstein models. In this paper, various performance indicators like Standard Deviation (SD), Third Order Intercept (TOI), Intermodulation Distortion Products (IMD3), Modulation Error Ratio (MER), Spurious Free Dynamic Range (SFDR) and Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) are used to characterize RF power amplifier for both narrow and wide band applications. The simulation results show that under narrowband applications, Cross-term Memory Polynomial model works best as it has least standard deviation and is also satisfying other performance parameters up to appreciable level with and without DPD algorithm implementation. While for wideband applications, Cross-term Hammerstein model satisfies the performance measuring parameters excellently.

Students’ Class Performance Prediction Using Machine Learning Classifiers

Nowadays, educational data mining is being employed as assessing tool for study and analysis of hidden patterns in academic databases which can be used to predict student’s academic performance. This paper implements various machine learning classification techniques on students’ academic records for results predication. For this purpose, data of MS(CS) students were collected from a public university of Pakistan through their assignments, quizzes, and sessional marks. The WEKA data mining tool has been used for performing all experiments namely, data pre-processing, classification, and visualization. For performance measure, classifier models were trained with 3- and 10-fold cross validation methods to evaluate classifiers' accuracy. The results show that bagging classifier combined with support vector machines outperform other classifiers in terms of accuracy, precision, recall, and F-measure score. The obtained outcomes confirm that our research provides significant contribution in prediction of students’ academic performance which can ultimately be used to assists faculty members to focus low grades students in improving their academic records.

Mechanical Properties of Concrete Incorporating Marble Powder as Partial Cement Replacement

Pakistan is a country that has an abundance of quarry deposits. The marble and ceramics industry, such as the construction industry, plays a pivotal role in the development of a country by contributing to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, the marble and ceramics industry also adversely contribute to the growing solid waste management issues in the country, as Marble powder (MP), which comes from the marble industry, causes not only constant environmental and waste management problems, but also health issues for the people associated with the marble industry and surrounding residents. A lot of research has been done to reuse this MP waste productively. Since it contains significant amount of Silica content, it could potentially be used to partially substitute cement content in the development of eco-friendly sustainable concrete. The substitution of cement has become necessary due to the carbon footprint associated with the production of cement. This research is aimed at producing M30 grade concrete in which cement content is partially replaced with 5% and 10% MP and investigate its influence on the workability, compressive and flexural strength over time. It was found that MP could potentially be used to substitute cement content partially, thus contributing to sustainability in the construction industry, resolving the disposal of MP problems, and reducing cement dependency.

A Systematic Review of Ontology-Based River Streamflow and Flood Data Management Challenges

The management of the riverine water has always remained an open challenge. The variation of water flow creates hurdles to determine the exact time and the quantity of water flow caused by the spatio-temporal complex streamflow and flood risk reduction domain. From a management perspective, irregular flow patterns generate various challenges and the development of irrigation water distribution schemes without contextual knowledge integration adversely affect the relevant community. The river streamflow and flood mitigation domains are interdisciplinary that require coordination from the various stakeholders. Coordination limiting factors includes native data acquisition methodology of each stakeholder for their specific needs, the complexity of the domain involving a heterogeneous group of managers, spatio-temporal context, region-specific terminologies, data sharing, and reusability support. Earlier proposed research and developed ontologies by the esteemed researchers focused to address these challenges in a domain-specific context. In this research, we review the challenges of a large scale spatio-temporal system for streamflow of watersheds and flood disaster management based on the ontological semantic models. This research also examines the proposed ontological models for streamflow and/or flood domain, and how they address such challenges. Furthermore, a systematic review of the last two decades’ research articles is conducted and the findings are presented to assess the mappings of the challenges to proposed solutions through ontological modeling for streamflow and flood domain.

An Experimental Study on Biosorption of Fluoride from Water Using LocallyObtained Moringa Oleifera Seeds

Moringa Oleifera is considered to be a natural bio-adsorbent. Unlike chemical coagulants, Moringa Oleifera seeds are environment friendly with various other advantages. The present study investigated the fluoride removal efficiency of Moringa Oleifera from water. Influence of adsorbent dose (1, 2, 4 g/L), contact time (20, 40 and 60 min) and initial fluoride concentration (2 and 5 mg/L) over removal efficiency were determined and optimized. It was found that increased adsorbent dose and contact time enhanced the removal efficiency which is in agreement with the previous studies. The highest removal of 88.1% was achieved when the adsorbent dose and contact time were optimized to 4 g/L and 60 minutes with an initial fluoride concentration of 2 mg/L. The results showed that Moringa Oleifera can be used as an environment friendly, cheap and effective bio-adsorbent for fluoride removal from aqueous solution. All the experimental facilities were provided by Bio-Fuel Lab, Energy & Environment Department, Quaid-e-Awam University of Engineering, Science and Technology, Nawabshah, Pakistan. The samples were analyzed at the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), Tando Jam, Pakistan.

Towards Improving Technical Performance of a 747 MW Thermal Power Plant

In this paper, performance evaluation and technical audit of a 747 MW thermal power plant consisting of three generating units is conducted. The factors influencing the performance of the plant have been identified and improvements in processes and mechanical, electrical, instrumentation, and safety engineering are suggested. These improvements would result in better profitability, productivity, and performance. The paper further discusses technical issues and challenges and identifies key areas where improvements are possible. Future recommendation for the operation of the plant that would result in better throughput are also presented. The methodology of performance analysis presented in the paper will help improving operational efficiency of thermal power plants in developing countries.