Digital control card based on digital signal processor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hou Shigang; Yin Zhiguo; Xia Le

2008-01-01

A digital control card based on digital signal processor was developed. Two Freescale DSP-56303 processors were utilized to achieve 3 channels proportional- integral-differential regulations. The card offers high flexibility for 100 MeV cyclotron RF system development. It was used as feedback controller in low level radio frequency control prototype, with the feedback gain parameters continuously adjustable. By using high precision analog to digital converter with 500 kHz sampling rate, a regulation bandwidth of 20 kHz was achieved. (authors)

Open-source implementation of an ad-hoc IEEE802.11a/g/p software-defined radio on low-power and low-cost general purpose processors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Ciccia

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This work proposes a low-cost and low-power software-defined radio open-source platform with IEEE 802.11 a/g/p wireless communication capability. A state-of-the-art version of the IEEE 802.11 a/g/p software for GNU Radio (a free and open-source software development framework is available online, but we show here that its computational complexity prevents operations in low-power general purpose processors, even at throughputs below the standard. We therefore propose an evolution of this software that achieves a faster and lighter IEEE 802.11 a/g/p transmitter and receiver, suitable for low-power general purpose processors, for which GNU Radio provides very limited support; we discuss and describe the software radio processing structuring that is necessary to achieve the goal, providing a review of signal processing techniques. In particular, we emphasize the advanced reduced-instruction set (RISC machine (ARM study case, for which we also optimize some of the processing libraries. The presented software will remain open-source.

Complete Low-Cost Implementation of a Teleoperated Control System for a Humanoid Robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rafael Barea

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Humanoid robotics is a field of a great research interest nowadays. This work implements a low-cost teleoperated system to control a humanoid robot, as a first step for further development and study of human motion and walking. A human suit is built, consisting of 8 sensors, 6 resistive linear potentiometers on the lower extremities and 2 digital accelerometers for the arms. The goal is to replicate the suit movements in a small humanoid robot. The data from the sensors is wirelessly transmitted via two ZigBee RF configurable modules installed on each device: the robot and the suit. Replicating the suit movements requires a robot stability control module to prevent falling down while executing different actions involving knees flexion. This is carried out via a feedback control system with an accelerometer placed on the robot’s back. The measurement from this sensor is filtered using Kalman. In addition, a two input fuzzy algorithm controlling five servo motors regulates the robot balance. The humanoid robot is controlled by a medium capacity processor and a low computational cost is achieved for executing the different algorithms. Both hardware and software of the system are based on open platforms. The successful experiments carried out validate the implementation of the proposed teleoperated system.

A digital signal processor based rf control system for the TRIUMF ISAC RFQ prototype

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fong, K.; Fang, S.; Laverty, M.

1996-01-01

A stand alone digital signal processor is used to control the RFQ prototype in the TRIUMF ISAC development program. The advantage of a digital control system over the traditional analogue system is that it offers the higher degree of flexibility necessary for a development system. For this application the system is designed to have the outward appearance of an analogue system, and uses dials, knobs, and switches as the operator interface. The digital signal processor is used as a feedback controller during CW rf operation, with the feedback gain parameters continually adjustable. It is also able to perform the same regulation during pulsed operation, with additional feedforward compensation for initial pulse on duration. Using a low cost analogue-to-digital converter with a sample rate of 100 kHz, a regulation bandwidth of 10 kHz is achieved. (author)

A digital retina-like low-level vision processor.

Science.gov (United States)

Mertoguno, S; Bourbakis, N G

2003-01-01

This correspondence presents the basic design and the simulation of a low level multilayer vision processor that emulates to some degree the functional behavior of a human retina. This retina-like multilayer processor is the lower part of an autonomous self-organized vision system, called Kydon, that could be used on visually impaired people with a damaged visual cerebral cortex. The Kydon vision system, however, is not presented in this paper. The retina-like processor consists of four major layers, where each of them is an array processor based on hexagonal, autonomous processing elements that perform a certain set of low level vision tasks, such as smoothing and light adaptation, edge detection, segmentation, line recognition and region-graph generation. At each layer, the array processor is a 2D array of k/spl times/m hexagonal identical autonomous cells that simultaneously execute certain low level vision tasks. Thus, the hardware design and the simulation at the transistor level of the processing elements (PEs) of the retina-like processor and its simulated functionality with illustrative examples are provided in this paper.

Low Cost Design of an Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) Processor Using a New Common-Subexpression-Elimination Algorithm

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Ming-Chih; Hsiao, Shen-Fu

In this paper, we propose an area-efficient design of Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) processor by applying a new common-expression-elimination (CSE) method to the sub-functions of various transformations required in AES. The proposed method reduces the area cost of realizing the sub-functions by extracting the common factors in the bit-level XOR/AND-based sum-of-product expressions of these sub-functions using a new CSE algorithm. Cell-based implementation results show that the AES processor with our proposed CSE method has significant area improvement compared with previous designs.

Quality assurance through constancy control for X-ray film processors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Weberling, R.

1982-01-01

A control method to check the reproduction of X-ray film processors and necessary instruments is presented. The application of a light sensitometer allows the production of test films daily, independent of X-ray exposures, X-ray film cassettes and X-ray intensifying screens. The optical densities on the test films will be read by means of a densitometer and the results are plotted on a special control chart. A limitation through optical densities of +-0,15 for Speed Index and +-0,20 for Contrast Index determines the tolerance variation for X-ray film processors. Targets of this control method are uniform image quality, dose reduction and saving of cost. (orig.) [de

Low-Cost High-Speed In-Plane Stroboscopic Micro-Motion Analyzer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shashank S. Pandey

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Instrumentation for high-speed imaging and laser vibrometry is essential for the understanding and analysis of microstructure dynamics, but commercial instruments are largely unaffordable for most microelectromechanical systems (MEMS laboratories. We present the implementation of a very low cost in-plane micro motion stroboscopic analyzer that can be directly attached to a conventional probe station. The low-cost analyzer has been used to characterize the harmonic motion of 52.1 kHz resonating comb drive microactuators using ~50 ns pulsed light-emitting diode (LED stroboscope exposure times, producing sharp and high resolution (~0.5 μm device images at resonance, which rivals those of several orders of magnitude more expensive systems. This paper details the development of the high-speed stroboscopic imaging system and presents experimental results of motion analysis of example microstructures and a discussion of its operating limits. The system is shown to produce stable stroboscopic LED illumination to freeze device images up to 11 MHz.

Dual filtered backprojection for micro-rotation confocal microscopy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Laksameethanasan, Danai; Brandt, Sami S; Renaud, Olivier; Shorte, Spencer L

2009-01-01

Micro-rotation confocal microscopy is a novel optical imaging technique which employs dielectric fields to trap and rotate individual cells to facilitate 3D fluorescence imaging using a confocal microscope. In contrast to computed tomography (CT) where an image can be modelled as parallel projection of an object, the ideal confocal image is recorded as a central slice of the object corresponding to the focal plane. In CT, the projection images and the 3D object are related by the Fourier slice theorem which states that the Fourier transform of a CT image is equal to the central slice of the Fourier transform of the 3D object. In the micro-rotation application, we have a dual form of this setting, i.e. the Fourier transform of the confocal image equals the parallel projection of the Fourier transform of the 3D object. Based on the observed duality, we present here the dual of the classical filtered back projection (FBP) algorithm and apply it in micro-rotation confocal imaging. Our experiments on real data demonstrate that the proposed method is a fast and reliable algorithm for the micro-rotation application, as FBP is for CT application

Special processor for in-core control systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Golovanov, M.N.; Duma, V.R.; Levin, G.L.; Mel'nikov, A.V.; Polikanin, A.V.; Filatov, V.P.

1978-01-01

The BUTs-20 special processor is discussed, designed to control the units of the in-core control equipment which are incorporated into the VECTOR communication channel, and to provide preliminary data processing prior to computer calculations. A set of instructions and flowsheet of the processor, organization of its communication with memories and other units of the system are given. The processor components: a control unit and an arithmetic logical unit are discussed. It is noted that the special processor permits more effective utilization of the computer time

Polarization digital holographic microscopy using low-cost liquid crystal polarization rotators

Science.gov (United States)

Dovhaliuk, Rostyslav Yu

2018-02-01

Polarization imaging methods are actively used to study anisotropic objects. A number of methods and systems, such as imaging polarimeters, were proposed to measure the state of polarization of light that passed through the object. Digital holographic and interferometric approaches can be used to quantitatively measure both amplitude and phase of a wavefront. Using polarization modulation optics, the measurement capabilities of such interference-based systems can be extended to measure polarization-dependent parameters, such as phase retardation. Different kinds of polarization rotators can be used to alternate the polarization of a reference beam. Liquid crystals are used in a rapidly increasing number of different optoelectronic devices. Twisted nematic liquid crystals are widely used as amplitude modulators in electronic displays and light valves or shutter glass. Such devices are of particular interest for polarization imaging, as they can be used as polarization rotators, and due to large-scale manufacturing have relatively low cost. A simple Mach-Zehnder polarized holographic setup that uses modified shutter glass as a polarization rotator is demonstrated. The suggested approach is experimentally validated by measuring retardation of quarter-wave film.

Low-Cost Servomotor Driver for PFM Control.

Science.gov (United States)

Aragon-Jurado, David; Morgado-Estevez, Arturo; Perez-Peña, Fernando

2017-12-31

Servomotors have already been around for some decades and they are extremely popular among roboticists due to their simple control technique, reliability and low-cost. They are usually controlled by using Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) and this paper aims to keep the idea of simplicity and low-cost, while introducing a new control technique: Pulse Frequency Modulation (PFM). The objective of this paper is to focus on our development of a low-cost servomotor controller which will allow the research community to use them with PFM. A low-cost commercial servomotor is used as the base system for the development: a small PCB that fits inside the case and allocates all the electronic components to control the motor has been designed to replace the original. The potentiometer is retained as the feedback sensor and a microcontroller is responsible for controlling the position of the motor. The paper compares the performance of a PWM and a PFM controlled servomotor. The comparison shows that the servomotor with our controller achieves a faster mechanism for switching targets and a lower latency. This controller can be used with neuromorphic systems to remove the conversion from events to PWM.

Low cost realization of space-borne synthectic aperture radar - MicroSAR

Science.gov (United States)

Carter, D.; Hall, C.

Spaceborne Earth Observation data has been used for decades in the areas of meteorology and optical imaging. The systems and satellites have, in the main, been owned and operated by a few government institutions and agencies. More recently industrial organizations in North America have joined the list. Few of these, however, include Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)., although the additional utility in terms of all weather, 24 hour measurement capability over the Earth's surface is well recognized. Three major factors explain this:1) Relationships between the SAR measurements of radar backscatter and images to the specific information needs have not been seen as sufficiently well understood or robust2) Availability of suitable sources, at the relevant performance and data quality have been inadequate to provide service assurance that is necessary to sustain commercial businesses3) Costs associated with building, launching and operating spaceborne SAR have not been low enough as to achieve an acceptable return of investment. A significant amount of research and development has been undertaken throughout the World to establish reliable and robust algorithms for information extraction from SAR data. Much of this work has been carried out utilizing airborne systems over localized and carefully controlled regions. In addition, an increasing number of pilot services have been offered by geo-information providers. This has allowed customer confidence to grow. With the status of spaceborne SAR being effectively in the development phase, commercial funding has been scarce, and there has been need to rely on government and institutional budgets. Today the increasing maturity of the technology of SAR and its applications is beginning to attract the commercial sector. This is the funding necessary to realize sufficient assets to be able to provide a robust supply of SAR data to the geo-information providers and subsequently a reliable service to customers. Reducing the costs

Nonlinear Adaptive Rotational Speed Control Design and Experiment of the Propeller of an Electric Micro Air Vehicle

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shouzhao Sheng

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs driven by electric propellers are of interest for military and civilian applications. The rotational speed control of such electric propellers is an important factor for improving the flight performance of the vehicles, such as their positioning accuracy and stability. Therefore, this paper presents a nonlinear adaptive control scheme for the electric propulsion system of a certain MAV, which can not only speed up the convergence rates of adjustable parameters, but can also ensure the overall stability of the adjustable parameters. The significant improvement of the dynamic tracking accuracy of the rotational speed can be easily achieved through the combination of the proposed control algorithm and linear control methods. The experimental test results have also demonstrated the positive effect of the nonlinear adaptive control scheme on the flight performance of the MAV.

Cost-effective improvements of a rotating platform by integration of a high-accuracy inclinometer and encoders for attitude evaluation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wen, Chenyang; He, Shengyang; Hu, Peida; Bu, Changgen

2017-01-01

Attitude heading reference systems (AHRSs) based on micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) inertial sensors are widely used because of their low cost, light weight, and low power. However, low-cost AHRSs suffer from large inertial sensor errors. Therefore, experimental performance evaluation of MEMS-based AHRSs after system implementation is necessary. High-accuracy turntables can be used to verify the performance of MEMS-based AHRSs indoors, but they are expensive and unsuitable for outdoor tests. This study developed a low-cost two-axis rotating platform for indoor and outdoor attitude determination. A high-accuracy inclinometer and encoders were integrated into the platform to improve the achievable attitude test accuracy. An attitude error compensation method was proposed to calibrate the initial attitude errors caused by the movements and misalignment angles of the platform. The proposed attitude error determination method was examined through rotating experiments, which showed that the standard deviations of the pitch and roll errors were 0.050° and 0.090°, respectively. The pitch and roll errors both decreased to 0.024° when the proposed attitude error determination method was used. This decrease validates the effectiveness of the compensation method. Experimental results demonstrated that the integration of the inclinometer and encoders improved the performance of the low-cost, two-axis, rotating platform in terms of attitude accuracy. (paper)

Intelligent Control for a DC Micro-Grid System

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Martino, Michele; Quiñones, Yamshid Farhat; Raboni, Pietro

2012-01-01

This paper presents the dynamic response of a DC–micro-grid (DC-MG) controlled in master-slave mode. The benefits of the micro-grids (MGs) are the low cost in terms of power electronics converters and the high reliability and quality, even in case of loss connection to the transmission system. A ...... the units, especially in case of variable weather conditions with different DC loads. Thus the voltage level of the system and the power flow are shown, out of a detailed description of the power electronic interfaces featuring the distributed generators (DGs).......This paper presents the dynamic response of a DC–micro-grid (DC-MG) controlled in master-slave mode. The benefits of the micro-grids (MGs) are the low cost in terms of power electronics converters and the high reliability and quality, even in case of loss connection to the transmission system. A DC......-MG in fact can survive in standalone mode if properly managed. The considered system is made by a photovoltaic array (PV), a wind turbine (WT), a gas engine (GE) and an energy storage system (ESS). The DC-MG behavior is analyzed in different scenarios to demonstrate the efficacy of the control for all...

'Micro-8' micro-computer system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yagi, Hideyuki; Nakahara, Yoshinori; Yamada, Takayuki; Takeuchi, Norio; Koyama, Kinji

1978-08-01

The micro-computer Micro-8 system has been developed to organize a data exchange network between various instruments and a computer group including a large computer system. Used for packet exchangers and terminal controllers, the system consists of ten kinds of standard boards including a CPU board with INTEL-8080 one-chip-processor. CPU architecture, BUS architecture, interrupt control, and standard-boards function are explained in circuit block diagrams. Operations of the basic I/O device, digital I/O board and communication adapter are described with definitions of the interrupt ramp status, I/O command, I/O mask, data register, etc. In the appendixes are circuit drawings, INTEL-8080 micro-processor specifications, BUS connections, I/O address mappings, jumper connections of address selection, and interface connections. (author)

Real-Time Fixed-Order Lateral H2 Controller for Micro Air Vehicle

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Meenakshi M.

2011-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the design and development of a fixed low-order, robust H2 controller for a micro air vehicle (MAV named Sarika-2. The controller synthesis uses strengthened discrete optimal projection equations and frequency-dependent performance index to achieve robust performance and stability. A single fixed gain low-order dynamic controller provides simultaneous stabilization, disturbance rejection, and sensor noise attenuation over the entire flight speed range of 16 m/sec to 26 m/sec. Comparative study indicates that the low-order H2-controller achieves robust performance levels similar to that of full order controller. Subsequently, the controller is implemented on a digital signal processor-based flight computer and is validated through the real time hardware in loop simulation. The responses obtained with hardware in loop simulation compares well with those obtained from the offline simulation.

Thermal Dissipation Efficiency in a Micro-Processor Using Carbon Nanotubes Based Composite

Science.gov (United States)

Thang, Bui Hung; Van Quang, Cao; Nghia, Van Trong; Hong, Phan Ngoc; Van Chuc, Nguyen; Tam, Ngo Thi Thanh; Quang, Le Dinh; Khang, Dao Duc; Khoi, Phan Hong; Minh, Phan Ngoc

2009-09-01

Modern electronic and optoelectronic devices such as μ-processor, light emitting diode, semiconductor laser issued a challenge in the thermal dissipation problem. Finding an effective way for thermal dissipation therefore becomes a very important issue. It is known that carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is one of the most valuable materials with high thermal conductivity (2000 W/m.K compared to thermal conductivity of Ag 419 W/m.K). This suggested an approach in applying the CNTs as an essential component for thermal dissipation media to improve the performance of computer processor and other high power electronic devices. In this work multi walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) based composites were utilized as the thermal dissipation media in a micro processor of a personal computer. The MWCNTs of different concentrations were added into polyaniline, commercial silicon thermal paste and commercial silver thermal paste by mechanical methods. A personal computer with configuration: Intel Pentium IV 3.066 GHz, 512 MB of RAM and Windows XP Service Pack 2 Operating System was employed. The thermal dissipation efficiency of the system was evaluated by directly measure the temperature of the μ-processor during the operation of the computer in different CPU speeds. The measured results showed that the CNTs based composite could reduce the temperature of the u-processor more than 5° C, and the time for increasing the temperature of the μ-processor was three times longer than that when using commercial thermal paste.

Micro controller application as x-ray machine's high voltage controller

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wiranto Budi Santoso; Beny Syawaludin

2010-01-01

The micro controller application as x-ray machine's high voltage controller has been carried out. The purpose of this micro controller application is to give an accurate high voltage supply to the x-ray tube so that the x ray machine could produce the result as expected. The micro controller based X-ray machine's high voltage controller receives an input voltage from the keypad. This input value is displayed in the LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screen. Then micro controller uses this input data to drive the stepper motor. The stepper motor adjusts the high voltage auto transformer's output according to the input value. The micro controller is programmed using BASCOM-B051 compiler. The test results show that the stepper motor could rotate according to an input value. (author)

Free-floating epithelial micro-tissue arrays: a low cost and versatile technique.

Science.gov (United States)

Flood, P; Alvarez, L; Reynaud, E G

2016-10-11

Three-dimensional (3D) tissue models are invaluable tools that can closely reflect the in vivo physiological environment. However, they are usually difficult to develop, have a low throughput and are often costly; limiting their utility to most laboratories. The recent availability of inexpensive additive manufacturing printers and open source 3D design software offers us the possibility to easily create affordable 3D cell culture platforms. To demonstrate this, we established a simple, inexpensive and robust method for producing arrays of free-floating epithelial micro-tissues. Using a combination of 3D computer aided design and 3D printing, hydrogel micro-moulding and collagen cell encapsulation we engineered microenvironments that consistently direct the growth of micro-tissue arrays. We described the adaptability of this technique by testing several immortalised epithelial cell lines (MDCK, A549, Caco-2) and by generating branching morphology and micron to millimetre scaled micro-tissues. We established by fluorescence and electron microscopy that micro-tissues are polarised, have cell type specific differentiated phenotypes and regain native in vivo tissue qualities. Finally, using Salmonella typhimurium we show micro-tissues display a more physiologically relevant infection response compared to epithelial monolayers grown on permeable filter supports. In summary, we have developed a robust and adaptable technique for producing arrays of epithelial micro-tissues. This in vitro model has the potential to be a valuable tool for studying epithelial cell and tissue function/architecture in a physiologically relevant context.

PRODUCTIVITY AND COSTS OF PROCESSOR WORKING IN STANDS OF Eucalyptus grandis Hill ex Maiden

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bernardo Carlos Tarnowski

2009-09-01

Full Text Available In the present work a time study was conducted with the objective of adjusting equations to estimate the time of activities, productivity, operational costs and the production of the processor used in a harvest operation of stands of Eucalyptus grandis in plain topography in the state of Bahia, Brazil. The operational cycle of the processor consisted of the time spent to process a tree, and was divided in to stages, which were assessed using the methotodology of single activity times. The sampling unit was the operational cycle of the machine. The statistical analysis was based on regression analysis considering the selection procedure “stepwise”. With the adjusted equations it was possible to estimate the productivity of the machine taking into account the of tree diameter. Considering an operational efficiency of 70 % under the circumstances of the study, the productivity of the processor was 25,8 m3 cc/h, the operational costs 47,90 US$/h and the production costs 1,86 US$/m3 cc. On the basis of the obtained results it can be concluded that the time of tree processing has varied directly according to the diameter increase diameter; the preparation time, contrary to the processing time, only shows a weak correlation with tree diameter; productivity of the processor is directly proportional to tree diameter, when expressed in volume and inversely proportional when expressed in tree number; the costs per cubic meter of wood processed varies inversely with of increased diameter; from the operational costs, fixed costs had the highest proportion followed by the variable costs, administrative costs and costs for manpower; the production costs of the processor decreased exponentially with increasing tree diameter.

Photothermally controlled Marangoni flow around a micro bubble

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Namura, Kyoko; Nakajima, Kaoru; Kimura, Kenji; Suzuki, Motofumi

2015-01-01

We have experimentally investigated the control of Marangoni flow around a micro bubble using photothermal conversion. Using a focused laser spot acting as a highly localized heat source on Au nanoparticles/dielectric/Ag mirror thin film enables us to create a micro bubble and to control the temperature gradient around the bubble at a micrometer scale. When we irradiate the laser next to the bubble, a strong main flow towards the bubble and two symmetric rotation flows on either side of it develop. The shape of this rotation flow shows a significant transformation depending on the relative position of the bubble and the laser spot. Using this controllable rotation flow, we have demonstrated sorting of the polystyrene spheres with diameters of 2 μm and 0.75 μm according to their size

Photothermally controlled Marangoni flow around a micro bubble

Science.gov (United States)

Namura, Kyoko; Nakajima, Kaoru; Kimura, Kenji; Suzuki, Motofumi

2015-01-01

We have experimentally investigated the control of Marangoni flow around a micro bubble using photothermal conversion. Using a focused laser spot acting as a highly localized heat source on Au nanoparticles/dielectric/Ag mirror thin film enables us to create a micro bubble and to control the temperature gradient around the bubble at a micrometer scale. When we irradiate the laser next to the bubble, a strong main flow towards the bubble and two symmetric rotation flows on either side of it develop. The shape of this rotation flow shows a significant transformation depending on the relative position of the bubble and the laser spot. Using this controllable rotation flow, we have demonstrated sorting of the polystyrene spheres with diameters of 2 μm and 0.75 μm according to their size.

Network Communication for Low Level RF Control

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu Weiqing; Yin Chengke; Zhang Tongxuan; Fu Zechuan; Liu Jianfei

2009-01-01

Low Level RF (LLRF) control system for storage ring of Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF) has been built by digital technology. The settings of parameters and the feedback loop status are carried out through the network communication interface, and the local oscillation and clock, which is the important component of the digital LLRF control system, are also configured through network communication. NIOS II processor was employed as a core to build the embedded system with a real-time operating system MicroC/OS-II, finally Lightweight TCP/IP (LwIP) was used to achieve the communication interface. The communication network is stable after a long-term operation. (authors)

An Al-doped ZnO electrode grown by highly efficient cylindrical rotating magnetron sputtering for low cost organic photovoltaics

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Jun-Hyuk; Ahn, Kyung-Jun; Park, Kang-Il; Na, Seok-In; Kim, Han-Ki

2010-03-01

We report the characteristics of Al-doped zinc oxide (AZO) films prepared by a highly efficient cylindrical rotating magnetron sputtering (CRMS) system for use as a transparent conducting electrode in cost-efficient bulk hetero-junction organic solar cells (OSCs). Using a rotating cylindrical type cathode with an AZO target, whose usage was above 80%, we were able to obtain a low cost and indium free AZO electrode with a low sheet resistance of ~4.59 Ω/sq, a high transparency of 85% in the visible wavelength region and a work function of 4.9 eV at a substrate temperature of 230 °C. Moreover, the neutral poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) : poly(styrenesulfonate) based OSC fabricated on the CRMS-grown AZO electrode at 230 °C showed an open circuit voltage of 0.5 V, a short circuit current of 8.94 mA cm-2, a fill factor of 45% and power conversion efficiency of 2.01%, indicating that CRMS is a promising cost-efficient AZO deposition technique for low cost OSCs.

New development for low energy electron beam processor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Takei, Taro; Goto, Hitoshi; Oizumi, Matsutoshi; Hirakawa, Tetsuya; Ochi, Masafumi

2003-01-01

Newly developed low-energy electron beam (EB) processors that have unique designs and configurations compared to conventional ones enable electron-beam treatment of small three-dimensional objects, such as grain-like agricultural products and small plastic parts. As the EB processor can irradiate the products from the whole angles, the uniform EB treatment can be achieved at one time regardless the complex shapes of the product. Here presented are two new EB processors: the first system has cylindrical process zone, which allows three-dimensional objects to be irradiated with one-pass treatment. The second is a tube-type small EB processor, achieving not only its compactor design, but also higher beam extraction efficiency and flexible installation of the irradiation heads. The basic design of each processor and potential applications with them will be presented in this paper. (author)

A low power flash-FPGA based brain implant micro-system of PID control.

Science.gov (United States)

Lijuan Xia; Fattah, Nabeel; Soltan, Ahmed; Jackson, Andrew; Chester, Graeme; Degenaar, Patrick

2017-07-01

In this paper, we demonstrate that a low power flash FPGA based micro-system can provide a low power programmable interface for closed-loop brain implant inter- faces. The proposed micro-system receives recording local field potential (LFP) signals from an implanted probe, performs closed-loop control using a first order control system, then converts the signal into an optogenetic control stimulus pattern. Stimulus can be implemented through optoelectronic probes. The long term target is for both fundamental neuroscience applications and for clinical use in treating epilepsy. Utilizing our device, closed-loop processing consumes only 14nJ of power per PID cycle compared to 1.52μJ per cycle for a micro-controller implementation. Compared to an application specific digital integrated circuit, flash FPGA's are inherently programmable.

A Low-Cost PC-Based Image Workstation for Dynamic Interactive Display of Three-Dimensional Anatomy

Science.gov (United States)

Barrett, William A.; Raya, Sai P.; Udupa, Jayaram K.

1989-05-01

A system for interactive definition, automated extraction, and dynamic interactive display of three-dimensional anatomy has been developed and implemented on a low-cost PC-based image workstation. An iconic display is used for staging predefined image sequences through specified increments of tilt and rotation over a solid viewing angle. Use of a fast processor facilitates rapid extraction and rendering of the anatomy into predefined image views. These views are formatted into a display matrix in a large image memory for rapid interactive selection and display of arbitrary spatially adjacent images within the viewing angle, thereby providing motion parallax depth cueing for efficient and accurate perception of true three-dimensional shape, size, structure, and spatial interrelationships of the imaged anatomy. The visual effect is that of holding and rotating the anatomy in the hand.

A low cost micro-station to monitor soil water potential for irrigation management

Science.gov (United States)

Vannutelli, Edoardo; Masseroni, Daniele; Facchi, Arianna; Gandolfi, Claudio; Renga, Filippo

2014-05-01

The RISPArMiA project (which stands for "reduction of water wastage through the continuous monitoring of agri-environmental parameters") won in 2013 the contest called "LINFAS - The New Ideas Make Sustainable Agriculture" and sponsored by two Italian Foundations (Fondazione Italiana Accenture and Fondazione Collegio Università Milanesi). The objective of the RISPArMiA project is to improve the irrigation efficiency at the farm scale, by providing the farmer with a valuable decision support system for the management of irrigation through the use of low-cost sensors and technologies that can easily be interfaced with Mobile devices. Through the installation of tensiometric sensors within the cropped field, the soil water potential can be continuously monitored. Using open hardware electronic platforms, a data-logger for storing the measured data will be built. Data will be then processed through a software that will allow the conversion of the monitored information into an irrigation advice. This will be notified to the farmer if the measured soil water potential exceed literature crop-specific tensiometric thresholds. Through an extrapolation conducted on the most recent monitored data, it will be also possible to obtain a simple soil water potential prevision in absence of rain events. All the information will be sent directly to a virtual server and successively on the farmer Mobile devices. Each micro-station is completely autonomous from the energy point of view, since it is powered by batteries recharged by a solar panel. The transmission modulus consists of a GSM apparatus with a SIM card. The use of free platforms (Arduino) and low cost sensors (Watermark 200SS tensiometers and soil thermocouples) will significantly reduce the costs of construction of the micro-station which are expected to be considerably lower than those required for similar instruments on the market today . Six prototype micro-stations are actually under construction. Their field testing

Low cost nuclear spectrometer based on micro-controller device

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carrillo, M.A.; Aramayo, P.B.

2009-01-01

The present work describes the development of a gamma radiation Multichannel Analyzer device. That is to say, the development of a device able to display in the screen of a conventional computer a histogram of radioactive accounts (or accounts rate) received, in function of the different emission energies. It is a low cost implementation, oriented to mainly educational activities, but also applicable, within its limitations, to medium precision investigation works. In this first phase all the necessary one was implemented to detect the radioactive emissions, to measure them in energy, to store a complete spectrum and electronically to transfer it to a PC for its subsequent analysis. (author)

Color sensor and neural processor on one chip

Science.gov (United States)

Fiesler, Emile; Campbell, Shannon R.; Kempem, Lother; Duong, Tuan A.

1998-10-01

Low-cost, compact, and robust color sensor that can operate in real-time under various environmental conditions can benefit many applications, including quality control, chemical sensing, food production, medical diagnostics, energy conservation, monitoring of hazardous waste, and recycling. Unfortunately, existing color sensor are either bulky and expensive or do not provide the required speed and accuracy. In this publication we describe the design of an accurate real-time color classification sensor, together with preprocessing and a subsequent neural network processor integrated on a single complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuit. This one-chip sensor and information processor will be low in cost, robust, and mass-producible using standard commercial CMOS processes. The performance of the chip and the feasibility of its manufacturing is proven through computer simulations based on CMOS hardware parameters. Comparisons with competing methodologies show a significantly higher performance for our device.

Design of a dedicated processor for AC motor control implemented in a low cost FPGA

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jakobsen, Uffe; Matzen, Torben N.

2008-01-01

of drives. Furthermore the softcore processor is designed with a system for plug in of external logic. Doing so shortens development time, since functionality is simply added to or removed from the softcore. The designer can then choose between resource usage on the FPGA and execution speed in more degrees....... The approach is tested for two different motor types, synchronousand hybrid switched reluctance motors, using a Spartan 3E FPGA. The impact of having ADC-communication in VHDL versus in assembler is also presented....

Macro-assembler technique for generating control words for a micro-programmed processor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lesny, D.D.; Wray, J.J.

1981-01-01

To produce microcode for an experimental system, such as FASTBUS interfaces, with wide control words and many micro-fields, one needs a micro-assembler which (1) allows wide flexibility in defining defaults for microcode fields, (2) does a significant amount of error checking to prevent multiple or inconsistant definitions of fields, (3) allows macro expansions which define several microcode words for frequently used sequences, and (4) is easily modified as hardware definitions are refined. Using MACRO-11 on DEC PDP-11 computers, a library of macros has been created, which can be used to generate the 80-bit microcode words needed for a Unibus to FASTBUS micro-programmed interface and which meets the above requirements. The same technique could easily be used to develop libraries appropriate for other microcoded devices

Recommending the heterogeneous cluster type multi-processor system computing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Iijima, Nobukazu

2010-01-01

Real-time reactor simulator had been developed by reusing the equipment of the Musashi reactor and its performance improvement became indispensable for research tools to increase sampling rate with introduction of arithmetic units using multi-Digital Signal Processor(DSP) system (cluster). In order to realize the heterogeneous cluster type multi-processor system computing, combination of two kinds of Control Processor (CP) s, Cluster Control Processor (CCP) and System Control Processor (SCP), were proposed with Large System Control Processor (LSCP) for hierarchical cluster if needed. Faster computing performance of this system was well evaluated by simulation results for simultaneous execution of plural jobs and also pipeline processing between clusters, which showed the system led to effective use of existing system and enhancement of the cost performance. (T. Tanaka)

Control strategy for permanent magnet synchronous motor with contra-rotating rotors under unbalanced loads condition

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cheng, Shuangyin; Luo, Derong; Huang, Shoudao

2015-01-01

This study presents an investigation into the control of an axial-flux permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) with contra-rotating rotors fed by a single inverter, which corresponds to two PMSM connected in series. In this study, the mathematic model of the PMSM with contra-rotating rotors...... water vehicle propulsions. The control strategy is implemented on a DSP 28335 processor featured hardware platform and is tested on a 1.2 kW prototype machine. Experimental results validate the correctness of the analysis and control strategy....

Study on a magnetic spiral-type wireless capsule endoscope controlled by rotational external permanent magnet

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ye, Bo, E-mail: yebo@hubu.edu.cn [School of Mechanical Science & Engineering, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan 430074 (China); School of Computer Science and Information Engineering, HuBei University, Wuhan 430062 (China); Zhang, Wei [Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hubei University of Automotive Technology, Shiyan 442002 (China); Sun, Zhen-jun [School of Mechanical Science & Engineering, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan 430074 (China); Guo, Lin [School of Computer Science and Information Engineering, HuBei University, Wuhan 430062 (China); Deng, Chao [School of Mechanical Science & Engineering, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan 430074 (China); Chen, Ya-qi [Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030 (China); Zhang, Hong-hai [School of Mechanical Science & Engineering, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan 430074 (China); Liu, Sheng [School of Power and Mechanical Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072 (China)

2015-12-01

In this paper, the authors propose rotating an external permanent magnet (EPM) to manipulate the synchronous rotation of a magnetic spiral-type wireless capsule endoscope (WCE), and the synchronous rotation of the WCE is converted to its translational motion in intestinal tract. In order to preliminarily verify the feasibility of this method, a handheld actuator (HA) controlled by micro controller unit, a magnetic spiral-type WCE and a bracket were fabricated, theoretical analysis and simulations about the control distance of this method were performed, and in ex-vivo tests were examined in porcine small intestine to verify the control distance and control performances of this method. It was demonstrated that this method showed good performances in controlling the translational motion of the magnetic spiral-type WCE, and this method has great potential to be used in clinical application. - Highlights: • A new magnetic control method for spiral-type wireless capsule endoscope is proposed. • Wireless capsule endoscope rotates synchronously with external permanent magnet. • The method controls the wireless capsule endoscope well in porcine small intestine. • Long control distance makes the method may be used in future medical application. • Experimental setup has great advantages: high cost performance and easy operation.

Design of a reliable and low-cost stand-alone micro hydropower station

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kusakana, K.; Munda, J.L. [Tshwane Univ. of Technology, Pretoria (South Africa)

2008-07-01

A stand-alone micro-hydropower station was presented. The plant was comprised of a squirrel cage induction machine coupled to a Kaplan water turbine. Power converters were used to control the variable frequency and voltage outputs of the generator caused by variations in water flow. The hydropower plant was installed a farm in the Kwazulu-Natal region of South Africa, and was designed to provide electricity in relation to the low power demand of users in the region as well as according to the site's hydrology and topology. Load forecasts for the 8 houses using the system were conducted. A generator with a higher output than the average power needed to feed the load was selected in order to ensure load supply during peak demand. The system was designed to shore energy generated during off-peak periods in batteries. An AC-DC-AC converter was used as an interface between the generator and the load in order to ensure voltage and frequency stabilization. Simulations of plant components were conducted to demonstrate output power supply during water flow variations. Results of the modelling study indicated that power converters are needed to stabilize generator outputs. The hydropower design is a cost-effective means of supplying power to low-income households. 10 refs., 2 tabs., 7 figs.

Media processors using a new microsystem architecture designed for the Internet era

Science.gov (United States)

Wyland, David C.

1999-12-01

The demands of digital image processing, communications and multimedia applications are growing more rapidly than traditional design methods can fulfill them. Previously, only custom hardware designs could provide the performance required to meet the demands of these applications. However, hardware design has reached a crisis point. Hardware design can no longer deliver a product with the required performance and cost in a reasonable time for a reasonable risk. Software based designs running on conventional processors can deliver working designs in a reasonable time and with low risk but cannot meet the performance requirements. What is needed is a media processing approach that combines very high performance, a simple programming model, complete programmability, short time to market and scalability. The Universal Micro System (UMS) is a solution to these problems. The UMS is a completely programmable (including I/O) system on a chip that combines hardware performance with the fast time to market, low cost and low risk of software designs.

Optical incremental rotary encoder in low-cost-design; Optischer inkrementaler Drehgeber in Low-Cost-Bauweise

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hopp, David; Pruss, Christof; Osten, Wolfgang [Stuttgart Univ. (Germany). Inst. fuer Technische Optik; Seybold, Jonathan; Mayer, Volker [Hans-Schickard-Gesellschaft, Stuttgart (DE). Inst. fuer Mikroaufbautechnik (IMAT); Kueck, Heinz [Hans-Schickard-Gesellschaft, Stuttgart (DE). Inst. fuer Mikroaufbautechnik (IMAT); Stuttgart Univ. (Germany). Inst. fuer Zeitmesstechnik, Fein- und Mikrotechnik

2010-07-01

We have developed a new concept for low-cost optical encoders to come up to meet the increasing demand for inexpensive rotary sensors. The principal idea is to use a micro patterned plastic disc with metal coating, as it is used for Compact Discs or DVDs. Such encoder discs can be manufactured by an efficient injection compression moulding process. With this well established technique it is possible to achieve highly precise micro patterns while running a cost effective process for high volume production. (orig.)

XL-100S microprogrammable processor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gorbunov, N.V.; Guzik, Z.; Sutulin, V.A.; Forytski, A.

1983-01-01

The XL-100S microprogrammable processor providing the multiprocessor operation mode in the XL system crate is described. The processor meets the EUR 6500 CAMAC standards, address up to 4 Mbyte memory, and interacts with 7 CAMAC branchas. Eight external requests initiate operations preset by a sequence of microcommands in a memory of the capacity up to 64 kwords of 32-Git. The microprocessor architecture allows one to emulate commands of the majority of mini- or micro-computers, including floating point operations. The XL-100S processor may be used in various branches of experimental physics: for physical experiment apparatus control, fast selection of useful physical events, organization of the of input/output operations, organization of direct assess to memory included, etc. The Am2900 microprocessor set is used as an elementary base. The device is made in the form of a single width CAMAC module

Intelligent color recognition system using micro-controller

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mohd Ashhar Khalid; Khairiah Yazid; Nur Aira Abd Rahman; Azaman Ahmad

2006-01-01

Color is widely used in categorizing the quality of products as well as a marker for automatic selection and discrimination of products. Most of color recognizing process is done manually and due to the fact that human perceived color differently, different of opinion frequently occur. This paper deals with the development of an intelligent color recognition system used for discriminating the ripeness of oil palm fruits into three categories namely ripe, under-ripe and un-ripe. In deciding the categories of fruit a sample belong, a technique of decision making similar to human thinking called neural network has been implemented. Implementation of neural network using a micro-controller is not so common, due to a limited capability in floating point calculation. To overcome the problem, a floating-point co-processor specially designed for micro-controller is used. The paper will report the system design and the network training and implementation methods. The effectiveness of the system compared to human decision method is also reported. (Author)

Optimization of sensing and feedback control for vibration/flutter of rotating disk by PZT actuators via air coupled pressure.

Science.gov (United States)

Yan, Tianhong; Xu, Xinsheng; Han, Jianqiang; Lin, Rongming; Ju, Bingfeng; Li, Qing

2011-01-01

In this paper, a feedback control mechanism and its optimization for rotating disk vibration/flutter via changes of air-coupled pressure generated using piezoelectric patch actuators are studied. A thin disk rotates in an enclosure, which is equipped with a feedback control loop consisting of a micro-sensor, a signal processor, a power amplifier, and several piezoelectric (PZT) actuator patches distributed on the cover of the enclosure. The actuator patches are mounted on the inner or the outer surfaces of the enclosure to produce necessary control force required through the airflow around the disk. The control mechanism for rotating disk flutter using enclosure surfaces bonded with sensors and piezoelectric actuators is thoroughly studied through analytical simulations. The sensor output is used to determine the amount of input to the actuator for controlling the response of the disk in a closed loop configuration. The dynamic stability of the disk-enclosure system, together with the feedback control loop, is analyzed as a complex eigenvalue problem, which is solved using Galerkin's discretization procedure. The results show that the disk flutter can be reduced effectively with proper configurations of the control gain and the phase shift through the actuations of PZT patches. The effectiveness of different feedback control methods in altering system characteristics and system response has been investigated. The control capability, in terms of control gain, phase shift, and especially the physical configuration of actuator patches, are also evaluated by calculating the complex eigenvalues and the maximum displacement produced by the actuators. To achieve a optimal control performance, sizes, positions and shapes of PZT patches used need to be optimized and such optimization has been achieved through numerical simulations.

State estimation and control for low-cost unmanned aerial vehicles

CERN Document Server

Hajiyev, Chingiz; Yenal Vural, Sıtkı

2015-01-01

This book discusses state estimation and control procedures for a low-cost unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The authors consider the use of robust adaptive Kalman filter algorithms and demonstrate their advantages over the optimal Kalman filter in the context of the difficult and varied environments in which UAVs may be employed. Fault detection and isolation (FDI) and data fusion for UAV air-data systems are also investigated, and control algorithms, including the classical, optimal, and fuzzy controllers, are given for the UAV. The performance of different control methods is investigated and the results compared. State Estimation and Control of Low-Cost Unmanned Aerial Vehicles covers all the important issues for designing a guidance, navigation and control (GNC) system of a low-cost UAV. It proposes significant new approaches that can be exploited by GNC system designers in the future and also reviews the current literature. The state estimation, control and FDI methods are illustrated by examples and MATLAB...

A low-cost vector processor boosting compute-intensive image processing operations

Science.gov (United States)

Adorf, Hans-Martin

1992-01-01

Low-cost vector processing (VP) is within reach of everyone seriously engaged in scientific computing. The advent of affordable add-on VP-boards for standard workstations complemented by mathematical/statistical libraries is beginning to impact compute-intensive tasks such as image processing. A case in point in the restoration of distorted images from the Hubble Space Telescope. A low-cost implementation is presented of the standard Tarasko-Richardson-Lucy restoration algorithm on an Intel i860-based VP-board which is seamlessly interfaced to a commercial, interactive image processing system. First experience is reported (including some benchmarks for standalone FFT's) and some conclusions are drawn.

Low-Latency Embedded Vision Processor (LLEVS)

Science.gov (United States)

2016-03-01

algorithms, low-latency video processing, embedded image processor, wearable electronics, helmet-mounted systems, alternative night / day imaging...external subsystems and data sources with the device. The establishment of data interfaces in terms of data transfer rates, formats and types are...video signals from Near-visible Infrared (NVIR) sensor, Shortwave IR (SWIR) and Longwave IR (LWIR) is the main processing for Night Vision (NI) system

Sensorless control of low-cost single-phase hybrid switched reluctance motor drive

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jakobsen, Uffe; Lu, Kaiyuan; Rasmussen, Peter Omand

2013-01-01

This paper presents a sensorless-controlled, low-cost, low-power, variable-speed drive system suitable for fan and pump applications. The main advantages of this drive system are the low system cost, simple converter structure, and simple but robust sensorless control technique. The drive motor...... is a special Hybrid Switched Reluctance Motor (HSRM). The proposed sensorless control method utilizes beneficially the stator side permanent magnet field and its performance is motor parameter independent. The unique low-cost drive system solution, simple and robust sensorless control features of this drive...

Sensorless Control of Low-cost Single-phase Hybrid Switched Reluctance Motor Drive

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jakobsen, Uffe; Lu, Kaiyuan; Rasmussen, Peter Omand

2015-01-01

This paper presents a sensorless-controlled, low-cost, low-power, and variable-speed drive system suitable for fan and pump applications. The main advantages of this drive system are the low system cost, simple converter structure, and simple but robust sensorless control technique. The drive motor...... is a special hybrid switched reluctance motor. The proposed sensorless control method beneficially utilizes the stator side PM field and its performance is motor parameter independent. The unique low-cost drive system solution, simple and robust sensorless control features of this drive system, is demonstrated...

A robust two-way switching control system for remote piloting and stabilization of low-cost quadrotor UAVs

Science.gov (United States)

Ripamonti, Francesco; Resta, Ferruccio; Vivani, Andrea

2015-04-01

The aim of this paper is to present two control logics and an attitude estimator for UAV stabilization and remote piloting, that are as robust as possible to physical parameters variation and to other external disturbances. Moreover, they need to be implemented on low-cost micro-controllers, in order to be attractive for commercial drones. As an example, possible applications of the two switching control logics could be area surveillance and facial recognition by means of a camera mounted on the drone: the high computational speed logic is used to reach the target, when the high-stability one is activated, in order to complete the recognition tasks.

Low-Cost Control System Built Upon Consumer-Based Electronics For Supervisory Control Of A Gas-Operated Heat Pump

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wetherington Jr, G Randall [ORNL; Vineyard, Edward Allan [ORNL; Mahderekal, Isaac [ORNL; Abu-Heiba, Ahmad [ORNL

2017-06-01

A preliminary evaluation of the performance of a consumer-based control system was conducted by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Southwest Gas as part of a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) authorized by the Department of Energy (DOE) (Mahderekal et al. (2013). The goal of the research was to evaluate the low-cost approach as a solution for implementing a supervisory control system for a residential gas-operated heat pump. The design incorporated two consumer-based micro-controllers; the Arduino Mega-2650 and the BeagleBone (white). Ten five-ton heat pump systems were designed, fabricated, and operationally tested in the Las Vega NV region. A robust data set was produced that allowed detailed assessment of the reliability and the operational perfromance of the newly developed control system. Experiences gained from the test provided important points of improvement for subsequent evolution of the heat pump technology.

Control structures for high speed processors

Science.gov (United States)

Maki, G. K.; Mankin, R.; Owsley, P. A.; Kim, G. M.

1982-01-01

A special processor was designed to function as a Reed Solomon decoder with throughput data rate in the Mhz range. This data rate is significantly greater than is possible with conventional digital architectures. To achieve this rate, the processor design includes sequential, pipelined, distributed, and parallel processing. The processor was designed using a high level language register transfer language. The RTL can be used to describe how the different processes are implemented by the hardware. One problem of special interest was the development of dependent processes which are analogous to software subroutines. For greater flexibility, the RTL control structure was implemented in ROM. The special purpose hardware required approximately 1000 SSI and MSI components. The data rate throughput is 2.5 megabits/second. This data rate is achieved through the use of pipelined and distributed processing. This data rate can be compared with 800 kilobits/second in a recently proposed very large scale integration design of a Reed Solomon encoder.

Low-cost, high-precision micro-lensed optical fiber providing deep-micrometer to deep-nanometer-level light focusing.

Science.gov (United States)

Wen, Sy-Bor; Sundaram, Vijay M; McBride, Daniel; Yang, Yu

2016-04-15

A new type of micro-lensed optical fiber through stacking appropriate high-refractive microspheres at designed locations with respect to the cleaved end of an optical fiber is numerically and experimentally demonstrated. This new type of micro-lensed optical fiber can be precisely constructed with low cost and high speed. Deep micrometer-scale and submicrometer-scale far-field light spots can be achieved when the optical fibers are multimode and single mode, respectively. By placing an appropriate teardrop dielectric nanoscale scatterer at the far-field spot of this new type of micro-lensed optical fiber, a deep-nanometer near-field spot can also be generated with high intensity and minimum joule heating, which is valuable in high-speed, high-resolution, and high-power nanoscale detection compared with traditional near-field optical fibers containing a significant portion of metallic material.

All solution-processed micro-structured flexible electrodes for low-cost light-emitting pressure sensors fabrication.

Science.gov (United States)

Shimotsu, Rie; Takumi, Takahiro; Vohra, Varun

2017-07-31

Recent studies have demonstrated the advantage of developing pressure-sensitive devices with light-emitting properties for direct visualization of pressure distribution, potential application to next generation touch panels and human-machine interfaces. To ensure that this technology is available to everyone, its production cost should be kept as low as possible. Here, simple device concepts, namely, pressure sensitive flexible hybrid electrodes and OLED architecture, are used to produce low-cost resistive or light-emitting pressure sensors. Additionally, integrating solution-processed self-assembled micro-structures into the flexible hybrid electrodes composed of an elastomer and conductive materials results in enhanced device performances either in terms of pressure or spatial distribution sensitivity. For instance, based on the pressure applied, the measured values for the resistances of pressure sensors range from a few MΩ down to 500 Ω. On the other hand, unlike their evaporated equivalents, the combination of solution-processed flexible electrodes with an inverted OLED architectures display bright green emission when a pressure over 200 kPa is applied. At a bias of 3 V, their luminance can be tuned by applying a higher pressure of 500 kPa. Consequently, features such as fingernails and fingertips can be clearly distinguished from one another in these long-lasting low-cost devices.

FY1995 study of design methodology and environment of high-performance processor architectures; 1995 nendo koseino processor architecture sekkeiho to sekkei kankyo no kenkyu

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1997-03-01

The aim of our project is to develop high-performance processor architectures for both general purpose and application-specific purpose. We also plan to develop basic softwares, such as compliers, and various design aid tools for those architectures. We are particularly interested in performance evaluation at architecture design phase, design optimization, automatic generation of compliers from processor designs, and architecture design methodologies combined with circuit layout. We have investigated both microprocessor architectures and design methodologies / environments for the processors. Our goal is to establish design technologies for high-performance, low-power, low-cost and highly-reliable systems in system-on-silicon era. We have proposed PPRAM architecture for high-performance system using DRAM and logic mixture technology, Softcore processor architecture for special purpose processors in embedded systems, and Power-Pro architecture for low power systems. We also developed design methodologies and design environments for the above architectures as well as a new method for design verification of microprocessors. (NEDO)

MPC Related Computational Capabilities of ARMv7A Processors

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Frison, Gianluca; Jørgensen, John Bagterp

2015-01-01

In recent years, the mass market of mobile devices has pushed the demand for increasingly fast but cheap processors. ARM, the world leader in this sector, has developed the Cortex-A series of processors with focus on computationally intensive applications. If properly programmed, these processors...... are powerful enough to solve the complex optimization problems arising in MPC in real-time, while keeping the traditional low-cost and low-power consumption. This makes these processors ideal candidates for use in embedded MPC. In this paper, we investigate the floating-point capabilities of Cortex A7, A9...... and A15 and show how to exploit the unique features of each processor to obtain the best performance, in the context of a novel implementation method for the linear-algebra routines used in MPC solvers. This method adapts high-performance computing techniques to the needs of embedded MPC. In particular...

Optimization of Sensing and Feedback Control for Vibration/Flutter of Rotating Disk by PZT Actuators via Air Coupled Pressure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bingfeng Ju

2011-03-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a feedback control mechanism and its optimization for rotating disk vibration/flutter via changes of air-coupled pressure generated using piezoelectric patch actuators are studied. A thin disk rotates in an enclosure, which is equipped with a feedback control loop consisting of a micro-sensor, a signal processor, a power amplifier, and several piezoelectric (PZT actuator patches distributed on the cover of the enclosure. The actuator patches are mounted on the inner or the outer surfaces of the enclosure to produce necessary control force required through the airflow around the disk. The control mechanism for rotating disk flutter using enclosure surfaces bonded with sensors and piezoelectric actuators is thoroughly studied through analytical simulations. The sensor output is used to determine the amount of input to the actuator for controlling the response of the disk in a closed loop configuration. The dynamic stability of the disk-enclosure system, together with the feedback control loop, is analyzed as a complex eigenvalue problem, which is solved using Galerkin’s discretization procedure. The results show that the disk flutter can be reduced effectively with proper configurations of the control gain and the phase shift through the actuations of PZT patches. The effectiveness of different feedback control methods in altering system characteristics and system response has been investigated. The control capability, in terms of control gain, phase shift, and especially the physical configuration of actuator patches, are also evaluated by calculating the complex eigenvalues and the maximum displacement produced by the actuators. To achieve a optimal control performance, sizes, positions and shapes of PZT patches used need to be optimized and such optimization has been achieved through numerical simulations.

Embedded Processor Based Automatic Temperature Control of VLSI Chips

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Narasimha Murthy Yayavaram

2009-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents embedded processor based automatic temperature control of VLSI chips, using temperature sensor LM35 and ARM processor LPC2378. Due to the very high packing density, VLSI chips get heated very soon and if not cooled properly, the performance is very much affected. In the present work, the sensor which is kept very near proximity to the IC will sense the temperature and the speed of the fan arranged near to the IC is controlled based on the PWM signal generated by the ARM processor. A buzzer is also provided with the hardware, to indicate either the failure of the fan or overheating of the IC. The entire process is achieved by developing a suitable embedded C program.

A Low Cost Mobile Robot Based on Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) Control System and Odometer for Education

Science.gov (United States)

Haq, R.; Prayitno, H.; Dzulkiflih; Sucahyo, I.; Rahmawati, E.

2018-03-01

In this article, the development of a low cost mobile robot based on PID controller and odometer for education is presented. PID controller and odometer is applied for controlling mobile robot position. Two-dimensional position vector in cartesian coordinate system have been inserted to robot controller as an initial and final position. Mobile robot has been made based on differential drive and sensor magnetic rotary encoder which measured robot position from a number of wheel rotation. Odometry methode use data from actuator movements for predicting change of position over time. The mobile robot is examined to get final position with three different heading angle 30°, 45° and 60° by applying various value of KP, KD and KI constant.

Impact of viscosity variation and micro rotation on oblique transport of Cu-water fluid.

Science.gov (United States)

Tabassum, Rabil; Mehmood, R; Nadeem, S

2017-09-01

This study inspects the influence of temperature dependent viscosity on Oblique flow of micropolar nanofluid. Fluid viscosity is considered as an exponential function of temperature. Governing equations are converted into dimensionless forms with aid of suitable transformations. Outcomes of the study are shown in graphical form and discussed in detail. Results revealed that viscosity parameter has pronounced effects on velocity profiles, temperature distribution, micro-rotation, streamlines, shear stress and heat flux. It is found that viscosity parameter enhances the temperature distribution, tangential velocity profile, normal component of micro-rotation and shear stress at the wall while it has decreasing effect on tangential component of micro-rotation and local heat flux. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Hacking for astronomy: can 3D printers and open-hardware enable low-cost sub-/millimeter instrumentation?

Science.gov (United States)

Ferkinhoff, Carl

2014-07-01

There have been several exciting developments in the technologies commonly used n in the hardware hacking community. Advances in low cost additive-manufacturing processes (i.e. 3D-printers) and the development of openhardware projects, which have produced inexpensive and easily programmable micro-controllers and micro-computers (i.e. Arduino and Raspberry Pi) have opened a new door for individuals seeking to make their own devices. Here we describe the potential for these technologies to reduce costs in construction and development of submillimeter/millimeter astronomical instrumentation. Specifically we have begun a program to measure the optical properties of the custom plastics used in 3D-printers as well as the printer accuracy and resolution to assess the feasibility of directly printing sub- /millimeter transmissive optics. We will also discuss low cost designs for cryogenic temperature measurement and control utilizing Arduino and Raspberry Pi.

Using Low Cost Environmental Sensors in Geoscience Education

Science.gov (United States)

Leeman, J.; Ammon, C. J.; Anandakrishnan, S.

2014-12-01

Advances in process technology have drastically reduced the cost of manufacturing almost every type of sensor and micro-controller, putting low-to-mid grade sensor technology in the reach of educators and hobbyists. We demonstrate how a low cost magnetometer and an Arduino micro-controller can be used in education. Students can easily connect the sensor to the Arduino and collect three-component magnetic field data. Experiments can easily be turned into long-term monitoring projects by connecting sensors to the internet and providing an Internet-of-Things interface to store and to display the data in near-real time. Low-cost sensors are generally much noisier than their research grade counterparts, but can still provide an opportunity for students to learn about fundamental concepts such as signal quality, sampling, averaging, and filtering and to gain hands-on, concrete experience with observations. Sensors can be placed at different locations and compared both qualitatively and quantitatively. For example, with an inexpensive magnetometer, students can examine diurnal magnetic field variations and look for magnetic storms. Magnetic field orientation can be calculated and compared to the predicted geomagnetic field orientation at a given location. Data can be stored in simple text files to facilitate analysis with any convenient package. We illustrate the idea using Python notebooks, allowing students to explore the data interactively and to learn the basic principles of programming and reproducible research. Using an Arduino encourages students to interact with open-source data collection hardware and to experiment with ways to quickly, cheaply, and effectively measure the environment. Analysis of these data can lead to a deeper understanding of both geoscience and data processing.

Implementation of a two-qubit controlled-rotation gate based on unconventional geometric phase with a constant gating time

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yabu-uti, B.F.C.; Roversi, J.A.

2011-01-01

We propose an alternative scheme to implement a two-qubit controlled-R (rotation) gate in the hybrid atom-CCA (coupled cavities array) system. Our scheme results in a constant gating time and, with an adjustable qubit-bus coupling (atom-resonator), one can specify a particular rotation R on the target qubit. We believe that this proposal may open promising perspectives for networking quantum information processors and implementing distributed and scalable quantum computation. -- Highlights: → We propose an alternative two-qubit controlled-rotation gate implementation. → Our gate is realized in a constant gating time for any rotation. → A particular rotation on the target qubit can be specified by an adjustable qubit-bus coupling. → Our proposal may open promising perspectives for implementing distributed and scalable quantum computation.

Java Processor Optimized for RTSJ

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tu Shiliang

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Due to the preeminent work of the real-time specification for Java (RTSJ, Java is increasingly expected to become the leading programming language in real-time systems. To provide a Java platform suitable for real-time applications, a Java processor which can execute Java bytecode is directly proposed in this paper. It provides efficient support in hardware for some mechanisms specified in the RTSJ and offers a simpler programming model through ameliorating the scoped memory of the RTSJ. The worst case execution time (WCET of the bytecodes implemented in this processor is predictable by employing the optimization method proposed in our previous work, in which all the processing interfering predictability is handled before bytecode execution. Further advantage of this method is to make the implementation of the processor simpler and suited to a low-cost FPGA chip.

Numeric processor and text manipulator for the ''MASTER CONTROL'' data-base-management system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kuhn, R.W.

1976-01-01

The numeric and text processor of the MASTER CONTROL (MCP) data-base-management system permits the user to define fields and arrays that are functionally dependent on the data retained in a data base. This allows the storage of only the essential and unique information and data, and the calculation of derivable quantities as required. The derived quantity can be expressed as an arithmetic expression, that is, a functional relationship. Functions can be multiply subscripted and can be embedded within other functions at up to 58 levels. They can be stored either semi-permanently in a repertoire of functional relations, or they can be defined interactively from a terminal and used immediately for searching on the derived value. The processor also permits the conversion of literal strings into numbers, and vice versa. In addition, the user can define dictionaries that allow the expansion of keyed sentinels associated with records in the data base into fully descriptive expressions. This option can be used for cost-effective searching and data compaction. The functional definitions are reduced to Polish notation and stored in a disk file from which they are either retrieved on demand and evaluated according to the data of records specified or used in any given MASTER CONTROL command. The language used for the definitions of the numeric processor is essentially FORTRAN; most of the standard functions and over two dozen special functions are thus available. The functional processor provides a powerful technique for the integration of text and data for energy research and for scientific and technological work in general. MASTER CONTROL is operational at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory (LLL) and at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL). 6 figures, 1 table

The design of a graphics processor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Holmes, M.; Thorne, A.R.

1975-12-01

The design of a graphics processor is described which takes into account known and anticipated user requirements, the availability of cheap minicomputers, the state of integrated circuit technology, and the overall need to minimise cost for a given performance. The main user needs are the ability to display large high resolution pictures, and to dynamically change the user's view in real time by means of fast coordinate processing hardware. The transformations that can be applied to 2D or 3D coordinates either singly or in combination are: translation, scaling, mirror imaging, rotation, and the ability to map the transformation origin on to any point on the screen. (author)

Producing chopped firewood with firewood processors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kaerhae, K.; Jouhiaho, A.

2009-01-01

The TTS Institute's research and development project studied both the productivity of new, chopped firewood processors (cross-cutting and splitting machines) suitable for professional and independent small-scale production, and the costs of the chopped firewood produced. Seven chopped firewood processors were tested in the research, six of which were sawing processors and one shearing processor. The chopping work was carried out using wood feeding racks and a wood lifter. The work was also carried out without any feeding appliances. Altogether 132.5 solid m 3 of wood were chopped in the time studies. The firewood processor used had the most significant impact on chopping work productivity. In addition to the firewood processor, the stem mid-diameter, the length of the raw material, and of the firewood were also found to affect productivity. The wood feeding systems also affected productivity. If there is a feeding rack and hydraulic grapple loader available for use in chopping firewood, then it is worth using the wood feeding rack. A wood lifter is only worth using with the largest stems (over 20 cm mid-diameter) if a feeding rack cannot be used. When producing chopped firewood from small-diameter wood, i.e. with a mid-diameter less than 10 cm, the costs of chopping work were over 10 EUR solid m -3 with sawing firewood processors. The shearing firewood processor with a guillotine blade achieved a cost level of 5 EUR solid m -3 when the mid-diameter of the chopped stem was 10 cm. In addition to the raw material, the cost-efficient chopping work also requires several hundred annual operating hours with a firewood processor, which is difficult for individual firewood entrepreneurs to achieve. The operating hours of firewood processors can be increased to the required level by the joint use of the processors by a number of firewood entrepreneurs. (author)

A Low Cost Rokkaku Kite Setup for Aerial Photogrammetric System

Science.gov (United States)

Khan, A. F.; Khurshid, K.; Saleh, N.; Yousuf, A. A.

2015-03-01

Orthogonally Projected Area (OPA) of a geographical feature has primarily been studied utilizing rather time consuming field based sampling techniques. Remote sensing on the contrary provides the ability to acquire large scale data at a snapshot of time and lets the OPA to be calculated conveniently and with reasonable accuracy. Unfortunately satellite based remote sensing provides data at high cost and limited spatial resolution for scientific studies focused at small areas such as micro lakes micro ecosystems, etc. More importantly, recent satellite data may not be readily available for a particular location. This paper describes a low cost photogrammetric system to measure the OPA of a small scale geographic feature such as a plot of land, micro lake or an archaeological site, etc. Fitted with a consumer grade digital imaging system, a Rokkaku kite aerial platform with stable flight characteristics is designed and fabricated for image acquisition. The data processing procedure involves automatic Ground Control Point (GCP) detection, intelligent target area shape determination with minimal human input. A Graphical User Interface (GUI) is built from scratch in MATLAB to allow the user to conveniently process the acquired data, archive and retrieve the results. Extensive on-field experimentation consists of multiple geographic features including flat land surfaces, buildings, undulating rural areas, and an irregular shaped micro lake, etc. Our results show that the proposed system is not only low cost, but provides a framework that is easy and fast to setup while maintaining the required constraints on the accuracy.

Redesign of an in-market food processor for manufacturing cost reduction using DFMA methodology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Akshay Harlalka

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Reducing the time and cost involved in the product development is very important to stay competitive in the market. Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA is a cost-reduction framework for designers to evaluate manufacturing aspects of a product design. A case study on an in-market food processor, this paper aims to demonstrate the significance of DFMA implementation on an Indian consumer product. Even though many DFMA case studies have been published till date, very few have dealt with the Indian consumer durables category. In this paper, various cost-reduction opportunities are identified in the design of a food processor manufactured by a reputed company in India. Using the DFMA study, design ideas are developed with an objective of reducing the overall manufacturing cost of the product. As a result of DFMA implementation, significant improvement in terms of the product’s architecture, assembly time and design efficiency is identified. Overall cost reduction of 0.25 USD (United States Dollar was achieved and an improvement in the Design for Assembly (DFA index from 15.99 to 19.93 is reported. This procedure utilized in this paper can be adopted for any consumer durable products of similar type and design improvements and cost reduction can be achieved.

Practical Implementation for the interval type-2 fuzzy PID controller using a low cost microcontroller

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmad M. El-Nagar

2014-06-01

Full Text Available In this study, we propose an embedded real-time interval type-2 fuzzy proportional – integral – derivative (IT2F-PID controller which is a parallel combination of the interval type-2 fuzzy proportional – integral (IT2F-PI controller and the interval type-2 fuzzy proportional – derivative (IT2F-PD controller. The proposed IT2F-PID controller is able to handle the effect of the system uncertainties due to the structure of the interval type-2 fuzzy logic controller. The proposed IT2F-PID controller is implemented practically using a low cost PIC microcontroller for controlling the uncertain nonlinear inverted pendulum to minimize the effect of the system uncertainties due to the uncertainty in the mass of the pendulum, the measurement error in the rotation angle of the pendulum and the structural uncertainty. The test is carried out using the hardware-in-the-loop (HIL simulation. The experimental results show that the performance of the IT2F-PID controller improves significantly the performance over a wide range of system uncertainties.

Stability and control of resistive wall modes in high beta, low rotation DIII-D plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Garofalo, A.M.; Jackson, G.L.; Haye, R.J. La; Okabayashi, M.; Reimerdes, H.; Strait, E.J.; Ferron, J.R.; Groebner, R.J.; In, Y.; Lanctot, M.J.; Matsunaga, G.; Navratil, G.A.; Solomon, W.M.; Takahashi, H.; Takechi, M.; Turnbull, A.D.

2007-01-01

Recent high-β DIII-D (Luxon J.L. 2002 Nucl. Fusion 42 64) experiments with the new capability of balanced neutral beam injection show that the resistive wall mode (RWM) remains stable when the plasma rotation is lowered to a fraction of a per cent of the Alfven frequency by reducing the injection of angular momentum in discharges with minimized magnetic field errors. Previous DIII-D experiments yielded a high plasma rotation threshold (of order a few per cent of the Alfven frequency) for RWM stabilization when resonant magnetic braking was applied to lower the plasma rotation. We propose that the previously observed rotation threshold can be explained as the entrance into a forbidden band of rotation that results from torque balance including the resonant field amplification by the stable RWM. Resonant braking can also occur naturally in a plasma subject to magnetic instabilities with a zero frequency component, such as edge localized modes. In DIII-D, robust RWM stabilization can be achieved using simultaneous feedback control of the two sets of non-axisymmetric coils. Slow feedback control of the external coils is used for dynamic error field correction; fast feedback control of the internal non-axisymmetric coils provides RWM stabilization during transient periods of low rotation. This method of active control of the n = 1 RWM has opened access to new regimes of high performance in DIII-D. Very high plasma pressure combined with elevated q min for high bootstrap current fraction, and internal transport barriers for high energy confinement, are sustained for almost 2 s, or 10 energy confinement times, suggesting a possible path to high fusion performance, steady-state tokamak scenarios

A low power biomedical signal processor ASIC based on hardware software codesign.

Science.gov (United States)

Nie, Z D; Wang, L; Chen, W G; Zhang, T; Zhang, Y T

2009-01-01

A low power biomedical digital signal processor ASIC based on hardware and software codesign methodology was presented in this paper. The codesign methodology was used to achieve higher system performance and design flexibility. The hardware implementation included a low power 32bit RISC CPU ARM7TDMI, a low power AHB-compatible bus, and a scalable digital co-processor that was optimized for low power Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) calculations. The co-processor could be scaled for 8-point, 16-point and 32-point FFTs, taking approximate 50, 100 and 150 clock circles, respectively. The complete design was intensively simulated using ARM DSM model and was emulated by ARM Versatile platform, before conducted to silicon. The multi-million-gate ASIC was fabricated using SMIC 0.18 microm mixed-signal CMOS 1P6M technology. The die area measures 5,000 microm x 2,350 microm. The power consumption was approximately 3.6 mW at 1.8 V power supply and 1 MHz clock rate. The power consumption for FFT calculations was less than 1.5 % comparing with the conventional embedded software-based solution.

Biomass Combustion Control and Stabilization Using Low-Cost Sensors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ján Piteľ

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The paper describes methods for biomass combustion process control and burning stabilization based on low-cost sensing of carbon monoxide emissions and oxygen concentration in the flue gas. The designed control system was tested on medium-scale biomass-fired boilers and some results are evaluated and presented in the paper.

Magnetic Helical Micro- and Nanorobots: Toward Their Biomedical Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Famin Qiu

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Magnetic helical micro- and nanorobots can perform 3D navigation in various liquids with a sub-micrometer precision under low-strength rotating magnetic fields (<10 mT. Since magnetic fields with low strengths are harmless to cells and tissues, magnetic helical micro/nanorobots are promising tools for biomedical applications, such as minimally invasive surgery, cell manipulation and analysis, and targeted therapy. This review provides general information on magnetic helical micro/nanorobots, including their fabrication, motion control, and further functionalization for biomedical applications.

Statistical analysis of quality control of automatic processor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Niu Yantao; Zhao Lei; Zhang Wei; Yan Shulin

2002-01-01

Objective: To strengthen the scientific management of automatic processor and promote QC, based on analyzing QC management chart for automatic processor by statistical method, evaluating and interpreting the data and trend of the chart. Method: Speed, contrast, minimum density of step wedge of film strip were measured everyday and recorded on the QC chart. Mean (x-bar), standard deviation (s) and range (R) were calculated. The data and the working trend were evaluated and interpreted for management decisions. Results: Using relative frequency distribution curve constructed by measured data, the authors can judge whether it is a symmetric bell-shaped curve or not. If not, it indicates a few extremes overstepping control limits possibly are pulling the curve to the left or right. If it is a normal distribution, standard deviation (s) is observed. When x-bar +- 2s lies in upper and lower control limits of relative performance indexes, it indicates the processor works in stable status in this period. Conclusion: Guided by statistical method, QC work becomes more scientific and quantified. The authors can deepen understanding and application of the trend chart, and improve the quality management to a new step

BWR thermohydraulics simulation on the AD-10 peripheral processor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wulff, W.; Cheng, H.S.; Lekach, S.V.; Mallen, A.N.

1983-01-01

This presentation demonstrates the feasibility of simulating plant transients and severe abnormal transients in nuclear power plants at much faster than real-time computing speeds in a low-cost, dedicated, interactive minicomputer. This is achieved by implementing advanced modeling techniques in modern, special-purpose peripheral processors for high-speed system simulation. The results of this demonstration will impact safety analyses and parametric studies, studies on operator responses and control system failures and it will make possible the continuous on-line monitoring of plant performance and the detection and diagnosis of system or component failures

Stepping motor control processor reference manual. Volume I

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Holloway, F.W.; VanArsdall, P.J.; Suski, G.J.; Gant, R.G.; Rash, M.

1980-01-01

This manual is intended to serve several purposes. The first goal is to describe the capabilities and operation of the SMC processor package from an operator or user point of view. Secondly, the manual will describe in some detail the basic hardware elements and how they can be used effectively to implement a step motor control system. Practical information on the use, installation and checkout of the hardware set is presented in the following sections along with programming suggestions. Available related system software is described in this manual for reference and as an aid in understanding the system architecture. Section two presents an overview and operations manual of the SMC processor describing its composition and functional capabilities. Section three contains hardware descriptions in some detail for the LLL-designed hardware used in the SMC processor. Basic theory of operation and important features are explained

Autonomous, agile micro-satellites and supporting technologies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Breitfeller, E; Dittman, M D; Gaughan, R J; Jones, M S; Kordas, J F; Ledebuhr, A G; Ng, L C; Whitehead, J C; Wilson, B

1999-01-01

This paper updates the on-going effort at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to develop autonomous, agile micro-satellites (MicroSats). The objective of this development effort is to develop MicroSats weighing only a few tens of kilograms, that are able to autonomously perform precision maneuvers and can be used telerobotically in a variety of mission modes. The required capabilities include satellite rendezvous, inspection, proximity-operations, docking, and servicing. The MicroSat carries an integrated proximity-operations sensor-suite incorporating advanced avionics. A new self-pressurizing propulsion system utilizing a miniaturized pump and non-toxic mono-propellant hydrogen peroxide was successfully tested. This system can provide a nominal 25 kg MicroSat with 200-300 m/s delta-v including a warm-gas attitude control system. The avionics is based on the latest PowerPC processor using a CompactPCI bus architecture, which is modular, high-performance and processor-independent. This leverages commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies and minimizes the effects of future changes in processors. The MicroSat software development environment uses the Vx-Works real-time operating system (RTOS) that provides a rapid development environment for integration of new software modules, allowing early integration and test. We will summarize results of recent integrated ground flight testing of our latest non-toxic pumped propulsion MicroSat testbed vehicle operated on our unique dynamic air-rail

A procedure for solving the neutron diffusion equation on a parallel micro-processor; modifications to the nodal expansion codes RECNEC and HEXNEC to implement the procedure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Putney, J.M.

1983-05-01

The characteristics of a simple parallel micro-processor (PMP) are reviewed and its software requirements discussed. One of the more immediate applications is the multi-spatial simulation of a nuclear reactor station. This is of particular interest because 3D reactor simulation might then be possible as part of operating procedure for PFR and CDFR. A major part of a multi-spatial reactor simulator is the solution of the neutron diffusion equation. A procedure is described for solving the equation on a PMP, which is applied to the nodal expansion method with modifications to the nodal expansion codes RECNEC and HEXNEC. Estimations of the micro-processor requirements for the simulation of both PFR and CDFR are given. (U.K.)

The application of charge-coupled device processors in automatic-control systems

Science.gov (United States)

Mcvey, E. S.; Parrish, E. A., Jr.

1977-01-01

The application of charge-coupled device (CCD) processors to automatic-control systems is suggested. CCD processors are a new form of semiconductor component with the unique ability to process sampled signals on an analog basis. Specific implementations of controllers are suggested for linear time-invariant, time-varying, and nonlinear systems. Typical processing time should be only a few microseconds. This form of technology may become competitive with microprocessors and minicomputers in addition to supplementing them.

Low cost metamodel for robust design of periodic nonlinear coupled micro-systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chikhaoui K.

2016-01-01

Full Text Available To achieve robust design, in presence of uncertainty, nonlinearity and structural periodicity, a metamodel combining the Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS method for uncertainty propagation and an enriched Craig-Bampton Component Mode Synthesis approach (CB-CMS for model reduction is proposed. Its application to predict the time responses of a stochastic periodic nonlinear micro-system proves its efficiency in terms of accuracy and reduction of computational cost.

Sensitometric Control of Automatic Processors in a Hospital Center : Retrospective Study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lobato Busto, R.; Pombar Camean, M.

1992-01-01

This paper analyses the results obtained between February (1990) and July (1991) of the sensitometric control of the seven automatic processors which are in Hospital General de Galicia-Clinico Universitario (Santiago de Compostela). The deviations with regard to the reference values of each processor, permitting the precocious detection of disturbances before being revealed by the image, were analysed. In this analysis, it was achieved that the days in which the automatic processors were out of standing only varied between 2.3% and 5% from the checked days. (author)

Radar micro-Doppler of wind turbines : Simulation and analysis using rotating linear wire structures

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Krasnov, O.A.; Yarovoy, A.

2015-01-01

A simple electromagnetic model of wind-turbine's main structural elements as the linear wired structures is developed to simulate the temporal patterns of observed radar return Doppler spectra (micro-Doppler). Using the model, the micro-Doppler for different combinations of the turbines rotation

A Low Cost Sensor Controller for Health Monitoring

Science.gov (United States)

Birbas, M.; Petrellis, N.; Gioulekas, F.

2015-09-01

Aging population can benefit from health care systems that allow their health and daily life to be monitored by expert medical staff. Blood pressure, temperature measurements or more advanced tests like Electrocardiograms (ECG) can be ordered through such a healthcare system while urgent situations can be detected and alleviated on time. The results of these tests can be stored with security in a remote cloud or database. Such systems are often used to monitor non-life threatening patient health problems and their advantage in lowering the cost of the healthcare services is obvious. A low cost commercial medical sensor kit has been used in the present work, trying to improve the accuracy and stability of the sensor measurements, the power consumption, etc. This Sensor Controller communicates with a Gateway installed in the patient's residence and a tablet or smart phone used for giving instructions to the patient through a comprehensive user interface. A flexible communication protocol has been defined supporting any short or long term sensor sampling scenario. The experimental results show that it is possible to achieve low power consumption by applying apropriate sleep intervals to the Sensor Controller and by deactivating periodically some of its functionality.

A High-Speed and Low-Energy-Consumption Processor for SVD-MIMO-OFDM Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hiroki Iwaizumi

2013-01-01

Full Text Available A processor design for singular value decomposition (SVD and compression/decompression of feedback matrices, which are mandatory operations for SVD multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM systems, is proposed and evaluated. SVD-MIMO is a transmission method for suppressing multistream interference and improving communication quality by beamforming. An application specific instruction-set processor (ASIP architecture is adopted to achieve flexibility in terms of operations and matrix size. The proposed processor realizes a high-speed/low-power design and real-time processing by the parallelization of floating-point units (FPUs and arithmetic instructions specialized in complex matrix operations.

An easy and low cost option for economic statistical process control ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

An easy and low cost option for economic statistical process control using Excel. ... in both economic and economic statistical designs of the X-control chart. ... in this paper and the numerical examples illustrated are executed on this program.

MEMS-based micro-fuel processor for application in a cell phone

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kundu, Arunabha; Jang, Jae Hyuk; Lee, Hong Ryul; Kim, Sung-Han; Gil, Jae Hyoung; Jung, Chang Ryul; Oh, Yong Soo [Micro-Fuel Cell Team, Electro-Material and Device (eMD) Laboratory, Corporate R and D Center, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, 314 Maetan-Dong, Yeongtong-Gu, Suwon, Gyunngi-Do 443-743 (Korea, Republic of)

2006-11-08

The operation of a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS)-based micro-reformer was investigated for application in a cell phone. Different aspects like the time required to attain the desired temperature of the system, the time required to get the required hydrogen flow, catalyst durability, flow uniformity of the mixture of methanol and water and volume of the total system were considered. A loading procedure for the catalyst in the micro-reformer was developed. Catalyst deactivation was observed after operating continuously for 8h, but it regained its original activity after the reformer was shut down for at least 2h. The deactivation of the catalyst was analyzed by catalyst characterization. The comparison of the performance between a parallel channeled and serpentine channeled micro-reformer was carried out. The performance with the serpentine channeled micro-reformer was always higher than with parallel channeled micro-reformer. The shorter residence time in the parallel-channeled micro-reformer may be one of the reasons behind its low activity. (author)

An improved control method of power electronic converters in low voltage micro-grid

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Xiaofeng, Sun; Qingqiu, Lv; Yanjun, Tian

2011-01-01

control of the voltage and frequency deviation added to power references could achieve secondary regulation of the voltage and frequency. In this paper, the authors take the steady and transient transition of grid connecting and disconnecting of the micro-grid as an example, and demonstrate......With the increasing acceptance, micro-grid, combined with distributed generation (DG), may be operated in two modes: grid-connected mode and island mode. In grid connected mode, energy management is the control objective. While in island mode, the control of Voltage and frequency will take...... the place. The conventional droop control can perform the energy management in grid-connected mode, but may not so effective when micro-grid transferring between grid-connected mode and island mode. The paper analysis the micro-grid in different modes (Conventional droop control, Voltage reference...

Performance analysis of a counter-rotating tubular type micro-turbine by experiment and CFD

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, N J; Choi, J W; Hwang, Y H; Kim, Y T; Lee, Y H

2012-01-01

Micro hydraulic turbines have a growing interest because of its small and simple structure, as well as a high possibility of using in micro and small hydropower applications. The differential pressure existing in city water pipelines can be used efficiently to generate electricity in a way similar to that of energy being generated through gravitational potential energy in dams. The pressure energy in the city pipelines is often wasted by using pressure reducing valves at the inlet of water cleaning centers. Instead of using the pressure reducing valves, a micro counter-rotating hydraulic turbine can be used to make use of the pressure energy. In the present paper, a counter-rotating tubular type micro-turbine is studied, with the front runner connected to the generator stator and the rear runner connected to the generator rotor. The performance of the turbine is investigated experimentally and numerically. A commercial ANSYS CFD code was used for numerical analysis.

MicroASC instrument onboard Juno spacecraft utilizing inertially controlled imaging

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, David Arge Klevang; Jørgensen, Andreas Härstedt; Benn, Mathias

2016-01-01

This contribution describes the post-processing of the raw image data acquired by the microASC instrument during the Earth-fly-by of the Juno spacecraft. The images show a unique view of the Earth and Moon system as seen from afar. The procedure utilizes attitude measurements and inter......-calibration of the Camera Head Units of the microASC system to trigger the image capturing. The triggering is synchronized with the inertial attitude and rotational phase of the sensor acquiring the images. This is essentially works as inertially controlled imaging facilitating image acquisition from unexplored...

Design of massively parallel hardware multi-processors for highly-demanding embedded applications

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jozwiak, L.; Jan, Y.

2013-01-01

Many new embedded applications require complex computations to be performed to tight schedules, while at the same time demanding low energy consumption and low cost. For implementation of these highly-demanding applications, highly-optimized application-specific multi-processor system-on-a-chip

Simulation of a parallel processor on a serial processor: The neutron diffusion equation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Honeck, H.C.

1981-01-01

Parallel processors could provide the nuclear industry with very high computing power at a very moderate cost. Will we be able to make effective use of this power. This paper explores the use of a very simple parallel processor for solving the neutron diffusion equation to predict power distributions in a nuclear reactor. We first describe a simple parallel processor and estimate its theoretical performance based on the current hardware technology. Next, we show how the parallel processor could be used to solve the neutron diffusion equation. We then present the results of some simulations of a parallel processor run on a serial processor and measure some of the expected inefficiencies. Finally we extrapolate the results to estimate how actual design codes would perform. We find that the standard numerical methods for solving the neutron diffusion equation are still applicable when used on a parallel processor. However, some simple modifications to these methods will be necessary if we are to achieve the full power of these new computers. (orig.) [de

Design of an ultra-low-power digital processor for passive UHF RFID tags

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shi Wanggen; Zhuang Yiqi; Li Xiaoming; Wang Xianghua; Jin Zhao; Wang Dan, E-mail: wanggen_shi@163.co [Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Wide Band-Gap Semiconductor Materials and Devices, Institute of Microelectronics, Xidian University, Xi' an 710071 (China)

2009-04-15

A new architecture of digital processors for passive UHF radio-frequency identification tags is proposed. This architecture is based on ISO/IEC 18000-6C and targeted at ultra-low power consumption. By applying methods like system-level power management, global clock gating and low voltage implementation, the total power of the design is reduced to a few microwatts. In addition, an innovative way for the design of a true RNG is presented, which contributes to both low power and secure data transaction. The digital processor is verified by an integrated FPGA platform and implemented by the Synopsys design kit for ASIC flows. The design fits different CMOS technologies and has been taped out using the 2P4M 0.35 mum process of Chartered Semiconductor.

Low-voltage analog front-end processor design for ISFET-based sensor and H+ sensing applications

Science.gov (United States)

Chung, Wen-Yaw; Yang, Chung-Huang; Peng, Kang-Chu; Yeh, M. H.

2003-04-01

This paper presents a modular-based low-voltage analog-front-end processor design in a 0.5mm double-poly double-metal CMOS technology for Ion Sensitive Field Effect Transistor (ISFET)-based sensor and H+ sensing applications. To meet the potentiometric response of the ISFET that is proportional to various H+ concentrations, the constant-voltage and constant current (CVCS) testing configuration has been used. Low-voltage design skills such as bulk-driven input pair, folded-cascode amplifier, bootstrap switch control circuits have been designed and integrated for 1.5V supply and nearly rail-to-rail analog to digital signal processing. Core modules consist of an 8-bit two-step analog-digital converter and bulk-driven pre-amplifiers have been developed in this research. The experimental results show that the proposed circuitry has an acceptable linearity to 0.1 pH-H+ sensing conversions with the buffer solution in the range of pH2 to pH12. The processor has a potential usage in battery-operated and portable healthcare devices and environmental monitoring applications.

Recovery Act: SeaMicro Volume Server Power Reduction Research Development

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gary Lauterbach

2012-03-22

Cloud data centers are projected to be the fastest growing segment of the server market through 2015, according to IDC. Increasingly people and businesses rely on the Cloud to deliver digital content quickly and efficiently. Recovery Act funding from the Department of Energy has helped SeaMicro's technologies enhance the total cost of operation, performance and energy efficiency in large data center and Cloud environments. SeaMicro's innovative supercomputer fabric connects thousands of processor cores, memory, storage and input/output traffic. The company's fabric supports multiple processor instruction sets. Current systems featuring SeaMicro technology typically use one quarter the power and take one sixth the space of traditional servers with the same compute performance, yet deliver up to 12 times the bandwidth per core. Mozilla and eHarmony are two customers successfully using SeaMicro's technology. Numerous non-public customers have been successfully using the SeaMicro product in test and production facilities. As a result of the Recovery Act funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, more than 50 direct jobs were created at SeaMicro. To date, they primarily have been high-value, engineering jobs. Hardware, software and manufacturing engineering positions have been created, as well as sales and sales engineering. The positions have allowed SeaMicro to significantly accelerate engineering development and accelerate commercialization. As a result, commercialization and delivery to market are months ahead of initial schedule. Additional jobs were indirectly created through the development of the SeaMicro product. Through many years of research and hard work prior to receipt of public funding, SeaMicro was awarded 2 patents for its work. SeaMicro's product led the way for industry leaders to reconsider the market for low power servers and create new product lines. With valuable support of the U.S. Department of Energy and through SeaMicro

Design Approach and Implementation of Application Specific Instruction Set Processor for SHA-3 BLAKE Algorithm

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Yuli; Han, Jun; Weng, Xinqian; He, Zhongzhu; Zeng, Xiaoyang

This paper presents an Application Specific Instruction-set Processor (ASIP) for the SHA-3 BLAKE algorithm family by instruction set extensions (ISE) from an RISC (reduced instruction set computer) processor. With a design space exploration for this ASIP to increase the performance and reduce the area cost, we accomplish an efficient hardware and software implementation of BLAKE algorithm. The special instructions and their well-matched hardware function unit improve the calculation of the key section of the algorithm, namely G-functions. Also, relaxing the time constraint of the special function unit can decrease its hardware cost, while keeping the high data throughput of the processor. Evaluation results reveal the ASIP achieves 335Mbps and 176Mbps for BLAKE-256 and BLAKE-512. The extra area cost is only 8.06k equivalent gates. The proposed ASIP outperforms several software approaches on various platforms in cycle per byte. In fact, both high throughput and low hardware cost achieved by this programmable processor are comparable to that of ASIC implementations.

Micro-vision servo control of a multi-axis alignment system for optical fiber assembly

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, Weihai; Yu, Fei; Qu, Jianliang; Chen, Wenjie; Zhang, Jianbin

2017-01-01

This paper describes a novel optical fiber assembly system featuring a multi-axis alignment function based on micro-vision feedback control. It consists of an active parallel alignment mechanism, a passive compensation mechanism, a micro-gripper and a micro-vision servo control system. The active parallel alignment part is a parallelogram-based design with remote-center-of-motion (RCM) function to achieve precise rotation without fatal lateral motion. The passive mechanism, with five degrees of freedom (5-DOF), is used to implement passive compensation for multi-axis errors. A specially designed 1-DOF micro-gripper mounted onto the active parallel alignment platform is adopted to grasp and rotate the optical fiber. A micro-vision system equipped with two charge-coupled device (CCD) cameras is introduced to observe the small field of view and obtain multi-axis errors for servo feedback control. The two CCD cameras are installed in an orthogonal arrangement—thus the errors can be easily measured via the captured images. Meanwhile, a series of tracking and measurement algorithms based on specific features of the target objects are developed. Details of the force and displacement sensor information acquisition in the assembly experiment are also provided. An experiment demonstrates the validity of the proposed visual algorithm by achieving the task of eliminating errors and inserting an optical fiber to the U-groove accurately. (paper)

Voltage control in Z-source inverter using low cost microcontroller for undergraduate approach

Science.gov (United States)

Zulkifli, Shamsul Aizam; Sewang, Mohd Rizal; Salimin, Suriana; Shah, Noor Mazliza Badrul

2017-09-01

This paper is focussing on controlling the output voltage of Z-Source Inverter (ZSI) using a low cost microcontroller with MATLAB-Simulink that has been used for interfacing the voltage control at the output of ZSI. The key advantage of this system is the ability of a low cost microcontroller to process the voltage control blocks based on the mathematical equations created in MATLAB-Simulink. The Proportional Integral (PI) control equations are been applied and then, been downloaded to the microcontroller for observing the changes on the voltage output regarding to the changes on the reference on the PI. The system has been simulated in MATLAB and been verified with the hardware setup. As the results, the Raspberry Pi and Arduino that have been used in this work are able to respond well when there is a change of ZSI output. It proofed that, by applying/introducing this method to student in undergraduate level, it will help the student to understand more on the process of the power converter combine with a control feedback function that can be applied at low cost microcontroller.

A methodology for low-speed broadband rotational energy harvesting using piezoelectric transduction and frequency up-conversion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fu, Hailing; Yeatman, Eric M.

2017-01-01

Energy harvesting from vibration for low-power electronics has been investigated intensively in recent years, but rotational energy harvesting is less investigated and still has some challenges. In this paper, a methodology for low-speed rotational energy harvesting using piezoelectric transduction and frequency up-conversion is analysed. The system consists of a piezoelectric cantilever beam with a tip magnet and a rotating magnet on a revolving host. The angular kinetic energy of the host is transferred to the vibration energy of the piezoelectric beam via magnetic coupling between the magnets. Frequency up-conversion is achieved by magnetic plucking, converting low frequency rotation into high frequency vibration of the piezoelectric beam. A distributed-parameter theoretical model is presented to analyse the electromechanical behaviour of the rotational energy harvester. Different configurations and design parameters were investigated to improve the output power of the device. Experimental studies were conducted to validate the theoretical estimation. The results illustrate that the proposed method is a feasible solution to collecting low-speed rotational energy from ambient hosts, such as vehicle tires, micro-turbines and wristwatches. - Highlights: • A topology to harvest low-frequency broad-band rotational energy is studied. • Different configurations were considered; arrangement (a)-repulsive was the best. • Theoretical analysis shows the harvester has a wide bandwidth at low frequency. • The ripples of output power are related to the beam's natural frequency. • Experimental results show a good performance (over 20 μW) from 15 Hz to 35 Hz.

Research on numerical control system based on S3C2410 and MCX314AL

Science.gov (United States)

Ren, Qiang; Jiang, Tingbiao

2008-10-01

With the rapid development of micro-computer technology, embedded system, CNC technology and integrated circuits, numerical control system with powerful functions can be realized by several high-speed CPU chips and RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) chips which have small size and strong stability. In addition, the real-time operating system also makes the attainment of embedded system possible. Developing the NC system based on embedded technology can overcome some shortcomings of common PC-based CNC system, such as the waste of resources, low control precision, low frequency and low integration. This paper discusses a hardware platform of ENC (Embedded Numerical Control) system based on embedded processor chip ARM (Advanced RISC Machines)-S3C2410 and DSP (Digital Signal Processor)-MCX314AL and introduces the process of developing ENC system software. Finally write the MCX314AL's driver under the embedded Linux operating system. The embedded Linux operating system can deal with multitask well moreover satisfy the real-time and reliability of movement control. NC system has the advantages of best using resources and compact system with embedded technology. It provides a wealth of functions and superior performance with a lower cost. It can be sure that ENC is the direction of the future development.

Design of an ultra-low-power digital processor for passive UHF RFID tags

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shi Wanggen; Zhuang Yiqi; Li Xiaoming; Wang Xianghua; Jin Zhao; Wang Dan

2009-01-01

A new architecture of digital processors for passive UHF radio-frequency identification tags is proposed. This architecture is based on ISO/IEC 18000-6C and targeted at ultra-low power consumption. By applying methods like system-level power management, global clock gating and low voltage implementation, the total power of the design is reduced to a few microwatts. In addition, an innovative way for the design of a true RNG is presented, which contributes to both low power and secure data transaction. The digital processor is verified by an integrated FPGA platform and implemented by the Synopsys design kit for ASIC flows. The design fits different CMOS technologies and has been taped out using the 2P4M 0.35 μm process of Chartered Semiconductor.

Designing High-Performance Fuzzy Controllers Combining IP Cores and Soft Processors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oscar Montiel-Ross

2012-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a methodology to integrate a fuzzy coprocessor described in VHDL (VHSIC Hardware Description Language to a soft processor embedded into an FPGA, which increases the throughput of the whole system, since the controller uses parallelism at the circuitry level for high-speed-demanding applications, the rest of the application can be written in C/C++. We used the ARM 32-bit soft processor, which allows sequential and parallel programming. The FLC coprocessor incorporates a tuning method that allows to manipulate the system response. We show experimental results using a fuzzy PD+I controller as the embedded coprocessor.

A low cost PSD-based monocular motion capture system

Science.gov (United States)

Ryu, Young Kee; Oh, Choonsuk

2007-10-01

This paper describes a monocular PSD-based motion capture sensor to employ with commercial video game systems such as Microsoft's XBOX and Sony's Playstation II. The system is compact, low-cost, and only requires a one-time calibration at the factory. The system includes a PSD(Position Sensitive Detector) and active infrared (IR) LED markers that are placed on the object to be tracked. The PSD sensor is placed in the focal plane of a wide-angle lens. The micro-controller calculates the 3D position of the markers using only the measured intensity and the 2D position on the PSD. A series of experiments were performed to evaluate the performance of our prototype system. From the experimental results we see that the proposed system has the advantages of the compact size, the low cost, the easy installation, and the high frame rates to be suitable for high speed motion tracking in games.

A Low-cost Multi-channel Analogue Signal Generator

CERN Document Server

Müller, F; The ATLAS collaboration; Shen, W; Stamen, R

2009-01-01

A scalable multi-channel analogue signal generator is presented. It uses a commercial low-cost graphics card with multiple outputs in a standard PC as signal source. Each color signal serves as independent channel to generate an analogue signal. A custom-built external PCB was developed to adjust the graphics card output voltage levels for a specific task, which needed differential signals. The system furthermore comprises a software package to program the signal shape. The signal generator was successfully used as independent test bed for the ATLAS Level-1 Trigger Pre-Processor, providing up to 16 analogue signals.

Low-Cost Undergraduate Control Systems Experiments Using Microcontroller-Based Control of a DC Motor

Science.gov (United States)

Gunasekaran, M.; Potluri, R.

2012-01-01

This paper presents low-cost experiments for a control systems laboratory module that is worth one and a third credits. The experiments are organized around the microcontroller-based control of a permanent magnet dc motor. The experimental setups were built in-house. Except for the operating system, the software used is primarily freeware or free…

A Low-Power ASIC Signal Processor for a Vestibular Prosthesis.

Science.gov (United States)

Töreyin, Hakan; Bhatti, Pamela T

2016-06-01

A low-power ASIC signal processor for a vestibular prosthesis (VP) is reported. Fabricated with TI 0.35 μm CMOS technology and designed to interface with implanted inertial sensors, the digitally assisted analog signal processor operates extensively in the CMOS subthreshold region. During its operation the ASIC encodes head motion signals captured by the inertial sensors as electrical pulses ultimately targeted for in-vivo stimulation of vestibular nerve fibers. To achieve this, the ASIC implements a coordinate system transformation to correct for misalignment between natural sensors and implanted inertial sensors. It also mimics the frequency response characteristics and frequency encoding mappings of angular and linear head motions observed at the peripheral sense organs, semicircular canals and otolith. Overall the design occupies an area of 6.22 mm (2) and consumes 1.24 mW when supplied with ± 1.6 V.

Pi-Sat: A Low Cost Small Satellite and Distributed Spacecraft Mission System Test Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Cudmore, Alan

2015-01-01

Current technology and budget trends indicate a shift in satellite architectures from large, expensive single satellite missions, to small, low cost distributed spacecraft missions. At the center of this shift is the SmallSatCubesat architecture. The primary goal of the Pi-Sat project is to create a low cost, and easy to use Distributed Spacecraft Mission (DSM) test bed to facilitate the research and development of next-generation DSM technologies and concepts. This test bed also serves as a realistic software development platform for Small Satellite and Cubesat architectures. The Pi-Sat is based on the popular $35 Raspberry Pi single board computer featuring a 700Mhz ARM processor, 512MB of RAM, a flash memory card, and a wealth of IO options. The Raspberry Pi runs the Linux operating system and can easily run Code 582s Core Flight System flight software architecture. The low cost and high availability of the Raspberry Pi make it an ideal platform for a Distributed Spacecraft Mission and Cubesat software development. The Pi-Sat models currently include a Pi-Sat 1U Cube, a Pi-Sat Wireless Node, and a Pi-Sat Cubesat processor card.The Pi-Sat project takes advantage of many popular trends in the Maker community including low cost electronics, 3d printing, and rapid prototyping in order to provide a realistic platform for flight software testing, training, and technology development. The Pi-Sat has also provided fantastic hands on training opportunities for NASA summer interns and Pathways students.

Low-cost ZnO:Al transparent contact by reactive rotatable magnetron sputtering for Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar modules

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Menner, R.; Hariskos, D.; Linss, V.; Powalla, M.

2011-01-01

Sputtering ZnO as transparent front contact (TCO) is standard in today's industrial scale Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 (CIGS) module manufacturing. Although innovative concepts like rotatable magnetron sputtering from ceramic targets have been realised, costs are still high due to expensive ceramic targets. Significant cost reductions are expected by using reactive sputtering of metallic targets. Therefore, ZSW and industrial partners investigated the reactive sputtering of Al-doped zinc oxide (ZAO) as TCO on CIGS absorbers of high quality and industrial relevance. The reactive DC sputtering from rotatable magnetron targets is controlled in the transition mode by adjusting oxygen flow and discharge voltage. Optimisation leads to ZAO films with a TCO quality nearly comparable to standard films deposited by DC ceramic sputtering. Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Hall analyses of the ZAO films are performed. Medium-size CIGS modules are coated with reactively sputtered ZAO, resulting in 12.8% module efficiency and surpassing the efficiency of the ceramic witness device. Cd-free buffered devices are also successfully coated with reactive TCO. Damp heat stability according to IEC61646 is met by all reactively sputtered devices.

Study of low insertion loss and miniaturization wavelet transform and inverse transform processor using SAW devices.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Hua; Lu, Wenke; Zhang, Guoan

2013-07-01

In this paper, we propose a low insertion loss and miniaturization wavelet transform and inverse transform processor using surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices. The new SAW wavelet transform devices (WTDs) use the structure with two electrode-widths-controlled (EWC) single phase unidirectional transducers (SPUDT-SPUDT). This structure consists of the input withdrawal weighting interdigital transducer (IDT) and the output overlap weighting IDT. Three experimental devices for different scales 2(-1), 2(-2), and 2(-3) are designed and measured. The minimum insertion loss of the three devices reaches 5.49dB, 4.81dB, and 5.38dB respectively which are lower than the early results. Both the electrode width and the number of electrode pairs are reduced, thus making the three devices much smaller than the early devices. Therefore, the method described in this paper is suitable for implementing an arbitrary multi-scale low insertion loss and miniaturization wavelet transform and inverse transform processor using SAW devices. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

AC electric field induced dipole-based on-chip 3D cell rotation.

Science.gov (United States)

Benhal, Prateek; Chase, J Geoffrey; Gaynor, Paul; Oback, Björn; Wang, Wenhui

2014-08-07

The precise rotation of suspended cells is one of the many fundamental manipulations used in a wide range of biotechnological applications such as cell injection and enucleation in nuclear transfer (NT) cloning. Noticeably scarce among the existing rotation techniques is the three-dimensional (3D) rotation of cells on a single chip. Here we present an alternating current (ac) induced electric field-based biochip platform, which has an open-top sub-mm square chamber enclosed by four sidewall electrodes and two bottom electrodes, to achieve rotation about the two axes, thus 3D cell rotation. By applying an ac potential to the four sidewall electrodes, an in-plane (yaw) rotating electric field is generated and in-plane rotation is achieved. Similarly, by applying an ac potential to two opposite sidewall electrodes and the two bottom electrodes, an out-of-plane (pitch) rotating electric field is generated and rolling rotation is achieved. As a prompt proof-of-concept, bottom electrodes were constructed with transparent indium tin oxide (ITO) using the standard lift-off process and the sidewall electrodes were constructed using a low-cost micro-milling process and then assembled to form the chip. Through experiments, we demonstrate rotation of bovine oocytes of ~120 μm diameter about two axes, with the capability of controlling the rotation direction and the rate for each axis through control of the ac potential amplitude, frequency, and phase shift, and cell medium conductivity. The maximum observed rotation rate reached nearly 140° s⁻¹, while a consistent rotation rate reached up to 40° s⁻¹. Rotation rate spectra for zona pellucida-intact and zona pellucida-free oocytes were further compared and found to have no effective difference. This simple, transparent, cheap-to-manufacture, and open-top platform allows additional functional modules to be integrated to become a more powerful cell manipulation system.

A Peristaltic Micro Pump Driven by a Rotating Motor with Magnetically Attracted Steel Balls

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhaoying Zhou

2009-04-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we present a membrane peristaltic micro pump driven by a rotating motor with magnetically attracted steel balls for lab-on-a-chip applications. The fabrication process is based on standard soft lithography technology and bonding of a PDMS layer with a PMMA substrate. A linear flow rate range ~490 μL/min was obtained by simply varying the rotation speed of a DC motor, and a maximum back pressure of 592 Pa was achieved at a rotation speed of 43 rpm. The flow rate of the pump can also be adjusted by using steel balls with different diameters or changing the number of balls. Nevertheless, the micro pump can also work in high speed mode. A high back pressure up to 10 kPa was achieved at 500 rpm using a high speed DC motor, and an utmost flow rate up to 5 mL/min was reached.

Lipsi: Probably the Smallest Processor in the World

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schoeberl, Martin

2018-01-01

While research on high-performance processors is important, it is also interesting to explore processor architectures at the other end of the spectrum: tiny processor cores for auxiliary functions. While it is common to implement small circuits for such functions, such as a serial port, in dedica...... at a minimal cost....

Functional Verification of Enhanced RISC Processor

OpenAIRE

SHANKER NILANGI; SOWMYA L

2013-01-01

This paper presents design and verification of a 32-bit enhanced RISC processor core having floating point computations integrated within the core, has been designed to reduce the cost and complexity. The designed 3 stage pipelined 32-bit RISC processor is based on the ARM7 processor architecture with single precision floating point multiplier, floating point adder/subtractor for floating point operations and 32 x 32 booths multiplier added to the integer core of ARM7. The binary representati...

A light hydrocarbon fuel processor producing high-purity hydrogen

Science.gov (United States)

Löffler, Daniel G.; Taylor, Kyle; Mason, Dylan

This paper discusses the design process and presents performance data for a dual fuel (natural gas and LPG) fuel processor for PEM fuel cells delivering between 2 and 8 kW electric power in stationary applications. The fuel processor resulted from a series of design compromises made to address different design constraints. First, the product quality was selected; then, the unit operations needed to achieve that product quality were chosen from the pool of available technologies. Next, the specific equipment needed for each unit operation was selected. Finally, the unit operations were thermally integrated to achieve high thermal efficiency. Early in the design process, it was decided that the fuel processor would deliver high-purity hydrogen. Hydrogen can be separated from other gases by pressure-driven processes based on either selective adsorption or permeation. The pressure requirement made steam reforming (SR) the preferred reforming technology because it does not require compression of combustion air; therefore, steam reforming is more efficient in a high-pressure fuel processor than alternative technologies like autothermal reforming (ATR) or partial oxidation (POX), where the combustion occurs at the pressure of the process stream. A low-temperature pre-reformer reactor is needed upstream of a steam reformer to suppress coke formation; yet, low temperatures facilitate the formation of metal sulfides that deactivate the catalyst. For this reason, a desulfurization unit is needed upstream of the pre-reformer. Hydrogen separation was implemented using a palladium alloy membrane. Packed beds were chosen for the pre-reformer and reformer reactors primarily because of their low cost, relatively simple operation and low maintenance. Commercial, off-the-shelf balance of plant (BOP) components (pumps, valves, and heat exchangers) were used to integrate the unit operations. The fuel processor delivers up to 100 slm hydrogen >99.9% pure with <1 ppm CO, <3 ppm CO 2. The

Centrifugal Force Based Magnetic Micro-Pump Driven by Rotating Magnetic Fields

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, S H; Hashi, S; Ishiyama, K

2011-01-01

This paper presents a centrifugal force based magnetic micro-pump for the pumping of blood. Most blood pumps are driven by an electrical motor with wired control. To develop a wireless and battery-free blood pump, the proposed pump is controlled by external rotating magnetic fields with a synchronized impeller. Synchronization occurs because the rotor is divided into multi-stage impeller parts and NdFeB permanent magnet. Finally, liquid is discharged by the centrifugal force of multi-stage impeller. The proposed pump length is 30 mm long and 19 mm in diameter which much smaller than currently pumps; however, its pumping ability satisfies the requirement for a blood pump. The maximum pressure is 120 mmHg and the maximum flow rate is 5000ml/min at 100 Hz. The advantage of the proposed pump is that the general mechanical problems of a normal blood pump are eliminated by the proposed driving mechanism.

Centrifugal Force Based Magnetic Micro-Pump Driven by Rotating Magnetic Fields

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, S. H.; Hashi, S.; Ishiyama, K.

2011-01-01

This paper presents a centrifugal force based magnetic micro-pump for the pumping of blood. Most blood pumps are driven by an electrical motor with wired control. To develop a wireless and battery-free blood pump, the proposed pump is controlled by external rotating magnetic fields with a synchronized impeller. Synchronization occurs because the rotor is divided into multi-stage impeller parts and NdFeB permanent magnet. Finally, liquid is discharged by the centrifugal force of multi-stage impeller. The proposed pump length is 30 mm long and19 mm in diameter which much smaller than currently pumps; however, its pumping ability satisfies the requirement for a blood pump. The maximum pressure is 120 mmHg and the maximum flow rate is 5000ml/min at 100 Hz. The advantage of the proposed pump is that the general mechanical problems of a normal blood pump are eliminated by the proposed driving mechanism.

Code compression for VLIW embedded processors

Science.gov (United States)

Piccinelli, Emiliano; Sannino, Roberto

2004-04-01

The implementation of processors for embedded systems implies various issues: main constraints are cost, power dissipation and die area. On the other side, new terminals perform functions that require more computational flexibility and effort. Long code streams must be loaded into memories, which are expensive and power consuming, to run on DSPs or CPUs. To overcome this issue, the "SlimCode" proprietary algorithm presented in this paper (patent pending technology) can reduce the dimensions of the program memory. It can run offline and work directly on the binary code the compiler generates, by compressing it and creating a new binary file, about 40% smaller than the original one, to be loaded into the program memory of the processor. The decompression unit will be a small ASIC, placed between the Memory Controller and the System bus of the processor, keeping unchanged the internal CPU architecture: this implies that the methodology is completely transparent to the core. We present comparisons versus the state-of-the-art IBM Codepack algorithm, along with its architectural implementation into the ST200 VLIW family core.

Implementation of a controller for linear positioners applicable in optical fiber stretching

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Castrillo Piedra, Andres Rodolfo

2014-01-01

A low cost controller is implemented for linear positioners applicable in optic fiber stretching. The possibility of using a donated equipment is evaluated by the Escuela de Ingenieria Mecanica. The equipment is required by the non-linear photonic research laboratory (NLPR-LAB) for stretching of micro structured fiber. The process has required a slow and precise stretching, so the controllers must be precisely programmed to rotate the motors at different speeds. Donated equipment is evaluated to see if it is possible to use for fiber stretching [es

Cost-Effectiveness of Reverse Total Shoulder Arthroplasty Versus Arthroscopic Rotator Cuff Repair for Symptomatic Large and Massive Rotator Cuff Tears.

Science.gov (United States)

Makhni, Eric C; Swart, Eric; Steinhaus, Michael E; Mather, Richard C; Levine, William N; Bach, Bernard R; Romeo, Anthony A; Verma, Nikhil N

2016-09-01

To compare the cost-effectiveness within the United States health care system of arthroscopic rotator cuff repair versus reverse total shoulder arthroplasty in patients with symptomatic large and massive rotator cuff tears without cuff-tear arthropathy. An expected-value decision analysis was constructed comparing the costs and outcomes of patients undergoing arthroscopic rotator cuff repair and reverse total shoulder arthroplasty for large and massive rotator cuff tears (and excluding cases of cuff-tear arthropathy). Comprehensive literature search provided input data to extrapolate costs and health utility states for these outcomes. The primary outcome assessed was that of incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of reverse total shoulder arthroplasty versus rotator cuff repair. For the base case, both arthroscopic rotator cuff repair and reverse total shoulder were superior to nonoperative care, with an ICER of $15,500/quality-adjusted life year (QALY) and $37,400/QALY, respectively. Arthroscopic rotator cuff repair was dominant over primary reverse total shoulder arthroplasty, with lower costs and slightly improved clinical outcomes. Arthroscopic rotator cuff repair was the preferred strategy as long as the lifetime progression rate from retear to end-stage cuff-tear arthropathy was less than 89%. However, when the model was modified to account for worse outcomes when reverse shoulder arthroplasty was performed after a failed attempted rotator cuff repair, primary reverse total shoulder had superior outcomes with an ICER of $90,000/QALY. Arthroscopic rotator cuff repair-despite high rates of tendon retearing-for patients with large and massive rotator cuff tears may be a more cost-effective initial treatment strategy when compared with primary reverse total shoulder arthroplasty and when assuming no detrimental impact of previous surgery on outcomes after arthroplasty. Clinical judgment should still be prioritized when formulating treatment plans for these

Feasibility and economic evaluation of low-cost evaporative cooling ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Feasibility and economic evaluation of low-cost evaporative cooling system in fruit and vegetables storage. ... on fruit and vegetables quality during harvesting, transportation, storage and marketing. ... The coolers were found to be effective in maintaining micro-environmental conditions for ... AJOL African Journals Online.

16-Bit RISC Processor Design for Convolution Application

OpenAIRE

Anand Nandakumar Shardul

2013-01-01

In this project, we propose a 16-bit non-pipelined RISC processor, which is used for signal processing applications. The processor consists of the blocks, namely, program counter, clock control unit, ALU, IDU and registers. Advantageous architectural modifications have been made in the incremented circuit used in program counter and carry select adder unit of the ALU in the RISC CPU core. Furthermore, a high speed and low power modified modifies multiplier has been designed and introduced in ...

Control of the dielectric microrods rotation in liquid by alternating current electric field

Science.gov (United States)

Ren, Yukun; Li, Bin; Jiang, Hongyuan

2014-05-01

Microfluidics is a promising system for the manipulation of micro-nano particles and fluids. In this platform, alternating current (AC) electric field is usual an effective tool for the general particles control. However, traditional work paid more attention on the regular spherical particles with no obvious distinction when rotating, resulting in imprecise rotation speed calculation. In essence, non-spherical especially biocompatible particles are not only important for biology application but also significant for obtaining accurate rotating results. Hence, in this paper, SU-8, one of the most biocompatible materials was selected as the manipulation object. AC electric field is employed to rotate SU-8 microrods, in order to obtain a controllable rotation angle for both the accurate experimental results and biosensor applications. Firstly, Clausius-Mossotti(CM) factors frequency spectra with different surface conductance and medium conductivities are presented, thereby the theoretical formula is carried out, including both the torque and rotation velocity expressions of SU-8 microrods. Moreover, simulations for the electric field distribution are developed, indicating the rotating direction. Secondly, the quadrupole electrodes are used to generate rotating electric field, and the electrorotation of SU-8 microrods in different medium is carried out, showing that the particles rotate in the opposite direction of the electric field, meanwhile, the peak frequency increases with the conductivity increases. Finally, the experimental results are discussed and compared with theoretical analysis, and the comparison result shows that they have a good agreement. This work proposes an effective and controllable method to rotate microrods, showing extend application potentials in microelectronics and biosensors.

Rotational velocities of low-mass stars

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stauffer, J.B.; Hartmann, L.W.; Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA)

1986-01-01

The rotational velocities of stars provide important clues to how stars form and evolve. Yet until recently, studies of stellar rotation were limited to stars more massive than the sun. This is beginning to change, and an observational outline of the rotational velocity evolution of stars less massive than the sun can now be provided. Low-mass stars rotate slowly during the early stages of premain-sequence evolution, and spin up as they contract to the main sequence. This spin-up culminates in a brief period of very rapid rotation at an age of order 50 million years. Physical interpretation of this increase in rotation and the subsequent main-sequence spin-down are complicated by the possibility of differential internal rotation. The observed rapidity of spin-down among G dwarfs suggests that initially only the outer convective envelopes of these stars are slowed. The data suggest an intrinsic spread in angular momentum among young stars of the same mass and age, a spread which is apparently minimized by the angular-momentum loss mechanism in old low-mass stars. 83 references

Low voltage 80 KV to 125 KV electron processors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lauppi, U.V.

1999-01-01

The classic electron beam technology made use of accelerating energies in the voltage range of 300 to 800 kV. The first EB processors - built for the curing of coatings - operated at 300 kV. The products to be treated were thicker than a simple layer of coating with thicknesses up to 100g and more. It was only in the beginning of the 1970's that industrial EB processors with accelerating voltages below 300 kV appeared on the market. Our company developed the first commercial electron accelerator without a beam scanner. The new EB machine featured a linear cathode, emitting a shower or 'curtain' of electrons over the full width of the product. These units were much smaller than anv previous EB processors and dedicated to the curing of coatings and other thin layers. ESI's first EB units operated with accelerating voltages between 150 and 200 kV. In 1993 ESI announced the introduction of a new generation of Electrocure. EB processors operating at 120 kV, and in 1998, at the RadTech North America '98 Conference in Chicago, the introduction of an 80 kV electron beam processor under the designation Microbeam LV

Development of a highly reliable CRT processor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shimizu, Tomoya; Saiki, Akira; Hirai, Kenji; Jota, Masayoshi; Fujii, Mikiya

1996-01-01

Although CRT processors have been employed by the main control board to reduce the operator's workload during monitoring, the control systems are still operated by hardware switches. For further advancement, direct controller operation through a display device is expected. A CRT processor providing direct controller operation must be as reliable as the hardware switches are. The authors are developing a new type of highly reliable CRT processor that enables direct controller operations. In this paper, we discuss the design principles behind a highly reliable CRT processor. The principles are defined by studies of software reliability and of the functional reliability of the monitoring and operation systems. The functional configuration of an advanced CRT processor is also addressed. (author)

Design of an Elliptic Curve Cryptography processor for RFID tag chips.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Zilong; Liu, Dongsheng; Zou, Xuecheng; Lin, Hui; Cheng, Jian

2014-09-26

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an important technique for wireless sensor networks and the Internet of Things. Recently, considerable research has been performed in the combination of public key cryptography and RFID. In this paper, an efficient architecture of Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) Processor for RFID tag chip is presented. We adopt a new inversion algorithm which requires fewer registers to store variables than the traditional schemes. A new method for coordinate swapping is proposed, which can reduce the complexity of the controller and shorten the time of iterative calculation effectively. A modified circular shift register architecture is presented in this paper, which is an effective way to reduce the area of register files. Clock gating and asynchronous counter are exploited to reduce the power consumption. The simulation and synthesis results show that the time needed for one elliptic curve scalar point multiplication over GF(2163) is 176.7 K clock cycles and the gate area is 13.8 K with UMC 0.13 μm Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology. Moreover, the low power and low cost consumption make the Elliptic Curve Cryptography Processor (ECP) a prospective candidate for application in the RFID tag chip.

Research on single-chip microcomputer controlled rotating magnetic field mineralization model

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Yang; Qi, Yulin; Yang, Junxiao; Li, Na

2017-08-01

As one of the method of selecting ore, the magnetic separation method has the advantages of stable operation, simple process flow, high beneficiation efficiency and no chemical environment pollution. But the existing magnetic separator are more mechanical, the operation is not flexible, and can not change the magnetic field parameters according to the precision of the ore needed. Based on the existing magnetic separator is mechanical, the rotating magnetic field can be used for single chip microcomputer control as the research object, design and trial a rotating magnetic field processing prototype, and through the single-chip PWM pulse output to control the rotation of the magnetic field strength and rotating magnetic field speed. This method of using pure software to generate PWM pulse to control rotary magnetic field beneficiation, with higher flexibility, accuracy and lower cost, can give full play to the performance of single-chip.

Experimental investigation on low-frequency vibration assisted micro-WEDM of Inconel 718

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Deepak Rajendra Unune

2017-02-01

Full Text Available The micro-wire electric discharge machining (micro-WEDM has emerged as the popular micromachining processes for fabrication of micro-features. However, the low machining rate and poor surface finish are restricting wide applications of this process. Therefore, in this study, an attempt was made to improve machining rate of micro-WEDM with low-frequency workpiece vibration assistance. The gap voltage, capacitance, feed rate and vibrational frequency were chosen as control factors, whereas, the material removal rate (MRR and kerf width were selected as performance measures while fabricating microchannels in Inconel 718. It was observed that in micro-WEDM, the capacitance is the most significant factor affecting both MRR and kerf width. It was witnessed that the low-frequency workpiece vibration improves the performance of micro-WEDM by improving the MRR due to enhanced flushing conditions and reduced electrode-workpiece adhesion.

Micro-computer control for super-critical He generation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tamada, Noriharu; Sekine, Takehiro; Tomiyama, Sakutaro

1979-01-01

The development of a large scale refrigeration system is being stimulated by new superconducting techniques representated by a superconducting power cable and a magnet. For the practical operation of such a large system, an automatic control system with a computer is required, because it can attain an effective and systematic operation. For this reason, we examined and developed micro-computer control techniques for supercritical He generation, as a simplified control model of the refrigeration system. The experimental results showed that the computer control system can attain fine controlability, even if the control element is only one magnetic valve, but a BASIK program language of micro-computer, which is convinient and generaly used, isn't enough one to control a more complicated system, because of its low calculating speed. Then we conclude that a more effective program language for micro-computer must be developed to realize practical refrigeration control. (author)

Lock-in amplifier- based rotating- analyzer spectroscopic ellipsometer with micro-controlled angular frequency

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Flores C, J.M.; Nunez O, O.F.; Rodriguez P, G.; Lastras M, A.; Lastras M, L.F. [Instituto de Investigacion en Comunicacion Optica, Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosi, Alvaro Obregon 64, 78000 San Luis Potosi (Mexico)

2005-07-01

We report on the development of a full operational rotating analyzer spectroscopic ellipsometer. This instrument employs a phase-sensitive amplifier to process the optical signal as an alternative to Fast Fourier Transform analysis. We describe electronic hardware designed to stabilize the rotation frequency of the analyzer prism as well as to drive the device for the positioning of the polarizer prism azimuth. The ellipsometer allows for dielectric function measurement in the energy range from 1.7-5.5 eV, in both ambient air and Ultra High Vacuum (UHV). UHV measurements can be carried out at a temperature as low as 150 K. To evaluate the ellipsometer performance we present results of the determination of the complex dielectric function of a number of semiconductors, namely, GaSb, GaAs, InGaAs, CdTe and CdHgTe. (Author)

A low-cost, high-performance, digital signal processor-based lock-in amplifier capable of measuring multiple frequency sweeps simultaneously

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sonnaillon, Maximiliano Osvaldo; Bonetto, Fabian Jose

2005-01-01

A high-performance digital lock-in amplifier implemented in a low-cost digital signal processor (DSP) board is described. This lock in is capable of measuring simultaneously multiple frequencies that change in time as frequency sweeps (chirps). The used 32-bit DSP has enough computing power to generate N=3 simultaneous reference signals and accurately measure the N=3 responses, operating as three lock ins connected in parallel to a linear system. The lock in stores the measured values in memory until they are downloaded to the a personal computer (PC). The lock in works in stand-alone mode and can be programmed and configured through the PC serial port. Downsampling and multiple filter stages were used in order to obtain a sharp roll off and a long time constant in the filters. This makes measurements possible in presence of high-noise levels. Before each measurement, the lock in performs an autocalibration that measures the frequency response of analog output and input circuitry in order to compensate for the departure from ideal operation. Improvements from previous lock-in implementations allow measuring the frequency response of a system in a short time. Furthermore, the proposed implementation can measure how the frequency response changes with time, a characteristic that is very important in our biotechnological application. The number of simultaneous components that the lock in can generate and measure can be extended, without reprogramming, by only using other DSPs of the same family that are code compatible and work at higher clock frequencies

A low-cost, high-performance, digital signal processor-based lock-in amplifier capable of measuring multiple frequency sweeps simultaneously

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sonnaillon, Maximiliano Osvaldo; Bonetto, Fabian Jose [Laboratorio de Cavitacion y Biotecnologia, San Carlos de Bariloche (8400) (Argentina)

2005-02-01

A high-performance digital lock-in amplifier implemented in a low-cost digital signal processor (DSP) board is described. This lock in is capable of measuring simultaneously multiple frequencies that change in time as frequency sweeps (chirps). The used 32-bit DSP has enough computing power to generate N=3 simultaneous reference signals and accurately measure the N=3 responses, operating as three lock ins connected in parallel to a linear system. The lock in stores the measured values in memory until they are downloaded to the a personal computer (PC). The lock in works in stand-alone mode and can be programmed and configured through the PC serial port. Downsampling and multiple filter stages were used in order to obtain a sharp roll off and a long time constant in the filters. This makes measurements possible in presence of high-noise levels. Before each measurement, the lock in performs an autocalibration that measures the frequency response of analog output and input circuitry in order to compensate for the departure from ideal operation. Improvements from previous lock-in implementations allow measuring the frequency response of a system in a short time. Furthermore, the proposed implementation can measure how the frequency response changes with time, a characteristic that is very important in our biotechnological application. The number of simultaneous components that the lock in can generate and measure can be extended, without reprogramming, by only using other DSPs of the same family that are code compatible and work at higher clock frequencies.

A low-cost, Nist-traceable, high performance dielectric resonator Master Oscillator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doolittle, L.R.; Hovater, C.; Merminga, L.; Musson, J.; Wiseman, W.

1999-01-01

The current CEBAF Master Oscillator (MO) uses a quartz-based 10 MHz reference to synthesize 70 MHz and 499 MHz, which are then distributed to each of the klystron galleries on site. Due to the specialized nature of CEBAF's MO requirements, it has been determined that an in-house design and fabrication would provide a cost-effective alternative to purchasing or modifying vendor equipment. A Global Positioning System (GPS) disciplined, Direct Digital Synthesis (DDS) based MO is proposed which incorporates low-cost consumer RF components, designed for cellular communications. A 499 MHz Dielectric Resonant Oscillator (DRO) Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) is phase-locked to a GPS-disciplined 10 MHz reference, and micro-tuned via a DDS, in an effort to achieve the lowest phase noise possible

A discussion of tools and techniques for distributed processor based control systems using CAMAC

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tippie, J.W.; Scandora, A.E.

1985-01-01

This paper describes and analyzes various distributed processor architectures using commercially available CAMAC components. The general orientation is toward distributed control systems using Digital Equipment Corporation LSI11 processors in a CAMAC environment. The paper describes in detail software tools available to simplify the development of applications software and to provide a high-level runtime environment both at the host and the remote processors. Discussion focuses on techniques for downloading of operating systems from a large host and applications tasks written in high-level languages. It also discusses software tools which enable tasks in the remote processors to exchange messages and data with tasks in the host in a simple and elegant way

Experience with low-power x86 processors (Atom) for HEP usage. An initial analysis of the Intel® dual core Atom™ N330 processor

CERN Document Server

Balazs, G; Nowak, A; CERN. Geneva. IT Department

2009-01-01

In this paper we compare a system based on an Intel Atom N330 low-power processor to a modern Intel Xeon® dual-socket server using CERN IT’s standard criteria for comparing price-performance and performance per watt. The Xeon server corresponds to what is typically acquired as servers in the LHC Computing Grid. The comparisons used public pricing information from November 2008. After the introduction in section 1, section 2 describes the hardware and software setup. In section 3 we describe the power measurements we did and in section 4 we discuss the throughput performance results. In section 5 we summarize our initial conclusions. We then go on to describe our long term vision and possible future scenarios for using such low-power processors, and finally we list interesting development directions.

The cost-effectiveness of single-row compared with double-row arthroscopic rotator cuff repair.

Science.gov (United States)

Genuario, James W; Donegan, Ryan P; Hamman, Daniel; Bell, John-Erik; Boublik, Martin; Schlegel, Theodore; Tosteson, Anna N A

2012-08-01

Interest in double-row techniques for arthroscopic rotator cuff repair has increased over the last several years, presumably because of a combination of literature demonstrating superior biomechanical characteristics and recent improvements in instrumentation and technique. As a result of the increasing focus on value-based health-care delivery, orthopaedic surgeons must understand the cost implications of this practice. The purpose of this study was to examine the cost-effectiveness of double-row arthroscopic rotator cuff repair compared with traditional single-row repair. A decision-analytic model was constructed to assess the cost-effectiveness of double-row arthroscopic rotator cuff repair compared with single-row repair on the basis of the cost per quality-adjusted life year gained. Two cohorts of patients (one with a tear of row compared with single-row arthroscopic rotator cuff repair was $571,500 for rotator cuff tears of row repair was less than $287 for small or moderate tears and less than $352 for large or massive tears compared with the cost of single-row repair, then double-row repair would represent a cost-effective surgical alternative. On the basis of currently available data, double-row rotator cuff repair is not cost-effective for any size rotator cuff tears. However, variability in the values for costs and probability of retear can have a profound effect on the results of the model and may create an environment in which double-row repair becomes the more cost-effective surgical option. The identification of the threshold values in this study may help surgeons to determine the most cost-effective treatment.

Micro-controller based fiber optic data telemetry system for the ion source of low energy accelerator facility at BARC

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Padmakumar, Sapna; Ware, Shailaja V.; Subrahmanyam, N.B.V.; Bhatt, J.P.; Singh, S.K.; Gupta, S.K.; Singh, P.; Choudhury, R.K.

2009-01-01

The Low Energy Accelerator Facility (LEAF) is a 50 keV, high intensity, negative ion accelerator facility that has been set up indigenously at Nuclear Physics Division, BARC. This facility is capable of delivering a wide range of negative ion beams of both light and heavy ions across the periodic table using a SNICS II (Source of Negative Ion by Caesium Sputtering) source. A micro-controller based control and monitoring system has been developed exclusively for the ion source parameters of LEAF. The data control and monitoring system mainly targets acquiring the data from the field in the terms of parameters such as voltages and currents. There are processes which need to be monitored continuously in order to keep certain parameters under check. The microcontroller based fiber optic data telemetry system allows us to perform the aforesaid task. The voltages can be controlled and monitored by providing the inputs and receiving the feedback through a user friendly graphic user interface. With this system one can control the status as well as analog value of the high voltage power supplies like extractor, cathode, filament, focus line heater and oven. This system consists of Fiber optic transceiver, which is connected on serial port (RS 232C) of microcontroller as well as RS232 port of PC. The whole control system is reliable even in noisy environments including RF and worse EMI conditions. This compact modular design is implemented using low cost devices and allows easy and fast maintainability. In the paper, the details of the system are presented. (author)

A low-cost high-performance embedded platform for accelerator controls

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cleva, Stefano; Bogani, Alessio Igor; Pivetta, Lorenzo

2012-01-01

Over the last years the mobile and hand-held device market has seen a dramatic performance improvement of the microprocessors employed for these systems. As an interesting side effect, this brings the opportunity of adopting these microprocessors to build small low-cost embedded boards, featuring lots of processing power and input/output capabilities. Moreover, being capable of running a full featured operating system such as Gnu/Linux, and even a control system toolkit such as Tango, these boards can also be used in control systems as front-end or embedded computers. In order to evaluate the feasibility of this idea, an activity has started at Elettra to select, evaluate and validate a commercial embedded device able to guarantee production grade reliability, competitive costs and an open source platform. The preliminary results of this work are presented. (author)

Passive radiative cooling of a HTS coil for attitude orbit control in micro-spacecraft

Science.gov (United States)

Inamori, Takaya; Ozaki, Naoya; Saisutjarit, Phongsatorn; Ohsaki, Hiroyuki

2015-02-01

This paper proposes a novel radiative cooling system for a high temperature superconducting (HTS) coil for an attitude orbit control system in nano- and micro-spacecraft missions. These days, nano-spacecraft (1-10 kg) and micro-spacecraft (10-100 kg) provide space access to a broader range of spacecraft developers and attract interest as space development applications. In planetary and high earth orbits, most previous standard-size spacecraft used thrusters for their attitude and orbit control, which are not available for nano- and micro-spacecraft missions because of the strict power consumption, space, and weight constraints. This paper considers orbit and attitude control methods that use a superconducting coil, which interacts with on-orbit space plasmas and creates a propulsion force. Because these spacecraft cannot use an active cooling system for the superconducting coil because of their mass and power consumption constraints, this paper proposes the utilization of a passive radiative cooling system, in which the superconducting coil is thermally connected to the 3 K cosmic background radiation of deep space, insulated from the heat generation using magnetic holders, and shielded from the sun. With this proposed cooling system, the HTS coil is cooled to 60 K in interplanetary orbits. Because the system does not use refrigerators for its cooling system, the spacecraft can achieve an HTS coil with low power consumption, small mass, and low cost.

An Open Source Low-Cost Wireless Control System for a Forced Circulation Solar Plant.

Science.gov (United States)

Salamone, Francesco; Belussi, Lorenzo; Danza, Ludovico; Ghellere, Matteo; Meroni, Italo

2015-11-05

The article describes the design phase, development and practical application of a low-cost control system for a forced circulation solar plant in an outdoor test cell located near Milan. Such a system provides for the use of an electric pump for the circulation of heat transfer fluid connecting the solar thermal panel to the storage tank. The running plant temperatures are the fundamental parameter to evaluate the system performance such as proper operation, and the control and management system has to consider these parameters. A solar energy-powered wireless-based smart object was developed, able to monitor the running temperatures of a solar thermal system and aimed at moving beyond standard monitoring approaches to achieve a low-cost and customizable device, even in terms of installation in different environmental conditions. To this end, two types of communications were used: the first is a low-cost communication based on the ZigBee protocol used for control purposes, so that it can be customized according to specific needs, while the second is based on a Bluetooth protocol used for data display.

An Open Source Low-Cost Wireless Control System for a Forced Circulation Solar Plant

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francesco Salamone

2015-11-01

Full Text Available The article describes the design phase, development and practical application of a low-cost control system for a forced circulation solar plant in an outdoor test cell located near Milan. Such a system provides for the use of an electric pump for the circulation of heat transfer fluid connecting the solar thermal panel to the storage tank. The running plant temperatures are the fundamental parameter to evaluate the system performance such as proper operation, and the control and management system has to consider these parameters. A solar energy-powered wireless-based smart object was developed, able to monitor the running temperatures of a solar thermal system and aimed at moving beyond standard monitoring approaches to achieve a low-cost and customizable device, even in terms of installation in different environmental conditions. To this end, two types of communications were used: the first is a low-cost communication based on the ZigBee protocol used for control purposes, so that it can be customized according to specific needs, while the second is based on a Bluetooth protocol used for data display.

Programmable level-1 trigger with 3D-Flow processor array

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Crosetto, D.

1994-01-01

The 3D-Flow parallel processing system is a new concept in processor architecture, system architecture, and assembly architecture. Compared to the electronics used in present systems, this approach reduces the cost and complexity of the hardware and allows easy assembly, disassembly, incremental upgrading, and maintenance of different interconnection topologies. The 3D-Flow parallel-processing system benefits high energy physics (HEP) by allowing: (1) common less costly hardware to be used in different experiments. (2) new uses of existing installations. (3) tuning of trigger based on the first analyzed data, and (4) selection of desired events directly from raw data. The goal of this parallel-processing architecture is to acquire multiple data in parallel (up to 100 million frames per second) and to process them at high speed, accomplishing digital filtering on the input data, pattern recognition (particle identification), data moving, and data formatting. The main features of the system are its programmability, scalability, high-speed communication, and low cost. The compactness of the 3D-Flow parallel-processing system in concert with the processor architecture allows processor interconnections to be mapped into the geometry of sensors (detectors in HEP) without large interconnection signal delay, enabling real-time pattern recognition. The overall 3D-Flow project has passed a major design review at Fermilab (Reviewers included experts in computers, triggering, system assembly, and electronics)

Review of trigger and on-line processors at SLAC

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lankford, A.J.

1984-07-01

The role of trigger and on-line processors in reducing data rates to manageable proportions in e + e - physics experiments is defined not by high physics or background rates, but by the large event sizes of the general-purpose detectors employed. The rate of e + e - annihilation is low, and backgrounds are not high; yet the number of physics processes which can be studied is vast and varied. This paper begins by briefly describing the role of trigger processors in the e + e - context. The usual flow of the trigger decision process is illustrated with selected examples of SLAC trigger processing. The features are mentioned of triggering at the SLC and the trigger processing plans of the two SLC detectors: The Mark II and the SLD. The most common on-line processors at SLAC, the BADC, the SLAC Scanner Processor, the SLAC FASTBUS Controller, and the VAX CAMAC Channel, are discussed. Uses of the 168/E, 3081/E, and FASTBUS VAX processors are mentioned. The manner in which these processors are interfaced and the function they serve on line is described. Finally, the accelerator control system for the SLC is outlined. This paper is a survey in nature, and hence, relies heavily upon references to previous publications for detailed description of work mentioned here. 27 references, 9 figures, 1 table

Towards a Low-Cost Quadrotor Research Platform

Science.gov (United States)

2010-03-01

FIGURES Figure 1. Quadrotor schematic showing rotor direction of rotation (From [2])................3 Figure 2. Toy quadrotor: Walkera UFO (from...Some examples are the Walkera UFO #5, Walkera UFO #8, Dragonfly, and Alien Air Jump Jet. Figure 2. Toy quadrotor: Walkera UFO (from Walkera...the X- UFO made by Silverlit Electronics used small mechanical gyros. These were relatively cheap due to low-cost labor, but suffered from mechanical

Very Long Instruction Word Processors

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Pentium Processor have modified the processor architecture to exploit parallelism in a program. .... The type of operation itself is encoded using 14 bits. .... text of designing simple architectures with low power consump- tion and execute x86 ...

3081//sub E/ processor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kunz, P.F.; Gravina, M.; Oxoby, G.; Trang, Q.; Fucci, A.; Jacobs, D.; Martin, B.; Storr, K.

1983-03-01

Since the introduction of the 168//sub E/, emulating processors have been successful over an amazingly wide range of applications. This paper will describe a second generation processor, the 3081//sub E/. This new processor, which is being developed as a collaboration between SLAC and CERN, goes beyond just fixing the obvious faults of the 168//sub E/. Not only will the 3081//sub E/ have much more memory space, incorporate many more IBM instructions, and have much more memory space, incorporate many more IBM instructions, and have full double precision floating point arithmetic, but it will also have faster execution times and be much simpler to build, debug, and maintain. The simple interface and reasonable cost of the 168//sub E/ will be maintained for the 3081//sub E/

Actuation and Control of a Micro Electrohydraulic Digital Servo Valve

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yu, Z Q; Hu, M J; Pei, X; Ruan, J [MOE Key Laboratory of Mechanical Manufacture and Automation Zhejiang University of Technology, 310014 (China)

2006-10-15

Structure of the micro digital servo valve is given. A micro stepper motor is used as electrical-to-mechanical interface of the valve. A special mechanical device is designed to convert the rotation of the stepper motor into the linear motion of the spool. This moving conversion device functions through an eccentric ball head rigidly connected to the axis of the stepper motor and plugged into a slot at the central spool land. While the stepper motor rotates, the eccentric ball head will actuate the spool to make a linear motion. Unlike conventional servo or proportional valves, in which the spool is forced to central position by a spring force, when the current supply is switched off, the digital valve has a program to control the spool to its central position each time the electrical power supply is switched on or off. The two end screws are used to adjust the position of the sleeve to sustain a mechanical central position coincided with electrical central position given by the stepper motor after initialization. The adjustment has to be carried once before the first time the servo valve is put into service. This paper presents theoretical analysis and experimental study of dynamic characteristics of the proposed micro digital servo valve. Experimental results demonstrated that the valve takes the advantage of high accuracy and fast response.

Actuation and Control of a Micro Electrohydraulic Digital Servo Valve

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yu, Z Q; Hu, M J; Pei, X; Ruan, J

2006-01-01

Structure of the micro digital servo valve is given. A micro stepper motor is used as electrical-to-mechanical interface of the valve. A special mechanical device is designed to convert the rotation of the stepper motor into the linear motion of the spool. This moving conversion device functions through an eccentric ball head rigidly connected to the axis of the stepper motor and plugged into a slot at the central spool land. While the stepper motor rotates, the eccentric ball head will actuate the spool to make a linear motion. Unlike conventional servo or proportional valves, in which the spool is forced to central position by a spring force, when the current supply is switched off, the digital valve has a program to control the spool to its central position each time the electrical power supply is switched on or off. The two end screws are used to adjust the position of the sleeve to sustain a mechanical central position coincided with electrical central position given by the stepper motor after initialization. The adjustment has to be carried once before the first time the servo valve is put into service. This paper presents theoretical analysis and experimental study of dynamic characteristics of the proposed micro digital servo valve. Experimental results demonstrated that the valve takes the advantage of high accuracy and fast response

Advanced control system for the Integral Fast Reactor fuel pin processor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lau, L.D.; Randall, P.F.; Benedict, R.W.; Levinskas, D.

1993-01-01

A computerized control system has been developed for the remotely-operated fuel pin processor used in the Integral Fast Reactor Program, Fuel Cycle Facility (FCF). The pin processor remotely shears cast EBR- reactor fuel pins to length, inspects them for diameter, straightness, length, and weight, and then inserts acceptable pins into new sodium-loaded stainless-steel fuel element jackets. Two main components comprise the control system: (1) a programmable logic controller (PLC), together with various input/output modules and associated relay ladder-logic associated computer software. The PLC system controls the remote operation of the machine as directed by the OCS, and also monitors the machine operation to make operational data available to the OCS. The OCS allows operator control of the machine, provides nearly real-time viewing of the operational data, allows on-line changes of machine operational parameters, and records the collected data for each acceptable pin on a central data archiving computer. The two main components of the control system provide the operator with various levels of control ranging from manual operation to completely automatic operation by means of a graphic touch screen interface

Low Cost Environmental Sensors for Spaceflight: NMP Space Environmental Monitor (SEM) Requirements

Science.gov (United States)

Garrett, Henry B.; Buehler, Martin G.; Brinza, D.; Patel, J. U.

2005-01-01

An outstanding problem in spaceflight is the lack of adequate sensors for monitoring the space environment and its effects on engineering systems. By adequate, we mean low cost in terms of mission impact (e.g., low price, low mass/size, low power, low data rate, and low design impact). The New Millennium Program (NMP) is investigating the development of such a low-cost Space Environmental Monitor (SEM) package for inclusion on its technology validation flights. This effort follows from the need by NMP to characterize the space environment during testing so that potential users can extrapolate the test results to end-use conditions. The immediate objective of this effort is to develop a small diagnostic sensor package that could be obtained from commercial sources. Environments being considered are: contamination, atomic oxygen, ionizing radiation, cosmic radiation, EMI, and temperature. This talk describes the requirements and rational for selecting these environments and reviews a preliminary design that includes a micro-controller data logger with data storage and interfaces to the sensors and spacecraft. If successful, such a sensor package could be the basis of a unique, long term program for monitoring the effects of the space environment on spacecraft systems.

Inertial measurement unit–based iterative pose compensation algorithm for low-cost modular manipulator

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yunhan Lin

2016-01-01

Full Text Available It is a necessary mean to realize the accurate motion control of the manipulator which uses end-effector pose correction method and compensation method. In this article, first, we established the kinematic model and error model of the modular manipulator (WUST-ARM, and then we discussed the measurement methods and precision of the inertial measurement unit sensor. The inertial measurement unit sensor is mounted on the end-effector of modular manipulator, to get the real-time pose of the end-effector. At last, a new inertial measurement unit–based iterative pose compensation algorithm is proposed. By applying this algorithm in the pose compensation experiment of modular manipulator which is composed of low-cost rotation joints, the results show that the inertial measurement unit can obtain a higher precision when in static state; it will accurately feedback to the control system with an accurate error compensation angle after a brief delay when the end-effector moves to the target point, and after compensation, the precision errors of roll angle, pitch angle, and yaw angle are reached at 0.05°, 0.01°, and 0.27° respectively. It proves that this low-cost method provides a new solution to improve the end-effector pose of low-cost modular manipulator.

Processor tradeoffs in distributed real-time systems

Science.gov (United States)

Krishna, C. M.; Shin, Kang G.; Bhandari, Inderpal S.

1987-01-01

The problem of the optimization of the design of real-time distributed systems is examined with reference to a class of computer architectures similar to the continuously reconfigurable multiprocessor flight control system structure, CM2FCS. Particular attention is given to the impact of processor replacement and the burn-in time on the probability of dynamic failure and mean cost. The solution is obtained numerically and interpreted in the context of real-time applications.

Developing infrared array controller with software real time operating system

Science.gov (United States)

Sako, Shigeyuki; Miyata, Takashi; Nakamura, Tomohiko; Motohara, Kentaro; Uchimoto, Yuka Katsuno; Onaka, Takashi; Kataza, Hirokazu

2008-07-01

Real-time capabilities are required for a controller of a large format array to reduce a dead-time attributed by readout and data transfer. The real-time processing has been achieved by dedicated processors including DSP, CPLD, and FPGA devices. However, the dedicated processors have problems with memory resources, inflexibility, and high cost. Meanwhile, a recent PC has sufficient resources of CPUs and memories to control the infrared array and to process a large amount of frame data in real-time. In this study, we have developed an infrared array controller with a software real-time operating system (RTOS) instead of the dedicated processors. A Linux PC equipped with a RTAI extension and a dual-core CPU is used as a main computer, and one of the CPU cores is allocated to the real-time processing. A digital I/O board with DMA functions is used for an I/O interface. The signal-processing cores are integrated in the OS kernel as a real-time driver module, which is composed of two virtual devices of the clock processor and the frame processor tasks. The array controller with the RTOS realizes complicated operations easily, flexibly, and at a low cost.

Study on fault diagnosis and load feedback control system of combine harvester

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Ying; Wang, Kun

2017-01-01

In order to timely gain working status parameters of operating parts in combine harvester and improve its operating efficiency, fault diagnosis and load feedback control system is designed. In the system, rotation speed sensors were used to gather these signals of forward speed and rotation speeds of intermediate shaft, conveying trough, tangential and longitudinal flow threshing rotors, grain conveying auger. Using C8051 single chip microcomputer (SCM) as processor for main control unit, faults diagnosis and forward speed control were carried through by rotation speed ratio analysis of each channel rotation speed and intermediate shaft rotation speed by use of multi-sensor fused fuzzy control algorithm, and these processing results would be sent to touch screen and display work status of combine harvester. Field trials manifest that fault monitoring and load feedback control system has good man-machine interaction and the fault diagnosis method based on rotation speed ratios has low false alarm rate, and the system can realize automation control of forward speed for combine harvester.

Self-assembly of robotic micro- and nanoswimmers using magnetic nanoparticles

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cheang, U. Kei; Kim, Min Jun, E-mail: mkim@coe.drexel.edu [Drexel University, Department of Mechanical Engineering & Mechanics (United States)

2015-03-15

Micro- and nanoscale robotic swimmers are very promising to significantly enhance the performance of particulate drug delivery by providing high accuracy at extremely small scales. Here, we introduce micro- and nanoswimmers fabricated using self-assembly of nanoparticles and control via magnetic fields. Nanoparticles self-align into parallel chains under magnetization. The swimmers exhibit flexibility under a rotating magnetic field resulting in chiral structures upon deformation, thereby having the prerequisite for non-reciprocal motion to move about at low Reynolds number. The swimmers are actuated wirelessly using an external rotating magnetic field supplied by approximate Helmholtz coils. By controlling the concentration of the suspended magnetic nanoparticles, the swimmers can be modulated into different sizes. Nanoscale swimmers are largely influenced by Brownian motion, as observed from their jerky trajectories. The microswimmers, which are roughly three times larger, are less vulnerable to the effects from Brownian motion. In this paper, we demonstrate responsive directional control of micro- and nanoswimmers and compare their respective diffusivities and trajectories to characterize the implications of Brownian disturbance on the motions of small and large swimmers. We then performed a simulation using a kinematic model for the magnetic swimmers including the stochastic nature of Brownian motion.

Self-assembly of robotic micro- and nanoswimmers using magnetic nanoparticles

Science.gov (United States)

Cheang, U. Kei; Kim, Min Jun

2015-03-01

Micro- and nanoscale robotic swimmers are very promising to significantly enhance the performance of particulate drug delivery by providing high accuracy at extremely small scales. Here, we introduce micro- and nanoswimmers fabricated using self-assembly of nanoparticles and control via magnetic fields. Nanoparticles self-align into parallel chains under magnetization. The swimmers exhibit flexibility under a rotating magnetic field resulting in chiral structures upon deformation, thereby having the prerequisite for non-reciprocal motion to move about at low Reynolds number. The swimmers are actuated wirelessly using an external rotating magnetic field supplied by approximate Helmholtz coils. By controlling the concentration of the suspended magnetic nanoparticles, the swimmers can be modulated into different sizes. Nanoscale swimmers are largely influenced by Brownian motion, as observed from their jerky trajectories. The microswimmers, which are roughly three times larger, are less vulnerable to the effects from Brownian motion. In this paper, we demonstrate responsive directional control of micro- and nanoswimmers and compare their respective diffusivities and trajectories to characterize the implications of Brownian disturbance on the motions of small and large swimmers. We then performed a simulation using a kinematic model for the magnetic swimmers including the stochastic nature of Brownian motion.

Self-assembly of robotic micro- and nanoswimmers using magnetic nanoparticles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cheang, U. Kei; Kim, Min Jun

2015-01-01

Micro- and nanoscale robotic swimmers are very promising to significantly enhance the performance of particulate drug delivery by providing high accuracy at extremely small scales. Here, we introduce micro- and nanoswimmers fabricated using self-assembly of nanoparticles and control via magnetic fields. Nanoparticles self-align into parallel chains under magnetization. The swimmers exhibit flexibility under a rotating magnetic field resulting in chiral structures upon deformation, thereby having the prerequisite for non-reciprocal motion to move about at low Reynolds number. The swimmers are actuated wirelessly using an external rotating magnetic field supplied by approximate Helmholtz coils. By controlling the concentration of the suspended magnetic nanoparticles, the swimmers can be modulated into different sizes. Nanoscale swimmers are largely influenced by Brownian motion, as observed from their jerky trajectories. The microswimmers, which are roughly three times larger, are less vulnerable to the effects from Brownian motion. In this paper, we demonstrate responsive directional control of micro- and nanoswimmers and compare their respective diffusivities and trajectories to characterize the implications of Brownian disturbance on the motions of small and large swimmers. We then performed a simulation using a kinematic model for the magnetic swimmers including the stochastic nature of Brownian motion

ICC Experiment Performance Improvement through Advanced Feedback Controllers for High-Power Low-Cost Switching Power Amplifiers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nelson, Brian A.

2006-01-01

Limited resources force most smaller fusion energy research experiments to have little or no feedback control of their operational parameters, preventing achievement of their full operational potential. Recent breakthroughs in high-power switching technologies have greatly reduced feedback-controlled power supply costs, primarily those classified as switching power amplifiers. However, inexpensive and flexible controllers for these power supplies have not been developed. A uClinux-based micro-controller (Analog Devices Blackfin BF537) was identified as having the capabilities to form the base of a digital control system for switching power amplifiers. A control algorithm was created, and a Linux character device driver was written to realize the algorithm. The software and algorithm were successfully tested on a switching power amplifier and magnetic field coil using University of Washington (subcontractor) resources

Attitude Determination Method by Fusing Single Antenna GPS and Low Cost MEMS Sensors Using Intelligent Kalman Filter Algorithm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lei Wang

2017-01-01

Full Text Available For meeting the demands of cost and size for micronavigation system, a combined attitude determination approach with sensor fusion algorithm and intelligent Kalman filter (IKF on low cost Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS gyroscope, accelerometer, and magnetometer and single antenna Global Positioning System (GPS is proposed. The effective calibration method is performed to compensate the effect of errors in low cost MEMS Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU. The different control strategies fusing the MEMS multisensors are designed. The yaw angle fusing gyroscope, accelerometer, and magnetometer algorithm is estimated accurately under GPS failure and unavailable sideslip situations. For resolving robust control and characters of the uncertain noise statistics influence, the high gain scale of IKF is adjusted by fuzzy controller in the transition process and steady state to achieve faster convergence and accurate estimation. The experiments comparing different MEMS sensors and fusion algorithms are implemented to verify the validity of the proposed approach.

Scalability of a Low-Cost Multi-Teraflop Linux Cluster for High-End Classical Atomistic and Quantum Mechanical Simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Kikuchi, Hideaki; Kalia, Rajiv K.; Nakano, Aiichiro; Vashishta, Priya; Shimojo, Fuyuki; Saini, Subhash

2003-01-01

Scalability of a low-cost, Intel Xeon-based, multi-Teraflop Linux cluster is tested for two high-end scientific applications: Classical atomistic simulation based on the molecular dynamics method and quantum mechanical calculation based on the density functional theory. These scalable parallel applications use space-time multiresolution algorithms and feature computational-space decomposition, wavelet-based adaptive load balancing, and spacefilling-curve-based data compression for scalable I/O. Comparative performance tests are performed on a 1,024-processor Linux cluster and a conventional higher-end parallel supercomputer, 1,184-processor IBM SP4. The results show that the performance of the Linux cluster is comparable to that of the SP4. We also study various effects, such as the sharing of memory and L2 cache among processors, on the performance.

Metal nanoparticle direct inkjet printing for low-temperature 3D micro metal structure fabrication

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ko, Seung Hwan; Nam, Koo Hyun; Chung, Jaewon; Hotz, Nico; Grigoropoulos, Costas P

2010-01-01

Inkjet printing of functional materials is a key technology toward ultra-low-cost, large-area electronics. We demonstrate low-temperature 3D micro metal structure fabrication by direct inkjet printing of metal nanoparticles (NPs) as a versatile, direct 3D metal structuring approach representing an alternative to conventional vacuum deposition and photolithographic methods. Metal NP ink was inkjet-printed to exploit the large melting temperature drop of the nanomaterial and the ease of the NP ink formulation. Parametric studies on the basic conditions for stable 3D inkjet printing of NP ink were carried out. Furthermore, diverse 3D metal microstructures, including micro metal pillar arrays, helices, zigzag and micro bridges were demonstrated and electrical characterization was performed. Since the process requires low temperature, it carries substantial potential for fabrication of electronics on a plastic substrate

Concept of subsurface micro-sensing; Chika joho no micro sensing

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Niitsuma, H [Tohoku University, Sendai (Japan). Faculty of Engineering

1997-05-27

This paper describes concept of subsurface micro-sensing. It is intended to achieve an epoch-making development of subsurface engineerings by developing such technologies as micro measurement of well interior, micro measurement while drilling (MWD), and micro intelligent logging. These technologies are supported by development of micro sensors and micro drilling techniques using micro machine technologies. Micronizing the subsurface sensors makes mass production of sensors with equivalent performance possible, and the production cost can be reduced largely. The sensors can be embedded or used disposably, resulting in increased mobility in measurement and higher performance. Installing multiple number of sensors makes high-accuracy measurement possible, such as array measurement. The sensors can be linked easily with photo-electronics components, realizing remote measurement at low price and high accuracy. Control in micro-drilling and MWD also become possible. Such advantages may also be expected as installing the sensors on the outer side of wells in use and monitoring subsurface information during production. Expectation on them is large as a new paradigm of underground exploration and measurement. 1 fig.

Centralized digital control of accelerators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Melen, R.E.

1984-01-01

Upon careful examination of the architecture of SLAC's computer control systems, it becomes evident that the distribution of the systems' intelligence generally falls into tree-like layers. The first layer typically consists of a central computer complex incorporating one or more relatively large and powerful processors. The more modern systems use state-of-the-art 32-bit processors with several megabytes of RAM and several hundreds of megabytes of disk memory. Further, they support extensive user-friendly operating systems and program development facilities. The second layer typically consists of several smaller processors which are downloaded from the central complex and whose primary task is to provide data acquisition and distribution. The more modern systems are 16-bit processors with several hundred kilobytes of RAM and no disk memory. The third layer typically consists of several tens or hundreds of micro-processors, each dedicated to a single device. The micro-processors for these ''dedicated intelligent controllers'' are small and inexpensive and typically require less than 32 kilobytes of RAM or EPROM memory. Their hardware may be general purpose in nature or may be built into the architecture of the device itself. Figure 5 illustrates several of the relevant features of each of these layers. This paper serves to illustrate that SLAC is commited to the centralized digital control of its accelerators

Cost of intensive routine control and incremental cost of insecticide-treated curtain deployment in a setting with low Aedes aegypti infestation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alberto Baly

Full Text Available Abstract: INTRODUCTION Information regarding the cost of implementing insecticide-treated curtains (ITCs is scarce. Therefore, we evaluated the ITC implementation cost, in addition to the costs of intensive conventional routine activities of the Aedes control program in the city of Guantanamo, Cuba. METHODS A cost-analysis study was conducted from the perspective of the Aedes control program, nested in an ITC effectiveness trial, during 2009-2010. Data for this study were obtained from bookkeeping records and activity registers of the Provincial Aedes Control Programme Unit and the account records of the ITC trial. RESULTS The annual cost of the routine Aedes control program activities was US$16.80 per household (p.h. Among 3,015 households, 6,714 ITCs were distributed. The total average cost per ITC distributed was US$3.42, and 74.3% of this cost was attributed to the cost of purchasing the ITCs. The annualized costs p.h. of ITC implementation was US$3.80. The additional annualized cost for deploying ITCs represented 19% and 48.4% of the total cost of the routine Aedes control and adult-stage Aedes control programs, respectively. The trial did not lead to further reductions in the already relatively low Aedes infestation levels. CONCLUSIONS At current curtain prices, ITC deployment can hardly be considered an efficient option in Guantanamo and other comparable environments.

Cost of intensive routine control and incremental cost of insecticide-treated curtain deployment in a setting with low Aedes aegypti infestation.

Science.gov (United States)

Baly, Alberto; Toledo, Maria Eugenia; Lambert, Isora; Benítez, Elizabeth; Rodriguez, Karina; Rodriguez, Esther; Vanlerberghe, Veerle; Stuyft, Patrick Van der

2016-01-01

Information regarding the cost of implementing insecticide-treated curtains (ITCs) is scarce. Therefore, we evaluated the ITC implementation cost, in addition to the costs of intensive conventional routine activities of the Aedes control program in the city of Guantanamo, Cuba. A cost-analysis study was conducted from the perspective of the Aedes control program, nested in an ITC effectiveness trial, during 2009-2010. Data for this study were obtained from bookkeeping records and activity registers of the Provincial Aedes Control Programme Unit and the account records of the ITC trial. The annual cost of the routine Aedes control program activities was US$16.80 per household (p.h). Among 3,015 households, 6,714 ITCs were distributed. The total average cost per ITC distributed was US$3.42, and 74.3% of this cost was attributed to the cost of purchasing the ITCs. The annualized costs p.h. of ITC implementation was US$3.80. The additional annualized cost for deploying ITCs represented 19% and 48.4% of the total cost of the routine Aedes control and adult-stage Aedes control programs, respectively. The trial did not lead to further reductions in the already relatively low Aedes infestation levels. At current curtain prices, ITC deployment can hardly be considered an efficient option in Guantanamo and other comparable environments.

Framework Programmable Platform for the advanced software development workstation: Framework processor design document

Science.gov (United States)

Mayer, Richard J.; Blinn, Thomas M.; Mayer, Paula S. D.; Ackley, Keith A.; Crump, Wes; Sanders, Les

1991-01-01

The design of the Framework Processor (FP) component of the Framework Programmable Software Development Platform (FFP) is described. The FFP is a project aimed at combining effective tool and data integration mechanisms with a model of the software development process in an intelligent integrated software development environment. Guided by the model, this Framework Processor will take advantage of an integrated operating environment to provide automated support for the management and control of the software development process so that costly mistakes during the development phase can be eliminated.

High-precision and low-cost vibration generator for low-frequency calibration system

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Rui-Jun; Lei, Ying-Jun; Zhang, Lian-Sheng; Chang, Zhen-Xin; Fan, Kuang-Chao; Cheng, Zhen-Ying; Hu, Peng-Hao

2018-03-01

Low-frequency vibration is one of the harmful factors that affect the accuracy of micro-/nano-measuring machines because its amplitude is significantly small and it is very difficult to avoid. In this paper, a low-cost and high-precision vibration generator was developed to calibrate an optical accelerometer, which is self-designed to detect low-frequency vibration. A piezoelectric actuator is used as vibration exciter, a leaf spring made of beryllium copper is used as an elastic component, and a high-resolution, low-thermal-drift eddy current sensor is applied to investigate the vibrator’s performance. Experimental results demonstrate that the vibration generator can achieve steady output displacement with frequency range from 0.6 Hz to 50 Hz, an analytical displacement resolution of 3.1 nm and an acceleration range from 3.72 mm s-2 to 1935.41 mm s-2 with a relative standard deviation less than 1.79%. The effectiveness of the high-precision and low-cost vibration generator was verified by calibrating our optical accelerometer.

Low-cost formation of bulk and localized polymer-derived carbon nanodomains from polydimethylsiloxane.

Science.gov (United States)

Alcántara, Juan Carlos Castro; Cerda Zorrilla, Mariana; Cabriales, Lucia; Rossano, Luis Manuel León; Hautefeuille, Mathieu

2015-01-01

We present two simple alternative methods to form polymer-derived carbon nanodomains in a controlled fashion and at low cost, using custom-made chemical vapour deposition and selective laser ablation with a commercial CD-DVD platform. Both processes presented shiny and dark residual materials after the polymer combustion and according to micro-Raman spectroscopy of the domains, graphitic nanocrystals and carbon nanotubes have successfully been produced by the combustion of polydimethylsiloxane layers. The fabrication processes and characterization of the byproduct materials are reported. We demonstrate that CVD led to bulk production of graphitic nanocrystals and single-walled carbon nanotubes while direct laser ablation may be employed for the formation of localized fluorescent nanodots. In the latter case, graphitic nanodomains and multi-wall carbon nanotubes are left inside microchannels and preliminary results seem to indicate that laser ablation could offer a tuning control of the nature and optical properties of the nanodomains that are left inside micropatterns with on-demand geometries. These low-cost methods look particularly promising for the formation of carbon nanoresidues with controlled properties and in applications where high integration is desired.

Jitter reduction of a reaction wheel by management of angular momentum using magnetic torquers in nano- and micro-satellites

Science.gov (United States)

Inamori, Takaya; Wang, Jihe; Saisutjarit, Phongsatorn; Nakasuka, Shinichi

2013-07-01

Nowadays, nano- and micro-satellites, which are smaller than conventional large satellites, provide access to space to many satellite developers, and they are attracting interest as an application of space development because development is possible over shorter time period at a lower cost. In most of these nano- and micro-satellite missions, the satellites generally must meet strict attitude requirements for obtaining scientific data under strict constraints of power consumption, space, and weight. In many satellite missions, the jitter of a reaction wheel degrades the performance of the mission detectors and attitude sensors; therefore, jitter should be controlled or isolated to reduce its effect on sensor devices. In conventional standard-sized satellites, tip-tilt mirrors (TTMs) and isolators are used for controlling or isolating the vibrations from reaction wheels; however, it is difficult to use these devices for nano- and micro-satellite missions under the strict power, space, and mass constraints. In this research, the jitter of reaction wheels is reduced by using accurate sensors, small reaction wheels, and slow rotation frequency reaction wheel instead of TTMs and isolators. The objective of a reaction wheel in many satellite missions is the management of the satellite's angular momentum, which increases because of attitude disturbances. If the magnitude of the disturbance is reduced in orbit or on the ground, the magnitude of the angular momentum that the reaction wheels gain from attitude disturbances in orbit becomes smaller; therefore, satellites can stabilize their attitude using only smaller reaction wheels or slow rotation speed, which cause relatively smaller vibration. In nano- and micro-satellite missions, the dominant attitude disturbance is a magnetic torque, which can be cancelled by using magnetic actuators. With the magnetic compensation, the satellite reduces the angular momentum that the reaction wheels gain, and therefore, satellites do

Study on wake structure characteristics of a slotted micro-ramp with large-eddy simulation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dong, Xiangrui; Chen, Yaohui; Dong, Gang; Liu, Yixin, E-mail: cyh873@163.com [National Key Laboratory of Transient Physics, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094 (China)

2017-06-15

In this paper, a novel slotted ramp-type micro vortex generator (slotted micro-ramp) for flow separation control is simulated in the supersonic flow of Ma = 1.5, based on large eddy simulation combined with the finite volume method. The wake structure characteristics and control mechanisms of both slotted and standard micro-ramps are presented and discussed. The results show that the wake of standard micro-ramp includes a primary counter-rotating streamwise vortex pair, a train of vortex rings, and secondary vortices. The slotted micro-ramp has more complicated wake structures, which contain a confluent counter-rotating streamwise vortex pair and additional streamwise vortices, with the same rotation generated by slot and the vortex rings enveloping the vortex pair. The additional vortices generated by the slot of the micro-ramp can mix with the primary counter-rotating vortex pair, extend the life time, and strengthen the vortex intensity of primary vortex pair. Moreover, the slot can effectively alleviate, or even eliminate the backflow and decrease the profile drag induced by the standard micro-ramp, therefore improving the efficiency of separation control. (paper)

HEP - A semaphore-synchronized multiprocessor with central control. [Heterogeneous Element Processor

Science.gov (United States)

Gilliland, M. C.; Smith, B. J.; Calvert, W.

1976-01-01

The paper describes the design concept of the Heterogeneous Element Processor (HEP), a system tailored to the special needs of scientific simulation. In order to achieve high-speed computation required by simulation, HEP features a hierarchy of processes executing in parallel on a number of processors, with synchronization being largely accomplished by hardware. A full-empty-reserve scheme of synchronization is realized by zero-one-valued hardware semaphores. A typical system has, besides the control computer and the scheduler, an algebraic module, a memory module, a first-in first-out (FIFO) module, an integrator module, and an I/O module. The architecture of the scheduler and the algebraic module is examined in detail.

Micro controller based design of digital transmitters for temperature measurements in reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nassar, M.A.M.

2011-01-01

Temperature transmitter is one of the most important transmitters in the nuclear reactor it is used for RTD (resistance temperature detector) signal conditioning. It has built-in current excitation, instrumentation amplifier, linearization and current output circuitry which amplifies the RTD signal and gives linearization to it. It is a part of a system to get temperature and monitoring it. This system is very cost and complicated. In this work a digital system is implemented by using micro controller techniques that replaces the existing system, one chip (PIC16f877) is used to build a digital system, which is more accurate and give more performance and low costs . RTD is the sensing element of temperature, its resistance increases with temperature. There are many types of transmitters in the reactor such as temperature, pressure, level and flow but temperature one is chosen because of temperature is one of the most important parameters in process control.

Wafer integrated micro-scale concentrating photovoltaics

Science.gov (United States)

Gu, Tian; Li, Duanhui; Li, Lan; Jared, Bradley; Keeler, Gordon; Miller, Bill; Sweatt, William; Paap, Scott; Saavedra, Michael; Das, Ujjwal; Hegedus, Steve; Tauke-Pedretti, Anna; Hu, Juejun

2017-09-01

Recent development of a novel micro-scale PV/CPV technology is presented. The Wafer Integrated Micro-scale PV approach (WPV) seamlessly integrates multijunction micro-cells with a multi-functional silicon platform that provides optical micro-concentration, hybrid photovoltaic, and mechanical micro-assembly. The wafer-embedded micro-concentrating elements is shown to considerably improve the concentration-acceptance-angle product, potentially leading to dramatically reduced module materials and fabrication costs, sufficient angular tolerance for low-cost trackers, and an ultra-compact optical architecture, which makes the WPV module compatible with commercial flat panel infrastructures. The PV/CPV hybrid architecture further allows the collection of both direct and diffuse sunlight, thus extending the geographic and market domains for cost-effective PV system deployment. The WPV approach can potentially benefits from both the high performance of multijunction cells and the low cost of flat plate Si PV systems.

A Simplified Control Method for Tie-Line Power of DC Micro-Grid

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yanbo Che

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Compared with the AC micro-grid, the DC micro-grid has low energy loss and no issues of frequency stability, which makes it more accessible for distributed energy. Thus, the DC micro-grid has good potential for development. A variety of renewable energy is included in the DC micro-grid, which is easily affected by the environment, causing fluctuation of the DC voltage. For grid-connected DC micro-grid with droop control strategy, the tie-line power is affected by fluctuations in the DC voltage, which sets higher requirements for coordinated control of the DC micro-grid. This paper presents a simplified control method to maintain a constant tie-line power that is suitable for the DC micro-grid with the droop control strategy. By coordinating the designs of the droop control characteristics of generators, energy storage units and grid-connected inverter, a dead band is introduced to the droop control to improve the system performance. The tie-line power in the steady state is constant. When a large disturbance occurs, the AC power grid can provide power support to the micro-grid in time. The simulation example verifies the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.

Cost reductions of fuel cells for transport applications: fuel processing options

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Teagan, W P; Bentley, J; Barnett, B [Arthur D. Little, Inc., Cambridge, MA (United States)

1998-03-15

The highly favorable efficiency/environmental characteristics of fuel cell technologies have now been verified by virtue of recent and ongoing field experience. The key issue regarding the timing and extent of fuel cell commercialization is the ability to reduce costs to acceptable levels in both stationary and transport applications. It is increasingly recognized that the fuel processing subsystem can have a major impact on overall system costs, particularly as ongoing R and D efforts result in reduction of the basic cost structure of stacks which currently dominate system costs. The fuel processing subsystem for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) technology, which is the focus of transport applications, includes the reformer, shift reactors, and means for CO reduction. In addition to low cost, transport applications require a fuel processor that is compact and can start rapidly. This paper describes the impact of factors such as fuel choice operating temperature, material selection, catalyst requirements, and controls on the cost of fuel processing systems. There are fuel processor technology paths which manufacturing cost analyses indicate are consistent with fuel processor subsystem costs of under $150/kW in stationary applications and $30/kW in transport applications. As such, the costs of mature fuel processing subsystem technologies should be consistent with their use in commercially viable fuel cell systems in both application categories. (orig.)

Costs of cardiovascular disease prevention care and scenarios for cost saving: a micro-costing study from rural Nigeria

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hendriks, Marleen E.; Bolarinwa, Oladimeji A.; Nelissen, Heleen E.; Boers, Alexander C.; Gomez, Gabriela B.; Tan, Siok Swan; Redekop, William; Adenusi, Peju; Lange, Joep M. A.; Agbede, Kayode; Akande, Tanimola M.; Schultsz, Constance

2015-01-01

To assess the costs of cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention care according to international guidelines, in a primary healthcare clinic in rural Nigeria, participating in a health insurance programme. A micro-costing study was conducted from a healthcare provider perspective. Activities per

Mitigation and control of the overcuring effect in mask projection micro-stereolithography

Science.gov (United States)

O'Neill, Paul F.; Kent, Nigel; Brabazon, Dermot

2017-10-01

Mask Projection micro-Stereolithography (MPμSL) is an additive manufacturing technique capable of producing solid parts with micron-scale resolution from a vat of photocurable liquid polymer resin. Although the physical mechanism remains the same, the process differs from traditional laser-galvanometer based stereolithography (SL) in its use of a dynamic mask UV projector, or digital light processor (DLP), which cures each location within each 3D layer at the same time. One area where MPµSL has garnered considerable attention is in the field of microfluidics and Lab-on-a-Chip, where complex multistep microfabrication techniques adopted from the semiconductor industry are still widely used, and where MPµSL offers the ability to fabricate completely encapsulated fluidic channels in a single step and at low cost [1-3]. However, a significant obstacle exists in the prevention of channel blockage due to overcuring of the polymer resin [4, 5]. Overcuring can be attributed to the so-called `back side effect' [2] which occurs during the build process as light from successive layers penetrates into the resin to a depth greater than the layer thickness. This effect is most prevalent in channels or features oriented horizontally (in a parallel plane to that of the build platform). Currently there are two main approaches in controlling the cure depth; 1. the chemical approach, which involves doping the resin material with a chemical light absorber [6-8]; and 2. by improving the system's hardware and optical elements to improve the homogeneity of the light dosage and control the cure depth [9]. Here we investigate a third approach through modification of the 3D CAD file prior to printing to mitigate for UV light leakage from successive build layers. Although used here in conjunction with the MPμSL technique, this approach can be applied to a range of SL techniques to improve printer resolution and enable production of internal features with higher dimensional accuracy.

Controlling Sample Rotation in Acoustic Levitation

Science.gov (United States)

Barmatz, M. B.; Stoneburner, J. D.

1985-01-01

Rotation of acoustically levitated object stopped or controlled according to phase-shift monitoring and control concept. Principle applies to square-cross-section levitation chamber with two perpendicular acoustic drivers operating at same frequency. Phase difference between X and Y acoustic excitation measured at one corner by measuring variation of acoustic amplitude sensed by microphone. Phase of driver adjusted to value that produces no rotation or controlled rotation of levitated object.

Low-cost safety enhancements for stop-controlled and signalized intersections

Science.gov (United States)

2009-05-01

The purpose of this document is to present information on suggested effective, low-cost intersection countermeasures developed using intersection safety research results and input from an intersection safety expert panel. These low-cost countermeasur...

Low torque hydrodynamic lip geometry for bi-directional rotation seals

Science.gov (United States)

Dietle, Lannie L [Houston, TX; Schroeder, John E [Richmond, TX

2009-07-21

A hydrodynamically lubricating geometry for the generally circular dynamic sealing lip of rotary seals that are employed to partition a lubricant from an environment. The dynamic sealing lip is provided for establishing compressed sealing engagement with a relatively rotatable surface, and for wedging a film of lubricating fluid into the interface between the dynamic sealing lip and the relatively rotatable surface in response to relative rotation that may occur in the clockwise or the counter-clockwise direction. A wave form incorporating an elongated dimple provides the gradual convergence, efficient impingement angle, and gradual interfacial contact pressure rise that are conducive to efficient hydrodynamic wedging. Skewed elevated contact pressure zones produced by compression edge effects provide for controlled lubricant movement within the dynamic sealing interface between the seal and the relatively rotatable surface, producing enhanced lubrication and low running torque.

Solid State Inflation Balloon Active Deorbiter: Scalable Low-Cost Deorbit System for Small Satellites

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Adam

2016-01-01

The goal of the Solid State Inflation Balloon Active Deorbiter project is to develop and demonstrate a scalable, simple, reliable, and low-cost active deorbiting system capable of controlling the downrange point of impact for the full-range of small satellites from 1 kg to 180 kg. The key enabling technology being developed is the Solid State Gas Generator (SSGG) chip, generating pure nitrogen gas from sodium azide (NaN3) micro-crystals. Coupled with a metalized nonelastic drag balloon, the complete Solid State Inflation Balloon (SSIB) system is capable of repeated inflation/deflation cycles. The SSGG minimizes size, weight, electrical power, and cost when compared to the current state of the art.

Development of the silane process for the production of low-cost polysilicon

Science.gov (United States)

Iya, S. K.

1986-01-01

It was recognized that the traditional hot rod type deposition process for decomposing silane is energy intensive, and a different approach for converting silane to silicon was chosen. A 1200 metric tons/year capacity commercial plant was constructed in Moses Lake, Washington. A fluidized bed processor was chosen as the most promising technology and several encouraging test runs were conducted. This technology continues to be very promising in producing low cost polysilicon. The Union Carbide silane process and the research development on the fluidized bed silane decomposition are discussed.

The Cost-Effectiveness of Low-Cost Essential Antihypertensive Medicines for Hypertension Control in China: A Modelling Study.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dongfeng Gu

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Hypertension is China's leading cardiovascular disease risk factor. Improved hypertension control in China would result in result in enormous health gains in the world's largest population. A computer simulation model projected the cost-effectiveness of hypertension treatment in Chinese adults, assuming a range of essential medicines list drug costs.The Cardiovascular Disease Policy Model-China, a Markov-style computer simulation model, simulated hypertension screening, essential medicines program implementation, hypertension control program administration, drug treatment and monitoring costs, disease-related costs, and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs gained by preventing cardiovascular disease or lost because of drug side effects in untreated hypertensive adults aged 35-84 y over 2015-2025. Cost-effectiveness was assessed in cardiovascular disease patients (secondary prevention and for two blood pressure ranges in primary prevention (stage one, 140-159/90-99 mm Hg; stage two, ≥160/≥100 mm Hg. Treatment of isolated systolic hypertension and combined systolic and diastolic hypertension were modeled as a reduction in systolic blood pressure; treatment of isolated diastolic hypertension was modeled as a reduction in diastolic blood pressure. One-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses explored ranges of antihypertensive drug effectiveness and costs, monitoring frequency, medication adherence, side effect severity, background hypertension prevalence, antihypertensive medication treatment, case fatality, incidence and prevalence, and cardiovascular disease treatment costs. Median antihypertensive costs from Shanghai and Yunnan province were entered into the model in order to estimate the effects of very low and high drug prices. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios less than the per capita gross domestic product of China (11,900 international dollars [Int$] in 2015 were considered cost-effective. Treating hypertensive adults with prior

Cost-effectiveness of open versus arthroscopic rotator cuff repair.

Science.gov (United States)

Adla, Deepthi N; Rowsell, Mark; Pandey, Radhakant

2010-03-01

Economic evaluation of surgical procedures is necessary in view of more expensive newer techniques emerging in an increasingly cost-conscious health care environment. This study compares the cost-effectiveness of open rotator cuff repair with arthroscopic repair for moderately size tears. This was a prospective study of 30 consecutive patients, of whom 15 had an arthroscopic repair and 15 had an open procedure. Clinical effectiveness was assessed using Oxford and Constant shoulder scores. Costs were estimated from departmental and hospital financial data. At last follow-up, no difference Oxford and Constant shoulder scores was noted between the 2 methods of repair. There was no significant difference between the groups in the cost of time in the operating theater, inpatient time, amount of postoperative analgesia, number of postoperative outpatient visits, physiotherapy costs, and time off work. The incremental cost of each arthroscopic rotator cuff repair was pound675 ($1248.75) more than the open procedure. This was mainly in the area of direct health care costs, instrumentation in particular. Health care policy makers are increasingly demanding evidence of cost-effectiveness of a procedure. This study showed both methods of repair provide equivalent clinical results. Open cuff repair is more cost-effective than arthroscopic repair and is likely to have lower cost-utility ratio. In addition, the tariff for the arthroscopic procedure in some health care systems is same as open repair. Copyright 2010 Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery Board of Trustees. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Towards the first generation micro bulk forming system

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Arentoft, Mogens; Eriksen, Rasmus Solmer; Hansen, Hans Nørgaard

2011-01-01

. This work describes a number of prototype system units, which collectively form a desktop sized micro forming production system. The system includes a billet preparation module, an integrated transfer system, a temperature controlled forming tool, including process simulation, and a dedicated micro forming......The industrial demand for micro mechanical components has surged in the later years with the constant introduction of more integrated products. The micro bulk forming process holds a promising pledge of delivering high quality micro mechanical components at low cost and high production rates...... press. The system is demonstrated on an advanced micro forming case where a dental component is formed in medical grade Titanium....

Low-power grating detection system chip for high-speed low-cost length and angle precision measurement

Science.gov (United States)

Hou, Ligang; Luo, Rengui; Wu, Wuchen

2006-11-01

This paper forwards a low power grating detection chip (EYAS) on length and angle precision measurement. Traditional grating detection method, such as resister chain divide or phase locked divide circuit are difficult to design and tune. The need of an additional CPU for control and display makes these methods' implementation more complex and costly. Traditional methods also suffer low sampling speed for the complex divide circuit scheme and CPU software compensation. EYAS is an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). It integrates micro controller unit (MCU), power management unit (PMU), LCD controller, Keyboard interface, grating detection unit and other peripherals. Working at 10MHz, EYAS can afford 5MHz internal sampling rate and can handle 1.25MHz orthogonal signal from grating sensor. With a simple control interface by keyboard, sensor parameter, data processing and system working mode can be configured. Two LCD controllers can adapt to dot array LCD or segment bit LCD, which comprised output interface. PMU alters system between working and standby mode by clock gating technique to save power. EYAS in test mode (system action are more frequently than real world use) consumes 0.9mw, while 0.2mw in real world use. EYAS achieved the whole grating detection system function, high-speed orthogonal signal handling in a single chip with very low power consumption.

Steering Control in a Low-Cost Driving Simulator: A Case for the Role of Virtual Vehicle Cab.

Science.gov (United States)

Mecheri, Sami; Lobjois, Régis

2018-04-01

The aim of this study was to investigate steering control in a low-cost driving simulator with and without a virtual vehicle cab. In low-cost simulators, the lack of a vehicle cab denies driver access to vehicle width, which could affect steering control, insofar as locomotor adjustments are known to be based on action-scaled visual judgments of the environment. Two experiments were conducted in which steering control with and without a virtual vehicle cab was investigated in a within-subject design, using cornering and straight-lane-keeping tasks. Driving around curves without vehicle cab information made drivers deviate more from the lane center toward the inner edge in right (virtual cab = 4 ± 19 cm; no cab = 42 ± 28 cm; at the apex of the curve, p vehicle width. This produces considerable differences in the steering trajectory. Providing a virtual vehicle cab must be encouraged for more effectively capturing drivers' steering control in low-cost simulators.

Improvement in current density of nano- and micro-structured Si solar cells by cost-effective elastomeric stamp process

Science.gov (United States)

Jeon, Kiseok; Jee, Hongsub; Lim, Sangwoo; Park, Min Joon; Jeong, Chaehwan

2018-03-01

Effective incident light should be controlled for improving the current density of solar cells by employing nano- and micro-structures on silicon surface. The elastomeric stamp process, which is more cost effective and simpler than conventional photolithography, was proposed for the fabrication of nano- and micro-structures. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was poured on a mother pattern with a diameter of 6 μm and a spacing of 2 μm; then, curing was performed to create a PDMS mold. The regular micropattern was stamped on a low-viscosity resin-coated silicon surface, followed by the simple reactive ion etching process. Nano-structures were formed using the Ag-based electroless etching process. As etching time was increased to 6 min, reflectance decreased to 4.53% and current density improved from 22.35 to 34.72 mA/cm2.

MicroShell Minimalist Shell for Xilinx Microprocessors

Science.gov (United States)

Werne, Thomas A.

2011-01-01

MicroShell is a lightweight shell environment for engineers and software developers working with embedded microprocessors in Xilinx FPGAs. (MicroShell has also been successfully ported to run on ARM Cortex-M1 microprocessors in Actel ProASIC3 FPGAs, but without project-integration support.) Micro Shell decreases the time spent performing initial tests of field-programmable gate array (FPGA) designs, simplifies running customizable one-time-only experiments, and provides a familiar-feeling command-line interface. The program comes with a collection of useful functions and enables the designer to add an unlimited number of custom commands, which are callable from the command-line. The commands are parameterizable (using the C-based command-line parameter idiom), so the designer can use one function to exercise hardware with different values. Also, since many hardware peripherals instantiated in FPGAs have reasonably simple register-mapped I/O interfaces, the engineer can edit and view hardware parameter settings at any time without stopping the processor. MicroShell comes with a set of support scripts that interface seamlessly with Xilinx's EDK tool. Adding an instance of MicroShell to a project is as simple as marking a check box in a library configuration dialog box and specifying a software project directory. The support scripts then examine the hardware design, build design-specific functions, conditionally include processor-specific functions, and complete the compilation process. For code-size constrained designs, most of the stock functionality can be excluded from the compiled library. When all of the configurable options are removed from the binary, MicroShell has an unoptimized memory footprint of about 4.8 kB and a size-optimized footprint of about 2.3 kB. Since MicroShell allows unfettered access to all processor-accessible memory locations, it is possible to perform live patching on a running system. This can be useful, for instance, if a bug is

Design of a computerized application for the quality control of film automatic processors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Merillas del Castillo, A.; Guibelalde del Castillo, E.; Fernandez Soto, J.M.; Vano carruana, E.

1997-01-01

The description of a free ware software for quality control of film automatic processors in diagnostic radiology developed by the authors is presented (CC-PRO ver 1.0). The application has been developed for using with automatic scanning densitometers, type X-Rite 380, being also able for manual data acquisition. By means of standard sensitometric techniques and the thus developed software, the trend analysis of the sensitometric variables and the film processor diagnostic could be carried out with an important production improvement, easy management and test consistency. (Author) 6 refs

Demonstrations of analog-to-digital conversion using a frequency domain stretched processor.

Science.gov (United States)

Reibel, Randy Ray; Harrington, Calvin; Dahl, Jason; Ostrander, Charles; Roos, Peter Aaron; Berg, Trenton; Mohan, R Krishna; Neifeld, Mark A; Babbitt, Wm R

2009-07-06

The first proof-of-concept demonstrations are presented for a broadband photonic-assisted analog-to-digital converter (ADC) based on spatial spectral holography (SSH). The SSH-ADC acts as a frequency-domain stretch processor converting high bandwidth input signals to low bandwidth output signals, allowing the system to take advantage of high performance, low bandwidth electronic ADCs. Demonstrations with 50 MHz effective bandwidth are shown to highlight basic performance with approximately 5 effective bits of vertical resolution. Signal capture with 1600 MHz effective bandwidth is also shown. Because some SSH materials span over 100 GHz and have large time apertures (approximately 10 micros), this technique holds promise as a candidate for the next generation of ADCs.

[Hospital costs estimation by micro and gross-costing approaches].

Science.gov (United States)

Guerre, P; Hayes, N; Bertaux, A-C

2018-03-01

Cost analysis has become increasingly commonplace in healthcare facilities in recent years. Regardless of the aim, the first consideration for a hospital costing process is to determine the point of view, or perspective, to adopt. Should the cost figures reflect the healthcare facility's point of view or enlighten perspectives for the public health insurance system? Another consideration is in regard to the method to adopt, as there are several. The two most widely used methods to determine the costs of hospital treatments in France are the micro-costing method and the gross-costing method. The aims of this work are: (1) to describe each of these methods (e.g. data collection, assignment of monetary value to resource consumption) with their advantages and shortcomings as they relate to the difficulties encountered with their implementation in hospitals; (2) to present a review of the literature comparing the two methods and their possible combination; and (3) to propose ways to address the questions that need to be asked before compiling resource consumption data and assigning monetary value to hospital costs. A final diagram summarizes methodologies to be preferred according to the evaluation strategy and the impact on patient care. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Feedback Control of Resistive Wall Modes in Slowly Rotating DIII-D Plasmas

Science.gov (United States)

Okabayashi, M.; Chance, M. S.; Takahashi, H.; Garofalo, A. M.; Reimerdes, H.; in, Y.; Chu, M. S.; Jackson, G. L.; La Haye, R. J.; Strait, E. J.

2006-10-01

In slowly rotating plasmas on DIII-D, the requirement of RWM control feedback have been identified, using a MHD code along with measured power supply characteristics. It was found that a small time delay is essential for achieving high beta if no rotation stabilization exists. The overall system delay or the band pass time constant should be in the range of 0.4 of the RWM growth time. Recently the control system was upgraded using twelve linear audio amplifiers and a faster digital control system, reducing the time-delay from 600 to 100 μs. The advantage has been clearly observed when the RWMs excited by ELMs were effectively controlled by feedback even if the rotation transiently slowed nearly to zero. This study provides insight on stability in the low- rotation plasmasw with balanced NBI in DIII-D and also in ITER.

The Associative Memory Boards for the FTK Processor at ATLAS

CERN Document Server

Calabro, D; The ATLAS collaboration; Citraro, S; Donati, S; Giannetti, P; Lanza, A; Luciano, P; Magalotti, D; Piendibene, M

2013-01-01

The Associative Memory (AM) system, the main part of the FastTracker (FTK) processor, is designed to perform pattern matching using the information of the silicon tracking detectors. It finds track candidates at low resolution that are seeds for the following step performing precise track fitting. The system has to support challenging data traffic, handled by a group of modern low cost FPGAs, the Xilinx Spartan6 chips, which have Low-Power Gigabit Transceivers (GTP). Each GTP transceiver is a combined transmitter and receiver capable of operating at data rates up to 3.2 Gb/s. \

Hardware Realization of an FPGA Processor – Operating System Call Offload and Experiences

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hindborg, Andreas Erik; Schleuniger, Pascal; Jensen, Nicklas Bo

2014-01-01

Field-programmable gate arrays, FPGAs, are attractive implementation platforms for low-volume signal and image processing applications. The structure of FPGAs allows for an efficient implementation of parallel algorithms. Sequential algorithms, on the other hand, often perform better...... core that can be integrated in many signal and data processing platforms on FPGAs. We also show how we allow the processor to use operating system services. For a set of SPLASH-2 and SPEC CPU2006 benchmarks we show a speedup of up to 64% over a similar Xilinx MicroBlaze implementation while using 27...

Low frequency oscillatory flow in a rotating curved pipe

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

陈华军; 章本照; 苏霄燕

2003-01-01

The low frequency oscillatory flow in a rotating curved pipe was studied by using the method of bi-parameter perturbation. Perturbation solutions up to the second order were obtained and the effects of rotation on the low frequency oscillatory flow were examined in detail. The results indicated that there exists evident difference between the low frequency oscillatory flow in a rotating curved pipe and in a curved pipe without rotation. During a period, four secondary vortexes may exist on the circular cross-section and the distribution of axial velocity and wall shear stress are related to the ratio of the Coriolis force to centrifugal force and the axial pressure gradient.

Low Cost Digital Vibration Meter.

Science.gov (United States)

Payne, W Vance; Geist, Jon

2007-01-01

This report describes the development of a low cost, digital Micro Electro Mechanical System (MEMS) vibration meter that reports an approximation to the RMS acceleration of the vibration to which the vibration meter is subjected. The major mechanical element of this vibration meter is a cantilever beam, which is on the order of 500 µm in length, with a piezoresistor deposited at its base. Vibration of the device in the plane perpendicular to the cantilever beam causes it to bend, which produces a measurable change in the resistance of a piezoresistor. These changes in resistance along with a unique signal-processing scheme are used to determine an approximation to the RMS acceleration sensed by the device.

A fast continuous magnetic field measurement system based on digital signal processors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Velev, G.V.; Carcagno, R.; DiMarco, J.; Kotelnikov, S.; Lamm, M.; Makulski, A.; Maroussov, V.; Nehring, R.; Nogiec, J.; Orris, D.; Poukhov, O.; Prakoshyn, F.; Schlabach, P.; Tompkins, J.C.

2005-01-01

In order to study dynamic effects in accelerator magnets, such as the decay of the magnetic field during the dwell at injection and the rapid so-called ''snapback'' during the first few seconds of the resumption of the energy ramp, a fast continuous harmonics measurement system was required. A new magnetic field measurement system, based on the use of digital signal processors (DSP) and Analog to Digital (A/D) converters, was developed and prototyped at Fermilab. This system uses Pentek 6102 16 bit A/D converters and the Pentek 4288 DSP board with the SHARC ADSP-2106 family digital signal processor. It was designed to acquire multiple channels of data with a wide dynamic range of input signals, which are typically generated by a rotating coil probe. Data acquisition is performed under a RTOS, whereas processing and visualization are performed under a host computer. Firmware code was developed for the DSP to perform fast continuous readout of the A/D FIFO memory and integration over specified intervals, synchronized to the probe's rotation in the magnetic field. C, C++ and Java code was written to control the data acquisition devices and to process a continuous stream of data. The paper summarizes the characteristics of the system and presents the results of initial tests and measurements

JIST: Just-In-Time Scheduling Translation for Parallel Processors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giovanni Agosta

2005-01-01

Full Text Available The application fields of bytecode virtual machines and VLIW processors overlap in the area of embedded and mobile systems, where the two technologies offer different benefits, namely high code portability, low power consumption and reduced hardware cost. Dynamic compilation makes it possible to bridge the gap between the two technologies, but special attention must be paid to software instruction scheduling, a must for the VLIW architectures. We have implemented JIST, a Virtual Machine and JIT compiler for Java Bytecode targeted to a VLIW processor. We show the impact of various optimizations on the performance of code compiled with JIST through the experimental study on a set of benchmark programs. We report significant speedups, and increments in the number of instructions issued per cycle up to 50% with respect to the non-scheduling version of the JITcompiler. Further optimizations are discussed.

EXPERIENCE WITH FPGA-BASED PROCESSOR CORE AS FRONT-END COMPUTER

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

HOFF, L.T.

2005-01-01

The RHIC control system architecture follows the familiar ''standard model''. LINUX workstations are used as operator consoles. Front-end computers are distributed around the accelerator, close to equipment being controlled or monitored. These computers are generally based on VMEbus CPU modules running the VxWorks operating system. I/O is typically performed via the VMEbus, or via PMC daughter cards (via an internal PCI bus), or via on-board I/O interfaces (Ethernet or serial). Advances in FPGA size and sophistication now permit running virtual processor ''cores'' within the FPGA logic, including ''cores'' with advanced features such as memory management. Such systems offer certain advantages over traditional VMEbus Front-end computers. Advantages include tighter coupling with FPGA logic, and therefore higher I/O bandwidth, and flexibility in packaging, possibly resulting in a lower noise environment and/or lower cost. This paper presents the experience acquired while porting the RHIC control system to a PowerPC 405 core within a Xilinx FPGA for use in low-level RF control

Micro-cost Analysis of ALK Rearrangement Testing by FISH to Determine Eligibility for Crizotinib Therapy in NSCLC: Implications for Cost Effectiveness of Testing and Treatment

Science.gov (United States)

Parker, David; Belaud-Rotureau, Marc-Antoine

2014-01-01

Break-apart fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) is the gold standard test for anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene rearrangement. However, this methodology often is assumed to be expensive and potentially cost-prohibitive given the low prevalence of ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cases. To more accurately estimate the cost of ALK testing by FISH, we developed a micro-cost model that accounts for all cost elements of the assay, including laboratory reagents, supplies, capital equipment, technical and pathologist labor, and the acquisition cost of the commercial test and associated reagent kits and controls. By applying a set of real-world base-case parameter values, we determined that the cost of a single ALK break-apart FISH test result is $278.01. Sensitivity analysis on the parameters of batch size, testing efficiency, and the cost of the commercial diagnostic testing products revealed that the cost per result is highly sensitive to batch size, but much less so to efficiency or product cost. This implies that ALK testing by FISH will be most cost effective when performed in high-volume centers. Our results indicate that testing cost may not be the primary determinant of crizotinib (Xalkori®) treatment cost effectiveness, and suggest that testing cost is an insufficient reason to limit the use of FISH testing for ALK rearrangement. PMID:25520569

Micro-cost Analysis of ALK Rearrangement Testing by FISH to Determine Eligibility for Crizotinib Therapy in NSCLC: Implications for Cost Effectiveness of Testing and Treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Parker, David; Belaud-Rotureau, Marc-Antoine

2014-01-01

Break-apart fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) is the gold standard test for anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene rearrangement. However, this methodology often is assumed to be expensive and potentially cost-prohibitive given the low prevalence of ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cases. To more accurately estimate the cost of ALK testing by FISH, we developed a micro-cost model that accounts for all cost elements of the assay, including laboratory reagents, supplies, capital equipment, technical and pathologist labor, and the acquisition cost of the commercial test and associated reagent kits and controls. By applying a set of real-world base-case parameter values, we determined that the cost of a single ALK break-apart FISH test result is $278.01. Sensitivity analysis on the parameters of batch size, testing efficiency, and the cost of the commercial diagnostic testing products revealed that the cost per result is highly sensitive to batch size, but much less so to efficiency or product cost. This implies that ALK testing by FISH will be most cost effective when performed in high-volume centers. Our results indicate that testing cost may not be the primary determinant of crizotinib (Xalkori(®)) treatment cost effectiveness, and suggest that testing cost is an insufficient reason to limit the use of FISH testing for ALK rearrangement.

VIRTUS: a multi-processor system in FASTBUS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ellett, J.; Jackson, R.; Ritter, R.; Schlein, P.; Yaeger, D.; Zweizig, J.

1986-01-01

VIRTUS is a system of parallel MC68000-based processors interconnected by FASTBUS that is used either on-line as an intelligent trigger component or off-line for full event processing. Each processor receives the complete set of data from one event. The host computer, a VAX 11/780, down-line loads all software to the processors, controls and monitors the functioning of all processors, and writes processed data to tape. Instructions, programs, and data are transferred among the processors and the host in the form of fixed format, variable length data blocks. (Auth.)

Sources of intrinsic rotation in the low-flow ordering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Parra, Felix I.; Barnes, Michael; Catto, Peter J.

2011-01-01

A low flow, δf gyrokinetic formulation to obtain the intrinsic rotation profiles is presented. The momentum conservation equation in the low-flow ordering contains new terms, neglected in previous first-principles formulations, that may explain the intrinsic rotation observed in tokamaks in the absence of external sources of momentum. The intrinsic rotation profile depends on the density and temperature profiles and on the up-down asymmetry.

Reconfigurable signal processor designs for advanced digital array radar systems

Science.gov (United States)

Suarez, Hernan; Zhang, Yan (Rockee); Yu, Xining

2017-05-01

The new challenges originated from Digital Array Radar (DAR) demands a new generation of reconfigurable backend processor in the system. The new FPGA devices can support much higher speed, more bandwidth and processing capabilities for the need of digital Line Replaceable Unit (LRU). This study focuses on using the latest Altera and Xilinx devices in an adaptive beamforming processor. The field reprogrammable RF devices from Analog Devices are used as analog front end transceivers. Different from other existing Software-Defined Radio transceivers on the market, this processor is designed for distributed adaptive beamforming in a networked environment. The following aspects of the novel radar processor will be presented: (1) A new system-on-chip architecture based on Altera's devices and adaptive processing module, especially for the adaptive beamforming and pulse compression, will be introduced, (2) Successful implementation of generation 2 serial RapidIO data links on FPGA, which supports VITA-49 radio packet format for large distributed DAR processing. (3) Demonstration of the feasibility and capabilities of the processor in a Micro-TCA based, SRIO switching backplane to support multichannel beamforming in real-time. (4) Application of this processor in ongoing radar system development projects, including OU's dual-polarized digital array radar, the planned new cylindrical array radars, and future airborne radars.

HTGR core seismic analysis using an array processor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shatoff, H.; Charman, C.M.

1983-01-01

A Floating Point Systems array processor performs nonlinear dynamic analysis of the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) core with significant time and cost savings. The graphite HTGR core consists of approximately 8000 blocks of various shapes which are subject to motion and impact during a seismic event. Two-dimensional computer programs (CRUNCH2D, MCOCO) can perform explicit step-by-step dynamic analyses of up to 600 blocks for time-history motions. However, use of two-dimensional codes was limited by the large cost and run times required. Three-dimensional analysis of the entire core, or even a large part of it, had been considered totally impractical. Because of the needs of the HTGR core seismic program, a Floating Point Systems array processor was used to enhance computer performance of the two-dimensional core seismic computer programs, MCOCO and CRUNCH2D. This effort began by converting the computational algorithms used in the codes to a form which takes maximum advantage of the parallel and pipeline processors offered by the architecture of the Floating Point Systems array processor. The subsequent conversion of the vectorized FORTRAN coding to the array processor required a significant programming effort to make the system work on the General Atomic (GA) UNIVAC 1100/82 host. These efforts were quite rewarding, however, since the cost of running the codes has been reduced approximately 50-fold and the time threefold. The core seismic analysis with large two-dimensional models has now become routine and extension to three-dimensional analysis is feasible. These codes simulate the one-fifth-scale full-array HTGR core model. This paper compares the analysis with the test results for sine-sweep motion

Low-Cost Digital Implementation of Proportional-Resonant Current Controllers for PV Inverter Applications Using Delta Operator

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sera, Dezso; Kerekes, Tamas; Lungeanu, Marian

2005-01-01

the possibility of selective harmonic compensation. However, in case of digital implementation on a low-cost fixedpoint DSP, the limited computational power and the limited numerical representation precision can restrict the utilization of it. The present paper proposes a different way of digital implementation...... of the P+Resonant controller with selective harmonic compensation on a low-cost fixed-point DSP. The resonant part of the P+R has been implemented as a second order filter based on Delta operator. The current controller, together with harmonic compensation for the 3rd, 5th, and 7th harmonics has been...

Relative mobility of the pelvis and spine during trunk axial rotation in chronic low back pain patients: A case-control study.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Masashi Taniguchi

Full Text Available Trunk axial rotation is a risk factor for chronic low back pain (CLBP. The characteristics of rotational mobility in the pelvis and spine among CLBP patients are not fully understood.The purpose of this study was to examine three-dimensional kinematic changes, and to compare the differences of rotational mobility and coupled motion, in patients with and without CLBP.Fifteen patients with CLBP and 15 age and sex matched healthy subjects participated in this study. Each subject performed trunk rotation to maximum range of motion (ROM in a standing position. The kinematics data was collected using a three-dimensional motion analysis system. The outcomes measured were the rotational ROM and the spine/pelvis ratio (SPR in transvers plane at both maximum and 50% rotation position. The coupled angles in sagittal and frontal planes were also measured.No significant differences in rotational ROM of the thorax, pelvis, and spine were observed between two groups at maximum rotation position. However, there was a significant interaction between groups and rotational ROM of pelvis and spine (F = 4.57, p = 0.04, and the SPR in CLBP patients was significantly greater than that of the healthy subjects (CLBP; 0.50 ± 0.10 Control; 0.41 ± 0.12, p = 0.04. The results at 50% rotation position were similar to that at maximum rotation. This indicates a relative increase in spinal rotation in the CLBP patients during trunk rotation. Moreover, the CLBP patients exhibited a significantly higher anterior tilt of the pelvis and extension of the spine in the sagittal plane coupled with rotation.CLBP patients had relative hyper rotational mobility of the spine as well as excessive spinal extension coupled with trunk rotation. These results suggest that uncoordinated trunk rotation might be a functional failure associated with CLBP.

Computer controlled multi-leaf conformation radiotherapy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Matsuda, T [Tokyo Metropolitan Komagome Hospital (Japan); Inamura, K

1981-10-01

A conformation radiotherapy system with 5-split collimators of which openings can be controlled symmetrically by computerized techniques during rotational irradiation by a linear accelerator has been developed. Outline of the system performance and its clinical applications are described as follows. 1. Profile of the system: The hardware is composed of three parts, namely, the multi-split collimator, the electronic data processor, and the interface between those two parts. 1) The multi-leaf collimator is composed of 5 pairs (10 leaves) diaphragms. It can be mounted to the X-ray head of a linear accelerator when used, and can be dismounted after its use. 2) The electronic data processor sends control signal to the collimator according to the 5-leaf target volume data which can be stored into a minifloppy disc through the curve digitizer previously. This part is composed of a) dedicated micro processor, b) I/O expansion unit, c) color CRT display with key board, d) dual mini-floppy disc unit, e) curve digitizer and f) digital plotter for recording and verification of resulted accuracy. 2. Performance of the system: 1) Maximum field size: 15 cm x 15 cm at isocenter. 2) Maximum elongation ratio of the target volume: 3 : 1 when the longer diameter is 15 cm. 3) Control accuracy: Within +-3 mm deviation from planned beam focus at isocenter. 3. Clinical application: The method of treatment planning and clinical advantages of this irradiation method are explained by raising clinical experiences such as treating brain tumor and rectal cancer.

Computer controlled multi-leaf conformation radiotherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matsuda, Tadayoshi; Inamura, Kiyonari.

1981-01-01

A conformation radiotherapy system with 5-split collimators of which openings can be controlled symmetrically by computerized techniques during rotational irradiation by a linear accelerator has been developed. Outline of the system performance and its clinical applications are described as follows. 1. Profile of the system: The hardware is composed of three parts, namely, the multi-split collimator, the electronic data processor, and the interface between those two parts. 1) The multi-leaf collimator is composed of 5 pairs (10 leaves) diaphragms. It can be mounted to the X-ray head of a linear accelerator when used, and can be dismounted after its use. 2) The electronic data processor sends control signal to the collimator according to the 5-leaf target volume data which can be stored into a minifloppy disc through the curve digitizer previously. This part is composed of a) dedicated micro processor, b) I/O expansion unit, c) color CRT display with key board, d) dual mini-floppy disc unit, e) curve digitizer and f) digital plotter for recording and verification of resulted accuracy. 2. Performance of the system: 1) Maximum field size: 15 cm x 15 cm at isocenter. 2) Maximum elongation ratio of the target volume: 3 : 1 when the longer diameter is 15 cm. 3) Control accuracy: Within +-3 mm deviation from planned beam focus at isocenter. 3. Clinical application: The method of treatment planning and clinical advantages of this irradiation method are explained by raising clinical experiences such as treating brain tumor and rectal cancer. (author)

The rise of low-cost sensing for managing air pollution in cities.

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, Prashant; Morawska, Lidia; Martani, Claudio; Biskos, George; Neophytou, Marina; Di Sabatino, Silvana; Bell, Margaret; Norford, Leslie; Britter, Rex

2015-02-01

Ever growing populations in cities are associated with a major increase in road vehicles and air pollution. The overall high levels of urban air pollution have been shown to be of a significant risk to city dwellers. However, the impacts of very high but temporally and spatially restricted pollution, and thus exposure, are still poorly understood. Conventional approaches to air quality monitoring are based on networks of static and sparse measurement stations. However, these are prohibitively expensive to capture tempo-spatial heterogeneity and identify pollution hotspots, which is required for the development of robust real-time strategies for exposure control. Current progress in developing low-cost micro-scale sensing technology is radically changing the conventional approach to allow real-time information in a capillary form. But the question remains whether there is value in the less accurate data they generate. This article illustrates the drivers behind current rises in the use of low-cost sensors for air pollution management in cities, while addressing the major challenges for their effective implementation. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Optimal control in a micro gas grid of prosumers using Model Predictive Control

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Alkano, Desti; Nefkens, W.J.; Scherpen, Jacqueline M.A.; Volkerts, M.

This paper studies the optimal control of a micro grid of biogas prosumers equipped with local storage devices. Excess biogas can be upgraded and injected into the low- pressure gas grid or, alternatively, shipped per lorry to be used elsewhere in an effort to create revenue. The aim of the control

Use of a mobile phone for potentiostatic control with low cost paper-based microfluidic sensors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Delaney, Jacqui L.; Doeven, Egan H.; Harsant, Anthony J.; Hogan, Conor F., E-mail: c.hogan@latrobe.edu.au

2013-08-06

Graphical abstract: -- Highlights: •The ability to generate ECL emission using the audio output of a mobile phone is demonstrated. •Electrochemical control can be achieved by controlling the amplitude and waveform of the sound. •A mobile phone “app” synchronises the electrochemical stimulation with detection via the camera. •In combination with paper-based microfluidic sensors, extremely low cost analysis is possible. •Detection of proline at levels suitable for diagnosis of hyperprolinemia is demonstrated. -- Abstract: By exploiting its ability to play sounds, a mobile phone with suitable software installed can serve the basic functions of a potentiostat in controlling an applied potential to oxidise ECL-active molecules, while the resultant photonic signal is monitored using the camera in video mode. In combination with paper microfluidic sensors this opens significant new possibilities for low-cost, instrument-free sensing.

Use of a mobile phone for potentiostatic control with low cost paper-based microfluidic sensors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Delaney, Jacqui L.; Doeven, Egan H.; Harsant, Anthony J.; Hogan, Conor F.

2013-01-01

Graphical abstract: -- Highlights: •The ability to generate ECL emission using the audio output of a mobile phone is demonstrated. •Electrochemical control can be achieved by controlling the amplitude and waveform of the sound. •A mobile phone “app” synchronises the electrochemical stimulation with detection via the camera. •In combination with paper-based microfluidic sensors, extremely low cost analysis is possible. •Detection of proline at levels suitable for diagnosis of hyperprolinemia is demonstrated. -- Abstract: By exploiting its ability to play sounds, a mobile phone with suitable software installed can serve the basic functions of a potentiostat in controlling an applied potential to oxidise ECL-active molecules, while the resultant photonic signal is monitored using the camera in video mode. In combination with paper microfluidic sensors this opens significant new possibilities for low-cost, instrument-free sensing

A Micro-Force Sensor with Beam-Membrane Structure for Measurement of Friction Torque in Rotating MEMS Machines

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Huan Liu

2017-10-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a beam-membrane (BM sensor for measuring friction torque in micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS gas bearings is presented. The proposed sensor measures the force-arm-transformed force using a detecting probe and the piezoresistive effect. This solution incorporates a membrane into a conventional four-beam structure to meet the range requirements for the measurement of both the maximum static friction torque and the kinetic friction torque in rotating MEMS machines, as well as eliminate the problem of low sensitivity with neat membrane structure. A glass wafer is bonded onto the bottom of the sensor chip with a certain gap to protect the sensor when overloaded. The comparisons between the performances of beam-based sensor, membrane-based sensor and BM sensor are conducted by finite element method (FEM, and the final sensor dimensions are also determined. Calibration of the fabricated and packaged device is experimentally performed. The practical verification is also reported in the paper for estimating the friction torque in micro gas bearings by assembling the proposed sensor into a rotary table-based measurement system. The results demonstrate that the proposed force sensor has a potential application in measuring micro friction or force in MEMS machines.

PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT OF INTEGRATED SENSOR ORIENTATION WITH A LOW-COST GNSS RECEIVER

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Rehak

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Mapping with Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs whose weight does not exceed 5 kg is gaining importance in applications such as corridor mapping, road and pipeline inspections, or mapping of large areas with homogeneous surface structure, e.g. forest or agricultural fields. In these challenging scenarios, integrated sensor orientation (ISO improves effectiveness and accuracy. Furthermore, in block geometry configurations, this mode of operation allows mapping without ground control points (GCPs. Accurate camera positions are traditionally determined by carrier-phase GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System positioning. However, such mode of positioning has strong requirements on receiver’s and antenna’s performance. In this article, we present a mapping project in which we employ a single-frequency, low-cost (< $100 GNSS receiver on a MAV. The performance of the low-cost receiver is assessed by comparing its trajectory with a reference trajectory obtained by a survey-grade, multi-frequency GNSS receiver. In addition, the camera positions derived from these two trajectories are used as observations in bundle adjustment (BA projects and mapping accuracy is evaluated at check points (ChP. Several BA scenarios are considered with absolute and relative aerial position control. Additionally, the presented experiments show the possibility of BA to determine a camera-antenna spatial offset, so-called lever-arm.

Development of Low-Cost Microcontroller-Based Interface for Data Acquisition and Control of Microbioreactor Operation.

Science.gov (United States)

Husain, Abdul Rashid; Hadad, Yaser; Zainal Alam, Muhd Nazrul Hisham

2016-10-01

This article presents the development of a low-cost microcontroller-based interface for a microbioreactor operation. An Arduino MEGA 2560 board with 54 digital input/outputs, including 15 pulse-width-modulation outputs, has been chosen to perform the acquisition and control of the microbioreactor. The microbioreactor (volume = 800 µL) was made of poly(dimethylsiloxane) and poly(methylmethacrylate) polymers. The reactor was built to be equipped with sensors and actuators for the control of reactor temperature and the mixing speed. The article discusses the circuit of the microcontroller-based platform, describes the signal conditioning steps, and evaluates the capacity of the proposed low-cost microcontroller-based interface in terms of control accuracy and system responses. It is demonstrated that the proposed microcontroller-based platform is able to operate parallel microbioreactor operation with satisfactory performances. Control accuracy at a deviation less than 5% of the set-point values and responses in the range of few seconds have been recorded. © 2015 Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening.

A Simplified Control Method for Tie-Line Power of DC Micro-Grid

OpenAIRE

Yanbo Che; Jinhuan Zhou; Tingjun Lin; Wenxun Li; Jianmei Xu

2018-01-01

Compared with the AC micro-grid, the DC micro-grid has low energy loss and no issues of frequency stability, which makes it more accessible for distributed energy. Thus, the DC micro-grid has good potential for development. A variety of renewable energy is included in the DC micro-grid, which is easily affected by the environment, causing fluctuation of the DC voltage. For grid-connected DC micro-grid with droop control strategy, the tie-line power is affected by fluctuations in the DC voltag...

Manufacturing and application of micro computer for control

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, Seung Man; Heo, Gyeong; Yun, Jun Young

1990-05-01

This book deals with machine code and assembly program for micro computer. It composed of 20 chapters, which are micro computer system, practice of a storage cell, manufacturing 1 of micro computer, manufacturing 2 of micro computer, manufacturing of micro computer AID-80A, making of machine language, interface like Z80-PIO and 8255A(PPI), counter and timer interface, exercise of basic command, arithmetic operation, arrangement operation, an indicator control, music playing, detection of input of PIO. control of LED of PIO, PIO mode, CTC control by micro computer, SIO control by micro computer and application by micro computer.

Bank switched memory interface for an image processor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barron, M.; Downward, J.

1980-09-01

A commercially available image processor is interfaced to a PDP-11/45 through an 8K window of memory addresses. When the image processor was not in use it was desired to be able to use the 8K address space as real memory. The standard method of accomplishing this would have been to use UNIBUS switches to switch in either the physical 8K bank of memory or the image processor memory. This method has the disadvantage of being rather expensive. As a simple alternative, a device was built to selectively enable or disable either an 8K bank of memory or the image processor memory. To enable the image processor under program control, GEN is contracted in size, the memory is disabled, a device partition for the image processor is created above GEN, and the image processor memory is enabled. The process is reversed to restore memory to GEN. The hardware to enable/disable the image and computer memories is controlled using spare bits from a DR-11K output register. The image processor and physical memory can be switched in or out on line with no adverse affects on the system's operation

Billing and insurance-related administrative costs in United States' health care: synthesis of micro-costing evidence.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiwani, Aliya; Himmelstein, David; Woolhandler, Steffie; Kahn, James G

2014-11-13

The United States' multiple-payer health care system requires substantial effort and costs for administration, with billing and insurance-related (BIR) activities comprising a large but incompletely characterized proportion. A number of studies have quantified BIR costs for specific health care sectors, using micro-costing techniques. However, variation in the types of payers, providers, and BIR activities across studies complicates estimation of system-wide costs. Using a consistent and comprehensive definition of BIR (including both public and private payers, all providers, and all types of BIR activities), we synthesized and updated available micro-costing evidence in order to estimate total and added BIR costs for the U.S. health care system in 2012. We reviewed BIR micro-costing studies across healthcare sectors. For physician practices, hospitals, and insurers, we estimated the % BIR using existing research and publicly reported data, re-calculated to a standard and comprehensive definition of BIR where necessary. We found no data on % BIR in other health services or supplies settings, so extrapolated from known sectors. We calculated total BIR costs in each sector as the product of 2012 U.S. national health expenditures and the percentage of revenue used for BIR. We estimated "added" BIR costs by comparing total BIR costs in each sector to those observed in existing, simplified financing systems (Canada's single payer system for providers, and U.S. Medicare for insurers). Due to uncertainty in inputs, we performed sensitivity analyses. BIR costs in the U.S. health care system totaled approximately $471 ($330 - $597) billion in 2012. This includes $70 ($54 - $76) billion in physician practices, $74 ($58 - $94) billion in hospitals, an estimated $94 ($47 - $141) billion in settings providing other health services and supplies, $198 ($154 - $233) billion in private insurers, and $35 ($17 - $52) billion in public insurers. Compared to simplified financing, $375

A low cost computer-controlled electrochemical measurement system for education and research

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cottis, R.A.

1989-01-01

With the advent of low cost computers of significant processing power, it has become economically attractive, as well as offering practical advantages, to replace conventional electrochemical instrumentation with computer-based equipment. For example, the equipment to be described can perform all of the functions required for the measurement of a potentiodynamic polarization curve, replacing the conventional arrangement of sweep generator, potentiostat and chart recorder at a cost (based on the purchase cost of parts) which is less than that of most chart recorders alone. Additionally the use of computer control at a relatively low level provides a versatility (assuming the development of suitable software) which cannot easily be matched by conventional instruments. As a result of these considerations a simple computer-controlled electrochemical measurement system has been developed, with a primary aim being its use in teaching an MSc class in corrosion science and engineering, with additional applications in MSc and PhD research. For education reasons the design of the user interface has tried to make the internal operation of the unit as obvious as possible, and thereby minimize the tendency for students to treat the unit as a 'black box' with incomprehensible inner workings. This has resulted in a unit in which the three main components of function generator, potentiostat and recorder are presented as independent areas on the front panel, and can be configured by the user in exactly the same way as conventional instruments. (author) 11 figs

A low cost computer-controlled electrochemical measurement system for education and research

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cottis, R A [Manchester Univ. (UK). Inst. of Science and Technology

1989-01-01

With the advent of low cost computers of significant processing power, it has become economically attractive, as well as offering practical advantages, to replace conventional electrochemical instrumentation with computer-based equipment. For example, the equipment to be described can perform all of the functions required for the measurement of a potentiodynamic polarization curve, replacing the conventional arrangement of sweep generator, potentiostat and chart recorder at a cost (based on the purchase cost of parts) which is less than that of most chart recorders alone. Additionally the use of computer control at a relatively low level provides a versatility (assuming the development of suitable software) which cannot easily be matched by conventional instruments. As a result of these considerations a simple computer-controlled electrochemical measurement system has been developed, with a primary aim being its use in teaching an MSc class in corrosion science and engineering, with additional applications in MSc and PhD research. For education reasons the design of the user interface has tried to make the internal operation of the unit as obvious as possible, and thereby minimize the tendency for students to treat the unit as a 'black box' with incomprehensible inner workings. This has resulted in a unit in which the three main components of function generator, potentiostat and recorder are presented as independent areas on the front panel, and can be configured by the user in exactly the same way as conventional instruments. (author) 11 figs.

Keep on Blockin' in the Free World: Personal Access Control for Low-Cost RFID Tags

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rieback, M.R.; Crispo, B.; Tanenbaum, A.S.

2005-01-01

This paper introduces an off-tag RFID access control mechanism called "Selective RFID Jamming". Selective RFID Jamming protects low-cost RFID tags by enforcing access control on their behalf, in a similar manner to the RFID Blocker Tag. However, Selective RFID Jamming is novel because it uses an

Keep on Blockin’ in the Free World: Personal Access Control for Low-Cost RFID Tags

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rieback, Melanie; Crispo, Bruno; Tanenbaum, Andrew

2007-01-01

This paper introduces an off-tag RFID access control mechanism called “Selective RFID Jamming”. Selective RFID Jamming protects low-cost RFID tags by enforcing access control on their behalf, in a similar manner to the RFID Blocker Tag. However, Selective RFID Jamming is novel because it uses an

Cost-benefit evaluation in a quality control programme for conventional radiodiagnosis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gallini, R.; Belletti, S.; Giugni, U.

1985-01-01

A comparison is being made between the cost of the staff and equipment in a quality control programme of conventional radiodiagnosis and the benefit obtained in the reduction of spoilt films and in the reduction of dose to patients and workers. For over two years the programme has followed a protocol verified on about 50 X-ray tubes, 25 radiological devices and four automatic processors. The present research, based on previous data, works on a limited but representative sample of radiological X-ray tubes and accessories. The control procedures are carried out periodically to improve and make constant the efficiency of the radiological devices. An evaluation of the cost of these procedures is made. In the meantime the dose to the patients undergoing radiodiagnostic examinations is evaluated by a transmission chamber. Comparison between the values obtained before and after the control enables the benefits to be evaluated. Rejection of radiographic films is evaluated before and after the control to obtain the cost reduction. During the one year control period, there were no variations in the technical characteristics of the personnel, in the operational procedures or in the work-load. (author)

Transaction cost of micro and small enterprises financing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ghana Atma Sulistya

2016-10-01

Full Text Available High transaction costs become one of the obstacles for the micro and small enterprises (MSEs to access financial loans to the bank. In order to minimize the transaction costs, group lending scheme become  alternative, so that both sides are pay lower transaction costs, and MSEs are able to improve their welfare. This study aims to analyze the credit process and transaction costs incurred on the model of individuals and groups lending and to compare the magnitude of transaction costs on both models. Mixed Method Analysis is used to analyze the component of transaction costs and the magnitude of the transaction cost on both models.These results indicate there are differences in transaction costs incurred on both schemes. In the amount of the transaction costs, the overall group scheme still allows for greater compared to individual schemes and dominated by the cost of the disbursement. Even so, the transaction cost per member group is much smaller than the individual schemes.

VLSI System Implementation of 200 MHz, 8-bit, 90nm CMOS Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU Processor Controller

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fazal NOORBASHA

2012-08-01

Full Text Available In this present study includes the Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI system implementation of 200MHz, 8-bit, 90nm Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU processor control with logic gate design style and 0.12µm six metal 90nm CMOS fabrication technology. The system blocks and the behaviour are defined and the logical design is implemented in gate level in the design phase. Then, the logic circuits are simulated and the subunits are converted in to 90nm CMOS layout. Finally, in order to construct the VLSI system these units are placed in the floor plan and simulated with analog and digital, logic and switch level simulators. The results of the simulations indicates that the VLSI system can control different instructions which can divided into sub groups: transfer instructions, arithmetic and logic instructions, rotate and shift instructions, branch instructions, input/output instructions, control instructions. The data bus of the system is 16-bit. It runs at 200MHz, and operating power is 1.2V. In this paper, the parametric analysis of the system, the design steps and obtained results are explained.

Analysis and prediction of dimensions and cost of laser micro-machining internal channel fabrication process

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brabazon D.

2010-06-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the utilisation of Response Surface Methodology (RSM as the prediction tool for the laser micro-machining process. Laser internal microchannels machined using pulsed Nd:YVO4 laser in polycarbonate were investigated. The experiments were carried out according to 33 factorial Design of Experiment (DoE. In this work the three input process set as control parameters were laser power, P; pulse repetition frequency, PRF; and sample translation speed, U. Measured responses were the channel width and the micro-machining operating cost per metre of produced microchannels. The responses were sufficiently predicted within the set micro-machining parameters limits. Two factorial interaction (2FI and quadratic polynomial regression equations for both responses were constructed. It is proposed that the developed prediction equations can be used to find locally optimal micro-machining process parameters under experimental and operational conditions.

77 FR 124 - Biological Processors of Alabama; Decatur, Morgan County, AL; Notice of Settlement

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-03

... ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY [FRL-9612-9] Biological Processors of Alabama; Decatur, Morgan... reimbursement of past response costs concerning the Biological Processors of Alabama Superfund Site located in... Ms. Paula V. Painter. Submit your comments by Site name Biological Processors of Alabama Superfund...

Distributed processor systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zacharov, B.

1976-01-01

In recent years, there has been a growing tendency in high-energy physics and in other fields to solve computational problems by distributing tasks among the resources of inter-coupled processing devices and associated system elements. This trend has gained further momentum more recently with the increased availability of low-cost processors and with the development of the means of data distribution. In two lectures, the broad question of distributed computing systems is examined and the historical development of such systems reviewed. An attempt is made to examine the reasons for the existence of these systems and to discern the main trends for the future. The components of distributed systems are discussed in some detail and particular emphasis is placed on the importance of standards and conventions in certain key system components. The ideas and principles of distributed systems are discussed in general terms, but these are illustrated by a number of concrete examples drawn from the context of the high-energy physics environment. (Auth.)

A fast continuous magnetic field measurement system based on digital signal processors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Velev, G.V.; Carcagno, R.; DiMarco, J.; Kotelnikov, S.; Lamm, M.; Makulski, A.; /Fermilab; Maroussov, V.; /Purdue U.; Nehring, R.; Nogiec, J.; Orris, D.; /Fermilab; Poukhov,; Prakoshyn, F.; /Dubna, JINR; Schlabach, P.; Tompkins, J.C.; /Fermilab

2005-09-01

In order to study dynamic effects in accelerator magnets, such as the decay of the magnetic field during the dwell at injection and the rapid so-called ''snapback'' during the first few seconds of the resumption of the energy ramp, a fast continuous harmonics measurement system was required. A new magnetic field measurement system, based on the use of digital signal processors (DSP) and Analog to Digital (A/D) converters, was developed and prototyped at Fermilab. This system uses Pentek 6102 16 bit A/D converters and the Pentek 4288 DSP board with the SHARC ADSP-2106 family digital signal processor. It was designed to acquire multiple channels of data with a wide dynamic range of input signals, which are typically generated by a rotating coil probe. Data acquisition is performed under a RTOS, whereas processing and visualization are performed under a host computer. Firmware code was developed for the DSP to perform fast continuous readout of the A/D FIFO memory and integration over specified intervals, synchronized to the probe's rotation in the magnetic field. C, C++ and Java code was written to control the data acquisition devices and to process a continuous stream of data. The paper summarizes the characteristics of the system and presents the results of initial tests and measurements.

Micro processor based research reactor instrumentation and control system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hyde, W.K.

1987-01-01

The system consists of a Control System Computer (CSC) incorporated into a Reactor Control Console (RCC) and a Data Acquisition and Control Unit (DAC) adjacent to the reactor. The CSC has a high resolution color graphics CRT monitor which provides real-time graphic simulation of the reactor and a number of bar graphs displaying strategic parameters of the reactor system. In addition, abnormal or dangerous conditions are displayed. The CSC is equipped with two printers eliminating manual logging of reactor data. The reactor display and pulse mode display may also be printed. Historical data is saved in the system's large capacity memory and may be replayed and/or printed. Because of the CSC's inherent high speed math capability, raw reactor data will be quickly converted and displayed in real-time. Data can be presented in meaningful engineering units. The DAC provides a high speed data acquisition and control capability adjacent to the reactor. It continuously collects data from the reactor system, concentrates the data into a database and transmits it to the CSC when requested. Data transmission is over one of two data trunks to the CSC. The secondary trunk is used if the primary trunk fails. The data trunks drastically reduce the wiring requirements between the reactor and the Control Console. During steady-state operation of the reactor, operator commands to adjust the rod positions is transmitted from the CSC to the DAC which re-issues the commands to the drive mechanisms. In the automatic mode, the DAC will control the position of the rods via a PID algorithm. The system is independently monitored by two or more safety computers. Their function is to monitor the power level, the rate of change of power and fuel temperature of the reactor and to independently shut the reactor down in the event of a potentially dangerous (scram) condition. (author)

[Direct costs of medical care for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Mexico micro-costing analysis].

Science.gov (United States)

Rodríguez Bolaños, Rosibel de Los Ángeles; Reynales Shigematsu, Luz Myriam; Jiménez Ruíz, Jorge Alberto; Juárez Márquezy, Sergio Arturo; Hernández Ávila, Mauricio

2010-12-01

Estimate the direct cost of medical care incurred by the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social) for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2). The clinical files of 497 patients who were treated in secondary and tertiary medical care units in 2002-2004 were reviewed. Costs were quantified using a disease costing approach (DCA) from the provider's perspective, a micro-costing technique, and a bottom-up methodology. Average annual costs by diagnosis, complication, and total cost were estimated. Total IMSS DM2 annual costs were US$452 064 988, or 3.1% of operating expenses. The annual average cost per patient was US$3 193.75, with US$2 740.34 per patient without complications and US$3 550.17 per patient with complications. Hospitalization and intensive care bed-days generated the greatest expenses. The high cost of providing medical care to patients with DM2 and its complications represents an economic burden that health institutions should consider in their budgets to enable them to offer quality service that is both adequate and timely. Using the micro-costing methodology allows an approximation to real data on utilization and management of the disease.

Low frequency oscillatory flow in a rotating curved pipe

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

陈华军; 章本照; 苏霄燕

2003-01-01

The low frequency oscillatory flow in a rotating curved pipe was studied by using the method of bi-parameter perturbation. Perturbation solutions up to the second order were obtained and the effects of rotationon the low frequency oscillatory flow were examined in detail, The results indicated that there exists evident difference between the low frequency oscillatory flow in a rotating curved pipe and in a curved pipe without ro-tation. During a period, four secondary vortexes may exist on the circular cross-section and the distribution of axial velocity and wall shear stress are related to the ratio of the Coriolis foree to centrifugal foree and the axial pressure gradient.

A Cost Effective System Design Approach for Critical Space Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Abbott, Larry Wayne; Cox, Gary; Nguyen, Hai

2000-01-01

NASA-JSC required an avionics platform capable of serving a wide range of applications in a cost-effective manner. In part, making the avionics platform cost effective means adhering to open standards and supporting the integration of COTS products with custom products. Inherently, operation in space requires low power, mass, and volume while retaining high performance, reconfigurability, scalability, and upgradability. The Universal Mini-Controller project is based on a modified PC/104-Plus architecture while maintaining full compatibility with standard COTS PC/104 products. The architecture consists of a library of building block modules, which can be mixed and matched to meet a specific application. A set of NASA developed core building blocks, processor card, analog input/output card, and a Mil-Std-1553 card, have been constructed to meet critical functions and unique interfaces. The design for the processor card is based on the PowerPC architecture. This architecture provides an excellent balance between power consumption and performance, and has an upgrade path to the forthcoming radiation hardened PowerPC processor. The processor card, which makes extensive use of surface mount technology, has a 166 MHz PowerPC 603e processor, 32 Mbytes of error detected and corrected RAM, 8 Mbytes of Flash, and I Mbytes of EPROM, on a single PC/104-Plus card. Similar densities have been achieved with the quad channel Mil-Std-1553 card and the analog input/output cards. The power management built into the processor and its peripheral chip allows the power and performance of the system to be adjusted to meet the requirements of the application, allowing another dimension to the flexibility of the Universal Mini-Controller. Unique mechanical packaging allows the Universal Mini-Controller to accommodate standard COTS and custom oversized PC/104-Plus cards. This mechanical packaging also provides thermal management via conductive cooling of COTS boards, which are typically

Costs, quality of life and cost-effectiveness of arthroscopic and open repair for rotator cuff tears: an economic evaluation alongside the UKUFF trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Murphy, J; Gray, A; Cooper, C; Cooper, D; Ramsay, C; Carr, A

2016-12-01

A trial-based comparison of the use of resources, costs and quality of life outcomes of arthroscopic and open surgical management for rotator cuff tears in the United Kingdom NHS was performed using data from the United Kingdom Rotator Cuff Study (UKUFF) randomised controlled trial. Using data from 273 patients, healthcare-related use of resources, costs and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) were estimated at 12 months and 24 months after surgery on an intention-to-treat basis with adjustment for covariates. Uncertainty about the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio for arthroscopic versus open management at 24 months of follow-up was incorporated using bootstrapping. Multiple imputation methods were used to deal with missing data. There were no significant differences between the arthroscopic and open groups in terms of total mean use and cost of resources or QALYs at any time post-operatively. Open management dominated arthroscopic management in 59.8% of bootstrapped cost and effect differences. The probability that arthroscopic management was cost-effective compared with open management at a willingness-to-pay threshold of £20 000 per QALY gained was 20.9%. There was no significant overall difference in the use or cost of resources or quality of life between arthroscopic and open management in the trial. There was uncertainty about which strategy was most cost-effective. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2016;98-B:1648-55. ©2016 Gray et al.

COST EFFECTIVE VOC EMISSION CONTROL STARTEGIES FOR MILITARY, AEROSPACE,AND INDUSTRIAL PAINT SPRAY BOOTH OPERATIONS: COMBINING IMPROVED VENTILATION SYSTEMS WITH INNOVATIVE, LOW COST EMISSION CONTROL TECHNOLOGIES

Science.gov (United States)

The paper describes a full-scale demonstration program in which several paint booths were modified for recirculation ventilation; the booth exhaust streams are vented to an innovative volatile organic compound (VOC) emission control system having extremely low operating costs. ...

Characterizing the macro and micro mechanical properties of scaffolds for rotator cuff repair.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Richard D J; Zargar, Nasim; Brown, Cameron P; Nagra, Navraj S; Dakin, Stephanie G; Snelling, Sarah J B; Hakimi, Osnat; Carr, Andrew

2017-11-01

Retearing after rotator cuff surgery is a major clinical problem. Numerous scaffolds are being used to try to reduce retear rates. However, few have demonstrated clinical efficacy. We hypothesize that this lack of efficacy is due to insufficient mechanical properties. Therefore, we compared the macro and nano/micro mechanical properties of 7 commercially available scaffolds to those of the human supraspinatus tendons, whose function they seek to restore. The clinically approved scaffolds tested were X-Repair, LARS ligament, Poly-Tape, BioFiber, GraftJacket, Permacol, and Conexa. Fresh frozen cadaveric human supraspinatus tendon samples were used. Macro mechanical properties were determined through tensile testing and rheometry. Scanning probe microscopy and scanning electron microscopy were performed to assess properties of materials at the nano/microscale (morphology, Young modulus, loss tangent). None of the scaffolds tested adequately approximated both the macro and micro mechanical properties of human supraspinatus tendon. Macroscale mechanical properties were insufficient to restore load-bearing function. The best-performing scaffolds on the macroscale (X-Repair, LARS ligament) had poor nano/microscale properties. Scaffolds approximating tendon properties on the nano/microscale (BioFiber, biologic scaffolds) had poor macroscale properties. Existing scaffolds failed to adequately approximate the mechanical properties of human supraspinatus tendons. Combining the macroscopic mechanical properties of a synthetic scaffold with the micro mechanical properties of biologic scaffold could better achieve this goal. Future work should focus on advancing techniques to create new scaffolds with more desirable mechanical properties. This may help improve outcomes for rotator cuff surgery patients. Copyright © 2017 Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery Board of Trustees. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Real-time inspection of metal laminates by means of CNNs

Science.gov (United States)

Preciado, Victor M.; Guinea, Domingo; Montufar-Chaveznava, Rodrigo; Vicente, Jose

2001-04-01

Analog CNN array computer arises as an alternative to traditional digital processors in many industrial inspection like visual quality control of metal laminants, capable of make in a single chip Tera equivalent operations per second. A 4096 analog CNN processor array is able to perform complex space-time image analysis, being much faster than a camera- computer system in continuous inspection applications. Both chips have been implemented in CMOS technology and they are managed by a 32-bit high-performance low-cost micro- controller that closes the pan, tilt, lighting, focus and zoom loops required in the implementation of the active vision strategies. Several convolution masks for the Cellular Processors has been selected to detect particular changes in the texture, size, direction or orientation of the image entities, reprogramming `on the fly' the pixel resolution of shape when necessary. Laboratory results present these Cellular Processors and multiple resolution imager circuits as a promising architecture for visual inspection of industrial processes in real time.

Droplet-based chemistry on a programmable micro-chip

Science.gov (United States)

Schwartz, Jon A.; Vykoukal, Jody V.; Gascoyne, Peter R. C.

2009-01-01

We describe the manipulation of aqueous droplets in an immiscible, low-permittivity suspending medium. Such droplets may serve as carriers for not only air- and water-borne samples, contaminants, chemical reagents, viral and gene products, and cells, but also the reagents to process and characterise these samples. We present proofs-of-concept for droplet manipulation through dielectrophoresis by: (1) moving droplets on a two-dimensional array of electrodes, (2) achieving dielectrically-activated droplet injection, (3) fusing and reacting droplets, and (4) conducting a basic biological assay through a combination of these steps. A long-term goal of this research is to provide a platform fluidic processor technology that can form the core of versatile, automated, micro-scale devices to perform chemical and biological assays at or near the point of care, which will increase the availability of modern medicine to people who do not have ready access to modern medical institutions, and decrease the cost and delays associated with that lack of access. PMID:15007434

Low-Energy Real-Time OS Using Voltage Scheduling Algorithm for Variable Voltage Processors

OpenAIRE

Okuma, Takanori; Yasuura, Hiroto

2001-01-01

This paper presents a real-time OS based on $ mu $ITRON using proposed voltage scheduling algorithm for variable voltage processors which can vary supply voltage dynamically. The proposed voltage scheduling algorithms assign voltage level for each task dynamically in order to minimize energy consumption under timing constraints. Using the presented real-time OS, running tasks with low supply voltage leads to drastic energy reduction. In addition, the presented voltage scheduling algorithm is ...

Run Control Communication for the Upgrade of the ATLAS Muon-to-Central-Trigger-Processor Interface (MUCTPI)

CERN Document Server

AUTHOR|(INSPIRE)INSPIRE-00223859; The ATLAS collaboration; Armbruster, Aaron James; Carrillo-Montoya, German D.; Chelstowska, Magda Anna; Czodrowski, Patrick; Deviveiros, Pier-Olivier; Eifert, Till; Ellis, Nicolas; Galster, Gorm Aske Gram Krohn; Haas, Stefan; Helary, Louis; Lagkas Nikolos, Orestis; Marzin, Antoine; Pauly, Thilo; Ryjov, Vladimir; Schmieden, Kristof; Silva Oliveira, Marcos Vinicius; Stelzer, Harald Joerg; Vichoudis, Paschalis; Wengler, Thorsten; Farthouat, Philippe

2018-01-01

The Muon-to-Central Trigger Processor Interface (MUCTPI) of the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN will be upgraded to an ATCA blade system for Run 3. The new design requires development of new communication models for control, configuration and monitoring. A System-on-Chip (SoC) with a programmable logic part and a processor part will be used for communication to the run control system and to the MUCTPI processing FPGAs. Different approaches have been compared. First, we tried an available UDP-based implementation in firmware for the programmable logic. Although this approach works as expected, it does not provide any flexibility to extend the functionality to more complex operations, e.g. for serial protocols. Second, we used the SoC processor with an embedded Linux operating system and an application-specific software written in C++ using a TCP remote-procedure-call approach. The software is built and maintained using the Yocto/OpenEmbedded framework. This approach was successfully...

Run control communication for the upgrade of the ATLAS Muon-to-Central Trigger Processor Interface (MUCTPI)

CERN Document Server

AUTHOR|(INSPIRE)INSPIRE-00223859; The ATLAS collaboration; Armbruster, Aaron James; Carrillo-Montoya, German D.; Chelstowska, Magda Anna; Czodrowski, Patrick; Deviveiros, Pier-Olivier; Eifert, Till; Ellis, Nicolas; Farthouat, Philippe; Galster, Gorm Aske Gram Krohn; Haas, Stefan; Helary, Louis; Lagkas Nikolos, Orestis; Marzin, Antoine; Pauly, Thilo; Ryjov, Vladimir; Schmieden, Kristof; Silva Oliveira, Marcos Vinicius; Stelzer, Harald Joerg; Vichoudis, Paschalis; Wengler, Thorsten

The Muon-to-Central-Trigger-Processor Interface (MUCTPI) of the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN will be upgraded to an ATCA blade system for Run 3, starting in 2021. The new design requires development of new communication models for control, configuration and monitoring. A System-on-Chip (SoC) with a programmable logic part and a processor part will be used for communication to the run control system and to the MUCTPI processing FPGAs. Different approaches have been compared. First, we tried an available UDP-based implementation in firmware for the programmable logic. Although this approach works as expected, it does not provide any flexibility to extend the functionality to more complex operations, e.g. for serial protocols. Second, we used a SoC processor with an embedded Linux operating system and an application-specific software written in C++ using a TCP remote-procedure-call approach. The software is built and maintained using the framework of the Yocto Project. This approa...

A robust rotation-invariance displacement measurement method for a micro-/nano-positioning system

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Xiang; Zhang, Xianmin; Wu, Heng; Li, Hai; Gan, Jinqiang

2018-05-01

A robust and high-precision displacement measurement method for a compliant mechanism-based micro-/nano-positioning system is proposed. The method is composed of an integer-pixel and a sub-pixel matching procedure. In the proposed algorithm (Pro-A), an improved ring projection transform (IRPT) and gradient information are used as features for approximating the coarse candidates and fine locations, respectively. Simulations are conducted and the results show that the Pro-A has the ability of rotation-invariance and strong robustness, with a theoretical accuracy of 0.01 pixel. To validate the practical performance, a series of experiments are carried out using a computer micro-vision and laser interferometer system (LIMS). The results demonstrate that both the LIMS and Pro-A can achieve high precision, while the Pro-A has better stability and adaptability.

Precision manufacturing of polymer micro-nano fluidic systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Garnæs, Jørgen; Calaon, Matteo; Tosello, Guido

2015-01-01

Lab-on-a-Chip (LoC) technologies require the possibility of fabricating devices which include micro down to sub-micrometre features with high production rate and low cost. In the present study precision injection moulding is performed using a COC Topas 5013 L10 polymer to produce LoC devices...... in the sample. Design of experiment (DOE) was adopted to characterize the replication fidelity of produced polymer features. Results have shown the possibility of performing quality control of micro- and sub-μm features, taking into account the polymer shrinkage, depending on process conditions at both micro...

Memory controllers for high-performance and real-time MPSoCs : requirements, architectures, and future trends

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Akesson, K.B.; Huang, Po-Chun; Clermidy, F.; Dutoit, D.; Goossens, K.G.W.; Chang, Yuan-Hao; Kuo, Tei-Wei; Vivet, P.; Wingard, D.

2011-01-01

Designing memory controllers for complex real-time and high-performance multi-processor systems-on-chip is challenging, since sufficient capacity and (real-time) performance must be provided in a reliable manner at low cost and with low power consumption. This special session contains four

MOCA: A Low-Power, Low-Cost Motion Capture System Based on Integrated Accelerometers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elisabetta Farella

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Human-computer interaction (HCI and virtual reality applications pose the challenge of enabling real-time interfaces for natural interaction. Gesture recognition based on body-mounted accelerometers has been proposed as a viable solution to translate patterns of movements that are associated with user commands, thus substituting point-and-click methods or other cumbersome input devices. On the other hand, cost and power constraints make the implementation of a natural and efficient interface suitable for consumer applications a critical task. Even though several gesture recognition solutions exist, their use in HCI context has been poorly characterized. For this reason, in this paper, we consider a low-cost/low-power wearable motion tracking system based on integrated accelerometers called motion capture with accelerometers (MOCA that we evaluated for navigation in virtual spaces. Recognition is based on a geometric algorithm that enables efficient and robust detection of rotational movements. Our objective is to demonstrate that such a low-cost and a low-power implementation is suitable for HCI applications. To this purpose, we characterized the system from both a quantitative point of view and a qualitative point of view. First, we performed static and dynamic assessment of movement recognition accuracy. Second, we evaluated the effectiveness of user experience using a 3D game application as a test bed.

Considerations for control system software verification and validation specific to implementations using distributed processor architectures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Munro, J.K. Jr.

1993-01-01

Until recently, digital control systems have been implemented on centralized processing systems to function in one of several ways: (1) as a single processor control system; (2) as a supervisor at the top of a hierarchical network of multiple processors; or (3) in a client-server mode. Each of these architectures uses a very different set of communication protocols. The latter two architectures also belong to the category of distributed control systems. Distributed control systems can have a central focus, as in the cases just cited, or be quite decentralized in a loosely coupled, shared responsibility arrangement. This last architecture is analogous to autonomous hosts on a local area network. Each of the architectures identified above will have a different set of architecture-associated issues to be addressed in the verification and validation activities during software development. This paper summarizes results of efforts to identify, describe, contrast, and compare these issues

Mitigation and control of the overcuring effect in mask projection micro-stereolithography

OpenAIRE

O'Neill, Paul; Kent, Nigel J.; Brabazon, Dermot

2017-01-01

Mask Projection micro-Stereolithography (MPμSL) is an additive manufacturing technique capable of producing solid parts with micron-scale resolution from a vat of photocurable liquid polymer resin. Although the physical mechanism remains the same, the process differs from traditional laser-galvanometer based stereolithography (SL) in its use of a dynamic mask UV projector, or digital light processor (DLP), which cures each location within each 3D layer at the same time. One area where MPµSL h...

The micro-step motor controller

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hong, Kwang Pyo; Lee, Chang Hee; Moon, Myung Kook; Choi, Bung Hun; Choi, Young Hyun; Cheon, Jong Gu

2004-11-01

The developed micro-step motor controller can handle 4 axes stepping motor drivers simultaneously and provide high power bipolar driving mechanism with constant current mode. It can be easily controlled by manual key functions and the motor driving status is displayed by the front panel VFD. Due to the development of several kinds of communication and driving protocol, PC can operate even several micro-step motor controllers at once by multi-drop connection

SHOULDER EXTERNAL ROTATOR STRENGTH IN RESPONSE TO VARIOUS SITTING POSTURES: A CONTROLLED LABORATORY STUDY.

Science.gov (United States)

Pheasant, Steven; Haydt, Richard; Gottstein, Thomas; Grasso, Anthony; Lombard, Nicholas; Stone, Brandon

2018-02-01

The forward head rounded shoulder (FHRS) sitting posture has been associated with decreased shoulder complex muscle strength and function. Upon clinical observation, the adverse effects of the FHRS sitting posture on shoulder complex isometric muscle strength is also present when testing controls for scapular position. The purpose of the study was to assess the effect of various sitting postures on shoulder external rotator muscle isometric strength when the strength testing controls for scapular position. A cohort study, with subjects serving as their own controls. One hundred subjects ages 20-26 participated in the study. Each subject was placed in a neutral cervical sitting (NCS) posture which was maintained for five minutes after which the strength of the dominant shoulder external rotators was immediately tested with the glenohumeral joint in the neutral position using a Micro-FET3 Hand Held Muscle Testing Dynamometer (HHMTD). Each subject was returned to the NCS posture for subsequent external rotator strength testing after five minutes in a FHRS sitting posture, five additional minutes in the NCS posture and five minutes in a retracted cervical sitting (RCS) posture resulting in each subjects' external rotator strength being tested on four occasions. Subjects were randomized for order between the FHRS and RCS postures. Mean strength values for each condition were normalized to the mean strength value for the 1 st NCS condition for each subject. A statistically significant decline in shoulder external rotator strength following the FHRS sitting posture occurred compared to the appropriate postural conditions (pexternal rotator strength following five minutes in the FHRS sitting posture. The average percentage of strength decline in those with greater than a 10% reduction in external rotator strength was 19%. Sixty-four percent of the subjects experienced less than a 10% decline in shoulder external rotator strength in response to the FHRS sitting posture

Wireless, low-cost, FPGA-based miniature gamma ray spectrometer

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Becker, E.M., E-mail: beckere@engr.orst.edu; Farsoni, A.T.

2014-10-11

A compact, low-cost, wireless gamma-ray spectrometer is a tool sought by a number of different organizations in the field of radiation detection. Such a device has applications in emergency response, battlefield assessment, and personal dosimetry. A prototype device fitting this description has been constructed in the Advanced Radiation Instrumentation Laboratory at Oregon State University. The prototype uses a CsI(Tl) scintillator coupled to a solid-state photomultiplier and a 40 MHz, 12-bit, FPGA-based digital pulse processor to measure gamma radiation, and is able to be accessed wirelessly by mobile phone. The prototype device consumes roughly 420 mW, weighs about 28 g (not including battery), and measures 2.54×3.81 cm{sup 2}. The prototype device is able to achieve 5.9% FWHM energy resolution at 662 keV.

Prediction of active control of subsonic centrifugal compressor rotating stall

Science.gov (United States)

Lawless, Patrick B.; Fleeter, Sanford

1993-01-01

A mathematical model is developed to predict the suppression of rotating stall in a centrifugal compressor with a vaned diffuser. This model is based on the employment of a control vortical waveform generated upstream of the impeller inlet to damp weak potential disturbances that are the early stages of rotating stall. The control system is analyzed by matching the perturbation pressure in the compressor inlet and exit flow fields with a model for the unsteady behavior of the compressor. The model was effective at predicting the stalling behavior of the Purdue Low Speed Centrifugal Compressor for two distinctly different stall patterns. Predictions made for the effect of a controlled inlet vorticity wave on the stability of the compressor show that for minimum control wave magnitudes, on the order of the total inlet disturbance magnitude, significant damping of the instability can be achieved. For control waves of sufficient amplitude, the control phase angle appears to be the most important factor in maintaining a stable condition in the compressor.

Implementation of an EPICS IOC on an Embedded Soft Core Processor Using Field Programmable Gate Arrays

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Douglas Curry; Alicia Hofler; Hai Dong; Trent Allison; J. Hovater; Kelly Mahoney

2005-01-01

At Jefferson Lab, we have been evaluating soft core processors running an EPICS IOC over μClinux on our custom hardware. A soft core processor is a flexible CPU architecture that is configured in the FPGA as opposed to a hard core processor which is fixed in silicon. Combined with an on-board Ethernet port, the technology incorporates the IOC and digital control hardware within a single FPGA. By eliminating the general purpose computer IOC, the designer is no longer tied to a specific platform, e.g. PC, VME, or VXI, to serve as the intermediary between the high level controls and the field hardware. This paper will discuss the design and development process as well as specific applications for JLab's next generation low-level RF controls and Machine Protection Systems

A rapid three-dimensional vortex micromixer utilizing self-rotation effects under low Reynolds number conditions

CERN Document Server

Che Hsin, Lin; Lung Ming, Fu; 10.1088/0960-1317/15/5/006

2005-01-01

This paper proposes a novel three-dimensional (3D) vortex micromixer for micro-total-analysis-systems ( mu TAS) applications which utilizes self-rotation effects to mix fluids in a circular chamber at low Reynolds numbers (Re). The microfluidic mixer is fabricated in a three-layer glass structure for delivering fluid samples in parallel. The fluids are driven into the circular mixing chamber by means of hydrodynamic pumps from two fluid inlet ports. The two inlet channels divide into eight individual channels tangent to a 3D circular chamber for the purpose of mixing. Numerical simulation of the microfluidic dynamics is employed to predict the self-rotation phenomenon and to estimate the mixing performance under various Reynolds number conditions. Experimental flow visualization by mixing dye samples is performed in order to verify the numerical simulation results. A good agreement is found to exist between the two sets of results. The numerical results indicate that the mixing performance can be as high as 9...

Cultural Heritage Recording Utilising Low-Cost Closerange Photogrammetry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Melanie Kirchhöfer

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Cultural heritage is under a constant threat of damage or even destruction and comprehensive and accurate recording is necessary to attenuate the risk of losing heritage or serve as basis for reconstruction. Cost effective and easy to use methods are required to record cultural heritage, particularly during a world recession, and close-range photogrammetry has proven potential in this area. Off-the-shelf digital cameras can be used to rapidly acquire data at low cost, allowing non-experts to become involved. Exterior orientation of the camera during exposure ideally needs to be established for every image, traditionally requiring known coordinated target points. Establishing these points is time consuming and costly and using targets can be often undesirable on sensitive sites. MEMS-based sensors can assist in overcoming this problem by providing small-size and low-cost means to directly determine exterior orientation for close-range photogrammetry. This paper describes development of an image-based recording system, comprising an off-the-shelf digital SLR camera, a MEMS-based 3D orientation sensor and a GPS antenna. All system components were assembled in a compact and rigid frame that allows calibration of rotational and positional offsets between the components. The project involves collaboration between English Heritage and Loughborough University and the intention is to assess the system’s achievable accuracy and practicability in a heritage recording environment. Tests were conducted at Loughborough University and a case study at St. Catherine’s Oratory on the Isle of Wight, UK. These demonstrate that the data recorded by the system can indeed meet the accuracy requirements for heritage recording at medium accuracy (1-4cm, with either a single or even no control points. As the recording system has been configured with a focus on low-cost and easy-to-use components, it is believed to be suitable for heritage recording by non

Cost benefit analysis of instrumentation, supervision and control systems for nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hagen, P.

1973-08-01

A cost benefit analysis is carried out on a BWR type reactor power plant in which an on-line computer performs plant supervision, reporting, logging, calibration and control functions, using display devices and plotters, while an off-line computer is available for bigger jobs such as fuel management calculations. All on-line functions are briefly described and specified. Three types of computer system are considered, a simplex system, a dual computer system and a multi-processor system. These systems are analysed with respect to reliability, back-up instrumentation requirements and costs. While the multiprocessor system gave in all cases the lowest annual failure costs, the margin to the duplex system was so small that hardware, maintenance and software costs would play an important role in making a decision. (JIW)

Virtual unit delay for digital frequency adaptive T/4 delay phase-locked loop system

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Yang, Yongheng; Zhou, Keliang; Blaabjerg, Frede

2016-01-01

/processor with a fixed sampling rate considering the cost and complexity, where the number of unit delays that have been adopted should be an integer. For instance, in conventional digital control systems, a single-phase T/4 Delay Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) system takes 50 unit delays (i.e., in a 50-Hz system...... Delay PLL system should be done in its implementation. This process will result in performance degradation in the digital control system, as the exactly required number of delays is not realized. Hence, in this paper, a Virtual Unit Delay (VUD) has been proposed to address such challenges to the digital......Digital micro-controllers/processors enable the cost-effective control of grid-connected power converter systems in terms of system monitoring, signal processing (e.g., grid synchronization), control (e.g., grid current and voltage control), etc. Normally, the control is implemented in a micro-controller...

Rotational micro-CT using a clinical C-arm angiography gantry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Patel, V.; Hoffmann, K. R.; Ionita, C. N.; Keleshis, C.; Bednarek, D. R.; Rudin, S.

2008-01-01

Rotational angiography (RA) gantries are used routinely to acquire sequences of projection images of patients from which 3D renderings of vascular structures are generated using Feldkamp cone-beam reconstruction algorithms. However, these systems have limited resolution ( 10 lp/mm) but to date have relied either on rotating object imaging or small bore geometry for small animal imaging, and thus are not used for clinical imaging. The authors report here the development and use of a 3D rotational micro-angiography (RMA) system created by mounting a micro-angiographic fluoroscope (MAF) [35 μm pixel, resolution >10 lp/mm, field of view (FOV)=3.6 cm] on a standard clinical FPD-based RA gantry (Infinix, Model RTP12303J-G9E, Toshiba Medical Systems Corp., Tustin, CA). RA image sequences are obtained using the MAF and reconstructed. To eliminate artifacts due to image truncation, lower-dose (compared to MAF acquisition) full-FOV (FFOV) FPD RA sequences (194 μm pixel, FOV=20 cm) were also obtained to complete the missing data. The RA gantry was calibrated using a helical bead phantom. To ensure high-quality high-resolution reconstruction, the high-resolution images from the MAF were aligned spatially with the lower-dose FPD images, and the pixel values in the FPD image data were scaled to match those of the MAF. Images of a rabbit with a coronary stent placed in an artery in the Circle of Willis were obtained and reconstructed. The MAF images appear well aligned with the FPD images (average correlation coefficient before and after alignment: 0.65 and 0.97, respectively) Greater details without any visible truncation artifacts are seen in 3D RMA (MAF-FPD) images than in those of the FPD alone. The FWHM of line profiles of stent struts (100 μm diameter) are approximately 192±21 and 313±38 μm for the 3D RMA and FPD data, respectively. In addition, for the dual-acquisition 3D RMA, FFOV FPD data need not be of the highest quality, and thus may be acquired at lower dose

PREFACE: Swimming at low Reynolds numbers—motility of micro-organisms Swimming at low Reynolds numbers—motility of micro-organisms

Science.gov (United States)

Garstecki, Piotr; Cieplak, Marek

2009-05-01

another striking feature of the microbial motility—at low values of the Reynolds number the hydrodynamic interactions are long range on the scale of the swimmer. This leads to conditions that are surprising for a macroswimmer—nobody swimming in a pool expects to be affected by the activity of another swimmer separated by a distance of, say, 30 lengths of a typical body (50 meters for humans). Yet at the microscale this is exactly what happens, and this feature leads to very interesting effects of interaction between swimmers, and between swimmers and solid walls. Felderhof [10] discusses the hydrodynamic interactions of a 'peristaltic sheet' with the proximate walls or with a second sheet, while Hernandez-Ortiz et al elaborate on the physical mechanisms behind one of the most fascinating behaviors of micro-organisms—collective swimming [11]. Recently, new stimuli in the research of motility of micro-organisms came from the experimental realizations of motile microstructures—artificial microswimmers. An important contribution here comes from Dreyfus et al who showed a micro-scale swimmer comprised of elastically linked colloidal particles [12]. In this issue, Alexander et al [13] discuss a similar model of Najafi and Golestanian [14] and analyze the interactions between such swimmers. Coq et al [15] investigate a different mechanism of swimming and report on the most important 'organelle' of structures that propel by rotating a helical element—they discuss the mechanics of a rotated elastic rod. Depending on the type of forcing, the rod, when subject to an increasing torque, either smoothly transforms into an increasingly deformed helical shape providing growing net flow in the direction of rotation, or shows a discontinuous transition of the shape with a sudden change in the efficiency of propulsion. Finally, Garstecki et al [16]demonstrate experimentally elastic artificial microswimmers powered by an external rotating magnetic field. They show that in order to

A micro-coupling for micro mechanical systems

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Wei; Zhou, Zhixiong; Zhang, Bi; Xiao, Yunya

2016-05-01

The error motions of micro mechanical systems, such as micro-spindles, increase with the increasing of the rotational speed, which not only decreases the rotational accuracy, but also promotes instability and limits the maximum operational speed. One effective way to deal with it is to use micro-flexible couplings between the drive and driven shafts so as to reduce error motions of the driven shaft. But the conventional couplings, such as diaphragm couplings, elastomeric couplings, bellows couplings, and grooved couplings, etc, cannot be directly used because of their large and complicated structures. This study presents a novel micro-coupling that consists of a flexible coupling and a shape memory alloy (SMA)-based clamp for micro mechanical systems. It is monolithic and can be directly machined from a shaft. The study performs design optimization and provides manufacturing considerations, including thermo-mechanical training of the SMA ring for the desired Two-Way-Shape-Memory effect (TWSMe). A prototype micro-coupling and a prototype micro-spindle using the proposed coupling are fabricated and tested. The testing results show that the prototype micro-coupling can bear a torque of above 5 N • mm and an axial force of 8.5 N and be fitted with an SMA ring for clamping action at room temperature (15 °C) and unclamping action below-5 °C. At the same time, the prototype micro-coupling can work at a rotational speed of above 200 kr/min with the application to a high-speed precision micro-spindle. Moreover, the radial runout error of the artifact, as a substitute for the micro-tool, is less than 3 μm while that of turbine shaft is above 7 μm. It can be concluded that the micro-coupling successfully accommodates misalignment errors of the prototype micro-spindle. This research proposes a micro-coupling which is featured with an SMA ring, and it is designed to clamp two shafts, and has smooth transmission, simple assembly, compact structure, zero-maintenance and

Micro-computed tomography characterization of tissue engineering scaffolds: effects of pixel size and rotation step.

Science.gov (United States)

Cengiz, Ibrahim Fatih; Oliveira, Joaquim Miguel; Reis, Rui L

2017-08-01

Quantitative assessment of micro-structure of materials is of key importance in many fields including tissue engineering, biology, and dentistry. Micro-computed tomography (µ-CT) is an intensively used non-destructive technique. However, the acquisition parameters such as pixel size and rotation step may have significant effects on the obtained results. In this study, a set of tissue engineering scaffolds including examples of natural and synthetic polymers, and ceramics were analyzed. We comprehensively compared the quantitative results of µ-CT characterization using 15 acquisition scenarios that differ in the combination of the pixel size and rotation step. The results showed that the acquisition parameters could statistically significantly affect the quantified mean porosity, mean pore size, and mean wall thickness of the scaffolds. The effects are also practically important since the differences can be as high as 24% regarding the mean porosity in average, and 19.5 h and 166 GB regarding the characterization time and data storage per sample with a relatively small volume. This study showed in a quantitative manner the effects of such a wide range of acquisition scenarios on the final data, as well as the characterization time and data storage per sample. Herein, a clear picture of the effects of the pixel size and rotation step on the results is provided which can notably be useful to refine the practice of µ-CT characterization of scaffolds and economize the related resources.

Mini- and micro-processors and FASTBUS in the experimental program at BNL

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Leipuner, L.B.

1981-01-01

The use of small processors in the experimental program at Brookhaven is reviewed. FASTBUS, a new data acquisition system, as developed at BNL is also reviewed. New directions that are planned in these areas are discussed

Low-cost teleoperator-controlled vehicle for damage assessment and radiation dose measurement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tyree, W.H.

1991-01-01

A low-cost, disposable, radio-controlled, remote-reading, ionizing radiation and surveillance teleoperator re-entry vehicle has been built. The vehicle carries equipment, measures radiation levels, and evaluates building conditions. The basic vehicle, radio control with amplifiers, telemetry, elevator, and video camera with monitor cost less than $2500. Velcro-mounted alpha, beta-gamma, and neutron sensing equipment is used in the present system. Many types of health physics radiation measuring equipment may be substituted on the vehicle. The system includes a black-and-white video camera to observe the environment surrounding the vehicle. The camera is mounted on a vertical elevator extendible to 11 feet above the floor. The present vehicle uses a video camera with an umbilical cord between the vehicle and the operators. Preferred operation would eliminate the umbilical. Video monitoring equipment is part of the operator control system. Power for the vehicle equipment is carried on board and supplied by sealed lead-acid batteries. Radios are powered by 9-V alkaline batteries. The radio control receiver, servo drivers, high-power amplifier and 49-MHz FM transceivers were irradiated at moderate rates with neutron and gamma doses to 3000 Rem and 300 Rem, respectively, to ensure system operation

Translation-rotation plasticity as basic mechanism of plastic deformation in macro-, micro- and nanoindentation processes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grabco, D; Shikimaka, O; Harea, E

2008-01-01

This paper presents a brief review of multilateral examinations for the purpose of detection of interrelation between processes occuring in solids at different levels of action of exterior loading, namely, at macro-, micro- and nanoindentation. Convincing arguments supporting the rotation deformation mechanism alongside the recognized dislocation one are adduced. It has been shown that the decrease in dislocation mobility leads at all scales to the intensification of rotation plasticity and to the involvement of other plastic deformation mechanisms, such as appearance and interaction of disclinations, twinning, phase transition and compression of material. The conversion from translation plasticity to the rotation-translation one means transition to the higher level of plastic deformation, the mesolevel, when the possibilities of the previous microscopic level are exhausted. It was established that the plastic deformation zone in the vicinity of indentations could be separated into two main specific regions: (i) peripheral region predominantly with the dislocation deformation mechanism; otherwise, translation mechanism: microlevel, and (ii) quasidestructured region mainly with the disclination or the intergranular sliding mechanism: rotation mechanism, mesolevel

Promise of a low power mobile CPU based embedded system in artificial leg control.

Science.gov (United States)

Hernandez, Robert; Zhang, Fan; Zhang, Xiaorong; Huang, He; Yang, Qing

2012-01-01

This paper presents the design and implementation of a low power embedded system using mobile processor technology (Intel Atom™ Z530 Processor) specifically tailored for a neural-machine interface (NMI) for artificial limbs. This embedded system effectively performs our previously developed NMI algorithm based on neuromuscular-mechanical fusion and phase-dependent pattern classification. The analysis shows that NMI embedded system can meet real-time constraints with high accuracies for recognizing the user's locomotion mode. Our implementation utilizes the mobile processor efficiently to allow a power consumption of 2.2 watts and low CPU utilization (less than 4.3%) while executing the complex NMI algorithm. Our experiments have shown that the highly optimized C program implementation on the embedded system has superb advantages over existing PC implementations on MATLAB. The study results suggest that mobile-CPU-based embedded system is promising for implementing advanced control for powered lower limb prostheses.

COST-EFFECTIVE CONTROL OF NOx WITH INTEGRATED ULTRA LOW-NOx BURNERS AND SNCR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hamid Farzan

2001-01-01

Coal-fired electric utilities are facing a serious challenge with regards to curbing their NO(sub x) emissions. At issue are the NO(sub x) contributions to the acid rain, ground level ozone, and particulate matter formation. Substantial NO(sub x) control requirements could be imposed under the proposed Ozone Transport Rule, National Ambient Air Quality Standards, and New Source Performance Standards. McDermott Technology, Inc. (MTI), Babcock and Wilcox (B and W), and Fuel Tech are teaming to provide an integrated solution for NO(sub x) control. The system will be comprised of an ultra low-NO(sub x) pulverized coal (PC) burner technology plus a urea-based, selective non-catalytic reduction (SNCR) system. This system will be capable of meeting a target emission limit of 0.15 lb NO(sub x)/10(sup 6) Btu and target ammonia (NH3) slip level targeted below 5 ppmV for commercial units. Our approach combines the best available combustion and post-combustion NO(sub x) control technologies. More specifically, B and W's DRB-4Z TM ultra low-NO(sub x) PC burner technology will be combined with Fuel Tech's NO(sub x)OUT (SNCR) and NO(sub x)OUT Cascade (SNCR/SCR hybrid) systems and jointly evaluated and optimized in a state-of-the-art test facility at MTI. Although the NO(sub x)OUT Cascade (SNCR/SCR hybrid) system will not be tested directly in this program, its potential application for situations that require greater NO(sub x) reductions will be inferred from other measurements (i.e., SNCR NO(sub x) removal efficiency plus projected NO(sub x) reduction by the catalyst based on controlled ammonia slip). Our analysis shows that the integrated ultra low-NO(sub x) burner and SNCR system has the lowest cost when the burner emissions are 0.25 lb NO(sub x)/10(sup 6) Btu or less. At burner NO(sub x) emission level of 0.20 lb NO(sub x)/10(sup 6) Btu, the levelized cost per ton of NO(sub x) removed is 52% lower than the SCR cost

Low-power-consumption and high-sensitivity NO2 micro gas sensors based on a co-planar micro-heater fabricated by using a CMOS-MEMS process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moon, S. E.; Lee, J. W.; Park, S. J.; Park, J.; Park, K. H.; Kim, J.

2010-01-01

Small-scale, low-power-consumption, and high-sensitivity NO 2 gas sensors based on ZnO nanorods are reported in this work. To activate the chemical absorption and desorption for NO 2 gas, we embedded co-planar micro-heater in a micro gas sensor, that was made by using a Complementary Metal-oxide-semiconductor compatible Microelectromechanical Systems(CMOS-MEMS) process. To acquire simple fabrication and low fabrication cost, we located the micro-heater and the sensing electrode in the same plane. High-quality single-crystalline ZnO nanorods were selectively grown by using photolithography and a hydrothermal method. Their structural properties were confirmed by using X-ray diffractometry (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy microanalysis (EDAX), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). The temperature-dependent current-voltage characteristics were measured to optimize the operating temperature of the fabricated devices as a chemical gas sensor. To test the possibility for use as chemical sensor, we measured the NO 2 gas response.

Low-power analogue processor for Bonner sphere spectrometers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ciobanu, M.I.; Alevra, A.V.

1998-01-01

The electronic system proposed is compact, small-size (the dimensions of the prototype are 107 x 105 x 58 mm) and battery-powered. The whole detection system is portable and independent of the mains supply and is well shielded against external disturbances. Technical details of the analog processor are given. (M.D.)

Software design and implementation of ship heave motion monitoring system based on MBD method

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Yan; Li, Yuhan; Zhang, Chunwei; Kang, Won-Hee; Ou, Jinping

2015-03-01

Marine transportation plays a significant role in the modern transport sector due to its advantage of low cost, large capacity. It is being attached enormous importance to all over the world. Nowadays the related areas of product development have become an existing hot spot. DSP signal processors feature micro volume, low cost, high precision, fast processing speed, which has been widely used in all kinds of monitoring systems. But traditional DSP code development process is time-consuming, inefficiency, costly and difficult. MathWorks company proposed Model-based Design (MBD) to overcome these defects. By calling the target board modules in simulink library to compile and generate the corresponding code for the target processor. And then automatically call DSP integrated development environment CCS for algorithm validation on the target processor. This paper uses the MDB to design the algorithm for the ship heave motion monitoring system. It proves the effectiveness of the MBD run successfully on the processor.

14 CFR 125.177 - Control of engine rotation.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Control of engine rotation. 125.177 Section... Requirements § 125.177 Control of engine rotation. (a) Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this section, each airplane must have a means of individually stopping and restarting the rotation of any engine in...

An updated program-controlled analog processor, model AP-006, for semiconductor detector spectrometers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shkola, N.F.; Shevchenko, Yu.A.

1989-01-01

An analog processor, model AP-006, is reported. The processor is a development of a series of spectrometric units based on a shaper of the type 'DL dif +TVS+gated ideal integrator'. Structural and circuits design features are described. The results of testing the processor in a setup with a Si(Li) detecting unit over an input count-rate range of up to 5x10 5 cps are presented. Processor applications are illustrated. (orig.)

Multi-processor network implementations in Multibus II and VME

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Briegel, C.

1992-01-01

ACNET (Fermilab Accelerator Controls Network), a proprietary network protocol, is implemented in a multi-processor configuration for both Multibus II and VME. The implementations are contrasted by the bus protocol and software design goals. The Multibus II implementation provides for multiple processors running a duplicate set of tasks on each processor. For a network connected task, messages are distributed by a network round-robin scheduler. Further, messages can be stopped, continued, or re-routed for each task by user-callable commands. The VME implementation provides for multiple processors running one task across all processors. The process can either be fixed to a particular processor or dynamically allocated to an available processor depending on the scheduling algorithm of the multi-processing operating system. (author)

Flexible micro flow sensor for micro aerial vehicles

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Rong; Que, Ruiyi; Liu, Peng

2017-12-01

This article summarizes our studies on micro flow sensors fabricated on a flexible polyimide circuit board by a low-cost hybrid process of thin-film deposition and circuit printing. The micro flow sensor has merits of flexibility, structural simplicity, easy integrability with circuits, and good sensing performance. The sensor, which adheres to an object surface, can detect the surface flow around the object. In our study, we install the fabricated micro flow sensors on micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) to detect the surface flow variation around the aircraft wing and deduce the aerodynamic parameters of the MAVs in flight. Wind tunnel experiments using the sensors integrated with the MAVs are also conducted.

Adaptive UAV Attitude Estimation Employing Unscented Kalman Filter, FOAM and Low-Cost MEMS Sensors

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Garcia de Marina Peinado, Hector; Espinosa, Felipe; Santos, Carlos

2012-01-01

Navigation employing low cost MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) sensors in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is an uprising challenge. One important part of this navigation is the right estimation of the attitude angles. Most of the existent algorithms handle the sensor readings in a fixed way,

An FPGA- Based General-Purpose Data Acquisition Controller

Science.gov (United States)

Robson, C. C. W.; Bousselham, A.; Bohm

2006-08-01

System development in advanced FPGAs allows considerable flexibility, both during development and in production use. A mixed firmware/software solution allows the developer to choose what shall be done in firmware or software, and to make that decision late in the process. However, this flexibility comes at the cost of increased complexity. We have designed a modular development framework to help to overcome these issues of increased complexity. This framework comprises a generic controller that can be adapted for different systems by simply changing the software or firmware parts. The controller can use both soft and hard processors, with or without an RTOS, based on the demands of the system to be developed. The resulting system uses the Internet for both control and data acquisition. In our studies we developed the embedded system in a Xilinx Virtex-II Pro FPGA, where we used both PowerPC and MicroBlaze cores, http, Java, and LabView for control and communication, together with the MicroC/OS-II and OSE operating systems

Low Alloy Steel Structures After Welding with Micro-Jet Cooling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Węgrzyn T.

2017-03-01

Full Text Available The paper focuses on low alloy steel after innovate welding method with micro-jet cooling. Weld metal deposit (WMD was carried out for welding and for MIG and MAG welding with micro-jet cooling. This method is very promising mainly due to the high amount of AF (acicular ferrite and low amount of MAC (self-tempered martensite, retained austenite, carbide phases in WMD. That structure corresponds with very good mechanical properties, ie. high impact toughness of welds at low temperature. Micro-jet cooling after welding can find serious application in automotive industry very soon. Until that moment only argon, helium and nitrogen were tested as micro-jet gases. In that paper first time various gas mixtures (gas mixtures Ar-CO2 were tested for micro-jet cooling after welding.

A dedicated line-processor as used at the SHF

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bevan, A.V.; Hatley, R.W.; Price, D.R.; Rankin, P.

1985-01-01

A hardwired trigger processor was used at the SLAC Hybrid Facility to find evidence for charged tracks originating from the fiducial volume of a 40'' rapidcycling bubble chamber. Straight-line projections of these tracks in the plane perpendicular to the applied magnetic field were searched for using data from three sets of proportional wire chambers (PWC). This information was made directly available to the processor by means of a special digitizing card. The results memory of the processor simulated read-only memory in a 168/E processor and was accessible by it. The 168/E controlled the issuing of a trigger command to the bubble chamber flash tubes. The same design of digitizer card used by the line processor was incorporated into the 168/E, again as read only memory, which allowed it access to the raw data for continual monitoring of trigger integrity. The design logic of the trigger processor was verified by running real PWC data through a FORTRAN simulation of the hardware. This enabled the debugging to become highly automated since a step by step, computer controlled comparison of processor registers to simulation predictions could be made

Keep on Blockin’ in the Free World: Personal Access Control for Low-Cost RFID Tags

OpenAIRE

Rieback, Melanie; Crispo, Bruno; Tanenbaum, Andrew

2007-01-01

This paper introduces an off-tag RFID access control mechanism called “Selective RFID Jamming”. Selective RFID Jamming protects low-cost RFID tags by enforcing access control on their behalf, in a similar manner to the RFID Blocker Tag. However, Selective RFID Jamming is novel because it uses an active mobile device to enforce centralized ACL-based access control policies. Selective RFID Jamming also solves a Differential Signal Analysis attack to which the RFID Blocker Tag is susceptible.

Absolute Navigation Information Estimation for Micro Planetary Rovers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhammad Ilyas

2016-03-01

Full Text Available This paper provides algorithms to estimate absolute navigation information, e.g., absolute attitude and position, by using low power, weight and volume Microelectromechanical Systems-type (MEMS sensors that are suitable for micro planetary rovers. Planetary rovers appear to be easily navigable robots due to their extreme slow speed and rotation but, unfortunately, the sensor suites available for terrestrial robots are not always available for planetary rover navigation. This makes them difficult to navigate in a completely unexplored, harsh and complex environment. Whereas the relative attitude and position can be tracked in a similar way as for ground robots, absolute navigation information, unlike in terrestrial applications, is difficult to obtain for a remote celestial body, such as Mars or the Moon. In this paper, an algorithm called the EASI algorithm (Estimation of Attitude using Sun sensor and Inclinometer is presented to estimate the absolute attitude using a MEMS-type sun sensor and inclinometer, only. Moreover, the output of the EASI algorithm is fused with MEMS gyros to produce more accurate and reliable attitude estimates. An absolute position estimation algorithm has also been presented based on these on-board sensors. Experimental results demonstrate the viability of the proposed algorithms and the sensor suite for low-cost and low-weight micro planetary rovers.

Derivation and Analysis of a Low-Cost, High-performance Analogue BPCM Control Scheme for Class-D Audio Power Amplifiers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Høyerby, Mikkel Christian Wendelboe; Andersen, Michael A. E.

2005-01-01

This paper presents a low-cost analogue control scheme for class-D audio power amplifiers. The scheme is based around bandpass current-mode (BPCM) control, and provides ample stability margins and low distortion over a wide range of operating conditions. Implementation is very simple and does...

A faster ordered-subset convex algorithm for iterative reconstruction in a rotation-free micro-CT system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Quan, E; Lalush, D S

2009-01-01

We present a faster iterative reconstruction algorithm based on the ordered-subset convex (OSC) algorithm for transmission CT. The OSC algorithm was modified such that it calculates the normalization term before the iterative process in order to save computational cost. The modified version requires only one backprojection per iteration as compared to two required for the original OSC. We applied the modified OSC (MOSC) algorithm to a rotation-free micro-CT system that we proposed previously, observed its performance, and compared with the OSC algorithm for 3D cone-beam reconstruction. Measurements on the reconstructed images as well as the point spread functions show that MOSC is quite similar to OSC; in noise-resolution trade-off, MOSC is comparable with OSC in a regular-noise situation and it is slightly worse than OSC in an extremely high-noise situation. The timing record shows that MOSC saves 25-30% CPU time, depending on the number of iterations used. We conclude that the MOSC algorithm is more efficient than OSC and provides comparable images.

Hardware trigger processor for the MDT system

CERN Document Server

AUTHOR|(SzGeCERN)757787; The ATLAS collaboration; Hazen, Eric; Butler, John; Black, Kevin; Gastler, Daniel Edward; Ntekas, Konstantinos; Taffard, Anyes; Martinez Outschoorn, Verena; Ishino, Masaya; Okumura, Yasuyuki

2017-01-01

We are developing a low-latency hardware trigger processor for the Monitored Drift Tube system in the Muon spectrometer. The processor will fit candidate Muon tracks in the drift tubes in real time, improving significantly the momentum resolution provided by the dedicated trigger chambers. We present a novel pure-FPGA implementation of a Legendre transform segment finder, an associative-memory alternative implementation, an ARM (Zynq) processor-based track fitter, and compact ATCA carrier board architecture. The ATCA architecture is designed to allow a modular, staged approach to deployment of the system and exploration of alternative technologies.

Is micro-CHP price controllable under price signal controlled Virtual Power Plants?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

You, Shi; Træholt, Chresten; Poulsen, Bjarne

2011-01-01

As micro-combined heat and power (micro-CHP) systems move towards mass deployment together with other kinds of distributed energy resources (DER), an increasing emphasis has been placed on how to coordinate such a large diversified DER portfolio in an efficient way by the Virtual Power Plant (VPP...... for three different micro-CHP systems to investigate the feasibility of being controlled by price. Such analysis is relevant for both controller designs for micro-CHP systems and VPP related operations. The results indicate that controlling the micro-CHP systems by price is feasible but could result...

Low-Cost, Rapidly Responsive, Controllable, and Reversible Photochromic Hydrogel for Display and Storage.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Yongqi; Guan, Lin; Gao, Guanghui

2018-04-25

Traditional optoelectronic devices without stretchable performance could be limited for substrates with irregular shape. Therefore, it is urgent to explore a new generation of flexible, stretchable, and low-cost intelligent vehicles as visual display and storage devices, such as hydrogels. In the investigation, a novel photochromic hydrogel was developed by introducing the negatively charged ammonium molybdate as a photochromic unit into polyacrylamide via ionic and covalent cross-linking. The hydrogel exhibited excellent properties of low cost, easy preparation, stretchable deformation, fatigue resistance, high transparency, and second-order response to external signals. Moreover, the photochromic and fading process of hydrogels could be precisely controlled and repeated under the irradiation of UV light and exposure of oxygen at different time and temperature. The photochromic hydrogel could be considered applied for artificial intelligence system, wearable healthcare device, and flexible memory device. Therefore, the strategy for designing a soft photochromic material would open a new direction to manufacture flexible and stretchable devices.

Automatic monitoring of ecosystem structure and functions using integrated low-cost near surface sensors

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, J.; Ryu, Y.; Jiang, C.; Hwang, Y.

2016-12-01

Near surface sensors are able to acquire more reliable and detailed information with higher temporal resolution than satellite observations. Conventional near surface sensors usually work individually, and thus they require considerable manpower from data collection through information extraction and sharing. Recent advances of Internet of Things (IoT) provides unprecedented opportunities to integrate various low-cost sensors as an intelligent near surface observation system for monitoring ecosystem structure and functions. In this study, we developed a Smart Surface Sensing System (4S), which can automatically collect, transfer, process and analyze data, and then publish time series results on public-available website. The system is composed of micro-computer Raspberry pi, micro-controller Arduino, multi-spectral spectrometers made from Light Emitting Diode (LED), visible and near infrared cameras, and Internet module. All components are connected with each other and Raspberry pi intelligently controls the automatic data production chain. We did intensive tests and calibrations in-lab. Then, we conducted in-situ observations at a rice paddy field and a deciduous broadleaf forest. During the whole growth season, 4S obtained landscape images, spectral reflectance in red, green, blue, and near infrared, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), fraction of photosynthetically active radiation (fPAR), and leaf area index (LAI) continuously. Also We compared 4S data with other independent measurements. NDVI obtained from 4S agreed well with Jaz hyperspectrometer at both diurnal and seasonal scales (R2 = 0.92, RMSE = 0.059), and 4S derived fPAR and LAI were comparable to LAI-2200 and destructive measurements in both magnitude and seasonal trajectory. We believe that the integrated low-cost near surface sensor could help research community monitoring ecosystem structure and functions closer and easier through a network system.

Digital tomosynthesis using a 35 mm X-ray cinematogram during an isocentric rotational motion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maeda, Hirofumi; Aikawa, Hisayuki; Maeda, Tohru; Miyake, Hidetoshi; Sugahara, Tetsuo.

1988-01-01

Digital tomosynthesis is performed using a 35 mm X-ray cinematogram obtained during an isocentric rotational motion of the cineangiographic apparatus. Formula of image shift for digital tomosynthesis using an isocentric rotational motion is induced by perspective projection and affine transformation. Images of desired layer are aligned at the same point in the image processor and summed. Resultant final image is displayed in sharp focus. We can set tomosynthetic factors on any desired projection, sweep angle and depth as concerns digital tomosynthesis using an isocentric rotational motion. Especially we emphasize that tomosynthesis tilted for central axis of isocentric rotational motion can be obtained, using shear transformation of image in the image processor. (author)

Reprint of: Use of a mobile phone for potentiostatic control with low cost paper-based microfluidic sensors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Delaney, Jacqui L.; Doeven, Egan H.; Harsant, Anthony J.; Hogan, Conor F., E-mail: c.hogan@latrobe.edu.au

2013-11-25

Graphical abstract: -- Highlights: •The ability to generate ECL emission using the audio output of a mobile phone is demonstrated. •Electrochemical control can be achieved by controlling the amplitude and waveform of the sound. •A mobile phone “app” synchronises the electrochemical stimulation with detection via the camera. •In combination with paper-based microfluidic sensors, extremely low cost analysis is possible. •Detection of proline at levels suitable for diagnosis of hyperprolinemia is demonstrated. -- Abstract: By exploiting its ability to play sounds, a mobile phone with suitable software installed can serve the basic functions of a potentiostat in controlling an applied potential to oxidise ECL-active molecules, while the resultant photonic signal is monitored using the camera in video mode. In combination with paper microfluidic sensors this opens significant new possibilities for low-cost, instrument-free sensing.

Reprint of: Use of a mobile phone for potentiostatic control with low cost paper-based microfluidic sensors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Delaney, Jacqui L.; Doeven, Egan H.; Harsant, Anthony J.; Hogan, Conor F.

2013-01-01

Graphical abstract: -- Highlights: •The ability to generate ECL emission using the audio output of a mobile phone is demonstrated. •Electrochemical control can be achieved by controlling the amplitude and waveform of the sound. •A mobile phone “app” synchronises the electrochemical stimulation with detection via the camera. •In combination with paper-based microfluidic sensors, extremely low cost analysis is possible. •Detection of proline at levels suitable for diagnosis of hyperprolinemia is demonstrated. -- Abstract: By exploiting its ability to play sounds, a mobile phone with suitable software installed can serve the basic functions of a potentiostat in controlling an applied potential to oxidise ECL-active molecules, while the resultant photonic signal is monitored using the camera in video mode. In combination with paper microfluidic sensors this opens significant new possibilities for low-cost, instrument-free sensing

XOP, a fast versatile processor, as a building block for parallel processing in high energy physics experiments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baehler, P.; Bosco, N.; Lingjaerde, T.; Ljuslin, C.; Van Praag, A.; Werner, P.

1986-01-01

The XOP processor has been designed for trigger calculation and data compression in high energy physics experiments. Therefore, emphasis has been placed upon fast execution and high input/output rate. The fast execution is achieved by a wide instruction word holding operations which are executed concurrently. Thus, the arithmetic operations, data address calculations, data accessing, condition checking, loop count checking and next instruction evaluation all overlap in time. In conventional micro-processors these operations are performed sequentially. In addition, the instruction set comprises not only the classical computer instructions, but also specialized instructions suitable for trigger calculations, such as bit search, population count, loose compare and vector instructions. In order to achieve a high input/output rate, each XOP ECLine interface board is equipped with an input and an output port which fulfil the LeCroy ECLine specifications. The autonomous input port allows a data rate of 40 Mbytes/sec, while the program controlled output port allows 20 Mbytes/sec. For Fastbus based systems a dual Fastbus master interface is under design which allows to build up a Fastbus multi-processor system. This design is being done in collaboration with LAPP Annecy for the CERN Lep L3 experiment. Their scheme comprises 4-5 XOP processors, each of them with a master interface on a data input segment and a master interface on a data output segment. This paper describes the structure of the XOP processor, the interface capabilities and the software development and debugging tools. (Auth.)

Distributed Secondary Control for Islanded MicroGrids – A Networked Control Systems Approach

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Shafiee, Qobad; Vasquez, Juan Carlos; Guerrero, Josep M.

2012-01-01

This paper presents a novel approach to conceive the secondary control in droop-controlled MicroGrids. The conventional approach is based on restoring the frequency and amplitude deviations produced by the local droop controllers by using a MicroGrid Central Controller. A distributed networked...... control system is used in order to implement a distributed secondary control thus avoiding the use of a MicroGrid Central Control. The proposed approach is not only able to restore frequency and voltage of the MicroGrid but also ensures reactive power sharing. The distributed secondary control do...

Scalable architecture for a room temperature solid-state quantum information processor.

Science.gov (United States)

Yao, N Y; Jiang, L; Gorshkov, A V; Maurer, P C; Giedke, G; Cirac, J I; Lukin, M D

2012-04-24

The realization of a scalable quantum information processor has emerged over the past decade as one of the central challenges at the interface of fundamental science and engineering. Here we propose and analyse an architecture for a scalable, solid-state quantum information processor capable of operating at room temperature. Our approach is based on recent experimental advances involving nitrogen-vacancy colour centres in diamond. In particular, we demonstrate that the multiple challenges associated with operation at ambient temperature, individual addressing at the nanoscale, strong qubit coupling, robustness against disorder and low decoherence rates can be simultaneously achieved under realistic, experimentally relevant conditions. The architecture uses a novel approach to quantum information transfer and includes a hierarchy of control at successive length scales. Moreover, it alleviates the stringent constraints currently limiting the realization of scalable quantum processors and will provide fundamental insights into the physics of non-equilibrium many-body quantum systems.

Researching, building a soft-processor and Ethernet interface circuit using EDK

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tuong Thi Thu Huong; Pham Ngoc Tuan; Truong Van Dat, Dang Lanh; Chau Thi Nhu Quynh

2014-01-01

The processor is an indispensable component in the measurement and automatic control systems. This report describes the fabrication of a soft-processor (32-bits, on-chip block RAM 64K, 50M clock, internal and peripheral bus) for receiving, sending and processing of data Ethernet packets. This processor is fabricated using the XPS component from EDK (Xilinx) software toolkit. After that, it is configured on the FPGA named Spartan XC3S500E circuit. A firmware of a processor for controlling the interface between processor and Ethernet port is written in C language and can play a role of a HOST (station) which has its own IP to connect to Ethernet network. Besides, there are some needed parts as follows: an Ethernet interfacing controller chip, a suitable cable providing a speed up to 100 Mbs and an application program running under Window XP environment written in LabView to communicate with soft-processor. (author)

Control of fluid-containing rotating rigid bodies

CERN Document Server

Gurchenkov, Anatoly A

2013-01-01

This book is devoted to the study of the dynamics of rotating bodies with cavities containing liquid. Two basic classes of motions are analyzed: rotation and libration. Cases of complete and partial filling of cavities with ideal liquid and complete filling with viscous liquid are treated. The volume presents a method for obtaining relations between angular velocities perpendicular to main rotation and external force momentums, which are treated as control. The developed models and methods of solving dynamical problems as well as numerical methods for solving problems of optimal control can be

Automated Manipulation of Micro-Nano Objects with SPM by Using L1 Adaptive Controller

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qinmin Yang

2012-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a novel control methodology for automatically manipulating micro/nano particles by using a Scanning Probe Microscope (SPM is presented. First of all, a mathematical model of micro/nanomanipulation, including the interactive forces and dynamics between the tip, particle and substrate along with the roughness effect of the substrate, is described. Then, the L1 adaptive control design for the manipulation system of micro/nano objects is presented, which consists of a state predictor with fast adaptation, a piece-wise continuous adaptive law and a low-pass filtered control design. This control framework can handle nonlinear uncertainties and ensures uniformly bounded tracking performance. The tracking performance bound can be systematically improved by reducing the step size of integration. Rigorous mathematical proof is provided. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the presented L1 adaptive control law on the micro/nanomanipulation model.

Automotive Fuel Processor Development and Demonstration with Fuel Cell Systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nuvera Fuel Cells

2005-04-15

The potential for fuel cell systems to improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions over conventional power systems has generated significant interest in fuel cell technologies. While fuel cells are being investigated for use in many applications such as stationary power generation and small portable devices, transportation applications present some unique challenges for fuel cell technology. Due to their lower operating temperature and non-brittle materials, most transportation work is focusing on fuel cells using proton exchange membrane (PEM) technology. Since PEM fuel cells are fueled by hydrogen, major obstacles to their widespread use are the lack of an available hydrogen fueling infrastructure and hydrogen's relatively low energy storage density, which leads to a much lower driving range than conventional vehicles. One potential solution to the hydrogen infrastructure and storage density issues is to convert a conventional fuel such as gasoline into hydrogen onboard the vehicle using a fuel processor. Figure 2 shows that gasoline stores roughly 7 times more energy per volume than pressurized hydrogen gas at 700 bar and 4 times more than liquid hydrogen. If integrated properly, the fuel processor/fuel cell system would also be more efficient than traditional engines and would give a fuel economy benefit while hydrogen storage and distribution issues are being investigated. Widespread implementation of fuel processor/fuel cell systems requires improvements in several aspects of the technology, including size, startup time, transient response time, and cost. In addition, the ability to operate on a number of hydrocarbon fuels that are available through the existing infrastructure is a key enabler for commercializing these systems. In this program, Nuvera Fuel Cells collaborated with the Department of Energy (DOE) to develop efficient, low-emission, multi-fuel processors for transportation applications. Nuvera's focus was on (1) developing fuel

Low-Cost Photolithographic Fabrication of Nanowires and Microfilters for Advanced Bioassay Devices

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nhi M. Doan

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Integrated microfluidic devices with nanosized array electrodes and microfiltration capabilities can greatly increase sensitivity and enhance automation in immunoassay devices. In this contribution, we utilize the edge-patterning method of thin aluminum (Al films in order to form nano- to micron-sized gaps. Evaporation of high work-function metals (i.e., Au, Ag, etc. on these gaps, followed by Al lift-off, enables the formation of electrical uniform nanowires from low-cost, plastic-based, photomasks. By replacing Al with chromium (Cr, the formation of high resolution, custom-made photomasks that are ideal for low-cost fabrication of a plurality of array devices were realized. To demonstrate the feasibility of such Cr photomasks, SU-8 micro-pillar masters were formed and replicated into PDMS to produce micron-sized filters with 3–4 µm gaps and an aspect ratio of 3. These microfilters were capable of retaining 6 µm beads within a localized site, while allowing solvent flow. The combination of nanowire arrays and micro-pillar filtration opens new perspectives for rapid R&D screening of various microfluidic-based immunoassay geometries, where analyte pre-concentration and highly sensitive, electrochemical detection can be readily co-localized.

Extended performance electric propulsion power processor design study. Volume 2: Technical summary

Science.gov (United States)

Biess, J. J.; Inouye, L. Y.; Schoenfeld, A. D.

1977-01-01

Electric propulsion power processor technology has processed during the past decade to the point that it is considered ready for application. Several power processor design concepts were evaluated and compared. Emphasis was placed on a 30 cm ion thruster power processor with a beam power rating supply of 2.2KW to 10KW for the main propulsion power stage. Extension in power processor performance were defined and were designed in sufficient detail to determine efficiency, component weight, part count, reliability and thermal control. A detail design was performed on a microprocessor as the thyristor power processor controller. A reliability analysis was performed to evaluate the effect of the control electronics redesign. Preliminary electrical design, mechanical design and thermal analysis were performed on a 6KW power transformer for the beam supply. Bi-Mod mechanical, structural and thermal control configurations were evaluated for the power processor and preliminary estimates of mechanical weight were determined.

A general model of concurrency and its implementation as many-core dynamic RISC processors

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bernard, T.; Bousias, K.; Guang, L.; Jesshope, C.R.; Lankamp, M.; van Tol, M.W.; Zhang, L.

2008-01-01

This paper presents a concurrent execution model and its micro-architecture based on in-order RISC processors, which schedules instructions from large pools of contextualised threads. The model admits a strategy for programming chip multiprocessors using parallelising compilers based on existing

Development of a low energy micro sheet forming machine

Science.gov (United States)

Razali, A. R.; Ann, C. T.; Shariff, H. M.; Kasim, N. I.; Musa, M. A.; Ahmad, A. F.

2017-10-01

It is expected that with the miniaturization of materials being processed, energy consumption is also being `miniaturized' proportionally. The focus of this study was to design a low energy micro-sheet-forming machine for thin sheet metal application and fabricate a low direct current powered micro-sheet-forming machine. A prototype of low energy system for a micro-sheet-forming machine which includes mechanical and electronic elements was developed. The machine was tested for its performance in terms of natural frequency, punching forces, punching speed and capability, energy consumption (single punch and frequency-time based). Based on the experiments, the machine can do 600 stroke per minute and the process is unaffected by the machine's natural frequency. It was also found that sub-Joule of power was required for a single stroke of punching/blanking process. Up to 100micron thick carbon steel shim was successfully tested and punched. It concludes that low power forming machine is feasible to be developed and be used to replace high powered machineries to form micro-products/parts.

Micro-battery Development for Juvenile Salmon Acoustic Telemetry System Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Honghao; Cartmell, Samuel; Wang, Qiang; Lozano, Terence; Deng, Z. Daniel; Li, Huidong; Chen, Xilin; Yuan, Yong; Gross, Mark E.; Carlson, Thomas J.; Xiao, Jie

2014-01-01

The Endangered Species Act requires actions that improve the passage and survival rates for migrating salmonoids and other fish species that sustain injury and mortality when passing through hydroelectric dams. To develop a low-cost revolutionary acoustic transmitter that may be injected instead of surgically implanted into the fish, one major challenge that needs to be addressed is the micro-battery power source. This work focuses on the design and fabrication of micro-batteries for injectable fish tags. High pulse current and required service life have both been achieved as well as doubling the gravimetric energy density of the battery. The newly designed micro-batteries have intrinsically low impedance, leading to significantly improved electrochemical performances at low temperatures as compared with commercial SR416 batteries. Successful field trial by using the micro-battery powered transmitters injected into fish has been demonstrated, providing an exemplary model of transferring fundamental research into practical devices with controlled qualities.

Very wide register : an asymmetric register file organization for low power embedded processors.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Raghavan, P.; Lambrechts, A.; Jayapala, M.; Catthoor, F.; Verkest, D.T.M.L.; Corporaal, H.

2007-01-01

In current embedded systems processors, multi-ported register files are one of the most power hungry parts of the processor, even when they are clustered. This paper presents a novel register file architecture, which has single ported cells and asymmetric interfaces to the memory and to the

Emulation-Based Virtual Laboratories: A Low-Cost Alternative to Physical Experiments in Control Engineering Education

Science.gov (United States)

Goodwin, G. C.; Medioli, A. M.; Sher, W.; Vlacic, L. B.; Welsh, J. S.

2011-01-01

This paper argues the case for emulation-based virtual laboratories in control engineering education. It demonstrates that such emulation experiments can give students an industrially relevant educational experience at relatively low cost. The paper also describes a particular emulation-based system that has been developed with the aim of giving…

Evaluation of the Intel Sandy Bridge-EP server processor

CERN Document Server

Jarp, S; Leduc, J; Nowak, A; CERN. Geneva. IT Department

2012-01-01

In this paper we report on a set of benchmark results recently obtained by CERN openlab when comparing an 8-core “Sandy Bridge-EP” processor with Intel’s previous microarchitecture, the “Westmere-EP”. The Intel marketing names for these processors are “Xeon E5-2600 processor series” and “Xeon 5600 processor series”, respectively. Both processors are produced in a 32nm process, and both platforms are dual-socket servers. Multiple benchmarks were used to get a good understanding of the performance of the new processor. We used both industry-standard benchmarks, such as SPEC2006, and specific High Energy Physics benchmarks, representing both simulation of physics detectors and data analysis of physics events. Before summarizing the results we must stress the fact that benchmarking of modern processors is a very complex affair. One has to control (at least) the following features: processor frequency, overclocking via Turbo mode, the number of physical cores in use, the use of logical cores ...

Three degree-of-freedom piezoelectric ultrasonic micro-motor with a major diameter of 350 µm

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rogers, G

2010-01-01

A three degree-of-freedom (DOF) micro-motor comprising a hollow cylindrical transducer with slots novelly inserted, mounted to a lead zirconium titanate (PZT) piezoelectric element, was developed. Reversible rotation about three orthogonal axes was obtained at frequencies above 190 kHz. The peak torque about the transverse (x and y) and longitudinal (z) axes was 1.33, 1.23 and 2.38 nNm, respectively, at 21.2 V RMS . An electrical control scheme was employed to demonstrate the ability to operate these micro-motors at the low speeds necessary for many applications, including minimally invasive surgery (MIS). This micro-motor represents a significant step towards the development of true microscopic multi-DOF actuators, which can be integrated with MIS equipment, for example, in order to provide surgeons with better operability, dexterity and control deep within a patient's body

Water Level Loggers as a Low-Cost Tool for Monitoring of Stormwater Control Measures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laura Toran

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Stormwater control measures (SCMs are a key component of watershed health in urbanized areas. SCMs are used to increase infiltration and reduce discharge to streams or storm sewer systems during rain events. Monitoring is important for the evaluation of design and causes of failure in SCMs. However, the expense of monitoring means it is not always included in stormwater control planning. This study shows how low-cost water level loggers can be used to answer certain questions about SCM performance. Five case studies are presented that use water level loggers to evaluate the overflow of basins, compare a traditional stormpipe trench with an infiltration trench, monitor timing of blue roof storage, show the effects of retrofitting a basin, and provide long term performance data. Water level loggers can be used to answer questions about the timing and location of stormwater overflows, which helps to evaluate the effectiveness of SCMs. More expensive monitoring and modeling can be used as a follow up if needed to more thoroughly assess a site. Nonetheless, low-cost monitoring can be a first step in identifying sites that need improvement or additional monitoring.

Digital Signal Processor System for AC Power Drivers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ovidiu Neamtu

2009-10-01

Full Text Available DSP (Digital Signal Processor is the bestsolution for motor control systems to make possible thedevelopment of advanced motor drive systems. The motorcontrol processor calculates the required motor windingvoltage magnitude and frequency to operate the motor atthe desired speed. A PWM (Pulse Width Modulationcircuit controls the on and off duty cycle of the powerinverter switches to vary the magnitude of the motorvoltages.

A Case Study of Limited Dynamic Voltage Frequency Scaling in Low-Power Processors

OpenAIRE

Hwan Su Jung; Ahn Jun Gil; Jong Tae Kim

2017-01-01

Power management techniques are necessary to save power in the microprocessor. By changing the frequency and/or operating voltage of processor, DVFS can control power consumption. In this paper, we perform a case study to find optimal power state transition for DVFS. We propose the equation to find the optimal ratio between executions of states while taking into account the deadline of processing time and the power state transition delay overhead. The experiment is performed on the Cortex-M4 ...

Transient Oscillations Analysis and Modified Control Strategy for Seamless Mode Transfer in Micro-Grids: A Wind-PV-ES Hybrid System Case Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tengfei Zhang

2015-12-01

Full Text Available With the rapid development of the micro-grid associated with new and clean energies, the smooth switching between grid-connected and islanded operation modes of the micro-grid is a key issue that needs to be addressed urgently. In traditional solutions, V/f (Voltage/frequency control is adopted for the master micro sources when the micro-grid works in islanded mode, while PQ (real and reactive power control is adopted when in grid-connected mode. However, when the two controllers switch when mode transfer occurs, transient oscillations usually occur and thereafter the dynamic response will be degraded. This paper considers an archetypical micro-grid with Wind-PV-ES (Wind, Photovoltaic and Energy Storage hybrid system, which forms the basis of our case study. The underlying reason for such transient oscillation is analyzed in this paper. Thereafter a modified control strategy for seamless mode transfer is designed and implemented. An improved PQ control method is designed by which the output of the PQ controller always synchronously tracks the output of the V/f controller for micro-grid switches from islanded mode to grid-connected; furthermore, a dq rotating coordinate synchronization based V/f control method is proposed for transition from grid-connected mode to islanded mode. Finally, experiments and analysis are undertaken on some basic and important operating cases; the results in our case study indicate that the modified control strategy is effective in dominating the micro-grid during mode transfer and thus yielding significantly better performances.

Optical Array Processor: Laboratory Results

Science.gov (United States)

Casasent, David; Jackson, James; Vaerewyck, Gerard

1987-01-01

A Space Integrating (SI) Optical Linear Algebra Processor (OLAP) is described and laboratory results on its performance in several practical engineering problems are presented. The applications include its use in the solution of a nonlinear matrix equation for optimal control and a parabolic Partial Differential Equation (PDE), the transient diffusion equation with two spatial variables. Frequency-multiplexed, analog and high accuracy non-base-two data encoding are used and discussed. A multi-processor OLAP architecture is described and partitioning and data flow issues are addressed.

Gas analysis by computer-controlled microwave rotational spectrometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hrubesh, L.W.

1978-01-01

Microwave rotational spectrometry has inherently high resolution and is thus nearly ideal for qualitative gas mixture analysis. Quantitative gas analysis is also possible by a simplified method which utilizes the ease with which molecular rotational transitions can be saturated at low microwave power densities. This article describes a computer-controlled microwave spectrometer which is used to demonstrate for the first time a totally automated analysis of a complex gas mixture. Examples are shown for a complete qualitative and quantitative analysis, in which a search of over 100 different compounds is made in less than 7 min, with sensitivity for most compounds in the 10 to 100 ppm range. This technique is expected to find increased use in view of the reduced complexity and increased reliabiity of microwave spectrometers and because of new energy-related applications for analysis of mixtures of small molecules

Derivation and Analysis of a Low-Cost, High-performance Analogue BPCM Control Scheme for Class-D Audio Power Amplifiers

OpenAIRE

Høyerby, Mikkel Christian Wendelboe; Andersen, Michael A. E.

2005-01-01

This paper presents a low-cost analogue control scheme for class-D audio power amplifiers. The scheme is based around bandpass current-mode (BPCM) control, and provides ample stability margins and low distortion over a wide range of operating conditions. Implementation is very simple and does not require the use of operational amplifiers. Small-signal behavior of the controller is accurately predicted, and design is carried out using standard transfer function based linear control methodology...

Methanol fuel processor and PEM fuel cell modeling for mobile application

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chrenko, Daniela [ISAT, University of Burgundy, Rue Mlle Bourgoise, 58000 Nevers (France); Gao, Fei; Blunier, Benjamin; Bouquain, David; Miraoui, Abdellatif [Transport and Systems Laboratory (SeT) - EA 3317/UTBM, Fuel cell Laboratory (FCLAB), University of Technology of Belfort-Montbeliard, Rue Thierry Mieg 90010, Belfort Cedex (France)

2010-07-15

The use of hydrocarbon fed fuel cell systems including a fuel processor can be an entry market for this emerging technology avoiding the problem of hydrogen infrastructure. This article presents a 1 kW low temperature PEM fuel cell system with fuel processor, the system is fueled by a mixture of methanol and water that is converted into hydrogen rich gas using a steam reformer. A complete system model including a fluidic fuel processor model containing evaporation, steam reformer, hydrogen filter, combustion, as well as a multi-domain fuel cell model is introduced. Experiments are performed with an IDATECH FCS1200 trademark fuel cell system. The results of modeling and experimentation show good results, namely with regard to fuel cell current and voltage as well as hydrogen production and pressure. The system is auto sufficient and shows an efficiency of 25.12%. The presented work is a step towards a complete system model, needed to develop a well adapted system control assuring optimized system efficiency. (author)

A low-cost viscometer based on a permanent magnet dc motor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rabani, Amir; Challis, Richard

2013-01-01

This paper proposes a pragmatic approach to, and a feasibility study of, a very low cost instrument for on-line and in situ viscosity measurement for engineering applications. It is a simple rotational instrument based on the mixer technique. It utilizes a permanent magnet dc (PMDC) motor which drives a propeller immersed in the test fluid. The viscosity is derived from the motor current when the motor is connected to a fixed supply voltage. The theory which relates PMDC motor current to the resistance to the rotational movement of a body due to the viscosity of the liquid under the test is developed. It is believed that the system provides the basis for a new generation of inexpensive viscometers for process and storage environments. (paper)

Acceleration of iterative tomographic reconstruction using graphics processors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Belzunce, M.A.; Osorio, A.; Verrastro, C.A.

2009-01-01

Using iterative algorithms for image reconstruction in 3 D Positron Emission Tomography has shown to produce images with better quality than analytical methods. How ever, these algorithms are computationally expensive. New Graphic Processor Units (GPU) provides high performance at low cost and also programming tools that make possible to execute parallel algorithms easily in scientific applications. In this work, we try to achieve an acceleration of image reconstruction algorithms in 3 D PET by using a GPU. A parallel implementation of the algorithm ML-EM 3 D was developed using Siddon algorithm as Projector and Back-projector. Results show that accelerations of more than one order of magnitude can be achieved, keeping similar image quality. (author)

MPS beam control software architecture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krauter, K.; Crane, M.

1993-01-01

The new Machine Protection System (MPS) now being tested at SLAC has a beam control subsystem resident in processors located close to the beam monitoring devices within the machine. There are two types of beam control micros: Algorithm Processors (AP's) which collect and evaluate data from monitoring devices, and a Supervisor (SUPE) which collects and evaluates data from all the AP's. The SUPE also receives the global machine beamcode indicating beam presence, and passes it on to the AP's. The SUPE receives the beamcode pattern from the Master Pattern Generator (MPG) via a shared-memory communication link. MIL-1553 serial communication is used between the SUPE and the AP's, and between the AP's and the monitoring devices. Multitasking software is used to allow high priority handling of data evaluation and low priority handling of host/user interfacing and event reporting. Pipelining of data between acquisition and evaluation and reporting is used to accommodate the processing capacity, while still supporting full processing at the 36OHz broadcast rate of the beamcode pattern

MPS beam control software architecture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krauter, K.; Crane, M.

1993-04-01

The new Machine Protection System (MPS) now being tested at SLAC has a beam control subsystem resident in processors located close to the beam monitoring devices within the machine. There are two types of beam control micros: Algorithm Processors (AP's) which collect and evaluate data from monitoring devices, and a Supervisor (SUPE) which collects and evaluates data from all the AP's. The SUPE also receives the global machine beamcode indicating beam presence, and passes it on to the AP's. The SUPE receives the beamcode pattern from the Master Pattern Generator (MPG) via a shared-memory communication link. MIL-1553 serial communication is used between the SUPE and the AP's, and between the AP's and the monitoring devices. Multitasking software is used to allow high priority handling of data evaluation and low priority handling of host/user interfacing and event reporting. Pipelining of data between acquisition and evaluation and reporting is used to accomodate the processing capacity, while still supporting full processing at the 360Hz broadcast rate of the beamcode pattern

Analysis of the control structures for an integrated ethanol processor for proton exchange membrane fuel cell systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Biset, S; Nieto Deglioumini, L; Basualdo, M [GIAIP-CIFASIS (UTN-FRRo-CONICET-UPCAM-UNR), BV. 27 de Febrero 210 Bis, S2000EZP Rosario (Argentina); Garcia, V M; Serra, M [Institut de Robotica i Informatica Industrial, C. Llorens i Artigas 4-6, 08028 Barcelona (Spain)

2009-07-01

The aim of this work is to investigate which would be a good preliminary plantwide control structure for the process of Hydrogen production from bioethanol to be used in a proton exchange membrane (PEM) accounting only steady-state information. The objective is to keep the process under optimal operation point, that is doing energy integration to achieve the maximum efficiency. Ethanol, produced from renewable feedstocks, feeds a fuel processor investigated for steam reforming, followed by high- and low-temperature shift reactors and preferential oxidation, which are coupled to a polymeric fuel cell. Applying steady-state simulation techniques and using thermodynamic models the performance of the complete system with two different control structures have been evaluated for the most typical perturbations. A sensitivity analysis for the key process variables together with the rigorous operability requirements for the fuel cell are taking into account for defining acceptable plantwide control structure. This is the first work showing an alternative control structure applied to this kind of process. (author)

A low-cost multimodal head-mounted display system for neuroendoscopic surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Xinghua; Zheng, Yi; Yao, Shujing; Sun, Guochen; Xu, Bainan; Chen, Xiaolei

2018-01-01

With rapid advances in technology, wearable devices as head-mounted display (HMD) have been adopted for various uses in medical science, ranging from simply aiding in fitness to assisting surgery. We aimed to investigate the feasibility and practicability of a low-cost multimodal HMD system in neuroendoscopic surgery. A multimodal HMD system, mainly consisted of a HMD with two built-in displays, an action camera, and a laptop computer displaying reconstructed medical images, was developed to assist neuroendoscopic surgery. With this intensively integrated system, the neurosurgeon could freely switch between endoscopic image, three-dimensional (3D) reconstructed virtual endoscopy images, and surrounding environment images. Using a leap motion controller, the neurosurgeon could adjust or rotate the 3D virtual endoscopic images at a distance to better understand the positional relation between lesions and normal tissues at will. A total of 21 consecutive patients with ventricular system diseases underwent neuroendoscopic surgery with the aid of this system. All operations were accomplished successfully, and no system-related complications occurred. The HMD was comfortable to wear and easy to operate. Screen resolution of the HMD was high enough for the neurosurgeon to operate carefully. With the system, the neurosurgeon might get a better comprehension on lesions by freely switching among images of different modalities. The system had a steep learning curve, which meant a quick increment of skill with it. Compared with commercially available surgical assistant instruments, this system was relatively low-cost. The multimodal HMD system is feasible, practical, helpful, and relatively cost efficient in neuroendoscopic surgery.

Prosthetic design directives: Low-cost hands within reach.

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, G K; Rosendo, A; Stopforth, R

2017-07-01

Although three million people around the world suffer from the lack of one or both upper limbs 80% of this number is located within developing countries. While prosthetic prices soar with technology 3D printing and low cost electronics present a sensible solution for those that cannot afford expensive prosthetics. The electronic and control design of a low-cost prosthetic hand, the Touch Hand II, is discussed. This paper shows that sensorless techniques can be used to reduce design complexities, costs, and provide easier access to the electronics. A closing and opening finite state machine (COFSM) was developed to handle the actuated digit joint control state and a supervisory switching control scheme, used for speed and grip strength control. Three torque and speed settings were created to be preset for specific grasps. The hand was able to replicate ten frequently used grasps and grip some common objects. Future work is necessary to enable a user to control it with myoelectric signals (MESs) and to solve operational problems related to electromagnetic interference (EMI).

A UNIX-based prototype biomedical virtual image processor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fahy, J.B.; Kim, Y.

1987-01-01

The authors have developed a multiprocess virtual image processor for the IBM PC/AT, in order to maximize image processing software portability for biomedical applications. An interprocess communication scheme, based on two-way metacode exchange, has been developed and verified for this purpose. Application programs call a device-independent image processing library, which transfers commands over a shared data bridge to one or more Autonomous Virtual Image Processors (AVIP). Each AVIP runs as a separate process in the UNIX operating system, and implements the device-independent functions on the image processor to which it corresponds. Application programs can control multiple image processors at a time, change the image processor configuration used at any time, and are completely portable among image processors for which an AVIP has been implemented. Run-time speeds have been found to be acceptable for higher level functions, although rather slow for lower level functions, owing to the overhead associated with sending commands and data over the shared data bridge

Addressing Thermal and Performance Variability Issues in Dynamic Processors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yoshii, Kazutomo [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Llopis, Pablo [Univ. Carlos III de Madrid (Spain); Zhang, Kaicheng [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States); Luo, Yingyi [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States); Ogrenci-Memik, Seda [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States); Memik, Gokhan [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States); Sankaran, Rajesh [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Beckman, Pete [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

2017-03-01

As CMOS scaling nears its end, parameter variations (process, temperature and voltage) are becoming a major concern. To overcome parameter variations and provide stability, modern processors are becoming dynamic, opportunistically adjusting voltage and frequency based on thermal and energy constraints, which negatively impacts traditional bulk-synchronous parallelism-minded hardware and software designs. As node-level architecture is growing in complexity, implementing variation control mechanisms only with hardware can be a challenging task. In this paper we investigate a software strategy to manage hardwareinduced variations, leveraging low-level monitoring/controlling mechanisms.

Hardware Realization of an FPGA Processor - Operating System Call Offload and Experiences

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hindborg, Andreas Erik; Karlsson, Sven

2014-01-01

core that can be integrated in many signal and data processing platforms on FPGAs. We also show how we allow the processor to use operating system services. For a set of SPLASH-2 and SPEC2006 benchmarks we show an speedup of up to 64% over a similar Xilinx MicroBlaze implementation while using 27...

Thin film silicon modules: contributions to low cost industrial production

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shah, A. [Universite de Neuchatel, Neuchatel (Switzerland)

2005-07-01

This final report for the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) discusses the research work done during the two-year period 2003-04 at the Thin-Film Solar Cell Laboratory of the Institute of Microtechnology (IMT) at the University of Neuchatel in Switzerland. The transition from fundamental research work to concrete industrialisation issues, and changes within the research staff are discussed. The main results of the work done are presented, including basic techniques for the production of p-i-n solar cells on glass, new technologies for the deposition of n-i-p cells on low-cost flexible substrates and the optimisation of zinc oxide deposition methods. The key role played by substrate chemistry and roughness in the nucleation and growth of micro-crystalline silicon layers is looked at and diagnostic tools for the analysis of micro-crystalline solar cells are discussed.

Reduced power processor requirements for the 30-cm diameter HG ion thruster

Science.gov (United States)

Rawlin, V. K.

1979-01-01

The characteristics of power processors strongly impact the overall performance and cost of electric propulsion systems. A program was initiated to evaluate simplifications of the thruster-power processor interface requirements. The power processor requirements are mission dependent with major differences arising for those missions which require a nearly constant thruster operating point (typical of geocentric and some inbound planetary missions) and those requiring operation over a large range of input power (such as outbound planetary missions). This paper describes the results of tests which have indicated that as many as seven of the twelve power supplies may be eliminated from the present Functional Model Power Processor used with 30-cm diameter Hg ion thrusters.

Low-Cost Energy-Efficient 3-D Nano-Spikes-Based Electric Cell Lysis Chips

KAUST Repository

Riaz, Kashif

2017-05-04

Electric cell lysis (ECL) is a promising technique to be integrated with portable lab-on-a-chip without lysing agent due to its simplicity and fast processing. ECL is usually limited by the requirements of high power/voltage and costly fabrication. In this paper, we present low-cost 3-D nano-spikes-based ECL (NSP-ECL) chips for efficient cell lysis at low power consumption. Highly ordered High-Aspect-Ratio (HAR). NSP arrays with controllable dimensions were fabricated on commercial aluminum foils through scalable and electrochemical anodization and etching. The optimized multiple pulse protocols with minimized undesirable electrochemical reactions (gas and bubble generation), common on micro parallel-plate ECL chips. Due to the scalability of fabrication process, 3-D NSPs were fabricated on small chips as well as on 4-in wafers. Phase diagram was constructed by defining critical electric field to induce cell lysis and for cell lysis saturation Esat to define non-ECL and ECL regions for different pulse parameters. NSP-ECL chips have achieved excellent cell lysis efficiencies ηlysis (ca 100%) at low applied voltages (2 V), 2~3 orders of magnitude lower than that of conventional systems. The energy consumption of NSP-ECL chips was 0.5-2 mJ/mL, 3~9 orders of magnitude lower as compared with the other methods (5J/mL-540kJ/mL). [2016-0305

Low-cost USB interface for operant research using Arduino and Visual Basic.

Science.gov (United States)

Escobar, Rogelio; Pérez-Herrera, Carlos A

2015-03-01

This note describes the design of a low-cost interface using Arduino microcontroller boards and Visual Basic programming for operant conditioning research. The board executes one program in Arduino programming language that polls the state of the inputs and generates outputs in an operant chamber. This program communicates through a USB port with another program written in Visual Basic 2010 Express Edition running on a laptop, desktop, netbook computer, or even a tablet equipped with Windows operating system. The Visual Basic program controls schedules of reinforcement and records real-time data. A single Arduino board can be used to control a total of 52 inputs/output lines, and multiple Arduino boards can be used to control multiple operant chambers. An external power supply and a series of micro relays are required to control 28-V DC devices commonly used in operant chambers. Instructions for downloading and using the programs to generate simple and concurrent schedules of reinforcement are provided. Testing suggests that the interface is reliable, accurate, and could serve as an inexpensive alternative to commercial equipment. © Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Minimum scale controlled topology optimization and experimental test of a micro thermal actuator

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Heo, S.; Yoon, Gil Ho; Kim, Y.Y.

2008-01-01

This paper is concerned with the optimal topology design, fabrication and test of a micro thermal actuator. Because the minimum scale was controlled during the design optimization process, the production yield rate of the actuator was improved considerably; alternatively, the optimization design ...... tested. The test showed that control over the minimum length scale in the design process greatly improves the yield rate and reduces the performance deviation....... without scale control resulted in a very low yield rate. Using the minimum scale controlling topology design method developed earlier by the authors, micro thermal actuators were designed and fabricated through a MEMS process. Moreover, both their performance and production yield were experimentally...

Low cost sensing technology for type 2 diabetes monitoring

Science.gov (United States)

Sarswat, Prashant; Free, Michael

2015-03-01

Alpha-hydroxybutyrate (2-hydroxybutyrate or α-HB) is becoming more widely recognized as an important metabolic biomarker that has been shown to be highly correlated with prediabetes and other metabolic diseases. In 2012 there were 86 million Americans with prediabetes, many of whom are not aware they have prediabetes, but could be diagnosed and treated to prevent type 2 diabetes if a simple, low-cost, convenient test were available. We have developed new, low-cost, accurate α-HB detection methods that can be used for the detection and monitoring of diseases such as prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, β-cell dysfunction, and early hyperglycemia. The new sensing method utilizes a diol recognition moiety, additives and a photoinitiator to detect α-HB at levels near 1 micro g/l in the presence of serum compounds such as lactic acid, sodium pyruvate, and glucose. The objective of this research is to improve the understanding of the interactions that enhance α-HB detection to enable additional improvements in α-HB detection as well as improvements in other biosensor applications.

Development of a VME multi-processor system for plasma control at the JT-60 Upgrade

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Takahashi, M.; Kurihara, K.; Kawamata, Y.; Akasaka, H.; Kimura, T.

1992-01-01

Design and initial operation results are reported of a VME multi-processor system [1] for plasma control at a large fusion device named 'the JT-60 Upgrade' utilizing three 32-bit MC88100 based RISC computers and VME components. Development of the system was stimulated by faster and more accurate computation requirements for the plasma position and current control. The RISC computers operate at 25 MHz along with two cashe memories named MC88200. We newly developed VME bus modules of up/down counter, analog-to-digital converter and clock pulse generator for measuring magnetic field and coil current and for synchronizing the processing in the three RISCs and direct digital controllers (DDCs) of magnet power supplies. We also evaluated that the speed of the data transfer between the VME bus system and the DDCs through CAMAC highways satisfies the above requirements. In the initial operation of the JT-60 upgrade, it has been proved that the VME multi-processor system well controls the plasma position and current with a sampling period of 250 μsec and a delay of 500 μsec. (author)

Real-time machine vision system using FPGA and soft-core processor

Science.gov (United States)

Malik, Abdul Waheed; Thörnberg, Benny; Meng, Xiaozhou; Imran, Muhammad

2012-06-01

This paper presents a machine vision system for real-time computation of distance and angle of a camera from reference points in the environment. Image pre-processing, component labeling and feature extraction modules were modeled at Register Transfer (RT) level and synthesized for implementation on field programmable gate arrays (FPGA). The extracted image component features were sent from the hardware modules to a soft-core processor, MicroBlaze, for computation of distance and angle. A CMOS imaging sensor operating at a clock frequency of 27MHz was used in our experiments to produce a video stream at the rate of 75 frames per second. Image component labeling and feature extraction modules were running in parallel having a total latency of 13ms. The MicroBlaze was interfaced with the component labeling and feature extraction modules through Fast Simplex Link (FSL). The latency for computing distance and angle of camera from the reference points was measured to be 2ms on the MicroBlaze, running at 100 MHz clock frequency. In this paper, we present the performance analysis, device utilization and power consumption for the designed system. The FPGA based machine vision system that we propose has high frame speed, low latency and a power consumption that is much lower compared to commercially available smart camera solutions.

A new ion detector array and digital-signal-processor-based interface

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Langstaff, D.P.; McGinnity, T.M.; Forbes, D.M.; Birkinshaw, K.; Lawton, M.W.

1994-01-01

A new one-dimensional ion detector array on a silicon chip has been developed for use in mass spectrometry. It is much smaller and simpler than electro-optical arrays currently in use and in addition has a higher resolution and a zero noise level. The array consists of a one-dimensional array of metal strips (electrodes) with a pitch of 25 μm on the top surface of a silicon chip, each electrode having its own charge pulse sensor, 8-bit counter and control/interface circuitry. The chip is mounted on a ceramic substrate and is preceded by a micro-channel plate electron multiplier. Chips are butted to give a longer array. Test results show a stable operating region. A digital-signal-processor-based interface is described, which controls the mode of operation and reads the accumulated array data at the maximum rate to avoid counter overflow. (author)

A new ion detector array and digital-signal-processor-based interface

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Langstaff, D.P.; McGinnity, T.M.; Forbes, D.M.; Birkinshaw, K. (University Coll. of Wales, Aberystwyth (United Kingdom). Dept. of Physics); Lawton, M.W. (University of Wales Aberystwyth (United Kingdom). Dept. of Computer Science)

1994-04-01

A new one-dimensional ion detector array on a silicon chip has been developed for use in mass spectrometry. It is much smaller and simpler than electro-optical arrays currently in use and in addition has a higher resolution and a zero noise level. The array consists of a one-dimensional array of metal strips (electrodes) with a pitch of 25 [mu]m on the top surface of a silicon chip, each electrode having its own charge pulse sensor, 8-bit counter and control/interface circuitry. The chip is mounted on a ceramic substrate and is preceded by a micro-channel plate electron multiplier. Chips are butted to give a longer array. Test results show a stable operating region. A digital-signal-processor-based interface is described, which controls the mode of operation and reads the accumulated array data at the maximum rate to avoid counter overflow. (author).

Evaluating the Hydrologic Performance of Low Impact Development Scenarios in a Micro Urban Catchment

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Chunlin; Liu, Miao; Hu, Yuanman; Han, Rongqing; Shi, Tuo; Qu, Xiuqi; Wu, Yilin

2018-01-01

As urbanization progresses, increasingly impervious surfaces have changed the hydrological processes in cities and resulted in a major challenge for urban stormwater control. This study uses the urban stormwater model to evaluate the performance and costs of low impact development (LID) scenarios in a micro urban catchment. Rainfall-runoff data of three rainfall events were used for model calibration and validation. The pre-developed (PreDev) scenario, post-developed (PostDev) scenario, and three LID scenarios were used to evaluate the hydrologic performance of LID measures. Using reduction in annual runoff as the goal, the best solutions for each LID scenario were selected using cost-effectiveness curves. The simulation results indicated that the three designed LID scenarios could effectively reduce annual runoff volumes and pollutant loads compared with the PostDev scenario. The most effective scenario (MaxPerf) reduced annual runoff by 53.4%, followed by the sponge city (SpoPerf, 51.5%) and economy scenarios (EcoPerf, 43.1%). The runoff control efficiency of the MaxPerf and SpoPerf scenarios increased by 23.9% and 19.5%, respectively, when compared with the EcoPerf scenario; however, the costs increased by 104% and 83.6%. The reduction rates of four pollutants (TSS, TN, TP, and COD) under the MaxPerf scenario were 59.8–61.1%, followed by SpoPerf (53.9–58.3%) and EcoPerf (42.3–45.4%), and the costs of the three scenarios were 3.74, 3.47 and 1.83 million yuan, respectively. These results can provide guidance to urban stormwater managers in future urban planning to improve urban water security. PMID:29401747

Low-Cost GRIN-Lens-Based Nephelometric Turbidity Sensing in the Range of 0.1-1000 NTU.

Science.gov (United States)

Metzger, Michael; Konrad, Alexander; Blendinger, Felix; Modler, Andreas; Meixner, Alfred J; Bucher, Volker; Brecht, Marc

2018-04-06

Turbidity sensing is very common in the control of drinking water. Furthermore, turbidity measurements are applied in the chemical (e.g., process monitoring), pharmaceutical (e.g., drug discovery), and food industries (e.g., the filtration of wine and beer). The most common measurement technique is nephelometric turbidimetry. A nephelometer is a device for measuring the amount of scattered light of suspended particles in a liquid by using a light source and a light detector orientated in 90° to each other. Commercially available nephelometers cost usually-depending on the measurable range, reliability, and precision-thousands of euros. In contrast, our new developed GRIN-lens-based nephelometer, called GRINephy, combines low costs with excellent reproducibility and precision, even at very low turbidity levels, which is achieved by its ability to rotate the sample. Thereby, many cuvette positions can be measured, which results in a more precise average value for the turbidity calculated by an algorithm, which also eliminates errors caused by scratches and contaminations on the cuvettes. With our compact and cheap Arduino-based sensor, we are able to measure in the range of 0.1-1000 NTU and confirm the ISO 7027-1:2016 for low turbidity values.

Low-parachor solvents extraction and thermostated micro-thin-layer chromatography separation for fast screening and classification of spirulina from pharmaceutical formulations and food samples.

Science.gov (United States)

Zarzycki, Paweł K; Zarzycka, Magdalena B; Clifton, Vicki L; Adamski, Jerzy; Głód, Bronisław K

2011-08-19

The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the separation and detection capability of eco-friendly micro-TLC technique for the classification of spirulina and selected herbs from pharmaceutical and food products. Target compounds were extracted using relatively low-parachor liquids. A number of the spirulina samples which originated from pharmaceutical formulations and food products, were isolated using a simple one step extraction with small volume of methanol, acetone or tetrahydrofuran. Herb samples rich in chlorophyll dyes were analyzed as reference materials. Quantitative data derived from micro-plates under visible light conditions and after iodine staining were explored using chemometrics tools including cluster analysis and principal components analysis. Using this method we could easily distinguish genuine spirulina and non-spirulina samples as well as fresh from expired commercial products and furthermore, we could identify some biodegradation peaks appearing on micro-TLC profiles. This methodology can be applied as a fast screening or fingerprinting tool for the classification of genuine spirulina and herb samples and in particular may be used commercially for the rapid quality control screening of products. Furthermore, this approach allows low-cost fractionation of target substances including cyanobacteria pigments in raw biological or environmental samples for preliminary chemotaxonomic investigations. Due to the low consumption of the mobile phase (usually less than 1 mL per run), this method can be considered as environmentally friendly analytical tool, which may be an alternative for fingerprinting protocols based on HPLC machines and simple separation systems involving planar micro-fluidic or micro-chip devices. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Optimal control of a head-of-line processor sharing model with regular and opportunity customers

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wijk, van A.C.C.

2011-01-01

Motivated by a workload control setting, we study a model where two types of customers are served by a single server according to the head-of-line processor sharing discipline. Regular customers and opportunity customers are arriving to the system according to two independent Poisson processes, each

Design and Testing of a Low Cost PID Controller Combined with Inverse Derivative Control Action and Its Application in Voltage Control Systems of DC Generator

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Subrata CHATTOPADHYAY

2008-01-01

Full Text Available A single PID controller in a process control loop may suffer from high frequency oscillations without offset or low frequency oscillation with offset. An inverse derivative control action can eliminate both of these errors. In the present paper, a low cost operational amplifier based PID controller with inverse derivative control action has been described. Its transfer function has been derived and is found to be identical with the form already derived by other workers. It has been tested with a process plant analogue and implemented in the voltage control system of a DC generator. Its transfer function along with its characteristics in a process plant analogue and the load characteristics of DC generator with and without this controller have been determined experimentally and reported in this paper.

Progressive high-load strength training compared with general low-load exercises in patients with rotator cuff tendinopathy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ingwersen, Kim G; Christensen, Robin; Sørensen, Lilli

2015-01-01

of this trial is to compare the efficacy of progressive high-load exercises with traditional low-load exercises in patients with rotator cuff tendinopathy. Methods/Design: The current study is a randomised, participant- and assessor-blinded, controlled multicentre trial. A total of 260 patients with rotator...... cuff tendinopathy will be recruited from three outpatient shoulder departments in Denmark, and randomised to either 12 weeks of progressive high-load strength training or to general low-load exercises. Patients will receive six individually guided exercise sessions with a physiotherapist and perform...

A low cost, microprocessor-based battery charge controller

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pulfrey, D L; Hacker, J [Pulfrey Solar Inc., Vancouver, BC (Canada)

1990-01-01

This report describes the design, construction, testing, and evaluation of a microprocessor-based battery charge controller that uses charge integration as the method of battery state-of-charge estimation. The controller is intended for use in medium-size (100-1000W) photovoltaic systems that employ 12V lead-acid batteries for charge storage. The controller regulates the charge flow to the battery and operates in three, automatically-determined modes, namely: charge, equalize, and float. The prototype controller is modular in nature and can handle charge/discharge currents of magnitude up to 80A, depending on the number of circuit boards employed. Evaluation tests and field trials have shown the controller to be very accurate and reliable. Based on the cost of the prototype, it appears that an original equipment manufacturer's selling price of $400 for a 40A (500W) unit may be realistic. 18 figs., 2 tabs.

Cost-Effectiveness of Aflatoxin Control Methods: Economic Incentives

Science.gov (United States)

Multiple sectors in U.S. crop industries – growers, elevators, handlers/shellers, processors, distributors, and consumers – are affected by aflatoxin contamination of commodities, and have the potential to control it. Aflatoxin control methods at both preharvest and postharvest levels have been dev...

Monitoring with new microprocessor cuts cost of control system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Maehling, K L

1985-08-01

Programmable logic controllers (PLC) were originally developed as an alternative to relays, counters and timers for sequential and interlock control systems. They are now also used as part of distributive control systems which include diagnostic monitoring functions. The paper describes how a wiring scheme can be simplified and installation costs reduced by incorporating a newly-developed microprocessor-based monitoring device as an interface between remote devices and a PLC. An industrial application, the 400 tph coal handling facility at Bowater Southern Paper Co's mill in Calhoun, Tennessee, is considered. The control system design is outlined, the micro-monitor is described and the benefits of simplicity are stated in the paper.

Air Muscle Actuated Low Cost Humanoid Hand

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter Scarfe

2008-11-01

Full Text Available The control of humanoid robot hands has historically been expensive due to the cost of precision actuators. This paper presents the design and implementation of a low-cost air muscle actuated humanoid hand developed at Curtin University of Technology. This hand offers 10 individually controllable degrees of freedom ranging from the elbow to the fingers, with overall control handled through a computer GUI. The hand is actuated through 20 McKibben-style air muscles, each supplied by a pneumatic pressure-balancing valve that allows for proportional control to be achieved with simple and inexpensive components. The hand was successfully able to perform a number of human-equivalent tasks, such as grasping and relocating objects.

Air Muscle Actuated Low Cost Humanoid Hand

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter Scarfe

2006-06-01

Full Text Available The control of humanoid robot hands has historically been expensive due to the cost of precision actuators. This paper presents the design and implementation of a low-cost air muscle actuated humanoid hand developed at Curtin University of Technology. This hand offers 10 individually controllable degrees of freedom ranging from the elbow to the fingers, with overall control handled through a computer GUI. The hand is actuated through 20 McKibben-style air muscles, each supplied by a pneumatic pressure-balancing valve that allows for proportional control to be achieved with simple and inexpensive components. The hand was successfully able to perform a number of human-equivalent tasks, such as grasping and relocating objects.

Acoustooptic linear algebra processors - Architectures, algorithms, and applications

Science.gov (United States)

Casasent, D.

1984-01-01

Architectures, algorithms, and applications for systolic processors are described with attention to the realization of parallel algorithms on various optical systolic array processors. Systolic processors for matrices with special structure and matrices of general structure, and the realization of matrix-vector, matrix-matrix, and triple-matrix products and such architectures are described. Parallel algorithms for direct and indirect solutions to systems of linear algebraic equations and their implementation on optical systolic processors are detailed with attention to the pipelining and flow of data and operations. Parallel algorithms and their optical realization for LU and QR matrix decomposition are specifically detailed. These represent the fundamental operations necessary in the implementation of least squares, eigenvalue, and SVD solutions. Specific applications (e.g., the solution of partial differential equations, adaptive noise cancellation, and optimal control) are described to typify the use of matrix processors in modern advanced signal processing.

Novel Low Cost, High Reliability Wind Turbine Drivetrain

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chobot, Anthony; Das, Debarshi; Mayer, Tyler; Markey, Zach; Martinson, Tim; Reeve, Hayden; Attridge, Paul; El-Wardany, Tahany

2012-09-13

Clipper Windpower, in collaboration with United Technologies Research Center, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Hamilton Sundstrand Corporation, developed a low-cost, deflection-compliant, reliable, and serviceable chain drive speed increaser. This chain and sprocket drivetrain design offers significant breakthroughs in the areas of cost and serviceability and addresses the key challenges of current geared and direct-drive systems. The use of gearboxes has proven to be challenging; the large torques and bending loads associated with use in large multi-MW wind applications have generally limited demonstrated lifetime to 8-10 years [1]. The large cost of gearbox replacement and the required use of large, expensive cranes can result in gearbox replacement costs on the order of $1M, representing a significant impact to overall cost of energy (COE). Direct-drive machines eliminate the gearbox, thereby targeting increased reliability and reduced life-cycle cost. However, the slow rotational speeds require very large and costly generators, which also typically have an undesirable dependence on expensive rare-earth magnet materials and large structural penalties for precise air gap control. The cost of rare-earth materials has increased 20X in the last 8 years representing a key risk to ever realizing the promised cost of energy reductions from direct-drive generators. A common challenge to both geared and direct drive architectures is a limited ability to manage input shaft deflections. The proposed Clipper drivetrain is deflection-compliant, insulating later drivetrain stages and generators from off-axis loads. The system is modular, allowing for all key parts to be removed and replaced without the use of a high capacity crane. Finally, the technology modularity allows for scalability and many possible drivetrain topologies. These benefits enable reductions in drivetrain capital cost by 10.0%, levelized replacement and O&M costs by 26.7%, and overall cost of

14 CFR 121.279 - Control of engine rotation.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Control of engine rotation. 121.279 Section... of engine rotation. (a) Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this section, each airplane must have a means of individually stopping and restarting the rotation of any engine in flight. (b) In the...

Array processor architecture

Science.gov (United States)

Barnes, George H. (Inventor); Lundstrom, Stephen F. (Inventor); Shafer, Philip E. (Inventor)

1983-01-01

A high speed parallel array data processing architecture fashioned under a computational envelope approach includes a data base memory for secondary storage of programs and data, and a plurality of memory modules interconnected to a plurality of processing modules by a connection network of the Omega gender. Programs and data are fed from the data base memory to the plurality of memory modules and from hence the programs are fed through the connection network to the array of processors (one copy of each program for each processor). Execution of the programs occur with the processors operating normally quite independently of each other in a multiprocessing fashion. For data dependent operations and other suitable operations, all processors are instructed to finish one given task or program branch before all are instructed to proceed in parallel processing fashion on the next instruction. Even when functioning in the parallel processing mode however, the processors are not locked-step but execute their own copy of the program individually unless or until another overall processor array synchronization instruction is issued.

Real time processor for array speckle interferometry

Science.gov (United States)

Chin, Gordon; Florez, Jose; Borelli, Renan; Fong, Wai; Miko, Joseph; Trujillo, Carlos

1989-02-01

The authors are constructing a real-time processor to acquire image frames, perform array flat-fielding, execute a 64 x 64 element two-dimensional complex FFT (fast Fourier transform) and average the power spectrum, all within the 25 ms coherence time for speckles at near-IR (infrared) wavelength. The processor will be a compact unit controlled by a PC with real-time display and data storage capability. This will provide the ability to optimize observations and obtain results on the telescope rather than waiting several weeks before the data can be analyzed and viewed with offline methods. The image acquisition and processing, design criteria, and processor architecture are described.

Flow control of micro-ramps on supersonic forward-facing step flow

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Qing-Hu; Zhu Tao; Wu Anping; Yi Shihe

2016-01-01

The effects of the micro-ramps on supersonic turbulent flow over a forward-facing step (FFS) was experimentally investigated in a supersonic low-noise wind tunnel at Mach number 3 using nano-tracer planar laser scattering (NPLS) and particle image velocimetry (PIV) techniques. High spatiotemporal resolution images and velocity fields of supersonic flow over the testing model were captured. The fine structures and their spatial evolutionary characteristics without and with the micro-ramps were revealed and compared. The large-scale structures generated by the micro-ramps can survive the downstream FFS flowfield. The micro-ramps control on the flow separation and the separation shock unsteadiness was investigated by PIV results. With the micro-ramps, the reduction in the range of the reversal flow zone in streamwise direction is 50% and the turbulence intensity is also reduced. Moreover, the reduction in the average separated region and in separation shock unsteadiness are 47% and 26%, respectively. The results indicate that the micro-ramps are effective in reducing the flow separation and the separation shock unsteadiness. (paper)

Control of non-linear actuator of artificial muscles for the use in low-cost robotics prosthetics limbs

Science.gov (United States)

Anis Atikah, Nurul; Yeng Weng, Leong; Anuar, Adzly; Chien Fat, Chau; Sahari, Khairul Salleh Mohamed; Zainal Abidin, Izham

2017-10-01

Currently, the methods of actuating robotic-based prosthetic limbs are moving away from bulky actuators to more fluid materials such as artificial muscles. The main disadvantages of these artificial muscles are their high cost of manufacturing, low-force generation, cumbersome and complex controls. A recent discovery into using super coiled polymer (SCP) proved to have low manufacturing costs, high force generation, compact and simple controls. Nevertheless, the non-linear controls still exists due to the nature of heat-based actuation, which is hysteresis. This makes position control difficult. Using electrically conductive devices allows for very quick heating, but not quick cooling. This research tries to solve the problem by using peltier devices, which can effectively heat and cool the SCP, hence giving way to a more precise control. The peltier device does not actively introduce more energy to a volume of space, which the coiled heating does; instead, it acts as a heat pump. Experiments were conducted to test the feasibility of using peltier as an actuating method on different diameters of nylon fishing strings. Based on these experiments, the performance characteristics of the strings were plotted, which could be used to control the actuation of the string efficiently in the future.

High-Speed General Purpose Genetic Algorithm Processor.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoseini Alinodehi, Seyed Pourya; Moshfe, Sajjad; Saber Zaeimian, Masoumeh; Khoei, Abdollah; Hadidi, Khairollah

2016-07-01

In this paper, an ultrafast steady-state genetic algorithm processor (GAP) is presented. Due to the heavy computational load of genetic algorithms (GAs), they usually take a long time to find optimum solutions. Hardware implementation is a significant approach to overcome the problem by speeding up the GAs procedure. Hence, we designed a digital CMOS implementation of GA in [Formula: see text] process. The proposed processor is not bounded to a specific application. Indeed, it is a general-purpose processor, which is capable of performing optimization in any possible application. Utilizing speed-boosting techniques, such as pipeline scheme, parallel coarse-grained processing, parallel fitness computation, parallel selection of parents, dual-population scheme, and support for pipelined fitness computation, the proposed processor significantly reduces the processing time. Furthermore, by relying on a built-in discard operator the proposed hardware may be used in constrained problems that are very common in control applications. In the proposed design, a large search space is achievable through the bit string length extension of individuals in the genetic population by connecting the 32-bit GAPs. In addition, the proposed processor supports parallel processing, in which the GAs procedure can be run on several connected processors simultaneously.

Anteroposterior glide versus rotating platform low contact stress (LCS knee arthroplasty: a randomised controlled trial

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wynn-Jones Charles

2007-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Fifty thousand knee replacements are performed annually in the UK at an estimated cost of £150 million. Post-operative improvement depends on a number of factors including implant design and patient associated factors. To our knowledge there are no published study's comparing the results of AP glide and rotating platform designs of LCS knee arthroplasty. Therefore we feel that a study is required to investigate and compare the effects of two types of LCS total knee arthroplasty on joint proprioception and range of motion. Methods/Design Patients will be randomised to receive either a LCS AP glide or Rotating platform prosthesis. Clinical scores (Oxford knee score, American knee society score, EuroQol, range of motion and proprioception will be assessed prior to and at 3,6, 12 and 24 months after the operation. Proprioception will be assessed in terms of absolute error angle (mean difference between the target angle and the response angle. Knee angles will be measured in degrees using an electromagnetic tracking device, Polhemus 3Space Fastrak that detects positions of sensors placed on the test limb. Student's t-test will be used to compare the mean of two groups. Discussion Evidence is lacking concerning the best prosthesis to use for patients undergoing total knee replacement. This pragmatic randomised trial will test the null hypothesis that anteroposterior glide LCS knee arthroplasty does not result in better post operative knee motion and proprioception as compared to rotating platform LCS knee. Trial Registration ISRCTN52943804

Rotating structures in low temperature magnetized plasmas - Insight from particle simulations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jean-Pierre eBoeuf

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The EXB configuration of various low temperature plasma devices is often responsible for the formation of rotating structures and instabilities leading to anomalous electron transport across the magnetic field. In these devices, electrons are strongly magnetized while ions are weakly or not magnetized and this leads to specific physical phenomena that are not present in fusion plasmas where both electrons and ions are strongly magnetized. In this paper we describe basic phenomena involving rotating plasma structures in simple configurations of low temperature EXB plasma devices on the basis of PIC-MCC (Particle-In-Cell Monte Carlo Collisions simulations. We focus on three examples: rotating electron vortices and rotating spokes in cylindrical magnetrons, and azimuthal electron-cyclotron drift instability in Hall thrusters. The simulations are not intended to give definite answers to the many physics issues related to low temperature EXB plasma devices but are used to illustrate and discuss some of the basic questions that need further studies.

Demonstration Stirling Engine based Micro-CHP with ultra-low emissions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Oeberg, Rolf; Olsson, Fredrik [Carl Bro Energikonsult AB (Sweden); Paalsson, Magnus [Lund Inst. of Technology (Sweden)

2004-03-01

tests in Goeteborg were not quite successful in the respect that the number of accumulated operating hours, 2,100, was far below the expected. The unit normally also had to be operated at part load. However, this was not due to problems with the Stirling CHP-unit, but mostly was a consequence of 'external' factors not actually related to the technology itself. Many problems, especially during the first months of operation, were caused by interference between the existing external control system for the hot water system and gas fired boiler and the internal Stirling control system, which resulted in frequent shut-down of the Stirling unit. Some problems were also experienced by the internal control system causing shutdowns without any detectable reasons. When the unit was in operation, it performed well and emission and performance data were quite satisfying. No problems were experienced with the new type of combustion system, which operated very well, although a minor modification had to be made. Some minor modifications should also be done to the internal control system in order to make it easier to handle. The 'external' problems mentioned above could easily be solved in a commercial installation. The feasibility study shows that the market conditions in Sweden for this type of 'micro CHP-units' presently isn't too prosperous. This is mainly due to the rather high investment cost and low electricity prices in Sweden, but the situation in other parts of Europe is probably a lot better in the later respect. The investment cost including installation is approximately 270 k SEK (30 k EUR) and the cost for the electricity produced is about 1,5 SEK/kWh{sub el} (0,16 EUR/kW{sub el}). (6 % interest, 10 years depreciation, gas price 480 SEK/MWh - 52 EUR/MWh.) This is comparable to other micro-CHP technologies. The short operating time, mostly on part load, on site limitates the conclusions that can be made on the long-time availability and

Green Secure Processors: Towards Power-Efficient Secure Processor Design

Science.gov (United States)

Chhabra, Siddhartha; Solihin, Yan

With the increasing wealth of digital information stored on computer systems today, security issues have become increasingly important. In addition to attacks targeting the software stack of a system, hardware attacks have become equally likely. Researchers have proposed Secure Processor Architectures which utilize hardware mechanisms for memory encryption and integrity verification to protect the confidentiality and integrity of data and computation, even from sophisticated hardware attacks. While there have been many works addressing performance and other system level issues in secure processor design, power issues have largely been ignored. In this paper, we first analyze the sources of power (energy) increase in different secure processor architectures. We then present a power analysis of various secure processor architectures in terms of their increase in power consumption over a base system with no protection and then provide recommendations for designs that offer the best balance between performance and power without compromising security. We extend our study to the embedded domain as well. We also outline the design of a novel hybrid cryptographic engine that can be used to minimize the power consumption for a secure processor. We believe that if secure processors are to be adopted in future systems (general purpose or embedded), it is critically important that power issues are considered in addition to performance and other system level issues. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work to examine the power implications of providing hardware mechanisms for security.

Design and implementation of a medium speed communications interface and protocol for a low cost, refreshed display computer

Science.gov (United States)

Phyne, J. R.; Nelson, M. D.

1975-01-01

The design and implementation of hardware and software systems involved in using a 40,000 bit/second communication line as the connecting link between an IMLAC PDS 1-D display computer and a Univac 1108 computer system were described. The IMLAC consists of two independent processors sharing a common memory. The display processor generates the deflection and beam control currents as it interprets a program contained in the memory; the minicomputer has a general instruction set and is responsible for starting and stopping the display processor and for communicating with the outside world through the keyboard, teletype, light pen, and communication line. The processing time associated with each data byte was minimized by designing the input and output processes as finite state machines which automatically sequence from each state to the next. Several tests of the communication link and the IMLAC software were made using a special low capacity computer grade cable between the IMLAC and the Univac.

Heat dissipation for the Intel Core i5 processor using multiwalled carbon-nanotube-based ethylene glycol

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Thang, Bui Hung; Trinh, Pham Van; Quang, Le Dinh; Khoi, Phan Hong; Minh, Phan Ngoc [Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Ho Chi Minh CIty (Viet Nam); Huong, Nguyen Thi [Hanoi University of Science, Hanoi (Viet Nam); Vietnam National University, Hanoi (Viet Nam)

2014-08-15

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are some of the most valuable materials with high thermal conductivity. The thermal conductivity of individual multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) grown by using chemical vapor deposition is 600 ± 100 Wm{sup -1}K{sup -1} compared with the thermal conductivity 419 Wm{sup -1}K{sup -1} of Ag. Carbon-nanotube-based liquids - a new class of nanomaterials, have shown many interesting properties and distinctive features offering potential in heat dissipation applications for electronic devices, such as computer microprocessor, high power LED, etc. In this work, a multiwalled carbon-nanotube-based liquid was made of well-dispersed hydroxyl-functional multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT-OH) in ethylene glycol (EG)/distilled water (DW) solutions by using Tween-80 surfactant and an ultrasonication method. The concentration of MWCNT-OH in EG/DW solutions ranged from 0.1 to 1.2 gram/liter. The dispersion of the MWCNT-OH-based EG/DW solutions was evaluated by using a Zeta-Sizer analyzer. The MWCNT-OH-based EG/DW solutions were used as coolants in the liquid cooling system for the Intel Core i5 processor. The thermal dissipation efficiency and the thermal response of the system were evaluated by directly measuring the temperature of the micro-processor using the Core Temp software and the temperature sensors built inside the micro-processor. The results confirmed the advantages of CNTs in thermal dissipation systems for computer processors and other high-power electronic devices.

Heat dissipation for the Intel Core i5 processor using multiwalled carbon-nanotube-based ethylene glycol

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thang, Bui Hung; Trinh, Pham Van; Quang, Le Dinh; Khoi, Phan Hong; Minh, Phan Ngoc; Huong, Nguyen Thi

2014-01-01

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are some of the most valuable materials with high thermal conductivity. The thermal conductivity of individual multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) grown by using chemical vapor deposition is 600 ± 100 Wm -1 K -1 compared with the thermal conductivity 419 Wm -1 K -1 of Ag. Carbon-nanotube-based liquids - a new class of nanomaterials, have shown many interesting properties and distinctive features offering potential in heat dissipation applications for electronic devices, such as computer microprocessor, high power LED, etc. In this work, a multiwalled carbon-nanotube-based liquid was made of well-dispersed hydroxyl-functional multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT-OH) in ethylene glycol (EG)/distilled water (DW) solutions by using Tween-80 surfactant and an ultrasonication method. The concentration of MWCNT-OH in EG/DW solutions ranged from 0.1 to 1.2 gram/liter. The dispersion of the MWCNT-OH-based EG/DW solutions was evaluated by using a Zeta-Sizer analyzer. The MWCNT-OH-based EG/DW solutions were used as coolants in the liquid cooling system for the Intel Core i5 processor. The thermal dissipation efficiency and the thermal response of the system were evaluated by directly measuring the temperature of the micro-processor using the Core Temp software and the temperature sensors built inside the micro-processor. The results confirmed the advantages of CNTs in thermal dissipation systems for computer processors and other high-power electronic devices.

Design and implementation of adaptive inverse control algorithm for a micro-hand control system

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wan-Cheng Wang

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The Letter proposes an online tuned adaptive inverse position control algorithm for a micro-hand. First, the configuration of the micro-hand is discussed. Next, a kinematic analysis of the micro-hand is investigated and then the relationship between the rotor position of micro-permanent magnet synchronous motor and the tip of the micro-finger is derived. After that, an online tuned adaptive inverse control algorithm, which includes an adaptive inverse model and an adaptive inverse control, is designed. The online tuned adaptive inverse control algorithm has better performance than the proportional–integral control algorithm does. In addition, to avoid damaging the object during the grasping process, an online force control algorithm is proposed here as well. An embedded micro-computer, cRIO-9024, is used to realise the whole position control algorithm and the force control algorithm by using software. As a result, the hardware circuit is very simple. Experimental results show that the proposed system can provide fast transient responses, good load disturbance responses, good tracking responses and satisfactory grasping responses.

VLSI Design of a Variable-Length FFT/IFFT Processor for OFDM-Based Communication Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jen-Chih Kuo

2003-12-01

Full Text Available The technique of {orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM} is famous for its robustness against frequency-selective fading channel. This technique has been widely used in many wired and wireless communication systems. In general, the {fast Fourier transform (FFT} and {inverse FFT (IFFT} operations are used as the modulation/demodulation kernel in the OFDM systems, and the sizes of FFT/IFFT operations are varied in different applications of OFDM systems. In this paper, we design and implement a variable-length prototype FFT/IFFT processor to cover different specifications of OFDM applications. The cached-memory FFT architecture is our suggested VLSI system architecture to design the prototype FFT/IFFT processor for the consideration of low-power consumption. We also implement the twiddle factor butterfly {processing element (PE} based on the {{coordinate} rotation digital computer (CORDIC} algorithm, which avoids the use of conventional multiplication-and-accumulation unit, but evaluates the trigonometric functions using only add-and-shift operations. Finally, we implement a variable-length prototype FFT/IFFT processor with TSMC 0.35 μm 1P4M CMOS technology. The simulations results show that the chip can perform (64-2048-point FFT/IFFT operations up to 80 MHz operating frequency which can meet the speed requirement of most OFDM standards such as WLAN, ADSL, VDSL (256∼2K, DAB, and 2K-mode DVB.

Probabilistic programmable quantum processors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Buzek, V.; Ziman, M.; Hillery, M.

2004-01-01

We analyze how to improve performance of probabilistic programmable quantum processors. We show how the probability of success of the probabilistic processor can be enhanced by using the processor in loops. In addition, we show that an arbitrary SU(2) transformations of qubits can be encoded in program state of a universal programmable probabilistic quantum processor. The probability of success of this processor can be enhanced by a systematic correction of errors via conditional loops. Finally, we show that all our results can be generalized also for qudits. (Abstract Copyright [2004], Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Smart Energy Management and Control for Fuel Cell Based Micro-Grid Connected Neighborhoods

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dr. Mohammad S. Alam

2006-03-15

Fuel cell power generation promises to be an efficient, pollution-free, reliable power source in both large scale and small scale, remote applications. DOE formed the Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance with the intention of breaking one of the last barriers remaining for cost effective fuel cell power generation. The Alliance’s goal is to produce a core solid-state fuel cell module at a cost of no more than $400 per kilowatt and ready for commercial application by 2010. With their inherently high, 60-70% conversion efficiencies, significantly reduced carbon dioxide emissions, and negligible emissions of other pollutants, fuel cells will be the obvious choice for a broad variety of commercial and residential applications when their cost effectiveness is improved. In a research program funded by the Department of Energy, the research team has been investigating smart fuel cell-operated residential micro-grid communities. This research has focused on using smart control systems in conjunction with fuel cell power plants, with the goal to reduce energy consumption, reduce demand peaks and still meet the energy requirements of any household in a micro-grid community environment. In Phases I and II, a SEMaC was developed and extended to a micro-grid community. In addition, an optimal configuration was determined for a single fuel cell power plant supplying power to a ten-home micro-grid community. In Phase III, the plan is to expand this work to fuel cell based micro-grid connected neighborhoods (mini-grid). The economic implications of hydrogen cogeneration will be investigated. These efforts are consistent with DOE’s mission to decentralize domestic electric power generation and to accelerate the onset of the hydrogen economy. A major challenge facing the routine implementation and use of a fuel cell based mini-grid is the varying electrical demand of the individual micro-grids, and, therefore, analyzing these issues is vital. Efforts are needed to determine

The Serial Link Processor for the Fast TracKer (FTK) processor at ATLAS

CERN Document Server

Andreani, A; The ATLAS collaboration; Beccherle, R; Beretta, M; Cipriani, R; Citraro, S; Citterio, M; Colombo, A; Crescioli, F; Dimas, D; Donati, S; Giannetti, P; Kordas, K; Lanza, A; Liberali, V; Luciano, P; Magalotti, D; Neroutsos, P; Nikolaidis, S; Piendibene, M; Sakellariou, A; Shojaii, S; Sotiropoulou, C-L; Stabile, A

2014-01-01

The Associative Memory (AM) system of the FTK processor has been designed to perform pattern matching using the hit information of the ATLAS silicon tracker. The AM is the heart of the FTK and it finds track candidates at low resolution that are seeds for a full resolution track fitting. To solve the very challenging data traffic problems inside the FTK, multiple designs and tests have been performed. The currently proposed solution is named the “Serial Link Processor” and is based on an extremely powerful network of 2 Gb/s serial links. This paper reports on the design of the Serial Link Processor consisting of the AM chip, an ASIC designed and optimized to perform pattern matching, and two types of boards, the Local Associative Memory Board (LAMB), a mezzanine where the AM chips are mounted, and the Associative Memory Board (AMB), a 9U VME board which holds and exercises four LAMBs. Special relevance will be given to the AMchip design that includes two custom cells optimized for low consumption. We repo...

Comparison of Processor Performance of SPECint2006 Benchmarks of some Intel Xeon Processors

OpenAIRE

Abdul Kareem PARCHUR; Ram Asaray SINGH

2012-01-01

High performance is a critical requirement to all microprocessors manufacturers. The present paper describes the comparison of performance in two main Intel Xeon series processors (Type A: Intel Xeon X5260, X5460, E5450 and L5320 and Type B: Intel Xeon X5140, 5130, 5120 and E5310). The microarchitecture of these processors is implemented using the basis of a new family of processors from Intel starting with the Pentium 4 processor. These processors can provide a performance boost for many ke...

The LASS hardware processor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kunz, P.F.

1976-01-01

The problems of data analysis with hardware processors are reviewed and a description is given of a programmable processor. This processor, the 168/E, has been designed for use in the LASS multi-processor system; it has an execution speed comparable to the IBM 370/168 and uses the subset of IBM 370 instructions appropriate to the LASS analysis task. (Auth.)

Precision analog signal processor for beam position measurements in electron storage rings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hinkson, J.A.; Unser, K.B.

1995-05-01

Beam position monitors (BPM) in electron and positron storage rings have evolved from simple systems composed of beam pickups, coaxial cables, multiplexing relays, and a single receiver (usually a analyzer) into very complex and costly systems of multiple receivers and processors. The older may have taken minutes to measure the circulating beam closed orbit. Today instrumentation designers are required to provide high-speed measurements of the beam orbit, often at the ring revolution frequency. In addition the instruments must have very high accuracy and resolution. A BPM has been developed for the Advanced Light Source (ALS) in Berkeley which features high resolution and relatively low cost. The instrument has a single purpose; to measure position of a stable stored beam. Because the pickup signals are multiplexed into a single receiver, and due to its narrow bandwidth, the receiver is not intended for single-turn studies. The receiver delivers normalized measurements of X and Y position entirely by analog means at nominally 1 V/mm. No computers are involved. No software is required. Bergoz, a French company specializing in precision beam instrumentation, integrated the ALS design m their new BPM analog signal processor module. Performance comparisons were made on the ALS. In this paper we report on the architecture and performance of the ALS prototype BPM

Intelligent Control of Micro Grid: A Big Data-Based Control Center

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Lu; Wang, Yanping; Liu, Li; Wang, Zhiseng

2018-01-01

In this paper, a structure of micro grid system with big data-based control center is introduced. Energy data from distributed generation, storage and load are analized through the control center, and from the results new trends will be predicted and applied as a feedback to optimize the control. Therefore, each step proceeded in micro grid can be adjusted and orgnized in a form of comprehensive management. A framework of real-time data collection, data processing and data analysis will be proposed by employing big data technology. Consequently, a integrated distributed generation and a optimized energy storage and transmission process can be implemented in the micro grid system.

An intelligent control strategy based on ANFIS techniques in order to improve the performance of a low-cost unmanned aerial vehicle vision system

OpenAIRE

Marichal, G. N.; Hernández, A.; Olivares Méndez, Miguel Ángel; Acosta, L.; Campoy Cervera, Pascual

2010-01-01

In this paper, an intelligent control approach based on Neuro-Fuzzy systems is presented. A model of a low-cost vision platform for an unmanned aerial system is taken in the study. A simulation platform including this low-cost vision system and the influence of the helicopter vibrations over this system is shown. The intelligent control approach has been inserted in this simulation platform. Several trials taking these Neuro-Fuzzy systems as a fundamental part of the control strategy have bee...

CFD Studies on Triangular Micro-Vortex Generators in Flow Control

Science.gov (United States)

Yashodhar, V.; Humrutha, G.; Kaushik, M.; Khan, S. A.

2017-03-01

In the present study, the flow characteristics of the commercially used S809 wind turbine airfoil controlled with triangular counter-rotating micro-vortex generators at stall angle of attack of 15 degrees and 10 m/s, 15 m/s and 20 m/s (speed range used in the wind turbine applications) had been computationally investigated. In addition to the controlled airfoil, an uncontrolled airfoil was also studied for the comparison. The modelling and analysis had been carried out using incompressible, Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes equation using Spalart-Allmaras one equation turbulence model. The numerical computations were performed with SIMPLE algorithm. The velocity profiles at different locations on the suction surface were plotted for both uncontrolled and controlled airfoils. The shear stresses exerted on the upper surface of the airfoil in both the configurations were also compared. It is found that the controlled airfoil, the shear stress distribution was greatly increased near to trailing edge of the airfoil revealing the superiority of vortex generators in increasing the efficiency of wind turbine by delaying boundary layer separation. The qualitative results of flow visualization in the spanwise direction also support the quantitative findings of velocity profiles and shear stress distribution.

Effects of Interfaces on Dynamics in Micro-Fluidic Devices: Slip-Boundaries’ Impact on Rotation Characteristics of Polar Liquid Film Motors

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Su-Rong; Liu, Zhong-Qiang; Amos Yinnon, Tamar; Kong, Xiang-Mu

2017-05-01

A new approach for exploring effects of interfaces on polar liquids is presented. Their impact on the polar liquid film motor (PLFM) - a novel micro-fluidic device - is studied. We account for the interface’s impact by modeling slip boundary effects on the PLFM’s electro-hydro-dynamical rotations. Our analytical results show as k={l}s/R increases (with {l}s denoting the slip length resulting from the interface’s impact on the film’s properties, k > -1 and R denoting the film’s radius): (a) PLFMs subsequently exhibit rotation characteristics under “negative-”, “no-”, “partial-” and “perfect-” slip boundary conditions; (b) The maximum value of the linear velocity of the steady rotating film increases linearly and its location approaches the film’s border; (c) The decay of the angular velocities’ dependency on the distance from the center of the film slows down, resulting in a macroscopic flow near the boundary. With our calculated rotation speed distributions consistent with the existing experimental ones, research aiming at fitting computed to measured distributions promises identifying the factors affecting {l}s, e.g., solid-fluid potential interactions and surface roughness. The consistency also is advantageous for optimizing PLFM’s applications as micro-washers, centrifuges, mixers in the lab-on-a-chip. Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. 11302118, 11275112, and Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province under Grant No. ZR2013AQ015

Performance of integrated retainer rings in silicon micro-turbines with thrust style micro-ball bearings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hergert, Robert J; Holmes, Andrew S; Hanrahan, Brendan; Ghodssi, Reza

2013-01-01

This work explores the performance of different silicon retainer ring designs when integrated into silicon micro-turbines (SMTs) incorporating thrust style bearings supported on 500 µm diameter steel balls. Experimental performance curves are presented for SMTs with rotor diameters of 5 mm and 10 mm, each with five different retainer designs varying in mechanical rigidity, ball pocket shape and ball complement. It was found that the different retainer designs yielded different performance curves, with the closed pocket designs consistently requiring lower input power for a given rotation speed, and the most rigid retainers giving the best performance overall. Both 5 mm and 10 mm diameter devices have shown repeatable performance at rotation speeds up to and exceeding 20 000 RPM with input power levels below 2 W, and devices were tested for over 2.5 million revolutions without failure. Retainer rings are commonly used in macro-scale bearings to ensure uniform spacing between the rolling elements. The integration of retainers into micro-bearings could lower costs by reducing the number of balls required for stable operation, and also open up the possibility of ‘smart’ bearings with integrated sensors to monitor the bearing status. (paper)

Development of a solar array drive mechanism for micro-satellite platforms

Science.gov (United States)

Galatis, Giorgos; Guo, Jian; Buursink, Jeroen

2017-10-01

Photovoltaic solar array (PVSA) systems are the most widely used method for spacecraft power generation. However, in many satellite missions, the optimum orientation of the PVSA system is not always compatible with that of the payload orientation. Many methods, have been examined in the past to overcome this problem. Up to date, the most widely used active method for large costly satellites is the Solar Array Drive Mechanism (SADM). The SADM serves as the interface between the satellite body and the PVSA subsystem, enabling the decoupling of their spatial orientation. Nonetheless, there exists a research and development gap for such systems regarding low cost micro-satellites. During the literature study of this paper, individual orbital parameters of various micro-satellites have been extracted and compared to the rotational freedom of the corresponding SADMs used. The findings demonstrated that the implemented SADMs are over designed. It is therefore concluded that these components are not tailored made for each spacecraft mission individually, but rather, exhibit a generic design to full fill a majority of mission profiles and requirements. Motivated by the above analysis, the cardinal objective of the current research is to develop a low cost mechanism that will be precisely tailored for the use of a low Earth orbit (LEO) micro-satellite platform orbiting in altitudes of 500 - 1000km . The design of the mechanism may vary from the existing miniaturized SADMs. For example, the preliminary analysis of the current research suggests, that the conventional use of the slip ring system as the electronic transfer unit can be replaced by a seMI Orientation Unit (MIOU). Systems engineering tools for concept generation and selection have been used. In addition, simulation and mathematical modelling have been implemented on component and system level, to accurately predict the behaviour of the system under various modes of operation. The production and system testing of

A FPGA-Based, Granularity-Variable Neuromorphic Processor and Its Application in a MIMO Real-Time Control System.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Zhen; Ma, Cheng; Zhu, Rong

2017-08-23

Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), including Deep Neural Networks (DNNs), have become the state-of-the-art methods in machine learning and achieved amazing success in speech recognition, visual object recognition, and many other domains. There are several hardware platforms for developing accelerated implementation of ANN models. Since Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) architectures are flexible and can provide high performance per watt of power consumption, they have drawn a number of applications from scientists. In this paper, we propose a FPGA-based, granularity-variable neuromorphic processor (FBGVNP). The traits of FBGVNP can be summarized as granularity variability, scalability, integrated computing, and addressing ability: first, the number of neurons is variable rather than constant in one core; second, the multi-core network scale can be extended in various forms; third, the neuron addressing and computing processes are executed simultaneously. These make the processor more flexible and better suited for different applications. Moreover, a neural network-based controller is mapped to FBGVNP and applied in a multi-input, multi-output, (MIMO) real-time, temperature-sensing and control system. Experiments validate the effectiveness of the neuromorphic processor. The FBGVNP provides a new scheme for building ANNs, which is flexible, highly energy-efficient, and can be applied in many areas.

A FPGA-Based, Granularity-Variable Neuromorphic Processor and Its Application in a MIMO Real-Time Control System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhen Zhang

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs, including Deep Neural Networks (DNNs, have become the state-of-the-art methods in machine learning and achieved amazing success in speech recognition, visual object recognition, and many other domains. There are several hardware platforms for developing accelerated implementation of ANN models. Since Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA architectures are flexible and can provide high performance per watt of power consumption, they have drawn a number of applications from scientists. In this paper, we propose a FPGA-based, granularity-variable neuromorphic processor (FBGVNP. The traits of FBGVNP can be summarized as granularity variability, scalability, integrated computing, and addressing ability: first, the number of neurons is variable rather than constant in one core; second, the multi-core network scale can be extended in various forms; third, the neuron addressing and computing processes are executed simultaneously. These make the processor more flexible and better suited for different applications. Moreover, a neural network-based controller is mapped to FBGVNP and applied in a multi-input, multi-output, (MIMO real-time, temperature-sensing and control system. Experiments validate the effectiveness of the neuromorphic processor. The FBGVNP provides a new scheme for building ANNs, which is flexible, highly energy-efficient, and can be applied in many areas.

An innovative design of small low head hydropower units for low cost decentralized production

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Holmen, E.; Dennehy, T.

1991-01-01

Design allowing turbine operation at heads as low as 1m and operating at a rotational speed of 500 RPM at a flow of 2.6m 3 /s and a runner diameter of 700 mm. This eliminates the need for a gear box and helps in achieving efficiency of 60% in the case of a 21 kW installation at a 1m head site and 85% with a 69 kW 3.2m head site. Present turbine designs for such low head sites are very expensive to produce and have a low efficiency. The design uses an all plastic waterway, guide vane assembly and reinforced plastic runner blades. There will be a short pay-back period, for example 4.5 years in the case of a 21 kW unit and 2.0 years in case of the 69 kW unit. These payback periods assume a cost per kW of 0.00 ECU. Design is attractive for decentralized production. 3 figs

Design and fabrication of self-powered micro-harvesters rotating and vibrated micro-power systems

CERN Document Server

Pan, C T; Lin, Liwei; Chen, Ying-Chung

2013-01-01

Presents the latest methods for designing and fabricating self-powered micro-generators and energy harvester systems Design and Fabrication of Self-Powered Micro-Harvesters introduces the latest trends of self-powered generators and energy harvester systems, including the design, analysis and fabrication of micro power systems. Presented in four distinct parts, the authors explore the design and fabrication of: vibration-induced electromagnetic micro-generators; rotary electromagnetic micro-generators; flexible piezo-micro-generator with various widths; and PVDF electrospunpiezo-energy with

Low Alloy Steel Structures After Welding with Micro-Jet Cooling

OpenAIRE

Węgrzyn T.; Piwnik J.; Hadryś D.; Wszołek Ł.

2017-01-01

The paper focuses on low alloy steel after innovate welding method with micro-jet cooling. Weld metal deposit (WMD) was carried out for welding and for MIG and MAG welding with micro-jet cooling. This method is very promising mainly due to the high amount of AF (acicular ferrite) and low amount of MAC (self-tempered martensite, retained austenite, carbide) phases in WMD. That structure corresponds with very good mechanical properties, ie. high impact toughness of welds at low temperature. Mic...

Assessment of government support for the household adoption of micro-generation systems in Korea

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jeong, Gicheol

2013-01-01

This paper investigates how Korean government support affects household adoption of renewable energy-based micro-generation systems by analyzing household preferences in relation to the costs and benefits of system installation and different kinds of government support. The research adopts a discrete choice experiment approach and focuses on two micro-generation technologies: solar voltaic and solar thermal. Our empirical analysis revealed firstly that households prefer micro-generation systems that have low installation costs but high energy saving benefits and long warranty periods; and secondly that households prefer direct subsidies to low-interest loans. However, we also found that households are reluctant to install photovoltaic or solar thermal systems in reality because they see the cost of system installation as being higher than the benefits they would receive from such installation. In short, while existing government supports are somewhat effective in promoting household adoption of micro-generation systems, there also exists the obstacle that the majority of households are unwilling to install such systems despite government support. Thus several policy improvements, which focus on increasing the benefits and decreasing the installation costs of micro-generation systems, are suggested in this paper. -- Highlights: •We investigate how government support affects household adoption of micro-generation. •We analyze household preferences for the costs and benefits of micro-generation system installation. •System with low install costs but high energy saving benefits and long warranty periods are preferred. •Households prefer direct subsidies to low-interest loans. •But the majority of households are unwilling to install systems despite government support

UA1 upgrade first-level calorimeter trigger processor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bains, N.; Charlton, D.; Ellis, N.; Garvey, J.; Gregory, J.; Jimack, M.P.; Jovanovic, P.; Kenyon, I.R.; Baird, S.A.; Campbell, D.; Cawthraw, M.; Coughlan, J.; Flynn, P.; Galagedera, S.; Grayer, G.; Halsall, R.; Shah, T.P.; Stephens, R.; Eisenhandler, E.; Fensome, I.; Landon, M.

1989-01-01

A new first-level trigger processor has been built for the UA1 experiment on the Cern SppS Collider. The processor exploits the fine granularity of the new UA1 uranium-TMP calorimeter to improve the selectivity of the trigger. The new electron trigger has improved hadron jet rejection, achieved by requiring low energy deposition around the electromagnetic cluster. A missing transverse energy trigger and a total energy trigger have also been implemented. (orig.)

Design and construction of AT89C2051 micro controller based water level indicator for poly tank manufacturers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ashong, Cynthia Ama

2011-08-01

This project is aimed at designing and constructing an AT89C2051 Micro controller Based Water level Indicator by programming a micro controller that has high frequency, logic, clock circuitry and 2.7V to 6V operating range with 5V volts being logic level 1 and 0 Volts being logic level 0 using Assembler language and programming the AT89C2051 Microcontroller using Galep 4 programmer. The device component and assembly includes A T89C2051 Micro controller, sensor (copper probe), bread board, electric bell for alarm to indicate low water level and a bulb to indicate high water level (that is the water tank is full). The AT89C2051 Micro controller Based Water Level Indicator works by sounding a bell when the tank is empty or the water level is low and light a bulb when the poly tank is full. The boundary within which the device operates is at the upper water level and the lower water level of the device (tank). That is it can operate within the levels of high to low limit. The result is very useful since it will help in ensuring water security. It is satisfactory since the project is working and indicating that the water level is low or high (that is the tank is empty or full). (au)

High-speed packet filtering utilizing stream processors

Science.gov (United States)

Hummel, Richard J.; Fulp, Errin W.

2009-04-01

Parallel firewalls offer a scalable architecture for the next generation of high-speed networks. While these parallel systems can be implemented using multiple firewalls, the latest generation of stream processors can provide similar benefits with a significantly reduced latency due to locality. This paper describes how the Cell Broadband Engine (CBE), a popular stream processor, can be used as a high-speed packet filter. Results show the CBE can potentially process packets arriving at a rate of 1 Gbps with a latency less than 82 μ-seconds. Performance depends on how well the packet filtering process is translated to the unique stream processor architecture. For example the method used for transmitting data and control messages among the pseudo-independent processor cores has a significant impact on performance. Experimental results will also show the current limitations of a CBE operating system when used to process packets. Possible solutions to these issues will be discussed.

Accelerated territorial arterial spin labeling based on shared rotating control acquisition: an observer study for validation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kamano, Hironori; Yoshiura, Takashi; Hiwatashi, Akio; Yamashita, Koji; Takayama, Yukihisa; Nagao, Eiki; Sagiyama, Koji; Honda, Hiroshi; Zimine, Ivan

2012-01-01

Shared rotating control acquisition can shorten the imaging time of territorial arterial spin labeling (tASL) by 33% compared with the normal control acquisition scheme but potentially results in an inaccurate estimate of vascular territories due to imperfect magnetization transfer compensation. Our purpose was to validate the accuracy of the shared rotating control acquisition method in evaluation of vascular territories. Twenty-four patients underwent tASL at a 3.0-T MRI with the conventional normal control acquisition method. Composite vascular territory maps, in which the blood flows from the right and left internal carotid arteries and the posterior circulation were encoded in red-green-blue, were generated as a normal averaged control-label scheme and as a simulated shared rotating control scheme. Two observers independently reported the most dominant territorial flow in 26 brain regions corresponding to the arterial segments at three post-labeling time points. Inter-reader and inter-method agreements were analyzed using κ statistics. Overall inter-reader agreements were excellent for both the normal control and the shared rotating control methods (κ = 0.98, respectively). Overall inter-method agreement was also excellent (κ = 0.98), although relatively low agreement was noted in the bilateral posterior cerebral artery territories (κ = 0.79 to 0.93). Our results suggested that tASL using shared rotating control acquisition can provide information on the vascular territories comparable to that obtained using the normal control acquisition while substantially shortening the imaging time. (orig.)

PEM Fuel Cells with Bio-Ethanol Processor Systems A Multidisciplinary Study of Modelling, Simulation, Fault Diagnosis and Advanced Control

CERN Document Server

Feroldi, Diego; Outbib, Rachid

2012-01-01

An apparently appropriate control scheme for PEM fuel cells may actually lead to an inoperable plant when it is connected to other unit operations in a process with recycle streams and energy integration. PEM Fuel Cells with Bio-Ethanol Processor Systems presents a control system design that provides basic regulation of the hydrogen production process with PEM fuel cells. It then goes on to construct a fault diagnosis system to improve plant safety above this control structure. PEM Fuel Cells with Bio-Ethanol Processor Systems is divided into two parts: the first covers fuel cells and the second discusses plants for hydrogen production from bio-ethanol to feed PEM fuel cells. Both parts give detailed analyses of modeling, simulation, advanced control, and fault diagnosis. They give an extensive, in-depth discussion of the problems that can occur in fuel cell systems and propose a way to control these systems through advanced control algorithms. A significant part of the book is also given over to computer-aid...

Optical backplane interconnect switch for data processors and computers

Science.gov (United States)

Hendricks, Herbert D.; Benz, Harry F.; Hammer, Jacob M.

1989-01-01

An optoelectronic integrated device design is reported which can be used to implement an all-optical backplane interconnect switch. The switch is sized to accommodate an array of processors and memories suitable for direct replacement into the basic avionic multiprocessor backplane. The optical backplane interconnect switch is also suitable for direct replacement of the PI bus traffic switch and at the same time, suitable for supporting pipelining of the processor and memory. The 32 bidirectional switchable interconnects are configured with broadcast capability for controls, reconfiguration, and messages. The approach described here can handle a serial interconnection of data processors or a line-to-link interconnection of data processors. An optical fiber demonstration of this approach is presented.

A basic design of microcontroller based data processor and local display for digital logarithmic power channel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nur Khasan; Syahrudin Yusuf

2009-01-01

A data processor and its local display for a digital logarithmic power channel, which will be used as a complement and diversification of nuclear reactor instrument, has been designed using micro controller base circuit. This power channel has been designed using TTL device and microcontroller. The roll of the microcontroller will be as data acquisition, data processing for the measurement of percentage reactor power, period and the trip decision. In this design has beer; created display of numerical value will be display on the local display in on-line mode for 1 nV to 10 10 nV neutron flux measurement range. This logarithmic power channel is expected to support the existing instrument which uses analog system in Instrumentation and Control System of nuclear reactor. (author)

Particle swarm optimization algorithm based low cost magnetometer calibration

Science.gov (United States)

Ali, A. S.; Siddharth, S., Syed, Z., El-Sheimy, N.

2011-12-01

Inertial Navigation Systems (INS) consist of accelerometers, gyroscopes and a microprocessor provide inertial digital data from which position and orientation is obtained by integrating the specific forces and rotation rates. In addition to the accelerometers and gyroscopes, magnetometers can be used to derive the absolute user heading based on Earth's magnetic field. Unfortunately, the measurements of the magnetic field obtained with low cost sensors are corrupted by several errors including manufacturing defects and external electro-magnetic fields. Consequently, proper calibration of the magnetometer is required to achieve high accuracy heading measurements. In this paper, a Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) based calibration algorithm is presented to estimate the values of the bias and scale factor of low cost magnetometer. The main advantage of this technique is the use of the artificial intelligence which does not need any error modeling or awareness of the nonlinearity. The estimated bias and scale factor errors from the proposed algorithm improve the heading accuracy and the results are also statistically significant. Also, it can help in the development of the Pedestrian Navigation Devices (PNDs) when combined with the INS and GPS/Wi-Fi especially in the indoor environments

Software-defined reconfigurable microwave photonics processor.

Science.gov (United States)

Pérez, Daniel; Gasulla, Ivana; Capmany, José

2015-06-01

We propose, for the first time to our knowledge, a software-defined reconfigurable microwave photonics signal processor architecture that can be integrated on a chip and is capable of performing all the main functionalities by suitable programming of its control signals. The basic configuration is presented and a thorough end-to-end design model derived that accounts for the performance of the overall processor taking into consideration the impact and interdependencies of both its photonic and RF parts. We demonstrate the model versatility by applying it to several relevant application examples.

Advanced Avionics and Processor Systems for a Flexible Space Exploration Architecture

Science.gov (United States)

Keys, Andrew S.; Adams, James H.; Smith, Leigh M.; Johnson, Michael A.; Cressler, John D.

2010-01-01

The Advanced Avionics and Processor Systems (AAPS) project, formerly known as the Radiation Hardened Electronics for Space Environments (RHESE) project, endeavors to develop advanced avionic and processor technologies anticipated to be used by NASA s currently evolving space exploration architectures. The AAPS project is a part of the Exploration Technology Development Program, which funds an entire suite of technologies that are aimed at enabling NASA s ability to explore beyond low earth orbit. NASA s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) manages the AAPS project. AAPS uses a broad-scoped approach to developing avionic and processor systems. Investment areas include advanced electronic designs and technologies capable of providing environmental hardness, reconfigurable computing techniques, software tools for radiation effects assessment, and radiation environment modeling tools. Near-term emphasis within the multiple AAPS tasks focuses on developing prototype components using semiconductor processes and materials (such as Silicon-Germanium (SiGe)) to enhance a device s tolerance to radiation events and low temperature environments. As the SiGe technology will culminate in a delivered prototype this fiscal year, the project emphasis shifts its focus to developing low-power, high efficiency total processor hardening techniques. In addition to processor development, the project endeavors to demonstrate techniques applicable to reconfigurable computing and partially reconfigurable Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). This capability enables avionic architectures the ability to develop FPGA-based, radiation tolerant processor boards that can serve in multiple physical locations throughout the spacecraft and perform multiple functions during the course of the mission. The individual tasks that comprise AAPS are diverse, yet united in the common endeavor to develop electronics capable of operating within the harsh environment of space. Specifically, the AAPS tasks for

Programmable optical processor chips: toward photonic RF filters with DSP-level flexibility and MHz-band selectivity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xie Yiwei

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Integrated optical signal processors have been identified as a powerful engine for optical processing of microwave signals. They enable wideband and stable signal processing operations on miniaturized chips with ultimate control precision. As a promising application, such processors enables photonic implementations of reconfigurable radio frequency (RF filters with wide design flexibility, large bandwidth, and high-frequency selectivity. This is a key technology for photonic-assisted RF front ends that opens a path to overcoming the bandwidth limitation of current digital electronics. Here, the recent progress of integrated optical signal processors for implementing such RF filters is reviewed. We highlight the use of a low-loss, high-index-contrast stoichiometric silicon nitride waveguide which promises to serve as a practical material platform for realizing high-performance optical signal processors and points toward photonic RF filters with digital signal processing (DSP-level flexibility, hundreds-GHz bandwidth, MHz-band frequency selectivity, and full system integration on a chip scale.

Heralded generation of a micro-macro entangled state

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Ulrik Lund; Neergaard-Nielsen, Jonas Schou

2013-01-01

Using different optical setups based on squeezed state and photon subtraction we show how optical entanglement between a macroscopic and a microscopic state-the so-called Schro¨dinger cat state or micro-macro state-can be generated. The entangled state is heralded and is thus produced a priori....... Furthermore, we show that the state can be used to map a microscopic qubit onto a macroscopic one thereby linking a qubit processor with a qumode processor....

Internal rotation of 13 low-mass low-luminosity red giants in the Kepler field

Science.gov (United States)

Triana, S. A.; Corsaro, E.; De Ridder, J.; Bonanno, A.; Pérez Hernández, F.; García, R. A.

2017-06-01

Context. The Kepler space telescope has provided time series of red giants of such unprecedented quality that a detailed asteroseismic analysis becomes possible. For a limited set of about a dozen red giants, the observed oscillation frequencies obtained by peak-bagging together with the most recent pulsation codes allowed us to reliably determine the core/envelope rotation ratio. The results so far show that the current models are unable to reproduce the rotation ratios, predicting higher values than what is observed and thus indicating that an efficient angular momentum transport mechanism should be at work. Here we provide an asteroseismic analysis of a sample of 13 low-luminosity low-mass red giant stars observed by Kepler during its first nominal mission. These targets form a subsample of the 19 red giants studied previously, which not only have a large number of extracted oscillation frequencies, but also unambiguous mode identifications. Aims: We aim to extend the sample of red giants for which internal rotation ratios obtained by theoretical modeling of peak-bagged frequencies are available. We also derive the rotation ratios using different methods, and compare the results of these methods with each other. Methods: We built seismic models using a grid search combined with a Nelder-Mead simplex algorithm and obtained rotation averages employing Bayesian inference and inversion methods. We compared these averages with those obtained using a previously developed model-independent method. Results: We find that the cores of the red giants in this sample are rotating 5 to 10 times faster than their envelopes, which is consistent with earlier results. The rotation rates computed from the different methods show good agreement for some targets, while some discrepancies exist for others.