Cloud‐based Real‐time Outsourcing Localization for a Ground Mobile Robot in Large‐scale Outdoor Environments

Cloud robotics is the application of cloud computing concepts to robotic systems. It utilizes modern cloud computing infrastructure to distribute computing resources and datasets. Cloud‐based real‐time outsourcing localization architecture is proposed in this paper to allow a ground mobile robot to identify its location relative to a road network map and reference images in the cloud. An update of the road network map is executed in the cloud, as is the extraction of the robot‐terrain inclination (RTI) model as well as reference image matching. A particle filter with a network‐delay‐compensation localization algorithm is executed on the mobile robot based on the local RTI model and the recognized location both of which are sent from the cloud. The proposed methods are tested in different challenging outdoor scenarios with a ground mobile robot equipped with minimal onboard hardware, where the longest trajectory was 13.1 km. Experimental results show that this method could be applicable to large‐scale outdoor environments for autonomous robots in real time.     

Multiple‐Robot Simultaneous Localization and Mapping: A Review

Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) in unknown GPS‐denied environments is a major challenge for researchers in the field of mobile robotics. Many solutions for single‐robot SLAM exist; however, moving to a platform of multiple robots adds many challenges to the existing problems. This paper reviews state‐of‐the‐art multiple‐robot systems, with a major focus on multiple‐robot SLAM. Various issues and problems in multiple‐robot SLAM are introduced, current solutions for these problems are reviewed, and their advantages and disadvantages are discussed.     

An on‐line grid‐gaps inspection system for electron‐gun manufacturing

An on‐line grid gaps inspection system (GGIS) for color‐CRT electron‐gun manufacturing has been developed. The measuring principle is based on the digital‐image‐processing technique and incorporates a design of stepping motor motion control. By utilizing the arrangement of stepping path image processing, the measurements for different types of guns and for different gaps on a gun can be effectively executed with higher resolution, and are easily implemented for the purposes of on‐line inspection and statistical quality control. Experimental results show that the system resolution is about 8.5–10 μm and the on‐line inspection index has been improved to about 120 pieces/hour.     

A vision system for on‐line inspection of CRT electron‐gun grid gaps

Abstract— A high‐resolution vision system for on‐line measurements of color CRT electron‐gun (E‐gun) grid gaps has been developed. The measurement principle is based on a digital image‐processing technique combined with a multi‐path imaging system. By utilizing the arrangement of multi‐path image processing, the measurements for different types of guns and for different gaps on a gun can be effectively executed with higher resolution. The purposes of on‐line inspection and statistical quality control are also easily implemented. Experiments were executed in the production line of a 15‐in. monitor, and the experimental results show that the system resolution is about 8.5–10 μm and the on‐line inspection index is about 300 pcs/hour.     

基于移动终端的通信设备和线路巡检系统设计

为便于电力通信设备和线路运行的维护管理与规范化作业,开发了基于移动终端的巡检系统。构建了包括外网移动端、客户端、内网数据库的三层架构体系,在Web服务器的顶端采用MyBatis持久层框架,提出了HTML5技术的移动Web App开发模式,利用Eclipse集成开发环境和ORACLE关系型数据库构建内外网移动交互平台,并在移动终端、网络层、应用层、数据库等四个层次进行安全防护。巡检系统的应用情况表明,该移动终端巡检系统实现了巡检任务的自动分派以及检修任务的跟踪处理,并能对通信设备的台账及线路运行资料进行现场核对和更新,能够根据巡检与检修的次数以及隐患点自动完成对通信设备运行状况的等级评价,提高了现场操作的规范性和时效性以及运维人员的工作效率,确保了通信设备和线路安全稳定运行。     

Automating maintenance for a one‐way transmitting blackboard system used for autonomous multi‐tier control

The blackboard architecture has particular utility in applications where conclusions must be drawn in the absence of human involvement. Through properly crafted rules, this approach can determine what a collection of data may mean. This can be utilized by other onboard software to limit transmission to only relevant data or conclusions. Some applications, such as robotic exploration, may preclude or severely limit the availability of controller‐to‐craft‐agent communications. In this case, the maintenance of the system must be performed autonomously.This paper discusses common maintenance tasks that may be relevant to a long‐running blackboard‐based system (e.g. clearing extraneous data from the blackboard regularly to improve performance, archiving relevant but infrequently used data for performance enhancement). A system for automating these tasks is presented that is suitable for most blackboard‐style systems. Its particular utility to those that cannot be easily accessed is discussed. Quantitative analysis of the value of removing rules from the system is performed and presented, and these results are extrapolated to several prospective blackboard maintenance approaches.     

机载LiDAR测量技术在输电运维中的应用

输电线路运维是输电管理的重要环节,传统输电线路巡检依靠人巡为主机巡为辅的作业模式,其巡线测量精度、准确率、时间周期长难以保证;当前机巡作业在一定程度上缓解了运维压力,解决输电线路通道大致情况的检查,但仍未实现树障的精确巡检,机载LiDAR技术的出现使得输电运维模式得以改善,其作为新兴测量手段使输电通道危险点精准测量检测成为可能,文章探讨了传统输电线路运维存在的工作效率、安全度及作业强度等问题,结合机载LiDAR的特点研究该技术在电力工程勘测成图及输电通道危险点检测分析领域技术实现流程与应用情况,研究激光点云数据快速处理与分类,实现对输电通道环境的及飞及测,探讨进一步提升运维应急抢险反应速度和隐患判定的精度,以减少运维人工巡线的投入,提高运维效率。     

Multimode resonator based on composite right‐/left‐handed transmission line for UWB bandpass filter application

A new multimode resonator (MMR) using composite right‐/left‐handed transmission line (CRLH TL) is proposed and discussed. The CRLH TL structure is constructed by cascading interdigital coupled microstrip line sections on which short‐ended stepped impedance stubs are loaded. Dispersion characteristic of the transmission line structure is obtained using the Bloch–Floquet theory. The resonator, which has multiresonances electrical behaviors, is especially suitable in ultrawideband (UWB) applications. An UWB filter is presented as an illustration. With transmission zeros introduced at upper stopband, the filter has a sharp skirt performance. In addition, rejection level at lower stopband also gets enhanced due to direct current suppression effects of the multimode resonator. The filter prototype is implemented and measured. The measured results validate the theoretical analysis and show that the filter has a sharp skirt and an out‐of‐band rejection level as good as 38 dB. Meanwhile, return loss is better than 16 dB. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 25:815–824, 2015.     

Large‐signal distributed millimeter‐wave multifinger pHEMT modeling using time‐domain technique

The finite‐difference time‐domain (FDTD) method is used for the large‐signal modeling of a multifinger pHEMT, which is considered as five nonlinear coupled distributed transmission lines. The developed model, which is based on the exact physical layout of multifinger pHEMT, not only accurately describes the propagation effects along the electrodes at higher frequencies but it also includes major nonlinearities of the I–V and Q–V characteristics. Using the transmission line theory, a proper nonlinear equivalent lumped circuit model is allocated for the differential length of the quintuple‐line transistor and the nonlinear active multiconductor transmission line (NAMCTL) equations are derived. These nonlinear, coupled differential equations are numerically solved using the FDTD method. The proposed model is applied to a 100 nm GaAs pHEMT and the simulation results are compared with the results of conventional sliced model in Keysight ADS simulator. The developed transient nonlinear model accurately predicts both the S‐parameters (1–150 GHz) and large‐signal power performances especially at millimeter wave frequency range. The proposed model can be useful in design and analysis of various types of high‐frequency nonlinear integrated circuits.     

3D‐printed high‐gain circularly polarized antenna for broadband millimeter‐wave communications over the power line

It is well known that high transmission loss occurs when millimeter waves traveling through the atmosphere. As an alternative, power line is proposed as a transmission media to combat the high loss. In this article, a three‐dimensional (3D) printed high‐gain circularly polarized antenna was proposed for millimeter‐wave broadband power line communications. It has a simple structure, where tapered slots are designed between the upper and lower layers of the waveguide to generate the circularly polarized operation. A wide impedance bandwidth of 31.58% (24‐33 GHz) and an axial ratio bandwidth of 28.07% (24.5‐32.5 GHz) are achieved by the proposed design. A maximum gain of 11.2 dBi is measured from the 3D printed structure. The proposed antenna has a simple structure which is easy to adjust to any working frequency. The antenna can be excited by properly integrated to the waveguide that connected to the power line end. The use of 3D printing technology enables a low‐cost solution millimeter‐wave broadband communications over the power line.     

Grasping determination experiments within the UJI robotics telelab

As a result of new technology becoming available it is increasingly possible to develop more natural human‐robot interfaces. In particular, interaction channels based on both voice and synthesis recognition, and combined with other sensors, mainly computer vision, are now implemented in current robots. These capabilities enable a more natural face‐to‐face dialogue in the human‐robot interaction. Currently, they are demonstrating their potential in many service robot applications, such as museums, hospitals, and so on. One area where these new forms of interaction have been extensively tested recently is within the educational robotics context. This article addresses a novel user‐interface implemented in such a system developed in our lab, namely “The UJI Robotics Telelab”, where the word UJI is the acronym for the name of our University. In order to develop this kind of complex system, several years of intensive research have been necessary in both multimedia tutoring systems and robotics. The principal motive for the project was the experimentation and validation of a complete telelaboratory, including an Internet‐based robot system, with off‐line and on‐line control possibilities, and other different facilities (e.g., multimedia tutorial, chat channel, etc.) aimed at teaching undergraduate students in the robotics subject in our university campus. Finally, taking into account experience gained from using this system for regular undergraduate courses in robotics, new facilities have been implemented, and results showing the user performance, usability, and reliability of this novel contribution are discussed, including its advantages and limitations. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

State‐of‐the‐Art in Compressed GPU‐Based Direct Volume Rendering

Great advancements in commodity graphics hardware have favoured graphics processing unit (GPU)‐based volume rendering as the main adopted solution for interactive exploration of rectilinear scalar volumes on commodity platforms. Nevertheless, long data transfer times and GPU memory size limitations are often the main limiting factors, especially for massive, time‐varying or multi‐volume visualization, as well as for networked visualization on the emerging mobile devices. To address this issue, a variety of level‐of‐detail (LOD) data representations and compression techniques have been introduced. In order to improve capabilities and performance over the entire storage, distribution and rendering pipeline, the encoding/decoding process is typically highly asymmetric, and systems should ideally compress at data production time and decompress on demand at rendering time. Compression and LOD pre‐computation does not have to adhere to real‐time constraints and can be performed off‐line for high‐quality results. In contrast, adaptive real‐time rendering from compressed representations requires fast, transient and spatially independent decompression. In this report, we review the existing compressed GPU volume rendering approaches, covering sampling grid layouts, compact representation models, compression techniques, GPU rendering architectures and fast decoding techniques.     

Broadband magic‐Ts with the use of coupled‐line directional couplers and left‐handed transmission line sections

The problem of broadband magic‐T realization with the use of coupled‐line directional couplers and left‐handed (LH) transmission‐line sections has been comprehensively investigated. Broadband amplitude characteristics of the proposed networks are ensured with the use of coupled‐line couplers, whereas the required phase characteristics have been achieved by the appropriate selection of right‐ and left‐handed transmission line sections. To analyze the properties of the proposed networks, a model of an ideal left‐handed transmission line has been utilized. The presented concept has been verified by two designs of broadband magic‐Ts operating in 2.5–3.5 GHz and 0.8–2.3 GHz, respectively. The obtained results proved that the proposed magic‐T networks allows one to obtain broadband amplitude and phase responses together with its compact structure. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 24:513–521, 2014.     

Design of a wideband filtering power divider with good in‐band and out‐of‐band isolations

In this article, a wideband filtering power divider with good in‐band and out‐of‐band isolations is designed based on a hybrid Wilkinson and Gysel structure. To achieve a good in‐band response, two additional in‐band transmission poles can be introduced by installing the coupled‐line structures at each port. By mounting a stepped impedance open stub at the input port, two transmission zeros are generated near the passband to improve the passband skirt. Furthermore, the out‐of‐band rejection and isolation are achieved by the other two transmission zeros, which are produced by the open stub and the three coupled‐line sections mentioned above. Additionally, a good in‐band isolation is realized by the isolation resistor between output ports. For the demonstration, a wideband filtering power divider centered at 1.5 GHz with a 56% fractional bandwidth and 20‐dB isolation is designed and fabricated. The simulated and measured results are in good agreement with each other.     

Novel compact dual‐narrow/wideband branch‐line couplers using T‐Shaped stepped‐impedance‐stub lines

This article presents a compact model to reduce the physical size and increase the frequency ratio between the second and first resonance frequencies of a dual‐function stepped‐impedance‐stub (SIS) line, which was subsequently employed in the realization of dual‐band branch‐line couplers. The proposed model comprises of a loaded spiral T‐shaped SIS that reduces the size of a conventional SIS line as well as improving its frequency ratio. The proposed model behaves exactly similar to the recently developed dual‐band resonators with the advantage of size reduction of ～35% as well as having a wide range of realizable frequency ratios between 1.4 and 3.7 compared to 1.7–2.7 and 1.8–2.3 for the conventional SIS and T‐shaped transmission‐lines, respectively. Dual‐narrowband and wideband branch‐line couplers were developed based on the spiral T‐shaped SIS lines. The dual‐wideband device's bandwidth was enhanced by 2.7% accompanied by a size reduction of 58.6% in comparison with the conventional dual‐wideband couplers operating at the same frequencies. The theoretical results were verified by measurement. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2011.     

Neural network-based self-learning control for power transmission line deicing robot

Recently, the application of the maintenance transmission line robot has been very popular in the power industry. However, difficulties in the control of maintenance transmission line robot exist due to multiple nonlinearities, plant parameter variations and external disturbances. This paper investigates the possibility of using neural network as a promising self-learning control alternative for the control problem of inspection and deicing transmission line robot. We first discuss the mechanical structure, as well as dynamic model of a deicing robot. And then, a neural network-based self-learning control strategy consists of a fuzzy neural network controller and an ELM-based single-layer-feedback neural networks identifier are proposed for this deicing transmission line robot. Both the structure and the learning algorithm of the control system are presented. The proposed controller is verified by computer simulations and experiments.     

A microstrip wideband monopole antenna for multisystem integration by utilizing stepped‐impedance structure and L‐shaped slot

In this article, a coplanar‐waveguide (CPW)‐fed dual‐band antenna for applications of the multisystem integration has been demonstrated. The resonance analysis of the stepped‐impedance (SI) monopole is presented by using the transmission‐line analysis method. The frequency‐response characteristics of the SI‐monopole, such as the resonance condition and harmonic response, are systematically summarized. Furthermore, utilizing several simple techniques, such as bent feeding topology, asymmetric ground plane, and an L‐shaped slot etched in the ground plane, a right‐hand circularly polarized (RHCP) radiating wave at 1.57 GHz and a left‐hand circularly polarized (LHCP) radiating wave at 2.33 GHz are excited for the applications of the global positioning system (GPS) and the satellite digital audio radio (SDAR) service system. After optimization of the geometrical parameters of the proposed antenna, the measured impedance bandwidths of a reflection coefficient less than ?10 dB range from 1.40 to 2.98 GHz and from 4.48 to 6.27 GHz, and thus covers most of the commercial wireless communication systems, such as GPS, digital cellular system (DCS), personal communication system (PCS), international mobile telecommunications (IMT)?2000, wireless local area networks (WLAN), and long‐term evolution (LTE) 2300/2600. The measured 3‐dB axial ratio (AR) bandwidths are about 80 MHz at 1.57 GHz and 100 MHz at 2.33 GHz.     

A new low‐power driving method for high‐resolution mobile IPS LCDs

Abstract— High‐resolution displays are now needed for mobile equipment, not only for cell phones but for other devices such as ultra‐mobile PCs (UMPCs) and mobile Internet protocol televisions (IPTVs). A new low‐cost and low‐power driving method for high‐resolution in‐plane‐switching (IPS) liquid‐crystal displays (LCDs) on a low‐temperature polycrystalline‐silicon (LTPS) thin‐film‐transistor (TFT) platform has been developed. Because this method drives common electrodes separated by each line, it can reduce inversion frequency, unlike “dot‐inversion” or “column‐inversion” methods. On the other hand, it was found that horizontal smear is an obstacle to achieve this method. To solve this problem, techniques to optimize the timing of RGB time‐sharing are proposed. A 5‐in. WXGA (1366 × 768) prototype using the new driving method was fabricated, and it was found that the horizontal smear is less than ±1% of the luminance and that the power consumption of the display discharge and charge is 0.245 W.     

基于车辆与步行轨迹数据挖掘的输电线路巡视路径规划研究

为解决近年来输电线路规模日益扩大,巡视人员扩充不足导致的人均线路维护量过高、巡视质量下降、巡视路径规划欠佳、出行车辆安排不够合理等问题,确保电网安全稳定运行。本文基于PMS2.0系统中的杆塔台账数据、国网统一车辆管理平台中的车行轨迹数据、PDA移动手持终端记录的巡视人员步行轨迹数据等,结合导航电子地图（离线版）,挖掘出各数据之间存在的关联性、耦合性,深入分析人员的巡视习惯,建立了最优规划路径计算模型,实现了对目标杆塔自动导航寻路功能,并通过现场验证,提高了线路巡视效率;在此基础上,将班组所辖线路进行网格划分,优化了周期巡视计划和特殊区域巡视计划。研究结果可为提高线路巡视计划灵活性、规划合理巡视路径、安排出行车辆提供强有力的决策依据。     

Detection and localization of illegal electricity usage in power distribution line

Detection and localization of illegal electricity usage are important issue for power distribution companies. In order to detect illegal electricity usage, network current-based methods using smart meters were mostly used in previous researches. The main disadvantages of those methods are that they are unable to detect the exact location of illegal electricity usage. In addition, all users must be disconnected from the power system to detect the exact location. In this research, an inspection robot proposed for detecting and localizing of illegal electricity usage. The inspection robot can define location of illegal electricity usage on the air transmission line without disconnecting the end user’s electric connection. In addition, this method can indicate fault location of transmission line. This paper presents a novel mobile sensing-based localization method for illegal electricity usage by using an inspection robot, and it is verified through simulation and experiment results.