六自由度运动模拟器性能指标分析

为实现负载的俯仰、横滚、偏航、升降、侧向位移和纵向移六个自由度运动,系统采用Stewart结构的运动模拟器作为驱动机构。计算了六自由度运动模拟器系统的结构参数、运动学参数和动力学参数。基于对六自由度运动模拟器的分析,设计了运动模拟器的作动器,液压源,上、下平台等部件。设计结果能够实现六自由度运动的技术指标要求,系统具有良好的适用性。     

Seat Belt Vibration as a Stimulating Device for Awakening Drivers

This paper presents a safety driving system that uses a seat belt vibration as a stimulating device for awakening drivers. The vibration stimulus was composed of pulsation tension, which was applied by the seat belt motor retractor. Magnitude, duration, and repetition rate of the additional tension were the major parameters that determined the awakening effect of the stimulus. We constructed a driving simulator, which was able to induce driver's drowsiness. In the experiments using the driving simulator, the driver's drowsiness was detected by changes in the driver's eye movements measured by electrooculography (EOG) and/or changes in facial expression of the driver monitored by the examiners through a video camera, subjective evaluation, and lane deviation. Exerting additional tension of 130 N for 3 cycles at duration and interval of 100 ms was the most effective pattern for awakening the driver without causing discomfort.     

Virtual test track

The virtual test track (VTT) is a real-time vehicle simulator used for powertrain and chassis system development in a virtual environment. The VTT is designed and built based on the rapid control prototyping (RCP) concept. Therefore, different from the conventional vehicle simulator, the VTT can provide many additional benefits, such as ease of use, flexibility of interface with other devices, and ability to easily implement any hardware-in-the-loop system. The VTT consists of a powerful simulation engine to solve the equations of a complicated vehicle dynamics model in real-time and a sophisticated animation engine to provide real-time visual representation of vehicle behavior. It also contains multiple virtual test environments with variable surfaces and weather conditions to provide different types of driving conditions.     

A low-cost driving simulator for full vehicle dynamics simulation

This paper describes the construction of a low-cost PC-based driving simulator that can perform five degree-of-freedom (DOF) motions similar to a road vehicle. The mathematical equations of vehicle dynamics are first derived from the 2-DOF bicycle model and incorporated with the tire, steering, and suspension subsystems. The equations of motion are then programmed by MATLAB, transferred into C++ code in the MIDEVA environment, and further developed into a motion platform control program by C++Builder. To achieve the simulator functions, a motion platform that is constructed by five hydraulic cylinders is designed, and its kinetics/inverse kinetics analysis is also conducted. Driver operation signals such as steering wheel angle, accelerator pedal, and brake pedal positions are measured to trigger the vehicle dynamics calculation and further actuate the cylinders by the motion platform control program. In addition, a digital PID controller is added to achieve the stable and accurate displacements of the motion platform. The experiments prove that the designed simulator is adequate in performing some special road driving situations discussed in this paper.     

Generating video animation from single still image in social media based on intelligent computing

Bringing a single still image into reality is a challenging topic in computer animation because the driven and structural information in single still image is inadequate. In this paper, we present an image animating method for enhancing single still image in social media with virtual realistic and animated motions without prior information. We imitate the interaction between the active objects in an image and their neighboring passive objects. The existing actions in the image and the virtual specified force are employed to animate the active objects. Observing that the change between two subsequent motions of the active objects derives a motion tendency, we can calculate a virtual driving force based on the motion tendency. By virtue of the virtual driving force, the stochastic motion texture is used to animate the passive objects. Finally, the convolutional neural network is employed to optimize the virtual motion animations. In this way, the proposed method produces visually natural results while guaranteeing motion harmony between active objects and passive objects. To demonstrate the applicability and rationality of virtual animation driving force, our method generates several animations from still images in Social Media.     

Adaptive Haptic Feedback Steering Wheel for Driving Simulators

Controlling a virtual vehicle is a sensory-motor activity with a specific rendering methodology that depends on the hardware technology and the software in use. We propose a method that computes haptic feedback for the steering wheel. It is best suited for low-cost, fixed-base driving simulators but can be ported to any driving simulator platform. The goal of our method is twofold. 1) It provides an efficient yet simple algorithm to model the steering mechanism using a quadri-polar representation. 2) This model is used to compute the haptic feedback on top of which a tunable haptic augmentation is adjusted to overcome the lack of presence and the unavoidable simulation loop latencies. This algorithm helps the driver to laterally control the virtual vehicle. We also discuss the experimental results that demonstrate the usefulness of our haptic feedback method.     

Equivalent electromechanical representation of trapped energy transducers

Trapped energy resonators and transducers have attained a considerable importance in quartz crystal technology both as single-frequency resonators for the control of crystal oscillators and as drivers for the monolithic crystal filter which appears likely to have a wide use as a channel filter for the separation of voice frequency channels for long-distance carrier systems, microwave radio, and submarine cable systems. It is the purpose of this paper to derive the equations for trapped energy resonators of the thickness-shear and thickness-twist types and to calculate the ratios of capacitances for straight crested waves. It turns out that the ratios are lower (coupling higher) than are observed in practice. It appears that this difference is connected with the finite width of the plate which causes the motion at the edge of the plate to be somewhat smaller than the motion in the center of the plate. While no exact solution has been obtained for the finite plate, an approximation is made which is in good agreement with the experiment. The resonator on a plate is a symmetrical device, whereas a transducer for driving a monolithic filter is a dissymmetrical device since it is driving different impedances on its two boundaries. To represent this dissymmetry requires a distributed network representation which is somewhat similar to that found for a plane longitudinal or shear wave except that the propagation constant for a trapped wave replaces that of the plane wave. The representation also requires a transformer whose transformation ratio is a function of the frequency and two negative element terms. By transformations the negative elements can be made to disappear. These together produce an equivalent circuit whose values depend on the ratio of the electrode length to the crystal thickness.     

Spatio-temporal tracking of myocardial deformations with a 4-D B-spline model from tagged MRI

Accurate delineation of the volumetric motion of the left ventricle (LV) of the heart from tagged magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an important area of research. We have built a system that takes extracted tag line features from short axis (SA) and long axis (LA) image sequences as input and fits a four-dimensional (4-D) time-varying B-spline model to the data by simultaneously fitting the model knot solids to MRI frames via matching three sequences of solid knot planes to the LV tag planes for 4-D tracking. Important advantages of the model are that reconstruction of tag surfaces, three-dimensional (3-D) material point localization, as well as displacement reconstruction are all achieved in a single step. The generated 3-D displacement fields are validated with a cardiac motion simulator, and 3-D motion fields capturing in vivo deformations in a porcine model with posterolateral myocardial infarction are illustrated.     

Robust adaptive control of a three-axis motion Simulator with state observers

The development of a nonlinear robust adaptive tracking control system for a three-axis motion simulator is presented in this paper. The motion simulator is used to test and calibrate certain spacecraft instruments within a hardware-in-the-loop environment. Permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drives are used as simulator actuators. The control system is developed based on Lyapunov stability theory for which only rotor position and stator current signals are required. By using mechanical and electrical state observers, the measurement of acceleration and load torque which is usually required when motor dynamics are considered, is avoided. The control system can be made adaptable to constant unknown motor parameters and load inertia and robust to unknown but bounded fast varying disturbances. Simulation and experimental results are presented to verify the stability and efficacy of the proposed control system.     

A 4D statistical model of wrist bone motion patterns

Direct imaging of ligament damage in the wrist remains a challenge. Still, such damage can be assessed indirectly through the analysis of changes in wrist pose and motion pattern. For this purpose we built a statistical reference model that describes healthy motion patterns. We show that such a model can also be used to detect and quantify pathologies. A model that only describes the global translations and rotations of the carpal bones is insufficiently accurate due to size and shape variations of the bones. We present a local statistical motion model that minimizes the influence of size and shape differences by analyzing the coordinate differences of pairs of points on adjacent bone surfaces. These differences are determined in a set of 14 healthy example wrists imaged in a range of poses by means of 4D-RX imaging. The distribution of the differences as a function of the pose form the local statistical motion model (LSMM). Translations of 2 mm and rotations of 20° with respect to the healthy example wrists are detected as outliers in the point pair distributions. An evaluation involving wrists with a damaged ligament between scaphoid and lunate shows that not only joint space widenings can be detected, but also shifts of congruent bone surfaces. The LSMM is also used to perform a virtual reconstruction of the most likely healthy wrist after a simulated perturbation of bones. The reconstruction precision is shown to be about 1 mm. Therefore, the presented 4D statistical model of wrist bone movement may become a valuable clinical tool for diagnosis and surgical planning.     

A meta-analysis of the training effectiveness of virtual reality surgical simulators.

The increasing use of virtual reality (VR) simulators in surgical training makes it imperative that definitive studies be performed to assess their training effectiveness. Indeed, in this paper we report the meta-analysis of the efficacy of virtual reality simulators in: 1) the transference of skills from the simulator training environment to the operating room, and 2) their ability to discriminate between the experience levels of their users. The task completion time and the error score were the two study outcomes collated and analyzed in this meta-analysis. Sixteen studies were identified from a computer-based literature search (1996-2004). The meta-analysis of the random effects model (because of the heterogeneity of the data) revealed that training on virtual reality simulators did lessen the time taken to complete a given surgical task as well as clearly differentiate between the experienced and the novice trainees. Meta-analytic studies such as the one reported here would be very helpful in the planning and setting up of surgical training programs and for the establishment of reference 'learning curves' for a specific simulator and surgical task. If any such programs already exist, they can then indicate the improvements to be made in the simulator used, such as providing for more variety in their case scenarios based on the state and/or rate of learning of the trainee.     

Manipulating the Motion of Gold Aggregates Using Stimulus‐Responsive Patterned Polymer Brushes as a Motor

An important goal and major challenge of material science and nanotechnology is building nanomotors for manipulating the motion of nanoparticles (NPs). Here, it is demonstrated that patterned, stimulus‐responsive polymer brush microstructures can be used as motor arrays to manipulate the movement of gold NP aggregates in response to external stimuli that induce a conformational change in the brushes as the driving force. The motion of NP aggregates in the out‐of‐plane direction is achieved with displacements ranging from nanometers to sub‐micrometers. These patterned polymer‐brush microstructures can find applications as efficient motor arrays and nanosensors, and benefit the design of more complex nanodevices.     

汽车驾驶模拟器二自由度运动系统

为汽车驾驶模拟器设计了一种二自由度运动系统。该系统采用电动驱动方式,提供仰俯、侧倾两个自由度运动。介绍了该系统软、硬件结构和相关控制算法。其中硬件系统由运动平台和电控系统构成,执行机构采用伺服电机及电动缸。软件系统将汽车运行参数解算成电动缸的控制参数,控制电动缸完成运动控制。平台可以实现汽车运行过程中的大部分体感模拟。     

Model based real time monitoring for collision detection of an industrial robot

This paper deals with a model based real-time virtual simulator of industrial robot in order to detect eventual external collision. The implemented method concerns a model based Fault Detection and Isolation used to determine any lock of motion from an actuated robot joint after contact with static obstacles. Online implementation has been done in order to validate the proposed approach.     

EEG-based drowsiness estimation for safety driving using independent component analysis

Preventing accidents caused by drowsiness has become a major focus of active safety driving in recent years. It requires an optimal technique to continuously detect drivers' cognitive state related to abilities in perception, recognition, and vehicle control in (near-) real-time. The major challenges in developing such a system include: 1) the lack of significant index for detecting drowsiness and 2) complicated and pervasive noise interferences in a realistic and dynamic driving environment. In this paper, we develop a drowsiness-estimation system based on electroencephalogram (EEG) by combining independent component analysis (ICA), power-spectrum analysis, correlation evaluations, and linear regression model to estimate a driver's cognitive state when he/she drives a car in a virtual reality (VR)-based dynamic simulator. The driving error is defined as deviations between the center of the vehicle and the center of the cruising lane in the lane-keeping driving task. Experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of quantitatively estimating drowsiness level using ICA-based multistream EEG spectra. The proposed ICA-based method applied to power spectrum of ICA components can successfully (1) remove most of EEG artifacts, (2) suggest an optimal montage to place EEG electrodes, and estimate the driver's drowsiness fluctuation indexed by the driving performance measure. Finally, we present a benchmark study in which the accuracy of ICA-component-based alertness estimates compares favorably to scalp-EEG based.     

Design of a linear motor-based shaker rig for testing driver's perceived ride comfort

In autonomous vehicles the driver will become a passenger. By ensuring a high level of ride comfort through active suspensions, the driver's ability to perform various tasks such as reading, drawing and texting can be enhanced. A high-performance shaker rig can conveniently be used to test the ride comfort improvement by means of various active suspensions under laboratory conditions. The paper deals with the design of such a rig, which employs a linear electric servomotor to impose accurately controlled vertical vibrations of driver seat. The reference time profiles of seat acceleration, velocity and displacement are generated off-line by using a half-car vehicle model and LQR control with a road preview option. The selection of linear motor comes from assessment of three characteristic shaker rig drive designs (hydraulic and two electric ones). To ensure high-precision seat motion, the proposed shaker control system includes: acceleration feedforward and feedback control loops, a state controller-like compensator of accelerometer offset to prevent drift of seat position and velocity, and feedforward compensation of linear motor cogging force mode. The designed shaker rig application is demonstrated through a case study related to ride comfort evaluation of various active suspension configurations and a drawing task. The drawing task results are employed to determine the root-mean-square vertical seat acceleration threshold, below which the active suspension drawing task performance remains similar to that obtained under standstill conditions.     

Static and dynamic simulation for ridge-waveguide MQW DFB lasers

An efficient and versatile computer-aided simulator for the design and analysis of ridge-waveguide (RWG) multiple-quantum-well (MQW) distributed-feedback (DFB) lasers has been developed and is presented. This simulator combines spectral index method and Green's function-based transfer-matrix method (TMM) to deal with the transverse RWG MQW structure and longitudinal DFB structure, respectively. It is capable of simulating both static and dynamic behaviors for a variety of RWG MQW DFB lasers. The major difference from most of the existing models and analyses is that this simulator is capable of linking important device characteristics with practical material and geometrical parameters directly and self-consistently. For instance, the effects of lateral ridge width, vertical MQW layers and longitudinal nonuniformity are all explicitly included in the simulator. important laser characteristics, such as L-I curve, effective linewidth enchancement factor, static lasing wavelength shift, spectral linewidth, facet-power spectrum, AM and FM modulation responses, dynamic-wavelength chirping, as well as longitudinal photon and carrier distribution, can be predicted based on material and waveguide parameters. Therefore, this simulator may be used as an efficient and versatile tool for the systematic exploitation and optimization of a wide range of practical RWG MQW DFB lasers. Analysis of a λ/4 shifted SCH RWG MQW DFB laser is performed to illustrate the capability of this simulator     

Optimized friction drive controller for a multi-DOF ultrasonic nanopositioner

This paper presents a new generation of compliant multi-degrees-of-freedom piezoelectric nanopositioner for positioning, transport, alignment of micro-objects under the field of view of a microscope. It is based on the cooperation of arrayed direct-drive standing-wave ultrasonic actuators (microSWUMs). A number of nonlinearities exist in the actuator due to its macro- and microdynamics. An optimized friction drive multidimensional controller is proposed based on a closed-loop electromagnetic field-based preload controller ensuring optimal preload, and a feedforward pulsewidth modulation (PWM) controller with input shaping for driving force control. These techniques are applied to reduce the effects of low-speed-low-force instabilities due to stick-slip and friction pairs which lead to output oscillations during nanometric stepping motion. The closed-loop positioning system designed with microSWUMs produced 10-nm resolution and 5% displacement repeatability in a low-speed-low-force region; unlimited travel with velocities of 0.3 m.s/sup -1/ and driving forces around 2 mN in a high-speed-high-force region.     

Virtual reality-based training for the diagnosis of prostate cancer

Prostate malignancies are the second leading cause of cancer deaths among men. The most common method of detecting this disease is digital rectal examination (DRE). Current DRE training is inadequate, since the number of patients that students can practice on is limited. Furthermore, allied care personnel do not train in screening for prostate cancer. Finally, there is no objective way to follow the improvement in DRE skills for medical personnel. This paper presents a virtual reality-based simulator that addresses the above problems. The prototype consists of a PHANToM haptic interface which provides feedback to the trainee's index finger, a motion restricting board, and an SGI workstation, which renders the patient's anatomy. Four types of prostates were modeled--normal, enlarged with no tumor, incipient malignancy (single tumor), and advanced malignancy (tumor cluster). Human factors studies were conducted on both nonmedical students and urology residents in order to quantify the system usefulness. After only five minutes of training, nonmedical students had a 67% correct diagnosis rate of malignant versus nonmalignant cases. This compared with 56% for urology residents in the same trials. Subjective evaluation by the residents pointed out the need to improve the virtual prostate model realism. A control group formed of urology residents performed the same trials on a modified Merck Procar simulator. The control group scored significantly better (96% correct diagnosis of malignancies). We conclude that the virtual prostate palpation simulator, while promising, needs significant improvement in both model realism and haptic interface hardware.