Generic Adaptive Sliding Mode Control for a Quadrotor UAV System Subject to Severe Parametric Uncertainties and Fully Unknown External Disturbance

International Journal of Control, Automation and Systems - This paper aims to provide a generic robust controller that is able to manipulate all kinds of quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)...     

Ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene with improved crosslink density,oxidation stability,and microbial inhibition by chemical crosslinking and tea polyphenols for total joint replacements

Highly crosslinked ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) stabilized by vitamin E (VE) is widely applied in artificial joints as the bearings. Despite the approval, there is a discord that VE lowers the crosslinking efficiency, limiting its use at high concentration. In this work, we aim to obtain highly crosslinked and oxidation resistant UHMWPE through the conjunction of tea polyphenol and chemical crosslinking. We hypothesized that highly incorporated tea polyphenol with multiple reactive sites can ameliorate crosslinking efficiency of chemical crosslinked UHMWPE in comparison to VE. Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) as representative tea polyphenol was incorporated into UHMWPE at high concentration (2–8 wt%), followed by chemical crosslinking with 2 wt% organic peroxide. Unlike VE/UHMWPE blends as the control, chemical crosslinking achieved an increasing trend in crosslink density of EGCG/UHMWPE blends with increasing antioxidant concentration. High concentration of EGCG also enhanced the oxidation stability of UHMWPE. Intriguingly, EGCG endowed UHMWPE with an excellent antimicrobial property, which was inefficient in VE/UHMWPE. Cell viability was hardly affected by the high loaded antioxidant and peroxide. The chemically crosslinked UHMWPE blended with EGCG is proved to be a reasonable, cost effective and realistic alternative for use in artificial joints.     

A cross-layer approach for partition detection at overlay layer for structured P2P in MANETs

Due to limited radio range and mobility of nodes in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), the network partitioning and merging could occur frequently. When structured peer-to-peer (P2P) overlays are running over MANETs, then network partition in the physical network can also cause network partition at the overlay layer. Existing approaches for structured P2P overlay over MANETs do not detect network partition at the overlay layer. This paper proposes a cross-layer approach to detect network partition at the overlay layer for structured P2P overlay over MANETs. Simulation results show that the proposed approach is highly effective and efficient in terms of routing overhead, success ratio and false-negative ratio.     

An analysis on decentralized adaptive MAC protocols for cognitive radio networks

The scarcity of bandwidth in the radio spectrum has become more vital since the demand for more and more wireless applications has increased. Most of the spectrum bands have been allocated although many studies have shown that these bands are significantly underutilized most of the time. The problem of unavailability of spectrum and inefficiency in its utilization has been smartly addressed by the cognitive radio (CR) technology which is an opportunistic network that senses the environment, observes the network changes, and then uses knowledge gained from the prior interaction with the network to make intelligent decisions by dynamically adapting their transmission characteristics. In this paper, some of the decentralized adaptive medium access control (MAC) protocols for CR networks have been critically analyzed, and a novel adaptive MAC protocol for CR networks, decentralized non-global MAC (DNG-MAC), has been proposed. The results show the DNG-MAC outperforms other CR-MAC protocols in terms of time and energy efficiency.     

Stiction – definition, modelling, detection and quantification

Stiction or high static friction is a common problem in spring-diaphragm type control valves, which are widely used in the process industry. Recently, there have been many attempts to understand, define, model and detect stiction in control valves. There are several methods for detecting stiction, but quantification of the actual amount of stiction still remains a challenge. This paper discusses briefly the definition and modelling of stiction. Then it demonstrates a new method to detect and quantify the actual amount of valve stiction using routine operating data. The proposed method is completely data-driven. No additional excitation or experimentation of the plant is required.     

Characterization of the paste-aggregate interfacial transition zone surface roughness and its relationship to the fracture toughness of concrete

Notched concrete beams containing varying amounts of pea gravel aggregate were tested under three-point bend, and their fracture toughness determined. The roughness of the region near the interface between the cement paste and the aggregate was evaluated by digitizing images from a confocal tandem scanning microscope. The average roughness of the paste was found to be related to the fracture parametersK _IC (critical stress intensity factor) and a _c (critical crack extension), as determined by the two-parameter fracture model. The roughness in the proximity of the paste-aggregate interface was generally higher than that of the paste far from the aggregate, and it decreased with the distance from the aggregate. This study indicates that aggregate particles increase the toughness of the cement paste portion of concrete, and that this is an important mechanism for toughening concrete.     

DeepClassRooms: a deep learning based digital twin framework for on-campus class rooms

Neural Computing and Applications - A lot of different methods are being opted for improving the educational standards through monitoring of the classrooms. The developed world uses Smart...     

Hpcfolder: a simple tool used to parallelize algorithms using the message passing interface (MPI)

The Journal of Supercomputing - Hpcfolder is a user-friendly high-performance computing tool that can be used to analyze the performance of algorithms parallelized using MPI. It is possible to view...     

Optimization of annealing cycle parameters of dual phase and interstitial free steels by multiobjective genetic algorithms

Data-driven models have been constructed for Dual Phase (DP) and Interstitials Free (IF) steels using an evolutionary approach. DP steel data are utilized from an existing database, while for the IF steels, data generated at an integrated steel plant have been used. The objective function for Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS) and % elongation, created as data-driven models, is simultaneously optimized for an optimum strength-ductility balance and the results indicate the possibilities of developing steels with better mechanical properties than what are known to have been existing so far.