Design of delayed reconfigurable manufacturing system based on part family grouping and machine selection

To improve the convertibility of reconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS), the concept of delayed reconfigurable manufacturing system (D-RMS) was proposed. RMS and D-RMS are both constructed around part family. However, D-RMS may suffer from ultra-long system problem with unacceptable idle machines using generic RMS part families. Besides, considering the complex basic system structure of D-RMS, machine selection of D-RMS should be addressed, including dedicated machine, flexible machine, and reconfigurable machine. Therefore, a system design method for D-RMS based on part family grouping and machine selection is proposed. Firstly, a part family grouping method is proposed for D-RMS that groups the parts with more former common operations into the same part family. The concept of longest relative position common operation subsequence (LPCS) is proposed. The similarity coefficient among the parts is calculated based on LPCS. The reciprocal value of the operation position of LPCS is adopted as the characteristic value. The average linkage clustering (ALC) algorithm is used to cluster the parts. Secondly, a machine selection method is proposed to complete the system design of D-RMS, including machine selection rules and the dividing point decision model. Finally, a case study is given to implement and verify the proposed system design method for D-RMS. The results show that the proposed system design method is effective, which can group parts with more former common operations into the same part family and select appropriate machine types.     

Metasurface based pattern reconfigurable antenna for 2.45 GHz ISM band applications

In this article, a Z‐shaped antenna is designed for 2.45 GHz ISM band applications. The proposed antenna is surrounded by metasurface‐based unit cells. The unit cells are designed to reflect for the proposed frequency. Each of this unit cells are activated with the help of a diode. Unit cell is considered active by switching on the diode of respective unit cell. According to the activation of unit cell the pattern of the antenna will be reconfigured. The 2.45 GHz ISM band pattern reconfigurable microstrip antenna is presented. The radiation pattern of the antenna can be steered toward a desired direction by activating appropriate metasurface unit cell, minimizing the interference and optimizing medium usage. The proposed antenna performance is presented with the help of reflection coefficient and the pattern steerable capability by activating metasurface unit cells. The proposed antenna is having azimuth‐pattern reconfigurable capability around 360°.     

可重构智能表面辅助的四元数调制无线通信系统

四元数调制(Quaternion Modulation,QMod)是一种新型高传输速率的极化调制(Polarized Modulation,PMod)技术,是未来卫星通信系统中极具潜力的多元调制方案之一。QMod将数据块分成4块,其中两块是传输数据信号,另外两块则映射到极化状态部分。每个极化状态块均有一位比特,那么它们可以产生4个极化状态组合。这些状态组合可以用来确定传输数据块在四元数4个不同维度中的位置,从而获得两位额外的传输比特。相比于传统的PMod技术,QMod有着更高的频谱效率。为了进一步挖掘QMod的潜力,介绍了由可重构智能表面(Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface,RIS)辅助的QMod系统,同时推导了该系统的平均误码率理论上界,并在瑞利信道下进行了BER性能仿真。仿真结果表明,RIS辅助的PMod或者QMod系统即便在较低的SNR情况下仍有良好的BER性能,并且随着RIS单元数的增多,其BER性能会逐步提升。     

Optimal cost design of flow lines with reconfigurable machines for batch production

Modular reconfigurable machines offer the possibility to efficiently produce a family of different parts. This paper formalises a cost optimisation problem for flow lines equipped with reconfigurable machines which carry turrets, machining modules and single spindles. The proposed models take into account constraints related to: (i) design of machining modules, turrets, and machines, (ii) part locations, and (iii) precedence relations among operations. The goal is to minimise equipment cost while reaching a given output and satisfying all the constraints. A mixed integer programming model is developed for the considered optimisation problem. The approach is validated through an industrial case study and extensive numerical experiments.     

Design and investigations on a compact,UWB, monopole antenna with reconfigurable band notches for 5.2/5.8 GHz WLAN and 5.5 GHz Wi‐MAX bands

This article represents a microstrip line–fed novel circular monopole antenna with ultra‐wideband (UWB) characteristics. The compact antenna provides reconfigurable notches at WLAN (5.2/5.8 GHz) and Wi‐MAX (5.5 GHz) frequency bands. The band rejection is achieved by etching an open‐ended L‐shaped slot in the ground plane, which effectively mitigates the interference between WLAN, Wi‐MAX, and UWB systems with an effective patch area of 36.26%. The proposed antenna operates from 3.05 to 12.11 GHz with VSWR 2 except at stopband (3.89‐5.93 GHz) to filter the WLAN and Wi‐MAX signals. The simulated return loss, gain, and radiation pattern of the proposed antenna has been experimentally verified with the fabricated one which holds a good agreement.     

多轮分布式驱动车辆可重构集成协调控制方法

多轮分布式独立驱动平台运动控制技术的演进对提升特种无人车辆的快速机动性及操纵稳定性具有重要的战略意义,然而其底盘主动执行系统的故障率或相互干涉的可能性也大大增加。提出一种面向该平台的可重构集成协调控制方法,以实现车辆动力学性能的进一步提升。基于自顶向下的分层控制结构,在运动控制层引入考虑参数不确定性的自适应滑模控制器,以保证对车辆运动目标状态的准确跟踪,并生成所需的广义控制力;在控制分配层提出一种加权伪逆控制分配器,基于控制效率矩阵的零空间特性,在主动执行器饱和约束可行域内进行再分配修正,以完成从广义控制力到各车轮处轮胎力的优化分配,其中引入的配置矩阵与优化权重系数则分别实现对控制模型的重新配置以及分配目标的调节;通过设置主动执行器实现分配目标的执行。基于6×6分布式电驱动车辆原理样机,进行两种工况下的仿真和试验验证。研究结果表明,该控制器提升了多轮车辆在转向过程中的操纵稳定性,并获得了更高效更精准的多轮车辆驱动力分配控制效果。     

Traditional Dough in the Era of Internet of Things: Edible,Renewable, and Reconfigurable Skin‐Like Iontronics

With the rapid development of Internet of Things technology, interactive interfaces that can promote bidirectional communications between human beings and machines will certainly play an important role. Current electronic or iontronic systems meet diverse requirements such as conductivity, mechanical compliance, stimuli responsiveness, long‐time duration, and even biocompatibility. However, for future large‐scale applications, non‐degradable and non‐recyclable components in these devices cause resource waste and environmental pollution. Here, traditional dough is used to replace non‐recyclable conductive components and fabricate a type of renewable and reconfigurable smart skin. These smart skins are self‐healing, mechanically adaptable to irregular interfaces, and can sense different gestures of a prosthetic hand as well as large and subtle scale of human motion. This work greatly extends the material choice and enables new functionality for skin‐like iontronics, and may address the concern about their impact on human health and environmental issues in the era of Internet of Things.     

Reconfigurable topology synthesis for application-specific NoC on partially dynamically reconfigurable systems

In this paper, a four-stage method for synthesizing reconfigurable ASNoC topology is proposed for partially dynamically reconfigurable systems, where the topology is reconfigured dynamically at run-time along with the application's execution. Firstly, a simulated annealing based topology-aware integrated optimization framework is proposed to generate the proper schedule and floorplan of task modules. Secondly, based on the schedule and floorplan of task modules, an Integer Linear Programming (ILP)-based method and a heuristic method, are proposed to partition the communication requirements of the application into $T$ time intervals. Thirdly, we explore the proper positions of switches in the floorplan for global communications. Finally, considering the reconfiguration costs between adjacent time intervals, the routing path allocation problem is solved for time intervals in an iterative procedure to generate fine-grained dynamically reconfigurable ASNoC topologies. Experimental results show that, compared to the random partition of communication requirements, the proposed heuristic method and ILP-based method can achieve 5.4% and 10.0% power consumption improvement, respectively. And, the reconfigurable ASNoC can achieve 31.6% power consumption improvement when compared with static ASNoC.     

Product family formation and selection for reconfigurability using analytical network process

The paper develops a conceptual framework for product family formation towards reconfigurability through proposing a product-process reconfiguration link. Different decisive factors affecting product family formation and selection such as manufacturing requirements, market requirements, manufacturing cost and process reconfiguration are investigated. An analytical network process (ANP) model is proposed to incorporate all the outlined decisive factors and major criteria and elements influencing the product family formation and selection. As a consequence of the interactive nature of the product family selection problem, most of the children's’ elements within the same cluster and/ or different clusters are associated with each other. As a result, all the clusters are connected to each other (outer dependencies) as well as their connections to themselves (inner dependencies). The proposed ANP model is examined through a case study in a manufacturing company for validation. Synthesis judgments and sensitivity analysis are carried out for selecting the most appropriate product family along with analysing the influence of the selected critical elements.     

一种移动终端多天线方向图重构快速选择算法与基于滑动时间窗的加速实现

 多输入多输出(MIMO)系统中,天线选择技术可以在降低复杂度的同时,有效地提高系统的性能.但对于天线安装空间受限的小型终端,天线的数目将受到很大限制,本文结合方向图可重构技术,考虑基于线性接收机的空间复用系统,通过在已选择的发射天线上采用等功率分配等增益传输以减少反馈信息量.在此条件下,推导出空间相关衰落信道下自适应发射天线选择的统计容量公式下限,然后,在此基础上提出基于方向图重构的发射天线快速选择方法以最大化该容量值.此外,在实现中提出了一种基于滑动时间窗的梯度更新估计模型,缩短了算法所需时间.