Adaptive neuro fuzzy based hybrid force/position control for an industrial robot manipulator

In this paper an ANFIS-PD+I (AFSPD+I) based hybrid force/position controller has been proposed which works effectively with unspecified robot dynamics in the presence of external disturbances. A constraint is put to limit the movement of manipulator in XY Cartesian coordinates. The validity of the proposed controller has been tested using a 6-degree of freedom PUMA robot manipulator. The performance comparison have been done with the fuzzy proportional derivative plus integral, fuzzy proportional integral derivative and conventional proportional integral derivative controllers subjected to the same data set with proposed controller. The projected AFSPD+I controller adhered to the desired path closer and smoother than the other mentioned controllers.     

CPW-fed triple high rejection notched UWB and X-band antenna on silicon for imaging and wireless applications

In this article, compact coplanar waveguide feed antenna covering ultra-wideband and X-band signals (2.98–13.34 GHz) is presented. Antenna also offers triple-notched band elimination (Wireless Interoperability for Microwave Access: 3.40–3.95 GHz, Wireless Local Area Network: 4.50–6.34 GHz and Downlink Satellite System: 7.11–7.802 GHz) which is due to insertion of stub and etching of slots. Antenna is fabricated and characterised on silicon for imaging and wireless applications having a fractional bandwidth of 133%. The antenna offers gain, radiation efficiency and group delay between 3.26 and 8.00 dBi, 84% and 92% and ≤±1.0 ns, respectively, for the entire bandwidth. Isolation of antenna in face-to-face and side-to-side orientations is <?25 dB with very less distortion presented in the transmission and reception of the signal. The radiations emitted by the antenna are observed as a dipole-like pattern in E-plane and omnidirectional in H-plane.     

A Hybrid SEM-Neural Network Model for Predicting Determinants of Mobile Payment Services

ABSTRACT

This study develops a new research model to understand and predict the key determinants influencing the adoption of mobile payment services in a Middle Eastern country, Oman. The research model was tested using a hybrid structural equation modeling (SEM) and neural network (NN) modeling. The findings suggest valuable insights into the mobile payment service providers in the development of an appropriate and effective strategy to raise the number of new consumers in Oman.     

A High Resolution Assessment of Water Footprint of Wheat to Understand Yield and Water Use Heterogeneity

Efficient water use remains a major challenge globally. Semi-arid regions of the eastern plains of the state of Uttar Pradesh are no different. With stagnating yields and increased input achieving homogeneity in crop yield remains the only way to increase production. Water being the main drive, its judicious use is to be encouraged. Heterogeneity in water usage resulting in yield heterogeneity has to be quantified. It explains the extent of problem. This research conducted at Samrakalwana village at Allahabad reveals that a 36.12 % heterogeneity in water usage results in wheat yield heterogeneity of 44.04 %. Based upon this, management practices can be recommended to the farmers to minimize yield gap. Water footprints for wheat were obtained. The obtained water footprints for wheat were found to vary between 9844 to 2951 l/Kg. The water productivity ranged from 3.88 to 1.01 Tonnes/m³. This huge variation also explains the large heterogeneity is present in utilizing existing water as a resource at the Samrakalwana village.     

Plastic fats and margarines through fractionation,blending and interesterification of milk fat

Milk fat stearins and oleins were blended with high‐ and low‐melting natural fats to produce plastic fats, vanaspati substitute and confectionery fats. Margarines of improved nutritional value were also formulated. Fractionation was carried out using acetone, hexane, and isopropyl alcohol. The yield (wt‐%) of high‐melting stearin (HMS) from acetone and IPA was 13.0 ± 0.2 to 13.3 ± 0.1 after crystallization for 24 h at 20 °C. The melting point of the products was 49.0 ± 0.5 to 49.8 ± 0.6 °C. However, in hexane the yield of HMS was 12.2 ± 0.2% at 10 °C. The olein fractions were further fractionated at 10 °C from acetone and IPA, and at 0 °C from hexane, to obtain superoleins and low‐melting stearins (LMS). HMS fractions were blended with rice bran oil and cottonseed oil at the ratio 70 : 30 (wt/wt), and the superoleins were blended with sal fat and palm stearin at the ratios 40 : 60, 30 : 70 and 20 : 80 (wt/wt). The blends were interesterified (product melting point: 22.7 ± 0.04 to 39.3 ± 0.10 °C) chemically and enzymatically to prepare margarine. The penetration values (in 0.1 mm) of these margarines were noted to be 112 ± 1.52 to 145 ± 0.00.     

Application of modified pyrolytic graphite electrode as a sensor in the simultaneous assay of adenine and adenosine monophosphate

A simple and sensitive method based on square wave voltammetry (SWV) at single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) modified edge plane pyrolytic graphite electrode (EPPGE) is proposed for the simultaneous determination of adenine and adenosine-5′-monophosphate (5′-AMP). The modified electrode exhibits remarkable electrocatalytic properties towards adenine and 5′-AMP oxidation with a peak potential of ∼850 and 1165 mV respectively. Linear calibration curves are obtained over the concentration range of 5-100 nM for adenine and 10-100 nM for 5′-AMP with sensitivity of 677 and 476 nA nM⁻¹ for adenine and 5′-AMP respectively. The limit of detection for adenine and 5′-AMP was found to be 37 × 10⁻¹⁰ M and 76 × 10⁻¹⁰ M, respectively. The effect of pH revealed that the oxidation of adenine and 5′-AMP at SWNT modified EPPGE involved equal number of electrons and protons. The modified electrode exhibited high stability and reproducibility.     

Optimization of design and characterization of a novel micro-pumping system with peristaltic motion

In this work, we present a novel design of peristalsis based micro pump with optimized fluid chambers possessing improved discharge efficiency per unit volume of the pumping architecture and reduced reverse flow. Such designs are very often important from the standpoint of blood cell sorting assays where a full delivery of fluid containment within the pumping chamber is critical. The paper uses FLUENT and COMSOL simulations to look at the fluid flow within the pumping chamber due to the deflecting actuator membrane during pumping cycle. The resulting effect of fluid-membrane interaction has been evaluated on different chamber designs for observing the lateral velocity distribution profile of fluid in the connecting channels. It has been observed through particle image velocimetry (PIV) that the optimized design has minimized chamber retainability with maximum deflection of the actuator membrane and minimum reverse flow component. Optimized geometrical profile formulated above was seen to allow the maximum contact area between actuating membrane and fluid containment thus reducing the problem of fluid retainability. Other experimental studies show that the new design has much lower percentage retainability of biological and other fluids contained within the chambers which makes it a comparatively high efficiency micropumping system with respect to the conventional design with circular membrane and chambers. The experimental evaluation of the new micro pump design has shown its least count to be 0.1 μl/min which is very well comparing with some of the other micropumping mechanisms like electro-osmotic, magneto-hydrodynamic mechanisms (Laser and Santiago in J Micromech Microeng 14:35, 2004; Iverson et al. 2008) and additionally provides better discharge efficiency per unit volume of the pumping architecture, lower retainability, minimized reverse flow and precise pumping of fluids.     

RP-HPLC peptide profiling of cheese extracts: A study of sources of variation, repeatability and reproducibility

Peptide profiling of cheese extracts by RP-HPLC is widely used to study cheese quality and authenticity. Repeatability, reproducibility and the contribution of differences in sample/treatment, extraction, and the effect of the chromatographic run was studied. Chromatograms (108) of pH 4.6-soluble extracts from 180 d Cheddar cheeses were used to evaluate the precision of the method and to quantify the effect of treatment and replicate cheese trial. Repeatability and reproducibility coefficient of variations of peaks/RT classes varied widely and no clear correlation was found between peak size and reproducibility. ANOVA of Principal Component Scores identified significant differences amongst cheeses and a trial effect. Partial Least Square Discriminant Analysis identified variables related to cheese treatment. Statistical process control methods were used to study the variability of replicate injections over the life of a single column showing the discriminatory power of RP-HPLC and giving possibilities to improve both process control and process optimisation.     

A new hybrid teaching–learning particle swarm optimization algorithm for synthesis of linkages to generate path

This paper proposes a novel hybrid teaching–learning particle swarm optimization (HTLPSO) algorithm, which merges two established nature-inspired algorithms, namely, optimization based on teaching–learning (TLBO) and particle swarm optimization (PSO). The HTLPSO merges the best half of population obtained after the teacher phase in TLBO with the best half of the population obtained after PSO. The population so obtained is used subsequently in learner phase of TLBO. To validate the proposed algorithm, five constrained benchmark functions are considered to prove its robustness and efficiency. The proposed algorithm is applied to synthesize four-bar linkage for prescribed path. It is found that the HTLPSO performs better than other single nature-inspired algorithms for path synthesis problem in mechanism theory. Hence, HTLPSO may prove to be an important tool for mechanism design to follow the prescribed path.