Characterization of the formation of α1plates from the β3phase in a Cu- Zn- Au alloy

The crystal structures and ordering structures of α₁ bainite plates and β₃ parent phase have been studied by means of electron microscopy in a Cu-40Zn-12Au (at. pct) alloy. The ordering transitions take place in the high-temperature β phase, and a stable L21 structure is reached even after direct quenching. The next-nearest-neighbor antiphase domains (NNNAPDs) are about 40 nm in size and have an island morphology surrounded by some nearly disordered regions. Wide isolated a, plates are present in 473 K aged microstructures, but at lower aging temperatures, thinner bainite plates tend to form in some coordinate modes. Reoriented second-stage thickening and stress-induced local thickening of thin a, plates have also been observed. Microanalysis of solute concentrations in thin bainite plates and in the matrix has shown the involvement of solute diffusion not only in the thickening process but also in the nucleating of the plate. Based on the results, an ordering facilitated shear mechanism is proposed for the a, bainite transformation, which can successfully explain its characteristics.     

Development of a Custom LSI for Industrial Data Communication

A new custom LSI for industrial data communication systems has been developed. This LSI provides all of the functions required for data communication between control equipment and plants without any additional circuits or software. It is also versatile enough to be adaptable to many kinds of industrial control systems.     

A fingertip guiding manipulator for mental image creation of multi-stroke drawings

Authors developed an improved fingertip guiding manipulator that helps visually handicapped persons create mental images of relief sculptures. The manipulator has three functions: (1) an indicating function of knob-moving-direction by a stepping-motor attached at the arm end, (2) a fingertip traction function by a quadrilateral parallel link manipulator, and (3) a fingertip up-down motion function by a linear motion actuator. The former two functions are utilized to represent planer 2D figures, and the last one is to represent the relief sculpture representation together with the former two. Some preliminary experiments were carried out, and the human perceptual thresholds with the up-down motion and the fingertip rotation, and the human kinesthetic following performance were clarified. These thresholds shall be used as the back data for designing mechanical specifications of the proposed fingertip guiding manipulator.     

Path planning based on geographical features information for an autonomous mobile robot

We propose a path-planning algorithm for an autonomous mobile robot using geographical information, under the condition that the robot moves in an unknown environment. Images input by a camera at every sampling time are analyzed and geographical elements are recognized, and the geographical information is embedded in an environmental map. Then the path is updated by integrating the known information and the prediction on the unknown environment. We used a sensor fusion method to improve the mobile robot's dead-reckoning accuracy. The experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm as the robot reached the goal successfully using the geographical information.     

Optical compensation of hologram distortion avoiding interpage crosstalk on reconstructed image in angle-multiplexed holograms

We are studying a form of holographic data storage with phase conjugation, and we compensated for hologram distortion due to shrinkage of photopolymer materials in the holographic medium by controlling the wavefront of the reference beam. When a high NA lens and narrow angle interval of angle multiplexing are employed to obtain a high data recording density, some wavefronts cause interpage crosstalk on the reconstructed image. We tried to determine the moving range of actuators in a deformable mirror for controlling the wavefront. As a result, we found that the distortion in the hologram could be compensated while avoiding interpage crosstalk and that the bit error rates of the reproduced data could be decreased. We also found that the optimized wavefront could compensate for distortions in several neighboring data pages. This method can ensure a high data recording density in holographic data storage.