Virtual-environment-based navigation and control of underwatervehicles

A remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) the Phantom S2, is being converted to an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) for shallow-water and coastal environments. After an overview of issues associated with designing and implementing an automated monitoring system, we provide justification and motivation for our research and define ecosystems and ecosystem management. We then discusses how the ROV to AUV conversion is being done by using mostly commercially available of-the-shelf hardware and software technologies. We then present the fundamentals of the three-layer fuzzy-logic navigation scheme for the underwater vehicle, as well as details pertaining to the virtual-reality-based environment modeling approach     

Recycling of lead solder dross,Generated from PCB manufacturing

The main purpose of this work is to analyze lead solder dross, a waste product from manufacturing of printed circuit boards by wave soldering, and to develop an effective and environmentally sound technology for its recycling. A methodology for determination of the content and chemical composition of the metal and oxide phases of the dross is developed. Two methods for recycling of lead solder dross were examined—carbothermal reduction and recycling using boron-containing substances. The influence of various factors on the metal yield was studied and the optimal parameters of the recycling process are defined. The comparison between them under the same parameters-temperature and retention time, showed that recycling of dross with a mixture of borax and boric acid in a 1:2 ratio provides higher metal yield (93%). The recycling of this hazardous waste under developed technology gets glassy slag and solder, which after correction of the chemical composition can be used again for production of PCB.