Study and experimental verification of control tuning strategies in a variable speed wind energy conversion system

This paper analyzes and compares different control tuning strategies for a variable speed wind energy conversion system (WECS) based on a permanent-magnet synchronous generator (PMSG). The aerodynamics of the wind turbine (WT) and a PMSG have been modeled. The control strategy used in this research is composed of three regulators, which may be based on either linear or nonlinear controllers. In this analysis, proportional-integral (PI) linear controllers have been used. Two different tuning strategies are analyzed and compared. The main goal is to enhance the overall performance by achieving a low sensitivity to disturbances and minimal overshoot under variable operating conditions. Finally, the results have been verified by an experimental WECS laboratory prototype.     

High-speed counting and sizing of cells in an impedance flow microcytometer with compact electronic instrumentation

Here we describe a high-throughput impedance flow cytometer on a chip. This device was built using compact and inexpensive electronic instrumentation. The system was used to count and size a mixed cell sample containing red blood cells and white blood cells. It demonstrated a counting capacity of up to ~500 counts/s and was validated through a synchronised high-speed optical detection system. In addition, the device showed excellent discrimination performance under high-throughput conditions.     

Combining vibrational linear-by-part dynamics and kinetic-based decoupling of the dynamics for multiple smooth impacts with redundancy

This article proposes a simple linear-by-part approach for perfectly elastic 3D multiple-point impacts in multibody systems with perfect constraints and no friction, applicable both to nonredundant and redundant cases (where the normal velocities of the contact points are not independent). The approach is based on a vibrational dynamical model, and uses the so called “independent contact space.” Two different time and space scales are used. At the macroscale, the impact interval is negligible, and the overall system configuration is assumed to be constant. Consequently, the inertia and Jacobian matrices appearing in the formulation are also constant. The dynamics at the contact points is simulated through stiff springs undergoing very small deformations and generating system vibrations at the microscale. The total impact interval is split into phases, each corresponding to a constant set of compressed springs responsible for an elastic potential energy. For each phase, a reduced inertia matrix associated with a set of contact points, and a reduced stiffness matrix obtained from the potential energy (associated with all contact points undergoing compression) are introduced. From these matrices, a modal analysis is performed yielding an all-analytical solution within each phase. The main difference between the redundant and nonredundant cases concerns the inertia and stiffness matrices for modal analysis. While in the former case, both are related to the total set of contact points (total contact space), in the latter one they are related to two subsets: a subset of independent points for the inertia matrix (independent contact space), and the total set for the stiffness matrix. A second difference concerns the calculation of the normal impulses generated at each contact point. For the nonredundant case, they can be directly obtained from the total incremental normal velocities of the contact points through the inertia and stiffness matrices. For the redundant one, they can be obtained by adding up their incremental values at each impact phase. This requires an updating of a new effective stiffness matrix depending on the contact points undergoing compression at each phase. Four planar application cases are presented involving a single body and a multibody system colliding with a smooth ground.     

Multiple job co-allocation strategy for heterogeneous multi-cluster systems based on linear programming

Multi-cluster environments are composed of multiple clusters of computers that act collaboratively, and thus allowing computational problems to be treated that require more resources than those available in a single cluster. However, the degree of complexity of the scheduling process is greatly increased by the heterogeneity of resources and co-allocation process, which distributes the tasks of parallel jobs across cluster boundaries.     

Gesture control interface for immersive panoramic displays

In this paper, we propose a gesture-based interface designed to interact with panoramic scenes. The system combines novel static gestures with a fast hand tracking method. Our proposal is to use static gestures as shortcuts to activate functionalities of the system (i.e. volume up/down, mute, pause, etc.), and hand tracking to freely explore the panoramic video. The overall system is multi-user, and incorporates a user identification module based on face recognition, which is able both to recognize returning users and to add new users online. The system exploits depth data, making it robust to challenging illumination conditions. We show through experimental results the performance of every component of the system compared to the state of the art. We also show the results of a usability study performed with several untrained users.     

S-PC: An e-treatment application for management of smoke-quitting patients

The main objective of this paper is to present a new program that facilitates the management of people who want to quit smoking, implemented through an e-treatment software called S-PC (Smoker Patient Control). S-PC is a web-based application that manages groups of patients, provides a bidirectional communication through mobile text messages and e-mails between patients and clinicians and offers advice and control to keep track of the patients and their status.     

A routing framework for energy harvesting wireless nanosensor networks in the Terahertz Band

Wireless NanoSensor Networks (WNSNs) will allow novel intelligent nanomaterial-based sensors, or nanosensors, to detect new types of events at the nanoscale in a distributed fashion over extended areas. Two main characteristics are expected to guide the design of WNSNs architectures and protocols, namely, their Terahertz Band wireless communication and their nanoscale energy harvesting process. In this paper, a routing framework for WNSNs is proposed to optimize the use of the harvested energy to guarantee the perpetual operation of the WNSN while, at the same time, increasing the overall network throughput. The proposed routing framework, which is based on a previously proposed medium access control protocol for the joint throughput and lifetime optimization in WNSNs, uses a hierarchical cluster-based architecture that offloads the network operation complexity from the individual nanosensors towards the cluster heads, or nano-controllers. This framework is based on the evaluation of the probability of saving energy through a multi-hop transmission, the tuning of the transmission power of each nanosensor for throughput and hop distance optimization, and the selection of the next hop nanosensor on the basis of their available energy and current load. The performance of this framework is also numerically evaluated in terms of energy, capacity, and delay, and compared to that of the single-hop communication for the same WNSN scenario. The results show how the energy per bit consumption and the achievable throughput can be jointly maximized by exploiting the peculiarities of this networking paradigm.     

1-D nanoporous anodic alumina rugate filters by means of small current variations for real-time sensing applications

A rugate filter based on nanoporous anodic alumina was fabricated using an innovative sinusoidal current profile with small current variation. The resulting structure consisted of highly parallel pores with modulations of the pore diameter along the pore axis and with no branching. The effect of the period time and the pore widening post-treatment was studied. From reflectance measurements, it was seen that the position of the reflection band can be tuned by adjusting the period time and the width by pore-widening post-treatments. We tested one of the rugate filters by infiltrating the structure with EtOH and water in order to evaluate its sensing capabilities. This method allows the fabrication of complex in-depth modulated nanoporous anodic alumina structures that open up the possibility of new kinds of alumina-based optical sensing devices.