Simple and low-cost fabrication of PDMS microfluidic round channels by surface-wetting parameters optimization

Convenient for both biologists and MEMS designers, Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) polymer is intensively investigated for its biocompatibility, transparency, high resistance under plasma treatment, flexibility and resistance to high temperature. However, for microfluidic applications, the fabrication of PDMS circular channels is difficult to achieve except by wire moulding. In this article, we present a simple, fast and low-cost fabrication method which can be applied out of clean-room environment. It is based on the deposition of alginic acid sodium salt aqueous solution, enabling the formation of a liquid cylinder on the most hydrophilic part of a hydrophilic/hydrophobic patterned surface. We experimentally studied the interaction between liquid rivulets and surfaces presenting a contrast of wettability and/or a stepwise texture. Subsequent moulding of the half-cylinder of liquid produces round PDMS microfluidic channels. The optimal parameters for hydrophilic/hydrophobic patterns have then been applied to produce the roundest possible channels. The realisation of both straight channels 300–500 μm wide, 1 cm long and 75° tangent chord angle at best, and Y-shaped channels with the same dimensions and 55° TCA is demonstrated.     

2D system approach based output feedback repetitive control for uncertain discrete-time systems

This paper presents a two-dimensional (2D)-based approach to the problem of output feedback repetitive control for uncertain discrete-time systems. It is shown first how the proposed repetitive control scheme can be equivalently formulated in the form of a distinct class of 2D system. Then sufficient conditions for the existence of output feedback control law are derived in terms of linear matrix inequality (LMI), and the control law matrices are characterized by the feasible solutions to this LMI. Moreover, an optimization problem is introduced to efficiently solve the optimal output feedback control law by minimizing the upper bound of a given cost function. Compared with the commonly used 1D-based method, the proposed approach increases the degree of freedom of controller design by not only including in the scheme an output feedback gain but also a feed forward one which can be simultaneously solved using the 2D-based procedures presented in the paper. Finally, a numerical example is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Parameter identification and design of a robust attitude controller using <Emphasis Type="Italic">H</Emphasis><Subscript>∞</Subscript> methodology for the raptor E620 small-scale helicopter

Rigorous control synthesis for an unmanned aerial vehicle necessitates the availability of a good, reasonable model for such a vehicle. The work reported in this paper focuses on the modeling of a rotary unmanned aerial vehicle (RUAV) and the development of a robust controller that can handle parameter uncertainties and disturbances. The parameters of the plant model are obtained through the use of the prediction error method with real flight data. The response of the identified linear model shows a good match with the measured flight data. The H _∞ control scheme is applied to obtain a robustly stable controller using the identified model. The proposed controller is analyzed using frequency-domain analysis and time-domain simulations. The performance of the proposed H _∞ controller is better than that of the conventional proportional derivative controller in that the proposed controller has a shorter settling time and less overshoot. Furthermore, the degradation of the proposed controller performance is negligible and stability is maintained when the input gains to the plant are doubled, which demonstrates the good performance and robustness of the controller.     

An investigation into vehicle rollover prevention by coordinated control of active anti-roll bar and electronic stability program

This paper presents a method for designing a controller that uses an active anti-roll bar (AARB) and an electronic stability program (ESP) for rollover prevention. ESP with longitudinal speed control (LSC) can carry out active braking to reduce vehicle speed and lateral acceleration to prevent a rollover. To enhance the rollover prevention capability of the ESP, an AARB is adopted. The controller for the AARB was designed based on linear quadratic (LQ) static output feedback (SOF) control methodology, which attenuates the effect of lateral acceleration on the roll angle and roll rate by control of the suspension stroke and the tire deflection of the vehicle. Although this AARB significantly increases ride comfort and rollover prevention, it has a drawback — the vehicle loses its maneuverability. Therefore, the ESP with LSC is used to overcome this drawback. Simulations showed that the proposed method was effective in preventing a rollover.     

一种新型硅三端负阻器件

提出并研制成一种新型硅三端负阻器件。该器件由一n沟耗尽型MOS管、一横向pnp双极晶体管和一个电阻集成而得。它具有“双负阻”特性和正阻区阻值易于控制等特点。由理论计算出的器件I_c—V_(CB)特性和负阻参数与实验结果符合良好。     

Magnetic field dependence of the critical current density for the bismuth-based bulk high-Tc superconductors

Three types of bismuth-based bulk samples were prepared through uniaxial pressing at room temperature, hot isostatic pressing (HIP) and drawing and rolling. Transport current properties were characterized in a steady field up to 1.12 T at 77 K (T/T _c=0.75). The Josephson weak-link decoupling fields have been found to be 5 mT for the cold-pressed pellet and 30 mT for the HIPed pellet and the rolled tape. At the decoupling field the transport critical current density,J _c, drops 80% from 124 (OT) to 29 A cm^–2 (5 mT) for the cold-pressed pellet, 80% from 582 (OT) to 126 A cm^–2 (30 mT) for the HIPed sample and 50% from6500 (0 T) to 2850 A cm^–2 (30 mT) for the rolled tape. In the flux flow regime, whereB is perpendicular to thec-axis a modified Kim's modelJ _c=(/B ₀)/[(1+B/B ₀)] ⁿ can be used to describe the field dependence of the critical current density, J_c, in the field range 0.2–1.12 T. The effective upper critical fields were estimated to be 0.98, 1.54 and 1.94 T for the three types of samples, respectively. An adjustable range ofB _c2 for bismuth-based bulk highT _c superconductors is given. Flux shear may operate in these materials. The prediction of this pinning mechanism is yielded from fitting the equation qualitatively. WhenB is parallel to thec-axis, the absence of strongly intragranular flux-pinning is emphasized by the poor flux flow regime for the rolled tape sample.     

Deciding bisimilarity is<Emphasis Type="Italic">P</Emphasis>-complete

In finite labelled transition systems the problems of deciding strong bisimilarity, observation equivalence and observation congruence areP-complete under many—oneNC-reducibility. As a consequence, algorithms for automated analysis of finite state systems based on bisimulation seem to be inherently sequential in the following sense: the design of anNC algorithm to solve any of these problems will require an algorithmic breakthrough, which is exceedingly hard to achieve.     

提升细节捕捉能力的非下采样轮廓波变换

针对传统NSCT(非下采样轮廓波变换)算法中NSP(多尺度分解方法)对细节信息捕捉能力较差及利用其进行图像融合得到的融合图像出现细节丢失问题,提出改进的NSCT算法。不同于传统NSCT算法,该算法首先采用细节捕捉能力较强的非下采样形态学小波分解替代NSP分解,实现对源图像的多尺度分解,将源图像分解成水平高频、垂直高频、对角高频和低频4部分;然后利用NDFB(非下采样的方向性滤波器)对高频部分进行多方向分解得到一系列高频信息,实现改进型NSCT分解。实验结果表明,该算法的细节捕捉能力较传统算法好,在相同融合规则下其图像融合效果更好,各项融合指标值均有所提高,其中平均梯度提高了10%,且易于实现,可广泛用于多分辨率图像融合,是一种有效的融合图像算法。     

保持几何特征的自适应弹性二次曲线模型

物体形状特征的准确提取往往受到图像获取、目标分割等过程中各种因素的影响,因而需要构造一种鲁棒的形状表现来保有其本质特征。揭示弹性二次曲线(EQW)模型中能量权重因子和样条重叠度因子与形状几何特性间的关系,提出一种自适应保持几何特征的EQW形状表现模型,并将该模型与交互式Live Wire算法相结合,应用至图像分割中,对于各种模态图像中的目标进行分割实验。直观上,本文方法能够在去除噪声同时较好地保持目标形状的显著特征;量化结果方面,交互式分割误差保持在较小稳定范围内,引入EQW模型带来的时间开销亦在可接受范围内。     

改进FCM在交互式图像分割中的应用

为解决由于自然纹理的干扰而导致的分割图像边缘模糊问题,对模糊C均值聚类算法进行改进并应用于交互式图像分割中。用户通过输入种子点来获得目标和背景的主要特征,并将输入的种子点作为聚类中心点;提出全局空间相似性度量标准并引入Gabor能量滤波器来计算图像中各点到聚类中心的距离;算法首次引入边缘密度概念定义权重因子,根据图像特点,自适应地计算图像中任意一点的纹理特征和颜色特征在特征空间中所占比例,使得到的特征更加准确地描述图像的本质属性。对具有自然纹理背景的图像进行仿真实验,应用两种性能指标来比较本文所提算法与随机游走算法的分割精度。实验结果表明,本文算法分割精度高于模糊聚类和随机游走算法。