Speed control system and design of resonant system with disturbance observer

In industrial motor drive systems such as industrial plants and industrial robots, a torsional vibration often is generated because of the elastic elements in torque transmission. This vibration makes it difficult to achieve quick responses of speed and may result in damage to the plant. Such systems simply are modeled as a two mass system. The shaft torque feedback system with the disturbance observer, which is called “resonance ratio control,” is proposed to suppress the vibration for the two-mass system. In this paper, the design of controller gains in the shaft torque feedback system is examined considering not only the control performance such as the vibration suppression and dynamic responses, but also the robust stability against the noise and the model uncertainties. This paper shows the validity of the control system and the examinations by several experiments.     

Rates of gas absorption with interfacial turbulence caused by micro-stirrers

Rates of absorption of CO₂ into water, a 0.2 mol/L NaOH solution and a 40 wt% glycerol solution with and without the interfacial turbulence caused by micro-stirrers, made of a magnetic material, were measured with use of a stirred vessel with known gas-liquid interfacial area. The effect of the interfacial turbulence on the rate of gas absorption was remarkable in the lower range of the bulk turbulence. The enhancement factors due to the interfacial turbulence were calculated with use of the age distribution function of the Danckwerts type and they agreed well with the experimental results.     

Electrical properties of manganese doped Ga1−xInxAs grown by liquid phase epitaxy

Mn-doped Ga_1?xIn_xAs crystals (0 < x < 0.25) have been grown by the LPE technique, and the doping characteristics and electrical properties of the layers have been studied by Hall measurement. The distribution coefficient of Mn has been found to depend on the substrate orientation. The acceptor enerby level is about 77 meV and is comparable to that of Mn-doped GaAs. p-n junction diodes with high InAs compositions, grown using the step grading technique, showed a diode factor of 2. Electron diffusion lengths greater than 3μm have been measured in these Mn doped layers.     

A New Approach to Humanitarian Demining

Landmines can deprive whole areas of valuable resources, and continue to kill and cause injuries years after the end of armed conflicts. Armored vehicles are used for mine clearance, but with limited reliability. The final inspection of minefields is still performed by human deminers exposed to potentially fatal accidents. The aim of this research is to introduce automation as a way to improve the final level of humanitarian demining. This paper addresses mobility and manipulation, while sensing, communication and visualization shall be discussed in detail in a subsequent paper. After analyzing the merits and limitations of previous works, a new approach to tele-operated demining is considered, using off-road buggies equipped with combustion engines, and taking into account actual field requirements. Control of the automated buggies on rough terrain is also discussed, as well as the development of a new weight-balanced manipulator for landmine clearance operations.Paulo Debenest received the B. Eng. degree in mechanical engineering (major in automation and systems) from Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo (EPUSP), Brazil, in 1998, and the M. Eng. degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), Japan, in 2002. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in mechanical science engineering at Tokyo Tech and member of IEEE. His current research activities include development of demining robots and mechanical design of machines for field applications.Edwardo F. Fukushima is an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech). He received the B. Eng. degree in electric engineering (major in electronics and telecommunications) from Federal Center of Technological Education of Paraná (CEFET-PR), Brazil, in 1989, and M. Eng. degree in mechanical science engineering from Tokyo Tech in 1993. In 1994 he became a research associate in the same institute. During Sept.–Dec. 2001 he has been a Visiting Researcher at Stanford University, and during Aug.–Sept. 2004 Visiting Scientist at University of Zurich. He is also member of RSJ. His current research activities include development of demining robots, design of controllers for intelligent robots, and development of new brushless motors and drives.Yuki Tojo is a masters course student in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech). He received the B. Eng. degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Tokyo Tech in 2003. His research interests include design and control of weight-compensated manipulator on mobile platform. He is also member of RSJ.Shigeo Hirose was born in Tokyo in 1947. He received his B.Eng. Degree with First Class Honors in Mechanical Engineering from Yokohama National University in 1971, and his M. Eng. and Ph.D. Eng. Degrees in Control Engineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1973 and 1976, respectively. From 1976 to 1979 he was a Research Associate, and from 1979 to 1992 an Associate Professor. Since 1992 he has been a Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. Since 2002, he has been Honorary Professor in Shengyang Institute of Technology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Fellow of JSME and IEEE. He is engaged in creative design of robotic systems. Prof. Hirose has been awarded more than twenty prizes.     

Improvement of growth stability of photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter capsulatus

Using a semicontinuous culture method, in which operational parameters such as cell concentration and light intensity distribution were maintained almost constant, instability of the specific growth rate of Rhodobacter capsulatus B-100, a purple bacterium, was observed to be similar to that of R. capsulatus ST-410 when cultivated under high ratios of light intensity on the illuminated side to that of the transmitted light. Such instability was not observed in the cultivation of Chlorella vulgaris, a eukaryotic green alga, even at higher cell concentrations. Under the same conditions, the increase in only the ferrous concentration from 43 microM, the concentration in the original RCV medium, to 172 microM sustained a stable growth, whereas Fe(2+) was slightly consumed during the cultivation. Supplemental illumination with a fluorescent lamp on the transmitted side of a flat plate photobioreactor sustained a moderate level of stable growth, while a halogen lamp slightly affected the growth stability. Our results showed that an increase in Fe(2+) concentration or supplemental illumination improves the growth stability of R. capsulatus.     

An Application of Sampling Inspection to Corrective Plan for Semi-Markov Production Process

A corrective plan for the maintenance of production process whose capability is deteriorating in service is given. The special analysis by sampling inspection of a lot production is proposed for the semi-Markov model of production process. The result in the present paper is a generalization of previous conclusions based on the Markov model. Dynamic characteristics from the initial state to the corrected state of production process are also analyzed with Graphical Evaluation and Review Technique (GERT). It is shown furthermore that information on the improvement of process capability can be obtained from the sensitivity analysis.     

The micro-nanoformability of Pt-based metallic glass and the nanoforming of three-dimensional structures

Pt_48.75Pd_9.75Cu_19.5P₂₂ amorphous alloy exhibits obvious glass transition behavior at a temperature of T_g=502 K, which is below the crystallization temperature T_x=588 K, and develops a supercooled liquid state in a wide temperature range of ΔT_x (=T_x−T_g)=86 K. The present paper investigates the macroscopic and microscopic deformation behavior of the material and the possibility of micro-nano forming as a fabrication method and material for nano-devices. On a macroscopic scale, the material exhibits a Newtonian viscous flow in a supercooled liquid state. An index of the microformability is also evaluated by the geometrical transferability of a die shape to the material. For this study, we fabricated V-grooved micro dies of (100) Si by a silicon process. The V-groove dies are from 100 nm to 1 μm wide. The material exhibits superior formability on micrometer and nanometer scales and may possibly be applied to micro-nanomaterials for micro-nano devices.