Utility of stereoscopic displays for indirect-vision driving and robot teleoperation

The effectiveness of an active shutter-glasses stereoscopic display (SD) and a passive polarised SD was evaluated in a live robot-teleoperation task and a simulated indirect-vision driving task in various terrains. Overall, participants completed their tasks significantly faster with the SDs in three-dimensional (3D) mode than with the SDs in the baseline 2D mode. They also navigated more accurately with the SDs in 3D mode. When the effectiveness of the two types of SDs was examined separately, results showed that the active shutter-glasses SD resulted in faster responses and task completion times than the passive polarised SD, though most of the differences failed to reach statistical significance. Perceived workload when interacting with the two SD systems did not differ significantly between the active versus passive display types or between the 3D and 2D modes of operation; however, participants reported more severe discomfort after interacting with the passive polarised SD.     

水声传感阵列指向性与系统传输性能研究

针对浅海水声通信中水汽界面和海底的反射产生多途效应对信号传输的影响,依据水下声传输原理,分析了水声信道中的噪声特点和产生多途效应机理,研究水声信道中声传感器指向性与传输性能关系,探讨水声传感阵列方式在水下通信环境的优势,设计合理的阵元间连接形式、阵列驱动电路和阻抗匹配电路,保证有效的功率耦合效率。经水下试验测试表明:采用一定指向性的声阵列结构,利用单个阵元波束宽度小于10°,构成阵列结构的波束宽度小于30°,并进行一定阻抗匹配,可减小能量损失,有效提高水声通信系统性能。     

Evaluation of thermal and evaporative resistances in cricket helmets using a sweating manikin

The main objective of this study is to establish an approach for measuring the dry and evaporative heat dissipation cricket helmets. A range of cricket helmets has been tested using a sweating manikin within a controlled climatic chamber. The thermal manikin experiments were conducted in two stages, namely the (i) dry test and (ii) wet test. The ambient air temperature for the dry tests was controlled to ∼23 °C, and the mean skin temperatures averaged ∼35 °C. The thermal insulation value measured for the manikin with helmet ensemble ranged from 1.0 to 1.2 clo. The results showed that among the five cricket helmets, the Masuri helmet offered slightly more thermal insulation while the Elite helmet offered the least. However, under the dry laboratory conditions and with minimal air movement (air velocity = 0.08 ± 0.01 ms⁻¹), small differences exist between the thermal resistance values for the tested helmets. The wet tests were conducted in an isothermal condition, with an ambient and skin mean temperatures averaged ∼35 °C, the evaporative resistance, R_et, varied between 36 and 60 m² Pa W⁻¹. These large variations in evaporative heat dissipation values are due to the presence of a thick layer of comfort lining in certain helmet designs. This finding suggests that the type and design of padding may influence the rate of evaporative heat dissipation from the head and face; hence the type of material and thickness of the padding is critical for the effectiveness of evaporative heat loss and comfort of the wearer. Issues for further investigations in field trials are discussed.     

Comparative analysis of methods for determining the metabolic rate in order to provide a balance between man and the environment

The incorrect determination of metabolic rate can be linked to discrepancies between the model of the PMV (Predicted Mean Vote) and real thermal sensation collected in field studies. Aiming to improve the correlation of the PMV model and the real thermal sensation, this work established new values for the metabolic rate: one way being called “calculated” using Newton's Method and the other called "measured" using a metabolic analyzer. Welder's activities were evaluated, through the measurements of environmental and personal variables. New values of metabolic rate were determined for this activity. The values found for the calculated form and the measured one were, respectively, 178.63 and 145.46 W/m², different from the range provided by the table of ISO 8996 (2004) for this activity (75–125 W/m²). In order to verify which of the values of the metabolic rate was closer to the real thermal sensation of PMV, a linear regression was made between the PMV and the real thermal sensation in three ways: S × PMV_tabulated (R² = 0.1749), S × PMV_calculated (R ² = 0.7481) and S × PMV_measured (R² = 0.7854). It was found that the values measured by the instrument gave a higher coefficient of determination which was chosen for the correction of the table. The correction of the table provides a value of M_predicted, that is a value of metabolic rate that corrects the values provided by the tables of ISO 8996 (2004), by means of a correction coefficient. For the welder's activities in a metal-mechanics industry, tabulated values can be multiplied by the correction coefficient 1.4648 in order to minimize inaccuracies. The PMV_predicted, obtained through the M_predicted, when related to the actual thermal sensation, provides a coefficient of determination of 0.7511, thereby improving the model of the PMV.     

Customizable hardware design of fuzzy controllers applied to autonomous car driving

Nowadays, final products often encompass a certain intelligence therein to deal with variation or lack of precision in the sensing input data. This intelligence is usually acquired via the utilization of existing soft techniques, such as artificial neural networks, genetic algorithms and fuzzy control, among others. Thus, it is profitable to have on-the-shelf shell scalable and adaptive hardware designs that implement these soft techniques. This availability allows for an immediate embedding of any of those designs onto final products. This usually entails a reduced time-to-market of the product. Process control is one of the many applications that took advantage of the fuzzy paradigm. In general, controllers are embedded into the controlled device. This paper presents a novel design of a reconfigurable efficient parallel architecture to implement fuzzy controllers on hardware with almost no design effort for final users. The proposed architecture is herein proven suitable for embedding. It is customizable, so it allows the setup and configuration of the controller parameters, and hence its use for any problem application. Two fuzzy controllers that model autonomous car driving are implemented and their cost and performance evaluated.     

基于有限状态自动机的人眼开度PERCLOS实现算法

针对驾驶员驾驶过程中因疲劳引起的眼睛开度变化问题, 在原有PERCLOS(percentage of eyelid closure over the pupil over time)标准的基础上, 提出了一种基于有限状态自动机的人眼开度PERCLOS计算方法, 并将其应用到疲劳驾驶预警系统中。该系统首先采用红外摄像头实时获取驾驶员的脸部视频图像, 使用ASM(active shape models)算法进行人脸检测, 在定位到的人脸范围内搜索人眼区域并计算人眼开度, 为了避免人与摄像头距离变化影响计算结果, 对人眼开度进行归一化处理; 然后依据建立的有限状态自动机模型计算PERCLOS值; 最后根据制定的预警机制实现基于人眼开度的疲劳预警。实验结果表明本方法能够实时监测驾驶员疲劳状况, 具有对光照变化、脸部配饰不敏感的特点。     

A型地铁空调系统及客室内流场数值分析

为给目前国内A型地铁车辆的舒适度设计提供理论参考,针对地铁车辆静压风道结构特点,基于k-ε两方程湍流模型和SIMPLE算法,建立包含空调送风风道和客室的三维计算模型.对计算模型的空气流动和传热状况进行CFD数值计算.计算过程综合考虑车体壁面传热和人体散热等多种传热.分析计算结果得到客室内温度场和速度场的分布规律,并对空调通风设计方案进行量化评估.计算结果表明:客室内人体头部区域温度场分布均匀,平均温度为26.6℃,最大温差为6℃;车厢内有较理想的气流组织形式,速度分布范围为0.50~0.79 m/s,而且客室端部和中部区域人体头部周围速度较大.将计算结果与欧洲EN 14750-1标准进行对比分析,认为乘客的舒适性较好.     

城市雨洪放大效应驱动因子时空演变规律分析

城市雨洪具有复杂的放大效应,引起该现象较直接的原因包括大暴雨的频繁出现、可渗透地表面积的骤减以及排蓄水能力的改变和排水管网的扩张等。以武汉市为例,选择降雨强度、不透水面积比例、排水管道密度作为洪水放大效应的驱动因子进行趋势分析和演变规律分析,计算表明:从20世纪80年代开始,暴雨雨量和历时明显增加;不透水面在20世纪90年代初增加较快;排水管道在1990~2006年间缓慢增长,2007年跳跃式增长。降雨量和历时的增加使城市洪量增大,排水压力随之上升,在一定程度上增加了内涝几率;不透水面积的逐年增多以及水体等天然蓄水区的减少,不但增加了产流量,也使汇流时间更短,且雨水管渠的建设缩短了天然汇流路径,导致城市洪水呈现峰高量大,洪峰提前的放大效应。研究成果可用于城市雨洪放大效应对其驱动因子的定量响应研究,为进一步量化城市内涝风险与驱动因子间的关系提供依据,从而为内涝风险调控措施提供技术支撑。     

A comparative study of two wayfinding aids for simulated driving tasks – single-scale and dual-scale GPS aids

Global Positioning System (GPS) is currently the most frequently used wayfinding aid for driving. Yet, GPS is designed to act as a driving guide rather than to help users gain spatial knowledge. Accordingly, GPS might be less usable in situations where such knowledge is required or highly desirable. In this study, we experimentally study the influence of GPS display scales (single-scale vs. dual-scale) using simulated driving tasks in a virtual environment. The single-scale GPS is similar to the regular GPS view. The dual-scale GPS aid is a dual-scale navigation tool that provides two levels of detail, including both detailed and contextual information. The results demonstrate that the dual-scale GPS was more efficient in leading the participants to the destination during the simulated driving and was more useful for the participants to establish spatial awareness and a cognitive map; the dual-scale GPS participants also reported higher subjective evaluations. The proposed dual-scale GPS design and experimental results show some indications for designing new wayfinding aids aimed at increasing wayfinding performance while simultaneously helping users construct a cognitive map.     

基于次生波的输电线路智能驱鸟装置设计

为了减小鸟类对输电线路可靠性的影响,利用次声波驱鸟原理,设计了一种新型的智能型驱鸟装置,该装置具有一定的实用价值.