Equivalent Wheel Load Approach for Slender Cable-Stayed Bridge Fatigue Assessment under Traffic and Wind: Feasibility Study

In the current AASHTO LRFD specifications, the fatigue design considers only one design truck per bridge with 15% dynamic allowance. While this empirical approach may be practical for regular short and medium span bridges, it may not be rational for long-span bridges (e.g., span length >152.4?m or 500?ft) that may carry many heavy trucks simultaneously. Some existent studies suggested that fatigue may not control the design for many small and medium bridges. However, little research on the fatigue performance of long-span bridges subjected to both wind and traffic has been reported and if fatigue could become a dominant issue for such a long-span bridge design is still not clear. Regardless if the current fatigue design specifications are sufficient or not, a real understanding of the traffic effects on bridge performance including fatigue is desirable since the one truck per bridge for fatigue design does not represent the actual traffic condition. As the first step toward the study of fatigue performance of long-span cable-stayed bridges under both busy traffic and wind, the equivalent dynamic wheel load approach is proposed in the current study to simplify the analysis procedure. Based on full interaction analyses of a single-vehicle–bridge–wind system, the dynamic wheel load of the vehicle acting on the bridge can be obtained for a given vehicle type, wind, and driving condition. As a result, the dimension of the coupled equations is independent of the number of vehicles, through which the analyses can be significantly simplified. Such simplification is the key step toward the future fatigue analysis of long-span bridges under a combined action of wind and actual traffic conditions.     

螺旋桨驱动UUV推进系统研究

为了实现水下机器人(UUV,Unmanned Underwater Vehicle)的高精度控制,深入研究了螺旋桨驱动UUV推进系统各个环节运行机理,并建立了它们各自的数学模型,包括PWM模块、直流永磁电机、螺旋桨、舵的数学模型。多功能仿真试验和湖试试验的系统响应曲线基本吻合,一方面表明本文建立的推进系统模型的正确性,另一方面体现了在多功能仿真平台上调试的控制策略和控制器参数具有很大的可信度。     

基于进化计算的多无人飞行器协同航迹规划

提出了一种在已知静态环境下利用进化计算实现多无人飞行器的分层离线协同航迹规划方法．针对多无人飞行器从不同起始点出发同时攻击某一预定目标问题，该方法可规划出由一系列导航点组成的三维航迹，并确保多无人飞行器在按一定的速度飞行时能避免相互碰撞、远离威胁障碍，满足航迹条件及协同限制．结果表明了该方法的可行性．     

Modeling and Performance Prediction of Induction Motor Drive System for Electric Drive Tracked Vehicles

The principle of rotor flux-orientation vector control on 100/150 kW three-phase AC induction motor for electric drive tracked vehicles is analyzed, and the mathematic model is deduced. The drive system of induction motor is modeled and simulated by Matlab/Simulink. The characteristics of motor and drive system are analyzed and evaluated by practical bench test. The simulation and bench test results show that the model is valid, and the driving control system has constant torque under rated speed, constant torque above rated speed, widely variable speed range and better dynamic characteris- tics. In order to evaluate the practical applications of high power induction motor driving system in electric drive tracked vehicles, a collaborative simulation based on interface technology of Matlab/Simulink and multi-body dynamic analysis software known as RecurDyn is done, the vehicle performances are predicted in the acceleration time （0 - 32 km/h） and turning characteristic （v = 10 km/h, R = B）.     

Multi-rigid-body dynamics and online model predictive control for transformable multi-links aerial robot*

Transformable multi-links aerial robots have great potentials in application relying on the transformable features to change its shape during the flight. Compared to traditional quadrotor robots, transformable multi-links robots are equipped with servo motor between links. To simplify the non-linear dynamic system, the previous work restricts the robot to transform in very slow speed so that the robot could be approximated as a quadrotor robot at each time point. However, tradeoff comes as the dynamic performance is given up. In this paper, we come up with a new framework combining of computationally efficient non-linear model predictive controller and motion primitive to optimize thrust force and joints trajectory of the multi-links aerial robot. Finally, we verify our framework with fast transformation motions and table tennis task which requires dynamic performance.     

Application of distance sampling techniques for diving ducks on Lake St. Clair and western Lake Erie

Lake St. Clair and western Lake Erie are important migration staging areas for diving ducks including canvasbacks (Aythya valisineria), redheads (Aythya americana), and lesser and greater scaup (Aythya affinis and Aythya marila). Starting in 1983, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) attempted to census diving ducks on the United States portion of Lake St. Clair throughout autumn migration; however, in 2010 the MDNR expanded the traditionally surveyed area to include all of Lake St. Clair and a portion of western Lake Erie. The idea of achieving a census over the expanded study area was unrealistic, and instead distance sampling techniques were adopted in an effort to generate statistically valid estimates of detection probabilities and abundances for diving ducks during spring and autumn migration. We found distance sampling techniques to be a viable option for estimating diving duck abundance as long as flock size is accounted for as a covariate affecting the detection function. Diving ducks were generally more abundant on our study area during autumn migration with a mean of 306,327 ducks/survey (SE = 40,729) compared to an average spring abundance of 91,053 ducks/survey (SE = 19,175). Peak abundance occurred on 20 November 2012 with an estimated 596,335 diving ducks on Lake St. Clair and western Lake Erie. Ultimately, our methodology could be used to establish long-term, standardized data collection techniques and applied to conservation planning for waterfowl in the Great Lakes region.     

Robust linear output feedback controller for autonomous landing of a quadrotor on a ship deck

Ship deck landing control of a quadrotor requires certain robustness with respect to ship heave motion. Typical systems only provide relative height, therefore do not have relative heave rate information. In this paper, a linear output feedback control consisting of a full state feedback controller and a Luenberger observer is formulated. Invariant ellipsoid method is used to formulate an estimation of a bound on the response of a linear output feedback-controlled system subjected to external disturbances and measurement noise. The gains that result in a minimum bound are optimized using a gradient descent iterative approach proposed in this paper where the invariant ellipsoid condition is linearized into a tractable LMI condition. This approach is applied to a simulation of a quadrotor landing on a ship deck and results are compared with other gains. The gains selected using the proposed approach exhibits improved robustness to external disturbances and measurement noise.     

Trends in marine control systems

Sperry and Minorski are names synonymous with the development of the first steering autopilots and it is well known that their pioneering work and seminal publications led to the introduction of the three-term or proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller for automatic ship steering. Despite the efforts and enthusiasm of numerous researchers, from all areas of control engineering, to persuade industry to adopt more sophisticated controller designs, PID controllers remain the industry preference and industry standard for automatic control systems. The paper sets the scene with a review of the early developments of automatic control systems for ship steering, which led to Sperry's automatic pilot. This is followed by an overview of developments in roll stabilization; integrated ship steering and roll stabilization; unmanned underwater vehicles and unmanned surface vessels. Consideration of over 750 papers presented at the 13 conferences and workshops sponsored by the IFAC Technical Committee on Marine Systems in the period 1992-2008 is used to track recent trends in marine control systems and are the basis for some thoughts on possible future directions for the marine control community.     

Experimental evaluation of fault diagnosis in a skew-configured UAV sensor system

This paper presents an experimental evaluation of a hybrid fault detection and isolation scheme against three successive faults in skew-configured inertial sensors of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). An additional small and low-cost inertial measurement unit is installed with a skewed angle to a primary inertial measurement unit. A parity space method and an in-lane monitoring method are combined to increase system tolerance to the occurrence of multiple successive faults during flight. The first and second faults are detected and isolated by the parity space method. The third fault is detected by the parity space method and isolated by the in-lane monitoring method based on the discrete wavelet transform. Hardware in-the-loop tests and flight experiments with a fixed-wing UAV are performed to verify the performance of the proposed fault diagnosis scheme.     

The geomorphological comparison of two debris flows and their triggering mechanisms

 The paper reports on debris flows in the Tungmen and Hoser areas of Taiwan, triggered by Typhoon Ofelia on 23 June 1990 and Typhoon Herb at the end of July 1996 respectively. The intense rainfall resulted in large volumes of debris being eroded from the valleys. The village of Tungmen was almost totally destroyed by in excess of 100,000 m³ of material which was moved by the 1990 debris flow while the 1996 typhoon was responsible for the movement of almost 1.5 million m³ of material, 80% of which extended to the confluence area of the two side gullies and the Hoser River. Attention is drawn to the change in shape of the valley sides from generally V-shaped prior to the debris flow to U-shaped following the storms. A comparison of aerial photographs as well as field data was used to define the main topographical effects of the 1990 storm (Tungmen) and 1996 event (Hoser). A study of the discontinuity pattern within the valleys emphasised the significance of toppling and gravity slumping of material in the sides of the valleys in producing large quantities of debris which, in heavy storm conditions, can flow down the gullies. Laboratory tests were used to simulate the effect of saturation on the materials. These indicated that in their saturated state they would easily become unstable. Received: 1 December 1999 · Accepted: 11 January 2000