Reducing Average and Peak Test Power Through Scan Chain Modification

Parallel test application helps reduce the otherwise considerable test times in SOCs; yet its applicability is limited by average and peak power considerations. The typical test vector loading techniques result in frequent transitions in the scan chain, which in turn reflect into significant levels of circuit switching unnecessarily. Judicious utilization of logic in the scan chain can help reduce transitions while loading the test vector needed. The transitions embedded in both test stimuli and the responses are handled through scan chain modifications consisting of logic gate insertion between scan cells as well as inversion of capture paths. No performance degradation ensues as these modifications have no impact on functional execution. To reduce average and peak power, we herein propose computationally efficient schemes that identify the location and the type of logic to be inserted. The experimental results confirm the significant reductions in test power possible under the proposed scheme.     

Prioritized Mobile Robot Exploration Based on Percolation Enhanced Entropy Based Fast SLAM

The major aim in search and rescue using mobile robots is to detect and reach trapped survivors and to support rescue operations through disaster environments. Our motivation is based on the fact that a search and rescue (SAR) robot can navigate within and penetrate a disaster area only if the area in question possesses connected voids. Traversability or penetrability of a disaster area is a primary factor that guides the navigation of a search and rescue (SAR) robot, since it is highly desirable that the robot, without hitting a dead end or getting stuck, keeps its mobility for its primary task of reconnaissance and mapping when searching the highly unstructured environment. We propose a novel percolation guidance that collaborates with entropy based SLAM under a switching control setting the priority to either position or map accuracy. This newly developed methodology has proven to combine the superiority of both percolator guidance and entropy based prioritization so that the active SLAM becomes speedy, with high coverage rate of the area as well as increased accuracy in localization. Our percolator guidance stems from a frontier based conditioning of a-posteriori occurrences of upcoming connected voids that uses the fact that every obstacle partially seen at the frontier of the explored domain has a spatial continuity into the unexplored area. The developed modular architecture is introduced in details and demonstrative examples are provided and discussed.     

Investigation of the effects of fatty acids on the compressive strength of the concrete and the grindability of the cement

In cement industry, a great energy consumption has been observed during grinding of clinker. To reduce this consumption, some waste products have been used as grinding aids.In this investigation, the effects of sunflower oil (SO), oleic acid (OA), stearic acid (SA), myristic acid (MA) and lauric acid (LA) on the fineness and strength of the cement have been examined. These aids were added into clinker in certain ratios based on the cement clinker weight and the grinding has been done for a definite time at the same condition.All of the fatty acids used increased the fineness as compared with the cement without the grinding additives. SO and OA decreased the strength significantly, LA decreased it to a lesser extent and SA increased it definitely according to the common cement. But MA did not alter the strength of the cement as much as SA. In addition, the covering of the balls influences the grinding of cement clinker unfavourably.     

Momentum Transfer from Preshape to Grasping

A fully immersed object, suspended in water can be rotated from distance by a preshaped robot hand approaching and closing upon the object prior to contacting it. Momentum transfer from robot fingers closing into a grasp, to the fluid medium particles, and from these particles to the object surface generates the motion tendencies of that object in terms of rotational and translational displacements. In this paper, we propose the novel concept of a controller that determines either: 1) given initial position and orientation of a robot hand, what preshape is suitable for generating a desired momentum distribution on the surface of a given object in order to trigger a desired rotation in a desired direction when approaching with this preshaped hand; or 2) given a predetermined hand preshape, what initial position, orientation and hand aperture are suitable to generate a desired rotation upon approach and, without causing the retroceeding of the object. The desired object motion generated from distance by the approach of a hand preshape is to be used seamlessly for the subsequent manipulation of the object upon grasp. Towards this end, we propose in our work, a new model based on computational fluid dynamics, for determining the continuity in momentum transfer from robot hand fingers to the fluid medium, and to the object, until landing on that immersed object. Our experimental results demonstrate how different hand preshapes initiated from different locations in the medium surrounding an object of different cross sections suspended in equilibrium in the fluid, affects its motion tendencies in terms of rotation and translation. Our further contribution, in this paper, includes the modelling of robot fingers and object as fluidic elements which rigidity can be relaxed to induce compliance.     

Evaluation of greenhouse residues gasification performance in hydrogen production

In this study, a modeling study was carried out to investigate the potential of hydrogen production from greenhouse tomato and pepper residues blending in different rates (0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%) by air-steam gasification. The numerical model developed for the gasification system assumes that all carbon in the mixture is gasified. Air to fuel rate and steam to fuel rates are 0.05 due to high content of O₂ in biomass residues. The gasifier temperature is 877 °C (1150 K) for developed model. According to the result of this study, increasing tomato residues blending rate increases hydrogen content of syngas. It is mainly caused by the content of O₂ in tomato residues being higher than content of O₂ in pepper residues. This study shows that the O₂ content of greenhouse residues is an important factor in syngas production, especially in H₂ production.     

Occupant related household energy consumption in Canada: Estimation using a bottom-up neural-network technique

A national model of residential energy consumption requires consideration of the following end-uses: space heating, space cooling, appliances and lighting (AL), and domestic hot water (DHW). The space heating and space cooling end-use energy consumption is strongly affected by the climatic conditions and the house thermal envelope. In contrast, both AL and DHW energy consumption are primarily a function of occupant behaviour, appliance ownership, demographic conditions, and occupancy rate. Because of these characteristics, a bottom-up statistical model is a candidate for estimating AL and DHW energy consumption. This article presents the detailed methodology and results of the application of a previously developed set of neural network models, as the statistical method of the Canadian Hybrid Residential End-Use Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Model (CHREM). The CHREM estimates the national AL and DHW secondary energy consumption of Canadian single-detached and double/row houses to be 248 PJ and 201 PJ, respectively. The energy consumption values translate to per household values of 27.8 GJ and 22.5 GJ, and per capita values of 9.0 GJ and 7.3 GJ, respectively.     

Influence of the harvesting year and fertilizer on the fatty acid composition and some physicochemical properties of linseed (Linum usitatissimum L.)

Sar? 85 (Linum usitatissimum L.) linseed variety was used in this study. Linseed was cultivated at 2008 (LS-08) and 2009 (LS-09) without fertilizer. In addition, at 2009 diammonium phosphate [(NH₄)₂HPO₄] and ammonium nitrate (NH₄NO₃) were applied (LSF-09). The linseeds were analyzed for protein, ash and oil contents and fatty acid compositions. There were differences among harvesting years for oil, protein and ash contents of the seeds. The greater oil and protein contents were obtained during LS-08 compared with LS-09. There were no significant difference in protein and ash content between LS-09 and LSF-09 while a significant difference was observed in oil content. Seed protein, oil and ash contents were significantly affected by the harvesting year, but only oil content was affected by the fertilizer treatment. There are significant differences in palmitic, stearic, oleic, ??-linolenic and arachidic acid between LS-08 and LS-09. While palmitic, stearic, oleic acid decreased, ??-linolenic and arachidic acid increased during 2009 harvesting year. LSF-09 has the highest amount of ??-linolenic acid. The fertilizing treatment seems to have an increasing effect on the amount of ??-linolenic acid, while it has a decreasing effect on the oleic acid content.     

Technoeconomic evaluation of peat/water/oil mixture as a liquid fuel

Results of bench-scale tests on the rheological and calorific properties of peat/water/No. 4 fuel-oil mixtures indicated that a peat/water/oil (PWOM) slurry with rheological characteristics and calorific properties suitable for combustion in conventional boilers can be prepared using 40% (by weight) peat, of – 246.4 μm particle size and 40–45% natural moisture content, in the presence of 1% Cab-O-Sil PTG as a stabilizing additive. This low cost liquid fuel has a calorific value about 80% of, and a flow rate about 1.2 times the corresponding values for fuel oil No. 4. An economic feasibility study was conducted based on a PWOM cost to the consumer 10% below the cost of No. 4 fuel oil, and no ‘rent’ cost to the PWOM producer for the peat resource. The study shows that a project to harvest 112,000 tonnes of peat per year and to produce 282,000 tonnes of PWOM fuel is profitable for a range of assumed cost factors.     

Constrained Efficient Global Optimization for Pultrusion Process

Composite materials, as the name indicates, are composed of different materials that yield superior performance as compared to individual components. Pultrusion is one of the most cost-effective manufacturing techniques for producing fiber-reinforced composites with constant cross-sectional profiles. This obviously makes it more attractive for both researchers and practitioners to investigate the optimum process parameters. Validated computer simulations cost less as compared to physical experiments, therefore this makes them an efficient tool for numerical optimization. However, the complexity of the numerical models can still be “expensive” and forces us to use them sparingly. These relatively more complex models can be replaced with “surrogates,” which are less complex and are therefore faster to evaluate representative models. In this article, a previously validated thermochemical simulation of the pultrusion process has shortly been presented. Following this, a new constrained optimization methodology based on a well-known surrogate method, i.e., Kriging, is introduced. Next, a validation case is presented to clarify the working principles of the implementation, which also supports the upcoming main optimization test cases. This design problem involves the design of the heating die with one, two, and three heaters together with the pulling speed. The results show that the proposed methodology is very efficient in finding the optimal process and design parameters.