Design and experimental testing of a tactile sensor for self-compensation of contact error in soft tissue stiffness measurement

The measurement of viscoelastic properties of soft tissues has become a research interest with applications in the stiffness estimation of soft tissues, sorting and quality control of postharvest fruit, and fruit ripeness estimation. This paper presents a tactile sensor configuration to estimate the stiffness properties of soft tissues, using fruit as case study. Previous stiffness-measuring tactile sensor models suffer from unstable and infinite sensor outputs due to irregularities and inclination angles of soft tissue surfaces. The proposed configuration introduces two low stiffness springs at the extreme ends of the sensor with one high stiffness spring in-between. This study also presents a closed form mathematical model that considers the maximum inclination angle of the tissue’s (fruit) surface, and a finite element analysis to verify the mathematical model, which yielded stable sensor outputs. A prototype of the proposed configuration was fabricated and tested on kiwifruit samples. The experimental tests revealed that the sensor’s output remained stable, finite, and independent on both the inclination angle of the fruit surface and applied displacement of the sensor. The sensor distinguished between kiwifruit at various stiffness and ripeness levels with an output error ranging between 0.18 % and 3.50 %, and a maximum accuracy of 99.81 %, which is reasonable and competitive compared to previous design concepts.

     

Evolving asset selection using genetic network programming

As global financial innovation opens innumerable risks and opportunities, a global view of the asset allocation brings advantages in risk diversification for investments. We propose a novel framework for asset selection under global diversification principles using genetic network programming. Simulations using the stocks, bonds and currencies from relevant financial markets in USA, Europe and Asia show that the proposed framework is effective and offers competitive advantages against the conventional methods in finance and computational fields. © 2011 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Diversifying risk in portfolios using a variable‐size genetic relation algorithm

One important concept in financial risk management is the diversification process of capital allocation. This paper proposes an evolutionary approach for the optimal diversification when making asset allocation using variable‐size genetic relation algorithm (vs‐GRA), whose main role is to model and evolve structures toward effective and diversified portfolios through its graph structure. Simulations using heterogeneous and globally located asset classes in the United States, Europe, and Asia show that the proposed scheme offers competitive economic advantages. © 2012 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.