Multi-innovation auto-constructed least squares identification for 4 DOF ship manoeuvring modelling with full-scale trial data

This research is concerned with the problem of 4 degrees of freedom (DOF) ship manoeuvring identification modelling with the full-scale trial data. To avoid the multi-innovation matrix inversion in the conventional multi-innovation least squares (MILS) algorithm, a new transformed multi-innovation least squares (TMILS) algorithm is first developed by virtue of the coupling identification concept. And much effort is made to guarantee the uniformly ultimate convergence. Furthermore, the auto-constructed TMILS scheme is derived for the ship manoeuvring motion identification by combination with a statistic index. Comparing with the existing results, the proposed scheme has the significant computational advantage and is able to estimate the model structure. The illustrative examples demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, especially including the identification application with full-scale trial data.     

A talking profile to distinguish identical twins

Identical twins pose a great challenge to face recognition due to high similarities in their appearances. Motivated by the psychological findings that facial motion contains identity signatures and the observation that twins may look alike but behave differently, we develop a talking profile to use the identity signatures in the facial motion to distinguish between identical twins. The talking profile for a subject is defined as a collection of multiple types of usual face motions from the video. Given two talking profiles, we compute the similarities of the same type of face motion in both profiles and then perform the classification based on those similarities. To compute the similarity of each type of face motion, we give higher weights to more abnormal motions which are assumed to carry more identity signature information.     

Feature extraction of the first difference of EMG time series for EMG pattern recognition

This paper demonstrates the utility of a differencing technique to transform surface EMG signals measured during both static and dynamic contractions such that they become more stationary. The technique was evaluated by three stationarity tests consisting of the variation of two statistical properties, i.e., mean and standard deviation, and the reverse arrangements test. As a result of the proposed technique, the first difference of EMG time series became more stationary compared to the original measured signal. Based on this finding, the performance of time-domain features extracted from raw and transformed EMG was investigated via an EMG classification problem (i.e., eight dynamic motions and four EMG channels) on data from 18 subjects. The results show that the classification accuracies of all features extracted from the transformed signals were higher than features extracted from the original signals for six different classifiers including quadratic discriminant analysis. On average, the proposed differencing technique improved classification accuracies by 2–8%.     

近断层脉冲型地震动作用下面板堆石坝的动力响应

越来越多的高土石坝正在西部地区建设或规划中,其中许多位于发震断裂带附近,遭遇近场强震的概率随着大坝数量的增加而增加,近断层脉冲型地震动作用下大坝地震响应特性亟待研究。本文选取10组台湾集集地震实测加速度时程,结合200 m级的面板堆石坝开展动力有限元分析,研究脉冲和非脉冲地震动作用对面板堆石坝的加速度、水平位移以及面板顺坡向应力的影响。结果表明,与非脉冲型地震动相比,脉冲型地震动对大坝堆石体的水平位移和面板顺坡向应力的影响较大,影响程度随着PGV/PGA(地面峰值速度/地面峰值加速度)的增大而增大。因此,在高地震区修建高土石坝时应对脉冲型地震进行专门研究,综合评价大坝的地震安全性和极限抗震能力。     

海洋浮体结构非线性运动响应研究综述

浮体在海面上的运动实质上是一个复杂的非线性运动过程,它们在风浪中的运动存在着许多非线性影响因素,且不同运动形式之间存在的耦合现象也无法用线性动力学进行准确地描述.对各种海洋浮体结构在风浪中的非线性运动响应研究现状进行了总结,对目前所取得的主要研究成果作了简要介绍和述评.着重从风浪中船舶的大幅非线性横摇运动、参数激励耦合非线性运动和SPAR平台在无系泊状态下的垂荡-纵摇耦合运动3个方面,阐述了国内外学者所取得的主要研究成果,并在此基础上提出了未来该领域的研究热点问题.     

A study of suspended roofs for near-source seismic motions

The non-linear behavior of multi-suspended roof systems for seismic loads is studied. The study is based on a formulation that can be easily employed for a preliminary design of multi-suspended roofs subjected to seismic loads. Specifically, applying Lagrange’s equations, the corresponding set of equations of motion for discrete models of multiple suspension roofs is obtained and numerical integration of the equations of motion is performed via the Runge–Kutta scheme. For representative realistic combinations of geometric, stiffness and damping parameters, a non-linear analysis is employed to study the behavior of suspended roofs for near-source and far-field seismic motions. The analysis demonstrates that: (i) code-specified design loads could dramatically underestimate the response of suspended roofs subjected to near-source ground motions and (ii) flexible roofing systems are greatly affected by near-source ground motions, a behavior that is not observed for stiff systems.     

Shaping stable periodic motions of inertia wheel pendulum: theory and experiment

We consider an underactuated two‐link robot called the inertia wheel pendulum. The system consists of a free planar rotational pendulum and a symmetric disk attached to its end, which is directly controlled by a DC‐motor. The goal is to create stable oscillations of the pendulum, which is not directly actuated. We exploit a recently proposed feedback‐control design strategy based on motion planning via virtual holonomic constraints. This strategy is shown to be useful for design of regulators for achieving orbitally exponentially stable oscillatory motions. The main contribution is a step‐by‐step procedure on how to achieve oscillations with pre‐specified amplitude from a given range and an arbitrary independently chosen period. The theoretical results are verified via experiments with a real hardware setup. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd and Chinese Automatic Control Society     

A Visible and Near-Infrared Light-Fueled Omnidirectional Twist-Bend Crawling Robot

In recent years, although light-driven soft actuators have attracted intense scientific attention and achieved remarkable progress, the design and construction of an intelligent robotic system with maneuverability, self-adaptability, untethered control, and greater freedom of action, in particular the omnidirectional motion capability on a plane, remains challenging. Herein, four types of photo-thermal fillers and an unprecedented twist-bend actuation mode is introduced into a liquid crystal elastomer-based soft robot. The obtained twist-bend crawling robot not only exhibits in situ rotation, four-way turning, and four-way linear motion under light irradiation with four wavelength bands (520, 655, 808, and 980 nm), but also demonstrates the ability to avoid obstacles in complex geographical environments. This work may bring a new perspective for fabrication and development of soft robots that can adapt to dynamic and complex environmental conditions.     

Stochastic simulation of velocity pulses of near-fault ground motions based on multivariate copula modeling

Due to the featured high-amplitude, long-period pulses in velocity or displacement time–history, the near-fault ground motion may have a stronger destructive effect on engineering structures. Therefore, studying velocity pulses modeling of near-fault ground motions has been an important topic in the earthquake engineering community. However, the variability and probabilistic correlation of pulse model parameters have not received enough attention. To this end, an elegant method for stochastic simulation of velocity pulses of near-fault ground motions is proposed based on the classical Gabor wavelet modeling and probabilistic correlation analysis of associated model parameters by multivariate copula modeling. Especially, an efficient scheme of iteratively determining the optimal copulas pertinent to edges of a complex vine structure is developed, and two parameters relevant to the near-fault ground motion records, i.e., the rupture distance and the strongest pulse orientation, are introduced which provides a physical basis for addressing the dependence structure among variables. For illustrative purposes, the ground accelerograms recorded by near-fault instruments in the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake are used. It is shown that the multivariate copula modeling enables the efficient representation of probabilistic correlation between model parameters which is consistent with their physical mechanism. The time histories and spectral characteristics of velocity pulses of near-fault ground motions and their stochastic fluctuations with respect to the rupture distance are well simulated. While the empirical linear regression model does not meet the requirements of random vibration analysis and thus cannot guide the safety design of seismic structures.     

Computing the null space of finite element problems

We present a method for computing the null space of finite element models, including models with equality constraints. The method is purely algebraic; it requires access to the element matrices, but not to the geometry or material properties of the model.Theoretical considerations show that under certain conditions, both the amount of computation and the amount of memory required by our method scale linearly with model size; memory scales linearly but computation scales quadratically with the dimension of the null space. Our experiments confirm this: the method scales extremely well on 3-dimensional model problems. In general, large industrial models do not satisfy all the conditions that the theoretical results assume; however, experimentally the method performs well and outperforms an established method on industrial models, including models with many equality constraints.The accuracy of the computed null vectors is acceptable, but the method is usually less accurate than a more naive (and computationally much more expensive) method.