Sharif Digital Repository

Nowadays, design and tuning of controllers with predefined structures are among the most popular topics in control system theory. During the last decade, many studies have focused on designing fixed-structure fractional-order compensators. This paper presents a generalized version of fractional-order compensators to achieve the required magnitudes and phases at two given frequencies (for example, to achieve desired phase and gain margins with adjustable cross frequencies). In this generalization, at first some basic analysis of the phase behaviour of this introduced type of fractional-order compensators is presented. Also, exact formulas are found for designing this family of compensators in... 

This paper presents an analytical method to tune a fixed-structure fractional-order compensator for satisfying desired phase and gain margins with adjustable crossover frequencies. The proposed method is based on the measured frequency data of the plant. Since no analytical model for the plant is needed in the compensator tuning procedure, the resulted compensator does not depend on the order and complexity of the plant. Also, sufficient conditions for the existence of a compensator with no zero and pole in the right half-plane for satisfying the aforementioned objectives are analytically derived. Furthermore, different hardware-in-the-loop experimental results are presented to show the... 

This paper deals with robust frequency compensation in control of fractional-order plants with an uncertain fractional pole/zero (or specially in control of integer-order plants with an uncertain pole/zero). The specifications yielding a robust compensation are introduced, and fractional-order compensators are proposed for satisfying these specifications in the set-point tracking control of the above-mentioned plants. Also, the infinite ranges for the uncertain parameter of the plant, in which satisfying robust compensation specifications is possible by the obtained compensators, are exactly specified. Furthermore, the stability of the obtained control system is analytically analyzed.... 

Different real-world processes can be described by a linear model parameterised with respect to the processoperating point, as an uncertain parameter. The family of transport processes with long memory is a kind of these processeswhich are characterised by the parameterised time-fractional diffusion equations. This study proposes a generalised isodamping feature for achieving the phase margin invariance regardless of the uncertain parameter variations in control of timefractional diffusion processes. Also, the study suggests an analytical method to tune stabilising fractional-order proportional-integral/proportional-derivative controllers for adjusting a desired value for the phase margin at... 

Analytical data-driven tuning procedures with the aim of adjusting the values of frequency-domain specifications, e.g., gain margin, phase margin, and corresponding crossover frequencies, are among the most popular control techniques in industrial control. But, the multiplicity of crossover frequencies, as an Achilles' heel in these procedures, may cause that the obtained control system does not meet the intended frequency-domain objectives. Motivated by this fact, this paper improves a newly proposed data-driven tuning procedure for arbitrarily setting the values of gain and phase margins and crossover frequencies, in the viewpoint of guaranteeing the uniqueness of crossover frequencies.... 

Local hyperthermia is one of the most common methods to treat cancerous tumors, near the skin surface or natural body orifices. In order to study the problem of temperature control during local hyperthermia, firstly the heat conduction process during this therapy is analytically modeled by a time-delayed fractional-order transfer function, parametrized with respect to the body temperature. Since the body temperature may vary under the influence of patient physiological reaction and heat source, a robustness criterion is proposed to achieve the phase margin invariance despite of the temperature variations. Afterwards, an analytical method is proposed to tune stabilizing FO-PI/PD controllers... 

In this research, 1 g shake table experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of boundary conditions on the responses of a 3 × 3 pile group to liquefaction-induced lateral spreading. For this purpose, a rigid and a laminar shear box with similar dimensions were designed and constructed at the Sharif University of Technology. The similitude laws for 1 g tests were implemented to construct the physical models. The profile of the soil layers consisted of a mildly sloped thick liquefiable layer between two non-liquefiable layers. The soil in the free field (far from the boundaries) and near or on the pile groups were fully instrumented to measure various parameters during and after... 

For the 4th IUPAP International Conference of Women in Physics, we report on activities in science and engineering in Iran, and conditions for women in physics, in the three years since the 3rd IUPAP International Conference of Women in Physics was held in 2008. Iran has made prominent advancements and astonishing progress in laser technology, biotechnology, nanotechnology, genetics, computer software and hardware, and robotics. Iranian scientists have been very productive in several experimental fields, such as pharmaceutical, organic, and polymer chemistry. Conditions for women in physics have improved greatly in recent years. A project to improve the environment for learning physics, and... 

The lead is a heavy metal with hazardous impacts on environment and human life. Lead-free perovskite solar cells have attracted much attention in recent years, due to eco-friendly characteristics. Meanwhile, Pb-containing cells showed the highest efficiencies among the various types of cells. Hence, designing novel Pb-free solar cells with comparable or better performance than the Pb-containing ones is highly required. In this work, a lead-free methyl-ammonium-germanium-iodide (MAGeI3)-based perovskite solar cell with ITO/TiO2/MAGeI3/Spiro-OMeTAD/Ag multilayer nanostructure has been proposed and its main characteristics including open-circuit voltage (VOC) and power conversion efficiency (η)... 

Core/shell structure of ZnO nanowires coated with a monolayer of TiO 2 is investigated using Density Functional Theory (DFT). The electronic states of the semiconductor is calculated and compared before and after coating of the TiO2 monolayer on a ZnO [101 0] surface. The effect of TiO2 coating induce surface states changes and shifts the conduction and valence band edges to higher energies. Our results, in qualitative agreement with the experimental work of Matt Law et al. (J. Phys. Chem. B, 110, 22652), show an increase in open circuit voltage and a decrease in short circuit current in ZnO/TiO2 core shell dye sensitized solar cells. Regarding the semiconductor density of states (DOS), TiO2... 

Due to the important role of commitment and trust in the relationship marketing, the factors which can directly result in a committed relationship along with the factors which can influence the commitment through influencing trust, according to the model of commitment and trust by (Morgan & Hunt, 1994) have been introduced and their level of importance has been investigated here. The article uses fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs) in the proposed model to find the most important paths leading to relationship commitment. The FCM analyzes the responses of a group of 30 people including general practitioners in dentistry, managers of dental departments in some of the public clinics and hospitals who... 

Conventionally, a film of TiO2 particles of 300 nm size is employed in Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) as the back reflector film to enhance the light harvesting. Perfect reflectance of silver in visible and near infrared motivates to investigate its potential as the material for the light back reflector film in DSCs. In this study, light back reflector films consisting of 300 nm-sized silver particles, as well as vacuum evaporated silver flat film, were fabricated and compared to 300 nm-sized rutile-type TiO2 particulate reflector film to study their optical aspects. Conventional TiO2 rutile-type particulate film demonstrates slightly lower performance... 

Monolithic dye-sensitized solar cells are conventionally fabricated using carbon composite layer as the counter electrode. In the current research, the brittle carbon composite layer is replaced with a metal foil, aiming to decrease the device series resistance and using less catalyst material in counter electrode. This metallic structure has also an advantage of mechanical strength and decreases the fabrication complexity. The counter electrode is prepared by electrodepositing Cr film followed by electrodepositing Pt nanoparticles on a metal foil. As the porous spacer layer, different composite layers of SiO2, TiO2, and Al2O3 are investigated and the best results are obtained for TiO2... 

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have been a potential green energy source for a long time but one of the problems is that either the technology must be used on a large scale or special equipment have been necessary to keep the fuel cells running such as syringe pumps. Paper-based microbial fuel cells do not need to have a syringe pump to run and can run entirely by themselves when placed in contact with the fluids that are necessary for it to run. Paper-based microbial fuel cells are also more compact than traditional MFCs since the device doesn't need any external equipment to run. The goal of this paper is to develop a microbial fuel cell that does not require a syringe pump to function. This... 

This paper proposes a novel decentralized control approach for islanded direct-current (DC) microgrids (MGs) based on model predictive control (MPC) to regulate the distributed generation unit (DGU) output voltages, i.e. the voltages of the point of common coupling (PCC). A local controller is designed for each DGU, in the presence of uncertainties, disturbances, and unmodeled dynamics. First, a discrete-time state-space model of an MG is derived. Afterward, an MPC algorithm is designed to perform the PCC voltage control. The proposed MPC scheme ensures that the PCC voltages remain within an acceptable range. Several simulation studies have been conducted to illustrate the effectiveness of... 

Sophisticated surgeons are widely indicating the use of surgical robots in order to reject human error, increase precision, and speed. Among well-known robotic mechanisms, parallel robots are broadly more investigated regarding their special characters as higher acceleration, speed, and accuracy, and less weight. Specific surgical procedures confine, and restrict their workspace, while controlling and validating the robots are complicated regarding to their complex dynamic. To this end, in this paper, a 6-DOF robot, with rotary manipulators, is designed and controlled. Addressing nonlinearity of parallel robots, an innovative methodology is formulated to robustly penalize the error of... 

Sophisticated surgeons are widely indicating the use of surgical robots in order to reject human error, increase precision, and speed. Among well-known robotic mechanisms, parallel robots are broadly more investigated regarding their special characters as higher acceleration, speed, and accuracy, and less weight. Specific surgical procedures confine and restrict their workspace, while controlling and validating the robots are complicated based on their complex dynamic. To this end, in this paper, a 6-DOF robot, with linear manipulators, is designed and controlled. Addressing the inherent nonlinearity of the robot mechanism, an adaptive PID manipulator is employed and validated with nonlinear... 

Although so many advances have been proposed in the field of artificial intelligence and superconductivity, there are few reports on their combination. On the other hand, because of the nonlinear and multivariable characteristics of the superconductive elements and capabilities of neural networks in this field, it seems useful to apply the neural networks to model and control the superconductive phenomena or devices. In this paper, a new constructive neural network (CNN) trained by two different optimization algorithms; back-propagation and genetic algorithm, is proposed which models the behavior of the superconductive fault current limiters (SFCLs). Simulation results show that the proposed... 

In this paper, a new control strategy for optimal attitude tracking control of a multivariable satellite system has been presented. The approach is based on a Multilayer Perceptron Neural Network (MLPNN) and a classical PD Controller for its initial stabilization. It is shown how the network can be employed as a multivariable self-organizing and self-learning controller in conjunction with a PD controller for attitude control of a satellite. By using three thrusters and quaternion for kinematics representation, the attitude dynamics of the satellite has been presented. In contrast to the previous classical approaches, it is shown how this controller can be carried out in an on-line manner...