Sharif Digital Repository

An autonomous hedge trimmer robot was developed to reduce the harmful effects of traditional hedge trimming method (gasoline-powered hedge trimmer) on operators' bodies and increase the speed and quality of the operation. The robot had five degrees of freedom (PRRRR) structure and was geometrically optimized to simplify the control strategy, enabling it to trim simple, stepped, and circular forms. The control system, consisting of a host computer, servo motors and servo drivers, and controller, guided the robot platform, manipulator, and end-effector as it approached and trimmed the hedge. By using a recognition algorithm and vision-based navigation system, the robot was able to detect the... 

This paper investigates the potential of using an active flow control technique to modify stall flutter oscillations of a NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) 0015 wing section. Wind tunnel experiments have been performed with a test-rig that provides the elastic degree of freedom in pitch. Measurements of the clean airfoil are taken at preset angles of θ 0 = 6 ° - 12 °, and for Reynolds numbers of R e c = 6.2 × 10 4 - 1.25 × 10 5, which reveal the dependency of the stall flutter oscillations to Rec and θ0. Then, flow control experiments are carried out at θ 0 = 10 ° and R e c = 1.04 × 10 5. Two dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuators have been employed simultaneously to... 

Airships are inherently sensitive to random atmospheric disturbances that could potentially make their data gathering and observation missions a formidable task. In this context robust closed loop feedback controllers are important. The present study is therefore focused on optimal feedback controller design of an indigenous domestically designed airship (DA) for added robustness against atmospheric disturbances. While the general airship six degrees of freedom (6DoF) governing equations of motion are mathematically nonlinear, one often needs to resort to local linearization methods to benefit from proven linear closed loop controller (CLC) design approaches. In this sense an optimal linear... 

We study the application of cooperative control and game theoretic approaches to wind farm optimization. The conventional (greedy) wind farm control strategy seeks to individually maximize each turbine power. However, this strategy does not maximize the overall power production of wind farms due to the aerodynamic interactions (wake effect) between the turbines. We formulate the wind farm power optimization problem as an identical interest game which can also be used to solve other cooperative control problems. Two model-free learning algorithms are developed to obtain the optimal axial induction factors of the turbines and maximize power production. The algorithms are simulated for a... 

This article proposes two novel approaches to improve the superimposed frequency droop scheme for the control of dc microgrids (MGs). Conventional voltage-based control strategies suffer from issues such as undesirable voltage regulations, poor power sharing among the sources, and negative effects of line resistances on the equivalent droop characteristics. To overcome these challenges, a superimposed frequency droop scheme has been introduced. However, this method suffers from three major issues: 1) instability in terms of load variation, which is due to the location of system dominant poles; 2) limitation in system loading due to the limitation in the transferred reactive power; and 3)... 

Industrial processes are inherently nonlinear with input, state, and output constraints. A proper control system should handle these challenging control problems over a large operating region. The robust model predictive controller (RMPC) could be an linear matrix inequality (LMI)-based method that estimates stability region of the closed-loop system as an ellipsoid. This presentation, however, restricts confident application of the controller on systems with large operating regions. In this paper, a dual-mode control strategy is employed to enlarge the stability region in first place and then, trajectory reversing method (TRM) is employed to approximate the stability region more accurately.... 

Since the injection of the oncolytic viruses in the virotherapy process reduces the toxicity and drug resistance inherent in the chemotherapy; chemovirotherapy as a novel combination therapy has become an efficient cancer treatment. The primary purpose of this paper is to design a robust optimal control strategy for the chemovirotherapy through which the tumor density decreases to its stable condition with limited drug and virus delivery. This desired treatment should be responsive in the presence of input disturbances and parametric uncertainties. In this regard, an ODE (Ordinary Differential Equation) mathematical model of the chemovirotherapy process presenting the connection between the... 

This article proposes a high-voltage fault current limiter (HVFCL) for high-voltage dc power supplies (HVdcPSs) which limits the current of the power supply automatically in the short-circuit fault (SCF). The proposed HVFCL is based on the series-connected insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs). The main achievements of this article are the balanced voltage sharing and a very low value of the short-circuit current near to the load nominal current for the series-connected IGBTs during the SCF. These achievements result in a longer maximum permissible short-circuit time. These achievements are obtained by a control strategy that puts the series-connected IGBTs in a specific operating point... 

In recent years, utilizing the electrical propulsion system in the marine industry has become widely popular. Control of the propeller has been a high-priority design challenge in this industry. One of the essential issues in propeller control is the speed control of the ships. A suitable control strategy for the propeller should be economically-efficient while ensuring stability, reliability, and power quality of the ship's power system. This article proposes an improved propeller control strategy for increasing/decreasing the ship's speed. This scheme consists of two strategies: a maximum acceleration strategy and an efficient operation strategy. The maximum acceleration strategy aims to... 

Power augmentation is known to be one of the important applications of Exoskeletons. This paper designs a control strategy to reduce the energy consumed by users in power augmentation mode. The strategy aims to calculate and apply the interaction force between humans and robots according to human intentions. To realize human intentions, the movement's kinematic characteristics and the user's muscular activity were used. The movement patterns were learned by the robot using a set of adaptive oscillators. The human movement pattern in each movement cycle was considered the basis for predicting human intention in the next cycle. Thereby, the robot's optimal path and interaction torque were... 

This study presents a comprehensive framework for evaluating renewable and non-renewable power plants' performance using the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and emergy analysis. The emergy analysis is used to consider the free ecosystem services in the sustainability of the systems as a supplement to the LCA. The results indicate that the wind and photovoltaic power plants have the best performance in terms of the LCA analysis, while the wind and combined cycle power plants have the highest emergy sustainability index. The best scenario is chosen under a two-objective optimization problem, including the single score and emergy sustainability as objective functions. Here, the wind power plant is... 

This study presents a comprehensive framework for evaluating renewable and non-renewable power plants' performance using the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and emergy analysis. The emergy analysis is used to consider the free ecosystem services in the sustainability of the systems as a supplement to the LCA. The results indicate that the wind and photovoltaic power plants have the best performance in terms of the LCA analysis, while the wind and combined cycle power plants have the highest emergy sustainability index. The best scenario is chosen under a two-objective optimization problem, including the single score and emergy sustainability as objective functions. Here, the wind power plant is... 

One of the primary challenges of re-planning in high-speed urban railways is the randomness of disruptive events. In this study, an integrated disturbance recovery model presented in which short-turn and stop-skip service operations are optimized together to minimize the average of passengers’ waiting times. This study develops a discrete-event simulation model that employs a variable neighborhood search algorithm to maintain the service level under infrastructure elements’ unavailability. Due to the unpredictable nature of the incidents, the uncertainty associated with obstruction duration is experimentally analyzed through probabilistic scenarios. The computational experiments are... 

Airships are inherently sensitive to random atmospheric disturbances that could potentially make their data gathering and observation missions a formidable task. In this context robust closed loop feedback controllers are important. The present study is therefore focused on optimal feedback controller design of an indigenous domestically designed airship (DA) for added robustness against atmospheric disturbances. While the general airship six degrees of freedom (6DoF) governing equations of motion are mathematically nonlinear, one often needs to resort to local linearization methods to benefit from proven linear closed loop controller (CLC) design approaches. In this sense an optimal linear... 

The characteristics of postural sway were assessed in quiet standing under three different postural task conditions in 14 patients with nonspecific chronic low back pain and 12 healthy subjects using linear and nonlinear center of pressure parameters. The linear parameters consisted of area, the mean total velocity, sway amplitude, the SD of velocity, and the phase plane portrait. The nonlinear parameters included the Lyapunov exponent, sample entropy, and the correlation dimension. The results showed that the amount of postural sway was higher in the patients with low back pain compared with the healthy subjects. Assessing the nonlinear parameters of the center of pressure showed a lower... 

We study the application of cooperative control and game theoretic approaches to wind farm optimization. The conventional (greedy) wind farm control strategy seeks to individually maximize each turbine power. However, this strategy does not maximize the overall power production of wind farms due to the aerodynamic interactions (wake effect) between the turbines. We formulate the wind farm power optimization problem as an identical interest game which can also be used to solve other cooperative control problems. Two model-free learning algorithms are developed to obtain the optimal axial induction factors of the turbines and maximize power production. The algorithms are simulated for a... 

Power management strategies play a key role in the design process of hybrid electric vehicles. Electric Assist Control Strategy (EACS) is one of the popular power management strategies for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). The present investigation proposes a new framework to advance the EACS. Dynamic Programming method is applied to an HEV model in several drive cycles, and as a result, some optimal operating regions are found. The obtained regions are almost distinct, and consequently, some threshold lines can be defined to separate them. The obtained threshold lines are used to eliminate some parameters of the EACS to reduce its sensitivity to the driving behavior. It is shown that by... 

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a green technology that has been applied for many years. One of the main problems in this process is controlling these bioreactors to maximize methane production. A supervisory control strategy has been proposed to improve the methane production rate in an anaerobic digestion process while minimizing the risk of process failure in the presence of several drastic feedstock changes. The inner loop consisted of a feedback control that manipulated the feed flow rate for achieving the desirable methane production rate. A rule based control strategy was used as supervisory control loop. This controller received the total volatile fatty acids concentration in the reactor... 

One of the primary challenges of re-planning in high-speed urban railways is the randomness of disruptive events. In this study, an integrated disturbance recovery model presented in which short-turn and stop-skip service operations are optimized together to minimize the average of passengers’ waiting times. This study develops a discrete-event simulation model that employs a variable neighborhood search algorithm to maintain the service level under infrastructure elements’ unavailability. Due to the unpredictable nature of the incidents, the uncertainty associated with obstruction duration is experimentally analyzed through probabilistic scenarios. The computational experiments are... 

Wind turbines are generally controlled based on two control objectives: Turbine protection and the generation of acceptable power for the grid. In this paper, a robust control strategy is presented for switching between various operating modes of the turbine. The rotor angular speed is hold below the allowable speed in all operation time. It is also attempted to catch a constant power in a desirable amount during the most of operation time. For the elimination of model/environmental uncertainties, sliding mode controllers are used. For the objective of power tracking, the stability of sliding mode controller is proved for a set of sliding surfaces. Advantages and disadvantages of the...