Sharif Digital Repository

Sign language is the main medium of communication for mute and deaf people. Unfortunately most hearing people do not understand this language. This fact causes communication difficulties for hearing impaired people and negatively affects their social life. This problem motivates researchers to develop speaking aids and helps deaf people to communicate with hearing people. Sign language includes concurrent combination of hand shapes, orientation and movements of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions which make the character and word recognition a challenging task. Generally there are two fields of study in sign language recognition based on measuring devices: 1- camera based 2-... 

This research focuses on the robust mobile robot localization exploiting motion information acquired from an optical mouse operating based on optical flow technology. Most techniques of visual motion measurement are based on the well research discipline called “optical flow”. Theoretically, optical flow as a method of localization can be highly accurate, but it is sensitive to the noise and surface texture/optical characteristics and distance variations between the CCD detector and surface. As one could not achieve acceptable results in practical situations, to handle these problems, we propose to attach an acceleration – gyro (INS) sensor on the CCD detector (optical mouse) to improve the... 

Delivering high quality and clean air into occupied spaces is the main goal of Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems. HVAC systems draw supply air which usually contains fungi and moisture. Fungi and moisture plus organic materials create a good bed for mold growth. Studies prove that duct cleaning process can definitely reduce the amount of pollutants present in the ducts. Hence, it has positive impact on human lives both regarding psychological and physical points of view. Duct cleaning method’s application difficulties and ducts’ unreachable environments motivated duct cleaning firms to employ robots for duct cleaning tasks. Although there are considerable numbers of... 

The main objective of this project is to investigate modeling for a robotic swarm with suitable sensors and to analyze effect of sensory noise on the control and unity of the swarm. This project is an extension of analytical study done by S. Etemadi, A. Alasty and G. Vossoughi in Sharif University of technology. The flocking frame assumed to have a leader robot that controls over all behavior of the swarm made of agents’ robots with limited equipments and low intelligence that only obey some basic attraction and repulsion laws that will be explained. As an initial step of the analysis, we investigate proper physical model, sensors and navigation systems suitable to the model. Next, the... 

The final target of this research is to design an appropriate intelligent control strategy for energy management purposes in a well designed parallel hybrid electric vehicle. In the first step, the conventional “Samand” vehicle has been simulated using real data for vehicle parameters and power train components, has been simulated. Using experimental results, simulation results are validated. In the second step due to the primarily defined parallel electric assist control strategy (PEACS) for the hybrid electric vehicle and performance requirements, components such as engine, electric machine and battery pack were selected and sized. In the final step a Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) has been... 

The reflective optical rotary encoders are used greatly in automation systems for speed and position measurements. Their approach of reading code as pulses which results in position and speed information is very similar to what a CD-ROM driver performs to read the saved data as pits and lands on the compact disc data layer. Moreover, the micron size of pits and lands in compact disc promise a high-resolution, and low cost rotary encoder based on CD-ROM technology. In this thesis, two concepts of length coding and hybrid incremental-absolute coded discs are proposed. To verify the implementation of these concepts, the rotary encoder set based on CD-ROM technology is designed and tested. It... 

Nowadays, due to the advancement of robotic technologies and development of industrial robots, the robot manipulators are widely used for automation of various manufacturing processes, such as finishing processes. In these applications, the contact has to be made between robot end-effector and environment. Therefore, control of interaction force in the constrained manipulators is an important demand. On the other hand, due to use of gear box and belts for energy transmission in robot joints, robot manipulators have flexible joints. The vibration, generated due to the interaction force and robot joint flexibility, can deteriorate surface roughness in automated finishing processes. In order to... 

Many workers and soldiers suffer from musculoskeletal problems due to carrying heavy loads. Using exoskeleton robots which are designed for power augmentation can be effective in preventing these disorders. Due to the interaction of these robots with human, it is necessary to design an appropriate control system for these robots, therefore, the aim of this research is to design a predictive nonlinear control system for a three degrees of freedom lower-limb Exoskeleton robot, in order to improve the performance of the robot, follow trajectory of human joints and reduce the interaction forces between human and the robot during the squatting activity. Multi-stage model predictive controller... 

The hand is an important part of the human body, the loss of all or part of it greatly reduces a person's ability to perform daily tasks. For people who have lost this significant organ, replacing it with an artificial limb that can meet some of their needs is essential. Today, all robotic prostheses use electromyographic (EMG) signals from the remaining muscles of the disabled limb as input signals. Classifying the EMG signal and converting it to a control signal faces serious challenges. Variation of signal properties over time, electrode slippage, muscle fatigue, changes in muscle contraction intensity, and changes in limb position and direction are some of these challenges. Therefore, a... 

The purpose of this study is to develop model predictive control approach to control a turbocompressor. The turbocompressor which is consisted of a gas turbine and a centrifugal compressor is manufactured for providing the necessary pressure for gas transport via the gas transmission network. The turbocompressor control system regulates the compressor outlet pressure by controlling the rotational speed of the gas turbine, while preventing the surge phenomenon in the compressor. Surge is a serious instability in the compressor that is associated with periodic fluctuations in system variables and can cause heavy damage to expensive machine parts.In this research, model predictive control has... 

Hybrid Exoskeletons refer to simultaneous use of wearable robots and functional electrical stimulation technology. Hybrid exoskeletons have many advantages compared to the separate application of each of these technologies, such as reducing the robot’s energy consumption and the need for lighter and cheaper actuators for the robot, using humans muscle power, and reducing muscle fatigue. As a result, these robots have recently attracted a lot of interest in rehabilitation applications for patients suffering from mobility impairment.Control in hybrid exoskeletons is more complicated than control in traditional exoskeletons. Because in addition to robot and functional electrical stimulation... 

Inspired by the behavior of creatures in nature, including fish, generating propulsive forces under water has attracted great interest in recent years. Various tools such as computer software and experimental laboratory observations can be used to study the movements for different types of fishes. In this research, two thin fins, the shape of which is inspired by fish tail, will be investigated as a simplified model under non-viscous and incompressible fluid conditions using the experimental results and Ansys CFX software. For this purpose, the fin is considered once as a unforked rigid cantilever and again as a rigid forked cantilever with a constant water inlet speed of 10 cm per second.... 

Drill strings are subjected to complex coupled dynamics. Therefore, accurate dynamic modeling, which can represent the physical behavior of real drill strings, is of great importance for system analysis and control. The most widely used dynamic models for such systems are the lumped element models which neglect the system distributed feature. In this thesis, an infinite-dimensional model for the vibrational dynamics of the drill-string, called neutral-type time delay model, is modified to investigate the coupled axial-torsional vibrations in drill strings. This model is derived directly from the distributed parameter model by employing the d’Alembert method. Coupling of axial and torsional... 

Low back pain (LBP), the leading cause of disability worldwide, remains one of the most common and challenging occupational musculoskeletal disorders. The effective assessment of LBP injury risk, and the design of appropriate treatment modalities and rehabilitation protocols, require accurate estimation of the mechanical spinal loads during different activities. This study aimed to: 1) develop a novel 2D beam-column finite element control-based model of the lumbar spine and compare its predictions for muscle forces and spinal loads to those resulting from a geometrically-matched equilibrium-based model; 2) test, using the foregoing control-based finite element model, the validity of the... 

The main goal of this thesis is to develop and implement a variable Impedance control method with the ability to refine the desired gait in an online manner. For this purpose, a dataset consisting of 89 healthy gaits was utilized. Then, “Basic shapes” were driven using principal component analysis and their meaningfulness was investigated. Regarding the meaningfulness of coefficients of basic shapes, a normality metric was defined to evaluate the human gaits. Furthermore, as a reference gait refinement in Impedance control, an outer loop was added to change the desired gait, according to traversed gait. Kalman filter was used to estimate the coefficients of basic shapes in this loop. In... 

Providing energy for small but out-of-access devices has led industries to harvest energy from the environment, especially environmental vibrations. The problem of vibrational energy harvesters with linear behavior, is their small bandwidth and consequently, their high sensitivity to frequency content and excitation spectra. Particularly in random excitations with vibrational energy spreading over a frequency range, linear harvesters do not seem appropriate. Under these conditions, harvesters with nonlinear stiffness are possible substitutes for linear systems. However, prediction and estimation of the behavior of systems with nonlinear stiffness under random excitation has been complicated,... 

In recent years, the seat suspension system in commercial vehicles, industry, agriculture, transportation and … have been focused by researchers. Designing the spring-damper isolators for vehicle’s seat can be an achievable and suitable strategy to increase the comfort and decrease the risk of injuries in vehicles. In this research, the effect of vibrations due to road roughness has been examined by dynamic modeling of a vehicle in combination with the human body model. Thus by using spring-damper isolators and genetic algorithm, we try to optimize the performance of the system. Designing parameters includes the stiffness and viscosity of seat isolator and our target functions include the... 

Performing a safe and effective endoscopic sinus and skull based surgery (ESSS), requires special training programs to gain sufficient hand-eye coordination and instrument manipulation skills. In this regard, virtual-based haptic surgical training systems have been considered among the medical students and residents as an effective approach for training practices. Therefore, in this study, the development of a haptic training system for ESSS, based on an animal model has been addressed. By conducting various indentation and relaxation experiments, mechanical properties of the specific sino-nasal regions of sheep head, as a function of force, displacement and tool insertion rate, for three... 

Oil and natural gas today are one of the most important sources of human energy supply, so that crude oil Percentage and natural gas provide 25% of the world's energy. Until now, vertical drilling methods have been used to extract oil and gas. In recent years, due to vertical drilling constraints, for extraction and access to places that can not be achieved by vertical drilling, Horizontal drilling has been increased. In horizontal drilling, a variety of vibrations including longitudinal, torsional, and lateral take place. These vibrations, if not controlled, can damage the equipment and the drilling field, as well as reduce the efficiency of the drilling process and increase the process... 

The Delta parallel robot is used extensively in many industries, including packaging, because of its superior speed and precision. In this project a Delta robot was designed and then controlled specifically for use in the production line of a plastic container factory. In order to optimally design the robot, a number of desirable fitness functions were defined thus: minimizing the dimensions of the robot for a specific desired workspace, minimzing the effect of the robot’s weight on its actuators and satisfying the demands of the “Design for Control” approach. Design for control means considering the complexity of controlling a system while designinig it. Therefore the remaining fitness...