Sharif Digital Repository

Brain-machines - also termed neural prostheses, could potentially increase substantially the quality of life for people suffering from motor disorders or even brain palsy. In this paper we investigate the non-stationary continuous decoding problem associated to the rat's hand position. To this aim, intracortical data (also named ECoG for electrocorticogram) are processed in successive stages: spike detection, spike sorting, and intention extraction from the firing rate signal. The two important questions to answer in our experiment are (i) is it realistic to link time events from the primary motor cortex with some time-delay mapping tool and are some inputs more suitable for this mapping... 

Sensorless control of permanent magnet synchronous motors allows reducing cost and complexity, and increasing mechanical robustness and noise immunity. Sensorless methods based on high frequency carrier injection have attracted considerable attention in recent years as they can estimate rotor position in a wide speed range. These methods employ anisotropic properties of rotor to estimate rotor position in ac machines. With internal permanent magnet motors, the high frequency signal injection method can deliver precise sensorless control, however in surface-mounted permanent magnet machines, where a small saliency arises from main flux saturation, the estimation of rotor magnet position is... 

A growing number of parents accompany their children to and from school, to make sure they travel with the best care and minimum stress. Policies that aim at promoting nonmotorized modes of transportation or at least discouraging auto driving solely for the purpose of picking up or dropping off the kids may not be successful in practice unless primary concerns of parents are treated appropriately. School escorting decisions need to be investigated, as a decreasing trend in students' travel freedom also decreases the tendency toward the use of active modes of travel, complicates intrahousehold activities that need to be considered in travel demand models, and increases externalities (e.g.,... 

The central pattern generators (CPG) in the spinal cord are thought to be responsible for producing the rhythmic motor patterns during rhythmic activities. For locomotor tasks, this involves much complexity, due to a redundant system of muscle actuators with a large number of highly nonlinear muscles. This study proposes a reduced neural control strategy for the CPG, based on modular organization of the co-active muscles, i.e., muscle synergies. Four synergies were extracted from the EMG data of the major leg muscles of two subjects, during two gait trials each, using non-negative matrix factorization algorithm. A Matsuoka׳s four-neuron CPG model with mutual inhibition, was utilized to... 

This article summarizes the first and second Iranian brain-computer interface competitions held in 2017 and 2018 by the National Brain Mapping Lab. Two 64-channel electroencephalography (EEG) datasets were contributed, including motor imagery as well as motor execution by three limbs. The competitors were asked to classify the type of motor imagination or execution based on EEG signals in the first competition and the type of executed motion as well as the movement onset in the second competition. Here, we provide an overview of the datasets, the tasks, the evaluation criteria, and the methods proposed by the top-ranked teams. We also report the results achieved with the submitted algorithms... 

The fault-tolerant capability is a prerequisite for electrical safety-critical applications. In this regard, multi-phase induction motors are well-known actuators used to provide this feature. Compared to conventional three-phase machines with distributed windings, induction machines having concentrated windings could be more fault-tolerant because of increasing the number of phases. In addition, concentrated windings have shorter end-winding and less required copper weight which makes it a lower cost solution compared to distributed windings. However, concentrated windings adversely increase the distortion of the air gap flux density which affects motor performances. In this paper, a... 

In this paper, a neural network based implementation of space vector modulation (SVM) of a two-level voltage fed Inverter is proposed. This network has the advantage of very fast implementation of SVM algorithm, particularly when a dedicated application- specific IC chip is used Instead of a digital signal processor (DSP). The proposed neural network consists of several subnets, a counter and a logic circuit. Subnets are used to Implement the stages of SVM algorithm while the counter is used to apply the switching state vectors in their specified times to Inverter. The logic circuit generates the Inverter switches commands according to the outputs of the subnets. The scheme has been... 

Ultrasonic motors (USM's) possess heavy nonlinear and load dependent characteristics such as dead-zone and saturation reverse effects, which vary with driving conditions. In this paper, behavior of an ultrasonic motor is modeled using Hammerstein model structure and experimental measurements. Also, model predictive controllers are designed to obtain precise USM position control. Simulation results indicate improved performance of the motor for both set point tracking and disturbance rejection. © 2005 ISA - The Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society  

This paper gives the results of simulation and experimental investigation on the effects of random signals on the accuracy of micro-stepping control positioning. For studying and simulation of the effect of random noise signals on performance of the accurate position control systems, such as Hybrid Stepper Motors (HSMs), a micro-step driver and controlling unit using PID controller has been designed and constructed. Several parametric studies have been carried out including different white noise power and micro-step per revolution. Tracking problem for a HSM model has been simulated, and the experimental study for similar cases has been carried out by implementing the designed controller in... 

In this paper, a radial basis function neural network-based (RBFNN) adaptive inverse controller for real-time position tracking control of a two phase hybrid stepper motor in microstep mode is presented and compared with a conventional fixed gain stand-alone PID controller. Also it is compared to the same neuro-controller using feed forward backpropagation neural networks (FFBP) presented by the same author showing superior performance of RBFNN to FFBP neural networks. A radial basis neural network is used as a controller in the adaptive inverse control method combining with a closed loop PID controller to ensure system's initial robustness and closed loop stability and improves the... 

Transit assignment is an important problem in the literature of transportation. Almost all competitive algorithms in this area are strategy based. For uncongested transit networks, the problem may be formulated into an optimization problem for which good solution algorithms exist. A variational inequality formulation of the problem with several solution methods is also presented in the literature for congested networks. This paper is devoted to solving a transit assignment problem based on complementarity formulation using path flows. The solution algorithm exploits the three concepts of decomposition, path generation, and linearization. The procedure has been applied on a large-scale... 

The notable effeets of time delay aid time discretization on the torque and current ripple amplitude of the direct torque controlled induction motor scheme are investigated. A simply modified torque hysteresis comparator structure is proposed. It minimizes the undesirable effects of the time delay and time discretization on the torque ripple and allows a sensible reduction of torque and current ripple amplitudes and switching frequency in the whole rotor speed range. Numerical simulations and experimental tests have been carried out to validate the proposed torque comparator effect. © 2004 IEEE  

The torque ripple and harmonic loss of motor and switching loss of inverter are greatly influenced by sampling time in the direct torque control method. Hence these variables must be observed in the control process to maximize performance of the system. In this paper the effects of sampling time on inverter switching loss, harmonic loss and torque ripple of induction motor are investigated. To find their optimum values a cost function consisting of motor harmonic losses, torque ripples and inverter switching losses are defined. Minimizing this cost function leads to the optimum value of the sampling time. © 2003 IEEE  

-In this paper, a new optimized structure for two-speed, capacitor-run, single-phase axial flux induction motor (AFIM) for direct-drive operation is presented. Although, there are many advantages for direct-drive systems, their axial forces between the stator and rotor increases with reduction in air-gap length and is of serious concern. An increase in the air-gap length will result in the deterioration of performance characteristics of the motor. In this paper, a new construction technique is proposed to fabricate an AFIM with adjustable air-gap length. After presenting a comprehensive design algorithm, all geometrical dimensions and electrical equivalent circuit parameters are analytically... 

Switched Reluctance Motors (SRMs) are widely used in high-speed and low voltage applications because of their attractive features such as robustness and simplicity. No winding on the rotor of this type of motors allows reaching high speed which is desired for many applications. Drive circuits of SRMs also play an important role in their performance and operation. In this paper, a new bifilar drive circuit for this type of motors has been proposed. This novel configuration has been tested and investigated by PSIM software. Results show that the new bifilar drive circuit highly reduces the voltage stresses on semiconductor switches, and also considerably reduces the switching losses which are... 

In this paper, design and prototyping of two-speed capacitor-run single-phase axial-flux induction motor (AFIM) for direct-drive applications is presented. The proposed structure has single stator-single rotor configuration with high magnetic pull between the stator and rotor, which may compel rotor to lock. Although the most efficient method to overcome this problem is using a second rotor or stator in the mirror with the first one, it is not applicable in low-cost applications. So, in this paper, two new and fast construction techniques are proposed to fabricate an AFIM with extra low air-gap length and minimum cost. Beside design and optimization process, a thermal equivalent circuit...