Sharif Digital Repository

Geometry of different electromagnetic parts of Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM) is a major factor of VSM output voltage. In this paper design, geometry optimization and implementation of a sensitive, versatile and relatively inexpensive VSM system has been described. Considering all effective geometrical parameters in the system output voltage, the induced voltage in the pick-up coils has been obtained analytically and the geometry of the pick-up coils has been optimized for maximum output induced voltage. Two opposite series of pick-up coils, piezoelectric based vibration system and required electronic circuits have been designed and the VSM system has been implemented. The implemented... 

This research presents virtual prototyping and performance evaluation of a series elastic torque actuator developed for augmenting lower extremity exoskeletal systems employing biomechanical framework. For this purpose, experimental kinematical data of the lower extremity were collected for walking and backpack load carrying. Forward dynamics simulation of the movements under investigation is performed in a biomechanical framework consisting of a musculoskeletal model with ten degrees-of-freedom actuated by eighteen Hill-type musculotendon actuators per leg to perform the muscle functional analysis. Muscle torque analysis results employed for optimal design and selection of components in the... 

While researchers have developed several approaches to attain design variable settings that simultaneously optimize multiple-quality characteristics, the multi-response optimization has become a common practice in complicated manufacturing processes. Most of these research works assume independency of responses where their variances are constant over the experimental space. However, there are many manufacturing processes in practice where the quality characteristics under consideration are correlated. In this study, an efficient approach based on principal component analysis and a conventional desirability function is proposed to optimize correlated multiple responses. This approach not only... 

Many genetic algorithms (GA) have been applied to solve different NP-complete combinatorial optimization problems so far. The striking point of using GA refers to selecting a combination of appropriate patterns in crossover, mutation, and and so forth and fine tuning of some parameters such as crossover probability, mutation probability, and and so forth. One way to design a robust GA is to select an optimal pattern and then to search for its parameter values using a tuning procedure. This paper addresses a methodology to both optimal pattern selection and the tuning phases by taking advantage of design of experiments and response surface methodology. To show the performances of the proposed... 

Featuring a nonlinear novel design, Gimbal transmission, is a replacement for traditional robotic joints like gearboxes and revolute joints. This mechanism is one of the most recent types of nonlinear direct transmission (DT) methods in robots. As an alternative for traditional drive methodologies - herein called direct drive transmission (DD) methods, DT provides dynamic coupling and joint interaction attenuation while its capability to be adjusted for a desired task space point, smooth input-output characteristic, and varying reduction ratio lead to a desired force and motion behavior for the whole manipulator. In this paper, design optimization of a gimbal mechanism used as a replacement... 

We report the design, fabrication and error analysis of a sun sensor array composed of six photodiodes. The sensor estimates the direction of the sun using a linear least squares method. The performance of the sensor is deteriorated by three major sources: fabrication errors, scattered environmental light, and inexact modeling of photodiodes. Using a calibration procedure and modeling the uniform component of the environmental light, we mitigate the first two errors and significantly reduce root mean squared error from 2.63° to 0.83°. For a Field of View (FOV) of 110°, the maximum estimation error also drops from 3.8° to 1.6°. Through exact mathematical modeling of photodiodes, we... 

In this study, we simulated and analyzed a plasmonic waveguide modulator based on a single layer of graphene. It includes a graphene sheet, which sandwiches between two layers of silicon dioxide. Then, some gates are arranged on either side of the waveguide on a periodic structure. When an electric field is applied perpendicular to the waveguide plate, the Fermi level of graphene under the gates changes. Detailed analysis is performed by the method of lines based on Maxwell's equations along the propagation direction of the waveguide. Computation of the multi-gate device starts by examining the effect of the Fermi level. The transmission coefficient of the magnetic-field norms of the... 

Modern sensors consist of arrays of detectors specially arranged to enhance precision, capabilities, and field of view (FOV). Sensor arrays can have multiple functionalities, such as the simultaneous detection of position and motion. We use a linear sensor model and develop an optimization method to design an array of photodiodes. Our objective function minimizes bias and variance estimations. We introduce a maximum likelihood technique to approximate and determine the bias caused by measurement errors, and verify our theory by statistically complete simulations. We apply our theory to design an optimal sun sensor. The sensor has a predefined conical FOV, and its accuracy is controlled by a... 

This work proposes an automatic method to generate opti- mized redundant hardware accelerator with maximum reliabil- ity given a single behavioral description for High-Level Syn- thesis (HLS). For this purpose, this work exploits one of the main advantages of C-based VLSI design over traditional RT- level design: The ability to generate micro-architectures with unique characteristics from the same behavioral description. This is typically done by setting different synthesis options to determine how to synthesize loops, arrays and functions and to specify the number and type of Functional Units (FUs) to be instantiated. The proposed method is composed of two main phases. The first phase... 

The optimal feeder design in gravity casting processes is considered. The design problem is formulated as an additive, growth-like, evolutionary topology optimization problem. The initial design of the presented method is a casting part which is placed in a suitable environmental mould box. The method is composed of three stages: determining the feeder-neck connection point on the casting surface, constructing the feeder-neck and the feeder growth. During the growth stage, the feeder topology is changed gradually until satisfying some predefined criteria. The design of multiple feeders is also considered in this work. In the presented method, feeders are designed in a descending order of... 

The desired milling process with high material removal rate (MRR) and low surface roughness of the product can be achieved only if machining chatter is absent. Incorporating chatter into the optimal selection of the machining parameters leads to a complex problem. Therefore, the approach of selecting conservative intervals for the machining parameters is usually employed instead. In this paper, a practical approach is proposed to specify the optimal machining parameters (depth of cut and spindle speed) in order to maximize MRR and minimize forced vibrations by considering machining chatter. Firstly, the worst-case scenario-based optimization problem in terms of the surface quality is solved... 

This paper models the cyber-social system as a cyber-network of agents monitoring states of individuals in a social network. The state of each individual is represented by a social node, and the interactions among individuals are represented by a social link. In the cyber-network, each node represents an agent, and the links represent information sharing among agents. The agents make an observation of social states and perform distributed inference. In this direction, the contribution of this paper is threefold: First, a novel distributed inference protocol is proposed that makes no assumption on the rank of the underlying social system. This is significant as most protocols in the... 

Employing Multi-Turn Wound-Rotor (WR) resolvers are suggested for applications that high accuracy and absolute measurement are required, simultaneously. Conventional multi-turn resolvers are consisted of two individual resolvers in a common frame and suffer from high cost and big size that has a loading effect on the driven machine. Those challenges are over-come in proposed structures of recent researches in the price of a complicated winding process in manufacturing where the aim of this paper is laying. To find the best solution, an index is proposed and calculated. All the simulations are done using time-stepping finite element analysis (TSFEA). Then, the prototype of the optimal... 

Active components in amplifiers generate noise. Thus, amplifiers too, produce noise at their output and, therefore, increase the input signal to noise ratio. This is an undesirable feature, more particularly when one is dealing with weak input signals already combined with noise. Thus, reducing amplifiers' noise becomes a necessity for some applications. To overcome this problem, one approach consists of improving electronic device technology. Another approach is the use of advanced techniques in designing low noise amplifiers by taking advantage of pulse shapers. Pulse shapers generally consist of calculated filters made of integrator(s) and differentiator(s) that limit properly the... 

The aim of this paper is to provide a solution to decrease water consumption in the slab-cooling unit of Mobarakeh Steel Complex in Iran. The plan should give an hourly decline in water consumption during a one-year operation period to calculate the annual reduction in water consumption of the proposed process. Recommended solutions for the conversion scheme of an existing wet cooling tower to a dry or hybrid cooling system require modeling of the slab cooling process. The curves of temperature drop in slabs are extracted in this paper by modeling the transient heat transfer of the slabs in the cooling process. This will reduce the computational volume. Then, the design and optimization of...