Sharif Digital Repository

In this paper, the development of a controller for autonomous lateral alignment of fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with runway centerline in landing phase is presented. Fuzzy Logic Control (FLC) is used in order to enable the vehicle to mimic the decision making procedure that a pilot follow in the same situation. Also, for longitudinal motion controller design for the UAV to follow a pre-defined trajectory, the pole-placement technique is used. It is assumed that the runway relative position and orientation are provided by a built in vision system and its associated image processing unit. The performance of the controller in the presence of the Gaussian noises is investigated by... 

This paper proposes a high performance voltage tracking and current sharing among parallel connected inverters by applying optimal control and minimizing the cost function. The control system forces the voltage of load to track the voltage reference, and the current of all inverters becomes equal. Therefore, both current sharing and voltage tracking are obtained. In addition, the smallest input energy and simplicity in control circuit are the other advantages of the suggested method. To show the performance of the proposed control scheme, the simulations with two-modular practical systems are performed and the results are provided. The results indicate that the control objectives are... 

Recorded ground accelerations at various locations of Karun III Dam during November 20, 2007, were recorded by an array of accelerometers located on the dam. In terms of amplitude and phase, these accelerations show non-uniformities in different elevations. In this paper, the effect of these non-uniform ground motions on the seismic response of the dam taking dam-reservoir-foundation interaction into account is investigated. The EACD-3D-2008 finite element program and ABAQUS Software are used for carrying out the seismic analyses. For this purpose, time histories of the earthquake accelerations are interpolated at nodal points located on the dam foundation interface. The analysis has been... 

Thermal analysis of Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) dams is generally carried out considering identical ambient boundary conditions at upstream and downstream faces. For the case of Shahri-Kor Dam (an RCC dam with a height of 57 m), recorded thermal data depicts a considerable difference between upstream and downstream ambient temperatures, especially during cold months. This paper investigates how taking this difference into account can affect the thermal response of the dam. For this purpose, two thermal analyses are carried out with and without consideration of these different ambient boundary conditions (DABC). Consequently, the computed temperatures at representative points are compared... 

This paper presents an online highly accurate system for automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) that can be used as a basis for many real-world ITS applications. The system is designed to deal with unclear vehicle plates, variations in weather and lighting conditions, different traffic situations, and high-speed vehicles. This paper addresses various issues by presenting proper hardware platforms along with real-Time, robust, and innovative algorithms. We have collected huge and highly inclusive data sets of Persian license plates for evaluations, comparisons, and improvement of various involved algorithms. The data sets include images that were captured from crossroads, streets, and... 

Herein, we present a novel, simple, and ultrasensitive electrochemical DNA (E-DNA) sensor based on hollow carbon spheres (HCS) decorated with polyaniline (PANI). A thiolated 21-mer oligonucleotide, characteristic of HBV DNA, is immobilized via electrodeposited gold nanoparticles on HCS-PANI. Cyclic voltammetry (CV), differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) are used to characterize the electrochemical properties of the prepared nanocomposite. Scanning electron microscopy is employed to investigate the morphological texture of the fabricated modifier. An enhanced intrinsic signal of PANI is probed to evaluate the biosensing ability of the prepared... 

The paper presents an upgraded size-dependent formulation for micro-rotating shaft–disks system to study their nonlinear forced vibration behavior. The novel formulation is based on the nonlocal strain gradient theory (NSGT). To achieve this goal, first of all, by incorporating the geometrical nonlinearity within the Rayleigh beam theory, the governing equations of the lateral motion of the system are derived by the Hamilton principle and then converted into a complex form. By defining some dimensionless parameters, the normalized form of the complex governing equation is also extracted. In the next step, the Galerkin method is implemented to establish an infinite set of ordinary... 

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are rapidly becoming recognized as a new alternative to traditional energy conversion systems because of their high energy efficiency. From an ecological perspective, this environmentally friendly technology, which produces clean energy, is likely to be implemented more frequently in the future. However, the current SOFC technology still cannot meet the demands of commercial applications due to temperature constraints and high cost. To develop a marketable SOFC, suppliers have tended to reduce the operating temperatures by a few hundred degrees. The overall trend for SOFC materials is to reduce their service temperature of electrolyte. Meanwhile, it is... 

A numerical simulation algorithm based on the finite volume discretisation is presented for analyzing ship motions. The algorithm employs a fractional step method to deal with the coupling between the pressure and velocity fields. The free surface capturing is fulfilled by using a volume of fluid method in which the interface between the liquid (water) and gas (air) phases are computed by solving a scalar transport equation for the volume fraction of the liquid phase. The computed velocity field is employed to evaluate the acting forces and moments on the vessel. Using the strategy of boundary-fitted body-attached mesh and calculating all six degrees-of-freedom of motion in each time step,...