Search results for "Forma"
showing 10 items of 34540 documents
Design of a modular Autonomous Underwater Vehicle for archaeological investigations
2015
MARTA (MARine Tool for Archaeology) is a modular AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) designed and developed by the University of Florence in the framework of the ARROWS (ARchaeological RObot systems for the World's Seas) FP7 European project. The ARROWS project challenge is to provide the underwater archaeologists with technological tools for cost affordable campaigns: i.e. ARROWS adapts and develops low cost AUV technologies to significantly reduce the cost of archaeological operations, covering the full extent of an archaeological campaign (underwater mapping, diagnosis and cleaning tasks). The tools and methodologies developed within ARROWS comply with the "Annex" of the 2001 UNESCO Conv…
The ARROWS project: adapting and developing robotics technologies for underwater archaeology
2015
4th IFAC Workshop on Navigation, Guidance and Control of Underwater Vehicles, NGCUV 2015; Girona; Spain; 28 April 2015 through 30 April 2015
Robustness with Respect to Delay Uncertainties of a Predictor-Observer Based Discrete-Time Controller
2006
This paper focuses on the delay-dependent stability problem of a discrete-time prediction scheme to stabilize possible unstable continuous-time systems. The delay-dependent stability condition is expressed in terms of LMIs. The separation principle between the proposed predictor and a state observer is also proved. The closed-loop system is shown to be robust with respect to uncertainties in the knowledge on the plant parameters, the delay and the sampling period. The proposed scheme has been tested in a real-time application to control the roll angle in a prototype of a quad-rotor mini-helicopter.
Integral Control Action in Precise Positioning Systems with Friction
2016
Abstract For high precision positioning systems a fast and accurate settling to the reference state is most significant and, at the same time, challenging from the control point of view. Traditional use of an integral coaction in feedback can attain a desired reference tracking at steady-state motion, but can fail in case of precise positioning. Most crucial is that this is independent on how accurate the integral control part is tuned. This paper addresses the feedback control action in precise positioning systems with friction. Analyzing the closed-loop control dynamics with nonlinear friction in feedback it is shown why the integral action cannot efficiently cope with Coulomb friction wh…
Mitigation of Fatigue Damage and Vibration Severity of Electric Drivetrains by Systematic Selection of Motion Profiles
2016
The offshore drilling industry is among the most demanding markets for electrical equipment. Heave motion, irregular cyclic loads, harsh weather conditions, and vibrations are causing accelerated deterioration of drilling equipment. One of the most common solutions to these problems is to design actuation systems of such machinery overly conservative to gain additional safety, which results in too high initial investment and maintenance costs. To mitigate the fatigue damage and vibration severity of rotating elements of electric drivetrains operating offshore, this paper presents a comparative analysis of four popular input functions used in motion control of industrial systems. We evaluate…
On stability and robustness of Virtual Torsion Sensor (VTS) for flexible joint robots
2016
The so called ‘Virtual Torsion Sensor’ (VTS) has been introduced in pervious works for flexible joint robots without sensing of the joint output states, i.e. link position and velocity. Since VTS is incorporated into the feedback control loop, so as to improve the links' positioning accuracy, the related stability is crucial for the overall control design and robust operation of VTS. In this paper, we analyze the stability of including VTS into the feedback loop while assuming the predicted joint torsion is gained by the proportional term of the underlying motor position feedback control. We start our consideration by an ideal case of the linear joint stiffness, first assuming the measured …
Consensus-Based Distributed State Estimation of Biofilm in Reverse Osmosis Membranes by WSNs
2017
The appearance of biofilm has become a serious problem in many reverse osmosis based systems such as the ones found in water treatment and desalination plants. In these systems, the use of traditional techniques such as pretreatment or dozing biocides are not effective when the biofilm reaches an irreversible attachment phase. In this work, we present a framework for the use of a WSN as an estimator of the biofilm evolution in a reverse osmosis membrane so that effective solutions can be applied before the irreversible phase is attained. This design is addressed in a complete distributed and decentralized fashion, and subject to realistic constraints where cooperation between nodes is perfo…
Load Torque Estimation Method to Design Electric Drivetrains for Offshore Pipe Handling Equipment
2016
One of the main design objectives for electric drivetrains operating in offshore drilling equipment is to keep them as small, yet as effective, as possible, to minimize space they occupy on drill floor and maximize their performance. However, practical experience shows that typically choices made by design engineers are too conservative due to the lack of enough data characterizing load conditions. This results in too costly and too heavy selected components. Therefore, in the current paper we present a method to estimate required full-scale motor torque using a scaled down experimental setup and its computational model. A gripper arm of an offshore vertical pipe handling machine is selecte…
On break-away forces in actuated motion systems with nonlinear friction
2017
The phenomenon of so-called break-away forces, as maximal actuation forces at which a sticking system begins to slide and thus passes over to a steady (macro) motion, is well known from engineering practice but still less understood in its cause-effect relationship. This note analyzes the break-away behavior of systems with nonlinear friction, which is analytically well-described by combining the Coulomb friction law with rate-independent presliding transitions and, when necessary, Stribeck effect of the velocity-weakening steady-state curve. The break-away conditions are harmonized with analytic form of the system description and shown to be in accord with a relationship between the varyin…
Learning of Cooperative Behaviour in Robot Populations
2016
This paper addresses convergence and equilibrium properties of game theoretic learning algorithms in robot populations using simple and broadly applicable reward/cost models of cooperation between robotic agents. New models for robot cooperation are proposed by combining regret based learning methods and network evolution models. Results of mean-field game theory are employed in order to show the asymptotic second moment boundedness in the variation of cooperative behaviour. The behaviour of the proposed models are tested in simulation results, which are based on sample networks and a single lane traffic flow case study.