Corporation robots

Nowadays, various robots are built to perform multiple tasks. Multiple robots working together to perform a single task becomes important. One of the key elements for multiple robots to work together is the robot need to able to follow another robot. This project is mainly concerned on the design and construction of the robots that can follow line. In this project, focuses on building line following robots leader and slave. Both of these robots will follow the line and carry load. A Single robot has a limitation on handle load capacity such as cannot handle heavy load and cannot handle long size load. To overcome this limitation an easier way is to have a groups of mobile robots working together to accomplish an aim that no single robot can do alon

Advanced sensors technology survey

This project assesses the state-of-the-art in advanced or 'smart' sensors technology for NASA Life Sciences research applications with an emphasis on those sensors with potential applications on the space station freedom (SSF). The objectives are: (1) to conduct literature reviews on relevant advanced sensor technology; (2) to interview various scientists and engineers in industry, academia, and government who are knowledgeable on this topic; (3) to provide viewpoints and opinions regarding the potential applications of this technology on the SSF; and (4) to provide summary charts of relevant technologies and centers where these technologies are being developed

Aerospace medicine and biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 323)

This bibliography lists 125 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System during April, 1989. Subject coverage includes; aerospace medicine and psychology, life support systems and controlled environments, safety equipment exobiology and extraterrestrial life, and flight crew behavior and performance

Context-awareness for mobile sensing: a survey and future directions

The evolution of smartphones together with increasing computational power have empowered developers to create innovative context-aware applications for recognizing user related social and cognitive activities in any situation and at any location. The existence and awareness of the context provides the capability of being conscious of physical environments or situations around mobile device users. This allows network services to respond proactively and intelligently based on such awareness. The key idea behind context-aware applications is to encourage users to collect, analyze and share local sensory knowledge in the purpose for a large scale community use by creating a smart network. The desired network is capable of making autonomous logical decisions to actuate environmental objects, and also assist individuals. However, many open challenges remain, which are mostly arisen due to the middleware services provided in mobile devices have limited resources in terms of power, memory and bandwidth. Thus, it becomes critically important to study how the drawbacks can be elaborated and resolved, and at the same time better understand the opportunities for the research community to contribute to the context-awareness. To this end, this paper surveys the literature over the period of 1991-2014 from the emerging concepts to applications of context-awareness in mobile platforms by providing up-to-date research and future research directions. Moreover, it points out the challenges faced in this regard and enlighten them by proposing possible solutions

Assessment of effects caused by tennis equipment change under extended real-play use

There is an increasing awareness of the necessity to evaluate the effects of tennis equipment in combination with players and the corresponding need for new methods of testing to be developed. This research has investigated the effectiveness of a range of objective measurements of player performance and their ability to quantity the effects of equipment modification and player fatigue. The hypothesis of this research was that if different designs of tennis equipment affect a player differently in terms of either accelerated/reduced fatigue or increased/reduced likelihood of injury, then there must be some changes in either the impact dynamics in terms of shock loading and vibration transmission, or through kinematic changes in terms of swing motion and biomechanics. Furthermore, it was hypothesised that using state-of-the-art instrumentation technologies in conjunction with a controlled experimental protocol, it may be possible to measure some of these changes. [Continues.

Classification and reduction of pilot error

Human error is a primary or contributing factor in about two-thirds of commercial aviation accidents worldwide. With the ultimate goal of reducing pilot error accidents, this contract effort is aimed at understanding the factors underlying error events and reducing the probability of certain types of errors by modifying underlying factors such as flight deck design and procedures. A review of the literature relevant to error classification was conducted. Classification includes categorizing types of errors, the information processing mechanisms and factors underlying them, and identifying factor-mechanism-error relationships. The classification scheme developed by Jens Rasmussen was adopted because it provided a comprehensive yet basic error classification shell or structure that could easily accommodate addition of details on domain-specific factors. For these purposes, factors specific to the aviation environment were incorporated. Hypotheses concerning the relationship of a small number of underlying factors, information processing mechanisms, and error types types identified in the classification scheme were formulated. ASRS data were reviewed and a simulation experiment was performed to evaluate and quantify the hypotheses

Subjective and objective assessment of tennis racket performance play

Assessment of wielded implement performance is important to a variety of human endeavours and often critical to success in a sports context, particularly so in the game of tennis. Tennis racket design and manufacture is a multimillion business involving 10 major international companies. Tennis participation is currently estimated at around 60 million individuals worldwide. Thus the importance of optimum racket performance to maximise competitive advantage and minimise the risks of injury is clear. This thesis presents work to enable advances in tennis racket performance with respect to player feel perception, measurement of physical phenomena and the correlation of these aspects within real play contexts. To investigate feel perception a methodology was adapted from the existing literature. Interview testing was conducted to elicit a comprehensive range of tennis specific vocabulary. The end goal was to create a perception relationship map or ‘feel map’. The inductive analysis was used to link all the related clustered themes identified from the vocabulary to sub and base themes describing the relationship. Further analysis introduced higher level general dimensions that unified common base themes. The resulting feel maps were created from both English and German sample groups, with a view to subsequent comparison. To complete the map and broaden its application a wide scale questionnaire was distributed to a tennis playing population. The responses provided data indicating percentile use of selected vocabulary within the tennis community and the relative importance players associate with assorted perception groups. Visual representations of the data were introduced to the map for quick and easy use and an associated lexicon compiled to provide a reference for more detailed information. The feel maps and lexicon provide users with a versatile tool in the form of a ‘perception relationship model’. The map itself can act as an overall research guide for future work in the field. The addition of percentile use and relative importance data mean the map can be used to create more informed and subtle player test questionnaires or as a design aid, with interdependency links indicating which additional factors should be considered or exploited for their influence on the characteristic areas in question. Interestingly the general dimensions of highest relative importance were sound and grip respectively. This may be due to the basic level of interaction between player and racket which ultimately has to be perceived either through the grip or from the sound. A perception test questionnaire was also created with the use of the feel map and later used to study the correlation between objective and subjective measures. To best attain objective measures from the racket an innovative instrumentation system was created. Two alternative systems were designed and tested, the first based on wired instrumentation and data capture the second based on wireless technologies as these became available. Both systems were required to take measures of grip pressure and acceleration with 6 degrees of freedom. The first system utilised uniaxial accelerometers mounted on an aluminium bracket, and a triaxial accelerometer inserted inside the butt of the racket arranged to allow measurement and calculation of acceleration from the required 6 degrees of freedom. The system could be adapted to include either TekScan multi-cell full grip coverage force measurement, or 2 single point higher sample rate single cell grip force sensors. All data was fed via 15 m of cable to data acquisition systems. This restricted the participants’ freedom of movement and encumbered the racket and thus the systems application, making it unsuitable for extensive perception or fatigue testing. The second system utilised a compact data logger with an integrated on board tri-axial accelerometer small enough to be mounted within the racket handle. A revised mount overcame the need for the aluminium throat bracket, moving the uniaxial accelerometers into a bulbous addition to the butt of the racket. The system was capable of capturing 8 channels simultaneously which allowed for the 6 accelerometers and two single cell grip force sensors to be located under the grip. The system was more difficult to adapt and maintain than the wired system, but improved freedom and reduced added weight to the racket made the system far more suitable for the planned perception and fatigue testing. Fatigue testing conducted with the wireless device investigated the effect of full body fatigue on players’ performance by monitoring the resultant effects in the racket. The protocol was based on the multistage fitness test, designed to progressively increase in difficulty until volitional fatigue. Heart rate data indicated that the protocol was successful in fatiguing the participants to a point at or near their VO2max. Unfortunately, with the wireless system in its early stages of development, the device failed mid way through testing. The limited data set that was collected indicated that technique was affected by fatigue. Further research is required to confirm this finding and to make comparisons between racket types during the fatiguing process. The wireless device was adapted to make it more durable and reliable before the planned perception testing was conducted. A protocol was developed to investigate the affect of changing racket moment of inertia on player perception and physical measures. The test questionnaire developed from the feel map was used to evaluate player perception ratings of various elements of racket feel, and the wireless instrumentation system was used as part of methodology designed to compile a set of comparable physical data. A detailed analysis of the results revealed that there was some evidence of correlation between the perceptions of power, balance, flexibility and control and the moment of inertia of the racket. In a design optimisation context, however, more definitive correlations would be more useful. These would be expected to be found with future testing utilising a wider range of racket properties. The research proves to a large extent the original hypothesis that through the use of non invasive instrumentation and improved player perception elicitation techniques it is possible to substantially and usefully improve the objective and subjective assessment of tennis racket performance in play to enable investigation of better design characteristics and fatigue related injury phenomena

Development of maintenance framework for modern manufacturing systems

Modern manufacturing organizations are designing, building and operating large, complex and often ‘one of a kind’ assets, which incorporate the integration of various systems under modern control systems. Due to such complexity, machines failures became more difficult to interpret and rectify and the existing maintenance strategies became obsolete without development and enhancement. As a result, the need for more advanced strategies to ensure effective maintenance applications that ensures high operation efficiency arise. The current research aims to investigate the existing maintenance strategies, the levels of machines complexity and automation within manufacturing companies from different sectors and sizes including, oil and gas, food and beverages, automotive, aerospace, and Original Equipment Manufacturer. Results analysis supports in the development of a modern maintenance framework that overcome the highlighted results and suits modern manufacturing assets using systematic approaches and utilisation of pillars from Total productive maintenance (TPM, Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) and Industry 4.0