Cooling panel wall system with difference types of cooling mediums

Global warming has caused worldwide average surface temperature to rise about 0.74oC during the past 100 years, which is partly aggravated by air-conditioning that releases chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and forming a vicious cycle. This paper proposes a cooling house system that can promote thermal comfort in buildings without air-conditioning. The cooling panel wall forms a part of an Integrated Building System (IBS), and is essentially made of tubes filled with either water or glycerin as the coolant. Target strength for the panel wall was designed based on the Malaysian Standard (MS) while the building ventilation system followed the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) standard. The results are reported based on indoor and outdoor temperature difference together with relative humidity to identify the best performing house model and also coolant. The outcome of this research is expected to add value to heritage house design concepts with a better promotion of air flow and circulation in the building, without over-usage of natural resources and higher building cost to achieve the same objective

Comparative evaluation of approaches in T.4.1-4.3 and working definition of adaptive module

The goal of this deliverable is two-fold: (1) to present and compare different approaches towards learning and encoding movements us- ing dynamical systems that have been developed by the AMARSi partners (in the past during the first 6 months of the project), and (2) to analyze their suitability to be used as adaptive modules, i.e. as building blocks for the complete architecture that will be devel- oped in the project. The document presents a total of eight approaches, in two groups: modules for discrete movements (i.e. with a clear goal where the movement stops) and for rhythmic movements (i.e. which exhibit periodicity). The basic formulation of each approach is presented together with some illustrative simulation results. Key character- istics such as the type of dynamical behavior, learning algorithm, generalization properties, stability analysis are then discussed for each approach. We then make a comparative analysis of the different approaches by comparing these characteristics and discussing their suitability for the AMARSi project

Limit cycle behavior of smart fluid dampers under closed loop control

Semiactive vibration dampers offer an attractive compromise between the simplicity and fail safety of passive devices, and the weight, cost, and complexity of fully active systems. In addition, the dissipative nature of semiactive dampers ensures they always remain stable under closed loop control, unlike their fully active counterparts, However undesirable limit cycle behavior remains a possibility, which is not always property considered during the controller design. Smart fluids provide an elegant means to produce semiactive damping, since their resistance to flow can be directly controlled by the application of an electric or magnetic field. However the nonlinear behavior of smart fluid dampers makes it difficult to design effective controllers, and so a wide variety of control strategies has been proposed in the literature. In general, this work has overlooked the possibility of undesirable limit cycle behavior under closed loop conditions. The aim of the present study is to demonstrate how the experimentally observed limit cycle behavior of smart dampers can be predicted and explained by appropriate nonlinear models. The study is based upon a previously developed feedback control strategy, but the techniques described are relevant to other forms of smart damper control

In silico case studies of compliant robots: AMARSI deliverable 3.3

In the deliverable 3.2 we presented how the morphological computing ap- proach can significantly facilitate the control strategy in several scenarios, e.g. quadruped locomotion, bipedal locomotion and reaching. In particular, the Kitty experimental platform is an example of the use of morphological computation to allow quadruped locomotion. In this deliverable we continue with the simulation studies on the application of the different morphological computation strategies to control a robotic system

A survey on fractional order control techniques for unmanned aerial and ground vehicles

In recent years, numerous applications of science and engineering for modeling and control of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) systems based on fractional calculus have been realized. The extra fractional order derivative terms allow to optimizing the performance of the systems. The review presented in this paper focuses on the control problems of the UAVs and UGVs that have been addressed by the fractional order techniques over the last decade

Feedback linearization control for a distributed solar collector field

This article describes the application of a feedback linearization technique for control of a distributed solar collector field using the energy from solar radiation to heat a fluid. The control target is to track an outlet temperature reference by manipulating the fluid flow rate through the solar field, while attenuating the effect of disturbances (mainly radiation and inlet temperature). The proposed control scheme is very easy to implement, as it uses a numerical approximation of the transport delay and a modification of the classical control scheme to improve startup in such a way that results compared with other control structures under similar conditions are improved while preserving short commissioning times. Experiments in the real plant are also described, demonstrating how operation can be started up efficiently.Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología DPI2004-07444-C04-04Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología DPI2005-0286

Dynamic output feedback sliding-mode control using pole placement and linear functional observers

This paper presents a methodological approach to design dynamic output feedback sliding-mode control for a class of uncertain dynamical systems. The control action consists of the equivalent control and robust control components. The design of the equivalent control and the sliding function are based on the pole-placement technique. Linear functional observers are developed to implement the sliding function and the equivalent control. Stability of the resulting system under the proposed control scheme is guaranteed. A numerical example is given to demonstrate its efficacy.<br /