Real-time sensor data development for smart truck drivetrains

Heavy articulated transport vehicles have a poor reputation associated with dramatic road accidents with frequent fatalities for those in automobiles. The result of this work is a formal data flow structure to enhance real-time decision-making in complex mechanical systems to increase performance capability and responsiveness to human commands. This structure recognizes the multiple layers of highly non-linear mechanical components (actuators, wheel tire & ground surfaces, controllers, power supplies, human/machine interfaces, etc.) that must operate in unison (i.e., reduce conflicts) in real-time (in milli-seconds) to enhance operator (driver) control to maximize human choice. This work contains a discussion on dependable sensor data is vital in complex systems that rely on a suite of sensors for both control as well as condition monitoring purposes as well as discussion on real-time energy distribution analysis in high momentum mechanical systems. The focus will be on tractor trucks of class 7 & 8 that are outfitted with an array of low-cost redundant sensors leveraging advances in intelligent robotic systems. This work details many topics including: Most relevant sensor types and their technologies, Designing, implementing, and maintaining a multi-sensor system using feasible industry standards, Sensor signal integrity and data flow processing for decision making, Asynchronous data flow methods for operating decision making schemes in real-time, Multiple applications to enhance tractor trucks systems with multi-sensor systems for real-time decision making.Mechanical Engineerin

Control Theory in Engineering

The subject matter of this book ranges from new control design methods to control theory applications in electrical and mechanical engineering and computers. The book covers certain aspects of control theory, including new methodologies, techniques, and applications. It promotes control theory in practical applications of these engineering domains and shows the way to disseminate researchers’ contributions in the field. This project presents applications that improve the properties and performance of control systems in analysis and design using a higher technical level of scientific attainment. The authors have included worked examples and case studies resulting from their research in the field. Readers will benefit from new solutions and answers to questions related to the emerging realm of control theory in engineering applications and its implementation

Advanced information processing system: The Army fault tolerant architecture conceptual study. Volume 2: Army fault tolerant architecture design and analysis

Described here is the Army Fault Tolerant Architecture (AFTA) hardware architecture and components and the operating system. The architectural and operational theory of the AFTA Fault Tolerant Data Bus is discussed. The test and maintenance strategy developed for use in fielded AFTA installations is presented. An approach to be used in reducing the probability of AFTA failure due to common mode faults is described. Analytical models for AFTA performance, reliability, availability, life cycle cost, weight, power, and volume are developed. An approach is presented for using VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL) to describe and design AFTA's developmental hardware. A plan is described for verifying and validating key AFTA concepts during the Dem/Val phase. Analytical models and partial mission requirements are used to generate AFTA configurations for the TF/TA/NOE and Ground Vehicle missions

Advanced information processing system: The Army fault tolerant architecture conceptual study. Volume 1: Army fault tolerant architecture overview

Digital computing systems needed for Army programs such as the Computer-Aided Low Altitude Helicopter Flight Program and the Armored Systems Modernization (ASM) vehicles may be characterized by high computational throughput and input/output bandwidth, hard real-time response, high reliability and availability, and maintainability, testability, and producibility requirements. In addition, such a system should be affordable to produce, procure, maintain, and upgrade. To address these needs, the Army Fault Tolerant Architecture (AFTA) is being designed and constructed under a three-year program comprised of a conceptual study, detailed design and fabrication, and demonstration and validation phases. Described here are the results of the conceptual study phase of the AFTA development. Given here is an introduction to the AFTA program, its objectives, and key elements of its technical approach. A format is designed for representing mission requirements in a manner suitable for first order AFTA sizing and analysis, followed by a discussion of the current state of mission requirements acquisition for the targeted Army missions. An overview is given of AFTA's architectural theory of operation

Extensions of Task-based Runtime for High Performance Dense Linear Algebra Applications

On the road to exascale computing, the gap between hardware peak performance and application performance is increasing as system scale, chip density and inherent complexity of modern supercomputers are expanding. Even if we put aside the difficulty to express algorithmic parallelism and to efficiently execute applications at large scale, other open questions remain. The ever-growing scale of modern supercomputers induces a fast decline of the Mean Time To Failure. A generic, low-overhead, resilient extension becomes a desired aptitude for any programming paradigm. This dissertation addresses these two critical issues, designing an efficient unified linear algebra development environment using a task-based runtime, and extending a task-based runtime with fault tolerant capabilities to build a generic framework providing both soft and hard error resilience to task-based programming paradigm. To bridge the gap between hardware peak performance and application perfor- mance, a unified programming model is designed to take advantage of a lightweight task-based runtime to manage the resource-specific workload, and to control the data ow and parallel execution of tasks. Under this unified development, linear algebra tasks are abstracted across different underlying heterogeneous resources, including multicore CPUs, GPUs and Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors. Performance portability is guaranteed and this programming model is adapted to a wide range of accelerators, supporting both shared and distributed-memory environments. To solve the resilient challenges on large scale systems, fault tolerant mechanisms are designed for a task-based runtime to protect applications against both soft and hard errors. For soft errors, three additions to a task-based runtime are explored. The first recovers the application by re-executing minimum number of tasks, the second logs intermediary data between tasks to minimize the necessary re-execution, while the last one takes advantage of algorithmic properties to recover the data without re- execution. For hard errors, we propose two generic approaches, which augment the data logging mechanism for soft errors. The first utilizes non-volatile storage device to save logged data, while the second saves local logged data on a remote node to protect against node failure. Experimental results have confirmed that our soft and hard error fault tolerant mechanisms exhibit the expected correctness and efficiency

Redesigning the human-robot interface : intuitive teleoperation of anthropomorphic robots

textA novel interface for robotic teleoperation was developed to enable accurate and highly efficient teleoperation of the Industrial Reconfigurable Anthropomorphic Dual-arm (IRAD) system and other robotic systems. In order to achieve a revolutionary increase in operator productivity, the bilateral/master-slave approach must give way to shared autonomy and unilateral control; autonomy must be employed where possible, and appropriate sensory feedback only where autonomy is impossible; and today’s low-information/high feedback model must be replaced by one that emphasizes feedforward precision and minimal corrective feedback. This is emphasized for task spaces outside of the traditional anthropomorphic scale such as mobile manipulation (i.e. large task spaces) and high precision tasks (i.e. very small task spaces). The system is demonstrated using an anthropomorphically dimensioned industrial manipulator working in task spaces from one meter to less than one millimeter, in both simulation and hardware. This thesis discusses the design requirements and philosophy of this interface, provides a summary of prototype teleoperation hardware, simulation environment, test-bed hardware, and experimental results.Mechanical Engineerin

System configuration and executive requirements specifications for reusable shuttle and space station/base

System configuration and executive requirements specifications for reusable shuttle and space station/bas

Digital control for automating feed distribution in feedlots

An investigation was conducted to determine the feasibility of automatic controls to automate feed distribution in feedlots. The control approach was restricted to compatibility with conventional feeding equipment. Input control signals were taken to originate from commonly available mechanical and electronic sensors. The control system was implemented with standard digital logic components;The proposed digital control system is based on a railguided, self-propelled automatic vehicle capable of delivering feed sequentially to 255 pens located on both sides of a single feeding path. A manual, closed-loop control system consisting of the following functions was developed: (1) pen identification, (2) initialization control, (3) feeding mode, (4) exit from feeding mode, (5) re-entry into feeding mode, (6) end of feeding cycle, (7) ground drive and conveyor control, (8) interface and auto/manual mode, (9) monitoring of automated system and (10) data and failure display and alarm. The control system allows either automatic or manual operation of the feeding vehicle. Digital electronic circuits capable of implementing the desired control functions were designed;The feeding cycle is manually initiated and automatically terminated when feed has been delivered to all pens requiring feed. It can be partially programmed to enable feed delivery to sections of the feedlot. Two feed rations can be delivered. The feeding status of each pen is recorded. The pen feed rations are stored in reprogrammable memories;The operation of the automated feeding system is based on the automatic identification of the feedlot pens. The number assigned to a pen is coded, using binary pulse-code modulation. Frequency-shift keying is used to transmit the coded number. The received coded number is recovered by specialized communication circuits and then validated;The control system monitors the vehicle components and the major electronic circuits to detect failures, prevent damage and produce a safe operation. Furthermore, it incorporates safety sensors and logic circuitry to meet the basic safety requirements pertaining to automated vehicles;The proposed automated feed distribution system for feedlots is expected to: (1) reduce management requirements through automatic distribution of feed to cattle raised in pens, (2) increase efficiency of feeding operation by eliminating time losses associated with secondary feed transfer, (3) eliminate damage to feedbunks through positive guidance of the vehicle by rails, and (4) save energy by eliminating secondary feed transfer

Autonomous Decision-Making Schemes for Real-World Applications in Supply Chains and Online Systems

Designing hand-engineered solutions for decision-making in complex environments is a challenging task. This dissertation investigates the possibility of having autonomous decision-makers in several real-world problems, e.g., in dynamic matching, marketing, and transportation. Achieving high-quality performance in these systems is strongly tied to the actions that a controller performs in different situations. This problem is further complicated by the fact that every single action might have long-term consequences, so ignoring them might cause unpredicted outcomes. My primary focus is to approach these problems with long-term objectives in mind, instead of only focusing on myopic ones. By borrowing techniques from optimal control and reinforcement learning, I design modeling infrastructures for each specific problem. Currently, the mainstream of reinforcement learning research uses games and robotics simulators for verification of the performance of an algorithm. In contrast, my main endeavor in this dissertation is to bridge the gap between the developed methods and their real-world applications, which are studied less often. For instance, for dynamic matching, I propose a simple matching rule with optimality guarantees; for customer journey, I use reinforcement learning to design an online algorithm based on temporal difference learning; and, for transportation, I showed that it is possible to train a solver with the capability of solving a wide variety of vehicle routing problems using reinforcement learning. Finally, I conclude this dissertation by introducing a new paradigm, which I call corrective reinforcement learning. This paradigm addressed one major challenge in applying policies found by RL, that is, they might significantly differ from real systems. I propose a mechanism that resolves this issue by finding improved controllers which are close to the status quo. I believe that the models proposed in this dissertation will contribute to the discovery of methods that can outperform current systems, which are primarily controlled by humans