Multi-functional, self-sensing and automated real-time non-contact liquid dispensing system

Liquid dispensing in the order of pico-liter has become more and more important in biology, electronics and micro-electronic-mechanical-system (MEMS) during the past two decades due to the rapid progress of researches on the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) microarray, compact and low-cost direct write technology (DWT), organic semiconductors and nano-particles. The existing approaches, commercialized or experimental, to liquid dispensing in minute amounts have one common shortcoming: open loop control, i.e., they have no direct control on the quality of dispensed liquid. In contrast, the SmartPin has intrinsic self-sensing capability to not only control the process of liquid dispensing, but also the results of the dispensed liquid in real time. The dual purpose fiber optics sensor/plunger is able to detect the status of liquid morphology under dispensing, in real time, by the internal light sensor and control both the amount and the manner of liquid dispensing by its plunger-like movements. This dissertation work has implemented, with the SmartPin technology, a frilly automated DNA microarrayer based on the first generation prototype developed at NJIT\u27s Real Time Control Laboratory. This new DNA microarrayer fulfills all requirements in each step of DNA microarray fabrication, such as thorough cleaning to avoid cross contamination and clogging, aspiration of tiny amount of DNA samples, spotting on multiple slides, and flexible in stream change of DNA samples. Experiment results shows that this DNA microarrayer compares favorably with its commercialized counterpart OmniGrid 100 with SMP3 pins. As a verification of robust implementation and on-the-fly control of spot morphology, high volume of spots (120 K) have been made, from which the corresponding experiment data has been obtained, categorized and normalized as template database. In addition, this dissertation research explores the patterned microline-drawing capability of the SmartPin. Two approaches, spot sequence and liquid-column sweeping, are proposed and implemented. Experiment results show that the SmartPin is promising in the area of patterning of large area organic electronics. Besides the experimental research, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation of the liquid dispensing process has been done by utilizing GAMBIT and FLUENT, which are state-of-the-art computer programs for modeling fluid flow and heat transfer in complex geometries. The CFD simulation results, validated by experimental results, offer a guide to the design of control system for different tasks of liquid dispensation, such as fabrication of protein microarray

Future Smart Grid Systems

This book focuses on the analysis, design and implementation of future smart grid systems. This book contains eleven chapters, which were originally published after rigorous peer-review as a Special Issue in the International Journal of Energies (Basel). The chapters cover a range of work from authors across the globe and present both the state-of-the-art and emerging paradigms across a range of topics including sustainability planning, regulations and policy, estimation and situational awareness, energy forecasting, control and optimization and decentralisation. This book will be of interest to researchers, practitioners and scholars working in areas related to future smart grid systems

Advanced Signal Processing Techniques Applied to Power Systems Control and Analysis

The work published in this book is related to the application of advanced signal processing in smart grids, including power quality, data management, stability and economic management in presence of renewable energy sources, energy storage systems, and electric vehicles. The distinct architecture of smart grids has prompted investigations into the use of advanced algorithms combined with signal processing methods to provide optimal results. The presented applications are focused on data management with cloud computing, power quality assessment, photovoltaic power plant control, and electrical vehicle charge stations, all supported by modern AI-based optimization methods

Recent Advances in Multi Robot Systems

To design a team of robots which is able to perform given tasks is a great concern of many members of robotics community. There are many problems left to be solved in order to have the fully functional robot team. Robotics community is trying hard to solve such problems (navigation, task allocation, communication, adaptation, control, ...). This book represents the contributions of the top researchers in this field and will serve as a valuable tool for professionals in this interdisciplinary field. It is focused on the challenging issues of team architectures, vehicle learning and adaptation, heterogeneous group control and cooperation, task selection, dynamic autonomy, mixed initiative, and human and robot team interaction. The book consists of 16 chapters introducing both basic research and advanced developments. Topics covered include kinematics, dynamic analysis, accuracy, optimization design, modelling, simulation and control of multi robot systems

Planning and Scheduling Optimization

Although planning and scheduling optimization have been explored in the literature for many years now, it still remains a hot topic in the current scientific research. The changing market trends, globalization, technical and technological progress, and sustainability considerations make it necessary to deal with new optimization challenges in modern manufacturing, engineering, and healthcare systems. This book provides an overview of the recent advances in different areas connected with operations research models and other applications of intelligent computing techniques used for planning and scheduling optimization. The wide range of theoretical and practical research findings reported in this book confirms that the planning and scheduling problem is a complex issue that is present in different industrial sectors and organizations and opens promising and dynamic perspectives of research and development

Fundamental Approaches to Software Engineering

This open access book constitutes the proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Fundamental Approaches to Software Engineering, FASE 2020, which took place in Dublin, Ireland, in April 2020, and was held as Part of the European Joint Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software, ETAPS 2020. The 23 full papers, 1 tool paper and 6 testing competition papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 81 submissions. The papers cover topics such as requirements engineering, software architectures, specification, software quality, validation, verification of functional and non-functional properties, model-driven development and model transformation, software processes, security and software evolution