Automatic vehicle location system

An automatic vehicle detection system is disclosed, in which each vehicle whose location is to be detected carries active means which interact with passive elements at each location to be identified. The passive elements comprise a plurality of passive loops arranged in a sequence along the travel direction. Each of the loops is tuned to a chosen frequency so that the sequence of the frequencies defines the location code. As the vehicle traverses the sequence of the loops as it passes over each loop, signals only at the frequency of the loop being passed over are coupled from a vehicle transmitter to a vehicle receiver. The frequencies of the received signals in the receiver produce outputs which together represent a code of the traversed location. The code location is defined by a painted pattern which reflects light to a vehicle carried detector whose output is used to derive the code defined by the pattern

Active control of aerothermoelastic effects for a conceptual hypersonic aircraft

Procedures for and results of aeroservothermoelastic studies are described. The objectives of these studies were to develop the necessary procedures for performing an aeroelastic analysis of an aerodynamically heated vehicle and to analyze a configuration in the classical cold state and in a hot state. Major tasks include the development of the structural and aerodynamic models, open loop analyses, design of active control laws for improving dynamic responses and analyses of the closed loop vehicles. The analyses performed focused on flutter speed calculations, short period eigenvalue trends and statistical analyses of the vehicle response to controls and turbulence. Improving the ride quality of the vehicle and raising the flutter boundary of the aerodynamically-heated vehicle up to that of the cold vehicle were the objectives of the control law design investigations

Fusing Loop and GPS Probe Measurements to Estimate Freeway Density

In an age of ever-increasing penetration of GPS-enabled mobile devices, the potential of real-time "probe" location information for estimating the state of transportation networks is receiving increasing attention. Much work has been done on using probe data to estimate the current speed of vehicle traffic (or equivalently, trip travel time). While travel times are useful to individual drivers, the state variable for a large class of traffic models and control algorithms is vehicle density. Our goal is to use probe data to supplement traditional, fixed-location loop detector data for density estimation. To this end, we derive a method based on Rao-Blackwellized particle filters, a sequential Monte Carlo scheme. We present a simulation where we obtain a 30\% reduction in density mean absolute percentage error from fusing loop and probe data, vs. using loop data alone. We also present results using real data from a 19-mile freeway section in Los Angeles, California, where we obtain a 31\% reduction. In addition, our method's estimate when using only the real-world probe data, and no loop data, outperformed the estimate produced when only loop data were used (an 18\% reduction). These results demonstrate that probe data can be used for traffic density estimation

Analysis of flexible aircraft longitudinal dynamics and handling qualities. Volume 2: Data

Two analysis methods are applied to a family of flexible aircraft in order to investigate how and when structural (especially dynamic aeroelastic) effects affect the dynamic characteristics of aircraft. The first type of analysis is an open loop modal analysis technique. This method considers the effect of modal residue magnitudes on determining vehicle handling qualities. The second method is a pilot in the loop analysis procedure that considers several closed loop system characteristics. Both analyses indicated that dynamic aeroelastic effects caused a degradation in vehicle tracking performance, based on the evaluation of some simulation results. Volume 2 consists of the presentation of the state variable models of the flexible aircraft configurations used in the analysis applications mode shape plots for the structural modes, numerical results from the modal analysis frequency response plots from the pilot in the loop analysis and a listing of the modal analysis computer program

Combining a hierarchical task network planner with a constraint satisfaction solver for assembly operations involving routing problems in a multi-robot context

This work addresses the combination of a symbolic hierarchical task network planner and a constraint satisfaction solver for the vehicle routing problem in a multi-robot context for structure assembly operations. Each planner has its own problem domain and search space, and the article describes how both planners interact in a loop sharing information in order to improve the cost of the solutions. The vehicle routing problem solver gives an initial assignment of parts to robots, making the distribution based on the distance among parts and robots, trying also to maximize the parallelism of the future assembly operations evaluating during the process the dependencies among the parts assigned to each robot. Then, the hierarchical task network planner computes a scheduling for the given assignment and estimates the cost in terms of time spent on the structure assembly. This cost value is then given back to the vehicle routing problem solver as feedback to compute a better assignment, closing the loop and repeating again the whole process. This interaction scheme has been tested with different constraint satisfaction solvers for the vehicle routing problem. The article presents simulation results in a scenario with a team of aerial robots assembling a structure, comparing the results obtained with different configurations of the vehicle routing problem solver and showing the suitability of using this approach.Unión Europea ARCAS FP7-ICT-287617Unión Europea H2020-ICT-644271Unión europea H2020-ICT-73166

AER-based robotic closed-loop control system

Address-Event-Representation (AER) is an asynchronous protocol for transferring the information of spiking neuro-inspired systems. Actually AER systems are able to see, to ear, to process information, and to learn. Regarding to the actuation step, the AER has been used for implementing Central Pattern Generator algorithms, but not for controlling the actuators in a closed-loop spike-based way. In this paper we analyze an AER based model for a real-time neuro-inspired closed-loop control system. We demonstrate it into a differential control system for a two-wheel vehicle using feedback AER information. PFM modulation has been used to power the DC motors of the vehicle and translation into AER of encoder information is also presented for the close-loop. A codesign platform (called AER-Robot), based into a Xilinx Spartan 3 FPGA and an 8051 USB microcontroller, with power stages for four DC motors has been used for the demonstrator.Junta de Andalucía P06-TIC-01417Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia TEC2006-11730-C03-0