Failure analysis of fiberglass cover used for photovoltaic plants

Cover boxes with inspection glass are generally used outdoors for photovoltaic systems.Sometimes these boxes break, during normal use. Hightemperature, thermal stress, cyclic stress, and cracking contribute to weakening the polymeric inspection “glass”. The study presents an interdisciplinary analysis to discover the mode of occurrence and causes of the failure. First, the material is accurately characterized. Then its mechanical behavior is characterized in a virtual scenario that reconstructs the real external environment. The goal is to build a new cover with inspection boxes that exhibits superior life cycle behavior when exposed to harsh weather conditions and atmospheric agents. The breaking phenomena of solar panels covering boxes in PMMA (Poly Methyl Methacrylate) are examined. Environmental stress is the main responsible for cracking. Styrene is employed in the polymerization process of Sheet Molding Compound (SMC); the diffusion of this material is the main responsible for cracking. Comprehensive engineering analysis shows how the thermoplastic component fails after being exposed to atmospheric agents. The PMMA “glass” is one of the polymers most sensible to the crazing phenomena

A new urban freight distribution scheme and an optimization methodology for reducing its overall cost

The paper refers to an innovative urban freight distribution scheme, aimed at reducing the externalities connected with the freight delivery process. Both packages destined to commercial activities and to end consumers (e-commerce) are taken into account. Each package is characterized by an address and dimensions. In the proposed transport system, freight is firstly delivered to the UDC on the border of urban areas through trucks or trains which perform the long distance transport. After, freight is reorganized and consolidated into load units, i.e. the FURBOT boxes, according to packages dimensions and to the addresses of receivers. Each box is addressed to a temporary unloading bay and it is delivered there by a FURBOT vehicle. The receivers are in charge of collecting their packages in the related unloading bays where they have been delivered. The paper concerns a methodology for optimizing this freight transport system's performances. The overall methodology receives in input the actual freight demand and the road network, and finds the transport system parameters (number of required FURBOT boxes, their temporary unloading bay, the FURBOT fleet dimension and the FURBOT vehicle routing) that minimize the system overall cost. The overall cost is a sum of the users' cost, which depends on the distance they have to walk for collecting their packages in the FURBOT box, and of the operator's cost, which depends on the number of required boxes, the total distance travelled by the FURBOT vehicles and the required number of FURBOT vehicles. The overall procedure has been applied to the case study of Barreiro old town, a suburb of Lisbon, Portugal

Manoeuvring simulations of the personal vehicle PICAV

The greening of surface transport, ensuring sustainable urban mobility and improving safety and security are the three main paradigms reflecting the present and future urban transport strategic and policy challenges. The PICAV unit is a one person vehicle that is meant to ensure accessibility for everybody and some of its features are specifically designed for people whose mobility is restricted for different reasons, particularly (but not only) elderly and disabled people. Ergonomics, comfort, stability, assisted driving, eco-sustainability, parking and mobility dexterity as well as vehicle/infrastructures and intelligent networking are the main drivers of the PICAV design. The PICAV case is considered, investigating the advantages of four independently powered wheels and exploring how actuation redundancy could be used to grant proper manoeuvrability, at least, within the expected operative conditions and transport modes. \ua9 2014 DIME Universita Di Genova

Space optimization in warehouses logistics (Conference Paper)

Industrial warehouses are typically composed by multi levels scaffolds holding pallets, each pallet carrying one or more manufacturing item. The paper introduces the problem of the wasted space in industrial warehouses and describes the algorithms implemented in a simulation software able to suggest how to organize the storage of the manufacturing items. The proposed software uses effective and efficient search algorithms to minimize the overall storage lost space. The general structure of the numeric platform and the logics of the solver algorithms are described together with the strategies adopted to reduce the computation time. Typical results obtained in an industrial environment working in the plastics sector are presented and discussed. \ua9 2014 DIME Universita Di Genova

Automation of a garment sewing department assessment by smart simulation

The textile-garment industry needs great production flexibility to adapt, in terms of sustainability, to the fickle fashion market. This study proposes a new simulation model of manufacturing and production processes, which can be used as design support, performance evaluation and plant management of highly flexible production systems such as those operating in the fashion sector. The proposed simulation model aims to support industries in increasing their reactive flexibility by adjusting the production set-up. It is a distributed discrete event simulator based on the easy re-composition of resources in the production layout and on the availability of intelligent process management and control modules. The simulator has been applied to optimise the production of children’s garments. The development was done together with the production manager of an important European industry; the manager enjoyed the intuitive use of the software and the significance and reliability of the information obtained

Personal full electric vehicle PICAV: Non linear dynamic model and simulation (Article)

Request of sustainable personalized transport is growing in different areas of service robotics, for aid to mobility of elderly and motion disabled people, for freight delivery in urban environment, for passengers transport in restricted zones as airports and greens because of the small dimensions, tiny footprint, on-board intelligence, friendly human car interface and zero environmental impact. The paper studies the feasibility of an electric vehicle with four non steering wheels considering as driving principle the skid steering that has been mainly used for tracked vehicles.The vehicle is a complex nonlinear multi body system with numerous mobilities either in stiff and in elastic motion. For evaluating the vehicle performances, the maneuverability and stability behavior it is needed the availability of a model able to describe all the significant motion modes in different operative conditions. The paper presents the PICAV model and some results of the simulation campaign that demonstrated its soundness and reliability. \ua9 2015, North Atlantic University Union NAUN. All rights reserved

On line shopping and logistics: a fast dynamic vehicle routing algorithm for dealing with information evolution

Online shopping has seen booms of orders in recent years. In online shopping, the orders are characterized by tight order-to-delivery lead times and the frequent and discrete arrival of orders. Online shopping has recently expanded into new sectors. Due to the pandemic, online grocery shopping showed a boom and the shift from physical grocery shopping to on line shopping is not expected to disappear with the pandemic end. This increases the number of online orders that should be delivered directly to customers. Online shopping is changing its characteristics: customers even more often pick up online orders in stores. This increases the number of online orders that need to be delivered to physical stores and places requirements on supply chains\u2014especially in terms of speed and efficiency. Delivery at the time and place that is convenient to the consumer is one of the main issues for increasing customer satisfaction and therefore business efficiency. This study proposes an exact algorithm for solving a multi-constrained dynamic vehicle routing problem with a short execution time. The algorithm is therefore able to satisfy customer preferences, allowing for instance last minute changes in order lists and/or delivery addresses

Snail surgeon: a new robotic system for minimally invasive surgery

The paper discusses the architecture and the workspace of a special modular surgical robot designed for minimally invasive surgery (keyhole surgery). The surgeon can be asked to operate on an organ not directly reachable through any keyhole opened on the patient abdomen, e.g. due to the presence of other organs surrounding it. In this case, an alternative to complex and dangerous displacement operations of the surrounding organs inside the patient is the use of a highly dexterous robotic arm able to reach the operating region by moving around the organs. The paper proposes a mini robot composed of modules with different mobility connected in series through mechanical/power/control interfaces. The workspace and performances of the robot can be adapted to the particular surgical operation to be carried out by changing the composition of the chain (type and position of the modules). Data stored in a database allow the easy determination of the workspace and provide information about the velocity ellipsoids and the presence of singularities. With reference to the results of the preoperative exams and by means of the information stored in the database, the best robot architecture, for the surgical operation to be carried out, can be selected

An introductory review of robotically assisted surgical systems

Purpose: The scope of the work is to present the state of the art of robotically assisted surgical systems and to give a general idea about how technology can help today and tomorrow robotic surgery. The road to innovation passes through research and on field trials; for this reason, not only commercial surgery robots, but also innovative prototype robots, proposed by the Academic world, are presented. Design/methodology/approach: Following a short introduction, robotically assisted surgery systems are introduced discussing their architectures and main peculiarities. A further section is dedicated to the key enabling technologies that will make possible to improve current systems and that will lead to a new generation of surgical robotic systems able to meet the patient's needs and facilitate the surgeon's task. Finally, brief concluding comments are given. Findings: The idea of using robots for surgery was born many years ago and in a short time a market demand was created. Today the market is very dynamic, and several new products are updated and created for the execution of both traditional and new procedures. The article provides a guide for the reader who has an interest in this area. Originality/value: This paper provides an insight into the commercial robotic surgical systems and a look on research prototypes from academic and industrial worlds. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

A robotic cutting tool for contaminated structure maintenance and decommissioning

Abstract With the global dependency on fossil fuels being undermined by growing prices and environmental concerns, nuclear power is returning as a solution for energy demands, however the increased cost of maintaining and updating ageing plants could render them nuclear alternative counter-economic. The development of tools specifically targeted at the maintenance field is vital to ensure the longevity and safety of existing power plants. This paper proposes a robotic tool capable of remotely cutting composite material structures. With design and engineering focused on the safety of the operator and automation, the proposed machine presents sufficient flexibility to be utilised in both maintenance and decommissioning of structures with low to medium levels of radioactive contamination