Mobile Robot Lab Project to Introduce Engineering Students to Fault Diagnosis in Mechatronic Systems

This document is a self-archiving copy of the accepted version of the paper. Please find the final published version in IEEEXplore: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TE.2014.2358551This paper proposes lab work for learning fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) in mechatronic systems. These skills are important for engineering education because FDD is a key capability of competitive processes and products. The intended outcome of the lab work is that students become aware of the importance of faulty conditions and learn to design FDD strategies for a real system. To this end, the paper proposes a lab project where students are requested to develop a discrete event dynamic system (DEDS) diagnosis to cope with two faulty conditions in an autonomous mobile robot task. A sample solution is discussed for LEGO Mindstorms NXT robots with LabVIEW. This innovative practice is relevant to higher education engineering courses related to mechatronics, robotics, or DEDS. Results are also given of the application of this strategy as part of a postgraduate course on fault-tolerant mechatronic systems.This work was supported in part by the Spanish CICYT under Project DPI2011-22443

Gapless Hamiltonians for the toric code using the PEPS formalism

We study Hamiltonians which have Kitaev's toric code as a ground state, and show how to construct a Hamiltonian which shares the ground space of the toric code, but which has gapless excitations with a continuous spectrum in the thermodynamic limit. Our construction is based on the framework of Projected Entangled Pair States (PEPS), and can be applied to a large class of two-dimensional systems to obtain gapless "uncle Hamiltonians".Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure

Methods for autonomous wristband placement with a search-and-rescue aerial manipulator

A new robotic system for Search And Rescue (SAR) operations based on the automatic wristband placement on the victims’ arm, which may provide identification, beaconing and remote sensor readings for continuous health monitoring. This paper focuses on the development of the automatic target localization and the device placement using an unmanned aerial manipulator. The automatic wrist detection and localization system uses an RGB-D camera and a convolutional neural network based on the region faster method (Faster R-CNN). A lightweight parallel delta manipulator with a large workspace has been built, and a new design of a wristband in the form of a passive detachable gripper, is presented, which under contact, automatically attaches to the human, while disengages from the manipulator. A new trajectory planning method has been used to minimize the torques caused by the external forces during contact, which cause attitude perturbations. Experiments have been done to evaluate the machine learning method for detection and location, and for the assessment of the performance of the trajectory planning method. The results show how the VGG-16 neural network provides a detection accuracy of 67.99%. Moreover, simulation experiments have been done to show that the new trajectories minimize the perturbations to the aerial platform.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Sensor monitoring strategy

In its overall strategy, COMMON SENSE work packages (11) can be grouped into 3 key phases: (1) RD basis for cost-effective sensor development, (2) Sensor development, sensor web platform and integration, and (3) Field testing. In the Phase 1, within WP1 and WP2, partners have provided a general understanding and integrated basis for a cost effective sensors development. In Phase 2, within the WP3 and WPs 4 to 8, the new sensors have been created and planned to be integrated into instruments for the different identified platforms and how data produced will be processed, organised and saved. During the phase 3, within WP9, partners are deploying precompetitive prototypes at chosen platforms (e.g. research vessels, oil platforms, buoys and submerged moorings, ocean racing yachts, drifting buoys). Starting from August 2015 (month 22; Task 9.2), these platforms are permitting the partnership to test the adaptability and performance of the in-situ sensors and verify if the transmission of data is properly made and correct observed deviations. Sensor monitoring strategy (Deliverable 2.4 for Task 2.5) is the last task within Phase 1. As the other tasks in Phase 1 it has to provide a basis for designing field testing activities to be useful. That is how to validate the performance of sensors, integration, data acquisition, transmission, under real conditions in different platforms. Since there is a wide sensor variety, each one with its own characteristics, and several platforms, to prepare a general methodological review and give the corresponding directions as it was initially planned, would be a huge and useless effort. Given the initially fixed calendar a first version of the present deliverable was presented when most of the sensors were still not developed. The document addressed how projected sensors should be tested, their limitations and conditions for their monitoring and final certification. Now, when D2.2 (Procedures of sensors deployment methodology on physical supports/platforms) has been rewritten (May 2016), all sensors are fully developed and most of them have started their tests at sea, the present new updated version of the deliverable becomes more precise, with much better knowledge on the real sensors and their performance. In addition, a complete new chapter on data transmission –initially proposed but not developed in the previous version– is included. The information from the six sensor developers in COMMON SENSE on which the initial plan on where and how to test each sensor that was presented in D9.1 (April 2015) has been updated (May 2016). The update includes the final properties of sensors after the respective full laboratory tests and even some of the results from field tests that had been carried out starting August 2015. This task assesses field testing procedures and deployment specificities. Two tables are presented based on the information of the report for D9.1 delivered in April 2015. One table was created for sensor developers and one for those who will test the sensors at sea. In this report some information from the testers’ table is shown and updated according to the new version of D2.2 (May 2016) for platforms. Objectives and rationale The objective of Task 2.5 within the WP2 is the definition of sensor monitoring strategy based on the premises for water monitoring, sensor performances and data storage and transmission. For any new sensor, available instruments currently used in the oceanographic studies will be identified to perform comparisons. Suitable transmission technology will be selected according to the test conditions: open sea, coastal areas, remote locations, etc. Sensitivity and stress tests will be designed in order to establish confidence limits under different environmental situations, so that the results obtained in the testing exercises (WP9) will enable to certify the performance of the new instruments

Ceria-Praseodymia Mixed Oxides: Relationships Between Redox Properties and Catalytic Activities Towards NO Oxidation to NO2 and CO-PROX Reactions

A series of CexPr1−xO2−δ catalysts was prepared by co-precipitation method in alkali media. These catalysts were characterized by N2 adsorption–desorption isotherms at −196 °C, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetry combined with mass spectrometry (TG-MS), and temperature-programmed reduction with H2 and CO (H2-TPR and CO-TPR, respectively). Catalytic tests were performed for temperature programmed NO oxidation to NO2 (from 25 to 750 °C) and for the preferential oxidation of CO in H2 rich stream (CO-PROX reaction) in the range of 150–500 °C. The trends in the order of catalytic activities towards NO oxidation and CO-PROX are correlated with the redox properties of the catalysts and their composition. CexPr1−xO2−δ mixed oxides present very different catalytic behaviours towards NO oxidation and CO-PROX reactions. These experimental trends might be explained by the balance of several factors: the acid character of the NO and CO molecules, the different lattice oxygen mobility of the catalysts, the presence of surface carbonates species in the samples, and the catalysts’ reducibility under H2 and CO. The understanding of the features that govern the activity towards these environmentally relevant oxidation reactions is important in the designing of effective catalysts.The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEOII/2014/010), MINECO (CTQ2015-64801-R, MAT2013-40823-R, CSD2009-00013) and the UE (FEDER funding). X. Chen thanks the program of “Ramón y Cajal” from Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain

Una aproximación estadística al estudio de la carbonatación del hormigón

Carbonation is one of the factors that conditions reinforced concrete durability, while porosity is one of the parameters that determines the carbonation rate: as a rule, the greater the porosity, the higher the rate. While many papers have been published on the effect of CO2 penetration in the pore solutions of concretes prepared under different experimental conditions, the literature has yet to address the joint effect of the factors considered in concrete design, such as the water/cement (w/c) ratio, type of cement, type of aggregate and presence of admixtures. The present paper discusses the findings of a statistical study of the impact of the aforementioned factors on both system porosity and carbonation rate. The type of cement, individually and in its interaction with the rest of the factors, proved to be the major determinant in concrete carbonation.La carbonatación es uno de los factores que supedita la durabilidad del hormigón armado, siendo la porosidad uno de los parámetros que más condicionan la velocidad de carbonatación. Son muchos los trabajos que estudian el efecto de la penetración del CO2 en la solución de los poros de hormigones preparados bajo distintas condiciones experimentales, sin embargo, no se encuentran referencias que analicen de forma conjunta el efecto de ciertos factores como son la relación agua/cemento (a/c ratio), el tipo de cemento, el tipo de árido y la presencia de aditivos, normalmente consideradas a la hora de diseñar un hormigón. En este trabajo se discuten los resultados obtenidos tras realizar un estudio estadístico del efecto que tienen los factores previamente mencionados, tanto en la porosidad de estos sistemas como en su nivel de carbonatación. El cemento tanto de manera individual como en sus interacciones con el resto de los factores es el factor que mas afecta a la carbonatación del hormigón

Development and Evaluation of Fuzzy Logic Controllers for Improving Performance of Wind Turbines on Semi-Submersible Platforms under Different Wind Scenarios

Among renewable energy technologies, wind energy features one of the best possibilities for large-scale integration into power systems. However, there are specific restrictions regarding the installation areas for this technology, thus resulting in a growing, yet restricted, rate of penetration of the technology because of the limited viable sites onshore or in shallow waters. In this context, the use of offshore semi-submersible platforms appears as a promising option, which additionally enables the incorporation of other elements, such as wave energy converters or aquaculture. Nevertheless, this kind of offshore facility involves interactions between platform movements and the wind turbine, increasing the complexity of the system, causing traditional control techniques to not be able to fully cope with the dynamics of the system, and thus limiting the efficiency of energy extraction. On the contrary, the use of intelligent control techniques is an interesting option to take full account of the said interactions and to improve energy capture efficiency through the control of the pitch of the blades, especially under turbulent, above-rated wind profiles. This work presents an original fuzzy logic controller that has been validated by comparing it with previously validated controllers, following a developed methodology that allows comparison of controllers for wind turbines in semi-submersible platforms using performance indexes.This work was partially supported by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Government of Spain) and European Union (RTC-2016-5712-3); by the European Union, CDTI (Spain) and BEISS (UK) through the call H2020 ERA-NET DEMOWIND (WIP10+ project); by the Regional Government of Andalusia and European Union (UMA-CEIATECH-18); and finally, by partial funding for open access charge from the Universidad de Málaga. Partial funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málag

Integration of a Canine Agent in a Wireless Sensor Network for Information Gathering in Search and Rescue Missions

Search and rescue operations in the context of emergency response to human or natural disasters have the major goal of finding potential victims in the shortest possible time. Multi-agent teams, which can include specialized human respondents, robots and canine units, complement the strengths and weaknesses of each agent, like all-terrain mobility or capability to locate human beings. However, efficient coordination of heterogeneous agents requires specific means to locate the agents, and to provide them with the information they require to complete their mission. The major contribution of this work is an application of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) to gather information from a multi-agent team and to make it available to the rest of the agents while keeping coverage. In particular, a canine agent has been equipped with a mobile node installed on a harness, providing information about the dog’s location as well as gas levels. The configuration of the mobile node allows for flexible arrangement of the system, being able to integrate static as well as mobile nodes. The gathered information is available at an external database, so that the rest of the agents and the control center can use it in real time. The proposed scheme has been tested in realistic scenarios during search and rescue exercises

Lipoma Intraóseo

Se comunica un caso clínico de Lipoma Intraóseo de tibia con diagnóstico anatomopatológico confirmado, que constituye en la revisión bibliográfica el número 35. Se realiza, a propósito de este caso clínico, el estudio de otras lesiones con las que es obligado establecer el diagnóstico diferencial.The authors describe a medical case of Intrabone Tibial Lypoma with anatomical-patology confirmed that constitutes in the bibliografical revision numbe r 35. They realize, abolit this clinic case the review of other lesions with which they must establish the differential diagnosis