1,874 research outputs found
Adaptive Control of Small Outboard-Powered Boats for Survey Applications
Four autopilot controllers have been developed in this work that can both hold a desired heading and follow a straight line. These PID, adaptive PID, neuro-adaptive, and adaptive augmenting control algorithms have all been implemented into a numerical simulation of a 33-foot center console vessel with wind, waves, and current disturbances acting in the perpendicular (across-track) direction of the boat s desired trajectory. Each controller is tested for its ability to follow a desired heading in the presence of these disturbances and then to follow a straight line at two different throttle settings for the same disturbances. These controllers were tuned for an input thrust of 2000 N and all four controllers showed good performance with none of the controllers significantly outperforming the others when holding a constant heading and following a straight line at this engine thrust. Each controller was then tested for a reduced engine thrust of 1200 N per engine where each of the three adaptive controllers reduced heading error and across-track error by approximately 50% after a 300 second tuning period when compared to the fixed gain PID, showing that significant robustness to changes in throttle setting was gained by using an adaptive algorithm
Localized Flux Lines and the Bose Glass
Columnar defects provide effective pinning centers for magnetic flux lines in
high-- superconductors. Utilizing a mapping of the statistical
mechanics of directed lines to the quantum mechanics of two--dimensional
bosons, one expects an entangled flux liquid phase at high temperatures,
separated by a second--order localization transition from a low--temperature
``Bose glass'' phase with infinite tilt modulus. Recent decoration experiments
have demonstrated that below the matching field the repulsive forces between
the vortices may be sufficiently large to produce strong spatial correlations
in the Bose glass. This is confirmed by numerical simulations, and a remarkably
wide soft ``Coulomb gap'' at the chemical potential is found in the
distribution of pinning energies. At low currents, the dominant transport
mechanism in the Bose glass phase proceeds via the formation of double kinks
between not necessarily adjacent columnar pins, similar to variable--range
hopping in disordered semiconductors. The strong correlation effects
originating in the long--range vortex interactions drastically reduce
variable--range hopping transport.Comment: 10 pages, latex ("lamuphys.sty" file included), 6 figures can be
obtained from the author ([email protected]); to appear in Proc. XIV
Sitges conference on "Complex Behaviour of Glassy Systems" (Springer--Verlag
An Automatic System for Sampling Processing Waste Water
The composition of waste water from food processing and
other plants varies with time. A composite sample composed of
smaller samples taken at different times will represent an average
condition of these flows. The sampling system described in
this paper will gather subsamples over a 24-hour or longer
period and keep the composite sample frozen until ready for
laboratory analysis. This system will work equally well on
pressurized pipelines or ponded water. The parts cost per controller
is approximately $80.00 plus the price of a freezer,
associated plumbing, and a pump if the water sample is not
in a pressurized pipeline
A simple two-module problem to exemplify building-block assembly under crossover
Theoretically and empirically it is clear that a genetic algorithm with crossover will outperform a genetic algorithm without crossover in some fitness landscapes, and vice versa in other landscapes. Despite an extensive literature on the subject, and recent proofs of a principled distinction in the abilities of crossover and non-crossover algorithms for a particular theoretical landscape, building general intuitions about when and why crossover performs well when it does is a different matter. In particular, the proposal that crossover might enable the assembly of good building-blocks has been difficult to verify despite many attempts at idealized building-block landscapes. Here we show the first example of a two-module problem that shows a principled advantage for cross-over. This allows us to understand building-block assembly under crossover quite straightforwardly and build intuition about more general landscape classes favoring crossover or disfavoring it
Mott insulators in strong electric fields
Recent experiments on ultracold atomic gases in an optical lattice potential
have produced a Mott insulating state of Rb atoms. This state is stable to a
small applied potential gradient (an `electric' field), but a resonant response
was observed when the potential energy drop per lattice spacing (E), was close
to the repulsive interaction energy (U) between two atoms in the same lattice
potential well. We identify all states which are resonantly coupled to the Mott
insulator for E close to U via an infinitesimal tunneling amplitude between
neighboring potential wells. The strong correlation between these states is
described by an effective Hamiltonian for the resonant subspace. This
Hamiltonian exhibits quantum phase transitions associated with an Ising density
wave order, and with the appearance of superfluidity in the directions
transverse to the electric field. We suggest that the observed resonant
response is related to these transitions, and propose experiments to directly
detect the order parameters. The generalizations to electric fields applied in
different directions, and to a variety of lattices, should allow study of
numerous other correlated quantum phases.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures; (v2) minor additions and new reference
Properties of the Bose glass phase in irradiated superconductors near the matching field
Structural and transport properties of interacting localized flux lines in
the Bose glass phase of irradiated superconductors are studied by means of
Monte Carlo simulations near the matching field B_Phi, where the densities of
vortices and columnar defects are equal. For a completely random columnar pin
distribution in the xy-plane transverse to the magnetic field, our results show
that the repulsive vortex interactions destroy the Mott insulator phase which
was predicted to occur at B = B_Phi. On the other hand, for ratios of the
penetration depth to average defect distance lambda/d <= 1, characteristic
remnants of the Mott insulator singularities remain visible in experimentally
accessible quantities as the magnetization, the bulk modulus, and the
magnetization relaxation, when B is varied near B_Phi. For spatially more
regular disorder, e.g., a nearly triangular defect distribution, we find that
the Mott insulator phase can survive up to considerably large interaction range
\lambda/d, and may thus be observable in experiments.Comment: RevTex, 17 pages, eps files for 12 figures include
Interactions, Distribution of Pinning Energies, and Transport in the Bose Glass Phase of Vortices in Superconductors
We study the ground state and low energy excitations of vortices pinned to
columnar defects in superconductors, taking into account the long--range
interaction between the fluxons. We consider the ``underfilled'' situation in
the Bose glass phase, where each flux line is attached to one of the defects,
while some pins remain unoccupied. By exploiting an analogy with disordered
semiconductors, we calculate the spatial configurations in the ground state, as
well as the distribution of pinning energies, using a zero--temperature Monte
Carlo algorithm minimizing the total energy with respect to all possible
one--vortex transfers. Intervortex repulsion leads to strong correlations
whenever the London penetration depth exceeds the fluxon spacing. A pronounced
peak appears in the static structure factor for low filling fractions . Interactions lead to a broad Coulomb gap in the distribution of
pinning energies near the chemical potential , separating
the occupied and empty pins. The vanishing of at leads to a
considerable reduction of variable--range hopping vortex transport by
correlated flux line pinning.Comment: 16 pages (twocolumn), revtex, 16 figures not appended, please contact
[email protected]
Measurement of Fluorescence Phenomena from Yttrium and Gadolinium Oxysulfide Phosphors using a 45-MeV Proton Beam
This research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation Grant NSF PHY-931478
Simulating `Complex' Problems with Quantum Monte Carlo
We present a new quantum Monte Carlo algorithm suitable for generically
complex problems, such as systems coupled to external magnetic fields or anyons
in two spatial dimensions. We find that the choice of gauge plays a nontrivial
role, and can be used to reduce statistical noise in the simulation.
Furthermore, it is found that noise can be greatly reduced by approximate
cancellations between the phases of the (gauge dependent) statistical flux and
the external magnetic flux.Comment: Revtex, 11 pages. 3 postscript files for figures attache
Electrical transport studies of quench condensed Bi films at the initial stage of film growth: Structural transition and the possible formation of electron droplets
The electrical transport properties of amorphous Bi films prepared by
sequential quench deposition have been studied in situ. A
superconductor-insulator (S-I) transition was observed as the film was made
increasingly thicker, consistent with previous studies. Unexpected behavior was
found at the initial stage of film growth, a regime not explored in detail
prior to the present work. As the temperature was lowered, a positive
temperature coefficient of resistance (dR/dT > 0) emerged, with the resistance
reaching a minimum before the dR/dT became negative again. This behavior was
accompanied by a non-linear and asymmetric I-V characteristic. As the film
became thicker, conventional variable-range hopping (VRH) was recovered. We
attribute the observed crossover in the electrical transport properties to an
amorphous to granular structural transition. The positive dR/dT found in the
amorphous phase of Bi formed at the initial stage of film growth was
qualitatively explained by the formation of metallic droplets within the
electron glass.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
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