Autonomous Drone Racing: Time-Optimal Spatial Iterative Learning Control within a Virtual Tube

It is often necessary for drones to complete delivery, photography, and rescue in the shortest time to increase efficiency. Many autonomous drone races provide platforms to pursue algorithms to finish races as quickly as possible for the above purpose. Unfortunately, existing methods often fail to keep training and racing time short in drone racing competitions. This motivates us to develop a high-efficient learning method by imitating the training experience of top racing drivers. Unlike traditional iterative learning control methods for accurate tracking, the proposed approach iteratively learns a trajectory online to finish the race as quickly as possible. Simulations and experiments using different models show that the proposed approach is model-free and is able to achieve the optimal result with low computation requirements. Furthermore, this approach surpasses some state-of-the-art methods in racing time on a benchmark drone racing platform. An experiment on a real quadcopter is also performed to demonstrate its effectiveness

Diode-Pumped High Energy and High Average Power All-Solid-State Picosecond Amplifier Systems

We present our research on the high energy picosecond laser operating at a repetition rate of 1 kHz and the high average power picosecond laser running at 100 kHz based on bulk Nd-doped crystals. With diode-pumped solid state (DPSS) hybrid amplifiers consisting of a picosecond oscillator, a regenerative amplifier, end-pumped single-pass amplifiers, and a side-pumped amplifier, an output energy of 64.8 mJ at a repetition rate of 1 kHz was achieved. An average power of 37.5 W at a repetition rate of 100 kHz pumped by continuous wave laser diodes was obtained. Compact, stable and high power DPSS laser amplifier systems with good beam qualities are excellent picosecond sources for high power optical parametric chirped pulse amplification (OPCPA) and high-efficiency laser processing

Facile Synthesis of Ultrahigh Molecular Weight Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) by Organic Halides in the Presence of Palladium Nanoparticles

A facile and versatile approach for the synthesis of ultrahigh molecular weight poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) at mild conditions was developed. Certain organic halides combined with a catalytical amount of palladium nanoparticles (Pd NPs) were found to be very effective in initiating polymerizations of methyl methacrylate (MMA), methyl acrylate, vinyl acetate and other vinyl monomers. An ultrahigh molecular weight PMMA with a number-average molecular weight of 4.65 × 106 Da and a weight-average molecular weight of 8.08 × 106 Da was synthesized at 70 °C using 2-bromoisobutyric acid ethyl ester (EBiB) as an initiator in the presence of catalytical amount (10.1 ppm) of Pd NPs. A kinetic investigation found that the orders of polymerization with respect to EBiB, Pd NP and MMA were 0.23, 0.50, and 0.58, respectively. Proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) combined with matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight mass spectroscopy (MALDI-TOF) and gel permeation chromatography (GPC) were used to prove that the macromolecular chain had an end-group of EBiB residue. The electron spin resonance (ESR), transmission electron microscope (TEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results reveal that the reaction of EBiB with Pd NPs caused a bromo atom (Br) transfer from EBiB to Pd NPs and resulted in the generation of EBiB residue radical to initiate the polymerization of MMA and the formation of PdIIBr2 on the surface of Pd nanoparticles

Impedance Modeling and Stability Analysis for Cascade System of Three-Phase PWM Rectifier and LLC Resonant Converter

In this paper; the impedance model of PWM rectifier and LLC resonant converter are deduced, and the stability analysis of cascade system is studied. The principle of three-phase PWM rectifier is introduced; and the small signal model in d-q coordinate system is deduced. The expression of dc side output impedance model for PWM rectifier is derived. The LLC resonant converter is operated in a fixed-frequency state, and the LLC resonant converter is modeled as a small signal model. On this basis, the input impedance model expression of the LLC resonant converter is derived. According to the impedance stability criterion, it can seen that the amplitude of input impedance is greater than the amplitude of output impedance in a certain frequency domain. In addition, the Nyquist curve is not around the point (−1,0), which can judge that the cascade system is stable. In simulation software, a cascade system simulation is built and corresponding simulation curves are obtained, which verifies the stability of the cascade system

The effect of Al/oxidizers interfacial structure on the mechanical properties of composite propellants

In this paper, the mechanical properties of a typical four-component composite solid propellants with various designed Al/oxidizer interfaces have been studied. The Al/oxidizer interfacial control is mainly realized by using the core-shell composites AP@Al and Al@RDX with different particle sizes, where Al powder was coated with a thin layer of polydopamine (PDA) as the binding sites, so that the oxidizers could crystalize on it during a rapid spray granulation process. The stress-strain curves of the above propellants at different temperatures and different tensile rates have been obtained. The dependence of the loss factor on temperature was studied by using a dynamic thermomechanical analysis (DMA). It has been shown that the fracture elongation of the interfacial modified propellants can reach 51.81% at room temperature, which is 127.3% higher than that of the blank formulation under the same formulation. Moreover, the temperature and strain rate sensitivity of interfacial controlled HTPB propellants is much less than that of traditional ones. The microstructure of these propellants at the crack sites was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) supported with micro-area in-situ tensile CT scanning technology, to clarify their damage and failure mechanisms

SHP-1 arrests mouse early embryo development through downregulation of Nanog by dephosphorylation of STAT3.

Src-homology protein tyrosine phosphatase-1 (SHP-1) is a protein tyrosine phosphatase that is implicated in the regulation of growth, differentiation, survival, apoptosis and proliferation of hematopoietic cells and other cell types. Here, we found that SHP-1 is involved in regulation of early embryonic development. Embryos overexpressing SHP-1 were mainly arrested at the 8-cell stage, and Nanog mRNA expression was first observed in the morulae that showed down-regulation of SHP-1. These results suggested an antagonistic relationship between SHP-1 and Nanog during early embryonic development. Next, the specific mechanism was examined in mouse F9 embryonal carcinoma cells. We confirmed that signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) was a substrate for SHP-1 by co-immunoprecipitation. Using overexpression and knockdown strategies, we found that SHP-1 participated in regulation of Nanog expression. Furthermore, site mutation of STAT3 was performed to confirm that SHP-1 was responsible for rapid STAT3 dephosphorylation and a decrease of Nanog expression in F9 cells. These findings suggest that SHP-1 plays a crucial role during early embryonic development. Thus, SHP-1 may function as a key regulator for Nanog that specifically demarcates the nascent epiblast, coincident with the domain of X chromosome reprogramming

Preparation and drying of water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) double emulsion to encapsulate soy peptides

Soy peptide solution (40%, w/w) was successfully encapsulated in a W1/O/W2 double emulsion produced by a two-step emulsification process. Polyglycerol polyricinoleate (PGPR) was found to be an effective inner emulsifier compared to Span 60 and lecithin to produce stable W1/O primary emulsion. The primary emulsion was subsequently emulsified into an outer aqueous phase (W2) containing octenyl succinic anhydride (OSA) starch and maltodextrin. The droplet size and encapsulation efficiency of the peptide solution in W1/O/W2 emulsion were found to depend on the W1:O ratio, peptide concentration in the inner W1 phase and homogenization condition of the secondary emulsification step. The double emulsion with the highest encapsulation efficiency (>80%) was prepared by: (i) using 40% (w/w) soy peptide solution as W1 phase; (ii) controlling W1:O ratio at 3:7 (w/w) and (iii) homogenizing the emulsion at 10,000 rpm for 3 min. The freeze-dried microcapsule powder of W1/O/W2 emulsion showed higher encapsulation efficiency (>70%) compared to spray-dried one. The freeze-dried microcapsule of W1/O/W2 double emulsion developed in this study is a promising delivery matrix to encapsulate hydrophilic ingredients including peptides. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectra of the microcapsule powder indicated good compatibility between peptide and encapsulants

Low-temperature hydrogen production from waste polyethylene by nonthermal plasma (NTP)-assisted catalytic pyrolysis using NiCeOx/β catalyst

Conventional catalytic pyrolysis of waste plastics for H2 production faces challenges due to excessively high reaction temperatures. This study introduced a NiCeOx/β catalyst for low-temperature H2 production from polyethylene (PE), aiming to enhance H2 yield through nonthermal plasma (NTP) and catalytic active sites. Experimental results confirmed the efficacy of NTP in promoting collision between high-potential-energies active species and plasma-catalyst interactions, identifying acidic sites as primary catalytic active sites. Both experiments and density functional theory (DFT) calculations confirmed NiO and CeO2 particles as metallic active sites, exhibiting thermodynamic and kinetic benefits for primary products from PE pyrolysis. Under optimal conditions, the highest H2 yield and selectivity respectively reached 32.71 mmol/g and 82.10 % at a PE/(NiCeOx/β) ratio of 1:4, reaction temperature of 400 °C, and NTP discharge power of 210 W. The NiCeOx/β catalyst facilitated low-temperature pyrolysis of waste plastics, enhancing H2 selectivity and yield.</p