Dynamic modeling and tracking control of a nonholonomic wheeled mobile manipulator with dual arms

This paper presents methodologies for dynamic modeling and trajectory tracking of a nonholonomic wheeled mobile manipulator (WMM) with dual arms. The complete dynamic model of such a manipulator is easily established using the Lagrange's equation and MATHEMATICA. The structural properties of the overall system along with its subsystems are also well investigated and then exploited in further controller synthesis. The derived model is shown valid by reducing it to agree well with the mobile platform model. In order to solve the path tracking control problem of the wheeled mobile manipulator, a novel kinematic control scheme is proposed to deal with the nonholonomic constraints. With the backstepping technique and the filtered-error method, the nonlinear tracking control laws for the mobile manipulator system are constructed based on the Lyapunov stability theory. The proposed control scheme not only achieves simultaneous trajectory and velocity tracking, but also compensates for the dynamic interactions caused by the motions of the mobile platform and the two onboard manipulators. Simulation results are performed to illustrate the efficacy of the proposed control strategy

Tau Polarimetry with Inclusive Decays

The spin asymmetry parameter $A_\tau$ characterizing the angular distribution of the total hadron momentum in the decay of a polarized tau can be calculated rigorously using perturbative QCD and the operator product expansion. Perturbative QCD corrections to the free quark result $A_\tau = 1/3$ can be expressed as a power series in $\alpha_s(M_\tau)$ and nonperturbative QCD corrections can be expanded systematically in powers of $1/M_\tau^2$. The QCD prediction is $A_\tau = 0.41 \pm 0.02$. In the decay of a high energy tau into hadrons, the value of the hadronic energy distribution $dR_\tau/dz$ evaluated at the maximum hadronic energy fraction $z = 1$ can also be calculated rigorously from QCD.Comment: LateX, 11 pages, no figures, NUHEP-TH-93-

Adaptive Polar-Space Motion Control for Embedded Omnidirectional Mobile Robots with Parameter Variations and Uncertainties

This paper presents an adaptive polar-space motion controller for trajectory tracking and stabilization of a three-wheeled, embedded omnidirectional mobile robot with parameter variations and uncertainties caused by friction, slip and payloads. With the derived dynamic model in polar coordinates, an adaptive motion controller is synthesized via the adaptive backstepping approach. This proposed polar-space robust adaptive motion controller was implemented into an embedded processor using a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) chip. Furthermore, the embedded adaptive motion controller works with a reusable user IP (Intellectual Property) core library and an embedded real-time operating system (RTOS) in the same chip to steer the mobile robot to track the desired trajectory by using hardware/software co-design technique and SoPC (system-on-a-programmable-chip) technology. Simulation results are conducted to show the merit of the proposed polar-space control method in comparison with a conventional proportional-integral (PI) feedback controller and a non-adaptive polar-space kinematic controller. Finally, the effectiveness and performance of the proposed embedded adaptive motion controller are exemplified by conducting several experiments on steering an embedded omnidirectional mobile robot

Adaptive Robust Self-Balancing and Steering of a Two-Wheeled Human Transportation Vehicle

This paper presents adaptive robust regulation methods for self-balancing and yaw motion of a two-wheeled human transportation vehicle (HTV) with varying payload and system uncertainties. The proposed regulators are aimed at providing consistent driving performance for the HTV with system uncertainties and parameter variations caused by different drivers. By decomposing the overall system into the yaw motion subsystems and the wheeled inverted pendulum, two proposed adaptive robust regulators are synthesized to achieve self-balancing and yaw motion control. Numerical simulations and experimental results on different terrains show that the proposed adaptive robust controllers are capable of achieving satisfactory control actions to steer the vehicle

Elevated Na+/K+-ATPase responses and its potential role in triggering ion reabsorption in kidneys for homeostasis of marine euryhaline milkfish (Chanos chanos) when acclimated to hypotonic fresh water

The milkfish (Chanos chanos) is an economic species in Southeast Asia. In Taiwan, the milkfish are commercially cultured in environments of various salinities. Na+/K+-ATPase (NKA) is a key enzyme for fish iono- and osmoregulation. When compared with gills, NKA and its potential role were less examined by different approaches in the other osmoregulatory organs (e.g., kidney) of euryhaline teleosts. The objective of this study was to investigate the correlation between osmoregulatory plasticity and renal NKA in this euryhaline species. Muscle water contents (MWC), plasma, and urine osmolality, kidney histology, as well as distribution, expression (mRNA and protein), and specific activity of renal NKA were examined in juvenile milkfish acclimated to fresh water (FW), seawater (SW 35aEuro degrees), and hypersaline water (HSW 60aEuro degrees) for at least two weeks before experiments. MWC showed no significant difference among all groups. Plasma osmolality was maintained within the range of physiological homeostasis in milkfish acclimated to different salinities, while, urine osmolality of FW-acclimated fish was evidently lower than SW- and HSW-acclimated individuals. The renal tubules were identified by staining with periodic acid Schiff's reagent and hematoxylin. Moreover, immunohistochemical staining showed that NKA was distributed in the epithelial cells of proximal tubules, distal tubules, and collecting tubules, but not in glomeruli, of milkfish exposed to different ambient salinities. The highest abundance of relative NKA alpha subunit mRNA was found in FW-acclimated milkfish rather than SW- and HSW-acclimated individuals. Furthermore, relative protein amounts of renal NKA alpha and beta subunits as well as NKA-specific activity were also found to be higher in the FW group than SW and the HSW groups. This study integrated diverse levels (i.e., histological distribution, gene, protein, and specific activity) of renal NKA expression and illustrated the potential role of NKA in triggering ion reabsorption in kidneys of the marine euryhaline milkfish when acclimated to a hypotonic FW environment

Elevated Na+/K+-ATPase responses and its potential role in triggering ion reabsorption in kidneys for homeostasis of marine euryhaline milkfish (Chanos chanos) when acclimated to hypotonic fresh water

The milkfish (Chanos chanos) is an economic species in Southeast Asia. In Taiwan, the milkfish are commercially cultured in environments of various salinities. Na+/K+-ATPase (NKA) is a key enzyme for fish iono- and osmoregulation. When compared with gills, NKA and its potential role were less examined by different approaches in the other osmoregulatory organs (e.g., kidney) of euryhaline teleosts. The objective of this study was to investigate the correlation between osmoregulatory plasticity and renal NKA in this euryhaline species. Muscle water contents (MWC), plasma, and urine osmolality, kidney histology, as well as distribution, expression (mRNA and protein), and specific activity of renal NKA were examined in juvenile milkfish acclimated to fresh water (FW), seawater (SW 35aEuro degrees), and hypersaline water (HSW 60aEuro degrees) for at least two weeks before experiments. MWC showed no significant difference among all groups. Plasma osmolality was maintained within the range of physiological homeostasis in milkfish acclimated to different salinities, while, urine osmolality of FW-acclimated fish was evidently lower than SW- and HSW-acclimated individuals. The renal tubules were identified by staining with periodic acid Schiff's reagent and hematoxylin. Moreover, immunohistochemical staining showed that NKA was distributed in the epithelial cells of proximal tubules, distal tubules, and collecting tubules, but not in glomeruli, of milkfish exposed to different ambient salinities. The highest abundance of relative NKA alpha subunit mRNA was found in FW-acclimated milkfish rather than SW- and HSW-acclimated individuals. Furthermore, relative protein amounts of renal NKA alpha and beta subunits as well as NKA-specific activity were also found to be higher in the FW group than SW and the HSW groups. This study integrated diverse levels (i.e., histological distribution, gene, protein, and specific activity) of renal NKA expression and illustrated the potential role of NKA in triggering ion reabsorption in kidneys of the marine euryhaline milkfish when acclimated to a hypotonic FW environment

Induced circular dichroism of stereoregular vinyl polymers

Stereoregular vinyl polymers, poly(2-vinyl pyridine)s (P2VPs), were synthesized to examine the tacticity effect on the induced circular dichroism (ICD) via association with chiral acids. The ICD was found to be strongly dependent on the isotacticity of the P2VPs and the acidity of chiral acid in addition to its bulkiness

Comparison of Differential Pulse Voltammetry (DPV)-a new method of carbamazepine analysis-with Fluorescence Polarization Immunoassay (FPIA)

Carbamazepine is a widely used anti-epileptic drug with narrow therapeutic range. Many methods have been developed for monitoring the serum drug level. Differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), an electrochemical method advantaged by simple, inexpensive, and relatively short analysis time, has recently been developed for carbamazepine detection. We used a newly developed DPV method with glassy carbon as a working electrode to determine the carbamazepine level. The performance of DPV is compared with the widely used fluorescence polarization immunoassay (FPIA) technique in precision, accuracy, linearity and detection limit. The precision, linearity and accuracy of the DPV and FPIA techniques were comparable at most clinical used levels. The detection limit was 1 mu g/mL for the DPV technique and 0.5 mu g/mL for the FPIA technique. The performance of the DPV technique was within the FDA guidelines for bioanalytical methods, which ensures the clinical applicability of the DPV technique. The DPV technique may have the potential to be a good alternative for carbamazepine analysis

Promoter prediction using physico-chemical properties of DNA

The ability to locate promoters within a section of DNA is known to be a very difficult and very important task in DNA analysis. We document an approach that incorporates the concept of DNA as a complex molecule using several models of its physico-chemical properties. A support vector machine is trained to recognise promoters by their distinctive physical and chemical properties. We demonstrate that by combining models, we can improve upon the classification accuracy obtained with a single model. We also show that by examining how the predictive accuracy of these properties varies over the promoter, we can reduce the number of attributes needed. Finally, we apply this method to a real-world problem. The results demonstrate that such an approach has significant merit in its own right. Furthermore, they suggest better results from a planned combined approach to promoter prediction using both physicochemical and sequence based techniques