Robust active heave compensated winch-driven overhead crane system for load transfer in marine operation

Active heave compensation (AHC) is important for load transfer in marine operation using the overhead crane system (OCS). The control of marine OCS aims to continuously regulate the displacement of the cart and the payload sway angle, whilst at the same time, maintaining the gap between the payload and the vessel main deck at a desirable and safe distance. As the marine OHC system is to be operated in a continuously changing environment, with plenty inevitable disturbances and undesirable loads, a robust controller, i.e., active force control (AFC) is thus greatly needed to promote accuracy and robustness features into the controllability of OCS in rough working environment. This paper highlights a novel method for controlling the payload in an OCS based on the combination of both AFC and AHC. Results from the simulation study clearly indicate that the performance of OCS can be greatly improved by the proposed robust AFC controller, as compared with the classical PID controller scheme

To synchronize or not to synchronize, that is the question: finite-size scaling and fluctuation effects in the Kuramoto model

The entrainment transition of coupled random frequency oscillators presents a long-standing problem in nonlinear physics. The onset of entrainment in populations of large but finite size exhibits strong sensitivity to fluctuations in the oscillator density at the synchronizing frequency. This is the source for the unusual values assumed by the correlation size exponent $\nu'$. Locally coupled oscillators on a $d$-dimensional lattice exhibit two types of frequency entrainment: symmetry-breaking at $d > 4$, and aggregation of compact synchronized domains in three and four dimensions. Various critical properties of the transition are well captured by finite-size scaling relations with simple yet unconventional exponent values.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure, to appear in a special issue of JSTAT dedicated to Statphys2

Optical properties of Si/Si0.87Ge0.13 multiple quantum well wires

Nanometer-scale wires cut into a Si/Si0.87Ge0.13 multiple quantum well structure were fabricated and characterized by using photoluminescence and photoreflectance at temperatures between 4 and 20 K. It was found that, in addition to a low-energy broadband emission at around 0.8 eV and other features normally observable in photoluminescence measurements, fabrication process induced strain relaxation and enhanced electron-hole droplets emission together with a new feature at 1.131 eV at 4 K were observed. The latter was further identified as a transition related to impurities located at the Si/Si0.87Ge0.13 heterointerfaces