TRACKING CONTROL OF AN UNDERACTUATED GANTRY CRANE USING AN OPTIMAL FEEDBACK CONTROLLER

Gantry cranes have attracted a great deal of interest in transportation and industrial applications. To increase the effectiveness of gantry cranes, the control of such systems is considered vital. This paper is concerned with tracking the control of an underactuated gantry crane using an optimal feedback controller. The optimal control strategy takes into account a performance index, including integrated time and absolute error criterion. To do this, nonlinear dynamic equations of the system are derived using Lagrange’s Principle. The minimum tracking error of the trolley and the minimum oscillation of the hoisting line are assumed as design parameters, and the best gains of the feedback controller are achieved. Finally, some tracking simulations are performed which demonstrate the capability of the simple proposed method in the optimal tracking control of a gantry crane

Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: In an era of shifting global agendas and expanded emphasis on non-communicable diseases and injuries along with communicable diseases, sound evidence on trends by cause at the national level is essential. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) provides a systematic scientific assessment of published, publicly available, and contributed data on incidence, prevalence, and mortality for a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive list of diseases and injuries. Methods: GBD estimates incidence, prevalence, mortality, years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) due to 369 diseases and injuries, for two sexes, and for 204 countries and territories. Input data were extracted from censuses, household surveys, civil registration and vital statistics, disease registries, health service use, air pollution monitors, satellite imaging, disease notifications, and other sources. Cause-specific death rates and cause fractions were calculated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model and spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression. Cause-specific deaths were adjusted to match the total all-cause deaths calculated as part of the GBD population, fertility, and mortality estimates. Deaths were multiplied by standard life expectancy at each age to calculate YLLs. A Bayesian meta-regression modelling tool, DisMod-MR 2.1, was used to ensure consistency between incidence, prevalence, remission, excess mortality, and cause-specific mortality for most causes. Prevalence estimates were multiplied by disability weights for mutually exclusive sequelae of diseases and injuries to calculate YLDs. We considered results in the context of the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator of income per capita, years of schooling, and fertility rate in females younger than 25 years. Uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated for every metric using the 25th and 975th ordered 1000 draw values of the posterior distribution. Findings: Global health has steadily improved over the past 30 years as measured by age-standardised DALY rates. After taking into account population growth and ageing, the absolute number of DALYs has remained stable. Since 2010, the pace of decline in global age-standardised DALY rates has accelerated in age groups younger than 50 years compared with the 1990–2010 time period, with the greatest annualised rate of decline occurring in the 0–9-year age group. Six infectious diseases were among the top ten causes of DALYs in children younger than 10 years in 2019: lower respiratory infections (ranked second), diarrhoeal diseases (third), malaria (fifth), meningitis (sixth), whooping cough (ninth), and sexually transmitted infections (which, in this age group, is fully accounted for by congenital syphilis; ranked tenth). In adolescents aged 10–24 years, three injury causes were among the top causes of DALYs: road injuries (ranked first), self-harm (third), and interpersonal violence (fifth). Five of the causes that were in the top ten for ages 10–24 years were also in the top ten in the 25–49-year age group: road injuries (ranked first), HIV/AIDS (second), low back pain (fourth), headache disorders (fifth), and depressive disorders (sixth). In 2019, ischaemic heart disease and stroke were the top-ranked causes of DALYs in both the 50–74-year and 75-years-and-older age groups. Since 1990, there has been a marked shift towards a greater proportion of burden due to YLDs from non-communicable diseases and injuries. In 2019, there were 11 countries where non-communicable disease and injury YLDs constituted more than half of all disease burden. Decreases in age-standardised DALY rates have accelerated over the past decade in countries at the lower end of the SDI range, while improvements have started to stagnate or even reverse in countries with higher SDI. Interpretation: As disability becomes an increasingly large component of disease burden and a larger component of health expenditure, greater research and developm nt investment is needed to identify new, more effective intervention strategies. With a rapidly ageing global population, the demands on health services to deal with disabling outcomes, which increase with age, will require policy makers to anticipate these changes. The mix of universal and more geographically specific influences on health reinforces the need for regular reporting on population health in detail and by underlying cause to help decision makers to identify success stories of disease control to emulate, as well as opportunities to improve. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 licens

Global age-sex-specific fertility, mortality, healthy life expectancy (HALE), and population estimates in 204 countries and territories, 1950-2019 : a comprehensive demographic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: Accurate and up-to-date assessment of demographic metrics is crucial for understanding a wide range of social, economic, and public health issues that affect populations worldwide. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 produced updated and comprehensive demographic assessments of the key indicators of fertility, mortality, migration, and population for 204 countries and territories and selected subnational locations from 1950 to 2019. Methods: 8078 country-years of vital registration and sample registration data, 938 surveys, 349 censuses, and 238 other sources were identified and used to estimate age-specific fertility. Spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression (ST-GPR) was used to generate age-specific fertility rates for 5-year age groups between ages 15 and 49 years. With extensions to age groups 10–14 and 50–54 years, the total fertility rate (TFR) was then aggregated using the estimated age-specific fertility between ages 10 and 54 years. 7417 sources were used for under-5 mortality estimation and 7355 for adult mortality. ST-GPR was used to synthesise data sources after correction for known biases. Adult mortality was measured as the probability of death between ages 15 and 60 years based on vital registration, sample registration, and sibling histories, and was also estimated using ST-GPR. HIV-free life tables were then estimated using estimates of under-5 and adult mortality rates using a relational model life table system created for GBD, which closely tracks observed age-specific mortality rates from complete vital registration when available. Independent estimates of HIV-specific mortality generated by an epidemiological analysis of HIV prevalence surveys and antenatal clinic serosurveillance and other sources were incorporated into the estimates in countries with large epidemics. Annual and single-year age estimates of net migration and population for each country and territory were generated using a Bayesian hierarchical cohort component model that analysed estimated age-specific fertility and mortality rates along with 1250 censuses and 747 population registry years. We classified location-years into seven categories on the basis of the natural rate of increase in population (calculated by subtracting the crude death rate from the crude birth rate) and the net migration rate. We computed healthy life expectancy (HALE) using years lived with disability (YLDs) per capita, life tables, and standard demographic methods. Uncertainty was propagated throughout the demographic estimation process, including fertility, mortality, and population, with 1000 draw-level estimates produced for each metric. Findings: The global TFR decreased from 2·72 (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 2·66–2·79) in 2000 to 2·31 (2·17–2·46) in 2019. Global annual livebirths increased from 134·5 million (131·5–137·8) in 2000 to a peak of 139·6 million (133·0–146·9) in 2016. Global livebirths then declined to 135·3 million (127·2–144·1) in 2019. Of the 204 countries and territories included in this study, in 2019, 102 had a TFR lower than 2·1, which is considered a good approximation of replacement-level fertility. All countries in sub-Saharan Africa had TFRs above replacement level in 2019 and accounted for 27·1% (95% UI 26·4–27·8) of global livebirths. Global life expectancy at birth increased from 67·2 years (95% UI 66·8–67·6) in 2000 to 73·5 years (72·8–74·3) in 2019. The total number of deaths increased from 50·7 million (49·5–51·9) in 2000 to 56·5 million (53·7–59·2) in 2019. Under-5 deaths declined from 9·6 million (9·1–10·3) in 2000 to 5·0 million (4·3–6·0) in 2019. Global population increased by 25·7%, from 6·2 billion (6·0–6·3) in 2000 to 7·7 billion (7·5–8·0) in 2019. In 2019, 34 countries had negative natural rates of increase; in 17 of these, the population declined because immigration was not sufficient to counteract the negative rate of decline. Globally, HALE increased from 58·6 years (56·1–60·8) in 2000 to 63·5 years (60·8–66·1) in 2019. HALE increased in 202 of 204 countries and territories between 2000 and 2019

Technology development in the country with the revision of engineering courses curriculum

Attention to innovation and technology are important factors in increasing a countny,s economic growth and competitiveness. There is no doubt that science and technology are the most basic elements of economic development, and successful countries are those that convert scientific and technological innovations into wealth. Iran must continually strive to manufacture industrial products based on science and technology, in order to not only keep pace with the world’s rapid growth but also accelerate the country's economic development. The university’s role in the countries planning and management is mainly in technology development and is undergoing serious changes. With the improvement of science, technology, and the globalization of engineering education, the necessity for a continuous review of goals, structures, and new methods in engineering education is felt more than ever. In this article current global technology will be presented, followed by an evaluation of the Iran’s current training for personnel in the field of technology. By studying and verifying undergraduate and postgraduate courses in five selected engineering departments, including Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Polymer Engineering, shortages are extracted, analyzed, and several suggestions are presented to empower engineering students. Finally, the most effective ways to strengthen the relationship between industries and universities are studied, with a view to identify more useful and efficient technology for engineering courses. Key words: engineering education, technology, innovation, undergraduate courses, postgraduate courses, training course

A geometrically exact approach to the overall dynamics of elastic rotating blades-part 2: flapping nonlinear normal modes

The geometrically exact equations of motion about the prestressed state discussed in part 1 (i.e., the nonlinear equilibrium under centrifugal forces) are expanded in the Taylor series of the incremental displacements and rotations to obtain the third-order perturbed form. The expanded form is amenable to a perturbation treatment to unfold the nonlinear features of free undamped flapping dynamics. The method of multiple scales is thus applied directly to the partial-differential equations of motion to construct the backbone curves of the flapping modes and their nonlinear approximations when they are away from internal resonances with other modes. The effective nonlinearity coefficients of the lowest three flapping modes of elastic isotropic blades are investigated when the angular speed is changed from low- to high-speed regimes. The novelty of the current findings is in the fact that the nonlinearity of the flapping modes is shown to depend critically on the angular speed since it can switch from hardening to softening and vice versa at certain speeds. The asymptotic results are compared with previous literature results. Moreover, 2:1 internal resonances between flapping and axial modes are exhibited as singularities of the effective nonlinearity coefficients. These nonlinear interactions can entail fundamental changes in the blade local and global dynamics

A geometrically exact approach to the overall dynamics of elastic rotating blades-part 1: linear modal properties

A geometrically exact mechanical model for the overall dynamics of elastic isotropic rotating blades is proposed. The mechanical formulation is based on the special Cosserat theory of rods which includes all geometric terms in the kinematics and in the balance laws without any restriction on the geometry of deformation besides the enforcement of the local rigidity of the blade cross sections. All apparent forces acting on the blade moving in a rotating frame are accounted for in exact form. The role of internal kinematic constraints such as the unshearability of the slender blades is discussed. The Taylor expansion of the governing equations obtained via an Updated Lagrangian formulation is then employed to obtain the linearized perturbed form about the prestressed configuration under the centrifugal forces. By applying the Galerkin approach to the linearized equations of motion, the linear eigenvalue problem is solved to yield the frequencies and mode shapes. In particular, the natural frequencies of unshearable blades including coupling between flapping, lagging, axial and torsional components are investigated. The angular speeds at which internal resonances may arise due to specific ratios between the frequencies of different modes are determined thus shedding light onto the overall modal couplings in rotating beam structures depending on the angular speed regime. The companion paper (part 2) discusses the nonlinear modes of vibration away from internal resonances

IDETC2009-86100 USING A VIBRATION ABSORBER TO SUPPRESS CHATTER VIBRATION IN TURNING PROCESS WITH A WORN TOOL

ABSTRACT Dynamic vibration absorbers are used as semi-active controllers to reduce the undesirable vibrations in many applications such as electrical transmission lines, helicopters, gas turbines, engines, bridges and etc. One type of these absorbers is tunable vibration absorber (TVA). In this paper, regenerative chatter in an orthogonal turning process is suppressed using a (TVA). It is shown that TVA can modify the frequency response function of the cutting tool so as to improve cutting stability in turning process. In addition, tool wear is an important factor which works as a positive damping and helps the chatter suppression beside exertion of the TVA. Finally, using the SIMULINK Toolbox of MATLAB, the analog simulated block diagram of the problem is developed. The advantage of this simulation is that, one can analyze the effect of other types of excitations such as step, ramp, etc on the absorbed system