Vision-based Robot Manipulator for Industrial Applications

This paper presents a multi-stage process of the development of a vision-based object sorting robot manipulator for industrial applications. The main aim of this research is to integrate vision system with the existing Scorbot in order to widen the capability of the integrated camera-robot system in industrial applications. Modern industrial robot Scorbot-ER 9 Pro is the focus of this research. Currently, the robot does not have an integrated vision system. Thus; a camera has been integrated to robot gripper to achieve the target objectives. The main difficulties include establishing a relevant sequence of operations, developing a proper communication between camera and robot as well as the integration of the system components such as Matlab, Visual Basics, and Scorbas

Modeling Optimal Water Management for Reservoir Based Irrigation Projects

The double cropping of rice in the Muda Irrigation Project depends very much on the volume of water stored in the Muda and Pedu reservoirs. The most important problem affecting the project includes constraints related to poor water management. However, the shortage of reservoir water still remains the most severe constraint on the establishment of stable double cropping of rice. Thus, the main purpose of this study is to develop an optimization model and a solution strategy to solve the water resources of the project in a computationally satisfactory manner. In this study, a water balance model was developed and the performance of a project was evaluated. The water balance components were modeled, without incorporating any model calibration parameters. The model results were compared with observed data satisfactorily. The overall project efficiency for the main and off-seasons were also obtained. A reservoir simulation model was developed and the model storage capacities were compared with the observed storage capacities satisfactorily. The Markov process with periodicity in hydrologic data was applied to generate monthly streamflows. The generated storage capacities were found to simulate with the observed storage capacities satisfactorily. Three different cases of anticipated future monthly storage were envisaged to assess the risk for predicted monthly storage capacities in 1998-2002 and their probabilities of occurrences were computed. An optimization model was also developed to solve the water resources management of a large project in a computationally satisfactory manner. Twelve different scenarios were analyzed to test the performance of the project and their consequences were illustrated. The optimal reservoir storage, optimal irrigation demand, and optimal reservoir release (i.e., optimal reservoir operating policy) were computed. The optimal mean (1987-1997) model total water requirements for the dry and wet seasons were also computed and the optimal contributions by rainfall, reservoir, uncontrolled river flow, and recycled water were determined. The mean water balance components results for different months were stored in GIS data bases, analyzed, and displayed as the monthly crop water requirements maps. Finally, it can be concluded that the integration of the water balance model together with the models for reservoir simulation, efficiency, hydrologic forecasting, optimization, and GIS holds much promise in the analysis of optimal allocation of water resources of a project

Numerical solutions of nonlinear parabolic equations with Robin condition: Galerkin approach

In this paper, classical solutions of nonlinear parabolic partial differential equations with the Robin boundary condition are approximated using the Galerkin finite element method (GFEM) which is associated with the combination of the Picard iterative scheme and α-family of approximation. The uniqueness, convergence, and structural stability analysis of solutions are studied. It is proven that the iterative scheme of the numerical method is stable. To ensure the efficiency and accuracy of the method, the comparative study between the exact and approximate solutions both numerically and graphically are given by solving two nonlinear parabolic problems. A reliable error estimation also opens possibilities of acceptance of the method. The results confirmed the consistency of the method and ensured the convergence of solutions.Publisher's Versio

Instability Analysis of the Jamuna River, Bangladesh

Major changes take place in the planform and bed topography of the Jamuna River, Bangladesh, particularly during the flood season, and the effect of these changes are investigated in this paper in the form of a stability analysis by perturbation technique. A two-dimensional model of flow and sediment transport in an alluvial river with erodible bed and non-erodible banks is developed and applied to the Jamuna River, Bangladesh. The effect of transverse slope resulting from the effect of secondary currents, the effect of spiral motion due to curvature of the channel on the bed shear stress, and the effect of frictional resistance occurring from pure skin friction and friction due to bedforms, are considered in the model. The 2-D model can be used to check the instability due to the dunecovered alluvial bed. A stability theory has been developed which determines the most unstable mode, the celerity and propagation of the sand dunes, and the wave number corresponds to maximum instability. The theory is also capable of differentiating between braiding and meandering phenomena. Several implications of the proposed model are also discussed. The proposed model is used to analyze both the meandering and braided patterns of the river. The results from the analyses of the Jamuna River show that instability always exists in the Jamuna River under maximum instability conditions because of its very low aspect ratio (...1/1000) and more than three braids

A novel two-polynomial criteria for higher-order systems stability boundaries detection and control

There are many methods for identifying the stability of complex dynamic systems. Routh and Hurwitz’s criterion is one of the earliest and commonly used analytical tools analysing the stability of dynamic systems. However, it requires tedious and lengthy derivations of all components of the Routh array to solve the stability problem. Therefore, it is not a simple method to define analytically, stability boundaries for the coefficients of the system characteristic equation.The proposed brand-new criterion is an effective alternaztive technique in identifying stabilityhigher-order linear time-invariant dynamic system that binds the coefficients of the system characteristic polynomial at the stability boundaries by means of an additional single constantk. It defines the necessary and sufficient conditions for the absolute stability of higher-order dynamic systems. It also allows the analysing of the system’s precise marginal stabilityor marginal instability condition when the roots are relocated on imaginary jω-axis of s-plane. The criterion proposed bythe authors, in contrast to Routh criteria, simplifies the identification of maximum and minimum stability limits for any coefficient of the higher-order characteristic equation significantly. The derived in the paperstability boundary formulas for the polynomial coefficients are successfully used for the proportional integral derivative (PID) controller with single or multiple gains selections in closed-loop control system

Impact of Awareness Rising Program on Corporate Social Responsibility Practice: an Analysis in Selected Bank

This paper interprets how to commercial banks practice corporate social responsibility in Bangladesh. This study represents focus on different Rules and regulations of Bangladesh. It also focuses on different awareness raising program of different organization arranged at different times. The standard chartered bank and the Daily Star arranged different awards to motivate different organizations towards Corporate social responsibility program. Different banks are now focusing on CSR activities as government has identified different sectors of CSR investment to get 10 % tax rebate on Corporate Social Responsibility expenditure. Now, among different banks, the paper shows that the first priority of most of the bank is to invest in educational sectors. IBBL, Exim bank, DBBL, bank asia etc. invest only those sectors that provide tax rebate facilities to the organizations. The trend of CSR investment also showing increasing for the last few years with the increasing number of awareness rising program on corporate social responsibility. Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility, awareness, investment sectors, education, Community Development. DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/11-3-1

The Effect of Web Reinforcement on the Shear Capacity of Brick Aggregate Concrete Beams

Shear capacity of reinforced brick aggregate concrete beams without any web reinforcement and with varying ratio of web reinforcement was studied in this investigation. Deflections of beams and cracks during the progress of loading were recorded. Brick aggregate concrete beams with web reinforcement and two layers of tensile reinforcement were found to have increased cracking shear stress by a considerable amount. Equations for cracking and ultimate shear stresses were suggested within the scope of this study. The experimental values of ultimate shear strength of beams were compared with the values obtained by equations proposed by ACI and other researchers. The equations proposed herein were found to represent the test results better than those of other researchers while remaining on the conservative side. It is hoped that the equations developed herein will provide a rational and basic point of departure from the prevailing concept and will help towards the formulation of a suitable code to provide web reinforcement for brick aggregate concrete beams

Advance video analysis system and its applications

This research aims at developing an Advance Video Analysis System (AVAS) which can be used in wide range of video surveillance applications as well as to detect moving objects and human beings. The AVAS is able to detect and track interested objects along with human. It recognizes activities in an application environment, such as in a room, supermarket, car, or security checkpoint. Designing a real-time video analysis system is a complex task, as many factors including processing speed, system cost, accuracy, and robustness, need to be carefully balanced. This research has focused these factors at two levels, algorithm level and software level. Background elimination algorithm is proposed in this paper to enhance the performance of Smart Camera systems in changing background and varying lighting condition environment. Among the main features of this research some are, Event Id, Video Id, and Human Id which give detail information about the events, videos and other tracked objects. Finally, the software implementation of AVAS is applied to detect motion and then to trigger alarm for the security purposes. The system will trigger alarm once the motion is detected and when it exceeds the desire threshold value it will give warning to prevent any loss or mass destruction. Finally, we have given a number of recommendations that need to be addressed for the future growth of surveillance technologies and meeting the end-users' diversified and dynamic requirements. © EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2010

A NOVEL TWO-POLYNOMIAL CRITERIA FOR HIGHER-ORDER SYSTEMS STABILITY BOUNDARIES DETECTION AND CONTROL

There are many methods for identifying the stability of complex dynamic systems. Routh and Hurwitz’s criterion is one of the earliest and commonly used analytical tools analysing the stability of dynamic systems. However, it requires tedious and lengthy derivations of all components of the Routh array to solve the stability problem. Therefore, it is not a simple method to define analytically, stability boundaries for the coefficients of the system characteristic equation. The proposed brand-new criterion is an effective alternative technique in identifying stability higher-order linear time-invariant dynamic system that binds the coefficients of the system characteristic polynomial at the stability boundaries by means of an additional single constant k. It defines the necessary and sufficient conditions for the absolute stability of higher-order dynamic systems. It also allows the analysing of the system’s precise marginal stability or marginal instability condition when the roots are relocated on imaginary jω-axis of s-plane. The criterion proposed by the authors, in contrast to Routh criteria, simplifies the identification of maximum and minimum stability limits for any coefficient of the higher-order characteristic equation significantly. The derived in the paper stability boundary formulas for the polynomial coefficients are successfully used for the proportional integral derivative (PID) controller with single or multiple gains selections in closed-loop control systems

Modelling Evaporation and Evapotranspiration under Temperature Change in Malaysia

Temperature change has a direct effect on hydrology through its link with evapotranspiration. The potential impact of temperature change on the evapotranspiration is assessed; using a modelling approach based on a few physical weather measurements. Methods to estimate free-surface evaporation E and potential evapotranspiration ETp ' without any model calibration p~parameters, for monthly time series are presented. The model results are calculated by using observed average historic (1980-97) meteorological data and compared with USBR Class-A black pan evaporation data (1971-97) from the Muda Agricultural Development Authority, Malaysia. The long-term monthly averaged daily estimates of Ep for different months were compared with measured pan evaporation. Results of this simulation showed an accuracy of more than 95% with the observed pan evaporation data and thus, would be used for ET estimation. All the model equations containing temperature terms were set dependent of temperature. The correlation between mean monthly relative humidity and temperature was also made to investigate the sensitivity of ETp ' The ETp time series is perturbed by varying monthly temperature from 21"C to 41"C, with O.2"C increment to investigate the sensitivity of that series. Results from the perturbations showed that the temperature has significant effects on ET for each month.