myBas driving cycle for Kuala Terengganu city

Driving cycles are series of data points that represent vehicle speed versus time sequenced profile developed for specific road, route, city or certain location. It is widely utilized in the application of vehicle manufacturers, environmentalists and traffic engineers. Since the vehicles are one of the higher air pollution sources, driving cycle is needed to evaluate the fuel consumption and exhaust emissions. The main objectives in this study are to develop and characterize the driving cycle for myBAS in Kuala Terengganu city using established k-means clustering method and to analyse the fuel consumption and emissions using advanced vehicle simulator (ADVISOR). Operation of myBAS offers 7 trunk routes and one feeder route. The research covered on two operation routes of myBAS which is Kuala Terengganu city-feeder and from Kuala Terengganu to Jeti Merang where the speed-time data is collected using on-board measurement method. In general, driving cycle is made up of a few micro-trips, defined as the trip made between two idling periods. These micro-trips cluster by using the k-means clustering method and matrix laboratory software (MATLAB) is used in developing myBAS driving cycle. Typically, developing the driving cycle based on the real-world in resulting improved the fuel economy and emissions of myBAS

Applications of artificial intelligence in ship berthing: A review

Ship berthing operations in restricted waters such as ports requires the accurate use of onboard-vessel equipment such as rudder, thrusters, and main propulsions. For big ships, the assistance of exterior supports such as tugboats are necessary, however with the advancement of technology, we may hypothesize that the use of artificial intelligence to support ship berthing safely at ports without the dependency on the tugboats may be a reality. In this paper we comprehensively assessed and analyzed several literatures regarding this topic. Through this review, we seek out to present a better understanding of the use of artificial intelligence in ship berthing especially neural networks and collision avoidance algorithms. We discovered that the use of global and local path planning combined with Artificial Neural Network (ANN) may help to achieve collision avoidance while completing ship berthing operations

Applications of artificial intelligence in ship berthing: A review

855-863Ship berthing operations in restricted waters such as ports requires the accurate use of onboard-vessel equipment such as rudder, thrusters, and main propulsions. For big ships, the assistance of exterior supports such as tugboats are necessary, however with the advancement of technology, we may hypothesize that the use of artificial intelligence to support ship berthing safely at ports without the dependency on the tugboats may be a reality. In this paper we comprehensively assessed and analyzed several literatures regarding this topic. Through this review, we seek out to present a better understanding of the use of artificial intelligence in ship berthing especially neural networks and collision avoidance algorithms. We discovered that the use of global and local path planning combined with Artificial Neural Network (ANN) may help to achieve collision avoidance while completing ship berthing operations

On insertion-deletion systems over relational words

We introduce a new notion of a relational word as a finite totally ordered set of positions endowed with three binary relations that describe which positions are labeled by equal data, by unequal data and those having an undefined relation between their labels. We define the operations of insertion and deletion on relational words generalizing corresponding operations on strings. We prove that the transitive and reflexive closure of these operations has a decidable membership problem for the case of short insertion-deletion rules (of size two/three and three/two). At the same time, we show that in the general case such systems can produce a coding of any recursively enumerable language leading to undecidabilty of reachability questions.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figure

Particle swarm algorithm sliding mode control on spacecraft’s attitude with switching function method thorough error feedback

Small spacecraft requires capable processors with energy efficiency, low cost and low computational burden while maintaining the output tracking accuracy. This paper presents the extension of work in [1], to enhance the transient performance using particle swarm optimization (PSO) on decaying boundary layer and switching function thorough error feedback (DBLSF) in Sliding Mode Control (SMC). Generally, SMC is known for having chattering as the main drawback which can introduce wear and tear to moving mechanical parts. As a solution, a DBLSF proposed in [1] and capable of eliminating the chattering in SMC while considering the essential requirements for small spacecraft operation. Then, the extension implemented on spacecraft's attitude, which is one-of-six subsystems in spacecraft, used to orient the spacecraft referred to reference objects and control the dynamics of a spacecraft time-to-time according to the needs. However, the SMC's transient response can be tuned using some coefficients in the SMC algorithm. The parameters in [1] were tuned using outputs observation technique. In this paper, then, an improvement is introduced to optimize the outputs by adding a PSO in the SMC-DBLSF in term of transient performances and accuracy while reducing the chattering permanently

Reaction optimization of Aspergillus niger α-L-arabinofuranosidase for improved arabinose production from kenaf stem

There are abundant of lignocellulosic biomass readily available with varying compositions. Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus) is one of this lignocellulosic biomass that has a high content of hemicellulose. This particular hemicellulose is composed of high arabinoxylan, which is a xylan backbone with arabinofuranosyl branches. In order to hydrolyze arabinoxylan, a branching enzyme is needed. Therefore, α-L-arabinofuranosidase from Aspergillus niger ATCC120120 (AnabfA) was used to hydrolyzed pre-treated kenaf and the reaction conditions were optimized using central composite design (CCD) to produce a significant amount of arabinose. There were 20 experiments conducted with 1.68 star points and 6 replicates at the centre points. The reaction conditions that were optimized are enzyme loading, substrate concentration and reaction time in which resulted with 88 U AnabfA activity, 0.9% (w/v) and 48 h, respectively. These optimized conditions managed to increase the yield of arabinose with 47.17 mg/g arabinose produced

Modification of polypropylene filter with metal oxide and reduced graphene oxide for water treatment

A hydrothermal method for the synthesis of reduced graphene oxide/titanium dioxide filter (RGO/TiO2) and reduced graphene oxide/zinc oxide filter (RGO/ZnO) by using polypropylene (PP) porous filter is reported. Field emission scanning electron microscopy illustrated that the nanoparticles were uniformly distributed on the reduced graphene oxide nanosheets. Flexural tests showed that the physical properties of the modified filters have greater strength than the original filter. Thermogravimetric analysis revealed that the thermal property of the modified filters is the same as that of the original filter. Under a halogen lamp, the modified filter exhibited excellent photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue. The RGO/TiO2 filter maintained its ability to degrade MB efficiently, even after five cycles of photocatalysis

The effect of boron friction modifier on the performance of brake pads

Friction and wear characteristics of material in an automotive brake system play important role for efficient and safe brake performance. Commercial brake friction materials normally contain mainly alumina (Al2O3) and other ingredients. In this investigation, five groups of locally developed semi-metallic composite friction materials were studied for friction and wear. Abrasive material named aluminium oxide which existed in ZMF formulation was taken out. It was replaced by consistent different weight percentages of boron, i.e., 0.6%, 1.0%, 1.5% and 2.0% and then mixed into the ZMF formulation. The friction tests were performed using the friction material test machine called CHASE machine. The results demonstrated that the formulation using boron mixed brake pads produced higher normal and hot friction coefficient at GG class value than those of the commercial brake pad samples. All friction coefficients of boron samples increased at the beginning of braking stages until 20 braking applications. It appeared that an overall friction coefficient value declined with the increase in drum temperature. However, the reduction of friction coefficient for all boron mixed brake pads was much more constant and stable as compared to the commercial brake pad

Buckling and post-buckling improvements of laminated composite plates using finite element method

The improvements of buckling and post-buckling behaviours of laminated composite plates were done by changing the composite related parameters such as the level of anisotropy, thickness to width ratio and boundary condition. In recent years, shape memory alloy has been used to achieve such improvements. A study is conducted on the buckling and post-buckling improvements of composite plates due to the combined effects of composite and shape memory alloy related parameters. Shape memory alloy wires are embedded within laminated composite plates and the amount of recovery stress induced by the shape memory wires is predicted using the Brinson’s model. A geometric non-linear finite element method is used to model the buckling and post-buckling behaviours of shape memory alloy composite plates and source codes are developed to solve the model. It is found that significant improvements in buckling and post-buckling behaviours of composite plates can be attained by combining the effect of shape memory alloy and composite related parameters