Body randomization reduces the sim-to-real gap for compliant quadruped locomotion

Designing controllers for compliant, underactuated robots is challenging and usually requires a learning procedure. Learning robotic control in simulated environments can speed up the process whilst lowering risk of physical damage. Since perfect simulations are unfeasible, several techniques are used to improve transfer to the real world. Here, we investigate the impact of randomizing body parameters during learning of CPG controllers in simulation. The controllers are evaluated on our physical quadruped robot. We find that body randomization in simulation increases chances of finding gaits that function well on the real robot

Compressed Stabilized Earth Block as a Sustainable Building Material

In recent years Environment pollution is the most concerned issue. Awareness growing to save the environment. In Bangladesh, burnt clay brick is the most commonly used building material. Which produce a significant amount of greenhouse gasses and also it destroys a huge amount of agricultural land every year. Concerning the issue of scientist searching for sustainable and eco-friendly building material. Compressed Stabilized Earth Block (CSEB) give the opportunity of energy efficient, eco-friendly, agriculture friendly and sustainable development. It does not produce any harmful gasses during production. In this study, river dredged soil used to produce CSEB, so it also helps to save the agricultural land. CSEB have been prepared with the different composition of cement, sand and river dredged soil. The compressive strength of different blocks is measured to find the suitable composition to produce CSEB and also to compare among them to find out the optimum composition. Keywords: Sustainability, Agriculture friendly, environment friendly, River dredged soil.

A comparative study of mono-crystalline and poly-crystalline silicon solar cells under different climatic conditions of Bangladesh

This thesis report is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 2016.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis report.Includes bibliographical references (page 69).The objective of our thesis is to analyze the performance of two types of silicon solar panels- mono-crystalline and polycrystalline under different climatic conditions of Bangladesh. Temperature, wind speed, solar irradiation affects the performance of solar panel. In our work different parameters of the solar cells such as open circuit voltage, short circuit current, series resistance of a photovoltaic cell, maximum power output point, fill factor, maximum working current, and maximum working voltage have been calculated under different temperature and illumination conditions. Experiments have been conducted in both indoor and outdoor. Series resistance was measured in dark condition. It showed an increase in series resistance for both mono-crystalline and polycrystalline solar panel with the increment of temperature. Current sensitivity of the panels was measured with the change of temperature under same illumination condition. Energy was calculated utilizing the data taken in the month of June-July. It was observed that polycrystalline panel has 4.3% energy level more than the mono crystalline panel.AfifuzamanMahmud HossainRubayet RehanB. Electrical and Electronic Engineerin

Performance improvement of mobile IP-based handoff between WLAN and GPRS networks

This thesis presents a handoff technique between the IEEE 802.11 WLAN, which covers a small area, and the GPRS cellular network that overlays the WLAN and covers a larger area. The technique reduces the handoff delay, recovers the lost packets during the handoff transition period with improved overhead, increases the throughput, and also prevents unnecessary handoffs from due to ping-pong effect. It includes an algorithm to be implemented in the handoff decision making process as well as modification of the Mobile IP for handoff signaling management to achieve improved performance in latency, overhead, and throughput. (Abstract shortened by UMI.

Wild Fodder Yielding Plants in the Protected Areas of Bangladesh

Wildlife habitat is degrading worldwide due to myriads of biotic and abiotic reasons. The governments across the world countries are trying to halt the degradation through declaring protected areas (PAs) with potential wildlife habitats and strengthening conservation initiatives. These measures are expected to uphold the richness and diversity of the fodder yielding plants. But there is a dire necessity of information on composition and overall status of the fodder yielding plants for continuous monitoring of these habitats. Moreover, the potentiality of the protected areas can also be judged based on the composition and richness of fodder yielding plants. Having all these in mind, we assessed the composition and conservation status of the fodder yielding plants of all habit forms from three recognized protected areas named Chunati Wildlife Sanctuary, Dudhpukuria-Dhopachari Wildlife Sanctuary, and Madhupur National Park. The study indicated the presence of 306 fodder yielding plant species of all habit forms in the three studied protected areas. This chapter describes the composition, status, habit forms, and nature of occurrences of the wild fodder yielding plants which is expected to be highly helpful in wildlife habitat monitoring and undertaking specific measures for multiplication and conservation of fodder yielding plants

Numerical evaluation of yielding shear panel device: A sustainable technique to minimise structural damages due to earthquakes

Earthquake is one of the most catastrophic natural events that affect human civilization causing loss of human lives and destruction of cities; recent earthquakes in the Asia-Pacific region highlight the importance of further research to develop sustainable techniques to limit structural damages due to this catastrophe. As the occurrence and severity of an earthquake are beyond our control, it is the after effects that we have to focus on to minimise the loss of human lives. Structures must be designed to absorb the enormous amount of energy exerted by earthquakes to sustain this sudden natural impact. The current research investigates the performance of a recently developed Yielding Shear Panel Device (YSPD), which will be designed to absorb earthquake energy by exploiting the significantly high ductility of stainless steel. YSPD is a small, inexpensive and easy to install device. The basic notion is to concentrate the inevitable structural damages to YSPDs and hence keeping the main structural components intact. The simplicity of YSPD would allow the damaged devices to be replaced by the new ones without any major structural reconstruction

Problems Faced by Garments Workers: A Study on Matrix Sweaters Limited

This paper examines the problems confronted by Matrix Sweaters Limited workers. The study also attempts to identify the possible reasons for dispute among the workers. Results from the study have revealed that wage discrimination is the main problem for Garments workers and low salary for garments worker is the vital reason for industrial dispute. The analysis have also exposed that workload is not justifiable to labor act. The hypothesis test has proved that female garments workers faced more problems in compare to male workers. Keywords: Garment Industry, Wage Discrimination, Industrial Dispute, Bangladesh

Recognizing Human Affection: Smartphone Perspective

Touch-screen Smartphone has become an obligatory segment in the lives of billions of people around the world. Understanding the human affection or emotional state of the user enables efficient human computer interaction. Smartphone is one of the most frequently used electronic devices and the number of applications developed for it is increasing day by day. Emotion recognition of the user will lead to the development of emotion aware applications. Service recommendations and intelligent user interfaces in Smartphone will be other encouraging scopes for the mobile application developers. In this paper we discuss about state-of-the-art technologies to detect human emotional states. We proposed a methodology by which three different emotional states (positive, neutral, negative) of the user can be identified using Smartphone2019;s built-in sensors like the gyroscope, accelerometer and also additional sensors such as pressure sensor. We tried to analyse infraction log of Smartphone users, approximated different sensor values to recognize human emotions. Since the pressure values found on the existing phones are not completely accurate, we introduced the use of Force Sensitive Resistor (FSR) sensor to get more accurate pressure values

Portlet-based presentation of energy KPIs in SOA-enabled manufacturing facilities targeting holistic energy management.

One third of global energy consumption is directly attributed to manufacturing industry. The demand of efficient energy usage in manufacturing is prompted by scarcity of traditional energy resources and rising energy price. Structures of current manufacturing facilities are complex and distributed with large number of assorted devices involve in manufacturing, utilities, lighting and HVAC systems within organization. Adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) allow near real time information acquisition from these assorted devices. In this thesis work, an energy management portal is designed and developed to present online and historical energy information to hierarchical user groups in manufacturing enterprise. The thesis consists of background study, design and implementation. The current standardizations on Energy Management System (EMS) are studied to follow a systematic approach towards design and implementations. Role of KPI in manufacturing is studied from EMS point of view through previous research and implementations. Relevant technologies and architectural concepts are explored, analyzed and compared including Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and web portal infrastructures. A generic framework for presentation layer of EMS is designed targeting SOA-enabled manufacturing facilities which utilizes existing modular systems i.e. MES, ERP and so on. Result of implementation shows that, portlet based web portal draws SOA concept to User Interface (UI) of EMS where portlets act as pluggable UI component of flexible and configurable dashboards of hierarchical user groups. Presentation of online and historical energy KPIs from heterogeneous sources is achieved in different portlets using DPWS and WS. Adoption of implemented energy data representation techniques and role-based dashboards increase energy awareness among user groups in factory and support decision-making for achieving energy efficiency