Engineering the Hardware/Software Interface for Robotic Platforms - A Comparison of Applied Model Checking with Prolog and Alloy

Robotic platforms serve different use cases ranging from experiments for prototyping assistive applications up to embedded systems for realizing cyber-physical systems in various domains. We are using 1:10 scale miniature vehicles as a robotic platform to conduct research in the domain of self-driving cars and collaborative vehicle fleets. Thus, experiments with different sensors like e.g.~ultra-sonic, infrared, and rotary encoders need to be prepared and realized using our vehicle platform. For each setup, we need to configure the hardware/software interface board to handle all sensors and actors. Therefore, we need to find a specific configuration setting for each pin of the interface board that can handle our current hardware setup but which is also flexible enough to support further sensors or actors for future use cases. In this paper, we show how to model the domain of the configuration space for a hardware/software interface board to enable model checking for solving the tasks of finding any, all, and the best possible pin configuration. We present results from a formal experiment applying the declarative languages Alloy and Prolog to guide the process of engineering the hardware/software interface for robotic platforms on the example of a configuration complexity up to ten pins resulting in a configuration space greater than 14.5 million possibilities. Our results show that our domain model in Alloy performs better compared to Prolog to find feasible solutions for larger configurations with an average time of 0.58s. To find the best solution, our model for Prolog performs better taking only 1.38s for the largest desired configuration; however, this important use case is currently not covered by the existing tools for the hardware used as an example in this article.Comment: Presented at DSLRob 2013 (arXiv:cs/1312.5952

Anaerobic Fluidized Bed Treatment of Palm Oil Mill Effluent

A 2 m³ pilot scale anaerobic fluidized bed reactor (APBR) was designed, constructed and operated to study its ability to treat high-strength industrial wastewater, at ambient temperature. Besides performance evaluation, kinetic coefficients of three models were determined. Reactor response to pH shock load was also carried out. An early start-up of 17 days was experienced with diluted palm oil mill etlluent (POME) of 2000 mg/l COD. The hydraulic retention time (HRT) was reduced step wise from 24 hr to 4 hr which resulted in volumetric loading rates of 4.0 kgCOD/m³.d to 13.8 kgCOD/m³.d respectively. Maximum COD removal efficiencies achieved at those loading rates were between 65% and 85%. BOD and TSS removal rates were varied in the range of 64% - 91 % and 68% - 89% respectively. The raw substrate was rich in nitrogen nutrients and 17% to 55% of total nitrogen could be removed. Optimum HRT for the COD removal was found to be 1 2 hour, which was much less than that of conventional tank digester system. Reactor performance was found to be a function of loading rate, which decreased steadily with the increased loading rates. The AFBR exhibited low sludge production with sludge volume indices (SVI) of between 11 l/mg and 35 l/mg. General kinetic coefficients for Monod, Contois and Chen & Hashimoto's models were b = 0.23, Y = 0.79, µm = 4.63 and K = 2.47. Specific coefficients for Monod's model were k = 1 .22 and K. = 577, and for Contois' model, B = 0.05 and µm = 0.86. The pilot plant exhibited good buffering ability when pH shock load of 5.0 was imposed on the AFBR

Origin of Creep-Fatigue Back Stress and its Effect on Deformation and Damage

Creep deformation of metals operating at a high temperature in electricity generation plant can limit the lifetime of components and pressurized systems. Assessment of a structure’s creep life under power plant operation conditions is a complex problem due to materials being exposed to cyclic load variations. The creep life of high-temperature steels can be significantly affected by the generation of internal back stress during monotonic and cyclic plastic loadings, originating from inhomogeneous deformation at grain and sub-grain length scales. This thesis examines origins of back stress developed in austenitic stainless steel and their influence on subsequent material deformation behaviour. In-situ neutron diffraction and transmission electron microscopy techniques were employed to study the contributions of intergranular and intragranular incompatible strains to the back stress that is introduced in type 316H austenitic stainless steel under monotonic and cyclic loading at room and elevated temperatures. The scope of testing included load controlled and displacement controlled creep dwells introduced at peak and intermediate positions of the cyclic loading curves. The origin of kinematic hardening in the same material was also examined by systematic loading interruptions during tension-compression cyclic loading, from which the observed variations in macroscopic yield stress were correlated with corresponding changes in intergranular strains. In addition, development of creep cavitation damage was characterized using small angle neutron scattering (SANS) and high-speed atomic force microscope (HS-AFM) techniques. Intergranular strains were found to significantly affect the minimum creep deformation rate of type 316H austenitic stainless steel, whereas no evidence of that for intragranular strains was observed, at the early stage of creep deformation studied here. It was found that, during tension-compression cyclic loading, the magnitude of intergranular strains not only depends on the stress and strain in the material but also on its loading path history. Intergranular strains were found to increase during the primary stage of load controlled creep, remain unchanged during the secondary stage and reduce during displacement controlled creep relaxation. A strong correlation between the evolution of intergranular strains and the kinematic hardening of this material were observed during interrupted cyclic loading test at room and elevated temperature, suggesting, that the observed Bauschinger effect in this material originates from the intergranular strains. SANS and HS-AFM were found to be powerful quantitative techniques for studying the nucleation and growth of creep cavities in stainless steel. The HS-AFM work also revealed that the cavities were faceted which highlights the oversimplification of current creep cavitation models that are based on an assumed spherical morphology. The experimental results have highlighted the significance of the effect of plasticity generated back stress on the creep and cyclic deformation of type 316H austenitic stainless steel. This demonstrates the importance of allowing for the evolution of back stress in high-temperature life assessment procedures

Cultural Anthropological Perspective of Development Re-Examined

‘Development” –a term that entered popular discourse in the late 1980s has certainly been become one of the most debatable buzzwords of the new millennium. The nature and philosophy of development has been the subject matter of profound debates and concerns in economic, political, cultural studies and academic circles since the mid 1980s. However, mainstream economic thought regarding development promises that it would lift the poor above poverty, dissolve dictatorship, protect the environment, integrate cultures, and reverse the growing gap between the rich and poor countries of the world. But in reality, models of the mainstream economic development has brought about the devastating destruction of the traditions, the continued subordination of poor nations and regions by richer countries of the west, environmental degradation, and posed a serious thread to indigenous and non-western cultures and economies. The conventional development thought has resulted in the penetration and expansion of western economist, media, technologies and tremendous clout to define the situation. This paper argues that through the development process, like colonization, modernization, globalization, the west is exploiting and exerting dominance over the other country’s economies, cultures and traditional way of life. The west makes space of development by identifying, defining certain problems and prescribes remedy for the “Third World” countries. Through the United Nations, the IMF, the World Bank, Donor Agencies and these institutions’ legal authority, the West along with its most advanced technologies and professional and institutional knowledge controls all major political and economic affairs of the globe. The paper argues this issue from anthropological perspective that is, holistic perspective, that encompasses economic and non-economic factors simultaneously. In fact, those who advocate development today inherit form Entitlement orientation. The Entitlement offered a universal application of reason to human affairs and it embedded in a philosophy of history with a meta-narrative concerning the continued onward march of society due to the result of science, technology and money. And in this connection, development resurrects an imagined totality of human culture. Anthropological perspective, on the other hand, rejects any such overarching “meta-narrative” and scheme of totalitarian human society and that would pretend to erase the irreducible differences of human experiences. Yet, whatever the nature and philosophy of development how anthropological view can provide alternative look in this regard has been attempted to reconstruct. Key words: Capitalism, Cold War, Colonialism, Globalization, IMF, Modernization, Post-development, Third World, World Bank, Western Economics, Neoliberalism, UNDP, United Nations Résumé: Le développement- un terme qui est entré dans le discours populaire à la fin des années 1980 est certainement devenu l’un des mots les plus discutables du nouveau millénaire. La nature et la philosophie du développement ont été le sujet majeur des débats et soucis profonds dans les études économique, politique et culturelle ainsi que le cercle académique depuis le milieu des années 1980. Néanmoins, la pensée économique principale sur le développement promet qu’il peut dégager les pauvres de la pauvreté, dissoudre la dictature, protéger l’environnement, mélanger les cultures et raccourcir l’écart de croissance entre les pays riches et pauvres du monde. Mais en réalité, le modèle du développement économique principal a entraîné la destruction dévastatrice des traditions, la subordination continue des nations ou régions pauvres aux pays riches occidentaux, la dégradation environnementale, et lance un défi sérieux aux cultures et économies indigènes et non-occidentales. La pensée de développement conventionnel a conduit à la pénétration et l’expansion des économies, médias et technologies occidentaux, et l’influence considérable sur la situation. Le présent article argumente que, à travers le processus du développement comme la colonisation, la modernisation et la globalisation, l’Occident exerce son dominance sur les économies, les cultures et les modes de vivre traditionnels des autres pays. L’Occident crée l’espace de développement en identifiant certains problèmes et en prescrivant des remèdes pour les pays du Tiers Monde. A travers l’ONU, le FMI, la Banque mondiale, les Agences de donateur et les autorités légales de ces institutions, l’Occident, moyennant ses technologies avancées et ses savoirs professionnel et institutionnel, contrôle toutes les affaires politiques et économique majeures du monde. L’article argumente de cette vue dans la perspective anthropologique, perspective globale, qui contient simultanément les facteurs économiques et non-économiques. En fait, ceux qui préconise le développement aujourd’hui héritent de l’orientation de Droit. Le Droit fournit une application universelle de la raison aux affaires humaines et s’implante dans la philosophie de l’histoire avec un méta-récit concernant la marche avancée de la société due au résultat de sciences, de technologie et d’argent. En la matière, le développement ressuscite une totalité de la culture humaine imaginée. La perspective anthropologique, d’autre part, rejette tout méta-récit et système de la société humaine totalitaire, et prétend à effacer les différences irréductibles de l’expérience humaine. Cependant, quoi que soient la nature et la philosophie du développement, comment le vue anthropologique peut offrir un aspect alternatif sur ce point a été tenté de reconstruire. Mots-Clés: capitalisme, guerre froide, colonialisme, globalisation, FMI, modernisation, post-développement, Tiers Monde, Banque mondiale, économies occidentales, néolibéralisme, PDNU, ON

Machining Strategies Exploring Reduction in Energy Consumption

The main aim of this thesis is to explore machining strategies, analyzing energy consumption using Design of Experiments (DOE) at the material removal rate (MRR), compare to cutting geometrical trajectories according to CNC parameters such as spindle RPM, feed rate, depth of cut per pass and total depth of cut. Spindle RPM, depth of cut per pass, and feed rate are selected as the main three factors and each factor has two levels: low-level (-) and high-level (+). These experiments have been performed at an end-milling machine by using a concept of a constant volume of material removal processes in the circular and linear geometrical slots in pine wood blocks. Standard energy logger equipment has used to measure energy consumption during end-milling operation. Different statistical analysis, such as ANOVA, regression line, and cause & effect diagram have used to show different energy consumption results in the material removal process. At the end the of data analysis, it is found that a significant amount of electricity demand is associated with machining pre-cutting & post-cutting stage and this significant amount of electricity demand is defined as peripheral energy. This peripheral energy is not involved in the actual performance of material removal process in the end-milling process. In the [Figure 11] end-milling process has been involved with pine wood blocks at constant volume of material removal (2.8 cubic inch) process. Results can be varied using of hard material removal process, such as steel & aluminum metals

水酸化第二鉄および硫酸型グリーンラスト共沈法による製革廃水からの六価クロム除去: 機構解明および除去最適化

早大学位記番号:新7969早稲田大