Sharif Digital Repository

The use of manipulators in space missions has become popular, as their applications can be extended to various space missions such as on-orbit servicing, assembly, and debris removal. Due to space reachability limitations, such robots must accomplish their tasks in space autonomously and under severe operating conditions such as the occurrence of faults or uncertainties. For robots and manipulators used in space missions, this paper provides a unique, robust control technique based on Model Predictive Path Integral Control (MPPI). The proposed algorithm, named Planner-Estimator MPPI (PE-MPPI), comprises a planner and an estimator. The planner controls a system, while the estimator modifies... 

Purpose - This paper aims to develop an adaptive unscented Kalman filter (AUKF) formulation for orientation estimation of aircraft and UAV utilizing low-cost attitude and heading reference systems (AHRS). Design/methodology/approach - A recursive least-square algorithm with exponential age weighting in time is utilized for estimation of the unknown inputs. The proposed AUKF tunes its measurement covariance to yield optimal performance. Owing to nonlinear nature of the dynamic model as well as the measurement equations, an unscented Kalman filter (UKF) is chosen against the extended Kalman filter, due to its better performance characteristics. The unscented transformation of the UKF is shown... 

This paper presents a new architecture for VCO-based Continuous Time Delta Sigma Modulators. This approach is based on the differential configuration for the quantizer while maintains its inherent dynamic element matching property. Consuming no additional power and area compared to the conventional scheme, this architecture can eliminate the even orders of harmonic distortion and achieve higher linearity. Theoretical analysis for signal to quantization noise, power and area consumption and mismatch effect is provided. To illustrate the effectiveness of the new architecture in continuous time modulators, a modulator with 640 MHz sampling rate utilizing the mentioned quantizer is simulated in... 

This paper presents a model for “Domestic Facility and Hub Location” in transportation network. Number of hubs and facilities are unknown and the objective is to minimize the transportation cost, lost demand penalty and facility set up costs. Also the distribution of demand among domestic facilities and hubs adheres to gravity rule. To solve the problem, sequential and integrated approaches were undertaken. In the sequential approach, domestic facilities were allocated and hubs were selected afterwards. However the integrated approach deals with both concurrently, with a more sophisticated steps reaching to the solution. This is mainly because the demand itself is highly dependent to where... 

Recently, demand-response (DR) programmes are one of the appropriate tools for energy systems to encourage flexible customers to participate in the operation of energy systems. One of the complex tasks in multi-energy environments is optimal energy flow (OEF) problem of these systems. In this regard, this study investigates the OEF of an integrated electrical, heat, and gas system considering flexible heat and electrical demands. The conventional DR programme has been combined with the demand-side energy supplying management activity by introducing switching concept among input energy carriers. The way of the supplying energy of flexible customer can be changed by switching among input... 

The fast growth of battery-operated portable applications has compelled the static random access memory (SRAM) designers to consider sub-threshold operation as a viable choice to reduce the power consumption. To increase the hold, read and write static noise margin (SNM) in the sub-threshold regime many structures has been proposed adding extra transistors to the conventional 6T-cell. In this paper we propose a new 8T-cell SRAM that shows 90% improvement in read SNM while write and hold SNM reduction can be ignored (this negligible reduction is due to the two stack transistors in the proposed 8T-cell). Benefiting differential output voltage in the read operation, sense amplifier design is... 

Decentralized integral controllability (DIC) is an important property of industrial and process multivariable control systems. In this paper, some of the previously proposed conditions for the study of the DIC of certain systems are extended to treat systems with correlated and independent uncertainty. These conditions are based on the concept of the stability of Polytopic and Interval family of matrices, and evaluation of the Lyapunov condition only at special vertices of these families. By comparison with previous sufficient conditions, and known necessary conditions, it is demonstrated that the newly proposed criteria are significantly less conservative, especially in the case of... 

Proportional-integral (PI) controllers are the most common form of feedback used in industrial applications today [1][3]. The use of proportional and integral feedback also has a long history of practical applications [4]. For example, in the middle of the 18th century, centrifugal governors as the proportional feedback were applied to regulate the speed of windmills [5]. By the 19th century, it was known that using integral feedback could remove the offsets appearing in working with governors [6]. At present, PI control, still a very basic form of feedback, is also one of the first solutions often considered in the control of industrial systems [7]. On the other hand, in some applications,... 

In this article the constitutive equation of an Euler-Bernoulli beam, excited by multiple moving masses is considered. A set of multiple piezo-ceramic actuators is used to harness the dynamic response of the beam. In this regard the beam response is suppressed by utilizing a linear control algorithm with a time varying gain matrix and displacement-velocity feedback. The efficiency of the results is investigated through the numerical analysis of an example problem  

The fast growth of battery operated devices has made low power SRAM designs a necessity in recent years. Moreover, embedded SRAM units have become an important block in modern SoCs. The SRAM performance is limited by the cell stability during different operation. By adding extra transistor to the conventional 6T-cell, hold, read and write static noise margin (SNM) can be improved in the sub-threshold SRAM. In this paper we proposed a new 9T-cell SRAM that shows 80% and 50% improvement in read and write SNM respectively in comparison to the conventional 6T-cell SRAM. Using stack transistors in the leakage current path, the new structure shows lower bitline leakage assisting the sense... 

Study on the potential abilities of the proportional-integral-weighted (PIw) controllers, as a recently proposed generalization for proportional-integral (PI) controllers, can be useful for improving the performance of traditional control systems. In this paper, adaptive PI and adaptive PIw controllers are designed to be used in control of a special class of nonlinear uncertain systems based on the Lyapanuv stability theorem. The effectiveness of the proposed controllers is illustrated by applying the proposed schemes to a Continuous Stirred-Tank Reactor (CSTR) system with an unknown parameter. Simulation results indicate that using adaptive PIw controllers, in comparison to using the... 

Azo dye degradation in wastewater treatment is a subject which has garnered the attention of many research studies. In this study, an innovative approach, namely, an integrated system of five batches (ISFB), was developed to investigate the capability of Saccharomyces cerevisiae ATCC 9763 for continuous degradation of methyl red as a representative azo dye. Toward this end, an expanded immobilized microbial bed (EIMB) reactor was established with a bed of encapsulated yeast cells in sodium alginate. EIMB reactor was run in two modes, single batch and ISFB. Moreover, durability of the microbial cells was evaluated by repeating the continuous decolourization eight sequential times in EIMB at... 

The paper aims to present a supply model to satisfy the required household final energy carriers, freshwater and industrial cooling loads for a deprived area of access that is located in hot and humid climate. To this aim, a multi-generation hybrid solar thermophotovoltaic integrated system with capability of adjusting heat to power ratio dynamically is introduced. Appropriate analytical tools are developed to obtain the optimal capacity of any systems and energy flows subject to the technology and demand constraints, the financial limitation and the constraints defined by the politicians and local government. The demand constraints are identified through the field studies and the comfort... 

Tape mechanisms must be able to transport the tape with a constant velocity for achieving high rate of data transfer. In this paper, a multivariable model of tape transport mechanism including the take-up and supply reel servos for tape tension control and capstan servo for speed control is considered. To achieve desired performance,pole-placement approach based on general canonical control form (GCCF) is used. Instead of using expensive tension sensors, an observer is designed. A regulator system is developed for disturbance rejection; and a modified integral control is designed for perfect tracking of desired setpoints in tape speed and tensions. Since the real dynamic model associates... 

This paper presents a robust decentralized proportional-integral (PI) control design as a solution of the load frequency control (LFC) in a multi-area power system. In the proposed methodology, the system robustness margin and transient performance are optimized simultaneously to achieve the optimum PI controller parameters. The Kharitonov's theorem is used to determine the robustness margin, i.e., the maximal uncertainty bounds under which the stable performance of the power system is guaranteed. The integral time square error (ITSE) is applied to quantify the transient performance of the LFC system. In order to tune the PI gains, the control objective function is optimized using the... 

Position control of Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) actuators has been a challenging topic during the last years due to their nonlinearities in the governing physical equations as well as their hysteresis behaviors. Using the inverse of phenomenological hysteresis model in order to compensate the input-output hysteresis behavior of these actuators shows the effectiveness of this approach. In this paper, in order to control the tip deflection of a large deformation flexible beam actuated by an SMA actuator wire, a feedforward-feedback controller is proposed. The feedforward part of the proposed control system, maps the beam deflection into SMA temperature, is based on the inverse of the generalized...