A Multi-Cylinder HCCI Engine Model for Control

Homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engines are a promising engine technology due to their low emissions and high efficiencies. Controlling the combustion timing is one of the significant challenges to practical HCCI engine implementations. In a spark-ignited engine, the combustion timing is controlled by the spark timing. In a Diesel engine, the timing of the direct fuel injection controls the combustion timing. HCCI engines lack such direct in-cylinder mechanisms. Many actuation methods for affecting the combustion timing have been proposed. These include intake air heating, variable valve timing, variable compression ratios, and exhaust throttling. On a multi-cylinder engine, the combustion timing may have to be adjusted on each cylinder independently. However, the cylinders are coupled through the intake and exhaust manifolds. For some of the proposed actuation methods, affecting the combustion timing on one cylinder influences the combustion timing of the other cylinders. In order to implement one of these actuation methods on a multi-cylinder engine, the engine controller must account for the cylinder-to-cylinder coupling effects. A multi-cylinder HCCI engine model for use in the control design process is presented. The model is comprehensive enough to capture the cylinder-to-cylinder coupling effects, yet simple enough for the rapid simulations required by the control design process. Although the model could be used for controller synthesis, the model is most useful as a starting point for generating a reduced-order model, or as a plant model for evaluating potential controllers. Specifically, the model includes the dynamics for affecting the combustion timing through exhaust throttling. The model is readily applicable to many of the other actuation methods, such as variable valve timing. Experimental results validating the model are also presented.

Development and Validation of Online Models With Parameter Estimation for a Building Zone With VAV System

The energy consumption by building heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems has evoked more attention for energy efficient HVAC control and operation. Application of advanced control and operation strategies requires robust online system models. In this research, online models with parameter estimation for a building zone with variable air volume (VAV) system, which is one of the most common HVAC systems, are developed and validated using experimental data. Building zone temperature and VAV entering air flow are modeled based on physical rules and using only the measurements that are commonly available in a commercial building. Different series of validation tests were performed in a real-building test facility to examine the prediction accuracies for system outputs. Using the online system models with parameter estimation, the prediction errors for all the validation tests are less than 0.5°F for temperature outputs, and less than 50 ft3/min for air flow outputs. The online models can be further used for local and supervisory control, as well as fault detection applications.

Geometric Design of Symmetric 3-RRS Constrained Parallel Platforms

The paper presents the kinematic synthesis of a symmetric parallel platform supported by three RRS serial chains. The dimensional synthesis of this three degree-of-freedom system is obtained using design equations for each of three RRS chains obtained by requiring that they reach a specified set of task positions. The result is 10 polynomial equations in 10 unknowns, which is solved using polynomial homotopy continuation. An example is provided in which the direction of the first revolute joint (2 parameters) and the z component of the base and platform are specified as well as the two task positions. The system of polynomials has a total degree of 4096 which means that in theory it can have as many solutions. Our example has 70 real solutions that define 70 different symmetric platforms that can reach the specified positions.

Nonlinear Positioning Compensation of Thin-Disc Ultrasonic Motor Using Fuzzy Sliding-Mode Control

The study intends to focus on the design of a thin-disc piezoceramic-driving ultrasonic actuator dedicated to discrete stepping motors. By the improved design and construction, the innovative ultrasonic actuator was developed and used as a stator. The electromechanical coupling characteristics based on the composite structure would produce the flexural wave on the stator, which consisted of a piezoceramic membrane bonded on a metal sheet. Due to the converse piezoelectric effect, the driving ability of the actuator came from the vibration of extension-shrinkage of a metal sheet corresponding to the frequency of a single-phase AC power. Under constraints at the specific geometry positions on the metal sheet, the varying behaviors of flexural waves were formed. The simple structure of an actuator demonstrated that the mechanical design of the actuator and the rotor could be separated, depending on what we need in pragmatic applications. And, its positioning accuracy could be reached through a closed loop servo control, i.e. Fuzzy Sliding Mode Control (FSMC). FSMC was used to automatically compensate nonlinearly mechanical behaviors such as dead-zone and hysteresis phenomena. Furthermore, FSMC scheme has successfully overcome the high frequency chattering phenomena with lower control effort while the motor is applied to position tracking, and also has been proven in the excellent robust ability for noise rejection.

Design of a Haptic Arm Exoskeleton for Training and Rehabilitation

A high-quality haptic interface is typically characterized by low apparent inertia and damping, high structural stiffness, minimal backlash and absence of mechanical singularities in the workspace. In addition to these specifications, exoskeleton haptic interface design involves consideration of additional parameters and constraints including space and weight limitations, workspace requirements and the kinematic constraints placed on the device by the human arm. In this context, we present the design of a five degree-of-freedom haptic arm exoskeleton for training and rehabilitation in virtual environments. The design of the device, including actuator and sensor selection, is discussed. Limitations of the device that result from the above selections are also presented. The device is capable of providing kinesthetic feedback to the joints of the lower arm and wrist of the operator, and will be used in future work for robot-assisted rehabilitation and training.

High Speed Ring-Based Distributed Networked Control System for Real-Time Multivariable Applications

A networked control system (NCS) is a control architecture where sensors, actuators and controllers are distributed and interconnected. It is advantageous in terms of interoperability, expandability, installation, volume of wiring, maintenance, and cost-effectiveness. Many distributed network systems of various topologies and network type have been developed, but NCS systems tend to suffer from such issues as nondeterminism, long network delays, large overheads and unfairness. This paper presents the ring-based protocol, called the ExoNet, and its network architecture which are built to achieve better performance as a distributed networked system. A Cypress transceiver CY7C924ADX is applied to the network as a communication unit. The protocol is based on the transceiver and developed to achieve fast communication and allowable latency for controls with high control loop frequency. Compared with other standard network types such as Ethernet, ControlNet or DeviceNet, the network is characterized by its ring-based architecture, simple message and packet formats, one-shot distribution of control data and collection of sensor data, multi-node transmission, echo of a message, and other features. The network also guarantees determinism, collision-free transmission, relatively small overhead, fairness between nodes and flexibility in configuration. Its analysis and comparison with these network types are also provided and its application on the Berkeley Lower-Extremity Exoskeleton (BLEEX) is described.

Variable Structure Control of an Underactuated Air Spindle Testbed

A robust control algorithm is developed for attitude control of an air spindle testbed based on variable structure control. The variable structure control approach is formulated for underactuated systems with actuated accelerations as control inputs. First order sliding surfaces are defined per actuated degrees of freedom as a linear combination of the tracking position and velocity errors of both actuated and unactuated coordinates. The controller law is determined based on Lyapunov theory and is shown to be asymptotically stable for the tiled air spindle axis where gravitational effects are included but only marginally stable for the vertical axis. Multiple step sliding surfaces are proposed to achieve asymptotic stability in the latter case. Simulations of the controller performance verify its effectiveness and accuracy.

Conceptual Designs of Strong Hybrid Vehicle Powertrains

This paper describes four conceptual designs of strong hybrid vehicle powertrains. These concepts enable conversion of conventional powertrains into strong hybrid powertrains with minimal tear-up to the existing architecture. These concepts are configured as follows: (1) incorporates an electric machine attached to the front axle of a conventional rear-wheel-drive vehicle; (2) a Flywheel-Alternator-Starter (FAS) system with a motor placed between the torque converter and the transmission; (3) same as previous one but where the torque converter is replaced by a starting clutch; and (4) a dual mode Electric Variable Transmission (EVT). These concepts provide extensive hybrid functionality such as, electric motor-only drive; launch assist, braking energy recovery and regeneration. Simulation results indicate that the proposed strong hybrid concepts have the potential to provide fuel economy gains of 19% to 26% over conventional powertrains.

Neural Network Based Run-to-Run Process Controller for Copper Chemical Mechanical Polishing

Process Control is one of the key methods to improve manufacturing quality. This research proposes a neural network based run-to-run process control scheme that is adaptive to the time-varying environment. Two multilayer feedforward neural networks are implemented to conduct the process control and system identification duties. The controller neural network equips the control system with more capability in handling complicate nonlinear processes. With the system information provided by this neural network, batch polishing time (T) an additional control variable, can be implemented along with the commonly used down force (p) and relative speed between the plashing pad and the plashed wafer (v). Computer simulations and experiments on copper chemical mechanical polishing processes illustrate that in drafting suppression and environmental changing adaptation that the proposed neural network based run-to-run controller (NNRTRC) performs better than the double exponentially weighted moving average (d-EWMA) approach. It is also suggested that the proposed approach can be further implemented as both an end-point detector and a pad-conditioning sensor.

A New Trajectory-Generation Scheme for Overhead Cranes With High-Speed Load Hoisting

This paper proposes a new trajectory-generation scheme for a high-performance anti-swing control of overhead cranes, where the trajectory-generation problem is solved as a kinematic problem. First, a new anti-swing control law is designed based on the load-swing dynamics, for which the Lyapunov stability theorem is used as a mathematical tool. Then a new trajectory-generation scheme is proposed based on the anti-swing control law and typical crane operation in practice. For g iven hoisting motions, trolley-traveling trajectory references are computed based on the concept of minimum-time control, and then anti-swing trajectories are generated based on the trajectory references through the anti-swing control law. The new trajectory-generation scheme generates a typical anti-swing trajectory in industry with high-speed load hoisting. The effectiveness of the proposed trajectory-generation scheme is shown by generating high-performance anti-swing trajectories with high hoisting speed and hoisting ratio.