Navigating an auto guided vehicle using rotary encoders and proportional controller

Auto Guided Vehicle (AGV) is commonly used in industry to reduce labour cost and to improve the productivity. A few programmable devices are combined in an AGV to optimize the usage of time and energy. AGV is widely used to transport goods and materials from one place to another place. For the first generation of AGV was used the track to guide the AGV but it was not flexible enough. This study investigates an alternative to control an AGV using two rotary encoders and proportional controller. Arduino Mega 2560 was used as a microcontroller to receive and process the signals from the rotary encoders. Logic controller and proportional controller were implemented to control the AGV, respectively. The coefficient of proportional controller was optimized to improve the performance of the AGV during navigation process. Findings show that AGV with the proportional controller with coefficient 1.5 achieved the best performance during the navigation process

Real Hypersurfaces of Type A in Complex Two-Plane Grassmannians Related to The Reeb Vector Field

Y. J. Suh and H. Lee (Bull. Korean. Math. Soc. 47, 551-561 (2010)) characterized real hypersurfaces $M$ of type $B$ by the invariance of vector bundle $JTM^\perp$ under the shape operator and the orthogonality of $JTM^\perp$ and $\mathcal {J}TM^\perp$, where $TM^\perp$, $J$ and $\mathcal J$ are the normal bundle of $M$, K\"ahler structure and Quaternionic K\"ahler structure of $G_2({\mathbb{C}}^{m+2})$ respectively. In this paper, we characterize real hypersurfaces $M$ of type A by the invariance of the vector bundle $JTM^\perp$ under the shape operator with the Reeb vector field in $\mathcal {J}TM^\perp$.Comment: 8 page

Hopf hypersurfaces in complex Grassmannians of rank two

In this paper, we study real hypersurfaces in complex Grassmannians of rank two. First, the nonexistence of mixed foliate real hypersurfaces is proven. With this result, we show that for Hopf hypersurfaces in complex Grassmannians of rank two, the Reeb principal curvature is constant along integral curves of the Reeb vector field. As a result the classification of contact real hypersurfaces is obtained. We also introduce the notion of $q$-umbilical real hypersurfaces in complex Grassmannians of rank two and obtain a classification of such real hypersurfaces.Comment: 24 page

Acute effects of inspiratory pressure threshold loading upon airway resistance in people with asthma

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2009 Elsevier B.V.Large inspiratory pressures may impart stretch to airway smooth muscle and modify the response to deep inspiration (DI) in asthmatics. Respiratory system resistance (Rrs) was assessed in response to 5 inspiratory manoeuvres using the forced oscillation technique: (a) single unloaded DI; (b) single DI at 25 cmH2O; (c) single DI at 50% maximum inspiratory mouth pressure [MIP]; (d) 30 DIs at 50% MIP; and (e) 30 DIs at 50% MIP with maintenance of normocapnia. Rrs increased after the unloaded DI and the DI at 25 cmH2O but not after a DI at 50% MIP (3.6 ± 1.6 hPa L s−1 vs. 3.6 ± 1.5 hPa L s−1; p = 0.95), 30 DIs at 50% MIP (3.9 ± 1.5 hPa L s−1 vs. 4.2 ± 2.0 hPa L s−1; p = 0.16) or 30 DIs at 50% MIP under normocapnic conditions (3.9 ± 1.5 hPa L s−1 vs. 3.9 ± 1.5 hPa L s−1; p = 0.55). Increases in Rrs in response to DI were attenuated after single and multiple loaded breaths at 50% MIP

Predictive positioning and quality of service ridesharing for campus mobility on demand systems

Autonomous Mobility On Demand (MOD) systems can utilize fleet management strategies in order to provide a high customer quality of service (QoS). Previous works on autonomous MOD systems have developed methods for rebalancing single capacity vehicles, where QoS is maintained through large fleet sizing. This work focuses on MOD systems utilizing a small number of vehicles, such as those found on a campus, where additional vehicles cannot be introduced as demand for rides increases. A predictive positioning method is presented for improving customer QoS by identifying key locations to position the fleet in order to minimize expected customer wait time. Ridesharing is introduced as a means for improving customer QoS as arrival rates increase. However, with ridesharing perceived QoS is dependent on an often unknown customer preference. To address this challenge, a customer ratings model, which learns customer preference from a 5-star rating, is developed and incorporated directly into a ridesharing algorithm. The predictive positioning and ridesharing methods are applied to simulation of a real-world campus MOD system. A combined predictive positioning and ridesharing approach is shown to reduce customer service times by up to 29%. and the customer ratings model is shown to provide the best overall MOD fleet management performance over a range of customer preferences.Ford Motor CompanyFord-MIT Allianc

Demand estimation and chance-constrained fleet management for ride hailing

In autonomous Mobility on Demand (MOD) systems, customers request rides from a fleet of shared vehicles that can be automatically positioned in response to customer demand. Recent approaches to MOD systems have focused on environments where customers can only request rides through an app or by waiting at a station. This paper develops MOD fleet management approaches for ride hailing, where customers may instead request rides simply by hailing a passing vehicle, an approach of particular importance for campus MOD systems. The challenge for ride hailing is that customer demand is not explicitly provided as it would be with an app, but rather customers are only served if a vehicle happens to be located at the arrival location. This work focuses on maximizing the number of served hailing customers in an MOD system by learning and utilizing customer demand. A Bayesian framework is used to define a novel customer demand model which incorporates observed pedestrian traffic to estimate customer arrival locations with a quantification of uncertainty. An exploration planner is proposed which routes MOD vehicles in order to reduce arrival rate uncertainty. A robust ride hailing fleet management planner is proposed which routes vehicles under the presence of uncertainty using a chance-constrained formulation. Simulation of a real-world MOD system on MIT's campus demonstrates the effectiveness of the planners. The customer demand model and exploration planner are demonstrated to reduce estimation error over time and the ride hailing planner is shown to improve the fraction of served customers in the system by 73% over a baseline exploration approach.Ford-MIT AllianceFord Motor Compan

Cinnamomum iners as Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Kinase (MKK1) inhibitor

Novel inhibitors targeting signal transductions have emerged for cancer therapies. Cinnamomum species have been reported to inhibit the proliferation of various cell lines. In this study, the methanol and acetone extracts of Cinnamomum iner’s leaves demonstrated significant anti-kinase activity against MKK1 in the signal transduction pathway at quantity as low as 1 and 6 mg respectively. Both of the extracts were found to contain polyphenol and flavonoid with potent anti-oxidation activity against DPPH free radicals (IC50=0.2 and 0.3 mg/mL respectively). In conclusion, the extracts may serve as potential MKK1 inhibitors which can be developed into anti-cancer drug

S-matrix approach to quantum gases in the unitary limit II: the three-dimensional case

A new analytic treatment of three-dimensional homogeneous Bose and Fermi gases in the unitary limit of negative infinite scattering length is presented, based on the S-matrix approach to statistical mechanics we recently developed. The unitary limit occurs at a fixed point of the renormalization group with dynamical exponent z=2 where the S-matrix equals -1. For fermions we find T_c /T_F is approximately 0.1. For bosons we present evidence that the gas does not collapse, but rather has a critical point that is a strongly interacting form of Bose-Einstein condensation. This bosonic critical point occurs at n lambda^3 approximately 1.3 where n is the density and lambda the thermal wavelength, which is lower than the ideal gas value of 2.61.Comment: 26 pages, 16 figure

A Detailed Study of Spitzer-IRAC Emission in Herbig-Haro Objects (I): Morphology and Flux Ratios of Shocked Emission

We present a detailed analysis of Spitzer-IRAC images obtained toward six Herbig-Haro objects (HH 54/211/212, L 1157/1448, BHR 71). Our analysis includes: (1) comparisons in morphology between the four IRAC bands (3.6, 4.5, 5.8 and 8.0 um), and H2 1-0 S(1) at 2.12 um for three out of six objects; (2) measurements of spectral energy distributions (SEDs) at selected positions; and (3) comparisons of these results with calculations of thermal H2 emission at LTE (207 lines in four bands) and non-LTE (32-45 lines, depending on particle for collisions). We show that the morphologies observed at 3.6 and 4.5 um are similar to each other, and to H2 1-0 S(1). This is well explained by thermal H2 emission at non-LTE if the dissociation rate is significantly larger than 0.002-0.02, allowing thermal collisions to be dominated by atomic hydrogen. In contrast, the 5.8 and 8.0 um emission shows different morphologies from the others in some regions. This emission appears to be more enhanced at the wakes in bow shocks, or less enhanced in patchy structures in the jet. These tendencies are explained by the fact that thermal H2 emission in the 5.8 and 8.0 um band is enhanced in regions at lower densities and temperatures. Throughout, the observed similarities and differences in morphology between four bands and 1-0 S(1) are well explained by thermal H2 emission. The observed SEDs are categorized into:- (A) those in which the flux monotonically increases with wavelength; and (B) those with excess emission at 4.5-um. The type-A SEDs are explained by thermal H2 emission, in particular with simple shock models with a power-law cooling function. Our calculations suggest that the type-B SEDs require extra contaminating emission in the 4.5-um band. The CO vibrational emission is the most promising candidate, and the other contaminants discussed to date are not likely to explain the observed SEDs.Comment: 35 pages, 21 figures, 6 tables, accepted by Astrophysical Journa