Researchers and developers are pursuing increasingly sophisticated roles for autonomous systems. Whether working within networked systems as software agents or embedded in robots and unmanned vehicles, what makes thes...
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Researchers and developers are pursuing increasingly sophisticated roles for autonomous systems. Whether working within networked systems as software agents or embedded in robots and unmanned vehicles, what makes these systems valuable is their intelligent, active, and adaptive nature. These qualities are often characterized in intelligent systems literature by the word "autonomy"-a catch-all label that highlights the qualities of self-directedness and self-sufficiency in task performance. Though continuing research to make machines more active, adaptive, and functional is essential, the point of increasing such proficiencies is not merely to make the machines more independent during times when unsupervised activity is desirable or necessary, but also to make them more capable of sophisticated interdependent joint activity with people and other machines when such is required. That means autonomous systems must support not only fluid orchestration of task handoffs among different people and machines, but also combined participation on shared tasks requiring continuous and close interaction. HART research seeks to bring together the best thinking from diverse research communities in order to advance current and anticipated applications of intelligent human-machine collaboration, including the participation of humans as first-class citizens in collaboration with autonomous systems. This would enable autonomous systems not merely to do things for people, but also to work together with people and other systems-the inevitable next leap-forward required in autonomous system design and deployment.
The design of an efficient and cost-effective software system for a process control workstation is presented. The workstation can operate either in stand-alone mode or as a control module in a distributed control hier...
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The design of an efficient and cost-effective software system for a process control workstation is presented. The workstation can operate either in stand-alone mode or as a control module in a distributed control hierarchy. Among its key features is a user-friendly operator interface allowing dynamic and menu-driven definition of all system parameters.
The paper describes a method for providing improved prototyping capabilities in a process control system emulation tool. The tool, the NIST Hierarchical control System Emulator, allows concurrent execution of modules ...
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The paper describes a method for providing improved prototyping capabilities in a process control system emulation tool. The tool, the NIST Hierarchical control System Emulator, allows concurrent execution of modules emulating both physical processes and decision processes. The concurrent modules are specified as extended finite state machines. This paper describes the emulation tool and presents a simple method for transforming code, written with structured control constructs, into an extended state machine representation usable on the Emulator, providing the capability for rapid prototyping of designs. The paper also discusses advantages and disadvantages of this approach against direct use of state tables for specifying processes on the Emulator.
Water leak detection systems are a specialist service applicable insensitive areas and important buildings. They provide early warning of leaks and thus help to prevent damage to equipment and buildings. These are oft...
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Water leak detection systems are a specialist service applicable insensitive areas and important buildings. They provide early warning of leaks and thus help to prevent damage to equipment and buildings. These are often in areas of uninsured risk. This article describes a TCS Programme to develop a new microcontroller system, its basic operating principles and the benefits to the company.
The paper deals with the design of controllers for a paper-stock flowbox using nonlinear models derived from equations representing the dynamics of slurry flow and pressurised air in the box. Three control schemes hav...
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The paper deals with the design of controllers for a paper-stock flowbox using nonlinear models derived from equations representing the dynamics of slurry flow and pressurised air in the box. Three control schemes have been considered, namely interactive control, noninteracting control and complementary interacting control. The control schemes have been compared by digital simulation of the box and controllers. Noninteractive control shows significant improvements over the dual-control interactive scheme but the best control is given by the complementary interactive scheme.
Automated vehicles (AVs) may feature blinded (i.e. blacked-out) windows and external human-machine interfaces (eHMIs), and the driver may be inattentive or absent, but how these features affect cyclists is unknown. In...
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Automated vehicles (AVs) may feature blinded (i.e. blacked-out) windows and external human-machine interfaces (eHMIs), and the driver may be inattentive or absent, but how these features affect cyclists is unknown. In a crowdsourcing study, participants viewed images of approaching vehicles from a cyclist's perspective and decided whether to brake. The images depicted different combinations of traditional vehicles versus AVs, eHMI presence, vehicle approach direction, driver visibility/window-blinding, visual complexity of the surroundings, and distance to the cyclist (urgency). The results showed that the eHMI and urgency level had a strong impact on crossing decisions, whereas visual complexity had no significant influence. Blinded windows caused participants to brake for the traditional vehicle. A second crowdsourcing experiment aimed to clarify the findings of Experiment 1 by also requiring participants to detect the vehicle features. It was found that the eHMI 'GO' and blinded windows yielded high detection rates and that driver eye contact caused participants to continue pedalling. To conclude, blinded windows increase the probability that cyclists brake, and driver eye contact stimulates cyclists to continue cycling. Our findings, which were obtained with large international samples, may help elucidate how AVs (in which the driver may not be visible) affect cyclists' behaviour.
Multilevel inverters generate high-level voltage with high quality and low-harmonic distortion, and these unique properties have increased their applications in renewable energy sources. However, these inverters requi...
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Multilevel inverters generate high-level voltage with high quality and low-harmonic distortion, and these unique properties have increased their applications in renewable energy sources. However, these inverters require several passive components and a complex pulse width modulation (PWM) control method. Besides, they suffer from voltage balancing problems. In this work, a new inverter has proposed that generates seven-level voltage from one DC source by reduced number of switches which does not exhibit any voltage balancing problem. The proposed inverter without any extra boost circuit is able to increase the input voltage. The voltage stress on all the switches in the proposed inverter is the same. In this study, variable amplitude phase disposition PWM control method that is compatible with the proposed inverter is developed. Moreover, extended structure of the proposed inverter and its new algorithm in generating all odd and even voltage levels are proposed. To validate the performance of the inverter, a prototype has been built and tested and also its performance has been modelled using PSCAD/EMTDC software package. Very good agreement has been achieved between experimental results and simulations.
This paper describes a project to investigate the feasibility of using a small digital computer to automatically control the manufacture of multilayer thin film optical interference devices. The manufacturing process ...
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This paper describes a project to investigate the feasibility of using a small digital computer to automatically control the manufacture of multilayer thin film optical interference devices. The manufacturing process and the computer control systems are described in detail and the results from a particular case study are presented. These results relate to the manufacture of a 5-layer antireflectance coating. The computer is shown to be able to control the process with precision and to have the potential for manufacturing devices toa consistent high quality.
The CAN (controller area network) is a serial communication protocol for distributed real-time control and automation systems. Data generated from field devices in manufacturing automation and process control systems ...
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The CAN (controller area network) is a serial communication protocol for distributed real-time control and automation systems. Data generated from field devices in manufacturing automation and process control systems are classified into three categories: real-time event data, real-time control data and non-real-time data. These data share a common CAN medium. Unless the traffic of the CAN protocol is efficiently controlled, performance of the real-time application systems interconnected into the CAN bus can be degraded. The paper proposes a bandwidth allocation algorithm that can be applicable to the CAN protocol. The bandwidth allocation algorithm not only satisfies the performance requirement of real-time application systems interconnected into the CAN but also fully utilises the bandwidth of the CAN. The bandwidth allocation algorithm introduced in the paper is validated using a simulation experiment.
Rye House power station near Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire, the second of PowerGen's combined-cycle plants built by Siemens, was officially opened by Lord Wakeham on the 19th April 1994. This article takes a brief lo...
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Rye House power station near Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire, the second of PowerGen's combined-cycle plants built by Siemens, was officially opened by Lord Wakeham on the 19th April 1994. This article takes a brief look at this increasingly important power generating technology and its application at Rye House.
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