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This paper presents tool for analysis of CFD adapted for flows in multi-staged stirred vessels with fractal pattern baffled for industrial. In order to develop a good mixing process model for stirred tanks, several way have been investigated by using the computational fluid dynamic. Implementing fractal design into stirred tank’s baffle and impeller are believed to influence the flow characteristic inside the stirred tank. The mixing process will be conduct by using multi-stage stirred tanks. Hence, the study is to simulate a fractal pattern baffled stirred vessels with fractal base of impeller. Four models with a new concept and different design of stirred tank have been introduced and studied. The multi-stages stirred tanks will adapted with fractal base pattern concept. The simulation is carry out by using the standard k-ε turbulence model. The results have been analysis in order to prove that which one of that model is the most effective in mixing. The flows produced in stirred tank are different and relevant with each model. The velocity profiles also give a relevant and quite impressive result by each model. At the end, the results will be examined and compared with each data that use a common type of baffle and impeller design.

This paper presents frequency analyses of sounds produced by traditional Malay musical instrument “kompang”. Kompang is used to produce exotic sound especially certain grand ceremony. In order to produce sound, different types of skins are used especially made from polymer (used x-ray film) and animal skins. However, the sound produced by a polymeric skin is not similar with the sound produced using an animal skin. Therefore, this present work investigated the effect of such skins on the sound produced and as a result affecting the sound quality. Appropriated software is used to conduct the frequency analyses in order to investigate whether the polymeric skin can be a replaceable skin in replacing an animal skin. It is found two different skin materials have their own sound characteristics and it is also indicated that lower peak sound frequency produced by animal skin compared with the polymeric skin.

There are many ways to control the vibration of plate structure. Conventional approaches that include structural alterations are frequently time consuming and costly. One of the common schemes is using vibration absorber attached to a structure. In this paper, a mathematical model is developed to determine the frequency response of fixed-fixed ends plate with attached vibration absorber. A finite element analysis was performed and compared with the theoretical predictions and showed that there was good resemblance. The results demonstrated that the addition of vibration absorber onto plate can attenuate vibration considerably at a constant frequency.

Functional recovery of upper limb after stroke is crucial to restore the ability to perform activities of daily living (ADL). This paper presents a robotic rehabilitation approach based on repetitive exercise aimed to help stroke survivors relearn the skills of finger flexion and extension at the comfort of their home. The finger rehabilitation device deploysShape Memory Alloy(SMA) wires as an actuation approach to deliver three degrees of freedom per finger module. The advantages and challenges of using SMA wires rather than conventional actuators are discussed. A prototype of the finger rehabilitation device was built using PLA material and experiments have been conducted for the purposes of feasibility study. Tests conducted on the wires suggest that it has to have sufficient weight and also has to be stretching at high temperature rather than room temperature in order to have an optimum range of recovery.

Level of Development (LOD) is a protocol exhibit to address the basic guidelines of Building Information Modeling (BIM). The basic guidelines were created to identify specific content requirements, authorize use and purpose. LOD identifies how much information is known about a model at a given time. The use of LOD is to reduce the problems due to inadequate information needed in projects. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the implementation of LOD in projects using BIM in the Malaysian construction industry. In order to do so, a literature review was carried out to identify basic guidelines of the LOD specification. In addition to this, semi-structured interviews were conducted with BIM consultants from the public and private sector. The findings revealed that the implementation of LOD in Malaysia is varied with its own purpose. From the use of LOD, it helps construction players to get the information that they can be used.

On this journal, modeling relation of rotor speed and rotor diameter toward yarn tension on take-off nozzle has been validated by theoretical approach and numeric computation.It shows that value of yarn tension is F=(1,4.10-13)Tt nR2dR2[cN]. Excessively high spinning tension always results in an intolerable increase in yarn breakage. This paper presents a comparative study of theoretical and reference-based experimental result for predicting the actual strength of open-end spinning system.

This paper presents an investigation of the effect of load variation on gear tooth surface micropitting, for an application in planet gears in a wind turbine gearbox. To study the effect of load variation, two methods are employed: an experimental testing of gear micropitting under variable loading and a probabilistic analysis of gear contact stress and specific lubricant film thickness variations using the ISO Technical Report ISO/TR 15144-1:2010. The load variation of wind turbine gearbox is derived from SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) data recorded in operation. Both experimental and analytical results show that high levels of contact stress, load variations and repeated load cycles are determinant factors for the initiation and propagation of micropitting of gear tooth surfaces.

World population is steadily increasing and it is estimated to reach 9 billion in 2050. Moreover, 72% of people live in big cities and the buildings energy requirement is growing, reaching the 45% of the total energy amount.This paper presents of a building energy efficient properly designed to realize a solar-powered house that is cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. The study applied a methodology which is able to identify the best building plant configuration under a technical, economical and environmental point of view. It has been demonstrated that the proposed plant allows to reduce the fossil fuels consumption compared to a plant conventionally employed, with a proportional reduction of the greenhouse gas emissions of about 30% per year.

Mosques as a symbol of Islamic cities have a significant place in Islamic Architecture and it prompts architects to create admirable, magnificent buildings. While several studies have done on features and prototypes in this field but mainly it leaded to exaggerate dominance of dome as inseparable component of mosques. Although dome construction is costly, it is not that much adaptable to different climates and even it is not a good culture indicator of different countries, still there is a strong insist on presence of dome in mosques everywhere. This paper aims to study African mosque example which deeply relied on vernacular architecture. Various styles of design in Mali as case study investigated in terms of material, design concept, to arrive at concrete results.

This paper is trying to analysis and proposes some design of grey water system in The National University of Malaysia (UKM) mosque in order to save environment. With proper grey water treatment, UKM Mosque will contribute to save water and UKM’s environment. This successful water treatment is also can be an alternative model to apply in another building. This environmental issue, especially water was realized by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) by starting to be a first pioneer in Green & Sustainability Campus in Malaysia. Although UKM is located in water-rich country, still UKM try to commit to save environment as well as manage its environment aspect. The usage of water in UKM itself is categorized in high level. UKM have around 20.000 students and most of them are dwelling in campus. For big campus like this, UKM had one main Mosque which accommodates some daily worship of Moslem as the majority one. For activities like ablution, washing and bathing, UKM Mosque had produce quite big amount of grey water. Grey water itself is residual water that still fresh and can be recycled for some purposes such as landscape irrigation and cleaning service. One alternative method to treats the grey water is by the usage of filter wells.

In rapidly developed countries such as malaysia, the importance of urban parks is recognized by development of new parks expecially in Putrajaya. This paper analyses the status of Putra Perdana Parks in Putrajaya in terms of vistors satisfaction towards park setting including people’s needs, accessibility, park safety, parks design and park facilities and mainteanace using Post Occupancy Evalution (POE) method. Data was compiled by meansof a literature review, observation and survey among visitors. Result shows Putra Perdana Parks is the effectiveness of a park’s design with visitors were satisfaction with score 4 out of 5 using 5 rating likert scale performance. Challenges releted to this publication should guide the landscape architects as well as the contractors to see the importance of conducting POE in the future and to upgrade the existing parks in Malaysia.

Heritage culture and building in Penang have become among value asset in Malaysia. George Town inner cities most treasure architecture are located and can divided into several zone, it culture has been moulded by the succession of civilization that arrive and shaped its urban growth. Heritage building in the inner city exposes the sense of compromise between the pioneers, earlier settlers and later immigrants. The significant heritage character of George Town, Penang is reflect upon the predominant pre war buildings, the heritage buildings dates back to between late eighteen century and early nineteenth century. This paper will consider on Penang as World Heritage City, the conservation of the buildings in Penang and also legal provision related to conservation of heritage buildings in Penang.

Vibration phenomena taking place in lifting and hoist installations may influence the dynamic performance of their components. For example, in an elevator system they may affect ride quality of a lift car. Lateral and longitudinal vibrations of suspension ropes and compensating cables may result in an adverse dynamic behaviour of the entire installation. Thus, there is a need to develop reliable mathematical and computer simulation models to predict the dynamic behaviour of suspension rope and compensating cable systems. The aim of this paper is to develop a model of an aramid suspension rope system in order to predict nonlinear modal interactions taking place in the installation. A laboratory model comprising an aramid suspension rope, a sheave/ pulley assembly and a rigid suspended mass has been studied. Experimental tests have been conducted to identify modal nonlinear couplings in the system. The dynamic behaviour of the model has been described by a set of nonlinear partial differential equations. The equations have been solved numerically. The numerical results have been validated by experimental tests. It has been shown that the nonlinear couplings may lead to adverse modal interactions in the system.

This paper empirically investigates the variations of embodied energy (EE) and carbon (EC) intensities of materials and identifies their parameter variations in hybrid life cycle assessment (LCA). These parameters include energy tariff, primary energy factor, disaggregation constant, emission factor, and price fluctuation. Hybrid LCA has been conducted to expand the system boundary by filling the gaps in traditional LCA data inventories. The Malaysian Input-Output (I-O) tables are used to derive indirect energy and carbon intensities which are then combined to take advantages of detailed process LCA. The results revealed that maximum increase in energy tariffs and material price fluctuations were the key parameters and issues leading to higher variations in EE and EC intensity values. Other parameters – such as maximum increase in primary energy factor, emission factor and excluding disaggregation constant – have a slight impact upon EE and EC intensity variations. Building materials with high indirect energy in the upstream boundary of materials production have high influence on hybrid LCA variation. Therefore, any decision relating to these materials should be considered carefully.

This paper is primarily concentrated with determining aerodynamic characteristics and choosing the best angle of attack at a maximum lift and low drag for the FX 63-137 aerofoil at a low Reynolds number and a speed of 20m/s and 30m/s, by using subsonic wind tunnel through manufacturing the aerofoil by aluminum alloy using a CNC machine. The proposed methodology is divided into several stages. Firstly, manufacturing the aerofoil using an aluminum alloy. Secondly, the testing process is carried out using subsonic wind tunnel. Thirdly, the results are displayed and compared with results produced from related works, in order to find out the best angle of attack at a maximum lift.

Transportation has already become a huge necessity in people's life today. As the world progresses, transportation systems will have to undergo paradigm shifts to adapt with the changing requirements. Personal transportation is typically preferred to the public transportation and to date, most domestic travels have been made on the ground through roads. However, with the increasing traffic volume, the average time spent travelling on roads has significantly increased for the same amount of distance travelled. It has been proposed that utilization of the possible third dimension of transportation system, which is the air transportation, can aid personal transportation and alleviate this problem. This notion gives birth to the design concepts of the personal air vehicle (PAVE) that is envisioned to operate synergistically with the existing ground and air infrastructures. This paper aims to preliminarily study and analyze the potential benefits of having PAVE option in Malaysia for domestic travel and how its performance fares in comparison to existing transportation options. The results of travel time and cost comparisons highlight the potential of PAVE application for the domestic transportation in Malaysia, particularly for personal travel need.

A method for deriving the parameters of a six-degree-of-freedom (6-DoF) aircraft dynamics model by adopting reverse engineering techniques is presented. The novelty of the paper is the adaption of the 6-DoF Aircraft Dynamics Model (ADM) as a virtual sensor integrated in a low-cost navigation and guidance system designed for small Unmanned Aircraft (UA). The mass and aerodynamic properties of the JAVELIN UA are determined with the aid of an accurate 3D scanning and CAD processing. For qualitatively assessing the calculated ADM, a trajectory with high dynamics is simulated for the JAVELIN UA and compared with that of a published 6-DoF model of the AEROSONDE UA. Additionally, to confirm the validity of the approach, reverse engineering procedures are applied to a published CAD model of the AEROSONDE UA aiding to the calculation of the associated 6-DoF model parameters. A spiral descent trajectory is generated using both the published and calculated parameters of the AEROSONDE UA and a comparative analysis is performed that validates the methodology. The accurate knowledge of the ADM is then utilized in the development of a virtual sensor to augment the UA navigation and guidance system in case of primary navigation sensor outages.

Traditionally, Kalman Filter is used for the purpose of mixing several input signals and extracting a more reliable output, which greatly benefits aircraft navigation. This paper considers a fusion of four sensor systems: Global Positioning System (GPS), accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer. The resultant device, known as Starfish Main Tracking Unit (MTU), is a Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) / Tracking System equipment that uses General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) / Iridium / ICS (Internet Communications Services), which provides low cost telemetry as well as multiple solutions for global flight following and flight data transfer between aircraft and ground. Users from ground are able to monitor their fleet, configure their systems and also generate various flight reports from a single web-based interface, named the Starfish Fleet Management system. This developed system complements the Black Box by downloading limited aircraft data to the ground, provides real time tracking and assist in Search and Rescue (SAR) mission.

This paper presents the concept of operations, architecture and trajectory optimisation algorithms of a Next Generation Flight Management System (NG-FMS). The NG-FMS is developed for Four Dimensional (4D) Intent Based Operations (IBO) in the next generation Communications, Navigation, Surveillance and Air Traffic Management system (CNS+A) context. The NG-FMS, primarily responsible for the aircraft navigation and guidance task, acts as a key enabler for achieving higher level of operational efficiency and mitigating environmental impacts both in manned and unmanned aircraft applications. The NG-FMS is interoperable with the future ground based 4DT Planning, Negotiation and Validation (4-PNV) systems, enabling automated Trajectory/Intent Based Operations (TBO/IBO). After the NG-FMS architecture is presented, the key mathematical models describing the trajectory generation and optimisation modes are introduced. A detailed error analysis is performed and the uncertainties affecting the nominal trajectories are studied to obtain the total NG-FMS error budgets. These are compared with the Required Navigation Performance (RNP) values for the various operational flight tasks considered.

Cavitation is a phenomenon that frequently creates fear within the engineering industry as the violent and critical attacks by cavitation can cause a lot of damage to ball valves. This paper is presented to reduce the risk of cavitation attack due to dramatic pressure drop and to demonstrate the ball valve performance. The ball valve with grooves was simulated and compared with current method under same boundary conditions as with existing experimental of ball valves. The proposed device can be operated in aircraft to isolate the fuel system and the engine fuel system after engine shutdown or emergency. The proposed implementation has successfully shown to eliminate the dramatic pressure drop effects to the ball valve. In the case study, at a closing angle of 40° at which violent cavitation occurs, the ball valve showed increasing cavitation intensity performance to 0.3 or 30%. The average performance of the cavitation index for all cases also increased to 24%.

This paper provides a characterization of the electrical energy consumption of agrifood industries located in the central region of Portugal that use refrigeration systems to ensure the food safety. The study is based on the result analysis of survey data and energy characteristics of the participating companies belonging to the following agrifood sectors: meat, dairy, horticultural, distribution and wine. Through the quantification of energy consumption of companies is possible to determine the amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions indexed to its manufacturing process. Comparing the energy and GHGs emissions indexes of companies of a sector and between sectors is possible to create reference levels. With the results of this work is possible to rating the companies in relation to reference levels of energy and GHGs emissions and thus promote the rational use of energy by the application of practice measures for the improvement of the energy efficiency and the reduction of GHGs emissions.

This paper presents a numerical model for a flexible tethered satellite system in both planar and co-planar environment. This tethered satellite system consists of three rigid bodies with two flexible tethers, each connecting two rigid bodies with one located in the center serving as the mothership. The dynamics of the system include tether deformations, rotational dynamics and orbital mechanics. Five different materials that are commonly used will be tested accordingly in order to observe its performance based on the tension of the tether. It is found that, based on all of the materials simulated, diamond has the best tension performance.

One of the key challenges of designing low-cost Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) is to ensure acceptable and certifiable reliability factors for the adopted Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) components since their reliability is often not quantified. In this paper, the experimental results obtained for quantifying the reliability of mini Unmanned Aircraft (UA) servomotors (by recording their time-to-failure on a defined set of test runs) are presented. The Weibull prediction model is adopted for quantitative analysis and the associated key mathematical models. The methodology adopted for performing the reliability analysis including the test bench setup used for the experiments is described. The results indicate a level of reliability expected for low-cost servos. Such servos could be used for low-risk UAS operations (e.g. small UA operating over sparsely populated regions) and where the economics of the business case permitted higher loss rates.

To assess a car under the Euro New Car Assessment Program (Euro-NCAP), Adult Occupant Protection is one out of three parameters which need to be calculated with a weight factor of 50% while the other parameters, Child Occupant Protection and Pedestrian Occupant Protection, have a weight factor of 20%. The Pole Side Impact Test, beside two other tests, Side & Front Impact, is also required to calculate the Adult Occupant Protection. It shows how important the Pole Side Impact Test is and what an effective role it has in the car rating assessment. In this paper, the objective is to evaluate the effect of thickness on the energy absorbed by the side doors and the B pillar and its crashworthiness in a Pole Side Impact Test based on the Euro NCAP. In this matter, a vehicle model has been designed and prepared using CATIA and meshed using Hypermesh. Five thicknesses have been chosen including 0.6 mm, 1 mm, 1.2 mm, 1.4 mm and the original thickness of the side doors, 0.75 mm. The simulations have been repeated, using LS DYNA solver, assigning each of five thicknesses to the side doors and the B pillar of the vehicle. Initial conditions defined by the Euro NCAP, including velocity and directions, have been applied to the model. A total of 5 simulations have been conducted. The results showed that changing the thickness of the side doors and the B pillar does not necessarily have a direct influence on energy absorbed. The conclusion is that there are different proper thicknesses for each part which will result in optimized energy absorption.

In this paper the methods of static and dynamic analysis of the closing rotor balancing device of the multistage centrifugal pump are represented. On an example of the feed pump PE 600-300 static and dynamic characteristics are determined. Defined the resonance frequencies and investigated stability of the system “pump rotor – automatic balancing device – pressure difference regulator”. The dependence for the pressure difference and conditions to ensure reliable operation of the locking rotor balancing device are determined.

In digital tourism, the current hot topic on tourism is applying data mining [1] technology to conduct deep analysis and disposal on mass data of tourism information in order to provide service for individual needs of user. This paper mainly introduced a kind of tourism service intelligent recommendation system based on Apriori-MD algorithm. Through data comparison analysis, we found that Apriori-MD algorithm was a kind of intelligent recommendation method with superior performance whose enforcement efficiency was doubled compared to Apriori algorithm. Satisfactory recommendation result can be obtained according to the demand of users and has wide application prospect in tourism market.

The engineering ideas, which reflect value pursuits of engineering practitioners, are overall, principled, programmatic requirements for engineering. From the function aspect, the engineering ideas are the fundamental guiding ideology as well as essential principles for engineering practices. Based on the predecessors' achievements, this paper presents that the core ideas of modern engineering can be summarized to have following attributes: people-oriented, resource saving, and environmental friendly. Furthermore, the relevant explanations and demonstrations to each point are incorporated.

The Outlier detection is one of the major issues that has been worked out deeply within the Data Mining domain. It has been used to detect dissimilar observations within the data taken into the account. Detection of outliers helps to recognize the system faults and thereby helping the administrators to take preventive measures before it rises. In this paper, we recommends a comprehensive survey of an outlier detection. We anticipate this survey will support a better understanding of various directions in which experimental approach can be done on this topic.

Remote controlled cars currently in the market only offer one transmission mode. They are less efficient in acceleration while the torque cannot be increase during the low speed. Although improvement has been made by upgrading to two speed transmissions, but the gearing system is still not sufficient to maximize the speed of nitro engine. With a third gear, the car has the potential to increase its velocity and fully utilize its engine power. This paper focus on the transmission system model for 1/10th scale nitro engine which can produce up to 30,000 rpm. The third gears has shown significant improvement of the car theoretical speed up to 210 km/h.

The paper presents a literature review of the efficacy of side passive safety in the event of lateral collision and the latest development of side airbag. According to the latest Global Status Report on Road Safety 2013, the total number of death every year due to road accident still maintained in a huge number of 1.24 million. Malaysia is one of the countries having highest estimated road traffic death rate of 25 per 100,000 populations. Moreover, 5% growth annually of fatalities rate forecasted. In general, lateral collision or side impact is the second most common vehicle crash type which takes almost 10,000 occupant deaths each year. Side airbags were introduced into vehicle firstly in 1995 in order to improve occupants injury. It is statically proven that combination of head with thorax side airbag is very effective in reducing occupants fatalities rate, however thorax only airbag is less significant. With the aid from Computer Aided Engineer (CAE) software, designer can further improve airbag design and optimize its performance in order to find the best combination of design parameter such as of area of air vent, Time-To-Fire (TTF), operating pressure of the inflator gas and many more, while design cycle time can be reduced significantly up to 40%. Nevertheless, people are afraid that side airbag deployment load may hurt children and small size female seated in Out-Of-Position (OOP). Researcher could resolve it by adopting the latest Computer Fluid Design (CFD) airbag simulation technique which have a better simulation result of OOP load, since CFD method provide more realistic airbag deployment simulations especially in the first few milliseconds which are significant in OOP test.

This paper presents the crushing behaviour of empty and foam-filled conical tubes under axial dynamic loading. A nonlinear finite element (FE) model was developed and validated against experiments. The validated model was subsequently used to assess the beneficial of foam filling with regards to the variation in filler densities and tube materials. The results obtained were further analyzed and compared with straight tubes. We aim to evaluate the critical effective point for different density of fillers in foam-filled tubes based on specific energy absorption (SEA) value. The SEA value was highest for foam-filled conical aluminium tube with aluminium foam filler, followed by straight aluminium tube, straight carbon steel tube and conical carbon steel tube. Moreover, the initial peak force was found lower in aluminium tubes than carbon steel tubes and lower in conical tubes than that in straight tubes. The combination of conical aluminium tube and aluminium foam filler successfully convey the beneficial of foam filling and thus signify that proper combination and selection of tube and filler is vital in assessing the effectiveness of foam-filled tubes.

This paper presents the use of statistical-probabilistic method in determining pile bearing capacities over a number of driven piles. Four dynamic formulas were employed to estimate pile bearing capacity including modified ENR, Hiley, Navy – McKay and Danish. We investigated the final setting data of 47 concrete piles with 600 mm diameter in the construction projects of New Naval Engineering Building Hasanuddin University. Based on the data, pile bearing capacity were computed and then analyzed statistically. Goodness of fit with Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk were used to fit the probability distribution function (PDF) of the pile bearing capacity data to the PDF model. It was found that the pile bearing capacity estimated using ENR is more uniform with 506 tons average pile capacity and 6.4% COV, while that with Hiley and Danish are less various with 252 tons and 346 tons average pile capacity, and 14.7% and 16.6% COV respectively. Navy-McKay was found to have 465.8 tons average pile capacity with higher variability of 44.08%. A 90% Probability of pile bearing capacity estimated by ENR is 535 tons, or 1.17 times the upper bound, and 1.4 times the lower bound of pile capacity measured by pile driving analyzer (PDA). In comparison, 90% probability estimated by Danish is 420 tons or 0.93 times and 0.92 of the upper and lower bound of pile capacity measured by PDA, respectively. The Navy-McKay seeems to be overestimated whereas Hiley is underestimated.

Long-term analysis of timber-concrete composite (TCC) structures is a challenging task owing to the time-dependent behaviour of timber, concrete and connections which are highly nonlinear under variable environmental conditions (i.e. temperature, humidity). In this paper an efficient numerical method that takes advantage of a finite element-finite difference (FE-FD) scheme is presented. The differential equations governing the long-term behaviour of TCC section under variable humidity are solved using the FD scheme and the differential equations governing the mechanical behaviour of the composite beam are solved by a FE formulation recast in the framework of force-interpolation concept. The comparison between experimental data and numerical results shows the sufficient accuracy of the proposed FE-FD model for capturing long-term behaviour of TCC members. © (2014) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland.

Microforming technology has attracted more and more attention because of its high utilization in almost every field. However, due to size effect, the conventional scale mechanical processing theories could not be applicable. Further, the characteristic of each single grain involved in the deformed area activates to play a significant role in the manufacturing process. In order to reflect and investigate the relationship among these grains better, this paper represents a pre-process modeling method with Voronoi tessellation to reveal the grained heterogeneity of workpiece numerically in order to obtain high accuracy and prediction result in finite element (FE) modelling of microforming process. Corresponding micro V-bending experiments have been carried out, and the experimental results are in good agreement with simulation results in terms of final angles after micro bending with consideration of springback. © (2014) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland.

Hyper-redundant robot (HRR) manipulators are useful at navigating convoluted paths, but conventionally complicated to control. The control of a hyper-redundant manipulator is complex due to its redundancy. In this paper, a simple but effective control algorithm for obstacle avoidance is proposed. The algorithm derives a collision free path around known obstacles so that the end-effector of a variable length hyper redundant robot (VHRR) is able to reach the target location following the path without hitting the obstacles. The algorithm can be grouped into two tasks to drive the end-effector along the collision free trajectories: first, solve the inverse kinematics without disregarding the existence of obstacles in the system; and second, fit the manipulator to the respective prescribe trajectories. This method has the capability to allow VHRR maneuver within its workspace without penetrating to the neighboring obstruction. Further, this method is very effective in the sense that it forms a nice coil profile avoiding zig-zag configuration, and thus eliminates sharp turn on the robot. The performance of a VHRR was tested through simulation to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The approach succeeded in delivering the path that avoids obstacle.

The rapid growth within the field of digital communication during the recent years expanded the need for high-speed data transmission to support a wide range of services such as: video, data and voice in wireless communication systems, etc. Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and a multicarrier modulation scheme are employed to achieve the high data rates. Since OFDM is very much sensitive to carrier frequency offsets, which cause the Inter-carrier Interference (ICI) leads to mitigation of this ICI is necessary. The objectives of this paper are to, proposed an efficient ICI self-cancellation scheme to mitigate the effect of ICI on OFDM systems. For this purpose, a redundant data is transmitted onto adjacent sub-carriers such that the ICI between adjacent sub-carriers cancels out at the receiver side. One data symbol is modulated into a group of adjacent sub carriers with a group of weighting coefficients. At the receiver side, the received signals are linearly combined on these sub carriers with proposed coefficients. The residual ICI contained in the received signals can then be further reduced. This study provides significant carrier-to-interference power ratio (CIR) improvement, which has been studied theoretically and supported by simulations. Since no channel equalization is required to reduce ICI, so the proposed scheme doesnt increase the system complexity.

The authors have developed a shark ray robotic fish based on biomimetic approaches. The paper describes the newly developed robotic fish technology and its application to mechatronics in the space. It is found that robotic fish technology creates not only new underwater robotics, but also the next generation space mechatronics for geological survey of lunar/planets and dust cleaning in the space station., 2013 the 3rd International Conference on Mechatronics and Applied Mechanics (ICMAM2013), Dec.27-28, 2013 Paris, France, Applied Mechanics and Materials, 527, pp.224-229; 2014

This paper describes a control unit for a solar-hydrogen power generation system that is capable of supplying an electrical load simultaneously with diverting excess power to an electrolyser to produce hydrogen gas for storage as backup energy. The functional requirements of such a control unit are defined. The transient response time for the PEM electrolyser is studied and analyzed through experimental testing. A design of load splitting device that also performs maximum power point tracking is proposed and its performance measured experimentally. Initial results suggest that the device can accomplish both the load splitting and maximum power point tracking functions satisfactorily.

This paper is a first step towards articulating a Chinese version of ecological civilization construction (short for ECC). Three major intellectual sources of ecological civilization are identified and the constraints from resources and environment on economic development are emphasized. The concept framework of ECC contains four aspects: the subjects, the objects, the means and the scope. The subjects have five main types: the governments, the entrepreneurs, the families, the NGOs and other mixed ones. The objects involve in various type of ecosystems.The means can be used by education, plan, institution, technology and fund. The scope is stratified five spatial levels: the earth, the nations, the regions, the prefectures, and the communities. Moreover, four paths of ECC are highlighted: resources conservation and saving, environmental protection and improvement, ecological protection and restoration and territorial development and protection.

This paper presents simulation of drawing force and thickness deformation in deep drawing which employs semi-active blank holder force system, to solve the problem of cracking and wrinkling. The method of slab with feed back control failure criteria, was employed to make the modeling system and the semi-active blank holder to prevent wrinkling and cracking in forming low carbon steel sheet, without lubrication (μ=0.4). In this study, the mechanical properties of the material were chosen since that they equivalent to those of low carbon steel with its thickness of 0.2 mm, k = 572 N/mm2, UTS = 391 N/mm2, yield stress = 309 N/mm2 and n = 0.2. The diameter and the depth of the cylindrical cup-shaped product were 40 mm and 10 mm, respectively. Results from simulation have shown that the semi-active blank holder system can control very responsive against changing of deformation condition. The optimum of initial blank holder force is approximately 3000 N up to 4000 N. In the early stages (initial stroke), blank holder force system could be responsive to prevent cracking, and at the end of the punch stroke, it is very effective to prevent wrinkling. Simulation of semi-active blank holder force control system is excellent in model formation to prevent cracking and wrinkling.

Intermittent Pneumatic Compression devices are widely used for various therapies concerning the cardio-circulatory or lymphatic system, and also for performance recovery in sports activity. The development and setup of such devices are mainly based on empirical procedures, while few researches adopt an engineering approach based on mathematical modeling and identification. In this approach, the most critical point is the definition of parameters concerning the human-machine interaction. This paper proposes an original and simple method to identify such parameters, which allows to describe in effective way the main dynamic characteristics, fundamental for a correct design and control of the device.

A solar air heater (SAH) is a simple heater using solar radiation that is useful for drying or space heating. Unfortunately, heat transfer from the absorber plate to the air inside the solar air heater is low. Some researchers reported that obstacles are able to improve the heat transfer in a flat plate solar air collector and others found that a v-corrugated absorber plate gives better heat transfer than a flat plate. Yet, no work of combining these two findings is found.This paper describes the result of experimental study on a SAH with v-corrugated absorber plate and obstacles bent vertically started from 80oto 0owith interval 10oon its bottom plate. Experiments were conducted indoor at five different Reynolds numbers (1447 Re 7237) and three different radiation intensities (430, 573, and 716 W/m2).It is found that the obstacles improve SAH performance. Both the air temperature rise and efficiency increase with inserting obstacles bent at any angle vertically. Unfortunately, the air pressure drop is increasing, too. Obstacles bent vertically at smaller angle (means more straight) give higher air temperature rise and efficiency. However, the optimum angle is found 30o. The air temperature rise and efficiency will be 5.3% lower when the obstacles bent 30oinstead of 0o, but the pressure drop will be 17.2% lower.

The power management of server farms (Sf) is becoming a relevant problem in economical terms. Server farms totalize millions of servers all over the world that need to be electrically powered. Research is thus expected to investigate into methods to reduce Sf power consumption. However, saving power may turn into waste of performance (high response_times), in other words, into waste of Sf Quality of Service (QoS). By use of a Sfmodel, this paper investigates Sf power management strategies that look at compromises between power-saving and QoS. Various optimizing Sf power management policies are studied combined with the effects of job queueing disciplines. The (policy, discipline) pairs, or strategies, that optimize the Sf power consumption (minimum absorbed Watts), the Sf performance (minimum response_time), and the Sf performance-per-Watt (minimum response_time-per-Watt) are identified.By use of the model, the work the server-manager has to do to direct hisSf is greatly simplified, since the universe of all possible (strategies he needs to choose from is drastically reduced to a very small set of most significant strategies.

Both heavy goods vehicles (HGV) and exiting vehicles can significantly affect the entry capacity of a roundabout. However, their effects have not been taken into account in HCM 2000 model. Recently two studies have been carried out to address this issue: 1) Dahl and Lee (2012) proposed an expectation theory based approach to incorporate the effect of HGVs [; and 2) Qu et al. (2013) derived a new roundabout capacity model by assuming that each exiting vehicle could provide one entry opportunity for waiting vehicles [. In this paper, the two models are integrated using a scenario-based approach to analyse the effects of not only exiting vehicles but also HGVs. A comparative study indicates that HCM 2000 model performs well under low to mid traffic conditions while it underestimates the capacities under high traffic conditions in combination with high proportions of exiting vehicles.

This paper presents experimental results of object handling motions to evaluate tactile slippage sensation in a multi fingered robot arm with optical three-axis tactile sensors installed on its two hands. The optical three-axis tactile sensor is a type of tactile sensor capable of defining normal and shear forces simultaneously. Shear force distribution is used to define slippage sensation in the robot hand system. Based on tactile slippage analysis, a new control algorithm was proposed. To improve performance during object handling motions, analysis of slippage direction is conducted. The control algorithm is classified into two phases: grasp-move-release and grasp-twist motions. Detailed explanations of the control algorithm based on the existing robot arm control system are presented. The experiment is conducted using a bottle cap, and the results reveal good performance of the proposed control algorithm to accomplish the proposed object handling motions.

People have learnt from biological system behaviours and structures to design and develop a number of different kinds of optimisation algorithms that have been widely used in both theoretical study and practical applications in engineering and business management. An efficient supply chain is very important for companies to survive in global competitive market. An effective SCM (supply chain management) is the key for implement an efficient supply chain. Though there have been considerable amount of study of SCM, there have been very limited publications of applying the findings from the biological system study into SCM. In this paper, through systematic literature review, various SCM issues and requirements are discussed and some typical biological system behaviours and natural-inspired algorithms are evaluated for the purpose of SCM. Then the principle and possibility are presented on how to learn the biological systems' behaviours and natural-inspired algorithms for SCM and a framework is proposed as a guide line for users to apply the knowledge learnt from the biological systems for SCM. In the framework, a number of the procedures have been presented for using XML to represent both SCM requirement and bio-inspiration data. To demonstrate the proposed framework, a case study has been presented for users to find the bio-inspirations for some particular SCM problems in automotive industry.

In today’s market, it is no longer sufficient to have better designs than the competition. In order to maximize the product’s market potential, it has to be rapidly produced and made available to the market. To reduce their time-to-market period, manufacturers need to shorten their design and development process. It becomes vital that the design architecture solution is derived faster, which can be handful for complex products like an aircraft with the current geometrical-based approaches due to the plethora of physical alternatives to be considered. On the other hand, the search for design architecture solution from functional requirements is theoretically more effective because functional space is comparatively smaller than physical search space. This allows the design efforts to be more focused and this subsequently saves time, efforts and resources. With this notion, there is a driving motivation to adapt functional approaches into the conceptual product design process in order to exploit some of its advertised benefits. In this paper, an example case study of an aircraft conceptual development is presented to highlight possible advantages of approaching architecture solutions from the functional space.

The paper presents the analysis of the dynamic response of a steel pipeline with concrete coating to a real earthquakeregistered in central Poland in 2012. The peak ground acceleration of the shock was scaled up to maximal values predicted for this seismic zone. To represent theinelastic behavior of the material of the concrete coating under dynamic loading, the concrete damaged plasticity constitutive model was assumed.The modelallows to describeplastic strains and irreversible tensile and compression damage that occurs during the cracking process.For seismic analysis two models (uniform and non-uniform) of kinematic excitation were applied. In the modelof uniform excitation it was assumed that the motion of all supports was identical. Inthe model of non-uniform excitation, typical for long structures, the wave passage along the pipelinewith different velocities (500, 400 and 300 m/s) was taken into account. It occurred that for the model of uniform excitation the concrete material of the coating remained elastic with no tensile damage. For the model of non-uniform excitation, inelastic behaviour of the coating was observed. The plastic strain areas appeared above all supports. The tensile damage (cracking) wasalso noticed in these areas: the lower wave velocity was assumed, the greater area of concrete coating was affected by plastic strains and tensile damage (cracking). It was the consequence of the quasi-static effects which resulted from ground deformations imposed on the pipeline during the seismic shock.

[EN] Soccer robots have been frequently used to validate models of multi-agent systems, involving collaboration among the agents. For this purpose, many researchers in robotics have been developing robotic soccer teams which compete in events such as RoboCup. This paper presents a strategy model for multi-robot coordination in robotic soccer teams involving ball position, team member position and opponent position for the selection of a team tactic and the player roles. This assignation is dynamical and achieved by a virtual coach. This strategy model was validated in a RoboCup Small Size League environment using Webots robot simulator, This project is partially funded by the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia under the grant number 600-RMI/ERGS 5/3 (23/2011)

This paper presents a quantitative comparison between the non-rare-earth permanent magnet (PM) and rare-earth PM based linear magnetic gear. By using the finite element analysis, three linear magnetic gears adopting either the non-rare-earth PM or rare-earth PM are analyzed and discussed. Hence, the cost-effectiveness comparison among different types of PMs is conducted. The results indicate that the non-rare-earth PM is preferred to the rare-earth PM for application to linear magnetic gears when cost-effectiveness is emphasized.