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To provide the necessary theoretical models of sphere–soil interaction for the structural design, motion control, and simulation of spherical robots, this paper derives analytical expressions for traction force and driving torque when spherical robots slide and sink into sandy terrain, based on terramechanics and multibody dynamics. Furthermore, orthogonal experimental analysis identifies the load, joint angular acceleration, and maximum joint angular velocity of spherical robots as influencing factors, highlighting that the load significantly affects their longitudinal motion performance. Experimental results indicate that rolling friction and additional resistance on sandy terrain cannot be ignored. The corrected theoretical model effectively replicates the temporal variation of driving torque exerted by spherical robots on sandy terrain. Numerical computations and experimental analyses demonstrate that increasing the radius of the sphere shell, the load, and the slip ratio all lead to increased traction force and driving torque. However, traction force and driving torque begin to decrease once the slip ratio reaches approximately 0.5. Therefore, in the design of spherical robot structures and control laws, appropriate parameters such as load and slip ratio should be chosen based on the established sphere–soil interaction theoretical model to achieve high-quality longitudinal motion performance on sandy terrain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a key system in nuclear power plants, nuclear power systems contain high-temperature, high-pressure water media. A steam leak, if it occurs, can at minimum cause system functional loss and at worst lead to casualties. Therefore, it is urgent to carry out steam leakage detection work for high-temperature, high-pressure loop systems. Currently, steam leaks are primarily detected through visual monitoring and pressure gauges. However, if there is a minor leak under high system pressure, the slight decrease in pressure may not be enough to alert the operators, leading to a delay in detecting the steam leak. Thus, this detection method has certain drawbacks. In view of these issues, this paper introduces computer vision technology to monitor the high-temperature, high-pressure loop system and proposes the use of an improved background subtraction method to detect steam leaks in the loop system. The results show the following advantages of this method: (1) It can effectively identify steam leaks at an early stage; (2) it overcomes the difficulty of determining the threshold value for the binarization of grayscale images in traditional background subtraction methods; (3) it eliminates the noise impact brought by the binarization of grayscale images in existing improved background subtraction methods. The introduction of this method provides a new approach for detecting steam leaks in high-temperature, high-pressure loop systems and can be effectively applied in engineering fields. It also offers reference value for the detection of high-temperature, high-pressure media leaks in other fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the pendulum mechanism inside the spherical shell, the centroid can be varied circumferentially, enabling the spherical robot to achieve omnidirectional flexible movement. Additionally, the radial variation ability of the centroid enables spherical robots to adopt two distinct driving modes: the traditional lower pendulum driving mode and the inverted pendulum driving mode. There are two manifestations of radial variation in the centroid: having different radial positions of the centroid and achieving radial movement of the centroid. Focusing on these two manifestations, experimental data are obtained through different motion velocities and different motion slopes to conduct research on the influence of radial variation in the centroid on the motion of spherical robots. Based on the experimental data, multiple indicators are analyzed, including response speed, convergence speed, stability, and overshoot, as well as steering ability, climbing ability, and output power. The impact of the radial variation ability of the centroid on the control performance, locomotion capability, and energy consumption of spherical robots is summarized, and the correlation model relating the motion requirements to the radial position of the centroid is established, providing a theoretical basis for the selection of driving modes and centroid positions for spherical robots facing complex task requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reactor control rod drive mechanism (CRDM) controls the startup, shutdown and power of the reactor; it is one of the key pieces of equipment to ensure the normal operation of the reactor. CRDM is complex, mainly composed of stator, rotor, bearing, roller, etc. The characteristic analysis of the vibration monitoring signal is one of the important methods of the CRDM state evaluation. In view of the characteristics of large noise interference and the difficulty in analyzing the vibration monitoring signal of CRDM, this paper proposes a noise reduction method for the vibration signal of CRDM based on complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition with adaptive amplitude correction noise and spectral kurtosis (CEEMDAACN-SK), which can deeply reduce the vibration signal of CRDM. Firstly, the proposed CEEMDAACN algorithm is used to decompose the vibration signal of CRDM to obtain multiple intrinsic mode functions (IMF). Then, the spectral kurtosis of each IMF component is analyzed to obtain the spectral kurtosis map of each IMF component, which is compared with the spectral kurtosis map of the original signal. Finally, the denoising reconstruction of the signal is carried out to obtain the final denoising signal. Through experimental analysis, the performance of the proposed CEEMDAACN-SK denoising algorithm is better than the complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition with adaptive noise and spectral kurtosis (CEEMDAN-SK) algorithm in terms of results. The method proposed in this paper can be applied not only to the vibration signal noise reduction of CRDM, but also to other equipment and fields, such as nuclear power main circulation pump and the chemical industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]