Specific System Design Research Articles

Operads for complex system design specification, analysis and synthesis.

As the complexity and heterogeneity of a system grows, the challenge of specifying, documenting and synthesizing correct, machine-readable designs increases dramatically. Separation of the system into manageable parts is needed to support analysis at various levels of granularity so that the system is maintainable and adaptable over its life cycle. In this paper, we argue that operads provide an effective knowledge representation to address these challenges. Formal documentation of a syntactically correct design is built up during design synthesis, guided by semantic reasoning about design effectiveness. Throughout, the ability to decompose the system into parts and reconstitute the whole is maintained. We describe recent progress in effective modelling under this paradigm and directions for future work to systematically address scalability challenges for complex system design.

Assessment of ice impact load threshold exceedance in the propulsion shaft of an ice-faring vessel via Bayesian inversion

Ice-induced impact loads on the propeller blades of vessels operating in polar waters represent a notable hazard to ship propulsion systems. Industry guidelines determine the maximum allowable ice-induced propeller moments, but these loads are not practical to measure directly. Recent studies have implemented deterministic inversion methods to determine these impact-induced moments from torque measurements on the propulsion shaft. This study considers this inversion problem from a stochastic perspective. Bayesian inversion is used, first, as a means of determining the optimal regularisation parameters, and second, as an avenue to explore the contributions to uncertainty in the inverted ice loading values due to the linear inversion model. The method is implemented for two sets of shaft-line measurements recorded on the SA Agulhas II, a polar class PC-5 research and supply vessel, via a lumped-mass model for the forward response signal. Using more sophisticated simulation results as prior information for the model uncertainty, it is shown that inverted ice-induced propeller moments around 20% below the industry guideline maximum loading of 1009.9 kN m correspond to a 1% probability of ice-induced moments exceeding this limit. This finding is significant, given the number of propeller impact events for the SA Agulhas II that approached this limit during recent voyages, and highlights the need for considering design specifications for propulsion systems in ice-faring vessels from a risk perspective.

An investigation of task characteristics and users’ evaluation of interaction design in different online health information systems

This paper addresses the importance of improving users’ satisfaction and efficiency for obtaining health information through health information systems. In order to understand how task characteristics, such as type, complexity, and difficulty, affect user interaction with online health information systems in China, this paper investigates if and how various types of task and information systems lead to different user experience, and, how tasks affect users’ evaluation of the interaction design of specific systems. A user experiment was carried out with 24 participants completing two types of tasks with two levels of complexity on three popular health information systems in China. The two types of tasks comprise a high objective complexity task and a medium complexity task. The three selected health systems include the 39 Health Website, Quick Doctors, and Good Doctor Online. Both quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed. The results indicate that the difference of both tasks and systems affect users’ judgment concerning task difficulty and complexity, as well as users’ evaluation of the interaction design of the systems. In order to better assist users with obtaining health information, this paper provides suggestions for improving the interaction design of health information systems from four aspects: website structure and information organization, webpage display, usability, and system performance. The limitations and future work are also discussed.

Predictive analytics of the state of computer devices in the inventory system

This article discusses processes for collecting, recording, and analyzing data about equipment and its condition. A general description of the inventory system is given and the possibilities of using a mobile application to improve the data collection process are discussed. The article describes the possibilities of using qr codes to mark equipment and simplify the process of obtaining information during the inventory process. Specific system design changes are described to be able to predict the condition of equipment and prevent breakdowns and data loss. At the end of the article possible ways of development and further application of predictive analytics technology are described.

Analysis on Air Conditioning Heat Source and Conveyance System Design Specifications Using Input Data from a Calculation Program to Confirm Compliance with Building Energy Code

Analysis on Air Conditioning Heat Source and Conveyance System Design Specifications Using Input Data from a Calculation Program to Confirm Compliance with Building Energy Code

High-order fully actuated system approaches: Part III. Robust control and high-order backstepping

In this paper, three types of uncertain high-order nonlinear models are firstly proposed, namely, a single high-order fully actuated (HOFA) model with nonlinear uncertainties, an uncertain second-order strict-feedback system (SFS) and an uncertain high-order SFS, and the relations among these types of models are also discussed. Secondly, a direct approach for the design of robust stabilising controllers and robust tracking controllers for an uncertain single HOFA model are proposed based on the Lyapunov stability theory. Using the obtained robust control design result, the second- and high-order backstepping methods for the designs of robust stabilising controllers of the introduced second- and high-order SFSs are also proposed. The proposed approaches do not need to convert the high-order systems into first-order ones, and for a specific system design, the proposed high-order backstepping methods need fewer steps than the usual first-order backstepping method, hence are generally more direct and simpler. An illustrative example demonstrates both the effect and the application procedure of the proposed HOFA robust control approaches.

Optimal Sizing of Recycling Folded Cascode Amplifier for Low Frequency Applications Using New Hybrid Swarm Intelligence-Based Technique

ABSTRACT A new efficient design approach for sizing a high performance analog amplifier circuit namely the Recycling Folded Cascode (RFC) amplifier is presented. A RFC amplifier is an enhanced version of the conventional folded cascode amplifier and achieves better slew rate, gain, bandwidth, offset etc. for same area and power budget. Low frequency amplifiers such as biomedical or neural have a demanding requirement of low area, low power and low noise apart from meeting other optimal design specifications which have inherent trade-off amongst themselves. As a result, manual sizing becomes a computationally inefficient approach. Thus, swarm based optimization techniques have been employed to efficiently determine the optimal sizing for the RFC amplifier such that the area is minimized while meeting all the optimal design specifications considering the constraints. A new hybrid whale particle swarm optimization (HWPSO) algorithm is employed which takes advantage of the good qualities of both the whale algorithm and the PSO algorithm to optimize the area with less computational complexity. Simulations and statistical analysis have been performed and comparisons with other state of art algorithms reveals that HWPSO-based approach achieves a minimum circuit area of 21 µm2 with a mean Friedman’s statistical rank of 2.05 while meeting optimal design specifications for low frequency systems. Finally, validation with circuit design tool Cadence Virtuoso is done and pre as well as post layout analysis have been performed which further illustrated a close agreement with algorithmic results.

Design tool for estimating metal hydride storage system characteristics for light-duty hydrogen fuel cell vehicles

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has developed the Framework model to simulate fuel cell-based light-duty vehicle operation for various hydrogen storage systems. This transient model simulates the performance of the storage system, fuel cell, and vehicle for comparison to DOE's Technical Targets using four drive cycles. Metal hydride hydrogen storage models have been developed for the Framework model. Despite the utility of this model, it requires that material researchers input system design specifications that cannot be easily estimated. To address this challenge, a design tool has been developed that allows researchers to directly enter physical and thermodynamic metal hydride properties into a simple sizing module that then estimates the systems parameters required to run the storage system model. This design tool can also be used as a standalone MS Excel model to estimate the storage system mass and volume outside of Framework and compare it to the DOE Technical Targets. This model will be explained and exercised with existing hydrogen storage materials.

Model-Based Design and Optimization of Blood Oxygenators.

Blood oxygenators, also known as artificial lungs, are widely used in cardiopulmonary bypass surgery to maintain physiologic oxygen (O2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in blood, and also serve as respiratory assist devices to support patients with lung failure. The time- and cost-consuming method of trial and error is initially used to optimize the oxygenator design, and this method is followed by the introduction of the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) that is employed to reduce the number of prototypes that must be built as the design is optimized. The CFD modeling method, while having progress in recent years, still requires complex three-dimensional (3D) modeling and experimental data to identify the model parameters and validate the model. In this study, we sought to develop an easily implemented mathematical models to predict and optimize the performance (oxygen partial pressure/saturation, oxygen/carbon dioxide transfer rates, and pressure loss) of hollow fiber membrane-based oxygenators and this model can be then used in conjunction with CFD to reduce the number of 3D CFD iteration for further oxygenator design and optimization. The model parameters are first identified by fitting the model predictions to the experimental data obtained from a mock flow loop experimental test on a mini fiber bundle. The models are then validated through comparing the theoretical results with the experimental data of seven full-size oxygenators. The comparative analysis show that the model predictions and experimental results are in good agreement. Based on the verified models, the design curves showing the effects of parameters on the performance of oxygenators and the guidelines detailing the optimization process are established to determine the optimal design parameters (fiber bundle dimensions and its porosity) under specific system design requirements (blood pressure drop, oxygen pressure/saturation, oxygen/carbon dioxide transfer rates, and priming volume). The results show that the model-based optimization method is promising to derive the optimal parameters in an efficient way and to serve as an intermediate modeling approach prior to complex CFD modeling.

Optimal Sizing of Recycling Folded Cascode Amplifier for Low-Frequency Applications Using New Hybrid Swarm Intelligence-Based Technique

ABSTRACT A new efficient design approach for sizing a high-performance analog amplifier circuit namely the recycling folded cascode (RFC) amplifier is presented. An RFC amplifier is an enhanced version of the conventional folded cascode amplifier and achieves better slew rate, gain, bandwidth, offset, etc. for same area and power budget. Low-frequency amplifiers such as biomedical or neural have a demanding requirement of low area, low power, and low noise apart from meeting other optimal design specifications which have inherent trade-off among themselves. As a result, manual sizing becomes a computationally inefficient approach. Thus, swarm-based optimization techniques have been employed to efficiently determine the optimal sizing for the RFC amplifier such that the area is minimized while meeting all the optimal design specifications considering the constraints. A new hybrid whale particle swarm optimization (HWPSO) algorithm is employed which takes advantage of the good qualities of both the whale algorithm and the PSO algorithm to optimize the area with less computational complexity. Simulations and statistical analysis have been performed and comparisons with other state of art algorithms reveals that HWPSO-based approach achieves a minimum circuit area of 21 µm2 with a mean Friedman’s statistical rank of 2.05 while meeting optimal design specifications for low-frequency systems. Finally, validation with circuit design tool Cadence Virtuoso is done and pre- as well as postlayout analysis have been performed which further illustrated a close agreement with algorithmic results.

Analysis on Steering Performance of Active Steering Bogie According to Steering Angle Control on Curved Section

In this paper, prior to the commercialization of a developed active steering bogie, we want to analyze steering performance experimentally according to steering angle level with the aim of obtaining steering performance data to derive practical design specifications for a steering system. In other words, the maximum steering performance can be obtained by controlling the steering angle at the 100% level of the target steering angle, but it is necessary to establish the practical control range in consideration of the steering system cost increase, size increase, and consumer steering performance requirements and commercialize. The steering control test using the active steering bogie was conducted in the section of the steep curve with a radius of curvature of R300, and steering performance such as bogie angle, wheel lateral force, and derailment coefficient were analyzed according to the steering angle level. As the steering angle level increased, the bogie indicated that it was aligned with the radial steering position, and steering performance such as wheel lateral force and derailment coefficient was improved. The steering control at 100% level of the target steering angle can achieve the highest performance of 83.6% reduction in wheel lateral force, but it can be reduced to about one-half of the conventional bogie at 25% level control and about one-third at 50% level. Considering cost rise by adopting the active steering system, this result can be used as a very important design indicator to compromise steering performance and cost rise issues in the design stage of the steering system from a viewpoint of commercialization. Therefore, it is expected that the results of the steering performance experiment according to the steering angle level in this paper will be used as very useful data for commercialization.

ICT Driven Dec ision Support & Information Dissemination DSID ): A Comprehensive Technical Appraisal o f DSID System s i n Indian Agriculture

Sustainable growth of the agricultural production system demands the availability of right technical inputs about the weather, crop, land, fertilizers, and irrigation at the right time. To disseminate useful information to farmers in an effective and timely manner, many research initiatives have been undertaken by various government and private agencies’ in India to develop decision support and information dissemination (DSID) systems. This paper appraises fifteen number of such systems that are developed in India in the last decade. The appraisal discusses the (i) user information (type of users, participation method and level of skill level), (ii) system information (developing agency, system type, interface, supported application domain and outcome), (iii) system design specification (input/output, data collection method, architecture, user connectivity means), (iv) system development technologies (development technologies and tools), (v) system response (support delivery method, recommendation mechanism, response time) and, (vi) system services (user response, social and economic benefits). Considering all the above mentioned factors, summary sheets have been prepared and analyzed on the basis of normalized weights assigned to each aspect. As a result of analysis, criteria/method for evaluation of system quality (on the basis of support, satisfaction and perceived usefulness) has been formulated. Furthermore, the paper also investigates various challenges that need to be addressed to build effective and efficient DSID systems. Considering the fact that the presented appraisal is somewhat more focused towards technical, social and user oriented aspects, the authors believe that this appraisal will help technologists, researchers, and developers to understand the research initiatives and associated challenges that need attention with respect to the Indian context.

The Influence and Value of Network Public Opinion on Public Policy

Internet public opinion is a new way to express public interest in the internet age. At the same time, the birth of the internet has promoted the emergence of "public domain" what Habermas calls, which directly links the public opinion of the internet with public policy. As we all known, scientific, democratic and effective public policy is an indispensable and specific system design and arrangement for modern national public governance, which expresses the public policy perceptionands and attitudes in the public interest to the greatest extent possible. So it is an important component of constructing modern national governance system and an important way to enhance national governance ability. Network public opinion is a new form of expression of social opinion, which coupled with the public tendency towards the network and gradually expresses inganuciatic policy attitude through the network, so its application has become an important way to make China's public policy democratization and scientific.. This kind of network tendency marginalizes the pre-set mainstream expression path in the political system, and causes the thinking about whether the network is "alternative" or "complementary". Therefore, it is necessary to examine the degree of influence of network public opinion on public policy and its value orientation, and then we should give full play to the positive effect of network public opinion, so as to make it a complementary way to the mainstream way of public expression of policy attitude.

Model Predictive Control of Half-Car Active Suspension Systems Using Particle Swarm Optimisation

This paper presents the design of a particle swarm-optimised model predictive controller (MPC) for a half-car nonlinear electrohydraulic suspension system as it traverses a deterministic road disturbance. The particle swarm optimisation (PSO) algorithm uses an objective function which is based on conflicting active vehicle suspension system (AVSS) design specifications such as: ride comfort, road holding, road handling, suspension travel and power consumption. An inner-loop PID-based force feedback control is incorporated in the design to ensure good force tracking. The half-car model is composed of nonlinear suspensions and actuator dynamics. Simulation results demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed control scheme over the passive vehicle suspension system (PVSS) and the non-optimised MPC in rejecting the deterministic road disturbance.

Comparison of Isobutane/n-Butenes Alkylation over Y-Zeolite Catalyst in CSTR, Fixed Bed and Circulating Flow Reactors

Isobutane/olefin alkylation is an important route to obtain high-quality gasoline. There is an apparent interest to apply zeolite based catalysts for this process to eliminate large scale usage of liquid catalysts such as H2SO4 and HF. Solid catalysts require a specific reactor system design involving frequent catalyst regeneration and operation at low concentration of the olefin. The aim of this work was to compare different reactor types: CSTR, “once-through” fixed bed type and circulating flow reactors (CFR), which are typically considered as suitable options for industrial implementation. The experiments were done on decationated Y-zeolite catalyst. Different paraffin/olefin ratios, temperature and circulation rates were studied. Catalysts and process performance are discussed based on the catalyst lifetime and the alkylate octane number. Analysis of diffusion limitations in different reactor types and optimization of the circulation rate in CFR were done. It was found that isobutane alkylation in a circulating flow reactor shows approximately the same catalyst lifetime even at a high circulation rate not exhibiting any positive impact of back-mixing on this process. However, a circulating flow reactor has demonstrated a much better quality of alkylate with the research octane number higher by 4.9 points. Additional operational costs related to the reactor effluent recycle are fully covered by the alkylate quality improvement even at a high circulation ratio.

DPN-Dependability Priority Numbers

This paper proposes a novel model-based approach to combine the quantitative dependability (safety, reliability, availability, maintainability and IT security) analysis and trade-off analysis. The proposed approach is called DPN (Dependability Priority Numbers) and allows the comparison of different actual dependability characteristics of a systems with its target values and evaluates them regarding trade-off analysis criteria. Therefore, the target values of system dependability characteristics are taken as requirements, while the actual value of a specific system design are provided by quantitative and qualitative dependability analysis (FHA, FMEA, FMEDA, of CFT-based FTA). The DPN approach evaluates the fulfillment of individual target requirements and perform trade-offs between analysis objectives. We present the workflow and meta-model of the DPN approach, and illustrate our approach using a case study on a brake warning contact system. Hence, we demonstrate how the model-based DPNs improve system dependability by selecting the project crucial dependable design alternatives or measures.

Hyperledger Sawtooth Blockchain-Iot E-Provenance Platform for Pharmaceuticals

This paper investigates the Blockchain traceability framework necessary to develop supply chain application for pharmaceuticals, particularly for life saving drugs which need special logistic conditions. The thorough knowledge of the application specific design assists in the development phase. A solution framework has been proposed for the e-provenance platform for medicines addressing the issue of data streaming between the IoT and the Sawtooth Blockchain unit. A distinct three layered Blockchain-IoT architecture presented, is well suited for this design application. A classification of the Assets in this context distinguishes the properties of each asset type. The pharmaceutical supply chain flow indicates the modules to be deployed along with the transaction between the concerned parties. The application specific system design presents the platform requirements of both the IoT data acquisition and Blockchain data processing units. The theme of the paper namely provenance, can be realized only after investigating the data payload structure that distinguishes the ownership of the IoT sensors and clients namely manufacturer, distributor, retailer and consumer. The overview of the Docker containers illustrates the programming requirements for the specific application, giving the deployment needs at the application side. Finally, application deployment methodology indicates the Blockchain IoT designer, which software modules and hardware components are required to develop the design.

Power ultrasound and its applications: A state-of-the-art review

Ultrasonic processing has attracted increasing attention by people because ultrasonic technology may represent a flexible 'green' alternative for energy efficient processes. The major challenges for the power ultrasound application in real situations are the design and development of specific power ultrasonic systems for large-scale operations. Thus, new families of power ultrasonic transducers have been developed in recent years to meet actual needs, and this contributes to the implementation of power ultrasound of application in many fields such as chemical industry, food industry and manufacturing. This paper presents the current state of ultrasonic transducers of magnetostrictiv type and piezoelectric type as well as applications of power ultrasound in various industrial fields including chemical reactions, drying/dehydration, welding, extraction, heat transfer enhancement, de-ice, enhanced oil recovery, droplet atomization, cleaning and fine particle removal. The review paper helps to understand the current development of power ultrasonic technology and its applications in various situations, and induce extended applications of power ultrasound to more and more fields.

Characterization of a Novel Emergency Suction Device for Combat Medics

Abstract Airway clearance is a foremost priority for combat medics dealing with battlefield trauma. This life saving intervention starts with inspection, clearing any obstructions from the airway, and if necessary, placement of an endotracheal tube to secure the airway. For inspecting and clearing the airway under complicated battlefield conditions, combat medics require a portable suction device that is compact, lightweight, rugged, and capable of rapidly evacuating a mix of liquid and solid particles, which may include bone fragments or broken teeth. While several portable suction devices are available on the market, none were developed specifically for the combat environment. Interviews with combat medics and other relevant personnel revealed that currently available systems are limited in utility to the point of often being intentionally omitted from their kits. In addition, these discussions identified several design specifications for a desired system, such as size (30 × 10 × 10 cm), weight (≤1 kg), fluid flowrate (1 L/min), and canister size (0.5–1 L), among others. This research focused on developing and characterizing a functional prototype within the specified design criteria. After designing and fabricating the device, evacuation of water, blood mimicking solution, and simulated vomitus solution were assessed. In addition, a comparative analysis was carried out between the five different commercially available suction catheters by assessing fluid flow rate and obstruction resistance. The results demonstrate the first proof-of-concept characterization for a novel combat-oriented suction system and provide a basis for comparing the performance of suction systems and catheters used in airway management.

Review: Soil compaction and controlled traffic farming in arable and grass cropping systems

There is both circumstantial and direct evidence which demonstrates the significant productivity and sustainability benefits associated with adoption of controlled traffic farming (CTF). These benefits may be fully realised when CTF is jointly practiced with no-tillage and assisted by the range of precision agriculture (PA) technologies available. Important contributing factors are those associated with improved trafficability and timeliness of field operations. Adoption of CTF is therefore encouraged as a technically and economically viable option to improve productivity and resource-use efficiency in arable and grass cropping systems. Studies on the economics of CTF consistently show that it is a profitable technological innovation for both grassland and arable land-use. Despite these benefits, global adoption of CTF is still relatively low, with the exception of Australia where approximately 30% of the grain production systems are managed under CTF. The main barriers for adoption of CTF have been equipment incompatibilities and the need to modify machinery to suit a specific system design, often at the own farmers’ risk of loss of product warranty. Other barriers include reliance on contracting operations, land tenure systems, and road transport regulations. However, some of the barriers to adoption can be overcome with forward planning when conversion to CTF is built into the machinery replacement programme, and organisations such as ACTFA in Australia and CTF Europe Ltd. in Central and Northern Europe have developed suitable schemes to assist farmers in such a process.