Integrated Control Device Research Articles

Microbiological Indoor and Outdoor Air Quality in Chicken Fattening Houses.

This study was conducted at one of the largest poultry companies in Kuwait during November and December 2019 to evaluate the microbiological threats of Escherichia coli (APEC), Salmonella spp., and Aspergillus fumigatus to chickens in fattening houses by counting and identifying the microorganisms by culturing and pyrosequencing analysis. During the fattening cycle, the temperature and humidity ranged between 23.6°C and 29°C and 64.1% and 87.1%, respectively. The total bacterial population and Aspergillus fumigatus measured in the indoor and outdoor air exhibited a linear relationship during the fattening cycle. The total bacterial and Aspergillus concentrations determined during the cycle ranged between 150 and 2000 CFU/m3 and 0 and 1000 CFU/m3, respectively. E. coli and Salmonella spp. concentrations determined during the cycle ranged between 1 and 220 CFU/m3 and 4 and 110 CFU/m3, respectively. Pyrosequencing analysis of the air inside the houses at the end of the cycle revealed extensive biodiversity in the microorganisms, detecting 32 bacterial genera and 14 species. The identified species belonging to the genera Corynebacterium, Haemophilus, Streptococcus, Veillonella, and Aspergillus were identified as potentially affecting human and broiler health. The emission of potentially pathogenic bacteria to the outdoor environment from chicken housing can pose a considerable risk to human health and environmental microbial pollution. This study could guide the development of integrated control devices for monitoring microbes in broiler production facilities during chicken collection for transport to slaughterhouses.

S2worm: A Fast-Moving Untethered Insect-Scale Robot With 2-DoF Transmission Mechanism

Designing terrestrial insect-scale robot with high maneuverability and autonomy is becoming an essential challenge in the field of robotics research. Previous work has indicated that compact transmission and integrated control devices can improve the application potential. In this work, an untethered insect-scale inchworm robot is designed and fabricated by using screw theory and smart composite microstructure method, and is named S²worm. The robot weighs 4.34 g and spans 4.1 cm in length. The robot is equipped with custom designed onboard control system and high voltage boost converter to provide the driving signal for the piezoelectric bending actuator. Attributing to the novel transmission mechanism with two degrees of freedom designed based on screw theory, the S²worm can be fabricated through the smart composite microstructure method easily and shows high mobility such as high crawling speed (27.4 cm/s, 6.7 body length/s) and small turning radius (1.7 cm, 0.4 body length/s). The S²worm holds the following advantages: small size, untethered, high mobility and low energy consumption. The robot is promising for application in planetary exploration, earthquake search and constructing insect-scale multi-robot system.

Control analysis of vehicle ride comfort through integrated control devices on the quarter and half car active suspension systems

This study proposed an integrated chassis control of the quarter car and half car active suspension systems to enhance vehicle ride comfort and road handling performance. The integrated controls of PID-LQR and Fuzzy-PID were designed to maximize driving comfort by keeping the vehicle wheels in contact with the road surface. The PID control which is commonly used in car manufacturing was set as a controller benchmark. Multiple road conditions such as speed bumps of different heights, 0.1 m < h < 0.3 m and widths, 0.3 m < d < 0.5 m were used in the system for analysis. In comparison with PID-LQR, Fuzzy-PID showed the lowest peak amplitude and reached the stability state in a minimum time against the controller benchmark. This indicates that vehicle ride comfort and road handling performance can be optimized using the proposed Fuzzy-PID control.

Analysis of electrical and luminotechnical parameters in led lamps considering Brazilian standards

Abstract The consumption of electric energy in Brazil in 2018 was 472 GWh, and 28.85% of consumption refers to the residential sector. The Brazilian market for Light Emitting Diode (LED) products grows more than 30% a year, while LED imports have grown from 131 million units in 2015 to 145 million in 2017 (+10.6%). Therefore, the need to improve the technical and conformity assessment requirements for LED bulbs sold in Brazil is evident. This work analyses Electrical and Luminotechnical Parameters in LED lamps considering Brazilian standards analysing some parameters of LED lamps, which employ different topologies in their drivers, when submitted to voltage magnitude variation. Samples are tested on 18 single-base LED lamps with an integrated control device, GLS LED bulbs, available at the Brazilian market. The methodology consists in applying nominals voltages as INMETRO standards determinates. Throughout the tests, measurements are done and compared with the levels established by Brazilian standards. The results show that there are lamps in this study that obtained the certification by regulated Brazilian organization but does not attend to the level determinate by the Brazilian standard, exposing an opportunity for improvement to existing standards and certification process.

Improvement of the plane-parallel movement of the attachment of the feller-bunchers machine LP-19

This paper presents a mathematical model of the articulated manipulator feller-bunchers machine LP-19 (FBM LP-19) and allows you to identify the laws of motion of the boom, the stick and stand feller-bunchers head (FBH) depending on the volume of the working fluid in the hydraulic cylinders drive the boom and stick. Based on the results of mathematical modeling, a method and means for controlling the trajectory of the stick, arrow, and FBH with one complex control device that provides the movement of the FBH close to the plane-parallel one. The dependences of the position of FBH in the vertical plane of the boom and stick were established using the developed integrated device and without it. It has been experimentally established that the use of the developed integrated control device firstly reduces the time of the aiming operation of the FBH (changing the horizontal outreach) and secondly, the average production time of unit of wood is less than that of the base machine, which allowed increasing the productivity of the FBM compared to the base one.

Integrated Control Device for Hydraulic Pumping Station and Endless Rope Continuous Traction Vehicle

This paper discloses the integrated device and control method of the hydraulic pump station and the endless rope continuous traction vehicle. The device is composed of PLC, touch screen, voice chip and input and output signal. The monitoring and control unit of the hydraulic pump station are unified, and the functions of PLC are fully played.

A Paralleled Integrated Control Device of Squirrel-Cage Induction Wind Generator LVRT

To minimize the influence of power grid with wind power generation resulted by voltage sags with short duration, a paralleled integrated control device of squirrel-cage induction wind generator LVRT (Low Voltage Ride Through) is proposed which adds paralleled module circuits to conventional wind generator. With closed-loop hysteresis current control based on instantaneous reactive power theory and rated voltage control, this device can achieve reactive power compensation in normal operation and voltage stability when voltage sags. Power produced by wind generator is consumed during the sag and wind power generation system is connected to grid all the time. Simulation models about the device were built based on PSCAD / EMTDC platform and the analysis verifies the device’s achievement of LVRT.

A Survey of Persons Who Use Integrated Control Devices

Integrated devices allow users to operate multiple pieces of assistive technology items from a single input device. Through this single input device, users with severe physical limitations are able to operate several other devices such as a wheelchair, telephone, computer, and communication aid. Twenty-four integrated control users completed a telephone survey to ascertain consumer satisfaction with integrated controls. Eighteen were either satisfied or very satisfied with the evaluation for an integrated control, one was neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, two were very dissatisfied, and three did not respond to the question. Twenty were very satisfied or satisfied and four were either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the training they received. Twenty-two respondents indicated they were either very satisfied or satisfied with their integrated control device, one was neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, and one was very dissatisfied. In general, respondents were satisfied with their integrated control devices. Specifically, respondents were satisfied with the increase in independence and the ability to control other equipment such as television sets and computers. Simplicity, touch sensitivity, and visual/auditory feedback appeared to play important roles in satisfaction.

Optoelectronic matrix switching

Because cross talk from electromagnetic coupling increases with frequency, it is difficult to design matrix switches for high-frequency electronic signals. Signals on optical carriers are easier to isolate but more difficult to switch. A hybrid technique exploiting passive optical-signal distribution and switching by optoelectronic effects shows good promise for high isolation matrices to handle signals in the dc to 10 GHz range. The key elements for such optoelectronic switches are optical detectors that have switchable sensitivity.Initial efforts in optoelectronic switching used silicon diode detectors and forward bias to establish the off-state. Recent work has turned primarily to photoconductors fabricated in GaAs or other compound semiconductors. Such photoconductors can have very wide response bandwidths and have the advantage of a zero-bias off-state. Efforts have also been made to develop bipolar detectors that do not need forward bias for the off-state.Experimental work has progressed to the demonstration of complete matrices capable of switching up to eight incoming signals to as many outgoing lines, at bandwidths up to 500 MHz and cross-talk levels below 50 dB. Results for individual switching devices give promise of matrices for many tens of lines and bandwidths to several gigahertz. Monolithic integration of GaAs photoconductor switch arrays has been demonstrated, and work progresses to include integrated control devices and amplifiers.Matrix switches of large dimension and very large bandwidth are expected to have significant applications in areas other than communications switching. In particular, such matrices can be used to set up patterns of delay and signal recombination, using fibre delay lines, to provide rapidly selectable wide-band delay for phasing and other applications, or for wide-band tapped delay-line filters that can be reconfigured rapidly.A review of the current status in optoelectronic matrix switching is given.