Cost Control Method Research Articles

Robust Attitude Controller for NASA Astrobee Robots Operating in the ISS

Free-flying robots have been recently developed to operate on-board the International Space Station (ISS) as semi-autonomous robotic assistants. NASA Astrobee robots are the new free-flyers proposed by NASA, and equipped with a 3 degree of freedom manipulator. This research aims to realize an accurate mathematical model of the robot attitude dynamics, and an attitude controller for the NASA Astrobee system. The robot has been modeled coupling the attitude dynamics with the manipulator motion, and robust attitude controllers are proposed to stabilize disturbances and configuration changes induced by the manipulator usage. First, a second-order twisting sliding mode controller is designed to achieve a trade-off among control law flexibility, robustness and accuracy. Among robust control strategies, sliding mode controllers are characterized as low complexity, and low computational cost control methods, making the system able to achieve reactivity and stability also when parameters are changed. The performance of the proposed control method are compared with a backstepping controller that include an iterative algorithm to compute an adaptive control, as function of disturbances and orientation error. The performance are evaluated and analyzed considering several scenarios in Matlab Simulink simulations, and combining Simulink and ROS Gazebo to run co-simulations with the NASA Astrobee simulator. Simulations with variable body mass, links masses, and different gripped objects have been run to test the controllers performance in off-design conditions.

Inertial microfluidics in contraction-expansion microchannels: A review.

Inertial microfluidics has brought enormous changes in the conventional cell/particle detection process and now become the main trend of sample pretreatment with outstanding throughput, low cost, and simple control method. However, inertial microfluidics in a straight microchannel is not enough to provide high efficiency and satisfying performance for cell/particle separation. A contraction-expansion microchannel is a widely used and multifunctional channel pattern involving inertial microfluidics, secondary flow, and the vortex in the chamber. The strengthened inertial microfluidics can help us to focus particles with a shorter channel length and less processing time. Both the vortex in the chamber and the secondary flow in the main channel can trap the target particles or separate particles based on their sizes more precisely. The contraction-expansion microchannels are also capable of combining with a curved, spiral, or serpentine channel to further improve the separation performance. Some recent studies have focused on the viscoelastic fluid that utilizes both elastic forces and inertial forces to separate different size particles precisely with a relatively low flow rate for the vulnerable cells. This article comprehensively reviews various contraction-expansion microchannels with Newtonian and viscoelastic fluids for particle focusing, separation, and microfluid mixing and provides particle manipulation performance data analysis for the contraction-expansion microchannel design.

Calculation of livestock products cost in the Republic of Kazakhstan

The goal is to develop recommendations on the optimal system for the formation of cost of production, since calculation methods currently existing at the enterprises of meat and dairy industry do not allow for a sufficiently accurate determination of the actual cost of individual types of products of a large assortment, which makes it difficult to assess its economic feasibility. In this regard, the tasks are set improving production cost management system and development in practice of new non-traditional mechanisms for obtaining information about the costs and results of production activities. Results – it is shown that one of the backbone sectors of economy is agriculture. Regardless of soil and climatic conditions, even developed industrial countries are investing heavily in the development of domestic agricultural sector. It is noted that the important aspect of the activity of agricultural entity is income generation and business activities. In this context, the application of new approaches to the methods of accounting, analysis and cost control will make it possible to manage production cost and solve the problems of effective functioning of meat and dairy production enterprises. The article discusses methods of calculation in meat and fat industry, issues of anchor cooperation with the involvement of investors. Conclusions – in production of meat and dairy products, a reasonable calculation of products costs plays a special role, which is important when checking the costs associated directly with its sale and provides an opportunity to expand access for all segments of the population.

Refined cost control and management methods for high-speed railway signal projects

The paper concentrates on a cost control and management problem of high-speed railway signal systems when the project managers require to organize, implement, and assess the project cost. When it comes to the existing issues of implementing railway signal project, the management process’s actual performances are presented, including the weak awareness of refined management and the lack of the financial management information system. Aiming to reduce project cost and safe operation of the signal systems, the refined cost control and management methods and concrete measures are presented during the concrete stage involving project bidding, preparatory, implementation, and completion.

Measures and Methods of Cost Control in Bidding Stage of Construction Project

Measures and Methods of Cost Control in Bidding Stage of Construction Project

Study on e-commerce logistics cost control methods in the context of COVID-19 prevention and control.

The severe situation caused by THE COVID-19 epidemic has not only hindered the steady development of social economy, but also had a great impact on the development of e-commerce logistics. For e-commerce enterprises, logistics cost is an important factor that affects the operation effect and consumer experience. Based on this, this study proposes cost control methods for e-commerce logistics in the prevention and control of COVID-19 environment. In this study, based on the actual environment of COVID-19 prevention and control, the logistics cost algorithm during the epidemic period is designed on the basis of the analysis of the influencing factors of e-commerce logistics cost, and the cross-border logistics strategy that conforms to the background of COVID-19 prevention and control and the demand of e-commerce logistics cost control is developed to better reduce the operating cost of logistics enterprises. The e-commerce logistics cost control method proposed in this article is effective in the prevention and control of new crown pneumonia, and the overall actual cost is within the budgeted cost range. The experimental results prove that the e-commerce logistics cost control method designed in this paper can help e-commerce companies achieve good economic benefits and proves that it has higher application advantages.

Energy consumption and cost control method of engineering projects based on building energy-saving theory

The traditional method of energy consumption cost control for engineering projects is not satisfactory. This study proposes a method of energy consumption cost control for engineering projects based on the theory of building energy conservation. Through indirect expenditure of energy and actual expenditure of energy, the expenditure of energy in the construction stage is calculated. Based on the life cycle expenditure of energy model of a single project, a macro life cycle expenditure of energy model of the project is established. Based on the theory of building energy conservation, the hot air recycling technology is adopted to realise expenditure of energy and cost control. The experimental results show that this method is the closest to the actual value and can effectively control the expenditure of energy and cost of engineering projects.

Energy consumption and cost control method of engineering projects based on building energy-saving theory

Energy consumption and cost control method of engineering projects based on building energy-saving theory

Research on Environmental Cost Control Methods of Coal Enterprises under the Background of Big Data

The coal industry plays a vital role in the rapid development of China's social economy. However, under the pressure of sustainable economic development, the profit margin of coal companies is relatively low. In order to increase the profitability of coal companies and maximize their economic benefits, we need to strengthen cost control. In recent years, the main research on cost control of coal enterprises includes logistics supply chain, inventory structure and value chain model optimization. These studies did not study the cost control methods of coal enterprises from the direction of environmental cost control. In the context of big data, coal companies need to accelerate their transformation and upgrading, relying on data platform systems to carry out environmental cost control in the development of coal companies. Only in this way can the sustainable development of coal enterprises be promoted.

Omkostningsbevidsthed i socialt arbejde

This article examines how managers in a municipal social service department use and interpret accounting information and make sense of changes in social work when new methods of cost control, and consequently a need for a more cost-conscious behavior, are introduced. Previous studies have shown that the extent to which accounting information has been embraced by professionals is mixed. Based on a case study where top management, middle management, and staff specialists at a medium-sized Danish municipality are interviewed, it is shown that accounting information can link cost-consciousness with social work practices. The study shows how managers can influence how professionals interpret and use accounting information. Further, the study shows how cost-consciousness can be integrated with social work practices in order to reduce costs and improve the quality of the services. In addition, the study shows how management interpret accounting information as a contribution to the professionalization of social work, and that managers’ sensemaking and sensegiving processes are important in reducing resistance when professionals are introduced to new forms of accounting information.

Research on the Cost Management of Real Estate Computer Informatization Based on the Concept of Value Engineering in the New Economic Era

The cost management of computer information can make the real estate enterprises form the core competitiveness under the environment of strict control of house price. The design stage and construction stage are the key stages in the whole process of cost control. This paper analyzes the information cost control method in the design stage from the quality control, quota design and value engineering concept, and seeks the optimal solution of the prior control. In the implementation stage, the dynamic control management based on PDCA cycle is emphasized, and the design change and invalid cost are strictly controlled.

Guaranteed Cost Control of Uncertain Networked Control Systems With a Hybrid Communication Scheme

This paper proposes a guaranteed cost control method for uncertain networked control systems with a hybrid communication scheme. First, a hybrid communication scheme including time-triggered control and periodic event-triggered control (ETC) is presented for the system under consideration. The major features of the proposed scheme include three aspects: 1) instead of a fixed switching process, the switching between two triggering methods is stochastic satisfying Bernoulli distribution; 2) the condition of ETC utilizes a more recently transmission data packet, which results in reducing the transmission frequency of sampled data than some existing ones; and 3) Zeno phenomenon can be excluded since the minimum interevent time is implicity denoted by the sampling period. Second, the closed-loop system subject to the hybrid communication scheme and network-induced delay is modeled as an uncertain stochastic system with an interval time-varying delay. Two theorems are presented for the robustly mean-square stability and guaranteed cost controller design of the derived system. Then, a minimization problem is proposed to optimize the upper bound of cost function, in which the trigger parameters and feedback gain can be designed simultaneously. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through a practical inverted pendulum on a cart.

Adaptive Dynamic Programming-Based Decentralized Guaranteed Cost Control for Reconfigurable Manipulators with Uncertain Environments

In this paper, a novel decentralized guaranteed cost control method is designed for reconfigurable manipulators with uncertain environments based on the adaptive dynamic programming (ADP) approach. Each joint module, which is the basic unit for constructing the reconfigurable manipulators, is regarded as a subsystem with model uncertainties that include the error of frictional modeling and the interconnection dynamic coupling (IDC) effect. Then, by employing a robust controller and a neural network (NN) identifier-based compensation controller, the decentralized guaranteed cost control issue with uncertain environments can be changed into the optimal control issue of reconfigurable manipulators. Based on ADP algorithm, the critic neural network is introduced to approximate the modified cost function, and then the Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equation is addressed by the policy iterative algorithm, thus making the obtention of approximate optimal control policy doable. The stability of the robotic system under the proposed control policy is demonstrated by employing the Lyapunov theory. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed control policy for reconfigurable manipulators with different configurations is verified by simulation experiments.

Cost Control Innovation Strategy in the Economic Management of Marine Construction

Fan, J., 2020. Cost control innovation strategy in the economic management of marine construction. In: Qiu, Y.; Zhu, H., and Fang, X. (eds.), Current Advancements in Marine and Coastal Research for Technological and Sociological Applications. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 107, pp. 117-120. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.With the introduction of one belt, one road strategy, the coastal economy of China has developed rapidly. This has also caused the increasing number of marine engineering projects, especially marine architecture. Obviously, the ocean engineering project has become an important factor affecting the national economic development, which is a technology and capital intensive and complex project. For marine construction engineering, we must do a good job in cost control, which will directly affect the quality management and budget management of the project. Under the new market environment, marine construction engineering must take project development as the main profit model, which requires us to control the cost of the whole process of the project. Through Early value management, residual value estimation method and other methods, we can control the cost well, which can also better control the progress and budget. Firstly, this paper analyzes the main characteristics and calculation methods of cost control. Then, according to the actual distance of Dingcheng project in Yantai. Finally, some suggestions are put forward.

Construction Quality Control of Highway’s Civil Engineering

In order to improve the construction quality of highway’s civil engineering, a construction quality control model based on self-adaptive equilibrium game is proposed to improve the construction quality of highway’s civil engineering. The constraint parameter model of construction quality control is constructed, and the fuzzy decision function of construction quality control of highway’s civil engineering is established by combining the game equilibrium method of cost control and quality control. The optimal control of the construction quality of highway’s civil engineering is realized by using the method of correlation constraint and autocorrelation game. The simulation results show that the model can effectively predict and control the quality of highway’s civil engineering, the precision is high, the construction cost is reduced and the construction quality is improved.

Cost Control Method for Goods Transportation of Coastal Enterprises Based on Earned Value Method

Gao, S., 2020. Cost control method for goods transportation of coastal enterprises based on earned value method. In: Yang, Y.; Mi, C.; Zhao, L., and Lam, S. (eds.), Global Topics and New Trends in Coastal Research: Port, Coastal and Ocean Engineering. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 103, pp. 674–677. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.Currently, the coastal transportation industry is in a fierce global competitive environment, and companies are trying to compete for the market and customers by reducing costs and improving service quality. In order to strengthen cost control of transportation enterprises and improve their management level, this paper proposes a cost control method for goods transportation of coastal enterprises based on earned value method. Based on the characteristics of cargo transportation of coastal enterprises, the composition of transportation cost is analyzed comprehensively. The principle of cost control theory is introduced. It is clear that the controllability of cost has a great relationship with the time and space range of control objects. of control objects. This work analyses the specific composition of transportation cost in China under different classification methods, summarizes its cost characteristics, and preliminarily discusses the control methods that ocean container transportation enterprises should adopt according to these cost characteristics. An example of logistics freight transportation cost shows that the control of transportation cost of water-rail intermodal logistics lies mainly on the control of the whole operation process. The strategies of control optimization mainly include: optimizing infrastructure and special equipment, adopting advanced information system, cultivating high-quality personnel system and improving system environment.

Costs versus Coverage, Then and Now.

To expand coverage to those without it, Democrats in 2010 sacrificed cost control methods that might have helped those already insured. The law therefore did not offer most Americans what they wanted most. President Obama and those who thought like him convinced themselves the legislation would control costs by reforming how health care is organized, but any such effects have been both weak and unpopular. Now many commentators are accusing Democratic candidates of making the same mistake by prioritizing an ideological vision of "Medicare for All" over voters' worries about out-of-pocket costs. Yet Medicare for All, unlike less "radical" approaches, addresses those concerns directly. Unfortunately, neither elites (outside the industry!) nor voters seem to understand that, and it is politically risky because of the same fears about change, industry opposition, and distrust of government that inhibited more effective action a decade before.

Nonlinear guaranteed cost attitude control via dynamic gain design

This paper investigates the guaranteed cost attitude control problem of a rigid-body subject to parameter uncertainty problem. The traditional LQR and guaranteed cost control (GCC) methods rest on linear systems and then entail model linearization in the application of attitude control by assuming small-angle rotations, since rigid-body attitude systems are highly nonlinear. In contrast, the proposed method effectively accounts for the nonlinearities inherent in the attitude dynamics of the rigid-body and ensures the attitude system with asymptotic stability and a guaranteed cost index. A linear state-feedback controller of the classical proportional/derivative (PD) structure is provided, which is off-line designed by some linear matrix inequality (LMI) conditions. Moreover, by virtue of the dynamic gain technology, the conditions are of simple structure, which thereby are easy to solve and eligible to turn into some optimization problems for optimizing the cost index and/or controller gains. The optimization problems are tractable to handle computationally and thus the optimal solution can be ensured. The developed theoretical results are illustrated by simulations.

An Approximate Neuro-Optimal Solution of Discounted Guaranteed Cost Control Design.

The adaptive optimal feedback stabilization is investigated in this article for discounted guaranteed cost control of uncertain nonlinear dynamical systems. Via theoretical analysis, the guaranteed cost control problem involving a discounted utility is transformed to the design of a discounted optimal control policy for the nominal plant. The size of the neighborhood with respect to uniformly ultimately bounded stability is discussed. Then, for deriving the approximate optimal solution of the modified Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation, an improved self-learning algorithm under the framework of adaptive critic designs is established. It facilitates the neuro-optimal control implementation without an additional requirement of the initial admissible condition. The simulation verification toward several dynamics is provided, involving the F16 aircraft plant, in order to illustrate the effectiveness of the discounted guaranteed cost control method.

Safe Step Act: does it undermine step therapy?

Drug expenditure in the United States has continued to increase unsustainably; the specialty of dermatology has been particularly affected. Resources are limited - someone has to make decisions about what treatments will be covered and how they will be reimbursed. Step therapy is a cost-control method used by insurers to encourage the use of the most cost-effective treatments before more expensive options are attempted. However, a rigid step therapy policy can be problematic when protocols are out of date, or delay necessary treatment leading to unnecessary suffering, increased morbidity, and overall cost. To address some of these concerns, the proposed Safe Step Act (S. 2546 and H.R. 2279) attempts to create a requirement that insurers provide a transparent, expeditious exceptions process for step therapy protocols. Increased flexibility in this process will allow for the unique circumstances of individual patients and improve access to expensive drugs for special cases. However, this bill may be exploited, further weakening insurers' ability to negotiate on cost. We should be cautious about measures that reduce the effectiveness of this tool, particularly if we, as a society, aim to expand access to basic care to all Americans.