Learning Robot Force/Position Control for Repetitive High Speed Applications with Unknown Non–Linear Contact Stiffness

This paper proposes a learning robot force/position control for high speed force trajectory following. Following high speed force trajectories in different repetitve robotic applications is a challenging field in robot force control. If the end–effector should provide a contact force while following a position trajectory in the non–force controlled direction a parallel force / position control is suitable. However, when it comes to high speed tasks this force control method reaches its limit. The problem can be solved by using an iterative learning control method in combination with the parallel force/position control. In this paper the learning force control method is introduced and experimental results are presented. (© 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Macroscopic damage modeling for silicon nitride

Modeling the damage of brittle materials is of great importance considering a variety of structural components. Prominent examples are high strength engineering ceramics. The present work is concerned with silicon nitride, a material with increasing relevance in industrial applications. In the sense of a hierarchical model structure, effective properties of micromechanical simulations were applied to macroscopic, phenomenological damage models for monotonous and cyclic loading. In the following, both models are introduced and the application of the cyclic damage model to a four point bending test is discussed. (© 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Reduction Approaches for Thermogasdynamic Lubrication Problems

Gas thrust bearings are often used in low-load applications, e.g. in air cycle machines, in micro gas turbines or in rotor systems for fuel cell applications, to support a shaft in axial direction. The pressure and temperature distribution in a gas thrust bearing pad are described by the generalized Reynolds equation according to Dowson and the 3D energy equation. In this paper, two different approaches are presented in order to reduce the dimension of the governing nonlinear integro-differential equation system and in order to stabilize the solution process. In the first reduction approach, the temperature in the fluid is averaged across the fluid film according to Lee and Kim. In the second approach, Legendre polynomials are used to approximate temperature, density and fluidity across the fluid film according to Elrod, Brewe and Moraru. The reduction techniques are compared with respect to numerical efficiency, accuracy and convergence behavior. (© 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Modeling,Simulation and Parameter Identification for Rate-Dependent Magnetoactive Polymer Response

A finite deformation framework for nonlinear magneto-viscoelasticity is introduced and applied to the constitutive and structural modeling of magnetoactive polymer (MAP) response. In this thermodynamically-consistent formulation the free energy function consists of purely elastic, purely magnetic and coupling contributions, where the rate-dependence is fully attributed to the non-magnetizable matrix material. The model consistently accounts for saturation in the magnetic as well as the magnetostrictive behavior. The identification of material parameters from experimental data is briefly described. Finally, a finite element model for the large strain magneto-mechanical problem is established and tested considering MAP behavior. (© 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Towards a finite element simulation of coating by means of thermal spraying

Metal sheet forming processes like deep drawing are applied in order to produce carriage parts in mass production. Therefore, forming tools are required that are well protected against wear. For such forming tools, wear resistant surfaces are, e.g., produced by thermal spraying of hard material coatings. The thermal spraying process itself is a highly transient thermo-mechanical process. In order to gain a better understanding of the heat input and transfer during thermal spraying, a simulation framework for thermal spraying processes is presented. (© 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Numerical Modeling of Functional Fatigue in NiTi Wires

Motivated by the high potential of shape memory alloys (SMA) in several industrial applications, we investigate the material response under cyclic loading. In particular, the focus is set on the modelling of functional fatigue, which results in the deterioration of the specific features of SMA. In fact, functional fatigue restricts SMA in terms of its applicability for real structures and workpieces. This necessitates the development of material models which take this phenomenon into account. (© 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Parallel simulation of large scale multibody systems

Virtual prototyping plays an ever increasing role in the engineering disciplines. Nowadays, engineers can rely on powerful tools like object oriented modeling languages, e.g., Modelica. Models written in this language can be simulated by open source software as well as commercial tools. The advantage of this approach is that the engineers can concentrate themselves on modeling, whereas the numerical intricacies of the simulation are handled by the software. On the other hand the simulations are usually slower than implementations which are parallelized and optimized manually. This can lead to computation times which are infeasible in practice, e.g., when a real time simulation is necessary for a hardware-in-the-loop simulation. In this contribution we are concerned with speeding up such automated simulations by parallelization (on desktop hardware as well as HPC systems). We examine the parallelism across the system approaches. Additionally, the influence of the problem formulation on the simulation time is discussed. The implemented methods are demonstrated on engineering examples. (© 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Reversible Photoinduced Conversion of Unprecedented Norbornadiene-Based Photoswitches with Redox-Active Naphthalene Diimide Functionalities

An unprecedented compound class of functional organic hybrids consisting of a photoswitchable norbornadiene building block and a redoxactive chromophore, namely naphthalene diimide, were designed and synthesized. Within these structures the capability of rylene chromophores to function as a redox active catalyst upon their photoexcitation was utilized to initiate the oxidative back-conversion of the in situ formed quadricyclane unit to its norbornadiene analogue. In this way successive photoexcitation at two different wavelengths enabled a controlled photoswitching between the two isomerical states of the hybrids. Beyond this prove of concept, the dependency of the reaction rate to the intramolecular distance of the two functional molecular building blocks as well as the concentration of the photoexcited sample was monitored. The experimental findings and interpretations were furthermore supported by quantum chemical investigations.     

Quantum nonlocality and beyond: limits from nonlocal computation

We address the problem of "nonlocal computation," in which separated parties must compute a function without any individual learning anything about the inputs. Surprisingly, entanglement provides no benefit over local classical strategies for such tasks, yet stronger nonlocal correlations allow perfect success. This provides intriguing insights into the limits of quantum information processing, the nature of quantum nonlocality, and the differences between quantum and stronger-than-quantum nonlocal correlations.     

Fixed index gratings in LiNbO(3):Fe upon long-term exposure to an intense laser beam

Permanently fixed noisily recorded refractive index gratings are discovered in single crystals of LiNbO(3):Fe upon long-term exposure to a single laser beam with high intensities of I=100 kW/m(2) and ambient temperature. The fixing process is explained by considering the effect of laser-induced heating of the sample and the well-known simultaneous thermal fixing procedure.