Motion control of an omnidirectional climbing robot based on dead reckoning method

While omnidirectional wheels enable a holonomic drive and a good maneuverability, the slippage of the wheels as an inherent characteristic of the omnidirectional wheels prevents using rotary shaft encoders as a reliable source of data for the robot’s odometry. When installed on a climbing robot, omnidirectional wheels may suffer from additional slippage on the surface. In a previous study, we described how the resulting vibration decreases the trajectory following accuracy of the robot, and why rotary encoders, as the most popular dead reckoning method cannot be used. In this paper, we address this problem by integration of low cost and light weight exteroceptive sensors, i.e. an accelerometer and an optical flow sensor. The Omniclimber climbing robot was used as the testing platform in this study. Omniclimbers are omnidirectional climbing robots that can climb and navigate over flat and curved structures. We attempt to compensate the errors due to the wheel slippage through closing the position control loop without significantly increasing the robot’s weight, cost and complexity of the robot. We also integrated an algorithm which corrects the robot kinematics on the curved structures based on the curvature diameter and the robot’s heading angle. Taking advantage of these sensors and algorithms we could make remarkable improvements on the path following accuracy of the Omniclimbers, which is presented in this article.     

光缆监测系统技术及应用

传统的光缆维护中光缆中断后故障定位和修复时间比较长。光缆监测系统可以实时监测光缆性能及隐患,发生故障时能迅速确定故障的位置,大大节省修复时间。对监测的数据进行分析,还能掌握光缆的缓慢劣化情况,预报光缆隐患,变被动维护为主动维护。介绍了光缆监测系统的工作原理、研究了几种监测方式及相应优缺点和应用范围、主要部件的性能指标、典型应用案例以及取得的经济效益。     

不同V/III族元素比对m面GaN薄膜性能的影响

摘要：采用分子束外延（MBE）方法在蓝宝石衬底上外延生长m面GaN薄膜。利用原子力显微镜(AFM)、扫描电子显微镜(SEM)分析了薄膜表面形貌,对比分析结果,发现V/III族元素比从1:80降低到1:90时,外延膜表面均方根粗糙度从13.08nm降低到9.07nm。利用光谱型椭偏仪研究m面GaN薄膜,通过物理模型建立和光谱拟合得到了m面GaN薄膜的厚度、折射率和消光系数。拟合结果显示,GaN样品厚度和理论值一致,且V/III族元素比为1:90时,所得外延膜折射率较低,透射率大。两种测试方法的结果表明,V/III族元素比较小的样品晶体质量高。     

Transimpedance amplifier with a compression stage for wide dynamic range optical applications

A high dynamic input transimpedance amplifier was implemented in 130 nm CMOS technology. The proposed TIA is an inverter with a diode connected NMOS and a gate controlled PMOS loads which is cascode connected with the inverter. The square law compression NMOS increases the input photocurrent up to 10 mA. The TIA has an integrated input referred noise current of 135 nA, 227 MHz bandwidth. The TIA shows a transimpedance gain of 59 dBΩ and a 97 dB dynamic range. The TIA consumes 2.3 mA from 1.5 V voltage supply.     

Solvent-Polymer Interaction. II. Measurements of Liquid Solvent Molecules Associating with Polymer Sites and of Their Transport Behavior in Polymer Membrane by Thermogravimetry,GLC, and Mass Spectrometry

The measurement of sorption and diffusion behavior of liquid ethanol and water solvent mixtures in polyurethane membrane were made simultaneously by thermogravimetry. The individual amounts of sorbed water and ethanol in the polymer membrane were estimated by thermogravimetry and differentiated by mass spectrometry. In addition, from a single dynamic thermogravimetric experiment the activation energy for solvent molecules desorbing from the polymer membrane was also determined. The thermodynamic activity of ethanol vapor in equilibrium with the ethanol-water-polyurethane system was determined by gas-liquid chromatography. The clustering functions, the mean numbers of solvent molecules in the clusters, and those associating with polymer sites were evaluated by applying simplified mathematical derivatives using the experimentally determined values of activity and volume fraction of solvent molecules. It was found that at lower ethanol concentration the tendency for ethanol molecules to cluster together is high. At higher ethanol activity, ethanol-polymer site interactions predominantly occurred.

Similar results were observed for ethanol-water molecules. However, water molecules in this particular system did not exhibit a self-associating tendency nor interact with the polymer sites. It was concluded that the Zimm-Lundberg clustering theory can be adequately applied to the interpretation of sorption and diffusion behavior of liquid ethanol-water mixtures in the polymer membrane.     

Viscometric Estimation of Unperturbed Chain Dimensions of Polymers

A new expression is proposed to determine the unperturbed dimensions of coil-like polymers viscometrically by use of the Flory and Kratky expression. The unperturbed dimensions so estimated are compared with the results obtained by using different expressions available in the literature. The results are comparable even for stiff chain polymers. The data obtained under theta conditions also fit this expression very well. The effect of molecular weight, its distribution, and that of the solvent has also been studied. It is concluded that the unperturbed dimensions are independent of molecular weight and solvent but depend on the heterogeneity of the system.     

Solvatochromic Determination of Second-order Polarizabilities of Chromophore-functionalized Dextran and Amylose Derivatives

Linear dextran and helix amylose were covalently bonded with nonlinear optical (NLO) chromophores. The influence of the conformation of the polymer matrix on the NLO behavior of the supramolecular structure has been studied. The second order hyperpolarizability depends not only on the secondary structure of the biopolymer, but also on the position of the chromophore towards the polymeric backbone. Functionalization of NLO-phores with biopolymers led to increased thermo- and photostability.     

Optical absorption of zigzag single walled boron nitride nanotubes in axial magnetic field

We have investigated the effect of axial magnetic field on the band structure, dipole matrix elements and absorption spectrum in different energy ranges, using tight binding approximation. It is found that magnetic field breaks the degeneracy in the band structure and creates new allowed transitions in the dipole matrix which leads to creation of new peaks in the absorption spectrum. It is found that, unlike to CNTs which show metallic–semiconductor transition, the BNNTs remain semiconductor in any magnetic field strength. By calculation the diameter dependence of peak positions, we found that the positions of three first peaks in the lower energy region (E <5.3 eV) are proportional to n⁻². In the middle energy region (7 < E < 7.5 eV) all (n, 0) zigzag BNNTs, with even and odd nanotube index, have two distinct peaks in the absence of magnetic field which these peaks may be used to identify zigzag BNNTs from other tube chiralities. For odd (even) tubes, in the middle energy region, applying the magnetic field leads to splitting of these two peaks into three (five) distinct peaks.     

Optical metal-organic framework sensor for selective discrimination of some toxic metal ions in water

This paper reports the development of a facile and effective approach, based on the use of Zr-based metal-organic frameworks (UiO-66) sensor with micropores geometry, shape and particle morphology for the visual detection and removal of ultra-traces of some toxic metal ions such as Bi(III), Zn(II), Pb(II), Hg(II) and Cd(II). UiO-66 was used as selective carriers for accommodating hydrophobic chromophore probes such as dithizone (DZ) without coupling agent for sensitive and selective discrimination of trace level of toxic analytes. The developed UiO-66 sensor was utilized for the detection of ultra-traces of some toxic metal ions with the naked eye. The new sensor displays high sensitivity and selectivity of a wide range of detectable metals analytes up to 10⁻¹⁰ mol dm⁻³ in solution, in a rapid analyte uptake response (seconds). The developed sensor is stable, cost effective, easy to prepare, and would be useful for rapid detection and removal of ultra-traces of toxic metal ions in water samples.     

Synthesis of β,β′-edge fused, π-extended porphyrins and their applications in the dye-sensitized solar cells

Four π-extended, β,β′ aromatic ring fused porphyrins including mono- and opp-dibenzoporphyrins bearing two carboxyl groups at only one fused benzo group were synthesized. The optical results by UV–vis spectroscopy indicate that when compared with the absorption spectra of monobenzoporphyrins, greater light-harvesting capabilities can be realized for opp-dibenzoporphyrins with two benzo group at the opposite β,β′ positions of the porphyrin. The photovoltaic properties of these π-extended porphyrins were examined for the first time and the highest conversion efficiency of 1.62% was realized for opp-dibenzoporphyrin 8a-sensitized solar cell, which is ∼60% higher than that of monobenzoporphyrin 4a based solar cell indicating the effect of an extra aromatic π conjugation on the light-harvesting capabilities of π-extended porphyrins. Subsequent DFT calculation results supported our results obtained in the optical and photovoltaic studies.