Expert system to calculate the cofficient of friction : an approach to enhance traffic safety

Friction plays a key role in causing slipperiness as a low coefficient of friction on the road may result in slippery and hazardous conditions. Analyzing the strong relation between friction and accident risk on winter roads is a difficult task. Many weather forecasting organizations use a variety of standard and bespoke methods to predict the coefficient of friction on roads. This article proposes an approach to predict the extent of slipperiness by building and testing an expert system. It estimates the coefficient of friction on winter roads in the province of Dalarna, Sweden using the prevailing weather conditions as a basis. Weather data from the road weather information system, Sweden (RWIS) was used. The focus of the project was to use the expert system as a part of a major project in VITSA, within the domain of intelligent transport systems

Bullerförekomst vid sönderdelning av skogsbränsle

Syftet med denna studie är att öka kunskapen om bullerexponering för omgivning och förare vid sönderdelning av skogsbränsle till flis. Sammanlagt har sex fallstudier genomförts, tre skotare, två lastbilar och en mobil anläggning. Fallen har valts med syftet att representera olika typer av sönderdelningsekipage och teknik. Studierna har genomförts i Dalarnas, Stockholms och Gävleborgs län. Bullerexponering för omgivning och förare i samband med sönderdelning till flis har undersökts med föreskrivna metoder. Det är stora skillnader på bullerexponering för förarna av de olika ekipagen. En skotarförare har daglig bullerexponering under såväl insats- som gränsvärde. Två förare (en skotarförare och en lastbilsförare) överskred insatsvärde, men var under gränsvärdet. Övriga förares bullerexponering överskred gränsvärdet. Alla maskiner har bullernivåer över 40/45 dB(A) på 200 meters avstånd, vilket överstiger acceptabla nivåer dagtid för områden med fritidsbebyggelse och fritidsområden. Endast ett av ekipagen (en skotare) hade bullernivåer på 200 meters avstånd i nivå med riktlinjer för områden med bostäder för permanent boende.  Övriga ekipage hade högre värden. De slutsatser som kan göras från denna studie är: Merparten av förare vid sönderdelning av skogsbränsle till flis exponeras för dagliga bullernivåer som kräver åtgärder. Bullernivåerna varierar mellan olika typer av ekipage för sönderdelning av skogsbränsle till flis. Studerade ekipage har högre värden för buller på 200 meters avstånd till bostäder, arbetslokaler och friluftsområden än vad som rekommenderas.

Damm- och mögelförekomst vid hantering av skogsbränsle

Tidigare studier har indikerat att exponering för trädamm och mögeldamm vid hantering av GROT (grenar och toppar) kan vara en hälsorisk. Syftet med denna studie är att ytterligare öka kunskapen om dammförhållanden inom skogsenergibranschen. Mer specifikt är målet att genom fallstudier studera dammförekomst vid hantering av GROT samt stubbar. Enstaka fallstudier av mögelförekomst i förarmiljön inkluderas. Sammanlagt har 19 fallstudier genomförts hos tio olika företag i Dalarna, Västmanland, ödermanland, Uppland, och Närke. Totaldamm har mätts med filterprovtagning inne i hytten och utanför hytten. Mögel har mätts med filterprovtagning inne i hytten. Sammanfattningsvis kan konstateras att vid samtliga fall av skotning uppmättes förhöjda dammnivåer utomhus. Högst dammnivåer uppmättes vid sönderdelning av GROT vid olika årstider. Förare som utförde arbete utanför hytten exponerades för högre dammnivåer än de som enbart arbetade inifrån hytten. De enstaka fallstudierna av mögel visade på relativt låga värden av mögelsporer. Arbetsmomentet såsom byte av knivar indikerade ökade mögelhalter. Slutsatser från denna studie är: Inga höga damm och mögelhalter har uppmätts i dessa fallstudier. Då väderförhållandena innebar mer nederbörd än i genomsnitt är resultaten inte generaliserbara. Förhöjda dammhalter uppmättes då förare utfört service och underhållsarbete utanför hytten. I studerade fall där dammängden utanför hytten var förhöjd har inga dammhalter mätts upp inne i hytterna, vilket tyder på bra luftfilter. Rekommendationer till förare är att: Regelbundet byta hyttens luftfilter och att hålla fönster och dörrar stängda för att förhindra dammexponering inne i hytten. Vid service- och underhållsarbete ska föraren i möjligaste mån undvika att använda tryckluft. Andningsskydd bör användas under de korta moment som tryckluft används.

Modular Product Verifications Based on Design for Assembly

The desire to conquer markets through advanced product design and trendy business strategies are still predominant approaches in industry today. In fact, product development has acquired an ever more central role in the strategic planning of companies, and it has extended its influence to R&D funding levels as well. It is not surprising that many national R&D project frameworks within the EU today are dominated by product development topics, leaving production engineering, robotics, and systems on the sidelines. The reasons may be many but, unfortunately, the link between product development and the production processes they cater for are seldom treated in depth. The issue dealt with in this article relates to how product development is applied in order to attain the required production quality levels a company may desire, as well as how one may counter assembly defects and deviations through quantifiable design approaches. It is recognized that product verifications (tests, inspections, etc.) are necessary, but the application of these tactics often result in lead-time extensions and increased costs. Modular architectures improve this by simplifying the verification of the assembled product at module level. Furthermore, since Design for Assembly (DFA) has shown the possibility to identify defective assemblies, it may be possible to detect potential assembly defects already in the product and module design phase. The intention of this paper is to discuss and describe the link between verifications of modular architectures, defects and design for assembly. The paper is based on literature and case studies; tables and diagrams are included with the intention of increasing understanding of the relation between poor designs, defects and product verifications.

Integrated Product Development in Truck Industry - A Case Study on Product Development Processes

This paper presents the result from a case study at Scania on product development processes. The objective with the case study was to gather information on Scania’s product development process (PDP) including the use of CAD and simulation tools, and project work. The objective was also to find any deviations or different interpretations among the employees on the PDP. To gather the information, semi-structured tape-recorded interviews have been used to ensure that individual interpretations from the interviewees could be gathered. Scania uses a defined and structured PDP which facilitates concurrent and cross-functional work. The PDP is implemented and followed to various degrees. The newly employed personnel may have difficulties with communication, both to find and to give information. Although, newly graduated personnel may find it easier to adapt to changes, and also to use a structured process which they have studied at universities. It was also known during the case study that the PDP is a major support for the newly employed personnel, which in turn decreases the time to get into the same working process as the more experienced personnel. Employees with decades of experience know the right sources from which to both give and gather information. Also, the terminology and definitions in the product development process may not be used as intended. This makes it difficult for other project members or teams who need to interpret the information received. At the same time, the routines among the more experienced personnel, which have been set-up throughout the years, make them more inflexible in adapting changes. The findings in the case study as well as challenges with implementing the PDP are known to Scania and are a part of the continuing work with improvement.

A machine learning approach for recognising woody plants on railway trackbeds

The purpose of this work in progress study was to test the concept of recognising plants using images acquired by image sensors in a controlled noise-free environment. The presence of vegetation on railway trackbeds and embankments presents potential problems. Woody plants (e.g. Scots pine, Norway spruce and birch) often establish themselves on railway trackbeds. This may cause problems because legal herbicides are not effective in controlling them; this is particularly the case for conifers. Thus, if maintenance administrators knew the spatial position of plants along the railway system, it may be feasible to mechanically harvest them. Primary data were collected outdoors comprising around 700 leaves and conifer seedlings from 11 species. These were then photographed in a laboratory environment. In order to classify the species in the acquired image set, a machine learning approach known as Bag-of-Features (BoF) was chosen. Irrespective of the chosen type of feature extraction and classifier, the ability to classify a previously unseen plant correctly was greater than 85%. The maintenance planning of vegetation control could be improved if plants were recognised and localised. It may be feasible to mechanically harvest them (in particular, woody plants). In addition, listed endangered species growing on the trackbeds can be avoided. Both cases are likely to reduce the amount of herbicides, which often is in the interest of public opinion. Bearing in mind that natural objects like plants are often more heterogeneous within their own class rather than outside it, the results do indeed present a stable classification performance, which is a sound prerequisite in order to later take the next step to include a natural background. Where relevant, species can also be listed under the Endangered Species Act.

INVENTORY CONTROL SYSTEM : Optimization of production system and reliability

The main idea of this research to solve the problem of inventory management for the paper industry SPM PVT limited. The aim of this research was to find a methodology by which the inventory of raw material could be kept at minimum level by means of buffer stock level.The main objective then lies in finding the minimum level of buffer stock according to daily consumption of raw material, finding the Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) reorders point and how much order will be placed in a year to control the shortage of raw material.In this project, we discuss continuous review model (Deterministic EOQ models) that includes the probabilistic demand directly in the formulation. According to the formula, we see the reorder point and the order up to model. The problem was tackled mathematically as well as simulation modeling was used where mathematically tractable solution was not possible.The simulation modeling was done by Awesim software for developing the simulation network. This simulation network has the ability to predict the buffer stock level based on variable consumption of raw material and lead-time. The data collection for this simulation network is taken from the industrial engineering personnel and the departmental studies of the concerned factory. At the end, we find the optimum level of order quantity, reorder point and order days.

Soft computing in biometrics : a pragmatic appraisal

The ever increasing spurt in digital crimes such as image manipulation, image tampering, signature forgery, image forgery, illegal transaction, etc. have hard pressed the demand to combat these forms of criminal activities. In this direction, biometrics - the computer-based validation of a persons' identity is becoming more and more essential particularly for high security systems. The essence of biometrics is the measurement of person’s physiological or behavioral characteristics, it enables authentication of a person’s identity. Biometric-based authentication is also becoming increasingly important in computer-based applications because the amount of sensitive data stored in such systems is growing. The new demands of biometric systems are robustness, high recognition rates, capability to handle imprecision, uncertainties of non-statistical kind and magnanimous flexibility. It is exactly here that, the role of soft computing techniques comes to play. The main aim of this write-up is to present a pragmatic view on applications of soft computing techniques in biometrics and to analyze its impact. It is found that soft computing has already made inroads in terms of individual methods or in combination. Applications of varieties of neural networks top the list followed by fuzzy logic and evolutionary algorithms. In a nutshell, the soft computing paradigms are used for biometric tasks such as feature extraction, dimensionality reduction, pattern identification, pattern mapping and the like.