FROM FACTORY-FLOOR TO UNIVERSITY

The interaction between industry and university is often discussed. Industry participants feel they do not have enough time to spend with academics because of tight deadlines to achieve your goals. The other hand, professors and his students do not have availability and resources for responding quickly to industry activities. Both sides recognize the associated problems and feel the consequences of various forms. One way to reduce the distance between them is to provide industrial labs that resemble the factory floor at the university. Thus not only students may work on a real technological base, but also the industry's problems can be brought to the university laboratory. To ensure that relevant industrial problems will be studied, the industry needs help in the formulation of the problem being researched. The graduate program of Automation and Control Engineering from UNESP Sorocaba is aimed at training human resources with skills in automation and control activities related to the development of automatic control processes, integrating electronic commands, intelligent manufacturing and industrial robotics. In order to achieve its objectives, one of the pillars of the university consists of a wide range of modern equipments and software for industrial automation, which allows the circuit assembly from most primitive until configuration and programming of a complex system of integrated manufacturing. This paper describes industrial automation equipments and laboratory structure offered to students of Control and Automation Engineering graduate program at UNESP Sorocaba as alternative to close technologies and real problems on the job until academic world. The strategic is to do students understand theory and operations in robotic and industrial automation by means to manipulating real production systems locate at university

Automation and cybernetics: Control of a flexible one-link manipulator

States that control is of the essence in cybernetics. Summarizes the dynamic equations for a flexible one-link manipulator moving in the horizontal plane. Employs the finite element method, based on elementary beam theory, during the process of formulation. Develops and instruments a one-link flexible manipulator in order to control its vibration modes. Uses a simple second-order vibration model which permits vibrations on the rod to be estimated using the hub angle. The validation of the dynamic model and the structural analysis of the flexible manipulator is reached using proper infrared cameras and active light sources for determining actual positions of objects in space. Shows that the performance of the control is satisfactory, even under perturbation action.

A multiagent architecture for supervisory and control system

Supervising and controlling the many processes involved in petroleum production is both dangerous and complex. Herein, we propose a multiagent supervisory and control system for handle continuous processes like those in chemical and petroleum industries In its architeture, there are agents responsible for managing data production and analysis, and also the production equipments. Fuzzy controllers were used as control agents. The application of a fuzzy control system to managing an off-shore installation for petroleum production onto a submarine separation process is described. © 2008 IEEE.

On nonlinear dynamics behavior and control of a new model of a magnetically levitated vibrating system, excited by an unbalanced DC motor of limited power supply

We analyze new results on a magnetically levitated body (a block including a magnet whose bottom pole is set in such a way as to repel the upper pole of a magnetic base) excited by a non-ideal energy source (an unbalanced electric motor of limited power supply). These new results are related to the jump phenomena and increase of power required of such sources near resonance are manifestations of a non-ideal system and they are referred as the Sommerfeld effect, which emulates an energy sink. In this work, we also discuss control strategies to be applied to this system, in resonance conditions, in order to decrease its vibration amplitude and avoiding this apparent energy sink.

Nonlinear state estimation and control applied to a manipulator robotic including drive motor

A robotic control design considering all the inherent nonlinearities of the robot engine configuration is developed. The interactions between the robot and joint motor drive mechanism are considered. The proposed control combines two strategies, one feedforward control in order to maintain the system in the desired coordinate, and feedback control system to take the system into a desired coordinate. The feedback control is obtained using State Dependent Riccati Equation (SDRE). For link positioning two cases are considered. Case 1: For control positioning, it is only used motor voltage; Case 2: For control positioning, it is used both motor voltage and torque between the links. Simulation results, including parametric uncertainties in control shows the feasibility of the proposed control for the considered system.

Editorial dynamics and control of aerospace and vertical transportation systems

This Special Issue presents a selection of papers initially presented at the 11th International Conference on Vibration Problems (ICOVP-2013), held from 9 to 12 September 2013 in Lisbon, Portugal. The main topics of this Special Issue are linear and, mainly, nonlinear dynamics, chaos and control of systems and structures and their applications in different field of science and engineering. According to the goal of the Special Issue, the selected contributions are divided into three major parts: “Vibration Problems in Vertical Transportation Systems”, “Nonlinear Dynamics, Chaos and Control of Elastic Structures” and “New Strategies and Challenges for Aerospace and Ocean Structures Dynamics and Control”.

Nucleus isthmi and control of breathing in amphibians

Despite recent advances, the mechanisms of neurorespiratory control in amphibians are far from understood. One of the brainstem structures believed to play a key role in the ventilatory control of anuran amphibians is the nucleus isthmi (NI). This nucleus is a mesencephalic structure located between the roof of the midbrain and the cerebellum, which differentiates during metamorphosis; the period when pulmonary ventilation develops in bullfrogs. It has been recently suggested that the NI acts to inhibit hypoxic and hypercarbic drives in breathing by restricting increases in tidal volume. This data is similar to the influence of two pontine structures of mammals, the locus coeruleus and the nucleus raphe magnus. The putative mediators for this response are glutamate and nitric oxide. Microinjection of kynurenic acid (an ionotropic receptor antagonist of excitatory amino acids) and L-NAME (a non-selective NO synthase inhibitor) elicited increases in the ventilatory response to hypoxia and hypercarbia. This article reviews the available data on the role of the NI in the control of ventilation in amphibians. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Mechanism and control of Genipa americana seed germination

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Dynamic Morse decompositions for semigroups of homeomorphisms and control systems

In this paper, we introduce the concept of dynamic Morse decomposition for an action of a semigroup of homeomorphisms. Conley has shown in [5, Sec. 7] that the concepts of Morse decomposition and dynamic Morse decompositions are equivalent for flows in metric spaces. Here, we show that a Morse decomposition for an action of a semigroup of homeomorphisms of a compact topological space is a dynamic Morse decomposition. We also define Morse decompositions and dynamic Morse decompositions for control systems on manifolds. Under certain condition, we show that the concept of dynamic Morse decomposition for control system is equivalent to the concept of Morse decomposition.

On the optimum parameters of a device for harvesting energy from running and walking

This paper investigates the feasibility of using an energy harvesting device tuned such that its natural frequency coincides with higher harmonics of the input to capture energy from walking or running human motion more efficiently. The paper starts by reviewing the concept of a linear resonant generator for a tonal frequency input and then derives an expression for the power harvested for an input with several harmonics. The amount of power harvested is estimated numerically using measured data from human subjects. Assuming that the input is periodic, the signal is reconstructed using a Fourier series before being used in the simulation. It is found that although the power output depends on the input frequency, the choice of tuning the natural frequency of the device to coincide with a particular higher harmonic is restricted by the amount of damping that is needed to maximize the amount of power harvested, as well as to comply with the size limit of the device. It is also found that it is not feasible to tune the device to match the first few harmonics when the size of the device is small, because a large amount of damping is required to limit the motion of the mass.

Temporal relationship between successful pancreas transplantation and control of ocular complications in alloxan-induced diabetic rats

Purpose. The impact of pancreas transplantation (PT) on the progression of eye disease is still controversial. This study evaluated the course of retinopathy in transplanted rats in two different diabetic stages.Methods. Sixty inbred male Lewis rats were assigned to four experimental groups: NC-15 nondiabetic control rats; DC-15 untreated diabetic control rats; PT1-15 diabetic rats that received syngeneic pancreas transplants 2 weeks after alloxan diabetes induction; PT2-15 diabetic rats that received pancreas transplants 12 weeks after diabetes onset. Clinical and laboratory parameters and tens opacity were examined in all rats prior to treatment and at 1-, 6-, and 12-months follow-up. Nucleated eyes from five rats in each group processed for ultrastructural study of the retinal at 6 and 12 months after PT or at follow-up.Results. Cataracts were observed in 20%, 60%, and 100% of DC rats at 1-, 6-, and 12-months follow-up, respectively. Early PT (2 weeks) significantly reduced the prevalence of this complication but not late (12 weeks) PT. PT1 rats also showed improved ultrastructure of the superficial and deep capillary plexuses of the retina, and of Muller cells, compared with DC and PT2. In the last group, retinopathy continued to evolve despite successful PT.Conclusion. Our results suggested that prevention of diabetic ocular lesions by PT was closely dependent on earlier performance of the procedure.

In vitro antifungal susceptibility of Candida spp. oral isolates from HIV-positive patients and control individuals

Oropharyngeal candidiasis is the most common fungal infection among HIV-positive patients. This condition can be treated with either systemic or topical antifungal agents; treatments are usually indicated empirically on the basis of clinical data. The knowledge of in vitro antifungal susceptibility is important to determine correct therapeutic guides for the treatment of fungal infections. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the antifungal susceptibility profile of oral Candida isolates from HIV-positive patients and control individuals. Amphotericin B, fluconazole, flucytosine, nystatin and ketoconazole were tested according to the methodology of microdilution proposed by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI); results were recorded in values of minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC). A total of 71 Candida isolates from HIV-positive patients were examined with the following species represented: C. albicans (59), C. tropicalis (9), C. glabrata (1), C. guilliermondii (1) and C. krusei (1). A total of 15 Candida isolates were evaluated from control individuals comprised of 11 C. albicans and 4 C. tropicalis samples. Our results demonstrated that the tested antifungal agents showed good activity for most isolates from both groups; however, variability in MIC values among isolates was observed.