Quadruped robots have unique capabilities for motion over uneven natural environments. This article presents a stable gait for a quadruped robot in such motions and discusses the inverse-dynamics control scheme to follow the planned gait. First, an explicit dynamics model will be developed using a novel constraint elimination method for an 18-DOF quadruped robot. Thereafter, an inverse-dynamics...

This paper presents the analysis on the influence of distance mismatches on the standard gradient-based rigid formation control for second-order agents. It is shown that, similar to the first-order case as recently discussed in the literature, these mismatches introduce two undesired group behaviors: a distorted final shape and a steady-state motion of the group formation. We show that such und...

The prevalence of myopia among students has reached epidemic proportions in east Asia. Indian data also suggests a high prevalence, especially in the southeast. We examined the trend locally, in 148 first MBBS students at a medical college in Pune, located in Maharashtra, a western state of India. We report a prevalence of 45% and compare it to that reported globally as well as from different r...

We use discrete time models to represent the dynamics of two interacting populations, a “valuable” population and a “pest” population. We investigate optimal control in the form of decreasing the growth rate of the “pest” population with the goal of maximizing the “valuable” population while minimizing the cost of the control. We compare different types of growth functions for the “valuable” po...

Every year the number of installed wind power plants in the world increases. The horizontal axis wind turbine is the most common type of turbine but there exist other types. Here, three different wind turbines are considered; the horizontal axis wind turbine and two different concepts of vertical axis wind turbines; the Darrieus turbine and the H-rotor. This paper aims at making a comparative s...

Optimum Aerodynamic Design Using CFD and Control Theory

This paper presents a novel way of manipulating the initial conditions in the consensus equation such that a constrained agreement problem is solved across a distributed network of agents, particularly for a network represented by a tree graph. The presented method is applied to the problem of coordinating multiple pendula attached to mobile bases. The pendula should move in such a way that the...

This paper investigates a class of Lagrangian control systems with n degrees-offreedom (DOF) and n − 1 actuators, assuming that n − 1 virtual holonomic constraints have been enforced via feedback, and a basic regularity condition holds. The reduced dynamics of such systems are described by a second-order unforced differential equation. We present necessary and sufficient conditions under which ...

In recent years the trend towards service business is progressing rapidly throughout the world economics. Responding to the demands for service innovation and service productivity improvement, service science is emerging as a new research field that applies multi-disciplinary studies to service systems. In this paper we propose using control theory as a means to design service management soluti...

This paper considers the coupled formation control of three mobile agents moving in the plane. Each agent has only local inter-agent bearing knowledge and is required to maintain a specified angular separation relative to both neighbor agents. Assuming the desired angular separation of each agent relative to the group is feasible, then a triangle is generated. The control law is distributed and...