An automated modelling and control design environment for serial manipulators has been implemented in Matlab/Simulink. This development was motivated by the need for a fast and insightful modelling tool, given that currently available modelling environments are not well suited for control design. The manipulator configuration is defined within a graphical user interface and the corresponding ma...

This article reviews advances in detection and diagnosis of plant-wide control system disturbances in chemical processes and discusses new directions that look promising for the future. Causes of plant-wide disturbances include non-linear limit cycles in control loops, controller interactions and tuning problems. The diagnosis of non-linearity, especially when due to valve stiction, has been an...

ADROIT Manipulation platform is a pneumatically actuated, tendon driven 28 degree of freedom platform being developed for investigating complex hand manipulation behaviors. ADROIT derives its unique capabilities, necessary to support dynamic and dexterous manipulation, from a custom designed high performance pneumatic actuation system for tendon driven hands. The custom pneumatic actuation syst...

During the last decades, under the increasing demand for more accurate high-performance motion systems, various friction models appropriate for control purpose of mechanical systems have been proposed. Most of these friction models formulate a heuristic dynamical model based on a few observed typical friction properties (e.g. a Stribeck curve for constant velocities and a hysteresis behaviour i...

In the perspective of developing an integrated system able to include loop performance assessment and early diagnosis of anomalies, an experimental characterization of more common problems encountered in industrial valves has been carried out on a pilot scale plant. The primary scope was to investigate the possibility of detecting different types of valve anomalies from the analysis of routine ...

Dynamic atomic force microscopy (dynamic AFM) with carbon nanotube tips has been suggested as an enabling tool for high precision nanometrology of critical dimension features of semiconductor surfaces. We investigate the performance of oscillating AFM microcantilevers with multi-walled carbon nanotube (multi-walled CNT) tips interacting with high aspect ratio structures while in the attractive ...

In this paper, an industrial MPC performance monitoring technology is introduced with a focus on the industrial implementation. A plant-oriented framework for APC performance monitoring is proposed on the basis of industrial computer control systems background. A software package integrating this technology, which is called Performance Analysis Toolbox and Solutions (PATS), is introduced. The m...

This paper describes a novel technique for manufacturing optical gratings using the one step DRIE (Deep Reactive Ion Etching) process. Utilising the notching effect documented in previous work when working with silicon on insulator (SOI) wafers, fully released, intact gratings have now been produced without the requirement for additional releasing processes. The one step process eliminates the ...

Although negligible at macroscopic scales, capillary forces become dominant as the sub-millimetric scales of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) are considered. We review various situations, not limited to micro-technologies, where capillary forces are able to deform elastic structures. In particular, we define the different length scales that are relevant for 'elasto-capillary' problems. W...