Magnetorheological (MR) dampers have the advantage of being tuned by low voltages. This has attracted many researchers to develop semi-active control of structures in theory and practice. Most of the control strategies first obtain the desired forces of dampers without taking their dynamics into consideration and then determine the input voltages according to those forces. As a result, these st...

BACKGROUND Schistosomiasis remains a major public health problem in China. The major endemic foci are the lake and marshland regions of southern China, particularly the regions along the middle and lower reach of the Yangtze River in four provinces (Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, and Anhui). The purpose of our study is to assess the effect of a new integrated strategy emphasizing infection source contr...

Building energy simulation software (e.g. EnergyPlus) is a powerful tool used widely by designers and researchers. However, current software is limited in modeling distributed generation (DG), including DG with heat recovery applied to building end-use, i.e. combined heat and power (CHP). Concurrently, DG investment and dispatch optimization software has been developed, yet has not been linked ...

Based on building polygons (building footprints) on a digital map, we are proposing a GIS (Geographic Information System) and CG integrated system to generate 3-D building models automatically. Most building polygons‟ edges meet at right angles (orthogonal polygon). A complicated orthogonal polygon can be partitioned into a set of rectangles. In order to partition an orthogonal polygon, we prop...

SRS is a European research project for building robust personal assistant robots using ROS (Robotic Operating System) and Care-O-bot (COB) 3 as the demonstration platform. A semi-autonomous framework has been developed in the project. It consists of an autonomous control structure and user interfaces that support the semi-autonomous operation. The control structure is divided into two parts. Fi...

Designing industrial robot systems for welding, painting, and assembly, is challenging because they must perform with high precision, speed, and endurance. ABB Robotics has specialized in building highly reliable and safe robotized paint systems using an integrated process control system. However, current validation practices are mainly limited to manual test scenarios, which makes it difficult...

The close control of building services is seen as essential component for delivering low energy performance. This inevitably means some form of supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system. To increase the penetration of this technology into the market place, it is inevitable that internet communication will be employed increasingly in the future. However, it can be very challenging ...

The paper presents field demonstration results from the implementation of a model predictive control formulation to optimize the operation of a variable volume, dual-duct, multi-zone HVAC unit serving an existing mid-size commercial building. This full-scale study is used to estimate the benefits of advanced building control technologies that can be integrated during a retrofit. The predictive ...