and Overview. In this paper we describe the motivation, design and implementation of a system to visually guide a locomoting robot towards a target and around obstacles. The work was inspired by a recent suggestion that walking humans rely on perceived egocentric direction rather than optic flow to guide locomotion to a target. We briefly summarise the human experimental work and then illustrat...

Some large wind turbines use a low speed synchronous generator, directly-coupled to the turbine, and a fully rated converter to transform power from the turbine to mains electricity. This paper considers the condition monitoring and diagnosis of mechanical and electrical faults in such a variable speed machine. The application of wavelet transforms is investigated because of the disadvantages o...

Many challenges exist for the operation of wind turbines in an efficient manner that is reliable and avoids component fatigue and failure. Turbines operate in highly turbulent environments resulting in aerodynamic loads that can easily excite turbine structural modes, possibly causing component fatigue and failure. Wind turbine manufacturers are highly motivated to reduce component fatigue and ...

Community-based wind energy projects, with their small-scale, yet sizeable presence, provide a valuable opportunity to understand how individuals make sense of changes to their communities and to the surrounding landscape. Here, we examine the results of a 2013 mail survey of individuals residing in the vicinity of a 2 MW wind turbine that is located on the edge of the historic coastal town of ...

Initial results of an ongoing Navier-Stokes Computational Fluid Dynamics study of horizontal axis tidal current turbine hydrodynamics are presented. Part of the underlying motivation is assessing the effects of the Reynolds number on turbine performance and loads in steady and unsteady flow regimes. The study aims at a) providing initial verification and validation of Navier-Stokes CFD for stea...

To investigate the aerodynamic characteristics of an Archimedes spiral wind turbine for urban-usage, both experimental and numerical studies were carried out. The Archimedes spiral blade was designed to produce wind power using drag and lift forces on the blade together. Instantaneous velocity fields were measured by two-dimensional PIV method in the near field of the blade. Mean velocity profi...

The combined cycle power plant is made up of three major systems, the gas turbine engine, the heat recovery steam generator and the steam turbine. Of the major systems the gas turbine engine is a fixed design offered by a manufacturer, and the steam turbine is also a fairly standard design available from a manufacturer, but it may be somewhat customized for the project. In contrast, the heat re...

Wind turbines reliability is affected by stochastic factors in the turbulent inflow and wind turbine structures. On one hand, the variability in wind dynamics and the inherent stochastic structures result in random loads on wind turbine rotor and tower. On the other hand, the inherent structural uncertainties caused by imperfect control of manufacturing process introduce unpredictable failures ...