Reverse engineering is an important process of real model digitization. However, the existing methods are limited by the characteristics of the modeling object; the modeling is low efficient, has poor versatility, and unstable accuracy. To complete the reverse engineering of a real workpiece with irregular deformation based on the ideal computer-aided design (CAD) model, a high-precision reverse engineering method of the workpiece based on the CAD model prior was presented. Through the registration of the ideal CAD model and the point cloud model of the real workpiece, the geometric feature position information and feature constraint information contained in the CAD model are transmitted to the modeling process, which helps to improve the accuracy and efficiency of reverse engineering. This method is applied to the reverse engineering process of the engine compartment with slight irregular deformation, the modeling accuracy reaches 0.04 mm, and the high-precision reverse engineering of the engine compartment is successfully realized. Full article

The centrifugal pump with high rotation speed is the key component in the cooling system of an aircraft. Because of the high rotation speed, the impeller inlet is very prone to cavitation. Two impellers with different types of blades (cylindrical and splitter) are designed, and the numerical models of the pumps are built. The authenticity of the numerical models is validated with the corresponding experiments in terms of both the hydraulic and cavitation characteristics. Then, the effects of different coolants and working temperatures on the hydraulic and cavitation performances of the prototype models are studied based on the numerical simulations. The results show that the head and efficiency of the pump for conveying water are higher than those for conveying ethylene glycol (EG) aqueous solution and propylene glycol (PG) aqueous solution (EGaq and PGaq are defined to represent the EG aqueous solution and the PG aqueous solution, respectively). The hydraulic performance in the EGaq is slightly better than that in the PGaq. The cavitation performance of water is far less than that of the EGaq and PGaq under high working temperature. The volume of cavitation in EGaq is smaller than that in PGaq, and the volume of cavitation in the splitter blades is slightly smaller than that in the cylindrical blades. It is suggested that EGaq be used as the first option. The splitter blades can improve the cavitation performance somehow while the improvement by using the splitter blades is very limited at high rotation speeds, and the design of the short blades should be careful in order to obtain a smooth internal flow field. Full article

Haptic devices are applied as masters to provide force displays for telemedicinal robots. Gravity compensation has been proven to be crucial for the accuracy and capability of force displays, which are critical for haptic devices to assist operators. Therefore, the existing method suffers from an unsatisfactory effect, a complex implementation, and low efficiency. In this paper, an approach combining active and passive gravity compensation is proposed to improve the performance of a force display. The passive compensation is conducted by counterweights fixed with the moving platform and pantographs to offset most of the gravity and reduce the loads of the motors, while the peak capability of the force display is enhanced. The required weight is optimized by a multi-objective genetic algorithm in terms of the maximum torque of the motors in the global workspace. As a supplement, the residual gravity is eliminated by active compensation to extend the accuracy of the force display. The balancing forces in the discretized workspace are entirely calibrated, and the required force for the arbitrary configuration is calculated by interpolations. The decisions regarding the algorithm parameters are also discussed to achieve a compromise between the effect and elapsed time. Finally, the prototype with a compensation mechanism is implemented and experiments are carried out to verify the performance of the proposed method. The results show that the peak capability of the force display is enhanced by 45.43% and the maximum deviation is lowered to 0.6 N. Full article

Titanium alloys are widely used in aerospace, the military industry, electronics, automotive fields, etc., due to their excellent properties such as low density, high strength, high-temperature resistance, and corrosion resistance. Many components need to be finished precisely after being cut in these applications. In order to achieve high-quality and high-efficiency finishing of titanium alloys, ultrasonic-assisted magnetic abrasive finishing (UAMAF) was introduced in this research. The machining performance for UAMAF of a titanium alloy was studied by experimentally comparing UAMAF and magnetic abrasive finishing (MAF). The results show that the cutting force of UAMAF can reach 2 to 4 times that of MAF, and it decreases rapidly with the increase in the machining gap due to the energy loss of ultrasonic impact in the transmission between magnetic abrasives. The surface roughness of UAMAF can reach about Ra 0.075 μm, which is reduced by about 59% compared with MAF. The main wear type of the magnetic abrasive is that the diamond grits fell off the magnetic abrasive in both UAMAF and MAF. The uniform wear of the magnetic abrasive is realized, and the utilization ratio of the magnetic abrasive is obviously improved in UAMAF. Full article

With less manufacturing time and less photosensitive resin consumed, Digital Light Processing of the bottom-up process is more forward-looking than the top-down one in terms of 3D printing technology. In view of differences in the optimization of machine printing parameters for objectives with different quality requirements, this paper discusses how the control factors consisting of machine printing parameters can obtain objects with a high quality through an experimental design with full considerations of the separation force and dimensional tolerance. By taking the titling separation mechanism as an example, the importance, contribution, and best calculation results of the control factors in forming a separation force and four dimensional tolerances are obtained using the Taguchi method and an analysis of variance, and then the optimal solution for multiple objectives is obtained via the desirability approach. It was found from this study that the rising speed of the forming platform is the most important parameter affecting the dimensional tolerance and separation force. The slice layer thickness has an inverse characteristic for optimizing the dimensional tolerance of the aperture and the face width. Regarding multi-objective optimization, it will not change the optimal printing parameters considering the minimum separation force and overall dimensional tolerance, regardless of the weight of the separation force. Full article

In this paper, a novel feature-based sampling strategy for nonlinear Model Predictive Path Integral (MPPI) control is presented. Using the MPPI approach, the optimal feedback control is calculated by solving a stochastic optimal control (OCP) problem online by evaluating the weighted inference of sampled stochastic trajectories. While the MPPI algorithm can be excellently parallelized, the closed-loop performance strongly depends on the information quality of the sampled trajectories. To draw samples, a proposal density is used. The solver’s and thus, the controller’s performance is of high quality if the sampled trajectories drawn from this proposal density are located in low-cost regions of state-space. In classical MPPI control, the explored state-space is strongly constrained by assumptions that refer to the control value’s covariance matrix, which are necessary for transforming the stochastic Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman (HJB) equation into a linear second-order partial differential equation. To achieve excellent performance even with discontinuous cost functions, in this novel approach, knowledge-based features are introduced to constitute the proposal density and thus the low-cost region of state-space for exploration. This paper addresses the question of how the performance of the MPPI algorithm can be improved using a feature-based mixture of base densities. Furthermore, the developed algorithm is applied to an autonomous vessel that follows a track and concurrently avoids collisions using an emergency braking feature. Therefore, the presented feature-based MPPI algorithm is applied and analyzed in both simulation and full-scale experiments. Full article

In this study, a vibration energy-harvesting system is developed by first proposing a horizontal bi-stable vibration model comprising an elastic spring and a mass block and then applying an electromagnetic induction power generation device composed of a magnet and a coil. Subsequently, based on a weight function that considers the mutual positional relationship between the magnet and conducting coil, a set of simultaneous governing equations that consider the elastic force of the elastic spring and the Lorentz force of electromagnetic induction is derived. Additionally, a numerical analysis method employing the Runge–Kutta method is utilized to obtain a numerical solution for the vibration response displacement and vibration power generation voltage simultaneously. Experiments are performed to verify the results yielded by the proposed bi-stable vibration energy-harvesting system. The results shows that the measured vibration response displacement and the vibration power generation voltage are consistent with the analytical results. Moreover, issues including the identification of damping coefficients that consider the mutual effects of normal kinetic friction and electromagnetic induction damping forces, as well as the effects of electromagnetic induction damping on the vibration response displacement, are discussed comprehensively. Simultaneously adding random and periodic signals to the bi-stable vibration model results in stochastic resonance and improves both the vibration amplification effect and vibration power generation. Full article

Robot formation control has several advantages that make it interesting for research. Multiple works have been published in the literature using different control approaches. This work presents the control of different groups of robots to achieve a desired formation based on pinning control of complex networks and coordinate translation. The implemented control law comprises complex network bounding, proportional, and collision avoidance terms. The tests for this proposal were performed via simulation and experimental tests, considering different networks of differential robots. The selected robots are Turtlebot3^® Waffle Pi robots. The Turtlebot3^® Waffle Pi is a differential mobile robot with the Robot Operating System (ROS). It has a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor used to compute the collision avoidance control law term. Tests show favorable results on different formations testing on various groups of robots, each composed of a different number of robots. From this work, implementation on other devices can be derived, as well as trajectory tracking once in formation, among other applications. Full article

In order to define the best design structure of the synchronous reluctance motor (SynRM) rotor, optimization must be carried out, implying the selection of the best alternative for each specific criterion. The optimization of an electrical machine is a complicated work involving meeting different criteria requirements while dealing with a range of constraints. In order to implement the optimization, it is necessary to process a huge number of options, changing the combinations of the factors affecting criteria and restrictions, which is a time-consuming process. This research presents the optimization technique that gives a mathematically proven solution of the optimal rotor design of a synchronous reluctance machine obtained by using metamodels in the form of local polynomial approximations. Analysis of the results of numerical modeling and experimental investigation has been performed in order to validate the developed technique and recommendations. SynRM rotor was manufactured, with the stator to be taken from the 1.1 kW W21 WEG induction motor, which makes possible the relevant experimental study. The performance analysis of the developed SynRM is shown in the paper. Full article

The mining emulsion pump is mainly used on a fully mechanized coal mining face, but it is rarely used on other occasions, so research on its loading test method is relatively limited. This paper proposes the application of a digital relief valve to the emulsion pump loading test. In addition, the small number of plungers in the emulsion pump will lead to large flow pulsation and pressure pulsation, and the nominal flow of different types of emulsion pumps varies greatly. These factors lead to the deficiency of a traditional PID control algorithm in control accuracy and efficiency. In order to improve control accuracy and efficiency, firstly, the influence of the flow rate of the tested pump and extension of the linear stepping motor shaft on the working pressure is studied. A backpropagation (BP) artificial neural network (ANN) model is used to fit a functional relationship between the three parameters. The flow rate of the tested pump and target pressure were provided as inputs to predict the extension of the linear stepping motor shaft, thereby realizing the remote intelligent control of the system pressure. Next, a BP ANN model is constructed, and its reliability is verified; the BP neural network algorithm and proportional-integral-derivative (PID) algorithm are compared through simulation. The simulation results show that the BP neural network algorithm has high control accuracy and small overshoot. Finally, two pumps with different flows are tested in a self-developed digital relief valve and test platform. The test results show that the proposed loading test method is intelligent and efficient, and it has high accuracy. Full article

Automatic emergency braking systems (AEBS) significantly improve the active safety performance of commercial vehicles, but their effectiveness is affected by the vehicle’s driving conditions, which mainly include the vehicle load and road conditions. In order to improve the adaptability of the AEBS, an AEBS control strategy with adaptive driving conditions was proposed and validated using a simulation and experimentation. This AEBS control strategy was designed based on an estimation of the vehicle mass, the center of gravity position, road grade, and the tire-road friction coefficient. In the simulation and experimental verification, the braking deceleration and braking distance under different driving conditions were compared. The results show that the AEBS control strategy proposed in this paper can avoid collisions in all test scenarios and maintain a parking spacing of approximately 5 m. In an extreme test scenario with a full load and low tire–road friction, as compared with the fixed threshold control strategy, the warning can be issued 0.2 s earlier and the maximum intensity braking can be carried out 0.5 s earlier. Full article

The paper proposes a novel numerical method S-GUIDE that provides real-time planning of the shape of hyper-redundant robots with serial architecture by means of a guidance curve, represented in parametrized analytical form and in numerical form by a set of key points associated with the robot structure. To model the shape of the robot, the method uses an equivalent model, and a shape guidance curve obtained through a controlled adjustment of a Bézier curve. This is achieved in three computing steps were the robot equivalent structure, it’s associated kinematic parameters and the robot actuation parameters in joint space are calculated. The proposed method offers several advantages in relation with the precision, computing time and the feasibility for real-time applications. In the paper, the method accuracy, execution time, and the absolute error for different work scenarios are determined, compared and validated. Full article

Cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC) technology offers a proven solution to the current traffic congestion problems caused by the yearly growth of car ownership. Coping with random lane changes of bypass vehicles under the condition of traffic congestion is a challenge for urban driverless vehicles. In this paper, to meet the demand for high comfort driverless buses driving on urban roads, an active anti-disturbance following control method for driverless buses based on bystander vehicle intention recognition and trajectory prediction is proposed for the scenario of bystander vehicle cut-in during driving to alleviate the disturbance caused by bystander vehicles, improve passenger comfort, and suppress multi-vehicle oscillation. The simulation results show that the intelligent prediction system-based queue reduces the traffic oscillation rate by an average of 9.8% and improves the comfort level by an average of 11% under side-car insertion conditions. The results of the real vehicle test show that the vehicles based on the intelligent prediction algorithm have a 25.5% reduction in maximum speed adjustment, 14.5 m average reduction in following distance, 6% improvement in comfort, and 27% improvement in rear vehicle comfort. Full article

This article proposes a two-stage simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) method based on using the red green blue-depth (RGB-D) camera in dynamic environments, which can not only improve tracking robustness and trajectory accuracy but also reconstruct a clean and dense static background model in dynamic environments. In the first stage, to accurately exclude the interference of features in the dynamic region from the tracking, the dynamic object mask is extracted by Mask-RCNN and optimized by using the connected component analysis method and a reference frame-based method. Then, the feature points, lines, and planes in the nondynamic object area are used to construct an optimization model to improve the tracking accuracy and robustness. After the tracking is completed, the mask is further optimized by the multiview projection method. In the second stage, to accurately obtain the pending area, which contains the dynamic object area and the newly added area in each frame, a method is proposed, which is based on a ray-casting algorithm and fully uses the result of the first stage. To extract the static region from the pending region, this paper designs divisible and indivisible regions process methods and the bounding box tracking method. Then, the extracted static regions are merged into the map using the truncated signed distance function method. Finally, the clean static background model is obtained. Our methods have been verified on public datasets and real scenes. The results show that the presented methods achieve comparable or better trajectory accuracy and the best robustness, and can construct a clean static background model in a dynamic scene. Full article

The higher the natural frequency of the material is, the more resistant it is to deformation under impulse loading. To explore the influence of micro-abrasive and micro-jet impact on the natural frequency and resonance amplitude value of the material under ultrasonic cavitation, 18 sets of single-factor controlled variable ultrasonic cavitation experiments were carried out on a polished specimen of 6061 aluminum alloy (30 mm × 30 mm × 10 mm). With the increase of the abrasive content in the suspension, the natural frequency of the workpiece first increased, then decreased and remained stable. With the increase of the ultrasonic amplitude, the resonance amplitude value of the material increased, reaching the maximum at 0.1789 m·s⁻² and then decreased. The effect of ultrasonic amplitude on the natural frequency of the material was greater than that of the abrasive content, and the effect of the abrasive content on the common amplitude value was greater than that of the ultrasonic amplitude. This research provides a certain reference significance for exploring the influence of power ultrasonic micro-cutting on material properties and avoiding the occurrence of resonance phenomenon of the workpiece under different working conditions. Full article