IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering

In this paper, we focus on mechanism design for single leader Stackelberg problems, which are a special case of hierarchical decision making problems in which a distinguished agent, known as the leader, makes the first move and this action is followed by the actions of the remaining agents, which are known as the followers. These problems are also known as single leader... View full abstract»

Concurrent engineering has been widely used in managing design projects to speed up the design process by concurrently performing multiple tasks. Since the progress of a design task often depends on the knowledge about other tasks and requires effective communication, tasks and communication activities need to be properly coordinated to avoid delays caused by waiting for information or the need fo... View full abstract»

Deformations of contacts between the workpiece and locators/clamps resulting from large contact forces cause overall workpiece displacement, and affect the localization accuracy of the workpiece. An important characteristic of a workpiece-flxture system is that locators are passive elements and can only react to clamping forces and external loads, whereas clamps are active elements and apply a pre... View full abstract»

This paper presents a new control mechanism based on a novel distinguished node (DN) model, for network topology and analysis in small-agent networks such as urban traffic network. The proposed DN model is represented by an extended direct graph that contains congregation and dispersing nodes, and main and connecting links. Both static and dynamic properties of the DN model are analyzed. With this... View full abstract»

In this paper, we deal with the problem of modeling railway networks with Petri nets so as to apply the theory of supervisory control for discrete event systems to automatically design the system controller. We provide a modular representation of railway networks in terms of stations and tracks including sensors and semaphores. We first ensure safeness and local liveness imposing both generalized ... View full abstract»

This paper presents a novel technique to fabricate scaffold/cell constructs for tissue engineering by robotic assembly of microscopic building blocks (of volume 0.50.50.2 and 60 thickness). In this way, it becomes possible to build scaffolds with freedom in the design of architecture, surface morphology, and chemistry. Biocompatible microparts with complex 3-D shapes were first designed and mass p... View full abstract»

Near net shape (NNS) manufacturing refers to the production of products that require a finishing operation of some kind. NNS manufacturing is important because it enables a significant reduction in: machining work, raw material usage, production time, and energy consumption. This paper presents an integrated system for the production of near net shape components based on the Octree decomposition o... View full abstract»

Finger gait is necessarily needed in order to relocate fingers of the robotic hand when a dextrous manipulation task cannot be accomplished only by the rolling and sliding motions of the fingers. In this paper, a novel modeling framework for the multifingered manipulation with finger gaits is proposed. Through classifying the fingers into grasping fingers and free fingers, an alternate representat... View full abstract»

In this paper, fault diagnosis and accommodation control are developed for robotic systems. First, a nonlinear observer in the proposed method is designed based on the available model. The fault detection is carried out by comparing the observer states with their signatures. Secondly, state observers are constructed based on possible fault function sets. Thirdly, the accommodation control design i... View full abstract»

Cluster tools for some wafer fabrication processes such as low-pressure chemical vapor deposition have strict wafer delay constraints. A wafer that completes processing in a processing chamber should leave the chamber within a specified time limit. Otherwise, the wafer suffers from severe quality troubles due to residual gases and heat within the chamber. An important engineering problem is to ver... View full abstract»

The use of automated guided vehicles (AGVs) in material-handling processes of manufacturing facilities and warehouses is becoming increasingly common. A critical drawback of an AGV is its prohibitively high cost. Cost considerations dictate an economic design of AGV systems. This paper presents an analytical model that uses a Markov chain approximation approach to evaluate the performance of the s... View full abstract»

The maintenance problem with safety-critical components is significant for the economical benefit of companies. Motivated by a practical asset maintenance project, a new joint replacement maintenance problem is introduced in this paper. The dynamics of the problem are modelled as a Markov decision process, whose action space increases exponentially with the number of safety-critical components in ... View full abstract»

This paper is devoted both to the study of observability criteria and the design of observers in the continuous Petri net setting. The concept of structural observability, regarding the possibility of estimating the marking of places, i.e., the system state, for any speed of the transitions is introduced and studied for the subclass of join-free Petri nets (JF). For non-join-free Petri nets, condi... View full abstract»

We describe a vibratory part transport mechanism that utilizes both static and dynamic friction to linearly transport parts in a horizontal direction. We derive a horizontal driving profile for the feeder surface that maximizes the steady-state velocity of parts on the surface subject to acceleration limits on the surface. Experiments verify the predicted transport behavior. We then derive the opt... View full abstract»

This paper studies a large-scale scheduling problem in iron and steel industry, called color-coating production scheduling for coils in inventory (CCPSCI). The problem is to select steel coils from those in the coil yard and to create a production schedule so that the productivity and product quality are maximized, while the production cost and other penalties are minimized. A tabu search (TS) alg... View full abstract»

This paper describes the control of an automatic overhead crane for assembly of modular building elements. The automatic system was developed using a commercial full-size crane, which was modified by adding adequate sensors, servomotors, and control strategy. The crane, which maintained its original cables, was converted to a robotic system, and is controlled via a computer-based multiaxes control... View full abstract»

This paper focuses on surface quality improvement in hot rolling processes. A systematic method based on functional data analysis is developed to identify the key influential process variables. It provides guidelines for hot rolling process control and can also be expanded to generic scenarios of functional variable selection. View full abstract»

This paper presents the results and subsequent analysis of full-scale excavation experiments aimed at developing a practical understanding of how actuator forces evolve during excavation and how they relate to the interactions that occur between an excavator's end-effector and its environment. Our focus is on the excavation problem for fragmented rock, as is common in mining and construction appli... View full abstract»