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The operation of high precision robots is severely limited by. their manipulator dynamic deflection, which persists for a period of time after a move is completed. These unwanted vibrations deteriorate the end effector positional accuracy and reduce significantly the robot arm production rate. A “rigid and flexible motion controller” is derived to introduce additional damping into the flexible motion. This is done by using additional sensors to measure the compliant link vibrations and feed them back to the controller. The existing actuators at the robot joints are used (i.e., no additional actuators are introduced). The performance of the controller is tested on a dynamic model, developed in previous work, for a spherical coordinate robot arm whose last link only is considered to be flexible. The simulation results show a significant reduction in the vibratory motion. The important issue of control and observation spillover is examined and found to present no significant practical problems. Partial evaluation of this approach is performed experimentally by testing two controllers, a “rigid body controller” and a “rigid and flexible motion controller,” on a single joint of a spherical coordinate, laboratory robot arm. The experimental results show a significant reduction in the end effector dynamic deflection; thus partially validating the results of the digital simulation studies.

The influence of floating ice on the dynamic behavior of ships and offshore structures depends on many factors such as ice thickness and its relative speed with respect to the floating structure. The ice resistance to ship motion forms an essential problem in ship design and navigation. Furthermore, local or global ice loads acting on ocean systems are random and nonsmooth when impact interaction takes place. Impact loads on the bow of a ship navigating in solid ice may be modeled by a Poisson law. The measured stress amplitudes on the ship frame at the bow follow an exponential distribution. The nonhomogeneity and difference in ice microstructure, as well as the influence of salt and temperature, result in a great uncertainty in the ice strength. Therefore, the current review article aims at assessing the ice related problems encountered by offshore structures as well as by ships during their navigation. It also discusses the impacts of local and global ice loads on floating structures and reviews their existing probabilistic models. Moreover, this article covers the dynamic interaction of ice with flexible and rigid structures, and ships. In view of ice loads on marine systems, new design regulations have been introduced by international organizations that are involved in the design and building of ships as well as offshore structures. The ship stochastic stability and the first-passage roll stabilization problem associated with random ocean waves will also be described in an attempt to stimulate future research work dealing with ice impact loads. Moreover, due to the lack of research activities addressing the control problem of ships operating in icy waters, the current article will briefly discuss passive and active control schemes developed for controlling the ship roll motion. There are 529 references cited in this review article.

A nonlinear dynamic model is developed in this study to simulate the overall performance of a naturally aspirated, single cylinder, four-stroke, direct injection diesel engine under cold start and fully warmed-up conditions. The model considers the filling and emptying processes of the cylinder, blowby, intake, and exhaust manifolds. A single zone combustion model is implemented and the heat transfer in the cylinder, intake, and exhaust manifolds are accounted for. Moreover, the derivations include the dynamics of the crank-slider mechanism and employ an empirical model to estimate the instantaneous frictional losses in different engine components. The formulation is coded in modular form whereby each module, which represents a single process in the engine, is introduced as a single block in an overall Simulink engine model. The numerical accuracy of the Simulink model is verified by comparing its results to those generated by integrating the engine formulation using IMSL stiff integration routines. The engine model is validated by the close match between the predicted and measured cylinder gas pressure and engine instantaneous speed under motoring, steady-state, and transient cold start operating conditions.