Harutoshi Ogai

Pipe inspection robot using a wireless communication system

Pipe lines of any material need to be inspected after a certain number of years. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a flexible pipe inspection robot using a wireless communication system. In this research, a wireless communication system is tested, and it is verified that the system can transmit image information steadily at a high speed. On the basis of this wireless communication system, a new pipe inspection robot for drain pipes is developed. With this new system, the movement of the robot can be controlled, defects or other problems inside a pipe can be inspected, and an image of the inside of the pipe can also be transmitted in real time.

Prediction of blast furnace operation using on-line bayesian learning

The large scale database-based online modeling, called LOM, is a type of just-in-time modeling for blast furnace. In this paper, we propose a new type of LOM using a nonlinear local model to improve the performance of the long-term prediction. To estimate the parameter of the nonlinear local model, we use on-line Bayesian learning scheme with sequential Monte Carlo. The prediction performance of the new LOM is demonstrated by using the real process data of blast furnace.

The cold starting control of engine using Large scale database-based Online Modelling

Abstract In order to solve the environmental pollution problem and the energy depletion problem in recent years, a control technology that improves the quality of engine in automobile is demanded. However, thanks to the developments of electrical and electronic mounting technology, advanced control of the power train has become possible. This paper presents an application of “Large scale database-based Online Modeling (LOM)” for the cold starting control of SI engine. LOM is a local modeling technique based on the database to predict and control a large-scale process. The intake air mass flow in cylinder is predicted in order to reach the desired engine speed in cold starting by using LOM, and adequate fuel injection quantity is derived from the intake air mass flow and the fuel injection model.

Diesel engine optimization control methods for reduction of exhaust emission and fuel consumption

The fuel efficiency and emission reductions are the two consistent drivers for diesel engine development. Although many control devices mounted in diesel engine and in addition to the development of individual emission control methods, optimization techniques are required to utilize these methods in finding optimal engine operating conditions efficiently. This research was focused on the minimization of nitrogen oxides (NOx) emission and soot emission, as well as improving brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) and power in a single cylinder diesel engine, which can be modeled as a multi-objective optimization problem. Many approaches have been applied to multi-objective optimization problems. In recent years, particle swarm optimization (PSO) method has been successfully applied to different areas since its advent. It has been demonstrated that PSO is an effective method for optimization problem.

Bridge diagnosis system by using wireless sensor network and independent component analysis

The aim of this paper is the development of a bridge diagnosis system for daily bridge maintenance. The system includes the technology of wireless sensor network, signal processing, and structure analysis of a bridge. We collect the vibration data caused by external force such as wind pressure, running vehicles and etc through wireless sensor network and then use independent component analysis (ICA) and spectral analysis to analyze the data for extracting character frequency. The diagnosis technology is developed to understand the phenomena like deterioration and corrosion of a bridge through the measurement result. So the diagnosis system can evaluate the health condition of a bridge and conduct a comprehensive deliberation on repair and reinforcement work. We apply this diagnosis system to field experiments at Kokura, Kitakyushu city in Japan and successfully extract the character frequency of a bridge.

Engine control education system

This paper presents an introduction of engine control education system. The education system is composed of PC hardware, high-speed arithmetic processing board, ECU, and engine test bench. This system can realize following functions: familiarize people with gasoline engine properties, do engine control simulation, design engine control system, and realize engine real-time simulation. In this paper, we designed basic engine control system and got simulation results, developed real-time simulation system, and realized real-time simulation by adjusting PID parameters. Further more, we can design new control system by improving the basic ones. When we connect engine control model to engine test bench and ECU, this system can realize virtual engine real-time simulation.

Fatigue evaluation for work load of Visual Display Terminals (VDT) operation

A method for the analysis of fatigue parameters has been rarely researched in VDT operation. Up to now, fatigue was evaluated by changing of biological information. If signals regarding fatigue are detected, fatigue can be measured. This study proposes an experiment and analysis method to extract parameters related to fatigue from the biological information during VDT operation using the independent component analysis (ICA). An experiment had 11 subjects. As for the experiment were light loaded VDT operation and heavy loaded VDT operation. A measurement item were amount of work, a mistake number, subjective symptom, surface skin temperature (forehead and apex nasi), heart rate, skin blood flow of forearm and respiratory rate. In the heavy loaded operation group, mistake number and subjective symptom score were increased to compare with the other. And Two-factor ANOVA was used for analysis. The result of mistake number was confirmed that heavy loaded. After the moving averages of waveshapes were calculated, it was made to extract independent components by using the ICA. The results of the ICA suggest that the independent components increase according to accumulation of fatigue. Thus, the independent components would be a possible parameter of fatigue.

Energy saving system for office lighting by using PSO and ZigBee network

In order to reduce the amount of wasted energy in office lighting and provide a major contribution to lowering overall energy consumption, we are developing a new energy saving system for office lighting by using adjustable lamp, ZigBee Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO).In this paper we make a prototype system which consists of one ZigBee control module, four fluorescent lamps with dimming capacity and three illumination sensors.The illumination sensors collect and send the data to the control module. After the PSO (Particle Swarm Optimization) process, the module finally sets the power of the lamps according to the PSO result. After real experiments in both sunny day and cloudy dayin a small-size office, it was proved that the system can successfully control the lights, and save considerable energy.

Development of Bridge Diagnosis Technology by Independent Component Analysis

This paper focuses on maintaining a bridges safety by developing a daily management system. And the purpose of this study is the development of the health monitoring system. It supports the maintenance by independent component analysis (ICA) when there are some troubles in a bridge. The result of this study brings out the vibration behavior of the overall structure in a bridge. This vibration is caused by the external force such as heavy weight impact, wind pressure, and running vehicle. The character frequency was extracted from the analysis result using ICA and Spectral Analysis. When the vibration behavior caused by external force is very small in the bridge, ICA can detect the vibration response from the analysis result. Therefore, it is proved that the potential of detection was high by ICA

Behavioral macromodeling of analog LSI implementation for automobile intake system

Accurately estimating or measuring intake manifold absolute pressure plays an important role in automobile engine control. In order to achieve the real-time estimation of the absolute pressure, the high accuracy and high speed processing ability is commonly required for the automobile engine control system. However, the conventional numerical methods cannot satisfy the requirement of the strict time needed by high speed automobile engine. Therefore, in this paper, an analog LSI method is proposed to estimate this pressure in real time. Furthermore, a novel behavioral macromodel is given for further analog LSI design. Compared with conventional numerical method, the proposed method is highly advantageous in speed to simulate the automobile engine intake system