Motional Feedback Control for Bass Loudspeakers: Subgroup Theory

The aim of this research is to create a nonlinear model of a loudspeaker to analyze the open-loop distortion as well as the closed loop performance with linear and nonlinear controllers. A method is proposed for measuring the dominant nonlinear parameters of a loudspeakers. Furthermore, the loudspeaker distortion is both measured experimentally...

Historical Wooden Pile Foundations in Amsterdam: An Integrated Approach for the Estimation of Structural Performance and Residual Service Life

Timber pile foundations are widespread in many areas around Europe and North-America. Especially in areas with weak soils, timber pile foundations have been a very good and economic solution. That foundations can be up to 500 years in service in cities like Venice, Amsterdam, Boston and many others. Degradation of the piles may occur over...

Modelling riverflow in the Volta Basin of West Africa: A data-driven framework

In this thesis, a riverflow modelling framework developed for monthly riverflow prediction in the 400,000 km2 Volta Basin of West Africa is presented. By analysing available catchment rainfall, runoff and potential evapotranspiration series in the basin using methods such as correlation plots, autoregressive (AR) and autoregressive with...

Guidance, Navigation and Control of Autonomous Vessels: An Implementation using a Control-Based Framework

This thesis report proposes a framework to implement Navigation, Guidance and Control (GNC) systems, that enable point-to-point autonomy for displacement vessels. A model-based control approach is chosen as the basis of the GNC systems. The resulting algorithms are implemented for verification in a 1:25 scale model of a Azimuth Stern Drive (ASD)...

Modelling sensory integration for ankle- and hip control in human balance

Falling is a problem in elderly, affecting 30% of people over 65 years old, and leading to serious injuries in 10% of the cases. Because balance is controlled in a closed loop system with a high level of redundancy, the cause of impaired balance control is often unknown. A balance control model in combination with perturbed balance experiments...

Numerical and experimental assessment of the load bearing capacity of an existing prefabricated culvert from 1971

The main question of this thesis is the result of a survey by ‘provincie Zuid-Holland’ (PZH), that has developed a ‘uniform model’ for the assessment of the structural safety of existing prefabricated culverts. PZH is considering the possibility of using generic parameters to decide on the strength of existing culverts in the area. The province...

Excitation and readout of a thermally driven time-domain optical coherence tomography system

This system presented in this thesis report will be put into practice in a sensory system for dental drilling. The aim of this system is to provide real-time feedback to the practitioner about the anatomical structure in close vicinity of the drill bit. Therefore, the system has to deal with in vivo, in situ bone tissue, bone tissue within a...