Mitigating Motion Sickness with Optimization-Based Motion Planning

The acceptance of automated driving is under the potential threat of motion sickness. It hinders the passengers' willingness to perform secondary activities. In order to mitigate motion sickness in automated vehicles, we propose an optimization-based motion planning algorithm that minimizes the distribution of acceleration energy within the...

Simulation–optimization configurations for real-time decision-making in fugitive interception

Simulation–optimization models are well-suited for real-time decision-support to the control room for search and interception of fugitives by Police on a road network, due to their ability to encode complex behavior while still optimizing the interception. The typical simulation–optimization configuration is simulation model optimization,...

Safe Flight Envelope Prediction and Experimental Validation of Multirotor UAV: An Analysis on the Effects of Longitudinal Center of Gravity Position and Actuator Dynamics on Quadcopter Flight Envelopes

Loss of control (LOC) is the primary cause of failure of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). The safety of these systems can be largely improved by facilitating techniques to prevent LOC to occur, such as Flight Envelope Protection, enabling controllers to keep the system within the Safe Flight Envelope (SFE).<br/>The aim of this work is to examine...

An assessment methodology for a modular terminal concept for container barging in seaports

Container transport via inland waterways currently faces several challenges affecting its competitiveness with other modes. These challenges include the high waiting time experienced by container barges and the low priority given to container barges in deepsea ports. To mitigate these challenges, a new concept known as the Modular Mobile...

Optimal power flow-based reactive power control in smart distribution network using real-time cyber-physical co-simulation framework

Future distribution networks (DN) are subject to rapid load changes and high penetration of variable distributed energy resources (DER). Due to this, the DN operators face several operational challenges, especially voltage violations. Optimal power flow (OPF)-based reactive power control (RPC) from the smart converter (SC) is one of the...

Sub-components’ lead time optimization in precast concrete house-building industry

Precast concrete appears to be promising in dealing with delays in housing construction, yet long lead times are apparent in this industry. Lead time refers to the time that elapses between placing and receiving an order. The construction company Janssen de Jong recognizes the problem of sub-components’ long lead times in precast concrete house...

Curve Tilting With Nonlinear Model Predictive Control for Enhancing Motion Comfort

The benefits of automated driving can only be fully realized if the occupants are protected from motion sickness. Active suspensions hold the potential to raise the comfort level in automated passenger vehicles by enabling new functionalities in chassis control. One example is to actively lean the vehicle body toward the center of the corner...

Heuristic-Based Approach for Near-Optimal Response to Water Distribution Network Failures in Near Real Time

This paper proposes a new method to identify the near-optimal response to failures in water distribution networks in near real time. The response method is formulated as a two-objective optimization problem with objectives being the minimization of failure impacts and related operational costs. The new heuristics-based method is developed and...

Hidden invariant convexity for global and conic-intersection optimality guarantees in discrete-time optimal control

Non-convex discrete-time optimal control problems in, e.g., water or power systems, typically involve a large number of variables related through nonlinear equality constraints. The ideal goal is to find a globally optimal solution, and numerical experience indicates that algorithms aiming for Karush–Kuhn–Tucker points often find solutions...

Road map to L₄/L₅ with a solar sail

This paper explores the capability of solar sails to transfer a probe from the displaced Sun-Earth L₁ and L₂ libration points to the region of practical stability (RPS) around the triangular equilibrium points L₄ and L₅. If the sailcraft arrives inside the RPS with zero synodical velocity, it will...

Space-time topology optimization for additive manufacturing: Concurrent optimization of structural layout and fabrication sequence

The design of optimal structures and the planning of (additive manufacturing) fabrication sequences have been considered typically as two separate tasks that are performed consecutively. In the light of recent advances in robot-assisted (wire-arc) additive manufacturing which enable addition of material along curved surfaces, we present a...

A simulator-assisted workshop for teaching chemostat cultivation in academic classes on microbial physiology

Understanding microbial growth and metabolism is a key learning objective of microbiology and biotechnology courses, essential for understanding microbial ecology, microbial biotechnology and medical microbiology. Chemostat cultivation, a key research tool in microbial physiology that enables quantitative analysis of growth and metabolism under...

Dynamics, Distributed Control and Autonomous Cluster Operations of Fractionated Spacecraft

Fractionated spacecraft deploy satellites' functionalities, such as computation, communication, data storage, payload operations and even power generation, onboard several modules that share those functionalities through a wireless network. With the advent of such an innovative space architecture, non-traditional attributes such as flexibility,...

The use of sensor derived data in optimization along the Mine-Value-Chain

Sensor derived data can add value across the mining operating chain ranging from resource definition, extraction, pre-concentration, mineral process monitoring and assessment of product quality. Most documented studies on sensors in mining focus on specific technologies for specific applications. These studies do not take into account different...

Finding Time-Optimal Trajectories for the Resonating Arm using the RRT* Algorithm

At the Delft Biorobotics Lab, a research project is started whereby it is the goal to create robotic arms that have the skills and the design to perform repetitive tasks in a natural dynamic manner. Within this project an energy efficient two degree-of-freedom robotic arm is designed, the so-called Resonating Arm. This thesis focuses on finding...