New Multi-Agent Simulator Framework Using Hopsan and Unreal 5.3

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) are rapidly gaining attention due to the increasing potential of their applications in the civil domain. UAS can provide great value performing environmental applications, during emergency situations, as monitoring and surveillance tools, and operating as communication relays among other uses. In general, they are specially well suited for the so-called D-cube operations (Dirty, Dull or Dangerous).<br/>Most current commercial solutions, if not remotely piloted, rely on waypoint based flight control systems for their navigation and are unable to coordinate UAS flight with payload operation. Therefore, automation capabilities and the ability for the system to operate in an autonomous manner are very limited. Some motivators that turn autonomy into an important requirement include limited bandwidth, limits on long-term attention spans of human operators, faster access to sensed data, which also results in better reaction times, as well as benefits derived from reducing operators workload and training requirements.<br/>Other important requirements we believe are key to the success of UAS in the civil domain are reconfigurability and cost-effectiveness. As a result, an affordable platform should be able to operate in different application scenarios with reduced human intervention.<br/>To increase capabilities of UAS and satisfy the aforementioned requirements, we propose adding flight plan and mission management layers on top of a commercial off-the-shelf flight control system. By doing so, a high level of autonomy can be achieved while taking advantage of available technologies and avoiding huge investments. Reconfiguration is made possible by separating flight and mission execution from its specification.<br/>The flight and mission management components presented in this thesis integrate into a wider hardware/software architecture being developed by the ICARUS research group.<br/>This architecture follows a service oriented approach where UAS subsystems are connected together through a common networking infrastructure. Components can be added and removed from the network in order to adapt the system to the target mission.<br/>The first contribution of this thesis consists, then, in a flight specification language that enables the description of the flight plan in terms of legs. Legs provide a higher level of abstraction compared to plain waypoints since they not only specify a destination but also the trajectory that should be followed to reach it. This leg concept is extended with additional constructs that enable specification of alternative routes, repetition and generation of complex trajectories from a reduced number of parameters.<br/>A Flight Plan Manager (FPM) service has been developed that is responsible for the execution of the flight plan. Since the underlying flight control system is still waypoint based, additional intermediate waypoints are automatically generated to adjust the flight to the desired trajectory.<br/>In order to coordinate UAS flight and payload operation a Mission Manager (MMa) service has also been developed. The MMa is able to adapt payload operation according to the current flight phase, but it can also act on the FPM and make modifications on the flight plan for a better adaption to the mission needs. To specify UAS behavior, instead of designing a new language, we propose using an in-development standard for the specification of state machines called State Chart XML.<br/>Finally, validation of the proposed specification and execution elements is carried out with two example missions executed in a simulation environment. The first mission mimics the procedures required for inspecting navigation aids and shows the UAS performance in a complex flight scenario. In this mission only the FPM is involved. The second example combines operation of the FPM with the MMa. In this case the mission consists in the detection of hotspots on a given area after a hypothetical wildfire. This second simulation shows how the MMa is able to modify the flight plan in order to adapt the trajectory to the mission needs. In particular, an eight pattern is flown over each of the dynamically detected potential hot spots.

ESCCABase project: A repository in progress.

A method of controlling a cooperative positioning system consisting of three industrial manipulators is proposed. The positioned object is suspended with six wires each two of which are connected to each manipulator tip and remotely controlled by an operator with a joystick. In our previous study, cooperative positioning system with three manipulators has already been developed. However, positioning errors of the object inevitably remain because it is difficult to sufficiently compensate for the geometrical errors within the mechanical system. Therefore, the compensation of the object position by a joystick control is essential. For achieving the joystick control, it is necessary to keep all the tensions positive for the stable positioning. However, if the operator moves the object in arbitrary directions, some wire tensions may become zero because it is impossible to know the positioning error in advance. Therefore, a new control method for not only achieving the positioning of the object but also keeping the proper wire tensions has been developed by two joystick control modes, position control mode and tension control mode. The joystick has three degrees of freedom and control the three translational position parameters or orientation parameters by a selector switch in position control mode. In tension control mode, the minimum wire tension among six is increased by utilizing the kinematical redundancy of the system according to the joystick input. The developed control system has been applied to our experimental system and the effectiveness of the proposed method was verified.

Chapter 15 - Considerations when selecting an OTDR

Industrial process plants are increasingly becoming complex structures with high level of automation. Nonetheless, the final plant productivity and the overall equipment efficiency does not solely depend on an optimized engineering design/installation practice, but also on human operators supervision. In parallel, along with the classic demand to minimize costs and time-to-market during the design phases, issues concerning human safety and failure prevention play a crucial role, one of the highest target being the avoidance of dangerous process states. Within this context, Simulation-Based-Training (SBT) allows plant operators to learn how to command complex automated machineries within a secure virtual environment. Similar to its usage in medical, aerospace, naval and military fields, SBT for manufacturing systems can be employed in order to involve the user within a realistic scenario, thus providing an effective, lifelike, interactive training experience under the supervision of experienced personnel. In addition, also according to previous literature, industry-driven SBT may be effectively envisaged as a natural extension of the plant life-cycle simulation practice, comprising Design Simulation & Optimization, Virtual Commissioning, Operator Training, up to Plant Maintenance. In this context, since the overall system behavior depends both on manufacturing process dynamics and Control Logics, the main challenge for an effective SBT is related with the development of a real-time environment where control system responsiveness is fully reproduced. Owing to this consideration, this paper reports a successful industrial case study, concerning a novel SBT workbench used for steel plants operator training, discussing both the virtual prototyping phase and the development of a real-time simulation architecture. In particular, a hybrid process simulation is employed, where a virtual process model is coupled with physical PLC and Human–Machine Interface, thus achieving an accurate reproduction of the real plant/operator interaction.

In view of the increasing multidimensional, detailed and dynamic nature of modern battlefield situation, the traditional two-dimensional (2D) battlefield situation visualization can no longer satisfy the needs of battlefield command and decision-making. Based on the in-depth study of OpenSceneGraph (OSG) and Qt. This paper designs and implements a three-dimensional (3D) visualization system of battlefield situation. This system combined with the radar system, uses User Datagram Protocol (UDP) protocol for real-time data communication. It is designed and implemented from four parts: resource management database, 3D visualization platform, radar system and interactive function realization. And the interactive function, such as radar beam dynamic scanning display, battlefield situation information display and playback, and real-time data communication, etc, are mainly designed in this system. The visualization results shows that the 3D visualization system has good real-time performance, comprehensive functions and strong sense of immersion. It has reference and guiding significance for the research and development of various application systems of 3D situation.

The UAV pilot/operator training is a crucial part being evaluated during certification of the unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). There are many milestones behind, many new initiatives are launched. However, many initiatives originated to the type of the crew training and certification originated to that of the minimum levels derived by regulations. There are two main approaches when establish a training organization. First is, the so-called approach of minimums (AoM) delivered to the operators. Second is originated to that of the set of skills (SoS) necessary to hold by operators to safe operation of the UAV. The author will examine two standpoints evaluating their privileges and bottlenecks, or, if there is any, the threat. New idea will be formulated by the author to combine advantages of those two approaches providing a new set of criteria for training system beyond present minimums.

With the proliferation of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in low-altitude airspace and a growing interest in new Urban Air Mobility (UAM) solutions, the Air Traffic Controller (ATCo)'s responsibility to ensure safety and efficiency of operations can no longer be fulfilled with the conventional air traffic control paradigm. Hence, a new increasingly autonomous Decision Support System (DSS) specifically designed for integrated manned/UAS Traffic Management (UTM) is of paramount importance. This DSS makes use of advanced traffic flow and airspace management concepts, but to ensure effective teaming between the human and the system in challenging situations, the nature of their roles and responsibilities is to be analysed in depth and reflected in the design of suitable Human-Machine Interfaces and Interactions (HMI <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> ). The task analysis presented in this paper assessed the interdependencies between the human and the machine following the Observe-Orient-Decide-Act (OODA) framework. The paper focuses on the management of urban airspace, which is partitioned based on navigation performance. The human-machine workflow is presented and discussed, highlighting the proposed interactions in each subtask. To support closed-loop interactions and enhance system integrity, the UTM DSS makes use of the Cognitive HMI <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> concept, which is also briefly outlined in this paper.

ePHASORsim tool offers real-time dynamic simulations for transmission and distribution power systems. Applications such as contingency studies, testing control devices, operator training, and SCADA system tests are examples for employing this tool. This paper describes the hardware and software architecture of the ePHASORsim and its development. The accuracy of the tool has been evaluated in comparison to other commercial, but non-real-time, simulation packages for both transmission and distribution systems. Its real-time performance has been tested with a time-step of 10ms on a real-time simulator for large-scale power systems in the order of 20000 buses, 5000 generators, and over 9000 control devices.

Due to the low price of serial communication, it has been widely used among the industrial field. Human machine interface based on Android platform has not been widely used in the industrial field. By the article, Human-machine interface has been designed to achieve the communication between HMI and multiple lower machine.

The main function of ship fuel supply system is to provide fuel oil of suitable pressure and viscosity for the main engine, auxiliary engine and auxiliary boiler of the ship. Practice has shown that in ship accidents, it is not uncommon to see downtime or even engine damage caused by crew's mismanagement of fuel supply system. Therefore, it has become one of the important contents of the training of the engine simulator to strengthen the training of the crew in the fuel supply system. Due to the complexity of the fuel supply system structure, the simulation model of the fuel supply system in the existing engine simulators has been simplified to different degrees, which can no longer meet the training requirements of maintenance, troubleshooting and emergency handling. In this paper, to address the problems of simplified model and insufficient training functions in the existing fuel supply system simulation model, a mathematical model of the ship's fuel supply system is established by using the modular modeling method, which includes: fuel pipe network and valve parts, fuel tank , pump and safety valve, regulator, quick-closing valve, self-cleaning filter, fuel heater, viscometer, viscosity controller, pressure controller, etc. the calculation program of the above model is written by using VC++. The simulation experiments show that the calculation results basically match the data of the navigation test, and the simulation error is less than 5%, and the simulation accuracy and real-time performance of the model can meet the requirements of the marine engine simulator training. The simulation experiments show that the Human Machine Interface (HMI) is similar to the physical interface of the actual equipment, and can realize the operations of maintenance, troubleshooting and emergency handling. The simulation model and HMI are integrated into the existing turbine simulator, replacing the original system model and HMI, and meeting the training requirements of the engine simulator.

A heterogeneous framework for real-time decoding of bioacoustic signals: Applications to assistive interfaces and prosthesis control

Conventional human-machine interface (HMI) systems generally take surface electromyography as the only signal source, which often faces the problem of multi-channel crosstalk. To enhance HMI performance, this study introduces a novel three-degree-of-freedom HMI system for surgical robot control, which integrates surface electromyography signals and inertial measurement unit signals. A cost-effective wearable HMI hardware system is designed to address the high price and poor portability of existing commercial equipment, which also has a higher signal-to-noise ratio of 35.9 dB. Based on the proposed simultaneous and proportional control strategy, ten subjects were recruited to conduct an online experiment involving four upper limb postures to assess the real-time performance of the HMI system. Additionally, six able-bodied participants participated in a validation experiment to statistically verify and rigorously evaluate the implemented HMI system. The experimental results demonstrate that our HMI system can accurately decode the angles of the wrist and metacarpophalangeal joints in both single-degree-of-freedom and three-degree-of-freedom movements, achieving stable control and robust online performance. Furthermore, the proposed HMI system was applied to a flexible endoscopic robot to realize remote simultaneous and proportional control, and the results indicate that it can perform well in the practical application. The current study proves the feasibility and practicability of multi-source data fusion for HMI, providing a new direction.

The recent advances in Computer Science and Technology have revolutionized the way graphical user interfaces are used towards Human Machine Interface (HMI). The graphical user interface is so powerful, that the knowledge of a process or system can be transferred to plant personnel accurately and effectively within a short period of time. The techniques of animation can enhance the illusion of direct manipulation that many human computer interfaces strive to represent. This paper describes the role of human machine interface using animated information in Full Scope Replica type training simulator of Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR). This paper covers general description of PFBR, the Full Scope Replica Simulator, the concept of simulation of plant dynamics, development of the animated core temperature distribution diagram and process flow diagram followed by its features. Also it covers how animated core temperature distribution and dynamic process flow diagrams are advantageous for operator training. (Received in July 2010, accepted in November 2010. This paper was with the authors 1 month for 1 revision.)

A multi-reference filtered-x-Newton narrowband algorithm for active isolation of vibration and experimental investigations