To flexibly evaluate performance and reliability of a real-time system which is intrinsically characterized by stringent timing constraints to generate correct responses, we propose fuzzyrandom variables and build a discrete event model embedded with fuzzy-random variables. Also, we adapt fuzzy-variables to a path-space approach, which derives the upper and lower bounds of reliability by using a semi-Markov model that explicitly contains the deadline information. Consequently, we propose certain formulas of state automata properly transformed by fuzzy-random variables, and present numerical examples applying the formulas to RTP(Rapid Thermal Process) to show that a complex system can be properly evaluated based on this model by computer simulation.

This paper presents an approach for the prediction of optimal heating load using a diagonal recurrent neural networks(DRNN) and data base system of outdoor temperature. In the DRNN, a dynamic backpropagation(DBP) with delta-bar-delta teaming method is used to train an optimal heating load identifier. And the data base system is utilized for outdoor temperature prediction. Compared to other kinds of methods, the proposed method gives better prediction performance of heating load. Also a hardware for the controller is developed using a microprocessor. The experimental results show that prediction enhancement for heating load can be achieved with the proposed method regardless of the its inherent nonlinearity and large time constant.

Using the scattering theory of laser light, we analyze the particle sizing method. The scattered profile measured by the photodetector is sampled, scale conditioned by a 32 channel analog-to-digital converter, and is analyzed with the transform matrix from the light energy signals to the weights of the particle sizes. The particle size distribution is classified using the Hopfield neural network method as well as the conventional nonnegative least square method.

Electrostatic suspension offers an advantage of directly suspending various materials such as conductive materials, semiconductors and dielectric materials without any mechanical contacts. This is a specific feature compared with electromagnetic suspension which can suspend only ferro-magnetic material. In general, the electrostatic suspension systems require position sensors for stabilizing the suspended object. Therefore, a lot of displacement sensors and a switching circuit are required for moving the object through a long distance. In order to circumvent this problem, this paper proposes a self-sensing method which can provide the gap displacement between electrodes and suspended object without external sensors. Moreover a simple on-off controller is presented for stabilization. Experimental validation of the proposed scheme has been performed through the successful levitation of a 4-inch silicon wafer.

This paper proposes a visual servoing method based on QR decomposition and disturbance observer. The QR decomposition factors the image feature Jacobian into a unitary matrix and an upper triangular matrix. And it is shown that several performance indices such as measurement sensitivity of visual features, sensitivity of the control to noise and controllability can be improved for any general image feature Jacobian by QR decomposition and disturbance observer. To show the validity of the proposed approach, visual servoing with stereo vision is carried out for a Samsung FARAMAN 6-axis industrial robot manipulator.

The position control accuracy of a robot arm is significantly deteriorated when a long arm robot is operated at a high speed. In this case, the robot arm must be modeled as a flexible structure, not a rigid one, and its control system should be designed with its elastic modes taken into account. In this paper, the tip position control scheme of a one-link flexible manipulator using 2-DOF controller with sliding mode is presented. The robot consists of a flexible arm manufactured with a thin aluminium plate, an AC servo motor with a harmonic drive for speed reduction, an optical encoder and a CCD camera as a vision sensor for on-line measuring the tip deflection of the flexible m. Simulation and experimental results of the flexible manipulator with a proposed controller are provided to show the effectiveness of the controller.

A discrete event systems (DES) is a physical system that is discrete in time and state space, asynchronous (event rather than clock-driven), and in some sense generative(or nondeterministic). This paper presents the design of fifteen modular supervisors to control an experimental CIM testbed. These supervisors are nonblocking, controllable and nonconflicting. After verification of the supervisors by simulation, the supervisors for AGV system have been implemented to demonstrate their efficacy.

The dicing process cuts a semiconductor wafer to lengthwise and crosswise direction by using a rotating circular diamond blade. But inferior goods are made under the influence of several parameters in dicing such as blade, wafer, cutting water and cutting conditions. This paper describes a monitoring algorithm using neural network in order to find out an instant of vibration signal change when bad dicing appears. The algorithm is composed of two steps: feature extraction and decision. In the feature extraction, five features processed from vibration signal which is acquired by accelerometer attached on blade head are proposed. In the decision, back-propagation neural network is adopted to classify the dicing process into normal and abnormal dicing, and normal and damaged blade. Experiments have been performed for GaAs semiconductor wafer in the case of normal/abnormal dicing and normal/damaged blade. Based upon observation of the experimental results, the proposed scheme shown has a good accuracy of classification performance by which the inferior goods decreased from 35.2% to 6.5%.

In this paper, realization techniques of the parallel processing and the parallel network system for image processing are described. The parallel image processing system is constructed by the characterization of image processing and processor. Several problems are solved to achieve effective parallel processing and processor networking with the particular properties of image processing, which are reduction of communication quantity, equalization of load and delay depreciation on communication. A parallel image input device is developed for the flexible networking of parallel image processing. An abnormal region detection algorithm which is the basic function in machine vision is applied to evaluate the constructed parallel image processing system. The performance and effectiveness of the system are confirmed by experiments.

This paper deals with wafer temperature uniformity control essential in rapid thermal processing (RTP). One of the important control objectives of RTP is to keep the temperature over the wafer surface as uniformly as possible. For this, a discrete time state equation around the operating point is first identified by using the subspace fitting method, and a multivariable LQG(Linear Quadratic Gaussian) controller is designed based on the identified model. Simulation and experimental results show improvement in temperature uniformity over the conventional PID method.

This paper proposes a path planning algorithm for dispensers to increase the productivity in printed circuit board assembly lines. We analyze the assembly sequence of the dispenser, and formulate it as an integer programming problem. The mathematical formulation can accomodate multiple heads and different types of heads through extended cost matrix. The TSP algorithms are then applied to the formulated problem to find the near-optimal solution. Simulation results are presented to verify the usefulness of the proposed scheme.

In this study, a surface generating system with a bundle of wires, which can reproduce a certain range of surface roughness of the objects without direct machining process, is implemented. The system consists of a bundle of wires, a PZT actuator, a vertical table system actuated linearly along two perpendicular axes, and an image processing system. Through the development of the operational software for all of those subsystems by a common language(Visual C＋＋) of the implemented system, the complete process except arrangement of a bundle of wires are automated. Lastly, through the experiments of generating the flat surface of some virtual object and then of measuring the reproduced surface roughness, it is confirmed that the implemented system has excellent performance.