Typically, the seat of an automotive vehicle generally includes a horizontal seat-cushion portion and a vertical seat-back portion that is operatively connected to the seat-cushion portion. The seat may include a recliner for the reclining of the seat-back portion relative to the seat-cushion portion by the seat occupant. An energy absorber or damper can also be provided for the seat-back portion. Because the recliner is configured to be released at a relatively high speed, and it results in an impact at the end of a folding stroke, the damper needs to dissipate energy as the seat back moves with respect to the seat cushion; therefore, the role of the seat damper in the automotive-seat design is important. In this paper, the mechanism of an hydraulic-type automotive-seat damper is investigated, and the torque characteristic is simulated according to the design-parameter variations such as the orifice area and the working-fluid properties.

This paper presents the meter-out and meter-in speed control characteristics of a pneumatic cylinder with relief valve type cushion device. The piston displacement and velocity are measured to investigate high speed driving performance with variation of the pressure setting in relief valve, air supply pressure, load mass, the supply and exhaust flow rate from the cylinder. Also, the internal pressures and temperatures driving pressure and cushion chamber are measured. The piston displacements and velocities of meter-out and meter-in control are compared experimentally determined data. A comparison experimental data meter-out and meter-in control show that a relief valve type cushion device is suitable for high speed pneumatic cylinders. The desired response characteristics of piston displacement and velocity are satisfactory adjust the pressure setting of a relief valve with varying system parameters such as air supply pressure, load mass and controlled flow rate.

This paper presents a stochastic and predictive working-risk-assessment algorithm for excavators based on a one-layer laser scanner. The one-layer laser scanner is employed to detect objects and to estimate an object's dynamic behaviors such as the position, velocity, heading angle, and heading rate. To estimate the state variables, extended and linear Kalman filters are applied in consideration of laser-scanner information as the measurements. The excavator's working area is derived based on a kinematic analysis of the excavator's working parts. With the estimated dynamic behaviors and the kinematic analysis of the excavator's working parts, an object's behavior and the excavator's working area such as the maximum, actual, and predicted areas are computed for a working risk assessment. The four working-risk levels are defined using the predicted behavior and the working area, and the intersection-area-based quantitative-risk level has been computed. An actual test-data-based performance evaluation of the designed stochastic and predictive risk-assessment algorithm is conducted using a typical working scenario. The results show that the algorithm can evaluate the working-risk levels of the excavator during its operation.

This paper presents a control-oriented dynamical model of a towing rope system with variable-length. In this system, a winch driven by a motor's torque uses the towing rope to pull a cart. In general, it is a difficult and complicated process to obtain an accurate mathematical model for this system. In particular, if the rope length is varied by operating the winch, the varying rope dynamics needs to be considered, and the key physical parameters need to be re-identified... However, real time parameter identification requires long computation time for the control scheme, and hence undesirable control performance. Therefore, in this article, the rope is modeled as a straight massless segment, with the mass of rope being considered partly with that of the cart, and partly as halfway to the winch. In addition, the changing spring constant and damping constant of the towing rope are accounted for as part of the dynamics of the winch. Finally, a reduced-order observer-based servomechanism controller is designed for the system, and the performance is evaluated by computer simulation.

In recent hydraulic actuation systems, conventional hydraulic spool valves with pressure compensators are becoming less popular, after the introduction of the independent metering concept for valves. Within this concept, four valves are needed for actuating a single cylinder. Subsequently, this increases the freedom of controlling both chamber pressures of the cylinder, and it then provides for electronically-controlled pressure compensation facilities. Additionally, this has the potential to save valuable energy. The primary focus of this paper is to develop a new generation of hydraulic circuits using the independent metering valve (IMV). This configuration can function well as a conventional IMV circuit while providing better pressure control. We first describe the working principles of five distinct modes of the proposed IMV system. Then, mathematical models for each working mode are presented. Finally, we present numerical simulations that have been carried out to evaluate the system performance, in comparison with that of the conventional IMV configuration. The simulation results demonstrate that the performance of the new IMV configuration is superior to the conventional IMV system in terms of energy savings.

The power train of a hydro-mechanical, continuously variable transmission for forklifts makes use of hydro-static units, hydraulic multi-wet disc brakes & clutches, and complex helical & planetary gears. The complex helical & planetary gears are very important parts of the transmission because of a strength problem. In the present study, we calculated the specifications of the complex helical & planetary gear train, and analyzed the gear bending and compressive stresses of the gears. It is necessary to analyze the gear bending and compressive stresses thoroughly for optimal design of the complex helical & planetary gears with respect to cost and reliability. In this paper, we analyze the actual gear bending and compressive stresses of complex helical & planetary gears using the Lewes & Hertz equation, and we also verify the calculated specifications of the complex helical & planetary gears by evaluating the results of the data of allowable bending and compressive stress using the Stress vrs Number of Cycles curves of gears.

The mechanical design for biped walking of a humanoid robot doing the Argentina Tango is presented in this paper. Biped walking has long been studied in the area of robotic locomotion. The aim of this paper is to implement an Argentina Tango dancer-like walking motion with a humanoid robot by using a trajectory generation scheme. To that end, this paper uses blending polynominals whose parameters are determined based on PSO (Particle Swarm Optimization) according to conditions that make the most of the Argentina Tango's characteristics. For the stability of biped walking, the ZMP (Zero Moment Point) control method is used. The feasibility of the proposed scheme is evaluated by simulating biped walking with the 3D Simscape robot model. The simulation results show the validity and effectiveness of the proposed method.

This paper proposes a model-prediction-based collision-avoidance algorithm for excavators for which the recursive-least-squares (RLS) estimation of the excavator's rotational inertia is used. To estimate the rotational inertia of the excavator, the RLS estimation with multiple forgetting and two updating rules for the nominal parameter and the forgetting factors was conducted based on the excavator-swing dynamics. The average value of the estimated rotational inertia that is for the minimizing effects of the estimation error was computed using the recursive-average method with forgetting. Based on the swing dynamics, the computed average of the rotational inertia, the damping coefficient for braking, and the excavator's braking angle were predicted, and the predicted braking angle was compared with the detected-object angle for a safety evaluation. The safety level defined in this study consists of the three levels safe, warning, and emergency braking. The analytical rotational-inertia-based performance evaluation of the designed estimation algorithm was conducted using a typical working scenario. The results of the safety evaluation show that the predictive safety-evaluation algorithm of the proposed model can evaluate the safety level of the excavator during its operation.