In this paper, we present a comprehensive analysis of the methodology employed in the development
of an emotion-driven character model. We outline each step involved in the design and implementation process,
from the initial conceptualization and data preparation stages to the selection and integration of specialized
software packages and libraries that facilitate model training and real-time emotional simulation. Particular
emphasis is placed on the incorporation of Paul Ekman’s classification of basic human emotions—happiness,
sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust—as the theoretical foundation for the emotional framework. By
mapping these emotions to specific facial expressions and behavioral responses, we aim to enhance the character’s
realism and improve its capacity to engage users in interactive or immersive environments such as virtual reality,
gaming, or human-computer interaction scenarios
Mohammad Alali, Armita Kazeminajafabadi, Mahdi Imani
Advances in technology have enabled the use of sensors with varied modalities to monitor different parts of systems, each providing diverse levels of information about the underlying system. However, resource limitations and computational power restrict the number of sensors/data that can be processed in real-time in most complex systems. These challenges necessitate the need for selecting/scheduling a subset of sensors to obtain measurements that guarantee the best monitoring objectives. This paper focuses on sensor scheduling for systems modeled by hidden Markov models. Despite the development of several sensor selection and scheduling methods, existing methods tend to be greedy and do not take into account the long-term impact of selected sensors on monitoring objectives. This paper formulates optimal sensor scheduling as a reinforcement learning problem defined over the posterior distribution of system states. Further, the paper derives a deep reinforcement learning policy for offline learning of the sensor scheduling policy, which can then be executed in real-time as new information unfolds. The proposed method applies to any monitoring objective that can be expressed in terms of the posterior distribution of the states (e.g. state estimation, information gain, etc.). The performance of the proposed method in terms of accuracy and robustness is investigated for monitoring the security of networked systems and the health monitoring of gene regulatory networks.
Control engineering systems. Automatic machinery (General), Systems engineering
AbstractIn order to deal with the reliability optimization design problem of mechanisms containing multiple motion phases and multiple collisions, this paper takes the firearms automaton as an example and gives a general method to deal with such problems. Firstly, the motion stages are divided according to the automatic cycle diagram of the firearms automaton, and the discrete dynamics model of the firearms is established. Then the reliability model of the automaton mechanism is established based on the performance margin theory. Finally, taking the pressure coefficient of air chamber, the friction coefficient of the guide, the stiffness of the counter-recoil spring and the stiffness of the hammer spring as design variables, the optimized design variables are obtained through the calculation of the sequential quadratic programming (SQP) algorithm. The results of the optimized design are close to the idealized results of the existing products, which proves the rationality and effectiveness of the mechanism reliability optimization design method proposed in this paper.
The wave glider is a new type of unmanned observation platform on water surface, which can generate forward thrust by obtaining wave energy through the swing of submerged glider's hydrofoils. By analyzing the wave energy loss caused by the umbilical cable inclination angle of the submerged glider of the conventional wave glider, a hydrofoil swing mechanism that can change the lower limit of hydrofoil swing with the change of the umbilical cable inclination angle is designed. Firstly, the adjustment ability of the lower limit follow-up mechanism to the hydrofoil swing angle is simulated and analyzed by the computational fluid dynamics software Fluent; secondly, the prototype of the lower limit follow-up mechanism is designed by adding a set of parallelogram transmission mechanism in the conventional submerged glider. A large wave simulation test platform is setup and the propulsion performance of the prototype is verified by pool tests. The research shows that the new hydrofoil swing mechanism can improve the propulsion performance of the submerged glider.
This paper proposes an algorithm that provides operational strategies for multiple tethered autonomous underwater vehicle (T-AUV) systems for entanglement-free navigation. T-AUVs can perform underwater tasks under reliable communication and power supply, which is the most substantial benefit of their operation. Thus, if one can overcome the entanglement issues while utilizing multiple tethered vehicles, the potential applications of the system increase including ecosystem exploration, infrastructure inspection, maintenance, search and rescue, underwater construction, and surveillance. In this study, we focus on developing strategies for task allocation, path planning, and scheduling that ensure entanglement-free operations while considering workload balancing among the vehicles. We do not impose restrictions on the size or shape of the vehicles at this stage; our primary focus is on efficient tether management as an initial work on the topic. To achieve entanglement-free navigation, we propose a heuristic based on the primal-dual technique, which enables initial task allocation and path planning while minimizing the maximum travel cost of the vehicles. Although this heuristic often generates sectioned paths due to its workload-balancing nature, we also propose a mixed approach to provide feasible solutions for non-sectioned initial paths. This approach combines entanglement avoidance techniques with time scheduling and sectionalization methods. To evaluate the effectiveness of our algorithm, extensive simulations were conducted with varying problem sizes. The computational results demonstrate the potential of our algorithm to be applied in real-time operations, as it consistently generates reliable solutions within a reasonable time frame.
Kamaraj Kalaimathy, Radhakrishnan Shanthi Priya, Prashanthini Rajagopal
et al.
The present study investigates the effects of visible light transmittance in glazing and window-to-wall ratios on the ground floor daylighting performance in a two-storey residential building in a warm-humid climate. The metrics used to optimize daylighting performance with minimal glare are useful daylight illuminance, annual sunlight exposure, and spatial daylight autonomy. The daylighting performance of a residential building is assessed by empirical method and Design-Builder simulation, focusing on overcast sky situations. The useful daylight illuminance is the primary metric for analysing the amount of daylight throughout the year. Annual sunlight exposure and spatial daylight autonomy complement useful daylight illuminance in evaluating the daylighting performance. A window-to-wall ratio of 16%, a visible light transmittance of 0.62, and a glare of 0.52 can meet the daylighting requirements and standards. A design change in the window position helps to obtain annual sunlight exposure within 10% while maintaining high daylighting performance. When installed in the upper position of the wall with a higher sill and lintel height, glazing with a window-to-wall ratio of 16% and a visible light transmittance of 0.62 functions well without creating glare. The significant findings benefit all stakeholders in improving daylighting strategies in tropical climates and satisfying building standards.
The modeling of compliant bridge-type displacement amplification mechanisms has challenges due to the intrinsic coupling of kinematic and mechanical behaviors. A structure load performance integrated model method for the bridge-type displacement amplification mechanism is presented. The established modeling based on Castigliano’s second theorem considers the deformations of all members, the effect of external load and the nonlinear shear effect. Compared to the finite element model (FEM) and existing models, the established modeling precisely predicts significant nonlinearity of the displacement amplification ratio (DAR) with the driving force, strong sensitivity of DAR to the external load and corresponding relationships of structural parameters with DAR, which is the closest to the FEM result over existing models. The variance-based sensitivities of structural parameters to DAR are thoroughly analyzed, indicating that sensitive structure parameters need to be focused on. Modeling applications further prove the reliability and expandability of the proposed model method. The proposed model method can provide support for the design, optimization and control of compliant systems with bridge-type displacement amplification mechanisms.
Lab-on-a-CD (LOCD) is gaining importance as a diagnostic platform due to being low-cost, easy-to-use, and portable. During LOCD usage, mixing and reaction are two processes that play an essential role in biochemical applications such as point-of-care diagnosis. In this paper, we numerically and experimentally investigate the effects of the Coriolis and Euler forces in the mixing chamber during the acceleration and deceleration of a rotating disk. The mixing performance is investigated under various conditions that have not been reported, such as rotational condition, chamber aspect ratio at a constant volume, and obstacle arrangement in the chamber. During disk acceleration and deceleration, the Euler force difference in the radial direction causes rotating flows, while the Coriolis force induces perpendicular vortices. Increasing the maximum rotational velocity improves the maximum rotational displacement, resulting in better mixing performance. A longer rotational period increases the interfacial area between solutions and enhances mixing. Mixing performance also improves when there is a substantial difference between Euler forces at the inner and outer radii. Furthermore, adding obstacles in the angular direction also passively promotes or inhibits mixing by configuration. This quantitative investigation provides valuable information for designing and developing high throughput and multiplexed point-of-care LOCDs.
It was shown that the soil formation turnover within the furrow is an important condition for precision tillage. The authors identified the possibility of creating a train of combined machines capable of preparing the soil for sowing or planting in one pass. It was noted that due to inertia forces, the cylindrical plow body is able to hold a layer with and without turf. The preliminary tests of this working body revealed some barriers to the unhindered passage of the soil layer. It was assumed that it is possible to increase the technological reliability of the plow body by placing a wing on the guide board, which operation will create an additional twisting effect. (Research purpose) To substantiate the length of the plow body wing and its angle to the bottom of the furrow. (Materials and methods) Based on the laws of theoretical mechanics, a differential equation for the soil layer segment rotation was obtained, where the soil, as a tillage object, is presented by the coefficients of dynamic viscosity, sliding friction, and density. (Results and discussion) It was determined that the value of the dynamic viscosity coefficient and sliding friction depend on the absolute moisture content of the formation being treated. The main criteria influencing the soil formation turnover included the absolute soil moisture content, the plow body speed, the dump wing length, the angle of the wing installation, the thickness of the interacting boundary layer of the deformable section. As a result of the simulation, it was found out that the angle of the soil layer segment rotation predominantly depends on the plow body speed and the angle of the dump wing installation. (Conclusions) A 90-degree angle of the soil layer segment rotation can be achieved if the dump wing length is 0.1 meter, and the angle of its installation is 23 degrees.
Simon Fletcher, Difference Chuku, Tom Furness
et al.
Precision machinery such as machine tools use heavy duty structural elements to provide high accuracy and repeatability. However, external forces and thermal effects can still cause significant errors. Machine builders put significant emphasis on good design for error avoidance and more recently, utilise software-based error compensation methods to further improve performance. For geometric errors which result from build tolerances, and which normally only vary slowly over time, most Numerical Control systems provide functionality for pre-calibrated error compensation. For compensation of thermal errors, temperature sensors are often used to provide data for a model which calculates the effect of the temperature field on the machine structure. Although this method is widely researched, there is often significant residual error due the time-variant non-linear relationship between temperature and the error between the tool and workpiece. This may be exacerbated by introducing multi-material structural elements to reduce weight. Direct measurement and combining temperature with direct measurement can enable more precise modelling but can add significant cost of additional sensors. In this research a direct measurement method is applied using a series of short-range, ultra-low-cost displacement sensors, exploiting a particular arrangement of compact slotted photo-microsensors. These are organised in a novel rectilinear framework to enable detection of the bending of a machine tool structure. The design provides high resolution measurement of strain over arbitrary lengths and cost-effective hardware for permanently embedding on a machine. The system was applied to the ram of a high precision 3-axis machine tool and used to compensate the thermal error caused by running the integrated high-speed spindle. The residual error was reduced from 10 to 4 µm, even reducing the magnitude of the effect of the chiller cycles.
Gaze gestures are extensively used in the interactions with agents/computers/robots. Either remote eye tracking devices or head-mounted devices (HMDs) have the advantage of hands-free during the interaction. Previous studies have demonstrated the success of applying machine learning techniques for gaze gesture recognition. More recently, graph neural networks (GNNs) have shown great potential applications in several research areas such as image classification, action recognition, and text classification. However, GNNs are less applied in eye tracking researches. In this work, we propose a graph convolutional network (GCN)–based model for gaze gesture recognition. We train and evaluate the GCN model on the HideMyGaze! dataset. The results show that the accuracy, precision, and recall of the GCN model are 97.62%, 97.18%, and 98.46%, respectively, which are higher than the other compared conventional machine learning algorithms, the artificial neural network (ANN) and the convolutional neural network (CNN).
Mechanical engineering and machinery, Electronic computers. Computer science
El artículo analiza el significado del término manchasqa o mancharisqa (asustado) en tiempos del coronavirus o SARS-Cov-2 entre los pobladores en una zona andina quechua y las conductas que adoptan ante la amenaza de la expansión del virus en el contexto de emergencia dispuesta por el Gobierno peruano. Se revisa el concepto del «susto» (manchasqa) recurriendo a la tradición mítica quechua, a la médica, a las ciencias sociales y a las humanas, como la psicología y la filosofía. Se propone una tipología, a modo de hipótesis, de las formas de entender el mancharisqa (estar asustado) en una zona de los andes.
Microvalves are important flow-control devices in many standalone and integrated microfluidic applications. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based pneumatic microvalves are commonly used but they generally require large peripheral connections that decrease portability. There are many alternatives found in the literature that use Si-based microvalves, but variants that can throttle even moderate pressures (1 bar) tend to be bulky (cm-range) or consume high power. This paper details the development of a low-power, normally-open piezoelectric microvalve to control flows with a maximum driving pressure of 1 bar, but also retain a small effective form-factor of 5 mm × 5 mm × 1.8 mm. A novel combination of rapid prototyping methods like stereolithography and laser-cutting have been used to realize this device. The maximum displacement of the fabricated piezoelectric microactuator was measured to be 8.5 μm at 150 V. The fabricated microvalve has a flow range of 0−90 μL min<sup>−1</sup> at 1 bar inlet pressure. When fully closed, a leakage of 0.8% open-flow was observed with a power-consumption of 37.5 μW. A flow resolution of 0.2 μL min<sup>−1</sup>—De-ionized (DI) water was measured at 0.5 bar pressure.