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Abstract Biopharmaceuticals are growing in medical and economical significance, replacing several chemically synthesized pharmaceuticals and providing new treatments for serious diseases. Research within the biopharmaceutical field is expensive and labor intensive with the majority of work featuring diverse bioprocesses. Miniaturization of bioprocesses into microbioreactors, miniaturized bioprocess vessels for diverse experiments, reduces the amount of necessary reagents as well as time and labor due to the possibility of multiplexing. A crucial step of research is analytics, commonly performed by expensive and time consuming standard laboratory based analytical tools that require larger sample volumes that than microbioreactors can provide. Biosensors are analytical devices that can provide highly sensitive and selective online detection (in situ) and lend themselves to miniaturization. Biosensors detecting glucose, lactate, pyruvate and galactose were developed and investigated herein. 3D printing and laser ablation were used as fabrication techniques, enabling development of unit operations (mixing and pumping) necessary for biosensor integration into microbioreactors. A 3D printed microbioreactor was developed with integrated glucose and optical density sensors for the cultivation of yeast where the biosensor was found to provide critical online data of glucose concentration, thus enabling bioprocess control. Additionally, molecularly imprinted polymers were investigated as novel recognition components due to their increased stability compared to biological molecules within bioprocess environments. A molecular imprinted polymer for folic acid was developed and tested as a sorbent in a microfluidic solid phase extraction system for detection. / Tiivistelmä Biofarmaseuttisten valmisteiden lääketieteellinen ja taloudellinen merkitys kasvavat. Valmisteet korvaavat kemiallisesti valmistettuja yhdisteitä ja tarjoavat uusia hoitoja vakaviin sairauksiin. Biofarmaseuttinen tutkimus on kallista, ja erityisesti bioprosessien kehittäminen vaatii paljon työtä. Bioprosessien miniatyrisointi mikrobioreaktoreita käyttäen vähentää tutkimuksessa tarvittavaa reagenssien kulutusta, lyhentää aikaa ja pienentää työmäärää, koska mikrobioreaktoreiden avulla voidaan tehdä useita rinnakkaisia kokeita samanaikaisesti. Keskeinen osa bioprosessien tutkimusta on niiden seuraamiseen tarvittava analytiikka. Yleensä seuranta tehdään kalliilla ja aikaa vievillä analyyttisen kemian menetelmillä, jotka vaativat suurempia näytetilavuuksia kuin mitä mikrobioreaktoreista saadaan. Biosensorit ovat erittäin herkkiä ja mittauskohteen tarkasti tunnistavia analytiikkavälineitä, joilla voidaan saada online-mittaustietoa suoraan mittauskohteessa. Ne pystytään myös miniatyrisoimaan. Tässä tutkimuksessa kehitettiin aluksi glukoosin, laktaatin, pyruvaatin ja galaktoosin biosensorimittaukset. Sensorilaitteiden valmistustekniikkoina käytettiin 3D-tulostusta ja laserleikkausta. Näin pystyttiin kehittämään yksiköt myös näytteen sekoittamiseen ja pumppaamiseen. Lopuksi hiivasolujen kasvatusta varten valmistettiin 3D-tulostettu mikrobioreaktori, johon yhdistettiin glukoosisensori ja optisen tiheyden mittaus. Glukoosin mittaus tuotti glukoosin pitoisuudesta onlinetietoa, mikä on erittäin tärkeää prosessin valvonnalle ja ohjaukselle. Lisäksi tutkittiin molekyylipainettujen polymeerien käyttöä mitattavia analyyttejä tunnistavina yhdisteinä. Perinteisiä sensoreissa käytettäviä biomolekyylejä kestävämpinä yhdisteinä ne voisivat soveltua etenkin bioprosessien jatkuvaan seuraamiseen. Tutkimuksessa kehitettiin myös foolihapon tunnistava molekyylipainettu polymeeri, jota käytettiin kiinteän faasin sitoja-aineena mikrofluidisessa detektio- ja uuttojärjestelmässä.

In this thesis, time-optimal control of the bi-steerable robot is addressed. The bi-steerable robot, a vehicle with two independently steerable axles, is a complex nonholonomic system with applications in many areas of land-based robotics. Motion planning and optimal control are challenging tasks for this system, since standard control schemes do not apply. The model of the bi-steerable robot considered here is a reduced kinematic model with the driving velocity and the steering angles of the front and rear axle as inputs. The steering angles of the two axles can be set independently from each other. The reduced kinematic model is a control system with affine and non-affine inputs, as the driving velocity enters the system linearly, whereas the steering angles enter nonlinearly. In this work, a new approach to solve the time-optimal control problem for the bi-steerable robot is presented. In contrast to most standard methods for time-optimal control, our approach does not exclusively rely on discretization and purely numerical methods. Instead, the Pontryagin Maximum Principle is used to characterize candidates for time-optimal solutions. The resultant boundary value problem is solved by optimization to obtain solutions to the path planning problem over a given time horizon. The time horizon is decreased and the path planning is iterated to approximate a time-optimal solution. An optimality condition is introduced which depends on the number of cusps, i.e., reversals of the driving direction of the robot. This optimality condition allows to single out non-optimal solutions with too many cusps. In general, our approach only gives approximations of time-optimal solutions, since only normal regular extremals are considered as solutions to the path planning problem, and the path planning is terminated when an extremal with minimal number of cusps is found. However, for most desired configurations, normal regular extremals with the minimal number of cusps provide time-optimal solutions for the bi-steerable robot. The convergence of the approach is analyzed and its probabilistic completeness is shown. Moreover, simulation results on time-optimal solutions for the bi-steerable robot are presented. / In dieser Dissertation wird die zeitoptimale Steuerung des zweiachsgelenkten Roboters behandelt. Der zweiachsgelenkte Roboter, ein Fahrzeug mit zwei voneinander unabhängig lenkbaren Achsen, ist ein komplexes nichtholonomes System mit Anwendungen in vielen Bereichen der Land-Robotik. Bahnplanung und optimale Steuerung sind anspruchsvolle Aufgaben für dieses System, da Standardverfahren hierfür nicht anwendbar sind. Das hier betrachtete Modell des zweiachsgelenkten Roboters ist ein reduziertes kinematisches Modell mit der Fahrgeschwindigkeit und den Lenkwinkeln als Eingangsgrößen. Die Lenkwinkel der beiden Achsen können unabhängig voneinander vorgegeben werden. Das reduzierte kinematische Modell ist ein Kontrollsystem mit affinen und nichtaffinen Eingängen, da die Fahrgeschwindigkeit linear in das System eingeht, während die Lenkwinkel nichtlineare Eingangsgrößen sind. In dieser Arbeit wird ein neuer Ansatz zur Lösung des zeitoptimalen Steuerungsproblems für den zweiachsgelenkten Roboter vorgestellt. Im Gegensatz zu den meisten Standardmethoden für die zeitoptimale Steuerung basiert unser Ansatz nicht ausschließlich auf Diskretisierung und rein numerischen Verfahren. Stattdessen wird das Pontryagin Maximum Prinzip angewendet, um Kandidaten für zeitoptimale Lösungen zu charakterisieren. Das sich dabei ergebende Randwertproblem wird durch Optimierung gelöst, um Lösungen für das Bahnplanungsproblem über einem bestimmten Zeithorizont zu erhalten. Die Bahnplanung wird über einem abnehmenden Zeithorizont iteriert, um eine zeitoptimale Lösung zu approximieren. Eine Optimalitätsbedingung wird eingeführt, die von der Anzahl der Richtungsumkehrungen des Roboters abhängt. Diese Optimalitätsbedingung erlaubt es, nichtoptimale Lösungen mit zu vielen Richtungsumkehrungen auszusondern. Im Allgemeinen liefert unser Ansatz nur Approximationen zeitoptimaler Lösungen, da nur normale reguläre Extremalen als Lösungen für das Bahnplanungsproblem betrachtet werden und die Bahnplanung beendet wird, sobald eine Extremale mit der minimalen Anzahl von Richtungsumkehrungen gefunden wurde. Allerdings ergeben normale reguläre Extremalen mit der minimalen Anzahl von Richtungsumkehrungen für die meisten Zielkonfigurationen des zweiachsgelenkten Roboters zeitoptimale Lösungen. Die Konvergenz des Ansatzes wird untersucht und seine probabilistische Vollständigkeit wird bewiesen. Des Weiteren werden Simulationsergebnisse für zeitoptimale Lösungen des zweiachsgelenkten Roboters präsentiert.

Proefschrift Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. / Datum laatste controle: 31-10-1996. Met lit. opg., index. - Met samenvatting in het Nederlands.

SISTEMAS DE INSERCIÓN Y BORRADO: COMPLEJIDAD Y CAPACIDAD DE MODELADO El objetivo central de la tesis es el estudio de los sistemas de inserción y borrado y su capacidad computacional. Más concretamente, estudiamos algunos modelos de generación de lenguaje que usan operaciones de reescritura de dos cadenas. También consideramos una variante distribuida de los sistemas de inserción y borrado en el sentido de que las reglas se separan entre un número finito de nodos de un grafo. Estos sistemas se denominan sistemas controlados mediante grafo, y aparecen en muchas áreas de la Informática, jugando un papel muy importante en los lenguajes formales, la lingüística y la bio-informática. Estudiamos la decidibilidad/ universalidad de nuestros modelos mediante la variación de los parámetros de tamaño del vector. Concretamente, damos respuesta a la cuestión más importante concerniente a la expresividad de la capacidad computacional: si nuestro modelo es equivalente a una máquina de Turing o no. Abordamos sistemáticamente las cuestiones sobre los tamaños mínimos de los sistemas con y sin control de grafo. / COMPLEXITY AND MODELING POWER OF INSERTION-DELETION SYSTEMS The central object of the thesis are insertion-deletion systems and their computational power. More specifically, we study language generating models that use two string rewriting operations: contextual insertion and contextual deletion, and their extensions. We also consider a distributed variant of insertion-deletion systems in the sense that rules are separated among a finite number of nodes of a graph. Such systems are refereed as graph-controlled systems. These systems appear in many areas of Computer Science and they play an important role in formal languages, linguistics, and bio-informatics. We vary the parameters of the vector of size of insertion-deletion systems and we study decidability/universality of obtained models. More precisely, we answer the most important questions regarding the expressiveness of the computational model: whether our model is Turing equivalent or not. We systematically approach the questions about the minimal sizes of the insertiondeletion systems with and without the graph-control.

Prediktor AS har hatt et ønske om å forbedre kontrollen av innetemperaturen i sine lokaler i Fredrikstad. Denne oppgaven har blitt gitt som en avsluttende masteroppgave ved institutt for teknisk kybernetikk ved NTNU.Det har blitt utviklet en lineær modell på formen dx/dt=Ax+Bu for energiflyten i Prediktors lokaler i Fredrikstad. Modellen er basert på fysiske betraktninger ved selve bygningsmassen, fysiske prinsipper for energibalanser og målinger gjort i bygget. Disse betraktningene er det gjort rede for i denne rapporten. Målingene er gjort delvis med instrumenter allerede plassert i bygningen ved oppgavens start, og delvis med instrumenter satt opp i løpet av arbeidet med oppgaven. Måleresultatene er innhentet ved hjelp av Prediktors egen APIS-programvare, og i denne rapporten er betraktninger rundt instrumenteringen, det utførte instrumenteringsarbeidet samt detaljene rundt innhentingen av data gjort rede for.Det har blitt utviklet en reguleringsstrategi for systemet. Regulatoren er basert på Kalmanfiltrering og LQ-regulering, og blitt utvidet og tilpasset reguleringsproblemet for å oppnå best mulig ytelse.

Proefschrift--Amsterdam. / With summaries in English and in French. Bibliography: p. 293-297.

Le maintien de personnes âgées au domicile le plus longtemps possible est censé apporter une réponse à la croissance de l’espérance de vie en occident et a des coûts toujours croissants pour la société. ce travail de thèse a été réalisé dans le cadre du projet CompanionAble, qui vise a fournir une solution intégrée maison intelligente - robot aux personnes âgées, vivant seules. L'objectif est de maintenir un confort en fin de vie à un niveau élevé et à traiter les situations dangereuses pour elles, comme les chutes, avant que les conséquences ne deviennent trop importantes. Les éléments qui m’intéressent dans ce cadre sont le robot et l’opérateur, qui se trouve à l’extérieur de la maison, et qui peut téléopérer le robot en vue d’interagir avec la personne âgée, soit pour des activités ludiques (visioconférence, exercices de stimulation cognitive), soit pour des situations d’urgence (chute, perte de connaissance… de la personne âgée). Pour maintenir les coûts du système à un niveau raisonnable, on a envisagé l’utilisation de l’internet public pour la connexion entre le site maître (où se trouve l‘opérateur) et le site esclave (où se trouve le robot). Une autre spécificité du notre système est le fait que les utilisateurs ne sont pas des spécialistes de la téléopération. J’ai donc cherché à faciliter la tâche de pilotage du robot, dans ce contexte spécifique. Du côté de l’interface, on a cherché à aider l’opérateur traitant les problèmes liés aux délais de transmission (possibles à cause de l’utilisation de l’internet) et lui donner la possibilité d’utiliser une interface écologique, qui utilise des éléments de réalité augmentée. Du côté du robot, on a rajouté un nouveau mode de commande, semi-autonome, pour que l’opérateur soit plus à l’aise pendant qu’il le déplace. Pour finir, on a examiné la possibilité de passer d’un mode de commande à un autre, pour que l’opérateur soit le moins affecté que possible par des perturbations et que les performances du système restent acceptables. Les solutions proposées ont été implantée sur un système réel et évaluées au laboratoire et en situations réelles dans le cadre du projet européen CompanionAble. / Enabling older people to live in their homes as long as possible is supposed to respond to the growth of life expectancy in the west and the increasing costs to society. The present thesis was conducted in the framework of the companionable, which aims to provide an integrated smart home - robot for the elderly, which are living alone. The objective is to maintain the end of life comfort at a high level and to deal with dangerous situations for them, such as falls, before the consequences become too costly. The elements that interest me in this context are the robot and the remote operator, which is outside the home, and can teleoperate the robot to interact with the elderly, for recreational activities ( videoconferencing, cognitive stimulation exercises) or for emergency situations (falls, loss of consciousness, etc.). To keep the system costs to a reasonable level, we considered using the public internet as the connection between the master site (where the operator is) and the slave site (where the robot is). another unique feature of our system is that users are not specialists in teleoperation. As such, i tried to ease the task of controlling the robot, in this specific context. On the remote control interface side, we tried to help the operator in dealing with the problems associated with transmission delays (due to the possible use of the internet) and we gave him/her the option of using an ecological interface, which uses elements of augmented reality. On the robot side, we added a new command mode, semi-autonomous, so that the operator is more at ease as he/she controls the robot. finally, we examined the possibility of switching from one control mode to another, so that the operator is the least affected by possible disturbances and system performance is kept acceptable. The proposed solutions have been implemented on a real system and evaluated in the laboratory and in real situations, in the framework of the european CompanionAble project.

<p>På överhettartuber i värmepannor bildas beläggningar på grund av sot och partiklar från förbränningen. Beläggningarna isolerar överhettartuberna vilket försämrar värmepannans verkningsgrad. Sotning av tuberna sker under drift och ett system som automatiskt kan beräkna hur mycket beläggningar som finns på tuberna skulle kunna göra sotningen mer behovsstyrd.Resonansfrekvenser hos överhettartuberna påverkas av masspåslaget som blir när beläggningar bildas. En förändring i frekvens kan då översättas till en förändring i massa. Vibrationsmätningar har gjorts med töjningsgivare som är monterade på överhettartuber i en av Ryaverkets pannor och i SAKAB:s panna. I detta examensarbete har syftet varit att analysera olika metoder för att skatta resonansfrekvenser i genomförda mätningar. Algoritmerna MUSIC, ESPRIT och AR samt en heuristisk statistisk metod har testats på genererade signaler. MUSIC och ESPRIT har givit bäst skattningar och har därefter använts för att analysera mätningarna. Periodvis följer vissa skattningar av mätningar från Ryaverket trender mellan sotningarna vilket indikerar att det skulle kunna vara resonansfrekvenser. Annars innehåller skattningarna för mycket variationer. Skattningarna av mätningar från SAKAB:s panna är gjorda under en kortare tidsperiod men visar en tydligare trend som troliggör att det är resonansfrekvenser som detekterats.För att automatiskt hitta och följa resonansfrekvenser i skattningarna, även om dessa innehåller stora variationer, har en målföljningsalgoritm implementerats. Algoritmen hittar skattningar som följer en förväntad trend mellan sotningarna. Tester visar att algoritmen hittar troliga resonansfrekvenser i skattningarna men att det är svårt att kunna dra några slutsatser om skattningarna varierar för mycket. Bättre signaler skulle kunna minska variationerna hos skattningarna. Ett förslag presenteras hur MUSIC eller ESPRIT tillsammans med en målföljningsalgoritm skulle kunna användas för att beräkna masspåslag på överhettartuberna.</p> / <p>Combustion in thermal power plants emits particles which create coatings on the super heater tubes. The coatings insulate the tubes and impairs the efficiency of the heat transfer. Cleaning the tubes occurs while the power plant is running and a system that automatically calculates the amount of coatings could make the cleaning more needs-based. The resonance frequencies of the super heater tubes are affected by the added mass of the coatings. A change in frequency corresponds to a change in mass. Vibration measurements have been made with strain gauges on the super heater tubes in Ryaverket's power plant and in one of SAKAB's power plants. The purpose of this thesis work has been to analyse different methods to estimate resonance frequencies in the vibration measurements. ESPRIT, MUSIC, AR and a heuristic statistical method have been tested on generated signals. MUSIC and ESPRIT have given the best estimations and have thus been used to analyse the measurements. Periodically some estimations of measurements from Ryaverket are following trends which indicates that they could be resonance frequencies. The rest of the estimations contain too large variations. The estimations made of the measurements from SAKAB have been made during a shorter time period but shows clearer trends which make them probable resonance frequencies.To automatically trace resonance frequencies in the estimations, even though they contains large variations, a target tracking algorithm has been implemented. The algorithm finds estimations that follows expected trends between the cleaning periods. Tests shows that the target tracking algorithm finds probable resonance frequencies in the estimations but that it is hard to reach a conclusion if they contain large variations. Better measurements could give estimations with smaller variations.An idea is presented where MUSIC or ESPRIT together with a target tracking algorithm could be used to calculate the amount of coatings on the super heater tubes.</p>

<p>För att ett fordon ska kunna bromsa, accelerera och svänga är friktion mellan däcken och vägen ett måste. Vid för mycket gaspådrag under en acceleration kan det hända att hjulen förlorar fäste och börjar spinna loss, något som leder till både försämrad kontroll över fordonet och att däcken slits ut i förtid. Traction controlsystemet förhindrar hjulen från att spinna loss och försöker maximera friktionen.</p><p>Målet med detta examensarbete är att utvärdera olika reglerprinciper samt att undersöka olika möjligheter för att reglera friktionen mellan däck och väg. Det är ett svårt reglerproblem, dels på grund av dess olinjäritet, dels på grund av det faktum att friktionen är en okänd parameter.</p><p>För att kunna undersöka olika reglermöjligheter har en modell över hjuldynamiken och en modell över drivlinan tagits fram i Matlabs simuleringsprogram Simulink. Därutöver har tre regulatorer designats: en fuzzy-regulator, en fuzzy-P-regulator och en PI-regulator. Regulatorerna utvärderades i tre tester som bland annat testade deras robusthet.</p><p>Fuzzy-regulatorn och fuzzy-P-regulatorn lyckades reglera systemet bra. PI-regulatorn gjorde däremot inte ett tillfredsställande jobb, mest på grund av dess behov av ett börvärde.</p> / <p>Traction is necessary for a vehicle to be able to brake, accelerate and turn. When pushing the accelerator pedal too hard during an acceleration, the wheel can loose traction and start spinning, which leads to a worsen vehicle control and also wears out the tyres faster. The traction control system prevents the wheels from spinning and tries to make the tyres maintain maximum traction.</p><p>The purpose of this master’s thesis is to evaluate different control methods and to investigate possible ways to control the traction. This is a difficult control problem due to its nonlinearity and the fact that the friction is an unknown parameter.</p><p>For the investigation, a model of the wheel dynamics and a model of the powertrain have been developed in Matlab’s simulation program Simulink. Furthermore, three different controllers have been designed; a fuzzy controller, a fuzzy-P controller and a PI controller. The controllers were evaluated in three test cycles that among others tested their robustness.</p><p>The fuzzy controller and the fuzzy-P controller managed to control the system very well. The PI controller, however, did not work satisfactory, mainly because of its need of a desired value.</p>