Textured surfaces are universally adopted in the steel sheet production industry, and manufacturers are continuously improving the quality of the finished products through intense research in the surface characterisation field. Deterministic Surfaces are textured with specifically designed rolls in order to present a certain degree of regularity, which allows better control over the functional behaviour of the metal sheets. The regularity of the texture impressed on the steel sheets also allows unconventional approaches to surface characterisation and to the assessment of the texture's structure. Statistical analysis is the most effective way to target the isolation of the deterministic part of the surface, which represents the desired product, from the stochastic part, called ‘noise’ and associated with the inaccuracies of production and measurement. This work addresses the problem of characterisation of deterministic textures through statistical analysis, proposing innovative filtering techniques aimed at the realisation of an On-line Process Control System. Firstly the techniques proposed are theoretically formulated and studied, addressing in particular the physical meaning of the geometrical parameters extracted through statistical analysis of highly correlated portions of the textures. A method for isolating the deterministic textures present on a surface, called the Statistical Surface Filter, is presented and discussed in detail, and tested on existing laboratory samples. Secondly the filter is applied to preliminary measurements acquired by an innovative on-line measurement system currently under development, and evidence is shown that the technique is effective in separating the information regarding the regular patterns from the stochastic noise. The possible applications to on-line Statistical Process Control are discussed. Thirdly, the Statistical Surface Filter is tested on a set of measurements representing texturing rolls and textured sheets with different characteristics; statistical analysis of the surface parameters extracted from the filtered surfaces show that the technique allows the assessment of the different contributions of the various stages of the texturing process to the final product. Finally, a software package is implemented for the practical application of the filtering techniques and the parameters extraction; the algorithms that perform the statistical filtering are described and discussed, concluding with the operations of optimisation and fine-tuning for production-line implementation.

The general production control practices of the shoe industry are basically similar to the production planning of other small businesses in the consumer field. This study will reduce to concrete form the types of production control used by the shoe industry of Texas.

This paper describes a procedure to find the transfer function for the Lego Mindstorms Ev3. Lego Mindstorms Ev3 can serve as the platform for a system modeling and a controller design course. It is economical and accessible. It is also very compatible with Matlab and Simulink. This platform can be used for concepts of modeling, feedback, and controller design. The main approach in this work focuses on the closed loop instead of open loop. Although this approach turns the problem into a more complicated puzzle, it reveals more details. In this work, different techniques have been used, such as time domain, root locus, and least square estimation. Different tools have also been utilized such as Matlab SISO tool, the Matlab System Identification tool, and Simulink. These methods and implementations assisted to acquire different types of transfer functions for the system. By simulating the transfer functions and comparing them with experimental studies, the matching scores were calculated to decide on the best transfer function. Finding the finest transfer function for this gadget enables us to prepare diverse practical undergraduate and graduate curricula.

Este estudo investiga, sob a ótica da teoria da contingência, os efeitos dos fatores contingenciais sobre o perfil do sistema de controle gerencial (SCG) das empresas brasileiras tendo como objetivo compreender as características do SCG, em função dos fatores contingenciais. São examinados os efeitos diretos e interativos dos fatores contingenciais internos estratégia, estrutura, tecnologia da informação e estágio do ciclo de vida organizacional e do ambiente no perfil do SCG. Avalia-se também o efeito do SCG no desempenho organizacional. Esta pesquisa defende a tese de que os fatores contingenciais internos e externos influenciam o perfil do SCG que possui associação com o desempenho, sendo possível estabelecer arranjos (fit) entre fatores contingenciais, características do SCG e desempenho organizacional. As hipóteses relativas aos efeitos dos fatores contingenciais no SCG preveem que o ambiente, fator contingencial externo, possui associação com os fatores contingenciais internos i) estratégia, ii) estrutura, iii) estágio do CVO e iv) tecnologia da informação; que o ambiente e os fatores contingenciais internos possuem associação com o perfil do SCG e que o SCG possui associação com o desempenho. A amostra envolveu 120 empresas brasileiras de grande porte e os dados para obtenção de informações sobre as mesmas foram coletados através de uma survey (levantamento). Para o tratamento dos dados, foram utilizadas as técnicas estatísticas de análise fatorial, análise de clusters e modelagem de equações estruturais. Os resultados indicaram que quando analisadas em um único grupo de empresas, não foi possível identificar associação entre os fatores contingenciais e o SCG e deste com o desempenho organizacional, rejeitando-se as hipóteses estabelecidas. Entretanto, ao separar as empresas em dois grupos distintos, i) indústria e ii) comércio e serviços, a hipótese de associação entre o fator contingencial ambiente e o SCG foi aceita. Também foram aceitas as hipóteses de: i) associação do ambiente com os fatores contingenciais internos da organização, ii) de associação dos fatores contingenciais internos com o SCG e, finalmente, iii) do SCG com o desempenho organizacional. A validação das hipóteses da pesquisa indica que a escolha e a utilização dos artefatos do SCG sofrem influência dos fatores contingenciais vivenciados pela empresa. Os resultados da pesquisa estão sujeitos a algumas limitações: i) as respostas refletem a percepção dos profissionais de controladoria das empresas, ii) a amostra não é probabilística e, portanto, todas as inferências não podem ser generalizadas para a população. Entretanto, considerando o atual estágio da pesquisa em contabilidade gerencial no Brasil, a pesquisa fornece uma visão importante de um grupo de empresas classificadas entre as maiores do País. Esta análise pode ser o ponto de partida para futuras pesquisas que utilizem a teoria da contingência. / This study investigates, from the perspective of contingency theory, the effects of contingency factors on the profile of the management control system (SCG) of Brazilian companies. The study examines the direct and interactive effects of internal contingency factors - strategy, structure, information technology and stage of organizational life cycle - and the environment in the profile of the SCG. It also evaluates the effect of SCG on organizational performance. This research supports the view that the contingent factors internal and external influence the profile of the SCG that has membership to the performance, it is possible to make arrangements (fit) between contingency factors, characteristics of the SCG and organizational performance. The assumptions of the effects of contingency factors in the SCG predict that the environment, external contingency factor, has association with membership to the internal contingency factors i) strategy, ii) structure, iii) stage of the CVO and iv) information technology, the environment and the internal contingency factors are associated with the profile of the SCG and the SCG has association with the performance. The sample involved 120 Brazilian companies large and the data to obtain information about them was collected through a survey (survey). For the treatment of data, we used the statistical techniques of factor analysis, cluster analysis and structural equation modeling. The results showed that when analyzed in a single group of companies, we could not identify an association between contingency factors and the SCG and this organizational performance, rejecting the hypotheses. However, the separate companies in two distinct groups: i) industry and ii) trade and services, the hypothesis of association between the environment and contingency factor SCG was accepted. We also accept the following hypotheses: i) linking the environment with the contingency factors internal to the organization, ii) the association of contingency factors internal to the SCG and, finally, iii) the SCG with organizational performance. The validation of the hypotheses of research indicates that the choice and use of artifacts from the SCG are influenced by the contingent factors experienced by the company. The survey results are subject to some limitations: i) the responses reflect the perceptions of professionals controlling companies, ii) the sample is not probabilistic and, therefore, all inferences can not be generalized to the population. However, considering the current state of research in management accounting in Brazil, the study provides important insight into a group of companies ranked among the highest in Brazil. This analysis can be the starting point for future studies using the contingency theory.

Planning and controlling traffic for multiple drones in a system without intercommunication betweenthe drones is a daunting proposition. This paper presents a thesis work developing a multi-dronecontrol system capable of planning and executing missions in a 3-D aerial space. Generic 2-D pathplanning algorithms are extended into the 3-D space to handle multiple parts of the path planning,creating highways through a gridded area which is used as obstacles for other drones.Three path planning algorithm are compared with other each other wavefront, Astar and po-tential fields, scheduling is also documented to find the optimal drone amount that the system canhandle given an area of interest, this is done to see how often and for how long drones stand idle.Simulations and equations have been implemented to verify and compare results.

This paper considers the control of externally symmetric vector second order systems using an analytical upper bound method. The structural model is a cantilevered aluminum beam with a collocated pair of piezoceramic patches to serve as actuators and sensors. A computationally efficient method for approximating the H-infinity norm for externally symmetric systems is presented. The approximation method is then used to calculate a scalar output feedback controller to guarantee a closed-loop norm less than any user defined value. This method is tested with a finite-element representation of the beam, and then verified experimentally.

<p>In industrial control systems PID-control remains the prevalent strategy, also for processes that would benefit from model based control. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate whether model based control can be readily implemented in an industrial control system. To this end a simulated surge tank with a simulated industrial control system is studied. For evaluation two scenarios with specified objectives are selected.</p><p>Following a review of LQR and versions of MPC, Predictive Functional Control (PFC) is considered the most suitable for implementation. PFC is a form of MPC developed with industrial applications in mind and therefore has several advantages for implementation in an industrial control system. Controllers for the surge tank-system are developed and implemented in the control system.</p><p>Basic analysis of stability, sensitivity and robustness suggests that PFC has some advantages that might be important in a non-simulated implementation. Compared with PID-controllers adjusted for control performance, PFC does not show any notable improvements in performance.</p><p>In conclusion, it is possible to implement model based control in an industrial control system and with PFC the implementation is considered easy.</p>

<p>In organizations the permissions a member has is not decided by their person, but by their functions within the organization. This is also the approach taken within military command and control systems. Military operations are often characterized by frictions and uncontrollable factors. People being absent when needed are one such problem.</p><p>This thesis has examined how roles are handled in three Swedish command and control systems. The result is a model for handling vacant roles with the possibility, in some situations, to override ordinary rules.</p>

<p>In order to maximize operating time of an industrial machine and minimize stand-by time, service time and operating costs, a diagnostic system can be a useful tool. Diagnostic systems employ information already available in a machine’s control system (such as control signals, system state, sensor readings and so forth) to perform intelligent fault detection and localisation, and predict future faults and service needs.</p><p>CC Systems develops advanced electronics and control systems for industrial machines and vehicles operating in rough environments. One of their products is a diagnostic platform called Diagnostic Runtime Engine (DRE), supplying the customer with a tool for building a diagnostic system. The platform offers supervision of the control system. Actions are performed when it detects a possible fault or indication of a potential future fault. An action could be for example the creation of an alarm.</p><p>The DRE, as designed today, only works together with a control system running in an environment called CoDeSys. In this master thesis a new architecture of the platform is presented, with the objective to make the platform compatible with an arbitrary control system. A prototype is implemented to prove the concept of the suggested architecture model. A number of different standard diagnostic blocks, used for building the diagnostic system, are also suggested with the objective to make it easier for the user to employ the DRE. A proposition of how development with the diagnostic platform can proceed beyond this thesis is also presented.</p> / <p>För att maximera drifttid hos en industriell maskin och minimera driftskostnader samt standby- och service-tid, kan ett diagnostiksystem användas. Ett sådant system använder sig av information som redan finns tillgänglig i maskinens styrsystem (så som styrsignaler, tillstånd, sensorvärden och så vidare) för att utföra feldetektering och fellokalisering samt analys av möjliga framtida feltillstånd och servicebehov.</p><p>CC Systems utvecklar avancerade elektronikkomponenter och styrsystem för industriella maskiner och fordon. En av deras produkter är en diagnostikplattform, Diagnostic Runtime Engine (DRE), som erbjuder ett verktyg för att bygga upp ett diagnostiksystem. Plattformen möjliggör övervakning av styrsystemet, och detektion av ett nuvarande feltillstånd eller möjligt framtida feltillstånd leder till att en handling utförs. En handling kan till exempel vara att ett alarm skapas.</p><p>Diagnostikplattformen, som den är gjord idag, fungerar bara tillsammans med ett styrsystem som är implementerat i utvecklingsmiljön CoDeSys. I detta examensarbete presenteras en ny arkitektur på plattformen som möjliggör användande tillsammans med ett godtyckligt styrsystem. En prototyp är implementerad för att visa att den föreslagna arkitekturmodellen fungerar i praktiken. Dessutom är ett antal standard-diagnostikblock, som används då ett diagnostiksystem byggs upp, föreslagna. Standardblocken har till syfte att underlätta användandet av diagnostikplattformen. Ett förslag för hur DRE kan byggas om och utvecklas i framtiden är också presenterat.</p>

The objective of this research is to demonstrate experimentally the feasibility of using the Internet for a Distributed Control System (DCS). An algorithm has been designed and implemented to ensure stability of the system in the presence of upper bounded time-varying delays. A single actuator magnetic ball levitation system has been used as a test bed to validate the proposed algorithm. Experiments were performed to obtain the round-trip time delay between the host PC and the client PC under varying network loads and at different times. A digital real-time lead-lag controller was implemented for the magnetic levitation system. Upper bounds for the artificial and experimental round-trip time delay that can be accommodated in the control loop for the maglev system were estimated. The artificial time delay was based on various probabilistic distributions and was generated through MATLAB. To accommodate sporadic surges in time delays that are more than these upper bounds, a timeout algorithm with sensor data prediction was developed. Experiments were performed to validate the satisfactory performance of this algorithm in the presence of the bonded sporadic excessive time delays.