Elite springboard divers typically make very precise and reproducible movements when they perform the same dive many times. However, variability is always present in both technique and outcome. While it is desirable to have low outcome variability this may necessitate real-time adjustments which result in increased technique variability from trial to trial. The aim of the present research was to determine whether feedback control adjustment is used during (a) the hurdle takeoff, (b) the dive takeoff, and (c) the dive flight phase. 15 forward pike dives and 15 forward 21⁄2 somersault pike dives, performed by an international diver, were video recorded at 250 Hz and manually digitised followed by DLT reconstruction of joint centre locations. Orientation angle and joint angles were calculated and fitted with quintic splines to give angular velocities. Foot placements, mass centre location and velocity were determined along with angular momentum about the mass centre. In the hurdle takeoff no adjustment was made to reduce the variability in the foot location at hurdle landing. In the dive takeoff phase an angle-driven simulation model was used to determine the expected variation in mass centre velocity and angular momentum at the instant of takeoff arising from the variation in velocity and angular momentum at touchdown. The simulated variation at the instant of takeoff was greater than the variation in the recorded performances indicating that some adjustment had been made during the takeoff phase. In the flight phase an angle-driven simulation model was used to determine the expected variation in orientation angle at water entry arising from the variation in velocity and angular momentum at takeoff. The variation in the orientation angle at entry obtained from the simulations was greater than the variability in the actual performances, indicating that the diver had used feedback control adjustments in the flight phase to reduce his performance outcome variability. The variation in the angular momentum at takeoff was reflected in the average hip angle in flight, indicating that the hip angle was adjusted to be larger to compensate when the initial angular momentum was greater. The use of feedback control adjustments found in this study demonstrated that variability has a functional role in human movement.

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xiv, 171 p. ; ill. (some col.) A print copy of this title is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / Biological molecular motors, which use chemical energy from ATP hydrolysis to generate mechanical force, are involved in a variety of important mechanical processes in eukaryotic cells, such as intracellular transport, cell division and muscle contraction. These motors, which produce motion on the nanoscale, operate in the presence of substantial thermal noise. In this dissertation, two approaches are used to model the physics of nanoscale motors: (1) A theoretically established type of Brownian motor called the "flashing ratchet" is studied. This motor transports diffusive particles in a preferred direction. (2) A coarse-grained mechanical model for the biological molecular motor myosin-V is developed, and used to study the role of Brownian diffusion, and the interaction between chemical and mechanical degrees of freedom, in the transport mechanism of this motor. In chapter III, Brownian dynamics simulations and analytical calculations demonstrate that the average velocity of rigid chains of particles in a flashing ratchet reverses direction in response to changing the size of the chain or the temperature of the heat bath. Recent studies have introduced policies for "closed-loop" control of a flashing ratchet, in which the system is controlled based on information about its internal state (such as the positional distribution of particles). In chapter IV, the effect of time delay on the implementation of closed-loop control of a flashing ratchet is investigated. For a large ensemble, a well-chosen delay time improves the ratchet performance (increasing the velocity) by synchronizing into a quasi-stable mode that takes advantage of the semi-deterministic nature of the time development of average quantities for a large ensemble. I n chapter V, a coarse-grained mechanical model is presented for the transport mechanism of myosin-V, which walks along intracellular filaments. The model is well constrained by experimental data on the mechanical properties of myosin V and on the kinetic cycle. An experimentally motivated model for the intramolecular coordination of the motor's steps is proposed and tested. / Adviser: Heiner Linke

M.Ing. / Fuzzy controllers are increasingly being accepted by engineers and scientists alike as a viable alternative for classical controllers. The processes involved in fuzzy controllers closely imitate human control processes. Human responses to stimuli are not governed by transfer functions and neither are those from fuzzy controllers. The fuzzy approach is of course not the answer to all problems, but it can clearly be very successful, and can also be helpful to anyone involved in developing control systems. This study however is devoted to the environmental control task within greenhouses and the fuzzy approach is proposed in order to fulfil this task. To create near optimal conditions within a greenhouse for plant growth two environmental factors are proposed to be controlled namely the temperature and relative humidity. These factors are interdependent and they make the environmental control within a greenhouse a multi-variable control problem. Furthermore, the non-linear physical phenomena governing the dynamics of temperature and relative humidity in such a process makes it very difficult to model and to control using traditional techniques. Thus, it can be said that the environmental control in greenhouses is an art, that only expert growers bring to near perfection. The central theme of this study is the development of a multi-input-single-output heuristic rule-based fuzzy logic control algorithm, for environmental control within a greenhouse. This study is intended to improve existing environmental control systems by implementing this control technique. The control algorithm is tested in an experimental greenhouse and the results obtained indicate that fuzzy logic control is viable for environmental control within greenhouses.

The first experimental demonstration of feedback suppression of rotating external kink modes near the ideal wall limit in a tokamak using Kalman filtering to discriminate the n = 1 kink mode from background noise is reported. In order to achieve the highest plasma pressure limits in tokamak fusion experiments, feedback stabilization of long-wavelength, external instabilities will be required, and feedback algorithms will need to distinguish the unstable mode from noise due to other magnetohydrodynamic activity. When noise is present in measurements of a system, a Kalman filter can be used to compare the measurements with an internal model, producing a realtime, optimal estimate for the system's state. For the work described here, the Kalman filter contains an internal model that captures the dynamics of a rotating, growing instability and produces an estimate for the instability's amplitude and spatial phase. On the High Beta Tokamak-Extended Pulse (HBT-EP) experiment, the Kalman filter algorithm is implemented using a set of digital, field-programmable gate array controllers with 10 microsecond latencies. The feedback system with the Kalman filter is able to suppress the external kink mode over a broad range of spatial phase angles between the sensed mode and applied control field, and performance is robust at noise levels that render feedback with a classical, proportional gain algorithm ineffective. Scans of filter parameters show good agreement between simulation and experiment, and feedback suppression and excitation of the kink mode are enhanced in experiments when a filter made using optimal parameters from the experimental scans is used.

<div>In the 1970's, Arthur Ashkin developed a remarkable system called the ``optical tweezer'' which utilizes the radiation pressure of light to manipulate particles. Because of its non-invasive nature and controllability, optical tweezers have been widely adopted in biology, chemistry and physics. In this dissertation, two applications related to optical tweezers will be discussed. The first application is about the demonstration of multiple feedback controlled optical tweezers which let us conduct novel experiments which have not been performed before. For the second application, levitation of a silica nanodumbbell and cooling its motion in five degrees of freedom is executed.</div><div><br></div><div>To be more specific, the first chapter of the thesis focuses on an experiment using the feedback controlled optical tweezers in water. A well-known thought experiment called ``Feynman's ratchet and pawl'' is experimentally demonstrated. Feynman’s ratchet is a microscopic heat engine which can rectify the random thermal fluctuation of molecules to harness useful work. After Feynman proposed this system in the 1960’s, it has drawn a lot of interest. In this dissertation, we demonstrate a solvable model of Feynman’s ratchet using a silica nanoparticle inside a feedback controlled one dimensional optical trap. The idea and techniques to realize two separate thermal reservoirs and to keep them in contact with the ratchet is discussed in detail. Also, both experiment and simulation about the characteristics of our system as a heat engine are fully explored.</div><div><br></div><div>In the latter part of the dissertation, trapping silica nanodumbbell in vacuum and cooling its motion in five degrees of freedom is discussed. A levitated nanoparticle in vacuum is an extraordinary optomechanical system with an exceptionally high mechanical quality factor. Therefore, levitated particles are often utilized as a sensor in various research. Different from a levitated single nanosphere, which is only sensitive to force, a levitated nanodumbbell is sensitive to both force and torque. This is due to the asymmetry of the particle resulting it to have three rotational degrees of freedoms as well as three translational degrees of freedoms. In this dissertation, creating and levitating a silica nanodumbbell will be demonstrated. Active feedback cooling also known as cold damping will be employed to stabilize and cool the two torsional degrees of freedom of the particle along with the three center of mass DOF in vacuum. Additionally, both computational and experimental analysis is conducted on a levitated nanodumbbell which we call rotation-coupled torsional motion. The complex torsional motion can be fully explained with the effects of both thermal nonlinearity and rotational coupling. The new findings and knowledge of a levitated non-spherical particles leads us one step further towards levitated optomechanics with more complex particles.</div>

Temperature control in friction stir welding (FSW) is of interest because of the potential to improve the mechanical and microstructure characteristics of a weld. Two types of active temperature control have been previously implemented for steady-state friction stir welding conditions: PID Feedback Control and Model Predictive Control. The start-up portion of a weld is an obstacle for these types of active control.To date, only minimal exploratory research has been done to develop an active temperature controller for the start-up portion of the weld. The FSW temperature controller presented in this thesis, a Position-Velocity-Acceleration (PVA) controller implemented with gain-scheduling, is capable of active control during the start-up portion of a weld. The objectives of the controller are (1) to facilitate fully-automated active temperature control during the entire welding process, (2) to minimize the rise time, the settling time, the percentage maximum post-rise error (overshoot calculated as a percentage of the settling band half-width), and the post-settled root-mean-square (RMS) of the temperature error, and (3) to maintain the steady state performance of previous control methods.For welds performed in 6.35 mm plates of 7075-T651 Aluminum with controller gains identified through a manual tuning process, the mean controller performance is a rise time of 10.82 seconds, a settling time of 11.35 seconds, a percentage maximum post-rise error of 69.86% (as a percentage of the 3◦C settling band half-width), and a post-settled RMS error of 0.92◦C.Tuning of the start-up controller for operator-specified behavior can be guided through construction of regression models of the weld settling time, rise time, percent maximum post-rise error, and post-settled RMS error. Characterization of the tuning design space is performed through regression modeling. The effects of the primary controller tuning parameters and their interactions are included. With the exception of the post-settled RMS error model, these models are inadequate to provide useful guidance of the controller tuning, as significant curvature is present in the design space. Exploration of higher-order models is performed and suggests that regression models including quadratic terms can adequately characterize the design space to guide controller tuning for operator-specified behavior.

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Thesis (Nucl.E)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Nuclear Engineering, 1980. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND SCIENCE. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Abdelhamid Chenini. / Nucl.E

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