Traditional quality control charts are designed to monitor and control a quality characteristic for processes with a stable in-control state in which enough data is available to estimate the process parameters prior to a production run. For many processes we desire the ability to monitor a quality characteristic that has an in-control state not stable such as a degradation or deterioration process that exhibits a linear trend as its in-control state. In addition, there are many times when sufficient sampling for in-control parameter estimation is not possible before the production run due to cost or collection time. We therefore desire a self-starting charting scheme that monitors both in-control and out of control linear trends. We present here the needed results so that a process with the in-control linear trend can be charted to detect slope and intercept shifts, when accurate information on in-control parameters is not available. We propose a Q chart scheme, a EWMA Q chart, and a EWMA Q chart with delay parameter d that utilizes results from statistical process control and linear regression. The developed control chart schemes are tested through simulation studies and applied to real data examples.

In step with development of advanced, cost effective semiconductors and electrical motor drive components, the Switched Reluctance Machine (SRM) has become the center of public attention. Interest in a single-phase SRM has arisen in many places, especially because of its low cost applications. However, some drawbacks have plagued single-phase SRM: the lack of self-starting capability and restricted operation conditions. This thesis presents a four-quadrant operation SRM drive system with a single controllable switch for two phase configuration. The SRM's configuration has four main stator poles, four rotor poles, and four auxiliary stator poles. Because of this special arrangement, a four-quadrant operation with a given power converter topology and proposed control algorithms has been realized. The focus of the paper is to realize a four-quadrant operation with a single-switch converter based SRM. In addition, this research resulted in a new self-starting scheme without adding permanent magnets. Simulation results and experimental results utilizing the control algorithm verify the performance of the system. / Master of Science