It can be envisaged that future smart buildings are also more energy efficient and more environmentally friendly. Wind is a good source of clean energy and where there is plenty of it one is persuaded to think about taking advantage of this free energy for building energy saving. The idea is quite interesting for sustainable buildings of the future and steps towards net-zero emission, no matter if a building is residential, commercial, or industrial. This paper studies the practicality of the matter from various viewpoints. Without getting into details and discussion about wind energy and wind turbine engineering, some fundamental facts and expert calculations are utilized to conclude the results.. It is demonstrated that the idea is not practical, in general from a technical point of view, and often from an economical viewpoint.

Partitioning large high-speed globally synchronous ASICs into locally clocked blocks reduces clock skew problems and if handled correctly it also reduces the power consumption. However, to achieve these positive effects, the blocks need on-chip clock generators having properties such as small area and low power consumption. Therefore, a low power, high frequency, small area digitally controlled on-chip clock generator is designed and fabricated using a 0.35 /spl mu/m process. The clock generator delivers up to 1.15 GHz at 3.3 V supply voltage. At 1 V supply voltage, it delivers up to 92 MHz while consuming 0.16 mW.

Automation of a cutting process requires a system that is able to perform a planned cutting work irrespective of the interaction forces experienced during this process. For a robotic cutter the controller must adjust the applied force exerted on the material to be cut, while complying with unknown environment restrictions and disturbances. In this paper the problem of cutting a media by a blade is investigated. Based on a learning philosophy and position and velocity errors feedback an algorithm for the control of such a process is presented. An adaptive position controller and a switching logical velocity controller ensure the cutting operation is performed along a desired path with a desired velocity, while a learning control strategy is employed to adjust the required cutting force. The latter is a force learning algorithm which uses the force feedback. The effectiveness of the presented control system is demonstrated by simulation results.

The motion of the bucket in an LHD (load-haul-dump) loader and the required forces in the hydraulic cylinder, and the pushing force during a loading operation are studied. Based on the required force/torque load at the front edge of the bucket and its configuration (height and orientation angle), these forces can be determined by considering the loading mechanism as a slow manipulator (static loads) through the Jacobian matrix. The Jacobian of the manipulator was analytically found in terms of the physical dimensions and the measurable angles, considering the joint variables for manipulation, which can also be used for velocity relations, when necessary. It is pointed out that the results of this work combined with studies on rock mechanics can provide some means of automatic loading action for a system equipped with pressure sensors to monitor the forces of the actuators.>

The motion of a vehicle with automated guidance (an AGV or a wheeled mobile robot) equipped with two steerable traction wheels in the front and rear is studied. Compared with a conventional form of these vehicles, there is some degree of redundancy in their system of path tracking. If this redundancy is utilized appropriately, there are certain advantages over the conventional vehicles in terms of their performance in path tracking. A scheme for steering control of this class of vehicle is proposed. Simulation results demonstrate the good performance of a vehicle controlled according to the proposed scheme.>

The tracking problem of a wheeled mobile robot or an automated guided vehicle is considered. For the vehicles with a steering wheel, a control strategy is proposed to determine the steering angle at each instant based on measured errors, i.e. the offset from the path and the deviation in orientation. The results of computer simulation of the dynamics of the system and comparisons with other proposed control policies are presented. It is shown that by implementing the new policy significant improvement in tracking capability can be achieved.>

As a first step in control of two-arm robots, it is necessary to determine the kinematic relationships between the two end-effectors at any instant. The elements Of the orientation-position matrix of a dual (slave) arm are obtained in terms of those of the main (master) arm, so that the kinematic equations of each can be individually solved.