Multi-objective reconfigurable production line scheduling for smart home appliances

In a typical discrete manufacturing process,a new type of reconfigurable production line is introduced,which aims to help small-and mid-size enterprises to improve machine utilization and reduce production cost.In order to effectively handle the production scheduling problem for the manufacturing system,an improved multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm based on Brownian motion(MOPSO-BM)is proposed.Since the existing MOPSO algorithms are easily stuck in the local optimum,the global search ability of the proposed method is enhanced based on the random motion mechanism of the BM.To further strengthen the global search capacity,a strategy of fitting the inertia weight with the piecewise Gaussian cumulative distribution function(GCDF)is included,which helps to maintain an excellent convergence rate of the algorithm.Based on the commonly used indicators generational distance(GD)and hypervolume(HV),we compare the MOPSO-BM with several other latest algorithms on the benchmark functions,and it shows a better overall performance.Furthermore,for a real reconfigurable production line of smart home appliances,three algorithms,namely non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II(NSGA-II),decomposition-based MOPSO(dMOPSO)and MOPSO-BM,are applied to tackle the scheduling problem.It is demonstrated that MOPSO-BM outperforms the others in terms of convergence rate and quality of solutions.

Smart Object Detection and Home Appliances Control System in Smart Cities

During the last decade the emergence of Internet of Things(IoT)based applications inspired the world by providing state of the art solutions to many common problems.From traffic management systems to urban cities planning and development,IoT based home monitoring systems,and many other smart applications.Regardless of these facilities,most of these IoT based solutions are data driven and results in small accuracy values for smaller datasets.In order to address this problem,this paper presents deep learning based hybrid approach for the development of an IoT-based intelligent home security and appliance control system in the smart cities.This hybrid model consists of;convolution neural network and binary long short term model for the object detection to ensure safety of the homes while IoT based hardware components like;Raspberry Pi,Amazon Web services cloud,and GSM modems for remotely accessing and controlling of the home appliances.An android application is developed and deployed on Amazon Web Services(AWS)cloud for the remote monitoring of home appliances.A GSM device and Message queuing telemetry transport(MQTT)are integrated for communicating with the connected IoT devices to ensure the online and offline communication.For object detection purposes a camera is connected to Raspberry Pi using the proposed hybrid neural network model.The applicability of the proposed model is tested by calculating results for the object at varying distance from the camera and for different intensity levels of the light.Besides many applications the proposed model promises for providing optimum results for the small amount of data and results in high recognition rates of 95.34%compared to the conventional recognition model(k nearest neighbours)recognition rate of 76%.

Environmental Information Statement for Home Appliances at Online Stores in Japan

This study aims to identify the current situation and problems of environmental information statement for major four home appliances （refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners and television receivers） sold at online stores in Japan, and then to suggest how to improve the situation, through a questionnaire survey conducted among businesses that operate online stores and online malls with multiple online stores. The findings of this study are summarized into the following two points： （l） It is found out that environmental information statement for the home appliances at online stores has four problems： （i） less information on ＂three Rs （reduce, reuse and recycle）＂ and ＂chemical substances＂ than the one on ＂energy conservation＂; （ii） cost for providing environmental information statement; （iii） issues associated with a label and mark placement; （iv） issues associated with energy conservation statement. （2） Improvements are suggested for each of the four problems listed above, and shown are （i） the effectiveness of, and need to promote, a label and mark placement; （ii） cost burden on buyers; （iii） need of active efforts made by businesses and of dissemination of legal regulations to businesses.

Galanz: A World Leading Manufacturer of Home Appliances

When multinational appliance magnates were busy moving their production bases to China two year ago, Galanz had begun their“specialization , dimension and intensivism” construction, and scored a first in building super-bases of microwave ovens, air-conditioners , deluxe rice cookers and deluxe electric fans in the world.

A Survey of China's Home Appliance Market

As urban consumers in China shifted their interest towards many other commodities in recent years, purchasing power declined in the home appliance market. However, with a new tax code and the dual-track rate of exchange system unified, sales began to over pickup the last six months. The total sales volume of refrigerators in last December increased 2.3 times compared to the corresponding period of the previous year. Video recorder sales increased by 85.8 percent, TV sets by 82.1 percent and

New LNK302 Addresses Lower Power Home Appliance and Industrial Applications

SAN JOSE,Calif.-September 9,2004-Power Integrations,Inc.(NASDAQ:POWI),the leading supplier of high-voltageanalog integrated circuits used in power conversion, todayintroduced LNK302,a new member of the company'sLinkSwitch-TN family of AC- DC power conversion ICs.Designed as a cost-effective replacement for bulky,energy-wasting capacitive droppers and linear transformers,the LinkSwitch-TN family is ideal for use in home applianceand industrial control applications.The addition of

Comparative Study on the E-waste Recycling Systems in Japan and China

This study aims to identify processes, current situations and issues of recycling systems for four home appliances, namely, air conditioners, television receivers, refrigerators, and washing machines, among e-wastes in China and Japan for understanding and comparison of their characteristics. In accordance with results of a literature search, review of information disclosed online, and questionnaire survey conducted, the findings of this study are summarized in the following two points： （1） The results show that in Japan most of the home appliances mentioned above have been collected through home appliance recycling tickets, resulting in an issue of ＂requiring some effort＂ in treatment and recycling stages, and most plants have contracted out their e-waste recycling; （2） It is found out that advantages of the recycling system in Japan include easiness to monitor concrete data and thorough environmental friendliness ensured while its disadvantages include illegal dumping and export. It becomes apparent that advantages of the recycling system in China include a high reuse rate, low treatment cost, and fewer illegal dumping while its disadvantages include less safe reused products, environmental pollution caused by e-waste treatment, illegal import and difficulty in obtaining data.

Targeting Arab Markets:Is Cultural Context Irrelevant to Marketing in Libya?

Marketing experts have debated for more than two decades about the effect of nationality and culture on marketing.However,most research on this issue was conducted in Western countries.An important question for marketers in the international arena,therefore,is whether the consumer’s responses(i.e.,sentiment and behavioural aspects)toward the global marketing programs in developing countries depend on culture.In a research representing a large sample of consumers and four different home appliances country-of-origin global operators in Libya,we explore the potential role of culture on consumers’responses toward foreign marketing programs.Results indicate that although the foreign companies have a tendency to adopted standardisation perspective,this does not impact on consumers’responses in a single cultural context toward marketing.The findings reveal that buying behavior was more a function of individual difference than of national cultural context.Further,our results suggest that for mainstream home appliances,segmenting on the basis of nationality is probably unnecessary and that a standardized approach would likely be successful across an increasingly relevant Arab world;and that continuing perceptions of Arab insularity are likely to be misplaced.Faced with the effectiveness of globally efficient marketing programs,local manufacturers would need to work hard to identify particular niche segments where a culturally-specific appeal might be more successful.

Hybrid-integer algorithm for a multi-objective optimal home energy management system

Most of the energy produced in the world is consumed by commercial and residential buildings.With the growth in the global economy and world demographics,this energy demand has become increasingly important.This has led to higher unit electricity prices,frequent stresses on the main electricity grid and carbon emissions due to inefficient energy management.This paper presents an energy-consumption management system based on time-shifting of loads according to the dynamic day-ahead electricity pricing.This simultaneously reduces the electricity bill and the peaks,while maintaining user comfort in terms of the operating waiting time of appliances.The proposed optimization problem is formulated mathematically in terms of multi-objective integer non-linear programming,which involves constraints and consumer preferences.For optimal scheduling,the management problem is solved using the hybridization of the particle swarm optimization algorithm and the branch-and-bound algorithm.Two techniques are proposed to manage the trade-off between the conflicting objectives.The first technique is the Pareto-optimal solutions classification using supervised learning methods.The second technique is called the lexicographic method.The simulations were performed based on residential building energy consumption,time-of-use pricing(TOU)and critical peak pricing(CPP).The algorithms were implemented in Python.The results of the current work show that the proposed approach is effective and can reduce the electricity bill and the peak-to-average ratio(PAR)by 28% and 49.32%,respectively,for the TOU tariff rate,and 48.91% and 47.87% for the CPP tariff rate by taking into account the consumer’s comfort level.

Survey of Residential Air Conditioning Electricity Consumption in Shanghai

With proliferation of electric appliances, residential electricity consumption, in particular the air conditioning load becomes more and more important and shares higher and higher percentage in total consumption in large cities like Shanghai. The paper reports in detail the survey on characteristics of residential electric consumption, in particular the air conditioning consumption. To optimize power system operation and expand power market, the paper concludes that power industry must learn to investigate, open up and adapt itself to power market economy.

Home Appliance Kingdom

With 900 chain stores and three retail brands, Gome, China’s largest home appliance retail group, is pursuing grandiose dreams of becoming a home appliance kingdomOn November 22, 2006, Chinese home appliance retail heavyweights Beijing-based Gome

Tackling global electricity shortage through human power： Technical opportunities from direct or indirect utilizations of the pervasive and green human energy

With the energy and environmental problems becoming increasingly serious, human power, as a pervasive, renewable, mobile and environment friendly energy, draws more and more attention over the world. In this paper, the most basic features of human power are presented. The currently available human power harvesting theories and devices are briefly reviewed and compared. Further, direct or indirect utilization of human power in daily life, especially transportation and home appliances, such as human-powered car, watercraft, air- craft, washing machine and television etc. are summarized. Considering that the total energy from an individual is rather limited, as previously focused by most of the former works, it is conceived in this paper that an important future for large scale use of human powers lies in the efficient conversion, collection and storage of such energy from discrete people and then use it later on as desired. With the huge amount of energy gathered, the application category of human power would be significantly expended. Starting from this point, three technical ways towards efficiently utilizing human power are sketched, which are termed as human-powered grid （HPG）, human-powered charger （HPC） and human-powered storage （HPS）, among which, HPG is capable of collecting the electric power produced by each individual at different regions and thus can supply unique and flexible power to the customers covered in the area, without relying on the conventional electricity grid. The HPC can then charge various kinds of electrical devices instantly by a human driven generator which converts human power into electricity. Finally, the HPS can store electricity in time for later use. In this way, even for the devices requiring electricity that is strong enough, the collected human power can also serve as its reliable energy source. Meanwhile, utilization of human power becomes rather convenient and timely which guarantees its practical value. It is expected that with further research and increasing applications, human power could partially relieve the current global electricity shortage and environmental issues via its pervasive contribution.