A Laser Line Scanner Based Hole Position Correction Mechanism for Automatic Drilling and Riveting in Aircraft Assembly

The low-stiffness of aircraft skins may results in the differences between aircraft actual parts and their theoretical models,which will consequently affect the accuracy of automatic drilling and riveting in aircraft assembly.In this paper,a novel approach of hole position correction using laser line scanner(LLS)is proposed to assign a single row of holes on the parts’surfaces.First,we adopt a space circle fitting method and the random sample consensus(RANSAC)to obtain the precise coordinates of center of the datum holes’coordinates.Second,LLS is calibrated by the laser tracker,and the relations between the LLS coordinate system and the tool coordinate system(TCS)can be calculated.Third,the kinematics model of the automatic riveting machine is established based on a two-point referencing strategy proposed in this paper.Thus,the positions of the holes to be drilled can be adjusted.Finally,the experimental results show that in TCS the measurement error of LLS is less than 0.1 mm,and the correction error of the hole position is less than 0.5 mm,which demonstrates the reliability of our method.

Kinematics and Path Following Control of an Articulated Drum Roller

Automatic navigation of an articulated drum roller, which is an articulated steering type vehicle widely used in the construction industry, is highly expected for operation cost reduction and improvement of work effi- ciency. In order to achieve the path following control, considering that its steering system is articulated steering and two frames are articulated by an active revolute joint, a kinematic model and an error dynamic state-space equation of an articulated drum roller are proposed. Besides, a state- feedback control law based on Lyapunov stability theory is also designed, which can be proved to achieve the purpose of control by the analysis of stability. What＇s more, to evaluate the performance of the proposed method, simu- lation under the MATLAB/Simulink and experiments using positioning algorithm and errors correction at the uneven construction site are performed, with initial dis- placement error （-1.5 m）, heading error （-0.11 tad） and steering angle （-0.19 rad）. Finally, simulation and exper- imental results show that the errors and steering angle can decrease gradually, and converge to zero with time. Meanwhile, the control input is not saturated. An articu- lated drum roller can lock into a desired path with the proposed method in uneven fields.

Can a Michelson-Morley Experiment Designed with Current Solar Velocity Distinguish between Non-Relativistic and Relativistic Theories?

If Michelson were to answer the question posed in the title, given the line of reasoning he used in 1881, Michelson would seat at his desktop computer to calculate the expected fringeshifts for several solar speeds around 400 km/s and various directions of motion. Present author did exactly the same in 2001 to plan his repetition of Michelson and Morley’s (MM) 1887 experiment. The paper sketchedly summarizes the procedure to calculate expected fringeshifts in the MM interferometer for solar speeds available at Miller’s epoch. In a pre-relativistic context, amplitudes of several fringeshifts may be expected in both MM and Miller experiments. However, all interferometer experiments up to 1930 were designed under the (incorrect from a modern viewpoint) assumption that fringeshifts would be smaller than one fringe-width. The inescapable conclusion is that those experiments were not appropriate to measure the true value of solar motion, always yielding a small, but lower than expected, value for solar speed. The ensuing “negative” interpretation led to the birth of relativity theory and to a new series of experiments implicitly designed to test the relativistic hypothesis of length-contraction, while the earlier “positive” experiments were designed to test a different hypothesis: whether the motion of Earth relative to some preferred frame can be measured using an interferometer of constant dimensions. With the benefit of hindsight this writer repeated the MM experiment, correcting main weaknesses identified up to the Michelson-Morley-Miller (MMM) measurements at Mount Wilson from April 1925 to February 1926. A new possible reinterpretation of the MMM data as a sequence of stationary measurements is pointed out. Our Michelson-Morley-Miller-Munera (MMMM) experiment at Bogota (Colombia) from January 2003 to June 2005 gave values for solar absolute velocity in the same range as those obtained by astronomical means. Surprisingly, our results are compatible with modern third-party MM-type experiments designed and interpreted within relativistic contexts. Thus, a so far unexplored possibility arises: can interferometric experiments distinguish between pre-relativistic and relativistic theories? Our answer is negative.

Wireless positioning and path tracking for a mobile platform in greenhouse

In order to realize intelligent greenhouse,an automatic navigation method for a mobile platform based on ultra-wideband(UWB)positioning technology was proposed and validated in this study.The time difference of arrival(TDOA)approach was used to monitor and track the UWB positioning to obtain the localization information of the mobile platform working in a greenhouse.After applying polynomial fitting for positioning error correction,the system accuracy was within 5 mm.A fuzzy controller model was constructed by incorporating the lateral and heading deviations as input variables and the steering angle of front wheel as the output variable.A fuzzy rule was established based on domain knowledge,as well as the steering angle of front wheel offline query table,which was applied to alleviate the calculative load of the controller.Experimental results confirmed that the automatic navigation method proposed in this study performed satisfactorily,with a steady-state error ranging from 41 mm to 79 mm when tracking straight line,and an average error of 185 mm and an average maximum error of 532 mm when tracking polygon.In addition,the maximum error occurred at the polygonal corner which could meet the needs of driving on the narrow road in the greenhouse.The method proposed in this study provides a new systematic approach for the research of greenhouse automatic navigation.