A Coordinate-Free Approach to the Design of Generalized Griffis-Duffy Platforms

Architectural singularity belongs to the Type II singularity,in which a parallel manipulator(PM)gains one or more degrees of freedom and becomes uncontrollable.PMs remaining permanently in a singularity are beneficial for linearto-rotary motion conversion.Griffis-Duffy(GD)platform is a mobile structure admitting a Bricard motion.In this paper,we present a coordinate-free approach to the design of generalized GD platforms,which consists in determining the shape and attachment of both the moving platform and the fixed base.The generalized GD platform is treated as a combination of six coaxial single-loop mechanisms under the same constraints.Owing to the inversion,hidden in the geometric structure of these single-loop mechanisms,the mapping from a line to a circle establishes the geometric transformation between the fixed base and the moving platform based on the center of inversion,and describes the shape and attachment of the generalized GD platform.Moreover,the center of inversion not only identifies the location of rotation axis,but also affects the shape of the platform mechanism.A graphical construction of generalized GD platforms using inversion,proposed in the paper,provides geometrically feasible solutions of the manipulator design for the requirement of the location of rotation axis.

Design Method for Optimizing the Interactive Interface of Live Broadcasting Platform for the Elderly Users

In the era of network live broadcasting for everyone,the development of live broadcasting platforms is also more intelligent and diversified.However,in the face of a large group of elderly users,the interface interaction design mode used is still mainly based on the interaction mode for young groups,and is not designed for elderly users.Therefore,a design method for optimizing the interaction interface of live broadcasting platform for elderly users was proposed in this study.Firstly,the case study method and Delphi expert survey method were used to determine the design needs of elderly users and the design mode was analysed.Secondly,the orthogonal design principle was used to design a test sample of the interactive interface of live broadcasting platform applicable for the elderly users,and then a user evaluation system was established to calculate the weights of the design elements using hierarchical analysis,and then the predictive relationship between the design mode of the interactive interface of live broadcasting platform and the elderly users was established by Quantitative Theory I.Finally,Genetic Algorithm was applied to generate the optimized design scheme.The results showed that the design method based on the Genetic Algorithm and the combination of Quantitative Theory can scientifically and effectively optimize the design of the interactive interface of the live broadcasting platform for the elderly users,and improve the experience of the elderly users.

A Win-Win Undergraduate Graduation Design Model for Students, Teachers, and Training Platforms

Undergraduate graduation design is an important link in the process of undergraduate training,and university platforms have invested a lot of manpower and material resources for this purpose.However,while carrying out student training,it has gradually become the consensus of most university platforms to achieve a win-win situation for teachers and training platforms in order to achieve optimization of resource allocation and motivation of student training.After discussion and practice,this paper proposes a set of undergraduate graduation design training concepts and training modes with a win-win situation for students,teachers,and training platforms.

A Collaborative Framework for Mould Design Based on Service-Oriented Architecture

Aiming at improving the traditional object-oriented three-layer architecture for collaborative design, a service-oriented framework for mould design is established by adding a Web service layer to decoupling the direct linking of user interface to functional modules,making the system being platform independent and programming language independent,greatly facilitating the reuse of existing software and hardware resources. .NET technology is adopted to implement the framework. An example scenario is introduced to demonstrate how the system works.

Optimal Design of Stewart Platform Safety Mechanism

A safety mechanism capable of moving at will within the range of its whole link lengths is designed based on the link space. Sixteen extreme poses are obtained in a Stewart platform. The singular points of the extreme poses are solved by using homotopy method as well as the judgment condition of singular points, and thereby the maximum link lengths are achieved. The rotation angles of joints and the distances between two neighboring links are analyzed in a calculation example in which that the mechanism moves among the extreme poses is assumed. Then an algorithm to test the safety mechanism is presented taking the constraint conditions into account. A safety mechanism having optimal properties of global movement is worked out by optimizing all structural parameters through minimizing the average condition number of extreme poses.

Concept Design,Modeling and Station-keeping Attitude Control of an Earth Observation Platform

The stratosphere airship provides a unique and promising platform for earth observation. Researches on the project design and control scheme for earth observation platforms are still rarely documented. Nonlinear dynamics, model uncertainties, and external disturbances contribute to the difficulty in maneuvering the stratosphere airship. A key technical challenge for the earth observation platform is station keeping, or the ability to remain fixed over a geo-location. This paper investigates the conceptual design, modeling and station-keeping attitude control of the near-space earth observation platform. A conceptual design of the earth observation platform is presented. The dynamics model of the platform is derived from the Newton-Euler formulation, and the station-keeping control system of the platform is formulated. The station-keeping attitude control approach for the platform is proposed. The multi-input multi-output nonlinear control system is decoupled into three single-input single-output linear subsystems via feedback linearization, the attitude controller design is carried out on the new linear systems using terminal sliding mode control, and the global stability of the closed-loop system is proven by using the Lyapunov theorem. The performance of the designed control system is simulated by using the variable step Runge-Kutta integrator. Simulation results show that the control system tracks the commanded attitude with an error of zero, which verify the effectiveness and robustness of the designed control system in the presence of parametric uncertainties. The near-space earth observation platform has several advantages over satellites, such as high resolution, fast to deploy, and convenient to retrieve, and the proposed control scheme provides an effective approach for station-keeping attitude control of the earth observation platform.

Design of A Bionic Spudcan and Analysis of Penetration and Extraction Performances for Jack-up Platform

The mechanisms of soil structure interaction have drawn much attention in the past years in the installation and operation of jack-up platform. A bionic spudcan produced by biomimetic of egg and snail shell is proposed, and the performance of the penetration and extraction are analyzed by numerical method. The geometric contour of egg and snail shell is measured, and its mathematical model is established respectively. According to the structure of existing spudcan of jack-up platform, three kinds of typical biomimetic spudcan are designed. Furthermore, numerical analysis models of biomimetic spudcan are established respectively to study the soil structure interaction mechanism in the process of penetration and extraction, and contrastive analysis of resistance characteristics are carried out. To conclude, the results show that the biomimetic spudcan facilitates the platform installation, and it is also beneficial to the improvement of the bearing capacity of spudcan.

Optimum Design of Jacket Platforms Considering Structure-Pile-Soil Interaction

This paper proposes an optimum design model for the offshore jacket platform considering multidesign criteria, multi-design constraints and the structure-pile-soil interaction, and gives an optimum design procedure in which the proposed optimum design model is used together with structural analysis software SAP91 and optimum algorithm software OPB1. The Chengbei (#)11 offshore platform, which lies in the Shengli oilfield, is designed by use of the above optimum design model. The results show that the optimum design model is stable, and it depends on neither the optimization algorithm nor initial values of design variables. All values of the objective function converge to the same minimum value, and the speed of convergence is high, showing that the proposed optimum design model is reasonable.

Parameter identification of inertially stabilized platforms using current command design

Accurate parameter identification is essential when designing controllers for inertially stabilized platforms （lSPs）. But traditional identification methods suffer from observation measurement noise and operating restrictions of ISPs. To address this issue, a novel identification method based on current command design and multilevel coordinate search （MCS） algorithm without any higher order measurement differentiations was proposed. The designed current commands were adopted to obtain parameter decoupled models with the platform operating under allowable conditions. MCS algorithm was employed to estimate the parameters based on parameter decoupled models. A comparison experiment between the proposed method and non-linear least square method was carried out and most of the relative errors of identified parameters obtained by the proposed method were below 10%. Simulation and experiment based on identified parameters were conducted. A velocity control structure was also developed with disturbance observer （DOB） for application in disturbance compensation control system of an ISR Experimental results show that the control scheme based on the identified parameters with DOB has the best disturbance rejection performance. It reduces the peak to peak value （PPV） of velocity error integral to 0.8 mrad which is much smaller than the value （10 mrad） obtained by the single velocity controller without DOB. Compared with the control scheme based on sweep model with DOB compensation, the proposed control scheme improves the PPV of velocity error integral by 1.625 times.

Optimal design and applicability of electric power steering system for automotive platform

The ongoing need for better fuel economy and lower exhaust pollution of vehicles has increased the employment of electric power steering(EPS)in automotives.Optimal design of EPS for a product family reduces the development and fabrication costs significantly.In this paper,the TOPSIS method along with the NSGA-Ⅱis employed to find an optimum family of EPS for an automotive platform.A multi-objective optimization problem is defined considering road feel,steering portability,RMS of Ackerman error,and product family penalty function(PFPF)as the conflicting objective functions.The results for the single objective optimization problems and the ones for the multi-objective optimization problem,as well as two suggested trade-off design points are presented,compared and discussed.For the two suggested points,performance at one objective function is deteriorated by about 1%,while the commonality is increased by 20%–40%,which shows the effectiveness of the proposed method in first finding the non-dominated design points and then selecting the trade-off among the obtained points.The results indicate that the obtained trade-off points have superior performance within the product family with maximum number of common parts.

Estimating Design Loads with Environmental Contour Approach Using Copulas for an Offshore Jacket Platform

Jacket-type offshore platforms are widely used for oil, gas field, and energy development in shallow water. The design of a jacket structure is highly dependent on target environmental variables. This study focuses on a strategy to estimate design loads for offshore jacket structures based on an environmental contour approach. In addition to the popular conditional distribution model, various classes of bivariate copulas are adopted to construct joint distributions of environmental variables. Analytical formulations of environmental contours based on various models are presented and discussed in this study. The design loads are examined by dynamic response analysis of jacket platform. Results suggest that the conditional model is not recommended for use in estimating design loads in sampling locations due to poor fitting results. Independent copula produces conservative design loads and the extreme response obtained using the conditional model are smaller than those determined by copulas. The suitability of a model for contour construction varies with the origin of wave data. This study provides a reference for the design load estimation of jacket structures and offers an alternative procedure to determine the design criteria for offshore structures.

Reliability-Based Full-Life Cycle Optimum Design of Offshore Jacket Platform

Based on the consideration of operation environment and structural property, an optimum design model of offshore jacket platform is developed in this paper, namely, the reliability-based full-life cycle optimum design model. In this model, the time-dependent reliability assessment method for structural members is established by combination of the decrease of sectional size and performance deterioration of material. The initial investment, maintenance cost and failure loss cost are assembled into the model. The total cost of the platform structure system in its full service period is chosen as the objective function, and the initial reliabilities of the layer elements partitioned in advance are taken as the design variables. Different models are obtained, depending on whether the system reliability constraint is considered or not. This optimum design model can result in the lowest full-life cost and the optimal initial layer reliability of an offshore jacket platform in the design of marine structures. The feasibility of this model is illustrated with an actual jacket platform in the Liaodong Gulf as an example.

Optimum Design for Offshore Platform Structural Reliability

In this paper, the main problems concerning reliability design of offshore platform structure are described and the general steps for the use of Safety Coefficient Method are presented.

Multilevel Optimal Design of Prestressed Lightweight Concrete-Steel Platform Structures

The concrete-steel platform structure is rather complicated because it involves such materials as concrete, reinforcing bars, steel, and so on. If the traditional dimension optimization method is employed, the optimal design of the platform will meet many handicaps, even it cannot be implemented at all. The multilevel optimal design approach is an efficient tool for the solution of large-scale engineering structures. In this paper, this approach is applied to the optimal design of a concrete-steel platform, which is formulated as a system level optimal design problem and a set of uncoupled substructure level optimal design problems. The process of optimization is a process of iteration between system level and substructure level until the objective function converges. An illustrative example indicates that this method is effective in the optimal design of concrete-steel platforms.

A preliminary study on seismic design criteria of offshore platforms in Bohai Sea of China

This paper analyzes the seismicity in Bohai Sea,introducing a shape factor K to characterize the seismic risk distribution in sub-regions of the sea. Based on the seismic design ground motions for 46 platforms located in the Bohai Sea,a statistical analysis was performed for different peak ground acceleration (PGA) ratios at two different probability levels. In accordance with the two-stage design method,a scheme of two seismic design levels is proposed,and two seismic design objectives are established respectively for the strength level earthquake and the ductility level earthquake. By analogy with and comparison to the Chinese seismic design code for buildings,it is proposed that the probability level for the strength level earthquake and ductility level earthquake have a return period of 200 and 1000 - 2500 years,respectively. The validity of these proposed values is discussed. Finally,the PGAs corresponding to these two probability levels are calculated for different sub-regions of the Bohai Sea.

Investigation of Allowable Stresses for Fatigue Design of Fixed Offshore Platforms

Fatigue design method is usually used for estimating whether a platform structure meets the requirements of fatigue resistance. It is described in API RP-2A and ZC rules for fixed offshore platforms, in which the allowable stresses for fatigue design are defined. In this paper discussed are the allowable stresses related factors, such as wave climate, structural response, fatigue behaviour of structural members.

Process-oriented knowledge-sharing platform for chemical engineering design projects

A process-oriented knowledge-sharing platform is studied to improve knowledge sharing and project management of chemical engineering design enterprises. First, problems and characteristics of knowledge sharing in multi-projects of chemical engineering design are analyzed. Then based on theories of project management, process management, and knowledge management, a process-oriented knowledge-sharing platform is proposed. The platform has three characteristics: knowledge is divided into professional knowledge and project management knowledge; knowledge sharing is integrated with the project process, which makes knowledge sharing a necessary part of the project process and ensures the quantity of knowledge shared; the platform provides quantitative measurements of incentive mechanisms for knowledge providers and users which ensures the quality of knowledge shared. This knowledge-sharing platform uses two knowledge management tools, a knowledge map and a knowledge base, to support the platform.

Design and Development of System Platform of "Study on Relationship between Natural Phenology and Climate Change" Based on WEB and GIS

[Objective] The research aimed to study design and development of system platform of 'study on relationship between natural phenology and climate change' based on WEB and GIS. [Method] Relied on the technologies of WEB and GIS, a set of system platform of 'study on relationship between natural phenology and climate change' was developed based on the hybrid architecture of C/S (Client/Server) and B/S (Browser/Server). Moreover, its establishing process and functional module were detailedly introduced. [Result] The natural phenology and climate change in Guangxi were research objects of system platform of 'study on relationship between natural phenology and climate change'. By combining WEB and GIS with database, the primary application of 'study on relationship between natural phenology and climate change' was realized. The system used hybrid architecture of C/S and B/S. The four-layer architectures were independent to improve security, stability and maintainability of system. The visual interface on the foreground was simply, clear and easy to use. The generating program of GIS three-dimensional graph on the background was real-time and high-efficiency, providing powerful guarantee for stable and safe operation of phenology research work process. The system had functions of inquiry, analysis, statistical diagram, GIS three-dimensional graph and data export. Through the analysis of natural phenology observation data, the system could find variation rule of natural phenology as three-dimensional space (longitude, latitude and altitude) and its relationship with climate change. [Conclusion] The research laid good foundation for further deeply carrying out application of 'study on relationship between natural phenology and climate change', and also provided reference basis for recognizing nature and using change rule of phenology to execute production scheduling and strategic decision (seed-introduction and regionalization).

Modular flexible“Tetris”microsatellite platform based on sandwich assembly mode

In this paper,a flexible modular“Tetris”microsatellite platform is studied to implement the rapid integration and assembly of microsatellites.The proposed microsatellite platform is fulfilled based on a sandwich assembly mode which consists of the isomorphic module structure and the standard mechanical-electric-data-thermal interfaces.The advantages of the sandwich assembly mode include flexible reconfiguration and efficient assembly.The prototype of the sandwich assembly mode is built for verifying the performance and the feasibility of the proposed mechanical-electric-data-thermal interfaces.Finally,an assembly case is accomplished to demonstrate the validity and advantages of the proposed“Tetris”microsatellite platform.

Finite Element Method for Design of Reinforced Concrete Offshore Platforms

A design method of reinforced concrete (R. C.) offshore platforms with nonlinear finite element analysis is proposed. According to the method, a computer program is developed. In this program nonlinear constitutive relationships and strength criteria of concrete and steel bars are included, and the progressive cracking and crushing of the concrete are taken into account. Based on the stress distribution obtained by the nonlinear finite element analysis, the amount of reinforcement in the control sections can be computed and adjusted automatically by the program to satisfy the requirement of the design. The amount of reinforcement required in the control sections, which are obtained with the nonlinear finite element analysis, is agreeable to that obtained in the experiment. This shows that the design method of R. C. offshore platform with the nonlinear finite element method proposed by the authors is reliable for practical use.