Unifying two decades of research, this book is the first to establish a comprehensive foundation for a systematic analysis and design of linear systems with general state and input constraints. For such systems, which can be used as models for most nonlinear systems, the issues of stability, controller design, additonal constraints, and satisfactory performance are addressed. The book is an excellent reference for practicing engineers, graduate students, and researchers in control systems theory and design. It may also serve as an advanced graduate text for a course or a seminar in nonlinear control systems theory and design in applied mathematics or engineering departments. Minimal prerequisites include a first graduate course in state-space methods as well as a first course in control systems design.

Proceedings of China Modern Logistics Engineering covers nearly all areas of logistics engineering technology, focusing on the latest findings and the following theoretical aspects: Logistics Systems and Management Research; Green Logistics and Emergency Logistics; Enterprise Logistics; Material Handling; Warehousing Technology Research; Supply Chain Management; Logistics Equipment; Logistics Packaging Technology; Third-party Logistics, etc. The book will help readers to grasp the relevant aspects of the theory involved, research and development trends, while also offering guidance for their work and related studies. It is intended for researchers, scholars and graduate students in logistics management, logistics engineering, transportation, business administration, E-commerce and industrial engineering.

Consolidating existing knowledge in Design Science, this book proposes a new research method to aid the exploration of design and problem solving within business, science and technology. It seeks to overcome a dichotomy that exists in the field between theory and practice to enable researches to find solutions to problems, rather than focusing on the explanation and exploration of the problems themselves. Currently, researches concentrate on to describing, exploring, explaining and predicting phenomena, and little attention is devoted to prescribing solutions. Herbert Simon proposes the need to develop a Science of the Artificial (Design Science), arguing that our reality is much more artificial than natural. However, the research conducted on the Design Science premises has so far been scattered and erratic in different fields of research, such as management, systems information and engineering. This book aims to address this issue by bringing these fields together and emphasising the need for solutions. This book provides a valuable resource to students and researchers of research methods, information systems, management and management science, and production and operations management.

Since its emergence as an important research area in the early 1980s, the topic of wavelets has undergone tremendous development on both theoretical and applied fronts. Myriad research and survey papers and monographs have been published on the subject, documenting different areas of applications such as sound and image processing, denoising, data compression, tomography, and medical imaging. The study of wavelets remains a very active field of research, and many of its central techniques and ideas have evolved into new and promising research areas.

This volume, a collection of invited contributions developed from talks at an international conference on wavelets, is divided into three parts: Part I is devoted to the mathematical theory of wavelets and features several papers on wavelet sets and the construction of wavelet bases in different settings. Part II looks at the use of multiscale harmonic analysis for understanding the geometry of large data sets and extracting information from them. Part III focuses on applications of wavelet theory to the study of several real-world problems.

Overall, the book is an excellent reference for graduate students, researchers, and practitioners in theoretical and applied mathematics, or in engineering.

Embedded systems applications that are either mission or safety-critical usually entail low- to mid- production volumes, require the rapid development of specific tasks, which are typically computing intensive, and are cost bounded. The adoption of re-configurable FPGAs in such application domains is constrained to the availability of suitable techniques to guarantee the dependability requirements entailed by critical applications. This book describes the challenges faced by designers when implementing a mission- or safety-critical application using re-configurable FPGAs and it details various techniques to overcome these challenges. In addition to an overview of the key concepts of re-configurable FPGAs, it provides a theoretical description of the failure modes that can cause incorrect operation of re-configurable FPGA-based electronic systems. It also outlines analysis techniques that can be used to forecast such failures and covers the theory behind solutions to mitigate fault effects. This book also reviews current technologies available for building re-configurable FPGAs, specifically SRAM-based technology and Flash-based technology. For each technology introduced, theoretical concepts presented are applied to real cases. Design techniques and tools are presented to develop critical applications using commercial, off-the-shelf devices, such as Xilinx Virtex FPGAs, and Actel ProASIC FPGAs. Alternative techniques based on radiation hardened FPGAs, such as Xilinx SIRF and Atmel ATF280 are also presented. This publication is an invaluable reference for anyone interested in understanding the technologies of re-configurable FPGAs, as well as designers developing critical applications based on these technologies.

This book provides a selection of contributions to the DIPSI workshop 2019 (Droplet Impact Phenomena & Spray Investigations) as well as recent progress of the Int. Research Training Group "DROPIT".The DIPSI workshop, which is now at its thirteenth edition, represents an important opportunity to share recent knowledge on droplets and sprays in a variety of research fields and industrial applications. The research training group "DROPIT" is focused on droplet interaction technologies where microscopic effects influence strongly macroscopic behavior. This requires the inclusion of interface kinetics and/or a detailed analysis of surface microstructures. Normally, complicated technical processes cover the underlying basic mechanisms, and therefore, progress in the overall process modelling can hardly be gained. Therefore, DROPIT focuses on the underlying basic processes. This is done by investigating different spatial and/or temporal scales of the problems and by linking them through a multi-scale approach. In addition, multi-physics are required to understand e.g. problems for droplet-wall interactions, where porous structures are involved.

This book contains the proceedings of the Additive Manufacturing in Product Development Conference. The content focus on how to support real-world value chains by developing additive manufactured series products.

This book considers all aspects of performability engineering, providing a holistic view of the activities associated with a product throughout its entire life cycle of the product, as well as the cost of minimizing the environmental impact at each stage, while maximizing the performance. Building on the editor's previous Handbook of Performability Engineering, it explains how performability engineering provides us with a framework to consider both dependability and sustainability in the optimal design of products, systems and services, and explores the role of performability in energy and waste minimization, raw material selection, increased production volume, and many other areas of engineering and production. The book discusses a range of new ideas, concepts, disciplines, and applications in performability, including smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0; cyber-physical systems and artificial intelligence; digital transformation of railways; and asset management. Given its broad scope, it will appeal to researchers, academics, industrial practitioners and postgraduate students involved in manufacturing, engineering, and system and product development.

This book offers a clear, yet comprehensive guide to how to structure a design project, focusing in particular on the key questions designers, architects, policy makers and health professionals should consider when working towards inclusion through design. The book is based on a series of lessons held by the author and his colleague Avril Accolla, whose aim was to train technicians at all levels to be capable of catering for the needs of the elderly. It clearly draws the outline of their "Ask the Right Question" approach, whose purpose is to help convey the notions in question appropriately to people with such widely different backgrounds, curricula, interests and cultures. Using a minimalist approach, based mainly on the discussion of eye-catching real-life examples placed in logical order and a crystal clear, engaging style, this book is a must-have for designers, technicians, customers and health practitioners, as well as social scientists and policy makers who deal with inclusive design at different levels and anyone interested in topics related to technological evolution and social integration.

This book provides an introduction to the unique and fascinating properties of alloys and composites from novel commercialized thermosetting resins based on polybenzoxazines. Their outstanding properties such as processability, thermal, mechanical, electrical properties as well as ballistic impact properties of polybenzoxazine alloys and composites make them attractive for various applications in electronic packaging encapsulation, light weight ballistic armour composites and bipolar plate in fuel cells.

The concept generation process seems like an intuitional thought: difficult to capture and perform, although everyone is capable of it. It is not an analytical process but a synthetic process which has yet to be clarified. Furthermore, new research methods for investigating the concept generation process-a very difficult task since the concept generation process is driven by inner feelings deeply etched in the mind-are necessary to establish its theory and methodology.

Concept Generation for Design Creativity - A Systematized Theory and Methodology presents the concept generation process both theoretically and methodologically. Theoretically, the concept generation process is discussed by comparing metaphor, abduction, and General Design Theory from the notions of similarities and dissimilarities. Analogy, blending, and integration by thematic relation have been explained methodologically. So far, these theories and methods have been discussed independently, and the relations among them have not been clarified. Two newly developed research methods to investigate the concept generation process are clearly explained: the explanation-based protocol analysis and constructive simulation.

By reading Concept Generation for Design Creativity - A Systematized Theory and Methodology, students, researchers and lecturers in design disciplines (including engineering design, industrial design, software design, CHI, design education, and cognitive science ) can obtain a clear picture of the advanced research findings and the outline of the theories and methods for concept generation. Furthermore, readers are expected to achieve the competence to generate new concepts.

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The book provides readers with a snapshot of recent research and technological trends in the field of condition monitoring of machinery working under a broad range of operating conditions. Each chapter, accepted after a rigorous peer-review process, reports on an original piece of work presented and discussed at the 4th International Conference on Condition Monitoring of Machinery in Non-stationary Operations, CMMNO 2014, held on December 15-16, 2014, in Lyon, France. The contributions have been grouped into three different sections according to the main subfield (signal processing, data mining or condition monitoring techniques) they are related to. The book includes both theoretical developments as well as a number of industrial case studies, in different areas including, but not limited to: noise and vibration; vibro-acoustic diagnosis; signal processing techniques; diagnostic data analysis; instantaneous speed identification; monitoring and diagnostic systems; and dynamic and fault modeling. This book not only provides a valuable resource for both academics and professionals in the field of condition monitoring, it also aims at facilitating communication and collaboration between the two groups.

After two succesful conferences held in Innsbruck (Prof. Manfred Husty) in 2006 and Cassino in 2008 (Prof Marco Ceccarelli) with the participation of the most important well-known scientists from the European Mechanism Science Community, a further conference was held in Cluj Napoca, Romania, in 2010 (Prof. Doina Pisla) to discuss new developments in the field.

This book presents the most recent research advances in Mechanism Science with different applications. Amongst the topics treated are papers on Theoretical kinematics, Computational kinematics, Mechanism design, Mechanical transmissions, Linkages and manipulators, Mechanisms for biomechanics, Micro-mechanisms, Experimental mechanics, Mechanics of robots, Dynamics of multi-body systems, Dynamics of machinery, Control issues of mechanical systems, Novel designs, History of mechanism science etc.

Volume 2 of the updated and extended 3rd edition of this work focuses on the chemistry and technology of rigid polyurethanes. Recent developments in obtaining polyols from renewable resources and the field of rigid polyurethanes have been included. This book is of interest to chemists and engineers in industry and academia as well as anyone working with polyols for the manufacture of PUs.

With the increasing complexity and dynamism in today's machine design and development, more precise, robust and practical approaches and systems are needed to support machine design. Existing design methods treat the targeted machine as stationery. Analysis and simulation are mostly performed at the component level. Although there are some computer-aided engineering tools capable of motion analysis and vibration simulation etc., the machine itself is in the dry-run state. For effective machine design, understanding its thermal behaviours is crucial in achieving the desired performance in real situation. Dynamic Thermal Analysis of Machines in Running State presents a set of innovative solutions to dynamic thermal analysis of machines when they are put under actual working conditions. The objective is to better understand the thermal behaviours of a machine in real situation while at the design stage. The book has two major sections, with the first section presenting a broad-based review of the key areas of research in dynamic thermal analysis and simulation, and the second section presents an in-depth treatment of relevant methodology and algorithms, leading to better understanding of a machine in real situation. The book is a collection of novel ideas, taking into account the need for presenting intellectual challenges while appealing to a broad readership, including academic researchers, practicing engineers and managers, and graduate students. Given the essential role of modern machines in factory automation and quality assurance, a book dedicated to the topic of dynamic thermal analysis, and its practical applications to machine design would be beneficial to readers of all design and manufacturing sectors, from machine design to automotive engineering, in better understanding the present challenges and solutions, as well as future research directions in this important area.

The 60th birthday of Prof. Luczak is the reason for this book. He will be honoured for his research work during the "GfA-confernece" in March 2009. This book is the correspondig "Festschrift" for him.

Evolvable Hardware (EHW) has emerged as a sub-domain of artificial evolution represented by a design methodology (consortium of methods) involving the application of Evolutionary Algorithms (EA) to the synthesis of digital and analogue electronic circuits and systems. Nevertheless, the most benefit for the society and indeed most revolutionizing application of EA is its hardware implementation leading to the EHW. These new EA based methodologies led to a new type of machines that is evolved to attain a desired behaviour, which means they have a behavioural computational intelligence. EHW is a special case of the adaptive hardware, namely being strongly related to the Adaptive Systems (AS) and the Adaptive Hardware (AH). The book presents a careful selection of the field that very well reflects the breadth of this high technology and its terminology and applications in context of the AS/AH. The harmonious symbiosis of the engineering approach and the accurate scientific methodology features the aspects of highly relevant and practical design principles governing the development of EHW and its connections with AS/AH. This book is both attractive and useful for everybody interested in the design and analysis of EHW in context of AS/AH and implementation of real time adaptive hardware hybrid intelligent systems.

Over the last decade, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has become a - ture technology for the development of new products in aeronautical industry. Aerodynamic design engineers have progressively taken advantage of the pos- bilities o?ered by the numericalsolutionof the Reynolds averagedNavier-Stokes (RANS) equations. Signi?cant improvements in physical modeling and solution algorithms as well as the enormous increase of computer power enable hi- ?delity numerical simulations in all stages of aircraft development. In Germany, the national CFD project MEGAFLOW furthered the dev- opment and availability of RANS solvers for the prediction of complex ?ow problemssigni?cantly. MEGAFLOWwasinitiated by the?rstaviationresearch programoftheFederalGovernmentin1995undertheleadershipoftheDLR(see Kroll, N. , Fassbender, J. K. (Eds). : MEGAFLOW - Numerical Flow Simulation for Aircraft Design; Notes on Numerical Fluid Mechanics and Multidisciplinary Design, Volume 89, Springer, 2005). A network from aircraft industry, DLR and several universities was created with the goal to focus and direct development activities for numerical ?ow simulation towards a common aerodynamic si- lation system providing both a block-structured (FLOWer-Code) and a hybrid (TAU-Code) parallel ? ow prediction capability. Today, both codes have reached a high level of maturity and reliability. They are routinely used at DLR and German aeronautic industry for a wide range of aerodynamic applications. For many universities the MEGAFLOW software represents a platform for the - provementofphysicalmodelsandfortheinvestigationofcomplex?owproblems. The network was established as an e?cient group of very closely co-operating partners with supplementing expertises and experience.

Human computer interaction (HCI) plays a vital role in bridging the 'Digital Divide', bringing people closer to consumer electronics control in the 'lounge'. Keyboards and mouse or remotes do alienate old and new generations alike from control interfaces. Hand Gesture Recognition systems bring hope of connecting people with machines in a natural way. This will lead to consumers being able to use their hands naturally to communicate with any electronic equipment in their 'lounge.' This monograph will include the state of the art hand gesture recognition approaches and how they evolved from their inception. The author would also detail his research in this area for the past 8 years and how the future might turn out to be using HCI. This monograph will serve as a valuable guide for researchers (who would endeavour into) in the world of HCI.

This book is based on the 55th International Conference of Machine Design Departments 2014 (ICMD 2014) which was hosted by the Czech Technical University in September 2014. It features scientific articles which solve progressive themes from the field of machine design. The book addresses a broad range of themes including tribology, hydraulics, materials science, product innovation and experimental methods. It presents the latest interdisciplinary high-tech work. People with an interest in the latest research results in the field of machine design and manufacturing engineering will value this book with contributions of leading academic scientists and experts from all around the world.

"The mathematical investigations referred to bring the whole apparatus of a great science to the examination of the properties of a given mechanism, and have accumulated in this direction rich material, of enduring and increasing value. What is left unexamined is however the other, immensely deeper part of the problem, the question: How did the mechanism, or the elements of which it is composed, originate? What laws govern its building up? Is it indeed formed according to any laws whatever? Or have we simply to accept as data what invention gives us, the analysis of what is thus obtained being the only scientific problem left - as in the case of natural history?" Reuleaux, F., Theoretische Kinematik, Braunschweig: Vieweg, 1875 Reuleaux, F., The Kinematics of Machinery, London: Macmillan, 1876 and New York: Dover, 1963 (translated by A.B.W. Kennedy) This book represents the second part of a larger work dedicated to the structural synthesis of parallel robots. Part 1 already published in 2008 (Gogu 2008a) has presented the methodology proposed for structural synthesis. This book focuses on various topologies of translational parallel robots systematically generated by using the structural synthesis approach proposed in Part 1. The originality of this work resides in the fact that it combines the new formulae for mobility connectivity, redundancy and overconstraints, and the evolutionary morphology in a unified approach of structural synthesis giving interesting innovative solutions for parallel mechanisms.

The integrated and advanced science research topic man-machine-environment system engineering (MMESE) was first established in China by Professor Shengzhao Long in 1981, with direct support from one of the greatest modern Chinese scientists, Xuesen Qian. In a letter to Shengzhao Long from October 22nd, 1993, Xuesen Qian wrote: "You have created a very important modern science and technology in China!" MMESE primarily focuses on the relationship between man, machines and the environment, studying the optimum combination of man-machine-environment systems. In this system, "man" refers to people in the workplace (e.g. operators, decision-makers); " machine" is the general name for any object controlled by man (including tools, machinery, computers, systems and technologies), and "environment" describes the specific working conditions under which man and machine interact (e.g. temperature, noise, vibration, hazardous gases etc.). The three goals of optimization of man-machine-environment systems are to ensure safety, efficiency and economy. Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Man-Machine-Environment System Engineering are an academic showcase of the best papers selected from more than 400 submissions, introducing readers to the top research topics and the latest developmental trends in the theory and application of MMESE. These proceedings are interdisciplinary studies on the concepts and methods of physiology, psychology, system engineering, computer science, environment science, management, education, and other related disciplines. Researchers and professionals working in these interdisciplinary fields and researchers on MMESE related topics will benefit from these proceedings.