Volume 59, Issue 5 -

In this paper we present a new image-based method for automatic classification of spontaneous movement and heartbeat in toxicological treated zebrafish. By combining new image acquiring strategies with image processing and feature extraction out of image sequences a set of classifiers is trained. Subsequently, these classifiers are iteratively combined and applied to three compounds to prove the feasibility in a prototype assay.

A novel approach for the determination of automatic tests for service diagnosis is presented. It uses a structural model of the system that is to be diagnosed in order to represent the cause-effect interrelations in the faultless and in the faulty situation. The selected tests steer the system into operating points in which specific faults have a significant impact on the system behavior whereas the effect of other faults vanishes. The procedure is exemplified by a throttle valve of an automobile engine.

This paper presents a concept for parallizing the linear model predictive control algorithm with consideration of constrained actuating variables. The parallisation on multicore-microcontrollers in embedded systems eases the application of such control algorithm for processes with high dynamics. The achievable speed-up of the parallel implementation depends on the choice of appropriate initial values. An heuristic and a systematic approach for the evaluation of the initial values are compared.

The use of self-sensing piezoelectric actuators in smart structures means collocation of actuator and sensor and requires the robust separation of the electric current due to the direct piezoelectric effect from the measured electric current. Because of the unfavorable ratio of these two signals, the design of an approximate observer for the electric current due to the direct piezoelectric effect is proposed. The controller design is based on an augmentation of the plant by an exosystem with the goal of an asymptotic suppression of harmonic disturbances. The stability investigations of the distributed parameter system use the small gain theorem. The efficiency of the proposed design is demonstrated by a piezoelastic structure, which is excited with a dominant eigenfrequency, both by simulation and by a laboratory experiment.

The German Pavilion on the World Exhibition EXPO 2010 in Shanghai showed a big pendulum as its main attraction. The pendulum consists of a sphere with 3 m diameter which is equipped with about 400000 LEDs and used as a projection screen. The sphere is mounted via a long bar at an electrically driven crosstable and provide a motion and light show. Thereby, the sphere performs large circular and pendular motions, while the crosstable can only perform very small motions. In this paper the control design is presented. The efficiency of this control system is shown by experimental results.

This paper describes the development of a model of 3-screw spindle pumps. Such pumps are used in many application areas such as power generation. The model serves for the simulation of the pump system and will be applied in future steps in a simplified form in the control of pumps in order to allow advanced techniques of monitoring, control and diagnosis. The results were found in a joint project of a leading pump system manufacturer and three universities in Germany, Poland and Switzerland.