Recent Patents on Engineering - Volume 13, Issue 3, 2019

Background: The application of magnetic encoder relieves the problem of reliable application of servo system in vibration field. The magnetic encoder raises the efficiency and reliability of the system, and from structural considerations, the magnetic encoder is divided into two parts: signal conversion and structural support. Objective: In order to improve the accuracy of the magnetic encoder, its structure is constantly improving. To evaluate a magnetic encoder, the accuracy is a factor, meanwhile, the structure of magnetic encoder is one of the key factors that make difference in the accuracy of magnetic encoder. The purpose of this paper is to study the accuracy of different structures of magnetic encoder. Methods: This paper reviews various representative patents related to magnetic encoder. Results: The differences in different types of magnetic encoders were compared and analyzed and the characteristics were concluded. The main problems in its development were analyzed, the development trend forecasted, and the current and future developments of the patents on magnetic encoder were discussed. Conclusion: The optimization of the magnetic encoder structure improves the accuracy of magnetic encoder. In the future, for wide popularization of magnetic encoder, modularization, generalization, and reliability are the factors that practitioner should pay attention to, and more patents on magnetic encoder should be invented.

Background: The wall climbing robot is an automatic mechanical device capable of being adsorbed on the wall surface and carrying out various predetermined work. Compared with human labor, the wall climbing robot has the advantages of high efficiency, low cost and stable operation quality. It can replace human beings to accomplish various dangerous work, reduce the risk and labor intensity of high-altitude operation, and greatly promote the improvement of productivity. At present, wall climbing robot has been widely used in the construction industry, fire control, nuclear industry, petrochemical industry and manufacturing industry. Objective: I will review related patents of wall climbing robot with negative pressure adsorption and illustrate their structure and working principle. The results of the analysis can provide some meaningful reference for the optimal design of this kind of robot. Methods: Based on the comparative analysis for the latest patents related to wall climbing robot with negative pressure adsorption, the key problem and future development of the wall climbing robot are put forward. Results: The patents of the wall climbing robot with negative pressure adsorption are classified in the paper. Studies show that remarkable improvements have been achieved in the invention on the climbing robot. Conclusion: In the tomorrow, the adsorption technology, optimization of moving mode, structure miniaturization and intelligent control should be further studied.

Background: Cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug worldwide. Although cannabis can be considered a malignant drug that affects health and produces adverse effects on individuals, their families and society, it should be noted that therapeutic use has a scientific basis. Objective: This study was carried out through a joint methodology that included both the analysis of patents and scientometrics, with the purpose of constructing a profile for the scientific, inventive and innovative activity of marijuana in medical uses. Methodology: The analyses included indicators based on information about the publication and registration of scientific articles and patents, as well as impact indicators measured by the citations of the related publications, facilitating the establishment and understanding of the trends that were identified. Results: As a result, it was intended to establish the state of the technologies, processes and research of this subject to determine whether it is in a state of growth maturity or decline. Additionally, ideas for novel studies are proposed, and information about countries, offices, authors and reference journals is shown to serve as a base for innovators, entrepreneurs and new researchers. Conclusion: The main contribution of this article is the identification of companies and leading applicants in the medical use of cannabis, mainly in the formulation of medical preparations, treatments using these preparations, and heterocyclic compounds present in the Cannabis Sativa plant. Also, potential markets for the protection of inventions in the field are presented, and a review of outstanding articles and patents that can be used to know in depth the interests of the main applicants.

Background: Biodiesel is an energy source considered of great importance in both production processes and to satisfy domestic needs. However, production and use of this biofuel have troubles regarding the sustainability and efficiency. Objective: Considering the problems in the production of a sustainable and efficient biodiesel carrie, this study of patents analysis was done having the main objective to identify new technologies related to biodiesel production and the solution to these problems. Methodology: For the study, a methodology was implemented that allowed the analysis of patents related to biodiesel production published between 2010 and 2016. The stages of the methodology include: search in the patent database; analysis of the technological development at the global level, and identification and description of technological trends. Results: The search resulted in 1053 patent’s applications. Among the results, technology indicators are described such as the life cycle of the technology, leading applicants, industrial impact index, technological variability, among others. Conclusion: The results show information related to technologies that can be useful for biodiesel industry since technological fields granting solutions to the inconvenient respecting the production of this biofuel were identified. Technological trends found are focused on extracting useful products for biodiesel industry through production, genetic mutation, growing and processing of oleaginous microorganisms.

Background: Calibration of cutting coefficients is the key content in modeling a mechanistic cutting force model. Generally, in modeling cutting force for ball end milling, the tangent, radial and binormal cutting force coefficients are each considered as a polynomial, respectively. This fact is due to the dependency between the cutting force coefficients and the cutting edge inclination angle which is variable in ball-end mills. Objective: This paper presents an approach to determine the polynomial cutting force coefficients. Methods: In this approach, the cutting force coefficients are expressed as explicit linear equations about the average slotting forces. After analysis of the least square regression method which is utilized in the cutting coefficients evaluation, the principle of cutting parameters choice in calibration experiment and the relationship between the order of polynomial and the number of experiments are presented. Besides, a lot of patents on identification of polynomial cutting coefficients for milling force model were studied. Results: Finally, a series of semi-slotting verification cutting tests were arranged, the measured force agrees well with the predicted force, which demonstrates the effectiveness of this approach. Conclusion: Based on the calibration method proposed in this paper, the cutting coefficients can be determined through (m+2) slotting experiments for m-degree shearing coefficients polynomial theoretically.

Background: The fabrication of micro-groove and microstructures in non-conductive hard and brittle materials is always difficult. The electrochemical discharge milling process is a good selection for the fabrication of micro-grooves and microstructures. Objective: In this paper, an electrochemical discharge milling process for fabricating micro-grooves is introduced. In order to investigate the influences of pulse voltage, pulse frequency, duty cycle and feed rate on machining accuracy and localization, the experiment of the microgrooves and microstructures was carried out. Methods: Firstly, the electrochemical discharge milling set-up has been built based on the machining principle. Secondly, a discharge energy control model was established. Then, a series of experiments has been carried out to investigate the effect of applied voltage, frequency, duty factor, and feed rate on the groove width. An array of micro-grooves was obtained by the optimized parameters. Finally, some complex microstructures like micro-channels and 3D microstructures on glass were fabricated successfully. Results: The groove width increases with the increase of machining voltage and duty cycle, the groove width decreases with the increase of pulse frequency and feed rate. Better machining localization can be obtained with the smaller voltage and duty cycle, the larger pulse frequency and feed rate. Conclusion: Two-dimensional microchannel and three-dimensional microstructures have been successfully machined on the glass workpiece. It has some guiding significance for the fabrication of nonconductive hard brittle materials.

Background & Objective: Patents suggest that time synchronization in Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) directs at imparting a common time scale for local clocks of nodes in the network. It has been observed that all hardware clocks are unsynchronized, local clocks of nodes may drift away from each other in time. Hence durations of time intervals may differ for each node in the network. This paper evaluates the performance by suggesting an algorithm for time synchronized MLMAC protocol. Methods: Packet retransmission drains the non-replaceable power source that degrades the network lifetime, one of the major concerns in WSN. Simulation results indicate that time synchronized MLMAC outperforms the existing ML-MAC scheme in terms of both energy efficiency and packets dropped at individual nodes. Results: After Analyzing the results of simulation, network for improved synchronization performs better w.r.t. network lifetime and packets dropped. Throughput and delay are matter of concern which needs to be explored further. Conclusion: Simulation results validate the proposed protocol under various network conditions and application requirements.

Background: A mobile Ad-hoc Network is a network in which each node is independent of all other nodes of the network. In MANETs, nodes do not have proper infrastructure. The power source of the Mobile Ad-hoc network is battery power. As we all know, battery power has a certain limit and problems. Objective: The main objective of this manuscript is to resolve the power problem of nodes of mobile ad hoc networks and increase the lifetime of the network. Methods: This paper implements the concept of wireless power transfer between the nodes of Adhoc network and transfers the power to these nodes wirelessly and uses the maximum lifetime power efficient routing algorithm (MLPER) to reduce the consumption of power used by the nodes. The wireless power transfer can be achieved with the help of one type of near-field techniques called magnetic resonance which works at the same resonance frequency. This technique is nonradiative in nature. Results: This paper reduces the problem of power of the ad hoc network nodes nearly 70 to 80 % from the traditional concept used for lifetime optimization of these nodes. Conclusion: In this manuscript, performance optimization can be analysed with the help of AODV (Ad hoc On-Demand Distance Vector Routing Protocol) on-demand routing protocol. This manuscript shows that the proposed algorithm gives significant better results than AODV protocol with some performance metrics. We revised some patents relating to Wireless power transfer.

Background: A significant issue of consideration in wireless sensor networks is to reduce the energy utilization while preserving the required coverage and connectivity of an area of interest. We have revised all patents relating to preserving of energy in sensor motes of the wireless sensor networks. Methods: We proposed a novel; Intelligent Water Drop based coverage-connectivity and lifespan protocol which minimizes energy consumption of the network. In this routing protocol, sensors are partitioned into the connected first layer and connected successive layer sets and a scheduling mechanism has been used to activate and deactivate sensors. Multi-hoping is used to transmit packets from sensors to the Base Station and sensor with maximum residual energy has been selected as the next hop. Power wastage has been avoided by removing duplicate information through a common relay node. Results: We have derived the expected number of sensors required to cover an area of interest and our protocol gives a long life to the network. A theorem has been provided to validate the results for different communication ranges of sensors. Conclusion: The protocol has been compared with other protocols and it proved better than other protocols in terms of the lifespan and the coverage ratio of the area. Results approve that our protocol reduces the problem of energy holes and maintains the connectivity of the network.

Background: Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is among the most promising technologies that can be used to monitor crucial ambient conditions. WSNs are capable of effectively monitoring the environmental parameters and any habitat necessary to be investigated. Sometimes, it is very important to periodically monitor the critical environmental parameters such as humidity, temperature, soil moisture, fire, volcanic eruptions, Tsunamis, seismic waves and many more to react proactively to save lives and assets. This research work is an endeavor to present the importance and to determine the precise inter- nodal distance required for distinct applications. The networks of the different terrain area and internodal distance are deployed to evaluate and analyze the performance metrics such as a number of messages received average end to end delay (secs), throughput (bps) and jitter (secs). The influence of varying inter-nodal distance on the performance of WSN is determined to select the most appropriate value of the distance between nodes in particular monitoring application. The patents related to the topology based analysis of wireless nodes are reconsidered. Methods: The placement of nodes and inter-nodal distance significantly influences the operation and performance of WSNs by diverging the ability of sensors to observe an event of interest and transmission of information to data aggregation nodes (sink nodes). Moreover, effective sensor placement also affects the resource management. The investigation of specific regions and habitats has peculiar constraints of node placement and inter-nodal distance making it highly application specific. In this research work, the intent is to monitor an entire area to attain optimum coverage to detect the occurrence of a significant event. The node placement and inter-nodal distance can be classified on the basis of the role played by the deployed nodes, like, placement of ordinary sensor nodes/Reduced Function Devices (RFDs) and relay nodes/Full Function Devices (FFDs), respectively. The sensors are compatible with IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee protocol and application implemented is Constant Bit Rate (CBR) generator. This paper analyzed and evaluated the influence of placement and inter-nodal distance of RFDs to the data aggregation ability of sink node. The terrain area (m2) of different sensor networks deployed are 110×110, 200×200, 300×300, 400×400 and 500×500, respectively. The number of sensor nodes is constant equal to 100 to evaluate their ability to provide optimum performance. The parameter internodal distance is varied, keeping all other parameters constant to effectively evaluate its influence. The simulations are carried out on QualNet 6.1 simulator. Results: The variation in inter-nodal distance significantly influences the performance metrics of the network such as the number of messages received, average end to end delay, throughput and jitter. In this paper, the distance between sensor nodes and terrain areas of grid topology is varied accordingly to deduce that which value of the inter-nodal distance and network provides optimum performance. The thorough evaluation of the simulation results presented that the inter-nodal distance of 30 m and terrain area of 300×300 m2 has generated optimum performance by providing the highest number of messages received (208) and highest throughput (2544.34 bps). It is also capable of providing minimum end to end delay (14.45 secs) and lowest jitter (6.67 secs). Conclusion: The objective of this paper to determine the optimum inter-nodal distance and terrain area of a WSN of 100 nodes is successfully achieved. It is analyzed and evaluated that the inter-nodal distance of 30 m and terrain area of 300×300 m2 enhance and optimize the network performance significantly.

Background: In view of the complex system structure and uncertain factors in the fault diagnosis of hydroelectric generating units (HGU), it is a difficult problem to design the diagnosis method rationally. Objective: An attempt is made to employ multi-source feature information to improve the accuracy of fault diagnosis, and the effectiveness of the proposed scheme is verified by using a diagnostic example. Methods: Through the research on recent papers and patents related to fault diagnosis of the HGU, a hybrid scheme based on the modified cuckoo search algorithm, back-propagation (BP) neural network and evidence theory are proposed. For this modified version named cuckoo search with fitness information (CSF), the step factor is adaptively tuned using the fitness value. Next, three diagnostic models based on BP neural network trained by CSF are used for primary diagnosis. These diagnostic results are then used as the independent evidence, and the fusion decision is made by using evidence theory. Results: Experimental results show that CSF algorithm is better than the original cuckoo search (CS) and its three variants, and the hybrid method has the highest diagnostic accuracy. Conclusion: The proposed hybrid scheme has strong robustness and fault tolerance, and can effectively classify the vibration faults of hydroelectric generating units.

Background: Curve interpolation is very important in engineering such as computer aided design, image analysis and NC machining. Many patents on curve interpolation have been invented. Objective: Since different knot vector configuration and data point parameterization can generate different shapes of an interpolated B-spline curve, the goal of this paper is to propose a novel adaptive genetic algorithm (GA) based interpolation method of B-spline curve. Methods: Relying on geometric features owned by the data points and the idea of genetic algorithm which liberalizes the knots of B-spline curve and the data point parameters, a new interpolation method of B-spline curve is proposed. In addition, the constraint of a tangent vector is also added to ensure that the obtained B-spline curve can approximately satisfy the tangential constraint while ensuring strict interpolation. Results: Compared with the traditional method, this method realizes the adaptive knot vector selection and data point parameterization. Therefore, the interpolation result was better than the traditional method to some extent, and the obtained curve was more natural. Conclusion: The proposed method is effective for the curve reconstruction of any scanned data point set under tangent constraints. Meanwhile, this paper put forward a kind of tangent calculation method of discrete data points, where users can also set the tangent of each data point in order to get more perfect interpolation results.