This paper presents a 3D digital electromagnetic actuator able to reach 12 discrete positions distributed in three-dimensional space. The mobile part of this actuator includes a cuboid permanent magnet fixed in a hexagonal casing. The mobile part is able to reach six discrete positions in xy-plane at level z$_{1}$ and the remaining six discrete positions at level z$_{1}$. The switching of the mobile part in xy-plane is achieved by injecting currents in the fixed planar wires situated beneath it. The actuator design integrates a coil to switch the mobile part between two predefined levels in z-axis. To maintain the mobile part at a discrete position without energy consumption, six fixed cylindrical permanent magnets are placed around the mobile part. To design the actuator, a model has been developed and is presented in this paper. Rapid prototyping approach (laser cutting) is used to fabricate the actuator prototype. The maximum and the minimum strokes in xy-plane are between 0.5 to 1.0 mm while along z-axis the actuator is able to perform a stroke of 1.0 mm. Experiments have been conducted on the prototype to validate the proposed design and the 3D actuation. The performance characterization has been conduced and the experimental and the simulated results have been compared.

In this paper, a novel micro-positioning device based on a 3D digital actuator is presented. The proposed system allows realizing planar motions of micro-objects, which could be implemented in several applications where micro-positioning tasks are needed such as micro-component manufacturing/assembly, biomedicine, scanning microscopy, etc. The device has three degrees of freedom, and it is able to achieve planar motions of a mobile plate in the xy-plane at two different levels along the z-axis. It consists of a hexagonal mobile part composed of a permanent magnet that can reach twelve discrete positions distributed between two z-axis levels (six at each level). Two different approaches are presented to perform positioning tasks of the plate using the digital actuator: the stick-slip and the lift-mode approaches. A comparison between these two approaches is provided on the basis of the plate displacement with respect to different current values and conveyed mass. It was observed that for a current of 2 A, the actuator is able to displace a mass of 1.15 g over a distance of 0.08 mm. The optimal positioning range of the planar device was found to be ±5.40 mm and ±7.05 mm along the x- and y-axis, respectively.

In this paper, we present a hierarchical spatiotemporal blur-based approach to automatically detect contaminants on the camera lens. Contaminants adhering to camera lens corresponds to blur regions in digital image, as camera is focused on scene. We use kurtosis for a first level analysis to detect blur regions and filter them out. Next level of analysis computes lowpass energy and singular values to further validate blur regions. These analyses detect blur regions in an image efficiently and temporal consistency of blur is additionally incorporated to remove false detections. Once the presence of a contaminant is detected, we use an appearance-based classifier to categorize the type of contaminant on the lens. Our results are promising in terms of performance and latency when compared with state-of-the-art methods under a variety of real-world conditions.

Simulation with a basic representation of longitudinal vehicle dynamics is known to be sufficient for initial powertrain development activities related to efficiency and emissions such as concept application, optimal sizing, analysing the effects of physical and functional changes and also for defining basic control laws. However, when it comes to comprehensive analysis for efficiency improvement, minimizing instantaneous emission peaks or studying the impact of the new concepts on road safety, drivability and performance, the significance of detailed vehicle dynamics cannot be ignored. The work presented in this article defines a longitudinal vehicle dynamic modelling approach considering important characteristics such as the influence of normal load transfer on the varying grip of the front and rear wheels, the effect of wheel slip, and a complete representation of resistances encountered against vehicle motion with the objective of taking the analysis even closer to the actual driving conditions. The behaviour of this combined simulation platform under normal and extreme driving conditions seems to precisely follow the real scenario. This approach is a first step towards future analysis, optimization and controls development for improving transient powertrain aspects such as maximizing regenerative braking under heavy deceleration or optimizing road charging in P4 parallel hybrid architecture by managing wheel slip losses.

An actuator array dedicated to the collaborative actuation is presented in this paper. The array consists of several elementary digital actuators to carry out planar conveyance tasks. Each elementary actuator of this array is based on an electromagnetic principle and has an ability to achieve six discrete positions in a 2D plane. A semi-analytical model has been developed to compute the electromagnetic and magnetic forces, which helps to design an actuator prototype. The homogenous behaviour of all elementary actuators of the array has particularly been studied using the model. An array prototype has then been realized using laser cutting and rapid prototyping technique. This prototype is based on a honeycomb architecture and composed of seven elementary actuators. Experiments has been conducted to characterize the actuator array performances. The pulse duration needed to switch the actuators and the energy consumption has been calculated. Finally, the principle of conveyance using the array is detailed and the collaborative actuation have been experimentally tested and shown.