Robotics is a highly developed field in industry, and there is a large research effort in terms of humanoid robotics, including the development of multi-functional empathetic robots as human companions. An important function of a robot is to find an optimal coverage path planning, with obstacle avoidance in dynamic environments for cleaning and monitoring robotics. This paper proposes a novel approach to enable robotic path planning. The proposed approach combines robot reasoning with knowledge reasoning techniques, hedge algebra, and the Spiral Spanning Tree Coverage (STC) algorithm, for a cleaning and monitoring robot with optimal decisions. This approach is used to apply knowledge inference and hedge algebra with the Spiral STC algorithm to enable autonomous robot control in the optimal coverage path planning, with minimum obstacle avoidance. The results of experiments show that the proposed approach in the optimal robot path planning avoids tangible and intangible obstacles for the monitoring and cleaning robot. Experimental results are compared with current methods under the same conditions. The proposed model using knowledge reasoning techniques in the optimal coverage path performs better than the conventional algorithms in terms of high robot coverage and low repetition rates. Experiments are done with real robots for cleaning in dynamic environments.

Advanced robust controller design methods such as: $H_{\infty }$ , $\mu$ synthesis, or linear matrix inequality require advanced mathematics which makes these techniques difficult topics for final year projects. A robust controller (for plants with parametric uncertainty) can be designed with the aid of Kharitonov’s theorem, which has simpler mathematical machinery. This paper studies the robust control of DC–DC converters with the aid of Kharitonov’s theorem. It presents a tutorial exposition of robust controller design based on Kharitonov’s theorem. Kharitonov’s theorem provides a good starting point for BSc students who wish to continue their future studies in robust control.

Recently, shockwave food processing is drawing much attention as a low-cost non-thermal food process technique. In shockwave non-thermal food processing, underwater shockwaves are generated by a high voltage generator. Therefore, high inrush currents and high voltage stress on circuit components significantly reduce the reliability and life expectancy of the circuit. However, to the best of our knowledge, stress reduction techniques and their experimental verification have not been studied yet in the shockwave non-thermal food processing system. In this paper, we propose a stress reduction technique for the shockwave non-thermal food processing system and investigate the effectiveness of the proposed technique experimentally. To achieve high reliability and life expectancy, a new high voltage multiplier with an exponential clock pulse generator is proposed for the shockwave non-thermal food processing system. By slowing down the rate at which the capacitors charge in the high voltage multiplier, the exponential clock pulse generator significantly reduces the inrush current. Furthermore, to perform shockwave non-thermal food processing continuously at a lower voltage level, we present a new electrode with a reset mechanism for wire electric discharge (WED), where a square-shaped metal wire swings on a hinge in the proposed electrode. The proposed electrode enables not only shockwave generation at a lower voltage level but also continuous non-thermal food processing, because the square-shaped metal wire is not melted in the WED process. To confirm the validity of the proposed techniques, some experiments are performed regarding the laboratory prototype of the shockwave non-thermal food processing system. In the performed experiments, reduction of inrush currents and effective food processing are confirmed.