The description of the drying process was reduced to the establishment of a series of theoretical and empirical drying models. The complex processes of simultaneous moisture and heat transfer, which are often nonstationary, and the distinct nature and properties of the material to be dried further complicate the description of the drying process. Three theories—diffusion theory, capillary flow theory, and evaporation–condensation theory—have won general recognition for the explanation of moisture transfer in porous media. The mechanisms of moisture movement during drying in the constant and especially in the falling drying period are rather complex and, hitherto, there have been no generally accepted explanations that could identify the exact transition between possible drying mechanisms, such as liquid movement due to capillary forces, liquid diffusion due to concentration gradients, liquid and vapor flow due to differences in total pressure, vapor diffusion due to difference in vapor concentration, vapor diffusion due to partial vapor pressure gradients, Knudsen diffusion, thermodiffusion, and the evaporation–condensation mechanism. The goal of this study was to find a way to better understand the different drying mechanisms, to identify the exact transition between them, and to estimate the time-dependent effective diffusivity. The results presented in this article confirmed that the effective diffusivity represents an overall mass transport property of moisture that includes all possible moisture transport mechanisms that are simultaneously controlling the moisture migration process in a material during drying. The experimental investigations were performed on clay tiles in a laboratory recirculation dryer, for which the drying parameters (humidity, temperature, and velocity) could be programmed, controlled, and monitored during drying.

Material selection is the main challenge in the drone industry. In this study, hardness, abrasive wear, impact resistance, tensile strength, and durability (frost resistance and accelerated ageing) were identified as important characteristics of drone materials. The additive manufacturing technology was used to produce the drone leg specimens and prototype. The suitability of PETG as a primary filament material in the design of the drone leg was investigated. Nine series were printed with different raster lines (0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 mm) and infill densities (30, 60 and 90%). Printed specimens were annealed in salt and alabaster, as well as immersed in liquid nitrogen. Series with raster line-infill densities of 0.1–30, 0.3–30, 0.1–90 and 0.3–90 were identified as the most interesting ones. Thermally treated specimens had better mechanical and durability properties, and infill density was found to be the most important printing parameter. Specimen annealed in salt with a raster line of 0.1 mm and infill density of 90% had the best results. Since ABS is the most common material used for drone leg production, its properties were compared with the PETG specimen, which showed the best properties. The potential of PETG as an alternative material was proven, while the flexibility, productivity and suitability of the leg drone design were additionally confirmed.

This paper investigates the problem of controlling a heterogeneous group of vehicles with the aim of forming multilane convoys. We use a distributed, graph-based control law, implemented in a longitudinal coordinate system parallel to the road. Each vehicle maintains a local graph with information from only nearby vehicles, in which the desired distances between vehicles are calculated dynamically. This allows for fast adaptation to the changes in the number of vehicles and their positions. We have also implemented a distributed mechanism that allows vehicles to change lane in a cooperative way within the convoy. Systematic experiments have been carried out in a high-fidelity simulator in order to show the performance of the proposed control law.