摘要:

Although a major international engineering federation, the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) has a relatively low profile in the United Kingdom. In this article the activities and structure of IFAC are reviewed and some suggestions offered as to why IFAC is not seen to be important here. The article suggests that IFAC can be of great benefit to our automatic control community, but, as in any totally voluntary organisation, one only gets out of IFAC what one puts into it!

ISSN:0956-3385    

DOI:10.1049/cce:19910054

出版商:IEE    

年代:1991

数据来源: IET

摘要:

This article provides an introduction to the topic of safety-critical control systems for those engineers and managers who are skilled in the disciplines of computer-based control, but have not had to face the additional engineering problems which arise when equipment is crucial to the protection and preservation of human life. Increasingly, control engineers are using computers and complex real-time software in circumstances in which serious malfunctions can result in accidents and loss of human life. Those involved professionally in such work need wide, general engineering experience, plus specialised knowledge of topics such as:• Hazard analysis, to identify the risks• Methods of writing engineering specifications• Rigorous approaches to computer programming• Testing, verification and validation• Training and education for specialist staff.

ISSN:0956-3385    

DOI:10.1049/cce:19910055

出版商:IEE    

年代:1991

数据来源: IET

摘要:

This article reviews the application of solar energy technology in Cyprus and presents an energy analysis, including the use of solar energy, in the island. Cyprus has no conventional sources of energy and is dependent on imported oil. However, its geographical position is such that it is one of the countries where the potential for solar energy utilisation is very high. Cyprus began manufacturing solar water heaters in the early 1960s and today it produces more than 30 000 m2of solar collectors yearly. It is estimated that more than 130 000 solar water heaters are in operation, which provide the equivalent of 9% of the total electricity consumption in the island, and corresponds, approximately, to 4% of the national energy consumption. However, the use of solar energy for space heating and cooling provides a further challenge because it does not appear to be economic under the climatic conditions and system design practices currently prevailing in Cyprus. The article provides a statistical analysis of the energy demand and identifies areas of further growth for solar energy technology.

ISSN:0956-3385    

DOI:10.1049/cce:19910056

出版商:IEE    

年代:1991

数据来源: IET

摘要:

Fault tolerance, the ability of a system to survive in the presence of faults, is a major research area in avionics. With the increasing use of active control technology (ACT) in military aircraft to allow reductions in wing and tail area giving greater manoeuvrability it is now the case that many aircraft are unflyable without automatic stabilisation functions. If a controller fails even for a very short time this can result in the loss of an aircraft and/or pilot. The consequences in loss of life if a civilian aircraft loses a primary flight control function are even more disastrous and this is reflected by the even higher reliability levels demanded.

ISSN:0956-3385    

DOI:10.1049/cce:19910059

出版商:IEE    

年代:1991

数据来源: IET

摘要:

Transputers make it possible to build boards or systems with more performance than is conceivable withanysingle processor, however powerful. The architecture of the transputer makes a single transputer especially powerful for embedded or real-time applications, and cost-effective for add-ons to existing computers. Transputers, or boards based on transputers, are particularly easy to build into multiprocessor systems.

ISSN:0956-3385    

DOI:10.1049/cce:19910060

出版商:IEE    

年代:1991

数据来源: IET

摘要:

Electronic data interchange is examined as a means of engineering the flow of information and control between trading organisations. Many existing applications of electronic data interchange are concerned just with the simple replacement of paper communication but, by the imaginative marshalling of human and technical resources, the technique can simplify trading relationships and support new styles of operating, such as just-in-time supply.

ISSN:0956-3385    

DOI:10.1049/cce:19910062

出版商:IEE    

年代:1991

数据来源: IET

摘要:

Agriculture and the production of food are often seen as relatively low-technology areas. In reality they represent some of the most challenging environments for the application of computer systems. This article reports on the development of a system for grading vegetables and fruit. Because the unit value of even high-quality vegetables is low, they must be inspected at high speeds to make a machine commercially worthwhile. In this work an image-processing system was developed for grading potatoes at up to 2000 specimens per minute. The system is under the control of a Motorola 68000 processor which drives a specially designed data-reduction unit operating directly on frames grabbed from the TV camera. The reduced data is routed to four further 68010 processors, all of which are running concurrently. With the exception of the data-reduction unit the system was designed around commercial processor cards communicating via a VME bus. This approach represents a practical solution to a real problem, and the resulting system is now commercially available.

ISSN:0956-3385    

DOI:10.1049/cce:19910065

出版商:IEE    

年代:1991

数据来源: IET