Abstract: A system (100, 200, 300) for damping vibrations of a vibratory structure (104, 308). The damping system includes an active damper (112, 124, 128, 216), a vibration sensor (116, 208, 208A?-C?), and a controller (120, 212) for controlling the active damper in a manner that damps vibration of the vibratory structure. In some embodiments, the active damper comprises an active mass (132, 220, 220A?-C?, 220A?-C?) and an actuator (136) for controlling the movement of the active mass. In other embodiments, the active damper comprises a flexural damper (128).

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for executing a series of sequential tasks existing within a system-level domain of a customer computing system providing provisioning of meta-level domain products are disclosed. For each product or product action (202), one or more sequence of tasks (250–272) is defined. Within each sequence, one or more tasks are defined as milestones (250, 252, 254, 260, 264, 270, 272). The sequence of tasks is executed, and at each milestone task, an enquiry is made of a related meta-level domain feature to determine whether, as a precondition, it has attributes associating it with a customer, and further whether the product feature holds a locking attribute that corresponds with the milestone task. If so, the execution is continued, and the product feature is placed in a locked state such that its attributes cannot be changed until execution of the task sequence is complete.

Abstract: A magnetic on-off robotic attachment device (MOORAD) (100, 300, 400, 624, 624?, 660, 676, 804) is used to make a number of systems, such as a mobile apparatus (608, 644, 668, 700, 700?), a belt mechanism (800) and a sensor device (504, 508, 656). The MOORAD allows the respective system to be removably magnetically attached to a ferromagnetic structure/object (228, 420, 604, 604?, 720A-B, 720A?-B?, 848). Each MOORAD generally includes a dipole magnet (104, 304A-B, 404) movable relative to first and second ferromagnetic portions (112, 116, 316A-D, 408, 412) that are separated by corresponding magnetically insulating portions (120, 320A-C, 416) so as to change that MOORAD between off and on states.

Abstract: A thermoelectric device (100, 342) that includes at least one thermoelectric couple (118, 304) that contains a thermoelectric junction (156) between two dissimilar materials (P, N) that allow exploitation of either the Seebeck effect or Peltier effect of the junction. The thermoelectric couple includes two thermoelements (120, 124, 324, 326) that extend between the hot side (104) and cold side (108) of the device. Each thermoelement has a thermally insulating region (128, 132) that insulates the hot side from the cold side and an electrical energy storage device (136, 138, 308, 310) that stores electrical energy. When operating in a Seebeck mode, each storage device may be periodically discharged by harvesting circuitry (200, 300) so as to harvest the energy stored therein. When operating in a Peltier mode, each storage device may be periodically charged by charging circuitry (900, 1000) so as to induce a temperature change at the thermoelectric junction.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for mapping an action, occurring within a customer servicing computer system, from a meta-level domain to tasks within a system-level domain are described. The actions are defined to have a plurality of data-fields, each of which has attributes. For a subset of the meta-data fields, and for each field within the subset, the mapper key is formed from a portion of the attributes. Each mapper key is compared with a set of task templates. The task templates define a sequence of system-level domain tasks. If there is a match of all the mapper keys with a respective template, then a system-level domain task sequence is formed to give effect to the action as the collective tasks of all task templates.