Abstract: Thermal conditions at processing components disposed in an information handling system are estimated by applying conservation of energy and component power consumption so that discrete control of information handling system exhaust temperatures is more accurately maintained. For example, a PCI backplane communications card has its power consumption estimated based upon its width so that air flow through the information handling system is adequate to meet an exhaust temperature constraint.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a smart grid system and a method for distributing resources in the system. The smart grid system according to the present invention comprises at least one non-shiftable device; at least one controllable device; and at least one shiftable device; wherein price data are provided at each stage, the non-shiftable device is always provided with its resource requirements, the controllable device is provide with resources in the range of its resource requirements, and the shiftable device has its nominal resource requirements but not allowed to be provided with resources at the stage when resource price is highest.

Abstract: A method, computer program product and computer system for mode selection of a prosthesis is provided. A processor of a wearable device receives a first input from a user. A processor of a wearable device determines the first input indicates a change to a mode of operation of the prosthesis. A processor of a wearable device sends a first command to the prosthesis to change the mode of operation of the prosthesis.

Abstract: An actuator system having an actuator with a rotatable shaft. The shaft may have a first running time to rotate from a first position to a second position in one direction. The shaft may have a second running time to rotate from a first position to a second position in another direction. The first and second running times may be separately adjustable. A motor may be connected through a gear train to the rotatable shaft. A processor may control a rotation of the motor and thus the running times of the shaft. The running times may be adjusted with signals to the processor from a remote controller connected to the processor via a communications bus.

Abstract: Method of operating a wind turbine rotational system having a plurality of drives and a central control system (CCS), each drive having a motor and an electronic converter. The CCS sends speed and torque setpoints to the electronic converters, and the electronic converters drive the motors in accordance with said setpoints. The method comprises designating one of the drives as master drive and the other drives as slave drives. The method also comprises the CCS determining a master speed setpoint and a master torque setpoint, and sending said setpoints to the master drive. The method further comprises the CCS obtaining the real torque and speed of the motor of the master drive and sending a slave speed setpoint and a slave torque setpoint to each slave drive, said slave speed setpoint based on the master speed setpoint and said slave torque setpoint equal to the obtained real torque of the master drive.

Abstract: A method to operate a production plant having a plurality of work regions in which respective work stations are arranged to carry out at least on respective work step, and having at least one transport system that transports goods to be processed on at least one predetermined path between the work stations, involves selecting the arrangement of the work stations, the work step that is able to be carried out by the respective work station, and the at least one predetermined path according to at least one predetermined criterion that is related to a production requirement, and adapting these due to a change of the at least one criterion.

Abstract: A method determines an optimized production schedule of a production line including a hybrid multi-cluster tool formed by a plurality of single-arm tools and dual-arm tools interconnected with each other.

Abstract: A numerical control device with a function to prevent a problem caused by a rapid stop of a processing operation due to a motor overheating during processing. A temperature comparator obtains a load ratio T/Tmax or Tw/Tmax which is a ratio of the motor temperature T or predicted temperature Tw to a maximum allowable temperature Tmax stored in a storage device. When the load ratio T/Tmax or Tw/Tmax is over a threshold Tp stored in a storage, the device is placed in an alarm mode to shutdown the power supply to the motor after the processing program is executed to the end of a sequence block or the end of the processing program.

Abstract: Since single and dual-arm tools behave differently, it is difficult to coordinate their activities in a hybrid multi-cluster tool that is composed of both single- and dual-arm tools. Aiming at finding an optimal one-wafer cyclic schedule for a treelike hybrid multi-cluster tool whose bottleneck tool is process-bound, the present work extends a resource-oriented Petri net to model such system. By the developed Petri net model, to find a one-wafer cyclic schedule is to determine robot waiting times. By doing so, it is shown that, for any treelike hybrid multi-cluster tool whose bottleneck tool is process-bound, there is always a one-wafer cyclic schedule. Then, computationally efficient algorithms are developed to obtain the minimal cycle time and the optimal one-wafer cyclic schedule. Examples are given to illustrate the developed method.

Abstract: Described is a method of generating a flow having a composition gradient such as a mobile phase gradient for liquid chromatography. A pair of pumps is operated such that the initiations of pump strokes for one pump are controlled to occur between the initiations of pump strokes for the other pump so that the sequences of pump strokes fort the two pumps are interspersed in time. Initiations of the pump strokes of the second pump are offset in time relative to initiations of the pump strokes of the first pump such that variations in the flow rates of the first and second pumps due to initiation do not overlap in time. The volume of liquid contributed by a pump stroke is controlled according to the relative contribution of the respective pump to the composition gradient.

Abstract: A control device controls a plurality of equipment items for conditioning the environment in a room. The control device comprises an installation information memory and a space information memory configured to store information regarding the space the environment in which can be conditioned by each of the plurality of equipment items; a target setter configured to set a target location in the room and a target environment at the target location; a unit identifier configured to identify the equipment item that can condition the environment at the target location; and a controller configured to select one control pattern based on the power consumption when the control according to each control pattern is executed from among a plurality of control patterns for controlling the equipment item so as to condition the environment at the target location to the target environment and control the equipment item with the selected control pattern.

Abstract: Systems and methods for wearable injection guides are described, which include: acquiring one or more digital images of a body region of an individual with at least one image capture device; creating a digitally rendered model of a wearable injection guide from the one or more digital images of the body region of the individual; adding one or more digitally rendered fiducials indicative of at least one treatment parameter to the digitally rendered model of the wearable injection guide; and forming the wearable injection guide from the digitally rendered model of the wearable injection guide, the formed wearable injection guide including one or more fiducials corresponding to the one or more digitally rendered fiducials on the digitally rendered model of the wearable injection guide.

Abstract: A computer program and method for pre-balancing a crankshaft. The method includes receiving data related to a three dimensional scan of the crankshaft; generating a model based on the data; and providing instructions, based on the model, for defining a pre-balancing machining axis.

Abstract: There is provided a production processing system including: a production efficiency improvement device configured to select a processing apparatus that processes workpieces in consideration of a position of each of a plurality of processing apparatuses arranged along a transfer path; and a transfer control device configured to move a transfer apparatus that transfers workpieces from a predetermined position on the transfer path to the selected processing apparatus.

Abstract: The scheduling problem of a multi-cluster tool with a tree topology whose bottleneck tool is process-bound is investigated. A method for scheduling the multi-cluster tool to thereby generate an optimal one-wafer cyclic schedule for this multi-cluster tool is provided. A Petri net (PN) model is developed for the multi-cluster tool by explicitly modeling robot waiting times such that a schedule is determined by setting the robot waiting times. Based on the PN model, sufficient and necessary conditions under which a one-wafer cyclic schedule exists are derived and it is shown that an optimal one-wafer cyclic schedule can be always found. Then, efficient algorithms are given to find the optimal cycle time and its optimal schedule. Examples are used to demonstrate the scheduling method.

Abstract: Recent trends of larger wafer and smaller lot sizes bring cluster tools with frequent lot switches. Practitioners must deal with more transient processes during such switches, including start-up and close-down processes. To obtain higher yield, it is necessary to shorten the duration of transient processes. Much prior effort was poured into the modeling and scheduling for the steady state of cluster tools. In the existing literature, no attention has been turned to optimize the close-down process for single-arm cluster tools with wafer residency constraints. This invention intends to do so by 1) developing a Petri net model to analyze their scheduling properties and 2) proposing Petri net-based methods to solve their close-down optimal scheduling problems under different workloads among their process steps. Industrial examples are used to illustrate the effectiveness and application of the proposed methods.

Abstract: According to one aspect of the present invention, a method and system for reducing building energy consumption is provided. The method is provided for saving building energy consumption by obtaining at least one energy use strategy in association with a current or future activity in a building. The method includes aggregating activity data from at least one system associated with the current or future activity and estimating an energy demand level based at least on the aggregated activity data. The method also includes generating at least one energy use strategy based at least on the estimated energy demand.

Abstract: A control method for controlling a converting machine that acts on plate elements for forming containers, the method including displaying with a graphical control interface at least one image representing a plate element or a container formed by a plate element, and control areas which are superimposed on the image and which respectively symbolize characteristic magnitudes of the conversions to be induced on each plate element, receiving by a processing unit a command entered individually by the operator by activating a control area, and controlling in response to the individually entered command, the processing unit to generate at least two respective adjustment signals correlated by a predetermined adjustment law to adjust at least two respective adjustable parameters, whereby corresponding converting members induce a change in a characteristic magnitude.

Abstract: A method including: computing a total cost for a first zone in a building, wherein the total cost is equal to an actual energy cost of the first zone plus a thermal discomfort cost of the first zone; and heuristically optimizing the total cost to identify temperature setpoints for a mechanical heating/cooling system and a start time and an end time of the mechanical heating/cooling system, based on external weather data and occupancy data of the first zone.

Abstract: This invention provides a method and an apparatus for recreating data collected from a machine for distribution to one or more remote terminals for monitoring and evaluating machine operations. Machine operation parameters are sensed by at least one sensor, and the data collected regarding measured values of machine operations are transmitted to a conditioning device. The conditioning device validates the data by comparing and correlating the measured values to predetermined values of acceptable data set and converts output data from analog to digital data. The digitized analog data according to the measured parameters associated with machine operations are then transmitted to a data storage unit, where it is stored and subsequently retrieved for recreating the machine operation parameters to become accessible by one or more remote terminals.