Abstract: A boom sprayer includes any number of components to treat plants as the boom sprayer travels through a plant field. The components take actions to treat plants or facilitate treating plants. The boom sprayer includes any number of sensors to measure the state of the boom sprayer as the boom sprayer treats plants. The boom sprayer includes a control system to generate actions for the components to treat plants in the field. The control system includes an agent executing a model that functions to improve the performance of the boom sprayer treating plants. Performance improvement can be measured by the sensors of the boom sprayer. The model is an artificial neural network that receives measurements as inputs and generates actions that improve performance as outputs. The artificial neural network is trained using actor-critic reinforcement learning techniques.

Abstract: A method and an apparatus for simulating the operation of a pressured air source or sink such as a compressor or a turbine for a vehicle internal combustion engine calculates momentum sources at interfaces in the compressor or the turbine. A model stores steady state values of mass flux and enthalpy change related to rotational speed, inlet pressure and temperature and outlet pressure. The simulation can be an input to an engine control module for controlling the operation of the vehicle engine connected with the compressor or turbine.

Abstract: A method of characterizing a material uses an element in which microwaves can propagate and can resonate, such as a weakly-coupled isolated microstrip device or a microwave cavity, arranged so that fringing fields from the element interact with the material. Microwaves are coupled into the element at a frequency near a resonance, and a modulating signal is applied so as to modulate the response of the element. Measurements of both the mean response and the modulation of the response enable the dielectric constant and dielectric loss of the material to be determined. Modulation may be applied to the frequency of the microwaves, or to the electrical parameters of the element.

Abstract: A microwave probe for determining properties of a fluid medium, and particularly for separating measuring dielectric constant and dielectric loss, comprises an insulating substrate metallized on one face, an electrically isolated, ring-shaped, resonant element defined on the opposite face, and shielded means to couple microwaves into and from the element such that the element can undergo a resonance. The resonant frequency depends on the dielectric constant of an adjacent medium, while the Q-factor of the resonance depends on the dielectric loss of the medium. In one method of operation microwaves are coupled into the element to force an oscillation, and the driving frquency is varied to obtain a resonance.

Abstract: An apparatus and a method are provided for measuring the thickness (d) of a thin layer (12) of a non-metallic material on the surface of another medium (14). A transmitter (16) causes a beam of microwaves to be incident on the exposed surface (15) at an angle of incidence greater than 30.degree., and at least one fixed detector (18) monitors a component of the reflected microwave beam polarized in an appropriate plane. In one case the angle of incidence is equal to the Brewster angle (B) for the lower medium, which is water, and the detector monitors the amplitude of the vertically plane polarized component, which is a rapidly varying function of the thickness. In another case the angle of incidence is about 45.degree., and the monitored component is cross-polarized relative to the incident beam. The apparatus is suitable for detecting layers less than 1 mm thick of pollutants such as oil or kerosene on water before such water is discharged into the environment.

Abstract: A surveillance system transmits a microwave carrier signal through a surveillance zone (14). Two low frequency energy fields are also established in the zone being produced by respective pairs of closely spaced apart low frequency signals radiated from opposite sides of the zone. A receptor reradiator in the zones receives these signals and reradiates a reply signal to a receiver the reply signal consisting of the microwave carrier signal amplitude modulated in accordance with the instantaneous value of the low frequency fields at the location of the receptor reradiator. The receiver separates out preselected intermodulation products and activates an alarm only when the preselected intermodulation products are present.