Masters Theses in the Pure and Applied Sciences was first conceived, published, and disseminated by the Center for Information and Numerical Data Analysis and Synthesis (CINDAS)* at Purdue University in 1957, starting its coverage of theses with the academic year 1955. Beginning with Volume 13, the printing and dis semination phases of the activity were transferred to University Microfilms/Xerox of Ann Arbor, Michigan, with the though that such an arrangement would be more beneficial to the academic and general scientific and technical community. After five years of this joint undertaking we had concluded that it was in the interest of all concerned if the printing and distribution of the volumes were handled by an international publishing house to assure improved service and broader dissemi nation. Hence, starting with Volume 18, Masters Theses in the Pure and Applied Sciences has been disseminated on a worldwide basis by Plenum Publishing Corporation of New York, and in the same year the coverage was broadened to include Canadian universities. All back issues can also be ordered from Plenum. We have reported in Volume 37 (thesis year 1992) a total of 12,549 thesis titles from 25 Canadian and 153 United States universities. We are sure that this broader base for these titles reported will greatly enhance the value of this impor tant annual reference work. While Volume 37 reports theses submitted in 1992, on occasion, certain uni versities do report theses submitted in previous years but not reported at the time.

Modeling and Control of Precision Actuators explores new technologies that can ultimately be applied in a myriad of industries. It covers dynamical analysis of precise actuators and strategies of design for various control applications. The book addresses four main schemes: modeling and control of precise actuators; nonlinear control of precise actuators, including sliding mode control and neural network feedback control; fault detection and fault-tolerant control; and advanced air bearing control. It covers application issues in the modeling and control of precise actuators, providing several interesting case studies for more application-oriented readers. Introduces the driving forces behind precise actuators Describes nonlinear dynamics of precise actuators and their mathematical forms, including hysteresis, creep, friction, and force ripples Presents the control strategies for precise actuators based on Preisach model as well as creep dynamics Develops relay feedback techniques for identifying nonlinearities such as friction and force ripples Discusses a MPC approach based on piecewise affine models which emulate the frictional effects in the precise actuator Covers the concepts of air bearing stages with the corresponding control method Provides a set of schemes suitable for fault detection and accommodation control of mechanical systems Emphasizing design theory and control strategies, the book includes simulation and practical examples for each chapter; covers precise actuators such as piezo motors, coil motors, air bearing motors, and linear motors; discusses integration among different technologies; and includes three case studies in real projects. The book concludes by linking design methods and their applications, emphasizing the key issues involved and how to implement the precision motion control tasks in a practical system. It provides a concise and comprehensive source of the state-of-the-art developments and results for modeling and control of precise actuators.

Precision manufacturing is a development that has been gathering momentum over the last century and accelerating over the last 25 years in terms of research, development, and application to product innovation. The driving force in this development arises from requirements for much higher performance of products, higher reliability, longer life, lower cost, and miniaturization. This development is widely known as precision engineering and, today, it is generally defined as manufacturing to tolerances which are better than one part in 105. Applications are abound and can be found in various semiconductor processes (e.g., lithography, wafer probing, inspection), Coordinate Measuring Machines (CMMs) and precision metrology systems (e.g., Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM)), and robot/machine tools to carry out micro-assembly (e.g., MEMS) and delicate short wavelength laser processes. As an enabling technology for precision engineering, precision instrumentation and measurement, geometrical calibration and compensation, and motion control are directly important issues to be addressed in the overall system design and realization. This book is focused on these aspects of precision engineering. It is a compilation of the major results and publications from a major project which develop a state-of-the-art high-speed, ultra-precision robotic system. A comprehensive and thorough treatment of the subject matter is provided in a manner that is amenable to a broad base of readers, ranging from the academics to the practitioners, by providing detailed experimental verifications of the developed materials.

Advances in engineering precision have tracked with technological progress for hundreds of years. Over the last few decades, precision engineering has been the specific focus of research on an international scale. The outcome of this effort has been the establishment of a broad range of engineering principles and techniques that form the foundation of precision design. Today’s precision manufacturing machines and measuring instruments represent highly specialised processes that combine deterministic engineering with metrology. Spanning a broad range of technology applications, precision engineering principles frequently bring together scientific ideas drawn from mechanics, materials, optics, electronics, control, thermo-mechanics, dynamics, and software engineering. This book provides a collection of these principles in a single source. Each topic is presented at a level suitable for both undergraduate students and precision engineers in the field. Also included is a wealth of references and example problems to consolidate ideas, and help guide the interested reader to more advanced literature on specific implementations.

Precision motion control is strongly required in many fields, such as precision engineering, micromanufacturing, biotechnology, and nanotechnology. Although great achievements have been made in control engineering, it is still challenging to fulfill the desired performance for precision motion control systems. Substantial works have been presented to reveal an increasing trend to apply optimization approaches in precision engineering to obtain the control system parameters. In this book, we present a result of several years of work in the area of advanced optimization for motion control systems. The book is organized into two parts: Part I focuses on the model-based approaches, and Part II presents the data-based approaches. To illustrate the practical appeal of the proposed optimization techniques, theoretical results are verified with practical examples in each chapter. Industrial problems explored in the book are formulated systematically with necessary analysis of the control system synthesis. By virtue of the design and implementation nature, this book can be used as a reference for engineers, researchers, and students who want to utilize control theories to solve the practical control problems. As the methodologies have extensive applicability in many control engineering problems, the research results in the field of optimization can be applied to full-fledged industrial processes, filling in the gap between research and application to achieve a technology frontier increment.