In this paper, a PDS (Proportional-Derivative-Strain) based bilateral control system for flexible master-slave arms with random delay is discussed. The proposed PDS based bilateral control system consists of a rigid master and flexible slave arms. The flexible slave arm is actuated by a high-geared servomotor. Furthermore, the communication network which causes random delay connects both arms. The random delay is defined as the sum of the average time delay and a white Gaussian noise. A Kalman filter is designed to estimate the signals affected by the random delay. The controllers for the rigid master arm and the flexible slave arm are designed as the PD- and PDS-controllers, respectively. Numerical simulations are accomplished to confirm the performance of the proposed Kalman filter for the proposed PDS based bilateral control system.

It is necessary to install a large number of renewable energy (RE) systems such as photovoltaic systems (PVs) to solve environmental problems. However, an electricity grid with RE systems experiences problems such as power shortages and surpluses because of uncertainties in generating outputs. Demand response (DR) can restrain both shortages and surpluses caused by PV outputs,but also increase power shortages and surpluses due to the uncertainties in DR capabilities. This research employs energy storage systems (ESSs) to reduce both power shortages and surpluses, and formulates the optimization problem of facility allocation and determination of the DR participation rate to minimize the number of installed ESSs, as they are very costly. To solve this optimization problem, we propose “slow” and “fast” ESSs, which can quantify the impacts of the increase in participants of the DR. As a result, this study demonstrates that an optimal allocation of PVs and ESSs can be achieved that enables the minimization of installed ESSs, satisfies the PVs installation target, and satisfies the constraints of the probabilistic indices for shortage and surplus to evaluate the uncertainties of PV outputs and DR capabilities. Moreover, the DR participation rate is determined in the same optimization problem.

This paper discusses hemodynamics in both the prefrontal and temporal cortex when subjects taking in glucose perform the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT). PASAT can greatly stress the working memory associated with attention. Attention is well known as the base of various higher-order cognitive functions. Some studies evaluate how the auditory attentional function was activated using fMRI during Clinical Assessment for Attention (CAT), but few reports use Near-infrared Spectroscopy NIRS. In previous research studies, the authors reported that oxidized hemoglobin concentration HbO increased in the left DLPFC area during PASAT. In this study, two types of NIRS were used to evaluate HbO for both the prefrontal and temporal cortex. Multivariable estimated models of auto-regressive form with upper triangular estimates are applied to analyze the results from the experiment. The models are given by hierarchical decomposition analysis which shows the properties of each stage.