Flight simulator experiments were conducted to investigate the influences of horizontal wideness of field of view for human pilot's roll control. In these experiments, the motion of the airplane was considered as a single-degree-of-freedom system in roll, and three fields of view having different view-angle were provided. The results of these experiments showed that pilot's control was influenced by differences of the wideness of field of view.

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The purpose of this study is to analyze human pilot behavior in Landing Operation. At first, the pilot model is automatically constrtucted using neural network from the results of the simulator tests. The main inputs to this model are observation cues such as the horizon and the runway, and the output is the elevator angle. The data on two cases (with wind, or with no wind) are used for learning. Next, the constructed pilot models are simulated in various initial conditions to check their varidity and generalization. Finaly, models are evaluated with factor analysis.

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The feed-forward loop in the flight control system influences the response characteristics to pilot's control input. However, the response characteristics to gust input is not influenced by the feed-forward loop. The Flight simulator experiments were conducted to investigate the flying qualities were influenced by airplanes that short-period characteristics of control response and gust response is different. The result of these experiments showed that not only the response characteristics to pilot's control input, but also the response characteristics to gust input influenced the pilot's evaluation of flying qualities

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This paper considers the design of augumented controlled human operation sysytem. The mathematical model of a human operation is estimated as a ARX model using a sequenatial least square method. A PID controller is adjusted automatically by using the estimated human caharacteristics to provide ideal closed loop performance. Experimental data demonstrate the adaptability of the proposed controller system.

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This paper introduces technical subjects about safety and optimum design for man-machine coexistence systems. Some methods for increasing the operator's motivation in automated production systems are discussed. New type hold monitoring devices and safety confirmation systems for man-machine coexistence are examined, and the newly developed formula of safety conditions is expressed in this study.

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This paper introduces layered safety control systems for logistic machinery. The upper layer is a functional control system constituted by personal computers PC. The lower layer is a safety confirmation system constituted by PSS, that is triple diversity and redundancy CPUs with self-checking function. It is considered that the DCS will be replaced by layered safety control systems for the reason of economical and easy improvement.

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We are developing a robot vision system to be used in mobile construction robots for autonomous motion control. It has the function of obstacle detection based on stereo vision principle, and has the function of recognizing navigation-signs based on pattern matching. In this paper, the function of the robot vision system is overviewed and the hardware structure built on a PC-based platform is shown. The implementation of these functions is also briefly explained.

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This paper describes the application of power reed switches to a positioning sensor. High reliable power reed switches are widely used in many industrial fields, especially in railway signal systems and machine control systems. In order to detect the rotational angle of a robot,power reed switches with bifurcated contacts and glass enclosure coupling with a permanent magnet were adopted as the simple positioning sensor. This sensor was realized its power switching capability and a long life mechanism.

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This paper describes development of a riding simulator for two-wheeled vehicles. The riding simulator, which we have constructed, can give pseudo-experience to riders of two-wheeled vehicles. And, it is possible to use human factor analysis for riders to control two-wheeled vehicles. In this study, we construct the equations of motion for lateral control using reassignment of characteristic roots. And, the scale factors to the vehicle behavior are decided from the subjective evaluation.

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In this study, we construct the driver model, which describe the driver's control behavior running on a curve road of mountains, using multivariate analysis and Neural Network System. Next, we analyze the relationship between inputs and outputs using the model. Finally, to use the results, we can define the information processing of a driver and explicate driver's control behavior.

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In a vehicle equipped with an automated driver assistant system, the mismatch between driver's desire for vehicle motion and an actual vehicle behavior controlled by the driver assistant system is focused in our paper. We compare the driver's own operation timing for starting shifts operation with the automated controller's operation timing when the vehicle coasts in the steep down hill road. After some experiments, the results are carried out that driver tends to want earlier automated operation timing than his/her own manual operation timing.

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There are two type trains developed for speed up at the passing curve that one is pendulum train and another is apply long stroke air spring as simple structure. The train tilting system is able to decrease of passenger's acceleration to right and left, however there is still received side load on the air spring itself and also there is collision with stopper, therefor we have influence for riding quality when train speed up. Then we composed train suspension system with air cylinder for side rigidity level up when just passing curve, and estimate of riding quality by simulation and tried running test by actual train. This paper is above test report.

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The mechanical pneumatic positioning servo actuator (described herein) is used to be provide very high reliability, high actuation performance, high vibration and acceleration capability and good compliance at a range of high frequency, therefore suits railway cars with riding comfort. This discussion will focus on structure and characteristics of pneumatic cylinder used in a body suspension system for tilting railway cars.

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At present, various types of tilting system for railway vehicle are devised, and model experiments and running test, etc. arecondicter. This study develop a new suspension with the purpose of the integration of tilting control and vibration control of railway vehicle running in the curve section. In representative tilt mechanism, this paper forcuses on wheel load fluctuation from the viewpoint of safety in realizing the tilt performance. The tilt mechanism is modeled, and the wheel load fluctuation is examined.

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This paper describes the influence of the wheelset static and dynamic unbalance on the wheelset vibration. In the case of the model used in numerical analyses, smaller static unbalance means lager dynamic unbalance and larger lateral vibration of the wheelset. So, it can not be said that the policy of reducing static unbalance to the minimum is best.

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This paper describes application of Active Roll Stabilization (ARS) to a heavy vehicle. ARS is often employed in passenger vehicles to decrease or eliminate roll motion and consequently provide better driver comfort and handling characteristics. Heavy vehicles such as trucks and buses, on the other hand, have high centers of gravity; which could cause rollover and severely limit their cornering performances. ARS for such vehicles therefore requires the best possible balance between rollover prevention, stability and maneuverability. Adaptation of ARS control algorithm was explored to satisfy these requirements using computer simulations.

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We have planedan experimental project, that a small airplane is flied and controlled freely in a low-speed wind tunnel, and its flight data are used for estimating the aerodynamic characteristic. As the first step, in order to understand a phenomenon of free flight, we give experiments by manual and remote control. These experiments showed that the initial trimmed flight condition must be established almost perfectly, and it is a difficult and important problem that the movement of the freely flying airplane is restricted in the narrow flight space.

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An algorithm has been developed for simultaneously estimating the road configuration and vehicle behavior based on image processing. This algorithm is designed for a lane-keeping assist system. The image processing logic detects lane markers on each side in images taken with a forward-looking camera. The algorithm is fully capable of detecting lane markers on expressways and its processing time and accuracy are sufficient for keeping a vehicle in its lane.

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Self-powered active vibration control, which realizes active vibration control using regenerated vibration energy and does not require external energy, has been proposed and applied to the anti-rolling system for ships. The authors propose the system that produces spring force by an actuator. This system does not require mechanical spring element and this reduces manufacturing costs. Through numerical simulations, the feasibility and the performance of the proposed system are examined. The results indicates that the proposed system is achieved and its performance is similar to that of the previous system.

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This paper describes design of active suspension system for Automated Guideway Transit (AGT) vehicles. The modeling of the AGT vehicles with single axle bogies is carried out first . The constructed vehicle model includes lateral transition, roll and yaw motion for vehicle body, front bogie and rear bogie, respectively. The dynamics of air cylinders that produce lateral force is also considered. H-inf control theory is used to design the controller for the active suspension, which has the advantage on designing frequency dependant controller and on the robustness of the controller. The designed controller is evaluated in simulation study with constructed nonlinear AGT vehicle model from the view points of improving ride quality.

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A New Transit system with a guide and rubber tires has been used in an airport passenger track transport system. The Automated People Mover (APM) went into service at the New Hong Kong Airport, which was opened in July 1998. To make the system applicable for transport in crowded areas, we focused on improving the riding comfort of vehicle. This paper presents the outline of the above mention.

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Recently, the superconducting Maglev is noticed as the next generation high-speed public transportation system. In realization, it is important to improve the ride comfort. Maglev vehicle is composed of lightweight car body and bogie which is mounted on the SCM (superconducting magnets), the cooling device, and etc. The vibration isolation performance degrades, since the ratio of sprung mass is nearly the unsprung mass. In the magnetically levitation system, the magnetic damping between the SCM and ground coils is so small that it can be neglected. Therefore, it is important to adjust the car body - bogie suspension. This study focuses on the reduction of the lateral vibration. In this paper, the vibration characteristic of Maglev vehicle is analyzed. The vibration control system is designed by LQ control theory. Moreover, the case considers the effect of the magnetic damping is investigated.

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In this puper, we analyzed the vibration properties of a two degree-of-freedom maglev system, which is the model of a repulsive maglev train with secondary suspension. Especially, we investigated the influence of the system parameters on the vibration response amplitude of the system, and optimized the system parameters by the technique of arranging fixed points. Finally, we succeeded in finding the relationships of the system parameters.

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Traffic accidents, traffic congestions, and environmental issues are serious problems in the current automobile society. In order to solve these problems, research and development for transportion are being done under the name of ITS. In the ITS technology, a driving simulator is developed for fundamental studies of human performance while driving in various situations. The simulator system used in this study has six-degrees-of-freedom, and the motions are controlled by six servomotor-powered electric actuators. At present, the simulator motion system can only simulate vehicle accelerations. In order to obtain better simulation, this paper discusses vehicle vibrations created by road surface irregularities added to the simulator system.

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This paper deals with the lateral vibration of the elevator rope, which is excited sinusoidally by the horizontal displacement at the both end of the rope due to wind. In case of high-rise building, elevator rope may have a problem to resonate to the natural frequency of the building. FDM analysis, considering the time-varying length of the rope and the distribution of the rope tension, are performed. And the effects of moving velocity of the cage on the maximum amplitude of the rope are quantitatively made clear.

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Recently, the enlargement of the container crane and shortening of the loading and unloading time are required, because a container ship is large. And, automation of transportation work with crane is demanded because of the deficiency of skilful operator, reduction of distribution cost and high efficiency. Anti-sway control is the indispensable technology which realizes the easy operation and automation of the crane. We developed an anti-sway control technique based on the feed-forward control of acceleration compensation and the feed-back control of sway, and proved the performance of this technique by the experiment of applying it to the actual container crane. It was confirmed that this control system gave the container crane satisfactory performance for the automation and didn't give the operator uncomfortable, as the result of that experiment.

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This paper proposes a new Electro-Magnetic-Suspension (EMS) system which has the ability of banking in curve section, a dynamic damper vibration control system made by a pendulum and a new rotary vibration control system made by a rotor with active control to improve the damping effect of the EMS system in tilting motion. This new EMS system can tilt automatically corresponding to the magnitude of the centrifugal force, and cancel the constant disturbance forces in five directions only with the attraction forces of permanent magnets and the gravity of earth. Four hybrid-magnets are used to guide and suspend a vehicle at the same time, that is different to a conventional EMS system getting necessary force from a guidance system when running on sharp curve. But in the EMS system, the damping in tilting motion is so small that any disturbance will make the vehicle oscillation without friction. The new rotary vibration control system is applied to solve the vibration problem of the self-banking EMS system. In the rotary vibration control system, the authors use the reaction torque caused by driving the rotor to make a rotary skyhook damper for absorbing the tilting vibration of the EMS system. In order to avoid the trouble of the vibration control system cause the failure of the EMS system in stabilizing control for floating, the two control systems are designed in independent. The Nearly-Zero-Power control method is applied to stabilize EMS system with minimum energy consumption of the hybrid-magnets. The results of experiment and simulation verified the capabilities of the self-bank EMS system and the vibration control method proposed in this paper.

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The study of reducing NOx emission in marine diesel engine without increasing specific fuel oil consumption is a matter of no little interest to the engine manufacturer. Engine performance simulation was done before engine test. Optimized design components owing to the calculation predict of reducing NOx were evaluated by means of a test on a 6 cylinder medium bore size 4-stroke low speed diesel engine (bore: 340mm, stroke: 680mm, rated engine speed: 280min-1). From these studies, practical technique of reducing NOx emission and specific fuel oil consumption was found, and this improved NOx emission level is within IMO NOx regulation. This paper reports these engineering findings.

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Based on the Recycle Law, many plastics are piled up in the yard of collecting companies. One of their recycling ways may be to be liquidized and be used as energy source. There is some possibility that the liquidized waste plastic might be mixed into marine fuel oil as one of compornents for the purpose of recycling plastic, in the future. The combustion of fuel oil in diesel engine is very important factor. This paper reports the study of Ignition Delay of marine fuel oils containing two kinds of liquidized waste plastics, i.e. polyethylene, and polypropylene, respectively.

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Patterns to be processed in the deposit and recycling stages of the life cycle of automotive parts were identified. New LCA software for automotive parts was developed by creating an algorithm to calculate the environmental load for each of the various patterns found. The software was tested in terms of its ability to calculate the amount of CO_2 discharged in a bumper recycling system and results were confirmed to be equivalent to those calculated using a process analysis method. To estimate the effect of mechanical recycling, the software was applied to the LCA of rubber parts and calculated the amount of CO_2 dischargtd in patterns of deposit and recycling stage. Results showed that mechanical recycling has an ability to be effective in reducing the amount of CO_2 discharged in life cycle and to be so, it is very important to improve the quality of the recycled material and reduce the amount of CO_2 discharged in collecting process itself.

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Motor vehicles in 20^<th> century has brought comfortable and convenient life, and on the other hand, has become one of the major causes of air pollution, noise and traffic jams especially in urban area. The electric vehicle (EV) has been expected to be one of the solutions against above mentioned problems since it creates no emission gas and less noise and vibration. However, EV still has some limitations such as short cruising range or much high cost which have been making it difficult to spread EV in public. Toyota recognizes these issues, and is aware that most urban car use involves short distance with 1 or 2 occupants per vehicle. Thus Toyota has developed shared-use system "Crayon", using a fleet of 2-seater EV commuter "e-com". The "Crayon system is expected to be used in business in urban area, for second car demand in residential area, as well as for personal use by tourists in the protection area of nature or resort where ecological mobility is needed.

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The air pollution caused in urban areas by suspended particulate matter (SPM) and NO_x exhausted from cars has recently received much attention. Japanese Local governments, such as Tokyo and Osaka, are investigating the effectiveness of photocatalysts for decreasing NO_x concentrations. To improve indoor air quality in homes, in 1996 Daikin, Japan's largest air-conditioning manufacturer, developed and commercialized an air-purification system that uses photocatalysts to purify and sterilize air. We also designed and produced a trial air-purification system for removing NO_x.

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The ship-transportation of natural gas in the form of methane hydrate may replace liquefied natural gas (LNG) transportation. We investigated the framework of methane hydrate utility system and the outline of main elemental technologies on transportation of methane hydrate. Moreover, the methane hydrate transporting systems consisting of the elemental technologies were screened to provide the practical routes. Two systems which consist of bulk-carrying and off-loading by re-gasification and one with exclusive containers are promising because they include less processes and have larger net load capacity.

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In order to develop advanced technologies for the next generation supersonic transport, a research project on supersonic flight experiment using scaled non-powered experimental airplane has been carring out by National Aerospace Laboratory since 1997. Major subjects of the project are aerodynamics validation of CFD(Computational Fluied Dynamics) design and Natural Laminar Flow design in flight condition. In this paper, the design and manufacturing status of the onboard measurement system and communication system is described briefly.

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In this research, the operation analysis for straddle carrier's system of a seaport container terminal is investigated. In the present paper, the movements of straddle carrier and truck trailer at the transfer-point are recorded by video camera. The locus of straddle carrier in the stacking yard is also recorded with use of the GPS recorder. After examining an optimum way of yard operation for Straddle Carriers System from these measurement results, it become clear that making a balance with the throughput of Truck Gate and timely dispatching job order instructions to Straddle Carriers are important to shorten the length of Track Trailer's stay at the transfer point.

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This paper describes an application of magnetic sensor for vehicle detection. A vehicle is detected by earth magnetic field anomaly. It requires enough sensitivity and stability in milligauss. We apply a proprietary magnetoresistive device that has a lot of improvement compare with conventional sensors. The experimental results show good sensitivity, stability, and advantages to conventional method. Sensor out put shows good repeatability for the same object though each object generates different magnetic signature by each magnetization. It enables to detect the velocity with calculating auto correlation. This method is independent of the distance from objects up to 1-2 feet. This enables easy and wide variety way of installations to the sensor.

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For Management of Construction Site, Traffic jams around site are serious matters. In the case of large-scale civil construction, vehicles concerned with site often amount to 10,000 sometimes. Managers of these sites need to know traffic information, and in case of jam, control coming and going of vehicles. For this demand, we propose a method of traffic monitoring with camera, and automatic control system for vehicles going out from site. Traffic information is measured by Image processing as occupancy, and the traffic information is displayed at exit gate. In this paper we describe the principle of monitoring, verification experiment and application in site.

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The purpose of this system is to obtain proper and efficient images to monitor deformations, and diagnose tunnel conditions. We are developing an automatic image processing algorithm, to extract deformations like cracks, as the first step for this purpose. It can automatically extract cracks on standard tunnel walls as a result. We applied various techniques to this algorithm. One is to distinguish cracks from the obtained images of the tunnel wall. Actually there are several noise elements in those images. We must separate actual cracks from noises. The other is to measure various dimensions such as the length or width of cracks. These data can rank the deformations, and get a prognosis of their growth accordingly.

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We have been proposed the algorithm for the object recognition of individual objects in a recycling system. When this method is extended to the recognition of multiple objects, it is possible to place the reference images in a data base and try to match each objects to the reference images in the data base. However, as the number of reference images increases, the process of matching an object to every reference images becomes tedious. In this paper, we propose the recognition algorithm using an associative network so that the search for the most probable matching pattern is efficiently carried out.

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This paper presents the failure analysis of a hoist link chain used in a factory recycling cathode-ray tubes. The failure link chain had been used for only 8 months within the rated load until the accident occurred. According to fracture surface analyses of the failure link using the scanning electron microscopic (SEM), it was clear that the link chain had been subjected to over loads repeatedly. In order to reveal the cause of the over load affecting the link, the situation of the hoist installed in the factory was investigated in detail. As a result, it was found that the coil spring above the hook had been removed to increase the lifting range. If the spring is removed from the hook, the over winding prevent system does not work normally because the spring is a essential part of this system, and consequently, the link chain may have been subjected to the over load whenever this system worked.

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This paper describes all the details of Japanese traffic accident through automobile insurance data analysis from 1993 to 1999, which belong to The Chiyoda Fire & Marine Insurance Co. Ltd., comparing the change of traffic accident numbers with traffic statistics. As a result, the following became clear. ・ The effect of the traffic safety measure is appearing. ・ In recent years, the traffic accidents, which are slight, are handled as the accidents resulting in injury. ・ As a result, on the traffic statistics, the accidents resulting in injury look as if increasing in number.

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Residual life assessment system of cranes with risk-based maintenance technique has been developed. Risk is defined as a multiplication of likelihood by consequence of a failure with semi-qualitative method. This is based on engineering judgment with inspection data and opetating conditions and so on. Ranking of likelihood and consequence could be defined with the assessment of damage function and others. Risk-based maintenance technique could be optimized the maintenance program due to cost and safety.

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The most serious troubles in thermal power plants having coal-fired boilers are related to belt conveyors and they are likely to cause short of fuel supply and emergency stop of power plant. In most cases, the troubles are induced by the damage of bearing in belt conveyor. In this study, diagnostic-test by acoustic emission method was ap,plied to 7,280 bearings for detecting the damages. As a result, discernible damages are detected in 15 bearings rejected by AE after the instruments are dismantled. The typical examples of the damages of bearing are demonstrated and characteristics of AE corresponding to the damage are discussed in this paper.

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The resonant vibration tests were carried out on type 304 stainless steel to develop the non-destructive method for evaluating fatigue damage. The authors have studied the critical strain amplitude of fatigue above which dislocation multiplication begins to occur. The critical strain amplitude was determined from the stain amplitude dependence of internal friction which is due to dislocation motion of breakaway from pinning points and multiplication. Such dislocation motion gives the nonlinear stress-strain relationship of resonant vibration. The non-linear stress-strain relationship yields higher harmonics on vibration. In this study, the dynamic displacement of resonant vibration was measured using a non-contact laser displacement meter. The 3rd harmonics was strongly dependent on the strain amplitude over the region above the critical strain amplitude, though hardly be identified below that strain. As a consequence, detecting higher harmonics could be used to determining the critical amplitude of vibrating structures such as small bore piping systems with branch joints.

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A simulation technique that uses a finite element method model for predicting vibrations in the exhaust system was developed. The flexible joints, that is, vibration adsorption joints are faithfully modeled on the shape of flexible tubes and the properties of other parts are assigned numerical values. Further, an accurate model is obtained on the ball joints by assigning numerical values to the dynamic properties of gaskets. The vibration force of engine is obtained using the sum of the force of inertia in component parts and reaction force produced by combustion pressure. This made it possible to predict the forces transmitted to the body from exhaust hanger so that the vibration phenomenon could be understood in terms of overall exhaust system behavior. This in turn made it possible in the pre-development stages to study the characteristic effects of altering exhaust hanger positions and using vibration absorbers in order to decrease the forces transmitted to the body.

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