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Coupling natural ventilation with mechanical ventilation, hybrid ventilated buildings have the potential to minimize the energy bills for owners without compromising the thermal comfort of building occupants. The thermal performance of this type of building is much more robust compared to naturally ventilated buildings due to the supplementary cooling provided by the mechanical system when the outdoor environment is not favorable. With benefits of both energy saving and health improvement, the hybrid ventilation is promising to make buildings more sustainable and occupants healthier. The first step to popularize this type of building is to clearly realize its benefits across different climates. To fully map out the potential of utilizing hybrid ventilation, in our study, we applied general uncertainties and different intelligence levels of building control to an illustrative small to medium commercial building to investigate potential benefits of hybrid ventilation across different climate zones in US with respect to energy saving. The research is composed of two phases – the first phase for a preliminary investigation and the second phase for a thorough investigation. The results show that the hybrid ventilation could help save 10%–50% of energy across different climates. In US, Climate 3B Coast – Los Angeles and Climate 3C – San Francisco are the most suitable climate zones for the hybrid ventilation based on our investigation while the other zones share similar potentials (window opening hour percentage). Lastly, improving the hybrid ventilation operation intelligence turns out to be significant in enhancing the performance of hybrid ventilation buildings. Large discrepancy of energy saving (up to 15%) is observed when the hybrid ventilation building is controlled using different building intelligence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes the Intelligent Control Laboratory course at The Ohio State University in Columbus. Department of Electrical Engineering's control systems curriculum at the university; Students' execution of a series of laboratory exercises; Implementation of fuzzy control, adaptive fuzzy control and other intelligent control techniques; Emphasis on sensing and actuation technologies.

Analyzes cost savings from use of Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) infrastructure in meeting increasing vehicle-handling capacity needs in the United States. Challenge of maintaining congestion levels; Non-discounted operations and maintenance costs; Redistribution of demand under congested conditions through route changes and time and mode shifts.

This paper demonstrates an RF thermal plasma pyrolysis reaction apparatus that achieves 89 wt.% reaction conversion yield with no tar content. The demonstrated experimental apparatus consists of a 1100 W RFVII Inc. (104 Church St, Newfield, NJ 08344, United States) @ 13.56 MHz RF thermal plasma generator, a Navio matching network, intelligent feedback controller, and an 8-turn copper RF-ICP torch embedded in a 12 L thermochemical reactor. The intelligent feedback controller optimizes the thermal performance based on feedback signals from three online gas analyzers: CO, CO2 and NOx. The feedback controller output signal controls the RF thermal plasma torch current that provides real-time temperature control. The proposed reaction system achieves precise temperature profiles for both pyrolysis and gasification as well as increases end-product yield and eliminates undesired products such as tar and char. The identified hydrocarbon liquid mixture is 90 wt.% gasoline and 10 wt.%. diesel. The 8-turn RF-ICP thermal plasma torch has an average heating rate of +35 °C/min and a maximum operating temperature of 2000 °C and is able to sustain stable flame for more than 30 min. The reaction operating parameters are (550–990 °C τ = 30 min for pyrolysis and (1300 °C τ = 1 sec) for the gasification process. The identified hydrocarbon liquid products are 90 wt.% of a n-butyl-benzene (C6H5C4H9) and oluene (C7H8) mixture with less than 10 wt.% decane diesel fuel (C10 H22). Comsol simulation is used to assess the RF-ICP thermal plasma torch's thermal performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the Control Research Laboratory (CRL) at the Ohio State University's School of Electrical Engineering. Details on some of the control courses offered by the department; Information on conventional and intelligent control research carried out by the CRL; Method applications and implementations studied by CRL students and researchers; Facilities that support CRL's experimental work in control system development. INSET: CRL team..

Provides information on an intelligent fabric devised by researchers involved in a joint project at Virginia Tech University and the University of Southern California which could be used to create smart tents that would listen for approaching noises, waking soldiers when suspicious sounds were detected. Description of the initial prototype; Remarks of Mark Jones, an electrical computer engineer at Virginia Tech, regarding the benefits of the intelligent fabric.

Reports the development of an intelligent controller for large database queries in a dialogue fashion at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Factors in the decision to build an expert system for geographical databases; Characteristics of the system; Presentation of the prototype expert system called Landex.