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The characteristics of ion temperature gradient (ITG) turbulence in the presence of a magnetic island are numerically investigated using a gyrokinetic model. We observe that in the absence of the usual ITG drive gradient, a solitary magnetic island alone can drive ITG instability. The magnetic island not only drives high-n modes of ITG instability but also induces low-n modes of vortex flow. Moreover, as the magnetic island width increases, the width of the vortex flow also increases. This implies that wider islands may more easily induce vortex flows. The study further indicates that the saturated amplitude and transport level of MI-induced ITG turbulence vary with different magnetic island widths. In general, larger magnetic islands enhance both particle and heat transport. When the magnetic island is of the order of 21 times the ion gyroradius (21\{rho}_i), the turbulence-driven transport level can reach the same level in cases where ITG is driven by pressure gradients., Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures

The dynamics of long-wavelength ($k_\theta<1.4 \mathrm{\ cm^{-1}}$), broadband (20-200 kHz) electron temperature fluctuations ($\tilde T_e/T_e$) of plasmas in gas-puff experiments were observed for the first time in HL-2A tokamak. In a relative low density ($n_e(0) \simeq 0.91 \sim 1.20 \times10^{19}/m^3$) scenario, after gas-puffing the core temperature increases and the edge temperature drops. On the contrary, temperature fluctuation drops at the core and increases at the edge. Analyses show the non-local emergence is accompanied with a long radial coherent length of turbulent fluctuations. While in a higher density ($n_e(0) \simeq 1.83 \sim 2.02 \times10^{19}/m^3$) scenario, the phenomena were not observed. Furthermore, compelling evidence indicates that $\textbf{E} \times \textbf{B}$ shear serves as a substantial contributor to this extensive radial interaction. This finding offers a direct explanatory link to the intriguing core-heating phenomenon witnessed within the realm of non-local transport.

This article presents an in-depth study of the sequence of events leading to density limit disruption in J-TEXT tokamak plasmas, with an emphasis on boudary turbulent transport and the high-field-side high-density (HFSHD) front. These phenomena were extensively investigated by using Langmuir probe and Polarimeter-interferometer diagnostics.

This paper evaluates the feasibility of helicon current drive (HCD) in a hybrid scenario for the China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR). Utilizing the GENRAY/CQL3D package, a large number of simulations (over 5 000) were conducted, with parametric scans in the antenna's poloidal position, launched parallel refractive index, and wave frequency. The analysis reveals that helicon has excellent accessibility under reactor-level conditions, and smaller n|| and higher wave frequency result in enhanced wave absorption. The simulations demonstrate an optimal launched parallel refractive index of approximately 1.6 for the CFETR hybrid scenario. The best launch position is found to be within a poloidal angle range of 25 degrees to 65 degrees. Additionally, it is preferable to have a narrow parallel refractive index spectrum for wave absorption when operating below the threshold value of {\Delta}n|| (~0.6), beyond which the effect of {\Delta}n|| on wave absorption is negligible. This study provides valuable insights into the potential application of HCD in CFETR.

The drift wave in the presence of impurity ions was investigated numerically in reversed field pinch (RFP) plasmas, using the gyrokinetic integral eigenmode equation. It was found that in RFP plasmas with hollow density profiles, an increase in $k_\theta \rho_s$ increases the growth rate of the ion temperature gradient (ITG). Comparing the results of regular and hollow plasma density profile shows that the ITG mode under the hollow density profile is much harder to be excited. For the impurities' effects, when the impurities' density gradient is opposite to the primary ions, namely when $L_{ez}$ is negative, impurities could enhance the instability. On the contrary, when $L_{ez}$ is positive, the instability is stabilized. Regarding the trapped electron mode (TEMs), the growth rate under the plasma with hollow density profile remained minor than that for the standard density gradient. There exists a threshold of $L_{ez}$. When $L_{ez}$ is less than this value, impurity destabilizes TEMs, while as $L_{ez}$ is greater than this, impurity stabilizes TEMs. The effects of $L_{ez}$ on TEM also depend on both the plasma density gradient and the impurity species. In addition, the influence of collisionality on TEMs was also studied.

A gyrokinetic simulation of the influence of electron cyclotron current drive and ion kinetic effect on the m/n=2/1 tearing mode (TM) instabilities is presented in HL-2A and DIII-D tokamak configurations. The TM evolution is calculated with a finite mass electron model and the rf current source is obtained by ray-tracing and the Fokker-Planck method. The TMs are found to be perfectly stabilized by a continuous 1MW 68GHz X2-mode in HL-2A tokamak, while instabilities in the DIII-D discharge (with lower value of CR=I_{rf}/I_{0}, where Irf is the wave driven current and I0 is the equilibrium plasma current) are only partially stabilized with the 1MW 110GHz X2-mode due to inadequate power input. The result also indicates that a helicon current drive is more efficient than a continuous ECCD. Analysis of the GTC simulation reveals, both in HL-2A and DIII-D, that the presence of ions can reduce the island width as well as the growth rate. Furthermore, the kinetic effect of thermal ions on TM is found to be more pronounced with higher ion temperature.

Constructing a smart wheelchair on a commercially available powered wheelchair (PWC) platform avoids a host of seating, mechanical design and reliability issues but requires methods of predicting and controlling the motion of a device never intended for robotics. Analog joystick inputs are subject to black-box transformations which may produce intuitive and adaptable motion control for human operators, but complicate robotic control approaches; furthermore, installation of standard axle mounted odometers on a commercial PWC is difficult. In this work, we present an integrated hardware and software system for predicting the motion of a commercial PWC platform that does not require any physical or electronic modification of the chair beyond plugging into an industry standard auxiliary input port. This system uses an RGB-D camera and an Arduino interface board to capture motion data, including visual odometry and joystick signals, via ROS communication. Future motion is predicted using an autoregressive sparse Gaussian process model. We evaluate the proposed system on real-world short-term path prediction experiments. Experimental results demonstrate the system's efficacy when compared to a baseline neural network model., Comment: The paper has been accepted to the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA2018)