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Control charts are designed to be effective in detecting a shift in the distribution of a process. Typically, these charts assume that the data for these processes follow an approximately normal distribution or some known distribution. However, if a data-generating process has a large proportion of zeros, that is, the data is intermittent, then traditional control charts may not adequately monitor these processes. The purpose of this study is to examine proposed control chart methods designed for monitoring a process with intermittent data to determine if they have a sufficiently small percentage of false out-of-control signals. Forecasting techniques for slow-moving/intermittent product demand have been extensively explored as intermittent data is common to operational management applications (Syntetos & Boylan, 2001, 2005, 2011; Willemain, Smart, & Schwarz, 2004). Extensions and modifications of traditional forecasting models have been proposed to model intermittent or slow-moving demand, including the associated trends, correlated demand, seasonality and other characteristics (Altay, Litteral, & Rudisill, 2012). Croston’s (1972) method and its adaptations have been among the principal procedures used in these applications. This paper proposes adapting Croston’s methodology to design control charts, similar to Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (EWMA) control charts, to be effective in monitoring processes with intermittent data. A simulation study is conducted to assess the performance of these proposed control charts by evaluating their Average Run Lengths (ARLs), or equivalently, their percent of false positive signals.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel event-triggered aperiodic intermittent sliding-mode control (ETAI-SMC) algorithm for master–slave bilateral teleoperation robotic systems to further save communication resources while maintaining synchronization precision.

By using the Lyapunov theory, a new event-triggered aperiodic intermittent sliding-mode controller is designed to synchronize master–slave robots in a discontinuous method. Unlike traditional periodic time-triggered continuous control strategy, a new ETAI condition is discussed for less communication pressure. Then, the exponential reaching law is adopted to accelerate sliding-mode variables convergence, which has a significant effect on synchronization performance. In addition, the authors use quantizers to make their algorithm have obvious progress in saving communication resources.

The proposed control algorithm performance is validated by an experiment developed on a practical bilateral teleoperation system with two PHANToM Omni robotic devices. As a result, the synchronization error is limited within a small range and the control frequency is evidently reduced. Compared with a conventional control algorithm, the experimental results illustrate that the proposed control algorithm is more sensitive to system states changes and it can further save communication resources while guaranteeing the system synchronization accuracy, which is more practical for real bilateral teleoperation robotic systems.

A novel ETAI-SMC for bilateral teleoperation robotic systems is proposed to find a balance between reducing the control frequency and synchronization control precision. Combining the traditional sliding-mode control algorithm with the periodic intermittent control strategy and the event-triggered control strategy has produced obvious effect on our control performance. The proposed ETAI-SMC algorithm helps the controller be more sensitive to system states changes, which makes it possible to achieve precise control with lower control frequency. Moreover, we design an environment contact force feedback algorithm for operators to improve the perception of the slave robot working environment. In addition, quantizers and the exponential convergence law are adopted to help the proposed algorithm perform better in saving communication resources and improving synchronization precision.

Existing control circuits for piezoelectric energy harvesting (PEH) suffers from long startup time or high power consumption. This paper aims to design an ultra-low power control circuit that can harvest weak ambient vibrational energy on the order of several microwatts to power heavy loads such as wireless sensors.

A self-powered control circuit is proposed, functioning for very brief periods at the maximum power point, resulting in a low duty cycle. The circuit can start to function at low input power thresholds and can promptly achieve optimal operating conditions when cold-starting. The circuit is designed to be able to operate without stable DC power supply and powered by the piezoelectric transducers.

When using the series-synchronized switch harvesting on inductor circuit with a large 1 mF energy storage capacitor, the proposed circuit can perform 322% better than the standard energy harvesting circuit in terms of energy harvested. This control circuit can also achieve an ultra-low consumption of 0.3 µW, as well as capable of cold-starting with input power as low as 5.78 µW.

The intermittent control strategy proposed in this paper can drastically reduce power consumption of the control circuit. Without dedicated cold-start modules and DC auxiliary supply, the circuit can achieve optimal efficiency within one input cycle, if the input signal is larger than voltage threshold. The proposed control strategy is especially favorable for harvesting energy from natural vibrations and can be a promising solution for other PEH circuits as well.

Recent spacecraft attitude control systems tend to use wireless communication for cost-saving and distributed mission purposes while encountering limited communication resources and data exposure issues. This paper aims to study the attitude control problem with low communication frequency under the sampled-data.

The authors propose constructive control system structures based on quantization and event-triggered methods for intra-spacecraft and multi-spacecraft systems, and they also provide potential solutions to shield the control system's data security. The proposed control architectures can effectively save communication resources for both intra-spacecraft and multi-spacecraft systems.

The proposed control architectures no longer require sensors with trigger-ing mechanism and can achieve distributed control schemes. This paper also provides proposals of employing the public key encryption to secure the data in control-loop, which is transmitted by the event-triggered control mechanism.

Spacecraft attempts to use wireless communication, yet the attitude control system does not follow up promptly to accommodate these variations. Compared with existing approaches, the proposed control structures can save communication resources of control-loop in multi-sections effectively, and systematically, by rationally configuring the location of quantization and event-triggered mechanisms.

This paper presents several new control schemes and a necessary condition for the employment of encryption algorithms for control systems based on event-based communication.

Proposes a conceptual interpretative framework as a reading key to management differences in the two principal manufacturing contexts – intermittent manufacturing and repetitive manufacturing – within the three basic operations management subsystems: planning, inventory control and shopfloor control.

Wearable health information systems (IS) open up a new era for personal health self-management, and bring about disruptive changes to individual lives. However, prior studies on IS post-adoptive behavior primarily focused on either continuance or discontinuance, neglecting the mutual transformation process between IS usage and rejection behavior. This behavior is expressed as intermittent discontinuance in the current study. By revising and extending the expectation-disconfirmation model, the purpose of this paper is to understand the factors affecting information system intermittent discontinuance in the context of wearable eHealth.

This study proposes a revised expectation-disconfirmation model by incorporating four new theoretical constructs, i.e. neutral disconfirmation, attitudinal ambivalence, neutral satisfaction, and intermittent discontinuance. An online survey was used to validate the research model, and 428 wearable health device users were recruited in this study.

Empirical results demonstrate that neutral disconfirmation exerts positive effects on neutral satisfaction and attitudinal ambivalence, both of which further have positive effects on intermittent discontinuance. In addition, attitudinal ambivalence also has a positive and significant effect on neutral satisfaction.

This study extends the current understanding on IS post-adoption usage behavior by introducing a new concept, i.e., intermittent discontinuance. In particular, post-adoption usage behavior is viewed as a dynamic process within a changing environment in this study. Some unique features specific to intermittent discontinuance are also identified. In this regard, neutral and conflicting constructs further add new values to IS adoption and diffusion literature. In addition, the integration of eHealth and wearable devices provides a fruitful research context for future research, and this study represents one of the first attempts to empirically explore the intermittent usage problems encountered within this emerging phenomenon.

Accurate forecasting of intermittent demand is very important since parts with intermittent demand characteristics are very common. The purpose of this paper is to bring an easier way of handling the hard work of intermittent demand forecasting by using commonly used Excel spreadsheet and also performing parameter optimization.

Smoothing parameters of the forecasting methods are optimized dynamically by Excel Solver in order to achieve the best performance. Application is done on real data of Turkish Airlines’ spare parts comprising 262 weekly periods from January 2009 to December 2013. The data set are composed of 500 stock-keeping units, so there are 131,000 data points in total.

From the results of implementation, it is shown that using the optimum parameter values yields better performance for each of the methods.

Although it is an intensive study, this research has some limitations. Since only real data are considered, this research is limited to the aviation industry.

This study guides market players by explaining the features of intermittent demand. With the help of the study, decision makers dealing with intermittent demand are capable of applying specialized intermittent demand forecasting methods.

The study brings simplicity to intermittent demand forecasting work by using commonly used spreadsheet software. The study is valuable for giving insights to market players dealing with items having intermittent demand characteristics, and it is one of the first study which is optimizing the smoothing parameters of the forecasting methods by using spreadsheet in the area of intermittent demand forecasting.

Intermittent demand appears sporadically, with some time periods not even displaying any demand at all. Even so, such patterns constitute considerable proportions of the total stock in many industrial settings. Forecasting intermittent demand is a rather difficult task but of critical importance for corresponding cost savings. The current study aims to examine the empirical outcomes of three heuristics towards the modification of established intermittent demand forecasting approaches.

First, optimization of the smoothing parameter used in Croston's approach is empirically explored, in contrast to the use of an a priori fixed value as in earlier studies. Furthermore, the effect of integer rounding of the resulting forecasts is considered. Lastly, the authors evaluate the performance of Theta model as an alternative of SES estimator for extrapolating demand sizes and/or intervals. The proposed heuristics are implemented into the forecasting support system.

The experiment is performed on 3,000 real intermittent demand series from the automotive industry, while evaluation is made both in terms of bias and accuracy. Results indicate increased forecasting performance.

The current research explores some very simple heuristics which have a positive impact on the accuracy of intermittent demand forecasting approaches. While some of these issues have been partially explored in the past, the current research focuses on a complete in‐depth analysis of easy‐to‐employ modifications to well‐established intermittent demand approaches. By this, the authors enable the application of such heuristics in an industrial environment, which may lead to significant inventory and production cost reductions and other benefits.

Research in the area of forecasting and stock inventory control for intermittent demand is designed to provide robust models for the underlying demand which appears at random, with some time periods having no demand at all. Croston’s method is a popular technique for these models and it uses two single exponential smoothing (SES) models which involve smoothing constants. A key issue is the choice of the values due to the sensitivity of the forecasts to changes in demand. Suggested selections of the smoothing constants include values between 0.1 and 0.3. Since an ARIMA model has been illustrated to be equivalent to SES, an optimal smoothing constant can be selected from the ARIMA model for SES. This chapter will conduct simulations to investigate whether using an optimal smoothing constant versus the suggested smoothing constant is important. Since SES is designed to be an adapted method, data are simulated which vary between slow and fast demand.

The purpose of this study is to work on heat transfer enhancement within different engineering cavities is the major aim of most technical solutions. Such intensification can be obtained by using “smart” liquids known as nanoliquids and solid fins. Therefore, free convective thermal transmission within square nanoliquid chamber under the influence of complex fins is studied. The considered fins are the combination of wall-mounted adiabatic fin and an adiabatic block over this fin.

Influences of the Rayleigh number, location of the local adiabatic block and nanoparticles concentration on liquid motion and energy transport are studied. Finite difference technique was used to solve the governing equations.

It has been ascertained that the energy transport intensification can be reached for the middle position of this local block within the cavity.

The main originality of this work is to use intermittent block in a nanofluid filled cavity under differentially heated conditions. One constant and location of one of the passive element is constant and other one is fixed, which is the intermittent block, is used to control heat and fluid flow. Thus, distance between blocks is allowed to control of the velocity and kinetic energy. In this way, temperature distribution also can be controlled inside the square cross-sectional closed space. Another originality of the work is to use nanoparticle added main flow for this geometry. Thus, energy efficiency can be controlled via adiabatic intermittent blocks without spending any extra energy.