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Expert systems imitate professional experience and thinking process of a specialist to solve problems in various subject areas. An example of the problem that it is expedient to solve with the help of the expert system is the problem of forming a diagnosis that arises in technology, medicine, and other fields. When solving the diagnostic problem, it is necessary to anticipate the occurrence of critical or emergency situations in the future. They are situations, which require timely intervention of specialists to prevent critical aftermath. Fuzzy sets theory provides one of the approaches to solve ill-structured problems, diagnosis-making problems belong to which. The theory of fuzzy sets provides means for the formation of linguistic variables, which are helpful to describe the modeled process. Linguistic variables are elements of fuzzy logical rules that simulate the reasoning of professionals in the subject area. To develop fuzzy rules it is necessary to resort to a survey of experts. Knowledge engineers use experts’ opinion to evaluate correspondence between a typical current situation and the risk of emergency in the future. The result of knowledge extraction is a description of linguistic variables that includes a combination of signs. Experts are involved in the survey to create descriptions of linguistic variables and present a set of simulated situations.When building such systems, the main problem of the survey is laboriousness of the process of interaction of knowledge engineers with experts. The main reason is the multiplicity of questions the expert must answer. The paper represents reasoning of the method, which allows knowledge engineer to reduce the number of questions posed to the expert. The paper describes the experiments carried out to test the applicability of the proposed method. An expert system for predicting risk groups for neonatal pathologies and pregnancy pathologies using the proposed knowledge extraction method confirms the feasibility of the proposed approach.

Road noise is one of the key issues in maintaining high environmental standards. At speeds between 50 and 120 km/h, tires are the main source of noise generated by a moving vehicle. It is well known that either the interaction between the tire tread and the road surface or some internal dynamic effects are responsible for tire noise and vibration. This paper discusses the application of a new method for modelling the generation and propagation of sound during tire motion, based on the application of the so-called acoustic-vortex decomposition. Currently, the application of the Lighthill equation and the aeroacoustics analogy are the main approaches used to model tire noise. The aeroacoustics analogy, in solving the problem of separating acoustic and vortex (pseudo-sound) modes of vibration, is not a mathematically rigorous formulation for deriving the source (righthand side) of the acoustic wave equation. In the development of the acoustic-vortex decomposition method, a mathematically rigorous transformation of the equations of motion of a compressible medium is performed to obtain an inhomogeneous wave equation with respect to static enthalpy pulsations with a source term that de-pends on the velocity field of the vortex mode. In this case, the near-field pressure fluctuations are the sum of acoustic fluctuations and pseudo-sound. Thus, the acoustic-vortex decomposition method allows to adequately modeling the acoustic field and the dynamic loads that generate tire vibration, providing a complete solution to the problem of modelling tire noise, which is the result of its turbulent flow with the generation of vortex sound, as well as the dynamic loads and noise emission due to tire vibration. The method is first implemented and test-ed in the FlowVision software package. The results obtained with FlowVision are compared with those obtained with the LMS Virtual.Lab Acoustics package and a number of differences in the acoustic field are highlighted.

Industrial robots have made it possible for robotics to become a worldwide discipline both in economy and in science. However, their capabilities are limited, especially regarding contact tasks where it is required to regulate or at least limit contact forces. At one point, it was noticed that elasticity in the joint transmission, which was treated as a drawback previously, is actually helpful in this regard. This observation led to the introduction of elastic joint robots that are well-suited to contact tasks and cooperative behavior in particular, so they become more and more widespread nowadays. Many researchers try to implement such devices not with trivial series elastic actuators (SEA) but with more sophisticated variable stiffness actuators (VSA) that can regulate their own mechanical stiffness. All elastic actuators demonstrate shock robustness and safe interaction with external objects to some extent, but when stiffness may be varied, it provides additional benefits, e. g., in terms of energy efficiency and task adaptability. Here, we present a novel variable stiffness actuator with a magnetic coupler as an elastic element. Magnetic transmission is contactless and thus advantageous in terms of robustness to misalignment. In addition, the friction model of the transmission becomes less complex. It also has milder stiffness characteristic than typical mechanical nonlinear springs, moreover, the stiffness curve has a maximum after which it descends. Therefore, when this maximum torque is achieved, the coupler slips, and a new pair of poles defines the equilibrium position. As a result, the risk of damage is smaller for this design solution. The design of the joint is thoroughly described, along with its mathematical model. Finally, the control system is also proposed, and simulation tests confirm the design ideas.

The collective behavior of crowd leaving a room is modeled. The model is based on molecular dynamics approach with a mixture of socio-psychological and physical forces. The new algorithm for complicatedly branched space is proposed. It suggests that each individual develops its own plan of escape, which is stochastically transformed during the evolution. The algorithm includes also the separation of original space into rooms with possible exits selected by individuals according to their probability distribution. The model is calibrated on the base of empirical data provided by fire case in the nightclub “Lame Horse” (Perm, 2009). The algorithm is realized as an end-user Java software. It is assumed that this tool could help to test the buildings for their safety for humans.

Superplastic forming of Ni and Ti based alloys is widely used in aerospace industry. The main advantage of using the effect of superplasticity in sheet metal forming processes is a feasibility of forming materials with a high amount of plastic strain in conditions of prevailing tensile stresses. This article is dedicated to study commercial FEM software SFTC DEFORM application for prediction thickness deviation during low temperature superplastic forming of UFG Ti-6-4 alloy. Experimentally, thickness deviation during superplastic forming can be observed in the local area of plastic deformation and this process is aggravated by local softening of the metal and this is stipulated by microstructure coarsening. The theoretical model was prepared to analyze experimentally observed metal flow. Two approaches have been used for that. The first one is the using of integrated creep rheology model in DEFORM. As superplastic effect is observed only in materials with fine and ultrafine grain sizes the second approach is carried out using own user procedures for rheology model which is based on microstructure evolution equations. These equations have been implemented into DEFORM via Fortran user’s solver subroutines. Using of FEM simulation for this type of forming allows tracking a strain rate in different parts of a workpiece during a process, which is crucial for maintaining the superplastic conditions. Comparison of these approaches allows us to make conclusions about effect of microstructure evolution on metal flow during superplastic deformation. The results of the FEM analysis and theoretical conclusions have been approved by results of the conducted Erichsen test. The main issues of this study are as follows: a) the DEFORM software allows an engineer to predict formation of metal shape under the condition of low-temperature superplasticity; b) in order to augment the accuracy of the prediction of local deformations, the effect of the microstructure state of an alloy having sub-microcristalline structure should be taken into account in the course of calculations in the DEFORM software.

The article deals with the modeling of the number of employed population by branches of the economy at the national and regional levels. The lack of targeted distribution of workers in a market economy requires the study of systemic processes in the labor market that lead to different dynamics of the number of employed in the sectors of the economy. In this case, personal strategies for choosing labor activity by economic agents become important. The presence of different strategies leads to the emergence of strata in the labor market with a dynamically changing number of employees, unevenly distributed among the sectors of the economy. As a result, non-linear fluctuations in the number of employed population can be observed, the toolkit of agentbased modeling is relevant for the study of the fluctuations. In the article, we examined in-phase and anti-phase fluctuations in the number of employees by economic activity on the example of the Jewish Autonomous Region in Russia. The fluctuations found in the time series of statistical data for 2008–2016. We show that such fluctuations appear by age groups of workers. In view of this, we put forward a hypothesis that the agent in the labor market chooses a place of work by a strategy, related with his age group. It directly affects the distribution of the number of employed for different cohorts and the total number of employed in the sectors of the economy. The agent determines the strategy taking into account the socio-economic characteristics of the branches of the economy (different levels of wages, working conditions, prestige of the profession). We construct a basic agentoriented model of a three-branch economy to test the hypothesis. The model takes into account various strategies of economic agents, including the choice of the highest wages, the highest prestige of the profession and the best working conditions by the agent. As a result of numerical experiments, we show that the availability of various industry selection strategies and the age preferences of employers within the industry lead to periodic and complex dynamics of the number of different-aged employees. Age preferences may be a consequence, for example, the requirements of employer for the existence of work experience and education. Also, significant changes in the age structure of the employed population may result from migration.

The paper presents a comparative analysis of the enterprises of the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation (AZ RF) on economic indicators in accordance with the rating of the Polar index. This study includes numerical data of 193 enterprises located in the AZ RF. Machine learning methods are applied, both standard, from open source, and own original methods — the method of Optimally Reliable Partitions (ORP), the method of Statistically Weighted Syndromes (SWS). Held split, indicating the maximum value of the functional quality, this study used the simplest family of different one-dimensional partition with a single boundary point, as well as a collection of different two-dimensional partition with one boundary point on each of the two combining variables. Permutation tests allow not only to evaluate the reliability of the data of the revealed regularities, but also to exclude partitions with excessive complexity from the set of the revealed regularities. Patterns connected the class number and economic indicators are revealed using the SDT method on one-dimensional indicators. The regularities which are revealed within the framework of the simplest one-dimensional model with one boundary point and with significance not worse than p < 0.001 are also presented in the given study. The so-called sliding control method was used for reliable evaluation of such diagnostic ability. As a result of these studies, a set of methods that had sufficient effectiveness was identified. The collective method based on the results of several machine learning methods showed the high importance of economic indicators for the division of enterprises in accordance with the rating of the Polar index. Our study proved and showed that those companies that entered the top Rating of the Polar index are generally recognized by financial indicators among all companies in the Arctic Zone. However it would be useful to supplement the list of indicators with ecological and social criteria.

Gesture recognition is an urgent challenge in developing systems of human-machine interfaces. We analyzed machine learning methods for gesture classification based on electromyographic muscle signals to identify the most effective one. Methods such as the naive Bayesian classifier (NBC), logistic regression, decision tree, random forest, gradient boosting, support vector machine (SVM), $k$-nearest neighbor algorithm, and ensembles (NBC and decision tree, NBC and gradient boosting, gradient boosting and decision tree) were considered. Electromyography (EMG) was chosen as a method of obtaining information about gestures. This solution does not require the location of the hand in the field of view of the camera and can be used to recognize finger movements. To test the effectiveness of the selected methods of gesture recognition, a device was developed for recording the EMG signal, which includes three electrodes and an EMG sensor connected to the microcontroller and the power supply. The following gestures were chosen: clenched fist, “thumb up”, “Victory”, squeezing an index finger and waving a hand from right to left. Accuracy, precision, recall and execution time were used to evaluate the effectiveness of classifiers. These parameters were calculated for three options for the location of EMG electrodes on the forearm. According to the test results, the most effective methods are $k$-nearest neighbors’ algorithm, random forest and the ensemble of NBC and gradient boosting, the average accuracy of ensemble for three electrode positions was 81.55%. The position of the electrodes was also determined at which machine learning methods achieve the maximum accuracy. In this position, one of the differential electrodes is located at the intersection of the flexor digitorum profundus and flexor pollicis longus, the second — above the flexor digitorum superficialis.

In this paper, we test the performance of some modern stochastic optimization methods and practices with respect to the digital pre-distortion problem, which is a valuable part of processing signal on base stations providing wireless communication. In the first part of our study, we focus on the search for the best performing method and its proper modifications. In the second part, we propose the new, quasi-online, testing framework that allows us to fit our modeling results with the behavior of real-life DPD prototype, retest some selected of practices considered in the previous section and approve the advantages of the method appearing to be the best under real-life conditions. For the used model, the maximum achieved improvement in depth is 7% in the standard regime and 5% in the online regime (metric itself is of logarithmic scale). We also achieve a halving of the working time preserving 3% and 6% improvement in depth for the standard and online regime, respectively. All comparisons are made to the Adam method, which was highlighted as the best stochastic method for DPD problem in [Pasechnyuk et al., 2021], and to the Adamax method, which is the best in the proposed online regime.

Numerical simulation of moving sportsman external flow is presented. The unique method is developed for obtaining integral aerodynamic characteristics, which were the function of the flow regime (i.e. angle of attack, flow speed) and body position. Individual anthropometric characteristics and moving boundaries of sportsman (or sports equipment) during the race are taken into consideration.

Numerical simulation is realized using FlowVision CFD. The software is based on the finite volume method, high-performance numerical methods and reliable mathematical models of physical processes. A Cartesian computational grid is used by FlowVision, the grid generation is a completely automated process. Local grid adaptation is used for solving high-pressure gradient and object complex shape. Flow simulation process performed by solutions systems of equations describing movement of fluid and/or gas in the computational domain, including: mass, moment and energy conservation equations; state equations; turbulence model equations. FlowVision permits flow simulation near moving bodies by means of computational domain transformation according to the athlete shape changes in the motion. Ski jumper aerodynamic characteristics are studied during all phases: take-off performance in motion, in-run and flight. Projected investigation defined simulation method, which includes: inverted statement of sportsman external flow development (velocity of the motion is equal to air flow velocity, object is immobile); changes boundary of the body technology defining; multiple calculations with the national team member data projecting. The research results are identification of the main factors affected to jumping performance: aerodynamic forces, rotating moments etc. Developed method was tested with active sportsmen. Ski jumpers used this method during preparations for Sochi Olympic Games 2014. A comparison of the predicted characteristics and experimental data shows a good agreement. Method versatility is underlined by performing swimmer and skater flow simulation. Designed technology is applicable for sorts of natural and technical objects.