Inverter-Type refrigerators are known to consume less energy by varying the inverter frequency according to indoor temperatures and refrigerant pressure through indoor-outdoor communication. However, many commercial operators cannot afford to replace indoor units with ones capable of communication. In a non-communication configuration, indoor units are connected with an inverter-type outdoor unit without intercommunication abilities. The research goal is finding appropriate operating parameters to achieve energy efficiency. Thus, an operation algorithm with two modes is proposed, i.e., one to search the best operating parameters and one for normal operation with the best parameters. The experimental evaluation showed 11.27% reduction in energy consumption, indicating a good applicability of the algorithm.

Unlike household refrigerators, commercial refrigerators are composed of separate indoor and outdoor units. The outdoor unit of most commercial refrigerators is designed to run at a fixed speed, which results in low energy efficiency and loud fan noise. Moreover, it cannot respond flexibly to changing thermal load in the indoor unit. Inverter type outdoor units can address such problems through speed changes based on information obtained from the indoor unit. However, using two units from different manufacturers is often not a viable solution. If condition changes in the indoor unit can be detected without communication between the two units, it is possible to adjust the speed of the outdoor unit. This paper attempts to analyze the signal from the outdoor unit when the condition of the indoor unit changes by varying the thermal load.

Flexible tactile sensors can provide valuable feedback to intelligent robots about the environment. This is especially important when the robots, e.g., service robots, are sharing the workspace with human. This paper presents a flexible tactile sensor that was manufactured by direct writing technique, which is one of 3D printing method with multi-walled carbon nano-tubes. The signal processing system consists of two parts: analog circuits to amplify and filter the sensor output and digital signal processing algorithms to reduce undesired noise. Finally, experimental setup is implemented and evaluated to identify the characteristics of the flexible tactile sensor system. This paper showed that this type of sensors can detect the initiation and termination of contacts with appropriate signal processing.

In this paper, we design a gripping force control system using tactile sensor to prevent slip when gripper tries to grasp and lift an object. We use a flexible tactile sensor for measuring uniplanar pressure on gripper"s finger and develop an algorithm to detect the onset of slip using the sensor output. We also use a flexible pressure sensor to measure the normal force. In addition, various signal processing techniques are used to reduce noise included in the sensor output. A 3-finger gripper is used to grasp and lift up a cylindrical object. The tactile sensor is attached on one of fingers, and sends output signals to detect slip. Whenever the sensor signal is similar to the slip pattern, gripper force is increased. In conclusion, this research shows that slip can be detected using the tactile sensor and we can control gripping force to eliminate slip between gripper and object.