The paper puts forward and implements a method of designing and creating a modelling simulation environment for extensive and complete analysis of economical lighting on highways. From a general design viewpoint, the proposed solution explores the concept of a network description language (SMOL), which has been designed to describe the necessary network functions, mechanisms, and devices for the purpose of their computer simulation and verification. The presented results of the performed research confirm the usability of intelligent lighting on highways, both in the sense of the design concept and in the aspect of saving energy.

The manufacture and consumption of market products show ever growing trends, and this means not only the supply and demand volume but also, to a higher and higher extent, searching for new products distinguishable from the variety of products on the market. Thus, it is necessary to find methods of functional, logical and structural combination of the so far existing engineering applications like CAx, RP/RT/RE, PDM/TDM, PPC/ERP, CE/SE and RDBMS techniques. A new challenge imposed on manufacturers by the competitive market is the so-called “product customization”, i.e. attending to an individual customer’s requirements in the features of a series manufactured product. The general objective of customisation is to elaborate features of a product, manufacturing processes, documentation and production organisation in such a way that the product’s individual features meet the customer’s requirements and its manufacturing process, price and service do not stray from series manufactured products.

The paper presents the issue of production processes improvement in foundries in the area of finishing treatment of iron casts

manufactured on automated foundry lines with vertical or horizontal mould division. Due to numerous factors which influence

the efficiency of the processes, multi-criterion assessment tools were proposed in order to select the optimal solution for the assumed

criteria. After determining the criteria weight using the Saaty method, a simulation experiment was designed and carried out which

presents possible scenarios of casts finishing treatment operations. Basing on experiment reports from a computer model, particular

solutions were evaluated using the Yager’s method. The evaluation of the experiment results was performed by experts who assessed

different options according to each of the criteria adopted. After the establishment of the total standardized ratings by averaging the scores

given by individual experts, the final decision was generated. Using the presented method, the best solution was chosen from among

the analyzed scenarios.

The paper presents a practical example of improving quality and occupational safety on automated casting lines. Working conditions

on the line of box moulding with horizontal mould split were analysed due to low degree of automation at the stage of cores or filters

installation as well as spheroidizing mortar dosing. A simulation analysis was carried out, which was related to the grounds of introducing

an automatic mortar dispenser to the mould. To carry out the research, a simulation model of a line in universal Arena software

for modelling and simulation of manufacturing systems by Rockwell Software Inc. was created. A simulation experiment was carried out

on a model in order to determine basic parameters of the working system. Organization and working conditions in other sections of the line

were also analysed, paying particular attention to quality, ergonomics and occupational safety. Ergonomics analysis was carried out

on manual cores installation workplace and filters installation workplace, and changes to these workplaces were suggested in order

to eliminate actions being unnecessary and onerous for employees.

The paper presents a practical example of improvement of foundry production systems in terms of post-finishing of nodular iron castings

produced in the conditions of bulk production for automotive industry. The attention was paid to high labour-intensive efforts, which

are difficult to be subjected to mechanization and automation. The times of actions related to grinding processing of castings in three

grinding positions connected with a belt conveyor were estimated with the use of a time study method. A bottleneck as well as limiting

factors were specified in a system. A number of improvements were proposed, aimed at improving work organization on the castings postfinishing

line. An analysis of work ergonomics at the workplace was made in order to eliminate unnecessary and onerous for the employee

actions. A model of production system using the Arena software, on which a simulation experiment was conducted, was drawn up in order

to visualize the analysed phenomena. The effects of the project were shown on graphs comparing times, costs, work ergonomics and

overall efficiency of production equipment indicator.

The paper deals with alliances and coalitions that can be formed by agents or entities. It is assumed that alliance agents cooperate and form coalitions for performing the tasks or missions. It is considered that alliance agents are unselfish. That is, they are more interested in achieving the common goal(s) than in getting personal benefits. In the paper, the concept of fuzzy alliance was introduced. A fuzzy alliance is considered as generalization of traditional alliance allowing agents to decide on the capabilities that their agents can and wanted deliver to coalition. Coalitions that can be formed by fuzzy alliance agents were considered. The definition of the “best” coalition was explained. The method of how to find the “best” coalition among all possible coalitions was suggested and verified by computer simulation.

The article presents an analysis of stresses in the current tool system of the die during the implementation of the third forging operation of the screw M12 class 10.9 with cylinder head and hexagonal socket. It was assumed that the level of negative cracking due to stress can be reduced by using a mounting interference between the die and the tube blank. Due to the design of the tool system value of the die, the interference value cannot be too large. Therefore, an analysis of the influence of the interference between the die and the tube blank in a die tool system on the value and distribution of stresses in the individual components. An analysis of the assembly stresses and the stresses occurring during the process of deformation of the shaped head of the screw was done. The calculations were performed using a commercial software package MARC / Mentat.

Several modelling techniques are currently available to analyse the efficiency of inter-digital transducers (IDTs) fabricated on piezoelectric substrates for producing surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices. Impulse response method, equivalent circuit method, coupling of modes, transmission matrix method, and numerical techniques are some of the popular ones for this. Numerical techniques permit modelling to be carried out with any number of finger electrode pairs with required boundary conditions on any material of interest. In this work, we describe numerical modelling of SAW devices using ANSYS to analyse the effect of mass loading, a major secondary effect of IDTs on the performance of SAW devices. The electrode thickness of the IDT influences the resonance frequency of the SAW delay line. The analysis has been carried out for different electrode materials, aluminium, copper, and gold, for different substrate materials, barium titanate (BaTiO3), X-Y lithium niobate (LiNbO3), lithium tantalate (LiTaO3), and the naturally available quartz. The results are presented and discussed.

Climate change is driving the transformation of energy systems from fossil to renewable energies. In industry, power supply systems and electro-mobility, the need for electrical energy storage is rising sharply. Lithium-based batteries are one of the most widely used technologies. Operating parameters must be determined to control the storage system within the approved operating limits. Operating outside the limits, i.e., exceeding or falling below the permitted cell voltage, can lead to faster aging or destruction of the cell. Accurate cell information is required for optimal and efficient system operation. The key is high-precision measurements, sufficiently accurate battery cell and system models, and efficient control algorithms. Increasing demands on the efficiency and dynamics of better systems require a high degree of accuracy in determining the state of health and state of charge (SOC). These scientific contributions to the above topics are divided into two parts. In the first part of the paper, a holistic overview of the main SOC assessment methods is given. Physical measurement methods, battery modeling, and the methodology of using the model as a digital twin of a battery are addressed and discussed. In addition, adaptive methods and artificial intelligence methods that are important for SOC calculation are presented. Part two of the paper presents examples of the application areas and discusses their accuracy.

The paper presents a methodology of modeling relationships between chemical composition and hardenability of structural alloy steels using computational intelligence methods, that are artificial neural network and multiple regression models. Particularly, the researchers used unidirectional multilayer teaching method based on the error backpropagation algorithm and a quasi-newton methods. Based on previously known methodologies, it was found that there is no universal method of modeling hardenability, and it was also noted that there are errors related to the calculation of the curve. The study was performed on large set of experimental data containing required information on about the chemical compositions and corresponding Jominy hardenability curves for over 400 data steel heats with variety of chemical compositions. It is demonstrated that the full practical usefulness of the developed models in the selection of materials for particular applications with intended performance in the area of application.