Excavators are used to excavate, discharge, or elevate materials with the help of a bucket fitted to a boom.

The crane market in Japan grew by 22.8% year-on-year in 2014, driven by an increase in demand for infrastructure construction. In December 2014, the government allocated $14 billion for the reconstruction of infrastructure damaged during the tsunami and earthquake in 2011. This increase in construction activities is expected to increase the total construction output share of Japan's GDP from 9.68% in 2014 to 9.99% in 2019. Further, due to the upcoming Tokyo Olympics in 2020, the country will be improving its existing infrastructure and developing new infrastructure, which will lead to the growth of the crane market. We estimate that the market will grow at a CAGR of 23.06% during the forecast period.

Catalytic converters are used to reduce exhaust emissions from ICEs. They convert exhaust emission such as CO, HC, and NOx into less harmful gases such as CO2 and N2, and also H2O. Precious metals such as platinum, palladium, rhodium and vanadium are used as catalysts for coating ceramic beads in these converters. These converters are highly priced because of the expensive nature of precious metals. With the growing need for fuel economy and enactment of stringent emission norms, automotive catalytic converter manufacturers are now focusing on developing improved catalytic converters. In addition, rising demand for and sales of automobiles globally is also contributing to market growth.

When the quality of service (QoS) of an unmanned air vehicle's (UAV) communications link is poor, and the UAV is tracking a moving target, a trade- off exists between the fidelity and timeliness of information provided from the vehicle to an operator. The authors' 2011 ICCRTS paper showed that an optimal representation scheme for transmitting information from UAV to operator can be found by using information theory. This paper extends that work by introducing an adaptive, autonomous UAV command and control system that autonomously changes the fidelity of information communicated to an operator in response to variances in communications QoS. Results and analysis of hardware-in-the-loop experiments using a UAV that is tracking a moving car are presented. The paper also examines the impact of information decay and network performance on both human tele-operation and on-board autonomous control, comparing the relative performance of tele-operation and autonomy as a function of entropic drag, which is a measurement, in information theory 'bits,' of the rate at which information is lost due to unpredictable changes in the environment. In the experiments described in this paper, entropic drag is produced by the movement of the vehicle being tracked.

The risk of motor vehicle crashes (MVCs) associated with on-the-job operation of motor vehicles or exposure to road traffic hazards affects millions of workers in the United States, and this risk cuts across all industries and occupations. MVCs are consistently the leading cause of worker fatalities, affecting workers who drive all types of motor vehicles during their work day . passenger cars, heavy trucks, fire apparatus, and many others. A wide variety of interventions may be applied to prevent work-related MVCs: administrative controls such as seat belt policies, distracted-driving policies, pre-trip vehicle checks, driver training, reduced travel, and fatigue management; and engineering controls such as more crashworthy vehicles, advanced driver assistance systems, or active safety systems. Questions remain as to which are the most effective interventions to protect workers from risks of work-related MVCs. Through strategic planning, research, collaborations with stakeholders, and communication of research results and prevention, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is working to ensure that recommended solutions to prevent work-related MVCs and resulting injuries are based on sound research and are clearly communicated to employers and workers. The NIOSH Center for Motor Vehicle Safety (CMVS) is the focal point for activities within the Institute that address this pressing occupational safety problem. The CMVS was designated in December 2010 to strengthen and sustain the Institute's research and prevention activities to reduce work-related motor vehicle crashes and resulting injuries. It is a 'virtual' Center through which researchers from across the Institute and external partners from government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academia, labor, and industry bring complementary expertise to identify crash risk factors, develop and evaluate workplace interventions to prevent crashes, and communicate the results to employers and other stakeholders. The NIOSH CMVS is guided by the vision that: All workers who are exposed to hazards of motor vehicle traffic while working have the highest possible levels of protection from the risk of motor vehicle crashes and resulting injuries. The primary purpose of the 5-year strategic plan for the NIOSH CMVS is to define the priority areas for research and prevention initiatives through 2018.

The Hybrid III dummy is a common standard test device for automotive car crash and mine blast (shock) events, which is validated and accepted by the crash test community. The Hybrid III 50th percentile male Anthropomorphic Test Device is also required by STANAG 4569 for injury assessment for mine detonation tests. The Test Device for Human Occupant Restraint (THOR) 50th percentile male advanced crash dummy is a next generation anthropomorphic test device that incorporates significantly improved biofidelity in all major parts and has expanded injury assessment capabilities beyond its predecessors, including the Hybrid III Anthropomorphic Test Device. Comparative evaluation of THOR versus Hybrid III dummies will bring additional insight and understanding of THOR injury prediction capabilities and biofidelity, specifically for vertical shock and mine blast events.

Hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and battery electrics are conservatively estimated to reach a 5 percent national car park by 2030. Drastic increases in the price of gasoline resulting from oil shocks or major shifts in national energy and environmental policy, however, may push Electric Vehicles (EV) quickly beyond this small share. Should such critical changes occur, EVs will be poised to move beyond their current niche to gain wider scale acceptance and integration into transportation and energy infrastructure. EV battery technology has not improved to the degree needed to achieve the same range mobility as conventionally fueled vehicles. Electric powertrain hybridization and incorporation of regenerative systems such as braking and flywheels are steadily, but only incrementally, improving EV fuel efficiency and range performance. New Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations in the next decade may drive the light-weighting or downsizing of some vehicle categories to achieve more aggressive fuel economy requirements, especially absent a breakthrough in vehicle battery technology. Light-weighting for battery electrics may be critical. Studies indicate that if primary vehicle mass is reduced between 40-59 percent, battery size and cost may be cut by nearly half without reductions in performance.

In this work, I present a method to design a predictive controller for handling Plug-and-Play (P&P) requests of Electric Vehicles (EVs) in a power distribution system. The proposed method uses a two-stage hierarchical control scheme based on the ideas of Model Predictive Control (MPC) tracking for periodic references to ensure that bus voltages track the closest possible (reachable) periodic reference to the nominal voltage while minimizing the required generation control and guaranteeing satisfaction of system constraints at all times.