Photovoltaic (PV) technology is one of the clean sustainable energy technology which sourced from the sun. However, there are many issues that can potentially degrade the system. This paper extensively discusses on the hybrid system power generation for the photovoltaic (PV) system. In addition, this paper also reviews the factor that affecting the photovoltaic system performance including the types of PV cell, the effect of ambient condition, system components, and the power quality characteristics. The performance of the monocrystalline type greater than the polycrystalline type around 5-7%. The usage of an inverter gives an impact with 8-20% of total energy losses. Finally, this paper summarises the future research work needed to overcome the drawback of the available photovoltaic systems.

A person driving a passenger car depends on the rear view mirror and two side-mounted mirrors to observe the surrounding in order to see vehicles approaching from behind. However, the approaching vehicle may enter a region outside the driver's field of view, making it inconspicuous to the driver. Such a region is known as the blind spot zone (BSZ). Although driving schools emphasize the importance of checking for vehicles in BSZ before attempting to change lane, many fatal collisions have occurred during lane changing. Thus, it is important to understand BSZ particularly its corresponding parameters in order to develop an effective system to detect approaching vehicles and provide warning to the driver. In this paper, a systematic approach using a grid-based technique is proposed to model the BSZ. An experiment was conducted using a commonly used passenger car in Malaysia as a test bed to model the BSZ. Controlled experimental parameters were introduced, and the final results showed that BSZ can be identified using the grid-based technique.

Friction stir welding (FSW) is a solid state joining process which utilizes the frictional heat of a high speed rotating tool to soften the adjoining sections and stirred/joined them together as one part without filler. In the FSW of pipe joining, a tool rotating at high speeds will start and stop at the same point in order to complete full weld cycle. The FSW of a small diameter pipe can cause secondary heating to occur at the start and stop point. Several pipe samples of 89 mm outside the diameter were prepared based on several specified welding parameters at a stationary position and completed the weld cycle. The Bridgeport 2216 CNC Milling Machine and a customised orbital clamping unit (OCU) were fully utilized for the sample's preparation. This present study analysed the variation in hardness due to secondary heating for a small pipe diameter. The hardness varies between 18.7 HRB minimum to 33.6 HRB maximum, yielding to lower value due to this condition.

A dedicated or specialized friction stir welding (FSW) machine is quite costly especially for pipe joining. Therefore, not many institutions manage to conduct their research on FSW at their facilities. Besides that, the difficulty to design a jig that can hold the complex shape such as pipe section tightly and easily to be removed during and after the FSW process respectively will nullify the intentions. In many institutions, there was either conventional or CNC milling machine available in their workshops. Thus, a jig called orbital clamping unit (OCU) was designed to suit this milling machine. It acts as an additional device to enable this milling machine to run as FSW machine at a lower cost, hence fully utilized the available facility in the workshop. Several good samples were successfully produced by using this jig and milling machine

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