ALBERT

Beschreibung: We created an embedded sensing platform based on STM32 embedded system, with integrated carbon-electrode ionic sensor by using a self-made plug. Given ration of concentration-unknown nitrate liquid samples, this platform is able to measure the nitrate concentration in neutral environment. Response signals which were transmitted by the sensor can be displayed via a serial port to the computer screen or via Bluetooth to the smartphone. Processed by a fitting function, signals are transformed into related concentration. Through repeating the experiment many times, the accuracy and repeatability turned out to be excellent. The results can be automatically stored on smartphone via Bluetooth. We created this embedded sensing platform for field water quality measurement. This platform also can be applied for other micro sensors’ signal acquisition and data processing.

Beschreibung: The metropolitan city of Seoul uses more energy than any other area in South Korea due to its high population density. It also has high emissions of air pollutants. Since an individual usually spends most of his/her working hours indoors, the ambient air quality refers to indoor air quality. In particular, PM10 concentration in the underground areas should be monitored to preserve the health of commuters in the subway system. Seoul Metro and Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corporation measure several air pollutants regularly. In this study, the accuracy of an instrument for PM measurement using the light scattering method was improved with the help of a linear regression analysis technique to continuously measure the concentrations in subway stations. In addition, an air quality monitoring system based on environmental sensors was implemented to display and record the data of PM10, CO2, temperature, and humidity. Through experimental studies, we found that ventilation fans could improve air quality and decrease PM10 concentrations in the tunnels effectively by increasing the air flow rate.

Beschreibung: The spatial resolution of digital images is the critical factor that affects photogrammetry precision. Single-frame, superresolution, image reconstruction is a typical underdetermined, inverse problem. To solve this type of problem, a compressive, sensing, pseudodictionary-based, superresolution reconstruction method is proposed in this study. The proposed method achieves pseudodictionary learning with an available low-resolution image and uses the -SVD algorithm, which is based on the sparse characteristics of the digital image. Then, the sparse representation coefficient of the low-resolution image is obtained by solving the norm of minimization problem, and the sparse coefficient and high-resolution pseudodictionary are used to reconstruct image tiles with high resolution. Finally, single-frame-image superresolution reconstruction is achieved. The proposed method is applied to photogrammetric images, and the experimental results indicate that the proposed method effectively increase image resolution, increase image information content, and achieve superresolution reconstruction. The reconstructed results are better than those obtained from traditional interpolation methods in aspect of visual effects and quantitative indicators.

Beschreibung: In the next-generation technology, Internet of Things (IoT), billions of smart objects will communicate with one another to make human lives more convenient. IoT is based on wireless sensor network (WSN), and Zigbee is one of the most popular WSN protocols. A mature IoT environment involves heavy WSN data transmission causing bottleneck problems. However, Zigbee’s AODV routing stack does not have load balance mechanism to handle bursty traffic. Therefore, we develop Multipath Load Balancing (MLB) Routing to substitute Zigbee’s AODV routing. Our proposed MLB consists of two main designs: LAYER_DESIGN and LOAD_BALANCE. LAYER_DESIGN assigns nodes into different layers based on node distance to IoT gateway. Nodes can have multiple next-hops delivering IoT data. All neighboring layer nodes exchange flow information containing current load, used by LOAD_BALANCE to estimate future load of next-hops. With MLB, nodes can choose the neighbors with the least load as the next-hops and thus can achieve load balance and avoid bottlenecks. Compared with Zigbee’s AODV and multipath version AODV (AOMDV), experiment results demonstrate that MLB achieves better load balance, lower packet loss rate, and better routing connectivity ratio in both grid and random uniform topologies. MLB provides a more convincing routing solution for IoT applications.

Beschreibung: The evaluation of the degradation on a COTS linear Charge Coupled Device (CCD) induced by total ionizing dose (TID) radiation damage was presented. The radiation experiments were carried out at a 60Co γ-ray source. The parameters of DALSA’s linear CCD were measured at the CCD test systems as the EMVA1288 standard before and after the radiation. The dark current, dark signal nonuniformity (DSNU), photo response nonuniformity (PRNU), saturation output, full-well capacity (FWC), quantum efficiency (QE), and responsivity versus the TID were analyzed. The behavior of the tested CCD had shown a remarkable degradation after radiation. The degradation mechanisms of the CCD induced by TID damage were also discussed.

Beschreibung: Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are generally created for temporary scenarios. In such scenarios, where nodes are in mobility, efficient routing is a challenging task. In this paper, we propose an adaptive and cross-layer multipath routing protocol for such changing scenarios. Our routing mechanisms operate keeping in view the type of applications. For simple applications, the proposed protocol is inspired from traditional on-demand routing protocols by searching shortest routes from source to destination using default parameters. In case of multimedia applications, the proposed mechanism considers such routes which are capable of providing more data rates having less packet loss ratio. For those applications which need security, the proposed mechanism searches such routes which are more secure in nature as compared to others. Cross-layer methodology is used in proposed routing scheme so as to exchange different parameters across the protocol stack for better decision-making at network layer. Our approach is efficient and fault tolerant in a variety of scenarios that we simulated and tested.

Beschreibung: The braking coordination between tractor and semitrailer is vital to the safety of articulated vehicles. Traditional evaluation about braking coordination is based on the pressure measurement along air braking pipeline, which needs to change original braking structure to install gauges and cannot directly reflect the final braking coordination of different wheels. To overcome these limitations, this paper proposes a novel dynamic measurement system for evaluating the braking coordination of articulated vehicles. During the brake test, all wheel velocities of the whole articulated vehicle are synchronously obtained through a specially designed distributed acquisition platform. To effectively eliminate gross errors and noises in wheel angular velocity data, a 3-order autoregressive (AR) model and an improved-thresholding wavelet filtering algorithm are developed. Further, a novel direct evaluation method about braking coordination is proposed according to the differences in angular velocity dropping time of all wheels. Finally, the overall system is assessed through real field tests. The results validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed system.

Beschreibung: The online detection of wheelset size has important implications for ensuring the safety of railway operation and decreasing the maintenance costs. Based on laser displacement sensors (LDS), a novel online detection system of the wheel size is proposed using only six two-dimensional LDS and two one-dimensional LDS. The calculation principles of tread profile and wheel diameter are given, as well as the calibration method. Errors induced by wheel-rail vibration, misalignment, sensor noise, S-shape running, and wheelset differential are also analyzed. After system implementation, field experiments were performed using both standard wheel and several real trains. It turns out that the detection uncertainty of flange width and height is 0.1 mm and wheel diameter 0.3 mm, which can meet the requirements of maintenance.

Beschreibung: Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) coated with poly-4-vinylpyridine (PVP) and metal organic framework HKUST-1 are investigated and compared for humidity sensing. Drop casting method is employed to coat the PVP and HKUST-1 solutions onto the surface of a quartz crystal microbalance. The resonance frequencies of these sensors with varying relative humidity (RH) from 22% RH to 69% RH are measured using impedance analysis method. The sensitivity, humidity hysteresis, response, and recovery times of these sensors are studied. The sensitivities of uncoated, PVP, and HKUST-1 coated QCM sensors are 7 Hz, 48 Hz, and 720 Hz, respectively, in the range of 22% RH–69% RH. The extraction of desorption rate and adsorption energy associated with the adsorption and desorption of water molecules on these surfaces reveals that HKUST-1 has better sensing properties than PVP and uncoated QCM sensors. In this work, the HKUST-1 coated QCM is shown to be a promising material for moisture detection.

Beschreibung: Using visual sensors for detecting regions of interest in underwater environments is fundamental for many robotic applications. Particularly, for an autonomous exploration task, an underwater vehicle must be guided towards features that are of interest. If the relevant features can be seen from the distance, then smooth control movements of the vehicle are feasible in order to position itself close enough with the final goal of gathering visual quality images. However, it is a challenging task for a robotic system to achieve stable tracking of the same regions since marine environments are unstructured and highly dynamic and usually have poor visibility. In this paper, a framework that robustly detects and tracks regions of interest in real time is presented. We use the chromatic channels of a perceptual uniform color space to detect relevant regions and adapt a visual attention scheme to underwater scenes. For the tracking, we associate with each relevant point superpixel descriptors which are invariant to changes in illumination and shape. The field experiment results have demonstrated that our approach is robust when tested on different visibility conditions and depths in underwater explorations.

Beschreibung: Due to the different functions of the system used in the vehicle chassis control, the hierarchical control strategy also leads to many kinds of the network topology structure. According to the hierarchical control principle, this research puts forward the integrated control strategy of the chassis based on supervision mechanism. The purpose is to consider how the integrated control architecture affects the control performance of the system after the intervention of CAN network. Based on the principle of hierarchical control and fuzzy control, a fuzzy controller is designed, which is used to monitor and coordinate the ESP, AFS, and ARS. And the IVC system is constructed with the upper supervisory controller and three subcontrol systems on the Simulink platform. The network topology structure of IVC is proposed, and the IVC communication matrix based on CAN network communication is designed. With the common sensors and the subcontrollers as the CAN network independent nodes, the network induced delay and packet loss rate on the system control performance are studied by simulation. The results show that the simulation method can be used for designing the communication network of the vehicle.

Beschreibung: We implement Zynq-based self-reconfigurable system to perform real-time edge detection of 1080p video sequences. While object edge detection is a fundamental tool in computer vision, noises in the video frames negatively affect edge detection results significantly. Moreover, due to the high computational complexity of 1080p video filtering operations, hardware implementation on reconfigurable hardware fabric is necessary. Here, the proposed embedded system utilizes dynamic reconfiguration capability of Zynq SoC so that partial reconfiguration of different filter bitstreams is performed during run-time according to the detected noise density level in the incoming video frames. Pratt’s Figure of Merit (PFOM) to evaluate the accuracy of edge detection is analyzed for various noise density levels, and we demonstrate that adaptive run-time reconfiguration of the proposed filter bitstreams significantly increases the accuracy of edge detection results while efficiently providing computing power to support real-time processing of 1080p video frames. Performance results on configuration time, CPU usage, and hardware resource utilization are also compared.

Beschreibung: The dam of Guanyinyan hydropower station is composed of a concrete gravity dam in the left bank and a rockfill dam in the right bank. During the operation of the hydropower station, several surface cracks occurred in the concrete gravity dam, which threatened the stability of the dam. To evaluate the evolution trend of the cracks and forecast the potential risk of the dam, the microseismic (MS) monitoring technique and finite-element method were used. First, the concrete three-point bending field test was performed to prove the reliability of the MS technique in monitoring the concrete cracks. The MS monitoring results were consistent with the simulation results. Then, the MS monitoring system was installed in the dam body. By analysing the MS activities before and after the impoundment, the evolution trend of the cracks and potential risk of the dam were evaluated and forecasted. The simulation results were also consistent with the monitoring results. These results can provide significant references for the operation safety of the dam and also present a new thought for the risk evaluation of similar dam engineering.

Beschreibung: Liquid dampers such as tuned liquid column dampers and tuned liquid dampers have been adopted to ensure serviceability of a vibratory building subjected to wind. In order to maximize efficiency of the vibration suppression, tuning frequency of the liquid dampers is supposed to be set to the first natural frequency of the building. Therefore, experimental evaluation of the natural frequency of liquid dampers is a primal factory task prior to their installation at the building. In this study, a novel liquid height measurement system based on variable resistance in an electric field is developed for observation of vertical motion of the liquid dampers. The proposed system can simultaneously measure the liquid height of multipoint locations in the electric field. In the experimental phase, natural frequency of the liquid dampers is experimentally evaluated utilizing the developed system. The performance of the proposed system is verified by comparison with the capacitive type wavemeter.

Beschreibung: With rapid development of micro fabrication technology, the production level of micro inertial devices has increased, which promoted the performance improvement of Micro Inertial Measurement Unit (MIMU). Measurement precision of MIMU is one of the most significant indexes, especially for the application of the guided spinning projectiles. In order to improve the measurement precision of MIMU, this paper presents a novel calibration method. The calibration model is established and the derivation for parameters estimation has been introduced. By the multirate tests and multiposition tests, all the parameters in the calibration model can be well estimated. Verification experiment shows that the proposed method has the same compensation effect as the traditional method, but it can alleviate the computing burden for the system. Thus the proposed method will have a wide application prospect for the future engineering calibration.

Beschreibung: The air-based 1-3 piezoelectric composite transducers are designed and fabricated in order to solve the acoustic impedance matching problem. Firstly, a finite element model using honeycomb structure as the piezoelectric composite matrix is built to reduce the acoustic impedance of the sensitive element. Three important factors, volume fraction of piezoelectric materials , the thickness , and the size of the square cross section of piezoelectric column, are examined and verified in simulation. Then, according to the result of simulation, the piezoelectric composites and the air-coupled transducers are fabricated. The honeycomb structures of resin are produced by the method of 3D printing technology, with the volume fraction of air being 30%. The impedance characteristics and the excitation/reception performance of the air-coupled transducers are measured and optimized. Meanwhile, a scanning experiment is carried out to demonstrate the crack detection process in monocrystalline silicon. mode of Lamb waves is excited and collected. The location and size of the defect will be determined by calculating the correlation coefficients of the received signals and reference signals. Finally, a 15 mm × 0.5 mm × 0.5 mm scratch is clearly distinguished.

Beschreibung: Aiming at the perception hole caused by the necessary movement or failure of nodes in the wireless sensor actuator network, this paper proposed a kind of coverage restoring scheme based on hybrid particle swarm optimization algorithm. The scheme first introduced network coverage based on grids, transformed the coverage restoring problem into unconstrained optimization problem taking the network coverage as the optimization target, and then solved the optimization problem in the use of the hybrid particle swarm optimization algorithm with the idea of simulated annealing. Simulation results show that the probabilistic jumping property of simulated annealing algorithm could make up for the defect that particle swarm optimization algorithm is easy to fall into premature convergence, and the hybrid algorithm can effectively solve the coverage restoring problem.

Beschreibung: We address the problem of low amplitude oscillatory motion detection through different low-cost sensors: a LIS3LV02DQ MEMS accelerometer, a Microsoft Kinect v2 range camera, and a uBlox 6 GPS receiver. Several tests were performed using a one-direction vibrating table with different oscillation frequencies (in the range 1.5–3 Hz) and small challenging amplitudes (0.02 m and 0.03 m). A Mikrotron EoSens high-resolution camera was used to give reference data. A dedicated software tool was developed to retrieve Kinect v2 results. The capabilities of the VADASE algorithm were employed to process uBlox 6 GPS receiver observations. In the investigated time interval (in the order of tens of seconds) the results obtained indicate that displacements were detected with the resolution of fractions of millimeters with MEMS accelerometer and Kinect v2 and few millimeters with uBlox 6. MEMS accelerometer displays the lowest noise but a significant bias, whereas Kinect v2 and uBlox 6 appear more stable. The results suggest the possibility of sensor integration both for indoor (MEMS accelerometer + Kinect v2) and for outdoor (MEMS accelerometer + uBlox 6) applications and seem promising for structural monitoring applications.

Beschreibung: In order to evaluate the health status of continuous welded rail accurately, a deduction on the FBG sensing principle has been made with regard to the temperature variation of test specimens under different constraint conditions. A long seamless rail testing solution and its on-site application are designed based on this deduction. According to the verification experiments of sensing principle inside, the effect of the reference temperature on the FBG temperature and strain sensitivity coefficient within −30°C~30°C is not higher than 0.05%; the maximum relative error of single point between the tested and theoretical results of test specimen under constrained condition is 3.2%; and the maximum relative error of slopes of fitted straight lines based on the tested and theoretical results within the entire test temperature range is 2.3%, verifying the deduced FBG sensing principle with regard to the test specimen under constrained condition. The maximum error of the longitudinal temperature force between the on-site tested results and calculated results in long seamless rails is only 6.1 kN, the corresponding rail temperature variation is 0.3°C, and the accumulated error is controllable within 5%.

Beschreibung: A temperature sensor has been developed using an embedded system and a sensor head made of polymer-derived SiAlCN ceramics (PDCs). PDC is a promising material for measuring high temperature and the embedded system features low-power consumption, compact size, and wireless transmission. The developed temperature sensor has been experimentally tested to demonstrate the possibility of using such sensors for real world applications.

Beschreibung: The paper focuses on ensuring the quality-of-service (QoS) and quality-of-experience (QoE) requirements of users having heterogeneous devices in a multicast session. QoS parameters such as bit rate, delays, and packet losses are good indicators for optimizing network services but fall short in characterizing user perception (QoE). In N-Screen service, the users have different devices with heterogeneous attributes like screen size, resolution, and access network interface, and the users have different QoE on N-Screen devices with the same QoS parameters. We formulate the objective function of the N-Screen multicast grouping to ensure the minimum user’s QoE with smaller bandwidth requirement. We propose a dynamic user reassignment scheme to maintain and satisfy the QoE by adapting the user’s membership to the varying network conditions. The proposed schemes combine the available bandwidth and multimedia visual quality to ensure the QoS and QoE. In the network architecture, we introduce the functions of the QoS and QoE aware multicast group management and the estimation schemes for the QoS and QoE parameters. The simulation results show that the proposed multicast service ensures the network QoS and guarantees the QoE of users in the varying network conditions.

Beschreibung: The mobile phone is no longer only a communication device, but also a powerful environmental sensing unit that can monitor a user’s ambient context. Mobile users take their devices with them everywhere which increases the availability of persons’ traces. Extracting and analyzing knowledge from these traces represent a strong support for several applications domains, ranging from traffic management to advertisement and social studies. However, the limited battery capacity of mobile devices represents a big hurdle for context detection, no matter how useful the service may be. We present a novel approach to online recognizing users’ outdoor activities without depleting the mobile resources. We associate the places visited by individuals during their movements with meaningful human activities using a novel algorithm that clusters incrementally user’s moves into different types of activities. To optimize the battery consumption, the algorithm behaves variably on the basis of users’ behaviors and the remaining battery level. Studies using real GPS records from two big datasets demonstrate that the proposal is effective and is capable of inferring human activities without draining the phone resources.

Beschreibung: Reliability is a key factor for application-oriented Underwater Sensor Networks (UWSNs) which are utilized for gaining certain objectives and a demand always exists for efficient data routing mechanisms. Cooperative routing is a promising technique which utilizes the broadcast feature of wireless medium and forwards data with cooperation using sensor nodes as relays. Here, we present a cooperation-based routing protocol for underwater networks to enhance their performance called Stochastic Performance Analysis with Reliability and Cooperation (SPARCO). Cooperative communication is explored in order to design an energy-efficient routing scheme for UWSNs. Each node of the network is assumed to be consisting of a single omnidirectional antenna and multiple nodes cooperatively forward their transmissions taking advantage of spatial diversity to reduce energy consumption. Both multihop and single-hop schemes are exploited which contribute to lowering of path-losses present in the channels connecting nodes and forwarding of data. Simulations demonstrate that SPARCO protocol functions better regarding end-to-end delay, network lifetime, and energy consumption comparative to noncooperative routing protocol—improved Adaptive Mobility of Courier nodes in Threshold-optimized Depth-based routing (iAMCTD). The performance is also compared with three cooperation-based routing protocols for UWSN: Cognitive Cooperation (Cog-Coop), Cooperative Depth-Based Routing (CoDBR), and Cooperative Partner Node Selection Criteria for Cooperative Routing (Coop Re and dth).

Beschreibung: RPL (Routing Protocol for low power and Lossy networks) is recommended by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) for IPv6-based LLNs (Low Power and Lossy Networks). RPL uses a proactive routing approach and each node always maintains an active path to the sink node. Sink-to-sink coordination defines syntax and semantics for the exchange of any network defined parameters among sink nodes like network size, traffic load, mobility of a sink, and so forth. The coordination allows sink to learn about the network condition of neighboring sinks. As a result, sinks can make coordinated decision to increase/decrease their network size for optimizing over all network performance in terms of load sharing, increasing network lifetime, and lowering end-to-end latency of communication. Currently, RPL does not provide any coordination framework that can define message exchange between different sink nodes for enhancing the network performance. In this paper, a sink-to-sink coordination framework is proposed which utilizes the periodic route maintenance messages issued by RPL to exchange network status observed at a sink with its neighboring sinks. The proposed framework distributes network load among sink nodes for achieving higher throughputs and longer network’s life time.

Beschreibung: This paper presents the results of the performance test and long-term monitoring of the prestressing force inside concrete performed on a pretensioned Ultra-High Performance Concrete (UHPC) deck. The force is measured by applying a 7-wire strand embedded with an FBG (Fiber Bragg Grating) sensor. The performance test was conducted on a 3.7 m × 1.8 m pretensioned deck specimen through wheel loading tests to verify the applicability of the measurement method. In addition, a 12.3 m long and 4.8 m wide bridge with a pretensioned UHPC deck was erected and long-term monitoring was conducted over three years to verify the applicability of the method to real bridges. The effectiveness of the measurement method of the prestressing force inside concrete is verified, and the long-term monitoring data are used to investigate various temperature compensation methods. The results show that the proposed method enables effective measurement of small changes in the prestressing force inside the concrete. These changes are caused by the external forces acting on the bridge in service and provide sufficient durability for long-term sensing. The analysis of the prestressing force obtained through long-term monitoring reveals the necessity of conducting temperature compensation for the consistency of the data acquired using the FBG sensor. Moreover, the selection of the thermal expansion coefficient appears also to be of critical importance for temperature compensation.

Beschreibung: This paper looks into the fundamental problem in computer vision: edge detection. We propose a new edge detector using structured random forests as the classifier, which can make full use of RGB-D image information from Kinect. Before classification, the adaptive bilateral filter is used for the denoising processing of the depth image. As data sources, information of 13 channels from RGB-D image is computed. In order to train the random forest classifier, the approximation measurement of the information gain is used. All the structured labels at a given node are mapped to a discrete set of labels using the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) method. NYUD2 dataset is used to train our structured random forests. The random forest algorithm is used to classify the RGB-D image information for extracting the edge of the image. In addition to the proposed methodology, the quantitative comparisons of different algorithms are presented. The results of the experiments demonstrate the significant improvements of our algorithm over the state of the art.

Beschreibung: It is difficult to analyze the nonstationary gyro signal in detail for the Allan variance (AV) analysis method. A novel approach in the time-frequency domain for gyro signal characteristics analysis is proposed based on the empirical mode decomposition and Allan variance (EMDAV). The output signal of gyro is decomposed by empirical mode decomposition (EMD) first, and then the decomposed signal is analyzed by AV algorithm. Consequently, the gyro noise characteristics are demonstrated in the time-frequency domain with a three-dimensional (3D) manner. Practical data of fiber optic gyro (FOG) and MEMS gyro are processed by the AV method and the EMDAV algorithm separately. The results indicate that the details of gyro signal characteristics in different frequency bands can be described with the help of EMDAV, and the analysis dimensions are extended compared with the common AV. The proposed EMDAV, as a complementary tool of the AV, which provides a theoretical reference for the gyro signal preprocessing, is a general approach for the analysis and evaluation of gyro performance.

Beschreibung: Fluid level detection for a sealed and pressurized mobile container is very useful for the provider to schedule the delivery of a new one before it runs out of the liquid. This study suggested using the frequencies of tone generated by knocking on the outside surface of the container to detect the liquid level inside. A detailed model based on Euler-Bernoulli beam theory has been proposed to study the feasibility of this method for a cylinder with complicated but practical structure. Household gas cylinders were used to validate the proposed model and the results show that experimental data agree well with the theoretical analysis. The results indicate that the proposed model can accurately explain the behavior of the vibratory frequencies under different liquid levels. An apparatus has been successfully implemented to automatically sense the near empty condition of the gas cylinder.

Beschreibung: This paper presents a vision-based navigation system for an autonomous underwater vehicle in semistructured environments with poor visibility. In terrestrial and aerial applications, the use of visual systems mounted in robotic platforms as a control sensor feedback is commonplace. However, robotic vision-based tasks for underwater applications are still not widely considered as the images captured in this type of environments tend to be blurred and/or color depleted. To tackle this problem, we have adapted the color space to identify features of interest in underwater images even in extreme visibility conditions. To guarantee the stability of the vehicle at all times, a model-free robust control is used. We have validated the performance of our visual navigation system in real environments showing the feasibility of our approach.

Beschreibung: The trend of implementing the IPv6 into wireless sensor networks (WSNs) has recently occurred as a consequence of a tendency of their integration with other types of IP-based networks. The paper deals with the security aspects of these IPv6-based WSNs. A brief analysis of security threats and attacks which are present in the IPv6-based WSN is given. The solution to an adaptive distributed system for malicious node detection in the IPv6-based WSN is proposed. The proposed intrusion detection system is based on distributed algorithms and a collective decision-making process. It introduces an innovative concept of probability estimation for malicious behaviour of sensor nodes. The proposed system is implemented and tested through several different scenarios in three different network topologies. Finally, the performed analysis showed that the proposed system is energy efficient and has a good capability to detect malicious nodes.

Beschreibung: Linear control is widely used for any fluid or air flows in many automobile, robotics, and hydraulics applications. According to signal level, valve can be controlled linearly. But, for many valves, hydraulics or air is not easy to control proportionally because of flows dynamics. As a conventional solution, electronic driver has up and down limits. After manually settling up and down limits, control unit has proportional blind behavior between two points. This study offers a novel valve control method merging pulse width and amplitude modulation in the same structure. Proposed method uses low voltage AC signal to understand the valve position and uses pulse width modulation for power transfer to coil. DC level leads to controlling the valve and AC signal gives feedback related to core moving. Any amplitude demodulator gives core position as voltage. Control unit makes reconstruction using start and end points to obtain linearization at zero control signal and maximum control signal matched to minimum demodulated amplitude level. Proposed method includes self-learning abilities to keep controlling in hard environmental conditions such as dust, temperature, and corrosion. Thus, self-learning helps to provide precision control for hard conditions.

Beschreibung: Hexanal was identified as one of the major volatile gases which are produced in degraded dairy products and wood industries. Therefore, preliminary study on hexanal gas detection with the laboratory scale was carried out in this paper. Electrical testing with chitosan as a sensing material to sense hexanal gas in low concentration was carried out at room temperature. Chitosan sensor was fabricated by using electrochemical deposition technique to form active sensing layer. The response of the chitosan film sensor (CFS) towards hexanal was tested via electrical testing by exposing different hexanal concentrations ranging between 20 ppm, 100 ppm, 200 ppm, and 300 ppm using air as a carrier gas. Sensing properties of the CFS toward hexanal exposure including responsibility, recovery, repeatability, stability, and selectively were studied. Overall, our result suggested that hexanal sensor based on chitosan was able to perform well at room temperature demonstrated by good response, good recovery, good repeatability, good stability, and good selectively. This simple and low cost sensor has high potential to be utilized in early quality degradation detection in dairy products and can be used to monitor the level of hexanal exposure in wood industries.

Beschreibung: This paper discusses properties of Hall effect sensors with only three terminals and compares them to conventional four-terminal devices. It covers both Horizontal and Vertical Hall effect devices. Their Hall-geometry factor is computed analytically. Several modes of operation are proposed and their signal-to-noise ratio is compared. A six-phase offset cancellation scheme is developed. All theoretical results are checked by measurements. The residual offset of Vertical Hall effect devices with three contacts is found to be smaller than the offset of conventional Vertical Hall effect devices with five contacts.

Beschreibung: Electronic biomedical implantable sensors need power to perform. Among the main reported approaches, inductive link is the most commonly used method for remote powering of such devices. Power efficiency is the most important characteristic to be considered when designing inductive links to transfer energy to implantable biomedical sensors. The maximum power efficiency is obtained for maximum coupling and quality factors of the coils and is generally limited as the coupling between the inductors is usually very small. This paper is dealing with geometry optimization of inductively coupled printed spiral coils for powering a given implantable sensor system. For this aim, Iterative Procedure (IP) and Genetic Algorithm (GA) analytic based optimization approaches are proposed. Both of these approaches implement simple mathematical models that approximate the coil parameters and the link efficiency values. Using numerical simulations based on Finite Element Method (FEM) and with experimental validation, the proposed analytic approaches are shown to have improved accurate performance results in comparison with the obtained performance of a reference design case. The analytical GA and IP optimization methods are also compared to a purely Finite Element Method based on numerical optimization approach (GA-FEM). Numerical and experimental validations confirmed the accuracy and the effectiveness of the analytical optimization approaches to design the optimal coil geometries for the best values of efficiency.

Beschreibung: A sensor node (SN) in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) can decide whether to collaborate with others based on a trust management system (TMS) by making a trust decision. In this paper, we study the trust decision and its dynamics that play a key role to stabilize the whole network using evolutionary game theory. When SNs are making their decisions to select action Trust or Mistrust, a WSNs trust game is created to reflect their utilities. An incentive mechanism bound with one SN’s trust degree is incorporated into this trust game and effectively promotes SNs to select action Trust. The replicator dynamics of SNs’ trust evolution, illustrating the evolutionary process of SNs selecting their actions, are given. We then propose and prove the theorems indicating that evolutionarily stable strategies can be attained under different parameter values, which supply theoretical foundations to devise a TMS for WSNs. Moreover, we can find out the conditions that will lead SNs to choose action Trust as their final behavior. In this manner, we can assure WSNs’ security and stability by introducing a trust mechanism to satisfy these conditions. Experimental results have confirmed the proposed theorems and the effects of the incentive mechanism.

Beschreibung: A dedicated system simulator is presented in this paper for indoor operations onboard small Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) by a novel millimeter wave radar sensor. The sensor relies on the principle of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) applied to a Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar system. Input to the simulator are both design parameters for Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), which should be able to cope with the stringent requirements set by indoor operations, and information about platform navigation and observed scene. The scene generation task is described in detail. This is based on models for point target response on either a completely absorbing background or fluctuating background and ray tracing (RT) techniques. Results obtained from scene processing are finally discussed, giving further insights on expected results from high-resolution observation of an assigned control volume by this novel SAR sensor.

Beschreibung: A smart home gateway plays an important role in the Internet of Things (IoT) system that takes responsibility for the connection between the network layer and the ubiquitous sensor network (USN) layer. Even though the home network application is developing rapidly, researches on the home gateway based open development architecture are less. This makes it difficult to extend the home network to support new applications, share service, and interoperate with other home network systems. An integrated access gateway (IAGW) is proposed in this paper which upward connects with the operator machine-to-machine platform (M2M P/F). In this home network scheme, the gateway provides standard interfaces for supporting various applications in home environments, ranging from on-site configuration to node and service access. In addition, communication management ability is also provided by M2M P/F. A testbed of a simple home network application system that includes the IAGW prototype is created to test its user interaction capabilities. Experimental results show that the proposed gateway provides significant flexibility for users to configure and deploy a home automation network; it can be applied to other monitoring areas and simultaneously supports a multi-ubiquitous sensor network.

Beschreibung: A vision based vehicle speed measurement method is presented in this paper. The proposed intraframe method calculates speed estimates based on a single frame of a single camera. With a special double exposure, a superimposed image can be obtained, where motion blur appears significantly only in the bright regions of the otherwise sharp image. This motion blur contains information of the movement of bright objects during the exposure. Most papers in the field of motion blur are aiming at the removal of this image degradation effect. In this work, we utilize it for a novel speed measurement approach. An applicable sensor structure and exposure-control system are also shown, as well as the applied image processing methods and experimental results.

Beschreibung: We present the characterization of organic polyolefin and thermoplastic membranes for the enhancement of the selectivity of metal oxide (MOX) gas sensors. The experimental study is done based on theoretical considerations of the membrane characteristics. Through a broad screening of dense symmetric homo- and copolymers with different functional groups, the intrinsic properties such as the mobility or the transport of gases through the matrix were examined in detail. A subset of application-relevant gases was chosen for the experimental part of the study: H2, CH4, CO, CO2, NO2, ethanol, acetone, acetaldehyde, and water vapor. The gases have similar kinetic diameters and are therefore difficult to separate but have different functional groups and polarity. The concentration of the gases was based on the international indicative limit values (TWA, STEL). From the results, a simple relationship was to be found to estimate the permeability of various polar and nonpolar gases through gas permeation (GP) membranes. We used a broadband metal oxide gas sensor with a sensitive layer made of tin oxide with palladium catalyst (SnO2:Pd). Our aim was to develop a low-cost symmetrical dense polymer membrane to selectively detect gases with a MOX sensor.

Beschreibung: Fluid property sensor (FPS) based on tuning-fork technology is applied to the measurement of the contaminant level of lubricant oil. The measuring principle of FPS sensor is derived and proved together with its resolution. The performance characteristics of the FPS sensor, such as sensitivity coefficient, resolution, and quality factor, are analyzed. A temperature compensation method is proposed to eliminate the temperature-dependence of the measuring parameters, and its validity is investigated by numerical simulation of sensitivity, oscillating frequency, and dielectric constant. The values of purification efficiency obtained using microwave and without microwave are compared experimentally.

Beschreibung: This paper proposes an object-based approach to supervised change detection using uncertainty analysis for very high resolution (VHR) images. First, two temporal images are combined into one image by band stacking. Then, on the one hand, the stacked image is segmented by the statistical region merging (SRM) to generate segmentation maps; on the other hand, the stacked image is classified by the support vector machine (SVM) to produce a pixel-wise change detection map. Finally, the uncertainty analysis for segmented objects is implemented to integrate the segmentation map and pixel-wise change map at the appropriate scale and generate the final change map. Experiments were carried out with SPOT 5 and QuickBird data sets to evaluate the effectiveness of proposed approach. The results indicate that the proposed approach often generates more accurate change detection maps compared with some methods and reduces the effects of classification and segment scale on the change detection accuracy. The proposed method supplies an effective approach for the supervised change detection for VHR images.

Beschreibung: Any sensing paradigm has three important components, namely, the actor, the sensor, and the environment. Traditionally, the sensors have been attached to either the actor or the environment. This restricts the kind of sensing that can be undertaken. We study a newer decoupled sensing paradigm, which separates the sensors from both the actor and the environment and tremendously increases the flexibility with which the scenes can be viewed. For example, instead of showing just one view, “how the environment sees the actor” or “how the actor sees the environment,” a viewer can choose to see either one or both of these views and even choose to see the scene from any desired position in any desired direction. We describe a methodology using mobile autonomous sensors to undertake such decoupled sensing and study the feasible number as well as the placement of such sensors. Also, we describe how the sensors can coordinate their movements around a moving actor so as to continue capturing the required views with minimum overall cost. The practical results obtained demonstrate the viability of the proposed approach.

Beschreibung: In order to make the general user take vision tasks more flexibly and easily, this paper proposes a new solution for the problem of camera calibration from correspondences between model lines and their noisy image lines in multiple images. In the proposed method the common planar items in hand with the standard size and structure are utilized as the calibration objects. The proposed method consists of a closed-form solution based on homography optimization, followed by a nonlinear refinement based on the maximum likelihood approach. To automatically recover the camera parameters linearly, we present a robust homography optimization method based on the edge model by redesigning the classic 3D tracking approach. In the nonlinear refinement procedure, the uncertainty of the image line segment is encoded in the error model, taking the finite nature of the observations into account. By developing the new error model between the model line and image line segment, the problem of the camera calibration is expressed in the probabilistic formulation. Simulation data is used to compare this method with the widely used planar pattern based method. Actual image sequences are also utilized to demonstrate the effectiveness and flexibility of the proposed method.

Beschreibung: The nonnegligible propagation delay of acoustic signals causes spatiotemporal uncertainty that occasionally enables simultaneous, collision-free packet transmission among underwater nodes (UNs). These transmissions can be handled by efficiently managing the channel access of the UNs in the data-link layer. To this end, Geometric Spatial Reuse-TDMA (GSR-TDMA), a new TDMA-based MAC protocol, is designed for use in centralized, multihop underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs), and in this case all UNs are periodically scheduled after determining a geometric map according to the information on their location. The scheduling strategy increases the number of UNs that send packets coincidentally via two subscheduling configurations (i.e., interhop and intrahop scheduling). Extensive simulations are used to investigate the reception success rate (RSR) and the multihop delay (MHD) of GSR-TDMA, and the results are compared to those of previous approaches, including C-MAC and HSR-TDMA. GSR-TDMA outperforms C-MAC; the RSR of GSR-TDMA is 15% higher than that of C-MAC, and the MHD of GSR-TDMA is 30% lower than that of C-MAC at the most. In addition, GSR-TDMA provides even better performance improvements over HSR-TDMA; the RSR of GSR-TDMA is 50% higher than that of HSR-TDMA, and the MHD of GSR-TDMA is an order of lower than that of HSR-TDMA at the most.

Beschreibung: Vapor sensors are easily fabricated onto alumina substrates using foils of silver-decorated nitrogen-doped multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNX-MWNTs-Ag) as active sensing material. The vapor sensors are tested using carbon disulfide, acetone, ethanol, and chloroform vapors. The CNX-MWNTs are produced by chemical vapor deposition process and then decorated with 14 nm Ag nanoparticles (Ag-NPs). The samples are characterized using scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction. Our results demonstrate that Ag-decorated CNX-MWNTs exhibit a better response and sensitivity when compared with pristine CNX-MWNTs based sensors, making them promising candidates for air-pollutants environmental monitoring. The temperature effect on the sensor performance is also studied; we found that the detection mechanism could be tuned from physisorption, at room temperature, to chemisorption at higher working temperature. Finally, first-principles density functional calculations are carried out to understand the interactions between the systems involved in the sensors, finding good agreement between experimental results and the theoretical approach.

Beschreibung: Although several Directional Medium Access Control (DMAC) protocols have been designed for use with homogeneous networks, it can take a substantial amount of time to change sensor nodes that are equipped with an omnidirectional antenna for sensor nodes with a directional antenna. Thus, we require a novel MAC protocol for use with an intermediate wireless network that consists of heterogeneous sensor nodes equipped with either an omnidirectional antenna or a directional antenna. The MAC protocols that have been designed for use in homogeneous networks are not suitable for use in a hybrid network due to deaf, hidden, and exposed nodes. Therefore, we propose a MAC protocol that exploits the characteristics of a directional antenna and can also work efficiently with omnidirectional nodes in a hybrid network. In order to address the deaf, hidden, and exposed node problems, we define RTS/CTS for the neighbor (RTSN/CTSN) and Neighbor Information (NIP) packets. The performance of the proposed MAC protocol is evaluated through a numerical analysis using a Markov model. In addition, the analytical results of the MAC protocol are verified through an OPNET simulation.

Beschreibung: Nowadays, mobile phones are more than a device that can only satisfy the communication need between people. In addition to providing ease to human lives with various applications, lens kits that can be integrated to mobile phones have recently been introduced. Fisheye lenses that are compliant with mobile phones are one of these new types of equipment. Since fisheye lenses integrated with mobile phones are lightweight and easy to use, they are advantageous. In addition to this advantage, whether fisheye lens and mobile phone combination can be used in a photogrammetric way is experimented, and if so, what will be the result. The main purpose of this study is to test fisheye lens equipment used with mobile phones. In this study, standard calibration of “Olloclip 3 in one” fisheye lens used with iPhone 4S mobile phone and “Nikon FC-E9” fisheye lens used with Nikon Coolpix8700 are compared based on equidistant model. The results of these calibrations are analyzed, using photogrammetric bundle block adjustment. This study suggests a precalibration process of these kinds of hardware for the photogrammetric process in the test field.

Beschreibung: Laboratory-based nonwearable motion analysis systems have significantly advanced with robust objective measurement of the limb motion, resulting in quantified, standardized, and reliable outcome measures compared with traditional, semisubjective, observational gait analysis. However, the requirement for large laboratory space and operational expertise makes these systems impractical for gait analysis at local clinics and homes. In this paper, we focus on autonomous gait event detection with our bespoke, relatively inexpensive, and portable, single-camera gait kinematics analysis system. Our proposed system includes video acquisition with camera calibration, Kalman filter + Structural-Similarity-based marker tracking, autonomous knee angle calculation, video-frame-identification-based autonomous gait event detection, and result visualization. The only operational effort required is the marker-template selection for tracking initialization, aided by an easy-to-use graphic user interface. The knee angle validation on 10 stroke patients and 5 healthy volunteers against a gold standard optical motion analysis system indicates very good agreement. The autonomous gait event detection shows high detection rates for all gait events. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed system can automatically measure the knee angle and detect gait events with good accuracy and thus offer an alternative, cost-effective, and convenient solution for clinical gait kinematics analysis.

Beschreibung: Health monitoring is nowadays one of the hottest markets due to the increasing interest in prevention and treatment of physical problems. In this context the development of wearable, wireless, open-source, and nonintrusive sensing solutions is still an open problem. Indeed, most of the existing commercial architectures are closed and provide little flexibility. In this paper, an open hardware architecture for designing a modular wireless sensor node for health monitoring is proposed. By separating the connection and sensing functions in two separate boards, compliant with the IEEE1451 standard, we add plug and play capabilities to analog transducers, while granting at the same time a high level of customization. As an additional contribution of the work, we developed a cosimulation tool which simplifies the physical connection with the hardware devices and provides support for complex systems. Finally, a wireless body area network for fall detection and health monitoring, based on wireless node prototypes realized according to the proposed architecture, is presented as an application scenario.

Beschreibung: The paper reports the use of a distributed optical fiber sensor based on stimulated Brillouin scattering, for structural vibration control. A cantilevered flexible aluminum beam was used as test-bed for vibration control. The proposed approach allows acquiring simultaneously the dynamic strain at several locations. The dynamic strain measured at one (or more) fiber location can be used to implement any vibration control algorithm. Experimental results are reported in which a voice coil, positioned near the fixed end of the cantilever beam, was employed as actuator for the reduction of the vibrations related to the first bending mode of the beam.

Beschreibung: Small target detection is very important for infrared search and track (IRST) problems. Grouped targets are difficult to detect using the conventional constant false alarm rate (CFAR) detection method. In this study, a novel multitarget detection method was developed to identify adjacent or closely spaced small infrared targets. The neighboring targets decrease the signal-to-clutter ratio in hysteresis threshold-based constant false alarm rate (H-CFAR) detection, which leads to poor detection performance in cluttered environments. The proposed adjacent target rejection-based robust background estimation can reduce the effects of the neighboring targets and enhance the small multitarget detection performance in infrared images by increasing the signal-to-clutter ratio. The experimental results of the synthetic and real adjacent target sequences showed that the proposed method produces an upgraded detection rate with the same false alarm rate compared to the recent target detection methods (H-CFAR, Top-hat, and TDLMS).

Beschreibung: In Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), Context Awareness is typically realized through Context Aware Systems (CASs). Although almost each CAS follows sense-decide-adapt cycle, the notion of context is hardwired into the applications; that is, when an event is triggered, the sense-decide-actuate cycle runs and performs required actuation. In situations, for instance, whenever the same event is triggered, the cycle produces the same actuation through mechanical use of the same resources, posing the same processing and time. In this paper, we propose CRAM, a context added system in which actuations once performed by the system help it to internally evolve by serving as new contexts. As the system is exposed to more situations overtime, its context repository is enriched through such retrospective contexts, gradually letting it perform internal actuation through improved introspective contexts. This internal actuation leads the system towards the evolution of intelligent processing by reducing the independent function of decision in sense-decide-actuate cycle and merging it with new context. Finally, the system reaches a juncture where recurrence of each event proves to be a stimulus for the system to respond impulsively, through priming memory of introspective contexts, to achieve an imitation of learned reflex action resulting into reduced time and energy expenditure.

Beschreibung: This work presents a comparative analysis of materials for planar semitransparent thermocouples fabricated by spray deposition on a flexible substrate. Three different materials are employed to build such devices, analyzing also the effect of the spray order in their final performance. The highest Seebeck coefficient (50.4 μV/K) is found for a junction made of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on top of silver nanowires (AgNWs) whereas its efficiency in terms of power is the lowest because of the higher sheet resistance of the CNTs. In this case, the best combination for energy-harvesting purposes would be poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) and AgNWs, with a power factor of 219 fW/K2. These results prove the feasibility of developing large-scale and cost-effective thermocouples that could be used for sensing or energy-harvesting applications.

Beschreibung: Low-cost sensors are an opportunity to improve the spatial and temporal resolution of particulate matter data. However, such sensors should be calibrated under conditions close to the final ones before any monitoring actions. The paper presents the results of a collocated comparison of four models of low-cost optical sensors with a TEOM 1400a analyser. SDS011 (Nova Fitness), ZH03A (Winsen), PMS7003 (Plantower), and OPC-N2 (Alphasense) sensors were used in this research. Three copies of each sensor model were placed in a common box to compare the sensor performance under the same measurement conditions. Monitoring of the PM2.5 fraction was conducted for almost half a year from 21 August 2017 to 19 February 2018 in Wrocław (Poland). Reproducibility between sensor units was assessed on the basis of coefficient of variation (CV). CV values were lower than 7% in the case of SDS011 and PMS7003 sensors and equal to 20% for OPC-N2 units. CV was higher than 50% for ZH03A, mainly due to malfunctions. During the measurements, the trends of outputs from sensors were generally similar to TEOM data, but significant overestimation of PM2.5 concentrations was observed for the sensor raw data. A high linear relationship between TEOM and sensors was noticed for 1 min, 15 min, and 1-hour averaged data for PMS7003 sensors (–0.89), for SDS011 units (–0.86), and for one unit of ZH03A (–0.81). values for daily averages were at the level 0.91–0.93 for PMS7003, 0.87–0.90 for SDS011, and 0.89 for ZH03A. OPC-N2 had only a moderate linear relationship with TEOM (–0.69 for daily data and 0.43–0.61 for shorter time averages). Quite large dispersion of data and high relative errors of PM2.5 estimation were observed for concentration ranges below 20–30 μg/m3. The impact of high relative humidity level was observed for SDS011 and OPC-N2 devices—clear overestimation of outputs was observed above 80% RH.

Beschreibung: We report about the fluorometric method for the determination of glutathione (GSH) in dietary supplements. The fluorometric assay is based on the use of functionalized silica particles (SiO2-SH) in combination with o-phthaldialdehyde (OPA). The fluorescence excitation and emission wavelengths were located at 340 nm and 430 nm. The relative fluorescence intensity was linear in the concentration range between 1.0 × 10−7 mol/L and 1.0 × 10−5 mol/L (M) with the detection limit of 3.4 × 10−7 M. The fluorescent silica particle-based sensor was successfully employed for the determination of GSH in dietary supplements with excellent recoveries. The proposed sensor may pave a new way for fluorescence sensing of other substances in food samples.

Beschreibung: A hydrostatic leveling system (HLS) is an automated high-accuracy measurement technology widely used for vertical displacement monitoring. This paper focuses on evaluating the performance of HLS for monitoring the deformation of a power transmission tower base together with a slope sensor and displacement meter. The monitoring results show that HLS measurements are strongly affected by the environmental temperature. Therefore, to obtain the actual deformation of a monitoring target, the measurements should be further processed to reduce the effect of temperature on the result. To this end, four data processing schemes are proposed, which are based on the frequency of processing (i.e., day by day, monthly, quarterly, or annually). The results demonstrate that the quarterly processing scheme effectively reduces the impact of temperature on deformation measurements and therefore provides the most accurate results among the four schemes considered. Since after correction, the HLS measurements are consistent with the independent monitoring results obtained from the slope sensor and displacement meter, the proposed correction strategy is workable and might be considered for similar monitoring scenarios in future.

Beschreibung: The navigation management systems in autonomous vehicles should be able to gather solid information about the immediate environment of the vehicle, discern ambulance from a delivery truck, and react in a proper manner to handle any difficult situation. Separating such information from a vision controlled system is a computationally demanding task for heavy traffic areas in the real world environmental conditions. In such a scenario, we need a robust moving object detection tracking system. To achieve this, we can make use of stereo vision-based moving object detection and tracking, utilizing symmetric mask-based discrete wavelet transform to deal with illumination changes, low memory requirement, and fake motion avoidance. The accurate motion detection in complex dynamic scenes is done by the combined background subtraction and frame differencing technique. For the fast motion track, we can employ a dense disparity-variance method. This SMDWT-based object detection has a maximum and minimum accuracy of 99.62% and 94.95%, respectively. The motion track has the highest accuracy of 79.47% within the time frame of 28.03 seconds. The lowest accuracy of the system is 62.01% within the time frame of 34.46 seconds. From the analysis, it is clear that this proposed method exceptionally outperforms the existing monocular and dense stereo object tracking approaches in terms of low computational cost, high accuracy, and in handling the dynamic environments.

Beschreibung: This paper proposes a method for sensor validation and fault detection in wind turbines. Ensuring validity of sensor measurements is a significant part in overall condition monitoring as sensor faults lead to incorrect results in monitoring a system’s state of health. Although identifying abrupt failures in sensors is relatively straightforward, calibration drifts are more difficult to detect. Therefore, a detection and isolation technique for sensor calibration drifts on the purpose of measurement validation was developed. Temperature sensor measurements from the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system of a wind turbine were used for this aim. Low output rate of the measurements and nonlinear characteristics of the system drive the necessity to design an advanced fault detection algorithm. Artificial neural networks were chosen for this purpose considering their high performance in nonlinear environments. The results demonstrate that the proposed method can effectively detect existence of calibration drift and isolate the exact sensor with faulty behaviour.

Beschreibung: Wearable technology impacts the daily life of its users. Wearable devices are defined as devices embedded within clothes, watches, or accessories. Wrist-worn devices, as a type of wearable devices, have gained popularity among other wearable devices. They allow quick access to vital information, and they are suitable for many applications. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of wearable computing as a research field and provides a systematic review of recent work specifically on wrist-worn wearables. The focus of this research is on wrist-worn wearable studies because there is a lack of systematic literature reviews related to this area. This study reviewed journal and conference articles from 2015 and 2017 with some studies from 2014 and 2018, resulting in a selection of 54 studies that met the selection criteria. The literature showed that research in wrist-worn wearables spans three domains, namely, user interface and interaction studies, user studies, and activity/affect recognition studies. Our study then concludes with challenges and open research directions.

Beschreibung: Private forests have a crucial role in maintaining the functioning of the Indonesian forest ecosystem especially because of the continuous degradation of natural forests. Private forests are a part of social forestry which becomes a tool for the Indonesian government to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emission by 26% by 2030. The United Nations Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation has encouraged the Indonesian government to establish a forest monitoring system by estimating forest carbon stock using a combination of forest inventory and remote sensing. This study is aimed at assessing the potential of vegetation indices derived from Sentinel-2 for estimating aboveground biomass (AGB) of private forests. We used 45 sample plots and 7 vegetation indices to evaluate the ability of Sentinel-2 in estimating AGB on private forests. Normalised difference index (NDI) 45 exhibited a strong correlation with AGB compared to other indices (r = 0.89; R2 = 0.79). Stepwise linear regression fitted for establishing the model between field AGB and vegetation indices (R2 = 0.81). We also found that AGB in the study area based on spatial analysis was 72.54 Mg/ha. A root mean square error (RMSE) value from predicted and observed AGB was 27 Mg/ha. The AGB value in the study area is higher than the AGB value from some of forest types, and it indicates that private forests are good for biomass storage. Overall, vegetation indices from Sentinel-2 multispectral imagery can provide a good result in terms of reporting the AGB on private forests.

Beschreibung: Indoor and outdoor positioning lets to offer universal location services in industry and academia. Wi-Fi and Global Positioning System (GPS) are the promising technologies for indoor and outdoor positioning, respectively. However, Wi-Fi-based positioning is less accurate due to the vigorous changes of environments and shadowing effects. GPS-based positioning is also characterized by much cost, highly susceptible to the physical layouts of equipment, power-hungry, and sensitive to occlusion. In this paper, we propose a hybrid of support vector machine (SVM) and deep neural network (DNN) to develop scalable and accurate positioning in Wi-Fi-based indoor and outdoor environments. In the positioning processes, we primarily construct real datasets from indoor and outdoor Wi-Fi-based environments. Secondly, we apply linear discriminate analysis (LDA) to construct a projected vector that uses to reduce features without affecting information contents. Thirdly, we construct a model for positioning through the integration of SVM and DNN. Fourthly, we use online datasets from unknown locations and check the missed radio signal strength (RSS) values using the feed-forward neural network (FFNN) algorithm to fill the missed values. Fifthly, we project the online data through an LDA-based projected vector. Finally, we test the positioning accuracies and scalabilities of a model created from a hybrid of SVM and DNN. The whole processes are implemented using Python 3.6 programming language in the TensorFlow framework. The proposed method provides accurate and scalable positioning services in different scenarios. The results also show that our proposed approach can provide scalable positioning, and 100% of the estimation accuracies are with errors less than 1 m and 1.9 m for indoor and outdoor positioning, respectively.

Beschreibung: Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) have drawn tremendous attentions from all fields because of their wide application. Underwater wireless sensor networks are similar to terrestrial Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), however, due to different working environment and communication medium, UWSNs have many unique characteristics such as high bit error rate, long end-to-end delay and low bandwidth. These characteristics of UWSNs lead to many problems such as retransmission, high energy consumption and low reliability. To solve these problems, many routing protocols for UWSNs are proposed. In this paper, a localization-free routing protocol, named energy efficient routing protocol based on layers and unequal clusters (EERBLC) is proposed. EERBLC protocol consists of three phases: layer and unequal cluster formation, transmission routing, maintenance and update of clusters. In the first phase, the monitoring area under the water is divided into layers, the nodes in the same layer are clustered. For balancing energy of the whole network and avoiding the “hotspot” problem, a novel unequal clustering method based on layers for UWSNs is proposed, in which a new calculation method of unequal cluster size is presented. Meanwhile, a new cluster head selection mechanism based on energy balance and degree is given. In the transmission phase, EERBLC protocol proposes a novel next forwarder selection method based on the forwarding ratio and the residual energy. In the third phase, Intra and inter cluster updating method is presented. The simulation results show that the EERBLC can effectively balance the energy consumption, prolong the network lifetime, and increase the amount of data transmission compared with DBR and EEDBR protocols.

Beschreibung: This paper describes a new methodology for noninvasive, objective, and automated assessment of yield in vineyards using image analysis and Boolean model. Image analysis, as an inexpensive and noninvasive procedure, has been studied for this purpose, but the effect of occlusions from the cluster or other organs of the vine has an impact that diminishes the quality of the results. To reduce the influence of the occlusions in the estimation, the number of berries was assessed using the Boolean model. To evaluate the methodology, three different datasets were studied: cluster images, manually acquired vine images, and vine images captured on-the-go using a quad. The proposed algorithm estimated the number of berries in cluster images with a root mean square error (RMSE) of 20 and a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.80. Vine images manually taken were evaluated, providing 310 grams of mean error and . Finally, images captured using a quad equipped with artificial light and automatic camera triggering were also analysed. The estimation obtained applying the Boolean model had 610 grams of mean error per segment (three vines) and . The reliability against occlusions and segmentation errors of the Boolean model makes it ideal for vineyard yield estimation. Its application greatly improved the results when compared to a simpler estimator based on the relationship between cluster area and weight.

Beschreibung: Terrain matching positioning is a promising method to overcome the problem that the inertial navigation error of the underwater vehicle accumulates over time. In the conventional terrain matching method, all measurement points are commonly used for matching and positioning. However, this method fails to be taken into a balanced consideration on both the computation complexity and the positioning accuracy. To reduce the computation and ensure the accuracy at the same time, an improved terrain matching method based on the gradient fitting is proposed in this paper. In the method, the gradient distributions of multiple terrain regions are firstly analyzed. Then, normal distribution is used to fit them, and according to the distribution, points with larger gradient values are selected as matching points. Finally, minimum absolute difference matching is chosen to match for positioning. Simulation results using multibeam sonar show that the improved terrain matching localization method not only reduces the computational complexity but also improves the accuracy of positioning.

Beschreibung: Heavy-equipment airdrops are mainly used to deliver relief supplies and heavy weapons. Given the heavy weight of the goods, the tension of the extraction and brake ropes of the parachute significantly affects the safety of the aircraft. On the basis of the measurement and installation characteristics of the parachute rope, this study designed the structure of a nondestructive pressure-type parachute rope tension sensor and set the location of the strain gauge patch using the ANSYS simulation software to obtain a high sensor sensitivity. The temperature error of the tension sensor is compensated, and the precision is improved using the LSSVM-PSO (Least Squares Support Vector Machine-Particle Swarm Optimization) algorithm. The developed tension sensor is applied to the extraction parachute test system to measure the traction of 2 and 8 m2 parachutes. Test results show that the maximum weight of the platform these two parachutes can draw and the effect of parachute opening can be calculated.

Beschreibung: This paper proposes a visual dirt detection algorithm and a novel adaptive tiling-based selective dirt area coverage scheme for reconfigurable morphology robot. The visual dirt detection technique utilizes a three-layer filtering framework which includes a periodic pattern detection filter, edge detection, and noise filtering to effectively detect and segment out the dirt area from the complex floor backgrounds. Then adaptive tiling-based area coverage scheme has been employed to generate the tetromino morphology to cover the segmented dirt area. The proposed algorithms have been validated in Matlab environment with real captured dirt images and simulated tetrominoes tile set. Experimental results show that the proposed three-stage filtering significantly enhances the dirt detection ratio in the incoming images with complex floors with different backgrounds. Further, the selective dirt area coverage is performed by excluding the already cleaned area from the unclean area on the floor map by incorporating the tiling pattern generated by adaptive tetromino tiling algorithm.

Beschreibung: In recent years, intelligent sensor techniques have achieved significant attention in agriculture. It is applied in agriculture to plan the several activities and missions properly by utilising limited resources with minor human interference. Currently, plant cultivation using new agriculture methods is very popular among the growers. However, the aeroponics is one of the methods of modern agriculture, which is commonly practiced around the world. In the system, plant cultivates under complete control conditions in the growth chamber by providing a small mist of the nutrient solution in replacement of the soil. The nutrient mist is ejected through atomization nozzles on a periodical basis. During the plant cultivation, several steps including temperature, humidity, light intensity, water nutrient solution level, pH and EC value, CO2 concentration, atomization time, and atomization interval time require proper attention for flourishing plant growth. Therefore, the object of this review study was to provide significant knowledge about early fault detection and diagnosis in aeroponics using intelligent techniques (wireless sensors). So, the farmer could monitor several paraments without using laboratory instruments, and the farmer could control the entire system remotely. Moreover, the technique also provides a wide range of information which could be essential for plant researchers and provides a greater understanding of how the key parameters of aeroponics correlate with plant growth in the system. It offers full control of the system, not by constant manual attention from the operator but to a large extent by wireless sensors. Furthermore, the adoption of the intelligent techniques in the aeroponic system could reduce the concept of the usefulness of the system due to complicated manually monitoring and controlling process.

Beschreibung: In order to solve the problems of strong coupling, nonlinearity, and complex mechanism in real-world engineering process, building soft sensor with excellent performance and robustness has become the core issue in industrial processes. In this paper, we propose a new soft sensor model based on improved Elman neural network (Elman NN) and introduce variable data preprocessing method to the soft sensor model. The improved Elman NN employs local feedback and feedforward network mechanism through context layer to accurately reflect the dynamic characteristics of the soft sensor model, which has the superiority to approximate delay systems and adaption of time-varying characteristics. The proposed variable data preprocessing method adopts combining Isometric Mapping (ISOMAP) with local linear embedding (LLE), which effectively maintains the neighborhood structure and the global mutual distance of dataset to remove the noises and data redundancy. The soft sensor model based on improved Elman NN with variable data preprocessing method by combining ISOMAP and LLE is applied in practical sintering and pelletizing to estimate the temperature in the rotary kiln calcining process. Comparing several conventional soft sensor model methods, the results indicate that the proposed method has more excellent generalization performance and robustness. Its model prediction accuracy and anti-interference ability have been improved, which provide an effective and promising method for the industrial process application.

Beschreibung: Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is known to be a highly resource constrained class of network where energy consumption is one of the prime concerns. In this research, a cross layer design methodology was adopted to design an energy efficient routing protocol entitled “Position Responsive Routing Protocol” (PRRP). PRRP is designed to minimize energy consumed in each node by (1) reducing the amount of time in which a sensor node is in an idle listening state and (2) reducing the average communication distance over the network. The performance of the proposed PRRP was critically evaluated in the context of network lifetime, throughput, and energy consumption of the network per individual basis and per data packet basis. The research results were analyzed and benchmarked against the well-known LEACH and CELRP protocols. The outcomes show a significant improvement in the WSN in terms of energy efficiency and the overall performance of WSN.

Beschreibung: A computer vision-based portable measurement system is presented in this report. The system is based on a compact reader unit composed of a microcamera and a Raspberry Pi board as control unit. This reader can acquire and process images of a sensor array formed by four nonselective sensing chemistries. Processing these array images it is possible to identify and quantify eight different nitroaromatic compounds (both explosives and related compounds) by using chromatic coordinates of a color space. The system is also capable of sending the obtained information after the processing by a WiFi link to a smartphone in order to present the analysis result to the final user. The identification and quantification algorithm programmed in the Raspberry board is easy and quick enough to allow real time analysis. Nitroaromatic compounds analyzed in the range of mg/L were picric acid, 2,4-dinitrotoluene (2,4-DNT), 1,3-dinitrobenzene (1,3-DNB), 3,5-dinitrobenzonitrile (3,5-DNBN), 2-chloro-3,5-dinitrobenzotrifluoride (2-C-3,5-DNBF), 1,3,5-trinitrobenzene (TNB), 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT), and tetryl (TT).

Beschreibung: We present a wireless-inertial-measurement-unit- (WIMU-) based hand motion analysis technique for handwriting recognition in three-dimensional (3D) space. The proposed handwriting recognition system is not bounded by any limitations or constraints; users have the freedom and flexibility to write characters in free space. It uses hand motion analysis to segment hand motion data from a WIMU device that incorporates magnetic, angular rate, and gravity sensors (MARG) and a sensor fusion algorithm to automatically distinguish segments that represent handwriting from nonhandwriting data in continuous hand motion data. Dynamic time warping (DTW) recognition algorithm is used to recognize handwriting in real-time. We demonstrate that a user can freely write in air using an intuitive WIMU as an input and hand motion analysis device to recognize the handwriting in 3D space. The experimental results for recognizing handwriting in free space show that the proposed method is effective and efficient for other natural interaction techniques, such as in computer games and real-time hand gesture recognition applications.

Beschreibung: In this work estimating the position coordinates of Wireless Sensor Network nodes using the concept of rigid graphs is carried out in detail. The range based localization approaches use the distance information measured by the RSSI, which is prone to noise, due to effects of path loss, shadowing, and so forth. In this work, both the distance and the bearing information are used for localization using the trilateration technique. Rigid graph theory is employed to analyze the localizability, that is, whether the nodes of the WSN are uniquely localized. The WSN graph is divided into rigid patches by varying appropriately the communication power range of the WSN nodes and then localizing the patches by trilateration. The main advantage of localizing the network using rigid graph approach is that it overcomes the effect of noisy perturbed distance. Our approach gives a better performance compared to robust quads in terms of percentage of localizable nodes and computational complexity.

Beschreibung: In the real application environment of wireless sensor networks (WSNs), the uncertain factor of data storage makes the authentication information be easily forged and destroyed by illegal attackers. As a result, it is hard for secure managers to conduct forensics on transmitted information in WSN. This work considers the regeneration encoding self-healing and secret sharing techniques and proposes an effective scheme to authenticate data in WSN. The data is encoded by regeneration codes and then distributed to other redundant nodes in the form of fragments. When the network is attacked, the scheme has the ability against tampering attack or collusion attack. Furthermore, the damaged fragments can be restored as well. Parts of fragments, encoded by regeneration code, are required for secure authentication of the original distributed data. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme reduces hardware communication overhead by five percent in comparison. Additionally, the performance of local recovery achieves ninety percent.

Beschreibung: WSN (wireless sensor network) is one of the main technologies in IoT (Internet of Things) applications or services. To date, several schemes have been proposed to establish a pair-wise key between two nodes in WSN, and most of them are designed to establish long-term keys used throughout the network lifetime. However, in the near future, if WSN will be used for information infrastructures in various fields such as manufacturing, distribution, or public facilities management and its life cycle can be as long as that of other common networks, it will definitely be advantageous in terms of security to encrypt messages using session keys instead of long-term keys. In this paper, we propose a session key establishment scheme for clustered sensor networks that is based on elliptic curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH) key exchange and hash chain. The proposed scheme eliminates vulnerabilities of existing schemes for WSN and has improved security. The proposed scheme is efficient in terms of energy costs compared to related schemes.

Beschreibung: Grip force sensors compatible with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are used in human motor control and decision-making research, providing objective and sensitive behavioral outcome measures. Commercial sensors are expensive, cover limited force ranges, rely on pneumatic force transmission that cannot detect fast force changes, or are electrically active, which increases the risk of electromagnetic interference. We present the design and evaluation of a low-cost, 3D-printed, inherently MRI-compatible grip force sensor based on a commercial intensity-based fiber-optic sensor. A compliant monobloc structure with flexible hinges transduces grip force to a linear displacement captured by the fiber-optic sensor. The structure can easily be adapted for different force ranges by changing the hinge thickness. A prototype designed for forces up to 800 N was manufactured and showed a highly linear behavior (nonlinearity of 2.37%) and an accuracy of 1.57% in a range between zero and 500 N. It can be printed and assembled within one day and for less than $300. Accurate performance was confirmed, both inside and outside a 3 T MRI scanner within a pilot study. Given its simple design allowing for customization of sensing properties and ergonomics for different applications and requirements, the proposed grip force handle offers researchers a valuable scientific tool.

Beschreibung: Attitude estimation is often inaccurate during highly dynamic motion due to the external acceleration. This paper proposes extended Kalman filter-based attitude estimation using a new algorithm to overcome the external acceleration. This algorithm is based on an external acceleration compensation model to be used as a modifying parameter in adjusting the measurement noise covariance matrix of the extended Kalman filter. The experiment was conducted to verify the estimation accuracy, that is, one-axis and multiple axes sensor movement. Five approaches were used to test the estimation of the attitude: (1) the KF-based model without compensating for external acceleration, (2) the proposed KF-based model which employs the external acceleration compensation model, (3) the two-step KF using weighted-based switching approach, (4) the KF-based model which uses the threshold-based approach, and (5) the KF-based model which uses the threshold-based approach combined with a softened part approach. The proposed algorithm showed high effectiveness during the one-axis test. When the testing conditions employed multiple axes, the estimation accuracy increased using the proposed approach and exhibited external acceleration rejection at the right timing. The proposed algorithm has fewer parameters that need to be set at the expense of the sharpness of signal edge transition.

Beschreibung: Self-excited vibration of a square cylinder has been considered as an effective way in harvesting piezoelectric wind energy. In present work, both of the vortex-induced vibration and unstable galloping phenomenon process are investigated in a reduced velocity () range of with load resistance ranging in  MΩ. The vortex-induced vibration covers presynchronization, synchronization, and postsynchronization branches. An aeroelectromechanical model is given to describe the coupling of the dynamic equation of the fluid-structure interaction and the equation of Gauss law. The effects of load resistance are investigated in both the open-circuit and close-circuit system by a linear analysis, which covers the parameters of the transverse displacement, aerodynamic force, output voltage, and harvested power utilized to measure the efficiency of the system. The highest level of the transverse displacement and the maximum value of harvested power of synchronization branch during the vortex-induced vibration and galloping are obtained. The results show that the large-amplitude galloping at high wind speeds can generate energy. Additionally, energy can be harvested by utilization of the lock-in phenomenon of vortex-induced vibration under low wind speed.

Beschreibung: Magnetoelastic biosensors are an important type of resonant mode based mass-sensing device, for which mass sensitivity is a critical parameter to evaluate their performance. In this work, the effect of concentrated mass position on mass sensitivity () of a magnetoelastic sensor under different resonance modes was theoretically studied. The effect of magnitude of loading mass on mass sensitivity for the first resonance mode was also studied. The results indicated that mass sensitivity as the function of loading position for all resonance modes was consistent with the law of function . By comparing the mass sensitivity for the sensor attached with concentrated mass and uniform mass, it was found that mass sensitivity was linearly proportional to the sum of the squares of the displacement of each loading point. For the first resonance mode, when the loading position satisfied or , mass sensitivity decreased with loading mass increasing. The opposite trend was observed when or . When the concentrated mass was loaded at the nodal point (i.e., ), mass sensitivity was always zero no matter how the loading mass changed.

Beschreibung: WSN (wireless sensor network) has been used in a wide range of applications nowadays. Sensor networks may often relay critical data; thus, security must be a high priority. However, due to their limited computational, energy, and storage resources, sensor nodes are vulnerable to attack. So how to protect sensor nodes from attacks without raising computational capability and energy consumption is a worthwhile issue. A WAC (wireless authentication center) with mixed encryption named “MEWAC” is proposed. MEWAC is based on MCU (Microcontroller Unit) and WiFi (Wireless Fidelity) module and uses RSA, AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), and SHA-1 (Secure Hash Algorithm 1) to provide high performance authentication and data encryption services for sensor nodes. The experimental results show that MEWAC has the advantages of low cost, low power consumption, good performance, and stability; moreover, the authentication protocol improves the security of WSN and reduces the overhead in node authentication.

Beschreibung: The growing popularity of wireless sensor networks increases the risk of security attacks. One of the most common and dangerous types of attack that takes place these days in any electronic society is a distributed denial of service attack. Due to the resource constraint nature of mobile sensors, DDoS attacks have become a major threat to its stability. In this paper, we established a model of a structural health monitoring network, being disturbed by one of the most common types of DDoS attacks, the flooding attack. Through a set of simulations, we explore the scope of flood-based DDoS attack problem, assessing the performance and the lifetime of the network under the attack condition. To conduct our research, we utilized the Quality of Protection Modeling Language. With the proposed approach, it was possible to examine numerous network configurations, parameters, attack options, and scenarios. The results of the carefully performed multilevel analysis allowed us to identify a new kind of DDoS attack, the delayed distributed denial of service, by the authors, referred to as DDDoS attack. Multilevel approach to DDoS attack analysis confirmed that, examining endangered environments, it is significant to take into account many characteristics at once, just to not overlook any important aspect.

Beschreibung: Nonpolarizable electrodes are applied widely in the electric field measurement for geophysical surveys. However, there are two major problems: (1) systematic errors caused by poor electrical contact in the high resistive terrains and (2) environmental damage associated with using nonpolarizable electrodes. A new alternative structure of capacitive electrode, which is capable of sensing surface potential through weak capacitive coupling, is presented to solve the above problems. A technique is introduced to neutralize distributed capacitance and input capacitance of the detection circuit. With the capacitance neutralization technique, the transmission coefficient of capacitive electrode remains stable when environmental conditions change. The simulation and field test results indicate that the new capacitive electrode has an operating bandwidth range from 0.1 Hz to 1 kHz. The capacitive electrodes have a good prospect of the applications in geophysical prospecting, especially in resistive terrains.

Beschreibung: Robotic vehicles working in unknown environments require the ability to determine their location while learning about obstacles located around them. In this paper a method of solving the SLAM problem that makes use of compressed occupancy grids is presented. The presented approach is an extension of the FastSLAM algorithm which stores a compressed form of the occupancy grid to reduce the amount of memory required to store the set of occupancy grids maintained by the particle filter. The performance of the algorithm is presented using experimental results obtained using a small inexpensive ground vehicle equipped with LiDAR, compass, and downward facing camera that provides the vehicle with visual odometry measurements. The presented results demonstrate that although with our approach the occupancy grid maintained by each particle uses only of the data needed to store the uncompressed occupancy grid, we can still achieve almost identical results to the approach where each particle filter stores the full occupancy grid.

Beschreibung: An optimized triaxis induction magnetometer has been designed and calibrated to minimize the influences from the nonorthogonality and the magnetic flux crosstalk. Utilizing the nonlinear least square method, contributions due to the nonorthogonal assembly of three transducers are cancelled. The magnetic flux crosstalk is a frequency-dependent error component in the calibration of the triaxis induction magnetometer. Influences from the assembly density, the frequency, and the feedback amount are analyzed theoretically, and an optimized sensor configuration which has a smaller crosstalk is achieved. Moreover, a mathematical compensation algorithm has also been utilized to suppress the residues crosstalk ulteriorly. To validate the theoretical analysis, a triaxis induction magnetometer was manufactured and the experiment setup has also been built. The experiment results show that the cross-outputs of the transverse induction magnetometers have been significantly decreased about two orders, indicating that the proposed method is applicable for the triaxis induction magnetometer.

Beschreibung: We present a low-noise small-area 24 GHz CMOS radar sensor for automotive collision avoidance. This sensor is based on direct-conversion pulsed-radar architecture. The proposed circuit is implemented using TSMC 0.13 μm RF (radio frequency) CMOS ( GHz) technology, and it is powered by a 1.5 V supply. This circuit uses transmission lines to reduce total chip size instead of real bulky inductors for input and output impedance matching. The layout techniques for RF are used to reduce parasitic capacitance at the band of 24 GHz. The proposed sensor has low cost and low power dissipation since it is realized using CMOS process. The proposed sensor showed the lowest noise figure of 2.9 dB and the highest conversion gain of 40.2 dB as compared to recently reported research results. It also showed small chip size of 0.56 mm2, low power dissipation of 39.5 mW, and wide operating temperature range of −40 to +125°C.

Beschreibung: Broadcast authentication is a fundamental security technology in wireless sensor networks (ab. WSNs). As an authentication protocol, the most widely used in WSN, μTESLA protocol, its publication of key is based on a fixed time interval, which may lead to unsatisfactory performance under the unstable network traffic environment. Furthermore, the frequent network communication will cause the delay authentication for some broadcast packets while the infrequent one will increase the overhead of key computation. To solve these problems, this paper improves the traditional μTESLA by determining the publication of broadcast key based on the network data flow rather than the fixed time interval. Meanwhile, aiming at the finite length of hash chain and the problem of exhaustion, a self-renewal hash chain based on Benaloh-Leichter secret sharing scheme (SRHC-BL SSS) is designed, which can prolong the lifetime of network. Moreover, by introducing the queue theory model, we demonstrate that our scheme has much lower key consumption than μTESLA through simulation evaluations. Finally, we analyze and prove the security and efficiency of the proposed self-renewal hash chain, comparing with other typical schemes.

Beschreibung: Energy issue is one of the most important problems in wireless sensor networks. They consist of low-power sensor nodes and a few base station nodes. They must be adaptive and efficient in data transmission to sink in various areas. This paper proposes an aware-routing protocol based on clustering and recursive search approaches. The paper focuses on the energy efficiency issue with various measures such as prolonging network lifetime along with reducing energy consumption in the sensor nodes and increasing the system reliability. Our proposed protocol consists of two phases. In the first phase (network development phase), the sensors are placed into virtual layers. The second phase (data transmission) is related to routes discovery and data transferring so it is based on virtual-based Classic-RBFS algorithm in the lake of energy problem environments but, in the nonchargeable environments, all nodes in each layer can be modeled as a random graph and then begin to be managed by the duty cycle method. Additionally, the protocol uses new topology control, data aggregation, and sleep/wake-up schemas for energy saving in the network. The simulation results show that the proposed protocol is optimal in the network lifetime and packet delivery parameters according to the present protocols.

Beschreibung: In the scenario where an underwater vehicle tracks an underwater target, reliable estimation of the target position is required. While USBL measurements provide target position measurements at low but regular update rate, multibeam sonar imagery gives high precision measurements but in a limited field of view. This paper describes the development of the tracking filter that fuses USBL and processed sonar image measurements for tracking underwater targets for the purpose of obtaining reliable tracking estimates at steady rate, even in cases when either sonar or USBL measurements are not available or are faulty. The proposed algorithms significantly increase safety in scenarios where underwater vehicle has to maneuver in close vicinity to human diver who emits air bubbles that can deteriorate tracking performance. In addition to the tracking filter development, special attention is devoted to adaptation of the region of interest within the sonar image by using tracking filter covariance transformation for the purpose of improving detection and avoiding false sonar measurements. Developed algorithms are tested on real experimental data obtained in field conditions. Statistical analysis shows superior performance of the proposed filter compared to conventional tracking using pure USBL or sonar measurements.

Beschreibung: The estimation of the individual cylinder air-fuel ratio (AFR) with a single universal exhaust gas oxygen (UEGO) sensor installed in the exhaust pipe is an important issue for the cylinder-to-cylinder AFR balancing control, which can provide high-quality torque generation and reduce emissions in multicylinder engine. In this paper, the system dynamic for the gas in exhaust pipe including the gas mixing, gas transport, and sensor dynamics is described as an output delay system, and a new method using the output delay system observer is developed to estimate the individual cylinder AFR. With the AFR at confluence point augmented as a system state, an observer for the augmented discrete system with output delay is designed to estimate the AFR at confluence point. Using the gas mixing model, a method with the designed observer to estimate the individual cylinder AFR is presented. The validity of the proposed method is verified by the simulation results from a spark ignition gasoline engine from engine software enDYNA by Tesis.

Beschreibung: From biomechanical point of view, strike pattern plays an important role in preventing potential injury risk in running. Traditionally, strike pattern determination was conducted by using 3D motion analysis system with cameras. However, the procedure is costly and not convenient. With the rapid development of technology, sensors have been applied in sport science field lately. Therefore, this study was designed to determine the algorithm that can identify landing strategies with a wearable sensor. Six healthy male participants were recruited to perform heel and forefoot strike strategies at 7, 10, and 13 km/h speeds. The kinematic data were collected by Vicon 3D motion analysis system and 2 inertial measurement units (IMU) attached on the dorsal side of both shoes. The data of each foot strike were gathered for pitch angle and strike index analysis. Comparing the strike index from IMU with the pitch angle from Vicon system, our results showed that both signals exhibited highly correlated changes between different strike patterns in the sagittal plane (). Based on the findings, the IMU sensors showed potential capabilities and could be extended beyond the context of sport science to other fields, including clinical applications.

Beschreibung: Wax deposition detection in nonmetallic pipelines is an important requirement in the oil industry. In this paper, an ECT (electrical capacitance tomography) sensor is developed for wax deposition detection in nonmetallic pipelines. Four wax models with different concentrations were established for detection. These models were analyzed through simulations and practical experiments simultaneously and data were compared. A linear back projection algorithm is applied to reconstruct the image with both simulated and experimental data. A comparison of binary images with different concentration of stratified flow was demonstrated; this illustrates that the difference in concentration between the experimental results and profile distribution is less than 1.2%. The experimental results indicate that the ECT system is valid and feasible for detecting the degree of wax deposition in the nonmetallic pipelines.

Beschreibung: The bending strain of long-distance oil and gas pipelines can be calculated by the in-line inspection tool which used inertial measurement unit (IMU). The bending strain is used to evaluate the strain and displacement of the pipeline. During the bending strain inspection, the dent existing in the pipeline can affect the bending strain data as well. This paper presents a novel method to model and calculate the pipeline dent based on the bending strain. The technique takes inertial mapping data from in-line inspection and calculates depth of dent in the pipeline using Bayesian statistical theory and neural network. To verify accuracy of the proposed method, an in-line inspection tool is used to inspect pipeline to gather data. The calculation of dent shows the method is accurate for the dent, and the mean relative error is 2.44%. The new method provides not only strain of the pipeline dent but also the depth of dent. It is more benefit for integrity management of pipeline for the safety of the pipeline.

Beschreibung: Gas-liquid annular flow is widely used in many industrial applications such as petroleum, chemical, and nuclear engineering. The feature parameters of liquid film in the annular flow are of great significance to understand the flow characteristics and measure the flow precisely. For the annular flow, the circumferential features of liquid film are more important than the axial features to acquire abundant flow structures and reveal the flow mechanism. In the paper, a measurement platform based on the laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) and virtual stereo vision sensor is presented. The virtual stereo vision sensor comprises a high-speed camera and two optical reflection sets, which can acquire the liquid film from two views simultaneously and reconstruct the features of liquid film. Image processing techniques are proceeded with to extract the feature parameters of liquid film; then the circumferential flow characteristic can be reconstructed by views transformation and fusion. The flow characteristic based on the thickness distribution is analysed. The experimental results show that the method is valid and effective, which can give a more detailed and accurate description for the liquid film in annular flows.

Beschreibung: For decoding the asynchronous superposition of response signals from different sensors, it is a challenge to achieve correlation in a code division multiplexing (CDM) based passive wireless surface acoustic wave (SAW) multisensor system. Therefore, an on-chip correlator scheme is developed in this paper. In contrast to conventional CDM-based systems, this novel scheme enables the correlations to be operated at the SAW sensors, instead of the reader. Thus, the response signals arriving at the reader are the result of cross-correlation on the chips. It is then easy for the reader to distinguish the sensor that is matched with the interrogating signal. The operation principle, signal analysis, and simulation of the novel scheme are described in the paper. The simulation results show the response signals from the correlations of the sensors. A clear spike pulse is presented in the response signals, when a sensor code is matched with the interrogating code. Simulations verify the feasibility of the on-chip correlator concept.

Beschreibung: Titanium dioxide (TiO2) thin films were sputtered by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering method and have been employed as the sensing membrane of an extended gate field effect transistor (EGFET) for pH sensing detection application. The TiO2 thin films were deposited onto indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass substrates at room temperature and 200°C, respectively. The effect of deposition temperature on thin film properties and pH detection application was analyzed. The TiO2 samples used as the sensing membrane for EGFET pH-sensor and the current-voltage (I-V), hysteresis, and drift characteristics were examined. The sensitivity of TiO2 EGFET sensing membrane was obtained from the transfer characteristic (I-V) curves for different substrate heating temperatures. TiO2 thin film sputtered at room temperature achieved higher sensitivity of 59.89 mV/pH compared to the one deposited at 200°C indicating lower sensitivity of 37.60 mV/pH. Moreover the hysteresis and the drift of TiO2 thin film deposited at room temperature showed lower values compared to the one at 200°C. We have also tested the effect of operating temperature on the performance of the EGFET pH-sensing and found that the temperature effect was very minimal.