Bridges Structural Health Monitoring and Deterioration Detection Synthesis of Knowledge and Technology

INE/AUTC 10.0

Design and development of a novel Invasive Blood Pressure simulator for patient's monitor testing

This paper presents a newly-designed and realized Invasive Blood Pressure (IBP) device for the simulation on patient’s monitors. This device shows improvements and presents extended features with respect to a first prototype presented by the authors and similar systems available in the state-of-the-art. A peculiarity of the presented device is that all implemented features can be customized from the developer and from the point of view of the end user. The realized device has been tested, and its performances in terms of accuracy and of the back-loop measurement of the output for the blood pressure regulation utilization have been described. In particular, an accuracy of ±1 mmHg at 25 °C, on a range from −30 to 300 mmHg, was evaluated under different test conditions. The designed device is an ideal tool for testing IBP modules, for zero setting, and for calibrations. The implemented extended features, like the generation of custom waveforms and the Universal Serial Bus (USB) connectivity, allow use of this device in a wide range of applications, from research to equipment maintenance in clinical environments to educational purposes. Moreover, the presented device represents an innovation, both in terms of technology and methodologies: It allows quick and efficient tests to verify the proper functioning of IBP module of patients’ monitors. With this innovative device, tests can be performed directly in the field and faster procedures can be implemented by the clinical maintenance personnel. This device is an open source project and all materials, hardware, and software are fully available for interested developers or researchers.Web of Science201art. no. 25

Overview of modern teaching equipment that supports distant learning

Laboratory is a key element of engineering and applied sciences educational systems. With the development of Internet and connecting IT technologies, the appearance of remote laboratories was inevitable. Virtual laboratories are also available; they place the experiment in a simulated environment. However, this writing focuses on remote experiments not virtual ones. From the students’ point of view, it is a great help not only for those enrolling in distant or online courses but also for those studying in a more traditional way. With the spread of smart, portable devices capable of connection to the internet, students can expand or restructure time spent on studying. This is a huge help to them and also allows them to individually divide their time up, to learn how to self-study. This independent approach can prepare them for working environments. It offers flexibility and convenience to the students. From the universities’ point of view, it helps reduce maintenance costs and universities can share experiments which also helps the not so well-resourced educational facilities

Context constraint integration and validation in dynamic web service compositions

System architectures that cross organisational boundaries are usually implemented based on Web service technologies due to their inherent interoperability benets. With increasing exibility requirements, such as on-demand service provision, a dynamic approach to service architecture focussing on composition at runtime is needed. The possibility of technical faults, but also violations of functional and semantic constraints require a comprehensive notion of context that captures composition-relevant aspects. Context-aware techniques are consequently required to support constraint validation for dynamic service composition. We present techniques to respond to problems occurring during the execution of dynamically composed Web services implemented in WS-BPEL. A notion of context { covering physical and contractual faults and violations { is used to safeguard composed service executions dynamically. Our aim is to present an architectural framework from an application-oriented perspective, addressing practical considerations of a technical framework

UniDA: Uniform Device Access Framework for Human Interaction Environments

Human interaction environments (HIE) must be understood as any place where people carry out their daily life, including their work, family life, leisure and social life, interacting with technology to enhance or facilitate the experience. The integration of technology in these environments has been achieved in a disorderly and incompatible way, with devices operating in isolated islands with artificial edges delimited by the manufacturers. In this paper we are presenting the UniDA framework, an integral solution for the development of systems that require the integration and interoperation of devices and technologies in HIEs. It provides developers and installers with a uniform conceptual framework capable of modelling an HIE, together with a set of libraries, tools and devices to build distributed instrumentation networks with support for transparent integration of other technologies. A series of use case examples and a comparison to many of the existing technologies in the field has been included in order to show the benefits of using UniDA

Control and Instrumentation Topologies for an Integrated Wave Energy Array

SubmittedControl and Instrumentation (C&I) systems provide the framework for monitoring critical data streams and implementing control functions during the operation of a wave energy converter. However, cost and power constraints of wave energy converters present a challenge in designing a C&I architecture that is appropriate for the application. This study describes the design of a C&I system for an integrated wave en-ergy array. A specification is first developed by defining operational requirements and design principles, measurement and control priorities are then identified, incorporating a failure mode and effects analysis. Available instrumentation options in the industry are reviewed and C&I topologies are presented. A distribut-ed control system is proposed for the Albatern WaveNET Array, allowing for the implementation of control and protection strategies and condition monitoring. Improved C&I allows for the reduction of unplanned maintenance, maximising device availability for energy production.The author would like to thank the industrial and academic supervisors, in addition to many industrial representatives whom provided valuable input to this paper. The support of the ETI and RCUK Energy Programme funding for IDCORE (EP/J500847/1) is gratefully acknowledged

A Fully Integrated Open Solution for the Remote Operation of Pilot Plants

Nowadays remote access to systems in the instrumentation and measurement fields is both a reality and a challenge. There is a growing interest in replacing manual actions performed on site by remote actions carried out from anywhere around the world. To do that, besides the availability of suitable communication networks, it is necessary for the elements involved in the network to recognize each other, this latter task perhaps being the most complex one of the two. Integrating different hardware/software from different manufacturers into a single system with controlled remote access is not a trivial task. This paper presents a fully integrated open solution for the operation of pilot plants (scaled down, laboratory level industrial plants operated in university and other environments) using open access hardware/software on public networks. The proposed solution is independent of the nature of the pilot plant and its elements and can therefore be considered standard. In order to illustrate the capabilities of the proposed solution, two different types of pilot plant are presented

Design and Implementation of a Contactless Smart House Network System

The Internet of Things (IoT) technology is every object around us and it is used to connect these objects to the Internet to verify Machine to Machine (M2M) communication. The smart house system is the most important application of IoT technology; it is increase the quality of life and decrease the efforts. There were many problems that faced the existing smart house networking systems, including the high cost of implementation and upgrading, high power consumption, and supported limited features. Therefore, this paper presents the design and implementation of smart house network system (SHNS) using Raspberry Pi and Arduino platforms as network infrastructure with ZigBee technology as wireless communication. SHNS consists of two main parts: the main station part and the wireless house nodes part. The local wireless communication between the house nodes and the main station is done through ZigBee technology with low power and low data rate. The mode of operation of these house nodes can be configured dynamically by the end user and determined multicast or broadcast operation according to the user requirements. The implementation and upgrading of SHNS are costless, flexible and required less power comparing with other reviewed systems