Definition and validation of approaches special for OS&H in Research Universities, from Risk Assessment to Quality Management in the frame of PoliTo-UniTo Guideline

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The Mobile Spatial coordinate Measuring System II (MScMS-II):system description and preliminary assessmentof the measurement uncertainty

According to the increasing interest in metrological systems for the dimensional measurements of large-size objects in a wide range of industrial sectors, several solutions based on different technologies, working principles, architectures, and functionalities have recently been developed. Among all, the most flexible and easily transportable solutions are those that have aroused most interest and have found greater success. In order to address the needs of Large-Scale Metrology (LSM) applications, a distributed flexible system based on a network of low-cost InfraRed (IR) sensors – the Mobile Spatial coordinate Measuring System II (MScMS-II) – has been developed at the Industrial Quality and Metrology Laboratory of Politecnico di Torino. This paper presents a preliminary uncertainty assessment of the system referring to the measured point coordinates in the 3D space, focusing on the sources of measurement uncertainty and the related propagation laws. A preliminary metrological characterization of MScMS-II architecture, experimentally evaluated through a system prototype, is also presented and discussed

Applying principles of metrology to historical Earth observations from satellites

Approaches from metrology can assist Earth Observation (EO) practitioners to develop quantitative characterisation of uncertainty in EO data. This is necessary for the credibility of statements based on Earth observations in relation to topics of public concern, particularly climate and environmental change. This paper presents the application of metrological uncertainty analysis to historical Earth observations from satellites, and is intended to aid mutual understanding of metrology and EO. The nature of satellite observations is summarised for different EO data processing levels, and key metrological nomenclature and principles for uncertainty characterisation are reviewed. We then address metrological approaches to developing estimates of uncertainty that are traceable from the satellite sensor, through levels of data processing, to products describing the evolution of the geophysical state of the Earth. EO radiances have errors with complex error correlation structures that are significant when performing common higher-level transformations of EO imagery. Principles of measurement-function-centred uncertainty analysis are described that apply sequentially to each EO data processing level. Practical tools for organising and traceably documenting uncertainty analysis are presented. We illustrate these principles and tools with examples including some specific sources of error seen in EO satellite data as well as with an example of the estimation of sea surface temperature from satellite infra-red imagery. This includes a simulation-based estimate for the error distribution of clear-sky infra-red brightness temperature (BT) in which calibration uncertainty and digitisation are found to dominate. The propagation of these errors to sea surface temperature is then presented, illustrating the relevance of the approach to derivation of EO-based climate datasets. We conclude with a discussion arguing that there is broad scope and need for improvement in EO practice as a measurement science. EO practitioners and metrologists willing to extend and adapt their disciplinary knowledge to meet this need can make valuable contributions to EO

Crack Analyser: a novel image-based NDT approach for measuring crack severity ​

openIn Europa, le infrastrutture civili e di trasporto necessitano di una manutenzione efficace e proattiva per garantire il continuo funzionamento in sicurezza durante l'intero loro ciclo di vita. I paesi europei devono ogni anno stanziare enormi risorse per mantenere il loro livello di funzionalità. Ciò fa sorgere la necessità urgente di adottare approcci di ispezione di monitoraggio più rapidi e affidabili per aiutare ad affrontare questi problemi. Il deterioramento delle strutture è più spesso anticipato dalla formazione di fessure sulla superficie del calcestruzzo. La presenza di fessurazioni può essere sintomo di diverse problematiche quali dilatazioni e ritiri dovuti a sbalzi di temperatura, assestamenti della struttura, copertura impropria fornita in fase di getto, corrosione delle armature in acciaio, carichi pesanti applicati, vibrazioni insufficienti al momento della posa del calcestruzzo o perdite d'acqua per ritiro superficiale del calcestruzzo. Diventa quindi di primaria importanza l'identificazione, la misurazione e il monitoraggio delle fessurazioni sulla superficie del calcestruzzo. I principali metodi di ispezione attualmente adottati si basano su strumenti manuali e righelli: un’attività lunga e ingombrante, soggetta a errori e scarsamente oggettiva sull'analisi quantitativa perché fortemente dipendente dall'esperienza dell'operatore. Secondo la norma UNI EN 1992-1-1:2005, la larghezza massima delle fessure del calcestruzzo ammessa per una generica classe di rischio è di 0,3 mm. Per questo motivo, per misurare in modo accurato e affidabile la dimensione della fessura, è necessario l’impiego di strumenti di misura con caratteristiche metrologiche adeguate (es. precisione e accuratezza almeno un ordine inferiore al valore da misurare). In caso contrario, la severità della fessura potrebbe essere classificata erroneamente. Questo lavoro di tesi propone un nuovo approccio automatico, basato su immagini, in grado di localizzare e misurare fessure su superfici in calcestruzzo rispettando il vincolo metrologico imposto dalla norma UNI EN 1992-1-1:2005. Utilizzando una sola immagine, il metodo sviluppato è in grado di localizzare e misurare automaticamente e rapidamente la larghezza e la lunghezza di una fessura su una superficie. Il sistema di misura sviluppato sfrutta una singola telecamera operante nel campo del visibile per acquisire un'immagine digitalizzata della superficie da ispezionare. Il componente software del sistema riceve in input la singola immagine che inquadra la crepa e fornisce in output un'immagine aumentata dove viene evidenziata la crepa e la sua larghezza e lunghezza media/max. La misura della larghezza della fessura viene eseguita perpendicolarmente alla linea centrale della fessura con una precisione sub-pixel. Il sistema di misurazione è stato implementato su uno smartphone per eseguire ispezioni manuali da parte dell'operatore e su sistemi integrati per l'ispezione remota con robot o velivoli senza pilota (UAV)). Le strategie sviluppate possono essere facilmente estese a qualsiasi altro contesto in cui sia richiesto un controllo di qualità superficiale mirato all'identificazione e misura di eventuali danni o difettosità. ​Europe’s ageing transport infrastructure needs effective and proactive maintenance in order to continue its safe operation during the entire life cycle; European countries have to allocate huge resources for maintaining their service-ability level. This give rise to the necessity of an urgent need to adopt faster and more reliable monitoring inspection approaches to help tackling these issues. The deterioration of structures is most often foreseen by the formation of cracks on concrete surface. The presence of cracks can be a symptom of various problems like expansion and shrinks due to temperature differences, settlement of the structure, improper cover provided during concreting, corrosion of reinforcement steel, heavy load applied, insufficient vibration at the time of laying the concrete or loss of water from concrete surface shrinkage, therefore the identification, measurement and monitoring of cracks on the concrete surface becomes of primary importance. The main currently adopted inspection methods rely on visual marking and rulers, long and cumbersome activity, prone to errors and poorly objective on quantitative analysis because it strongly depends on operator experience. According to UNI EN 1992-1-1:2005 standard , the maximum admitted concrete crack width is 0.3 mm. For this reason, to accurately and reliably measure the target dimension, it is necessary to employ measurement instruments with suitable metrological characteristics (e.g. precision and accuracy at least one order lower than the value to be measured). Otherwise, the crack severity could be misclassified. This thesis work proposes a novel automatic image-based approach able to locate and measure cracks on concrete surfaces respecting the metrological constraint imposed by UNI EN 1992-1-1:2005 standard. Using only one image, the developed method is able to automatically and rapidly locate and measure the average width and length of a crack in an existing concrete structure. The measurement system developed exploits a single camera working in the visible range to acquire a digitized image of the structure being inspected. The software component of the system receives as input the single image framing the crack and gives as output an augmented image where the crack is highlighted as well as its average/max width and length. The measure of the crack width is performed perpendicularly to the crack central line with sub-pixel accuracy. The measurement system has been deployed on a smartphone for operator-based manual inspections as well on embedded systems for remote inspection with robots or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The strategies developed can be easily extended from concrete inspection applications to any other context where a surface quality control targeted to the identification of eventual damages/defects is required. The activity was triggered by an explicit need within the EnDurCrete project. ​INGEGNERIA INDUSTRIALEembargoed_20220321Giulietti, Nicol

Dimensional measurements in the shipbuilding industry: on‑site comparison of a state‑of‑the‑art laser tracker, total station and laser scanner

Thanks to recent technological innovations, some large-volume-metrology measuring instruments—that would have been considered out of context one/two decades ago—are now efective for the shipbuilding industry, where dimensional errors of a few millimetres are generally tolerated. This paper considers three state-of-the-art instruments: a laser tracker, a total station, and a laser scanner, all with the latest generation of technology. While the frst instrument type has long been widespread for applications in industrial metrology, the last two have traditionally been used in other felds, such as as-built surveying, civil engineering, architecture and topography. Instruments are compared using experimental tests concerning the dimensional verifcation of cruise-ship modules in the relatively under-explored context of the construction of the hull, which represents the ship’s framework. The comparison is structured based on several qualitative and quantitative criteria, including but not limited to (i) simplicity of use for operator(s), (ii) time of acquisition/analysis of measurement data, (iii) metrological performance, and (iv) cost. The main contribution of this article is the on-site testing of instruments of interest, in the typical (unfavourable) working conditions of shipyards

New Method for Measuring the Detail Preservation of Noise Removal Techniques in Digital Images

It is known that cancelling the noise without blurring the image details is a very difficult task for any image denoising technique. The availability of metrics for accurate evaluation of filtering distortion is thus of paramount importance for the development of new filters. Peak signal-to-blur ratio PSBR is a recently introduced measure of detail preservation that overcomes the limitations of the sole peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and other metrics in evaluating the performance of image denoising filters. Formally, the PSBR is the PSNR component that deals with the detail blur, so the method that is adopted for blur estimation plays a key role. This paper presents a novel algorithm for PSBR computation that offers significant advantages over the first method: it is simpler, more robust and much more accurate. Furthermore, this paper presents new validation tools for evaluating the accuracy of this kind of metrics when some well known classes of linear and nonlinear filters are considered. Results of many computer simulations dealing with images corrupted by different combinations of Gaussian and impulse noise show that the proposed PSBR algorithm outperforms the most effective metrics in the field

Uncertainty information in climate data records from Earth observation

Climate data records (CDRs) derived from Earth observation (EO) should include rigorous uncertainty information, to support application of the data in policy, climate modelling and numerical weather prediction reanalysis. Uncertainty, error and quality are distinct concepts, and CDR products should follow international norms for presenting quantified uncertainty. Ideally, uncertainty should be quantified per datum in a CDR, and the uncertainty estimates should be able to discriminate more and less certain data with confidence. In this case, flags for data quality should not duplicate uncertainty information, but instead describe complementary information (such as the confidence held in the uncertainty estimate provided, or indicators of conditions violating retrieval assumptions). Errors have many sources and some are correlated across a wide range of time and space scales. Error effects that contribute negligibly to the total uncertainty in a single satellite measurement can be the dominant sources of uncertainty in a CDR on large space and long time scales that are highly relevant for some climate applications. For this reason, identifying and characterizing the relevant sources of uncertainty for CDRs is particularly challenging. Characterisation of uncertainty caused by a given error effect involves assessing the magnitude of the effect, the shape of the error distribution, and the propagation of the uncertainty to the geophysical variable in the CDR accounting for its error correlation properties. Uncertainty estimates can and should be validated as part of CDR validation, where possible. These principles are quite general, but the form of uncertainty information appropriate to different essential climate variables (ECVs) is highly variable, as confirmed by a quick review of the different approaches to uncertainty taken across different ECVs in the European Space Agency’s Climate Change Initiative. User requirements for uncertainty information can conflict with each other, and again a variety of solutions and compromises are possible. The concept of an ensemble CDR as a simple means of communicating rigorous uncertainty information to users is discussed. Our review concludes by providing eight recommendations for good practice in providing and communicating uncertainty in EO-based climate data records

Standardisation of magnetic nanoparticles in liquid suspension

Suspensions of magnetic nanoparticles offer diverse opportunities for technology innovation, spanning a large number of industry sectors from imaging and actuation based applications in biomedicine and biotechnology, through large-scale environmental remediation uses such as water purification, to engineering-based applications such as position-controlled lubricants and soaps. Continuous advances in their manufacture have produced an ever-growing range of products, each with their own unique properties. At the same time, the characterisation of magnetic nanoparticles is often complex, and expert knowledge is needed to correctly interpret the measurement data. In many cases, the stringent requirements of the end-user technologies dictate that magnetic nanoparticle products should be clearly defined, well characterised, consistent and safe; or to put it another way—standardised. The aims of this document are to outline the concepts and terminology necessary for discussion of magnetic nanoparticles, to examine the current state-of-the-art in characterisation methods necessary for the most prominent applications of magnetic nanoparticle suspensions, to suggest a possible structure for the future development of standardisation within the field, and to identify areas and topics which deserve to be the focus of future work items. We discuss potential roadmaps for the future standardisation of this developing industry, and the likely challenges to be encountered along the way

Standardisation of magnetic nanoparticles in liquid suspension

Suspensions of magnetic nanoparticles offer diverse opportunities for technology innovation, spanning a large number of industry sectors from imaging and actuation based applications in biomedicine and biotechnology, through large-scale environmental remediation uses such as water purification, to engineering-based applications such as position-controlled lubricants and soaps. Continuous advances in their manufacture have produced an ever-growing range of products, each with their own unique properties. At the same time, the characterisation of magnetic nanoparticles is often complex, and expert knowledge is needed to correctly interpret the measurement data. In many cases, the stringent requirements of the end-user technologies dictate that magnetic nanoparticle products should be clearly defined, well characterised, consistent and safe; or to put it another way—standardised. The aims of this document are to outline the concepts and terminology necessary for discussion of magnetic nanoparticles, to examine the current state-of-the-art in characterisation methods necessary for the most prominent applications of magnetic nanoparticle suspensions, to suggest a possible structure for the future development of standardisation within the field, and to identify areas and topics which deserve to be the focus of future work items. We discuss potential roadmaps for the future standardisation of this developing industry, and the likely challenges to be encountered along the way

Ensuring Agricultural Sustainability through Remote Sensing in the Era of Agriculture 5.0

This work was supported by the projects: "VIRTUOUS" funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Project H2020-MSCA-RISE-2019. Ref. 872181, "SUSTAINABLE" funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Project H2020-MSCA-RISE-2020. Ref. 101007702 and the "Project of Excellence" from Junta de Andalucia 2020. Ref. P18-H0-4700. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Timely and reliable information about crop management, production, and yield is considered of great utility by stakeholders (e.g., national and international authorities, farmers, commercial units, etc.) to ensure food safety and security. By 2050, according to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates, around 70% more production of agricultural products will be needed to fulfil the demands of the world population. Likewise, to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially the second goal of “zero hunger”, potential technologies like remote sensing (RS) need to be efficiently integrated into agriculture. The application of RS is indispensable today for a highly productive and sustainable agriculture. Therefore, the present study draws a general overview of RS technology with a special focus on the principal platforms of this technology, i.e., satellites and remotely piloted aircrafts (RPAs), and the sensors used, in relation to the 5th industrial revolution. Nevertheless, since 1957, RS technology has found applications, through the use of satellite imagery, in agriculture, which was later enriched by the incorporation of remotely piloted aircrafts (RPAs), which is further pushing the boundaries of proficiency through the upgrading of sensors capable of higher spectral, spatial, and temporal resolutions. More prominently, wireless sensor technologies (WST) have streamlined real time information acquisition and programming for respective measures. Improved algorithms and sensors can, not only add significant value to crop data acquisition, but can also devise simulations on yield, harvesting and irrigation periods, metrological data, etc., by making use of cloud computing. The RS technology generates huge sets of data that necessitate the incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data to extract useful products, thereby augmenting the adeptness and efficiency of agriculture to ensure its sustainability. These technologies have made the orientation of current research towards the estimation of plant physiological traits rather than the structural parameters possible. Futuristic approaches for benefiting from these cutting-edge technologies are discussed in this study. This study can be helpful for researchers, academics, and young students aspiring to play a role in the achievement of sustainable agriculture.European Commission 101007702 872181Junta de Andalucia P18-H0-470