Towards the development of a smart flying sensor: illustration in the field of precision agriculture

Sensing is an important element to quantify productivity, product quality and to make decisions. Applications, such as mapping, surveillance, exploration and precision agriculture, require a reliable platform for remote sensing. This paper presents the first steps towards the development of a smart flying sensor based on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The concept of smart remote sensing is illustrated and its performance tested for the task of mapping the volume of grain inside a trailer during forage harvesting. Novelty lies in: (1) the development of a position-estimation method with time delay compensation based on inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensors and image processing; (2) a method to build a 3D map using information obtained from a regular camera; and (3) the design and implementation of a path-following control algorithm using model predictive control (MPC). Experimental results on a lab-scale system validate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology

Architectures for Wireless Sensor Networks

Various architectures have been developed for wireless sensor networks. Many of them leave to the programmer important concepts as the way in which the inter-task communication and dynamic reconfigurations are addressed. In this paper we describe the characteristics of a new architecture we proposed - the data-centric architecture. This architecture offers an easy way of structuring the applications designed for wireless sensor nodes that confers them superior performances

Hardware Implementation of Deep Network Accelerators Towards Healthcare and Biomedical Applications

With the advent of dedicated Deep Learning (DL) accelerators and neuromorphic processors, new opportunities are emerging for applying deep and Spiking Neural Network (SNN) algorithms to healthcare and biomedical applications at the edge. This can facilitate the advancement of the medical Internet of Things (IoT) systems and Point of Care (PoC) devices. In this paper, we provide a tutorial describing how various technologies ranging from emerging memristive devices, to established Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), and mature Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology can be used to develop efficient DL accelerators to solve a wide variety of diagnostic, pattern recognition, and signal processing problems in healthcare. Furthermore, we explore how spiking neuromorphic processors can complement their DL counterparts for processing biomedical signals. After providing the required background, we unify the sparsely distributed research on neural network and neuromorphic hardware implementations as applied to the healthcare domain. In addition, we benchmark various hardware platforms by performing a biomedical electromyography (EMG) signal processing task and drawing comparisons among them in terms of inference delay and energy. Finally, we provide our analysis of the field and share a perspective on the advantages, disadvantages, challenges, and opportunities that different accelerators and neuromorphic processors introduce to healthcare and biomedical domains. This paper can serve a large audience, ranging from nanoelectronics researchers, to biomedical and healthcare practitioners in grasping the fundamental interplay between hardware, algorithms, and clinical adoption of these tools, as we shed light on the future of deep networks and spiking neuromorphic processing systems as proponents for driving biomedical circuits and systems forward.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems (21 pages, 10 figures, 5 tables

Comparative Study of Indoor Navigation Systems for Autonomous Flight

Recently, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have attracted the society and researchers due to the capability to perform in economic, scientific and emergency scenarios, and are being employed in large number of applications especially during the hostile environments. They can operate autonomously for both indoor and outdoor applications mainly including search and rescue, manufacturing, forest fire tracking, remote sensing etc. For both environments, precise localization plays a critical role in order to achieve high performance flight and interacting with the surrounding objects. However, for indoor areas with degraded or denied Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) situation, it becomes challenging to control UAV autonomously especially where obstacles are unidentified. A large number of techniques by using various technologies are proposed to get rid of these limits. This paper provides a comparison of such existing solutions and technologies available for this purpose with their strengths and limitations. Further, a summary of current research status with unresolved issues and opportunities is provided that would provide research directions to the researchers of the similar interests

Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Reconfigurable Communication-centric Systems on Chip 2010 - ReCoSoC\u2710 - May 17-19, 2010 Karlsruhe, Germany. (KIT Scientific Reports ; 7551)

ReCoSoC is intended to be a periodic annual meeting to expose and discuss gathered expertise as well as state of the art research around SoC related topics through plenary invited papers and posters. The workshop aims to provide a prospective view of tomorrow\u27s challenges in the multibillion transistor era, taking into account the emerging techniques and architectures exploring the synergy between flexible on-chip communication and system reconfigurability

A prospective geoinformatic approach to indoor navigation for Unmanned Air System (UAS) by use of quick response (QR) codes

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Geospatial TechnologiesThis research study explores a navigation system for autonomous indoor flight of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) dead reckoning with Inertial Navigation System (INS) and the use of low cost artificial landmarks, Quick Response (QR) codes placed on the floor and allows for fully autonomous flight with all computation done onboard UAS on embedded hardware. We provide a detailed description of all system components and application. Additionally, we show how the system is integrated with a commercial UAS and provide results of experimental autonomous flight tests. To our knowledge, this system is one of the first to allow for complete closed-loop control and goal-driven navigation of a UAS in an indoor setting without requiring connection to any external infrastructures

NASA SBIR abstracts of 1990 phase 1 projects

The research objectives of the 280 projects placed under contract in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) 1990 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase 1 program are described. The basic document consists of edited, non-proprietary abstracts of the winning proposals submitted by small businesses in response to NASA's 1990 SBIR Phase 1 Program Solicitation. The abstracts are presented under the 15 technical topics within which Phase 1 proposals were solicited. Each project was assigned a sequential identifying number from 001 to 280, in order of its appearance in the body of the report. The document also includes Appendixes to provide additional information about the SBIR program and permit cross-reference in the 1990 Phase 1 projects by company name, location by state, principal investigator, NASA field center responsible for management of each project, and NASA contract number

GUARDIANS final report

Emergencies in industrial warehouses are a major concern for firefghters. The large dimensions together with the development of dense smoke that drastically reduces visibility, represent major challenges. The Guardians robot swarm is designed to assist fire fighters in searching a large warehouse. In this report we discuss the technology developed for a swarm of robots searching and assisting fire fighters. We explain the swarming algorithms which provide the functionality by which the robots react to and follow humans while no communication is required. Next we discuss the wireless communication system, which is a so-called mobile ad-hoc network. The communication network provides also one of the means to locate the robots and humans. Thus the robot swarm is able to locate itself and provide guidance information to the humans. Together with the re ghters we explored how the robot swarm should feed information back to the human fire fighter. We have designed and experimented with interfaces for presenting swarm based information to human beings

Autonomous Mapping Robot

The purpose of this Major Qualifying Project was to design and build a prototype of an autonomous mapping robot capable of producing a floor plan of the interior of a building. In order to accomplish this, several technologies were combined including, a laser rangefinder, ultrasonic sensors, optical encoders, an inertial sensor, and wireless networking to make a small, self-contained autonomous robot controlled by an ARM9 processor running embedded Linux. This robot was designed with future expansion in mind