Building real-time embedded applications on QduinoMC: a web-connected 3D printer case study

Single Board Computers (SBCs) are now emerging with multiple cores, ADCs, GPIOs, PWM channels, integrated graphics, and several serial bus interfaces. The low power consumption, small form factor and I/O interface capabilities of SBCs with sensors and actuators makes them ideal in embedded and real-time applications. However, most SBCs run non-realtime operating systems based on Linux and Windows, and do not provide a user-friendly API for application development. This paper presents QduinoMC, a multicore extension to the popular Arduino programming environment, which runs on the Quest real-time operating system. QduinoMC is an extension of our earlier single-core, real-time, multithreaded Qduino API. We show the utility of QduinoMC by applying it to a specific application: a web-connected 3D printer. This differs from existing 3D printers, which run relatively simple firmware and lack operating system support to spool multiple jobs, or interoperate with other devices (e.g., in a print farm). We show how QduinoMC empowers devices with the capabilities to run new services without impacting their timing guarantees. While it is possible to modify existing operating systems to provide suitable timing guarantees, the effort to do so is cumbersome and does not provide the ease of programming afforded by QduinoMC.http://www.cs.bu.edu/fac/richwest/papers/rtas_2017.pdfAccepted manuscrip

Monitoring 3D Printer Performance using Internet of Things (IoT) Application

Most of the current desktop 3D printers are built based on open-source designs from online communities. The largest group of open-source 3D printers is the Self-Replicating Rapid Prototype (RepRap) 3D printers. A RepRap 3D printer needs to connect to a computer or a microprocessor to feed G Code and provide interface for users to control the 3D printer. However, local computer is a relatively expensive solution comparing to the cost of a RepRap 3D printer; while the microprocessor has much less computing capability comparing to a normal computer, and cannot handle computing-intensive jobs like slicing 3D objects or generating G Code. An alternate solution is to use the internet of things (IoT) application to control and monitor 3D printers. IoT is the network of physical devices, vehicles, buildings and other items, allowing objects to be sensed and controlled remotely across existing network. IoT and 3D printing are two important new technologies, which progressively impact a lot of areas of the industries and also our everyday life. Students need to be introduced to these technologies, and get ready for future career opportunities. A multidisciplinary student project is developed to provide students access to both 3D printer and IoT platform, and also learn to collaborate with engineers from other disciplines to solve complex engineering problems. The objective of the project is to design and develop an IoT application to remote monitor the performance of a RepRap 3D printer including the printing progress and the temperatures of the heated bed and hot end. Major tasks involved in the project are: to inspect and upgrade the current 3D printer to avoid any possible compliance issues between the 3D printer and the hardware components or software tools for the IoT application; to connect the 3D printer to the Raspberry Pi microprocessor; and to design and develop the IoT application. The methods and algorithms of connecting a 3D printer to an IoT application is reported, and the IoT application interface and workflow will be presented in the results section. As a pilot study, this project provides first-hand data on the requirements of time and resources to introduce IoT to undergraduate students

REPlicating RAPid microfluidics: self-replicating printer for hydrophobic pattern deposition

Paper-based microfluidics broadens the use of point-of-care devices to applications and situations wherein cost is an important restriction. This study focuses on the REPRAP PRUSA i3 Printer that can print itself a part that combined with an infusion pump extends the capabilities of this printer, which can now create different types of hydrophobic patterns on an abundant, renewable substrate: paper. Different flow rates of the syringe pump and printing velocities are combined to optimize the resolution of this new manufacturing process. Besides different papers are used to print patterns to either check the influence of the paper type on the printing resolution or to choose the more suitable paper to build blood typing assays. The resolution improves decreasing flow rate and increasing printing velocity to a minimum value ~10% higher than the needle diameter. The printer working with a G25 needle prints microfluidic patterns that can be used to evaluate the blood type on different types of chromatographic papers. Two blood types (A- and O-) are evaluated with this new approach with results equivalent to traditional methods, validating its feasibility in clinical practice. This novel printing method for paper-based microfluidics manufacturing does not require specialized equipment or skills, it is fast and inexpensive, and thus can help to introduce the advantage of healthcare in areas where access to health systems is not guaranteed.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Проєктування хмарного апаратно-програмного комплексу для 3D друку

Об'єкт дослідження: процес роботи з системами для 3D друку. Предмет дослідження: моделі та методи створення та вибору архітектури програмно-апаратних комплексів для 3D друку; Мета магістерської роботи: підвищення якості роботи з програмно-апаратними комплексами для 3D друку шляхом проєктування надійної та ефективної архітектури. Методи дослідження. Для вирішення поставлених задач використані методи аналізу надійності та ефективності архітектури комплексних апаратно-програмних систем, методи об'єктно-орієнтоване програмування. Наукова новизна результатів дипломної роботи: • удосконалено математичну модель процесів обробки команд, що надходять на керуючу плату принтера; • отримав подальший розвиток метод багатокритеріальних зважених оцінок для вибору найоптимальнішої архітектури системи. Практична цінність результатів полягає у тому, що запропонована в роботі архітектура дозволяє забезпечити надійність та ефективність роботи комплексної системи для 3D друку

Innovation in composite additive manufacturing

This master thesis contains an overview of existing additive manufacturing methods and considers possible new methods. The purpose being to develop a method for additive manufacturing that can create 3D objects with composite material and/or out of metal. Further this method should work on a low cost additive manufacturing machine. A development process is used in order to select an appropriate method. The method is then divided into parts that are individually analysed in order to produce a proof of concept model. Initially an overview of existing patents regarding additive manufacturing was conducted in order to see if the devised problem was addressed and how. A patent search regarding both additive manufacturing of composites and of metallic objects was performed. The next phase was conducting a market overview of existing low cost 3D printers and selecting one model that was appropriate for purchase. The purchased 3D printer was then assembled and tested to build up a general experience of properties and limitations of low cost printers. These properties regard both control parameters, mechanical properties (such as eigen frequencies, resolution) and print limitations (typical errors, materials etc.). Concept generation took place by brainstorming a wide range of possible ideas to address the project goal. Existing manufacturing methods and processes that inspired the concepts are described in the theory. The final concept was selected by a process of first concept screening followed by concept scoring and selection. After screening the bulk of four concepts remained. One mainly addressed the goal of manufacturing metallic parts and the others composites. Further literary study of material properties and manufacturing processes relevant to these methods was conducted for the scoring step. Also appropriate retailers of materials and parts and machines were contacted for relevant cost information. The selected concept uses photopolymers cured by UV radiation. In order to finalise the proof of concept a print head was constructed and several tests were conducted in order to observe possible fill rates and required radiation levels in order to achieve a required flow rate and curing times respectively. Finally suggestions for further development and studies is summarised.This project aimed to look at low cost 3D manufacturing technologies and develop a method to expand existing material options. Existing manufacturing methods for sets of materials were conducted in order to map out possible manufacturing steps. A review of existing models of 3D-printers was done and one was purchased and assembled. Design concepts were developed inspired by existing manufacturing methods and one method was selected using a pre-mixed compound and UV curing matrix material extruded through a nozzle and solidified with directed UV-LEDs in order to allow for manufacturing of composites. The method was verified to work and suggestions for further improvements and studies were made

Qduino: a cyber-physical programming platform for multicore Systems-on-Chip

Emerging multicore Systems-on-Chip are enabling new cyber-physical applications such as autonomous drones, driverless cars and smart manufacturing using web-connected 3D printers. Common to those applications is a communicating task pipeline, to acquire and process sensor data and produce outputs that control actuators. As a result, these applications usually have timing requirements for both individual tasks and task pipelines formed for sensor data processing and actuation. Current cyber-physical programming platforms, such as Arduino and embedded Linux with the POSIX interface do not allow application developers to specify those timing requirements. Moreover, none of them provide the programming interface to schedule tasks and map them to processor cores, while managing I/O in a predictable manner, on multicore hardware platforms. Hence, this thesis presents the Qduino programming platform. Qduino adopts the simplicity of the Arduino API, with additional support for real-time multithreaded sketches on multicore architectures. Qduino allows application developers to specify timing properties of individual tasks as well as task pipelines at the design stage. To this end, we propose a mathematical framework to derive each task’s budget and period from the specified end-to-end timing requirements. The second part of the thesis is motivated by the observation that at the center of these pipelines are tasks that typically require complex software support, such as sensor data fusion or image processing algorithms. These features are usually developed by many man-year engineering efforts and thus commonly seen on General-Purpose Operating Systems (GPOS). Therefore, in order to support modern, intelligent cyber-physical applications, we enhance the Qduino platform’s extensibility by taking advantage of the Quest-V virtualized partitioning kernel. The platform’s usability is demonstrated by building a novel web-connected 3D printer and a prototypical autonomous drone framework in Qduino

Investigating 3D Printer Residual Data

The continued adoption of Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies is raising concerns in the security, forensics, and intelligence gathering communities. These concerns range from identifying and mitigating compromised devices, to theft of intellectual property, to sabotage, to the production of prohibited objects. Previous research has provided insight into the retrieval of configuration information maintained on the devices, but this work shows that the devices can additionally maintain information about the print process. Comparisons between before and after images taken from an AM device reveal details about the device’s activities, including printed designs, menu interactions, and the print history. Patterns in the storage of that information also may be useful for reducing the amount of data that needs to be examined during an investigation. These results provide a foundation for future investigations regarding the tools and processes suitable for examining these devices

Machine Tool Communication (MTComm) Method and Its Applications in a Cyber-Physical Manufacturing Cloud

The integration of cyber-physical systems and cloud manufacturing has the potential to revolutionize existing manufacturing systems by enabling better accessibility, agility, and efficiency. To achieve this, it is necessary to establish a communication method of manufacturing services over the Internet to access and manage physical machines from cloud applications. Most of the existing industrial automation protocols utilize Ethernet based Local Area Network (LAN) and are not designed specifically for Internet enabled data transmission. Recently MTConnect has been gaining popularity as a standard for monitoring status of machine tools through RESTful web services and an XML based messaging structure, but it is only designed for data collection and interpretation and lacks remote operation capability. This dissertation presents the design, development, optimization, and applications of a service-oriented Internet-scale communication method named Machine Tool Communication (MTComm) for exchanging manufacturing services in a Cyber-Physical Manufacturing Cloud (CPMC) to enable manufacturing with heterogeneous physically connected machine tools from geographically distributed locations over the Internet. MTComm uses an agent-adapter based architecture and a semantic ontology to provide both remote monitoring and operation capabilities through RESTful services and XML messages. MTComm was successfully used to develop and implement multi-purpose applications in in a CPMC including remote and collaborative manufacturing, active testing-based and edge-based fault diagnosis and maintenance of machine tools, cross-domain interoperability between Internet-of-things (IoT) devices and supply chain robots etc. To improve MTComm’s overall performance, efficiency, and acceptability in cyber manufacturing, the concept of MTComm’s edge-based middleware was introduced and three optimization strategies for data catching, transmission, and operation execution were developed and adopted at the edge. Finally, a hardware prototype of the middleware was implemented on a System-On-Chip based FPGA device to reduce computational and transmission latency. At every stage of its development, MTComm’s performance and feasibility were evaluated with experiments in a CPMC testbed with three different types of manufacturing machine tools. Experimental results demonstrated MTComm’s excellent feasibility for scalable cyber-physical manufacturing and superior performance over other existing approaches

Machine Tool Communication (MTComm) Method and Its Applications in a Cyber-Physical Manufacturing Cloud

The integration of cyber-physical systems and cloud manufacturing has the potential to revolutionize existing manufacturing systems by enabling better accessibility, agility, and efficiency. To achieve this, it is necessary to establish a communication method of manufacturing services over the Internet to access and manage physical machines from cloud applications. Most of the existing industrial automation protocols utilize Ethernet based Local Area Network (LAN) and are not designed specifically for Internet enabled data transmission. Recently MTConnect has been gaining popularity as a standard for monitoring status of machine tools through RESTful web services and an XML based messaging structure, but it is only designed for data collection and interpretation and lacks remote operation capability. This dissertation presents the design, development, optimization, and applications of a service-oriented Internet-scale communication method named Machine Tool Communication (MTComm) for exchanging manufacturing services in a Cyber-Physical Manufacturing Cloud (CPMC) to enable manufacturing with heterogeneous physically connected machine tools from geographically distributed locations over the Internet. MTComm uses an agent-adapter based architecture and a semantic ontology to provide both remote monitoring and operation capabilities through RESTful services and XML messages. MTComm was successfully used to develop and implement multi-purpose applications in in a CPMC including remote and collaborative manufacturing, active testing-based and edge-based fault diagnosis and maintenance of machine tools, cross-domain interoperability between Internet-of-things (IoT) devices and supply chain robots etc. To improve MTComm’s overall performance, efficiency, and acceptability in cyber manufacturing, the concept of MTComm’s edge-based middleware was introduced and three optimization strategies for data catching, transmission, and operation execution were developed and adopted at the edge. Finally, a hardware prototype of the middleware was implemented on a System-On-Chip based FPGA device to reduce computational and transmission latency. At every stage of its development, MTComm’s performance and feasibility were evaluated with experiments in a CPMC testbed with three different types of manufacturing machine tools. Experimental results demonstrated MTComm’s excellent feasibility for scalable cyber-physical manufacturing and superior performance over other existing approaches

Improving African healthcare through open source biomedical engineering

The lack of accessible quality healthcare is one of the biggest problems in Africa and other developing countries. This is not only due to the unavailability of resources, but also to the absence of a structured formative process for the design and management of healthcare facilities. Crucial to the effective and efficient exploitation of healthcare facilities and biomedical technology is the support of Biomedical engineers, who form the link between technology and medical practice. Indeed Biomedical engineers, together with nurses and doctors, form the pillars of healthcare systems in the developed world. In this paper, the Open Source for BioMedical Engineering (OS4BME) project and its kick off summer school are presented. The OS4BME project aims at developing a new generation of biomedical engineers, able to exploit emerging technologies generated by the recent "Makers" revolution. During the one week summer school, students from various sub-Saharan countries were introduced to these new design, development and sharing paradigms. Students worked together to identify new simple biomedical devices, which could help in daily clinical practice in their countries. A cheap and easy-to-use neonatal monitoring device was chosen as a Crowd design project. The OS4BME Baby Monitor was designed and assembled by the students during the one week summer school, demonstrating the creative potential of the new generation of biomedical engineers empowered with the paradigms of crowdsourcing and rapid prototyping