Vibrations Levels Assessment of a Robotic Intra-Row Weeder Using Low-Cost Data Acquisition System

Automated weeding is a way to increase efficiency in the control of invasive plants. Soil characteristics can influence the performance of weeder mechanisms. The objective of this work was to determine the vibrations levels of a robotic intra-row weeder mechanism for different operating conditions and provide information to correlate with soil conditions. The data acquisition system was composed of a single-board computer and a triaxial MEMS accelerometer. The computer was programmed in C++ to acquire vibration measurements. The accelerometer was mounted to the bearing housing of the rotary tine shaft. Vibrations of the weeder mechanism were first measured without soil contact for different angular velocities of the rotary tine disk. Then, vibrations were monitored in different soils (dry and moist loam soil and sand) for three angular velocities of rotary tines (25, 50 and 100 rev/min) and two tine depths (25 and 50 mm). RMS accelerations and the frequency spectrum were used to evaluate the vibrations levels. Moist loam soil and sand had the highest and lowest increases in accelerations, respectively. The analysis showed it is possible to correlate vibrational characteristics with soil conditions that may exist during intra-row weeding. In addition, mechanical vibrations in an intra-row weeder can be monitored using a low-cost and user-friendly system

Design of a microwave imaging system for rapid wideband imaging

An imaging system composed of two linear arrays of antennas is designed through full-wave simulation and fabricated for use in synthetic aperture radar imaging. The arrays electronically scan along their antenna elements and are mechanically moved along a second orthogonal direction for scanning large two-dimensional areas quickly. Each linear array is printed on a circuit board where the antenna elements are integrated into the edge of the board as tapered slot-line antennas operating at 22 to 27 GHz. A multiplexer circuit is printed onto each linear array to transmit wideband signals to each antenna in the array. Receivers are printed onto the radiating end of the antennas on the edge of the circuit board. These receivers are less complex than traditional microwave receivers, and they require no phase calibration for synthetic aperture radar processing. A controller board is designed and fabricated to facilitate electronic scanning along the arrays and route measurement data to a PC for storage. The linear arrays and controller board are mounted on a small mechanical scanning table for moving the arrays along one direction. All receivers are calibrated for variations in voltage outputs among the elements by scanning a known target and applying an equalization matrix. Several targets are scanned by the final imaging system, and the resulting images show the ability of the system to detect dielectric contrast under the surface of dielectric materials. The tapered slot-line antenna is redesigned and improved for -10 dB reflection coefficient across the operating frequency band and higher voltage output of the receivers with respect to the original antenna design. Imaging results of the redesigned antenna show how refabricating the imaging system with the improved antenna will improve overall image quality of the system--Abstract, page iii

Performance assessment for mountain bike based on WSN and Cloud Technologies

The mountain bike is one of the most used equipment’s in outdoor sports activities. The thesis describes the design and all development and implementation of Performance Assessment for Mountain Bike based on Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) and Cloud Technologies. The work presents a distributed sensing system for cycling assessment-providing data for objective evaluation of the athlete performance during training. Thus a wireless sensor network attached to the sport equipment provides to the athlete and the coach with performance values during practice. The sensors placed in biker equipment’s behave as nodes of a WSN. This is possible with the developing of IoT-based systems in sports, the tracking and monitoring of athletes in their activities has an important role on his formation as bikers and helps to increase performance, through the analyze of each session. The implemented system performs acquisition, processing and transmission, of data using a ZigBee wireless networks that provide also machine-to-machine communication and data storage in a server located in the cloud. As in many cycling applications use the phone as a module to get the values, this work will be a little different making use of phone/tablet to consult information. The information stored on the cloud server is accessed through a mobile application that analyses and correlates all metrics calculated using the training data obtained during practice. Additional information regarding the health status may be also considered. Therefore, the system permits that athletes perform an unlimited number of trainings that can be accessed at any time through the mobile application by the bikers and coach. Based on capability of the system to save a history of the evolution of each athlete during training the system permits to perform appropriate comparisons between different training sessions and different athlete’s performances.A bicicleta de montanha é um dos equipamentos para desportos no exterior mais usada. A tese descreve todo o desenho, desenvolvimento e implementação de Performance Assessment for Mountain Bike based on WSN and Cloud Technologies. Este apresenta um sistema de deteção distribuída para o aumento do desempenho, melhorar a metodologia da prática do ciclismo e para formação de atletas. Para tal foi desenvolvida e anexada uma rede de sensores que está embutida no equipamento do ciclista, através desta rede de sensores sem fios são obtidos os valores respetivos à interação do utilizador e a sua bicicleta, sendo estes apresentados ao treinador e ao próprio ciclista. Os sensores colocados comportam-se como nós de uma rede de sensores sem fios. Isso é possível com o desenvolvimento de sistemas baseados na Internet das coisas no desporto, a observação da movimentação e monitoramento de atletas nas suas atividades tem um papel importante na sua formação como ciclistas e ajuda a aumentar o desempenho. O sistema é baseado numa rede ZigBee sem fios, que permite a comunicação máquina-para-máquina e o armazenamento de dados num servidor localizado na nuvem. Toda a informação na nuvem pode ser acedida através de uma aplicação mobile que analisa e correlaciona todos os valores calculados usando os dados recolhidos durante o treino efetuado por cada ciclista. Como em muitas aplicações de ciclismo estas usam o telefone como um módulo para obter os valores, neste trabalho o caso é diferente fazendo o uso do telefone/tablet para apenas consultar as informações. Alguma informação sobre o ciclista é fornecida para poder efetuar alguns cálculos, relativos à saúde do ciclista, neste caso toda a energia gasta na prática de um determinado treino. Toda esta informação pode ser acedida através de uma aplicação Android e por consequência num dispositivo Android. Com a aplicação desenvolvida é possível observar e processar toda a informação recolhida através dos sensores implementados, a observação dos dados recolhidos pode ser efetuada pelo treinador responsável, como pelo próprio atleta. Portanto, o sistema permite a realização de um ilimitado número de sessões de treino, estes podem ser consultados a qualquer momento através da aplicação móvel. Fazendo com que seja possível manter um histórico da evolução de cada atleta, podendo assim observar e comparar cada sessão de treino, realizada por cada atleta

Remote monitoring and failure prediction of guiding elements and diverting pulleys in passenger elevators

Accelerated urbanization has lead to the rising height of buildings and demand for intensive high performance of elevators in recent years. Consequently, condition monitoring has become a highly desirable capability as the complexity of elevator systems increased. The goal of this study is to develop a monitoring method for elevator components which are subjected to mechanical degradation and failures. The method is capable of indicating the current health condition, predicting future failure as well as detecting emerging issues during operation. Studies of the fundamental principle of elements of condition monitoring such as measurement and measuring equipment, remaining useful life models laid the foundation for new method developing. Moreover, there were reviews of the implementation of health management systems in aerospace and marine industry. A prototype was built from the inductive sensor and open sources embedded system. The device has been installed in two different elevators for data acquisition. Basic data visualization and analysis models were employed for current health state assessment and failure trend prediction. The results include validation of the condition monitoring method and prediction of time-to-failure. Arithmetic means of displacement data determined operating condition whereas the linear regression model was used to predict failure event. Moreover, while suggesting the potential usefulness of the method for system condition assessment, the analysis of the data also exposed challenges inconsistency of the measuring method, data filtering technique as well as large data size requirement

Enhancing Trust in Devices and Transactions of the Internet of Things

With the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), billions of smart embedded devices will interact frequently.These interactions will produce billions of transactions.With IoT, users can utilize their phones, home appliances, wearables, or any other wireless embedded device to conduct transactions.For example, a smart car and a parking lot can utilize their sensors to negotiate the fees of a parking spot.The success of IoT applications highly depends on the ability of wireless embedded devices to cope with a large number of transactions.However, these devices face significant constraints in terms of memory, computation, and energy capacity.With our work, we target the challenges of accurately recording IoT transactions from resource-constrained devices. We identify three domain-problems: a) malicious software modification, b) non-repudiation of IoT transactions, and c) inability of IoT transactions to include sensors readings and actuators.The motivation comes from two key factors.First, with Internet connectivity, IoT devices are exposed to cyber-attacks.Internet connectivity makes it possible for malicious users to find ways to connect and modify the software of a device.Second, we need to store transactions from IoT devices that are owned or operated by different stakeholders.The thesis includes three papers. In the first paper, we perform an empirical evaluation of Secure Boot on embedded devices.In the second paper, we propose IoTLogBlock, an architecture to record off-line transactions of IoT devices.In the third paper, we propose TinyEVM, an architecture to execute off-chain smart contracts on IoT devices with an ability to include sensor readings and actuators as part of IoT transactions

Development of modern robot control systems based on non-integer calculus theory

У овој докторској дисертацији предмет истраживања је пројектовање савремених система управљања применом развојних програмабилних система и применом савремене теорије рачуна нецелог реда. Родригов приступ је примењен у циљу добијања одговарајућег математичког модела роботског система који је моделован као један повезан систем крутих тела који формирају кинематички ланац без гранања. За решавање проблема везаног кретања роботског система у случaјевима када је остварен контакт хватаљке са радном површи или кретање по задатој линији, применом Лагранжевих једначина друге врсте у коваријантном облику добијене су диференцијалне једначине везаног кретања роботског система са хватаљком. Други приступ за добијање диференцијалних једначина везаног кретања роботског система је остварен применом Лагранж-Даламберовог принципа у генералисаним координатама. При томе, роботски системи који остварују контакт са радном површи могу се моделирати као сингуларни системи целог и у општем случају нецелог реда. У оквиру савремене теорије управљања итеративно управљање путем учења (ИУУ- iterative learning control) представља једну моћну интелигентну методологију управљања који на итеративни начин побољшава понашање репетитивних процеса и динамичких система; а овде је од посебног интереса примена истог на роботске системе. Овде се предлаже један нови НРИУУ (ИУУ нецелог реда) закон PD2D типа у отвореној спрези за класу линеаризованих роботских система. Спроведена је feedback линеаризација објекта управљања где се у затвореној спрези добија линеарна зависност улаза и излаза. Даље се разматра проблематика управљања у отворено-затвореној спрези ИУУ нецелог реда сингуларним динамичким системом нецелог реда. Посебна пажња је посвећена и примени закона ИУУ нецелог реда типа PD PD NeuroArm роботским системом. Након тога разматран је избор и имплементација хардвера потребног за управљање NeuroArm роботске руке и то тако што за развојну плочу је изабран Beaglebone Black. Пројектује се и израђује плоча за управљање моторима и читање сигнала са енкодера и потенциометара, бира се Linux Debian (Xenomai модификација) оперативни систем, што заједно чини комплетан ембедид систем (embedded system). Програмирају се напредни алгоритми управљања коришћењем EDICOPT софтверског алата путем FBD-а и ST кода, по први пут у области роботских система. Остварена је комуникација са NeuroArm роботскомруком путем Modbus протокола коришћењем софтвера који је креиран специјално за ту намену (NeuroArm manipulator), и који поред управљања самом рoботском руком пружа могућност и логовања података ради анализе кретања делова роботске руке и упоређивања са симулацијама у Matlab-у и Simulink-у. На крају решавана је проблематика даљинског управљања роботом путем Интернета на NeuroArm роботској руциIn this doctoral dissertation the subject of research is development of modern robot control systems using development programmable systems based on non-integer calculus theory. Rodriguez's approach was applied in order to obtain an appropriate mathematical model of a robotic system that was modeled as a single connected system of rigid bodies forming a kinematic chain without branching. To solve the problem of bound motion of the robotic system in cases when the gripper is in contact with the work surface or motion along a given line, by applying Lagrangian equations of second order in covariant form, differential equations of bound motion of the robotic system with the gripper are obtained. Another approach for obtaining differential equations of bound motion of a robotic system was realized by applying the Lagrange-Dalambert principle in generalized coordinates. In doing so, robotic systems that make contact with the work surface can be modeled as singular systems of the integer order and in the general case of the non-integer order. Within modern control theory, iterative learning control (ILC) is a powerful intelligent control methodology that iteratively improves the behavior of repetitive processes and dynamic systems; and here is of special interest to apply it to robotic systems. Here, a new FOILC (fractional order ILC) law of the PD2D type in open loop is proposed for a class of linear robotic systems. A feedback linearization of the control object was performed, where a linear dependence of inputs and outputs was obtained in a closed loop. The problem of control in open-closed loop of ILC of non-integer order using singular dynamic system using non-integer order is further considered. Special attention is given to the application of the ILC law of the non-integer order of PD PD type for NeuroArm robotic system. After that, the selection and implementation of the hardware needed to control the NeuroArm robotic arm was discussed by selecting Beaglebone Black as the development board. A board for motor control and signal reading from encoders and potentiometers is designed and manufactured, the Linux Debian (Xenomai modification) operating system is selected, which together make a complete embedded system. Advanced control algorithms are programmed using the EDICOPT software tool via FBD and ST code, for the first time in the field of robotic systems. Communication with the NeuroArm robotic arm was achieved via the Modbus protocol using software created specifically for this purpose (NeuroArm manipulator), which in addition to controlling the robotic arm itself provides the ability to log data in order to analyze the movement of parts of the robotic arm and compare withsimulations in Matlab and Simulink. Finally, the problem of remote control of the robot via the Internet on the NeuroArm robot arm was solved

Communications, Decision-Making, and Interactions of a Multi-Agent Autonomous Vehicle System

Autonomous vehicles are becoming ever more common and offer many attractive benefits to society. They can operate for long periods of time unattended, operate in environments that may be dangerous to humans, perform time consuming or repetitive tasks and all with greater efficiency and lower costs than humans. For these vehicles to be able to do these things, algorithms need to be designed and optimized that allow them to interact with the real-world environment in safe, effective, and efficient ways. We designed and built a set of three homogeneous water-based autonomous surface vehicles equipped with appropriate sensors and communications ability along with algorithms designed to allow these vehicles to perform various cooperative tasks using data obtained from the vehicles’ sensors and data shared between the vehicles. These vehicles were designed to be modular, economical, and, where possible, were constructed using off-the-shelf technology with programming designed to take advantage of these systems. When the COVID-19 pandemic put an end to lab and field work the physical vehicles were stored but the research continued utilizing a hybrid hardware-software simulation of the system. Three microcontrollers identical to the devices controlling the physical boats were attached via a Universal Serial Bus (USB) hub to a desktop computer running a simulated environment written in Python™. The three vehicles (microcontrollers) were given tasks including patrolling adjoining areas of the water body delineated by latitude and longitude boundaries while staying within their own boundary and avoiding collisions with the other vehicles. Initial testing was successful with the algorithm able to maintain the vehicles within their boundary \u3e=95% of the time with no collisions. Additional problem types including parallel travel; wind and current challenges; and gradient tracking and relevant algorithms are discussed

Improving the BeagleBone board with embedded Ubuntu, enhanced GPMC driver and Python for communication and graphical prototypes

BeagleBone is a low price, small size Linux embedded microcomputer with a full set of I/O pins and processing power for real-time applications, also expandable with cape pluggable boards. The current work has been focused on improving the performance of this board. In this case, the BeagleBone comes with a pre-installed Angstrom OS and with a cape board using a particular software “overlay” and applications. Due to a lack of support, this pre-installed OS has been replaced by Ubuntu. As a consequence, the cape software and applications need to be adapted. Another necessity that emerges from the stated changes is to improve the communications through a GPMC interface. The depicted driver has been built for the new system as well as synchronous variants, also developed and tested. Finally, a set of applications in Python using the cape functionalities have been developed. Some extra graphical features have been included as example

Засоби віддаленої розробки та налагодження вбудованих систем

У даній роботі було детально розглянуто принципи та методи віддаленої розробки та налагодження вбудованих систем. Були проаналізовані їхні можливості, обмеження та практичні застосування. Було вибрано та обґрунтовано використання специфічних засобів для віддаленої розробки та налагодження вбудованих систем. В ході роботи були налаштовані та продемонстровані такі технології, як SSH, VNC, HTTP-сервер, хмарні сервіси AWS. Розроблені методики та процедури можуть бути використані для віддаленої розробки, налагодження та моніторингу різних вбудованих систем, що дозволяє збільшити гнучкість та ефективність процесу розробки. Вся розробка та демонстрації були проведені за допомогою BeagleBone Black в якості вбудованої системи.In this thesis for a Bachelor's Degree, the principles and methods of remote development and debugging of embedded systems were considered in detail. Their capabilities, limitations, and practical applications were analyzed. Specific tools for remote development and debugging of embedded systems were selected and justified. During the work, technologies such as SSH, VNC, HTTP server, AWS cloud services were configured and demonstrated. The developed methodologies and procedures can be used for remote development, debugging, and monitoring of various embedded systems, increasing the flexibility and efficiency of the development process. All development and demonstrations were performed using BeagleBone Black as the embedded system

Internet of things

Manual of Digital Earth / Editors: Huadong Guo, Michael F. Goodchild, Alessandro Annoni .- Springer, 2020 .- ISBN: 978-981-32-9915-3Digital Earth was born with the aim of replicating the real world within the digital world. Many efforts have been made to observe and sense the Earth, both from space (remote sensing) and by using in situ sensors. Focusing on the latter, advances in Digital Earth have established vital bridges to exploit these sensors and their networks by taking location as a key element. The current era of connectivity envisions that everything is connected to everything. The concept of the Internet of Things(IoT)emergedasaholisticproposaltoenableanecosystemofvaried,heterogeneous networked objects and devices to speak to and interact with each other. To make the IoT ecosystem a reality, it is necessary to understand the electronic components, communication protocols, real-time analysis techniques, and the location of the objects and devices. The IoT ecosystem and the Digital Earth (DE) jointly form interrelated infrastructures for addressing today’s pressing issues and complex challenges. In this chapter, we explore the synergies and frictions in establishing an efficient and permanent collaboration between the two infrastructures, in order to adequately address multidisciplinary and increasingly complex real-world problems. Although there are still some pending issues, the identified synergies generate optimism for a true collaboration between the Internet of Things and the Digital Earth