Processing continuous range queries with spatiotemporal tolerance

Continuous queries are often employed to monitor the locations of mobile objects (MOs), which are determined by sensing devices like GPS receivers. In this paper, we tackle two challenges in processing continuous range queries (CRQs): coping with data uncertainty inherently associated with location data, and reducing the energy consumption of battery-powered MOs. We propose the concept of spatiotemporal tolerance for CRQ to relax a query's accuracy requirements in terms of a maximal acceptable error. Unlike previous works, our definition considers tolerance in both the spatial and temporal dimensions, which offers applications more flexibility in specifying their individual accuracy requirements. As we will show, these tolerance bounds can provide well-defined query semantics in spite of different sources of data uncertainty. In addition, we present efficient algorithms that carefully control when an MO should sense or report a location, while satisfying these tolerances. Thereby, we particularly reduce the number of position sensing operations substantially, which constitute a considerable source of energy consumption. Extensive simulations confirm that the proposed algorithms result in large energy savings compared to nontolerant query processing. © 2006 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A MOBILE ROBOT

Mobile robot nowadays has been used in various sectors of business ranged from sciences and industries to servicing and entertainment, and has posed very unique challenges to the researcher. Due to its autonomous nature, it requires an extensive sensing system to read the surrounding working environment, sufficient controller for data processing and decision-making, and also a very stable actuator system to actuate the robot response with respect to the working environment changes. This report details the final year project of designing and implementing an autonomous wheel-based mobile robot, which has a capability to navigate according to a predetermined path while avoiding any obstacle on its route. It is also equipped with small manipulator to enable simple pick and place action: picking a small object from a predefined location and placing it at another predetermined location on the floor. Hence, in order for it to do all those task, the robot fundamentally consists of four main building functional blocks: (1) Navigation (2) Position tracking (3) Obstacle detection and avoidance (4) Manipulator & gripper control block (Since the robot movement is based on a predetermined plan, the path planner block is skipped in this project). For further improvement, some fine-tuning on the manipulator structure and programming, as well as the development of a user interface to enable to user to select the robot movement path are highly recommended. In summary, the project has been successfully completed, providing a basement for future mobile robot development in UTP

TARGET TRACKING SYSTEM USING ULTRASONIC SENSORS

The project titled 'Target Tracking System using Ultrasonic Sensors' is based on improving the security system in Malaysia. Statistic by Polis Diraja Malaysia (Royal Malaysian Police) shown that compared to the year 2006, the crime is increases by 13.4 percent in 2007. Thus, this project focuses on expanding the application of ultrasonic technology into closed circuit televisions (CCIV) which has been widely use in many other sectors but never been applied in security system in Malaysia. The outcome of this project is a working prototype of a target tracking system using ultrasonic sensor which can detect and track a moving object within the radius of 3 meters. This project uses one transmitter and two receivers bound on both side of the transmitter. On top of the transmitter and receivers is the camera to capture image of the moving object. The method used in tracking the moving object is by comparing the voltage of both receivers and controlled by the PIC used in this project which is the PIC l6F877. The working prototype has been successfully completed and it is very important in fighting crime if it is installed accordingly

DOMESTIC GA$ MONITORING DEVICE

The goal of this project is to monitor the content of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) in a cooking gas cylinder I LPG cylinder and alert user to replace the LPG cylinder when it is almost finish. This is to ensure that user would not be stuck in between cooking I heating I drying I grilling when the gas runs out. Based on Hooke's Law, the project will use compression spring to measure the weight of the LPG. The decreasing content of LPG in the LPG cylinder will affect the movements of the compression spring. A sensor which is a potentiometer is used to detect the decreased in weight of the LPG content. As the weight decreases, the potentiometer will rotate according to the spring movements. The signal from the sensor will be sent to the programming circuit via wireless Radio Frequency (RF) transmission and displayed the result on Portable display consists of Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), Light Emitting Diode (LED) and Buzzer. The buzzer will be used to alert the user once the LPG reached the minimum level

A methodology for optimisation of solar dish-Stirling systems size, based on the local frequency distribution of direct normal irradiance

In geographical areas where direct solar irradiation levels are relatively high, concentrated solar energy systems are one of the most promising green energy technologies. Dish-Stirling systems are those that achieve the highest levels of solar-to-electric conversion efficiency, and yet they are still among the least common commercially available technologies. This paper focuses on a strategy aimed at promoting greater diffusion of dish-Stirling systems, which involves optimizing the size of the collector aperture area based on the hourly frequency distributions of beam irradiance and defining a new incentive scheme with a feed-in tariff that is variable with the installed costs of the technology. To this purpose, a new numerical model was defined and calibrated on the experimental data collected for an existing dish-Stirling plant located in Palermo (Italy). Hourly-based simulations were carried out to assess the energy performance of 6 different system configurations located on 7 sites in the central Mediterranean area using two different solar databases: Meteonorm and PVGIS. A new simplified calculation approach was also developed to simulate the dish-Stirling energy production from the hourly frequency histograms of the beam irradiance. The results reveal that an optimised dish-Stirling system can produce 70–87 MWhe/year in locations with direct irradiation varying between 2000 and 2500 kWh/(m2·year). The proposed incentive scheme would guarantee a payback time for investment in this technology of about ten years and the effect of economies of scale could lead, over the years, to a levelized cost of energy similar to that of other concentrating power systems

A Universal Infrared Remote Control

This project consists of building a universal remote controller, which can be used to control any kind of device capable of communicating its user interface. The remote device works based on an infrared technology and allows the user to control any of the home appliances. The idea and design of this project are considered as a multicommunication between transmitter and receiver, because the remote control device combines many remotes into one and has an ability to control up to fifteen appliances that are commonly used at homes. Thetransmitter contains 15 independent inputs and has a carrier wave frequency of 38 kHz, which is the same for almost all infrared remote controls. Similarly, the receiver has 15 independent outputs, each of which can operate separately. The SAA3004 transmitter integrated circuit (IC), which is designed for infrared remote control systems, is used as a main IC on the remote control itself. As for receiver part, PIC16C55-XT/P is used as a microcontroller to control the infrared receiver operations due to the increased number of Input/Output pins. Both ICs are programmed accordingly to provide a multi- communication. A desktop lamp and fan are used as the example appliances to be remotely controlled. The control of these appliances is associated with ON/OFF switching application. Since a remote control has become a part of the everyday life, in this project, an infrared remote control system is designed to prove the universality of it

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A MOBILE ROBOT

Mobile robot nowadays has been used in various sectors of business ranged from sciences and industries to servicing and entertainment, and has posed very unique challenges to the researcher. Due to its autonomous nature, it requires an extensive sensing system to read the surrounding working environment, sufficient controller for data processing and decision-making, and also a very stable actuator system to actuate the robot response with respect to the working environment changes. This report details the final year project of designing and implementing an autonomous wheel-based mobile robot, which has a capability to navigate according to a predetermined path while avoiding any obstacle on its route. It is also equipped with small manipulator to enable simple pick and place action: picking a small object from a predefined location and placing it at another predetermined location on the floor. Hence, in order for it to do all those task, the robot fundamentally consists of four main building functional blocks: (1) Navigation (2) Position tracking (3) Obstacle detection and avoidance (4) Manipulator & gripper control block (Since the robot movement is based on a predetermined plan, the path planner block is skipped in this project). For further improvement, some fine-tuning on the manipulator structure and programming, as well as the development of a user interface to enable to user to select the robot movement path are highly recommended. In summary, the project has been successfully completed, providing a basement for future mobile robot development in UTP

TARGET TRACKING SYSTEM USING ULTRASONIC SENSORS

The project titled 'Target Tracking System using Ultrasonic Sensors' is based on improving the security system in Malaysia. Statistic by Polis Diraja Malaysia (Royal Malaysian Police) shown that compared to the year 2006, the crime is increases by 13.4 percent in 2007. Thus, this project focuses on expanding the application of ultrasonic technology into closed circuit televisions (CCIV) which has been widely use in many other sectors but never been applied in security system in Malaysia. The outcome of this project is a working prototype of a target tracking system using ultrasonic sensor which can detect and track a moving object within the radius of 3 meters. This project uses one transmitter and two receivers bound on both side of the transmitter. On top of the transmitter and receivers is the camera to capture image of the moving object. The method used in tracking the moving object is by comparing the voltage of both receivers and controlled by the PIC used in this project which is the PIC l6F877. The working prototype has been successfully completed and it is very important in fighting crime if it is installed accordingly