Smart Computing and Sensing Technologies for Animal Welfare: A Systematic Review

Animals play a profoundly important and intricate role in our lives today. Dogs have been human companions for thousands of years, but they now work closely with us to assist the disabled, and in combat and search and rescue situations. Farm animals are a critical part of the global food supply chain, and there is increasing consumer interest in organically fed and humanely raised livestock, and how it impacts our health and environmental footprint. Wild animals are threatened with extinction by human induced factors, and shrinking and compromised habitat. This review sets the goal to systematically survey the existing literature in smart computing and sensing technologies for domestic, farm and wild animal welfare. We use the notion of \emph{animal welfare} in broad terms, to review the technologies for assessing whether animals are healthy, free of pain and suffering, and also positively stimulated in their environment. Also the notion of \emph{smart computing and sensing} is used in broad terms, to refer to computing and sensing systems that are not isolated but interconnected with communication networks, and capable of remote data collection, processing, exchange and analysis. We review smart technologies for domestic animals, indoor and outdoor animal farming, as well as animals in the wild and zoos. The findings of this review are expected to motivate future research and contribute to data, information and communication management as well as policy for animal welfare

Double wheel crusher prototype

Abstract. This thesis presents a proof of concept for a new testing device. The prototype device was commissioned as a part of a project to develop a fast, low-cost, and reliable breakage characterization test for geo-metallurgical modelling. One of the key processes involved in minerals extraction is comminution: mineral ores are broken down with crushing and grinding machinery. Comminution testing can be used for the purposes of optimizing these processes. Various testing methods used in the industry subject rock particles to varying levels of crushing impact to measure the amount of fine materials liberated relative to the input energy. The role of mechatronic engineering in this context is to design and develop intelligent machines that ease the work of the researchers and technicians performing these tests. The structure of the new device was proposed as a variation of an instrumented roll crusher with an adjustable gap. The trial operation of the prototype was done using rocks from different mine sites around Finland. The test set resulted in data with a clearly identifiable correspondence of energy to the amount of breakage, proving the plausibility of the device. Some issues were found with the accuracy of energy measurements. The programming error behind the fault was corrected and the improved device was found to produce a standard deviation of measurement of 1.07 Joules. Means to further improve the accuracy of the energy and force measurements are discussed, with recommendations and suggestions for other improvements to the device in the future.Kaksoispyörämurskaimen prototyyppi. Tiivistelmä. Tässä työssä koetetaan uuden mittauslaiteen konseptia. Prototyyppilaite tilattiin osana projektia, jonka tarkoituksena on kehittää uusi nopea, varma, ja edullinen menetelmä mineraalien hienontumisen testaamiseen geometallurgisen mallinnuksen tarpeisiin. Eräs mineraalien louhinnan ja jalostamisen keskeisistä prosesseista on malmin hienontaminen murskaus- ja jauhatuskoneilla. Hienonnustestausta voidaan hyödyntää näiden prosessien optimointiin. Kaivosteollisuudessa käytetyissä testausmenetelmissä kivipartikkeleihin kohdistetaan erisuuruisia iskuvoimia, joiden hienonnusvaikutusta mitataan suhteessa syötetyn energian määrään. Mekatronisen suunnittelun tehtävä tässä yhteydessä on kehittää älykkäitä laitteita helpottamaan näitä kokeita suorittavien tutkijoiden ja teknikkojen työtä. Uuden laitteen rakenne mukailee telamurskaimen toimintaperiaatetta. Prototyyppiä testattiin murskaamalla eri puolelta Suomea tuotuja kivinäytteitä. Testin tuloksista on selvästi tunnistettavissa käytetyn energian vaikutus murtumismäärään. Testien aikana havaittiin ongelmia energiamittauksen tarkkuudessa. Vian aiheuttanut ohjelmointivirhe korjattiin ja parannellun laitteiston mittaustuloksen hajonnaksi todettiin 1,07 Joulea. Työn lopussa esitetään ehdotuksia energian ja voiman mittaustarkkuuden parantamiseksi, sekä muita mahdollisia parannuksia laitteen jatkokehitystä varten

Optical fiber sensors in physical intrusion detection systems: A review

Fiber optic sensors have become a mainstream sensing technology within a large array of applications due to their inherent benefits. They are now used significantly in structural health monitoring, and are an essential solution for monitoring harsh environments. Since their first development over 30 years ago, they have also found promise in security applications. This paper reviews all of the optical fiber-based techniques used in physical intrusion detection systems. It details the different approaches used for sensing, interrogation, and networking, by research groups, attempting to secure both commercial and residential premises from physical security breaches. The advantages and the disadvantages of the systems are discussed, and each of the different perimeter protection methods is outlined, namely, in-ground, perimeter fence, and window and door protection. This paper reviews the progress in optical fiber-based intrusion detection techniques from the past through to the current state-of-the-art systems and identifies areas, which may provide opportunities for improvement, as well as proposing future directions in this field

Automated Mixed Traffic Vehicle (AMTV) technology and safety study

Technology and safety related to the implementation of an Automated Mixed Traffic Vehicle (AMTV) system are discussed. System concepts and technology status were reviewed and areas where further development is needed are identified. Failure and hazard modes were also analyzed and methods for prevention were suggested. The results presented are intended as a guide for further efforts in AMTV system design and technology development for both near term and long term applications. The AMTV systems discussed include a low speed system, and a hybrid system consisting of low speed sections and high speed sections operating in a semi-guideway. The safety analysis identified hazards that may arise in a properly functioning AMTV system, as well as hardware failure modes. Safety related failure modes were emphasized. A risk assessment was performed in order to create a priority order and significant hazards and failure modes were summarized. Corrective measures were proposed for each hazard

R&D Paths of Pixel Detectors for Vertex Tracking and Radiation Imaging

This report reviews current trends in the R&D of semiconductor pixellated sensors for vertex tracking and radiation imaging. It identifies requirements of future HEP experiments at colliders, needed technological breakthroughs and highlights the relation to radiation detection and imaging applications in other fields of science.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures, submitted to the European Strategy Preparatory Grou

Towards a procedure to manage safety on construction sites of rockfall protective measures

Construction sites represent ones of the most dangerous workplaces, due to the huge number of hazards related to the performed activities that can cause discomfort, health diseases, and even death to workers. These issues might be even more amplified in construction sites of structures aiming at preventing or protecting against natural hazards. Among these lasts, rockfall represents one of the most unpredictable and dangerous. In these sites, the inherent added hazard is represented by the occurrence of the event against which the protection is required to be installed, i.e. the detachment of a rock block. As in the other situations, workers might be aware of the danger to which they are subjected and all the possible measures to mitigate the risk should be implemented. To address these issues and increase safety of workers, this paper proposes a quantitative risk assessment method to compute the probability of death of workers due to the occurrence of a rockfall event in the considered work duration. In addition, preliminary suggestions to improve safety of workers are delineated

Intensity based interrogation of optical fibre sensors for industrial automation and intrusion detection systems

In this study, the use of optical fibre sensors for intrusion detection and industrial automation systems has been demonstrated, with a particular focus on low cost, intensity-based, interrogation techniques. The use of optical fibre sensors for intrusion detection systems to secure residential, commercial, and industrial premises against potential security breaches has been extensively reviewed in this thesis. Fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensing is one form of optical fibre sensing that has been underutilised in applications such as in-ground, in-fence, and window and door monitoring, and addressing that opportunity has been a major goal of this thesis. Both security and industrial sensor systems must include some centralised intelligence (electronic controller) and ideally both automation and security sensor systems would be controlled and monitored by the same centralised system. Optical fibre sensor systems that could be used for either application have been designed, developed, and tested in this study, and optoelectronic interfaces for integrating these sensors with electronic controllers have been demonstrated. The versatility of FBG sensors means that they are also ideal for certain mainstream industrial applications. Two novel transducers have been developed in this work; a highly sensitive low pressure FBG diaphragm transducer and a FBG load cell transducer. Both have been designed to allow interrogation of the optical signal could occur within the housing of the individual sensors themselves. This is achieved in a simple and low cost manner that enables the output of the transducers to be easily connected to standard electronic controllers, such as programmable logic controllers. Furthermore, some of the nonlinear characteristics of FBG sensors have been explored with the aim of developing transducers that are inherently decoupled from strain and temperature interference. One of the major advantages of optical fibre sensors is their ability to be both time division and wavelength division multiplexed. The intensity-based interrogation techniques used here complement this attribute and are a major consideration when developing the transducers and optoelectronic circuits. A time division multiplexing technique, using transmit-reflect detection and incorporating a dual bus, has also been developed. This system architecture enables all the different optical fibre transducers on the network to have the same Bragg wavelength and hence the number of spare replacement transducers required is minimal. Moreover, sensors can be replaced in an online control system without disrupting the network. In addition, by analysing both the transmitted and reflected signals, problems associated with optical power fluctuations are eliminated and the intensity of the sensor signals is increased through differential amplification. Overall, the research addresses the limitations of conventional electrical sensors, such as susceptibility to corrosive damage in wet and corrosive environments, and risk of causing an explosion in hazardous environments, as well as the limitations of current stand-alone optical fibre sensor systems. This thesis supports more alert, reliable, affordable, and coordinated, control and monitoring systems in an on-line environment

Development of early warning system for human wildlife conflict using deep learning, iot and sms

A Project Report Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Embedded and Mobile Systems of the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and TechnologyHuman-wildlife conflict is a significant challenge to communities living in areas close to wildlife game parks and reserves. It is more evident in the United Republic of Tanzania whose economy depends on agriculture and wildlife tourism as a significant source of income for her citizens and foreign exchange respectively. The proposed system is a low-power and low-cost early-warning system using deep learning, Internet of Things (IoT) and Short Message Service (SMS) to support human-wildlife conflict response teams in mitigating these problems. The proposed system comprises three basic units: sensing unit, processing unit, and alerting unit. The sensing unit consists of a Global Positioning System (GPS) module, a passive infrared (PIR) sensor, and a Raspberry Pi camera. The PIR sensor module detects animal nearby using its heat signature, the GPS collects and records the current system location while the Raspberry pi camera takes an image after the PIR sensor has detected the animal nearby using its heat signature. The processing unit with the main unit uses a Raspberry microcomputer to perform image inferencing using the “you look only once” (YOLO) algorithm and data processing. The last unit is an alerting unit that uses Global System for Mobile Communications module to send an alerting SMS message to the community response team leader and the human-wildlife conflict response team whenever wild animals are detected near the park’s border. Therefore, the system detects, identifies, and reports wild animals detected using SMS. General Packet Radio Service cellular network provides internet connectivity for the purpose of data collection to enable monitoring and storage in the cloud. An online visualization system was developed using google maps to show the location of wildlife detected by the camera trap. The park rangers track the wildlife online to acquire important information before the wildlife wanders out of the park. This system was developed using the open-source Raspberry pi which is cost- effective even for low-income communities who are targeted by the system

Development of early warning system for human wildlife conflict using deep learning, IoT and SMS

A Project Report Submitted in Partial Fullfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Embedded and Mobile Systems of the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and TechnologyHuman-wildlife conflict is a significant challenge to communities living in areas close to wildlife game parks and reserves. It is more evident in the United Republic of Tanzania whose economy depends on agriculture and wildlife tourism as a significant source of income for her citizens and foreign exchange respectively. The proposed system is a low-power and low-cost early-warning system using deep learning, Internet of Things (IoT) and Short Message Service (SMS) to support human-wildlife conflict response teams in mitigating these problems. The proposed system comprises three basic units: sensing unit, processing unit, and alerting unit. The sensing unit consists of a Global Positioning System (GPS) module, a passive infrared (PIR) sensor, and a Raspberry Pi camera. The PIR sensor module detects animal nearby using its heat signature, the GPS collects and records the current system location while the Raspberry pi camera takes an image after the PIR sensor has detected the animal nearby using its heat signature. The processing unit with the main unit uses a Raspberry microcomputer to perform image inferencing using the “you look only once” (YOLO) algorithm and data processing. The last unit is an alerting unit that uses Global System for Mobile Communications module to send an alerting SMS message to the community response team leader and the human-wildlife conflict response team whenever wild animals are detected near the park’s border. Therefore, the system detects, identifies, and reports wild animals detected using SMS. General Packet Radio Service cellular network provides internet connectivity for the purpose of data collection to enable monitoring and storage in the cloud. An online visualization system was developed using google maps to show the location of wildlife detected by the camera trap. The park rangers track the wildlife online to acquire important information before the wildlife wanders out of the park. This system was developed using the open-source Raspberry pi which is cost effective even for low-income communities who are targeted by the syste

Electronic Security Systems

Cílem této práce je seznámit čtenáře s nejběžněji používanými elektronickými zabezpečovacími systémy. Práce popisuje základní principy, vlastnosti a využití moderních elektronických zabezpečovacích systémů používaných v domácnostech a firmách. Dále práce porovnává jednotlivá zabezpečovací zařízení, která se v těchto systémech používají a uvádí jejich výhody a nevýhody. Tento dokument je vhodný pro studenty a osoby, které chtějí začít pracovat v tomto oboru nebo je tato problematika pouze zajímá.The aim of this thesis is to give the reader basic understanding of the most common electronic security systems. The fundamental principles, characteristics and applications of modern electronic security systems used in homes and corporate environment are covered in this work. Moreover, it compares the security devices that are used in the systems and demonstrate their advantages and disadvantages. This work is suitable for students, individuals that want to start working in this field, or for those just interested in the topic.