Developing a person guidance module for hospital robots

This dissertation describes the design and implementation of the Person Guidance Module (PGM) that enables the IWARD (Intelligent Robot Swarm for attendance, Recognition, Cleaning and delivery) base robot to offer route guidance service to the patients or visitors inside the hospital arena. One of the common problems encountered in huge hospital buildings today is foreigners not being able to find their way around in the hospital. Although there are a variety of guide robots currently existing on the market and offering a wide range of guidance and related activities, they do not fit into the modular concept of the IWARD project. The PGM features a robust and foolproof non-hierarchical sensor fusion approach of an active RFID, stereovision and cricket mote sensor for guiding a patient to the X-ray room, or a visitor to a patient’s ward in every possible scenario in a complex, dynamic and crowded hospital environment. Moreover, the speed of the robot can be adjusted automatically according to the pace of the follower for physical comfort using this system. Furthermore, the module performs these tasks in any unconstructed environment solely from a robot’s onboard perceptual resources in order to limit the hardware installation costs and therefore the indoor setting support. Similar comprehensive solution in one single platform has remained elusive in existing literature. The finished module can be connected to any IWARD base robot using quick-change mechanical connections and standard electrical connections. The PGM module box is equipped with a Gumstix embedded computer for all module computing which is powered up automatically once the module box is inserted into the robot. In line with the general software architecture of the IWARD project, all software modules are developed as Orca2 components and cross-complied for Gumstix’s XScale processor. To support standardized communication between different software components, Internet Communications Engine (Ice) has been used as middleware. Additionally, plug-and-play capabilities have been developed and incorporated so that swarm system is aware at all times of which robot is equipped with PGM. Finally, in several field trials in hospital environments, the person guidance module has shown its suitability for a challenging real-world application as well as the necessary user acceptance

Mechatronic Systems

Mechatronics, the synergistic blend of mechanics, electronics, and computer science, has evolved over the past twenty five years, leading to a novel stage of engineering design. By integrating the best design practices with the most advanced technologies, mechatronics aims at realizing high-quality products, guaranteeing at the same time a substantial reduction of time and costs of manufacturing. Mechatronic systems are manifold and range from machine components, motion generators, and power producing machines to more complex devices, such as robotic systems and transportation vehicles. With its twenty chapters, which collect contributions from many researchers worldwide, this book provides an excellent survey of recent work in the field of mechatronics with applications in various fields, like robotics, medical and assistive technology, human-machine interaction, unmanned vehicles, manufacturing, and education. We would like to thank all the authors who have invested a great deal of time to write such interesting chapters, which we are sure will be valuable to the readers. Chapters 1 to 6 deal with applications of mechatronics for the development of robotic systems. Medical and assistive technologies and human-machine interaction systems are the topic of chapters 7 to 13.Chapters 14 and 15 concern mechatronic systems for autonomous vehicles. Chapters 16-19 deal with mechatronics in manufacturing contexts. Chapter 20 concludes the book, describing a method for the installation of mechatronics education in schools

Performance of short and long range wireless communication technologies in construction

The ever increasing complexity of construction projects asks for improved communication and automated data collection supported by continually improving electronic tools. Advances in information technologies enable us to link critical resources on construction sites, such as trucks and cranes, to the project website creating many opportunities to drastically improve productivity, safety and quality. While the use of electronic equipment is nothing new in construction, no model exists to integrate them into one unified framework. This paper presents a wireless site-network concept consisting of information hubs enabled to automatically connect data sinks with sources supported by software agents. Included in this paper is the discussion of a mobile information hub, the eCKiosk, enabled to connect the work crew electronically to the project network while collecting automatically live “as-built” data. It begins with a review of long range wireless as the basis for designing a robust Agile Site Communication Network (ASCNet). Site experiments with short range wireless conduits and embedded RFID tags showed that they are able to provide information far beyond an identification number. While wireless technologies are poised to open totally new avenues to manage construction, more field-tests are needed to establish a solid knowledge base to create a pervasive network for the dynamically changing building site

Tangible user interfaces : past, present and future directions

In the last two decades, Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) have emerged as a new interface type that interlinks the digital and physical worlds. Drawing upon users' knowledge and skills of interaction with the real non-digital world, TUIs show a potential to enhance the way in which people interact with and leverage digital information. However, TUI research is still in its infancy and extensive research is required in or- der to fully understand the implications of tangible user interfaces, to develop technologies that further bridge the digital and the physical, and to guide TUI design with empirical knowledge. This paper examines the existing body of work on Tangible User In- terfaces. We start by sketching the history of tangible user interfaces, examining the intellectual origins of this field. We then present TUIs in a broader context, survey application domains, and review frame- works and taxonomies. We also discuss conceptual foundations of TUIs including perspectives from cognitive sciences, phycology, and philoso- phy. Methods and technologies for designing, building, and evaluating TUIs are also addressed. Finally, we discuss the strengths and limita- tions of TUIs and chart directions for future research

Development of sensors and non-destructive techniques to determine the performance of coatings in construction

The primary objective of this work was to examine and develop techniques for monitoring the degradation of Organically Coated Steel (OCS) in-situ. This included the detection of changes associated with the weathering to both the organic coating and metallic substrate. Initially, a review of current promising techniques was carried out however many were found to be unsuitable for this application and the adaptation of current techniques and the development of new techniques was considered. A brief concept investigation, based on initial testing and considerations, was used to determine a number of sensing techniques to examine. These included embedded, Resonant Frequency Identification (RFID), Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) and dielectric sensing. Each of these techniques were assessed for the application, prototyped, and tested against a range of samples to determine the accuracy and sensitivity of degradation detection provided. A range of poorly and highly durable coated samples were used in conjunction with accelerated weathering testing for this aim. Track based electronic printed sensors were presented as both a cut edge corrosion tracking and coating capacitance measurement method. While suffering somewhat from electrical paint compatibility issues both concepts showed merit in initial trials however the capacitive sensor ultimately proved insufficiently responsive to coating changes. The embedded, progressive failure-based, cut edge corrosion sensor was produced and tested in modern coating systems with moderate success. Novel applications of RFID and MLF techniques were considered and proved capable of detecting large changes in substrate condition due to significant corrosion. However, there was a lack of sufficient sensitivity when considering early-stage corrosion of durable modern OCS products. Finally, it was shown that a chipless antenna could be designed and optimised for novelly monitoring the changes to the dielectric properties of a paint layer due to degradation. However, ultimately this test, due to equipment requirements, lent itself more to lab testing than in-situ. Due to some of these limitations a different approach was considered in which the environmental factors influencing degradation were examined with the aim of relating these to performance across a building. It was observed that a combination of high humidity and the build-up of aggressive natural deposits contributed to high degradation rates in sheltered regions, such as building eaves, where microclimates were created. The build-up of deposits and their effect was presented as a key degradation accelerant during in-use service. A unique numerical simulation approach was developed to predict the natural washing, via rain impact and characteristics of the building analysed. This approach showed promise for determining areas unlikely to be naturally washed, and therefore subjected to a degradation accelerating, build-up of deposits. Given these understandings coated wetness sensors were considered as a realistic live-monitoring device capable of determining deposit build up and ultimately OCS lifetime

Ubiquitous computing and natural interfaces for environmental information

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia do Ambiente, perfil Gestão e Sistemas AmbientaisThe next computing revolution‘s objective is to embed every street, building, room and object with computational power. Ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) will allow every object to receive and transmit information, sense its surroundings and act accordingly, be located from anywhere in the world, connect every person. Everyone will have the possibility to access information, despite their age, computer knowledge, literacy or physical impairment. It will impact the world in a profound way, empowering mankind, improving the environment, but will also create new challenges that our society, economy, health and global environment will have to overcome. Negative impacts have to be identified and dealt with in advance. Despite these concerns, environmental studies have been mostly absent from discussions on the new paradigm. This thesis seeks to examine ubiquitous computing, its technological emergence, raise awareness towards future impacts and explore the design of new interfaces and rich interaction modes. Environmental information is approached as an area which may greatly benefit from ubicomp as a way to gather, treat and disseminate it, simultaneously complying with the Aarhus convention. In an educational context, new media are poised to revolutionize the way we perceive, learn and interact with environmental information. cUbiq is presented as a natural interface to access that information

RFID ENABLED FIRE TRUCK NAVIGATION SYSTEM & HYDRANT LOCATOR

Nowadays in the event of fire incident, firefighters use conventional method to locate, tracking and determine the nearest fire hydrant within the location of fire incident by refer to the mapping that available at local fire and rescue department office. This method is not practical anymore since they need to find out the nearest fire hydrant instantaneously and it is not an easy task for such emergency situation. In some cases, whenever they have arrived at the fire incident location, the exact location of fire hydrant cannot be determined immediately due to some problem such as unfamiliar with road around the incident area, unable to find for fire hydrant if it is out of sight and unable to determine whether the fire hydrant is close enough to the incident area. This project will be implementing by using two systems which are Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Global Positioning System (GPS). A chosen active RFID tag will be located at some strategic location so that the reading coverage area will be the most. RFID reader located on the fire engine will send a signal and wait the feedback response from the active tag that has crucial information regarding the available fire hydrant within that area. Once the active tag has responded, the system will alert and the corresponding hydrants information such as their picture, coordinate, their exact location and distance towards fire incident location will be available and being crosslink with the system database. The coordinate for each of fire hydrants need to be initializing first by using GPS device before being update into the system. Then, the exact location between the reader and selected fire hydrant itself can be determined by implementing the location mapping database system

Wireless colorimetric readout to enable resource-limited point-of-care

Patientennahe Diagnostik in Entwicklungsländer birgt spezielle Herausforderungen, die ihren Erfolg bisher begrenzen. Diese Arbeit widmet sich daher der Entwicklung eines in seiner Herstellung skalierbaren und vielseitig einsetzbaren funkbasierten Auslesegerätes für Laborteststreifen. Durch die Kombination einer wachsenden Auswahl an papierbasierten Teststreifendiagnostiken mit gedruckter Elektronik und unter Berücksichtigung des diagnostischen Alltags im südlichen Afrika wurde ein Gerät entwickelt, das Teststreifen zuverlässig ausliest und die Daten per Funk an eine Datenbank übertragen kann. Die Technik basiert auf RFID-Tags (radio frequency identification devices), welche auf verschiedene flexible Substrate gedruckt wurden, um die technische Umsetzbarkeit und Funktionalität zu evaluieren. Um den Preis für die geplante Anwendung niedrig zu halten, wurden unter anderem Papier und Karton als Substrate genutzt. Das Ergebnis dieser Studie sind passive RFID-Tags auf unterschiedlichen, meist günstigen Substraten, die über eine Distanz von über 75 mm betrieben und ausgelesen werden können. Basierend auf der über RFID bereitgestellten Energie und Datenübertragung wurde eine Ausleseeinheit für Standardpapierstreifentests entwickelt und integriert. Durch das Auslesen verschiedener Teststreifen wurde das Gerät evaluiert und in seiner Aussagekraft mit einer scanner-basierten Aufnahme und anschließender Bildanalyse (ImageJ), einem kommerziellen Auslesegerät sowie einer manuellen Auslesung mit Hilfe von Farbtabellen verglichen. Das Gerät kann die Streifen zuverlässig auslesen und die Daten über die RFID-Schnittstelle übertragen. Die funkbasierte Ausleseeinheit ist mit verschiedenen kommerziellen Teststreifen sowohl im biodiagnostischen (lateral flow tests) wie auch im chemischen Bereich (pH-Wert) kompatibel. Die modulare Lösung erlaubt ein breites Einsatzgebiet und führt dadurch zu reduzierten Trainingszeiten der Anwender und einer zuverlässigen Handhabung. Die vorgestellte Lösung ist äußerst kostengünstig und bedarf keiner Wartung, wodurch sie sich sehr gut für den Einsatz in abgelegenen Feldkrankenhäusern eignet. Es wurde ein skalierbarer Prototyp entwickelt, der auf konventionellen Herstellungsverfahren der Verpackungsindustrie aufbaut. Aktuell handelt es sich noch um einen bogenbasierten Prozess, der sich aber prinzipiell auch auf Rolle-zu-Rolle Maschinen übertragen lässt. Bei der Entwicklung des Geräts spielte die Möglichkeit der lokalen Herstellung in den Einsatzländern eine große Rolle. Diese hätte neben der Generierung von Arbeitsplätzen auch den Vorteil einer einfacheren Verteilung der Geräte in ländliche Regionen, in denen sie den größten Nutzen für die Diagnostik erzielen würden