Workshop on Smart Sensors - Instrumentation and Measurement: Program

On 18-19 February, the School of Engineering successfully ran a two-day workshop on Smart Sensors - Instrumentation and Measurement. Associate Professor Rainer Künnemeyer organised the event on behalf of the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society, New Zealand Chapter. Over 60 delegates attended and appreciated the 34 presentations which covered a wide range of topics related to sensors, sensor networks and instrumentation. There was substantial interest and support from local industry and crown research institutes

Wireless sensor network for monitoring swifts habitat/birdnest

Swift farms that resemble the natural habitat of cave for swifts breeding have been designed and growing very fast in Malaysia.The swiftlet farming industry has the potential to grow into a multi/million ringgit industry due to the industry’s relatively profitable risk/return profile as well as a continuously growing demand for edible birds nests by wealthy overseas countries. There is also a discernable world/wide trend pursued by international as well as homegrown pharmaceutical and herbal products companies in using edible birds’ nests as base materials for producing natural and organic health supplement products for local and overseas consumption. It is known that the ideal temperature for swifts breeding is between 27°C to 29°C. However, a real/time monitoring system has never been designed for a swift habitat. Temperature and humidity of the farms can only be monitored manually by entering the farms once in every four to six weeks. There has yet to be a monitoring system to monitor the essential natural requirements of a swiftlet farm which are the temperature, humidity and the light density being developed. There is also no remote controlling system for all the equipments in the swift farm. The equipments can only be turned on and off with a timer control or manually. With research and investigation of the technology of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), this thesis suggests a solution to the problem. To fulfill the hardware design for this project, a sensor node (MTS400), IRIS and Micaz rad io transceivers and a USB interfaced gateway base station of Crossbow (Xbow) Technology WSN were employed. The Graphical User Interface (GUI) of thi s project is written in Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Engineering Workbench (LabVIEW) along with Xbow Technology drivers provided by National Instrument.As a result, this monitoring system is able to read temperature and humidity data, present data read in both tables and waveform charts, display warning on the GUI and send a notification email whenever the temperature reading is out of spec, save all the monitoring data into a database, email the monitoring data to the system operator and owner, and the system can be remote accessed and controlled from anywhere through the internet using LogMeIn software. Finally, this research draws a conclusion that a WSN Monitoring System for Swift Habitat as a tool that enable the enhancement to the current swift farming industry in Sarawak had been successfully developed

Алгоритм решения прямой задачи импедансной томографии методом модификаций

Запропоновано алгоритм розв’язання прямої задачі імпедансної томографії методом модифікацій з використанням квадратних кінцевих елементів, які утворюють «зони провідності». Кількість зон дорівнює кількості електродів по обводу фантома (наприклад, 14 при 16 електродах, два з яких призначено до підключення незалежного джерела струму). Показано економічність запропонованого алгоритму, яка є наслідком редукції внутрішніх вузлів зон. Наведено приклади дискретизації неперервного фантома на зони провідності, які, в свою чергу, складаються з квадратних кінцевих елементів. Наведено приклади розподілення ліній рівної напруги усередині фантома при різних (за площею, поверхневою провідністю) неоднорідностях та при різній кількості таких неоднорідностей, що ілюструє як можливості алгоритму розв’язання прямої задачі, так і недоцільність використання методу зворотної проекції (у загальному випадку) при розв’язанні задачі зворотноїAlgorithm for solving the Electrical Impedance Tomography forward problem by the modification method with “conductivity zones”, which are generated using square finite elements, is proposed. The number of zones is equal to the number of electrodes on the phantom outline (for example, 14 with 16 electrodes, two of which are intended for connection of the independence current source). The proposed algorithm economy, that is a consequence of internal zones nodes reduction, is shown The examples of continuos phantom discretization to conductivity zones, that consist of square finite elements are given. The examples of equal voltage lines distribution inside the phantom with different (in size, surface conductivity) inhomogeneities and with different number of those inhomogeneities are shown. These examples illustrate the possibilities of algorithm for solving the Electrical Impedance Tomography forward problem and also the inexpediency of back projection method using (in general case) for solving the inverse problemПредставлен алгоритм решения прямой задачи импедансной томографии методом модификаций с использованием квадратных конечных элементов, создающих «зоны проводимости». Количество зон равно количеству электродов по обводу фантома (например, 14 при 16 электродах, два из которых предназначены для подключения независимого источника питания). Показано экономичность представленого алгоритма в связи с редукцией внутренних узлов зон. Представлены примеры дискретизации непрерывного фантома на зоны проводимости, которые, в свою очередь, состоят из квадратных конечных элементов. Представлены примеры распределения линий равного напряжения всередине фантома при разных (по площади, поверхностной проводимости) неоднородностях и при разном количестве таких неоднородностей, которые иллюстрируют возможности алгоритма решения прямой задачи, а также нецелесообразность использования метода обратной проееции (в общем случае) при решении обратной задач

Current status of and future opportunities for digital agriculture in Australia

In Australia, digital agriculture is considered immature and its adoption ad hoc, despite a relatively advanced technology innovation sector. In this review, we focus on the technical, governance and social factors of digital adoption that have created a disconnect between technology development and the end user community (farmers and their advisors). Using examples that reflect both successes and barriers in Australian agriculture, we first explore the current enabling technologies and processes, and then we highlight some of the key socio-technical factors that explain why digital agriculture is immature and ad hoc. Pronounced issues include fragmentation of the innovation system (and digital tools), and a lack of enabling legislation and policy to support technology deployment. To overcome such issues and increase adoption, clear value propositions for change are necessary. These value propositions are influenced by the perceptions and aspirations of individuals, the delivery of digitally-enabled processes and the supporting legislative, policy and educational structures, better use/conversion of data generated through technology applications to knowledge for supporting decision making, and the suitability of the technology. Agronomists and early adopter farmers will play a significant role in closing the technology-end user gap, and will need support and training from technology service providers, government bodies and peer-networks. Ultimately, practice change will only be achieved through mutual understanding, ownership and trust. This will occur when farmers and their advisors are an integral part of the entire digital innovation system

Energy Cooperation in Battery-Free Wireless Communications with Radio Frequency Energy Harvesting

Radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting techniques are becoming a potential method to power battery-free wireless networks. In RF energy harvesting communications, energy cooperation enables shaping and optimization of the energy arrivals at the energy-receiving node to improve the overall system performance. In this article, we propose an energy cooperation scheme that enables energy cooperation in battery-free wireless networks with RF harvesting. We first study the battery-free wireless network with RF energy harvesting and then state the problem that optimizing the system performance with limited harvesting energy through new energy cooperation protocol. Finally, from the extensive simulation results, our energy cooperation protocol performs better than the original battery-free wireless network solution

Towards Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) in the Internet of Things (IoT): Opportunities and Challenges

Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), possessing the capacity to comprehend, learn, and execute tasks with human cognitive abilities, engenders significant anticipation and intrigue across scientific, commercial, and societal arenas. This fascination extends particularly to the Internet of Things (IoT), a landscape characterized by the interconnection of countless devices, sensors, and systems, collectively gathering and sharing data to enable intelligent decision-making and automation. This research embarks on an exploration of the opportunities and challenges towards achieving AGI in the context of the IoT. Specifically, it starts by outlining the fundamental principles of IoT and the critical role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in IoT systems. Subsequently, it delves into AGI fundamentals, culminating in the formulation of a conceptual framework for AGI's seamless integration within IoT. The application spectrum for AGI-infused IoT is broad, encompassing domains ranging from smart grids, residential environments, manufacturing, and transportation to environmental monitoring, agriculture, healthcare, and education. However, adapting AGI to resource-constrained IoT settings necessitates dedicated research efforts. Furthermore, the paper addresses constraints imposed by limited computing resources, intricacies associated with large-scale IoT communication, as well as the critical concerns pertaining to security and privacy

Construction of a system of flow and temperature instrumentation on a porcine farm in the municipality of Marsella, Risaralda

We present a local monitoring system of temperature and caudal in a pig farm. The method consists of designing an instrumentation and measurement system, this uses a wireless sensor network (WSN) based on the ZigBee standard. The WSN sends the gathered data to a server that stores the information in a database with the purpose of consulting (local queries) at any time the data that have been measured by the electronic devices. The preliminary results show that the data we can be used to infer behavior of the variables under study, besides the prototype is scalable, efficient, that makes it easily adaptable to any pig farm.We present a local monitoring system of temperature and caudal in a pig farm. The method consists of designing an instrumentation and measurement system, this uses a wireless sensor network (WSN) based on the ZigBee standard. The WSN sends the gathered data to a server that stores the information in a database with the purpose of consulting (local queries) at any time the data that have been measured by the electronic devices. The preliminary results show that the data we can be used to infer behavior of the variables under study, besides the prototype is scalable, efficient, that makes it easily adaptable to any pig farm

Construction of a system of flow and temperature instrumentation on a porcine farm in the municipality of Marsella, Risaralda

We present a local monitoring system of temperature and caudal in a pig farm. The method consists of designing an instrumentation and measurement system, this uses a wireless sensor network (WSN) based on the ZigBee standard. The WSN sends the gathered data to a server that stores the information in a database with the purpose of consulting (local queries) at any time the data that have been measured by the electronic devices. The preliminary results show that the data we can be used to infer behavior of the variables under study, besides the prototype is scalable, efficient, that makes it easily adaptable to any pig farm.We present a local monitoring system of temperature and caudal in a pig farm. The method consists of designing an instrumentation and measurement system, this uses a wireless sensor network (WSN) based on the ZigBee standard. The WSN sends the gathered data to a server that stores the information in a database with the purpose of consulting (local queries) at any time the data that have been measured by the electronic devices. The preliminary results show that the data we can be used to infer behavior of the variables under study, besides the prototype is scalable, efficient, that makes it easily adaptable to any pig farm

Construction of a system of flow and temperature instrumentation on a porcine farm in the municipality of Marsella, Risaralda

We present a local monitoring system of temperature and caudal in a pig farm. The method consists of designing an instrumentation and measurement system, this uses a wireless sensor network (WSN) based on the ZigBee standard. The WSN sends the gathered data to a server that stores the information in a database with the purpose of consulting (local queries) at any time the data that have been measured by the electronic devices. The preliminary results show that the data we can be used to infer behavior of the variables under study, besides the prototype is scalable, efficient, that makes it easily adaptable to any pig farm.We present a local monitoring system of temperature and caudal in a pig farm. The method consists of designing an instrumentation and measurement system, this uses a wireless sensor network (WSN) based on the ZigBee standard. The WSN sends the gathered data to a server that stores the information in a database with the purpose of consulting (local queries) at any time the data that have been measured by the electronic devices. The preliminary results show that the data we can be used to infer behavior of the variables under study, besides the prototype is scalable, efficient, that makes it easily adaptable to any pig farm

Smart marine sensing systems for integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA)

Aquaculture farming faces challenges to increase production whilst maintaining sustainability by reducing environmental impact and ensuring efficient resource usage. One solution is to use an Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) approach, where a variety of different species are grown in the same site, taking advantage of by-products (such as waste and uneaten food) from one species as inputs (fertilizer, food, and energy) for the growth of other species. However, the remote monitoring of environmental and biological conditions is crucial to understand how the species interact with each other and with the environment, and to optimise the IMTA production and management system. Environmental monitoring of aquatic environments is already well supplied by commercial off-the-shelf sensors, but these sensors often measure only one parameter, which increases the power consumption and cost when monitoring multiple environmental variables with a fine-scale resolution. Current monitoring solutions for seaweed and kelp also include satellite and aerial sensing, which cover large areas effectively. However, these methods do not offer high-resolution, specific local data for growing sites, and are usually limited by turbidity and weather conditions. Another limitation of available commercial systems is data recovery. Most of them require that the sensor be retrieved to download data directly, increasing cost of maintenance. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems that transmit in the near field (Near Field Communication – NFC) are less attenuated by the seawater environment than higher-frequency communications, and thus potentially provide a more viable alternative for underwater data transmission. In this work, we present a novel miniature low-power multi-sensor modality NFC-enabled data acquisition system to monitor a variety of farmed aquaculture species. This sensor system monitors temperature, light intensity, depth, and motion, logging the data collected internally. The sensor device can communicate with NFC-enabled readers (such as smartphones) to configure the sensors with custom sampling frequencies, communicate status, and to download data. It also has an internal machine learning enabled microcontroller, which can be used to perform data analysis internally. The device is designed to be attachable to seaweed and kelp blades or stipes. The system designed was tested in lab to characterise its sensors and to determine its battery lifetime. The sensor device was then deployed in an IMTA farm in Bertraghboy Bay, Connemara, Ireland, with the help of the Marine Institute. The data collected from the device was then correlated with environmental sensors placed in the site. Future work involves incorporating data analytics and machine learning algorithms to process data internally, allowing for lower transmission requirements