Adaptive and Online Health Monitoring System for Autonomous Aircraft

Good situation awareness is one of the key attributes required to maintain safe flight, especially for an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS). Good situation awareness can be achieved by incorporating an Adaptive Health Monitoring System (AHMS) to the aircraft. The AHMS monitors the flight outcome or flight behaviours of the aircraft based on its external environmental conditions and the behaviour of its internal systems. The AHMS does this by associating a health value to the aircraft's behaviour based on the progression of its sensory values produced by the aircraft's modules, components and/or subsystems. The AHMS indicates erroneous flight behaviour when a deviation to this health information is produced. This will be useful for a UAS because the pilot is taken out of the control loop and is unaware of how the environment and/or faults are affecting the behaviour of the aircraft. The autonomous pilot can use this health information to help produce safer and securer flight behaviour or fault tolerance to the aircraft. This allows the aircraft to fly safely in whatever the environmental conditions. This health information can also be used to help increase the endurance of the aircraft. This paper describes how the AHMS performs its capabilities

Fast and Robust Small Infrared Target Detection Using Absolute Directional Mean Difference Algorithm

Infrared small target detection in an infrared search and track (IRST) system is a challenging task. This situation becomes more complicated when high gray-intensity structural backgrounds appear in the field of view (FoV) of the infrared seeker. While the majority of the infrared small target detection algorithms neglect directional information, in this paper, a directional approach is presented to suppress structural backgrounds and develop a more effective detection algorithm. To this end, a similar concept to the average absolute gray difference (AAGD) is utilized to construct a novel directional small target detection algorithm called absolute directional mean difference (ADMD). Also, an efficient implementation procedure is presented for the proposed algorithm. The proposed algorithm effectively enhances the target area and eliminates background clutter. Simulation results on real infrared images prove the significant effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.Comment: The Final version (Accepted in Signal Processing journal

Ecotoxicology of heavy metals (Cd, Pb, Zn and Cu) in flat tree oysters Isognomon alatus (GMELIN) from Sepang, Malaysia

The status of heavy metals pollution in the Sepang Besar River and Sepang Kecil River was studied in August 1998. In general heavy metals concentrations in flat tree oyster 1. alatus, sediments and water from Sepang Besar River were found significantly (p <0.05) higher than those from Sepang Kecil River. Furthermore field experiments were conducted to study the accumulation and depuration of heavy metals in oysters. The rates of metals accumulations in oysters were found to be 42.70, 1.77, 0.95, 0.84 µg g⁻¹ month⁻¹ for Zn, Cu, Cd and Pb, respectively. The polluted oysters were transferred to clean area to estimate the depuration rates. Significant reduction of metals concentrations in oyster was observed. About 87%, 83%, 78% and 59% for Cd, Pb, Cu and Zn were detected after six months being transferred to clean area, respectively. The metals accumulation and depurations patterns in oysters in the laboratory conditions were also investigated. The mean metal concentrations in oysters exposed to metals solution of 100 µg rt at the end of two weeks were 32.70, 63. 19, 35.40, 7.44 µg got , which were 44, 3, 8 and 7 times greater than their initial levels for Cd, Zn, Cu and Pb, respectively. The exposed oysters were transferred to clean seawater and the metals depurations were investigated for one week. In general about 78%, 81%, 87% and 88% of the accumulated Zn, Cu, Pb and Cd were depurated from oysters 1. alatus. Results from laboratory experiments indicated that there were differences in the mechanisms for the metals accumulation and depurations in various organs of 1. alatus. In general, in both accumulation and depuration experiments, gill, byssus and mantle play major role whereas muscle, shell and visceral mass have no significant role. Furthermore laboratory experiments were showed that the accumulation rates of metals through contaminated water were higher than the metals accumulation rates through contaminated algae. It is believed that oysters 1. alatus accumulate heavy metals through contaminated seawater rather than contaminated algae. The LCso levels of metals for oysters were observed to be 478.63, 436.51, 676.08 and 295.12 µg rl for Cu, Pb, Zn and Cd, respectively. The toxicity effects of heavy metals on filtration rate of oysters were also studied and the filtration rate of oysters 1. alatus exposed to 125 and 150 µg rl of all metals were decreased. In both toxicity experiments the trend of metals toxicity on oysters were found Cd > Pb > Cu > Zn

Early Detection of Diabetes using Thermography and Artificial Neural Networks

The aim of this work is to demonstrate the usefulness of the artificial intelligence tools for early detection of diseases. From the historic and simple assessment of temperature by the clinical thermometer, thermal imaging camera has opened up new perspectives, and that a whole image field-of-view can be characterized in a single measurement. Thermographic assessment of temperature distribution within the examined skin enables a quick, non-contact, non-invasive relative measurement of their temperature. No literature has been found until date detection of diabetes using thermography and artificial neural networks. An attempt in this regard could help doctors make a safer decision. This work shows that the output predicted using the artificial neural network based on thermography, can be used for early detection of diabetes

Complete End-To-End Low Cost Solution To a 3D Scanning System with Integrated Turntable

3D reconstruction is a technique used in computer vision which has a wide range of applications in areas like object recognition, city modelling, virtual reality, physical simulations, video games and special effects. Previously, to perform a 3D reconstruction, specialized hardwares were required. Such systems were often very expensive and was only available for industrial or research purpose. With the rise of the availability of high-quality low cost 3D sensors, it is now possible to design inexpensive complete 3D scanning systems. The objective of this work was to design an acquisition and processing system that can perform 3D scanning and reconstruction of objects seamlessly. In addition, the goal of this work also included making the 3D scanning process fully automated by building and integrating a turntable alongside the software. This means the user can perform a full 3D scan only by a press of a few buttons from our dedicated graphical user interface. Three main steps were followed to go from acquisition of point clouds to the finished reconstructed 3D model. First, our system acquires point cloud data of a person/object using inexpensive camera sensor. Second, align and convert the acquired point cloud data into a watertight mesh of good quality. Third, export the reconstructed model to a 3D printer to obtain a proper 3D print of the model.Comment: 22 page

Barrio refinería: ¿transformación o refundación?: un caso de análisis en la ciudad de Rosario

El trabajo propone evaluar la contradicción existente entre el criterio de preservación de un espacio patrimonial de la ciudad de Rosario (Santa Fe, Argentina) y su preservación real. El sector en estudio se encuentra expuesto a los cambios del entorno ocasionados por la reforma urbana actual e implementada por el gobierno municipal. La evaluación es realizada mediante la aplicación de distintos indicadores. Dadas las características del sitio, se concibe al espacio de análisis bajo una doble acepción: barrio y paisaje cultural. El espacio es pensado material y simbólicamente. El objetivo final es delimitar las causas por las cuales se cree que la preservación del barrio obrero Refinería deviene un hecho actualmente no factible. El urbanismo, la historia y la antropología se unen para establecer criterios acerca del caso en análisis. El trabajo constituye la primera síntesis lograda en el marco de un proyecto que se continúa al presente.This paper aims to evaluate the contradiction between the preservation criteria of a heritage area in Rosario city, situated en Santa Fe Province, Argentina and its real preservation. This site is exposed to a changing environment caused by the present urban reform, implemented by the local government. The evaluation was performed by the application of different indicators. Given the site characteristics, the area of study is defined with a double meaning: neighborhood and cultural landscape. The final goal is to show the reasons why the “Refinery workers” neighborhood preservation becomes a not currently achievable fact. Urbanism, history and anthropology, join together to establish a criteria around the analysed case. This paper is the first synthesis achieved in the framework of a project that continues to present.Peer Reviewe