Sistema de localización mediante GPS y GSM aplicado al seguimiento y monitorización de personas con discapacidades físicas o mentales

.Se presenta un desarrollo cuya finalidad es poner a disposición de personas con discapacidad un servicio que les permita, ante situaciones de alarma, enviar a un centro de control, a la vez que se les ofrece una comunicación de voz y también un seguimiento automático de su posición. Este servicio está pensado para aumentar el grado de autonomía de colectivos con discapacidades psíquicas, físicas o simplemente de personas mayores, que frente a una situación de indisposición, desorientación o pérdida puedan contactar con una mínima intervención con un centro de control

Assessment of 3D Printing Technologies for Millimeter Wave Reflectors

Three different 3D printing technologies: Stereolithography (SLA), Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) and HP Multi Jet Fusion Technology (MJF) are compared to build a parabolic reflector operating at 100 GHz. Fabrication tolerance and surface roughness before and after metallization are accurately measured. The performance of the reflectors is measured in the near field and its performance is compared against an optical grade reflector. In this way the performance of the final product is thoroughly assesse

Radar biestàtic sincronitzat per Hitchhiking

Peer Reviewe

Initial Evaluation of SAR Capabilities in UAV Multicopter Platforms

Airborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors have been commonly used during the last decades to monitor different phenomena in medium-scale areas of observation, such as object detection and characterization or topographic mapping. The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is a cost-effective solution that offers higher operational flexibility than airborne systems to monitor these types of scenarios. The Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya has developed the first fully polarimetric SAR system at X-band integrated into a small UAV multicopter platform (UAV MP). The sensor, called AiR-based remote sensing, has been integrated into the platform overcoming restrictions of weight, space, robustness, and power consumption. To demonstrate the validity of the developed system, some measurement campaigns have been conducted in the outskirts of Barcelona, Spain.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN) under Project TIN201455413C21P and Project TIN201455413C22P, the Research Grant BES-2012-060089, and the Unidad de Excelencia Maria de Maeztu MDM-2016-0600, which is financed by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Spain

Interferometric orbit determination system for geosynchronous SAR missions: experimental proof of concept

Future Geosynchronous Synthetic Aperture Radar (GEOSAR) missions will provide permanent monitoring of continental areas of the planet with revisit times of less than 24 h. Several GEOSAR missions have been studied in the USA, Europe, and China with different applications, including water cycle monitoring and early warning of disasters. GEOSAR missions require unprecedented orbit determination precision in order to form focused Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images from Geosynchronous Orbit (GEO). A precise orbit determination technique based on interferometry is proposed, including a proof of concept based on an experimental interferometer using three antennas separated 10–15 m. They provide continuous orbit observations of present communication satellites operating at GEO as illuminators of opportunity. The relative phases measured between the receivers are used to estimate the satellite position. The experimental results prove the interferometer is able to track GEOSAR satellites based on the transmitted signals. This communication demonstrates the consistency and feasibility of the technique in order to foster further research with longer interferometric baselines that provide observables delivering higher orbital precision.This work has been supported by the Spanish Science, Research and Innovation Plan (MICINN) with Project Codes TEC2017-85244-C2-2-P and PID2020-117303GB-C21 and by Unidad de Excelencia Maria de Maeztu MDM-2016-0600 financed by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Spain.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

New Passive Instruments Developed for Ocean Monitoring at the Remote Sensing Lab—Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya

Lack of frequent and global observations from space is currently a limiting factor in many Earth Observation (EO) missions. Two potential techniques that have been proposed nowadays are: (1) the use of satellite constellations, and (2) the use of Global Navigation Satellite Signals (GNSS) as signals of opportunity (no transmitter required). Reflectometry using GNSS opportunity signals (GNSS-R) was originally proposed in 1993 by Martin-Neira (ESA-ESTEC) for altimetry applications, but later its use for wind speed determination has been proposed, and more recently to perform the sea state correction required in sea surface salinity retrievals by means of L-band microwave radiometry (TB). At present, two EO space-borne missions are currently planned to be launched in the near future: (1) ESA's SMOS mission, using a Y-shaped synthetic aperture radiometer, launch date November 2nd, 2009, and (2) NASA-CONAE AQUARIUS/SAC-D mission, using a three beam push-broom radiometer. In the SMOS mission, the multi-angle observation capabilities allow to simultaneously retrieve not only the surface salinity, but also the surface temperature and an “effective” wind speed that minimizes the differences between observations and models. In AQUARIUS, an L-band scatterometer measuring the radar backscatter (σ0) will be used to perform the necessary sea state corrections. However, none of these approaches are fully satisfactory, since the effective wind speed captures some sea surface roughness effects, at the expense of introducing another variable to be retrieved, and on the other hand the plots (TB-σ0) present a large scattering. In 2003, the Passive Advance Unit for ocean monitoring (PAU) project was proposed to the European Science Foundation in the frame of the EUropean Young Investigator Awards (EURYI) to test the feasibility of GNSS-R over the sea surface to make sea state measurements and perform the correction of the L-band brightness temperature. This paper: (1) provides an overview of the Physics of the L-band radiometric and GNSS reflectometric observations over the ocean, (2) describes the instrumentation that has been (is being) developed in the frame of the EURYI-funded PAU project, (3) the ground-based measurements carried out so far, and their interpretation in view of placing a GNSS-reflectometer as secondary payload in future SMOS follow-on missions

Using several monitoring techniques to measure the rock mass deformation in the Montserrat Massif

Montserrat Mountain is located near Barcelona in Catalonia, at the north-east corner of Spain, and its massif is formed by conglomerate interleaved by siltstone/sandstone with steep slopes very prone to rock falls. The increasing visitor's number in the monastery area, reaching 2.4 million per year, has pointed out the risk derived from rock falls for this building area and also for the terrestrial accesses, both roads and rack railway. A risk mitigation plan is currently been applied for 2014-2016 that contains monitoring testing and implementation as a key point. The preliminary results of the pilot tests carried out during 2014 are presented, also profiting from previous sparse experiences and data, and combining 4 monitoring techniques under different conditions of continuity in space and time domains, which are: displacement monitoring with Ground-based Synthetic Aperture Radar and characterization at slope scale, with an extremely non uniform atmospheric phase screen because of the stepped topography and atmosphere stratification; Terrestrial Laser Scanner surveys quantifying frequency for unnoticed activity of small rock falls, and monitoring rock block displacements over 1cm; monitoring of rock joints with a wireless net of sensors; and tentative surveying for singular rocky needles with Total Station

Multi-technique approach to rockfall monitoring in the Montserrat massif (Catalonia, NE Spain)

Montserrat Mountain is located near Barcelona in Catalonia, in the northeast of Spain, and its massif is formed by conglomerate interleaved by siltstone/sandstone with steep slopes very prone to rockfalls. The increasing number of visitors in the monastery area, reaching 2.4 million per year, has highlighted the risk derived from rockfalls for this building area and also for the terrestrial accesses, both roads and the rack railway. A risk mitigation plan has been launched, and its first phase during 2014-2016 has been focused largely on testing several monitoring techniques for their later implementation. The results of the pilot tests, performed as a development from previous sparse experiences and data, are presented together with the first insights obtained. These tests combine four monitoring techniques under different conditions of continuity in space and time domains, which are: displacement monitoring with Ground-based Synthetic Aperture Radar and characterization at slope scale, with an extremely non-uniform atmospheric phase screen due to the stepped topography and atmosphere stratification; Terrestrial Laser Scanner surveys quantifying the frequency of small or even previously unnoticed rockfalls, and monitoring rock block centimetre scale displacements; the monitoring of rock joints implemented through a wireless sensor network with an ad hoc design of ZigBee loggers developed by ICGC; and, finally, monitoring singular rock needles with Total Station

De campañas de medidas a productos de salinidad: un tributo a las contribuciones de Jordi Font a la mision SMOS

This article summarizes some of the activities in which Jordi Font, research professor and head of the Department of Physical and Technological Oceanography, Institut de Ciències del Mar (CSIC, Spanish National Research Council) in Barcelona, has been involved as co-Principal Investigator for Ocean Salinity of the European Space Agency Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) Earth Explorer Mission from the perspective of the Remote Sensing Lab at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. We have probably left out some of his many contributions to salinity remote sensing, but we hope that this review will give an idea of the importance of his work. We focus on the following issues: 1) the new accurate measurements of the sea water dielectric constant, 2) the WISE and EuroSTARRS field experiments that helped to define the geophysical model function relating brightness temperature to sea state, 3) the FROG 2003 field experiment that helped to understand the emission of sea foam, 4) GNSS-R techniques for improving sea surface salinity retrieval, 5) instrument characterization campaigns, and 6) the operational implementation of the Processing Centre of Levels 3 and 4 at the SMOS Barcelona Expert Centre.Este artículo resume algunas de las actividades en las que Jordi Font, profesor de investigación y jefe del Departamento de Física y Tecnología Oceanográfica, del Institut de Ciències del Mar (CSIC) en Barcelona, ha estado desarrollando como co-Investigador Principal de la parte de la misión SMOS de la ESA, una misión Earth Explorer, desde la perspectiva del Remote Sensing Lab, de la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Seguramente, estamos olvidando algunas de sus muchas contribuciones a la teledetección de la salinidad, pero esperamos que esta revisión dé una idea de la importancia de su trabajo. Este artículo se focaliza en los siguientes puntos: 1) las medidas de alta calidad de la constante dieléctrica del agua marina, 2) las campañas de medidas WISE y EuroSTARRS que ayudaron a la definición del modelo geofísico relacionando la temperatura de brillo con el estado del mar, 3) la campaña de medidas FROG 2003 que ayudó a entender la emisión de la espuma marina 4) presentación de las técnicas de GNSS-R para la mejora de la recuperación de la salinidad superficial 5) campañas para la caracterización del instrumento y 6) la implantación del centro de procesado operacional de niveles 3 y 4 en el SMOS Barcelona Expert Centre