Modelling and Synchronisation of Delayed Packet-Coupled Oscillators in Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks

In this paper, a Packet-Coupled Oscillators (PkCOs) synchronisation protocol is proposed for time-sensitive Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) based on Pulse-Coupled Oscillators (PCO) in mathematical biology. The effects of delays on synchronisation performance are studied through mathematical modelling and analysis of packet exchange and processing delays. The delay compensation strategy (i.e., feedforward control) is utilised to cancel delays effectively. A simple scheduling function is provided with PkCOs to allocate the packet transmission event to a specified time slot, by configuring reference input of the system to a non-zero value, in order to minimise the possibility of packet collision in synchronised wireless networks. The rigorous theoretical proofs are provided to validate the convergence and stability of the proposed synchronisation scheme. Finally, the simulations and experiments examine the effectiveness of PkCOs with delay compensation and scheduling strategies. The experimental results also show that the proposed PkCOs algorithm can achieve synchronisation with the precision of $26.3\mu s$ ($1$ tick)

PkCOs: synchronisation of packet-coupled oscillators in blast wave monitoring networks

Blast waves with a large amount of energy, from the use of explosive weapons, is a major cause of traumatic brain injury in armed and security forces. The monitoring of blast waves is required for defence and civil applications. The utilisation of wireless sensing technology to monitor blast waves has shown great advantages such as easy deployment and flexibility. However, due to drifting embedded clock frequency, the establishment of a common timescale among distributed blast monitoring sensors has been a challenge, which may lead to a network failing to estimate the precise acoustic source location. This work adopts a Packet-Coupled Oscillators (PkCOs) protocol to synchronise drifting clocks in a wireless blast wave monitoring network. In order to address packet collisions caused by the concurrent transmission, an anti-phase synchronisation solution is utilised to maintain clock synchronisation, and the corresponding superframe structure is developed to allow the hybrid transmission of the Sync packet and the blast wave monitoring data. As a network scales up and the hop distance grows, the packet exchange lag increases during a superframe. This, along with the drifting clock frequency, leads to the degradation of synchronisation performance while the clock frequency is usually assumed to be zero and non-drifting. Thus, a compensation strategy is proposed to eliminate the joint impacts and to improve the synchronisation precision. The theoretical performance analysis of the PkCOs algorithm in the network is presented along with verification by simulation means. Finally, the performance of the PkCOs synchronisation protocol is evaluated on an IEEE 802.15.4 hardware testbed. The experimental results show that the PkCOs algorithm provides an alternative clock synchronisation solution for blast wave monitoring networks

Integrated Sensing and Actuation Capabilities of Flexible Surface Acoustic Wave Devices with Metallic and Polymer Layers

Flexible and bendable devices have become the key elements in the development of next-generation point-of-care systems and wearable technologies. In this paper, we report flexible surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices that are composed of a multilayer substrate; SAW devices are basically made of interdigital transducers (IDTs) that are patterned on a piezoelectric layer. In our fabricated devices, thin film of zinc oxide (ZnO), as the piezoelectric layer, is deposited on substrates made of trilayer of thin metal films (Nickel/Copper/Nickel) on top of a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) layer. We have characterized the devices in radio frequencies, and we have measured the response of the device to the temperature and the Ultraviolet (UV) light. Also, we have tested the actuation capability of our fabricated devices. We have successfully demonstrated that our fabricated devices can be employed as an integrated platform for sensing and actuation purposes using a single structure

Modelling and Synchronisation of Delayed Packet-Coupled Oscillators in Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks

In this paper, a Packet-Coupled Oscillators (PkCOs) synchronisation protocol is proposed for time-sensitive Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) based on Pulse-Coupled Oscillators (PCO) in mathematical biology. The effects of delays on synchronisation performance are studied through mathematical modelling and analysis of packet exchange and processing delays. The delay compensation strategy (i.e., feedforward control) is utilised to cancel delays effectively. A simple scheduling function is provided with PkCOs to allocate the packet transmission event to a specified time slot, by configuring reference input of the system to a non-zero value, in order to minimise the possibility of packet collision in synchronised wireless networks. The rigorous theoretical proofs are provided to validate the convergence and stability of the proposed synchronisation scheme. Finally, the simulations and experiments examine the effectiveness of PkCOs with delay compensation and scheduling strategies. The experimental results also show that the proposed PkCOs algorithm can achieve synchronisation with the precision of 26.3µs (1 tick)

Apnoea-Pi: Sleep disorder monitoring with open-source electronics and acoustics

Apnoea is a sleep disorder that affects an increasing number of adults causing harm from fatigue to a growing chance of heart problems. Apnoea disorders can be treated but advanced monitoring and diagnosing tools are needed to identify its strand and offer adequate treatment. Therefore, Apnoea tracking is vital to help keep patients healthy. Sleep Apnoea can cause a number of conditions such as fatigue, high blood pressure, liver functionality and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. These complications make it necessary to monitor as many potential patients as possible by designing an instrument that is accurate, comfortable to use, fit for purpose, cost effective and with embedded computation capabilities to store, process and transmit time series data. In this work we present Apnoea-Pi, an adaptation of our Acousto-Pi open source surface acoustic wave platform to monitor Apnoea in patients using ultrasonic humidity sensing

Chaos Synchronization in Visible Light Communications with Variable Delays Induced by Multipath Fading

Visible Light Communication (VLC) uses light-emitting diodes to provide wireless connectivity in public environments. Transmission security in this emerging channel is not trivial. Chaotic modulation techniques can provide encryption directly in the physical layer based on the random-alike evolution and strong synchronization prospect given by deterministic chaos. In secure chaotic inclusion or embedding methods, continuous-time chaos oscillator models need to be synchronized via a coupling carrier. Here we present a first numerical simulation study for the impact of the variable delays induced by line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight multipath fading in complete chaotic synchronization. More precisely, we analyze a chaotic Colpitts oscillator that is simultaneously transmitting the carrier to several mobile receivers via nine spotlights. Such induced delays depend on both the receiver position and the carrier frequency, influencing the complete synchronization required in modulation via chaotic inclusion. Correlation values for several receiver positions and carrier frequencies are presented, examining the progressive emergence of the multipath effect and its impact on chaotic synchronization. We show that, for the chaotic oscillator and coupling applied in the defined room settings, complete chaotic synchronization can be achieved and that it is robust up to the tens of MHz region

A Flexible PVDF-based Platform Combining Acoustofluidics and Electromagnetic Metamaterials

Acoustofluidic devices have been demonstrated effectively for liquid manipulation functionalities. Likewise, electromagnetic metamaterials have been employed as highly sensitive and wireless sensors. In this work, we introduced a new design combining the concepts of acoustofluidics and electromagnetic metamaterials on a single device realised on a flexible PVDF substrate. We characterise the operation of the device at acoustic and microwave frequencies. The device can be used in wearable biosensors with integrated liquid sampling and continuous wireless sensing capabilities

Acousto-Pi: An Opto-Acoustofluidic System using Surface Acoustic Waves controlled with Open Source Electronics for Integrated In-Field Diagnostics

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices are increasingly applied in life science, biology, and point-of-care applications due to their combined acoustofluidic sensing and actuating properties. Despite the advances in this field, there remain significant gaps in interfacing hardware and control strategies to facilitate system integration with high performance and low cost. In this work, we present a versatile, and digitally controlled acoustofluidic platform by demonstrating key functions for biological assays such as droplet transportation and mixing using a closed-loop feedback control with image recognition. Moreover, we integrate optical detection by demonstrating in-situ fluorescence sensing capabilities with a standard camera and digital filters, bypassing the need for expensive and complex optical setups. The Acousto-Pi setup is based on open-source Raspberry Pi hardware and 3D printed housing, and the SAW devices are fabricated with piezoelectric thin film on a metallic substrate. The platform enables the control of droplet position and speed for sample processing (mixing and dilution of samples), as well as the control of temperature based on acousto-heating, offering embedded processing capability. It can be operated remotely while recording the measurements in cloud databases towards integrated in-field diagnostic applications such as disease outbreak control, mass healthcare screening and food safety

Flexible/Bendable Acoustofluidics Based on Thin Film Surface Acoustic Waves on Thin Aluminum Sheets

In this paper, we explore the acoustofluidic performance of zinc oxide (ZnO) thin-film surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices fabricated on flexible and bendable thin aluminum (Al) foils/sheets with thicknesses from 50 to 1500 μm. Directional transport of fluids along these flexible/bendable surfaces offers potential applications for the next generation of microfluidic systems, wearable biosensors and soft robotic control. Theoretical calculations indicate that bending under strain levels up to 3000 με causes a small frequency shift and amplitude change (<0.3%) without degrading the acoustofluidic performance. Through systematic investigation of the effects of the Al sheet thickness on the microfluidic actuation performance for the bent devices, we identify the optimum thickness range to both maintain efficient microfluidic actuation and enable significant deformation of the substrate, providing a guide to design such devices. Finally, we demonstrate efficient liquid transportation across a wide range of substrate geometries including inclined, curved, vertical, inverted, and lateral positioned surfaces using a 200 μm thick Al sheet SAW device

Integrated sensing and acoustofluidic functions for flexible thin film acoustic wave devices based on metallic and polymer multilayers

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices are generally fabricated on rigid substrates that support the propagation of waves efficiently. Although very challenging, the realisation of SAW devices on bendable and flexible substrates can lead to new generation SAW devices for wearable technologies. In this paper, we report flexible acoustic wave devices based on ZnO thin films coated on various substrates consisting of thin layers of metal (e.g., Ni/Cu/Ni) and/or polymer (e.g., polyethylene terephthalate, PET). We comparatively characterise the fabricated SAW devices and demonstrate their sensing applications for temperature and ultraviolet (UV) light. We also investigate their acoustofluidic capabilities on different substrates. Our results show that the SAW devices fabricated on a polymer layer (e.g. ZnO/PET, ZnO/Ni/Cu/Ni/PET) show enhanced temperature responsivity, and the devices with larger wavelengths are more sensitive to UV exposure. For actuation purposes, the devices fabricated on ZnO/Ni/Cu/Ni layer have the best performance for acoustofluidics, whereas insignificant acoustofluidic effects are observed with the devices fabricated on ZnO/PET layers. We propose that the addition of a metallic layer of Ni/Cu/Ni between ZnO and polymer layers facilitates the actuation capability for the acoustofluidic applications while keeping temperature and UV sensing capabilities, thus enhancing the integration of sensing and acoustofluidic functions