Low Power Multi-Hop Networking Analysis in Intelligent Environments

Intelligent systems are driven by the latest technological advances in many different areas such as sensing, embedded systems, wireless communications or context recognition. This paper focuses on some of those areas. Concretely, the paper deals with wireless communications issues in embedded systems. More precisely, the paper combines the multi-hop networking with Bluetooth technology and a quality of service (QoS) metric, the latency. Bluetooth is a radio license-free worldwide communication standard that makes low power multi-hop wireless networking available. It establishes piconets (point-to-point and point-to-multipoint links) and scatternets (multi-hop networks). As a result, many Bluetooth nodes can be interconnected to set up ambient intelligent networks. Then, this paper presents the results of the investigation on multi-hop latency with park and sniff Bluetooth low power modes conducted over the hardware test bench previously implemented. In addition, the empirical models to estimate the latency of multi-hop communications over Bluetooth Asynchronous Connectionless Links (ACL) in park and sniff mode are given. The designers of devices and networks for intelligent systems will benefit from the estimation of the latency in Bluetooth multi-hop communications that the models provide.The research described in this paper was included in AIRHEM IV project and financially supported by the Basque Government Research Program called Elkartek 2015 (code KK_2015/0000085)

Bluetooth Low PowerModes Applied to the Data Transportation Network in Home Automation Systems

Even though home automation is a well-known research and development area, recent technological improvements in different areas such as context recognition, sensing, wireless communications or embedded systems have boosted wireless smart homes. This paper focuses on some of those areas related to home automation. The paper draws attention to wireless communications issues on embedded systems. Specifically, the paper discusses the multi-hop networking together with Bluetooth technology and latency, as a quality of service (QoS) metric. Bluetooth is a worldwide standard that provides low power multi-hop networking. It is a radio license free technology and establishes point-to-point and point-to-multipoint links, known as piconets, or multi-hop networks, known as scatternets. This way, many Bluetooth nodes can be interconnected to deploy ambient intelligent networks. This paper introduces the research on multi-hop latency done with park and sniff low power modes of Bluetooth over the test platform developed. Besides, an empirical model is obtained to calculate the latency of Bluetooth multi-hop communications over asynchronous links when links in scatternets are always in sniff or the park mode. Smart home devices and networks designers would take advantage of the models and the estimation of the delay they provide in communications along Bluetooth multi-hop networks

Methodology for Detecting Progressive Damage in Structures Using Ultrasound-Guided Waves

Damage detection in structural health monitoring of metallic or composite structures depends on several factors, including the sensor technology and the type of defect that is under the spotlight. Commercial devices generally used to obtain these data neither allow for their installation on board nor permit their scalability when several structures or sensors need to be monitored. This paper introduces self-developed equipment designed to create ultrasonic guided waves and a methodology for the detection of progressive damage, such as corrosion damage in aircraft structures, i.e., algorithms for monitoring such damage. To create slowly changing conditions, aluminum- and carbon-reinforced polymer plates were placed together with seawater to speed up the corrosion process. The setup was completed by an array of 10 piezoelectric transducers driven and sensed by a structural health monitoring ultrasonic system, which generated 100 waveforms per test. The hardware was able to pre-process the raw acquisition to minimize the transmitted data. The experiment was conducted over eight weeks. Three different processing stages were followed to extract information on the degree of corrosion: hardware algorithm, pattern matching, and pattern recognition. The proposed methodology allows for the detection of trends in the progressive degradation of structures.This work was partially supported by Aernnova

Ultrasound-based structural health monitoring methodology employing active and passive techniques

Currently, structures are examined during manufacturing by means of Non Destructive Tests (NDT), but there is an increasing interest in monitoring its integrity over its whole life cycle by using Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) strategies. The monitoring of aircraft structures is particularly important as they suffer high strain under extreme atmospheric conditions. There is an extensive literature on SHM for aviation available but there are few references on comprehensive methodologies. This article introduces a methodology, a device and the tests used in its validation. The electronic prototype for structural health monitoring applies ultrasound techniques by means of piezoelectric transducers. It is lightweight, has USB 2.0 connectivity and includes data pre-processing algorithms to improve its performance. It can run in pitch-catch and pulse-echo modes employing passive and active techniques. Passive techniques are used to detect impacts or fiber breakage in composite materials. Tests based on active techniques can bring to light several types of damages such as those caused abruptly or those produced progressively by corrosion, delamination or fatigue