Multi-Sensor Image Fusion Based on Moment Calculation

An image fusion method based on salient features is proposed in this paper. In this work, we have concentrated on salient features of the image for fusion in order to preserve all relevant information contained in the input images and tried to enhance the contrast in fused image and also suppressed noise to a maximum extent. In our system, first we have applied a mask on two input images in order to conserve the high frequency information along with some low frequency information and stifle noise to a maximum extent. Thereafter, for identification of salience features from sources images, a local moment is computed in the neighborhood of a coefficient. Finally, a decision map is generated based on local moment in order to get the fused image. To verify our proposed algorithm, we have tested it on 120 sensor image pairs collected from Manchester University UK database. The experimental results show that the proposed method can provide superior fused image in terms of several quantitative fusion evaluation index.Comment: 5 pages, International Conferenc

An Edge Assisted Robust Smart Traffic Management and Signalling System for Guiding Emergency Vehicles During Peak Hours

Congestion in traffic is an unavoidable circumstance in many cities in India and other countries. It is an issue of major concern. The steep rise in the number of automobiles on the roads followed by old infrastructure, accidents, pedestrian traffic, and traffic rule violations all add to challenging traffic conditions. Given these poor conditions of traffic, there is a critical need for automatically detecting and signaling systems. There are already various technologies that are used for traffic management and signaling systems like video analysis, infrared sensors, and wireless sensors. The main issue with these methods is they are very costly and high maintenance is required. In this paper, we have proposed a three-phase system that can guide emergency vehicles and manage traffic based on the degree of congestion. In the first phase, the system processes the captured images and calculates the Index value which is used to discover the degree of congestion. The Index value of a particular road depends on its width and the length up to which the camera captures images of that road. We have to take input for the parameters (length and width) while setting up the system. In the second phase, the system checks whether there are any emergency vehicles present or not in any lane. In the third phase, the whole processing and decision-making part is performed at the edge server. The proposed model is robust and it takes into consideration adverse weather conditions such as hazy, foggy, and windy. It works very efficiently in low light conditions also. The edge server is a strategically placed server that provides us with low latency and better connectivity. Using Edge technology in this traffic management system reduces the strain on cloud servers and the system becomes more reliable in real-time because the latency and bandwidth get reduced due to processing at the intermediate edge server.Comment: Accepted at the Doctoral Symposium on Human Centered Computing (Human-2023), February 25, 2023. To be published in "Springer Tracts in Human-Centered Computing

Look Ahead Based Control Strategy for Hydro-Static Drive Wind Turbine Using Dynamic Programming

This research paper presents a look-ahead optimal control strategy for a Hydro-static Drive Wind Turbine when look ahead wind speed information is available. The proposed predictive controller is a direct numerical optimizer based on the well established principles of Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (Dynamic Programming). Hydro-static transmission based, non-linear model of wind turbine is used in this optimization work. The optimal behavior of the turbine used the non-linearity of aerodynamic maps and hydro-static drive train by a convex combination of state space controller with measurable generator speed and hydraulic motor displacement as scheduling parameters. A comparative analysis between a optimal controller based on Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithm as published in literature and the proposed look ahead based predictive controller is presented. The simulation results show that proposed look ahead strategy offered optimal operation of the wind turbine by closely tracking the optimal tip-speed ratio to maximize capacity factor while also maintaining the hydraulic motor speed close to the desired value to ensure that the frequency of electrical output is constant. It is observed from the simulation results that the proposed predictive controller provided around 3.5% better performance in terms of improving total system losses and harvesting energy as compared to the MPPT algorithm

Crystal structure tailoring of Au–Cu alloy NPs using the embedding film matrix as template

Au–Cu alloy nanoparticles (NPs) were grown in three different dielectric film matrices by the sol–gel method in order to see the influence of the embedding matrices on the crystal structure of the alloy NPs. The chosen film matrices were TiO2 (anatase; tetragonal), ZrO2 (cubic) and SiO2 (amorphous). Au and Cu salts (1 : 1 molar ratio) doped MO2 (M = Ti, Zr and Si) sols were prepared keeping the total metal concentration same (M : MO2 = 1 : 9) in all the three cases, and used them for coating deposition on silica glass substrates. Heat-treatment of the films in air at 500 °C resulted in removal of organics, formation of metallic Au NPs and matrix crystallization (tetragonal and cubic in cases of TiO2 and ZrO2, respectively; SiO2 remained amorphous). Further heat-treatment in reducing atmosphere (10% H2–90% Ar/500 °C) induced the reduction of Cu ions with simultaneous formation of Au–Cu alloy NPs. In cases of TiO2 and ZrO2 films, formation of equiatomic Au1Cu1 alloy NPs were completed whereas Au3Cu1 alloy NPs was found to be formed in SiO2 under the similar experimental conditions. Structural analyses confirmed the formation of ordered face centred tetragonal (fct) and disordered face centred cubic (fcc) Au–Cu NPs in cases of TiO2 and ZrO2 matrices, respectively. Thus tetragonal (anatase TiO2) and cubic (ZrO2) structures of the embedding film matrices acted as templates to nucleate and subsequent growth of the Au–Cu order (fct) and disorder (fcc) alloy nanocrystals, respectively. Cubic Au3Cu1 alloy NPs was also formed in amorphous SiO2; however, without any structural influence of the matrix alloy formation could not be completed at such a low temperature

Through the wall human heart beat detection using single channel CW radar

Single-channel continuous wave (CW) radar is widely used and has gained popularity due to its simple architecture despite its inability to measure the range and angular location of the target. Its popularity arises in the industry due to the simplicity of the required components, the low demands on the sampling rate, and their low costs. Through-the-wall life signs detection using microwave Doppler Radar is an active area of research and investigation. Most of the work in the literature focused on utilizing multi-channel frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW), CW, and ultra-wideband (UWB) radar for their capability of range and direction of arrival (DOA) estimation. In this paper, through-the-wall single-subject and two-subject concurrent heart rate detection using single-channel 24-GHz CW radar leveraged with maximal overlap discrete wavelet transform (MODWT) is proposed. Experimental results demonstrated that the repetitive measurement of seven different subjects at a distance of 20 cm up to 100 cm through two different barriers (wood and brick wall) showed an average accuracy of heart rate extraction of 95.27% for varied distances (20–100 cm) in comparison with the Biopac ECG acquisition signal. Additionally, the MODWT method can also isolate the independent heartbeat waveforms from the two subjects’ concurrent measurements through the wall. This involved four trials with eight different subjects, achieving an accuracy of 97.04% for a fixed distance of 40 cm from the Radar without estimating the angular location of the subjects. Notably, it also superseded the performance of the direct FFT method for the single subject after 40 cm distance measurements. The proposed simpler architecture of single-channel CW radar leveraged with MODWT has several potential applications, including post-disaster search and rescue scenarios for finding the trapped, injured people under the debris, emergency evacuation, security, surveillance, and patient vital signs monitoring

Charge optimization of lithium-ion batteries for electric-vehicle application

In recent years Lithium-Ion battery as an alternate energy source has gathered lot of importance in all forms of energy requiring applications. Due to its overwhelming benefits over a few disadvantages Lithium Ion is more sought off than any other Battery types. Any battery pack alone cannot perform or achieve its maximum capacity unless there is some robust, efficient and advanced controls developed around it. This control strategy is called Battery Management System or BMS. Most BMS performs the following activity if not all - Battery Health Monitoring, Temperature Monitoring, Regeneration Tactics, Discharge Profiles, History logging, etc. One of the major key contributor in a better BMS design and subsequently maintaining a better battery performance and EUL is Regeneration Tactics. In this work, emphasis is laid on understanding the prevalent methods of regeneration and designing a new strategy that better suits the battery performance. A performance index is chosen which aims at minimizing the effort of regeneration along with a minimum deviation from the rated maximum thresholds for cell temperature and regeneration current. Tuning capability is provided for both temperature deviation and current deviation so that it can be tuned based on requirement and battery chemistry and parameters. To solve the optimization problem, Pontryagin\u27s principle is used which is very effective for constraint optimization with both state and input constraints. Simulation results with different sets of tuning shows that the proposed method has a lot of potential and is capable of introducing a new dynamic regeneration tactic for Lithium Ion cells. With the current optimistic results from this work, it is strongly recommended to bring in more battery constraints into the optimization boundary to better understand and incorporate battery chemistry into the regeneration process

A Study of Energy Management in Hybrid Class-8 Truck Platoon Using Multi Agent Optimization

Alternate power sources in automotive class-8 trucking industry is a major focus of research in recent days. Green house gasses, oxides of Nitrogen(NOx), Oxides of Sulphur(SOx), hydrocarbons and particulate matter are major concerns contributing to the shift in alternate fuel strategies. Another direct relation to move to an alternate power strategy is the reduction in net fuel consumption which in turn implicitly improves the emission components. A holistic approach is needed while designing a modern class-8 vehicle. A variety of system architecture, control algorithms, diagnostic levers are needed to be manipulated to achieve the best of blends amongst Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), Drivability, Fuel Economy, Emissions Compliant, Hauling Capacity, etc. The control and system levers are not mutually exclusive and there is a strong correlation amongst all these control and system components. In order to achieve a consensus amongst all these levers to achieve a common objective, is a challenging and complex problem to solve. It is often required to shift the algorithm strategy to predictive information based rather than reactive logic. Predictively modulating and manipulating control logic can help with better fuel efficient solution along with emissions improvement. A further addition to the above challenge is when we add a fleet of vehicle to the problem. So, the problem now is to optimize a control action for a fleet of vehicles and design/select the correct component size. A lot of research has been done and is still underway to use a 48V hybrid system with a small battery using a simple charge sustaining SOC control strategy. This will make the system light enough not to compromise on the freight carrying capacity as well as give some extra boost during the high torque requirement sections in the route for a better fuel and emissions efficient solution. In this work a P2 type 48V hybrid system is used which is side mounted to the transmission via a gear system. The selection of the system and components enables the usage of different control strategies such as neutral coasting and Engine off coasting. This architecture with a traditional 12-15L Internal combustion engine along with a mild 48V hybrid system provides the most viable selection for a long haul class-8 application and is used in this work. It is also possible to identify other component sizes along with architectures for new configurations. The framework in this research work can help develop the study for different component sizing. While this research work is focused towards building a framework for achieving predictive control in a 3 truck platooning system using multi-agent based control, the other supporting work done also helps understand the optimal behavior of the interacting multiple controls when the corridor information such as road grade and route speed limit are known a-priori, in a single vehicle. The build up of this work analyzes an offline simulation of a 4 control optimal solution for a single hybrid truck and then extend the optimal controls to a 3 truck platoon. In the single truck, this research will help identify the interacting zones in the route where the various control actions will provide the best cost benefits which is fuel economy