A new fiber braided soft bending actuator for singer exoskeleton

This thesis presents a design, development and analysis of a novel bending-type pneumatic soft actuator as a drive source for a finger exoskeleton. Soft actuators are gaining momentum in robotic applications due to their simple structure, high compliance, high power-to-weight ratio and low production cost. Smaller and lighter soft actuator that can provide higher power transmission at lower operating air pressure will benefit finger actuation mechanism compared to motorized cable and pulley-driven finger rehabilitation devices. In this study, a soft actuator with new bending method is proposed. It is based on fibre reinforcement of two fibre braided angles of contraction and extension characteristics combined in a single-chamber cylindrical actuator. Another four design parameters identified that affect the bending motion and the actuating force were the air chamber diameter, position of fibre layer reinforcement, fibre reinforcement coverage angle, and silicone rubber materials. Geometrical and material parameters were varied in Finite Element Method (FEM) simulation for design optimization and some parameters were tested experimentally to validate the FEM models. The effects of fibre angles (contraction and extension) on the bending motion and force were analyzed. The optimized actuator can generate bending motion up to 131° bending angle and the end tip of the actuator can make contact with the other base tip at only 240 kPa given input pressure. Both displacement simulation and experimental testing results matched closely. Maximum bending force of 5.42 N was generated at 350 kPa. A wearable finger soft exoskeleton prototype with five optimized bending actuators was tested to drive finger flexion motion of eight healthy subjects with simulated paralysis conditions. The finger soft exoskeleton demonstrated the ability to provide gripping force of 3.61 ± 0.22 N, gained at 200 kPa given air pressure. The device can successfully provide assistance to weak fingers in gripping at least 240 g object. It shows potential in helping people with weakened finger muscle to be more independent in their finger rehabilitation exercise

Using NDN in improving energy efficiency of MANET

This paper seeks to extol the virtues of named data networking (NDN), as an alternative to host-centric networking (HCN), for its prominent features that can be taken advantage of to significantly reduce energy consumption demands in a mobile ad hoc network (MANET) implementation. Therefore, a NDN-based content routing mechanism was compared with two types of HCN routing protocol implementations in this study: OLSR and Batman-adv. The experimental results obtained from this research provide early evidence that NDN can increase the energy efficiency of MANETcompared to the use ofHCNprimarily TCP/IP on the network stack solution for MANET. Of particular note would be NDN-based content routing’s viability as a solution for energy consumption issues that plague wireless multi-hop ad hoc networks. Last but not least, this paper also provides the future research direction that could be undertaken on the subject

Modeling Of A Planar Sofc Performance Using Artificial Nueral Network

The Planar Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (PSOFC) is one of the renewable energy technologies that is important as the main source for distributed generation and can play a significant role in the conventional electrical power generation. PSOFC stack modeling is performed in order to provide a platform for the optimal design of fuel cell systems. It is explained by the structure and operating principle of the PSOFC for the modeling purposes. PSOFC model can be developed using Artificial Neural Network approach. The data required to train the neural net-work model is generated by simulating the existing PSOFC model in the MATLAB/ Simulink software. The Radial Basis Function (RBF) and Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) neural networks are the most useful techniques in many applications and will be applied in developing the PSOFC model. A detailed analysis is presented on the best ANN network that gives the greatest results on the performances of the PSOFC. The simulation results show that Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) gives the best outcomes of the PSOFC performance based on the smallest errors and good regression analysis

Electrical Machine Breakdown Monitoring System Using IoT

Nowadays, electric machines of various types and designs are mainly used in hybrid production systems. Electrical machines are required to control and implement various mechanisms for the production of final products. However, sometimes, for unknown reasons, electrical machines stop working and cause downtime. As a result, this affects work productivity during peak hours and reduces the profitability of the company. To overcome this problem, a proper electrical machine monitoring system is required so that the problem can be addressed and resolved immediately. In this thesis, a prototype of IoT based on the motor breakdown monitoring system using Heltec Lora ESP32 as a microcontroller to communicate with the Blynk IoT platform server is proposed and developed. The parameter values that were monitored are voltage, current and motion sensor reading. The ZMPT101b voltage sensor was used to measure AC voltage while the ACS712 current sensor was used to measure AC current flow through the electrical machine. Moreover, a tilt sensor was used to detect the vibration movement of the motor. The measured values indicate the condition of the motor and were monitored using the developed GUI Blynk IoT platform that can be viewed from mobile phones and website. Email and SMS notifications are sent to users to warn of specified conditions when the measured and uploaded values to the Blynk cloud exceed the configured average values. The effectiveness of the value parameter is analyzed by comparing it with standard measuring device such as clamp meter and multimeter. There were 3 experimental trials conducted and the results showed the lowest average percentage error for voltage sensor was 0.19% and for the current sensor was 17.36%. The tilt sensor on the other hand was not responding to the motor vibrations due to the low sensitivity of the sensor. Overall, all parameter values were successfully displayed on the IoT platform. In the future, the accuracy of the current sensor can be improved by integrating a signal conditioning circuit to filter out noise. Other parameter values suitable for monitoring the motor's status can also be used, such as temperature and water flow sensor

Development of water surface mobile garbage collector robot

This paper presents a prototype of Water Surface Mobile Garbage Collector Robot built in motivation to educate the people to love and monitor the health of our rivers by collecting the trash themselves using mobile robot. The garbage collector is designed aimed for the cleaning of small-scale lakes, narrow rivers, and drains in Malaysia. The navigation of the robot is controlled using wireless Bluetooth communication from a smartphone application. The performance of the water garbage collector in terms of manoeuvring control efficiency and garbage collection load capacity was tested and evaluated. Based on the experimental results from a swimming pool, it can operate within a 4-metre range and collect 192 grams of small to medium sized recyclable garbage such as food packages, water bottles, and plastics in 10 seconds. It managed to float and navigate on the Panchor River within Bluetooth network range. A strong, lightweight and waterproof material is recommended for use for this water garbage collector. A proximity sensor or image processing technique for detecting garbage on the water surface may be studied and included in the future to enable a fully autonomous manoeuvring control system

Detection of active mobile phone in exam hall

The use of mobile phone as a cheating tool in the examination hall among students have considerably increased a burden to invigilators to ensure integrity in examination hall. Many active mobile phone detection schemes had been proposed as the solution to this problem. However, the detection system function in a small detection range of 1.5 to 2 meters from the detection circuit and does not distinguish various frequency bands of radio frequency signals. In order to have diverse range of RF mobile phone signals detection for alerting the invigilators of their specified monitoring region, antenna is proposed to be used. This is done by antenna design simulation using Computer Simulation Technology (CST) software. Two types of antenna; single-dipole antenna and multi-band dipole antenna are simulated to know the characteristics of VSWR, gain and total efficiency. From the simulation results, multi-band dipole antenna shows acceptable VSWR value which are approximate to 2 V, gain is equal to 2.85 dB and total efficiency is equal to 2.484 dB for 2.4 GHz signal. The results imply positive event that multi-band antenna can be a preferable tool in elaborating accurate RF signal detection of active mobile phone in examination hall

Development of an integrated control system for rescue boat

During flood season, fire department or rescuing team are facing the situation which is lack of man power. To overcome this problem, an integrated rescuing boat control system has been proposed. The developed rescuing boat controller is convenience and easy to handle. It has been built with an integrated system which could be handled manually or automatically. The controller is developed using microcontroller Arduino. For an autonomous mode, some sensors has been introduced to sense the obstacles and giving the instruction to the Arduino to changed the direction of the boat. For manual control, rescuing boat could be controlled by Blynk application through smart phone. By introcuding an integrated rescuing boat control system, the victim can save their own from dangerous and reduce dramatically the number of death or injuries due to the flood

Automated rescuing boat tracking system using raspberry pi

During floods, safety boats will be dispatched to help flood victims. The location tracking system is important to ensure the safety of the victim. Therefore, this project is conducted to track live locations and monitor flood survivors wirelessly. In tracking the victim’s location, a small and compact computer, called a Raspberry Piis installed on the boat and the recorded data has been uploaded online. This will help firefighters to monitor the location of the boat easily and help the victims navigate the boat to a safe place. A safety camera is installed to help firefighters monitor the situation as well. For system validation, various tests are conducted on-road, swimming pool and Panchor river in Muar, Johor, Malaysia. Hence, the performance on road is accurate. In fact, the recorded speed reading is similar to the speed measured by Google Maps. At the Pagoh Higher Education Hub (HPTP), Johor, Malaysia swimming pool, it is observed that, the faster the boat speed, the shorter the time required to complete a 50 meters trip. Finally, the river testing has shown that the boat speed increases when the boat moves in the same direction as the water current and slows down if the boat and river currents move in opposite directions

Development of smart home system based on mobile apps control using IoT for educational purposes

The Internet of Things (IoT) with its enormous growth widens its applications to the living environment of the people by changing a home to a smart home. The smart home is a system, which connect homes with various types of digital devices to communicate with each other through the internet. Based on our prior study, 59% of the respondent among Malaysians are unaware about the IoT or just heard about it without knowing its concept. Thus, this project will present a development of a smart home system based on mobile apps control using IoT to educate Malaysian. This project uses a combination of wireless technology and infrared sensor to detect the motion and a microcontroller to control the usage of appliances in the home. Blynk as a mobile app has been programmed and used to control and display the usage of LED, fan and camera. The output of the appliances will be displayed on the Blynk in kind of LED icon and stream video. The IoT system has been successfully developed and able to follow the instruction given. The LED, fan and camera will turn ON when the switch button in Blynk is pressed. The system has a limited range of operation because it depends on the Wi-Fi signal range, which is about 50 meters of the developed smart home using IoT control. The proposed smart home prototype is useful in the education sector to expose all Malaysian to the current technology especially students and staffs in the university

Application of Binary Firefly Algorithm (BFA) in tuning PID parameters for couple tank system

This paper presents the application of the Binary Firefly Algorithm (BFA) in tuning PID parameters for a coupled tank system. The agent position in the BFA represents the potential combination the PID parameters. This agent position is modelled using a string of 32 binary bits where each eight bits represents the value o