Smart device definition and application on embedded system: performance and optimi-zation on a RGBD sensor

Searching for more efficient ways to improve process quality and increase plant throughput has encouraged changes in the control system architecture toward greater distribution. A distributed control system, illustrated in Fig.15.1, can be defined as control systems in which functions around a plant are distributed into computing nodes (i.e., control computers and smart devices) that are physically separated; and all the computing nodes are interconnected by digital communication networks (e.g., fieldbuses). Distributed control systems are now found in many industrial fields, such as oil and gas production (Hars, 1994), automobiles (Hansson et al., 1997), and gas turbine engine control (Shaffer, 1999). Advances in distributed control system technology have been driven by the ever increasing performance of smart field devices and fieldbuses using smaller, less expensive and more functional microprocessors. In fact, the goal of a distributed control system is the same as its centralised counterpart; that is, to get input from the plant through its sensors and give output using its actuators. However, the use of field-buses and smart devices introduces many advantages into a distributed control system over a centralised one. Not only does a distributed architecture offer reduced wiring and simplified maintenance, it also provides the opportunity to implement different control strategies. Consequently, the emergence of distributed control systems is promoting changes in control systems design issues. One of the key changes from conventional control techniques is driven by the local processing power. In distributed architectures, smart devices employing a built-in microprocessor with a fieldbus interface offer the possibility of the faster and more reliable self-diagnosis and self-compensation. Several researchers (Henry 1993; Koscielny et al 1997) have discussed the benefits of local fault-diagnosis. Extra information about the element status reported through a fieldbus network is also very beneficial for reconfigurable control. For example, Lee et al. (2001) presented an on-line retuning strategy for PI control to tolerate actuator faults using this information.

Bio-inspired microfluidic systems can be obtained through multidisciplinary approaches by using bio-inspired structural and functional designs for the microfluidic devices. This review mainly focuses on the concept of bio-inspired microfluidics to improve the properties of microfluidic systems for breaking through the bottlenecks of the current microfluidic devices, such as anti-fouling, smart, and dynamic response inside the microchannels under different environments. In addition, here, we show the current research progress of bio-inspired microfluidic systems in applications related to anti-fouling and smart devices, and biomedical research. The review discusses both physical theories and critical technologies in the bio-inspired microfluidics, from biomimetic design to real-world applications, so as to offer new ideas for the design and application of smart microfluidics, and the authors hope this review will inspire the active interest of many scientists in the area of the development and application of soft matter, and multifunctional and smart bio-inspired devices.

Most of today's industrial computers are applied to embedded systems because the industrial computers can be implanted with the operating systems to manage the peripheral equipments. The industrial computer can deal with multi-tasking efficiently by process scheduling. The digital signal processor has the advantage of highly computational capability, but it can’t deal with multi-tasking because of the lack of operating systems. This thesis is based on controller area network (CAN) bus network to construct a distributed real-time monitoring and control system. This system consists of subsystems of master, slave, and monitor. The master subsystem is constructed by a PC/104+, Linux-RTAI operating system and PCI to CAN communication interface. There are two slaves with the cores of digital signal processors (DSP). One is to control an inverted pendulum using the LQR controller, the other is to control a dc motor using the PID controller. The monitor subsystem consists of a monitoring interface and universal serial bus (USB) to CAN communication interface. In the experiments, the master subsystem sends the control commands to the slaves. The slaves excute the control tasks according to the received commands and return the responses to the monitor. The monitor is able to show the system responses on the screen to facilitate the system analysis. This thesis verifies the performance of the distributed control system through experiments.

A multi-agent controller on embedded system is presented for complex mechatronics in this paper. The agents' concept is combined with a physical control system to produce a controller agent. The multi-controller system of complex mechatronics can be regarded as a series of controller agents, and they can be converted to the Multi-Agent System (MAS) easily by changing corresponding concepts. Controller agents can be implemented by a number of agent tasks located on different microprocessors at the hardware level and coordinated by a Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) at the software level. In the view of control agents and MAS, an embedded control system with ARM and DSP is designed and developed for a vision-based Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV), from the agents' partitions to the MAS design, and from the hardware construction to the software programming. This development paradigm demonstrates an effective and concise implementation way in which the MAS-based approach is adopted on the embedded control system. It is expected to help the multi-controller system design for complex mechatronics.

In recent years, the upward trend in adolescent obesity rates has become increasingly evident. The emergence of smart wearable devices has broken through the traditional technical barriers of sweat detection, enabling real-time, non-invasive, and continuous monitoring of athletic performance in adolescents. This report aims to explore the impact of smart wearable devices on enhancing the athletic performance of adolescents from the perspective of sweat analysis. Method: We employed various research methods, including literature review, logical analysis, and statistical analysis, to conduct a comprehensive search for relevant literature from the past five years in electronic databases such as PubMed, Web of Science, and CNKI. This review summarizes the latest research advancements in the field of athletic performance monitoring based on sweat analysis and the application of smart wearable devices (1). The electrolytes found in sweat can be utilized to assess the body’s hydration status and muscle fatigue levels. Detection of metabolites such as glucose and lactate can indicate physical fitness status and anaerobic metabolism levels. Furthermore, cortisol can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of fat loss in adolescents. (2) Screen printing technology allows for the integration of multiple electrochemical sensors onto a single flexible substrate, enabling non-invasive detection of sweat biomarkers through methods such as colorimetric analysis and electrochemical analysis using various sensitive elements. Microfluidic systems serve as the core technology, facilitating the absorption and accumulation of sweat, thus enhancing detection efficiency. (3) Smart wearable devices based on sweat analysis can assess various indicators, including activity intensity, energy expenditure, hydration status, and thermoregulation abilities of obese adolescents during exercise. Additionally, employing big data analytics, these devices can provide personalized exercise prescriptions tailored to the specific needs of adolescents. Smart wearable devices based on sweat detection hold great potential for a wide range of applications. However, several issues persist in their current practical use. For example, the rapid evaporation of sweat can lead to detection results that are easily influenced by environmental factors and temperature. Additionally, the sensitivity of smart sensors may decrease after repeated use. Therefore, it is essential to strengthen the interdisciplinary integration of fields such as electrochemistry, materials science, and exercise science. This collaboration can enrich the practical application scenarios of smart wearable devices and optimize the pathways for monitoring athletic performance.

Transparent electrodes (TEs) are crucial in a wide range of modern electronic and optoelectronic devices. However, traditional TEs cannot meet the requirements of smart devices under development in unique fields, such as electronic skins, wearable electronics, robotic skins, flexible and stretchable displays, and solar cells. Emerging TEs printed with nanocrystal (NC) inks are inexpensive and compatible with solution processes, and have huge potential in flexible, stretchable, and wearable devices. Every development in ink-based electrodes makes them more competitive for practical applications in various smart devices. Herein, we provide an overview of emergent ink-based electrodes, such as transparent conducting oxides, metal nanowires, graphene, and carbon nanotubes, and their application in solution-based flexible and stretchable devices.

7 - Distributed control systems (DCS)

The adoption of smart environments is becoming more and more important in many application scenarios such as healthcare, asset management and environmental monitoring. In emergency services, there are also very attractive use cases on next generation emergency services, presenting challenges that must be addressed in order to satisfy the requirements of both citizens and emergency service professionals. This chapter shares two interesting use cases depicting emergencies where the use of telematics and smart devices do enable improved emergency situational awareness for citizens and emergency services. Leveraging on the example of the eCall initiative, a thorough explanation is given on how next generation emergency services may further explore the promising new smart technologies to improve the communication dynamics with citizens and to attain increased effectiveness and performance in their daily mission to protect and safeguard lives.

This paper introduces iFringe, a mobile application that attempts to incorporate the resource heavy fringe analysis algorithms into the smart mobile devices platform. This first step taken towards mobility in the optical processing field aims to become a catalyst for modernization of various aspects of the field as well as to diversify developments to other applications. Predominantly, the motivation of this work stems from the vastly indifferent human interactive method of mobile devices, which enable images displayed on its touch screen to be manipulated in ways that could enhance the fringe analysis experience. Furthermore, given its hardware compatibility to the conventional fringe projection system, these mobile devices could potentially serve as a much more compact replacement. However, one imperative weakness that mobile devices pose is its limited computing ability. Therefore, to examine the feasibility of incorporating the fringe analysis algorithms into a mobile platform, we have implemented two fundamental fringe analysis techniques, namely the Fourier transform fringe analysis method and the phase-shifting technique. Formulas and processing procedures such as discrete Fourier transform (DFT) and quality-guided phase unwrapping, were included in accordance to their original algorithms to test their performance and usability on a smart mobile device. Details of the implementation and the performance results will also be presented in this paper to demonstrate the practicality of these algorithms on the smart mobile device platform.

ABSTRACTIn this study, epoxy shape‐memory polymer (ESMP) was infiltrated into the scaffolds of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) array grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). In the fabricated CNTs array/ESMP nanocomposite, the CNTs interconnected with each other and a three‐dimensional (3D) network of the CNTs was formed. As a result, both thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity of the CNTs array/ESMP nanocomposite were higher than the random CNTs/ESMP composite fabricated by conventional high‐speed mechanical stirring. In the random CNTs/ESMP composite, the CNTs aggregated seriously in the matrix. Along the CNTs axis, The CNTs array/ESMP nanocomposite showed a higher modulus and hardness than the random CNTs/ESMP composite, as revealed by nanoindentation tests. Under microwave radiation, the temperature of the CNTs array/ESMP nanocomposite increased more rapidly than pristine ESMP and the random CNTs/ESMP composite. Consequently, the CNTs array/ESMP nanocomposite showed a faster shape recovery speed compared with pristine ESMP and the random CNTs/ESMP composite in their microwave‐triggered shape memory behaviors. Especially, the CNTs array/ESMP nanocomposite can recover the deformation fully in response to as low as 60 W microwaves. The presented CNTs array/ESMP nanocomposite with improved mechanical property and fast responses to low‐power microwaves may find potential applications in smart devices. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci.2019,136, 47563.

Given the rapid advancements in artificial intelligence, there is an escalating demand for wearable sensors. An efficient graphene-based material synthesized from the mesophase pitch of waste slurry oil was integrated into a cost-effective piezoresistive pressure sensor consisting of a conductive film made of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene, and Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). A simple fabrication approach has been suggested to infuse PDMS with CNTs-graphene, resulting in a pressure sensor exhibiting superior conductivity, enhanced sensitivity, and quick responsiveness to diverse pressure variations. Moreover, films containing varying percentages of graphene were compared. Scanning electron microscopy was utilized to examine the surface and structural characteristics of the CNTs-graphene-PDMS film, alongside studying the pressure sensor's sensing capabilities. Various applications were examined for both the individual sensor and the array of sensors. The findings demonstrate the successful detection of diverse human motions, Morse code recognition, and effective discernment of various pressures by the fabricated pressure sensor, indicating its potential for applications in smart devices, robotics, and wearable sensors.

Marangoni-flow-assisted assembly of single-walled carbon nanotube films for human motion sensing

Distributed Control System (DCS) has been widely recognized in the field of modern thermal power thermal control, and has significant effects in the application process. Today, the monitoring of electrical quantities is included into the DCS system, thus replacing the traditional "one to one" manual mode of operation in electrical control. It is to further improve the main works of the station automation and control systems. Combined with the actual project needs, this study focuses on the components of electrical control included in DCS system, the implementation of software and hardware features, and the measures to improve reliability. In addition, useful discussions have been made for some technical problems. In the DCS system, the electrical control inclusion is not just a perfection thermal power plant electrical control system, but a big improvement as well. In addition, it is a new attempt. At present, most of the electrical control parts of control system included into the DCS system with the manual operation are basically cancelled, but there are some problems, for example many of the designs do not match with the original operating habits, etc., which will have a certain impact on the tradition. In the transformation process of system, some of the designs are good but cannot be achieved currently. They still need further research and improvement, for example how can the electrical control of system enter into the DCS in a better manner, how can the display of light texts upon failure or abnormal time weaken electric signals in a more comprehensive and rapid manner, what are the new requirements for anti-interference, and other sequential control functions to be improved and perfected.

One of the rapidly emerging platforms for the digital market is the Internet of Things (IoT). It is an Internet working of computational devices, smart buildings, vehicles, and other items with unique identifiers that have the ability to exchange data over the Internet. The growth rate of data production has increased exponentially in the last decade with the widespread application of smart and sensor devices. The data produced by IoT devices has characteristics of big data in terms of volume, velocity, and variety. Intelligent processing and analysis of this big data is the key to developing smart IoT applications. Intelligent processing and appropriate analysis of big data are crucial aspects for developing smart devices. In this chapter, various predictive analysis strategies have been analyzed that deal with the existing challenges of big data generated by numerous IoT devices. The major contribution of this study is to catalogue various analytic approaches in the field of IoT and big data from the perspective of their effectiveness and efficiency for a variety of domains. The study provides insight from various analytic approaches, their potential, and shortcomings with several trade-offs that can outline the prospects for future research.

Magnetic flexible sensor with randomly distributed pine-branch microstructure for bidirectional recognition