2013 January - 80 articles
There are many outdoor robotic applications where a robot must reach a goal position or explore an area without previous knowledge of the environment around it. Additionally, other applications (like path planning) require the use of known maps or pr...
Cameras are one of the most relevant sensors in autonomous robots. However, two of their challenges are to extract useful information from captured images, and to manage the small field of view of regular cameras. This paper proposes implementing a d...
Non-destructive analysis of fiber dispersion in structural elements made of Fiber Reinforced Concrete (FRC) and Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Composites (FRCCs) plays a significant role in the framework of quality control and performance prediction....
Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotriptors are very popular for the treatment of urinary stones all over the world. They depend basically upon either X-ray fluoroscopy or ultrasound scans to detect the stones before therapy begins. To increase the effec...
We report on single mode optical transmission of hollow core glass waveguides (HWG) coupled with an external cavity mid-IR quantum cascade lasers (QCLs). The QCL mode results perfectly matched to the hybrid HE11 waveguide mode and the higher losses T...
Microparticles consisting of the thermal responsive polymer N-isopropyl acrylamide (polyNIPAM), a metal ion-binding ligand and a fluorophore pair that undergoes fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) have been prepared and characterized. Upon...
Major advancements in molecular biology and clinical diagnostics cannot be brought about strictly through the use of genomics based methods. Improved methods for protein detection and proteomic screening are an absolute necessity to complement to wea...
Planetary gearboxes exhibit complicated dynamic responses which are more difficult to detect in vibration signals than fixed-axis gear trains because of the special gear transmission structures. Diverse advanced methods have been developed for this c...
Low power over wireless personal area networks (LoWPAN), in particular wireless sensor networks, represent an emerging technology with high potential to be employed in critical situations like security surveillance, battlefields, smart-grids, and in...
In the last decade there has been an increasing interest in the use of highly- and weakly- nonlinear solitary waves in engineering and physics. Nonlinear solitary waves can form and travel in nonlinear systems such as one-dimensional chains of parti...
Soil moisture sensors can help to reduce the amount of water needed for irrigation. In this paper we describe the PlantCare soil moisture sensor as a new type of heat dissipation sensor, its calibration and the correction for temperature changes. Wit...
Master the latest electronic warfare (EW) techniques and technologies related to on-board military platforms with this authoritative resource. You gain expert design guidance on technologies and equipment used to detect and identify emitter threats,...
Describing the mathematical development underlying current and classical methods of geolocating electronic systems that are emitting, this newly revised and greatly expanded edition of a classic Artech House book offers practical guidance in electron...
This comprehensive book serves as a one-stop resource for practical EW antenna system know-how. Supported with over 700 illustrations and nearly 1,700 equations, this authoritative reference offers you detailed explanations of all the important foun...
In an upcoming smart transportation environment, performance evaluations of existing Vehicle Detection Systems are crucial to maintain their accuracy. The existing evaluation method for Vehicle Detection Systems is based on a wired Vehicle Detection...
With an internal transcribed spacer of 18 S, 5.8 S and 26 S nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA ITS) as DNA marker, we report a colorimetric approach for authentication of Pseudostellaria heterophylla (PH) and its counterfeit species based on the differenti...
We have developed a new portable taste sensor with a lipid/polymer membrane and conducted experiments to evaluate the sensor’s performance. The fabricated sensor consists of a taste sensor chip (40 mm × 26 mm × 2.2 mm) with working and reference elec...
We report a newly developed design/fabrication module with low-cost single-sided “low-stress-silicon-nitride (LS-SiN)/polysilicon (poly-Si)/Al” process for monolithic integration of composite sensors for sensing-network-node applications. A front-s...
Curb detection is an important research topic in environment perception, which is an essential part of unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) operations. In this paper, a new curb detection method using a 2D laser range finder in a semi-structured environment...
Spatial information on vineyard soil properties can be useful in precision viticulture. In this paper a combination of high resolution soil spatial information of soil electrical resistivity (ER) and ancillary topographic attributes, such as elevatio...
In human movement modeling, the problem of multi-link kinematics estimation by means of inertial measurement units has been investigated by several authors through efficient sensor fusion algorithms. In this perspective a single inertial measurement...
Sampling is one of the main issues pertaining to odor characterization and measurement. The aim of sampling is to obtain representative information on the typical characteristics of an odor source by means of the collection of a suitable volume fract...
A large-mode-area polymer photonic crystal fiber made of polymethyl methacrylate with the cladding having only one layer of air holes near the edge of the fiber is designed and proposed to be used in surface plasmon resonance sensors. In such sensor,...
We report the novel photoresponse of nanodevices made from azafullerene (C59N)-encapsulated single-walled carbon nanotubes (C59N@SWNTs), so called peapods. The photoconducting properties of a C59N@SWNT are measured over a temperature range of 10 to 3...
In this study, the feasibility of using a one dimensional 16-element flexible ultrasonic transducer (FUT) array for nondestructive testing at 150 °C is demonstrated. The FUT arrays were made by a sol-gel sprayed piezoelectric film technology; a PZT...
Determining the effective concentration (i.e., activity) of ions in and around living cells is important to our understanding of the contribution of those ions to cellular function. Moreover, monitoring changes in ion activities in and around cells i...
We present a technique for the multi-sensor registration of featureless datasets based on the photogrammetric tracking of the acquisition systems in use. This method is developed for the in situ study of cultural heritage objects and is tested by dig...
We present a sensor technology for the measure of the physical human-robot interaction pressure developed in the last years at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. The system is composed of flexible matrices of opto-electronic sensors covered by a soft silico...
In-motion alignment of Strapdown Inertial Navigation Systems (SINS) without any geodetic-frame observations is one of the toughest challenges for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV). This paper presents a novel scheme for Doppler Velocity Log (DVL)...
Associating attributes to pedestrians in a crowd is relevant for various areas like surveillance, customer profiling and service providing. The attributes of interest greatly depend on the application domain and might involve such social relations as...
Body sensor networks (BSN) are an important research topic due to various advantages over conventional measurement equipment. One main advantage is the feasibility to deploy a BSN system for 24/7 health monitoring applications. The requirements for s...
Reliable GPS positioning in city environment is a key issue: actually, signals are prone to multipath, with poor satellite geometry in many streets. Using a 3D urban model to forecast satellite visibility in urban contexts in order to improve GPS loc...
Due to the increasing complexity of electromagnetic signals, there exists a significant challenge for recognizing radar emitter signals. In this paper, a hybrid recognition approach is presented that classifies radar emitter signals by exploiting the...
In this study, electron beam lithography, rather than the most popular method, chemical synthesis, is used to construct periodical TiO2 nanowires for a gas sensor with both robust and rapid performance. The effects of temperature on the sensing respo...
An automatic configuration that can detect the position of R-waves, classify the normal sinus rhythm (NSR) and other four arrhythmic types from the continuous ECG signals obtained from the MIT-BIH arrhythmia database is proposed. In this configuratio...
This paper presents a novel approach for guiding mobile robots inside greenhouses demonstrated by promising preliminary physical experiments. It represents a comprehensive attempt to use the successful principles of AGVs (auto-guided vehicles) inside...
Mobile robots are increasingly being used in challenging outdoor environments for applications that include construction, mining, agriculture, military and planetary exploration. In order to accomplish the planned task, it is critical that the motion...
A novel two dimensional surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor system with a multi-point sensing region is described. The use of multiplied beam splitting optics, as a core technology, permitted multi-point sensing to be achieved. This system was cap...
The present work analyzes theoretically and verifies the advantage of utilizing rectangular microcantilevers with long-slits in microsensing applications. The deflection profile of these microcantilevers is compared with that of typical rectangular m...
We report on the successful realization of a contactless, non-perturbing, displacement-measuring system for characterizing the surface roughness of polymer materials used in tribological applications. A single, time-dependent, scalar value, dubbed th...
In silica optical fiber Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR)-based sensors, an increase in fiber core diameter produces a corresponding increase in the sensitivity and Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR). In Plastic Optical Fiber (POF) realized in PMMA there are...
A technique for rapid detection of pathogenic microorganisms is essential for the diagnosis of associated infections and for food safety analysis. Aeromonas hydrophila is one such food contaminant. Several methods for rapid detection of this pathogen...
In this paper, a novel direction of arrival (DOA) estimation algorithm called the Toeplitz fourth order cumulants multiple signal classification method (TFOC-MUSIC) algorithm is proposed through combining a fast MUSIC-like algorithm termed the modifi...
A facile electrochemical sensor for the determination of nonylphenol (NP) was fabricated in this work. Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), which formed a bilayer on the surface of the carbon paste (CP) electrode, displayed a remarkable enhancement...
The efficient generation of second-harmonic light and squeezed light requires non-linear crystals that have low absorption at the fundamental and harmonic wavelengths. In this work the photo-thermal self-phase modulation technique is exploited to mea...
A fully digital photoplethysmographic (PPG) sensor and actuator has been developed. The sensing circuit uses one Light Emitting Diode (LED) for emitting light into human tissue and one LED for detecting the reflectance light from human tissue. A Fiel...
The performance evaluation of sensors is very important in actual application. In this paper, a theory based on multi-variable information fusion is studied to evaluate the health level of multifunctional sensors. A novel conception of health reliabi...
Several RPT sensors have been developed to acquire objective and quantitative pulse waves. These sensors offer improved performance with respect to pressure calibration, size and sensor deployment, but not temperature. Since most pressure sensors are...
In this article, we derive an approximate asymptotic analytical expression for the long-time chronoamperometric current response at an inlaid microband (or laminar) electrode. The expression is applicable when the length of the microband is much grea...
MQTT-S and CoAP are two protocols able to use the publish/subscribe model in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). The high scalability provided by the publish/subscribe model may incur a high packet loss and therefore requires an efficient reliability me...
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