THE INTEGRATED UNIT FOR MEMS BASED PRESSURE MEASUREMENT March 2009

The article deals with a custom based integrated measurement unit

(IMU), which serves as processing device for MEMS based pressure

measurement.

 

The IMU consists of the three elementar stages, measurement

stage, processing stage and communication stage. They are

implemented on the one single board.

 

The measurement block has 16-bit resolution with 64 provided

measurement ranges to satisfy appropriate accuracy. The power

supply is 5 V, which allows to measure current with 238 nA step

within 1 mA measurement range.

The communication stage is based upon 12C standard.

THE MOBILE ECG TELEMONITORING SYSTEM BASED ON GPRS AND GPS April 2009

 

This presentation provides a description of a new mobile ECG telemonitoring

system.

 

The portable ECG monitoring terminal in the system consists of GPRS and

GPS module in order to send the ECG signal data through GPRS network with

the position information of the user, and a accelerometer is embedded in the

terminal to sense the sudden posture change of the user, this will enable the

monitoring center in the system give a immediately response to the user who

suffer a suddenly cardiac failure.

IMM-BASED LANE-CHANGE PREDICTION IN HIGHWAYS WITH LOW-COST GPS/INS March 2009

 

The prediction of lane changes has been proven to be useful for collision

avoidance support in road vehicles. This paper proposes an interactive

Multiple model (IMM)-based method for predicting lane changes in highways.

The sensor unit consists of a set of low -cost Global Positioning

System/inertial measurement unit (GPS/IMU) sensors and an odometry captor

for collecting velocity measurements.

 

Extended Kalman filters (EKFs) running in parallel and integrated by an

IMMbased algorithm provide positioning and maneuver predictions to the user.

The maneuver states Change Lane (CL) and Keep Lane (KL) are defined by two

models that describe different dynamics.

 

Different model sets have been studied to meet the needs of the IMM-based

algorithm. Real trials in highway scenarios show the capability of the system to

predict lane changes in straight and curved road stretches with very short

latency times.

DESIGN AND ASSESSMENT OF AN ONLINE PASSENGER INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR INTEGRATED MULTIMODAL TRIP PLANNING June 2009

 

This paper presents the design and evaluation of an online passenger

information system for delivering personalized multimodal trip planning

services through the integration of wireless and Web-based communication

technologies.

 

The goal of the system is to provide real-time travel information throughout

the entire life cycle of an interurban trip. Before the full-scale deployment of

this type of system, it is essential to assess its impact on the involved

stakeholders through a pilot application.

 

The proposed system (ENOSIS) has been implemented and evaluated for

supporting travel decisions in Greece. An evaluation framework for assessing

the impacts of the ENOSIS system is proposed, and the evaluation results of

the ENOSIS pilot application are also reported.

The evaluation results provide significant evidence of the technical and

operational efficiency of the ENOSIS services, while it is shown that the

proposed system is cost effective.

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF REAL TIME VEHICLE TRACKING SYSTEM Feb. 2009

 

Tracking systems were first developed for the shipping industries to

determine the position of ships and boats in the sea. Initially passive systems

were developed to support in tracking and navigation for location-based

applications.

 

For the applications that require real time location information of the vehicle,

these systems cannot be employed, because they store the location

information in the internal storage that can only be accessed when vehicle is

available. Recently, Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) systems are developed

and deployed in numerous environments.

 

These systems are capable of transmitting vehicle's location information in

real time. In these systems, the device installed in the vehicle can transmit the

location information in real time to a remote data centre, instead of storing

into local storage, using some radio network.

In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a real time AVL

system that incorporates a hardware device installed in the vehicle and a

remote Tracking Server (TS).

DESIGN AND REALIZATION OF WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK GATEWAY BASED ON ZIGBEE AND GPRS May 2009

 

This paper discusses an embedded access platform, which takes S3C2410 as

the center core and is built upon the Linux operating system. Based on the

character and advantage of ZigBee and GPRS, this article advances the

solution scheme of the wireless sensor network gateway.

 

Mainly analyzes the software design of the gateway, including the way to

realize the connection of ZigBee protocol and GPRS network, along with the

design of data conversion task between ZigBee network and GPRS network.

And it proposed a solution of data loss, which is caused by the different

transmitting rates of ZigBee module and GPRS module.

This paper also describes the structure of hardware platform and running

process, and analyzes the structure of the three layers software system, as

well as PPP protocolpsilas characteristics and transplanting key point.

As a result, the wireless data communication link between the embedded

gateway and GPRS network is set up, and the solution of keeping the gateway

on line is proposed.

DEVELOPMENT OF ZIGBEE MOBILE ROUTER FOR SUPPORTING NETWORK MOBILITY IN HEALTHCARE SYSTEM Jan. 2009

 

In this paper, we propose a Network Mobility (NEMO) based ZigBee

Mobile Router architecture and operations for supporting the

network mobility of ZigBee network.

 

Also, we present a design and implementation of the ZigBee mobile

router for healthcare system.

 

The architecture is particularly useful to manage patient's mobility

where each patient is equipped with ZigBee sensor nodes.

BLUETOOTH DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEM BASED ON ARM March 2009

In response to the complexity of the cable, the occurrence of accidents and

completing the task without cables in industrial field, an embedded Bluetooth

data acquisition system which was combined with Bluetooth

wirelessnetworking communication technicalness and data acquisition

technicalness, based on LPC2142 and bluethooth chip called Rok101008 is

designed to reduce cable connection.

 

The major difference with other data collector is that it has achieved the

wireless data transmission after the A/D conversion. Itpsilas also more simple in

circuit, stronger in integration anti-interference, mobility and practicality, it can

be widely used in the complex environment of the industrial field.

BODY TEMPERATURE AND ELECTROCARDIOGRAM MONITORING USING AN SMS-BASED TELEMEDICINE SYSTEM Feb. 2009

A mobile monitoring system utilizing short message service with low -cost

hardware equipment has been developed and implemented to enable

transmission of the temperature and ECG signal of a patient.

 

Communication between a mobile phone client and a remote smart-phone (or

PDA) consultation/server unit is achieved through programming the client

using attention commands (at-commands), and the protocol description unit

(PDU) mode.

 

The experimental setup can be operated for monitoring from anywhere

covered by the Cellular (GSM) service by exchanging SMS messages with the

remote mobile device.

 

At the consultation unit, a dedicated application software is required to

manage the follow of SMS messages from the mobile and display the

temperature and ECG of the patient.

AN INTERNET-BASED INTERACTIVE EMBEDDED DATAACQUISITION SYSTEM FOR REAL-TIME APPLICATIONS March 2009

In this paper, we present the principles of a low -operational-cost but flexible

Internet-based data-acquisition system.

 

 The main core of the system is an

embedded hardware running a scaled-down version of Linux: a popular choice of

operating system for embedded applications.

The embedded device communicates through general packet radio service

(GPRS), which makes it accessible from anywhere in the world through a Web

server built into the embedded device. In addition, GPRS provides a

bidirectional real-time data transfer allowing interaction.

The proposed system eliminates the need for server software and

maintenance. A novel approach is introduced to minimize the operational

costs while operating with a large amount of data.

 

The system is demonstrated to be suitable for different embedded

applications by attaching several real-time modules through appropriate

interfaces.

APPLICATION OF ZIGBEE FOR POLLUTION MONITORING CAUSED BY AUTOMOBILE EXHAUST GASES Feb. 2009

Gases emitted from automobile exhausts have been monitored using a gas

sensor arrays. The information from the sensor array has been transmitted to

a remote location by ZigBee wireless technology. Quantitative and qualitative

analysis of gases has been conducted at the remote location by a computer.

 

Programs have been developed in LabView and excel to display data and

alarm conditions. Results indicate that unlike the automobiles using natural

gas the unleaded and premium unleaded fuel automobiles can have significant

effect on the environment conditions due to their high level of toxic gas

emission.

A MULTI-ROBOT COORDINATION SYSTEM BASED ON RFID TECHNOLOGY June 2009

 

This paper presents a novel approach for multi-robot coordination based both

on coordinated navigation and task allocation method.

 

The proposed approach exploits RFID technology for implementing a context

aware information system which is the base of the coordination strategies; it

has extremely low requirements in terms of computational power and does not

require direct robot-robot communication.

 

Moreover, an ad hoc agent based control architecture is defined to implement

the proposed coordination mechanisms on robots in both simulation and real

applications.

A NEW TELEMEDICINE SYSTEM FOR THE HOME MONITORING OF LUNG FUNCTION IN PATIENTS WITH OBSTRUCTIVE RESPIRATORY DISEASES Feb. 2009

The conventional pulmonary function tests are based on spirometry, which

unfortunately doesn't produce accurate and reproducible results if performed

without the supervision of specially trained staff. We recently showed that

forced oscillation technique is best suited for the home-monitoring of

respiratory patients.

 

The aim of this study was to develop a real-time data processing algorithm for

the automatic unsupervised assessment of the lung obstruction, a network

architecture for the data transmission and a web-based application for the

storage and management of the data.

 

The results demonstrated a high reliability of the algorithm, the robustness of

the data communication protocols and the effectiveness of the data

management web portal.

 

In conclusion, our system allows a reliable automatic home monitoring of lung

obstruction and it may improve the efficacy and efficiency of the management of

respiratory patients through an improved tailoring of the clinical treatments and

an early detection of exacerbations.

A NOVEL DISCRETE DIMMING BALLAST FOR LINEAR FLUORESCENT LAMPS June 2009

 

A novel discrete dimming ballast for linear fluorescent lamps is proposed in

this paper.

 

A proposed dimming control circuit is combined with a ballast module for

multiple lamps to realize control of three discrete lighting levels.

Compared with conventional step dimming or ON-OFF control methods, the

proposed discrete dimming method has the following advantages:

1) digital signal is generated by the dimming control circuit to control the

lamps' turn- ON and -OFF, which makes the system more reliable and integrated;

2) the proposed discrete dimming system replaces relays, which are

necessary in conventional lamp ON-OFF control, and therefore

decreases the system cost;

3) the proposed dimming ballast can be installed by keeping the original

wiring system. This makes the upgrading of a lighting system more

effective and efficient;

4) the dimming control circuit also provides a good isolation for operating

the low -voltage wall switches by hand safely. Both theoretical,

simulation, and experimental results are in good agreement.

A REMOTE COMPACT SENSOR FOR THE REAL-TIME MONITORING OF HUMAN HEARTBEAT AND RESPIRATION RATE June 2009

A remote compact sensor system for the detection of human vital signs

(heartbeat and respiration rate) is presented. The frequency band of 24 GHz is

employed for remote sensing. For the compact size, the developed sensor

uses a circularly polarized electromagnetic wave with a single antenna.

 

The sensor system is composed of radio-frequency circuits, a signal

conditioning block, a data-acquisition unit, and a signal-processing part. The

peak detection of the power spectral density with a tracking algorithm is

utilized for the real-time detection of human vital signs.

The measurement result is compared with the commercial fingertip sensor.

The comparison result shows excellent agreement.

A SINGLE-CHIP CMOS SMOKE AND TEMPERATURE SENSOR FOR AN INTELLIGENT FIRE DETECTOR Aug. 2009

A single-chip CMOS smoke and temperature sensor for use as an intelligent

fire detector is proposed. The proposed smoke sensor measures smoke

density based on the light-scattering method.

 

The temperature sensor is integrated with the smoke sensor not only to sense

heat from a fire but also to compensate for the temperature dependency of the

smoke sensor.

 

The prototype chip includes an on-chip photodiode (PD), pixel circuit,

correlated double sampling (CDS) circuit, and analog-to-digital converter

(ADC). The prototype chip was fabricated using a 0.35-mu m CMOS process

and was placed inside the smoke detection chamber, while the thermistor for

the temperature sensor is placed outside the chamber.

 

The measurement results show plusmn 1% smoke detection accuracy over the

range 4% ~ 25% and plusmn1degC temperature-sensing accuracy over the

range 25degC ~ 95degC. The power consumption of the prototype chip is 220

nW, excluding the infrared light-emitting diode (IR LED).

A SMART CAR CONTROL MODEL FOR BRAKE COMFORT BASED ON CAR FOLLOWING March 2009

 

This paper demonstrates a novel car-following model focused on passenger

comfort, for example, a rapid deceleration will make passengers

uncomfortable. The brake comfort model of car following was set up

according to the relationship between vehicle deceleration and passenger

comfort levels.

 

The model calculates the controlled car's acceleration by measuring the

distance between the controlled car and its preceding car, as well as the

velocity of the controlled car.

 

By controlling the car's acceleration, the model is able to keep riders feeling

comfortable. The friction coefficient between the car and the road surface is

also considered. Experiments show that the model is highly compatible with

real cases.

A WIRELESS DATA ACQUISITION AND TRANSMISSION SYSTEM DESIGN March 2009

In the field of modern wireless communication, there are mainly some

technologies that provide solutions to the wireless data transmission network,

such as: GSM, CDMA, 3G, Wi-Fi.

 

These solutions make network work with high efficiency and good quality, but

still with high cost. So it was difficulty in popularizing in with low cost and at

the circumstance of infrastructureless or infrastructure destruction.

 

According to this situation, in this paper, the key components of the

information terminal and the wireless receiving modules on the data collection

and wireless transmission network were designed with the principle of

transceiver nRF905 and 51 series of single-chip computer as the core

hardware, besides, combining with the current technology on the wireless ad

hoc networks, a short-range wireless data sampling and transmission network

was putting up , which provides a low -powered and high-performance wireless

data communication system, works in the ISM (Industrial Scientific Medical )

band.

 

Then, an available solution to the wireless data communications was put

forward, and this solution was good at stronger real-time response, higher

reliability requirement and smaller data amount. Through software and

hardware debugging and actual measuring, this system based on our solution

had work well, reached the expected goal and been already successfully

applied to wireless vehicle system.

A ZIGBEE AND ZIGBEE-TO-IR DEVICE CONTROL SCHEME FOR SINGLE MEDIA MULTI DEVICES May 2009

 

This paper has a background of SMMD (single media multi device) control

technology for causing various actual feeling effects about one media source.

SMMD technology adds metadata controlling arbitrary multiple devices in one

MPEG-4 media.

 

A home server produces a control command from metadata and delivers

control message to a sensory effect device using the ZigBee communication.

A device produces an internal interface command or specific IR code for

controlling an actual feeling effect device. IR codes are different by products

and each manufacturer. A home server has the function of learning IR codes

and manages the IR code profile.

 

A ZigBee coordinator manages several ZigBee end devices. A ZigBee end

device controls some sensory effect devices. We propose a control

mechanism about ZigBee control and ZigBee-to-IR control device and

implement a demo system

A LOW-COST WIRELESS SENSOR SYSTEM AND ITS APPLICATION IN DENTAL RETAINERS March 2009

 

In this paper, a wireless interrogable sensor device based on an ultra low -

power microcontroller for data collection and a radio frequency identification

(RFID) interface for data transmission is presented. Wireless sensor systems

utilizing RFID transponders offer a new and exciting means of measurement

and identification suitable for many biomedical applications.

 

For the majority of these applications, small, inexpensive radio request sensor

systems are desirable. In this paper, an ultra-low -power and low -cost wireless

temperature data logger system is presented with its application in observing

dental retainer use.

 

For this purpose, the retainer's ambient temperature is measured by an

integrated sensor and recorded using a microcontroller which acts like a

temperature data logger storing the thermal history of several months.

For a self powered wireless data transmission from the sensor to the

interrogation unit a RFID transponder, operating in the 13.56 MHz ISM band, is

used. The presented sensor system includes hard- and software power saving

modes reducing the sensor idle current consumption to 1 muA.

This allows a battery powered operation of the device for up to two years. For

dental and biomedical applications, the device is hermetically sealed using a

biocompatible polymeric encapsulation. Results of the first clinical trials

observing the patient's dental retainer usage by a set of retainers equipped

with the RFID temperature sensor/data logger device are presented.

The stored temperature values are analyzed and a clear temperature

characteristic indicating the retainer usage was found.

A PHONE FOR HUMAN ACTIVITY RECOGNITION USING TRIAXIAL ACCELERATION SENSOR Jan. 2008

We propose an activity recognition system especially for the elderly using a

wearable sensor module including a triaxial accelerometer. We have mainly

tackled easy battery loss problem minimizing the efficiency decrease of the

activity recognition.

 

The proposed system consists of main modules; sensor module, gateway, and

PDA phone. The sensor module is worn at the left side of waistband, and the

embedded algorithm installed in a microcontroller of the sensor module

manipulates the sensing data in order to reduce the transferring overhead

which causes enormous battery loss.

 

After that, the sensor module transfers them to the subject's PDA phone by

means of the Zigbee. Then, the phone accumulates the data for a while and

starts to classify them as an ADL (activities of daily living) like running,

walking, standing, sitting, lying, falling, etc.

As a classifier of ADL, the multi-layer perceptron algorithm is used, and we

have achieved 95.5% of accuracy in inferring an activity out of 9 ADLs. It

shows we can save the battery loss while maintaining the recognition

accuracy similarly compared to related works.

A PORTABLE INTELLIGENT ECG MONITOR BASED ON WIRELESS INTERNET AND EMBEDDED SYSTEM TECHNOLOGY May 2008

 

In this article, we present a Portable Intelligent ECG Monitor (PIEM) which can

be used in a Wireless Remote Monitoring System. For the hardware design,

Advanced RISC Machines (ARM) as well as ECG Application Specific

Integrated Circuit (ASIC), GSM/GPRS and NAND Flash technologies is

adopted.

 

As for the software implementation, a real-time kernel called muC/OS-II and

some related application programs were developed, among which an efficient

and robust on-line ECG interpretation algorithm is included.

A prototype of this device is finally accomplished and has been put into use in

the clinical environment for one month. The results of the experiment show

that this PIEM is clinically approved, accurate in its measurement, highly

mobile, easy-to- use, durable and light-weight.

Once this prototype is developed into product, there's no doubt that more and

more cardiac patients will benefit from it.

GSM-BASED NOTIFICATION SPEED DETECTION FOR MONITORING PURPOSES Aug. 2008

 

This paper presents the design of GSM-based black box system for speed

detection. The idea is clear that the current existing black box system only

notify the driver through alarm systems and information is recorded in the

black box.

 

However, this could be impractical for the authorized personnel to check

every public transports. With the rapid development of GSM application in

monitoring purposes, the current system can be integrated to facilitate the

authorized personnel and to ease the monitoring process as well.

The purpose of this research is to design and integrate a new black-box

system integrated with GSM notification system to send alert information to

traffic authorized personnel or Transport Department through Short Message

Services (SMS).

 

The scope of this research is primarily concerned on express buses which

prone to accident.

A WIRELESS NETWORK BASED ON THE COMBINATION OF ZIGBEE AND GPRS April 2008

 

Due to its low -power consumption, low -cost, self-organization and powerful

ability to route data, ZigBee, an emerging wireless network technology, has

plenty of applications; GPRS (general packet radio service) network, a

convenient way to access Internet, covers widely nowadays.

 

This paper combines GPRS and ZigBee to establish a multi-mode network

structure which employs GPRS as the data transmission device in the

widearea while ZigBee in the local area.

 

This kind of network structure, providing a simple way to setup wireless

network between terminal equipment, remote devices and personal stuff, will

make the data servicing people freely.

DGS: DRIVING GUIDANCE SYSTEM BASED ON WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK March 2008

 

In this paper, we present DGS, a driving guidance system based on wireless

sensor networks (WSN) which guides a driver to drive a car in safety. The

system consists of two sub-systems: SMS (speed measurement sub-system)

and WPS (weather information providing sub-system).

SMS measures the speed of a car and captures the image of the speeding car

using a speed camera. WPS provides weather information including the road

conditions (icy, wet, etc.) via VMS or a telematics terminal. The paper

describes the overall system architecture of DGS from the hardware platform

to the application software in the view point of a WSN.

 

We implemented the WSN based SMS of DGS from hardware to application

software. The experimental results show that the accuracy of speed

measurement is over 99% at 80 kmph and the predicted battery life-time using

measured current profiles is about 3 years.

We also discuss the lessons acquired from the real-life experiments we

performed. We believe that the lessons can be useful in other WSN

applications as well as in typical telematics applications.

AN INTEGRATED ZIGBEE AUTOMATION SYSTEM: AN ENERGY SAVING SOLUTION Dec. 2007

ZigBee is the latest wireless technology which provides three

lowest solutions, low data rate, low power consumption and low

cost. One of the ultimate goals of ZigBee is to provide a energy

saving solution.

 

Low power consumption and power management are important

characteristics of ZigBee. To explore the concept of energy saving,

an integrated ZigBee automation system (ZAS) for lighting

automation and power management is investigated.

 

In this paper, the details of system design for ZAS are described

including the system overview , deployment as well as the power

management algorithms.

AN ON-LINE MONITORING SYSTEM OF TEMPERATURE OF CONDUCTORS AND FITTINGS BASED ON GSM SMS AND ZIGBEE June 2008

An on-line monitoring system of temperature of conductors and fittings based

on GSM SMS and Zigbee is produced in this paper, by which the temperature

of conductors and fittings can be monitored in real-time and some accidents

caused by the increased temperature can be avoided.

 

The principle and the feature of GSM SMS and Zigbee communication are

analyzed. The work principle of DS18B20 is illustrated. The construction of

this system is outlined, and the force modal of calculating the variety of the

sag due to the increased temperature of conductors is built.

 

The Zigbee communication module is produced based on MC1319X and

MC9S08. Finally, the software and hardware design of the online temperature

monitoring unit of conductors and fittings are outlined.

GPS-BASED PATH FOLLOWING CONTROL FOR A CAR-LIKE WHEELED MOBILE ROBOT WITH SKIDDING AND SLIPPING March 2008

Most wheeled mobile robot (WMR) controllers have been developed based on

nonskidding and nonslipping assumptions. Unfortunately, wheel skidding and

slipping are inevitable due to wheel tire-deformation; consequently, the

stability and performance of these controllers are not guaranteed.

This brief aims to develop a global positioning system (GPS)-based path

following a controller for a car-like wheeled mobile robot in the presence of

wheel skidding and slipping.

 

The proposed control scheme uses real-time kinematic (RTK)-GPS and other

aiding sensors to measure the WMR's posture, velocities, and perturbations

due to wheel skidding and slipping. These measurements are applied to

compensate the path following errors based on a backstepping controller.

The reported experimental results validate the control scheme. With this

solution, the WMR is able to maneuver with better precision in outdoor

environments in the presence of wheel skidding and slipping.

A BLIND NAVIGATION SYSTEM USING RFID FOR INDOOR ENVIRONMENTS May 2008

A location and tracking system becomes very important to our future world of

pervasive computing, where information is all around us. Location is one of

the most needed information for emerging and future applications.

 

Since the public use of GPS satellite is allowed, several state-of-the-art

devices become part of our life, e.g. a car navigator and a mobile phone with a

built-in GPS receiver. However, location information for indoor environments

is still very limited. Several techniques are proposed to get location

information in buildings such as using a radio signal triangulation, a radio

signal (beacon) emitter, or signal fingerprinting. Using radio frequency

identification (RFID) tags is a new way of giving location information to users.

Due to its passive communication circuit, RFID tags can be embedded almost

anywhere without an energy source. The tags stores location information and

gives it to any reader that is within a proximity range which can be up to 10-15

meters for UHF RFID systems. We propose an RFID-based system for

navigation in a building for blind people or visually impaired.

 

The system relies on the location information on the tag, a userpsilas

destination, and a routing server where the shortest route from the userpsilas

current location to the destination. The navigation device communicates with

the routing server using GPRS networks.

 

We build a prototype based on our design and show some results. We found

that there are some delay problems in the devices which are the

communication delay due to the cold start cycle of a GPRS modem and the

voice delay due to the file transfer delay from a MMC module.

MULTISENSOR STRATEGIES TO ASSIST BLIND PEOPLE: A CLEAR-PATH INDICATOR Aug. 2009

 

The development of electronic sensing devices for the visually impaired

requires knowledge of the needs and abilities of this class of people.

 

This paper presents a rough analysis that can be used to properly define the

criteria to be adopted for the design of such devices. In particular, attention

will be focused on clear-path indicators, highlighting their role in orientation

and mobility tasks. A new device belonging to this class is presented.

 

The detector is based on a multisensor strategy and adopts smart signal

processing to provide the user with suitable information about the position of

objects hindering his or her path. Experimental trials demonstrate the

efficiency of the device developed.

MOBILE ROBOTS IN MINE RESCUE AND RECOVERY June 2009

Mining accidents have occurred since the early days of mining. Therewere a

total of 525 mining disasters (incidents with five or more fatalities) in both

coal and metal/nonmetal mines from 1900 through 2007 in the United States,

resulting in 12,823 fatalities.

 

Most of these disasters involve mine rescue teams, which are specially trained

to perform search and rescue operations in extremely hostile environments.

Robots have a great potential to assist in these underground operations,

searching ahead of rescue teams and reporting conditions that may be

hazardous to the teams.

 

When explosive conditions exist or when heavy smoke or unstable ground

conditions prevent team members from entering a mine, robots can become an

invaluable tool.

IMPLEMENTATION OF OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE AND ZIGBEE CONTROL FUNCTIONS FOR OMNI DIRECTIONAL MOBILE ROBOT Aug. 2008

Based on FPGA (field programmable gate array) development board, this

paper presents the obstacle avoiding and ZigBee wireless control functions

for omni directional mobile robot.

 

By using ultrasonic transducers, the embedded controller receives the

obstacle distance signals, and then calculates the control signals to drive

three omni directional wheels DC motors which set up on mobile robot.

On the other hand, through the onboard RS-232 port, the controller as well as

receives the control signals from remote PC via ZigBee wireless

communication. The graphical human machine interface is programmed by

Visual Basic software at PC part; such the functions of mobile robot remote

control and messages transmission are displayed on screen.

 

The experiment results provide the FPGA implementation techniques for

control omni directional mobile robot; also extend the ZigBee wireless

communication techniques into the intelligent robot research field.

MOBILE WEB SERVER FOR ELDERLY PEOPLE MONITORING April 2008

 

In this paper we propose a mobile system for monitoring of moving objects,

namely tracking elderly people. This system aims to provide help for people

with some kind of memory loss disease, namely Alzheimerpsilas. It is capable

of providing the geographic position of the person carrying the mobile

equipment, both by a patient request (pressing a key to send a message) or

anytime trough a webpage consult by an external authorized person.

The portable device consists of a GSM/GPRS module, a GPS module, a I/O and

MCU module and a web server. It also incorporates hands free voice

communication capability, which allows communication with a distant person, in

the event of an unexpected incident. The problem of external web server

dependency is tackled by implementing an embedded web server in the

mobile device.

 

This significantly reduces the user expenses that are limited to the data

communication between any authorized person and the mobile system.

Additionally, we have included a tri-axial accelerometer sensor to constrain

the current consumption while the device is not moving, which can also detect

the falling of the patient.

 

However, the main achievement of this work, regardless the hardware

integration, is the development of a web server supported on the relatively

limited computational resources available in the module. To this extent, it is

not required any dedicated software to access this equipment, but a web

browser.

NETWORKED WIRELESS METER READING SYSTEM BASED ON ZIGBEE TECHNOLOGY July 2008

A networked wireless AMR (Automatic Meter Reading) system based on

wireless sensor networks and ZigBee technology is presented in this paper for

solving the problems existed in the existing meter reading system.

The hardware structure of system employs distributed structure based on

wireless sensor networks, which consists of measure meters, sensor nodes,

data collectors, server and wireless communication network. The Mesh

network topology structure was adopted in designing system.

 

The useful remote AMR sensors and ZigBee gateway were analyzed and the

hardware designing based on embedded system were detailed. For a short

distance transmission, the data collector collects data from the meter sensors

using the ZigBee communication. For a long distance transmission, from the

data collector to the server, system uses TCP/IP protocol.

A modified routing protocol based on LEACH is adopted in the system. In the

new protocol, the exhausting energy used to transmitting broadcast package

was calculated when measuring the best number of cluster head that leaved

out by LEACH protocol.

 

Pattern MAC protocol based on cluster is adopted in this system as medium

access control protocol. ZigBee technology enhances the flexibility and the

practicality of AMR system. The proposed system have abroad application

foreground in the real application field.