Sensors

23 pages, 4547 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Waypoint Tracking Controller for Autonomous Road Vehicles Using ROS Framework

by Rodrigo Gutiérrez, Elena López-Guillén, Luis M. Bergasa, Rafael Barea, Óscar Pérez, Carlos Gómez-Huélamo, Felipe Arango, Javier del Egido and Joaquín López-Fernández

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4062; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144062 - 21 Jul 2020

Cited by 18 | Viewed by 10411

Abstract

Automated Driving Systems (ADSs) require robust and scalable control systems in order to achieve a safe, efficient and comfortable driving experience. Most global planners for autonomous vehicles provide as output a sequence of waypoints to be followed. This paper proposes a modular and [...] Read more.

Automated Driving Systems (ADSs) require robust and scalable control systems in order to achieve a safe, efficient and comfortable driving experience. Most global planners for autonomous vehicles provide as output a sequence of waypoints to be followed. This paper proposes a modular and scalable waypoint tracking controller for Robot Operating System (ROS)-based autonomous guided vehicles. The proposed controller performs a smooth interpolation of the waypoints and uses optimal control techniques to ensure robust trajectory tracking even at high speeds in urban environments (up to 50 km/h). The delays in the localization system and actuators are compensated in the control loop to stabilize the system. Forward velocity is adapted to path characteristics using a velocity profiler. The controller has been implemented as an ROS package providing scalability and exportability to the system in order to be used with a wide variety of simulators and real vehicles. We show the results of this controller using the novel and hyper realistic CARLA Simulator and carrying out a comparison with other standard and state-of-art trajectory tracking controllers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensors for Road Vehicles of the Future)

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Graphical abstract

13 pages, 1722 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Toward the Standardization of Limits to Offset and Noise in Electronic Instrument Transformers

by Alessandro Mingotti, Lorenzo Peretto and Roberto Tinarelli

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4061; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144061 - 21 Jul 2020

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2000

Abstract

The scenario of instrument transformers has radically changed from the introduction of the Low-Power version, both passive and active. The latter type, typically referred to as Electronic Instrument Transformers (EITs), has no dedicated standard within the IEC 61869 series yet. To this purpose, [...] Read more.

The scenario of instrument transformers has radically changed from the introduction of the Low-Power version, both passive and active. The latter type, typically referred to as Electronic Instrument Transformers (EITs), has no dedicated standard within the IEC 61869 series yet. To this purpose, in the authors’ opinion, it is worth understanding how the limits of typical disturbances affecting EITs should be standardized. In particular, after a brief review of the standards, the work presented a mathematical approach to determine the sources of signal disturbances influence, which affect the rms value, on the ratio error. From the results, we discussed that the emergence of disturbances generated within the EIT is a critical aspect to be studied with data of typical off-the-shelf devices. Therefore, to guarantee a correct operation of the devices, a proper standardization of the sources of disturbance should be provided. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Electronic Sensors)

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16 pages, 2342 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Novel Visual Sensor Stabilization Platform for Robotic Sharks Based on Improved LADRC and Digital Image Algorithm

by Jie Pan, Pengfei Zhang, Jincun Liu and Junzhi Yu

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4060; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144060 - 21 Jul 2020

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2900

Abstract

Autonomous underwater missions require the construction of a stable visual sensing system. However, acquiring continuous steady image sequences is a very challenging task for bionic robotic fish due to their tight internal space and the inherent periodic disturbance caused by the tail beating. [...] Read more.

Autonomous underwater missions require the construction of a stable visual sensing system. However, acquiring continuous steady image sequences is a very challenging task for bionic robotic fish due to their tight internal space and the inherent periodic disturbance caused by the tail beating. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a modified stabilization strategy that combines mechanical devices and digital image techniques to enhance the visual sensor stability and resist periodic disturbance. More specifically, an improved window function-based linear active disturbance rejection control (LADRC) was utilized for mechanical stabilization. Furthermore, a rapid algorithm with inertial measurement units (IMUs) was implemented for digital stabilization. The experiments regarding mechanical stabilization, digital stabilization, and target recognition on the experimental platform for simulating fishlike oscillations demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed methods. The success of these experiments provides valuable insight into the construction of underwater visual sensing systems and also establishes a solid foundation for the visual applications for robotic fish in dynamic aquatic environments. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Sensors and Robotics)

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25 pages, 9229 KiB

Open AccessArticle

GNSS Multipath Detection Using Continuous Time-Series C/N₀

by Nobuaki Kubo, Kaito Kobayashi and Rei Furukawa

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4059; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144059 - 21 Jul 2020

Cited by 34 | Viewed by 4591

Abstract

The reduction of multipath errors is a significant challenge in the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), especially when receiving non-line-of-sight (NLOS) signals. However, selecting line-of-sight (LOS) satellites correctly is still a difficult task in dense urban areas, even with the latest GNSS receivers. [...] Read more.

The reduction of multipath errors is a significant challenge in the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), especially when receiving non-line-of-sight (NLOS) signals. However, selecting line-of-sight (LOS) satellites correctly is still a difficult task in dense urban areas, even with the latest GNSS receivers. This study demonstrates a new method of utilization of C/N₀ of the GNSS to detect NLOS signals. The elevation-dependent threshold of the C/N₀ setting may be effective in mitigating multipath errors. However, the C/N₀ fluctuation affected by NLOS signals is quite large. If the C/N₀ is over the threshold, the satellite is used for positioning even if it is still affected by the NLOS signal, which causes the positioning error to jump easily. To overcome this issue, we focused on the value of continuous time-series C/N₀ for a certain period. If the C/N₀ of the satellite was less than the determined threshold, the satellite was not used for positioning for a certain period, even if the C/N₀ recovered over the threshold. Three static tests were conducted at challenging locations near high-rise buildings in Tokyo. The results proved that our method could substantially mitigate multipath errors in differential GNSS by appropriately removing the NLOS signals. Therefore, the performance of real-time kinematic GNSS was significantly improved. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue GNSS Data Processing and Navigation in Challenging Environments)

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21 pages, 11692 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Research on Identification Method of Wear Degradation of External Gear Pump Based on Flow Field Analysis

by Rui Guo, Yongtao Li, Yue Shi, Hucheng Li, Jingyi Zhao and Dianrong Gao

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4058; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144058 - 21 Jul 2020

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 3589

Abstract

As a kind of hydraulic power component, the external gear pump determines the performance of the entire hydraulic system. The degradation state of gear pumps can be monitored by sensors. Based on the accelerated life test (ALT), this paper proposes a method to [...] Read more.

As a kind of hydraulic power component, the external gear pump determines the performance of the entire hydraulic system. The degradation state of gear pumps can be monitored by sensors. Based on the accelerated life test (ALT), this paper proposes a method to identify the wear degradation state of external gear pumps based on flow field analysis. Firstly, the external gear pump is theoretically analyzed. Secondly, dynamic grid technology is used to simulate the internal flow field of the gear pump in detail. Finally, the theoretical and simulation results are verified by the ALT. The results show that this method can effectively identify the wear degradation status of four sample pumps. The results of the work not only provide a solution to the research on the wear degradation of external gear pumps, but also provide strong technical support for the predictive maintenance of hydraulic pumps. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Physical Sensors)

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2 pages, 162 KiB

Open AccessCorrection

Correction: Obata, K., et al. Cross-Calibration between ASTER and MODIS Visible to Near-Infrared Bands for Improvement of ASTER Radiometric Calibration. Sensors 2017, 17, 1793

by Kenta Obata, Satoshi Tsuchida, Hirokazu Yamamoto and Kurt Thome

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4057; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144057 - 21 Jul 2020

Viewed by 1694

Abstract

The authors wish to make the following corrections to this paper [...] Full article

16 pages, 3606 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Estimation of Soil Arsenic Content with Hyperspectral Remote Sensing

by Lifei Wei, Haochen Pu, Zhengxiang Wang, Ziran Yuan, Xinru Yan and Liqin Cao

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4056; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144056 - 21 Jul 2020

Cited by 28 | Viewed by 3546

Abstract

With the continuous application of arsenic-containing chemicals, arsenic pollution in soil has become a serious problem worldwide. The detection of arsenic pollution in soil is of great significance to the protection and restoration of soil. Hyperspectral remote sensing is able to effectively monitor [...] Read more.

With the continuous application of arsenic-containing chemicals, arsenic pollution in soil has become a serious problem worldwide. The detection of arsenic pollution in soil is of great significance to the protection and restoration of soil. Hyperspectral remote sensing is able to effectively monitor heavy metal pollution in soil. However, due to the possible complex nonlinear relationship between soil arsenic (As) content and the spectrum and data redundancy, an estimation model with high efficiency and accuracy is urgently needed. In response to this situation, 62 samples and 27 samples were collected in Daye and Honghu, Hubei Province, respectively. Spectral measurement and physical and chemical analysis were performed in the laboratory to obtain the As content and spectral reflectance. After the continuum removal (CR) was performed, the stable competitive adaptive reweighting sampling algorithm coupled the successive projections algorithm (sCARS-SPA) was used for characteristic band selection, which effectively solves the problem of data redundancy and collinearity. Partial least squares regression (PLSR), radial basis function neural network (RBFNN), and shuffled frog leaping algorithm optimization of the RBFNN (SFLA-RBFNN) were established in the characteristic wavelengths to predict soil As content. These results show that the sCARS-SPA-SFLA-RBFNN model has the best universality and high prediction accuracy in different land-use types, which is a scientific and effective method for estimating the soil As content. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Remote Sensors)

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16 pages, 7092 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Accuracy Improvement of Attitude Determination Systems Using EKF-Based Error Prediction Filter and PI Controller

by Farzan Farhangian and Rene Landry, Jr.

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4055; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144055 - 21 Jul 2020

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 4331

Abstract

Accurate attitude and heading reference system (AHRS) play an essential role in navigation applications and human body tracking systems. Using low-cost microelectromechanical system (MEMS) inertial sensors and having accurate orientation estimation, simultaneously, needs optimum orientation methods and algorithms. The error of attitude estimation [...] Read more.

Accurate attitude and heading reference system (AHRS) play an essential role in navigation applications and human body tracking systems. Using low-cost microelectromechanical system (MEMS) inertial sensors and having accurate orientation estimation, simultaneously, needs optimum orientation methods and algorithms. The error of attitude estimation may lead to imprecise navigation and motion capture results. This paper proposed a novel intermittent calibration technique for MEMS-based AHRS using error prediction and compensation filter. The method, inspired from the recognition of gyroscope’s error and by a proportional integral (PI) controller, can be regulated to increase the accuracy of the prediction. The experimentation of this study for the AHRS algorithm, aided by the proposed prediction filter, was tested with real low-cost MEMS sensors consists of accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer. Eventually, the error compensation was performed by post-processing the measurements of static and dynamic tests. The experimental results present about 35% accuracy improvement in attitude estimation and demonstrate the explicit performance of proposed method. Full article

(This article belongs to the Collection Positioning and Navigation)

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36 pages, 10030 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceReview

Micromachined Accelerometers with Sub-µg/√Hz Noise Floor: A Review

by Chen Wang, Fang Chen, Yuan Wang, Sina Sadeghpour, Chenxi Wang, Mathieu Baijot, Rui Esteves, Chun Zhao, Jian Bai, Huafeng Liu and Michael Kraft

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4054; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144054 - 21 Jul 2020

Cited by 60 | Viewed by 9449

Abstract

This paper reviews the research and development of micromachined accelerometers with a noise floor lower than 1 µg/√Hz. Firstly, the basic working principle of micromachined accelerometers is introduced. Then, different methods of reducing the noise floor of micromachined accelerometers are analyzed. Different types [...] Read more.

This paper reviews the research and development of micromachined accelerometers with a noise floor lower than 1 µg/√Hz. Firstly, the basic working principle of micromachined accelerometers is introduced. Then, different methods of reducing the noise floor of micromachined accelerometers are analyzed. Different types of micromachined accelerometers with a noise floor below 1 µg/√Hz are discussed. Such sensors can mainly be categorized into: (i) micromachined accelerometers with a low spring constant; (ii) with a large proof mass; (iii) with a high quality factor; (iv) with a low noise interface circuit; (v) with sensing schemes leading to a high scale factor. Finally, the characteristics of various micromachined accelerometers and their trends are discussed and investigated. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers in Physical Sensors Section 2020)

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33 pages, 813 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Collision-Free Transmissions in an IoT Monitoring Application Based on LoRaWAN

by Rahim Haiahem, Pascale Minet, Selma Boumerdassi and Leila Azouz Saidane

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4053; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144053 - 21 Jul 2020

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3053

Abstract

With the Internet of Things (IoT), the number of monitoring applications deployed is considerably increasing, whatever the field considered: smart city, smart agriculture, environment monitoring, air pollution monitoring, to name a few. The LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network)architecture with its long range [...] Read more.

With the Internet of Things (IoT), the number of monitoring applications deployed is considerably increasing, whatever the field considered: smart city, smart agriculture, environment monitoring, air pollution monitoring, to name a few. The LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network)architecture with its long range communication, its robustness to interference and its reduced energy consumption is an excellent candidate to support such applications. However, if the number of end devices is high, the reliability of LoRaWAN, measured by the Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR), becomes unacceptable due to an excessive number of collisions. In this paper, we propose two different families of solutions ensuring collision-free transmissions. The first family is TDMA (Time-Division Multiple Access)-based. All clusters transmit in sequence and up to six end devices with different spreading factors belonging to the same cluster are allowed to transmit in parallel. The second family is FDMA (Frequency Divsion Multiple Access)-based. All clusters transmit in parallel, each cluster on its own frequency. Within each cluster, all end devices transmit in sequence. Their performance are compared in terms of PDR, energy consumption by end device and maximum number of end devices supported. Simulation results corroborate the theoretical results and show the high efficiency of the solutions proposed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Internet of Things)

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19 pages, 4069 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Multiangle Long-Axis Lateral Illumination Photoacoustic Imaging Using Linear Array Transducer

by João H. Uliana, Diego R. T. Sampaio, Guilherme S. P. Fernandes, María S. Brassesco, Marcello H. Nogueira-Barbosa, Antonio A. O. Carneiro and Theo Z. Pavan

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4052; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144052 - 21 Jul 2020

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 4257

Abstract

Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) combines optical contrast with ultrasound spatial resolution and can be obtained up to a depth of a few centimeters. Hand-held PAI systems using linear array usually operate in reflection mode using a dark-field illumination scheme, where the optical fiber output [...] Read more.

Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) combines optical contrast with ultrasound spatial resolution and can be obtained up to a depth of a few centimeters. Hand-held PAI systems using linear array usually operate in reflection mode using a dark-field illumination scheme, where the optical fiber output is attached to both sides of the elevation plane (short-axis) of the transducer. More recently, bright-field strategies where the optical illumination is coaxial with acoustic detection have been proposed to overcome some limitations of the standard dark-field approach. In this paper, a novel multiangle long-axis lateral illumination is proposed. Monte Carlo simulations were conducted to evaluate light delivery for three different illumination schemes: bright-field, standard dark-field, and long-axis lateral illumination. Long-axis lateral illumination showed remarkable improvement in light delivery for targets with a width smaller than the transducer lateral dimension. A prototype was developed to experimentally demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach. In this device, the fiber bundle terminal ends are attached to both sides of the transducer’s long-axis and the illumination angle of each fiber bundle can be independently controlled. The final PA image is obtained by the coherent sum of subframes acquired using different angles. The prototype was experimentally evaluated by taking images from a phantom, a mouse abdomen, forearm, and index finger of a volunteer. The system provided light delivery enhancement taking advantage of the geometry of the target, achieving sufficient signal-to-noise ratio at clinically relevant depths. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomedical Photoacoustic Imaging and Sensing Using Affordable Resources)

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65 pages, 11440 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceReview

A Review of Acoustic Impedance Matching Techniques for Piezoelectric Sensors and Transducers

by Vivek T. Rathod

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4051; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144051 - 21 Jul 2020

Cited by 129 | Viewed by 26740

Abstract

The coupling of waves between the piezoelectric generators, detectors, and propagating media is challenging due to mismatch in the acoustic properties. The mismatch leads to the reverberation of waves within the transducer, heating, low signal-to-noise ratio, and signal distortion. Acoustic impedance matching increases [...] Read more.

The coupling of waves between the piezoelectric generators, detectors, and propagating media is challenging due to mismatch in the acoustic properties. The mismatch leads to the reverberation of waves within the transducer, heating, low signal-to-noise ratio, and signal distortion. Acoustic impedance matching increases the coupling largely. This article presents standard methods to match the acoustic impedance of the piezoelectric sensors, actuators, and transducers with the surrounding wave propagation media. Acoustic matching methods utilizing active and passive materials have been discussed. Special materials such as nanocomposites, metamaterials, and metasurfaces as emerging materials have been presented. Emphasis is placed throughout the article to differentiate the difference between electric and acoustic impedance matching and the relation between the two. Comparison of various techniques is made with the discussion on capabilities, advantages, and disadvantages. Acoustic impedance matching for specific and uncommon applications has also been covered. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Electronic Sensors)

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16 pages, 4758 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Sensing the Generation of Intracellular Free Electrons Using the Inactive Catalytic Subunit of Cytochrome P450s as a Sink

by Damilare D. Akintade and Bhabatosh Chaudhuri

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4050; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144050 - 21 Jul 2020

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2637

Abstract

Cytochrome P450 reductase (CPR) abstracts electrons from Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate H (NADPH), transferring them to an active Cytochrome P450 (CYP) site to provide a functional CYP. In the present study, a yeast strain was genetically engineered to delete the endogenous CPR gene. [...] Read more.

Cytochrome P450 reductase (CPR) abstracts electrons from Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate H (NADPH), transferring them to an active Cytochrome P450 (CYP) site to provide a functional CYP. In the present study, a yeast strain was genetically engineered to delete the endogenous CPR gene. A human CYP expressed in a CPR-null (yRD⁻) strain was inactive. It was queried if Bax—which induces apoptosis in yeast and human cells by generating reactive oxygen species (ROS)—substituted for the absence of CPR. Since Bax-generated ROS stems from an initial release of electrons, is it possible for these released electrons to be captured by an inactive CYP to make it active once again? In this study, yeast cells that did not contain any CPR activity (i.e., because the yeasts’ CPR gene was completely deleted) were used to show that (a) human CYPs produced within CPR-null (yRD-) yeast cells were inactive and (b) low levels of the pro-apoptotic human Bax protein could activate inactive human CYPs within this yeast cells. Surprisingly, Bax activated three inactive CYP proteins, confirming that it could compensate for CPR’s absence within yeast cells. These findings could be useful in research, development of bioassays, bioreactors, biosensors, and disease diagnosis, among others. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Biosensors)

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19 pages, 1610 KiB

Open AccessPerspective

Why Not Glycine Electrochemical Biosensors?

by Clara Pérez-Ràfols, Yujie Liu, Qianyu Wang, María Cuartero and Gastón A. Crespo

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4049; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144049 - 21 Jul 2020

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 5080

Abstract

Glycine monitoring is gaining importance as a biomarker in clinical analysis due to its involvement in multiple physiological functions, which results in glycine being one of the most analyzed biomolecules for diagnostics. This growing demand requires faster and more reliable, while affordable, analytical [...] Read more.

Glycine monitoring is gaining importance as a biomarker in clinical analysis due to its involvement in multiple physiological functions, which results in glycine being one of the most analyzed biomolecules for diagnostics. This growing demand requires faster and more reliable, while affordable, analytical methods that can replace the current gold standard for glycine detection, which is based on sample extraction with subsequent use of liquid chromatography or fluorometric kits for its quantification in centralized laboratories. This work discusses electrochemical sensors and biosensors as an alternative option, focusing on their potential application for glycine determination in blood, urine, and cerebrospinal fluid, the three most widely used matrices for glycine analysis with clinical meaning. For electrochemical sensors, voltammetry/amperometry is the preferred readout (10 of the 13 papers collected in this review) and metal-based redox mediator modification is the predominant approach for electrode fabrication (11 of the 13 papers). However, none of the reported electrochemical sensors fulfill the requirements for direct analysis of biological fluids, most of them lacking appropriate selectivity, linear range of response, and/or capability of measuring at physiological conditions. Enhanced selectivity has been recently reported using biosensors (with an enzyme element in the electrode design), although this is still a very incipient approach. Currently, despite the benefits of electrochemistry, only optical biosensors have been successfully reported for glycine detection and, from all the inspected works, it is clear that bioengineering efforts will play a key role in the embellishment of selectivity and storage stability of the sensing element in the sensor. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Biosensors)

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17 pages, 890 KiB

Open AccessArticle

FedMed: A Federated Learning Framework for Language Modeling

by Xing Wu, Zhaowang Liang and Jianjia Wang

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4048; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144048 - 21 Jul 2020

Cited by 31 | Viewed by 5951

Abstract

Federated learning (FL) is a privacy-preserving technique for training a vast amount of decentralized data and making inferences on mobile devices. As a typical language modeling problem, mobile keyboard prediction aims at suggesting a probable next word or phrase and facilitating the human-machine [...] Read more.

Federated learning (FL) is a privacy-preserving technique for training a vast amount of decentralized data and making inferences on mobile devices. As a typical language modeling problem, mobile keyboard prediction aims at suggesting a probable next word or phrase and facilitating the human-machine interaction in a virtual keyboard of the smartphone or laptop. Mobile keyboard prediction with FL hopes to satisfy the growing demand that high-level data privacy be preserved in artificial intelligence applications even with the distributed models training. However, there are two major problems in the federated optimization for the prediction: (1) aggregating model parameters on the server-side and (2) reducing communication costs caused by model weights collection. To address the above issues, traditional FL methods simply use averaging aggregation or ignore communication costs. We propose a novel Federated Mediation (FedMed) framework with the adaptive aggregation, mediation incentive scheme, and topK strategy to address the model aggregation and communication costs. The performance is evaluated in terms of perplexity and communication rounds. Experiments are conducted on three datasets (i.e., Penn Treebank, WikiText-2, and Yelp) and the results demonstrate that our FedMed framework achieves robust performance and outperforms baseline approaches. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Intelligent Sensors)

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22 pages, 1714 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Technologies Trend towards 5G Network for Smart Health-Care Using IoT: A Review

by Abdul Ahad, Mohammad Tahir, Muhammad Aman Sheikh, Kazi Istiaque Ahmed, Amna Mughees and Abdullah Numani

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4047; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144047 - 21 Jul 2020

Cited by 134 | Viewed by 14725

Abstract

Smart health-care is undergoing rapid transformation from the conventional specialist and hospital-focused style to a distributed patient-focused manner. Several technological developments have encouraged this rapid revolution of health-care vertical. Currently, 4G and other communication standards are used in health-care for smart health-care services [...] Read more.

Smart health-care is undergoing rapid transformation from the conventional specialist and hospital-focused style to a distributed patient-focused manner. Several technological developments have encouraged this rapid revolution of health-care vertical. Currently, 4G and other communication standards are used in health-care for smart health-care services and applications. These technologies are crucial for the evolution of future smart health-care services. With the growth in the health-care industry, several applications are expected to produce a massive amount of data in different format and size. Such immense and diverse data needs special treatment concerning the end-to-end delay, bandwidth, latency and other attributes. It is difficult for current communication technologies to fulfil the requirements of highly dynamic and time-sensitive health care applications of the future. Therefore, the 5G networks are being designed and developed to tackle the diverse communication needs of health-care applications in Internet of Things (IoT). 5G assisted smart health-care networks are an amalgamation of IoT devices that require improved network performance and enhanced cellular coverage. Current connectivity solutions for IoT face challenges, such as the support for a massive number of devices, standardisation, energy-efficiency, device density, and security. In this paper, we present a comprehensive review of 5G assisted smart health-care solutions in IoT. We present a structure for smart health-care in 5G by categorizing and classifying existing literature. We also present key requirements for successful deployment of smart health-care systems for certain scenarios in 5G. Finally, we discuss several open issues and research challenges in 5G smart health-care solutions in IoT. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensing and Data Analysis Techniques for Intelligent Healthcare)

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23 pages, 15067 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Characterisation of GNSS Carrier Phase Data on a Moving Zero-Baseline in Urban and Aerial Navigation

by Fabian Ruwisch, Ankit Jain and Steffen Schön

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4046; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144046 - 21 Jul 2020

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4226

Abstract

We present analyses of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) carrier phase observations in multiple kinematic scenarios for different receiver types. Multi-GNSS observations are recorded on high sensitivity and geodetic-grade receivers operating on a moving zero-baseline by conducting terrestrial urban and aerial flight experiments. [...] Read more.

We present analyses of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) carrier phase observations in multiple kinematic scenarios for different receiver types. Multi-GNSS observations are recorded on high sensitivity and geodetic-grade receivers operating on a moving zero-baseline by conducting terrestrial urban and aerial flight experiments. The captured data is post-processed; carrier phase residuals are computed using the double difference (DD) concept. The estimated noise levels of carrier phases are analysed with respect to different parameters. We find DD noise levels for L1 carrier phase observations in the range of 1.4–2 mm (GPS, Global Positioning System), 2.8–4.6 mm (GLONASS, Global Navigation Satellite System), and 1.5–1.7 mm (Galileo) for geodetic receiver pairs. The noise level for high sensitivity receivers is at least higher by a factor of 2. For satellites elevating above

30^{\circ}

, the dominant noise process is white phase noise. For the flight experiment, the elevation dependency of the noise is well described by the exponential model, while for the terrestrial urban experiment, multipath and diffraction effects overlay; hence no elevation dependency is found. For both experiments, a carrier-to-noise density ratio (C/N

_{0}

) dependency for carrier phase DDs of GPS and Galileo is clearly visible with geodetic-grade receivers. In addition, C/N

_{0}

dependency is also visible for carrier phase DDs of GLONASS with geodetic-grade receivers for the terrestrial urban experiment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in GNSS-based High Precision Positioning Technology: Part I)

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13 pages, 1662 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Hyperspectral Leaf Image-Based Cucumber Disease Recognition Using the Extended Collaborative Representation Model

by Yuhua Li, Zhihui Luo, Fengjie Wang and Yingxu Wang

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4045; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144045 - 21 Jul 2020

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2449

Abstract

Collaborative representation (CR)-based classification has been successfully applied to plant disease recognition in cases with sufficient training samples of each disease. However, collecting enough training samples is usually time consuming and labor-intensive. Moreover, influenced by the non-ideal measurement environment, samples may be corrupted [...] Read more.

Collaborative representation (CR)-based classification has been successfully applied to plant disease recognition in cases with sufficient training samples of each disease. However, collecting enough training samples is usually time consuming and labor-intensive. Moreover, influenced by the non-ideal measurement environment, samples may be corrupted by variables introduced by bad illumination and occlusions of adjacent leaves. Consequently, an extended collaborative representation (ECR)-based classification model is presented in this paper. Then, it is applied to cucumber leaf disease recognition, which constructs a pure spectral library consisting of several representative samples for each disease and designs a universal variation spectral library that deals with linear variables superimposed on samples. Thus, each query sample is encoded as a linear combination of atoms from these two spectral libraries and disease identity is determined by the disease of minimal reconstruction residuals. Experiments are conducted on spectral curves extracted from normal leaves and the disease lesions of leaves infected with cucumber anthracnose and brown spot. The diagnostic accuracy is higher than 94.7% and the average online diagnosis time is short, about 1 to 1.3 ms. The results indicate that the ECR-based classification model is feasible in the fast and accurate diagnosis of cucumber leaf diseases. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Remote Sensors)

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20 pages, 1546 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An On-Device Deep Learning Approach to Battery Saving on Industrial Mobile Terminals

by Inyeop Choi and Hyogon Kim

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4044; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144044 - 21 Jul 2020

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2591

Abstract

The mobile terminals used in the logistics industry can be exposed to wildly varying environments, which may hinder effective operation. In particular, those used in cold storages can be subject to frosting in the scanner window when they are carried out of the [...] Read more.

The mobile terminals used in the logistics industry can be exposed to wildly varying environments, which may hinder effective operation. In particular, those used in cold storages can be subject to frosting in the scanner window when they are carried out of the warehouses to a room-temperature space outside. To prevent this, they usually employ a film heater on the scanner window. However, the temperature and humidity conditions of the surrounding environment and the temperature of the terminal itself that cause frosting vary widely. Due to the complicated frost-forming conditions, existing industrial mobile terminals choose to implement rather simple rules that operate the film heater well above the freezing point, which inevitably leads to inefficient energy use. This paper demonstrates that to avoid such waste, on-device artificial intelligence (AI) a.k.a. edge AI can be readily employed to industrial mobile terminals and can improve their energy efficiency. We propose an artificial-intelligence-based approach that utilizes deep learning technology to avoid the energy-wasting defrosting operations. By combining the traditional temperature-sensing logic with a convolutional neural network (CNN) classifier that visually checks for frost, we can more precisely control the defrosting operation. We embed the CNN classifier in the device and demonstrate that the approach significantly reduces the energy consumption. On our test terminal, the net ratio of the energy consumption by the existing system to that of the edge AI for the heating film is almost 14:1. Even with the common current-dissipation accounted for, our edge AI system would increase the operating hours by 86%, or by more than 6 h compared with the system without the edge AI. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Embedded Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Smart Sensing and IoT Applications)

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20 pages, 3448 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Magnetic Stress Sensing System for Nondestructive Stress Testing of Structural Steel and Steel Truss Components Based on Existing Magnetism

by Guangyuan Weng, Jintao Wang, Yang Liu, Xiyu Zhu and Jianbo Dai

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4043; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144043 - 21 Jul 2020

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3041

Abstract

To detect the stress of steel structures and members using the existing magnetism, a magnetic stress sensing system integrating a magnetic flux induction coil, a magnetic flux measurement device, a loaded device, and data acquisition software was developed. The magnetic coupling test research [...] Read more.

To detect the stress of steel structures and members using the existing magnetism, a magnetic stress sensing system integrating a magnetic flux induction coil, a magnetic flux measurement device, a loaded device, and data acquisition software was developed. The magnetic coupling test research was carried out for different grades of structural building and bridge steel specimens to establish the magnetic stress flux mathematical model, and the fitting equation of the magnetic flux changes with the positions of different sections of specimens was analyzed. Furthermore, a practical formula for stress detection was obtained through the experiments. Meanwhile, on these bases, the typical steel truss structure model of a Bailey beam was designed and manufactured under different working conditions, nondestructive online stress testing was carried out, and the stress of the model structure and its members was measured by strain and magnetic flux tests to obtain the curves of the test results for the stress–strain and magnetic stress flux, respectively. The results of these two methods are in good agreement with each other. The stress of the steel truss model structure was analyzed and calculated using the finite element method. The results agreed well with the experimental results from the magnetic stress sensing system—the maximum error was about 5%, which meets the requirements of engineering applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Magnetic Sensing System)

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21 pages, 22133 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sensors Fusion and Multidimensional Point Cloud Analysis for Electrical Power System Inspection

by Vinicius F. Vidal, Leonardo M. Honório, Felipe M. Dias, Milena F. Pinto, Alexandre L. Carvalho and Andre L. M. Marcato

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4042; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144042 - 21 Jul 2020

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2801

Abstract

Thermal inspection is a powerful tool that enables the diagnosis of several components at its early stages. One critical aspect that influences thermal inspection outputs is the infrared reflection from external sources. This situation may change the readings, demanding that an expert correctly [...] Read more.

Thermal inspection is a powerful tool that enables the diagnosis of several components at its early stages. One critical aspect that influences thermal inspection outputs is the infrared reflection from external sources. This situation may change the readings, demanding that an expert correctly define the camera position, which is a time consuming and expensive operation. To mitigate this problem, this work proposes an autonomous system capable of identifying infrared reflections by filtering and fusing data obtained from both stereo and thermal cameras. The process starts by acquiring readings from multiples Observation Points (OPs) where, at each OP, the system processes the 3D point cloud and thermal image by fusing them together. The result is a dense point cloud where each point has its spatial position and temperature. Considering that each point’s information is acquired from multiple poses, it is possible to generate a temperature profile of each spatial point and filter undesirable readings caused by interference and other phenomena. To deploy and test this approach, a Directional Robotic System (DRS) is mounted over a traditional human-operated service vehicle. In that way, the DRS autonomously tracks and inspects any desirable equipment as the service vehicle passes them by. To demonstrate the results, this work presents the algorithm workflow, a proof of concept, and a real application result, showing improved performance in real-life conditions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Intelligent Sensors)

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13 pages, 1023 KiB

Open AccessLetter

A Robust RANSAC-Based Planet Radius Estimation for Onboard Visual Based Navigation

by Francesco de Gioia, Gabriele Meoni, Gianluca Giuffrida, Massimiliano Donati and Luca Fanucci

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4041; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144041 - 21 Jul 2020

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2677

Abstract

Individual spacecraft manual navigation by human operators from ground station is expected to be an emerging problem as the number of spacecraft for space exploration increases. Hence, as an attempt to reduce the burden to control multiple spacecraft, future missions will employ smart [...] Read more.

Individual spacecraft manual navigation by human operators from ground station is expected to be an emerging problem as the number of spacecraft for space exploration increases. Hence, as an attempt to reduce the burden to control multiple spacecraft, future missions will employ smart spacecraft able to navigate and operate autonomously. Recently, image-based optical navigation systems have proved to be promising solutions for inexpensive autonomous navigation. In this paper, we propose a robust image processing pipeline for estimating the center and radius of planets and moons in an image taken by an on-board camera. Our custom image pre-processing pipeline is tailored for resource-constrained applications, as it features a computationally simple processing flow with a limited memory footprint. The core of the proposed pipeline is a best-fitting model based on the RANSAC algorithm that is able to handle images corrupted with Gaussian noise, image distortions, and frame drops. We report processing time, pixel-level error of estimated body center and radius and the effect of noise on estimated body parameters for a dataset of synthetic images. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Sensing and Imaging)

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19 pages, 10603 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Shape Sensing with Rayleigh Backscattering Fibre Optic Sensor

by Cheng Xu and Zahra Sharif Khodaei

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4040; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144040 - 21 Jul 2020

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 3922

Abstract

In this paper, Rayleigh backscattering sensors (RBS) are used to realize shape sensing of beam-like structures. Compared to conventional shape sensing systems based on fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensors, RBS are capable of continuous lateral sensing. Compared to other types of distributed fibre [...] Read more.

In this paper, Rayleigh backscattering sensors (RBS) are used to realize shape sensing of beam-like structures. Compared to conventional shape sensing systems based on fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensors, RBS are capable of continuous lateral sensing. Compared to other types of distributed fibre optic sensors (FOS), RBS have a higher spatial resolution. First, the RBS’s strain sensing accuracy is validated by an experiment comparing it with strain gauge response. After that, two shape sensing algorithms (the coordinate transformation method (CTM) and the strain-deflection equation method (SDEM)) based on the distributed FOS’ input strain data are derived. The algorithms are then optimized according to the distributed FOS’ features, to make it applicable to complex and/or combine loading situations while maintaining high reliability in case of sensing part malfunction. Numerical simulations are carried out to validate the algorithms’ accuracy and compare their accuracy. The simulation shows that compared to the FBG-based system, the RBS system has a better performance in configuring the shape when the structure is under complex loading. Finally, a validation experiment is conducted in which the RBS-based shape sensing system is used to configure the shape of a composite cantilever-beam-like specimen under concentrated loading. The result is then compared with the optical camera-measured shape. The experimental results show that both shape sensing algorithms predict the shape with high accuracy comparable with the optical camera result. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Shape Sensing)

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13 pages, 1973 KiB

Open AccessLetter

Spectroscopic Evaluation of Red Blood Cells of Thalassemia Patients with Confocal Microscopy: A Pilot Study

by Laura Rey-Barroso, Mónica Roldán, Francisco J. Burgos-Fernández, Susanna Gassiot, Anna Ruiz Llobet, Ignacio Isola and Meritxell Vilaseca

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4039; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144039 - 21 Jul 2020

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3275

Abstract

Hemoglobinopathies represent the most common single-gene defects in the world and pose a major public health problem, particularly in tropical countries, where they occur with high frequency. Diagnosing hemoglobinopathies can sometimes be difficult due to the coexistence of different causes of anemia, such [...] Read more.

Hemoglobinopathies represent the most common single-gene defects in the world and pose a major public health problem, particularly in tropical countries, where they occur with high frequency. Diagnosing hemoglobinopathies can sometimes be difficult due to the coexistence of different causes of anemia, such as thalassemia and iron deficiency, and blood transfusions, among other factors, and requires expensive and complex molecular tests. This work explores the possibility of using spectral confocal microscopy as a diagnostic tool for thalassemia in pediatric patients, a disease caused by mutations in the globin genes that result in changes of the globin chains that form hemoglobin—in pediatric patients. Red blood cells (RBCs) from patients with different syndromes of alpha-thalassemia and iron deficiency (including anemia) as well as healthy (control) subjects were analyzed under a Leica TCS SP8 confocal microscope following different image acquisition protocols. We found that diseased RBCs exhibited autofluorescence when excited at 405 nm and their emission was collected in the spectral range from 425 nm to 790 nm. Three experimental descriptors calculated from the mean emission intensities at 502 nm, 579 nm, 628 nm, and 649 nm allowed us to discriminate between diseased and healthy cells. According to the results obtained, spectral confocal microscopy could serve as a tool in the diagnosis of thalassemia. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Color & Spectral Sensors)

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13 pages, 14664 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Non-Destructive Detection of Bone Fragments Embedded in Meat Using Hyperspectral Reflectance Imaging Technique

by Jongguk Lim, Ahyeong Lee, Jungsook Kang, Youngwook Seo, Balgeum Kim, Giyoung Kim and Seong Min Kim

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4038; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144038 - 21 Jul 2020

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4337

Abstract

Meat consumption has shifted from a quantitative to a qualitative growth stage due to improved living standards and economic development. Recently, consumers have paid attention to quality and safety in their decision to purchase meat. However, foreign substances which are not normal food [...] Read more.

Meat consumption has shifted from a quantitative to a qualitative growth stage due to improved living standards and economic development. Recently, consumers have paid attention to quality and safety in their decision to purchase meat. However, foreign substances which are not normal food ingredients are unintentionally incorporated into meat. These should be eliminated as a hazard to quality or safety. It is important to find a fast, non-destructive, and accurate detection technique of foreign substance in the meat processing industry. Hyperspectral imaging technology has been regarded as a novel technology capable of providing large-scale imaging and continuous observation information on agricultural products and food. In this study, we considered the feasibility of the short-wave near infrared (SWIR) hyperspectral reflectance imaging technique to detect bone fragments embedded in chicken meat. De-boned chicken breast samples with thicknesses of 3, 6, and 9-mm and 5 bone fragments with lengths of about 20–30-mm are used for this experiment. The reflectance spectra (in the wavelength range from 987 to 1701-nm) of the 5 bone fragments embedded under the chicken breast fillet are collected. Our results suggested that these hyperspectral imaging technique is able to detect bone fragments in chicken breast, particularly with the use of a subtraction image (corresponding to image at 1153.8-nm and 1480.2-nm). Thus, the SWIR hyperspectral reflectance imaging technique can be potentially used to detect foreign substance embedded in meat. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Non-destructive Sensors and Machine Learning for Food Safety & Quality Inspection)

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19 pages, 1473 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Physiological Sensors Based Emotion Recognition While Experiencing Tactile Enhanced Multimedia

by Aasim Raheel, Muhammad Majid, Majdi Alnowami and Syed Muhammad Anwar

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4037; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144037 - 21 Jul 2020

Cited by 48 | Viewed by 5543

Abstract

Emotion recognition has increased the potential of affective computing by getting an instant feedback from users and thereby, have a better understanding of their behavior. Physiological sensors have been used to recognize human emotions in response to audio and video content that engages [...] Read more.

Emotion recognition has increased the potential of affective computing by getting an instant feedback from users and thereby, have a better understanding of their behavior. Physiological sensors have been used to recognize human emotions in response to audio and video content that engages single (auditory) and multiple (two: auditory and vision) human senses, respectively. In this study, human emotions were recognized using physiological signals observed in response to tactile enhanced multimedia content that engages three (tactile, vision, and auditory) human senses. The aim was to give users an enhanced real-world sensation while engaging with multimedia content. To this end, four videos were selected and synchronized with an electric fan and a heater, based on timestamps within the scenes, to generate tactile enhanced content with cold and hot air effect respectively. Physiological signals, i.e., electroencephalography (EEG), photoplethysmography (PPG), and galvanic skin response (GSR) were recorded using commercially available sensors, while experiencing these tactile enhanced videos. The precision of the acquired physiological signals (including EEG, PPG, and GSR) is enhanced using pre-processing with a Savitzky-Golay smoothing filter. Frequency domain features (rational asymmetry, differential asymmetry, and correlation) from EEG, time domain features (variance, entropy, kurtosis, and skewness) from GSR, heart rate and heart rate variability from PPG data are extracted. The K nearest neighbor classifier is applied to the extracted features to classify four (happy, relaxed, angry, and sad) emotions. Our experimental results show that among individual modalities, PPG-based features gives the highest accuracy of

78.57 %

as compared to EEG- and GSR-based features. The fusion of EEG, GSR, and PPG features further improved the classification accuracy to

79.76 %

(for four emotions) when interacting with tactile enhanced multimedia. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emotion Monitoring System Based on Sensors and Data Analysis)

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34 pages, 5139 KiB

Open AccessArticle

EAGA-MLP—An Enhanced and Adaptive Hybrid Classification Model for Diabetes Diagnosis

by Sushruta Mishra, Hrudaya Kumar Tripathy, Pradeep Kumar Mallick, Akash Kumar Bhoi and Paolo Barsocchi

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4036; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144036 - 20 Jul 2020

Cited by 89 | Viewed by 5062

Abstract

Disease diagnosis is a critical task which needs to be done with extreme precision. In recent times, medical data mining is gaining popularity in complex healthcare problems based disease datasets. Unstructured healthcare data constitutes irrelevant information which can affect the prediction ability of [...] Read more.

Disease diagnosis is a critical task which needs to be done with extreme precision. In recent times, medical data mining is gaining popularity in complex healthcare problems based disease datasets. Unstructured healthcare data constitutes irrelevant information which can affect the prediction ability of classifiers. Therefore, an effective attribute optimization technique must be used to eliminate the less relevant data and optimize the dataset for enhanced accuracy. Type 2 Diabetes, also called Pima Indian Diabetes, affects millions of people around the world. Optimization techniques can be applied to generate a reliable dataset constituting of symptoms that can be useful for more accurate diagnosis of diabetes. This study presents the implementation of a new hybrid attribute optimization algorithm called Enhanced and Adaptive Genetic Algorithm (EAGA) to get an optimized symptoms dataset. Based on readings of symptoms in the optimized dataset obtained, a possible occurrence of diabetes is forecasted. EAGA model is further used with Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) to determine the presence or absence of type 2 diabetes in patients based on the symptoms detected. The proposed classification approach was named as Enhanced and Adaptive-Genetic Algorithm-Multilayer Perceptron (EAGA-MLP). It is also implemented on seven different disease datasets to assess its impact and effectiveness. Performance of the proposed model was validated against some vital performance metrics. The results show a maximum accuracy rate of 97.76% and 1.12 s of execution time. Furthermore, the proposed model presents an F-Score value of 86.8% and a precision of 80.2%. The method is compared with many existing studies and it was observed that the classification accuracy of the proposed Enhanced and Adaptive-Genetic Algorithm-Multilayer Perceptron (EAGA-MLP) model clearly outperformed all other previous classification models. Its performance was also tested with seven other disease datasets. The mean accuracy, precision, recall and f-score obtained was 94.7%, 91%, 89.8% and 90.4%, respectively. Thus, the proposed model can assist medical experts in accurately determining risk factors of type 2 diabetes and thereby help in accurately classifying the presence of type 2 diabetes in patients. Consequently, it can be used to support healthcare experts in the diagnosis of patients affected by diabetes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multimodal Data Fusion and Machine-Learning for Healthcare)

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19 pages, 6861 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Real-Time Traffic Light Detection with Frequency Patterns Using a High-Speed Camera

by Kento Yabuuchi, Masahiro Hirano, Taku Senoo, Norimasa Kishi and Masatoshi Ishikawa

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4035; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144035 - 20 Jul 2020

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 8690

Abstract

LEDs are widely employed as traffic lights. Because most LED traffic lights are driven by alternative power, they blink at high frequencies, even at twice their frequencies. We propose a method to detect a traffic light from images captured by a high-speed camera [...] Read more.

LEDs are widely employed as traffic lights. Because most LED traffic lights are driven by alternative power, they blink at high frequencies, even at twice their frequencies. We propose a method to detect a traffic light from images captured by a high-speed camera that can recognize a blinking traffic light. This technique is robust under various illuminations because it can detect traffic lights by extracting information from the blinking pixels at a specific frequency. The method is composed of six modules, which includes a band-pass filter and a Kalman filter. All the modules run simultaneously to achieve real-time processing and can run at 500 fps for images with a resolution of 800 × 600. This technique was verified on an original dataset captured by a high-speed camera under different illumination conditions such as a sunset or night scene. The recall and accuracy justify the generalization of the proposed detection system. In particular, it can detect traffic lights with a different appearance without tuning parameters and without datasets having to be learned. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Intelligent Vehicles)

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24 pages, 7305 KiB

Open AccessCase Report

Evaluation of LoRa Technology in Flooding Prevention Scenarios

by José Cecílio, Pedro M. Ferreira and António Casimiro

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4034; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144034 - 20 Jul 2020

Cited by 23 | Viewed by 4238

Abstract

Global climate change originates frequent floods that may cause severe damage, justifying the need for real-time remote monitoring and alerting systems. Several works deal with LoRa (Long Range) communications over land and in the presence of obstacles, but little is known about LoRa [...] Read more.

Global climate change originates frequent floods that may cause severe damage, justifying the need for real-time remote monitoring and alerting systems. Several works deal with LoRa (Long Range) communications over land and in the presence of obstacles, but little is known about LoRa communication reliability over water, as it may happen in real flooding scenarios. One aspect that is known to influence the communication quality is the height at which nodes are placed. However, its impact in water environments is unknown. This is an important aspect that may influence the location of sensor nodes and the network topology. To fill this gap, we conducted several experiments using a real LoRa deployment to evaluate several features related to data communication. We considered two deployment scenarios corresponding to countryside and estuary environments. The nodes were placed at low heights, communicating, respectively, over the ground and over the water. Measurements for packet loss, received signal strength indicator (RSSI), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and round-trip time (RTT) were collected during a period of several weeks. Results for both scenarios are presented and compared in this paper. One important conclusion is that the communication distance and reliability are significantly affected by tides when the communication is done over the water and nodes are placed at low heights. Based on the RTT measurements and on the characteristics of the hardware, we also derive a battery lifetime estimation model that may be helpful for the definition of an adequate maintenance plan. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Distributed and Remote Sensing of the Urban Environment)

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17 pages, 4771 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Xbee-Based WSN Architecture for Monitoring of Banana Ripening Process Using Knowledge-Level Artificial Intelligent Technique

by Saud Altaf, Shafiq Ahmad, Mazen Zaindin and Muhammad Waseem Soomro

Sensors 2020, 20(14), 4033; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20144033 - 20 Jul 2020

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 7219

Abstract

Real-time monitoring of fruit ripeness in storage and during logistics allows traders to minimize the chances of financial losses and maximize the quality of the fruit during storage through accurate prediction of the present condition of fruits. In Pakistan, banana production faces different [...] Read more.

Real-time monitoring of fruit ripeness in storage and during logistics allows traders to minimize the chances of financial losses and maximize the quality of the fruit during storage through accurate prediction of the present condition of fruits. In Pakistan, banana production faces different difficulties from production, post-harvest management, and trade marketing due to atmosphere and mismanagement in storage containers. In recent research development, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are progressively under investigation in the field of fruit ripening due to their remote monitoring capability. Focused on fruit ripening monitoring, this paper demonstrates an Xbee-based wireless sensor nodes network. The role of the network architecture of the Xbee sensor node and sink end-node is discussed in detail regarding their ability to monitor the condition of all the required diagnosis parameters and stages of banana ripening. Furthermore, different features are extracted using the gas sensor, which is based on diverse values. These features are utilized for training in the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) through the Back Propagation (BP) algorithm for further data validation. The experimental results demonstrate that the projected WSN architecture can identify the banana condition in the storage area. The proposed Neural Network (NN) architectural design works well with selecting the feature data sets. It seems that the experimental and simulation outcomes and accuracy in banana ripening condition monitoring in the given feature vectors is attained and acceptable, through the classification performance, to make a better decision for effective monitoring of current fruit condition. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Sensors and Devices in Artificial Intelligence)

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