Standard Practice for Documenting Environmental Conditions for Utilization with Exoskeleton Test Methods

10.1520/f3427 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 2315
Author(s):  
Christian Meltebrink ◽  
Tom Ströer ◽  
Benjamin Wegmann ◽  
Cornelia Weltzien ◽  
Arno Ruckelshausen

As an essential part for the development of autonomous agricultural robotics, the functional safety of autonomous agricultural machines is largely based on the functionality and robustness of non-contact sensor systems for human protection. This article presents a new step in the development of autonomous agricultural machine with a concept and the realization of a novel test method using a dynamic test stand on an agricultural farm in outdoor areas. With this test method, commercially available sensor systems are tested in a long-term test around the clock for 365 days a year and 24 h a day on a dynamic test stand in continuous outdoor use. A test over a longer period of time is needed to test as much as possible all occurring environmental conditions. This test is determined by the naturally occurring environmental conditions. This fact corresponds to the reality of unpredictable/determinable environmental conditions in the field and makes the test method and test stand so unique. The focus of the developed test methods is on creating own real environment detection areas (REDAs) for each sensor system, which can be used to compare and evaluate the autonomous human detection of the sensor systems for the functional safety of autonomous agricultural robots with a humanoid test target. Sensor manufacturers from industry and the automotive sector provide their sensor systems to have their sensors tested in cooperation with the TÜV.


Transport ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 322-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfredas Laurinavičius ◽  
Donatas Čygas ◽  
Audrius Vaitkus ◽  
Tomas Ratkevičius ◽  
Matas Bulevičius ◽  
...  

In 2012, the Lithuanian Road Administration initiated a three-year research project ‘The study of effective winter road maintenance of national significance roads in Lithuania’. The main purpose of this research was to optimize road maintenance in winter and to determine the most effective means of combating slippery conditions. The research project was carried out by two institutions: the Road Research Institute of the Faculty of Environmental Engineering of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University and JSC ‘Problematika’. JSC ‘Problematika’ conducted exploratory experiments, which were divided into two phases. In the first phase of the experiment, five different snow melting materials (Slipperiness Reducing Materials – SRMs) were investigated in the laboratory. Different test methods were used in this investigation. In the second phase of the experiment, three SRMs with different properties were selected, and experimental road sections were set up to determine the road slipperiness and the change in coating layer thickness over time concerning different environmental conditions, as well as different snow and ice layer thicknesses. An optical remote sensor of Road Condition Monitor (RCM 411) was used for friction measurements on the roads. This report covers the laboratory test results of five different SRMs, road slipperiness measurement results using three selected SRMs and their analysis, comparison of the performance efficiency of the most widely used SRMs in Lithuania and the tested SRMs under different environmental conditions.


2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 975-984
Author(s):  
A. W. Schmalwieser

The only practicable way to control the disinfection capability of a UV disinfection plant for drinking water all the time is to use a UV radiometer. According to the Austrian Standard M5873, this plant radiometer is a standardized part of each plant. The standard defines a so-called reference radiometer (RRM) as well. This is necessary because a plant radiometer has to be controlled periodically. A RRM is a hand-held device which has to fulfil high-quality criteria and must be almost insensitive to environmental conditions. In this paper the principles of the concept behind the RRM are explained together with the requirements of such a device. Further on, the test methods are presented as well as a summary of test results from all RRMs developed during the past 15 years. It is shown that the radiation monitoring concept of the Austrian Standard has been successfully practicable and that the international acceptance of the Austrian Standard is justified.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anand Mhatre ◽  
Joseph Ott ◽  
Jonathan Pearlman

Background: Because of the adverse environmental conditions present in less-resourced environments (LREs), the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended that specialised wheelchair test methods may need to be developed to support product quality standards in these environments. A group of experts identified caster test methods as a high priority because of their common failure in LREs, and the insufficiency of existing test methods described in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Wheelchair Testing Standards (ISO 7176).Objectives: To develop and demonstrate the feasibility of a caster system test method.Method: Background literature and expert opinions were collected to identify existing caster test methods, caster failures common in LREs and environmental conditions present in LREs. Several conceptual designs for the caster testing method were developed, and through an iterative process using expert feedback, a final concept and a design were developed and a prototype was fabricated. Feasibility tests were conducted by testing a series of caster systems from wheelchairs used in LREs, and failure modes were recorded and compared to anecdotal reports about field failures.Results: The new caster testing system was developed and it provides the flexibility to expose caster systems to typical conditions in LREs. Caster failures such as stem bolt fractures, fork fractures, bearing failures and tire cracking occurred during testing trials and are consistent with field failures.Conclusion: The new caster test system has the capability to incorporate necessary test factors that degrade caster quality in LREs. Future work includes developing and validating a testing protocol that results in failure modes common during wheelchair use in LRE.


2012 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maurizio Tosin ◽  
Miriam Weber ◽  
Michela Siotto ◽  
Christian Lott ◽  
Francesco Degli Innocenti

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