From real to virtual eyes

The change in the color of the vegetables peel during the ripening process is the main criterion used by the consumer to define the fruit ripeness degree and for the producer to determine the best time of harvest. This relationship between bark coloration and different maturation stages allows the producer to establish harvest planning and extend shelf life. Students and faculty of the Biosystems Engineering course at São Paulo State University (UNESP), Tupã Campus, designed and developed a low-cost prototype of a fruit sorting belt, specifically for cherry group tomatoes. In the future, improvement in machinery with the insertion of new devices such as cameras, embedded system, combines sensor technology 3.0 with machine learning 4.0.

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Development and Testing of a Low-Cost Belt-and-Roller Machine for Spheroid Fruit Sorting

AgriEngineering ◽

10.3390/agriengineering2040040 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2 (4) ◽

pp. 596-606

Author(s):

Vahid Farzand Ahmadi ◽

Peyman Ziyaee ◽

Pourya Bazyar ◽

Eugenio Cavallo

Keyword(s):

Low Cost ◽

Damage Effect ◽

Performance Tests ◽

State University ◽

Critical Factors ◽

Fruit And Vegetable ◽

Significant Damage ◽

Golden Delicious ◽

Roller Machine ◽

Fruit Sorting

Sorting is one of the most critical factors in the marketing development of fruit and vegetable and should be performed without any damage to the product. This article reports results of the development and testing of a prototype of a low-cost mechanical spherical fruit sorter based on a belt-and-roller device built at the State University of Tabriz, Iran. The efficiency and damage effect of the prototype of the machine was tested at different sorting rates on apples (Red Delicious and Golden Delicious) and oranges. Performance tests indicated that the speed of the feeding belt and transporting belt as well as the spherical coefficient significantly affect the machine’s sizing performance and damages. The results of the test showed a 95.28% and 92.48% accuracy in sorting for Red Delicious and Golden Delicious, respectively, and 94.28% for orange. Furthermore, the machine sorts fruits without any significant damage.

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Low-Cost Embedded System Using Convolutional Neural Networks-Based Spatiotemporal Feature Map for Real-Time Human Action Recognition

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app11114940 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (11) ◽

pp. 4940

Author(s):

Jinsoo Kim ◽

Jeongho Cho

Keyword(s):

Embedded System ◽

Real Time ◽

Action Recognition ◽

Processing Speed ◽

Recognition Accuracy ◽

Low Cost ◽

Human Action Recognition ◽

Human Action ◽

Video Data ◽

Feature Maps

The field of research related to video data has difficulty in extracting not only spatial but also temporal features and human action recognition (HAR) is a representative field of research that applies convolutional neural network (CNN) to video data. The performance for action recognition has improved, but owing to the complexity of the model, some still limitations to operation in real-time persist. Therefore, a lightweight CNN-based single-stream HAR model that can operate in real-time is proposed. The proposed model extracts spatial feature maps by applying CNN to the images that develop the video and uses the frame change rate of sequential images as time information. Spatial feature maps are weighted-averaged by frame change, transformed into spatiotemporal features, and input into multilayer perceptrons, which have a relatively lower complexity than other HAR models; thus, our method has high utility in a single embedded system connected to CCTV. The results of evaluating action recognition accuracy and data processing speed through challenging action recognition benchmark UCF-101 showed higher action recognition accuracy than the HAR model using long short-term memory with a small amount of video frames and confirmed the real-time operational possibility through fast data processing speed. In addition, the performance of the proposed weighted mean-based HAR model was verified by testing it in Jetson NANO to confirm the possibility of using it in low-cost GPU-based embedded systems.

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Recurrent Neural Network for Human Activity Recognition in Embedded Systems Using PPG and Accelerometer Data

Electronics ◽

10.3390/electronics10141715 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (14) ◽

pp. 1715

Author(s):

Michele Alessandrini ◽

Giorgio Biagetti ◽

Paolo Crippa ◽

Laura Falaschetti ◽

Claudio Turchetti

Keyword(s):

Neural Network ◽

Embedded System ◽

Activity Recognition ◽

Human Activity ◽

Recurrent Neural Network ◽

Low Cost ◽

Low Complexity ◽

Human Activity Recognition ◽

Motion Artifacts ◽

Accelerometer Data

Photoplethysmography (PPG) is a common and practical technique to detect human activity and other physiological parameters and is commonly implemented in wearable devices. However, the PPG signal is often severely corrupted by motion artifacts. The aim of this paper is to address the human activity recognition (HAR) task directly on the device, implementing a recurrent neural network (RNN) in a low cost, low power microcontroller, ensuring the required performance in terms of accuracy and low complexity. To reach this goal, (i) we first develop an RNN, which integrates PPG and tri-axial accelerometer data, where these data can be used to compensate motion artifacts in PPG in order to accurately detect human activity; (ii) then, we port the RNN to an embedded device, Cloud-JAM L4, based on an STM32 microcontroller, optimizing it to maintain an accuracy of over 95% while requiring modest computational power and memory resources. The experimental results show that such a system can be effectively implemented on a constrained-resource system, allowing the design of a fully autonomous wearable embedded system for human activity recognition and logging.

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Reducing the Influence of Environmental Factors on Performance of a Diffusion-Based Personal Exposure Kit

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s21144637 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (14) ◽

pp. 4637

Author(s):

Huixin Zong ◽

Peter Brimblecombe ◽

Li Sun ◽

Peng Wei ◽

Kin-Fai Ho ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Exposure Assessment ◽

Real Time ◽

Low Cost ◽

Personal Exposure ◽

Sensor Technology ◽

Heterogeneous Environments ◽

Mathematical Algorithms ◽

Personal Exposure Assessment ◽

Address System ◽

The Impact

Sensor technology has enabled the development of portable low-cost monitoring kits that might supplement many applications in conventional monitoring stations. Despite the sensitivity of electrochemical gas sensors to environmental change, they are increasingly important in monitoring polluted microenvironments. The performance of a compact diffusion-based Personal Exposure Kit (PEK) was assessed for real-time gaseous pollutant measurement (CO, O3, and NO2) under typical environmental conditions encountered in the subtropical city of Hong Kong. A dynamic baseline tracking method and a range of calibration protocols to address system performance were explored under practical scenarios to assess the performance of the PEK in reducing the impact of rapid changes in the ambient environment in personal exposure assessment applications. The results show that the accuracy and stability of the ppb level gas measurement is enhanced even in heterogeneous environments, thus avoiding the need for data post-processing with mathematical algorithms, such as multi-linear regression. This establishes the potential for use in personal exposure monitoring, which has been difficult in the past, and for reporting more accurate and reliable data in real-time to support personal exposure assessment and portable air quality monitoring applications.

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The Development of Embedded System for Energy Saving in Electro-Hydraulic System

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.418.63 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 418 ◽

pp. 63-69

Author(s):

Sema Patchim ◽

Watcharin Po-Ngaen

Keyword(s):

Embedded System ◽

Low Power ◽

Hydraulic System ◽

Fuzzy Controller ◽

Low Cost ◽

Operational Performance ◽

Functional Design ◽

Power Utility ◽

Load Sensing ◽

Oil Flow

In last decade, energy efficiency of hydraulic actuators systems has been especially important in industrial machinery applications [1-. And an advanced electronics world most of the applications are developed by microcontroller based embedded system. Energy processor based variable oil flow of hydraulic controller was presented to improve the efficiency of the motor by maintaining with the load sensing. These PIC processor combined with fuzzy controller were help to design efficient optimal power hydraulic machine controller. A functional design of processor and in this system was completed by using load sensing signal to control oil flow. The advantage of the proposed system was optimized operational performance and low power utility. Without having the architectural concept of any motor we can control it by using this method. This is a low cost low power controller and easy to use. The experiment results verified its validity.

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Identification of calibration and operating limits of a low-cost embedded system with MEMS accelerometer

Journal of Physics Conference Series ◽

10.1088/1742-6596/882/1/012006 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 882 ◽

pp. 012006 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

G D’Emilia ◽

D Di Gasbarro ◽

A Gaspari ◽

E Natale

Keyword(s):

Embedded System ◽

Low Cost ◽

Mems Accelerometer ◽

Operating Limits

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Seasonal Influence on the Performance of Low-Cost NO2 Sensor Calibrations

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s21237919 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (23) ◽

pp. 7919

Author(s):

Sjoerd van Ratingen ◽

Jan Vonk ◽

Christa Blokhuis ◽

Joost Wesseling ◽

Erik Tielemans ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Low Cost ◽

Added Value ◽

Sensor Data ◽

Sensor Technology ◽

Monitoring Networks ◽

Technical Problems ◽

Eu Directive ◽

Short Period ◽

No2 Sensor ◽

One Year

Low-cost sensor technology has been available for several years and has the potential to complement official monitoring networks. The current generation of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) sensors suffers from various technical problems. This study explores the added value of calibration models based on (multiple) linear regression including cross terms on the performance of an electrochemical NO2 sensor, the B43F manufactured by Alphasense. Sensor data were collected in duplicate at four reference sites in the Netherlands over a period of one year. It is shown that a calibration, using O3 and temperature in addition to a reference NO2 measurement, improves the prediction in terms of R2 from less than 0.5 to 0.69–0.84. The uncertainty of the calibrated sensors meets the Data Quality Objective for indicative methods specified by the EU directive in some cases and it was verified that the sensor signal itself remains an important predictor in the multilinear regressions. In practice, these sensors are likely to be calibrated over a period (much) shorter than one year. This study shows the dependence of the quality of the calibrated signal on the choice of these short (monthly) calibration and validation periods. This information will be valuable for determining short-period calibration strategies.

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INFLUÊNCIA DA FORMA DE OBTENÇÃO DO SALDO DE RADIAÇÃO NA COMPARAÇÃO DE MÉTODOS DE ESTIMATIVA DA EVAPOTRANSPIRAÇÃO DE REFERÊNCIA

Irriga ◽

10.15809/irriga.2005v10n3p215-228 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 215-228 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

José Eduardo Pitelli Turco ◽

Manoel Teixeira de Faria ◽

Edemo João Fernandes

Keyword(s):

Standard Method ◽

Reference Evapotranspiration ◽

Weather Station ◽

State University ◽

Net Radiation ◽

Paulo State ◽

Class A ◽

Engineering Department ◽

Daily Evapotranspiration ◽

Class A Pan

INFLUÊNCIA DA FORMA DE OBTENÇÃO DO SALDO DE RADIAÇÃO NA COMPARAÇÃO DE MÉTODOS DE ESTIMATIVA DA EVAPOTRANSPIRAÇÃO DE REFERÊNCIA José Eduardo Pitelli Turco; Manoel Teixeira de Faria; Edemo João FernandesDepartamento de Engenharia Rural, Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Câmpus de Jaboticabal, Jaboticabal , SP, [email protected] 1 RESUMO Uma maneira freqüentemente utilizada para verificar a eficiência de métodos de estimativa da evapotranspiração de referência (ETo) em diferentes situações e locais é por meio de comparação com um método padrão. Porém, a utilização de diferentes métodos para a obtenção do saldo de radiação, empregado na estimativa da evapotranspiração, pode conduzir a resultados distintos. O objetivo desse trabalho foi avaliar a influência do método de obtenção do saldo de radiação na comparação de quatro métodos (FAO-Tanque Classe A, FAO-Radiação Solar, Makkink e Hargreaves-Samani) com o método padrão recomendado pela FAO (Penman-Monteith). A pesquisa foi desenvolvida em área experimental do Departamento de Engenharia Rural da FCAV/UNESP, Campus de Jaboticabal, SP, onde foi instalada uma estação meteorológica automatizada e um Tanque Classe A. Por intermédio de um sistema de aquisição de dados foram obtidas medidas da radiação solar global, saldo de radiação, temperatura do ar, umidade relativa do ar e velocidade do vento. Os resultados indicam que as formas de obtenção do saldo de radiação podem alterar a estimativa da evapotranspiração diária obtida pelo método de Penman-Monteith. UNITERMOS: estação meteorológica automatizada, radiação solar, Penman-Monteith TURCO, J. E. P.; FARIA, M. T. de; FERNANDES E. J. INFLUENCE OF NET RADIATION OBTENTION METHOD COMPARED TO THE REFERENCE EVAPOTRANSPIRATION ESTIMATE METHODS 2 ABSTRACT One way to verify the efficiency of evapotranspiration reference (ETo) estimate methods in different conditions is through the comparison to a standard method. However the utilization of several methods to obtain the net radiation using evapotranspiration reference estimate, can end up in different results. The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the influence of the net radiation obtention method compared to four methods (FAO – Class A pan, FAO – Radiation, Makkink and Hargreaves-Samani) to the Penman-Montheith method which is considered a standard method by FAO. The research was carried out at an experimental area of the Rural Engineering Department of FCAV/São Paulo State University, Jaboticabal, SP, Brazil. Global net radiation, air temperature, air relative humidity, and wind speed were obtained using an automated weather station equipped with sensors. The results showed that the net radiation obtaintion methods can alter the daily evapotranspiration estimate obtained by the Penman-Montheith method. KEYWORDS: automated weather station, solar radiation, Penman-Monteith

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Probabilistic Design of Wind Turbine Blades with Treatment of Manufacturing Defects as Uncertainty Variables in a Framework

10.5194/wes-2017-14 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Trey W. Riddle ◽

Jared W. Nelson ◽

Douglas S. Cairns

Keyword(s):

Wind Turbine ◽

Probabilistic Models ◽

Low Cost ◽

Turbine Blades ◽

Design Parameters ◽

State University ◽

Wind Turbine Blades ◽

Manufacturing Defects ◽

Montana State University ◽

Blade Failure

Abstract. Given that wind turbine blades are such large structures, the use of low-cost composite manufacturing processes and materials has been necessary for the industry to be cost competitive. Since these manufacturing methods can lead to inclusion of unwanted defects, potentially reducing blade life, the Blade Reliability Collaborative tasked the Montana State University Composites Group with assessing the effects of these defects. Utilizing the results of characterization and mechanical testing studies, probabilistic models were developed to assess the reliability of a wind blade with known defects. As such, defects were found to best be assessed as design parameters in a parametric probabilistic analysis allowing for establishment of a consistent framework to validate categorization and analysis. Monte Carlo simulations were found to adequately describe the probability of failure of composite blades with included defects. By treating defects as random variables, the approaches utilized indicate the level of conservation used in blade design may be reduced when considering fatigue. In turn, safety factors may be reduced as some of the uncertainty surrounding blade failure is reduced when analysed with application specific data. Overall, the results indicate that characterization of defects and reduction of design uncertainty is possible for wind turbine blades.

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Snowflake Selfies: A Low-Cost, High-Impact Approach toward Student Engagement in Scientific Research (with Their Smartphones)

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society ◽

10.1175/bams-d-19-0096.1 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 101 (6) ◽

pp. E917-E935

Author(s):

Matthew R. Kumjian ◽

Kevin A. Bowley ◽

Paul M. Markowski ◽

Kelly Lombardo ◽

Zachary J. Lebo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Undergraduate Students ◽

Low Cost ◽

State University ◽

Engaged Scholarship ◽

Mesoscale Meteorology ◽

Penn State ◽

Atmospheric Thermodynamics ◽

Term Paper ◽

Upper Level ◽

Intensive Course

Abstract An engaged scholarship project called “Snowflake Selfies” was developed and implemented in an upper-level undergraduate course at The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State). During the project, students conducted research on snow using low-cost, low-tech instrumentation that may be readily implemented broadly and scaled as needed, particularly at institutions with limited resources. During intensive observing periods (IOPs), students measured snowfall accumulations, snow-to-liquid ratios, and took microscopic photographs of snow using their smartphones. These observations were placed in meteorological context using radar observations and thermodynamic soundings, helping to reinforce concepts from atmospheric thermodynamics, cloud physics, radar, and mesoscale meteorology courses. Students also prepared a term paper and presentation using their datasets/photographs to hone communication skills. Examples from IOPs are presented. The Snowflake Selfies project was well received by undergraduate students as part of the writing-intensive course at Penn State. Responses to survey questions highlight the project’s effectiveness at engaging students and increasing their enthusiasm for the semester-long project. The natural link to social media broadened engagement to the community level. Given the successes at Penn State, we encourage Snowflake Selfies or similar projects to be adapted or implemented at other institutions.

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