Designing a Robot for Manufacturing Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic (FRP) Molded Grating

The use of robotics in the industrial environment has, in general, very similar goals. Because of productivity requirements, or due to reliability, industries have been constantly equipping their floor with robots. In that sense, the chapter observed—in a fiberglass company—the chance of using a robot to execute a boring and repetitive task. The task mentioned is, actually, the manufacturing of fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP) molded grating. To confirm the possibility of using a robot to this job, a cost and time analysis was made about the whole molded gratings manufacturing process. Afterward, research about robotics was taken in parallel with the conception of the robot (named “roving-robot”). Calculations were made to the mechanical project of the robot. Applying computer-aided design (CAD), technical drawing and bill of materials were generated to permit the robot assembling. All of these project steps are presented in this chapter.

LabVIEW Based Inventory Management System

The aim of this paper represents the “LABVIEW BASED INVENTORY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM” creates a web-based producing system that permits manufacturing business to schedule its manufacturing operations supported the daily update of sales from its dealers. Once the sales figure of things for the past weeks are entered by the dealers over the net alongside the orders for future delivery, the schedule for future week’s production is immersed. A report of the specified raw materials or components are immersed with the merchandise necessities over the net & asked to quote their rates. Once the rates are quoted, the order is placed with the specified delivery schedules. Once the components are equipped the stocks are updated. Then a production arrangement is immersed considering the bill of materials. Once the assembly arrangement is approved, the stock is updated once the fabric is issued. Once the finished merchandise are on the market the delivery schedules are immersed supported the orders placed by the Dealers. The stocks with the dealers also will be maintained.

HIGROTERM: An Open-Source and Low-Cost Temperature and Humidity Monitoring System for Laboratory Applications

Low-cost electronics developed on easy-to-use prototyping platforms, such as Arduino, are becoming increasingly popular in various fields of science. This article presents an open-source and low-cost eight-channel data-logging system for temperature and humidity monitoring based on DHT22 (AM2302) sensors, named HIGROTERM. The system was designed to solve real needs of the Laboratory of Material Testing of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Brasília. The system design, functionalities, hardware components, source code, bill of materials, assemblage and enclosure are thoroughly described to enable complete reproduction by the interested reader. The terminologies and instructions presented were simplified as much as possible to make it accessible to the greatest extent to researchers from different areas, especially those without electronics background. The data-acquisition system has an estimated total cost of USD 96.00, or USD 136.00 if eight sensor nodes are included, with a considerable margin for cost reduction. The authors expect that the HIGROTERM system may both be a valuable low-cost and customizable tool for the readers, as well a source of innovation and interest in low-cost electronics for real problem-solving in various fields of science.

Logo Classification and Data Augmentation Techniques for PCB Assurance and Counterfeit Detection

In this manuscript, we present our work on Logo classification in PCBs for Hardware assurance purposes. Identifying and classifying logos have important uses for text detection, component authentication and counterfeit detection. Since PCB assurance faces the lack of a representative dataset for classification and detection tasks, we collect different variants of logos from PCBs and present data augmentation techniques to create the necessary data to perform machine learning. In addition to exploring the challenges for image classification tasks in PCBs, we present experiments using Random Forest classifiers, Bag of Visual Words (BoVW) using SIFT and ORB Fully Connected Neural Networks (FCN) and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) architectures. We present results and also a discussion on the edge cases where our algorithms fail including the potential for future work in PCB logo detection. The code for the algorithms along with the dataset that includes 18 classes of logos with 14000+ images is provided at this link: https://www.trusthub.org/#/data Index Terms—AutoBoM, Logo classification, Data augmentation, Bill of materials, PCB Assurance, Hardware Assurance, Counterfeit avoidance

Dual-Transmitter Inductive Power Transfer System with Improved Misalignment Tolerance and High Compatibility with Different-Sized Receivers

A dual-transmitter inductive power transfer system featuring two concentric transmitter coils is proposed for low-power systems where compatibility with different-sized receivers and good misalignment tolerance are required. By incorporating two decoupled TXs into one single unit, the proposed scheme achieves better power and efficiency performance under a lower bill-of-materials cost compared to using two individual TXs, especially when the RX coil is small and the coil misalignment is large. Both TXs are energized using independent inverters and the inverter output voltages are regulated in accordance with the coupling condition to maximize the system efficiency. Superiority of the dual-TX system over single-TX systems is proved by experimental results. <br>

Dual-Transmitter Inductive Power Transfer System with Improved Misalignment Tolerance and High Compatibility with Different-Sized Receivers

A dual-transmitter inductive power transfer system featuring two concentric transmitter coils is proposed for low-power systems where compatibility with different-sized receivers and good misalignment tolerance are required. By incorporating two decoupled TXs into one single unit, the proposed scheme achieves better power and efficiency performance under a lower bill-of-materials cost compared to using two individual TXs, especially when the RX coil is small and the coil misalignment is large. Both TXs are energized using independent inverters and the inverter output voltages are regulated in accordance with the coupling condition to maximize the system efficiency. Superiority of the dual-TX system over single-TX systems is proved by experimental results. <br>

IDENTIFYING THE FACTORS AFFECTING THE REPLICABILITY OF OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE DESIGNS

Open-source hardware (OSH) development is a new design paradigm from a commercial perspective. Openly sharing designs of technical products is a step towards democratising access to new technologies for the benefit of individuals and communities in society. At the core of the open-source hardware definition lies the freedom for anyone to replicate the hardware based on the design. Thus, enabling this freedom is a step towards developing a successful OSH. Previous research supposes that a bill of materials and assembly instructions are enough for this. In this study, we question this assumption and investigate what other factors may influence replicability of an OSH. Using data from a survey and interviews with OSH practitioners, we identify and describe these factors, which relate to the documentation, the design and the context of the person replicating the hardware. Using these insights, we present a diagram of the replication process along with questions the person replicating the hardware would ask to check whether an OSH is replicable. Finally, we synthesise this information into practical advice for OSH projects to increase the replicability of the designs they produce, and thus the likelihood of their project's success.

Waste LED Lamp Characterization: A Call for More Consistent and Well-Documented Study

Solid-state lighting has been replacing conventional lighting in the market, raising concerns for implementing an efficient end-of-life management system. Since LED waste streams have not been quite dominant, characterization studies (product-level characteristics, component-wise information, bill of materials, diversity, and differences) are inconsistent and having substantial gaps. This study investigates the end-of-life LED lamp literature, focusing on the bill-of-materials, and reveals that the characterization procedure suffers from a severe lack of sample representativeness. Consequently, characterization results are widely varied and not generalizable. Moreover, most of the studies did not inform and document the detailed sample characteristics, precluding the possibility of identifying reasons for variation. Combining available information from the recent studies, we present a mass distribution at the component level, exemplifying the prospect for meeting EU regulatory limit and the need for more insight at the lamp and component level. To fill the disconnection between lamp level characteristics and component and material content, we propose a characterization protocol that carefully documents lamp, component, and material level information by establishing a lamp-component&ndash;material composition nexus. The protocol may help researchers, policymakers, and industrial stakeholders conduct a systematic characterization, analyze complexities and prepare for a sustainable solution.