A data acquisition system to control the position of a velocity probe, and to acquire digital voltages as an indication of fluid velocity is presented. This system replaces a similar manually operated traverse system, it relieves the operator of control and acquisition tasks, while providing a more consistent and systematic approach to the acquisition process. The design includes the TRS-80 microcomputer, with external interfacing accomplished using the STD-based bus design. / Master of Science

Demand for Data Transfer between computers has increased ever since the introduction of Personal Computers (PC). Data Communicating on the Personal Computer is much more productive as it is an intelligent terminal that can connect to various hosts on the same I/O hardware circuit as well as execute processes on its own as an isolated system. Yet, the PC on its own is useless for data communication. It requires a hardware interface circuit and software for controlling the handshaking signals and setting up communication parameters. Often the data is distorted due to noise in the line. Such transmission errors are imbedded in the data and require careful filtering. The thesis deals with the development of a Data Acquisition system that collects real time load and weather data and stores them as historical database for use in a load forecast algorithm in a load management system. A filtering technique has been developed here that checks for transmission errors in the raw data. The microcomputers used in this development are the IBM PC/XT and the AT&T 3B2 supermicro computer. / Master of Science

Thesis (MScEng (Electrical and Electronic Engineering))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / In this thesis the design of a low-cost ad hoc network for short distance data acquisition applications with low data arrival intervals will be presented. The focus is on cost reduction by replacing the traditional high power radios with low-power RF transceivers. The conventional way of using multiple stationary repeater towers (depending on the network) is also replaced by using an ad hoc con guration, where each individual station also serves as a repeater station to adjacent stations. This approach reduces network design time enormously, seeing that the network is able to con gure itself. By using this auto-routing multi-hop approach, data acquisition points are no longer restricted to the reception areas of base stations. A CSMA contention protocol is used for the data communication. Current models used to model this protocol are dependent on various assumptions. In the research reported in this thesis, a statistical study of the collision probability is performed and the results used to expand the current CSMA models. Inter-dependent characteristics of this model are also further enhanced to provide a more realistic model. A simulink model of the particular CSMA protocol is also designed. Both the mathematical- and the simulink models provide relatively good predictions when compared to actual measured results

Settling time is very important for data acquisition systems because it is the primary factor that defines the data rate for a given error level. Therefore settling time measurement is a crucial test. The goal of the project was to design, test and compare different measurement techniques. Three methods were tested to the accuracies of 0.1% and 0.01%. Also simulations were conducted to explain the parameters that affect the settling behavior. Additionally bench measurements were correlated to simulation results. This report is intended as a guide for settling time measurements.

This thesis presents a framework for motor vehicle detection-tracking surveillance systems. Given an optimized object detection template, the feasibility and effectiveness of the methodology is considered for vehicle counting applications, implementing both a filtering operation of false detection, based on the speed variability in each segment of traffic state, and an occlusion handling technique which considers the unusual affine transformation of tracking subspace, as well as its highly fluctuating averaged acceleration data. The result presents the overall performance considering the trade-off relationship between true detection rate and false detection rate. The filtering operation achieved significant success in removing the majority of non-vehicle elements that do not move like a vehicle. The occlusion handling technique employed also improved the systems performance, contributing counts that would otherwise be lost. For all video samples tested, the proposed framework obtained high correct count (>93% correct counting rate) while simultaneously minimizing the false count rate. For future research, the author recommends the use of more sophisticated filters for specific sets of conditions as well as the implementation of discriminative classifier for detecting different occlusion cases.

There are many different types of automatic data collection technologies that have been used in transportation system applications such as pneumatic tubes, radar, video cameras, inductive loops detectors, wireless toll tags, and global positioning systems (GPS). Nevertheless, there are still multiple examples of important and helpful transportation system data that still require manual data collection. In this research, the automatic transportation system data collection capabilities are expanded by enhancements in the use of wireless communications technology. In recent years, smartphones and electronic peripherals with wireless communication capabilities have become very popular. Many of these electronic devices include a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi wireless radio, whose presence in a vehicle can be used as a vehicle identifier. With wireless on-board devices available now and in the future, this research explores how roadside data collection units (DCUs) communicating with on-board devices can be used for the automated data collection of important road system data such as intersection performance data. To this end, two approaches for wirelessly collecting vehicle movement over a short road segment were explored. One approach utilized the collection and triangulation of wireless signal strength data, and demonstrated the capabilities and limitations of this approach. The second approach focused on developing methods for utilizing wireless signal strength data for vehicle point detection and identification. The vehicle point detection methods developed were applied to collect travel time data over signalized arterial roads, and to collect intersection delay data for a three way stop controlled intersection. The results from these case studies indicate a significant advantage in the proposed data collection system over the existing data collection approaches presented in the literature. / Graduation date: 2013

Advance technology such as various types of automatic data acquisitions, management, and networking systems has created a tremendous capability for managers to access valuable production information to improve their operation quality and efficiency. Signal processing and data mining techniques are more popular than ever in many fields including intelligent manufacturing. As data sets increase in size, their exploration, manipulation, and analysis become more complicated and resource consuming. Timely synthesized information such as functional data is needed for product design, process trouble-shooting, quality/efficiency improvement and resource allocation decisions. A major obstacle in those intelligent manufacturing system is that tools for processing a large volume of information coming from numerous stages on manufacturing operations are not available. Thus, the underlying theme of this thesis is to reduce the size of data in a mathematical rigorous framework, and apply existing or new procedures to the reduced-size data for various decision-making purposes. This thesis, first, proposes {it Wavelet-based Random-effect Model} which can generate multiple functional data signals which have wide fluctuations(between-signal variations) in the time domain. The random-effect wavelet atom position in the model has {it locally focused impact} which can be distinguished from other traditional random-effect models in biological field. For the data-size reduction, in order to deal with heterogeneously selected wavelet coefficients for different single curves, this thesis introduces the newly-defined {it Wavelet Vertical Energy} metric of multiple curves and utilizes it for the efficient data reduction method. The newly proposed method in this thesis will select important positions for the whole set of multiple curves by comparison between every vertical energy metrics and a threshold ({it Vertical Energy Threshold; VET}) which will be optimally decided based on an objective function. The objective function balances the reconstruction error against a data reduction ratio. Based on class membership information of each signal obtained, this thesis proposes the {it Vertical Group-Wise Threshold} method to increase the discriminative capability of the reduced-size data so that the reduced data set retains salient differences between classes as much as possible. A real-life example (Tonnage data) shows our proposed method is promising.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Chair: Aaron Bobick; Committee Member: Charles Isbell; Committee Member: David Hogg; Committee Member: Irfan Essa; Committee Member: James Rehg

Evaluates and assesses the probes and associated probeware of three manufacturers using a variety of criteria that are essential information for a consumer. The probes and probeware examined include Pasco Scientific's ScienceWorkshop, Venier's LabPro, and Onset's HOBO. Three experiments were used to test each of the criteria for comparison. Based on the data in the study no manufacturer proved themselves to be clearly the best, and taken collectively the benefits and drawbacks balance out.

A data acquisition system was set up to measure gas temperatures and pressures at various points on a liquid-nitrogen-powered vehicle. The experiment was attempted to develop a data acquisition method for applications on engines that use liquid air as the fuel. Two thermocouples and a pressure transducer were connected using data acquisition instruments interfaced to a laptop computer to acquire data.