Esta dissertação trata sobre o projeto, implementação e avaliação de um filtro híbrido para supressão de ruído em sistemas de alta potência. Seu desempenho será otimizado para reduzir a magnitude de ruídos impulsivos, que são comuns em dispositivos de alta potência, como inversores de frequência que controlam motores trifásicos. O filtro híbrido proposto é avaliado empiricamente em um inversor de frequência que é controlado por um sistema embarcado. A abordagem proposta é comparada com abordagens clássicas de filtragem digital como média móvel, filtro de resposta finita ao impulso (FIR) e filtro de resposta infinita ao impulso (IIR). / This work presents the project, implementation and evaluation of a hybrid filter used for noise supressing in high power switching converters. It is optimized to reduce impulsive noise that is commonly present in high power devices like frequency inverters that control three-phase motors. The hybrid filter is evaluated empirically in a frequency inverter that is controlled by an embedded system. This approach is compared to classical ones, like the moving average, the finite impulse response (FIR) and the infinite impulse response (IIR) filters.

A utilização da tecnologia da informação no processo de automatização do trabalho já está instituída. As soluções que automatizam os processos fabris e que suportam a prestação de serviços aumentam a produtividade e tornaram-se imprescindíveis como ativo a ser bem explorado pelas organizações que desejam possuir os diferenciais competitivos essenciais para sobreviver num mercado concorrido. No âmbito do poder público, o processo de automatização também caminha rapidamente e novas ferramentas que agilizam e reduzem os custos da prestação de serviços aos cidadãos são implementadas. O processo eleitoral brasileiro acompanhou a onda da informatização e está totalmente automatizado desde 1998. Todavia, a informatização de eleições é um processo crítico devido aos diversos requisitos relacionados com a segurança do processo. O cenário de um processo eleitoral é composto por um conjunto de interesses, geralmente conflitantes, que devem ser harmonizados em eleições justas e limpas. A informatização traz vantagens relacionadas com a maior agilidade no processo de apuração e divulgação do resultado da eleição, maior economia, maior flexibilidade, possibilidade de correção de erros cometidos no momento da votação, inclusão de pessoas com deficiências, entre outros. Conciliar as dificuldades de implementar os requisitos exigidos em um sistema eleitoral, especificamente aqueles conflitantes e que asseguram a legitimidade das eleições (privacidade do eleitor e a garantia da integridade), para tirar proveito das vantagens que a informatização proporciona, tem sido objeto de pesquisas no meio acadêmico. Neste trabalho é apresentado um projeto para a construção de um protótipo de um dispositivo embarcado que visa aumentar a economicidade do processo eleitoral. O dispositivo destina-se a aperfeiçoar a fase de envio dos arquivos contendo os votos eletrônicos, apurados nas urnas eletrônicas brasileiras, para totalização e obtenção do resultado do pleito. Para melhorar a segurança, o equipamento faz uso de técnicas de criptografia para assegurar que o canal utilizado para transmissão dos resultados é seguro. A maior economia para o processo eleitoral é garantida com um dispositivo portátil, leve, de baixo consumo energético e robusto. Equipamentos menores e portáteis podem reduzir os custos com o processo de aquisição, preparação e envio para os locais de onde os votos eletrônicos serão transmitidos afim de serem totalizados nos sistemas centralizados da Justiça Eleitoral. / The use of information technology to promote the automation of work processes is widely spread. Systems to automate the manufacturing processes and to support services delivery help to improve the productivity and have become an indispensable asset to be exploited by organizations wishing to have the competitive advantages essential to survive in a crowded marketplace. In the context of public sector, the automation process also moves quickly and new tools that streamline and reduce the costs of providing services to citizens are being implemented. The Brazilian electoral process followed the wave of informatization and is fully automated since 1998. However, the informatization of elections is a critical process due to various requirements related to the electoral process security. The scenario of an electoral process is composed of a set of interests, often conflicting, which should be harmonized by fair and clean elections. Computerization has advantages related to greater agility in the process of calculation and disclosure of the outcome of the elections, greater economy, greater flexibility, possibility of correcting errors made at the time of voting, inclusion of people with disabilities, among others. Reconcile the difficulties of implementing the requirements in an electoral system, specifically those conflicting, which shall ensure the legitimacy of the elections (voter privacy and guarantee of the integrity), to take advantage of the benefits that computerization provides, has been subject of academic research. This work presents a project to build a prototype of an embedded device that aims to increase economicity of the Brazilian electoral process. The device is intended to improve the activity of sending files containing the electronic votes, acquired in the Brazilian electronic ballot boxes, for counting and obtaining the result of the election. To improve security, the prototype makes use of encryption techniques to ensure that the channel used for transmission of results is secure. The economy for the electoral process will be guaranteed with a portable, lightweight, low energy consumption and robust device. Portable and smaller equipments can reduce the costs with the acquisition process, preparing and sending to the places where the electronic votes will be transmitted in order to be aggregated in centralized systems. / 5000

A utilização de ferramentas externas de diagnóstico guiado tem se tornado cada vez mais importante nas atividades de pós-venda da indústria automotiva. Isso se dá principalmente devido ao uso extensivo de sistemas embarcados nos veículos, tornando-os mais complexos e difíceis de diagnosticar. Atualmente, as técnicas empregadas para o desenvolvimento da ferramenta de diagnóstico guiado são fortemente dependentes da experiência do projetista e centralizadas nas peças e subsistemas do veículo, possibilitando baixo grau de flexibilidade e reaproveitamento da informação. Este trabalho propõe uma nova metodologia para o desenvolvimento da ferramenta de diagnóstico guiado, aplicado a um estudo de caso da indústria automotiva, numa arquitetura de software em três camadas: peças e componentes do veículo, informações e estratégia para o diagnóstico e uma camada de apresentação. Isso permite grande flexibilidade no projeto da ferramenta de diagnóstico guiado para diferentes modelos de veículos, fabricantes de peças e sistemas automotivos. A metodologia proposta é aplicada em um estudo de caso de diagnóstico da Volvo caminhões, mostrando o processo de adaptação da arquitetura de software de três camadas à metodologia proposta e seu impacto no custo do desenvolvimento da ferramenta de diagnóstico. / External guided diagnostic tools are increasingly important to the aftermarket business of automotive industry. It occurs mainly due to the extensive using of embedded systems in vehicles, making them more complex and difficult to diagnose. Currently, the techniques used to develop a guided diagnostic tool are strongly dependent on designer’s experience and are usually focused on parts and vehicle’s subsystems, allowing low flexibility and reduced information reusage. This paper proposes a new methodology for development of a guided diagnostic tool applied to the automotive industry. This methodology is based on a three-tier software architecture composed of vehicle’s parts and components, diagnostic information and strategy, and presentation layer. It allows great flexibility for designing a guided diagnostic tool for different vehicle models, parts OEMs and automotive systems. The proposed methodology has been applied to a case study at Volvo Trucks. The corresponding adaptation process to the three-tier software architecture is presented as well as its impact on development costs. / 5000

Esta dissertação trata sobre o projeto, implementação e avaliação de um filtro híbrido para supressão de ruído em sistemas de alta potência. Seu desempenho será otimizado para reduzir a magnitude de ruídos impulsivos, que são comuns em dispositivos de alta potência, como inversores de frequência que controlam motores trifásicos. O filtro híbrido proposto é avaliado empiricamente em um inversor de frequência que é controlado por um sistema embarcado. A abordagem proposta é comparada com abordagens clássicas de filtragem digital como média móvel, filtro de resposta finita ao impulso (FIR) e filtro de resposta infinita ao impulso (IIR). / This work presents the project, implementation and evaluation of a hybrid filter used for noise supressing in high power switching converters. It is optimized to reduce impulsive noise that is commonly present in high power devices like frequency inverters that control three-phase motors. The hybrid filter is evaluated empirically in a frequency inverter that is controlled by an embedded system. This approach is compared to classical ones, like the moving average, the finite impulse response (FIR) and the infinite impulse response (IIR) filters.

A utilização da tecnologia da informação no processo de automatização do trabalho já está instituída. As soluções que automatizam os processos fabris e que suportam a prestação de serviços aumentam a produtividade e tornaram-se imprescindíveis como ativo a ser bem explorado pelas organizações que desejam possuir os diferenciais competitivos essenciais para sobreviver num mercado concorrido. No âmbito do poder público, o processo de automatização também caminha rapidamente e novas ferramentas que agilizam e reduzem os custos da prestação de serviços aos cidadãos são implementadas. O processo eleitoral brasileiro acompanhou a onda da informatização e está totalmente automatizado desde 1998. Todavia, a informatização de eleições é um processo crítico devido aos diversos requisitos relacionados com a segurança do processo. O cenário de um processo eleitoral é composto por um conjunto de interesses, geralmente conflitantes, que devem ser harmonizados em eleições justas e limpas. A informatização traz vantagens relacionadas com a maior agilidade no processo de apuração e divulgação do resultado da eleição, maior economia, maior flexibilidade, possibilidade de correção de erros cometidos no momento da votação, inclusão de pessoas com deficiências, entre outros. Conciliar as dificuldades de implementar os requisitos exigidos em um sistema eleitoral, especificamente aqueles conflitantes e que asseguram a legitimidade das eleições (privacidade do eleitor e a garantia da integridade), para tirar proveito das vantagens que a informatização proporciona, tem sido objeto de pesquisas no meio acadêmico. Neste trabalho é apresentado um projeto para a construção de um protótipo de um dispositivo embarcado que visa aumentar a economicidade do processo eleitoral. O dispositivo destina-se a aperfeiçoar a fase de envio dos arquivos contendo os votos eletrônicos, apurados nas urnas eletrônicas brasileiras, para totalização e obtenção do resultado do pleito. Para melhorar a segurança, o equipamento faz uso de técnicas de criptografia para assegurar que o canal utilizado para transmissão dos resultados é seguro. A maior economia para o processo eleitoral é garantida com um dispositivo portátil, leve, de baixo consumo energético e robusto. Equipamentos menores e portáteis podem reduzir os custos com o processo de aquisição, preparação e envio para os locais de onde os votos eletrônicos serão transmitidos afim de serem totalizados nos sistemas centralizados da Justiça Eleitoral. / The use of information technology to promote the automation of work processes is widely spread. Systems to automate the manufacturing processes and to support services delivery help to improve the productivity and have become an indispensable asset to be exploited by organizations wishing to have the competitive advantages essential to survive in a crowded marketplace. In the context of public sector, the automation process also moves quickly and new tools that streamline and reduce the costs of providing services to citizens are being implemented. The Brazilian electoral process followed the wave of informatization and is fully automated since 1998. However, the informatization of elections is a critical process due to various requirements related to the electoral process security. The scenario of an electoral process is composed of a set of interests, often conflicting, which should be harmonized by fair and clean elections. Computerization has advantages related to greater agility in the process of calculation and disclosure of the outcome of the elections, greater economy, greater flexibility, possibility of correcting errors made at the time of voting, inclusion of people with disabilities, among others. Reconcile the difficulties of implementing the requirements in an electoral system, specifically those conflicting, which shall ensure the legitimacy of the elections (voter privacy and guarantee of the integrity), to take advantage of the benefits that computerization provides, has been subject of academic research. This work presents a project to build a prototype of an embedded device that aims to increase economicity of the Brazilian electoral process. The device is intended to improve the activity of sending files containing the electronic votes, acquired in the Brazilian electronic ballot boxes, for counting and obtaining the result of the election. To improve security, the prototype makes use of encryption techniques to ensure that the channel used for transmission of results is secure. The economy for the electoral process will be guaranteed with a portable, lightweight, low energy consumption and robust device. Portable and smaller equipments can reduce the costs with the acquisition process, preparing and sending to the places where the electronic votes will be transmitted in order to be aggregated in centralized systems. / 5000

Ce travail porte, de façon théorétique et pratique, sur les sujets plus pertinents autour des drones en navigation autonome et semi-autonome. Conformément à la nature multidisciplinaire des problèmes étudies, une grande diversité des techniques et théories ont été couverts dans les domaines de la robotique, l’automatique, l’informatique, la vision par ordinateur et les systèmes embarques, parmi outres.Dans le cadre de cette thèse, deux plates-formes expérimentales ont été développées afin de valider la théorie proposée pour la navigation autonome d’un drone. Le premier prototype, développé au laboratoire, est un quadrirotor spécialement conçu pour les applications extérieures. La deuxième plate-forme est composée d’un quadrirotor à bas coût du type AR.Drone fabrique par Parrot. Le véhicule est connecté sans fil à une station au sol équipé d’un système d’exploitation pour robots (ROS) et dédié à tester, d’une façon facile, rapide et sécurisé, les algorithmes de vision et les stratégies de commande proposés. Les premiers travaux développés ont été basés sur la fusion de donnés pour estimer la position du drone en utilisant des capteurs inertiels et le GPS. Deux stratégies ont été étudiées et appliquées, le Filtre de Kalman Etendu (EKF) et le filtre à Particules (PF). Les deux approches prennent en compte les mesures bruitées de la position de l’UAV, de sa vitesse et de son orientation. On a réalisé une validation numérique pour tester la performance des algorithmes. Une tâche dans le cahier de cette thèse a été de concevoir d’algorithmes de commande pour le suivi de trajectoires ou bien pour la télé-opération. Pour ce faire, on a proposé une loi de commande basée sur l’approche de Mode Glissants à deuxième ordre. Cette technique de commande permet de suivre au quadrirotor de trajectoires désirées et de réaliser l’évitement des collisions frontales si nécessaire. Etant donné que la plate-forme A.R.Drone est équipée d’un auto-pilote d’attitude, nous avons utilisé les angles désirés de roulis et de tangage comme entrées de commande. L’algorithme de commande proposé donne de la robustesse au système en boucle fermée. De plus, une nouvelle technique de vision monoculaire par ordinateur a été utilisée pour la localisation d’un drone. Les informations visuelles sont fusionnées avec les mesures inertielles du drone pour avoir une bonne estimation de sa position. Cette technique utilise l’algorithme PTAM (localisation parallèle et mapping), qui s’agit d’obtenir un nuage de points caractéristiques dans l’image par rapport à une scène qui servira comme repère. Cet algorithme n’utilise pas de cibles, de marqueurs ou de scènes bien définies. La contribution dans cette méthodologie a été de pouvoir utiliser le nuage de points disperse pour détecter possibles obstacles en face du véhicule. Avec cette information nous avons proposé un algorithme de commande pour réaliser l’évitement d’obstacles. Cette loi de commande utilise les champs de potentiel pour calculer une force de répulsion qui sera appliquée au drone. Des expériences en temps réel ont montré la bonne performance du système proposé. Les résultats antérieurs ont motivé la conception et développement d’un drone capable de réaliser en sécurité l’interaction avec les hommes et les suivre de façon autonome. Un classificateur en cascade du type Haar a été utilisé pour détecter le visage d’une personne. Une fois le visage est détecté, on utilise un filtre de Kalman (KF) pour améliorer la détection et un algorithme pour estimer la position relative du visage. Pour réguler la position du drone et la maintenir à une distance désirée du visage, on a utilisé une loi de commande linéaire. / The present document addresses, theoretically and experimentally, the most relevant topics for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in autonomous and semi-autonomous navigation. According with the multidisciplinary nature of the studied problems, a wide range of techniques and theories are covered in the fields of robotics, automatic control, computer science, computer vision and embedded systems, among others. As part of this thesis, two different experimental platforms were developed in order to explore and evaluate various theories and techniques of interest for autonomous navigation. The first prototype is a quadrotor specially designed for outdoor applications and was fully developed in our lab. The second testbed is composed by a non expensive commercial quadrotor kind AR. Drone, wireless connected to a ground station equipped with the Robot Operating System (ROS), and specially intended to test computer vision algorithms and automatic control strategies in an easy, fast and safe way. In addition, this work provides a study of data fusion techniques looking to enhance the UAVs pose estimation provided by commonly used sensors. Two strategies are evaluated in particular, an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) and a Particle Filter (PF). Both estimators are adapted for the system under consideration, taking into account noisy measurements of the UAV position, velocity and orientation. Simulations show the performance of the developed algorithms while adding noise from real GPS (Global Positioning System) measurements. Safe and accurate navigation for either autonomous trajectory tracking or haptic teleoperation of quadrotors is presented as well. A second order Sliding Mode (2-SM) control algorithm is used to track trajectories while avoiding frontal collisions in autonomous flight. The time-scale separation of the translational and rotational dynamics allows us to design position controllers by giving desired references in the roll and pitch angles, which is suitable for quadrotors equipped with an internal attitude controller. The 2-SM control allows adding robustness to the closed-loop system. A Lyapunov based analysis probes the system stability. Vision algorithms are employed to estimate the pose of the vehicle using only a monocular SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) fused with inertial measurements. Distance to potential obstacles is detected and computed using the sparse depth map from the vision algorithm. For teleoperation tests, a haptic device is employed to feedback information to the pilot about possible collisions, by exerting opposite forces. The proposed strategies are successfully tested in real-time experiments, using a low-cost commercial quadrotor. Also, conception and development of a Micro Aerial Vehicle (MAV) able to safely interact with human users by following them autonomously, is achieved in the present work. Once a face is detected by means of a Haar cascade classifier, it is tracked applying a Kalman Filter (KF), and an estimation of the relative position with respect to the face is obtained at a high rate. A linear Proportional Derivative (PD) controller regulates the UAV’s position in order to keep a constant distance to the face, employing as well the extra available information from the embedded UAV’s sensors. Several experiments were carried out through different conditions, showing good performance even under disadvantageous scenarios like outdoor flight, being robust against illumination changes, wind perturbations, image noise and the presence of several faces on the same image. Finally, this thesis deals with the problem of implementing a safe and fast transportation system using an UAV kind quadrotor with a cable suspended load. The objective consists in transporting the load from one place to another, in a fast way and with minimum swing in the cable.

Nowadays, computer systems are everywhere. From simple portable devices such as watches and MP3 players to large stationary installations that control nuclear power plants, computer systems are now present in all aspects of our modern and every-day life. In about only 70 years, they have completely perturbed our way of life and they reached a so high degree of sophistication that they will be soon capable of driving our cars and cleaning our houses without any human intervention. As computer systems gain in responsibilities, it becomes essential that they provide both safety and reliability. Indeed, a failure in systems such as the anti-lock braking system (ABS) in cars could threaten human lives and generate catastrophic and irreversible consequences. Hence, for many years, researchers have addressed these emerging problems of system safety and reliability which come along with this fulgurant evolution. <p><p>This thesis provides a general overview of embedded real-time computer systems, i.e. a particular kind of computer system whose number grows daily. We provide the reader with some preliminary knowledge and a good understanding of the concepts that underlie this emerging technology. We focus especially on the theoretical problems related to the real-time issue and briefly summarizes the main solutions, together with their advantages and drawbacks. This brings the reader through all the conceptual layers constituting a computer system, from the software level---the logical part---that specifies both the system behavior and requirements to the hardware level---the physical part---that actually performs the expected treatments and reacts to the environment. In the meanwhile, we introduce the theoretical models that allow researchers for theoretical analyses which ensure that all the system requirements are fulfilled. Finally, we address the energy consumption problem in embedded systems. We describe the various factors of power dissipation in modern technologies and we introduce different solutions to reduce this consumption./Cette thèse se focalise sur un type de systèmes informatiques bien précis appelés “systèmes embarqués temps réel”. Un système est dit “embarqué” lorsqu’il est développé afin de servir un but bien précis. Un téléphone portable est un parfait exemple de système embarqué étant donné que toutes ses fonctionnalités sont rigoureusement définies avant même sa conception. Au contraire, un ordinateur personnel n’est généralement pas considéré comme un système embarqué, les concepteurs ne sachant pas à l’avance à quelles fins il sera utilisé. Une grande partie de ces systèmes embarqués ont des contraintes temporelles très fortes, ce qui les distingue encore plus des ordinateurs grand public. A titre d’exemple, lorsqu’un conducteur de voiture freine brusquement, l’ordinateur de bord déclenche l’application ABS et il est primordial que cette application soit traitée endéans une courte échéance. Autrement dit, cette fonctionnalité ABS doit être traitée prioritairement par rapport aux autres fonctionnalités du véhicule. Ce type de système embarqué est alors dit “temps réel”, dû à ces notions de temps et de priorités entre les applications. La problèmatique posée par les systèmes temps réel est la suivante. Comment déterminer, à tout moment, un ordre d’exécution des différentes fonctionnalités de telle sorte qu’elles soient toutes exécutées entièrement endéans leur échéance ?De plus, avec l’apparition récente des systèmes multiprocesseurs, cette problématique s’est fortement complexifiée, vu que le système doit à présent déterminer quelle fonctionnalité s’exécute à quel moment sur quel processeur afin que toutes les contraintes temporelles soient respectées. Pour finir, ces systèmes embarqués temp réel multiprocesseurs se sont rapidement retrouvés confrontés à un problème de consommation d’énergie. Leur demande en terme de performance (et donc en terme d’énergie) à évolué beaucoup plus rapidement que la capacité des batteries qui les alimentent. Ce problème est actuellement rencontré par de nombreux systèmes, tels que les téléphones portables par exemple. L’objectif de cette thèse est de parcourir les différents composants de tels système embarqués et de proposer des solutions afin de réduire leur consommation d’énergie. / Doctorat en Sciences / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Worst Case Execution Time (WCET) is an important metric for programs running on real-time systems, and finding precise estimates of a program’s WCET is crucial to avoid over-allocation and wastage of hardware resources and to improve the schedulability of task sets. Hardware Caches have a major impact on a program’s execution time, and accurate estimation of a program’s cache behavior generally leads to significant reduction of its estimated WCET. However, the cache behavior of an access cannot be determined in isolation, since it depends on the access history, and in multi-path programs, the sequence of accesses made to the cache is not fixed. Hence, the same access can exhibit different cache behavior in different execution instances. This issue is further exacerbated in shared caches in a multi-core architecture, where interfering accesses from co-running programs on other cores can arrive at any time and modify the cache state. Further, cache analysis aimed towards WCET estimation should be provably safe, in that the estimated WCET should always exceed the actual execution time across all execution instances. Faced with such contradicting requirements, previous approaches to cache analysis try to find memory accesses in a program which are guaranteed to hit the cache, irrespective of the program input, or the interferences from other co-running programs in case of a shared cache. To do so, they find the worst-case cache behavior for every individual memory access, analyzing the program (and interferences to a shared cache) to find whether there are execution instances where an access can super a cache miss. However, this approach loses out in making more precise predictions of private cache behavior which can be safely used for WCET estimation, and is significantly imprecise for shared cache analysis, where it is often impossible to guarantee that an access always hits the cache. In this work, we take a fundamentally different approach to cache analysis, by (1) trying to find worst-case behavior of groups of cache accesses, and (2) trying to find the exact cache behavior in the worst-case program execution instance, which is the execution instance with the maximum execution time. For shared caches, we propose the Worst Case Interference Placement (WCIP) technique, which finds the worst-case timing of interfering accesses that would cause the maximum number of cache misses on the worst case execution path of the program. We first use Integer Linear Programming (ILP) to find an exact solution to the WCIP problem. However, this approach does not scale well for large programs, and so we investigate the WCIP problem in detail and prove that it is NP-Hard. In the process, we discover that the source of hardness of the WCIP problem lies in finding the worst case execution path which would exhibit the maximum execution time in the presence of interferences. We use this observation to propose an approximate algorithm for performing WCIP, which bypasses the hard problem of finding the worst case execution path by simply assuming that all cache accesses made by the program occur on a single path. This allows us to use a simple greedy algorithm to distribute the interfering accesses by choosing those cache accesses which could be most affected by interferences. The greedy algorithm also guarantees that the increase in WCET due to interferences is linear in the number of interferences. Experimentally, we show that WCIP provides substantial precision improvement in the final WCET over previous approaches to shared cache analysis, and the approximate algorithm almost matches the precision of the ILP-based approach, while being considerably faster. For private caches, we discover multiple scenarios where hit-miss predictions made by traditional Abstract Interpretation-based approaches are not sufficient to fully capture cache behavior for WCET estimation. We introduce the concept of cache miss paths, which are abstractions of program path along which an access can super a cache miss. We propose an ILP-based approach which uses cache miss paths to find the exact cache behavior in the worst-case execution instance of the program. However, the ILP-based approach needs information about the worst-case execution path to predict the cache behavior, and hence it is difficult to integrate it with other micro-architectural analysis. We then show that most of the precision improvement of the ILP-based approach can be recovered without any knowledge of the worst-case execution path, by a careful analysis of the cache miss paths themselves. In particular, we can use cache miss paths to find the worst-case behavior of groups of cache accesses. Further, we can find upper bounds on the maximum number of times that cache accesses inside loops can exhibit worst-case behavior. This results in a scalable, precise method for performing private cache analysis which can be easily integrated with other micro-architectural analysis.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Physical activity monitoring using wearable sensors give valuable information about patient's neuro activities. Fall among ages of 60 and older in US is a leading cause for injury-related health issues and present serious concern in the public health care sector. If the emergency treatments are not on time, these injuries may result in disability, paralysis, or even death. In this work, we present an approach that early detect fall occurrences. Low power capacitive accelerometers incorporated with microcontroller processing units were utilized to early detect accurate information about fall events. Decision tree algorithms were implemented to set thresholds for data acquired from accelerometers. Data is then verified against their thresholds and the data acquisition decision unit makes the decision to save patients from fall occurrences. Daily activities are logged on an onboard memory chip with Bluetooth option to transfer the data wirelessly to mobile devices. In this work, a system prototype based on neurosignal activities was built and tested against seven different daily human activities for the sake of differentiating between fall and non-fall detection. The developed system features low power, high speed, and high reliability. Eventually, this study will lead to wearable fall detection system that serves important need within the health care sector. In this work Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C) protocol is used to communicate between the accelerometers and the embedded control system. The data transfer from the Microcontroller unit to the mobile device or laptop is done using Bluetooth technology.

This work presents improvements to a multi-core performance/power simulator. The improvements which include updated power models, voltage scaling aware models, and an application specific benchmark, are done to increase the accuracy of power models under voltage and frequency scaling. Improvements to the simulator enable more accurate design space exploration for a biomedical application. The work flow used to modify the simulator is also presented so similar modifications could be used on future simulators. / Graduation date: 2012