Este trabajo de tesis muestra el diseño del control de temperatura del portasustrato de la cámara de alto vacío del Laboratorio de Ciencia de los Materiales de la Sección Física de la PUCP. Para estudiar las propiedades físicas, químicas y ópticas de las películas semiconductoras delgadas elaboradas dentro de la cámara, los investigadores retiran las películas a un horno externo fuera de la cámara; sometiéndolas a altas temperaturas. Por ello es un requerimiento realizar el control de temperatura del portasustrato, el cual sostiene al sustrato donde se depositan las películas semiconductoras, dentro de la cámara de alto vacío. Por tal necesidad se diseñó el control de temperatura del portasustrato, para lo cual se realizaron pruebas en una placa térmica que transfiere calor al portasustrato de la cámara, debido al Efecto Joule, en una resistencia eléctrica de 50 Ohmios y capaz de proporcionar 1200W de potencia eléctrica; esta resistencia está en el interior de la placa térmica. Posicionando adecuadamente el sensor de temperatura (termocupla) y mediante el algoritmo de control diseñado (Proporcional e Integral) por el modelo de Ziegler and Nichols, se logró satisfactoriamente el control de temperatura del portasustrato de la cámara de alto vacío para el Laboratorio de Ciencia de los Materiales de la PUCP, con un error menor a 2°C. Fue necesario conocer en qué rangos de temperatura el portasustrato tiene un comportamiento lineal entre la señal de entrada y la temperatura monitoreada, en un experimento realizado en lazo abierto para así conocer las funciones de transferencia que se puedan obtener y poder realizar el control de temperatura en el rango de trabajo del portasustrato. / Tesis

The testing of any physiological diagnostic system in-vivo depends critically on the stability of the anesthetized animal used. That is, if the systemic physiological parameters are not tightly controlled, it is exceedingly difficult to assess the precision and accuracy of the system or interpret the consequence of disease. In order to ensure that all measurements taken using the experimental system are not affected by fluctuations in physiological state, the animal must be maintained in a tightly controlled physiologic range. The main goal of this project was to develop a robust monitoring and control system capable of maintaining the physiological parameters of the anesthetized animal in a predetermined range, using the instrumentation already present in the laboratory, and based on the LabVIEWR software interface. A single user interface was developed that allowed for monitoring and control of key physiological parameters including body temperature (BT), mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) and end tidal CO2 (ETCO2). Embedded within this interface was a fuzzy logic based control system designed to mimic the decision making of an anesthetist. The system was tested by manipulating the blood pressure of a group of anesthetized animal subjects using bolus injections of epinephrine and continuous infusions of phenylephrine (a vasoconstrictor) and sodium nitroprusside (a vasodilator). This testing showed that the system was able to significantly reduce the deviation from the set pressure (as measured by the root mean square value) while under control in the hypotension condition (p < 0.10). Though both the short-term and hypertension testing showed no significant improvement, the control system did successfully manipulate the anesthetic percentage in response to changes in MAP. Though currently limited by the control variables being used, this system is an important first step towards a fully automated monitoring and control system and can be used as the basis for further research.

Ericsson har haft ett problem som påverkar deras mikrovågsradio. Detta problem handlar i grunden om mekaniska störningar som påverkar dataöverföringen mellan två radioenheter. Dessa störningar resulterar i bitfel på grund av olika orsaker. Dessa orsaker undersöks i projektet, för att i senare skede kunna förbättra precisionen av dataöverföringen. Genom att skicka signalerna med olika frekvenser på ett automatiserat och mer noggrant sätt, ökar möjligheten att testa radion i fler miljöer samtidigt möjligheten av att täcka ett så stort frekvensområde som möjligt ges. Arbetet är en blandning av elektronik, mekanik, akustik och programmering. Tanken är att den nya mätmetoden som presenteras skall vara automatisk och mjukvarustyrd. Även manuell styrning skall vara möjlig. Arbetet har bestått av forskning, marknadsskanning och kontakt med personer som är involverade inom området, detta för att hitta det bästa sättet att utveckla en ny felsökningsmetod.Med hjälp av olika testkörningar som studeras noggrant kommer förståelsen för ovan nämnda störningar att öka, vilket förhoppningsvis hjälper oss att hitta olika sätt att hantera dessa störningar i enskilda komponenter samt konstruktionen i sin helhet. Det finns flera förslag på alternativ, men genom ökad förståelse och kunskap inom området har det visat sig att det lämpligaste alternativet är att använda en shaker och en speaker som sändare och ett piezoelement som givare. Detta piezoelement tillsammans med en förstärkare mäter signalerna och övervakas med ett oscilloskop. Shakern och speakern drivs av en signalgenerator via en förstärkare. Alla dessa instrument styrs via ett styrprogram som är programmerad i LabVIEW. Styrprogrammets uppgift är att skanna över ett bestämt frekvensintervall med en konstant amplitud. Givaren mäter dessa signaler och sparar till en textfil. Denna information är viktig för att finna resonansfrekvenser och även övervaka den verkliga utsignalen som kommer fram till testobjektet.Detta arbete kommer förhoppningsvis att vara av stor betydelse för utvecklingen av nya produkter och kan bli ett användbart verktyg för andra ingenjörer inom Ericsson i framtiden. / Program: Utvecklingsingenjör

In recent years, due to the combination of technological advances in the fields ofmeasurement instrumentation, communications, home-health care and textile-technology thedevelopment of medical devices has shifted towards applications of personal healthcare.There are well known the available solutions for heart rate monitoring successfully providedby Polar and Numetrex. Furthermore new monitoring applications are also investigated. Amongthese non-invasive monitoring applications, it is possible to find several ones enable bymeasurements of Electrical Bioimpedance.Analog Devices has developed the AD5933 Impedance Network Analyzer which facilitatesto a large extent the design and implementation of Electrical Bioimpedance Spectrometers in amuch reduced space. Such small size allows the development of a fully wearable bioimpedancemeasurement.With the development of a Electrical Bioimpedance-enable wearable medical device in focusfor personal healthcare monitoring, in this project, the issue of power management has beentargeted and a battery-driven Electrical Bioimpedance Spectrometer based in the AD5933 hasbeen implemented. The resulting system has the possibility to operate with a Li-Po battery with apower autonomy over 17 hours.

The phase-locked loop is an important concept in the field of wireless communication. PLL:s have wide-ranging applications in many electronic circuits. The history and the basic principle of the phase-locked loop are discussed. The different building blocks and their roles are also described along with some of the major applications ofphase-locked loops. The thesis mainly describes how to build a phase-locked loop circuit using LabVIEW, as a laboratory experiment intended for a course in Radio Engineering. It was previously implemented in PSpice and this is described for comparison. The basic functions and features of LabVIEW are discussed. The primary circuit of a phase-locked loop is constructed in LabVIEW and its characteristics are noted. Some conclusions are drawn and future work on this phase-locked loop circuit using LabVIEW is suggested.

To discover the potential of IR spectroscopy and explore the details of FTIR instrumentation, a FTIR was built from most basic parts to provide access to every aspect of a IR spectrometer including the hardware and software. The optical system followed the most widely used double-interferometer design. The software control system was developed with LabVIEW to perform data acquisition of the detectors, data processing and controls of the actuators. The FTIR built will be able to provide a full optical IR spectroscopy platform which has a complete control and data acquisition system and can be continuously improved in accuracy and resolution to reach high lab experiment class as the research keep going. The availability of the hardware setup and software source code allows updating of this system for many advanced IR spectroscopy like spatially resolved and time resolved applications. To achieve in-situ material characterization with multiple measurements, some instruments can be modified and integrated with experiments. This thesis provides a practical and useful example of measuring IR spectra and mass of the sample simultaneously during thermal reactions. This instrument was designed and build with a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR) and a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA). Diffuse reflectance Fourier transform (DRIFT) was equipped to a commercial FTIR to acquire the IR spectra. A micro-balance was taken from a TGA was refitted to this system to measure the sample mass. A series of LabVIEW applications was developed for the FTIR control and communication, TGA communication and temperature control. The system was successfully built and tested with calcium oxalate decomposition experiments. The data showed that the instrument has good accuracy and repeatability of both the IR and mass measurement. The analysis of the calcium oxalate data demonstrated good correlation between the IR, mass and temperature parameters.

The pressure ulcer is a well-known clinical problem that has plagued many patients in acute-care hospitals and chronic-care facilities. The pressure ulcer has the potential to diminish the quality of a patient's life by hindering the person's physical and emotional well-being. In addition, pressure ulcers are a high-cost problem. Past studies have shown that costs related to the treatment of pressure ulcers have reached 1.335 billion dollars a year in the United States alone. A pressure ulcer is defined as a lesion created by unrelieved pressure, which causes tissue ischemia and subsequently damages the underlying tissue. This sequence of events is mainly centered on ischemia. Ischemia is a condition created by an insufficient flow of blood to an organ or part of an organ such as the skin. The outcome of ischemia is cell death at the tissue level, which is commonly termed necrosis. In the past, researchers employed several different non-invasive techniques in order to detect changes in the condition of human skin when blood flow was restricted. The two most commonly used practices were Laser Doppler Velocimetry and Continuous Wave Ultrasound. Laser Doppler Velocimeter is used to measure cutaneous blood flow in a study region. The moving red blood cells in blood vessels cause a Doppler shift of incident laser light, which correlates with the velocity of blood flow. Continuous Wave Ultrasound involves an ultrasound signal, which is transmitted into the skin. The change in frequency of the reflected signal with respect to the transmitted signal provides an indication of blow flow. The objective of this research was to examine a method for the detection of arterial blood flow, which utilized the 4-electrode sensor for the measurement of Tissue Impedance or the Bio-impedance method. The system developed, for the synchronous detection method, consisted of both analog hardware and software tools. The analog hardware utilized synchronous detection. The software monitored and performed mathematical operations on the retrieved data. The system developed during this research demonstrated the ability to measure the pulsatile impedance of the skin and present the results in a fashion useful to healthcare providers.

The application of technology makes a lot of things easier, but for individuals with disability, it makes things possible. Rehabilitation robotics aims at providing robotic devices, which can act as functional extensions of the user, while performing basic activities. Providing a well-designed gripper as its end-effector can greatly enhance the performance of a rehabilitation robot. The gripper performs simple tasks like picking up objects and manipulating objects, which help in performing activities of daily living. This thesis describes the development of a prototype gripper for a wheelchair mounted robot. The pre-development surveys conducted before the development of commercialized robotic assistive devices were analyzed and user task priorities were understood. The role of the gripper as an object-grasping device was focused upon. The size and weight parameters, which the gripper should effectively grasp, were decided. Based on these parameters, a prototype was developed. Force sensors were used to monitor the gripping forces. The data was acquired using a Data Acquisition System. The gripping forces were measured using a Labview program that utilized the force-voltage relationship for the sensor. This relationship was obtained by performing calibration experiments. The performance of the prototype was tested using objects that are used in everyday environment and was analyzed by conducting a set of experiments. A relay circuit was designed that would stop the motors once the gripping forces exceeded a threshold value for a given object. This avoided any damage to the object during the gripping process. The gripping forces measured were found to be in close agreement to the theoretically calculated force values.

A real time acoustic direction-finding module has been developed to estimate the ele- vation and azimuth of an impulsive event while function aboard a small unmanned air- craft vehicle. The generalized cross-correlation with phase transform method was used to estimate time differences of arrival in an 8 channel microphone array. A linear least squares approach was used to calculate an estimate for the direction of arrival. In order to accomplish this task, a vertical takeoff and landing small unmanned aircraft system was assembled to host the direction finding module. The module itself is made up of an eight-channel synchronous analog-to-digital converter connected to eight lightweight micro electro-mechanical microphones with pre-amplifiers. The data is processed on an embedded system with a field programmable gate array chip and a central processing unit. Noise canceling techniques were employed to address the noise propagating from the propellers under operation. The results from this research show that it is possible to perform direction-finding estimation while aboard an operating small unmanned aircraft vehicle with initial tests showing maximum errors of ± 7°.

<p>The report describes a measuring method for analysis of energy consumption measurement in microwave ovens. Concurrently that the awareness of the environment evolves the demands are growing for more power saving products. This is also counting within the Home Appliance business, which is Whirlpools business area. Whirlpool is therefore interested of launching microwave ovens with documented low power consumption. To be able to implement this, both asserted measuring equipment, that fulfils all demands, and a standard procedure is required. Asthis is a comparatively new business area within microwave oven production, there is no definite standard to follow. There is however a proposal developed by CENELEC. </p><p>The report describes the suggested measuring method and analyses and evaluates it. Proposal is also given on how to refine the measuring method and evolve it further. The developed measuring equipment is carefully described in the report. The software to the measuring equipment has been developed using National Instrument’s LabVIEW^®. LabVIEW^® is a powerful and comparatively easy-to-use tool often used when developing measuring systems. The developed hardware’s main task is to detect which heating element (grill, forced air, microwaves) that is active in the microwave oven. This is very useful when verifying programs for cooking in the oven. </p><p>Eventually it is the authors hope that the system will be used within Whirlpool, and also be developed further.</p>