International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 28-31, 1996 / Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / This paper discusses a “Smart Sensor” interface being developed for use in the Boeing Company. Several laboratory groups and Flight Test have joined in a study to define such an interface. It will allow a data acquisition system to record data from a large number of “Smart Sensors”. A single pair of wires will form a bus to interface the sensors to the data system. Most systems will need more than one bus. Some needs exist for "Smart Actuators" as well to allow for closed loop control within the laboratories. The process control industry has developed several candidate busses. The groups are now in the process of evaluating the capabilities of the available busses to see which ones, if any, will do our job. To see if anyone else has similar needs, these requirements and the candidate busses are being shared. The goal is to see if some form of cooperation is possible.

In various martial arts, competitors are interested in quantifying and categorising techniques which are exercised during training. The implementation of embedded systems into training gear, especially a portable wireless body worn system, based on inertial sensors, facilitates the quantification and categorisation of forces and accelerations involved during the training of martial arts. The scope of this paper is to give a brief overview of contemporary technology and devices, describe key methods that are implemented in such devices and as well to provide a project outline. For this reason a literature research was carried out using search engines and databases. The search yielded that devices are capable of tracking activities of daily life; however only one product was found which can track and recognise techniques applied in martial arts training just for the upper body. The realisation of a sensor based tracking system which can track and classify different exercises is possible with present technology. Even so, different challenges such as implementing a sensor fusion and classifier algorithm need to be overcome. Therefore, the project development has to be viewed as an iterative process.

Reliability of a piston rod position measurement system is key when applied to large hydraulic cylinders. This and other requirements lead to the development of the CIMS (Cylinder Integrated Measurement System), a contactless and highly accurate system that uses the Hall effect to detect an encoded piston rod. To eliminate deviations caused by mechanical tolerances, temperature and air gap variations etc., the raw signals are filtered and compensated. Its functionality has been extended by making statistical data available, based on the values measured. These include the number of strokes, cumulative stroke length, stroke length distribution, maximum velocity and acceleration, temperature classification and extreme temperatures. Assessment of these data enables the user to optimize his application. Comparison to historic data can give input to the preventive maintenance plan to reduce (unforeseeable) system downtime and to increase the system reliability. This development resulted into the CIMSmart. It is a significant step towards cylinder intelligence.

The objective of this dissertation is to investigate several dynamical approaches aiming to improve the sensitivity and performance of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) resonant sensors. Resonant sensors rely on tracking shifts in the dynamic features of microstructures during sensing, such as their resonance frequency. We aim here to demonstrate analytically and experimentally several new concepts aiming to sharpen their response, enhance the signal to noise ratio, and demonstrate smart functionalities combined into a single resonator. The dissertation starts with enhancing the excitations of the higher order modes of vibrations of clamped-clamped microbeam resonators. The concept is based on using partial electrodes with shapes that induce strong excitation of the mode of interest. Using a half electrode, the second mode is excited with a high amplitude of vibration. Also, using a two-third electrode configuration is shown to amplify the third mode resonance amplitude compared with the full electrode under the same electrical loading conditions. Then, we demonstrate the effectiveness of higher order mode excitation and metal organic frameworks (MOFs) functionalization for improving the sensitivity and selectivity of resonant gas sensors. Also, using a single mode only, we show the possibility of realizing a smart switch triggered upon exceeding a threshold mass when operating the resonator near the dynamic pull-in instability. The second part of the dissertation deals with the dynamics of the microbeam under a two-source harmonic excitation. We experimentally demonstrate resonances of an additive and subtractive type. It is shown that by properly tuning the frequency and amplitude of the excitation force, the frequency bandwidth of the resonator is controlled. Finally, we employ the multimode excitation of a single resonator to demonstrate smart functionalities. By monitoring the frequency shifts of two modes, we experimentally demonstrate the effectiveness of this technique to measure the environmental temperature and gas concentration. Also, we present a hybrid sensor and switch device, which is capable of accurately measuring gas concentration and perform switching when the concentration exceeds a specific (safe) threshold. In contrast to the single mode operation, we show that monitoring the third mode enhances sensitivity, improves accuracy, and lowers the sensor sensitivity to noise.

ITC/USA 2007 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Third Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 22-25, 2007 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / While any vehicle that is typically part of a flight test campaign is heavily instrumented to validate its performance, long term vehicle health monitoring is performed by a significantly reduced number of sensors due to a number of issues including cost, weight and maintainability. The development and deployment of smart sensor buses has reached a time in which they can be integrated into a larger data acquisition system environment. The benefits of these types of buses include a significant reduction in the amount of wiring and overall system complexity by placing the appropriate signal conditioners close to their respective sensors and providing data back over a common bus, that also provides a single power source. The use of a smart-sensor data collection bus, such as IntelliBus™1 or IEEE-1451, along with the continued miniaturization of signal conditioning devices, leads to the interesting possibility of permanently embedding data collection capabilities within a vehicle after the initial flight test effort has completed, providing long-term health-monitoring and diagnostic functionality that is not available today. This paper will discuss the system considerations and the benefits of a smart sensor based system and how pieces can be transitioned from flight qualification to long-term vehicle health monitoring in production vehicles.

Neste trabalho é apresentado um sistema de instrumentação inteligente integrado com a arquitetura Web Services e desenvolvido em conformidade com as diretrizes estabelecidas na norma IEEE 1451.1. O protocolo de transmissão de dados do sistema é associado ao conceito das especificações dos transdutores e a um Web Service que permita a configuração remota do sistema de aquisição de dados. Através de uma interface de supervisão remota, acessível via Internet a partir de qualquer navegador, o usuário é capaz de identificar quais são os sensores inteligentes que estão conectados em uma rede, através de uma identificação única associada às suas características (tipo, formatação dos dados, etc.). Nesta mesma interface de apresentação o usuário tem a liberdade de selecionar o número de sensores que deseja ativar para efetuar algum monitoramento. Após a seleção dos sensores é disponibilizada uma interface de monitoramento que permite a visualização dos dados através de um gráfico bem como permite ao usuário salvar em um arquivo texto os dados coletados. Na mesma interface de monitoramento é disponibilizado o Web Service que permite alterar o intervalo de coleta de dados. Um conjunto de computadores em uma rede local (Intranet) simula a rede de sensores inteligentes. Nesta mesma rede está conectado o servidor responsável pela disponibilização da interface de supervisão remota. / In this work is presented the integration of an established system of intelligent instrumentation with the Web Service?s architecture, in accordance with the IEEE 1451.1 standard. It is suggested the association of a data-communication protocol with the concept of Transducer Electronic Data Sheet (TEDS) to a Web Service for making possible the remote configuration of a data acquisition system. Through a remote supervisor interface, accessible via Internet from any browser, the user can, at the first moment, identify which are the smart sensors connected in a network, using an unique identification associated to its characteristics (type, data formatting, etc.). In the same graphical interface the user can choose which sensors wants to monitor and, after the selection, will have available the monitoring interface that enables data visualization through a graph and allows the user to save the collected data in a text file. In the same monitoring interface the Web Service is also available; it admits modifications on the data collection interval. A group of computers in a local network (Intranet) simulates the smart sensors network. In the same network is connected a server responsible for supplying the remote supervisor interface.

Les systèmes électroniques embarqués à bord des aéronefs rassemblent des informations sur l’environnement qui les entourent au moyen de différents types de capteurs. À l’heure actuelle, l’acquisition des signaux générés par ces capteurs se fait au moyen de circuits électroniques d’interfaçage dédiés à un type de capteur en particulier, ce qui limite les possibilités d’évolution des calculateurs de bord.Nos travaux visent à remplacer ces circuits d’interfaçage par une interface dite versatile, capable de faire l’acquisition de signaux issus de différents types de capteurs. L’environnement dans lequel les systèmes avioniques sont amenés à fonctionner est particulièrement difficile, notamment par la présence de modes communs parasites importants, supérieures à plusieurs dizaines de volts. Après une exploration détaillée de cet environnement, nous proposons une architecture d’interface versatile, basée sur un ASIC mixte et un FPGA. L’ASIC est chargé du conditionnement analogique des signaux et de leur conversion dans le domaine numérique, et peut-être configuré à plusieurs niveaux (gains, offsets, impédances...). Le FPGA comprend les différents traitements numériques nécessaires à l’extraction de l’information contenue dans les signaux. Nous proposons de plus une méthode mixte permettant de corriger les imprécisions analogiques, telles que les défauts d’appairage, souvent critiques dans l’acquisition de signaux différentiels. Un circuit de test a été réalisé dans une technologie CMOS High Voltage 0.35µm afin de valider les différents principes proposés dans nos travaux. / Avionic embedded systems sense their environment through the use of various sensors. Currently, the electrical signals generated by these sensors are acquired by dedicated interface circuits, which limits the functionalities that can be implemented in the computer and slows down their evolution.Our work aims at replacing these interfacing circuits by a more flexible interface, called versatile interface, which has the ability to acquire different kind of signals. Avionic embedded systems usually operate in a pretty harsh environment, in which important common mode voltages of more than thirty volts can superimpose to useful signals. After a thorough exploration of this environment and its specifities, we propose an architecture of the versatile interface, based on a mixed signal ASIC and a FPGA. The ASIC includes a programmable analog signal conditioning stage which is able to withstand the high voltages present in the harsh avionic environment. The FPGA processes the different signals and extract the useful information from them. We also propose method which allows to correct the analog imprecisions due to mismatch or temperature drifts. This method uses analog and digital processing, and allow our versatile interface to be immune to process or temperature variations. A test circuit has been realized in a high voltage 0.35µm CMOS technology, in order to validate the different principles that we propose in this work.

<p>A full custom integrated circuit design of a serial bitstream processor is proposed for remote smart sensor systems. This dissertation describes details of the architectural exploration, circuit implementation, algorithm simulation, and testing results. The design is fabricated and demonstrated to be a successful working processor for basic algorithm functions. In addition, the energy performance of the processor, in terms of energy per operation, is evaluated. Compared to the multi-bit sensor processor, the proposed sensor processor provides improved energy efficiency for serial sensor data processing tasks, and also features low transistor count and area reduction advantages.</p><p>Operating in long-term, low data rate sensing environments, the serial bitstream processor developed is targeted at low-cost smart sensor systems with serial I/O communication through wireless links. This processor is an attractive option because of its low transistor count, easy on-chip integration, and programming flexibility for low data duty cycle smart sensor systems, where longer battery life, long-term monitoring and sensor reliability are critical. </p><p>The processor can be programmed for sensor processing algorithms such as delta sigma processor, calibration, and self-test algorithms. It also can be modified to utilize Coordinate Rotation Digital Computer (CORDIC) algorithms. The applications of the proposed sensor processor include wearable or portable biomedical sensors for health care monitoring or autonomous environmental sensors.</p> / Dissertation

Context information on a smart phone can be used to tailor applications for specific situations (e.g. provide tailored routing advice based on location, gas prices and traffic). However, typical context-aware smart phone applications use very limited context information such as user identity, location and time. In the future, smart phones will need to decide from a wide range of sensors to gather information from in order to best accommodate user needs and preferences in a given context. In this thesis, we present a model for active sensor selection within decision-making processes, in which observational features are selected based on longer-term impact on the decisions made by the smart phone. This thesis formulates the problem as a partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP), and proposes a non-myopic solution to the problem using a state of the art approximate planning algorithm Symbolic Perseus. We have tested our method on a 3 small example domains, comparing different policy types, discount factors and cost settings. The experimental results proved that the proposed approach delivers a better policy in the situation of costly sensors, while at the same time provides the advantage of faster policy computation with less memory usage.

Context information on a smart phone can be used to tailor applications for specific situations (e.g. provide tailored routing advice based on location, gas prices and traffic). However, typical context-aware smart phone applications use very limited context information such as user identity, location and time. In the future, smart phones will need to decide from a wide range of sensors to gather information from in order to best accommodate user needs and preferences in a given context. In this thesis, we present a model for active sensor selection within decision-making processes, in which observational features are selected based on longer-term impact on the decisions made by the smart phone. This thesis formulates the problem as a partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP), and proposes a non-myopic solution to the problem using a state of the art approximate planning algorithm Symbolic Perseus. We have tested our method on a 3 small example domains, comparing different policy types, discount factors and cost settings. The experimental results proved that the proposed approach delivers a better policy in the situation of costly sensors, while at the same time provides the advantage of faster policy computation with less memory usage.