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<p dir="ltr">The present work expands the state of the art in the design of soft actuators and flexible sensors manufactured through fused deposition modelling (FDM) and direct ink writing (DIW). The first design consisted of flexible sensors for rehabilitation. Three different designs were tested and compared according to their sensitivity and accuracy. The flexible sensor successfully responded to deformation by changing its resistance. The first design of soft actuator was the Closed Dual Pneumatic Bellow Actuator. The soft actuator was manufactured using FDM and included an inner chamber in which the input air flows through and produces the actuation. The actuator also included dielectric electroactive polymer (DEAP) that showed response to pressure between the actuator and the object to be grasped. The electrodes of the DEAP were manufactured using commercial conductive TPU. A second soft actuator was designed with a circular shape and embedded DEAP. The electrodes in the DEAP consisted of conductive carbon grease. Previous tests were performed to assess the functionality of a DEAP structure using conductive carbon grease. The DEAP showed an increase in capacitance as pressure was applied on one side of the structure parallel to the electrodes and computational simulations validated such response. Future work using the sensors and actuators presented includes the implementation of a closed-loop system to the soft actuators, using the readouts of the sensors to adjust the input pressure and apply precise pressure on objects. The flexible sensor for rehabilitation has the potential to be implemented in each of the fingers of the hand and use the data to characterize the movement of the hand under different configurations providing feedback to patients in task-oriented therapy.</p>

This thesis describes the possibilities of local and remote sensors configuration. Summary overview of the most common Fieldbus and protocols for remote configuration is performed. The focus is mainly dedicated to the HART protocol that is analyzed from the physical layer to the application layer. Circuit diagram and printed circuit board (PCB) of smart sensor with thermistor probe Pt1000 was designed. The HART protocol allows the smart sensor parameters setting as well. The functionality of remote configuration was tested in HARTWinConf program. The control elements for local sensor configuration, such as buttons, matrix keyboards and touchscreens, are described in the following chapter. Representation of the measurement values on display module is introduced too. The most important parameters and aspect of character LCD, graphics LCD and OLED displays are described in greater details. The DD12864YO-3A OLED display was selected to use with designed temperature smart sensor module. The display shows the loop current, the percentage of current range and the primary value - temperature. As the last step the EMI and EMS tests for all modules were performed.

Thesis (M.S. in Systems Engineering)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2010. / Thesis Advisor(s): Goshorn, Rachel ; Goshorn, Deborah. "June 2010." Description based on title screen as viewed on June 24, 2010. Author(s) subject terms: Anomaly Detection, Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Behavior Analysis, Distributed Artificial Intelligence, Intelligence-Surveillance-Reconnaissance, Maritime Domain Awareness, Maritime Force Protection, Multi-agent Systems, Network-centric Operations, Network-centric Systems Engineering, Network-centric Warfare, Smart Sensor Networks, Systems Engineering, Systems Integration, System of Systems. Includes bibliographical references (p. 209-212). Also available in print.

This thesis deals with design and implementation of a versatile control unit, which is primarily designed for control of solar collectors. It describes the various stages of design. First, the system of solar collectors is introduced. Its input-output parts are analyzed and the requirements are determined for the control unit. The characteristics of temperature sensors are examined, the work deals with continuous variable speed circulators. The following part is dedicated to hardware and software implementation of the objectives of the work. The boards were designed in Eagle design environment, the firmware was written in C programming language. In conclusion, the evaluation of the results of the proposed system and possible ways of its further development are discussed. The versatile control unit can be deployed in practice realistically.