The goal of this paper is to suggest suitable method for angle measuring of mobile robot. There are being analyzed 3 different sensors – gyroscope, accelerometer and electronic compass in the prologue. Their advantages and disadvantages in the theoretical way are being explained in this part and also their opportunities of use in the practical way. In the following parts the work is focused on MEMS gyroscopes and their opportunities of use in the practical way with regard to achievable exactness and to the application for development of its exactness. The application of device together with main SW for microcontroller and the valuation of achievable exactness and determined facts are being described in the conclusion part.

Thesis (MScEng (Electrical and Electronic Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis presents an attempt at creating a fully functional SQUID for the purposes of a predefined application. The goal of the work is to provide a method of development, primarily utilising the facilities of the Engineering Faculty of the University of Stellenbosch, with minimal assistance from other departments. This method is then analysed and the successes and failures discussed in order to provide guidelines and recommendations for future research. The device consists of a gradiometric SQUID, as well as electronics which provide the SQUID bias current, output linearisation and output signal filtering. YBCO is used for the superconducting material, allowing the use of liquid nitrogen as coolant which eases the operation and portability of the device. Various methods of creating Josephson junctions are tested, such as constriction bridges using AFM lithography and step-edge junctions, with and without different buffer layers. Proof of concept simulations demonstrate the viability of the device. Unfortunately, a functional device could not be constructed, mostly due to the design requiring higher levels of resolution and process control than some of the available facilities can provide. Recommendations are provided for future researchers. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis beskryf ’n poging om ’n volledige funksionele SQUID te vervaardig vir die doeleindes van ’n vasgestelde toepassing. Die doel van die werk is om ’n metode te voorsien wat hoofsaaklik gebruik maak van die fasiliteite van die Ingenieurswese Fakulteit van die Universiteit van Stellenbosch, met minimale hulp van ander departemente. Hierdie metode word dan ondersoek en die suksesse en mislukkings bespreek om riglyne en voorstellings te voorsien vir toekomstige navorsing. Die toestel bestaan uit ’n gradiometriese SQUID, sowel as elektronika wat voorsiening maak vir voorspanning, uittree-linearisering en ’n uittree-filter. YBCO is as supergeleidende materiaal gebruik, wat die gebruik van vloeibare stikstof as verkoeler moontlik maak en dus die hantering en draagbaarheid van die toestel vergemaklik. Verskillende metodes om Josephson-vlakke te vervaardig is getoets, onder andere vernouingsbrugvlakke deur middel van AFM litografie en stapvlakke met en sonder bufferlae. Bewys van konsep simulasies demonstreer die lewensvatbaarheid van die toestel. Ongelukkig kon ’n funksionele weergawe van die toestel nie vervaardig word nie, hoofsaaklik as gevolg van die ontwerp wat hoër resolusievlakke en beter prosesbeheer benodig as wat sekere van die beskikbare fasiliteite kan voorsien. Aanbevelings word voorsien vir toekomstige navorsers.

CHAMP (CHAllenging Minisatellite Payload) is a German small satellite mission to study the earth's gravity field, magnetic field and upper atmosphere. Thanks to the good condition of the satellite so far, the planned 5 years mission is extended to year 2009. The satellite provides continuously a large quantity of measurement data for the purpose of Earth study. The measurements of the magnetic field are undertaken by two Fluxgate Magnetometers (vector magnetometer) and one Overhauser Magnetometer (scalar magnetometer) flown on CHAMP. In order to ensure the quality of the data during the whole mission, the calibration of the magnetometers has to be performed routinely in orbit. The scalar magnetometer serves as the magnetic reference and its readings are compared with the readings of the vector magnetometer. The readings of the vector magnetometer are corrected by the parameters that are derived from this comparison, which is called the scalar calibration. In the routine processing, these calibration parameters are updated every 15 days by means of scalar calibration. There are also magnetic effects coming from the satellite which disturb the measurements. Most of them have been characterized during tests before launch. Among them are the remanent magnetization of the spacecraft and fields generated by currents. They are all considered to be constant over the mission life. The 8 years of operation experience allow us to investigate the long-term behaviors of the magnetometers and the satellite systems. According to the investigation, it was found that for example the scale factors of the FGM show obvious long-term changes which can be described by logarithmic functions. The other parameters (offsets and angles between the three components) can be considered constant. If these continuous parameters are applied for the FGM data processing, the disagreement between the OVM and the FGM readings is limited to pm1nT over the whole mission. This demonstrates, the magnetometers on CHAMP exhibit a very good stability. However, the daily correction of the parameter Z component offset of the FGM improves the agreement between the magnetometers markedly. The Z component offset plays a very important role for the data quality. It exhibits a linear relationship with the standard deviation of the disagreement between the OVM and the FGM readings. After Z offset correction, the errors are limited to pm0.5nT (equivalent to a standard deviation of 0.2nT). We improved the corrections of the spacecraft field which are not taken into account in the routine processing. Such disturbance field, e.g. from the power supply system of the satellite, show some systematic errors in the FGM data and are misinterpreted in 9-parameter calibration, which brings false local time related variation of the calibration parameters. These corrections are made by applying a mathematical model to the measured currents. This non-linear model is derived from an inversion technique. If the disturbance field of the satellite body are fully corrected, the standard deviation of scalar error triangle B remains about 0.1nT. Additionally, in order to keep the OVM readings a reliable standard, the imperfect coefficients of the torquer current correction for the OVM are redetermined by solving a minimization problem. The temporal variation of the spacecraft remanent field is investigated. It was found that the average magnetic moment of the magneto-torquers reflects well the moment of the satellite. This allows for a continuous correction of the spacecraft field. The reasons for the possible unknown systemic error are discussed in this thesis. Particularly, both temperature uncertainties and time errors have influence on the FGM data. Based on the results of this thesis the data processing of future magnetic missions can be designed in an improved way. In particular, the upcoming ESA mission Swarm can take advantage of our findings and provide all the auxiliary measurements needed for a proper recovery of the ambient magnetic field. / CHAMP (CHAllenging Minisatellite Payload) ist eine deutsche Kleinsatellitenmission für die Forschung und Anwendung in Bereich der Geowissenschaften und Atmosphärenphysik. Das Projekt wird vom GFZ geleitet. Mit seinen hochgenauen, multifunktionalen, sich ergänzenden Nutzlastelementen (Magnetometer, Akzelerometer, Sternsensor, GPS-Empfänger, Laser-Retroreflektor, Ionendriftmeter) liefert CHAMP erstmalig gleichzeitig hochgenaue Schwere- und Magnetfeldmessungen (seit Mitte 2000). Dank des bisherigen guten Zustandes des Satelliten ist die auf 5 Jahre ausgelegte Mission bis 2009 verlängert geworden. An Board befinden sich ein skalares Overhauser-Magnetometer(OVM) für Kalibrierungszwecke sowie zwei Fluxgate-Magnetometer(FGM) zur Messung des magnetischen Feldvektors. Die Messungen vom FGM werden immer verglichen mit denen vom OVM und korregiert im Fall von Widersprüche, das ist die sog. Skalar-Kalibrierung. Um eine zuverlässige Datenqualität während der 8 jährigen Mission zu garantieren, ist die Nachkalibrierung implementiert. Im Rahmen der standard mäßigen Datenverarbeitung werden die Instrumentenparameter des FGM alle 15 Tage neu bestimmt. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es, eine Verbesserung der Vektormagnetfelddaten zu erzielen durch eine neue Methode der Kalibrierung, die die Eigenschaften der Sensoren und Störung vom Raumfahrzeug mit berücksichtigt. Die Erfahrung aus den zurückliegenden Jahren hat gezeigt, dass sich die Skalenfaktoren des FGM stark mit der Zeit ändern. Dieser Verlauf lässt sich gut durch eine Logarithmuskurve anpassen. Andere Parameter wie die Winkel und die Offsets scheinen stabil zu sein. Eine Ausnahme macht der Offset der Z-Komponent. Dieser bedarf einer regelmäßigen Korrektur. Während die Standardverarbeitung eine undifferenzierte Bestimmung aller 9 FGM Parameter durch nicht-lineare Inversion der skalar Daten vornimmt, beziehen wir jetzt die langzeitlichen Eigenschaften der Parameter in die Bestimmung mit ein. Eine weitere Verbesserung der CHAMP-Magnetfelddaten konnte erreicht werden durch geeignete Berücksichtigung von Störung vom Raumfahrzeug. Die verbleibenden Unsicherheiten konnten durch diese Maßnahmen auf eine Standardabweichung von 0.1nT reduziert werden.

[Truncated abstract] Magnetic gradiometers are powerful tools for mineral exploration. The magnetic field contains valuable information about the mineral content of the surveyed terrain. The magnetic gradient specifies the amount of spatial variation in the direction and magnitude of the magnetic field. Surveys that measure the magnetic gradient provide vastly more information about geological targets than the magnetic field alone. This technology could have enormous benefits in terms of new discoveries and lower exploration costs. The magnetic gradient is normally calculated by subtracting the outputs of two total field magnetometers which are separated by a baseline. In 1997, a direct string magnetic gradiometer (DSMG) was developed that directly measures magnetic gradients using only a single string as its sensing element. This thesis describes research conducted to improve the sensitivity and performance of the DSMG. The main advantage of the DSMG is that only gradients can induce second harmonic vibrations in the string. Thus, the DSMG is insensitive to uniform magnetic fields that we are not interested in, such as the global magnetic field of the Earth. By using inductive electronics to measure second harmonic string vibrations, we can select to measure the magnetic gradient of nearby targets. Recent work has shown that a magnetic gradiometer with a noise floor of 0.01 nT/m/ v Hz should be sufficiently sensitive for geophysical exploration. In order to reach this goal, this thesis presents an investigation of all noise sources affecting the DSMG. ... Gas damping is negligible in high vacuum and no vibration isolation is required. This means that longer strings with low resonant frequencies can be used. Using theoretical modelling, I show that a space borne DSMG should be able to match the white noise level of SQuID based magnetic gradiometers and have a lower 1/f noise corner. Deployment in space could be the most viable application of the DSMG because of the ease of operation and enhancement of sensitivity. If the thermal noise level is reduced then other sources of noise will start to become more important. When rotated in the Earth's magnetic field, the DSMG detects a pseudo magnetic gradient despite the field being almost uniform. A possible cause is magnetically susceptible parts which are magnetically aligning with the Earth's field. I have conducted a thorough investigation of magnetic susceptible parts in the DSMG and reported the results in this thesis. In the DSMG, a pair of inductive pickup coils are used to measure the string's displacement with a root mean square accuracy of 1011 m/ v Hz. This is adequate at present but the inductive electronics may not be sensitive enough after other improvements in the DSMG are implemented. Here, I present a new capacitive displacement readout with a high sensitivity of 1013 m/ v Hz. The thesis also presents some magnetic gradient measurements in the lab and the results of a ground survey in the field. These trial measurements are used to characterise the DSMG and demonstrate its effectiveness for airborne surveying.

The aim of this project is to examine the feasibility andreliability of the use of a low cost computer vision system totrack and intercept a thrown object. A stereo vision systemtracks the object using color recognition and then guides amobile wheeled robot towards an interception point in orderto capture it. Two different trajectory prediction modelsare compared. One model fits a second degree polynomialto the collected positional measurements of the object andthe other uses the Forward Euler Method to construct theobjects flight path.To accurately guide the robot, the angular position of therobot must also be measured. Two different methods ofmeasuring the angular position are presented and their respectivereliability are measured. A calibrated magnetometeris used as one method while pure computer vision isimplemented as the alternative method.A functional object tracking and interception system thatwas able to intercept the thrown object was constructed usingboth the polynomial fitting trajectory prediction modelas well as the one based on the Forward Euler Method.The magnetometer and pure computer vision are both viablemethods of determining the angular position of therobot with an error of less than 1.5°. / I detta projekt behandlas konstruktionen av och pålitligheteni en bollfånganderobot och dess bakomliggande lågbudgetkamerasystem.För att fungera i tre dimensioner användsen stereokameramodul som spårar bollen med hjälpav färgigenkänning och beräknar bollbanan samt förutspårnedslaget för att ge god tid till roboten att genskjuta bollen.Två olika bollbanemodeller testas, där den ena tar hänsyntill luftmotståndet och nedslaget beräknas numeriskt ochden andra anpassar en andragradspolynom till de observeradedatapunkterna.För att styra roboten till den tänkta uppfångningspunktenbehövs både robotens position, vilket bestäms med kameramodulen,och robotens riktning. Riktningen bestäms medbåde en magnetometer och med kameramodulen, för attundersöka vilken metod som passar bäst.Den förslagna konstruktionen för roboten och kamerasystemetkan spåra och fånga objekt med bådadera de testademodellerna för att beräkna bollbana, dock så är tillförlitligheteni den numeriska metoden betydligt känsligare fördåliga mätvärden. Det är även möjligt att använda sig avbåde magnetometern eller endast kameramodulen för attbestämma robotens riktning då båda ger ett fel under 1.5°.

no / This Short Report summarizes some initial results using real time GPS to navigate and collect magnetometer data using Foerster sensors and a magnetic cart. The Foerster system is primarily aimed at the detection of buried ordnance and, by comparison to some other magnetometer sensors, the reported sensitivity is relatively low. However, the sensors require no alignment in the field, nor does the system require a regular contiguous grid to be established across the survey area. The latter means that data grids of different sizes and orientation can be measured and stitched together as part of data restoration prior to processing. The accurate positioning of the data means that `staggering¿, which is often seen in time-based collection strategies, is not apparent in the data; overall less processing is required to produce a final image than is required for other fluxgate instruments. Data from a survey at Cyrene are reproduced to illustrate the strengths of the system

published_or_final_version / Applied Geosciences / Master / Master of Science

An autonomous, real-time orbit determination system was developed within thiswork for the next iteration of the University of W¨urzburg’s CubeSat programme.The algorithm only made use of magnetometer and sun sensors, which already wereimplemented on UWE-3, the third satellite in the programme. Previous developedsystems used the same approach, however the unique aspect in this work is thatthe algorithm was implemented using equinoctial elements.A Runge-Kutta-4 integrator propagated the orbit position using the orbit dynamicsunder the consideration of J2-perturbations. Afterwards, an Extended KalmanFilter corrected the position through processing the two measurements.The algorithm was then tested under multiple conditions. At first, a two weekstability test was conducted using simulated data, followed by a test with recordedsatellite data. These have shown a mean error of 13.2 km and 12.6 km respectively.Lastly, the algorithm was translated in to C and evaluated on a micro-controller.

Underwater static targets are objects under the water that can¡¦t move autonomously. Apparatus feasible for detecting underwater static targets includes: optics, acoustics and geophysical instruments. The purpose of this research is discussing the efficiency of applying side-scan sonar, magnetometer, sub-bottom profiler and echo sounder simultaneously to search, detect, identify and locate underwater static targets. Procedures of this research include: 1. Discussing the capabilities of instruments and identification principles on target. 2. Using a real case to groundtruth target identification principles. 3. Assessing the superiority of the methodology. According to the characteristics of these apparatus, the water depth, collected by echo sounder, is capable of expressing the relief of the seabed. Seabed sonographs, recorded by side-scan sonar, show that it is feasible to detect, identify and locate targets on the seabed. Sub-bottom profiler provides the sub-surface sedimentary information which can be used to detect buried targets. Magnetometer can detect environmental magnetic intensities, which can locate and determine the size of ferrous targets. Analysis of the data collected at Hai-Köu Wan, Ping-Dong County yields following conclusions: 1. The water depth data, recorded per 15 meters by the echo sounder, is capable of detecting large targets and concentrated artificial reefs only. 2. Sonographs obtained by side-scan sonar show target¡¦s characteristics and location on seabed. It can be utilized to identifying targets and mapping targets distributions. 3. Sub-bottom profile graphs show the composition and thickness of sub-surface sediments. 4. Magnetic anomalies show that there are evident variations around the battle-ship reef or concentrated electric-pole reefs on the research area. It represents that the magnetometer is capable in detecting underwater ferrous targets. 5. Targets detecting rate and identifying accuracy can be increased by the mutual comparison of various information. By applying the technique established in this research and the survey results at Hai-Köu Wan, targets at the survey site can be identified and located precisely. There are about 1100 units of 2-m concrete reefs, 670 units of electric-pole reefs and a battle-ship reef at Hai-Köu Wan. It can be concluded that, applying echo-sounder, side-scan sonar system, sub-bottom profiler and magnetometer simultaneously can search, detect, identify and locate underwater static targets more effective than applying a single instrument such as side-scan sonar system.

Taiwan is surrounded by ocean, we expect through the underwater survey could make us know more about the marine resources, history and culture and understand how to use the natural resource well. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the survey strategy for marine archaeology using modern underwater survey and identification instruments and techniques on Peng-Hu underwater cultural site survey. The survey process can be roughly divided into three stages, preliminary and comprehensive survey (PCS), double-check and localization survey (DLS), and precise and identification survey (PIS) respectively. The objective of PCS is not to miss any possible target. The major equipments of the underwater engineering including marine magnetometer, the subbottom profiler, and the side-scan sonar are deployed simultaneously. After the comparisons and analysis of the images from various instruments obtained from PCS and DLS, the PIS will obtain the direct photo viewing of the targets using remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) or divers. This strategy has been conducted firstly in Kaohsiung Sizihwan bay Marine Test Field and Kaohsiung Cross-Harbor Tunnels as the preliminary. Then move to Peng-Hu Sea Area for the underwater archaeology survey which is authorized by Acdemia Sinica from April 2008 to June 2009. From the result, the megnetometer can help sonar to identify the target more specifically, especially for the sediment. It brings better result than side-scan sonar and multi-beam echo sounder which can only search the target on seabed and can search broader area than subbottom profiler. Therefor, magnetomator is an essential equipment for underwater archology.