Low-Cost IoT-Based Sensor System: A Case Study on Harsh Environmental Monitoring.

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are promising technologies for exploiting in harsh environments such as can be found in the nuclear industry. Nuclear storage facilities can be considered harsh environments in that, amongst other variables, they can be dark, congested, and have high gamma radiation levels, which preclude operator access. These conditions represent significant challenges to sensor reliability, data acquisition and communications, power supplies, and longevity. Installed monitoring of parameters such as temperature, pressure, radiation, humidity, and hydrogen content within a nuclear facility may offer significant advantages over current baseline measurement options. This paper explores Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components to comprise an installed Internet of Things (IoT)-based multipurpose monitoring system for a specific nuclear storage situation measuring hydrogen concentration and temperature. This work addresses two major challenges of developing an installed remote sensing monitor for a typical nuclear storage scenario to detect both hydrogen concentrations and temperature: (1) development of a compact, cost-effective, and robust multisensor system from COTS components, and (2) validation of the sensor system for detecting temperature and hydrogen gas release. The proof of concept system developed in this study not only demonstrates the cost reduction of regular monitoring but also enables intelligent data management through the IoT by using ThingSpeak in a harsh environment.

A Review of Passive RFID Tag Antenna-Based Sensors and Systems for Structural Health Monitoring Applications.

In recent few years, the antenna and sensor communities have witnessed a considerable integration of radio frequency identification (RFID) tag antennas and sensors because of the impetus provided by internet of things (IoT) and cyber-physical systems (CPS). Such types of sensor can find potential applications in structural health monitoring (SHM) because of their passive, wireless, simple, compact size, and multimodal nature, particular in large scale infrastructures during their lifecycle. The big data from these ubiquitous sensors are expected to generate a big impact for intelligent monitoring. A remarkable number of scientific papers demonstrate the possibility that objects can be remotely tracked and intelligently monitored for their physical/chemical/mechanical properties and environment conditions. Most of the work focuses on antenna design, and significant information has been generated to demonstrate feasibilities. Further information is needed to gain deep understanding of the passive RFID antenna sensor systems in order to make them reliable and practical. Nevertheless, this information is scattered over much literature. This paper is to comprehensively summarize and clearly highlight the challenges and state-of-the-art methods of passive RFID antenna sensors and systems in terms of sensing and communication from system point of view. Future trends are also discussed. The future research and development in UK are suggested as well.

Frequency Optimization for Enhancement of Surface Defect Classification Using the Eddy Current Technique.

Eddy current testing is quite a popular non-contact and cost-effective method for nondestructive evaluation of product quality and structural integrity. Excitation frequency is one of the key performance factors for defect characterization. In the literature, there are many interesting papers dealing with wide spectral content and optimal frequency in terms of detection sensitivity. However, research activity on frequency optimization with respect to characterization performances is lacking. In this paper, an investigation into optimum excitation frequency has been conducted to enhance surface defect classification performance. The influences of excitation frequency for a group of defects were revealed in terms of detection sensitivity, contrast between defect features, and classification accuracy using kernel principal component analysis (KPCA) and a support vector machine (SVM). It is observed that probe signals are the most sensitive on the whole for a group of defects when excitation frequency is set near the frequency at which maximum probe signals are retrieved for the largest defect. After the use of KPCA, the margins between the defect features are optimum from the perspective of the SVM, which adopts optimal hyperplanes for structure risk minimization. As a result, the best classification accuracy is obtained. The main contribution is that the influences of excitation frequency on defect characterization are interpreted, and experiment-based procedures are proposed to determine the optimal excitation frequency for a group of defects rather than a single defect with respect to optimal characterization performances.

Feasibility Experiments to Detect Skin Hydration Using a Bio-Impedance Sensor.

We present proof of concept experiment of a sensing method to detect skin hydration using a low-cost bio-impedance sensor. The sensing system is validated by testing its current output over frequencies between 1 kHz and 50 kHz and comparing measured values of impedance. A series of experiments with salt-water mixtures as well as a gelatin-based phantom were carried out to test the sensor's ability to detect small changes in impedance due to changes in water content. We also compared impedance measurements from the phantom to human skin to confirm that the manufactured phantoms can mimic skin properties successfully. Our experimental results show that the sensor can detect small changes in salt concentration and can capture the correlation between the impedance and skin hydration in a reliable manner.