Industrial camera model positioned on an effector for automated tool center point calibration.

The study presents a novel, full model of an industrial camera suitable for robotic manipulator tool center point (TCP) calibration. The authors propose a new solution which employs a full camera model positioned on the effector of an industrial robotic arm. The proposed full camera model simulates the capture of a calibration pattern for use in automated TCP calibration. The study describes an experimental test robot stand for producing a reference data set, a full camera model, the parameters of a generally known camera obscura model, and a comparison of proposed solution with the camera obscura model. The results are discussed in the context of an innovative approach which features a full camera model to assist the TCP calibration process. The results showed that the full camera model produced greater accuracy, a significant benefit not provided by other state-of-the-art methods. In several cases, the absolute error produced was up to seven times lower than with the state-of-the-art camera obscura model. The error for small rotation (max. of 5[Formula: see text]) and small translation (max. of 20 mm) was 3.65 pixels. The results also highlighted the applicability of the proposed solution in real-life industrial processes.

IoT Sensor Challenges for Geothermal Energy Installations Monitoring: A Survey.

Geothermal energy installations are becoming increasingly common in new city developments and renovations. With a broad range of technological applications and improvements in this field, the demand for suitable monitoring technologies and control processes for geothermal energy installations is also growing. This article identifies opportunities for the future development and deployment of IoT sensors applied to geothermal energy installations. The first part of the survey describes the technologies and applications of various sensor types. Sensors that monitor temperature, flow rate and other mechanical parameters are presented with a technological background and their potential applications. The second part of the article surveys Internet-of-Things (IoT), communication technology and cloud solutions applicable to geothermal energy monitoring, with a focus on IoT node designs, data transmission technologies and cloud services. Energy harvesting technologies and edge computing methods are also reviewed. The survey concludes with a discussion of research challenges and an outline of new areas of application for monitoring geothermal installations and innovating technologies to produce IoT sensor solutions.

Adjusting products with compensatory elements using a digital twin: Model and methodology.

The article presents a novel strategy for reducing the geometric error of a vehicle headlamp equipped with a set of calibration screws, which represents a product assembly. Using a general method for designing and implementing a digital twin, we determined the optimal configuration for a compensatory element that minimizes the total geometric error. Formulated as a problem of constrained minimization, we solved the error using the gradient method and the Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno method. Products are automatically adjusted according to this optimal setting during the manufacturing process. The results of this novel method indicate that all points can be aligned when the non-individual calibration satifies a geometrical specification of 92%. The digital twin approach was compared to the manufacturing process on 84,055 samples. Overall, 98.19% of the samples were perfectly aligned.

Environment-Monitoring IoT Devices Powered by a TEG Which Converts Thermal Flux between Air and Near-Surface Soil into Electrical Energy.

Energy harvesting has an essential role in the development of reliable devices for environmental wireless sensor networks (EWSN) in the Internet of Things (IoT), without considering the need to replace discharged batteries. Thermoelectric energy is a renewable energy source that can be exploited in order to efficiently charge a battery. The paper presents a simulation of an environment monitoring device powered by a thermoelectric generator (TEG) that harvests energy from the temperature difference between air and soil. The simulation represents a mathematical description of an EWSN, which consists of a sensor model powered by a DC/DC boost converter via a TEG and a load, which simulates data transmission, a control algorithm and data collection. The results section provides a detailed description of the harvested energy parameters and properties and their possibilities for use. The harvested energy allows supplying the load with an average power of 129.04 µW and maximum power of 752.27 µW. The first part of the results section examines the process of temperature differences and the daily amount of harvested energy. The second part of the results section provides a comprehensive analysis of various settings for the EWSN device's operational period and sleep consumption. The study investigates the device's number of operational cycles, quantity of energy used, discharge time, failures and overheads.

Automatic epilepsy detection using fractal dimensions segmentation and GP-SVM classification.

OBJECTIVE: The most important part of signal processing for classification is feature extraction as a mapping from original input electroencephalographic (EEG) data space to new features space with the biggest class separability value. Features are not only the most important, but also the most difficult task from the classification process as they define input data and classification quality. An ideal set of features would make the classification problem trivial. This article presents novel methods of feature extraction processing and automatic epilepsy seizure classification combining machine learning methods with genetic evolution algorithms. METHODS: Classification is performed on EEG data that represent electric brain activity. At first, the signal is preprocessed with digital filtration and adaptive segmentation using fractal dimensions as the only segmentation measure. In the next step, a novel method using genetic programming (GP) combined with support vector machine (SVM) confusion matrix as fitness function weight is used to extract feature vectors compressed into lower dimension space and classify the final result into ictal or interictal epochs. RESULTS: The final application of GP-SVM method improves the discriminatory performance of a classifier by reducing feature dimensionality at the same time. Members of the GP tree structure represent the features themselves and their number is automatically decided by the compression function introduced in this paper. This novel method improves the overall performance of the SVM classification by dramatically reducing the size of input feature vector. CONCLUSION: According to results, the accuracy of this algorithm is very high and comparable, or even superior to other automatic detection algorithms. In combination with the great efficiency, this algorithm can be used in real-time epilepsy detection applications. From the results of the algorithm's classification, we can observe high sensitivity, specificity results, except for the Generalized Tonic Clonic Seizure (GTCS). As the next step, the optimization of the compression stage and final SVM evaluation stage is in place. More data need to be obtained on GTCS to improve the overall classification score for GTCS.

Energy Harvesting Sources, Storage Devices and System Topologies for Environmental Wireless Sensor Networks: A Review.

The operational efficiency of remote environmental wireless sensor networks (EWSNs) has improved tremendously with the advent of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies over the past few years. EWSNs require elaborate device composition and advanced control to attain long-term operation with minimal maintenance. This article is focused on power supplies that provide energy to run the wireless sensor nodes in environmental applications. In this context, EWSNs have two distinct features that set them apart from monitoring systems in other application domains. They are often deployed in remote areas, preventing the use of mains power and precluding regular visits to exchange batteries. At the same time, their surroundings usually provide opportunities to harvest ambient energy and use it to (partially) power the sensor nodes. This review provides a comprehensive account of energy harvesting sources, energy storage devices, and corresponding topologies of energy harvesting systems, focusing on studies published within the last 10 years. Current trends and future directions in these areas are also covered.