Refine
Year of publication
Document Type
- Conference Proceeding (1253) (remove)
Conference Type
- Konferenzartikel (950)
- Konferenz-Abstract (156)
- Konferenzband (77)
- Sonstiges (42)
- Konferenz-Poster (32)
Language
- English (934)
- German (317)
- Multiple languages (1)
- Russian (1)
Keywords
- Mikroelektronik (62)
- RoboCup (32)
- Gamification (12)
- Machine Learning (12)
- injury (10)
- Biomechanik (9)
- Finite-Elemente-Methode (9)
- Kommunikation (9)
- Assistive Technology (8)
- Produktion (8)
Institute
- Fakultät Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik (E+I) (bis 03/2019) (453)
- Fakultät Maschinenbau und Verfahrenstechnik (M+V) (286)
- Fakultät Elektrotechnik, Medizintechnik und Informatik (EMI) (ab 04/2019) (213)
- Fakultät Wirtschaft (W) (164)
- Fakultät Medien und Informationswesen (M+I) (bis 21.04.2021) (120)
- ivESK - Institut für verlässliche Embedded Systems und Kommunikationselektronik (113)
- INES - Institut für nachhaltige Energiesysteme (59)
- IMLA - Institute for Machine Learning and Analytics (46)
- ACI - Affective and Cognitive Institute (40)
- Fakultät Medien (M) (ab 22.04.2021) (33)
Open Access
- Open Access (560)
- Closed Access (456)
- Closed (223)
- Bronze (214)
- Diamond (29)
- Grün (13)
- Gold (6)
- Hybrid (6)
First year Business Administration students tend to regard themselves as “non-computer scientists” and often have a lack of motivation about taking IT courses in general, either because they perceive them as too technical, too difficult or somewhat irrelevant. In an attempt to counteract this perception and increase the levels of engagement and willing attendance to class, we decided to flip the traditional lecture model and develop a new teaching and learning approach for the IT Fundamentals course using an open source Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system as the platform from which to draw the various underlying IT concepts and through which the relevant competences can be acquired.
This paper describes the implementation process of this new contextualized learning framework “IT via ERP” and the changes in the didactical methods to support it.
The Division Industrial Chemistry of the Swiss Chemical Society organizes periodically a two-day event for the post-graduate education of its members. This event is known as the Freiburger Symposium. This year it focussed on sustainable chemical production. The twelve talks covered the following aspects: ethical needs for sustainability standards, the required, attained, and yet to be attained sustainability goals in chemical industry. Diverse case studies showed the highly developed awareness about the sustainability issue within the chemical community.
The development of secure software systems is of ever-increasing importance. While software companies often invest large amounts of resources into the upkeeping and general security properties of large-scale applications when in production, they appear to neglect utilizing threat modeling in the earlier stages of the software development lifecycle. When applied during the design phase of development, and continuously throughout development iterations, threat modeling can help to establish a "Secure by Design" approach. This approach allows issues relating to IT security to be found early during development, reducing the need for later improvement – and thus saving resources in the long term. In this paper the current state of threat modeling is investigated. This investigation drove the derivation of requirements for the development of a new threat modelling framework and tool, called OVVL. OVVL utilizes concepts of established threat modeling methodologies, as well as functionality not available in existing solutions.
In the course of the last few years, our students are becoming increasingly unhappy. Sometimes they stop attending lectures and even seem not to know how to behave correctly. It feels like they are getting on strike. Consequently, drop-out rates are sky-rocketing. The lecturers/professors are not happy either, adopting an “I-don’t-care” attitude.
An interdisciplinary, international team set in to find out: (1) What are the students unhappy about? Why is it becoming so difficult for them to cope? (2) What does the “I-don’t-care” attitude of professors actually mean? What do they care or not care about? (3) How far do the views of the parties correlate? Could some kind of mutual understanding be achieved?
The findings indicate that, at least at our universities, there is rather a long way to go from “Engineering versus Pedagogy” to “Engineering Pedagogy”.
IPv6 over resource-constrained devices (6Lo) emerged as a de-facto standard for the Internet of Things (IoT) applications especially in home and building automation systems. We provide results of an investigation of the applicability of 6LoWPAN with RPL mesh networks for home and building automation use cases. The proper selection of Trickle parameters and neighbor reachable time-outs is important in the RPL protocol suite to respond efficiently to any path failure. These parameters were analyzed in the context of energy consumption w.r.t the number of control packets. The measurements were performed in an Automated Physical Testbeds (APTB). The results match the recommendation by RFC 7733 for selecting various parameters of RPL protocol suite. This paper shows the relationship between various RPL parameters and control traffic overhead during network rebuild. Comparative measurement results with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) in this work showed that 6Lo with RPL outperformed BLE in this use case with less control traffic overheads.
3D Bin Picking with an innovative powder filled gripper and a torque controlled collaborative robot
(2023)
A new and innovative powder filled gripper concept will be introduced to a process to pick parts out of a box without the use of a camera system which guides the robot to the part. The gripper is a combination of an inflatable skin, and a powder inside. In the unjammed condition, the powder is soft and can adjust to the geometry of the part which will be handled. By applying a vacuum to the inflatable skin, the powder gets jammed and transforms to a solid shaped form in which the gripper was brought before applying the vacuum. This physical principle is used to pick parts. The flexible skin of the gripper adjusts to all kinds of shapes, and therefore, can be used to realize 3D bin picking. With the help of a force controlled robot, the gripper can be pushed with a consistent force on flexible positions depending of the filling level of the box. A Kuka LBR iiwa with joint torque sensors in all of its seven axis’ was used to achieve a constant contact pressure. This is the basic criteria to achieve a robust picking process.
Disturbances of the cardiac conduction system causing reentry mechanisms above the atrioventricular (AV) node are induced by at least one accessory pathway with different conducting properties and refractory periods. This work aims to further develop the already existing and continuously expanding Offenburg heart rhythm model to visualise the most common supraventricular reentry tachycardias to provide a better understanding of the cause of the respective reentry mechanism.
The visualization of heart rhythm disturbance and atrial fibrillation therapy allow the optimization of new cardiac catheter ablations. With the simulation software CST (Computer Simulation Technology, Darmstadt) electromagnetic and thermal simulations can be carried out to analyze and optimize different heart rhythm disturbance and cardiac catheters for pulmonary vein isolation. Another form of visualization is provided by haptic, three-dimensional print models. These models can be produced using an additive manufacturing method, such as a 3D printer. The aim of the study was to produce a 3D print of the Offenburg heart rhythm model with a representation of an atrial fibrillation ablation procedure to improve the visualization of simulation of cardiac catheter ablation.
The basis of 3D printing was the Offenburg heart rhythm model and the associated simulation of cryoablation of the pulmonary vein. The thermal simulation shows the pulmonary vein isolation of the left inferior pulmonary vein with the cryoballoon catheter Arctic Front AdvanceTM from Medtronic. After running through the simulation, the thermal propagation during the procedure was shown in the form of different colors. The three-dimensional print models were constructed on the base of the described simulation in a CAD program. Four different 3D printers are available for this purpose in a rapid prototyping laboratory at the University of Applied Science Offenburg. Two different printing processes were used: 1. a binder jetting printer with polymer gypsum and 2. a multi-material printer with photopolymer. A final print model with additional representation of the esophagus and internal esophagus catheter was also prepared for printing.
With the help of the thermal simulation results and the subsequent evaluation, it was possible to make a conclusion about the propagation of the cold emanating from the catheter in the myocardium and the surrounding tissue. It could be measured that already 3 mm from the balloon surface into the myocardium the temperature drops to 25 °C. The simulation model was printed using two 3D printing methods. Both methods as well as the different printing materials offer different advantages and disadvantages. While the first model made of polymer gypsum can be produced quickly and cheaply, the second model made of photopolymer takes five times longer and was twice as expensive. On the other hand, the second model offers significantly better properties and was more durable overall. All relevant parts, especially the balloon catheter and the conduction, are realistically represented. Only the thermal propagation in the form of different colors is not shown on this model.
Three-dimensional heart rhythm models as well as virtual simulations allow a very good visualization of complex cardiac rhythm therapy and atrial fibrillation treatment methods. The printed models can be used for optimization and demonstration of cryoballoon catheter ablation in patients with atrial fibrillation.
Dieser Beitrag stellt die Möglichkeiten des 3D-Druckes unter der Berücksichtigung von Mensch-Roboter-Kollaborations-Anforderungen dar. Dabei werden die Vorteile mit besonderem Fokus auf die zusätzliche Gestaltungsfreiheit erläutert. Anhand von Beispielen wird der Stand der Technik bereits eingesetzter Sensorik sowie deren Notwendigkeit in Greifsystemen erläutert. Im weiteren Verlauf dieses Beitrags werden allgemeine Verfahren für die additive Verarbeitung von leitfähigen Materialien vorgestellt. Daran angeknüpft sind Beispiele speziell zur 3D-gedruckten Sensorik. Abgerundet wird der Beitrag mit einem Ausblick bezüglich 3D-gedruckter Sensorik in MRK-Greifsystemen.
Die gefährliche Wirkung von Kerben auf Konstruktionsteile bei Dauerbeanspruchungen ist dem Konstrukteur bekannt. Trotzdem sind viele in der Praxis beobachteten Schadensbilder an Passverzahnungen fast durchweg auf nicht genügend berücksichtigte Kerbwirkung infolge der konstruktiv bedingten Mehrfachkerben zurückzuführen. Die hohen Anforderungen vor allem an Drehmoment übertragende und hochbeanspruchte Konstruktionsteile zwingen uns, der Frage der Kerbwirkungen sowie Maßnahmen zu deren Milderung erhöhte Aufmerksamkeit zu widmen. Der vorliegende Beitrag beschreibt erste Untersuchungsergebnisse mit der Finite-Elemente-Methode (FEM) zur Ermittlung der Kerbwirkung an den Übergangsstellen für die nach DIN 5480 genormten Passverzahnungen mit freiem Auslauf bei Torsion und Biegung. Die rechnerisch abgeschätzten Form- und Kerbwirkungszahlen an Passverzahnungen werden mit experimentellen Kerbwirkungszahlen aus den Ermüdungsversuchen verglichen. Das Ziel ist es, den Stand der Technik hinsichtlich der Berechnung der Tragfähigkeit und Ermüdungsfestigkeit bei Passverzahnungen weiterzuentwickeln und die neu gewonnenen Form- und Kerbwirkungszahlen in die Berechnungsvorschriften DIN 743 und DIN 5466 einzubinden.
The Internet of Things (IoT) application has becoming progressively in-demand, most notably for the embedded devices (ED). However, each device has its own difference in computational capabilities, memory usage, and energy resources in connecting to the Internet by using Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). In order for this to be achievable, the WSNs that form the bulk of the IoT implementation requires a new set of technologies and protocol that would have a defined area, in which it addresses. Thus, IPv6 Low Power Area Network (6LoWPAN) was designed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as a standard network for ED. Nevertheless, the communication between ED and 6LoWPAN requires appropriate routing protocols for it to achieve the efficient Quality of Service (QoS). Among the protocols of 6LoWPAN network, RPL is considered to be the best protocol, however its Energy Consumption (EC) and Routing Overhead (RO) is considerably high when it is implemented in a large network. Therefore, this paper would propose the HRPL to enchance the RPL protocol in reducing the EC and RO. In this study, the researchers would present the performance of RPL and HRPL in terms of EC, Control traffic Overhead (CTO) and latency based on the simulation of the 6LoWPAN network in fixed environment using COOJA simulator. The results show HRPL protocol achieves better performance in all the tested topology in terms of EC and CTO. However, the latency of HRPL only improves in chain topology compared with RPL. We found that further research is required to study the relationship between the latency and the load of packet transmission in order to optimize the EC usage.
In the last decade, IPv6 over Low power Wireless Personal Area Networks, also known as 6LoWPAN, has well evolved as a primary contender for short range wireless communication and holds the promise of an Internet of Things, which is completely based on the Internet Protocol. In the meantime, various 6LoWPAN implementations are available, be it open source or commercial. One of these implementations, which was developed by the authors' team, was tested on an Automated Physical Testbed for Wireless Systems at the Laboratory Embedded Systems and Communication Electronics of Offenburg University of Applied Sciences, which allows the flexible setup and full control of arbitrary topologies. It also supports time-varying topologies and thus helps to measure performance of the RPL implementation. The results of the measurements show a very good stability and short-term and long-term performance also under dynamic conditions. In addition, it can be proven that the performance predictions from other papers are consistent with real-life implementations.
A simple measuring method for acquiring the radiation pattern of an ultrawide band Vivaldi antenna is presented. The measuring is performed by combining two identical Vivaldi antennas and some of the intrinsic properties of a stepped-frequency continue wave radar (SFCW radar) in the
range from 1.0 GHz to 6.0 GHz. A stepper-motor provided the azimuthal rotation for one of the antennas from 0 ◦ to 360 ◦. The tests have been performed within the conventional environment (laboratory / office) without using an anechoic chamber or absorbing materials. Special measuring devices have not been used either. This method has been tested with different pairs of Vivaldi antennas and it can be also used for different ones (with little or no change in the system), as long as their operational
bandwidth is within the frequency range of the SFCW radar.
Keywords — SFCW Radar, Antenna Gain Characterization,
Azimuthal Radiation Pattern
The demand of wireless solutions in industrial applications increases since the early nineties. This trend is not only ongoing, it is further pushed by developments in the area of software stacks like the latest Bluetooth Low Energy Stack. It is also pushed by new chip-designs and powerful and highly integrated electronic hardware. The acceptance of wireless technologies as a possible solution for industrial applications, has overcome the entry barrier [1]. The first step to see wireless as standard for many industrial applications is almost accomplished. Nevertheless there is nearly none acceptance of wireless technology for Safety applications. One highly challenging and demanding requirement is still unsolved: The aspect safety and robustness. Those topics have been addressed in many cases but always in a similar manner. WirelessHART as an example addresses this topic with redundant so called multiple propagation paths and frequency hopping to handle with interferences and loss of network participants. So far the pure peer to peer link is rarely investigated and there are less safety solutions available. One product called LoRa™ can be seen as one possible solution to address this lack of safety within wireless links. This paper focuses on the safety performance evaluation of a modem-chip-design. The use of diverse and redundant wireless technologies like LoRa can lead to an increase acceptance of wireless in safety applications. Many measurements in real industrial application have been carried out to be able to benchmark the new chip in terms of the safety aspects. The content of this research results can help to raise the level of confidence in wireless. In this paper, the term “safety” is used for data transmission reliability.
The Paper presents the design and development of a blended learning concept for an engineering course in the field of color representation and display technologies. A suitable learning environment is crucial for the success of the teaching scenario. A mixture of theoretical lectures and hands-on activities with practical applications and experiments, combined with the advantages of modern digital media is the main topic of the paper. Blended learning describes the didactical change of attendance periods and online periods. The e-learning environment for the online period is designed toward an easy access and interaction. Present digital media extends the established teaching scenarios and enables the presentation of videos, animations and augmented reality (AR). Visualizations are effective tools to impart learning contents with lasting effect. The preparation and evaluation of the theoretical lectures and the hands-on activities are stimulated and affects positively the attendance periods. The tasks and experiments require the students to work independently and to develop individual solution strategies. This engages and motivates the students, deepens the knowledge. The authors will present their experience with the implemented blended learning scenario in this field of optics and photonics. All aspects of the learning environment will be introduced.
Due to a controversial enrollment policy in most engineering programs at German Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS), many freshmen show very low school grades in key subjects like Math and Physics. Nevertheless they expect to be entertained in the lectures and get demotivated easily. Despite initial reservations, a cheer-and-challenge approach was developed for teaching Mechanics to freshmen having very diverse school grades. When tested, it showed astonishing results.
The idea of this game is to use a flashcard system to create a short story in a foreign language. The story is developed by a group of people by exchanging sentences via a flashcard system. This way, people can learn from each other without fear of making mistakes because the group members are anonymous.
Seismic data has often missing traces due to technical acquisition or economical constraints. A compete dataset is crucial in several processing and inversion techniques. Deep learning algorithms, based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs), have shown alternative solutions that overcome limitation of traditional interpolation methods e.g. data regularity, linearity assumption, etc. There are two different paradigms of CNN methods for seismic interpolation. The first one, so-called deep prior interpolation (DPI), trains a CNN to map random noise to a complete seismic image using only the decimated image itself. The second one, referred as standard deep learning method, trains a CNN to map a decimated seismic image into a complete one using a dataset of complete and artificially decimated images. Within this research, we systematically compare the performance of both methods for different quantities of regular and irregular missing traces using 4 datasets. We evaluate the results of both methods using 5 well-known metrics. We found that DPI method performs better than the standard method if the percentage of missing traces is low (10%) and otherwise if the level of decimation is high (50%).
Radio frequency identification (RFID) antennas are popular for high frequency (HF) RFID, energy transfer and near field communication (NFC) applications. Particularly for wireless measurement systems the RFID/NFC technology is a good option to implement a wireless communication interface. In this context, the design of corresponding reader and transmitter antennas plays a major role for achieving suitable transmission quality. This work proves the feasibility of the rapid prototyping of a RFID/NFC antenna, which is used for the wireless communication and energy harvesting at the required frequency of 13.56 MHz. A novel and low-cost direct ink writing (DIW) technology utilizing highly viscous silver nanoparticle ink is used for this process. This paper describes the development and analysis of low-cost printed flexible RFID/NFC antennas on cost-effective substrates for a microelectronic vital parameter measurement system. Furthermore, we compare the measured technical parameters with existing copper-based counterparts on a FR4 substrate.
The need for the logistics sector to timely respond to the increasing requirements of a globalised and digitalised world relies greatly on the com- petences and skills of its labour force. It becomes therefore essential to reinforce the cooperation between universities and business partners in the logistics and supply chain management fields across the European region and to build a logistics knowledge cluster supported by a communication and collaboration platform to foster continuous learning, skill acquisition and experience sharing anytime anywhere. In this paper we focus on designing the conceptual and technical framework for a communication and collaboration platform with the aim to establish the communication pipelines between the partner institutions, facilitating user interactions and exchange, leading to the creation of new knowledge and innovation in the logistics field. This framework is based on the requirements of the three main stakeholders: students, lecturers and companies, and consists of four functional areas defined according to the platform opera- tional requirements. A working prototype of the platform was developed using the Moodle learning management system and its core tools to determine its applicability and possible enhancement requirements. In the next stages of the project some additional tools like a knowledge base and the integration of the partners’ learning management systems to form the logistics knowledge cluster will be implemented.
The monitoring of industrial environments ensures that highly automated processes run without interruption. However, even if the industrial machines themselves are monitored, the communication lines are currently not continuously monitored in todays installations. They are checked usually only during maintenance intervals or in case of error. In addition, the cables or connected machines usually have to be removed from the system for the duration of the test. To overcome these drawbacks, we have developed and implemented a cost-efficient and continuous signal monitoring of Ethernet-based industrial bus systems. Several methods have been developed to assess the quality of the cable. These methods can be classified to either passive or active. Active methods are not suitable if interruption of the communication is undesired. Passive methods, on the other hand, require oversampling, which calls for expensive hardware. In this paper, a novel passive method combined with undersampling targeting cost-efficient hardware is proposed.
This paper describes the use of the single-linkage hierarchical clustering method in outlier detection for manufactured metal work pieces. The main goal of the study is to group defects that occur 5 mm into a work piece from the edge, i.e., the border of the metal work piece. The goal is to remove defects outside the area of interest as outliers. According to the assumptions made for the performance criteria, the single-linkage method has achieved better results compared to other agglomeration methods.
Air traffic is by nature crossing borders and organizations. The supporting infrastructure represents a federative distributed system of independent Air Traffic Service Units, typically each with its own proprietary system architecture. Interaction between the centers is taking place over dedicated protocols, often organized as a mesh of 1:1 bilateral data exchanges.
This contribution gives an overview of the ongoing efforts to standardize this data exchange. At the core is a data-centric view, using a shared virtual Flight Object as the IT counterpart of a real flight. It permits a uniform way to access and update a flight’s static and dynamic attributes. A middleware is presented that implements this abstraction and maps it onto a physical level, employing DDS (Data Distribution Service) technology for the 1:N dissemination of flight data.
A platform of an electronic capsule is being developed for multi-task medical assistant application. It includes a near field telemetry unit for bidirectional communication system of 115 KHz low carrier frequency for inductive data transmission suited for human body energy transfer. The system triggers an actuator for drug delivery in various time and release forms via wireless external control, it has the ability to record temperature, measure pH of the body (additional sensors), and retrieve data to the outside. It consists of a 32bit processor, memory, external peripheries, and detection facility. The complete system is designed to fit small-size mass medical application with low power consumption, size of 7x25mm. The system is designed, simulated and emulated on FPGA. A final layout of the complete chip design is still under progress.
The Go programming language is an increasingly popular language but some of its features lack a formal investigation. This article explains Go's resolution mechanism for overloaded methods and its support for structural subtyping by means of translation from Featherweight Go to a simple target language. The translation employs a form of dictionary passing known from type classes in Haskell and preserves the dynamic behavior of Featherweight Go programs.
Multi-phase management is crucial for performance and durability of electrochemical cells such as batteries and fuel cells. In this paper we present a generic framework for describing the two-dimensional spatiotemporal evolution of gaseous, liquid and solid phases, as well as their interdependence with interfacial (electro-)chemistry and microstructure in a continuum description. The modeling domain consists of up to seven layers (current collectors, channels, electrodes, separator/membrane), each of which can consist of an arbitrary number of bulk phases (gas, liquid, solid) and connecting interfaces (two-phase or multi-phase boundaries). Bulk and interfacial chemistry is described using global or elementary kinetic reactions. Multi-phase management is coupled to chemistry and to mass and charge transport within bulk phases. The functionality and flexibility of this framework is demonstrated using four application areas in the context of post-lithium-ion batteries and fuel cells, that is, lithium-sulfur (Li-S) cells, lithium-oxygen (Li-O) cells, solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) and polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEFC). The results are compared to models available in literature and properties of the generic framework are discussed.
6LoWPAN (IPv6 over Low Power Wireless Personal Area Networks) is gaining more and more attraction for the seamless connectivity of embedded devices for the Internet of Things. It can be observed that most of the available solutions are following an open source approach, which significantly leads to a fast development of technologies and of markets. Although the currently available implementations are in a pretty good shape, all of them come with some significant drawbacks. It was therefore decided to start the development of an own implementation, which takes the advantages from the existing solutions, but tries to avoid the drawbacks. This paper discussed the reasoning behind this decision, describes the implementation and its characteristics, as well as the testing results. The given implementation is available as open-source project under [15].
A Gamified and Adaptive Learning System for Neurodivergent Workers in Electronic Assembling Tasks
(2020)
Learning and work-oriented assistive systems are often designed to fit the workflow of neurotypical workers. Neurodivergent workers and individuals with learning disabilities often present cognitive and sensorimotor characteristics that are better accommodated with personalized learning and working processes. Therefore, we designed an adaptive learning system that combines an augmented interaction space with user-sensitive virtual assistance to support step-by-step guidance for neurodivergent workers in electronic assembling tasks. Gamified learning elements were also included in the interface to provide self-motivation and praise whenever users progress in their learning and work achievements.
A highly scalable IEEE802.11p communication and localization subsystem for autonomous urban driving
(2013)
The IEEE802.11p standard describes a protocol for car-to-X and mainly for car-to-car-communication. It has found its place in hardware and firmware implementations and is currently tested in various field tests. In the research project Ko-TAG, which is part of the research initiative Ko-FAS, cooperative sensor technology is developed for the support of highly autonomous driving. A secondary radar principle based on communication signals enables localization of objects with simultaneous data transmission. It mainly concentrates on the detection of pedestrians and other vulnerable road users (VRU), but also supports pre crash safety applications. Thus it is mainly targeted for the support of traffic safety applications in intra-urban scenarios. This contribution describes the Ko-TAG part of the overall initiative, which develops a subsystem to improve the real-time characteristics of IEEE802.11p needed for precise time of flight real-time localization. In doing this, it still fits into the regulatory schemes. It discusses the approach for definition and verification of the protocol design, while maintaining the close coexistence with existing IEEE802.11p subsystems. System simulations were performed and hardware was implemented. Test results are shown in the last part of the paper.
The IEEE802.11p standard describes a protocol for car-to-X and mainly for car-to-car-communication. It has found its place in hardware and firmware implementations and is currently tested in various field tests. In the research project Ko-TAG, which is part of the research initiative Ko-FAS, cooperative sensor technology is developed and its benefit for traffic safety applications is evaluated. A secondary radar principle based on communication signals enables localization of objects with simultaneous data transmission. It mainly concentrates on the detection of pedestrians and other vulnerable road users (VRU), but also supports pre crash safety applications. The Ko-TAG proposal enriches the current IEEE802.11p real-time characteristics needed for precise time-of-flight real-time localization. This contribution describes the development of a subsystem, which extends the functionality of IEEE802.11p and fits into the regulatory schemes. It discusses the approach for definition and verification of the protocol design, while maintaining the close coexistence with existing IEEE802.11p subsystems. System simulations were performed and hardware was implemented. The next step will be field measurements to verify the simulation results.
In recent years, predictive maintenance tasks, especially for bearings, have become increasingly important. Solutions for these use cases concentrate on the classification of faults and the estimation of the Remaining Useful Life (RUL). As of today, these solutions suffer from a lack of training samples. In addition, these solutions often require high-frequency accelerometers, incurring significant costs. To overcome these challenges, this research proposes a combined classification and RUL estimation solution based on a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network. This solution relies on a hybrid feature extraction approach, making it especially appropriate for low-cost accelerometers with low sampling frequencies. In addition, it uses transfer learning to be suitable for applications with only a few training samples.
Uncontrollable manufacturing variations in electrical hardware circuits can be exploited as Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs). Herein, we present a Printed Electronics (PE)-based PUF system architecture. Our proposed Differential Circuit PUF (DiffC-PUF) is a hybrid system, combining silicon-based and PE-based electronic circuits. The novel approach of the DiffC-PUF architecture is to provide a specially designed real hardware system architecture, that enables the automatic readout of interchangeable printed DiffC-PUF core circuits. The silicon-based addressing and evaluation circuit supplies and controls the printed PUF core and ensures seamless integration into silicon-based smart systems. Major objectives of our work are interconnected applications for the Internet of Things (IoT).
We propose secure multi-party computation techniques for the distributed computation of the average using a privacy-preserving extension of gossip algorithms. While recently there has been mainly research on the side of gossip algorithms (GA) for data aggregation itself, to the best of our knowledge, the aforementioned research line does not take into consideration the privacy of the entities involved. More concretely, it is our objective to not reveal a node's private input value to any other node in the network, while still computing the average in a fully-decentralized fashion. Not revealing in our setting means that an attacker gains only minor advantage when guessing a node's private input value. We precisely quantify an attacker's advantage when guessing - as a mean for the level of data privacy leakage of a node's contribution. Our results show that by perturbing the input values of each participating node with pseudo-random noise with appropriate statistical properties (i) only a minor and configurable leakage of private information is revealed, by at the same time (ii) providing a good average approximation at each node. Our approach can be applied to a decentralized prosumer market, in which participants act as energy consumers or producers or both, referred to as prosumers.
The desire to connect more and more devices and to make them more intelligent and more reliable, is driving the needs for the Internet of Things more than ever. Such IoT edge systems require sound security measures against cyber-attacks, since they are interconnected, spatially distributed, and operational for an extended period of time. One of the most important requirements for the security in many industrial IoT applications is the authentication of the devices. In this paper, we present a mutual authentication protocol based on Physical Unclonable Functions, where challenge-response pairs are used for both device and server authentication. Moreover, a session key can be derived by the protocol in order to secure the communication channel. We show that our protocol is secure against machine learning, replay, man-in-the-middle, cloning, and physical attacks. Moreover, it is shown that the protocol benefits from a smaller computational, communication, storage, and hardware overhead, compared to similar works.
A Localization System Using Inertial Measurement Units from Wireless Commercial Handheld Devices
(2013)
This paper describes a newly developed technology for the calculation of trajectories of mobile objects, which is based on commercially available sensors being integrated into modern mobile phones and other gadgets. First, a step counting technique was implemented. Second, a novel step length estimator is proposed. These two algorithms utilize the data from accelerometer sensor only. Third, the heading information was obtained using a gyroscope with complementary filter in quaternion form. The combined algorithm was implemented on a low-power ARM processor to provide the trajectory points relative to an initial point. The proposed technique was tested by 10 subjects, in different shoes with different paces. The dependence of the performance of the technology on the attaching point of the mobile device is weak. The proposed algorithms have better balance and estimation accuracy and depend in less degree on the variety in physical parameters of people in comparison with the existing techniques. In experiments inertial measurement units were mounted in different places, i.e. in the hand, in trousers or in T-shirt pockets. The return position error did not exceed 5% of the total travelled distance for all performed tests.
A novel Bluetooth Low Energy advertising scan algorithm is presented for hybrid radios that are additionally capable to measure energy on Bluetooth channels, e.g. as they would need to be compliant with IEEE 802.15.4. Scanners applying this algorithm can achieve a low latency whilst consuming only a fraction of the power that existing mechanisms can achieve at a similar latency. Furthermore, the power consumption can scale with the incoming network traffic and in contrast to the existing mechanisms, scanners can operate without any frame loss given ideal network conditions. The algorithm does not require any changes to advertisers, hence, stays compatible with existing devices. Performance evaluated via simulation and experiments on real hardware shows a 37 percent lower power consumption compared to the best existing scan setting while even achieving a slightly lower latency which proves that this algorithm can be used to improve the quality of service of connection-less Bluetooth communication or reduce the connection establishment time of connection-oriented communication.
Cryptographic protection of messages requires frequent updates of the symmetric cipher key used for encryption and decryption, respectively. Protocols of legacy IT security, like TLS, SSH, or MACsec implement rekeying under the assumption that, first, application data exchange is allowed to stall occasionally and, second, dedicated control messages to orchestrate the process can be exchanged. In real-time automation applications, the first is generally prohibitive, while the second may induce problematic traffic patterns on the network. We present a novel seamless rekeying approach, which can be embedded into cyclic application data exchanges. Although, being agnostic to the underlying real-time communication system, we developed a demonstrator emulating the widespread industrial Ethernet system PROFINET IO and successfully use this rekeying mechanism.
This paper presents a method for supporting the application of Additive Tooling (AT)-based validation environments in integrated product development. Based on a case study, relevant process steps, activities and possible barriers in the realisation of an injection-moulded product are identified and analysed. The aim of the method is to support the target-oriented application of Additive Tooling to obtain physical prototypes at an early stage and to shorten validation cycles.
When designing and installing Indoor Positioning Systems, several interrelated tasks have to be solved to find an optimum placement of the Access Points. For this purpose, a mathematical model for a predefined number of access points indoors is presented. Two iterative algorithms for the minimization of localization error of a mobile object are described. Both algorithms use local search technique and signal level probabilities. Previously registered signal strengths maps were used in computer simulation.
In 4D printing an additively manufactured component is given the ability to change its shape or function under the influence of an external stimulus. To achieve this, special smart materials are used that are able to react to external stimuli in a specific way. So far, a number of different stimuli have already been investigated and initial applications have been impressively demonstrated, such as self-folding bodies and simple grippers. However, a methodical specification for the selection of the stimuli and their implementation was not yet in the foreground of the development.
The focus of this work is therefore to develop a methodical approach with which the technology of 4DP can be used in a solution- and application-oriented manner. The developed approach is based on the conventional design methodology for product development to solve given problems in a structured way. This method is extended by specific approaches under consideration of the 4D printing and smart materials.
To illustrate the developed method, it is implemented in practice using a problem definition in the form of an application example. In this example, which represents the recovery of an object from a difficult-to-access environment, the individual functions of positioning, gripping and extraction are implemented using 4D printing. The material extrusion process is used for additive manufacturing of all components of the example. Finally, the functions are successfully tested. The developed approach offers an innovative and methodical approach to systematically solve technical complex problems using 4DP and smart materials.
The transition from college to university can have a variety of psychological effects on students who need to cope with daily obligations by themselves in a new setting, which can result in loneliness and social isolation. Mobile technology, specifically mental health apps (MHapps), have been seen as promising solutions to assist university students who are facing these problems, however, there is little evidence around this topic. My research investigates how a mobile app can be designed to reduce social isolation and loneliness among university students. The Noneliness app is being developed to this end; it aims to create social opportunities through a quest-based gamified system in a secure and collaborative network of local users. Initial evaluations with the target audience provided evidence on how an app should be designed for this purpose. These results are presented and how they helped me to plan the further steps to reach my research goals. The paper is presented at MobileHCI 2020 Doctoral Consortium.
The increase in households with grid connected Photovoltaic (PV) battery system poses challenge for the grid due to high PV feed-in as a result of mismatch in energy production and load demand. The purpose of this paper is to show how a Model Predictive Control (MPC) strategy could be applied to an existing grid connected household with PV battery system such that the use of battery is maximized and at the same time peaks in PV energy and load demand are reduced. The benefits of this strategy are to allow increase in PV hosting capacity and load hosting capacity of the grid without the need for external signals from the grid operator. The paper includes the optimal control problem formulation to achieve the peak shaving goals along with the experiment set up and preliminary experiment results. The goals of the experiment were to verify the hardware and software interface to implement the MPC and as well to verify the ability of the MPC to deal with the weather forecast deviation. A prediction correction has also been introduced for a short time horizon of one hour within this MPC strategy to estimate the PV output power behavior.
In this work a method for the estimation of current slopes induced by inverters operating interior permanent magnet synchronous machines is presented. After the derivation of the estimation algorithm, the requirements for a suitable sensor setup in terms of accuracy, dynamic and electromagnetic interference are discussed. The boundary conditions for the estimation algorithm are presented with respect to application within high power traction systems. The estimation algorithm is implemented on a field programmable gateway array. This moving least-square algorithm offers the advantage that it is not dependent on vectors and therefore not every measured value has to be stored. The summation of all measured values leads to a significant reduction of the required storage units and thus decreases the hardware requirements. The algorithm is designed to be calculated within the dead time of the inverter. Appropriate countermeasures for disturbances and hardware restrictions are implemented. The results are discussed afterwards.
This paper presents the use of model predictive control (MPC) based approach for peak shaving application of a battery in a Photovoltaic (PV) battery system connected to a rural low voltage gird. The goals of the MPC are to shave the peaks in the PV feed-in and the grid power consumption and at the same time maximize the use of the battery. The benefit to the prosumer is from the maximum use of the self-produced electricity. The benefit to the grid is from the reduced peaks in the PV feed-in and the grid power consumption. This would allow an increase in the PV hosting and the load hosting capacity of the grid.
The paper presents the mathematical formulation of the optimal control problem
along with the cost benefit analysis. The MPC implementation scheme in the
laboratory and experiment results have also been presented. The results show
that the MPC is able to track the deviation in the weather forecast and operate
the battery by solving the optimal control problem to handle this deviation.
This paper presents a system that uses a multi-stage AI analysis method for determining the condition and status of bicycle paths using machine learning methods. The approach for analyzing bicycle paths includes three stages of analysis: detection of the road surface, investigation of the condition of the bicycle paths, and identification of substrate characteristics. In this study, we focus on the first stage of the analysis. This approach employs a low-threshold data collection method using smartphone-generated video data for image recognition, in order to automatically capture and classify surface condition and status.
For the analysis convolutional neural networks (CNN) are employed. CNNs have proven to be effective in image recognition tasks and are particularly well-suited for analyzing the surface condition of bicycle paths, as they can identify patterns and features in images. By training the CNN on a large dataset of images with known surface conditions, the network can learn to identify common features and patterns and reliably classify them.
The results of the analysis are then displayed on digital maps and can be utilized in areas such as bicycle logistics, route planning, and maintenance. This can improve safety and comfort for cyclists while promoting cycling as a mode of transportation. It can also assist authorities in maintaining and optimizing bicycle paths, leading to more sustainable and efficient transportation system.
As cyber-attacks and functional safety requirements increase in Operational Technology (OT), implementing security measures becomes crucial. The IEC/IEEE 60802 draft standard addresses the security convergence in Time-Sensitive Networks (TSN) for industrial automation.We present the standard’s security architecture and its goals to establish end-to-end security with resource access authorization in OT systems. We compare the standard to our abstract technology-independent model for the management of cryptographic credentials during the lifecycles of OT systems. Additionally, we implemented the processes, mechanisms, and protocols needed for IEC/IEEE 60802 and extended the architecture with public key infrastructure (PKI) functionalities to support complete security management processes.
A new electronic capsule with bidirectional communication system is being developed for multi-task application. The capsule is designed to be a platform for medical assistant application inside the body. The designed telemetry unit is a synchronous bidirectional communication block using continuous phase DQPSK of 115 kHz low carrier frequency for inductive data transmission suited for human body energy transfer. The communication system can assist the electronic pill to trigger an actuator for drug delivery, to record temperature, or to measure pH of the body. It consists additionally to a 32bit processor, memory, external peripheries, and detection facility. The complete system is designed to fit small-size mass medical application with low power consumption, size of 7x25mm. The system is designed, simulated and emulated on FPGA. A final layout of the complete chip design is still under progress.
To provide proper solutions to the problem of device dependant content delivery, a fine categorization of the application target devices is needed. Earlier attempts provided two different presentations for desktop and mobile platforms. The mobile platform presentation was divided into three categories, based on a general classification (PDA, Smartphone or mobile phone). In order to improve the on mobile device presentation a finer categorization is introduced. In this paper, our focus is to clarify the concept of this more flexible presentation module, in which the delivered content depends on the efficiency of the device based on a selected set of capabilities.
One of the challenges in humanoid robotics is motion control. Interacting with humans requires impedance control algorithms, as well as tackling the problem of the closed kinematic chains which occur when both feet touch the ground. However, pure impedance control for totally autonomous robots is difficult to realize, as this algorithm needs very precise sensors for force and speed of the actuated parts, as well as very high sampling rates for the controller input signals. Both requirements lead to a complex and heavy weight design, which makes up for heavy machines unusable in RoboCup Soccer competitions.
A lightweight motor controller was developed that can be used for admittance and impedance control as well as for model predictive control algorithms to further improve the gait of the robot.
Electronic pills, smart capsules or miniaturized microsystems swallowed by human beings or animals for various biomedical and diagnostic applications are growing rapidly in the last years. This paper searched out the important existing electronic pills in the market and prototypes in research centers. Further objective of this research is to develop a technology platform with enhanced feature to cover the drawback of most
capsules. The designed telemetry unit is a synchronous bidirectional communication block using continuous phase DQPSK of 115 kHz low carrier frequency for inductive data transmission suited for human body energy transfer. The communication system can assist the electronic pill to trigger an actuator for drug delivery, to record temperature, or to measure pH of the body. It consists additionally to a 32bit processor, memory, external peripheries, and detection facility. The complete system is designed to fit small-size mass medical application with low power consumption, size of 7x25mm. The system is designed, simulated and emulated on FPGA.
A Nonlinear FEM Model to Calculate Third-Order Harmonic and Intermodulation in TC-SAW Devices
(2018)
Nonlinearities in Temperature Compensated SAW (TC-SAW) devices in the 2 GHz range are investigated using a nonlinear finite element model by simultaneously considering both third-order intermodulation distortion (IMD3)and third harmonic (H3). In the employed perturbation approach, different contributions to the total H3, the direct and indirect contribution, are discussed. H3 and IMD3 measurements were fitted simultaneously using scaling factors for SiO 2 film and Cu electrode nonlinear material tensors in TC-SAW devices. We employ a P-Matrix simulation as intermediate step: Firstly, measurement and nonlinear P-Matrix calculations for finite devices are compared and coefficients of the P-Matrix simulation are determined. The nonlinear tensor data of the different materials involved in periodic nonlinear finite element method (FEM) computations are optimized to fit periodic P-Matrix calculations by introducing scaling factors. Thus, the contribution of different materials to the nonlinear behavior of TC-SAW devices is obtained and the role of materials is discussed.
Signal detection and bandwidth estimation, also known as channel segmentation or information channel estimation, is a perpetual topic in communication systems. In the field of radio monitoring this issue is extremely challenging, since unforeseeable effects like fading occur accidentally. In addition, most radio monitoring devices normally scan a wide frequency range of several hundred MHz and have to detect a multitude of different signals, varying in signal power, bandwidth and spectral shape. Since narrowband sensing techniques cannot be directly applied, most radio monitoring devices use Nyquist wideband sensing to discover the huge frequency range. In practice, sensing is normally conducted by an FFT sweep spectrum analyzer that delivers the power spectral density (PSD) values to the radio monitoring system. The channel segmentation is the initial step of a comprehensive signal analysis in a radio monitoring system based on the PSD values. In this paper, a novel approach for channel segmentation is presented that is based on a quantization and a histogram evaluation of the measured PSD. It will be shown that only the combination of both evaluations will lead to an successful automatic channel segmentation. The performance of the proposed algorithm is shown in a real radio monitoring szenario.
A Novel Approach of High Dynamic Current Control of Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines
(2019)
Harmonic-afflicted effects of permanent magnet synchronous machines with high power density are hardly faced by traditional current PI controllers, due to limited controller bandwidth. As a consequence, currents and lastly torque ripples appear. In this paper, a new deadbeat current controller architecture has been presented, which is capable to encounter the effects of these harmonics. This new control algorithm, here named “Hybrid-Deadbeat-Controller”, combines the stability and the low steady-state errors offered by common PI regulators with the high dynamic offered by the deadbeat control. Therefore, a novel control algorithm is proposed, capable of either compensating the current harmonics in order to get smoother currents or to control a varying reference value to achieve a smoother torque. The information needed to calculate the optimal reference currents is based on an online parameter estimation feeding an optimization algorithm to achieve an optimal torque output and will be investigated in future research. In order to ensure the stability of the controller over the whole area of operation even under the influence of effects changing the system’s parameter, this work as well focusses on the robustness of the “hybrid” dead beat controller.
In large aircrafts the cabling is very complex and often causes reliability problems. This is specially true for modern In-flight Entertainment (IFE) systems, where every passenger can select a preferred movie, play computer games or be able to communicate with other travellers. Due to EMC problems, wireless communication systems (WiFi etc.) didn't succeed in solving these problems. In this paper an innovative communication system is proposed which perfectly supplements an aircraft IFE system. The key innovation of this system is to use structures that are essential parts of the airframe for data transfer, such as seat rails. Those rails consist of rectangular shapes and could easily be modified to fulfill the function of waveguides for microwaves. A waveguide as part of the seat rail would provide enormous benefits for aircrafts, such as a large bandwidth and consequently high data rates, no problems with EMC, unlimited flexibility of seat configuration, mechanical robustness with associated increase of reliability and a few additional advantages related to aircrafts such as reduction of weight and costs.
This paper presents a novel low-jitter interface between a low-cost integrated IEEE802.11 chip and a FPGA. It is designed to be part of system hardware for ultra-precise synchronization between wireless stations. On physical level, it uses Wi-Fi chip coexistence signal lines and UART frame encoding. On its basis, we propose an efficient communication protocol providing precise timestamping of incoming frames and internal diagnostic mechanisms for detecting communication faults. Meanwhile it is simple enough to be implemented both in low-cost FPGA and commodity IEEE802.11 chip firmware. The results of computer simulation shows that developed FPGA implementation of the proposed protocol can precisely timestamp incoming frames as well as detect most of communication errors even in conditions of high interference. The probability of undetected errors was investigated. The results of this analysis are significant for the development of novel wireless synchronization hardware.
A novel approach of a testbed for embedded networking nodes has been conceptualized and implemented. It is based on the use of virtual nodes in a PC environment, where each node executes the original embedded code. Different nodes are running in parallel and are connected via so-called virtual interfaces. The presented approach is very efficient and allows a simple description of test cases without the need of a network simulator. Furthermore, it speeds up the process of developing new features.
In this paper, a complete passive transponder device has been discussed which is meant to monitor leakage in silicone breast implants. The passive tag operates in the HF frequency range of 13.56MHz using RFID ISO 15693 standard. The complete system consists of the transponder, reader and a PC. This paper focusses on the development of such a state of the art passive RFID transponder to monitor the wellness of the silicone breast implants periodically in order to detect leakage in the same. Keyword: RFID (Radio frequency identification device), EM (Electromagnetic) field, Passive Transponder, Silicone breast implants.
The following describes a new method for estimating the parameters of an interior permanent magnet synchronous machine (IPMSM). For the estimation of the parameters the current slopes caused by the switching of the inverter are used to determine the unknowns of the system equations of the electrical machine. The angle and current dependence of the machine parameters are linearized within a PWM cycle. By considering the different switching states of the inverter, several system equations can be derived and a solution can be found within one PWM cycle. The use of test signals and filter-based approaches is avoided. The derived algorithm is explained and validated with measurements on a test bench.
There are additional long-term effects which also change the micro-structure of the polymer network and consequently the effective number of polymer chains in the material. These effects are summarized by ageing processes and will be used in the following to explain the basic assumptions of the model which can be generalized to simulate the viscous behaviour of the material. An implementation of these concepts into FEM codes is straightforward and has been carried out to the solver ABAQUS, Baaser & Ziegler (2006), Baaser et al. (2009).
In recent years, the topic of embedded machine learning has become very popular in AI research. With the help of various compression techniques such as pruning, quantization and others compression techniques, it became possible to run neural networks on embedded devices. These techniques have opened up a whole new application area for machine learning. They range from smart products such as voice assistants to smart sensors that are needed in robotics. Despite the achievements in embedded machine learning, efficient algorithms for training neural networks in constrained domains are still lacking. Training on embedded devices will open up further fields of applications. Efficient training algorithms would enable federated learning on embedded devices, in which the data remains where it was collected, or retraining of neural networks in different domains. In this paper, we summarize techniques that make training on embedded devices possible. We first describe the need and requirements for such algorithms. Then we examine existing techniques that address training in resource-constrained environments as well as techniques that are also suitable for training on embedded devices, such as incremental learning. At the end, we also discuss which problems and open questions still need to be solved in these areas.
We provide a privacy-friendly cloud-based smart metering storage architecture which provides few-instance storage on encrypted measurements by at the same time allowing SQL queries on them. Our approach is most flexible with respect to two axes: on the one hand it allows to apply filtering rules on encrypted data with respect to various upcoming business cases; on the other hand it provides means for a storage-efficient handling of encrypted measurements by applying server-side deduplication techniques over all incoming smart meter measurements. Although the work at hand is purely dedicated to a smart metering architecture we believe our approach to have value for a broader class of IoT cloud storage solutions. Moreover, it is an example for Privacy-by-design supporting the positive-sum paradigm.
A new RFID/NFC (ISO 15693 standard) based inductively powered passive SoC (System on chip) for biomedical applications is presented here. The proposed SOC consists of an integrated 32 bit microcontroller, RFID/NFC frontend, sensor interface circuit, analog to digital converter and some peripherals such as timer, SPI interface and memory devices. An energy harvesting unit supplies the power required for the entire system for complete passive operation. The complete chip is realized on CMOS 0.18 μm technology with a chip area of 1.5 mm × 3.0 mm.
In medical applications wireless technologies are not widely spread. Today they are mainly used in non latency-critical applications where reliability can be guaranteed through retransmission protocols and error correction mechanisms. By using retransmission protocols within the disturbed shared wireless channel latency will increase. Therefore retransmission protocols are not sufficient for removing latency-critical wired connections within operating rooms such as foot switches. Todays research aims to improve reliability through the physical characteristics of the wireless channel by using diversity methods and more robust modulation. In this paper an Architecture for building up a reliable network is presented. The Architecture offers the possibility for devices with different reliability, latency and energy consumption requirements to participate. Furthermore reliability, latency and energy consumption are scalable for every single participant.
A new, small, and optimized for low power processor core named SIRIUS has been developed, simulated, synthesized to a netlist and verified. From this netlist, containing only primitives like gates and flip-flops, a mapping to an ASIC - or FPGA technology can easily be done with existing synthesizer tools, allowing very complex SOC designs with several blocks. Emulation via FPGA can be done on already simple setups and cheap hardware because of the small core size. The performance is estimated 50 MIPS on Cyclone II FPGA and about 100 MIPS on a 0.35 CMOS 5M2P technology with 4197 primitives used for the core, including a 16 x 16 multiplier. An example design of the ASIC for an electronic ePille device currently in development is shown.
A new miniaturized capsule with 32bit processor and bidirectional communication system is being developed for multitask application. The capsule is designed to be a platform for medical assistant application inside the body. The processor core SIRIUS has been developed, simulated, synthesized to a netlist and verified. The designed telemetry unit is a synchronous bidirectional communication block using continuous phase DQPSK of 115 kHz low carrier frequency for inductive data transmission suited for human body energy transfer. The communication system can assist the electronic pill to trigger an actuator for drug delivery, to record temperature, or to measure pH of the body. The complete system is designed to fit small-size mass medical application with low power consumption, size of 7x25 mm. The system is designed, simulated, emulated on FPGA, and routed in AMIS Technology.
Ensuring that software applications present their users the most recent version of data is not trivial. Self-adjusting computations are a technique for automatically and efficiently recomputing output data whenever some input changes.
This article describes the software architecture of a large, commercial software system built around a framework for coarse-grained self-adjusting computations in Haskell. It discusses advantages and disadvantages based on longtime experience. The article also presents a demo of the system and explains the API of the framework.
With increasing flexible AC transmission system (FACTS) devices in operation, like the most versatile unified power flow controller (UPFC), the AC/DC transmission flexibility and power system stability have been suffering unprecedented challenge. This paper introduces the user-defined modeling (UDM) method into the UPFC dynamic modeling process, to deal with the challenging requirements of power system operation. This has also been verified using a leading-edge stability analysis software named DSATools TM in the IEEE-39 bus benchmark system. The characteristics of steady-state and dynamic responses are compared and analyzed under different conditions. Furthermore, simulation results prove the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed UPFC in terms of both the independent regulation of power flow and the improvement of transient stability.
Voice user interfaces (VUIs) offer an intuitive, fast and convenient way for humans to interact with machines and computers. Yet, whether they’ll be truly successful and find widespread uptake in the near future depends on the user experience (UX) they offer. With this survey-based study (n = 108), we aim to identify the major annoyances German voice assistant users are facing in voice-driven human-computer interactions. The results of our questionnaire show that irritations appear in six categories: privacy issues, unwanted activation, comprehensibility, response quality, conversational design and voice characteristics. Our findings can help identify key areas of work to optimize voice user experience in order to achieve greater adaptation of the technology. In addition, they can provide valuable information for the further development and standardization of voice user experience (VUX) research.
Hot work tools are subjected to complex thermal and mechanical loads during hot forming processes. Locally, the stresses can exceed the material’s yield strength in highly loaded areas as e.g. in small radii in die cavities. To sustain the high loads, the hot forming tools are typically made of martensitic hot work steels. While temperatures for annealing of the tool steels usually lie in the range between 400 and 600 °C, the steels may experience even higher temperatures during hot forming, resulting in softening of the material due to coarsening of strengthening particles. In this paper, a temperature dependent cyclic plasticity model for the martensitic hot work tool steel 1.2367 (X38CrMoV5-3) is presented that includes softening due to particle coarsening and that can be applied in finite-element calculations to assess the effect of softening on the thermomechanical fatigue life of hot work tools. To this end, a kinetic model for the evolution of the mean size of secondary carbides based on Ostwald ripening is coupled with a cyclic plasticity model with kinematic hardening. Mechanism-based relations are developed to describe the dependency of the mechanical properties on carbide size and temperature. The material properties of the mechanical and kinetic model are determined on the basis of tempering hardness curves as well as monotonic and cyclic tests.
Multiple Object Tracking (MOT) is a long-standing task in computer vision. Current approaches based on the tracking by detection paradigm either require some sort of domain knowledge or supervision to associate data correctly into tracks. In this work, we present a self-supervised multiple object tracking approach based on visual features and minimum cost lifted multicuts. Our method is based on straight-forward spatio-temporal cues that can be extracted from neighboring frames in an image sequences without supervision. Clustering based on these cues enables us to learn the required appearance invariances for the tracking task at hand and train an AutoEncoder to generate suitable latent representations. Thus, the resulting latent representations can serve as robust appearance cues for tracking even over large temporal distances where no reliable spatio-temporal features can be extracted. We show that, despite being trained without using the provided annotations, our model provides competitive results on the challenging MOT Benchmark for pedestrian tracking.
Thin-layer chromatography is a rapid and reliable working method for quantification of mycotoxins which is suitable for checking EC legislation aflatoxin limits for dried figs without an RP-18 pre-column cleaning step. We describe normal-phase chromatography on silica gel plates with 2.4:0.05:0.1:0.05 ( v/v ) methyl t -butyl ether-water-methanol-cyclohexane as mobile phase and reversed-phase chromatography on RP-18 plates with methanol-4% aqueous ZnSO 4 solution-ethyl methyl ketone 15:15:3 ( v/v ) as mobile phase. Sample pretreatment was by modified QuEChERS (Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged, Safe) extraction with tetrahydrofuran or acetone. NaCl was used as QuEChERS salt. Response was a linear function of amount chromatographed in the ranges 3 to 100 pg per zone for aflatoxins B 2 and G 2 , 10 to 350 pg per zone for the aflatoxins B 1 and G 1 , and 0.25 to 2.5 ng per zone for ochratoxin A. Quantification limits for the aflatoxins were between 13 and 35 pg per zone (equivalent to 1.5 and 2.4 ppb, taking the pre-treatment procedure into account). Ochratoxin A was detectable with a limit of quantification of 970 pg per zone, corresponding to 56 ppb in the sample. Normal phase and RP-18 separations work rapidly, reliably, and at low cost. They are also suitable for checking the content of the mycotoxins patulin, penicillic acid, zearalenone, and deoxynivalenol.
Integrating voice / video communication into business processes can accelerate resolution time, reduce mistakes, and establish a full audit-trail of the interactions. Some VoIP service providers offer website based or plugin based solutions, which are, however, difficult to integrate with other applications. A promising approach to overcome these disadvantages is the development of appropriate Web Services to allow applications interacting with a VoIP system. We propose a generic framework for VoIP applications consisting of an XML-based service specification language and a set of reusable Web Service components. Service providers using the proposed service-oriented architecture can offer to their customers a protocol-neutral Web Service interface, thus enabling the deployment of a general and integrated VoIP solution.
The Metering Bus, also known as M-Bus, is a European standard EN13757-3 for reading out metering devices, like electricity, water, gas, or heat meters. Although real-life M-Bus networks can reach a significant size and complexity, only very simple protocol analyzers are available to observe and maintain such networks. In order to provide developers and installers with the ability to analyze the real bus signals easily, a web-based monitoring tool for the M-Bus has been designed and implemented. Combined with a physical bus interface it allows for measuring and recording the bus signals. For this at first a circuit has been developed, which transforms the voltage and current-modulated M-Bus signals to a voltage signal that can be read by a standard ADC and processed by an MCU. The bus signals and packets are displayed using a web server, which analyzes and classifies the frame fragments. As an additional feature an oscilloscope functionality is included in order to visualize the physical signal on the bus. This paper describes the development of the read-out circuit for the Wired M-Bus and the data recovery.
The paper recommends an approach to estimate effectively the probability of buffer overflow in high-speed communication networks, capable of carrying diverse traffic, including self-similar teletraffic, and supporting diverse levels of quality of service. Simulations with stochastic, long-range dependent self-similar traffic source models are conducted. A new efficient algorithm, based on a variant of the RESTART/LRE method, is developed and applied to accelerate the buffer overflow simulation in a finite buffer single server model under long-range dependent self-similar traffic load with different buffer sizes. Numerical examples and simulation results are shown
Subspace clustering aims to find all clusters in all subspaces of a high-dimensional data space. We present a massively data-parallel approach that can be run on graphics processing units. It extends a previous density-based method that scales well with the number of dimensions. Its main computational bottleneck consists of (sequentially) generating a large number of minimal cluster candidates in each dimension and using hash collisions in order to find matches of such candidates across multiple dimensions. Our approach parallelizes this process by removing previous interdependencies between consecutive steps in the sequential generation process and by applying a very efficient parallel hashing scheme optimized for GPUs. This massive parallelization gives up to 70x speedup for
the bottleneck computation when it is replaced by our approach and run on current GPU hardware. We note that depending on data size and choice of parameters, the parallelized part of the algorithm can take different percentages of the overall runtime of the clustering process, and thus, the overall clustering speedup may vary significantly between different cases. However, even
in our ”worst-case” test, a small dataset where the computation makes up only a small fraction of the overall clustering time, our parallel approach still yields a speedup of more than 3x for the complete run of the clustering process. Our method could also be combined with parallelization of other parts of the clustering algorithm, with an even higher potential gain in processing speed.
The authentication method of electronic devices, based on individual forms of correlograms of their internal electric noises, is well-known. Specific physical differences in the components – for example, caused by variations in production quality – cause specific electrical signals, i.e. electric noise, in the electronic device. It is possible to obtain this information and to identify the specific differences of the individual devices using an embedded analog-to-digital converter (ADC). These investigations confirm the possibility to identify and authenticate electronic devices using bit templates, calculated from the sequence of values of the normalized autocorrelation function of noise. Experiments have been performed using personal computers. The probability of correct identification and authentication increases with increasing noise recording duration. As a result of these experiments, an accuracy of 98.1% was achieved for a 1 second-long registration of EM for a set of investigated computers.
Most recently, the federal government in Germany published new climate goals in order reach climate neutrality by 2045. This paper demonstrates a path to a cost optimal energy supply system for the German power grid until the year 2050. With special regard to regionality, the system is based on yearly myopic optimization with the required energy system transformation measures and the associated system costs. The results point out, that energy storage systems (ESS) are fundamental for renewables integration in order to have a feasible energy transition. Moreover, the investment in storage technologies increased the usage of the solar and wind technologies. Solar energy investments were highly accompanied with the installation of short-term battery storage. Longer-term storage technologies, such as H2, were accompanied with high installations of wind technologies. The results pointed out that hydrogen investments are expected to overrule short-term batteries if their cost continues to decrease sharply. Moreover, with a strong presence of ESS in the energy system, biomass energy is expected to be completely ruled out from the energy mix. With the current emission reduction strategy and without a strong presence of large scale ESS into the system, it is unlikely that the Paris agreement 2° C target by 2050 will be achieved, let alone the 1.5° C.
Das fortwährende Streben nach Steigerung der Genauigkeit und Effizienz von industriellen Bearbeitungs- und Prüfprozessen führt bei elektrischen Antrieben zu immer höheren Forderungen an ihre dynamischen Eigenschaften. Hierbei kommt dem Stromregelkreis als dem am weitesten unterlagerten Regelkreis eines elektrischen Antriebs eine entscheidende Bedeutung zu. Mit zunehmender Dynamikerhöhung des Stromregelkreises treten jedoch aufgrund von Parameterunsicherheiten und von Messfehlem immer deutlicher Probleme der Regelkreisrobustheit und der Geräuschemission in den Vordergrund, die es oft nicht gestatten, die theoretisch erhaltenen Lösungen in vollem Umfang zu realisieren. Gegenüber der optimalen Lösung müssen dann Abstriche hinsichtlich der erreichbaren Dynamik gemacht werden. Wie diese Abstriche durch das Ausschöpfen verborgener Freiheitsgrade reduziert werden können, wird im vorliegenden Beitrag gezeigt. Als Lösungsansatz wird hierfür ein achsenunsymmetrischer Statorstromzustandsregler gewählt, der es erlaubt, in der d- und q-Achse eine unterschiedliche Dynamik einzustellen. Hierbei wird zunächst im Kapitel 2 ein kurzer Überblick über die Entwicklungsgeschichte und den Stand der Technik von pulsweitenmodulierten Stromregelverfahren für Drehstromantriebe in den zurückliegenden Jahrzehnten gegeben. Anschließend wird am Beispiel einer frequenzumrichtergespeisten Asynchronmaschine das zeitdiskrete Modell der Statorstromregelstrecke vorgestellt, das dem hier erläuterten Verfahren zugrunde liegt. Wegen des Zusammenhangs zwischen Dynamikerhöhung und Empfindlichkeitszunahme ist es naheliegend, die Dynamik des Statorstromregelkreises nur so weit zu steigern, wie es erforderlich ist. Diesbezüglich ist insbesondere zu gewährleisten, dass ein angefordertes Drehmoment möglichst schnellst eingeprägt wird. Die Änderungsgeschwindigkeit des Flusses spielt hingegen eine untergeordnetere Rolle. Demzufolge sollte die drehmomentbildende Statorstrom-q-Komponente in der Praxis eine höhere Dynamik aufweisen als die flussbildende Statorstrom-d-Komponente. Um hierbei die aufwändige reelle Rechnung so weit wie möglich zu vermeiden, wird der Reglerentwurf in zwei Schritten durchgeführt. Im ersten Schritt wird ein schiefsymmetrisches, komplex beschreibbares Regelgesetz entworfen, das zwar zu einer möglichst einfachen Darstellbarkeit des geschlossenen Statorstromregelkreises führt, das jedoch noch nicht die endgültige Dynamik zur Folge haben muss. Insbesondere muss nach Abschluss dieses ZwischenSchritts bereits eine vollständige Entkopplung der d- und der q-Komponente des Statorstromraumzeigers vollzogen sein. Im zweiten Schritt wird dann ein weiterer Regler entworfen, der auf der Grundlage des im ersten Schritt erhaltenen entkoppelten Systems jeder Stromkomponente eine separate Dynamik zuweisen kann. Die Verkettung beider Teilregler führt schließlich zum gesuchten Statorstromregler, der zum einen relativ einfach berechenbar ist und der zum anderen alle an ihn gestellten Dynamikanforderungen erfüllt. Im vierten Kapitel wird schließlich der Entwurf des achsenunsymmetrischen Statorstromzustandsreglers skizziert und die daraus hervorgehenden Regelalgorithmen vorgestellt. Die Leistungsfähigkeit des beschriebenen Zustandsreglers wird anhand von aufgenommenen Zeitverläufen eines Laborantriebs demonstriert, mit dem der Drehmomentverlauf von Verbrennungsmotoren nachgebildet wird.
Monitors are in the center of media productions and hold an important function as the main visual interface. Tablets and smartphones are becoming more and more important work tools in the media industry. As an extension to our lecture contents an intensive discussion of different display technologies and its applications is taking place now. The established LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) technology and the promising OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) technology are in the focus.
The classic LCD is currently the most important display technology. The paper will present how the students should develop sense for display technologies besides the theoretical scientific basics. The workshop focuses increasingly on the technical aspects of the display technology and has the goal of deepening the students understanding of the functionality by building simple Liquid Crystal Displays by themselves.
The authors will present their experience in the field of display technologies. A mixture of theoretical and practical lectures has the goal of a deeper understanding in the field of digital color representation and display technologies. The design and development of a suitable learning environment with the required infrastructure is crucial. The main focus of this paper is on the hands-on optics workshop “Liquid Crystal Display in the do-it-yourself”.
This paper gives an overview of the implementation of an Active Noise Control system on the TMS320C6713 Digital Signal Processor from Texas Instruments in the Digital Signal Processing Lab at Hochschule Offenburg, Germany. This system is implemented considering some non-ideal environmental conditions on a real system instead of being limited to computer simulations. Changes over time on the physical acoustical path as well as reverberation and variation on the power of the reference signal can strongly degrade the performance of the system or even lead to instability. In order to try to minimize these effects, the Active Noise Control system was designed to support a fast and easy implementation and evaluation of different algorithms on the DSP in real-time. In Section 1 a brief introduction about active noise control system is given and in section 2 the basic algorithm is described. In section 3 the implementation of the system is described and in section 4 some final considerations are given.
Active participation of industrial enterprises in electricity markets - a generic modeling approach
(2021)
Industrial enterprises represent a significant portion of electricity consumers with the potential of providing demand-side energy flexibility from their production processes and on-site energy assets. Methods are needed for the active and profitable participation of such enterprises in the electricity markets especially with variable prices, where the energy flexibility available in their manufacturing, utility and energy systems can be assessed and quantified. This paper presents a generic model library equipped with optimal control for energy flexibility purposes. The components in the model library represent the different technical units of an industrial enterprise on material, media, and energy flow levels with their process constraints. The paper also presents a case study simulation of a steel-powder manufacturing plant using the model library. Its energy flexibility was assessed when the plant procured its electrical energy at fixed and variable electricity prices. In the simulated case study, flexibility use at dynamic prices resulted in a 6% cost reduction compared to a fixed-price scenario, with battery storage and the manufacturing system making the largest contributions to flexibility.
The Institute of Applied Research Offenburg is working in the field of autonomous data loggers since many years. In collaboration with industry, a new RFID based active sensor data logger for continuous recording of temperature has been developed and is now manufactured in mass production. Compared to existing systems, an unusual large data memory is integrated, which can be used via a simplified file system in a flexible way. The system will be used to accompany and monitor temperature sensitive goods of high value. The transponder is the first member of a new class of logging devices, the smallest will be not larger than a 2 Euro-coin with a fully integrated ASIC frontend.
In this paper we suggest to combine the areas of media streaming services, mobile devices, and manufacturing processes to support monitoring, controlling and supervising production processes in order to achieve high levels of efficiency and environmentally friendly production. It contains a comprehensive and detailed explanation of the proposed E-Learning streaming framework, especially the adaption of streaming services to mobile environments. The key components of our approach are 1) an XML-based streaming service specification language, 2) adaption of multimedia E-Learning services to mobile environments, and 3) a media delivery platform for searching, registration, and creation of streaming services for mobile devices.
The iSign project started in 2000 as a web-based laboratory setting for students of electrical engineering. In the meantime it has broadened into a heterogeneous learning environment offering learning material, adaptive user settings and access to a simulation tool. All these offerings can be accessed via web and wireless by different clients, such as PCs, PDAs and mobile phones. User adaptive systems offer unique and personalised environment for every learner and therefore are a very important aspect of modern e-learning systems. The iSign project aims to personalise the content structure based on the learner's behaviour, content pattern, policies, and system environment. The second aspect of the recent research and development within this project is the generation of suitable content and presentation for different clients. This generation is based additionally on the user preferences in order to obtain the desirable presentation for a given device. New, valuable features are added to the mobile application, empowering the user not only to control the simulation process with his mobile device but also to input data, view the simulation's output and evaluate the results. Experiences with students have helped to improve functionality and look-and-feel whilst using the iSign system. Our goal is to provide unconstrained, continuous and personalised access to the laboratory settings and learning material everywhere and at anytime with different devices.
Various rapid prototyping methods have been available for the production of physical architectural models for a few years. This paper highlights in particular the advantages of 3D printing and Fused Layer Modeling for the production of detailed architectural models. In addition, the current challenges for the creation and transfer of CAAD-data are explained. Furthermore, new methods are being developed in order to improve both the technical and economic boundary conditions for the application of 3DP und FLM. This makes the production of models with very detailed interior rooms possible. The internal details are made visible by dividing the complex overall model into individual models connected by means of an innovative plug-in system. In addition, three case studies are shown in which the developed methods are applied in order to implement detailed architectural models. Finally manufacturing time and costs of the architectural models in the three case studies are compared.
Additive manufacturing is a rapidly growing manufacturing process for which many new processes and materials are currently being developed. The biggest advantage is that almost any shape can be produced, while conventional manufacturing methods reach their limits. Furthermore, a lot of material is saved because the part is created in layers and only as much material is used as necessary. In contrast, in the case of machining processes, it is not uncommon for more than half of the material to be removed and disposed of. Recently, new additive manufacturing processes have been on the market that enables the manufacturing of components using the FDM process with fiber reinforcement. This opens up new possibilities for optimizing components in terms of their strength and at the same time increasing sustainability by reducing materials consumption and waste. Within the scope of this work, different types of test specimens are to be designed, manufactured and examined. The test specimens are tensile specimens, which are used both for standardized tensile tests and for examining a practical component from automotive engineering used in student project. This project is a vehicle designed to compete in the Shell Eco-marathon, one of the world’s largest energy efficiency competitions. The aim is to design a vehicle that covers a certain distance with as little fuel as possible. Accordingly, it is desirable to manufacture the components with the lowest possible weight, while still ensuring the required rigidity. To achieve this, the use of fiber-reinforced 3D-printed parts is particularly suitable due to the high rigidity. In particular, the joining technology for connecting conventionally and additively manufactured components is developed. As a result, the economic efficiency was assessed, and guidelines for the design of components and joining elements were created. In addition, it could be shown that the additive manufacturing of the component could be implemented faster and more sustainably than the previous conventional manufacturing.
The fast and cost-effective manufacturing of tools for thermoforming is an essential requirement to shorten the development time of products. Thus, additive processes are used increasingly in tooling for thermoforming of plastic sheets. However, a disadvantage of many additive methods is that they are highly cost-intensive, since complex systems based on laser technology and expensive metal powders are needed. Therefore, this paper examines how to work with favorable additive methods, e.g. Binder Jetting, to manufacture tools, which provide sufficient strength for thermoforming. The use of comparatively low-priced inkjet technology for the layer construction and a polymer plaster as material can be expected to result in significant cost reductions. Based on a case study using a cowling (engine bonnet) for an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), the development of a complex tool for thermoforming is demonstrated. The object in this study is to produce a tool for a complex-shaped component in small numbers and high quality in a short time and at reasonable costs. Within the tooling process, integrated vacuum channels are implemented in additive tooling without the need for additional post-processing (for example, drilling). In addition, special technical challenges, such as the demolding of undercuts or the parting of the tool are explained. All process steps from tool design to the use of the additively manufactured tool are analyzed. Based on the manufacturing of a small series of cowlings for a UAV made of plastic sheets (ABS), it is shown, that the Binder Jetting offers sufficient mechanical and thermal strength for additive tooling. In addition, an economic evaluation of the tool manufacturing and a detailed consideration of the required manufacturing times for the different process steps are carried out. Finally, a comparison is made with conventional and alternative additive methods of tooling.
In bimodal cochlear implant (CI) / hearing aid (HA) users a constant interaural time delay in the order of several milliseconds occurs due to differences in signal processing of the devices. For MED-EL CI systems in combination with different HA types, we have quantified the respective device delay mismatch (Zirn et al. 2015). In the current study, we investigate the effect of the device delay mismatch in simulated and actual bimodal listeners on sound localization accuracy.
To deal with the device delay mismatch in actual bimodal listeners we delayed the CI stimulation according to the measured HA processing delay and two other values. With all delay values highly significant improvements of the rms error in the localization task were observed compared to the test without the delay. The results help to narrow down the optimal patient-specific delay value.