It is necessary to foster collaborations between academy and industrial partners, so that the set of skills and competences gained by the students are aligned with the needs of industry. Also, some areas are traditionally of scarce availability in the workforce market. One such area is embedded systems programming, due to the multidisciplinary nature of the required skills.
To meet these challenges, a team of Electrical and Computer Science professors from ISEC collaborated with representants of industry to design and offer an intensive course (daylong classes during 6 months) with a narrow focus on embedded systems programming. Paid internships in several industrial partners are available to all students that successfully complete the course.
The second edition of the course has recently concluded, with employers reporting students have met or exceeded expectations.
The ExoBike is a bicycle like structure, that takes over a human exoskeleton function for medical rehabilitation purposes. The proposed system enables lower limb movement control, based on the sensor data as well as the patient intentions. An adapted seat as well as a specific pedal structure and a number of other mechanical interface areas have been built. A number of sensors such as load cells, extensometers and Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) have been implemented to monitor the user position and movements. Data is collected from the sensors and transferred to a central unit through a wireless communications protocol.
In this paper a pedal position monitoring device for the Exobike is proposed. The device aims at determining the pedal position during the user lower limb movements. The pedal monitoring device has been implemented with an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and a Texas Instruments CC2640R2F wireless MCU with a Bluetooth interface. The IMU is a BNO055 Bosch sensor with an I2C interface. The wireless interface enables a wire free sensor that is able to follow the pedal movements. The CC2640R2F runs a TI-RT Operating System that controls system operation. Data is transferred to a PC running a Graphical User Interface implemented with Processing.
The proposed system architecture is described and the Operating System structure, namely the implemented tasks within the Texas Instruments SimpleLink framework, is presented.
In the last years we have witnessed a significant investment on road safety from many countries around the world, including Portugal. Still, according to the National Road Safety Authority, about fourteen people are run over in Portugal every day.
With the goal to reduce these values and in response to the new dangers that come from pedestrians looking at mobile phones while walking, or from silently moving electric vehicles, we propose a novel type of crosswalk called Active Transversal Signaling for Pedestrian Crosswalks - STAP (Sinalização Transversal Ativa de Passadeiras).
STAP is a solution for alerting drivers and pedestrians by identifying dangerous situations near the crosswalks through real-time detection of vehicles and pedestrians. It uses light stripes to delimit access and capture the attention with specific light profiles, according to pedestrian presence, vehicle speed and visibility.
In the course of the project, emphasis was placed on the detection of people through a neural network, in the acquisition of vehicles speeds using a radar and the control of luminaires according to the lighting conditions of the place. At this moment light signaling is performed using addressable RGB led strips mounted in the posts that hold other devices while in the future we consider projection of light on the road.
Several tests have been performed to prove the effectiveness and limitations of the system, such as vehicle counting and classification, pedestrian detection accuracy, optimization of authorization and prohibition times and lighting control, aiming to create a prototype in real size.
This paper describes an educational project aiming at teaching Internet of Things (IoT) network architectures and technologies to electrical engineering bachelor students. The project involves the monitoring and control of five Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights and associated electronics installed in the Coimbra Institute of Engineering (ISEC) Campus. These objectives are achieved through the programming of a set of embedded systems that are integrated as network end devices in The Things Network (TTN).
A specific field of application for the IoT is the reduction of the global energy consumption where optimizing street lighting is one very important component. Energy savings can be obtained through two main routes. On the one hand through a technology update by gradually replacing incandescent and Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) for much more energy efficient LED lights. On the other hand, large efficiency gains can be obtained from intelligent monitoring and control of light fixtures. The control system can be programmed to turn-off lights as per a predetermined schedule, to vary the intensity of lighting to suit ambient conditions such as sensed natural light and the presence of people and vehicles.
The project is based on an IoT network that will allow to sense the required variables to monitor and control the light fixtures in order to maximize energy efficiency. Among sensed variables are internal state information from the electronic modules that control the light source such as current and voltages from led controller devices. This allows to use the communications infrastructure to both control inservice light fixtures and to simultaneously collect information aimed at improving the characteristics of light control electronic devices under development.
For many years, academic institutions have offered so-called summer schools as a way to provide additional or standard teaching content to selected groups of students outside the regular curricular activities. The reasons are quite diverse.
Summer schools may allow students
In this presentation we will introduce and discuss a new international summer school that will be offered for the first time in 2020. It is jointly organised by Kiel University of Applied Sciences and China Jiliang University (CJLU) in Hangzhou, China, and actively supported by several international partner institutions.
The general focus will be on Smart City (SC) Innovation Technologies, including: IT for Smart Cities, Ubiquitous and Pervasive Computing, Internet of Things (IoT, Building IoT), Data Science, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cyber Security, Creative Design, Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship.
The location of this summer school, Hangzhou, is the capital of the Zhejiang Province in the Eastern part of the People's Republic of China (PRC), in close vicinity to Shanghai and other important industry hubs. Zhejiang is considered one of the wealthiest provinces in China with Hangzhou being the innovation center of China.
Although the city’s wealth was originally based on its silk and textile industry, and the tea plantations, it is now the Chinese center for research, development, and production in the Information Technology area in general and particularly in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The e-commerce giant Alibaba Group has its headquarters in Hangzhou, maintaining several R&D centers as well as innovation and start-up hubs.
Hangzhou hosted the G20 summit 2016. Its most popular touristic attraction is the West Lake, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Fig. 1: The West Lake in Hangzhou, China
Historical zones in cities pose a significant challenge in urban mobility because of the narrow and irregular shape of the streets. Cities management tends to limit the access to residents, taxis and other private transports, ambulances and medical vehicle, fire combat vehicles and so.
Access control to historical zones is done by a physical barrier and an electronic control system that uses a white list of authorized vehicles or drivers. Also, a security guard can be called to give access to unauthorized vehicles in special situations.
This work proposes a novel solution for car access control in which the use of wireless communications simplifies the installation of access control points. The system architecture includes a local controller that can actuate a physical barrier and a central platform. The local controller is responsible for the user authentication considering permanent connection with the central platform which contains all relevant information such as the white list of users. A log of every unexpected authorization is registered to prevent abuse, which is one of the problems of the current systems.
The implemented system allows the use of a smartphone as an access token with Bluetooth Low Energy as an alternative to traditional systems based on DSRC or RFID tokens. Communications between the local controller and the central platform are made through LoRa, decreasing the communication costs and system installation complexity.
This paper describes an educational system demonstrating the use of conventional devices and consumer-grade embedded systems for distributed industrial automation applications.
Modern industrial PLCs use remote I/O units to gather and deliver information for the monitoring and control of industrial processes. These distributed remote units are usually interconnected to the central PLC using an industrial communications network [1]. Nowadays there is some convergence towards
the use of Ethernet with supporting protocols such as Profinet, Ethercat, Ethernet/IP, Modbus/TCP, among others [2].
On the one hand, both central units, implemented through industrial PLCs, and I/O modules, have been mostly available from very well established manufacturers, mainly due to demanding regulations and high standard requirements in most fields of industrial automated processes [3,4].
On the other hand, a new generation of embedded systems with very high processing capabilities and at low cost, make it possible and very attractive to consider their use in substitution of the more conventional established-brand PLCs and I/O modules, especially when dealing with applications for less regulated environments. Some examples of successful deployments are those based on the Arduino, such as the Controllino PLC, the M-Duino and the Iono Arduino, as well as those based on the RaspberryPi computer such as the Iono Pi and the UniPi [5,6].
The developed educational system consists of a Central Control Unit that can be either a Siemens S7-1200 PLC, a ARM Cortex M3/4 Board with embedded communications peripherals, or a RaspberryPi small form factor computer including communications hardware. For the remote I/O module a Vipa 053-1MT00 - IM053 Interface Modbus/TCP Slave [7] or a Arduino Uno Board with an Ethernet Shield can be selected. Any combination of central unit and extension module can be used while communications are implemented through the ModBus/TCP protocol at a speed of 100 Mbps.
The ARM-based central unit firmware uses a three-task RTOS implementing the control algorithm, the Ethernet communications and the CAN communications bus. The S7-1200 PLC is programmed in Ladder to achieve the same control and communications objectives. The RaspberryPi-based board is programmed in C and makes use of an updated Xenomai framework implementing two processes: control and communications.
To exemplify and demonstrate the operation of the system, hardware setup and software modules were developed to implement the control of a remote automatic gate. This experimental setup allows electrical engineering students to develop skills on applied embedded systems, industrial communications and real-time operating systems. This includes both conventional manufacturer devices, as well as new high performance embedded systems through easily available development boards.
The conventional hardware modules can be exchanged for other manufacturers with similar characteristics, while different general use embedded systems can also be integrated, with added hardware configurations and programming efforts.
The software modules can be edited and extended to modify the system sensing and control behavior. Furthermore, communication failures can be injected to test and improve failure robustness, as well as to develop the student’s awareness for functional safety aspects in industrial automation systems and
to identify specific situations that may require the use of SafetyPLCs.
[1] SIEMENS, "SIMATIC ET 200 For distributed Automation" online:
https://www.automation.siemens.com/salesmaterial-as/brochure/en/brochure_simatic-et200_en.pdf
[2] Gary D Anderson, "Industrial Network Basics: Practical Guides for the Industrial Technician", CreateSpace
Independent Publishing Platform, ISBN: 978-1500930936, 2014
[3] IEC-61131, "Programmable Controllers", IEC, online: https://webstore.iec.ch/publication/62427
[4] IEC 60848, "GRAFCET specification language for sequential function charts", IEC, online:
https://webstore.iec.ch/publication/3684
[5] Controllino & M-Duino, "PLC based on Arduino Platform", online: https://www.controllino.biz/ and
https://www.industrialshields.com/
[6] IONO, UniPI, "PLC based on RaspberryPi Platforms", online: https://www.sferalabs.cc/iono-pi/,
https://www.unipi.technology/
[7] Vipa, “053-1MT00 - IM053 Interface, Modbus/TCP Slave”, online: https://vipausa.com/products/053-1mt00-
im053-interface-modbus-tcp-slave.html
Nowadays, intelligent computing machines are treated as inanimate objects, because robots do not have the necessary features to be considered alive. Nevertheless, autonomous computing systems are already able to make decisions themselves and assert human rights. In fact, ethical concerns are new and are constantly multiplying; hence, they cannot be currently addressed in a sufficient way.
This paper presents the role of ethics in developing computational intelligence. The moral implications of this rapid development are thoroughly investigated in the social, labor, and religious spheres. In addition, the scientists' concerns are listed and analyzed, as well as suggestions for future actions are made. It also attempts to probe the ethical dilemmas, concerning not only human rights, but also those of computer systems, by listing examples of how humans treat robots and vice versa. The existing knowledge and literature on these issues are scarce, that is why a combination of books, newspapers and internet sources was used.
The aim of this paper is not only to investigate the ethical and moral dilemmas that computational systems may cause, but also increase the readers’ awareness for more research. In contrast with the past, the ethical dilemmas that emerge, regarding computational intelligence and superintelligence of the future are becoming very significant. This fact necessitates the establishment of normative rules of ethical nature that will regulate the coexistence of people and machines. Humanity should adapt its values accordingly, change and strengthen its moral behavior and review the contribution of these intelligent system to society.
Multi trillion bond market demands a serious workstation must incorporate with all existed science and technology progression. We work on a similar development two years now.
Here and today we present selected conceptual developments from different parts of the trader’s workstation named MAGDALA; “Realistic Financial Time Series” definition, “Skin Borderline” GDPR safe recording and processing of personal data, Personal Development features, Personal Data tracking and Data Science artificial intelligence against complex human intelligence. Some features are very complex while other are almost impossible to reach but we must try. A typical MAGDALâ layout has an external data collection hardware and software and a Local processing and presentation system. The Trader Workstation is not an academic exercise but we do anything in order to suggest a profitable transaction.
Embedded systems are currently very relevant in many crucial aspects of modern society. Common daily-use objects are becoming smart increasingly using micro controllers and embedded systems, and the IoT has amplified this tendency. In this context, the need for tools for training professionals for this type of systems is very relevant.
Many courses address teaching programing for embedded systems using the Arduino platform. This platform offers many advantages but has inherent and unavoidable costs: component setup time, flash wear-out due to the many writes involved, wire connection issues and other electronic details not relevant for introduction to programing and so on. We propose the use of a simulator that completely replaces the need for the physical device in classes while keeping the typical development unchanged.
This paper presents our Arduino simulator platform that we developed for educational purposes, including several components commonly used. We discuss its structure and technological options, and performance aspects. We show how it can be used in an educational context with virtually no changes in the strategy in the classes of introductory embedded programming. We also present the advantages and some use cases that are made possible using our simulator that would be otherwise difficult using the physical device.
The Arduino Uno is a small board with an ATMEL MEGA 328 microcontroller. The Arduino-IDE allows program development in (nearly pure modern) C++. Programs are written on a PC and uploaded (via USB ) to the controller.
In this paper we will introduce an Arduino-based microcontroller system prepared to generate multisound melodies, i.e. play several melodies simultaneously.
Many Arduino-libraries are available. The most important for this project is Brett Hagmans
Tone-Library. It uses the timers of the controller to toggle (interrupt controlled) the voltage at arbitrary output ports between 0V and 5V.
That’s the way to generate squarewave output of wanted frequencies and durations. Since the MEGA 328 has three timers it is possible to generate up to three independent tone-outputs simultaneously.
First part: Coding Melodies
Let’s start with one single voice and with coding melodies according to the common sheet music.
Separate notes are separated by at least one space-character ‘ ‘.
Connected notes are not separated.
A note is syntactically:
For separated notes the duration will be reduced by about 5% and a pause of just these 5% will be appended.
Due to the available library Tone with its methods
- void play( frequency, duration ) and
- bool isPlaying( )
the strategy of playing the coded melody – a voice – is simple.
Preparation:
set a pointer to the beginning of the note-string.
Playing:
while ( not at the end of the note-string )
get next note;
start playing it for its duration;
while ( it is playing ); // Active wait. ( Not really nice! )
}
Second Part: Playing Melodies with several Voices
Playing several melodies simultaneously needs another strategy.
In a chorus you have distinct voices.
In our case their number is limited by the number of timers of the controller chip.
First of all, the melodies for the different voices are coded as described before.
But when playing them with the same Tone-library, it becomes difficult.
You need something like a scheduler.
Let us assume, voice1, voice2 and voice3 shall play their melodies.
Preparation:
- For each voice: set its pointer to the beginning of its note-string.
- Start the scheduler.
Scheduler:
In a loop look for the voice V with the nearest end of its actual tone (the shortest remaining duration).
( In the very beginning there are no tones played; all remaining durations are 0. )
- reduce the remaining durations of all voices by the shortest found,
- wait for the end of the tone of V,
- get and start the next tone of V.
Third Part: A new Library Voice
This library contains the class Voice.
- Voice v1( 8, HAPPY ) creates a Voice-object v1 with tonepin 8 and note-string HAPPY.
- v1.test( ) tests the correctness of the note-string
- v1.play( ) plays the note-strings melody.
- v1.newMelody( BIRTHDAY ) assigns the new note-string BIRTHDAY to v1.
- v1.playWith( v2, v3, . . . ) lets v1 play in a chorus with the Voice-objects v2, v3 . . .
- v1.playCanonWith ( v2, v3, . . . ) lets v1 play a canon with v2, v3, . . .
- all note-strings are stored in the program-memory to save precious RAM place.
- new methods for the Note-library: pause( duration ), delay( duration ).
- further syntactic elements for note-strings:
|: :| for repetition of parts of the note-string
! as information for the first voice of a canon to start the next voice at the beginning.
Fourth Part: What Features of C++ can be learned by this Project
- classes with attributes and methods
- static functions and variables
- templates
- scheduling
- interrupts
- multitasking
Conclusion: Much simpler with Level-controlled Interrupts
The Tone-library of Brett Hagman uses of course all possibilities of timer-controlled interrupts.
But the level-controlled interrupts are still available. The Arduino controller chip allows at least
two such Interrupts named I0 and I1.
Let us assume we have three Tone objects t1, t2, t3 created in this sequence.
It is rather easy to prepare an interrupt
- when a started tone ends and
- provide the number 1, 2 or 3 of this sequence in a static variable of the class Tone.
You don’t have to look for the tone with the shortest remaining duration.
No scheduler is necessary.
- The Interrupt Service Routine sets a volatile boolean variable wasInterrupt.
- The endlessly called function loop would simply be:
void loop( ) {
if ( wasInterrupt ) {
int sn = Tone::sequenceNumber;
wasInterrupt = false;
startNextTone( sn );
}
// free for other tasks
}
5G – the next Mobile Communication System Generation [1] is being advertised and announced throughout the media. The question however remains, whether 5G really is the next Generation of Mobile Communication or whether it rather is an evolution of 4G . Starting with an overview on recent mobile communication technologies [2], this presentation will give an insight in which commonalities and similarities 5G has as compared to 4G – LTE [3] and what differences 5G has in contrast to 4G – LTE. By doing this comparison we will get a clear view to answer the above mentioned question.
As will be shown in the presentation, 5G actually is much more a 4G evolution than a new Mobile Communication Generation technology. This leads us to the question, what are the benefits of 5G as compared to 4G – LTE, what are the major 5G applications and why is it justified to deploy 5G technology.
REFERENCES
[1] E. Dahlman, S. Parkvall und J. Sköld, 5G NR - The next generation wireless access technology, London: Academia Press, 2018.
[2] E. Dahlman, S. Parkvall und J. Sköld, 3G Evolution: HSPA and LTE for Mobile Broadband, London: Academic Press, 2008.
[3] E. Dahlman, S. Parkvall und J. Sköld, 4G LTEAdvanced Pro and the road to 5G, London: Accademic Press, 2016.
Mobile security is still a hot topic in 2019 and smartphones have become an essential tool for everyone. The loss of a smartphone in particular is often a nightmare for those affected. Sometimes this even applies to the developers of apps, as they might be held responsible in cases of data breaches and other issues.
This talk focuses on the security issues of mobile operating systems and highlights possible attacks and countermeasures. The target audience is developers and end users. Due to the fact that Android has the largest market share, the presentation is focused on Android.
InCyS 4.0 is a 2-year EU funded project started in October 2018 and it involves 3 partners across Europe. The project aims to offer open source course materials and HE training to fill the evident gap in awareness and competence in cyber security for operational technicians in Industry 4.0. In the modern automated industrial landscape of digitally connected control systems new risks abound which industrial employers are becoming aware of. The industrial labor market needs technicians and engineers who are aware of the cyber risks and dangers and who can respond adequately to minimize or respond to risk when detected.
Nowadays, all technical operators and supervisors using CNC/PLCs in automated systems, robotics, electronic maintenance, Information Technology etc. need to be aware of the risks and realities of cybersecurity and have the knowledge to implement preventive measures and solutions. Project partners will collaborate with industrial enterprises in their networks from the very beginning towards the developed innovation in cyber security training (essential for OT - operational technology).
The project establishes and strengthens collaboration between Education, Research and Industry, to offer high-quality learning opportunities which improve employability and also meet employer needs in the evolving work market. This paper describes the rationale, aims and objectives of the project and presents the outcomes and the progress made so far..
Deaf students experience difficulties in communicating with other community members and they deal with many challenges both in education setting and daily life. These difficulties arise naturally since deaf students, blind students and the rest of the members of a school community use different languages and different channels to communicate. These difficulties have a very important impact in the academic, personal and professional development of deaf students. Using automatic tools to assist the fluid communication between people who use different languages and different channels of communication might remarkably promote the social inclusion of the deaf students.
In this paper we describe the International Assisted Communications for Education (I-ACE), a 2-year EU funded project in the framework of Erasmu+ Strategic Partnerships, started in October 2016 and it involves 7 partners across Europe. I-ACE aims to promote the access of deaf students to education and citizenship. I-ACE project delivers an automatic bi-directional translation between sign language and written speech across 6 different languages (Portuguese, Slovenian, Greek, German, Cyprus and UK sign languages).
The project is a communication bridge between conventional classroom and the deaf student and between deaf and non-deaf people. Specifically, it is presented the rationale, aims and objectives of the project, the preparatory phase of the development of the I-ACE in Greek language and the outcomes of the Greek application of the automatic bi-directional translation tool in a Greek school for deaf and hard-hearing students.
A main concern in electronics design at the starting phase of projects is the agility one should keep in mind. Surely in research, where engineering has a supporting function which implies that most of the researchers have a limited knowledge of electronics, a generic design which can adapt easily to changes in demands is essential.
This presentation describes the implementation of a Texas Instruments CC3200 Launchpad platform to support a project in horticulture.
The projects objective was to get insight in the factors influencing the growth of plants, such as temperature, light intensity and CO2 Level.
Motor overheating is a serious problem, which can be caused by overload, poor maintenance or other reasons. If necessary precaution measures are not taken, it can result in premature damage of the motor or accidents.
The present paper describes the outline of a system to monitor running motors using a thermal camera. The camera takes images of the most sensitive parts of the motor in real time. The images are then processed, to extract the region where the temperature is higher. The region of the image at higher temperature is analysed. The area (as number of pixels) and shape of the region are then classified using an artificial neural network. The network is trained to recognize regions where the safety of the motor could be compromised.
Information security becomes ever entangled in many aspects of our societies because of ubiquitous adoption of information technology. Nowadays it is hard to imagine that societies would survive without information technology. Although this technology enables us to be much more productive and makes access and distribution of information really easy, it also carries with itself a bunch of security issues. If the information on the systems used by our employers or banks becomes exposed to an attacker, the consequences can be drastic. A few common software development vulnerabilities can lead to security issues in our applications. The main categories of software development vulnerabilities include input validation attacks, authentication attacks, authorization attacks, cryptographic attacks, buffer overflows and race conditions. In this presentation, we go through each of these topics and see how we can defend ourselves against these threats while developing applications.
In this presentation we go through each of these topics and see how we can defend ourselves against these threats while developing applications.
The Open Source Applications for Industrial Automation (OpenIn) project is a three-year duration Project funded by the European Union Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships Programme, started in October 2016 and it involves 4 partners across Europe. OpenIn project focuses to help higher VET and HEIs institutions, Technical Universities as well as enterprises to integrate innovative automation systems by providing them with Training Courses for both students and teachers on free open source hardware and software for designing automated systems. Arduino was selected to be the teaching and training platform. During the last year a training meeting and a summer school were held in Portο and in Heraklion respectively. Finally, the OpenIn project was presented in a workshop held in Heraklion and students and teachers were exposed to the OpenIn software.
In this paper, the aims and objectives of the project are presented along with the outcomes of the training events in Porto and Heraklion and the final workshop. Moreover, the structure and the modules of the training course are outlined along with the results of the summer school. The answers given by the summer school participants to relevant questionnaires showed that the project fulfilled its aims and objectives.
Nowadays, with the advancement in areas as sensing, wearable and wireless communication technologies, it is possible to develop intelligent systems to monitor continuous human activities in real-time, from a wide range of fields, including sports.
This paper investigates, in comparison with a validated and reliable surface Electromyographic laboratory equipment, the viability of using wearable textiles electrodes, in a sports context, to recognize activities taking into consideration subject’s bio-signals. Four healthy, injury-free active males (22.5 3 yrs) were included in this project. To determine if the accuracy of
wearable technology allowed us to recognize movement patterns, subjects realized one single protocol session, where they were asked to perform walking, running, strength, cycling and stepping tasks. All wore both the wearable sEMG and the validated sEMG equipment simultaneously, measuring the quadriceps, hamstrings
and gluteal muscles myoelectrical activity of both legs.
To provide average rectified EMG, the data from both devices was identically processed. In this research work, we explore a deep learning method know as Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) architecture. One of the reasons for using this method is its capability of learning long-term dependencies in real time sequential data.
After implementing the method mentioned above, we were able to determine that the wearable system had an accuracy of 98.8%
when analyzing activities that used all six channels (cycling, running and stepping) and 79.2% for those that only used two channels (strength exercises).
For the development of a bionic hand, ElectroMyoGraphic (EMG) sensors combined with pre-gelled Ag/AgCl electrodes are commonly the first choice. However there are different modes of sensing muscle activity that can be tested, with the goal of reducing the costs while assuring a similar ability to acquire relevant data.
This work embraces two comparative studies: one amongst three different sensing approaches and the other using EMG with three different types of electrodes. The three sensors used in the study were: the common EMG sensor, considered as the reference sensor; an InfraRed (IR) sensor and a Force Sensing Resistor (FSR) as two modes of acquisition of a MechanoMyoGraphic (MMG) signal. The BITalino platform was used for the acquisition of each of these three signals, being its EMG sensor module also used for the comparison of pre-gelled Ag/AgCl electrodes, considered as the reference electrode, with two other novel and low-cost electrodes: one built from a conductive leather material, and another based on desktop 3D printing using conductive PLA (PolyLactic Acid).
Six gestures were selected for these studies, and acquisitions were performed from 15 healthy young subjects. Signals from these six different gestures and for all sensors and electrode types were processed through Matlab routines that include onset and offset detection, as well as feature extraction. Finally this dataset was used as the input in a data science and machine learning platform (RapidMiner), in order to evaluate the ability to achieve the correct gesture recognition from the features previously extracted.
Preliminary results show a slightly improved performance in gesture recognition for IR sensor in comparison to EMG sensor (overall accuracy of 81% vs 72%) as well as a somewhat degraded performance for the two novel electrodes in respect to Ag/AgCl reference electrodes (51% and 52% vs 65%).
Teeth restorations are some of the most frequently performed clinical treatments in the dentistry field. The restoration of a broken or decayed tooth can be done using a direct procedure, that is when a restoration preparation is immediately filled in situ; or indirect, when the restoration is handled in a laboratory (e.g. crown or veneer), and then bonded to a dental preparation previously performed in the tooth area to be restored. In the restoration process, when cementing agents are used, it becomes essential to control the applied force on the restoration-tooth assembly.
A proper force control on the cementation material application improves restoration-tooth longevity. Excessive force can cause damage, and low intensity force will not be enough for the correct seating of the restoration. Without force feedback data, the applied force is dependent on the dentist’s sensitivity.
The biomechanical prototype device described in this work enables a dentist to monitor the acting force on restoration-tooth assemblies, and besides its importance in clinical environment, additionally it can assume an important role as a new tool for dental medicine students.
At this moment, the prototype is going through a functional validation phase. For this purpose, two systems based on HBM strain gauges, for force sensing, were built. The first prototype was interfaced with a PC LabVIEW application through a National Instruments NI 9219a data board. This first approach was detailed in [1].
In Fig. 1 is depicted the second prototype developed for this project. This subsequent system is herein presented and seeks to achieve low cost and straightforward use. The main hardware elements of the system are an extensometer half-bridge with force signal amplification using the MaxLinear's IC XR10910, and an Arduino Nano board integrating an ATmega168 microcontroller. Audible and visual warning information is transmitted to the user by two WS2812B RGB intelligent controlled LEDs and by a common Buzzer. For data recording and configuration, the system is connected to a PC were a Processing (Processing.org) application is running. This APP allows, as an example, to set up sensing force upper and lower limits, as well as the force acting time interval. Properly configured, this system can assist a dentist by showing real-time force data, as well as recorded force over time plots for posterior analysis.
Fig. 1 - Second force-controlled biomechanical prototype for dental restorations
[1] Marco Esteves, Susana Pereira, Rui Falacho, Marco Silva and Luis Roseiro, “Dispositivo Biomecânico para Controlo da Força em Restaurações Dentárias”, 8º National Congress of Biomechanics, 15-16 February 2019, Unhais da Serra, Covilhã, Portugal.Due to the unprecedented scale and speed of urbanization, cities are facing the daunting task of accommodating the urban dynamics. According to the "requirements for the future Smart Cities" [1], one of the critical service requirements in smart cities is the safety management of urban citizens and communities. However, human casualties during religious, entertainment (i.e., sport, music, etc.), and political rallies frequently occur due to the lack of proper crowd safety management. Notably, for moving crowd, a minor accident can create a panic for the people to start stampeding and trampling others. Any inappropriate crowd management often results in disastrous repercussions such as injuries and casualties.
Although many smart video surveillance tools, inspired by the recent advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology and Machine Learning (ML) algorithms, make object detection and identification [2] [3], video surveillance alone cannot identify and predict particular crowd status. It cannot scale and lacks the capacity for providing an appropriate mobile crowd safety management in real-time. For example, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, although there is 5,000 smart video surveillance installed for monitoring the Hajj crowd [4], the accident caused by the mobile crowd results in thousands of human casualties.
In our recent research, we propose an Intelligent Crowd Engineering Platform using Mobility Characterization and Analytics (ICE-MoCha) that enhances safety management for mobile crowd events by predicting and preventing potential disasters through real-time Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) signal characterization and analytics. The ICE-MoCha framework implementation consists of three main components including a BLE transmitter tag, a BLE signal scanner, and an analytic server. Among the many crowd mobility characteristics, ICE-MoCha identifies the crowd density, the object group location, and the flow direction and speed by analyzing BLE beacon counts, the Radio Strength Signals Received (RSSI) power, and its variation pattern. Filling the scalability and capability gaps of the smart video surveillance by tightly integrating BLE signal analytics (Fig. 1), ICE-MoCha applies them to group semantics to track the crowd status and predict any potential accidents and disasters.
Figure 1. ICE-MoCha Framework
We have conducted various practical mobile crowd tests in both indoor and outdoor environments under different crowd accident scenarios. The results show that ICE-MoCha can detect the direction, the location, the speed, and the density of the mobile crowd in real-time. It demonstrates the feasibility of using the ICE-MoCha framework to enhance the safety management system.
References:
[1] Service, E.N. “Requirements and future of Smart Cities,” https://www.expresscomputer.in/columns/464icts-and-smart-cities/2434/, 2014.
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The ability of generating sentences in Natural Language is fundamental for communication between humans and machines. Natural Language models are a crucial tool in computational linguistics. They are specially difficult to build in agglutinative languages, which require attention since the words are formed by attaching sequences of different morphemes, where each morpheme can change the meaning of the word. A proper study of the rules of construction of the language is necessary
for further research in Natural Language Processing. For the mentioned type of language, fixed and limited vocabulary itself can pose restrictions. The character-based solution may help to overcome the problem. However, it triggers the disambiguation of a word according to the context.
The present work aims to build a character-based language model for the Kazakh Language, with the use of Deep Neural Networks, namely a Long Short-Term Memory model, implemented using TensorFlow and Keras framework. The Language Model in the present research is generative and aims to produce all possible correct words within the context given. A word can be treated as a morpheme
generated by characters where any possible word type could be generated. In order to understand the language model correctly, it is necessary to use data which was initially written in Kazakh and not translated from other sources. Therefore, the model will be trained using books written in Kazakh.
Professional life nowadays, turns to international mobility and demands from employees to optimize their communication skills at an international, cross-cultural environment. However it is not common for undergraduate students to expose themselves in international programs. Each year an Academic International Mobility program occurs and blends students from different EU countries. In a Blended Mobility project students combine two physical meetings abroad with virtual team work from the home base. The aim of the project is to remodel the international mobility and empower students’ employability through blended mobility in order to design and develop a business idea. The goal of Blended Aim 2019 was to develop a web application for the SewerMapper, a lightweight, mobile robot which developed by Spacepal that measures, inspects and maps vertical sewer canals.
In Europe ,100 million manholes exist ,a number that makes the mapping of them a time consuming and dangerous task. SewerMapper’s solution helps all stakeholders of waste water networks to execute more surveys in a safer and more intelligent way that results in a safer underground working environment for all involved. SewerMapper is a utility tool that only has to be placed above a manhole, which measures and computes inputs automatically. As a consequence, the dangers of falling, drowning and suffocation are almost nonexistent. The IT team worked on a web-based platform with 3D data that also had to work on mobile devices. Visualization and storage of data, GPS location, video and photostream and usage were necessary to be visible. Finally an implementation of a 3D viewer and processor with automation of tasks and image recognition had to be part of the product roadmap that we worked on.
The team was separated into the groups of marketing, design and development under the Scrum framework. For the organization and management of the groups were used tools like Trello, Slack , Skype, Google drive and GIT. The IT group divided the requirements in super small tasks in order to work on them separately. At any moment, that a part of code was delivering, peer code reviews were taking place. React, Redux, Python for the existing code, C++, .Net core and the Entity Framework were technologies that were implemented in order to meet all the demands that previously mentioned.