7440 research outputs found
Sort by
Internet of Things based mechatronic system
No full textEmpirical thesis.Bibliography: pages 119-120.1. Introduction -- 2. Background and related information -- 3. Project system design specification -- 4. Completed system specification -- 5. System experimental analysis -- 6. Conclusions and future work -- 7. Abbreviations -- Appendices -- Bibliography.This thesis has the purpose of developing a new Internet of Things controlled mechatronic system. The ability to remotely control mechatronic systems opens up a world of possibilities for new devices, as well as upgrading existing technologies. Throughout this project, a new Internet of Things framework was created from scratch, including an Android application, cloud based web server and a mobile mechatronic system to execute user commands. All of these project components were newly developed and designed to provide a potential teaching platform for future students of wireless mechatronics. The Android application communicates user commands to the web server which acts as a 'fixed point' to which both the mechatronic system and the Android application can communicate. The web server saves any received command data into an SQL database for analysis, and then encrypts the data. The mechatronic system is a mobile robot designed from the ground up using CAD tools and then 3D printed to allow for future design changes. The robot polls the web server at a set interval to check for new commands. The overall Internet of Things framework developed during the project is functional, but requires further software development to make the system more robust and completely secure.Mode of access: World wide web.1 online resource (xiii, 120 pages colour illustrations
Hearing of robots
No full textEmpirical thesis.Bibliography: pages 47-48.1. Introduction -- 2. Background -- 3. Design for testing system -- 4. Results -- 5. Discussion -- 6. Conclusion -- 7. Abbreviations -- Appendix -- Bibliography.MEMS sensors have been applied to a range of biological applications. The key benefits of MEMS sensors are low intrusiveness, low power consumption and depth of applications due to their size. The vestibular system is a complex system responsible for controlling spatial orientation, head tilt and movement. This system is difficult to access due to its size and location in the head. As such, there exist a number of diseases associated with the vestibular system that are not fully understood. This thesis looks to contribute to the development of a biomimetic flow sensor capable of replicating the function of the cilia in the semicircular canals. A functioning sensor contributes towards work on a vestibular prosthesis and facilitates studies of the response of the vestibular system to different stimuli. This thesis develops further the model of the semicircular canal, with ampule and cupula through both the collection of physical data and simulation.This thesis develops a suitable simulation and model of a single semicircular, lateral semicircular canal and determines the response of the system to a rotational input. The gain and time constants of the system were found to fall within acceptable theoretical and biological models, however, the system lacks a definitive method for sensing directionality which were found to be key differences between the biological cupula and the biomimetic LCP flow sensor.Mode of access: World wide web.1 online resource (xiii, 48 pages illustrations (some colour)
The effect of rim angle on parabolic dishes for high thermal performance and radiation concentration
No full textEmpirical thesis.Bibliography: pages 65-67.1. Introduction -- 2. Background and related work -- 3. Experimental setup and procedure -- 4. Results and discussion -- 5. Conclusion -- 6. Impact and future work -- 7. Appendix -- References.In this research concentrated solar power (CSP) technologies have been studied. The history of solar concentration deployment and commissioning have been mentioned. Solar parabolic concantrators have been chosen as the main field of research. Therefore, determining the rim angle is an important factor when developing solar parabolic dishes. A testing rig was developed to investigate the effects of three rim angles (30°, 45° & 60°) on the concentration ratio and thermal performance of the system. A solar simulator was used to test the dishes which emit rays having the same quality as the sun. It was determined that the 60° rim angle can provide the highest contration ratio and thermal performance, although the efficiencies of the system for other ngles are more stable.Mode of access: World wide web.1 online resource (67 pages colour illustrations
Evaluating the performance of single-element versus array type wireless power harvesters
No full textEmpirical thesis.Bibliography: pages 37-38.1. Introduction -- 2. Background and related work -- 3. Approach and methodology -- 4. Results and discussion -- 5. Conclusions and future work -- 6. Abbreviations -- Bibliography -- Appendix.Electromagnetic energy is all around us, particularly in urban environments. This energy can be harvested and used. Harvesting this power and converting it to DC power would be beneficial, as it can be used in various different applications, such as charging biomedical devices li8ke cochlear implants or providing a charge to more common items such as mobile phones. During this thesis CST will be used to work towards finding a design, whether it is single-element or an arry-type antenna, to effectively harvest power wirelessly.This design will then be tested in real life.Mode of access: World wide web.1 online resource (xii, 41 pages colour illustrations
Design of a microwave system for measuring dark and photo-conductivity of semiconductors
No full textEmpirical thesis.Bibliography: page 103.1. Introduction -- 2. Background -- 3. Semiconductor materials in open waveguide -- 4. Semiconductor materials in a cavity -- 5. Photoconductivity -- 6. Summary and future work -- 7. Abbreviations -- Appendix -- Bibliography.The semiconductor industry is evolving with new emerging semiconductor materials. Researchers and engineers constantly test and analyse these new materials for their conductivity to further develop this technology. The most traditional method of testing these has been through soldering electrical contacts onto the material. However, this is time consuming. The microwave probe technique used in this thesis is robust and uses relatively easy setup to analyse the electronic properties of the samples. The semiconductor materials are simulated in a rectangular open waveguide and cavity resonator. Different samples with varying conductivity, dielectric constant and sample thickness are probed to measure microwave absorption. Real photovoltaic samples, OPV, silicon, cadmium telluride (CdTe) and gallium arsenide (GaAs) are simulated for their dark and photoconductivity by changing their doping. For dark conductivity simulations, GaAs has the highest conductivity and power absorption of 23%, and OPV has the lowest conductivity and power absorption of 1.5% for low doping. For photoconductivity simulations, the proposed cavity model worked only for low conductivity samples such as OPV, and it has the capacity to absorb a maximum power of 6%. Silicon, CdTe and GaAs were simulated in open waveguide as they were shorting the cavity due to high reflection. GaAs absorbs a maximum power of 35%, silicon absorbs 14% and CdTe absorbs 9%. These results indicate that the proposed design is suitable for probing low conductivity semiconductor materials.Mode of access: World wide web.1 online resource (xiii, 103 pages colour illustrations
Little Locator: an innovative smartphone parking relocation application
No full textEmpirical thesis.Bibliography: pages 59-61.1. Introduction -- 2. Literature review -- 3. Survey methodology -- 4. Survey results -- 5. Design and implementation -- 6. Results -- 7. Discussion -- 8. Conclusions -- 9. Future work -- 10. Abbreviations -- 11. References -- Appendices.Smartphone applications that save the locations of where vehicles are parked aid users in relocating vehicles so that individuals are not required to rely solely on their memory and backtracking skills. Thesus types of applications typically utilise GPS chips in devices and make use of mapping APIs to place markers on the map for straightforward navigation back to the vehicle's position. The GUI must be developed to integrate seamlessly with the functionality of the application, particularly focusing on facilitating the fulfilment of the requirements elucidated for the human-computer interface. This research aims to analyse the current state of smartphone parking applications, determine the design and functionality for optimal usability, as well as complete testing and documentation to ensure professional standards are being met, progress can be tracked and users can understand the system. Value has been added to the parking relocation application, named Little Locator, by adding innovative features which competitors have not conceived and focusing on user experience. These features include a local background service that pinpoints when a user has parked their vehicle and navigation for the visually impaired that utilises computer vision.Mode of access: World wide web.1 online resource (xvi, 78 pages colour illustrations, 1 colour portrait
Walking power source: using your jacket to wirelessly harvest power
No full textEmpirical thesis.Bibliography: pages 45-46.1. Introduction -- 2. Background theory -- 3. Design and prototyping of the rectenna system -- 4. Simulation result and discussion -- 5. Manufacture of the embroidery antenna -- 6. Phtsical testing -- 7. Conclusions and future work -- 8. Abbreviations -- Appendix.Capturing and harvesting RF energy, using small antennas with an effective conversion RF energy into DC voltage with minimum losses, would be a significant problem in the modern world. The purpose of the project is to design an antenna system which can operate on the 5GHz ISM band and be used to collect the RF signals from the ambient environment which can be converted to DC power. The project would end up with an embroidery antenna, which can stitch on fibre, be able to collect RF signals from the ambient environment. Also, this antenna should operate at 5GHz Wi-Fi operation frequency. The overall project focused on the embroidery antenna design and the project can be divided into many sub-systems. Firstly, having made a prototype of a simple micropatch strip antenna and having achieved the results aimed for, we were then able to fabricate a real micropatch strip antenna. The embroidery antenna design is based on a simple micropatch strip antenna, which can collect RF signals from the ambient environment and convert them to DC power.Mode of access: World wide web.1 online resource (xiii, 46 pages colour illustrations
OFDM combined with W-CDMA underlay digital transmission
No full textEmpirical thesis.Bibliography: pages 59-61.1. Introduction -- 2. Background and related work -- 3. MATLAB models -- 4. Simulation and results -- 5. Conclusions and future work -- 6. Abbreviations -- Appendices -- Bibliography.In this paper an underlaid network consisting of an OFDM primary user and a W-CDMA secondary user was examined. The underlaid netowrk is proposed as a way of increasing the efficient use of the radio spectrum. Both multi-carrier transmission techniques offer different pros and cons which will be exploited within this network to increase spectrum efficiency. In addition to increased throughput, the underlay network can increase OFDM's high sensitivity to frequency synchronisation issues by transmitting the pilot packets through the W-CDMA channel. This results in higher secured throughput by adding small interference margins to both users. An investigation will be conducted to see what the interference levels will be within the network, both on the OFDM and the W-CDMA; and how much increase in secure throughput will be gained. The underlaid network will be modelled and simulated in MATLAB.Mode of access: World wide web.1 online resource (x1, 61 pages colour illustrations
Microspheres in the vicinity of a bifurcation at moderate Reynolds numbers
No full textEmpirical thesis.Bibliography: pages 61-63.1. Introduction -- 2. Background and theory -- 3. Approach and methodology -- 4. Analysis and results and discussion -- 5. Discussion -- 6. Conclusion -- 7. Future work -- 8. Abbreviations -- Appendices.In microfluidic filtration processes a mixture of particles in a suspension are separated by applying external forces on microparticles to displace particles of different characteristics. Microfluidic continuous flow filtration methods are passive filtration methods that separate particles by using a boundary that causes the particles to cross streamlines to be collected at different outputs. These methods can offer some advantages over other filtration methods as they require relatively small sample sizes and they prevent clogging, making the process efficient and cost effective. The devices used in this practice do not require a filter membrane which obstructs the particle path and often needs to be replaced. This means a range of particle sizes can be filtered using this method as long as they are small enough to pass through the channel of a device. One particular approach to microfluidic continuous flow filtration uses channels with bifurcating channels of different flow rates to move particles of different sizes along different streamlines. This paper describes the motion of particles at the flow boundaries of these bifurcations at low to moderate Reynolds numbers to see if the fate of the particles near this boundary are affected by Reynolds numbers. This will be studied by running a stream of different sized polymer beads near a bifurcation and making observations of the particle path at different flow rates.Mode of access: World wide web.1 online resource (xv, 63 pages colour illustrations
Wireless Moore's Law
No full textEmpirical thesis.Bibliography: pages 59-64.1. Introduction -- 2. Background and related work -- 3. Literature review -- 4. A wireless law -- 5. Conclusions and future work -- 6. Abbreviations -- Appendices -- Bibliography.Wireless data transfer saw development as early as the late 19th century. Since that time it has evolved and become prevalent in society. Moore's Law of integrated circuit transistor count is an exponential projection against time, regarding the density increase of transistors on a wafer of semi-conductor material. This paves the way for the research and conclusions proposed in this project: to analyse past and present wireless communication technologies and draw a valid phrase or figure of merit to to describe relevant trends in in data transfer rate progression in wireless technologies over time. This project will primarily take into account Moore's Law, transistor theory and various forms of wireless implementations over time and suggest a relevant relationship; thus providing access to such noticeable trends in dtat transfer progression over time. It will also investigate the development of the transistor and its relation to Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit technology progression in wireless communications.Mode of access: World wide web.1 online resource (xiv, 64 pages colour illustrations