1,721,122 research outputs found
Development of a smart instrumentation for analyzing railway track health monitoring using forced vibration
No full textPowering the environmental Internet of Things
No full textThe Internet of Things (IoT) is a constantly-evolving area of research and touches almost every aspect of life in the modern world. As technology moves forward, it is becoming increasingly important for these IoT devices for environmental sensing to become self-powered to enable long-term operation. This paper provides an outlook on the current state-of-the-art in terms of energy harvesting for these low-power devices. An analytical approach is taken, first defining types of environments in which energy-harvesters operate, before exploring both well-known and novel energy harvesting techniques and their uses in modern-day sensing
Data for: A Low-Complexity Machine Learning Nitrate Loss Predictive Model – Towards Proactive Farm Management in a Networked Catchment
No full textThe data here allows the construction of some of the figures in the paper, Huma Zia, Nick Harris, Geoff Merrett, Mark Rivers (2019), 'A Low-Complexity Machine Learning Nitrate Loss Predictive Model – Towards Proactive Farm Management in a Networked Catchment', IEEE ACCESS.
The data was also used for training the various machine learning models described within the paper.
Part of the data was extracted from the following public dataset, available from its original source at
G. Keily. (2003). Phosphorus, Nitrogen and Suspended Sediment loss from Soil to Water from Agricultural Grassland. Available: http://erc.epa.ie/safer/resource?id=ad1f3acf-5035-102a-90c6-0593d266866d
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A textile based polypyrrole chloride sensor for agricultural use
No full textA novel polypyrrole (a conducting polymer -PPy) potentiometric sensor suitable for environmental monitoring is described. It has been shown that it is possible to grow conductive polypyrrole-based polymers through a textile scaffold to create a flexible sensor that is robust enough to survive environments such as soil, with the choice of the scaffold material offering control of the environmental impact. Further work at University of Southampton has demonstrated that doped polypyrrole has an electrochemical response that is sensitive to different measurands’ concentration and in this case, we look at chloride response. Although this mechanism is designed for chloride sensitivity the principle can be made selective to specific ions (depending on dopant) in the future. The construction is advantageous because it is grown around the fibres (rather than printed on the top). It can also use the fibres as a support matrix and in principle could make individual fibres into sensing elements
Modelling new techniques for improving separation in miniature capillary- and planar-based capillary electrophoresis systems
No full textThe capillary/channel length is an important factor in capillary electrophoresis (CE) systems since it is directly related to the amount of separation attainable. In this work we present methods to increase the effective channel length without the need to modify the physical channel length. Using an electrode located close to the capillary surface it is possible to dynamically modify zeta-potential and therefore the electroosmotic flow (EOF). By controlling the EOF, certain ionic species within a sample can be held in a short channel whilst other species migrate along the channel. Alternatively the sample can be transported back and forth along the active channel length until sufficient separation has been attained. CE enables detailed analysis of a sample’s composition and this is of interest to a range of applications
Ultrasonic communication through water-filled pipes
No full textA research project was commissioned to investigate using the water inside water filled pipes as the transmission medium for communication using ultrasound.An investigation of the theory of sound propagation in fluid filled pipes was undertaken, which has resulted in the ability to model the effects of signal frequency and pipe geometry, as well as transducer dimensions. This was augmented by a wide ranging experimental programme which covered the effects of corners and valves, as well as flow and bubbles in plastic walled and steel walled pipes. This work has resulted in design guidelines for the range of a practical system.A demonstration system was constructed and digital communication was demonstrated in the laboratory
Experimental validation of a contactless finger displacement measurement system using electrical near field sensing
No full textThis research investigates the potential of contactless finger motion measurement, focusing particularly on ease of use to improve the success of home-based hand rehabilitation exercises. Previously, a mathematical model was developed based on a finite element method (FEM) simulation. This paper validates this model on multi-finger noncontact measuring under laboratory conditions. Twenty-three healthy subjects with normal hand and finger functions participated. An independent near field distance measurement was developed and compared to the output from an optical sensor. It was observed from the experiment that the prediction model worked well with the measuring system reported here. The average uncertainties of measurement using the prediction model are 0.68mm and 0.55mm, which are 3.5% and 2.7% of the full-scale range, for index finger and middle finger respectively. The results from the experiment show that, the reported system is capable of measuring the small movements of fingers. With the combination of the noncontact measuring feature and the lack of complicated set-up, this system is easy-to-use as the basis of a home-based independent rehabilitation system
A study of efficient speaklet driving mechanisms for use in a digital loudspeaker array based on PZT actuators
No full textForce feedback microelectromechanical microphones for high performance applications
No full textMicroelectromechanical System (MEMS) condenser microphones are widely used because of their low cost, small size, high sensitivity, and wide bandwidth. For certain specialist applications, however, they are still out-performed by the best conventional condenser microphones, which have greater bandwidth and dynamic range, but at higher cost and larger size. The sensitivity, and hence, signal-to-noise ratio of smaller MEMS microphones can be increased by using two perforated back-plates instead of one. The maximum amplitude is limited by membrane excursion, which leads to nonlinearity and, ultimately, failure. The use of force feedback holds the promise of avoiding these problems by holding the membrane at its equilibrium position while measuring the force required to do so. Previous attempts to accomplish this using a Sigma-Delta modulator have had only limited success in terms of signal-to-noise ratio, bandwidth and stability. Instead we propose to use an Electro-Mechanical Phase Locked Loop (EMPLL) to overcome these limitations. We will present lumped-parameter and Finite Element models of the performance of such a microphone, and discuss the challenges associated with its fabrication. [This work was supported by Roke Manor Research Limited.
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