Autonomous Monitoring System Research Articles

Development of a practicable non-contact bedside autonomic activation monitoring system using microwave radars and its clinical application in elderly people

We developed a practicable, non-contact, autonomic activation monitoring system using microwave radars without imposing any stress on monitored individuals. Recently, the rapid increase in the aging population has raised concerns in developed countries. Thus, hospitals and care facilities will need to perform long-term health monitoring of elderly patients. The system allows monitoring of geriatric autonomic dysfunctions caused by chronic diseases, such as diabetes or myocardial infarction (MI), while measuring vital signs in non-contact way. The system measures heart rate variability (HRV) of elderly people in bed using dual, 24-GHz, compact microwave radars attached beneath the bed mattress. HRV parameters (LF, HF, and LF/HF) were determined from the cardiac peak-to-peak intervals, which were detected by radars using the maximum entropy method. We tested the system on 15 elderly people with and without diabetes or MI (72-99 years old) from 7:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. at a special nursing home in Tokyo. LF/HF obtained by the system correlated significantly (R = 0.89; p < 0.01) with those obtained by Holter electrocardiography (ECG). Diabetic subjects showed significantly lower LF (radar) than non-diabetic (119.8 ± 57.8 for diabetic, 405.9 ± 112.6 for non-diabetic, p < 0.01). HF (radar) of post-MI subjects was significantly lower than that of non-MI (219.7 ± 131.7 for post-MI and 580.0 ± 654.6 for non-MI, p < 0.05). Previous studies using conventional ECG reveal that diabetic neuropathy decreases LF, and also MI causes parasympathetic attenuation which leads to HF reduction. Our study showed that average SDNN of post-MI patients is smaller than 50 ms which is known to have high mortality. The non-contact autonomic activation monitoring system allows a long-term health management especially during sleeping hours for elderly people at healthcare facilities.

Monitoring Pest Insect Traps by Means of Low-Power Image Sensor Technologies

Monitoring pest insect populations is currently a key issue in agriculture and forestry protection. At the farm level, human operators typically must perform periodical surveys of the traps disseminated through the field. This is a labor-, time- and cost-consuming activity, in particular for large plantations or large forestry areas, so it would be of great advantage to have an affordable system capable of doing this task automatically in an accurate and a more efficient way. This paper proposes an autonomous monitoring system based on a low-cost image sensor that it is able to capture and send images of the trap contents to a remote control station with the periodicity demanded by the trapping application. Our autonomous monitoring system will be able to cover large areas with very low energy consumption. This issue would be the main key point in our study; since the operational live of the overall monitoring system should be extended to months of continuous operation without any kind of maintenance (i.e., battery replacement). The images delivered by image sensors would be time-stamped and processed in the control station to get the number of individuals found at each trap. All the information would be conveniently stored at the control station, and accessible via Internet by means of available network services at control station (WiFi, WiMax, 3G/4G, etc.).

Energy Management Systems for Energy Harvesting in Structural Health Monitoring Applications

Autonomous structural health monitoring systems with independent power sources and wireless sensor nodes are increasingly seen as the best solution for monitoring a diverse range of machines and structures including pumps, bridges and aircraft. Powering these systems using harvested energy from ambient sources provides an attractive alternative to the use of batteries which may be either inaccessible for routine maintenance or unsuitable (for example in aerospace applications). A number of techniques are currently being considered including harvesting energy from vibration and thermal gradients. Harvesting energy can however lead to a highly variable power supply in opposition to the requirements of a wireless sensor node which requires continuous standby power with an additional capacity for power peaks during transmission of data. A power management system with embedded energy storage is therefore necessary in order to match supply and demand. Due to the low levels of power harvested in a number of applications, an important factor in the design of such a system is its efficiency to ensure sufficient power reaches the sensor node. Based on the requirements for a simple power management system for thermoelectric power harvesting consisting of a rectifier, a DC/DC convertors and a battery, this paper first examines the possibilities in terms of basic components with a number of commercially available units tested and characterised. Potential designs for a management system incorporating these components are then discussed and a blueprint for an optimal system is suggested.

An Integrated Health Monitoring System for Fission Surface Power

Abstract Based on such criteria as safety and mission success, programmatic risk, affordability, and extensibility/flexibility, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has chosen fission surface power (FSP) as the primary energy source for building a sustained human presence on the Moon, exploring Mars, and extremely long-duration space missions. The current benchmark FSP system has a mission life of at least 8 years during which time there is no opportunity for repair, sensor calibrations, or periodic maintenance tasks that are normally performed on terrestrial-based nuclear power plants during scheduled outages. Current technology relies heavily on real-time human interaction, monitoring and control. However; due to the long communication times between the Earth and Moon, or Mars, real-time human control is not possible, resulting in a critical need to develop autonomous health monitoring technology for FSP systems.This paper describes the design and development of an autonomous health monitoring system that will (1) provide on-line calibration monitoring, (2) reduce uncertainties in sensor measurements, and (3) provide sensor validation and fault detection capabilities for the control systems of various FSP subsystems. The health monitoring system design integrates a number of signal processing algorithms and techniques such as cross-calibration, empirical modeling using neural networks, and physical modeling under a modular signal processing platform that will enable robust sensor and system monitoring without the need for human interaction. Prototypes of the health monitoring system have been tested and validated on data acquired from preliminary subsystem testing of NASA's FSP Technology Demonstration Unit (TDU) as well as simulated laboratory data. Results from this testing have demonstrated the utility and benefits that such autonomous health monitoring systems can provide to FSP subsystems and other potential applications within NASA such as launch vehicle systems, other nuclear power systems, and ground operations.

Agent-Based Monitoring Using Fuzzy Logic and Rules

In this paper we present two solutions of monitoring automation for distributed systems. We develop this system to automate monitoring of distributes systems. Both solutions are aimed to monitor data storage and web services like web page servers. The first solution implemented in a system called Saude-Net, is an rule-based top level monitoring tool. In this system there are implemented rules which provide conditions which refer to one or more measured values. This system is able to choose the best action for an observed situation, e.g. a failure. It is possible to define more than one rule which relate to the same monitoring resource. The second concept presented in this paper refers to a fuzzy logic agent based approach to network monitoring. It is called SAMM compliant Agent. It is an extension to the Semantic-based Autonomous Monitoring and Management system (SAMM). On the one hand, it uses rules to define simple actions, based on a simple condition and an action description. On the other hand the main knowledge of this solution is defined by fuzzy logic. This system is able to manage and modify its knowledge to better fit to monitored resources. The knowledge in this concept is distributed among all the agents. The agents residing on a different hosts handle their parts of the knowledge and are capable to share/exchange them.

Intelligent Health Monitoring System for a Railway Cable-Stayed Bridge

Intelligent health monitoring system of the long-span railway cable-stayed bridge requires the comprehensive knowledge of instrumentation, analytical and information processing technologies with the knowledge and experiences in design, construction, operation and maintenance of railway cable-stayed bridge for long-term monitoring the performance throughout its lifecycle. It is necessary to perform sensor-based structural monitoring for identifying the bridge conditions in order to assure the structural safety and to evaluate the operational performance. The considerations for deploying a proper monitoring system are appropriate sensor instrumentation, robust signal acquisition, reliable signal processing, and intelligent signal and information processing. The experience on developing an autonomous monitoring system in the one certain railway cable-stayed bridge newly constructed is introduced in this paper. Sensor and hardware instrumentation, signal transmission, signal acquisition and analysis are schematically described mainly. Experience through this work will be worthwhile lessons for other similar efforts.

Autonomous Monitoring System of Environment Conditions

Paper presents the developed autonomous monitoring unit combined with an early warning system for the on-line control of environment. Problems of the proper selection of the sensors and strategy of data acquisition and processing to reduce the power consumption as much as possible are discussed.

A feasibility study of damage tracking through the diffusive communication of wireless sensors

The objective of this paper is to investigate the feasibility of wireless sensors in the development of an autonomous structural health monitoring system. A collaborative searching algorithm is developed such that massively deployed wireless sensor nodes in a structure conveniently comprise a group and constitute a damage-surveillance perimeter. Wireless sensors in this perimeter spontaneously activate themselves for damage-tracking tasks by networking with neighboring sensors. When the damage-sensitive parameter that is measured by a sensor node exceeds a certain threshold, the process of damage-tracking begins. The proposed damage-tracking algorithm does not require any type of global control. Instead, sensor-networking and a pairwise-comparison algorithm that is implemented at each sensor node allows collaborative decision-making for tracking the changes, such as local strain, in structural properties. The extant autonomous, damage-tracking algorithms have been demonstrated through only numerical simulations for a single-damage case. Here, the study is further expanded to address the problem of simultaneously tracking multiple instances of damage in three-dimensional space by using improved algorithms for sensor networking. An event-based task-executing functionality of individual sensor nodes is successfully implemented and verified using four wireless strain sensors that are mounted on a cantilevered beam structure. Experimental results reveal that the overall capability of wireless sensor nodes is functional enough to enable a wireless-based autonomous structural health monitoring system.

Feature Extraction on Highways under Time-Varying Illumination Conditions

Video-based surveillance systems have been introduced in highway monitoring as a means of enabling the assessment of traffic conditions by human operators; however, the ongoing development in the aspects of computer imaging hardware and image processing algorithms motivated the interest for the implementation of autonomous highway monitoring and notification systems. An intelligent traffic monitoring implementation demands an efficient video-based front-end, which performs feature extraction in the image domain. The utilized front-end is required to operate flawlessly in the presence of sensor noise and under time varying illumination conditions. The present article analyzes the operation principles of a video-based feature extractor intended for utilization in visual intelligent transportation systems. The proposed implementation performs feature extraction through the application of a block-based statistic segmentation method. Additionally, the algorithm adapts to scene changes. The background adaptation method combines the results of block-based segmentation with a statistic object-based refinement stage which takes into account edge-related metrics.

Autonomie Mechanisms and Therapeutic Implications of Postural Diabetic Cardiovascular Abnormalities

Cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy (CAN) is a disorder of progressive autonomic dysfunction (AD) associated with diabetes and other chronic diseases. Orthostatic hypotension (OH) is one of the most incapacitating symptoms of CAN and AD. AD in OH can include sympathetic withdrawal (SW). To detect and diagnose SW, parasympathetic and sympathetic changes must be clearly differentiated from each other. This is accomplished by means of the novel autonomic nervous system (ANS) method based on the simultaneous spectral analyses of respiratory activity (RA) and heart rate variability (HRV). We performed autonomic profiling of 184 (142 females) consecutive, arrhythmia-free patients with type 2 diabetes using the ANX-3.0 autonomic monitoring system. The patient cohort included 86 (64 female) patients for whom an alpha(1)-agonist was the only drug changed and increased from one test to the next; 37 (33 female) for whom the alpha(1)-agonist was discontinued; and 61 (45 female) who were on an alpha(1)-agonist, but for whom no drug changes were made. The tests averaged 3.1 +/- 1.4 months apart; midodrine (ProAmatine) was the alpha(1)-agonist prescribed. Of the group, 99 patients also had hypertension and 47 also had cardiovascular disease. No patient had supine hypertension. Changes in parameters from the HRV (without respiration) and ANS methods were compared with changes in heart rate and blood pressure (BP) as measured from one test (test N) to the next (test N + 1). SW with a BP drop of less than the clinical definition may be a trend that can be an early indicator of orthostasis. In this study, patients were treated with low-dose, short-term alpha(1)-agonist (vasopressor) therapy, which tended to correct the abnormal trend of SW with a drop in BP. Included in the findings was a systolic BP trend in response to vasopressor therapy of an (expected) initial increase in BP followed by an eventual decrease in systolic BP as SW was reversed. The ANS method enables quantitative assessment of CAN by independently and simultaneously quantifying the two branches of the ANS, sympathetic and parasympathetic. The ANS method modifies standard spectral analysis of HRV (without RA analysis) by incorporating spectral analysis of RA. The ANS method appears to model the normal and abnormal responses to upright posture and changes in vasopressor therapy with greater fidelity than the HRV method. Independent, simultaneous assessment of progressive parasympathetic and sympathetic dysfunction, autonomic imbalance, and responses of the two ANS branches to therapy seems to enable early detection and early intervention. Orthostasis, by way of example, illustrates that frequent, sensitive assessments of both ANS branches can improve the negative outcomes associated with CAN.

Abstract 3315: Therapeutic Implications of Sympathetic Stimulus in Orthostatic Patients: Measured by Spectral Domain Analysis

Upon assuming an upright, head up posture, a sympathetic surge is expected. Sympathetic Withdrawal (SW) is abnormal and can differentiate Orthostasis. SW, with blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR), can fully define the continuum that is Orthostasis, including pre-clinical forms: Orthostatic Hypotension (OH-), Orthostatic Intolerance (OI), Orthostatic Hypertension (OH+), and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). Our objective was to test the therapeutic implications of SW in Orthostatic patients. Autonomic profiling of 210 consecutive Orthostatic patients recruited from ambulatory clinics was performed using the ANX-3.0 Autonomic Monitoring System (Ansar, Inc., Philadelphia, PA). The cohort (age=58.9±11.6; 30 Diabetics; 132 Females, 28 Controls) was followed over a two year period. Autonomic profiling was based on patient responses to a standard clinical study that includes a resting baseline and periods of deep (relaxed) breathing, short Valsalva maneuvers, and quick stand immediately followed by quiet standing. The control group were patients with known diagnoses. The experimental group were prescribed 2.5 mg Midodrine once a day around dinner. Control patients were administered Flourinef, or support hose, or when possible were requested to modify their diets to add salt and build fluid volume. Patients with dysautonomia, with symptoms of elevated BP when supine were omitted from the study. In 89% of the experimental cases, SW was reversed in approximately 6 months and weaned from the medication. The remaining cases were reversed and weaned before the end of the two year follow up. In the control group, 46% of the patients on Flourinef, 4% of the support hose patients and 12% of the diet modification patients corrected SW within the two year period. The application of an alpha-adrenergic agonist seems to have greater efficacy than a mineralo-corticoid, mechanical intervention, or dietary modification in correcting SW associated with Orthostasis.

Present state and future of Intelligent Space—Discussion on the implementation of RT in our environment—

In the latest advances in network sensor technology and state-of-the-art mobile robots, artificial intelligence research can be employed to develop autonomous and distributed monitoring systems. “Intelligent Space” is a platform on which we can easily implement advanced technologies to realize smart services for humans. We have developed and reported a vision system based on color information, a hand-over scheme networking multicameras, a human-following mobile robot system, a path generator based on human-watching, etc. Here, I will summarize the present state of intelligent space, and try to describe the future from the viewpoint of system integration. We are now introducing RT (robot technology) to develop intelligent-space as an actual standard platform which could be approved by the robotics community. I will discuss how to use RT in our intelligent space, and show our new results.

Position estimation of a mobile robot using images of a moving target in intelligent space with distributed sensors

Latest advances in hardware technology and state-of-the-art of mobile robots and artificial intelligence research can be employed to develop autonomous and distributed monitoring systems. A mobile service robot requires the perception of its present position to co-exist with humans and support humans effectively in populated environments. To realize this, a robot needs to keep track of relevant changes in the environment. This paper proposes localization of a mobile robot using images recognized by distributed intelligent networked devices in intelligent space (ISpace) in order to achieve these goals. This scheme combines data from the observed position, using dead-reckoning sensors, and the estimated position, using images of moving objects, such as a walking human captured by a camera system, to determine the location of a mobile robot. The moving object is assumed to be a point-object and projected onto an image plane to form a geometrical constraint equation that provides position data of the object based on the kinematics of the ISpace. Using the a priori known path of a moving object and a perspective camera model, the geometric constraint equations that represent the relation between image frame coordinates for a moving object and the estimated robot's position are derived. The proposed method utilizes the error between the observed and estimated image coordinates to localize the mobile robot, and the Kalman filtering scheme is used for the estimation of the mobile robot location. The proposed approach is applied for a mobile robot in ISpace to show the reduction of uncertainty in determining the location of a mobile robot, and its performance is verified by computer simulation and experiment.

Elastic Wave Signal Characteristics of SiC Ceramics with Crack Healing Ability by Wavelet Analysis

This paper reports for signal characteristics of before-and-after healing treatment SiC ceramics with crack healing ability. The elastic wave signals generated during the compress load by a Vickers indenter on the brittle materials were recorded in real time, and the waveforms of the individual signals were examined and classified based on their spectral characteristics. The compress loads were applied with the range from 9.8N to 294N. In a bulk SiC specimen, the AE signals occurred only when the load was compressive loading and unloading. But, in the after crack healing specimen of 294N only, even though the external compressive load was stopped and kept on holding constant load states, the AE signals occurred irregularly and continuously. The results of the WT and frequency analysis showed that these existed as the property of frequency in the limited range between 100kHz and about 200kHz. Three-point bending test was performed for the cracked and healed SiC specimens. Consequently the bending strength of the crack healed specimens was recovered completely, but most of the samples with the crack healed showed that the properties of the dominant frequency were comparatively lower than that of the bulk SiC samples. The classification of the wave signals can be used to develop algorithms for autonomous health monitoring systems of brittle material structures.

An autonomous bladder pressure monitoring system

This paper reports on the development of an autonomous monitoring system, capable of continuously measuring the pressure inside the bladder. The capsule features wireless bi-directional communication and can be inductively powered anywhere inside the bladder. Short-circuiting the resonant LC tank for the data transmission maximizes the operating range of the passive telemetry. A novel clock extraction method is presented, based on lock-in of a Schmitt-trigger oscillator into the external radio-frequency field. A prototype was built using only discrete components. The system measures the pressure with a resolution of 0.04 kPa at a sampling rate of 10 Hz.

A reusable flow-through polymerase chain reaction instrument for the continuous monitoring of infectious biological agents.

Continuous monitoring of the environment for infectious diseases and related biowarfare agents requires the implementation of practical cost-effective methodologies that are highly sensitive and specific. One compatible method employed in clinical diagnostics is real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis. The utility of this technique for environmental monitoring is limited, however, by the utilization of single-use consumables in commercial PCR instruments. This greatly increases mechanical complexity, because sophisticated robotic mechanisms must replenish the disposable elements. An alternative strategy develops an autonomous monitoring system consisting of reusable modules that readily interface with fluidic circuitry in a flow-through scheme. The reduced complexity should increase reliability while decreasing operating costs. In this report, we describe a reusable, flow-through PCR module that functions as one component in such a system. This module was rigorously evaluated with Bacillus anthracis genomic DNA and demonstrated high repeatability, sensitivity, and efficiency, with no evidence of sample-to-sample carryover.

A monitoring system for multithreaded applications

Multithreading is an efficient solution for parallel programming, however, multithreaded applications development is rather poorly supported by specialized tools. This paper presents an analysis which has led to a concept of building an autonomous monitoring system for multithreaded programs on top of which various tools can be based. Many problems specific to monitoring multithreaded programs are presented, as well as the ideas to solve them. Specifically, we focus on efficiency, scalability and portability of the monitoring system.

A 40-μA/channel compensated 18-channel strain gauge measurement system for stress monitoring in dental implants

This paper presents an autonomous monitoring system ASIC, which is capable of measuring and compensating 18 strain gauges simultaneously. This sensor interface is implemented in a 0.7-/spl mu/m CMOS technology and includes a proportional to absolute temperature (PTAT)-current reference, an 8-bit digital-to-analog converter together with a digital interface for multigauge nulling, a switched-capacitor (SC) instrumentation amplifier, an SC sample-and-hold (S/H), and a 9-bit successive approximation analog-to-digital converter. The total chip consumes a mere 40 /spl mu/A/channel (at 3.1 V) and allows for sampling of each individual strain gauge channel at a sampling rate of 111 Hz with a 20-/spl mu/strain accuracy. The measurement system presented is a part of an autonomous data logger, which is integrated in a dental prosthesis.

Intelligent health monitoring system for a cable-stayed bridge

It is necessary to perform sensor-based structural monitoring for identifying the bridge conditions in order to assure the structures safety and to evaluate the performance during its life time. The considerations for deploying a proper monitoring system are appropriate sensor instrumentation, robust signal acquisition, reliable signal processing, and intelligent signal and information processing. This paper addresses experience on developing a remote autonomous monitoring system in the cable-stayed bridge newly constructed. Sensor and hardware instrumentation, signal transmission, signal acquisition and analysis are schematically described.

141 自律型画像監視システムのパワーマネージメント(マイクロエネルギー/精密機器マイクロメカトロニクス)

141 自律型画像監視システムのパワーマネージメント(マイクロエネルギー/精密機器マイクロメカトロニクス)