Compact Data Acquisition Research Articles

Multiwavelength laser diode based portable photoacoustic and ultrasound imaging system for point of care applications.

Vascular diseases are a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Despite having precursor conditions like peripheral arterial disease (PAD), they are often only diagnosed after the onset of stroke or heart attack. Low-cost, portable, noninvasive, point-of-care (POC), label-free assessment of deep vascular function benefits PAD diagnosis, especially in resource poor settings of the world. Doppler ultrasound-based blood flow measurements can diagnose PAD, albeit with limited sensitivity and specificity. To overcome this, here, we propose the first-of-its-kind dual-modality photoacoustic-and-ultrasound (PAUS) imaging system that integrates a multiwavelength pulsed laser diode (PLD) with a compact ultrasound data acquisition unit. The mesoscopic imaging depth of the portable PLD-PAUS system was validated using tissue phantoms, and its multispectral photoacoustic imaging capabilities were validated using an atherosclerosis-mimicking phantom. Furthermore, we demonstrated high-contrast volumetric in vivo photoacoustic imaging of rodent abdominal vasculature and quantified vessel reactivity due to hypercapnia stimulation. The multiparametric functional and molecular imaging capabilities of the PLD-PAUS system holds promise for POC applications.

Compact FPGA-Based Data Acquisition System for a High-Channel, High-Count-Rate TOF-PET Insert for Brain PET/MRI

Compact FPGA-Based Data Acquisition System for a High-Channel, High-Count-Rate TOF-PET Insert for Brain PET/MRI

A Customisable Data Acquisition System for Open-Source Hyperspectral Imaging.

Hyperspectral imagers, or imaging spectrometers, are used in many remote sensing environmental studies in fields such as agriculture, forestry, geology, and hydrology. In recent years, compact hyperspectral imagers were developed using commercial-off-the-shelf components, but there are not yet any off-the-shelf data acquisition systems on the market to deploy them. The lack of a self-contained data acquisition system with navigation sensors is a challenge that needs to be overcome to successfully deploy these sensors on remote platforms such as drones and aircraft. Our work is the first successful attempt to deploy an entirely open-source system that is able to collect hyperspectral and navigation data concurrently for direct georeferencing. In this paper, we describe a low-cost, lightweight, and deployable data acquisition device for the open-source hyperspectral imager (OpenHSI). We utilised commercial-off-the-shelf hardware and open-source software to create a compact data acquisition device that can be easily transported and deployed. The device includes a microcontroller and a custom-designed PCB board to interface with ancillary sensors and a Raspberry Pi 4B/NVIDIA Jetson. We demonstrated our data acquisition system on a Matrice M600 drone at a beach in Sydney, Australia, collecting timestamped hyperspectral, navigation, and orientation data in parallel. Using the navigation and orientation data, the hyperspectral data were georeferenced. While the entire system including the pushbroom hyperspectral imager and housing weighed 735 g, it was designed to be easy to assemble and modify. This low-cost, customisable, deployable data acquisition system provides a cost-effective solution for the remote sensing of hyperspectral data for everyone.

Calibration of a compact ASIC-based data acquisition system for neutron/[formula omitted] discrimination and spectroscopy with organic scintillators

Segmented neutron detectors that use silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) are receiving significant attention in nuclear security applications. Some of these detectors employ hundreds of channels and would therefore benefit from the use of high-channel-density and low-cost-per-channel data acquisition (DAQ) systems. Candidate DAQ systems that meet these requirements exist, but few perform full waveform digitization, which permits neutron and gamma-ray interaction discrimination via pulse shape. In this work, we study the performance of the TOFPET2 (PETsys Electronics), an ASIC-based DAQ designed for positron emission tomography, which has been adapted to provide sensitivity to pulse shape by the use of variable-period charge integration. We use a light-emitting diode to calibrate a combination of an ON Semiconductor (SensL) 60035-64P J-Series SiPM and TOPFET2 DAQ and evaluate the linearity of their response and dynamic range. The calibration curve was obtained by comparing the DAQ response to that measured with a photodiode interfaced with a traditional waveform digitizer. This calibration process was used for rudimentary spectroscopy of various neutron and γ sources.

Gastric functional monitoring by gastric electrical impedance tomography (gEIT) suit with dual-step fuzzy clustering

Gastric Function has been successfully estimated by gastric electrical impedance tomography (gEIT) Suit with dual-step fuzzy clustering. The gEIT Suit which are made of elastic cloth with dual-planar electrodes and compact data acquisition (DAQ) system measures gastric impedance Z to visualize the gastric conductivity distribution σ. The dual-step fuzzy clustering extracts the clustered gastric conductivity distribution kσ, which accurately estimates the gastric function. The gEIT Suit with dual-step fuzzy clustering are applied to eight healthy persons during liquid meal consumption to estimate the gastric function under gastric accommodation phase of 200, 400 and 600 mL based on the gastric emptying phase. As the results, the gEIT Suit successfully estimate the gastric function. By the measured impedance Z, the subjects have a mean temporal impedance overline{Delta mathbf{Z} }= − 9.27 [Ohm] and p-value of that overline{mathbf{Z} }p(Z) = 0.0013[–]as the t-test result. In the case of gastric conductivity distribution σ, the subjects have a value of spatial mean conductivity distribution ⟨σ⟩ = 0.23[–] and p-value of that ⟨σ⟩ p(σ) = 0.0140[–]. Lastly, in the case gastric volume V, subjects have a gastric volume V = 12.44 [%] and p-value p(V) = 0.0664[–].

Real Time Flow Control System for Precise Gas Feed in COIL

This paper reports development of a real time flow control system for precise, controlled and uniform gas feed to a flowing medium Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL). The optimal operation of this prominent laser depends upon the desired supply of gas constituents such as nitrogen (N2), chlorine (Cl2) and iodine (I2) to achieve adequately mixed laser gas. The laser also demands real time variation of flow rates during gas constituent transitions in order to maintain stabilized pressures in critical subsystems. Diluent nitrogen utilized for singlet oxygen transport is termed as primary buffer gas and that for iodine transport is termed as secondary buffer gas (with main and bypass components). Also, nitrogen in precise flows is used for mirror blowing, nozzle curtain, cavity bleed and diffuser startup. A compact hybrid data acquisition system (Hybrid DAS) for precise flow control using LabVIEW 2014 platform has been developed. The supported flow ranges may vary from few mmole.s-1 to few hundred mmole.s-1. The estimated relative uncertainty in the largest gas component i.e. primary buffer gas feed is nearly 0.7%. The implementation of in-operation variation using flow ramp enables swift stabilization of singlet oxygen generator pressures critical for successful COIL operation. The performance of Hybrid DAS is at par with fully wired DAS providing the crucial benefit of remote field operation at distances of nearly 80m in line of sight and 35m with obstacles

FPGA-based multi-channel data acquisition system for Superheated Emulsion Detectors

A 10-channel Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)-based Data Acquisition (DAQ) system is developed for Superheated Emulsion Detectors (SEDs). The key features of the acquisition system are 12-bit resolution, a sampling rate of 500 KS/s/ch, triggered acquisition, user-programmable threshold, simultaneous acquisition and pre-post trigger adjustment. The indigenously developed compact DAQ unit consists of Analog Signal Processing modules, Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) boards and an FPGA board. The system is standalone, portable and interfaced to PC through UART. A data acquisition software is developed using LabVIEW for data logging and online representation. The DAQ unit is tested with a superheated emulsion detector. A capacitive diaphragm sensor is used to convert the acoustic pulses into electrical signals. The manuscript describes the design, hardware and software architecture, implementation and test results of the DAQ system.

A low-cost absorbance measurement device using microcontroller

Objectives: To design a low-cost absorbance measurement device using a microcontroller that can be used for student’s learning. Methods/Statisticalanalysis: The setup device is designed based upon Beer-Lambert Law with some LEDs through various sample solutions along with LDR at a different range of wavelength and the results are shown on a 16x2 LCD by use of a PIC16F877a microcontroller. The results are also compared with the standard colorimetric method. Findings: The setup device able to measure the absorbance of different colors of sample solutions at a wide range of wavelength (400-700nm) and measured by utilizing different LEDs to the transmitter end and an LDR at the receiver end. The proposed experimental device’s performance was compared with the standard colorimeter for efficiency check. The efficiency of the setup device is near to the colorimeter of more than 95%. Novelty/Applications: For educational purpose, the proposed setup device is well affordable due to low cost (US$10.98) and easy to maintain because of compact size and data acquisition directly through microcontroller. Keywords: Colorimeter; absorbance; wavelength; LCD; microcontroller

Battery management system for industrial-scale vanadium redox flow batteries: Features and operation

This paper describes the battery management system (BMS) developed for a 9 kW/27 kWh industrial scale vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB), both in terms of hardware and software. Such BMS is quite different from those of solid-state batteries, e.g. Li-ion ecc…, due to the different battery structure and operating principle. The BMS is built around a desktop computer equipped with LabVIEW software and NI (National Instruments, US) Compact DAQ (Data AcQuisition) device, which results in a flexible and expandable system, with advanced programming features. The BMS in-house software is designed to provide the test-facility with SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) functions, that is, it receives processes and logs all acquired data generated by the thermo-fluid and electric dynamic probes which are needed to perform the subsequent analyses. The BMS also generates the feedback signals for controlling the experiments evolution according to advances strategies such as efficiency maximization. Signal management between the stack and Compact DAQ includes cell voltage galvanic insulation that consists of opto-isolators and stack voltage galvanic insulation ensured by a DC/DC transformer. Up to now, very few papers present such developments for industrial scale VRFBs.

Numerical investigation and experimental verification of thermal frequency of carbon nanotube-reinforced sandwich structure

The modal responses of multi-walled carbon nanotube-reinforced composite sandwich structural plate are computed under the elevated temperature environment using a higher-order polynomial kinematic model and the isoparametric finite element steps. The proposed model accuracy has been verified with experimental modal values under the influence of elevated temperature and ambient conditions. To perform the modal experiment the nanotube-reinforced composite sandwich panel filled with the epoxy core is fabricated. Further, the experimental elastic properties of epoxy, nanotube/epoxy composite and the sandwich are obtained individually for the current computational purpose. A tailor-made finite element computer code (MATLAB environment) is prepared using the multiscale mathematical formulation for the evaluation of thermal frequencies of the nanotube sandwich panel. The impact type vibration analyser has been utilized for the current testing purpose with the help of three components i.e. hardware (compact data acquisition system, cDAQ-9178), software (LAB-VIEW) and a microcontroller controlled thermal chamber (to maintain temperature profile). Finally, wide varieties of numerical examples are solved using the proposed computational model for the different design-related parameters. The intrinsic behaviour of each parameter on the epoxy-filled nanotube sandwich construction including the elevated temperature loading is discussed in details.

Improving Accuracy of the Alpha-Beta Filter Algorithm Using an ANN-Based Learning Mechanism in Indoor Navigation System.

The navigation system has been around for the last several years. Recently, the emergence of miniaturized sensors has made it easy to navigate the object in an indoor environment. These sensors give away a great deal of information about the user (location, posture, communication patterns, etc.), which helps in capturing the user’s context. Such information can be utilized to create smarter apps from which the user can benefit. A challenging new area that is receiving a lot of attention is Indoor Localization, whereas interest in location-based services is also rising. While numerous inertial measurement unit-based indoor localization techniques have been proposed, these techniques have many shortcomings related to accuracy and consistency. In this article, we present a novel solution for improving the accuracy of indoor navigation using a learning to perdition model. The design system tracks the location of the object in an indoor environment where the global positioning system and other satellites will not work properly. Moreover, in order to improve the accuracy of indoor navigation, we proposed a learning to prediction model-based artificial neural network to improve the prediction accuracy of the prediction algorithm. For experimental analysis, we use the next generation inertial measurement unit (IMU) in order to acquired sensing data. The next generation IMU is a compact IMU and data acquisition platform that combines onboard triple-axis sensors like accelerometers, gyroscopes, and magnetometers. Furthermore, we consider a scenario where the prediction algorithm is used to predict the actual sensor reading from the noisy sensor reading. Additionally, we have developed an artificial neural network-based learning module to tune the parameter of alpha and beta in the alpha–beta filter algorithm to minimize the amount of error in the current sensor readings. In order to evaluate the accuracy of the system, we carried out a number of experiments through which we observed that the alpha–beta filter with a learning module performed better than the traditional alpha–beta filter algorithm in terms of RMSE.

MFL-Based Local Damage Diagnosis and SVM-Based Damage Type Classification for Wire Rope NDE.

Wire ropes used in various applications such as elevators and cranes to safely carry heavy weights are vulnerable to breakage or cross-sectional loss caused by the external environment. Such damage can pose a serious risk to the safety of the entire structure because damage under tensile force rapidly expands due to concentration of stress. In this study, the magnetic flux leakage (MFL) method was applied to diagnose cuts, corrosion, and compression damage in wire ropes. Magnetic flux signals were measured by scanning damaged wire rope specimens using a multi-channel sensor head and a compact data acquisition system. A series of signal-processing procedures, including the Hilbert transform-based enveloping process, was applied to reduce noise and improve the resolution of signals. The possibility of diagnosing several types of damage was verified using enveloped magnetic flux signals. The characteristics of the MFL signals according to each damage type were then analyzed by comparing the extracted damage indices for each damage type. For automated damage type classification, a support vector machine (SVM)-based classifier was trained using the extracted damage indices. Finally, damage types were automatically classified as cutting and other damages using the trained SVM classifier.

Real-Time Classification of Multi-Channel Forearm EMG to Recognize Hand Movements using Effective Feature Combination and LDA Classifier

Electromyography (EMG) signals acquired from surface of arms can be crucial in recognizing nature of hand gestures. The concept is used in current highly demanding fields such as controlling prosthetic limbs, diagnosing neuromuscular disorders, manipulation of robotic arm etc. The purpose of the work was to classify a set of hand motions from corresponding multi-channel surface EMG signals by developing MATLAB tools. The research focused on extracting multiple signal features and finding the appropriate combination of extracted intelligible features to get the best classification accuracy for the specific set of hand gestures. For dynamic and fast classification purpose, linear discriminant analysis (LDA) classifier was employed. Effect of feature dimensionality reduction on classification accuracy was also investigated via Principal Component Analysis (PCA) in this research. Finally, the research analyzed different electrode placements by comparing classification accuracy for each of the set of motions and proposed a simple and compact data acquisition instrumentation having less number of electrodes while maintaining high classification accuracy.Bangladesh Journal of Medical Physics Vol.10 No.1 2017 25-39

Embedded control systems for gyrotrons applications based on NI solutions

The Swiss Plasma Center is involved in the development and the operation of gyrotrons for fusion application (TCV tokamak, W7-X, ITER, DEMO) as well as for basic science applications such as Nuclear Maggnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. In this framework, embedded control systems based on National Instrument (NI) compact Reconfigurable Input Output (cRIO) and compact Data AcQuisition (cDAQ) offer versatile solutions for dedicated applications. Three specific developments are briefly presented and discussed here. First, a complete control system based on cRIO material has been implemented in a Modulator Power Supply. Second, the development of a compact system, based on a cDAQ solution used for the characterization of the RF losses on the various gyrotron components. Third, the installation of a whole control system for a Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (DNP/NMR) gyrotron dedicated to non-specialist gyrotron users.The flexibility given by these compact control systems and acquisition could offer multiple solutions in many applications for fusion research.

Апаратно-програмна реалізація системи зборуданих для імпульсного спектрометра ЯКР

A hardware and software implementation of compact data acquisition system for pulsed nuclear quadrupole resonance spectrometer is proposed. The developed system is based on multi-protocol converter USB-245FIFO FT2232H, which provides data transfer speeds up to 480 Mb/s. For nuclear spin induction visualization and data signal processing using graphical tools of the object oriented programming a LabVIEW virtual instrument is synthesized. To synchronize data acquisition system with start of the exciting pulse the FPGA configuration structure is developed. The experimental results are showed possibility of the broadband nuclear quadrupole resonance spectrums imaging with frequency resolution 1.6 kHz, which confirms the high accuracy of the developed data acquisition system. Two-channel transmitter provides simultaneous operation of the two independent data channels in a single hardware USB interface. The use of the proposed data acquisition system for portable nuclear quadrupole resonance spectrometers will significantly reduce the cost of laboratory equipment for radio physical experimentation.

Can the fluctuations of motion be used to estimate the performance of kayak paddlers?

Today many compact and efficient on-water data acquisition units help modern coaching by measuring and analyzing various inertial signals during kayaking. One of the most challenging problems is how these signals can be used to estimate performance and to develop the technique. Recently we have introduced indicators based on the fluctuations of the inertial signals as promising additions to the existing parameters. In this work we report on our more detailed analysis, compare new indicators, and discuss the possible advantages of the applied methods. Our primary aim is to draw attention to several exciting and inspiring open problems and to initiate further research even in several related multidisciplinary fields. More detailed information can be found on the dedicated webpage, www.noise.inf.u-szeged.hu/kayak.

Remote Data Recorder Design Based on Embedded Linux

Radar, aerospace and wireless communications have a lot of demand for high-speed data acquisition and storage, in these applications, there is a need to control data collection and storage remotely, so researching safe, reliable, real-time remote data recorder is very meaningful. Based on Compact PCI IPC, putting ADC and data acquisition front-end into the chassis, using a dedicated PCI bus interface chip, to transmit data via Compact PCI backplane and record data to high-speed disk array. The platform use embedded Linux operating system to control high-speed and data acquisition. Users can manage data remotely by developing the data acquisition card driver and application software.

Sistema automatizado para coleta de dados de umidade relativa e temperatura do ar

Algumas variáveis climáticas, tais como a temperatura do ar (T) e a umidade relativa do ar (UR) exercem grande influência sobre a produção agrícola. Uma vez combinadas adequadamente, podem resultar em incrementos quantitativos e qualitativos do produto final, o que as tornam indispensáveis no monitoramento e manejo dentro do ambiente de produção. A aquisição de dados é uma importante ferramenta que pode auxiliar nesse processo, resultando em maior eficiência e uso racional dos recursos. Desse modo, o presente trabalho teve por objetivo o desenvolvimento de um sistema de aquisição de dados (SAD) compacto, na forma de um datalogger (de construção simples), para monitorar T e UR. Os dados provenientes dos sensores utilizados são gravados numa memória do tipo flash drive (USB removível), que é posteriormente conectada a um computador para interpretação dos dados via software. A fim de avaliar o desempenho do SAD, os dados registrados foram comparados com os dados de uma estação meteorológica convencional e de uma automatizada, apresentando valores de UR próximos em ambos os casos. Para T, a substituição do amplificador operacional é necessária. Dessa forma, o SAD desenvolvido apresenta-se viável inclusive para aplicações em campo.

Employing digital pulse processing electronics for the readout of a Si(Li)—Compton—polarimeter for the SPARC collaboration

The future x-ray spectroscopy and polarimetry experiment program of the SPARC collaboration at GSI and FAIR relies strongly on the availability of two-dimensional position-sensitive, energy- and time-dispersive thick semiconductor detector systems, including the appropriate signal processing electronics. To meet these demands, the development of a compact and scalable data acquisition system that has higher rate acceptance compared to commercial VME electronics by employing digital pulse processing electronics was started.

A High Speed and Compact Data Acquisition and Storage System

Data acquisition and record system plays an important role in signal processing. For the wideband signal acquisition and processing application, such as 3G/4G Base Stations, Wideband Microwave Backhaul, Military Communications, and RADAR, the need for high speed and smart software-defined radio (SDR) test platform is growing. In this paper, we implement a high compact form factor data acquisition and storage system used for the wideband signal application development. In order to implement high compact, low power and high speed real-time data storage, we use a PCIe-based switch architecture and leverage the Flash array as the storage part. The system supports RF sampling directly and offers a 16TB solid state storage module which could be read and write at the sustained speed of 12.8GB/s.