Hardware Subsystems Research Articles

The Reliability Test System Design and Experimental Analysis of Elevator Power Plant

Power plant is the key part of the elevator for efficient and safe operation, and its reliability affects directly the elevator using performance and security. Traditional test method has the problem of low efficiency, high cost, data processing complex. This paper presents reliability performance test system for power plant through the simulation of traction machine actual working load, including hardware, software system, and control and signal acquisition subsystem. The experiment and data collection and analysis method are proposed using test efficiency, brake starting and release voltage test line, synchronous traction on the over-speed protection device test implementation for achieving elevator traction machine reliability test. Finally, the test and data analysis is are implemented to test running status of elevator traction machine, and the results show that the test system has the advantages such as stable, high testing precision, low cost, high efficiency of data processing. Reduce elevator energy consumption.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE INTELLIGENT SOFTWAREAND HARDWARE SUBSYSTEM FORCAPTURING AN OBJECT BY ROBOT MANIPULATOR

In this paper, it is shown that based on an analysis of the implemented functions of existing robot manipulators the task of automation of the safe capture of objects by a robot during the assembly process is poorly developed. In the process of analysis,there were discovered technological solutions to three main tasksfor the development of a subsystem for capturing objects by a robotic manipulator: determination of the dimensions and shape of the capturing object; determination of the distance from the robot manipulator to all the points of the capturing object, determination of the capture point of the object and clarification of the distance to the robot manipulator. It is shown that all of the above tasks are not sufficiently solved. Therefore, it was proposed to develop a methodology for creating an intelligent software and hardware subsystem for capturing an object by robot manipulator. The developed methodology consists ofsix steps: obtaininga stereo image and buildingan in-depth map; determination of the distance from the robot manipulator to all the points of the object; determination of the contour of the object; determination of the capture point of the objectand clarification of the distance to the robot manipulator; determination of the degree of capturing the object; determination of the movement of the manipulator to capture an object at the desired point. To find the capture point, it is proposed to use the contour search method on the object’s depth map, and to search for the finest part on the contour, limit it to a segment and find its middle point. To implement the algorithm for determination of the distance to the object, the degree of its capture and movement to the desired point, the dependencies of the calculations on the depth map and the physical characteristics of the manipulator are formalized. The capabilities of the StereoPi microprocessor are analyzed and its use for the hardware solution of the capture function by the robotic arm is proposed. The simulation of the intelligentsoftware and hardware subsystem for capturing an object of complex shape has been performed. Conclusions are drawn about the independence of the developed subsystem from the type of object and its viewing angle by a robot manipulator. In addition, an increase in the accuracy of capturing the object by a robot manipulator equipped with an intelligent subsystem is shown in comparison with its existing analog. Potential problems inthe implementation of the proposed methodology are highlighted.

Docker-pi: Docker container deployment in fog computing infrastructures

The transition from virtual machine-based infrastructures to container-based ones brings the promise of swift and efficient software deployment in large-scale computing infrastructures. However, in fog computing environments which are often made of very small computers such as Raspberry Pis, deploying even a very simple Docker container may take multiple minutes. We demonstrate that Docker makes inefficient usage of the available hardware resources, essentially using different hardware subsystems (network bandwidth, CPU, disk I/O) sequentially rather than simultaneously. We therefore propose three optimisations which, once combined, reduce container deployment times by a factor up to 4. These optimisations also speed up deployment time by about 30% in datacentre-grade servers.

Testbed for Sub-Nyquist Wideband Spectrum Monitoring

Radioelectric spectrum management is a concern for today’s world, mainly due to the misuse that has been given to this resource through the years, especially on the UHF band. To address this problem, a testbed for sub-Nyquist Wideband Spectrum Monitoring was built, that includes a web interface to remotely measure occupancy of the UHF band.
 To achieve the above, an RF interface that allows tuning UHF frequencies with an instantaneous bandwidth of 95 MHz was built. Afterwards, a Random Demodulator was connected, and then an embedded system performed sub--Nyquist sampling and spectrum recovery. The embedded system connected to an information system that serves a web page, through which remote users can perform UHF band monitoring.
 Experimental results showed that spectrum sensing can be achieved by using different algorithms on certain sparse spectra. In addition, the aforementioned web interface allowed simultaneous user connections, in order to perform independent measurements by sharing a hardware subsystem.

A Novel System Reliability Modeling of Hardware, Software, and Interactions of Hardware and Software

In the past few decades, a great number of hardware and software reliability models have been proposed to address hardware failures in hardware subsystems and software failures in software subsystems, respectively. The interactions between hardware and software subsystems are often neglected in order to simplify reliability modeling, and hence, most existing reliability models assumed hardware subsystems and software subsystem are independent of each other. However, this may not be true in reality. In this study, system failures are classified into three categories, which are hardware failures, software failures, and hardware-software interaction failures. The main contribution of our research is that we further classify hardware-software interaction failures into two groups: software-induced hardware failures and hardware-induced software failures. A Markov-based unified system reliability modeling incorporating all three categories of system failures is developed in this research, which provides a novel and practical perspective to define system failures and further improve reliability prediction accuracy. Comparison of system reliability estimation between the reliability models with and without considering hardware-software interactions is elucidated in the numerical example. The impacts on system reliability prediction as the changes of transition parameters are also illustrated by the numerical examples.

Docker-pi: Docker container deployment in fog computing infrastructures

The transition from virtual machine-based infrastructures to container-based ones brings the promise of swift and efficient software deployment in large-scale computing infrastructures. However, in fog computing environments which are often made of very small computers such as Raspberry PIs, deploying even a very simple Docker container may take multiple minutes. We demonstrate that Docker makes inefficient usage of the available hardware resources, essentially using different hardware subsystems (network bandwidth, CPU, disk I/O) sequentially rather than simultaneously. We therefore propose three optimizations which, once combined, reduce container deployment times by a factor up to 4. These optimizations also speed up deployment time by about 30% in datacenter-grade servers.

A comprehensive analysis of warranty claims and optimal policies

Nowadays many products, such as 3C products (Computer, Communication and Consumer Electronics) and cars, consist of software and hardware. The causes of warranty claims of such products may be attributed to software specific failures, hardware specific failures, software-hardware interaction failures and human errors. Apparently, those causes may be dependent. For example, one may claim warranty due to the malfunction of the embedded software in a product item and then the entire item may be replaced. Nevertheless, the existing research on warranty management studies mainly concentrates on warranty analysis of hardware subsystems, assuming that the warranty claims are statistically independent of those caused by the failures of software subsystems or human factors, that is, the interactions between those causes are neglected.This paper investigates warranty costs incurred due to those three subsystems with a focus on their interactions. It estimates the costs due to different cause, develops integrated warranty cost models and optimises warranty policies considering the above possible combinations. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the proposed models.

Multi-Scenarios Attitude Control of a Satellite with Flexible Solar Panels

The development of space mission design requires mathematical modelling and related numerical simulations. These latter are very important to select the Attitude Determination and Control Subsystem hardware against the mission requirements for attitude and orbit specifications. In this paper, a nonlinear dynamic modelling framework is presented for one degree of freedom of a flexible spacecraft. The dynamics of the structure are derived in the nonlinear Euler equations form for a circular orbit; the gravity-gradient torque is introduced as an external perturbation. The resulting model is used to perform attitude control precision of the pitch axis rotational manoeuvre, via several simulations for various in-orbit operating scenarios, to highlight the coupling effect between the main body and the flexible panels. For this purpose, the spacecraft is considered as a rigid cubic-body with two flexible solar panels deployed on each side of its roll axis. The simulation results show that the flexible motion of the panels has a substantial impact on the spacecraft dynamical responses, especially when considering the external perturbation effects. A classical controller is implemented to control the system three axes manoeuvres and to suppress the flexible panels’ distortions. Numerical results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed model to demonstrate the coupling effects and the control strategy.

The effect of joint forces and torques on speed variation in automobile assembly lines.

In production industries, physical loads have been observed for employees. The impact of these loads has been investigated in automotive industry assembly lines. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of different takt times on the forces and torques in body joints during loading. Data were collected using an integrated system, including a motion capture system as a hardware subsystem and a tool for physics-based human simulation as a software subsystem. The results were compared for a human working for 3 seconds and 5 seconds; for 3 seconds, there was a negative impact on the bottom of the torso (L4), top of the torso (T12), left shoulder and upper arm (Lshoulder) joint forces and torques, but there was a reduction in the joint forces and torques on the right shoulder and upper arm (Rshoulder). Furthermore, the results reveal fluctuations and peak values in all joint forces and torques at the initial intervals due to the variation in speed. The initial acceleration is highly correlated with the risk of musculoskeletal disorders, physical loads and ergonomic problems. This study illustrates the importance of providing appropriate processing times for operators.

Analysis of logic-time characteristics of subsystem supply functioning hardware elements of unmanned aerial vehicles

To obtain the logical and temporal characteristics of the model of control loop process variable, an analysis of the subsystem hardware of the autonomous unmanned object onboard control system was conducted. The problem of time delays in the information transmission from the primary converter to the control element in automated process control systems is considered as equivalent of the subsystem of the onboard control system of an autonomous unmanned object. At present, there are no methods for estimating the effect of time delays of an information signal on the response time of a control loop, which leads to inefficient use of system resources. The increased time interval between the change in the process variable and the control effect can also lead to negative consequences. Parametric identification of individual nodes with subsequent compilation of a closed loop model by a separate parameter is selected as a tool for system analysis.

An analytical method for reliability analysis of hardware‐software co‐design system

AbstractHardware‐software co‐design systems abound in diverse modern application areas such as automobile control, telecommunications, big data processing, and cloud computing. Existing works on reliability modeling of the co‐design systems have mostly assumed that hardware and software subsystems behave independently of each other. However, these two subsystems may have significant interactions in practice. In this paper, an analytical approach based on paths and integrals is proposed to analyze reliability of nonrepairable hardware‐software co‐design systems considering interactions between hardware and software during the system performance degradation and failure process. The proposed approach is verified using the Markov‐based method. As demonstrated by case studies on systems without and with warm standby sparing, the proposed approach is applicable to arbitrary types of time‐to‐failure or degradation distributions. Effects of different transition and fault detection/recovery parameters on system performance are also investigated through examples.

Small satellites and CubeSats: Survey of structures, architectures, and protocols

SummaryThe space environment is still challenging but is becoming more and more attractive for an increasing number of entities. In the second half of the 20th century, a huge amount of funds was required to build satellites and gain access to space. Nowadays, it is no longer so. The advancement of technologies allows producing very small hardware components able to survive the strict conditions of the outer space. Consequently, small satellites can be designed for a wide set of missions keeping low design times, production costs, and deployment costs. One widely used type of small satellite is the CubeSat, whose different aspects are surveyed in the following: mission goals, hardware subsystems and components, possible network topologies, channel models, and suitable communication protocols. We also show some future challenges related to the employment of CubeSat networks.

Power Electronics for Wireless Power Delivery in Synthetic Sensor Networks

Energy harvesting is a very popular means of augmenting batteries or displacing their use for powering the wireless sensor networks; however, an alternative approach is to use wireless power delivery to energise the nodes. For a network occupying a well-known and confined physical geometry, it may be possible to achieve this via one or multiple sources in fixed locations; however, when the nodes cover a wide area, or are themselves mobile, fixed sources may not be practical. A possible solution is to use drones which can fly close to the sensor nodes, which then transfer power inductively from drone to node. In such systems the drone could also be used to gather data from the sensors nodes, reducing their power requirement for long distance data transmission. However, here we investigate the power electronics and energy storage solutions for this so-called synthetic sensor network (synthsense) setup. Here we describe the preliminary hardware subsystems which will allow the demonstration of synthsense.

Automatic testing system to evaluate the energy efficiency of electric storage water heaters

Background: The energy efficiency of electric storage water heaters is a concern for enterprises and customers because it is beneficial for energy saving. To decrease the workload of testing personnel and improve the testing efficiency, an automatic testing system for evaluating the energy efficiency performance of electric storage water heaters has been designed. Methods: The complete testing system includes a water supply subsystem, hot water outlet subsystem, hardware subsystem, and software subsystem. An application program was developed using Visual Basic to acquire the sensor data and transmit it in real time to a database server. The energy efficiency evaluating process was controlled by the application software,by combining the data acquisition technology, communication technology, and program logical control technology. Results: The designed system can run automatically and achieve reliable tests, two important parameters including the standing loss per 24 h and the hot water withdrawal rate were obtained. Conclusion: This system can be applied to evaluate the energy efficiency grades of electric storage water heaters.

Local Energy Management and Optimization: A Novel Energy Universal Service Bus System Based on Energy Internet Technologies

This paper develops a novel energy universal service bus system (EUSBS) based on emerging energy Internet (E-net) technologies. This EUSBS is a unified identification and plug-and-play interface platform to which high penetration distributed energy and equipment (DEE), including photovoltaic (PV), fans, electric vehicle charging stations (EVCSs), energy storage equipment (ESE), and commercial and residential users (CRUs), can access in a coordinated control and optimized utilization mode. First, the functions design, overall framework and topology architecture design of the EUSBS are expounded, among which the EUSBS is mainly composed of a hardware system and a software platform. Moreover, several future application scenarios are presented. Then, the hardware part of EUSBS is designed and developed, including the framework design of this hardware subsystem, and development of the hardware equipment for PV access, fans access, EVCS access, ESE access, and CRU access. The hardware subsystem consists of smart socket, and household/floor/building concentrators. Based on this, the prototypes development of EUSBS hardware equipment is completely demonstrated. Third, the software part of the EUSBS is developed as a cloud service platform for electricity use data analysis of DEE. This software subsystem contains the power quality & energy efficiency analysis module, optimization control module, information and service module, and data monitoring and electricity behavior analysis module. Based on this design, the software interfaces are developed. Finally, an application study on energy management and optimization of a smart commercial building is conducted to evaluate the functions and practicality of this EUSBS. The EUSBS developed in this paper is able to overcome difficulties in big data collection and utilization on sides of distribution network and electricity utilization, and eventually implement a deep information-energy fusion and a friendly supply-demand interaction between the grid and users. This contribution presents a detailed and systematic development scheme of the EUSBS, and moreover, the laboratory prototypes of the hardware and software subsystems have been developed based on E-net technologies. This paper can provide some thoughts and suggestions for the research of active distribution network and comprehensive energy management and optimization in power systems, as well as references and guidance for researchers to carry out research regarding energy management, optimization and coordinated control of the smart buildings.

Forecasting New Features and Market Adoption of Wearable Devices Using TRIZ and Growth Curves: Case of Fitness Tracking Products

This paper describes the application of a combination of TRIZ and Bass modeling to forecast the technology growth projections for one of the wearable devices, fitness trackers. For the TRIZ modeling, the fitness tracking system was divided into three subsystems and each was analyzed as per the technology trends from current literature. The subsystems’ combined assessment was then visualized via a radar plot. The analysis showed the technology to be in an emergent state with primary growth in the hardware and software subsystem areas. The Bass model showed the market peaking at eight and saturating in 15 years.

Design of a Gesture Controlled Mobile Robotic Arm

This paper presents a new and an effective sensing and actuating approach to control a mobile robotic arm using gestures and body postures. This makes human-machine interaction and sensing more receptive and intuitive for the user. Programming robots to perform human-like tasks can be hard and time consuming. However, controlling a robot by gestures and body postures is a simple method that offers a simpler and direct approach to perform these human-like tasks. Therefore, the overall goal of this paper is to design and implement a mobile robotic arm that is commanded by human gestures, which are captured by a skeletal motion sensing device and processed through a digital controller to manage the movement of the mobile robotic arm. A complete system with integrated hardware and software subsystems were designed, constructed, and tested.

Distributed and Modular CAN-Based Architecture for Hardware Control and Sensor Data Integration.

In this article, we present a CAN-based (Controller Area Network) distributed system to integrate sensors, actuators and hardware controllers in a mobile robot platform. With this work, we provide a robust, simple, flexible and open system to make hardware elements or subsystems communicate, that can be applied to different robots or mobile platforms. Hardware modules can be connected to or disconnected from the CAN bus while the system is working. It has been tested in our mobile robot Rato, based on a RWI (Real World Interface) mobile platform, to replace the old sensor and motor controllers. It has also been used in the design of two new robots: BellBot and WatchBot. Currently, our hardware integration architecture supports different sensors, actuators and control subsystems, such as motor controllers and inertial measurement units. The integration architecture was tested and compared with other solutions through a performance analysis of relevant parameters such as transmission efficiency and bandwidth usage. The results conclude that the proposed solution implements a lightweight communication protocol for mobile robot applications that avoids transmission delays and overhead.

Horizontal Directional Drilling-Length Detection Technology While Drilling Based on Bi-Electro-Magnetic Sensing.

The drilling length is an important parameter in the process of horizontal directional drilling (HDD) exploration and recovery, but there has been a lack of accurate, automatically obtained statistics regarding this parameter. Herein, a technique for real-time HDD length detection and a management system based on the electromagnetic detection method with a microprocessor and two magnetoresistive sensors employing the software LabVIEW are proposed. The basic principle is to detect the change in the magnetic-field strength near a current coil while the drill stem and drill-stem joint successively pass through the current coil forward or backward. The detection system consists of a hardware subsystem and a software subsystem. The hardware subsystem employs a single-chip microprocessor as the main controller. A current coil is installed in front of the clamping unit, and two magneto resistive sensors are installed on the sides of the coil symmetrically and perpendicular to the direction of movement of the drill pipe. Their responses are used to judge whether the drill-stem joint is passing through the clamping unit; then, the order of their responses is used to judge the movement direction. The software subsystem is composed of a visual software running on the host computer and a software running in the slave microprocessor. The host-computer software processes, displays, and saves the drilling-length data, whereas the slave microprocessor software operates the hardware system. A combined test demonstrated the feasibility of the entire drilling-length detection system.

SPECIALIZED MEASURMENT SYSTEM FOR EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH OF SUSPENSION SYSTEM LOADING CONDITIONS OF A HIGH MOBILITY TRACKED VEHICLES

Loading of cushioning systems, as a condition caused by external influences and operating conditions, for highspeed tracked vehicles is determined by the characteristics of the track profile and motion modes. The most reliable estimate of the operational parameters of loading of parts and suspension assemblies is obtained experimentally using specialized measuring equipment. Within the conducted investigations for determining of kinematic and force parameters of loading of the elements of the cushioning system of a 14-ton tracked vehicle while driving on forest ground roads, a measuring system has been developed that realizes estimation of the loading characteristics by the angular position of the suspensions relative to the vehicle body. The measuring system consists of the hardware and software subsystems and records angles of twisting of torsion shafts as a function of time, with subsequent conversion and statistical processing of obtained data into the loading characteristics of elastic elements and suspension arms. According to received sample data, the software subsystem calculates average durability of torsion shafts in order to determine the most loaded suspensions. The advantage of the study is in relative simplicity and versatility. The hardware subsystem and rigging of the sensor equipment attachment do not require making changes in the construction of the undercarriage and allows to carry out investigations on most types of tracked vehicles. The software subsystem can be adapted for studies of loading of tracked machines of different weight categories. Reliability of the test equipment, as well as stability of formation and recording of measuring signals, was evaluated in polygon tests during motion of a tracked vehicle in difficult road conditions along 350 km tracks.