Modular Wireless Research Articles

A Dual-Frequency Modular Wireless Power Transfer System for Auxiliary Power Supply of Power Electronics Converters

A Dual-Frequency Modular Wireless Power Transfer System for Auxiliary Power Supply of Power Electronics Converters

Modular Wireless Power Transfer Systems for Charging Stations Based on a Common AC Bus With LCC Compensation

Modular Wireless Power Transfer Systems for Charging Stations Based on a Common AC Bus With LCC Compensation

Multipurpose Modular Wireless Sensor for Remote Monitoring and IoT Applications.

Today, maintaining an Internet connection is indispensable; as an example, we can refer to IoT applications that can be found in fields such as environmental monitoring, smart manufacturing, healthcare, smart buildings, smart homes, transportation, energy, and others. The critical elements in IoT applications are both the Wireless Sensor Nodes (WSn) and the Wireless Sensor Networks. It is essential to state that designing an application demands a particular design of a WSn, which represents an important time consumption during the process. In line with this observation, our work describes the development of a modular WSn (MWSn) built with digital processing, wireless communication, and power supply subsystems. Then, we reduce the WSn-implementing process into the design of its modular sensing subsystem. This would allow the development and launching processes of IoT applications across different fields to become faster and easier. Our proposal presents a versatile communication between the sensing modules and the MWSn using one- or two-wired communication protocols, such as I2C. To validate the efficiency and versatility of our proposal, we present two IoT-based remote monitoring applications.

Wireless Power Transfer-Based Voltage Equalizer for Scalable Cell-String Charging

Wireless power transfer (WPT)-based voltage equalizer (VE) shows unique advantages due to its physical isolation. Meanwhile, the markets of high-power fast charging have imposed significant needs for high-voltage wireless charging systems. However, a WPT-based charging equalizer cannot support a large-scale cell-string. This paper proposes a wireless charging VE with modularity to balance cascaded cell-strings automatically using multiple coils. The WPT system's intrinsic high-frequency power is used to power the voltage multiplier (VM). Only two diodes and one capacitor are required for an extra cell, which enables fewer components and a simple structure. Circuit analysis and a one-transmitter-two-receiver charging equalization experiment validate the system's operating principles. The voltage gaps among eight ultra-capacitor (UC) cells are equalized from 1.1 V to 0.01 V, with an overall efficiency of 76.5% under a 35.2 V output. Non-ideal conditions with coupling mismatch and frequency shifts are also analyzed to reveal the system's characteristics. It contributes several ways to providing general modular wireless charging equalization solutions for large-scale cell-string with lower cost and higher scalability.

Modular Wireless Power Transfer Systems Based on Relay Coils With Self-Voltage Balancing Capabilities for Charging Stations

Modular Wireless Power Transfer Systems Based on Relay Coils With Self-Voltage Balancing Capabilities for Charging Stations

Phase-Identification-based Mutual Inductance Estimation Methodology for Modular Wireless Power Transfer Systems

Phase-Identification-based Mutual Inductance Estimation Methodology for Modular Wireless Power Transfer Systems

Reconfigurable and Modular Wireless Charger Based on Dual-Band Design

Reconfigurable and Modular Wireless Charger Based on Dual-Band Design

Aerosense: A Self-Sustainable and Long-Range Bluetooth Wireless Sensor Node for Aerodynamic and Aeroacoustic Monitoring on Wind Turbines

This paper presents a low-power, self-sustainable, and modular wireless sensor node for aerodynamic and acoustic measurements on wind turbines and other industrial structures. It includes 40 high-accuracy barometers, 10 microphones, 5 differential pressure sensors, and implements a lossy and a lossless on-board data compression algorithm to decrease the transmission energy cost. The wireless transmitter is based on Bluetooth Low Energy 5.1 tuned for long-range and high throughput while maintaining adequate per bit energy efficiency (80 nJ). Moreover, we fieldassessed the node capability to collect precise and accurate aerodynamic data. Outdoor experimental tests revealed that the system can acquire and sustain a data rate of 850 kbps over 438 m. The power consumption while collecting and streaming all measured data is 120 mW, enabling self-sustainability and long-term <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">in-situ</i> monitoring with a 111 cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> photovoltaic panel.

Design and Optimization of a Modular Wireless Charging Scheme for Electric Buses With High Misalignment Tolerance

Modular design helps to improve the reliability and power density of power electronic systems, so cascading of power electronics modules is an effective method to improve the overall stability of the system. The application of the wireless power transfer (WPT) system to electric buses faces the challenge of higher power requirement; modularization provides a solution to the design of the wireless charging system for electric buses. A modular wireless charging system for electric buses is proposed in this study; the system consists of five identical 6.6 kW wireless charging modules distributed relatively disperse on the chassis. Through the design of coil layout, different modules on the receiver side can be decoupled from each other, which facilitate independent control. Each module utilizes the bipolar-solenoid coupling structure, which proves to have a high misalignment tolerance. In order to reduce the electromagnetic radiation for passengers on the electric bus, shielding is added on the receiver side. Five independent modules work collaboratively to compose a 30 kW wireless charging system for electric buses. The DC-DC efficiency is 87.44% in an aligned position at 200 mm transmission distance. With closed-loop control, the proposed system has high misalignment tolerance in the horizontal X-Y plane. Compared with the open loop control scheme, the average efficiency of the proposed system increases by 22.1% within 300 mm misalignment.

A Wearable Wireless Armband Sensor for High-Density Surface Electromyography Recording.

This paper presents a portable and modular wireless multichannel sensor system for high-density surface electromyography (HD-sEMG) signals acquisition. Featuring low-power and high-quality off-the-shelf components such as the Intan Technologies RHD2132 digital electrophysiology interface chip, the current iteration of the proposed sensor system allows the recording of 32 surface electromyography (sEMG) channels, each at a sampling rate of 1 kHz, and a sample resolution of 16 bits. It features the RHD2132's typical input-referred noise of 2.4 μVrms, with <; 15% variation with amplifier bandwidth as specified by the manufacturer, and a total power consumption of 49.5 mW. Data is sent in real-time to a base station using a 2.4-GHz industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) wireless link. Along with the recording platform, the integrated sensor system includes a dry surface electrodes array prototype directly built on a printed circuit board. Intended for complex muscles activity patterns detection on the forearm, the flexible 32 surface electrodes array is designed to be placed flat or to fit a curved area like the forearm in a hand gestures recognition prosthetic system. In such applications, this device will offer improved prosthesis control scheme intuitiveness and ease-of-use. Among other core features of the system are its compact, light-weight and easy to install physical design. The complete system fits on a 2 by 6.5 cm2 printed circuit board mounted on a 7.6 by 11.8 cm2 electrodes array. HD-sEMG user forearm output data collected with the system is presented with a proposed frequency-time-space cross-domain preprocessing method for visualization of HD-EMG data and building training datasets.

Human-in-the-loop energy flexibility integration on a neighbourhood level: Small and Big Data management

Modern buildings provide an enormous amount of data available from various sources ranging from modular wireless sensors to smart meters. As well as enhancing energy management and building performance, the analysis of these datasets can enhance the management of decentralized energy systems (electrical storage, PV generation, heat storage, etc.). To optimize the interaction between the building and the grid, it is essential to determine the total energy flexibility of the user and the building. A building has different possibilities for demand side management, energy storage and energy exchange for which a functional-layered approach is proposed from the user up to building and its interaction with the energy infrastructure. Central is the principle of the human-in-the-loop, where a bottom-up approach places the human needs as a central starting point for the energy interaction optimisation. The combination of Big Data with deep learning techniques offers new possibilities in the prediction of energy use and decentralized renewable energy production (e.g. from local weather data taking into account local phenomena such as urban heat islands). This combined with a more bottom-up approach of multi-agent systems with a gossip-based cooperative approach using Small Data offers decentralized control and monitoring autonomy to reduce the complexity of the energy system integration and transition. This makes it possible to relate the outcomes of the urban energy system integration on a neighbourhood level. The approach is being applied to a typically medium-sized office building. A first application of the human-in-the-loop controlling the lighting systems in the open-plan workplace of the test-bed office building showed some estimated annual energy saving of around 24%. Practical application: Analysis of a large database containing so called Big Data of clusters of buildings seems promising. Therefor there is the need to study the potential impact of utilization of big building operational data in building services industry. Besides this there is also a need for a data mining-based method for analyzing massive building operational data of a specific building, Small Data. This work sets out a general framework and method for doing both and to combine the strength of both approaches. The presented combined approach and results will be of interest to engineers and facility managers wondering what the key constraints to optimal use data to optimize low energy/carbon control strategies might have within their work.

A Modular AC-DC Power Converter with Zero Voltage Transition for Electric Vehicles

A study of the fundamental of operation of a three-phase AC-DC power converter that uses Zero-Voltage Transition (ZVT) together with Space Vector Pulse Width Modulation (SVPWM) is presented. The converter is basically an active rectifier divided into two converters: a matrix converter and an H bridge, which transfer energy through a high-frequency transformer, resulting in a modular AC-DC wireless converter appropriate for Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEVs). The principle of operation of this converter considers high power quality, output regulation and low semiconductor power loss. The circuit operation, idealized waveforms and modulation strategy are explained together with simulation results of a 5 kW design.

Development of a wireless capsule endoscope system based on field programmable gate array

A new modular and programmable wireless capsule endoscope is presented in this paper. The capsule system consumes low power and has small physical size. A new image compression algorithm is presented in this paper to reduce power consumption and silicon area. The compression algorithm includes color space transform, uniform quantization, sub-sampling, differential pulse code modulation (DPCM) and Golomb-Rice code. The algorithm is tested in a field programmable gate array (FPGA) development board, and the final result achieves 80% compression rate at 40 dB peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR). The algorithm has high image compression efficiency and low power consumption, compared to other existing works. The system is composed of the following three parts: image capsule endoscope, portable wireless receiver and host computer software. The software and hardware design of the three parts are disscussed in details.

BigEar: Ubiquitous Wireless Low-Budget Speech Capturing Interface

This article presents BigEar, a wireless low-cost speech capturing interface that aims to realize unobtrusive and transparent context-aware vocal interaction for home automation. The speech recognition process implemented in BigEar system considers noise sources including possible holes in the reconstructed audio stream and tries to overcome them by means of inexactness toleration mechanisms to improve intelligibility of the reconstructed signal. Key contribution of this work is the use of extremely low cost devices to realize a modular flexible and real-time wireless sensor network. On-field implementation and experiments show that the proposed solution can perform real-time speech reconstruction, while listening tests confirm the intelligibility of the reconstructed signal.

A novel modular wireless sensor networks approach for security applications

Nowadays surveillance systems are becoming increasingly complex by combining a variety of sensors and systems in order to deliver more accurate decisions. This is due to the fact that the development of a simple and yet efficient algorithm for intruder detection is of a high interest both to academia and the market. This paper presents a novel approach towards the development of a sophisticated decision-making system for accurate intrusion detection. The method is based on three key elements: the assessment of the certainty of the inputs, the quantisation of the inputs using the three-valued logic and the time-based filtering of the sequence of alarms. The algorithm was applied to a wireless sensor network (WSN) that is used for intruder detection of an open area. The overall setup, the theoretical analysis and preliminary evaluation results of the proposed method show that this is an interesting and rather promising approach.

A novel modular wireless sensor networks approach for security applications

Nowadays surveillance systems are becoming increasingly complex by combining a variety of sensors and systems in order to deliver more accurate decisions. This is due to the fact that the development of a simple and yet efficient algorithm for intruder detection is of a high interest both to academia and the market. This paper presents a novel approach towards the development of a sophisticated decision-making system for accurate intrusion detection. The method is based on three key elements: the assessment of the certainty of the inputs, the quantisation of the inputs using the three-valued logic and the time-based filtering of the sequence of alarms. The algorithm was applied to a wireless sensor network WSN that is used for intruder detection of an open area. The overall setup, the theoretical analysis and preliminary evaluation results of the proposed method show that this is an interesting and rather promising approach.

Validation of a portable, deployable system for continuous vital sign monitoring using a multiparametric wearable sensor and personalised analytics in an Ebola treatment centre

BackgroundThe recent Ebola epidemic in West Africa strained existing healthcare systems well beyond their capacities due to the extreme volume and severity of illness of the patients. The implementation of...

Wide-area and omnidirectional optical detector arrays using modular optical elements.

This paper presents novel, modular optical detector arrays of various shapes and configurations. Recently developed Modular Optical Wireless Elements (MOWE) architecture serves as the basis for large and complex optical detector arrays that can be constructed as geometric shells and provide wide-area even omnidirectional field-of-view (FoV). Programmable optical modules synchronously sample the environment, and then route measurements to the user through a dedicated electrical backbone. The arrays are inexpensive, easy to construct, and can be made with homogeneous/inhomogeneous optical properties. Applications include remote sensing, motion detection, optical navigation, and medical imaging, among others. We present the MOWE detector array concept with a detailed optical analysis and a suggested design methodology, as well as a number of various demonstrations. We also utilize wavelength-diversity of MOWE arrays to demodulate two overlapping signals, showing that many diversity-based algorithms can be conveniently prototyped and implemented.

An Open and Modular Hardware Node for Wireless Sensor and Body Area Networks

Health monitoring is nowadays one of the hottest markets due to the increasing interest in prevention and treatment of physical problems. In this context the development of wearable, wireless, open-source, and nonintrusive sensing solutions is still an open problem. Indeed, most of the existing commercial architectures are closed and provide little flexibility. In this paper, an open hardware architecture for designing a modular wireless sensor node for health monitoring is proposed. By separating the connection and sensing functions in two separate boards, compliant with the IEEE1451 standard, we add plug and play capabilities to analog transducers, while granting at the same time a high level of customization. As an additional contribution of the work, we developed a cosimulation tool which simplifies the physical connection with the hardware devices and provides support for complex systems. Finally, a wireless body area network for fall detection and health monitoring, based on wireless node prototypes realized according to the proposed architecture, is presented as an application scenario.

Wireless Enabled Clothing: New Modular Technologies and Overall Supply Chain Impact

The paper is devoted to the realization of wireless enabled clothing, employing recent new technologies in electronics, textile, and renewable power. This new wireless enabled clothing architecture is modular and distributed, allowing for customization in functionality and clothing designs. Are studied the implications for supply chains, distribution channels, and cost benefits. Modular wireless enabled clothing offers significant personalization opportunities at costs comparable with mobile terminals.