Remote Field Testing Research Articles

Developing a play-anywhere handheld AR storytelling app using remote data collection

Immersive story experiences like immersive theater productions and escape rooms have grown in popularity in recent years, offering the audience a more active role in the events portrayed. However, many of these activities were forced to close at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, arising from restrictions placed on group activities and travel. This created an opportunity for a story experience that users could take part in around their local neighborhoods. Five mobile applications (apps) were developed toward this goal, aiming to make effective use of available local map data, alongside virtual content overlaid on users' surroundings through Augmented Reality (AR), to offer additional story features not present in the real environment. The first two apps investigated the feasibility of such an approach, including the remote field testing of the apps, where participants used their own devices across a variety of locations. Two follow-up apps further aimed to offer an improved user experience, also adopting a more standardized testing procedure, to better ensure each app was completed in an intended manner by those participating remotely. Participants rated their experience through immersion and engagement questionnaire factors that tested for their appropriateness to rate such experiences, in addition to providing their feedback. A final app applied the same AR story implementation to a curated site-specific study, once pandemic restrictions had eased. This combination of remote studies and subsequent curated study offered a reverse methodology to much previous research in this field, but was found to offer advantages in corroborating the results of the remote studies, and also in offering new insights to further improve such an AR story app, that is designed to be used at an outdoor location of the user's choosing. Such an app offers benefits to those who may prefer the opportunity to take part in such an activity solo or close to home, as well as for storytellers to develop an outside story for use at a variety of locations, making it available to a larger audience, without the challenges and costs in migrating it to different locations.

End-to-End Remote Field Testing of Phasor Measurement Units Using Phasor Measurement Unit Performance Analyzer Test Suite

Phasor measurement unit (PMU) testing is desired to ensure the continued power system monitoring and the maneuvering precision of synchrophasor-based control. IEEE Std C37.118 and IEEE synchrophasor measurement test suite specification (TSS) clarify the different requirements for both steady-state and dynamic test scenarios with varied error ranges. Existing PMU testing requires taking PMUs out of service and test in the lab typically manually. This article presents an architecture for remote PMU testing utilizing the PMU performance analyzer (PPA) test suite, which can considerably reduce the cost while achieving the substation automation. The proposed field-programmable gate array (FPGA) programming method is demonstrated to meet the TSS requirements for signal source generators (SSG). The accuracy of the frequency and harmonic distortion factors by SSG using the proposed method are compared with the built-in signal generation module of the national instruments (NI) cRIO system. The steady-state and dynamic test results of remote PMU testing based on the proposed architecture are presented in this article. The satisfactory performance test results demonstrate the feasibility of the architecture.

Extra-laboratorial usability tests: An empirical comparison of remote and classical field testing with lab testing

The present article examined the effects of using different extra-laboratorial testing procedures in usability testing. Three experiments were conducted using different artefacts (website, computer-simulated mobile phone, fully operational smartphone) to compare different methodological approaches in field testing (synchronous and asynchronous remote testing, classical field testing) to lab-based testing under different operational conditions (dual task demands, poor product usability). Typical outcome variables of usability testing were measured, including task completion time, click rate, perceived usability and workload. Overall, the results showed no differences between field and lab-based testing under favourable operational conditions. However, under difficult operational conditions (i.e. dual task demands, poor product usability) differences between field and lab-based testing emerged (corresponding to small and medium effect sizes). The findings showed a complex pattern of effects, suggesting that there was no general advantage of one testing procedure over another.

Nondestructive Evaluation for Duplex Stainless Steel Tube Using Multi-Frequencies Remote Field Testing

This paper presents the determination of Remote Field Testing (RFT) frequencies to accomplish the inspection of duplex stainless steel tubes grade ASME/ASTM SA 789. The tube specimen was 25.4 mm of outside diameter, and thickness of 1.65 mm with the different artificial flaws. A dual-pickup coils type of RFT probe was employed to inspect the specimen by inserting a probe within the tube. Optimum of testing frequency Range was determined based on an eddy current through transmission generation to produce different magnetic field density. RFT inspection frequency range for duplex stainless steel was consequently determined from 5 to 25 kHz which was different than those inspection frequencies of general ferromagnetic steel tube. In the experiment, calculated frequencies were then generated to the Eddy current (ET) and RFT probes for detecting the flaws of the tube specimen. The inspection signals were specifically shown in function of impedance plane to identify the flaw characters. The results showed that the RFT can be utilized to quantify the wall loss levels of duplex stainless-steel tube better than the ET. Especially, phase angle of inspection signals can be used to evaluate the different depths of the wall losses. Sensitivity of RFT showed the detection performance at minimum 20% of tube wall loss.

Remote field eddy current tube inspection using giant magneto-resistance sensors

This paper presents a probe that permits the detection of longitudinal and circumferential defects in stainless steel tubes. The defect detection is made by a measurement system based on eddy current (EC) and remote field testing (RFT). The probe includes an excitation coil and a giant magneto-resistance (GMR) magnetic sensor. This GMR sensor has high sensitivity in a large frequency range (0 Hz–1 MHz) which makes it a good candidate to analyse several defects in tubes using a remote field testing method. Experimental data were acquired by a measurement system to verify the sensitivity of the GMR in defect detection and to create a new probe. A simulation was made in order to verify the veracity of the obtained experimental results when the remote field testing method is applied. Finally, 2D maps representing the GMR output response at several angles of rotation around the defects were made and compared in this paper.

Science crew operations and utility testbed

PurposeThe goal of this research has been to design and field test a multi‐use planetary rover vehicle. SCOUT has been developed to test advanced rover hardware and software technologies and to enable the development and demonstration of mission operations concepts applicable to future planetary rover vehicle development activities.Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents a description of the SCOUT vehicle capabilities and the results of the remote field testing conducted recently in Meteor Crater, AZ. These tests included (among others) onboard driving by suited crewmembers, remote teleoperation, autonomous point‐to‐point navigation, obstacle avoidance, human tracking and following, gesture recognition and onboard suit‐recharge.FindingsSCOUT was successfully tested in all three driving modes (onboard by two suited crewmembers, teleoperation and autonomous) and additional capabilities verified over the course of the testing period.Research limitations/impilicationsVarious tests experienced periodic telemetry drop‐outs to the vehicle. Future research should improve upon the communications architecture to minimize the loading on system bandwidth.Practical implicationsA multi‐use planetary rover will prove very useful on future Lunar and Martian exploration missions on an assortment of activities. In addition to equipment transport, riding on the rover will allow crewmembers to cover more surface area while conserving important extravehicular activity suit consumables.Originality/valueSeveral new concepts for rover technologies are presented here including on‐board suit recharge, stereo‐vision human tracking and following, gesture recognition and autonomous driving and navigation.

Blackstart Utilization of Remote Combustion Turbines, Analytical Analysis and Field Test

This paper illustrates that some special operating procedures may be needed to blackstart a generating station from a remote combustion turbine generator. A method is presented to determine what, if any, special procedures are needed for a specific case. The results of a blackstart field test on an actual system are then compared to the analytical analysis.

Blackstart Utilization of Remote Combustion Turbines, Analytical Analysis and Field Test

Blackstart Utilization of Remote Combustion Turbines, Analytical Analysis and Field Test