SW Modules Research Articles

Skimmed milk microfiltration in diafiltration mode: Impact of solvent nature and concentration factor on spiral-wound membrane performance operated at low temperature

Cold skimmed milk microfiltration using polymeric spiral-wound membranes has a growing interest to separate serum proteins from casein micelles. Diafiltration using reverse osmosis water (ROW-DF) is needed to increase the transmission of serum proteins. The objective of this study was to investigate the performance of skimmed milk microfiltration in ROW-DF mode when operating with single industrially sized standard SW modules at low temperature (∼12 °C). As expected during ROW-DF, the permeation flux increased with the rate of diafiltration, due to both the decrease of permeate viscosity and decrease of ionic strength. It is shown for the first time, that the transmission of protein (mainly β-Lactoglobulin, β-LG, major serum protein of bovine milk) presents different scenarios (increase, decrease and ‘parabolic’ shape) as function of diafiltration rate and operating conditions. These performances are quite different from the ones obtained when operating diafiltration with permeate from milk ultrafiltration, PUF-DF, and can be explained by the modifications induced by ROW on the properties of the fluid (feed) and on the properties of the concentrated layers of casein micelles accumulated at the membrane. The quantity of β-LG which can be released into the permeate was linked to the concentration factor applied before ROW-DF and the ability of deposit to swell was linked to the transmembrane pressure applied as critical conditions could lead to a cohesive deposit unable to swell. If the increase of repulsive electrostatic interactions (induced by the increase of diafiltration rate) between casein micelles and β-LG supported the release of β-LG entrapped in the deposit, it impaired the crossing of β-LG remaining in the retentate. The result was a progressive decrease of β-LG transmission with the increasing diafiltration rate. In summary, transmission of β-LG was maximized for low value of transmembrane pressure (0.7 bar), a high value of concentration factor (3.2) and an intermediate diafiltration rate (2.1).

Pushing Mechatronic Applications to the Limits via Smart Motion Control

Modern machines strive to run at limit performance and dependability while their operational area and size are getting restricted. To achieve those objectives, often swift integration of custom-made subsystems is required, either actuators, sensors, electronic, or SW modules. Such a diverse suite of elements needs specific approaches and tools for fast optimization and adjustment following model-based system engineering (MBSE) and digital twinning principles. The large-scale I-MECH project was an industry-driven initiative striving to give a scientific response to those demands. The intermediate results were summarized in the authors’ previous work. The purpose of this paper is to report on final project results, namely specific performance achievements and figures based on measurable KPIs. After a brief description of key technologies, special focus is given to industrial printing technology based on a generic substrate carrier. However, it is shown that similar and consistent methodology can be applicable in many other industrial domains, such as semiconductors, healthcare robotics, machining, packaging, etc. Thus, the main merit of this survey is a holistic approach to motion control design.

Software Product Validation of Body Controller ECU s using Intelligent Automation Methods

In Continental the, Electronic Control Unit (ECU’s) software consists of 2 parts, the basic software which is the generic part and the application software which does the product specific functionality. The project specific functionality depends upon the product type, like Body domain controller, immobilizer etc. Before the ECU is going to mass production, the controller has to be validated i.e., software and hardware. The main reason is to ensure, that once the ECU is fitted to the vehicle and there is a recall for ECU, it involves additional cost to the organization. The validation of the software includes, checking of the micro controller input, outputs, peripheral drivers, the initialization of the drivers, the timing measurement of the different components. All the parameters are controlled by the generic and application specific modules, and can be configured via configuration tool, manual configuration etc. Since the SW modules are complex and huge, so its need to perform validation of the SW modules manually. This is time consuming process, as it involves checking many c file, configuration files etc. The proposal is to automate the process using Python programming, which interacts with the C code, configuration files, debugger, interacting with the ECU’s peripherals, components and validate the Software parameters before going for series production. In the proposed method the different steps can be automated for different micro-controllers i.e., Renesas RL78 and RH850 used in the ECU’s and different architecture i.e., AUTOSAR and NON-AUTOSAR will be considered and the results will be compared with the manual validation effort and accuracy.

Development of Multi-function Sensor Integration and Data Process SW Module for Real-time Situation Recognition

Development of Multi-function Sensor Integration and Data Process SW Module for Real-time Situation Recognition

Simulink Model Based Design and FPGA Implementation of Multi-Channel DTV Transmitter

This paper presents DTV transmitter design based on the SW/HW hybrid architecture. Parts of the DTV transmission algorithm with less computational complexity are processed by the SW module in PC whereas computationally intensive parts are processed by the HW module in FPGA. The two parts are interconnected by the high speed serial link. To provide the multi-channel DTV signal, we design an architecture where several DTV waveforms are generated simultaneously and combined in the digital domain. We propose a simulink based communication system design and verification methodology. This method reduces the design and verification time of the prototype system significantly and reduces the RTL coding and verification burden.

Automated sleep breath disorders detection utilizing patient sound analysis

Results of clinical studies suggest that there is a relationship between breathing-related sleep disorders and behavioral disorder and health effects. Apnea is considered one of the major sleep disorders with great accession in population and significant impact on patient's health. Symptoms include disruption of oxygenation, snoring, choking sensations, apneic episodes, poor concentration, memory loss, and daytime somnolence. Diagnosis of apnea and breath disorders involves monitoring patient's biosignals and breath during sleep in specialized clinics requiring expensive equipment and technical personnel. This paper discusses the design and technical details of an integrated low-cost system capable for preliminary detection of sleep breath disorders at patient's home utilizing patient sound signals. The paper describes the proposed architecture and the corresponding HW and SW modules, along with a preliminary evaluation.

A Robust, Adaptive, Solar-Powered WSN Framework for Aquatic Environmental Monitoring

The paper proposes an environmental monitoring framework based on a wireless sensor network technology characterized by energy harvesting, robustness with respect to a large class of perturbations and real-time adaptation to the network topology. The fully designed and developed ad hoc system, based on clusters relying on a star topology, encompasses a sensing activity, a one-step local transmission from sensor nodes to the gateway, a remote data transmission from the gateway to the control center, data storage in a DB and real-time visualization. Hw and Sw modules have been either carefully selected or designed to guarantee a high quality of service, optimal solar energy harvesting, storage and energy awareness. A monitoring system integrating the outlined framework has been deployed in Queensland, Australia, for monitoring the underwater luminosity and temperature, information necessary to derive the health status of the coralline barrier. At the same time, acquired data can be used to provide quantitative indications related to cyclone formations in tropical areas.

하이브리드 전기자동차용 2차전지 충방전 모니터링 시스템 설계

Most of air pollution in a metropolis is the result of exhaust gas emissions from automotive vehicles, and the world-wide regulation against environmental pollution is becoming more strict. Moreover the demand on development and supply of an environment-friendly automobile is increasing and the market share about that is expected to grow rapidly in this time of high oil price. The secondary batteries the most important component to store the electrical energy in hybrid electric vehicle. It needs to the higher power characteristics to emit the energy instantaneous. In this paper, we proposed the system to monitor reliably the charge and discharge states of the secondary batteries for hybrid electric vehicle. The material is about SW and HW module the software and hardware module mounted on the charge and discharge system and the monitoring system to control the charge and discharge performance effectively.

A Student Experiment Method for Learning the Basics of Embedded Software Technologies Including Hardware/Software Co-design

The applications of embedded system technologies have spread widely in various products, such as home appliances, cellular phones, automobiles, industrial machines and so on. Due to intensified competition, embedded software has expanded its role in realizing sophisticated functions, and new development methods like a hardware/software (HW/SW) co-design for uniting HW and SW development have been researched. The shortfall of embedded SW engineers was estimated to be approximately 99,000 in the year 2006, in Japan. Embedded SW engineers should understand HW technologies and system architecture design as well as SW technologies. However, a few universities offer this kind of education systematically. We propose a student experiment method for learning the basics of embedded system development, which includes a set of experiments for developing embedded SW, developing embedded HW and experiencing HW/SW co-design. The co-design experiment helps students learn about the basics of embedded system architecture design and the flow of designing actual HW and SW modules. We developed these experiments and evaluated them.

An FPGA implementation of HW/SW codesign architecture for H.263 video coding

In this paper, we present an efficient HW/SW codesign architecture for H.263 video encoder and its FPGA implementation. Each module of the encoder is investigated to find which approach between HW and SW is better to achieve real-time processing speed as well as flexibility. The hardware portions include the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), inverse DCT (IDCT), quantization (Q) and inverse quantization (IQ). Remaining parts were realized in software executed by the NIOS II softcore processor. This paper also introduces efficient design methods for HW and SW modules. In hardware, an efficient architecture for the 2-D DCT/IDCT is suggested to reduce the chip size. A NIOS II Custom instruction logic is used to implement Q/IQ. Software optimization technique is also explored by using the fast block-matching algorithm for motion estimation (ME). The whole design is described in VHDL language, verified in simulations and implemented in Stratix II EP2S60 FPGA. Finally, the encoder has been tested on the Altera NIOS II development board and can work up to 120 MHz. Implementation results show that when HW/SW codesign is used, a 15.8-16.5 times improvement in coding speed is obtained compared to the software based solution.

Reverse osmosis to achieve water control and recycle

A 648,000 GPD reverse osmosis (RO) facility at ERDA's Rocky Flats Plant near Golden, Colorado will convert tertiary sewage plant effluent for recycle as cooling tower makeup to reduce external water demand and achieve “zero discharge” off-site of tertiary sewage effluent. Design parameters for the facility, determined by three years of pilot plant testing, include 98% feedwater recovery, 100 ppm T.D.S. product water, and minimum brine production for evaporation to dryness. Pretreatment consists of RO feed attenuation in a large pond, chlorination, sand filtration, softening, diatomaceous earth filtration, feed-water heating and pH adjustment. The RO plant will have three 150 GPM trains, each with a combination of HFF modules producing about 90% of the permeate, followed by SW modules producing the final 10%. Permeate from the SW modules can be combined with permeate from the HFF modules or returned to the RO feed stream. Unique design considerations include heating the 40–70°F fee to 77°F by means of heat recovery from the permeate and supplemental steam heating, recycling of pretreatment backwash streams wherever possible to reduce the volume of brine, and precautions to avoid silica scaling of the modules.