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Sensors, Volume 19, Issue 10 (May-2 2019) – 209 articles

Cover Story (view full-size image): seThe inevitable role of wearable technologies in daily life is attracting huge market space in the areas of medical sensing, tracking, navigation, and sports. Antennas are vital components of these wearable devices. The most challenging part of designing wearable antennas is choosing an efficient and cost-effective fabrication method. This work presents the state-of-the-art in recently developed fabrication methods for wearable antennas, which can be grouped according to five categories: embroidered on fabrics, encapsulated in polymer composites, printed using inkjets on flexible laminates and a 3-D printer and, more interestingly, by injecting liquid metal in microchannels; each with their own considerations, strengths, and limitations. Finally, after comparing all of the current methods, some of the noticeably open research topics and future directions for research are highlighted. View this paper.
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18 pages, 8528 KiB  
Article
Customized Mobile LiDAR System for Manhole Cover Detection and Identification
by Zhanying Wei, Mengmeng Yang, Liuzhao Wang, Hao Ma, Xuexia Chen and Ruofei Zhong
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2422; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102422 - 27 May 2019
Cited by 28 | Viewed by 7062
Abstract
Manhole covers, which are a key element of urban infrastructure management, have a direct impact on travel safety. At present, there is no automatic, safe, and efficient system specially used for the intelligent detection, identification, and assessment of manhole covers. In this work, [...] Read more.
Manhole covers, which are a key element of urban infrastructure management, have a direct impact on travel safety. At present, there is no automatic, safe, and efficient system specially used for the intelligent detection, identification, and assessment of manhole covers. In this work, we developed an automatic detection, identification, and assessment system for manhole covers. First, we developed a sequential exposure system via the addition of multiple cameras in a symmetrical arrangement to realize the joint acquisition of high-precision laser data and ultra-high-resolution ground images. Second, we proposed an improved histogram of an oriented gradient with symmetry features and a support vector machine method to detect manhole covers effectively and accurately, by using the intensity images and ground orthophotos that are derived from the laser points and images, respectively, and apply the graph segmentation and statistical analysis to achieve the detection, identification, and assessment of manhole covers. Qualitative and quantitative analyses are performed using large experimental datasets that were acquired with the modified manhole-cover detection system. The detected results yield an average accuracy of 96.18%, completeness of 94.27%, and F-measure value of 95.22% in manhole cover detection. Defective manhole-cover monitoring and manhole-cover ownership information are achieved from these detection results. The results not only provide strong support for road administration works, such as data acquisition, manhole cover inquiry and inspection, and statistical analysis of resources, but also demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method, which reduces the risk involved in performing manual inspections, improves the manhole-cover detection accuracy, and serves as a powerful tool in intelligent road administration. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Laser Scanning and Photogrammetry for Sustainable Development)
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17 pages, 3151 KiB  
Article
Design and Simulation of a Wireless SAW–Pirani Sensor with Extended Range and Sensitivity
by Sofia Toto, Pascal Nicolay, Gian Luca Morini, Michael Rapp, Jan G. Korvink and Juergen J. Brandner
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2421; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102421 - 27 May 2019
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 6000 | Correction
Abstract
Pressure is a critical parameter for a large number of industrial processes. The vacuum industry relies on accurate pressure measurement and control. A new compact wireless vacuum sensor was designed and simulated and is presented in this publication. The sensor combines the Pirani [...] Read more.
Pressure is a critical parameter for a large number of industrial processes. The vacuum industry relies on accurate pressure measurement and control. A new compact wireless vacuum sensor was designed and simulated and is presented in this publication. The sensor combines the Pirani principle and Surface Acoustic Waves, and it extends the vacuum sensed range to between 10−4 Pa and 105 Pa all along a complete wireless operation. A thermal analysis was performed based on gas kinetic theory, aiming to optimize the thermal conductivity and the Knudsen regime of the device. Theoretical analysis and simulation allowed designing the structure of the sensor and its dimensions to ensure the highest sensitivity through the whole sensing range and to build a model that simulates the behavior of the sensor under vacuum. A completely new design and a model simulating the behavior of the sensor from high vacuum to atmospheric pressure were established. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Surface Acoustic Wave Sensors)
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24 pages, 11818 KiB  
Article
A Fully Integrated Bluetooth Low-Energy Transceiver with Integrated Single Pole Double Throw and Power Management Unit for IoT Sensors
by Sung Jin Kim, Dong Gyu Kim, Seong Jin Oh, Dong Soo Lee, Young Gun Pu, Keum Cheol Hwang, Youngoo Yang and Kang Yoon Lee
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2420; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102420 - 27 May 2019
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 6376
Abstract
This paper presents a low power Gaussian Frequency-Shift Keying (GFSK) transceiver (TRX) with high efficiency power management unit and integrated Single-Pole Double-Throw switch for Bluetooth low energy application. Receiver (RX) is implemented with the RF front-end with an inductor-less low-noise transconductance amplifier and [...] Read more.
This paper presents a low power Gaussian Frequency-Shift Keying (GFSK) transceiver (TRX) with high efficiency power management unit and integrated Single-Pole Double-Throw switch for Bluetooth low energy application. Receiver (RX) is implemented with the RF front-end with an inductor-less low-noise transconductance amplifier and 25% duty-cycle current-driven passive mixers, and low-IF baseband analog with a complex Band Pass Filter(BPF). A transmitter (TX) employs an analog phase-locked loop (PLL) with one-point GFSK modulation and class-D digital Power Amplifier (PA) to reduce current consumption. In the analog PLL, low power Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) is designed and the automatic bandwidth calibration is proposed to optimize bandwidth, settling time, and phase noise by adjusting the charge pump current, VCO gain, and resistor and capacitor values of the loop filter. The Analog Digital Converter (ADC) adopts straightforward architecture to reduce current consumption. The DC-DC buck converter operates by automatically selecting an optimum mode among triple modes, Pulse Width Modulation (PWM), Pulse Frequency Modulation (PFM), and retention, depending on load current. The TRX is implemented using 1P6M 55-nm Complementary Metal–Oxide–Semiconductor (CMOS) technology and the die area is 1.79 mm2. TRX consumes 5 mW on RX and 6 mW on the TX when PA is 0-dBm. Measured sensitivity of RX is −95 dBm at 2.44 GHz. Efficiency of the DC-DC buck converter is over 89% when the load current is higher than 2.5 mA in the PWM mode. Quiescent current consumption is 400 nA from a supply voltage of 3 V in the retention mode. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Internet of Things)
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13 pages, 1673 KiB  
Article
Calibration of Granier-Type (TDP) Sap Flow Probes by a High Precision Electronic Potometer
by Gaia Pasqualotto, Vinicio Carraro, Roberto Menardi and Tommaso Anfodillo
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2419; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102419 - 27 May 2019
Cited by 31 | Viewed by 7211
Abstract
Thermal dissipation probe (TDP) method (Granier, 1985) is widely used to estimate tree transpiration (i.e., the water evaporated from the leaves) because it is simple to build, easy to install, and relatively inexpensive. However, the universality of the original calibration has been questioned [...] Read more.
Thermal dissipation probe (TDP) method (Granier, 1985) is widely used to estimate tree transpiration (i.e., the water evaporated from the leaves) because it is simple to build, easy to install, and relatively inexpensive. However, the universality of the original calibration has been questioned and, in many cases, proved to be inaccurate. Thus, when the TDP is used in a new species, specific tests should be carried out. Our aim was to propose a new method for improving the accuracy of TDP on trees in the field. Small hazelnut trees (diameter at breast height 5 cm) were used for the experiment. The response of TDP sensors was compared with a reference water uptake measured with an electronic potometer system provided with a high precision liquid flow meter. We equipped three stems where we measured the sap flow density, the sapwood area (by using fuchsine), the total tree water uptake (reference), and the main meteorological parameters during summer 2018. Results confirmed that the original Granier’s calibration underestimated the effective tree transpiration (relative error about −60%). We proposed a new equation for improving the measurement accuracy within an error of about 4%. The system proposed appeared an easier solution compared to potted trees and particularly suitable for orchards, thus contributing to improve the irrigation management worldwide. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Biosensors)
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13 pages, 1878 KiB  
Article
Biochemical Changes in Human Cells Exposed to Low Concentrations of Gold Nanoparticles Detected by Raman Microspectroscopy
by Maria Lasalvia, Giuseppe Perna and Vito Capozzi
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2418; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102418 - 27 May 2019
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3203
Abstract
The toxicological implications of nanoparticles deserve accurate scientific investigation for the protection of human health. Although toxic effects involve specific organs, the events that cause them have their origin from biochemical modifications of some cellular constituents. Therefore, a first analysis to evaluate the [...] Read more.
The toxicological implications of nanoparticles deserve accurate scientific investigation for the protection of human health. Although toxic effects involve specific organs, the events that cause them have their origin from biochemical modifications of some cellular constituents. Therefore, a first analysis to evaluate the effects due to the action of nanoparticles is achieved by investigation of in vitro cells, which allows the identification of the cellular modifications caused by nanoparticles (NPs) even at much lower doses than the lethal ones. This work evaluated the Raman microspectroscopy capability to monitor biochemical changes occurring in human cells as a consequence of exposure to a suspension of gold nanoparticles with a non-cytotoxic concentration. Human keratinocyte cells were used as a model cell line, because they are mainly involved in environmental exposure. A trypan blue assay revealed that the investigated concentration, 650 ng/mL, is non-cytotoxic (about 5% of cells died after 48 h exposure). Specific Raman spectral markers to represent the cell response to nanoparticle exposure were found (at 1450 and 2865 cm−1) in the cytoplasm spectra, with the aid of ratiometric and principal component analysis. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Optical Sensing for Biomedical and Biotechnological Applications)
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12 pages, 2644 KiB  
Article
Development of a System for Real-Time Monitoring of Pressure, Temperature, and Humidity in Casts
by Chiu-Ching Tuan, Chi-Heng Lu, Yi-Chao Wu, Wen-Ling Yeh, Mei-Chuan Chen, Tsair-Fwu Lee, Yu-Jing Chen and Hsuan-Kai Kao
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2417; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102417 - 27 May 2019
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 5259
Abstract
Cast fixation is a general clinical skill used for the treatment of fractures. However, it may cause many complications due to careless treatment procedures. Currently, swathing a cast for a patient can only be determined by a doctors’ experience; however, this cannot be [...] Read more.
Cast fixation is a general clinical skill used for the treatment of fractures. However, it may cause many complications due to careless treatment procedures. Currently, swathing a cast for a patient can only be determined by a doctors’ experience; however, this cannot be determined by the value of pressure, temperature, or humidity with objective and reliable equipment. When swathing a cast for a patient, the end result is often too tight or too loose. Hence, in this paper we developed a sensor for detecting pressure, temperature, and humidity, respectively. This could provide reliable reference cast data to help physicians to understand the tightness of cast swathing and to adjust the tightness of cast swathing instantly to alleviate a patient’s complications caused by excessive pressure or overheating. In this paper, six pressure sensors and one temperature–humidity sensor are used to detect the pressure, temperature, and humidity in an arm swathed with a cast to confirm whether the tightness of the cast is fixing the fracture efficiently, while avoiding causing any damage by using excessive pressure. Currently, the variation in temperature and humidity can be detected by the inflammation of the wound, displaying secretions, and fever in the cast. Based on the experiments, the voltage and power conversion coefficients of the developed sensors could be compensated for by the nonlinear error of the sensor. The experimental results could be instantly displayed on a human interface, such as a smart mobile device. The average skin pressure in a swathed cast was 12.14 g and ranged from 5.0 g to 17.5 g. A few casts exceeded 37.50 g. The abnormal pressure of wrinkles produced during swathing a cast often ranged from 22.50 g to 38.75 g. This shows that cast wrinkles cause pressure on the skin. The pressure caused by cast wrinkles on bone protrusions ranged from 56.5 g to 84.4 g. Compared to other parts that lacked soft skin cushioning, the pressure of cast wrinkles that occurred in the ulna near the protrusion of the wrist bone increased averagely. The pressure error value was less than 2%, the temperature error was less than 1%, and the humidity error was less than 5%. Therefore, they were all in line with the specifications of commercially available products. The six pressure detection points and one temperature and humidity detection point in our newly designed system can accurately measure the pressure, temperature, and humidity inside the cast, and instantly display the corresponding information by mobile APP. Doctors receive reliable reference data and are instantly able to understand the tightness of the swathed cast and adjust it at any time to avoid complications caused by pressure or overheating due to excessive pressure. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Body Area Networks: Applications and Technologies)
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22 pages, 2074 KiB  
Article
Kin-FOG: Automatic Simulated Freezing of Gait (FOG) Assessment System for Parkinson’s Disease
by Sara Soltaninejad, Irene Cheng and Anup Basu
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2416; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102416 - 27 May 2019
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 4592
Abstract
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the leading neurological disorders in the world with an increasing incidence rate for the elderly. Freezing of Gait (FOG) is one of the most incapacitating symptoms for PD especially in the later stages of the disease. FOG [...] Read more.
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the leading neurological disorders in the world with an increasing incidence rate for the elderly. Freezing of Gait (FOG) is one of the most incapacitating symptoms for PD especially in the later stages of the disease. FOG is a short absence or reduction of ability to walk for PD patients which can cause fall, reduction in patients’ quality of life, and even death. Existing FOG assessments by doctors are based on a patient’s diaries and experts’ manual video analysis which give subjective, inaccurate, and unreliable results. In the present research, an automatic FOG assessment system is designed for PD patients to provide objective information to neurologists about the FOG condition and the symptom’s characteristics. The proposed FOG assessment system uses an RGB-D sensor based on Microsoft Kinect V2 for capturing data for 5 healthy subjects who are trained to imitate the FOG phenomenon. The proposed FOG assessment system is called “Kin-FOG”. The analysis of foot joint trajectory of the motion captured by Kinect is used to find the FOG episodes. The evaluation of Kin-FOG is performed by two types of experiments, including: (1) simple walking (SW); and (2) walking with turning (WWT). Since the standing mode has features similar to a FOG episode, our Kin-FOG system proposes a method to distinguish between the FOG and standing episodes. Therefore, two general groups of experiments are conducted with standing state (WST) and without standing state (WOST). The gradient displacement of the angle between the foot and the ground is used as the feature for discriminating between FOG and standing modes. These experiments are conducted with different numbers of FOGs for getting reliable and general results. The Kin-FOG system reports the number of FOGs, their lengths, and the time slots when they occur. Experimental results demonstrate Kin-FOG has around 90% accuracy rate for FOG prediction in both experiments for different tasks (SW, WWT). The proposed Kin-FOG system can be used as a remote application at a patient’s home or a rehabilitation clinic for sending a neurologist the required FOG information. The reliability and generality of the proposed system will be evaluated for bigger data sets of actual PD subjects. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue State-of-the-Art Sensors Technology in Canada 2018)
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11 pages, 3180 KiB  
Communication
Size of Heparin-Imprinted Nanoparticles Reflects the Matched Interactions with the Target Molecule
by Yasuo Yoshimi, Daichi Oino, Hirofumi Ohira, Hitoshi Muguruma, Ewa Moczko and Sergey A. Piletsky
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2415; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102415 - 27 May 2019
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 3892
Abstract
It has been shown that the faradic current at an electrode grafted with molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) is sensitive to the specific target molecule used as the template. This phenomenon is applicable to sensors with very high selectivity, but the sensing mechanism is [...] Read more.
It has been shown that the faradic current at an electrode grafted with molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) is sensitive to the specific target molecule used as the template. This phenomenon is applicable to sensors with very high selectivity, but the sensing mechanism is still a black box. We investigated the size sensitivity of nanoparticles of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIP-NPs) to a specific interaction for determination of the mechanism of the gate effect and its feasibility for new applications. Nanoparticles of poly(methacryloxy ethyl trimethylammonium chloride-co-acrylamide-co-methylenebisacrylamide) imprinted with heparin immobilized on glass beads were synthesized. The diameter of the MIP-NPs of heparin was increased by the presence of the heparin template but was insensitive to chondroitin sulfate C (CSC), the analogue of heparin. The high selectivity of the MIP-NPs was consistent with the selectivity of electrodes grafted with a heparin-imprinted polymer in our previous studies. The quartz crystal microbalance probes immobilizing heparin or CSC were sensitive to MIP-NPs, which indicates that the binding ability of MIP-NP does not discriminate between the template and other glycosaminoglycans. These results indicate that the size of the MIP-NP is sensitive to the matched binding with the template through the imprinted cavity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biosensors Incorporating Nano-particles)
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18 pages, 13898 KiB  
Article
Improvement of Performance Degradation in Synthetic Aperture Extension of Enhanced Axial Resolution Ultrasound Imaging Based on Frequency Sweep
by Jing Zhu and Norio Tagawa
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2414; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102414 - 27 May 2019
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3636
Abstract
We are studying a method based on the carrier frequency sweep for axial high resolution ultrasonic imaging to provide the range resolution that corresponds to the carrier wavelength. The first proposal for this type of method was based on the focused pulse transmission. [...] Read more.
We are studying a method based on the carrier frequency sweep for axial high resolution ultrasonic imaging to provide the range resolution that corresponds to the carrier wavelength. The first proposal for this type of method was based on the focused pulse transmission. Then, to improve the frame rate, the method was extended to a synthetic aperture-type method that transmits divergent pulses. While the method is effective in terms of the frame rate, degradation of the enhanced axial resolution performance is a concern. Therefore, using finite element method simulations and simple experiments, the performance of the synthetic aperture method with high axial resolution is evaluated via comparison with the original method using focused pulses. The evaluation confirmed that the performance degradation of the synthetic aperture method is caused by weakness in the transmitted wave intensity and deterioration of the phase coherence in the reception beamforming. Based on this result, we propose a method that is less affected by the latter cause and show its effectiveness. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Remote Sensors)
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14 pages, 2587 KiB  
Article
Full-Duplex MAC Protocol for CSMA/CA-Based Single-Hop Wireless Networks
by Yu Song, Wangdong Qi, Weiwei Zhao and Wenchi Cheng
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2413; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102413 - 27 May 2019
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 4101
Abstract
Full-duplex (FD) communication provides new opportunities for improving the throughputs of networks. However, this condition means that the number of senders increases from one to two within a certain range. We have to arrange the two nodes to send frames simultaneously in the [...] Read more.
Full-duplex (FD) communication provides new opportunities for improving the throughputs of networks. However, this condition means that the number of senders increases from one to two within a certain range. We have to arrange the two nodes to send frames simultaneously in the media access control (MAC) layer. For the single-hop network model, using the FD features of the nodes and the cut-through mechanism, we propose an FD MAC protocol. The protocol improves the throughput of the network from the following two aspects. On the one hand, during the transmission of each node, based on the information of the received frame’s header, the protocol can detect collisions in the network, preventing the channel from being ineffectively occupied for a long time. On the other hand, the protocol can provide the FD with as many opportunities as possible for the nodes. According to the working process of the protocol, we modeled the states (“active” and “passive” transmission, back-off) of each node and their transitions to a Markov chain. We solved the “active” transmission probability of the node and further modeled the analytical performance of the protocol. The simulation results showed that the system throughput produced by our protocol was at least twice that of the conventional CSMA/CA protocol used in the half-duplex networks. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Sensor Networks)
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18 pages, 7063 KiB  
Article
Periodic Nonlinear Error Analysis and Compensation of a Single-Excited Petal-Shaped Capacitive Encoder to Achieve High-Accuracy Measurement
by Bo Hou, Bin Zhou, Xiang Li, Bowen Xing, Luying Yi, Qi Wei and Rong Zhang
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2412; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102412 - 27 May 2019
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 5154
Abstract
The measurement results of a single-excitation petal-shaped capacitive encoder show strong periodic characteristics for nonlinear errors. This paper presents the analysis of periodic nonlinear errors in a single-excitation petal-shaped encoder in terms of three main aspects—sensitive structure processing error, circuit demodulation error, and [...] Read more.
The measurement results of a single-excitation petal-shaped capacitive encoder show strong periodic characteristics for nonlinear errors. This paper presents the analysis of periodic nonlinear errors in a single-excitation petal-shaped encoder in terms of three main aspects—sensitive structure processing error, circuit demodulation error, and installation error. Analytical and simulation results confirm that the first-, second-, and fourth-periodic electrical errors are caused by the misalignment of circuit parameters, non-uniform segmentation of the processing error, and cross interference of the electric field, respectively. Further experimental investigation reveals that the mechanical periodic error is caused by installation misalignment. Based on these analytical, simulation, and experimental results, the design of the capacitive encoder was optimized and a method based on harmonic components was applied to compensate the periodic nonlinear error of the encoder. Measurement results shows that the prototype which has 180 petal-shaped numbers can achieve a reduction of periodic nonlinear errors to less than 0.02° and its accuracy can be improved to 0.0006° after compensation over the full measurement range. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Physical Sensors)
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17 pages, 2693 KiB  
Article
A Multi-Antenna Scheme for Early Detection and Mitigation of Intermediate GNSS Spoofing
by Jaroslaw Magiera
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2411; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102411 - 27 May 2019
Cited by 25 | Viewed by 4281
Abstract
This article presents a method for detecting and mitigating intermediate GNSS spoofing. In this type of attack, at its early stage, a spoofer transmits counterfeit signals which have slight time offsets compared to true signals arriving from satellites. The anti-spoofing method proposed in [...] Read more.
This article presents a method for detecting and mitigating intermediate GNSS spoofing. In this type of attack, at its early stage, a spoofer transmits counterfeit signals which have slight time offsets compared to true signals arriving from satellites. The anti-spoofing method proposed in this article fuses antenna array processing techniques with a multipath detection algorithm. The latter is necessary to separate highly correlated true and counterfeit GNSS signals. Spoofing detection is based on comparison of steering vectors related to received spatial components. Whereas mitigation is achieved by means of adaptive beamforming which excises interferences arriving from common direction and preserves undistorted signals from GNSS satellites. Performance of proposed method is evaluated through simulations, results of which prove the usefulness of this method for protecting GNSS receivers from intermediate spoofing interference. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Interference, Robustness and Complementary Solutions for GNSS-Based Navigation for Aerial Vehicles)
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21 pages, 643 KiB  
Article
Logarithmic-Domain Array Interpolation for Improved Direction of Arrival Estimation in Automotive Radars
by Seongwook Lee and Seong-Cheol Kim
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2410; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102410 - 27 May 2019
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 4005
Abstract
In automotive radar systems, a limited number of antenna elements are used to estimate the angle of the target. Therefore, array interpolation techniques can be used for direction of arrival (DOA) estimation to achieve high angular resolution. In general, to generate interpolated array [...] Read more.
In automotive radar systems, a limited number of antenna elements are used to estimate the angle of the target. Therefore, array interpolation techniques can be used for direction of arrival (DOA) estimation to achieve high angular resolution. In general, to generate interpolated array elements from original array elements, the method of linear least squares (LLS) is used. When the LLS method is used, the amplitudes of the interpolated array elements may not be equivalent to those of the original array elements. In addition, through the transformation matrix obtained from the LLS method, the phases of the interpolated array elements are not precisely generated. Therefore, we propose an array transformation matrix that generates accurate phases for interpolated array elements to improve DOA estimation performance, while maintaining constant amplitudes of the array elements. Moreover, to enhance the effect of our interpolation method, a power calibration method for interpolated received signals is also proposed. Through the simulation, we confirm that the array interpolation accuracy and DOA estimation performance of the proposed method are improved compared to those of the conventional method. Moreover, the performance and effectiveness of our proposed method are also verified using data obtained from the commercial radar system. Because the proposed method exhibits better performance when applied to actual measurement data, it can be utilized in commercial automotive radar systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Computational Intelligence in Remote Sensing)
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9 pages, 4133 KiB  
Article
Ultraprecision Real-Time Displacements Calculation Algorithm for the Grating Interferometer System
by Weinan Ye, Ming Zhang, Yu Zhu, Leijie Wang, Jinchun Hu, Xin Li and Chuxiong Hu
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2409; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102409 - 27 May 2019
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3944
Abstract
Grating interferometry is an environmentally stable displacement measurement technique that has significant potential for identifying the position of the wafer stage. A fast and precise algorithm is required for real-time calculation of six degrees-of-freedom (DOF) displacement using phase shifts of interference signals. Based [...] Read more.
Grating interferometry is an environmentally stable displacement measurement technique that has significant potential for identifying the position of the wafer stage. A fast and precise algorithm is required for real-time calculation of six degrees-of-freedom (DOF) displacement using phase shifts of interference signals. Based on affine transformation, we analyze diffraction spot displacement and changes in the internal and external effective optical paths of the grating interferometer caused by the displacement of the wafer stage (DOWS); then, we establish a phase shift-DOWS model. To solve the DOWS in real time, we present a polynomial approximation algorithm that uses the frequency domain characteristics of nonlinearities to achieve model reduction. The presented algorithm is verified by experiment and ZEMAX simulation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Optical Sensors)
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17 pages, 5398 KiB  
Article
Research on Attitude Models and Antenna Phase Center Correction for Jason-3 Satellite Orbit Determination
by Mingming Liu, Yunbin Yuan, Jikun Ou and Yanju Chai
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2408; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102408 - 27 May 2019
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3651
Abstract
We focused on the researches of two models used for Jason-3 precise orbit determination (POD)—Jason-3 attitude modes and receiver phase center variation (PCV) model. A combined attitude mode for the Jason-3 satellite is designed based on experimental analysis used in some special cases, [...] Read more.
We focused on the researches of two models used for Jason-3 precise orbit determination (POD)—Jason-3 attitude modes and receiver phase center variation (PCV) model. A combined attitude mode for the Jason-3 satellite is designed based on experimental analysis used in some special cases, such as in the absence of quaternions or when inconvenient to use. We researched the linking of satellite attitude with antenna phase center. Specially, to verify the validity of the combined attitude, we analyzed the effects of different attitude modes on receiver phase center offset (PCO) estimation, PCO correction and POD. Meanwhile, the difference analysis of PCO correction based on attitude modes also contains the combined attitude modeling processes. The POD results showed that the orbital accuracies with the combined attitude are slightly more stable than those with attitude event file. By introducing receiver PCVs into POD, the mean residuals root-mean-square (RMS) is reduced by 1.9 mm and orbital 3D-RMS position difference is improved by 5.7 mm. The eight schemes were designed to integratedly verify the effectiveness of different attitude modes and receiver PCVs model. The results conclude that the accuracy using the combined attitude is higher than that of event file, which also prove the feasibility of the combined attitude in integrated POD and it can be as a revision of attitude event file. Using all mentioned attitude modes, the orbital accuracy by introducing PCVs can be improved by the millimeter level. The integrated effects of attitude modes and receiver PCVs on POD are almost consistent with the effects of a single variable. The optimal results of Jason-3 POD indicate that orbital mean radial RMS is close to 1 cm, and the 3D-RMS position difference is within 3 cm. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Remote Sensors)
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11 pages, 3918 KiB  
Article
Fingerprinting of Nitroaromatic Explosives Realized by Aphen-functionalized Titanium Dioxide
by Guanshun Xie and Bingxin Liu
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2407; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102407 - 27 May 2019
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3655
Abstract
Developing sensing materials for military explosives and improvised explosive precursors is of great significance to maintaining homeland security. 5-Nitro-1,10-phenanthroline (Aphen)-modified TiO2 nanospheres are prepared though coordination interactions, which broaden the absorption band edge of TiO2 and shift it to the visible [...] Read more.
Developing sensing materials for military explosives and improvised explosive precursors is of great significance to maintaining homeland security. 5-Nitro-1,10-phenanthroline (Aphen)-modified TiO2 nanospheres are prepared though coordination interactions, which broaden the absorption band edge of TiO2 and shift it to the visible region. A sensor array based on an individual TiO2/Aphen sensor is constructed by regulating the excitation wavelength (365 nm, 450 nm, 550 nm). TiO2/Aphen shows significant response to nitroaromatic explosives since the Aphen capped on the surface of TiO2 can chemically recognize and absorb nitroaromatic explosives by the formation of the corresponding Meisenheimer complex. The photocatalytic mechanism is proved to be the primary sensing mechanism after anchoring nitroaromatic explosives to TiO2. The fingerprint patterns obtained by combining kinetics and thermodynamics validated that the single TiO2/Aphen sensor can identify at least six nitroaromatic explosives and improvised explosives within 8 s and the biggest response reaches 80%. Furthermore, the TiO2/Aphen may allow the contactless detection of various explosives, which is of great significance to maintaining homeland security. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gas Sensors and Smart Sensing Systems)
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12 pages, 2519 KiB  
Article
A Flexible and Highly Sensitive Inductive Pressure Sensor Array Based on Ferrite Films
by Xinran Tang, Yihui Miao, Xinjian Chen and Baoqing Nie
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2406; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102406 - 27 May 2019
Cited by 25 | Viewed by 6352
Abstract
There is a rapid growing demand for highly sensitive, easy adaptive and low-cost pressure sensing solutions in the fields of health monitoring, wearable electronics and home care. Here, we report a novel flexible inductive pressure sensor array with ultrahigh sensitivity and a simple [...] Read more.
There is a rapid growing demand for highly sensitive, easy adaptive and low-cost pressure sensing solutions in the fields of health monitoring, wearable electronics and home care. Here, we report a novel flexible inductive pressure sensor array with ultrahigh sensitivity and a simple construction, for large-area contact pressure measurements. In general, the device consists of three layers: a planar spiral inductor layer and ferrite film units attached on a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) membrane, which are separated by an array of elastic pillars. Importantly, by introducing the ferrite film with an excellent magnetic permeability, the effective permeability around the inductor is greatly influenced by the separation distance between the inductor and the ferrite film. As a result, the value of the inductance changes largely as the separation distance varies as an external load applies. Our device has achieved an ultrahigh sensitivity of 1.60 kPa−1 with a resolution of 13.61 Pa in the pressure range of 0–0.18 kPa, which is comparable to the current state-of-the-art flexible pressure sensors. More remarkably, our device shows an outstanding stability when exposed to environmental interferences, e.g., electrical noises from skin surfaces (within 0.08% variations) and a constant pressure load for more than 32 h (within 0.3% variations). In addition, the device exhibits a fast response time of 111 ms and a good repeatability under cyclic pressures varying from 38.45 to 177.82 Pa. To demonstrate its practical usage, we have successfully developed a 4 × 4 inductive pressure sensor array into a wearable keyboard for a smart electronic calendar application. Full article
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28 pages, 2376 KiB  
Article
SAFE-MAC: Speed Aware Fairness Enabled MAC Protocol for Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks
by Md. Abubakar Siddik, Shafika Showkat Moni, Mohammad Shah Alam and William A. Johnson
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2405; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102405 - 26 May 2019
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3777
Abstract
Highly dynamic geographical topology, two-direction mobility, and varying traffic density can lead to fairness issues in Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs). The Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol plays a vital role in sharing the common wireless channel efficiently between vehicles in a VANET system. [...] Read more.
Highly dynamic geographical topology, two-direction mobility, and varying traffic density can lead to fairness issues in Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs). The Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol plays a vital role in sharing the common wireless channel efficiently between vehicles in a VANET system. However, ensuring fairness between vehicles can be a challenge in designing MAC protocols for VANET systems. The existing protocol, IEEE 802.11 DCF, ensures that the packet transmission rate for a particular vehicle is directly proportional to the amount of time a vehicle spends within a service area, but it does not guarantee that faster vehicles will be able to send the minimum number of packets. Other existing MAC protocols based on IEEE 802.11 are able to provide a minimum amount of data transmission regardless of velocity, but are unable to provide an amount of data transmission that is more proportionate to the time a vehicle spends in the service area. To address the above limitations, we propose a Speed Aware Fairness Enabled MAC (SAFE-MAC) protocol that calculates the residence time of a vehicle in a service area by using mobility metrics such as position, direction, and speed to synthesize the transmission probability of each individual vehicle with respect to its residence time. This is achieved by dynamically altering the values of parameters such as minimum contention window, maximum backoff stage, and retransmission limit in the MAC protocol. We then develop an analytical model to compare the performance of our proposed protocol with contemporary MAC protocols. Numerical analysis results show that our proposed protocol significantly improves fairness among the speed-varying vehicles in VANET. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vehicular Network Communications)
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25 pages, 6958 KiB  
Article
A Distributed Approach for Collision Avoidance between Multirotor UAVs Following Planned Missions
by Francisco Fabra, Willian Zamora, Julio Sangüesa, Carlos T. Calafate, Juan-Carlos Cano and Pietro Manzoni
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2404; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102404 - 26 May 2019
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 4103
Abstract
As the number of potential applications for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) keeps rising steadily, the chances that these devices get close to each other during their flights also increases, causing concerns regarding potential collisions. This paper proposed the Mission Based Collision Avoidance Protocol [...] Read more.
As the number of potential applications for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) keeps rising steadily, the chances that these devices get close to each other during their flights also increases, causing concerns regarding potential collisions. This paper proposed the Mission Based Collision Avoidance Protocol (MBCAP), a novel UAV collision avoidance protocol applicable to all types of multicopters flying autonomously. It relies on wireless communications in order to detect nearby UAVs, and to negotiate the procedure to avoid any potential collision. Experimental and simulation results demonstrated the validity and effectiveness of the proposed solution, which typically introduces a small overhead in the range of 15 to 42 s for each risky situation successfully handled. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue UAV-Based Applications in the Internet of Things (IoT))
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28 pages, 11156 KiB  
Article
Approximate Optimal Deployment of Barrier Coverage on Heterogeneous Bistatic Radar Sensors
by Xianghua Xu, Chengwei Zhao, Zongmao Cheng and Tao Gu
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2403; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102403 - 26 May 2019
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3197
Abstract
Heterogeneous Bistatic Radars (BR) have different sensing ranges and couplings of sensing regions, which provide more flexible coverage for the boundary at complex terrain such as across rivers and valleys. Due to the Cassini oval sensing region of a BR and the coupling [...] Read more.
Heterogeneous Bistatic Radars (BR) have different sensing ranges and couplings of sensing regions, which provide more flexible coverage for the boundary at complex terrain such as across rivers and valleys. Due to the Cassini oval sensing region of a BR and the coupling of sensing regions among different BRs, the coverage problem of BR sensor networks is very challenging. Existing works in BR barrier coverage focus mainly on homogeneous BR sensor networks. This paper studies the heterogeneous BR placement problem on a line barrier to achieve optimal coverage. 1) We investigate coverage differences of the basic placement sequences of heterogeneous BRs on the line barrier, and prove the optimal basic placement spacing patterns of heterogeneous BRs. 2) We study the coverage coupling effect among adjacent BRs on the line barrier, and determine that different placement sequences of heterogeneous BR transmitters will affect the barrier’s coverage performance and length. The optimal placement sequence of heterogeneous BR barrier cannot be solved through the greedy algorithm. 3) We propose an optimal BRs placement algorithm on a line barrier when the heterogeneous BR transmitters’ placement sequence is predetermined on the barrier, and prove it to be optimal. Through simulation experiments, we determine that the different placement sequences of heterogeneous BR transmitters have little influence on the barrier’s maximum length. Then, we propose an approximate algorithm to optimize the BR placement spacing sequence on the heterogeneous line barrier. 4) As a heterogeneous barrier case study, a minimum cost coverage algorithm of heterogeneous BR barrier is presented. We validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms through theory analysis and extensive simulation experiments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Collaborative and Cooperative Sensors)
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24 pages, 403 KiB  
Article
Minimizing the Adverse Effects of Asymmetric Links: A Novel Cooperative Asynchronous MAC Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks
by Md. Mahedee Hasan, Amit Karmaker, Mohammad Shah Alam and Andrew Craig
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2402; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102402 - 26 May 2019
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 4064
Abstract
As Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) grow in popularity, researchers are now focusing more on some challenging issues that significantly degrade overall performance, such as energy hole mitigation, link asymmetry minimization, etc. Link asymmetry is a problem that arises when the coverage distance between [...] Read more.
As Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) grow in popularity, researchers are now focusing more on some challenging issues that significantly degrade overall performance, such as energy hole mitigation, link asymmetry minimization, etc. Link asymmetry is a problem that arises when the coverage distance between two adjacent nodes varies. It creates an obstacle to overcome when designing an efficient Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol for WSNs with low duty-cycling. This phenomenon poses an especially difficult challenge for receiver-initiated asynchronous MAC protocols, which are popular due to their relatively higher energy efficiency. Exploiting the benefits of cooperative communication has emerged as one of the viable solutions to overcome this limitation. Cooperative communication in WSNs has received a lot of attention in recent years. Many researchers have worked to create a MAC layer supporting cooperative communication. However, the association of cooperative communication with an asymmetric link is not studied in the literature. In this research work, COASYM-MAC, a cooperative asynchronous MAC protocol for WSNs, is proposed based on a receiver-initiated MAC protocol that uses the fact that nodes have alternate paths between them to reduce link asymmetry. A key feature of the proposed protocol is that the optimal helper node is selected automatically in case of link asymmetry. Simulations exhibited that COASYM-MAC performs significantly better than a state-of-the-art MAC protocol for WSNs that handles asymmetric links, ASYM-MAC. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Sensor Networks)
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23 pages, 10156 KiB  
Article
Using of Multi-Source and Multi-Temporal Remote Sensing Data Improves Crop-Type Mapping in the Subtropical Agriculture Region
by Chuanliang Sun, Yan Bian, Tao Zhou and Jianjun Pan
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2401; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102401 - 26 May 2019
Cited by 112 | Viewed by 8282
Abstract
Crop-type identification is very important in agricultural regions. Most researchers in this area have focused on exploring the ability of synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) sensors to identify crops. This paper uses multi-source (Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, and Landsat-8) and multi-temporal data to identify crop types. The [...] Read more.
Crop-type identification is very important in agricultural regions. Most researchers in this area have focused on exploring the ability of synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) sensors to identify crops. This paper uses multi-source (Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, and Landsat-8) and multi-temporal data to identify crop types. The change detection method was used to analyze spectral and indices information in time series. Significant differences in crop growth status during the growing season were found. Then, three obviously differentiated time features were extracted. Three advanced machine learning algorithms (Support Vector Machine, Artificial Neural Network, and Random Forest, RF) were used to identify the crop types. The results showed that the detection of (Vertical-vertical) VV, (Vertical-horizontal) VH, and Cross Ratio (CR) changes was effective for identifying land cover. Moreover, the red-edge changes were obviously different according to crop growth periods. Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 showed different normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) changes also. By using single remote sensing data to classify crops, Sentinel-2 produced the highest overall accuracy (0.91) and Kappa coefficient (0.89). The combination of Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, and Landsat-8 data provided the best overall accuracy (0.93) and Kappa coefficient (0.91). The RF method had the best performance in terms of identity classification. In addition, the indices feature dominated the classification results. The combination of phenological period information with multi-source remote sensing data can be used to explore a crop area and its status in the growing season. The results of crop classification can be used to analyze the density and distribution of crops. This study can also allow to determine crop growth status, improve crop yield estimation accuracy, and provide a basis for crop management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Sensor Technologies for Crop Phenotyping Application)
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9 pages, 2611 KiB  
Article
Detecting Variable Resistance by Fluorescence Intensity Ratio Technology
by Wanjun Sheng, Xiangfu Wang, Yong Tao and Xiaohong Yan
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2400; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102400 - 26 May 2019
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3928
Abstract
We report a new method for detecting variable resistance during short time intervals by using an optical method. A novel variable-resistance sensor composed of up-conversion nanoparticles (NaYF4:Yb3+,Er3+) and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) is designed based on characteristics [...] Read more.
We report a new method for detecting variable resistance during short time intervals by using an optical method. A novel variable-resistance sensor composed of up-conversion nanoparticles (NaYF4:Yb3+,Er3+) and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) is designed based on characteristics of a negative temperature coefficient (NTC) resistive element. The fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR) technology based on green and red emissions is used to detect variable resistance. Combining the Boltzmann distributing law with Steinhart–Hart equation, the FIR and relative sensitivity SR as a function of resistance can be defined. The maximum value of SR is 1.039 × 10−3/Ω. This work reports a new method for measuring variable resistance based on the experimental data from fluorescence spectrum. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Optical Sensors)
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17 pages, 1453 KiB  
Article
Maximizing Coverage Quality with Budget Constrained in Mobile Crowd-Sensing Network for Environmental Monitoring Applications
by Jiaoyan Chen and Jingsen Yang
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2399; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102399 - 26 May 2019
Cited by 39 | Viewed by 4252
Abstract
The Mobile Crowd-sensing Network is a novel cyber–physical–social network which has received great attention recently and can be used as a powerful tool to monitor the phenomenon of the field of interest. Due to the limited budget, how to choose appropriate participants to [...] Read more.
The Mobile Crowd-sensing Network is a novel cyber–physical–social network which has received great attention recently and can be used as a powerful tool to monitor the phenomenon of the field of interest. Due to the limited budget, how to choose appropriate participants to maximize the coverage quality is one of the most important issues when the mobile crowd-sensing network applies to practical application, such as air quality monitoring. In this paper, given the number of available participants, the traverse path and the reward of each participant, we investigate the problem of how to choose suitable participants to monitor an environment of a critical region by a crowd-sensing network, while the total rewards for all selected participants is not larger than the limited budget. In our solution, we first divide a big critical region such as a city into smaller regions of different size, and select some sampling points in the smaller region; the collected data of those sampling points represents the collected data of the whole smaller region. Then, we design a greedy algorithm to select participants to cover the maximum sampling points while the total rewards of selected participants does not exceed the limited budget. Finally, we evaluate the validity and efficiency of the proposed algorithm by conducting extensive simulations. The simulation results show that the greedy algorithm outperforms an existing scheme. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploiting the IoT within Cyber Physical Social System)
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19 pages, 5489 KiB  
Article
Deep Convolutional Neural Network for Mapping Smallholder Agriculture Using High Spatial Resolution Satellite Image
by Bin Xie, Hankui K. Zhang and Jie Xue
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2398; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102398 - 25 May 2019
Cited by 39 | Viewed by 4995
Abstract
In classification of satellite images acquired over smallholder agricultural landscape with complex spectral profiles of various crop types, exploring image spatial information is important. The deep convolutional neural network (CNN), originally designed for natural image recognition in the computer vision field, can automatically [...] Read more.
In classification of satellite images acquired over smallholder agricultural landscape with complex spectral profiles of various crop types, exploring image spatial information is important. The deep convolutional neural network (CNN), originally designed for natural image recognition in the computer vision field, can automatically explore high level spatial information and thus is promising for such tasks. This study tried to evaluate different CNN structures for classification of four smallholder agricultural landscapes in Heilongjiang, China using pan-sharpened 2 m GaoFen-1 (meaning high resolution in Chinese) satellite images. CNN with three pooling strategies: without pooling, with max pooling and with average pooling, were evaluated and compared with random forest. Two different numbers (~70,000 and ~290,000) of CNN learnable parameters were examined for each pooling strategy. The training and testing samples were systematically sampled from reference land cover maps to ensure sample distribution proportional to the reference land cover occurrence and included 60,000–400,000 pixels to ensure effective training. Testing sample classification results in the four study areas showed that the best pooling strategy was the average pooling CNN and that the CNN significantly outperformed random forest (2.4–3.3% higher overall accuracy and 0.05–0.24 higher kappa coefficient). Visual examination of CNN classification maps showed that CNN can discriminate better the spectrally similar crop types by effectively exploring spatial information. CNN was still significantly outperformed random forest using training samples that were evenly distributed among classes. Furthermore, future research to improve CNN performance was discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Remote Sensors)
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23 pages, 5332 KiB  
Article
Knowledge Preserving OSELM Model for Wi-Fi-Based Indoor Localization
by Ahmed Salih AL-Khaleefa, Mohd Riduan Ahmad, Azmi Awang Md Isa, Mona Riza Mohd Esa, Yazan Aljeroudi, Mohammed Ahmed Jubair and Reza Firsandaya Malik
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2397; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102397 - 25 May 2019
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 3773
Abstract
Wi-Fi has shown enormous potential for indoor localization because of its wide utilization and availability. Enabling the use of Wi-Fi for indoor localization necessitates the construction of a fingerprint and the adoption of a learning algorithm. The goal is to enable the use [...] Read more.
Wi-Fi has shown enormous potential for indoor localization because of its wide utilization and availability. Enabling the use of Wi-Fi for indoor localization necessitates the construction of a fingerprint and the adoption of a learning algorithm. The goal is to enable the use of the fingerprint in training the classifiers for predicting locations. Existing models of machine learning Wi-Fi-based localization are brought from machine learning and modified to accommodate for practical aspects that occur in indoor localization. The performance of these models varies depending on their effectiveness in handling and/or considering specific characteristics and the nature of indoor localization behavior. One common behavior in the indoor navigation of people is its cyclic dynamic nature. To the best of our knowledge, no existing machine learning model for Wi-Fi indoor localization exploits cyclic dynamic behavior for improving localization prediction. This study modifies the widely popular online sequential extreme learning machine (OSELM) to exploit cyclic dynamic behavior for achieving improved localization results. Our new model is called knowledge preserving OSELM (KP-OSELM). Experimental results conducted on the two popular datasets TampereU and UJIndoorLoc conclude that KP-OSELM outperforms benchmark models in terms of accuracy and stability. The last achieved accuracy was 92.74% for TampereU and 72.99% for UJIndoorLoc. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensors for Information Technology, Electronics and Mobile Communication)
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19 pages, 3079 KiB  
Article
Development of an Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Manipulator Based on a Real-Time Oriented-Object Detection Method
by Shijie Lin, Jinwang Wang, Rui Peng and Wen Yang
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2396; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102396 - 25 May 2019
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 4442
Abstract
Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Manipulators (UAMs) have shown promising potential in mobile 3-dimensional grasping applications, but they still suffer from some difficulties impeding their board applications, such as target detection and indoor positioning. For the autonomous grasping mission, the UAMs need ability to recognize [...] Read more.
Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Manipulators (UAMs) have shown promising potential in mobile 3-dimensional grasping applications, but they still suffer from some difficulties impeding their board applications, such as target detection and indoor positioning. For the autonomous grasping mission, the UAMs need ability to recognize the objects and grasp them. Considering the efficiency and precision, we present a novel oriented-object detection method called Rotation-SqueezeDet. This method can run on embedded-platforms in near real-time. Besides, this method can give the oriented bounding box of an object in images to enable a rotation-aware grasping. Based on this method, a UAM platform was designed and built. We have given the formulation, positioning, control, and planning of the whole UAM system. All the mechanical designs are fully provided as open-source hardware for reuse by the community. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed scheme was validated in multiple experimental trials, highlighting its applicability of autonomous aerial rotational grasping in Global Positioning System (GPS) denied environments. We believe this system can be deployed to many potential workplaces which need UAM to accomplish difficult manipulation tasks. Full article
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16 pages, 1926 KiB  
Article
Data Storage Mechanism Based on Blockchain with Privacy Protection in Wireless Body Area Network
by Yongjun Ren, Yan Leng, Fujian Zhu, Jin Wang and Hye-Jin Kim
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2395; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102395 - 25 May 2019
Cited by 68 | Viewed by 7028
Abstract
Wireless body area networks (WBANs) are expected to play a vital role in the field of patient-health monitoring shortly. They provide a convenient way to collect patient data, but they also bring serious problems which are mainly reflected in the safe storage of [...] Read more.
Wireless body area networks (WBANs) are expected to play a vital role in the field of patient-health monitoring shortly. They provide a convenient way to collect patient data, but they also bring serious problems which are mainly reflected in the safe storage of the collected data. The privacy and security of data storage in WBAN devices cannot meet the needs of WBAN users. Therefore, this paper adopts blockchain technology to store data, which improves the security of the collected data. Moreover, a storage model based on blockchain in WBAN is proposed in our solution. However, blockchain storage brings new problems, for example, that the storage space of blockchain is small, and the stored content is open to unauthorized attackers. To solve the problems above, this paper proposed a sequential aggregate signature scheme with a designated verifier (DVSSA) to ensure that the user’s data can only be viewed by the designated person and to protect the privacy of the users of WBAN. In addition, the new signature scheme can also compress the size of the blockchain storage space. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Body Area Networks: Applications and Technologies)
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31 pages, 22092 KiB  
Article
Towards an Autonomous Industry 4.0 Warehouse: A UAV and Blockchain-Based System for Inventory and Traceability Applications in Big Data-Driven Supply Chain Management
by Tiago M. Fernández-Caramés, Oscar Blanco-Novoa, Iván Froiz-Míguez and Paula Fraga-Lamas
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2394; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102394 - 25 May 2019
Cited by 230 | Viewed by 24541
Abstract
Industry 4.0 has paved the way for a world where smart factories will automate and upgrade many processes through the use of some of the latest emerging technologies. One of such technologies is Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), which have evolved a great deal [...] Read more.
Industry 4.0 has paved the way for a world where smart factories will automate and upgrade many processes through the use of some of the latest emerging technologies. One of such technologies is Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), which have evolved a great deal in the last years in terms of technology (e.g., control units, sensors, UAV frames) and have significantly reduced their cost. UAVs can help industry in automatable and tedious tasks, like the ones performed on a regular basis for determining the inventory and for preserving item traceability. In such tasks, especially when it comes from untrusted third parties, it is essential to determine whether the collected information is valid or true. Likewise, ensuring data trustworthiness is a key issue in order to leverage Big Data analytics to supply chain efficiency and effectiveness. In such a case, blockchain, another Industry 4.0 technology that has become very popular in other fields like finance, has the potential to provide a higher level of transparency, security, trust and efficiency in the supply chain and enable the use of smart contracts. Thus, in this paper, we present the design and evaluation of a UAV-based system aimed at automating inventory tasks and keeping the traceability of industrial items attached to Radio-Frequency IDentification (RFID) tags. To confront current shortcomings, such a system is developed under a versatile, modular and scalable architecture aimed to reinforce cyber security and decentralization while fostering external audits and big data analytics. Therefore, the system uses a blockchain and a distributed ledger to store certain inventory data collected by UAVs, validate them, ensure their trustworthiness and make them available to the interested parties. In order to show the performance of the proposed system, different tests were performed in a real industrial warehouse, concluding that the system is able to obtain the inventory data really fast in comparison to traditional manual tasks, while being also able to estimate the position of the items when hovering over them thanks to their tag’s signal strength. In addition, the performance of the proposed blockchain-based architecture was evaluated in different scenarios. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from the 5th International Electronic Conference on Sensors and Applications)
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13 pages, 2496 KiB  
Article
Epitaxial Graphene Sensors Combined with 3D-Printed Microfluidic Chip for Heavy Metals Detection
by Maria Francesca Santangelo, Ivan Shtepliuk, Daniel Filippini, Donatella Puglisi, Mikhail Vagin, Rositsa Yakimova and Jens Eriksson
Sensors 2019, 19(10), 2393; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19102393 - 25 May 2019
Cited by 26 | Viewed by 4754
Abstract
In this work, we investigated the sensing performance of epitaxial graphene on Si-face 4H-SiC (EG/SiC) for liquid-phase detection of heavy metals (e.g., Pb and Cd), showing fast and stable response and low detection limit. The sensing platform proposed includes 3D-printed microfluidic devices, which [...] Read more.
In this work, we investigated the sensing performance of epitaxial graphene on Si-face 4H-SiC (EG/SiC) for liquid-phase detection of heavy metals (e.g., Pb and Cd), showing fast and stable response and low detection limit. The sensing platform proposed includes 3D-printed microfluidic devices, which incorporate all features required to connect and execute lab-on-chip (LOC) functions. The obtained results indicate that EG exhibits excellent sensing activity towards Pb and Cd ions. Several concentrations of Pb2+ solutions, ranging from 125 nM to 500 µM, were analyzed showing Langmuir correlation between signal and Pb2+ concentrations, good stability, and reproducibility over time. Upon the simultaneous presence of both metals, sensor response is dominated by Pb2+ rather than Cd2+ ions. To explain the sensing mechanisms and difference in adsorption behavior of Pb2+ and Cd2+ ions on EG in water-based solutions, we performed van-der-Waals (vdW)-corrected density functional theory (DFT) calculations and non-covalent interaction (NCI) analysis, extended charge decomposition analysis (ECDA), and topological analysis. We demonstrated that Pb2+ and Cd2+ ions act as electron-acceptors, enhancing hole conductivity of EG, due to charge transfer from graphene to metal ions, and Pb2+ ions have preferential ability to binding with graphene over cadmium. Electrochemical measurements confirmed the conductometric results, which additionally indicate that EG is more sensitive to lead than to cadmium. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Chemical Sensors)
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