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Volume 23
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Sensors, Volume 23, Issue 4 (February-2 2023) – 618 articles

Cover Story (view full-size image): Monitoring the coastal environment is a crucial factor in ensuring its proper management. This paper presents a low-cost multiparametric probe that can be integrated into a wireless sensor network to send data to a marine observatory. The probe comprises physical sensors capable of measuring water temperature, salinity, and total suspended solids (TSS). The physical sensors for salinity and TSS are created and calibrated. The results indicate that no effect of temperature is found for both sensors and no interference of salinity in measuring TSS or vice versa. The obtained calibration model for salinity is characterised by a correlation coefficient of 0.9 and a mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.74 g/L. The model for TSS is characterised by a correlation coefficient of 0.99 and an MAE of 12 mg/L. The price of the proposed devices is EUR 100. View this paper
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17 pages, 25768 KiB  
Article
SwimmerNET: Underwater 2D Swimmer Pose Estimation Exploiting Fully Convolutional Neural Networks
by Nicola Giulietti, Alessia Caputo, Paolo Chiariotti and Paolo Castellini
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2364; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042364 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 3450
Abstract
Professional swimming coaches make use of videos to evaluate their athletes’ performances. Specifically, the videos are manually analyzed in order to observe the movements of all parts of the swimmer’s body during the exercise and to give indications for improving swimming technique. This [...] Read more.
Professional swimming coaches make use of videos to evaluate their athletes’ performances. Specifically, the videos are manually analyzed in order to observe the movements of all parts of the swimmer’s body during the exercise and to give indications for improving swimming technique. This operation is time-consuming, laborious and error prone. In recent years, alternative technologies have been introduced in the literature, but they still have severe limitations that make their correct and effective use impossible. In fact, the currently available techniques based on image analysis only apply to certain swimming styles; moreover, they are strongly influenced by disturbing elements (i.e., the presence of bubbles, splashes and reflections), resulting in poor measurement accuracy. The use of wearable sensors (accelerometers or photoplethysmographic sensors) or optical markers, although they can guarantee high reliability and accuracy, disturb the performance of the athletes, who tend to dislike these solutions. In this work we introduce swimmerNET, a new marker-less 2D swimmer pose estimation approach based on the combined use of computer vision algorithms and fully convolutional neural networks. By using a single 8 Mpixel wide-angle camera, the proposed system is able to estimate the pose of a swimmer during exercise while guaranteeing adequate measurement accuracy. The method has been successfully tested on several athletes (i.e., different physical characteristics and different swimming technique), obtaining an average error and a standard deviation (worst case scenario for the dataset analyzed) of approximately 1 mm and 10 mm, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Sensing and Imaging)
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22 pages, 2726 KiB  
Article
LP-MAB: Improving the Energy Efficiency of LoRaWAN Using a Reinforcement-Learning-Based Adaptive Configuration Algorithm
by Benyamin Teymuri, Reza Serati, Nikolaos Athanasios Anagnostopoulos and Mehdi Rasti
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2363; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042363 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3296
Abstract
In the Internet of Things (IoT), Low-Power Wide-Area Networks (LPWANs) are designed to provide low energy consumption while maintaining a long communications’ range for End Devices (EDs). LoRa is a communication protocol that can cover a wide range with low energy consumption. To [...] Read more.
In the Internet of Things (IoT), Low-Power Wide-Area Networks (LPWANs) are designed to provide low energy consumption while maintaining a long communications’ range for End Devices (EDs). LoRa is a communication protocol that can cover a wide range with low energy consumption. To evaluate the efficiency of the LoRa Wide-Area Network (LoRaWAN), three criteria can be considered, namely, the Packet Delivery Rate (PDR), Energy Consumption (EC), and coverage area. A set of transmission parameters have to be configured to establish a communication link. These parameters can affect the data rate, noise resistance, receiver sensitivity, and EC. The Adaptive Data Rate (ADR) algorithm is a mechanism to configure the transmission parameters of EDs aiming to improve the PDR. Therefore, we introduce a new algorithm using the Multi-Armed Bandit (MAB) technique, to configure the EDs’ transmission parameters in a centralized manner on the Network Server (NS) side, while improving the EC, too. The performance of the proposed algorithm, the Low-Power Multi-Armed Bandit (LP-MAB), is evaluated through simulation results and is compared with other approaches in different scenarios. The simulation results indicate that the LP-MAB’s EC outperforms other algorithms while maintaining a relatively high PDR in various circumstances. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Intelligent IoT and Wireless Communications)
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19 pages, 568 KiB  
Review
Unsupervised Learning of Disentangled Representation via Auto-Encoding: A Survey
by Ikram Eddahmani, Chi-Hieu Pham, Thibault Napoléon, Isabelle Badoc, Jean-Rassaire Fouefack and Marwa El-Bouz
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2362; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042362 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 4201
Abstract
In recent years, the rapid development of deep learning approaches has paved the way to explore the underlying factors that explain the data. In particular, several methods have been proposed to learn to identify and disentangle these underlying explanatory factors in order to [...] Read more.
In recent years, the rapid development of deep learning approaches has paved the way to explore the underlying factors that explain the data. In particular, several methods have been proposed to learn to identify and disentangle these underlying explanatory factors in order to improve the learning process and model generalization. However, extracting this representation with little or no supervision remains a key challenge in machine learning. In this paper, we provide a theoretical outlook on recent advances in the field of unsupervised representation learning with a focus on auto-encoding-based approaches and on the most well-known supervised disentanglement metrics. We cover the current state-of-the-art methods for learning disentangled representation in an unsupervised manner while pointing out the connection between each method and its added value on disentanglement. Further, we discuss how to quantify disentanglement and present an in-depth analysis of associated metrics. We conclude by carrying out a comparative evaluation of these metrics according to three criteria, (i) modularity, (ii) compactness and (iii) informativeness. Finally, we show that only the Mutual Information Gap score (MIG) meets all three criteria. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Physical Sensors)
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20 pages, 7564 KiB  
Article
Design and Performance Verification of a Novel RCM Mechanism for a Minimally Invasive Surgical Robot
by Hu Shi, Zhixin Liang, Boyang Zhang and Haitao Wang
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2361; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042361 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2841
Abstract
Minimally invasive surgical robots have the advantages of high positioning accuracy, good stability, and flexible operation, which can effectively improve the quality of surgery and reduce the difficulty for doctors to operate. However, in order to realize the translation of the existing RCM [...] Read more.
Minimally invasive surgical robots have the advantages of high positioning accuracy, good stability, and flexible operation, which can effectively improve the quality of surgery and reduce the difficulty for doctors to operate. However, in order to realize the translation of the existing RCM mechanism, it is often necessary to add a mobile unit, which is often bulky and occupies most space above the patient’s body, thus causing interference to the operation. In this paper, a new type of planar RCM mechanism is proposed. Based on this mechanism, a 3-DOF robotic arm is designed, which can complete the required motion for surgery without adding a mobile unit. In this paper, the geometric model of the mechanism is first introduced, and the RCM point of the mechanism is proven during the motion process. Then, based on the establishment of the geometric model of the mechanism, a kinematics analysis of the mechanism is carried out. The singularity, the Jacobian matrix, and the kinematic performance of the mechanism are analyzed, and the working space of the mechanism is verified according to the kinematic equations. Finally, a prototype of the RCM mechanism was built, and its functionality was tested using a master–slave control strategy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensor-Based Surgical and Medical Robotics: Challenges and Opportunities)
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15 pages, 4645 KiB  
Article
High Accuracy and Cost-Effective Fiber Optic Liquid Level Sensing System Based on Deep Neural Network
by Erfan Dejband, Yibeltal Chanie Manie, Yu-Jie Deng, Mekuanint Agegnehu Bitew, Tan-Hsu Tan and Peng-Chun Peng
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2360; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042360 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3288
Abstract
In this paper, a novel liquid level sensing system is proposed to enhance the capacity of the sensing system, as well as reduce the cost and increase the sensing accuracy. The proposed sensing system can monitor the liquid level of several points at [...] Read more.
In this paper, a novel liquid level sensing system is proposed to enhance the capacity of the sensing system, as well as reduce the cost and increase the sensing accuracy. The proposed sensing system can monitor the liquid level of several points at the same time in the sensing unit. Additionally, for cost efficiency, the proposed system employs only one sensor at each spot and all the sensors are multiplexed. In multiplexed systems, when changing the liquid level inside the container, the float position is changed and leads to an overlap or cross-talk between two sensors. To solve this overlap problem and to accurately predict the liquid level of each container, we proposed a deep neural network (DNN) approach to properly identify the water level. The performance of the proposed DNN model is evaluated via two different scenarios and the result proves that the proposed DNN model can accurately predict the liquid level of each point. Furthermore, when comparing the DNN model with the conventional machine learning schemes, including random forest (RF) and support vector machines (SVM), the DNN model exhibits the best performance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Optoelectronic Sensors)
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10 pages, 2883 KiB  
Communication
Highly Elastically Deformable Coiled CNT/Polymer Fibers for Wearable Strain Sensors and Stretchable Supercapacitors
by Jin Hyeong Choi, Jun Ho Noh and Changsoon Choi
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2359; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042359 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2591
Abstract
Stretchable yarn/fiber electronics with conductive features are optimal components for different wearable devices. This paper presents the construction of coil structure-based carbon nanotube (CNT)/polymer fibers with adjustable piezoresistivity. The composite unit fiber is prepared by wrapping a conductive carbon CNT sheath onto an [...] Read more.
Stretchable yarn/fiber electronics with conductive features are optimal components for different wearable devices. This paper presents the construction of coil structure-based carbon nanotube (CNT)/polymer fibers with adjustable piezoresistivity. The composite unit fiber is prepared by wrapping a conductive carbon CNT sheath onto an elastic spandex core. Owing to the helical coil structure, the resultant CNT/polymer composite fibers are highly stretchable (up to approximately 300%) without a noticeable electrical breakdown. More specifically, based on the difference in the coil index (which is the ratio of the coil diameter to the diameter of the fiber within the coil) according to the polymeric core fiber (spandex or nylon), the composite fiber can be used for two different applications (i.e., as strain sensors or supercapacitors), which are presented in this paper. The coiled CNT/spandex composite fiber sensor responds sensitively to tensile strain. The coiled CNT/nylon composite fiber can be employed as an elastic supercapacitor with excellent capacitance retention at 300% strain. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The State-of-the-Art of Smart Materials Sensors and Actuators)
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14 pages, 2008 KiB  
Article
An IoT Enable Anomaly Detection System for Smart City Surveillance
by Muhammad Islam, Abdulsalam S. Dukyil, Saleh Alyahya and Shabana Habib
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2358; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042358 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 4680
Abstract
Since the advent of visual sensors, smart cities have generated massive surveillance video data, which can be intelligently inspected to detect anomalies. Computer vision-based automated anomaly detection techniques replace human intervention to secure video surveillance applications in place from traditional video surveillance systems [...] Read more.
Since the advent of visual sensors, smart cities have generated massive surveillance video data, which can be intelligently inspected to detect anomalies. Computer vision-based automated anomaly detection techniques replace human intervention to secure video surveillance applications in place from traditional video surveillance systems that rely on human involvement for anomaly detection, which is tedious and inaccurate. Due to the diverse nature of anomalous events and their complexity, it is however, very challenging to detect them automatically in a real-world scenario. By using Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT), this research work presents an efficient and robust framework for detecting anomalies in surveillance large video data. A hybrid model integrating 2D-CNN and ESN are proposed in this research study for smart surveillance, which is an important application of AIoT. The CNN is used as feature extractor from input videos which are then inputted to autoencoder for feature refinement followed by ESN for sequence learning and anomalous events detection. The proposed model is lightweight and implemented over edge devices to ensure their capability and applicability over AIoT environments in a smart city. The proposed model significantly enhanced performance using challenging surveillance datasets compared to other methods. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue IoT Enabling Technologies for Smart Cities: Challenges and Approaches (Volume II))
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14 pages, 21652 KiB  
Article
H-Shaped Radial Phononic Crystal for High-Quality Factor on Lamb Wave Resonators
by Weitao He, Lixia Li, Zhixue Tong, Haixia Liu, Qian Yang and Tianhang Gao
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2357; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042357 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1754
Abstract
In this paper, a novel H-shaped radial phononic crystal (H-RPC) structure is proposed to suppress the anchor loss of a Lamb wave resonator (LWR), which has an ultra-high frequency (UHF) and ultra-wideband gap characteristics. Compared to previous studies on phononic crystal (PC) structures [...] Read more.
In this paper, a novel H-shaped radial phononic crystal (H-RPC) structure is proposed to suppress the anchor loss of a Lamb wave resonator (LWR), which has an ultra-high frequency (UHF) and ultra-wideband gap characteristics. Compared to previous studies on phononic crystal (PC) structures aimed at suppressing anchor loss, the radial phononic crystal (RPC) structure is more suitable for suppressing the anchor loss of the LWR. By using the finite element method, through the research and analysis of the complex energy band and frequency response, it is found that the elastic wave can generate an ultra-wideband gap with a relative bandwidth of up to 80.2% in the UHF range when propagating in the H-RPC structure. Furthermore, the influence of geometric parameters on the ultra-wideband gap is analyzed. Then, the H-RPC structure is introduced into the LWR. Through the analysis of the resonant frequency, it is found that the LWR formed by the H-RPC structure can effectively reduce the vibration energy radiated by the anchor point. The anchor quality factor was increased by 505,560.4% compared with the conventional LWR. In addition, the analysis of the LWR under load shows that the LWR with the H-RPC structure can increase the load quality factor by 249.9% and reduce the insertion loss by 93.1%, while the electromechanical coupling coefficient is less affected. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue High-Performance MEMS Sensors)
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47 pages, 2662 KiB  
Review
A Survey on 5G Coverage Improvement Techniques: Issues and Future Challenges
by Chilakala Sudhamani, Mardeni Roslee, Jun Jiat Tiang and Aziz Ur Rehman
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2356; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042356 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 30 | Viewed by 10388
Abstract
Fifth generation (5G) is a recent wireless communication technology in mobile networks. The key parameters of 5G are enhanced coverage, ultra reliable low latency, high data rates, massive connectivity and better support to mobility. Enhanced coverage is one of the major issues in [...] Read more.
Fifth generation (5G) is a recent wireless communication technology in mobile networks. The key parameters of 5G are enhanced coverage, ultra reliable low latency, high data rates, massive connectivity and better support to mobility. Enhanced coverage is one of the major issues in the 5G and beyond 5G networks, which will be affecting the overall system performance and end user experience. The increasing number of base stations may increase the coverage but it leads to interference between the cell edge users, which in turn impacts the coverage. Therefore, enhanced coverage is one of the future challenging issues in cellular networks. In this survey, coverage enhancement techniques are explored to improve the overall system performance, throughput, coverage capacity, spectral efficiency, outage probability, data rates, and latency. The main aim of this article is to highlight the recent developments and deployments made towards the enhanced network coverage and to discuss its future research challenges. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Communications)
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17 pages, 6534 KiB  
Article
A Fiber-Optic Non-Invasive Swallowing Assessment Device Based on a Wearable Pressure Sensor
by Masanori Maeda, Miyuki Kadokura, Ryoko Aoki, Noriko Komatsu, Masaru Kawakami, Yuya Koyama, Kazuhiro Watanabe and Michiko Nishiyama
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2355; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042355 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2239
Abstract
We developed a wearable swallowing assessment device using a hetero-core fiber-optic pressure sensor for the detection of laryngeal movement during swallowing. The proposed pressure sensor (comfortably attached to the skin of the neck) demonstrated a high sensitivity of 0.592 dB/kPa and a linearity [...] Read more.
We developed a wearable swallowing assessment device using a hetero-core fiber-optic pressure sensor for the detection of laryngeal movement during swallowing. The proposed pressure sensor (comfortably attached to the skin of the neck) demonstrated a high sensitivity of 0.592 dB/kPa and a linearity of R2 = 0.995 within a 14 kPa pressure band, which is a suitable pressure for the detection of laryngeal movement. In addition, since the fabricated hetero-core fiber-optic pressure sensor maintains appreciable sensitivity over the surface of the sensor, the proposed wearable swallowing assessment device can accurately track the subtle pressure changes induced by laryngeal movements during the swallowing process. Sixteen male subjects and one female subject were evaluated in a variety of age groups ranging from 30 to 60 years old. For all subjects, characteristic swallowing waveforms (with two valleys based on laryngeal movements consisting of upward, forward, backward, and downward displacements) were acquired using the proposed wearable swallowing assessment device. Since the denoted time of the first valley in the acquired waveform determines the “aging effect”, significant differences in swallowing functions among the different age groups were ultimately determined based on the time of the first valley. Additionally, by analyzing each age group using the proposed device, due to p-values being consistently less than 0.05, swallowing times were found to exhibit statistically significant differences within the same groups. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Fibre Sensing Technology in Biomedical Applications)
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13 pages, 1456 KiB  
Article
Validity and Reliability of Kinvent Plates for Assessing Single Leg Static and Dynamic Balance in the Field
by Hugo Meras Serrano, Denis Mottet and Kevin Caillaud
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2354; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042354 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3298
Abstract
The objective of this study was to validate PLATES for assessing unipodal balance in the field, for example, to monitor ankle instabilities in athletes or patients. PLATES is a pair of lightweight, connected force platforms that measure only vertical forces. In 14 healthy [...] Read more.
The objective of this study was to validate PLATES for assessing unipodal balance in the field, for example, to monitor ankle instabilities in athletes or patients. PLATES is a pair of lightweight, connected force platforms that measure only vertical forces. In 14 healthy women, we measured ground reaction forces during Single Leg Balance and Single Leg Landing tests, first under laboratory conditions (with PLATES and with a 6-DOF reference force platform), then during a second test session in the field (with PLATES). We found that for these simple unipodal balance tests, PLATES was reliable in the laboratory and in the field: PLATES gives results comparable with those of a reference force platform with 6-DOF for the key variables in the tests (i.e., Mean Velocity of the Center of Pressure and Time to Stabilization). We conclude that health professionals, physical trainers, and researchers can use PLATES to conduct Single Leg Balance and Single Leg Landing tests in the laboratory and in the field. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Biomedical Sensing, Instrumentation and Systems)
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22 pages, 5162 KiB  
Article
Intrusion Detection System for IoT: Analysis of PSD Robustness
by Lamoussa Sanogo, Eric Alata, Alexandru Takacs and Daniela Dragomirescu
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2353; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042353 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1544
Abstract
The security of internet of things (IoT) devices remains a major concern. These devices are very vulnerable because of some of their particularities (limited in both their memory and computing power, and available energy) that make it impossible to implement traditional security mechanisms. [...] Read more.
The security of internet of things (IoT) devices remains a major concern. These devices are very vulnerable because of some of their particularities (limited in both their memory and computing power, and available energy) that make it impossible to implement traditional security mechanisms. Consequently, researchers are looking for new security mechanisms adapted to these devices and the networks of which they are part. One of the most promising new approaches is fingerprinting, which aims to identify a given device by associating it with a unique signature built from its unique intrinsic characteristics, i.e., inherent imperfections, introduced by the manufacturing processes of its hardware. However, according to state-of-the-art studies, the main challenge that fingerprinting faces is the nonrelevance of the fingerprinting features extracted from hardware imperfections. Since these hardware imperfections can reflect on the RF signal for a wireless communicating device, in this study, we aim to investigate whether or not the power spectral density (PSD) of a device’s RF signal could be a relevant feature for its fingerprinting, knowing that a relevant fingerprinting feature should remain stable regardless of the environmental conditions, over time and under influence of any other parameters. Through experiments, we were able to identify limits and possibilities of power spectral density (PSD) as a fingerprinting feature. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cybersecurity in the Internet of Things)
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12 pages, 2154 KiB  
Article
Characterization of the Kinetyx SI Wireless Pressure-Measuring Insole during Benchtop Testing and Running Gait
by Samuel Blades, Matt Jensen, Trent Stellingwerff, Sandra Hundza and Marc Klimstra
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2352; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042352 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2863
Abstract
This study characterized the absolute pressure measurement error and reliability of a new fully integrated (Kinetyx, SI) plantar-pressure measurement system (PPMS) versus an industry-standard PPMS (F-Scan, Tekscan) during an established benchtop testing protocol as well as via a research-grade, instrumented treadmill (Bertec) during [...] Read more.
This study characterized the absolute pressure measurement error and reliability of a new fully integrated (Kinetyx, SI) plantar-pressure measurement system (PPMS) versus an industry-standard PPMS (F-Scan, Tekscan) during an established benchtop testing protocol as well as via a research-grade, instrumented treadmill (Bertec) during a running protocol. Benchtop testing results showed that both SI and F-Scan had strong positive linearity (Pearson’s correlation coefficient, PCC = 0.86–0.97, PCC = 0.87–0.92; RMSE = 15.96 ± 9.49) and mean root mean squared error RMSE (9.17 ± 2.02) compared to the F-Scan on a progressive loading step test. The SI and F-Scan had comparable results for linearity and hysteresis on a sinusoidal loading test (PCC = 0.92–0.99; 5.04 ± 1.41; PCC = 0.94–0.99; 6.15 ± 1.39, respectively). SI had less mean RMSE (6.19 ± 1.38) than the F-Scan (8.66 ±2.31) on the sinusoidal test and less absolute error (4.08 ± 3.26) than the F-Scan (16.38 ± 12.43) on a static test. Both the SI and F-Scan had near-perfect between-day reliability interclass correlation coefficient, ICC = 0.97–1.00) to the F-Scan (ICC = 0.96–1.00). During running, the SI pressure output had a near-perfect linearity and low RMSE compared to the force measurement from the Bertec treadmill. However, the SI pressure output had a mean hysteresis of 7.67% with a 28.47% maximum hysteresis, which may have implications for the accurate quantification of kinetic gait measures during running. Full article
(This article belongs to the Collection Sensors for Gait, Human Movement Analysis, and Health Monitoring)
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15 pages, 4713 KiB  
Article
Investigation of Microwave Electromagnetic Fields in Open and Shielded Areas and Their Possible Effects on Biological Structure
by Filip Vaverka, Milan Smetana, Daniela Gombarska and Zuzana Psenakova
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2351; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042351 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2264
Abstract
The article’s subject is the investigation of electromagnetic fields (EMF) of the microwave frequency band in a typical human living environment, especially in shielded areas. The point of view of electromagnetic field presence in the environment with the rapid increase in the level [...] Read more.
The article’s subject is the investigation of electromagnetic fields (EMF) of the microwave frequency band in a typical human living environment, especially in shielded areas. The point of view of electromagnetic field presence in the environment with the rapid increase in the level of the electromagnetic background is currently an essential point concerning population protection against the potential adverse effects of such EMFs. The authors focus on actual measurements, especially in shielded spaces frequently used in everyday life, such as elevator cabins and cars. The goal is a quantitative evaluation of the distribution of specific vector quantities of the EM field and a comparison with the currently valid hygiene standards. Measured values in shielded spaces show elevated levels in contrast to the open space. However, the values do not exceed limits set by considering the thermal effect on living tissues. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Electronic Sensors)
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14 pages, 2133 KiB  
Article
Trajectory Planning of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Based on Gauss Pseudospectral Method
by Wenyang Gan, Lixia Su and Zhenzhong Chu
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2350; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042350 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2278
Abstract
This paper aims to address the obstacle avoidance problem of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) in complex environments by proposing a trajectory planning method based on the Gauss pseudospectral method (GPM). According to the kinematics and dynamics constraints, and the obstacle avoidance requirement in [...] Read more.
This paper aims to address the obstacle avoidance problem of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) in complex environments by proposing a trajectory planning method based on the Gauss pseudospectral method (GPM). According to the kinematics and dynamics constraints, and the obstacle avoidance requirement in AUV navigation, a multi-constraint trajectory planning model is established. The model takes energy consumption and sailing time as optimization objectives. The optimal control problem is transformed into a nonlinear programming problem by the GPM. The trajectory satisfying the optimization objective can be obtained by solving the problem with a sequential quadratic programming (SQP) algorithm. For the optimization of calculation parameters, the cubic spline interpolation method is proposed to generate initial value. Finally, through comparison with the linear fitting method, the rapidity of the solution of the cubic spline interpolation method is verified. The simulation results show that the cubic spline interpolation method improves the operation performance by 49.35% compared with the linear fitting method, which verifies the effectiveness of the cubic spline interpolation method in solving the optimal control problem. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensors, Modeling and Control for Intelligent Marine Robots)
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27 pages, 5305 KiB  
Article
Proposal of Mapping Digital Twins Definition Language to Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture
by Salvatore Cavalieri and Salvatore Gambadoro
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2349; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042349 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2525
Abstract
The concept of Digital Twin is of fundamental importance to meet the main requirements of Industry 4.0. Among the standards currently available to realize Digital Twins there is the Digital Twins Definition Language. Digital Twin requires exchange of data with the real system [...] Read more.
The concept of Digital Twin is of fundamental importance to meet the main requirements of Industry 4.0. Among the standards currently available to realize Digital Twins there is the Digital Twins Definition Language. Digital Twin requires exchange of data with the real system it models and with other applications that use the digital replica of the system. In the context of Industry 4.0, a reference standard for an interoperable exchange of information between applications, is Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture. The authors believe that interoperability between Digital Twins and Open Platform Communications Unified Architectures communication standard should be enabled. For this reason, the main goal of this paper is to allow a Digital Twin based on the Digital Twins Definition Language to exchange data with any applications compliant to the Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture. A proposal about the mapping from Digital Twins Definition Language to the Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture will be presented. In order to verify the feasibility of the proposal, an implementation has been made by the authors, and its description will be introduced in the paper. Furthermore, the main results of the validation process accomplished on the basis of this implementation will be given. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Industrial Internet of Things in the Industry 4.0: New Researches, Applications and Challenges)
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20 pages, 4425 KiB  
Article
Voltammetric Sensor Based on the Poly(p-aminobenzoic Acid) for the Simultaneous Quantification of Aromatic Aldehydes as Markers of Cognac and Brandy Quality
by Guzel Ziyatdinova, Tatyana Antonova and Rustam Davletshin
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2348; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042348 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1977
Abstract
Cognac and brandy quality control is an actual topic in food analysis. Aromatic aldehydes, particularly syringaldehyde and vanillin, are one of the markers used for these purposes. Therefore, simple and express methods for their simultaneous determination are required. The voltammetric sensor based on [...] Read more.
Cognac and brandy quality control is an actual topic in food analysis. Aromatic aldehydes, particularly syringaldehyde and vanillin, are one of the markers used for these purposes. Therefore, simple and express methods for their simultaneous determination are required. The voltammetric sensor based on the layer-by-layer combination of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and electropolymerized p-aminobenzoic acid (p-ABA) provides full resolution of the syringaldehyde and vanillin oxidation peaks. Optimized conditions of p-ABA electropolymerization (100 µM monomer in Britton–Robinson buffer pH 2.0, twenty cycles in the polarization window of −0.5 to 2.0 V with a potential scan rate of 100 mV·s−1) were found. The poly(p-ABA)-based electrode was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), cyclic voltammetry, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Electrooxidation of syringaldehyde and vanillin is an irreversible two-electron diffusion-controlled process. In the differential pulse mode, the sensor allows quantification of aromatic aldehydes in the ranges of 0.075–7.5 and 7.5–100 µM for syringaldehyde and 0.50–7.5 and 7.5–100 µM for vanillin with the detection limits of 0.018 and 0.19 µM, respectively. The sensor was applied to cognac and brandy samples and compared to chromatography. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensing Platforms for Food Quality and Safety Monitoring)
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16 pages, 710 KiB  
Review
Protocols Targeting Afferent Pathways via Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation for the Plantar Flexors: A Systematic Review
by Anastasia Papavasileiou, Anthi Xenofondos, Stéphane Baudry, Thomas Lapole, Ioannis G. Amiridis, Dimitrios Metaxiotis, Themistoklis Tsatalas and Dimitrios A. Patikas
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2347; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042347 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2206
Abstract
This systematic review documents the protocol characteristics of studies that used neuromuscular electrical stimulation protocols (NMES) on the plantar flexors [through triceps surae (TS) or tibial nerve (TN) stimulation] to stimulate afferent pathways. The review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items [...] Read more.
This systematic review documents the protocol characteristics of studies that used neuromuscular electrical stimulation protocols (NMES) on the plantar flexors [through triceps surae (TS) or tibial nerve (TN) stimulation] to stimulate afferent pathways. The review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) statement, was registered to PROSPERO (ID: CRD42022345194) and was funded by the Greek General Secretariat for Research and Technology (ERA-NET NEURON JTC 2020). Included were original research articles on healthy adults, with NMES interventions applied on TN or TS or both. Four databases (Cochrane Library, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science) were systematically searched, in addition to a manual search using the citations of included studies. Quality assessment was conducted on 32 eligible studies by estimating the risk of bias with the checklist of the Effective Public Health Practice Project Quality Assessment Tool. Eighty-seven protocols were analyzed, with descriptive statistics. Compared to TS, TN stimulation has been reported in a wider range of frequencies (5–100, vs. 20–200 Hz) and normalization methods for the contraction intensity. The pulse duration ranged from 0.2 to 1 ms for both TS and TN protocols. It is concluded that with increasing popularity of NMES protocols in intervention and rehabilitation, future studies may use a wider range of stimulation attributes, to stimulate motor neurons via afferent pathways, but, on the other hand, additional studies may explore new protocols, targeting for more optimal effectiveness. Furthermore, future studies should consider methodological issues, such as stimulation efficacy (e.g., positioning over the motor point) and reporting of level of discomfort during the application of NMES protocols to reduce the inherent variability of the results. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electrical Stimulation and Methods to Manipulate the Motor and Sensory System: Current Settings and Applications II)
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16 pages, 7397 KiB  
Article
Selective Deeply Supervised Multi-Scale Attention Network for Brain Tumor Segmentation
by Azka Rehman, Muhammad Usman, Abdullah Shahid, Siddique Latif and Junaid Qadir
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2346; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042346 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2491
Abstract
Brain tumors are among the deadliest forms of cancer, characterized by abnormal proliferation of brain cells. While early identification of brain tumors can greatly aid in their therapy, the process of manual segmentation performed by expert doctors, which is often time-consuming, tedious, and [...] Read more.
Brain tumors are among the deadliest forms of cancer, characterized by abnormal proliferation of brain cells. While early identification of brain tumors can greatly aid in their therapy, the process of manual segmentation performed by expert doctors, which is often time-consuming, tedious, and prone to human error, can act as a bottleneck in the diagnostic process. This motivates the development of automated algorithms for brain tumor segmentation. However, accurately segmenting the enhanced and core tumor regions is complicated due to high levels of inter- and intra-tumor heterogeneity in terms of texture, morphology, and shape. This study proposes a fully automatic method called the selective deeply supervised multi-scale attention network (SDS-MSA-Net) for segmenting brain tumor regions using a multi-scale attention network with novel selective deep supervision (SDS) mechanisms for training. The method utilizes a 3D input composed of five consecutive slices, in addition to a 2D slice, to maintain sequential information. The proposed multi-scale architecture includes two encoding units to extract meaningful global and local features from the 3D and 2D inputs, respectively. These coarse features are then passed through attention units to filter out redundant information by assigning lower weights. The refined features are fed into a decoder block, which upscales the features at various levels while learning patterns relevant to all tumor regions. The SDS block is introduced to immediately upscale features from intermediate layers of the decoder, with the aim of producing segmentations of the whole, enhanced, and core tumor regions. The proposed framework was evaluated on the BraTS2020 dataset and showed improved performance in brain tumor region segmentation, particularly in the segmentation of the core and enhancing tumor regions, demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Our code is publicly available. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Biomedical Sensing, Instrumentation and Systems)
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25 pages, 796 KiB  
Article
Sensor Clustering Using a K-Means Algorithm in Combination with Optimized Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Trajectory in Wireless Sensor Networks
by Thanh-Nam Tran, Thanh-Long Nguyen, Vinh Truong Hoang and Miroslav Voznak
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2345; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042345 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2710
Abstract
We examine a general wireless sensor network (WSN) model which incorporates a large number of sensors distributed over a large and complex geographical area. The study proposes solutions for a flexible deployment, low cost and high reliability in a wireless sensor network. To [...] Read more.
We examine a general wireless sensor network (WSN) model which incorporates a large number of sensors distributed over a large and complex geographical area. The study proposes solutions for a flexible deployment, low cost and high reliability in a wireless sensor network. To achieve these aims, we propose the application of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) as a flying relay to receive and forward signals that employ nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA) for a high spectral sharing efficiency. To obtain an optimal number of subclusters and optimal UAV positioning, we apply a sensor clustering method based on K-means unsupervised machine learning in combination with the gap statistic method. The study proposes an algorithm to optimize the trajectory of the UAV, i.e., the centroid-to-next-nearest-centroid (CNNC) path. Because a subcluster containing multiple sensors produces cochannel interference which affects the signal decoding performance at the UAV, we propose a diagonal matrix as a phase-shift framework at the UAV to separate and decode the messages received from the sensors. The study examines the outage probability performance of an individual WSN and provides results based on Monte Carlo simulations and analyses. The investigated results verified the benefits of the K-means algorithm in deploying the WSN. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Applications of WSNs and the IoT)
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21 pages, 1363 KiB  
Article
An Adaptable and Unsupervised TinyML Anomaly Detection System for Extreme Industrial Environments
by Mattia Antonini, Miguel Pincheira, Massimo Vecchio and Fabio Antonelli
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2344; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042344 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 28 | Viewed by 6219
Abstract
Industrial assets often feature multiple sensing devices to keep track of their status by monitoring certain physical parameters. These readings can be analyzed with machine learning (ML) tools to identify potential failures through anomaly detection, allowing operators to take appropriate corrective actions. Typically, [...] Read more.
Industrial assets often feature multiple sensing devices to keep track of their status by monitoring certain physical parameters. These readings can be analyzed with machine learning (ML) tools to identify potential failures through anomaly detection, allowing operators to take appropriate corrective actions. Typically, these analyses are conducted on servers located in data centers or the cloud. However, this approach increases system complexity and is susceptible to failure in cases where connectivity is unavailable. Furthermore, this communication restriction limits the approach’s applicability in extreme industrial environments where operating conditions affect communication and access to the system. This paper proposes and evaluates an end-to-end adaptable and configurable anomaly detection system that uses the Internet of Things (IoT), edge computing, and Tiny-MLOps methodologies in an extreme industrial environment such as submersible pumps. The system runs on an IoT sensing Kit, based on an ESP32 microcontroller and MicroPython firmware, located near the data source. The processing pipeline on the sensing device collects data, trains an anomaly detection model, and alerts an external gateway in the event of an anomaly. The anomaly detection model uses the isolation forest algorithm, which can be trained on the microcontroller in just 1.2 to 6.4 s and detect an anomaly in less than 16 milliseconds with an ensemble of 50 trees and 80 KB of RAM. Additionally, the system employs blockchain technology to provide a transparent and irrefutable repository of anomalies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from the 2022 IEEE International Workshop on Metrology for Industry 4.0 & IoT)
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20 pages, 35574 KiB  
Article
Point Cloud Instance Segmentation with Inaccurate Bounding-Box Annotations
by Yinyin Peng, Hui Feng, Tao Chen and Bo Hu
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2343; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042343 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2674
Abstract
Most existing point cloud instance segmentation methods require accurate and dense point-level annotations, which are extremely laborious to collect. While incomplete and inexact supervision has been exploited to reduce labeling efforts, inaccurate supervision remains under-explored. This kind of supervision is almost inevitable in [...] Read more.
Most existing point cloud instance segmentation methods require accurate and dense point-level annotations, which are extremely laborious to collect. While incomplete and inexact supervision has been exploited to reduce labeling efforts, inaccurate supervision remains under-explored. This kind of supervision is almost inevitable in practice, especially in complex 3D point clouds, and it severely degrades the generalization performance of deep networks. To this end, we propose the first weakly supervised point cloud instance segmentation framework with inaccurate box-level labels. A novel self-distillation architecture is presented to boost the generalization ability while leveraging the cheap but noisy bounding-box annotations. Specifically, we employ consistency regularization to distill self-knowledge from data perturbation and historical predictions, which prevents the deep network from overfitting the noisy labels. Moreover, we progressively select reliable samples and correct their labels based on the historical consistency. Extensive experiments on the ScanNet-v2 dataset were used to validate the effectiveness and robustness of our method in dealing with inexact and inaccurate annotations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Intelligent Point Cloud Processing, Sensing and Understanding)
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22 pages, 11919 KiB  
Article
Flight Controller as a Low-Cost IMU Sensor for Human Motion Measurement
by Artur Iluk
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2342; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042342 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3101
Abstract
Human motion analysis requires information about the position and orientation of different parts of the human body over time. Widely used are optical methods such as the VICON system and sets of wired and wireless IMU sensors to estimate absolute orientation angles of [...] Read more.
Human motion analysis requires information about the position and orientation of different parts of the human body over time. Widely used are optical methods such as the VICON system and sets of wired and wireless IMU sensors to estimate absolute orientation angles of extremities (Xsens). Both methods require expensive measurement devices and have disadvantages such as the limited rate of position and angle acquisition. In the paper, the adaptation of the drone flight controller was proposed as a low-cost and relatively high-performance device for the human body pose estimation and acceleration measurements. The test setup with the use of flight controllers was described and the efficiency of the flight controller sensor was compared with commercial sensors. The practical usability of sensors in human motion measurement was presented. The issues related to the dynamic response of IMU-based sensors during acceleration measurement were discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Human Activity Recognition in Smart Sensing Environment)
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22 pages, 6163 KiB  
Article
Hyperspectral and Multispectral Image Fusion with Automated Extraction of Image-Based Endmember Bundles and Sparsity-Based Unmixing to Deal with Spectral Variability
by Salah Eddine Brezini and Yannick Deville
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2341; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042341 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2787
Abstract
The aim of fusing hyperspectral and multispectral images is to overcome the limitation of remote sensing hyperspectral sensors by improving their spatial resolutions. This process, also known as hypersharpening, generates an unobserved high-spatial-resolution hyperspectral image. To this end, several hypersharpening methods have been [...] Read more.
The aim of fusing hyperspectral and multispectral images is to overcome the limitation of remote sensing hyperspectral sensors by improving their spatial resolutions. This process, also known as hypersharpening, generates an unobserved high-spatial-resolution hyperspectral image. To this end, several hypersharpening methods have been developed, however most of them do not consider the spectral variability phenomenon; therefore, neglecting this phenomenon may cause errors, which leads to reducing the spatial and spectral quality of the sharpened products. Recently, new approaches have been proposed to tackle this problem, particularly those based on spectral unmixing and using parametric models. Nevertheless, the reported methods need a large number of parameters to address spectral variability, which inevitably yields a higher computation time compared to the standard hypersharpening methods. In this paper, a new hypersharpening method addressing spectral variability by considering the spectra bundles-based method, namely the Automated Extraction of Endmember Bundles (AEEB), and the sparsity-based method called Sparse Unmixing by Variable Splitting and Augmented Lagrangian (SUnSAL), is introduced. This new method called Hyperspectral Super-resolution with Spectra Bundles dealing with Spectral Variability (HSB-SV) was tested on both synthetic and real data. Experimental results showed that HSB-SV provides sharpened products with higher spectral and spatial reconstruction fidelities with a very low computational complexity compared to other methods dealing with spectral variability, which are the main contributions of the designed method. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hyperspectral Sensors, Algorithms and Task Performance)
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14 pages, 1989 KiB  
Article
Time Domain Transmissiometry-Based Sensor for Simultaneously Measuring Soil Water Content, Electrical Conductivity, Temperature, and Matric Potential
by Yuki Kojima, Manabu Matsuoka, Tomohide Ariki and Tetsuo Yoshioka
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2340; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042340 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2710
Abstract
Owing to the increasing popularity of smart agriculture in recent years, it is necessary to develop a single sensor that can measure several soil properties, particularly the soil water content and matric potential. Therefore, in this study, we developed a sensor that can [...] Read more.
Owing to the increasing popularity of smart agriculture in recent years, it is necessary to develop a single sensor that can measure several soil properties, particularly the soil water content and matric potential. Therefore, in this study, we developed a sensor that can simultaneously measure soil water content (θ), electrical conductivity (σb), temperature, and matric potential (ψ). The proposed sensor can determine θ and σb using time domain transmissiometry and can determine ψ based on the capacitance of the accompanying ceramic plate. A series of laboratory and field tests were conducted to evaluate the performance of the sensor. The sensor output values were correlated with the soil properties, and the temperature dependence of the sensor outputs was evaluated. Additionally, field tests were conducted to measure transient soil conditions over a long period. The results show that the developed sensor can measure each soil property with acceptable accuracy. Moreover, the root-mean-square errors of the sensor and reference values were 1.7 for the dielectric constant (which is equivalent to θ), 62 mS m−1 for σb, and 0.05–0.88 for log ψ. The temperature dependence was not a problem, except when ψ was below −100 kPa. The sensor can be used for long-term measurements in agricultural fields and exhibited sufficient lifetime and performance. We believe that the developed sensor can contribute to smart agriculture and research on heat and mass transfer in soil. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Smart Agriculture)
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13 pages, 1430 KiB  
Article
Spectroradiometer Calibration for Radiance Transfer Measurements
by Clemens Rammeloo and Andreas Baumgartner
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2339; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042339 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2455
Abstract
Optical remote sensing and Earth observation instruments rely on precise radiometric calibrations which are generally provided by the broadband emission from large-aperture integrating spheres. The link between the integrating sphere radiance and an SI-traceable radiance standard is made by spectroradiometer measurements. In this [...] Read more.
Optical remote sensing and Earth observation instruments rely on precise radiometric calibrations which are generally provided by the broadband emission from large-aperture integrating spheres. The link between the integrating sphere radiance and an SI-traceable radiance standard is made by spectroradiometer measurements. In this work, the calibration efforts of a Spectra Vista Corporation (SVC) HR-1024i spectroradiometer are presented to study how these enable radiance transfer measurements at the Calibration Home Base (CHB) for imaging spectrometers at the Remote Sensing Technology Institute (IMF) of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The spectral and radiometric response calibrations of an SVC HR-1024i spectroradiometer are reported, as well as the measurements of non-linearity and its sensitivity to temperature changes and polarized light. This achieves radiance transfer measurements with the calibrated spectroradiometer with relative expanded uncertainties between 1% and 3% (k=2) over the wavelength range of 380 nm to 2500 nm, which are limited by the uncertainties of the applied radiance standard. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Optical Sensors)
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29 pages, 19442 KiB  
Article
New Cognitive Deep-Learning CAPTCHA
by Nghia Dinh Trong, Thien Ho Huong and Vinh Truong Hoang
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2338; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042338 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 5562
Abstract
CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart), or HIP (Human Interactive Proof), has long been utilized to avoid bots manipulating web services. Over the years, various CAPTCHAs have been presented, primarily to enhance security and usability against new [...] Read more.
CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart), or HIP (Human Interactive Proof), has long been utilized to avoid bots manipulating web services. Over the years, various CAPTCHAs have been presented, primarily to enhance security and usability against new bots and cybercriminals carrying out destructive actions. Nevertheless, automated attacks supported by ML (Machine Learning), CNN (Convolutional Neural Network), and DNN (Deep Neural Network) have successfully broken all common conventional schemes, including text- and image-based CAPTCHAs. CNN/DNN have recently been shown to be extremely vulnerable to adversarial examples, which can consistently deceive neural networks by introducing noise that humans are incapable of detecting. In this study, the authors improve the security for CAPTCHA design by combining text-based, image-based, and cognitive CAPTCHA characteristics and applying adversarial examples and neural style transfer. Comprehend usability and security assessments are performed to evaluate the efficacy of the improvement in CAPTCHA. The results show that the proposed CAPTCHA outperforms standard CAPTCHAs in terms of security while remaining usable. Our work makes two major contributions: first, we show that the combination of deep learning and cognition can significantly improve the security of image-based and text-based CAPTCHAs; and second, we suggest a promising direction for designing CAPTCHAs with the concept of the proposed CAPTCHA. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Sensing and Imaging)
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13 pages, 23788 KiB  
Article
Deep-Learning-Based Context-Aware Multi-Level Information Fusion Systems for Indoor Mobile Robots Safe Navigation
by Yin Jia, Balakrishnan Ramalingam, Rajesh Elara Mohan, Zhenyuan Yang, Zimou Zeng and Prabakaran Veerajagadheswar
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2337; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042337 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2487
Abstract
Hazardous object detection (escalators, stairs, glass doors, etc.) and avoidance are critical functional safety modules for autonomous mobile cleaning robots. Conventional object detectors have less accuracy for detecting low-feature hazardous objects and have miss detection, and the false classification ratio is high when [...] Read more.
Hazardous object detection (escalators, stairs, glass doors, etc.) and avoidance are critical functional safety modules for autonomous mobile cleaning robots. Conventional object detectors have less accuracy for detecting low-feature hazardous objects and have miss detection, and the false classification ratio is high when the object is under occlusion. Miss detection or false classification of hazardous objects poses an operational safety issue for mobile robots. This work presents a deep-learning-based context-aware multi-level information fusion framework for autonomous mobile cleaning robots to detect and avoid hazardous objects with a higher confidence level, even if the object is under occlusion. First, the image-level-contextual-encoding module was proposed and incorporated with the Faster RCNN ResNet 50 object detector model to improve the low-featured and occluded hazardous object detection in an indoor environment. Further, a safe-distance-estimation function was proposed to avoid hazardous objects. It computes the distance of the hazardous object from the robot’s position and steers the robot into a safer zone using detection results and object depth data. The proposed framework was trained with a custom image dataset using fine-tuning techniques and tested in real-time with an in-house-developed mobile cleaning robot, BELUGA. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm detected the low-featured and occluded hazardous object with a higher confidence level than the conventional object detector and scored an average detection accuracy of 88.71%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sensor Technology for Intelligent Control and Computer Visions)
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16 pages, 22548 KiB  
Article
Lensless Three-Dimensional Imaging under Photon-Starved Conditions
by Jae-Young Jang and Myungjin Cho
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2336; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042336 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1553
Abstract
In this paper, we propose a lensless three-dimensional (3D) imaging under photon-starved conditions using diffraction grating and computational photon counting method. In conventional 3D imaging with and without the lens, 3D visualization of objects under photon-starved conditions may be difficult due to lack [...] Read more.
In this paper, we propose a lensless three-dimensional (3D) imaging under photon-starved conditions using diffraction grating and computational photon counting method. In conventional 3D imaging with and without the lens, 3D visualization of objects under photon-starved conditions may be difficult due to lack of photons. To solve this problem, our proposed method uses diffraction grating imaging as lensless 3D imaging and computational photon counting method for 3D visualization of objects under these conditions. In addition, to improve the visual quality of 3D images under severely photon-starved conditions, in this paper, multiple observation photon counting method with advanced statistical estimation such as Bayesian estimation is proposed. Multiple observation photon counting method can estimate the more accurate 3D images by remedying the random errors of photon occurrence because it can increase the samples of photons. To prove the ability of our proposed method, we implement the optical experiments and calculate the peak sidelobe ratio as the performance metric. Full article
(This article belongs to the Collection 3D Imaging and Sensing System)
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16 pages, 6838 KiB  
Article
A Novel Method to Model Image Creation Based on Mammographic Sensors Performance Parameters: A Theoretical Study
by Nektarios Kalyvas, Anastasia Chamogeorgaki, Christos Michail, Aikaterini Skouroliakou, Panagiotis Liaparinos, Ioannis Valais, George Fountos and Ioannis Kandarakis
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2335; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042335 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1756
Abstract
Background: Mammographic digital imaging is based on X-ray sensors with solid image quality characteristics. These primarily include (a) a response curve that yields high contrast and image latitude, (b) a frequency response given by the Modulation Transfer Function (MTF), which enables [...] Read more.
Background: Mammographic digital imaging is based on X-ray sensors with solid image quality characteristics. These primarily include (a) a response curve that yields high contrast and image latitude, (b) a frequency response given by the Modulation Transfer Function (MTF), which enables small detail imaging and (c) the Normalize Noise Power Spectrum (NNPS) that shows the extent of the noise effect on image clarity. Methods: In this work, a methodological approach is introduced and described for creating digital phantom images based on the measured image quality properties of the sensor. For this purpose, a mathematical phantom, simulating breast tissue and lesions of blood, adipose, muscle, Ca and Ca(50%)-P(50%) was created by considering the corresponding X-ray attenuation coefficients. The simulated irradiation conditions of the phantom used four mammographic spectra assuming exponential attenuation. Published data regarding noise and blur of a commercial RadEye HR CMOS imaging sensor were used as input data for the resulting images. Results: It was found that the Ca and Ca(50%)-P(50%) lesions were visible in all exposure conditions. In addition, the W/Rh spectrum at 28 kVp provided more detailed images than the corresponding Mo/Mo spectrum. Conclusions: The presented methodology can act complementarily to image quality measurements, leading to initial optimization of the X-ray exposure parameters per clinical condition. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Radiation Detectors and Sensing Technologies for Biomedical Applications)
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