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Development of the next generation star sensor is tending to miniaturization, low cost and low power consumption, so the imaging system based on FPGA in the past could not meet its developing requirements. A novel design of digital imaging system is discussed in this paper. Combined with the MT9P031 CMOS image sensor’s timing sequence and working mode, the sensor driving circuit and image data memory circuit were implemented with the main control unit TMS320DM3730. In order to make the hardware system has the advantage of small size and light weight, the hardware adopted miniaturization design. The software simulation and experimental results demonstrated that the designed imaging system was reasonable, the function of tunable integration time and selectable window readout modes were realized. The communication with computer was exact. The system has the advantage of the powerful image processing, small-size, compact, stable, reliable and low power consumption. The whole system volume is 40 mm *40 mm *40mm,the system weight is 105g, the system power consumption is lower than 1w. This design provided a feasible solution for the realization of the subminiature star sensor’s imaging system.

In order to timely gain working status parameters of operating parts in combine harvester and improve its operating efficiency, fault diagnosis and load feedback control system is designed. In the system, rotation speed sensors were used to gather these signals of forward speed and rotation speeds of intermediate shaft, conveying trough, tangential and longitudinal flow threshing rotors, grain conveying auger. Using C8051 single chip microcomputer (SCM) as processor for main control unit, faults diagnosis and forward speed control were carried through by rotation speed ratio analysis of each channel rotation speed and intermediate shaft rotation speed by use of multi-sensor fused fuzzy control algorithm, and these processing results would be sent to touch screen and display work status of combine harvester. Field trials manifest that fault monitoring and load feedback control system has good man-machine interaction and the fault diagnosis method based on rotation speed ratios has low false alarm rate, and the system can realize automation control of forward speed for combine harvester.

In this paper, we describe the details of control unit and GUI software for positioning two lter wheels, aslit wheel and a grism wheel in the ADFOSC instrument. This is a rst generation instrument being builtfor the 3.6 m Devasthal optical telescope. The control hardware consists of ve electronic boards based onlow cost 8-bit PIC microcontrollers and are distributed over I2C bus. The four wheels are controlled by fouridentical boards which are con gured in I2C slave mode while the fth board acts as an I2C master for sendingcommands to and receiving status from the slave boards. The master also communicates with the interfacingPC over TCP/IP protocol using simple ASCII commands. For moving the wheels stepper motors along withsuitable ampli ers have been employed. Homing after powering ON is achieved using hall e ect sensors. Byimplementing distributed controlunits havingidentical design modularity is achievedenabling easiermaintenanceand upgradation. A GUI based software for commanding the instrument is developed in Microsoft Visual C++.For operatingthe system during observationsthe user selects normalmode while the engineeringmode is availablefor o ering additional exibility and low level control during maintenance and testing. A detailed time-stampedlog of commands, status and errors are continuously generated. Both the control unit and the software havebeen successfully tested and integrated with the ADFOSC instrument.Keywords: 3.6 m telescope, faint object spectrograph, control unit, GUI software, microcontroller, I2C

The Near Infrared Spectrograph and Photometer (NISP) is one of the instruments on board the ESA EUCLID mission. The Universidad Polit´ecnica de Cartagena and Instituto de Astrof´ısica de Canarias are responsible of the Instrument Control Unit of the NISP (NI-ICU) in the Euclid Consortium. The NI-ICU hardware is developed by CRISA (Airbus Defence and Space), and its main functions are: communication with the S/C and the Data Processing Unit, control of the Filter and Grism Wheels, control of the Calibration Unit and thermal control of the instrument. This paper presents the NI-ICU status of definition and design at the end of the detailed design phase. © (2016) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only. The authors want to acknowledge the contributions provided by the NISP system team of the Euclid Consortium to this work. This work has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy under the projects ESP2013-48362-C2-2-P, ESP2014-56869-C2-2-P and ESP2015-69020-C2-2-R, as well as by ERDF funds from the European Commission.

This paper presents a design proposal for controlling the five thousand fiber positioners within the focal plate of the DESI instrument. Each of these positioners is a robot which allows positioning its optic fiber with a resolution within the range of few microns. The high number and density of these robots poses a challenge for handling the communication from a central control device to each of these five thousand. Furthermore, an additional restriction applies as the required time to communicate to every robot of its position must be smaller than a second. Additionally. a low energy consumption profile is also desired. Both wireless and wired communication protocols have been evaluated, proposing single-technology-based architectures and hybrid ones (a combination of them). Among the wireless solutions, ZigBee and CyFi have been considered. Using simulation tools these wireless protocols have been discarded as they do not allow an efficient communication. The studied wired protocols comprise I2C, CAN and Ethernet. The best solution found is a hybrid multilayer architecture combining both Ethernet and I2C. A 100 Mbps Ethernet based network is used to communicate the central control unit with ten management boards. Each of these boards is a low-cost, low-power embedded device that manages a thirty six degrees sector of the sensing plate. Each of these boards receives the positioning data for five hundred robots and communicate with each one through a fast mode plus I2C bus. This proposal allows to communicate the positioning information for all five thousand robots in 350 ms total.

Athena is one of L-class missions selected in the ESA Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 program for the science theme of the Hot and Energetic Universe. The Athena model payload includes the X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU), an advanced actively shielded X-ray microcalorimeter spectrometer for high spectral resolution imaging, utilizing cooled Transition Edge Sensors. This paper describes the preliminary architecture of Instrument Control Unit (ICU), which is aimed at operating all XIFU's subsystems, as well as at implementing the main functional interfaces of the instrument with the S/C control unit. The ICU functions include the TC/TM management with S/C, science data formatting and transmission to S/C Mass Memory, housekeeping data handling, time distribution for synchronous operations and the management of the X-IFU components (i.e. CryoCoolers, Filter Wheel, Detector Readout Electronics Event Processor, Power Distribution Unit). ICU functions baseline implementation for the phase-A study foresees the usage of standard and Space-qualified components from the heritage of past and current space missions (e.g. Gaia, Euclid), which currently encompasses Leon2/Leon3 based CPU board and standard Space-qualified interfaces for the exchange commands and data between ICU and X-IFU subsystems. Alternative architecture, arranged around a powerful PowerPC-based CPU, is also briefly presented, with the aim of endowing the system with enhanced hardware resources and processing power capability, for the handling of control and science data processing tasks not defined yet at this stage of the mission study.

An airborne 2-micron triple-pulse integrated path differential absorption (IPDA) lidar is currently under development at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC). This IPDA lidar system targets both atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and water vapor (H2O) column measurements. Independent wavelength control of each of the transmitted laser pulses is a key feature for the success of this instrument. The wavelength control unit provides switching, tuning and locking for each pulse in reference to a 2-micron CW (Continuous Wave) laser source locked to CO2 line-center. Targeting the CO2 R30 line center, at 2050.967 nanometers, a wavelength locking unit has been integrated using semiconductor laser diode. The CO2 center-line locking unit includes a laser diode current driver, temperature controller, center-line locking controller and CO2 absorption cell. This paper presents the CO2 center-line locking unit architecture, characterization procedure and results. Assessment of wavelength jitter on the IPDA measurement error will also be addressed by comparison to the system design.

In view of problem of the existing coal mine belt conveyor is no field bus communication function, two levels belt conveyor electric control system design is proposed based on field bus. Two-stage belt conveyor electric control system consists of operation platform, PLC control unit, various sensors, alarm device and the water spraying device. The error protection is realized by PLC programming, made use of CC-Link bus technology, the data share and the cooperative control came true between host station and slave station. The real-time monitor was achieved by the touch screen program. Practical application shows that the system can ensure the coalmine production, and improve the automatic level of the coalmine transport equipment.

This work considers the tracking of the UAV (unmanned aviation vehicle) at landing on unprepared field. Despite the advantages in UAV guidance the autonomous landing remains to be one of most serious problems. The principal difficulties are the absence of the precise UAV position measurements with respect to the landing field and the action of external atmospheric perturbations (turbulence and wind). So the control problem for UAV landing is the nonlinear stochastic one with incomplete information. The aim of the article is the development of stochastic control algorithms based on pseudomeasurement Kalman filter in the problem of the UAV autonomous landing with the aid of ground-based optical/radio radars in the case of strong wind and large initial error of the UAV entrance into the area covered by radars. The novelty of the article is the joint control-observation algorithm based on unbiased pseudomeasurement Kalman filter which provides the quadratic characteristics of the estimation errors. The later property is highly important for the UAV control based on the data fusion from INS (inertial navigation system) and the bearing observations obtained from external terrain based locators. The principal difficulty in the UAV landing control is the absence of the direct control tools at the terrain end, so the possible control can be based on the angular-range data obtained by terrain locators which must be transmitted from terrain location station to the UAV control unit. Thus the stochastic approach looks very effective in this challenging problem of the UAV landing.

For overcoming the problems such as remote operation and dangerous tasks, multi-terminal remote monitoring and warning system based on STC89C52 Micro Control Unit and wireless communication technique was proposed. The system with MCU as its core adopted multiple sets of sensor device to monitor environment parameters of different locations, such as temperature, humidity, smoke other harmful gas concentration. Data information collected was transmitted remotely by wireless transceiver module, and then multi-channel data parameter was processed and displayed through serial communication protocol between the module and PC. The results of system could be checked in the form of web pages within a local network which plays a wireless monitoring and warning role. In a remote operation, four-rotor micro air vehicle which fixed airborne data acquisition device was utilized as a middleware between collecting terminal and PC to increase monitoring scope. Whole test system has characteristics of simple construction, convenience, real time ability and high reliability, which could meet the requirements of actual use.

This paper introduces an example of automated intelligent system for super hard materials turning process that works according to a designed algorithm. Main task of the proposed system is to supervise the super hard materials turning process (acronym: ISSSHMT - Intelligent Supervision System of Super Hard Materials Turning) with the maximal metal removal rate Q vmax , the amplitude of natural tool wear and the measurement of values that define the state of the turning process (e.g. magnitude of cutting force, surface quality, temperature in workspace). Based on the measured values it is possible to select the optimal machining parameters ( v c , a p , f ), for which desired surface quality and dimensional precision can be achieved for the maximal metal removal rate Qvmax. Presented system (ISSSHMT) can be used for any CNC machine – accommodation for workspace and construction of the machine. An example of NC-code program that allows using the data acquired from the ISSSHMT system by a CNC machine control unit is presented. Optimization of the process and cost cutting can be achieved with the usage of proper target functions, for products machined with required precision class.

A range gated laser imaging system has been designed and developed for high precision three-dimensional imaging. The system uses a Nd:YAG electro-optical Q-switched 532nm laser as transmitter, a double microchannel plate as gated sensor, and all the components are controlled by a trigger control unit with accuracy of subnanosecond. An experimental scheme is also designed to achieve high precision imaging; a sequence of 2D “slice” images are acquired in the experiment, and these images provide the basic data for 3D reconstruction. Basing on the centroid algorithm, we have developed the 3D reconstruction algorithm, and use it to reconstruct a 3D image of target from the experimental data. We compare the 3D image with the system performance model, and the results are corresponding.

In this paper we describe the status of the development of the Data Processing Unit (DPU) of the Near-Infrared Spectro- Photometer (NISP) of the Euclid mission. The architecture of this unit is described, along with the Detector Control Unit (DCU), which operates the 16 HAWAII-2RG (H2RG), composing the NISP Focal Plane Array (FPA), by an equivalent number of SIDECAR systems. The design is evolved from the previous phases, with the implementation of a different approach in the data processing and consequently with the implementation of a large data buffer. The approach in implementing failure tolerance on this unit is described in detail; effort has been made to realize an architecture in which the impact of a single failure can be limited, in the worst case, to the loss of only one detector (out of 16). The main requirements driving the design are also described, in order to emphasize the most challenging areas and the foreseen solutions. The foreseen implementation of the on-board processing pipeline is also described, along with the basic interactions with the Instrument Control Unit (ICU) and with the Mass Memory Unit (MMU). Finally, we outline the on going activity for DPU/DCU bread-boarding.

The Euclid mission scientific payload is composed of two instruments: a VISible Imaging Instrument (VIS) and a Near Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer instrument (NISP). Each instrument has its own control unit. The Instrument Command and Data Processing Unit (VI-CDPU) is the control unit of the VIS instrument. The VI-CDPU is connected directly to the spacecraft by means of a MIL-STD-1553B bus and to the satellite Mass Memory Unit via a SpaceWire link. All the internal interfaces are implemented via SpaceWire links and include 12 high speed lines for the data provided by the 36 focal plane CCDs readout electronics (ROEs) and one link to the Power and Mechanisms Control Unit (VI-PMCU). VI-CDPU is in charge of distributing commands to the instrument sub-systems, collecting their housekeeping parameters and monitoring their health status. Moreover, the unit has the task of acquiring, reordering, compressing and transferring the science data to the satellite Mass Memory. This last feature is probably the most challenging one for the VI-CDPU, since stringent constraints about the minimum lossless compression ratio, the maximum time for the compression execution and the maximum power consumption have to be satisfied. Therefore, an accurate performance analysis at hardware layer is necessary, which could delay too much the design and development of software. In order to mitigate this risk, in the multilayered design of software we decided to design a middleware layer that provides a set of APIs with the aim of hiding the implementation of the HW connected layer to the application one. The middleware is built on top of the Operating System layer (which includes the Real-Time OS that will be adopted) and the onboard Computer Hardware. The middleware itself has a multi-layer architecture composed of 4 layers: the Abstract RTOS Adapter Layer (AOSAL), the Speci_c RTOS Adapter Layer (SOSAL), the Common Patterns Layer (CPL), the Service Layer composed of two subgroups which are the Common Service (CSL) and the Specific Service layer (SSL). The middleware design is made using the UML 2.0 standard. The AOSAL includes the abstraction of services provided by a generic RTOS (e.g Thread/Task, Time Management, Mutex and Semaphores) as well as an abstraction of SpaceWire and 1553-B bus Interface. The SOSAL is the implementation of AOSAL for the adopted RTOS. The CPL provides a set of patterns that are a general solution for common problems related to embedded hard Real Time systems. This set includes patterns for memory management, homogenous redundancy channels, pipes and filters for data exchange, proxies for slow memories, watchdog and reactive objects. The CPL is designed using a soft-metamodeling approach, so as to be as general as possible. Finally, the SL provides a set of services that are common to space applications. The testing of this middleware can be done both during the design using appropriate tools of analysis and in the implementation phase by means of unit testing tools.

A tester for measuring face gears’ transmission error was developed based on single-flank rolling principle. The mechanical host was of hybrid configuration of the vertical and horizontal structures. The tester is mainly constituted by base, precision spindle, grating measurement system and control unit. The structure of precision spindles was designed, and rotation accuracy of the spindleswas improved. The key techniques, such as clamping, positioning and adjustment of the gears were researched. In order to collect the data of transmission error, high-frequency clock pulse subdivision count method with higher measurement resolution was proposed. The developed tester can inspect the following errors, such as transmission error of the pair, tangential composite deviation for the measured face gear, pitch deviation, eccentricity error, and so on. The results of measurement can be analyzed by the tester; The tester can meet face gear quality testing requirements for accuracy of grade 5.

With the lack of standardized or completely missing communication interfaces in home electronics, there is no perfect solution to address every aspect in smart homes based on existing protocols and technologies. In addition, the central control unit (CCU) of smart home system working point-to-point between the multiple application interfaces and the underlying hardware interfaces leads to its complicated architecture and unpleasant performance. A flexible data access and protocol integration mechanism is required. The current paper offers a universal, comprehensive data access and protocol integration mechanism for a smart home. The universal mechanism works as a middleware adapter with unified agreements of the communication interfaces and protocols, offers an abstraction of the application level from the hardware specific and decoupling the hardware interface modules from the application level. Further abstraction for the application interfaces and the underlying hardware interfaces are executed based on adaption layer to provide unified interfaces for more flexible user applications and hardware protocol integration. This new universal mechanism fundamentally changes the architecture of the smart home and in some way meets the practical requirement of smart homes more flexible and desirable.

Within the past couple of years one can see a general trend in high power diode lasers among others towards the highest possible brightness. The product portfolio of TRUMPF high brightness diode lasers with output power < 1kW will be presented. The architecture of these diode lasers, their main specifications as well as the main features of the control unit are shown. Some examples of the applications of these lasers in such advanced material processing techniques as welding of plastics and welding of thin metal sheets is also presented.

In order to detect apple tree growth status fast and accurately, four sensitive wavebands (364nm, 652nm, 766nm, 810nm) were obtained by analyzing the correlation between the apple leaves spectra and their nitrogen contents plus adopting the segment reduced precise sampling methods. A rapid determination model of apple leaf nitrogen content suitable for portable detector was built. Then a portable spectroscopy-based device was developed. It consists of an optical unit and a control unit. The optical channel was consisted of convex lens, optical filter, photoelectric detector and airtight mechanical exine. The optical unit was used to capture, transit, transform and submit the optical signal. The controller was consisted of operation, input, display, data storage and power control unit adopting JN5139 as main control unit. Controller was the coordinator in building the wireless network. And it was also responsible for receiving the measured data from sensor, calculating vegetation index, and displaying and storing the calculated results. The experiments showed that the correlation coefficient between the measured nitrogen content and the predicted nitrogen content reached to 0.857. It illustrated that the apple tree nitrogen detector was practical and could be used to detect leaf nitrogen content in apple orchard.

The SpicA FAR infrared Instrument (SAFARI) is a European instrument for the infrared domain telescope SPICA, a JAXA space mission. The SAFARI detectors are Transistor Edge Sensors (TES) arranged in 3 matrixes. The TES front end electronic is based on Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices (SQUIDs) and it does the readout of the 3500 detectors with Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) type architecture. The Detector Control Unit (DCU), contributed by IRAP, manages the readout of the TES by computing and providing the AC-bias signals (1 - 3 MHz) to the TES and by computing the demodulation of the returning signals. The SQUID being highly non-linear, the DCU has also to provide a feedback signal to increase the SQUID dynamic. Because of the propagation delay in the cables and the processing time, a classic feedback will not be stable for AC-bias frequencies up to 3 MHz. The DCU uses a specific technique to compensate for those delays: the BaseBand FeedBack (BBFB). This digital data processing is done for the 3500 pixels in parallel. Thus, to keep the DCU power budget within its allocation we have to specifically optimize the architecture of the digital circuit with respect to the power consumption. In this paper we will mainly present the DCU architecture. We will particularly focus on the BBFB technique used to linearize the SQUID and on the optimization done to reduce the power consumption of the digital processing circuit.

As the increasing size and more and more functions, modern telescopes have widely used the control architecture, i.e. central control unit plus field controller. FPGA-based field controller has the advantages of field programmable, which provide a great convenience for modifying software and hardware of control system. It also gives a good platform for implementation of the new control scheme. Because of multi-controlled nodes and poor working environment in scattered locations, reliability and stability of the field controller should be fully concerned. This paper mainly describes how we use the FPGA-based field controller and Ethernet remote to construct monitoring system with multi-nodes. When failure appearing, the new FPGA chip does self-recovery first in accordance with prerecovery strategies. In case of accident, remote reconstruction for the field controller can be done through network intervention if the chip is not being restored. This paper also introduces the network remote reconstruction solutions of controller, the system structure and transport protocol as well as the implementation methods. The idea of hardware and software design is given based on the FPGA. After actual operation on the large telescopes, desired results have been achieved. The improvement increases system reliability and reduces workload of maintenance, showing good application and popularization.

Protecting critical infrastructure against intrusion, sabotage or vandalism is a task that requires a comprehensive situation picture. Modern security systems should provide a total solution including sensors, software, hardware, and a "control unit" to ensure complete security. Incorporating unmanned mobile sensors can significantly help to close information gaps and gain an ad hoc picture of areas where no pre-installed supervision infrastructure is available or damaged after an incident. Fraunhofer IOSB has developed the generic ground control station AMFIS which is capable of managing sensor data acquisition with all kinds of unattended stationary sensors, mobile ad hoc sensor networks, and mobile sensor platforms. The system is highly mobile and able to control various mobile platforms such as small UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) and UGVs (Unmanned Ground Vehicles). In order to establish a real-time situation picture, also an image exploitation process is used. In this process, video frames from different sources (mainly from small UAVs) are georeferenced by means of a system of image registration methods. Relevant information can be obtained by a motion detection module. Thus, the image exploitation process can accelerate the situation assessment significantly.

With the improvement of living standard, the incidence of diabetes increases year by year. Minimally invasive blood glucose monitoring is an effectively way to control diabetes, and it is achieved by measuring the glucose concentration of interstitial fluid in human body. This paper presents a portable minimally-invasive human glucose detection instrument which is based on a miniature integrated surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor. D-galactose/D-glucose Binding Protein (GGBP) which can specifically absorb glucose moleculars is used to modify the gold surface of SPR sensor for higher sensitivity and stability. The instrument includes an interstitial fluid extraction unit, a liquid flow unit, a SPR sensor unit and a circuit control unit. Interstitial fluid is extracted from human body using the interstitial fluid extraction unit, and it is then transported to the SPR sensor by the liquid flow unit, and the SPR sensor can detect the glucose concentration in the interstitial fluid. The acquisition and process of data is controlled by the circuit control unit, which controls the operation of the whole system as well. The glucose detection resolution could reach 6.25mg/L, and the experiment result has good linearity when the glucose concentration ranges from 6.25mg/L to 50mg/L.

With the development of active optics, control technology and computer, telescope control system (TCS) becomes more and more complicated. Large telescope control system contains thousands of controlled objects, and large telescopes are usually built in special location. These are challenge for control system. This paper research advanced control technique of TCS, presents the topology structure of wireless local area networks control, remote control based on satellites and wireless portable control and expatiates the real-time design of telescope control units.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a composite agent model for computer generated forces. Based on the analysis and modeling on real force operation, a hierarchically structured CGF agent model was proposed. The model clearly draws the separation between the knowledge base and the functional part, while preserving the hierarchical structure of the model. The hierarchically structured levels of knowledge were not only constructed using the concepts of the lower levels, but they were also used to trigger activities at lower levels.The multi-stages control unit combines patterns of behavior with explicit planning facilities. Patterns of behavior allow CGF to react quickly and flexibly to changes in its environment.They are also building block of CGF plan. The model are able to plan activities and execute them within a framework designed to support devolved planning and execution of high level tasks in a manner similar to that found in military command structures.

A self-developed automatic dual-channel detecting instrument based on SPR (surface plasmon resonance) principle was presented in this paper. This instrument was constructed by the sample-load system, the sample flow-routing system, SPR sensor and control circuit. Formed by a sample injection needle that can move up and down and a sample plate, the sample-load system can realize the measurements of 15 kinds of samples, and the automatic cleaning of the sample injection needle. The sample-routing system consisted of two precision syringe pumps and a microelectric valve, which ensured that there is always solution flowing through the SPR sensor surface during the automatic sample injection process. The whole sampling process was jointly accomplished by sample-load system, the sample-routing system and the control circuit. Applying two section of air to isolate, it separated the sample from the buffer or the regenerated liquid, and then reduced the instrument's measurement error. Sensor is the kernel of the whole instrument, and a self-designed dual-channel SPR sensor was applied to this detecting instrument. The control circuit mainly included: the MCU(microcontroller unit) control unit with the core of C8051F020 to control the automatic sampling system of pumps and valves, USB2.0 interface circuit with the core of CY7C68013 to realize the dual-communication between PC and MCU, the real-time data acquisition and uploading to the PC for further analysis and processing. The results of the concentration detecting experiments and data analysis of sucrose showed that this system has good measurement accuracy and stability.

Infrared object detection is an important technique of digital image processing. It is widely used in automatic navigation, intelligent video surveillance systems, traffic detection, medical image processing etc. Infrared object detection system requires large storage and high speed processing technology. The current development trend is the system which can be achieved by hardware in real-time with fewer operations and higher performance. As a main large-scale programmable specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array (FPGA) can meet all the requirements of high speed image processing, with the characteristics of simple algorithm realization, easy programming, good portability and inheritability. So it could get better result by using FPGA to infrared object detection system. According to the requirements, the infrared object detection system is designed on FPGA. By analyzing some of the main algorithms of object detection, two new object detection algorithms called integral compare algorithm (ICA) and gradual approach centroid algorithm (GACA) are presented. The system design applying FPGA in hardware can implement high speed processing technology, which brings the advantage of both performance and flexibility. ICA is a new type of denoising algorithm with advantage of lower computation complexity and less execution time. What is more important is that this algorithm can be implemented in FPGA expediently. Base on image preprocessing of ICA, GACA brings high positioning precision with advantage of insensitivity to the initial value and fewer times of convergence iteration. The experiments indicate that the infrared object detection system can implement high speed infrared object detecting in real-time, with high antijamming ability and high precision. The progress of Verilog-HDL and its architecture are introduced in this paper. Considering the engineering application, this paper gives the particular design idea and the flow of this method's realization in FPGA device. And we also discuss the problems on how to describe the hardware system in Verilog-HDL. Based on the hardware architecture of infrared object detection system, the component units of the system are discussed in detail, such as image data acquisition unit, data pre-processing unit and logical control unit etc. The design of the FPGA function and its implementation are carried on Verilog-HDL with TOP-DOWN method. The ending is the prospect of the project.

In this study, a portable type HMS (Health Monitoring System) device is newly developed. It has features 1) puncturing a blood vessel by using a minimally invasive micro-needle, 2) extracting and transferring human blood and 3) measuring blood glucose level. This miniature SMBG (Self-Monitoring of Blood Glucose) device employs a syringe reciprocal blood extraction system equipped with an electro-mechanical control unit for accurate and steady operations. The device consists of a) a disposable syringe unit, b) a non-disposable body unit, and c) a glucose enzyme sensor. The syringe unit consists of a syringe itself, its cover, a piston and a titanium alloy micro-needle, whose inner diameter is about 100 m. The body unit consists of a linear driven-type stepping motor, a piston jig, which connects directly to the shaft of the stepping motor, and a syringe jig, which is driven by combining with the piston jig and slider, which fixes the syringe jig. The required thrust to drive the slider is designed to be greater than the value of the blood extraction force. Because of this driving mechanism, the automatic blood extraction and discharging processes are completed by only one linear driven-type stepping motor. The experimental results using our miniature SMBG device was confirmed to output more than 90% volumetric efficiency under the driving speed of the piston, 1.0mm/s. Further, the blood sugar level was measured successfully by using the glucose enzyme sensor.

In this paper, a novel MEMS accelerometer based fuel control system for automobile applications has been presented, primarily to be used in Engine Control Unit (ECU). It consists of a MEMS accelerometer inertial sensor for acceleration/velocity measurement of automobile followed by a dedicated signal conditioning unit, data converter and fuel control unit. MEMS accelerometer implemented in this work is an application specific low-g single axis piezoresistive bulk micromachined device with very low cross-axis sensitivity, and fabricated using post-process CMOS compatible dual-dope (Silicic acid +Ammonium per Sulphate) TMAH anisotropic etching. Signal conditioning circuit is a chopper stabilized (CS) low noise amplifier suitable for low frequency low amplitude signal amplification. Data converter is a low power, 6-bit successive approximation (SAR) ADC. Circuit is designed in 0.18 µm CMOS technology. PID based control unit, which regulates the duration of fuel injection depending on the driver's request in real time for optimal efficiency and minimal pollution, has been developed in Simulink module.

The k1 factor continues to be driven downwards, even beyond its theoretical limit 0.25 in order to enable the 32 nm feature generation and beyond. Due to the extremely small process window that will be available for such extremely demanding imaging challenges, it is necessary that each unit contributing to the imaging system be driven to its ultimate performance capability. The units in such an integrated imaging system include the projection lens, illumination optics, in-situ metrology tooling, reticle stage control, and wafer stage control. In this paper we are going to discuss the required functions especially for projection lens and illumination system and how to optimally control each unit in cooperation with the others in order to achieve the goal of 32 nm patterning and beyond.

In this paper, we report on the development of a correlation tracker system for the New Solar Telescope (NST). It consists of three sub-systems: a tip-tilt mirror unit, a camera un it, and a control unit. Its software has been developed via Microsoft Visual C++, which enables us to take images from the high-speed CMOS camera in order to measure the image motions induced by atmospheric turbulence by using SAD algorithm and 2-D FFT cross-correlation, and to control the high-dynamics Piezo tip-tilt mirror for tip-tilt correction. We adopted the SIMD technology and parallel programming technology based on the Intel Core 2 Quad pro cessor without any additional processing system (FPGA or DSP) for high-speed performance. As a result, we can make a tip-tilt correction with about seven hundreds of Hz in a closed loop mode. The prototype system has been successfully developed in a laboratory and will be installed on the NST. Keywords: correlation tracker, solar telescope, parallel programming

Current practice for the detection of chemical, biological and explosive (CBE) agent contamination on environmental surfaces requires a human to don protective gear, manually take a sample and then package it for subsequent laboratory analysis. Ground robotics now provides an operator-safe way to make these critical measurements. We describe the development of a robot-deployed surface detection system for CBE agents that does not require the use of antibodies or DNA primers. The detector is based on Raman spectroscopy, a reagentless technique that has the ability to simultaneously identify multiple chemical and biological hazards. Preliminary testing showed the ability to identify CBE simulants in 10 minutes or less. In an operator-blind study, this detector was able to correctly identify the presence of trace explosive on weathered automobile body panels. This detector was successfully integrated on a highly agile robot platform capable of both high speed and rough terrain operation. The detector is mounted to the end of five-axis arm that allows precise interrogation of the environmental surfaces. The robot, arm and Raman detector are JAUS compliant, and are controlled via a radio link from a single operator control unit. Results from the integration testing and from limited field trials are presented.

The HuntIR long range thermal weapon sight of AIM is deployed in various out of area missions since 2004as a part of the German Future Infantryman system (IdZ). In 2007 AIM “elded RangIR as upgrade withintegrated laser Range “nder (LRF), digital magnetic compass (DMC) and “re control unit (FCU). RangIR “llsthe capability gaps of day/night “re control for grenade machine guns (GMG) and the enhanced system of theIdZ. Due to proven expertise and proprietary methods in “re control, fast access to military trials for optimisationloops and similar hardware platforms, AIM and the University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg (HSU)decided to team for the development of suitable “re control algorithms. The pronounced ballistic trajectoryof the 40mm GMG requires most accurate FCU-solutions speci“cally for air burst ammunition (ABM) andis most sensitive to faint eects like levelling or “ring up/downhill. This weapon was therefore selected tovalidate the quality of the FCU hard- and software under relevant military conditions. For exterior ballistics themodi“ed point mass model according to STANAG 4355 is used. The die rential equations of motions are solvednumerically, the two point boundary value problem is solved iteratively. Computing time varies according to theprecision needed and is typical in the range from 0.1 - 0.5 seconds. RangIR provided outstanding hit accuracyincluding ABM fuze timing in various trials of the Ger man Army and allied partners in 2007 and is now readyfor series production. This paper deals mainly with the fundamentals of the “re control algorithms and showshow to implement them in combination with any DSP-equipped thermal weapon sights (TWS) in a variety oflight supporting weapon systems.Keywords: thermal weapon sight, “re control unit, automatic grenade launcher, “rst hit probability, “re controlalgorithms

Many modern technologies widely deploy semi-autonomous robotic platforms, remotely controlled by a human operator. Such tasks usually require rapid fusion of multisensor imagery and auxiliary geospatial data. Operational-control units in particular can be considered as displays of the decision-support systems, and the complexity of automated multi-domain geospatial data fusion leads to human-in-the loop technology which widely deploys visual analytics. While a number of research studies have investigated eye movements and attention on casual scenes, there has been a lack of investigations concerning the expert's eye movements and visual attention, specifically when an operator is engaged in real-time visual data fusion to control and maneuver a remote unmanned robotic vehicle which acquires visual data using CCTV cameras in visible, IR or other spectral zones, and transmits this data through telemetric channels to a human operator. In this paper we investigate the applicability of eye-tracking technology for the numerical assessment of efficiency of an operator in fusion of multi-sensor and multi-geometry visual data in real-time robotic control tasks.

Triggering instrumentation for autonomous monitoring of load-induced strain is described for economical, fast bridge inspection. The development addresses one aspect for the management of transportation infrastructure - bridge monitoring and inspection. The objectives are to provide quantitative performance information from a load test, to minimize the setup time at the bridge, and to minimize the closure time to traffic. Multiple or networked measurements can be made for a prescribed loading sequence. The proposed smart system consists of in-situ strain sensors, an embedded data acquisition module, and a measurement triggering system. A companion control unit is mounted on the truck serving as the load. As the truck moves to the proper position, the desired measurement is automatically relayed back to the control unit. In this work, the testing protocol is developed and the performance parameters for the triggering and data acquisition are measured. The test system uses a dedicated wireless sensor mote and an infrared positioning system. The electronic procedure offers improvements in available information and economics.

Massive deployment of FTTH fiber network causes protection to FTTH network a crucial need. Most FTTH access networks are protected from failure by having redundant network equipments. These are not economical approaches, as the redundant systems are not efficiently utilized by the network. In this paper, the authors propose a protection method where redundant equipments are not required and protection is provided to end user through sharing of bandwidth during the failure time. A protection control unit and an optical switch is employed connecting four Optical Line Terminations (OLTs) with each one serving only 32 Optical Network Units (ONUs). Protection control unit collects information of ONUs served by each OLT and when an OLT fails, it will instruct an active OLT to serve its original ONUs together with the ONUs served by the failed OLT. It also provides information of ONUs served and inform the involved 64 ONUs of their new timeslot allocation. Then, the signal is switched from failed OLT's line to the instructed active OLT. The results show that through sharing of bandwidth, adequate protection is provided without redundant equipment for more than one OLT failure.

Brake system of railway vehicles has a crucial role for the safety as well as riding quality of passengers. Its core technology for successful development of the brake system is to design of ECU (Electric Control Unit) containing antiskid control, brake blending control, load compensating control, and so on. Each development procedure of ECU involves a verifying test for each step and is completed by an evaluation test of the comprehensive performance verification for the overall systems. The development tool which is applied to this objective is the HILS (Hardware-In-the- Loop-Simulation). In order to design a controller, a good representative model of the system is needed. This paper describes the dynamic modeling of brake system of railway vehicle for HILS and analyzes some dynamic behavior under emergency braking force.

Image quality is the most important performance of optical lithography tool and it is influenced by many factors. Temperature stability of projection lens is one of the main factors. It is difficult to control temperature stability of the projection lens because of its features of big inertia, multi-time-delay and multi-perturbation. Temperature control unit (TCU), which is used to control the projection lens temperature, is required to operate far away from projection lens, otherwise it will increase COO of lithography tool and its vibration will affect the performance of projection lens. So a remote temperature control method is proposed. A two-input and two-output intelligent algorithm is presented to improve convergent rate and steady-state accuracy of the temperature control system for projection lens. Control process is divided into five phases according to the ideal dynamic response curve. A nonlinear PI algorithm is recommended to precisely adjust temperature and an intelligent decision decides the switch of five multi-phases. The experiment results show that ±0.006°C temperature stability can be realized and the algorithm has advantage of quick convergent rate, strong robustness and self-adaptability. This algorithm has been used in optical lithography tool with 100nm CD and has achieved good temperature stability.

With the rapid development of the electronic technology, multimedia technology and network technology, video monitoring system is going to the embedded, digital direction. In this paper, a solution of embedded video monitoring system based on OMAP5912 is proposed. This solution makes full use of the advantages of dual-core of OMAP, which include ARM core and DSP core. Non-realtime task such as user interface and control unit is assigned to ARM, and realtime task such as video encoding is assigned to DSP. The capture and control task of the ARM side and the video encoding task of the DSP side are described in detail. The experiments demonstrate that the video encoding speed has been greatly improved by the proposed system comparing with the single ARM chip system. The frame rate of the monitoring system is increased in a large scale, and more suitable for the application in practice.

This paper presents a new reconfigurable architecture created in FPGA which is optimized for DSP algorithms like digital filters or digital transforms. The architecture tries to combine advantages of typical architectures like DSP processors and datapath architecture, while avoiding their drawbacks. The architecture is built from blocks called Operational Units (OU). Each Operational Unit contains the Control Unit (CU), which controls its operation. The Operational Units may operate in parallel, which shortens the processing time. This structure is also highly flexible, because all OUs may operate independently, executing their own programs. User may customize connections between units and modify architecture by adding new modules.

Our research has focused on how to expand the capabilities of an Omni-Directional Inspection Robot (ODIS) to assist in vehicle inspections at traffic control checkpoints with a standoff distance of 450m. We have implemented an mast, extendible to eight feet, capable of carrying a sensor payload that has an RS-232 connection with a simple set of commands to control its operation. We have integrated a communications chain that provides the desired distance and sufficient speed to transmit a live digital feed to the operator control unit (OCU). We have also created a physically-based simulation of ODIS and our mast inside of Webots and have taken data to calibrate a motion response model.

This paper presents the development of a sapphire-based fiber-optic sensing system for temperature monitoring in harsh environment, including sensor and system design, implementation, laboratory tests and field demonstration. The sensor is built with single-crystal sapphire fiber and sapphire wafer. As the sensing element, the wafer constitutes an extrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometer (EFPI) by its two surfaces. Its optical thickness has significant thermal dependence and provides temperature information through white light interferometry. The sensors were tested to 1600°C with 0.2% full scale accuracy and 0.5°C resolution. They were further demonstrated in industrial environment. A complete sensing system was developed around the sensor for temperature monitoring in a coal gasifier at the Tampa Electric Company's Polk Power Station. It consists of three major components: 1) Sensors and their packaging which were installed in the coal gasifier, 2) Optical interrogation unit for detection and transmission of sensor signal, and 3) Processing and control unit for signal demodulation. The system continuously operated and delivered temperature readings for seven months.

Absorbency measurement is the most important step in the ELISA analysis. Based on the spectrophotometry, absorbency photometer system used in a fully automatic ELISA analyzer is developed. The system is one core module of the fully automatic ELISA analyzer. The principle and function of the system is analyzed. Three main units of the system, the photoelectric transform unit, the data processing unit and the communication and control unit, are designed and debugged. Finally, the test of the system is carried out using the verification plate. The experiment results agree well with the requirements.

For monitoring or tracking a vehicle locally or remotely, positioning information should be stored locally or transferred through wireless network timely. One of those key problems in such a system is to find an appropriate time-duration to update the position of the vehicle. If the time-duration is too small, too much positioning data will be stored locally or be transferred; but if the time duration is too big, the track cannot be recorded faithfully, and you can not identify the actual route the vehicle just went through. To resolve this problem, an adaptive method based on map-matching technology and fuzzy description is presented in this paper. Through running map-matching by comparing the vehicle's positioning information with road network geometrical and topological information in digital maps, a more precise position can be obtained and the current road can be identified. After that, the following factors are considered to detect whether the current position need be updated in center control unit: time duration, running distance, estimation error, the vehicle state changing, and running road changing. A deduction method is used to estimate and compare with the measured vehicle state. And a quantitative fuzzy description is used to describe the speed and angular speed of the vehicle. After that, an OR arithmetic logic computing unit is used to decide whether need update current position to center control unit. Finally, a test is given to evaluate this algorithm. The proposed adaptive algorithm can record the vehicle's track faithfully, and at the same time it decreases the communication cost between the mobile station and the center control unit.

A structural control system consists of sensors, controllers, and actuators integrated in a single network to effectively mitigate building vibration during external excitations. The costs associated with high-capacity actuators and system installation are factors impeding the wide spread adoption of structural control technology. Wireless communication can potentially lower installation costs by eliminating coaxial cables and offer better flexibility and adaptability in the design of a structural control system. This paper introduces a prototype wireless sensing and control unit that can be incorporated in a real-time structural c ontrol system. Tests are conducted using a 3-story half-scale laboratory structure instrumented with magnetorheological dampers to validate the feasibility of the wireless structural control system. This paper also addresses the serious issue of time delay and communication range inherent to wireless technologies. Numerical simulations using different decentralized structural control strategies are conducted on a 20-story steel structure controlled by semi -active hydraulic dampers. Keywords: structural control, wireless comm unication, embedded computing, decentr alized output feedback control.

Most residential heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems utilize a single zone for conditioning air throughout the entire house. While inexpensive, these systems lead to wide temperature distributions and inefficient cooling due to the difference in thermal loads in different rooms. The end result is additional cost to the end user because the house is over conditioned. To reduce the total amount of energy used in a home and to increase occupant comfort there is a need for a better control system using multiple temperature zones. Typical multi-zone systems are costly and require extensive infrastructure to function. Recent advances in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have enabled a low cost drop-in wireless vent register control system. The register control system is controlled by a master controller unit, which collects sensor data from a distributed wireless sensor network. Each sensor node samples local settings (occupancy, light, humidity and temperature) and reports the data back to the master control unit. The master control unit compiles the incoming data and then actuates the vent resisters to control the airflow throughout the house. The control system also utilizes a smart thermostat with a movable set point to enable the user to define their given comfort levels. The new system can reduce the run time of the HVAC system and thus decreasing the amount of energy used and increasing the comfort of the home occupations.

To evaluate the effect of digitization on platoon effectiveness and investigate the suitability of different platoon structures, a twelve-day field trial was undertaken with a Company of light infantry at Fort Benning, Georgia. Test missions were conducted in both day and night conditions, in wooded and urban terrain environments, in each of three organizational structures, with and without digitization. The three different organizational structures included our current in-service 8-man Section, a 13-man USMC squad, and a distributed model comprising six four-man teams. Results of this study confirmed that the effectiveness of a dismounted platoon is significantly enhanced by the use of select digital enhancements in the areas of navigation, situation awareness, communications, and command. During night operations, digitally-enabled capabilities were the difference between mission success and failure. None of the organizational structures tested proved to be universally better than the others at optimizing the benefits of digitally-enhanced capabilities, although each had their strengths and weaknesses. However, considerable insights were gained in the organizational structure issues of distributed small unit command and control, swarming formation tactics, and the tactics, techniques, and procedures necessary to employ small units effectively in a NCW environment.

Resizing AMLCD's by cutting has been demonstrated over a period of 15 years. However, compatibility of this approach with a harsh land-military environment has only recently been established. This paper will describe development and testing of a resized AMLCD, specifically to explore application to this environment. The application and test environment selected is that of the Control-Display unit for the Mobile Gun System (MGS). We describe the existing MGS display requirements and how the resized COTS display matched these requirements. We have also included results from performance and environmental tests that were used to validate this technology in the land-mobile environment.

Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, San Diego (SSC San Diego) has developed an unmanned vehicle and sensor operator control interface capable of simultaneously controlling and monitoring multiple sets of heterogeneous systems. The modularity, scalability and flexible user interface of the Multi-robot Operator Control Unit (MOCU) accommodates a wide range of vehicles and sensors in varying mission scenarios. MOCU currently controls all of the SSC San Diego developmental vehicles (land, air, sea, and undersea), including the SPARTAN Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV), the iRobot PackBot, and the Family of Integrated Rapid Response Equipment (FIRRE) vehicles and sensors. This paper will discuss how software and hardware modularity has allowed SSC San Diego to create a single operator control unit (OCU) with the capability to control a wide variety of unmanned systems.

The Local Oscillator Subsystem is a part of the HIFI (Heterodyne Instrument for Far Infrared) project, an infrared heterodyne instrument for astronomical observations on the ESA satellite HERSCHEL. The Local Oscillator Subsystem (LO), provides the signals (480 to 1910 GHz) to the fourteen HIFI input mixers. The subsystem consists of three assemblies: the synthesizer unit (LSU assembly) generates the reference signals in K/Ka Bands, the signals are then distributed to 14 sets of amplifiers and multipliers (LOU assembly. The Local Oscillator Control Unit (LCU assembly) provides the main interface between LO and HIFI/Herschel power and telemetry systems. The unit supplies LO, decodes the HIFI macro-commands, programs and monitors the LSU/LOU parameters and finally controls the operation of the whole LO. This paper presents the general overview of the LO Subsystem and LCU unit. The authors focus on the reliability aspects of the LCU. The methods of biasing, in a "safe" way, of the sensitive microwave components (hardware realization and software procedures) are described in more detailed form.

The fault self-diagnosis system is an important component of an the automotive electronic control system. Designers of automotive electronic control systems urgently require or need a complete understanding of the self-diagnosis designing method of the control system in order to apply it in practice. Aiming at this exigent need, self-diagnosis methods of designing sensors, electronic control unit (ECU), and actuators, which are the three main parts of automotive electronic control systems, are discussed in this paper. According to the fault types and characteristics of commonly used sensors, self-diagnosis designing methods of the sensors are discussed. Then fault diagnosis techniques of sensors utilizing signal detection and analytical redundancy are analysed and summarized respectively, from the viewpoint of the self-diagnosis designing method. Also, problems about failure self-diagnosis of ECU are analyzed here. For different fault types of an ECU, setting up a circuit monitoring method and a self-detection method of the hardware circuit are adopted respectively. Using these two methods mentioned above, a real-time and on-line technique of failure self-diagnosis is presented. Furthermore, the failure self-diagnosis design method of ECU are summarized. Finally, common faults of actuators are analyzed and the general design method of the failure self-diagnosis system is presented. It is suggested that self-diagnosis design methods relative to the failure of automotive electronic control systems can offer a useful approach to designers of control systems.