A Monolithic CMOS Autocompensated Sensor Transducer for Capacitive Measuring Systems

In this paper, a monolithic complimentary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) autocompensated sensor transducer for capacitive measuring systems is newly presented. The proposed converter is compact and robust to integrate in capacitive measuring systems. The proposed autocompensated sensor transducer is attractive due to the fact that a digitized signal is produced without realizing the analog-to-digital converter. Hence, the hardware cost could be reduced. Furthermore, the output signal of the proposed transducer is a pulse stream; it could be easily sent over a wide range of transmission media, such as package switch networks (PSNs), radios, and optical, infrared (IR), and ultrasonic media. Another innovation is that the proposed automatic compensation circuits enhance and compensate the linear relation between the variable capacitance of the detected sensor and the output digital frequency over a wide dynamic frequency range. Measurement results have successfully verified the functions and the performance of the proposed autocompensated sensor transducer and confirmed that it is possible to apply it to the air pressure sensor. The area of this chip is 940 times 1080 mum², and the power consumption is 6.4 mW. The proposed transducer is not only suitable for capacitive measuring systems but also practical for application in the front-end systems of the wireless sensor network.     

Pointwise fiber Bragg grating displacement sensor system for dynamic measurements

A method for setting up a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor which can measure the pointwise, out-of-plane or in-plane dynamic displacement is proposed. The proposed FBG sensor is reusable. A multiplexing demodulation system based on a single long-period fiber grating is used in this study. The experimental results of the steady-state motion for a multilayer piezoelectric actuator and the dynamic response of a cantilever beam subjected to impact loadings are presented. These results indicate that the proposed displacement sensor has the ability to measure the out-of-plane dynamic displacement with high sensitivity. Measurements for a piezoceramic plate excited by high frequency show that the proposed displacement sensor also has the ability to provide the in-plane dynamic displacement up to 20 kHz.     

A power scheme of a wireless sensor network node for debris flow monitoring with move-triggered wake-up

In countries threatened by debris flow disasters, using wireless sensor networks (WSN) for debris flow monitoring and warning has become an important research topic. To detect the initial movement and subsequent moving status of monitored debris or rocks, a two-phase power scheme for a self-developed wireless inertial sensor has been proposed, implemented, and analyzed in this study. During the first phase, the power of the sensor node is disconnected to ensure that the sensor remains stationary. In the second phase, a hybrid scheme with periodic and move-triggered wake-up is actuated if the sensor is moved by debris or hit by rocks. A simple move detection algorithm is used to determine whether the node should enter sleep mode. The power models of the components of the proposed sensor node have also been discussed. Based on those models, the power consumption of the proposed power scheme has been determined and verified according to measurements. Analysis of the proposed hybrid power scheme can be easily generalized for WSN applications with sensor-triggered schemes. The relationship between the moving rate of monitored objects and the wake-up period in the moving detection algorithm was found to be nearly inversely proportional. The results can be employed to estimate and design sensor node power schemes for other similar applications, such as value asset monitoring and tracking.     

Fiber Bragg Grating Sensor System With Two-Level Ring Architecture

This investigation proposes a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor system with a two-level ring architecture. The survivability and capacity of a FBG for a multipoint sensor system are enhanced by adding remote nodes and optical switches in the two-level ring architecture. Additionally, to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the sensor system, a fiber ring laser approach is utilized to construct the proposed two-level ring architecture. The fiber ring laser adopted herein yields the high SNR of the sensor system. The proposed system can increase the reliability of FBG sensor systems for multipoint smart structures.      

SAW Sensor Network Fabricated on a Polyvinylidine Difluoride (PVDF) Substrate for Dynamic Surface Profile Sensing

A combination of two 2-D sensor networks is proposed as a dynamic surface profile sensor network for biomimicing applications. A surface acoustic wave device fabricated on a polyvinylidine difluoride substrate has been investigated as the elementary 1-D bending curvature sensor used in the network. The device was tested under an injected signal and it shows the variation in amplitude and phase angle of output signal with respect to the injected signal in response to the bending curvature. These dual outputs provide opportunity to make an intelligent sensor with self error limit determination capability. Finally, a network of such sensors is proposed as a dynamic surface profile sensor     

Double bridge circuit for self‐validated structural health monitoring strain measurements

In structural health monitoring (SHM) applications, sensor faults and structural damage need to be assuredly discriminated. A self‐diagnosis strain sensor operating in a continuous online SHM scenario is considered. The strain sensor is based on full electric resistance strain gauge Wheatstone bridges. The state of the art shows that such a sensor has not yet been developed. The loop current step response (LCSR) is a well‐known method to detect strain gauge debonding. However, applying the LCSR method to a full strain gauge Wheatstone bridge has some limitations analysed in this paper. To enable the use of the LCSR method in an online SHM scenario, the double bridge circuit is proposed in this work. Two new strain gauge debonding fault detection methods and a new debonding fault isolation method—based on the double bridge circuit measurements—are proposed and evaluated. Two new sensor fusion weighting approaches are also proposed and evaluated—to achieve strain gauge debonding fault tolerance on the double bridge circuit. The experimental results show that the proposed methods can detect, isolate, and tolerate a strain gauge grid debonding fault and can be applied in an online SHM self‐diagnosis sensor scenario.     

Location information-aided task-oriented self-organization of ad-hoc sensor systems

A novel task-oriented self-organization algorithm that accounts for mostly location-dependent tasks and heterogeneous sensors inherent in dense ad-hoc sensor systems is proposed. It forms a sensor group for an announced task by sequentially selecting the best matched sensors using a leader election algorithm and a residual task calculation algorithm. To improve the associated communication overhead, the sensor node location information is used in task broadcasting, thus confining the algorithm implementation to a dynamically maintained contributor group which comprises of those sensors which may contribute to the task. Sensor localization is based on a refinement of an algorithm in which utilizes only the neighborhood information of each sensor node corresponding to its each preset radio transmission power level. The proposed self-organization algorithm and how various system parameters affect its performance are examined via extensive simulations. In a densely deployed sensor system, when the refined localization scheme is demonstrated to achieve very good localization, the proposed self-organization algorithm consistently yields a sensor group that covers the announced task.     

An Information Fusion-Based Multiobjective Security System With a Multiple-Input/ Single-Output Sensor

In the framework of sensor fusion, multiple sensors corresponding to the number of physical variables that must be measured are used. In this paper, we propose a novel sensing approach that simultaneously deals with heterogeneous physical variables with a sensor. It is fundamentally different from sensor fusion. The proposed approach takes into consideration the fact that any sensor that detects a certain physical variable is influenced to a degree by other physical variables, which are designated as noise. The objective in conventional sensor design has been the minimization of noise. In contrast, the proposed approach takes advantage of sensors that are easily influenced by many physical variables and makes full use of the multisensing characteristics of these sensors. The system designed using this concept has advantages in terms of cost performance and system simplification compared to existing approaches. This concept can be realized by developing a novel multiple-input/single-output sensor that can detect various variables, including pressure, acceleration, temperature and incandescent light emission, by a single device. We apply the sensor to monitor the symptoms of fire, earthquakes, and break-ins for the purpose of home security. The proposed security system is realized through statistical signal processing and machine learning techniques     

Single-crystal magneto-optic sensor with electrically adjustable sensitivity

A novel magneto-optic sensor with electrically adjustable sensitivity is proposed that is based on the approximate multiplication correlation between the linear electro-optic phase retardation and the Faraday magneto-optic rotation angle in a single bismuth germanate crystal. The measurement sensitivity and its temperature stability, linear and monotonic measurement ranges of the proposed sensor can be controlled in real time by adjusting the modulating voltage applied to the sensing crystal. In particular, the proposed sensor can be used for the precise measurement of dc magnetic field or dc current. The basic sensing performance is theoretically analyzed and experimentally demonstrated by dc current measurement.     

Fiber-Optic Sensor for Web Velocity Measurement

The design and development of a new fiber-optic sensor for measuring the velocity of a continuous material (also called a web) in material processing systems is described. The development of the proposed sensor is based on the dual beam laser Doppler velocimetry technique and the unique properties of different types of optical fibers. The developed sensor is capable of measuring the true web transport velocity as opposed to the existing methods which infer web transport velocity based on the roller angular speed. Since the sensor design utilizes fibers, signal processing can be performed away from the measurement area, and as a result the sensor can be used in harsh environments within the web processing line. The proposed sensor has been constructed and experiments have been conducted on an experimental web platform. The performance of the sensor is evaluated for a range of web velocities and different web materials. Sensor design, its construction, and a representative sample of the results are presented and discussed.     

An efficient storage policy for moving target path extraction in wireless sensor networks

In wireless sensor networks, the storage policy of the sensed event affects the number of control messages required. If the number of control messages can be reduced, the network lifetime can be increased because transmitting unnecessary control messages requires extra energy consumption. A local storage method with a small control overhead is proposed for an object-tracking application in wireless sensor networks. The main idea is to store the detected events in a local storage and maintain the relation of the sensed data through a low-cost implicit linked list among sensor nodes. When an object moves across the sensing field, the detecting sensor can automatically construct a linked list along the moving path of the object. The stored event records can be extracted by tracing the linked list from head to tail to obtain the complete information. When the memory space in a sensor node is full, a link reconstruction mechanism is proposed to distribute the heavy loads of sensor nodes to nearby nodes. Finally, performance analysis and simulation have been conducted to verify that the proposed method can reduce the amount of control messages and increase the network lifetime.     

Theoretical analysis and measurement of the temperature dependence of a micromachined Fabry-Perot pressure sensor

In this study an analytical model that takes into account the coupled photoelastic and thermo-optical effects is established to evaluate the temperature dependence of a single-chip silicon micromachined Fabry-Perot pressure sensor. The results show that temperature variation has a significant effect on the performance of a micromachined Fabry-Perot pressure sensor with a conventional flat diaphragm. A new membrane-type silicon micromachined Fabry-Perot pressure sensor with a novel deeply corrugated diaphragm is then proposed. The sensor is fabricated on a single-chip by use of both surface- and bulk-micromachining techniques. Both analytical and experimental results show that the cross sensitivity of Fabry-Perot pressure sensors to temperature can be substantially alleviated by use of the proposed single deeply corrugated diaphragm.     

Surface acoustic wave gas sensor of the sorption type sensitive to the thermal properties of gases

The basic principles of a new surface acoustic wave (SAW) gas sensor are described. Being essentially a sensor of the sorption type, the proposed device possesses certain features of the thermometric SAW sensors and is not only sensitive to the vapors of volatile substances, but capable of detecting gases by their thermal properties as well. In contrast to the known thermometric SAW sensors, the proposed sensor is characterized by high temperature stability and fast response. A variant of the sensor based on a LiNbO₃ SAW delay line is described and some results of the test for detecting propane-butane mixtures are presented.     

Simple hybrid wire-wireless fiber laser sensor by direct photonic generation of beat signal

Based on direct photonic generation of a beat signal, a simple hybrid wire-wireless fiber laser sensor is proposed. In the sensor, an improved multilongitudinal modes fiber laser cavity is set up by only a fiber Bragg grating, a section of erbium-doped fiber, and a broadband reflector. A photodetector is used to detect the electrical beat signal. Next, the beat signal including the sensor information can access the wireless network through the wireless transmission. At last, a frequency spectrum analyzer is used to demodulate the sensing information. With this method, the long-distance real-time monitor of the fiber sensor can be realized. The proposed technique offers a simple and cheap way for sensing information of the fiber sensor to access the wireless sensor network. An experiment was implemented to measure the strain and the corresponding root mean square deviation is about -5.7 με at 916 MHz and -3.8 με at 1713 MHz after wireless transmission.     

Absolute strain measurements made with fiber bragg grating sensors

A strain sensor system based on optical fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) is proposed with a new matched-filter design. The strain variation on the sensor FBG is continuously followed and matched by a filter FBG by use of a feedback control loop that produces an identical strain condition on the filter FBG. The matched strain on the filter FBG is then determined from the resonance vibration of the fiber piece embedding the filter FBG. The implementation and the performance of the proposed system are described. It is demonstrated that the proposed system can distinguish strain variation on the sensor FBG with resolution of one microstrain.     

Development of a virtual variable-speed compressor power sensor for variable refrigerant flow air conditioning system

This paper proposed a universal virtual variable-speed compressor power (VVCP) sensor for VRF system based on 20-coefficient model. Compressor power can be obtained by the VVCP sensor using three input parameters (frequency, condensing temperature and evaporation temperature) which are measured by system itself. The performance of the proposed VVCP sensor is evaluated using experiments data. Experimental conditions include cooling, heating and non-standard refrigerant charge levels. The result shows that the mean square percentage errors (MSPE) are 9.9% under cooling conditions and 7.96% under heating conditions. The MSPE are 9.88% at steady state and 9.75% at dynamic state when the VVCP sensor is applied under nine different refrigerant charge levels. It demonstrated that the proposed VVCP sensor can obtain compressor power under cooling, heating and non-standard refrigerant charge levels, which could be applied to do operational monitoring and fault detection and diagnosis for VRF system at low cost.     

Development of a differential, optical, reflective displacement sensor by use of a multilayered waveguide

A noncontact and compact optical displacement sensor is proposed and demonstrated. The principle of this system is based on the differential optical-fiber displacement sensor [Appl. Opt. 38, 1103 (1999)]. The waveguide of the sensor consists of three thin plate glasses. This approach can miniaturize and lighten the system. The performance of the sensor is geometrically analyzed. The linearity and working range of the sensor are significantly improved compared with those of the optical fiber.     

Sensor fault identification based on time-lagged PCA in dynamic processes

Principal component analysis (PCA) is widely employed as a multivariate statistical method for fault detection, isolation and diagnosis in chemical processes. Previously, PCA has been successfully used to identify faulty sensors under normal static operating conditions. In this paper, we extend the reconstruction-based sensor fault isolation method proposed by Dunia et al. to dynamic processes. We develop a new method for identifying and isolating sensor faults in an inherent dynamic system. First, we describe how to reconstruct noisy or faulty measurements in dynamic processes. The reconstructed measurements are obtained by simple iterative optimization based on the correlation structure of the time-lagged data set. Then, based on the sensor validity index (SVI) approach developed by Dunia et al., we propose an SVI for fault isolation in dynamic processes. The proposed method was applied to sensor fault isolation in two strongly dynamic systems: a simulated 4×4 dynamic process and a simulated wastewater treatment process (WWTP). In these experiments, the proposed sensor fault identification method correctly and rapidly identified the faulty sensor; in contrast, the traditional PCA-based sensor fault isolation approach showed unsatisfactory results when applied to the same systems.     

Diagnosing Anomalies and Identifying Faulty Nodes in Sensor Networks

In this paper, an anomaly detection approach that fuses data gathered from different nodes in a distributed sensor network is proposed and evaluated. The emphasis of this work is placed on the data integrity and accuracy problem caused by compromised or malfunctioning nodes. The proposed approach utilizes and applies Principal Component Analysis simultaneously on multiple metrics received from various sensors. One of the key features of the proposed approach is that it provides an integrated methodology of taking into consideration and combining effectively correlated sensor data, in a distributed fashion, in order to reveal anomalies that span through a number of neighboring sensors. Furthermore, it allows the integration of results from neighboring network areas to detect correlated anomalies/attacks that involve multiple groups of nodes. The efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated for a real use case that utilizes meteorological data collected from a distributed set of sensor nodes