Floating-island TFT leakage caused by process step reduction

The leakage mechanism for a top-gate thin-film transistor (TFT) produced using the fewest process steps in the industry is analyzed in order to achieve a high-contrast liquid crystal display (LCD). Using a T-shaped TFT structure, the OFF and ON channel lengths are defined independently, so that the leakage can be reduced with no ON current decrease     

Modalized observers

The purpose of this paper is to present a special full order observer which utilizes a priori information concerning the initial condition mismatch in its design. This a priori information and the use of an eigenstructure assignment procedure in the design leads to a reduction of the impact of the mismatch.     

Optimization of a Novel Rectenna for RF Energy Harvesting at 2.45 GHz

In this work, the different elements of a rectenna were optimized for the energy harvesting from Wi-Fi at 2.45 GHz, using the particle swarm optimization method with real or hybrid dimensions depending on the element. The antenna was optimized in different steps and for each one the effect on its performance was determined. For the rectifier, several commercial diodes were compared for evaluating the best selection for this application. Additionally, a low pass filter and an impedance matching of L-section were implemented as coupling elements. The antenna from the novel rectenna had a gain equal to 4.42 dBi due to the incorporation of a pixeled metasurface structure in the ground layer, and a maximum conversion efficiency of 73% with the diode SMS-7630. In this sense, the optimized rectenna presented a better performance than others from the literature for RF energy harvesting at 2.45 GHz. Therefore, the proposed rectenna can be a good alternative as a power supply in nodes of wireless sensor networks with the addition of the DC–DC boost converter LTC3105.

     

A Localization Method Based on Map-Matching and Particle Swarm Optimization

This paper presents a novel localization method for small mobile robots. The proposed technique is especially designed for the Robot@Factory, a new robotic competition which is started in Lisbon in 2011. The real-time localization technique resorts to low-cost infra-red sensors, a map-matching method and an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) to create a pose tracking system that performs well. The sensor information is continuously updated in time and space according to the expected motion of the robot. Then, the information is incorporated into the map-matching optimization in order to increase the amount of sensor information that is available at each moment. In addition, the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) relocates the robot when the map-matching error is high, meaning that the map-matching is unreliable and the robot gets lost. The experiments presented in this paper prove the ability and accuracy of the presented technique to locate small mobile robots for this competition. Extensive results show that the proposed method presents an interesting localization capability for robots equipped with a limited amount of sensors, but also less reliable sensors.     

Assessment of driving-related performance in chronic whiplash using an advanced driving simulator

Driving is often nominated as problematic by individuals with chronic whiplash associated disorders (WAD), yet driving-related performance has not been evaluated objectively. The purpose of this study was to test driving-related performance in persons with chronic WAD against healthy controls of similar age, gender and driving experience to determine if driving-related performance in the WAD group was sufficiently impaired to recommend fitness to drive assessment. Driving-related performance was assessed using an advanced driving simulator during three driving scenarios; freeway, residential and a central business district (CBD). Total driving duration was approximately 15 min. Five driving tasks which could cause a collision (critical events) were included in the scenarios. In addition, the effect of divided attention (identify red dots projected onto side or rear view mirrors) was assessed three times in each scenario. Driving performance was measured using the simulator performance index (SPI) which is calculated from 12 measures. z-Scores for all SPI measures were calculated for each WAD subject based on mean values of the control subjects. The z-scores were then averaged for the WAD group. A z-score of ≤−2 indicated a driving failing grade in the simulator. The number of collisions over the five critical events was compared between the WAD and control groups as was reaction time and missed response ratio in identifying the red dots.     

WirelessSyncroVision: Wireless synchronization for industrial stereoscopic systems

The research proposes a novel technological solution for marker-based human motion capture called WirelessSyncroVision (WSV). The WSV is formed by two main modules: the visual node (WSV-V) which is based on a stereoscopic vision system and the marker node (WSV-M) that is constituted by a 6-DOF active marker. The solution synchronizes the acquisition of images in remote muti-cameras with the ON period of the active marker. This increases the robustness of the stereoscopic system to illumination changes, which is extremely relevant for programming industrial robotic-arms using a human demonstrator programming by demonstration (PbD). In addition, the research presents a robust method named Adaptive and Robust Synchronization (ARS), that is designed for temporal alignment of remote devices using a wireless network. The algorithm models the phase difference as a function of time, measuring the parameters that must be known to predict the synchronization instant between the active marker and the remote cameras. Results demonstrate that the ARS creates a balance between the real-time capability and the performance estimation of the phase difference. Therefore, this research proposes an elegant solution to synchronize image acquisition systems in real-time that is easy to implement with low operational costs; however, the major advantage of the WSV is related to its high level of flexibility since it can be extended toward to other devices besides the PbD, for instance, motion capture, motion analysis, and remote sensoring systems.     

Elevated CEA in breast cancer patients with overlooked medullary thyroid carcinoma

After mastectomy and radiation for breast cancer, two patients were found to have persistent elevated CEA in their serum. This finding was erroneously attributed to occult metastases for the first patient and to local recurrence for the second. Overlooked medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) was the causal disease in both patients. A review of the literature stresses the frequency of CEA elevation in serum of MTC patients. A thorough search for any possible cause of elevated levels of CEA is advocated, particularly by thyroid sonogram with a needle aspiration biopsy when a nodule is discovered and by calcitonin assay in the serum.     

Effect of global position information in unknown world exploration — A case study using the Teleworkbench

This paper presents empirical results of the effect of the global position information on the performance of the modified local navigation algorithm (MLNA) for unknown world exploration. The results show that global position information enables the algorithm to maintain 100% success rate irrespective of initial robot position, movement speed, and environment complexity. Most mobile robot systems accrue an odometry error while moving, and hence need to use external sensors to recalibrate their position on an ongoing basis. We deal with position calibration to compensate the odometry error using the global position information provided by the Teleworkbench, which is a teleoperated platform and test bed for managing experiments using mini-robots. In this paper we demonstrate how we incorporate the global position information during and after the experiments.