Collaborative positioning for swarms:A brief survey of vision,LiDAR and wireless sensors based methods

As positioning sensors,edge computation power,and communication technologies continue to develop,a moving agent can now sense its surroundings and communicate with other agents.By receiving spatial information from both its environment and other agents,an agent can use various methods and sensor types to localize itself.With its high flexibility and robustness,collaborative positioning has become a widely used method in both military and civilian applications.This paper introduces the basic fundamental concepts and applications of collaborative positioning,and reviews recent progress in the field based on camera,LiDAR(Light Detection and Ranging),wireless sensor,and their integration.The paper compares the current methods with respect to their sensor type,summarizes their main paradigms,and analyzes their evaluation experiments.Finally,the paper discusses the main challenges and open issues that require further research.

Hybrid pedestrian positioning system using wearable inertial sensors and ultrasonic ranging

Pedestrian positioning system(PPS)using wearable inertial sensors has wide applications towards various emerging fields such as smart healthcare,emergency rescue,soldier positioning,etc.The performance of traditional PPS is limited by the cumulative error of inertial sensors,complex motion modes of pedestrians,and the low robustness of the multi-sensor collaboration structure.This paper presents a hybrid pedestrian positioning system using the combination of wearable inertial sensors and ultrasonic ranging(H-PPS).A robust two nodes integration structure is developed to adaptively combine the motion data acquired from the single waist-mounted and foot-mounted node,and enhanced by a novel ellipsoid constraint model.In addition,a deep-learning-based walking speed estimator is proposed by considering all the motion features provided by different nodes,which effectively reduces the cumulative error originating from inertial sensors.Finally,a comprehensive data and model dual-driven model is presented to effectively combine the motion data provided by different sensor nodes and walking speed estimator,and multi-level constraints are extracted to further improve the performance of the overall system.Experimental results indicate that the proposed H-PPS significantly improves the performance of the single PPS and outperforms existing algorithms in accuracy index under complex indoor scenarios.

Driving and Braking Control of PM Synchronous Motor Based on Low-resolution Hall Sensor for Battery Electric Vehicle

Resolvers are normally employed for rotor positioning in motors for electric vehicles, but resolvers are expensive and vulnerable to vibrations. Hall sensors have the advantages of low cost and high reliability, but the positioning accuracy is low. Motors with Hall sensors are typically controlled by six-step commutation algorithm, which brings high torque ripple. This paper studies the high-performance driving and braking control of the in-wheel permanent magnetic synchronous motor （PMSM） based on low-resolution Hall sensors. Field oriented control （FOC） based on Hall-effect sensors is developed to reduce the torque ripple. The positioning accuracy of the Hall sensors is improved by interpolation between two consecutive Hall signals using the estimated motor speed. The position error from the misalignment of the Hall sensors is compensated by the precise calibration of Hall transition timing. The braking control algorithms based on six-step commutation and FOC are studied. Two variants of the six-step commutation braking control, namely, half-bridge commutation and full-bridge commutation, are discussed and compared, which shows that the full-bridge commutation could better explore the potential of the back electro-motive forces （EMF）, thus can deliver higher efficiency and smaller current ripple. The FOC braking is analyzed with the phasor diagrams. At a given motor speed, the motor turns from the regenerative braking mode into the plug braking mode if the braking torque exceeds a certain limit, which is proportional to the motor speed. Tests in the dynamometer show that a smooth control could be realized by FOC driving control and the highest efficiency and the smallest current ripple could be achieved by FOC braking control, compared to six-step commutation braking control. Therefore, FOC braking is selected as the braking control algorithm for electric vehicles. The proposed research ensures a good motor control performance while maintaining low cost and high reliability.

Design and construction of a multi-sensor position monitoring system applied to key components of synchrotron sources

High-accuracy position monitoring of key components is required for modern synchrotron sources,such as free-electron lasers and diffraction-limited storage rings.Although various position monitoring sensors have been adopted to monitor the displacement of key components in each direction in real time,these monitoring systems are usually based on their own coordinate system.Data from such systems are meaningful when evaluating and examining the data from each positioning monitoring system in a unified coordinate system.This paper presents the design and construction of a multi-sensor position monitoring system(MPMS).A hydrostatic levelling system,a wire position sensor(WPS) and a tiltmeter are fixed to a stainless steel plate that has been calibrated by a coordinate-measurement machine.Several plates form the MPMS.The system must compensate for the sag of the stretched wires so that the WPSs create a straight line.The method of the coordinate transformation from the sensor coordinate system to the MPMS coordinate system was thoroughly studied.An experimental MPMS that includes five plates was setup in a 20-m tunnel,and a validation study to verify fully the feasibility of the MPMS was performed.

Detecting the Position of the Moving-iron Solenoid by Non-displacement Sensor Based on Parameter Identification of Flux Linkage Characteristics

Currently, most researches use signals, such as the coil current or voltage of solenoid, to identify parameters; typically, parameter identification method based on variation rate of coil current is applied for position estimation. The problem exists in these researches that the detected signals are prone to interference and difficult to obtain. This paper proposes a new method for detecting the core position by using flux characteristic quantity, which adds a new group of secondary winding to the coil of the ordinary switching electromagnet. On the basis of electromagnetic coupling theory analysis and simulation research of the magnetic field regarding the primary and secondary winding coils, and in accordance with the fact that under PWM control mode varying core position and operating current of windings produce different characteristic of flux increment of the secondary winding. The flux increment of the electromagnet winding can be obtained by conducting time domain integration for the induced voltage signal of the extracted secondary winding, and the core position from the two-dimensional fitting curve of the operating winding current and flux-linkage characteristic quantity of solenoid are calculated. The detecting and testing system of solenoid core position is developed based on the theoretical research. The testing results show that the flux characteristic quantity of switching electromagnet magnetic circuit is able to effectively show the core position and thus to accomplish the non-displacement transducer detection of the said core position of the switching electromagnet. This paper proposes a new method for detecting the core position by using flux characteristic quantity, which provides a new theory and method for switch solenoid to control the proportional valve.

New Distributed Positioning Algorithm Based on Centroid of Circular Belt for Wireless Sensor Networks

This paper presents a new distributed positioning algorithm for unknown nodes in a wireless sensor network. The algorithm is based exclusively on connectivity. First, assuming that the positions of the anchor nodes are already known, a circular belt containing an unknown node is obtained using information about the anchor nodes that are in radio range of the unknown node, based on the geometric relationships and communication constraints among the unknown node and the anchor nodes. Then, the centroid of the circular belt is taken to be the estimated position of the unknown node. Since the algorithm is very simple and since the only communication needed is between the anchor nodes and the unknown node, the communication and computational loads are very small. Furthermore, the algorithm is robust because neither the failure of old unknown nodes nor the addition of new unknown nodes influences the positioning of unknown nodes to be located. A theoretical analysis and simulation results show that the algorithm does not produce any cumulative error and is insensitive to range error, and that a change in the number of sensor nodes does not affect the communication or computational load. These features make this algorithm suitable for all sizes of low-power wireless sensor networks.

Positioning a Node of Wireless Sensor Networks in 3 Dimensional Space

To know the location of nodes is very important and valuable for wireless sensor networks (WSN), we present an improved positioning model (3D-PMWSN) to locate the nodes in WSN. In this model, grid in space is presented. When one tag is detected by a certain reader whose position is known, the tag’s position can be known through certain algorithm. The error estimation is given. Emulation shows that the positioning speed is relatively fast and positioning precision is relatively high.

Design and Analysis of a Novel Surface Acoustic Wave Micro Position Sensor

In order to realize the micromation of position sensors, and extend the application area into micro scale, this paper designs a novel micro position sensor, Mace SAW (Surface Acoustic Wave) position sensor, which can be fabricated with MEMS technology. Its key components are IDTs (Interdigital Transducers) and reflective grooves. The structure and working principles of the sensor are introduced theoretically, and the manufacture process is then put forward.

Mobile Positioning System Based on the Wireless Sensor Network in Buildings

Established on the Intel Multi-Core Embedded platform, using 802.11 Wireless Network protocols as the communication medium, combining with Radio Frequency-Communication and Ultrasonic Ranging, imple-ment a mobile terminal system in an intellectualized building. It can provide its holder such functions: 1) Accurate Positioning 2) Intelligent Navigation 3) Video Monitoring 4) Wireless Communication. The inno-vative point for this paper is to apply the multi-core computing on the embedded system to promote its com-puting speed and give a real-time performance and apply this system into the indoor environment for the purpose of emergent event or rescuing.

Application of the Spectrum Peak Positioning Technology Based on BP Neural Network in Demodulation of Cavity Length of EFPI Fiber Optical Sensor

An Extrinsic Fabry-Perot Interferometric (EFPI) fiber optical sensor system is an online testing system for the gas density. The system achieves the measurement of gas density information mainly by demodulating the cavity length of EF- PI fiber optical sensor. There are many ways to achieve the demodulation of the cavity length. For shortcomings of the big intensity demodulation error and complex structure of phase demodulation, this paper proposes that BP neural net-work is used to locate the special peak points in normalized interference spectrum and combining the advantages of the unimodal and bimodal measurement achieves the demodulation of the cavity length. Through online simulation and actual measurement, the results show that the peak positioning technology based on BP neural network can not only achieve high-precision demodulation of the cavity length, but also achieve an absolute measurement of cavity length in large dynamic range.

A Study on the Sensor Applications for Position Detection and Guideway Monitoring in High Speed Maglev

The high speed maglev is mainly characterized by propulsion using linear synchronous motor (LSM) and vehicle levitation from the guideway surface. In LSM propulsion control, the position detection sensor is used to detect running vehicle position for synchronized current generation. To maintain the stable levitating condition during vehicle running, the irregularity of guideway surface should be monitored by sensors measuring the displacement and acceleration between vehicle and guideway. In this study, the application methods of these sensors in the high speed maglev are investigated and through the experiments by using the small-scale test bed, the validity of examined methods is confirmed.

Sensor Placement to Improve the Positioning Performance Based on Angle of Arrival (AOA)

In this paper, a method for sensor placement to improve the placement quality based on angle of arrival of signal in a specific area is proposed. The installation place of sensors may be constrained with specified boundaries. In this me-thod, the criterion of maximum quality of placement is the Cramer-Rao bound. The generalized pattern search as an effective method is used to maximize error bound of the placement problem by angle of arrival. Better results are ob-tained in comparison with results of genetic algorithm. The derived results are compared from two aspects of run time and result quality.

Calculation of Skin Depths and Eddy-Current Power Losses for Magnetic Position Sensors

We present a theoretic model to calculate skin depths and eddy-current power losses for a magnetic position sensor. Eddy-current, arised from the operation of an alternating-current excitation, induces secondary currents and fields between magnetic material and magnetic position sensor. In this paper, a magnetic position sensor system is simplified to be an outer-winding coil along the axial direction of a low carbon steel bar. The analytical model is derived from basic field and circuit theory considering a linear approximation for a nonlinear permeability. Thus the skin depths and eddy-current power losses from the model in eddy-current modeling techniques at various frequencies of an excited current source can be calculated. The proposed configuration is capable of predicting the skin depths and eddy-current power losses for a magnetic position sensor and has a consistence with experiments.

Research on Intelligent Positioning Bed of Body Gamma Knife Based on Sensor

This paper introduces a design to improve the radiotherapy accuracy of gamma knife. In this design, sensor is used to collect respiratory parameters and tumor displacement (caused by human respiration) model is established through optimization modeling. At the same time, data are transferred to single chip microcomputer (SCM) system by pressure sensor and then stepping motor is controlled by SCM. Finally, the intelligent positioning bed is under the control of stepping motor. As a result, the intelligent positioning bed can move reverse to respiratory law. The experimental results showed that this method can reduce the influence of respiration on tumor displacement, improving the accuracy of intelligent positioning bed with simple circuit and low cost at the same time.

Design of 3D Space Following Positioning System Based on ZigBee

The research on positioning system and spatial alignment is a big topic. In this paper, we proposed a design (that) studies two issues. One is the study of range positioning algorithm based on ZigBee communication system. The other one is spatial alignment platform which is controlled with two servos. Hardware and software control system was realized, which also consists of two parts, ZigBee network positioning system and automatic orientation platform.

Fuzzy adaptive Kalman filter for indoor mobile target positioning with INS/WSN integrated method

Pure inertial navigation system(INS) has divergent localization errors after a long time. In order to compensate the disadvantage, wireless sensor network(WSN) associated with the INS was applied to estimate the mobile target positioning. Taking traditional Kalman filter(KF) as the framework, the system equation of KF was established by the INS and the observation equation of position errors was built by the WSN. Meanwhile, the observation equation of velocity errors was established by the velocity difference between the INS and WSN, then the covariance matrix of Kalman filter measurement noise was adjusted with fuzzy inference system(FIS), and the fuzzy adaptive Kalman filter(FAKF) based on the INS/WSN was proposed. The simulation results show that the FAKF method has better accuracy and robustness than KF and EKF methods and shows good adaptive capacity with time-varying system noise. Finally, experimental results further prove that FAKF has the fast convergence error, in comparison with KF and EKF methods.

Detection of rotor position by harmonic back EMF of hybrid step motor

The magnhc network model of a hybrid step motor is established by the air gap rate permeance method,and the expression of harmonic back EMF is deduced, and from the analysis above, a vovel use of harmonic backEMF sed to extract rotor peition is proposed and a new position sensor integral with the motoris designed .Experi-ments verified the correctness of the theorecal analysis. Ths type of rotor position sensor lays a foundation for closed-loop conrol of step motor.

A WKNN-based approach for NB-IoT sensors localization

With the recent introduction of NarrowBand Internet of Things(NB-IoT)technology in the 4th and 5th generations of mobile radio networks,the mobile communications context opens up significantly to the world of sensors.By means of NB-IoT,the mobile systems within 3GPP standardization introduce the peculiar functions of sensor networks,thus making it possible to satisfy very specific requirements with respect to those which characterize traditional mobile telecommunications.Among the functions of interest for sensor networks,the possibility of locating the positions of the sensors without an increase in costs and energy consumption of the sensor nodes is of utmost interest.The present work describes a procedure for locating the NB-IoT nodes based on the quality of radio signals received by the mobile terminals,which therefore does not require further hardware implementations on board the nodes.This procedure,based on the RF fingerprinting technique and on machine learning processing,has been tested experimentally and has achieved interesting performances.

Study on the all position automatic pipeline backing weld machine

As a result of the lower backing weld efficiency, the applying of automatic welding is seriously limited. So a kind of special automatic welder is designed and manufactured for backing weld. This paper introduces the character of the assembled pulse CO2 arc welding machine which has strong penetrability. It specifies the technology of controlling the parameters of all position automatic welding by computer and multi-axis controller. Moreover typical welding procedure parameters are provided. It is proved by examination that the economical and practical equipment and technology are suitable for the long-distance transmission pipeline, and it has a good foreground of spreading and applying.

Position Verification of the RADPOS 4-D <i>In-Vivo</i>Dosimetry System

The accuracy of the position measurements obtained by the radiation positioning system (RADPOS) was evaluated under static and dynamic conditions. In the static verifications, the RADPOS was fixed to the treatment couch in a photon treatment room and a proton treatment room, and was translocated with the treatment couch in x, y and z directions. Because the presence of magnetic and/or electrically conductive materials can cause a systematic shift in the measured position by distorting the RADPOS transmitted field, the effect of metals on the performance of the positioning system was also investigated. Dynamic verification was performed using the couch drive and a dynamic anthropomorphic thorax phantom. We thus confirmed the utility of RADPOS as a position sensor to perform in vivo dosimetry.