Modeling random telegraph signal noise in CMOS image sensor under low light based on binomial distribution

The random telegraph signal noise in the pixel source follower MOSFET is the principle component of the noise in the CMOS image sensor under low light. In this paper, the physical and statistical model of the random telegraph signal noise in the pixel source follower based on the binomial distribution is set up. The number of electrons captured or released by the oxide traps in the unit time is described as the random variables which obey the binomial distribution. As a result,the output states and the corresponding probabilities of the first and the second samples of the correlated double sampling circuit are acquired. The standard deviation of the output states after the correlated double sampling circuit can be obtained accordingly. In the simulation section, one hundred thousand samples of the source follower MOSFET have been simulated,and the simulation results show that the proposed model has the similar statistical characteristics with the existing models under the effect of the channel length and the density of the oxide trap. Moreover, the noise histogram of the proposed model has been evaluated at different environmental temperatures.

Stereoscopic Camera-Sensor Model for the Development of Highly Automated Driving Functions within a Virtual Test Environment

The need for efficient and reproducible development processes for sensor and perception systems is growing with their increased use in modern vehicles. Such processes can be achieved by using virtual test environments and virtual sensor models. In the context of this, the present paper documents the development of a sensor model for depth estimation of virtual three-dimensional scenarios. For this purpose, the geometric and algorithmic principles of stereoscopic camera systems are recreated in a virtual form. The model is implemented as a subroutine in the Epic Games Unreal Engine, which is one of the most common Game Engines. Its architecture consists of several independent procedures that enable a local depth estimation, but also a reconstruction of a whole three-dimensional scenery. In addition, a separate programme for calibrating the model is presented. In addition to the basic principles, the architecture and the implementation, this work also documents the evaluation of the model created. It is shown that the model meets specifically defined requirements for real-time capability and the accuracy of the evaluation. Thus, it is suitable for the virtual testing of common algorithms and highly automated driving functions.

Sensor planning method for visual tracking in 3D camera networks

Most sensors or cameras discussed in the sensor network community are usually 3D homogeneous, even though their2 D coverage areas in the ground plane are heterogeneous. Meanwhile, observed objects of camera networks are usually simplified as 2D points in previous literature. However in actual application scenes, not only cameras are always heterogeneous with different height and action radiuses, but also the observed objects are with 3D features（i.e., height）. This paper presents a sensor planning formulation addressing the efficiency enhancement of visual tracking in 3D heterogeneous camera networks that track and detect people traversing a region. The problem of sensor planning consists of three issues：（i） how to model the 3D heterogeneous cameras;（ii） how to rank the visibility, which ensures that the object of interest is visible in a camera＇s field of view;（iii） how to reconfigure the 3D viewing orientations of the cameras. This paper studies the geometric properties of 3D heterogeneous camera networks and addresses an evaluation formulation to rank the visibility of observed objects. Then a sensor planning method is proposed to improve the efficiency of visual tracking. Finally, the numerical results show that the proposed method can improve the tracking performance of the system compared to the conventional strategies.

Analytical Higher-Order Model for Flexible and Stretchable Sensors

The stretchable sensor wrapped around a foldable airfoil or embedded inside of it has great potential for use in the monitoring of the structural status of the foldable airfoil.The design methodology is important to the development of the stretchable sensor for status monitoring on the foldable airfoil.According to the requirement of mechanical flexibility of the sensor,the combined use of a layered flexible structural formation and a strain isolation layer is implemented.An analytical higher-order model is proposed to predict the stresses of the strain-isolation layer based on the shear-lag model for the safe design of the flexible and stretchable sensors.The normal stress and shear stress equations in the constructed structure of the sensors are obtained by the proposed model.The stress distribution in the structure is investigated when bending load is applied to the structures.The numerical results show that the proposed model can predict the variation of normal stress and shear stress along the thickness of the strain-isolation（polydimethylsiloxane）layer accurately.The results by the proposed model are in good agreement with the finite element method,in which the normal stress is variable while the shear stress is invariable along the thickness direction of strain-isolation layer.The high-order model is proposed to predict the stresses of the layered structure of the flexible and stretchable sensor for monitoring the status of the foldable airfoil.

Endpoint Prediction of EAF Based on Multiple Support Vector Machines

The endpoint parameters are very important to the process of EAF steel-making, but their on-line measurement is difficult. The soft sensor technology is widely used for the prediction of endpoint parameters. Based on the analysis of the smelting process of EAF and the advantages of support vector machines, a soft sensor model for predicting the endpoint parameters was built using multiple support vector machines （MSVM）. In this model, the input space was divided by subtractive clustering and a sub-model based on LS-SVM was built in each sub-space. To decrease the correlation among the sub-models and to improve the accuracy and robustness of the model, the sub- models were combined by Principal Components Regression. The accuracy of the soft sensor model is perfectly improved. The simulation result demonstrates the practicability and efficiency of the MSVM model for the endpoint prediction of EAF.

Application of a Novel Method for Machine Performance Degradation Assessment Based on Gaussian Mixture Model and Logistic Regression

The currently prevalent machine performance degradation assessment techniques involve estimating a machine＇s current condition based upon the recognition of indications of failure features,which entail complete data collected in different conditions.However,failure data are always hard to acquire,thus making those techniques hard to be applied.In this paper,a novel method which does not need failure history data is introduced.Wavelet packet decomposition（WPD） is used to extract features from raw signals,principal component analysis（PCA） is utilized to reduce feature dimensions,and Gaussian mixture model（GMM） is then applied to approximate the feature space distributions.Single-channel confidence value（SCV） is calculated by the overlap between GMM of the monitoring condition and that of the normal condition,which can indicate the performance of single-channel.Furthermore,multi-channel confidence value（MCV）,which can be deemed as the overall performance index of multi-channel,is calculated via logistic regression（LR） and that the task of decision-level sensor fusion is also completed.Both SCV and MCV can serve as the basis on which proactive maintenance measures can be taken,thus preventing machine breakdown.The method has been adopted to assess the performance of the turbine of a centrifugal compressor in a factory of Petro-China,and the result shows that it can effectively complete this task.The proposed method has engineering significance for machine performance degradation assessment.

Effect of particle degradation on electrostatic sensor measurements and flow characteristics in dilute pneumatic conveying

Vigorous particle collisions and mechanical processes occurring during high-velocity pneumatic con- veying often lead to particle degradation. The resulting particle size reduction and particle number increase will impact on the flow characteristics, and subsequently affect the electrostatic type of flow measurements. This study investigates this phenomenon using both experimental and numerical meth- ods. Particle degradation was induced experimentally by recursively conveying the fillite material within a pneumatic pipeline. The associated particle size reduction was monitored. Three electrostatic sensors were embedded along the pipeline to monitor the flow. The results indicated a decreasing trend in the electrostatic sensor outputs with decreasing particle size, which suggested the attenuation of the flow velocity fluctuation. This trend was more apparent at higher conveying velocities, which suggested that more severe particle degradation occurred under these conditions. Coupled computational fluid dynamics and discrete element methods （CFD-DEM） analysis was used to qualitatively validate these experimental results. The numerical results suggested that smaller particles exhibited lower flow velocity fluctua- tions, which was consistent with the observed experimental results. These findings provide important information for the accurate aoolication of electrostatic measurement devices in oneumatic conveyors.

LS-SVM-based surface roughness prediction model for a reflective fiber optic sensor

Reflective fiber optic sensors have advantages for surface roughness measurements of some special workpieces,but their measuring precision and efficiency need to be improved further. A least-squares support vector machine（LS-SVM）-based surface roughness prediction model is proposed to estimate the surface roughness, Ra, and the coupled simulated annealing（CSA） and standard simplex（SS） methods are combined for the parameter optimization of the mode. Experiments are conducted to test the performance of the proposed model, and the results show that the range of average relative errors is-4.232%–2.5709%. In comparison with the existing models, the LS-SVM-based model has the best performance in prediction precision, stability, and timesaving.

Factor graph based navigation and positioning for control system design:A review

Navigation and positioning is an important and challenging problem in many control engineering applications.It provides feedback information to design controllers for systems.In this paper,a bibliographical review on factor graph based navigation and positioning is presented.More specifically,the sensor modeling,the factor graph optimization methods,and the topology factor based cooperative localization are reviewed.The navigation and positioning methods via factor graph are considered and classified.Focuses in the current research of factor graph based navigation and positioning are also discussed with emphasis on its practical application.The limitations of the existing methods,some solutions for future techniques,and recommendations are finally given.

Discharge voltage behavior of electric double-layer capacitors during high-g impact and their application to autonomously sensing high-g accelerometers

In this study, the discharge voltage behavior of electric double-layer capacitors （EDLCs） during high-g impact is studied both theoretically and experimentally. A micro-scale dynamic mechanism is proposed to describe the physical basis of the increase in the discharge voltage during a high-g impact. Based on this dynamic mechanism, a multi-field model is established, and the simulation and experimental studies of the discharge voltage increase phenomenon are conducted. From the simulation and experimental data, the relationship between the increased voltage and the high-g acceleration is revealed. An acceleration detection range of up to 10,000g is verified. The design of the device is optimized by studying the influences of the parameters, such as the electrode thickness and discharge current, on the outputs. This work opens up new avenues for the development of autonomous sensor systems based on energy storage devices and is significant for many practical applications such as in collision testing and automobile safety.

Ethernet based time synchronization for Raspberry Pi network improving network model verification for distributed active turbulent flow control

Friction drag primarily determines the total drag of transport systems. A promising approach to reduce drag at high Reynolds numbers(> 104) are active transversal surface waves in combination with passive methods like a riblet surface. For the application in transportation systems with large surfaces such as airplanes, ships or trains, a large scale distributed real-time actuator and sensor network is required. This network is responsible for providing connections between a global flow control and distributed actuators and sensors. For the development of this network we established at first a small scale network model based on Simulink and True Time. To determine timescales for network events on different package sizes we set up a Raspberry Pi based testbed as a physical representation of our first model. These timescales are reduced to time differences between the deterministic network events to verify the behavior of our model. Experimental results were improved by synchronizing the testbed with sufficient precision. With this approach we assure a link between the large scale model and the later constructed microcontroller based real-time actuator and sensor network for distributed active turbulent flow control.