In this research, for an assembly-work guide, an ultrasonic positioning system is proposed to track the positions of an indoor moving object. Composed of an ultrasonic sender (moving object) and a receiver (anchor), the system employs three ultrasonic time-off-flights (TOFs) and trilateration to estimate the positions of the moving object in real time. In addition, to remove measuring noises, a pulse debounce technique and Kalman filter have been applied to the position estimation. Ultrasonic signals are processed in full digital with a Zynq SoC, in which a hardware/software co-design is implemented where digital circuit portion is designed in the Zynq's fpga and software portion is c-coded in the Zynq's dual processors by using the bare-metal multiprocessing. According to the test results, it was confirmed that circular motions could be tracked with accuracy of sub-centimeter and the location of a worker's hand was well tracked.

The objective of this research is to develop a prototype for practical foolproof system which can be used in manual assembly processes. For this purpose, a high-performance and low-cost ultrasonic system is proposed to measure 3D positions of an indoor mobile object. Composed of an ultrasonic sender and a receiver, the system employs ultrasonic time-of-flight (TOF) and trilateration to estimate the positions of the object with an accuracy of few centimeters. To calculate three TOFs, ultrasonic signals are processed full-digitally with a low-cost FPGA, which provides high design flexibility keeping both high performance and low noise. Proposed system is autonomous, so there is no need of an external PC and the system development cost becomes low. As an improved thresholding method to calculate the TOFs, this paper proposes a debounce module, designed in the FPGA, to remove the pulse noises generated during the thresholding. The resulting time delay from the debounce is compensated by a microprocessor for calculating actual TOFs. Lastly, the positions of the mobile object are calculated from the TOFs values by trilateration in the microprocessor. In order to remove measurement noises, both moving average filters and Kalman filters are adopted in calculating the TOFs and positions. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

본 연구에서는 Xilinx의 Zynq SoC(system on chip)를 이용하여 초음파신호의 포락선을 검출하기 위한 신호처리 시스템을 설계하였다. 설계 툴로 Vivado IDE(integrated design environment)를 이용하여, 초음파 신호처리를 위한 전체 과정을 계층적 블록의 형태로 설계하였다. 제안된 시스템은 Zynq-7010의 내장 ADC, FIR(finite impulse response) 밴드패스 필터, 절대값 계산모듈, FIR 로우패스 필터 및 Kalman 필터 등으로 구성되며, 최종 단으로서 FIR 로우패스 필터를 사용하는 HW design 방식과 Kalman 필터를 사용하는 HW/SW co-design 방식에 대해 성능과 유효성을 비교하였다. 비교결과, 포락선 검출 성능에 있어서는 두 방식이 서로 유사한 특성을 갖지만, 시스템 개발에 소요되는 시간 측면에서는 HW/SW co-design 방식이 HW design 방식에 비해 훨씬 더 효율적임이 확인되었다.

본 논문에서는 하나의 FPGA 내에 DC 모터 제어와 TFT LCD 인터페이스가 내장되어, 제어와 결과 데이터의 실시간 분석이 용이하고 컴팩트한 전(full)-FPGA 기반 모터 제어 시스템을 보인다. PID 속도 제어 모듈과 TFT LCD 상에 실험 결과를 실시간 보여주기 위한 모니터링 모듈을 하나의 FPGA내에 설계하고, 시뮬레이션과 실험을 통하여 유용성을 보인다. FPGA로는 xc3s400를 사용하였고, AD (Aaltium Designer)를 이용하여 전체 시스템을 설계하였다. DC 모터 4상한 운전을 위해 MOSFET를 이용한 PWM 모터 드라이버를 제작하였다.

In this study, an optimal algorithm for a train speed profile using GA (genetic algorithm) to obtain optimum energy efficiency is presented, and its effectiveness is shown by simulation results. Based on a method that simplifies the train driving modes between stations (maximum-power driving, coasting, maximum braking) and by controlling the coasting point, the fitness function is set so that the train can travel the distance between two stations within the defined target travelling time. Then the coasting points that satisfy both constraint elements (distance between stations and target travelling time) are determined by applying GA. Train performance simulation blocks and GA blocks are designed using Simulink.

This paper proposes a real-time control system for a single-phase unified power flow controller (UPFC) which is constructed as a pilot power-quality compensation equipment of an electrical railway, and shows simulation and experimental results. For simulation, the control system is modeled in the form of block diagrams by using the Simulink, where the main control effort is focused on the power flow control with the UPFC and the hysteresis current controller is adopted to control the single-phase inverters of the UPFC. And for a small-scale rapid prototyping of the UPFC-equipped control system, the simulation blocks are modified and a real-time control platform is developed by using the real-time workshop and multiple digital signal processors. Both simulation and experiment results have proved the effectiveness of the proposed control system.

In this research TPS (Train Performance Simulation) blocks are designed using Simulink and applied to generate speed profiles for energy-efficient train operation. With a train operation mode of maximum powering, coasting, and maximum breaking, a breaking point is calculated from forward-backward running profiles. Then, GA (Genetic Algorithm) is used to solve a running time constraint, and a coasting point is produced from the searching process of GA. With the breaking point and the coasting point a speed profile is plotted. Train performance under a speed limit and gradient variations is simulated and resultant speed profiles are analyzed.

This paper proposes an optimal algorithm for generating a train speed profile giving optimal energy efficiency based on GA (Genetic Algorithm) and shows its effectiveness with simulations. After simplifying the train operation mode to a maximum traction, a coasting and a maximum breaking, adjusting the coasting point to minimize the train consuming energy is the basic scheme. Satisfying the two constraints, running distance and running time between two stations, a coasting point is determined by GA with a fitness function consisting of a target running time. Simulation results have shown that multiple coasting points could exist satisfying both of the two constraints. After figuring out consumed energies according to the multiple coasting points, an optimal train speed profile with a coasting point giving the smallest consumed energy has been selected. Simulation blocks for the train performance simulation and GA have been designed with the Simulink.

This paper proposes a vehicle speed detector with anisotropic magnetoresistive (AMR) sensors and addresses experimental results to show the performance of the detector. The detector consists of two AMR sensors and mechanical and electronic apparatuses. The AMR sensor senses disturbance of the earth magnetic field caused by a vehicle moving over the sensor and then produces an output indicative of the moving vehicle. In this paper, vehicle speeds are calculated by using two AMR sensors built on a board. The speed of a vehicle is calculated by dividing the known distance between the two sensors with the time difference between two output signals from each sensor, captured sequentially while the vehicle is driving over the sensors. Some field tests have been carried to show the performance of the proposed detector and its usefulness.

This paper presents a study on the control of a power quality compensating equipment of electrical railway built in small-scaled to preliminary research. Because this compensating equipment is very complicated power electronics system, consisting of a scott transformer as a power source, four single phase inverters interconnected with DC-link capacitors and various electrical apparatuses, multiple controllers and control algorithms with high performance and reliability are needed. The major function of the compensating equipment is to manage reactive and active powers by using the four single phase inverters, so, the main control effort is focused on the power flow control which realized through the decoupling current control of the four inverters. Overall control system is designed with object oriented and analyzed on a Simulink window. The simulation results show that the design scheme is very effective for a complicated control system and the proposed controller has good performance.

This paper presents a real-time control platform developed for rapid prototyping of an induction motor (IM) vector control. Firstly, the control system is designed with the Simulink in the form of user-friendly block-diagrams. Next, c-codes are automatically generated from the block-diagrams with the real-time workshop. And lastly, an executable code, produced from the c-codes through a DSP c-compiler, is downloaded into a target DSP board. With this automatic programming scheme rapid prototyping is realized with the least low-level handwork programming. Presented control platform has been evaluated through the rapid prototyping of a voltage source inverter-fed IM driver and some experiments have been carried out to show its effectiveness.

This paper proposes a vehicle detector with an anisotropic magnetoresistive (AMR) sensor and addresses experimental study carried out to show the detector's characteristics and performance. The detector consists of an AMR sensor and mechanical and electronic apparatuses. Composed of four magnetoresistors, the AMR sensor senses disturbance of the earth's magnetic field caused by a moving vehicle over the sensor itself and then produces an output indicative of the moving vehicle. Experiments have been carried out with three stages. At the first stage, the outputs of the sensor have been analyzed to show the validity of the detector's circuit and the detecting method. At the second stage, the detector has been tested on a local highway in Korea. Through the field tests, the outputs of the detector in response to various kinds of moving vehicles have been collected and analyzed. At the final stage, to verify the performance of the detector, traffic volumes on the highway have been measured with the detector and compared with the exact traffic volumes in a highly congested traffic.

Background—Biological mechanisms underlying statin and angiotensin II type 1 receptor blocker therapies differ. Therefore, we compared vascular and metabolic responses to these therapies either alone or in combination in hypercholesterolemic, hypertensive patients. Methods and Results—This was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial with 3 treatment arms (each 2 months) and 2 washout periods (each 2 months). Forty-seven hypertensive, hypercholesterolemic patients were given simvastatin 20 mg and placebo, simvastatin 20 mg and losartan 100 mg, or losartan 100 mg and placebo daily during each 2-month treatment period. Losartan alone or combined therapy significantly reduced blood pressure compared with simvastatin alone. Compared with losartan alone, simvastatin alone or combined therapy significantly changed lipoproteins. All 3 treatment arms significantly improved flow-mediated dilator response to hyperemia and decreased plasma malondialdehyde and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 levels relative to baseline measurements. However, these parameters were changed to a greater extent with combined therapy compared with simvastatin or losartan alone (both P<0.001 and P=0.030 for monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 by ANOVA). Combined therapy or losartan alone significantly increased plasma adiponectin levels and insulin sensitivity (determined by QUICKI) relative to baseline measurements. These changes were significantly greater than in the group treated with simvastatin alone (P<0.001 for adiponectin, P=0.029 for QUICKI by ANOVA). Conclusions—Simvastatin combined with losartan improves endothelial function and reduces inflammatory markers to a greater extent than monotherapy with either drug in hypercholesterolemic, hypertensive patients.

This paper proposes a closed-loop form quantization algorithm that guarantees the boundness of accumulative error. The algorithm is particularly useful for mobile robot navigation that is usually implemented on embedded systems. If the wheel command of the mobile robot is given by velocity or positional increments at every control instant that are quantized due to the finite word length of the controller's CPU, the quantization error accumulates to produce large position error. Such an error is critical for wheeled mobile robots or autonomous vehicles with non-holonomic constraints. To solve this problem, a non-error accumulative quantization algorithm with a closedloop form is presented. We can extend it to a generalized form corresponding to the nth-order accumulation. The boundness of the accumulative quantization error is proven via mathematic processes and verified by a series of computer simulations. The proposed method is effective to accurately control the autonomous mobile robot, particularly with embedded systems.

Although hyperinsulinemia has attracted considerable attention as a possible risk factor for coronary artery disease (CAD), previous studies have not shown consistent results. Hyperglycemia could be an alternative explanation for the association between type 2 diabetes and atherosclerosis. Since previous studies have been mostly lacking coronary angiographic data, we analyzed the relationship between the presence and severity of coronary atherosclerosis based on angiography and hyperinsulinemia or hyperglycemia. Two hundred and thirty subjects underwent coronary angiography and a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test. Age, sex, waist-to-hip ratio, postchallenge 1-h and 2-h glucose levels, plasma triglyceride and HDL-cholesterol levels were different between those with or without CAD. However, there was no significant difference in the plasma insulin levels, area of insulin under the curve, and the ratio of the insulin- and glucose areas between the groups with and without CAD. Multiple logistic regression analysis including fasting-, 1-h, and 2-h glucose values and a variety of atherosclerosis risk factors showed that age, sex and postchallenge 2-h glucose levels were independent determinants of the presence of CAD. These results suggest that coronary atherosclerosis might be associated with postchallenge hyperglycemia, but not with hyperinsulinemia in Korean subjects.