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Ocean waves contain a great deal of energy, and the collection and utilization of wave energy is of great significance for sustainable development. In this paper, a multi-direction piezoelectric and electromagnetic hybrid energy harvester (PEHEH) based on magnetic coupling is proposed that can collect low frequency vibration energy from multiple directions. The proposed PEHEH combines piezoelectricity and electromagnetism through magnetic coupling to collect energy in the same excitation. The mechanical model of the PEHEH is established, and finite element simulation software COMSOL and computational fluid dynamics are used to analyze and verify the feasibility and practicability of the PEHEH structure. An experimental platform is built to test the output performance of the PEHEH. The results show that the maximum energy generated by PEHEH is 19.4 mW when the magnetic distance is 16 mm and the excitation frequency is 9 Hz. The hybrid energy harvester can light 56 light emitting diodes, which verified the feasibility of practical application. Therefore, the proposed hybrid energy harvester can effectively collect low-frequency wave energy and has a broad application prospect as a power source for low-power electronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper comprehensively reviews the state of the art of Heating, Ventilation, and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) control sensing. The topic has broad impacts on society, by affecting energy consumption, Earth's climate, and the environmental health. Great effort was taken by researchers to study and test new technologies and methodologies for improving HVAC energy efficiency, but this large amount of works is often fragmentary, and a complete and recent review paper does not yet exist. This paper aims at filling this gap by clarifying the key points of HVAC sensing, the main technologies, and their pros and cons. The advancement in this sector is fueled by the premium performance of the embedded systems exploited as sensors and their beneficial features. The state of the art of the available solutions has been summarized with the purpose of fueling and better organizing the research effort on this hot topic. Particular attention has been paid to investigate not only the performance and reliability of the current systems but also the advanced features that can be provided by the newly evolved and complex technologies, e.g., the radar technology that has been identified as the emerging one in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the Cartesian point-to-point optimal trajectory planning for space robots oriented to space maintenance operations. Aiming at the problems of poor stability, large base disturbance, and large joint variation in the motion planning of point-to-point maintenance in space, a planning method is proposed to minimize the base disturbance and the total joint angle variation under the jerk constraint on the premise of ensuring the accuracy of the end pose. First, the attitude of the space robot is described by the unit quaternion, and the velocity relationship between the joint angle, the end effector, and the base posture is introduced. Then, the joint trajectories were parameterized by a fifth degree polynomial, and a trajectory planning model with the minimum perturbation of the base and the minimum variation of the joint of the manipulator was established under the condition that the end effector satisfied the pose and the jerk constraint. Finally, a multi-objective optimization algorithm is proposed to deal with the trajectory optimization problem under nonlinear constraints. The simulation results show that the proposed trajectory planning method can optimize the base attitude and joint angle of the space manipulator under the premise of the optimal trajectory and stability of the terminal execution tool, which ensures the stability of the space robot's on-orbit service and reduces the energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on the design and implementation of a new system used to characterize the energy-dependent x-ray transmission curve, Θ(E), through filters used in high-energy density physics diagnostics. Using an Amptek X-123-CdTe x-ray spectrometer together with a partially depleted silicon surface barrier detector, both the energy spectrum and total emission of an x-ray source have been accurately measured. By coupling these detectors with a custom PROTO-XRD x-ray source with interchangeable cathodes, accurate characterizations of Θ(E) for filters of varying materials and thicknesses have been obtained. The validity of the technique has been confirmed by accurately reproducing areal densities for high-purity filters with known x-ray transmission properties. In this paper, the experimental setup is described and the results of absorption calibrations performed on a variety of different filters are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design, simulation, fabrication, and experiments of a novel flow sensor based on resonant sensing with a two-stage microleverage mechanism are presented in this paper. Different from the conventional detection methods for flow sensors, two differential resonators are adopted to implement air flow rate transformation through two-stage leverage magnification. The proposed flow sensor has a high sensitivity since the adopted two-stage microleverage mechanism possesses a higher amplification factor than a single-stage microleverage mechanism. The modal distribution and geometric dimension of the two-stage leverage mechanism and hair are analyzed and optimized by Ansys simulation. A digital closed-loop driving technique with a phase frequency detector-based coordinate rotation digital computer algorithm is implemented for the detection and locking of resonance frequency. The sensor fabricated by the standard deep dry silicon on a glass process has a device dimension of 5100 μm (length) × 5100 μm (width) × 100 μm (height) with a hair diameter of 1000 μm. The preliminary experimental results demonstrate that the maximal mechanical sensitivity of the flow sensor is approximately 7.41 Hz/(m/s)2 at a resonant frequency of 22 kHz for the hair height of 9 mm and increases by 2.42 times as hair height extends from 3 mm to 9 mm. Simultaneously, a detection-limit of 3.23 mm/s air flow amplitude at 60 Hz is confirmed. The proposed flow sensor has great application prospects in the micro-autonomous system and technology, self-stabilizing micro-air vehicles, and environmental monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microwave applicators are widely employed for materials heating in scientific research and industrial applications, such as food processing, wood drying, ceramic sintering, chemical synthesis, waste treatment, and insect control. For the majority of microwave applicators, materials are heated in the standing waves of a resonant cavity, which can be highly efficient in energy consumption, but often lacks the field uniformity and controllability required for a scientific study. Here, we report a microwave applicator for rapid heating of small samples by highly uniform irradiation. It features an anechoic chamber, a 24-GHz microwave source, and a linear-to-circular polarization converter. With a rather low energy efficiency, such an applicator functions mainly as a research tool. This paper discusses the significance of its special features and describes the structure, in situ diagnostic tools, calculated and measured field patterns, and a preliminary heating test of the overall system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, an increasing number of applications require high-performance analytical instruments capable to detect the temporal trend of weak and fast light signals with picosecond time resolution. The Time-Correlated Single-Photon Counting (TCSPC) technique is currently one of the preferable solutions when such critical optical signals have to be analyzed and it is fully exploited in biomedical and chemical research fields, as well as in security and space applications. Recent progress in the field of single-photon detector arrays is pushing research towards the development of high performance multichannel TCSPC systems, opening the way to modern time-resolved multi-dimensional optical analysis. In this paper we describe a new 8-channel high-performance TCSPC acquisition system, designed to be compact and versatile, to be used in modern TCSPC measurement setups. We designed a novel integrated circuit including a multichannel Time-to-Amplitude Converter with variable full-scale range, a D/A converter, and a parallel adder stage. The latter is used to adapt each converter output to the input dynamic range of a commercial 8-channel Analog-to-Digital Converter, while the integrated DAC implements the dithering technique with as small as possible area occupation. The use of this monolithic circuit made the design of a scalable system of very small dimensions (95 × 40 mm) and low power consumption (6 W) possible. Data acquired from the TCSPC measurement are digitally processed and stored inside an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array), while a USB transceiver allows real-time transmission of up to eight TCSPC histograms to a remote PC. Eventually, the experimental results demonstrate that the acquisition system performs TCSPC measurements with high conversion rate (up to 5 MHz/channel), extremely low differential nonlinearity (<0.04 peak-to-peak of the time bin width), high time resolution (down to 20 ps Full-Width Half-Maximum), and very low crosstalk between channels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Very stable and reliable instruments with high accuracy are required in field measurements for continuous monitoring local geodynamic processes, such as tectonic movements, ground motions in landslide prone areas, etc. A sensitive borehole wire extensometer with low energy consumption was developed in the Geodetic and Geophysical Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences to observe very small vertical movements (in the order of a few millimeters) of the upper layer of the soil due to hydrological, meteorological and biological processes. The newly developed instrument eliminates the disadvantages of the borehole wire extensometers which are presently used. Its sensitivity and stability are much higher than these parameters of the previous instruments. The instrument is able to measure distance variations without instrumental drift in a range of 0-4 mm with a resolution of better than 1 μm. Since the effect of the yearly temperature variations can be easily removed from the extensometric data record, the compensation for the short-periodic (daily) thermal effects on the instrument was of high priority during the design of the instrument. This paper describes the construction and calibration of the extensometer. The extensometer was installed for monitoring vertical ground movements due to hydro-meteorological processes on the high loess wall of the Danube River at Dunaföldvár, Hungary. The efficiency of the temperature compensation of the instrument was investigated in detail on the basis of the measured data series. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a 4.596 GHz frequency synthesis based on a 2.1 GHz solid mounted resonator (SMR) voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO). The SMR oscillator presents a chip size lower than 2 mm2, a power consumption of 18.2 mW, and exhibits a phase noise of -89 dBc/Hz and -131 dBc/Hz at 2 kHz and 100 kHz offset frequencies, respectively. The VCO temperature-frequency dependence is measured to be -14 ppm/°C over a range of -20 ○C to 60 ○C. From this source, a low noise frequency synthesizer is developed to generate a 4.596 GHz signal (half of the Cs atom hyperfine transition frequency) with a phase noise of -81 dBc/Hz and -120 dBc/Hz at 2 kHz and 100 kHz from the carrier. The frequency synthesis output is used as a local oscillator in a Cs vapor microcell-based compact atomic clock. Preliminary results are reported and discussed. To the authors knowledge, this is the first development of a SMR-oscillator-based frequency synthesizer for miniature atomic clocks applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both the energy efficiency and correlation characteristics are important in airborne sonar systems to realize multichannel ultrasonic transducers working together. High energy efficiency can increase echo energy and measurement range, and sharp autocorrelation and flat cross correlation can help eliminate cross-talk among multichannel transducers. This paper addresses energy efficiency optimization under the premise that cross-talk between different sonar transducers can be avoided. The nondominated sorting genetic algorithm-II is applied to optimize both the spectrum and correlation characteristics of the excitation sequence. The central idea of the spectrum optimization is to distribute most of the energy of the excitation sequence within the frequency band of the sonar transducer; thus, less energy is filtered out by the transducers. Real experiments show that a sonar system consisting of eight-channel Polaroid 600 series electrostatic transducers excited with 2 ms optimized pulse-position-modulation sequences can work together without cross-talk and can measure distances up to 650 cm with maximal 1% relative error. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a robotic fish with a caudal fin with vertical phase differences is studied, especially focusing on the energy consumption. Energies for thrusting a conventional robotic fish and one with caudal fin with vertical phase differences are obtained and compared each other. It is shown that a robotic fish with a caudal fin with vertical phase differences can save more energy, which implies the efficient thrusting via a vertically waving caudal fin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an energy-efficient readout circuit for resonant sensors that operates based on a transient measurement method. The resonant sensor is driven at a frequency close to its resonance frequency by an excitation source that can be intermittently disconnected, causing the sensor to oscillate at its resonance frequency with exponentially decaying amplitude. By counting the zero crossings of this ring-down response, the interface circuit can detect the resonance frequency. In contrast with oscillator-based readout, the presented readout circuit is readily able to detect quality factor (Q) of the resonator from the envelope of the ring-down response, and can be used even in the presence of large parasitic capacitors. A prototype of the readout circuit has been integrated in 0.35 μm CMOS technology, and consumes only 36 μA from a 3.3 V supply during a measurement time of 2 ms. The resonance frequency and quality factor of a micro-machined SiN resonator obtained using this prototype are in good agreement with results obtained using impedance analysis. Furthermore, a clear transient response is observed to ethanol flow using the presented readout, demonstrating the use of this technique in sensing applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]