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This paper presents a novel approach for fast FPGA prototyping of the Canny edge detection algorithm using High-Level Synthesis (HLS) based on the HDL Coder. Traditional RTL-based design methodologies for implementing image processing algorithms on FPGAs can be time-consuming and error-prone. HLS offers a higher level of abstraction, enabling designers to focus on algorithmic functionality while the tool automatically generates efficient hardware descriptions. This advantage was exploited by implementing the Canny edge detection algorithm in MATLAB/Simulink and utilizing the HDL Coder to automatically convert it into synthesizable VHDL code. This design flow significantly reduces development time and complexity compared to the traditional RTL approach. The experimental results showed that the HLSbased Canny edge detector achieved real-time performance on a Xilinx FPGA platform, showcasing the effectiveness of the proposed approach for fast FPGA prototyping in image processing applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to introduce a virtual laboratory platform with metadata-based API for the creation of dynamic software components. Also, the study seeks to assess the platform’s validity and technological acceptance among the community of system developers. The platform is referred to as Esfinge Virtual Lab, and it has been developed utilizing the Java programming language. The platform has a general purpose and is demonstrated in this work in the context of system prototyping. Using declarative programming techniques and a metadata-based APIs, a software developer may focus on business principles and processes rather than expend energy on the retrieval of information or the programming of the user interface. The Esfinge Virtual Lab platform enables developers to efficiently produce diverse forms of data visualization with minimal coding effort. This includes the rapid generation of tables, graphs, maps, and personalized outputs. The components are packaged as Java Archive (JAR) files and uploaded onto the platform. The components that have been loaded can be accessed for execution and can be either injected or dynamically invoked for a new component, thereby facilitating code reuse. This study provides a comprehensive explanation of the platform, including its internal architecture and features. The deployment of the Esfinge Virtual Lab was demonstrated through two practical applications in Brazilian institutions, namely INPE and CEMADEN. A survey was performed to determine the validity of the platform, consisting of open-ended and closed-ended questions. The research used the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as a quantitative analytical instrument and thematic analysis as a qualitative analytical approach.

The increased use of DC renewable energy resources and DC storage systems, combined with the necessary reduction of energy waste, is boosting the development of DC smart grids. In this scenario, DC load emulation is of great importance. From the hardware point of view, DC buses stability of smart grids and the different DC/DC converter topologies must be tested. From the software point of view, smart grid strategies and job schedulers must be tested with different power absorption profiles. Moreover, DC load emulation can be useful for many other purposes, such as battery characterization, power supply testing, photovoltaic I-V curve measurements, etc. In this work, a cost-efficient DC Active Load (AL) solution is proposed. The principle of the circuit topology is a buck-boost-derived converter. This solution can be designed and tested considering the required voltage, current, and maximum input power. Both simulation and experimental results are shown on a 400 W size prototype. Thermal and electrical results validate the simulation model and the AL feasibility.

This letter proposes a new methodology based on the recently proposed Julia language for efficient software-defined radio (SDR) prototyping. SDRs are immensely popular as they allow to have a flexible approach for sounding, monitoring, or processing radio signals through the use of generic analog components and lot of digital signal processing. As, in this paradigm, most of the processing is done at software levels (i.e., on a CPU), an efficient software methodology has to be envisioned. Right now, most of the existing methods focus on low-level languages (C or C++) for good runtime performance (at the cost of easy prototyping) or high-level languages (such as Python) for flexibility (at the price of runtime performance). In this article, we propose a new methodology based on Julia language that addresses this two-language problem and paves the way for efficient prototyping without giving up runtime performance. To prove the benefits of the proposed approach, a performance benchmark with several optimization levels compares the Julia approach with C++ and Python. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Organ‐on‐a‐chip technology promises to revolutionize how pre‐clinical human trials are conducted. Engineering an in vitro environment that mimics the functionality and architecture of human physiology is essential toward building better platforms for drug development and personalized medicine. However, the complex nature of these devices requires specialized, time consuming, and expensive fabrication methodologies. Alternatives that reduce design‐to‐prototype time are needed, in order to fulfill the potential of these devices. Here, a streamlined approach is proposed for the fabrication of organ‐on‐a‐chip devices with incorporated microactuators, by using an adaptation of xurography. This method can generate multilayered, membrane‐integrated biochips in a matter of hours, using low‐cost benchtop equipment. These devices are capable of withstanding considerable pressure without delamination. Furthermore, this method is suitable for the integration of flexible membranes, required for organ‐on‐a‐chip applications, such as mechanical actuation or the establishment of biological barrier function. The devices are compatible with cell culture applications and present no cytotoxic effects or observable alterations on cellular homeostasis. This fabrication method can rapidly generate organ‐on‐a‐chip prototypes for a fraction of cost and time, in comparison to conventional soft lithography, constituting an interesting alternative to the current fabrication methods.

Organ‐on‐a‐chip technology promises to revolutionize how pre‐clinical human trials are conducted. Engineering an in vitro environment that mimics the functionality and architecture of human physiology is essential toward building better platforms for drug development and personalized medicine. However, the complex nature of these devices requires specialized, time consuming, and expensive fabrication methodologies. Alternatives that reduce design‐to‐prototype time are needed, in order to fulfill the potential of these devices. Here, a streamlined approach is proposed for the fabrication of organ‐on‐a‐chip devices with incorporated microactuators, by using an adaptation of xurography. This method can generate multilayered, membrane‐integrated biochips in a matter of hours, using low‐cost benchtop equipment. These devices are capable of withstanding considerable pressure without delamination. Furthermore, this method is suitable for the integration of flexible membranes, required for organ‐on‐a‐chip applications, such as mechanical actuation or the establishment of biological barrier function. The devices are compatible with cell culture applications and present no cytotoxic effects or observable alterations on cellular homeostasis. This fabrication method can rapidly generate organ‐on‐a‐chip prototypes for a fraction of cost and time, in comparison to conventional soft lithography, constituting an interesting alternative to the current fabrication methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Compartmentalized microfluidic platforms are an invaluable tool in neuroscience research. However, harnessing the full potential of this technology remains hindered by the lack of a simple fabrication approach for the creation of intricate device architectures with high‐aspect ratio features. Here, a hybrid additive manufacturing approach is presented for the fabrication of open‐well compartmentalized neural devices that provides larger freedom of device design, removes the need for manual postprocessing, and allows an increase in the biocompatibility of the system. Suitability of the method for multimaterial integration allows to tailor the device architecture for the long‐term maintenance of healthy human stem‐cell derived neurons and astrocytes, spanning at least 40 days. Leveraging fast‐prototyping capabilities at both micro and macroscale, a proof‐of‐principle human in vitro model of the nigrostriatal pathway is created. By presenting a route for novel materials and unique architectures in microfluidic systems, the method provides new possibilities in biological research beyond neuroscience applications.

Compartmentalized microfluidic platforms are an invaluable tool in neuroscience research. However, harnessing the full potential of this technology remains hindered by the lack of a simple fabrication approach for the creation of intricate device architectures with high‐aspect ratio features. Here, a hybrid additive manufacturing approach is presented for the fabrication of open‐well compartmentalized neural devices that provides larger freedom of device design, removes the need for manual postprocessing, and allows an increase in the biocompatibility of the system. Suitability of the method for multimaterial integration allows to tailor the device architecture for the long‐term maintenance of healthy human stem‐cell derived neurons and astrocytes, spanning at least 40 days. Leveraging fast‐prototyping capabilities at both micro and macroscale, a proof‐of‐principle human in vitro model of the nigrostriatal pathway is created. By presenting a route for novel materials and unique architectures in microfluidic systems, the method provides new possibilities in biological research beyond neuroscience applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrochemical cells continue to be important in the synthesis and processing of commodity and speciality chemicals, environmental remediation, energy conversion and electrodeposition. A current challenge is an increasing need to achieve a high performance from cells which can be easily designed, manufactured or modified. Conventional manufacturing has involved machining of cast and extruded materials in a mechanical engineering workshop, which can involve delays, the need for skilled specialists and considerable costs. Increasingly, the benefits of fast prototyping as a route to manufacture are being realised. Modern approaches to detailed imaging of structures (e.g. by computed tomography) can be combined with on-screen, digital design (via computer software suites), followed by modification then data export to a 3D printer. In this fashion, a fast, flexible, cost effective and attractive route to manufacture of prototype electrodes and cell bodies can be realised. This review paper demonstrates the success of a design-image-manufacture cycle to realise polymeric electrochemical flow cell compartments and electrodes. Future developments are suggested, with 3D printing likely to offer creative solutions in many surface finishing applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to design and implement a virtual reality bicycle system based on a functional-based mechatronic design approach. The development of virtual reality technologies with haptic systems demands a proper integration of the involved disciplines to provide immerse experiences for users. The proposed design approach provides a formal manner to gather the subsystems in the mechatronic device. The developed system is divided in a Virtual Reality System (VRS) and a Physical System (PS) for the design process. The former includes an interactive virtual environment in which an Avatar is animated using a simple kinematic bicycle model. The latter includes an adapted mountain bicycle with haptic feedback mechanisms to interact with the user and to produce the corresponding inputs for the bicycle model. Both systems are integrated by a control behavior system that works under two operation modes, where the user carries out virtual tours and gets feedbacks from a stereoscopic display system, audio cues, and haptic mechanisms. A multibody simulation validates the consistency and the integration of the physical system. In addition, a set of experimental results show the performance of instrumentation elements, control strategies, and feedback mechanisms, to provide the user with an immersive experience in the virtual environment. A brief survey was carried out to assess the opinion of users about the virtual bicycle tours, providing feedback for future improvements. The different designed modules and sub-systems allow modifying and enhancing the VRS without major modifications of the PS, or allow enhancing the physical platform without affecting the functionality of the virtual environment. • Integration of several technologies for a virtual reality system using a VDI 2206 guideline. • Modular configuration for enhancement of the system. • Low latency times obtained, allowing a fluid an immersive experience. • Control-behavior subsystem to configure the operating mode of the system. • Proportional and ADRC strategies for haptic feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mathematical models are obtained for the temperature fields at the surface of a coated polymer tool electrode and a workpiece electrode in electrical discharge machining (EDM). In electrical discharge machining with a coated polymer tool electrode, the temperature distribution at the surface of the tool is nonuniform. That may disrupt the applied coating. Models of the temperature distribution within the workpiece at the instant of a single pulse are derived. Structural changes at the machined surface of the workpiece may be predicted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to develop biologically inspired soft robotic hands by using cheap commercial materials. Through finite elemental analysis and material testing, this paper shows effectiveness of a soft pneumatic finger for gripping and lifting. Using ANSYS simulations, the designs were analyzed in pressures, 0.0035 MPa and 0.007 MPa. This low pressure could output high deformations of the actuators. A single finger was able to withstand 25.3 N before failure, while being able to lift 15.3 g by itself under a low voltage air pump. When combing into a claw like gripper of four fingers it was able to lift roughly 8 times that of a single finger, around 130 g. This demonstration of a functional low-cost bio-inspired pneumatic finger showcases the potential for everyday use where a delicate touch is needed. Also, the high dexterity makes it a good design for use in manufacturing or medical areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Programming in high abstraction level can facilitate the development of digital signal processing systems. In the recent 20 years, high-level synthesis (HLS) has made significantly progress. This technique greatly benefits the R&D productivity of the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) developments and helps for adding to the maintainability of the products by automating the C-to-RTL (register transfer language) conversion. However, due to the high complexity and computational intensity, image processing algorithms usually necessitate a higher abstraction environment than C-synthesis, and the current HLS tools do not have the ability of this kind. This paper presents a conception of very high-level synthesis method which allows fast prototyping and verifying the FPGA-based image processing designs in the MATLAB environment. We build a heterogeneous development flow by using currently available tool kits for verifying the proposed approach and evaluated it within two real-life applications. Experiment results demonstrate that it can effectively reduce the complexity of the development by automatically synthesizing the algorithm behavior from the user level into the low register transfer level and give play to the advantages of FPGA related to the other devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unibody lab-on-a-chip (ULOC) concept entails a fast and affordable micro-prototyping system built around a single monolithic 3D printed element (unibody). A consumer-grade stereo lithography (SL) 3D printer can configure ULOCs with different forms of sample delivery, transport, handling and readout, while minimizing material costs and fabrication time. ULOC centralizes all complex fabrication procedures and replaces the need for clean room resources, delivering prototypes for less than 1 US$, which can be printed in 10 min and ready for testing in less than 30 min. Recent examples of ULOC integration of transport, chemical sensing for optical readout and flow mixing capabilities are discussed, as well as the integration of the first check-valves for ULOC devices. ULOC valves are strictly unidirectional up to 100 psi, show an exponential forward flow behavior up to 70 psi and can be entirely fabricated with the ULOC approach.

Design of autonomous underwater vehicles is deeply influenced by required mission specifications. In particular, some activities like inspection of offshore plants or harsh marine environments require underwater vehicle with high autonomy, good propulsion performances and manoeuvrability. These features are deeply influenced by design and performances of the propulsion system. In particular, performances of underwater vehicles (both remotely operated and autonomous) are deeply influenced by four quadrants performances of propellers and by complex fluid dynamics interactions that are difficult to be, even roughly, evaluated. In this work, a study of a reconfigurable propulsion layout and its comparison with a conventional one is introduced. In particular, this study is also focused on modelling techniques that should really represent a reasonable trade-off in terms of accuracy and involved computational resources for fast prototyping and simulation of this kind of mechatronic systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspection of offshore plants or harsh marine environments, requires underwater vehicles with high autonomy, performances and maneuverability. These features are deeply affected by the design of propulsion system. An accurate design of the propulsion system, involves the modelling of the response of propellers. In this work a reconfigurable propulsion layout for an inspection vehicle is presented. Performances of the proposed solution are evaluated and compared respect to the conventional one which is currently installed on benchmark test vehicle (the MARTA AUV from University of Florence). Proposed layout exhibit superior maneuvering performances that should be useful for the inspection of offshore plants and more generally for harsh operational conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proliferation of low-cost embedded system platforms has allowed the creation of large communities of developers, as well as the development of new advanced applications. Even though some of these applications can be of industrial relevance, their immediate application to real products is not straightforward since most of them require a complete and expensive hardware redesign of the considered embedded solution. To speed up the technological transfer of custom embedded solutions while overtaking the limits imposed by a complete hardware redesign, the article presents AMBER, an innovative embedded platform leveraging on a design based on System-on-Modules (SOM) and Extender modules. AMBER decouples the processing part of the system, which is fully contained on the SOM, from the peripherals, which are contained on the main board and Extender modules. This allows a smooth industrial-oriented redesign of the embedded solution. In the article, AMBER is first presented starting from its philosophy and design choices while highlighting its main features. Then, an application of AMBER as an enhanced gateway to be used in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) scenario is reported by considering a monitoring and actuation use case. The IIoT-oriented AMBER solution is hardware and software configured to support real-time communications with actuators compliant with the Powerlink standard, as well as to interact with sensors compliant with Bluetooth Low Energy. Performance results show the effectiveness of the proposed solution in the selected industrial scenario while promoting a fast and immediate transfer in new embedded products targeted to IIoT applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes UML-based foundations for model driven architecture and forward engineering of UML static models. In this paper, we propose an integrated environment for designing object-oriented enterprise models. In this projected process for Fast Prototyping, we design object models like use case diagram, sequence diagram, class diagram, etc. We use object-oriented conceptual modeling techniques to design and develop various applications like E-commerce, Banking, Comparison shopping, Ticketing, Online insurance policy management, product purchase system, etc. This paper suggests forward engineering to generate source code from object models through IBM Rational Rose software. This object oriented source code help software development team from analysis to maintenance phase as well as for round trip engineering. Due to high security concern, we have to use highly secure operating systems as a platform to run these web applications. In this regard, a number of trusted operating systems like Argus, Trusted Solaris, and Virtual Vault have been developed by various companies to handle the increasing need of security. The novel integration of security engineering with model-driven software expansion approach has various advantages. As we observe that all security checks in a Trusted Operating System is not necessary. Some non-essential security checks can be skipped by administrator to increase system performance. These non essential security checks can be easily identified at the time of requirement analysis. For example, the majority of web servers deal with pure public information. The majority of data on a web server is publicly readable and available to all users, but these users should not be capable to change the data on the web server. In this application, the need for security checks during reads from disk seems like a waste of CPU cycles. The real security need for web servers seems to be the security of write accesses, not read accesses. In this paper, we propose code generation, Class identification and Modeling for web applications through UML 2.0. Further we propose Security Performance flexibility model for the same to maintain the balance between security and performance for web applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unibody lab-on-a-chip (ULOC) concept entails a fast and affordable micro-prototyping system built around a single monolithic 3D printed element (unibody). A consumer-grade stereo lithography (SL) 3D printer can configure ULOCs with different forms of sample delivery, transport, handling and readout, while minimizing material costs and fabrication time. ULOC centralizes all complex fabrication procedures and replaces the need for clean room resources, delivering prototypes for less than 1 US$, which can be printed in 10 min and ready for testing in less than 30 min. Recent examples of ULOC integration of transport, chemical sensing for optical readout and flow mixing capabilities are discussed, as well as the integration of the first check-valves for ULOC devices. ULOC valves are strictly unidirectional up to 100 psi, show an exponential forward flow behavior up to 70 psi and can be entirely fabricated with the ULOC approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mechatronics and Dynamic Modelling Laboratory of the Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Florence, as a partner of THESAURUS (Italian acronym for ‘TecnicHe per l’Esplorazione Sottomarina Archeologica mediante l’Utilizzo di Robot aUtonomi in Sciami’) project, has developed an innovative low-cost, multirole autonomous underwater vehicle, called Tifone. This article deals with the adopted methodologies for the autonomous underwater vehicle design: in particular, the main focus of this study is related to its propulsion system. According to the expected performances and requirements of THESAURUS project, the vehicle has to maintain good autonomy and efficiency (typical features of an autonomous underwater vehicle), with high manoeuvrability and hovering capabilities, which are more common of remotely operated vehicles. Moreover, cooperative underwater exploration and surveillance involve the use of a swarm of vehicles. In particular, the optimization of costs versus benefits is achieved through the design of a fleet of three multirole vehicles. Each autonomous underwater vehicle has five controlled degrees of freedom, thanks to four thrusters and two propellers: in this article, the preliminary design criteria concerning the vehicle and the design and testing of its actuation system are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Tekstil: Journal of Textile & Clothing Technology is the property of Croatian Association of Textile Engineers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The aim of this paper is to present a multipurpose converter, appropriate for non-grid-connected microsystems, which are prone to harmonic distortion. The converter suppresses harmonics by injecting mirror harmonics in the modulation stage. An important property is that it continuously monitors and significantly reduces the harmonic content without the use of active or passive low-frequency filters. This is under constant switching frequency, no matter if the harmonics are mainly created by the source, the loads or even its own operation. The converter is regulating output voltage using typical fuzzy control. The two types of control (harmonic and voltage) do not seem to affect each other during operation. Furthermore, it can supply either dc or ac loads from a dc source. The versatility of the converter is a useful property for remote or mobile micropower systems, where neither sources nor loads are of a single type. The converter has been tested successfully for a combination of harmonic-injecting electric appliances and various load step changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modernization of global positioning systems (GPS) boosts the development of civil and military applications as accuracy and coverage of receivers continually improve. Recently, software defined radio (SDR) approach for GPS receivers (GPS-SDR) gained attention because of its flexibility for multimode operations in different environments. The SDR receiver developers continually advance algorithmic and/or hardware accelerator solutions. However, they need fast prototyping and testing instrumentation to refine and evaluate high performance multimode receivers. This paper presents a feasibility study of fast prototyping of the GPS receiver accelerators using graphical user interface environments. It also describes a testbed with integrated RF front-ends, GPS simulator, receiver, and assistance support. Particularly, a novel host-target codesign solution is demonstrated using a field programmable gate array (FPGA) peripheral and LabVIEW FPGA tool for a case study of a GPS acquisition module. Distributing tasks between the FPGA target and the personal computer host achieves a high performance solution. The fast prototyped solution is compared with a conventional FPGA and state-of-the-art implementations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Acropolis is an open source middleware robotic framework for fast software prototyping and reuse of program codes. It is made up of a core software and a collection of several extension modules called plugins. Each plugin encapsulates a specific functionality needed for robotic applications. To design a robot behavior, a circuit of the involved plugins is built with a graphical user interface. A high degree of decoupling between components and a graph-based representation allow the user to build complex robot behaviors with minimal need for code writing. In addition, the Acropolis core is hardware platform independent. Well-known design patterns and layered software architecture are its key features. Through the description of three applications, we illustrate some of its usability.

Parallel and distributed systems play an important role in the development of information technologies and their application. These systems are very useful but their development and usage is inherently more difficult. A solution can be a tool focused on systematic, well-arranged design, analysis and verifications these systems. This article briefly describes the tool Kaira intended for modelling, simulation and generation of parallel applications. A developer is able to model parallel programs and different aspects of communication using Kaira. Models are based on the variant of Coloured Petri nets. The important feature of our tool is automatic generation of standalone parallel applications from models. The final application can be generated with different parallel back-ends, currently it can be threads or MPI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are gaining increasing interest thanks to their flexibility and versatility. However, these systems are very complex and a good simulation platform is needed. In this paper, a new Framework for simulation and fast prototyping of UAV control laws is presented. The Framework exploits the high realism of the simulations carried out in a three-dimensional virtual environment with the easiness of use of development systems such as Matlab® for fast prototyping of control systems. Then a novel method that exploits the benefits of Model Predictive Control (MPC) for cooperative scenarios is introduced. The obtained results show good performances of MPC in solving the formation problem of unmanned aerial vehicles; finding an optimal solution and taking into account different constraints. The developed framework allows also to easily change from simulated agent to real one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly regular multi-processor architectures are suitable for inherently highly parallelizable applications such as most of the image processing domain. Systems embedded in a single programmable chip platform (SoPC) allow hardware designers to tailor every aspect of the architecture in order to match the specific application needs. These platforms are now large enough to embed an increasing number of cores, allowing implementation of a multi-processor architecture with an embedded communication network. In this paper we present the parallelization and the embedding of a real time image stabilization algorithm on a SoPC platform. Our overall hardware implementation method is based upon meeting algorithm processing power requirements and communication needs with refinement of a generic parallel architecture model. Actual implementation is done by the choice and parameterization of readily available reconfigurable hardware modules and customizable commercially available IPs (Intellectual Property). We present both software and hardware implementation with performance results on a Xilinx SoPC target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]