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Service robots have received increasing attention in mobile robotics field with the recent advancement in technology and computing power. One of the important aspects of service robots is the vision recognition system. This system is crucial for the robot to navigate through the surrounding and detect the objects such as obstacles and targets. Most of the recent service robots use costly sensors such as LIDAR and high-end vision system in order to recognize its environment. This paper proposes to use a cost-effective sensor which is an omni-directional camera to obtain a full 360° field of view (FOV) of the surrounding environment. The images from the camera were then used to identify the location of the human in any direction from the robot. From the results, the optimal method to unwrap the omni-directional image and recognition of human is promising. In addition, the direction and heading of the robot is also configurable in future works using the proposed method.

Vision aided pick and place cartesian robot is a combination of machine vision system and robotic system. They communicate with each other simultaneously to perform object sorting. In this project, machine vision algorithm for object sorting to solve the problem in failure sorting due to imperfection of images edges and different types of colours is proposed. The image is acquired by a camera and followed by image calibration. Pre-processing of image is performed through these methods, which are HSI colour space transformation, Gaussian filter for image filtering, Otsu’s method for image binarization, and Canny edge detection. LabVIEW edge-based geometric matching is selected for template matching. After the vision application analysed the image, electrical signal will send to robotic arm for object sorting if the acquired image is matched with template image. The proposed machine vision algorithm has yielded an accurate template matching score from 800 to 1000 under different disturbances and conditions. This machine vision algorithm provides more customizable parameters for each methods yet improves the accuracy of template matching.

Electro-Hydraulic Actuator (EHA) system is a third order non-linear system which is highly suffer from system uncertainties such as Coulomb friction, viscous friction and pump leakage coefficient which makes this system more complicated for the designing of the controller. The Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller has proposed in this paper to control EHA system and main problem in its application is to tune the parameter to its optimum value. Two different methods are used to tune the PID controller which are trial and error and Ziegler-Nichols method. MATLAB Simulink is used to simulate the system. In order to determine the performance of EHA system for the position tracking. 3 different of external disturbance such as 0N, 5000N and 10000N has been injected into the system. Simulation results show that the Ziegler-Nichols fine tuning method provides the better tracking performance when compared to the trial and error method for every specific disturbance setting. The Ziegler Nichols method provides better disturbance rejection as the performances indexes such as percentage overshoot, settling time and steady state error are not affected by the varying of disturbance.

There are variety of fruits around the world, different types of fruits contain different types of nutrients and vitamins which could benefits our health. In order to understand which fruit can provide specific type of nutrients, we need to identify the types of fruits. However, fruits grow in a different shape, colour and texture based on the country they were planted and the environment of the land. Implementing a machine vision-based recognition on the fruits can help people recognize them easily. In this paper, an edge detection method is applied using computer vision approach to recognize different types of fruits. The fruits are classified based on the features extracted from their images. In the experiment, a total of 450 images of three types of fruit are used, which are apples, lemons and mangoes. Pre-processing steps are applied on the captured image to improve the quality of fruit details and the edge features are extracted using Canny Edge Detection method. Classification of the fruits is accomplished using two different types of learning model, the deep leaning model, Convolution Neural Network (CNN) and machine learning model, Support Vector Machines (SVM). The performance of both classifiers is compared and the model with the best performance, SVM is chosen as the model for the system. The system can achieve 86% classification accuracy with the SVM model, which is good enough for fruit recognition.

The wireless data collection for instance the Received Signal Strength (RSS) of the Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) remained unfavourable in the Indoor Positioning System utilizing the signal fingerprinting approach. This is because the enormous sampling time and routines works making it tedious human labour. To alleviate this issue, we propose to use a robot for wireless data collection. The robot, named ‘ICSiBOT’ is a service robot with multiple purpose such as assisting human in daily lives, guest or hospitality robot and man others. This paper mainly describes the ICSiBOT robot face with speech recognition technology and the integration of the robot face to the motion controller. The experimental was conducted to see the correlation between the synthesized instructions from the speech in terms of distance need to be travelled i.e., the location for wireless signal collection and translate them into actual distance travelled. The results showed that the robot is able to travel to the specific distance as instructed to the robot face.

Two types of loading protocol, i.e., monotonic loading and cyclic loading, were compared to investigate the effect on the mechanical properties of 316L stainless steel. The specimen used is a dog-bone specimen in accordance with ASTM E8 and ASTM E606 standard. For cyclic loading, the multiple-step method is used to obtain the hysteresis loop of the material. A total of 13 strain amplitude conditions had been carried out, ranging from 0.05%-0.65%. The stress-strain curve shows that the cyclic stress-strain curve is higher than the monotonic stress-strain curve due to the cyclic hardening behaviour in the 316L stainless steel. The cyclic hardening behaviour increases the ultimate tensile stress of the material. However, when the material gains its strength through cyclic hardening, the ductility in the material will decrease.

Fracture is the separation of an object into two or more pieces caused by crack growth under the action of applied stress. There are many different methods for fracture evaluation has been made but still lacks information on properties of Aluminium 6026-T9. Aluminium 6026 is non-toxic since it does not contain Tin (Sn) and features a great corrosion resistance. This study focuses on the mechanical properties and fracture toughness of Aluminium 6026-T9. The material is cut and shaped into dog-bone specimens by referring the ASTM E8 and was eventually undergoing a tensile test to evaluate the mechanical properties. A linear elastic analysis of three different crack characteristics which are single edge crack, double edge crack and center crack were performed in Mode I analysis to evaluate its fracture toughness. The stress intensity factor (SIF) value near the crack tip obtained from the simulation process were then compared with analytical value and had been discussed. The percentage of error found that the numerical and analytical values are closed to each other.

We have designed a service robot that can be used for Wi-Fi RSSI Fingerprint database construction for indoor positioning system. This work aims to aid and ease the signal fingerprint database construction process which currently conducted manually by carrying the data acquisition tools around the experimental field. The robot architecture design considered the values and constraint in performance, aesthetic, cost, and expandability. Analysis of the robot’s mobile specification was made in order to choose the optimum hardware components. The robot has three main sections which are mobile platform, storage compartment, and user interactive screen that is capable to display facial expression and other useful information.

The massive deployment of wireless infrastructure especially in the trending 4th Industrial Revolution (IR4.0) has opened the opportunity for wireless-based positioning and localization. The works on wireless positioning system revolves on two techniques, the geometrical technique employing either triangulation or trilateration, and mapping technique employing signal fingerprint method. The later is more favoured since the accuracy was superior to geometrical technique. However, the signal fingerprint method required enormous efforts in order to record and stored the signal fingerprint. This paper investigates the new approach in constructing the signal fingerprint using organic approach. The signal is recorded using the developed apps, and then the user sends the signal data into the cloud. The organic fingerprinting data were compared to the conventional fingerprinting. The preliminary results show promising accuracy in the experimented indoor environment.

When Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB) introduced the High Speed Electrical Train System (ETS) in 2013, the fracture toughness of the railway rail remains relatively unknown. The aim of this study was to evaluate the fracture toughness of rail steel. The rail steel specimen was prepared according to ASTM E1820 and cut using electrical discharge machining (EDM) wire cut process. The specimen was pre-cracked using Biss Fatigue Machine to obtain a relatively accurate results followed by three point bend testing under Universal Testing Machine (UTM), in accordance to the standard of ASTM E1820. The fractured crack tip was then observed using an optical microscope. From the three point bend test, the fracture toughness was calculated and the behaviour of the steel failing was then studied and compared to previous studies. The fracture toughness of the steel was found to be 44.009 MPa√m, which is within the range of the various rail steels used around the world..

Fever is happened when the human having infection or other illness which the body temperature is higher than normal body temperature. The heat load released during the fever cause the uncomfortable condition to the human. Thermoelectric is used in the design of heat exchanger to provide cooling by using electricity which reliefs the fever uncomfortable. The thermal comfort zone for human and the analysis of the heat load from the human head surface are determined. The analysis focuses on the fever teenagers aged range from 15 to 25. The range of the thermal comfort zone is from 20 °C to 25 °C whereas the range for the total heat load from the head surface is from 10.56 W to 16.39 W. The findings from the analysis will be used in the design of heat exchanger that suites the requirement from the analysis result. The fluid flow effect of the working fluid and thermal effect of the heat exchanger are simulated by ANSYS Fluent. In addition, the different types of Peltier plate and fluid as well as the different materials of heat exchanger and tube have applied into heat exchanger design model for observing the effect of the fluid flow in heat exchanger. Using ANSYS Fluent, the temperature contours are compared and found that the combination of alumina Al2O3 nanofluid, copper heat exchanger have better performance due to high heat transfer rate while the tube materials show no effect. The best performance of cooling in the design of the heat exchanger is proposed. These design criteria include the selection of the material of heat exchanger, tube and fluid as well as the selection of the device such as Peltier plate, battery, cooler fan and pump.

The increase industrial and agricultural development, caused by the population growth on the one hand and the limited water resources available on the other hand has caused the groundwaters to be considered as a valuable water supply more than ever. Optimal operating policies are very much essential for sustainable management of reservoir as poor operating policies may lead to over or underuse of water. The purpose of this study was to investigate the water availability of Timah Tasoh Reservoir, water demand for minor scheme paddy, and hence balance the water inflow and outflow from Timah Tasoh Reservoir. The study area for agriculture is the minor scheme for whole Perlis state, and inflow areas are Lubok Sireh, Padang Besar at Titi Keretapi, Wang Kelian and Kaki Bukit. The result shows that the water inflow to Timah Tasoh Reservoirs is sufficient to supply for the needs of minor scheme agriculture. The highest water balance among the first planting season is in May. Total inflows calculated are much more significant than the total outflows; therefore, it concludes that the water available in Timah Tasoh Reservoir is enough to supply for minor scheme paddy in Perlis for a whole year.

Fracture mechanics studies on fatigue crack growth under elastic-plastic condition is usually characterized by J integral range, ΔJ determined by an approximation from area under load-displacement hysteresis loop developed by Dowling and Begley. Despite being supported by some experimental data which reported that fatigue crack growth rates under elastic-plastic conditions have good correlations with ΔJ, the applicability of ΔJ on crack growth in a material subjected to cyclic bending remains inconclusive. In this study, finite element analysis of a four point-bending rectangular plate model with an edge crack length a/W between 0.1 to 0.5 was carried out under displacement amplitude δ a between 0.1 to 1.5 mm to represent small to large scale yielding conditions. The elastic component was found to be the driven force of fatigue crack growth parameter in small scale yielding (SSY) condition while in large scale yielding (LSY) condition, the plastic component must be considered. It was also found that the simple method of ΔJ-integral calculation using load-displacement approach is overestimated for shallow crack under LSY condition.

Annular mist flow generating device is being developed to generate annular mist flow of air and water to simulate two phase flow pattern in the evaporator. The annular mist flow generating device is use for experimental study of the air water flow behaviour that simulates the two phase flow of refrigerant. Annular mist flow at inlet of the dividing header will provide batter air water distribution to the branches. The annular mist flow generating device shall be designed using computer aided drawing (CAD) software. Then, fabricate the annular mist flow generating device. After that, the annular mist flow generating device will be test experimentally by visual observation of the air water flow pattern. The air superficial velocity and water superficial velocity use in this experiment is 1.0m/s - 5.0m/s and 0.015m/s - 0.045m/s respectively. The test channel had a horizontal header with a square cross section of 20mm × 20mm and length of 290 mm with 10 upward branches. In this experiment the air water flow patterns is observed and recorded using digital camera. It was found that the device generate annular mist flow at frontal of the dividing header. This experiment proved that the device is capable of generating annular mist flow within the design range of air and water superficial velocities.

In this study, the main focus is to study the thrust generation of various propeller blade width-spans with the mouth-ring application. By using the parameter, the thrust were calculated based on the value of velocity, voltage and RPM. The testing was performing in three different width-span that are; 10mm, 8mm and 5mm. There are also variable that be tested that cover the reducing the diameter of mouth-ring from 36 mm to 32mm. In addition, if compared the gaps and different position proved that centre position gives better thrust. Furthermore, the application of mouth-ring is evaluated to be good base on this study

The amount of light is an important issue in several scenarios ranging from scenic design, light pollution study, robots navigation, occupational health and safety, illumination engineering, agriculture, medical appliances and many more. It is typically determined by using an illumination meter. The meter, also known as lux meter is used to measure the density of light in an area which measured in lx unit. It is used in photometry as a measure of the intensity, as perceived by the human eye of light that hits or passes through a surface. As in normal meter, the lux value was obviously a displayed value, and hardly used for embedded application as well as for lighting monitoring considering its expensive price. This limits the lighting monitoring in certain critical field. Therefore, in this paper, we present our initial works on the development of a webcam based lux meter that is applicable and suitable for lighting monitoring as well as the ability to be used in embedded application. A series of controlled images are taken, and image processing is applied to the images. The results of image processing are statistically analyzed and a linear relationship between lux value and average grayscale has been obtained with satisfactory R2. The linear function is tested and the results are justified where the algorithm for low cost webcam-based digital lux meter has been successfully developed.

Task assignments to team of homogenous autonomous robots are in research trends in robotic field. Autonomous homogeneous multi-robot is known to have similar architecture in terms of structure and identical control system as well as their tasking. At present, most research of multi-robot mainly focuses on motion control layer. Nevertheless, a successful control and coordination of a group of robot rely on effective inter-robot communication. In this paper, in depth investigation of the Bluetooth between two homogenous mobile robots, namely MechA and MechI, is presented. MechA is pre-programmed with dedicated movement, and upon completion the data acquired is sent to MechI for coordination. A distance-based measurement was made for comparison, giving a reliable data for crisp observation. Coordination of multi-robots can be done by controlling the movement of each mobile robot through wireless communication between mobile robots with error distance of 0.0322 ± 0.0147 m.

Pipe is an important medium used in most industrial and home applications for transferring liquid or gas from one end to the other. The efficiency of liquid flow is crucial to ensure proper and efficient delivering of medium carried. Liquid flow may be abrupt or ceased if blockage forms inside the circular pipe. This paper investigates the effect of blockage in circular pipe using vibration measurement. The main focus of this paper is to study the correlation of blockage levels to vibration signal. When fluid flow through an obstacle, the streamlines get closer which will increase the flow velocity and decrease the pressure. The vibration parameters are measured using accelerometer and the relationship between blockage levels to vibration signal are observed. It is found that vibration in pipe increases as the flow area gets smaller. This work expresses the potential of vibration analysis in assessing blockage inside a circular pipe with direct water flow.