Medium-cost devices equipped with sensors are being developed to get 3D measurements. Some allow for generating geometric models and point clouds. Nevertheless, the accuracy of these measurements should be evaluated, taking into account the requirements of the Building Information Model (BIM). This paper analyzes the uncertainty in outdoor/indoor three-dimensional coordinate measures and point clouds (using Spherical Accuracy Standard (SAS) methods) for Eyes Map, a medium-cost tablet manufactured by e-Capture Research & Development Company, Mérida, Spain. To achieve it, in outdoor tests, by means of this device, the coordinates of targets were measured from 1 to 6 m and cloud points were obtained. Subsequently, these were compared to the coordinates of the same targets measured by a Total Station. The Euclidean average distance error was 0.005–0.027 m for measurements by Photogrammetry and 0.013–0.021 m for the point clouds. All of them satisfy the tolerance for point cloud acquisition (0.051 m) according to the BIM Guide for 3D Imaging (General Services Administration); similar results are obtained in the indoor tests, with values of 0.022 m. In this paper, we establish the optimal distances for the observations in both, Photogrammetry and 3D Photomodeling modes (outdoor) and point out some working conditions to avoid in indoor environments. Finally, the authors discuss some recommendations for improving the performance and working methods of the device. Full article

This article presents the design of a novel decentralized nonlinear multivariate control scheme for an underactuated, nonlinear and multivariate laboratory helicopter denominated the twin rotor MIMO system (TRMS). The TRMS is characterized by a coupling effect between rotor dynamics and the body of the model, which is due to the action-reaction principle originated in the acceleration and deceleration of the motor-propeller groups. The proposed controller is composed of two nested loops that are utilized to achieve stabilization and precise trajectory tracking tasks for the controlled position of the generalized coordinates of the TRMS. The nonlinear internal loop is used to control the electrical dynamics of the platform, and the nonlinear external loop allows the platform to be perfectly stabilized and positioned in space. Finally, we illustrate the theoretical control developments with a set of experiments in order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed nonlinear decentralized feedback controller, in which a comparative study with other controllers is performed, illustrating the excellent performance of the proposed robust decentralized control scheme in both stabilization and trajectory tracking tasks. Full article

In general, the use of angle-diversity receivers makes it possible to reduce the impact of ambient light noise, path loss and multipath distortion, in part by exploiting the fact that they often receive the desired signal from different directions. Angle-diversity detection can be performed using a composite receiver with multiple detector elements looking in different directions. These are called non-imaging angle-diversity receivers. In this paper, a comparison of three non-imaging angle-diversity receivers as input sensors of nodes for an indoor infrared (IR) wireless sensor network is presented. The receivers considered are the conventional angle-diversity receiver (CDR), the sectored angle-diversity receiver (SDR), and the self-orienting receiver (SOR), which have been proposed or studied by research groups in Spain. To this end, the effective signal-collection area of the three receivers is modelled and a Monte-Carlo-based ray-tracing algorithm is implemented which allows us to investigate the effect on the signal to noise ratio and main IR channel parameters, such as path loss and rms delay spread, of using the three receivers in conjunction with different combination techniques in IR links operating at low bit rates. Based on the results of the simulations, we show that the use of a conventional angle-diversity receiver in conjunction with the equal-gain combining technique provides the solution with the best signal to noise ratio, the lowest computational capacity and the lowest transmitted power requirements, which comprise the main limitations for sensor nodes in an indoor infrared wireless sensor network. Full article

The use of depth cameras in precision agriculture is increasing day by day. This type of sensor has been used for the plant structure characterization of several crops. However, the discrimination of small plants, such as weeds, is still a challenge within agricultural fields. Improvements in the new Microsoft Kinect v2 sensor can capture the details of plants. The use of a dual methodology using height selection and RGB (Red, Green, Blue) segmentation can separate crops, weeds, and soil. This paper explores the possibilities of this sensor by using Kinect Fusion algorithms to reconstruct 3D point clouds of weed-infested maize crops under real field conditions. The processed models showed good consistency among the 3D depth images and soil measurements obtained from the actual structural parameters. Maize plants were identified in the samples by height selection of the connected faces and showed a correlation of 0.77 with maize biomass. The lower height of the weeds made RGB recognition necessary to separate them from the soil microrelief of the samples, achieving a good correlation of 0.83 with weed biomass. In addition, weed density showed good correlation with volumetric measurements. The canonical discriminant analysis showed promising results for classification into monocots and dictos. These results suggest that estimating volume using the Kinect methodology can be a highly accurate method for crop status determination and weed detection. It offers several possibilities for the automation of agricultural processes by the construction of a new system integrating these sensors and the development of algorithms to properly process the information provided by them. Full article

Manual prodding is still one of the most utilized procedures for identifying buried landmines during humanitarian demining activities. However, due to the high number of accidents reported during its practice, it is considered an outmoded and risky procedure and there is a general consensus about the need of introducing upgrades for enhancing the safety of human operators. With the aim of contributing to reduce the number of demining accidents, this paper presents an intelligent multisensory system for training operators in the use of prodders. The proposed tool is able to provide to deminers useful information in two critical issues: (a) the amount of force exerted on the target and if it is greater than the safe limit and, (b) to alert them when the angle of insertion of the prodder is approaching or exceeding a certain dangerous limit. Results of preliminary tests show the feasibility and reliability of the proposed design and highlight the potential benefits of the tool. Full article

Smart subsystems like traffic, Smart Homes, the Smart Grid, outdoor lighting, etc. are built in many urban areas, each with a set of services that are offered to citizens. These subsystems are managed by self-contained embedded systems. However, coordination and cooperation between them are scarce. An integration of these systems which truly represents a “system of systems” could introduce more benefits, such as allowing the development of new applications and collective optimization. The integration should allow maximum reusability of available services provided by entities (e.g., sensors or Wireless Sensor Networks). Thus, it is of major importance to facilitate the discovery and registration of available services and subsystems in an integrated way. Therefore, an ontology-based and automatic system for subsystem and service registration and discovery is presented. Using this proposed system, heterogeneous subsystems and services could be registered and discovered in a dynamic manner with additional semantic annotations. In this way, users are able to build customized applications across different subsystems by using available services. The proposed system has been fully implemented and a case study is presented to show the usefulness of the proposed method. Full article

Frequently, patients who suffer injuries in some lower member require forearm crutches in order to partially unload weight-bearing. These lesions cause pain in lower limb unloading and their progression should be controlled objectively to avoid significant errors in accuracy and, consequently, complications and after effects in lesions. The design of a new and feasible tool that allows us to control and improve the accuracy of loads exerted on crutches during aided gait is necessary, so as to unburden the lower limbs. In this paper, we describe such a system based on a force sensor, which we have named the GCH System 2.0. Furthermore, we determine the validity and reliability of measurements obtained using this tool via a comparison with the validated AMTI (Advanced Mechanical Technology, Inc., Watertown, MA, USA) OR6-7-2000 Platform. An intra-class correlation coefficient demonstrated excellent agreement between the AMTI Platform and the GCH System. A regression line to determine the predictive ability of the GCH system towards the AMTI Platform was found, which obtained a precision of 99.3%. A detailed statistical analysis is presented for all the measurements and also segregated for several requested loads on the crutches (10%, 25% and 50% of body weight). Our results show that our system, designed for assessing loads exerted by patients on forearm crutches during assisted gait, provides valid and reliable measurements of loads. Full article

In the last 30 years numerous attempts have been made to improve the efficiency of the parabolic collectors in the electric power production, although most of the studies have focused on the industrial production of thermoelectric power. This research focuses on the application of this concentrating solar thermal power in the unexplored field of building construction. To that end, a mechatronic prototype of a hybrid paraboloidal and cylindrical-parabolic tracker based on the Arduido technology has been designed. The prototype is able to measure meteorological data autonomously in order to quantify the energy potential of any location. In this way, it is possible to reliably model real commercial equipment behavior before its deployment in buildings and single family houses. Full article

A standard problem in large tanks at oil refineries and petrol stations is that water and fuel usually occupy the same tank. This is undesirable and causes problems such as corrosion in the tanks. Normally, the water level in tanks is unknown, with the problems that this entails. We propose herein a method based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) to detect in real time the interfaces in a tank which can simultaneously contain water, gasoline (or diesel) and air. The plasmonic sensor is composed of a hemispherical glass prism, a magnesium fluoride layer, and a gold layer. We have optimized the structural parameters of the sensor from the theoretical modeling of the reflectance curve. The sensor detects water-fuel and fuel-air interfaces and measures the level of each liquid in real time. This sensor is recommended for inflammable liquids because inside the tank there are no electrical or electronic signals which could cause explosions. The sensor proposed has a sensitivity of between 1.2 and 3.5 RIU⁻¹ and a resolution of between 5.7 × 10⁻⁴ and 16.5 × 10⁻⁴ RIU. Full article

Environmental audio monitoring is a huge area of interest for biologists all over the world. This is why some audio monitoring system have been proposed in the literature, which can be classified into two different approaches: acquirement and compression of all audio patterns in order to send them as raw data to a main server; or specific recognition systems based on audio patterns. The first approach presents the drawback of a high amount of information to be stored in a main server. Moreover, this information requires a considerable amount of effort to be analyzed. The second approach has the drawback of its lack of scalability when new patterns need to be detected. To overcome these limitations, this paper proposes an environmental Wireless Acoustic Sensor Network architecture focused on use of generic descriptors based on an MPEG-7 standard. These descriptors demonstrate it to be suitable to be used in the recognition of different patterns, allowing a high scalability. The proposed parameters have been tested to recognize different behaviors of two anuran species that live in Spanish natural parks; the Epidalea calamita and the Alytes obstetricans toads, demonstrating to have a high classification performance. Full article

Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks (WMSNs) are a special type of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) where large amounts of multimedia data are transmitted over networks composed of low power devices. Hierarchical routing protocols typically used in WSNs for multi-path communication tend to overload nodes located within radio communication range of the data collection unit or data sink. The battery life of these nodes is therefore reduced considerably, requiring frequent battery replacement work to extend the operational life of the WSN system. In a wireless sensor network with mesh topology, any node may act as a forwarder node, thereby enabling multiple routing paths toward any other node or collection unit. In addition, mesh topologies have proven advantages, such as data transmission reliability, network robustness against node failures, and potential reduction in energy consumption. This work studies the feasibility of implementing WMSNs in mesh topologies and their limitations by means of exhaustive computer simulation experiments. To this end, a module developed for the Synchronous Energy Saving (SES) mode of the IEEE 802.15.5 mesh standard has been integrated with multimedia tools to thoroughly test video sequences encoded using H.264 in mesh networks. Full article

Phenomics is a technology-driven approach with promising future to obtain unbiased data of biological systems. Image acquisition is relatively simple. However data handling and analysis are not as developed compared to the sampling capacities. We present a system based on machine learning (ML) algorithms and computer vision intended to solve the automatic phenotype data analysis in plant material. We developed a growth-chamber able to accommodate species of various sizes. Night image acquisition requires near infrared lightning. For the ML process, we tested three different algorithms: k-nearest neighbour (kNN), Naive Bayes Classifier (NBC), and Support Vector Machine. Each ML algorithm was executed with different kernel functions and they were trained with raw data and two types of data normalisation. Different metrics were computed to determine the optimal configuration of the machine learning algorithms. We obtained a performance of 99.31% in kNN for RGB images and a 99.34% in SVM for NIR. Our results show that ML techniques can speed up phenomic data analysis. Furthermore, both RGB and NIR images can be segmented successfully but may require different ML algorithms for segmentation. Full article

Sensing techniques are important for solving problems of uncertainty inherent to intelligent grasping tasks. The main goal here is to present a visual sensing system based on range imaging technology for robot manipulation of non-rigid objects. Our proposal provides a suitable visual perception system of complex grasping tasks to support a robot controller when other sensor systems, such as tactile and force, are not able to obtain useful data relevant to the grasping manipulation task. In particular, a new visual approach based on RGBD data was implemented to help a robot controller carry out intelligent manipulation tasks with flexible objects. The proposed method supervises the interaction between the grasped object and the robot hand in order to avoid poor contact between the fingertips and an object when there is neither force nor pressure data. This new approach is also used to measure changes to the shape of an object’s surfaces and so allows us to find deformations caused by inappropriate pressure being applied by the hand’s fingers. Test was carried out for grasping tasks involving several flexible household objects with a multi-fingered robot hand working in real time. Our approach generates pulses from the deformation detection method and sends an event message to the robot controller when surface deformation is detected. In comparison with other methods, the obtained results reveal that our visual pipeline does not use deformations models of objects and materials, as well as the approach works well both planar and 3D household objects in real time. In addition, our method does not depend on the pose of the robot hand because the location of the reference system is computed from a recognition process of a pattern located place at the robot forearm. The presented experiments demonstrate that the proposed method accomplishes a good monitoring of grasping task with several objects and different grasping configurations in indoor environments. Full article

The use of piezoelectric ceramic transducers (such as Lead-Zirconate-Titanate—PZT) has become more and more widespread for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) applications. Among all the techniques that are based on this smart sensing solution, guided waves and electro-mechanical impedance techniques have found wider acceptance, and so more studies and experimental works can be found containing these applications. However, even though these two techniques can be considered as complementary to each other, little work can be found focused on the combination of them in order to define a new and integrated damage detection procedure. In this work, this combination of techniques has been studied by proposing a new integrated damage indicator based on Electro-Mechanical Power Dissipation (EMPD). The applicability of this proposed technique has been tested through different experimental tests, with both lab-scale and real-scale structures. Full article

This paper presents the technical description, mechanical design, electronic components, software implementation and possible applications of a tele-operated mobile robot designed as an assisted living tool. This robotic concept has been named Assistant Personal Robot (or APR for short) and has been designed as a remotely telecontrolled robotic platform built to provide social and assistive services to elderly people and those with impaired mobility. The APR features a fast high-mobility motion system adapted for tele-operation in plain indoor areas, which incorporates a high-priority collision avoidance procedure. This paper presents the mechanical architecture, electrical fundaments and software implementation required in order to develop the main functionalities of an assistive robot. The APR uses a tablet in order to implement the basic peer-to-peer videoconference and tele-operation control combined with a tactile graphic user interface. The paper also presents the development of some applications proposed in the framework of an assisted living robot. Full article

This article presents, by means of computational simulation tools, a full analysis and design of an Interferometric Fiber-Optic Gyroscope (IFOG) prototype based on a closed-loop configuration with sinusoidal bias phase- modulation. The complete design of the different blocks, optical and electronic, is presented, including some novelties as the sinusoidal bias phase-modulation and the use of an integrator to generate the serrodyne phase-modulation signal. The paper includes detailed calculation of most parameter values, and the plots of the resulting signals obtained from simulation tools. The design is focused in the use of a standard single-mode optical fiber, allowing a cost competitive implementation compared to commercial IFOG, at the expense of reduced sensitivity. The design contains an IFOG model that accomplishes tactical and industrial grade applications (sensitivity ≤ 0.055 °/h). This design presents two important properties: (1) an optical subsystem with advanced conception: depolarization of the optical wave by means of Lyot depolarizers, which allows to use a sensing coil made by standard optical fiber, instead by polarization maintaining fiber, which supposes consequent cost savings and (2) a novel and simple electronic design that incorporates a linear analog integrator with reset in feedback chain, this integrator generating a serrodyne voltage-wave to apply to Phase-Modulator (PM), so that it will be obtained the interferometric phase cancellation. This particular feedback design with sawtooth-wave generated signal for a closed-loop configuration with sinusoidal bias phase modulation has not been reported till now in the scientific literature and supposes a considerable simplification with regard to previous designs based on similar configurations. The sensing coil consists of an 8 cm average diameter spool that contains 300 m of standard single-mode optical-fiber (SMF-28 type) realized by quadrupolar winding. The working wavelength will be 1310 nm. The theoretical calculated values of threshold sensitivity and dynamic range for this prototype are 0.052 °/h and 101.38 dB (from ±1.164 × 10⁻⁵ °/s up to ±78.19 °/s), respectively. The Scale-Factor (SF) non-linearity for this model is 5.404% relative to full scale, this value being obtained from data simulation results. Full article

Several insect species pose a serious threat to different plant species, sometimes becoming a pest that produces significant damage to the landscape, biodiversity, and/or the economy. This is the case of Rhynchophorus ferrugineus Olivier (Coleoptera: Dryophthoridae), Semanotus laurasii Lucas (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), and Monochamus galloprovincialis Olivier (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), which have become serious threats to ornamental and productive trees all over the world such as palm trees, cypresses, and pines. Knowledge about their flight potential is very important for designing and applying measures targeted to reduce the negative effects from these pests. Studying the flight capability and behaviour of some insects is difficult due to their small size and the large area wherein they can fly, so we wondered how we could obtain information about their flight capabilities in a controlled environment. The answer came with the design of flight mills. Relevant data about the flight potential of these insects may be recorded and analysed by means of a flight mill. Once an insect is attached to the flight mill, it is able to fly in a circular direction without hitting walls or objects. By adding sensors to the flight mill, it is possible to record the number of revolutions and flight time. This paper presents a full description of a computer monitored flight mill. The description covers both the mechanical and the electronic parts in detail. The mill was designed to easily adapt to the anatomy of different insects and was successfully tested with individuals from three species R. ferrugineus, S. laurasii, and M. galloprovincialis. Full article

The present paper describes a vision-based simultaneous localization and mapping system to be applied to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The main contribution of this work is to propose a novel estimator relying on an Extended Kalman Filter. The estimator is designed in order to fuse the measurements obtained from: (i) an orientation sensor (AHRS); (ii) a position sensor (GPS); and (iii) a monocular camera. The estimated state consists of the full state of the vehicle: position and orientation and their first derivatives, as well as the location of the landmarks observed by the camera. The position sensor will be used only during the initialization period in order to recover the metric scale of the world. Afterwards, the estimated map of landmarks will be used to perform a fully vision-based navigation when the position sensor is not available. Experimental results obtained with simulations and real data show the benefits of the inclusion of camera measurements into the system. In this sense the estimation of the trajectory of the vehicle is considerably improved, compared with the estimates obtained using only the measurements from the position sensor, which are commonly low-rated and highly noisy. Full article

Center-location of a laser spot is a problem of interest when the laser is used for processing and performing measurements. Measurement quality depends on correctly determining the location of the laser spot. Hence, improving and proposing algorithms for the correct location of the spots are fundamental issues in laser-based measurements. In this paper we introduce a Reaction Diffusion (RD) system as the main computational framework for robustly finding laser spot centers. The method presented is compared with a conventional approach for locating laser spots, and the experimental results indicate that RD-based computation generates reliable and precise solutions. These results confirm the flexibility of the new computational paradigm based on RD systems for addressing problems that can be reduced to a set of geometric operations. Full article

In this work, context aware scenarios applied to e-Health and m-Health in the framework of typical households (urban and rural) by means of deploying Social Sensors will be described. Interaction with end-users and social/medical staff is achieved using a multi-signal input/output device, capable of sensing and transmitting environmental, biomedical or activity signals and information with the aid of a combined Bluetooth and Mobile system platform. The devices, which play the role of Social Sensors, are implemented and tested in order to guarantee adequate service levels in terms of multiple signal processing tasks as well as robustness in relation with the use wireless transceivers and channel variability. Initial tests within a Living Lab environment have been performed in order to validate overall system operation. The results obtained show good acceptance of the proposed system both by end users as well as by medical and social staff, increasing interaction, reducing overall response time and social inclusion levels, with a compact and moderate cost solution that can readily be largely deployed. Full article

This work analyzes the long-term functionality of HP (High-power) UV-LEDs (Ultraviolet Light Emitting Diodes) as the exciting light source in non-contact, continuous 24/7 real-time fluoro-sensing pollutant identification in inland water. Fluorescence is an effective alternative in the detection and identification of hydrocarbons. The HP UV-LEDs are more advantageous than classical light sources (xenon and mercury lamps) and helps in the development of a low cost, non-contact, and compact system for continuous real-time fieldwork. This work analyzes the wavelength, output optical power, and the effects of viscosity, temperature of the water pollutants, and the functional consistency for long-term HP UV-LED working operation. To accomplish the latter, an analysis of the influence of two types 365 nm HP UV-LEDs degradation under two continuous real-system working mode conditions was done, by temperature Accelerated Life Tests (ALTs). These tests estimate the mean life under continuous working conditions of 6200 h and for cycled working conditions (30 s ON & 30 s OFF) of 66,000 h, over 7 years of 24/7 operating life of hydrocarbon pollution monitoring. In addition, the durability in the face of the internal and external parameter system variations is evaluated. Full article

The concept of precision agriculture, which proposes farming management adapted to crop variability, has emerged in recent years. To effectively implement precision agriculture, data must be gathered from the field in an automated manner at minimal cost. In this study, a small autonomous field inspection vehicle was developed to minimise the impact of the scouting on the crop and soil compaction. The proposed approach integrates a camera with a GPS receiver to obtain a set of basic behaviours required of an autonomous mobile robot to inspect a crop field with full coverage. A path planner considered the field contour and the crop type to determine the best inspection route. An image-processing method capable of extracting the central crop row under uncontrolled lighting conditions in real time from images acquired with a reflex camera positioned on the front of the robot was developed. Two fuzzy controllers were also designed and developed to achieve vision-guided navigation. A method for detecting the end of a crop row using camera-acquired images was developed. In addition, manoeuvres necessary for the robot to change rows were established. These manoeuvres enabled the robot to autonomously cover the entire crop by following a previously established plan and without stepping on the crop row, which is an essential behaviour for covering crops such as maize without damaging them. Full article

Resistive sensor arrays are formed by a large number of individual sensors which are distributed in different ways. This paper proposes a direct connection between an FPGA and a resistive array distributed in M rows and N columns, without the need of analog-to-digital converters to obtain resistance values in the sensor and where the conditioning circuit is reduced to the use of a capacitor in each of the columns of the matrix. The circuit allows parallel measurements of the N resistors which form each of the rows of the array, eliminating the resistive crosstalk which is typical of these circuits. This is achieved by an addressing technique which does not require external elements to the FPGA. Although the typical resistive crosstalk between resistors which are measured simultaneously is eliminated, other elements that have an impact on the measurement of discharge times appear in the proposed architecture and, therefore, affect the uncertainty in resistance value measurements; these elements need to be studied. Finally, the performance of different calibration techniques is assessed experimentally on a discrete resistor array, obtaining for a new model of calibration, a maximum relative error of 0.066% in a range of resistor values which correspond to a tactile sensor. Full article

A well-defined condition-monitoring for power transformers is key to implementing a correct condition-based maintenance (CBM). In this regard, partial discharges (PD) measurement and its analysis allows to carry out on-line maintenance following the standards IEC-60270 and IEC-60076. However, new PD measurements techniques, such as acoustics or electromagnetic (EM) acquisitions using ultra-high-frequency (UHF) sensors are being taken into account, IEC-62478. PD measurements with antennas and the effect of their EM propagation in power transformer tanks is an open research topic that is considered in this paper. In this sense, an empty tank model is studied as a rectangular cavity and their resonances are calculated and compared with their measurement with a network analyser. Besides, two low cost improved monopole antennas deployed inside and outside of the tank model capture background noise and PD pulses in three different test objects (Nomex, twisted pair and insulator). The average spectrum of them are compared and can be found that mainly, the antenna frequency response, the frequency content distribution depending on the PD source and the enclosure resonances modes are the main factors to be considered in PD acquisitions with these sensors. Finally, with this set-up, it is possible to measure PD activity inside the tank from outside. Full article

The products and services designed for Smart Cities provide the necessary tools to improve the management of modern cities in a more efficient way. These tools need to gather citizens’ information about their activity, preferences, habits, etc. opening up the possibility of tracking them. Thus, privacy and security policies must be developed in order to satisfy and manage the legislative heterogeneity surrounding the services provided and comply with the laws of the country where they are provided. This paper presents one of the possible solutions to manage this heterogeneity, bearing in mind these types of networks, such as Wireless Sensor Networks, have important resource limitations. A knowledge and ontology management system is proposed to facilitate the collaboration between the business, legal and technological areas. This will ease the implementation of adequate specific security and privacy policies for a given service. All these security and privacy policies are based on the information provided by the deployed platforms and by expert system processing. Full article

This paper presents a novel kinematic reconstruction of the human arm chain with five degrees of freedom and the estimation of the shoulder location during rehabilitation therapy assisted by end-effector robotic devices. This algorithm is based on the pseudoinverse of the Jacobian through the acceleration of the upper arm, measured using an accelerometer, and the orientation of the shoulder, estimated with a magnetic angular rate and gravity (MARG) device. The results show a high accuracy in terms of arm joints and shoulder movement with respect to the real arm measured through an optoelectronic system. Furthermore, the range of motion (ROM) of 50 healthy subjects is studied from two different trials, one trying to avoid shoulder movements and the second one forcing them. Moreover, the shoulder movement in the second trial is also estimated accurately. Besides the fact that the posture of the patient can be corrected during the exercise, the therapist could use the presented algorithm as an objective assessment tool. In conclusion, the joints’ estimation enables a better adjustment of the therapy, taking into account the needs of the patient, and consequently, the arm motion improves faster. Full article

In this paper, a new event-based control strategy for mobile robots is presented. It has been designed to work in wireless environments where a centralized controller has to interchange information with the robots over an RF (radio frequency) interface. The event-based architectures have been developed for differential wheeled robots, although they can be applied to other kinds of robots in a simple way. The solution has been checked over classical navigation algorithms, like wall following and obstacle avoidance, using scenarios with a unique or multiple robots. A comparison between the proposed architectures and the classical discrete-time strategy is also carried out. The experimental results shows that the proposed solution has a higher efficiency in communication resource usage than the classical discrete-time strategy with the same accuracy. Full article

Lateral flow assay tests are nowadays becoming powerful, low-cost diagnostic tools. Obtaining a result is usually subject to visual interpretation of colored areas on the test by a human operator, introducing subjectivity and the possibility of errors in the extraction of the results. While automated test readers providing a result-consistent solution are widely available, they usually lack portability. In this paper, we present a smartphone-based automated reader for drug-of-abuse lateral flow assay tests, consisting of an inexpensive light box and a smartphone device. Test images captured with the smartphone camera are processed in the device using computer vision and machine learning techniques to perform automatic extraction of the results. A deep validation of the system has been carried out showing the high accuracy of the system. The proposed approach, applicable to any line-based or color-based lateral flow test in the market, effectively reduces the manufacturing costs of the reader and makes it portable and massively available while providing accurate, reliable results. Full article

Both in industrial as in controlled environments, such as high-voltage laboratories, pulses from multiple sources, including partial discharges (PD) and electrical noise can be superimposed. These circumstances can modify and alter the results of PD measurements and, what is more, they can lead to misinterpretation. The spectral power clustering technique (SPCT) allows separating PD sources and electrical noise through the two-dimensional representation (power ratio map or PR map) of the relative spectral power in two intervals, high and low frequency, calculated for each pulse captured with broadband sensors. This method allows to clearly distinguishing each of the effects of noise and PD, making it easy discrimination of all sources. In this paper, the separation ability of the SPCT clustering technique when using a Rogowski coil for PD measurements is evaluated. Different parameters were studied in order to establish which of them could help for improving the manual selection of the separation intervals, thus enabling a better separation of clusters. The signal processing can be performed during the measurements or in a further analysis. Full article

The emergence of low-cost connected devices is enabling a new wave of sensorization services. These services can be highly leveraged in industrial applications. However, the technologies employed so far for managing this kind of system do not fully cover the strict requirements of industrial networks, especially those regarding energy efficiency. In this article a novel paradigm, called Low-Power Wide Area Networking (LP-WAN), is explored. By means of a cellular-type architecture, LP-WAN–based solutions aim at fulfilling the reliability and efficiency challenges posed by long-term industrial networks. Thus, the most prominent LP-WAN solutions are reviewed, identifying and discussing the pros and cons of each of them. The focus is also on examining the current deployment state of these platforms in Spain. Although LP-WAN systems are at early stages of development, they represent a promising alternative for boosting future industrial IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) networks and services. Full article

In the factory of the future, most of the operations will be done by autonomous robots that need visual feedback to move around the working space avoiding obstacles, to work collaboratively with humans, to identify and locate the working parts, to complete the information provided by other sensors to improve their positioning accuracy, etc. Different vision techniques, such as photogrammetry, stereo vision, structured light, time of flight and laser triangulation, among others, are widely used for inspection and quality control processes in the industry and now for robot guidance. Choosing which type of vision system to use is highly dependent on the parts that need to be located or measured. Thus, in this paper a comparative review of different machine vision techniques for robot guidance is presented. This work analyzes accuracy, range and weight of the sensors, safety, processing time and environmental influences. Researchers and developers can take it as a background information for their future works. Full article