• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.232-236
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• 2017

A digital vacuum pressure sensor is designed, fabricated, and characterized using a packaged MEMS analog Pirani gauge. The packaged MEMS analog Pirani gauge requires a current source to heat up a heater in the Pirani gauge. To investigate the feasibility of digitization for the analog Pirani gauge, its implementation is performed with a zero-temperature coefficient current source and microcontroller that are commercially available. The measurement results using the digital vacuum pressure sensor showed that its operating range is 0.05-760 Torr, which is the same as the measurement results of the packaged MEMS analog pressure sensor. The results confirm that it is feasible to integrate the analog Pirani gauge with a commercially available current source and microcontroller. The successful hybrid integration of the analog Pirani gauge and digital circuits is an encouraging result for monolithic integration with a precision current source and ADCs in the state of CMOS dies.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.389-394
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• 2023

In recent years, use of machine automation is rising in the industry. Ships also obtain machine condition information from sensor as digital information. However, on ships, crew members regularly surveil the engine room to check the condition of equipment and their information through analog gauges. This is a time-consuming and tedious process and poses safety risks to the crew while on surveillance. To address this, engine room surveillance using an autonomous mobile robot is being actively explored as a solution because it can reduce time, costs, and the safety risks for crew. Analog gauge reading using an autonomous mobile robot requires digitization for the robot to recognize the gauge value. In this study, image processing techniques were applied to achieve this. Analog gauge images were subjected to image preprocessing to remove noise and highlight their features. The center point, indicator point, minimum value and maximum value of the analog gauge were detected through image processing. Through the straight line connecting these points, the angle from the minimum value to the maximum value and the angle from the minimum value to indicator point were obtained. The obtained angle is digitized as the value currently indicated by the analog gauge through a formula. It was confirmed from the experiments that the digitization of the analog gauge using image processing was successful, indicating the equivalent current value shown by the gauge. When applied to surveillance robots, this algorithm can minimize safety risks and time and opportunity costs of crew members for engine room surveillance.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.12 no.9
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• pp.912-917
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• 2006

A strain gauge weight measuring instrumentation system was designed with RF sensor network facilities. In the sensor module system data conversion and a series of signal processing were totally equipped. 16 strain gauges are incoming sensors and each output of the strain gauge was amplified and filtered for proper analog signal processing. Several measuring instrumentation OP amps and general purposed OP amps were used. 12 bits A/D converters converted analog signals to digital bits and a PIC microprocessor controlled the 16 channels of strain gauges. RF RS232 modules were used for wireless communication between the PIC microprocessor and an Ethernet host far a remote sensor monitoring system development.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.27-34
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• 2018

In this paper, we propose a new method to read the hand of analog gauges to prepare for the smart factory. In addition, we suggest a new and improved method that can apply, in general, diverse analog gauges even if their scale types and ranges are various. Many companies are making great efforts to build smart factories that increase energy efficiency and automation. Managers use a variety of equipment and tools to manage the production process at the factory. In this kind of factory, analog gauges have been often used with many equipment and tools. Analog gauges are mostly circular in shape, and most papers use circular hough transform to find the center and radius of a circle. However, when the object to be found is not of the correct circle type, it takes a long time to recognize the circle using the circular hough transform, and the center and radius of the circle can not be calculated accurately. The proposed method was tested on various circular analog gauges. As a result, we confirmed that our method is outstanding.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.410-418
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• 2023

Recently, advancements and commercialization in the field of maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS) has rapidly progressed. Concurrently, studies are also underway to develop methods for automatically surveying the condition of various on-board equipment remotely to ensure the navigational safety of MASS. One key issue that has gained prominence is the method to obtain values from analog gauges installed in various equipment through image processing. This approach has the advantage of enabling the non-contact detection of gauge values without modifying or changing already installed or planned equipment, eliminating the need for type approval changes from shipping classifications. The objective of this study was to identify a dynamically changing indicator needle within noisy images of analog gauges. The needle object must be identified because its position significantly affects the accurate reading of gauge values. An analog pressure gauge attached to an emergency fire pump model was used for image capture to identify the needle object. The acquired images were pre-processed through Gaussian filtering, thresholding, and morphological operations. The needle object was then identified through Hough Transform. The experimental results confirmed that the center and object of the indicator needle could be identified in images of noisy analog gauges. The findings suggest that the image processing method applied in this study can be utilized for shape identification in analog gauges installed on ships. This study is expected to be applicable as an image processing method for the automatic remote survey of MASS.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.171-177
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• 2004

A new wave gauge using digital image of waves is developed and the performances are tested by wave tank experiments. This wave gauge uses frame frequency of 1/15 sec, conversion of analog images to digital images, and large capacity of hard disk. This wave gauge measures wave heights by detecting the buoy movement automatically from the image, where the buoy moves with the same phase of water surface. The comparison of automatic measurements of wave heights to the true data is reasonable. The wave gauge can be improved to measure wave heights on shallow waters near shorelines.

• Journal of Advanced Navigation Technology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.214-220
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• 2019

The calibration method of the initial value error obtained in the weight measurement through anchor bolt type strain gauge sensor is proposed. The strain gauge sensor is developed for preventing the overturning of forklift, which is the most frequent type of safety-accident in industry. It was confirmed that the initial value error is caused from the physical and mechanical error of anchor bolt, and the environmental problem. Since the elimination of these causes falls outside the realm of this research, we find out the calibrated values based on all the causes, and we adjust the initial values of analog-to-digital convertor (ADC) module consisted of strain gauge sensor block using the calibrated values. We use the linear interpolation method for our calibration. We confirm that four sensor modules have the different under 5% between the real weight and the measured value in the experiment applied with the calibration of initial values. The low correlation between the real weights and ADC values is also improved through the proposed calibration.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.384-390
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• 2013

The sizes of cryogenic vessels and storage tanks are becoming bigger due to strong demands from semiconductor and LCD industry as well as high-tech electronic industry. Conventional level and pressure gauges used for cryogenic vessels were analog types which made exact measurement difficult for the remained quantity at lower levels due to their poor accuracy. In this study, a design for a digital type gas level gauge which can measure the pressure and level inside of the cryogenic liquefied gas storage tanks has been proposed by using a differential pressure sensor, in which the measured data are monitored by a host PC and are transferred to a mobile printer for data confirmation at local station.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.51 no.8
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• pp.38-48
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• 2014

In this paper, a design of Signal Processing Analog Front-End IC for Automotive Piezo-Resistive Type Pressure Sensor is presented. In modern society, as the car turns to go from mechanical to electronic technology, the accuracy and reliability of electronic parts required importantly. In order to improve these points, Programmable Gain Amplifier (PGA) amplifies the received signal in accordance with gain for increasing the accuracy after PRT Sensor is operated to change physical pressure signals to electrical signals. The signal amplified from PGA is processed by Digital blocks like ADC, CMC and DAC. After going through this process, it is possible to determine the electrical signal to physical pressure signal. As processing analog signal to digital signal, reliability and accuracy in Analog Front-End IC is increased. The current consumption of IC is 5.32mA. The die area of the fabricated IC is $1.94mm{\times}1.94mm$.

• Journal of Dental Rehabilitation and Applied Science
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.310-315
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• 2015

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to measure the tightening torque for dental implant in dental laboratory and to analyze of the effects of different tightening torque. Materials and Methods: The tightening torque for dental implant in dental laboratory were measured by digital torque gauge. The length of abutment and analog were measured as tightening torque of manufacturer's instructions and the measured value. And the data were statically analyzed. Results: The mean tightening torque of implant screw in dental laboratory was $1.563{\pm}0.332Ncm$. The external type implant system of total length were showing no significant differences but the internal type implant system had difference significant (P < 0.05) when compared with tightening torque. Conclusion: The implant prosthesis should be made under manufacturer's instructions especially as tightening torque of screw. For the fidelity of implant prosthesis, dental technician should learn how to use the torque gauge.