• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.93-100
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• 2011

Maintenance of adequate soil water potential during the period of crop growth is necessary to support optimum plant growth and yields. A better understanding of soil water movement within and below the rooting zone can facilitate optimal irrigation scheduling aimed at minimizing the adverse effects of water stress on crop growth and development and the leaching of water below the root zone which can have adverse environmental effects. The objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of using a portable irrigation controller with an Watermark sensor for the cultivation of drip-irrigated vegetable crops in a greenhouse. The control capability of the irrigation controller for a soil water potential of -20 kPa was evaluated under summer conditions by cultivating 45-day-old tomato plants grown in three differently textured soils (sandy loam, loam, and loamy sands). Water contents through each soil profile were continuously monitored using three Sentek probes, each consisting of three capacitance sensors at 10, 20, and 30 cm depths. Even though a repeatable cycling of soil water potential occurred for the potential treatment, the lower limit of the Watermark (about 0 kPa) obtained in this study presented a limitation of using the Watermark sensor for optimal irrigation of tomato plants where -20 kPa was used as a point for triggering irrigations. This problem might be related to the slow response time and inadequate soil-sensor interface of the Watermark sensor as compared to a porous and ceramic cup-based tensiometer with a sensitive pressure transducer. In addition, the irrigation time of 50 to 60 min at each of the irrigation operation gave a rapid drop of the potential to zero, resulting in over irrigation of tomatoes. There were differences in water content among the three different soil types under the variable rate irrigation, showing a range of water contents of 16 to 24%, 17 to 28%, and 24 to 32% for loamy sand, sandy loam, and loam soils, respectively. The greatest rate increase in water content was observed in the top of 10 cm depth of sandy loam soil within almost 60 min from the start of irrigation.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.112-117
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• 2018

In this study, a bender-type piezoelectric energy harvester was fabricated and evaluated to compensate for the disadvantages of high-power generation only in the resonance frequency range of a piezoelectric harvester using a piezoelectric cantilever. The generated power was investigated according to various changes in the vibration environment. Compared with the piezoelectric cantilever module, the bender-type piezoelectric module showed a larger number of peak voltages. The primary peak voltage shifted toward the low frequency when the spring was coupled to the bender-type piezoelectric module. The harvester of the three bender-type modules had a vibration frequency exceeding 1 mW in the 34-45 Hz range and generated 3.112 mW of power at the vibration frequency of 38 Hz. The harvester of the six bender-type modules had a vibration frequency exceeding 1 mW in the 31-45 Hz range and generated 3.081 mW of power at the vibration frequency of 35 Hz.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.127-130
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• 2004

For the quality control of the industrial products, an automatic hole measuring system has been developed. The measurement device allows X-Y movement due to contact forces between a hole and its own circular cone and the device is attached to an industrial robot. Its measurement accuracy is about 0.04mm. This movement of the plate is measured by two LVDT sensor system. But this system using the LVDT sensors is restricted by high cost and precision of measurement and correspondence of environment so particularly, a vision system with CCD-Camera is discussed in this paper for the above mentioned purpose. The device consists of two of two links jointed with hinge pins basically and, they guarantee free movement of the touch prove attached on the second link in the same plane. These links are returned to home position by the spring plungers automatically after each process for the next one. On the surface of the touch prove, it has a circular white mark for camera recognition. The system detect and notify the center coordinate of capture mark image through the image processing. Its measuring accuracy has been proved to be about $\pm$0.01mm through the repeated implementation over 200 times. This technique will shows the advantage of touch-indirect image capture idea using cone-shaped touch prove in various symmetrical shaped holes particulary, like tapped holes, chamfered holes, etc As a result, we attained our object in a view of the accuracy, economical efficiency, and functionality

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.103-109
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• 2005

Fiber reinforced plastic material should be inspected in fabrication process in order to enhance quality by prevent defects such as delamination and void. Generally, ultrasonic technique is widely used to evaluate FRP. In conventional ultrasonic techniques, transducer should be contacted on FRP. However, conventional contacting method could not be applied in fabrication process and novel non-contact evaluating technique was required. Laser-based ultrasonic technique was tried to evaluate CFRP plate. Laser-based ultrasonic waves propagated on CFRP were received with various transducers such as accelerometer and AE sensor in order to evaluate the properties of waves due to the variation of frequency. Velocities of laser-based ultrasonic waves were evaluated for various fiber orientation. In addition, laser interferometry was used to receive ultrasonic wave in CFRP and frequency was analysed.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.25-31
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• 1994

A system for EMAT, which generates ultrasound by electro-magnectic forces and performs nondestructive testing in noncontact, was established. By linking it with a 3 axis scanning system and a data acquisition and processing system the automation of EMAT testing was attempted. A EMAT sensor was fabricated and the directivity pattern of it was measured. To be suitable automation, it has a transmitter and a receiver in one case and the main beam direction of it can be controlled by the frequency of driving signal. A program which controls the EMAT system, the 3 axis scanner and the data acquisition and processing system was developed. It also processes acquired data and displays the processing results. IBM-PC/AT compatible PC was used as main controller and the stratage of the program is emulation of real devices on the PC monitor. To provide the performance of the established EMAT system, two aluminium blocks containing artificial flaws and a welded aluminium block were tested. The result of the tests were satisfactory.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.165-177
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• 2015

Purpose: Accurate monitoring of soil strength is a key technology applicable to various precision agricultural practices. Soil strength has been traditionally measured using a cone penetrometer, which is time-consuming and expensive, making it difficult to obtain the spatial data required for precision agriculture. To improve the current, inefficient method of measuring soil strength, our objective was to develop and evaluate an in-situ system that could measure horizontal soil strength in real-time, while moving across a soil bin. Methods: Multiple cone-shape penetrometers were horizontally assembled at the front of a vertical plow blade at intervals of 5 cm. Each penetrometer was directly connected to a load cell, which measured loads of 0-2.54 kN. In order to process the digital signals from every individual transducer concurrently, a microcontroller was embedded into the measurement system. Wireless data communication was used between a data storage device and this real-time horizontal soil strength (RHSS) measurement system travelling at 0.5 m/s through an indoor experimental soil bin. The horizontal soil strength index (HSSI) measured by the developed system was compared with the cone index (CI) measured by a traditional cone penetrometer. Results: The coefficient of determination between the CI and the HSSI at depths of 5 cm and 10 cm ($r^2=0.67$ and 0.88, respectively) were relatively less than those measured below 20 cm ($r^2{\geq}0.93$). Additionally, the measured HSSIs were typically greater than the CIs for a given numbers of compactor operations. For an all-depth regression, the coefficient of determination was 0.94, with a RMSE of 0.23. Conclusions: A HSSI measurement system was evaluated in comparison with the conventional soil strength measurement system, CI. Further study is needed, in the form of field tests, on this real-time measurement and control system, which would be applied to precision agriculture.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.320-328
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• 2001

Two-dimensional array hydrophones with $8{\times}8$ elements were designed and fabricated using the PVDF(Polyvinylidene fluoride) piezoelectric film, and the method and system for ultrasonic field measurement in several MHz $\sim$ tens of MHz band using the hydrophones was established. The characteristics of frequency response relating to the backing materials were analyzed with the Mason equivalent circuit for design, and the accuracy of ultrasonic field measurement relating to the sizes and kerfs of piezoelectric elements was discussed. Good results of the measurement of ultrasonic field formed by a circular plane transducer of 2.25MHz in water were obtained by the system with the array hydrophones.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.39 no.12
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• pp.925-931
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• 1995

Urea sensors, prepared by immobilizing urease on ammonium-selective membrane electrodes doped with nonactin, can show interference from several ionic species present in blood samples (e.g., sodium, potassium, and endogenous ammonium ions). This interference problem does not arise from the immobilized biocatalytic reaction but rather from the innate response of the base transducer to ionic species in the sample. In this work, the use of calibrators containing adequate amounts of ionic species is examined to reduce errors caused by endogenous ionic interferences with blood urea measurements. Simultaneous measurements of the interfering species with additional sensors and subsequent substractions of these values from the urea electrode signals are also described. It is shown that the use of a potassium-selective electrode with an adequate calibrator system greatly enhances the accuracy of the urea sensor measurements.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.175-188
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• 2002

Objective : The effects of SP6(Sanyinjiao, 三陰交) acupuncture stimulation on bladder parasympathetic nerve activity (PNA), tibial nerve activity (TNA) as well as blood pressure were examined in anesthetized rats and the results are as follows. Methods : The parasympathetic nerve leading to the bladder was exposed retroperitoneally, and the tibial nerve in the hindlimb was exposed through inguinal area. PNA and TNA were recorded using a bipolar platinum-iridium wire electrode and it was connected to preamplifier. Blood pressure was measured using cannula that was inserted into femoral artery and was recorded with blood pressure sensor that is connected with transducer amplifier. The mean value of all parameters measured for 30 seconds before the stimulation was expressed as 100%. An acupuncture needle was inserted into the SP6 region to a depth of 4 mm. Results : Under intact state (IS), acupuncture stimulation for 120 seconds induced significant increase of PNA which was accompanied with decrease of blood pressure. At the same time, TNA showed temporary increase only with acupuncture stimulation. In 4 mg/kg of naloxone-administrated state (NAS), significant decrease of PNA was seen and it was accompanied with increase of blood pressure. TNA also showed temporary increase only with acupuncture stimulation under the NAS just like the IS. Conclusion : consider that SP6(Sanyinjiao, 三陰交) acupuncture stimulation activated parasympathetic nerve and caused vasodilation to lead into the diuresis, but naloxone reversed the effect of acupuncture for antidiuresis.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.66-69
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• 2017

In recent year, energy harvesting technologies from the ambient environments such as light, motion, wireless waves, and temperature again a lot of attraction form research community [1-5] due to its efficient solution in order to substitute for conventional power delivery methods, especially in wearable together with on-body applications. The drawbacks of battery-powered characteristic used in commodity applications lead to self-powered, long-lifetime circuit design. Thermoelectric generator, a solid-state sensor, is useful compared to the harvesting devices in order to enable self-sustained low-power applications. TEG based on the Seebeck effect is utilized to transfer thermal energy which is available with a temperature gradient into useful electrical energy. Depending on the temperature difference between two sides, amount of output power will be proportionally delivered. In this work, we illustrated a low-input voltage energy harvesting circuit applied discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) method for getting an adequate amount of energy from thermoelectric generator (TEG) for a specific wearable application. With a small temperature gradient harvested from human skin, the input voltage from the transducer is as low as 60mV, the proposed circuit, fabricated in a $0.6{\mu}m$ CMOS process, is capable of generating a regulated output voltage of 4.2V with an output power reaching to $40{\mu}W$. The proposed circuit is useful for powering energy to battery-less systems, such as wearable application devices.