• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.189-200
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• 2007

As a functional material, shape memory alloy (SMA) has attracted much attention and research effort to explore its unique properties and its applications in the past few decades. Some of its properties, in particular the electrical resistance (ER) based self-sensing property of SMA, have not been fully studied. Electrical resistance of an SMA wire varies during its phase transformation. This variation is an inherent property of the SMA wire, although it is highly nonlinear with hysteresis. The relationship between the displacement and the electrical resistance of an SMA wire is deterministic and repeatable to some degree, therefore enabling the self-sensing ability of the SMA. The potential of this self-sensing ability has not received sufficient exploration so far, and even the previous studies in literature lack generality. This paper concerns the utilization of the self-sensing property of a spring-biased Nickel-Titanium (Nitinol) SMA actuator for two applications: ER feedback position control of an SMA actuator without a position sensor, and estimation of the opening of a SMA actuated valve. The use of the self-sensing property eliminates the need for a position sensor, therefore reducing the cost and size of an SMA actuator assembly. Two experimental apparatuses are fabricated to facilitate the two proposed applications, respectively. Based on open-loop testing results, the curve fitting technique is used to represent the nonlinear relationships between the displacement and the electrical resistance of the two SMA wire actuators. Using the mathematical models of the two SMA actuators, respectively, a proportional plus derivative controller is designed for control of the SMA wire actuator using only electrical resistance feedback. Consequently, the opening of the SMA actuated valve can be estimated without using an extra sensor.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.219-233
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• 2014

In a companion paper, Pasala and Nagarajaiah analytically and experimentally validate the Adaptive Length Pendulum Smart Tuned Mass Damper (ALP-STMD) on a primary structure (2 story steel structure) whose frequencies are time invariant (Pasala and Nagarajaiah 2012). In this paper, the ALP-STMD effectiveness on a primary structure whose frequencies are time varying is studied experimentally. This study experimentally validates the ability of an ALP-STMD to adequately control a structural system in the presence of real time changes in primary stiffness that are detected by a real time observer based system identification. The experiments implement the newly developed Adaptive Length Pendulum Smart Tuned Mass Damper (ALP-STMD) which was first introduced and developed by Nagarajaiah (2009), Nagarajaiah and Pasala (2010) and Nagarajaiah et al. (2010). The ALP-STMD employs a mass pendulum of variable length which can be tuned in real time to the parameters of the system using sensor feedback. The tuning action is made possible by applying a current to a shape memory alloy wire changing the effective length that supports the damper mass assembly in real time. Once a stiffness change in the structural system is detected by an open loop observer, the ALP-STMD is re-tuned to the modified system parameters which successfully reduce the response of the primary system. Significant performance improvement is illustrated for the stiffness modified system, which undergoes the re-tuning adaptation, when compared to the stiffness modified system without adaptive re-tuning.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.189-198
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• 2015

Most IoT-related approaches have tried to establish the relation by connecting the network between things. The proposed research will present how the pervasive interaction of eco-system formed by touching the objects between humans and things can be recognized on purpose. By collecting and sharing the detected patterns among all kinds of things, we can construct the environment which enables individualized interactions of different objects. To perform the aforementioned, we are going to utilize technical procedures such as event-driven signal processing, pattern matching for signal recognition, and hardware in the loop simulation. We will also aim to implement the prototype of sensor processor based on Arduino MCU, which can be integrated with system using Arduino-Matlab/Simulink hybrid-interoperation environment. In the experiment, we use piezo transducer to detect the vibration or vibrates the surface using acoustic wave, which has specific frequency spectrum and individualized signal shape in terms of time axis. The signal distortion in time and frequency domain is recorded into memory tracer within sensor processor to extract the meaningful pattern by comparing the stored with lookup table(LUT). In this paper, we will contribute the initial prototypes for the acoustic touch processor by using off-the-shelf MCU and the integrated framework based on Matlab/Simulink model to provide the individualization of the touch-sensing for the user on purpose.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.169-170
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• 2006

In this study, ultra thin films of ferroelectric vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene (VF2-TrFE) copolymer were fabricated on degenerated Si (n+, $0.002\;{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$) using by spin coating method. A 1~5 wt% diluted solution of purified vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene (VF2:TrFE=70:30) in a dimethylformamide (DMF) solvent were prepared and deposited on silicon wafers at a spin rate of 2000~5000rpm for 30 seconds. After annealing in a vacuum ambient at $200^{\circ}C$ for 60 min, upper gold electrodes were deposited by vacuum evaporation for electrical measurement. X-ray diffraction results showed that the VF2-TrFE films on Si substrates had $\beta$-phase of copolymer structures. The capacitance on $n^+$-Si(100) wafer showed hysteresis behavior like a butterfly shape and this result indicates clearly that the dielectric films have ferroelectric properties. The typical measured remnant polarization (2Pr) and coercive filed (EC) values measured using a computer controlled a RT-66A standardized ferroelectric test system (Radiant Technologies) were about $0.54\;C/cm^2$ and 172 kV/cm, respectively, in an applied electric field of ${\pm}0.75\;MV/cm$.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.17-22
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• 2012

Convolution filtering methods have been widely applied to various digital signal processing fields for image blurring, sharpening, edge detection, and noise reduction, etc. According to their application purpose, the filter mask size or shape and the mask value are selected in advance, and the designed filter is applied to input image for the convolution processing. In this paper, we proposed an image processing acceleration method for the convolution processing by using two-dimensional Look-up table (LUT) and overlap-region buffering technique. First, based on the fixed convolution mask value, the multiplication operation between 8 or 10 bit pixel values of the input image and the filter mask values is performed a priori, and the results memorized in LUT are referred during the convolution process. Second, based on symmetric structural characteristics of the convolution filters, inherent duplicated operation region is analysed, and the saved operation results in one step before in the predefined memory buffer is recalled and reused in current operation step. Through this buffering, unnecessary repeated filter operation on the same regions is minimized in sequential manner. As the proposed algorithms minimize the computational amount needed for the convolution operation, they work well under the operation environments utilizing embedded systems with limited computational resources or the environments of utilizing general personnel computers. A series of experiments under various situations verifies the effectiveness and usefulness of the proposed methods.