Electronics for You Plus - Febbraio 2016

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4 FEBRUARY 2016 | ELECTRONICS FOR YOU PLUS WWW.EFYMAG.COM

BUYERS’ GUIDE

64Choosing TheRight BenchPower Supply

38Teach Your DronesTo Do More Than Fly

TECH FOCUS

70 72CERTIFICATIONS:

“We can even create our own medical

device and test it on our neighbour” —

Kalyan Varma, vice president - Business Stream

Products at TUV Rheinland - TUV Rheinland

(India) Pvt Ltd

MICROCONTROLLERS:“Most connected devices are nodes at thelast centimetre of networks” — Sanjay Gupta,director, Automotive BU, NXP Semiconductors

Interviews

20 Artificial Intelligence A Beautiful Artificial Mind

26 Embedded Gate-Level Simulations: An Increasing Trend

30 Tech Focus A Sunrise Peppered With Drones

44 Innovation Diabeto: A 360-Degree Diabetes-

Management Solution

48 Telecom 5G: The Next-Generation Network

56 Test & Measurement The Latest In Scopes

73 Manufacture Wearable Devices: Essential Inputs for DesignEngineers (Part 2 of 2)

76 EFY Plus DVD Software And Tools To Enrich Your Digital

Electronic Utilities

78 Event India Electronics Week 2016: The New-AgeElectronics Show

87 Make in India Market Survey: Keeping An Eye on India’s

Surveillance Industry

eStyle

112 Buyers’ Guide: Buying A 127cm Flat-Panel TV

114 Do-It-Yourself: Ten Things You Can DoWith Your Old Android Device

95 Making Arduino Shields Using Fritzing

97 Lossless Image Compression Using MATLAB

98 RGB Colour Generator

100 Infrared Motion-Sensing Relay Switch

102 PIN Diode Based Fire Sensor

104 Fridge Temperature And Humidity Indicator

106 High-Impedance Audio Buffer With JFET

108 Plus-Minus 5V Supply From 9V Battery

DO-IT-YOURSELF

06 Feedback

08 Q&A

10 Useful Websites

14 Tech News

84 Make in India: Industry News

92 New Products

110 First Look

115 Business Pages Ads

126 Electronics Mart Ads

130 Product Categories Index + Attractions During 2016

131 Advertisers’ Index

Regulars

Contents

N e x t

I s s u e

• I n t u i t i v e G

e s t u r e C o n

t r o l

• T e s t a n d

M e a s u r e m

e n t

E q u i p m e n t

• B u y i n g N

o i s e M e t e r s

Printed, published and owned by Ramesh Chopra. Printed at InternationalPrint-o-Pack Ltd, C-4 to C-11, Hosiery Complex, Phase-II Extension, NOIDA-201305,Gautam Budh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, on the first day of each month and publishedfrom D-87/1, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-1, New Delhi 110020. Copyright 2016.All rights reserved throughout the world. Reproduction of any material fromthis magazine in any manner without the written permission of the publisher isprohibited. Although every effort is made to ensure accuracy, no responsibilitywhatsoever is taken for any loss due to publishing errors. Articles that cannotbe used are returned to the authors if accompanied by a self-addressed andsufficiently stamped envelope. But no responsibility is taken for any loss or delay inreturning the material. EFY will not be responsible for any wrong claims made byan advertiser. Disputes, if any, will be settled in a New Delhi court only.

Please send payments only in favour of EFY Enterprises Pvt Ltd

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FEBRUARY 2016VOL. 04 | NO. 10

ISSN-2454-4426

Signal Processing With Sonic Visualiser ..................I

R: A Data-Analysis And Statistical-Computing Tool ...IV

Let Us Learn how to Program 8085 ......................VII

EFY PlusDVD


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6 FEBRUARY 2016 ELECTRO NICS FOR YOU WWW.EFYMAG.CO M

‘ S p o t A n E r o r ’A W A R D W i n n e r s

In ‘Things You Wanted to Know’ Q&A

section of December 2015 issue, under

Q2, details related to the Bluetoothmodule and Bluetooth dongle including

Figs 1 and 2 are wrong. Fig. 1 should be

HC-05 module. Fig. 2 should be Bluetooth

dongle and not as mentioned in the third

paragraph. Also, there is no figure ofBT 24 module as explained in

the second paragraph.D a r s h a n S h a h

In ‘Joystick Based Stepper MotorAngle Controller using AVR MCU’ article

published in December 2015 issue, there

is mismatch between Figs 1 and 4. In

Fig. 4, pins 5 and 6 of LCD should be

connected to ground and PC1 of MCU,

respectively. In Fig. 1, VR1 should beconnected to 5V and pin 15 of LCD should

be connected to 5V through resistor R2.R a m a k a n t a M o h a n t a

In the PCB layout of ‘Sensing Peripheral

Devices with MC1489A Receiver’ circuitpublished in December 2015 issue,

jumper J2 shorting the tracks of RC1 and

RC2 is wrong.S a m i u d d h i n

YOUR SU ES TIONS

FEEDBAC K

CircuitsandMicrocontrollers

From electronicsforu.com

Iwilltrymaking‘UltrasonicRadarModelUsingMicrocontroller

ATmega128’ circuitpublished inFebruary2015issue.Thankyoufor

sharingthe information!B i j u

EFYThanksfor the feedback!

In‘MotionDetector UsingNE555

Timer’ article published inAugust2015issue whatisTP0 to TP2.Where canI

getthe PIRmodule?R a k e s h K u m a r

EFYTP0 throughTP2 are testpoints.VoltagesgiveninTestPointstable

maybe helpfulfor beginnersduringtroubleshooting.PIRmodulesare easilyavailable inelectroniccomponentshops.

InNewDelhi,youcangetthese fromLajpatRaiMarket.PIRslike HC-SR501modulesare easilyavailable online on

websitessuchaswww e ay in

Iliked ‘12VBatteryAbsorbandFloatCharger’ circuitpublished in

September 2015issue.Whichtoolisused for designingthe PCB?Canyousend the complete kitofthisproject?

P a v e e nEFYWe used gEDAsoftware for

designingthe circuitand PCBlayout.The complete kitofthisprojectisnotavailable withusrightnow.Howeveryoumaycheckwww kitsnspares com

for similar projects.

EF NEW L A Y O U T D ES I G NThe new layout ofEFY January i ssue

is amazing. I t is very attractive. EFYcovers the latest technology andnewproducts. I love DIY section andopensource materials in every i ssue. I amvery thankful to EFY!

Sam iuddhin

Th roughem ail

EFY.Thanks for the feedback!Yourfeedbackis important to us for im-provement andto make a differencein a better way. We highly appreciateyour support for the benefit ofourreaders andlookforwardto hearingfrom you in the future,too.

TH A N S !I thankEFY circulation team for theirswift action andsupport. I made acomplaint regarding non-receipt ofDecember issue. I receivedthe issuewithin three days!

V. Nagaraj

Th roughem ail

EFY.Thanks for the feedback!

F R S T L O O KIn eStyle First Looksection in De-cember 201 5issue,specification forOnePlus Xby OnePlus is wronglymentioned. I t shouldbe 2. 3quad-coresystem on chip,insteadof2. 3quad-

core CPUs.

Ravichandra Metri

Th roughem ail

EFY.We normally get al l data fromthe original manufacturer’s website.Specifications printedin the arti cleare clearly mentionedon OnePluswebsite.

Q U I Z S E T O NI am a subscriber to EFY andit is very

December 201 5issue,the simulatorcode is not given.

Rakesh

Th roughem ail

EFY.There is no source code usedin this article. However,Mul tisimsimulation file is usedthat i s already

includedin the DVD accompanyingthe relevant EFY lus.

helpful. I t is great that I couldworkon a number ofprojects basedon DIY

section. I request you to increase thenumber ofarticles that include detailson the working ofsensors.

I also request you to include aquizsection basedon the articles andinterviews in the current volume.

Moham m ed Shan H.

Throughem ail

EFY.Thanks for the feedbacks andsuggestions!

F E U EN Y S H I FT K E I NIn ‘Frequency Shift Keying Communi -cation Simulator’arti cle publishedin


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8 FEBRUARY 2016|ELECTRONICSFOR YOU WWW EFYMAG COM

A&THINGS YOU WANTED TO KNOW!

A n s w e r s c o m p i l e d b y E F Y s e n i o r a p p l i c a t io n e n g i n e e r ,N idhi Kat huria . Let t ers and quest ions for publ icat ion

m a y b e a d d r e s s e d t o E d i t o r , E l e c t r o n ic s F o r Y o u ,D-87/1, Okhla Indust ria l Area , Phas e 1, N ew Delhi

110020 (e-ma il: edit sec@ efy. in)and s hould includen a m e a n d a d d r e s s o f t h e s e n d e r

Q u e s .H O W TO O PE A TE6 0 H Z E E T I C A L

A PP I A N ES A T 5 H Z

M o m ta z

A n s .First ofalltrytocontact themanufacturer oftheapplianceforsafelyoperatingat 50Hzwiththemanufacturer’sapproval.Themanu-facturer mayhaveasolution.

It ispossibleto purchase60Hzsine-wavepower systemsthat take240V50Hzoninput and produce115V60Hzonoutput.Thesesolutionsaregenerallyveryexpensive,and it isusu-allymorecost-effectiveto replacethetoolor appliance.

Visicomm Industriesmanufac-tures,sellsand rentsabroad rangeofrotaryand solid-statefrequencyconvertersand changer productsratedfrom 1kVAto 5000kVA.

Afrequencyconverter canbefor singleor threephasesand can

sometimesalso changevoltage,thusfunctioningasapower converter from60Hzto 50Hz,from 50Hzto 60Hzandfrom 50Hz/60Hzto 400Hz.It canalsobeused for continuousdutyor fortestingproductsdesigned for export.

Q 2 .W H A T A R E TH E C O NS I DE A T O NS I N S M PS D ES I G NP E S E P O V D E L I N S O RE BO O K S FO R TH E S A M E.

M a h e s h K u m a r

A 2 .InanSMPSdesign,youhavetoconsider power output,input condi-tions,thermalandheat-sinkingissues,component quality,PCBarea,layoutandfootprint,performancetestingandmuchmore.Pleasefollow thelinkformoredetails:electronicdesign.com/power/7-critical-steps-switching-power-supply-design

Youmayrefer tothefollowingSMPSbooks:Switch-ModePower Sup-

pliesbyC.P.Basso,Switching PowerSupply DesignbyA.I.Pressman,and

Modern DC-To-DC SwitchmodePowerConverter CircuitsbyR.P.SevernsandG.E.Bloom.

Youcanalso find acompletee-guideonSMPSdesignfrom thefollowinglink:http://caxapa.ru/thumbs/348441/Switchmode_Pow-er_Supply_Handbook_3rd_edi.pdf --handbook and http://www.smps.com/Knowledge/Articles/Step-by Step_Fly-back_SMPS_Design.shtml

YoucandesignanSMPScircuitbased onthefollowingonlinesimula-torsfreelyavailable:www.poweresim.comand www.ti.com/lsds/ti/analog/webench/power.page

Q 3 .W HA T T PES O F A C C EE O M ETE S ENS OR S A R EA V I L A B E I N TH E M A R K ETW H A T PO I NTS S H O U L D BEC O NS I D E E W H ENBU Y I NA NA C C E E O M ETE ?

P m a r th i K a n a k a r a j a

A 3 .Therearevarioustypesofacceler-ometersavailableinthemarket basedonvarioussensingprinciples.Thesearecapacitive,piezoelectric,piezoresis-tive,Halleffect,magnetoresistiveandheat transfer,etc.

Consider thefollowingpointswhenbuyinganaccelerometer:

Analogueversusdigital. Thisis

determined bythehardwarethat isbe-inginterfaced withtheaccelerometer.Analoguestyleaccelerometersoutputacontinuousvoltagethat ispropor-tionalto acceleration,whereasdigitalaccelerometersusuallyusepulsewidthmodulation(PWM)for output.

Numberofaxes. For most projects,two axesareenough.However,ifyouwant to attempt 3D positioning,youwillneed a3-axisaccelerometer.

Maximum swing. Ifyouonlycareabout measuringtilt usingEarth’sgrav-

ity,a±1.5gaccelerometer willbemorethanenough.Ifyouaregoingtousethe

accelerometer tomeasurethemotionofacar,planeor robot,±2gshouldgiveyouenoughheadroom toworkwith.For aproject that experiencesverysud-denstartsor stops,youwillneedonethat canhandle±5gor more.

Sensitivity. Withmoresensitivity,youwillget moreaccuratereadings.

Bandwidth. For slow-movingtilt-sensingapplications,abandwidthof50Hzwillprobablysuffice.Ifyouintend to measurevibrationsor controlafast-movingmachine,youwillneedabandwidthofseveralhundred Hz.

Impedance/bufferingissues

Mainlyinvolvinganalogueaccelerom-eters,usealow-input offset railto railop-ampasabuffer to lower outputimpedance.

Q 4 .H O W C A NO NE D EVE O PA D I G I T L S PEE O M ETEU S I N A S ENS O R A TT C H E

TO TH E F O NT O R R E RW HEE T H A T A L S O D I S P A Y SD I S T N E K M A N S PEE K M PH ?

A m a n M a d a n

A 4 .Pleaserefer ‘MicrocontrollerBasedSpeedometer-Cum-Odometer’articlepublishedinEFYmagazineinNovember 2008issue.Inthearticleyouwillfindthefollowingfeatures:digital

readout,speeddisplayedinkmph,dis-tancetravelleddisplayedinkilometers,readingssavedinnon-volatilememory(EEPROM),home-brewedspeedtrans-ducer/sensor,self-reset tozeroaftercompletionof99,999.9km andeasy-to-build-and-fixontothebike.


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1 0 FEBRUARY2016 ELECTRONICSFORYOU WWW.EFYMAG.COM

www.dronezon.com latest-uavs-news-drone-uses-research-innovationw w m y f rs tdr n c m

www.diydrones.com

w w w dr n y e rs c mwww.robotshop.com blog en make-uav-

lesson-1-platform-rtf-arf-kit-custom-13 8

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones are something that fascinates most of usThis month we have some websites that will help you know more about these drones

Compiled by NIRAJSAHAY

DIY Drones is a communitybasedon Ning social networking

platform,andanybody whoregisters (it i s free andeasy)

can post their own blog entries.I t is explicitly built as a social

networkfor drone lovers. Thereare different groups that discuss

drones on this website. I t alsooffers faci liti es to create a meet-up

page for local drone fans.

MyFirstDrone has been bui lding,buying and ying quadcopters

andvarious other RC drones andmodel aircraft for the past several

years. Tutorials on this website aimto help you in buying all parts,tobuilding andlearning how to y a

quadcopter in no time.

This site is all about helpingbeginners with buying andfiying

quadcopters andother multi rotors.In general,it focuses on bui lding,buying anddiscussing drones. I t

is run by CHI Associates (CraigIssod),who have decades ofexperience in building online

communities andforums. Startingin April 2013,a number ofmajor

upgrades andfeatures wereintroducedandwww.drone yers.

combecame a go-to si te forconsumers desiring informationandeducation on new drones.

RobotShop is one ofthe world’sleading sources for personal and

professional robot technology thathelp increase pleasure,knowledge,liberty andsecurity ofindividuals.

They specialise in personal andprofessional robot technology

andoffer a wide range ofrobotic

products andservices in this sector.The site has a section on learninghow to bui lda drone. So ifyouare looking to get into drones

andUAVs,then the tutorial seriesavailable on the website wi ll helpyou understandthe emerging eldofUAVs andguide you through theprocess ofbui lding your own UAV

using off-the-shelfparts.

diydrones.com

myfirstdrone.com

drone yers.com

robotshop.com

DroneZon is all about theworldofdrones,multi rotorsandquadcopters. The siteis full ofdrone videos,UAVnews,interviews with dronecompanies,drone DIY tips andlearning materials on dronetechnology for beginners. I t alsoshows you how drones are been

usedcommercially andin otherareas ofour l ives.

dronezon.com

G E T T I N G S T A R T E D W I T H D R O N E S

USEFUL W e s i t e s


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1 FEBRUARY 201 6 | ELECTRONI CS FOR YOU WWW.EFYMAG.COM

Drone that cancatchanotherby ringa net at it

TECHNOLOGY UPD TES

T e h

NEWS

Engineers from Human-InteractiveRobotics Lab ( HIRoLab) at MichiganTechnological University have fileda patent for a prototype for a drone-catching system that fires a net to takeother unwanted aircraft down.

They have named the projectRobotic Falconry and have saidthat the drone, equipped with a netshooter, can intercept and physicallyremove any intruding multi-rotordrone from private airspace.It canbe autonomous or remote-controlledwhile tackling a drone.

According to the researchers,the net-shooting technique canbe effective when force-landingunmanned intruders that would

otherwise put the public at risk.

Getting drones to y around without hitting things is ahuge task.Obstacle-detection and motion-planning aretwo of computer science’s trickiest challenges, becauseof the complexity involved in creating real-time ightplans that avoid obstacles and handle surprises like windand weather.

Two teams of researchers from MIT’s ComputerScience and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory ( CSAIL) havedeveloped software that allows drones to stop on a dime tomake hairpin movements over, under and around some 26distinct obstacles in a simulated forest.

One team has shown a small quad-rotor doing donutsand figure-eights through an obstacle course of strings andPVC pipes.

In a second CSAIL project, PhD student AnirudhaMajumdar showed off a fixed-wing plane that avoidsobstacles without any advance knowledge of the space,

and even in the face of wind gusts and other dynamics.The approach was to pre-program a library of dozens of Researchersareteachingdronestoflyautonomouslywithout evercrashing(Imagecourtesy:www.news.mit.edu)

Dronecatchesanotherby ringanetatit(Imagecourtesy:www.brunchnews.com)

Drone that cando donuts, gure-eightsaround obstaclesdistinct funnels that represent the worst-case behaviour ofthe system, calculated via a rigorous verification algorithm.


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P l y m e r s u p e r s u i t d e s i g n e d u s i n gs o l a r e n e r g yTheGrossmangroupofMIT hasdeveloped atransparentpolymer that canstoreenergybyusingasolar cellandreleasecontrollableheat at anytime.Thisnewly-engineered

materialdependsupontheSun,whichisapracticallyinex-haustiblesourceofenergyand storesenergyintheform ofchemicalenergy,releasingit later asheat.

JeffreyGrossman,lead researcher,hassaid that theproduct could beaboonfor theclothingindustry,andprovidehumanswithanew typeofprotectivewear.Theteam also explained that thisconcept first cameto their

mind whileanalysingtheconcept ofharvestingsolar energyfor long-term usage,asrequired invarioussectors.

Conventionally,solar energyisconverted to electricalenergyand servesasanenvironment-friendlyrenewableenergysource,but theresearcherswanted to comeupwithsomethingnew and innovativebyusingsimilar ideas.

Thelayer-by-layer solar thermal fuel polymer lm comprises threedistinct layers( Imagecourtesy: www.news.mit.edu)

D e s i g n e r c r y s t l s f o r n e x t g e ne l e c t o n i c sLiquid isoftenseenasthekryptoniteofelectronics,knownfor damagingand corrodingcomponents.Thisiswhya

new processthat usesvapour instead ofliquid to growdesigner crystalscould lead to anew breed offaster,morepowerfulelectronicdevices.

Themethod isinvented byaninternationalteam ofscientistsfrom UniversityofLeuveninBelgium,NationalUniversityofSingaporeand CSIRO.For thefirst time,researchershaveshownhow designer crystalsknownasmetalorganicframeworkscanbegrownusingavapourmethod that issimilar to steam hoveringover apot ofhot water.

Thecrystalsaretheworld’smost porousmaterials,and

ifapplied to microelectronicdevices,could significantlyboost their processingpower.

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17WWW EFYMAG COM ELECTRONICSFORYOU |FEBRUARY2016

B n d a g e t a u t m a t c a l l y d e l i v e rm e d i c i n e t a w o u n dResearchersfrom MIT havedeveloped anew typeofbandagethat incorporateselectronicsand drugreservoirsto monitor and carefor awound.Thedurablehydrogel

bandageissuppleand exible,allowingfor fullrangeofmovement evenifit isapplied to akneeor anelbow.Italso hasafew innovativefeaturessuchastemperature-monitoringelectronicsthat automaticallyreleasemedicineto fight infections.

Thesmart wound dressingismadeofarubberyhydrogelmatrixthat is90per cent water,onedesignedspecificallyto replicatethequalitiesofhumantissue.Thegelcreatesastrongbond withmaterialssuchastitanium,

aluminium,silicon,ceramic,gold and other substancesthatarecommonlyused to build electronics.

Titanium wirerunsthroughthegelto makethebandageconductive,allowinganumber ofelectronicdevicesto beembedded,suchassemiconductor chips.LEDlightsarealso used;thesecan ashwhenawound reachesacertaintemperatureor drugreservoirsrunlow.Medicinereservoirsaredrilled into thehydrogeland travelto thewound viachannelscut inthematrix.

Smart bandagehas embedded electronics to track and treat wounds( Imagecourtesy: www.popularmechanics.com)

W i r e l e s s , d i s s o l v a b l e s e n s o r s tm o n i t r b r a i nAteam ofneurosurgeonsand engineershasdevelopedwirelessbrainsensorsthat monitor pressureand tempera-tureinsidethebrainand arethenabsorbed bythebody,sothat thereisno need for surgeryto removethedevices.

Developed byscientistsat WashingtonUniversitySchoolofMedicineinSt.Louisand engineersat UniversityofIllinoisat Urbana-Champaign,theimplantscanbeusedto monitor patientswithtraumaticbraininjuries.

Thedevicesaremademainlyofpolylactic-co-glycolic

acid and siliconeand cantransmit accuratepressureandtemperaturereadingsaswellasother information.

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TECHNEWS


D i s n e y ’ s r o b o t c a n c l i m b w a l l sDisneyResearchZurich,alongwithETH,anengineering,science,technology,mathematicsand management univer-sity,hasdeveloped arobot that canclimbwalls.

It iscalled VertiGo and iscapableofmakinganear-seamlesstransitionfrom theground to awall.It isalsocapableofmind-bogglingwall-ridingowingto apairoftiltablepropellersthat providethrust onto thewall,effectivelysuckingit against theverticalsurface.

Withtwo steerablewheels,VertiGo canbeoperated asaradio-controlled car.But,unliketheradio-controlled car,VertiGo hastwo infrared distancesensorsmounted onthefront to estimateitsorientationinspace.

Therobot haspotentialuseinentertainment,suchasprovidingvisualeffects,but isalso ageneraltechnology

for locomotiononwallswithpossibleother usessuchasindustrialinspection.

lastingsolution.Theydeveloped afast and reversiblethermo-responsivepolymer switchingmaterialthatcanbeincorporated insidebatteriesto prevent thermalrunaway.Thematerialconsistsofconductivegraphene-coated spikynanostructure(nano-spiky)nickelparticles

astheconductivefiller,alongwithapolymer matrixhavingalargethermalexpansioncoefficient.Thesenano-spikeshavehighelectricalconductivityand highthermalsensitivity.

Inorder to conduct electricity,thenano-spikesmustbeinclosevicinity.Astemperaturerises,thepolythenestretches,causingthespikesto moveapart from eachotherand therebybreakelectricalcontact.

Whileexperimenting,whenthebatterywasheated upto 70°C,thepolythenefilm quicklyexpanded likeaballoon,shuttingoffthebattery.But whenthetemperaturedroppeddownto 70°C,thepolyethyleneshrunk,particlescameincontact and thebatterystarted regeneratingelectricity.

B o - i n s p i r e d L E s g l o w u s i n g p r o t i n sAnew typeofhybrid light emittingdiode(HLED)termedBioLED hasbeendeveloped byateam ofGerman-Spanishscientists.It featuresproteincascadecoatingsintheformofrubber to maketheLEDsglow.Drawinginspirationfromnature’sbio-molecules,thescientistsdeveloped thishybrid

devicethat introducesluminescent proteinsinto apolymermatrixto produceluminescent rubber.It usesluminescentproteinsto convert thebluelight emitted byaregular LEDinto purewhitelight.Therubber isused to cover theLEDto convert thelight.

ManufacturingofLEDsinvolvesinorganiccomponentssuchascerium and yttrium that arealreadyinshortsupplyand hencewould not besustainablefor long.BioLEDsareeasyto manufacture,arebio-degradableandcanbeefficientlyrecycled and replaced.Thesealso comewithlessthantenper cent lossinluminousefficiencyfor

over 100hours.

Rubber with red, green and blueluminescent proteins areused to producetheBioLEDs ( Imagecourtesy: www.materialsgate.de)

VertiGo, a wall-climbing robot including ground-wall transition( Imagecourtesy: www.disneyresearch.com)

Theresearcherstested thesensorsinbathsofsalinesolutionthat caused theseto dissolveafter afew days.Next,theytested thedevicesinthebrainsofrats.Havingseenthat thesensorsareaccurateand dissolveinthesolutionand inthebrainsofrats,researchersnow are

planningto test thetechnologyonhumans.

L i t i u m - i o n b a tt r y t a t a u t m a t c a l l ys h u t d o w n b e f o r e o v e r - h e a t n gAresearchgroupcomprisingchemicalengineersfromStanford Universityhasdeveloped alithium-ionbatterythatautomaticallyshutsdownbeforeover-heating,and startschargingoncethetemperaturefalls.

ZhenanBao,team leader at CEresearchgroupat

Stanford,and postdoctoralscholar ZhengChen,turnedto nanotechnologyto lookfor areversibleand long-


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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE


Ray Kurzweil, American author,computer scientist, inventor andfuturist, once said, “Artificial intel-

ligence will reach human levels by around2029.Follow that out further to, say, 2045,we will have multiplied the intelligence,the human biological machine intelligenceof our civilisation a bil lion-fold.”

EvolutionofAI

The human race has fantasised aboutthinking machines right from the time ofclassical Greece.Homer’s Iliad talks aboutrobots that were made by Greek GodHephaestus.While some of these robotswere like humans, others were meremachines such as the golden tripods thatserved food and wine at feasts.

With the advent of modern computersit became feasible to create programs thatperformed difficult intellectual tasks.Thefirst half of the 20th century saw Britishmathematicians and philosophers Ber-

trand Russell and Alfred North Whiteheadpublish rincipia Mathematica, whichrevolutionised formal logic.

In 1923, Karel Kapek’s play R.U.R.(Rossum’s Universal Robots) , staged inLondon in 1923, was the first to use theword robot in English language.Muchlater, in 1956, John McCarthy created thephrase artificial intelligence (AI) whilelooking for words to describe the keytopic of a conference.The same year saw

the demonstration of the first running AIprogram, Logic Theorist (LT) , written byAllen Newell, J.C.Shaw and Herbert Si-mon, who were eminent personalities fromCarnegie Institute of Technology, USA.

In the decade spanning 1952to 1962,Arthur Samuel from IBM wrote the firstgame-playing program, for checkers, withenough ability to challenge a world champi-on.In 1965, Joseph Weizenbaum from Mas-sachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) ,USA, created ELIZA—an interactive programthat was capable of participating in a discus-sion on any subject in English language.

The first national conference of Ameri-can Association of Artificial Intelligence(AAAI) was held in 1980at Stanford, USA.By 1990s, key advances had taken place inall areas of AI, with noteworthy achieve-ments in machine learning, intelligenttutoring, case based reasoning, multi-agentplanning, scheduling, uncertain reasoning,data mining, natural language understand-

ing and translation, vision, virtual reality,games and many other topics.And, it was in 1997that Deep Blue, an

IBM supercomputer, beat the current worldchess champion, Garry Kasparov.By late1990s, Web crawlers and other AI basedinformation extraction programs becameindispensable in the widespread use of theWorld Wide Web.

Anintroductionto AI

AI is the science and engineering of mak-

ing intelligent machines, more so, intel-ligent computer programs.In simple terms,if a computer performs a function whichif a human was to do would be calledintelligent, then we can say the computerhas intelligence.

Intelligence is a combination of knowl-edge and reasoning power since reasoningpower construes facts that are unknownto knowledge.This criteria for AI is a verychallenging task given that computers

work on binary logic.When a computeronly knows yes and no, it is demand-

ABeautiful ARTIFICIAL MIND

Deepak Halani s a s s o c i a t ep r o f e s s o r a t S c h o o lo f M a n a g e m e n t

S c i e n c e s , A p e e ja yS t y a U n i v e r s it y

Fig. 1 ELIZ A, aninteractive program,was b ased on avery b asic level ofAI (Image cou rtesyw w w . s c ruf . c m )


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ingto achieveresultsthat arenotstrictlydefined.

For example,ifwehadto createanAIthermostat to coolahouse,theprogram wouldneedto haveknowledgeofallseasons,weatherconditionslikeElNiño andpassageoftime,plusit must beableto un-derstandconceptslikewarm,coolortoo cold,apart from other aspects.

Whilewedo not reallyrealiseit,thesimplest humanfunctionstrans-lateto thousandsoflinesofcom-puter code.Most current AIsystemsaredesigned for onlyafew specificapplications.Oneofthemost popu-lar examplesofanAIapplicationwasachessprogram runningonDeepBlue,IBM’ smassively-parallel-computingsystem.

DeepBluemanaged to defeatworld chesschampionGaryKasp-arovbecauseit could search50to100billionpositionsinthethreeminutesthat eachplayer had,tomaketheir move.

AIapplicationscanbebuck-eted asknowledgebased or expertsystems.Aminor knowledgebasedsystem could beaseriesofcondi-tionalstatements,suchas:

IF

the animal is a birdit does not yit swimsit is black and white

THEN it is a penguin.Asthissystem becomesmore

complex,thetimeit takesfor acom-puter to arriveat anintelligent out-comebecomesunacceptablyhigh.Expert systemstryto solvethisissuebyacquiringmoreknowledgefrom

ahumanbeingbyaskingquestions.Over time,theprogram learnsfrom

experienceand canactuallysolveproblemsor giveadvicebased onwhat it haslearned.

Someapplication areasofAI

AIisbeingused inallspheresof

everydaylifeindeveloped countries.Givenbelow aresomekeyareas.

Online shopping. e-tailingsitessuchaswww.amazon.com deployaprocesscalled collaborativefilteringto compareacustomer’spurchasepatternswiththoseofother custom-ersand providesuggestions.AIcantakesuchprocessesto thenext levelto increaseloyalty.

Inthenear future,wecanexpectsemi-autonomousagentssurfingtheWebto helpus,that is,theircreatorswithdiversetasks.Intel-ligent botswillshopfor youonline,do your financialtransactionsand more,without your interven-tion.Youwould onlyberequiredto providethebotsbroad inputswithrespect to what youwant toget done.Websitessuchaswww.AskJeeves.com areusingAIinthehopeofmakingtheInternet amore

intuitiveplace,whereyouget thingsdonethesamewayyouwould do intherealworld.

e-broking. IntheInternet tradingenvironment,ane-broker isasys-tem whereclientsaretheprospec-tivebuyersand sellers.Eachclienthasaparticular wish-list.Insecuritytrading,abuyer canspecifytypeofproduct,number oflots,maximumpurchaseprice,expirydate,timeand other details.

Theseller canspecifyproduct,number oflots,minimum sellingprice,expirydate,timeand thelike.Thesystem preservesadatabaseofoutstandingrequestsfrom prospec-tivebuyersand sellers.

For abuyer,thesystem screensand shortlistsareasonablenumberofsellersfor further analysis.Thesystem matchesbuyersand sellersintheshortlist.For eachbuyer-

seller pair,thesystem makesuseofaset ofrulesand comesupwitha

ratingfor thepair.It rankspossiblesellersaccordingto theratings.Top-rankingsellersarerecommended tothebuyer.

Insuchabrokeragesystem,AItechniquesareappliedto theshort-

listingstageandthematchingstage.Theamount ofcomputationincreas-essharplywithariseinthenumberofclientsandrequests.Thefocusofresearchisthereforeonefficientstrategiesandalgorithmsso that thesystem canrespondto clients’ re-questswithinashort spanoftime.Asecuritytradingsystem isexpectedtocompleteseveralthousandtransac-tionseverydayandthesystem hastoanswer injust afew seconds.

Bioinformatics. AIiscriticalfor theevolutionofbioinformatics.Presently,molecular biologistsareinvolved insomenotabledata-collectionprojects.Latest genome-sequencingprojectsareproducingahugevolumeofdatalinked to thefunctionand structureofbiologicalmoleculesand sequences.

Other complementaryhigh-throughput technologies,such

asDNAmicro-arrays,areswiftlygeneratingbigamountsofdatathataretoo overpoweringfor traditionalmethodsfor biologicaldataanalysis.

Understandingofthisrichdatacoulddeeplyimpact our interpreta-tionoflifeat themolecular level.However,theillustrationofbiologicalknowledgeisaverydauntingjobandincreasinglydemandsmorepo-tent andrefinedcomputationaltools.

AIand other heuristicmethods

(inparticular,machinelearning,datamining,cluster analysis,pat-ternrecognitionand knowledgerep-resentation)could possiblyoffer keysolutionsfor thefreshhurdlesposedbytheprogressivetransformationofbiologyinto adata-massivescience.

SomekeyareaswhereAIap-proachesarespecificallyencourag-ingand turningout to befruitfularefor predictionofprotein’sstructure

and function,semiautomaticdrugdesign,interpretationofnucleotide

Fig. 2: IBM’s Deep Blue chess machine, whichdefeated world chess champion Garry KasparovI m a g e c urt s y : w w w . s c ruf . c m )


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sequencesand knowledgeacquisi-

tionfrom geneticdata.Thereisno doubt that applica-

tionofAIto computationalmolecu-lar biologydemandsexceedinglyinterdisciplinaryand complementaryskills,and theseareseldom pro-vided for inmost current aca-demiccurricula.Interdisciplinaryisinteresting,however,unlessAIandcomputationalbiologycommunitiescollaborateclosely,development ofnew methodologiesand algorithms

islikelyto losepace.Gaming Another bigareain

whichAIplaysavitalroleisthegamingindustry.Inthe1990s,wesaw thefirst attemptsto mass-pro-duceAIbased toysand gamesintheform ofTamagotchidolls,GigaPets,first widely-released robot,Furbyand muchmore.Later anenhancedtypeofdomesticrobot,Aibo,aroboticdogwithintelligent features

and autonomy,waslaunched.AIhasalso beenapplied to video

gamesintheform ofvideo gamebots,whicharedesigned to standinasopponentswhenpeopleareeither not availableor arenot de-sired.Inagamecalled Left 4Dead,AIbased director decideswhereen-

emiesbrood and how mapsarelaidout to bemoreor lessdemandingatvariouspointsofplay.

It isimportant for gamersto feelthat thecharactersthat areinsidethegamearealmost real.Certaingamesarebased onneuralnetwork-ingtechnology,whichisused to cre-atecharactersthat learnasthegameprogresses.Charactersinafightinggame,for example,could betaughtbattleskillsinthesamemanner asthehumans.

Thentherearecomputingmachinesavailableinthemarket,whichcanplaymaster-levelchesswithyou.Thesearebased onsomelevelofAIand useaggressivecomputationforceinevaluatinghundredsofthousandsofdifferentpositions.To beat aworld cham-pionbysheer computingforceandknownreliableheuristicsrequires

evaluationofasmanyas200millionpositionsper second.

Music and AI.Sincelong,musichasevolved withtechnology.Com-puter-scienceengineershavebeentryingto makecomputersmatchtheactivitiesofskilfulmusicians,usingAI.Composition,performance,mu-sictheoryand sound processingaresomeofthemajor areasonwhichresearchinmusicand AIison.

Also,effortsto modelmusiccog-

nitionwithAIaregenerallylookeduponasmethodsofimprovingour understandingofbothhumanpsychologyand intellect.Onceaneffectivemodelofthemusiclistenerhasbeenaccomplished,it canbeimprovised into amorecomplexmodelconsistingofthelistener,performer and composer,allputtogether.It thenbecomesaself-learningAIsystem.For example,a

composingprogram canget alltherequired input informationfrom its

environment bylisteningto musi-calperformances.Also,thismoresophisticated modelcanbeveryinsightfulintermsofunderstandingthebehaviour ofmusicians.

ConclusionHaleyJoelOsment played arobotcreated withtheabilityto haveemo-tions,dreamsand desiresinStevenSpielberg’ smovieA.I.ArtificialIntelligence,asci-fiadaptationofPinocchio story.

Therehasbeenacertainlevelofresistanceto AIdueto thefear oftheworld beingtakenover byma-chines,asthegapbetweenhumansand machinesbecomesnarrower.However,thereisalso thebeliefthat amachinecannever beasgood asahumanbeinginmakingbusinessdecisions.

Thereisaschoolofthought thatbelievesthat human-levelintel-ligencecanbeachieved bywritinglargenumbersofprogramsbut mostAIresearchersbelievethat new andcreativefundamentalideasarere-quired.Whileit cannot bepredicted

bywhenhuman-levelintelligencewillbeachieved,wedo not reallyneed to simulateconscioushumanthought assuch.

Theemphasistodayisondevelopingcomputersthat canbeoperated intuitivelywithminimumhumaninvolvement.Thisdemandsasystem that cancrunchdataonaplatform and inadevice-agnosticmanner.Ideally,development ofmeaningfulAIwilldemand that ma-

chinesobtainsomeform ofhumanconsciousnessto createusefulandpowerfulassistants.

Whiletherehasbeenrapidpro-gressinhardware,storageandparal-lel-processingarchitectures,thefieldofartificialconsciousnessremainsinitsinfancystage.Andmuchlikethehumanbody,thissystem isexpectedto carryout itsfunctionsandadaptto itsuser’srequirementswithout the

needoftheuser to go into minutedetailsofitsfunctioning.

Fig. 4: A musician performing with robotsinspired by AI Image courtesy: www.cls s i c lt . c m )

Fig. 5: Haley Joel Osment played a roboti n St v e n S i e le r ’ s m o v i e A I . Art ca lIntelligence Image courtesy: www.s p i e le r f nclu . c m )

Fig. 3: Aibo, a robotic dog with intelligentfeatures and autonomy Image courtesy: www.d g i t ltr nds . c m )


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Gate-level simulation (GLS) is usedto boost the confidence regardingimplementation of a design and

can help verify dynamic circuit behaviour,which cannot be verified accurately bystatic methods.It is a significant step inthe verification process.

GLS overcomes the limitations of stat-ic-timing analysis and is increasing beingused due to low power issues, complextiming checks at 40nm and below, designfor test (DFT) insertion at gate level andlow power considerations.For DFT, scanchains are inserted after the gate-levelnetlist is created;GLS is often used to de-termine whether scan chains are correct.

Technology libraries at 45nm andbelow have far more timing checks andcomplextiming checks than older processnodes.GLS may take up to one-third ofthe simulation time and could potentially

take most of the debugging time.It is runafter RTL code is simulated and synthe-sised into a gate-level netlist.It requires acomplete reset of the design.

Reasons for running GLS are resetverification, X optimism in RTL, timingverification on multi-cycle/asynchronous

paths and basic heartbeat test.In reset verification, GLS can verify sys-

tem initialisation and show that the resetsequence is correct.

In X optimism in RTL, an RTL simu-lator may optimistically assign zero orone to a value that a GLS would identifyas X ( unknown).

In timing verification on multi-cycle/asynchronous paths, static-timing analysiscannot identify asynchronous interfaces,and has constraint requirements that im-pact false and multi-cycle paths.

In the basic heartbeat test, some veri-fication teams may want to run a limitedsanity check to verify the functionality atthe gate level.As GLS runs much moreslowly than an RTL simulation, it potential-ly has significant impact on the verificationclosure cycle.

Cadence incisive enterprise simulator

has several features such as zero-delay simu-lation, built-in delay mode control functionsto reduce simulation time, selectively disa-bling delays in sections of the model wheretiming is not currently a concern, detectingpotential zero-delay gate loops, correctingrace conditions that occur in zero-delaymode, disabling timing checks for the entiresimulation or for selected blocks, control-ling the number of timing check violations,using multi-snapshot incremental elabora-tion to improve elaboration performance,

using wave dumping only if required, avoidor use selectively command-line options thatprovide additional information and access toobjects for debugging.

Incisive also offers a timing file that letsyou turn off the timing for particular in-stances in a design.Palladium XP accelera-tor/emulator can offer speeds 10,000timesfaster than simulation.If full debug accessis needed, a switch can provide it.There isalso an option ( -ZLIB) that can compress

snapshots and save disk space, while let-ting users set the level of compression.

GATE LEVEL SIMULATIONS:

An Increasing Trend

V.P. Sampath is anactive member of

IEEE and Institutionof Engineers IndiaLtd. He is a regularcontributor tonational newspapers,IEEE-MAS section,and has publishedinternational papersin VLSI and networks

L o g i c

E q u iv a l e n c e

C h e c k

R T L

S y n th e s i s

G a te L e v e l N e tlis t

T e s t b e n c h

A T P G p a tte r n S T AS i m u l a ti o n

L i n ti n gV e r i f i c a t i o n

Fig. 1 G ate-level

s i m ulto n f o w


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RunningGLSThe use of static tools to reduce GLStime should be used before runningzero-delay information, especially forlinting.Static-timing analysis can pro-vide information that is used to start

GLS early in the ow.There are many reasons for running

GLS, some of which are given below:1. To give confidence in verification

of low-power structures, absent inRTL and added during synthesis.Itis a probable method to catchmulti-cycle paths if tests exercisingthese are available.Power esti-mation is done on the netlist forpower numbers

2. To verify the power-up and resetoperation of the design and tocheck if the design has any unin-tentional dependencies on initialconditions

3. To verify DFT structures absentin RTL and added during or aftersynthesis.Scan chains are gener-ally inserted after the gate-levelnetlist has been created.Hence,GLS is often used to determinewhether scan chains are correct.It

is also required to simulate ATPGpatterns.Tester pattern simulationsare done on the gate-level netlist

4. To help reveal glitches on edge-sensitive signals due to combina-tion logic;using both worst- andbest-case timing may be necessary

5. To check special logic circuits anddesign topology that may includefeedback and/or initial state con-siderations or circuit tricks

6. To check if design works at the de-

sired frequency with actual delaysin place.It is a probable methodto find out the need for synchro-nisers, if absent in design.It willcause X propagation on timingviolation on that op

GLSexecutionstrategy

In highly-integrated products, it isnot possible to run gate simulationfor all system on chip (SoC) tests

due to the simulation and debugtime required.Therefore the vectors

that are to be run in GLS have to beselected judiciously.

Possible candidates for such vec-tors are test cases involving initiali-sation and boot up, and all blocksof the design must have at least onetest case for GLS, test cases checkingclock source switching, cases check-ing clock frequency scaling, asynchro-nous paths in design, test cases thatcheck entry/exit from different modesof design and dedicated tests for tim-ing exceptions in the STA.

GLS targets the maximum desiredoperating frequency of the design.Some signals that are critical for GLSdebug can be preserved during syn-thesis.A list of all synchroniser opsis generated using CDC tools.

Asynchronous paths where tim-ing checks need to be turned off areanalysed and a complete list of suchops is prepared, which also includes

reset synchronisers.Timing checks areturned off on all such ops to avoid

any redundant debugging, otherwisethese will cause X corruption in GLS.

This work should ideally be donebefore the SDF arrives.It may happenthat the names of the synchronisersin RTL and the netlist are different.All such ops should be updated asper the netlist.Also, correct stand-ard cell libraries, correct models ofanalogue blocks and more should bepicked for GLS.

Unit-delay GLS for test benchcleanup setup is done for unit delay

GLS and test cases that are plannedto be run on gate level are run withthis setup to clean the test bench.This is done because unit-delaysimulations are relatively faster andall test bench/testcase-related issuescan be resolved.

Running unit-delay GLS is recom-mended because one can catch mostof the test bench/testcase issuesbefore the arrival of SDF.After SDFarrives, focus should be more onfinding the real design/timing issues.

So one must make sure that the timedoes not get wasted in debuggingtest-case-related issues at that time.

GLSchallenges

The challenge in GLS is X propaga-tion debug.X corruption may becaused by a number of reasons suchas timing violations, uninitialisedmemory and non-resettable ops.There generally are uninitialised opsin design which due to the architec-

ture are guaranteed not to cause anyproblems.There is a need to findout all such ops in the design andinitialise these to some random value(either zero or one) so as to mimicsilicon.It gives a clear picture of howthe design will behave at the desiredfrequency with actual delays in place.

Although GLS has its own setof challenges like set-up issuesand long run time, among others,

it is still very much a part of thesign-off process.

Fg . 2 : G a t lv e ls i m ulto n a nd s t tc tm i n a n ls i s f o w

ERRORS

SIM PASS

Original

SDF Used

Generates

ViolationReport

GLS Netlist

GenerateSDF

S F

Designers

WorkonReal

DesignFixFixthedesignissueand

validateitinSTAagain

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

Checkfor

Errorsinreport

SDF withno

timingissue

STAToolGenerates

TimingReportandSDF

Temporaryfixofknowntimingissues

tostartGLS SIM earlyandfocuson

newunknownGLS issues

Modify Update

SDF

Temporarily

STATool

GLS TimingSIM

STA Flow Simulator Flow

DesignTapeOut


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WhenIstarted workonthisstoryat thecloseof2015,theUSA’sFederalAviationAdministra-

tion(FAA)wasvoicingseriousconcernsabout thenumber ofdronesexpectedto bebought bypeopleduringthe2015Christmassales.Rangingfrom simpleUS$20toysto high-end quadcopters,FAAwasexpectingamillionunmanned aerialve-hicles(UAVs,akadrones)to besold.Theconcernispalpable,becausethesenewaircraft,ifnot fiownresponsibly,couldcausealot oftroublefor airlines.So muchso that FAAhaslaunched abetaapplica-tioncalled B4UFly,whichhelpsdroneusersto abidebyfiyingregulations,espe-ciallyto stayawayfrom prohibited zoneswheretheir littleaircraft could causeharmto realbigones.

Wearenot surehow manydrones

reallygot sold over Christmasholidays,but it isevident that dronesrepresent areal,solid trend.At onetime,dronesfellinto two categories:either thesewereusedinclassi ed,militaryoperationsor weretoys.Now their applicationsaremorereal-world.

InJuly2015,alittledronefiew 55km

acrossAppalachianMountainsto delivermedicalsuppliesto ahealthcarecentreinWiseCounty,Virginia,USA.Theplaceisnot easilyaccessibleand doctorsusuallystockupfor amonthat astretch,lead-ingto alot ofwaste.ThisFAA-approveddronedeliveryhasseeded hopeinthemindsofmanyofthearea’scitizens,wholookforward to moresuchhumanitariandronemissions.

From deliveringmedicinesand com-mercialparcelsto transportingorgans,followingclouds,sprayingcrops,shootingcandid sportsvideosand surveyingrealestate,dronesareattemptingto becomepart and parcelofour lives,likecarsandmobiledevicesoncedid.And soonthesereallymight dot our skies,everyday.

Thisprospect hasput scientistsandactivistsonfullthrottle.Thereisalot of

concernabout thesafetyand privacyprob-lemsposed bythesedronesand theneedfor proper regulationsto overcomethese.Fortunately,thereisalot ofresearchanddevelopment happeningto makesmaller,smarter,moreusefuldrones.Inthisstory,let ustakeapeekat somesuchwon-drone-fuldevelopments.

D r o n e s t r n i n t M r F x - I t

UniversityofLeeds,UK,hasundertakentodevelopdronesthat canbeused to au-

tonomously xcityinfrastructuresuchasmendingpotholesor changingstreetlights.Theideaisto havedronesautomaticallysurveythecity’sinfrastructure,so prob-lemscanbespotted and xed evenbeforethesearevisibleto thehumaneye.Theproject willtakeathree-pronged approachto solvingthischallenge.

Oneareaofresearch,dubbed asPerchand Repair,willaim to developdronesthatcanperchatophighstructuresto xstuff

likestreetlights.Another dimensionisPerceiveand

A SunrisePEPPERED WITH DRONES

ananiGopalakrishnanVikramis atechnically-qualifiedfreelance writer,editor and hands-on mom based inChennai

Robo-Fly being developedby the US Army (Imagecourtesy: US Army)


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Patch, that is, drones that canautonomously inspect, identify andrepair potholes in roads.

The third is Fire and Forget ro-bots, which can operate perpetuallywithin live utility pipes, handling

tasks like inspection, repair, meter-ing and reporting.

The multi-million-pound projectis actually deeper than it appears tobe.It will involve not just advancedresearch in drones and robotics,but also include development ofadvanced simulators like airfiowsimulators to study air pollution,tackle the problem of aging waterpipelines and more.The projectwill also study the environmen-tal and social impact of having arobot workforce always on duty inthe city, trying to achieve the taskwith minimal disturbance to thecity’s dwellers.

Atrickortwolearnt from iesandbirds

Think small, fiying, fast and agile,and insects are the rst creaturesthat come to mind.How challenging

it is to vanquish a fiy that irritat-ingly hovers around you, buzzinginto your ears!So close by, yet sotough to swat.Well, it is no surprisethen that with similar goals, droneresearchers are turning to naturefor inspiration.

Insects are able to fiy swiftly inand out of even the trickiest of spac-es without colliding into anything.This is a capability that UAVs musthave, if these are to work autono-

mously and coexist with humans.One way to achieve this would be to

equip the drones with digital cam-eras that capture a 360-degree imageof what is around them.However,

this goes against the form factorand weight requirements, which are

critical for drones.So scientists at Swiss Federal In-

stitute of Technology (ETH) Zurich,

Switzerland, have now developedan insect-inspired motion sensor

More e citing applications...

ETH Zurich recently demonstrated drones building a rope bridge as part of their AerialConstruction Project. The researchers navigated quadcopters between two sets ofscaffolding. Thereafter, the drones were able to survey the distance, figure out how tobuild the bridge and with the help of motorised spools, tied together ropes to make a

7.3-metre 24-feet)-long bridge, without any human intervention.

Robot scientists from across Europe have joined hands under the auspices of AerialRobotics Cooperative Assembly System ARCAS) project to develop drones that canfly in a coordinated way to share the weight of heavy building materials. This will helpdeliver heavy payloads to difficult areas not reachable by cranes, which often poserisks to human workers.Drones are expected to be very helpful for farmers, too. Stevia, the sugar substitutemaker, considered deploying drones with lights over their farms to promote crop growthat night, too. A contest held last year in Maryland, USA, challenged students to developdrones that could prevent infestation of corn crops. Some interesting designs involveddrones that landed on infested crops and pulled out insects with mechanical arms.NASA has shown how UAVs can be used to hunt hurricanes, while Lockheed Martinshowed how these can help in detecting and predicting avalanches, volcanic eruptions,wildfires and other natural disasters.

Conservation Drones is an organisation focused on using drones for environmental-conservation activities such as protecting chimpanzees in Tanzania and trackingSumatran orangutans.IBM is developing a drone called IRIS+ , which can play table tennis. IRIS+ canautomatically track the trajectory of a ball coming to its side of the table and return theball to the other player.

Flying machines spanningload-bearing links

(Image courtesy: ETH, Zurich)

Visit www.electronicsb2b.com

For More

Test and quipment Stories


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for UAVs.Thearti cialeyemeas-uresjust two cubicmillimetresand weighsjust two milligrams.Itfeaturesalensontopofallthreeelectronicphotodetectorsinatri-angular pattern.Thedevicecom-binesthemeasurementsofthesephotodetectorsto determinethespeed and directionofanymotioninits eld-of-view.Thisissimi-lar to how thesegmented eyesof

insectscapturetheir environment toavoid obstacles.

Theteam hasalso developedalgorithmsto processsignalsfrom thesedevices,whichwillbeprogrammed into onboard chipstocomputerelevant parameterslikedistanceto objects,timeuntilpoten-tialcollisionand so on.

Thearti cialeyehasbeentested under varied conditionslikepoorly-lit rooms,bright and sunnyoutdoor spots,and it seemspoised

to outdo theoriginalitself,asresultsshow that it isableto detect mo-

tionthreetimesfaster thanactualfiyinginsects.

Autonomy is a matter ofperceptionIfdronesareto bereallyuseful,de-liveringparcels,spyingenemyterri-tories,enteringdanger zonesaheadof re- ghtersand rst-responders,and more,theseneed to beawareoftheir environment and capableof

fiyingautonomously.Dronemak-ersacrosstheworld areinvesting

Morebio inspireddrones...

TheUSArmyis workingonRobo-Fly, whichwill onedayrelievehumans from the life-threatening job of espionage. Usingpiezoelectric materials, theyhavedevelopedafruit-fly-sizemicro-robotthatcanflapits wings withoutamotor. Theprototypewings

thattheyhavemadearejust3mmlong, andaremadeof lead-zirconium-titanate, amaterial thatbends andflaps whenvoltageis appliedtoit. Theyhavealsousedthesamematerial todesignasetof tinyrobotic legs likeamillipede’s)thatcancrawl whenvoltageis appliedtothese. Itmightbe10to15years beforethesewings andlegs actuallyturnintospyinginsects.

MirkoKovac, director of Aerial Robotics Laboratory at ImperialCollegeLondon, believes inturningtonaturefor answers todronechallenges. Bystudyingtheperchingof birds, hehas developedapigeon-sizedronethat canfly to thesideof a buildingandcomfortablyperchonit. Basically, mechanical forces resultingfromtheimpactcausethedrone’s twoarms toflyforwardandmakeagrabbingactionthatholds ontothebrickworkwithoutspendingany

extraenergy. Heis nowstudyingthemulti-modal mobilityof birdsandother creatures, whichcomfortablymovebetweenwater, landandsky, todevelopdrones withsimilar capabilities.David Lentink and his team at StanfordUniversity, USA, havedesignedbird-inspiredwings for drones. Unliketherigidwings ofhelicopters andfixed-wingaircraft, thesespecial wings canflaplikeabird’s andfoldbackonimpact, enablingthesetorecover instantlyafter acollisionandcontinueflyinglikebirds do. Thewings aremadeof carbon-fibreandMylar film. Eachwingconsists of twoparts, onearmwingandonehandwing, hingedtogether witha3D-printedwristjointthatenables thehandwingtofoldbackoverthearmwing. Thearmwingis further attachedtothebodybyashoulder joint. Whenthewings flap, acentrifugal forceis created,enablingsmoothflight. Oncollision, thewings foldbackwithoutanydamage, recover instantly andstartflappingagain. All thishappens passively, withoutrequiringanyelectronics. This wouldmakedrones lighter andmorereliable, too.

Othereffortstomakedronesself aware...

When drones suddenly run out of power or losethe globalpositioning system GPS)signal, these crash land. In ordertopreventsuchsituations, Universityof Zurichhas developeddrones withimprovedsafetyfeatures. Thedrones haveacamera,accelerationsensors andanorientationsystemthat emulatesthehumanvisual systemandsenseof balance. Whenafailuresituationis detected, thedronetries toregainbalanceand, whenthat is notpossible, it surveys its surroundings, builds a3D

model of theenvironmentandtries tofindasafeplacetoland. Allimageprocessingandcontrol runs onasmartphoneprocessoronboardthedrone, whichenables thedronetoactindependentlywithoutrequiringinstructions fromanoperator.Last year, DJI launched a new multi-modal sensing systemcalledGuidance, whichempowers drones likethecompany’sMatrice100withautonomous obstacle-avoidancecapabilities.Guidanceconsists of anarrayof fiveultrasonic rangefinders, asetof integratedvisual cameras runningadvancedalgorithmsandanonboardprocessor tomakesenseof all data. Guidanceenables drones tohover inplace, maintaintheir positions andavoidobstacles, withoutGPSsupport.Andrew Barry, a PhD student at Massachusetts Instituteof

Technology MIT), USA, recently developed an obstacle-

avoidance system for drones, which uses only two mobilephones worthof onboard computinghardware and real-timeimage processing, accordingtoan Instituteof Electrical andElectronics Engineers IEEE)report. Thesolutionis basedonstereofilteringfromapair of 376x240pixel resolution, 120frames-per-secondcameras spaced34centimetres apart. Thedronefocuses its attentiononpixels thatareabouttenmetresawayandnothingelse. Itsaves thesepixels inits memoryand

thenextimageadds morepixels toit, graduallyhelpingthedronetobuilda3Dmapof whatlies ahead. This techniqueis calledpushbroomstereodetection. Withalittlebitof ironingout, thismethodcouldhelpdrones toflyautonomously, atlower costs.

While remote-controlleddrones arecapable of flying at greatspeeds, autonomous ones still movequiteslowlyinorder tomaketherequiredobstacle-avoidancecalculations. However, birds andinsects areabletoflyveryfast, withoutcrashingintoanything.This fact has inspired Defence Advanced Research ProjectsAgency DARPA)tofundthedevelopmentof small, lightweightandautonomous drones thatcanflyatspeeds greater than70kmph,manoeuvringadeptlytoavoidobstacles. Risingtotheoccasion,Draper Labs andagroupatMIThavestartedworkonsoftware

systems thatwill helpavoidobstacles atsuchhighspeeds.


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e f f o r t i n t i s d i r e c t o n .A s c e n d i n g T c h n o l o g i e s , f o r

e x a m p l e , h a s b e e n w o r k i n g w i tI n t l t d e v e l o p s o l u t o n s f o r o b -s t c l e a v o i d a n c e .I n t l ’ s R e a l S e n s e3 6 0 - d e g r e e - d e p t c a m e r a m o d u l e ,

w h i c h i s l e s s t a n f o u r m i l l i m e t et i c k , w e i g h i n g a r o u n d e i g h t g r a m s ,h a s b e e n e f f e c t v e l y c o m b i n e d w i tp o w e r f u l m i c r o p r o c e s s o r s a n d s m a r ta l g o r i t m s t i m p r o v e t e p e r c e p -t o n c a p a b i l i t e s o f d r o n e s w i t o u ta f f e c t n g p a y l o a d a n d fi i g h t t m e s .

A s c T c F r e F y , f o r e x a m p l e , u s e sI n t l c a m e r a s t a u t - fi y t r o u g hf o r e s t w i t o u t c r a s h i n g i n t t e e s .A s c T c N o , a r e s e a r c h U A V w h i c hw i l l b e a v a i l a b l e i n 2 0 1 6 , w i l l h a v e am o r e a d v a n c e d s e n s o r r i n g w i t s i xI n t l R e a l S e n s e c a m e r a s , w h i c h w i l lg i v e i t a 3 6 0 - d e g r e e v i e w e s s e n t a lf o r a u t n o m o u s n a v i g a t o n .

Fivelittledronesyingintheair...

O e l i tt e d r o n e h i t m e o n m y h e a d .M u m m y c a l l e d t e p o l i c e a n d t ep o l i c e s a i d , “ N m o r e d r o n e s b u m p -i n g o n t e h e a d .

S o o n , t i s s c e n e m i g h t b e m o r er e a l t a n y o u t i n k .O e o f t eb i g g e s t w o r r i e s o n t e m i n d s o fa u t o r i t e s a n d p e o p l e i s t e r i s k o fd r o n e s i n t r f e r i n g w i t p u b l i c r o u -t n e .I m a g i n e d r o n e s d i s t r b i n g t efi y i n g o f r e a l a i r c r a f t b u m p i n g i n tp e o p l e , c r a s h i n g o n w i n d s c r e e n s o fc a r s a n d s o o n .

W h i l e c o m p a n i e s a r e t y i n g tm a k e d r o n e s m o r e s e l f - a w a r e a n ds a f e , o r g a n i s a t o n s l i k e F A a r e

t y i n g t c o n t o l t e fi i g h t o f t e s el i tt e e l e c t o n i c b i r d s t a v o i d a n ym i s h a p s .F A i s t k i n g s e v e r a ls t p s i n t i s d i r e c t o n , d e c l a r i n gn o - fi y z o n e s , p u tt n g a b a r o n t eh e i g h t w i t i n w h i c h d r o n e s c a n b efi o w n , p r o h i b i t n g t e u s e o f d r o n e sn e a r a i r p o r t , c h e c k i n g a n d c o n t o l -l i n g c o m m e r c i a l u s a g e o f d r o n e sa n d s o o n .

T a i d F A i n t i s p o t n t a l l y -

m a m m o t t s k , N S A i s d e v e l o p i n ga d r o n e - t a f c - m a n a g e m e n t s y s t m

t a t c a n t a c k t o u s a n d s o f d r o n e s ,e v a l u a t t e i r fi i g h t p l a n s a n d c o n -t o l w h e r e t e s e c a n o r c a n n o t g o .Th e p r o j e c t i n v o l v e s f o u r p h a s e s ,o f w h i c h t e r s t p h a s e i s a l m o s tr e a d y f o r t s t n g b y F A .Th e s y s -

t m w i l l u s e g e o - f e n c i n g t p r e v e n td r o n e s f r o m g o i n g w h e r e t e s e d on o t b e l o n g .

I n a r e c e n t m e d i a r e p o r t P r i -m a l K o p a r d e k a r , N S A ’ s p r i n c i p a li n v e s t g a t r f o r d r o n e t a f c m a n -a g e m e n t e x p l a i n e d t a t t e r e a r et o t p e s o f g e o - f e n c e s ; o n e i s an o - fi y - z o n e t p e , w h e r e y o u s h o u l dn o t g o i n s i d e t e g e o - f e n c e .Th i sw i l l b e u s e d t k e e p d r o n e s a w a yf r o m a i r p o r t , f o r e x a m p l e .Th eo t e r k i n d o f g e o - f e n c e w o u l d k e e pd r o n e s f r o m g e tt n g o u t.

T e s y s t m w i l l e n a b l e u s e r s tl e fi i g h t p l a n s , w h i c h w i l l b e e v a l u -

a t d a n d a c c e p t d o r r e j e c t d i f t e s ed o n o t w o r k o u t.I d e a l l y , t e s y s t mw i l l a l s o e n a b l e a n y b o d y t s i m p l yp o i n t a s m a r t h o n e a t a d r o n e fi y i n gi n t e v i c i n i t a n d n d o u t w h a t i t i su p t .T i s i s v e r y i m p o r t n t t i n s t lc o n d e n c e i n p e o p l e a n d a v e r t t e

r i s k o f s p y i n g d r o n e s .W h e n y o u a c t a l l y p o i n t y o u r

p h o n e a t a d r o n e , t e a n s w e r c o u l db e q u i t s u r p r i s i n g , b e c a u s e d r o n e sa r e u p t a l o t o f t i n g s t d a y .D r o n e s w i t f o l l o w - m e c a p a b i l i t e sc a n t a c k p l a y e r s a n d s h o o t v i d -e o s t a t w i l l h e l p t e m i m p r o v et e i r p l a y i n g .

D r o n e s c a n p l a n t s e e d s o n h i g hm o u n t i n s a n d d a n g e r o u s f o r e s t ti m p r o v e t e g r e e n c o v e r .Th e s e c a n

m o n i t r f a r m s a n d i m p r o v e w a t r -i n g c y c l e s .A n d w e l l , A m a z o n h o p e st e s e c a n d e l i v e r p a r c e l s , t o .

H o w e v e r , i t i s e v i d e n t f r o m t ek i n d o f r e s e a r c h h a p p e n i n g a c r o s st e w o r l d t a t t i s i s s t l l f a r a w a y .I t t o k a l o n g t m e f o r r o b o t t s t r tw o r k i n g c o o p e r a t v e l y w i t p e o -p l e .S o y o u c a n i m a g i n e h o w l o n gi t m i g h t t k e b e f o r e d r o n e s s t r tfi y i n g s a f e l y i n t e m i d s t o f p e o p l e ,

c a r s , b u i l d i n g s a n d a l l t e c h a o s o fo u r c i t e s !

TECHFOCUS


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First shownat CES2016,EtosisaBMW i8withanauto-pilotand adroneonboard.FrankM.

Rinderknecht,bossoftheSwisscrea-tivethink-tankRinspeed,intendsto usetheUFO-esquedroneonboard Etosforperformingservicessuchaspickingupdeliveriesfrom storesasthecar drivesyouhome,whileyourelaxwithabookinthedriver’sseat.Droneapplicationshavedefinitelygonewaybeyond theirinitialuseasaerialtorpedoes,unmannedweaponsplatformsand surveillance.

Financialbenefitslookverypromis-ingfor developersofwell-engineereddrones.InarecentForbesarticlebyBaldwinCunningham,it wassaid thatthedroneeconomycould beasincred-ibleastheappeconomywehad seeninthelast decade.To engineer dronesthat

canhandlenext-generationapplications,let ustakealookat thetechnologiesavailablefor you.

P o p u l s i o n

Beforeyoutryto put smartsinto yourdrone,youneed to get your droneoffthe

ground.Whenyouselect your mixofmotor and propeller,youneed to makesurethat thereis

enoughthrust tocomfortablypickuptheentiredrone.

Asanexample,amotor and pro-peller combinationthat delivers500gramsofthrust inaquadcopter con-figurationwould beableto barelylift a

two-kilogram drone.Thisisnot anideal

situationand so it isrecommended thattheweight ofyour dronebelessthanhalfthemaximum thrust your configurationiscapableofdelivering.

Direct current (DC)brushlessmotorsarethemost commonlyused oneshere.TheKvratingyoufind inthesemotorssignifyrevolutionsper minuteper volt.Amotor rated at 1000Kvwillspin1000timesper volt whenthereisno load attachedto it.Thisisjust atheoreticalvalue,so itisnot recommended to test your brush-lessmotor without aload onit.To controlspeed,youcanincreaseor decreasethevoltageapplied to themotor.

Electronicspeed controllers(ESCs)aredevicesthat let youcontrolrevolutionsperminute(rpm)ofthemotor reliably.Thesedevicesareableto handlethemaximumcurrent themotor might consumeat the

exact voltageasrequired bytheuser.Mostmotor manufacturersoffer their ownESCs.

Someofthepopular motorsinthemar-ket aretheonesbyLynxmotion,TMotor,DJIand Storm.Youneed not lookat motorbrands;youshould befineaslongasthespecificationsmatchyour rpm and thrustrequirements.Someexpensivemotorswecameacrosscomewithbetter ballbearingsthat promiselonger lifeand morereli-ability.For example,MN3508motor builtfor aerial-photographydronescomeswith

ballbearingsthat aretwicethestandardsizeseen.

However,electricmotorscomewithaninherent weaknessintheform ofrangeand ight durationdueto battery-packlimitations.That iswherepeoplehavegot-tencreativeto repurposetried-and-testedtechnologieslikeinternalcombustionen-gines.Yeair isonesuchproduct that comeswithatencubiccentimetrecombustionenginepaired withrunningenginecontrol.

Theresult?Adronewitharangeofover55kilometres!

TEACH YOURDRONES

To Do More Than Fly

Dilin Anand is asenior assistanteditor at EFY. Heis B.Tech fromUniversity of Calicut,currently pursuingMBA from ChristUniversity, Bengaluru


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T y i n g t m a k e s o m e s e n s e

Without proper input tothedrone(oritspilot),your droneisnot goingtoreliably yanywhere.Thereisquiteawiderangeofsensorsthat youcanchoosefrom toallow your dronetomakesenseofitssurroundings.

Can I see.Dronesalso stand togainfrom technologieslikeIntel’ sdepth-sensingcameratechnologyfrom 2014called RealSense3D,whichhasthepotentialto enableholographicnavigationand real-timeenvironment monitoring.

Sony’sExmor RCMOSsensorsareused indronesastheseexcelat recordinginlow-light conditions

and arealso ableto record smootheractionsequenceswhileprevent-ingsmear from stronglight sourcessuchasstreetlights.

DJI,thecurrent kingofconsum-er drones,usesLightbridgetechnol-ogythat enablesstreamingvideo at760pwithout latencyto thepilot,whilethedroneitselfrecordsvideoat 1080pfull-high-definition.

DroneslikeInspire1 canalsoshoot 4Kvideosand featurerotors

that canbelifted out oftheview ofthedrone’scamera,thusprovidinga360-degreeview.It isno surprisethat thisisthedronethat liveson-board Etoscar wementioned earlier.

ConsideringtheriseinsolarenergyinstallationsinIndia,dronesdesigned to detect smalldefectsonphotovoltaicmodulesareaverygood application.Existingdronescanalso befitted withpayloadsfor

thisapplication,bypairinganinfra-red (IR)cameralikeFLIRTAU640

and AscTecIRRAW datalogger thatcanbeused withGermanAscTecFalcon8drone.Falcon8,consider-ingitsuseincriticalapplications,comeswith ight-controlsystemsand electronicsthat deliver threetimesredundancy.

Where am I.Visionpositioningisanother technologyusedbyDJI

dronesthat letsthedronehavehighhover accuracybyusingultrasonicsensors.Thisletsadroneholditspositionwithout usingaglobalposi-tioningsystem (GPS).DJI’sPhantomdronealso comeswithFailSafe,whichallowsit to returnbackhomeincaseit losesconnectionwiththecontroller.

Intelligent orientationcontrolallowseasier controlofthedronefor thepilot asit considersforward

directionofthedroneto beforwarddirectionofthepilot and not the

directioninwhichthedrone’snoseispointing.

Newer droneshavealsotakenthenextstepforwardfor position-ingandhavestartedtouseRussianGLObalNAvigationSatelliteSystem(GLONASS)inadditiontoAmericanGPS.Integrationofbetter navigationsystemsintonewer droneshasalso

allowedthesetobesetto ytoapar-ticular location,capturefootageandthenreturnbackhomeautonomously.

Am I intelligent.Talkingaboutautonomousdrones,Zano istheresult ofavery successfulKick-starter project that raised almost230million.Smallenoughto fit inthepalm ofyour hand,Zano dronecomeswithasmart pilotingsystemthat letsbeginnerseasily pilot the

drone.It also featuresIRobstacle-avoidanceaswellasecho-sounding

About batteries and drones

Batteries used in unmanned aerial vehicles UAVs) are now almost exclusively lithium-polymer. Lead-acid is simply not an option and nickel-metal hydride/nickel-cadmiumbatteries are still too heavy for their capacity and often cannot provide the high dischargerates needed in drones. Lithium-polymer offers high capacity with low weight, and highdischarge rates. Its downsides are comparatively higher costs and continued safety issues.Lithium-ion batteries have higher discharge rates than lithium-polymer ones, but thesecannot provide the high discharge rates needed in UAVs.

Lithium-polymer batteries used in drones are rated for 20C or more, where C is thecapacity of the battery pack. The battery’s voltage should correspond with the motorswe choose in our drone. Typically, a 3-cell lithium-polymer pack is used, whose nominalvoltage is 3× 3.7) = 11.1V, with capacity depending on the size of the UAV.

Small battery packs can be of 0.1Ah 100mAh), though battery packs for medium-size drones are in the range 2Ah-3Ah 2000mAh-3000mAh). A 10C discharge rating for adrone battery pack of 2Ah means that the pack can be safely discharged at 10× 2= 20Acurrent. The higher the capacity, the longer the flight time, or the heavier the pack can be.

Average flight time for a UAV is 15 to 20 minutes since it is always fighting againstgravity. A challenge while charging a lithium-polymer battery pack is that it should not beovercharged nor should it be discharged below 3V per cell. Proper chargers for lithium-

polymer ensure all cells in series are balanced else the pack can become unstable anddangerous. Depending on how these are used, most lithium-polymer batteries typically donot last longer than 300 charge cycles. Leaving these around on a full or depleted chargeall the time, running these completely dead or exposing these to high temperatures willshorten their lifespan dramatically.

—Vikas Kumar Thawani, analog applications engineer, Texas Instruments India, and

Naveen Bevara, analog applications engineer, Texas Instruments India

What is a V-tail

You must have heard of tricopters,quadcopters, hexacopters andoctocopters that have three, four, sixand eight propellers, respectively. V-tailis a drone that lies between a tricopterand a quadcopter, in that it has fourmotors but the rear propellers are turnedin the shape of a V to provide for a veryacrobatic flight.

Twitter: Is that a social network or a drone

Twitter, the popular social network located at www.twitter.c om , has been granted a patentfor a drone by United States Patent & Trademark Office. The patent allows for a drone to

be controlled via a messaging app that democratises control over the drone to a largergroup of people probably using Twitter’s service).


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t i s t c h n o l o g y e n a -b l e s d r o n e s t y b e -y o n d t e l i n e - o f - s i g h to f t e p i l o t.“ I fi g u r e dt e r e h a s t b e s o m ek i n d o f s o f t a r e t a tc a n g i v e a w a r e n e s s , l e ta d r o n e k n o w a b o u tt i n g s l i k e b o u n d a r i e s

a n d w e a t e r , ” s a y sS h a w n M u e h l e r , C OOo f B t i n k , t The ewYorkTimes.

W h i l e s o m e d r o n e m a k e r s n o wh a v e d u a l - c o n t o l c a p a b i l i t t a t l e tt o u s e r s c o n t o l a d r o n e — o n e c o n -t o l s t e i g h t a n d t e o t e r c o n t o l st e c a m e r a — o t e r d r o n e m a k e r sl i k e 3 D R o b o t c s e n a b l e t e i r d r o n e st b e s m a r t e n o u g h t t k e o v e r t es e c o n d r o l e .Y o u c a n e i t e r l e t t e

d r o n e k n o w t e p a t t a t i t h a s tf o l l o w w h i l e y o u t k e o v e r t e c a m -e r a o r y o u c a n l e t i t l o c k o n t t es u b j e c t w h i l e y o u p l a y a r o u n d w i tt e i g h t t g e t t a t p e r f e c t a n g l e .

Opening a new frontierfor consumers: the skyB tt r - e n g i n e e r e d d r o n e s e n a b l e db y t e l a t s t t c h n o l o g i e s c o u l de a s i l y b e j u s t t e r i g h t i n g r e d i e n t

t u n l e a s h c r e a t v i t o n a m a s s i v es c a l e .I f a l l t e s e s e n s o r p a c k a g e s

a n d c a m e r a p a y l o a d s a r e t o b o r i n g

f o r y o u , N r t D a k o t i n t e U S A h a sl e g a l i s e d d r o n e s a r m e d w i t t s e r s ,r u b b e r b u l l e t o r s o u n d c a n o n s .T er a c e i s n o w o n t b u i l d o n e .

W h i l e s u r v e i l l a n c e a n d c i n e m ad r o n e s a r e a p p l i c a t o n s t a t h a v ea l m o s t b e e n d o n e t d e a t , t e r ea r e m a n y n e w c h a l l e n g e s t a t ad r o n e w i t t e r i g h t t o l s c a n s o l v e .S o m e t i n g t a t l o o k s h o p e l e s s t d a yc o u l d b e t e n e x t r e v o l u t o n a r y a p -

p l i c a t o n — i t a l l d e p e n d s o n w h a t t ee n g i n e e r i n y o u m a k e s i t t b e .

Sensors used in drones

3 - a x i s a c c e l e r o m e t e r . Th is provides linear acceleration in th ree ax es and play s a veryimportant role in drone stab ilisation.

3 - a xi s g y r o s c o p e . It provides angu lar acceleration in th ree ax es and angu lar motion to th edrone.

M a gn e t o m e t e r . Th is is an electronic magnetic compass th at can measu re Earth ’s magneticfield and u se it to determine th e drone‘s compass direction (with respect to magnetic north ).

It is almost alway s present if th e sy stem h as G PS inpu t and is availab le in one to th ree ax es.

B a r o m e t e r . Since atmosph eric pressu re ch anges with th e h eigh t from sea level, a pressu re

sensor can b e u sed to give y ou a pretty accu rate reading for th e UAV ’s h eigh t. Most fligh t

controllers tak e inpu t from b oth , pressu re sensor as well as G PS altitu de, to calcu late more

accu rate h eigh t ab ove sea level.

G P S . It u ses signals sent b y a nu mb er of satellites in orb it arou nd Earth in order to determine

th eir specific geograph ic locations. UAV s u se G PS sensors to au topilot specific rou te or to

au tomatically retu rn to its tak e-off point.

D i s t a n c e . D istance sensors cou ld b e u sed for ob stacle sensing and can b e u ltrasonic, laser

or LID AR b ased.—V i k a s K u m a r T h a w a n i , a n a l o g a p p l i c a t io n s e n g i n e e r , Te x a s I n s t r u m e n t s I n d i a , a n d

N a v e e n B e v a r a , a n a l o g a p p l i c a t i o n s e n g i n e e r , T e x a s I n s t r u m e n t s I n d i a

Parting thought

“ Bu t wh at... is it good for ”

— E n g i n e e r s i n t h e a d v a n c e d c o m p u t i n gs y s t e m s d i v is i o n o f I B M , 1 9 6 8 ,c o m m e n t i n g o n t h e m i c r o c h i p

M A JO R C O N T R IB U T O R S T O T H IS R E P O R T

Avinash Babu M

senior projectmanager - hardware

design Mistral Solutions

Naveen Bevara

analog applicationsengineer Texas

Instruments India

Vikas Kumar

Thawani

analog applicationsengineer Texas

Instruments India

s o n a r a n d h i g h - a c c u r a c y p r e s s u r es e n s o r s f o r b e t t r i g h t.

D r o n e s m e a n t f o r u s e b y r e -s e a r c h e r s t k e t i n g s a s t p a h e a dw h e n i t c o m e s t i g h t s y s t m s .A s c T c F r e y i s d e s i g n e d w i t t a t

a p p l i c a t o n i n m i n d a n d t e r e -f o r e c o m e s w i t a d v a n c e d s e n s o rc o m p o n e n t a n d t o A R M 7 m i c r o -p r o c e s s o r s .A l o w - l e v e l p r o c e s s o rf u n c t o n s a s t e d a t c o n t o l l e ra n d p r o c e s s e s a l l s e n s o r d a t a n ds e n s o r - d a t f u s i o n , w h i l e a h i g h -l e v e l p r o c e s s o r c o n t o l s t e i g h ts y s t m a s p e r t e c o n t o l a l g o r i t m sg i v e n t i t.Th e i n e r t a l g u i d a n c es y s t m d r i v e s t i s d r o n e ’ s a u t p i l o tw i t a 1 0 0 0 H z u p d a t r a t .

H o b b y p o w e r K K 2 .5 i s a nu p d a t o f t e p o p u l a r H o b b y K i n gK K 2 . i g h t c o n t o l l e r b o a r d u s e db y m a n y b e g i n n e r q u a d c o p t r b u i l d -e r s .I t h o u s e s I n v e n S e n s e M PU - 6 0 5M EM S m o t o n - t a c k i n g d e v i c e d e -s i g n e d f o r l o w - p o w e r u s e c a s e s .

M PU - 6 0 5 c o m b i n e s a 3 - a x i sg y r o s c o p e a n d a 3 - a x i s a c c e l e r o m -e t r w i t a n o n b o a r d d i g i t l - m o t o np r o c e s s o r t p r o c e s s 6 - a x i s M o t o n -

F s i o n a l g o r i t m s .Th e d e v i c e c a na c c e s s e x t r n a l m a g n e t m e t r s o ro t e r s e n s o r s t r o u g h a n i n t r - i n t -g r a t d c i r c u i t b u s , a l l o w i n g i t a c c e s st s e n s o r d a t w i t o u t i n t r v e n t o nf r o m t e s y s t m p r o c e s s o r .

CanIcommunicate.B t i n kX R D (x t n d e d r a n g e a n d d a t ) i sa n e n c l o s e d d e v i c e t a t a l l o w s y o ut c o n t o l y o u r d r o n e t r o u g h t em o b i l e n e t o r k i n s t a d o f u s i n gt a d i t o n a l r a d i o o r W i - F .T i s t c h -

n o l o g y a l l o w s b e y o n d l i n e - o f - s i g h tc o m m u n i c a t o n , d a t t a n s f e r a n dc o n t o l t r o u g h y o u r m o b i l e d e v i c eu s i n g m o b i l e t l e m e t y t c h n o l o g yt a t r u n s o n 4 G l o n g t r m e v o l u t o n(TE c o n n e c t o n s .I t a l s o a l l o w s s e r i -o u s m i s s i o n p l a n n i n g b y o v e r l a y i n gd a t o f o t e r m a n n e d a n d u n m a n n e da i r c r a f t i n t e a r e a , a s w e l l a s m a r k -i n g a n y m i l i t r y o r r e s t i c t d a i r s p a c ec l e a r l y .I t a l s o a l e r t y o u o f a d v e r s e

w e a t e r c o n d i t o n s .Th e s e a r e e s p e c i a l l y u s e f u l s i n c e


43/142


44/142

INNOVATION


a t D i a b e t d e s i g n e d t i s p i e c e o f h a r d w a r et a t c o u l d e a s i l y b e c a r r i e d a r o u n d a n do n e t a t fi t i n t t e p a l m .I n t e d e s i g no f a s m a l l b i r d , i t s y m b o l i s e s f r e e d o m a n dc o m e s i n b l u e a n d p i n k c o l o u r v a r i a n t .

F tt n g e v e r y t i n g i n t t i s m i n i a t r ea r c h i t c t r e a n d g e t i t r u n n i n g , a l o n gw i t c o m p l y i n g w i t a l l p r e v a i l i n g e l e c -t o n i c a n d m e d i c a l n o r m s , o f f e r e d e n o u g hr o a d b l o c k s .I t t o k t e t a m t r e e y e a r s tc o m p l e t i t b u t t e y d i d i t i n s t l e .Th e yh a d t m a n u f a c t r e i n C h i n a fi n a l l y , a s t eq u a l i t o f t e p r o d u c t i n I n d i a w a s s u b -s t n d a r d a n d t e t m e , e f f o r t a n d m o n e yi n v o l v e d w a s s i m p l y m a k i n g t e w h o l ep r o c e s s t d i o u s .

Th e b i r d i e c o n t i n s a u n i v e r s a l s e -r i a l b u s p o r t b a t t r y , A t e g a m i c r o c o n -t o l l e r , B u e t o t L o w E e r g y m o d u l ea n d s i n g l e - p o l e , d o u b l e - t r o w s w i t h .

Th e s w i t h s h i f t b e t e e n t e g l u c o m e t rc o n n e c t o n a n d t e s o f t a r e u n i v e r s a la s y n c h r o n o u s r e c e i v e r /t a n s m i tt r f o rr e s p e c t v e f u n c t o n s .

How it works

O e s t b l i s h i n g a c o n n e c t o n , t e r e a d i n g s ,t m e a n d d a t s t m p f r o m t e g l u c o m e t ra r e t a n s f e r r e d t t e a p p , w h i l e a t t es a m e t m e a l s o g e tt n g s t r e d i n t e c l o u ds e r v e r , s a v i n g t e t o u b l e o f e n t r i n g t er e a d i n g s m a n u a l l y .Th e a p p t e n a s k s f o r

d e t i l s a b o u t m e a l s (o u c o u l d e v e n u p l o a da p i c t r e o f t e m e a l ) , w e l l n e s s f a c t r s , i n -s u l i n u n i t t k e n a n d c o m m e n t , w h i c h y o uc a n m a n u a l l y i n p u t.Th i s a d d i t o n a l d a tg e t s t r e d a l o n g w i t t e r e a d i n g s a n d y o uc a n a d d d e t i l s t p a s t r e a d i n g s a s w e l l .

Th e n e x t t s k i s a n a l y s i s .Y o u c a n d ot i s u s i n g a s m a r t h o n e a p p o r W e b a p p .Th e a p p a n

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Electronics for You Plus - Febbraio 2016