Metrology and Measurement Systems

Diagnosis and therapy of human diseases is often associated with an analysis of the geometry of internal organs or their pathological conditions. That is why the problem of accuracy assessment of shape mapping using computer tomography and the latest imaging techniques became very important. Therefore, in the paper the accuracy assessment of mapping was proposed using the real shape of the synthetic indices. Two test cases were presented - a reference sphere and the cartilage surface of the knee condyle. The results of tomography research and analysis of accuracy of shape mapping using the "best fit" method and the program Reshaper, in the form of synthetic indicators are presented.

The paper deals with the new method of automatic vehicle classification called ALT (ALTernative). Its characteristic feature is versatility resulting from its open structure, moreover a user can adjust the number of vehicles and their category according to individual requirements. It uses an algorithm for automatic vehicle recognition employing data fusion methods and fuzzy sets. High effectiveness of classification while retaining high selectivity of division was proved by test results. The effectiveness of classification of all vehicles at the level of 95% and goods trucks of 100% is more than satisfactory.

In a parallel time-interleaved data sampling system, timing and amplitude mismatches of this structure degrade the performance of the whole ADC system. In this paper, an adaptive blind synthesis calibration algorithm is proposed, which could estimate the timing, gain and offset errors simultaneously, and calibrate automatically. With no need of an extra calibration signal and redesign, it could efficiently and dynamically track the changes of mismatches due to aging or temperature variation. A fractional delay filter is developed to adjust the timing mismatch, which simplifies the design and decreases the cost. Computer simulations are also included to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

The paper shows the usefulness of the lung mechanical model for time and frequency characteristics reconstruction proper for the mechanics of an adult human respiratory system in its various regimes of work. The complex set-up for measurements of human respiratory system mechanics is presented. Two separate scenarios were created, firstly, the mechanical model was examined using standard mechanical ventilation routine with embedded Interrupter Technique and then the Optimized Ventilator Waveform technique was tested. An analysis of experimental results is presented, as well as an outline of the issues and problems revealed during investigations.

The sensor-shifted stereo camera provides the mechanism for obtaining 3D information in a wide field of view. This novel kind of stereo requires a simpler matching process in comparison to convergence stereo. In addition to this, the uncertainty of depth estimation of a target point in 3D space is defined by the spatial quantization caused by the digital images. The dithering approach is a way to reduce the depth reconstruction uncertainty through a controlled adjustment of the stereo parameters that shift the spatial quantization levels. In this paper, a mathematical model that relates the stereo setup parameters to the iso-disparities is developed and used for depth estimation. The enhancement of the depth measurement accuracy for this kind of stereo through applying the dithering method is verified by simulation and physical experiment. For the verification, the uncertainty of the depth measurement using dithering is compared with the uncertainty produced by the direct triangulation method. A 49% improvement of the uncertainly in the depth reconstruction is proved.

The development of accurate computer control of a 3 MV Van de Graaff accelerator operation is described. The developed system comprises the accelerator turn-on and turn-off procedures during a normal run, which includes the setting of the terminal voltage, ion source light up, beam focusing and control of ion beam current and energy during operation. In addition, the computer monitors the vacuum and is able to make a detail register of the most important events during a normal run. The computer control system uses a LabVIEW application for interaction with the operator and an I/O board that interfaces the computer and the accelerator system. For everyday operating conditions the control implemented is able to turn-on and off the machine in about the same time as a specialized technician. In addition, today more users can make experiments in the accelerator without the help of a specialized operator, which in turns increases the number of hours during which the accelerator can be used.

Three methods of estimating radii of spray droplets are discussed and results of their practical application in the case of explosively produced water spray are reported. Parameters of model radii distributions are fitted using the least squares method. Finally, the data obtained for a number of tests are used for estimating fraction of explosion energy used for pulverization of water in the process of explosive production of water-spray.

The prediction of machined surface parameters is an important factor in machining centre development. There is a great need to elaborate a method for on-line surface roughness estimation [1-7]. Among various measurement techniques, optical methods are considered suitable for in-process measurement of machined surface roughness. These techniques are non-contact, fast, flexible and tree-dimensional in nature.

The optical method suggested in this paper is based on the vision system created to acquire an image of the machined surface during the cutting process. The acquired image is analyzed to correlate its parameters with surface parameters. In the application of machined surface image analysis, the wavelet methods were introduced. A digital image of a machined surface was described using the one-dimensional Digital Wavelet Transform with the basic wavelet as Coiflet. The statistical description of wavelet components made it possible to develop the quality measure and correlate it with surface roughness [8-11].

For an estimation of surface roughness a neural network estimator was applied [12-16]. The estimator was built to work in a recurrent way. The current value of the Ra estimation and the measured change in surface image features were used for forecasting the surface roughness Ra parameter. The results of the analysis confirmed the usability of the application of the proposed method in systems for surface roughness monitoring.

The one-dimension frequency analysis based on DFT (Discrete FT) is sufficient in many cases in detecting power disturbances and evaluating power quality (PQ). To illustrate in a more comprehensive manner the character of the signal, time-frequency analyses are performed. The most common known time-frequency representations (TFR) are spectrogram (SPEC) and Gabor Transform (GT). However, the method has a relatively low time-frequency resolution. The other TFR: Discreet Dyadic Wavelet Transform (DDWT), Smoothed Pseudo Wigner-Ville Distribution (SPWVD) and new Gabor-Wigner Transform (GWT) are described in the paper. The main features of the transforms, on the basis of testing signals, are presented.

A research study aimed at developing a novel indoor positioning system is presented. The realized system prototype uses sensor fusion techniques to combine information from two sources: an in-house developed local Ultra-Wideband (UWB) radio-based ranging system and an inertial navigation system (INS). The UWB system measures the distance between two transceivers by recording the round-trip-time (RTT) of UWB radio pulses. Its principle of operation is briefly described, together with the main design features. Furthermore, the main characteristics of the INS and of the Extended Kalman Filter information fusion approach are presented. Finally, selected static and dynamic test scenario experimental results are provided. In particular, the advantages of the proposed information fusion approach are further investigated by means of a high dynamic test scenario.

The contribution presents a novel approach to the detection and tracking of lanes based on lidar data. Therefore, we use the distance and reflectivity data coming from a one-dimensional sensor. After having detected the lane through a temporal fusion algorithm, we register the lidar data in a world-fixed coordinate system. To this end, we also incorporate the data coming from an inertial measurement unit and a differential global positioning system. After that stage, an original image of the road can be inferred. Based on this data view, we are able to track the lane either with a Kalman filter or by using a polynomial approximation for the underlying lane model.

The paper discusses a method of quantitative comparison of cylindricity profiles measured with different strategies. The method is based on applying so-called Legendre-Fourier coefficients. The comparison is carried out by computing the correlation coefficient between the profiles. It is conducted by applying a normalized cross-correlation function and it requires approximation of cylindrical surfaces using the Legendre-Fourier method. As the example two sets of measurement data are employed: the first from the CMM and the second one from the traditional radial measuring instrument. The measuring data are compared by analyzing the values of selected cylindricity parameters and calculating the coefficient of correlation between profiles.

A new soft-fault diagnosis approach for analog circuits with parameter tolerance is proposed in this paper. The approach uses the fuzzy nonlinear programming (FNLP) concept to diagnose an analog circuit under test quantitatively. Node-voltage incremental equations, as constraints of FNLP equation, are built based on the sensitivity analysis. Through evaluating the parameters deviations from the solution of the FNLP equation, it enables us to state whether the actual parameters are within tolerance ranges or some components are faulty. Examples illustrate the proposed approach and show its effectiveness.

The paper concerns the problem of treatment of the systematic effect as a part of the coverage interval associated with the measurement result. In this case the known systematic effect is not corrected for but instead is treated as an uncertainty component. This effect is characterized by two components: systematic and random. The systematic component is estimated by the bias and the random component is estimated by the uncertainty associated with the bias. Taking into consideration these two components, a random variable can be created with zero expectation and standard deviation calculated by randomizing the systematic effect. The method of randomization of the systematic effect is based on a flatten-Gaussian distribution. The standard uncertainty, being the basic parameter of the systematic effect, may be calculated with a simple mathematical formula. The presented evaluation of uncertainty is more rational than those with the use of other methods. It is useful in practical metrological applications.

This contribution deals with the modelling of a selected part of a new automotive communication standard called FlexRay. In particular, it focuses on the mechanism ensuring the start-up of a FlexRay network. The model has been created with the use of timed automata and verified. For this purpose the UPPAAL software tool has been used that allows the modelling of discrete event systems with the use of timed automata, and subsequently the verification of the model with the use of suitable queries compiled in the so called computation tree logic. This model can be used to look for incorrect settings of time parameters of communication nodes in the network that prevent network start-up and subsequently the start of the car. The existence of this model also opens the way for finding possible errors in the standard. On the basis of the model, the work gives a case study of the start-up mechanism behaviour verification in a FlexRay network consisting of three communication nodes.