Francesco Picariello

Wireless Sensor Network for traffic safety

The paper presents the design and implementation of an innovative Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) for traffic safety measurements. The research aims to create a Wireless Active Guardrail System (WAGS) which can provide user-friendly and low-delay safety warning signs to travelers in presence of possible collisions between vehicles and guardrails. The proposed WAGS uses advanced sensing and networking technologies. The general architecture and two sensor nodes for safety measurements are described in details.

Measurement science and education in the drone times

The usefulness of drones for professional and research activities is justified by the fact that the embedded sensors and data acquisition systems convert drones in flexible and portable measurement instruments. On the other hand, the drone operation introduces sources of uncertainty and accuracy degradation often not taken into account in traditional courses on drones. This paper aims to fulfil this education lack to prepare the next generation of professionals and scientists in the critical use of this new kind of measurement instrument. To reach this goal, in the paper a course on “Measurement for and by drones” to be held at the PhD School in Information Technology for Engineering at University of Sannio — Benevento, Italy, is presented.

Compensating magnetic disturbances on MARG units by means of a low complexity data fusion algorithm

The paper proposes a new algorithm for the estimation of orientation of MARG (Magnetic, Angular Rate and Gravity) units, capable of compensating the influence of short-duration magnetic disturbances on the magnetometer, with application in motion tracking for rehabilitation. The proposed algorithm has been designed starting from a widely used low-complexity orientation estimation algorithm, based on the gradient descent minimization. The proposed algorithm has been validated by means of laboratory experiments, aimed at verifying its capability of correctly estimating orientation, by compensating the magnetic disturbances both in static and in dynamic conditions. The results of such experimental phase are presented and discussed in the paper.

A method for real-time compensation of magnetometers embedded on smartphones

This paper deals with a real-time compensation method of long term time-variant disturbances for magnetometers embedded on smartphones. The proposed method compensates the effect of long term time-variant disturbances, continuously, using a least-square ellipsoid-based compensation procedure. In this paper, the proposed method is described and its advantages respect to the methods available in literature are highlighted. Furthermore, preliminary simulation tests have been performed and the obtained results reported.

A remote-controlled platform for UAS testing

Nowadays, unmanned aerial systems (UASs) find application in several fields [1], such as agriculture, environmental monitoring, energy, geology, and archaeology [2], and the list is continually growing. Light vertical takeoff and landing–remotely piloted aircraft systems, often called generic UASs, are the most used platforms due to their low weight, low size, and low cost [1]. This trend is due to the integration on the UAS of high-performance processors, sensors, and actuators with very low power consumption.

Method for compensating the effect of disturbances on magnetometer measurements: experimental results

In this paper, a method for compensating the effect of long-lasting time variant disturbances on the measurements provided by the magnetometer embedded on a smartphone is proposed. The work deals with: (i) a comparison, in terms of convergence time, of two minimization techniques for the estimation of the magnetometer compensation parameters, and (ii) the design of a test bench to validate the method. The results of experimental tests are reported and discussed.

DronesBench: an innovative bench to test drones

As forecasted by the United States Air Force Aerospace Management Systems Division, it is expected that in 2028, the number of drones for civilian use will be greater than that used for defense [1], and in 2035, the number of commercial drones populating the US sky will be 175,000, i.e., ten times the actual number of defense-related (public) drones (Fig. 1).

Power consumption analysis of a Wireless Sensor Network for road safety

This paper deals with the power consumption analysis of a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) for road safety consisting of several sensor and actuator nodes embedded in guardrails. In order to design the photovoltaic power supply system of the WSN, the power consumption of each node has been characterized by means of a suitable measurement station. Furthermore, a network simulator has been designed and developed to evaluate the power consumption of the entire WSN according to a specified number of road events. The specifications of the energy storage of the photovoltaic system obtained from the analysis of the results are also reported in the paper.