Klaus D. Mueller-Glaser

Rapid Prototyping Design Acceleration Using a Novel Merging Methodology for Partial Configuration Streams of Xilinx Virtex-II FPGAs

RAM-based FPGAs have become very important for electronic designs in the last years since they are very flexible, provide high configurability and allow short turn around times. Especially in the field of rapid prototyping (RP) another feature plays an important rule: their infinite reprogrammability. These features help to create freely modifiable rapid prototyping systems, which allow both, changes in the hardware architecture as well as in software. However, handling the FPGA devices in the engineering process is not an easy issue and typically requires deep knowledge of the circuits themselves, their behavior and programming languages as VHDL or Verilog. Our approach presents the combination of a flexible and versatile FPGA-based rapid prototyping system and efficient configuration methodology for Xilinx Virtex-II FPGAs supplemented by an easy to use design support for time saving functional implementation and platform configuration

ZigBee Sensor Network for Patient Localization and Air Temperature Monitoring During Emergency Response to Crisis

The mass casualty emergency response involves logistic impediments like overflowing victims, paper triaging, extended victim wait time and transport. We propose a new system based on a location aware wireless sensor network (WSN) to overcome these impediments and assist the emergency responders (ER) in providing efficient emergency response during disasters like chemical explosions. In this paper we have only elaborated about the patient tracking and local air temperature monitoring functionalities of this system. We have developed an energy efficient ZigBee-ready temperature sensor node hardware and setup a ZigBee mesh network demonstrator. An RSSI-based localization solution is tested to analyze its suitability to track patients at the disaster site. A new algorithm to detect and display the temperature zones at the disaster site is developed and analyzed to find its computation efficiency. The patient tracking and temperature zone detection results show the increase of situation awareness, which can enable fast patient evacuation.

Security for mobile low power nodes in a personal area network by means of trusted platform modules

The growing field of ubiquitous applications and the use of resource constrained mobile devices strongly demands for mechanisms to provide the security and privacy of such mobile devices. In this paper we show that especially new teletherapeutic applications are not feasible without strong cryptographic protection of data and platform. Based on the analysis of security requirements, we introduce a mobile low power node that is secured by means of a Trusted Platform Module (TPM). For privacy and security of the communication between the mobile device and a webserver, which is part of the distributed network, we propose a security protocol based on webservice technology that uses the mechanisms of the TPM. Finally, measurements that were done with the secured mobile node are presented. We show that TPMs are well suited for resource constrained mobile devices and are a step towards trusted ubiquitous computing.

A Novel Partial Bitstream Merging Methodology Accelerating Xilinx Virtex-II FPGA Based RP System Setup

In the last years FPGAs have become very important for electronic designs - they are very flexible, provide high configurability and allow short turn around times. Especially for rapid prototyping (RP) another feature plays an important rule: the nearly infinite reprogrammability. However, handling these devices in the engineering process is not an easy issue. Therefore our approach presents an efficient, flexible and versatile FPGA configuration methodology based on partial bitstream merging at design time

A simplified protocol for energy self-sufficient sensors in an IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee WSN

For the application of wireless sensor network technology in an energy self-sufficient condition monitoring appliance, we propose a new hybrid network topology to combine the advantages of the ZigBee standard with the need for lowest power consumption when applying an energy harvesting solution for a subset of the sensor nodes. For a research project on a wireless condition monitoring system, we developed a prototype implementation of a partly energy self-sufficient wireless sensor network. We adapted the ZigBee network protocols so that the energy consumption of the self-sufficient nodes is reduced albeit a ZigBee conform communication with the rest of the network is still ensured. In this paper, the prototype system is presented and the problem when applying a full ZigBee stack is stated. We propose to shift parts of the network functionality from the end-devices to the (mains- or battery powered) routers and show actual measurement results and calculated values to indicate the improvements of this adapted hybrid topology.

Towards a Self-Organizing Wireless Hospital Area Network

Wireless networks and hand-held devices are permanently evolving and becoming a more effective alternative to actual network technologies and applications that are used by the health service providers. We envision a Hospital Area Network (HAN) that is formed mainly using WLAN and Zigbee. A Zigbee sensor network of wearable health monitoring devices, medical equipments and PDA’s is formed enabling the hospital staff to be connected to their critical systems independent of their location in the medical facility. However, to take advantage of the high mobility enabled by the wireless sensor networks (WSN) in the HAN application, a series of problems have to be solved, like: choosing a good abstraction level to work with the WSN (e.g. appropriate middleware), design software that increases interoperability between heterogeneous medical devices, design hardware that are energy efficient and miniaturized, find techniques and algorithms that are appropriate for an increasing complexity, dynamic and ad-hoc behavior of the network. In this paper, we will tackle some of these problems and refer to hardware and software aspects. On the hardware side, the low power Zigbee-ready motes are suggested as the hardware platform for on the body medical sensor nodes and medical devices. On the software side, the OSA+ II middleware that scales down to the miniaturized medical sensor nodes and that allows a good interoperability between them is explained. Then, we will show how organic computing can be used in HAN. Organic computing consists of techniques and principles used in nature, like: self-organization that can be applied for building an HAN that is easy to deploy and flexible to adapt for hospital specific situations.

A concept for wearable long-term urinary bladder monitoring with ultrasound. Feasibility study

Urinary incontinence as a result of neurological or age-related diseases is a very disturbing problem concerning a significant percentage of the population. People afflicted with this disorder cannot control the arbitrary filling of the urinary bladder. The most widespread solution is catheterization, which is neither pleasant nor harmless. A device monitoring bladder fill level could remind patients about the need for a draining, grant them greater comfort and save their health and costs. We developed a concept of a wearable ultrasound system for continuous monitoring. Our system does not use ultrasound gel, but implements a dry coupling. This is why in contrary to existing ready-to-use systems, it can work automatically and continuously. For the duration of the cyclic measurements the skin adheres to the transducer and transmission becomes high enough to make the estimation of the bladder fill level with ultrasound possible. We present the results of a feasibility study. We empirically examined the power transmission as a function of adhering force for different skin samples and compared it with values achieved using ultrasound gel. For this purpose we constructed ultrasound transmitting and receiving hardware and a setup enabling to set and measure the applied force. Based on further calculations we confirmed that the level of the received reflected signal is high enough to successfully estimate the amount of urine in the bladder.

Rapid automotive bus system synthesis based on communication requirements

The complexity of modern cars and along their electric/electronic architecture (EEA), rapidly increased during the last years. New applications like driver assistance systems are highly distributed over the network of hardware components. More and more systems share common sensors placed in sensor clusters. This leads to a greater number of mutually connected electronic control units (ECUs) and bus systems. The traditional domain specific approach of grouping connatural ECUs into one bus system, does not necessarily lead to an overall optimal EEA design. We developed a method to automatically determine a network structure based on the communication requirements of ECUs. Based on the EEA model, which is developed during the vehicle development life-cycle, we have all the information we need, like cycle times and data width, to build a network of automotive bus systems. We integrated our method into the EEA tool PREEvision to allow rapid investigation of realization alternatives. The relocation of functions from one ECU to another can ideally be supported by our method, since we can generate a new network structure within minutes, fitting the new communication demands.

A COMPUTER MODEL OF HUMAN THERMOREGULATION EXTENDED WITH AN ACTIVE BODY CLIMATE CONTROL SYSTEM

This paper describes a computer model of human thermoregulation based on the Fiala model that we have extended with a module for active body climate control. The main stimulus for the development of this model is the need to predict the thermal response of the human body to the actual prototype for active body climate control. This prototype supports the heat exchange mechanisms of the body by improving convection and especially evaporation. The model has been validated with experimental data from a field study. As a result, new design recommendations for the enhancement of the prototype and especially the control algorithm, based on vital and environmental parameters, could be identified.

A FlexRay parameter calculation methodology based on the electric/electronic architecture of vehicles

Abstract The well established FlexRay bus system allows the adjustment to many configurations and applications. This flexibility comes for the price of a huge set of parameters which have to be mandatory correct, to operate the bus system robust and reliable. In this paper we provide a methodology to determine the necessary settings directly from the electric and electronic architecture description, which is developed in the design phase of a vehicle. Our approach includes the calculation of all global and local parameters, frame packing and scheduling. The implementation of the methodology was tested with various modeling data sets. The calculated parameters could be exported in a predefined data structure which was used to seamlessly configure target FlexRay controllers, successfully running a real hardware network.