Maximilian Nicolae

Embedding Android devices in automation systems

The paper presents a novel architecture based on frequent utilization of PDAs and mobile phones as human machine interface (HMI) in controlling various systems. There are two main considerations discussed. One is with regards to real-time constraints in the context of industrial process control. The second is the possibility of transferring some tasks from the process controller towards the Android device (tablet or smart phone). Therefore, after analyzing the current implementations together with their limitations, we designed an evaluation framework. The main goal of the new structure will be to analyze the limitations of balancing processing load between process controller and Android devices resources. The structure is comprised of a cheap Android tablet connected to an embedded module via an USB cable. The embedded module has as his core a state-of-art ARM Cortex M4F processor for industrial applications. The proposed solution provides the advantages derived from both components. The implementation required driver development, considerations which are also presented briefly.

Educational platform for process controlling via Internet

This paper presents an educational platform which offers to students the possibilities to connect remotely via Internet to Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) which will control, practically, any virtual process. In this way, several expensive resources like PLCs or powerful computers which simulate complex processes can be shared at distance and improve their time management. The processes simulated on computers have the great advantage of flexibility and it is free of dangerous events. Any person logged on a server can have a profile and load a script with his own process or a template one and start to control it with a real PLC. The process can be simulated in any program like Matlab or LabView. The interface between the real PLC and the virtual process running on a computer will be realized by an adaptor which emulates in real-time the signals from the simulated process. The adaptor has programmable analog/digital I/O with galvanic isolation and it can be easily configured from a web application in order to suit the simulated process.

Large Scale Wireless Sensor Networks Based on Fixed Nodes and Mobile Robots in Precision Agriculture

The paper presents an innovative design for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) which can increase their performances in the precision agriculture (PA). The authors argue on the reasons why presently WSNs are not integrated in PA on a larger scale. To this end, the paper describes the state of art in WSNs used in PA, and develops the proposed solution on the basis of the identified conjectures. The conceived solution proves how nodes can have small dimensions without mitigating the communication range or energy autonomy. Small dimensions bring benefits also to costs and operations. Such results can be achieved by overcoming the misalignment between advances in unmanned agricultural vehicles (AVs) and advances in WSN. The fixed nodes and mobile nodes (AVs), cooperate to fulfil sensor and communication coverage. Endowing the WSN nodes only with necessary sensors together with an energy awareness communication algorithm adopted in resonance with PA requirements proves to be a new competitive approach. Some simulations to validate these concepts are also provided.

A cloud-based manufacturing control system with data integration from multiple autonomous agents

Abstract The paper describes a semi-heterarchical manufacturing control solution based on a private cloud infrastructure which collects data in real-time from intelligent devices associated to shop-floor entities. The entities consist of industrial resources and mobile devices embedding the work in process on products during their manufacturing cycle. The proposed control system is developed using a common database in the cloud which handles operation synchronization and production control logic. The database component tables and the update processes are described in the article. The main functionalities of the control system are: manufacturing system configuration, control, monitoring, and optimization, and storage of historic data. An implementation framework and experimental results for the evaluation of consumed energy are reported.

A smart grid model for high performance computing service

Many domains like deep learning, machine learning, and computational finance uses GPUs for decreasing the execution time. GPUs are widely used in data centers for high performance computing where virtualization techniques are intended for optimizing the resource utilization (e.g. GPU cloud computing). However, these data centers have some downsides like energy consumption and acquisition cost.

Fractal Compression with GPU Support

With the rapid increase of image sensors resolution, some pressure moved on compression algorithms again. Fractal compression is known to provide good performance in terms of compression ratio. But more than ever, the focus is on execution time of these algorithms. Large and fast access memories are hard to provide and very expensive. Therefore, a fast compression algorithm can reduce the expensive memory dimension if the execution time can handle real-time requirements. Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) could provide support for such goal. This article presents some discussion and an example of how fractal compression algorithms can benefit from GPU support.

High Performance Computing Based on a Smart Grid Approach

High Performance Computing (HPC) facilities serve as infrastructure for solving demanding computational problems met in various domains. HPC involves expensive resources both material and operational. Therefore, leveraging its operation at his peak capacity is very important from economic efficiency perspective. Nowadays, it is very difficult for a regular researcher that needs HPC services to have ease of access to such resources. With the work presented in this paper we propose and evaluate a different approach to HPC service by mapping the problem on the same bases as smart grid philosophy. Mainly, the same as smart grid tries to increase the efficiency of resource utilization together with the concept of co-generation, our proposed model tries to link powerful computational resources own by domestic user into a smart HPC service with for profit objectives.

Improving Communication Efficiency of Hybrid UAV-WSN Systems

One of the well-known topics in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is energy consumption efficiency in regard to communication needs. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that gathers data from a ground WSN can be seen as a gateway for the WSN. The paper presents a solution for improving the communication efficiency of a hybrid UAV-WSN system by using directional antenna and synchronization mechanisms. The final goal is to increase the life of the ground nodes. The targeted architecture is described and some modelling assumptions are discussed.

UAV-WSN communication algorithm with increased energy autonomy

Nowadays an extensive attention is given to UAVs and their applications. One applications category can be underserved by hybrid systems composed from UAV and ground WSN. UAV can gather data from ground WSN which, at its turn could be initially deployed by the UAV itself. Ground nodes are limited in battery life, therefore, an efficient communication algorithm will improve their energy autonomy. This paper presents an algorithm with this purpose which makes use of directional antenna for ground nodes together with a novel communication synchronization mechanism. The paper also presents the necessary assumptions related to directional antennas.

Decentralized control through high-speed optical bus communication in terrestrial/air vehicles

This article submits an architecture for supporting decentralized control. The focus is on optical bus as a solution to overcome the main disadvantages of decentralized control. Even though decentralized control is mediated as being a better solution than centralized one, we continue to find centralized control in practice. One reason is the bottleneck introduced by the field bus communication between decentralized nodes. Fiber optics bus is often associated to expensive infrastructure. Its main applications are due to its high data throughput and only in special cases due to the resistance against EMI. The article discusses the applications where optical buses exist as de facto implementation and other applications where it should exist but are rarely implemented. In the end, a versatile embedded architecture for a decentralized control is proposed which is designed to overcome all of discussed issues. The novelty consists in how the node is organized to quickly adopt different configuration.