Mert Bal

Localization in cooperative Wireless Sensor Networks: A review

Localization in Wireless Sensor Networks has become a significant research challenge, attracting many researchers in the past decade. This paper provides a review of basic techniques and the state-of-the-art approaches for wireless sensors localization. The challenges and future research opportunities are discussed in relation to the design of the collaborative workspaces based on cooperative wireless sensor networks.

A modular virtual reality system for engineering laboratory education

The globalization trend has affected the tertiary education sector, resulting in an increased flow of both students and academics across borders. Economic pressures on universities and the emergence of new technologies have spurred the creation of new systems in engineering education. The recent advances in computer graphics have exposed great potential in education at all levels. The Virtual Reality (VR) is a promising technology which aims to assist the students in the visualization of concepts and to provide immediate graphical feedback during the learning process. This article presents a modular interactive teaching package, called Virtual Learning System (VLS), which can be used by people with little prior computer experience. VLS provides a comprehensive and conductive yet dynamic and interactive environment that can be incorporated into various courses in the field of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering. The evaluation of the learning process with the developed system has been done through laboratory reports, lab quizzes and questionnaires implemented with a tutorial monitoring application.

A testbed for localization and tracking in wireless sensor networks

This paper discusses the significance of the use of wireless sensor networks and the wireless node localization for applications in factory automation and facilities management. We present a testbed that has been developed for implementing and testing wireless localization algorithms within harsh and dynamic automation environments.

Collaborative signal and information processing in wireless sensor networks: A review

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) have become a significant research challenge, attracting many researchers. This paper provides an overview of collaborative WSN, reviewing the algorithms, techniques and state-of-the-art developed so far. We discuss the research challenges and opportunities in this area. The major focus is given to cooperative signal and information processing in collaborative WSN in order to expose important constraints in wireless applications which require distributed computing, such as node localization, target detection and tracking. In this paper, we also present and discuss the applications of multi-agent systems into WSN as a core technology of cooperative information processing.

Collaborative Smart Home technologies for senior independent living: A review

This paper presents a review of the collaborative smart home technologies for senior independent living. It focuses on the major features that enable safe independent living for the seniors. Based on the investigation on about 30 projects or systems in the area of Smart Home for independent and assisted living, key research issues as well as underlying opportunities have been identified.

Virtual-reality-based information requirements analysis tool for CIM system implementation: a case study in die-casting industry

A virtual-reality-based information requirement analysis tool (VR–RA tool) has been developed for an existing methodology, in order to capture and represent the enterprise information requirements of computer integrated manufacturing (CIM). The present paper describes the operational aspects of the existing methodology in VR–RA and introduces the developed VR–RA tool, which can be used by system analysts for determination of information requirements. A virtual manufacturing environment for matching the physical and the information model domains is utilized to delineate the information system requirements of CIM implementation. A set of rules and a knowledge base is appended to the virtual environment to remove any inconsistency that could arise between the material and the information flows during the requirement analysis. An experimental case study has been carried out in a firm in the die-casting industry in order to demonstrate the features and the potential industrial application of the VR–RA tool outlined in the current paper.

Industrial applications of collaborative Wireless Sensor Networks: A survey

The objective of this paper is to summarize the recent literature and application examples of the use of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) in the industry. Main focus in this paper is primarily on the use of collaborative wireless sensor networks for condition and performance monitoring of the industrial machines and plants. Current challenges and potential future research issues are outlined for design of WSN-based industrial monitoring systems in order to provide guidelines to researchers and application developers.

A 3-D indoor location tracking and visualization system based on wireless sensor networks

This paper describes a 3-D location tracking and visualization system using wireless sensor nodes in indoor environment. The system is based on modified radio-location fingerprinting algorithm and it uses inexpensive, programmable wireless embedded platforms operating in ZigBee wireless network protocol. The main emphasis of this study is on the ability to estimate the location of mobile wireless nodes in 3-D indoor spaces, without any costly infrastructure. The wireless nodes have been deployed in an experimental test bed, for location tracking and motion estimation. K-nearest neighbor algorithm has been implemented for location estimation over a set of radio location fingerprints collected in a 3-D space. A 3-D visualization interface has been generated in VRML in order to display the real-time sensor positions and the data in the 3-D world. Preliminary experimental results show that the proposed scheme can achieve accurate and stable location tracking in indoor environments.

Implementation of holonic scheduling and control in flow-line manufacturing systems: die-casting case study

The success of a flow-line manufacturing system depends on effective production scheduling and control. However, it has been found that current flow-line manufacturing scheduling and control algorithms lack the flexibility to handle interruptions or resource breakdowns; hence, system performance drops automatically and rapidly when interruptions occur. The objective of this research is to investigate if the performance of a flow-line manufacturing system can be improved by integrating agent-based, holonic scheduling and production control. A holonic manufacturing scheduling model has been developed and implemented into a die-casting manufacturing flow line throughout a simulation model. The analysis takes into account the comparisons of overall performances of the system models with the holonic scheduling and conventional scheduling approaches. Simulation results indicate that the holonic manufacturing scheduling and control can significantly increase the uptime efficiency and the production rate of the flow-line manufacturing system.

Integration of Wireless Sensor Networks into the distributed intelligent manufacturing within the framework of IEC 61499 function blocks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is an emerging technology holding a great potential for distributed manufacturing automation. The WSN is not only a replacement of the conventional wired sensors, but is a technology that enhances flexible, distributed sensing, and collaborative information processing, which are vital elements for the distributed intelligent manufacturing control paradigm. Currently, the IEC 61499 function blocks have become an industry standard in distributed control for manufacturing automation. This standard has been empowered with the Multi-Agent Systems in a framework for added intelligence in manufacturing automation. In this paper, we explore the integration of the emerging WSN technology into this framework in order to enhance the flexibility and re-configurability through the wireless sensing and distributed information processing provided by a network of wireless sensors. We propose a three tiered model for integrating the WSN into the function blocks for realization of the distributed intelligent manufacturing control system.