This paper presents a framework for ambient sensing and managing a University building aimed at energy savings and user comfort. The system builds upon previous work, using a Semantic Web Service middleware for unifying the various heterogeneous sensor and actuator networks. Two applications are introduced in the framework, the Manager App and the Rule App. The latter incorporates a hybrid inte...

in this paper the design of a biped robot actuated with shape memory alloy (sma) springs with minimum degrees of freedom is presented. sma springs are a class of smart materials that are known for their high power to mass and volume ratios. it was shown that utilizing spring type of smas have many advantages as large deformation, smooth motion, silent and clean movement compared to ordinary typ...

The effective development and deployment of complex and heterogeneous ubiquitous computing applications is hindered by the lack of a comprehensive middleware infrastructure: interfaces to sensors are company specific and sometimes even product specific. Typically, these interfaces also do not sustain the development of robust systems that make use of sensor data fusion. In this paper, we propos...

An intelligent braking system has great potential applications especially, in developed countries where research on smart vehicle and intelligent highways are receiving ample attention. The system when integrated with other subsystems like automatic traction control, intelligent throttle, and auto cruise systems, etc will result in smart vehicle maneuver. The driver at the end of the day will b...

The positioning accuracy of conventional servo hydraulic cylinders is limited by oil compressibility, leak oil, nonlinearities, hysteresis effects, etc. This affects the control quality of the actuator, which is essential for a use in high dynamic positioning tasks, such as applications in active damping systems for machine tools. The presented hydraulic actuator design is a new approach to ext...

In the future, computers will be everywhere: carried by everyone and integrated into the environment. The increased computation and communication capabilities will enable environments to react to occupants through automated decision-making. On the path to intelligent environments, there are a number of hard problems. First and foremost, devices (sensors and actuators) must be made more approach...

This paper addresses the experimental identification of a servo actuator which is used in many industrial applications. Because the system consisted of electrical and mechanical components, the behavior of the system was nonlinear. In addition, the under load behavior of this servo was different. The load torque was considered as the input and a two input-one output model was presented for t...