The assessment of JET magnetics has been carried out using a statistical technique on a large set of sensor data. The results highlight that improved accuracy in the magnetic field reconstruction can be obtained by making an efficient use of the information brought in by the available sensors, in conjunction with the new magnetics that will be installed during the 2004 shutdown (JET Enhancement...

Four prototypes of biomimetic sensors have been designed and implemented for flight control of a robotic flying insect. The ocelli use four photodiodes to detect changes in light intensity in the surrounding. The halteres use piezoactuated vibrating structures to sense body rotational velocities via the Coriolis forces. The optic flow sensors consist of linear arrays of elementary motion detect...

This paper focuses on the use of magneto resistive and sonar sensors for imminent collision detection in cars. The magneto resistive sensors are used to measure the magnetic field from another vehicle in close proximity, to estimate relative position, velocity, and orientation of the vehicle from the measurements. Here the sonar sensor is mainly used to measure the distance only for medium inte...

The use of miniature inertial sensors has become a common practice in ambulatory motion analysis. For accurate and drift free orientation estimation several methods have been reported combining the signals from 3D gyroscopes, accelerometers and magnetometers. Accelerometers are used to determine the direction of the local vertical by sensing acceleration due to gravity. Magnetic sensors provide...

Our team has been exploring the possibilities of orientationbased sensors on mobile devices. We constructed a prototype system for delivering 3D acceleration and magnetic compass data to a Pocket PC and developed trial applications. One class of applications relied on the tilt sensors to provide a gesture interface to an application. A second class of applications used the magnetic sensors to c...

The intrinsic advantages of optical sensor technology are very appealing for high voltage applications and can become a valuable asset in a new generation of smart grids. In this paper the authors present a review of optical sensors technologies for electrical current metering in high voltage applications. A brief historical overview is given together with a more detailed focus on recent develo...

Since the radar system was invented in 1922, the development of devices communicating by means of reflected power has experienced a continuously growing interest. In 1948, Harry Stockman published a paper [1] in which he laid the basis for the idea of radio frequency identification (RFID), and the first patent had been filed in 1973 by Charles Walton. After decades of research and commercializa...

As process technologies of integrated circuits become more complex and the industry moves toward advanced packaging like flip-chip and stacked die, present tools and techniques are having increasing difficulty in meeting failure analysis needs [1]. With gate sizes approaching 65 nm, “killer defects” may only be a few nanometers in size. In some cases, the defects are nonvisible, i.e. there is n...

We propose a new micromechanical approach to probe bending rigidity at molecular scale. Long flexible filaments made of magnetic colloids and linkers are shown to adopt under magnetic field a hairpin configuration. Measuring the hairpin curvature as a function of the field intensity and the linker length from diffracted light allows us to deduce the linker bending rigidity kappa. The technique ...

We propose a sequence of experiments with the goal of exploring electromagnetic induction phenomena and “magnetic friction” forces. The experiments have been tested with high school students in the context of a program of cooperation between our Physics Department and the Regional School District. The experiments involve permanent magnets and conductors (a coil of wire or an aluminium plate) in...