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In this paper a levitating acceleration sensor exploiting an inductive readout strategy is presented. The system uses four NdFeB magnets and a graphite tile to implement the levitating mechanism. The graphite tile has a dimensions of 1.2 cm2 and it is suspended by 8 mm on the magnetic substrate. The latter has a surface of 2.4 cm2. The main claims of the device presented through this paper are mainly...
Recent progress in low power electronics, sensors and transmitters, as well as suitable electronics for power harvesting, makes autonomous devices a concrete possibility. Environmental and human motion mechanical vibration sources have gained much attention as potential sources of energy. In this paper preliminary results from investigation of a simple mixed inductive-piezoelectric energy harvester...
In the field of Energy Harvesting, it has been demonstrated that, under the proper conditions, nonlinear configurations of the harvester can provide better performance, compared to linear resonant oscillators. In this paper preliminary results of investigation on a system for energy harvesting from wideband vibrations are shown. The harvester adopts a nonlinear snap-through-buckling (STB) configuration...
The need to extend battery life in IoT devices, self-powered sensors and autonomous nodes increasingly highlights the necessity to reduce energy consumption as much as possible. One of the main issues to resolve is therefore the reduction of power consumption of electrical appliances while in "standby" that represents a significant amount of the total power dissipation. Today, despite the...
This paper deals with the development of a multiuser assistive system for the monitoring of elders and people with neurological pathologies (e.g. Alzheimer) during their staying in social care or health facilities. The system adopts wearable devices to monitor the dynamics of the users and a dedicated wireless network for communication. The wearable device is able to recognize critical events like...
Electronic travel aids are used for detecting obstacles, identifying services, and, generally, obtaining useful information from the surroundings, thus enabling a safe and effective exploitation of the environment. A drawback is unnatural codification, which may lead to usability concerns. This paper introduces a haptic device aimed to provide the user with information on the presence of obstacles...
In this paper an inkjet printed sensor in the mesoscale is presented with the aim to investigate its behavior as accelerometer in the low frequency domain typical of inertial stimuli coming from human caused and seismic phenomena.
SECESTA is a project funded under the POR FESR Sicily 2007–2013 program, recently concluded. The project aimed at the development of an early-warning wireless network of multisensor nodes for the monitoring of the volcanic ash fall-out phenomenon along the area spreading from main craters of the Etna volcano to the Fontanarossa international airport. The network will provide a spatially distributed...
We present an overview of the “coupled-core” fluxgate magnetometer and its “single-core” counterpart. The basic theory is briefly discussed and some prototype realizations presented via a set of assorted applications. In particular, the results of sea-tests carried out, in collaboration with FOI-Stockholm, in the Baltic Sea will be presented and discussed together with other experimental results in...
This paper reports an innovative contactless MEMS-based microresonator actuated by an external time-varying magnetic field. The actuation principle is based on the interaction between the eddy currents and the magnetic field generated by an external inductor driven by a sinusoidal current; the system response is sensed via an inductive pick-up based on a high permeability material (100-mum of diameter)...
Coupling-induced oscillations are a feature that appears to be universal in coupled systems that are (individually) described by bi-or multi-stable potential energy functions U(x); these properties are being exploited in a new class of dynamical sensors being developed by us. Here, we describe one of these devices, a coupled core fluxgate magnetometer (CCFM), whose operation is underpinned by this...
In this work a novel inertial sensor is presented, which can be used as a low band accelerometer, a vibration sensor or an inclinometer. The device consists of a glass plate filled with deionized water surrounding a small volume of ferrofluid; a permanent magnet is used to fix the position of the ferrofluidic mass in a compliant position. The effect of an external stimulus can be estimated by measuring...
The possibility to provide visual impaired walking in an unfamiliar environment with an optimized degree of information about the presence of services and hazards is of primary importance to improve their autonomy and self estimate. In this paper, a mixed inertial & RF-ID orientation aid for the visually impaired is proposed to assist visually impaired people exploring an unfamiliar environment...
In this paper a new architecture implementing a ferrofluidic inclinometer in resonant configuration is presented. The new strategy represents a considerable improvement with respect to previous devices , in this case resonance is exploited in order to improve the device sensitivity. In particular, the supplementary excitation coils have been positioned very close to the sensing tool (primary and secondary...
The development of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) has recently become an area of great interest to researchers and industry. WSNs offer the promise of monitoring, data collection, and control of systems with unprecedented scale and spatial granularity. On this regard, the study of a reliable and low cost energy supply for WSNs remains an open challenge. Of course, the correct sizing of a supply system...
The availability of easily reconfigurable and reliable transducers is of main importance for several applications. Actually, sensors and actuators adopting ferrofluidic cores have been classified in that category for their intrinsic robustness against external shocks and the possibility to produce flexible architectures to be used for several uses, from the detection inertial quantitie to bio-application...
A novel inertial sensor based on ferrofluids is presented in this work. The proposed device exhibits a widely tunable operating range and high sensitivity. The ferrofluid is a special solution of magnetic particles in a colloidal suspension whose flow or density and other physical features can be controlled by magnets or magnetic fields. The device prototype is made of one excitation coil and two...
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