Funded by the European Union
WP 5 Controllers and driving electronics
Specification and draft design of a “smart sensor†device capable of signal conditioning, acquisition and local processing, as well as extraction and gsm transmission of its crucial features has been performed in Adaptronica. The target cost per unit is less than 100 EUR. The results will be verified against the existing device based on a two orders of magnitude costlier National Instrument device. A first prototype has been developed; it operated successfully in office conditions, but is unstable in in-field tests.A multichannel versatile data acquisition electronic unit was specified in IDEAL. The unit is dedicated for driving the distributed sensor / actuator systems based on modern electronic components. The special emphasis in the specification is placed on miniaturization of the electronic modules for its better applicability in the field of structural health and condition monitoring. In particular, the driving electronics should have low power consumption and provide a wide frequency range and especially a wide dynamic range, which would it to be used for a broad spectrum of applications. An intended feature is the capability of standalone operation. An important aspect in the designing of the driving electronic module is its low production costs that is crucial for future industrialization and commercialization of products on the base of this measurement unit. The currently ongoing activities include:
- Specification and implementation of integration kit for the unit (driving electronics)
- Implementation of data acquisition routine for multi-sensor systems
- Implementation of signal processing and image reconstruction algorithms
- Implementation of application software for multi-sensor systems
In the context of applications of piezo-pathes in SHM, Cedrat Technologies develops a dedicated electronics. The analog front-end for the piezo-patches is a LWDS45-2 electronics, that is able to drive and sense the signals on the piezo-patches. A digital supervisor for the generation and acquisition of the signals is currently being developed. The schematics of the prototype are almost finalized, and the placement of the components has started. The short term objective is to manufacture and test the prototype. When the prototype will be validated, the final version of the board should be designed and manufactured. Also, a LWDS45-2 rack should be manufactured so that the hardware for a whole detection system will be available.
