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Network
of Excellence
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CARiMan
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The
Internet Portal for Computer Aided Risk Management
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MS:
Microsystems
and sensors
Responsible:
FORTH
Assistance:
PdM, TUC, IJS, JenaS,
CEFIN, PW,
all
partners
Objectives
The main focus of the task Microsystems and sensors is
well correlated with the FW6 thematic priority 2.3.1.2 Micro and nano systems.
The demands of contemporary risk management are a balanced cost and efficiency,
high performance and miniaturisation combined with the optimal commodity for
monitored systems. MS is focused to the implementation of intelligent and
possibly wireless microsensor systems. The
size of sensors should be as small as possible so that it can become either
implantable or a part of a prosthetic device or a non-inasive
customer-convenient one. The sensors will be implemented in flexible and passive
materials, usually as a stand-alone unit. In the case of wireless
implementation, sensor signals have to be transmitted to a Signal Unit (SU).
Some challenging problems have to be solved in this case like power supply, data
communication method and data interface definition with the SU.
Before a signal measurement can be performed, sensors
have to be placed adequately on a monitored system. The methods for optimal
positioning that would be comfortable for the monitored system, convenient for
the technician, use clear landmarks for reproducibility, and give high
signal/noise ratio have to be developed. In many cases of monitored systems
measurements, more than one sensor is needed. What is the minimal acceptable
number of sensors and where are their optimal positions? These two questions are
the first crucial objectives of MS. The problem becomes even more complex if
some additional constraints should be satisfied like wireless or implantable
sensors, and mobile communication with limited data transfer. Optimization
methods together with optimization parameters will be investigated within MS,
for different monitored systems measurements.
The main objectives of MS are summarized as follows:
·
to develop some new
sensor systems for investigation of as
much as possible monitored systems;
·
to propose some innovative solutions for powering of
miniaturized wireless intelligent sensors;
·
to find out different possibilities of measuring
principles, regarding the type of signals, number of sensors and quality of
measured data;
·
to investigate all possible measuring principles and to
select and implement the optimal one, regarding sensor placing and technology,
fixation method, signal interpretation and feasibility;
·
to develop multichannel sensor complexes enabling the
tracking of particular characteristics at the conditions of the monitored
system;
·
to improve the control of monitored system status by
multisensory systems considering the whole status of the monitored system over
long time and independent on living place,
Taking into account the main
functional objectives of CARiManS like comfortability and mobility, combined
with the local and independent analysis of measured data, the problem of sensor
placing becomes one of the first that has to be solved. The specific parameters
that will have any impact on sensor placing have to be identified. Only the
optimal placing will give the amount of data necessary for the efficient signal
analysis. In several cases standardized method of placement enables the
reproducibility and interpretability of the signals. Having demand to use
wireless sensors, they have to become intelligent, because they have to convert
analog signals to digital data, to implement a kind of communication path and
finally to do some local data analysis in order to distinguish between normal
and critical situation. The sensors have to save power and communication
resources, with extensive data transmission only in critical cases. Some
standard data interface should be defined between sensor and signal processing
sites that will enable easy later inclusion of different sensors into existing
online monitoring systems.
Navigation
& Positioning
A key requirement of an Emergency Management System is
continuously updated knowledge of the geographic location and status of
resources. To meet this need, for example in a case of a fire, each major unit
(i.e., fire crews, bulldozers, airships, water bombers, ambulances, etc.) should
be able to determine its own position and then relaying that information
continuously. The definition of the positioning & navigation requirements
for Risk Emergency Management will be based on experience in that application
(i.e., seismic, fire, traffic accidents, etc.) and established practices in this
application area. Evaluation of various navigation systems, such as EGNOS, GPS,
Galileo, Glonass etc will be carried out.
Some of the different
aspects of MS in the applications sectors are summarized in the following.
MS
for Health Care
Different environmental factors like
acoustical noise, vibrations, pollutants in air, radiation can influence the
health of people negatively causing change in physiological parameters of
person/patient in different environments like home and on work. So research of
environmental risk is important to evaluate the impact to the health state of
human and to recognize risk situations. Physical and chemical microsensors
can measure the intensity of environmental parameters; while medical sensors
measuring ECG, EEG, body temperature, blood pressure, pulse etc will check the
physiological status of person and intelligent
wireless microsensors can observe important functions of the patients, like
movements and metabolism, without any obstruction of the patient's activities.
The collected data can be transmitted continuously or only in critical situation
(through CARiManS) to an observation center using mobile communication network.
There the data stream can be archived, while an online monitoring system tries
to detect critical situations, like a diabetes shock or a cardiac arrest. In
that case, emergency organisation
can be alerted to rescue the patient. With such a system many cases of death can
be prevented. Even more lives can be saved when the monitored data can be used
in medical routine diagnosis and by the monitoring of post-surgery patients or
patients during surgery. They give the doctors a better insight in the patient's
stresses and in change of medical parameters like blood glucose concentration,
body temperature, pulse, blood pressure etc. So critical situation can be
reduced or recognized in time. In
addition, some disfunctions could be prevented by early selection and
appropriate treatment of individuals being at-risk
MS
for monitoring environmental emergency situations
Due to warm up of atmosphere the heat
household of earth will be changed and extreme climatically situations will be
caused like flood, dryness or storms. So emergency situations increase in Europe
and all over the world. MS are also useful to recognize emergency situations
like natural disasters. So gas-warning devices can detect smoke or other organic
and inorganic gases released by earthquakes.
In case of flood the level of water is controlled in rivers, seas and
dams. There, physical sensors vibrations and different radiations, can measure
the water level. Developing of monitoring systems with risk analysis for these
increasing emergency situations is important to protect the population in all
countries. Dissolving these problems is an important national as well as
international task.
MS for mapping spatially distributed quantities
Risk analysis of complex
distributed systems are based on the capability of the monitoring system to
reconstruct in real time, from sensors data, the time and spatial distribution
of relevant quantities. This real time information is beginning to be used to
set up real time decision support systems as well as real time control to assist
in risk management. Since the sensorial system has to be "sensible" to
the time changing spatially distributed quantities it is important to be able to
dynamically allocate the sensors location in order to "optimize" the
sensor systems performance in reconstructing the sensed field. Developing sensor
system architectures capable to reconfigure theirs topology on the basis of the
quality of the spatially distributed measurands reconstruction is of crucial
importance for assisting the risk analysis and management process.