Information visualization can be valuable in a wide range of applications, it deals with abstract, non-spatial data and with the representation of data elements in a meaningful form irrespective of the size of the data, because sometimes visualization itself focuses on the certain key aspects of the data in the representation and thus it helps by providing ease for the goal oriented interpretation. Information visualization focuses on providing a spontaneous and deeper level of the understanding of the data.

Research collaboration enhances sharing knowledge and also enhances an individual’s talent. New ideas are generated when knowledge is shared and transferred among each other. According to (He et al, 2009) Research collaboration has been considered as a phenomenon of growing importance for the researchers, also it should be encouraged and is considered to be a “good thing” among the researchers.

The main purpose of this thesis work is to prepare a model for the competence profile visualization purpose. For this purpose the study of different visualization techniques that exist in the field of information visualization are discussed in this thesis work. The study and discussion about the visualization techniques motivates in selecting appropriate visualization techniques for the visualization of Ontology-based competence profiles for research collaboration purpose. A proof of concept is developed which shows how these visualization techniques are applied to visualize several components of competence profile.

Kitron had wishes to be able to test and measure how disturbance affects their vehicle electronic units before they have been verified by SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden in Borås. This work started with the writing of a demand specification together with Kitron for a product PSQS, Power Supply Quality Simulator, which can generate some test pulses according to a standard for electronic units to Volvos vehicles. A design proposal was developed with the help the demand specification and was verified with the help of simulations. All electric schematics was designed with the guide of the design proposal. The pulses realized in the works of this thesis are those which Kitron experienced that they have a need to test in their own premises and which are possible to generate with the means available. All work took place at Kitron in Jönköping, the restriction of the work has been the cost of components not to be to high as well as the finished product shall be easily managed. This thesis work resulted in a unit which is possible to produce a number of disturbances on the voltage feed to a unit under test. Some pulses have not been completely correct according to Volvos standard. There are large possibilities to further develop PSQS to a unit that follows Volvos standard and even other vehicle producer’s standards.

Wireless technology has increased in popularity since its invention, being embedded in many devices, such as smartphones, laptops, earphones etcetera. One of those technologies is Bluetooth, which is a short-range technology that is widely used worldwide. While being a popular and important technology, it is not as optimized as it could be, especially the standard Bluetooth 4.2. According to (Bluetooth, 2023)Bluetooth version 5 has four times the range of Bluetooth version 4.2 which is one area of improvement in Bluetooth. While limited Forward Error Correction (FEC)functionality in terms of (15,10) Hamming codes is present in the Bluetooth classic4.2 stack, however, it is not utilized in that version of Bluetooth. This thesis aims to implement a functionality in Bluetooth that uses FEC to increase the range. Before the experiments were conducted, multiple measurements were done in order to check if the hardware, such as the Bluetooth modules, antennas, air sniffer, could provide reliable and valid data. The experiments were conducted by streaming an audio sample of 48 kHz via Bluetooth and increasing the range until a certain percentage of fail rate in data transmission has occurred. FEC was then enabled, and the same experiment was repeated. The results from the experiments show that the range can be increased up to a few meters. Not only that, but the transmission without FEC allows a high level of errors without a connection cut-off. With FEC, the connection does not allow high levels of errors which means that the audio quality would not drop as low as it would have without FEC which means that a certain audio quality is preserved. This also makes the case for the implementation of higher modes of FEC into the Bluetooth stack to potentially increase the range of Bluetooth classic multiple times, but that implementation is beyond the scope of this thesis. 

This thesis investigates the application of machine learning techniques to predict rotor temperature in induction motors, a crucial parameter for enhancing the safety, efficiency, and longevity of electric machines. It focuses on the development, training, and evaluation of three neural network models: Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), Thermal Neural Network (TNN), and 1-D Convolutional Neural Network (1-D CNN). These models are assessed for their ability to predict rotor temperature using measurable inputs such as rotor speed, slip speed, current, voltage, and cooling conditions, both with and without stator temperature measurements.

Experimental results show that the TNN model, which incorporates heat-transfer principles, outperforms other models in terms of accuracy and reliability. The analysis is based on a comprehensive dataset comprising 2,876,126 data points collected over approximately 82 hours, covering various operational scenarios represented by 87 profile IDs. The models were trained on rotor temperatures ranging from 21.6°C to 259.6°C, with 22°C representing idle room temperature and 250°C the rotor's critical threshold.

The findings suggest that machine learning models offer a more adaptable and precise approach to temperature estimation in electric motors, with significant potential to improve operational efficiency and safety protocols in the automotive and industrial sectors. The TNN model was particularly effective, achieving mean squared errors of 4.2 and 23.3 in two different normal driving scenarios. Additionally, including motor housing temperature data, both inside and outside, significantly enhanced rotor temperature prediction accuracy, potentially reducing costs by eliminating the need for stator temperature sensors.

Data collection and preprocessing were done in collaboration with Volvo Cars. Including motor housing temperature significantly improved rotor temperature estimation accuracy, suggesting cost savings by eliminating the need for stator temperature sensors. This research highlights the superiority of ML models over deterministic models for predicting EM temperature, enhancing safety, efficiency, and reliability. The TNN model’s versatility in various driving conditions sets the groundwork for future ML integration into real-time Motor Control Systems.

This research demonstrates the superiority of machine learning models over deterministic models for induction motor temperature prediction, improving safety, efficiency, and reliability. The TNN model's ability to accurately predict rotor temperature under various conditions highlights the potential for integrating machine learning into real-time motor control systems, setting the stage for future advancements in this field.

This master thesis is about investigation a power efficient anti-moisture device thatcan be implemented in electronic enclosures in severe climatic environments.First, some of the existing knowledge and previous works were introduced. Then arelevant theoretical background including three main approaches in humiditymanagement are described, comparison between the enclosure heaters and localheaters, some psychrometics concepts that have been used in the project, heattransfer fundamentals, environmental test basics, some humidity and temperaturesensing techniques, computational fluid dynamics, programmable logic controlfundamentals, comparison PLCs with microcontrollers was provided.A series experiments have been performed in order to find the power efficient andmost effective anti-moisture method. Based on the analysis of the experiment data,the local heater system has been designed. CFD assisted parametric study of thelocal heater has been performed in order to find the best feasible design includingthe size and location. The local heater has been built based on the results ofparametric study. Different materials have been tested in laboratory in order tofind the proper material for final prototype of heater. The implemented localheater has been integrated with programmable logic control device. The controlalgorithm has been developed for activation/deactivation of local heater. The logiccontrolled PCB local heater has been experimentally evaluated.In the end the results achieved from environmental test have been presented andanalyzed. Some conclusions on the results and also future work have been discussed.

Detta examensarbete behandlar problemet med att testa inbyggda system i kontorsmiljö. För att göra detta och därigenom kunna göra anrop på det inbyggda systemets API, måste detta anrop skickas som ett seriellt datapaket över en seriell kommunikationslänk som TCP/IP.

Detta möjliggjordes genom att först upprätta en kommunikationslänk med protokollet TCP/IP, där användningen av POSIX-sockets tillämpades. För att packa ner och packa upp funktionsanropen till seriell data implementerades ett protokoll som följdes när detta utfördes. Hantering av data i samband med överföring över TCP/IP sköttes av ett protokoll vid namn BGSFP, ett protokoll som bygger på det tidigare protokollet TSFP.

Network-on-Chip (NoC) is a new on-chip communication paradigm for future IP-core based System-on-Chip (SoC), designed to remove a number of limitations of today’s on-chip interconnect solutions. A NoC interconnects cores by means of a packet switched micro-network, which improves scalability and reusability, resulting in a shorter time to market. A typical NoC will be running many applications concurrently, which results in shared network capacity between different kinds of traffic flows. Due to the diverse characteristic of applications, some traffic flows will require real-time communication guarantees while others are tolerant to even some loss of data. In order to provide different levels of Quality-of-Service (QoS) for traffic flows, the communication traffic is separated into different service classes. Traffic in NoC is typically classified into two service classes: the guaranteed throughput (GT) and the best-effort (BE) service class. The GT class offers strict QoS guarantees by setting up a virtual path with reserved bandwidth between the source (GT-producer) and destination (GT-consumer), called a GT-path. The BE class offers no strict QoS guarantees, but tries to efficiently use any network capacity which may become available from the GT traffic. The GT traffic may not fully utilize its bandwidth reservation if its communication volume varies, leading to time intervals where there is no GT traffic using the bandwidth reservation. These intervals are referred to as slack-time. If the slack can not be used this leads to unnecessarily reduced performance of BE traffic, since a part of the available network capacity becomes blocked. This thesis deals with methods to efficiently use the slack-time for BE traffic. The contributions include three new dynamic schemes for slack distribution in NoC. First, a scheme to inform the routers of a GT-path about available slack is evaluated. The GT-producer plans its traffic using a special playout buffer, and issues control packets containing the actual amount of slack-time available. The results show that this scheme leads to decreased latency, jitter and packet drops for BE traffic. Secondly, an extension to this scheme is evaluated, where slack is distributed among multiple GT-paths (slack distribution in space). This opens up the possibility to balance the QoS of BE traffic flows which overlap with the GT-paths. Thirdly, a scheme to distribute slack among the links of a GT-path (slack distribution in time) is proposed. In this approach, arriving GT-packets, at a certain router along the GT-path, can wait for a maximum defined amount of time. During this time, any waiting BE traffic in the buffers can be forwarded over the GT-path. The results confirm that this is especially important during high BE-traffic load, where this technique decreases the jitter of BE traffic considerably.

This paper studies the effects of the Firmware Over-The-Air update process done through Bluetooth Low Energy using a compression-based update solution compared to a non-compressed update solution.

The method that is used in this study is an experimental method using a Nordic semiconductor board as an IoT device. To this, a firmware was sent Over-The-Air and energy consumption along with time was measured using a measuring tool. The firmware was sent compressed and uncompressed. The compression algorithm that was used in the experiment was LZ4. Different sizes of firmware were tested and decompressed through the update process, and by using the measuring tool, the time taken, and average current were measured to get the results of the study. 

The result of this study is that time taken increases as firmware gets larger on both compressed and non-compressed firmware, and the increase in firmware file sizes had no effect on the average current. At the same time, including decompression into the FOTA solution increases the average current and time taken, which led to the conclusion that a compressed FOTA update has a higher total time and average current on the hardware setup tested on. It was also concluded that an embedded system with a faster processor, in conjunction with a higher compression ratio, would be needed to reach a threshold value where a compression based FOTA process is preferable.

Det finns ett behov av att utveckla en sensorlösning som kan bidra JU Solar Team med kördata från körning. Detta för att skapa underlag för mer verklighetstrogna statiska och dynamiska simuleringar av bilen. Arbetet har utförts vid Jönköpings Tekniska Högskola.

I studien ingår utförda experiment samt programmering av ett flertal diverse sensorer och kretskort, både individuellt och sammansatt kopplade.

Resultatet från arbetet visar att det är möjligt att skapa ett batteridrivet system som kan mäta samt lagra data från accelerometer, gyroskop, luftkvalitetssensor och lastceller oavbrutet under 24 timmar. Systemets kombination av lågt vikt och kompakt storlek gör att det inte stör föraren under tävling och skapar möjlighet att i framtiden bygga in systemet som en permanent del av solbilen.

Studien avgränsar sig till att utvärdera möjligheten för att skapa ett konceptsystem som är tänkt att lägga grunden för vidareutveckling av framtida studenter.

This thesis work deals with the most actual topic in Computer Vision field which is scene understanding and this using matching of 3D feature point images. The objective is to make use of Saab’s latest breakthrough in extraction of 3D feature points, to identify the best alignment of at least two 3D feature point images.

The thesis gives a theoretical overview of the latest algorithms used for feature detection, description and matching. The work continues with a brief description of the simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) technique, ending with a case study on evaluation of the newly developed software solution for SLAM, called slam6d.

Slam6d is a tool that registers point clouds into a common coordinate system. It does an automatic high-accurate registration of the laser scans. In the case study the use of slam6d is extended in registering 3D feature point images extracted from a stereo camera and the results of registration are analyzed.

In the case study we start with registration of one single 3D feature point image captured from stationary image sensor continuing with registration of multiple images following a trail.

Finally the conclusion from the case study results is that slam6d can register non-laser scan extracted feature point images with high-accuracy in case of single image but it introduces some overlapping results in the case of multiple images following a trail.

Detta examensarbete är genomfört i samarbete med Thorbjörn Birging. Birging arbetar med RFID[1] och är även VD för CombiQ på Science Park i Jönköping. Under lång tid har han velat skapa en produkt som hjälper människor med sömnproblem, depression, ångest och stress. Författarens roll som ingenjörsstudent blev att utveckla hans ide till en färdig produkt. Birging upptäckte efter att ha läst en artikel om sömnproblem att det finns studier som visar att det är enklare att somna med ett svagt ljud i rummet för att andra personer i rummet inte skall störas. Birging fokuserade på att skapa en ny ljudkudde med denna teori som grund.

 Målet med detta examensarbete blev att skapa en kudde med fokus på utmärkt stereoljud som hjälpredskap för människor med sömnproblem. Med ljudets användning blir insomningen betydligt lättare. Många människor söker hjälp för sina problem på sjukhus, men ofta får de bara recept på lugnande och antidepressiva mediciner. Ett annat problem med sömntabletter är risken för att utveckla ett beroende och en längre tids användning av medicinerna kan störa kroppens normala sömnfunktion, vilket läkaren Anders Isaksson som driver en privatklinik i Örebro kan intyga. Birging har haft kontakt med Anders under detta arbete och kan intyga detta.

 Ett sätt att lindra sömnproblem är genom att patienten får lyssna till lugnande musik före insomnandet, vilket alltså är tanken med denna kudde. Författaren genomförde en undersökning för att ta reda på vad som är bra och dåligt med dagens ljudkuddar. En idégenerering och kravspecifikation påbörjades med hjälp av Birging. För att kunna veta vad kunderna önskar sig med denna nya produkt gjordes bland annat en designbrief, funktionsanalys och en QFD-matris. Designbriefen skapades både verbalt och visuellt för att se hur den nya produkten skall se ut på markanden. QFD-matrisen rangordnar kraven och konkurrenternas kuddar i förhållande till Birgings krav på den nya prototypen. QFD ger inte svar på vad kunden får för upplevelse med produkten vilket designbriefen kan åstadkomma. Konstruerandet av prototypen kan börja först när designbriefen och funktionsanalysen är klara. Materialvalet gjordes genom testfaser som ljudåtergivning och komfort. Skumplast materialen kommer ifrån Recticel AB i Gislaved och ett intresse för denna nya produkt finns i den framtida utvecklingen.

 Denna nya produkt blev betydligt bättre än de ljudkuddar som finns på marknaden. Den nya produkten har egenskaper som tryckavlastning samt bättre ljudkvalitet vilket innebär att volymen inte behöver vara hög, vilket gör att omgivningen inte störs. Orsaken till att ljudet inte stör är att spridningen av ljudet mestadels riktas upp mot användaren. Kuddens mått är B50*H40*T5 cm innebär att man enkelt kan köpa vanliga örngott och att den inte ta onödig plats i sängen.

[1] Radio Frequency IDentification

The nature of software development has changed in last decade. Waterfall or traditional command and control methods have been replaced by Agile methodologies. Agile came as a “solution” to the disadvantages of the waterfall methodology, but using Agile has its own challenges. Due to the attractive characteristics of Agile such as flexibility and short time-to-market, Agile development has been increasingly popular and the number of organisations which have started to move to Agile is growing every day. Implementing new methodologies in any organisation is always a big challenge, especially for large-scale organisations due to their complexity, many different interacting interfaces, strong organisational culture, etc.

The nature of these challenges and obstacles changes from different perspectives within an organisation, and each of these perspectives needs to be studied and investigated to ensure a successful transition from traditional approaches to Agile. In this thesis we focus on the project manager and project governance perspectives. We aim to define the success and failure factors that play a key role in moving from traditional approaches to Agile approaches in large-scale organisations.

To address these challenges we conducted literature reviews on the latest research in implementing Agile methodologies. To collect our data we used a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods. We explored both IT project manager and Chief project manager opinions and experiences of the organisations by conducting interviews and questionnaires in our research.

The results reveals the difficulty to find proper product owners in the Agile projects. It is challenging to set a product owner who has Agile knowledge and is expert in the project domain. Specialized training and coaching for product owners is mentioned as one of the solutions that could be provided for this challenge. “Distributed teams”, “Lack of focus on the business side” and “Weak coaching and support” are some of the other critical areas which have been presented by the participants in the interviews and survey in this study.

The main conclusion is that in order to have a successful transition to Agile approaches, the Agile mind-set should be set in all different part in an organizations, not only the development side and also that everyone have to understand “Why” Agile is beneficial. Also the communication of lessons learnt and feedback should be strong and effective in order to avoid repetition of the same mistakes. In addition, specialized training and coaching for different roles within the period of the development is necessary to ensure the successful adoption of Agile.

Sedan en lång tid tillbaka har vägbelysning varit en central faktor för att säkerställa trygghet och säkra trafikmiljöer. I takt med en åldrande befolkning upplever äldre förändring i synsinnet vilket kan komma att påverka deras förmåga att köra i mörker. Tidigare forskning visar att äldre personer över 40 år har ett ökat ljusbehov som skapar problem vid mörkerkörning på grund av åldersrelaterade förändringar. Studiens syfte är att studera potentiella förbättringsmöjligheter av belysningskraven i VGU. Resultatet ska kunna tillämpas av Trafikverket för utveckling av belysningskriterierna i VGU, för att främja äldres synbehov och tillgodose en mer säker trafikmiljö vid mörkerkörning. Studien är utformad som en survey för att skapa en översiktlig kartläggning av ämnet. Empirin består av kvantitativ och kvalitativ data från datainsamlingsteknikerna enkät och dokumentstudie. En webbaserad enkät användes och utformades med flervalsalternativ och fritextfrågor. Enkäten analyserades genom en deskriptiv analys för att beskriva statistiken och tydligt kunna dra slutsatser. Dokumentstudien var ett externt originaldokument från Trafikverket.  Studien visade att en betydande andel av de tillfrågade har svårare att utföra visuella uppgifter i mörkerkörning jämfört med tidigare år. En specifik svårighet under mörkning var att urskilja hinder och vägmarkeringar vilket berodde på väg- och väderförhållanden. Avgörande faktorer som framkom i studien var luminans på vägbanan, bländning och jämnhet som orsakar problem för äldre bilförare. Resultatet indikerar att det finns förbättringsmöjligheter när det gäller belysningskriterierna i VGU, som kan anpassas för att bättre tillgodose äldres synbehov i takt med den åldrande befolkningen.  

A mathematical model of a multi-phase power conversion system composed of modified bridge-elements (B-system) capable for parallel computation has been developed. Experimental validation on the example of a power system including a synchronous generator and an AC-DC rectifier has been performed. A mathematical algorithm for B-system assembly and steps to obtain mathematical model of the B-system have been developed. Integration of mathematical models of conversion system into the complete model of a multi-phase power system has been explained and evaluation of computational efficiency of parallel computation techniques for the developed model of an AC-DC-AC converter has been performed. The presented modelling method can be employed in the design phase of smart grids, for power quality and conducted emission analysis. 

Test of electronic circuits for fabrication fault is important if the circuits should have reasonable quality. To make the development of complex circuits manageable, methods and computer tools that work on a high level of abstraction are required. Development of test methodologies have however been left behind the increase of abstraction level used for the design. There is a risk that testing aspects become a bottle neck in the development of complex circuits if the test methods fail to cope up with the abstraction level for the design methods.

System on Chips is often used to implement complex systems. The methods to make test for those circuits consists of three main parts. First part is the development of test procedures for the cores, which is preferably made at high level of abstraction. This area includes fault modeling and test pattern generation at behavior level of abstraction or higher as well as design of extra logic for insertion to facilitate testing. The second part requires development of methods to test the interconnections among cores.

The third part is to develop a test access mechanism which can be used to test the cores and interconnections within a SoC. This survey is about development of fault models and test pattern for testing of cores at higher level of abstraction than logic level. A promising architecture for the interconnection is the Network on Chip architecture in which cores are interconnected through a network of packet switched switches. Testing of these switches will be identical to testing of a core.

Models of physical and fabrication faults are needed at higher levels of abstraction in order to be able to develop test patterns from functional or behavioral description of cores. Researchers have experienced that the stuck-at fault model works quite well at logic level. But no such fault model has been discovered at behavioral or higher level which is universally accepted. Several behavior level fault models have been proposed. One of the proposed models is the variable bit stuck-at fault model. This model has been derived from the logic level stuck-at fault model but it does not give adequate coverage of physical faults. Physical faults inside components, like arithmetic and logic units, cannot be modeled in this way. With the methods proposed so far, knowledge of the logic level implementation of the unit is needed to model such faults. In this survey, we describe three proposed classes of fault models - fault models derived from logic level stuck-at faults, operator mutation faults and physically induced faults.

Testing at higher level of abstraction has a lot in common with software testing. The pattern generation methods can be classified into two main categories, namely, code oriented methods and fault oriented methods. Methods can also be classified into methods that use fault simulation for test pattern generation or use algorithmic approach for test pattern generation. These two classification approaches are orthogonal leading to four different categories of methods. We have tried to put existing approaches in this category. We also survey the experimental setups developed and used by various research groups for carrying out research in high level testing. Some very interesting conclusions can be drawn about the efficacy of various categories of test pattern generation methodologies for testing various types of systems at behavioral level. An interesting conclusion is that code oriented methods are not very effective for testing data dominated circuits at behavioral level.

Approaches followed by five different research groups working in the area of high level testing is also summarized and compared. We feel that the hierarchical test pattern generation method, which works simultaneously on several levels of abstraction, to generate test patterns is the most promising of these methods. We also feel that new fault models need to be developed to make testing at higher level of abstraction achieve adequate coverage of physical faults and become practically useful.

Autonomous robots are becoming a bigger part of our society. This thesis aims to evaluate a robot testing dashboard (RTD) that can be used as a new way of finding improvements when developing autonomous robots that do not use machine learning.

The method that is used is design science research, which is used when creating and evaluating an artifact to address a practical problem. In our case the artifact isthe RTD.

This project was performed at a company called Greenworks, which among other things develops and sells autonomous lawn mowers. The company wants to find new testing methods to help develop their autonomous lawnmowers. The RTD is created to visualize the inputs that the lawn mower utilizes to perform its tasks. A human pilot will then control the lawn mower, by only looking at that visualized data. If the pilot using the RTD can execute the same tasks as the lawn mower in its autonomous mode, the test results can be analyzed to see whether the human has done some parts of the tasks differently. The best outcome from the analysis of the test results is to find areas of improvement that can be implemented into the autonomous lawn mower design, both in software and hardware.

For this purpose, an RTD was built and tested at Greenworks. From the tests using the RTD we concluded that it is helpful in the testing process, and we could find areas of improvements after analysis of our tests. However, the use of the RTD will require more time and resources compared to other methods. Each company that uses a similar dashboard concept will have to evaluate if the benefits are worth the time. Furthermore, the concept may not suit all areas of robotics but does seem to suit situations where a human can have an advantage over robots, such as in creative problem solving.

This report describes the construction and development of a control box, which is a tool for testing and verifying a certain model of Rapid’s built in staplers (model A6102). Basically the function of the control box is to interpret any errors that may occur in the stapler and to make it possible to test fire the stapler.

The control box should be able to communicate with the stapler using a specialized communication protocol. The different data such as errors, firmware etc. from the stapler is presented in plain language on a display. Additional functions worth mentioning is the possibility to choose between several different firing modes and strengths of the stapler using two multiswitches.

Our ambition with the control box was to create a construction that was suitable to build in small series, provide a good documentation and to write a program that would be easy to modify in case someone would like to add new functions in the future. Since we focused on making the box as easy as possible to assemble we have not prioritised to find the cheapest possible solution using cheap components. Instead we have chosen multifunctional components that individually can do as much of the work as possible such as the display and the microprocessor.

Abstract

This report is about the creation of a test system for development of a control system for a off the shelf RC-helicopter, which can be bought for about two thousand SEK. The test system consists of both electronics for controlling the helicopter and mechanical constrainer. The constrainer is used for mounting the helicopter so that it won´t crash.A circuit board including processor and sensors was manufactured. This was used for doing test of the different control algorithms. In this way were we able to analyze the quality of the sensors chosen, and what other sensors that could contribute to the control of the system.Basic helicopter control have been studied and presented in the report. Also different kinds of regulation algorithm were presented. These have also been implemented and tested in the test system.Experiments were made to identify how signals in the radio controller were mixed and translated before they were sent to the receiver, to be used to control the helicopter. This could later be used to translate the control signal from the regulators.Demonstrations, with the help of the test system, revealed the pros and cons of the different sensors and other hardware. Different regulation techniques were also tested and analyzed.

Active Radio Frequency Identification (Active RFID) is a wireless automated technology used to identify, track, process and share information about an object or from the environment. As microcontrollers and radio frequency transponders are smaller in size, more power efficient, and less expensive, this technology is growing and starting to expand significantly through all the industries. The main purpose of with this project was to reduce the ower consumption of the active tags. This master thesis presents a functional TDMA based protocol which was designed and developed for a specific tracking system application.

Introduction – Digital systems for lighting control are becoming increasingly common. One way to manually control these systems is through control panels with buttons. These panels can vary in both appearance (layout) and function (user interaction). These differences can create confusion and, in the worst case, result in the control equipment not being used. This study specifically focuses on panels with four buttons and aims to provide a basis for developing button panels that are as intuitive as possible for end-users. Method – To determine the preferred layout among users, a quantitative online survey with 60 respondents was conducted. Respondents were asked about their preferred button placement for controlling the dimming function on a 4-button panel. This question was repeated for three different button layouts: horizontal, vertical, and square. At the end of the survey, respondents were asked about their overall preferred layout. To determine the user's expected interaction with a button panel, an experiment was conducted. In the experiment, 36 participants tested identical panels with different types of interaction programming. They performed a task while the time was recorded, and in addition to the time, participants also provided a qualitative evaluation of which of the three panels they preferred and why. Results – The survey responses show that a vertical button layout is preferred by the majority of respondents. The top button received the most votes for the "dim-up” function, while the bottom button received the most votes for the "dim-down" function. The results from the experiment show that a panel with scene-based lighting was the fastest for performing the task. Scene-based lighting means that each button is linked to a specific lighting-scene without providing any fine-tuned manual control. A panel with continuous pressure to adjust the brightness took the longest time to complete the task. A panel with repeated "clicks" to dim the lighting fell between the other two panels in terms of time. The qualitative responses indicated that participants preferred the panel with continuous pressure, as it provided the highest degree of control. Analysis – Regarding button placement, women generally responded more uniformly than men, but the same option received a majority in both groups. Increased age of the respondents seemed to yield more ambiguous results for both button placement and layout. For the experiment's results, ANOVA tests showed that the differences in time among the different tested programming approaches were statistically significant. Discussion – Overall, the study shows that the most intuitive 4-button panel is a vertical panel with the dimming function placed at the top or bottom of the panel. The interaction with the panel should be through incremental "clicks," which represents the best compromise between the user's intuition and their own experience of control. However, the study has a significant issue with skewed participant demographics in both the survey and experiment. Therefore, this is something that could be revisited, and it would also be interesting to repeat the experiment using symbols on the buttons and compare the outcomes with this study. 

Psychological models are increasingly being used to explain online behavioral traces. Aside from the commonly used personality traits as a general user model, more domain dependent models are gaining attention. The use of domain dependent psychological models allows for more fine-grained identification of behaviors and provide a deeper understanding behind the occurrence of those behaviors. Understanding behaviors based on psychological models can provide an advantage over data-driven approaches. For example, relying on psychological models allow for ways to personalize when data is scarce. In this preliminary work we look at the relation between users' musical sophistication and their online music listening behaviors and to what extent we can successfully predict musical sophistication. An analysis of data from a study with 61 participants shows that listening behaviors can successfully be used to infer users' musical sophistication.

Linux is a growing operating system in embedded systems. Today, Linux is not only in heavy servers but also in cell phones, PDAs, cameras and other devices running on battery power. While current technology is more energy efficient, more and more technologies are implemented into a single unit resulting in an overall increase of power consumption.

Low power consumption is an increasingly important feature of a system today. Lower power consumption means lower costs, less environmental impact, and longer life for applications that runs on batteries.

This work compiles methods to reduce power consumption of Linux systems. The work includes examining whether the available opportunities are platform-specific or of a more general nature. The evaluations of methods for efficacy, has been performed on three different platforms. Testing consists of different types of stress tests and turning the units on-and-off.

The results show that many of the features for power management that are available in a Linux system are of a general nature and that the Linux kernel has good support for implementation of new power management functions. Through the power reduction tests it has been proven that reducing the frequency of the processor and bit rate of the Ethernet controller provides the highest efficiency gain at different load levels.

This work also investigates whether implementation of dynamic frequency scaling on a new processor is a complex task or not. Implementations in the Linux kernel provide general code that means that only the processor-specific part needs to be implemented. The implementation was carried out without major complications.

In public and local administration contexts, the organizational structures depend on bureaucratic aspects. This often implies that people are engaged in offices and their allocation come from emergencies and political factors instead of rational motivations related to knowledge, competences and profiles. In most cases, such situations become gangrenous and generate dissatisfaction and low productivity. The objective of our work is applying competence management, skill gap analysis and a study of the existing organizational structures to point out the functional unit with the most critical situation in terms of allocated employees and to suggest a solution according to the complex laws, internal regulation for the staff management and trade-union influences. The proposed approach identifies the real gaps that create inefficiencies and suggests the people to engage in learning programs by focusing exactly on what the organizations need with respect to what the employees have. It happens by elaborating a priority scale on the base of existing hierarchies, relationships, logistic constraints and other aspects with the aim, above all, of enhancing the identified unit and the local administration itself.

This paper explains the process and the result of developing a device to compose musical pieces that is both portable and intuitive to use. The project focuses on the use of a PIC microcontroller for a wide variety of functions such as generating musical notes, controlling a graphical LCD, a touchpad, saving and loading data with a non-volatile EEPROM memory and communicating the device with a PC through the serial port. This report also contains the design for the circuit that houses the PIC and additional electronic components, and an explanation of the computer program we made that receives the data from the device and translates it to the appropriate format used with open-source software Lilypond.

This thesis intends to create a helpful tool for every kind of musician and be an interesting and fun project that inspires other engineers to build their own devices.

ERP systems are characterized by a high degree of complexity what is challenging to replicate in the classroom environment. However, there is a strong industry demand for students having ERP training during their studies at universities. This paper reports a joint effort of University of Rostock and Riga Technical University to enhance introductory ERP training by introducing an internationalization dimension in the standard curriculum. Both universities collaborated to develop an international ERP case study as an extension of the SAP ERP Global Bikes Incorporated case study. The training approach, study materials and appropriate technical environment have been developed. The international ERP case study is performed at both universities where students work collaboratively on running business processes in the SAP ERP system. Students’ teams at each university are responsible for business process activities assigned to them and they are jointly responsible for completing the process. The case study execution observations and students’ evaluations suggest that the international ERP provides a good insight on the real-life challenges associated in using the ERP systems in the international context.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are among the most widely used large-scale information systems. Industry and students in IT-related subjects expect that ERP training is part of the studies during university education. However, traditional teaching materials use somewhat simplified multi-role and cross-organizational processes which do not fully reflect reality in enterprises, for example with respect to role-based permissions or coordination challenges in international organizations. This paper reports on an attempt to extend the SAP ERP GBI case study towards an international dimension. For this purpose an international ERP case study was developed which is presented in the paper with its didactical approach, the technical way how to implement the case study in SAP, and the teaching environment. The work is a joint effort by University of Rostock and Riga Technical University which has a focus on enhancing introductory ERP training for study programs in information technology and business informatics. One of the key features of the international ERP case study is that students of both universities work collaboratively on running business processes in the SAP ERP system. Evaluations suggest that the students appreciate the case study as suitable means to get an insight in real-life challenges connected to ERP use in an international context.

Allting började med att jag fick i uppdrag av Euromaint Industry i Skövde att konstruera en alfanumerisk display i syfte att ersätta en utgången display som inte längre nytillverkas. Jag fick i uppdrag att välja ut en modern, lämplig grafisk display och bygga ett interface mellan den nya displayen och den industriella maskin som displayen skall sitta på. Efter att ha letat hos någraelektronikleverantörer kom jag fram till att en TFT-skärm från det japanska företaget Kyocera var den som passade bäst. Skärmen hade ett VGA-liknandeinterface och min uppgift blev att sätta mig in i hur VGA fungerar. Efter att ha konstaterat att det krävdes en snabbare krets än en microcontroller för att använda VGA, var det endast en programmerbar logikkrets, en FPGA, som gällde. Denna FPGA sköter nu ensam om såväl VGA-interfacet som inläsningen av informationen från den industriella NC-maskinen.

This paper provides a general framework for electromagnetic (EM) modeling, sensitivity analysis, computation, and measurements regarding the wave propagation characteristics of high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) power cables. The modeling is motivated by the potential use with transient analysis, partial-discharge measurements, fault localization and monitoring, and is focused on very long (10 km or more) HVDC power cables with transients propagating in the low-frequency regime of about 0-100 kHz. An exact dispersion relation is formulated together with a discussion on practical aspects regarding the computation of the propagation constant. Experimental time-domain measurement data from an 80-km-long HVDC power cable are used to validate the electromagnetic model, and a mismatch calibration procedure is devised to account for the connection between the measurement equipment and the cable. Quantitative sensitivity analysis is devised to study the impact of parameter uncertainty on wave propagation characteristics. The sensitivity analysis can be used to study how material choices affect the propagation characteristics, and to indicate which material parameters need to be identified accurately in order to achieve accurate fault localization. The analysis shows that the sensitivity of the propagation constant due to a change in the conductivity in the three metallic layers (the inner conductor, the intermediate lead shield, and the outer steel armor) is comparable to the sensitivity with respect to the permittivity of the insulating layer. Hence, proper modeling of the EM fields inside the metallic layers is crucial in the low-frequency regime of 0-100 kHz.

— IT Service Management (ITSM) is an expensive field where small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) need to become more efficient in their ITSM related work in order to cut costs and improve quality. The focus of this paper is to suggest a solution to the scarcity of process improvement methods dedicated to ITSM-processes in SMEs. The solution consists of an agile self-assessment method designed and evaluated in accordance with Design Science Research. The aim of the method is to support SMEs in their attempt to evaluate and improve their quality of ITSM processes. The findings show that the method creates opportunities for organizations to improve their ITSM processes. The method can be used to identify process gaps in comparison to standards for ITSM. It can also be used for benchmarking purposes within an organization as well as it can guide an organization’s improvement efforts. The method also depicts a standard that is easy for SMEs to understand and to use as guidance (with ITSM specific examples). Finally, the method enables SMEs to implement standards for ITSM in a resource-efficient way. Based on empirical evidence from applying the method the conclusion is that the method is useful for the intended target group and that the method agrees well with theories within the field.

I Sverige arbetar i dagsläget ca 930 000 personer inom industrin. Inom industribranschen är det ofta fokus på direkta energiekonomiska vinster och inte på de vinster som görs indirekt. Detta gör att komfortaspekter som bra ventilation, ergonomiskt ljus och estetiskt tilltalande miljöutformningar inte prioriteras. Dagens industrier har ofta varierande flexibla layouter för att optimera sina processer. Det vill säga att arbetsstationer, maskiner och lagerhyllor flyttas för att gynna flödet för specifika produkter. Vid variation i layouten kan belysningen påverkas negativt om den om fast monterad. Genom en benchmarkingstudie samt ljusberäkningar undersöktes det i vilken utsträckning en fast belysningsinstallation kan vara lämplig för en industriverksamhet med varierande flöde. Resultatet av en del i studien visar att en fast belysningsinstallation, där armaturerna har bred spridningsvinkel, fungerar bra i industriverksamheter med varierande flöde. En experimentell studie med 17 deltagare genomfördes i en industrilokal för att undersöka i vilken utsträckning trivsel påverkas i en industri med god ljuskvalité, jämfört med en anläggning med sämre ljuskvalité. Undersökningen pågick under fyra veckor genom att två belysningsinstallationer utvärderades med hjälp av en enkät. Anläggningens befintliga belysningsinstallation jämfördes med en belysningsinstallation av bättre teknik och ljuskvalité. I den här delen av undersökningen framkom det att i ljuset med högre kvalité upplevdes naturligare, mer fokuserat, varmare och behagligare än i ljuset med lägre kvalité. Andra aspekter, såsom skuggbildning och reflektion, upplevdes relativt lika under alla undersökningsveckorna. Genom att upprätta LCC-kalkyler samt beräkna LENI-tal kunde det fastslås hur anläggningens energikostnad påverkas med en ny belysningsanläggning bestyckad med LED. En ljusanläggning med den nya tekniken har en lägre energianvändning än den äldre installationen. Detta bidrar till en mer ekonomisk och miljömässig hållbarhet.

Behavior Driven Development (BDD) is a modern agile software development approach that originates from Test Driven Development (TDD) and Acceptance Test Driven Development (ATDD). Other than TDD and ATDD, BDD introduces new methods and strategies that intend to discover the behavior of software in greater detail which is achieved through enhanced communication and cooperation between everyone involved in software projects. In this paper it is examined how BDD can be taken even further and be connected to the products of UX-strategy in order to explore the possibilities to improve internal communication within software project teams. The report guides the reader through the theoretical frameworks of BDD, UX-strategy and Communication and presents suggestions of how BDD and the products UX-strategy can be connected to improve communication and understanding.

The concept of hierarchical networks is useful for designing a large heterogeneous NoC by reusing predesigned small NoCs as subnets. It can also be helpful when analyzing and designing a large NoC as interconnection of subnets at a higher level of abstraction. Hierarchical deadlock-free routing is required to enable deadlock-free interconnection of sub-networks with different internal routing algorithms. In this paper we show that multi-level addressing is a cost-effective implementation option for hierarchical deadlock-free routing. We propose a two-level routing scheme, which is not only efficient, but also  enables co-existence of algorithmic and table-based implementation in one router. A hierarchical view of the network simplifies addressing of network nodes and address decoding in the router. Synthesis results show that a 2-level hierarchical router design for an 8x8 NoC, can reduce area and power requirements by  up to ~20%, as compared to a router for the flat network. This work also proposes a new possibility for increasing the number of nodes available for subnet-to-subnet interfaces, while keeping the properties of hierarchical deadlock-freedom. We evaluate and discuss the communication performance in a 2-level hierarchical network for various subnet interface set-ups and traffic situations. A cycle accurate simulator has been developed and used for this purpose.

Complexity of designing large and complex NoCs can be reduced/managed by using the concept of hierarchical networks. In this paper, we propose a methodology for design of deadlock free routing algorithms for hierarchical networks, by combining routing algorithms of component subnets. Specifically, our methodology ensures reachability and deadlock freedom for the complete network if routing algorithms for subnets are deadlock free. We evaluate and compare the performance of hierarchical routing algorithms designed using our methodology with routing algorithms for corresponding flat networks. We show that hierarchical routing, combining best routing algorithm for each subnet, has a potential for providing better performance than using any single routing algorithm. This is observed for both synthetic as well as traffic from real applications. We also demonstrate, by measuring jitter in throughput, that hierarchical routing algorithms leads to smoother flow of network traffic. A router architecture that supports scalable table-based routing is briefly outlined.

In order to detect movements and vibrations on different appliance, especially robots and self-going devices are used different sensors. One of the most used movement sensors are accelerometers. They are three different types of accelerometers one-axes, two-axes and three-axes. They can be analogue or digital. Husqvarna AB uses an accelerometer to detect movements of their self-going lawnmower Automower. Since it begins to turn up others sensors on the market and the sensor which today uses in Husqvarna’s lawnmower don’t fulfils all functions there is a need to find other solutions. What sensors can be found on a market and which new has come? How can they be used best and which difference is between them? How can they use to detect movements in x, y and z direction and how can they read different movements to detect collision, inclination and lift? Sensor analysis will be done to find out how they can be used in this matter and an big analysis will be done to find out how a sensor witch already is in a lawnmower can be use on the better ways?

Wireless sensor network (WSN) is an very important technology that is able to realize a vision of ambient intelligence. One of the application of Wireless Sensor Networks is Wireless E-Care Systems for monitoring the health of senior citizens. The idea is to use simple sensors that distributed in the old man/woman ’s outfit and home to provide home assistant/ nurse/ healthcare center/ relatives with a degree of ”understanding” of what he is doing, where he is, what is his health and activity state, what help he need, and what is happening around him.

Basically wireless sensor network consist of three parts: WSN, gateway and remote health-care centre. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a Graphical User Interface and Data Acquisition System for Home Health Care Using Tinyos-2.x Sensor Networks. This system is used for remote health-care centre.

This thesis presents design and implementation of a prototype of a system, which includes the following functions, collecting real-time data from tinyos-2.x sensor networks to a database; displaying nodes’ topology and deployment map at home in real time; plotting sampling values versus time in real time and replay time. dissemination parameters or commands to sensor networks.

Results of the experiments show this system is working well and reliable.

The high electricity prices are a talked about issue in today's society where many peoplefind themselves in a critical situation as a result of them. In a more long-termperspective, Sweden faces a goal of a comprehensive transformation of the energysystem. Lighting is a contributing factor to the energy system and energy use. Light inthe form of lighting is important for the visibility of objects and the surroundings, whichis a contributing factor to safety in society.The stock market price for electricity prices in December 2022 shows a sharp risethroughout Sweden and the forecast for today's electricity prices continues to rise(Konsumenternas, 2022). Energy consumption has a direct correlation to electricitycosts and dimmed LED light sources lead to lower energy consumption (Jägerbrand,2011). An important aspect in how the sense of safety, security and architecture isemphasized is the color rendering and light level of the lighting. A study carried out byMinchen et al (2020) proves that a light source with an increased color saturation and alower used illuminance can give rise to an equivalent visibility of a board as a lightsource with lower color saturation and higher illuminance.The aim is to identify and describe previous areas of knowledge about the colorsaturation and color reproduction of light sources. Tentative theory must be tested tosee if future outcomes can be predicted with the aim of lowering the light level andenergy consumption through increased color saturation and its impact on visibility andperceived safety.In order to achieve the aim and answer the study's questions, a literature search has beencarried out, in both primary and secondary sources, with keywords and search stringsin the scientific database Web of science together with the help of the snowball methodand snowball technique. In addition, available light source data from light sourcesuppliers has been analyzed to investigate the correlation between energy consumptionand color saturation. In order to further investigate the subject and answer the questions,an experiment was carried out with two different lighting scenarios of a modeled tunnel.During the experiment, participants contributed quantitative and qualitative data byanswering questionnaires for these scenarios.The study shows that light color saturation has an impact on the energy efficiency oflight sources and that different interpretations of how light color saturation and lightlevel affect the perceived visibility. The study indicates that a lower light level can beapplied without negatively affecting safety if other factors for the environment are takeninto account, where one of the contributing factors may be light color saturation.

This paper presents an ultra low power wireless insole sensor biofeedback and gait analysis system for rehabilitation of balance control for post stroke patients and gait related rehabilitation. The system integrates ANT wireless protocol, a wireless home E-health care sensor network and open-source mobile devices technology. The paper also presents methods to time synchronize the two sole sensors. The system has been evaluated and it shows good performance in power consumption, communication latency and coexistence with WiFi/Bluetooth/GSM.

The focus of the research presented in this article has been an integration of a CAD-system and a FEA pre-processor to automatically develop a complete FEA-models in order to make simulation based design possible. The article presents a prototype system that was developed to automate the simulation of the behavior of ski-racks mounted on cars during collision. This type of simulations requires mesh models containing structured mesh, an issue solved in the presented system and that is presented in the article. It is also shown how to make it possible to introduce contacts, loads, constraints, and other FEM-properties based on CAD-geometry.

The number of devices connected to the internet is constantly increasing and therefore putting more weight on the importance of low energy usage. LoRa which is the physical part of the LoRaWAN communication protocol that this paper focuses on is popular in the area of IoT because of its low energy usage. The purpose of this paper was to find out how the energy usage differentiate between two of the most commonly used LoRa frequencies 433MHz and 868MHz.

LoRa is often used with battery driven components within IoT such as temperature or humidity sensors. It is of great importance to keep the maintenance cost for these devices to a minimum. And it is therefore important to find the most energy efficient solutions for communication between LoRa components.

To get an answer from the purpose of this paper, two questions were formulated, and they were in turn answered by using an experimental research method. For the experiment, two devices were set up using: one transmitter combined with a current sensor and one receiver, both of which were capable of using either LoRa 433MHz or 868MHz. The experiment was then conducted by transmitting 1000 packages for every DR and both of the frequencies.

The results were analysed in an empirical quantitative way which showed that the higher frequency of 868MHz consumed more energy in all of the experiments. One discovery that was quite interesting was that the difference could be mitigated by using different data rates.

The result in this paper is intended to increase the knowledge regarding LoRa and its energy usage. This papers result can be used as a reference when choosing between what frequency and data rate to use when working with LoRa.

Efficiency as a term in software testing is, in the research community, a term that is not so well defined. In the industry, and specifically the test tool industry, it has become a sales pitch without meaning.

GUI testing in its manual form is a time consuming task, which can be thought of as repetitive and tedious by testers. Using human testers to perform a task, where focus is hard to keep, often ends in defects going unnoticed.

The purpose of this thesis is to collect knowledge on the area efficiency in software testing, but focusing more on efficiency in GUI testing in order to keep the scope focused. Part of the purpose is also to test the hypothesis that automated GUI testing is more efficient than traditional, manual GUI testing.

In order to reach the purpose, the choice fell to use case study research as the main research method. Through the case study, a theoretical study was performed to gain knowledge on the subject. To gain data used for an analysis in the case study, the choice fell on using a semi-experimental research approach where one automated GUI testing technique called Capture & Replay was tested against a more traditional approach towards GUI testing.

The results obtained throughout the case study gives a definition on efficiency in software testing, as well as three measurements on efficiency, those being defect detection, repeatability of test cases, and time spent with human interaction. The result also includes the findings from the semi-experimental research approach where the testing tools Squish, and TestComplete, where used beside a manual testing approach.

The main conclusion deducted in this work is that an automated approach towards GUI testing can become more efficient than a manual approach, in the long run. This is when efficiency is determined on the points of defect detection, repeatability, and time.

Detta examensarbete har utförts på Saab Training Systems (STS) AB i Huskvarna. Arbetet handlar om metodik och utrustning för mätning av ström och energiförbrukning på Saabs batteridrivna apparater, nämligen SAT och SAAD.

Nuvarande mätutrustning klarar inte av de tekniska kraven som STS ställer. Därför behövs det ett instrument eller en metod som generellt kan mäta energiförbrukningen på Saabs batteridrivna enheter. Problemet är att strömmen till apparaterna varierar kraftigt från några mikroampere till flera hundra milliampere i en väldigt kort tidsperiod.

Arbetet har genomförts som en teoretisk utredning men innehåller också praktiska mätningar på Saabs SAT och SAAD för att undersöka vilka svårigheter som kan uppstå vid mätning. Dessutom har två förslag på lösningar presenterats. Det mest lovande av förslagen är baserat på en logaritmisk förstärkare. Detta förslag har även verifierats praktiskt med ett testkort (prototyp).

Testkretskortet kan delas upp i två delar. Den första delen innehåller en linjär förstärkare som känner av strömmen som går igenom en avkänningsresistor. Test av den delen av kortet visade att den fungerade enligt specifikationen, och det var att förstärka signalen med den förstärkningsfaktor som bestämts och att kunna mäta med oscilloskop på plussidan av testobjektet.

Den andra delen innehåller en logaritmisk förstärkare som komprimerar stordynamiksignaler. Test av denna del av kortet visade att förstärkaren var olämplig för ändamålet, eftersom den inte klarade av att förstärka små signaler.

Idén att använda logaritmisk förstärkare är dock ett bra alternativ, givet att en lämplig förstärkare används.