Smart sensor

Title	Smart sensor
Summary	Small smart sensors
Keywords	Smart sensors, adaptation, sensors
TimeFrame	First half of 2018
References	Surya G. Nurzaman, Utku Culha, Luzius Brodbeck, Liyu Wang, Fumiya Iida. (2013) Active Sensing System with In Situ Adjustable Sensor Morphology. PLoS ONE 8(12):e84090. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0084090 Robin R. Murphy. Dempster–Shafer Theory for Sensor Fusion in Autonomous Mobile Robots. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION, VOL. 14, NO. 2, APRIL 1998 197.
Prerequisites	Projects involving both software, hardware, and electronics require much development/time
Author
Supervisor	Martin Cooney (possibly Håkan Petterson)
Level	Master
Status	Open

Goal: small smart sensors Motivation: Current sensors are "static", detecting just one thing, such as light, sound, or touch, because of which in complex systems such as vehicles or homes many sensors are typically required. A "smart" sensor which could dynamically adapt itself (to detect different signals) could replace multiple static sensors, leading to less space taken, less cost, less work for installations, a greater ability to operate when changes occur, and possibly even easier repairs (self-healing). Alternatively, an ensemble of dynamic sensors could acquire more information than the same number of static sensors. Furthermore, if such sensors can be made small, various benefits would emerge: e.g., making arbitrary surfaces embedded with sensors for robots such as intelligent skin, and interesting tasks at the micro scale could potentially be facilitated, such as monitoring cells inside of a person. Challenges: It is unknown how a sensor could be automatically changed into a different kind of sensor, a good strategy for changing a sensor or an ensemble of sensors, and how to achieve this at a small scale. Approach: The student will -Design transitions between some typical sensors -Design algorithms for calculating information/interestingness for each modality (possibly using change point detection) and for strategically allocating roles (like particles in a particle filter). -Design a strategy for the micro scale -Implement a macro-scale proof-of-concept, which can be switched manually or algorithmically, and a smaller proof-of-concept (mini, or micro; nano would be cool but would probably not be possible) -Evaluate -Thus, students will develop both software, and hardware/electronics Expected result: some ideas (new knowledge) of how to adapt different sensors, at different scales. Thesis, prototypes, video, hopefully a paper, possibly other such as code