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Die energetische Sanierung von Gebäuden ist von großer Relevanz, um die gesetzlichen Klimaziele zu erreichen. Die Methode des seriellen Sanierens spielt hierbei eine wichtige Rolle. Sie gilt als ganzheitliche Maßnahme zur energetischen Aufwertung von Bestandsgebäuden, durch die nicht nur die Gebäudehülle und die Anlagentechnik, wie etwa das Heizungssystem, effektiv verbessert werden, sondern auch eine Integration von Anlagen zur Strom- und Warmwasseraufbereitung erfolgt. Bei der seriellen Sanierung wird, in Anlehnung an die Industrie und an die modulare Bauweise, eine Vorfertigung der Fassaden-
und Dachelemente durchgeführt. Im Nachgang werden die einzelnen Bauelemente und Anlagen montiert bzw. installiert. Durch die Auslagerung der Produktion und durch die Vorfertigung der Elemente besteht das Potenzial, die Montagezeit und die damit verbundenen Einschränkungen vor Ort für die Bewohner deutlich zu reduzieren.
Apnea is a sleep disorder characterized by breathing interruptions during sleep, impacting cardiorespiratory function and overall health. Traditional diagnostic methods, like polysomnography (PSG), are unobtrusive, leading to noninvasive monitoring. This study aims to develop and validate a novel sleep monitoring system using noninvasive sensor technology to estimate cardiorespiratory parameters and detect sleep apnea. We designed a seamless monitoring system integrating noncontact force-sensitive resistor sensors to collect ballistocardiogram signals associated with cardiorespiratory activity. We enhanced the sensor’s sensitivity and reduced the noise by designing a new concept of edge-measuring sensor using a hemisphere dome and mechanical hanger to distribute the force and mechanically amplify the micromovement caused by cardiac and respiration activities. In total, we deployed three edge-measuring sensors, two deployed under the thoracic and one under the abdominal regions. The system is supported with onboard signal preprocessing in multiple physical layers deployed under the mattress. We collected the data in four sleeping positions from 16 subjects and analyzed them using ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EMD) to avoid frequency mixing. We also developed an adaptive thresholding method to identify sleep apnea. The error was reduced to 3.98 and 1.43 beats/min (BPM) in heart rate (HR) and respiration estimation, respectively. The apnea was detected with an accuracy of 87%. We optimized the system such that only one edge-measuring sensor can measure the cardiorespiratory parameters. Such a reduction in the complexity and simplification of the instruction of use shows excellent potential for in-home and continuous monitoring.
Unintrusive health monitoring systems is important when continuous monitoring of the patient vital signals is required. In this paper, signals obtained from accelerometers placed under a bed are processed with ballistocardiography algorithms and compared with synchronized electrocardiographic signals.
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are leading contributors to global mortality, necessitating advanced methods for vital sign monitoring. Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and Respiratory Rate, key indicators of cardiovascular health, are traditionally monitored via Electrocardiogram (ECG). However, ECG's obtrusiveness limits its practicality, prompting the exploration of Ballistocardiography (BCG) as a non-invasive alternative. BCG records the mechanical activity of the body with each heartbeat, offering a contactless method for HRV monitoring. Despite its benefits, BCG signals are susceptible to external interference and present a challenge in accurately detecting J-Peaks. This research uses advanced signal processing and deep learning techniques to overcome these limitations. Our approach integrates accelerometers for long-term BCG data collection during sleep, applying Discrete Wavelet Transforms (DWT) and Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD) for feature extraction. The Bi-LSTM model, leveraging these features, enhances heartbeat detection, offering improved reliability over traditional methods. The study's findings indicate that the combined use of DWT, EEMD, and Bi-LSTM for J-Peak detection in BCG signals is effective, with potential applications in unobtrusive long-term cardiovascular monitoring. Our results suggest that this methodology could contribute to HRV monitoring, particularly in home settings, enhancing patient comfort and compliance.
This study investigates the application of Force Sensing Resistor (FSR) sensors and machine learning algorithms for non-invasive body position monitoring during sleep. Although reliable, traditional methods like Polysomnography (PSG) are invasive and unsuited for extended home-based monitoring. Our approach utilizes FSR sensors placed beneath the mattress to detect body positions effectively. We employed machine learning techniques, specifically Random Forest (RF), K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), and XGBoost algorithms, to analyze the sensor data. The models were trained and tested using data from a controlled study with 15 subjects assuming various sleep positions. The performance of these models was evaluated based on accuracy and confusion matrices. The results indicate XGBoost as the most effective model for this application, followed by RF and KNN, offering promising avenues for home-based sleep monitoring systems.
The massive use of patient data for the training of artificial intelligence algorithms is common nowadays in medicine. In this scientific work, a statistical analysis of one of the most used datasets for the training of artificial intelligence models for the detection of sleep disorders is performed: sleep health heart study 2. This study focuses on determining whether the gender and age of the patients have a relevant influence to consider working with differentiated datasets based on these variables for the training of artificial intelligence models.
Accurate monitoring of a patient's heart rate is a key element in the medical observation and health monitoring. In particular, its importance extends to the identification of sleep-related disorders. Various methods have been established that involve sensor-based recording of physiological signals followed by automated examination and analysis. This study attempts to evaluate the efficacy of a non-invasive HR monitoring framework based on an accelerometer sensor specifically during sleep. To achieve this goal, the motion induced by thoracic movements during cardiac contractions is captured by a device installed under the mattress. Signal filtering techniques and heart rate estimation using the symlets6 wavelet are part of the implemented computational framework described in this article. Subsequent analysis indicates the potential applicability of this system in the prognostic domain, with an average error margin of approximately 3 beats per minute. The results obtained represent a promising advancement in non-invasive heart rate monitoring during sleep, with potential implications for improved diagnosis and management of cardiovascular and sleep-related disorders.
This paper compares two popular scripting implementations for hardware prototyping: Python scripts exe- cut from User-Space and C-based Linux-Driver processes executed from Kernel-Space, which can provide information to researchers when considering one or another in their implementations. Conclusions exhibit that deploying software scripts in the kernel space makes it possible to grant a certain quality of sensor information using a Raspberry Pi without the need for advanced real-time operational systems.
While driving, stress is caused by situations in which the driver estimates their ability to manage the driving demands as insufficient or loses the capability to handle the situation. This leads to increased numbers of driver mistakes and traffic violations. Additional stressing factors are time pressure, road conditions, or dislike for driving. Therefore, stress affects driver and road safety. Stress is classified into two categories depending on its duration and the effects on the body and psyche: short-term eustress and constantly present distress, which causes degenerative effects. In this work, we focus on distress. Wearable sensors are handy tools for collecting biosignals like heart rate, activity, etc. Easy installation and non-intrusive nature make them convenient for calculating stress. This study focuses on the investigation of stress and its implications. Specifically, the research conducts an analysis of stress within a select group of individuals from both Spain and Germany. The primary objective is to examine the influence of recognized psychological factors, including personality traits such as neuroticism, extroversion, psychoticism, stress and road safety. The estimation of stress levels was accomplished through the collection of physiological parameters (R-R intervals) using a Polar H10 chest strap. We observed that personality traits, such as extroversion, exhibited similar trends during relaxation, with an average heart rate 6% higher in Spain and 3% higher in Germany. However, while driving, introverts, on average, experienced more stress, with rates 4% and 1% lower than extroverts in Spain and Germany, respectively.
Measuring cardiorespiratory parameters in sleep, using non-contact sensors and the Ballistocardiography technique has received much attention due to the low-cost, unobtrusive, and non-invasive method. Designing a user-friendly, simple-to-use, and easy-to-deployment preserving less errorprone remains open and challenging due to the complex morphology of the signal. In this work, using four forcesensitive resistor sensors, we conducted a study by designing four distributions of sensors, in order to simplify the complexity of the system by identifying the region of interest for heartbeat and respiration measurement. The sensors are deployed under the mattress and attached to the bed frame without any interference with the subjects. The four distributions are combined in two linear horizontal, one linear vertical, and one square, covering the influencing region in cardiorespiratory activities. We recruited 4 subjects and acquired data in four regular sleeping positions, each for a duration of 80 seconds. The signal processing was performed using discrete wavelet transform bior 3.9 and smooth level of 4 as well as bandpass filtering. The results indicate that we have achieved the mean absolute error of 2.35 and 4.34 for respiration and heartbeat, respectively. The results recommend the efficiency of a triangleshaped structure of three sensors for measuring heartbeat and respiration parameters in all four regular sleeping positions.
Monitoring heart rate and breathing is essential in understanding the physiological processes for sleep analysis. Polysomnography (PSG) system have traditionally been used for sleep monitoring, but alternative methods can help to make sleep monitoring more portable in someone's home. This study conducted a series of experiments to investigate the use of pressure sensors placed under the bed as an alternative to PSG for monitoring heart rate and breathing during sleep. The following sets of experiments involved the addition of small rubber domes - transparent and black - that were glued to the pressure sensor. The resulting data were compared with the PSG system to determine the accuracy of the pressure sensor readings. The study found that the pressure sensor provided reliable data for extracting heart rate and respiration rate, with mean absolute errors (MAE) of 2.32 and 3.24 for respiration and heart rate, respectively. However, the addition of small rubber hemispheres did not significantly improve the accuracy of the readings, with MAEs of 2.3 bpm and 7.56 breaths per minute for respiration rate and heart rate, respectively. The findings of this study suggest that pressure sensors placed under the bed may serve as a viable alternative to traditional PSG systems for monitoring heart rate and breathing during sleep. These sensors provide a more comfortable and non-invasive method of sleep monitoring. However, the addition of small rubber domes did not significantly enhance the accuracy of the readings, indicating that it may not be a worthwhile addition to the pressure sensor system.
Sleep is an essential part of human existence, as we are in this state for approximately a third of our lives. Sleep disorders are common conditions that can affect many aspects of life. Sleep disorders are diagnosed in special laboratories with a polysomnography system, a costly procedure requiring much effort for the patient. Several systems have been proposed to address this situation, including performing the examination and analysis at the patient's home, using sensors to detect physiological signals automatically analysed by algorithms. This work aims to evaluate the use of a contactless respiratory recording system based on an accelerometer sensor in sleep apnea detection. For this purpose, an installation mounted under the bed mattress records the oscillations caused by the chest movements during the breathing process. The presented processing algorithm performs filtering of the obtained signals and determines the apnea events presence. The performance of the developed system and algorithm of apnea event detection (average values of accuracy, specificity and sensitivity are 94.6%, 95.3%, and 93.7% respectively) confirms the suitability of the proposed method and system for further ambulatory and in-home use.
Healthy sleep is one of the prerequisites for a good human body and brain condition, including general well-being. Unfortunately, there are several sleep disorders that can negatively affect this. One of the most common is sleep apnoea, in which breathing is impaired. Studies have shown that this disorder often remains undiagnosed. To avoid this, developing a system that can be widely used in a home environment to detect apnoea and monitor the changes once therapy has been initiated is essential. The conceptualisation of such a system is the main aim of this research. After a thorough analysis of the available literature and state of the art in this area of knowledge, a concept of the system was created, which includes the following main components: data acquisition (including two parts), storage of the data, apnoea detection algorithm, user and device management, data visualisation. The modules are interchangeable, and interfaces have been defined for data transfer, most of which operate using the MQTT protocol. System diagrams and detailed component descriptions, including signal requirements and visualisation mockups, have also been developed. The system's design includes the necessary concepts for the implementation and can be realised in a prototype in the next phase.
The influence of sleep on human health is enormous. Accordingly, sleep disorders can have a negative impact on it. To avoid this, they should be identified and treated in time. For this purpose, objective (with an appropriate device) or subjective (based on perceived values) measurement methods are used for sleep analysis to understand the problem. The aim of this work is to find out whether an exchange of the two methods is possible and can provide reliable results. In accordance with this goal, a study was conducted with people aged over 65 years old (a total of 154 night-time recordings) in which both measurement methods were compared. Sleep questionnaires and electronic devices for sleep assessment placed under the mattress were applied to achieve the study aims. The obtained results indicated that the correlation between both measurement methods could be observed for sleep characteristics such as total sleep time, total time in bed and sleep efficiency. However, there are also significant differences in absolute values of the two measurement approaches for some subjects/nights, which leads us to conclude that the substitution is more likely to be considered in case of long-term monitoring where the trends are of more importance and not the absolute values for individual nights.
The principal objective of this study is to investigate the impact of perceived stress on traffic and road safety. Therefore, we designed a study that allows the generation and collection of stress-relevant data. Drivers often experience stress due to their perception of lack of control during the driving process. This can lead to an increased likelihood of traffic accidents, driver errors, and traffic violations. To explore this phenomenon, we used the Stress Perceived Questionnaire (PSQ) to evaluate perceived stress levels during driving simulations and the EPQR questionnaire to determine the personality of the driver. With the presented study, participants can categorised based on their emotional stability and personality traits. Wearable devices were utilised to monitor each participant's instantaneous heart rate (HR) due to their non-intrusive and portable nature. The findings of this study deliver an overview of the link between stress and traffic and road safety. These findings can be utilised for future research and implementing strategies to reduce road accidents and promote traffic safety.
Development of an expert system to overpass citizens technological barriers on smart home and living
(2023)
Adopting new technologies can be overwhelming, even for people with experience in the field. For the general public, learning about new implementations, releases, brands, and enhancements can cause them to lose interest. There is a clear need to create point sources and platforms that provide helpful information about the novel and smart technologies, assisting users, technicians, and providers with products and technologies. The purpose of these platforms is twofold, as they can gather and share information on interests common to manufacturers and vendors. This paper presents the ”Finde-Dein-SmartHome” tool. Developed in association with the Smart Home & Living competence center [5] to help users learn about, understand, and purchase available technologies that meet their home automation needs. This tool aims to lower the usability barrier and guide potential customers to clear their doubts about privacy and pricing. Communities can use the information provided by this tool to identify market trends that could eventually lower costs for providers and incentivize access to innovative home technologies and devices supporting long-term care.
The development of automatic solutions for the detection of physiological events of interest is booming. Improvements in the collection and storage of large amounts of healthcare data allow access to these data faster and more efficiently. This fact means that the development of artificial intelligence models for the detection and monitoring of a large number of pathologies is becoming increasingly common in the medical field. In particular, developing deep learning models for detecting obstructive apnea (OSA) events is at the forefront. Numerous scientific studies focus on the architecture of the models and the results that these models can provide in terms of OSA classification and Apnea-Hypopnea-Index (AHI) calculation. However, little focus is put on other aspects of great relevance that are crucial for the training and performance of the models. Among these aspects can be found the set of physiological signals used and the preprocessing tasks prior to model training. This paper covers the essential requirements that must be considered before training the deep learning model for obstructive sleep apnea detection, in addition to covering solutions that currently exist in the scientific literature by analyzing the preprocessing tasks prior to training.
MiniKueWeE-Abwärmenutzung
(2023)
Das Thema Energiewende ist derzeit so aktuell wie nie. Neben dem Umstieg von fossilen auf erneuerbare Energien gewinnt auch die Energieeffizienz auf allen Ebenen immer mehr an Bedeutung. Dies gilt besonders für viele Teile des Gebäudebereichs, wo heute eine beachtliche Energiemenge, nicht nur für die Wärmeerzeugung, sondern auch zur Raumkühlung benötigt wird (Umweltbundesamt 2020). In Anbetracht der Klimaveränderungen wird der Kühlbedarf in den nächsten Jahrzehnten zudem noch weiter ansteigen. Aus diesem Grund gibt es einen großen Bedarf an innovativen Lösungen, welche eine effiziente Raumkühlung unter möglichst geringem Energieeinsatz gewährleisten. Die vorliegende Projektarbeit untersucht einen Teilbereich einer solchen Lösung. Genaueres zum Hintergrund, den technischen Randbedingungen sowie den Zielen des Projekts, wird in den folgenden Abschnitten erläutert.
Background: Polysomnography (PSG) is the gold standard for detecting obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). However, this technique has many disadvantages when using it outside the hospital or for daily use. Portable monitors (PMs) aim to streamline the OSA detection process through deep learning (DL).
Materials and methods: We studied how to detect OSA events and calculate the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) by using deep learning models that aim to be implemented on PMs. Several deep learning models are presented after being trained on polysomnography data from the National Sleep Research Resource (NSRR) repository. The best hyperparameters for the DL architecture are presented. In addition, emphasis is focused on model explainability techniques, concretely on Gradient-weighted Class Activation Mapping (Grad-CAM).
Results: The results for the best DL model are presented and analyzed. The interpretability of the DL model is also analyzed by studying the regions of the signals that are most relevant for the model to make the decision. The model that yields the best result is a one-dimensional convolutional neural network (1D-CNN) with 84.3% accuracy.
Conclusion: The use of PMs using machine learning techniques for detecting OSA events still has a long way to go. However, our method for developing explainable DL models demonstrates that PMs appear to be a promising alternative to PSG in the future for the detection of obstructive apnea events and the automatic calculation of AHI.
The scoring of sleep stages is one of the essential tasks in sleep analysis. Since a manual procedure requires considerable human and financial resources, and incorporates some subjectivity, an automated approach could result in several advantages. There have been many developments in this area, and in order to provide a comprehensive overview, it is essential to review relevant recent works and summarise the characteristics of the approaches, which is the main aim of this article. To achieve it, we examined articles published between 2018 and 2022 that dealt with the automated scoring of sleep stages. In the final selection for in-depth analysis, 125 articles were included after reviewing a total of 515 publications. The results revealed that automatic scoring demonstrates good quality (with Cohen's kappa up to over 0.80 and accuracy up to over 90%) in analysing EEG/EEG + EOG + EMG signals. At the same time, it should be noted that there has been no breakthrough in the quality of results using these signals in recent years. Systems involving other signals that could potentially be acquired more conveniently for the user (e.g. respiratory, cardiac or movement signals) remain more challenging in the implementation with a high level of reliability but have considerable innovation capability. In general, automatic sleep stage scoring has excellent potential to assist medical professionals while providing an objective assessment.
The architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry is currently in transformation. Within this transformation, digitalization has a leading function, whereby a higher level of efficiency is pursued. In order to ensure a coordinated information exchange within the digitalization, the concept of the Common Data Environment (CDE) has been developed in the last years. A CDE is a cloud based collaborative platform that is used to exchange project information and data between the different stakeholders of a construction project. The main objective of this thesis is the implementation of a suitable CDE solution for the purpose of a construction management company.
For this purpose, an evaluation of different CDE software on the market, based on the functions and usability of the different software, has been complied to identify the most suitable solution. Secondly, a concept for the setup and implementation of a CDE solution has been developed. Therefore, advice for a successful change-management has been established to ensure the good implementation of the CDE.
The first part of the thesis includes a literature review through which the current state of the information management in the AEC industry is analyzed. The advantages of a CDE for the information management are also analyzed. Therefore, a synthesis of the functions and requirements to a CDE has been complied.
The second part of the thesis links the concept of Building Information Modelling (BIM) with the CDE. The advantages of a CDE in the BIM process has been established.
The third part of the thesis treats the evaluation of CDE software. This evaluation has been complied with a scoring method. As basis of the evaluation, a requirement list has been developed in which all the required functions of a CDE are listed.
In the fourth part of the thesis, a concept for the establishment of a CDE has been developed. The developed concept is a practical application of the standards specifications to CDE. The concept has been developed with CDE expert and CDE power users. The developed concept treats overall of the structuration, the standardization, and the implementation of a CDE.
The last part treats of the change process engender by the implementation of a CDE.
Summary, this thesis provides a structure for the implementation of a CDE software and serves as framework for companies of the AEC industry to select and establish a CDE.
Mit Eis erneuerbar Heizen
(2023)
In order to ensure sufficient recovery of the human body and brain, healthy sleep is indispensable. For this purpose, appropriate therapy should be initiated at an early stage in the case of sleep disorders. For some sleep disorders (e.g., insomnia), a sleep diary is essential for diagnosis and therapy monitoring. However, subjective measurement with a sleep diary has several disadvantages, requiring regular action from the user and leading to decreased comfort and potential data loss. To automate sleep monitoring and increase user comfort, one could consider replacing a sleep diary with an automatic measurement, such as a smartwatch, which would not disturb sleep. To obtain accurate results on the evaluation of the possibility of such a replacement, a field study was conducted with a total of 166 overnight recordings, followed by an analysis of the results. In this evaluation, objective sleep measurement with a Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 was compared to a subjective approach with a sleep diary, which is a standard method in sleep medicine. The focus was on comparing four relevant sleep characteristics: falling asleep time, waking up time, total sleep time (TST), and sleep efficiency (SE). After evaluating the results, it was concluded that a smartwatch could replace subjective measurement to determine falling asleep and waking up time, considering some level of inaccuracy. In the case of SE, substitution was also proved to be possible. However, some individual recordings showed a higher discrepancy in results between the two approaches. For its part, the evaluation of the TST measurement currently does not allow us to recommend substituting the measurement method for this sleep parameter. The appropriateness of replacing sleep diary measurement with a smartwatch depends on the acceptable levels of discrepancy. We propose four levels of similarity of results, defining ranges of absolute differences between objective and subjective measurements. By considering the values in the provided table and knowing the required accuracy, it is possible to determine the suitability of substitution in each individual case. The introduction of a “similarity level” parameter increases the adaptability and reusability of study findings in individual practical cases.
Entwicklung und Analyse eines Turmes aus Buchenfurnierschichtholz für eine Kleinwindkraftanlage
(2023)
Die Energiepreise in Deutschland steigen und viele Immobilienbesitzer wollen unabhängiger von den Stromerzeugern werden, weshalb sie in eine eigene Stromproduktion investieren. Eine optimale Ergänzung zu einer Photovoltaikanlage stellt dabei eine Kleinwindkraftanlage dar, die im Vergleich zu den großen Anlagen geringere Umweltbelastungen verursacht. Allerdings entstehen beim Bau einer Kleinwindkraftanlage hohe Kosten, weshalb dieses Konzept kaum verbreitet ist.
Die Türme von Windkraftanlagen werden normalerweise aus Stahl hergestellt. Bei der Herstellung dieses Baustoffs werden große Mengen an Treibhausgasen freigesetzt. Ein umweltfreundlicheres Material ist der nachwachsende Rohstoff Holz. Die Herstellung der Türme in Holzbauweise ist bisher kaum zu finden. Daher wird in dieser Arbeit untersucht, ob ein Holzturm eine Alternative zum Stahlturm sein kann und ob dadurch die Investitionskosten für eine Kleinwindkraftanlage gesenkt werden können.
Um die Forschungsfrage zu beantworten, wurde ein Konzept für einen Holzturm aus Buchenfurnierschichtholz entwickelt. Zunächst wurde die Bedeutung von Buchenholz im Bauwesen erarbeitet. Anschließend wurden die Grundlagen für den Bau von Kleinwindkraftanlagen erforscht und die Abmessungen einer fiktiven Anlage festgelegt. Es wurden die relevanten Einwirkungen ermittelt und die Anlage mittels einer Finiten-Elemente-Berechnung untersucht. Zuletzt wurden die Nachweise für die Tragfähigkeit und die Ermüdungssicherheit des Querschnittes und der Verbindungsmittel geführt.
Bei den Untersuchungen der Randbedingungen konnten keine Argumente gefunden werden, die gegen die Verwendung von Holz sprechen. In einigen Punkten wie beispielsweise in der Herstellungs- und Errichtungsphase sind sogar Vorteile gegenüber dem Stahl zu erkennen. Zudem wurde in einer Kostenschätzung herausgefunden, dass ein Holzturm auch preislich mithalten kann und dass die Herstellungskosten sogar gesenkt werden können. Die Gesamtkosten für eine Kleinwindkraftanlage können dennoch nur unwesentlich gesenkt werden. Die Investition ist daher nur sinnvoll, wenn am geplanten Standort genügend Wind zur Verfügung steht und wenn der produzierte Strom größtenteils selbst genutzt werden kann.
Optimierungsansätze zur Verbesserung der Leistungsbeschreibungen bei öffentlichen Bauvorhaben
(2021)
Elbphilharmonie, BER, Bischofsresistenz Limburg, Stuttgart 21, Alter Elbtunnel Hamburg. Alles bekannte deutsche Bauprojekte der letzten 20 Jahre. Alle mit einer Gemeinsamkeit: Exorbitante Kostenexplosionen und Bauzeitenverzögerungen.
In dieser Arbeit wird aufgezeigt, weshalb solche Kostenexplosionen auch aufgrund von Unklarheiten bzw. Fehlern in Leistungsbeschreibungen entstehen und welches enorme Potential klare und erschöpfende Leistungsbeschreibungen haben, um bereits im Vorfeld eines Bauvorhabens die Weichen für einen reibungslosen und erfolgreichen Projektverlauf zu stellen.
inno4regio
(2021)
Unternehmen stehen häufig unter einem Innovationsdruck, um ihre langfristige Wettbewerbsfähigkeit zu sichern. Vor allem kleine und mittelständische Unternehmen sind hier besonders gefordert, da ihnen vielfach die erforderlichen Ressourcen oder Kompetenzträger fehlen und das tägliche operative Geschäft häufig eine intensive Auseinandersetzung mit dem Thema nicht zulässt.
Diese Unternehmen sind auf externe Ressourcen angewiesen. Hinzu kommt die Unsicherheit vieler Unternehmer hinsichtlich Kooperationsmöglichkeiten mit öffentlichen Forschungseinrichtungen sowie organisatorische Bedenken mit dem damit verbundenen Koordinationsaufwand.
Das Innovationsportal inno4regio kann genau hier Abhilfe schaffen. Mittels standardisierter Prozesse soll den Unternehmern eine Möglichkeit geboten werden, externe Innovationsvorhaben durch eine Problemanalyse anzustoßen und die notwendigen Partner aus der Hochschulwelt einzubinden. Der Zugriff über einen Knotenpunkt auf das fachliche sowie kreative Personal von rund dreißig Hochschulen im Verbund der Internationalen Bodensee-Hochschule ist dabei ein Alleinstellungsmerkmal, welches in dieser Form bisher noch nicht am Markt existiert.
Globalization has increased the number of road trips and vehicles. The result has been an intensification of traffic accidents, which are becoming one of the most important causes of death worldwide. Traffic accidents are often due to human error, the probability of which increases when the cognitive ability of the driver decreases. Cognitive capacity is closely related to the driver’s mental state, as well as other external factors such as the CO2 concentration inside the vehicle. The objective of this work is to analyze how these elements affect driving. We have conducted an experiment with 50 drivers who have driven for 25 min using a driving simulator. These drivers completed a survey at the start and end of the experiment to obtain information about their mental state. In addition, during the test, their stress level was monitored using biometric sensors and the state of the environment (temperature, humidity and CO2 level) was recorded. The results of the experiment show that the initial level of stress and tiredness of the driver can have a strong impact on stress, driving behavior and fatigue produced by the driving test. Other elements such as sadness and the conditions of the interior of the vehicle also cause impaired driving and affect compliance with traffic regulations.
This document presents a new complete standalone system for a recognition of sleep apnea using signals from the pressure sensors placed under the mattress. The developed hardware part of the system is tuned to filter and to amplify the signal. Its software part performs more accurate signal filtering and identification of apnea events. The overall achieved accuracy of the recognition of apnea occurrence is 91%, with the average measured recognition delay of about 15 seconds, which confirms the suitability of the proposed method for future employment. The main aim of the presented approach is the support of the healthcare system with the cost-efficient tool for recognition of sleep apnea in the home environment.
The ballistocardiography is a technique that measures the heart rate from the mechanical vibrations of the body due to the heart movement. In this work a novel noninvasive device placed under the mattress of a bed estimates the heart rate using the ballistocardiography. Different algorithms for heart rate estimation have been developed.
Methods based exclusively on heart rate hardly allow to differentiate between physical activity, stress, relaxation, and rest, that is why an additional sensor like activity/movement sensor added for detection and classification. The response of the heart to physical activity, stress, relaxation, and no activity can be very similar. In this study, we can observe the influence of induced stress and analyze which metrics could be considered for its detection. The changes in the Root Mean Square of the Successive Differences provide us with information about physiological changes. A set of measurements collecting the RR intervals was taken. The intervals are used as a parameter to distinguish four different stages. Parameters like skin conductivity or skin temperature were not used because the main aim is to maintain a minimum number of sensors and devices and thereby to increase the wearability in the future.
BIM im Membranbau
(2019)
Die fortschreitende Digitalisierung wird zurzeit zu einem der wichtigsten Themen und zugleich zu einer der größten Herausforderungen für die Bauwirtschaft. Building Information Modeling (BIM) kommt eine immer größere Bedeutung zu.
Es ist sicherlich richtig, dass derzeit nur wenige Projekte im Bauwesen den geforderten BIM-Anforderungen der Bauherrschaft genügen. Es ist zu erwarten, dass in den kommenden Jahren auch an Membranbauprojekte immer mehr Anforderungen bezüglich BIM gestellt werden. Aus diesem Grund ist es wichtig, dass sich Planungsbüros für leichte Flächentragwerke mit dem Thema BIM befassen.
Ziel dieser Arbeit ist die Ausarbeitung eines Konzepts für die effiziente durchgehende Umsetzung der Building Information Modeling-Arbeitsmethode bei der Tragwerksplanung im Membranbau.
Es werden vorhandene Funktionalitäten untersucht und alternative Interoperabilitätskomponenten entwickelt. Aufbauend auf den möglichen Werkzeugketten werden verschiedene Einsatzverfahren vorgeschlagen. Darauffolgend wird eines der möglichen Verfahren an einem realen Tragwerk implementiert. Die erhaltenen Ergebnisse werden einer kritischen Analyse unterzogen.
Abschließende Rückschlüsse, Beurteilung der angewandten Planungsmethoden und Ausblick fassen das behandelte Thema zusammen.
Bei der Arbeit verwendete Methoden schließen den parametrischen Entwurf, manuelle Modellierung in zwei verschiedenen Softwareumgebungen und textliche Programmierung mit C#-Sprache ein.
Die Relevanz des untersuchten Themas erstreckt sich überwiegend auf praktisch tätige Ingenieure aus den Bereichen leichte Flächentragwerke, Sondertragwerke, Membranbau, wird aber auch für wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter der Forschungsinstitutionen, BIM-Spezialisten und Produkthersteller von Interesse sein.
Ein Beitrag zum Beobachterentwurf und zur sensorlosen Folgeregelung translatorischer Magnetaktoren
(2020)
Autismus-Spektrum-Störungen (ASD) bei Kindern werden häufig zu spät diagnostiziert und die Begleitung der chronischen Krankheit gestaltet sich schwierig. Der vorgestellte Ansatz erlaubt die Behandlung der Kinder in dem bekannten häuslichen Umfeld und versucht die Beziehungen zwischen Schlaf und Verhalten herauszuarbeiten. Die gewonnenen Erkenntnisse sollen die Lebensqualität der Patienten verbessern und den Eltern Hilfestellung geben. Die notwendige infrastrukturelle Unterstützung wird durch medizinisches Fachpersonal geleistet, das auf einen web-basierten Service zurückgreifen kann, der sämtliche Prozesse (Diagnostik, Datenerfassung, -aufzeichnung und Training etc.) begleitet. Die anonymisierten Daten werden in einem Diagnosesystem zentral abgelegt und können so für zukünftige Behandlungsstrategien nutzbar sein. Die umfassende Lösung setzt auf zentrale Elemente von Smart-Homes und AAL auf.
Path planning and collision avoidance for safe autonomous vessel navigation in dynamic environments
(2017)
The number of home office workers sitting for many hours is increasing. The sensor chair is tracking users’ sitting behavior which the help of pressure sensors and tries to avoid wrong postures which may cause diseases. The system provides live monitoring of the pressure distribution via web interface, as well as sitting posture prediction in real time. Posture analysis is realized through machine learning algorithm using a decision tree classifier that is compared to a random forest. Data acquisition and aggregation for the learning process happens with a mobile app adding users biometrical data and the taken sitting posture as label. The sensor chair is able to differentiate between an arched back, a neutral posture or a laid back position taken on the chair. The classifier achieves an accuracy of 97.4% on our test set and is comparable to the performance of the random forest with 98.9%.
In the field of autonomously driving vehicles the environment perception containing dynamic objects like other road users is essential. Especially, detecting other vehicles in the road traffic using sensor data is of utmost importance. As the sensor data and the applied system model for the objects of interest are noise corrupted, a filter algorithm must be used to track moving objects. Using LIDAR sensors one object gives rise to more than one measurement per time step and is therefore called extended object. This allows to jointly estimate the objects, position, as well as its orientation, extension and shape. Estimating an arbitrary shaped object comes with a higher computational effort than estimating the shape of an object that can be approximated using a basic geometrical shape like an ellipse or a rectangle. In the case of a vehicle, assuming a rectangular shape is an accurate assumption.
A recently developed approach models the contour of a vehicle as periodic B-spline function. This representation is an easy to use tool, as the contour can be specified by some basis points in Cartesian coordinates. Also rotating, scaling and moving the contour is easy to handle using a spline contour. This contour model can be used to develop a measurement model for extended objects, that can be integrated into a tracking filter. Another approach modeling the shape of a vehicle is the so-called bounding box that represents the shape as rectangle.
In this thesis the basics of single, multi and extended object tracking, as well as the basics of B-spline functions are addressed. Afterwards, the spline measurement model is established in detail and integrated into an extended Kalman filter to track a single extended object. An implementation of the resulting algorithm is compared with the rectangular shape estimator. The implementation of the rectangular shape estimator is provided. The comparison is done using long-term considerations with Monte Carlo simulations and by analyzing the results of a single run. Therefore, both algorithms are applied to the same measurements. The measurements are generated using an artificial LIDAR sensor in a simulation environment.
In a real-world tracking scenario detecting several extended objects and measurements that do not originate from a real object, named clutter measurements, is possible. Also, the sudden appearance and disappearance of an object is possible. A filter framework investigated in recent years that can handle tracking multiple objects in a cluttered environment is a random finite set based approach. The idea of random finite sets and its use in a tracking filter is recapped in this thesis. Afterwards, the spline measurement model is included in a multi extended object tracking framework. An implementation of the resulting filter is investigated in a long-term consideration using Monte Carlo simulations and by analyzing the results of a single run. The multi extended object filter is also applied to artificial LIDAR measurements generated in a simulation environment.
The results of comparing the spline based and rectangular based extended object trackers show a more stable performance of the spline extended object tracker. Also, some problems that have to be addressed in future works are discussed. The investigation of the resulting multi extended object tracker shows a successful integration of the spline measurement model in a multi extended object tracker. Also, with these results some problems remain, that have to be solved in future works.
Die Erholung unseres Körpers und Gehirns von Müdigkeit ist direkt abhängig von der Qualität des Schlafes, die aus den Ergebnissen einer Schlafstudie ermittelt werden kann. Die Klassifizierung der Schlafstadien ist der erste Schritt dieser Studie und beinhaltet die Messung von Biovitaldaten und deren weitere Verarbeitung. Das non-invasive Schlafanalyse-System basiert auf einem Hardware-Sensornetz aus 24 Drucksensoren, das die Schlafphasenerkennung ermöglicht. Die Drucksensoren sind mit einem energieeffizienten Mikrocontroller über einen systemweiten Bus mit Adressarbitrierung verbunden. Ein wesentlicher Unterschied dieses Systems im Vergleich zu anderen Ansätzen ist die innovative Art, die Sensoren unter der Matratze zu platzieren. Diese Eigenschaft erleichtert die kontinuierliche Nutzung des Systems ohne fühlbaren Einfluss auf das gewohnte Bett. Das System wurde getestet, indem Experimente durchgeführt wurden, die den Schlaf verschiedener gesunder junger Personen aufzeichneten. Die ersten Ergebnisse weisen auf das Potenzial hin, nicht nur Atemfrequenz und Körperbewegung, sondern auch Herzfrequenz zu erfassen.
This paper analyses international cooperation in alternative energy production research and development. Therefore, patents of the technological domain, registered at the European Patent Office from 1997 until 2016, are analysed. International cooperation is considered when patents involve co-assignment or co-inventorship comprising two or more different countries. Generally, international R&D cooperation tends to be increasing over time in alternative energy production. In total, 2234 co-patents from 87 countries are identified. Through social network analysis the cooperative relationships between countries are examined. The most significant states of the network are the United States of America and Germany. Innovative clusters and strong partnerships are identified. Alternative energy technologies that involve international cooperation most extensively are harnessing energy from manmade waste, solar energy and bio-fuels. The paper clarifies which countries are cooperating with each other for what purpose. The findings can be used for establishing R&D strategies in the domain of alternative energy production.