Antenna Design for Contactless IC Card Applications

Contactless integrated circuit cards are one form of application of radio frequency identification. They are used in applications such as access control, identification, and payment in public transport. The contactless IC cards are passive which means that both the data and the energy are transferred to the card without contact using inductive coupling. Antenna design and optimization of the design for contactless IC cards defined by ISO/IEC14443 is studied. The basic operation principles of contactless system are presented and the structure of contactless IC card is illustrated. The structure was divided between the contactless chip and the antenna. The operation of the antenna was covered in depth and the parameters affecting to the performance of the antenna were presented. Also the different antenna technologies and connection technologies were provided. The antenna design process with the parameters and the design tools isillustrated and optimization of the design is studied. To make the design process more ideal a target of development was discovered, which was the implementation of test application. The optimization of the antenna design was presented based on the optimization criteria defined in this study. The solution for the implementation of these criteria and the effect of each criterion was found. For enhancing the performance of the antenna a focus for future study was proposed.

Putkilinjan suunnittelu integroidussa simulointiympäristössä

Työn tavoitteena oli määritellä kirjallisuustutkimuksen ja suunnitteluesimerkin avulla vaatimuksia integroidulle simulointiympäristölle, joka sisältää simulointiohjelmien lisäksi prosessilaitteiden mitoitusohjelmia ja prosessilaite- ja mallitietokannan. Lisäksi pohdittiin simulointiympäristön tuomia etuja prosessissuunnitteluun. Esimerkkinä käytettiin yksinkertaista putkilinjaa. Ensin selvitettiin prosessisuunnittelun kulkua, menetelmiä, apuvälineitä ja ajankohtaisia teemoja kirjallisuuden perusteella. Prosessisuunnittelun menetelmistä keskityttiin yksityiskohtaisemmin prosessisimulointiin. Lisäksi etsittiin kirjallisuudesta esimerkkejä integroiduista suunnitteluympäristöistä. Kirjallisuusselvityksen perusteella määriteltiin yleisiä vaatimuksia integroidulle simulointiympäristölle. Seuraavaksi suunniteltiin esimerkkinä käytetty putkilinja ja kuvattiin suunnittelun eteneminen. Suunnitteluesimerkin avulla pyrittiin tunnistamaan suunnitteluprosessista ne kohdat, joissa integroitu simulointiympäristö helpottaisi työskentelyä sekä pohtimaan yksityiskohtaisemmin integroidun simulointiympäristön toimintoja. Lopuksi kuvattiin putkilinjan suunnittelun eteneminen integroidussa simulointiympäristössä ja pohdittiin sen etuja verrattuna perinteiseen putkilinjan suunnitteluun. Tutkimuksen perusteella integroitu simulointiympäristö tehostaa prosessisuunnittelua siten, että simulointimallien määrittelyissä tarvittavat laitetiedot ovat saatavissa helposti ja nopeasti ohjelmien ymmärtämässä muodossa. Simulointiympäristössä tieto eri sovellusten välillä siirtyy osittain automaattisesti, minkä takia ohjelmiin ei erikseen tarvitse syöttää samoja tietoja. Lisäksi integroitu simulointiympäristö tukee rinnakkaista suunnittelua ja automaatio- ja prosessisuunnittelun integrointia.Jatkotutkimusehdotuksena on lisäselvitykset siitä, miten simulointiympäristö sijoittuisi yrityksissä jo olemassa oleviin suunnittelujärjestelmiin, etenkin tiedonhallintajärjestelmiin nähden. Muina jatkotutkimusehdotuksina on integroidun simulointiympäristön tarkasteleminen automaatiosuunnittelijan kannalta sekä vaatimusmäärittelyjen tarkentaminen. Työssä ei juuri ole kiinnitetty huomiota siihen, kuinka helposti ehdotetut simulointiympäristön toiminnot ja vaatimukset ovat toteutettavissa teknisesti tai ylipäätään ovatko toteutettavissa, joten tämäkin vaatinee jatkotutkimuksia.

Robots and robotic systems for the electronics and telecommunication industry

Tämä diplomityö tutkii elektroniikka- ja telekommunikaatioteollisuutta sekä siihen läheisesti liittyviä robotteja ja robottijärjestelmiä. Tavoitteena on määrittää E&T-teollisuuden prosesseihin soveltuvien robottien testausmenetelmä. Tavoitteena on myös selvittää kahden ABB:n robotin soveltuvuutta E&T-teollisuuden tarpeisiin. Muutamia systemaattisia valmistusjärjestelmien suunnitteluun soveltuvia menetelmiä ja apuvälineitä on myös käsitelty. Alussa työ keskittyy elektroniikka- ja telekommunikaatioteollisuuden nykytilan tutkimiseen sekä siellä vallitsevien ja ennustettujen trendien kartoitukseen. Kohdat “Collaborative manufacturing” ja E&T-teollisuuden valmistusjärjestelmille asettamat vaatimukset käydään yksityiskohtaisesti läpi. Tutkimuksen pääkohteina ovat robotit, erityisesti ABB:n IRB 140 ja IRB 340 sekä robottien testausmenetelmän määrittäminen. Työssä käydään läpi IRB 340:llä suoritetut testit, jotka tehtiin sekä konenäköjärjestelmää apuna käyttäen että ilman. Myös TTKK:lla suoritetut robottitestit on käyty läpi. Robottien testituloksia on analysoitu ja vertailtu muihin robotteihin. Testausmenetelmät perustuvat ISO 9283 standardiin. Viimeinen osa työstä esittelee robottijärjestelmien systemaattiseen suunnitteluun soveltuvia menetelmiä ja apuvälineitä. Esillä ovat mm. Modular function deployment (MFD) ja The system design method (SDM).

Suurnopeuskompressorin modulaarisen runkosarjan suunnittelu

Tässä diplomityössä suunniteltiin parametrisesti modulaarinen koneen runko. Pyrkimyksenä oli suunnitella kokonaiskustannuksiltaan alhaisempi runkosarja jo olemassa oleviin suurnopeuskompressoreihin. Raportissa kerrotaan ensin modulaaristen tuoterakenteiden suunnittelusta ja käytettävästä suunnitteluohjelmistosta (SolidWorks). Sen jälkeen keskitytään suurnopeuskompressorin runkosarjan suunnitteluun esimerkkitapauksena. Aluksi keskitytään selvittämään rungolle asetettuja vaatimuksia ja ideoimaan erilaisia runkokonsepteja. Työ etenee ideoiden vertailun kautta modulaaristen konseptien luomiseen ja kahden moduulin moduulikohtaiseen suunnitteluun. Suunnitteluprosessissa käytetään rakenteen käyttäytymisen arviointiin äärellisten elementtien menetelmää (FEM). Työssä kehitettiin alkuperäisiin runkorakenteisiin verrattuna 10 % kustannuksiltaan edullisempi runkorakenneratkaisu, jonka purettavuus lisäksi alentaa rakenteen kuljetus- ja varastointikustannuksia.

Modal testing and numerical modeling of the dynamic properties of layered sheet-steel structure

Recently, due to the increasing total construction and transportation cost and difficulties associated with handling massive structural components or assemblies, there has been increasing financial pressure to reduce structural weight. Furthermore, advances in material technology coupled with continuing advances in design tools and techniques have encouraged engineers to vary and combine materials, offering new opportunities to reduce the weight of mechanical structures. These new lower mass systems, however, are more susceptible to inherent imbalances, a weakness that can result in higher shock and harmonic resonances which leads to poor structural dynamic performances. The objective of this thesis is the modeling of layered sheet steel elements, to accurately predict dynamic performance. During the development of the layered sheet steel model, the numerical modeling approach, the Finite Element Analysis and the Experimental Modal Analysis are applied in building a modal model of the layered sheet steel elements. Furthermore, in view of getting a better understanding of the dynamic behavior of layered sheet steel, several binding methods have been studied to understand and demonstrate how a binding method affects the dynamic behavior of layered sheet steel elements when compared to single homogeneous steel plate. Based on the developed layered sheet steel model, the dynamic behavior of a lightweight wheel structure to be used as the structure for the stator of an outer rotor Direct-Drive Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator designed for high-power wind turbines is studied.

Study of ligand-based virtual screening tools in computer-aided drug design

Virtual screening is a central technique in drug discovery today. Millions of molecules can be tested in silico with the aim to only select the most promising and test them experimentally. The topic of this thesis is ligand-based virtual screening tools which take existing active molecules as starting point for finding new drug candidates. One goal of this thesis was to build a model that gives the probability that two molecules are biologically similar as function of one or more chemical similarity scores. Another important goal was to evaluate how well different ligand-based virtual screening tools are able to distinguish active molecules from inactives. One more criterion set for the virtual screening tools was their applicability in scaffold-hopping, i.e. finding new active chemotypes. In the first part of the work, a link was defined between the abstract chemical similarity score given by a screening tool and the probability that the two molecules are biologically similar. These results help to decide objectively which virtual screening hits to test experimentally. The work also resulted in a new type of data fusion method when using two or more tools. In the second part, five ligand-based virtual screening tools were evaluated and their performance was found to be generally poor. Three reasons for this were proposed: false negatives in the benchmark sets, active molecules that do not share the binding mode, and activity cliffs. In the third part of the study, a novel visualization and quantification method is presented for evaluation of the scaffold-hopping ability of virtual screening tools.

Simulation and optimization tools in paper machine concept design

The last decade has shown that the global paper industry needs new processes and products in order to reassert its position in the industry. As the paper markets in Western Europe and North America have stabilized, the competition has tightened. Along with the development of more cost-effective processes and products, new process design methods are also required to break the old molds and create new ideas. This thesis discusses the development of a process design methodology based on simulation and optimization methods. A bi-level optimization problem and a solution procedure for it are formulated and illustrated. Computational models and simulation are used to illustrate the phenomena inside a real process and mathematical optimization is exploited to find out the best process structures and control principles for the process. Dynamic process models are used inside the bi-level optimization problem, which is assumed to be dynamic and multiobjective due to the nature of papermaking processes. The numerical experiments show that the bi-level optimization approach is useful for different kinds of problems related to process design and optimization. Here, the design methodology is applied to a constrained process area of a papermaking line. However, the same methodology is applicable to all types of industrial processes, e.g., the design of biorefiners, because the methodology is totally generalized and can be easily modified.

Development of Paperboard Forming Tools with a Focus on Intelligent Manufacturing

Tämä diplomityö käsittelee kartonginmuovaukseen käytettävien puristintyökalujen kehittämistä. Työntavoitteina oli kehittää työkalutekniikan suunnittelua ja valmistusta edullisemmaksi, nopeammaksi ja työkaluja toiminnoiltaan tehokkaammiksi. Työn tuli sisältää myös ohjeet työkalujen suunnittelemiseksi ja valmistamiseksi jatkoa ajatellen. Työn aikana selvitettiin mahdollisia työkalurakennevaihtoehtoja, valmistusmateriaaleja sekä niiden käsittelymenetelmiä ja lastuamista sekä sen tarjoamia mahdollisuuksia valmistusmenetelmänä. Työkalupari suunniteltiin modulaariseksi siten, että uusia työkaluja varten vain osa komponenteista täytyy valmistaa uudelleen, samalla työkalun osien lukumäärää pienennettiin merkittävästi. Valmistusmateriaaliksi valittiin hyvin lastuttava työkaluteräs ja sen koneistaminen tapahtui vaakakaraisessa koneistuskeskuksessa. Työn loppuvaiheessa työkalukokonaisuudelle tehtiin kustannuslaskelma jaoteltuna eri työvaiheille sekä komponenteittain. Työkalu asennettiin puristimeen ja sille suoritettiin käyttötestaus. Työn aikana karttuneen kokemuksen sekä koekäytön perusteella tehtiin jatkokehitysehdotuksia.

Welding time models for cost calculations in the early stages of the design process

It is generally accepted that between 70 and 80% of manufacturing costs can be attributed to design. Nevertheless, it is difficult for the designer to estimate manufacturing costs accurately, especially when alternative constructions are compared at the conceptual design phase, because of the lack of cost information and appropriate tools. In general, previous reports concerning optimisation of a welded structure have used the mass of the product as the basis for the cost comparison. However, it can easily be shown using a simple example that the use of product mass as the sole manufacturing cost estimator is unsatisfactory. This study describes a method of formulating welding time models for cost calculation, and presents the results of the models for particular sections, based on typical costs in Finland. This was achieved by collecting information concerning welded products from different companies. The data included 71 different welded assemblies taken from the mechanical engineering and construction industries. The welded assemblies contained in total 1 589 welded parts, 4 257 separate welds, and a total welded length of 3 188 metres. The data were modelled for statistical calculations, and models of welding time were derived by using linear regression analysis. Themodels were tested by using appropriate statistical methods, and were found to be accurate. General welding time models have been developed, valid for welding in Finland, as well as specific, more accurate models for particular companies. The models are presented in such a form that they can be used easily by a designer, enabling the cost calculation to be automated.

Design, implementation and testing of DVB/MHP-application development environment

Tämä diplomityö esittelee 1.6. - 4.11.2002 Mikkelin ammattikorkeakoulun YTI-tutkimuskeskuksen Informaatio- ja mediateknologian hankekokonaisuuden STRIMT-projektin puitteissa tekemäni MHP-kehitysjärjestelmähankinnan tuloksia. Digitaalitelevision MHP-sovelluskehitysjärjestelmän hankinnan tulosten lisäksi työ antaa yleiskuvan MHP-sovelluskehitystyökaluista, digitaalitelevisiostandardeista sekä digitaalitelevisioverkkojen yhteistoimintamalleista televerkkojen kanssa. Keräämieni tietojen, tekemäni tarvemäärittelyn ja suorittamani tuotevertailun perusteella valitsin tarpeisiimme sopivimmaksi järjestelmäksi Alticast Inc.-yrityksen Altifusion-tuotteen. Tuotteen valinnassa otin huomioon myös mahdolliset tulevaisuuden tarpeet aina täysimittaista lähetysjärjestelmää varten kehittämällä vaiheittaisen hankintasuunnitelman. Järjestelmää hankittaessa tärkeintä on huomioida heti alusta alkaen mahdolliset tulevat tarpeet ja varmistaa hankinnan hyödynnettävyys myös tulevaisuudessa. Järjestelmän hankinnan lisäksi vastasin sen käyttöönotosta ja järjestelmää hyödyntävän testisovelluksen laatimisesta.

The Design of a Software Lifecycle Management Framework to a Configuration Management System

Keeping track of software assets and managing software installations in IT environments can be a hard endeavor, especially when the size and diversity of the environment grows. How to install and uninstall software efficiently and cost effectively? Are there too few or too many software licenses purchased? If installed, is the software actually in use? Software Asset Management (SAM) is a process that involves managing and optimizing the purchase, deployment, maintenance, utilization, and disposal of software applications within an organization. This master’s thesis describes a special Software Lifecycle Management Framework to provide solutions to the multitude of challenges within SAM. The main objectives when designing the framework was to provide a set of tools to control the software assets during their entire lifecycle while trying to minimize the costs related to owning and managing them.

Design of an Event Based Messaging System

B2B document handling is moving from paper to electronic networks and electronic domain very rapidly. Moving, handling and transforming large electronic business documents requires a lot from the systems handling them. This paper explores new technologies such as SOA, event-driven systems and ESB and a scalable, event-driven enterprise service bus is created to demonstrate these new approaches to message handling. As an end result, we have a small but fully functional messaging system with several different components. This is the first larger Java-project done in-house, so on the side we developed our own set of best practices of Java development, setting up configurations, tools, code repositories and class naming and much more.

Reducing Manufacturing Costs of the Screen Dryer’s Hot Section by Design

In this thesis, the purpose was to find the cost distribution of the screen dryer and the largest cost factors. The hot section of the screen dryer was revealed as the biggest cost factor, so composing new cost efficient solutions were directed to it. DFMA (Design for Manufacture and Assembly) was chosen to help the design process. DFMA is a product design strategy developed for taking manufacturing and assembly costs into account at the early stages of the design process. In the theory part of the thesis, other methods of economical design and tools needed for estimating manufacturing costs are introduced. In the empirical part, the hot section of the screen dryer was divided into sub-assemblies and their manufacturing costs were estimated. The design propositions were directed to the self-manufactured assemblies and parts. The new manufacturing costs were calculated for the developed propositions. Lastly, the most cost efficient solutions were summarized. The savings on the self-manufactured assemblies were about 40 %, which was about 13 % of the combined total costs of the hot section.

Design and Implementation of MUPE Server Context Tool for Eclipse IDE

The development of software tools begun as the first computers were built. The current generation of development environments offers a common interface to access multiple software tools and often also provide a possibility to build custom tools as extensions to the existing development environment. Eclipse is an open source development environment that offers good starting point for developing custom extensions. This thesis presents a software tool to aid the development of context-aware applications on Multi-User Publishing Environment (MUPE) platform. The tool is implemented as an Eclipse plug-in. The tool allows developer to include external server side contexts to their MUPE applications. The tool allows additional context sources to be added through the Eclipse's extension point mechanism. The thesis describes how the tool was designed and implemented. The implementation consists of tool core component part and an additional context source extension part. Tool core component is responsible for the actual context addition and also provides the needed user interface elements to the Eclipse workbench. Context source component provides the needed context source related information to the core component. As part of the work an update site feature was also implemented for distributing the tool through Eclipse update mechanism.

Training system for conceptual design and evaluation for wastewater treatment

Rising population, rapid urbanisation and growing industrialisation have severely stressed water quality and its availability in Malawi. In addition, financial and institutional problems and the expanding agro industry have aggravated this problem. The situation is worsened by depleting water resources and pollution from untreated sewage and industrial effluent. The increasing scarcity of clean water calls for the need for appropriate management of available water resources. There is also demand for a training system for conceptual design and evaluation for wastewater treatment in order to build the capacity for technical service providers and environmental practitioners in the country. It is predicted that Malawi will face a water stress situation by 2025. In the city of Blantyre, this situation is aggravated by the serious pollution threat from the grossly inadequate sewage treatment capacity. This capacity is only 23.5% of the wastewater being generated presently. In addition, limited or non-existent industrial effluent treatment has contributed to the severe water quality degradation. This situation poses a threat to the ecologically fragile and sensitive receiving water courses within the city. This water is used for domestic purposes further downstream. This manuscript outlines the legal and policy framework for wastewater treatment in Malawi. The manuscript also evaluates the existing wastewater treatment systems in Blantyre. This evaluation aims at determining if the effluent levels at the municipal plants conform to existing standards and guidelines and other associated policy and regulatory frameworks. The raw material at all the three municipal plants is sewage. The typical wastewater parameters are Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), and Total Suspended Solids (TSS). The treatment target is BOD5, COD, and TSS reduction. Typical wastewater parameters at the wastewater treatment plant at MDW&S textile and garments factory are BOD5 and COD. The treatment target is to reduce BOD5 and COD. The manuscript further evaluates a design approach of the three municipal wastewater treatment plants in the city and the wastewater treatment plant at Mapeto David Whitehead & Sons (MDW&S) textile and garments factory. This evaluation utilises case-based design and case-based reasoning principles in the ED-WAVE tool to determine if there is potential for the tool in Blantyre. The manuscript finally evaluates the technology selection process for appropriate wastewater treatment systems for the city of Blantyre. The criteria for selection of appropriate wastewater treatment systems are discussed. Decision support tools and the decision tree making process for technology selection are also discussed. Based on the treatment targets and design criteria at the eight cases evaluated in this manuscript in reference to similar cases in the ED-WAVE tool, this work confirms the practical use of case-based design and case-based reasoning principles in the ED-WAVE tool in the design and evaluation of wastewater treatment 6 systems in sub-Sahara Africa, using Blantyre, Malawi, as the case study area. After encountering a new situation, already collected decision scenarios (cases) are invoked and modified in order to arrive at a particular design alternative. What is necessary, however, is to appropriately modify the case arrived at through the Case Study Manager in order to come up with a design appropriate to the local situation taking into account technical, socio-economic and environmental aspects. This work provides a training system for conceptual design and evaluation for wastewater treatment.