Design and specification of a modular automatic testing solution

Electric vehicles and electronic components inside the vehicle are becoming increasingly important. The software as well starts to have a significant impact on modern high-end cars therefore a careful validation process needs to be implemented with the aim of having a bug free product when it is released. The software complexity increases and thus also the testing phases is more demanding. Test can be troublesome and, in some cases, boring and easy. The intelligence can be moved in test definition and writing rather than on test execution. The aim of this document is to start the definition of an automatic modular testing system capable to execute test cycles on systems that interacts with the CAN networks and with DUT that can be touched with a robotic arm. The document defines a first version of the system, in particular the hardware interface part with the aim of taking logs and execute test in an automated fashion with the test engineer can have a higher focus on the test definition and analysis rather than execution.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) of a bio-fuel cell fed with waste biomass: potential for scale-up and process optimization

In this Thesis, a life cycle analysis (LCA) of a biofuel cell designed by a team from the University of Bologna was done. The purpose of this study is to investigate the possible environmental impacts of the production and use of the cell and a possible optimization for an industrial scale-up. To do so, a first part of the paper was devoted to studying the present literature on biomass, and fuel cell treatments and then LCA studies on them. The experimental part presents the work done to create the Life Cycle Inventory and Life Cycle Impact Assessment. Several alternative scenarios were created to study process optimization. Reagents and energy supply were changed. To examine whether this technology can be competitive, a comparison was made with some biofuel cell use scenarios with traditional biomass treatment technologies. The result of this study is that this technology is promising from an environmental point of view in case it is possible to recover nutrients in output, without excessive energy consumption, and to minimize the use of energy used to prepare the solution.

Crack measurements in structural concrete with D.I.C. system and validation of a tensile constitutive law

Compared with other mature engineering disciplines, fracture mechanics of concrete is still a developing field and very important for structures like bridges subject to dynamic loading. An historical point of view of what done in the field is provided and then the project is presented. The project presents an application of the Digital Image Correlation (DIC) technique for the detection of cracks at the surface of concrete prisms (500mmx100mmx100mm) subject to flexural loading conditions (Four Point Bending test). The technique provide displacement measurements of the region of interest and from this displacement field information about crack mouth opening (CMOD) are obtained and related to the applied load. The evolution of the fracture process is shown through graphs and graphical maps of the displacement at some step of the loading process. The study shows that it is possible with the DIC system to detect the appearance and evolution of cracks, even before the cracks become visually detectable.

Sensor-based evaluation of Circadian motor behavior in people with Dementia. Development and validation of analysis strategies

[ITA]La demenza consiste nel deterioramento, spesso progressivo, dello stato cognitivo di un individuo. Chi è affetto da demenza, presenta alterazioni a livello cognitivo, comportamentale e motorio, ad esempio compiendo gesti ossessivi, ripetitivi, senza uno scopo preciso. La condizione dei pazienti affetti da demenza è valutata clinicamente tramite apposite scale e le informazioni relative al comportamento vengono raccolte intervistando chi se ne occupa, come familiari, il personale infermieristico o il medico curante. Spesso queste valutazioni si rivelano inaccurate, possono essere fortemente influenzate da considerazioni soggettive, e sono dispendiose in termini di tempo. Si ha quindi l'esigenza di disporre di metodiche oggettive per valutare il comportamento motorio dei pazienti e le sue alterazioni patologiche; i sensori inerziali indossabili potrebbero costituire una valida soluzione, per questo scopo. L'obiettivo principale della presente attività di tesi è stato definire e implementare un software per una valutazione oggettiva, basata su sensori, del pattern motorio circadiano, in pazienti affetti da demenza ricoverati in un'unità di terapia a lungo termine, che potrebbe evidenziare differenze nei sintomi della malattia che interessano il comportamento motorio, come descritto in ambito clinico. Lo scopo secondario è stato quello di verificare i cambiamenti motori pre- e post-intervento in un sottogruppo di pazienti, a seguito della somministrazione di un programma sperimentale di intervento basato su esercizi fisici. --------------- [ENG]Dementia involves deterioration, often progressive, of a person's cognitive status. Those who suffer from dementia, present alterations in cognitive and motor behavior, for example performing obsessive and repetitive gestures, without a purpose. The condition of patients suffering from dementia is clinically assessed by means of specific scales and information relating to the behavior are collected by interviewing caregivers, such as the family, nurses, or the doctor. Often it turns out that these are inaccurate assessments that may be heavily influenced by subjective evaluations and are costly in terms of time. Therefore, there is the need for objective methods to assess the patients' motor behavior and the pathological changes; wearable inertial sensors may represent a viable option, so this aim. The main objective of this thesis project was to define and implement a software for a sensor-based assessment of the circadian motor pattern in patients suffering from dementia, hospitalized in a long-term care unit, which could highlight differences in the disease symptoms affecting the motor behavior, as described in the clinical setting. The secondary objective was to verify pre- and post-intervention changes in the motor patterns of a subgroup of patients, following the administration of an experimental program of intervention based on physical exercises.

Impact of irrigation in the Po valley (Italy) on meteorological parameters through numerical simulation

Recent studies found that soil-atmosphere coupling features, through soil moisture, have been crucial to simulate well heat waves amplitude, duration and intensity. Moreover, it was found that soil moisture depletion both in Winter and Spring anticipates strong heat waves during the Summer. Irrigation in geophysical studies can be intended as an anthropogenic forcing to the soil-moisture, besides changes in land proprieties. In this study, the irrigation was add to a LAM hydrostatic model (BOLAM) and coupled with the soil. The response of the model to irrigation perturbation is analyzed during a dry Summer season. To identify a dry Summer, with overall positive temperature anomalies, an extensive climatological characterization of 2015 was done. The method included a statistical validation on the reference period distribution used to calculate the anomalies. Drought conditions were observed during Summer 2015 and previous seasons, both on the analyzed region and the Alps. Moreover July was characterized as an extreme event for the referred distribution. The numerical simulation consisted on the summer season of 2015 and two run: a control run (CTR), with the soil coupling and a perturbed run (IPR). The perturbation consists on a mask of land use created from the Cropland FAO dataset, where an irrigation water flux of 3 mm/day was applied from 6 A.M. to 9 A.M. every day. The results show that differences between CTR and IPR has a strong daily cycle. The main modifications are on the air masses proprieties, not on to the dynamics. However, changes in the circulation at the boundaries of the Po Valley are observed, and a diagnostic spatial correlation of variable differences shows that soil moisture perturbation explains well the variation observed in the 2 meters height temperature and in the latent heat fluxes.On the other hand, does not explain the spatial shift up and downslope observed during different periods of the day. Given the results, irrigation process affects the atmospheric proprieties on a larger scale than the irrigation, therefore it is important in daily forecast, particularly during hot and dry periods.