Pub Date : 2017-10-01DOI: 10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239244
Lars Baumgärtner, S. Kohlbrecher, J. Euler, Tobias Ritter, Milan Stute, Christian Meurisch, M. Mühlhäuser, M. Hollick, O. Stryk, Bernd Freisleben
Unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are promising assets to support rescue operations in natural or man-made disasters. Most UGVs and UAVs deployed in the field today depend on human operators and reliable network connections to the vehicles. However, network connections in challenged environments are often lost, thus control can no longer be exercised. In this paper, we present a novel approach to emergency communication where semi-autonomous UGVs and UAVs cooperate with humans to dynamically form communication islands and establish communication bridges between these islands. Humans typically form an island with their mobile devices if they are in physical proximity; UGVs and UAVs extend an island's range by carrying data to a neighboring island. The proposed approach uses delay/disruption-tolerant networking for non-time critical tasks and direct mesh connections for prioritized tasks that require real-time feedback. The developed communication platform runs on rescue robots, commodity mobile devices, and various drones, and supports our operations and control center software for disaster management.
{"title":"Emergency communication in challenged environments via unmanned ground and aerial vehicles","authors":"Lars Baumgärtner, S. Kohlbrecher, J. Euler, Tobias Ritter, Milan Stute, Christian Meurisch, M. Mühlhäuser, M. Hollick, O. Stryk, Bernd Freisleben","doi":"10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239244","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239244","url":null,"abstract":"Unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are promising assets to support rescue operations in natural or man-made disasters. Most UGVs and UAVs deployed in the field today depend on human operators and reliable network connections to the vehicles. However, network connections in challenged environments are often lost, thus control can no longer be exercised. In this paper, we present a novel approach to emergency communication where semi-autonomous UGVs and UAVs cooperate with humans to dynamically form communication islands and establish communication bridges between these islands. Humans typically form an island with their mobile devices if they are in physical proximity; UGVs and UAVs extend an island's range by carrying data to a neighboring island. The proposed approach uses delay/disruption-tolerant networking for non-time critical tasks and direct mesh connections for prioritized tasks that require real-time feedback. The developed communication platform runs on rescue robots, commodity mobile devices, and various drones, and supports our operations and control center software for disaster management.","PeriodicalId":248924,"journal":{"name":"2017 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC)","volume":"214 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122376105","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-10-01DOI: 10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239339
Shiny Abraham, Arman Shahbazian, Kevin Dao, Han Tran, P. Thompson
Aquaponics, also known as the integration of hydroponics with aquaculture, has emerged to be a successful model of sustainable food production. The symbiotic relationship between fish, plants, and bacteria, in a controlled environment, is contingent upon optimal water quality conditions. This calls for a need to develop continuous water-quality monitoring techniques that are based on intelligent data acquisition, communication, and processing. This work focuses on using Internet of Things (IoT) technology to configure and deploy smart water-quality sensors that provide remote, continuous, and real-time information of indicators related to water quality, on a graphical user interface (GUI). A sensing system comprising of a Raspberry Pi and commercial sensor circuits 1 and probes that measure Dissolved Oxygen (DO), pH, and water temperature was deployed in an aquaponics facility in a town called Manchay, near Lima, Peru2. Data acquired from the sensor system is uploaded to ThingSpeak 3, an IoT analytics platform service that provides real-time data visualization and analysis. Continuous monitoring of this data, and making necessary adjustments, will facilitate the maintenance of a healthy ecosystem that is conducive to the growth of fish and plants, while utilizing about 90% less water than traditional farming.
{"title":"An Internet of Things (IoT)-based aquaponics facility","authors":"Shiny Abraham, Arman Shahbazian, Kevin Dao, Han Tran, P. Thompson","doi":"10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239339","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239339","url":null,"abstract":"Aquaponics, also known as the integration of hydroponics with aquaculture, has emerged to be a successful model of sustainable food production. The symbiotic relationship between fish, plants, and bacteria, in a controlled environment, is contingent upon optimal water quality conditions. This calls for a need to develop continuous water-quality monitoring techniques that are based on intelligent data acquisition, communication, and processing. This work focuses on using Internet of Things (IoT) technology to configure and deploy smart water-quality sensors that provide remote, continuous, and real-time information of indicators related to water quality, on a graphical user interface (GUI). A sensing system comprising of a Raspberry Pi and commercial sensor circuits 1 and probes that measure Dissolved Oxygen (DO), pH, and water temperature was deployed in an aquaponics facility in a town called Manchay, near Lima, Peru2. Data acquired from the sensor system is uploaded to ThingSpeak 3, an IoT analytics platform service that provides real-time data visualization and analysis. Continuous monitoring of this data, and making necessary adjustments, will facilitate the maintenance of a healthy ecosystem that is conducive to the growth of fish and plants, while utilizing about 90% less water than traditional farming.","PeriodicalId":248924,"journal":{"name":"2017 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC)","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125461822","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-10-01DOI: 10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239313
B. Hanna, A. El-Shahat
Micro-grids are bits of a power circulation organize that supply various loads, and incorporate distributed generation (DG) like: wind and solar generators. Optimal power flow (OPF) is considered with the goal of limiting either the power circulation misfortunes, or, the cost of influence drawn from the substation and provided by (DG) units. This paper analyzes two systems: a system with no transmission constraints and with transmission constraints. This is known as an ideal power market which means that generators supply energy and load removes energy. No transmission constraints means there is a single marginal cost. This paper analyzes splitting cost at a bus into energy, losses and congestion. The objective of an optimal power flow is to determine the best way to instantaneously operate a power system. The optimal way to operate a power system is that operating total cost and the cost of meeting load would and also subject to constraints. The goal is to show the difference in costs after both systems are analyzed with no transmission constraints and with transmission constraints. Two power systems were taken into consideration: (1) A two bus example with no transmission constraints and also a two bus example with transmission constraints. (2) A five bus system with no transmission constraints and also a five bus example with transmission constraints. Primal Linear Programming (LP) and Optimal Power Flow (OPF) solution algorithm are used to solve this power system. Solution iterates between solving a full ac power flow solution and Primal Linear Programming (LP). The complete analyses are done with the aid of Power-World Software. This work is applicable to the humanization because of microgrids in developing worlds would be an effective and robust route to electrification. This technology will reduce power cost for the customers and could help humans in developed countries.
{"title":"Optimal power flow for micro-grids","authors":"B. Hanna, A. El-Shahat","doi":"10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239313","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239313","url":null,"abstract":"Micro-grids are bits of a power circulation organize that supply various loads, and incorporate distributed generation (DG) like: wind and solar generators. Optimal power flow (OPF) is considered with the goal of limiting either the power circulation misfortunes, or, the cost of influence drawn from the substation and provided by (DG) units. This paper analyzes two systems: a system with no transmission constraints and with transmission constraints. This is known as an ideal power market which means that generators supply energy and load removes energy. No transmission constraints means there is a single marginal cost. This paper analyzes splitting cost at a bus into energy, losses and congestion. The objective of an optimal power flow is to determine the best way to instantaneously operate a power system. The optimal way to operate a power system is that operating total cost and the cost of meeting load would and also subject to constraints. The goal is to show the difference in costs after both systems are analyzed with no transmission constraints and with transmission constraints. Two power systems were taken into consideration: (1) A two bus example with no transmission constraints and also a two bus example with transmission constraints. (2) A five bus system with no transmission constraints and also a five bus example with transmission constraints. Primal Linear Programming (LP) and Optimal Power Flow (OPF) solution algorithm are used to solve this power system. Solution iterates between solving a full ac power flow solution and Primal Linear Programming (LP). The complete analyses are done with the aid of Power-World Software. This work is applicable to the humanization because of microgrids in developing worlds would be an effective and robust route to electrification. This technology will reduce power cost for the customers and could help humans in developed countries.","PeriodicalId":248924,"journal":{"name":"2017 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC)","volume":"31 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125505536","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-10-01DOI: 10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239306
Philip Wu, Gabriela Vázquez, Nicholas Mikstas, S. Krishnan, U. Kim
The difficulty of detecting small quantities of contaminants in water supplies currently threatens the health of millions of people worldwide, as consumption of contaminated water has been associated with both cancerous and noncancerous health risks. Existing technologies make it possible to very accurately quantify contaminant levels in water; however the expense, extensive training, and off-site analysis required by these methods prevent wide scale use. Electrochemical detection offers many advantages, such as portability, minimal use of instrumentation, and ready integration with electronics. With a goal of water quality interventions, we have presented an affordable and point-of-use platform capable of detecting small amounts of arsenic in water samples. Our electrochemical system utilizes a three-electrode sensor integrated with a handheld, self-designed potentiostat called Aquasift. Aquasift's hardware is simplified as much as possible to maintain affordability and relies on firmware complexity to provide functionality comparable to more expensive bench top potentiostats. Several optional on-board digital filters are available for signal conditioning. The Aquasift can sample at a rate up to 1KSPS and the output data rate is adjustable from 1KSPS down to 1 sample per second. The board uses 12-bit data converters to provide a voltage resolution of 806 micro volts. The Aquasift is powered directly from the USB port and requires no additional power source. We compare the results obtained from the Aquasift of arsenic testing to those obtained from a commercially available bench top potentiostat. The results show Aquasift's comparable accuracy to the commercial analyzer, and demonstrate that our proposed system is a more affordable, portable alternative to laboratory testing.
{"title":"Aquasift: A low-cost, hand-held potentiostat for point-of-use electrochemical detection of contaminants in drinking water","authors":"Philip Wu, Gabriela Vázquez, Nicholas Mikstas, S. Krishnan, U. Kim","doi":"10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239306","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239306","url":null,"abstract":"The difficulty of detecting small quantities of contaminants in water supplies currently threatens the health of millions of people worldwide, as consumption of contaminated water has been associated with both cancerous and noncancerous health risks. Existing technologies make it possible to very accurately quantify contaminant levels in water; however the expense, extensive training, and off-site analysis required by these methods prevent wide scale use. Electrochemical detection offers many advantages, such as portability, minimal use of instrumentation, and ready integration with electronics. With a goal of water quality interventions, we have presented an affordable and point-of-use platform capable of detecting small amounts of arsenic in water samples. Our electrochemical system utilizes a three-electrode sensor integrated with a handheld, self-designed potentiostat called Aquasift. Aquasift's hardware is simplified as much as possible to maintain affordability and relies on firmware complexity to provide functionality comparable to more expensive bench top potentiostats. Several optional on-board digital filters are available for signal conditioning. The Aquasift can sample at a rate up to 1KSPS and the output data rate is adjustable from 1KSPS down to 1 sample per second. The board uses 12-bit data converters to provide a voltage resolution of 806 micro volts. The Aquasift is powered directly from the USB port and requires no additional power source. We compare the results obtained from the Aquasift of arsenic testing to those obtained from a commercially available bench top potentiostat. The results show Aquasift's comparable accuracy to the commercial analyzer, and demonstrate that our proposed system is a more affordable, portable alternative to laboratory testing.","PeriodicalId":248924,"journal":{"name":"2017 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC)","volume":"4 18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130297607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-10-01DOI: 10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239250
Michael B. Wooten, I. Walker
In disaster relief operations, lives can depend on timely location and safe removal of trapped and often injured people within damaged infrastructure (collapsed buildings, etc.). Further, these operations must be carried out without further collapsing structures within the environment. An emerging class of rope-like continuous backbone “continuum” robots provides new capabilities to address these critical operational problems. Continuum robots, also known as “robot trunks and tentacles”, can bend continuously along their structure, and are highly compliant. These features allow continuum robots to gently penetrate into congested spaces, navigating within complex and a priori unknown obstacle fields. This allows them to safely deploy sensors into collapsed structures, such as within debris in collapsed buildings, to assess conditions and potentially identify survivors. The further ability of these robots to use their bodies to perform whole arm grasping, wrapping safely around environmental objects, offers the possibility of using them as “active ropes” to gently pull victims out of such environments, while avoiding generation of large forces which might further collapse already damaged structures. We have developed a nine degree of freedom pneumatically actuated continuum robot, and deployed it to inspect within rubble piles and to gently grasp and retrieve human surrogates (dummies). Broader application of these kinds of “robot ropes” include remote inspection operations in Space and nuclear environments, as well as a variety of minimally invasive medical procedures.
{"title":"Robot ropes for disaster response operations","authors":"Michael B. Wooten, I. Walker","doi":"10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239250","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239250","url":null,"abstract":"In disaster relief operations, lives can depend on timely location and safe removal of trapped and often injured people within damaged infrastructure (collapsed buildings, etc.). Further, these operations must be carried out without further collapsing structures within the environment. An emerging class of rope-like continuous backbone “continuum” robots provides new capabilities to address these critical operational problems. Continuum robots, also known as “robot trunks and tentacles”, can bend continuously along their structure, and are highly compliant. These features allow continuum robots to gently penetrate into congested spaces, navigating within complex and a priori unknown obstacle fields. This allows them to safely deploy sensors into collapsed structures, such as within debris in collapsed buildings, to assess conditions and potentially identify survivors. The further ability of these robots to use their bodies to perform whole arm grasping, wrapping safely around environmental objects, offers the possibility of using them as “active ropes” to gently pull victims out of such environments, while avoiding generation of large forces which might further collapse already damaged structures. We have developed a nine degree of freedom pneumatically actuated continuum robot, and deployed it to inspect within rubble piles and to gently grasp and retrieve human surrogates (dummies). Broader application of these kinds of “robot ropes” include remote inspection operations in Space and nuclear environments, as well as a variety of minimally invasive medical procedures.","PeriodicalId":248924,"journal":{"name":"2017 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC)","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130436689","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-10-01DOI: 10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239328
J. L. E. Honrado, Dominic B. Solpico, C. Favila, Edgardo Tongson, G. Tangonan, Nathaniel J. C. Libatique
We report on UAV(unmanned aerial vehicle)-based imaging missions over rice and corn fields in Isabela province in the Philippines. Spectral reflectance sensors were deployed for ground truthing, while aerial imagery were produced from RGB and NIR-retrofitted cameras. The ground truth sensors function as calibration points for extending the measurements over the whole imaged field. UAV-based missions deliver the high resolution and spatial scope required of imagery targeting mixed cropping regimes and multiple-farmer plots that have differing starting dates. The ledger-based monitoring systems currently employed by local government units to monitor and manage regional agriculture can be improved by such UAV imagery.
{"title":"UAV imaging with low-cost multispectral imaging system for precision agriculture applications","authors":"J. L. E. Honrado, Dominic B. Solpico, C. Favila, Edgardo Tongson, G. Tangonan, Nathaniel J. C. Libatique","doi":"10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239328","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239328","url":null,"abstract":"We report on UAV(unmanned aerial vehicle)-based imaging missions over rice and corn fields in Isabela province in the Philippines. Spectral reflectance sensors were deployed for ground truthing, while aerial imagery were produced from RGB and NIR-retrofitted cameras. The ground truth sensors function as calibration points for extending the measurements over the whole imaged field. UAV-based missions deliver the high resolution and spatial scope required of imagery targeting mixed cropping regimes and multiple-farmer plots that have differing starting dates. The ledger-based monitoring systems currently employed by local government units to monitor and manage regional agriculture can be improved by such UAV imagery.","PeriodicalId":248924,"journal":{"name":"2017 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC)","volume":"75 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121304246","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-10-01DOI: 10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239284
C. Scharff, Vanessa Rene, Jan Gerhard Schoepp, Nishit Kishorbhai Shah, Andrew Greenberg
This paper presents a study of mobile device literacy in Senegal within the context of the AppliCafé project. Research in this area has been mostly conducted in Anglophone countries. We designed a kiosk structure that we call AppliCafé (derived from the term cyber café) that can move between locations and is equipped with mobile technology, including training videos and a mobile application. This project aims at teaching people on how to use their smartphones efficiently. We used a qualitative approach based on surveys and interviews to gather data from users on their mobile phone usage and their opinions on the structure, mobile app and videos. We also interviewed local developers and entrepreneurs to get their perspective on mobile app adoption, usage, and the issues they meet in promoting their apps and scaling their businesses. We outline interesting mobile device usage patterns including the use of web sites rather than mobile apps to save data. We demonstrate the importance of a physical learning environment for users to improve their mobile device literacy skills and for developers to engage with users to produce better quality and fitted apps.
{"title":"Exploring mobile device literacy in Senegal","authors":"C. Scharff, Vanessa Rene, Jan Gerhard Schoepp, Nishit Kishorbhai Shah, Andrew Greenberg","doi":"10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239284","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239284","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents a study of mobile device literacy in Senegal within the context of the AppliCafé project. Research in this area has been mostly conducted in Anglophone countries. We designed a kiosk structure that we call AppliCafé (derived from the term cyber café) that can move between locations and is equipped with mobile technology, including training videos and a mobile application. This project aims at teaching people on how to use their smartphones efficiently. We used a qualitative approach based on surveys and interviews to gather data from users on their mobile phone usage and their opinions on the structure, mobile app and videos. We also interviewed local developers and entrepreneurs to get their perspective on mobile app adoption, usage, and the issues they meet in promoting their apps and scaling their businesses. We outline interesting mobile device usage patterns including the use of web sites rather than mobile apps to save data. We demonstrate the importance of a physical learning environment for users to improve their mobile device literacy skills and for developers to engage with users to produce better quality and fitted apps.","PeriodicalId":248924,"journal":{"name":"2017 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC)","volume":"35 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123925319","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-10-01DOI: 10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239329
L. Bustamante, Betty Ikalany, Acuku Helen Ekolu, Daniel J. Sweeney
Over 95% of the population in Uganda relies on solid fuels for their cooking and heating needs [1]. These are burned in a variety of cooking appliances, ranging from three stone fires to improved cookstoves (ICS). Appropriate Energy Saving Technologies (AEST Ltd.) is a social business that manufactures and distributes Makaa fuel briquettes and charcoal cookstoves in Soroti, Uganda. This work summarizes collaboration with AEST to design for improved performance, usability, and manufacturability of their Makaa cookstove product. Two prototypes were selected and laboratory performance tested. The prototypes included engineered insulation materials which were compared to the current Makaa stove with mineral insulation. Techno-economic analyses were also performed in order to estimate and compare the production cost for each stove model. Combining the performance results with the cost analyses indicates that the most cost-effective design is a combination of the metal grate and vermiculite models. This design maximized performance and usability while also minimizing the time and cost of production. Recommendations were made for further product development, and an open-access cost-analysis tool was made available online to carry out similar techno-economic analysis.
{"title":"Performance testing and techno-economic analysis to improve an affordable charcoal cookstove","authors":"L. Bustamante, Betty Ikalany, Acuku Helen Ekolu, Daniel J. Sweeney","doi":"10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239329","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239329","url":null,"abstract":"Over 95% of the population in Uganda relies on solid fuels for their cooking and heating needs [1]. These are burned in a variety of cooking appliances, ranging from three stone fires to improved cookstoves (ICS). Appropriate Energy Saving Technologies (AEST Ltd.) is a social business that manufactures and distributes Makaa fuel briquettes and charcoal cookstoves in Soroti, Uganda. This work summarizes collaboration with AEST to design for improved performance, usability, and manufacturability of their Makaa cookstove product. Two prototypes were selected and laboratory performance tested. The prototypes included engineered insulation materials which were compared to the current Makaa stove with mineral insulation. Techno-economic analyses were also performed in order to estimate and compare the production cost for each stove model. Combining the performance results with the cost analyses indicates that the most cost-effective design is a combination of the metal grate and vermiculite models. This design maximized performance and usability while also minimizing the time and cost of production. Recommendations were made for further product development, and an open-access cost-analysis tool was made available online to carry out similar techno-economic analysis.","PeriodicalId":248924,"journal":{"name":"2017 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC)","volume":"407 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115920854","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-10-01DOI: 10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239295
Prakruti V. Bhatt, Sanat Sarangi, S. Pappula
Timely and robust diagnosis of plant diseases and nutrient deficiencies play a major role in management of crop yield. Automation is a low cost alternative to human experts and can help to detect early onset of crop diseases which aids faster decision making and in giving recommendations to farmers to curb yield loss. We have developed a smart-phone based participatory sensing application for agriculture which is used by farmers to scout their fields for events of interest, especially those related to crop health. Recently, deep convolutional neural networks (CNN) have emerged as a prominent technique in computer vision related challenges and such deep-learning based models could prove as an important tool to do just-in-time assessment of crop health. With a view to building state-of-the-art diagnostic capabilities on the phone, we present analysis of CNN models in terms of accuracy, memory, and inference time. Effects of change in hyperparameters have been evaluated in terms of accuracy. The trained model gives 99.7% classification accuracy with satisfactory inference time and model size which assures the application of CNN architectures for real-time crop state diagnosis on a large scale with limited hardware capabilities.
{"title":"Comparison of CNN models for application in crop health assessment with participatory sensing","authors":"Prakruti V. Bhatt, Sanat Sarangi, S. Pappula","doi":"10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239295","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239295","url":null,"abstract":"Timely and robust diagnosis of plant diseases and nutrient deficiencies play a major role in management of crop yield. Automation is a low cost alternative to human experts and can help to detect early onset of crop diseases which aids faster decision making and in giving recommendations to farmers to curb yield loss. We have developed a smart-phone based participatory sensing application for agriculture which is used by farmers to scout their fields for events of interest, especially those related to crop health. Recently, deep convolutional neural networks (CNN) have emerged as a prominent technique in computer vision related challenges and such deep-learning based models could prove as an important tool to do just-in-time assessment of crop health. With a view to building state-of-the-art diagnostic capabilities on the phone, we present analysis of CNN models in terms of accuracy, memory, and inference time. Effects of change in hyperparameters have been evaluated in terms of accuracy. The trained model gives 99.7% classification accuracy with satisfactory inference time and model size which assures the application of CNN architectures for real-time crop state diagnosis on a large scale with limited hardware capabilities.","PeriodicalId":248924,"journal":{"name":"2017 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC)","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130948809","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-10-01DOI: 10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239279
M. LaBiche, Sherina Munyana
Agriculture is the backbone of African economies, especially in rural areas where over 70% of people rely on subsistence farming for their livelihood. In Rwanda and Uganda, where Africa Development Promise (ADP) works, 90% of economically active women work in the agricultural sector. Overall women work more and longer hours compared to men because of additional household responsibilities such as preparing food, collecting fuelwood and water. This time deficit leaves no time for education or productive endeavors. The paper argues that access to new technologies that save time, especially tedious and laborious work, can have a significant positive impact on women's efficiency, productivity and income-generating potential. It shares ADP's shift from a single-entry economic development approach to a holistic approach that incorporates access to solar energy to support women's economic endeavors. The paper is shared with organizations addressing similar challenges, but more importantly to seek feedback from development practitioners.
{"title":"Social and economic development of rural women in Uganda using solar energy for productive use","authors":"M. LaBiche, Sherina Munyana","doi":"10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239279","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/GHTC.2017.8239279","url":null,"abstract":"Agriculture is the backbone of African economies, especially in rural areas where over 70% of people rely on subsistence farming for their livelihood. In Rwanda and Uganda, where Africa Development Promise (ADP) works, 90% of economically active women work in the agricultural sector. Overall women work more and longer hours compared to men because of additional household responsibilities such as preparing food, collecting fuelwood and water. This time deficit leaves no time for education or productive endeavors. The paper argues that access to new technologies that save time, especially tedious and laborious work, can have a significant positive impact on women's efficiency, productivity and income-generating potential. It shares ADP's shift from a single-entry economic development approach to a holistic approach that incorporates access to solar energy to support women's economic endeavors. The paper is shared with organizations addressing similar challenges, but more importantly to seek feedback from development practitioners.","PeriodicalId":248924,"journal":{"name":"2017 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC)","volume":"67 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130898310","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：