Publications

Low-cost gas sensors allow for large-scale spatial monitoring of air quality in the environment. However they require calibration before deployment. Methods such as multivariate regression techniques have been applied towards sensor calibration. In this work, we propose instead, the use of deep learning methods, particularly, recurrent neural networks for predicting the gas concentrations based on the outputs of these sensors. This paper presents a first study of using Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) neural network models for gas concentration prediction. The GRU networks achieve on average, a 44.69% and a 25.17% RMSE improvement in concentration prediction on a gas dataset when compared with Support Vector Regression (SVR) and Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) models respectively. With the current advances in deep network hardware accelerators, these networks can be combined with the sensors for a compact embedded system suitable for edge applications.

JTD Keywords: Robot sensing systems, Predictive models, Logic gates, Gas detectors, Training, Temperature measurement, Support vector machines

Inspired by sensory diversity and redundancy at the olfactory epithelium, we have built a large chemical sensor array based on commercial MOX sensors. Different sensor families along with temperature modulation accounts for sensory diversity, whereas sensors of the same family combined with different load resistors provide redundancy to the system. To study the encoding of odor mixtures, a data collection consisting on the response of the array to 3 binary mixtures of ethanol, acetone, and butanone with 18 different concentration ratios is obtained.

JTD Keywords: Chemioception, Sensors, Data acquisition, Temperature measurement

In this study, we compare for the first time the nanomechanical properties of lipid bilayer islands on flat and porous surfaces. 1,2-Dimyzistoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphatidylcholine (DMPC) and 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphatidylcholine (DPPC) bilayers were deposited on flat (silicon and mica) and porous silicon (pSi) substrate surfaces and examined using atomic force spectroscopy and force volume imaging. Force spectroscopy measurements revealed the effects of the underlying substrate and of the lipid phase on the nanomechanical properties of bilayers islands. For mica and silicon, significant differences in breakthrough force between the center and the edges of bilayer islands were observed for both phospolipids. These differences were more pronounced for DMPC than for DPPC, presumably due to melting effects at the edges of DMPC bilayers. In contrast, bilayer islands deposited on pSi yielded similar breakthrough forces in the central region and along the perimeter of the islands, and those values in turn were similar to those measured along the perimeter of bilayer islands deposited on the flat substrates. The study also demonstrates that pSi is suitable solid support for the formation of pore-spanning phospholipid bilayers with potential applications in transmembrane protein studies, drug delivery, and biosensing.

JTD Keywords: Black lipid-membranes, Gold surfaces, Supported bilayers, Channel activity, Micro-BLMS, Silicon, Proteins, Vesicles, AFM, Temperature measurement

The authors are working toward the design of a device for the detection of oxygen, following a discrete and an integrated instrumentation implementation. The discrete electronics are also used for preliminary analysis, to confirm the validity of the conception of system, and its set-up would be used in the characterization of the integrated device, waiting for the chip fabrication. This paper presents the design of a small and portable potentiostat integrated with electrodes, which is cheap and miniaturized, which can be applied for on-site measurements for the simultaneous detection of O/sub 2/ and temperature in water systems. As a first approach a discrete PCB has been designed based on commercial discrete electronics and specific oxygen sensors. Dissolved oxygen concentration (DO) is an important index of water quality and the ability to measure the oxygen concentration and temperature at different positions and depths would be an important attribute to environmental analysis. Especially, the objective is that the sensor and the electronics can be integrated in a single encapsulated device able to be submerged in environmental water systems and be able to make multiple measurements. For our proposed application a small and portable device is developed, where electronics and sensors are miniaturized and placed in close proximity to each other. This system would be based on the sensors and electronics, forming one module, and connected to a portable notebook to save and analyze the measurements on-line. The key electronics is defined by the potentiostat amplifier, used to fix the voltage between the working (WE) and reference (RE) electrodes following an input voltage (Vin). Vin is a triangular signal, programmed by a LabView/sup c / interface, which is also used to represent the CV transfers. To obtain a smaller and compact solution the potentiostat amplifier has also been integrated defining a full custom ASIC amplifier, which is in progress, looking for a point-of-care device. These circuits have been designed with a 0.13 mu m technology from ST Microelectronics through the CMP-TIMA service.

JTD Keywords: Amplifiers, Application specific integrated circuits, Chemical sensors, Electrodes, Portable instruments, Temperature measurement, Water sources