Abstract: An electric measurement method and apparatus for detecting a mass by an electric capacity (permittivity) or a material's dielectric constant, or alternatively, electric inductance (permeability). The mass may be any phase or combination of phases. The mass may be stationary or flowing. It may comprise discrete particles such as grain, or manufactured products such as ball bearings or threaded fasteners, etc. The mass may be a flow element in a rotameter or similar flow measurement device. The sensor comprises a volume which may be completely full or only partially full of the material. The material may be discrete components or a continuum. Sensor signals may be received by existing planter monitoring systems. In some embodiments the flow sensors are positioned external to the application port. In some embodiments sensors may be utilized which are responsive to the refractive index variation of specific chemicals.

Abstract: A system for weight measurement for an aircraft having a weight on wheels threshold between a flight mode and a ground mode includes a weight on wheels sensor arrangeable on a landing gear assembly of the aircraft, and a computing device receiving first detected data from the sensor related to strain on the landing gear assembly. The computing device calculates a rate of change of the strain over time to determine when the landing gear assembly reaches the weight on wheels threshold. The system also measures aircraft gross weight in a static condition.

Abstract: A method for determining a State of Health (SoH) of a power source of a portable device involves extracting a start voltage value of an examined power source; activating one or more hardware components of the portable device by a software, to increase the current consumption of the device, identifying a voltage drop rate of the examined power source and comparing a calculated voltage drop rate to pre-calculated threshold values stored on a database of a main server. A system for executing the method is also disclosed.

Abstract: A method of classifying a stator winding fault in a brushless synchronous generator includes measuring an electrical parameter of the stator winding and classifying the fault by calculating positive or negative sequence harmonics of the parameter and comparing one or more harmonic component to a threshold.

Abstract: Systems and methods for refining estimated effects of parameters on amplitudes are disclosed. Exemplary implementations may: (a) obtain ranges of parameter values for individual parameters within a subsurface region of interest; (b) generate a first model of the subsurface region of interest; (c) calculate a synthetic seismogram from the first model to determine corresponding amplitudes; (d) store results of applying the synthetic seismogram; (e) repeat steps (b)-(d) for multiple additional models; (f) obtain a subsurface distribution; (g) apply the subsurface distribution to the multiple models and the corresponding amplitudes; (h) generate a representation; and (i) display the representation.

Abstract: An I/O-abstracted configuration is defined for a field device that has not yet been assigned or allocated to communicate via a particular I/O device or I/O network within a plant, and this configuration is stored in a device placeholder object in a back-end environment of the plant. Thereafter other objects, modules, applications, user interfaces, etc., that are to execute in the back-end environment of the plant to communicate with the field device during on-line operation of the plant may be designed, built, configured, and tested using the device placeholder object without any actual communications with the field device and without assigning the device placeholder object to a particular I/O channel or I/O network.

Abstract: A smart legend groups plot lines that reflect the same type of drill string analysis. The smart legend includes parent level legend entries, each parent level legend entry including child level legend entries. The child level legend entries for a given parent level legend entry correspond to plot lines that reflect a particular type of drill string analysis. Each child level legend entry corresponds to a plot line that reflects the particular drill string analysis performed over a different depth range. This allows users easily to view and compare the analyses at the different drilling depth ranges.

Abstract: A magnetic flowmeter includes circuitry for sensing coil current, coil voltage, or coil resistance. Based on the sensed coil current, voltage, or resistance, a digital processor determines whether a power limit or a coil current limit is exceeded and either halts operation until it receives a new configuration with a new coil current setpoint, or determines a new coil current setpoint itself and adjusts the magnetic flowmeter to that new coil current setpoint.

Abstract: Methods and systems for minimizing RMS travel time error in a seismic data acquisition. Field measurements of source and receiver coordinates, speed of sound in water as a function of depth and time, receiver timing, and clock drift are first collected. The seismic data is then examined to measure travel time from each source to each receiver. A model travel time is computed based on the field measurements. By iteratively perturbing at least one of the field measured data using a look-up table and calculating the travel time after each perturbation until an acceptable RMS error has been achieved, conditioned seismic data that takes into account the dynamic nature of the water column will provide the basis for creating an accurate seismic map that is unaffected by the changing water conditions.

Abstract: A first, a second, and a third computing circuit respectively generate a first post-computation signal with a second harmonic component reduced as compared with first and second signals, a second post-computation signal with the second harmonic component reduced as compared with third and fourth signals, and a third post-computation signal with the second harmonic component reduced as compared with fifth and sixth signals. A fourth and a fifth computing circuit respectively generate a fourth post-computation signal with a third harmonic component reduced as compared with the first and second post-computation signals, and a fifth post-computation signal with the third harmonic component reduced as compared with the second and third post-computation signals. A sixth computing circuit determines a detected angle value based on the fourth and fifth post-computation signals.

Abstract: Provided is an analytical measurement device system 10 having a plurality of units (liquid-sending pump 12; detector 15) including: a sensor (flow sensor 121; light amount detector 151) provided in at least one unit among the plurality of units, for detecting the condition of a specific portion of the unit; a determination section (flow rate determiner 122; light amount determiner 152) provided in the unit, for receiving a signal from the sensor and for determining an overall condition of the unit based on a predetermined determination criterion; a storage section (flow-rate determination information storage section 123; light-amount determination information section 153) provided in the unit, for storing the determination criterion and a result of the determination by the determination section; and a display section (flow-rate determination result display section 124; light-amount determination result display section 154) provided in the unit, for displaying the determination result.

Abstract: An ultrasonic flow meter is disclosed, including a switching unit for switching electrical transmission signals between a signal generator and at least two ultrasonic transducers and for switching electrical reception signal between the transducers and a receiver circuit, wherein the switching unit is coupled to an output terminal of an operational amplifier of the signal generator and to an inverting input terminal of an operational amplifier of the receiver circuit. Furthermore, a method for characterizing an ultrasonic transducer is disclosed, including the step of determining directly from one or more supply current signals for an active component of a signal generator one or more quantities useful for characterizing the transducer. Furthermore, a method for determining the time delay of an ultrasonic signal in a flow path of an ultrasonic flow meter is disclosed, including the step of comparing physically transmitted, delayed and received signals with simulated non-delayed signals.

Abstract: Systems and methods for performing relative object localization using a local positioning system. The process in accordance with one embodiment solves the problem of determining the location (i.e., the position and orientation) of an object relative to a previous location of the object, or relative to another object, without the need for known 3-D data point positions in the environment. The process in accordance with another embodiment solves the problem of determining the location of the measurement instrument relative to a previous location of the measurement instrument using visible feature points on a target object as a reference, again without the need for known 3-D data point positions. The process in accordance with a further embodiment is capable of determining the locations of multiple objects relative to each other.

Abstract: Methods are disclosed for detecting fluid in at least one annulus around at least one casing installed in a borehole traversing a formation utilizing a sonic tool. The sonic tool is activated in the borehole and the received sonic waveforms are processed to obtain a dispersion plot. A reference dispersion plot is generated using a model of the borehole where the casing is well-bonded by cement. The obtained and reference dispersion plots are compared. An indication of fluid and in some cases, the specific radial location thereof is obtained based on the signature of the obtained plot as opposed to the reference plot. The methods are effective in doubly-cased boreholes using monopole and/or dipole sources.

Abstract: Methods and systems for predicting an unknown voltage of a battery corresponding to a future current demand for at least one time instant. The method including determining parameters of a first joint Gaussian distribution of a set of historical values of the voltage prediction of the battery from a set of historical measured physical quantities of the state of the battery stored in the memory. Determining a second joint Gaussian distribution of the unknown voltage and the set of historical values of the voltage prediction of the battery, based on a present measured physical quantities of the battery, the set of historical measured physical quantities and the determined parameters of the first joint Gaussian distribution. Determining a mean and a variance of an unknown voltage of the battery from the second joint Gaussian distribution, to obtain the predicted unknown voltage of the battery.

Abstract: A controller (1) to reduce integral non-linearity errors of a magnetic rotary encoder (2) comprises a position error determining unit (20) to determine a plurality of time marks (P0, . . . , Pk) specifying a respective time at which a moving device (3) reaches a respective one of predefined positions (?0, . . . , ?k). The position error determining unit (20) calculates a plurality of error correction parameters (B[0], . . . , B[k]) in dependence on the time marks (P0, . . . , Pk). An error compensation unit (10) of the controller determines a respective error compensated position parameter (?start_comp, ?0_comp, . . . , ?n_comp) for each position parameter (?start, ?0, . . . , ?n) received from the encoder (2) in dependence on the respective position parameter (?start, ?0, . . . , ?n) and the respective error correction parameter (B[0], . . . , B[k]).

Abstract: Methods for determining substrate placement in a process chamber are provided herein. In some embodiments, a method for determining substrate placement in a process chamber includes receiving sensor readings from a plurality of sensor arrays attached to the calibration substrate, calculating locations of a plurality of edge locations of a support member beneath the sensors based on the sensor readings, calculating a center point location of the support member based on the locations of the plurality of edge locations of the support member and determining an offset between the center point location and a location of the center of the calibration substrate.

Abstract: A method for storing information within a utility meter includes generating in a processing circuit first information regarding a metered quantity delivered to a load corresponding to a first period of time. The method also includes obtaining a first value associated with one of a plurality of predetermined ranges of values in which the first information falls. The method further includes generating in a processing circuit a second value representative of a numerical position of the first information within the one of the plurality of predetermined ranges of values. The first value and the second value are stored in a memory.

Abstract: A data acquisition system (DAS) includes a plurality of processors comprising at least one first processor and a plurality of second processors. The at least one first processor is configured to receive at least one configuration file and generate at least one measurement data application from the at least one configuration file. The DAS also includes a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) coupled to the plurality of processors. The FPGA is configured to receive the at least one measurement data application and allocate at least a portion of one of the FPGA and at least one second processor of the plurality of second processors to calculate measurement data at least partially based on the at least one measurement data application and an availability of the at least a portion of the FPGA.

Abstract: A method for determining a heat loss coefficient of a premises includes undertaking application of first and second heating powers, respectively, in the premises over two successive time periods, selecting for each of the first and second time periods, a time interval for which the evolution is substantially linear, determining the slope of the tangent to the curve (Tik(t))k=1 or 2 over each time interval; and deducing the value of the heat loss coefficient of the premises on the basis of the slopes.