Abstract
In this paper, we propose and experimentally investigate an optical sensor based on a novel combination of a long-period fiber grating (LPFG) with a permanent magnet to measure electrical current in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The proposed device uses a neodymium magnet attached to the grating structure, which suffers from an electromagnetic force produced when the current flows in the wire of the UAV engine. Therefore, it causes deformation on the sensor and thus, different shifts occur in the resonant bands of the transmission spectrum of the LPFG. Finally, the results show that it is possible to monitor electrical current throughout the entire operating range of the UAV engine from 0 A to 10 A in an effective and practical way with good linearity, reliability and response time, which are desirable characteristics in electrical current sensing. © 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Abstract
This paper presents a wide input range, low-power operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) in weak inversion. The OTA is implemented with tanh-triplets differential pairs, degenerated by a composite configuration to augment the input linear range, thus reducing further the harmonic distortion. Using MATLAB, the mismatch factor (A) of a typical multi-tanh triplet has been optimised for minimum harmonic distortion. The OTA is designed in UMC 0.13um CMOS technology with 1.2V supply. Simulations show that the input range can be extended to 300 mV, while keeping the HD3 below -80 dB. The average power consumption is 13nW, with an open loop-gain of 76 dB and a unity gain frequency of 250 Hz. The low harmonic distortion OTA can find potential applications in low-power and long time constant filters.

Abstract
An integrate-and-fire modulator (IFM) is designed for power scavenging systems like: Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) sensor tags. The circuit works with a clock in order to be able to be synchronized with microprocessors, which must be used to reconstruct the signal. The modulator is simulated using 130nm CMOS technology and the resulting power consumption is around 14nW at a clock frequency of 10 kHz. The OTA individually dissipates roughly 13nW. Signal reconstruction resulted in a 9.2 ENOB.

Abstract

Abstract
Autonomous robots play a pivotal role in improving productivity and reducing operational costs. They excel at both precision and speed in repetitive jobs and can cooperate with humans in complex tasks within dynamic environments. Self-localization is critical to any robot that must navigate or manipulate the environment. To solve this problem, a modular localization system suitable for mobile manipulators was developed. By using LIDAR data the proposed system is capable of achieving less than a centimeter in translation error and less than a degree in rotation error while requiring only 5 to 25 milliseconds of processing time. The system was tested in two different robot platforms at different velocities and in several cluttered and dynamic environments. It demonstrated high accuracy while performing pose tracking and high reliability when estimating the initial pose using feature matching. No artificial landmarks are required and it is able to adjust its operation rate in order to use very few hardware resources when a mobile robot is not moving.

Abstract
In the growing field of Robotics, one of the many possible paths to explore is the social aspect that it can influence upon the present society. The combination of the goal-oriented development of robots with the interactivity used in games while employing mixed reality is a promising route to take in regard to designing user-friendly robots and improving problem solving featured in artificial intelligence software. In this paper, we present a competitive team-based game using Pololu's 3Pi robots moving in a projected map, capable of human interaction via game controllers. The game engine was developed utilizing the framework Qt Creator with C++ and OpenCV for the image processing tasks. The technical framework uses the ROS framework for communications that may be, in the future, used to connect different modules. Various parameters of the implementation are tested, such as position tracking errors.