Journal Issue: Journal of Advances in Engineering and Technology (JAET)
Volume
Volume 02
Number
Issue i
Issue Date
2023-10
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
2950-7138
Journal Volume
Articles
A Spring – Loaded Actuator Developed By DC 3481 Silicone / Polyaniline – Based Dielectric Polymer Film
(SLIIT, Faculty of Engineering, 2023-10) Dissanayake, D.M.N.T.; Wijerathne, W.D.C.C.; Shakaf, S.; Samaraweera, M.A.R.L.; Asela, A.U.; Premarathna, A.K.C.P.
Dielectric polymer films play a significant role in soft robotics in actuator development. Silicone
and acrylic materials are commonly used for creating dielectric polymer films with superior properties
compared to other potential materials such as PVDF and Polyurethane. Published literature reports
applying different fillers to enhance the electromechanical response of dielectric polymers. Starting
with an already-reported novel dielectric polymer based on polyaniline/DC 3481 silicon, we report the
fabrication and characterization of a spring-loaded actuator. Here we developed a simple spring-loaded
actuator, and three different designs were used to optimize the actuator design. As per research
outcomes, it can be concluded that paper tie-based clamping provides the best configuration for the
actuator in terms of high deflection and low tendency to short-circuit. The developed actuator renders
the maximum deflection of 4.19 mm at 2 kV voltage, and the actuation time is approximately 115 s.
The proposed actuator is superior to many reported actuators in terms of maximum deflection and
corresponding voltage. The proposed actuator and the corresponding dielectric polymer thus have
potential applications in developing actuators for haptics with comparatively high deflection.
Prediction of Post-Construction Settlement of Road Embankment on Soft Soil Deposits
(SLIIT, Faculty of Engineering, 2023-10) Vidurapriya, K. V. D.; Jayaratne, G. A. N.; Thilakasiri, H. S.
Organic soils are often considered problematic soils around the world due to several reasons.
Excessive settlement is one of the main concerns when constructing infrastructure on soft grounds with
organic soil deposits. Ground improvement is mainly carried out on the sub surfaces that lack the
strength and stability to bear the structure to be constructed and undergo large settlement during
operation. Different soft-ground treatment methods must be applied based on the soil properties to
reduce the expected settlements during construction and operation periods. In this context, it is essential
to know the behaviour of the subsurface after the ground improvement process. This study mainly
investigates the accuracy of the settlement prediction methods during the post-construction stage of the
Colombo-Katunayake Expressway Project in Sri Lanka. Settlement prediction was done for the Defect
Liability Period using the hyperbolic method, the Mesri method and the Ladd method. A comparison
of the predicted settlement with the measured field settlement was done to assess the accuracy of the
settlement prediction methods. The comparison showed that the hyperbolic method was more accurate
and convenient for predicting the settlement of the embankment.
Contact Position Estimation in the Event of Simultaneous Multiple Contacts in Vision-based Tactile Sensors
(SLIIT, Faculty of Engineering, 2023-10) Senarath, W. A. T. N; Fernando, S. A. W; Rajakaruna, R. M. T.P
Tactile sensors are used to detect physical contact or pressure. They provide feedback about the
physical environment and allow more natural and intuitive interaction with machines. Tactile sensors
have many applications in the fields of agriculture, space exploration, health and automotive.
Capacitive, resistive, as well as vision (optical) based tactile sensors have been proposed in the
literature. This paper proposes a novel approach to solving the problem of estimating the contact
locations in the event of simultaneous multiple contacts in vision-based tactile sensors. The relationship
between the contact force and the resulting physical deformation of the sensor material of a large-scale
tactile sensor was studied with the aid of a custom-built hardware unit. Hardware architecture consists
of a custom-designed flat rectangular sensor surface coupled with a mono-vision camera to capture the
surface deformation. This method can capture detailed information on the resulting deformation for
multiple simultaneous contacts. A software -based deformation estimation algorithm is proposed, where
the grid array of marker positions was estimated with a tracking algorithm, an estimation algorithm, and
a graphical representation algorithm. Moreover, separate analyses have been carried out to find the best
suitable method to observe the deformation of the sensor material. In this study, the approach that was
taken to find the contact position and deformation, produced results with an accuracy of more than 97%.
Consequently, these results show that this method outperforms existing state-of-the-art techniques in
terms of accuracy in the detection of the contact position.
Comparative Lifecycle Analysis of Sri Lankan Non-Conventional Roofing Materials
(SLIIT, Faculty of Engineering, 2023-10) Fernando, W.A.N; Karunaratne, S
Building materials, especially roofing products, play a major role as they are essential for any
building construction. Knowledge of the environmental performance of building materials is vital when
building life cycle assessment. However, only a few studies have been conducted in Sri Lanka in this
regard. The present study focuses on the environmental life cycle assessment of two different nonconventional
roofing materials used in Sri Lanka. Acrylonitrile Styrene Acrylate roofing sheets and
Calicut-type clay roofing tiles have been selected for the study. In order to measure and calculate
environmental impacts of both types of roofing materials, field data was collected quantitatively and
noted as per ISO14040 and ISO14044. Using the Cradle-to-Gate LCA technique and OpenLCA
software, the environmental impacts as midpoint and endpoint categories were evaluated. As the main
output of the study, environmental performance of these two roofing materials were compared, the
hotspots of the manufacturing process and the causes were also identified. . Accordingly, the global
warming potential of Acrylonitrile Styrene Acrylate roofing sheets and Calicut-type clay roofing tiles
is 13.5 kgs of CO2 eq. and 8.95 kgs of CO2 eq. respectively. Further, comparison of the endpoint
categories showed the resource depletion was most impactful, indicating 0.814012 points and0.65305
points, respectively for the two roofing material types. Further, kiln firing was identified as the
environmental hotspot contributing most to the endpoint and midpoint impact categories for clay
roofing tiles, while mixing materials by hot mixer was the hotspot for Acrylonitrile Styrene Acrylate
roofing sheets. In addition, the overall results demonstrated how the production process of clay tile
influences more than the Acrylonitrile Styrene Acrylate roofing sheet on both the midpoint as well as
the endpoint impact categories.
Machine Learning-Based Indoor Localization System with Human- Computer Interaction System
(SLIIT, Faculty of Engineering, 2023-10) Jayasundara, A; Malasinghe, L
Understanding the indoor whereabouts of individuals and objects is important, especially for
those who fall within the 71% of visually impaired individuals with a school education, students in 450
special education units and many other areas and aspects in Sri Lanka. Researchers have declared that,
there isn’t any particularly good localization system, and the performance should be evaluated
considering the approach and application. The most well-known indoor positioning (IP) technologies
that have been historically deployed are Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, RFID (radio frequency identification), IR
(Infrared), and UV (ultraviolet) whereas received signal strength (RSSI), fingerprinting, and
triangulation methods have been used as common IP techniques. The combination of both IP
technologies and techniques creates an IP system, and the integration of machine learning and IoT with
the structured system essentially delivers an accurate and more advanced system.
This paper contains a detailed, analytical review of a developed indoor positioning system
derived from the existing indoor localization techniques, localization technologies, localization
systems, algorithms, and performance matrixes. This also provides a comprehensive comparison
between numerous existing systems to justify the proposed solution. This project has been developed
to achieve better accuracy through low-cost deployment as an effective system to fill the gap in the
scarcity of positioning systems in the world. This paper presents a descriptive introduction and problem
definition, a critical discussion of results, machine learning models, benefits of the project, and future
works. As later justified, ESP32 microcontroller and BLE beacons are utilized with RSSI fingerprinting
method to develop this IP system and, as a part of the project, two data visualization methods have been
introduced here using NodeRED dashboard and LC display. Overall, this project was developed with
an effective combination of RSSI fingerprinting, IoT protocols, machine learning, and data
interpretation methods.
Description
Editor-in-Chief
Professor Rahula Attalage
Editorial Committee
Prof. Niranga Amarasingha
Prof. Migara Liyanage
Dr. Mudith Karunarathna
Dr. Lakmini Malasinghe
Ms. Nishanthi Gunarathna
Advisory Board
Prof. Dilanthi Amarathunga University of Huddersfield, UK
Prof. Janaka Ekanayake, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
Prof. Kyaw Thu Kyushu University, Japan
Prof. Jagath Manatunge University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka
Prof. George Mann Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada
Prof. Srinath Perera, Western Sydney University, Australia
Prof. Ahmed Abu–Siada Curtin University, Australia
Prof. R. Thevamaran, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA
Prof. S. C. Wirasinghe University of Calgary, Canada
Editorial Assistant / Secretary of the Journal
Ms. Nishanthi Gunarathna
Keywords
Pervious Concrete, Concrete Mix Design, Chip Aggregate, Permeability, Sustainable Construction, Wind–Solar Hybrid System, Off-Grid Energy, Renewable Energy, Rural Electrification, Indoor Localization, Machine Learning, Human–Computer Interaction, Positioning Systems, Lifecycle Analysis, Roofing Materials, Sustainability, Environmental Impact, Tactile Sensors, Vision-Based Sensing, Contact Estimation, Robotics, Multi-Contact Detection, Settlement Prediction, Road Embankments, Soft Soil, Geotechnical Engineering, Dielectric Polymer Actuator, Silicone, Polyaniline, Smart Materials, Spring-Loaded Actuator