Summary
Harnessing the capabilities of systems integrating multiple sensor requires significant skills in the embedded system design at multiple levels of abstraction. In this intensive course/workshop, we explain the main topics in integrating multiple sensors in larger systems and demonstrate them in the lab, on a board with tri-axial inertial MEMS sensors and other devices. The 2 day workshop will be taught by Professor Zeljko Zilic, of the McGill department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and will aim to introduce and expand on how to design and integrate multiple sensors into a functioning system.
Instructor
Dr. Zeljko Zilic is an associate professor at McGill University. He has obtained his Ph. D. degree from University of Toronto in 1997. He worked at Lucent Technologies in 1997-98. He has taught courses on microprocessor and embedded systems since joining McGill in 1998 and in that period he has designed novel laboratory kits and courses that extend the focus to wireless embedded systems and multi-sensor integration. For his teaching efforts, he has received the Wighton Fellowship by the National Council of Deans of Engineering and Applied Sciences of Canada. He has written a dozen of papers on embedded systems education, including embedded wireless and multi-sensor training. He is also a prolific researcher, with over 200 research papers in the related areas, for which he has received several research awards. Dr. Zilic has also co-written three books that have served both as research monographs and course textbooks in graduate courses. In the research community, Dr. Zilic has served as a general and program chair of IEEE High-level Design Validation and test and has chaired several other conferences in matters of finance, tutorials, panels and special sessions.
Workshop Content
Students are expected to take the self preparation assessment quiz and complete the necessary pre-readings before the workshop.
Embedded microprocessor-based systems basics
- Embedded systems and processor architecture
- Design principles
Modern embedded processors suitable for sensor integration
- Design tools and debug support significance
- ARM Cortex M3 and M4 processor case studies
- Low-power design concerns
- Lab/Demo: Tools for embedded ARM design
Interfacing sensors from software
- Lab 1: Program design and debugging tools
Basics of sensor integration
- Dealing with manufacturing imprecision and correcting capabilities
- Compensating temperature and environmental impact
- Noise in measurements and its reduction
- Frequency-domain technique basics
Interfacing sensors with digital bus interfaces
- Buses for interfacing sensors: I2C, SPI, …
- Lab 2: analog sensor sampling, signal conditioning and processing
Sensor data filtering and signal processing
- Digital and software filters
Interrupt-driven interfacing
- Asynchrony in sensor data processing – interrupt-driven processing
- Lab3: Reading and processing of accelerometer data; interrupts
System-level interfacing of multiple sensors at different rates
- OS Services
- OS Abstraction layer and multithreaded processing
- Lab 4: Sensor data processing in independent threads