Instrumentation

• Development of instrumentation based on well known physical principles. This activity has been connected to medical and aqua culture applications, and is mainly motivated by the need for the measurement in other activities lacking other adequate instrumentation.
• Use of different off-the-shelf instruments as inputs to determine immeasurable variables. This activity is often called sensor fusion or use of cooperative sensor network. The incentive for this activity is partly to give a better description of a system and partly to replace or omit other instruments.
• Instrumentation system analysis concerning whether the instrumentation really are measuring the expected phenomena (is the instrument properly positioned, is the instrument under the influence of undesirable parameters), the robustness of the measurements and the need for the measurement.
• Wireless sensor networks for easy and flexible collection of measurements without the need for costly wiring.

The discipline of instrumentation as carried out at the institute is closely related to real time distributed systems, field bus communication and embedded systems, as advanced instrumentation often are implemented as distributed real time embedded systems, communicating by use of field buses.

Real Time Programming

The field covers design and implementation of software for real-time and embedded systems. This includes, in addition to techniques and principles for meeting application-level real-time demands, the following;

• Error handling and availability.
• Distributed systems (sensor networks, process control systems…)
• Practical implementation of control algorithms.
• Low-level programming (- interfacing hardware)
• Implementation of algorithms for Real-Time operating systems (Scheduling, Resource Control…)
• Formal Methods relating to real-time systems
• Special operating systems and middle-ware for real-time and embedded systems.

Some of the current research activities/interests in this field are:

• Highlevel Execution Time Analysis (Source analysis) and the application of execution time data in resource allocation/scheduling as well as implications for design/implementation formalisms.
• Lowlevel Execution Time Analysis; Achieving predictability in presence of cache and pipelined execution.
• Architectural aspects for achieving quality of service in distributed real-time systems.
• Fault-tolerance in distributed hard real-time systems.
• CPU-Scheduling based on control-theory.

Embedded Systems

Hardware architectures for embedded real time systems to support performance and environmental requirements are important especially for use in related activities. There are also basic research activities in order to support other areas, for example “scheduling”.

• Architectural support for improved resource management in real-time systems. Examples for these are CPU timer extensions for time-triggered scheduling and task-aware power management units.
• Efficient architectures for reliable operation in difficult environments, especially for subsea, industrial, in-vehicle, marine and other applications.
• Hardware to meet environmental and other requirements (EMC, ATEX etc.) in combination with demanding communication and interface requirements.
• Efficient design of small embedded systems.
• Extremely low power instrumentation systems for research and survey of biological systems.
• Adaptation and extension of network architectures for industrial use.
• Extremely small systems for use in the field of medicine

Safety, Security and Reliability

Many of the applications of embedded systems and instrumentation is in an area where safety is mandatory, like petroleum activities and transport. The activity is focused on technical solutions safeguarding human, environment and investments.

• Analysis and design of safety of functions to give sufficient safety without sacrificing reliability and production uptime
• Methodology and software to facilitate analysis of large industrial complexes and their safety performance in large upset situations where flare capacity is limited
• Development of calculation methodology to provide realistic estimates of performance
• Design and calculation methodology to reduce manual efforts during regular functional testing, operation and maintenance
• Safe communication to prevent negative effect on safety and security from external and internal failures and influences
• Development of hardware and software to fulfil international requirements like those of IEC 61508
• Secure safety in previously isolated solutions now opened to the outside world. This is especially critical today when oil installations in Norway are connected together and to other companies to achieve the positive effects of the e-Field concepts, without being vulnerable to external influence.

Human Machine Interface

Most systems for control and surveillance have operator interfaces of some kind from the simplest mechanical device to complex computer systems. Other applications use various presentations to enable a new solution. HMI systems must be designed using known human limitations and feasibilities from physiology to adapt the interface and its use to the operator.

• HMI of Distributed Control Systems for operator intervention including design of Control Rooms
• Alarm handling and logics to reduce unnecessary alarms and pinpoint those important for operator interventions without losing vital information.
• Visualisation and interaction using e.g. Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality to present computer generated information together with video images
• Image processing for use in on-line control and surveillance
• Remotely controlled robots for maintenance and inspection on unmanned installations
• Wearable systems connected to technical and administrative systems for optimal work processes

Fisheries and Aquaculture

Medical Cybernetics - Biomedical Motion