IEEE SENSORS 2009 Conference - 25-28 October 2009


	Program Keynote Speakers Final Program << Back		Dr. Asad M. Madni Past President and COO, BEI Technologies, Inc. Executive Managing Director and Chief Technical Officer, Crocker Capital Dr. Asad M. Madni is past President & Chief Operating Officer (1992-2006) of BEI Technologies, Inc.(NASDAQ:BEIQ), located in Sylmar, California. Prior to joining BEI he was with Systron Donner Corporation (A Thorn/EMI Company) for 18 years where he served in various senior level technical and executive positions, eventually as Chairman, President & CEO. He is currently serving as the Executive Managing Director & Chief Technical Officer of Crocker Capital based in San Francisco, California. He received the A.A.S. degree from RCA Institutes, Inc., B.S. and M.S. degrees from University of California, Los Angeles, the Ph.D. degree from California Coast University ( all in electrical engineering) and the DSc. Degree (Honoris Causa) from Ryerson University. He is also a graduate of the Certificate Program in Engineering Management at the California Institute of Technology, the Executive Institute at Stanford University and the Program for Senior Executives at MIT Sloan School of Management. Dr. Madni is an internationally recognized authority with over 35 years of experience in "intelligent" system design and signal processing. He is credited with over 140 refereed publications in archival journals, conference proceedings & book chapters; over 100 research reports & internal publications; over 100 keynote addresses, invited lectures, chairs & panels; and 67 issued or pending patents resulting in numerous "industry firsts". He has served as a director on the board of six technology companies and on the advisory boards of several professional and academic organizations. He is currently serving as "Distinguished College Professor" at TCI College of Technology; as Adjunct Professor at Ryerson University & University of New Mexico, Albuquerque; and on advisory boards at California State University Northridge College of Engineering & Computer Science, UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering & Applied Science, USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Northwestern University Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering & Applied Science, TCI College of Technology, IEEE Systems Journal, AutoSoft Journal, and as Honorary Editor of the International Journal on Smart Sensing & Intelligent Systems. Dr. Madni is also the recipient of numerous National & International Awards and Honors including, the Marconi Medal from TCI College of Technology, the 2008 IEEE Region 6S "Outstanding Engineer" and "Outstanding Leadership and Professional Service" Awards, the 2006 World Automation Congress--AutoSoft Journal Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2005 IEE Achievement Medal, the 2004 Alumnus of the Year Award from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering & Applied Science, the 2004 Distinguished Engineering Achievement Award from the San Fernando Valley Engineers' Council, the 2003 George Washington Engineer of the Year Award from the Los Angeles Council of Engineers & Scientists, the 2002 UCLA Professional Achievement Award Medal, IEEE Third Millennium Medal, Joseph F. Engelberger Best Paper Award at the 2000 World Automation Congress, California Coast University Distinguished Alumni Award, Association of Old Crows Gold Certificate of Merit, and is listed in all the major Who's Who publications including Who's Who in America. He is a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers, Fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (UK), Fellow of the Institution of Engineering & Technology (UK), Fellow of the Institute for the Advancement of Engineering, Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Fellow of the Society of Automotive Engineers, Lifetime Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics, and Life Fellow of the International Biographical Association. He is also an Eminent Engineer of Tau Beta Pi, The National Engineering Honor Society; Member of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society; Member of Delta Epsilon Tau, International Honor Society and Life Member of the Association of Old Crows. SMART CONFIGURABLE WIRELESS SENSORS AND ACTUATORS FOR INDUSTRIAL MONITORING AND CONTROL Intelligent wireless sensor-based controls have drawn industry attention on account of reduced costs, better power management, ease in maintenance, and effortless deployment in remote and hard-to-reach areas. They have been successfully deployed in many industrial applications such as maintenance, monitoring, control, security, etc. This presentation focuses on research that addresses the issues faced by instrumentation systems and predictive maintenance industrial applications and presents a design solution to cater to the issues faced by these applications. Instrumentation systems are either open or closed loop control systems formed using sensors and actuators with the objective of controlling certain parameters, or state of the system. The system elements are always in communication with each other, typically, requiring real-time performance and built-in fault-tolerance for communication/node failure - to return to a safe-state in a deterministic amount of time. Predictive-maintenance involves tracking physical state of equipment or machine, and to take action, if an acceptable or allowed state(s) is violated. Predictive-maintenance applications are not active all the time in order to conserve energy. The sensors are either periodic or event-based; they wake up, check status and go back to sleep. In case of any violation, they raise an alarm or record the digression. They are very useful in keeping machine down-times low and help locate the problem before the machine breaks down. Typical systems employ different types of sensors (e.g., position, accelerometers, gyros, etc.) and actuators (e.g., motors) often deployed within the same network, having different capabilities, interfaces, and supporting different protocols for data and communications. Formation of systems from such diverse distributed sensor elements entails versatile control modules, which understand different sensor protocols and utilize them. In addition, the operational challenges are exacerbated when different RF links have to be used to satisfy the requirements of bandwidth, payload, delay, jitter, range, noise immunity and others (including cost) for communication. The Smart Sensor Platform discussed in this presentation is an attempt to develop a generic platform with 'plug-and-play' capability to support hardware interface, payload and communications needs of multiple inertial and position sensors, and actuators/motors used in instrumentation systems and predictive maintenance applications. Communication is carried out using a RF link (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Mote or RFID), in a point-to-point topology. The design also provides means to update operating and monitoring parameters, and thresholds as well as sensor and RF link specific firmware modules 'over-the-air'. It is composed of two main components - a sensor-wireless hardware interface and system integration framework, which facilitates the defining of interaction between sensors/actuators based on process needs. The intelligence necessary to process the sensor signals, monitor the functions against defined operational templates, and enable swapping of sensor and RF link resides on the microcontroller of the hardware interface. A variety of industrial motion sensors like gyroscopes, Inertial Measurement Units (IMU), linear position sensors, absolute and incremental encoders and Brushless DC motors, have been interfaced and successfully tested with the platform.