Purpose: – The purpose of this paper is to develop textile-based transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) electrodes using conductive yarn to bring a solution to uncomfortable feelings and hygiene problems of conventional conductive hydrogel electrodes. It proposes washing process, resistance measurements and subjective tests to evaluate the performance of the developed textile-based electrode. Design/methodology/approach: – In this study, six different textile electrode pairs were designed and produced with different patterns. Designed electrodes were washed for ten times. In order to evaluate the effect of pattern differences and washing process on electrode performances, two different tests were realized before and after washing. The first of these tests is resistance measurement with a multimeter, and the second one is subjective test carried out on subjects. Findings: – The results obtained from resistance measurements indicated that the pattern differences cause resistance values of electrodes to change. It is reported that subjects had electrical stimulation from all electrode samples in conducted trials and it is noticed that washing process does not cause any stimulation problems. Originality/value: – In this study, textile-based TENS electrodes having different patterns were produced by machine stitching technique and their long-term usage behaviors were examined with repeated washing processes and trials on the subjects.

A test apparatus based on electrical conduction principle was designed and manufactured to overcome some difficulties and deficiencies in vertical wicking measurements of fabrics, which is one of the test methods used to determine liquid moisture transmission performance of fabrics. In order to test effectiveness of the apparatus, capillary time with regard to height was measured for woven shirting fabrics, which have different raw material, weave type and weft density. It was found that twill weave type and fabric looseness improved the wickability of fabrics. It was also revealed that raw material was an important factor for vertical wicking. The wicking rate of fabrics obtained from the new test apparatus correlated well with DIN 53924. Consequently, the test apparatus clearly demonstrated differences between the fabrics used in the study, and can be used to determine vertical wicking behaviour of fabrics.

In the future, the world is likely to face water and therefore food shortages due to reasons such as global warming, population growth, the melting of glaciers, the destruction of agricultural lands over time or their use for different purposes, and environmental pollution. Although technological developments are important for people to live a more comfortable and safer life, it is also possible to reduce and even repair the damage to nature and protect nature itself thanks to new technologies. There is a requirement to detect abnormal water usage in agriculture to avert water scarcity, and an electronic system can help achieve this objective. In this research, an experimental study was carried out to detect water leaks in the field in order to prevent water losses that can occur in agriculture, where water consumption is the highest. Therefore, in this study, low-cost embedded electronic hardware was developed to detect over-watering by means of normal and thermal camera sensors and to collect the required data, which can be installed on a mobile agricultural robot. For image processing and the diagnosis of abnormal conditions, the collected data were transferred to a personal computer server. Then, software was developed for both the low-cost embedded system and the personal computer to provide a faster detection and decision-making process. The physical and software system developed in this study was designed to provide a water leak detection process that has a minimum response time. For this purpose, mathematical and image processing algorithms were applied to obtain efficient water detection for the conversion of the thermal sensor data into an image, the image size enhancement using interpolation, the combination of normal and thermal images, and the calculation of the image area where water leakage occurs. The field experiments for this developed system were performed manually to observe the good functioning of the system.

Tracking of the sun, which increases the efficiency of solar energy production systems, has shown considerable development in recent years. This development has been achieved by custom-positioned light sensors, image cameras, sensorless chronological systems and intelligent controller supported systems or by synergetic use of these systems. This study contributes to this research area with a novel spherical-based sensor which measures spherical light source emittance and localizes the light source. This sensor was built by using miniature light sensors placed on a spherical shaped three-dimensional printed body with data acquisition electronic circuitry. Besides the developed sensor data acquisition embedded software, preprocessing and filtering processes were conducted on these measured data. In the study, the outputs of Moving Average, Savitzky-Golay, and Median filters were used for the localization of the light source. The center of gravity for each filter used was determined as a point, and the location of the light source was determined. The spherical sensor system obtained by this study is applicable for various solar tracking methods. The approach of the study also shows that this measurement system is applicable for obtaining the position of local light sources such as the ones placed on mobile or cooperative robots.

The authors would like to give thanks to TÜBİTAK “The Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey” for financial support under Project Number 109M404.

In this study, the general structure of swarm robotics is examined. Algorithms inspired by nature, which form the basis of swarm robotics, are introduced. Communication topologies in robotic swarms, which are similar to the communication methods between living things moving in nature, are included and how these can be used in swarm communication is emphasized. With the developed algorithms, how the swarm can imitate nature and what tasks it can perform have been explained. The various problems that will be encountered in terms of the design of the optimization methods used during the control of the swarm and the solutions are simulated using the Webots software. As a result, ideas on the solutions of these problems and suggestions are proposed.