Yannick Verbelen | Vrije Universiteit Brussel (original) (raw)

Uploads

Papers by Yannick Verbelen

Research paper thumbnail of Comparative Study of Electronics Visualisation Techniques for E-Learning

International Journal of Engineering Pedagogy (iJEP), 2012

Research paper thumbnail of SPICE Simulation of VLSI Design: An Introduction

The purpose of this work is to introduce the reader to SPICE simulation of VLSI hardware design u... more The purpose of this work is to introduce the reader to SPICE simulation of VLSI hardware design using L-Edit and Altium Designer as a SPICE front end interface.

Research paper thumbnail of Towards a complementary balanced energy harvesting solution for low power embedded systems

The specific technical challenges associated with the design of an ambient energy powered electron... more The specific technical challenges associated with the design of an ambient energy powered electronic system currently requires thorough knowledge of the environment of deployment, energy harvester characteristics and power path management. In this work, a novel flex-ible model for ambient energy harvesters is presented that allows decoupling of the harvester’s physical principles and electrical behavior using a three dimensional function. The model can be adapted to all existing harvesters, resulting in a design methodology for generic ambient energy powered systems using the presented model. We also present a solution for the mathematical problem involved with the optimization of generator sizes when more than two harvesters are used, and demonstrate the ease of use of this solution for implementations on embedded systems with few system resources. Concrete examples are included to demonstrate the versatility of the presented design in the development of electronic appliances on system level.

Research paper thumbnail of Parametrization of Ambient Energy Harversters for Complementary Balanced Electronic Applications

Proceedings of SPIE 8763, Smart Sensors, Actuators, and MEMS VI, May 17, 2013

The specific technical challenges associated with the design of an ambient energy powered electro... more The specific technical challenges associated with
the design of an ambient energy powered electronic system
currently requires thorough knowledge of the environment of
deployment, energy harvester characteristics and power path
management. In this work, a novel flexible model for ambient
energy harvesters is presented that allows decoupling of the
harvester’s physical principles and electrical behavior using
a three dimensional function. The model can be adapted to
all existing harvesters, resulting in a design methodology for
generic ambient energy powered systems using the presented
model. Concrete examples are included to demonstrate the
versatility of the presented design in the development of
electronic appliances on system level.

Research paper thumbnail of Resource Considerations for Durable Large Scale Renewable Energy Harvesting Applications

Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Renewable Energy Research and Applications (ICRERA), 2013

Mineral resource supplies have seen fluctuations in recent years because of growing interests from... more Mineral resource supplies have seen fluctuations in recent years because of growing interests from the renewable energy industry. In particular large scale demand from the photovoltaic industry and emerging energy harvesting technologies weigh heavily on global reserves of rare resources. The impact of scarce key resources on the industry is significant and expected to get more severe as the development of said technologies picks up momentum. This work presents a novel, comprehensive analysis of resource requirements for photovoltaic, thermoelectric and piezoelectric energy harvesting with a survey of state of the art developments in each field of research. Potential resource supply problems are identified, and solutions for these problems are presented to make large scale implementations of sustainable renewable energy harvesting applications possible.

Research paper thumbnail of Optical Reliability Improvements for Low Cost Brushless DC Motor Controllers on FPGA

Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Power Engineering, Energy and Electrical Drives (POWERENG), 2013

To take full advantage of the high reliability of brushless DC motors (BLDCMs), an electronic con... more To take full advantage of the high reliability of brushless DC motors (BLDCMs), an electronic control unit with equally high reliability is mandatory. In this paper, a solution is proposed for cost and reliability drawbacks associated with integrated BLDCM controllers by using reconfigurable technology to implement control logic. An embedded DSP design for FPGAs is presented that is able to drive BLDCMs using a minimum of external components and implementing optic coupling between logic and power electronics. Secondly, the reliability of the proposed implementation is compared to the performance of commercial BLDCM controllers.

Research paper thumbnail of Reconfigurable and Modular Mobile Robotics Platform for Remote Experiments

International Journal of Online Engineering, Jun 2013

In this paper a hardware and software architecture based on a modular approach for a reconfigurab... more In this paper a hardware and software architecture based on a modular approach for a reconfigurable mobile robot is developed with intended use as remote experiment. A Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) was chosen as control unit for the robot and allows the implementation of custom hardware and software by the user. FPGA configurations are downloaded to the robot using a selectable wireless interface. Users can take control of all elementary robot hardware, and an on-system recovery mechanism is included to ensure a fallback to a golden image in case of errors in downloaded bit streams.

Research paper thumbnail of Experimental Analysis of Small Scale PCB Manufacturing Techniques for Fablabs

In this paper we present a complete modular PCB manufacturing process on fablab scale that... more In this paper we present a complete modular PCB manufacturing process on fablab scale that is compliant with current PCB manufacturing standards. This includes, but is not limited to, a minimum track width of 8 mil, a minimum clearance of 6 mil, plated and non plated holes, a
solder resist, surface finish and component overlay. We
modularize industrial manufacturing processes and discuss
advantages and disadvantages of production techniques for
every phase. We then proceed to discuss the relevance and added value of every phase in the manufacturing process and their usefulness in a fablab context. Production techniques are evaluated regarding complexity, overhead, safety, required time, and environmental concerns. To ensure practical feasibility of the presented techniques, the
manufacturing process is benchmarked in FablabXL and
aims to be a practical reference for implementing or
extending PCB manufacturing activities in fablabs.

Research paper thumbnail of Implementation of a Server Architecture for Secure Reconfiguration of Embedded Systems

Field reconfigurable logic finds an increased integration in both industrial and consumer applicati... more Field reconfigurable logic finds an increased integration in both industrial and consumer applications. A need for secure
reconfiguration techniques on these devices arises as live firmware updates are essential for a guaranteed continuity of the application’s performance. Ideally, a wide variety of different reconfigurable devices in a range of applications should be configurable with suitable firmware from a central location, since outdated or wrong configuration data could potentially cause irreversible damage to the device. At the same time eavesdropping must be made unfeasibly difficult to keep the intellectual properties of the application
provider secured.
This work proposes a software architecture for a server platform allowing secure bidirectional communication over TCP/IP with
reconfigurable logic in the field. Moreover a performance comparison between C# and Java is discussed for the different cryptographic algorithms applied in the application.

Research paper thumbnail of Secure remote reconfiguration of an FPGA-based embedded system

Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Reconfigurable Communication-centric Systems-on-Chip (ReCoSoC), 2011, 2011

This paper describes the protocol, architecture, and implementation details of an FPGA-based embe... more This paper describes the protocol, architecture, and implementation details of an FPGA-based embedded system that is able to remotely reconfigure the FPGA, using a TCP/IP connection, in a secure way. When considering the security aspects, we imply data confidentiality, explicit key authentication and data origin authentication. Since these aspects are overhead for the main application, the system is to be as small as possible. Therefore we have focused on compactness rather than on speed for the implementation. The implemented solution exists out of 2 components: a communication part and a cryptographic part. The system can be easily integrated at any point in the design of an FPGA-based embedded system, due to the simple and modular architecture.

Research paper thumbnail of Comparative Study of Electronics Visualisation Techniques for E-Learning

International Journal of Engineering Pedagogy (iJEP), 2012

Research paper thumbnail of SPICE Simulation of VLSI Design: An Introduction

The purpose of this work is to introduce the reader to SPICE simulation of VLSI hardware design u... more The purpose of this work is to introduce the reader to SPICE simulation of VLSI hardware design using L-Edit and Altium Designer as a SPICE front end interface.

Research paper thumbnail of Towards a complementary balanced energy harvesting solution for low power embedded systems

The specific technical challenges associated with the design of an ambient energy powered electron... more The specific technical challenges associated with the design of an ambient energy powered electronic system currently requires thorough knowledge of the environment of deployment, energy harvester characteristics and power path management. In this work, a novel flex-ible model for ambient energy harvesters is presented that allows decoupling of the harvester’s physical principles and electrical behavior using a three dimensional function. The model can be adapted to all existing harvesters, resulting in a design methodology for generic ambient energy powered systems using the presented model. We also present a solution for the mathematical problem involved with the optimization of generator sizes when more than two harvesters are used, and demonstrate the ease of use of this solution for implementations on embedded systems with few system resources. Concrete examples are included to demonstrate the versatility of the presented design in the development of electronic appliances on system level.

Research paper thumbnail of Parametrization of Ambient Energy Harversters for Complementary Balanced Electronic Applications

Proceedings of SPIE 8763, Smart Sensors, Actuators, and MEMS VI, May 17, 2013

The specific technical challenges associated with the design of an ambient energy powered electro... more The specific technical challenges associated with
the design of an ambient energy powered electronic system
currently requires thorough knowledge of the environment of
deployment, energy harvester characteristics and power path
management. In this work, a novel flexible model for ambient
energy harvesters is presented that allows decoupling of the
harvester’s physical principles and electrical behavior using
a three dimensional function. The model can be adapted to
all existing harvesters, resulting in a design methodology for
generic ambient energy powered systems using the presented
model. Concrete examples are included to demonstrate the
versatility of the presented design in the development of
electronic appliances on system level.

Research paper thumbnail of Resource Considerations for Durable Large Scale Renewable Energy Harvesting Applications

Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Renewable Energy Research and Applications (ICRERA), 2013

Mineral resource supplies have seen fluctuations in recent years because of growing interests from... more Mineral resource supplies have seen fluctuations in recent years because of growing interests from the renewable energy industry. In particular large scale demand from the photovoltaic industry and emerging energy harvesting technologies weigh heavily on global reserves of rare resources. The impact of scarce key resources on the industry is significant and expected to get more severe as the development of said technologies picks up momentum. This work presents a novel, comprehensive analysis of resource requirements for photovoltaic, thermoelectric and piezoelectric energy harvesting with a survey of state of the art developments in each field of research. Potential resource supply problems are identified, and solutions for these problems are presented to make large scale implementations of sustainable renewable energy harvesting applications possible.

Research paper thumbnail of Optical Reliability Improvements for Low Cost Brushless DC Motor Controllers on FPGA

Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Power Engineering, Energy and Electrical Drives (POWERENG), 2013

To take full advantage of the high reliability of brushless DC motors (BLDCMs), an electronic con... more To take full advantage of the high reliability of brushless DC motors (BLDCMs), an electronic control unit with equally high reliability is mandatory. In this paper, a solution is proposed for cost and reliability drawbacks associated with integrated BLDCM controllers by using reconfigurable technology to implement control logic. An embedded DSP design for FPGAs is presented that is able to drive BLDCMs using a minimum of external components and implementing optic coupling between logic and power electronics. Secondly, the reliability of the proposed implementation is compared to the performance of commercial BLDCM controllers.

Research paper thumbnail of Reconfigurable and Modular Mobile Robotics Platform for Remote Experiments

International Journal of Online Engineering, Jun 2013

In this paper a hardware and software architecture based on a modular approach for a reconfigurab... more In this paper a hardware and software architecture based on a modular approach for a reconfigurable mobile robot is developed with intended use as remote experiment. A Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) was chosen as control unit for the robot and allows the implementation of custom hardware and software by the user. FPGA configurations are downloaded to the robot using a selectable wireless interface. Users can take control of all elementary robot hardware, and an on-system recovery mechanism is included to ensure a fallback to a golden image in case of errors in downloaded bit streams.

Research paper thumbnail of Experimental Analysis of Small Scale PCB Manufacturing Techniques for Fablabs

In this paper we present a complete modular PCB manufacturing process on fablab scale that... more In this paper we present a complete modular PCB manufacturing process on fablab scale that is compliant with current PCB manufacturing standards. This includes, but is not limited to, a minimum track width of 8 mil, a minimum clearance of 6 mil, plated and non plated holes, a
solder resist, surface finish and component overlay. We
modularize industrial manufacturing processes and discuss
advantages and disadvantages of production techniques for
every phase. We then proceed to discuss the relevance and added value of every phase in the manufacturing process and their usefulness in a fablab context. Production techniques are evaluated regarding complexity, overhead, safety, required time, and environmental concerns. To ensure practical feasibility of the presented techniques, the
manufacturing process is benchmarked in FablabXL and
aims to be a practical reference for implementing or
extending PCB manufacturing activities in fablabs.

Research paper thumbnail of Implementation of a Server Architecture for Secure Reconfiguration of Embedded Systems

Field reconfigurable logic finds an increased integration in both industrial and consumer applicati... more Field reconfigurable logic finds an increased integration in both industrial and consumer applications. A need for secure
reconfiguration techniques on these devices arises as live firmware updates are essential for a guaranteed continuity of the application’s performance. Ideally, a wide variety of different reconfigurable devices in a range of applications should be configurable with suitable firmware from a central location, since outdated or wrong configuration data could potentially cause irreversible damage to the device. At the same time eavesdropping must be made unfeasibly difficult to keep the intellectual properties of the application
provider secured.
This work proposes a software architecture for a server platform allowing secure bidirectional communication over TCP/IP with
reconfigurable logic in the field. Moreover a performance comparison between C# and Java is discussed for the different cryptographic algorithms applied in the application.

Research paper thumbnail of Secure remote reconfiguration of an FPGA-based embedded system

Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Reconfigurable Communication-centric Systems-on-Chip (ReCoSoC), 2011, 2011

This paper describes the protocol, architecture, and implementation details of an FPGA-based embe... more This paper describes the protocol, architecture, and implementation details of an FPGA-based embedded system that is able to remotely reconfigure the FPGA, using a TCP/IP connection, in a secure way. When considering the security aspects, we imply data confidentiality, explicit key authentication and data origin authentication. Since these aspects are overhead for the main application, the system is to be as small as possible. Therefore we have focused on compactness rather than on speed for the implementation. The implemented solution exists out of 2 components: a communication part and a cryptographic part. The system can be easily integrated at any point in the design of an FPGA-based embedded system, due to the simple and modular architecture.