Giulio Maria Bianco

Cecilia Occhiuzzi, Francesca Camera, Michele D'Orazio et al.

Accelerated ripening through the exposure of fruits to controlled environmental conditions and gases is nowadays one of the most assessed food technologies, especially for climacteric and exotic products. However, a fine granularity control of the process and consequently of the quality of the goods is still missing, so the management of the ripening rooms is mainly based on qualitative estimations only. Following the modern paradigms of Industry 4.0, this contribution proposes a non-destructive RFID-based system for the automatic evaluation of the live ripening of avocados. The system, coupled with a properly trained automatic classification algorithm based on Support Vector Machines (SVMs), can discriminate the stage of ripening with an accuracy greater than 85%.

Giulio Maria Bianco, Alberto Dellacasa Bellingegni, Federico Mereu et al.

To provide multimode sensory feedback and motion control, bidirectional bionic interfaces for advanced prosthetic systems require continuous and secure energy delivery to implantable electronics and integration in the sensing WBAN (Wireless Body Area Network) of the patient. However, powering such interfaces is still an open issue. Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) avoids implanted batteries and transcutaneous connections, but its design is constrained by stringent requirements on electromagnetic safety, implant size, voltage compliance, and coexistence with sensitive bio-signal acquisition and stimulation circuitry. This paper presents the design and testing of a low-frequency (127 kHz) inductive WPT link for an implantable bidirectional bionic interface. The system includes an autoresonant driving control to maintain operation at resonance under varying coupling and load conditions of the cyber-physical prosthesis. Starting from the requirements of the bionic interface, the wireless body-area sensing system is designed by selecting the working frequency, drawing the electrical schemes, and checking its safety and regulatory compliance. Preliminary WPT prototypes can provide up to ~140 mA and ~20 V, achieving a maximum power transfer efficiency higher than 40% and satisfying the project requirements up to a 2 cm implantation depth.