arXiv subjects

Florian Herrmann

Publications and source records attributed to Florian Herrmann.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

Leveraging 5G private networks, UAVs and robots to detect and combat broad-leaved dock (Rumex obtusifolius) in feed production

In this paper an autonomous system to detect and combat Rumex obtusifolius leveraging autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), small autonomous sprayer robots and 5G SA connectivity is presented. Rumex obtusifolius is a plant found on grassland that drains nutrients from surrounding plants and has lower nutritive value than the surrounding grass. High concentrations of it have to be combated in order to use the grass as feed for livestock. One or more UAV are controlled through 5G to survey the current working area and send back high-definition photos of the ground to an edge cloud server. There an AI algorithm using neural networks detects the Rumex obtusifolius and calculates its position using the UAVs position data. When plants are detected an optimal path is calculated and sent via 5G to the sprayer robot to get to them in minimal time. It will then move to the position of the broad-leafed dock and use an on-board camera and the edge cloud to verify the position of the plant and precisely spray crop protection only where the target plant is. The spraying robot and UAV are already operational, the training of the detection algorithm is still ongoing. The described system is being tested with a fixed private 5G SA network and a nomadic 5G SA network as public cellular networks are not performant enough in regards to low latency and upload bandwidth.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2017

The ARAGORN front-end - An FPGA based implementation of a Time-to-Digital Converter

We present the ARAGORN front-end, a cost-optimized, high-density Time-to-Digital Converter platform. Four Xilinx Artix-7 FPGAs implement 384 channels with an average time resolution of 165 ps on a single module. A fifth FPGA acts as data concentrator and generic board master. The front-end features a SFP+ transceiver for data output and an optional multi-channel optical transceiver slot to interconnect with up to seven boards though a star topology. This novel approach makes it possible to read out up to eight boards yielding 3072 input channels via a single optical fiber at a bandwidth of 6.6 Gb/s.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2011

The GANDALF 128-Channel Time-to-Digital Converter

The GANDALF 6U-VME64x/VXS module has been designed to cope with a variety of readout tasks in high energy and nuclear physics experiments, in particular the COMPASS experiment at CERN. The exchangeable mezzanine cards allow for an employment of the system in very different applications such as analog-to-digital or time-to-digital conversions, coincidence matrix formation, fast pattern recognition or fast trigger generation. Based on this platform, we present a 128-channel TDC which is implemented in a single Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA using a shifted clock sampling method. In this concept each input signal is continuously sampled by 16 flip-flops using equidistant phase-shifted clocks. Compared to previous FPGA designs, usually based on delay lines and comprising few TDC channels with resolutions in the order of 10 ps, our design permits the implementation of a large number of TDC channels with a resolution of 64 ps in a single FPGA. Predictable placement of logic components and uniform routing inside the FPGA fabric is a particular challenge of this design. We present measurement results for the time resolution and the nonlinearity of the TDC readout system.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2011

Development and Performance Verification of the GANDALF High-Resolution Transient Recorder System

With present-day detectors in high energy physics one often faces fast analog pulses of a few nanoseconds length which cover large dynamic ranges. In many experiments both amplitude and timing information have to be measured with high accuracy. Additionally, the data rate per readout channel can reach several MHz, which leads to high demands on the separation of pile-up pulses. For an upgrade of the COMPASS experiment at CERN we have designed the GANDALF transient recorder with a resolution of 12bit@1GS/s and an analog bandwidth of 500\:MHz. Signals are digitized with high precision and processed by fast algorithms to extract pulse arrival times and amplitudes in real-time and to generate trigger signals for the experiment. With up to 16 analog channels, deep memories and a high data rate interface, this 6U-VME64x/VXS module is not only a dead-time free digitization unit but also has huge numerical capabilities provided by the implementation of a Virtex5-SXT FPGA. Fast algorithms implemented in the FPGA may be used to disentangle possible pile-up pulses and determine timing information from sampled pulse shapes with a time resolution better than 50 ps.

physics.ins-det↗