This study presents an on-road driver monitoring system, which is implemented on a stand-alone in-vehicle embedded system and driven by effective solar cells. The driver monitoring function is performed by an efficient eye detection technique. Through the driver's eye movements captured from the camera, the attention states of the driver can be determined and any fatigue states can be avoided. This driver monitoring technique is implemented on a low-power embedded in-vehicle platform. Besides, this study also proposed monitoring machinery that can detect the brightness around the car to effectively determine whether this in-vehicle system is driven by the solar cells or by the vehicle battery. On sunny days, the in-vehicle system can be powered by solar cell in places without the vehicle battery. While in the evenings or on rainy days, the ambient solar brightness is insufficient, and the system is powered by the vehicle battery. The proposed system was tested under the conditions that the solar irradiance is 10 to 113 W/m 2 and solar energy and brightness at 10 to 170. From the testing results, when the outside solar radiation is high, the brightness of the inside of the car is increased, and the eye detection accuracy can also increase as well. Therefore, this solar powered driver monitoring system can be efficiently applied to electric cars to save energy consumption and promote the driving safety.

Linear motors (LMs) are widely used in numerous industry automation where precise and fast motions are required to convert electric energy into linear actuation without the need of any switching mechanism. This study aims to develop a control strategy of auto-tuning cross-coupled two-degree-of-freedom proportional-integral-derivative (ACC2PID) to achieve extremely high-precision contour control of a LMs-driven X-Y-Y stage. Three 2PID controllers are developed to control the mover positions in individual axes while two compensators are designed to eliminate the contour errors in biaxial motions. Furthermore, an improved artificial bee colony algorithm is employed as a powerful optimization technique so that all the control parameters can be concurrently evaluated and optimized online while ensuring the non-fragility of the proposed controller. In this way, the tracking error in each axis and contour errors of the biaxial motions can be concurrently minimized, and further, satisfactory positioning accuracy and synchronization performance can be achieved. Finally, the experimental comparison results confirm the validity of the proposed ACC2PID control system regarding the multi-axis contour tracking control of the highly uncertain and nonlinear LMs-driven X-Y-Y stage.

This study discussed the feasibility of developing a system to circulate the heat loss from the coil and iron core of the power transformer equipped for buildings during power supply to the heat recovery unit. This study affixed a copper tube into the transformer insulating oil, allowing the water to circulate at normal temperature in the coil tube, and absorb the heat energy generated by the transformer coil and iron core. The heat energy was then recovered and stored. A low tension power transformer (7.5 KV) was used in the experiment. The operation was carried out in transforming power supply mode to seek for the most suitable recovery unit for various occasions. The test results showed that if the hot water recovery efficiency is 50%, in the course of producing hot water, the mean temperature of 17.5 L normal temperature water can be increased from 20°C to 50°C, thus producing 12.5 kJ heat only spends about 34 min. The results proved that the recovery unit for the heat from the power transformer can benefit from heating, prolong the transformer's lifetime, increase the power supply efficiency, and reduce the air conditioning load to save energy and to reduce global warming.

This study developed an oxygenase system with horizontal-axis wind turbine driving the oxygenation device by belt pulley for aquaculture, and verified the feasibility of the system in conditions of Taiwan’s average wind speed. The experimental system is consisted of a horizontal wind turbine, a reciprocating compressor, and water channels. At the first stage of the experiment, the reciprocating compressor oxygenase system was measured according to the power supply standards in terms of power consumption, air displacement and oxygen production, in case of various rotating speeds and the compliance with aquaculture standards. At the second stage of the experiment, the wind turbine was used to directly drive the reciprocating compressor oxygenase system. According to the experimental results, regarding the test of the compressor oxygenase system, when power supply rotating speed is 406.7 rpm, power consumption is 234.5 W and the oxygen production is 7.48mg/L, which is above the level of amount of dissolved oxygen of aquaculture at 5.5mg/L. In case of driving the oxygenation device by wind power, when wind speed is 5.06 m/s and the wind turbine rotating speed is 140 rpm, the average dissolved oxygen in the water is 5.9 mg/L, which meets the aquaculture standards. Even in case of unstable wind speed, good oxygen production effects can be achieved. Moreover, the system is directly driven by wind power and does not require electric power.

This study developed a set of equipment that can measure the treadmill exercise energy consumption accurately, and apply the exercise energy consumption to refrigeration and heating devices, thus supplying hot water and chilled water for users. Exercise energy consumption is conventionally measured based on the amount of exercise, but this study used non-electric mode to drive refrigeration and heating devices. According to the measurement results, the heat energy generated by exercise energy is 65 kcal; as compared with the 70 kcal measured by calorie meter, the result is within 10% of error range, thus proving that the proposed measuring method is worth research and development. In addition, without conventional energy sources, 3,000c.c of hot water (45°C) and 1,500c.c of cold water (7°C) could be generated within 20min use of the treadmill. The proposed equipment can measure the exercise energy consumption, and support the refrigeration and heating system to produce free hot water and cold water. This is an environmentally-friendly and innovative multifunctional equipment worthy of further research and development .