Fly-by-Pi: Open source closed-loop control for geotechnical centrifuge testing applications

A low-cost, mobile real-time kinematic geolocation service for engineering and research applications

“…The development of low-cost geolocation alternatives opens up new possibilities and opportunities for research and commercial applications, in contrast to existing systems which are prohibitively expensive. This movement forms part of the Civiltronics [11] paradigm at the University of Pretoria, whereby core principles of traditional civil engineering is combined with computer science, information technology and electronic engineering, accelerating challenging research projects for even the most demanding applications [12,13] which would otherwise not be affordable to implement [14]. Numerous other literature sources highlight these advantages, ranging from medicine [15], environmental engineering [16] to agricultural applications [17].…”

TD-DAQ: A low-cost data acquisition system monitoring the unsaturated pore pressure regime in tailings dams

“…The development of the sensor platform followed from a lack of availability of affordable off the shelf instrumentation to adequately address this monitoring project’s requirements. Deployment of the TD-DAQ compliments recent successes associated with developing customised research hardware within the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Pretoria [11] to address an ever-diversifying array of practical applications [12] , [13] , [14] .…”

“…2 , top) fabricated at the University of Pretoria. An identical ADC has successfully been used for geotechnical centrifuge testing at the University of Pretoria [14] . The 5TM [27] sensors, measuring volumetric water content (VWC) and soil temperature, are directly interfaced with the Arduino’s digital control logic ( Fig.…”

Open Source 3D Printed ISO 8655 Compliant Multichannel Pipette

“…This approach has been long-established to provide custom state-of-the-art scientific hardware [34][35][36][37] at lower costs [38][39][40][41][42]. For example, open source 3D printing of scientific hardware has been shown to save research funds while making high-quality custom hardware from chemical mixing [43][44][45] to centrifuges [46][47][48][49][50]. Most importantly, there have been several valuable investigations of open source pipettes including a 3D-printed 1000 μL micropump [51] and an adjustable micro-pipette that meets ISO standards for accuracy [52].…”