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Thank you for your interest in submitting an applications article.

Sharing your successful solution benefits not only you, but also
the rest of academia & industry.

If you need additional information or assistance as you prepare

your paper, please feel free to contact vimantra2010@ni.com
or call at 91 80 41190000.

Regards
Solaikutty Dhanabal
Academic Program Manager
National Instruments India

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© 2010 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved. Product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their
respective companies. National Instruments, NI, NIWeek, and ni.com are trademarks of National Instruments.
Contents
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1. Contest Details

2. About VI Mantra

3. Process of Application for VI Mantra

4. Submission Guidelines

5. Abstract Submission Format

6. Paper Submission Format

7. Right to Publish Form

8. Sample Paper in Format

Tel: 91 80 41190000 Email ni.india@ni.com

© 2010 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved. Product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their
respective companies. National Instruments, NI, NIWeek, and ni.com are trademarks of National Instruments.
VI Mantra 2010
A National Level Technical Paper Contest
Join the Graphical System Design Revolution, Share your innovation
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Contest Details
Showcase your work to Indian academia and industry
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We are looking for practical solutions to problems, that you have implemented
using NI LabVIEW and the NI toolkits.

Mail us your complete project(s) in the recommended format along with the
signed Right to Publish form provided herein.

Mention your contest category (Student/Research Scholar) in the Subject Line

while sending your final papers.

The best papers will be published and the top 3 entries in each category will be
rewarded!

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Last Date for submission of Final Papers: 16 September, 2010

Email papers to: vimantra2010@ni.com

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Prizes to be Won
First Prize: Cash prize worth Rs 50,000 to the winning team plus NI hardware to the
winning college!

Second Prize: Rs 30,000 cash prize to the winning team

Third Prize: Rs 20,000 cash prize to the winning team

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Tel: 91 80 41190000 Email ni.india@ni.com

© 2010 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved. Product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their
respective companies. National Instruments, NI, NIWeek, and ni.com are trademarks of National Instruments.
Submission Guidelines
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 Abstracts and Final Papers should be submitted only in
pdf format
 The font used should be Verdana
 The font size should be 12 (twelve)
 The headings can be made bold and underlined

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Abstract Submission Format
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1. Title of the Application (in 10 words)

________________________________________

Name of Institution
__________________________________________________

Contest Category (Student/Research Scholar) _____________

Author(s) and Contact Information

Please list name, email ID and mobile no. of each participant

__________________________________________________

2. The Challenge

3. National Instruments products (Hardware and Software) used

4. Proposed Solution

Tel: 91 80 41190000 Email ni.india@ni.com

© 2010 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved. Product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their
respective companies. National Instruments, NI, NIWeek, and ni.com are trademarks of National Instruments.
Paper Submission Format
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1. Title of the Application ________________________________

Name of Institution ___________________________________

Author(s) __________________________________________

Contest Category (Student/Research Scholar) __________________

2. Products used
Which National Instruments products (Hardware and Software) did you use in this
Application?

3. The Challenge
What was the problem you were trying to solve?

4. The Solution
What was the Solution to the problem?
Can you highlight the benefits of using Graphical System Design?

5. Introduction
Can you provide an introduction to the Application?

6. System Configuration
Can you briefly describe the Application?
Can you briefly describe the System Set-up of the Application?

7. System Implementation
Can you briefly describe the Application?
Can you briefly describe the System Set-up of the Application?
Can you describe how the Software was implemented in the Application?
How are the National Instruments products a part of your Application?

8. Benefits of using Graphical System Design approach

What specific capabilities of National Instruments products did you use in this
application?
How much time, money, or both are you saving with the new application or system?
Please be as specific as possible.

9. Any other information that you would like to include?

10. Conclusion

Note: Please provide us with high resolution visuals/pictures of your application.

Tel: 91 80 41190000 Email ni.india@ni.com

© 2010 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved. Product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their
respective companies. National Instruments, NI, NIWeek, and ni.com are trademarks of National Instruments.
Right to Publish
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To:
National Instruments Corporation

From: Author __________________________________________________

Author’s title ________________________________________________
Company (or Institute) ________________________________________
Address _________________________________________________________
Tel. ___________________________ Fax. _________________________
E-mail address: ______________________________________________
National Instruments contact ____________________________________

Description of work(s), to include all text and artwork:

Manuscript provisionally entitled _________________________________
Artwork provisionally entitled ____________________________________

This document grants National Instruments Corporation the exclusive right to reproduce and disseminate, on
a royalty-free basis and in accordance with the copyright laws, the above-described work(s) or any part
thereof throughout the world, in any and all formats (print and electronic), in perpetuity, until such a time that
NI receives written notice that the author has revoked such rights.

Reproduction may include but is not limited to the following:

Publication in National Instruments electronic marketing materials, including but not limited to the National
Instruments Web site, Software Showcase CD, or individual software demonstration CDs; Publication in
Instrumentation Newsletter; Publication as a stand-alone customer solutions article; Publication in National
Instruments marketing materials, including but not limited to brochures, catalogs, or direct mail; Publication
of entire text or excerpts and art provided in a trade or industry journal publication; Revised into a press
release for media distribution.

I understand that each usage of the work(s) credits the author named above and includes the following
copyright notice:

©2010 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved. Product and company names listed are
trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.

_____________________________________________
Authorized Signature of Author or Author’s Representative
_____________________________________________
Printed or Typed Name
______________________________________
Title
________________________
Date
________________________
Telephone

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Tel: 91 80 41190000 Email ni.india@ni.com

© 2010 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved. Product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their
respective companies. National Instruments, NI, NIWeek, and ni.com are trademarks of National Instruments.
Sample Paper Article Format
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Title of the Application: Detection of beetles in coconut trees using Acoustic Emission
Technique

Name of Institution: PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu)

Contest Category: Student

Author(s): S. Arunkumar, B. Gokul & R. Panneer Selvan (Dept. of Mechanical Eng)

Guide: Dr. B. Giriraj, Sr Lecturer (Dept. of Mechanical Eng)

NI Products used
 NI LabVIEW 7.1
 NI USB DAQ 6009

The Challenge
To develop a system for detecting the presence of red-palm weevil in coconut trees in
order to protect them from weevil infestation as well as to medicate them at the earliest.

The weevil infestation in coconut trees causes serious problems and they decrease the
yield of the coconuts produced. The farmers find it very difficult to trace the infected tree
in their own fields. The present method is visual inspection where in a farmer has to see
for any symptoms like oozing out of an viscous brown fluid, extrusion of the chewed up
fibers through the holes in the trunk of the tree, longitudinal splitting of the leaf bases
and withering of the central spindle. In severe and later stages of the infestation the
sound of gnawing and the breaking of fibers could be heard in silent environment. This
system will detect the presence of the weevil inside the coconut tree at the earliest stage
possible by using the acoustic emission technique.

The Solution
The proposed system will detect the presence of the weevil in the beginning stages of
tunneling the tree. The weevil, when it bites the tissues of the tree, liberates certain high
frequency stress waves and these waves are above the audible range i.e., > 20 khz. An
acoustic emission sensor is fixed to the tree and it is monitored using NI LabVIEW
software. The frequency of the biting of the weevil is found earlier and it the sensor picks
the frequencies from the tree and when it is matched with the frequency above said then
there will be an indication in the front panel window.

Tel: 91 80 41190000 Email ni.india@ni.com

© 2010 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved. Product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their
respective companies. National Instruments, NI, NIWeek, and ni.com are trademarks of National Instruments.
Introduction
The biggest threat for the coconut trees for the past 50 years is the destruction caused
by beetles like “red palm weevil” & “rhinoceros beetle”. Normally palms that fall in the
range of 1 to 13 years are more susceptible to weevil infestation. The female weevil
scoops out small holes in soft tissues of the cut or damaged parts of the coconut palms
and deposit eggs there. The eggs hatch in 2 to 3 days time and
grubs start tunneling to the live tissues of the palm. Feeding by a number of grubs or
feeding by few in the bud region results in the death of the palm. Being an internal
feeder exit holes are tunneled only at the time of pupation and the presence of the pest
cannot be detected at an early stage. The symptoms manifested at the late stage of
weevil infestation are the presence of holes, oozing out of viscous brown
fluid and extrusion of chewed up fibers through the holes, longitudinal splitting of the leaf
bases and withering of the central spindle. In severe and later stages of the infestation
the sound of gnawing and the breaking of fibers could be heard in silent environment.
Quite often the infestation would become evident only when the growing point of the
palm is damaged and the crown is toppled.

System configuration
The system setup consists of the following:
 Acoustic Emission sensor (PAC 30)
 NI USB DAQ 6009
 Pre-amplification unit
 Power supply circuit (along with a rectifier)

In order to control the operations, a PC and a data acquisition (DAQ) card are used.

The DAQ used in this project is NI USB DAQ 6009. The DAQ 6009 plays an important
role in monitoring the signal from the acoustic emission sensor to detect the presence of
the beetle. NI LabVIEW 7.1 helps in interfacing agriculture and acoustic emission.

The sensor is coupled to the tree by using an acoustic binder, eg grease. The output of
the sensor in very weak and it has to be amplified and conditioned for further processing.
So a suitable amplification circuit is designed and the signal is amplified.

The output is given as input for NI LabVIEW and the processing starts. If the frequency
is within the specified range then there will be an indication in the front panel window
indicating the presence of weevil.

The proposed system will detect the presence of the weevil in the beginning stages of
tunneling the tree. The grub stage of the weevil has cutting and chewing mouth parts
and when it bites the tissue, the tissue strains and the energy is liberated at certain high
frequency. The waves are in the range above the audible range i.e. > 20 khz . For this
an acoustic emission sensor is used to capture the sound released during the biting of
tissue by the weevil. From the experiments conducted earlier the frequency of the sound
produced during the biting of the weevil is found. Then suitable high pass and low pass
filters are designed to capture for the specific frequency range. The system is controlled
and monitored using NI LabVIEW software. A tree is monitored on a particular time and

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© 2010 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved. Product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their
respective companies. National Instruments, NI, NIWeek, and ni.com are trademarks of National Instruments.
if there is any sign of weevil there will be a peak indicated in the output window from
which the presence of weevil can be detected. The advantage of using this system is
that it can able to detect the presence of weevil at its initial grub stage. But the present
method of detection is possible only after 35% of damage caused to the tree. At that
stage controlling the pest will not be effective. Also the annual yield drops drastically
even though it is detected after 35% damage.

Software implementation
The method of working is based on simple steps. The signal from the acoustic emission
sensor is coupled to the amplification circuit. After amplification it is filtered to remove the
unwanted signals and then the filtered signal is fed to NI LabVIEW program where
processing is being carried out. The frequency of the input signal is compared with the
frequency specified in the program and if they match, it shows the presence of the
weevil.

Fig 1. Front panel of the beetle detector

Benefits of using Graphical System Design approach

 User-friendly
 Reduces programming complexity
 Instruments can be virtually designed
 Errors can be easily identified and rectified

Tel: 91 80 41190000 Email ni.india@ni.com

© 2010 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved. Product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their
respective companies. National Instruments, NI, NIWeek, and ni.com are trademarks of National Instruments.
Specific capabilities
The NI LabVIEW environment makes interfacing with any hardware measurement
simple, besides quickly acquiring and generating signals as well as allowing
configuration-based data acquisition. USB DAQ plays a very important role in interfacing
the sensor to NI LabVIEW software for carrying further executions.

Benefits of the application

The indication of the presence of the beetle will help the farmers identify the affected
trees so that the necessary steps could be taken to medicate the trees and to prevent
them from further infestation. Hence, a new system which is highly flexible, cost effective
and simple has been developed using NI LabVIEW software.

Conclusion
The experimental investigations in NI LabVIEW show that the new system developed
would be highly flexible and easy in detecting the presence of beetles. This new system
will create a new era in the field of agriculture!

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Tel: 91 80 41190000 Email ni.india@ni.com

© 2010 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved. Product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their
respective companies. National Instruments, NI, NIWeek, and ni.com are trademarks of National Instruments.
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THANK
YOU

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Tel: 91 80 41190000 Email ni.india@ni.com

© 2010 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved. Product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their
respective companies. National Instruments, NI, NIWeek, and ni.com are trademarks of National Instruments.