Engineering Commons^™

Development Of A Highly Sensitive Pressure Sensing System With Custom-Built Software For Continuous Physiological Measurements, Masoud Panahi

Masters Theses

In this work, a pressure sensing system was designed and fabricated by developing a highly sensitive cone-structured pressure sensor with a custom-built software for physiological monitoring applications. A novel highly sensitive cone structured porous polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based pressure sensor capable of detecting very low-pressure ranges was developed for respiration monitoring. The pressure sensor was fabricated using a master mold, a hybrid-structured dielectric layer, and fabric-based electrodes. The master mold with inverted cone structures was created using a rapid and precise three-dimensional (3D) printing technique. The dielectric layer, with pores and cone structures, was prepared by annealing a mixture of PDMS, …

A Framework To Support Automatic Certification For Self-Adaptive Systems, Ioannis Nearchou

Masters Theses

Presently, cyber-physical systems are increasingly being integrated into societies, from the economic sector to the nuclear energy sector. Cyber-physical systems are systems that combine physical, digital, human, and other components, which operate through physical means and software. When system errors occur, the consequences of malfunction could negatively impact human life. Academic studies have relied on the MAPE-K feedback loop model to develop various system components to satisfy the self-adaptive features, such that violation of the safety requirements can be minimized. Assurance of system requirement satisfaction is argued through an industrial standard form, called an assurance case, which is usually applied …

Flexible Capacitive Pressure Sensors And Triboelectric Energy Harvesters Using Laser-Assisted Patterning Process For Flexible Hybrid Electronic Applications, Valliammai Palaniappan

Masters Theses

This work focuses on the design, fabrication and characterization of novel flexible capacitive pressure sensors and triboelectric energy harvesters using laser-assisted patterning process for flexible hybrid electronic applications. Initially, the capacitive pressure sensor was developed by fabricating a set of polydimethylsiloxanes (PDMS) dielectric films with pyramid shaped micro-structures using a laser-assisted patterning process. The pressure sensor consists of two electrodes (top and bottom) that were fabricated by depositing silver (Ag) on flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) using additive screen-printing process. Finally, the pressure sensor was assembled by attaching the top and bottom Ag electrodes to the smooth side of pyramid shaped …

Optimized System For On-Route Charging Of Battery Electric Buses And High-Fidelity Modelling And Simulation Of In-Motion Wireless Power Transfer, Yogesh Bappasaheb Jagdale

Masters Theses

Electrifying cars, buses and trucks is an attractive means to reduce energy use and emissions, because it involves minimal restructuring of the transportation network. Transit buses drive fixed routes, minimizing driver range anxiety by properly sizing energy storage system but the major challenge to fully electrifying transit buses, is the amount of energy they consume in a day of driving. To enable a full day of operation, batteries need to be large, which is expensive and heavy. This work utilizes real-world transit bus data fed to a battery electric drive-train model to co-optimize charger locations, charger power levels, and vehicle …

Vehicle Velocity Prediction Using Artificial Neural Networks And Effect Of Real-World Signals On Prediction Window, Tushar Dnyaneshwar Gaikwad

Masters Theses

Prediction of vehicle velocity is essential since it can realize improvements in the fuel economy/energy efficiency, drivability, and safety. Many publications address velocity prediction problems, yet there is a need for the understanding effect of different signals for the prediction. There are numerous new sensor and signal technologies like vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication that can be used to obtain comprehensive datasets. Several references considered deterministic and stochastic approaches that use the datasets as input to determine future operation predictions. These approaches include different traffic models and artificial neural networks such as Markov chain, nonlinear autoregressive model, Gaussian function, and recurrent …

Portable Electrochemical System For Flexible Hybrid Electronics, Anthony Joseph Hanson

Masters Theses

This work focuses on the fabrication and design of a portable electrochemical sensing system for flexible hybrid electronic (FHE) sensors. A three-electrode chemical sensor was fabricated using copper tape on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate, using laser etching process. An electronic circuit was designed to measure the sensor response through electrochemical techniques to detect different concentrations of glucose. The device was calibrated to give the user a concentration value in 5 seconds. The system was also designed to preform tests such as cyclic voltammogram and chronoamperogram for various chemicals. A Bluetooth Low Energy module was used to wirelessly transmit the results …

Intracellular Electrometer, Lucas M. Essenburg

Masters Theses

The Western Michigan University Neurobiology Engineering Laboratory conducts re- search in energy-efficient electrical stimulation of biological neurons. Experimental work re- quires an intracellular electrometer to inject nanoamp-level currents into a biological neuron and to measure its membrane voltage response. In order to fully understand the generation of such minute currents, an `in-house' electrometer was designed, constructed, and validated. This required exploration of various design trade-offs including precision of generated nanoamp-level currents vs. susceptibility to noise, portability vs. functionality, and cost vs. functionality. The electrometer was successfully used to stimulate and measure responses of neurons from the medicinal leech Hirudo verbana …

Stereotypic Repetitive Hand Flapping Movement Detector Children With Autism, Subodh Ashok Bansode

Masters Theses

The prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has increased at a significant rate in recent years, especially in developed nations such as the United States, Japan, and South Korea. Extensive research is being carried out to study the behavioral characteristics of the disease. Children affected with autism tend to exhibit a spectrum of symptoms depending on the severity of the disease. These behaviors are primarily repetitive, self-stimulatory, and stereotypic behaviors such as hand flapping (i.e., repeatedly shaking their hands), body rocking (i.e., swaying their body back and forth), drumming, walking around in a confined space, and walking with shortened steps …

On Wlan Fingerprint Indoor Positioning Systems Clustering, And Classification For Enhanced Performance, Haider G. Al Glehawi

Masters Theses

The most economic and affordable IPS are those incorporating existing infrastructure, such as the widely spread Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN). The Received Signal Strength (RSS) fingerprinting-based system is one of the most promising and powerful techniques so far to be used for indoor positioning. However, there are two challenges in using RSS based IPS; the first challenge is the variation of RSS to indoor multipath propagation, and the second is the high number of Access Points (APs) that are deployed in the region of interest. The first issue leads to degradation in the performance of RSS based IPS, while …

Mgsnn2: A New Eco-Friendly Wide Band Gap Semiconductor, Krystal R. York

Masters Theses

Materials having a wide band gap (above 2 eV) can provide new alternatives for existing light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and other opto-electronic devices. Currently, many such devices are comprised of low-earth-abundant elements, such as gallium and indium, which are harmful to the environment to extract and difficult to recycle. Alternatively, MgSnN2 is an unexplored material comprised of earth abundant elements which benefit from a mature recycling infrastructure. This material has a predicted band gap of 3.43 eV, indicating that it could be a viable substitute for GaN (band gap of 3.4 eV), which is commonly used in LEDs and other device …

Development Of A Novel Printed And Flexible Surface Enhanced Raman Specopy (Sers) Substrate For Detection Of Cocaine, Farah Mazin Aljanabi

Masters Theses

In this thesis, the author focuses on the design and fabrication of a novel surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrate that could potentially be employed for the detection of illicit drugs. Raman spectroscopy based optical detection has been extensively employed as a qualitative and quantitative analytical method.

The author has worked on two research projects, which are both focused on the development of printed SERS substrate for the detection of cocaine. The first project is based on gravure printing of silver nanoparticle (AgNP) based ink on flexible and stretchable thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) substrate. The fabricated substrate dimensions are 1.5 × …

A Study On The Impact Of Instruction Set Architectures On Processor’S Performance, Ayaz Akram

Masters Theses

The recent advances in different instruction set architectures (ISAs) and the way those ISAs are implemented have revived the debate on the role of ISAs in overall performance of a processor. Many people in the computer architecture community believe that with current compiler and microarchitecture advances, the choice of ISA does not remain a decisive matter anymore. On the other hand, some researchers believe that this is not the case and they claim that ISAs can still play a significant role in the overall performance of a computer system. Novel heterogeneous architectures exploiting the diversity of different ISAs have been …

Voltage Controller For Simulating Transition Between Boost –Buck -Boost Converter, Aula Jameel Al-Kamil

Masters Theses

In the present work, a voltage tracking controller is developed for DC-DC Buck-Boost converter using software model. The software developed can track the voltage and the mode of operation (Buck or Boost), which depends on the value of the duty cycle ratio (D). The error between ��_{��������}(reference voltage) and output voltage is minimized by using step input as reference. The simulation results show that the designed software controller can successfully track the voltage with low error and with short settling time. The values for the Buck-Boost circuit components, the capacitor and the inductor, are tuned and selected so …

Solar Module Condition Monitoring Using Thermal Imaging, Ammar W. Hashim

Masters Theses

Solar energy industry has been exponentially increasing over the past decades with solar panels sales recording significant growth mainly due to the fact that solar energy is a renewable clean source of energy. Similar to other systems, condition monitoring is essential to maintain high efficiency specially that these systems are still not scoring more than 46% efficiency and also to ensure a safe system and prevent electric and fire risks that may occur. In this work, we introduce a system using infrared thermography along with selected image processing techniques to effectively and non-destructively test and detect these defects. Hot spots …

Development Of Fully Printed And Flexible Strain, Pressure And Electrochemical Sensors, Dinesh Maddipatla

Masters Theses

In recent years, considerable research has been put into the development of printed electronics (PE) as well as the best ways to effectively and efficiently print electronic devices on flexible substrates. This thesis focuses majorly on the design and fabrication of novel flexible sensors using conventional printing processes.

Initially, a flexible printed strain gauge was fabricated successfully on a flexible paper substrate using flexography printing process. Silver (Ag) ink was printed on the paper substrate as metallization layer. The performance of the printed device was investigated by subjecting the strain gauge to a 3-point bend test, with a displacement of …

Total Harmonics Distortion Reduction Using Adaptive, Weiner, And Kalman Filters, Liqaa Alhafadhi

Masters Theses

Total harmonics distortion is one of the main problems in power systems due to its effects in generating undesirable issues in power quality. These effects include heating (in transformers, capacitors, motors, and generators), disoperation of electronic equipment, incorrect readings on meters, disoperation of protective relays, and communication interference. Besides these problems, harmonics affect the power quality in both transmission and distribution systems. Different techniques have been used to mitigate the effects of harmonics. These techniques include; passive filters, active power filter, artificial intelligent, and adaptive selective harmonics reductions. Each method has some advantage and disadvantage. This thesis presented new models …

Development Of Strain And Pressure Sensors On Flexible And Stretchable Platforms, Mohammed Mudher Mohammed Ali

Masters Theses

The capability of the human brain to operate in conjunction with human senses and muscles enables us to become powerful autonomous beings. By using these organs, humans can interact with the surrounding environment. Similarly, the combination of sensors with the signal processing of modern electronics enables the interaction with the non-electrical environment.

In this thesis, the work focuses on the design and fabrication of flexible and stretchable sensors which have been receiving an increased interest for applications such as human body movement, tracking in the biomedical industry, object detection, fingerprint sensor as well as for monitoring deformations or structural changes …

A General Code To Simulate The Effect Of Indirect Lightning On Overhead Lines Using Emtp-Type Programs, Hasan Jameel Hasan

Masters Theses

In this thesis, a general code is obtained to allow the simulation of the transient response of transmission lines excited by a nearby lightning stroke using EMTP–type programs, namely PSCAD and ATP.

Initially, the frequency domain modeling of single phase and multiconductor transmission lines is described and assessed by means of several application examples. As a second stage, the transmission line model is used to implement an illuminated transmission line model (line excited by an electromagnetic field excitation) using Taylor’s formulation. Then, a general code is developed in MATLAB to obtain the response of a field excited line; this effect …

Internal Fault Location In Transformer Windings, Samir Yehya Abed-Alkareem Alzekri

Masters Theses

Power transformers are one of the most important components in electrical power systems. During their lifetime they are exposed to various electrical faults which are originated from transient overvoltages, electromagnetic forces due to over-currents, ageing, etc.

Internal winding faults are among the most common causes of transformer failure. Once a fault occurs, a fast an efficient method for its detection and location is required to avoid further delays in the network operation. This paper introduces a simple method for the location of internal winding faults. This method is based on time domain terminal measurements of wave propagation along the winding. …

A Parameterized Implementation Of A Hybrid Fuzzy Boolean Finite State Machine Using An Fpga, Sean T. Fuller

Masters Theses

A fuzzy system based on the extended Hybrid Fuzzy Boolean Finite State Machine (HFBFSM) model is designed and implemented in a Xilinx Zynq® all programmable System on Chip (SoC). The system allows for a single dominant crisp state and multiple non-dominant states to be activated simultaneously. A method is proposed to calculate the degree of membership of non-dominant states, β, by the distance of defuzzified fuzzy inputs to state transition trigger mechanisms.

The HFB-FSM is was realized by the author using custom logic written in VHDL (Very High Speed Integrated Circuit (VHSIC) Hardware Description Language) in the Programmable Logic (PL) …

Computer Aided Brain Tumor Edge Extraction Using Morphological Operations, Warqaa Shaher Alazawee

Masters Theses

Detecting the precise boundary of the area containing a recognized brain tumor is a complex problem and must be addressed since it applies to many medical modalities and tumor types. The objective of this thesis is to provide an efficient algorithm for detecting edges of brain tumors to help neurosurgeons identify the border of the critical area and distinguish the precise margin of the tumor from the rest of the brain tissue during the surgery. This thesis work exploits MRI brain tumor images as a tool to aid surgeons. MRI image segmentation is an essential step as a preliminary process …

Design Of Digital Down Converter Chain For Software Defined Radio Systems On Fpga, Nagarjun Marappa

Masters Theses

Modern communication systems have increasingly attempted to trade off the digital signal processing for analog circuitry. In performing this tradeoff, advanced algorithms have been implemented in both custom programmable hardware and in software; such systems are commonly called Software Defined Radios (SDR). Advanced software defined radios consist of highly configurable hardware and computers used as digital signal processing (DSP) platforms that provide the technology for realizing current and future generations of digital wireless communication infrastructure. Many sophisticated signal processing tasks are performed in SDR, including compression algorithms, channel estimation, equalization, forward error correction and protocol management. This research has focused …

Signage Recognition Based Wayfinding System For The Visually Impaired, Abdullah Khalid Ahmed

Masters Theses

Persons of visual impairment make up a growing segment of modern society. To cater to the special needs of these individuals, society ought to consider the design of special constructs to enable them to fulfill their daily necessities. This research proposes a new method for text extraction from indoor signage that will help persons of visual impairment maneuver in unfamiliar indoor environments, thus enhancing their independence and quality of life.

In this thesis, images are acquired through a video camera mounted on glasses of the walking person. Frames are then extracted and used in an integrated framework that applies Maximally …

Control Of Cation Ordering In Zinc Tin Nitride And In-Situ Monitoring Of Growth, Brian Christopher Durant

Masters Theses

Semiconducting materials with a band gap around 1.5 eV are very much sought after due to their close match to the solar spectrum. However, some compounds that have shown promise for highly efficient solar cells contain rare, expensive, and sometimes toxic elements, such as indium and gallium. As such, a search for earth abundant materials has become more prominent recently. One such earth abundant semiconducting material that has garnered interest is ZnSnN₂. It has been shown through previous studies that there is the possibility of continuously tuning the band gap between 1.0 and 2.0 eV by controlling the …

A High Performance Architecture For An Exact Match Short-Read Aligner Using Burrows-Wheeler Aligner On Fpgas, Dana Abdul Qader

Masters Theses

Due to modern DNA sequencing technologies vast amount of short DNA sequences known as short-reads is generated. Biologists need to be able to align the short-reads to a reference genome to be able to make scientific use of the data. Fast and accurate short-read aligner programs are needed to keep up with the pace at which this data is generated. Field Programmable Gate Arrays have been widely used to accelerate many data-intensive bioinformatics applications.

Burrows-Wheeler Transform has been used in the theory of string matching which has led to the development of many short-read alignment programs. This thesis presents a …

Morphology Based Framework For Improved Driver's Visibility In Inclement Weather Conditions, Saleem Farhood Hussein

Masters Theses

The U.S. Department of Transportation reports that on average there are 5,870,000 vehicle accidents each year. Twenty-three percent (23%) of these accidents are attributed to weather conditions with an annual average of more than 6,000 people are killed and 480,000 people are injured. Weather-related accidents occur mainly because of the low visibility on the roads under inclement conditions such as snow, rain and fog. While these conditions can be predictable and individuals try to avoid driving in inclement weather, there are circumstances that require driving in such conditions such as emergency responders or when the severity of the storm has …

Design Of A New Digital Relay For Transmission Line Fault Detection, Classification And Localization Based On A New Composite Relay And Artificial Neural Network Approach, Ahmed Sabri Altaie

Masters Theses

This thesis focuses on new approach to detect, classify, and localize the fault in transmission line. Firstly, fault detection was carried out using the New Composite Relay (CR) which, has different characteristics and the ability to detect any type of fault including series faults. Secondly, fault classification was conducted using the Feed Forward Artificial Neural Network (FFANN). In addition, the fault classification led to the investigation of the best use of the FFANN. The data used come from MATLAB/SIMULINK three phase series compensated network. The results obtained using FFANN, were compared with the type of the fault that have been …

An Integrated Framework For Cardiac Sounds Diagnosis, Zichun Tong

Masters Theses

The Phonocardiogram (PCG) signal contains valuable information about the cardiac condition and is a useful tool in recognizing dysfunction and heart failure. By analyzing the PCG, early detection and diagnosis of heart diseases can be accomplished since many pathological conditions of the cardiovascular system cause murmurs or abnormal heart sounds. This thesis presents an algorithm to classify normal and abnormal heart sound signals using PCG. The proposed analysis is based on a framework composed of several statistical signal analysis techniques such as wavelet based de-noising, energy-based segmentation, Hilbert-Huang transform based feature extraction, and Support Vector Machine based classification. The MATLAB …

Performance Analysis Of Magnetic Indoor Local Positioning System, Kyle Wroble

Masters Theses

As of the writing of this paper, there is no standard technique for implementing Indoor Position Systems (IPS) in one building or another, as each technique has its own advantages and drawbacks. The best IPS implementations often employ the use of multiple techniques within a building in order to maximize precision. This paper explores the most popular IPS techniques in use today, and highlights their strengths and weaknesses. After analyzing the pros and cons of each approach, it becomes clear that magnetic positioning is a useful tool for creating an accurate, reliable positioning system. Throughout this paper, the feasibility of …

Performance Analysis Of Distance Relay On Shunt/Series Facts-Compensated Transmission Line, Ahmed Kareem Lafta Al-Behadili

Masters Theses

Flexible Alternating Current Transmission Systems (FACTS) are increasingly being used to enhance the efficiency and reliability of power system networks. FACTS devices can influence the performance of existing protective system components (specifically distance relays) due to the fact that FACTS change power system quantities such as line impedances, voltages, and currents. Distance relay may mal-operate when FACTS devices are connected since they cause some of the tripping characteristics to change. This thesis investigates the impact on distance relay performance due to compensations using two types of FACTS controllers: Static Synchronous Compensator (STATCOM) and Static Synchronous Series Compensator (SSSC). Analytical study …