Engineering Commons^™

Exploiting Sparsity And Dictionary Learning To Efficiently Classify Materials In Hyperspectral Imagery, Andrew E. Pound

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) produces spatial images with pixels that, instead of consisting of three colors, consist of hundreds of spectral measurements. Because there are so many measurements for each pixel, analysis of HSI is difficult. Frequently, standard techniques are used to help make analysis more tractable by representing the HSI data in a different manner.

This research explores the utility of representing the HSI data in a learned dictionary basis for the express purpose of material identification and classification. Multiclass classification is performed on the transformed data using the RandomForests algorithm. Performance results are reported.

In addition to classification, single …

Parasitic Layer-Based Reconfigurable Antenna And Array For Wireless Applications, Zhouyuan Li

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Antenna is one of the most important components in wireless systems since signal transmission and reception are conducted through the antenna interface. Therefore, the signal quality is highly affected by the properties of the antenna. Traditional antennas integrated in devices such as laptops or cell phones have fixed radiation properties and can not be changed to adapt to different environments. Thus the performance of thefwhole system will be negatively affected since the antenna will not operate in the optimum status in different environments. To solve this problem, reconfigurable antenna, which can dynamically change its operation frequency, radiation pattern, and polarization, …

An Efficiency-Motivated Attack Against Vehicles In A Platoon: Local Vehicle Control, Platoon Control Strategies, And Drive Train Technologies Considerations, David A. Cornelio Sosa

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Automated Electric Transportation Group (AET) at Utah State University proposes to demonstrate the benefits and feasibility of vehicle platooning. A platoon is a transportation system, formed by vehicles that are controlled automatically by computers (the driver does not operate the vehicle while cruising). Platoons are interesting in view of the future because they present many advantages: increase highway capacity and safety, reduce travel time, save energy, and reduce stress for human drivers. There are many problems to solve in order to make vehicle platooning a reality. In this work, the focus is not on making it feasible, but rather …

Reconfigurable Antennas For Public Safety And Wireless Gigabit Alliance Applications, Hema Swaroop Mopidevi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The main goal of this research is to develop a new type of antenna, called reconfigurable antenna, which can replace multiple antennas required to enhance the effectiveness of a robust communication system. A reconfigurable antenna integrated with switching elements can dynamically change its properties, namely, frequency of operation, radiation pattern (the three-dimensional coverage of antenna), and polarization (the electrical orientation of the antenna). Depending on the requirement, a single antenna can function as multiple antennas, therefore, the name Multi-functional Reconfigurable Antenna (MRA). United States (US) Public Safety (PS) responders (police, fire-fighters, emergency medical services, etc.) can effectively respond to human-made …

Innovative Payloads For Small Unmanned Aerial System-Based Personal Remote Sensing And Applications, Austin M. Jensen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Remote sensing enables the acquisition of large amounts of data, over a small period of time, in support of many ecological applications (i.e. precision agriculture, vegetation mapping, etc.) commonly from satellite or manned aircraft platforms. This dissertation focuses on using small unmanned aerial systems (UAS) as a remote sensing platform to collect aerial imagery from commercial-grade cameras and as a platform to track radio-tagged fish. The small, low-cost nature of small UAS enable remotely sensed data to be captured at a lower cost, higher spatial and temporal resolution, and in a more timely manner than conventional platforms. However, these same …

Sequential Quadrature Measurements For Plasma Diagnostics, Julio Martin-Hidalgo

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The ionosphere is the atmosphere layer characterized by its high concentration of ionized plasma. It has a great impact on radio communications with satellites, causing disturbances and disruptions. Therefore, it is important to understand and predict the ionosphere characteristics.

The Sweeping Impedance Probe (SIP) is an instrument for characterizing the ionosphere used for many decades with great success. In this thesis, a new SIP architecture design is presented using the latest techniques and components available. The design is detailed and analyses have been performed to ensure the required performances. The new SIP will be flown in the Auroral Spatial Structures …

Resolving The Temporal-Spatial Ambiguity With The Auroral Spatial Structures Probe, Daniel Farr

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The behavior of the electric and magnetic fields in the upper atmosphere of the Earth is scientifically interesting but difficult to study, since balloons and aircraft are unable to fly high enough to measure it directly. Sounding rockets, which make a one-time flight carrying instruments that measure the environment around them, have been successfully used to study the upper atmosphere. As the rocket flies through the upper atmosphere, it radios down data about the environment. When scientists on the ground use this data to construct a picture of the upper atmosphere, they run into a problem: the fields reported by …

Graphics Processing Unit-Based Computer-Aided Design Algorithms For Electronic Design Automation, Yiding Han

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The electronic design automation (EDA) tools are a specific set of software that play important roles in modern integrated circuit (IC) design. These software automate the design processes of IC with various stages. Among these stages, two important EDA design tools are the focus of this research: floorplanning and global routing. Specifically, the goal of this study is to parallelize these two tools such that their execution time can be significantly shortened on modern multi-core and graphics processing unit (GPU) architectures. The GPU hardware is a massively parallel architecture, enabling thousands of independent threads to execute concurrently. Although a small …

Cyber-Physical Systems Enabled By Unmanned Aerial System-Based Personal Remote Sensing: Data Mission Quality-Centric Design Architectures, Calvin Coopmans

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In the coming 20 years, unmanned aerial data collection will be of great importance to many sectors of civilian life. Of these systems, Personal Remote Sensing (PRS) Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUASs), or “data drones,” will need special attention due to their low cost and high value for farming, scientific, and search-and-rescue uses, among countless others. Cyber-physical systems (large-scale, pervasive automated systems that tightly couple sensing and actuation through technology and the environment) can use sUASs as sensors and actuators, leading to even greater possibilities for benefit from sUASs. However, this nascent robotic technology of small unmanned aerial systems (sUASs) …

Cyber-Physical Systems With Multi-Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-Based Cooperative Source Seeking And Contour Mapping, Jinlu Han

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation presents the design, simulation, and execution of multi-unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV)-based cooperative source seeking and contour mapping with cyber-physical systems (CPS). Both fixed-wing UAVs and vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) UAVs are developed as the flight platforms. Compared with single UAV, multi-UAV formation with advanced cooperative control strategies has more advantages for radiative source detection, especially in urgent tasks, for example, detecting nuclear radiation before deploying the salvage. A contour mapping algorithm for the nuclear radiation is proposed, and practical predefined waypoint-based formation flights are realized. Next, four scenarios are developed for multi-UAV-based cooperative source seeking and contour …

Convex Model-Based Synthetic Aperture Radar Processing, Chad P. Knight

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The use of radar often conjures up images of small blobs on a screen. But current synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems are able to generate near-optical quality images with amazing benefits compared to optical sensors. These SAR sensors work in all weather conditions, day or night, and provide many advanced capabilities to detect and identify targets of interest.

These amazing abilities have made SAR sensors a work-horse in remote sensing, and military applications. SAR sensors are ranging instruments that operate in a 3D environment, but unfortunately the results and interpretation of SAR images have traditionally been done in 2D. Three-dimensional …

A Platform For False Data Injection In Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave Radar, Ruchir Chauhan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Radar is an acronym for RAdio Detection And Ranging. In general terms, it is a machine that uses radio waves for object-detection in its near periphery. It transmits radio waves in a known direction, which when intercepted by an obstruction/object are reflected by its surface and are received back at the radar system. The round trip delay time along with the known velocity of radio waves gives an accurate measurement of the distance of the object from the radar system. In a somewhat similar fashion, some radars are even capable of measuring the velocity of this object. Frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) …

Analysis Of False Data Injection In Vehicle Platooning, Bidisha Biswas

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The development of automated vehicles has come more into the focus of researchers due to progress in areas of potential benefit, such as increasing road safety and fuel efficiency and reducing time road travel by decreasing traffic congestion and, thus, minimizing workload on the driver. For a platoon (which is a method of grouping vehicles that helps increase the capacity of roads by managing the distance between vehicles by using electrical and mechanical coupling) of such vehicles, the inter-vehicular distance is one of the most important facets to be taken into consideration. As in automated highway systems (AHS) (AHS is …

Control Of Grid-Connected Photovoltaic Systems Using Fractional Order Operators, Hadi Malek

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This work presents a new peak seeking strategy for maximum power point operation using fractional order operators in the three-phase grid-connected photovoltaic systems. Moreover, fractional order controllers have been implemented in the voltage and current control loops. The simulation results and theoretical analysis indicate that the proposed fractional order control strategy improves the efficiency of the system by reducing the total harmonic distortion of the injected current to the grid and increases the robustness of the system against uncertainties. Additionally, the proposed maximum power point tracking algorithms provide more robustness and faster convergence speed under environmental variations than other maximum …

Precision Current Control For Quantum Cascade Lasers As Flight Calibration Sources, Stewart M. Hansen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The design of a precision current controller for quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) enables QCLs to be used for calibrating instruments in space-borne applications. This current controller design will enable constant wave (CW) or pulsed mode operation of QCL devices as calibration sources in a space environment. Any differences in the temperature between components of the current controller can result in an erroneous current through the QCL. This design will use previously demonstrated techniques from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to minimize the effects of temperature changes on the desired current levels. A mathematical model is used to calculate what performance …

Automatic Registration Of Multiple Texel Images To Form A 3-Dimensional Texel Image, Neeraj S. Badamikar

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Three-dimensional (3D) imaging has found a lot of use in modern era, owing to the fast ongoing advancement in electronics, processors, and sensors, all available at affordable prices. Three-dimensional television, games, and 3D projectors are some of the commonly found utilities which use 3D imaging. 3D images used for surveillance, exploration, target acquisition equipment, etc., are few of the military applications of 3D imaging. As the need increases, more techniques are being introduced to create 3D images which improve upon previously stated techniques. This thesis proposes an algorithm which uses “texel” images, which are images that have digital imagery fused …