Engineering Commons^™

Developing A Practical Wireless Monitoring Solution For A Size-Constrained, Low-Power, Biomechanical, Sports Telemetry System, Jeffery Ray King

Open Access Theses

As sport-related concussions become more prevalent, the ability to quickly and reliably assess brain injury risk is increasingly essential. Commercially-available systems exist with the goal of assessing the risk of traumatic brain injury in athletes in real-time. These systems utilize a pre-determined acceleration threshold, discarding all captured information below this arbitrary threshold. The use of an event-based model to assess the risk of traumatic brain injury has been shown to be inadequate. Therefore, these systems falsely promote "accurate" real-time communication of risk. Research conducted by the Purdue Neurotrauma Group (PNG) seeks to advance the field by developing a biomechanical sports …

Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer System For The Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Tae Sup Lee

Open Access Theses

UAVs have limitless applications to help our daily lives for the autonomous operations. UAVs have a limited power capacity due to weight constraints and are therefore not able to travel long distances. Ground stations for recharging UAVs throughout different points can increase the flight time of the UAVs with the current UAV battery capacity. This study investigates how the wireless charging system for the ground station can be made more robust when there are misalignments. The wireless charging system is monitored by an Arduino, micro controller, to assess the current condition of charging. The Arduino is able to change the …

Realization And Evaluation Of A 3-Degrees-Of-Freedom Mouse Model, Udayan Umapathi

Open Access Theses

Kinesiology research has shown that translation and rotation are inseparable actions in the real world. Motivated by this fact, this thesis explores a model for the computer mouse, the new addition being rotational input about vertical axis of a mouse. We realize our model through Mushaca, a 3-degrees-of-freedom mouse (3DOF mouse) that can sense rotation, in addition to sensing XY planar translation. The thesis presents two realizations of Mushaca - namely a MEMS version that uses accelerometer and gyroscope, and an optical sensor version that uses two optical sensors. Through a controlled user study we try to find out if …

Tracking Dynamic Construction Objects ---A Key Node Modeling Approach Using Color-Depth Cameras, Chenxi Yuan

Open Access Theses

A construction site presents a dynamic scenario. Locations of multiple objects are continuously changing and a lot of objects enter and exit the site in high frequencies. Meanwhile a construction activity consists of a large amount of stochastic operations, many uncertainties occur when making decisions. Believing that detecting, locating and tracking dynamic construction objects in real time improve construction productivity and enhance construction safety, a large number of studies have applied a variety of sensing technologies to construction sites. Hybrid image-point cloud sensing technologies, such as color-depth cameras, have a great potential in achieving real time object recognition and tracking …

Nn-X - A Hardware Accelerator For Convolutional Neural Networks, Vinayak A. Gokhale

Open Access Theses

Convolutional neural networks (ConvNets) are hierarchical models of the mammalian visual cortex. These models have been increasingly used in computer vision to perform object recognition and full scene understanding. ConvNets consist of multiple layers that contain groups of artificial neurons, which are mathematical approximations of biological neurons. A ConvNet can consist of millions of neurons and require billions of computations to produce one output. ^ Currently, giant server farms are used to process information in real time. These supercomputers require a large amount of power and a constant link to the end-user. Low powered embedded systems are not able to …

Particle Swarm Optimization Using Multiple Neighborhood Connectivity And Winner Take All Activation Applied To Biophysical Models Of Inferior Colliculus Neurons, Brandon S. Coventry

Open Access Theses

Age-related hearing loss is a prevalent neurological disorder, affecting as many as 63% of adults over the age of 70. The inability to hear and understand speech is a cause of much distress in aged individuals and is becoming a major public health concern as age-related hearing loss has also been correlated with other neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's dementia. The Inferior Colliculus (IC) is a major integrative auditory center, receiving excitatory and inhibitory inputs from several brainstem nuclei. This complex balance of excitation and inhibition gives rise to complex neural responses, which are measured in terms of firing rate …

Improved Random Demodulator For Compressed Sensing Applications, Sathya Narayanan Hariharan

Open Access Theses

The advances in the field of signal processing have led to the continuous increase in the bandwidth of signals. Sampling these signals becomes harder and harder due to the increased bandwidth. This brings in need for a complex high rate ADCs to meet the Nyquist rate which is the minimum rate to avoid aliasing. For a given increase in bandwidth, there has to be a corresponding increase in the sampling rate of ADC. This might not be possible in the near future at the current rate of increase in bandwidth. Hence, there is a need to replace the current Nyquist …

Optical Position Sensing In Free Space Optical Communication, Muhammad Salman Bashir

Open Access Theses

In this thesis the performance of three estimators, (center of gravity, template matching and maximum likelihood (MLE)) to estimate the center of the beam on a photoemissive receiver array in a Free Space Optics (FSO) system, is compared in terms of mean square error. Simulations have been conducted in Matlab by generating a two dimensional nonhomogeneous Poisson process, and, mean square error is computed for three estimators. The cases of continuous and discrete arrays are also considered for various levels of signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio. Simulations have shown that the MLE gives the least mean squared error and especially performs significantly …

A Lightweight N-Cover Algorithm For Diagnostic Fail Data Minimization, Shraddha Ghanshyam Bodhe

Open Access Theses

The increasing design complexity of modern ICs has made it extremely difficult and expensive to test them comprehensively. As the transistor count and density of circuits increase, a large volume of fail data is collected by the tester for a single failing IC. The diagnosis procedure analyzes this fail data to give valuable information about the possible defects that may have caused the circuit to fail. However, without any feedback from the diagnosis procedure, the tester may often collect fail data which is potentially not useful for identifying the defects in the failing circuit. This not only consumes tester memory …

Integration And Implementation Of High-Voltage Energy Storage Sub-System For A Parallel-Through-The-Road Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle, Bilwa A. Jadhav

Open Access Theses

With research showing an alarming rate of increase in global warming and thus causing dangerous instabilities in the weather, a strong push has been initiated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Transportation being one of the top offenders in greenhouse gas emissions, has led the drive for improving the efficiency of the modern automobile. One of the current strategies for reducing the emissions produced by the transportation sector is hybrid vehicles powered from both a fuel such as gasoline, diesel, or hydrogen; and electricity. This merger has proven to be effective at decreasing harmful emissions including, carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) …

Comparative Lca Of Stand-Alone Power Systems Applied To Remote Cell Towers, Eduardo Olmeda Noguera

Open Access Theses

Remote cell towers need on-site power generation or stand-alone power systems for operation and, traditionally, diesel electric generators have been used as backup power systems in combination with renewable energies. Currently, Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC's) are emerging as substitutes for the diesel electric generator, because of their reliability, high-energy conversion efficiency and zero emissions while operating.^ However, very few studies have compared the environmental impact of these two technologies, especially on remote cell tower applications. As PEMFC's have no emissions while operating, concerns about their environmental impact surge because of the use of rare and high processed materials, …

Development Of A Real Time Bistatic Radar Receiver Using Signals Of Opportunity, Nicholas Rainville

Open Access Theses

Passive bistatic radar remote sensing offers a novel method of monitoring the Earth's surface by observing reflected signals of opportunity. The Global Positioning System (GPS) has been used as a source of signals for these observations and the scattering properties of GPS signals from rough surfaces are well understood. Recent work has extended GPS signal reflection observations and scattering models to include communications signals such as XM radio signals. However the communication signal reflectometry experiments to date have relied on collecting raw, high data-rate signals which are then post-processed after the end of the experiment. This thesis describes the development …

Developing A Hardware Platform For A Low-Power, Low-Cost, Size-Constrained Biomechanical Telemetry System, Aditya Balasubramanian

Open Access Theses

As sport-related traumatic brain injuries face increasing attention from the media and the general public, the need to be able to detect brain injury quickly, inexpensively and accurately is more important than ever. Commercially-available event-based systems exist that claim to achieve this goal; however, they collect little to no continuous-time data and primarily indicate when a pre-determined acceleration threshold has been exceeded under the unvalidated assumption that a potentially concussive blow has occurred. Recent findings by the Purdue Neurotrauma Group (PNG) have indicated that repeated exposure to both concussive and subconcussive blows can result in cumulative trauma disorder. To track …

Integrated Dc-Dc Boost Converters Using Cmos Silicon On Sapphire Technology, Imaduddin Mohammad

Open Access Theses

With the recent advancements in semiconductor manufacturing towards smaller, faster and more efficient microelectronic systems, the problems of increasing leakage current and reduced breakdown voltage in bulk-CMOS transistors have become substantial in the sub-100-nanometer era. The Peregrine UltraCMOS Silicon-on-Sapphire (SOS) technology that uses highly-insulating sapphire substrate as insulator was introduced to meet the continually growing need for higher performance RF products. The electrically isolated circuit elements in the UltraCMOS technology lead to increased switching speeds and lower power consumption due to reduced junction and parasitic capacitances. Furthermore, the growing need for high-speed switching applications such as boosting a lower voltage …

Properties Of Ambiguity Functions, John Mulcahy-Stanislawczyk

Open Access Theses

The use of ambiguity functions in radar signal design and analysis is very common. Understanding the various properties and meanings of ambiguity functions allow a signal designer to understand the time delay and doppler shift properties of a given signal. Through the years, several different versions of the ambiguity function have been used.

Each of these functions essentially have the same physical meaning; however, the use of different functions makes it difficult to be sure that certain properties hold for different formulations. This work proves several parallel properties of two versions of the asymmetric ambiguity function, the symmetric ambiguity function, …

Computer Modeling And Simulation Of Implantable Medical Device Heating Due To Mri Gradient Coil Fields, Bryan David Stem

Open Access Theses

For patients with implantable medical devices, the ability to safely undergo MRI scanning is critical to ensuring the highest standard of care. The gradient coils of an MRI generate kilohertz frequency, time varying magnetic fields. These magnetic fields induce a voltage on the external case of metallic, implantable medical devices through electromagnetic induction. Since the magnetic field generated by a gradient coil is time varying, the induced voltage results in the flow of eddy currents which can cause heating effects. These heating effects have been successfully modeled using ANSYS Maxwell and ANSYS Mechanical software packages.

The multi-physics simulation and solution …

Effect Of Image Capture Devices On The Accuracy Of Black-Box Printer Models, Jae Sung Youn

Open Access Theses

In the process of electrophotograpic (EP) printing, the deposition of toner to the printer-addressable pixel is greatly influenced by the neighboring pixels of the digital halftone. To account for these effects, printer models can either be embedded in the halftoning algorithm, or used to predict the printed halftone image at the input to an algorithm being used to assess print quality. Most recently, a series of six new models were developed to accurately account for local neighborhood effects and the influence of a 45 × 45 neighborhood of pixels on the central printer-addressable pixel. All these models are referred to …

Comparison Of A Sierpinski Gasket Monopole Antenna To Bow-Tie Antennas Based Off The Fractal Iterative Shapes, Kyle Nathan Murg

Open Access Theses

Antennas are an integral part of mobile devices. Recently, the demand for smaller phones has increased requiring smaller components within the device. This leads to problems with performance and limitations of RF systems within mobile devices including antennas which have been affected by the size thus affected frequency output. In this thesis, fractal theory will be utilized to compare the performance of the Sierpinski Gasket Monopole antenna to single band antennas to see if this is a viable substitute in mobile applications. By utilizing simulations and physical antennas, the performance will be observed at each frequency band and compared.