Hardware Systems Commons^™

The Design, Building, And Testing Of A Constant On Discreet Jammer For The Ieee 802.15.4/Zigbee Wireless Communication Protocol, Alexandre J. Marette

Master's Theses

As wireless protocols become easier to implement, more products come with wireless connectivity. This latest push for wireless connectivity has left a gap in the development of the security and the reliability of some protocols. These wireless protocols can be used in the growing field of IoT where wireless sensors are used to share information throughout a network. IoT is being implemented in homes, agriculture, manufactory, and in the medical field. Disrupting a wireless device from proper communication could potentially result in production loss, security issues, and bodily harm. The 802.15.4/ZigBee protocol is used in low power, low data rate, …

Dynamic Video Streaming For Nano Quadcopters, Shane Daniel Kent, Ryan Weideman, Nicholas Kimball

Computer Engineering

The objective of this project was to develop a system that streams real-time video from a Crazyflie 2.0 nano quadcopter. We discuss the motivation behind the project including applications to swarm robotics and computer vision research. We highlight the initial research and design goals that guided the development of the system such as hardware selection and system specifications. We detail the software and hardware subsystems that we implemented including the video-streaming board, firmware, and video-streaming user application. We examine the performance of the final system and discuss the limitations imposed by the hardware. We conclude by describing future work that …

Arm Mke1xf Mcu Replatform, Nathan Hong, Derek Lung, Japsimran Singh, Bevin Tang

Computer Engineering

After Cal Poly Racing’s electrical team began to hit the technical limits of the ADC and other I/O features of the current 8-bit Atmel AT90 microcontroller unit, it became clear that an upgrade was due. This replatforming project takes the functionalities of the old, 8-bit architecture, and aims to provide a 32-bit version using the ARM MKE1xF MCU. With the idea of having a working PCB as a stretch goal, the scope of the library development was limited to enable base functionality. Thus, the only libraries developed were for the Timer, ADC, SPI, UART, and CAN. Additionally, this document discusses …

Lionfish Detection System, Carmelo Furlan, Andrew Boniface

Computer Engineering

Deep neural networks have proven to be an effective method in classification of images. The ability to recognize objects has opened the door for many new systems which use image classification to solve challenging problems where conventional image classification would be inadequate. We trained a large, deep convolutional neural network to identify lionfish from other species that might be found in the same habitats. Google’s Inception framework served as a powerful platform for our fish recognition system. By using transfer learning, we were able to obtain exceptional results for the classification of different species of fish. The convolutional neural network …

Portable High-Definition Audio Spectrum Analyzer, Alex Zahn, Jamie Corr

Electrical Engineering

The Portable High-definition Audio Spectrum Analyzer (PHASA) allows the user to visualize the audio frequency spectrum of an incoming line-level stereo audio signal. Upon pressing the touch screen spectrum graph, the PHASA displays the corresponding frequency and volume levels as well as crosshairs at the touched location. The PHASA features multiple left/right channel display modes— Left channel only, right channel only, both channels simultaneously, and the average between the two channels. The PHASA features multiple resolution display modes (standard-resolution and high-resolution) and multiple dynamics display modes (standard dynamics, averaging, and peak/hold). The PHASA accepts input audio via a 1/4" TRS …

Bicycle Power Meter, Andrew Mcguan

Computer Engineering

A power meter is a cycling training tool used to record the power a rider is outputting. This is very useful to athletes who regularly do bike workouts, because the power output is a consistent measure of the rider’s effort level, and is not affected by outside factors such as wind or road gradient. If a cyclist does a workout with the intent to carry a certain speed for a certain amount of time, a strong headwind will slow them down and make them work harder to maintain the same speed, defeating the goal of the workout. When a power …

Empath-D: Vr-Based Empathetic App Design For Accessibility, Wonjung Kim, Kenny Tsu Wei Choo, Youngki Lee, Archan Misra, Rajesh Krishna Balan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With app-based interaction increasingly permeating all aspects of daily living, it is essential to ensure that apps are designed to be inclusive and are usable by a wider audience such as the elderly, with various impairments (e.g., visual, audio and motor). We propose Empath-D, a system that fosters empathetic design, by allowing app designers, in-situ, to rapidly evaluate the usability of their apps, from the perspective of impaired users. To provide a truly authentic experience, Empath-D carefully orchestrates the interaction between a smartphone and a VR device, allowing the user to experience simulated impairments in a virtual world while interacting …

Improving System-On-Chip Test Networks For: Bandwidth, Security, And Power, Saurabh Gupta

Computer Science and Engineering Theses and Dissertations

Modern System-on-Chips (SoCs) provide benefits such as reduction in overall system cost, and size, increased performance, and lower power consumption. Increasing complexity of these Integrated Circuits (ICs) has resulted in a higher probability of manufacturing defects. Manufacturing defects can result in the faulty operation of a system. Thus, it is essential to test an IC after it is manufactured to detect any possible faults in it. These SoCs include on-chip embedded instruments that can be used for test, debug, diagnosis, validation, monitoring, characterization, configuration, or functional purposes. IEEE 1687 Std. (IJTAG) provides a standard interface for the reconfigurable access and …

Designing A Distributed Network Of Air Quality Sensors, Kaylee Rauso

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The deterioration of human and environmental health due to worsening outdoor air quality is a serious global threat. A step towards improving the current state of ambient air worldwide is the increased collection of data for government policy, research, and general public use. Currently, reliable data is only collected at a handful of sites in the state of Arkansas and sparsely across the country. The purpose of this project was to design an inexpensive air quality sensor to saturate entire cities with nodes which transmit air data to a sensor for a web application to display. The prototype node was …

A Proposed Approach To Hybrid Software-Hardware Application Design For Enhanced Application Performance, Alex Shipman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

One important aspect of many commercial computer systems is their performance; therefore, system designers seek to improve the performance next-generation systems with respect to previous generations. This could mean improved computational performance, reduced power consumption leading to better battery life in mobile devices, smaller form factors, or improvements in many areas. In terms of increased system speed and computation performance, processor manufacturers have been able to increase the clock frequency of processors up to a point, but now it is more common to seek performance gains through increased parallelism (such as a processor having more processor cores on a single …

Securing Soft Ips Against Hardware Trojan Insertion, Thao Phuong Le

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Due to the increasing complexity of hardware designs, third-party hardware Intellectual Property (IP) blocks are often incorporated in order to alleviate the burden on hardware designers. However, the prevalence use of third-party IPs has raised security concerns such as Trojans inserted by attackers. Hardware Trojans in these soft IPs are extremely difficult to detect through functional testing and no single detection methodology has been able to completely address this issue. Based on a Register-Transfer Level (RTL) and gate-level soft IP analysis method named Structural Checking, this dissertation presents a hardware Trojan detection methodology and tool by detailing the implementation of …

Real-Time Audio-Midi Controller, Brian Shino Balberchak

Computer Engineering

Most MIDI controllers used in music production use a regular keyboard to generate the MIDI notes that are sent to the synthesizer. This project aims to provide the user with a different way of generating MIDI data: by playing an instrument of their choice with a passive electronic pickup to generate MIDI notes that correspond with the fundamental frequency of the musical pitch being played. The pitch-detecting algorithm used in this application utilizes a modified form of auto-correlation.

As an embedded systems project that uses signal-processing techniques, the knowledge of topics from the following courses was essential:

EE 211: Op-Amp …

Annual Report 2017-2018, Depaul University College Of Computing And Digital Media

CDM Annual Reports

LETTER FROM THE DEAN

I am pleased to share with you the College of Computing and Digital Media’s (CDM) 2017-18 annual report, highlighting the many achievements across our community. It was a big year. We began offering five new programs (two bachelor’s, two master’s, and one PhD) across our three schools, in addition to several new certificate programs through our Institute for Professional Development. We built new, cutting-edge spaces to support these and other programs— most notably a 4,500 square-foot makerspace, a robotics and medical engineering lab, an augmented and virtual reality lab, and plans for a cyber-physical systems project …

Design Of A Machine Vision Camera For Spatial Augmented Reality, Matt Phillip Ruffner

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Structured Light Imaging (SLI) is a means of digital reconstruction, or Three-Dimensional (3D) scanning, and has uses that span many disciplines. A projector, camera and Personal Computer (PC) are required to perform such 3D scans. Slight variances in synchronization between these three devices can cause malfunctions in the process due to the limitations of PC graphics processors as real-time systems. Previous work used a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) to both drive the projector and trigger the camera, eliminating these timing issues, but still needing an external camera. This thesis proposes the incorporation of the camera with the FPGA SLI …

Toward Biologically-Inspired Self-Healing, Resilient Architectures For Digital Instrumentation And Control Systems And Embedded Devices, Shawkat Sabah Khairullah

Theses and Dissertations

Digital Instrumentation and Control (I&C) systems in safety-related applications of next generation industrial automation systems require high levels of resilience against different fault classes. One of the more essential concepts for achieving this goal is the notion of resilient and survivable digital I&C systems. In recent years, self-healing concepts based on biological physiology have received attention for the design of robust digital systems. However, many of these approaches have not been architected from the outset with safety in mind, nor have they been targeted for the automation community where a significant need exists. This dissertation presents a new self-healing digital …

Real Time And High Fidelity Quadcopter Tracking System, Tyler Mckay Hall

Computer Engineering

This project was conceived as a desired to have an affordable, flexible and physically compact tracking system for high accuracy spatial and orientation tracking. Specifically, this implementation is focused on providing a low cost motion capture system for future research. It is a tool to enable the further creation of systems that would require the use of accurate placement of landing pads, payload acquires and delivery. This system will provide the quadcopter platform a coordinate system that can be used in addition to GPS.

Field research with quadcopter manufacturers, photographers, agriculture and research organizations were contact and interviewed for information …

Multiple Camera Control Using An Octaplexer In A 5.8 Ghz Video System, Uciel Garcia Olmedo, Skylar Tamke

2017 Academic High Altitude Conference

One of the greatest challenges with camera systems on High-Altitude Balloons (HAB) is to control the direction that they point. This is because the payload boxes constantly rotate during the flight. While mechanical gambles are normally used, an electronic gambled was designed using multiple cameras and a series of multiplexers. The design consists of 8 version 1 pi cameras, connected through a series of multiplexers and interfacing with an IMU to tell the direction the cameras are facing. This design attaches to the Raspberry Pi through the GPIO pins. The multiplexers turn on the camera facing the orientation desired and …

University Of Maine High Altitude Ballooning Eclipse Experience, Kent Seneres, Derek Haas, William Bessette, Richard Eason

2017 Academic High Altitude Conference

The University of Maine High Altitude Ballooning (UMHAB) team launched two balloons during the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse, producing a consistent online video stream of the eclipse to an altitude of 110,000 feet. This paper discusses the key factors that lead to a successful launch and recovery, such as thorough testing procedures, redesign of components, choice of launch site, and a touch of luck. In preparation for the event, the team tested the equipment and code over eleven balloon launches. Airplane based testing and land testing were conducted for the tracking and video stream components. The payloads and …

Answering Food Insecurity: Serving The Community With Food And Knowledge Using Technology, Courtney Simpson

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

The courses of Tech120, CGT110, and ENGT 180/181 and Red Gold at Purdue collaborated to design a robot that would plant and water a garden for a local community charter school. The students centered the project on the users’ needs for fresh food, nutrition education, and early exposure to STEM for children. The school, Anderson Preparatory Academy (APA), is comprised of many children who come from low-income families and are in the free or reduced lunch program. Inspired from “Farm Bot,” a similar system that allows for almost hands-free gardening, the “Boiler Bot” is designed to be scalable so children …

Event And Time-Triggered Control Module Layers For Individual Robot Control Architectures Of Unmanned Agricultural Ground Vehicles, Tyler Troyer

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Automation in the agriculture sector has increased to an extent where the accompanying methods for unmanned field management are becoming more economically viable. This manifests in the industry’s recent presentation of conceptual cab-less machines that perform all field operations under the high-level task control of a single remote operator. A dramatic change in the overall workflow for field tasks that historically assumed the presence of a human in the immediate vicinity of the work is predicted. This shift in the entire approach to farm machinery work provides producers increased control and productivity over high-level tasks and less distraction from operating …