Hardware Systems Commons^™

The Design Of A Mobile, Animatronic Bald Eagle, Eric Burns

Phi Kappa Phi Research Symposium (2012-2016)

Modern animatronics are used as a tool to help engage audiences in realistic and entertaining experiences. Many animatronic figures are dynamic in movement, but static in mobility. The research presented covers the beginnings of mobile animatronic research. An animatronic bald eagle, Opportunity, was designed for that purpose. Animations for Opportunity are generated by integration of Arduino, Pololu Mini Maestro, and Hitec Servo Motors. Arduino receives signals from flex sensors which cause voltage variations when “flexed”. The 1:1 scale, animatronic eagle can be perched on the arm of an “actor” who simulates an eagle’s caretaker. The flex sensors are located within …

Wii-B-Fit Adaptive Wii Remote, Chris Lombardo

Computer Engineering

The goal of this project was to fix and supplement the original Wii-B-Fit system in order to get it running again and improve on the original design. Wii-B-Fit’s original mission is to give people with paralysis the ability to participate in activities that they would not otherwise get to do, while creating a more fun, social, and independent lifestyle.Physical activity can help stimulate brain activity and is an integral part to a healthy lifestyle. Quadriplegia however makes it extremely hard to perform most forms of physical activity and severely limits the choices available to victims of the disease. The original …

Detection Systems For Airbag Deployment, Ryan S. Kee

Honors Program Projects

The airbag enablement system in today’s automobiles is not ideal and may allow airbags to deploy when they should not. Weight sensors detect pressure when someone sits in a passenger seat, enabling the airbag to deploy if an accident occurs. This system is flawed. For example, if a heavy box is placed in a passenger seat, the airbag will be unnecessarily enabled. The goal of this research project was to determine if different sensors—not weight sensors or cameras—could be used to identify the occupant of an automobile seat.

Using a microchip programmed in C language, a circuit was designed with …

Is Vehicle Characterization In Accordance With Standard Test Procedures A Necessary Prerequisite For Validating Computer Models Of A Test Vehicle?, Michael Hall

Masters

Vehicle characterization is the process by which a particular vehicle’s inherent dynamic behavior is classified by measuring its response to certain command inputs under standard test conditions. Such information is required when comparing its performance to that of other vehicles in response to the same test event and it is also used to authenticate computer models of the test vehicle. The aim of this research was to determine whether vehicle characterization is possible using data from non- standard tests and to judge whether such data can also be used for the purpose of validating a computer model of the test …

Interfaz Natural Para La Programación De Un Robot Manipulador A Través De Un Kinect, Daniel Leonardo Mariño Lizarazo

Ingeniería en Automatización

En un futuro los robots van a ser una parte natural de nuestra vida, para esto es importante que puedan interactuar de manera natural con las personas y que además puedan aprender cómo realizar nuevas tareas. Por medio de la programación por demostración, el usuario puede “explicar” la ejecución de una tarea a un robot mostrándole como se realiza sin necesidad de un lenguaje complicado. En este proyecto se desarrolló un sistema con en el cual el usuario puede generar programas para un robot manipulador sin la necesidad de tener conocimientos de programación o de robótica. El sistema propuesto permite …

A Federated Architecture For Heuristics Packet Filtering In Cloud Networks, Ibrahim M. Waziri Jr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The rapid expansion in networking has provided tremendous opportunities to access an unparalleled amount of information. Everyone connects to a network to gain access and to share this information. However when someone connects to a public network, his private network and information becomes vulnerable to hackers and all kinds of security threats. Today, all networks needs to be secured, and one of the best security policies is firewall implementation.

Firewalls can be hardware or cloud based. Hardware based firewalls offer the advantage of faster response time, whereas cloud based firewalls are more flexible. In reality the best form of firewall …

Situational Awareness/Triage Tool For Use In A Chemical, Biological, Radiological Nuclear Explosive (Cbrne) Environment, John N. Scarlett, Heather L. Gallup, David A. Smith

AFIT Patents

A method of managing patient care and emergency response following a Chemical, Biological, Radiological, or Nuclear Explosive (CBRNE) attack and maintaining compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The method including identifying each patient with a unique patient identifier, the identifier based upon the geospatial location of the patient, the geospatial location including at least the latitude and longitude of the patient when first treated, the unique patient identifier being part of patient data. Providing a collection point of patient data to form a patient data database where in the patient location data may be used to …

Testing Virtual Machines For Cadrc Server Hosting, Robin Verweij

Computer Science and Software Engineering

No abstract provided.

Remote/Autonomous Sentry Gun Platform, Angelo Gagliardi, Dante Gagliardi

Electrical Engineering

This senior project involves the complete system design and construction of a "Nerf" sentry gun to replace an armed guard. We aimed to develop a compact and highly mobile defense system that allows operational flexibility. The sentry gun can autonomously track and shoot at moving targets, while also allowing a user to remotely access and control the gun via computer. The mobility, hardiness, and functionality of this system allows a reliable replacement for human beings in harsh and hostile environments; ultimately sparing a life.

Design Of A Low Power Cargo Security Device Using A Micropower Ultra-Wideband Impulse Radar, Brian M. Wihl

Master's Theses

Each year, thousands of cargo containers are broken into during shipping, costing billions of dollars in lost and damaged goods. In addition to removing its contents, intruders can also add unwanted and dangerous materials to a container, posing a threat to National Security. The possibilities of cargo container break-ins require that the containers go through check points at which they are physically searched. These searches often require the opening of the container, unloading and inspecting all cargo, and then loading the container and resealing it. This is a long and costly process.

Because of the high costs of break-ins and …

On High-Performance Parallel Fixed-Point Decimal Multiplier Designs, Ming Zhu

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

High-performance, area-efficient hardware implementation of decimal multiplication is preferred to slow software simulations in a number of key scientific and financial application areas, where errors caused by converting decimal numbers into their approximate binary representations are not acceptable.

Multi-digit parallel decimal multipliers involve two major stages: (i) the partial product generation (PPG) stage, where decimal partial products are determined by selecting the right versions of the pre-computed multiples of the multiplicand, followed by (ii) the partial product accumulation (PPA) stage, where all the partial products are shifted and then added together to obtain the final multiplication product. In this thesis, …

Efficient Arithmetic For The Implementation Of Elliptic Curve Cryptography, Ebrahim Abdulrahman Hasan Abdulrahman

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The technology of elliptic curve cryptography is now an important branch in public-key based crypto-system. Cryptographic mechanisms based on elliptic curves depend on the arithmetic of points on the curve. The most important arithmetic is multiplying a point on the curve by an integer. This operation is known as elliptic curve scalar (or point) multiplication operation. A cryptographic device is supposed to perform this operation efficiently and securely. The elliptic curve scalar multiplication operation is performed by combining the elliptic curve point routines that are defined in terms of the underlying finite field arithmetic operations. This thesis focuses on hardware …

Vehicular Motion Sensor: Developing A Wide-Range Motion Sensing Alarm System, Joshua Isaacson

Senior Honors Theses

Vehicular safety has become a serious concern in recent years. Many drivers have difficulty backing out of parking spaces, especially when large trucks and sport utility vehicles block the peripheral view from smaller vehicles. This can lead to accidents and pedestrian injuries when drivers are unable to see or do not pay careful attention to their surroundings.

Vehicular motion sensor systems can alert drivers of approaching obstacles when attempting to back out of parking spaces with limited visibility. This thesis aims to explain the limitations of current systems and the research conducted by the author to develop a prototype for …

Digital Control Board For Phased Array Antenna Beam Steering In Adaptive Communication Applications, Mayur Bansal

Master's Theses

The application of adaptive communication techniques for mobile communications has attracted considerable interest in the last decade. One example of these techniques is spatial filtering through planar antenna array beam forming.

This thesis describes the development of a digital system that adaptively controls a phased array antenna. The radiating structure of the phased antenna array is tetrahedral-shaped and contains four antenna elements on each of its three faces. The overall system comprises of a digital control board with an external computer interface, an RF control board, and the phased antenna array. The RF controls the main lobe direction on the …

Design Synthesis And Optimization Of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines Based On Computationally-Efficient Finite Element Analysis, Gennadi Sizov

Dissertations (1934 -)

In this dissertation, a model-based multi-objective optimal design of permanent magnet ac machines, supplied by sine-wave current regulated drives, is developed and implemented. The design procedure uses an efficient electromagnetic finite element-based solver to accurately model nonlinear material properties and complex geometric shapes associated with magnetic circuit design. Application of an electromagnetic finite element-based solver allows for accurate computation in intricate performance parameters and characteristics. The first contribution of this dissertation is the development of a rapid computational method that allows accurate and efficient exploration of large multi-dimensional design spaces in search of optimum design(s). The computationally efficient finite element-based …

Radio Frequency Based Programmable Logic Controller Anomaly Detection, Samuel J. Stone

Theses and Dissertations

The research goal involved developing improved methods for securing Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) devices against unauthorized entry and mitigating the risk of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) attack by detecting malicious software and/or trojan hardware. A Correlation Based Anomaly Detection (CBAD) process was developed to enable 1) software anomaly detection discriminating between various operating conditions to detect malfunctioning or malicious software, firmware, etc., and 2) hardware component discrimination discriminating between various hardware components to detect malfunctioning or counterfeit, trojan, etc., components.

Feedback Stabilization At Spear3, Daniel Kelley, Jeff Corbett

STAR Program Research Presentations

The SPEAR3 synchrotron lightsource at SLAC relies on a sophisticated radio frequency (RF) timing system to maintain current – electrons – in the storage ring. One problem SPEAR3 operators have dealt with is the thermal expansion of one of the cables supporting this RF timing system. As the cable expands and contracts with the diurnal rise and fall of the sun, the phase of the RF in the cable shifts. This shifting phase affects the timing accuracy of electron injections into the storage ring.

A common feedback control algorithm PID (Proportional Integral Derivative) has countless applications in engineering. PID feedback …

A Secure Reconfigurable System-On-Programmable-Chip Computer System, William Herbert Collins

Masters Theses

A System-on-Programmable-Chip (SoPC) architecture is designed to meet two goals: to provide a role-based secure computing environment and to allow for user reconfiguration. To accomplish this, a secure root of trust is derived from a fixed architectural subsystem, known as the Security Controller. It additionally provides a dynamically configurable single point of access between applications developed by users and the objects those applications use. The platform provides a model for secrecy such that physical recovery of any one component in isolation does not compromise the system. Dual-factor authentication is used to verify users. A model is also provided for tamper …

Equivalence Checking For High-Assurance Behavioral Synthesis, Kecheng Hao

Dissertations and Theses

The rapidly increasing complexities of hardware designs are forcing design methodologies and tools to move to the Electronic System Level (ESL), a higher abstraction level with better productivity than the state-of-the-art Register Transfer Level (RTL). Behavioral synthesis, which automatically synthesizes ESL behavioral specifications to RTL implementations, plays a central role in this transition. However, since behavioral synthesis is a complex and error-prone translation process, the lack of designers' confidence in its correctness becomes a major barrier to its wide adoption. Therefore, techniques for establishing equivalence between an ESL specification and its synthesized RTL implementation are critical to bring behavioral synthesis …

Bluelock: A Secure Bluetooth Operated Padlock, Trever Mckee

Computer Engineering

For this project a secure, battery operated, Bluetooth operated padlock was created. The project included both the hardware to integrate with a padlock and an Android application used to interface with the hardware. In order to make the padlock secure both AES encryption and challenge response authentication were used for secure message passing between the device and the Android phone. The project also included power consumption and sustainability tuning including exploring Arduino sleep states and integrating the project with a solar charging unit.