Digital Commons Network^™

Inertial Navigation System, Michael Calabrese Jr., David Engblom, Aaron Fleckenstein

Honors Theses

Accelerometer-based inertial navigation systems present an inexpensive alternative to gyroscope and global positioning navigation systems. An array of accelerometers comprises the basic design of the inertial navigation system. The position of the device can be continuously updated based on the previous device location and measurements of the device acceleration. There are fewer moving parts in an accelerometer-based system than in a gyroscopic device, and it is free of the earth bound constraints of a global positioning system. The prototype wirelessly interfaces with a data-collection system, which processes the data and provides a graphical display of the trajectory traveled.

Two accelerometer …

Silicides And Composites Materials As Anodes For Lithium Ion Batteries, Jun-Mei Yan, Hui-Zhen Huang, Jing Zhang, Yong Yang

Journal of Electrochemistry

The anode materials of Mg₂Si and MnSi were synthesized by mechanically activated annealing(MAA) techniques in this work and the in electrochemical performances were also studied.A series of composite materials of Mg₂Si and CNTs or CMS were prepared by ball-milling method respectively. The reversible capacities of the composites were higher than that of the pure Mg₂Si and pure carbon materials.The cyclic performances have been improved greatly by ball-milling of the Mg₂Si and carbon materials. Results show that ball-milling method is one kind of method to make alloy materials into practical use.

A Provacative Test To Determine Brain Compliance In The Management Of Patients With Hydrocephalus, Preston K. Manwaring

Theses and Dissertations

Non-invasive techniques to explore intracranial compliance and pressure have been extensively explored in recent years. Previous techniques have used expensive technologies to make these measurements, often with difficulty. We present a novel, inexpensive provocative test to observe trends in intracranial compliance measurement targeted towards the treatment and management of hydrocephalus. Two techniques are proposed which derive data from the digital and supraorbital arteries as well as tympanic membrane displacement. This requires the use of two photo-plethysmographic sensors and a TMD sensor. A common tilt table apparatus is used to methodically and artificially increase intracranial pressure to stress the cranial system …

Array Analysis Of Radio Frequency Interference Cancelation Requirements For A Land Mine Detection System, Devin Baker Pratt

Theses and Dissertations

Land mines are a major humanitarian problem with millions of active mines in place around the world. Since these mines can have little metal in them, novel detection techniques are needed. Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance (NQR) is one such technique. Unfortunately, NQR is highly succeptible to radio frequency interference (RFI). A significant contribution of this thesis is the development of a custom, experimental data acquisition system designed and built specifically for capturing RFI at frequencies significant to NQR land mine detection systems. Another major contribution is the development of data analysis techniques for determining the number of reference antennas required to …

A Cmos Ultra-Wideband Differential Low Noise Amplifier, Timothy Bryan Merkin

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

In this thesis, a CMOS Ultra-wideband (UWB) Low noise Amplifier (LNA) was designed and simulated. In the design, specific architecture decisions were made in consideration of ultimately including this LNA in a system-on-chip implementation of an Ultra-wideband communication system. The basic architecture of the LNA designed herein exhibits a differential amplifier core with active input and output impedance matching, minimizing the number of expensive space consuming passive inductors necessary for passive impedance matching networks. The LNA maintains a gain of 16.4dB with a ±0.25dB ripple over the band of 3.1-6.2GHz. Despite the use of an active input matching stage, the …

Cmos 5th Derivative Gaussian Impulse Generator For Uwb Application, Shin-Chih Chang

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

A complete impulse generating system was designed and simulated which generates the fifth order derivative of the Gaussian pulse intended for use in an impulse-type ultra-wideband wireless communication system. By using a continuous-time FIR impulse shaping filter, the system transforms a normal Gaussian pulse signal obtained from an existing CMOS Gaussian pulse generator into its fifth derivative. The transformation filtering was accomplished without lengthening the time duration of the original pulse or causing any noticeable ringing effects. The final output waveform closely resembles the fifth derivative of the Gaussian pulse, and also satisfies the spectral mask emission requirements specified by …

A Grasp For Unitary Space-Time Codes, Adam Panagos, Kurt Louis Kosbar

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Unitary space-time codes perform well at high signal-to-noise ratios on MIMO channels even when the propagation coefficients between transmitter and receiver are unknown. One method of constructing unitary space-time constellations uses a random search to find signal constellations that minimize the maximum pairwise correlation between transmitted signals. The work presented here uses a greedy randomized adaptive search procedure (GRASP) for finding good unitary space-time code constellations. Simulation results show that, on average, this technique finds codes with better correlation properties than the random search method. This new search procedure was also used to find signal constellations with better correlation properties …

Asynchronous Ds-Ss Cdma Random Spreading Code Correlation Statistics In The Presence Of Timing Error, David W. Matolak

Faculty Publications

We quantify the effect of timing tracking errors upon 2nd order correlation statistics of random binary spreading codes and, in so doing, fill a gap in the literature. Using a Gaussian model for timing tracking error, new expressions for autocorrelation statistics are derived. For crosscorrelations, we show that a zero mean Gaussian timing error has no effect upon 2nd order crosscorrelation statistics.

Social Utility Functions-Part Ii: Applications, Wynn C. Stirling, Richard L. Frost

Faculty Publications

Social utilities account for agent preferences and, thus, can characterize complex interrelationships, such as cooperation, compromise, negotiation, and altruism, that can exist between agents. Satisficing game theory, which is based on social utilities, offers a framework within which to design sophisticated multiagent systems. Key features of this approach are: a) an N-agent system may be represented by a 2N-dimensional Bayesian network, called a praxeic network; b) the theory accommodates a notion of situational altruism (a willingness to defer to others in a controlled way if so doing would actually benefit others under the condition that others wish to take advantage …

Measurement Sensitivity And Accuracy Verification For An Antenna Measurement System, Newlyn Hui, Aloysius Aragon Lubiano, Christopher R. Brito, Dean Arakaki

Electrical Engineering

An antenna measurement system was developed to complement a new rectangular anechoic chamber (20’L x 10’W x 9’7”H) that has been established at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) through donations and financial support from industry and Cal Poly departments and programs. Software algorithms were written to provide four data acquisition methods: continual sweep and step mode for both single and multiple frequencies. Log magnitude and phase information for an antenna under test is captured over a user-specified angular position range and the antenna's radiation pattern is obtained after post processing. Pattern comparisons against theoretical predictions are performed. Finally an …

Conducted Emissions Testing For Electromagnetic Compatibility, Maximilian Moy, Dean Arakaki

Electrical Engineering

Operating frequencies in the gigahertz range is creating an increased need for electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) testing. In the United States, FCC regulations require conformance to radiated and conducted emissions specifications. An EMC laboratory was established at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (screen room, test instrumentation, and software) and an experiment was developed to explore conducted emissions effects. This paper will describe the test configuration, explain the calibration procedure needed to acquire accurate measurements, and illustrate measurement techniques applied to two example systems. In addition, the data collection process is illustrated through software donated by CKC Laboratories (EMC specialists). To verify …

Terahertz Studies Of The Dielectric Response And Second-Order Phonons In A Gase Crystal, B. L. Yu, F. Zeng, V. Kartazayev, R. R. Alfano, K. C. Mandal

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Partition-Based Interpolation For Color Filter Array Demosaicking And Super-Resolution Reconstruction, Min Shao, Kenneth E. Barner, Russell C. Hardie

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

A class of partition-based interpolators that addresses a variety of image interpolation applications are proposed. The proposed interpolators first partition an image into a finite set of partitions that capture local image structures. Missing high resolution pixels are then obtained through linear operations on neighboring pixels that exploit the captured image structure. By exploiting the local image structure, the proposed algorithm produces excellent performance on both edge and uniform regions. The presented results demonstrate that partition-based interpolation yields results superior to traditional and advanced algorithms in the applications of color filter array (CFA) demosaicking and super-resolution reconstruction.

Performance Evaluation Of Video Streaming With Background Traffic Over Ieee 802.11 Wlan Networks, Nicola Cranley, Mark Davis

Conference papers

There is an increasing demand for multimedia streaming applications over WLAN networks. MPEG-4 and H.264 are compression standards targeted at high-quality streamed multimedia services over wireless best-effort IP networks. However, the dynamic nature of wireless networks in terms of fluctuating bandwidth and time-varying delays makes it difficult to provide good quality streaming under such constraints. Multimedia streaming applications are a demanding and challenging service to deliver over wireless networks. There is a trade-off between the capacity of the wireless network and the quality of the multimedia streaming application. In this paper we investigate the effect the background traffic load has …

Dynamic Voltage Scaling Techniques For Power Efficient Video Decoding, Ben Lee, Eriko Nurvitadhi, Reshma Dixit, Chansu Yu, Myungchul Kim

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper presents a comparison of power-aware video decoding techniques that utilize dynamic voltage scaling (DVS). These techniques reduce the power consumption of a processor by exploiting high frame variability within a video stream. This is done through scaling of the voltage and frequency of the processor during the video decoding process. However, DVS causes frame deadline misses due to inaccuracies in decoding time predictions and granularity of processor settings used. Four techniques were simulated and compared in terms of power consumption, accuracy, and deadline misses. In addition, this paper proposes the frame-data computation aware (FDCA) technique, which is …

Structured Object-Oriented Co-Analysis/Co-Design Of Hardware/Software For The Facts Powers System, Matt Ryan, Sojan Markose, Xiaoqing Frank Liu, Bruce M. Mcmillin

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

There are several approaches to the hardware/software design in embedded systems, ranging from the traditional sequential methods which focus on the determination of the hardware architecture prior to software design, to newer object-oriented approaches that attempt to apply software engineering methods to hardware design without a systematic process. This paper discusses a structured object-oriented methodology for the integrated co-analysis and co-design of hardware/software systems using an extended high order object-oriented modeling technique (HOOMT). This methodology offers a uniform method for hardware and software developers to jointly develop the specifications for and partitioning of the hardware and software components of a …

Instrumentation And Evaluation Of District 10 Caltrans Automated Warning System (Caws): Final Project Report, Andrew Lee, Art Maccarley

Electrical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Instrumentation And Evaluation Of District 10 Caltrans Automated Warning System (Caws): Technical Deliverables, Andrew Lee, Art Maccarley

Electrical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Instrumentation And Evaluation Of District 10 Caltrans Automated Warning System (Caws): Analysis Of Driver Response To Caws Warning Messages, Andrew Lee, Art Maccarley

Electrical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Instrumentation And Evaluation Of District 10 Caltrans Automated Warning System (Caws): Technical And Operational Assessment, Andrew Lee, Art Maccarley

Electrical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Design And Implementation Of A Low-Voltage 2.4-Ghz Cmos Rf Receiver Front-End For Wireless Communication, Wan-Rone Liou, Mei-Ling Yeh, Chun-An Tsai, Shun-Hsyung Chang

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

This paper presents the design of a 1.5 V CMOS RF receiver front-end system which contains a low noise amplifier (LNA) with band pass filter and a down conversion mixer. An inter-stage matching network is added between the common-source and common-gate transistors in the LNA’s first stage to further lower the noise and enhance the overall gain. An inductor is used in this inter-stage matching network because of the extra capacitive of MOSFETs in the LNA. The maximum gain achieved of this LNA is 15 dB. The single square-law structure was implemented for this low power consumption and high linearity …

2005 Fall Engr333 Project Assignment, Matthew K. Heun

ENGR 333

In the Fall 2005 semester, I challenged the ENGR333 students to “develop realistic designs for the wellness center HVAC system and upgraded physical plant infrastructure.”

Customer

The customer for this project was Calvin’s VP for finance Henry DeVries.

The Human Eye Position Control System In A Rehabilitation Setting, Yvonne Nolan, Ted Burke, C. Boylan, Annraoi De Paor

Articles

Our work at Ireland’s National Rehabilitation Hospital involves designing communication systems for people suffering from profound physical disabilities. One such system uses the electro-oculogram, which is an (x,y) system of voltages picked up by pairs of electrodes placed, respectively, above and below and on either side of the eyes. The eyeball has a dc polarisation between cornea and back, arising from the photoreceptor rods and cones in the retina. As the eye rotates, the varying voltages projected onto the electrodes drive a cursor over a mimic keyboard on a computer screen. Symbols are selected with a switching action derived, for …

Embedded Slanted Grating Coupler For Vertical Coupling Between Fibers And Silicon-On-Insulator Planar Waveguides, Gregory P. Nordin, J. Jiang, B. Wang

Faculty Publications

We propose a compact and efficient grating coupler for vertical coupling between optical fibers and planar waveguides. A grating with a parallelogram shape is designed to be etched through the entire high-index waveguide core. The coupler is optimized using a microgenetic algorithm coupled with a two-dimensional finite-difference time-domain method. Simulations show that up to 75.8% coupling efficiency can be obtained between a single-mode fiber and a 240-nm-thick silicon-on-insulator planar waveguide.

Impact Of Receive Amplifier Signal Coupling On Mimo System Performance, Michael A. Jensen, Matthew L. Morris

Faculty Publications

This paper uses a detailed model of multiple input multiple output (MIMO) systems to explore the impact of signal coupling in the receiver front end on communication capacity. The model is applied to assess the performance of a MIMO system with two transmit and receive antennas in a simulated multipath environment for different amplifier coupling levels. The results show that in practical scenarios where simple impedance matching techniques are used, the circuit coupling can reduce the signal-to-noise ratio at the receiver and therefore degrade the achievable MIMO capacity.

Review Of Digital Control Techniques For Automotive Dc-Dc Converters, Dwaraka S. Padimiti, Mehdi Ferdowsi

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Electric and hybrid electric vehicles need a power plant that includes dc-dc converters. While using these converters, their control plays an important role in the overall performance of the vehicle. Due to their several drawbacks including poor communications, analog control schemes are not suitable for the automotive industry, whereas digital control methods successfully meet the demands. Various types of digital control techniques for dc-dc converters are studied and classified in this paper. The drawbacks and advantages of each method are described.

Protein Impregnated Polymer (Pip) Film Infrared Sensor Using Suspended Microelectromechanical Systems (Mems) Pixels, Tetsuo Kaieda

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force Research Laboratory Materials and Manufacturing Directorate have developed a novel protein impregnated polymer (PIP) suspension that changes resistivity as a function of absorbed infrared radiation. Due to this property, the PIP is a potential material for use as an uncooled bolometer, or thermal sensor. In this research, a thermally-isolated pixel design, sensor characterization methods, and sensor fabrication and processing steps were developed. To create a microbolometer, the PIP was applied to two prototype micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) surface micro-machined structures. The first is a raised cantilever pixel array that uses residual stress polysilicon and metal film arms to …

Superdirectivity In Mimo Systems, Michael A. Jensen, Matthew L. Morris, Jon W. Wallace

Faculty Publications

Multiantenna systems such as devices for multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) communication can theoretically use array superdirectivity to optimally exploit the propagation channel. In traditional analyses of MIMO systems, such superdirectivity is not observed due to the commonly applied constraint that limits the excitation current magnitudes. However, when an electromagnetically appropriate constraint on the power radiated by the array is applied, the computed capacity can include effects of transmit superdirectivity. A similar result occurs at the receiver for spatially colored noise. This paper formulates the MIMO system capacity under these circumstances and provides a framework for computing this capacity when the level of …

Static And Dynamic Obstacle Avoidance For Miniature Air Vehicles, Jeffery Brian Saunders, Brandon Call, Andrew Curtis, Randal W. Beard, Timothy W. Mclain

Faculty Publications

Small unmanned air vehicles are limited in sensor weight and power such that detection and avoidance of unknown obstacles during flight is difficult. This paper presents a low power low weight method of detection using a laser range finder. In addition, a rapidly-exploring random tree algorithm to generate waypoint paths around obstacles known a priori is presented, and a dynamic geometric algorithm to generate paths around detected obstacles is derived. The algorithms are demonstrated in simulation and in flight tests on a fixed-wing miniature air vehicle (MAV).

Variable Permittivity Dielectric Material Loaded Stepped-Horn Antenna, Ozgur Ozdemir

Dissertations

Stepped-horn antenna loaded with dielectric material of variable permittivity is proposed to improve radiation characteristics and/or to increase the electrical dimensions of the radiating structure compared to unloaded empty one. A hybrid numerical technique is used to analyze such an antenna. The tapered section of the horn antenna is modeled by multi-stepped waveguide structures filled with variable dielectric constant material. Generalized scattering matrix representation of the tapered section of the horn antenna is obtained using mode matching technique. The radiating aperture problem is solved by the method of moments, under the assumption that the horn is terminated by an infinite …