Digital Commons Network^™

Flexible Low-Cost Automated Scaled Highway (Flash) Laboratory For Studies On Automated Highway Systems, Pushkin Kachroo, Kaan Ozbay, Robert G. Leonard, Cem Unsal

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Research

This paper addresses the development of a flexible low-cost automated scale highway (FLASH) laboratory which is intended to serve as a catalyst for accelerating the development of many intelligent vehicle highway system (IVHS) concepts. It also highlights the significance of the laboratory for the research, evaluation, and testing of automated highway system (AHS) configurations, architectures, designs and technologies. This laboratory, using small scale standardized vehicles will serve as a test bed for the economical development and evaluation of various hardware, software, and management systems before full scale testing and deployment. The laboratory will provide the capability to test day and …

Stop That Noise, Thomas Van Doren, Todd H. Hubing, Fei Sha, James L. Drewniak, David M. Hockanson

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The authors discuss electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and electromagnetic interference (EMI). After a brief look at the causes of EMI, they describe conductive coupling and electromagnetic radiative coupling. Career opportunities in EMC problem solving are looked at.

Atomic Broadcast In Heterogeneous Distributed Systems, Osman Zeineldine

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

Communication services have long been recognized as possessing a dominant effect on both performance and robustness of distributed systems. Distributed applications rely on a multitude of protocols for the support of these services. Of crucial importance are multicast protocols. Reliable multicast protocols enhance the efficiency and robustness of distributed systems. Numerous reliable multicast protocols have been proposed, each differing in the set of assumptions adopted, especially for the communication network. These assumptions make each protocol suitable for a specific environment. The presence of different distributed applications that run on different LANs and single distributed applications that span different LANs mandate …

Text Independent Speaker Verification Using Binary-Pair Partitioned Neural Networks, Claude A. Norton Iii

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A method is presented for the application of binary-pair partitioned neural networks to the task of speaker verification. This technique is based on a previously developed neural network classifier for speaker identification.

The main focus of this research was the development and testing of the algorithms necessary to extend the binary-pair partitioning approach from speaker identification to speaker verification. The method is based on the development of a user profile which is obtained from discriminative data provided by the binary-pair partitioned neural networks.

Experimental results are provided which demonstrate the viability of this approach, using the TIMIT speech corpus for …

Fluttering Fountains: Annular Geometry, Lee W. Casperson

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Under certain conditions of flow rate, height, and feedback, periodic or chaotic fluttering oscillations can be observed as the sheet of water from a dam or waterfall fountain descends through the air. Numerical and analytical interpretations of this phenomenon have recently been reported. The extension of these results to other fountain geometries is discussed here together with experimental observations on an annular waterfall fountain.

Linda Jacobson Interview Virtual Reality Evangelist, Loretta L. Lange

SWITCH

In the interview with Linda Jacobson, a Virtual Reality (VR) artist, Jacobson discusses the current and future state of VR technology’s role in the politics of the body, social identity, self, gender, class, and race. This article discusses the fact that barriers to access exist for a more diverse set of artists across race, class, and gender to engage with VR technology and the need to evolve the development platform, so artists can implement their ideas in a low-cost way. The author discusses Jaron Lanier’s ideas about using VR to explore other identities based on a theatrical model where the …

Data Allocation For Distributed Programs, Liono Setiowijoso

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis shows that both data and code must be efficiently distributed to achieve good performance in a distributed system. Most previous research has either tried to distribute code structures to improve parallelism or to distribute data to reduce communication costs. Code distribution (exploiting functional parallelism) is an effort to distribute or to duplicate function codes to optimize parallel performance. On the other hand, data distribution tries to place data structures as close as possible to the function codes that use it, so that communication cost can be reduced.

In particular, dataflow researchers have primarily focused on code partitioning and …

Broadband Dynamic, Holographically Self-Recorded, And Static Hexagonal Scattering Patterns In Photorefractive Knbo3:Fe, Nickolai Kukhtarev, Tatiana V. Kukhtareva, John Caulfield, Partha P. Banerjee, Hsueh-Ling Yu, Lambertus Hesselink

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

We have observed and explained three types of hexagon pattern formation in photo refractive crystal KNb03:Fe. These are:

• Dynamic (laser induced)
• Semipermanent (holographically stored)
• Permanent (induced by a static domain grid) over a wide wavelength range

Transient Wave Mixing And Recording Kinetics In Photorefractive Barium Titanate: A Nonlinear Coupled Mode Approach, Partha P. Banerjee, John M. Jarem

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

By using rigorous coupled-wave diffraction theory along with a time-dependent nonlinear formulation, we analyze two- and multiplewave coupling and the grating kinetics in BaTi03 with different boundary interfaces. Efffects of electrostatic and optical anisotropy have been included in the analysis. Significant mode conversion to higher orders is observed only when the boundary interfaces are highly mismatched.

Guest Editorial: Special Section On Photorefractive Nonlinear Optics, Partha P. Banerjee

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Hand in hand with experimental work in photorefractives, there is a lot of activity in modeling photorefractive materials and experimental observations in the open literature. This special section contains a paper by Banerjee and Jarem, who use a rigorous coupled wave theory to analyze two- and multiple-wave mixing photorefractive barium titanate, modeled through the Kukhtarev equations.

Integrating Electromagnetic Compatibility Laboratory Exercises Into Undergraduate Electromagnetics, James L. Drewniak, Todd H. Hubing, Thomas Van Doren, Fei Sha

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A state-of-the art high-frequency laboratory is being developed for pursuing laboratory exercises in EMC. These exercises are being integrated into three undergraduate electromagnetics courses. Two of the courses are a required introductory sequence. The laboratory exercises are designed to stimulate students interest, motivate them to learn concepts, and provide them with exposure to practical EMC applications. Laboratory exercises are also an integral part of an EMC elective course. This paper describes the laboratory development and discusses experiments that can be integrated into these three courses for teaching fundamental electromagnetics as well as EMC.

Diagnosing And Modeling Common-Mode Radiation From Printed Circuit Boards With Attached Cables, James L. Drewniak, Fei Sha, Todd H. Hubing, Thomas Van Doren, J. Shaw

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A procedure for diagnosing and modeling radiation from printed circuit boards with attached cables is presented through a case study of a production model electronic control unit. Procedures for determining EMI antennas, IC sources, and mechanisms by which noise is coupled from the IC source to the antenna are suggested.

Pixel-Registered Image Fusion, Rufus H. Cofer, Samuel Peter Kozaitis

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

One of the highest potential uses of image fusion is that of recognition of critical targets. The continuing image fusion question then is how to make optimal use of the often disparate forms of encountered image detail during fusion. Toward this end, many techniques have been advanced for fusion to a single viewable image. Fewer techniques have been suggested toward fusion with the goal of directly improving target detection or recognition. Based upon emerging trends in pixel accurate registration of images, we show the theoretical foundations required to optimally fuse target imagery for recognition. Results obtained can be applied to …

Fault Tolerant Pipelined Adaptive Systems, Bhasker Reddy Allam

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A fault tolerant pipelined architecture for high sampling rate adaptive filters is presented in this thesis. The architecture is based on the computational requirements of delayed LMS and lattice adaptive 61ters. It offers robust performance in the presence of single hardware faults, and software faults resulting from numerical instability. Two different architectures are proposed. One allows a graceful degradation in system performance in the event of a fault, and the other uses a module replacement strategy to recover from faults without decreasing performance. Analysis of the steady state error increase due to filter reconfiguration is presented. The reliability of the …

Comparison Of System Identification Techniques For The Dexterous Orbital Servicing System (Doss), Allan Terrence Morris

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The major contribution of system identification is the development of analytical models of a system. Many identification techniques can adequately describe the input and output map. One of the challenges of these techniques is to correctly infer from the measured data the characteristics of the individual, contributing components producing a more accurate system model.

In this thesis linear, dynamic, multivariable state-space models for three joints of the Dexterous Orbital Servicing System (DOSS) are identified. DOSS is a representative space station manipulator at the NASA Langley Research Center. The dynamic models of the manipulator will first be estimated by applying nonparametric …

Modeling And Development Of A Cellular Micro-Kernel, K. Balaji

Masters Theses

A novel cellular load distribution strategy was designed and implemented on transputers by Dr. Richard Taylor and Dr. Don Goodeve at the University of York, United Kingdom. Based upon the above proposed strategy, a statistical model was developed using the Cellular Automata Theory. The theoretical model drives the implementation process of the cellular micro-kernel on the nCUBE 2S system. The load distribution and the performance characteristics for snake and L type transmission modes, and for uniform and non-uniform distribution of destination processors of the micro-kernel has been measured and compared with our theoretical model. The results show good agreement between …

Design, Fabrication, Modeling, And Testing Of Surface-Micromachined Micromirror Devices, M. Adrian Michalicek

Theses and Dissertations

The Flexure-Beam Micromirror Device (FBMD) is a phase-only piston style spatial light modulator demonstrating properties which can be used for phase adaptive- corrective optics. This thesis presents a complete study of new designs of FBMDs and other micromirror devices, from original design considerations through final device testing and verification of ideal and advanced models. The models relate the electrical and mechanical properties of the device by equating the electrostatic force of a parallel- plate capacitor with the counteracting spring force of the device's support flexures. For the advanced model of the Flexure-Beam micromirror device, the capacitor solution is derived via …

Determination Of The Temperature Coefficients Of Selected Material Constants Of Dilithium Tetraborate, Gregory S. Weaver

Theses and Dissertations

The first and second order temperature coefficients of the material constants c^E₁₁, c^E₁₂, c^E₄₄, c^E₆₆, and e¹⁵ of dilithium tetraborate (Li₂B₄O₇) have been measured over a temperature range of 20°C to 150°C. An improved resonator method was used to measure the fundamental zero mass loading antiresonant frequencies of selected pure-mode orientations of Li₂B₄O₇. Material constants extraction was performed using a linear least squares matrix method. The resulting material constant curves were fit with a third …

Design And Development Of Microswitches For Micro-Electro-Mechanical Relay Matrices, Mark W. Phipps

Theses and Dissertations

Many different micro-electro-mechanical switches were designed in the Multi-User MEMS processes (MUMPs) and deep x-ray lithography and electroforming (LIGA) processes. The switches were composed of actuators that operated based upon either electrostatic forces or thermal forces. A thermally activated beam flexure actuator that operated based upon differential heating was used extensively. This actuator, which was fabricated in the MUMPs process, was able to deflect up to 12 microns with a total input power of less than 25 mW. The thermal resistance, which was needed to model this actuator, was determined from a material constant, 1.9 ± 0.08 m^1.5-°C-W …

Grain-Size Optimization And Scheduling For Distributed Memory Architectures, Jing-Chiou Liou

Dissertations

The problem of scheduling parallel programs for execution on distributed memory parallel architectures has become the subject of intense research in recent, years. Because of the high inter-processor communication overhead in existing parallel machines, a crucial step in scheduling is task clustering, the process of coalescing heavily communicating fine grain tasks into coarser ones in order to reduce the communication overhead so that the overall execution time is minimized.

The thesis of this research is that the task of exposing the parallelism in a given application should be left to the algorithm designer. On the other hand, the task of …

Investigation Of Hybrid Message-Passing And Shared-Memory Architectures For Parallel Computer : A Case Study : Turbonet, Xi Li

Dissertations

Several DSP (Digital Signal Processing) algorithms are developed for the MIT TurboNet parallel computer. In contrast to other parallel computers that implement exclusively in hardware either the message-passing or the shared-memory communication paradigm, or employ distributed shared-memory architectures characterized by inefficient implementation of the shared-memory paradigm, the hybrid architecture of TurboNet supports direct, efficient implementation of both paradigms. Three versions of each algorithm are developed, if possible, corresponding to message-passing, shared-memory, and hybrid communications, respectively. Theoretical and experimental comparisons of algorithms are employed in the analysis of performance. The results prove that the hybrid versions generally achieve better performance than …

A Modified Lrt-Based Spread-Spectrum Receiver Using Spatial And Temporal Processing, Jeffrey L. Cutcher

Theses

The problem of demodulating a direct-sequence (DS) spread-spectrum signal in the presence of single-tone or narrow-band interference and multi-path is discussed. A likelihood-ratio test (LRT) receiver is presented which consists of a whitening filter and a RAKE correlator.

A modified LRT receiver structure is then considered where the whitening filter is replaced by an antenna array with corresponding tap coefficients. The array spatially removes the interference by estimating it's angle-of-arrival. Using the array has an advantage over the original LRT receiver when a narrow-band interference is present. Both receivers are identical in performance under the single-tone interference model.

A third …

A Defect Detection Algorithm For Sequential And Parallel Computers, Ralf Hross

Theses

The comparison of images containing a single object of interest, where one of them contains a model object, is frequently used for defect detection/identification. This is often a problem of interest to industrial applications. To make this task more efficient, the implementation on parallel computers should be a major objective. This thesis introduces sequential and parallel versions of an algorithm that compares original(reference) and processed images in the time and frequency domains. The emphasis is on parallel implementation. This comparison may help to detect changes in images. Extracted data is also compared to database data in an attempt to pinpoint …

Identification And Evaluation Of Monitoring Techniques For The Performance Of A Communication Network, Maureen E. Borgia

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the application of statistical process control methods to monitoring the performance of a communication network. The methods applied include four different types of control charts. The literature search uncovered only one previous study that used a control chart to monitor a communication network. Using a case study of a communication network, four important issues for proper control chart usage are emphasized. These issues are: proper data collection rate due to autocorrelation, proper subgrouping of the data, ensuring that count data conforms to the assumptions of the binomial probability model before implementing p or np control charts, and …

Navigation Satellite Selection Using Neural Networks, Daniel J. Simon, Hossny El-Sherief

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

The application of neural networks to optimal satellite subset selection for navigation use is discussed. The methods presented in this paper are general enough to be applicable regardless of how many satellite signals are being processed by the receiver. The optimal satellite subset is chosen by minimizing a quantity known as Geometric Dilution of Precision (GDOP), which is given by the trace of the inverse of the measurement matrix. An artificial neural network learns the functional relationships between the entries of a measurement matrix and the eigenvalues of its inverse, and thus generates GDOP without inverting a matrix. Simulation results …

Power Bus Decoupling On Multilayer Printed Circuit Boards, Todd H. Hubing, James L. Drewniak, Thomas Van Doren, David M. Hockanson

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Guidelines for the selection and placement of decoupling capacitors that work well for one-sided or two-sided printed circuit boards are not appropriate for multilayer boards with power and ground planes. Boards without internal planes take advantage of the power bus inductance to help decouple components at the higher frequencies. An effective decoupling strategy for multilayer boards must account for the low inductance and relatively high capacitance of the power bus.

Hardware/Software Codesign And Simulation With The Occam Programming Language, Roy L. Krans

Masters Theses

Hardware/software codesign is an increasingly popular method for improving system performance and adaptability while minimizing cost. The goal of this design approach is to achieve the desired system characteristics (performance, fault tolerance, cost, power consumption, etc.) by carefully distributing the system functions among hardware and software components. Popular tools for describing this dual hardware/software functionality are behavioral languages such as C++ and Ada. These languages typically include facilities for both traditional sequential programming as well as behavioral modeling.

This thesis examines the effectiveness of occam as a behavioral language and its role in hardware/software codesign. The occam language is used …

Fetal Heart Rate Detection With A Passive Acoustic Sensor System, Zongyao Zhou

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Research and development is presented of real time signal processing methodologies for the detection of fetal heart tones from noise contaminated signals obtained from passive acoustic sensors. A nonlinear Teager energy operator is utilized for detection of the fetal heart tone event. Autocorrelation and a parallel redundancy correction algorithm derives fetal heart rates. A real time monitoring system is described which records and plots the time history of both the fetal heart rate and the acoustic fetal heart signal. The system is validated in the context of the fetal nonstress test. Comparisons are made with ultrasonic nonstress tests on a …

Direction Of Arrival Estimation And Tracking Of Narrowband And Wideband Signals, A. Satish, Rangasami L. Kashyap

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Technical Reports

The research addresses estimation and tracking of direction of arrival @OA) and associated parameters of narrowband and wideband signals impinging on a uniform linear array of sensors. The signals are modeled as sample functions of a Gaussian stochastic process. Computationally efficient, approximate maximum likelihood (ML) methods are developed for direction of arrival estimation of narrowband signals impinging on a large array of sensors. A new likelihood function is formulated based on a large M (# sensors) Taylor's series approximation of the original likelihood function. Asymptotic expressions for Cramer-Rao lower bounds on the DOA estimates are derived. From the positive definiteness …

Optimal Sequence Estimation For Convolutionally Coded Signals With Binary Digital Modulation In Isi Channels, Fuqin Xiong

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Decoding convolutional codes with binary digital modulation in intersymbol interference (ISI) channels is studied. The receiver structure is a whitened matched filter (WMF) whose transfer function is determined by the ISI channel. Decoding of the output sequence can be performed in two steps or one step. The two-step decoding first decodes the ISI corrupted coded sequence back to the ISI free coded sequence which is then decoded back to the uncoded message sequence. For one-step decoding, the entire encoder-channel-receiver system is modeled as a new encoder with combined memory length of the memory lengths of the original …