Engineering Commons^™

Short Distance Ground Wave Propagation Modeling In Irregular And Forested Environments, Zachary Michael Crane

Masters Theses

A model for the phase of a ground wave propagating over irregular and forested terrain has been developed and tested for a transmission system operating at 3.315 MHz.

In this model, the time delay induced beyond that of the standard velocity of radio waves in air is modeled as a combination of 3 effects: the finite conductivity of the earth, the irregularity of the terrain over which the wave is propagating, and the forestation of the terrain.

The finite conductivity model is based on a small curvature formula developed by Van Der Pol and Bremmer. The terrain irregularity model models …

Cytongrasp: Cyton Alpha Controller Via Graspit! Simulation, Nicholas Wayne Overfield

Masters Theses

This thesis addresses an expansion of the control programs for the Cyton Alpha 7D 1G arm. The original control system made use of configurable software which exploited the arm’s seven degrees of freedom and kinematic redundancy to control the arm based on desired behaviors that were configured off-line. The inclusions of the GraspIt! grasp planning simulator and toolkit enables the Cyton Alpha to be used in more proactive on-line grasping problems, as well as, presenting many additional tools for on-line learning applications. In short, GraspIt! expands what is possible with the Cyton Alpha to include many machine learning tools and …

Unit Commitment Methods To Accommodate High Levels Of Wind Generation, Alexander Charles Melhorn

Masters Theses

The United State’s renewable portfolio standards call for a large increase of renewable energy and improved conservation efforts over today’s current system. Wind will play a ma jor role in meeting the renewable portfolio standards. As a result, the amount of wind capacity and generation has been growing exponentially over the past 10 to 15 years. The proposed unit commitment method integrates wind energy into a scheduable resource while keeping the formulation simple using mixed integer programming. A reserve constraint is developed and added to unit commitment giving the forecasted wind energy an effective cost. The reserve constraint can be …

Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance With The Use Of Silver And Titanium Oxide Nanostructures, Charles Wei-Shing Chin

Masters Theses

Light scattering and surface Plasmon calculations were done on a variety of novel geometries using the DDSCAT software package, which simulates the scattering of objects using the discrete dipole approximation method. Calculations were done on core shell nanoparticles consisting of a silver shell and a TiO₂ core in order to determine changes in the extinction spectrum and the near field patterns. Several geometries were tested, including spheres, cylinders, and hexagons, each of varying size and number. It was determined that when geometries were coupled together, there was significant near field enhancement where the geometries were in contact. This enhancement …

Primary User Emulation Attacks In Cognitive Radio - An Experimental Demonstration And Analysis, Benjamin James Ealey

Masters Theses

Cognitive radio networks rely on the ability to avoid primary users, owners of the frequency, and prevent collisions for effective communication to take place. Additional malicious secondary users, jammers, may use a primary user emulation attacks to take advantage of the secondary user's ability to avoid primary users and cause excessive and unexpected disruptions to communications. Two jamming/anti-jamming methods are investigated on Ettus Labs USRP 2 radios. First, pseudo-random channel hopping schemes are implemented for jammers to seek-and-disrupt secondary users while secondary users apply similar schemes to avoid all primary user signatures. In the second method the jammer uses adversarial …

Haptic Tele-Operation Of Wheeled Mobile Robot And Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Over The Internet, Zhiyuan Zuo

Masters Theses

Teleoperation of ground/aerial vehicle extends operator's ability (e.g. expertise, strength, mobility) into the remote environment, and haptic feedback enhances the human operator's perception of the slave environment. In my thesis, two cases are studied: wheeled mobile robot (MWR) haptic tele-driving over the Internet and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) haptic teleoperation over the Internet.
We propose novel control frameworks for both dynamic WMR and kinematic WMR in various tele-driving modes, and for a "mixed" UAV with translational dynamics and attitude kinematics.
The recently proposed passive set-position modulation (PSPM) framework is extended to guarantee the passivity and/or stability of the closed-loop system …

Design Of A High-Voltage, Differential Drive Bradbury-Nielsen Gate Amplifier With Ultra-High Slew Rate And Input Isolation, Kevin Christopher Omoumi

Masters Theses

To isolate and study various components of a nuclear reaction, elaborate equipment must be developed to aid in this process. This thesis presents the design and implementation of an ultra-high slew rate Bradbury-Nielsen gate driver circuit with high-voltage input isolation. This design will be used in a multi-pass time-of-flight isomer spectrometer and separator application integrated into an overall instrument called the Oak Ridge Isomer Spectrometer and Separator (ORISS). The output drive signals of this circuit are transmitted through a vacuum feed-through system to supply the necessary signals to the Bradbury-Nielsen gate contained within the vacuum. A differential driving signal with …

Software Verification For A Custom Instrument Using Vectorcast And Codesonar, Christina Dawn Ward

Masters Theses

The goal of this thesis is to apply a structured verification process to a software package using a set of commercially available verification tools. The software package to be verified is adapted from a project that was developed to monitor an industrial machine at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and includes two major subsystems. One subsystem, referred to as the Industrial Machine Monitoring Instrument (IMMI), connects to a machine and monitors operating parameters using common industrial sensors. A second subsystem, referred to as the Distributed Control System (DCS), interfaces between the IMMI and a personal computer, which provides a human …

Pvt Compensation For Single-Slope Measurement Systems, Kevin Vun Kiat Tham

Masters Theses

A pulse-width locked loop (PWLL) circuit is reported that compensates for process, voltage, and temperature (PVT) variations of a linear ramp generator within a 12-bit multi-channel Wilkinson (single-slope integrating) Analog-to-Digital (ADC). This PWLL was designed and fabricated in a 0.5-um Silicon Germanium (SiGe) BiCMOS process. The PWLL architecture that is comprised of a phase detector, a charge-pump, and a pulse width modulator (PWM), is discussed along with the design details of the primary blocks. Simulation and silicon measurement data are shown that demonstrate a large improvement in the accuracy of the PVT-compensated ADC over the uncompensated ADC.

Thermal Feasibility And Performance Characteristics Of An Air-Cooled Axial Flow Cylindrical Power Inverter By Finite Element Analysis, Jonathan Atef Tawfik

Masters Theses

The purpose of the present study is to determine the thermal feasibility of an air-cooled power inverter. The inverter circuitry layout is designed in tandem with the thermal management of the devices. The cylindrical configuration of the air-cooled inverter concept accommodates a collinear axial air blower and a cylindrical capacitor with inverter cards oriented radially between them. Cooling air flows from the axial fan around the inverter cards and through the center hole of the cylindrical capacitor. The present study is a continuation of the thermal feasibility study conducted in fiscal year 2009 for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to …

Low Power Design Of A 916 Mhz Gilbert Cell Mixer And A Class-A Power Amplifier For Bioluminescent Bioreporter Integrated Circuit Transmitter, Supriya Kilambi

Masters Theses

This thesis presents the low power design of a 916MHz Gilbert cell mixer and a Class-A power amplifier for the Bioluminescent Bioreporter Integrated Circuit (BBIC) transmitter.

There has been increased use in the man-made sensors which can operate in environments unsuitable for humans and at locations remote from the observer. One such sensor is the bioluminescent bioreporter integrated circuit (BBIC). Bioluminescent bioreporters are the bacteria that are genetically engineered in order to achieve bioluminescence when in contact with the target substance. The BBIC has bioreporters placed on a single CMOS integrated circuit (IC) that detects the bioluminescence, performs the signal …

Gpu-Based Implementation Of The Variational Path Integral Method, Shanthan Mudhasani

Masters Theses

Any system in the world constitutes particles like electrons. To analyze the behaviors of these systems the behavior of these particles must be predicted. The ground state energy of a molecule is the most important information about a molecule and can calculate by solving the Schrodinger equation. But as the number of atoms increase, the number of variable (coordinates of the atom) that the equation represent increases by three times. Due to the large state space and the nonlinear nature of the Schrodinger equation, it is very difficult to solver this equation. Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) is a very efficient …

Classification System For Impedance Spectra, Carl Gordon Sapp

Masters Theses

This thesis documents research, methods, and results to satisfy the requirements for the M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Tennessee. This thesis explores two primary steps for proper classification of impedance spectra: data dimension reduction and effectiveness of similarity/dissimilarity measure comparison in classification. To understand the data characteristics and classification thresholds, a circuit model analysis for simulation and unclassifiable determination is studied. The research is conducted using previously collected data of complex valued impedance measurements taken from 1844 similar devices. The results show a classification system capable of proper classification of 99% of data samples with well-separated …