Engineering Commons^™

On Safety Assessment Of Novel Approach To Robust Uav Flight Control In Gusty Environments, Vladimir Golubev, Petr Kazarin, William Mackunis, Sherry Borener, Derek Hufty

Publications

In a follow-up to our previous study, the current work examines the gust-induced “cone of uncertainty” in a small unmanned aerial vehicle’s (UAV) flight trajectory addressed in the context of safety assessments of UAV operations. Such analysis is a critical facet of the integration of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) into the National Airspace System (NAS), particularly in terminal airspace. The paper describes a predictive, robust feedback-loop flight control model that is applicable to various classes of UAVs and unsteady flight-path scenarios. The control design presented in this paper extends previous research results by demonstrating asymptotic (zero steady-state error) altitude regulation …

2016 General Aviation Flight Training Metrics, Steven Hampton, Ken Byrnes, Troy Techau

Publications

The study evaluates training at a collegiate flight training program (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University) providing metrics for time and costs from zero time to a Commercial certificated Pilot with Instrument and Multi-Engine add-ons. Training times for flights and activities are pulled from a sophisticated database used at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) and matched with flight and ground school lessons and then further subdivided to determine the amount of time spent training in areas of operation that are prescribed by the Federal Aviation Administration in the published Practical Test Standards and Airman Certification Standards for those seeking pilot licenses and ratings.

Provided …

Technological Assessment Of Different Solar-Biomass Systems For Hybrid Power Generation In Europe, Cm Iftekhar Hussain, Brian Norton, Aidan Duffy

Articles

Solar Tower thermal (ST), Parabolic Trough thermal (PT), Linear Fresnel thermal (LF) and Solar PV are discussed in the context of suitability for hybridization with biomass in Europe. Technical, economical and climate data have been compared to identify the key drivers of technology selection in setting up large scale solar-biomass hybrid power plants. The sole solar-biomass hybrid power plant is currently in operation in Spain uses PT technology due to its performance characteristics, comparatively easy installation process compared to ST and relatively higher heat and optical gain than LF. The climate condition in the EU shows that the region within …

Application Of Bioinstrumentation In Developing A Pressure Suit For Suborbital Flight, Pedro Llanos, Erik Seedhouse

Publications

This presentation features Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's U-2 pressure suit. Built to be light and cost-effective, this suit is comfortable, comes in multiple sizes, operates in pressures up to 5 PSID, has an active airflow-based cooling system, and features bio-instrumentation to measure heart rate, breathing rate, skin temperature and other vitals.

Single-Sensor, Cue-Counting Population Density Estimation: Average Probability Of Detection Of Broadband Clicks, Elizabeth T. Küsel, Martin Siderius, David K. Mellinger

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Odontocete echolocation clicks have been used as a preferred cue for density estimation using single-sensor data sets, requiring estimation of detection probability as a function of range. Many such clicks can be very broadband in nature, with 10-dB bandwidths of 20-40 kHz or more. Detection distances are not readily obtained from single-sensor data. Here, the average detection probability is estimated in a Monte Carlo simulation using the passive sonar equation along with transmission loss calculations to estimate the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of tens of thousands of click realizations. Continuous-wave (CW) analysis, i.e., single-frequency analysis, is inherent to basic forms of …

Exploitation Of Frequency Information In Continuous Active Sonar, Lisa Zurk, Daniel Rouseff, Scott Schecklman

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In pulsed active sonar, short duration coded waveforms insonify the area of interest. The low duty cycle limits detection opportunities and decreases average energy. A recent concept is continuous active sonar (CAS), which has continuous source transmission over a broad frequency band. The low duty cycle limits detection opportunities and decreases average energy. A recent concept is continuous active sonar (CAS), which has continuous source transmission over a broad frequency band. Previous work by the authors has investigated the utility of extracting the propagation-induced frequency structure in pulsed sonar. The broadband, continuous CAS waveforms particularly lend themselves to this approach. …

Transportation System Vulnerability And Resilience To Extreme Weather Events And Other Natural Hazards: Report For Pilot Project — Kytc District 1, Benjamin L. Blandford, Scott Schurman, Candice Y. Wallace, Sarah M. Mccormack

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

This research’s objective is to assist the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) in its efforts to develop strategies to address natural hazard vulnerabilities and improve the resiliency of Kentucky’s transportation infrastructure. Recent federal legislation calls for state transportation agencies to develop a risk-based asset management plan for National Highway System (NHS) assets that includes consideration of natural hazards. Similarly, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) calls for state transportation agencies to identify potential vulnerabilities associated with extreme weather events and climate change, and to incorporate these findings into transportation planning, design, and maintenance practices.

Activist: A New Framework For Dataset Labelling, Jack O'Neill, Sarah Jane Delany, Brian Macnamee

Conference papers

Acquiring labels for large datasets can be a costly and time-consuming process. This has motivated the development of the semi-supervised learning problem domain, which makes use of unlabelled data — in conjunction with a small amount of labelled data — to infer the correct labels of a partially labelled dataset. Active Learning is one of the most successful approaches to semi-supervised learning, and has been shown to reduce the cost and time taken to produce a fully labelled dataset. In this paper we present Activist; a free, online, state-of-the-art platform which leverages active learning techniques to improve the efficiency …

Broad-Spectrum Antibacterial Characteristics Of Four Novel Borate-Based Bioactive Glasses, Megan Ottomeyer, Ali Mohammadkah, D. E. Day, David J. Westenberg

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Bioactive glasses have been developed for medical applications in the body for bone and tissue repair and regeneration. We have developed a borate-containing bioactive glass (13-93B3, referred to as B3), which is undergoing clinical trials to assess its wound-healing properties. To complement the healing properties of B3, metal ion dopants have been added to enhance its antimicrobial properties. Bioactive glasses doped with silver, gallium or iodine ions were found to have broad spectrum antimicrobial effects on clinically relevant bacteria including MRSA. While the B3 glass alone was sufficient to produce antibacterial effects on select bacteria, adding dopants enhanced the broad-spectrum …

Segmental Kinematic Analysis Of Planovalgus Feet In Children With Cerebral Palsy, K. Kruger, K. Konop, Joseph Krzak, Adam Graf, Gerald F. Harris

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Monitoring Of Tissue Optical Properties During Thermal Coagulation Of Ex Vivo Tissues, Vivek K. Nagarajan, Bing Yu

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Background and Objective

Real-time monitoring of tissue status during thermal ablation of tumors is critical to ensure complete destruction of tumor mass, while avoiding tissue charring and excessive damage to normal tissues. Currently, magnetic resonance thermometry (MRT), along with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), is the most commonly used technique for monitoring and assessing thermal ablation process in soft tissues. MRT/MRI is very expensive, bulky, and often subject to motion artifacts. On the other hand, light propagation within tissue is sensitive to changes in tissue microstructure and physiology which could be used to directly quantify the extent of tissue damage. Furthermore, …

Indoor Localization Via Multi-Modal Sensing On Smartphones, Han Xu, Zheng Yang, Zimu Zhou, Longfei Shangguan, Ke Yi, Yunhao Liu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Indoor localization is of great importance to a wide range ofapplications in shopping malls, office buildings and publicplaces. The maturity of computer vision (CV) techniques andthe ubiquity of smartphone cameras hold promise for offering sub-meter accuracy localization services. However, pureCV-based solutions usually involve hundreds of photos andpre-calibration to construct image database, a labor-intensiveoverhead for practical deployment. We present ClickLoc, anaccurate, easy-to-deploy, sensor-enriched, image-based indoor localization system. With core techniques rooted insemantic information extraction and optimization-based sensor data fusion, ClickLoc is able to bootstrap with few images. Leveraging sensor-enriched photos, ClickLoc also enables user localization with a single photo of the …

Improving Carbon Efficiency Through Container Size Optimization And Shipment Consolidation, Nang Laik Ma, Kar Way Tan, Edwin Lik Ming Chong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Purpose: Many manufacturing companies that ship goods through full container loads found themselves under-utilizing the containers and resulting in higher carbon footprint per volume shipment. One of the reasons is the choice of non-ideal container sizes for their shipments. Consolidation fills up the containers more efficiently that reduces the overall carbon footprint. The objective of this paper is to support decisions on selection of appropriate combination of container sizes and shipment consolidation for a manufacturing company. We develop two-steps model which first takes the volumes to be shipped as an input and provide the combination of container sizes required; then …

Real-Time Monitoring Of Sand And Dust Storm Winds Using Wireless Sensor Technology, Hana Mohammed Mujlid

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation proposes an empirical model for prediction of the radio path loss in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). The model applies to WSNs that are deployed in environments with dust and sand storms. It is developed as a result of statistical analysis of the measured data collected during dust and sand storms. The measured data were obtained at 2.4GHz and for different levels of the storm severity. For the purpose of data collection a custom measurement system based on Xbee air interface was developed. The proposed model shows a very good agreement with the measured data. It is also demonstrated …

Quantification Of Frictional Drag Due To Biofouling On In-Service Ships, John Travis Hunsucker

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to improve the quantification of frictional drag due to biofouling on in-service ships by advancing the knowledge and methodology used to study the interactions between fouling communities and the surrounding environment. This research examined the influence of hydrodynamic stress on the development and frictional drag of fouling communities that developed on a fouling release coating; investigated the reliability of using ship performance monitoring to detect changes in the hull and propeller condition; and evaluated the feasibility of developing a field deployable instrument capable of measuring the local frictional resistance on a ship hull in …

Bioink Properties Before, During And After 3d Bioprinting, Katja Hölzl, Shengmao Lin, Liesbeth Tytgat, Sandra Van Vlierberghe, Linxia Gu, Aleksandr Ovsianikov

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

Bioprinting is a process based on additive manufacturing from materials containing living cells. These materials, often referred to as bioink, are based on cytocompatible hydrogel precursor formulations, which gel in a manner compatible with different bioprinting approaches. The bioink properties before, during and after gelation are essential for its printability, comprising such features as achievable structural resolution, shape fidelity and cell survival. However, it is the final properties of the matured bioprinted tissue construct that are crucial for the end application. During tissue formation these properties are influenced by the amount of cells present in the construct, their proliferation, migration …

Selective Body Biasing For Post-Silicon Tuning Of Sub-Threshold Designs: A Semi-Infinite Programming Approach With Incremental Hypercubic Sampling, Hui Geng, Jianming Liu, Jinglan Liu, Pei Wen Luo, Liang Chia Cheng, Steven L. Grant, Yiyu Shi

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Sub-threshold designs have become a popular option in many energies constrained applications. However, a major bottleneck for these designs is the challenge in attaining timing closure. Most of the paths in sub-threshold designs can become critical paths due to the purely random process variation on threshold voltage, which exponentially impacts the gate delay. In order to address timing violations caused by process variation, post-silicon tuning is widely used through body biasing technology, which incurs heavy power and area overhead. Therefore, it is imperative to select only a small group of the gates with body biasing for post-silicon-tuning. In this paper, …

From Disaster To Development: Finance Provides A Platform To Empower Technology For Resilience To Climate Change, Daniel B. Oerther

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction emphasizes four principles: understanding risk; strengthening governance; investing in resilience; and building back better. Parametric insurance, offered to nations, provides a financial platform to pool and transfer risk from the regional to the global marketplace. The Caribbean Ocean Assets Sustainability faciliTy (COAST) expands upon the prior success of parametric insurance by providing a new platform to more fully link policy and technology with the aim of increasing disaster resilience. COAST focuses upon the nexus among food and nutrition security, the health of the ocean, and the occurrence of severe weather in the Caribbean …

Analysis Of Farm Vehicle Crashes And Safety Belt Usage, Kenneth R. Agent, Eric R. Green, Michael A. Fields

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The use of safety belts and child safety seats has been shown to be an effective means of reducing injuries to motor vehicle occupants involved in traffic crashes. There have been various methods used in efforts to increase safety belt and safety seat usage. Past efforts have included public information campaigns, local followed by statewide legislation, and enforcement of the legislation.

The objectives of the study were to collect data and review related Kentucky data to determine the following information:

• usage rate specifically for occupants of farm vehicles,
• the number of registered farm vehicles and their percentage of all registered …

Analysis Of Traffic Crash Data In Kentucky (2011-2015), Eric R. Green, Kenneth R. Agent, Jerry G. Pigman, Michael A. Fields

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

This report documents an analysis of traffic crash data in Kentucky for the years of 2011 through 2015. A primary objective of this study was to determine average crash statistics for Kentucky highways. Rates were calculated for various types of highways and for counties and cities. Difference criteria were used for exposure.

High-Frequency Instabilities Of Stationary Crossflow Vortices In A Hypersonic Boundary Layer, Fei Li, Meelan Choudhari, Pedro Paredes-Gonzalez, Lian Duan

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Hypersonic boundary layer flows over a circular cone at moderate incidence angle can support strong crossflow instability in between the windward and leeward rays on the plane of symmetry. Due to more efficient excitation of stationary crossflow vortices by surface roughness, such boundary layer flows may transition to turbulence via rapid amplification of the high-frequency secondary instabilities of finite-amplitude stationary crossflow vortices. The amplification characteristics of these secondary instabilities are investigated for crossflow vortices generated by an azimuthally periodic array of roughness elements over a 7° half-angle circular cone in a Mach 6 free stream. The analysis is based on …

Experimental And Numerical Investigations Of Dust Effects On Surface Charging In Plasma, Kevin Chou, Daoru Frank Han, Joseph J. Wang

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A series of 3-D, fully kinetic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations were performed to simulate mesothermal plasma flow self-consistently with surface charging. Simulation results of plasma charging of a conducting surface covered by a thin dust layer in a plasma of cold ions and thermal electrons are presented. The surface potentials and potentials inside the dust layer are compared with experimental results. Results show that a layer of dust over a conducting surface creates a capacitance, which drives the surface more negative with respect to the ambient plasma.

Rapid Generation Of 3d Microchannels Using A Multiphoton Laser System In Blended Hydrogels To Serve As Templates For Microvascular Generation, Stephanie Renée Burtch

Theses and Dissertations

Lack of scaffold microvascularization is one of the biggest problems facing graft survival and success within current tissue engineering applications. Fortunately, techniques aiming to form microchannels within three-dimensional scaffolds have shown promise in providing templates for tube-like cell formations. Unfortunately, many current patterning approaches are limited in the types of materials the technique can be applied to and lack the ability to form capillary-sized (<10 microns in diameter) networks. In this study, a multiphoton laser was used to create channels down to the micron level within an optically-clear hydrogel scaffold. Different percentages of poly (ethylene glycol) diacryate (PEGDA) and collagen were used to create different blends of hydrogels at 0%, 1%, 2%, and 3% collagen/PEGDA (w/w). Mechanical and transmittance testing were performed on all blends in order to determine which had optimal mechanical strength and optical clarity for laser subtractive printing. Swelling and degradation were measured to confirm the scaffolds served the tissue engineering requirement of eventual degradation. All gels with PEGDA incorporation showed an increase in mechanical stability and transparency when compared to pure collagen gels. Hydrogel blends showed resistance to degradation in phosphate-buffered saline, but appeared to exhibit collagen degradation in collagenase, although no statistical significance was seen. Cell viability tests within the hydrogels showed viability in cell-seeded hydrogels when compared to dead controls, although cells lacked some markers of healthy cells, such as spreading. In conclusion, results show that hydrogel blends provide a good matrix for subtractive optical micropatterning approaches, although other types of hydrogels may improve cell spreading and other cell responses.

A Systems Engineering Approach For Plant Layout Management & Optimization, Abdulelah Saeed Algarni

Theses and Dissertations

The basis of this paper was to investigate the system engineering applications on petro-chemical facilities layout designs. This work aims to facilitate and introduce the application of Facility Layout Problems to industrial case studies based on system engineering methodologies and performance measurements. Additionally, an effort was made to present a state-of-the-art literature review of industrial layout problems that exhibits scarcity of system engineering role in the design and implementations of industrial Facility Layout Problems. Facility Layout is one of the demanding large-scale optimization problems. Upon the completion of this report, we found a great sense of vitality of system engineering …

Developers’ Perceptions On Object-Oriented Design And Architectural Roles, Maurício Aniche, Marco Aurélio Gerosa, Christoph Treude

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Software developers commonly rely on well-known software architecture patterns, such as MVC, to build their applications. In many of these patterns, classes play specific roles in the system, such as Controllers or Entities, which means that each of these classes has specific characteristics in terms of object-oriented class design and implementation. Indeed, as we have shown in a previous study, architectural roles are different from each other in terms of code metrics. In this paper, we present a study in a software development company in which we captured developers’ perceptions on object-oriented design aspects of the architectural roles in their …

Metaflow: A Scalable Metadata Lookup Service For Distributed File Systems In Data Centers, Peng Sun, Yonggang Wen, Nguyen Binh Duong Ta, Haiyong Xie

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In large-scale distributed file systems, efficient metadata operations are critical since most file operations have to interact with metadata servers first. In existing distributed hash table (DHT) based metadata management systems, the lookup service could be a performance bottleneck due to its significant CPU overhead. Our investigations showed that the lookup service could reduce system throughput by up to 70%, and increase system latency by a factor of up to 8 compared to ideal scenarios. In this paper, we present MetaFlow, a scalable metadata lookup service utilizing software-defined networking (SDN) techniques to distribute lookup workload over network components. MetaFlow tackles …

Trust In Automation: A Study Of Helicopter Pilot Perception On Enhanced Flight Vision Systems (Efvs), Nicholas Colby Currie

Theses and Dissertations

Trust in automation is a growing field of research that serves a vital role in understanding how humans interact with modern technology. Though automation is certainly becoming more prevalent in many professions, it has become a mainstay in the modern helicopter cockpit. One particular piece of modern aviation technology that incorporates a significant amount of automation is Enhance Flight Vision Systems (EFVS). EFVS technology provides pilots with a wealth of information that enables them to “see” under low visibility conditions, thereby increasing their situational awareness. Though the benefits of EFVS technology are easily recognizable, it is still an automated system …

Large-Scale Design Optimization Of Pm Machines Over A Target Operating Cycle, Alireza Fatemi, Nabeel Demerdash, Thomas W. Nehl, Dan M. Ionel

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

A large-scale finite element model-based design optimization algorithm is developed for improving the drive-cycle efficiency of permanent magnet (PM) synchronous machines with wide operating ranges such as those used in traction propulsion motors. The load operating cycle is efficiently modeled by using a systematic k-means clustering method to identify the operating points representing the high-energy-throughput zones in the torque-speed plane. The machine performance is evaluated over these cyclic representative points using a recently introduced computationally efficient finite element analysis, which is upgraded to include both constant torque and field-weakening operations in the evaluation of the machine performance metrics. In contrast …

Generalizing Effective Spatial Bandwidth For Pole Location In Mas: The Elliptic Cylinder, James Richie

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The location of poles in the method of auxiliary sources for 2-D scatterers can be assisted using the effective spatial bandwidth (EBW) of the incident and scattered fields. Previously, only circular boundaries were considered. Here, EBW is extended to noncircular boundaries. Calculations presented for a cylinder with elliptical cross section verify EBW as an additional tool for pole placement for more general geometries.

Thermal Management Using Mems Bimorph Cantilever Beams, Ronald A. Coutu Jr., R. S. Lafleur, J. P.K. Walton, Lavern A. Starman

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

This paper examines a passive cooling technique using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) for localized thermal management of electronic devices. The prototype was designed using analytic equations, simulated using finite element methods (FEM), and fabricated using the commercial PolyMUMPs™ process. The system consisted of an electronic device simulator (EDS) and MEMS bimorph cantilever beams (MBCB) array with beams lengths of 200, 250, and 300 μm that were tested to characterize deflection and thermal behavior. The specific beam lengths were chosen to actuate in response to heating associated with the EDS (i.e. the longest beams actuated first corresponding to the hottest portion of …