Electrical and Computer Engineering Commons^™

Student Achievement And Affective Traits In Electrical Engineering Laboratories Using Traditional And Computer-Based Instrumentation, Matthew D. Lammi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Distance education has the ability to transcend distance and time, reaching students anywhere at any time, particularly those underrepresented in engineering. Engineering is a practice-oriented profession requiring an interweaving of scientific theory and applied hands-on activities. Despite the need for distance education in engineering, few studies have systematically investigated the impact of student achievement and attitude in distance engineering laboratories. This quasi-experimental research addressed that need by studying the cognitive and affective domains of achievement in engineering laboratories while employing computer-based and traditional oscilloscopes. The students from two courses, electrical engineering for nonmajors and electronic fundamentals, were randomly assigned into …

Algorithm Development Of The Aglite-Lidar Instrument, Christian Marchant

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Particulate emissions from agricultural operations are increasingly receiving attention from regulatory bodies as a potential source of air pollution. The Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL) has developed the Aglite system, a suite of instruments including a lidar that is capable of measuring particulate emission levels from agricultural facilities. This system provides a novel method of measuring particulate mass (PM) pollution, allowing measurements to be taken of diverse types of facilities with high temporal and spatial resolution. This high resolution allows for the measurement of emission levels generated by specific activities, fostering the development and determination of best management practices.

The Aglite …

Design And Implementation Of Digital Signal Processing Hardware For A Software Radio Reciever, Jake Talbot

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This project summarizes the design and implementation of field programmable gate array (FPGA) based digital signal processing (DSP) hardware meant to be used in a software radio system. The filters and processing were first designed in MATLAB and then implemented using very high speed integrated circuit hardware description language (VHDL). Since this hardware is meant for a software radio system, making the hardware flexible was the main design goal. Flexibility in the FPGA design was reached using VHDL generics and generate for loops. The hardware was verified using MATLAB generated signals as stimulus to the VHDL design and comparing the …

Sampling Frequencies Ratio Estimation And Symbol Timing Recovery For Baseband Binary Pulse Amplitude Modulation, Ana A. Paniagua Rodriguez

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The original intent of this project was to perform real time digital communications between a personal computer (PC) as the transmitter and a digital signal processor (DSP) as the receiver using the audio band analog channel. Although transmitter and receiver were both designed with baseband binary Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM), a low data rate and a sampling rate of 8 kilohertz, it was not possible to achieve communication between the two with traditional synchronization algorithms because of large differences in sampling clock frequencies. This thesis explores the theory and results of implementing digital communications between systems with differenet sampling frequencies. …

Monitoring Of Indoor Relative Humidity Levels In Residential Dwellings: A Sensor Network Application, Lizabeth Lee

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Indoor Air Quality is an increasing concern in the world today. The mere presence of people in a building or residence can significantly alter indoor air quality. Relative humidity over the range of normal indoor temperatures (66 - 80 degrees Farenheit) has been linked both directly and indirectly to various health and structural problems. The purpose of this project was to discover whether residential dwellings might benefit from an indoor humidification system. The project consisted of the deployment of three separate sensor networks consisting of 12 tmote sky modules manufactured by the Moteiv corporation, each equipped with a temperature and …

A Field Programmable Gate Array Based Finite-Domain Constraint Solver, Prasad Subramanian

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Constraint satisfaction and optimization techniques are commonly employed in scheduling, industrial manufacturing, and automation processes where concepts from Operations Research (OR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are applied. In embedded systems, Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) finds use in design, synthesis, and optimization. However, most application areas of CSP employ offline solving techniques where design requirements and constraints are captured before the system is deployed online. There is a significant amount of pre-planning and human intervention required.

In embedded systems, online constraint solving techniques are primarily used as onboard control software in order to enable a system that can dynamically adapt to …

Algorithm Development For Column Water Vapor Retrieval Using The Sun And Aureole Measurement (Sam) Sensor, Joshua Bruce Williams

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

To understand and model the energetics of the Sun-Earth connection, measurements of specific atmospheric molecules are beneficial. The objective is to formulate an algorithm to derive temporally varying atmospheric water vapor concentrations as functions of altitude, latitude, and longitude from solar irradiance absorption measurements. The Visidyne SAM (Sun and Aureole Measurement) instrument, which studies the size and distribution of cloud particles, was used to obtain the experimental data. By introducing a spectrometer to the SAM instrument, column water vapor is produced as part of the data product. A new model optimized algorithm is developed and tested versus existing algorithms. Through …

A Ladar-Based Pose Estimation Algorithm For Determining Relative Motion Of A Spacecraft For Autonomous Rendezvous And Dock, Ronald Christopher Fenton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Future autonomous space missions will require autonomous rendezvous and docking operations. The servicing spacecraft must be able to determine the relative 6 degree-of-freedom (6 DOF) motion between the vehicle and the target spacecraft. One method to determine the relative 6 DOF position and attitude is with 3D ladar imaging. Ladar sensor systems can capture close-proximity range images of the target spacecraft, producing 3D point cloud data sets. These sequentially collected point-cloud data sets were then registered with one another using a point correspondence-less variant of the Iterative Closest Points (ICP) algorithm to determine the relative 6 DOF displacements. Simulation experiments …

Active And Attentive Ladar Scanning For Automatic Target Recognition, M. Mamanakis, R.R. Fullmer, R.T. Pack, Scott E. Budge

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

In this work we examine the dynamic implications of active and attentive scanning for LADAR based automatic target/object recognition and show that a dynamically constrained, scanner based, ATR system's ability to identify objects in real-time is improved through attentive scanning. By actively and attentively scanning only salient regions of an image at the density required for recognition, the amount of time it takes to find a target object in a random scene is reduced. A LADAR scanner's attention is guided by identifying areas-of-interest using a visual saliency algorithm on electro-optical images of a scene to be scanned. Identified areas-of-interest are …

Rate-Distortion Optimized Vector Spiht For Wavelet Image Coding, Y. Liang, Scott E. Budge

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

In this paper, a novel image coding scheme using rate-distortion optimized vector quantization of wavelet coefficients is presented. A vector set partitioning algorithm is used to locate significant wavelet vectors which are classified into a number of classes based on their energies, thus reducing the complexity of the vector quantization. The set partitioning bits are reused to indicate the vector classification indices to save the bits for coding of the classification overhead. A set of codebooks with different sizes is designed for each class of vectors, and a Lagrangian optimization algorithm is employed to select an optimal codebook for each …

A Handheld Texel Camera For Acquiring Near-Instantaneous 3d Images, B.M. Boldt, Scott E. Budge, R.T. Pack, P.D. Israelsen

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

A Texel camera is a device which synchronously captures depth information via a ladar and digital imagery of the same scene. The ladar and digital camera are co-boresighted to eliminate parallax. This configuration fuses the ladar data to the digital image at the pixel level, eliminating complex post-processing to register the datasets. This paper describes a handheld version of a Texel Camera which can be used to create near-instantaneous 3D imagery. The hardware configuration of the Texel Camera, issues and method associated with ladar/camera calibration, and representative imagery are presented.

A Validation Procedure For A Ladar System Radiometric Simulation Model, B.C. Leishman, Scott E. Budge, R.T. Pack

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

The USU LadarSIM software package is a ladar system engineering tool that has recently been enhanced to include the modeling of the radiometry of Ladar beam footprints. This paper will discuss our validation of the radiometric model and present a practical approach to future validation work. In order to validate complicated and interrelated factors affecting radiometry, a systematic approach had to be developed. Data for known parameters were first gathered then unknown parameters of the system were determined from simulation test scenarios. This was done in a way to isolate as many unknown variables as possible, then build on the …

Application Of The Relevance Vector Machine To Canal Flow Prediction In The Sevier River Basin, John T. Flake

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This work addresses management of the scarce water resource for irrigation in arid regions where significant delays between the time of order and the time of delivery present major difficulties. Motivated by improvements to water management that will be facilitated by an ability to predict water demand, this work employs a data-driven approach to developing canal flow prediction models using the Relevance Vector Machine (RVM), a probabilistic kernel-based learning machine. Beyond the RVM learning process, which establishes the set of relevant vectors from the training data, a search is performed across model attributes including input set, kernel scale parameter, and …

Analysis Of The Day Side Equatorial Anomaly, Jayaprabha Shankar

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Equatorial Ionization Anomaly (EIA) is a region of peak plasma density found at ± 10 ◦ to 20 ◦ magnetic latitudes at F-region altitudes. In 2002, NASA launched the Global Ultra Violet Imager (GUVI), which can observe the EIA at various local times, longitudes, and seasons by the glow of the recombining electrons and ions in the plasma. This thesis presents the observations of the geomagnetic quiet time EIA and its global behavior at all local times using 1356 ˚A radiance data from high altitude GUVI limb scans. Limb data is prepared for analysis using reduction techniques that remove from …

Design Of A Low-Power Automatic Wireless Multi-Logger Networking Device, Kelly S. Lewis

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Virtually every industry and discipline (e.g., mining, pharmaceutical, construction, agriculture, reclamation, etc.) is finding applications for wireless data acquisition for monitoring and managing processes and resources. Two sectors, namely agriculture and environmental research, are seeking ways to obtain distributed soil and plant measurements over larger areas like a watershed or large fields rather than a single site of intensive instrumentation (i.e., a weather station). Wireless sensor networks and remote sensing have been explored as a means to satisfy this need. Commercial products are readily available that have remote wireless options to support distributed senor networking. However, these systems have been …

Tropospheric Spectrum Estimations Comparing Maximum Likelihood With Expectation Maximization Solutions And Fast Fourier Transforms, Stanley James Wellard

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The FIRST program (Far Infrared Spectroscopy in the Troposphere) was created as an Instrument Incubator Program (IIP) by NASA Langley to demonstrate improved technology readiness levels (TRLs) for two technologies needed in the design of new imaging Fourier transform spectrometers (IFTS). The IIP IFTS was developed at the Space Dynamics Laboratory and flown to an altitude of 103,000 feet on an instrumented NASA balloon payload. The sensor collected approximately 15,000 interferograms during its 6-hour flight.

Fourier transforms (FFT) produced acceptable results except for noise equivalent temperature differences (NETD) that were five times higher than goal and inconclusive transforms at seven …

Langmuir Probe Measurements In The Ionosphere, Aroh Barjatya

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Electric probes have been the primary instruments for the in situ investigation of plasma parameters in the Earth’s ionosphere. This dissertation is a compendium of three papers, each dealing with a separate spacecraft that carried one or more instruments based on the electric probe technique.

The first paper presents data from the Sudden Atom Layer sounding rocket that carried an RF Impedance Probe, a DC fixed-bias Langmuir Probe (DCP), and an Electric Field Probe. The combined dataset indicates a case of payload surface charging, the causes of which are investigated within the paper. A generic circuit model is developed to …

A Formal Approach To Specifying And Verifying Spacecraft Behavior, Allan I.S. Mcinnes

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Process algebra can provide spacecraft designers with a mathematical formalism for specifying, understanding, analyzing, and verifying spacecraft system behavior. Although it is standard practice to mathematically model and analyze the subsystems of a spacecraft to ensure that they will function correctly when built, the system-level behavior of the spacecraft is generally understood in much less rigorous terms. This leaves the spacecraft system vulnerable to design errors which may not become apparent until the integration and test phase, when design changes are most expensive. In this dissertation, we develop a formal approach to engineering spacecraft behavior, based on mathematical models of …

The History And Dynamics Of The Plasma Impedance Probe, Wayne G. Sanderson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

For over 40 years Utah State University / Space Dynamics Laboratory and their predecessors have built instruments to measure electron density in the ionosphere. These instruments have incrementally improved as new measuring techniques have developed and new technologies have been introduced. This thesis introduces the properties and measurement of electron density in the ionosphere. It maps the instrument advancements from the early radio frequency probes of the 1960's to the present Plasma Impedance Probe (PIP), with emphasis on the introduction of the phase lock looped Plasma Frequency Probe (PFP) and the rediscovery of the Swept Impedance Probe (SIP). The current …

Classified Vector Spiht For Wavelet Image Coding, Y. Liang, Scott E. Budge

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Wavelet based image coding has been shown to be an effective method, especially at low bit rate. Two successful approaches, space-frequency quantization (SFQ) and set partitioning in hierarchical trees (SPIHT) were proposed to predict insignificant wavelet coefficients. However, both of them employ a simple scalar quantization scheme instead of powerful vector quantization for coding of the significant wavelet coefficients. In this paper we propose a new image coding method that combines the SPIHT type set partitioning technique with classified vector quantization. That is, the set partitioning technique is used to locate significant wavelet coefficient vectors based on vectors' energies. In …

Simulation And Modeling Of Return Waveforms From A Ladar Beam Footprint In Usu Ladarsim, Scott E. Budge, B.C. Leishman, R.T. Pack

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Ladar systems are an emerging technology with applications in many fields. Consequently, simulations for these systems have become a valuable tool in the improvement of existing systems and the development of new ones. This paper discusses the theory and issues involved in reliably modeling the return waveform of a ladar beam footprint in the Utah State University LadarSIM simulation software. Emphasis is placed on modeling system-level effects that allow an investigation of engineering tradeoffs in preliminary designs, and validation of behaviors in fabricated designs. Efforts have been made to decrease the necessary computation time while still maintaining a usable model. …

Nectar Clean 2006 A Complete Disk Utility Program, Matthew Areno

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The objective of this paper is to introduce a hard drive enclosure kit and program, named Disk Utility, which provides various utilities to a work-bench tech or a home user. Both the authors have worked in a tech-bench area and have found that this is a useful tool to have, as many times trouble-shooting type tasks are necessary to properly diagnose problems on a hard drive. It has also been found to be far easier to implement these changes on a hard drive that doesn't need to be moved from machine to machine.

Many design approaches are covered in this …

A Digital Design For A Plasma Impedance Probe, Jason Bingham

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The Plasma Impedance Probe (PIP) electronics board is designed to measure the impedance of plasma in situ by emitting voltages at different frequencies from a probe. The PIP is launched as part of the Tropical Storm mission. The purpose of the mission is to launch the instrument aboard a sounding rocket that flies through the ionosphere during or immediately following a large tropical meteorological disturbance. As the PIP probe travels through the upper regions of Earth's atmosphere, data are gathered from the disturbed region by measuring the current flow in the antenna. This information contains both the phase and magnitude …

The Numerical Modeling Of An Antenna In Plasma, Jeffrey D. Ward

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation presents a full-wave, self-consistent numerical model that enables a greater understanding of how an antenna interacts with warm, collisional, magnetized, multi-species plasma. The model focuses primarily on the frequency region around the critical electron resonances for ionospheric plasma conditions. At these resonances, the dielectric representation of the plasma can become complex or negative, and the current distribution strongly deviates from free space. These effects are difficult to model analytically, necessitating the use of numerical techniques. This dissertation develops a Finite Difference Time Domain model that includes the plasma fluid equations along with Maxwell's equations, and incorporates boundary conditions …

Design, Development, Test, And Calibration Of The Floating Potential Measurement Unit Sensor Suite, Chad Fish

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

To provide in-situ plasma diagnostic ability aboard the International Space Station, NASA-Johnson procured the Floating Potential Measurement Unit (FPMU) from Utah State University - Space Dynamics Laboratory in September 2001. The FPMU sensor suite is comprised of a Floating Potential Probe, two sweeping Langmuir Probes, and a Radio Frequency Probe. The FPMU is to be operational for a period of at least three years to cover the major construction phase of the International Space Station. The FPMU will make measurements of ISS floating potential as well as plasma density and temperature, which are the primary environmental factors that effect ISS …

Synchronized Line-Scan Lidar/Eo Imager For Creating 3d Images Of Dynamic Scenes: Prototype Ii, Donald C. Anderton

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

A second prototype integrated lidar/Electro Optical (EO) camera, or 3D Texel™ camera, has been developed by Utah State University (USU) Center for Advanced Imaging Ladar (CAIL) that collocates, both temporally and spatially, a CMOS digital camera readout with a time-of-flight pulsed lidar1. The first prototype uses a flying spot lidar with a double gimbal whereas this prototype uses a single gimbal and rotating mirror. The selection and design of the second prototype hardware components: lidar, EO camera, computer, synchronization box, power source (AC to DC and battery box) and battery charger is discussed and compared with the first prototype. The …

Electronics Design Of The Aglite-Lidar Instrument, Scott S. Cornelsen

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The AGLITE-LIDAR instrument is a three-wavelength lidar system being designed and constructed at the Space Dynamics Laboratory under contract from the Agricultural Research Service. Its purpose is to implement a novel new approach to making measurements of gas and particulate pollutants released into the atmosphere by agricultural operations. Once operational, it will provide a means whereby the total flux of pollutants being emitted by agricultural facilities might be measured. This approach is valid even for facilities that may cover several acres. The design of the AGLITE instrument consists of a myriad of different components that are brought together in a …

Calibration And Results Of The Equis Ii Plasma Impedance Probe (Pip), Seth D. Humphries

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis presents the calibration process and analysis results for the two Plasma Impedance Probe (PIP) units that were flown as part of the NASA Equis-I I campaign from the Kwajalein Atoll. The work of calibration that was presented by Krishna Kurra for the PIP on the Floating Potential Measurement Unit (FPMU) is improved and extended herein. The sweeping impedance probe (SIP), the instrument formerly known as plasma sweeping probe (PSP), is an integral part of the PIP. For the SIP, the calibration presented in this work, calibration error less than 5% error is achieved. The calibration is applied to …

Real-Time Registration And Display Of Confocal Microscope Imagery For Multiple-Band Analysis, Scott E. Budge, A.M. Mayampurath, J.C. Solinsky

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Multiple images acquired in real-time from a confocal microscope in different illumination wavebands are used to construct a three-dimensional understanding of living cell signal propagation. Registration, fusion, and display of these images are performed in real-time using field programmable gate array (FPGA) technology to allow the biological scientist to observe time critical signaling processes as they occur. The registration and display system operates at a rate of up to 15 frames/s, and performs dark offset correction and noise reduction, followed by non-linear correction for lens warp and focal plane tilt, and finally correction for spatial mismatch between the different wavebands. …

Calibration Of Plasma Impedance Probe On The Floating Potential Measurement Unit, Krishna Kishore Kurra

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Charging of the International Space Station (ISS) is identified as a potential space hazard for astronauts. Floating potential measurement unit (FMPU) was developed to address this issue. This project is aimed at developing a procedure for the calibration of Plasma Impedance Probe, one of the four probes housed by FPMU. Non-linear curve fits are used to find the calibration coefficients and the equations are symbolically solved to obtain the load magnitude and phase from the pulse code modulated (PCM) data. There is a brief discussion of various methods tried during this process. The results are compared with the actual test …