Electrical and Electronics Commons^™

General Vector Explicit - Impact Time And Angle Control Guidance, Loren Robinson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis proposes and evaluates a new cooperative guidance law called General Vector Explicit - Impact Time and Angle Control Guidance (GENEX-ITACG). The motivation for GENEX-ITACG came from an explicit trajectory shaping guidance law called General Vector Explicit Guidance (GENEX). GENEX simultaneously achieves design specifications on miss distance and terminal missile approach angle while also providing a design parameter that adjusts the aggressiveness of this approach angle. Encouraged by the applicability of this user parameter, GENEX-ITACG is an extension that allows a salvo of missiles to cooperatively achieve the same objectives of GENEX against a stationary target through the incorporation …

Enhanced Microwave Hyperthermia Using Nanoparticles, Maryory Urdaneta

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation a study of enhanced hyperthermia for cancer treatment through the use of magnetic nanoparticles is presented. Hyperthermia has been in use for many years, as a potential alternative method in cancer treatment, and high frequency microwave radiation has been used successfully to raise the tumor temperature to around 42°C in superficial tumors without causing damage to surrounding healthy tissues. Magnetic fluid hyperthermia involves the use of magnetic nanoparticles injected into the tumor before exposure to microwave radiation. The magnetic energy in the nanoparticles is converted into heat allowing for a more rapid rise of temperature in the …

Cascaded Digital Refinement For Intrinsic Evolvable Hardware, Vignesh Thangavel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Intrinsic evolution of reconfigurable hardware is sought to solve computational problems using the intrinsic processing behavior of System-on-Chip (SoC) platforms. SoC devices combine capabilities of analog and digital embedded components within a reconfigurable fabric under software control. A new technique is developed for these fabrics that leverages the digital resources' enhanced accuracy and signal refinement capability to improve circuit performance of the analog resources' which are providing low power processing and high computation rates. In particular, Differential Digital Correction (DDC) is developed utilizing an error metric computed from the evolved analog circuit to reconfigure the digital fabric thereby enhancing precision …

Predictive Modeling For Assessing The Reliability Of Bypass Diodes In Photovoltaic Modules, Narendra Shiradkar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Solar Photovoltaics (PV) is one of the most promising renewable energy technologies for mitigating the effect of climate change. Reliability of PV modules directly impacts the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE), which is a metric for cost competitiveness of any energy technology. Further reduction in LCOE of PV through assured long term reliability is necessary in order to facilitate widespread use of solar energy without the need for subsidies. This dissertation is focused on frameworks for assessing reliability of bypass diodes in PV modules. Bypass diodes are critical components in PV modules that provide protection against shading. Failure of bypass …

A Roughness Correction For Aquarius Ocean Brightness Temperature Using The Conae Microwave Radiometer, Yazan Hejazin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Aquarius/SAC-D is a joint NASA/CONAE (Argentine Space Agency) Earth Sciences satellite mission to measure global sea surface salinity (SSS), using an L-band radiometer that measures ocean brightness temperature (Tb). The application of L-band radiometry to retrieve SSS is a difficult task, and therefore, precise Tb corrections are necessary to obtain accurate measurements. One of the major error sources is the effect of ocean roughness that "warms" the ocean Tb. The Aquarius (AQ) instrument (L-band radiometer/scatterometer) baseline approach uses the radar scatterometer to provide this ocean roughness correction, through the correlation of radar backscatter with the excess ocean emissivity. In contrast, …

Modified System Design And Implementation Of An Intelligent Assistive Robotic Manipulator, Nicholas Paperno

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents three improvements to the current UCF MANUS systems. The first improvement modifies the existing fine motion controller into PI controller that has been optimized to prevent the object from leaving the view of the cameras used for visual servoing. This is achieved by adding a weight matrix to the proportional part of the controller that is constrained by an artificial ROI. When the feature points being used are approaching the boundaries of the ROI, the optimized controller weights are calculated using quadratic programming and added to the nominal proportional gain portion of the controller. The second improvement …

Towards Improving Human-Robot Interaction For Social Robots, Saad Khan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Autonomous robots interacting with humans in a social setting must consider the social-cultural environment when pursuing their objectives. Thus the social robot must perceive and understand the social cultural environment in order to be able to explain and predict the actions of its human interaction partners. This dissertation contributes to the emerging field of human-robot interaction for social robots in the following ways: 1. We used the social calculus technique based on culture sanctioned social metrics (CSSMs) to quantify, analyze and predict the behavior of the robot, human soldiers and the public perception in the Market Patrol peacekeeping scenario. 2. …

Lyapunov-Based Robust And Adaptive Control Design For Nonlinear Uncertain Systems, Kun Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The control of systems with uncertain nonlinear dynamics is an important field of control science attracting decades of focus. In this dissertation, four different control strategies are presented using sliding mode control, adaptive control, dynamic compensation, and neural network for a nonlinear aeroelastic system with bounded uncertainties and external disturbance. In Chapter 2, partial state feedback adaptive control designs are proposed for two different aeroelastic systems operating in unsteady flow. In Chapter 3, a continuous robust control design is proposed for a class of single input and single output system with uncertainties. An aeroelastic system with a trailingedge flap as …

Performance Optimization Of Lateral-Mode Thin-Film Piezoelectric-On-Substrate Resonant Systems, Hedy Fatemi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The main focus of this dissertation is to characterize and improve the performance of thin-film piezoelectric-on-substrate (TPoS) lateral-mode resonators and filters. TPoS is a class of piezoelectric MEMS devices which benefits from the high coupling coefficient of the piezoelectric transduction mechanism while taking advantage of superior acoustic properties of a substrate. The use of lateral-mode TPoS designs allows for fabrication of dispersed-frequency filters on a single substrate, thus significantly reducing the size and manufacturing cost of devices. TPoS filters also offer a lower temperature coefficient of frequency, and better power handling capability compared to rival technologies all in a very …

The Ph Sensing Properties Of Rf Sputtered Ruo2 Thin-Film Prepared Using Different Ar/O2 Flow Ratio, Ali Sardarinejad, Devendra Kumar Maurya, Kamal Alameh

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The influence of the Ar/O₂ gas ratio during radio frequency (RF) sputtering of the RuO₂ sensing electrode on the pH sensing performance is investigated. The developed pH sensor consists in an RF sputtered ruthenium oxide thin-film sensing electrode, in conjunction with an electroplated Ag/AgCl reference electrode. The performance and characterization of the developed pH sensors in terms of sensitivity, response time, stability, reversibility, and hysteresis are investigated. Experimental results show that the pH sensor exhibits super-Nernstian slopes in the range of 64.33-73.83 mV/pH for Ar/O₂ gas ratio between 10/0-7/3. In particular, the best pH sensing performance, in …

Monitoring System For Electric Motors, Sean Waples

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Induction motors are key to many applications and are one of the most commonly used electric devices. Currently, induction motor fault detection schemes are limited in features and computational power. With current technology, fault detection algorithms are operating in embedded systems and run on embedded processors. These processors do not have the computation power and functionality that more advanced computer systems have, which is the source of the issue. With the recent rise in cloud computing and connected devices, it is possible to build an induction motor monitoring system with a much greater set of features and possibilities.

Spark Discharge Coupled Laser Multicharged Ion Source, Md. Haider A. Shaim, Hani E. Elsayed-Ali

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

A spark discharge is coupled to a laser multicharged ion source to enhance ion generation. The laser plasma triggers a spark discharge with electrodes located in front of the ablated target. For an aluminum target, the spark discharge results in significant enhancement in the generation of multicharged ions along with higher charge states than observed with the laser source alone. When a Nd:YAG laser pulse (wavelength 1064 nm, pulse width 7.4 ns, pulse energy 72 mJ, laser spot area on target 0.0024 cm²) is used, the total multicharged ions detected by a Faraday cup is 1.0 nC with …

Blind Area Target Aiming System And Preference Selection Training System Design, Zhine Kang

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

A cyber-physical system (CPS) is a system of leveraging computational elements controlling physical entities that is widely applied in our daily life for all kinds of purpose. It helps us build smart devices and make life become much easier. In this report, two projects were designed to show the idea that how cyber-physical system works in human daily life. The first project is designed for personal security, especially for one of the most dangerous job: security service. It helps user defend his back while he/she is in a tough situation while he or she is alone. First there will be …

3d Printing, Open-Source Technology And Their Applications In Research, Chenlong Zhang

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Open-source software received tremendous success as it drives down the cost of software and expand the distribution. Open-source hardware, as part of the open-source movement, has just risen into public attention for its potential to further drive down the cost of all kinds of manufacturing goods and reshape the manufacture chain. In this report we explores the history, development and the future of open-source hardware project, summarizing the opportunities, challenges and possible solutions. 3D printing is demonstrated as a booster to assist open-source hardware’s development. Low-cost 3D printer enables at-home and in-time fabrication, the download-print-use-improve-distribute cycle is established to encourage …

Development Of Rigorous Electromagnetic Simulation Tools For Anisotropic Structures, Jose Luis Enriquez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Many times, mankind's creative nature has pushed the envelope beyond what was deemed physically possible at the time. People have engineered ways for us to fly, communicate across the globe in seconds, landed on the moon, and more recently discovered ways to make an object invisible. Unfortunately, there are times that this creativeness is hindered by funding, access to required tools or a combination of both. While this work cannot provide funding, it does provide a tool that one could use to model and simulate a variety of media. The media can vary from devices already being implemented to more …

Fault Section Identification For Power Distribution Systems Using Online Measurements, Jie Chen

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Fault location is very important for distribution systems, and quickly identifying the fault and restoring the system can help reduce the outage time and make the system more reliable. In this thesis, a method for locating faults on distribution systems is introduced to quickly identify the faulted feeder sections by using the overcurrent information from the switches in the system. Fuzzy logic is utilized. The proposed method can quickly and accurately locate faulted sections with different fault locations, fault types and fault resistances. The method is applicable to cases with single-faults or multi-faults, and is applicable to networks with multi-sources. …

An Adaptive Physical- And Link Layer For Narrowband Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks, Mathias Dehm

Theses

Search and Rescue (SAR) missions require robust ad-hoc networks especially in situations where existing wired or cellular networks have been damaged or are not available. Here, a promising SAR communications technology is a Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANETs). However, development of systems is challenging due to bandwidth constraints, various application services, high mobility and harsh environments leading to unstable wireless connections.

Throughout this thesis, a prototype of a physical- and link layer is developed which satisfies the criteria for communication services in SAR missions.

This work includes three major contributions:

The first contribution is a single-carrier narrowband physical layer. The transmission …

Enhanced Quality Of Experience Based On Enriched Network Centric And Access Control Mechanisms, Andreas Roos

Doctoral

In the digital world service provisioning in user satisfying quality has become the goal of any content or network provider. Besides having satisfied and therefore, loyal users, the creation of sustainable revenue streams is the most important issue for network operators [1], [2], [3]. The motivation of this work is to enhance the quality of experience of users when they connect to the Internet, request application services as well as to maintain full service when these users are on the move in WLAN based access networks. In this context, the aspect of additional revenue creation for network operators is considered …

Counting And Classification Of Highway Vehicles By Regression Analysis, Mingpei Liang, Xinyu Huang, Chung-Hao Chen, Alade Tokuta

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

In this paper, we describe a novel algorithm that counts and classifies highway vehicles based on regression analysis. This algorithm requires no explicit segmentation or tracking of individual vehicles, which is usually an important part of many existing algorithms. Therefore, this algorithm is particularly useful when there are severe occlusions or vehicle resolution is low, in which extracted features are highly unreliable. There are mainly two contributions in our proposed algorithm. First, a warping method is developed to detect the foreground segments that contain unclassified vehicles. The common used modeling and tracking (e.g., Kalman filtering) of individual vehicles are not …

Skin Detection In Hyperspectral Images, Stephanie Sanchez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Hyperspectral imagers collect information of the scene being imaged at close contiguous bands in the electromagnetic spectrum at high spectral resolutions. Hyperspectral images are organized in a data cube where the x and y axes contain spatial information and the z-axis contains spectral information. The number of applications for these imagers has grown over the years as they are now used in various fields (i.e. agriculture, surveillance, chemical imaging, environmental, medical, etc.). Many algorithms are described in the literature for skin detection in color imagery. However increased detection accuracy, in particularly over cluttered backgrounds, and of small targets and in …

Modeling Of The Response Of A Memcapacitor For An Impulse, Step, Ramp, And Sinusiodal Inputs, Ghassan Khalil Kachmar

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems, or MEMS, is a technology of very small scale devices. The dimensions of MEMS can vary from below one micron to several millimeters. MEMS have some mechanical functionalities such as the moving plate of a parallel plate capacitor (memcapacitor). MEMS researchers and developers have demonstrated an extremely large number of microsensors for almost every possible sensing modality including temperature, pressure, inertial forces, and chemical species. The equation of motion of the moving plate of a memcapacitor is governed by a non-linear differential equation with no known exact solution. Most research into determining the theoretical response of a memcapacitor …

Low Power Design Techniques For Data Acquisition, Praveen Kumar Palakurthi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Semiconductor technology advancement continues to lead to smaller device geometries. Digital circuits have benefited from the technology scaling whereas analog circuits often suffer in terms of performance and noise immunity. As functionality continues to be integrated onto systems-on-chips, analog circuits consume increasingly more power than digital circuits and the objective of this Dissertation is to explore low power techniques in the context of both digital and analog circuits residing on the same silicon real estate.

As natural signals are in analog form, a necessity exists to convert these into digital form and then back again in order to exploit the …

Spatial Brightness, Horizontal Illuminance And Mean Room Surface Exitance In A Lighting Booth, James Duff, Kevin Kelly, C. Cuttle

Articles

This paper presents a pilot study that has investigated the suitability of mean room surface exitance as a predictor of spatial brightness and compared these results with how horizontal illuminance predicts spatial brightness under the same conditions. The experiment took a group of 26 participants and, using a scaled booth, exposed each participant to three levels of mean room surface exitance, each delivered with three different light distributions and three different surface reflectances, resulting in a total of 27 light scenes. Results demonstrated that, under the range of conditions to which participants were exposed, a systematic relationship existed between mean …

Autonomous Robot Sphere, Robert Haver, Melissa Haver, Daniel Madden, Noah Robertson

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The Autonomous Robot Sphere is an interactive robot toy meant to entertain kids. The robot will locate its target and execute algorithms to autonomously evade or chase a child. The sphere will contain a platform equipped with four omni-wheels, which will allow the sphere to maneuver and change direction almost instantaneously. The robot will be configured to maintain a fixed distance from the transmitter, allowing it to chase or evade the child in response to their movement. The primary advantage of our design lies in its capability to quickly adapt to changes in direction.

Free-Range Pre-Programmed Rc Car, Alexander L. Aubihl, Andrew S. Hopwood, Benjamin J. Riggs, Tyler P. Vance

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

There is a growing interest in the capabilities and utilization of autonomous vehicles. The objective of this project is to design a small scale illustration of an autonomous vehicle driven by user input. An application will be designed that will allow a user to create a track that an RC car will accurately follow. As the car follows the track, a microcontroller on the vehicle will send movement information back to the application. This information is used by the application to process where the vehicle is currently at and where it needs to go. While in motion, on-board sensors will …

Modular Biped Robotic Base, Lawrence T. Chiavaroli, Andrew J. Forchione, Wesley A. Miller, Joseph M. Drockton

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This report contains the final developments and research involved with the modular biped robotic base. A need was first identified in 2011 when President Obama announced the National Robotics Initiative, an initiative focused on the funding of robotic development to work alongside or cooperatively with humans. This scope of this project concerns building a robotic base modeled after human legs and hips, capable of interfacing with future modular subsystems depending on what tasks are trying to be accomplished. Firstly, a mathematical torque simulation of the hip, knee, and ankle joints was developed in MATLAB. Using this information, complimentary actuators and …

Electronic Learning Guitar, Justin Fiser

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

No abstract provided.

Computational Electronics For The 21st Century: Reflections On The Past, Present, And Future, Mark S. Lundstrom

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

The author’s career has coincided with the development of numerical simulation into an essential component of semiconductor device technology research and development. We now have a sophisticated suite of simulation capabilities along with new challenges for 21st Century electronics. This talk presents a short history of the field and a description of the current state of the art, but it concentrates on lessons learned and thoughts about how computational electronics can continue to contribute effectively to the development of new electronic device technologies. The author will argue that electronics is changing, and that computational electronics can play a key role …

Self-Balancing Two Wheeled Robot, David Laubli, Thomas Garabedian, Jordan Paul, Nikheel Patel, Michael Redle

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Automation is increasingly becoming a larger part of daily life. From automated telephone calls to machines in manufacturing, robots are generally an effective and efficient way to reduce overhead costs, increase consistency in products and services, and perform tasks that may be hazardous to humans. The successful design and building of a two-wheeled balancing robot demonstrates a knowledge of control systems and sensor interfacing that can translate to real world applications. Helping seniors live on their own, performing dangerous mining work, repeatedly screwing the same piece in an assembly line, are great examples of a controls automation system freeing time …

Led Learning Guitar, Kellen C. Reusser, Justin Fiser

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The goal of this project is to create an electric guitar that detects and displays chords in different tunings for learning and exploration purposes. A hexaphonic pickup will generate the required signals and a processor will detect the pitch. The computer software will apply the pitch information to determine the tuning and the voicings of chords. LEDs mounted on the fretboard of the guitar will indicate a note to be played.