Systems Engineering Commons^™

Low Latency Anomaly Detection With Imperfect Models, Samrat Nath

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The problem of anomaly detection deals with detecting abrupt changes/anomalies in the distribution of sequentially observed data in a stochastic system. This problem applies to many applications, such as signal processing, intrusion detection, quality control, medical diagnosis, etc. A low latency anomaly detection algorithm, which is based on the framework of quickest change detection (QCD), aims at minimizing the detection delay of anomalies in the sequentially observed data while ensuring satisfactory detection accuracy. Moreover, in many practical applications, complete knowledge of the post-change distribution model might not be available due to the unexpected nature of the change. Hence, the objective …

Golng Off The Grid: Optimizing Solar Renewable Energy Systems At Remote Locations To Minimize Logistics Requirements, Increase Sustainability, And Strengthen Energy Assurance, Nathanael J. Thomsen

Theses and Dissertations

Grid-based electrical infrastructure is unavailable at many remote locations including developing nation communities, isolated construction sites, and military contingency bases. Powering these locations with diesel generators requires regular fuel resupply, resulting in increased costs, environmental impacts, and burdensome logistics—making generators an obstacle for energy resiliency and sustainability. This research examines using solar renewable energy systems to replace generators at remote locations and presents a multi-objective optimization model that minimizes logistics variables. Replacing a single deployed generator would save over 500,000 gal of fuel annually, eliminating the need for 100 fuel tanker deliveries.

Internet Of Things For Sustainable Mining, Abdul Salam

Faculty Publications

The sustainable mining Internet of Things deals with the applications of IoT technology to the coupled needs of sustainable recovery of metals and a healthy environment for a thriving planet. In this chapter, the IoT architecture and technology is presented to support development of a digital mining platform emphasizing the exploration of rock–fluid–environment interactions to develop extraction methods with maximum economic benefit, while maintaining and preserving both water quantity and quality, soil, and, ultimately, human health. New perspectives are provided for IoT applications in developing new mineral resources, improved management of tailings, monitoring and mitigating contamination from mining. Moreover, tools …

Internet Of Things In Sustainable Energy Systems, Abdul Salam

Faculty Publications

Our planet has abundant renewable and conventional energy resources but technological capability and capacity gaps coupled with water-energy needs limit the benefits of these resources to citizens. Through IoT technology solutions and state-of-the-art IoT sensing and communications approaches, the sustainable energy-related research and innovation can bring a revolution in this area. Moreover, by the leveraging current infrastructure, including renewable energy technologies, microgrids, and power-to-gas (P2G) hydrogen systems, the Internet of Things in sustainable energy systems can address challenges in energy security to the community, with a minimal trade-off to environment and culture. In this chapter, the IoT in sustainable energy …

Resource Allocation And Task Scheduling Optimization In Cloud-Based Content Delivery Networks With Edge Computing, Yang Peng

Operations Research and Engineering Management Theses and Dissertations

The extensive growth in adoption of mobile devices pushes global Internet protocol (IP) traffic to grow and content delivery network (CDN) will carry 72 percent of total Internet traffic by 2022, up from 56 percent in 2017. In this praxis, Interconnected Cache Edge (ICE) based on different public cloud infrastructures with multiple edge computing sites is considered to help CDN service providers (SPs) to maximize their operational profit. The problem of resource allocation and performance optimization is studied in order to maximize the cache hit ratio with available CDN capacity.

The considered problem is formulated as a multi-stage stochastic linear …

Insulation Sensitivity Analysis For An Optimized Fabric Shelter Off-Grid Hybrid Energy System, Jay F. Pearson, Torrey J. Wagner, Steven Schuldt

Faculty Publications

During military and disaster relief operations, connecting to an established electrical grid is rarely an option. In these situations, camps consisting of poorly insulated fabric shelters are predominantly powered by inefficient diesel generators that require frequent fuel resupply. In order to reduce the fuel demand of these generators, camps may utilize photovoltaic-battery systems. This paper presents an innovative cost-performance model capable of optimizing solar array size, battery backup system, and shelter insulation type to minimize the operating cost of powering a single fabric shelter. Model performance was evaluated using one year of insolation, weather and energy requirement data from a …

Development Of A Myoelectric Detection Circuit Platform For Computer Interface Applications, Nickolas Andrew Butler

Master's Theses

Personal computers and portable electronics continue to rapidly advance and integrate into our lives as tools that facilitate efficient communication and interaction with the outside world. Now with a multitude of different devices available, personal computers are accessible to a wider audience than ever before. To continue to expand and reach new users, novel user interface technologies have been developed, such as touch input and gyroscopic motion, in which enhanced control fidelity can be achieved. For users with limited-to-no use of their hands, or for those who seek additional means to intuitively use and command a computer, novel sensory systems …

A Sustainable Prototype For Renewable Energy: Optimized Prime-Power Generator Solar Array Replacement, Nathan Thomsen, Torrey J. Wagner, Andrew J. Hoisington, Steven J. Schuldt

Faculty Publications

Remote locations such as disaster relief camps, isolated arctic communities, and military forward operating bases are disconnected from traditional power grids forcing them to rely on diesel generators with a total installed capacity of 10,000 MW worldwide. The generators require a constant resupply of fuel, resulting in increased operating costs, negative environmental impacts, and challenging fuel logistics. To enhance remote site sustainability, planners can develop stand-alone photovoltaic-battery systems to replace existing prime power generators. This paper presents the development of a novel cost-performance model capable of optimizing solar array and Li-ion battery storage size by generating tradeoffs between minimizing initial …

The Tabu Ant Colony Optimizer And Its Application In An Energy Market, David Donald Haynes

Doctoral Dissertations

"A new ant colony optimizer, the 'tabu ant colony optimizer' (TabuACO) is introduced, tested, and applied to a contemporary problem. The TabuACO uses both attractive and repulsive pheromones to speed convergence to a solution. The dual pheromone TabuACO is benchmarked against several other solvers using the traveling salesman problem (TSP), the quadratic assignment problem (QAP), and the Steiner tree problem. In tree-shaped puzzles, the dual pheromone TabuACO was able to demonstrate a significant improvement in performance over a conventional ACO. As the amount of connectedness in the network increased, the dual pheromone TabuACO offered less improvement in performance over the …

Energy Efficiency Evaluation Of Blower Heater Non-Purge Compressed Air Dryers, Alexandra M. Botts

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

There are several compressed air dryers available for industrial use including, refrigerant, desiccant, and membrane. This research focuses on twin tower regenerative closed loop desiccant dryers, specifically: blower heater non-purge (BHNP) with and without cooling water pumps, Compressed-air Heater Purge (CHP), Blower Heater Purge (BHP), and Pressure Swing Heaterless (PSH). These styles of dryers are used mainly in industries that require extremely dry air such as, food manufacturing, medical air, or sensitive technology manufacturers. The research was conducted by collecting and analyzing real time current draw data on air compressors and associated dryers at eight different facilities (13 compressor systems) …

Robust Engineering Of Dynamic Structures In Complex Networks, Walter Botongo Bomela

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Populations of nearly identical dynamical systems are ubiquitous in natural and engineered systems, in which each unit plays a crucial role in determining the functioning of the ensemble. Robust and optimal control of such large collections of dynamical units remains a grand challenge, especially, when these units interact and form a complex network. Motivated by compelling practical problems in power systems, neural engineering and quantum control, where individual units often have to work in tandem to achieve a desired dynamic behavior, e.g., maintaining synchronization of generators in a power grid or conveying information in a neuronal network; in this dissertation, …

Applications Of Complex Network Analysis In Electric Power Systems, Mahmoud Saleh, Yusef Esa, Ahmed Mohamed

Publications and Research

This paper provides a review of the research conducted on complex network analysis (CNA) in electric power systems. Moreover, a new approach is presented to find optimal locations for microgrids (MGs) in electric distribution systems (EDS) utilizing complex network analysis. The optimal placement in this paper points to the location that will result in enhanced grid resilience, reduced power losses and line loading, better voltage stability, and a supply to critical loads during a blackout. The criteria used to point out the optimal placement of the MGs were predicated on the centrality analysis selected from the complex network theory, the …

Collaborative Appearance-Based Place Recognition And Improving Place Recognition Using Detection Of Dynamic Objects, Juan Pablo Munoz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation makes contributions to the problem of Long-Term Appearance-Based Place Recognition. We present a framework for place recognition in a collaborative scheme and a method to reduce the impact of dynamic objects on place representations. We demonstrate our findings using a state-of-the-art place recognition approach.

We begin in Part I by describing the general problem of place recognition and its importance in applications where accurate localization is crucial. We discuss feature detection and description and also explain the functioning of several place recognition frameworks.

In Part II, we present a novel framework for collaboration between agents from a pure …

Communication Based Control For Dc Microgrids, Mahmoud S. Saleh, Yusef Esa, Ahmed Mohamed

Publications and Research

Centralized communication-based control is one of the main methods that can be implemented to achieve autonomous advanced energy management capabilities in DC microgrids. However, its major limitation is the fact that communication bandwidth and computation resources are limited in practical applications. This can be often improved by avoiding redundant communications and complex computations. In this paper, an autonomous communication-based hybrid state/event driven control scheme is proposed. This control scheme is hierarchical and heuristic, such that on the primary control level, it encompasses state-driven local controllers, and on the secondary control level, an event-driven MG centralized controller (MGCC) is used. This …

Understanding The Impact Of Large-Scale Power Grid Architectures On Performance, Ange-Lionel Toba

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Grid balancing is a critical system requirement for the power grid in matching the supply to the demand. This balancing has historically been achieved by conventional power generators. However, the increasing level of renewable penetration has brought more variability and uncertainty to the grid (Ela, Diakov et al. 2013, Bessa, Moreira et al. 2014), which has considerable impacts and implications on power system reliability and efficiency, as well as costs. Energy planners have the task of designing infrastructure power systems to provide electricity to the population, wherever and whenever needed. Deciding of the right grid architecture is no easy task, …

Extrinsic And Intrinsic Control Of Integrative Processes In Neural Systems, Anirban Nandi

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

At the simplest dynamical level, neurons can be understood as integrators. That is, neurons accumulate excitation from afferent neurons until, eventually, a threshold is reached and they produce a spike. Here, we consider the control of integrative processes in neural circuits in two contexts. First, we consider the problem of extrinsic neurocontrol, or modulating the spiking activity of neural circuits using stimulation, as is desired in a wide range of neural engineering applications. From a control-theoretic standpoint, such a problem presents several interesting nuances, including discontinuity in the dynamics due to the spiking process, and the technological limitations associated with …

Answering Food Insecurity: Serving The Community With Food And Knowledge Using Technology, Courtney Simpson

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

The courses of Tech120, CGT110, and ENGT 180/181 and Red Gold at Purdue collaborated to design a robot that would plant and water a garden for a local community charter school. The students centered the project on the users’ needs for fresh food, nutrition education, and early exposure to STEM for children. The school, Anderson Preparatory Academy (APA), is comprised of many children who come from low-income families and are in the free or reduced lunch program. Inspired from “Farm Bot,” a similar system that allows for almost hands-free gardening, the “Boiler Bot” is designed to be scalable so children …

Quantitative Analysis Of Regenerative Energy In Electric Rail Traction Systems, Mahmoud Saleh, Oindrilla Dutta, Yusef Esa, Ahmed Mohamed

Publications and Research

This paper aims at determining the influential factors affecting regenerative braking energy in DC rail transit systems. This has been achieved by quantitatively evaluating the dependence of regenerative energy on various parameters, such as vehicle dynamics, train scheduling, ground inclination and efficiency of the electrical devices. The recuperated power and energy have been presented by a mathematical model, comprising of a set of empirical forms, which allows for thorough analysis. A detailed simulation model of a typical DC-traction system has been developed to validate the developed empirical forms. The results verified the validity of the proposed mathematical model, and demonstrated …

An Exact Analysis For Four-Order Acousto-Optic Bragg Diffraction Which Incorporates Both Incident Light Angle And Sound Frequency Dependencies, Adeyinka Sunday Ademola

Electrical Engineering Theses

This thesis extends the prior work which produced an exact solution to the four-order acousto-optic (AO) Bragg cell with assumed fixed center frequency and with exact Bragg angle incident light. The extension predicts the model that incorporates the dependencies of both the input angle of light and the sound frequency. Specifically, a generalized 4^th order linear differential equation (DE), is developed from a simultaneous analysis of four coupled AO system of DEs. Through standard methods, the characteristic roots, which requires solving a quartic equation, is produced. Subsequently, a derived system of homogeneous solutions, which absorbs the roots obtained using …

Target Read Operation Of Passive Ultra High Frequency Rfid Tag In A Multiple Tags Environment, Zi Qin Phua

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Passive ultra-high frequency (UHF) radio frequency Identification (RFID) has emerged as a promising solution for many industrial applications. Passive UHF systems are relatively inexpensive to implement and monitor, as no line of sight is required for the communication. There are several advantages to using a passive RFID system. For example, no internal power source is required to activate the tags, and lower labor costs and efficient multitasking operations are expected in a long term scenario. However, due to factors such as tag-to-tag interference and inaccurate localization, RFID tags that are closely spaced together are difficult to detect and program accurately …

Experimental Investigation Of Reading Passive Uhf Tags In A Multi-Tag Environment, Yi Zhou

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Recently, the Internet of things (IoT) has emerged as a promising solution for several industrial applications. One of the key components in IoT is passive radio frequency identification (RFID) tags which do not require a power source for operations. Specifically, ultra-high frequency (UHF) tags are studied in this paper. However, due to factors such as tag-to-tag interference and inaccurate localization, RFID tags that are closely spaced together are difficult to detect and program accurately with unique identifiers. This thesis investigates several factors that affect the ability to encode a specific tag with unique information in the presence of other tags, …

Phased Helical Antenna Array For Cubesat Application, Kameron Lacalli

Undergraduate Honors Theses

CubeSats communication links are typically slow due to their power and size restrictions. However, a low power, high speed down link connection can allow for greater data collection and relaying, pushing the capability of 1U CubeSats beyond what is traditionally thought possible. Investigated here is the feasibility of a 11 Mb/s down link connection on a 1U CubeSat, accomplished via 2x2 helical antenna phased array operating on the 802.11 standard. Using a phased array also allows for beam steering to secure connection with the ground station when the on board ADCS may not provide precise pointing capability of the CubeSat, …

Impact Of Clustering Microgrids On Their Stability And Resilience During Blackouts, Mahmoud S. Saleh, Ammar Althaibani, Yusef Esa, Yassine Mhandi, Ahmed Mohamed

Publications and Research

In this paper, the impact of clustering multiple microgrids during blackouts, on their stability and supply availability, will be investigated. Microgrids have the capability of satisfying their emergency loads during blackouts. However, distributed energy resources (DERs)-dominated microgrids are affected by the uncertainty of their input energy supply, e.g. impact of solar irradiance on photovoltaic (PV) output. Moreover, an individual islanded microgrid is prone to instability issues due to large sudden load/generation changes. In order to increase the supply security, and enhance system stability, we propose to use the existing distribution grid infrastructure, if applicable, during blackouts to form microgrid clusters. …

Development Of A Habitat Monitoring System For Simulated Mars Missions, Rebecca Demarco

Human Factors and Applied Psychology Student Conference

The developers for the Habitat Monitoring System (HMS) for the Mobile Extreme Environment Research Station (MEERS) Mission Control System (MCS) faced challenges in the design and implementation of their human machine interface. Designing a human machine interface for a diverse group of end users presents technical and design challenges for the developers. By applying human factors concepts and following the engineering process, the development team was able to produce a human machine interface that met the product requirements and satisfied their product owners. This presentation discusses the process used by the development team to create the interface for the Habitat …

Human Factors In The Development Of The Mobile Extreme Environment Research Station (Meers) Mission Control System (Mcs), Rebecca Demarco

Human Factors and Applied Psychology Student Conference

The developers for the MEERS MCS were required to develop a novel interface for their product. During the development of the MCS, analytical human factors methods and display principles were implemented to create the user interface. The methods and principles were also used so the MCS had a user centered design. The MCS went through several iterations of design. This presentation discusses the development process of the MEERS MCS from a human factors standpoint.

Developing And Testing An Anguilliform Robot Swimming With Theoretically High Hydrodynamic Efficiency, John B. Potts Iii

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

An anguilliform swimming robot replicating an idealized motion is a complex marine vehicle necessitating both a theoretical and experimental analysis to completely understand its propulsion characteristics. The ideal anguilliform motion within is theorized to produce ``wakeless'' swimming (Vorus, 2011), a reactive swimming technique that produces thrust by accelerations of the added mass in the vicinity of the body. The net circulation for the unsteady motion is theorized to be eliminated.

The robot was designed to replicate the desired, theoretical motion by applying control theory methods. Independent joint control was used due to hardware limitations. The fluid velocity vectors in the …

Energy Harvesting And Storage: The Catalyst To The Power Constraint For Leveraging Internet Of Things (Iot) On Trains, Kelechi Nwogu

Department of Computer Electronics and Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The success of Wireless Sensor Networks is heavily constrained by its reliance on storage technology like batteries, which are a finite resource. Whilst the number of transistors in an IC doubles every 18 months, the energy density of batteries is relatively flat during the same time period. This is a key challenge in leveraging the Internet of Things on trains.

The gravity of this problem is increased by an order of magnitude when the network is to be scaled up to hundreds or thousands of nodes. Comprehensive research and development efforts have been devoted to building ultra-low power sensors. These …

Wildlife Deterrence Method Test Device, Garrett Tietz, Adam Webb, Dane Knutson

Mechanical Engineering

The objective of the Deer Busters team is to design and build a device or system of devices that will be used to determine which method, or methods, are most effective at deer deterrence. JumpSport suspects that a method which gives the appearance of approach to the deer in an aggressive or startling manner but also changes the way it attacks so that the deer do not get used to the device will be most effective. Deer Busters is committed to the completion of the deer deterrent testing device by the end of the fall quarter of 2014.

Neuromodulation Based Control Of Autonomous Robots On A Cloud Computing Platform, Cameron Muhammad

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

In recent years, the advancement of neurobiologically plausible models and computer networking has resulted in new ways of implementing control systems on robotic platforms. The work presents a control approach based on vertebrate neuromodulation and its implementation on autonomous robots in the open-source, open-access environment of robot operating system (ROS). A spiking neural network (SNN) is used to model the neuromodulatory function for generating context based behavioral responses of the robots to sensory input signals. The neural network incorporates three types of neurons- cholinergic and noradrenergic (ACh/NE) neurons for attention focusing and action selection, dopaminergic (DA) neurons for rewards- and …

Cyber Physical Complex Networks, Modeling, Analysis, And Control, Neveen Shlayan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This research scrutinize various attributes of complex networks; mainly, modeling, sensing, estimation, safety analysis, and control. In this study, formal languages and finite automata are used for modeling incident management processes. Safety properties are checked in order to verify the system. This method introduces a systematic approach to incident management protocols that are governed by mostly unsystematic algorithms. A portion of the used data in this study is collected by means of radar and loop detectors. A weighted t-statistics methodology is developed in order to validate these detectors. The detector data is then used to extract travel time information where …