Channel diversity techniques are effective ways to combat channel fading and noise in communication systems. In this thesis, I compare the performance of source and channel diversity techniques on fading and symmetric continuous channels. My experiments suggest that when SNR is low, channel diversity performs better, and when SNR is high, source diversity shows better performance than channel diversity.

This study compares independent use of two known algorithms (Kalmar filter with background subtraction and Particle Filter) that are commonly deployed in object tracking applications. Object tracking in general is very challenging; it presents numerous problems that need to be addressed by the application in order to facilitate its successful deployment. Such problems range from abrupt object motion, during tracking, to a change in appearance of the scene and the object, as well as object to scene occlusions, and camera motion among others. It is important to take into consideration some issues, such as, accounting for noise associated with the image in question, ability to predict to an acceptable statistical accuracy, the position of the object at a particular time given its current position. This study tackles some of the issues raised above prior to addressing how the use of either of the aforementioned algorithm, minimize or in some cases eliminate the negative effects

Noise-induced hearing loss is a serious problem common to musical environments. Current dosimetry technology is primarily designed for industrial environments and not suited for musical settings. At present, there are no government regulations that apply to the educational music environment as it relates to monitoring and prevention of hearing loss. Also, no system exists than can serve as a proactive tool in observation and reporting of sound exposure levels with the goal of hearing conservation. Newly proposed system takes a software based approach in designing a proactive dosimetry system that can assess the risk of sound noise exposure. It provides real-time feedback trough a graphical user interface that is capable of database storage for further study.

The thesis deals with the design and implementation of broadband and narrowband antennas and their applications in practical environment. In this thesis, a new concept for designing the UWB antenna is proposed based on the CRLH metamaterials and this UWB antenna covers a frequency range from 2.45 GHz to 11.6 GHz. Based on the design of the UWB antenna, another antenna is developed that can cover a very wide bandwidth i.e from 0.66 GHz to 120 GHz. This antenna can not only be used for UWB applications but also for other communication systems working below the UWB spectrum such as GSM, GPS, PCS and Bluetooth. The proposed antenna covering the bandwidth from 0.66 GHz to 120 GHz is by far the largest bandwidth antenna developed based on metamaterials. Wide band antennas are not preferred for sensing purpose as it is difficult to differentiate the received signals. A multiband antenna which can be used as a strain sensor for structural health monitoring is proposed. The idea is to correlate the strain applied along the length or width with the multiple resonant frequencies. This gives the advantage of detecting the strain applied along any direction (either length or width), thus increasing the …

A bidirectional two-hop relay network with decode-and-forward strategy is implemented using GNU Radio (software) and several USRPs (hardware) on Ubuntu (operating system). The relay communication system is comprised of three nodes; Base Station A, Base Station B, and Relay Station (the intermediate node). During the first time slot, Base Station A and Base Station B will each transmit data, e.g., a JPEG file, to Relay Station using DBPSK modulation and FDMA. For the final time slot, Relay Station will perform a bitwise XOR of the data, and transmit the XORed data to Base Station A and Base Station B, where the received data is decoded by performing another XOR operation with the original data.

This study is based on applying a non-linear mapping method, here the unscented Kalman filter; to estimate and optimize data rate resulting from the arrival rate having a Poisson distribution in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) transmission system. OFDM is an emerging multi-carrier modulation scheme. With the growing need for quality of service in wireless communications, it is highly necessary to optimize resources in such a way that the overall performance of the system models should rise while keeping in mind the objective to achieve high data rate and efficient spectral methods in the near future. In this study, the results from the OFDM-TDMA transmission system have been used to apply cross-layer optimization between layers so as to treat different resources between layers simultaneously. The main controller manages the transmission of data between layers using the multicarrier modulation techniques. The unscented Kalman filter is used here to perform nonlinear mapping by estimating and optimizing the data rate, which result from the arrival rate having a Poisson distribution.

Currently, standards from government agencies such as the National Institute for Occupation Safety and Health exist to aid in safeguarding individuals’ capacity for hearing, but only in factory settings in which large machines often produce loud levels of sound. Neglecting the fact that these preventative measures are only in place in the most limited of settings, no system currently exists to observe and report sound exposure levels in a manner timely or easily recognizable enough to adequately serve its purpose of hearing conservation. Musicians may also incur significant levels of risk for hearing loss in their day-to-day rehearsals and concerts, from high school marching bands to university wind bands. As a result, music school accrediting organizations such as the National Association of Schools of Music and even the European Union have begun taking steps meant to determine the risks associated with music. To meet these goals and improve upon current technologies, a system has been developed that electronically records sound levels utilizing modern hardware, increases the speed of reporting by transmitting data over computer networks and the Internet, and displays measures calculated from these data in a web browser for a highly viewable, user-friendly interface.

This work presents a novel technique for data compression based on multi-residue number systems. The basic theorem is that an under-determined system of congruences could be solved to accomplish data compression for a signal satisfying continuity of its information content and bounded in peak-to -peak amplitude by the product of relatively prime moduli,. This thesis investigates this property and presents quantitative results along with MATLAB codes. Chapter 1 is introductory in nature and Chapter 2 deals in more detail with the basic theorem. Chapter 3 explicitly mentions the assumptions made and chapter 4 shows alternative solutions to the Chinese remainder theorem. Chapter 5 explains the experiments in detail whose results are mentioned in chapter 6. Chapter 7 concludes with a summary and suggestions for future work.

Network structure plays a significant role in determining the performance of network inference tasks. An interactive tool to study the dependence of network topology on estimation performance was developed. The tool allows end-users to easily create and modify network structures and observe the performance of pole estimation measured by Cramer-Rao bounds. The tool also automatically suggests the best measurement locations to maximize estimation performance, and thus finds its broad applications on the optimal design of data collection experiments. Finally, a series of theoretical results that explicitly connect subsets of network structures with inference performance are obtained.

Since its invention, phased array has been extensively applied in both military and civil areas. The applications include target detecting and tracking, space probe communication, broadcasting, human-machine interfaces, and remote sensing. Although the phased array applications show a broad range of potential market, there are some limitations of phased array's development: high cost, complex structure, narrow bandwidth, and high power consumption. Therefore, novel ideas are needed to reduce these constraints. In this thesis, several new approaches about the design and application of phased array are presents. First, the principle of phased array and fundamental design equations are introduced. Second, a new application of phased array antenna for radar respiration measurement is presented. By integrating a 4×4 Butler matrix with four-element antenna array, there will be four distinct main beams in radiation pattern. This new approach can improve the measurement accuracy and realize a high detecting rate. Third, a compact phased array antenna system based on dual-band operations is introduced. Dual-band function can make N-antenna system obtain 2N unique radiation beams (N is an integer) and achieve a significant size reduction compared to the conventional single-band system. To verify the design concept, a four-element phased array antenna working at 5GHz and …

In this thesis the general Chebyshev filter synthesis procedure to generate transfer and reflection polynomials and coupling matrices were described. Key concepts such as coupled resonators, non-resonant nodes have been included. This is followed by microwave duplexer synthesis. Next, a technique to design dual band filter has been described including ways to achieve desired return loss and rejection levels at specific bands by manipulating the stopbands and transmission zeros. The concept of dual band filter synthesis has been applied on the synthesis of microwave duplexer to propose a method to synthesize dual band duplexers. Finally a numerical procedure using Cauchy method has been described to estimate the filter and duplexer polynomials from measured responses. The concepts in this thesis can be used to make microwave filters and duplexers more compact, efficient and cost effective.

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have gained attention in recent years with the proliferation of the micro-electro-mechanical systems, which has led to the development of smart sensors. Smart sensors has brought WSNs under the spotlight and has created numerous different areas of research such as; energy consumption, convergence, network structures, deployment methods, time delay, and communication protocols. Convergence rates associated with information propagations of the networks will be questioned in this thesis. Mobility is an expensive process in terms of the associated energy costs. In a sensor network, mobility has significant overhead in terms of closing old connections and creating new connections as mobile sensor nodes move from one location to another. Despite these drawbacks, mobility helps a sensor network reach an agreement more quickly. Adding few mobile nodes to an otherwise static network will significantly improve the network’s ability to reach consensus. This paper shows the effect of the mobility on convergence rate of the wireless sensor networks, through Eigenvalue analysis, modeling and simulation.

This thesis presents teaching fundamentals of digital logic design and VLSI design for freshmen and even for high school students using e-textiles. This easily grabs attention of students as it is creative and interesting. Using e-textiles to project these concepts would be easily understood by students at young age. This involves stitching electronic circuits on a fabric using basic components like LEDs, push buttons and so on. The functioning of these circuits is programmed in Lilypad Arduino. By using this method, students get exposed to basic electronic concepts at early stage which eventually develops interest towards engineering field.

A technique is proposed to improve the accuracy of indoor positioning systems based on WIFI radio-frequency signals by using dynamic access points and fingerprints (DAFs). Moreover, an indoor position system that relies solely in DAFs is proposed. The walking pattern of indoor users is classified as dynamic or static for indoor positioning purposes. I demonstrate that the performance of a conventional indoor positioning system that uses static fingerprints can be enhanced by considering dynamic fingerprints and access points. The accuracy of the system is evaluated using four positioning algorithms and two random access point selection strategies. The system facilitates the location of people where there is no wireless local area network (WLAN) infrastructure deployed or where the WLAN infrastructure has been drastically affected, for example by natural disasters. The system can be used for search and rescue operations and for expanding the coverage of an indoor positioning system.

Through this research, engineering students and conservation biologists constructed an off-grid video system for observing western burrowing owls in El Paso, Texas. The burrowing owl has a declining population and their range decreasing, driving scientists' interest to see inside the den for observing critical nesting behavior. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) biologists wanted videos from inside the dark, isolated hillside owl burrows. This research yielded a replicable multi-camera prototype, empowering others to explore applications of engineering and wildlife monitoring. The remote station used an off-the-shelf video recording system, solar panels, charge controller, and lead acid batteries. Four local K-12 science educators participated in system testing at Lake Ray Roberts State Park through the Research Experiences for Teachers (RET, NSF #1132585) program, as well as four undergraduate engineering students as senior design research.

CGRAs (coarse grained reconfigurable array architectures) try to fill the gap between FPGAs and ASICs. Over three decades, the research towards CGRA design has produced number of architectures. Each of these designs lie at different points on a line drawn between FPGAs and ASICs, depending on the tradeoffs and design choices made during the design of architectures. Thus, design space exploration (DSE) takes a very important role in the circuit design process. In this work I propose the design space exploration of CGRAs can be done quickly and efficiently through crowd-sourcing and a game driven approach based on an interactive mapping game UNTANGLED and a design environment called SmartBricks. Both UNTANGLED and SmartBricks have been developed by our research team at Reconfigurable Computing Lab, UNT. I present the results of design space exploration of domain-specific reconfigurable architectures and compare the results comparing stripe vs mesh style, heterogeneous vs homogeneous. I also compare the results obtained from different interconnection topologies in mesh. These results show that this approach offers quick DSE for designers and also provides low power architectures for a suite of benchmarks. All results were obtained using standard cell ASICs with 90 nm process.

Integrated Circuits (ICs) have a broad range of applications in healthcare, military, consumer electronics etc. The acronym VLSI stands for Very Large Scale Integration and is a process of making ICs by placing millions of transistors on a single chip. Because of advancements in VLSI design technologies, ICs are getting smaller, faster in speed and more efficient, making personal devices handy, and with more features. In this thesis work an interactive framework is designed in which the fundamental concepts of digital logic design and VLSI design such as logic gates, MOS transistors, combinational and sequential logic circuits, and memory are presented in a simple, interactive and user friendly way to create interest in students towards engineering fields, especially Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering. Most of the concepts are explained in this framework by taking the examples which we see in our daily lives. Some of the critical design concerns such as power and performance are presented in an interactive way to make sure that students can understand these significant concepts in an easy and user friendly way.

In this thesis, I present my work on the modeling and control of a motor system using the Lego EV3 robot. The overall goal is to apply introductory systems and controls engineering techniques for estimation and design to a real-world system. First I detail the setup of materials used in this research: the hardware used was the Lego EV3 robot; the software used was the Student 2014 version of Simulink; a wireless network was used to communicate between them using a Netgear WNA1100 wifi dongle. Next I explain the approaches used to model the robot’s motor system: from a description of the basic system components, to data collection through experimentation with a proportionally controlled feedback loop, to parameter estimation (through time-domain specification relationships, Matlab’s curve-fitting toolbox, and a formal least-squares parameter estimation), to the discovery of the effects of frictional disturbance and saturation, and finally to the selection and verification of the final model through comparisons of simulated step responses of the estimated models to the actual time response of the motor system. Next I explore three different types of controllers for use within the motor system: a proportional controller, a lead compensator, and a PID controller. I catalogue the …

Water scarcity for agriculture is one of the most important challenges to improve food security worldwide. In this thesis we study the potential to develop a low-cost controller for a small scale brackish desalination plant that consists of proven water treatment technologies, reverse osmosis, cation exchange, and nanofiltration to treat groundwater into two final products: drinking water and irrigation water. The plant is powered by a combination of wind and solar power systems. The low-cost controller uses Arduino Mega, and Arduino DUE, which consist of ATmega2560 and Atmel SAM3X8E ARM Cortex-M3 CPU microcontrollers. These are widely used systems characterized for good performance and low cost. However, Arduino also requires drivers and interfaces to allow the control and monitoring of sensors and actuators. The thesis explains the process, as well as the hardware and software implemented.

In this thesis, we conduct a preliminary study on the controller design for directional antenna devices carried by drones. The goal of the control system is to ensure the best alignment between two directional antennas so as to enhance the performance of air-to-air communication between the drones. The control system at the current stage relies on the information received from GPS devices. The control system includes two loops: velocity loop and position loop to suppress wind disturbances and to assure the alignment of two directional antennae. The simulation and animation of directional antennae alignment control for two-randomly moving drones was developed using SIMULINK. To facilitate RSSI-based antenna alignment control to be conducted in the future work, a study on initial scanning techniques is also included at the end of this thesis.

In retrospect we can see that from the last century, wireless electronic technology has been in a rapid state of development. With the popularity of wireless communication, the power amplifier demand is rising. In general, magnitude, maximum noise figure, minimum noise figure, efficiency, and output power are important indicators of the amplifier. The IC industry is exploring how to reduce the additional cost and improve the high-frequency performance. Therefore, designing a strong adaptability and high cost performance of the PA has become a priority. As these technologies advance, the power amplifiers need to have better integration, lower cost, and lower power dissipation. Also, some special requirements are being asked in some areas, such as multi-mode and multi-band. In general, people have to use several power amplifiers parallel to frame a multifunction chip. Each of them working at different frequencies of interest has to have separate matching network, design, and area; also, the diversity amplifier prices will increase with the number of amplifiers, and its cost is also changed. In this thesis, because Class E power amplifier has lower power dissipation, 100% ideal efficiency, simple circuit structure, and strong applicability, the Class E is used as power amplifier in main stage. …

Piezoelectricity crystal is used in different area in industry, such as downhole oil, gas industry, and ballistics. The piezoelectricity crystals are able to create electric fields due to mechanical deformation called the direct piezoelectric effect, or create mechanical deformation due to the effect of electric field called the indirect piezoelectric effect. In this thesis, piezoelectricity effect is the core part. There are 4 parts in the frequency output pressure transducer: two crystal oscillators, phase-locked loop (PLL), mixer, frequency counter. Crystal oscillator is used to activate the piezoelectricity crystal which is made from quartz. The resonance frequency of the piezoelectricity crystal will be increased with the higher pressure applied. The signal of the resonance frequency will be transmitted to the PLL. The function of the PLL is detect the frequency change in the input signal and makes the output of the PLL has the same frequency and same phase with the input signal. The output of the PLL will be transmitted to a Mixer. The mixer has two inputs and one output. One input signal is from the pressure crystal oscillator and another one is from the reference crystal oscillator. The frequency difference of the two signal will transmitted to the …

The thesis implements a vision-based leader-follower tracking algorithm on a ground robot system. One camera is the only sensor installed the leader-follower system and is mounted on the follower. One sphere is the only feature installed on the leader. The camera identifies the sphere in the openCV Library and calculates the relative position between the follower and leader using the area and position of the sphere in the camera frame. A P controller for the follower and a P controller for the camera heading are built. The vision-based leader-follower tracking algorithm is verified according to the simulation and implementation.

This thesis dissertation mainly compares and investigates laboratory study of different implementation methodologies of applied control systems and how they can be adopted in industrial, as well as commercial, automation applications. Namely the research paper aims to assess or evaluate eventual feedback control loops' performance and robustness over multiple conventional or state-of-the-art technologies in the field of applied industrial automation and instrumentation by implementing a laboratory case study setup: the ball on beam system. Hence, the paper tries to close the gap between industry and academia by: first, conducting a historical study and background information of main evolutional and technological eras in the field of industrial process control automation and instrumentation. Then, some related basic theoretical as well as practical concepts are reviewed in Chapter 2 of the report before displaying the detailed design. After that, the next Chapter, analyses the ball on beam control system problem as the case studied in the context of this research through reviewing previous literature, modeling and simulation. The following Chapter details the proposed design and implementation of the ball on beam case study as if it is under the introduced distributed industrial automation architecture. Finally, Chapter 5 concludes this work by listing several …