The usage of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs), such as quadcopters and hexacopters, has steadily increased over the past few years in both recreational and commercial use. This increased availability to purchase such systems has also given rise to many safety and security concerns. A common concern is that the misuse of a UAS can cause damage to airplanes and helicopters in and around airports. Another growing concern is the use of UASs for terrorist intentions such as using the UAS as a remote controlled bomb. There is clearly a need to be able to detect the presence of unwanted UASs in restricted areas. This thesis work presents the beginning work towards a method to detect the presence of these UASs using the blade pass frequency (BPF) of the motors and rotors of a home made quadcopter. A low cost uniform linear microphone array is first used to perform a simple delay-and-sum beamformer to spatially filter out noise sources. The beamformer output is then divided into sub-bands using three bandpass filters centered on the expected location of the fundamental BPF and its 2nd and 3rd harmonics. For each sub-band, an adaptive filter called an adaptive line enhancer is used to extract and enhance the narrowband signals. The response of the adaptive filters are then used to detect the quadcopter by looking for the presence of the 2nd and 3rd harmonics of the fundamental BPF. Static tests of the quadcopter out in a field showed promising results for this method with the ability to detect up to the 3rd harmonic 90ft away and the 2nd harmonic 130 ft away. / Master of Science / The usage of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs), such as quadcopters and hexacopters, has steadily increased over the past few years in both recreational and commercial use. This increased availability to purchase such systems has also given rise to many safety and security concerns. A common concern is that the misuse of a UAS can cause damage to airplanes and helicopters in and around airports. Another growing concern is the use of UASs for terrorist intentions such as using the UAS as a remote controlled bomb. There is clearly a need to be able to detect the presence of unwanted UASs in restricted areas. This thesis work presents the beginning work towards a method to detect the presence of a home made quadcopter based on the sound it produces. A series of microphone are first used to remove surrounding sounds that could interfere with the quadcopter’s sound. The output of this processes is then divided into smaller sections using three filters centered on the expected location of the most important and information rich parts of the quadcopter’s sound. For each section, a final filter is used to extract and enhance the signals of interest produced by the quadcopter. The response of these filters are then used to detect whether the quadcopter is present or not. Static tests of the quadcopter out in a field showed promising results for this method with the ability to detect the quadcopter 90 to 130 ft away.

Sound pressure equalization of audio signals using digital signal processors has been a subject of ongoing study for many years. The traditional approach is to equalize sound at a point in a listening environment, but because of its specific dependence on the room frequency response between a source and receiver position, this equalization generally causes the spectral response to worsen significantly at other locations in the room. This work presents both a time-invariant and a time-varying implementation of an adaptive acoustic energy density equalization filter for a one-dimensional sound field. Energy density equalization addresses the aforementioned challenge and others that relate to sound equalization. The theory and real-time implementation of time-invariant sound pressure and energy density equalizers designed using the least-squares method are presented, and their performances are compared. An implementation of a time-varying energy density equalizer is also presented. Time-invariant equalization results based on real-time measurements in a plane-wave tube are presented. A sound pressure equalizer results in a nearly flat spectral magnitude at the point of equalization. However, it causes the frequencies corresponding to spatial nulls at that point to be undesirably boosted elsewhere in the sound field, where those nulls do not exist at the same frequencies. An energy density equalization filter identifies and compensates for all resonances and other global spectral effects of the tube and loudspeaker. It does not attempt to equalize the spatially varying frequency nulls caused by local pressure nodes at the point of equalization. An implementation of a time-varying energy density equalizer is also presented. This method uses the filtered-x filter update to adjust the filter coefficients in real-time to adapt to changes in the sound field. Convergence of the filter over time is demonstrated as the closed end of the tube is opened, then closed once again. Thus, the research results demonstrate that an acoustic energy density filter can be used to time-adaptively equalize global spectral anomalies of a loudspeaker and a one-dimensional sound field.

Efficient receiver designs for cooperative communication networks are becoming increasingly important. In previous work, cooperative networks communicated with the use of L relays. As the receiver is constrained, channel shortening and reduced-rank techniques were employed to design the preprocessing matrix that reduces the length of the received vector from L to U. In the first part of the work, a receiver structure is proposed which combines our proposed threshold selection criteria with the joint iterative optimization (JIO) algorithm that is based on the mean square error (MSE). Our receiver assists in determining the optimal U. Furthermore, this receiver provides the freedom to choose U for each frame depending on the tolerable difference allowed for MSE. Our study and simulation results show that by choosing an appropriate threshold, it is possible to gain in terms of complexity savings while having no or minimal effect on the BER performance of the system. Furthermore, the effect of channel estimation on the performance of the cooperative system is investigated. In the second part of the work, a joint preprocessor-based detector for cooperative communication networks is proposed for one-way and two-way relaying. This joint preprocessor-based detector operates on the principles of minimizing the symbol error rate (SER) instead of minimizing MSE. For a realistic assessment, pilot symbols are used to estimate the channel. From our simulations, it can be observed that our proposed detector achieves the same SER performance as that of the maximum likelihood (ML) detector with all participating relays. Additionally, our detector outperforms selection combining (SC), channel shortening (CS) scheme and reduced-rank techniques when using the same U. Finally, our proposed scheme has the lowest computational complexity.

In this thesis, we consider problems connected to navigation and tracking for autonomousrobots under the assumption of constraints on sensors and kinematics. We study formation controlas well as techniques for filtering and smoothing of noise contaminated input. The scientific contributions of the thesis comprise five papers.In Paper A, we propose three cascaded, stabilizing formation controls for multi-agent systems.We consider platforms with non-holonomic kinematic constraints and directional rangesensors. The resulting formation is a leader-follower system, where each follower agent tracksits leader agent at a specified angle and distance. No inter-agent communication is required toexecute the controls. A switching Kalman filter is introduced for active sensing, and robustnessis demonstrated in experiments and simulations with Khepera II robots.In Paper B, an optimization-based adaptive Kalman filteringmethod is proposed. The methodproduces an estimate of the process noise covariance matrix Q by solving an optimization problemover a short window of data. The algorithm recovers the observations h(x) from a system˙ x = f (x), y = h(x)+v without a priori knowledge of system dynamics. The algorithm is evaluatedin simulations and a tracking example is included, for a target with coupled and nonlinearkinematics. In Paper C, we consider the problem of estimating a closed curve in R2 based on noisecontaminated samples. A recursive control theoretic smoothing spline approach is proposed, thatyields an initial estimate of the curve and subsequently computes refinements of the estimateiteratively. Periodic splines are generated by minimizing a cost function subject to constraintsimposed by a linear control system. The optimal control problem is shown to be proper, andsufficient optimality conditions are derived for a special case of the problem using Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman theory.Paper D continues the study of recursive control theoretic smoothing splines. A discretizationof the problem is derived, yielding an unconstrained quadratic programming problem. Aproof of convexity for the discretized problem is provided, and the recursive algorithm is evaluatedin simulations and experiments using a SICK laser scanner mounted on a PowerBot from ActivMedia Robotics. Finally, in Paper E we explore the issue of optimal smoothing for control theoretic smoothingsplines. The output of the control theoretic smoothing spline problem is essentially a tradeoff between faithfulness to measurement data and smoothness. This tradeoff is regulated by the socalled smoothing parameter. In Paper E, a method is developed for estimating the optimal valueof this smoothing parameter. The procedure is based on general cross validation and requires noa priori information about the underlying curve or level of noise in the measurements. / QC 20100722

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Simultaneous blood perfusion and oxygenation monitoring is crucial for patients undergoing a transplant procedure. This becomes of great importance during the surgical recovery period of a transplant procedure when uncorrected loss of perfusion or reduction in oxygen saturation can result in patient death. Pulse oximeters are standard monitoring devices which are used to obtain the perfusion level and oxygen saturation using the optical absorption properties of hemoglobin. However, in cases of varying perfusion due to hemorrhage, blood clot or acute blockage, the oxygenation results obtained from traditional pulse oximeters are erroneous due to a sudden drop in signal strength. The long term goal of the project is to devise an implantable optical sensor which is able to perform better than the traditional pulse oximeters with changing perfusion and function as a local warning for sudden blood perfusion and oxygenation loss. In this work, an optical sensor based on a pulse oximeter with an additional source at 810nm wavelength has been developed for in situ monitoring of transplant organs. An algorithm has been designed to separate perfusion and oxygenation signals from the composite signal obtained from the three source pulse oximetry-based sensor. The algorithm uses 810nm reference signals and an adaptive filtering routine to separate the two signals which occur at the same frequency. The algorithm is initially applied to model data and its effectiveness is further tested using in vitro and in vivo data sets to quantify its ability to separate the signals of interest. The entire process is done in real time in conjunction with the autocorrelation-based time domain technique. This time domain technique uses digital filtering and autocorrelation to extract peak height information and generate an amplitude measurement and has shown to perform better than the traditional fast Fourier transform (FFT) for semi-periodic signals, such as those derived from heart monitoring. In particular, in this paper it is shown that the two approaches produce comparable results for periodic in vitro perfusion signals. However, when used on semi periodic, simulated, perfusion signals and in vivo data generated from an optical perfusion sensor the autocorrelation approach clearly (Standard Error, SE = 0.03) outperforms the FFT-based analysis (Standard Error, SE = 0.62).

[pt] Nesta tese é abordada a transmissão CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) por blocos em canais SISO (Single Input - Single Output) seletivos em frequência. Considera-se a transmissão tanto em portadora única quanto multiportadora, com intervalo de guarda do tipo prefixo cíclico e do tipo preenchimento de zeros. São investigadas estruturas de detecção multiusuário às cegas, baseadas no critério de míınima variância com restrições lineares. Implementações adaptativas do tipo gradiente estocástico e do tipo míınimos quadrados são apresentadas e novos algoritmos de estimação de canal são propostos. É também discutida nesta tese a transmissão CDMA por blocos em canais MISO (Multiple Input - Single Output) seletivos em frequência. Considera-se, assim como no canal SISO, os casos de transmissão em portadora única e multiportadora, incorporando intervalos de guarda do tipo prefixo cíclico e do tipo preenchimento de zeros. Para este tipo de sistema, duas estruturas de transmissão são propostas e uma análise do ganho de diversidade para cada tipo de estrutura é conduzido, identificando as condiçõoes para atingir o máximo ganho de diversidade. Um detector baseado no critério de mínimo erro quadrático médio é implementado para cada estrutura e, no caso da primeira estrutura de transmissão, um detector às cegas baseado no critério de mínima variância é proposto. Uma implementação adaptativa do tipo mínimos quadrados é apresentada e novos algoritmos de estimação de canal são propostos. / [en] This thesis addresses block CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) transmission in frequency selective SISO (Single Input - Single Output) channels. Both multicarrier and single carrier transmission are considered with cyclic prefix and zero padding as guard interval. Blind multiuser detection based on the linearly constrained minimum variance criterion is investigated. Stochastic gradient and recursive least squares implementations are presented and new channel estimation algorithms are proposed. It is also discussed in this thesis block CDMA transmission in frequency selective MISO (Multiple Input - Single Output) channels, including, as in the SISO channel, the case of multicarrier and single carrier transmission with cyclic prefix and zero padding as guard interval. Two structures are proposed for transmission in this scenario, an analysis of the diversity gain for each type of structure is conducted and conditions for achieving the maximum diversity gain are identified. A detector based on the minimum mean square error criterion is implemented for each structure. Recursive least squares implementations are presented and new blind channel estimation algorithms are proposed.

[pt] A necessidade pela transmissão em altas taxas, por exemplo nos novos sistemas de TV Digital de alta definição, telefonia celular de terceira e quarta geração, DSL e etc, trazem consigo um problema: o aumento dos múltiplos percursos no canal de comunicações (principalmente nas interfaces áereas), dando origem ao fenômeno de interferência intersimbólica (IES). Este trabalho investiga o desempenho de sistemas de transmissão com uma única portadora (SC ou single-carrier) com equalização linear no domínio da freqüência. Diferentes algoritmos recursivos são apresentados para implementar estes filtros FIR. Além dos equalizadores lineares, uma estrutura não-linear é introduzida, onde decisões passadas do decisor de mínima distância são utilizadas para mitigar os efeitos da IES na detecção dos símbolos subseqüentes. Este arranjo é conhecido como equalização/filtragem com decisões realimentadas (DFE ou Decision Feedback Equalizers). Por último, os resultados obtidos com o sistema SC nas diferentes configurações de filtragem na recepção são comparados com os resultados do já estabelecido sistema OFDM. A transmissão OFDM se dá com múltiplas portadoras, onde as freqüências das sub-portadoras são ortogonais entre si, permitindo que a informação seja enviada de forma paralela. Resultados mostram que os sistemas SC-FDE tem desempenho superior aos sistemas OFDM. / [en] The demand for high rate transmission systems, for example in HDTV, third and fourth generation cellular telephony, DSL and so on, causes the rise of a problem: The multipath communications channel (specially in wireless communications), which leads to intersymbol interference phenomenon (ISI). The present work investigates the performance of single-carrier (SC) transmission systems with frequency-domain linear equalization. Different recursive algorithms are presented in order to implement these FIR filters. Besides the linear equalizers, a non- linear structure is introduced, where the past decisions made by the detectors are used to mitigate the effect of ISI on the detection of the forthcoming symbols. This set is known as Decision Feedback Equalizers (DFE). Finally, the results of the aforementioned systems are compared to the well-known OFDM. OFDM transmission relies on sub-carriers, frequency orthogonal to each other, in which the data is sent in a parallel basis. The results obtained show that SC- FDE systems outperform OFDM systems.

Main objective of this thesis was to learn about possibility of suppression of narrow band disturbances. We focused on use of Lynn’s filters. The objective was to realize these filters with respect to a fast algorithm of filtering. Concretely, for suppression of drift we realized the fast high pass filter with flexible cut off frequency. Then we realized filter for suppression of electrical network disturbance. We have realized these filters for sampling frequencies 250 and 500 Hz and we tested them with real ECG signals. Then we have evaluated their efficiency.

Objective of this diploma work was to study methods of adaptive filtering and their use in suppression of noise in biological signals. Adaptive filtering represents effective means of suppression of parasitic nonstationary disturbances in a useful signal. The task was to design various types of adaptive filters and implement an adaptation algorithm in Matlab programming environment. It namely included suppression of powerline noise at 50 Hz and 100 Hz in ECG signals with minimization useful components disturbing. The realized filters were verified on real ECH signals and their efficiency was evaluated.