La mission Cassini, dédiée à l'étude de l'environnement de Saturne, comporte un récepteur radio (RPWS/HFR) couvrant la gamme 3.5 kHz-16 MHz, adaptée aux émissions radio de Saturne. La particularité de ce récepteur réside dans ces capacités goniopolarimétriques. En effet, malgré le fait que les dipôles qui lui sont connectées n'ont aucune résolution spatiale, on pourra retrouver la direction d'arrivée, le flux et l'état de polarisation de l'onde électromagnétique incidente. La partie instrumentale de mon travail a consisté d'une part à étalonner les antennes du récepteur et d'autre part, à développer des méthodes d'inversions goniopolarimétriques adaptées à ce type de récepteur. Une étude de la physique magnétosphérique de Jupiter a été entreprise. Nous avons obtenir, grâce à nos étalonnage, un nouveau spectre de référence des émissions radio jovienne dans la gamme du récepteur RPWS/HFR. Parmi toutes les émissions radio de la magnétosphère de Jupiter, j'ai choisi d'étudié plus particulièrement les sursauts quasi-périodiques seule composante jovienne dont on ne connaît pas l'origine. Les observations radio de Saturne ont débuté en janvier 2004 lors d'une campagne commune HST (téléscope spatial Hubble) Cassini. La caméra UV du HST a observé les aurores polaires de Saturne pendant que Cassini approchait la planète. Les observations HST sont comparées aux données radio, en terme de flux et de polarisation. Les résultats, préliminaires de cette étude sont en accord avec les résultats de Voyager. Enfin, je présente une proposition d'explication de la variabilité de la période apparente de rotation sidérale de Saturne mesurée grâce aux modulations des émissions radio.

ITC/USA 2012 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Eighth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 22-25, 2012 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / A broadband passive direction finding system utilizing Luneburg lens has been investigated. With the simulated power level distribution at the detectors mounted on a Luneburg lens, both Cramér-Rao bound (CRB) and the root mean square error (RMS) based on the Correlation Algorithm (CA) for the direction of arrival (DoA) estimation have been derived and calculated. Guidelines on how to design the Luneburg lens detecting system have been studied. Finally, as a proof-of-concept demonstration, the DoA performance of a Luneburg lens fabricated using the polymer jetting technology with five detectors 10° equally spaced to receive the azimuth signal from -20° to 20° is demonstrated.

Whilst GPS positioning has been a well used technology for many years in outdoor environments,a ubiquitous solution for indoor positioning is yet to be found, as GPS positioning is unreliableindoors. This thesis focuses on the combination of Inertial Sensor Dead Reckoning and positionsobtained from the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Direction Finding technique. The main objectiveis to reduce the error rate and size of a BLE Direction Finding system. The positioned object is aMicro-Electrical Mechanical System (MEMS) with an accelerometer and a gyroscope, placed on atrolley. The accelerometer and gyroscope are used to obtain an orientation, velocity vector, andin turn a position which is combined with the BLE Direction Finding position. To further reducethe error rate of the system, a Stationary Detection functionality is implemented. Because of thetrolley movement pattern causing noise in the sensor signals, and the limited sensor setup, it is notpossible to increase the accuracy of the system using the proposed method. However, the StationaryDetection is able to correctly determine a stationary state and thus decreasing error rate and powerconsumption. / GPS är en väl använd teknologi sedan många år, men på grund av dess bristande precision vid inomhuspositionering, behöver en ny teknologi för detta område hittas. Denna studie är fokuserad på Dead Reckoning som ett stöd till ett Bluetooth Direction Finding positioneringssystem. Det främsta målet är att minska felfrekvensen och felstorleken i BLE Direction Finding systemet. Föremålet som positioneras är en Micro-Electrical Mechanical System (MEMS) med en accelerometer och ett gyroskop, placerad på en vagn. Accelerometern och gyroskopet används för att erhålla en orientering, hastighetsvektor och därefter en position som kombineras med den position som ges av BLE Direction Finding. För att minska felfrekvensen ytterligare hos systemet, implementeras en funktionalitet som detekterar om MEMS-enheten är stillastående, kallad Stationary Detection. På grund av vagnens rörelsemönster, som bidrar till brus hos sensorsignalerna, samt den begränsade sensorkonfigurationen, är det inte möjligt att förbättra systemets precision med den föreslagna metoden. Dock kan Stationary Detection korrekt fastställa ett stationärt tillstånd och därmed minska felfrekvensen och energiförbrukningen för enheten.

Sensor arrays play an instrumental role in a variety of applications, including radar, sonar, radio astronomy, and wireless communications. Employing an array of sensors permits direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation, interference suppression, and imaging of spatial distributions of sources or scatterers. Linear and planar array geometries can have sensors with uniform or non-uniform spacings. Non-uniform arrays require much fewer sensors to achieve comparable performance to uniform arrays in terms of the spatial resolution and the number of resolvable sources or scatterers. This dissertation proposes novel signal processing methods for narrowband passive (receive-only) sensing and imaging. The focus is on source estimation using linear and planar passive arrays with uniform and non-uniform geometries. Algorithm development for the non-uniform arrays is facilitated by a virtual array structure, called the difference coarray, which comprises pairwise differences of physical sensor positions. The difference coarray naturally arises from the passive sensing signal model. High-resolution DOA estimation techniques, such as the subspace-based methods, are computationally expensive, especially for arrays that span large apertures. Further, performance of such methods deteriorates for coherent sources. We propose efficient and effective Fourier-based iterative techniques for DOA estimation of coherent and uncorrelated sources using linear and planar arrays with both uniform and non-uniform geometries. The considered non-uniform arrays include those with uniform and non-uniform difference coarrays. The proposed DOA estimation techniques build on the iterative interpolated beamformer, which employs an estimate-and-subtract strategy to successively extract the sources and refines the estimates via an interpolation and spectral leakage subtraction scheme. We enable iterative beamforming in the coarray domain for linear and rectangular arrays, specifically compensating for non-uniformity of difference coarrays to yield asymptotically unbiased DOA estimates. We also design the iterative interpolated beamformer for oversampled and undersampled uniform circular arrays under the manifold separation framework, which permits the application of DOA estimation techniques that were developed for uniform linear arrays to arbitrary array geometries, such as circular arrays. The proposed iterative beamforming techniques not only estimate the source DOAs, but also provide source power/amplitude estimates. As such, these Fourier-based methods are applicable to narrowband passive imaging systems for providing an accurate estimate of the distribution of source intensity or amplitude as a function of angle. / Electrical and Computer Engineering

There are a lot of stand-alone and mobile platforms using transmitters today. Some want to be found while others do not. In our modern society there is a great demand of mobility and communication abilities. This means that several mobile platforms could potentially carry a sensor to record incoming signals to be used in Direction Finding. This thesis identifies the possibility to determine the direction to a transmitter with randomly placed sensors. By conducting a literature review well-known methods such as Time Difference Of Arrival (TDOA) and MUltiple SIgnal Classification (MUSIC) where chosen as methods in this analysis. The methods are applied on two antenna arrays, an Uniform Circular Array (UCA) and a Random Circular Array (RCA). The RCA is generated with randomly placed sensors. The performance in the Direction Of Arrival (DOA) is investigated in presence of time synchronization error and with different numbers of elements, radius and Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR). The ambiguity in the arrays is also investigated to insure a ambiguity-free DOA estimation. The results from this analysis identifies that the accuracy in the DOA estimation is dependent on the number of elements, SNR, the elements positions and the radius of the DF array. Furthermore, the accuracy of a UCA is greater than a RCA when the elements are randomly distributed within the area of a circle with radius R. Finally, it has shown that if time synchronization error occurs between the sensors, then the MUSIC method the accuracy will decrease greatly. / Det finns många individer och mobila platformar som använder sändare idag. Vissa vill bli hittade, andra inte. I vårat moderna samhälle är det en stor efterfrågan på rörlighet och kommunikationsmöjligheter. Detta innebär att många mobila plattformar skulle kunna spela in signaler för att användas i radiopejling. Denna uppsats identifierar möjligheten att bestämma riktningen till en sändare med slumpmässigt placerade sensorer. Genom litteraturstudien identifierades de välkända riktningsmetoder som Time Difference Of Arrivial (TDOA) och MUltiple SIgnal Classification (MUSIC) som vidare valdes som metoder i denna analys. Två antennstrukturer används i analyserna. Den ena är en Uniform Circular Array (UCA) och den andra är en Random Circular Array (RCA). RCA är genererad med slumpmässigt utplacerade sensorer. Prestandan i riktningsuppskattningen undersöks när det existerar ett tidssynkroniseringsfel, olika antal sensorer i antennstrukturerna, varierande radier och olika signaloch brusförhållanden.Ä ventvetydigheter undersöks i strukturerna för att säkerställa att en entydig riktningsbestämning kan utföras. Resultaten implicerar att noggrannheten i riktningsbestämningen är beroende avantalet element, SNR, elementens position och radien i antennmatrisen. Utöver detta visar resultaten att en UCA har högre noggrannhet än en RCA då elementen är slumpmässigt utplacerade inom en cirkelradie, R. Slutligen, om tidssynkroniseringsfel uppstår mellan sensorerna kommer detta resultera i minskad noggrannhet när MUSIC metoden tillämpas.

Aircraft in the US are equipped with Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELTs). In emergency situations these beacons are activated, providing a radio signal that can be used to locate the aircraft. Recent developments in UAV technologies have enabled mini-UAVs (5-foot wingspan) to possess a high level of autonomy. Due to the small size of these aircraft they are human-packable and can be easily transported and deployed in the field. Using a custom-built Radio Direction Finder, we gathered readings from a known transmitter and used them to compare various Bayesian reasoning-based filtering algorithms. Using a custom-developed simulator, we were able to test and evaluate filtering and control methods. In most non-trivial conditions we found that the Sequential Importance Resampling (SIR) Particle Filter worked best. The filtering and control algorithms presented can be extended to other problems that involve UAV control and tracking with noisy non-linear sensor behavior.

No / An experimental study of coupling compensation for AOA estimation using compact low profile antenna arrays with element separations of a quarter wavelength has been conducted. Two circular arrays of low profile miniaturised logarithmic spiral antennas deployed on a circular metal plate were used for data acquisition. Using the MUSIC direction-finding algorithm, the AOA estimation errors in receiving mode were observed before and after compensation: the errors were significantly decreased by coupling compensation.

Many animal species are known for their unparalleled abilities to encode sensory information that supports fast, reliable action in complex environments, but the mechanisms remain often unclear. Through fast ear motions, bats can encode information on target direction into time-frequency Doppler signatures. These species were thought to be evolutionarily tuned to Doppler shifts generated by a prey's wing beat. Self-generated Doppler shifts from the bat's own flight motion were for the most part considered a nuisance that the bats compensate for. My findings indicate that these Doppler-based biosonar systems may be more complicated than previously thought because the animals can actively inject Doppler shifts into their input signals. The work in this dissertation presents a novel nonlinear principle for sensory information encoding in bats. Up to now, sound-direction finding has required either multiple signal frequencies or multiple pressure receivers. Inspired by bat species that add Doppler shifts to their biosonar echoes through fast ear motions, I present a source-direction finding paradigm based on a single frequency and a single pressure receiver. Non-rigid ear motions produce complex Doppler signatures that depend on source direction but are difficult to interpret. To demonstrate that deep learning can solve this problem, I have combined a soft-robotic microphone baffle that mimics a deforming bat ear with a CNN for regression. With this integrated cyber-physical setup, I have able to achieve a direction-finding accuracy of 1 degree based on a single baffle motion. / Doctor of Philosophy / Bats are well-known for their intricate biosonar system that allow the animals to navigate even the most complex natural environments. While the mechanism behind most of these abilities remains unknown, an interesting observation is that some bat species produce fast movements of their ears when actively exploring their surroundings. By moving their pinna, the bats create a time-variant reception characteristic and very little research has been directed at exploring the potential benefits of such behavior so far. One hypothesis is that the speed of the pinna motions modulates the received biosonar echoes with Doppler-shift patterns that could convey sensory information that is useful for navigation. This dissertation intends to explore this hypothetical dynamic sensing mechanism by building a soft-robotic biomimetic receiver to replicate the dynamics of the bat pinna. The experiments with this biomimetic pinna robot demonstrate that the non-rigid ear motions produce Doppler signatures that contain information about the direction of a sound source. However, these patterns are difficult to interpret because of their complexity. By combining the soft-robotic pinna with a convolutional neural network for processing the Doppler signatures in the time-frequency domain, I have been able to accurately estimate the source direction with an error margin of less than one degree. This working system, composed of a soft-robotic biomimetic ear integrated with a deep neural net, demonstrates that the use of Doppler signatures as a source of sensory information is a viable hypothesis for explaining the sensory skills of bats.

Direction finding plays a crucial role in various civilian and military applications, related to either radionavigation or radiolocation. Most of the direction finding antennas operate over a wide frequency band, but only a minority of them enable the direction of arrival estimation of an incoming electromagnetic field over a 3-D angular coverage (i.e., estimation of both azimuth and elevation angles). An original approach to obtain a 3-D angular coverage consists in measuring the six components of the incident electromagnetic field through a so-called vector antenna. The aim of this Ph.D. is to design a passive, compact and wideband vector antenna in order to cover a maximum of applications. Two vector antennas have been designed, manufactured and experimentally characterized. Unlike conventional topology, they enable the measurement of the components of an incoming electromagnetic field thanks to the radiation pattern reconfigurability of an original arrangement of Vivaldi antennas. The first prototype is mounted over a finite metallic support and enables the direction of arrival estimation of vertically-polarized electromagnetic fields over a 1.69:1 bandwidth while the second one can be used regardless of the polarization of the incoming electromagnetic fields over a 8:1 bandwidth. Moreover, the direction finding performances of these vector antennas have been improved in terms of estimation accuracy, sensitivity, robustness to angular ambiguity and polarization mismatch by synthesizing new radiation patterns in the estimation process. A method based on the Cramer-Rao lower bound has been proposed to select efficiently and rapidly the additional radiation patterns

In this thesis work, the implementations of the monopulse amplitude comparison and phase comparison DF algorithms are performed on an FPGA platform. After the mathematical formulation of the algorithms using maximum-likelihood approach is done, software simulations are carried out to validate and find the DF accuracies of the algorithms under various conditions. Then the algorithms are implemented on an FPGA platform by utilizing platform specific software tools. Block diagrams of the hardware implementations are given and explained in detail. Then simulations of hardware implementation of both algorithms are performed. Using the results of the simulations, DF accuracies under certain conditions are evaluated and compared to software simulations results.