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Dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) technologies are applicable to a wide variety of mobile wireless communication systems. The principal energy loss mechanism for this type of antenna is the dielectric loss, and then using modern ceramic materials, this may be very low. These antennas are typically of small size, with a high radiation efficiency, often above 95%; they deliver wide bandwidths, and possess a high power handling capability. The principal objectives of this thesis are to investigate and design DRA for low profile personal and nomadic communications applications for a wide variety of spectrum requirements: including DCS, PCS, UMTS, WLAN, UWB applications. X-band and part of Ku band applications are also considered. General and specific techniques for bandwidth expansion, diversity performance and balanced operation have been investigated through detailed simulation models, and physical prototyping. The first major design to be realized is a new broadband DRA operating from 1.15GHz to 6GHz, which has the potential to cover most of the existing mobile service bands. This antenna design employs a printed crescent shaped monopole, and a defected cylindrical DRA. The broad impedance bandwidth of this antenna is achieved by loading the crescent shaped radiator of the monopole with a ceramic material with a permittivity of 81. The antenna volume is 57.0  37.5  5.8 mm3, which in conjunction with the general performance parameters makes this antenna a potential candidate for mobile handset applications. The next class of antenna to be discussed is a novel offset slot-fed broadband DRA assembly. The optimised structure consists of two asymmetrically located cylindrical DRA, with a rectangular slot feed mechanism. Initially, designed for the frequency range from 9GHz to 12GHz, it was found that further spectral improvements were possible, leading to coverage from 8.5GHz to 17GHz. Finally, a new low cost dual-segmented S-slot coupled dielectric resonator antenna design is proposed for wideband applications in the X-band region, covering 7.66GHz to 11.2GHz bandwidth. The effective antenna volume is 30.0 x 25.0 x 0.8 mm3. The DR segments may be located on the same side, or on opposite sides, of the substrate. The end of these configurations results in an improved diversity performance. / General Secretariat of Education and Scientific Research Libya

In this age of wireless technology, Body Area networks (BAN) is revolutionising the concept of patient care and health monitoring. BAN provides people good assessment of their health status at any time, wherever they are physically. The increased interest in developing effective body (in, on & off) communication systems made phantoms which can mimic the electrical properties of an actual human body necessary. Wearable antennas which are the indispensable part of BAN got to be low pro file and above all influences that human body can make. There should also be a way to reduce the effect of antennas on human body namely specific absorption rate (SAR). In this work effort has been made to develop phantoms suitable for both On body and In body communications. The base materials which are selected for the study are of biological origin (bio ceramics and biopolymers) whose behaviour is closer to that of human tissues. As these phantoms are biocompatible they are essentially non toxic where the conventionally available phantoms are toxic in nature. Different kinds of low profile conformal wearable antennas working at 2.4GHz ISM band were developed and studied in the BAN perspective. Antennas suffer much in terms of matching and efficiency when they are in contact or in the premises of human body. This is a major hurdle in the way to setting up a good body communication network. This work encompasses various techniques adopted to limit the body interferences to an acceptable level. The techniques adopted (Such as Backing Ground Plane, High Impedance Surface & Polymeric Ferrite Sheets) proved to be effective in reducing the sway in antenna characteristics when they are mounted on body. Specific absorption rate is also brought to acceptable levels and thus avoiding the formation of hot spots due to microwave absorption. A safer and cost effective BAN can be set up using this work which will lead to a safer, mobile and healthy future. / Les réseaux BAN (Body Area Network) révolutionnent le concept de la surveillance et de la prise en charge à distance de la santé du patient. Le BAN fournit des informations sur l’état de santé du patient en temps réel quelque soit l’endroit où il se trouve. Dans le « télé monitoring », des capteurs de mouvement, de respiration ou du rythme cardiaque placés à l’intérieur ou sur le corps humain transmettent des données via le réseau sans fil constituant le BAN, une antenne étant associée à chaque nœud du réseau. La communication peut être in/on, on/on ou on/off selon que les antennes sont placées à l’intérieur, sur ou à l’extérieur du corps. Le développement des BAN nécessite la réalisation de modèles (ou fantômes) simulant au mieux les propriétés électromagnétiques du corps humain. Des antennes portables, miniaturisées doivent être réalisées avec des contraintes d’intégration d’une part (aux vêtements, à des objets type montre ou badge), des contraintes de résistance ou de prise en compte de l’influence du corps d’autre part. La réduction de l’impact des antennes sur les tissus en terme de SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) doit également être considérée. Dans ce travail, l’objectif est de développer des fantômes valables pour les communications dans et sur le corps. Les matériaux de base sélectionnés sont d’origine biologique (biocéramiques et biopolymères) avec des propriétés proches de celles des tissus humains. Ces fantômes étant biocompatibles, ils sont essentiellement non toxiques alors que les fantômes usuels le sont en général. D’autre part, différents types d’antennes conformables, fonctionnant dans la bande ISM 2.4 GHz ont été développées et étudiées dans la perspective du BAN. Les antennes voient leur adaptation et leur efficacité chuter au contact ou à proximité du corps, ce qui constitue un écueil majeur pour établir une bonne communication. Différentes méthodes permettant de réduire l’influence du corps (plan de masse à l’arrière, surface haute impédance, feuille de ferrite polymère) sont testés et leurs avantages et inconvénients développés. Des mesures de SAR permettent aussi de démontrer l’efficacité de ces méthodes sur la réduction de la puissance absorbée par les tissus. Au final, ce travail apporte une contribution à l’étude théorique et expérimentale de l’interaction entre corps humain et antenne dans le cadre des réseaux BAN appliqués à la télésurveillance de la santé.

The studies in this dissertation mainly utilize planar antennas for ultra-wideband antenna designs not only on the investigation of antenna performance but also towards exploiting attractive features of ultra-wideband antennas for practical applications, such as WMAN access-point antennas, omnidirectional WiMAX access-point antennas, band-notched UWB (Ultra-wideband, 3.1 ~ 10.6 GHz) antennas, and so on. To begin with, the effects of the ground-plane size and the asymmetrical ground plane on ultra-wideband antennas are studied in Chapter 2. Following up, from the conclusive results, an antenna for WMAN operation in access-point applications and an omnidirectional monopole for USB wireless network card device are proposed and analyzed. Characteristics of ultra-wideband antenna radiation in relation to the antenna's width for obtaining omnidirectional radiation are addressed. In Chapter 3, several ultra-wideband access-point antennas are presented for achieving good omnidirectional radiation in the azimuthal plane across the bandwidth. Furthermore, in Chapter 4, band-notching techniques are applied to ultra-wideband antennas for avoiding the interference between the UWB and the WLAN systems.

LIDAR (2D) has been widely used for mapping, localization and navigation in mobile robotics. However, its usage is limited to simple environments. This problem can be solved by adding more sensors and processing these data together. This paper explores a method how measurements from a stereo camera and LIDAR are fused to dynamical mapping. An occupancy grid map from LIDAR data is used as prerequisite and extended by a 2D grid map from stereo camera. This approach is based on the ground plane estimation in disparity map acquired from the stereo vision. For the ground plane detection, RANSAC and Least Squares methods are used. After obstacles determination, 2D occupancy map is generated. The output of this method is 2D map as a fusion of complementary maps from LIDAR and camera. Experimental results obtained from RUDA robot and MIT Stata Center Data Set are good enough to determine that this method is a benefit, although my implementation is still a prototype. In this paper, we present the applied methods, analyze the results and discuss the modifications and possible extensions to get better results.

La modélisation numérique des réseaux de câbles est devenue une étape indispensable dans la phase de conception d’un projet afin de prédire les disfonctionnements dans les moyens de transport issus de l’augmentation des couplages électromagnétiques. La majorité des modèles repose sur des méthodes analytiques, qui sont certes rapides en comparaison avec les méthodes numériques 3D, mais en contrepartie sont limitées aux basses fréquences et aux géométries uniformes. De plus, des hypothèses concernant les conditions aux limites des conducteurs, comme les plans de masse infinis, sont souvent appliqués dans le but d’obtenir des formules analytiques simples C’est dans ce contexte, que nous avons envisagé l’amélioration de ces modèles en réduisant ces simplifications et ces hypothèses imposées au départ. A cet égard, nous avons développé dans un premier temps un modèle de ligne de transmission filaire qui consiste à prendre en compte les pertes par rayonnement en haute fréquence, la longueur finie et la géométrie non uniforme. Lors de cette étude, nous avons utilisé la théorie des lignes et deux méthodes numériques en l’occurrence les méthodes PEEC et TLST. Nous avons démontré pour le cas des risers que les coefficients de la méthode PEEC peuvent être obtenus analytiquement. Concernant notre deuxième axe de recherche, on s’est intéressé à la modélisation des conduits métalliques notamment les plans de masse finis et les goulottes. Ces derniers ont été modélisés avec un ensemble de câbles. Une étude expérimentale a été menée sur les effets induits par la goulotte sur la propagation des ondes électromagnétiques. Finalement, les résultats de nos modèles ont été validés expérimentalement avec des mesures. Une attention particulière a été portée sur l’effet des extrémités des lignes de transmission. / Considering the increasing awareness of the EM coupling issues inside aircraft and automotive engines, numerical modeling of cable harness networks is currently one of the most important steps in the design process of an engineering project. Most of the relevant softwares that deals with the cable topology simulation relies on the well-known analytical models such as the multiconductor transmission line theory. These techniques are better than the fullwave ones regarding the time calculation and the memory requirement. However, they are available only in the low frequency range because of the assumptions taken into account such as the uniform geometry and the infinite length of the wires. To overcome these restrictions and improve the existing solutions, we come up with a new high frequency model which is based on the transmission line theory and two numerical methods: PEEC and TLST. To keep the analytical approach of our model, we managed to get the analytical expressions of the PEEC’s partial elements. In this thesis, we were also interested by the cable raceways and cable trays. First of all, we developed a raceway model based on transmission line wires. Comparing our results with the FDTD ones, we noticed some differences especially in the high frequency range when the wire ends with the risers. Through an experimental study, we explained the behavior and the impact of these cables trays on the EM wave propagation. Finally, the results of our models have been validated with the measurements. Thanks to these experiments, we highlighted the fact that the termination of a wire has an important impact on the wave propagation.