Orientador: Michael John Brennan / Resumo: Vazamentos em tubulações de água enterradas são considerados um importante problema já que uma grande quantidade de água é desperdiçada entre a planta de tratamento e os consumidores. Para lidar com tal problema, companhias de saneamento utilizam dispostivos para localizar vazamentos nas tubulações. Dispositivos de escuta e correlacionadores de ruídos são os equipamentos mais utilizados em campo pelas companhias de sanemaneto ao redor do mundo. Correlacionadores de ruídos são dispositivos usados na localização de vazamentos em tubulações enterradas através da estimativa do tempo de atraso entre os sinais medidos pelos sensores posicionados em ambos os lados de um suposto vazamento. Uma vez que as companhias de saneamento devem decidir qual tipo de correlacionador é o mais compatível com a sua rede de tubulações, elas devem realizar alguns testes para ajudar em tal decisão e para treinar os funcionários que operam estes dispositivos, os quais devem ser expostos a diferentes condições, tais como tubos de diferentes materiais e geometrias, diferentes tipos de solo, vazamentos com diferentes intensidades, etc. Neste contexto, o principal objetivo desta pesquisa é contribuir com esta necessidade através da elaboração de um dispositivo de bancada capaz de reproduzir as vibrações de um tubo causadas por um vazamento. O dispositivo, chamado de simulador virtual de vazamentos, é composto por um computador, um amplificador de potência com dois canais e dois shakers. Ruídos de vazamento... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Leakage in buried water pipes is an important problem since a large amount of water is wasted between the treatment plant and the consumers. To deal with such a problem, water companies have used some devices to localize leaks in the pipe network. Listening devices and leak noise correlators are the most popular equipment used in the field by the water companies around the world. Leak noise correlators are important devices used to localize leaks in buried pipes by calculating the time delay between the signals measured by the sensors positioned either side of a suspected leak. Since water companies have to decide which leak noise correlator is more suitable for each pipe network, they have to carry out some field tests to assist in this decision and to train the personnel that handles such a device, which ideally must be exposed to different conditions, such as pipes with different materials and geometries, different types of soil, different leak strengths, etc. The main objective of this research project is to contribute with the necessity of the water companies by designing an indoor bench-top device capable to reproduce the pipe vibrations generated by a leak in the field. The device, called virtual pipe test rig, comprises a computer and a dual-channel power amplifier supplying two shakers. In the computer, leak noise is synthesized by using a model of a buried leaking pipe implemented using the software Matlab®. Since the systems, composed by the power amplifiers and th... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Cognitive radio is a recent novel approach for the realization of intelligent and sophisticated wireless systems. Although the research and development on cognitive radio is still in the stage of infancy, there are significant interests and efforts towards realization of cognitive radio. Cognitive radio systems are envisioned to support context awareness and related systems. The context can be spectrum, environment, location, waveform, power and other radio resources. Significant amount of the studies related to cognitive radio in the literature focuses on the spectrum awareness since it is one of the most crucial features of cognitive radio systems. However, the rest of the features of cognitive radio such as location and environment awareness have not been investigated thoroughly. For instance, location aware systems are widespread and the demand for more advanced ones are growing. Therefore, the main objective of this dissertation is to develop an underlying location awareness architecture for cognitive radio systems, which is described as location awareness engine, in order to support goal driven and autonomous location aware systems. A cognitive radio conceptual model with location awareness engine and cycle is developed by inspiring from the location awareness features of human being and bat echolocation systems. Additionally, the functionalities of the engine are identified and presented. Upon providing the functionalities of location awareness engine, the focus is given to the development of cognitive positioning systems. Furthermore, range accuracy adaptation, which is a cognitive behavior of bats, is developed for cognitive positioning systems. In what follows, two main approaches are investigated in order to improve the performance of range accuracy adaptation method. The first approach is based on idea of improving the spectrum availability through hybrid underlay and overlay dynamic spectrum access method. On the other hand, the second approach emphasizes on spectrum utilization, where we study performance of range accuracy adaptation from both theoretical and practical perspectives considering whole spectrum utilization approach. Furthermore, we introduced a new spectrum utilization technique that is referred as dispersed spectrum utilization. The performance analysis of dispersed spectrum utilization approach is studied considering time delay estimation problem in cognitive positioning systems. Afterward, the performance of whole and dispersed spectrum utilization approaches are compared in the context of cognitive positioning systems. Finally, some representative advanced location aware systems for cognitive radio networks are presented in order to demonstrate some potential applications of the proposed location awareness engine in cognitive radio systems.

In general, PN code synchronization consists of two steps: PN code acquisition (coarse alignment) and PN code tracking (fine alignment), to estimate the delay offset between received and locally generated codes. Recently, the schemes with a joint adaptive process of PN code acquisition and the weight coefficients of smart antenna have been proposed for improving the received signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) and simultaneously achieving better mean-acquisition-time (MAT) performance in direct-sequence code-division multiple access (DS-CDMA) systems. In which, the setting of the threshold plays an important role on the MAT performance. Often, the received SINR is varying, using the fixed threshold acquisition algorithms may result in undesirable performance. To improve the above problem, in this thesis, a new adaptive threshold scheme is devised in a joint adaptive code acquisition and beam-forming DS-CDMA receiver for code acquisition under a fading multipath and additive white Gaussian-noise (AWGN) channels. The basic idea of this new adaptive threshold scheme is to estimate the averaged output power of smart antenna to scale a reference threshold for each observation interval, such that it can approximately achieve a constant false alarm rate (CFAR) criteria. The system probabilities of the proposed scheme are derived for evaluating MAT under a slowly fading two-paths channels. Numerical analyses and simulation results demonstrate that the proposed adaptive threshold scheme does achieve better performance, in terms of the output SINR, the detection probability and the MAT, compared to a fixed threshold method.

A hybrid system is a dynamical system that exhibits both continuous and discrete dynamic behavior. Hybrid systems arise in a wide variety of important applications in diverse areas, ranging from biology to computer science to air traffic dynamics. The interaction of continuous- and discrete-time dynamics in a hybrid system often leads to very rich dynamical behavior and phenomena that are not encountered in purely continuous- or discrete-time systems. Investigating the dynamical behavior of hybrid systems is of great theoretical and practical importance. The objectives of this thesis are to develop the qualitative theory of nonlinear hybrid systems with impulses, time-delay, switching modes, and stochastic disturbances, to develop algorithms and perform analysis for hybrid systems with an emphasis on stability and control, and to apply the theory and methods to real-world application problems. Switched nonlinear systems are formulated as a family of nonlinear differential equations, called subsystems, together with a switching signal that selects the continuous dynamics among the subsystems. Uniform stability is studied emphasizing the situation where both stable and unstable subsystems are present. Uniformity of stability refers to both the initial time and a family of switching signals. Stabilization of nonlinear systems via state-dependent switching signal is investigated. Based on assumptions on a convex linear combination of the nonlinear vector fields, a generalized minimal rule is proposed to generate stabilizing switching signals that are well-defined and do not exhibit chattering or Zeno behavior. Impulsive switched systems are hybrid systems exhibiting both impulse and switching effects, and are mathematically formulated as a switched nonlinear system coupled with a sequence of nonlinear difference equations that act on the switched system at discrete times. Impulsive switching signals integrate both impulsive and switching laws that specify when and how impulses and switching occur. Invariance principles can be used to investigate asymptotic stability in the absence of a strict Lyapunov function. An invariance principle is established for impulsive switched systems under weak dwell-time signals. Applications of this invariance principle provide several asymptotic stability criteria. Input-to-state stability notions are formulated in terms of two different measures, which not only unify various stability notions under the stability theory in two measures, but also bridge this theory with the existent input/output theories for nonlinear systems. Input-to-state stability results are obtained for impulsive switched systems under generalized dwell-time signals. Hybrid time-delay systems are hybrid systems with dependence on the past states of the systems. Switched delay systems and impulsive switched systems are special classes of hybrid time-delay systems. Both invariance property and input-to-state stability are extended to cover hybrid time-delay systems. Stochastic hybrid systems are hybrid systems subject to random disturbances, and are formulated using stochastic differential equations. Focused on stochastic hybrid systems with time-delay, a fundamental theory regarding existence and uniqueness of solutions is established. Stabilization schemes for stochastic delay systems using state-dependent switching and stabilizing impulses are proposed, both emphasizing the situation where all the subsystems are unstable. Concerning general stochastic hybrid systems with time-delay, the Razumikhin technique and multiple Lyapunov functions are combined to obtain several Razumikhin-type theorems on both moment and almost sure stability of stochastic hybrid systems with time-delay. Consensus problems in networked multi-agent systems and global convergence of artificial neural networks are related to qualitative studies of hybrid systems in the sense that dynamic switching, impulsive effects, communication time-delays, and random disturbances are ubiquitous in networked systems. Consensus protocols are proposed for reaching consensus among networked agents despite switching network topologies, communication time-delays, and measurement noises. Focused on neural networks with discontinuous neuron activation functions and mixed time-delays, sufficient conditions for existence and uniqueness of equilibrium and global convergence and stability are derived using both linear matrix inequalities and M-matrix type conditions. Numerical examples and simulations are presented throughout this thesis to illustrate the theoretical results.

Hybrid systems with or without stochastic noise and with or without time delay are addressed and the qualitative properties of these systems are investigated. The main contribution of this thesis is distributed in three parts. In Part I, nonlinear stochastic impulsive systems with time delay (SISD) with variable impulses are formulated and some of the fundamental properties of the systems, such as existence of local and global solution, uniqueness, and forward continuation of the solution are established. After that, stability and input-to-state stability (ISS) properties of SISD with fixed impulses are developed, where Razumikhin methodology is used. These results are then carried over to discussed the same qualitative properties of large scale SISD. Applications to automated control systems and control systems with faulty actuators are used to justify the proposed approaches. Part II is devoted to address ISS of stochastic ordinary and delay switched systems. To achieve a variety stability-like results, multiple Lyapunov technique as a tool is applied. Moreover, to organize the switching among the system modes, a newly developed initial-state-dependent dwell-time switching law and Markovian switching are separately employed. Part III deals with systems of differential equations with piecewise constant arguments with and without random noise. These systems are viewed as a special type of hybrid systems. Existence and uniqueness results are first obtained. Then, comparison principles are established which are later applied to develop some stability results of the systems.

A hybrid system is a dynamical system that exhibits both continuous and discrete dynamic behavior. Hybrid systems arise in a wide variety of important applications in diverse areas, ranging from biology to computer science to air traffic dynamics. The interaction of continuous- and discrete-time dynamics in a hybrid system often leads to very rich dynamical behavior and phenomena that are not encountered in purely continuous- or discrete-time systems. Investigating the dynamical behavior of hybrid systems is of great theoretical and practical importance. The objectives of this thesis are to develop the qualitative theory of nonlinear hybrid systems with impulses, time-delay, switching modes, and stochastic disturbances, to develop algorithms and perform analysis for hybrid systems with an emphasis on stability and control, and to apply the theory and methods to real-world application problems. Switched nonlinear systems are formulated as a family of nonlinear differential equations, called subsystems, together with a switching signal that selects the continuous dynamics among the subsystems. Uniform stability is studied emphasizing the situation where both stable and unstable subsystems are present. Uniformity of stability refers to both the initial time and a family of switching signals. Stabilization of nonlinear systems via state-dependent switching signal is investigated. Based on assumptions on a convex linear combination of the nonlinear vector fields, a generalized minimal rule is proposed to generate stabilizing switching signals that are well-defined and do not exhibit chattering or Zeno behavior. Impulsive switched systems are hybrid systems exhibiting both impulse and switching effects, and are mathematically formulated as a switched nonlinear system coupled with a sequence of nonlinear difference equations that act on the switched system at discrete times. Impulsive switching signals integrate both impulsive and switching laws that specify when and how impulses and switching occur. Invariance principles can be used to investigate asymptotic stability in the absence of a strict Lyapunov function. An invariance principle is established for impulsive switched systems under weak dwell-time signals. Applications of this invariance principle provide several asymptotic stability criteria. Input-to-state stability notions are formulated in terms of two different measures, which not only unify various stability notions under the stability theory in two measures, but also bridge this theory with the existent input/output theories for nonlinear systems. Input-to-state stability results are obtained for impulsive switched systems under generalized dwell-time signals. Hybrid time-delay systems are hybrid systems with dependence on the past states of the systems. Switched delay systems and impulsive switched systems are special classes of hybrid time-delay systems. Both invariance property and input-to-state stability are extended to cover hybrid time-delay systems. Stochastic hybrid systems are hybrid systems subject to random disturbances, and are formulated using stochastic differential equations. Focused on stochastic hybrid systems with time-delay, a fundamental theory regarding existence and uniqueness of solutions is established. Stabilization schemes for stochastic delay systems using state-dependent switching and stabilizing impulses are proposed, both emphasizing the situation where all the subsystems are unstable. Concerning general stochastic hybrid systems with time-delay, the Razumikhin technique and multiple Lyapunov functions are combined to obtain several Razumikhin-type theorems on both moment and almost sure stability of stochastic hybrid systems with time-delay. Consensus problems in networked multi-agent systems and global convergence of artificial neural networks are related to qualitative studies of hybrid systems in the sense that dynamic switching, impulsive effects, communication time-delays, and random disturbances are ubiquitous in networked systems. Consensus protocols are proposed for reaching consensus among networked agents despite switching network topologies, communication time-delays, and measurement noises. Focused on neural networks with discontinuous neuron activation functions and mixed time-delays, sufficient conditions for existence and uniqueness of equilibrium and global convergence and stability are derived using both linear matrix inequalities and M-matrix type conditions. Numerical examples and simulations are presented throughout this thesis to illustrate the theoretical results.

In speech communication systems such as voice-controlled systems, hands-free mobile telephones and hearing aids, the received signals are degraded by room reverberation and background noise. This degradation can reduce the perceived quality and intelligibility of the speech, and decrease the performance of speech enhancement and source localization. These problems are difficult to solve due to the colored and nonstationary nature of the speech signals, and features of the Room Impulse Response (RIR) such as its long duration and non-minimum phase. In this dissertation, we focus on two topics of speech enhancement and speaker localization in noisy reverberant environments. A two-stage speech enhancement method is presented to suppress both early and late reverberation in noisy speech using only one microphone. It is shown that this method works well even in highly reverberant rooms. Experiments under different acoustic conditions confirm that the proposed blind method is superior in terms of reducing early and late reverberation effects and noise compared to other well known single-microphone techniques in the literature. Time Difference Of Arrival (TDOA)-based methods usually provide the most accurate source localization in adverse conditions. The key issue for these methods is to accurately estimate the TDOA using the smallest number of microphones. Two robust Time Delay Estimation (TDE) methods are proposed which use the information from only two microphones. One method is based on adaptive inverse filtering which provides superior performance even in highly reverberant and moderately noisy conditions. It also has negligible failure estimation which makes it a reliable method in realistic environments. This method has high computational complexity due to the estimation in the first stage for the first microphone. As a result, it can not be applied in time-varying environments and real-time applications. Our second method improves this problem by introducing two effective preprocessing stages for the conventional Cross Correlation (CC)-based methods. The results obtained in different noisy reverberant conditions including a real and time-varying environment demonstrate that the proposed methods are superior compared to the conventional TDE methods. / Graduate / 0544 / 0984 / saeed.mosayyebpour@gmail.com

In speech communication systems such as voice-controlled systems, hands-free mobile telephones and hearing aids, the received signals are degraded by room reverberation and background noise. This degradation can reduce the perceived quality and intelligibility of the speech, and decrease the performance of speech enhancement and source localization. These problems are difficult to solve due to the colored and nonstationary nature of the speech signals, and features of the Room Impulse Response (RIR) such as its long duration and non-minimum phase. In this dissertation, we focus on two topics of speech enhancement and speaker localization in noisy reverberant environments. A two-stage speech enhancement method is presented to suppress both early and late reverberation in noisy speech using only one microphone. It is shown that this method works well even in highly reverberant rooms. Experiments under different acoustic conditions confirm that the proposed blind method is superior in terms of reducing early and late reverberation effects and noise compared to other well known single-microphone techniques in the literature. Time Difference Of Arrival (TDOA)-based methods usually provide the most accurate source localization in adverse conditions. The key issue for these methods is to accurately estimate the TDOA using the smallest number of microphones. Two robust Time Delay Estimation (TDE) methods are proposed which use the information from only two microphones. One method is based on adaptive inverse filtering which provides superior performance even in highly reverberant and moderately noisy conditions. It also has negligible failure estimation which makes it a reliable method in realistic environments. This method has high computational complexity due to the estimation in the first stage for the first microphone. As a result, it can not be applied in time-varying environments and real-time applications. Our second method improves this problem by introducing two effective preprocessing stages for the conventional Cross Correlation (CC)-based methods. The results obtained in different noisy reverberant conditions including a real and time-varying environment demonstrate that the proposed methods are superior compared to the conventional TDE methods. / Graduate / 2015-04-23 / 0544 / 0984 / saeed.mosayyebpour@gmail.com

Hybrid systems with or without stochastic noise and with or without time delay are addressed and the qualitative properties of these systems are investigated. The main contribution of this thesis is distributed in three parts. In Part I, nonlinear stochastic impulsive systems with time delay (SISD) with variable impulses are formulated and some of the fundamental properties of the systems, such as existence of local and global solution, uniqueness, and forward continuation of the solution are established. After that, stability and input-to-state stability (ISS) properties of SISD with fixed impulses are developed, where Razumikhin methodology is used. These results are then carried over to discussed the same qualitative properties of large scale SISD. Applications to automated control systems and control systems with faulty actuators are used to justify the proposed approaches. Part II is devoted to address ISS of stochastic ordinary and delay switched systems. To achieve a variety stability-like results, multiple Lyapunov technique as a tool is applied. Moreover, to organize the switching among the system modes, a newly developed initial-state-dependent dwell-time switching law and Markovian switching are separately employed. Part III deals with systems of differential equations with piecewise constant arguments with and without random noise. These systems are viewed as a special type of hybrid systems. Existence and uniqueness results are first obtained. Then, comparison principles are established which are later applied to develop some stability results of the systems.

Die Zeitverzögerung bei der Streuung in zwei Dimensionen ist eine Funktion von zwei unabhängigen Parametern. Wenn diese Funktion Sattelpunkte aufweist, so hat der entsprechende Funktionswert theoretisch ein unendlich großes Gewicht in der Wahrscheinlichkeitsverteilung der Zeitverzögerungen. Dieser Zusammenhang soll analytisch und numerisch nachgewiesen und detailliert beschrieben werden. Insbesondere soll die klassische und quantenmechanische Wahrscheinlichkeitsverteilung der Zeitverzögerung für ein Modellsystem aus mehreren nichtüberlappenden zentralsymmetrischen Potentialen berechnet werden. Erwartete Ergebnisse sind Aussagen über die Parameterwerte, bei denen der oben genannte Effekt zu beobachten ist sowie Näherungsformeln für die Verteilung der Zeitverzögerung in der Nähe der Singularitäten. Außerdem soll die quantenmechanisch zu erwartende Glättung der Verteilungsfunktion quantitativ beschrieben werden. / For scattering problems in two dimensions, time-delay is a function of two independent parameters. If this function features saddle points, the corresponding function value should theoretically have an infinite weight in the probability distribution of time-delays. This correlation shall be confirmed analytically and numerically and studied in-depth. In particular, the classical and quantum-mechanical probability distribution of time-delays shall be calculated for a model system consisting of multiple non-overlapping potentials with rotational symmetry. We expect to obtain information about the parameter values where the aforementioned effects can be observed, and analytical approximations for the time-delay distribution near the singularities. Furthermore, the smoothing of the distribution in the quantummechanical regime shall be quantified.