Wave-based sensor, actuator and optimizer

Programa doutoral em Sistemas Avançados de Engenharia para a Indústria (AESI)A presente tese explora a utilização de ondas para abordar dois desafios significativos na indústria automóvel. O primeiro desafio consiste no desenvolvimento de um sistema de cancelamento ativo de ruído (ANC) que possa reduzir os ruídos não estacionários no compartimento de passageiros de um veículo. O segundo desafio é criar uma metodologia de conceção ótima para sensores de posição indutivos capazes de medir deslocamentos lineares, rotacionais e angulares. Para abordar o primeiro desafio, foi desenvolvido de um sistema ANC onde wavelets foram combinadas com um banco de filtros adaptativos. O sistema foi implementado em uma FPGA, e testes demonstraram que o sistema pode reduzir o ruído não estacionário em um ambiente acústico aberto e não controlado em 9 dB. O segundo desafio foi abordado através de uma metodologia que combina um algoritmo genético com um método numérico rápido para otimizar um sensor de posição indutivo. O método numérico foi usado para simular o campo eletromagnético associado à geometria do sensor, permitindo a maximização da corrente induzida nas bobinas recetoras e a minimização da não-linearidade no sensor. A minimização da não-linearidade foi conseguida através do desenho (layout) das bobinas que compõem o sensor. Sendo este otimizado no espaço de Fourier através da adição de harmónicos apropriados na geometria. As melhores geometrias otimizadas apresentaram uma não-linearidade inferior a 0,01% e a 0,25% da escala total para os sensores de posição angular e linear, respetivamente, sem calibração por software. O sistema ANC proposto tem o potencial de melhorar o conforto dos ocupantes do veículo, reduzindo o ruído indesejado dentro do compartimento de passageiros. Isso poderia reduzir o uso de materiais de isolamento acústico no veículo, levando a um veículo mais leve e, em última análise, a uma redução no consumo de energia. A metodologia desenvolvida para sensores de posição indutivos contribui para o estado da arte de sensores de posição eficientes e económicos, o que é crucial para os requisitos complexos da indústria automóvel. Essas contribuições têm implicações para o desenho de sistemas automotivos, com requisitos de desempenho e considerações ambientais e económicas.This thesis explores the use of waves to tackle two major engineering challenges in the automotive industry. The first challenge is the development of an Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) system that can effectively reduce non-stationary noise inside a vehicle’s passenger compartment. The second challenge is the optimization of an inductive position sensor design methodology capable of measuring linear, rotational, and angular displacements. To address the first challenge, this work designs an ANC system that employs wavelets combined with a bank of adaptive filters. The system was implemented in an FPGA, and field tests demonstrate its ability to reduce non-stationary noise in an open and uncontrolled acoustic environment by 9 dB. The second challenge was tackled by proposing a new approach that combines a genetic algorithm with a fast and lightweight numerical method to optimize the geometry of an inductive position sensor. The numerical method is used to simulate the sensor’s electromagnetic field, allowing for the maximization of induced current on the receiver coils while minimizing the sensor’s non-linearity. The non-linearity minimization was achieved through its unique sensor’s coils design optimized in the Fourier space by adding the appropriate harmonics to the coils’ geometry. The best optimized geometries exhibited a non-linearity of less than 0.01% and 0.25% of the full scale for the angular and linear position sensors, respectively. Both results were achieved without the need for signal calibration or post-processing manipulation. The proposed ANC system has the potential to enhance the comfort of vehicle occupants by reducing unwanted noise inside the passenger compartment. Moreover, it has the potential to reduce the use of acoustic insulation materials in the vehicle, leading to a lighter vehicle and ultimately reducing energy consumption. The developed methodology for inductive position sensors represents a state-of-the-art contribution to efficient and cost-effective position sensor design, which is crucial for meeting the complex requirements of the automotive industry.I would like to thank the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) and Bosch Car Multimedia for funding my PhD (grant PD/BDE/142901/2018)

Channelization for Multi-Standard Software-Defined Radio Base Stations

As the number of radio standards increase and spectrum resources come under more pressure, it becomes ever less efficient to reserve bands of spectrum for exclusive use by a single radio standard. Therefore, this work focuses on channelization structures compatible with spectrum sharing among multiple wireless standards and dynamic spectrum allocation in particular. A channelizer extracts independent communication channels from a wideband signal, and is one of the most computationally expensive components in a communications receiver. This work specifically focuses on non-uniform channelizers suitable for multi-standard Software-Defined Radio (SDR) base stations in general and public mobile radio base stations in particular. A comprehensive evaluation of non-uniform channelizers (existing and developed during the course of this work) shows that parallel and recombined variants of the Generalised Discrete Fourier Transform Modulated Filter Bank (GDFT-FB) represent the best trade-off between computational load and flexibility for dynamic spectrum allocation. Nevertheless, for base station applications (with many channels) very high filter orders may be required, making the channelizers difficult to physically implement. To mitigate this problem, multi-stage filtering techniques are applied to the GDFT-FB. It is shown that these multi-stage designs can significantly reduce the filter orders and number of operations required by the GDFT-FB. An alternative approach, applying frequency response masking techniques to the GDFT-FB prototype filter design, leads to even bigger reductions in the number of coefficients, but computational load is only reduced for oversampled configurations and then not as much as for the multi-stage designs. Both techniques render the implementation of GDFT-FB based non-uniform channelizers more practical. Finally, channelization solutions for some real-world spectrum sharing use cases are developed before some final physical implementation issues are considered

Real-time digital signal processing system for normal probe diffraction technique

Ultrasonic systems are widely used in many fields of non-destructive testing. The increasing requirement for high quality steel product stirs the improvement of both ultrasonic instruments and testing methods. The thesis indicates the basics of ultrasonic testing and Digital Signal Processing (DSP) technology for the development of an ultrasonic system. The aim of this project was to apply a new ultrasonic testing method - the Normal Probe Diffraction method to course grained steel in real-time and investigate whether the potential of probability of detection (POD) has been improved. The theories and corresponding experiment set-up of pulse-echo method, TOFD and NPD method are explained and demonstrated separately. A comparison of these methods shows different contributions made by these methods using different types of algorithms and signals. Non-real-time experiments were carried out on a VI calibration block using an USPC 3100 ultrasonic testing card to implement pulse-echo and NPD method respectively. The experiments and algorithm were simulated and demonstrated in Matlab. A low frequency Single-transmitter-multi-receiver ultrasonic system was designed and built with a digital development board and an analogue daughter card to transmit or receive signals asynchronously. A high frequency high voltage amplifier was designed to drive the ultrasonic probes. A Matlab simulation system built with Simulink indicates that the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) can be improved with an increment of up to 3dB theoretically based on the simulation results using DSP techniques. The DSP system hardware and software was investigated and a real-time DSP hardware system was supposed to be built to implement the high frequency system using a rapid code generated system based on Matlab Simulink model and the method was presented. However, extra effort needs to be taken to program the hardware using a low-level computer language to make the system work stably and efficiently

Hybrid DDS-PLL based reconfigurable oscillators with high spectral purity for cognitive radio

Analytical, design and simulation studies on the performance optimization of reconfigurable architecture of a Hybrid DDS – PLL are presented in this thesis. The original contributions of this thesis are aimed towards the DDS, the dithering (spur suppression) scheme and the PLL. A new design of Taylor series-based DDS that reduces the dynamic power and number of multipliers is a significant contribution of this thesis. This thesis compares dynamic power and SFDR achieved in the design of varieties of DDS such as Quartic, Cubic, Linear and LHSC. This thesis proposes two novel schemes namely “Hartley Image Suppression” and “Adaptive Sinusoidal Interference Cancellation” overcoming the low noise floor of traditional dithering schemes. The simulation studies on a Taylor series-based DDS reveal an improvement in SFDR from 74 dB to 114 dB by using Least Mean Squares -Sinusoidal Interference Canceller (LM-SIC) with the noise floor maintained at -200 dB. Analytical formulations have been developed for a second order PLL to relate the phase noise to settling time and Phase Margin (PM) as well as to relate jitter variance and PM. New expressions relating phase noise to PM and lock time to PM are derived. This thesis derives the analytical relationship between the roots of the characteristic equation of a third order PLL and its performance metrics like PM, Gardner’s stability factor, jitter variance, spur gain and ratio of noise power to carrier power. This thesis presents an analysis to relate spur gain and capacitance ratio of a third order PLL. This thesis presents an analytical relationship between the lock time and the roots of its characteristic equation of a third order PLL. Through Vieta’s circle and Vieta’s angle, the performance metrics of a third order PLL are related to the real roots of its characteristic equation

Dirty RF Signal Processing for Mitigation of Receiver Front-end Non-linearity

Moderne drahtlose Kommunikationssysteme stellen hohe und teilweise gegensätzliche Anforderungen an die Hardware der Funkmodule, wie z.B. niedriger Energieverbrauch, große Bandbreite und hohe Linearität. Die Gewährleistung einer ausreichenden Linearität ist, neben anderen analogen Parametern, eine Herausforderung im praktischen Design der Funkmodule. Der Fokus der Dissertation liegt auf breitbandigen HF-Frontends für Software-konfigurierbare Funkmodule, die seit einigen Jahren kommerziell verfügbar sind. Die praktischen Herausforderungen und Grenzen solcher flexiblen Funkmodule offenbaren sich vor allem im realen Experiment. Eines der Hauptprobleme ist die Sicherstellung einer ausreichenden analogen Performanz über einen weiten Frequenzbereich. Aus einer Vielzahl an analogen Störeffekten behandelt die Arbeit die Analyse und Minderung von Nichtlinearitäten in Empfängern mit direkt-umsetzender Architektur. Im Vordergrund stehen dabei Signalverarbeitungsstrategien zur Minderung nichtlinear verursachter Interferenz - ein Algorithmus, der besser unter "Dirty RF"-Techniken bekannt ist. Ein digitales Verfahren nach der Vorwärtskopplung wird durch intensive Simulationen, Messungen und Implementierung in realer Hardware verifiziert. Um die Lücken zwischen Theorie und praktischer Anwendbarkeit zu schließen und das Verfahren in reale Funkmodule zu integrieren, werden verschiedene Untersuchungen durchgeführt. Hierzu wird ein erweitertes Verhaltensmodell entwickelt, das die Struktur direkt-umsetzender Empfänger am besten nachbildet und damit alle Verzerrungen im HF- und Basisband erfasst. Darüber hinaus wird die Leistungsfähigkeit des Algorithmus unter realen Funkkanal-Bedingungen untersucht. Zusätzlich folgt die Vorstellung einer ressourceneffizienten Echtzeit-Implementierung des Verfahrens auf einem FPGA. Abschließend diskutiert die Arbeit verschiedene Anwendungsfelder, darunter spektrales Sensing, robuster GSM-Empfang und GSM-basiertes Passivradar. Es wird gezeigt, dass nichtlineare Verzerrungen erfolgreich in der digitalen Domäne gemindert werden können, wodurch die Bitfehlerrate gestörter modulierter Signale sinkt und der Anteil nichtlinear verursachter Interferenz minimiert wird. Schließlich kann durch das Verfahren die effektive Linearität des HF-Frontends stark erhöht werden. Damit wird der zuverlässige Betrieb eines einfachen Funkmoduls unter dem Einfluss der Empfängernichtlinearität möglich. Aufgrund des flexiblen Designs ist der Algorithmus für breitbandige Empfänger universal einsetzbar und ist nicht auf Software-konfigurierbare Funkmodule beschränkt.Today's wireless communication systems place high requirements on the radio's hardware that are largely mutually exclusive, such as low power consumption, wide bandwidth, and high linearity. Achieving a sufficient linearity, among other analogue characteristics, is a challenging issue in practical transceiver design. The focus of this thesis is on wideband receiver RF front-ends for software defined radio technology, which became commercially available in the recent years. Practical challenges and limitations are being revealed in real-world experiments with these radios. One of the main problems is to ensure a sufficient RF performance of the front-end over a wide bandwidth. The thesis covers the analysis and mitigation of receiver non-linearity of typical direct-conversion receiver architectures, among other RF impairments. The main focus is on DSP-based algorithms for mitigating non-linearly induced interference, an approach also known as "Dirty RF" signal processing techniques. The conceived digital feedforward mitigation algorithm is verified through extensive simulations, RF measurements, and implementation in real hardware. Various studies are carried out that bridge the gap between theory and practical applicability of this approach, especially with the aim of integrating that technique into real devices. To this end, an advanced baseband behavioural model is developed that matches to direct-conversion receiver architectures as close as possible, and thus considers all generated distortions at RF and baseband. In addition, the algorithm's performance is verified under challenging fading conditions. Moreover, the thesis presents a resource-efficient real-time implementation of the proposed solution on an FPGA. Finally, different use cases are covered in the thesis that includes spectrum monitoring or sensing, GSM downlink reception, and GSM-based passive radar. It is shown that non-linear distortions can be successfully mitigated at system level in the digital domain, thereby decreasing the bit error rate of distorted modulated signals and reducing the amount of non-linearly induced interference. Finally, the effective linearity of the front-end is increased substantially. Thus, the proper operation of a low-cost radio under presence of receiver non-linearity is possible. Due to the flexible design, the algorithm is generally applicable for wideband receivers and is not restricted to software defined radios

Wavelet Theory

The wavelet is a powerful mathematical tool that plays an important role in science and technology. This book looks at some of the most creative and popular applications of wavelets including biomedical signal processing, image processing, communication signal processing, Internet of Things (IoT), acoustical signal processing, financial market data analysis, energy and power management, and COVID-19 pandemic measurements and calculations. The editor’s personal interest is the application of wavelet transform to identify time domain changes on signals and corresponding frequency components and in improving power amplifier behavior

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationWireless communications pervade all avenues of modern life. The rapid expansion of wireless services has increased the need for transmission schemes that are more spectrally efficient. Dynamic spectrum access (DSA) systems attempt to address this need by building a network where the spectrum is used opportunistically by all users based on local and regional measurements of its availability. One of the principal requirements in DSA systems is to initialize and maintain a control channel to link the nodes together. This should be done even before a complete spectral usage map is available. Additionally, with more users accessing the spectrum, it is important to maintain a stable link in the presence of significant interference in emergency first-responders, rescue, and defense applications. In this thesis, a new multicarrier spread spectrum (MC-SS) technique based on filter banks is presented. The new technique is called filter bank multicarrier spread spectrum (FB-MC-SS). A detailed theory of the underlying properties of this signal are given, with emphasis on the properties that lend themselves to synchronization at the receiver. Proposed algorithms for synchronization, channel estimation, and detection are implemented on a software-defined radio platform to complete an FB-MC-SS transceiver and to prove the practicality of the technique. FB-MC-SS is shown through physical experimentation to be significantly more robust to partial band interference compared to direct sequence spread spectrum. With a higher power interfering signal occupying 90% of its band, FB-MC-SS maintains a low bit error rate. Under the same interference conditions, DS-SS fails completely. This experimentation leads to a theoretical analysis that shows in a frequency selective channel with additive white noise, the FB-MC-SS system has performance that equals that obtained by a DS-SS system employing an optimal rake receiver. This thesis contains a detailed chapter on implementation and design, including lessons learned while prototyping the system. This is to assist future system designers to quickly gain proficiency in further development of this technology