6,162 research outputs found
A New Vehicle Localization Scheme Based on Combined Optical Camera Communication and Photogrammetry
The demand for autonomous vehicles is increasing gradually owing to their
enormous potential benefits. However, several challenges, such as vehicle
localization, are involved in the development of autonomous vehicles. A simple
and secure algorithm for vehicle positioning is proposed herein without
massively modifying the existing transportation infrastructure. For vehicle
localization, vehicles on the road are classified into two categories: host
vehicles (HVs) are the ones used to estimate other vehicles' positions and
forwarding vehicles (FVs) are the ones that move in front of the HVs. The FV
transmits modulated data from the tail (or back) light, and the camera of the
HV receives that signal using optical camera communication (OCC). In addition,
the streetlight (SL) data are considered to ensure the position accuracy of the
HV. Determining the HV position minimizes the relative position variation
between the HV and FV. Using photogrammetry, the distance between FV or SL and
the camera of the HV is calculated by measuring the occupied image area on the
image sensor. Comparing the change in distance between HV and SLs with the
change in distance between HV and FV, the positions of FVs are determined. The
performance of the proposed technique is analyzed, and the results indicate a
significant improvement in performance. The experimental distance measurement
validated the feasibility of the proposed scheme
Calibration of full-waveform airborne laser scanning data for 3D object segmentation
Phd ThesisAirborne Laser Scanning (ALS) is a fully commercial technology, which has seen rapid uptake from the photogrammetry and remote sensing community to classify surface features and enhance automatic object recognition and extraction processes. 3D object segmentation is considered as one of the major research topics in the field of laser scanning for feature recognition and object extraction applications. The demand for automatic segmentation has significantly increased with the emergence of full-waveform (FWF) ALS, which potentially offers an unlimited number of return echoes. FWF has shown potential to improve available segmentation and classification techniques through exploiting the additional physical observables which are provided alongside the standard geometric information. However, use of the FWF additional information is not recommended without prior radiometric calibration, taking into consideration all the parameters affecting the backscattered energy.
The main focus of this research is to calibrate the additional information from FWF to develop the potential of point clouds for segmentation algorithms. Echo amplitude normalisation as a function of local incidence angle was identified as a particularly critical aspect, and a novel echo amplitude normalisation approach, termed the Robust Surface Normal (RSN) method, has been developed. Following the radar equation, a comprehensive radiometric calibration routine is introduced to account for all variables affecting the backscattered laser signal. Thereafter, a segmentation algorithm is developed, which utilises the raw 3D point clouds to estimate the normal for individual echoes based on the RSN method. The segmentation criterion is selected as the normal vector augmented by the calibrated backscatter signals. The developed segmentation routine aims to fully integrate FWF data to improve feature recognition and 3D object segmentation applications. The routine was tested over various feature types from two datasets with different properties to assess its potential. The results are compared to those delivered through utilizing only geometric information, without the additional FWF radiometric information, to assess performance over existing methods. The results approved the potential of the FWF additional observables to improve segmentation algorithms. The new approach was validated against manual segmentation results, revealing a successful automatic implementation and achieving an accuracy of 82%
First Constraints on the Ultra-High Energy Neutrino Flux from a Prototype Station of the Askaryan Radio Array
The Askaryan Radio Array (ARA) is an ultra-high energy ( eV) cosmic
neutrino detector in phased construction near the South Pole. ARA searches for
radio Cherenkov emission from particle cascades induced by neutrino
interactions in the ice using radio frequency antennas ( MHz)
deployed at a design depth of 200 m in the Antarctic ice. A prototype ARA
Testbed station was deployed at m depth in the 2010-2011 season and
the first three full ARA stations were deployed in the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013
seasons. We present the first neutrino search with ARA using data taken in 2011
and 2012 with the ARA Testbed and the resulting constraints on the neutrino
flux from eV.Comment: 26 pages, 15 figures. Since first revision, added section on
systematic uncertainties, updated limits and uncertainty band with
improvements to simulation, added appendix describing ray tracing algorithm.
Final revision includes a section on cosmic ray backgrounds. Published in
Astropart. Phys.
Smart Traction Control Systems for Electric Vehicles Using Acoustic Road-type Estimation
The application of traction control systems (TCS) for electric vehicles (EV)
has great potential due to easy implementation of torque control with
direct-drive motors. However, the control system usually requires road-tire
friction and slip-ratio values, which must be estimated. While it is not
possible to obtain the first one directly, the estimation of latter value
requires accurate measurements of chassis and wheel velocity. In addition,
existing TCS structures are often designed without considering the robustness
and energy efficiency of torque control. In this work, both problems are
addressed with a smart TCS design having an integrated acoustic road-type
estimation (ARTE) unit. This unit enables the road-type recognition and this
information is used to retrieve the correct look-up table between friction
coefficient and slip-ratio. The estimation of the friction coefficient helps
the system to update the necessary input torque. The ARTE unit utilizes machine
learning, mapping the acoustic feature inputs to road-type as output. In this
study, three existing TCS for EVs are examined with and without the integrated
ARTE unit. The results show significant performance improvement with ARTE,
reducing the slip ratio by 75% while saving energy via reduction of applied
torque and increasing the robustness of the TCS.Comment: Accepted to be published by IEEE Trans. on Intelligent Vehicles, 22
Jan 201
Waveform Design for Secure SISO Transmissions and Multicasting
Wireless physical-layer security is an emerging field of research aiming at
preventing eavesdropping in an open wireless medium. In this paper, we propose
a novel waveform design approach to minimize the likelihood that a message
transmitted between trusted single-antenna nodes is intercepted by an
eavesdropper. In particular, with knowledge first of the eavesdropper's channel
state information (CSI), we find the optimum waveform and transmit energy that
minimize the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) at the output of
the eavesdropper's maximum-SINR linear filter, while at the same time provide
the intended receiver with a required pre-specified SINR at the output of its
own max-SINR filter. Next, if prior knowledge of the eavesdropper's CSI is
unavailable, we design a waveform that maximizes the amount of energy available
for generating disturbance to eavesdroppers, termed artificial noise (AN),
while the SINR of the intended receiver is maintained at the pre-specified
level. The extensions of the secure waveform design problem to multiple
intended receivers are also investigated and semidefinite relaxation (SDR) -an
approximation technique based on convex optimization- is utilized to solve the
arising NP-hard design problems. Extensive simulation studies confirm our
analytical performance predictions and illustrate the benefits of the designed
waveforms on securing single-input single-output (SISO) transmissions and
multicasting
ISAR Autofocus Imaging Algorithm for Maneuvering Targets Based on Phase Retrieval and Gabor Wavelet Transform
The imaging issue of a rotating maneuvering target with a large angle and a high translational speed has been a challenging problem in the area of inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) autofocus imaging, in particular when the target has both radial and angular accelerations. In this paper, on the basis of the phase retrieval algorithm and the Gabor wavelet transform (GWT), we propose a new method for phase error correction. The approach first performs the range compression on ISAR raw data to obtain range profiles, and then carries out the GWT transform as the time-frequency analysis tool for the rotational motion compensation (RMC) requirement. The time-varying terms, caused by rotational motion in the Doppler frequency shift, are able to be eliminated at the selected time frame. Furthermore, the processed backscattered signal is transformed to the one in the frequency domain while applying the phase retrieval to run the translational motion compensation (TMC). Phase retrieval plays an important role in range tracking, because the ISAR echo module is not affected by both radial velocity and the acceleration of the target. Finally, after the removal of both the rotational and translational motion errors, the time-invariant Doppler shift is generated, and radar returned signals from the same scatterer are always kept in the same range cell. Therefore, the unwanted motion effects can be removed by applying this approach to have an autofocused ISAR image of the maneuvering target. Furthermore, the method does not need to estimate any motion parameters of the maneuvering target, which has proven to be very effective for an ideal range–Doppler processing. Experimental and simulation results verify the feasibility of this approach
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