Robust Indoor Localization in a Reverberant Environment Using Microphone Pairs and Asynchronous Acoustic Beacons

In this paper, a robust indoor localization method using microphone pairs and asynchronous acoustic beacons was proposed. The proposed method is applicable even with a two-channel microphone pair, which is the minimal configuration of a microphone array. The proposed method estimates location by using the cross-correlation functions of the measured signals as location likelihoods. Three experiments were conducted to evaluate the proposed method. Four beacons were located at the corners of a localizing area of 4 m by 4 m and emitted signals with a bandwidth of 2 kHz. The localization results were compared to the previous method with deterministic direction-of-arrival estimation. The 90th percentiles of the localization error were 0.23 m for the proposed method with two microphones, 0.19 m for the proposed method with four microphones, and 0.30 m for the previous method under conditions without significant reverberation. Under a condition with reflective walls, the 90th percentile of the localization error of the previous method increased to 0.49 m, while that of the proposed method was only increased to 0.23 m for two microphones and 0.19 m for four microphones. The proposed method contributes to a robust localization in indoor environments and relieves the constraints of receiver configuration

Underwater acoustic communication under doppler effects

In this thesis we perform a research survey of the three available technologies for wireless underwater communications. We discuss the main features and drawbacks inherent to acoustic, RF, and optical communications. We focus our research on underwater acoustic communications, and we analyze and evaluate the channel frequency response of Arraial do Cabo using data acquired in situ. We further investigate the Doppler effect, a phenomenon that is inherent to underwater acoustic channels. We analyze and justify a compensation algorithm to mitigate the Doppler effects. We propose a simplified algorithm version for minimizing the required number of pilot symbols. We also develop a simple strategy to determine how often our proposed compensation method should be retrained. Our main contribution is the proposal of a new receiver design to deal with Doppler effects. We present the idea of iteratively adapt the correlator filter placed at the receiver side. We show that the adaptation of this filter’s support reduces the inter-symbol interference of the estimated symbols. Besides this idea, we demonstrate that the time-dependent phase-shift component of the received signal should be removed beforehand. That is, we propose a modification in the signal processing sequence blocks for improving the symbol estimation. For testing and comparing this new receiver design, we implement a communication model encompassing physical layer aspects. We perform several numerical simulations for single-carrier and multicarrier systems. Simulation results show that our proposal might provide a reduction in the bit error rate for high signal-to-noise ratios. This performance improvement can be observed for all tested relative movement, and even with dense digital signal constellation.Nesta tese foi realizada uma pesquisa extensa sobre as tecnologias existentes para comunicação sem fio subaquática. Foram analisadas as principais características das comunicações acústicas, RF e ótica. O estudo foi aprofundado na comunicação acústica, e foi realizada uma análise da resposta em frequência do canal de Arraial do Cabo com dados adquiridos no local. O efeito Doppler, um fenômeno inerente aos canais subaquáticos acústicos, foi investigado de forma minuciosa. Dentre as técnicas estudas para compensação deste efeito, foi escolhido um algoritmo adaptativo, o qual foi re-analisado com uma nova abordagem. Uma versão simplificada deste algoritmo foi proposta para reduzir a quantidade de símbolos pilotos. Foi também desenvolvida uma estratégia para determinar a frequência de treinamento deste novo algoritmo. A principal contribuição da tese é a proposta de uma nova estrutura de receptor para compensar o efeito Doppler. Nesta estrutura, é proposta a adaptação de forma iterativa do filtro correlator. A adaptação do suporte temporal deste filtro reduz a interferência inter-simbólica. Além desta ideia, foi demonstrado que a componente de fase do sinal recebido, que é dependente do tempo, deve ser removida em um estágio anterior ao usual. Ou seja, foi proposta uma modificação na sequência do processamento do sinal recebido para melhorar a sua estimativa. Para testar esta nova estrutura do receptor, foi implementado um sistema de comunicação. Foram realizadas simulações numéricas com sistemas de uma única e de múltiplas portadoras. Os resultados das simulações mostram que a nova estrutura pode reduzir a quantidade de erros de bits para altos valores de razão sinal-ruído. A melhora do desempenho pode ser observada em todas as velocidades relativas testadas, e também para constelações densas

Effects of errorless learning on the acquisition of velopharyngeal movement control

Session 1pSC - Speech Communication: Cross-Linguistic Studies of Speech Sound Learning of the Languages of Hong Kong (Poster Session)The implicit motor learning literature suggests a benefit for learning if errors are minimized during practice. This study investigated whether the same principle holds for learning velopharyngeal movement control. Normal speaking participants learned to produce hypernasal speech in either an errorless learning condition (in which the possibility for errors was limited) or an errorful learning condition (in which the possibility for errors was not limited). Nasality level of the participants’ speech was measured by nasometer and reflected by nasalance scores (in %). Errorless learners practiced producing hypernasal speech with a threshold nasalance score of 10% at the beginning, which gradually increased to a threshold of 50% at the end. The same set of threshold targets were presented to errorful learners but in a reversed order. Errors were defined by the proportion of speech with a nasalance score below the threshold. The results showed that, relative to errorful learners, errorless learners displayed fewer errors (50.7% vs. 17.7%) and a higher mean nasalance score (31.3% vs. 46.7%) during the acquisition phase. Furthermore, errorless learners outperformed errorful learners in both retention and novel transfer tests. Acknowledgment: Supported by The University of Hong Kong Strategic Research Theme for Sciences of Learning © 2012 Acoustical Society of Americapublished_or_final_versio

Localization, Mapping and SLAM in Marine and Underwater Environments

The use of robots in marine and underwater applications is growing rapidly. These applications share the common requirement of modeling the environment and estimating the robots’ pose. Although there are several mapping, SLAM, target detection and localization methods, marine and underwater environments have several challenging characteristics, such as poor visibility, water currents, communication issues, sonar inaccuracies or unstructured environments, that have to be considered. The purpose of this Special Issue is to present the current research trends in the topics of underwater localization, mapping, SLAM, and target detection and localization. To this end, we have collected seven articles from leading researchers in the field, and present the different approaches and methods currently being investigated to improve the performance of underwater robots