Reconfigurable UWB Filtennas with Dual Bandnotch for Unwanted Bands using Graphene based Switches

Presented are the design and results of a reconfigurable UWB filtenna with sharp dual bandnotch at WiMAX 3.5 GHz and WLAN 5.8 GHz bands. The filtenna is formed by placing three loop resonators in an UWB antenna. The resonators are fitted with Graphene based switches which introduce reconfigurability. The filtenna was simulated electromagnetically and with Graphene based switches in switches OFF and switches ON states. Presented results show a passband from 2.81–12.27 GHz in OFF state and ON state results in sharp dual bandnotch within the passband at 3.45 and 5.95 GHz at a return loss of 2–2.5 dB. The gain and efficiency in both states has also been given and is reduced in ON state at the dual bandnotch. The radiation patterns in E- and H-planes are stable.

Highly linear reconfigurable UWB filters with independently controlled dual bandnotch

This letter proposes a high-linearity reconfigurable lower ultra-wideband (3.1–5.25 GHz) filter with independently controlled dual bandnotch at WiMAX 3.5 GHz band and satellite communication systems 4.2 GHz band. Reconfigurability has been achieved by the implementation of Graphene based switches (simulation only) and PIN diodes (measurements). The simulation and measurement results in OFF state show an entire bandpass response from 3.1 GHz to 5.25 GHz and with a very low insertion loss. In ON state, the results show that sharp rejections at 3.5 GHz and 4.2 GHz are achieved, with a low passband insertion loss. The two bandnotch operate independently of each other; thus allowing to control the behaviour of the required bandnotch. The third order intermodulation products were also measured in OFF and ON states and the linearity results have been presented. The filter is able to achieve a high performance with good linearity and no significant loss.

Design and implementation of a non-destructive defect detection technique based on UWB-SAR imaging

In the last twenty years aerospace and automotive industries started working widely with composite materials, which are not easy to test using classic Non-Destructive Inspection (NDI) techniques. Pairwise, the development of safety regulations sets higher and higher standards for the qualification and certification of those materials. In this thesis a new concept of a Non-Destructive defect detection technique is proposed, based on Ultrawide-Band (UWB) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging. Similar SAR methods are yet applied either in minefield [22] and head stroke [14] detection. Moreover feasibility studies have already demonstrated the validity of defect detection by means of UWB radars [12, 13]. The system was designed using a cheap commercial off-the-shelf radar device by Novelda and several tests of the developed system have been performed both on metallic specimen (aluminum plate) and on composite coupon (carbon fiber). The obtained results confirm the feasibility of the method and highlight the good performance of the developed system considered the radar resolution. In particular, the system is capable of discerning healthy coupons from damaged ones, and correctly reconstruct the reflectivity image of the tested defects, namely a 8 x 8 mm square bulge and a 5 mm drilled holes on metal specimen and a 5 mm drilled hole on composite coupon.

Progetto e realizzazione di un sistema UWB per comunicazioni audio e dati a breve raggio

In questo elaborato si vuole studiare l’implementazione di un sistema di comunicazione dati e audio basato su segnali Ultra Wide Band (UWB). L’obiettivo del progetto è quindi quello di implementare un sistema di comunicazione punto-multi punto basato su UWB.

A simulation study of unified GPS and roadside ranging technologies for vehicle positioning

The future vehicle navigation for safety applications requires seamless positioning at the accuracy of sub-meter or better. However, standalone Global Positioning System (GPS) or Differential GPS (DGPS) suffer from solution outages while being used in restricted areas such as high-rise urban areas and tunnels due to the blockages of satellite signals. Smoothed DGPS can provide sub-meter positioning accuracy, but not the seamless requirement. A disadvantage of the traditional navigation aids such as Dead Reckoning and Inertial Measurement Unit onboard vehicles are either not accurate enough due to error accumulation or too expensive to be acceptable by the mass market vehicle users. One of the alternative technologies is to use the wireless infrastructure installed in roadside to locate vehicles in regions where the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) signals are not available (for example: inside tunnels, urban canyons and large indoor car parks). The examples of roadside infrastructure which can be potentially used for positioning purposes could include Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)/Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) based positioning systems, Ultra-wide band (UWB) based positioning systems, Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) devices, Locata’s positioning technology, and accurate road surface height information over selected road segments such as tunnels. This research reviews and compares the possible wireless technologies that could possibly be installed along roadside for positioning purposes. Models and algorithms of integrating different positioning technologies are also presented. Various simulation schemes are designed to examine the performance benefits of united GNSS and roadside infrastructure for vehicle positioning. The results from these experimental studies have shown a number of useful findings. It is clear that in the open road environment where sufficient satellite signals can be obtained, the roadside wireless measurements contribute very little to the improvement of positioning accuracy at the sub-meter level, especially in the dual constellation cases. In the restricted outdoor environments where only a few GPS satellites, such as those with 45 elevations, can be received, the roadside distance measurements can help improve both positioning accuracy and availability to the sub-meter level. When the vehicle is travelling in tunnels with known heights of tunnel surfaces and roadside distance measurements, the sub-meter horizontal positioning accuracy is also achievable. Overall, simulation results have demonstrated that roadside infrastructure indeed has the potential to provide sub-meter vehicle position solutions for certain road safety applications if the properly deployed roadside measurements are obtainable.

Learned ultra-wideband RADAR sensor model for augmented LIDAR-based traversability mapping in vegetated environments

In vegetated environments, reliable obstacle detection remains a challenge for state-of-the-art methods, which are usually based on geometrical representations of the environment built from LIDAR and/or visual data. In many cases, in practice field robots could safely traverse through vegetation, thereby avoiding costly detours. However, it is often mistakenly interpreted as an obstacle. Classifying vegetation is insufficient since there might be an obstacle hidden behind or within it. Some Ultra-wide band (UWB) radars can penetrate through vegetation to help distinguish actual obstacles from obstacle-free vegetation. However, these sensors provide noisy and low-accuracy data. Therefore, in this work we address the problem of reliable traversability estimation in vegetation by augmenting LIDAR-based traversability mapping with UWB radar data. A sensor model is learned from experimental data using a support vector machine to convert the radar data into occupancy probabilities. These are then fused with LIDAR-based traversability data. The resulting augmented traversability maps capture the fine resolution of LIDAR-based maps but clear safely traversable foliage from being interpreted as obstacle. We validate the approach experimentally using sensors mounted on two different mobile robots, navigating in two different environments.

Analysis And Design Of Two Layered Ultra Wide Band Filter

Design of an Ultra Wide Band (UWB) filter over 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz using broad side coupled and spur lines in microstrip medium suitable for UWB communications has been presented in this paper. Parameters of broad side coupled lines have been appropriately chosen to achieve ultra wide band response. Spur lines have been incorporated at the input and output feed lines of the filter to improve the stop band rejection characteristics of the filter. Filter has been analyzed based on circuit models and full wave simulations. Experimental results of the filter designed using the proposed structure has been verified against the results obtained from circuit models and full wave simulations. The results match satisfactorily. Stop band rejection of better than 20 dB was obtained over the frequencies of 13 GHz to 18.2 GHz. Overall size of the filter is 40 x 18 x 0.787 mm(3).

Switchable-feed reconfigurable ultra-wide band planar antenna

Reconfigurable antennas capable of radiating in only specific desired directions increase system functionality in applications like direction finding and beam steering. This paper presents the design simulation, fabrication and measurement of a horizontally polarized, direction reconfigurable Vivaldi antenna, designed for the lower-band UWB (2-6 GHz). This design employs eight circularly distributed independent Vivaldi antennas with a common port, electronically controlled by PIN diodes acting as RF switches. Experimental results show that the reconfigurable antenna has a bandwidth of 4 GHz (2-6 GHz), with 5 dB gain in the desired direction and capable of steering over the 360° range.

LTCC ultra wide band filter

This article presents the analysis of ultra wide band (UWB) filler designed using a symmetrical three parallel coupled line resonator in low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) medium: The ground plane with an aperture incorporated in it improves the coupling. Based on circuit models, the designed UWB filter has been analyzed, and the results have been confirmed by experiments. The filter has been realized with Dupont LTCC tape DuPont 951 (that has dielectric constant of 7.8). Maximum insertion loss of the experimental filter is 1.5 dB. The group variation over the pass band of the filter is within 0.2 us. Dimensions of the experimental LTCC filter are 20 x 10 x 0.72 mm. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 53:2580-2583,2011; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.26311

A multi-layer ultra wide band power splitter

This paper presents analysis and design of multilayer ultra wide band (UWB) power splitter suitable for wireless communications. An UWB power splitter is designed in suspended substrate stripline medium. The quarter wave transformer in the conventional Wilkinson power divider is replaced by broadside coupled lines to achieve tight coupling for broadband operation. The UWB power splitter is analyzed using circuit models of coupled lines and full wave simulator. Experimental results of 3dB power splitter designed using the proposed structure have been verified against the results from circuit simulation and full wave simulation. The return loss is better than 12 dB across the band 3.1GHz to 10.6GHz. Size of the power splitter is 30mm× 20mm×6.38mm.

Automated vision tracking of project related entities

Tracking of project related entities such as construction equipment, materials, and personnel is used to calculate productivity, detect travel path conflicts, enhance the safety on the site, and monitor the project. Radio frequency tracking technologies (Wi-Fi, RFID, UWB) and GPS are commonly used for this purpose. However, on large-scale sites, deploying, maintaining and removing such systems can be costly and time-consuming. In addition, privacy issues with personnel tracking often limits the usability of these technologies on construction sites. This paper presents a vision based tracking framework that holds promise to address these limitations. The framework uses videos from a set of two or more static cameras placed on construction sites. In each camera view, the framework identifies and tracks construction entities providing 2D image coordinates across frames. Combining the 2D coordinates based on the installed camera system (the distance between the cameras and the view angles of them), 3D coordinates are calculated at each frame. The results of each step are presented to illustrate the feasibility of the framework.

工业无线网络化控制系统结构及调度问题研究

无线通信技术在工业网络化控制系统中的应用已成为当今工业领域中的研究热点。然而无线通信技术在恶劣的工业环境中通信质量严重下降，使得现有无线通信技术在工业网络化控制系统中的应用受阻。为此在不断提高和改进无线信号传输性能的同时，更要在控制系统级层面上充分考虑无线通信技术的特点，进行相关系统结构和实时调度机制等方面的改进，以达到使系统产生的通信任务在应用层上得到可靠、实时调度的目的。同时也要从无线网络技术层面上入手，解决上层下达的通信任务在数据链路层中的实时调度问题。要设计适合工业无线网络化控制系统应用特点的MAC协议来有效调度网络所有节点的信息收发，减少高层下达的通信任务在网络中的平均时延，提高吞吐量，进而保证工业无线网络化控制系统的实时性。 因此，本文从工业无线网络化控制系统中的通信任务在数据链路层和应用层上的调度角度出发，以解决、改善工业无线网络化控制系统的实时性和可靠性等性能指标为目的。对工业无线网络化控制系统的结构、应用层调度策略和优化以及数据链路层中的MAC协议进行了系统的研究。主要工作和贡献有以下几点： （1）对工业网络化控制系统的基本问题和引入无线通信技术后产生的问题进行了探讨。在定性分析了工业环境对无线通信的影响及要求的同时，又推导出了无线通信的链路预算模型，并利用Matlab对该预算模型进行了建模，计算出了在工业级噪声指数和工业要求的误码率下，IEEE802.11b和IEEE802.15.4两大主流无线通信技术的链路预算情况及具体的量化数据。 （2）提出了工业无线网络化控制系统的双频二级拓扑结构和多路径传输机制。利用了无线信道特点和路径冗余优势，在系统级上改进了目前无线通信技术在工业网络化控制系统中的应用模式，部分缓解了无线通信技术在工业恶劣环境中的实时性和可靠性问题。为工业无线网络化控制系统结构的设计做了有益的尝试。同时，首次将DS-UWB技术应用于工业网络化控制系统中，设计出了基于该结构的UWB和FF及PROFIBUS的集成方案，为该结构的快速应用提供了有效的途径。 （3）提出了极大容忍无线通信时延的调度算法(GTD)。有效解决了工业无线网络化控制系统中周期性通信任务的实时性问题,部分弥补了因无线网络时延而导致周期性通信任务超时的缺陷。并针对GTD调度算法产生的通信窗口碎片问题进行了优化处理，又提出了面向非周期信息吞吐量最大化的优化调度算法，该算法提高了非周期性通信任务的吞吐量。同时，给出了基于这两种调度算法的非线性规划模型的调度时间表求解方法。 （4）提出了根据通信任务调度时间表进行分配无竞争期的混合CAP和CFP的MAC协议（HAF-MAC）。解决了工业无线网络化控制系统上层下达的周期性通信任务和非周期性通信任务在数据链路层中的实时调度问题，并有效解决了本文提出的应用层调度算法生成的预留时间可能存在浪费的问题。同时，在理论分析了HAF-MAC协议时隙利用率的基础上，提出了基于时隙的HAF-MAC（TSHAF-MAC）协议。TSHAF-MAC协议比HAF-MAC协议提高了时隙利用率，使吞吐量和平均延时得到了进一步改善，进而提高了非周期性通信任务的实时性。最后，对这两个协议进行了仿真建模与验证，进而较系统地解决了工业无线网络化控制系统中的通信任务的实时调度问题。 （5）分别将论文中的第三章和第四章的部分研究成果,在本人博士研究阶段研发的无线智能照明控制系统这一物理实验平台上进行了一定的验证。

Cooperative communications in ultra-wideband wireless body area networks: Channel modeling and system diversity analysis

In this paper, we explore the application of cooperative communications in ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless body area networks (BANs), where a group of on-body devices may collaborate together to communicate with other groups of on-body equipment. Firstly, time-domain UWB channel measurements are presented to characterize the body-centric multipath channel and to facilitate the diversity analysis in a cooperative BAN (CoBAN). We focus on the system deployment scenario when the human subject is in the sitting posture. Important channel parameters such as the pathloss, power variation, power delay profile (PDP), and effective received power (ERP) crosscorrelation are investigated and statistically analyzed. Provided with the model preliminaries, a detailed analysis on the diversity level in a CoBAN is provided. Specifically, an intuitive measure is proposed to quantify the diversity gains in a single-hop cooperative network, which is defined as the number of independent multipaths that can be averaged over to detect symbols. As this measure provides the largest number of redundant copies of transmitted information through the body-centric channel, it can be used as a benchmark to access the performance bound of various diversity-based cooperative schemes in futuristic body sensor systems.

Human respiration rate estimation using ultra-wideband distributed cognitive radar system

It has been shown that remote monitoring of pulmonary activity can be achieved using ultra-wideband (UWB) systems, which shows promise in home healthcare, rescue, and security applications. In this paper, we first present a multi-ray propagation model for UWB signal, which is traveling through the human thorax and is reflected on the air/dry-skin/fat/muscle interfaces. A geometry-based statistical channel model is then developed for simulating the reception of UWB signals in the indoor propagation environment. This model enables replication of time-varying multipath profiles due to the displacement of a human chest. Subsequently, a UWB distributed cognitive radar system (UWB-DCRS) is developed for the robust detection of chest cavity motion and the accurate estimation of respiration rate. The analytical framework can serve as a basis in the planning and evaluation of future measurement programs. We also provide a case study on how the antenna beamwidth affects the estimation of respiration rate based on the proposed propagation models and system architecture

Ultra-wideband cognitive interrogator network for indoor location tracking - part 1: system architecture and network performance analysis

We explore the potential application of cognitive interrogator network (CIN) in remote monitoring of mobile subjects in domestic environments, where the ultra-wideband radio frequency identification (UWB-RFID) technique is considered for accurate source localization. We first present the CIN architecture in which the central base station (BS) continuously and intelligently customizes the illumination modes of the distributed transceivers in response to the systempsilas changing knowledge of the channel conditions and subject movements. Subsequently, the analytical results of the locating probability and time-of-arrival (TOA) estimation uncertainty for a large-scale CIN with randomly distributed interrogators are derived based upon the implemented cognitive intelligences. Finally, numerical examples are used to demonstrate the key effects of the proposed cognitions on the system performance