Global indoor self-localization based on the ambient magnetic field

There is evidence that animals utilize local anomalities of Earth’s magnetic field not just for orientation detection but also for true navigation, i.e., some animals are not only able to detect the direction of Earth’s magnetic field (compass heading), they are able to derive positional information from local cues arising from the local anomalities of Earth’s magnetic field. Similarly to Earth’s non-constant magnetic field, the magnetic field inside buildings can be highly non-uniform. The magnetic field fluctuations inside buildings arise from both natural and man-made sources, such as steel and reinforced concrete structures, electric power systems, electric and electronic appliances, and industrial devices. Assuming that the anomalities of the magnetic field inside a building are nearly static and they have sufficient local variability, the anomalies provide a unique magnetic fingerprint that can be utilized in global self-localization. Based on the evidence presented in this article it can be argued that this hypothesis is valid. In this article, a Monte Carlo Localization (MCL) technique based on the above hypothesis is proposed. The feasibility of the technique is demonstrated by presenting a series of global self-localization experiments conducted in four arbitrarily selected buildings, including a hospital. The experiment setup consists of a mobile robot instrumented with a 3-axis magnetometer and a computer. In addition to global robot self-localization experiments, successful person self-localization experiments were also conducted by using a wireless, wearable magnetometer. The reported experiments suggest that the ambient magnetic field may remain sufficiently stable for longer periods of time giving support for self-localization techniques utilizing the local deviations of the magnetic field.     

A low phase noise and low spur PLL with auto frequency control circuit for L1-band GPS receiver

A low phase noise and low spur phase-locked loop (PLL) for L1-band global positioning system receiver is proposed in this paper. For obtaining low phase noise for PLL, All-PMOS LC-VCO with varactor-smoothing technique and noise-filtering technique is adopted. To reduce the reference spur, a low current-mismatch charge pump is carefully designed. A quasi-closed-loop auto frequency control circuit is used to accelerate the lock process of PLL. The PLL is fabricated in 180 nm CMOS Mixed-Signal process while it operates under 1.8 V supply voltage. The measured output frequency of PLL is 1.571 GHz and output power is −1.418 dBm. The in-band phase noise is −98.1 dBc/Hz @ 100 kHz, while the out-band phase noise is −130.3 dBc/Hz @ 1 MHz. The reference spur is −75.8 dBc at 16.368 MHz offset. When quasi closed-loop AFC is working, the measured lock time is about 10.2 μs.     

Wide band low phase noise QVCO based on superharmonic injection locking

A wide band, injection-coupled LC quadrature voltage control oscillator is presented. In the proposed circuit, two oscillators are injection locked by coupling their second-order harmonics in anti-phase, forcing the outputs of two oscillators into a quadrature phase state. As the common-mode point sampling the second harmonic frequency, flicker noise of the tail current is suppressed, the phase noise is reduced.The proposed design accomplishes a wide tuning frequency range by a combination of using a 5-bit switch capacitor array (SCA) for discrete tuning in addition to linearly varying AMOS varactors for continuous tuning. The proposed design has been fabricated and verified in a 0.18 μ m TSMC CMOS technology process. The measurement indicates that the quadrature voltage controlled oscillator has a 41.7% tuning range from 3.53 to 5.39 GHz. The measured phase noise is 127.98 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset at a 1.8 V supply voltage with a power consumption of 12 mW at a carrier frequency of 4.85 GHz.     

基于多模速率方程电路建模的太赫兹量子级联激光器稳态性能及输出光谱特性分析

通过改进的三能级多模态速率方程,运用电路建模 方法,建立了太赫兹(THz)量子级联激光器(QCL)的一种等效电路模型。由于基于多模 态效应进行建模,所建模型能够有效表 征多模态效应对THz QCL光电性能的影响。模型中,涉及的非辐射散射时间、自激发射弛豫 时间以及电子逃 逸时间均根据器件有源层结构参数通过自洽数值求解获得。采用所建模型,可运用通用电路 仿真工具实现对 THz QCL光电特性的模拟分析,克服了数值分析方法计算复杂、模拟时间长的缺点。运用电 路仿 真工具PSPICE对2.47THz QCL的稳态特性和输出光谱特性进行了模拟 分析,并讨论了温度变化对器 件阈值电流、输出光功率以及输出频谱的影响,分析结果与已报道的理论和实验结果一致 ,验证了本文方法的适用性和准确性。     

Blood smear analyzer for white blood cell counting: A hybrid microscopic image analyzing technique

Total count and differential count of leukocytes or white blood cells (WBC) in blood samples are very important pathological factors for diagnosing a disease. There are not enough pathological infrastructures in the remote places of India and other developing countries. The objective of this work is to design a system, compatible with telemedicine, for automatic calculation of the total count and differential count of WBC from the blood smear slides. Hemocytometer based WBC counting provides more accurate result than manual counting, but hemocytometer preparation process needs expertise. As this device is targeted for remote places, blood smear technique is adopted to reduce the overhead of the operator. In the proposed system, microscopic images of blood smear sample are processed to highlight the WBC for segmentation. Region segmentation procedure involves background scaling and redundant region elimination from the region set. After segmentation, the more accurate region boundary is restored by using gradient based region growing with neighbourhood influence. Individual regions are separately classified on the basis of shape, size, color and texture features independently using different fuzzy and non-fuzzy techniques. A final decision is taken by combining these classification results, which is a kind of hybridization. A set of rules has been generated for making final classification decision based on outputs from various classifiers. The sensitivity and specificity of the system are found to be 96.4% and 79.6%, respectively on a database of 150 blood smear slides collected from different health centres of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Kolkata, India.     

What middleware for network centric operations?

The main intent of this paper is to address the issue of middleware in network centric operations. To this end, we characterize a set of Information Technology capabilities that such a middleware should implement. Afterwards, we will discuss the design and architectural aspects of these capabilities. This will lead us to an efficient and practical decision support system that we call a digital cockpit. The latter is essentially a multi-tier IT platform that provides a plethora of services such as: data and service integration, monitoring, analysis, and process optimization. Moreover, the platform uses advanced display mechanisms to render the information in a structured and navigational representation that offers the possibility to drill down into the details. A significant subgoal of the paper is to discuss the quality attributes of such an NCO middleware. Finally, we present the results of an implementation of the aforesaid platform architecture.     

A power efficient continuous time ΔΣ modulator with 15 MHz bandwidth and 70 dB dynamic range

A state variable block diagram method is given for the realization of universal biquadratic transfer functions employing second-generation current-controlled conveyors (CCCIIs). Using minimum number of passive components and properly adjusting the bias currents of CCCIIs, the proposed circuits can realize all the tunable frequency standard filter functions: high-pass, band-pass, low-pass, notch-pass, and all-pass by choosing appropriate input branches without changing the passive elements. These presented circuits are in current-mode and voltage-mode separately. The non-ideality analyses of these configurations are given. Additionally, a high-order low-pass filter derived from the proposed voltage-mode biquadratic filter is introduced. PSPICE simulation results are included to verify the theory.     

基于FPGA的GPS接收机实现

利用可编程片上系统(SOPC)技术,设计了一种基于FPGA的GPS接收机。提出了基于多普勒频域移位的捕获策略,并分析了捕获时间。基于延迟锁定环与Costas环跟踪方法,给出接收机的SOPC实现。实验结果表明,该接收机的信号捕获、跟踪方法正确可行,且在静态条件下水平定位精度优于4.5m(标准差),具有良好的实时性、灵活性和可扩展性。     

基于人工神经网络的高分五号高光谱影像悬浮泥沙浓度反演方法

悬浮泥沙浓度是水体监测中极为重要的指标.本论文基于神经网络具有弥补传统经验算法固有误差的潜力,设计并开发了基于人工神经网络的神经网络校正器来对经验反演结果进行二次校正.为了防止在小数据集的情况下出现过拟合问题,采用了特殊设计的正则化项.基于高分五号高光谱遥感数据以及在长江口和沿海水域同时收集的悬浮泥沙浓度实地测量结果,...     

基于分解四元数的自适应姿态四元数卡尔曼滤波

基于Clifford代数的四元数卡尔曼滤波在融合陀螺/加表/磁强计以估计姿态时,由于四元数各参数与欧拉角不是一一对应关系,无法独立估计各个欧拉角.这样即使重力观测量是可信的,受到干扰的磁场观测量也会影响整个估计结果.为了消除磁场观测量对四元数中横滚角和俯仰角分量的影响,对四元数进行分解,以重新组合重力/磁场观测量.同时,为了减少载体附近磁场和线性加速度干扰对姿态估计的影响,构造了观测噪声自适应算法和观测量自适应干扰补偿.消费级微机电系统(micro-electro-mechanical system,MEMS)传感器的实验结果表明,对比四元数卡尔曼滤波的原型,改进后的抗干扰能力明显提升.但由于自适应过程引入了两个经验参数,这使得其工作范围和抗干扰能力有待考验.