Developments in reverse Brayton cycle cryocooler in China

As one of the primary methods of cryogenic refrigeration, reverse Brayton cycle cryocooler, which includes high-speed turbine using gas bearing and compact heat exchanger, has many advantages such as long-life, high reliability and efficiency. In this paper general aspects of reverse Brayton cycle cryocooler in China are introduced, such as its application in the space simulation program, mechanical cryocooler for lower temperature space applications. The main design parameters and operating performance of cryocoolers are presented in this paper.     

An interpolation model to accelerate the frequency-domain response calculation of grounding systems using the method of moments

The transient characteristics of grounding systems are essential for their designs and related electromagnetic-compatibility problems in power systems. Although the method of moments (MoM) is a popular way to analyze the characteristics of grounding systems, it is time-consuming. In this paper, a two-stage method is presented to construct fitted models of the frequency-domain responses of grounding systems to accelerate the calculations of the MoM. In the first stage, the adaptive model-based parameter estimation is used to adaptively choose the most valuable frequency sampling points to construct the initial fitted functions, and then the fitted functions are adjusted in the second stage by comparing the fitted results with those computed by the first principle model at some points. The validation was achieved by a comparison of the numerical results and those obtained by inverse fast Fourier transformation.     

Hybrid routing in ad hoc networks with a dynamic virtual backbone

Virtual backbone routing (VBR) is a scalable hybrid routing framework for ad hoc networks, which combines local proactive and global reactive routing components over a variable-sized zone hierarchy. The zone hierarchy is maintained through a novel distributed virtual backbone maintenance scheme, termed the distributed database coverage heuristic (DDCH), also presented in this paper. Borrowing from the design philosophy of the zone routing protocol, VBR limits the proactive link information exchange to the local routing zones only. Furthermore, the reactive component of VBR restricts the route queries to within the virtual backbone only, thus improving the overall routing efficiency. Our numerical results suggest that the cost of the hybrid VBR scheme can be a small fraction of that of either one of the purely proactive or purely reactive protocols, with or without route caching. Since the data routes do not necessarily pass through the virtual backbone nodes, traffic congestion is considerably reduced. Yet, the average length of the VBR routes tends to be close to optimal. Compared with the traditional one-hop hierarchical protocols, our results indicate that, for a network of moderate to large size, VBR with an optimal zone radius larger than one can significantly reduce the routing traffic. Furthermore, we demonstrate VBR's improved scalability through analysis and simulations.     

Gossip-based ad hoc routing

Many ad hoc routing protocols are based on some variant of flooding. Despite various optimizations of flooding, many routing messages are propagated unnecessarily. We propose a gossiping-based approach, where each node forwards a message with some probability, to reduce the overhead of the routing protocols. Gossiping exhibits bimodal behavior in sufficiently large networks: in some executions, the gossip dies out quickly and hardly any node gets the message; in the remaining executions, a substantial fraction of the nodes gets the message. The fraction of executions in which most nodes get the message depends on the gossiping probability and the topology of the network. In the networks we have considered, using gossiping probability between 0.6 and 0.8 suffices to ensure that almost every node gets the message in almost every execution. For large networks, this simple gossiping protocol uses up to 35% fewer messages than flooding, with improved performance. Gossiping can also be combined with various optimizations of flooding to yield further benefits. Simulations show that adding gossiping to AODV results in significant performance improvement, even in networks as small as 150 nodes. Our results suggest that the improvement should be even more significant in larger networks.     

Investigation of thermal effects in quantum-cascade lasers

The development of a thermal model for quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) is presented. The model is used in conjunction with a self-consistent scattering rate calculation of the electron dynamics of an InGaAs-AlAsSb QCL to calculate the temperature distribution throughout the device which can be a limiting factor for high temperature operation. The model is used to investigate the effects of various driving conditions and device geometries, such as epilayer down bonding and buried heterostructures, on the active region temperature. It is found that buried heterostructures have a factor of eight decrease in thermal time constants compared to standard ridge waveguide structures in pulsed mode and allow a /spl sim/78% increase in heat sink temperature compared to epilayer down mounted devices in continuous-wave mode. The model presented provides a valuable tool for understanding the thermal dynamics inside a quantum cascade laser and will help to improve their operating temperatures.     

How Multirobot Systems Research will Accelerate our Understanding of Social Animal Behavior

Our understanding of social insect behavior has significantly influenced artificial intelligence (AI) and multirobot systems' research (e.g., ant algorithms and swarm robotics). In this work, however, we focus on the opposite question: "How can multirobot systems research contribute to the understanding of social animal behavior?" As we show, we are able to contribute at several levels. First, using algorithms that originated in the robotics community, we can track animals under observation to provide essential quantitative data for animal behavior research. Second, by developing and applying algorithms originating in speech recognition and computer vision, we can automatically label the behavior of animals under observation. In some cases the automatic labeling is more accurate and consistent than manual behavior identification. Our ultimate goal, however, is to automatically create, from observation, executable models of behavior. An executable model is a control program for an agent that can run in simulation (or on a robot). The representation for these executable models is drawn from research in multirobot systems programming. In this paper we present the algorithms we have developed for tracking, recognizing, and learning models of social animal behavior, details of their implementation, and quantitative experimental results using them to study social insects.     

Adaptive Channel Estimation Using Pilot-Embedded Data-Bearing Approach for MIMO-OFDM Systems

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal-frequency-division-multiplexing (OFDM) systems employing coherent receivers crucially require channel state information (CSI). Since the multipath delay profile of channels is arbitrary in the MIMO-OFDM systems, an effective channel estimator is needed. In this paper, we first develop a pilot-embedded data-bearing (PEDB) approach for joint channel estimation and data detection, in which PEDB least-square (LS) channel estimator and maximum-likelihood (ML) data detection are employed. Then, we propose an LS fast Fourier transform (FFT)-based channel estimator by employing the concept of FFT-based channel estimation to improve the PEDB-LS one via choosing a certain number of significant taps for constructing a channel frequency response. The effects of model mismatch error inherent in the proposed LS FFT-based estimator when considering noninteger multipath delay profiles and its performance analysis are investigated. The relationship between the mean-squared error (MSE) and the number of chosen significant taps is revealed, and hence, the optimal criterion for obtaining the optimum number of significant taps is explored. Under the framework of pilot embedding, we further propose an adaptive LS FFT-based channel estimator employing the optimum number of significant taps to compensate the model mismatch error as well as minimize the corresponding noise effect. Simulation results reveal that the adaptive LS FFT-based estimator is superior to the LS FFT-based and PEDB-LS estimators under quasi-static channels or low Doppler's shift regimes     

Cavity-Backed Miniature Wideband UHF Circular Polarized Antenna With Textured Dielectrics

Use of high permittivity dielectrics with antennas is known to reduce their operating frequency but also introduces side effects such as reduced gain and bandwidth. This paper presents a miniaturization scheme for a 15 cm (6 inch) square circularly polarized (CP), cavity-backed antenna using textured dielectric loading and a folded metallic strip feed. The proposed design has an operational frequency f, around 500 MHz implying a linear size of 0.25lambda₀. The challenge in designing such a small size antenna is to increase bandwidth (10-15%) while retaining a gain of 2-4 dBi. By carefully positioning high permittivity textured dielectrics within the aperture in conjunction with shape design, we show that bandwidth and gain are retained as compared to comparable size antennas in the literature. As part of our design, we present parametric studies through computer simulations and a prototype antenna is fabricated and measured for verification