John W. Dyer

Implementation of a wireless battery management system (WBMS)

This paper introduces a wireless battery management system (BMS) based on Bluetooth technology. With the burgeoning use of battery packs in electric and hybrid vehicles, battery management has become a significant area for improvement. Typical battery packs consist of many individual battery cells, and total-pack performance can only be optimized by ensuring level charge and discharge performance across all individual constituent cells. Current battery pack technology relies on wired sensor connections to all individual cells to track temperature and voltage of each cell, and adjust charge and discharge rates accordingly. Packs with large numbers of individual cells typically have thousands of wire terminations that are susceptible to mechanical failure. This can lead to premature pack failure. Moreover, when an individual battery cell fails under this scenario, and entire pack rebuild is required. The proposed wireless battery management minimizes the failure points in a battery pack. Furthermore, it makes individual components more readily replaced without an entire rebuild, while also eliminating the impact of system modifications on bulky wiring harnesses. The implemented system performed similarly to a wired system in comparison tests, while saving weight and significantly reducing failure points.

Measuring spectral organization in atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common, clinically significant arrhythmia. When it becomes persistent and drug-refractory, catheter ablation is the preferred therapy. This paper proposes a new method for assessing the level of organization of the electrical activity in the atria during atrial fibrillation, which may enhance the long-term success of ablation therapy and identify those at risk of AF recurrence after therapy. The method uses independent component analysis (ICA) to extract the global atrial activity from the body surface 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG). The extracted atrial signal is subjected to bandpass filtering and spectral analysis. The resulting spectrum is assessed both for the power in its dominant frequency, and for the power associated with the harmonics of the dominant frequency. The ratio of harmonic power to dominant frequency power is assigned as an index of organization. The results show that the proposed method is predictive of AF recurrence after ablation therapy. The proposed method may provide a more objective way to assess when to terminate ablation, as well as help clinicians determine how to treat post-ablation patients.

Analysis of transmission and polarization optimization of counter-small UAS (C-SUAS) radar and jamming

This study summarizes recent progress on the Drone Detection and Mitigation Radar (DDMR) concept, with focus on polarimetric radar signature of small UAS at different frequency bands, micro-Doppler impact, and the optimization of sweeping noise jamming solution of the communication links. New results of measurements are presented and effort to achieve the optimal effectiveness of the sweep jamming is summarized.

A semester-long study abroad model for engineering students: The unified project approach

Study abroad programs have nearly doubled in the last ten years. Studies show that students who study abroad are better prepared for success in their respective fields of interest. This is no less true for engineering students. But engineering schools have been very slow accepting the challenge of providing study abroad opportunities to students, due perhaps to the rigidity of most engineering curricula which were developed in the last century. This trend is changing, however. The largest increase in students studying abroad are STEM students - in 2012/13 9% overall were from STEM disciplines and 2/3rd of these were engineering students. Many universities offer short-term study abroad programs for engineering students designed to be held during the summer. These short-term programs strive to accommodate those who cannot afford to delay their coursework. It can be suggested that semester-long programs provide greater cross-cultural benefits but providing a study abroad curriculum that fits the stringent engineering requirements can be difficult. The College of Engineering at The University of Oklahoma has developed an engineering study abroad program that offers key engineering courses chosen to fit a wide variety of discipline-specific engineering curricula. The key to success in any program is faculty involvement. In order to promote faculty involvement the course work is broken into concentrated four-week blocks taught by different engineering instructors, providing an opportunity for professors with active research programs to share their current expertise with the students in a foreign setting. In order to provide a cohesive educational experience, a Unified Project is developed that has components that relate to each course and which takes advantage of opportunities offered by the host country. This study model is expected to provide smooth transitions from one concentrated course to the next, while providing the students with the cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural experience that engineers will need to compete on a global marketplace.

Impact of improved measurements on performance of a smart thermal energy system

In this paper, we demonstrate a successful practical application of an effective measurement algorithm that provides a solution to improve the performance of a smart electric thermal energy system. It is shown that the issues related to the volatility and speed of the boiler power controller observed in current installations is addressed satisfactorily, by accounting for boiler water conductivity with temperature changes. For a typical hot-water boiler, the change in conductivity is almost 20%, which translates to a 15% increase in power consumption in the operational temperature range of the boiler. To ensure a satisfactory control philosophy, a fault-tolerant and redundant measurement is of great importance as well. The new algorithm dynamically modifies the slope of certain xy-curves determined at commissioning based on normalized temperature and accounts for changes in conductivity with changes of temperature. Test results indicated that the mean power error, the difference between actual power and power set point, showed a clear improvement in maintaining load-frequency control, reducing the mean power error to 0 ± 0.5%. The enhanced control algorithm is particularly relevant in applications with increased volatility due to electrical power production by wind turbine.

Portable airborne data acquisition for Flight Tests

This paper describes the design and implementation of a Flight Test Data System (FTDS) used to acquire information about key flight parameters during Terminal Instrument Procedures (TERPS). The data system is comprised of a truth system based on a differential pair of survey-grade GPS receivers with L1/L2 capabilities, and a separate system that acquires both digital and analog signals from the aircraft buses. The accuracy of the system data has been demonstrated and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved the system for use in its flight-testing.

Visual aircraft tracking system for departures

This paper describes a novel binocular camera system for tracking aircraft in the low-altitude, visual segment of departure. Recent economic pressures and changing Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations have raised concern that obstacle clearance requirements are not being met on departure. Moreover, local airport procedures do not always align with the requirements for Terminal Instrument Procedures (TERPs) established by the FAA. The flight track data collected by this system will be used by the FAA to assess the magnitude of the problem and determine steps to align airport and TERPs procedures, while also mitigating obstacle clearance violations.

Measurement and instrumentation in the classroom damped oscillatory systems

Experiential learning opportunities have been demonstrated to improve long-term retention of engineering theory, as well as promoting directed self-learning skills. This paper describes a project-based problem based on the theory of vibrating systems. The theory and practical experiment help the student understand the relationship between frequency of oscillation, the Laplace representation of a second-order system, and the time-domain solution of a second-order differential equation. The damped oscillatory system has complex conjugate roots, ensuring that the student is exposed to a level of math expected by future employers. The project work is based on a bouncing toy with a decaying oscillation, and accelerometer data via a student-programmed data acquisition system.

Automated HITS to LASAR translation: Application, evaluation, opportunities, and obstacles

HITS (Hierarchical Integrated Test Simulator) and LASAR (Logic Automated Stimulus And Response) are two software platforms used for simulating digital circuits, determining their operation under specified faulty conditions, and judging the percentage of user-specified faults that are uniquely detected given a user-specified set of digital input patterns. These software platforms also generate files that may be imported onto automated test equipment (ATE) to allow the simulated input patterns to be applied to actual digital circuits and facilitate the detection of actual circuit faults. HITS is natively utilized on a variety of now-obsolete ATE systems and is, itself, obsolete. LASAR, on the other hand, is more technologically capable, manufacturer-supported, and utilized on myriad modern ATE systems. The need to migrate existing test application hardware and software from obsolete ATE systems that utilize HITS to supportable ATE systems that utilize LASAR presents the opportunity to simplify the migration effort by devising a method to automatically translate the simulation source data from HITS format into LASAR format.

Architecture and performance of an instrumented RF system that utilizes the GNSS satellite network

The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is the space segment of the Global Positioning System (GPS), and the GNSS signals may be measured via instrumented ground stations to provide improved positional information for aircraft landing. This paper presents an instrumented RF system to demonstrate these properties. In particular, a landing system will be studied in this paper. By definition, the Ground Based Augmentation System (GBAS) provides local GPS error corrections to aircraft from a ground-based station. The Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS) is one implementation of GBAS that is being developed to meet the needs of very low-visibility instrument approaches. There are concerns of the possibility that a LAAS ground station might inadvertently transmit a signal in space (SIS) that includes Hazardous Misleading Information (HMI). The current method of detecting HMI relies heavily on statistical inference to determine the integrity of the transmitted error corrections. This paper presents a method of closing the loop of the LAAS transmission to deterministically reduce the probability of transmitting HMI.