This collection includes most of the ASU Theses and Dissertations from 2011 to present. ASU Theses and Dissertations are available in downloadable PDF format; however, a small percentage of items are under embargo. Information about the dissertations/theses includes degree information, committee members, an abstract, supporting data or media.

In addition to the electronic theses found in the ASU Digital Repository, ASU Theses and Dissertations can be found in the ASU Library Catalog.

Dissertations and Theses granted by Arizona State University are archived and made available through a joint effort of the ASU Graduate College and the ASU Libraries. For more information or questions about this collection contact or visit the Digital Repository ETD Library Guide or contact the ASU Graduate College at gradformat@asu.edu.

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Description
Practical communication systems are subject to errors due to imperfect time alignment among the communicating nodes. Timing errors can occur in different forms depending on the underlying communication scenario. This doctoral study considers two different classes of asynchronous systems; point-to-point (P2P) communication systems with synchronization errors, and asynchronous cooperative systems.

Practical communication systems are subject to errors due to imperfect time alignment among the communicating nodes. Timing errors can occur in different forms depending on the underlying communication scenario. This doctoral study considers two different classes of asynchronous systems; point-to-point (P2P) communication systems with synchronization errors, and asynchronous cooperative systems. In particular, the focus is on an information theoretic analysis for P2P systems with synchronization errors and developing new signaling solutions for several asynchronous cooperative communication systems. The first part of the dissertation presents several bounds on the capacity of the P2P systems with synchronization errors. First, binary insertion and deletion channels are considered where lower bounds on the mutual information between the input and output sequences are computed for independent uniformly distributed (i.u.d.) inputs. Then, a channel suffering from both synchronization errors and additive noise is considered as a serial concatenation of a synchronization error-only channel and an additive noise channel. It is proved that the capacity of the original channel is lower bounded in terms of the synchronization error-only channel capacity and the parameters of both channels. On a different front, to better characterize the deletion channel capacity, the capacity of three independent deletion channels with different deletion probabilities are related through an inequality resulting in the tightest upper bound on the deletion channel capacity for deletion probabilities larger than 0.65. Furthermore, the first non-trivial upper bound on the 2K-ary input deletion channel capacity is provided by relating the 2K-ary input deletion channel capacity with the binary deletion channel capacity through an inequality. The second part of the dissertation develops two new relaying schemes to alleviate asynchronism issues in cooperative communications. The first one is a single carrier (SC)-based scheme providing a spectrally efficient Alamouti code structure at the receiver under flat fading channel conditions by reducing the overhead needed to overcome the asynchronism and obtain spatial diversity. The second one is an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based approach useful for asynchronous cooperative systems experiencing excessive relative delays among the relays under frequency-selective channel conditions to achieve a delay diversity structure at the receiver and extract spatial diversity.
ContributorsRahmati, Mojtaba (Author) / Duman, Tolga M. (Thesis advisor) / Zhang, Junshan (Committee member) / Tepedelenlioğlu, Cihan (Committee member) / Reisslein, Martin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
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Description
One of the main challenges in planetary robotics is to traverse the shortest path through a set of waypoints. The shortest distance between any two waypoints is a direct linear traversal. Often times, there are physical restrictions that prevent a rover form traversing straight to a waypoint. Thus, knowledge of

One of the main challenges in planetary robotics is to traverse the shortest path through a set of waypoints. The shortest distance between any two waypoints is a direct linear traversal. Often times, there are physical restrictions that prevent a rover form traversing straight to a waypoint. Thus, knowledge of the terrain is needed prior to traversal. The Digital Terrain Model (DTM) provides information about the terrain along with waypoints for the rover to traverse. However, traversing a set of waypoints linearly is burdensome, as the rovers would constantly need to modify their orientation as they successively approach waypoints. Although there are various solutions to this problem, this research paper proposes the smooth traversability of the rover using splines as a quick and easy implementation to traverse a set of waypoints. In addition, a rover was used to compare the smoothness of the linear traversal along with the spline interpolations. The data collected illustrated that spline traversals had a less rate of change in the velocity over time, indicating that the rover performed smoother than with linear paths.
ContributorsKamasamudram, Anurag (Author) / Saripalli, Srikanth (Thesis advisor) / Fainekos, Georgios (Thesis advisor) / Turaga, Pavan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
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Description
Global Positioning System (GPS) is a navigation system widely used in civilian and military application, but its accuracy is highly impacted with consequential fading, and possible loss of communication due to multipath propagation and high power interferences. This dissertation proposes alternatives to improve the performance of the GPS receivers to

Global Positioning System (GPS) is a navigation system widely used in civilian and military application, but its accuracy is highly impacted with consequential fading, and possible loss of communication due to multipath propagation and high power interferences. This dissertation proposes alternatives to improve the performance of the GPS receivers to obtain a system that can be reliable in critical situations. The basic performance of the GPS receiver consists of receiving the signal with an antenna array, delaying the signal at each antenna element, weighting the delayed replicas, and finally, combining the weighted replicas to estimate the desired signal. Based on these, three modifications are proposed to improve the performance of the system. The first proposed modification is the use of the Least Mean Squares (LMS) algorithm with two variations to decrease the convergence time of the classic LMS while achieving good system stability. The results obtained by the proposed LMS demonstrate that the algorithm can achieve the same stability as the classic LMS using a small step size, and its convergence rate is better than the classic LMS using a large step size. The second proposed modification is to replace the uniform distribution of the time delays (or taps) by an exponential distribution that decreases the bit-error rate (BER) of the system without impacting the computational efficiency of the uniform taps. The results show that, for a BER of 0.001, the system can operate with a 1 to 2 dB lower signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) when an exponential distribution is used rather than a uniform distribution. Finally, the third modification is implemented in the design of the antenna array. In this case, the gain of each microstrip element is enhanced by embedding ferrite rings in the substrate, creating a hybrid substrate. The ferrite rings generates constructive interference between the incident and reflected fields; consequently, the gain of a single microstrip element is enhanced by up to 4 dB. When hybrid substrates are used in microstrip element arrays, a significant enhancement in angle range is achieved for a given reflection coefficient compared to using a conventional substrate.
ContributorsRivera-Albino, Alix (Author) / Balanis, Constantine A (Thesis advisor) / Tepedelenlioğlu, Cihan (Committee member) / Kiaei, Sayfe (Committee member) / Aberle, James T (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
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Description
The processing power and storage capacity of portable devices have improved considerably over the past decade. This has motivated the implementation of sophisticated audio and other signal processing algorithms on such mobile devices. Of particular interest in this thesis is audio/speech processing based on perceptual criteria. Specifically, estimation of parameters

The processing power and storage capacity of portable devices have improved considerably over the past decade. This has motivated the implementation of sophisticated audio and other signal processing algorithms on such mobile devices. Of particular interest in this thesis is audio/speech processing based on perceptual criteria. Specifically, estimation of parameters from human auditory models, such as auditory patterns and loudness, involves computationally intensive operations which can strain device resources. Hence, strategies for implementing computationally efficient human auditory models for loudness estimation have been studied in this thesis. Existing algorithms for reducing computations in auditory pattern and loudness estimation have been examined and improved algorithms have been proposed to overcome limitations of these methods. In addition, real-time applications such as perceptual loudness estimation and loudness equalization using auditory models have also been implemented. A software implementation of loudness estimation on iOS devices is also reported in this thesis. In addition to the loudness estimation algorithms and software, in this thesis project we also created new illustrations of speech and audio processing concepts for research and education. As a result, a new suite of speech/audio DSP functions was developed and integrated as part of the award-winning educational iOS App 'iJDSP." These functions are described in detail in this thesis. Several enhancements in the architecture of the application have also been introduced for providing the supporting framework for speech/audio processing. Frame-by-frame processing and visualization functionalities have been developed to facilitate speech/audio processing. In addition, facilities for easy sound recording, processing and audio rendering have also been developed to provide students, practitioners and researchers with an enriched DSP simulation tool. Simulations and assessments have been also developed for use in classes and training of practitioners and students.
ContributorsKalyanasundaram, Girish (Author) / Spanias, Andreas S (Thesis advisor) / Tepedelenlioğlu, Cihan (Committee member) / Berisha, Visar (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
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Description
As the complexity of robotic systems and applications grows rapidly, development of high-performance, easy to use, and fully integrated development environments for those systems is inevitable. Model-Based Design (MBD) of dynamic systems using engineering software such as Simulink® from MathWorks®, SciCos from Metalau team and SystemModeler® from Wolfram® is quite

As the complexity of robotic systems and applications grows rapidly, development of high-performance, easy to use, and fully integrated development environments for those systems is inevitable. Model-Based Design (MBD) of dynamic systems using engineering software such as Simulink® from MathWorks®, SciCos from Metalau team and SystemModeler® from Wolfram® is quite popular nowadays. They provide tools for modeling, simulation, verification and in some cases automatic code generation for desktop applications, embedded systems and robots. For real-world implementation of models on the actual hardware, those models should be converted into compilable machine code either manually or automatically. Due to the complexity of robotic systems, manual code translation from model to code is not a feasible optimal solution so we need to move towards automated code generation for such systems. MathWorks® offers code generation facilities called Coder® products for this purpose. However in order to fully exploit the power of model-based design and code generation tools for robotic applications, we need to enhance those software systems by adding and modifying toolboxes, files and other artifacts as well as developing guidelines and procedures. In this thesis, an effort has been made to propose a guideline as well as a Simulink® library, StateFlow® interface API and a C/C++ interface API to complete this toolchain for NAO humanoid robots. Thus the model of the hierarchical control architecture can be easily and properly converted to code and built for implementation.
ContributorsRaji Kermani, Ramtin (Author) / Fainekos, Georgios (Thesis advisor) / Lee, Yann-Hang (Committee member) / Sarjoughian, Hessam S. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
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Description
Autonomous vehicle control systems utilize real-time kinematic Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) receivers to provide a position within two-centimeter of truth. GNSS receivers utilize the satellite signal time of arrival estimates to solve for position; and multipath corrupts the time of arrival estimates with a time-varying bias. Time of arrival

Autonomous vehicle control systems utilize real-time kinematic Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) receivers to provide a position within two-centimeter of truth. GNSS receivers utilize the satellite signal time of arrival estimates to solve for position; and multipath corrupts the time of arrival estimates with a time-varying bias. Time of arrival estimates are based upon accurate direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) code and carrier phase tracking. Current multipath mitigating GNSS solutions include fixed radiation pattern antennas and windowed delay-lock loop code phase discriminators. A new multipath mitigating code tracking algorithm is introduced that utilizes a non-symmetric correlation kernel to reject multipath. Independent parameters provide a means to trade-off code tracking discriminant gain against multipath mitigation performance. The algorithm performance is characterized in terms of multipath phase error bias, phase error estimation variance, tracking range, tracking ambiguity and implementation complexity. The algorithm is suitable for modernized GNSS signals including Binary Phase Shift Keyed (BPSK) and a variety of Binary Offset Keyed (BOC) signals. The algorithm compensates for unbalanced code sequences to ensure a code tracking bias does not result from the use of asymmetric correlation kernels. The algorithm does not require explicit knowledge of the propagation channel model. Design recommendations for selecting the algorithm parameters to mitigate precorrelation filter distortion are also provided.
ContributorsMiller, Steven (Author) / Spanias, Andreas (Thesis advisor) / Tepedelenlioğlu, Cihan (Committee member) / Tsakalis, Konstantinos (Committee member) / Zhang, Junshan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
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Description
Distributed inference has applications in a wide range of fields such as source localization, target detection, environment monitoring, and healthcare. In this dissertation, distributed inference schemes which use bounded transmit power are considered. The performance of the proposed schemes are studied for a variety of inference problems. In the first

Distributed inference has applications in a wide range of fields such as source localization, target detection, environment monitoring, and healthcare. In this dissertation, distributed inference schemes which use bounded transmit power are considered. The performance of the proposed schemes are studied for a variety of inference problems. In the first part of the dissertation, a distributed detection scheme where the sensors transmit with constant modulus signals over a Gaussian multiple access channel is considered. The deflection coefficient of the proposed scheme is shown to depend on the characteristic function of the sensing noise, and the error exponent for the system is derived using large deviation theory. Optimization of the deflection coefficient and error exponent are considered with respect to a transmission phase parameter for a variety of sensing noise distributions including impulsive ones. The proposed scheme is also favorably compared with existing amplify-and-forward (AF) and detect-and-forward (DF) schemes. The effect of fading is shown to be detrimental to the detection performance and simulations are provided to corroborate the analytical results. The second part of the dissertation studies a distributed inference scheme which uses bounded transmission functions over a Gaussian multiple access channel. The conditions on the transmission functions under which consistent estimation and reliable detection are possible is characterized. For the distributed estimation problem, an estimation scheme that uses bounded transmission functions is proved to be strongly consistent provided that the variance of the noise samples are bounded and that the transmission function is one-to-one. The proposed estimation scheme is compared with the amplify and forward technique and its robustness to impulsive sensing noise distributions is highlighted. It is also shown that bounded transmissions suffer from inconsistent estimates if the sensing noise variance goes to infinity. For the distributed detection problem, similar results are obtained by studying the deflection coefficient. Simulations corroborate our analytical results. In the third part of this dissertation, the problem of estimating the average of samples distributed at the nodes of a sensor network is considered. A distributed average consensus algorithm in which every sensor transmits with bounded peak power is proposed. In the presence of communication noise, it is shown that the nodes reach consensus asymptotically to a finite random variable whose expectation is the desired sample average of the initial observations with a variance that depends on the step size of the algorithm and the variance of the communication noise. The asymptotic performance is characterized by deriving the asymptotic covariance matrix using results from stochastic approximation theory. It is shown that using bounded transmissions results in slower convergence compared to the linear consensus algorithm based on the Laplacian heuristic. Simulations corroborate our analytical findings. Finally, a robust distributed average consensus algorithm in which every sensor performs a nonlinear processing at the receiver is proposed. It is shown that non-linearity at the receiver nodes makes the algorithm robust to a wide range of channel noise distributions including the impulsive ones. It is shown that the nodes reach consensus asymptotically and similar results are obtained as in the case of transmit non-linearity. Simulations corroborate our analytical findings and highlight the robustness of the proposed algorithm.
ContributorsDasarathan, Sivaraman (Author) / Tepedelenlioğlu, Cihan (Thesis advisor) / Papandreou-Suppappola, Antonia (Committee member) / Reisslein, Martin (Committee member) / Goryll, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
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Description
Objective of this thesis project is to build a prototype using Linear Temporal Logic specifications for generating a 2D motion plan commanding an iRobot to fulfill the specifications. This thesis project was created for Cyber Physical Systems Lab in Arizona State University. The end product of this thesis is creation

Objective of this thesis project is to build a prototype using Linear Temporal Logic specifications for generating a 2D motion plan commanding an iRobot to fulfill the specifications. This thesis project was created for Cyber Physical Systems Lab in Arizona State University. The end product of this thesis is creation of a software solution which can be used in the academia and industry for research in cyber physical systems related applications. The major features of the project are: creating a modular system for motion planning, use of Robot Operating System (ROS), use of triangulation for environment decomposition and using stargazer sensor for localization. The project is built on an open source software called ROS which provides an environment where it is very easy to integrate different modules be it software or hardware on a Linux based platform. Use of ROS implies the project or its modules can be adapted quickly for different applications as the need arises. The final software package created and tested takes a data file as its input which contains the LTL specifications, a symbols list used in the LTL and finally the environment polygon data containing real world coordinates for all polygons and also information on neighbors and parents of each polygon. The software package successfully ran the experiment of coverage, reachability with avoidance and sequencing.
ContributorsPandya, Parth (Author) / Fainekos, Georgios (Thesis advisor) / Dasgupta, Partha (Committee member) / Lee, Yann-Hang (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
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Description
Linear Temporal Logic is gaining increasing popularity as a high level specification language for robot motion planning due to its expressive power and scalability of LTL control synthesis algorithms. This formalism, however, requires expert knowledge and makes it inaccessible to non-expert users. This thesis introduces a graphical specification environment to

Linear Temporal Logic is gaining increasing popularity as a high level specification language for robot motion planning due to its expressive power and scalability of LTL control synthesis algorithms. This formalism, however, requires expert knowledge and makes it inaccessible to non-expert users. This thesis introduces a graphical specification environment to create high level motion plans to control robots in the field by converting a visual representation of the motion/task plan into a Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) specification. The visual interface is built on the Android tablet platform and provides functionality to create task plans through a set of well defined gestures and on screen controls. It uses the notion of waypoints to quickly and efficiently describe the motion plan and enables a variety of complex Linear Temporal Logic specifications to be described succinctly and intuitively by the user without the need for the knowledge and understanding of LTL specification. Thus, it opens avenues for its use by personnel in military, warehouse management, and search and rescue missions. This thesis describes the construction of LTL for various scenarios used for robot navigation using the visual interface developed and leverages the use of existing LTL based motion planners to carry out the task plan by a robot.
ContributorsSrinivas, Shashank (Author) / Fainekos, Georgios (Thesis advisor) / Baral, Chitta (Committee member) / Burleson, Winslow (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
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Description
The field of education has been immensely benefited by major breakthroughs in technology. The arrival of computers and the internet made student-teacher interaction from different parts of the world viable, increasing the reach of the educator to hitherto remote corners of the world. The arrival of mobile phones in the

The field of education has been immensely benefited by major breakthroughs in technology. The arrival of computers and the internet made student-teacher interaction from different parts of the world viable, increasing the reach of the educator to hitherto remote corners of the world. The arrival of mobile phones in the recent past has the potential to provide the next paradigm shift in the way education is conducted. It combines the universal reach and powerful visualization capabilities of the computer with intimacy and portability. Engineering education is a field which can exploit the benefits of mobile devices to enhance learning and spread essential technical know-how to different parts of the world. In this thesis, I present AJDSP, an Android application evolved from JDSP, providing an intuitive and a easy to use environment for signal processing education. AJDSP is a graphical programming laboratory for digital signal processing developed for the Android platform. It is designed to provide utility; both as a supplement to traditional classroom learning and as a tool for self-learning. The architecture of AJDSP is based on the Model-View-Controller paradigm optimized for the Android platform. The extensive set of function modules cover a wide range of basic signal processing areas such as convolution, fast Fourier transform, z transform and filter design. The simple and intuitive user interface inspired from iJDSP is designed to facilitate ease of navigation and to provide the user with an intimate learning environment. Rich visualizations necessary to understand mathematically intensive signal processing algorithms have been incorporated into the software. Interactive demonstrations boosting student understanding of concepts like convolution and the relation between different signal domains have also been developed. A set of detailed assessments to evaluate the application has been conducted for graduate and senior-level undergraduate students.
ContributorsRanganath, Suhas (Author) / Spanias, Andreas (Thesis advisor) / Tepedelenlioğlu, Cihan (Committee member) / Tsakalis, Konstantinos (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013