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Solar power generation is the most promising technology to transfer energy consumption reliance from fossil fuel to renewable sources. Concentrated solar power generation is a method to concentrate the sunlight from a bigger area to a smaller area. The collected sunlight is converted more efficiently through two types of technologies:

Solar power generation is the most promising technology to transfer energy consumption reliance from fossil fuel to renewable sources. Concentrated solar power generation is a method to concentrate the sunlight from a bigger area to a smaller area. The collected sunlight is converted more efficiently through two types of technologies: concentrated solar photovoltaics (CSPV) and concentrated solar thermal power (CSTP) generation. In this thesis, these two technologies were evaluated in terms of system construction, performance characteristics, design considerations, cost benefit analysis and their field experience. The two concentrated solar power generation systems were implemented with similar solar concentrators and solar tracking systems but with different energy collecting and conversion components: the CSPV system uses high efficiency multi-junction solar cell modules, while the CSTP system uses a boiler -turbine-generator setup. The performances are calibrated via the experiments and evaluation analysis.
ContributorsJin, Zhilei (Author) / Hui, Yu (Thesis advisor) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Rodriguez, Armando (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
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Description
From time immemorial, epilepsy has persisted to be one of the greatest impediments to human life for those stricken by it. As the fourth most common neurological disorder, epilepsy causes paroxysmal electrical discharges in the brain that manifest as seizures. Seizures have the effect of debilitating patients on a physical

From time immemorial, epilepsy has persisted to be one of the greatest impediments to human life for those stricken by it. As the fourth most common neurological disorder, epilepsy causes paroxysmal electrical discharges in the brain that manifest as seizures. Seizures have the effect of debilitating patients on a physical and psychological level. Although not lethal by themselves, they can bring about total disruption in consciousness which can, in hazardous conditions, lead to fatality. Roughly 1\% of the world population suffer from epilepsy and another 30 to 50 new cases per 100,000 increase the number of affected annually. Controlling seizures in epileptic patients has therefore become a great medical and, in recent years, engineering challenge.



In this study, the conditions of human seizures are recreated in an animal model of temporal lobe epilepsy. The rodents used in this study are chemically induced to become chronically epileptic. Their Electroencephalogram (EEG) data is then recorded and analyzed to detect and predict seizures; with the ultimate goal being the control and complete suppression of seizures.



Two methods, the maximum Lyapunov exponent and the Generalized Partial Directed Coherence (GPDC), are applied on EEG data to extract meaningful information. Their effectiveness have been reported in the literature for the purpose of prediction of seizures and seizure focus localization. This study integrates these measures, through some modifications, to robustly detect seizures and separately find precursors to them and in consequence provide stimulation to the epileptic brain of rats in order to suppress seizures. Additionally open-loop stimulation with biphasic currents of various pairs of sites in differing lengths of time have helped us create control efficacy maps. While GPDC tells us about the possible location of the focus, control efficacy maps tells us how effective stimulating a certain pair of sites will be.



The results from computations performed on the data are presented and the feasibility of the control problem is discussed. The results show a new reliable means of seizure detection even in the presence of artifacts in the data. The seizure precursors provide a means of prediction, in the order of tens of minutes, prior to seizures. Closed loop stimulation experiments based on these precursors and control efficacy maps on the epileptic animals show a maximum reduction of seizure frequency by 24.26\% in one animal and reduction of length of seizures by 51.77\% in another. Thus, through this study it was shown that the implementation of the methods can ameliorate seizures in an epileptic patient. It is expected that the new knowledge and experimental techniques will provide a guide for future research in an effort to ultimately eliminate seizures in epileptic patients.
ContributorsShafique, Md Ashfaque Bin (Author) / Tsakalis, Konstantinos (Thesis advisor) / Rodriguez, Armando (Committee member) / Muthuswamy, Jitendran (Committee member) / Spanias, Andreas (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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Description
With the revolution of low-cost microelectronics, rotary-wing vehicles have grown increasingly popular and important in the past two decades. With increased interest in quadcopters comes the need to for a systematic and rigorous framework to model, analyze, control, and design them. This thesis presents the beginning of such a framework.

With the revolution of low-cost microelectronics, rotary-wing vehicles have grown increasingly popular and important in the past two decades. With increased interest in quadcopters comes the need to for a systematic and rigorous framework to model, analyze, control, and design them. This thesis presents the beginning of such a framework.

The work presents the nonlinear equations of motion of a quadcopter. This includes the translational and rotational equations of motion, as well as an analysis of the nonlinear actuator dynamics. The work then analyzes the static properties of a quadcopter in forward flight equilibrium and shows how static properties change as physical properties of the vehicle are varied. Next, the dynamics of forward flight are linearized, and a dynamic analysis is provided.

After dynamic analysis, the work shows detailed hierarchical control system design trade studies, which includes attitude and translational inner-outer loop control. Among other designs, the following are presented: PD control, proportional control, pole-placement control. Each of these control architectures are employed for the inner loops and outer loops. The work also analyzes linear versus nonlinear simulation performance of a quadcopter, specifically for a step x-axis reference command. It is found that the nonlinear dynamics of the actuator cause significant discrepancy between linear and nonlinear simulation.

Finally, this thesis establishes directions for future graduate research. This includes hardware design, as well as moving toward design of a highly-maneuverable thrust-vectoring quadrotor which will be the focus of the proposed graduate PhD research. In summary, this thesis provides the beginning of a cohesive framework to model, analyze, control, and design quadcopters. It also lays the groundwork for graduate research and beyond.
ContributorsWallace, Brent (Author) / Rodriguez, Armando (Thesis director) / Berman, Spring (Committee member) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-12