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Description
Operational efficiency of solar energy farms requires detailed analytics and information on each panel regarding voltage, current, temperature, and irradiance. Monitoring utility-scale solar arrays was shown to minimize the cost of maintenance and help optimize the performance of photovoltaic (PV) arrays under various conditions. This dissertation describes a project that focuses on the development of machine learning and neural network algorithms. It also describes an 18kW solar array testbed for the purpose of PV monitoring and control. The use of the 18kW Sensor Signal and Information Processing (SenSIP) PV testbed which consists of 104 modules fitted with smart monitoring devices (SMDs) is described in detail. Each of the SMDs has embedded, a wireless transceiver, and relays that enable continuous monitoring, fault detection, and real-time connection topology changes. Data is obtained in real time using the SenSIP PV testbed. Machine learning and neural network algorithms for PV fault classification is are studied in depth. More specifically, the development of a series of customized neural networks for detection and classification of solar array faults that include soiling, shading, degradation, short circuits and standard test conditions is considered. The evaluation of fault detection and classification methods using metrics such as accuracy, confusion matrices, and the Risk Priority Number (RPN) is performed. The examination and assessment the classification performance of customized neural networks with dropout regularizers is presented in detail. The development and evaluation of neural network pruning strategies and illustration of the trade-off between fault classification model accuracy and algorithm complexity is studied. This study includes data from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) database and also real-time data collected from the SenSIP testbed at MTW under various loading and shading conditions. The overall approach for detection and classification promises to elevate the performance and robustness of PV arrays.
ContributorsRao, Sunil (Author) / Spanias, Andreas (Thesis advisor) / Tepedelenlioğlu, Cihan (Thesis advisor) / Tsakalis, Konstantinos (Committee member) / Srinivasan, Devarajan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
This dissertation examines modeling, design and control challenges associatedwith two classes of power converters: a direct current-direct current (DC-DC) step-down (buck)
regulator and a 3-phase (3-ϕ) 4-wire direct current-alternating current
(DC-AC) inverter. These are widely used for power transfer in a variety of industrial
and personal applications. This motivates the precise quantification of conditions
under which existing modeling and design methods yield satisfactory designs, and
the study of alternatives when they don’t. This dissertation describes a method
utilizing Fourier components of the input square wave and the inductor-capacitor (LC)
filter transfer function, which doesn’t require the small ripple approximation. Then,
trade-offs associated with the choice of the filter order are analyzed for integrated buck
converters with a constraint on their chip area. Design specifications which would
justify using a fourth or sixth order filter instead of the widely used second order
one are examined. Next, sampled-data (SD) control of a buck converter is analyzed.
Three methods for the digital controller design are studied: analog design followed
by discretization, direct digital design of a discretized plant, and a “lifting” based
method wherein the sampling time is incorporated in the design process by lifting
the continuous-time design plant before doing the controller design. Specifically,
controller performance is quantified by studying the induced-L2 norm of the closed
loop system for a range of switching/sampling frequencies. In the final segment of
this dissertation, the inner-outer control loop, employed in inverters with an
inductor-capacitor-inductor (LCL) output filter, is studied. Closed loop sensitivities for the
loop broken at the error and the control are examined, demonstrating that traditional
methods only address these properties for one loop-breaking point. New controllers
are then provided for improving both sets of properties.
ContributorsSarkar, Aratrik (Author) / Rodriguez, Armando A (Thesis advisor) / Si, Jennie (Committee member) / Mittelmann, Hans D (Committee member) / Tsakalis, Konstantinos (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
In this dissertation, we present a H-infinity based multivariable control design methodology that can be used to systematically address design specifications at distinct feedback loop-breaking points. It is well understood that for multivariable systems, obtaining good/acceptable closed loop properties at one loop-breaking point does not mean the same at another. This is especially true for multivariable systems that are ill-conditioned (having high condition number and/or relative gain array and/or scaled condition number). We analyze the tradeoffs involved in shaping closed loop properties at these distinct loop-breaking points and illustrate through examples the existence of pareto optimal points associated with them. Further, we study the limitations and tradeoffs associated with shaping the properties in the presence of right half plane poles/zeros, limited available bandwidth and peak time-domain constraints. To address the above tradeoffs, we present a methodology for designing multiobjective constrained H-infinity based controllers, called Generalized Mixed Sensitivity (GMS), to effectively and efficiently shape properties at distinct loop-breaking points. The methodology accommodates a broad class of convex frequency- and time-domain design specifications. This is accomplished by exploiting the Youla-Jabr-Bongiorno-Kucera parameterization that transforms the nonlinear problem in the controller to an affine one in the Youla et al. parameter. Basis parameters that result in efficient approximation (using lesser number of basis terms) of the infinite-dimensional parameter are studied. Three state-of-the-art subgradient-based non-differentiable constrained convex optimization solvers, namely Analytic Center Cutting Plane Method (ACCPM), Kelley's CPM and SolvOpt are implemented and compared.
The above approach is used to design controllers for and tradeoff between several control properties of longitudinal dynamics of 3-DOF Hypersonic vehicle model -– one that is unstable, non-minimum phase and possesses significant coupling between channels. A hierarchical inner-outer loop control architecture is used to exploit additional feedback information in order to significantly help in making reasonable tradeoffs between properties at distinct loop-breaking points. The methodology is shown to generate very good designs –- designs that would be difficult to obtain without our presented methodology. Critical control tradeoffs associated are studied and compared with other design methods (e.g., classically motivated, standard mixed sensitivity) to further illustrate its power and transparency.
The above approach is used to design controllers for and tradeoff between several control properties of longitudinal dynamics of 3-DOF Hypersonic vehicle model -– one that is unstable, non-minimum phase and possesses significant coupling between channels. A hierarchical inner-outer loop control architecture is used to exploit additional feedback information in order to significantly help in making reasonable tradeoffs between properties at distinct loop-breaking points. The methodology is shown to generate very good designs –- designs that would be difficult to obtain without our presented methodology. Critical control tradeoffs associated are studied and compared with other design methods (e.g., classically motivated, standard mixed sensitivity) to further illustrate its power and transparency.
ContributorsPuttannaiah, Karan (Author) / Rodriguez, Armando A. (Thesis advisor) / Berman, Spring M. (Committee member) / Mittelmann, Hans D. (Committee member) / Tsakalis, Konstantinos (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Toward the ambitious long-term goal of a fleet of cooperating Flexible Autonomous Machines operating in an uncertain Environment (FAME), this thesis addresses various perception and control problems in autonomous aerial robotics. The objective of this thesis is to motivate the use of perspective cues in single images for the planning and control of quadrotors in indoor environments. In addition to providing empirical evidence for the abundance of such cues in indoor environments, the usefulness of these perspective cues is demonstrated by designing a control algorithm for navigating a quadrotor in indoor corridors. An Extended Kalman Filter (EKF), implemented on top of the vision algorithm, serves to improve the robustness of the algorithm to changing illumination.
In this thesis, vanishing points are the perspective cues used to control and navigate a quadrotor in an indoor corridor. Indoor corridors are an abundant source of parallel lines. As a consequence of perspective projection, parallel lines in the real world, that are not parallel to the plane of the camera, intersect at a point in the image. This point is called the vanishing point of the image. The vanishing point is sensitive to the lateral motion of the camera and hence the quadrotor. By tracking the position of the vanishing point in every image frame, the quadrotor can navigate along the center of the corridor.
Experiments are conducted using the Augmented Reality (AR) Drone 2.0. The drone is equipped with the following componenets: (1) 720p forward facing camera for vanishing point detection, (2) 240p downward facing camera, (3) Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) for attitude control , (4) Ultrasonic sensor for estimating altitude, (5) On-board 1 GHz Processor for processing low level commands. The reliability of the vision algorithm is presented by flying the drone in indoor corridors.
In this thesis, vanishing points are the perspective cues used to control and navigate a quadrotor in an indoor corridor. Indoor corridors are an abundant source of parallel lines. As a consequence of perspective projection, parallel lines in the real world, that are not parallel to the plane of the camera, intersect at a point in the image. This point is called the vanishing point of the image. The vanishing point is sensitive to the lateral motion of the camera and hence the quadrotor. By tracking the position of the vanishing point in every image frame, the quadrotor can navigate along the center of the corridor.
Experiments are conducted using the Augmented Reality (AR) Drone 2.0. The drone is equipped with the following componenets: (1) 720p forward facing camera for vanishing point detection, (2) 240p downward facing camera, (3) Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) for attitude control , (4) Ultrasonic sensor for estimating altitude, (5) On-board 1 GHz Processor for processing low level commands. The reliability of the vision algorithm is presented by flying the drone in indoor corridors.
ContributorsRavishankar, Nikhilesh (Author) / Rodriguez, Armando A (Thesis advisor) / Tsakalis, Konstantinos (Committee member) / Berman, Spring M (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are widely used in many applications because of their small size, great mobility and hover performance. This has been a consequence of the fast development of electronics, cheap lightweight flight controllers for accurate positioning and cameras. This thesis describes modeling, control and design of an oblique-cross-quadcopter platform for indoor-environments.
One contribution of the work was the design of a new printed-circuit-board (PCB) flight controller (called MARK3). Key features/capabilities are as follows:
(1) a Teensy 3.2 microcontroller with 168MHz overclock –used for communications, full-state estimation and inner-outer loop hierarchical rate-angle-speed-position control,
(2) an on-board MEMS inertial-measurement-unit (IMU) which includes an LSM303D (3DOF-accelerometer and magnetometer), an L3GD20 (3DOF-gyroscope) and a BMP180 (barometer) for attitude estimation (barometer/magnetometer not used),
(3) 6 pulse-width-modulator (PWM) output pins supports up to 6 rotors
(4) 8 PWM input pins support up to 8-channel 2.4 GHz transmitter/receiver for manual control,
(5) 2 5V servo extension outputs for other requirements (e.g. gimbals),
(6) 2 universal-asynchronous-receiver-transmitter (UART) serial ports - used by flight controller to process data from Xbee; can be used for accepting outer-loop position commands from NVIDIA TX2 (future work),
(7) 1 I2C-serial-protocol two-wire port for additional modules (used to read data from IMU at 400 Hz),
(8) a 20-pin port for Xbee telemetry module connection; permits Xbee transceiver on desktop PC to send position/attitude commands to Xbee transceiver on quadcopter.
The quadcopter platform consists of the new MARK3 PCB Flight Controller, an ATG-250 carbon-fiber frame (250 mm), a DJI Snail propulsion-system (brushless-three-phase-motor, electronic-speed-controller (ESC) and propeller), an HTC VIVE Tracker and RadioLink R9DS 9-Channel 2.4GHz Receiver. This platform is completely compatible with the HTC VIVE Tracking System (HVTS) which has 7ms latency, submillimeter accuracy and a much lower price compared to other millimeter-level tracking systems.
The thesis describes nonlinear and linear modeling of the quadcopter’s 6DOF rigid-body dynamics and brushless-motor-actuator dynamics. These are used for hierarchical-classical-control-law development near hover. The HVTS was used to demonstrate precision hover-control and path-following. Simulation and measured flight-data are shown to be similar. This work provides a foundation for future precision multi-quadcopter formation-flight-control.
One contribution of the work was the design of a new printed-circuit-board (PCB) flight controller (called MARK3). Key features/capabilities are as follows:
(1) a Teensy 3.2 microcontroller with 168MHz overclock –used for communications, full-state estimation and inner-outer loop hierarchical rate-angle-speed-position control,
(2) an on-board MEMS inertial-measurement-unit (IMU) which includes an LSM303D (3DOF-accelerometer and magnetometer), an L3GD20 (3DOF-gyroscope) and a BMP180 (barometer) for attitude estimation (barometer/magnetometer not used),
(3) 6 pulse-width-modulator (PWM) output pins supports up to 6 rotors
(4) 8 PWM input pins support up to 8-channel 2.4 GHz transmitter/receiver for manual control,
(5) 2 5V servo extension outputs for other requirements (e.g. gimbals),
(6) 2 universal-asynchronous-receiver-transmitter (UART) serial ports - used by flight controller to process data from Xbee; can be used for accepting outer-loop position commands from NVIDIA TX2 (future work),
(7) 1 I2C-serial-protocol two-wire port for additional modules (used to read data from IMU at 400 Hz),
(8) a 20-pin port for Xbee telemetry module connection; permits Xbee transceiver on desktop PC to send position/attitude commands to Xbee transceiver on quadcopter.
The quadcopter platform consists of the new MARK3 PCB Flight Controller, an ATG-250 carbon-fiber frame (250 mm), a DJI Snail propulsion-system (brushless-three-phase-motor, electronic-speed-controller (ESC) and propeller), an HTC VIVE Tracker and RadioLink R9DS 9-Channel 2.4GHz Receiver. This platform is completely compatible with the HTC VIVE Tracking System (HVTS) which has 7ms latency, submillimeter accuracy and a much lower price compared to other millimeter-level tracking systems.
The thesis describes nonlinear and linear modeling of the quadcopter’s 6DOF rigid-body dynamics and brushless-motor-actuator dynamics. These are used for hierarchical-classical-control-law development near hover. The HVTS was used to demonstrate precision hover-control and path-following. Simulation and measured flight-data are shown to be similar. This work provides a foundation for future precision multi-quadcopter formation-flight-control.
ContributorsLu, Shi (Author) / Rodriguez, Armando A. (Thesis advisor) / Tsakalis, Konstantinos (Committee member) / Si, Jennie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Vertical taking off and landing (VTOL) drones started to emerge at the beginning of this century, and finds applications in the vast areas of mapping, rescuing, logistics, etc. Usually a VTOL drone control system design starts from a first principles model. Most of the VTOL drones are in the shape of a quad-rotor which is convenient for dynamic analysis.
In this project, a VTOL drone with shape similar to a Convair XFY-1 is studied and the primary focus is developing and examining an alternative method to identify a system model from the input and output data, with which it is possible to estimate system parameters and compute model uncertainties on discontinuous data sets. We verify the models by designing controllers that stabilize the yaw, pitch, and roll angles for the VTOL drone in the hovering state.
This project comprises of three stages: an open-loop identification to identify the yaw and pitch dynamics, an intermediate closed-loop identification to identify the roll action dynamic and a closed-loop identification to refine the identification of yaw and pitch action. In open and closed loop identifications, the reference signals sent to the servos were recorded as inputs to the system and the angles and angular velocities in yaw and pitch directions read by inertial measurement unit were recorded as outputs of the system. In the intermediate closed loop identification, the difference between the reference signals sent to the motors on the contra-rotators was recorded as input and the roll angular velocity is recorded as output. Next, regressors were formed by using a coprime factor structure and then parameters of the system were estimated using the least square method. Multiplicative and divisive uncertainties were calculated from the data set and were used to guide PID loop-shaping controller design.
In this project, a VTOL drone with shape similar to a Convair XFY-1 is studied and the primary focus is developing and examining an alternative method to identify a system model from the input and output data, with which it is possible to estimate system parameters and compute model uncertainties on discontinuous data sets. We verify the models by designing controllers that stabilize the yaw, pitch, and roll angles for the VTOL drone in the hovering state.
This project comprises of three stages: an open-loop identification to identify the yaw and pitch dynamics, an intermediate closed-loop identification to identify the roll action dynamic and a closed-loop identification to refine the identification of yaw and pitch action. In open and closed loop identifications, the reference signals sent to the servos were recorded as inputs to the system and the angles and angular velocities in yaw and pitch directions read by inertial measurement unit were recorded as outputs of the system. In the intermediate closed loop identification, the difference between the reference signals sent to the motors on the contra-rotators was recorded as input and the roll angular velocity is recorded as output. Next, regressors were formed by using a coprime factor structure and then parameters of the system were estimated using the least square method. Multiplicative and divisive uncertainties were calculated from the data set and were used to guide PID loop-shaping controller design.
ContributorsLiu, Yiqiu (Author) / Tsakalis, Konstantinos (Thesis advisor) / Rodriguez, Armando (Thesis advisor) / Rivera, Daniel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Buck converters are electronic devices that changes a voltage from one level to a lower one and are present in many everyday applications. However, due to factors like aging, degradation or failures, these devices require a system identification process to track and diagnose their parameters. The system identification process should be performed on-line to not affect the normal operation of the device. Identifying the parameters of the system is essential to design and tune an adaptive proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller.
Three techniques were used to design the PID controller. Phase and gain margin still prevails as one of the easiest methods to design controllers. Pole-zero cancellation is another technique which is based on pole-placement. However, although these controllers can be easily designed, they did not provide the best response compared to the Frequency Loop Shaping (FLS) technique. Therefore, since FLS showed to have a better frequency and time responses compared to the other two controllers, it was selected to perform the adaptation of the system.
An on-line system identification process was performed for the buck converter using indirect adaptation and the least square algorithm. The estimation error and the parameter error were computed to determine the rate of convergence of the system. The indirect adaptation required about 2000 points to converge to the true parameters prior designing the controller. These results were compared to the adaptation executed using robust stability condition (RSC) and a switching controller. Two different scenarios were studied consisting of five plants that defined the percentage of deterioration of the capacitor and inductor within the buck converter. The switching logic did not always select the optimal controller for the first scenario because the frequency response of the different plants was not significantly different. However, the second scenario consisted of plants with more noticeable different frequency responses and the switching logic selected the optimal controller all the time in about 500 points. Additionally, a disturbance was introduced at the plant input to observe its effect in the switching controller. However, for reasonable low disturbances no change was detected in the proper selection of controllers.
Three techniques were used to design the PID controller. Phase and gain margin still prevails as one of the easiest methods to design controllers. Pole-zero cancellation is another technique which is based on pole-placement. However, although these controllers can be easily designed, they did not provide the best response compared to the Frequency Loop Shaping (FLS) technique. Therefore, since FLS showed to have a better frequency and time responses compared to the other two controllers, it was selected to perform the adaptation of the system.
An on-line system identification process was performed for the buck converter using indirect adaptation and the least square algorithm. The estimation error and the parameter error were computed to determine the rate of convergence of the system. The indirect adaptation required about 2000 points to converge to the true parameters prior designing the controller. These results were compared to the adaptation executed using robust stability condition (RSC) and a switching controller. Two different scenarios were studied consisting of five plants that defined the percentage of deterioration of the capacitor and inductor within the buck converter. The switching logic did not always select the optimal controller for the first scenario because the frequency response of the different plants was not significantly different. However, the second scenario consisted of plants with more noticeable different frequency responses and the switching logic selected the optimal controller all the time in about 500 points. Additionally, a disturbance was introduced at the plant input to observe its effect in the switching controller. However, for reasonable low disturbances no change was detected in the proper selection of controllers.
ContributorsSerrano Rodriguez, Victoria Melissa (Author) / Tsakalis, Konstantinos (Thesis advisor) / Bakkaloglu, Bertan (Thesis advisor) / Rodriguez, Armando (Committee member) / Spanias, Andreas (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
In many applications, measured sensor data is meaningful only when the location of sensors is accurately known. Therefore, the localization accuracy is crucial. In this dissertation, both location estimation and location detection problems are considered.
In location estimation problems, sensor nodes at known locations, called anchors, transmit signals to sensor nodes at unknown locations, called nodes, and use these transmissions to estimate the location of the nodes. Specifically, the location estimation in the presence of fading channels using time of arrival (TOA) measurements with narrowband communication signals is considered. Meanwhile, the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) for localization error under different assumptions is derived. Also, maximum likelihood estimators (MLEs) under these assumptions are derived.
In large WSNs, distributed location estimation algorithms are more efficient than centralized algorithms. A sequential localization scheme, which is one of distributed location estimation algorithms, is considered. Also, different localization methods, such as TOA, received signal strength (RSS), time difference of arrival (TDOA), direction of arrival (DOA), and large aperture array (LAA) are compared under different signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions. Simulation results show that DOA is the preferred scheme at the low SNR regime and the LAA localization algorithm provides better performance for network discovery at high SNRs. Meanwhile, the CRLB for the localization error using the TOA method is also derived.
A distributed location detection scheme, which allows each anchor to make a decision as to whether a node is active or not is proposed. Once an anchor makes a decision, a bit is transmitted to a fusion center (FC). The fusion center combines all the decisions and uses a design parameter $K$ to make the final decision. Three scenarios are considered in this dissertation. Firstly, location detection at a known location is considered. Secondly, detecting a node in a known region is considered. Thirdly, location detection in the presence of fading is considered. The optimal thresholds are derived and the total probability of false alarm and detection under different scenarios are derived.
In location estimation problems, sensor nodes at known locations, called anchors, transmit signals to sensor nodes at unknown locations, called nodes, and use these transmissions to estimate the location of the nodes. Specifically, the location estimation in the presence of fading channels using time of arrival (TOA) measurements with narrowband communication signals is considered. Meanwhile, the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) for localization error under different assumptions is derived. Also, maximum likelihood estimators (MLEs) under these assumptions are derived.
In large WSNs, distributed location estimation algorithms are more efficient than centralized algorithms. A sequential localization scheme, which is one of distributed location estimation algorithms, is considered. Also, different localization methods, such as TOA, received signal strength (RSS), time difference of arrival (TDOA), direction of arrival (DOA), and large aperture array (LAA) are compared under different signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions. Simulation results show that DOA is the preferred scheme at the low SNR regime and the LAA localization algorithm provides better performance for network discovery at high SNRs. Meanwhile, the CRLB for the localization error using the TOA method is also derived.
A distributed location detection scheme, which allows each anchor to make a decision as to whether a node is active or not is proposed. Once an anchor makes a decision, a bit is transmitted to a fusion center (FC). The fusion center combines all the decisions and uses a design parameter $K$ to make the final decision. Three scenarios are considered in this dissertation. Firstly, location detection at a known location is considered. Secondly, detecting a node in a known region is considered. Thirdly, location detection in the presence of fading is considered. The optimal thresholds are derived and the total probability of false alarm and detection under different scenarios are derived.
ContributorsZhang, Xue (Author) / Tepedelenlioğlu, Cihan (Thesis advisor) / Spanias, Andreas (Thesis advisor) / Tsakalis, Konstantinos (Committee member) / Berisha, Visar (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
For a sensor array, part of its elements may fail to work due to hardware failures. Then the missing data may distort in the beam pattern or decrease the accuracy of direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation. Therefore, considerable research has been conducted to develop algorithms that can estimate the missing signal information. On the other hand, through those algorithms, array elements can also be selectively turned off while the missed information can be successfully recovered, which will save power consumption and hardware cost.
Conventional approaches focusing on array element failures are mainly based on interpolation or sequential learning algorithm. Both of them rely heavily on some prior knowledge such as the information of the failures or a training dataset without missing data. In addition, since most of the existing approaches are developed for DOA estimation, their recovery target is usually the co-variance matrix but not the signal matrix.
In this thesis, a new signal recovery method based on matrix completion (MC) theory is introduced. It aims to directly refill the absent entries in the signal matrix without any prior knowledge. We proposed a novel overlapping reshaping method to satisfy the applying conditions of MC algorithms. Compared to other existing MC based approaches, our proposed method can provide us higher probability of successful recovery. The thesis describes the principle of the algorithms and analyzes the performance of this method. A few application examples with simulation results are also provided.
Conventional approaches focusing on array element failures are mainly based on interpolation or sequential learning algorithm. Both of them rely heavily on some prior knowledge such as the information of the failures or a training dataset without missing data. In addition, since most of the existing approaches are developed for DOA estimation, their recovery target is usually the co-variance matrix but not the signal matrix.
In this thesis, a new signal recovery method based on matrix completion (MC) theory is introduced. It aims to directly refill the absent entries in the signal matrix without any prior knowledge. We proposed a novel overlapping reshaping method to satisfy the applying conditions of MC algorithms. Compared to other existing MC based approaches, our proposed method can provide us higher probability of successful recovery. The thesis describes the principle of the algorithms and analyzes the performance of this method. A few application examples with simulation results are also provided.
ContributorsFan, Jie (Author) / Spanias, Andreas (Thesis advisor) / Tepedelenlioğlu, Cihan (Committee member) / Tsakalis, Konstantinos (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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 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.
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