UHF fading in factories

The authors detail the results of narrowband propagation measurements performed at five factories. The extensive empirical data indicate that path loss is dependent upon local surroundings and is log-normally distributed, temporal fading is Rician, and small-scale signal fluctuations due to receiver motion are primarily Rayleigh, although Rician and log-normal distributions fit some of the data. Shadowing effects of common factory equipment likely to obstruct indoor radio paths are also examined     

Digital Phase-Locked Loop Behavior with Clock and Sampler Quantization

This paper deals with the analysis of digital phase-locked loop (DPLL) models that take into account the discrete nature of the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and the numerical controlled oscillator (NCO). The models are general enough to allow for different kinds of noise distributions and nonuniform qnantization. Weak assumptions on the nature of the loop parameters reduce the models to finite Markov chain problems. It is shown that the resulting probability transition matrices are "lumpable," which translates into convenient Computational savings. In this manner, an exact statistical analysis is possible not only for first-order but also for second-order loops. Numerical results give evidence that for appropriate ADC and NCO characteristics, few quantization levels are needed to match the performance of models that ignore qnantization. However, when the values of these characteristics are not proper, a substantial change in performance can occur. This change in the loop behavior cannot be analyzed or predicted by those models that neglect the quantization effects. It is also found that the use of a nonlinear ADC improves the loop behavior when the noise density distribution is heavy-tailed, e.g., atmospheric noise.     

LANDSAT-4 MSS And Thematic Mapper Data Quality And Information Content Analysis

Landsat-4 Thematic Mapper and Multispectral Scanner data were analyzed to obtain information on data quality and information content. Geometric evaluations were performed to test band-to-band registration accuracy. Thematic Mapper overall system resolution was evaluated using scene objects which demonstrated sharp high contrast edge responses. Radiometric evaluation included detector relative calibration, effects of resampling, and coherent noise effects. Information content evaluation was carried out using clustering, principal components, transformed divergence separability measure, and numerous supervised classifiers on data from Iowa and Illinois. A detailed spectral class analysis (multispectral classification) was carried out on data from the Des Moines, Iowa area to compare the information content of the MSS and TM for a large number of scene classes.     

Improved Waveform Estimation Procedures for Event-Related Potentials

Several methods of estimating the waveform of event-related potentials are presented. The techniques of conventional averaging, Woody cross-correlation averaging, latency corrected averaging, continuous latency corrected averaging, and enhanced averaging are described and their results compared. It was found that the continuous latency corrected average appears to offer the most useful representation of the waveform of the event-related potential.     

Measurements of Signal Components in Single Visualy Evoked Brain Potentials

A two step procedure is described for measuring the characteristics of visual evoked brain potentials. First, the recorded waveforms are processed by a filter designed to minimize the mean square error produced by the ongoing EEG. This filter is different for each subject and is based on certain statistical properties of the measured data. Second, the filtered potentials are searched automatically by a computer to determine the existence and location of the individual components in the responses. By aligning the corresponding components in different waveforms and averaging over the waveform segment in the immediate vicinity of the peak, a latency corrected average is obtained that provides a new representation of the response waveform.     

FH-MFSK multiple-access communications systems performance in thefactory environment

A frequency-hopped (FH), M-ary frequency-shift-keyed (MFSK), spread-spectrum (SS) communication system operating over the factory radio channel is described. The performance of the system for Rayleigh, Rician, and log-normal multipath fading for factory environments is investigated. The statistics of these channels, based on recent channel modeling studies, are used to evaluate the performance of the FH-MFSK system. A quadrature rule is employed to calculate the channel error probabilities. The average bit error rate (BER) is formulated and is evaluated approximately using Stirling's formula. The numbers of simultaneous users in terms of the number of hopped frequencies, number of MFSK chips, receiver threshold, signal-to-noise ratio, and channel statistics at a fixed BER for Rayleigh, Rician, and lognormal fading channels are determined     

A Parametric Model for Multispectral Scanners

Efficient acquisition and utilization of remotely sensed data require an extensive a priori evaluation of the performance of the basic data collection unit, the multispectral scanner. The objective of the research described in this paper is the development of a parametric model to analytically evaluate the response of a multispectral scanner in any operational environment and to provide the necessary information in selecting a set of optimum parameters. In this paper the multispectral scanner spatial characteristics are represented by a linear shift-invariant multiple-port system where the N spectral bands comprise the input processes. The scanner characteristic function, the relationship governing the transformation of the input spatial and hence spectral correlation matrices through the systems, is developed. Specific cases for Gaussian point spread functions are examined. The integration of the scanner spatial model and a parameter classification error estimator provides the necessary technique to evaluate the performance of a multispectral scanner. A set of test statistics is specified and the corresponding output quantities computed by the characteristic function. Two sets of classification accuracies, one at the input and one at the output, are estimated. The scanner's instantaneous field of view is changed and the variation of output classification performance computed.     

A statistical model for the factory radio channel

A statistical model, based on experimental data, is presented to characterize the multipath propagation medium in typical manufacturing environments. The statistical behavior of the medium is described by a time-varying impulse response which includes the distribution of the parameters of the channel such as the gain, the interarrival time, and the number of paths. The resolvable components in a number of experimentally measured pulse responses of indoor factory radio channels were used to estimate the channel statistics. The interarrival times of the signals were modeled by the Weibull distribution. A model for the distribution of signals was presented using the modified beta distribution. The path gain coefficients were represented using the Rayleigh, Rician, or log-normal distributions. The model for the factory channel is flexible enough to fit the data for other indoor sites by changing the parameters of the factory channel appropriately relative to the size, topography, and other structural features of the site     

A beacon navigation method for autonomous vehicles

A method for navigating autonomous vehicles is presented. Based on the three-point problem from land surveying, this navigational technique makes use of angular measurements between fixed beacon pairs. Extremely accurate position information can be obtained over a large area with simple trigonometric or analytic geometry calculations. Typical worst-case errors are of the order of 10 cm throughout a 2500 m² workspace. An experimental position-measuring system has been built and tested, and it demonstrated the ability of this technique to function as a key element in a navigation system for autonomous vehicles     

Enhancement of Event Related Potentials by Iterative Restoration Algorithms

An iterative procedure for the restoration of event related potentials (ERP) is proposed and implemented. The method makes use of assumed or measured statistical information about latency variations in the individual ERP components. The signal model used for the restoration algorithm consists of a time-varying linear distortion and a positivity/negativity constraint. Additional preprocessing in the form of low-pass filtering is needed in order to mitigate the effects of additive noise. Numerical results obtained with real data show clearly the presence of enhanced and regenerated components in the restored ERP's. The procedure is easy to implement which makes it convenient when compared to other proposed techniques for the restoration of ERP signals.