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Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) has emerged as an effective technology, aiding in latency reduction, improving security and reliability, and enhancing the spectral efficiency and capacity in Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled communication systems. In this work, an implementation of co-operative secure multiple-input single-output NOMA IoT framework is proposed and examined in a two-fold manner. First, under the consideration of standalone links, a user selection criteria which relies on the characterization of sum ergodic capacity (SEC) is investigated in the presence of an eavesdropper (ED) and beamforming constraints. Next, using the optimized beamformers, a user selection criteria which relies on the outage probability analysis is performed under cooperative relaying considerations. We demonstrate that our optimization approach achieves reduced capacity and coverage for the ED while maximizing the overall SEC and coverage of the network under multiple network configurations. The proposed optimization solution demonstrates superior performance compared to the benchmarked schemes. Derived closed-form analytical expressions are validated through simulation means.

Geometry-based Visual Odometry (VO) techniques are renowned in the fields of computer vision and robotics. They use methods from multi-view geometry to estimate camera motion from visual data obtained from one or more cameras. Tracking the camera motion precisely between different views is dependent on the correct estimation of correspondences between salient points of the views. In practice, geometry-based methods are found to be quite effective but do not perform well in challenging cases due to tracking failures caused by abrupt motion, occlusions, textureless and low-light scenes, etc. On the contrary, end-to-end learning from visual data using deep neural networks is an emerging area of research and deals with challenging cases successfully. Despite being computationally expensive, these methods do not outperform their counterparts in conditions favorable to geometry-based methods. Considering these facts in this work, our goal is to integrate deep descriptors to improve the correspondence between image points for tracking in a traditional geometry-based VO pipeline. We propose a simple stereo VO pipeline inspired by popular techniques found in the literature. Two conventional and four deep descriptors have been used in our experiments conducted on various image sequences of the challenging KITTI benchmark dataset. We have determined empirically that deep descriptors can effectively minimize drift in the VO estimates and produce better camera trajectories. The experimental results on the KITTI dataset demonstrate that our VO method performs at par with the state-of-the-art works reported in the literature.

This paper is concerned with optimizing the weights of the global minimum-variance portfolio (GMVP) in high-dimensional settings where both observation and population dimensions grow at a bounded ratio. Optimizing the GMVP weights is highly influenced by the data covariance matrix estimation. In a high-dimensional setting, it is well known that the sample covariance matrix is not a proper estimator of the true covariance matrix since it is not invertible when we have fewer observations than the data dimension. Even with more observations, the sample covariance matrix may not be well-conditioned. This paper determines the GMVP weights based on a regularized covariance matrix estimator to overcome the abovementioned difficulties. Unlike other methods, the proper selection of the regularization parameter is achieved by minimizing the mean squared error of an estimate of the noise vector that accounts for the uncertainty in the data mean estimation. Using random-matrix-theory tools, we derive a consistent estimator of the achievable mean squared error that allows us to find the optimal regularization parameter using a simple line search. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method when the data dimension is larger than, or of the same order of, the number of data samples.

This work discusses the simulation and experimental demonstration of a genetic algorithm hybrid fuzzy-fuzzy controller (GA-HFFC) system to achieve speed control of a variable-speed induction motor (IM) drive based on a space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) technique by means of an eZdspF28335 digital signal processing (DSP) experiment board. Two features of field-oriented control (FOC) were used to design the GA-HFFC, namely, the current and frequency. To overcome the limitations of the FOC technique, the principles of the GA-HFFC were introduced through the acceleration-deceleration stages to regulate the speed of the rotor with the help of a fuzzy frequency controller, while a fuzzy stator current amplitude controller was involved during the steady-state stage. The results revealed that the proposed control approach could deliver a practical control solution in the presence of diverse operating conditions.

Ultrasound (US) imaging is a mature technology that has widespread applications especially in the healthcare sector. Despite its widespread use and popularity, it has an inherent disadvantage that ultrasound images are prone to speckle and other kinds of noise. The image quality in the low-cost ultrasound imaging systems is degraded due to the presence of such noise and low resolution of such ultrasound systems. Herein, we propose a method for image enhancement where, the overall quality of the US images is improved by simultaneous enhancement of US image resolution and noise suppression. To avoid over-smoothing and preserving structural/texture information, we devise texture compensation in our proposed method to retain the useful anatomical features. Moreover, we also utilize US image formation physics knowledge to generate augmentation datasets which can improve the training of our proposed method. Our experimental results showcase the performance of the proposed network as well as the effectiveness of the utilization of US physics knowledge to generate augmentation datasets.

In cognitive radio (CR), cooperative spectrum sensing (CSS) employs a fusion of multiple decisions from various secondary user (SU) nodes at a central fusion center (FC) to detect spectral holes not utilized by the primary user (PU). The energy detector (ED) is a well-established technique of spectrum sensing (SS). However, a major challenge in designing an energy detector-based SS is the requirement of correct knowledge for the distribution of decision statistics. Usually, the Gaussian assumption is employed for the received statistics, which is not true in real practice, particularly with a limited number of samples. Another big challenge in the CSS task is choosing an optimal fusion strategy. To tackle these issues, we have proposed a beamforming-assisted ED with a heuristic-optimized CSS technique that utilizes a more accurate distribution of decision statistics by employing the characterization of the indefinite quadratic form (IQF). Two heuristic algorithms, genetic algorithm with multi-parent crossover (GA-MPC) and constriction factor particle swarm-based optimization (CF-PSO), are developed to design optimum beamforming and optimum fusion weights that can maximize the global probability of detection pd while constraining the global probability of false alarm pf to below a required level. The simulation results are presented to validate the theoretical findings and to asses the performance of the proposed algorithm.

This paper presents the control modelling and synthesis using a coupled multivariable under-actuated nonlinear adaptive U-model approach for an unmanned marine robotic platform. A nonlinear marine robotics model based on the dynamic equation using the Newtonian method and derivation with respect to the kinematics equations and rigid-body mass matrixes are explained. This nonlinear marine robotics model represents the underwater thruster dynamics, marine robotics dynamics and kinematics related to the earth-fixed frame. Coupled multivariable nonlinear adaptive control synthesis using a U-model approach for the Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) and Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV) represent an unmanned marine robotics application. A comparison is presented for the proposed nonlinear control approach between the U-model control approach with nonlinear Fuzzy Logic Control and Sliding Mode Control for the ROV and USV platforms. The results show minimum mean square error values and tracking performance between the plant or system model with the proposed method. Lastly, robustness and stability analysis for the proposed U-Model nonlinear control approach are presented by implementing an adaptive learning rate value.

This paper presents the development of unmanned marine robotic control modelling and control synthesis using a coupled multivariable underactuated nonlinear adaptive U-model approach. The proposed controller was developed using thru an open source robot operating system (ROS) platform. The new adaptive coupled U-model based internal model control (IMC) node was successfully developed and tested. The proposed controller demonstrated the simplicity of the control synthesis process and the implementation of the mathematical algorithm in real-time. The controller was compared with the proven existing GIRONA 500 UUV for real-time performance. The ROS environment provides fast and reliable controller design and development compared to conventional software architecture. Simulation and real-time experiment were conducted using ROS via the GIRONA 500 UUV platform and compared with a PID mission controller. A new ROS node of nonlinear adaptive U-model based IMC was developed using ROS. The results showed good control signal convergence and tracking performance between the plant or system model with the proposed method.

Mental stress has been identified as the root cause of various physical and psychological disorders. Therefore, it is crucial to conduct timely diagnosis and assessment considering the severe effects of mental stress. In contrast to other health-related wearable devices, wearable or portable devices for stress assessment have not been developed yet. A major requirement for the development of such a device is a time-efficient algorithm. This study investigates the performance of computer-aided approaches for mental stress assessment. Machine learning (ML) approaches are compared in terms of the time required for feature extraction and classification. After conducting tests on data for real-time experiments, it was observed that conventional ML approaches are time-consuming due to the computations required for feature extraction, whereas a deep learning (DL) approach results in a time-efficient classification due to automated unsupervised feature extraction. This study emphasizes that DL approaches can be used in wearable devices for real-time mental stress assessment.

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar has acquired considerable attention as it offers an additional degree of freedom which results in performance gains when contrasted with the regular single antenna element radar system. Waveform optimization in MIMO radar is essential as it can offer tremendous improvements in target detection which are quantified in terms of reductions in the symbol error rate and improvements in target detection probability. In this work, we foster a strategy for the optimization of transmitter and receiver waveform in a collocated MIMO radar by only considering the second order statistics, thus relaxing the information of the instantaneous target states. Our contributions are primarily two-fold. First, we find a closed-form expression of the outage probability of an unknown target under clutter environment. For this prospect, we model the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio in a canonical quadratic structure, and then utilize the modern residue theory approach to characterize the distribution function. Secondly, we propose constrained and unconstrained optimization problems for the reduction in outage probability using algorithmic techniques such as interior-point, sequential-quadratic programming, and the active-set method for the optimization of the transmitter and receiver waveform. We also provide simulated re-enactments to validate our hypothetical deductions.

Full-duplex (FD) communication has been shown to provide an increased achievable rate, while millimeter wave (mmWave) communications benefit from a large available bandwidth that further improves the achievable rate. On the other hand, the concept of multi-set space-time shift keying (MS-STSK) has been proposed to provide a flexible design trade-off between throughput and performance. Hence, in this work, we consider the design of an FD-aided MS-STSK transceiver for millimeter wave communications. However, a major challenge is that channel reciprocity is not valid in mmWave communications due to shorter channel coherence time. Thus, the uplink (UL) pilots cannot be utilized to estimate the downlink (DL) channel. To overcome this challenge, we propose a beamforming technique based on channel statistics without assuming channel reciprocity. For this purpose, a closed-form expression for the outage probability of the system is derived by employing the characterization of the ratio of the Indefinite Quadratic Form (IQF). The derived analytical expression is then utilized to design optimum beamforming weights using the Sequential Quadratic Programming (SQP)-based heuristic method. Moreover, an Iterative Statistical Method (ISM) of joint transmit and receive beamforming algorithm is also developed by utilizing Principle Eigenvector (PE) and Generalized Rayleigh Quotient (G-RQ) optimization techniques. Finally, we verify our simulation results with the theoretical analysis.

Extracelluar matrix (ECM) proteins create complex networks of macromolecules which fill-in the extracellular spaces of living tissues. They provide structural support and play an important role in maintaining cellular functions. Identification of ECM proteins can play a vital role in studying various types of diseases. Conventional wet lab–based methods are reliable; however, they are expensive and time consuming and are, therefore, not scalable. In this research, we propose a sequence-based novel machine learning approach for the prediction of ECM proteins. In the proposed method, composition of k-spaced amino acid pair (CKSAAP) features are encoded into a classifiable latent space (LS) with the help of deep latent space encoding (LSE). A comprehensive ablation analysis is conducted for performance evaluation of the proposed method. Results are compared with other state-of-the-art methods on the benchmark dataset, and the proposed ECM-LSE approach has shown to comprehensively outperform the contemporary methods.

Advances in higher-end spectrum utilization has enabled user equipment to dock multiple antenna elements, and hence make use of selectivity via equalization in new generation of mobile networks. The equalization can exploit channel statistics to shape covariance matrices, and hence improve network performance at the physical layer of these networks by projecting segregated signals to non-overlapping subspaces. We propose to establish the promise of covariance shaping method by incorporating the equalizers in the modelling of a downlink multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) systems and thereby characterizing a key performance indicator, namely, the sum ergodic capacity. This is achieved by utilizing a residue theory approach which can account for indefinite eigenvalues. The system modelling is generic in a sense that it requires the base station (BS) to only have second order statistics of the channel rather than instantaneous knowledge. Furthermore, the BS incorporates a transmit beamformer design to enhance the ergodic capacity and feedforward the information of covariance shaping equalizers. Search method for transmit beamforming is also proposed which shows a promising three fold increase in sum ergodic capacity at signal-to-noise ratio of 10 dB for the considered MU-MIMO system. Proposed characterization of the system is authenticated using simulation means, and a comparative analysis of transmit beamformer designs on the sum ergodic rate is showcased.

This article deals with the analysis of the multi-cell association setup, and it exploits the possibility of enhancing coverage in the envisioned sixth generation (6G) large-scale cellular networks. Specifically, we propose a simple, effective approach for finding a closed-form solution to the coverage probability of a given user in a multi-cell association regime of downlink multiple-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) systems. In particular, a Rayleigh fading channel is considered, wherein the transmitter has only the knowledge of the second-order statistics of the channel. The proposed work uses an indefinite quadratic formulation method and thereby investigates the effect of cell association in a correlated downlink broadcast channel with co-channel interference, additive white noise, and multiple transceiver antenna elements. In the results, we show that a predefined signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) threshold dictates an effective multi-cell association setup, and we identify the region in which a multi-cell association performs better that a single association-based network. The derived theoretical expressions in this paper are validated by the same means of simulation.

Recursive least-squares (RLS) algorithms are widely used in many applications, such as real-time signal processing, control and communications. In some applications, regularization of the least-squares provides robustness and enhances performance. Interestingly, updating the regularization parameter as processing data continuously in time is a desirable strategy to improve performance in applications such as beamforming. While many of the presented works in the literature assume non-time-varying regularized RLS (RRLS) techniques, this paper deals with a time-varying RRLS as the parameter varies during the update. The paper proposes a novel and efficient technique that uses an approximate recursive formula, assuming a slight variation in the regularization parameter to provide a low-complexity update method. Simulation results illustrate the feasibility of the derived formula and the superiority of the time-varying RRLS strategy over the fixed one.

This paper characterizes the performance metrics of MU-MIMO systems under Rayleigh fading channels in the presence of both cochannel interference and additive noise with unknown channel state information and known correlation matrices. In the first task, we derive analytical expressions for the cumulative distribution function of the instantaneous signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) for any deterministic beamvectors. As a second task, exact closed-form expressions are derived for the instantaneous capacity, the upper bound on ergodic capacity, and the Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization-based ergodic capacity for similar intra-cell correlation coefficients. Finally, we present the utility of several structured-diagonalization techniques, which can achieve the tractability for the approximate solution of ergodic capacity for both similar as well as different intra-cell correlation matrices. The novelty of this paper is to formulate the received SINR in terms of indefinite quadratic forms, which allows us to use complex residue theory to characterize the system behavior. The analytical expressions obtained closely match simulation results.

Diabetic retinopathy, an eye disease commonly afflicting diabetic patients, can result in loss of vision if prompt detection and treatment are not done in the early stages. Once the symptoms are identified, the severity level of the disease needs to be classified for prescribing the right medicine. This study proposes a deep learning-based approach, for the classification and grading of diabetic retinopathy images. The proposed approach uses the feature map of ResNet-50 and passes it to Random Forest for classification. The proposed approach is compared with five state-of-the-art approaches using two category Messidor-2 and five category EyePACS datasets. These two categories on the Messidor-2 dataset include ’No Referable Diabetic Macular Edema Grade (DME)’ and ’Referable DME’ while five categories consist of ‘Proliferative diabetic retinopathy’, ‘Severe’, ‘Moderate’, ‘Mild’, and ‘No diabetic retinopathy’. The results show that the proposed approach outperforms compared approaches and achieves an accuracy of 96% and 75.09% for these datasets, respectively. The proposed approach outperforms six existing state-of-the-art architectures, namely ResNet-50, VGG-19, Inception-v3, MobileNet, Xception, and VGG16.

Wireless networks are vulnerable to jamming attacks. Jamming in wireless communication becomes a major research problem due to ease in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) launching and blocking of communication channels. Jamming is a subset of Denial of Service Attack (DoS) and an intentional interference where the malicious node disrupts the wireless communication by increasing the noise at the receiver node through transmission interference signal towards the target channel. In this work, the considered jammer is a UAV hovering around the target area to block the communication channel between two transceivers. We proposed a three-dimensional (3-D) UAV jamming localization scheme to track and detect the jammer position at each time step by employing a single boundary node observer. For this purpose, we developed two distributed Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) based schemes: (1) the Distributed EKF (DEKF) scheme using the information of the received power from the jammer at a single nearby boundary node only and (2) Distance Ratio aided Distributed EKF (DEKF-DR) based scheme utilizing an edge node in addition to a single boundary node. Extensive simulations are conducted in order to evaluate the performance of the proposed distributed algorithms for a 3-D trajectory and compared with that of the conventional Centralized EKF (EKF-Centr) based method (which is also modified for the 3-D scenario). The results show the clear supremacy of the proposed distributed algorithms with much lesser complexity in contrast to the conventional EKF-Centr technique.

Robotic air vehicles are used increasingly in delivering goods especially for safety-of-life applications. This paper discusses a guidance module for trajectory generation of such vehicles. An offline algorithm is developed using a navigation model to produce the required trajectory in the form of time-tagged longitude, latitude and altitude. The process is an essential requirement when an operator has to program a robotic vehicle to travel on the desired course. This problem is addressed scarcely in the relevant literature. The waypoints are generated for all phases of flight and then modified to cater for the wind disturbance parameters obtained from current meteorological information. The waypoints are uploaded to the vehicle's flight control system memory and reside there for the vehicle to follow. This paper also renders the generated trajectory on Google Earth® using Matlab/Simulink® to test the closed-loop performance. Furthermore, a Dryden wind model is utilized to generate a modified trajectory for turbulent conditions. An operator can make adjustments in the required initial heading angle so the vehicle lands at its destination even in turbulent weather. An empirical formula is also proposed for this purpose. Further work includes design of a control system to follow the generated waypoints.