One of the predominately used circuit styles in high-performance VLSI systems is dynamic CMOS due... more One of the predominately used circuit styles in high-performance VLSI systems is dynamic CMOS due to its advantage in speed. However, the rising magnitude of circuits implemented on a chip, along with shrinking device size and process variations have increased the complexity of implementing dynamic CMOS circuit efficiently. Answering this challenge, this paper proposes a performance optimization technique for dynamic CMOS circuits that operates based on a Schmitt Trigger and pseudo pMOS feedback keeper. When implemented using IBM 90nm CMOS process, the proposed optimization technique has shown an improvement in worst-case delay by 44.84%, delay uncertainty by 55%, delay sensitivity by 34%, and power consumption by 36% when compared to their initial performances.
Mobile robots play a prominent role in many industrial applications to simplify the job of an ind... more Mobile robots play a prominent role in many industrial applications to simplify the job of an individual. While they are used extensively in the industry and household applications, one prevailing challenge in mobile robots navigation in presence of dense obstacles. Identifying this challenge, this paper proposes an efficient and dynamic algorithm for accurate mobile robot navigation through a portable integrated system equipped with a Pioneer P3-DX robot and an array of sonar sensors. Based on the input received from the user, the proposed algorithm can dynamically calculate the most efficient route to reach the destination, and travel the path by avoiding any obstacle in its path. Through implementation and extensive testing, the proposed algorithm can detect obstacles with 98% accuracy, and reach its target location with an average position error of 0.009m.
This paper describes an attempt to improve a first-year level digital circuits course by flipping... more This paper describes an attempt to improve a first-year level digital circuits course by flipping the course and incorporating several active learning strategies. With the primary objective of increasing student interest and learning in digital circuits concepts, an integrated instructional design framework was proposed and utilized to provide incoming first-year engineering and technology students with practical knowledge of digital circuits. This research compared the effectiveness of the flipped course with the traditional course in areas of content coverage, student learning and performance, and their perceptions of a flipped first-year course. Through a experimental study, significance of flipped course is confirmed with positive outcomes such as higher course content, enhanced student performance on exams, and positive student perceptions of their learning experience. Furthermore, all students reported that they would enroll in a higher-level engineering course and the majority reported an increased interest in pursuing a degree in electrical or computer engineering.
This paper proposes a transportation system that will take a user’s gesture input and transport a... more This paper proposes a transportation system that will take a user’s gesture input and transport an object accordingly. Unmanned Aerial Vehcile (UAV) transportation systems using perceptual computing can play a prominent role in many applications to simplify the job of transportation. Based on the gestures, the proposed system can send navigating signals to the UAV while viewing video feedback from the UAV. The system combines a perceptual computing camera feeding signals to a computer that are in turn sent to the UAV which will react to the signals to pick up the object and travel to a different location. Resulting from preliminary testing, the system will provide efficient communication between the subsystems involved in the project to transport an object once the entire system is combined.
Indoor positioning systems (IPS) locate objects in closed structured such as warehouses, hospital... more Indoor positioning systems (IPS) locate objects in closed structured such as warehouses, hospitals, libraries, and office building, where Global Positioning System (GPS) typically does not work due to poor satellite reception. Inherently, indoor positioning is a vital challenge facing the industry for a long time. Most of the available IPS operate based on optical tracking, motor encoding, and active RFID tags, often limited in their accuracy or high hardware cost. Answering this challenge, this paper presents new passive radio frequency identification (RFID) based localization system for indoor positioning through a mobile robot. The concept is based on placing passive RFID tags in a uniform triangular fashion for low tag density, and using an RFID reader on a mobile robot for localization and navigation. The inputs to proposed systems are location coordinates stored on the RFID tags, and their respective time of arrivals as read by the RFID reader. The proposed system first estimates its location using a centroid method, and utilizes time difference of arrival (TDOA) to accurately estimate its position, and uses trigonometric identities to estimate its current orientation. Experimental results demonstrate the proposed system can effectively perform indoor positioning and navigate to its destination with an average accuracy of 0.07m, while avoiding any obstacles in the path.
The lightweight and low-cost 3-dimensional depth sensors have gained much attention in the comput... more The lightweight and low-cost 3-dimensional depth sensors have gained much attention in the computer vision and gaming industry. While its performance has been proven successful in the gaming industry, these sensors have not been utilized successfully for assistive devices. Leveraging on this gap, this paper presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of a depth sensor based navigation assistive device for the visually impaired. The proposed portable embedded system interprets the field-of-view, converts it into depth matrix, processes the information, to recognize objects, humans, and provide relevant haptic feedback for navigation of the visually impaired. Through design and evaluation, the proposed system has shown to successfully identify, detect, and track closest objects, humans, and perform real-time distance measurements.
This paper describes a flipped and improved first-year digital circuits (DC) course that incorpor... more This paper describes a flipped and improved first-year digital circuits (DC) course that incorporates several active learning strategies. With the primary objective of increasing student interest and learning, an integrated instructional design framework is proposed to provide first-year engineering and technology students with practical knowledge of DC. The research presented here compares the effectiveness of the flipped course to the previous traditional course through a controlled experimental study. The improved effectiveness of the flipped course is confirmed through the significant increase in course content and significant improvements in students' performance and their perceptions of their learning experience. Preliminary results suggest that students' academic success, and their engagement and interest in engineering, can be enhanced by refinement of an integrated instructional design framework. The authors believe that this positive outcome is a result of alignment of online preview of lectures, face-to-face student/instructor and peer interactions, discussions, hands-on activities, combined with several active learning strategies infused into the class.
One of the predominately used circuit styles in high-performance VLSI systems is dynamic CMOS due... more One of the predominately used circuit styles in high-performance VLSI systems is dynamic CMOS due to its advantage in speed. However, the rising magnitude of circuits implemented on a chip, along with shrinking device size and process variations have increased the complexity of implementing dynamic CMOS circuit efficiently. Answering this challenge, this paper proposes a performance optimization technique for dynamic CMOS circuits that operates based on a Schmitt Trigger and pseudo pMOS feedback keeper. When implemented using IBM 90nm CMOS process, the proposed optimization technique has shown an improvement in worst-case delay by 44.84%, delay uncertainty by 55%, delay sensitivity by 34%, and power consumption by 36% when compared to their initial performances.
Mobile robots play a prominent role in many industrial applications to simplify the job of an ind... more Mobile robots play a prominent role in many industrial applications to simplify the job of an individual. While they are used extensively in the industry and household applications, one prevailing challenge in mobile robots navigation in presence of dense obstacles. Identifying this challenge, this paper proposes an efficient and dynamic algorithm for accurate mobile robot navigation through a portable integrated system equipped with a Pioneer P3-DX robot and an array of sonar sensors. Based on the input received from the user, the proposed algorithm can dynamically calculate the most efficient route to reach the destination, and travel the path by avoiding any obstacle in its path. Through implementation and extensive testing, the proposed algorithm can detect obstacles with 98% accuracy, and reach its target location with an average position error of 0.009m.
This paper describes an attempt to improve a first-year level digital circuits course by flipping... more This paper describes an attempt to improve a first-year level digital circuits course by flipping the course and incorporating several active learning strategies. With the primary objective of increasing student interest and learning in digital circuits concepts, an integrated instructional design framework was proposed and utilized to provide incoming first-year engineering and technology students with practical knowledge of digital circuits. This research compared the effectiveness of the flipped course with the traditional course in areas of content coverage, student learning and performance, and their perceptions of a flipped first-year course. Through a experimental study, significance of flipped course is confirmed with positive outcomes such as higher course content, enhanced student performance on exams, and positive student perceptions of their learning experience. Furthermore, all students reported that they would enroll in a higher-level engineering course and the majority reported an increased interest in pursuing a degree in electrical or computer engineering.
This paper proposes a transportation system that will take a user’s gesture input and transport a... more This paper proposes a transportation system that will take a user’s gesture input and transport an object accordingly. Unmanned Aerial Vehcile (UAV) transportation systems using perceptual computing can play a prominent role in many applications to simplify the job of transportation. Based on the gestures, the proposed system can send navigating signals to the UAV while viewing video feedback from the UAV. The system combines a perceptual computing camera feeding signals to a computer that are in turn sent to the UAV which will react to the signals to pick up the object and travel to a different location. Resulting from preliminary testing, the system will provide efficient communication between the subsystems involved in the project to transport an object once the entire system is combined.
Indoor positioning systems (IPS) locate objects in closed structured such as warehouses, hospital... more Indoor positioning systems (IPS) locate objects in closed structured such as warehouses, hospitals, libraries, and office building, where Global Positioning System (GPS) typically does not work due to poor satellite reception. Inherently, indoor positioning is a vital challenge facing the industry for a long time. Most of the available IPS operate based on optical tracking, motor encoding, and active RFID tags, often limited in their accuracy or high hardware cost. Answering this challenge, this paper presents new passive radio frequency identification (RFID) based localization system for indoor positioning through a mobile robot. The concept is based on placing passive RFID tags in a uniform triangular fashion for low tag density, and using an RFID reader on a mobile robot for localization and navigation. The inputs to proposed systems are location coordinates stored on the RFID tags, and their respective time of arrivals as read by the RFID reader. The proposed system first estimates its location using a centroid method, and utilizes time difference of arrival (TDOA) to accurately estimate its position, and uses trigonometric identities to estimate its current orientation. Experimental results demonstrate the proposed system can effectively perform indoor positioning and navigate to its destination with an average accuracy of 0.07m, while avoiding any obstacles in the path.
The lightweight and low-cost 3-dimensional depth sensors have gained much attention in the comput... more The lightweight and low-cost 3-dimensional depth sensors have gained much attention in the computer vision and gaming industry. While its performance has been proven successful in the gaming industry, these sensors have not been utilized successfully for assistive devices. Leveraging on this gap, this paper presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of a depth sensor based navigation assistive device for the visually impaired. The proposed portable embedded system interprets the field-of-view, converts it into depth matrix, processes the information, to recognize objects, humans, and provide relevant haptic feedback for navigation of the visually impaired. Through design and evaluation, the proposed system has shown to successfully identify, detect, and track closest objects, humans, and perform real-time distance measurements.
This paper describes a flipped and improved first-year digital circuits (DC) course that incorpor... more This paper describes a flipped and improved first-year digital circuits (DC) course that incorporates several active learning strategies. With the primary objective of increasing student interest and learning, an integrated instructional design framework is proposed to provide first-year engineering and technology students with practical knowledge of DC. The research presented here compares the effectiveness of the flipped course to the previous traditional course through a controlled experimental study. The improved effectiveness of the flipped course is confirmed through the significant increase in course content and significant improvements in students' performance and their perceptions of their learning experience. Preliminary results suggest that students' academic success, and their engagement and interest in engineering, can be enhanced by refinement of an integrated instructional design framework. The authors believe that this positive outcome is a result of alignment of online preview of lectures, face-to-face student/instructor and peer interactions, discussions, hands-on activities, combined with several active learning strategies infused into the class.
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Papers by Kumar Yelamarthi