New Methods and Microelectronics for Wireless Communication Systems. Global demand for high quality wireless communications poses significant challenges. The so-called "physical layer" is crucial, as this is where the vagaries of the wireless channel, including interference and limited bandwidth, are mitigated by sophisticated signal processing.
This project will conduct applied research to meet these physical layer challenges, providing solutions that feed directly into next generation wirel ....New Methods and Microelectronics for Wireless Communication Systems. Global demand for high quality wireless communications poses significant challenges. The so-called "physical layer" is crucial, as this is where the vagaries of the wireless channel, including interference and limited bandwidth, are mitigated by sophisticated signal processing.
This project will conduct applied research to meet these physical layer challenges, providing solutions that feed directly into next generation wireless communication systems.
Uniquely, this project focuses on the transfer of research from theoretical genesis, through to realisation of silicon integrated
circuit "chips". This will maximise both the impact of the research
and the potential for significant national economic benefits to accrue.Read moreRead less
Electronic Auditory Pathway. We will develop electronic building blocks to investigate biological signal processing. In particular, we will investigate the auditory pathway and develop the most accurate electronic model of the biological cochlea and auditory nerve. These will be followed by electronic circuits that model the processing of sensory signals in the brain. Processing signals with neural spikes offers distinct advantages over current analogue and digital signal processing techniques i ....Electronic Auditory Pathway. We will develop electronic building blocks to investigate biological signal processing. In particular, we will investigate the auditory pathway and develop the most accurate electronic model of the biological cochlea and auditory nerve. These will be followed by electronic circuits that model the processing of sensory signals in the brain. Processing signals with neural spikes offers distinct advantages over current analogue and digital signal processing techniques in terms of noise, energy consumption and extraction of temporal information. We will implement the first spike-based models of pitch and timbre perception, and a neural model of speech recognition in noisy environments.Read moreRead less
Active Vibration Control of a Cricket Bat using Piezoelectric-based Smart Materials Technology. Improvement of sporting equipment performance of late has largely ignored the game of cricket. Using the combined disciplines of advanced materials and control technologies, it is anticipated that the traditional cricket bat can be vastly improved while keeping to bat modification guidelines as specified in the rules of the game. This project involves the dynamic study of the bat using established e ....Active Vibration Control of a Cricket Bat using Piezoelectric-based Smart Materials Technology. Improvement of sporting equipment performance of late has largely ignored the game of cricket. Using the combined disciplines of advanced materials and control technologies, it is anticipated that the traditional cricket bat can be vastly improved while keeping to bat modification guidelines as specified in the rules of the game. This project involves the dynamic study of the bat using established experimental techniques. Once the various regions of high strain rates are determined, smart materials technologies will be used to reduce the transient vibrations transmitted to the batsman. The effect of this monitoring and control is to increase the comfort level and hence, effectiveness of the batsman.Read moreRead less
New Model Predictive Control Design Methods. Automatic computer control is fundamental to sustaining a wide range of manufacturing, mineral processing, chemical processing, and other industries vital to the Australian economy. Furthermore, the efficiency, profitability, and environmental impact of these operations is directly linked to the quality of this computer control. In many situations, even a few percent improvement in automatic control delivers dividends measured in many millions of doll ....New Model Predictive Control Design Methods. Automatic computer control is fundamental to sustaining a wide range of manufacturing, mineral processing, chemical processing, and other industries vital to the Australian economy. Furthermore, the efficiency, profitability, and environmental impact of these operations is directly linked to the quality of this computer control. In many situations, even a few percent improvement in automatic control delivers dividends measured in many millions of dollars. This project will develop design tools allowing for more sophisticated, high performance control to be more widely employed. This will deliver the potential for economic and environmental benefits and energy savings to be achieved across a range of industries.Read moreRead less
Dynamic substrates for surface-enhanced Raman scattering: piezoelectric actuated nanotextures with phase-locked signal processing. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering shows great promise for sensitive detection of a wide range of chemical and biological compounds. Novel electronic devices will be produced to actively tune the nanometre scale structures that generate the scattering signal, resulting in an improved fundamental understanding and control of the effect.
Implementation of cognitive radar techniques in resource limited radar systems. Cognitive radar technology enables a multiple functional radar system to be built on a single chip, to be of high efficiency and low cost. Waveform design and scheduling play a key role in such a system. This project will investigate and design waveforms and scheduling methods for building a real cognitive radar system in the extremely high frequency band.
Efficient signal processing using short word-length techniques. It is expected that the research will lead to significant reductions in cost and computational overheads for signal processing systems in general. These cost/speed enhancements have implications for radar, communications, audio, speech, video, aerospace, defence and biomedical engineering. In the last few decades, developments in enhancing the speed of processing signals has been clearly seen to impinge greatly on the lives of all c ....Efficient signal processing using short word-length techniques. It is expected that the research will lead to significant reductions in cost and computational overheads for signal processing systems in general. These cost/speed enhancements have implications for radar, communications, audio, speech, video, aerospace, defence and biomedical engineering. In the last few decades, developments in enhancing the speed of processing signals has been clearly seen to impinge greatly on the lives of all citizens and so positive outcomes from the research can be expected to translate into increased quality of life for the whole country.Read moreRead less
Highly nonlinear all-optical switches using chalcogenide photonic crystal. Business productivity and economic prosperity are increasingly correlated with the speed of a country's Internet connections and computer infrastructure. Australia will benefit from dramatic improvements to communications technology arising from this research, through access to improved services and through the creation of enterprises formed to commercialise our novel technology. The benefits from the eventual development ....Highly nonlinear all-optical switches using chalcogenide photonic crystal. Business productivity and economic prosperity are increasingly correlated with the speed of a country's Internet connections and computer infrastructure. Australia will benefit from dramatic improvements to communications technology arising from this research, through access to improved services and through the creation of enterprises formed to commercialise our novel technology. The benefits from the eventual development of ultrahigh speed networks include better rural and regional connectivity, improved business productivity and the emergence of new high-bandwidth services, such as telemedicine and flexible learning.Read moreRead less
Electronically controlled phased array antenna for universal Ultra-High-Frequency (UHF) Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) applications. RFID may potentially replace barcodes allowing automated identification of individual items at multiple points in supply and distribution chains. A smart antenna engineered RFID reader improves efficacy in a host of applications such as logistics and security surveillance and tremendously benefits Australian economy as a key player in the field.
Blind separation of mutually correlated sources. This project is aimed at developing novel techniques for blind separation of mutually correlated sources. The expected outcomes will significantly advance the theory of blind source separation and improve the performance of important practical systems, such as densely deployed sensor networks and wireless video surveillance systems.