The current issue of the IETE Journal of Research (Vol.67, No.1, Jan-Feb 2021) contains 13 articles. These articles present ongoing research and developments taking place in the broad areas of Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Electromagnetics, Microwave Engineering, Microelectronics and Signal Processing.
The paper on “A Comparative Study of Existing Machine Learning Approaches for Parkinson's Disease Detection” presents a survey of machine learning based methods for detection of Parkinson’s Disease. The paper presents a literature survey of different classification methods reported along with their accuracies. Key classification algorithms viz. ANN, SVM and K-NN are compared using a benchmark voice dataset and other medical dataset and inferences are presented about their relative efficacy.
The next paper titled “A New Gamma Scaling Maximum Power Point Tracking Method for Solar Photovoltaic Panel Feeding Energy Storage System,” presents a study of maximum power point tracking technique based on variable step size selection for providing incremental conductance that is of relevance in solar photovoltaic systems. The maximum power point transfer (MPPT) system that is crucial for efficiency of the photovoltaic system requires optimum tracking of the point. The paper presents a gamma scaling method for variable step size selection to optimally track the MPPT point. The given method is studied using a hardware prototype for which the experimental setup is presented. Comparisons based on simulations and experiments are also presented for drawing insights.
The paper “An Online Dynamic Security Assessment in Power Systems Using RBF-R Neural Networks,” presents a method for assessing and predicting the dynamic security of a large power system. It uses a neural network with radial basis function to classify the system’s transient stability. The contributions to the neural network architecture to address issue of complexity and classification performance accuracy are presented. The method is studied on a test system and compared with other neural network architectures to bring out the efficacy of the proposed architecture.
In the paper “Breast Tissue Tumor Analysis Using Wideband Antenna and Microwave Scattering,” a method for detecting and localizing early tumors in breast tissues using electromagnetic scattering is presented. The microwave imaging method and algorithm performance are studied using simulators and an experimental setup. The depth of the tumor is estimated from backscattered signals from breast tissues. The simulation and experimental setup results are compared. Discussion regarding finding the location of the tumor is also presented.
The following paper “EKF with Artificial Bee Colony for Precise Positioning of UAV Using Global Positioning System,” considers the problem of precise positioning of an unmanned aerial vehicle. It presents the study of extended Kalman filter (EKF) with a modified artificial bee colony (MABC) optimization technique for estimating the states of an unmanned aerial vehicle viz. yaw, pitch and roll. The errors in state estimation using different measures and convergence analysis of estimates are presented and compared with Kalman filter and other EKF based algorithms and inferences of the efficacy of the proposed method.
The next paper on “Energy Harvesting from Human Biomechanical Energy for Health-monitoring Devices,” presents an energy conversion system from triboelectric nano-generator (TENG) to electrical form for health-monitoring devices. The method to convert energy is discussed. The paper shows how TENG can be used for different health-monitoring devices and on this basis holds out the promise of scavenging electricity from biomechanical sources for medical devices. Quantitative studies are presented to show the efficiency of energy conversion that the design can achieve.
The paper titled “Interdigital Capacitor Based Compact Microstrip Bandpass Filter with Wide Stopband,” presents the design of a microstrip bandpass filter with characteristics of low insertion loss, wide attenuation band, compactness and low cost. The design is described to bring out the salient characteristics. The fabricated filter’s measurements and lumped equivalent circuit are reported and the measurement results are compared with the circuit simulation results. The reported design is expected to be useful for wireless communication system development.
The following paper on “Multimodal Biometrics for Person Identification Using Ear and Palm Print Features” presents a study of person identification using fusion of features from ear and palm print. The biometrics used for this study are relatively invariant compared to other commonly used biometrics that can change, for example, with facial expressions. The features used from the respective biometrics are described and their feature-level fusion methods are presented. The method for identification is presented along with performance comparison studies with other palm and ear only methods to bring out the efficacy of the fusion technique.
The paper titled “Novel Subthreshold Modelling of Advanced On-Chip Graphene Interconnect Using Numerical Method Analysis,” presents subthreshold modelling for devices and on-chip interconnects using finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) technique that is relevant for compact electronics devices. Parasitic elements of interconnects lead to issues of delay, power dissipation and crosstalk that require to be handled optimally. The mathematical modelling of the system comprising of driver, interconnect and load subsystems is presented. The efficacy of operating in subthreshold region compared to linear region from low power consumption perspective is discussed. The advantage of using graphene interconnects over copper is also studied and presented. Further, FDTD modelling for subthreshold region of operation is compared with SPICE simulation studies. Quantitative comparisons of power delay product and crosstalk measures are presented.
The next paper “Qualitative Analysis of Stable Reduced Order Models for Interval Systems Using Mixed Methods,” considers the problem of representing complex higher order systems by approximate lower order stable systems. Frequency domain reduction methods are studied in the paper for reducing linear dynamic interval systems represented by a transfer function, while maintaining stability of the reduced order model. The paper presents examples to show the usefulness of the proposed method. The system comparisons are shown in terms of the step response and frequency response (magnitude and phase) of respective transfer functions of original system and different model order reduction methods.
The following paper “SANSUNL: A Sanskrit to UNL Enconverter System” presents a method to translate Sanskrit script into machine understandable Universal Networking Language (UNL) format. The system uses sets of rules for analysis and for generation of UNL. The different processing modules of the system are described along with examples to illustrate their respective processing. The converter is tested with selected 500 selected Sanskrit sentences. The performance is reported in terms of BLEU score and efficiency in resolving UNL relation correctly.
The paper on “Using Ontologies to Share Access Control Information in Rural Business Process Outsourcing,” considers the task of interfacing conversations between organizations having different domains of operations. The paper develops ontologies for sharing network aware access control semantics across organizations. Specifically, the use-case of rural business process outsourcing is discussed. Case studies are presented that show how meaningful access control information can be extracted using queries.
Finally, the paper on “UWB Rectangular DRA Integrated with Reconfigurable Narrowband Antenna for Cognitive Radio Applications,” is concerned with the development of antenna for cognitive radio applications that requires switching between different frequency bands for operation depending on availability. The paper presents the design of an ultrawide band dielectric resonator antenna integrated with a reconfigurable narrowband antenna for cognitive radio applications. The characteristics of the integrated antennas are presented from a prototype fabricated device.
Editor-in-Chief
Shiban K Koul is currently an Emeritus Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He served as Deputy Director (Strategy and Planning) at IIT Delhi from 2012–2016 and Mentor Deputy Director (Strategy & Planning, International Affairs) at IIT Jammu from 2018–2020. He also served as the Chairman of Astra Microwave Products Limited, Hyderabad from 2009–2019 and Dr RP Shenoy Astra Microwave Chair Professor at IIT Delhi from 2014–2019. His research interests include: RF MEMS, High Frequency Wireless Communication, Microwave Engineering, Microwave Passive and Active Circuits, Device Modeling, Millimeter wave IC Design and Reconfigurable Microwave Circuits including Antennas. Successfully completed 38 major sponsored projects, 52 consultancy projects and 61 technology development projects. He has authored/co-authored 495 Research Papers, 13 state-of-the art Books, 4 Book Chapters and 2 E-Books. He holds 16 patents, 6 copyrights and one Trademark. He has supervised 25 PhD theses and more than 100 Master’s thesis. He is a Life Fellow of IEEE and Fellow of INAE and IETE. He is the Chief Editor of IETE Journal of Research, Associate Editor of the International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technologies, Cambridge University Press. He served as a Distinguished Microwave Lecturer of IEEE MTT-S for the period 2012–2014.
Recipient of numerous awards including IEEE MTT Society Distinguished Educator Award (2014); Teaching Excellence Award(2012) from IIT Delhi; Indian National Science Academy (INSA) Young Scientist Award (1986); Top Invention Award (1991) of the National Research Development Council for his contributions to the indigenous development of ferrite phase shifter technology; VASVIK Award (1994) for the development of Ka- band components and phase shifters; Ram Lal Wadhwa Gold Medal (1995) from the Institution of Electronics and Communication Engineers (IETE); Academic Excellence Award (1998) from Indian Government for his pioneering contributions to phase control modules for Rajendra Radar; Shri Om Prakash Bhasin Award (2009) in the field of Electronics and Information Technology; VASVIK Award (2012) for the contributions made to the area of Information, Communication Technology (ICT) and M N Saha Memorial Award(2013) from IETE. E-mail: [email protected]