David Feinauer | Norwich University (original) (raw)
Papers by David Feinauer
and began his academic career at UVM where he taught courses in the areas of analog and digital c... more and began his academic career at UVM where he taught courses in the areas of analog and digital circuits, electronics, semiconductor physics, power electronics, and engineering design.
His scholarly work spans a number of areas related to engineering education, including the first-... more His scholarly work spans a number of areas related to engineering education, including the first-year engineering experience, incorporating innovation and entrepreneurship practice in the engineering classroom, and P-12 engineering outreach. Additionally, he has research experience in the areas of automation and control theory, system identification, machine learning, and energy resilience fundamentals. His work has been published through the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE); he is an active member of both organizations. He holds a PhD and BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Kentucky.
This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electrical and Compu... more This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electrical and Computer Engineering at UKnowledge. It has been accepted
2022 14th International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Communication Networks (CICN)
2021 First-Year Engineering Experience, Aug 9, 2021
2021 First-Year Engineering Experience, Aug 9, 2021
The digitization of classical control systems presents a number of challenges and opportunities w... more The digitization of classical control systems presents a number of challenges and opportunities with respect to the miniaturization, distribution, reliability verification and obsolescence of both the controller and the underlying system under control. A method for the design of proportional-integral-derivative (PID) compensators realized in the form of all-digital components is presented. All-digital refers to a system implementation that is realizable with a wide range of digital logic components including discrete digital logic elements and programmable logic devices (PLDs) such as field-programmable gate arrays. The proportional, integral and derivative components of the classical PID control law were re-envisioned in terms of frequency of occurrences or counts for adaptation to combinatorial and sequential digital logic. Modification of the control scheme around this newly formed representation of system error enables the development of a PID-like FPGA-based or PLD-based controller. Details of the design of an all-digital PID-like controller including abstract, causal block diagrams and a MATLAB® and Simulink® based implementation are presented. The compensator was simulated in a velocity tracking DC motor control application and was found to perform comparably to that of a classical PID based control. Methods for assessing the resultant stability of an all-digital PID compensated system under control are discussed.
2007 International Symposium on Intelligent Signal Processing and Communication Systems, 2007
ABSTRACT A large class of nonlinear systems have been successfully modeled using Volterra series ... more ABSTRACT A large class of nonlinear systems have been successfully modeled using Volterra series techniques. The problem with Volterra series is that the number of parameters grows very rapidly with the order of the nonlinearity and the memory in the system. Techniques exist to efficiently model and compensate for Volterra systems but are often not practical to implement. One approach is to factor the Volterra kernels into a sum of simple terms that are easy to implement. Approaches utilizing the eigen-decomposition have been published for second order nonlinearities. This work proposes using a multilinear extension of the SVD to factor third and higher order kernels into terms that are easily implemented.
Infotech@Aerospace, 2005
This paper presents current research to extend the electronic systems of a UAV via a wireless lin... more This paper presents current research to extend the electronic systems of a UAV via a wireless link. Augmenting the onboard system with external resources offers a flexible testing environment and allows rapid prototyping of new hardware and software components that may not be ...
2007 50th Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems, 2007
Volterra series techniques have been used for some time to model nonlinear systems. The models ar... more Volterra series techniques have been used for some time to model nonlinear systems. The models are well defined, however the number of parameters grows exponentially with the order of the nonlinearity. Techniques exist to compensate a nonlinear system but are often not practical to implement. One approach to this problem is to factor the Volterra kernels into a sum of simple terms that are easy to implement. There are several approaches published in the literature for second order nonlinearities. This work proposes using a multilinear extension of the SVD to factor third and higher order kernels into terms that are easily implemented. Also proposed here is an extension of the pseudo-inverse concept that utilizes the multilinear factorization and compensates for the most significant terms.
– Initially, the vast majority of participants in the University of Kentucky’s engineering cooper... more – Initially, the vast majority of participants in the University of Kentucky’s engineering cooperative education program were placed outside the Commonwealth, primarily with large companies. Many of these students accepted positions with their co-op employers, leaving the state. To address this brain-drain, the Kentucky New
2018 Annual American Control Conference (ACC), 2018
Studies show that small group learning promotes greater academic achievement, enthusiasm for lear... more Studies show that small group learning promotes greater academic achievement, enthusiasm for learning, and persistence, yet student-centered, collaborative instruction is less ubiquitous in engineering and science than in other disciplines. While many reasons exist for this, time and resources required to develop such activities comprise a primary barrier to incorporating small group learning activities in engineering and science classrooms. This paper presents the “Fidget car” – a low cost apparatus that illustrates many core systems and control theory concepts. The authors have developed a sequence of activities for an undergraduate control theory class to address time and resource requirements for small group learning. These activities are presented here. Only simple measurement instruments, such as a smart phone and volt meter, are required to conduct activities with the Fidget car.
In the first course of an introductory engineering sequence, students from multiple engineering d... more In the first course of an introductory engineering sequence, students from multiple engineering disciplines and diverse college-preparatory experiences are introduced to professional and technical concepts from various engineering disciplines. The course presented a great breadth of topics through a series of tutorials, laboratory experiments, and lectures. When reflecting and commenting on the course, students expressed frustration with a “lack of accomplishment” and “jumping around”—indicators of low self-efficacy beliefs. Further analysis determined that although many quality standalone exercises existed, a guiding narrative for the course was lacking. Over multiple years, the course was redesigned using a pedagogical approach that incorporated research-based instructional practices with a goal of helping the students grow in their understanding of engineering as a general field of study. The motivating principles behind the redesign involved integrally connecting the presentatio...
and began his academic career at UVM where he taught courses in the areas of analog and digital c... more and began his academic career at UVM where he taught courses in the areas of analog and digital circuits, electronics, semiconductor physics, power electronics, and engineering design.
His scholarly work spans a number of areas related to engineering education, including the first-... more His scholarly work spans a number of areas related to engineering education, including the first-year engineering experience, incorporating innovation and entrepreneurship practice in the engineering classroom, and P-12 engineering outreach. Additionally, he has research experience in the areas of automation and control theory, system identification, machine learning, and energy resilience fundamentals. His work has been published through the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE); he is an active member of both organizations. He holds a PhD and BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Kentucky.
This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electrical and Compu... more This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electrical and Computer Engineering at UKnowledge. It has been accepted
2022 14th International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Communication Networks (CICN)
2021 First-Year Engineering Experience, Aug 9, 2021
2021 First-Year Engineering Experience, Aug 9, 2021
The digitization of classical control systems presents a number of challenges and opportunities w... more The digitization of classical control systems presents a number of challenges and opportunities with respect to the miniaturization, distribution, reliability verification and obsolescence of both the controller and the underlying system under control. A method for the design of proportional-integral-derivative (PID) compensators realized in the form of all-digital components is presented. All-digital refers to a system implementation that is realizable with a wide range of digital logic components including discrete digital logic elements and programmable logic devices (PLDs) such as field-programmable gate arrays. The proportional, integral and derivative components of the classical PID control law were re-envisioned in terms of frequency of occurrences or counts for adaptation to combinatorial and sequential digital logic. Modification of the control scheme around this newly formed representation of system error enables the development of a PID-like FPGA-based or PLD-based controller. Details of the design of an all-digital PID-like controller including abstract, causal block diagrams and a MATLAB® and Simulink® based implementation are presented. The compensator was simulated in a velocity tracking DC motor control application and was found to perform comparably to that of a classical PID based control. Methods for assessing the resultant stability of an all-digital PID compensated system under control are discussed.
2007 International Symposium on Intelligent Signal Processing and Communication Systems, 2007
ABSTRACT A large class of nonlinear systems have been successfully modeled using Volterra series ... more ABSTRACT A large class of nonlinear systems have been successfully modeled using Volterra series techniques. The problem with Volterra series is that the number of parameters grows very rapidly with the order of the nonlinearity and the memory in the system. Techniques exist to efficiently model and compensate for Volterra systems but are often not practical to implement. One approach is to factor the Volterra kernels into a sum of simple terms that are easy to implement. Approaches utilizing the eigen-decomposition have been published for second order nonlinearities. This work proposes using a multilinear extension of the SVD to factor third and higher order kernels into terms that are easily implemented.
Infotech@Aerospace, 2005
This paper presents current research to extend the electronic systems of a UAV via a wireless lin... more This paper presents current research to extend the electronic systems of a UAV via a wireless link. Augmenting the onboard system with external resources offers a flexible testing environment and allows rapid prototyping of new hardware and software components that may not be ...
2007 50th Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems, 2007
Volterra series techniques have been used for some time to model nonlinear systems. The models ar... more Volterra series techniques have been used for some time to model nonlinear systems. The models are well defined, however the number of parameters grows exponentially with the order of the nonlinearity. Techniques exist to compensate a nonlinear system but are often not practical to implement. One approach to this problem is to factor the Volterra kernels into a sum of simple terms that are easy to implement. There are several approaches published in the literature for second order nonlinearities. This work proposes using a multilinear extension of the SVD to factor third and higher order kernels into terms that are easily implemented. Also proposed here is an extension of the pseudo-inverse concept that utilizes the multilinear factorization and compensates for the most significant terms.
– Initially, the vast majority of participants in the University of Kentucky’s engineering cooper... more – Initially, the vast majority of participants in the University of Kentucky’s engineering cooperative education program were placed outside the Commonwealth, primarily with large companies. Many of these students accepted positions with their co-op employers, leaving the state. To address this brain-drain, the Kentucky New
2018 Annual American Control Conference (ACC), 2018
Studies show that small group learning promotes greater academic achievement, enthusiasm for lear... more Studies show that small group learning promotes greater academic achievement, enthusiasm for learning, and persistence, yet student-centered, collaborative instruction is less ubiquitous in engineering and science than in other disciplines. While many reasons exist for this, time and resources required to develop such activities comprise a primary barrier to incorporating small group learning activities in engineering and science classrooms. This paper presents the “Fidget car” – a low cost apparatus that illustrates many core systems and control theory concepts. The authors have developed a sequence of activities for an undergraduate control theory class to address time and resource requirements for small group learning. These activities are presented here. Only simple measurement instruments, such as a smart phone and volt meter, are required to conduct activities with the Fidget car.
In the first course of an introductory engineering sequence, students from multiple engineering d... more In the first course of an introductory engineering sequence, students from multiple engineering disciplines and diverse college-preparatory experiences are introduced to professional and technical concepts from various engineering disciplines. The course presented a great breadth of topics through a series of tutorials, laboratory experiments, and lectures. When reflecting and commenting on the course, students expressed frustration with a “lack of accomplishment” and “jumping around”—indicators of low self-efficacy beliefs. Further analysis determined that although many quality standalone exercises existed, a guiding narrative for the course was lacking. Over multiple years, the course was redesigned using a pedagogical approach that incorporated research-based instructional practices with a goal of helping the students grow in their understanding of engineering as a general field of study. The motivating principles behind the redesign involved integrally connecting the presentatio...