Array processing is an area of study devoted to processing the signals received from an antenna array and extracting information of interest. It has played an important role in widespread applications like radar, sonar, and wireless communications. Numerous adaptive array processing algorithms have been reported in the literature in the last several decades. These algorithms, in a general view, exhibit a trade-off between performance and required computational complexity. In this thesis, we focus on the development of array processing algorithms in the application of beamforming and direction of arrival (DOA) estimation. In the beamformer design, we employ the constrained minimum variance (CMV) and the constrained constant modulus (CCM) criteria to propose full-rank and reduced-rank adaptive algorithms. Specifically, for the full-rank algorithms, we present two low-complexity adaptive step size mechanisms with the CCM criterion for the step size adaptation of the ...

Due to a variety of potential barriers to sample acquisition, many of the datasets encountered in important classification applications, ranging from tumor identification to facial recognition, are characterized by small samples of high-dimensional data. In such situations, linear classifiers are popular as they have less risk of overfitting while being faster and more interpretable than non-linear classifiers. They are also easier to understand and implement for the inexperienced practitioner. In this dissertation, several gaps in the literature regarding the analysis and design of linear classifiers for high-dimensional data are addressed using tools from the field of asymptotic Random Matrix Theory (RMT) which facilitate the derivation of limits of relevant quantities or distributions, such as the probability of misclassification of a particular classifier or the asymptotic distribution of its discriminant, in the RMT regime where both the sample size and dimensionality ...

When the noise affecting time series is colored with unknown statistics, a difficulty for periodic signal detection is to control the true significance level at which the detection tests are conducted. This thesis investigates the possibility of using training datasets of the noise to improve this control. Specifically, for the case of regularly sampled observations, we analyze the performances of various detectors applied to periodograms standardized using the noise training datasets. Emphasis is put on sparse detection in the Fourier domain and on the limitation posed by the necessary finite size of the training sets available in practice. We study the resulting false alarm and detection rates and show that the proposed standardization leads, in some cases, to powerful constant false alarm rate tests. Although analytical results are derived in an asymptotic regime, numerical results show that the theory accurately ...

Nowadays, many disciplines in science and engineering deal with problems for which a solution relies on knowledge about the characteristics of one or more given systems that can only be ascertained based on restricted observations. This requires the fitting of an adequately chosen model, such that it “best” conforms to a set of measured data. Depending on the context, this fitting procedure may resort to a huge amount of recorded data and abundant numerical power, or contrarily, to only a few streams of samples, which have to be processed on the fly at low computational cost. This thesis, exclusively focuses on the latter scenario. It specifically studies unexpected behaviour and reliability of the widely spread and computationally highly efficient class of gradient type algorithms. Additionally, special attention is paid to systems that combine several of them. Chapter 3 is dedicated ...

In this dissertation we focus on statistical signal processing for Data Fusion, with a particular focus on wireless sensor networks. Six topics are studied: (i) Data Fusion for classification under model uncertainty; (ii) Decision Fusion over coherent MIMO channels; (iii) Performance analysis of Maximum Ratio Combining in MIMO decision fusion; (iv) Decision Fusion over non-coherent MIMO channels; (v) Decision Fusion for distributed classification of multiple targets; (vi) Data Fusion for inverse localization problems, with application to wideband passive sonar platform estimation. The first topic of this thesis addresses the problem of lack of knowledge of the prior distribution in classification problems that operate on small data sets that may make the application of Bayes' rule questionable. Uniform or arbitrary priors may provide classification answers that, even in simple examples, may end up contradicting our common sense about the problem. Entropic ...

This dissertation is the combination of three manuscripts –either published in or submitted to journals– on compressive sensing of propeller noise for detection, identification and localization of water crafts. Propeller noise, as a result of rotating blades, is broadband and radiates through water dominating underwater acoustic noise spectrum especially when cavitation develops. Propeller cavitation yields cyclostationary noise which can be modeled by amplitude modulation, i.e., the envelope-carrier product. The envelope consists of the so-called propeller tonals representing propeller characteristics which is used to identify water crafts whereas the carrier is a stationary broadband process. Sampling for propeller noise processing yields large data sizes due to Nyquist rate and multiple sensor deployment. A compressive sensing scheme is proposed for efficient sampling of second-order cyclostationary propeller noise since the spectral correlation function of the amplitude modulation model is sparse as shown in ...

Advanced mobile communication systems are characterized by a dense deployment of different types of wireless access points. Since these systems are primarily limited by interference, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) techniques as well as coordinated transmission and detection schemes are necessary to mitigate this limitation. Thus, mobile communication systems become more complex which requires that also the mathematical tools for their theoretical analysis must evolve. These must be able to take the most important system characteristics into account, such as fading, path loss, and interference. The aim of this thesis is to develop such tools based on large random matrix theory and to demonstrate their usefulness with the help of several practical applications, such as the performance analysis of network MIMO and large-scale MIMO systems, the design of low-complexity polynomial expansion detectors, and the study of random beamforming techniques as well as ...

Due to significant advances made over the last few decades in the areas of (wireless) networking, communications and microprocessor fabrication, the use of sensor networks to observe physical phenomena is rapidly becoming commonplace. Over this period, many aspects of sensor networks have been explored, yet a thorough understanding of how to analyse and process the vast amounts of sensor data collected remains an open area of research. This work, therefore, aims to provide theoretical, as well as practical, advances this area. In particular, we consider the problem of inferring certain underlying properties of the monitored phenomena, from our sensor measurements. Within mathematics, this is commonly formulated as an inverse problem; whereas in signal processing, it appears as a (multidimensional) sampling and reconstruction problem. Indeed it is well known that inverse problems are notoriously ill-posed and very demanding to solve; meanwhile ...

The large number of practical applications involving digital images has motivated a significant interest towards restoration solutions that improve the visual quality of the data under the presence of various acquisition and compression artifacts. Digital images are the results of an acquisition process based on the measurement of a physical quantity of interest incident upon an imaging sensor over a specified period of time. The quantity of interest depends on the targeted imaging application. Common imaging sensors measure the number of photons impinging over a dense grid of photodetectors in order to produce an image similar to what is perceived by the human visual system. Different applications focus on the part of the electromagnetic spectrum not visible by the human visual system, and thus require different sensing technologies to form the image. In all cases, even with the advance of ...

During the last decades, information is being gathered and processed at an explosive rate. This fact gives rise to a very important issue, that is, how to effectively and precisely describe the information content of a given source signal or an ensemble of source signals, such that it can be stored, processed or transmitted by taking into consideration the limitations and capabilities of the several digital devices. One of the fundamental principles of signal processing for decades is the Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem, which states that the minimum number of samples needed to reconstruct a signal without error is dictated by its bandwidth. However, there are many cases in our everyday life in which sampling at the Nyquist rate results in too many data and thus, demanding an increased processing power, as well as storage requirements. A mathematical theory that emerged ...

System designers across all disciplines of technology face the need to develop machines capable of independently processing and analyzing data and predicting future data. This is the fundamental problem of interest in “estimation theory,” wherein probabilistic analyses are used to isolate relationships between variables, and in “statistical inference,” wherein those variables are used to make inferences about real-world quantities. In practice, all estimators are designed based on limited statistical generalizations about the behavior of the observed and latent variables of interest; however, these models are rarely fully representative of reality. In such cases, there exists a “model misspecification,” and the resulting estimators will produce results that differ from those of the properly specified estimators. Evaluating the performance of a given estimator may sometimes be done by direct comparison of estimator outputs to known ground truth. However, in many cases, there ...

This thesis is concerned with three closely related problems. The first one is called Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) Instantaneous Blind Identification, which we denote by MIBI. In this problem a number of mutually statistically independent source signals are mixed by a MIMO instantaneous mixing system and only the mixed signals are observed, i.e. both the mixing system and the original sources are unknown or ‘blind’. The goal of MIBI is to identify the MIMO system from the observed mixtures of the source signals only. The second problem is called Instantaneous Blind Signal Separation (IBSS) and deals with recovering mutually statistically independent source signals from their observed instantaneous mixtures only. The observation model and assumptions on the signals and mixing system are the same as those of MIBI. However, the main purpose of IBSS is the estimation of the source signals, whereas ...

This thesis is concerned with three closely related problems. The first one is called Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) Instantaneous Blind Identification, which we denote by MIBI. In this problem a number of mutually statistically independent source signals are mixed by a MIMO instantaneous mixing system and only the mixed signals are observed, i.e. both the mixing system and the original sources are unknown or ¡blind¢. The goal of MIBI is to identify the MIMO system from the observed mixtures of the source signals only. The second problem is called Instantaneous Blind Signal Separation (IBSS) and deals with recovering mutually statistically independent source signals from their observed instantaneous mixtures only. The observation model and assumptions on the signals and mixing system are the same as those of MIBI. However, the main purpose of IBSS is the estimation of the source signals, whereas ...

In this thesis, advanced robust estimation methodologies for signal processing are developed and analyzed. The developed methodologies solve problems concerning multi-sensor data, robust model selection as well as robustness for dependent data. The work has been applied to solve practical signal processing problems in different areas of biomedical and array signal processing. In particular, for univariate independent data, a robust criterion is presented to select the model order with an application to corneal-height data modeling. The proposed criterion overcomes some limitations of existing robust criteria. For real-world data, it selects the radial model order of the Zernike polynomial of the corneal topography map in accordance with clinical expectations, even if the measurement conditions for the videokeratoscopy, which is the state-of-the-art method to collect corneal-height data, are poor. For multi-sensor data, robust model order selection selection criteria are proposed and applied ...

In this study, the respiratory system are modelled by three linear and one non-linear lumped parameter respiratory model, the equations of the models are driven and the parameters are estimated by using statistical signal processing methods. Linear RIC, Viscoelastic and Mead models and proposed basic non-linear RC model are used to resemble the respiratory system of the patient with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) under non-invasive ventilation. Statistical signal processing methods such as Minimum Variance Unbiased Estimation (MVUE), Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE), Kalman Filter (KF), Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) and Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) are very powerful methods to estimate the parameters of the systems embedded in the unknown noise. In the first part of this thesis, artificial respiratory signals (airway flow and airway pressure) are used for the performance measurement criteria. Posterior Cramer Rao Lower Bound (PCRLB) is computed ...