1.  Robotics Competition

With the competition requirements in mind, my group had designed a vehicle entirely on K'Nex. Our goal is to come up with a robot that was capable of avoiding any obstacles found in its path as well as be able to find its way out from where it came from in dead-end situations.

For our design, there would be four pairs of infrared sensors one on each side, which were used for detection of obstacles. There were also two wheels at the rear, each driven by a 12V dc motor coupled with gearbox. The weight of the vehicle was supported by K'Nex wheels in front. Our design also included a power supply box to drive the motors, chips and sensors. In addition, a PC was also required for the I/O card that was to be fitted into one of the ISA slots.

Our group had come up with a few dead-end situations and the walls (obstacles) were made from styrofoam and wrapped in aluminum foil to ensure maximum performance from the infrared sensors. We also made use of a matted wooden board (1.2m x 2.4m) which served as the surface for our robot to move on.

Basically, the intelligence of our robot would be based on the software algorithm. When the robot encountered certain situations, it should be able to store that case in computer memory so that the execution of the subsequent step would now rely on what the robot encountered next.

For our robot, we decided to design it such that it met the IES Robotics Competition Rules. To make the project easier to deal with, we had broken it down into five sections, namely, motion, sensors, power, control and software. The control section, consisting of the Intel 8255 chip on the I/O card, received information that is collected from the infrared sensors, after which it would send information to the control section that was to responsible for driving the motors and wheels. Power would be required to supply voltage to propel the electrical components and the I/O card that was slotted into the CPU. The intelligence of our robot would be reliant on our software algorithm that was written in C++ language.
 

>>>> Click here for Report on this project (MSWord) <<<<
 

2.  Remote Control Car Competition

The objective of the project is to construct a vehicle, which is to be remotely controlled using a regular joystick within a certain distance. The driver of the vehicle must be able to manoeuvre the vehicle through an obstacle course using the image transmitted onto a television set captured by the video camera mounted on the vehicle.

The following specifications are given for the design of the vehicle:

1.     A vehicle which should measure no larger than 30 cm length and 30 cm width.
2.     Capable of been manoeuvred around an obstacle course by a remote human operator. at a comfortable speed and to make quick turns to avoid obstacles at the same time maintaining stability.
3.     A video camera to send images from the video camera to the television screen at the remote-site where our controller will be.
4.     Operator to use a joystick to transmit commands to the control circuitry of the vehicle to move the vehicle around the obstacle course.

Each team will be provided with a video camera with composite video output, a television set, motors and RF transmitter and receiver module. Otherwise, all other hardware is to be designed and constructed by the team members.

Below are some photos of our vehicle taken during the competition day, 14 October 2000 outside SMA. In all, 10 teams took part in this project.

My team members and myself (front row, second from right) had worked hard for 3 months in order to make this project a success. We were pleased to have come in 2nd for this competition. The vehicle had successfully negotiated the obstacle course in 1 min 15 seconds!!!

(For photos of other teams and video clips, please click HERE)

>>>> Click here for Report on this project (MSWord) <<<<
>>>> Click here for PCB Designs (MSWord) <<<<
 
3.   Industrial Attachment (Jan - Jun 2001)

Company:  Institute for Infocomm Research (I²R) (formerly known as the Centre for Wireless Communications)

Address: 20 Science Park Road, #02-21/25, Teletech Park, Singapore Science Park 2, Singapore 117674

Project Title : Impedance and Radiation Testing of Planar Monopole Antennas

Project Synopsis :

The antenna is one of the most critical components used in wireless communications. It is basically designed to radiate or to receive electromagnetic waves. Geometrical simplicity, modal purity and cost effectiveness are some of the factors which are considered in the design of an antenna. An antenna design which could give rise to a broad impedance bandwidth and stable radiation patterns, is desired. For this purpose, the wire element of a conventional monopole can be replaced by a planar element. Numerical methods, such as the method of moments with the use of a wire grid and triangular cell meshing have been used to analyze the impedance characteristics of the planar monopole.

Although the planar monopole is experimentally proven to be capable of producing broad bandwidth performance, it is not very feasible as the antenna is not able to resist the force of wind. Therefore, in this report, planar monopoles of different geometrical shapes with slot cuts made on them are presented. Another novel solution to improve the impedance bandwidth will be to make use of electromagnetic coupling (EMC) between two copper surfaces separated by a dielectric substrate.

Project Supervisor : Dr. Chen Zhi Ning (I²R)

>>>> Click here for IA Report on this project (PDF) <<<<

Z. N. Chen, M. J. Ammann, M. Y. W. Chia, and Terence S. P. See, “Annular planar monopole antennas,” IEE Proceedings: Microwave, Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 49, No. 4 Aug. 2002, pp.200-203

Z. N. Chen, M. J. Ammann, M. Y. W. Chia, and Terence S. P. See, “Circular annular planar monopoles with EM coupling,” IEE Proceedings: Microwave, Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 150, No. 4, Aug. 2003, pp.269-273

4.   Final Year Project (Jul 2001 - May 2002)

Project Title : Analysis and Design of Center-fed Planar Antennas

Project Synopsis :
 
With the rapid development of wireless communications, antenna dsigners are facing more and more challenges. Of them, many efforts have been devoted to broadening impedance and radiation bandwidths. One of remedies is to replace wire elements of the antennas with planar elements. Many kinds of antennas have been developed so far. Typically, planar monopole and plate antennas have achieved remarkably wide bandwidth ratios of up to 10:1  and 50% for VSWR=2:1, respectively.

In this project, we will develop some novel planar microstrip antennas with enhanced impedance and radiation performance. The numerical analysis and measurements will be involved.

Project Supervisor : Dr. Chen Zhi Ning (I²R)

>>>> Click here for FYP Report on this project (PDF) <<<<

Terence S. P. See and Z. N. Chen, “Slot loaded center-fed microstrip patch antenna,” Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, Vol. 34. No. 3, August 5, 2002, pp.227-232

Terence S. P. See and Z. N. Chen, “Suspended center-fed slot-loaded plate antenna,” International Journal for Wireless and Optical Communications, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2003, pp.87-90

5. Masters of Engineering Project (Jul 2002 -  Apr 2004)

Project Title #1: Design and Analysis of Stacked Patch Antenna Arrays for 2.4GHz ISM Band Applications

Project Synopsis : A novel dual-polarized stacked microstrip array that operates well within the ISM-band (2.402~2.4835GHz) for Bluetooth applications is simulated using Ansoft Ensemble v8.0 and experimentally presented. Each square patch of the microstrip antenna is fed diagonally by a microstrip line. A superstrate layer is stacked above the bottom layer to increase the operating bandwidth. The impedance and the radiation characteristics of the optimised antenna configuration are presented, having varied the sizes of the top and bottom patches, the spacing between the layers as well as the distance between the patches.

Project Supervisors: Dr. Chen Zhi Ning (I²R), A/P Li Le-Wei (NUS)

Terence S. P. See and Z. N. Chen, “Design of broadband dual-polarization stacked microstrip antenna for bluetooth applications,” 8th International Conference on Communications Systems (ICCS), December 2002

Z. N. Chen, Terence S. P. See and M. Y. W Chia, “Broadband dual-polarization stacked microstrip antennas for bluetooth applications,” Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, Vol. 37, No. 5, June 5, 2003, pp.364-366

Terence S. P. See and Z. N. Chen, “Design of dual-polarization stacked arrays for ISM band applications,”
Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, Vol. 38, No. 2, July 20, 2003, pp.142-147

Project Title #2: Design of Stacked Offset Antenna Arrays for ISM Band Applications

Project Synopsis : A linear dual-polarized stacked antenna array that operates well within the ISM-band for W-LAN base station applications is presented. The array comprises a bottom patch diagonally fed by a microstrip line and a superstrate layer with four parasitic patches stacked above the bottom layer. The design parameters are simulated and the impedance and radiation characteristics of an optimized antenna configuration are presented and compared against measured results. The antenna is shown to satisfy the requirements for a base station antenna and capable of having a broad bandwidth for VSWR < 1.5.

Project Supervisors: Dr. Chen Zhi Ning (I²R), A/P Li Le-Wei (NUS) 

Terence S. P. See and Z. N. Chen, “Design of stacked offset antenna arrays for ISM-band applications,”
Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, Vol. 39, No. 2, October 20, 2003, pp.125-129

Project Title #3: Diversity Performance of Dual-Linear Polarization Microstrip Patch Antennas

Project Synopsis : Novel designs of dual-linear polarized microstrip antenna are experimentally presented. In the first design, the square microstrip antenna is orthogonally fed by two microstrip lines. Another stacked square patch above the lower patch is used to increase its operating bandwidth. In the second design, a probe-fed gap-coupled antenna having four parasitic patches placed along the radiating and non-radiating sides of the main patch is presented. The impedance and radiation characteristics of the optimized configuration at the lower, center and upper frequencies for the 1.5:1 VSWR bandwidth are obtained. In addition, the far-field coupling, output power correlation as well as the diversity gain of the antenna are analyzed numerically and experimentally.

Project Supervisors: Dr. Chen Zhi Ning (I²R), A/P Li Le-Wei (NUS) 

Terence S. P. See and Z. N. Chen, “Diversity performance of dual-linear polarization stacked microstrip antenna,” Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference 2003, Seoul, Korea, Vol. 3, November 2003, pp.1840-1843

Terence S. P. See and Z. N. Chen, “Experimental study on diversity performance of a dual-linear polarization stacked microstrip antenna array,” IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation, Monterey, California, USA, Vol. 4, June 20-25, 2004, pp.4360-4363

Terence S. P. See and Z. N. Chen, “Diversity performance of a dual-linear polarization stacked microstrip antenna,” 4th International Workshop on ITS Telecommunications, Singapore, July 8-9, 2004, pp.237-240

6. Research Papers

Journal Papers

Z. N. Chen, N. Yang, Terence S. P. See, and X. M. Qing, “Investigation of planar square antennas for UWB applications,” International Journal for Wireless and Optical Communications, Vol. 2, No. 2, Dec. 2004, pp.189-201

Z. N. Chen, A. Cai, Terence S. P. See, X. M. Qing, and M. Y. W. Chia, “Small planar UWB antennas in proximity of human head,” IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, Vol. 54, No. 4, Apr. 2006, pp.1846-1857

Z. N. Chen, M. J. Ammann, X. M. Qing, X. H. Wu, Terence S. P. See, and A. Cai, “Planar antennas: Promising solutions for microwave UWB applications,” IEEE Microwave Magazine, Vol. 7, No. 6, Dec. 2006, pp.63-73

Terence. S. P. See and Z. N. Chen, “Diversity performance of a dual-linear polarization suspended gap-coupled microstrip antenna,” (Accepted for publication in IEE Proceedings: Communications)

Z. N. Chen, Terence. S. P. See, and X. M. Qing, “Small printed UWB antenna with reduced ground plane effect,” (Accepted for Publication in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation)

Conference Papers

C. K. Looi, Terence S. P. See, and Z. N. Chen, “Study of human head effects on the planar inverted-F antenna,” IEEE International Workshop on Antenna Technology, Singapore, March 7-9, 2005, pp.223-227

A. Cai, Terence S. P. See, and Z. N. Chen, “Study of human head effects on UWB antenna,” IEEE International Workshop on Antenna Technology, Singapore, March 7-9, 2005, Vol. 1, pp.310-313

Terence S. P. See and Z. N. Chen, “Effects of human body on performance of wearable PIFAs and RF transmission,” IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 1B, Washington DC, USA, July 3-8, 2005, pp.686-689

Terence S. P. See, A. Cai, and Z. N. Chen, “Study on transmission of RF signals on human body,” IEE Seminar on Wideband and Multi-band Antennas and Arrays, UK, Sept. 2005

Z. N. Chen, A. Cai, Terence S. P. See, and M. Y. W. Chia, “Planar UWB antennas in proximity of human head,” IEEE International Conference on UWB, Zurich, Switzerland, 4-7 Sept. 2005

Terence S. P. See, X. M. Qing, and  Z. N. Chen, “Application of inverted-f antenna in RFID contact tracing system,” Loughborough Antennas and Propagation Conference, Loughborough University, UK., Apr. 11-12, 2006

Z. N. Chen and Terence S. P. See, “Small ground independent planar UWB antenna,”IEEE AP-S Intl Symp and USWC/URSI National Radio Science Meeting, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 9-14 Jul. 2006

L. B. Liu, H. P. Zhao, Terence S. P. See, and Z. N. Chen, “A printed ultra-wideband diversity antenna,” IEEE International Conference on UWB, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA, 24-27 Sept. 2006

Z. N. Chen and Terence S. P. See, “Reduced ground-plane effect UWB antenna and application for laptop computers (Invited),” IEEE TENCON, Hong Kong, 14-17 Nov. 2006

H. P. Zhao, L. B. Liu, Terence S. P. See, and Z. N. Chen, “A printed UWB diversity antenna,” International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation, Singapore, 1-4 Nov. 2006

Terence S. P. See, Akram Alomainy, Yang Hao, and Z. N. Chen, “On-body characterization of a compact planar UWB antenna,” European Conference on Antennas and Propagation, Nice, France, 6-10 Nov. 2006

Qiubo Ye, Z. N. Chen, and Terence S. P. See, “A novel butterfly-shaped monopole UWB antenna,” (Accepted for IEEE International Workshop on Antenna Technology 2007)

Z. N. Chen and Terence S. P. See, “Small UWB antennas for wireless USB dongle attached to laptop computer (Invited),” (Accepted for IEEE International Workshop on Antenna Technology 2007)

7. Patents and Licensing

Patents

1.    Small UWB antennas, Z. N. Chen and Terence S. P. See, PCT/SG2005/000282 on August 17, 2005

2.    An omnidirectional inverted-F antenna, Terence S. P. See, X. M. Qing, and Z. N. Chen (ID presented on 29 March 2006)

3.    A beamwidth controllable UWB antenna array, X. M. Qing, Z. N. Chen, Terence S. P. See, X. B. Sun, and J. J. Wang (ID presented on 21 June 2006)

4.    An antenna apparatus for diversity applications, Terence S. P. See, and Z. N. Chen (ID presented on 22 November 2006)

Licensing Agreements

1.    Directional Panel 2.4 GHz WLAN Antenna -- Bluengine (06 September 2005)

2.    Antenna Arrays for WLAN Applications -- Compex Systems Pte Ltd

3.    Directional panel 2.4 GHz 8 dBi WLAN access point antenna -- Compex Systems Pte Ltd (09 May 2006)<

4.    Directional embeddable 5-GHz 8 dBi WLAN access point antenna -- Compex Systems Pte Ltd (02 June 2006)

5.    Antenna -- GIT Japan Inc. (15 August 2006)

A copy of the brochure is also available!