arXiv subjects

Avik Ghosh

Publications and source records attributed to Avik Ghosh.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Power Estimation and Optimal Work-Charging Scheduling of Construction Electric Vehicles via Mobile Charging Stations

Construction electric vehicles (CEVs) are a promising clean alternative to diesel-powered construction equipment, but their adoption is constrained by sparse onsite charging infrastructure, limited CEV mobility, and insufficient understanding of their power consumption. We address these gaps through a field-data-driven framework coupling CEV power estimation with mobile-charging-aware work scheduling. First, using a real-world construction demonstration at the University of California, San Diego, we develop and validate a per-subactivity power estimation model for a compact electric excavator. Manually labeled video is synchronized with coarse battery state-of-charge (SOC) telematics, and constrained nonnegative least squares is used to recover each subactivity's average power consumption. The model predicts held-out test data within $17\%$ normalized mean absolute error (NMAE), and the accompanying dataset is released publicly. Second, leveraging the subactivity power estimates, we formulate a mixed-integer program that jointly optimizes CEV work and charging schedules together with the location, timing, and charging/discharging of mobile charging stations (MCSs) serving the CEVs. The optimization accounts for energy and demand charges, carbon emissions, unmet work penalties, MCS travel, and the physical and operational constraints of the CEVs and MCSs. Across realistic scenarios drawn from the demonstration, the proposed co-optimization attains the lowest operating cost in every case, being $7$--$96\%$ below the best-performing baseline, while solving most instances to proven optimality within an hour. Dataset and scripts are available at https://github.com/ghosh-avik/CEV-MCS-Power-Estimation-and-Joint-Scheduling.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2025

Trick or Treat? Free-ranging dogs use human behavioural cues for foraging

Animals that display behavioural flexibility and adaptability thrive in urban environments, due to their ability to exploit novel anthropogenic resources. Since humans are an important component of such urban environments, animals that apply heterospecific learning in their decision-making are more likely to succeed as urban adapters. Free-ranging dogs, that have been living in human-dominated environments for centuries, are excellent urban adapters. In this study, we sought to understand the role and extent of human behavioural cues in decision-making during foraging by free-ranging dogs. We investigated whether these dogs were more attracted to items that humans appeared to be eating. When presented with a real and a fake biscuit, the dogs showed a clear preference for the food item. Between two identical biscuits, they chose the one that had been bitten by a human. However, when a fake biscuit was bitten and presented with a real one, the dogs failed to choose one over the other, suggesting a strong influence of the human-provided cue of biting over the natural cue of the smell of the food item. The dogs displayed left-bias during food choice across experimental conditions. These results demonstrate that dog foraging choices in urban environments are a mix of heterospecific learning and independent decision-making, highlighting an important facet behind their success in anthropogenic habitats. This also underscores the high level of dependence that free-ranging dogs have on humans in the urban habitat, not only as a source of food, but as an integral part of their ecological niche.

q-bio.OT↗

arXiv2025

Baseline-improved Economic Model Predictive Control for Optimal Microgrid Dispatch

Economic Model Predictive Control (EMPC) optimizes economic performance over a prediction horizon rather than stabilizing to a reference, making it attractive for microgrid (MG) dispatch. However, since load and generation forecasts are known only 24-48 h ahead, economically optimal steady states or periodic trajectories are unavailable, and EMPC works relying on such signals are inadequate. Moreover, demand charges, based on the maximum monthly grid import, cannot be easily cast as an additive cost, which prevents a naive application of the principle of optimality. We propose to close this mismatch between the EMPC prediction horizon and monthly timescales via an appropriately generated baseline reference trajectory. We first propose an EMPC formulation for a generic deterministic discrete nonlinear time-varying system subject to hard state and input constraints. We then show that, under appropriate terminal ingredients -- sequential control invariance of the terminal region and a terminal control law causing a Lyapunov-like decrease of the terminal cost -- the asymptotic average economic cost of the proposed method is no worse than a baseline given by any arbitrary reference trajectory known only online. This yields a practical, finite-time upper bound on the average economic cost difference with the baseline that decreases linearly to zero as time goes to infinity. We then show how the framework solves optimal MG dispatch problems, introducing costs and constraints that conform to the required assumptions. Using data from the Port of San Diego MG, realistic simulations demonstrate that the proposed method reduces monthly electricity costs in closed loop relative to reference trajectories generated either by optimizing the electricity cost over the prediction horizon or by tracking an ideal grid import curve.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2024

Economic MPC with an Online Reference Trajectory for Battery Scheduling Considering Demand Charge Management

Monthly demand charges form a significant portion of the electric bill for microgrids with variable renewable energy generation. A battery energy storage system (BESS) is commonly used to manage these demand charges. Economic model predictive control (EMPC) with a reference trajectory can be used to dispatch the BESS to optimize the microgrid operating cost. Since demand charges are incurred monthly, EMPC requires a full-month reference trajectory for asymptotic stability guarantees that result in optimal operating costs. However, a full-month reference trajectory is unrealistic from a renewable generation forecast perspective. Therefore, to construct a practical EMPC with a reference trajectory, an EMPC formulation considering both non-coincident demand and on-peak demand charges is designed in this work for 24 to 48 h prediction horizons. The corresponding reference trajectory is computed at each EMPC step by solving an optimal control problem over 24 to 48 h reference (trajectory) horizon. Furthermore, BESS state of charge regulation constraints are incorporated to guarantee the BESS energy level in the long term. Multiple reference and prediction horizon lengths are compared for both shrinking and rolling horizons with real-world data. The proposed EMPC with 48 h rolling reference and prediction horizons outperforms the traditional EMPC benchmark with a 2% reduction in the annual cost, proving its economic benefits.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2024

Adaptive Relaxation based Non-Conservative Chance Constrained Stochastic MPC

Chance constrained stochastic model predictive controllers (CC-SMPC) trade off full constraint satisfaction for economical plant performance under uncertainty. Previous CC-SMPC works are over-conservative in constraint violations leading to worse economic performance. Other past works require a-priori information about the uncertainty set, limiting their application. This paper considers a discrete LTI system with hard constraints on inputs and chance constraints on states, with unknown uncertainty distribution, statistics, or samples. This work proposes a novel adaptive online update rule to relax the state constraints based on the time-average of past constraint violations, to achieve reduced conservativeness in closed-loop. Under an ideal control policy assumption, it is proven that the time-average of constraint violations asymptotically converges to the maximum allowed violation probability. The method is applied for optimal battery energy storage system (BESS) dispatch in a grid connected microgrid with PV generation and load demand, with chance constraints on BESS state-of-charge (SOC). Realistic simulations show the superior electricity cost saving potential of the proposed method as compared to the traditional economic MPC without chance constraints, and a state-of-the-art approach with chance constraints. We satisfy the chance constraints non-conservatively in closed-loop, effectively trading off increased cost savings with minimal adverse effects on BESS lifetime.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2018

Skyrmion Formation Induced by Antiferromagnetic-enhanced Interfacial Dzyaloshinskii Moriya Interaction

Neél skyrmions originate from interfacial Dzyaloshinskii Moriya interaction (DMI). Recent studies have explored using ferromagnet to host Neél skyrmions for device applications. However, challenges remain to reduce the size of skyrmion to near 10 nm. Amorphous rare-earth-transitional-metal ferrimagnets are attractive alternative materials to obtain ultrasmall skyrmions at room temperature. Their intrinsic perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and tunable magnetization provides a favorable environment for skyrmion stability. In this work, we employ atomistic stochastic Landau-Liftshitz-Gilbert (LLG) algorithm to investigate skyrmions in GdFe within the interfacial DMI model. Despite the rapid decay of DMI away from the interface, small skyrmions of near 10 nm are found in thick ~ 5 nm amorphous GdFe film at 300K. We have also considered three scenarios for the sign of DMI between Gd-Fe pair. It is revealed that antiferromagnetic coupling in the ferrimagnet plays an important role in enhancing the effect of interfacial DMI and to stabilize skyrmion. These results show that ferrimagnets and antiferromagnets with intrinsic antiferromagnetic couplings are appealing materials to host small skyrmions at room temperature, which is crucial to improve density and energy efficiency in skyrmion based devices.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

First principles study and empirical parametrization of twisted bilayer MoS2 based on band-unfolding

We explore the band structure and ballistic electron transport in twisted bilayer $\textrm{MoS}_2$ using Density Functional Theory (DFT). The sphagetti like bands are unfolded to generate band structures in the primitive unit cell of the original un-twisted $\textrm{MoS}_2$ bilayer and projected onto an individual layer. The corresponding twist angle dependent indirect bandedges are extracted from the unfolded band structures. Based on a comparison within the same primitive unit cell, an efficient two band effective mass model for indirect conduction and valence valleys is created and parameterized by fitting the unfolded band structures. With the two band effective mass model, transport properties - specifically, we calculate the ballistic transmission in arbitrarily twisted bilayer $\textrm{MoS}_2$.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2011

High efficiency switching using graphene based electron 'optics'

The absence of a band-gap in graphene limits the gate modulation of its electron conductivity, both in regular graphene as well as in PN junctions, where electrostatic barriers prove transparent to Klein tunneling. We demonstrate a novel way to directly open a gate-tunable transmission gap across graphene PN junctions (GPNJ) by introducing an additional barrier in the middle that replaces Klein tunneling with regular tunneling, allowing us to electrostatically modulate the current by several orders of magnitude. The gap arises by angularly sorting electrons by their longitudinal energy and filtering out the hottest, normally incident electrons with the tunnel barrier, and the rest through total internal reflection. Using analytical and atomistic numerical studies of quantum transport, we show that the complete filtering of all incident electrons causes the GPNJ to act as a novel metamaterial with a unique gate-tunable transmission-gap that generates a sharp non-thermal switching of electrons. In fact, the transmission gap gradually diminishes to zero as we electrostatically reduce the voltage gradient across the junction towards the homogeneous doping limit. The resulting gate tunable metal-insulator transition enables the electrons to overcome the classic room temperature switching limit of kTln10/q = 60mV/decade for subthreshold conduction.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2009

Probing molecule-semiconductor interfaces through Metal Molecule Semiconductor transport characteristics

Electron transfer processes at molecule-semiconductor interfaces involve a complex mixture of thermionic, tunneling and hopping events. Traditionally these processes have been modeled in a piece-meal fashion, relying on phenomenological treatments such as Simmons and Richardson equations that are not vetted in atomistic systems and do not flow seamlessly into each other. We present a unified modeling approach, based on the Non-equilibrium Greens function (NEGF) formalism that allows us to integrate diverse transport regimes and establish a comprehensive quantitative theory. By comparing our simulations with experiments on a metal-molecule-semiconductor junction (varying molecular lengths ~1-3nm), we identify the role of molecular monolayers in tuning the semiconductor band-bending, and thereby overall device conductivity. We find that the principal role of molecules is to act as a voltage divider, altering the Schottky barriers, thereby modulating current levels, voltage-asymmetries and crossover from Schottky to tunneling transport. While this provides an appealingly simple explanation for our observed experimental trends, the calculated shifts in crossover voltages are insufficient to explain the experiments quantitatively. Quantitative correspondence with experiments requires invocation of an additional voltage divider arising from molecular dipoles that further tunes semiconductor band-bending. The extracted dipole moments are rationalized using ab-initio calculations for each molecule, along-with a dilution of packing fraction for the shortest molecular lengths. The methodology described herein can be used to better understand and predict transport characteristics of such junctions.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2005

A Theoretical Investigation of Surface Roughness Scattering in Silicon Nanowire Transistors

In this letter, we report a three-dimensional (3D) quantum mechanical simulation to investigate the effects of surface roughness scattering (SRS) on the device characteristics of Si nanowire transistors (SNWTs). We treat the microscopic structure of the Si/SiO2 interface roughness directly by using a 3D finite element technique. The results show that 1) SRS reduces the electron density of states in the channel, which increases the SNWT threshold voltage, and 2) the SRS in SNWTs becomes more effective when more propagating modes are occupied, which implies that SRS is more important in planar metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect-transistors with many transverse modes occupied than in small-diameter SNWTs with few modes conducting.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2004

On the Validity of the Parabolic Effective-Mass Approximation for the Current-Voltage Calculation of Silicon Nanowire Transistors

This paper examines the validity of the widely-used parabolic effective-mass approximation for computing the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of silicon nanowire transistors (SNWTs). The energy dispersion relations for unrelaxed Si nanowires are first computed by using an sp3d5s* tight-binding model. A semi-numerical ballistic FET model is then adopted to evaluate the I-V characteristics of the (n-type) SNWTs based on both a tight-binding dispersion relation and parabolic energy bands. In comparison with the tight-binding approach, the parabolic effective-mass model with bulk effective-masses significantly overestimates SNWT threshold voltages when the wire width is <3nm, and ON-currents when the wire width is <5nm. By introducing two analytical equations with two tuning parameters, however, the effective-mass approximation can well reproduce the tight-binding I-V results even at a \~1.36nm wire with.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2004

A Quantum Mechanical Approach for the Simulation of Si/SiO2 Interface Roughness Scattering in Silicon Nanowire Transistors

In this work, we present a quantum mechanical approach for the simulation of Si/SiO2 interface roughness scattering in silicon nanowire transistors (SNWTs). The simulation domain is discretized with a three-dimensional (3D) finite element mesh, and the microscopic structure of the Si/SiO2 interface roughness is directly implemented. The 3D Schrodinger equation with open boundary conditions is solved by the non-equilibrium Green's function method together with the coupled mode space approach. The 3D electrostatics in the device is rigorously treated by solving a 3D Poisson equation with the finite element method. Although we mainly focus on computational techniques in this paper, the physics of SRS in SNWTs and its impact on the device characteristics are also briefly discussed.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2004

Performance Evaluation of Ballistic Silicon Nanowire Transistors with Atomic-basis Dispersion Relations

In this letter, we explore the bandstructure effects on the performance of ballistic silicon nanowire transistors (SNWTs). The energy dispersion relations for silicon nanowires are evaluated with an sp3d5s* tight binding model. Based on the calculated dispersion relations, the ballistic currents for both n-type and p-type SNWTs are evaluated by using a semi-numerical ballistic model. For large diameter nanowires, we find that the ballistic p-SNWT delivers half the ON-current of a ballistic n-SNWT. For small diameters, however, the ON-current of the p-type SNWT approaches that of its n-type counterpart. Finally, the carrier injection velocity for SNWTs is compared with those for planar metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors, clearly demonstrating the impact of quantum confinement on the performance limits of SNWTs.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2004

Electrostatic potential profiles of molecular conductors

The electrostatic potential across a short ballistic molecular conductor depends sensitively on the geometry of its environment, and can affect its conduction significantly by influencing its energy levels and wave functions. We illustrate some of the issues involved by evaluating the potential profiles for a conducting gold wire and an aromatic phenyl dithiol molecule in various geometries. The potential profile is obtained by solving Poisson's equation with boundary conditions set by the contact electrochemical potentials and coupling the result self-consistently with a nonequilibrium Green's function (NEGF) formulation of transport. The overall shape of the potential profile (ramp vs. flat) depends on the feasibility of transverse screening of electric fields. Accordingly, the screening is better for a thick wire, a multiwalled nanotube or a close-packed self-assembled monolayer (SAM), in comparison to a thin wire, a single-walled nanotube or an isolated molecular conductor. The electrostatic potential further governs the alignment or misalignment of intramolecular levels, which can strongly influence the molecular I-V characteristic. An external gate voltage can modify the overall potential profile, changing the current-voltage (I-V) characteristic from a resonant conducting to a saturating one. The degree of saturation and gate modulation depends on the metal-induced-gap states (MIGS) and on the electrostatic gate control parameter set by the ratio of the gate oxide thickness to the channel length.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗