Abstract: Application of flexible structures has been
significantly, increased in industry and aerospace missions due to
their contributions and unique advantages over the rigid counterparts.
In this paper, vibration analysis of a flexible structure i.e., automobile
wiper blade is investigated and controlled. The wiper generates
unwanted noise and vibration during the wiping the rain and other
particles on windshield which may cause annoying noise in different
ranges of frequency. A two dimensional analytical modeled wiper
blade whose model accuracy is verified by numerical studies in
literature is considered in this study. Particle swarm optimization
(PSO) is employed in alliance with input shaping (IS) technique in
order to control or to attenuate the amplitude level of unwanted
noise/vibration of the wiper blade.
Abstract: Determining reasonable fees is the main objective of designing the cost estimation and payment systems for consultant contracts. However, project clients utilize different cost estimation and payment systems because of their varying views on the reasonableness of consultant fees. This study reviews the cost estimation and payment systems of consultant contracts for five countries, including the US (Washington State Department of Transportation), Japan (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism), China (Engineering Design Charging Standard) and UK (Her Majesty's Treasure). Specifically, this work investigates the budgeting process, contractor selection method, contractual price negotiation process, cost review, and cost-control concept of the systems used in these countries. The main finding indicates that that project client-s view on whether the fee is high will affect the way he controls it. In the US, the fee is commonly considered to be high. As a result, stringent auditing system (low flexibility given to the consultant) is then applied. In the UK, the fee is viewed to be low by comparing it to the total life-cycle project cost. Thus, a system that has high flexibility in budgeting and cost reviewing is given to the consultant. In terms of the flexibility allowed for the consultant, the systems applied in Japan and China fall between those of the US and UK. Both the US and UK systems are helpful in determining a reasonable fee. However, in the US system, rigid auditing standards must be established and additional cost-audit manpower is required. In the UK system, sufficient historical cost data should be needed to evaluate the reasonableness of the consultant-s proposed fee
Abstract: In many applications there is a broad variety of
information relevant to a focal “object" of interest, and the fusion of such heterogeneous data types is desirable for classification and
categorization. While these various data types can sometimes be treated as orthogonal (such as the hull number, superstructure color,
and speed of an oil tanker), there are instances where the inference and the correlation between quantities can provide improved fusion
capabilities (such as the height, weight, and gender of a person). A
service-oriented architecture has been designed and prototyped to
support the fusion of information for such “object-centric" situations.
It is modular, scalable, and flexible, and designed to support new data sources, fusion algorithms, and computational resources without affecting existing services. The architecture is designed to simplify
the incorporation of legacy systems, support exact and probabilistic entity disambiguation, recognize and utilize multiple types of
uncertainties, and minimize network bandwidth requirements.
Abstract: In order to answer the general question: “What does a simple agent with a limited life-time require for constructing a useful representation of the environment?" we propose a robot platform including the simplest probabilistic sensory and motor layers. Then we use the platform as a test-bed for evaluation of the navigational capabilities of the robot with different “brains". We claim that a protocognitive behavior is not a consequence of highly sophisticated sensory–motor organs but instead emerges through an increment of the internal complexity and reutilization of the minimal sensory information. We show that the most fundamental robot element, the short-time memory, is essential in obstacle avoidance. However, in the simplest conditions of no obstacles the straightforward memoryless robot is usually superior. We also demonstrate how a low level action planning, involving essentially nonlinear dynamics, provides a considerable gain to the robot performance dynamically changing the robot strategy. Still, however, for very short life time the brainless robot is superior. Accordingly we suggest that small organisms (or agents) with short life-time does not require complex brains and even can benefit from simple brain-like (reflex) structures. To some extend this may mean that controlling blocks of modern robots are too complicated comparative to their life-time and mechanical abilities.
Abstract: The demand for autonomous resource
management for distributed systems has increased in recent
years. Distributed systems require an efficient and powerful
communication mechanism between applications running on
different hosts and networks. The use of mobile agent
technology to distribute and delegate management tasks
promises to overcome the scalability and flexibility limitations
of the currently used centralized management approach. This
work proposes a multiagent system that adopts mobile agents
as a technology for tasks distribution, results collection, and
management of resources in large-scale distributed systems. A
new mobile agent-based approach for collecting results from
distributed system elements is presented. The technique of
artificial intelligence based on intelligent agents giving the
system a proactive behavior. The presented results are based
on a design example of an application operating in a mobile
environment.
Abstract: Process planning and production scheduling play
important roles in manufacturing systems. In this paper a multiobjective
mixed integer linear programming model is presented for
the integrated planning and scheduling of multi-product. The aim is
to find a set of high-quality trade-off solutions. This is a
combinatorial optimization problem with substantially large solution
space, suggesting that it is highly difficult to find the best solutions
with the exact search method. To account for it, a PSO-based
algorithm is proposed by fully utilizing the capability of the
exploration search and fast convergence. To fit the continuous PSO
in the discrete modeled problem, a solution representation is used in
the algorithm. The numerical experiments have been performed to
demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
Abstract: Manufacturing Industries face a crucial change as products and processes are required to, easily and efficiently, be reconfigurable and reusable. In order to stay competitive and flexible, situations also demand distribution of enterprises globally, which requires implementation of efficient communication strategies. A prototype system called the “Broadcaster" has been developed with an assumption that the control environment description has been engineered using the Component-based system paradigm. This prototype distributes information to a number of globally distributed partners via an adoption of the circular-based data processing mechanism. The work highlighted in this paper includes the implementation of this mechanism in the domain of the manufacturing industry. The proposed solution enables real-time remote propagation of machine information to a number of distributed supply chain client resources such as a HMI, VRML-based 3D views and remote client instances regardless of their distribution nature and/ or their mechanisms. This approach is presented together with a set of evaluation results. Authors- main concentration surrounds the reliability and the performance metric of the adopted approach. Performance evaluation is carried out in terms of the response times taken to process the data in this domain and compared with an alternative data processing implementation such as the linear queue mechanism. Based on the evaluation results obtained, authors justify the benefits achieved from this proposed implementation and highlight any further research work that is to be carried out.
Abstract: A synchronous network-on-chip using wormhole packet switching
and supporting guaranteed-completion best-effort with low-priority (LP)
and high-priority (HP) wormhole packet delivery service is presented in
this paper. Both our proposed LP and HP message services deliver a good
quality of service in term of lossless packet completion and in-order message
data delivery. However, the LP message service does not guarantee minimal
completion bound. The HP packets will absolutely use 100% bandwidth of
their reserved links if the HP packets are injected from the source node with
maximum injection. Hence, the service are suitable for small size messages
(less than hundred bytes). Otherwise the other HP and LP messages, which
require also the links, will experience relatively high latency depending on the
size of the HP message. The LP packets are routed using a minimal adaptive
routing, while the HP packets are routed using a non-minimal adaptive routing
algorithm. Therefore, an additional 3-bit field, identifying the packet type,
is introduced in their packet headers to classify and to determine the type
of service committed to the packet. Our NoC prototypes have been also
synthesized using a 180-nm CMOS standard-cell technology to evaluate the
cost of implementing the combination of both services.
Abstract: In this study, we examined gender differences in: (1) a
flexible remembering task, that asked for episodic memory decisions
at an item-specific versus category-based level, and (2) the retrieval
specificity of autobiographical memory during free recall.
Differences favouring women were found on both measures.
Furthermore, a significant association was observed, across gender
groups, between level of specificity in the autobiographical memory
interview and sensitivity to gist on the flexible remembering task.
These results suggest that similar cognitive processes may partially
contribute to both the ability for specific autobiographical recall and
the capacity for inhibition of gist-information on the flexible
remembering task.
Abstract: novel and simple method is introduced for rapid and
highly efficient water treatment by reverse osmosis (RO) method using
multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) / polyacrylonitrile (PAN)
polymer as a flexible, highly efficient, reusable and semi-permeable
mixed matrix membrane (MMM). For this purpose, MWCNTs were
directly synthesized and on-line purified by chemical vapor deposition
(CVD) process, followed by directing the MWCNT bundles towards an
ultrasonic bath, in which PAN polymer was simultaneously suspended
inside a solid porous silica support in water at temperature to ~70 οC.
Fabrication process of MMM was finally completed by hot isostatic
pressing (HIP) process. In accordance with the analytical figures of
merit, the efficiency of fabricated MMM was ~97%. The rate of water
treatment process was also evaluated to 6.35 L min-1. The results reveal
that, the CNT-based MMM is suitable for rapid treatment of different
forms of industrial, sea, drinking and well water samples.
Abstract: Development of levels of service in municipal context
is a flexible vehicle to assist in performing quality-cost trade-off
analysis for municipal services. This trade-off depends on the
willingness of a community to pay as well as on the condition of the
assets. Community perspective of the performance of an asset from
service point of view may be quite different from the municipality
perspective of the performance of the same asset from condition
point of view. This paper presents a three phased level of service
based methodology for water mains that consists of :1)development
of an Analytical Hierarchy model of level of service 2) development
of Fuzzy Weighted Sum model of water main condition index and 3)
deriving a Fuzzy logic based function that maps level of service to
asset condition index. This mapping will assist asset managers in
quantifying condition improvement requirement to meet service
goals and to make more informed decisions on interventions and
relayed priorities.
Abstract: ebXML (Electronic Business using eXtensible
Markup Language) is an e-business standard, sponsored by
UN/CEFACT and OASIS, which enables enterprises to exchange
business messages, conduct trading relationships, communicate
data in common terms and define and register business
processes. While there is tremendous e-business value in the
ebXML, security remains an unsolved problem and one of the
largest barriers to adoption. XML security technologies emerging
recently have extensibility and flexibility suitable for security
implementation such as encryption, digital signature, access
control and authentication.
In this paper, we propose ebXML business transaction models
that allow trading partners to securely exchange XML based
business transactions by employing XML security technologies.
We show how each XML security technology meets the ebXML
standard by constructing the test software and validating messages
between the trading partners.
Abstract: With the tremendous growth of World Wide Web
(WWW) data, there is an emerging need for effective information
retrieval at the document level. Several query languages such as
XML-QL, XPath, XQL, Quilt and XQuery are proposed in recent
years to provide faster way of querying XML data, but they still lack of
generality and efficiency. Our approach towards evolving a framework
for querying semistructured documents is based on formal query
algebra. Two elements are introduced in the proposed framework:
first, a generic and flexible data model for logical representation of
semistructured data and second, a set of operators for the manipulation
of objects defined in the data model. In additional to accommodating
several peculiarities of semistructured data, our model offers novel
features such as bidirectional paths for navigational querying and
partitions for data transformation that are not available in other
proposals.
Abstract: For best collaboration, Asynchronous tools and particularly the discussion forums are the most used thanks to their flexibility in terms of time. To convey only the messages that belong to a theme of interest of the tutor in order to help him during his tutoring work, use of a tool for classification of these messages is indispensable. For this we have proposed a semantics classification tool of messages of a discussion forum that is based on LSA (Latent Semantic Analysis), which includes a thesaurus to organize the vocabulary. Benefits offered by formal ontology can overcome the insufficiencies that a thesaurus generates during its use and encourage us then to use it in our semantic classifier. In this work we propose the use of some functionalities that a OWL ontology proposes. We then explain how functionalities like “ObjectProperty", "SubClassOf" and “Datatype" property make our classification more intelligent by way of integrating new terms. New terms found are generated based on the first terms introduced by tutor and semantic relations described by OWL formalism.
Abstract: This paper proposes rough set models with three
different level knowledge granules in incomplete information system
under tolerance relation by similarity between objects according to
their attribute values. Through introducing dominance relation on the
discourse to decompose similarity classes into three subclasses: little
better subclass, little worse subclass and vague subclass, it dismantles
lower and upper approximations into three components. By using
these components, retrieving information to find naturally hierarchical
expansions to queries and constructing answers to elaborative queries
can be effective. It illustrates the approach in applying rough set
models in the design of information retrieval system to access different
granular expanded documents. The proposed method enhances rough
set model application in the flexibility of expansions and elaborative
queries in information retrieval.
Abstract: The understanding of knee movement during swing
importance for golf swing improving and preventing injury. Thirty
male professional and amateur golfers were assigned to swing time
by time for 3 times. Data from a vedio-based motion capture were
used to compute knee joint movement variables. The results showed
that professional and amateur golfers were significantly in left knee
flexion angle at the impact point and mid follow through phase.
Nevertheless, left knee external rotation in both groups was also
significant. The right knee were no significant different in all
variable. However, pattern of knee joint movement are also likely
between professional and amateur golfers.
Abstract: Linear convolutive filters are fast in calculation and in application, and thus, often used for real-time processing of continuous data streams. In the case of transient signals, a filter has not only to detect the presence of a specific waveform, but to estimate its arrival time as well. In this study, a measure is presented which indicates the performance of detectors in achieving both of these tasks simultaneously. Furthermore, a new sub-class of linear filters within the class of filters which minimize the quadratic response is proposed. The proposed filters are more flexible than the existing ones, like the adaptive matched filter or the minimum power distortionless response beamformer, and prove to be superior with respect to that measure in certain settings. Simulations of a real-time scenario confirm the advantage of these filters as well as the usefulness of the performance measure.
Abstract: As there has been a recognizable transition in
automotive industry from mass production to mass customization,
automobile manufacturers and their suppliers have been seeking ways
for more flexible and efficient processes. Eventually, modular
production is currently being applied to manage the changing orders of
the industry. In this paper, two different modular assembly line
concepts were studied: conveyor line and box assembly line.
Mathematical model for two assembly line concepts were developed
and their production line efficiency were compared as a performance
measure to improve their assembly line balancing.
Abstract: The increasing importance of FlexRay systems in
automotive domain inspires unceasingly relative researches. One
primary issue among researches is to verify the reliability of FlexRay
systems either from protocol aspect or from system design aspect.
However, research rarely discusses the effect of network topology on
the system reliability. In this paper, we will illustrate how to model
the reliability of FlexRay systems with various network topologies by
a well-known probabilistic reasoning technology, Bayesian Network.
In this illustration, we especially investigate the effectiveness of error
containment built in star topology and fault-tolerant midpoint
synchronization algorithm adopted in FlexRay communication
protocol. Through a FlexRay steer-by-wire case study, the influence
of different topologies on the failure probability of the FlexRay steerby-
wire system is demonstrated. The notable value of this research is
to show that the Bayesian Network inference is a powerful and
feasible method for the reliability assessment of FlexRay systems.
Abstract: Currently is characterized production engineering
together with the integration of industrial automation and robotics
such very quick view of to manufacture the products. The production
range is continuously changing, expanding and producers have to be
flexible in this regard. It means that need to offer production
possibilities, which can respond to the quick change. Engineering
product development is focused on supporting CAD software, such
systems are mainly used for product design. That manufacturers are
competitive, it should be kept procured machines made available
capable of responding to output flexibility. In response to that
problem is the development of flexible manufacturing systems,
consisting of various automated systems. The integration of flexible
manufacturing systems and subunits together with product design and
of engineering is a possible solution for this issue. Integration is
possible through the implementation of CIM systems. Such a solution
and finding a hyphen between CAD and procurement system ICIM
3000 from Festo Co. is engaged in the research project and this
contribution. This can be designed the products in CAD systems and
watch the manufacturing process from order to shipping by the
development of methods and processes of integration, This can be
modeled in CAD systems products and watch the manufacturing
process from order to shipping to develop methods and processes of
integration, which will improve support for product design
parameters by monitoring of the production process, by creating of
programs for production using the CAD and therefore accelerates the
a total of process from design to implementation.