Abstract: This paper reports the worldwide status of building
information modeling (BIM) adoption from the perspectives of the
engagement level, the Hype Cycle model, the technology diffusion
model, and BIM services. An online survey was distributed, and 156
experts from six continents responded. Overall, North America was
the most advanced continent, followed by Oceania and Europe.
Countries in Asia perceived their phase mainly as slope of
enlightenment (mature) in the Hype Cycle model. In the technology
diffusion model, the main BIM-users worldwide were “early majority”
(third phase), but those in the Middle East/Africa and South America
were “early adopters” (second phase). In addition, the more advanced
the country, the more number of BIM services employed in general. In
summary, North America, Europe, Oceania, and Asia were advancing
rapidly toward the mature stage of BIM, whereas the Middle
East/Africa and South America were still in the early phase. The
simple indexes used in this study may be used to track the worldwide
status of BIM adoption in long-term surveys.
Abstract: In this paper, we discuss the performance of applying
hybrid spiral dynamic bacterial chemotaxis (HSDBC) optimisation
algorithm on an intelligent controller for a differential drive robot. A
unicycle class of differential drive robot is utilised to serve as a basis
application to evaluate the performance of the HSDBC algorithm. A
hybrid fuzzy logic controller is developed and implemented for the
unicycle robot to follow a predefined trajectory. Trajectories of
various frictional profiles and levels were simulated to evaluate the
performance of the robot at different operating conditions. Controller
gains and scaling factors were optimised using HSDBC and the
performance is evaluated in comparison to previously adopted
optimisation algorithms. The HSDBC has proven its feasibility in
achieving a faster convergence toward the optimal gains and resulted
in a superior performance.
Abstract: Cemented carbide balls are usually implemented in
industry under the environment of high speed, high temperature,
corrosiveness and strong collisions. However, its application is limited
due to high fabrication cost, processing efficiency and quality. A novel
eccentric lapping method with two rotatable lapping plates was
proposed in this paper. A mathematical model was constructed to
analyze the influence of each design parameter on this lapping method.
To validate this new lapping method, an orthogonal experiment was
conducted with cemented carbide balls (YG6). The simulation model
was verified and the optimal lapping parameters were derived. The
results show that the surface roundness of the balls reaches to 0.65um
from 2um in 1 hour using this lapping method. So, using this novel
lapping method, it can effectively improve the machining precision
and efficiency of cemented carbide balls.
Abstract: The detection of moving objects from a video image
sequences is very important for object tracking, activity recognition,
and behavior understanding in video surveillance.
The most used approach for moving objects detection / tracking is
background subtraction algorithms. Many approaches have been
suggested for background subtraction. But, these are illumination
change sensitive and the solutions proposed to bypass this problem
are time consuming.
In this paper, we propose a robust yet computationally efficient
background subtraction approach and, mainly, focus on the ability to
detect moving objects on dynamic scenes, for possible applications in
complex and restricted access areas monitoring, where moving and
motionless persons must be reliably detected. It consists of three
main phases, establishing illumination changes invariance,
background/foreground modeling and morphological analysis for
noise removing.
We handle illumination changes using Contrast Limited Histogram
Equalization (CLAHE), which limits the intensity of each pixel to
user determined maximum. Thus, it mitigates the degradation due to
scene illumination changes and improves the visibility of the video
signal. Initially, the background and foreground images are extracted
from the video sequence. Then, the background and foreground
images are separately enhanced by applying CLAHE.
In order to form multi-modal backgrounds we model each channel
of a pixel as a mixture of K Gaussians (K=5) using Gaussian Mixture
Model (GMM). Finally, we post process the resulting binary
foreground mask using morphological erosion and dilation
transformations to remove possible noise.
For experimental test, we used a standard dataset to challenge the
efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method on a diverse set of
dynamic scenes.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to investigate the kinematic
characteristics and differences of the snatch barbell trajectory of 53 kg
class female weight lifters. We take the 2014 Taiwan College Cup
players as examples, and tend to make kinematic applications through
the proven weightlifting barbell track system. The competition videos
are taken by consumer camcorder with a tripod which set up at the side
of the lifter. The results will be discussed in three parts, the first part is
various lifting phase, the second part is the compare lifting between
success and unsuccessful, and the third part is to compare the
outstanding player with the general. Conclusion through the barbell
can be used to observe the trajectories of our players lifting the usual
process cannot be observed in the presence of malfunction or habits, so
that the coach can find the problem and guide the players more
accurately. Our system can be applied in practice and competition to
increase the resilience of the lifter on the field.
Abstract: The pursuit of the MPPT has led to the development of many kinds of controllers, one of which is the Fuzzy Logic controller, which has proven its worth. To further tune this controller this paper will discuss and analyze the use of Genetic Algorithms to tune the Fuzzy Logic Controller. It will provide an introduction to both systems, and test their compatibility and performance.
Abstract: The paper presents a practical three-phase PWM
inverter suitable for low voltage, low rating energy efficient systems.
The work in the paper is conducted with the view to establishing the
significance of the loss contribution from the PWM inverter in the
determination of the complete losses of a photovoltaic (PV) arraypowered
induction motor drive water pumping system. Losses
investigated include; conduction and switching loss of the devices
and gate drive losses. It is found that the PWM inverter operates at a
reasonable variable efficiency that does not fall below 92%
depending on the load. The results between the simulated and
experimental results for the system with or without a maximum
power tracker (MPT) compares very well, within an acceptable range
of 2% margin.
Abstract: Much attention is paid to the development of space
branch in Kazakhstan at present. Two Earth remote sensing satellites
of Kazakhstan have been launched successfully. Many projects
related to the development of components for satellite are carried in
Kazakhstan, in particular the project related to the development of
star tracker experimental model. It is planned to use the results of this
project for development of star tracker prototype in the future. This
article describes the main stages of development of star tracker
experimental model.
Abstract: Conservation works in Malaysia that is procured by
public organisation usually follow the traditional approach where the
works are tendered based on Bills of Quantities (BQ). One of the
purposes of tendering is to enable the selection of a competent
contractor that offers a competitive price. While competency of the
contractors are assessed by their technical knowledge, experience and
track records, the assessment of pricing will be dependent on the
tender amount. However, the issue currently faced by the
conservation works sector is the difficulty in assessing the
competitiveness and reasonableness of the tender amount due to the
high variance between the tenders amount. Thus, this paper discusses
the factors that cause difficulty to the tenderers in pricing
competitively in a bidding exercise for conservation tenders. Data on
tendering is collected from interviews with conservation works
contractors to gain in-depth understanding of the barriers faced in
pricing tenders of conservation works. Findings from the study lent
support to the contention that the variance of tender amount is very
high amongst tenderers. The factors identified in the survey are the
format of BQ, hidden works, experience and labour and material
costs.
Abstract: This paper describes the tradeoffs and the design from
scratch of a self-contained, easy-to-use health dashboard software
system that provides customizable data tracking for patients in smart
homes. The system is made up of different software modules and
comprises a front-end and a back-end component. Built with HTML,
CSS, and JavaScript, the front-end allows adding users, logging into
the system, selecting metrics, and specifying health goals. The backend
consists of a NoSQL Mongo database, a Python script, and a
SimpleHTTPServer written in Python. The database stores user
profiles and health data in JSON format. The Python script makes use
of the PyMongo driver library to query the database and displays
formatted data as a daily snapshot of user health metrics against
target goals. Any number of standard and custom metrics can be
added to the system, and corresponding health data can be fed
automatically, via sensor APIs or manually, as text or picture data
files. A real-time METAR request API permits correlating weather
data with patient health, and an advanced query system is
implemented to allow trend analysis of selected health metrics over
custom time intervals. Available on the GitHub repository system,
the project is free to use for academic purposes of learning and
experimenting, or practical purposes by building on it.
Abstract: Human motion capture has become one of the major
area of interest in the field of computer vision. Some of the major
application areas that have been rapidly evolving include the
advanced human interfaces, virtual reality and security/surveillance
systems. This study provides a brief overview of the techniques and
applications used for the markerless human motion capture, which
deals with analyzing the human motion in the form of mathematical
formulations. The major contribution of this research is that it
classifies the computer vision based techniques of human motion
capture based on the taxonomy, and then breaks its down into four
systematically different categories of tracking, initialization, pose
estimation and recognition. The detailed descriptions and the
relationships descriptions are given for the techniques of tracking and
pose estimation. The subcategories of each process are further
described. Various hypotheses have been used by the researchers in
this domain are surveyed and the evolution of these techniques have
been explained. It has been concluded in the survey that most
researchers have focused on using the mathematical body models for
the markerless motion capture.
Abstract: A model reference adaptive control and a fixed gain
LQR control were implemented in the height controller of a quadrotor
that has parametric uncertainties due to the act of picking up an
object of unknown dimension and mass. It is shown that an adaptive
controller, unlike the fixed gain controller, is capable of ensuring a
stable tracking performance under such condition, although adaptive
control suffers from several limitations. The combination of both
adaptive and fixed gain control in the controller architecture can
result in an enhanced tracking performance in the presence parametric
uncertainties.
Abstract: Performance of different filtering approaches depends
on modeling of dynamical system and algorithm structure. For
modeling and smoothing the data the evaluation of posterior
distribution in different filtering approach should be chosen carefully.
In this paper different filtering approaches like filter KALMAN,
EKF, UKF, EKS and smoother RTS is simulated in some trajectory
tracking of path and accuracy and limitation of these approaches are
explained. Then probability of model with different filters is
compered and finally the effect of the noise variance to estimation is
described with simulations results.
Abstract: Motion Tracking and Stereo Vision are complicated,
albeit well-understood problems in computer vision. Existing
softwares that combine the two approaches to perform stereo motion
tracking typically employ complicated and computationally expensive
procedures. The purpose of this study is to create a simple and
effective solution capable of combining the two approaches. The
study aims to explore a strategy to combine the two techniques
of two-dimensional motion tracking using Kalman Filter; and depth
detection of object using Stereo Vision. In conventional approaches
objects in the scene of interest are observed using a single camera.
However for Stereo Motion Tracking; the scene of interest is
observed using video feeds from two calibrated cameras. Using two
simultaneous measurements from the two cameras a calculation for
the depth of the object from the plane containing the cameras is made.
The approach attempts to capture the entire three-dimensional spatial
information of each object at the scene and represent it through a
software estimator object. In discrete intervals, the estimator tracks
object motion in the plane parallel to plane containing cameras and
updates the perpendicular distance value of the object from the plane
containing the cameras as depth. The ability to efficiently track
the motion of objects in three-dimensional space using a simplified
approach could prove to be an indispensable tool in a variety of
surveillance scenarios. The approach may find application from high
security surveillance scenes such as premises of bank vaults, prisons
or other detention facilities; to low cost applications in supermarkets
and car parking lots.
Abstract: Testing the first year students of Informatics at the
University of Debrecen revealed that students start their tertiary
studies in programming with a low level of programming knowledge
and algorithmic skills. The possible reasons which lead the students
to this very unfortunate result were examined. The results of the test
were compared to the students’ results in the school leaving exams
and to their self-assessment values. It was found that there is only a
slight connection between the students’ results in the test and in the
school leaving exams, especially at intermediate level. Beyond this,
the school leaving exams do not seem to enable students to evaluate
their own abilities.
Abstract: The most important component affecting the
efficiency of photovoltaic power systems are solar panels. In other
words, efficiency of these systems are significantly affected due to
the being low efficiency of solar panel. Thus, solar panels should be
operated under maximum power point conditions through a power
converter. In this study, design of boost converter has been carried
out with maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm which is
incremental conductance (Inc-Cond). By using this algorithm,
importance of power converter in MPPT hardware design, impacts of
MPPT operation have been shown. It is worth noting that initial
operation point is the main criteria for determining the MPPT
performance. In addition, it is shown that if value of load resistance is
lower than critical value, failure operation is realized. For these
analyzes, direct duty control is used for simplifying the control.
Abstract: Nowadays, Photovoltaic-PV Farms/ Parks and large
PV-Smart Grid Interface Schemes are emerging and commonly
utilized in Renewable Energy distributed generation. However, PVhybrid-
Dc-Ac Schemes using interface power electronic converters
usually has negative impact on power quality and stabilization of
modern electrical network under load excursions and network fault
conditions in smart grid. Consequently, robust FACTS based
interface schemes are required to ensure efficient energy utilization
and stabilization of bus voltages as well as limiting switching/fault
onrush current condition. FACTS devices are also used in smart grid-
Battery Interface and Storage Schemes with PV-Battery Storage
hybrid systems as an elegant alternative to renewable energy
utilization with backup battery storage for electric utility energy and
demand side management to provide needed energy and power
capacity under heavy load conditions. The paper presents a robust
interface PV-Li-Ion Battery Storage Interface Scheme for
Distribution/Utilization Low Voltage Interface using FACTS
stabilization enhancement and dynamic maximum PV power tracking
controllers.
Digital simulation and validation of the proposed scheme is done
using MATLAB/Simulink software environment for Low Voltage-
Distribution/Utilization system feeding a hybrid Linear-Motorized
inrush and nonlinear type loads from a DC-AC Interface VSC-6-
pulse Inverter Fed from the PV Park/Farm with a back-up Li-Ion
Storage Battery.
Abstract: Among modern airflow measurement methods,
Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and Particle Tracking Velocimetry
(PTV), as visualized and non-instructive measurement techniques, are
playing more important role. This paper conducts a comparative
experimental study for airflow measurement employing both
techniques with the same condition. Velocity vector fields, velocity
contour fields, voticity profiles and turbulence profiles are selected as
the comparison indexes. The results show that the performance of both
PIV and PTV techniques for airflow measurement is satisfied, but
some differences between the both techniques are existed, it suggests
that selecting the measurement technique should be based on a
comprehensive consideration.
Abstract: This paper proposes a new technique to design a
fixed-structure robust loop shaping controller for the pneumatic
servosystem. In this paper, a new method based on a particle swarm
optimization (PSO) algorithm for tuning the weighting function
parameters to design an H∞ controller is presented. The PSO
algorithm is used to minimize the infinity norm of the transfer
function of the nominal closed loop system to obtain the optimal
parameters of the weighting functions. The optimal stability margin is
used as an objective in PSO for selecting the optimal weighting
parameters; it is shown that the proposed method can simplify the
design procedure of H∞ control to obtain optimal robust controller for
pneumatic servosystem. In addition, the order of the proposed
controller is much lower than that of the conventional robust loop
shaping controller, making it easy to implement in practical works.
Also two-degree-of-freedom (2DOF) control design procedure is
proposed to improve tracking performance in the face of noise and
disturbance. Result of simulations demonstrates the advantages of the
proposed controller in terms of simple structure and robustness
against plant perturbations and disturbances.
Abstract: The electric power supplied by a photovoltaic power
generation systems depends on the solar irradiation and temperature.
The PV system can supply the maximum power to the load at a
particular operating point which is generally called as maximum
power point (MPP), at which the entire PV system operates with
maximum efficiency and produces its maximum power. Hence, a
Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) methods are used to
maximize the PV array output power by tracking continuously the
maximum power point. The proposed MPPT controller is designed
for 10kW solar PV system installed at Cape Institute of Technology.
This paper presents the fuzzy logic based MPPT algorithm. However,
instead of one type of membership function, different structures of
fuzzy membership functions are used in the FLC design. The
proposed controller is combined with the system and the results are
obtained for each membership functions in Matlab/Simulink
environment. Simulation results are decided that which membership
function is more suitable for this system.