Clustered Signatures for Modeling and Recognizing 3D Rigid Objects

This paper describes a probabilistic method for three-dimensional object recognition using a shared pool of surface signatures. This technique uses flatness, orientation, and convexity signatures that encode the surface of a free-form object into three discriminative vectors, and then creates a shared pool of data by clustering the signatures using a distance function. This method applies the Bayes-s rule for recognition process, and it is extensible to a large collection of three-dimensional objects.

Feature Subset Selection Using Ant Colony Optimization

Feature selection is an important step in many pattern classification problems. It is applied to select a subset of features, from a much larger set, such that the selected subset is sufficient to perform the classification task. Due to its importance, the problem of feature selection has been investigated by many researchers. In this paper, a novel feature subset search procedure that utilizes the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) is presented. The ACO is a metaheuristic inspired by the behavior of real ants in their search for the shortest paths to food sources. It looks for optimal solutions by considering both local heuristics and previous knowledge. When applied to two different classification problems, the proposed algorithm achieved very promising results.

A Voltage Based Maximum Power Point Tracker for Low Power and Low Cost Photovoltaic Applications

This paper describes the design of a voltage based maximum power point tracker (MPPT) for photovoltaic (PV) applications. Of the various MPPT methods, the voltage based method is considered to be the simplest and cost effective. The major disadvantage of this method is that the PV array is disconnected from the load for the sampling of its open circuit voltage, which inevitably results in power loss. Another disadvantage, in case of rapid irradiance variation, is that if the duration between two successive samplings, called the sampling period, is too long there is a considerable loss. This is because the output voltage of the PV array follows the unchanged reference during one sampling period. Once a maximum power point (MPP) is tracked and a change in irradiation occurs between two successive samplings, then the new MPP is not tracked until the next sampling of the PV array voltage. This paper proposes an MPPT circuit in which the sampling interval of the PV array voltage, and the sampling period have been shortened. The sample and hold circuit has also been simplified. The proposed circuit does not utilize a microcontroller or a digital signal processor and is thus suitable for low cost and low power applications.

Genetic-Fuzzy Inverse Controller for a Robot Arm Suitable for On Line Applications

The robot is a repeated task plant. The control of such a plant under parameter variations and load disturbances is one of the important problems. The aim of this work is to design Geno-Fuzzy controller suitable for online applications to control single link rigid robot arm plant. The genetic-fuzzy online controller (indirect controller) has two genetic-fuzzy blocks, the first as controller, the second as identifier. The identification method is based on inverse identification technique. The proposed controller it tested in normal and load disturbance conditions.

Decimation Filter Design Toolbox for Multi-Standard Wireless Transceivers using MATLAB

The demand for new telecommunication services requiring higher capacities, data rates and different operating modes have motivated the development of new generation multi-standard wireless transceivers. A multi-standard design often involves extensive system level analysis and architectural partitioning, typically requiring extensive calculations. In this research, a decimation filter design tool for wireless communication standards consisting of GSM, WCDMA, WLANa, WLANb, WLANg and WiMAX is developed in MATLAB® using GUIDE environment for visual analysis. The user can select a required wireless communication standard, and obtain the corresponding multistage decimation filter implementation using this toolbox. The toolbox helps the user or design engineer to perform a quick design and analysis of decimation filter for multiple standards without doing extensive calculation of the underlying methods.

A Characterized and Optimized Approach for End-to-End Delay Constrained QoS Routing

QoS Routing aims to find paths between senders and receivers satisfying the QoS requirements of the application which efficiently using the network resources and underlying routing algorithm to be able to find low-cost paths that satisfy given QoS constraints. The problem of finding least-cost routing is known to be NP hard or complete and some algorithms have been proposed to find a near optimal solution. But these heuristics or algorithms either impose relationships among the link metrics to reduce the complexity of the problem which may limit the general applicability of the heuristic, or are too costly in terms of execution time to be applicable to large networks. In this paper, we analyzed two algorithms namely Characterized Delay Constrained Routing (CDCR) and Optimized Delay Constrained Routing (ODCR). The CDCR algorithm dealt an approach for delay constrained routing that captures the trade-off between cost minimization and risk level regarding the delay constraint. The ODCR which uses an adaptive path weight function together with an additional constraint imposed on the path cost, to restrict search space and hence ODCR finds near optimal solution in much quicker time.

Decreasing Power Consumption of a Medical E-textile

In this paper we present a novel design of a wearable electronic textile. After defining a special application, we used the specifications of some low power, tiny elements including sensors, microcontrollers, transceivers, and a fault tolerant special topology to have the most reliability as well as low power consumption and longer lifetime. We have considered two different conditions as normal and bodily critical conditions and set priorities for using different sensors in various conditions to have a longer effective lifetime.

Traditional Thai Musical Instrument for Tablet Computer– Ranaad EK

This paper proposes an architectural and graphical user interface (GUI) design of a traditional Thai musical instrument application for tablet computers for practicing “Ranaad Ek" which is a trough-resonated keyboard percussion instrument. The application provides percussion methods for a player as real as a physical instrument. The application consists of two playing modes. The first mode is free playing, a player can freely multi touches on wooden bar to produce instrument sounds. The second mode is practicing mode that guilds the player to follow percussions and rhythms of practice songs. The application has achieved requirements and specifications.

A Green Chemical Technique for the Synthesis of Magnetic Nanoparticles by Magnetotactic Bacteria

Bacterial magnetic nanoparticles have great useful potential in biotechnological and biomedical applications. In this study, a liquid growth medium was modified for cultivation a fastidious magnetotactic bacterium that has been isolated from Anzali lagoon, Iran in our previous research. These modifications include change in vitamin, mineral, carbon sources and etcetera. In our experience, the serum bottles and designed air-tight laboratory bottles were used to create microaerobic conditions in order to development of a method for scale-up experiment. This information may serve as a guide to green chemistry based biological protocols for the synthesis of magnetic nanoparticles with control over the chemical composition, morphology and size.

Improved Zero Text Watermarking Algorithm against Meaning Preserving Attacks

Internet is largely composed of textual contents and a huge volume of digital contents gets floated over the Internet daily. The ease of information sharing and re-production has made it difficult to preserve author-s copyright. Digital watermarking came up as a solution for copyright protection of plain text problem after 1993. In this paper, we propose a zero text watermarking algorithm based on occurrence frequency of non-vowel ASCII characters and words for copyright protection of plain text. The embedding algorithm makes use of frequency non-vowel ASCII characters and words to generate a specialized author key. The extraction algorithm uses this key to extract watermark, hence identify the original copyright owner. Experimental results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm on text encountering meaning preserving attacks performed by five independent attackers.

On the Impact of Reference Node Placement in Wireless Indoor Positioning Systems

This paper presents a studyof the impact of reference node locations on the accuracy of the indoor positioning systems. In particular, we analyze the localization accuracy of the RSSI database mapping techniques, deploying on the IEEE 802.15.4 wireless networks. The results show that the locations of the reference nodes used in the positioning systems affect the signal propagation characteristics in the service area. Thisin turn affects the accuracy of the wireless indoor positioning system. We found that suitable location of reference nodes could reduce the positioning error upto 35 %.

Towards Modeling for Crashes A Low-Cost Adaptive Methodology for Karachi

The aim of this paper is to discuss a low-cost methodology that can predict traffic flow conflicts and quantitatively rank crash expectancies (based on relative probability) for various traffic facilities. This paper focuses on the application of statistical distributions to model traffic flow and Monte Carlo techniques to simulate traffic and discusses how to create a tool in order to predict the possibility of a traffic crash. A low-cost data collection methodology has been discussed for the heterogeneous traffic flow that exists and a GIS platform has been proposed to thematically represent traffic flow from simulations and the probability of a crash. Furthermore, discussions have been made to reflect the dynamism of the model in reference to its adaptability, adequacy, economy, and efficiency to ensure adoption.

Robotic Hands: Design Review and Proposal of New Design Process

In this paper we intend to ascertain the state of the art on multifingered end-effectors, also known as robotic hands or dexterous robot hands, and propose an experimental setup for an innovative task based design approach, involving cutting edge technologies in motion capture. After an initial description of the capabilities and complexity of a human hand when grasping objects, in order to point out the importance of replicating it, we analyze the mechanical and kinematical structure of some important works carried out all around the world in the last three decades and also review the actuators and sensing technologies used. Finally we describe a new design philosophy proposing an experimental setup for the first stage using recent developments in human body motion capture systems that might lead to lighter and always more dexterous robotic hands.

Dynamic Admission Control for Quality of Service in IP Networks

The goal of admission control is to support the Quality of Service demands of real-time applications via resource reservation in IP networks. In this paper we introduce a novel Dynamic Admission Control (DAC) mechanism for IP networks. The DAC dynamically allocates network resources using the previous network pattern for each path and uses the dynamic admission algorithm to improve bandwidth utilization using bandwidth brokers. We evaluate the performance of the proposed mechanism through trace-driven simulation experiments in view point of blocking probability, throughput and normalized utilization.

The Accuracy of the Flight Derivative Estimates Derived from Flight Data

The accuracy of estimated stability and control derivatives of a light aircraft from flight test data were evaluated. The light aircraft, named ChangGong-91, is the first certified aircraft from the Korean government. The output error method, which is a maximum likelihood estimation technique and considers measurement noise only, was used to analyze the aircraft responses measures. The multi-step control inputs were applied in order to excite the short period mode for the longitudinal and Dutch-roll mode for the lateral-directional motion. The estimated stability/control derivatives of Chan Gong-91 were analyzed for the assessment of handling qualities comparing them with those of similar aircraft. The accuracy of the flight derivative estimates derived from flight test measurement was examined in engineering judgment, scatter and Cramer-Rao bound, which turned out to be satisfactory with minor defects..

Study of Aero-thermal Effects with Heat Radiation in Optical Side Window

In hypersonic environments, the aerothermal effect makes it difficult for the optical side windows of optical guided missiles to withstand high heat. This produces cracking or breaking, resulting in an inability to function. This study used computational fluid mechanics to investigate the external cooling jet conditions of optical side windows. The turbulent models k-ε and k-ω were simulated. To be in better accord with actual aerothermal environments, a thermal radiation model was added to examine suitable amounts of external coolants and the optical window problems of aero-thermodynamics. The simulation results indicate that when there are no external cooling jets, because airflow on the optical window and the tail groove produce vortices, the temperatures in these two locations reach a peak of approximately 1600 K. When the external cooling jets worked at 0.15 kg/s, the surface temperature of the optical windows dropped to approximately 280 K. When adding thermal radiation conditions, because heat flux dissipation was faster, the surface temperature of the optical windows fell from 280 K to approximately 260 K. The difference in influence of the different turbulence models k-ε and k-ω on optical window surface temperature was not significant.

Vibration, Lubrication and Machinery Consideration for a Mixer Gearbox Related to Iran Oil Industries

In this paper, some common gearboxes vibration analysis methods and condition monitoring systems are explained. In addition, an experimental gearbox vibration analysis is discussed through a critical case history for a mixer gearbox related to Iran oil industry. The case history also consists of gear manufacturing (machining) recommendations, lubrication condition of gearbox and machinery maintenance activities that caused reduction in noise and vibration of the gearbox. Besides some of the recent patents and innovations in gearboxes, lubrication and vibration monitoring systems explained. Finally micro pitting and surface fatigue in pinion and bevel of mentioned horizontal to vertical gearbox discussed in details.

Manufacturing Dispersions Based Simulation and Synthesis of Design Tolerances

The objective of this work which is based on the approach of simultaneous engineering is to contribute to the development of a CIM tool for the synthesis of functional design dimensions expressed by average values and tolerance intervals. In this paper, the dispersions method known as the Δl method which proved reliable in the simulation of manufacturing dimensions is used to develop a methodology for the automation of the simulation. This methodology is constructed around three procedures. The first procedure executes the verification of the functional requirements by automatically extracting the functional dimension chains in the mechanical sub-assembly. Then a second procedure performs an optimization of the dispersions on the basis of unknown variables. The third procedure uses the optimized values of the dispersions to compute the optimized average values and tolerances of the functional dimensions in the chains. A statistical and cost based approach is integrated in the methodology in order to take account of the capabilities of the manufacturing processes and to distribute optimal values among the individual components of the chains.