Textured surfaces are universally adopted in the steel sheet production industry, and manufacturers are continuously improving the quality of the finished products through intense research in the surface characterisation field. Deterministic Surfaces are textured with specifically designed rolls in order to present a certain degree of regularity, which allows better control over the functional behaviour of the metal sheets. The regularity of the texture impressed on the steel sheets also allows unconventional approaches to surface characterisation and to the assessment of the texture's structure. Statistical analysis is the most effective way to target the isolation of the deterministic part of the surface, which represents the desired product, from the stochastic part, called ‘noise’ and associated with the inaccuracies of production and measurement. This work addresses the problem of characterisation of deterministic textures through statistical analysis, proposing innovative filtering techniques aimed at the realisation of an On-line Process Control System. Firstly the techniques proposed are theoretically formulated and studied, addressing in particular the physical meaning of the geometrical parameters extracted through statistical analysis of highly correlated portions of the textures. A method for isolating the deterministic textures present on a surface, called the Statistical Surface Filter, is presented and discussed in detail, and tested on existing laboratory samples. Secondly the filter is applied to preliminary measurements acquired by an innovative on-line measurement system currently under development, and evidence is shown that the technique is effective in separating the information regarding the regular patterns from the stochastic noise. The possible applications to on-line Statistical Process Control are discussed. Thirdly, the Statistical Surface Filter is tested on a set of measurements representing texturing rolls and textured sheets with different characteristics; statistical analysis of the surface parameters extracted from the filtered surfaces show that the technique allows the assessment of the different contributions of the various stages of the texturing process to the final product. Finally, a software package is implemented for the practical application of the filtering techniques and the parameters extraction; the algorithms that perform the statistical filtering are described and discussed, concluding with the operations of optimisation and fine-tuning for production-line implementation.

[pt] O presente trabalho analisa o Problema da Programação de Lotes Econômicos (ELSP) que, freqüentemente, se apresenta em indústrias com processos produtivos em linha (onde a produção segue uma seqüência especificada de operações). Tal linha deve manufaturar diferentes produtos, só sendo possível fabricar um produto por vez. Além disso, para o caso estudado, outra característica importante é que os tempos e custos de setup dependem da seqüência de fabricação escolhida. O objetivo do problema é determinar uma seqüência de produção que permita obter conjuntamente os menores custos de setup e de manter estoques, satisfazendo a demanda do mercado sem atrasos. É factível, na teoria, encontrar matematicamente uma solução ótima para o problema, mas sua obtenção se torna impraticável pelas numerosíssimas possibilidades e muitas variáveis a considerar. Por tal motivo, recorre-se ao uso de métodos heurísticos. Neste trabalho analisam-se os dados fornecidos por uma empresa de refrigerantes, que possui um processo em linha, e se estabelecem as seqüências e os volumes de produção para cada produto, obtendo custos próximos do ótimo. O método que se propõe não só é útil para o caso específico, senão também pode ser adaptado a indústrias que guardem características semelhantes. / [en] This essay analyzes the Economic Lot Scheduling Problem (ELSP), usually found in industries with line production processes (production follows a specified sequence of operations). Such line must manufacture different products, and it is only possible to manufacture a single product at a time. Besides, for the case studied another important characteristic exists namely, the time and setup cost depend on the chosen production sequence. The objective of the problem is to determine a production sequence that minimizes setup and inventory carrying costs, satisfying the market demand without delays. It is feasible, in theory, to find a mathematically optimal solution for the problem, but in reality it becomes impracticable due to the very large number of possibilities and the many variables to consider. For this reason, one must resort to heuristic methods. In this work, the data provided by a soft drinks manufacturer is analyzed, generating sequences and production volumes for each product, obtaining costs close to the optimum. The proposed method applies to the specific case study, and it is likely to be adaptable to a large number of industries with similar characteristics.

In the doctoral dissertation, we consider problems of testing and estimating changed segment with unknown starting position and duration of epidemic state in the autoregressive first-order model. The proposed tests are based on partial sums of model residuals and model-parameter partial-estimator polygonal line processes. We derive asymptotic results for these processes in Holder spaces. The behavior of test statistics under the null hypothesis of no change and alternative is provided. Empirical power analysis has shown that tests are more powerful when absolute values of model parameter are quite large or autoregressive process changes from a stationary state to a nonstationary one. We prove the consistency of the least square changed-segment estimators and provide their convergence rates. / Disertacijoje nagrinėjamas pirmos eilės autoregresinio modelio pasikeitusio segmento testavimo ir vertinimo uždavinys. Aprašomo modelio epideminio pasikeitimo pradžia ir ilgis nėra žinomi. Pasiūlyti kriterijai pasikeitusio segmento testavimui, kurie pagrįsti modelio paklaidų įvertinių dalinių sumų ir modelio parametro dalinių įvertinių laužčių procesais. Šiems procesams gautos ribinės teoremos Hiolderio erdvėse. Nurodomas testų statistikų ribinis elgesys esant teisingai nulinei ir alternatyviajai hipotezėms. Iš empirinio kriterijų galios tyrimo rezultatų matyti, kad pasiūlytų testų galia didžiausia aptinkant pasikeitimus iš stacionarios būklės į nestacionarią arba esant artimoms vienetui modelio parametro reikšmėms. Taip pat įrodoma, kad mažiausių kvadratų metodu gauti pasikeitusio segmento pradžios ir ilgio įverčiai bei autoregresinio modelio su pasikeitusiu segmentu parametrų įverčiai yra suderintieji bei pateikiamas jų konvergavimo greitis.

Disertacijoje nagrinėjamas pirmos eilės autoregresinio modelio pasikeitusio segmento testavimo ir vertinimo uždavinys. Aprašomo modelio epideminio pasikeitimo pradžia ir ilgis nėra žinomi. Pasiūlyti kriterijai pasikeitusio segmento testavimui, kurie pagrįsti modelio paklaidų įvertinių dalinių sumų ir modelio parametro dalinių įvertinių laužčių procesais. Šiems procesams gautos ribinės teoremos Hiolderio erdvėse. Nurodomas testų statistikų ribinis elgesys esant teisingai nulinei ir alternatyviajai hipotezėms. Iš empirinio kriterijų galios tyrimo rezultatų matyti, kad pasiūlytų testų galia didžiausia aptinkant pasikeitimus iš stacionarios būklės į nestacionarią arba esant artimoms vienetui modelio parametro reikšmėms. Taip pat įrodoma, kad mažiausių kvadratų metodu gauti pasikeitusio segmento pradžios ir ilgio įverčiai bei autoregresinio modelio su pasikeitusiu segmentu parametrų įverčiai yra suderintieji bei pateikiamas jų konvergavimo greitis. / In the doctoral dissertation, we consider problems of testing and estimating changed segment with unknown starting position and duration of epidemic state in the autoregressive first-order model. The proposed tests are based on partial sums of model residuals and model-parameter partial-estimator polygonal line processes. We derive asymptotic results for these processes in Holder spaces. The behavior of test statistics under the null hypothesis of no change and alternative is provided. Empirical power analysis has shown that tests are more powerful when absolute values of model parameter are quite large or autoregressive process changes from a stationary state to a nonstationary one. We prove the consistency of the least square changed-segment estimators and provide their convergence rates.

Vehicular communication networks are essential to the development of intelligent navigation systems and improvement of road safety. Unlike most terrestrial networks of today, vehicular networks are characterized by stringent reliability and latency requirements. In order to design efficient networks to meet these requirements, it is important to understand the system-level performance of vehicular networks. Stochastic geometry has recently emerged as a powerful tool for the modeling and analysis of wireless communication networks. However, the canonical spatial models such as the 2D Poisson point process (PPP) does not capture the peculiar spatial layout of vehicular networks, where the locations of vehicular nodes are restricted to roadways. Motivated by this, we consider a doubly stochastic spatial model that captures the spatial coupling between the vehicular nodes and the roads and analyze the performance of vehicular communication networks. We model the spatial layout of roads by a Poisson line process (PLP) and the locations of nodes on each line (road) by a 1D PPP, thereby forming a Cox process driven by a PLP or Poisson line Cox process (PLCP). In this dissertation, we develop the theory of the PLCP and apply it to study key performance metrics such as coverage probability and rate coverage for vehicular networks under different scenarios. First, we compute the signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR)-based success probability of the typical communication link in a vehicular ad hoc network (VANET). Using this result, we also compute the area spectral efficiency (ASE) of the network. Our results show that the optimum transmission probability that maximizes the ASE of the network obtained for the Cox process differs significantly from that of the conventional 1D and 2D PPP models. Second, we calculate the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR)-based downlink coverage probability of the typical receiver in a vehicular network for the cellular network model in which each receiver node connects to its closest transmitting node in the network. The conditioning on the serving node imposes constraints on the spatial configuration of interfering nodes and also the underlying distribution of lines. We carefully handle these constraints using various fundamental distance properties of the PLCP and derive the exact expression for the coverage probability. Third, building further on the above mentioned works, we consider a more complex cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) communication network in which the vehicular nodes are served by roadside units (RSUs) as well as cellular macro base stations (MBSs). For this setup, we present the downlink coverage analysis of the typical receiver in the presence of shadowing effects. We address the technical challenges induced by the inclusion of shadowing effects by leveraging the asymptotic behavior of the Cox process. These results help us gain useful insights into the behavior of the networks as a function of key network parameters, such as the densities of the nodes and selection bias. Fourth, we characterize the load on the MBSs due to vehicular users, which is defined as the number of vehicular nodes that are served by the MBS. Since the limited network resources are shared by multiple users in the network, the load distribution is a key indicator of the demand of network resources. We first compute the distribution of the load on MBSs due to vehicular users in a single-tier vehicular network. Building on this, we characterize the load on both MBSs and RSUs in a heterogeneous C-V2X network. Using these results, we also compute the rate coverage of the typical receiver in the network. Fifth and last, we explore the applications of the PLCP that extend beyond vehicular communications. We derive the exact distribution of the shortest path distance between the typical point and its nearest neighbor in the sense of path distance in a Manhattan Poisson line Cox process (MPLCP), which is a special variant of the PLCP. The analytical framework developed in this work allows us to answer several important questions pertaining to transportation networks, urban planning, and personnel deployment. / Doctor of Philosophy / Vehicular communication networks are essential to the development of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and improving road safety. As the in-vehicle sensors can assess only their immediate environment, vehicular nodes exchange information about critical events, such as accidents and sudden braking, with other vehicles, pedestrians, roadside infrastructure, and cellular base stations in order to make critical decisions in a timely manner. Considering the time-sensitive nature of this information, it is of paramount importance to design efficient communication networks that can support the exchange of this information with reliable and high-speed wireless links. Typically, prior to actual deployment, any design of a wireless network is subject to extensive analysis under various operational scenarios using computer simulations. However, it is not viable to rely entirely on simulations for the system design of highly complex systems, such as the vehicular networks. Hence, it is necessary to develop analytical methods that can complement simulators and also serve as a benchmark. One of the approaches that has gained popularity in the recent years for the modeling and analysis of large-scale wireless networks is the use of tools from stochastic geometry. In this approach, we endow the locations of wireless nodes with some distribution and analyze various aspects of the network by leveraging the properties of the distribution. Traditionally, wireless networks have been studied using simple spatial models in which the wireless nodes can lie anywhere on the domain of interest (often a 1D or a 2D plane). However, vehicular networks have a unique spatial geometry because the locations of vehicular nodes are restricted to roadways. Therefore, in order to model the locations of vehicular nodes in the network, we have to first model the underlying road systems. Further, we should also consider the randomness in the locations of vehicles on each road. So, we consider a doubly stochastic model called Poisson line Cox process (PLCP), in which the spatial layout of roads are modeled by random lines and the locations of vehicles on the roads are modeled by random set of points on these lines. As is usually the case in wireless networks, multiple vehicular nodes and roadside units (RSUs) operate at the same frequency due to the limited availability of radio frequency spectrum, which causes interference. Therefore, any receiver in the network obtains a signal that is a mixture of the desired signal from the intended transmitter and the interfering signals from the other transmitters. The ratio of the power of desired signal to the aggregate power of the interfering signals, which is called as the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR), depends on the locations of the transmitters with respect to the receiver. A receiver in the network is said to be in coverage if the SIR measured at the location of the receiver exceeds the required threshold to successfully decode the message. The probability of occurrence of this event is referred to as the coverage probability and it is one of the fundamental metrics that is used to characterize the performance of a wireless network. In our work, we have analytically characterized the coverage probability of the typical vehicular node in the network. This was the first work to present the coverage analysis of a vehicular network using the aforementioned doubly stochastic model. In addition to coverage probability, we have also explored other performance metrics such as data rate, which is the number of bits that can be successfully communicated per unit time, and spectral efficiency. Our analysis has revealed interesting trends in the coverage probability as a function of key system parameters such as the density of roads in a region (total length of roads per unit area), and the density of vehicles on the roads. We have shown that the vehicular nodes in areas with high density of roads have lower coverage than those in areas with sparsely distributed roads. On the other hand, the coverage probability of a vehicular node improves as the density of vehicles on the roads increases. Such insights are quite useful in the design and deployment of network infrastructure. While our research was primarily focused on communication networks, the utility of the spatial models considered in these works extends to other areas of engineering. For a special variant of the PLCP, we have derived the distribution of the shortest path distance between an arbitrary point and its nearest neighbor in the sense of path distance. The analytical framework developed in this work allows us to answer several important questions pertaining to infrastructure planning and personnel deployment.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-03T15:22:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 RenataMR.pdf: 665159 bytes, checksum: 6d95fdc9fbeffbdaabe5793488839df3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-03-02 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / The on-line processes control for attributes consists of inspecting a single item at every m produced ones. If the examined item is conforming, the production continues; otherwise, the process stops for adjustment. However, in many practical situations, the interest consist of monitoring the number of non-conformities among the examined items. In this case, if the number of non-conformities is higher than an upper control limit, the process needs to be stopped and some adjustment is required. The contribution of this paper is to propose a control system for the number of nonconforming of the inspected item. Employing properties of an ergodic Markov chain, an expression for the expected cost per item of the control system was obtained and it will be minimized by two parameters: the sampling interval and the upper limit control of the non-conformities of the examined item. Numerical examples illustrate the proposed procedure / O procedimento usual de controle on-line de processo por atributos consiste em inspecionar um item a cada m itens produzidos. Se o item examinado for conforme, a produ??o continua; caso contr?rio p?ra-se o processo. No entanto, em muitas situa??es pr?ticas, nem sempre existe interesse em classificar o item como defeituoso ou n?o defeituoso, mas sim monitorar o n?mero de n?o-conformidades no item inspecionado. Neste caso, se o n?mero de n?o-conformidades for superior a um limite de controle, p?ra-se o processo para o ajuste. A contribui??o deste trabalho est? em propor um sistema de controle on-line baseado no n?mero de n?o-conformidades do item inspecionado. Atrav?s das propriedades de uma cadeia de Markov erg?dica, obteve-se uma express?o anal?tica do custo m?dio por item produzido do sistema de controle on-line que pode ser minimizada por dois par?metros: o intervalo entre inspe??es e o limite superior de controle para o n?mero de n?o-conformidades no item inspecionado. Um exemplo num?rico ilustra o procedimento proposto

In-line rheological and process measurements are studied, during the primary injection phase, as a potential aid to closed loop process control for injection moulding. The feasibilities of attaining rheological and process measurements of sufficient accuracy and precision for use in process control are investigated. The influence of rheological and process measurements on product quality are investigated for semi-crystalline thermoplastic materials. A computer based process and machine parameter monitoring system is utilised to provide accurate and precise process data for analysis