Summary presents self-service networks operational performance improvement and management system, which is adapted to manage the supply of ATMs’ cash flows. The system is created using multi-agent technologies and artificial neural networks. Adaptive neural network model has been created for the forecast of ATMs’ cash demand. Flexibility of the network is regulated in real time mode by limiting neural network weights, depending on process complexity, therefore such network better forecasts in real life situations. Evaluation and process improvement methodology has been created to optimize productivity of self-service systems, which includes: value-based self-service quality and performance criteria’s, and performance evaluation models. Using these models is possible to increase productivity of self-service systems. Using theoretical studies results a computer program enabling real-time monitoring and management of ATM cash flows was created. Analysis of high and low intensity of ATM network profitability showed that the created flexible neural network forecast method is more superior than classical methods of time series forecast (moving average, Holt, Winters, and ARMA), and is able to quite accurately forecast various time series of ATM cash demand. Based on studies found that using the created ANN method and optimization procedure, ATM cash management productivity may be approximately increased by 33 percent. / Santraukoje pristatoma savitarnos tinklų veiklos našumo didinimo ir valdymo intelektinė sistema, pritaikyta valdyti bankomatų grynųjų pinigų tiekimo srautus. Sistema sukurta naudojant multi-agentų technologijas ir neuroninius tinklus. Bankomatų grynųjų pinigų poreikiui prognozuoti sudarytas adaptyvus neuroninis tinklas. Šio tinklo lankstumas reguliuojamas realiu laiku apribojant neuroninių tinklų svorius, priklausomai nuo proceso sudėtingumo, todėl toks tinklas gali geriau prognozuoti realiose situacijose. Savitarnos sistemų našumui optimizuoti sukurta vertinimo ir procesų tobulinimo metodika apimanti: verte pagrįstus savitarnos kokybės ir našumo kriterijus bei našumo vertinimo ir procesų tobulinimo modelius. Naudojant šiuos modelius galima užtikrinti našesnį savitarnos sistemų darbą. Teorinių tyrimų pagrindu buvo sukurta kompiuterinė programa, leidžianti realiu laiku stebėti ir valdyti bankomatų grynųjų pinigų srautus. Šios programos panaudojimas leidžia sumažinti tinklo valdymo kaštus ir padidinti paslaugų prieinamumą. Atlikus didelio ir mažo intensyvumo bankomatų tinklų pelningumo analizę nustatyta, kad sukurtas lankstus neuroninių tinklų prognozavimo metodas yra pranašesnis už klasikinius laiko eilučių prognozavimo metodus (slankiųjų vidurkių, Holto, Vinterio, ARMA), ir gali pakankamai tiksliai prognozuoti įvairias bankomatų grynųjų pinigų poreikio laiko eilutes. Remiantis atliktais tyrimais nustatyta, kad pritaikius sukurtą ANN metodą ir optimizavimo procedūrą, bankomatų... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

Quasi-keyhole, including plasma keyhole and double-sided welding, is a novel approach proposed to operate the keyhole arc welding process. It can result in a high quality weld, but also raise higher demand of the operator. A computer control system to detect the keyhole and control the arc current can improve the performance of the welding process. To this effect, developing automatic pipe welding, instead of manual welding, is a hot research topic in the welding field. The objective of this research is to design an automatic quasi-keyhole pipe welding system that can monitor the keyhole and control its establishment time to track the reference trajectory as the dynamic behavior of welding processes changes. For this reason, an automatic plasma welding system is proposed, in which an additional electrode is added on the back side of the workpiece to detect the keyhole, as well as to provide the double-side arc in the double-sided arc welding mode. In the automatic pipe welding system the arc current can be controlled by the computer controller. Based on the designed automatic plasma pipe welding system, two kinds of model predictive controller − linear and bilinear − are developed, and an optimal algorithm is designed to optimize the keyhole weld process. The result of the proposed approach has been verified by using both linear and bilinear model structures in the quasi-keyhole plasma welding (QKPW) process experiments, both in normal plasma keyhole and double-sided arc welding modes.

The switched reluctance motor (SRM) is receiving attention because of its merits: high operating temperature capability, fault tolerance, inherent shoot-through preventing inverter topology, high power density, high speed operation, and small rotor inertia. Rotor position information plays a critical role in the control of the SRM. Conventionally, separate position sensors, are used to obtain this information. Position sensors add complexity and cost to the control system and reduce its reliability and flexibility. In order to overcome the drawbacks of position sensors, this dissertation proposed and investigated a position sensorless control system that meets the needs of an electric actuator application. It is capable of working from zero to high speeds. In the control system, two different control strategies are proposed, one for low speeds and one for high speeds. Each strategy utilizes a state observer to estimate rotor position and speed and is capable of 4 quadrant operation. In the low speed strategy a Luenberger observer, which has been named the inductance profile demodulator based observer, is used where a pulse voltage is applied to the SRMs idle phases generating triangle shaped phase currents. The amplitude of the phase current is modulated by the SRMs inductance. The current is demodulated and combined with the output of a state observer to produce an error input to the observer so that the observer will track the actual SRM rotor position. The strategy can determine the SRMs rotor position at standstill and low speeds with torques up to rated torque. Another observer, named the simplified flux model based observer, is used for medium and high speeds. In this case, the flux is computed using the measured current and a simplified flux model. The difference between the computed flux and the measured flux generates an error that is input to the observer so that it will track the actual SRM rotor position. Since the speed ranges of the two control stragegies overlap, the final control system is capable of working from zero to high speed by switching between the two observers according to the estimated speed. The stability and performance of the observers are verified with simulation and experiments.

A single-phase, buck-boost based, dual-output AC-DC converter is studied in this thesis. The converter has two DC outputs with opposite polarities, which share the same ground with the input power line. The power stage performance, including the input filter, is studied and procedure to select power components is given. The circuit model is analyzed to develop appropriate control. Zerocrossing distortion of the source input current is addressed and a solution is proposed. Experimental results are satisfactory in that a high power factor line current results for steady-state operation.

Software engineering is a fundamentally collaborative activity, yet most tools that support software engineers are designed only for single users. There are many foreseen benefits in using tools that support real time collaboration between software engineers, such as avoiding conflicting concurrent changes to source files and determining the impact of program changes immediately. Unfortunately, it is difficult to develop non-trivial tools that support real time Collaborative Software Engineering (CSE). Accordingly, the few CSE tools that do exist have restricted capabilities. Given the availability of powerful desktop workstations and recent advances in distributed computing technology, it is now possible to approach the challenges of CSE from a new perspective. The research goal in this thesis is to investigate mechanisms for supporting real time CSE, and to determine the potential gains for developers from the use of CSE tools. An infrastructure, CAISE, is presented which supports the rapid development of real time CSE tools that were previously unobtainable, based on patterns of collaboration evident within software engineering. In this thesis, I discuss important design aspects of CSE tools, including the identification of candidate patterns of collaboration. I describe the CAISE approach to supporting small teams of collaborating software engineers. This is by way of a shared semantic model of software, protocol for tool communication, and Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) facilities. I then introduce new types of synchronous semantic model-based tools that support various patterns of CSE. Finally, I present empirical and heuristic evaluations of typical development scenarios. Given the CAISE infrastructure, it is envisaged that new aspects of collaborative work within software engineering can be explored, allowing the perceived benefits of CSE to be fully realised.

Product visual inspection is still performed manually or semi automatically in most industries from simple ceramic tile grading to complicated automotive body panel paint defect and surface quality inspection. Moreover, specular surfaces present additional challenges to conventional vision systems due to specular reflections, which may mask the true location of objects and lead to incorrect measurements. Some sophisticated optical inspection methods have already been developed for high precision surface defect inspection in recent years. Unfortunately, most of them are highly computational. Systems built on those methods are either inapplicable or costly to achieve real-time inspection. This thesis describes an integrated low-cost intelligent system developed to automatically capture and extract regular defects of the ceramic tiles with uniformly colored specular coatings. The proposed system is implemented on a group of smart cameras using its on-board processing ability to achieve real-time inspection. The results of this study will be used to facilitate the design of a robust, low-cost, closed-loop inspection system for a class of products with smooth specular coatings. The experimental results on real test panels demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of proposed system.

Verticillium wilt, caused by Verticillium dahliae Kleb, is one of the most economically important diseases of woody hosts such as ash (Fraxinus spp.), sugar maple (Acer saccharum), and redbud (Cercis canadensis). The causal agent has a broad host range, including not only woody hosts but also important vegetable and field crops, and it is distributed worldwide. Diagnosis of V. dahliae in infected woody hosts is often based on the occurrence of vascular discoloration and time-consuming isolation. However, not all woody hosts exhibit vascular discoloration symptoms, and not all vascular discoloration symptoms are due to infection by V. dahliae. In this study, real-time PCR-based assays were evaluated and employed for rapid and accurate detection of V. dahliae in different woody hosts. DNA was extracted in large quantities from presumptively infected woody hosts by collecting drill-press shavings from sample tissue, bead-beating, and extracting using a CTAB method. Six published primer sets were evaluated against genomic DNA of V. dahliae as well as selected negative controls, and two sets (VertBt-F/VertBt-R and VDS1/VDS2) showed promise for further evaluation using DNA extracts from field samples. The VertBt primers amplified a species-specific 115-bp fragment of the expected size, while the VDS primers amplified the expected specific 540-bp fragment. However, the VertBt primer set exhibited higher sensitivity in detection of V. dahliae even in asymptomatic trees. The PCR-based methods developed here could be used as rapid tools for pathogen detecting and monitoring, thus informing plant pathogen management decisions.

Traditional communication channels like news channels are not able to provide spontaneous information about disasters unlike social networks namely, Twitter. The present research work proposes a framework by mining real-time disaster data from Twitter to predict the path a disaster like a tornado will take. The users of Twitter act as the sensors which provide useful information about the disaster by posting first-hand experience, warnings or location of a disaster. The steps involved in the framework are – data collection, data preprocessing, geo-locating the tweets, data filtering and extrapolation of the disaster curve for prediction of susceptible locations. The framework is validated by analyzing the past events. This framework has the potential to be developed into a full-fledged system to predict and warn people about disasters. The warnings can be sent to news channels or broadcasted for pro-active action.

CPS (Cyber-Physical Systems) enable a new class of applications that perceive their surroundings using raw data from sensors, monitor the timing of dynamic processes, and control the physical environment. Since failures and misbehaviors in application domains such as cars, medical devices, nuclear power plants, etc., may cause significant damage to life and/or property, CPS need to be safe and dependable. A conventional way of improving dependability is to use redundant hardware to replicate the whole (sub)system. Although hardware replication has been widely deployed in conventional mission-critical systems, it is cost-prohibitive to many emerging CPS application domains. Hardware replication also leads to limited system flexibility. This dissertation studies the problem of making CPS affordably dependable and develops a system-level framework that manages critical CPS resources including processors, networks, and sensors. Our framework called SAFER (System-level Architecture for Failure Evasion in Real-time applications) incorporates configurable software mechanisms and policies to tolerate failures of critical CPS resources while meeting their timing constraints. It supports adaptive graceful degradation, the effective use of different sensor modalities, and the fault-tolerant schemes of hot standby, cold standby, and re-execution. SAFER reliably and efficiently allocates tasks and their backups to CPU and sensor resources while satisfying network traffic constraints. It also fuses and (re)configures sensor data used by tasks to recover from system failures. The SAFER framework aims to guarantee the timeliness of different types of tasks that fall into one of four categories: (1) tasks with periodic arrivals, (2) tasks with continually varying periods, (3) tasks with parallel threads, and (4) tasks with self-suspensions. We offer the schedulability analyses and runtime support for such tasks with and without resource failures. Finally, the functionality of the proposed system is evaluated on a self-driving car using SAFER. We conclude that the proposed framework analytically satisfies timing constraints and predictably operates systems with and without resource failures, hence making CPS dependable and timely.

Roboto kūrimas yra nepaprastai brangus procesas. Sukonstruoti prototipą sunaudojama daug lėšų, o paaiškėjus trūkumams gali tekti jį perdaryti ne vieną kartą. Nemažiau sudėtingas yra algoritmų kūrimas roboto valdymui. Išbandyti valdančią programą su realiu prototipu sudėtinga, nes klaidos gali sukelti tiek smulkių gedimų tiek stipriai apgadinti įrangą. Šiame dokumente yra gilinamasi į roboto elgesio simuliavimą virtualioje erdvėje. Nagrinėjamos roboto simuliavimo aplinkos, teikiančios galimybę suprogramuoti ir išbandyti robotą valdančius algoritmus. Kreipiamas didelis dėmesys į tokios sistemos naudojimo paprastumą ir galimybę ją naudoti moksleivių skatinimui domėtis programavimu. Autorius pateikia projektą naujos simuliavimo aplinkos kūrimui ir realizuoja šią sistemą. Atliekamas tyrimas siekiant nustatyti kaip yra kuriamos roboto valdančios programos. Yra palyginama naujai sukurtos sistemos galimybė realizuoti valdymo algoritmus su rinkoje esančiu komerciniu sprendimu – Webots. Yra pateikiamos dvi roboto konstrukcijos su apibrėžtu roboto elgesiu ir suprogramuojamas valdymo kodas abejose sistemose. Roboto elgesio reikalavimuose atliekamas pakeitimas ir tiriama kokią įtaką tai turi robotą valdančios programos kodui. Galiausiai yra pristatoma naujai sukurta roboto simuliavimo aplinka. Aprašomas sistemos vartotojo vadovas, paaiškinama grafinė vartotojo sąsaja. / The process of robot creation is extremely expensive. It requires a lot of expenses to build a prototype and mistakes in design can lead to several rebuilds. No less expensive is a challenge of designing control program for the robot, as testing it with a prototype can cause harm to the construction or even destroy it. This document focuses on the simulation of robot behavior in virtual environment. Egzisting simulation environmets, that allow programming and simulating of control scripts, are being explored here. A lot of attention is paid to simplicity of the software interface and possible usage for children to learn and enjoy programming. The author makes a proposal for new simulation environment and implements the software. The research is made on the implementation of control programs for robots. The way how the control program is implemented is compared to an egzisting comercial simulation environment – Webots. The two specifications for robot design and behavior is provided and the solutions for control programs are designed and compared. The modification in robot specifications are brought up and those solutions are modified to comply with the change. Finally the designed software is presented and explained. The chapter contains user guide, a specification for graphical user interface and an explanation of it‘s usage.