Integrating many processing elements (PE) in a single chip is inevitable as silicon technology allows more than one billion of transistors in a single piece of silicon. Networks-on-Chip (NoCs) has been proposed as a scalable solution to both increasing bandwidth requirements and physical design problems for multi-PE chips. However, as multi-PE chips drive the design focus to shift from the computation-centric to communication-centric, area and power costs consumed by communication has become comparable to what computation consumes. / The second direction is to reduce hop counts of packets when they travel from sources to destinations, and thus to reduce power consumption of NoCs. The reduction of hop counts is realized by using a recently proposed express virtual channel (EVC) technique to virtually bypass intermediate routers. We study the EVC technique in two domains. The first domain is to present a high-level, application-specific methodology to improve power efficiency of EVC paths early in the design stage. The methodology includes three steps. Firstly, aggregate communication loads between routers are calculated. Secondly, an energy reduction model and an energy overhead model are developed. Finally, energy savings of all possible EVCs path are calculated and a greedy algorithm is applied to insert EVCs paths in an iterative way. / The second domain is to exploit the EVC flow control in design and implementation of low-power NoCs. We firstly present cost-efficient hardware components for both EVC source and EVC bypass routers, then propose a statistical approach to customize buffer architectures for EVC networks, then describe creative use of low-power circuit techniques such as clock gating and operand isolation for EVC routers, and finally evaluate EVC NoCs through detailed ASIC implementations. Results show that EVC NoCs can save up to 34.26% of power compared to baseline NoCs. / This thesis tackles design and implementation of cost-efficient NoCs along two orthogonal directions. The first direction is to reduce area and power costs of a single virtual channel router. Through ASIC implementations, we find that allocator logic, including both virtual channel allocator (VA) and switch allocator (SA), consumes a large amount of costs. Based on RTL simulations for the entire NoCs, we identify great opportunities to reduce design costs of VA and then propose two low-complexity allocators: look-ahead VA and combined switch-VC allocator (SVA). Evaluations are performed for a wide range of traffic patterns and router parameters. Results show that both proposed architectures significantly reduce area and power costs of allocators without penalties on network performances. / Zhang, Min. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 72-01, Section: B, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 139-145). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

Chung, Wing Kwong. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-101). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Motivation --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Related Work --- p.3 / Chapter 1.2.1 --- History of Humanoid Robots --- p.3 / Chapter 1.2.2 --- The Study of Humanoid Robots --- p.5 / Chapter 1.3 --- Thesis Overview --- p.6 / Chapter 2 --- Architecture --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1 --- Introduction --- p.8 / Chapter 2.2 --- Mechanical Design --- p.8 / Chapter 2.3 --- Hardware Platform --- p.11 / Chapter 2.4 --- Software Platform --- p.14 / Chapter 3 --- Kinematics --- p.15 / Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.15 / Chapter 3.2 --- Forward Kinematics --- p.15 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Lower Limb --- p.17 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Upper Limb --- p.19 / Chapter 3.3 --- Inverse Kinematics --- p.21 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Lower Limb --- p.21 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Upper Limb --- p.24 / Chapter 4 --- Gait Synthesis --- p.29 / Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.29 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- Difference Between Human and Robot Joints --- p.29 / Chapter 4.1.2 --- Difference Types of Gait for Humanoid Robots --- p.30 / Chapter 4.2 --- Related Works --- p.31 / Chapter 4.3 --- Gait Frame --- p.33 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- Analysis of Human Gait --- p.33 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- Gait Frame for PHR --- p.34 / Chapter 4.4 --- Gait Synthesis --- p.36 / Chapter 4.4.1 --- Mathematic Description of Bezier Curve --- p.36 / Chapter 4.4.2 --- Reasons for Using Bezier Curve for Gait Synthesis --- p.37 / Chapter 4.4.3 --- Gait Synthesis Using Bezier Curve Interpolation --- p.37 / Chapter 4.5 --- Experiments --- p.40 / Chapter 4.5.1 --- Experimental Setup --- p.40 / Chapter 4.5.2 --- Results --- p.40 / Chapter 4.6 --- Discussion --- p.43 / Chapter 4.7 --- Conclusion and Future Work --- p.44 / Chapter 5 --- Balance Algorithm for PHR --- p.45 / Chapter 5.1 --- Introduction --- p.45 / Chapter 5.2 --- Related Works --- p.45 / Chapter 5.3 --- Balance Algorithm --- p.47 / Chapter 5.4 --- Experiments --- p.51 / Chapter 5.4.1 --- Experimental Setup --- p.51 / Chapter 5.4.2 --- Results --- p.51 / Chapter 5.5 --- Discussion --- p.54 / Chapter 5.6 --- Conclusion and Future Work --- p.54 / Chapter 6 --- Human-robot Interaction System through Hand Gestures --- p.55 / Chapter 6.1 --- Introduction --- p.55 / Chapter 6.2 --- Related Works --- p.55 / Chapter 6.3 --- Flow of Hand Gesture Recognition --- p.57 / Chapter 6.4 --- Database Establishment --- p.60 / Chapter 6.4.1 --- Hand Detection and Preprocessing --- p.60 / Chapter 6.4.2 --- Extraction of Features --- p.62 / Chapter 6.4.3 --- Storage of Features --- p.68 / Chapter 6.5 --- Hand Gesture Recognition --- p.69 / Chapter 6.6 --- Experiments --- p.72 / Chapter 6.6.1 --- Experimental Setup --- p.72 / Chapter 6.6.2 --- Recognition Results --- p.73 / Chapter 6.7 --- Discussion --- p.75 / Chapter 6.8 --- Conclusion and Future Work --- p.75 / Chapter 7 --- Conclusion --- p.76 / Chapter 7.1 --- Research Summary --- p.76 / Chapter 7.2 --- Future Work --- p.78 / Chapter A --- Forward Kinematics of PHR --- p.79 / Chapter A.1 --- Lower Limb --- p.79 / Chapter A.2 --- Upper Limb --- p.82 / Chapter B --- Inverse Kinematics of PHR --- p.85 / Chapter B.1 --- Lower Limb --- p.85 / Chapter B.2 --- Upper Limb --- p.88 / Chapter C --- Zero Moment Point --- p.91 / Chapter D --- User Interface of PHR --- p.93

Typescript. / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Considering the complexity of the construction industry, it is vital to predict costs accurately throughout the entire planning, design, and construction process of a project. Various factors such as overhead, delays, cost variation, and program and scope play significant roles in determining the viability and profitability of a project. Thus, it is important to learn about what makes construction estimates so variable even among expert estimators within the same company. This study will look at the estimation methods used by BurWil Construction Company and Denark Construction, Inc. for the ETSU Football Stadium and the ETSU Fine Arts Center, respectively, as case studies for both post- and in-development construction projects. The estimates used in different phases of the projects will be compared against the most current cost of the project; the final cost for the Football Stadium and the most up-to-date costs for the Fine Arts Center. Also, the different phases of design and construction and their corresponding estimates will be inspected thoroughly. As an ending discussion of the study, optimization efforts will be considered to assess how current planning and estimation methods can be improved to reduce cost and time for all parties involved in the project.

Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Civil (Construções). Universidade do Porto. Faculdade de Engenharia. 2011

Estágio realizado na Norlabor - Engenharia e Construção, SA e orientado pelo Eng.º Pedro Barros / Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Industrial e Gestão. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2010

Att arbeta tidseffektivt, strukturerat och inte spilla tid är viktiga faktorer vid ett byggarbete. Tid är pengar och desto längre tid ett arbete tar, desto mer pengar kostar det. Enligt teorin finns det ett flertal faktorer som påverkar effektiviteten på en byggarbetsplats. Några av dessa faktorer är struktur- och tidplaner, arbetsberedningar, planeringsmöten, metodförbättring och att identifiera mål. I Sverige arbetar man efter dessa faktorer på de flesta byggen, men i ett U-land är inte byggnationen lika utvecklad och man arbetar ofta dag för dag. Ett land som har problem med effektiviteten på arbetsplatsen är det fattiga landet Filippinerna i Asien. Under en volontärarbetsresa till Filippinerna observerades brister och tidsproblem vid byggnationen. Volontärarbetet ägde rum i en liten by vid namn Los Amigos utanför staden Davao. Arbetet gick ut på att bygga upp och renovera bostäder och området runtom byggnaderna åt rullstolsburna människor som inte har råd med ett eget hem. Vid sidan om volontärarbetsplatsen fanns även en byggarbetsplats som observerades under resan. Byggarbetsplatsen bestod av en basketplan. Denna studie syftar till att observera byggarbetet i Filippinerna för att identifiera problem med byggarbetet och effektiviteten på arbetsplatsen. Genom iakttagelser och intervju med en arbetsledare i byn Los Amigos har de olika tidsproblemen reflekterats och diskuterats. Utifrån de teoretiska referensramarna och med hänsyn till kulturen i landet har förbättringsförslag arbetats fram. Rapporten avslutas med två avsnitt som beskriver hur man kan arbeta mer tidseffektivt, strukturerat och undvika tidsförluster. Det ena avsnittet handlar om byggarbetet på volontärarbetsplatsen och den andra om arbetet på basketplanen som byggs i samma område. Arbetsplatserna är av helt olika karaktär och olika förbättringsförslag har därmed arbetats fram. / To work time efficient, structured and to not waste time are important factors at a construction work. Time is money and the more time a job takes the more money it costs. In theory, there are several factors that affect the efficiency at a construction site. Some of these factors are structural and schedules, work preparation, planning, method improvement and to identify targets. Most of these factors are used in construction work in Sweden, but the construction is not as developed in a developing country and they often work day by day. A country that has problems with efficiency in the workplace is the poor country Philippines in Asia. During a volunteer work trip to the Philippines was the deficiencies and timing problems during construction observed. Volunteer work took place in a small village called Los Amigos outside the town of Davao. The work was to build and renovate homes and the area around the buildings for wheelchair people who can’t afford their own homes. Besides the volunteer work was a construction site that was observed during the trip. The construction site is made up of a basketball court. This study aims to observe the construction work in the Philippines to identify problems with building work and efficiency in the workplace. Through observations and an interview with a supervisor in the village of Los Amigos have the different time problems been reflected and discussed. Based on the theoretical frameworks and taking into account the culture of the country have improvement proposals been worked out. The report ends with two sections that describe how to work more time-efficient, structured and avoid time losses. One section deals with the construction work on volunteer work and the other for a work on the basketball court built in the same area. The workplaces are of completely different character and various improvement proposals have thus been drawn up.

Road and railway bridges play a crucial role for the infrastructure network in Sweden to work smoothly and keep the traffic flowing. Damage to a bridge can have catastrophic consequences if they are not corrected properly and in due time. Trafikverket in Sweden is responsible for inspection and maintenance of approximately 20 600 bridges throughout the country. This huge number of bridges require large resources in the form of machinery and experienced bridge inspectors who assess the state of the bridges on the spot. At present, the state of a bridge is to a large extent determined by a visual inspection and by manually taking measurements to assess the condition of the bridge. This approach means that the assessment of the condition of the bridge to a large extent is subjective and shifting between different cases depending on the inspector’s experience. New approaches that both could make it easier for inspectors to make more objective decisions and facilitate and reduce the risk concerning the inspection work are therefore under research. In this thesis Close Range Photogrammetry is evaluated as a mean for assessing deflection on concrete bridges and for creating as-built BIM:s for documentation and visualization of the actual condition of a bridge. To evaluate the technique both laboratory experiments and field work are conducted. Laboratory tests are conducted on concrete slabs that are subjected to pressure to inflict deflection on them. The concrete slabs are photographed using close range photogrammetric techniques for different values of deflection. The photographs are later processed into a point cloud in which measurements of deflection are taken and compared to what is measured using displacement transducers during the tests. The field work conducted is in form of photographing a railway bridge using close range photogrammetry and building a point cloud out of the photographs. This point cloud is then used as a basis for evaluating the process on how a point cloud generated through close range photogrammetry can be used to create as-built Building Information Models. Results from the laboratory experiments show that changes in deflection can be visualized by overlapping point clouds generated at different loading stages using the software Cloud Compare. The distance i.e. the deflection can then be measured in the software. The point cloud generated through the field work resulted in a as-built BIM of the railway bridge containing the basic elements. No hard conclusions can be drawn as to how well the method in this thesis can be used to measure deflection on real concrete bridges. The test basis is to small and the human factor can have affected the results. The results though show that millimeter distances can be measured in the point clouds which indicates that with the right approach, Close Range Photogrammetry can be used to measure deflections with good precision. Point clouds generated through Close Range Photogrammetry works good as a basis for creating as-built BIM:s. The colored point cloud is beneficial over other techniques that are generated in gray scale because it makes it easier to distinguish elements from each other and to detect any deficiencies. To create complete as-built BIM:s more than just a point cloud are needed as it only visualizes the shell of the captured object.

A construction project is not the other project alike. Despite this, there are a few subprocesses that a construction project cannot do without. However, the order in which these occur and how far in time these sub-processes extend may differ depending on the project's conditions. What is common is that a construction project is initiated by its project design where project planning documents and later on construction documents are produced before the production begins. But as the construction projects shortens in time, higher demands are placed on streamlining the sub-processes. It has therefore become increasingly common for the project planning to take place gradually along the production. This master thesis is mainly based upon those interviews that were conducted during this study. The interviews were held with different peoples of either contractors or constructors. The main aim with this master thesis were to study the flow of information between those who plans the project and those who executes it, within a project were the project is been planned and designed gradually along the production. In order to form an understanding of how the flow of information work, the tools and methods used to manage information are studied in a project were the project is being planned gradually, seen from both contractors and project designers perspective. It turns out that there are relatively small differences in how the information is handled between a project that is planned gradually versus one that has been planned in advance. The tools used to spread (downstream) and report (upstream) information are the same regardless type of contract. However, what a project that is planned gradually benefits from is the choice of working methods used in the project. These working methods can facilitate the handling of the project information and the information flow created up- and downstream. The conclusions that can be drawn from this thesis are that a project with gradual planning combined with its information flow benefits from a project that is being carried out in cooperation. Which is based on the fact that the communication routes have been clearly identified at an early stage. It will both facilitating and reducing the flow of information compared to if the project would not had been carried out in cooperation. The time gains that are considered to be possible when the project is gradually planned ceases to exist if the project is not carried out in cooperation. In addition, a gain can be seen in being able to streamline the current management of how the information is being both managed and spread from the project planners. Regardless if the project has been planned prior to the production or not. However, given that work tasks such as planning/design and production are particularly close together when planning a project gradually. An efficiency in improving the project planners work while distributing the building document can increase the space for mistakes without impacting on the detailed time schedule.

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