Η παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία πραγματεύεται τη μελέτη και τη μοντελοποίηση ενός ελεγκτή, ο οποίος δύναται να διατηρήσει τον έλεγχο ενός ιπτάμενου ελικοπτέρου τεσσάρων ελίκων γνωστό και ως quadrotor, σε περίπτωση δυσλειτουργίας κάποιου κινητήρα. Η μοντελοποίηση και η προσομοίωση γίνεται με τη βοήθεια του προγράμματος Μatlab/Simulink. Αναλυτικότερα, στο κεφάλαιο 1, γίνεται μια σύντομη παρουσίαση του quadrotor, αναφέροντας τον τρόπο λειτουργίας του και τους σημαντικότερους σταθμούς της ιστορίας του μέχρι σήμερα. Στη συνέχεια, επισημαίνεται η αναγκαιότητα ενσωμάτωσης συστημάτων αυτομάτου ελέγχου σε συστήματα που επηρεάζουν άμεσα ή έμμεσα την ανθρώπινη ζωή καθώς και η σπουδαιότητα βελτίωσης αυτών, κάνοντάς τα ανεχτικά σε σφάλματα και δυσλειτουργίες. Στο κεφάλαιο 2, μελετώνται οι εξισώσεις που περιγράφουν την κίνηση και τον προσανατολισμό του quadrotor. Έτσι δημιουργείται το μοντέλο του συστήματος, τόσο με σταθερό όσο και με μεταβλητό κέντρο μάζας, το οποίο θα χρησιμοποιηθεί στις προσομοιώσεις για την αξιολόγηση των ελεγκτών. Τονίζεται πως η αντίσταση του αέρα δεν θεωρείται πλέον αμελητέα καθώς επηρεάζει σε σημαντικό βαθμό τη κατάσταση του οχήματος. Στο κεφάλαιο 3, δίνεται το θεωρητικό υπόβαθρο στο όποιο θα στηριχτούν οι ελεγκτές που θα δημιουργηθούν. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, γίνεται μια παρουσίαση του ελεγκτή PID, καθώς και πως επηρεάζουν οι μεταβλητές του ένα σύστημα. Στη συνέχεια, παρουσιάζονται σημαντικές πληροφορίες για την μοντελοποίηση των σφαλμάτων και το κεφάλαιο κλείνει με τη παρουσίαση ελεγκτών με ανοχή σε σφάλματα. Στο κεφάλαιο 4, παρουσιάζονται τα μοντέλα των ελεγκτών που χρησιμοποιήθηκαν στις προσομοιώσεις. Πιο αναλυτικά, ξεκινώντας από ένα ελεγκτή ικανό υπό προϋποθέσεις, καταλήγουμε σε ένα εύρωστο ελεγκτή αξιοποιώντας τη μετακίνηση του κέντρου μάζας. Για κάθε ελεγκτή δίνονται οι παράμετροι καθώς και η σχηματική του απεικόνιση στο simulink. Στο κεφάλαιο 5, παρουσιάζονται και σχολιάζονται αναλυτικά τα αποτελέσματα των προσομοιώσεων. Δίνονται γραφήματα που αφορούν τη θέση και τον προσανατολισμό σε όλη τη διάρκεια της πτήσης αλλά και στο κρίσιμο μεταβατικό φαινόμενο. Τέλος, επισημαίνονται τα πλεονεκτήματα και τα μειονεκτήματα καθενός από τους υλοποιημένους ελεγκτές. Στο κεφάλαιο 6, δίνονται τα συμπεράσματα, αναφέρονται παρόμοιοι ελεγκτές και επιτεύγματα στο τομέα αυτό καθώς και οι διαφορές των ήδη υπαρχόντων λύσεων με τη δική μας προσέγγιση. / In this thesis, a control system, capable of retaining the control of a quadrotor vehicle when one of its actuators fails, is studied and simulated. The software which was used for modeling and simulation is Matlab/Simulink. Specifically, in Chapter 1, there is a brief presentation of quadrotor, stating how it operates and mentioning the most important historical cornerstones. Subsequently, we point to the necessity of integration of automatic control systems to systems that directly or indirectly affect human life and the importance of their improvement by making them tolerant to errors and malfunctions. In Chapter 2, we study the equations that describe the movement and orientation of the quadrotor. Using these equations, the quadrotor model is created, both for fixed and movable center of mass, which will be used in this thesis’ simulations. It is important to mention that the air resistance is no longer considered negligible as it significantly affects the state of the vehicle. In Chapter 3, the theoretical background is given upon which the controllers will be implemented. More specifically, the PID controller is presented, and its influence on the system’s performance. The modeling of quadrotor’s faults is presented and the chapter ends with the presentation of fault tolerant controllers. Chapter 4 presents the controllers’ models which were used in the simulations. Specifically, starting from a controller designed around a nominal operating point, we arrive at a robust controller utilizing the movement of the center of mass. For each controller, its parameters are given as well as its model in Simulink. In Chapter 5, the simulations’ results are presented and discussed in detail. Graphs are used to show the position and the orientation not only throughout the flight but also during the critical transition phenomenon. Finally, advantages and disadvantages of each of the implemented controllers are stated. In Chapter 6, there is the conclusion of the thesis. Similar controllers or achievements are mentioned and how our approximation differs from the other existing solutions.

The massive growth and proliferation of media, content, and services on the Internet are driving the need for more network capacity as well as larger networks. With increasing bandwidth and transmission speeds, even small disruptions in service can result in a significant loss of data. Thus, it is becoming increasingly important to monitor networks for their performance and to be able to handle failures effectively. Doing so is beneficial from a network design perspective as well as in being able to provide a richer experience to the users of such networks. Network tomography refers to inference problems in large-scale networks wherein it is of interest to infer individual characteristics, such as link delays, through aggregate measurements, such as end-to-end path delays. In this dissertation, we establish a fundamental theory for a class of network tomography problems in which the link metrics of a network are modeled to be additive. We establish the necessary and sufficient conditions on the network topology, provide polynomial time graph algorithms that quantify the extent of identifiability, and algorithms to identify the unknown link metrics. We develop algorithms for all graph topologies classified on the basis of their connectivity. The solutions developed in this dissertation extend beyond networking and are applicable in areas such as nano-electronics and power systems. We then develop graph algorithms to handle link failures effectively and to provide multipath routing capabilities in IP as well as Ethernet based networks. Our schemes guarantee recovery and are designed to pre-compute alternate next hops that can be taken upon link failures. This allows for fast re-routing as we avoid the need to wait for (control plane) re-computations.

Kiekvienos sistemos kūrimo tikslas yra veikianti, gyvybinga ir saugi sistema, teikianti norimus ir patikimus rezultatus. Sistemos saugumas – tai sistemos savybė, reiškianti, kad sistemos funkcionavimo metu neįvyks jokia nenumatyta situacija. Gyvybingumas – sistemos reakcija į tam tikrus įvykius ir sugebėjimas atlikti nustatytas užduotis bei pateikti teisingus sprendimus arba rezultatus. Norint sukurti tokią sistemą, kuri ateityje tenkins nustatytus reikalavimus, yra labai svarbu iš anksto nustatyti jos formalią reikalavimų specifikaciją, nes nuo to priklauso galutinis produktas – kiek įvairių situacijų, į kurias sistema gali patekti, ar bus numatyta, kaip ji susidoros su atitinkamais išoriniais ar vidiniais įvykiais. Tokią specifikaciją galima praplėsti įvairiomis modifikacijomis, kurios gali padėti aptikti potencialias klaidas sistemoje, kurias įvertinus kūrimo metu, galima sistemai suteikti tolerancijos klaidoms savybę. / In order to create a fault tolerant system, very clear requirements should be prepared and all possible fault events should be analyzed. It can be properly made by using any of system modeling formalism. In this work alternating bit protocol system was chosen to formalize and analyzed in fault tolerant software aspects. Alternating bit protocol was modified in two ways – it’s functionality under perfect circumstances and with added faults, in order to make the system fault tolerant. These both cases were formalized by PLA and DEVS formalization methods. After the research of different formalisms and adjusting FDEVS to alternating bit protocol, FPLA formalization method was created.

No description available.

In the area of artificial intelligence, the development of Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) has been very active, especially in the last decade. These algorithms started to evolve when scientists from various regions of the world applied the principles of evolution to algorithmic search and problem solving. EAs have been utilised successfully in diverse complex application areas. Their success in tackling hard problems has been the engine of the field of Evolutionary Computation (EC). Nowadays, EAs are considered to be the best solution to use when facing a hard search or optimisation problem. Various improvements are continually being made with the design of new operators, hybrid models, among others. A very important example of such improvements is the use of parallel models of GAs (PGAs). PGAs have received widespread attention from various researchers as they have proved to be more effective than panmictic GAs, especially in terms of efficacy and speedup. This thesis focuses on, and investigates, cellular Genetic Algorithms (cGAs)-a competitive variant of parallel GAs. In a cGA, the tentative solutions evolve in overlapped neighbourhoods, allowing smooth diffusion of the solutions. The benefits derived from using cGAs come not only from flexibility gains and their fitness to the objective target in combination with a robust behaviour but also from their high performance and amenability to implementation using advanced custom silicon chip technologies. Nowadays, cGAs are considered as adaptable concepts for solving problems, especially complex optimisation problems. Due to their structural characteristics, cGAs are able to promote an adequate exploration/exploitation trade-off and thus maintain genetic diversity. Moreover, cGAs are characterised as being massively parallel and easy to implement. The structural characteristics inherited in a cGA provide an active area for investigation. Because of the vital role grid structure plays in determining the effectiveness of the algorithm, cellular dimensionality is the main issue to be investigated here. The implementation of cGAs is commonly carried out on a one- or two-dimensional structure. Studies that investigate higher cellular dimensions are lacking. Accordingly, this research focuses on cGAs that are implemented on a three-dimensional structure. Having a structure with three dimensions, specifically a cubic structure, facilitates faster spreading of solutions due to the shorter radius and denser neighbourhood that result from the vertical expansion of cells. In this thesis, a comparative study of cellular dimensionality is conducted. Simulation results demonstrate higher performance achieved by 3D-cGAs over their 2D-cGAs counterparts. The direct implementation of 3D-cGAs on the new advanced 3D-IC technology will provide added benefits such as higher performance combined with a reduction in interconnection delays, routing length, and power consumption. The maintenance of system reliability and availability is a major concern that must be addressed. A system is likely to fail due to either hard or soft errors. Therefore, detecting a fault before it deteriorates system performance is a crucial issue. Single Event Upsets (SEUs), or soft errors, do not cause permanent damage to system functionality, and can be handled using fault-tolerant techniques. Existing fault-tolerant techniques include hardware or software fault tolerance, or a combination of both. In this thesis, fault-tolerant techniques that mitigate SEUs at the algorithmic level are explored and the inherent abilities of cGAs to deal with these errors are investigated. A fault-tolerant technique and several mitigation techniques are also proposed, and faulty critical data are evaluated critical fault scenarios (stuck at ‘1’ and stuck at ‘0’ faults) are taken into consideration. Chief among several test and real world problems is the problem of determining the attitude of a vehicle using a Global Positioning System (GPS), which is an example of hard real-time application. Results illustrate the ability of cGAs to maintain their functionality and give an adequate performance even with the existence of up to 40% errors in fitness score cells. The final aspect investigated in this thesis is the dynamic characteristic of cGAs. cGAs, and EAs in general, are known to be stochastic search techniques. Hence, adaptive systems are required to continue to perform effectively in a changing environment, particularly when tackling real-world problems. The adaptation in cellular engines is mainly achieved through dynamic balancing between exploration and exploitation. This area has received considerable attention from researchers who focus on improving the algorithmic performance without incurring additional computational effort. The structural properties and the genetic operations provide ways to control selection pressure and, as a result, the exploration/exploitation trade-off. In this thesis, the genetic operations of cGAs, particularly the selection aspect and their influence on the search process, are investigated in order to dynamically control the exploration/exploitation trade-off. Two adaptive-dynamic techniques that use genetic diversity and convergence speeds to guide the search are proposed. Results obtained by evaluating the proposed approaches on a test bench of diverse-characteristic real-world and test problems showed improvement in dynamic cGAs performance over their static counterparts and other dynamic cGAs. For example, the proposed Diversity-Guided 3D-cGA outperformed all the other dynamic cGAs evaluated by obtaining a higher search success rate that reached to 55%.

Years of success in the aerospace industry has taught Kentucky Space several lessons. This thesis will summarize the accomplishments in an attempt to formulate a well-defined program for designing and testing small spacecraft in an environment with strict financial restraints. The motivation for producing this well-defined platform for testing small spacecraft arose when Kentucky Space became the liaison between NASA and its customers for the NanoRacks and CubeLab module program. Having a solid program for testing small spacecraft will allow future student programs to easily set standards for experiment payloads. Also by discussing obstacles for smaller programs such as restraints on funding, scheduling restrictions, and testing facility procurement, this thesis will provide a basis that other programs can use to start or expand a space research program that may be struggling due to mistakes that programs face in the early years due to the lack of experience and maturity of a veteran program.

Fault tolerant and distributed embedded systems are research areas that have the interest of such entities as NASA, the Department of Defense, and various other government agencies, corporations, and universities. Taking a system and designing it to work in the presence of faults is appealing to these entities as it inherently increases the reliability of the deployed system. There are a few different fault tolerant techniques that can be implemented in a system design to handle faults as they occur. One such technique is the reconfiguration of a portion of the system to a redundant resource. This is a difficult task to manage within a distributed embedded system because of the distributed, directly addressed data producer and consumer dependencies that exist in common network infrastructures. It is the goal of this thesis work to develop a novel message routing layer for the communication management of distributed embedded systems that reduces the complexity of this problem. The resulting product of this thesis provides a robust approach to the design, implementation, integration, and deployment of a distributed embedded system.

Dependable and Fault-tolerant computing is actively being pursued as a research area since the 1980s in various fields involving development of safety-critical applications. The ability of the system to provide reliable functional service as per its design is a key paradigm in dependable computing. For providing reliable service in fault-tolerant systems, dynamic reconfiguration has to be supported to enable recovery from errors (induced by faults) or graceful degradation in case of service failures. Reconfigurable Distributed applications provided a platform to develop fault-tolerant systems and these reconfigurable architectures requires an embedded network that is inherently fault-tolerant and capable of handling movement of tasks between nodes/processors within the system during dynamic reconfiguration. The embedded network should provide mechanisms for deterministic message transfer under faulty environments and support fault detection/isolation mechanisms within the network framework. This thesis describes the design, implementation and validation of an embedded networking layer using Controller Area Network (CAN) to support reconfigurable embedded systems.

This thesis describes the design, implementation and testing of a spacecraft bus implemented on KySat-1, a picosatellite scheduled to launch late 2009 to early 2010. The spacecraft bus is designed to be a robust reusable bus architecture using commercially available off the shelf components and subsystems. The bus designed and implemented for the KySat-1 spacecraft will serve as the basis for a series of future Kentucky Space Consortium missions. The spacecraft bus consists of attitude determination and control subsystem, communications subsystem, command and data handling subsystem, thermal subsystem, power subsystem, and structures and mechanisms. The spacecraft bus design is described and the implementation and testing and experimental results of the integrated spacecraft engineering model. Lessons learned with the integration, implementation, and testing using commercial off the shelf components are also included. This thesis is concluded with future spacecraft bus improvements and launch opportunity of the implemented spacecraft, KySat-1.

The Publish/Subscribe (pub/sub) model has been widely applied in a variety of application scenarios which demand loose-coupling and asynchronous communication between a large number of information sources and sinks. In this model, clients are granted the flexibility to specify their interests at a high level and rely on the pub/sub middleware for delivery of their publications of interest. This increased flexibility and ease of use on the client side results in substantial complexity on part of the pub/sub middleware implementation. Furthermore, for several reasons including improved scalability, availability and avoiding a single point of failure, the pub/sub middleware is commonly composed of a set of collaborating message routers, a.k.a. brokers. The distributed nature of this design further introduces new challenges in ensuring end-to-end reliability as well as efficiency of operation. These challenges are largely unique to the pub/sub model and hence absent in both point-to-point or multicast protocols. This thesis develops solutions that ensure the dependable operation of the pub/sub system by exploiting the notion of overlay neighborhoods in a formal manner. More specifically, brokers maintain information about their neighbors within a configurable distance in the pub/sub overlay and exploit this knowledge to construct alternative forwarding paths or make smart forwarding decisions that improves efficiency, bandwidth utilization and delivery delay, all at the same time. Furthermore, in the face of failures overlay neighborhoods enable fast reconstruction of forwarding paths in the system without compromising its reliability and availability. Finally, as an added benefit of overlay neighborhoods, this thesis develops large-scale algorithms that bring the advantages of the pub/sub model to the domain of file sharing and bulk content dissemination applications. Experimental evaluation results with deployments as large as 1000 nodes illustrate that the pub/sub system scales well and outperforms the traditional BitTorrent protocol in terms of content dissemination delay.