The few microcontroller based active/semi-active prosthetic knee joints available commercially are extremely expensive and do not consider the uncertainties of inputs sensory information. Progressing in the controller of the current prosthetic devices and creating artificial lower limbs compatible with different users may lead to more effective and low-cost prostheses. This can affect the life style of lots of amputees specially the land-mine victims in developing war-torn countries who are unable to partake in the advancement of the current intelligent prosthetic knees. The purpose of the proposed Active Prosthetic Knee (APK) design is to investigate a new schema that allows the device to provide the full necessary torque at the knee joint based on echoing the state of the intact leg. This study involves the design features of the mechanical aspects, sensing system, communication, and knowledge-based controller to implement a cost-effective APK. The proposed microcontroller based prosthesis utilizes a ball screw system accompanied by a high-speed brushed servomotor to provide one degree of freedom for the fabricated prototype. Moreover, a modular test-bed is manufactured to mimic the lower limb motion which contributes investigating different controllers for the prototype. Thus, the test bed allows assessing the primary performance of the APK before testing on a human subject. Different types of sensing systems (electromyography and lower limb inclination angles) are investigated to extract signals from the user’s healthy leg and send the captured data to the APK controller. The methodology to measure each type of signal is described, and comparison analyses are provided. Wireless communication between the sensory part and actuator is established. A knowledge-based control mechanism is developed that takes advantage of an Adaptive-Network-based Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) to determine knee torque as a function of the echoing angular state of the able leg considering the uncertainty of inputs. Therefore, the developed controller can make the APK serviceable for different users. The fuzzy membership function’s parameters and rules define the knowledge-base of the system. This knowledge is based on existing experience and known facts about the walking cycle.

Trip planning is a well cited problem for which various solutions have been reported in the literature. This problem has been typically addressed, to a large extent, as a shortest distance path planning problem. In some scenarios, the concept of shortest path is extended to reflect temporal objectives and/or constraints. This work takes an alternative perspective to the trip planning problem in the sense it being situation aware. Thus, allowing multitudes of traveler centric objectives and constraints, as well as aspects of the environment as they pertain to the trip and the traveler. The work in this thesis introduces TSADA (Traveler Situation Awareness and Decision Aid) system. TSADA is designed as a modular system that combines linguistic situation assessment with user-centric decision-making. The trip planning problem is modeled as a graph G. The objective is to find a route with the minimum cost. Both hard and soft objective/attributes are incorporated. Soft objective/attributes such as safety, speed and driving comfortability are described using a linguistic framework and processed using hierarchical fuzzy inference engine. A user centric situation assessment is used to compute feasible routes and map them into route recommendation scheme: recommended, marginally recommended, and not recommended. In this work, we introduce traveler's doctrines concept. This concept is proposed to make the process of situation assessment user centric by being driven by the doctrine that synthesizes the user's specific demands. Hard attributes/objectives, such as the time window and trip monitory allowances, are included in the process of determining the final decision about the trip. We present the underline mathematical formulation for this system and explain the working of the proposed system to achieve optimal performance. Results are introduced to show how the system performs under a wide range of scenarios. The thesis is concluded with a discussion on findings and recommendations for future work.

Adverse weather such as hurricanes can significantly affect the reliability of composite power systems. Predicting the impact of hurricanes can help utilities for better preparedness and make appropriate restoration arrangements. In this dissertation, the impact of hurricanes on the reliability of composite power systems is investigated. Firstly, the impact of adverse weather on the long-term reliability of composite power systems is investigated by using Markov cut-set method. The Algorithms for the implementation is developed. Here, two-state weather model is used. An algorithm for sequential simulation is also developed to achieve the same goal. The results obtained by using the two methods are compared. The comparison shows that the analytical method can obtain comparable results and meantime it can be faster than the simulation method. Secondly, the impact of hurricanes on the short-term reliability of composite power systems is investigated. A fuzzy inference system is used to assess the failure rate increment of system components. Here, different methods are used to build two types of fuzzy inference systems. Considering the fact that hurricanes usually last only a few days, short-term minimal cut-set method is proposed to compute the time-specific system and nodal reliability indices of composite power systems. The implementation demonstrates that the proposed methodology is effective and efficient and is flexible in its applications. Thirdly, the impact of hurricanes on the short-term reliability of composite power systems including common-cause failures is investigated. Here, two methods are proposed to archive this goal. One of them uses a Bayesian network to alleviate the dimensionality problem of conditional probability method. Another method extends minimal cut-set method to accommodate common-cause failures. The implementation results obtained by using the two methods are compared and their discrepancy is analyzed. Finally, the proposed methods in this dissertation are also applicable to other applications in power systems.

In this thesis we have considered a cognitive radio network (CRN) with a pair of primary user (PU) and secondary user (SU) in spectrum sharing networks in path-loss and without path-loss propagation environments under identically distributed m-Nakagami fading channel. The thesis consists of three parts. In the first part we propose an optimized Takagi-Sugeno Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) based power control strategy in cognitive radio networks (CRN) in spectrum sharing network in without path-loss propagation environment. The second part proposes an optimized Takagi-Sugeno FIS based power control strategy in cognitive radio networks in spectrum sharing network in path-loss propagation environment. For without path-loss propagation environment the proposed FIS takes the interference channel gain ratio between SU transmitter (CUtx) and PU receiver (PUrx) and Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) towards PU transmitter (PUtx) as antecedents and outputs the power scaling factor for SU. For path-loss propagation environment the proposed FIS takes the relative distance ratio between CUtx and PUrx and SNR towards PUtx as antecedents and outputs the power scaling factor for SU. The output power scaling factor is used to vary the transmit power of SU such that it does not degrade the quality of service (QoS) of PU link. The third part presents an implementation of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) transmission technique in CRN. The OFDM technique has intellectual attractive features like coping with the inter symbol interference (ISI), while providing increasing spectral efficiency and improved performance. This can be used in emergency conditions where transmission requires reliability and high data rate. The OFDM transmission technique is applied towards SU transmitter in CRN, which enables SU to utilize the spectrum efficiently under various fading environments. Spectrum sharing networks in with and without path-loss propagation environments and OFDM transmission were tested for bit error rate (BER) performance after fading effects from m-Nakagami fading channel. We conclude that by applying Takagi-Sugeno Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) based power control strategy we can improve the BER performance of PU when compared with no power control strategy and with other fuzzy based power control technique. OFDM transmission technique gives us better data rate and slightly improved BER in CRN hence making it suitable for use in emergency conditions. / mobile: 0735032048 (Muneeb Goraya)

Trip planning is a well cited problem for which various solutions have been reported in the literature. This problem has been typically addressed, to a large extent, as a shortest distance path planning problem. In some scenarios, the concept of shortest path is extended to reflect temporal objectives and/or constraints. This work takes an alternative perspective to the trip planning problem in the sense it being situation aware. Thus, allowing multitudes of traveler centric objectives and constraints, as well as aspects of the environment as they pertain to the trip and the traveler. The work in this thesis introduces TSADA (Traveler Situation Awareness and Decision Aid) system. TSADA is designed as a modular system that combines linguistic situation assessment with user-centric decision-making. The trip planning problem is modeled as a graph G. The objective is to find a route with the minimum cost. Both hard and soft objective/attributes are incorporated. Soft objective/attributes such as safety, speed and driving comfortability are described using a linguistic framework and processed using hierarchical fuzzy inference engine. A user centric situation assessment is used to compute feasible routes and map them into route recommendation scheme: recommended, marginally recommended, and not recommended. In this work, we introduce traveler's doctrines concept. This concept is proposed to make the process of situation assessment user centric by being driven by the doctrine that synthesizes the user's specific demands. Hard attributes/objectives, such as the time window and trip monitory allowances, are included in the process of determining the final decision about the trip. We present the underline mathematical formulation for this system and explain the working of the proposed system to achieve optimal performance. Results are introduced to show how the system performs under a wide range of scenarios. The thesis is concluded with a discussion on findings and recommendations for future work.

Battery energy management plays a crucial role in fuel economy improvement of charge-sustaining parallel hybrid electric vehicles. Currently available control strategies consider battery state of charge (SOC) and driver’s request through the pedal input in decision-making. This method does not achieve an optimal performance for saving fuel or maintaining appropriate SOC level, especially during the operation in extreme driving conditions or hilly terrain. The objective of this thesis is to develop a control algorithm using forthcoming traffic condition and road elevation, which could be fed from navigation systems. This would enable the controller to predict potential of regenerative charging to capture cost-free energy and intentionally depleting battery energy to assist an engine at high power demand. The starting point for this research is the modelling of a small sport-utility vehicle by the analysis of the vehicles currently available in the market. The result of the analysis is used in order to establish a generic mild hybrid powertrain model, which is subsequently examined to compare the performance of controllers. A baseline is established with a conventional powertrain equipped with a spark ignition direct injection engine and a continuously variable transmission. Hybridisation of this vehicle with an integrated starter alternator and a traditional rule-based control strategy is presented. Parameter optimisation in four standard driving cycles is explained, followed by a detailed energy flow analysis. An additional potential improvement is presented by dynamic programming (DP), which shows a benefit of a predictive control. Based on these results, a predictive control algorithm using fuzzy logic is introduced. The main tools of the controller design are the DP, adaptive-network-based fuzzy inference system with subtractive clustering and design of experiment. Using a quasi-static backward simulation model, the performance of the controller is compared with the result from the instantaneous control and the DP. The focus is fuel saving and SOC control at the end of journeys, especially in aggressive driving conditions and a hilly road. The controller shows a good potential to improve fuel economy and tight SOC control in long journey and hilly terrain. Fuel economy improvement and SOC correction are close to the optimal solution by the DP, especially in long trips on steep road where there is a large gap between the baseline controller and the DP. However, there is little benefit in short trips and flat road. It is caused by the low improvement margin of the mild hybrid powertrain and the limited future journey information. To provide a further step to implementation, a software-in-the-loop simulation model is developed. A fully dynamic model of the powertrain and the control algorithm are implemented in AMESim-Simulink co-simulation environment. This shows small deterioration of the control performance by driver’s pedal action, powertrain dynamics and limited computational precision on the controller performance.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:22:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-07-29Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:08:09Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 spadotto_mm_me_bauru.pdf: 1459647 bytes, checksum: c67d870286e648ad917f7e25b8b18d56 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / A necessidade de aplicação de novos equipamentos em ambientes cada vez mais agressivos demandou a busca por novos produtos capazes de suportar altas temperaturas, inertes às corroções químicas e com alta rigidez mecânica. O avanço tecnógico na produção de materiais cerâmicos tornou possível o emprego de processos de fabricação que antes eram somente empregados em metais. Dentre os processos de usinagem de cerâmicas avançadas, a retificação é o mais utilizado devido às maiores taxas de remoção diferentemente do brunimento e das limitações geométricas do processo de lapidação. A rugosidade é um do parâmetros de saída do processo de retificação que influi, dentre outros fatores, na qualidade do deslizamento entre estruturas, podendo gerar aquecimento. Além disso, o desgaste da ferramenta de corte gerado durante o processo está associado aos custos fixos e a problemas relacionados com o acabamento superficial bem como a danos estruturais. Essas duas variáveis, rugosidade e desgaste, são objetos de estudos de muitos pesquisadores. Entretanto, o controle automático tem sido uma difícil tarefa de ser realizada devido às variações de parâmetros ocorridas no processo. Dessa maneira, o presente trabalho tem por objetivo aplicar a lógica ANFIS (Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System) na estimação da rogosidade e do desgaste da ferramenta de corte no processo de retificação plana de cerâmicas avançadas. A ferramenta de corte aplicada para retificar os corpos-de-prova de alumina (96%) foi um rebolo diamantado. A partir do processamento digital dos sinais de emissão acústica e potência média de corte foram calculadas as estatísticas: média, desvio padrão, potência máxima, DPO e DPKS. As estatísticas foram aplicadas com entradas de duas redes ANFIS, uma estimando valores de rugosidade e outra estimando valores de desgaste... / The need for implementation of new equipaments in an increasingly agressive environmentl demanded a search for new products capable of withstanding high temperatures, inert to chemical corrosion and high mechanical stiffeness. Technological advances in the production of ceramic materials have become possible with the employment of manufacturing processes that previously were only employed in metals. Among the advanced ceramics machining processes, the grinding process is the most used, because of higher removal rates in constrast with the honing process and geometric limitations of lapping process. The surface reoughness is one of the output parameters of grinding process that affects, among other factors, the quality of sliding between structures that may generate heat. Moreover, the wear of the cutting tool generated during the process is associated with fixed costs and problems related to suface finishing as well as structural damages. These two variables, surface roughness and wear, have been studied by many researchers; however, the automatic control has been a difficult task to be carry out due to parameters variations occurring in the process. Hence, this work aims to apply logic ANFIS (Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System) in the estimation of surface roughness and wear of the cutting tool in the tangential griding process of advanced ceramics. The cutting tools used to grind workpieces of alumina (96%) was a diamond grinding wheel. From the digital processing of acoustic emission and average cutting power signals some statistics were calculated: mean, standard deviation, maximum power, DPO and DPKS. The statistics were applied as inputs of two ANFIS networks estimating surface roughess and wear values. The results had demonstrated that the statistics associated with the ANFIS network can be used in the estimation of surface roughness and wear. However, the wear ANFIS network... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

[pt] Hoje em dia, grande parte do conhecimento acumulado está armazenado em forma de dados. Para muitos problemas de classificação, tenta-se aprender a relação entre um conjunto de variáveis (atributos) e uma variável alvo de interesse. Dentre as ferramentas capazes de atuar como modelos representativos de sistemas reais, os Sistemas de Inferência Fuzzy são considerados excelentes com respeito à representação do conhecimento de forma compreensível, por serem baseados em regras linguísticas. Este quesito de interpretabilidade linguística é relevante em várias aplicações em que não se deseja apenas um modelo do tipo caixa preta, que, por mais precisão que proporcione, não fornece uma explicação de como os resultados são obtidos. Esta dissertação aborda o desenvolvimento de um Sistema de Inferência Fuzzy de forma automática, buscando uma base de regras que valorize a interpretabilidade linguística e que, ao mesmo tempo, forneça uma boa acurácia. Para tanto, é proposto o modelo AutoFIS-Class, um método automático para a geração de Sistemas de Inferência Fuzzy para problemas de classificação. As características do modelo são: (i) geração de premissas que garantam critérios mínimos de qualidade, (ii) associação de cada premissa a um termo consequente mais compatível e (iii) agregação de regras de uma mesma classe por meio de operadores que ponderem a influência de cada regra. O modelo proposto é avaliado em 45 bases de dados benchmark e seus resultados são comparados com modelos da literatura baseados em Algoritmos Evolucionários. Os resultados comprovam que o Sistema de Inferência gerado é competitivo, apresentando uma boa acurácia com um baixo número de regras. / [en] Nowadays, much of the accumulated knowledge is stored as data. In many classification problems the relationship between a set of variables (attributes) and a target variable of interest must be learned. Among the tools capable of modeling real systems, Fuzzy Inference Systems are considered excellent with respect to the knowledge representation in a comprehensible way, as they are based on inference rules. This is relevant in applications where a black box model does not suffice. This model may attain good accuracy, but does not explain how results are obtained. This dissertation presents the development of a Fuzzy Inference System in an automatic manner, where the rule base should favour linguistic interpretability and at the same time provide good accuracy. In this sense, this work proposes the AutoFIS-Class model, an automatic method for generating Fuzzy Inference Systems for classification problems. Its main features are: (i) generation of premises to ensure minimum, quality criteria, (ii) association of each rule premise to the most compatible consequent term; and (iii) aggregation of rules for each class through operator that weigh the relevance of each rule. The proposed model was evaluated for 45 datasets and their results were compared to existing models based on Evolutionary Algorithms. Results show that the proposed Fuzzy Inference System is competitive, presenting good accuracy with a low number of rules.

Heart signals allow for a comprehensive analysis of the heart. Electrocardiography (ECG or EKG) uses electrodes to measure the electrical activity of the heart. Extracting ECG signals is a non-invasive process that opens the door to new possibilities for the application of advanced signal processing and data analysis techniques in the diagnosis of heart diseases. With the help of today’s large database of ECG signals, a computationally intelligent system can learn and take the place of a cardiologist. Detection of various abnormalities in the patient’s heart to identify various heart diseases can be made through an Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) preprocessed by subtractive clustering. Six types of heartbeats are classified: normal sinus rhythm, premature ventricular contraction (PVC), atrial premature contraction (APC), left bundle branch block (LBBB), right bundle branch block (RBBB), and paced beats. The goal is to detect important characteristics of an ECG signal to determine if the patient’s heartbeat is normal or irregular. The results from three trials indicate an average accuracy of 98.10%, average sensitivity of 94.99%, and average specificity of 98.87%. These results are comparable to two artificial neural network (ANN) algorithms: gradient descent and Levenberg Marquardt, as well as the ANFIS preprocessed by grid partitioning.

Stress and overload are strongly associated with unsafe behaviour, which motivated various studies to detect them automatically in workplaces. This study aims to advance safety research by developing a data-driven stress and overload detection method. An unsupervised deep learning-based anomaly detection method is developed to detect stress. The proposed method performs with convolutional neural network encoder-decoder and long short-term memory equipped with an attention layer. Data from a field experiment with 18 participants was used to train and test the developed method. The field experiment was designed to include a pre-defined sequence of activities triggering mental and physical stress, while a wristband biosensor was used to collect physiological signals. The collected contextual and physiological data were pre-processed and then resampled into correlation matrices of 14 features. Correlation matrices are used as an input to the unsupervised Deep Learning (DL) based anomaly detection method. The developed method is validated, offering accuracy and F-measures close to 0.98. The technique employed captures the input data attributes correlation, promoting higher interpretability of the DL method for easier comprehension. Over-reliance on uncertain absolute truth, the need for a high number of training samples, and the requirement of a threshold for detecting anomalies are identified as shortcomings of the proposed method. To overcome these shortcomings, an Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) was designed and developed. While the ANFIS method did not improve the overall accuracy, it outperformed the DL-based method in detecting anomalies precisely. The overall performance of the ANFIS method is better than the DL-based method for the anomalous class, and the method results in lower false alarms. However, the DL-based method is suitable for circumstances where false alarms are tolerated. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)