<p>Cognitive vision is an interesting field of research that tries to create vision systems with cognitive abilities. Automated video surveillance is increasingly needed to watch our public transport systems, either as a totally automated system or as an operator assistant. In this thesis a design for a cognitive automated video surveillance system is proposed. A hybrid ANN/CBR behavior analysis system is proposed as a cognitive extension of existing video tracking system, and a prototype is developed. By investigating the current state of cognitive vision and automated video surveillance and by looking at existing hybrid approaches to combine them, it is argued that this approach is an area of research where few designs are implemented and tested. Several frameworks for both ANN/CBR hybrids are proposed in literature, and so called emergent cognitive system frameworks are also presented, but few implementations have been done. As far as our literature review has spanned, no automated video surveillance system is attempted with the use of an ANN/CBR hybrid.</p>

<p>This thesis presents a further development of Neuroevolution of Augmenting topologies(NEAT)[21]. The author augments NEAT by parallelizing the fitness evaluation of the phenotypes enabling the method to be utilized on highly complex fitness evaluations by running it on a cluster. This augmented version of NEAT is then applied to the inherently complex problem of the Go board game, by using the Gnugo (See www.gnu.org/software/gnugo/.) software package as a fitness evaluator. The performance increase also enables the author to follow up on the predictions of Kenneth Stanley’s previous discussions that co-evolution will help evolve a more general Go player, rather than the predicted evolved behaviour of specializing in beating Gnugo.</p>

<p>Robotic mapping systems are traditionally separated into the metric and the topological paradigm. The metric approach provides geometrical accuracy, but is fragile because it is bounded in an absolute coordinate system and depends on the use of odometry for navigation. The topological paradigm provides a compact presentation and navigation free of accumulated error. In this thesis the topological and the metric paradigm is combined into a hybrid representation where a topological map joins a set of local maps. Each local map contains a pair of self-organizing maps, one that maps the metric space of the local map, and one that maps the perceptual space of the local map. Local navigation is performed over the SOM mapping the metric space and position correction is performed over the SOM mapping the perceptual space. A boundary-tracing behavior is used for navigation within the global map, while the local metric maps allow for more precise navigation and is navigated by performing path-integration.</p>

<p>Conventional artificial neural networks have traditionally faced inherent problems with efficient parallelization of neuron processing. Recent research has shown how artificial spiking neural networks can, with the introduction of biologically plausible synaptic conduction delays, be fully parallelized regardless of their network topology. This, in conjunction with the influx of fast, massively parallel desktop-level computing hardware leaves the field of efficient, large-scale spiking neural network simulations potentially open to even those with no access to supercomputers or large computing clusters. This thesis aims to show how such a parallelization is possible as well as present a network model that enables it. This model will then be used as a base for implementing a parallel artificial spiking neural network on both the CPU and the GPU and subsequently evaluating some of the challenges involved, the performance and scalability measured and the potential that is exhibited.</p>

<p>This master's thesis has investigated how methods from artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to perform and augment production optimization of sub-sea oil reservoirs. The methods involved in this work are genetic algorithms (GAs) and artificial neural networks (ANNs). Different optimization schemes were developed by the author to perform production optimization on oil reservoir simulator models. The optimization involves finding good input parameter values for certain properties of the model, relating to how the wells in the oil reservoir operate. The research involves straightforward optimization using GAs, model approximations using ANNs, and also more advanced schemes using these methods together with other available technology to perform and augment reservoir optimization. With this work, the author has attempted to make a genuine contribution to all the research areas this master's thesis has touched upon, ranging from computer science and AI to process and petroleum engineering. The methods and approaches developed through this research were compared to the performance of each other and also to other approaches and methods used on the same challenges. The comparison found some of the developed optimization schemes to be very successful, while others were found to be less appropriate for solving the problem at hand. Some of the less successful approaches still showed considerable promise for simpler problems, leading the author to conclude that the developed schemes are suited for solving optimization problems in the petroleum industry.</p>

This Masters thesis gives a thorough description of a study carried out in the Self-Organizing Systems group at the NTNU. Much {AI research in the later years has moved towards increased use of representationless strategies such as simulated neural networks. One technique for creating such networks is to evolve them using simulated Darwinian evolution. This is a powerful technique, but it is often limited by the computer resources available. One way to speed up evolution, is to focus the evolutionary search on a more narrow range of solutions. It is for example possible to favor evolution of a specific ``species'' by initializing the search with a specialized set of genes. A disadvantage of doing this is of course that many other solutions (or ``species'') are disregarded so that good solutions in theory may be lost. It is therefore necessary to find focusing strategies that are generally applicable and (with a high probability) only disregards solutions that are considered unimportant. Three different ways of focusing evolutionary search for cognitive behaviours are merged and evaluated in this thesis: On a macro level, incremental evolution is applied to partition the evolutionary search. On a micro level, specific properties of the chosen neural network model (CTRNNs) are exploited. The two properties are seeding initial populations with center-crossing neural networks and/or bifurcative neurons. The techniques are compared to standard, naive, evolutionary searches by applying them to the evolution of simulated neural networks for the walking and control of a six-legged mobile robot. A problem simple enough to be satisfactorily understood, but complex enough to be a challenge for a traditional evolutionary search.

This papers uses CPPNs to evolve 2D models of an eye. These models are graded by a fitness function award high information retrieval. The papers shows resulting models with intersting properties and which are similar in form to real world eyes.

As document searching becomes more and more important with the rapid growth of document bases today, document clustering also becomes more important. Some of the most commonly used document clustering algorithms today, are pure statistical in nature. Other algorithms have emerged, adressing some of the issues with numerical algorithms, claiming to be better. This thesis compares two well-known algorithms: Elliptic K-Means and Suffix Tree Clustering. They are compared in speed and quality, and it is shown that Elliptic K-Means performs better in speed, while Suffix Tree Clustering (STC) performs better in quality. It is further shown that STC performs better using small portions of relevant text (snippets) on real web-data compared to the full document. It is also shown that a threshold value for base cluster merging is unneccesary. As STC is shown to perform adequately in speed when running on snippets only, it is concluded that STC is the better algorithm for the purpose of search results clustering.

In recent years, artificial development has been introduced to evolutionary algorithms as a means to overcome the scalability problem. Though in its early stages, it has been showing a lot of promise. Many studies have been conducted to improve our understanding of this methodology. Though many has been successful, there have been contradicting results. Further studies have been difficult because the results were obtained using not only different models, but on different platforms as well. Any comparison at this point will be full of uncertainties simply because there are too many factors to consider. I wish to contribute to the field of artificial development with this thesis. However, there will be no comparisons of various development models, or invention of a new model. I will leave these types tasks to better people. Instead, a platform to build development models will be introduced. The purpose of this platform will be made clear in course of the thesis. Two prominent models will be picked out to be ported to this platform, and it will be shown that not only is it possible to re-implement these models, it is also possible to reproduce the results. This feat will demonstrate the flexibility of the framework as well the benefits of using it.

A Data-intensive Approach to Prediction of Unwanted Events during Oil and Gas Well Drilling