Energy consumption in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) involving multiple sensor nodes is a crucial parameter in many applications like smart healthcare systems, home automation, environmental monitoring, and industrial use. Hence, an energy-efficient cluster-head (CH) selection strategy is imperative in a WSN to improve network performance. So to balance the harsh conditions in the network with fast changes in the energy dynamics, a novel energy-efficient adaptive fuzzy-based CH selection approach is projected. Extensive simulations exploited various real-time scenarios, such as varying the optimal position of the location of the base station and network energy. Additionally, the results showed an improved performance in the throughput (46%) and energy consumption (66%), which demonstrated the robustness and efficacy of the proposed model for the future designs of WSN applications.

L'arrivée simultanée de capteurs de profondeur et couleur, et d'algorithmes de détection de squelettes super-temps-réel a conduit à un regain de la recherche sur la capture de mouvements humains. Cette fonctionnalité constitue un point clé de la communication Homme-Machine. Mais le contexte d'application de ces dernières avancées est l'interaction volontaire et fronto-parallèle, ce qui permet certaines approximations et requiert un positionnement spécifique des capteurs. Dans cette thèse, nous présentons une approche multi-capteurs, conçue pour améliorer la robustesse et la précision du positionnement des articulations de l'homme, et fondée sur un processus de lissage trajectoriel par intégration temporelle, et le filtrage des squelettes détectés par chaque capteur. L'approche est testée sur une base de données nouvelle acquise spécifiquement, avec une méthodologie d'étalonnage adaptée spécialement. Un début d'extension à la perception jointe avec du contexte, ici des objets, est proposée. / Simultaneous apparition of depth and color sensors and super-realtime skeleton detection algorithms led to a surge of new research in Human Motion Capture. This feature is a key part of Human-Machine Interaction. But the applicative context of those new technologies is voluntary, fronto-parallel interaction with the sensor, which allowed the designers certain approximations and requires a specific sensor placement. In this thesis, we present a multi-sensor approach, designed to improve robustness and accuracy of a human's joints positionning, and based on a trajectory smoothing process by temporal integration, and filtering of the skeletons detected in each sensor. The approach has been tested on a new specially constituted database, with a specifically adapted calibration methodology. We also began extending the approach to context-based improvements, with object perception being proposed.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Indoor tracking is a challenging problem. The level of accepted error is on a much smaller scale than that of its outdoor counterpart. While the global positioning system has become omnipresent, and a widely accepted outdoor tracking system it has limitations in indoor environments due to loss or degradation of signal. Many attempts have been made to address this challenge, but currently none have proven to be the de-facto standard. In this thesis, we introduce the concept of opportunistic tracking in which tracking takes place with whatever sensing infrastructure is present – static or mobile, within a given indoor environment. In this approach many of the challenges (e.g., high cost, infeasible infrastructure deployment, etc.) that prohibit usage of existing systems in typical application domains (e.g., asset tracking, emergency rescue) are eliminated. Challenges do still exist when it comes to provide an accurate positional estimate of an entities location in an indoor environment, namely: sensor classification, sensor selection, and multi-sensor data fusion. We propose an enhanced tracking framework that through the infusion of QoS-based selection criteria of trust and reliability we can improve the overall accuracy of the tracking estimate. This improvement is predicated on the introduction of learning techniques to classify sensors that are dynamically discovered as part of this opportunistic tracking approach. This classification allows for sensors to be properly identified and evaluated based upon their specific behavioral characteristics through performance evaluation. This in-depth evaluation of sensors provides the basis for improving the sensor selection process. A side effect of obtaining this improved accuracy is the cost, found in the form of system runtime. This thesis provides a solution for this tradeoff between accuracy and cost through an optimization function that analyzes this tradeoff in an effort to find the optimal subset of sensors to fulfill the goal of tracking an object as it moves indoors. We demonstrate that through this improved sensor classification, selection, data fusion, and tradeoff optimization we can provide an improvement, in terms of accuracy, over other existing indoor tracking systems.

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Mobile platforms for archaeological purposes have increased in use over the last 20 years with many of the developments coming from Continental Europe. Mobile platform developments have mainly focused on one type of instrumentation, offering multiple sensors, depths of detection or frequencies. This development of mobile platforms has focused on data acquisition rates but has not considered the physical impact on the soil. The Geoscan Research Mobile Sensor Platform (MSP40) was intended to improve survey efficiency and remain a lightweight system. The platform can collect two earth resistance configurations that show directional variation of the current flow through soil. Additional sensors were integrated on to the square frame of the hand-pulled cart to record simultaneous fluxgate gradiometer data and a microtopographic surveys. Ground based geophysical investigation will always have a physical impact on a site. The MSP40 is no exception but careful selection of wheel types and the lightweight frame limit the damage compared to many mobile arrays. The MSP40 has been tested on a number of different soils at various times of the year with encouraging results; however issues with overcoming the contact resistance of electrodes remain. The continuous collection rate and combination of techniques means a slight drop in data quality is inevitable. However the increased data density, multiple-sensors and improved rate of collection offset reductions in data quality. The research has shown that the MSP40 can perform low impact rapid site assessments on ¿vulnerable¿ sites, whilst maximising the information gained from a single traverse. / AHRC, Geoscan Research

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In the forest products manufacturing industry, recent price increases in the cost of high-quality lumber together with the reduced availability of this resource have forced manufacturers to utilize lower grade hardwood lumber in their manufacturing operations. This use of low quality lumber means that the labor involved in converting this lumber to usable parts is also increased because it takes more time to remove the additional defects that occur in the lower grade material. Simultaneously, labor costs have gone up and availability of skilled workers capable of getting a high yield of usable parts has markedly decreased. To face this increasingly complex and competitive environment, the industry has a critical need for efficient and cost-effective new processing equipment that can replace human operators who locate and identify defects that need to be removed in lumber and then remove these defects when cutting the lumber into rough parts. This human inspection process is laborious, inconsistent and subjective in nature due to the demands of making decisions very rapidly in a noisy and tiring environment. Hence, an automatic sawing system that could remove defects in lumber while creating maximum yield, offers significant opportunities for increasing profits of this industry. The difficult part in designing an automatic sawing system is creating an automatic inspection system that can detect critical features in wood that affect the quality of the rough parts. Many automatic inspection systems have been proposed and studied for the inspection of wood or wood products. But, most of these systems utilize a single sensing modality, e.g., a single optical sensor or an X-ray imaging system. These systems cannot detect all critical defects in wood. This research work reported in this dissertation is the first aimed at creating a vision system utilizes three imaging modalities: a color imaging system, a laser range profiling system and an X-ray imaging system. The objective of in designing this vision system is to detect and identify: 1) surface features such as knots, splits, stains; 2) geometry features such as wane, thin board; and 3) internal features such as voids, knots. The laser range profiling system is used to locate and identify geometry features. The X-ray imaging system is primarily used to detect features such as knots, splits and interior voids. The color imaging system is mainly employed to identify surface features. In this vision system a number of methodologies are used to improve processing speed and identification accuracy. The images from different sensing modalities are analyzed in a special order to offset the larger amount of image data that comes from the multiple sensors and that must be analyzed. The analysis of laser image is performed first. It is used to find defects that have insufficient thickness. These defects are then removed from consideration in the subsequent analysis of the X-ray image. Removing these defects from consideration in the analysis of the X-ray image not only improves the accuracy of detecting and identifying defects but also reduces the amount of time needed to analyze the X-ray image. Similarly, defect areas such as knot and mineral streak that are found in the analysis of the X-ray image are removed from consideration in the analysis of the color image. A fuzzy logic algorithm -- the approaching degree method-- is used to assign defect labels. The fuzzy logic approach is used to mimic human behavior in identifying defects in hardwood lumber. The initial results obtained from this vision system demonstrate the feasibility of locating and identifying all the major defects that occur in hardwood lumber. This was even true during the initial hardware development phase when only images of unsatisfactory quality from a limited lumber of samples were available. The vision system is capable of locating and identifying defects at the production speed of two linear feet per second that is typical in most hardwood secondary manufacturing plants. This vision system software was designed to run on a relative slow computer (200 MHz Pentium processor) with aid of special image processing hardware, i.e., the MORRPH board that was also designed at Virginia Tech. / Ph. D.