Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is a well-known stochastic population-based search algorithm, originally developed by Kennedy and Eberhart in 1995. Given PSO's success at solving numerous real world problems, a large number of PSO variants have been proposed. However, unlike the original PSO, most variants currently have little to no existing theoretical results. This lack of a theoretical underpinning makes it difficult, if not impossible, for practitioners to make informed decisions about the algorithmic setup. This thesis focuses on the criteria needed for particle stability, or as it is often refereed to as, particle convergence. While new PSO variants are proposed at a rapid rate, the theoretical analysis often takes substantially longer to emerge, if at all. In some situation the theoretical analysis is not performed as the mathematical models needed to actually represent the PSO variants become too complex or contain intractable subproblems. It is for this reason that a rapid means of determining approximate stability criteria that does not require complex mathematical modeling is needed. This thesis presents an empirical approach for determining the stability criteria for PSO variants. This approach is designed to provide a real world depiction of particle stability by imposing absolutely no simplifying assumption on the underlying PSO variant being investigated. This approach is utilized to identify a number of previously unknown stability criteria. This thesis also contains novel theoretical derivations of the stability criteria for both the fully informed PSO and the unified PSO. The theoretical models are then empirically validated utilizing the aforementioned empirical approach in an assumption free context. The thesis closes with a substantial theoretical extension of current PSO stability research. It is common practice within the existing theoretical PSO research to assume that, in the simplest case, the personal and neighborhood best positions are stagnant. However, in this thesis, stability criteria are derived under a mathematical model where by the personal best and neighborhood best positions are treated as convergent sequences of random variables. It is also proved that, in order to derive stability criteria, no weaker assumption on the behavior of the personal and neighborhood best positions can be made. The theoretical extension presented caters for a large range of PSO variants. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Computer Science / PhD / Unrestricted

Ahierarchical version of the particle swarm optimization (PSO) metaheuristic is introduced in this paper. In the new method called H-PSO, the particles are arranged in a dynamic hierarchy that is used to define a neighborhood structure. Depending on the quality of their so-far best-found solution, the particles move up or down the hierarchy. This gives good particles that move up in the hierarchy a larger influence on the swarm. We introduce a variant of H-PSO, in which the shape of the hierarchy is dynamically adapted during the execution of the algorithm. Another variant is to assign different behavior to the individual particles with respect to their level in the hierarchy. H-PSO and its variants are tested on a commonly used set of optimization functions and are compared to PSO using different standard neighborhood schemes.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This paper describes two research areas applied to Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) in an electronic warfare asset scenario. First, a three spatial dimension solution utilizing topographical data is implemented and tested against a two dimensional solution. A three dimensional (3D) optimization increases solution space for optimization of asset location. Topography from NASA's Digital Elevation Model is also added to the solution to provide a realistic scenario. The optimization is tested for run time, average distances between receivers, average distance between receivers and paired transmitters, and transmission power. Due to load times of maps and increased iterations, the average run times were increased from 123ms to 178ms, which remains below the 1 second target for convergence speeds. The spread distance between receivers was able to increase from 86km to 89km. The distance between receiver and its paired transmitters as well as the total received power did not change signi cannily. In the second research contribution, a user input is created and placed into an unconstrained 2D active swarm. This \human in the swarm" scenario allows a user to change keep-away boundaries during optimization. The blended human and swarm solution successfully implemented human input into a running optimization with a time delay. The results of this research show that a electronic warfare solutions with real 3D topography can be simulated with minimal computational costs over two dimensional solutions and that electronic warfare solutions can successfully optimize using human input data.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Depth estimation is increasingly becoming more important in computer vision. The requirement for autonomous systems to gauge their surroundings is of the utmost importance in order to avoid obstacles, preventing damage to itself and/or other systems or people. Depth measuring/estimation systems that use multiple cameras from multiple views can be expensive and extremely complex. And as these autonomous systems decrease in size and available power, the supporting sensors required to estimate depth must also shrink in size and power consumption. This research will concentrate on a single passive method known as Depth from Defocus (DfD), which uses an in-focus and out-of-focus image to infer the depth of objects in a scene. The major contribution of this research is the introduction of a new Deep Learning (DL) architecture to process the the in-focus and out-of-focus images to produce a depth map for the scene improving both speed and performance over a range of lighting conditions. Compared to the previous state-of-the-art multi-label graph cuts algorithms applied to the synthetically blurred dataset the DfD-Net produced a 34.30% improvement in the average Normalized Root Mean Square Error (NRMSE). Similarly the DfD-Net architecture produced a 76.69% improvement in the average Normalized Mean Absolute Error (NMAE). Only the Structural Similarity Index (SSIM) had a small average decrease of 2.68% when compared to the graph cuts algorithm. This slight reduction in the SSIM value is a result of the SSIM metric penalizing images that appear to be noisy. In some instances the DfD-Net output is mottled, which is interpreted as noise by the SSIM metric. This research introduces two methods of deep learning architecture optimization. The first method employs the use of a variant of the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm to improve the performance of the DfD-Net architecture. The PSO algorithm was able to find a combination of the number of convolutional filters, the size of the filters, the activation layers used, the use of a batch normalization layer between filters and the size of the input image used during training to produce a network architecture that resulted in an average NRMSE that was approximately 6.25% better than the baseline DfD-Net average NRMSE. This optimized architecture also resulted in an average NMAE that was 5.25% better than the baseline DfD-Net average NMAE. Only the SSIM metric did not see a gain in performance, dropping by 0.26% when compared to the baseline DfD-Net average SSIM value. The second method illustrates the use of a Self Organizing Map clustering method to reduce the number convolutional filters in the DfD-Net to reduce the overall run time of the architecture while still retaining the network performance exhibited prior to the reduction. This method produces a reduced DfD-Net architecture that has a run time decrease of between 14.91% and 44.85% depending on the hardware architecture that is running the network. The final reduced DfD-Net resulted in a network architecture that had an overall decrease in the average NRMSE value of approximately 3.4% when compared to the baseline, unaltered DfD-Net, mean NRMSE value. The NMAE and the SSIM results for the reduced architecture were 0.65% and 0.13% below the baseline results respectively. This illustrates that reducing the network architecture complexity does not necessarily reduce the reduction in performance. Finally, this research introduced a new, real world dataset that was captured using a camera and a voltage controlled microfluidic lens to capture the visual data and a 2-D scanning LIDAR to capture the ground truth data. The visual data consists of images captured at seven different exposure times and 17 discrete voltage steps per exposure time. The objects in this dataset were divided into four repeating scene patterns in which the same surfaces were used. These scenes were located between 1.5 and 2.5 meters from the camera and LIDAR. This was done so any of the deep learning algorithms tested would see the same texture at multiple depths and multiple blurs. The DfD-Net architecture was employed in two separate tests using the real world dataset. The first test was the synthetic blurring of the real world dataset and assessing the performance of the DfD-Net trained on the Middlebury dataset. The results of the real world dataset for the scenes that were between 1.5 and 2.2 meters from the camera the DfD-Net trained on the Middlebury dataset produced an average NRMSE, NMAE and SSIM value that exceeded the test results of the DfD-Net tested on the Middlebury test set. The second test conducted was the training and testing solely on the real world dataset. Analysis of the camera and lens behavior led to an optimal lens voltage step configuration of 141 and 129. Using this configuration, training the DfD-Net resulted in an average NRMSE, NMAE and SSIM of 0.0660, 0.0517 and 0.8028 with a standard deviation of 0.0173, 0.0186 and 0.0641 respectively.

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The feedforward neural network (NN) is a mathematical model capable of representing any non-linear relationship between input and output data. It has been succesfully applied to a wide variety of classification and function approximation problems. Various neural network training algorithms were developed, including the particle swarm optimiser (PSO), which was shown to outperform the standard back propagation training algorithm on a selection of problems. However, it was usually assumed that the environment in which a NN operates is static. Such an assumption is often not valid for real life problems, and the training algorithms have to be adapted accordingly. Various dynamic versions of the PSO have already been developed. This work investigates the applicability of dynamic PSO algorithms to NN training in dynamic environments, and compares the performance of dynamic PSO algorithms to the performance of back propagation. Three popular dynamic PSO variants are considered. The extent of adaptive properties of back propagation and dynamic PSO under different kinds of dynamic environments is determined. Dynamic PSO is shown to be a viable alternative to back propagation, especially under the environments exhibiting infrequent gradual changes. Copyright 2011, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Rakitianskaia, A 2011, Using particle swarm optimisation to train feedforward neural networks in dynamic environments, MSc dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-02132012-233212 / > C12/4/406/gm / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Computer Science / Unrestricted

Since 1992, the Swedish government and more specifically the Swedish Transport Administration (STA), has subsidized unprofitable flights in the country. Most of these flights are to remote towns in the northern half of the country in which alternative methods of transport are limited, and it is therefore argued that these flights need to be subsidized in order to make these towns easily accessible and to continue being economically stable. The purpose of this thesis is to determine whether or not the Swedish government should continue subsidizing unprofitable flight routes, or if it should subsidize some of the routes or simply none of them. This was done with a so-called cost-benefit analysis. The cost-benefit analysis comes to a conclusion that, likely, four out of the seven PSOs should be abolished, while three could possibly still be subsidized. However, since a cost-benefit analysis was used, it is difficult to test the result for statistical significance meaning the result is uncertain and open for discussion and future evaluation.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) are new generation Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV) with larger battery capacity compared to Hybrid Electric Vehicles. They can store electrical energy from a domestic power supply and can drive the vehicle alone in Electric Vehicle (EV) mode. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation 80 % of the American driving public on average drives under 50 miles per day. A PHEV vehicle that can drive up to 50 miles by making maximum use of cheaper electrical energy from a domestic supply can significantly reduce the conventional fuel consumption. This may also help in improving the environment as PHEVs emit less harmful gases. However, the Energy Management System (EMS) of PHEVs would have to be very different from existing EMSs of HEVs. In this thesis, three different Energy Management Systems have been designed specifically for PHEVs using simulated study. For most of the EMS development mathematical vehicle models for powersplit drivetrain configuration are built and later on the results are tested on advanced vehicle modeling tools like ADVISOR or PSAT. The main objective of the study is to design EMSs to reduce fuel consumption by the vehicle. These EMSs are compared with existing EMSs which show overall improvement. x In this thesis the final EMS is designed in three intermediate steps. First, a simple rule based EMS was designed to improve the fuel economy for parametric study. Second, an optimized EMS was designed with the main objective to improve fuel economy of the vehicle. Here Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) technique is used to obtain the optimum parameter values. This EMS has provided optimum parameters which result in optimum blended mode operation of the vehicle. Finally, to obtain optimum charge depletion and charge sustaining mode operation of the vehicle an advanced PSO EMS is designed which provides optimal results for the vehicle to operate in charge depletion and charge sustaining modes. Furthermore, to implement the developed advanced PSO EMS in real-time a possible real time implementation technique is designed using neural networks. This neural network implementation provides sub-optimal results as compared to advanced PSO EMS results but it can be implemented in real time in a vehicle. These EMSs can be used to obtain optimal results for the vehicle driving conditions such that fuel economy is improved. Moreover, the optimal designed EMS can also be implemented in real-time using the neural network procedure described.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Today transportation is one of the rapidly evolving technologies in the world. With the stringent mandatory emission regulations and high fuel prices, researchers and manufacturers are ever increasingly pushed to the frontiers of research in pursuit of alternative propulsion systems. Electrically propelled vehicles are one of the most promising solutions among all the other alternatives, as far as; reliability, availability, feasibility and safety issues are concerned. However, the shortcomings of a fully electric vehicle in fulfilling all performance requirements make the electrification of the conventional engine powered vehicles in the form of a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) the most feasible propulsion systems. The optimal combination of the properly sized components such as internal combustion engine, electric motor, energy storage unit are crucial for the vehicle to meet the performance requirements, improve fuel efficiency, reduce emissions, and cost effectiveness. In this thesis an application of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) approach to optimally size the vehicle powertrain components (e.g. engine power, electric motor power, and battery energy capacity) while meeting all the critical performance requirements, such as acceleration, grade and maximum speed is studied. Compared to conventional optimization methods, PSO handles the nonlinear constrained optimization problems more efficiently and precisely. The PHEV powertrain configuration with the determined sizes of the components has been used in a new vehicle model in PSAT (Powertrain System Analysis Toolkit) platform. The simulation results show that with the optimized component sizes of the PHEV vehicle (via PSO), the performance and the fuel efficiency of the vehicle are significantly improved. The optimal solution of the component sizes found in this research increased the performance and the fuel efficiency of the vehicle. Furthermore, after reaching the desired values of the component sizes that meet all the performance requirements, the overall emission of hazardous pollutants from the PHEV powertrain is included in the optimization problem in order to obtain updated PHEV component sizes that would also meet additional design specifications and requirements.

This thesis describes a machine learning method for automatically imitating a particular person's facial expressions in a human-like avatar through a hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization - Tabu Search algorithm. The muscular structures of the facial expressions are measured by Ekman and Friesen's Facial Action Coding System (FACS). Using a neutral face as a reference, the minute movements of the Action Units, used in FACS, are automatically tracked and mapped onto the avatar using a hybrid method. The hybrid algorithm is composed of Kennedy and Eberhart's Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm (PSO) and Glover's Tabu Search (TS). Distinguishable features portrayed on the avatar ensure a personalized, realistic imitation of the facial expressions. To evaluate the feasibility of using PSO-TS in this approach, a fundamental proof-of-concept test is employed on the system using the OGRE avatar. This method is analyzed in-depth to ensure its proper functionality and evaluate its performance compared to previous work.