This master thesis is oriented on a problem of creating video and image annotations. This problem is solved by crowdsourcing approach. Crowdsourcing games were designed and implemented to make solution of this problem . It was proven by testing that these games are capable of creating high quality annotations. Launching these games on a larger scale could create large database of annotated videos and images.

Predicting infrastructure damage and economic impact of sinkholes requires high accuracy mapping distribution and development. The study mapped sinkholes and sinkhole hotpsots in Johnson City, TN using LiDAR-derived Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and a database of known sinkholes which were matched to LiDAR-derived depressions. For all matched depressions (n = 404), three metrics were calculated: circularity index, ratio of length to width of the Minimum Bounding Rectangle (MBR) and percent coverage of the MBR by the depression, and 3,634 new sinkholes were identified. Newly developed hotspots were identified in north Johnson City and other areas in the south near the Johnson City Medical Center. The methodology developed can be applied to identify hotspots in other small metropolitan cities and the hotspot map produced can be employed in hazard mitigation planning, resource allocation, and made available publicly to property owners and insurance companies.

The joint European Space Agency and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency mission Comet Interceptor seeks to perform a flyby of a Small Solar System Body (SSSB), through use of a multi-element spacecraft. It comprises a primary spacecraft and two subspacecraft, the latter of which will encounter the intercepted object at a small enough distance that its end-of-life might occur at an impact of either the object itself or its potential coma. The Optical Periscopic Imager for Comets (OPIC) is an instrument implemented on one of these small probes which will generate monochromatic images during the encounter. Given a limited data budget before the possible impact, there is a need for data prioritization to ensure that only the most scientifically relevant data is collected. To enable this, algorithms for autonomously cropping an object nucleus from an image were developed during this thesis work. As the computational capabilities of OPIC are limited, the algorithms were required to be of low computational complexity. Additionally, given that the close environment of SSSB in general and comets in particular often exhibit considerable quantities of gas and dust which can generate cluttering in images, the algorithms developed were required to be resistant to noise. Three image cropping algorithms were developed with varying computational complexities. These were tested for cropping accuracy and relative execution times on data from both previous space missions as well as simulated photorealistic images. All three algorithms were able to properly find a bounding box of an object nucleus and any of its significant plumes. The accuracy in cropping correctness of the region borders generated increased with the computational complexity of the algorithms.

Legged robots have the potential to be a valuable technology that provides agile and adaptive locomotion over complex terrain. To realize legged locomotion's full abilities a control design must consider the nonlinear piecewise dynamics of the systems. This paper aims to develop a controller for the planar bounding of a quadrupedal robot. The bounding of the quadruped robot is characterized by a simplified hybrid model that consists of two subsystems for stance and flight phases and the switching laws between the two states. An additional model, the Multibody model, with fewer simplifications, is used concurrently to best approximate real-world behavior. The bounding gait (periodic orbit) of the robot is predicted by an optimization method based on the numerical integration of the differential equations of subsystems. To stabilize the gait, a switching controller is applied which can be split into two separate phases: stance-phase and swing-phase control. The stance phase implements reaction force control utilizing a body state feedback controller and a gait stabilizer, while the swing phase deploys position control in conjunction with a trajectory planning algorithm to ensure proper footfall. Numerical simulations are carried out for the system with/without control. The control strategy is further validated by simulations of the Simscape multibody model. The overall simulated controller results are promising and demonstrate stable bounding for four system cycles.

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More and more challenging designs are required everyday in today¿s industries. The traditional trial and error procedure commonly used for mechanical parts design is not valid any more since it slows down the design process and yields suboptimal designs. For structural components, one alternative consists in using shape optimization processes which provide optimal solutions. However, these techniques require a high computational effort and require extremely efficient and robust Finite Element (FE) programs. FE software companies are aware that their current commercial products must improve in this sense and devote considerable resources to improve their codes. In this work we propose to use the Cartesian Grid Finite Element Method, cgFEM as a tool for efficient and robust numerical analysis. The cgFEM methodology developed in this thesis uses the synergy of a variety of techniques to achieve this purpose, but the two main ingredients are the use of Cartesian FE grids independent of the geometry of the component to be analyzed and an efficient hierarchical data structure. These two features provide to the cgFEM technology the necessary requirements to increase the efficiency of the cgFEM code with respect to commercial FE codes. As indicated in [1, 2], in order to guarantee the convergence of a structural shape optimization process we need to control the error of each geometry analyzed. In this sense the cgFEM code also incorporates the appropriate error estimators. These error estimators are specifically adapted to the cgFEM framework to further increase its efficiency. This work introduces a solution recovery technique, denoted as SPR-CD, that in combination with the Zienkiewicz and Zhu error estimator [3] provides very accurate error measures of the FE solution. Additionally, we have also developed error estimators and numerical bounds in Quantities of Interest based on the SPR-CD technique to allow for an efficient control of the quality of the numerical solution. Regarding error estimation, we also present three new upper error bounding techniques for the error in energy norm of the FE solution, based on recovery processes. Furthermore, this work also presents an error estimation procedure to control the quality of the recovered solution in stresses provided by the SPR-CD technique. Since the recovered stress field is commonly more accurate and has a higher convergence rate than the FE solution, we propose to substitute the raw FE solution by the recovered solution to decrease the computational cost of the numerical analysis. All these improvements are reflected by the numerical examples of structural shape optimization problems presented in this thesis. These numerical analysis clearly show the improved behavior of the cgFEM technology over the classical FE implementations commonly used in industry. / Cada d'¿a dise¿nos m'as complejos son requeridos por las industrias actuales. Para el dise¿no de nuevos componentes, los procesos tradicionales de prueba y error usados com'unmente ya no son v'alidos ya que ralentizan el proceso y dan lugar a dise¿nos sub-'optimos. Para componentes estructurales, una alternativa consiste en usar procesos de optimizaci'on de forma estructural los cuales dan como resultado dise¿nos 'optimos. Sin embargo, estas t'ecnicas requieren un alto coste computacional y tambi'en programas de Elementos Finitos (EF) extremadamente eficientes y robustos. Las compa¿n'¿as de programas de EF son conocedoras de que sus programas comerciales necesitan ser mejorados en este sentido y destinan importantes cantidades de recursos para mejorar sus c'odigos. En este trabajo proponemos usar el M'etodo de Elementos Finitos basado en mallados Cartesianos (cgFEM) como una herramienta eficiente y robusta para el an'alisis num'erico. La metodolog'¿a cgFEM desarrollada en esta tesis usa la sinergia entre varias t'ecnicas para lograr este prop'osito, cuyos dos ingredientes principales son el uso de los mallados Cartesianos de EF independientes de la geometr'¿a del componente que va a ser analizado y una eficiente estructura jer'arquica de datos. Estas dos caracter'¿sticas confieren a la tecnolog'¿a cgFEM de los requisitos necesarios para aumentar la eficiencia del c'odigo cgFEM con respecto a c'odigos comerciales. Como se indica en [1, 2], para garantizar la convergencia del proceso de optimizaci'on de forma estructural se necesita controlar el error en cada geometr'¿a analizada. En este sentido el c'odigo cgFEM tambi'en incorpora los apropiados estimadores de error. Estos estimadores de error han sido espec'¿ficamente adaptados al entorno cgFEM para aumentar su eficiencia. En esta tesis se introduce un proceso de recuperaci'on de la soluci'on, llamado SPR-CD, que en combinaci'on con el estimador de error de Zienkiewicz y Zhu [3], da como resultado medidas muy precisas del error de la soluci'on de EF. Adicionalmente, tambi'en se han desarrollado estimadores de error y cotas num'ericas en Magnitudes de Inter'es basadas en la t'ecnica SPR-CD para permitir un eficiente control de la calidad de la soluci'on num'erica. Respecto a la estimaci'on de error, tambi'en se presenta un proceso de estimaci'on de error para controlar la calidad del campo de tensiones recuperado obtenido mediante la t'ecnica SPR-CD. Ya que el campo recuperado es por lo general m'as preciso y tiene un mayor orden de convergencia que la soluci'on de EF, se propone sustituir la soluci'on de EF por la soluci'on recuperada para disminuir as'¿ el coste computacional del an'alisis num'erico. Todas estas mejoras se han reflejado en esta tesis mediante ejemplos num'ericos de problemas de optimizaci'on de forma estructural. Los resultados num'ericos muestran claramente un mejor comportamiento de la tecnolog'¿a cgFEM con respecto a implementaciones cl'asicas de EF com'unmente usadas en la industria. / Nadal Soriano, E. (2014). Cartesian grid FEM (cgFEM): High performance h-adaptive FE analysis with efficient error control. Application to structural shape optimization [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/35620

This thesis investigates the integration of transfer learning with ResNet-101 and compares its performance with VGG-19 for 3D object detection in autonomous vehicles. ResNet-101 is a deep Convolutional Neural Network with 101 layers and VGG-19 is a one with 19 layers. The research emphasizes the fusion of camera and lidar outputs to enhance the accuracy of 3D bounding box estimation, which is critical in occluded environments. Selecting an appropriate backbone for feature extraction is pivotal for achieving high detection accuracy. To address this challenge, we propose a method leveraging transfer learning with ResNet- 101, pretrained on large-scale image datasets, to improve feature extraction capabilities. The averaging technique is used on output of these sensors to get the final bounding box. The experimental results demonstrate that the ResNet-101 based model outperforms the VGG-19 based model in terms of accuracy and robustness. This study provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of transfer learning and multi-sensor fusion in advancing the innovation in 3D object detection for autonomous driving. / Master of Science / In the realm of computer vision, the quest for more accurate and robust 3D object detection pipelines remains an ongoing pursuit. This thesis investigates advanced techniques to im- prove 3D object detection by comparing two popular deep learning models, ResNet-101 and VGG-19. The study focuses on enhancing detection accuracy by combining the outputs from two distinct methods: one that uses a monocular camera to estimate 3D bounding boxes and another that employs lidar's bird's-eye view (BEV) data, converting it to image-based 3D bounding boxes. This fusion of outputs is critical in environments where objects may be partially obscured. By leveraging transfer learning, a method where models that are pre-trained on bigger datasets are finetuned for certain application, the research shows that ResNet-101 significantly outperforms VGG-19 in terms of accuracy and robustness. The approach involves averaging the outputs from both methods to refine the final 3D bound- ing box estimation. This work highlights the effectiveness of combining different detection methodologies and using advanced machine learning techniques to advance 3D object detec- tion technology.

La terre compactée est considérée comme un mélange granulaire dans lequel l'argile joue un rôle de liant mais cette dernière exhibe une forte interaction avec l'eau. Pendant la durée de vie en service, la terre compactée est soumise aux changements de l’humidité relative. En raison de ces changements des conditions ambiantes perpétuels, la teneur en eau dans la terre varie, impactant leur performance mécanique. Le présent travail a ainsi pour but d’étudier l’impact de l’humidité relative et de la teneur d'argile sur le comportement mécanique de la terre compactée. Il se réalisera au travers d’études expérimentales et d'une modélisation constitutive. Dans la première partie de cette thèse, quatre terres régionales de provenances et de teneurs d'argile différentes sont identifiées. Une étude comparative a été réalisée entre le double compactage statique et le compactage dynamique. En parallèle, trois types d'essais spécifiques : essais de succion par la méthode de papier-filtre, essais de retrait et essais d'absorption d'eau, ont été menés pour donner des indications préliminaires quant aux effets d'interaction entre l'eau et l'argile. Dans la deuxième partie, l’impact de l’humidité relative et de la teneur d'argile sur le comportement de cisaillement a été étudié, prenant en compte des cycles de chargement-déchargement. En adoptant une définition particulière de la contrainte effective de Bishop, il a également été observé que les états de rupture dans le plan (p'-q) pour tous les échantillons sont alignés approximativement à une ligne droite unique passant par l'origine, quelque soit la succion et la pression de confinement. Sur la base des résultats expérimentaux, un nouveau modèle constitutif a été développé pour la simulation du comportement mécanique de la terre compactée. Ce nouveau modèle a ainsi été formulé dans la cadre de la mécanique de l'endommagement des milieux continus et de la théorie de Bounding Surface Plasticity. / Compacted earth is regarded as a granular mixture in which clay plays a role of binder but it also exhibits an important interaction with water. During their service life, compacted earth can be subject to large changes in relative humidity. Those perpetual changes of environmental conditions induce continuous changes of water content of the earth that impact significantly its mechanical performances. The present work aimes at studying the mechanical behavior of compacted earth with respect to relative humidity and clay content. It involves an extensive experimental study and a constitutive modelling. In the first part of this thesis, four kinds of local earth are identified with different clay contents. A comparison of compaction method was then conducted between a double static compaction and dynamic compaction. Three types of specific tests: suction test by filter paper method, shrinkage test and sorption-desorption test were carried out, thereby providing a preliminary insight on the interaction effects between clay and water. In the second part, the impact of clay and moisture contents on the shear behavior of compacted earth was investigated taking into account loading-unloading cycles. Adopting a particular definition of Bishop's effective stress, failure states of all samples were observed to lie approximately on a unique failure line crossing the origin in the (p'-q) plane regardless of matric suction and confining pressure. Finally, based on the above experimental results, a new constitutive model was proposed, based on the theories of Bounding Surface Plasticity and continuum damage mechanics, aiming to simulate mechanical behaviour of compacted earth.

Stateless model checking is a technique for testing and verifying concurrent programs, based on exploring the different ways in which operations executed by the processes of a concurrent program can be scheduled. The goal of the technique is to expose all behaviours that can be a result of scheduling non-determinism. As the number of possible schedulings is huge, however, techniques that reduce the number of schedulings that must be explored to achieve verification have been developed. Dynamic partial order reduction (DPOR) is a prominent such technique. This dissertation presents a number of improvements to dynamic partial order reduction that significantly increase the effectiveness of stateless model checking. Central among these improvements are the Source and Optimal DPOR algorithms (and the theoretical framework behind them) and a technique that allows the observability of the interference of operations to be used in dynamic partial order reduction. Each of these techniques can exponentially decrease the number of schedulings that need to be explored to verify a concurrent program. The dissertation also presents a simple bounding technique that is compatible with DPOR algorithms and effective for finding bugs in concurrent programs, if the number of schedulings is too big to make full verification possible in a reasonable amount of time, even when the improved algorithms are used. All improvements have been implemented in Concuerror, a tool for applying stateless model checking to Erlang programs. In order to increase the effectiveness of the tool, the interference of the high-level operations of the Erlang/OTP implementation is examined, classified and precisely characterized. Aspects of the implementation of the tool are also described. Finally, a use case is presented, showing how Concuerror was used to find bugs and verify key correctness properties in repair techniques for the CORFU chain replication protocol. / UPMARC / RELEASE

Práce se zabývá detekcí kolizí v 3D simulačním prostoru. V první části jsou popsány nejpoužívanější algoritmy pro detekci, stejně jako některé knihovny hotových řešení. Druhá část práce obsahuje popis testovacího softwaru vytvořeného na základě knihovny OpenGL, včetně popisu důležitých částí. V poslední části práce jsou také prezentovány výsledky testování a porovnání vybraných algoritmů na vytvořených testovacích úlohách.