The goal of this thesis is to develop an intuitive, adaptive, and flexible architecture for controlling intelligent mobile robots. This architecture is a hybrid architecture that combines deliberative planning, reactive control, finite state automata, behaviour trees and uses competition for behaviour selection. This behaviour selection is based on a task manager, which selects behaviours based on approximations of their applicability to the current situation and the expected reward value for performing that behaviour. One important feature of this architecture is that it makes important behavioural information explicit using Extensible Markup Language (XML). This explicit representation is an important part in making the architecture easy to debug and extend. The utility, intuitiveness and flexibility of this architecture is shown in an evaluation of this architecture against older control programs that lack such explicit behavioural representation. This evaluation was carried out by developing behaviours for several common robotic tasks and demonstrating common problems that arose during the course of this development. / February 2006

The goal of this thesis is to develop an intuitive, adaptive, and flexible architecture for controlling intelligent mobile robots. This architecture is a hybrid architecture that combines deliberative planning, reactive control, finite state automata, behaviour trees and uses competition for behaviour selection. This behaviour selection is based on a task manager, which selects behaviours based on approximations of their applicability to the current situation and the expected reward value for performing that behaviour. One important feature of this architecture is that it makes important behavioural information explicit using Extensible Markup Language (XML). This explicit representation is an important part in making the architecture easy to debug and extend. The utility, intuitiveness and flexibility of this architecture is shown in an evaluation of this architecture against older control programs that lack such explicit behavioural representation. This evaluation was carried out by developing behaviours for several common robotic tasks and demonstrating common problems that arose during the course of this development.

The goal of this thesis is to develop an intuitive, adaptive, and flexible architecture for controlling intelligent mobile robots. This architecture is a hybrid architecture that combines deliberative planning, reactive control, finite state automata, behaviour trees and uses competition for behaviour selection. This behaviour selection is based on a task manager, which selects behaviours based on approximations of their applicability to the current situation and the expected reward value for performing that behaviour. One important feature of this architecture is that it makes important behavioural information explicit using Extensible Markup Language (XML). This explicit representation is an important part in making the architecture easy to debug and extend. The utility, intuitiveness and flexibility of this architecture is shown in an evaluation of this architecture against older control programs that lack such explicit behavioural representation. This evaluation was carried out by developing behaviours for several common robotic tasks and demonstrating common problems that arose during the course of this development.

This thesis begins by discussing the contemporary housing crisis. it further appoints that a change is needed in the design of housing. And this change could be flexible architecture. Flexible architecure as in, when a building can adapt to new changes. Changes like: the inhabitant(s) need for space. The inhabitant(s) economy. The inhabitant(s) geographical position. The inhabitant(s) will of changing the design to their own needs. The thesis continues by exploring flexibility on a micro level. The author of the thesis propose a flexible construction system made out of wooden bricks. The author investigates what the qualities of the system but also the limitations. In the last part of the thesis the author investigates flexibility on a macro level. He proposes a grid-system made out of CLT-beams. Where flexible modules made out of wood inhabit the gridsystem. The modules can be adapted for many different changes. Changes like need for more or less space. The need for moving, etc.

abstract: QR decomposition (QRD) of a matrix is one of the most common linear algebra operationsused for the decomposition of a square/non-square matrix. It has a wide range of applications especially in Multiple Input-Multiple Output (MIMO) communication systems. Unfortunately it has high computation complexity { for matrix size of nxn, QRD has O(n3) complexity and back substitution, which is used to solve a system of linear equations, has O(n2) complexity. Thus, as the matrix size increases, the hardware resource requirement for QRD and back substitution increases signicantly. This thesis presents the design and implementation of a exible QRD and back substitution accelerator using a folded architecture. It can support matrix sizes of 4x4, 8x8, 12x12, 16x16, and 20x20 with low hardware resource requirement. The proposed architecture is based on the systolic array implementation of the Givens algorithm for QRD. It is built with three dierent types of computation blocks which are connected in a 2-D array structure. These blocks are controlled by a scheduler which facilitates reusability of the blocks to perform computation for any input matrix size which is a multiple of 4. These blocks are designed using two basic programming elements which support both the forward and backward paths to compute matrix R in QRD and column-matrix X in back substitution computation. The proposed architecture has been mapped to Xilinx Zynq Ultrascale+ FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), ZCU102. All inputs are complex with precision of 40 bits (38 fractional bits and 1 signed bit). The architecture can be clocked at 50 MHz. The synthesis results of the folded architecture for dierent matrix sizes are presented. The results show that the folded architecture can support QRD and back substitution for inputs of large sizes which otherwise cannot t on an FPGA when implemented using a at architecture. The memory sizes required for dierent matrix sizes are also presented. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Electrical Engineering 2020

Oil is a finite resource; This much has been established as fact and is commonly agreed upon. We will, some day, find our supplies depleted. The question that remains hotly debated, however, is when this will happen and what impacts it will have on our modern lives. Estimates and forecasts abound, but still no one can answer these questions definitively. As fossil fuels, the energy behind virtually every aspect of our lives, become scarce, our patterns of growth will face a reckoning. We will be forced to adapt and adjust; either shifting our energy demand to more renewable sources, or reducing it by significant amounts. Although there are a plethora of what-if scenarios when predicting the effects of an end to oil, it’s easy to recognize that the peak oil crisis will significantly impact our lives. It will change how we live them and, by extension, where and how we construct our buildings. So what does this mean for buildings - one of the country’s largest consumers of energy? This thesis proposes that a theory of adaptability, when applied properly to the design and construction process, can begin to equip our building to handle the range of possible outcomes that an energy-poor future poses. This thesis also aims to address, in the broadest of terms, how our current approach to design could lead to significant issues in a post-oil, energy hungry world. It does so by encouraging a more holistic approach to problem solving and building design, while outlining how the values of cost efficiency and speed have polarized global construction techniques.

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El tema de investigación de esta tesis gesta de la problemática social existente en la ciudad de Lima por la falta de ofertas residenciales óptimas para la creciente demanda de estudiantes universitarios. Como Lima se caracteriza por su monocentrismo, la oferta existente de los mejores centros de educación superior se encuentra en la capital, motivo por el cual esta ciudad es atractiva para estudiar. Asimismo, existen polos universitarios, lugares donde se aglomeran numerosas instituciones siendo óptimos para la ubicación del proyecto. De igual modo se determinan criterios de diseño y lineamientos para diseñar una Residencia Universitaria por medio del énfasis de la flexibilidad arquitectónica y la adaptabilidad formal. / The theme for this thesis was initiated by the existing social problems in the city of Lima due to the lack of optimal residential offers for the growing demand of college students. Lima is characterized by its monocentrism, therefore the existing offer for the best universities are in the capital, which is why this city is attractive to study. There are also university poles, places where numerous institutions clusterize, being these an optimal location for the project. Similarly, design criteria and guidelines for designing a college student housing are determined through the emphasis on architectural flexibility and formal adaptability. / Trabajo de investigación

The South African population has been experiencing an unprecedented rate of urbanization that has left government bodies struggling to meet the qualitative and the infrastructural demands of the emergent sector in undeveloped areas. This dissertation aims to focus on the intensive networks found in these developing areas of vulnerability that display strong cohesion due to activities surrounding the production process. The premise presented is that in order to intervene architecturally with these networks, designers should critically engage these networks through participative processes of research, design and ideally construction. Through the author’s process of engagement, several key Architectural principles for an intervention emerge. Primarily the concept that a built intervention in a vulnerable settlement should first seek to associate itself with a network for its initial survival, and then aim to exist in a symbiotic relationship with this network through a mutually beneficial relationship. View <a href=" http://www.jhonobennett.com/">Jhono Bennett's blog</a>. 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: Bennett, J 2011, Platforms of engagement : a process of critical engagement with a developing context, MArch(Prof) dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-11272011-161354 / > C12/4/36/gm / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Architecture / unrestricted

Actualmente en la ciudad de Chiclayo existe un alto déficit de espacios educativos, de cada 100 niños solo 85 estudian y solo el 71% de los centros educativos cuentan con los servicios básicos. El proyecto de Escuela pública en Chiclayo propone un espacio/ lugar donde se crean ambientes que inspiran el verdadero propósito de aprendizaje; donde el pensamiento convergente y divergente son herramientas de educación y se fomenta el razonamiento deductivo. Además, el proyecto contempla espacios destinados a la educación técnica y espacios complementarios a la comunidad y servicios. El concepto del proyecto refiere a una metodología de aprendizaje activa donde el alumno es el protagonista y cada ambiente está pensado para que la arquitectura sirva como facilitador del aprendizaje. Colores, planta libre y flexible, texturas, espacialidad, escalas, y una relación directa con el entorno y medio ambiente son los lineamientos del proyecto. En el diseño se consideran todos los espacios como espacios de aprendizaje “adentro y afuera” son áreas educativas donde el conocimiento se adquiere mediante experiencias. Además, se genera una conexión y dinamismo entre los ambientes mediante iluminación y ventilación natural. La flora nativa también forma parte del proyecto estableciendo sentido de pertenencia y generando recursos. Como parte del proyecto se proponen espacios de interacción y relación con la comunidad, se crea una alameda que parte el proyecto para darle unión al entorno. Espacios complementarios que generan una economía circular promueve responsabilidad y esfuerzo. Actividades complementarias que complementan tanto en conocimientos como en valores y habilidades para el desarrollo personal y profesional de cada alumno. / Currently in the city of Chiclayo there is a high deficit of educational spaces, only 85 out of every 100 children study and only 71% of the educational centers have basic services. The Chiclayo Public School project proposes a space/place where environments are created that inspire the true purpose of learning; where convergent and divergent thinking are educational tools and deductive reasoning is encouraged. In addition, the project contemplates spaces for technical education and complementary spaces for the community and services. The concept of the project refers to an active learning methodology where the student is the protagonist, and each environment is designed so that the architecture serves as a facilitator of learning. Colors, free and flexible floor plan, textures, spatiality, scales, and a direct relationship with the surroundings and environment are the guidelines of the project. The design considers all spaces as learning spaces "inside and outside"; they are educational areas where knowledge is acquired through experiences. In addition, connection and dynamism are generated between the environments through natural lighting and ventilation. Native flora is also part of the project, establishing a sense of belonging and generating resources. As part of the project, spaces for interaction and relationship with the community are proposed, a mall is created as part of the project to connect with the neighborhood. Complementary spaces that generate a circular economy promote responsibility and effort. Complementary activities to complement knowledge, values and skills for the personal and professional development of each student. / Tesis