This thesis describes the development and experimental results of a system to explore cloning of facial expressions between dissimilar face models, so new faces can be animated using the animations from existing faces. The system described in this thesis uses fuzzy membership functions and subtractive clustering to represent faces and expressions in an intermediate space. This intermediate space allows expressions for face models with different resolutions to be compared. The algorithm is trained for each pair of faces using particle swarm optimization, which selects appropriate weights and radii to construct the intermediate space. These techniques allow the described system to be more flexible than previous systems, since it does not require prior knowledge of the underlying implementation of the face models to function.

Unreinforced masonry construction is considered to be the most vulnerable forms of construction as demonstrated through recent earthquakes. In Canada, many densely populated cities such as (Vancouver, Montreal and Ottawa) have large inventories of seismically vulnerable masonry structures. Although measures have been taken to rehabilitate and increase the seismic resistance of important and historic structures, many existing unreinforced masonry structures have not been retrofitted and remain at risk in the event of a large magnitude earthquake. There is therefore a need to identify buildings at risk and develop tools for assessing the seismic vulnerability of existing unreinforced masonry structures in Canada. This thesis presents results from an ongoing research program which forms part of a multi-disciplinary effort between the University of Ottawa’s Hazard Mitigation and Disaster Management Research Centre and the Geological Survey of Canada (NRCAN) to assess the seismic vulnerability of buildings in dense urban areas such as Ottawa, Ontario. A risk-based seismic assessment tool (CanRisk) has been developed to assess the seismic vulnerability of existing unreinforced masonry and reinforced concrete structures. The seismic risk assessment tool exploits the use of fuzzy logic, a soft computing technique, to capture the vagueness and uncertainty within the evaluation of the performance of a given building. In order to conduct seismic risk assessments, a general building inventory and its spatial distribution and variability is required for earthquake loss estimations. The Urban Rapid Assessment Tool (Urban RAT) is designed for the rapid collection of building data in urban centres. This Geographic Information System (GIS) based assessment tool allows for intense data collection and revolutionizes the traditional sidewalk survey approach for collecting building data. The application of CanRisk and the Urban RAT tool to the City of Ottawa is discussed in the following thesis. Data collection of over 13,000 buildings has been obtained including the seismic risk assessment of 1,465 unreinforced masonry buildings. A case study of selected URM buildings located in the City of Ottawa was conducted using CanRisk. Data obtained from the 2011 Christchurch Earthquake in New Zealand was utilized for verification of the tool.

This thesis presents two modern control methods to address the Internet traffic congestion control issues. They are based on a distributed traffic management framework for the fast-growing Internet traffic in which routers are deployed with intelligent or optimal data rate controllers to tackle the traffic mass. The first one is called the IntelRate (Intelligent Rate) controller using the fuzzy logic theory. Unlike other explicit traffic control protocols that have to estimate network parameters (e.g., link latency, bottleneck bandwidth, packet loss rate, or the number of flows), our fuzzy-logic-based explicit controller can measure the router queue size directly. Hence it avoids various potential performance problems arising from parameter estimations while reducing much computation and memory consumption in the routers. The communication QoS (Quality of Service) is assured by the good performances of our scheme such as max-min fairness, low queueing delay and good robustness to network dynamics. Using the Lyapunov’s Direct Method, this controller is proved to be globally asymptotically stable. The other one is called the OFEX (Optimal and Fully EXplicit) controller using convex optimization. This new scheme is able to provide not only optimal bandwidth allocation but also fully explicit congestion signal to sources. It uses the congestion signal from the most congested link, instead of the cumulative signal from a flow path. In this way, it overcomes the drawback of the relatively explicit controllers that bias the multi-bottlenecked users, and significantly improves their convergence speed and throughput performance. Furthermore, the OFEX controller design considers a dynamic model by proposing a remedial measure against the unpredictable bandwidth changes in contention-based multi-access networks (such as shared Ethernet or IEEE 802.11). When compared with the former works/controllers, such a remedy also effectively reduces the instantaneous queue size in a router, and thus significantly improving the queueing delay and packet loss performance. Finally, the applications of these two controllers on wireless local area networks have been investigated. Their design guidelines/limits are also provided based on our experiences.

Wireless Sensor Network routing protocols rely on the estimation of the quality of the links between nodes to determine a suitable path from the data source nodes to a data-collecting node. Several link estimators have been proposed, but most of these use only one link property. Fuzzy logic based link quality estimators have been recently proposed which consider a number of link quality metrics. The fuzzification of crisp values to fuzzy values is done through membership functions. The shape of the fuzzy link quality estimator membership functions is primarily performed leveraging qualitative knowledge and an improper assignment of fuzzy membership functions can lead to poor route selection and hence to unacceptable packet losses. This thesis evaluated the Channel Quality membership function of, an existing fuzzy link quality estimator and it was seen that this membership function didn???t perform as well as expected. This thesis presents an experimental approach to determine a suitable Channel Quality fuzzy membership function based on varying the shape of the fuzzy set for a multipath wireless sensor network scenario and choosing an optimum shape that maximizes the Packet Delivery Ratio of the network. The computed fuzzy set membership functions were evaluated against an existing fuzzy link quality estimator under more complex scenarios and it is shown the performance of the experimental refined membership function was better in terms of packet reception ratio and end to end delay.The fuzzy link quality estimator was applied in WiseRoute (a simple converge cast based routing protocol) and shown that this SNR based fuzzy link estimator performed better than the original implemented RSSI based link quality used in WiseRoute.

No description available.

In the construction industry, the adoption of concurrent engineering principles requires the development of effective enabling IT tools. Such tools need to address specific areas of need in the implementation of concurrent engineering in construction. Collaborative decision-making is an important area in this regard. A review of existing works has shown that none of the existing approaches to collaborative decision-making adequately addresses the needs of distributed construction project teams. The review also reveals that fuzzy logic offers great potential for application to collaborative decision-making. This thesis describes a Web-based collaborative decision-making system for construction project teams using fuzzy logic. Fuzzy logic is applied to tackle uncertainties and imprecision during the decision-making process. The prototype system is designed as Web-based to cope with the difficulty in the case where project team members are geographically distributed and physical meetings are inconvenient/or expensive. The prototype was developed into a Web-based software using Java and allows a virtual meeting to be held within a construction project team via a client-server system. The prototype system also supports objectivity in group decision-making and the approach encapsulated in the prototype system can be used for generic decision-making scenarios. The system implementation revealed that collaborative decision-making within a virtual construction project team can be significantly enhanced by the use of a fuzzybased approach. A generic scenario and a construction scenario were used to evaluate the system and the evaluation confirmed that the system does proffer many benefits in facilitating collaborative decision-making in construction. It is concluded that the prototype decision-making system represents a unique and innovative approach to collaborative decision-making in construction project teams. It not only contributes to the implementation of concurrent engineering in construction, but also it represents a substantial advance over existing approaches.

Risk management is essential for the construction industry to successfully fulfill project objectives. Several studies were conducted in the past decade to support quantitative risk analysis. These studies were based on using some of the commonly used techniques such as risk matrix, decision trees, Monte Carlo, and sensitivity analysis. However, some of these techniques are limited because they either do not support quantitative risk analysis, or are difficult to be utilized due to the required amount of data to support quantitative risk analysis. To address such limitations, a comprehensive framework was developed, based on combining three well-known techniques in reliability engineering, i.e., failure mode and effect analysis, fault trees, and event trees with fuzzy logic. Fuzzy logic and failure mode and effect analysis were first combined to provide an answer to the problem of identifying of critical risk events through the development of a fuzzy expert system software package named Risk Criticality Analyzer. To support quantitative risk analysis in the construction industry, fault tree and event tree were combined, and fuzzy logic is used to solve both of them. Fuzzy arithmetic operations on fuzzy numbers were used to represent logical gates in the fault tree structure, and to conduct event tree analysis. To automate solving both fault trees and event trees, Fuzzy Reliability Analyzer was designed and implemented using Visual Basic.net. Both tools were then validated through case studies. The results indicate that by using the proposed methodology, the risk can be assessed effectively and efficiently. The proposed framework presented in this research provides the contribution of combining fuzzy logic with failure mode and effect analysis, fault trees, and event trees in a comprehensive framework to support risk identification, risk assessment, and risk response. Since the proposed framework is based on using linguistic terms, risk analysts are offered a more convenient and practical framework to conduct risk analysis. The proposed framework was able to address several limitations attributed to the conventional application of failure mode and effect analysis and offered a generic framework that can be adapted to fit any industry or organization. / Construction Engineering and Management

There is an increasing pressure on planners to address rapid urbanisation and its impacts on the aesthetic qualities of urban landscape. This is mainly due to the increased sensitivity of the public towards the environment and its greater role, legislatively mandated, in the decision making process. One of the major challenges in land use planning is balancing spatial equity with economic efficiency, where the aspirations and expectations of stakeholders and those of the broader community, in terms of use of the land and its potential, are evaluated and met in a fair manner. The Hills Face Zone (HFZ) of the Adelaide Metropolis in South Australia, currently extending across nine Local Government jurisdictions, is one such example. The HFZ, which provides an important landscape backdrop to the Adelaide Metropolis, has been identified as critically important in the South Australian Planning Strategy and various Development Plans. It is recognised as providing a distinctive visual character to the city and other significant benefits including biodiversity, tourism and recreation. / The HFZ, first introduced in the Adelaide Metropolitan Development Plan in 1962 was endorsed by the South Australian Parliament in 1967 and codified through legislative changes to the Planning Act in 1971 to accommodate the importance of this landscape feature of Adelaide illustrating the strategic intentions of the government. However, despite the best intentions of all the governments since then, the HFZ stil seems to be clouded by confusion and uncertainty four decades on. There are two types of confusion and uncertainty associated with the HFZ landscape. The first, being the clarity of the statutory policy for the HFZ itself, which is the cause of different interpretations of the regulation by the planners, often, leading to lengthy and costly court cases. The second largely ignored so far, is the boundary (spatial) extent of the zone. Within Geographical Information Science these could be termed as the thematic uncertainty and the spatial uncertainty. / Assessment and quantification of the landscape???s thematic and spatial attributes underpinned by a scientific methodology is essential to provide a clear, accountable and sustainable strategic land use plan. This is more important in an urban planning context where planning zone boundaries can have substantial economic impacts, especially if most of the land parcels happen to be under private ownership. / This thesis examined an alternative approach to address the strategic land use planning issues pertaining to delineation of landscape boundaries within the framework of GIS by interpreting the planning policy in a Fuzzy Logic domain. A model for addressing the spatial uncertainty in Landscape Extent Estimation and Mapping (LEEM) using GIS and Fuzzy Logic is discussed and a methodology to establish categorical zone boundaries using fuzzy terms like good view, moderate slope, elevated areas etc. is demonstrated. Boundaries of the HFZ with Adelaide???s Mitcham Local Government Area (LGA) as a case study have been redrawn using various interpretations of visibility, land cover, greenness, slope and elevation of the landscape as a natural backdrop of Adelaide. / Three empirical models, adopting the Modelling View of knowledge engineering to represent a pro-conservation perspective, a pro-development perspective and a planner???s perspective were developed to illustrate the future of the HFZ as aspired to by each group. It was observed that a small difference in linguistic approximation values for the process variables, which translates to slightly differing perceptions in planning terminology, could lead to substantial difference in the outcomes. Thus, in planning terms, this would mean that although both the pro development and the pro conservation lobby are united in their aspirations for a sustainable HFZ, small difference in opinions for the process variables could lead to a substantial difference in the extent of the HFZ zone. / A successful marriage between computer modelling using Fuzzy Logic within Geographic Information Systems and expert opinion is demonstrated and, as such, suggests the suitability of these tools in planning decision making in the future. / Thesis ([PhDPlanning])--University of South Australia, 2005.

Extensive brackishwater aquaculture, which is a dominant land-based aquaculture system in Indonesia, has experienced variable success in most farming locations in the country due to poor understanding of spatial assessment of environmental factors and rudimentary site selection criteria. Despite tremendous potential, the application of GIS and remote sensing in spatial assessment has tended to focus on Boolean (Crisp) logic that is often unable to effectively handle the complexity and spatial variability of key environmental factors for the development of aquaculture. This study explored the possibility of integrating fuzzy logic techniques into GIS and remote sensing technology to generate more robust mapping protocols in aquaculture, compensating for the disadvantages of the Crisp method. Two models were developed in two different provinces in Indonesia to spatially assess soil and hydrological constraints on extensive brackishwater aquaculture. The soil assessment focussed on acid sulfate soils (ASS) and sandy-textured sediments in Aceh, and the hydrological study focused on investigating important wave parameters that influence the suitability of coastal areas for siting extensive pond units in South Sulawesi. The study showed that fuzzy-based classification methods, integrated into the image analysis, was highly effective in identifying existing and potential pond areas for extensive brackishwater aquaculture compared to the best result of the commonly used Crisp method. By addition of one or more key environmental variables of ASS into the fuzzy-classified existing and potential ponds areas, a very robust predictive tool to identify potential ponds areas affected by ASS in Kembang Tanjung, Aceh was developed. A more detailed assessment of ASS developed in this study also successfully highlighted the severity of sandy-soils and identified them as another key soil variable that has and will severely impact on pond productivity. The second model developed by the study enables fuzzy logic to be integrated into GIS to predict the possible areas impacted by moderate to high energy wave conditions and possible ways of minimising their direct and indirect impacts. The models developed in this study were shown to work well in both study sites and can be applied elsewhere. The mapping outputs are easy to interpret even by stakeholders with no prior training in map reading. Overall, the models have the potential to reduce planning errors and to improve decision making in aquaculture provided that quality data sources are used.

There is an increasing pressure on planners to address rapid urbanisation and its impacts on the aesthetic qualities of urban landscape. This is mainly due to the increased sensitivity of the public towards the environment and its greater role, legislatively mandated, in the decision making process. One of the major challenges in land use planning is balancing spatial equity with economic efficiency, where the aspirations and expectations of stakeholders and those of the broader community, in terms of use of the land and its potential, are evaluated and met in a fair manner. The Hills Face Zone (HFZ) of the Adelaide Metropolis in South Australia, currently extending across nine Local Government jurisdictions, is one such example. The HFZ, which provides an important landscape backdrop to the Adelaide Metropolis, has been identified as critically important in the South Australian Planning Strategy and various Development Plans. It is recognised as providing a distinctive visual character to the city and other significant benefits including biodiversity, tourism and recreation. / The HFZ, first introduced in the Adelaide Metropolitan Development Plan in 1962 was endorsed by the South Australian Parliament in 1967 and codified through legislative changes to the Planning Act in 1971 to accommodate the importance of this landscape feature of Adelaide illustrating the strategic intentions of the government. However, despite the best intentions of all the governments since then, the HFZ stil seems to be clouded by confusion and uncertainty four decades on. There are two types of confusion and uncertainty associated with the HFZ landscape. The first, being the clarity of the statutory policy for the HFZ itself, which is the cause of different interpretations of the regulation by the planners, often, leading to lengthy and costly court cases. The second largely ignored so far, is the boundary (spatial) extent of the zone. Within Geographical Information Science these could be termed as the thematic uncertainty and the spatial uncertainty. / Assessment and quantification of the landscape???s thematic and spatial attributes underpinned by a scientific methodology is essential to provide a clear, accountable and sustainable strategic land use plan. This is more important in an urban planning context where planning zone boundaries can have substantial economic impacts, especially if most of the land parcels happen to be under private ownership. / This thesis examined an alternative approach to address the strategic land use planning issues pertaining to delineation of landscape boundaries within the framework of GIS by interpreting the planning policy in a Fuzzy Logic domain. A model for addressing the spatial uncertainty in Landscape Extent Estimation and Mapping (LEEM) using GIS and Fuzzy Logic is discussed and a methodology to establish categorical zone boundaries using fuzzy terms like good view, moderate slope, elevated areas etc. is demonstrated. Boundaries of the HFZ with Adelaide???s Mitcham Local Government Area (LGA) as a case study have been redrawn using various interpretations of visibility, land cover, greenness, slope and elevation of the landscape as a natural backdrop of Adelaide. / Three empirical models, adopting the Modelling View of knowledge engineering to represent a pro-conservation perspective, a pro-development perspective and a planner???s perspective were developed to illustrate the future of the HFZ as aspired to by each group. It was observed that a small difference in linguistic approximation values for the process variables, which translates to slightly differing perceptions in planning terminology, could lead to substantial difference in the outcomes. Thus, in planning terms, this would mean that although both the pro development and the pro conservation lobby are united in their aspirations for a sustainable HFZ, small difference in opinions for the process variables could lead to a substantial difference in the extent of the HFZ zone. / A successful marriage between computer modelling using Fuzzy Logic within Geographic Information Systems and expert opinion is demonstrated and, as such, suggests the suitability of these tools in planning decision making in the future. / Thesis ([PhDPlanning])--University of South Australia, 2005.