M.Ing. / The principal reasons for the development of a prototype improved control system are the high maintenance costs and unreliability of Spoomet's fleet of class 6E/6E1 resistor technology electric main line locomotives. These factors may largely be attributed to two fundamental shortcomings of the existing locomotive control systems, namely the lack of inherent feedback and application of inconsequent control practices during acceleration from standstill. The improved control system features the application of a rule based fuzzy controller, implementing human skill and experience to control tractive effort of a resistor technology main line locomotive. The aim of the fuzzy controller is to accelerate the train from standstill to approximately 35 km/h, smoothly and safely. The prototype fuzzy controller was implemented with a personal computer using an advanced fuzzy logic development system. A simulation model was developed for the locomotive and the load. This model was used to first test the structure of the controller and the initial rule blocks. Following the verification of the fuzzy rules on the simulation model, a relay interface was developed to implement the operation of the control system in coupled mode with the existing control system on a locomotive. The interactive fine-tuning and evaluation of the fuzzy rules were performed during this phase of the development. The test results include the successful evaluation of the prototype fuzzy controller under a variety of typical and "worst case" operating conditions, as well as under conditions of wheel slip. The industrialisation and long term considerations for continued development of the fuzzy logic controller are described in the conclusion.

As cloud computing continues to gain popularity and its economies of scale continue to improve, stakeholders want to minimise the security risk, protect their data and other resources while maximising the gains of using any cloud resources and its application. It is predicted that by the end of 2017, bulk of spending on any IT infrastructure would be on cloud infrastructure and services as many critical applications – power, medical, finance among others continue to be migrated onto cloud platforms. For these sectors, the security challenges of cloud adoption continue to be of a great concern even with its benefits. The ability to trust and measure security levels of any cloud platform is paramount in the complete adoption and use of cloud computing in many mission critical sectors. In-depth study and analysis of the trustworthiness of various cloud based platforms/systems are often limited by the complex and dynamic nature of cloud and often do not correctly foresee or practically determine the varying trust relationship between and across the cloud layers, components (schedulers), algorithms and applications especially at a large scale. Tradition security and privacy controls continue to be implemented on cloud but due to its fluid and dynamic nature, research work in the area of end-user attestable trust evaluation of the cloud platform is limited. Most of the current simulation tools do not cater for modelling of Trust on scalable multi-layer cloud deployments (including workflow and infrastructure).Even as these tools continue to be implemented none has been used to cater for all the layers of the cloud platform. This research presents a deployment of trusted computing applied in cloud computing suited for mission critical applications. It attempts to simplify the integration of trusted platform module based integrity measurement into cloud infrastructure. Using Eucalyptus cloud software on server-grade hardware, a trusted community cloud platform was deployed on the Brunel Network as presented in Chapter 3. Security is enhanced by the integration of an end-user accessible TPM integrity measurement and verification process; this guarantees trusted ownership and integrity of the uploaded data and provides additional level of trust for the cloud platform. This research further presents a technique which allows data owners to first secure their data offline by inserting colour drops into the data using steganography. The colour drops are used to detect unauthorised modifications, verify data owner in the event the copyright of the data is in dispute and identify the path through which it was tampered with. This process ensures integrity and confidentiality of the resources. This thesis also presents a trust model using fuzzy logic which was simulated using Simulink in Matlab and subsequently evaluated on an experimental platform deployed on the Brunel network. Using this model, end-users can determine the trust values for a cloud platform or service, as well as, classify and compare various cloud platforms. The results obtained suggest that the outputs of this research work can improve end-user confidence when selecting or consuming cloud resources with enhanced data integrity and protection.

“Information is the lifeblood of any organisation and everything an organisation does involves using information in some way” (Peppard, 1993, p.5). Therefore, it can be argued that information is an organisation’s most precious asset and as with all other assets, like equipment, money, personnel, and so on, this asset needs to be protected properly at all times (Whitman & Mattord, 2003, pp.1-14). The introduction of modern technologies, such as e-commerce, will not only increase the value of information, but will also increase security requirements of those organizations that are intending to utilize such technologies. Evidence of these requirements can be observed in the 2001 CSI/FBI Computer Crime and Security Survey (Power, 2001). According to this source, the annual financial losses caused through security breaches in 2001 have increased by 277% when compared to the results from 1997. The 2002 and 2003 Computer Crime and Security Survey confirms this by stating that the threat of computer crime and other related information security breaches continues unabated and that the financial toll is mounting (Richardson, 2003). Information is normally protected by means of a process of identifying, implementing, managing and maintaining a set of information security controls, countermeasures or safeguards (GMITS, 1998). In the rest of this thesis, the term security controls will be utilized when referring to information protection mechanisms or procedures. These security controls can be of a physical (for example, door locks), a technical (for example, passwords) and/or a procedural nature (for example, to make back-up copies of critical files)(Pfleeger, 2003, pp.22-23; Stallings, 1995, p.1). The effective identification, implementation, management and maintenance of this set of security controls are usually integrated into an Information Security Management Program, the objective of which is to ensure an acceptable level of information confidentiality, integrity and availability within the organisation at all times (Pfleeger, 2003, pp.10-12; Whitman & Mattord, 2003, pp.1-14; Von Solms, 1993). Once the most effective security controls have been identified and implemented, it is important that this level of security be maintained through a process of continued control. For this reason, it is important that proper change management, measurement, audit, monitoring and detection be implemented (Bruce & Dempsey, 1997). Monitoring and detection are important functions and refer to the ability to identify and detect situations where information security policies have been compromised and/or breached or security violations have taken place (BS 7799, 1999; GMITS, 1998; Von Solms, 1993). The Information Security Officer is usually the person responsible for most of the operational tasks in the control process within an Information Security Management Program (Von Solms, 1993). In practice, these tasks could also be performed by a system administrator, network administrator, etc. In the rest of the thesis the person responsible for these tasks will be referred to as system administrator. These tasks have proved to be very challenging and demanding. The main reason for this is the rapid advancement of technology in the discipline of Information Technology, for example, the modern distributed computing environment, the Internet, the “freedom” of end-users, the introduction of e-commerce, and etc. (Whitman & Mattord, 2003, p.9; Sundaram, 2000, p.1; Moses, 2001, p.6; Allen, 2001, p.1). As a result of the importance of this control process, and especially the monitoring and detection tasks, it is vital that the system administrator has proper tools at his/her disposal to perform this task effectively. Many of the tools that are currently available to the system administrator, utilize technical controls, such as, audit logs and user profiles. Audit logs are normally used to record all events executed on a system. These logs are simply files that record security and non-security related events that take place on a computer system within an organisation. For this reason, these logs can be used by these tools to gain valuable information on security violations, such as intrusions and, therefore, are able to monitor the current actions of each user (Microsoft, 2002; Smith, 1989, pp. 116-117). User profiles are files that contain information about users` desktop operating environments and are used by the operating system to structure each user environment so that it is the same each time a user logs onto the system (Microsoft, 2002; Block, 1994, p.54). Thus, a user profile is used to indicate which actions the user is allowed to perform on the system. Both technical controls (audit logs and user profiles) are frequently available in most computer environments (such as, UNIX, Firewalls, Windows, etc.) (Cooper et al, 1995, p.129). Therefore, seeing that the audit logs record most events taking place on an information system and the user profile indicates the authorized actions of each user, the system administrator could most probably utilise these controls in a more proactive manner.

This diploma thesis deals with the selection of suppliers operating memory for the company Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. (registered in the Czech Republic under the trade name Foxconn) using fuzzy logic.

Abstract Drying, especially rotary drying, is without doubt one of the oldest and most common unit operations in the process industries. Rotary dryers are workhorses which are easy and reliable to operate, but neither energy-efficient nor environmentally friendly. In order to conform better to the requirements of modern society concerning working conditions, safety practices and environmental aspects, the development of control systems can provide opportunities for improving dryer operation and efficiency. Our in depth understanding of rotary drying is poor, because it is a very complex process that includes the movement of solids in addition to thermal drying. Thus even today rotary dryers are controlled partly manually, based on the operator's "eye" and experience, and partly relying on conventional control methods. The control of a rotary dryer is difficult due to the long time delay, which means that accidental variations in the input variables can disturb the process for long periods of time before they are reflected in the output variables. To eliminate such disturbances at an early stage, increasing interest has been shown in more sophisticated control systems such as model-based constructs, fuzzy logic and neural nets in recent years. Although it has proved difficult and time-consuming to develop model-based control systems, due to the complexity of the process, intelligent control methods based on fuzzy logic and neural nets offer attractive solutions for improving dryer control. These methods make it possible to utilize experience, knowledge and historical data, large amounts of which are readily available. The aim of this research was to improve dryer control by developing new hybrid control systems, one consisting of a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) and PI controller and the other of a three-layer neural network (NN) and PI controller. The FLC and NN act as supervisory controllers giving set points for the PI controllers. The performance of each was examined both with simulations and in pilot plant experiments. The pilot plant dryer at the University of Oulu closely resembles a real industrial situation, so that the results are relevant. Evaluation of these results showed that the intelligent hybrid controllers are well suited for the control of a rotary dryer, giving a performance in which disturbances can be eliminated rapidly and operation of the dryer can thereby be improved, with the aim of enhancing its efficiency and environmental friendliness.

M.Ing. / Fuzzy controllers are increasingly being accepted by engineers and scientists alike as a viable alternative for classical controllers. The processes involved in fuzzy controllers closely imitate human control processes. Human responses to stimuli are not governed by transfer functions and neither are those from fuzzy controllers. The fuzzy approach is of course not the answer to all problems, but it can clearly be very successful, and can also be helpful to anyone involved in developing control systems. This study however is devoted to the environmental control task within greenhouses and the fuzzy approach is proposed in order to fulfil this task. To create near optimal conditions within a greenhouse for plant growth two environmental factors are proposed to be controlled namely the temperature and relative humidity. These factors are interdependent and they make the environmental control within a greenhouse a multi-variable control problem. Furthermore, the non-linear physical phenomena governing the dynamics of temperature and relative humidity in such a process makes it very difficult to model and to control using traditional techniques. Thus, it can be said that the environmental control in greenhouses is an art, that only expert growers bring to near perfection. The central theme of this study is the development of a multi-input-single-output heuristic rule-based fuzzy logic control algorithm, for environmental control within a greenhouse. This study is intended to improve existing environmental control systems by implementing this control technique. The control algorithm is tested in an experimental greenhouse and the results obtained indicate that fuzzy logic control is viable for environmental control within greenhouses.

The broad goal in this thesis is to enumerate elements and fuzzy subsets of a finite set enjoying some useful properties through the well-known counting technique of the principle of inclusion-exclusion. We consider the set of membership values to be finite and uniformly spaced in the real unit interval. Further we define an equivalence relation with regards to the cardinalities of fuzzy subsets providing the Möbius function and Möbius inversion in that context.

Global connectivity, for anyone, at anyplace, at anytime, to provide high-speed, high-quality, and reliable communication channels for mobile devices, is now becoming a reality. The credit mainly goes to the recent technological advances in wireless communications comprised of a wide range of technologies, services, and applications to fulfill the particular needs of end-users in different deployment scenarios (Wi-Fi, WiMAX, and 3G/4G cellular systems). In such a heterogeneous wireless environment, one of the key ingredients to provide efficient ubiquitous computing with guaranteed quality and continuity of service is the design of intelligent handoff algorithms. Traditional single-metric handoff decision algorithms, such as Received Signal Strength (RSS) based, are not efficient and intelligent enough to minimize the number of unnecessary handoffs, decision delays, and call-dropping and/or blocking probabilities. This research presented a novel approach for the design and implementation of a multi-criteria vertical handoff algorithm for heterogeneous wireless networks. Several parallel Fuzzy Logic Controllers were utilized in combination with different types of ranking algorithms and metric weighting schemes to implement two major modules: the first module estimated the necessity of handoff, and the other module was developed to select the best network as the target of handoff. Simulations based on different traffic classes, utilizing various types of wireless networks were carried out by implementing a wireless test-bed inspired by the concept of Rudimentary Network Emulator (RUNE). Simulation results indicated that the proposed scheme provided better performance in terms of minimizing the unnecessary handoffs, call dropping, and call blocking and handoff blocking probabilities. When subjected to Conversational traffic and compared against the RSS-based reference algorithm, the proposed scheme, utilizing the FTOPSIS ranking algorithm, was able to reduce the average outage probability of MSs moving with high speeds by 17%, new call blocking probability by 22%, the handoff blocking probability by 16%, and the average handoff rate by 40%. The significant reduction in the resulted handoff rate provides MS with efficient power consumption, and more available battery life. These percentages indicated a higher probability of guaranteed session continuity and quality of the currently utilized service, resulting in higher user satisfaction levels.

Global connectivity is on the verge of becoming a reality to provide high-speed, high-quality, and reliable communication channels for mobile devices at anytime, anywhere in the world. In a heterogeneous wireless environment, one of the key ingredients to provide efficient and ubiquitous computing with guaranteed quality and continuity of service is the design of intelligent handoff algorithms. Traditional single-metric handoff decision algorithms, such as Received Signal Strength (RSS), are not efficient and intelligent enough to minimize the number of unnecessary handoffs, decision delays, call-dropping and blocking probabilities. This research presents a novel approach for of a Multi Attribute Decision Making (MADM) model based on an integrated fuzzy approach for target network selection.

FSW is a welding technique invented and patented by The Welding Institute in 1991. This welding technique utilises the benefits of solid-state welding to materials regarded as difficult to weld by fusion processes. The productivity of the process was not optimised as the real-time dynamics of the material and tool changes were not considered. Furthermore, the process has a plastic weld region where no traditional modelling describing the interaction between the tool and work piece is available. Fuzzy logic technology is one of the artificial intelligent strategies used to improve the control of the dynamics of industrial processes. Fuzzy control was proposed as a viable solution to improve the productivity of the FSW process. The simulations indicated that FLC can use feed rate and welding speed to adaptively regulate the feed force and tool temperature respectively, irrespective of varying tool and material change. The simulations presented fuzzy logic technology to be robust enough to regulate FSW process in the absence of accurate mathematical models.