Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:46:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 PauloHAS_TESE.pdf: 9268945 bytes, checksum: 08c0c5f93ed7b964b99c6df2ee26ab1b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-12-19 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / The Car Rental Salesman Problem (CaRS) is a variant of the classical Traveling Salesman Problem which was not described in the literature where a tour of visits can be decomposed into contiguous paths that may be performed in different rental cars. The aim is to determine the Hamiltonian cycle that results in a final minimum cost, considering the cost of the route added to the cost of an expected penalty paid for each exchange of vehicles on the route. This penalty is due to the return of the car dropped to the base. This paper introduces the general problem and illustrates some examples, also featuring some of its associated variants. An overview of the complexity of this combinatorial problem is also outlined, to justify their classification in the NPhard class. A database of instances for the problem is presented, describing the methodology of its constitution. The presented problem is also the subject of a study based on experimental algorithmic implementation of six metaheuristic solutions, representing adaptations of the best of state-of-the-art heuristic programming. New neighborhoods, construction procedures, search operators, evolutionary agents, cooperation by multi-pheromone are created for this problem. Furtermore, computational experiments and comparative performance tests are conducted on a sample of 60 instances of the created database, aiming to offer a algorithm with an efficient solution for this problem. These results will illustrate the best performance reached by the transgenetic algorithm in all instances of the dataset / O Problema do Caixeiro Alugador (CaRS) ? uma variante ainda n?o descrita na literatura do cl?ssico Problema do Caixeiro Viajante onde o tradicional tour de visitas do caixeiro pode ser decomposto em caminhos cont?guos e que podem ser realizados em diferentes carros alugados. O problema consiste em determinar o ciclo hamiltoniano que resulte em um custo final m?nimo, considerando o custo da rota adicionado ao custo de uma prov?vel penaliza??o paga em cada troca de ve?culos na rota, penaliza??o devida ao retorno do carro descartado at? a sua cidade base. Sem perda para a generalidade do caso, os custos do aluguel do carro podem ser considerados embutidos nos custos da rota do carro. O presente trabalho introduz o problema geral e o exemplifica, caracterizando igualmente algumas variantes associadas. Uma an?lise geral da complexidade desse problema combinat?rio ? descrita, visando justificar sua classifica??o na classe NP-dif?cil. Um banco de inst?ncias para o problema ? apresentado, descrevendo-se a metodologia de sua constitui??o. O problema proposto tamb?m ? objeto de um estudo algor?tmico experimental baseado na aplica??o de seis metaheur?sticas de solu??o, representando adapta??es do melhor do estado da arte em programa??o heur?stica. Novas vizinhan?as, procedimentos construtivos, operadores de busca, agentes evolucion?rios, coopera??o por multiferom?nios, s?o criados para o caso. Experimentos computacionais comparativos e testes de desempenho s?o realizados sobre uma amostra de 60 inst?ncias, visando oferecer um algoritmo de solu??o competitivo para o problema. Conclui-se pela vantagem do algoritmo transgen?tico em todos os conjuntos de inst?ncias

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-03T15:48:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MatheusSM_TESE.pdf: 3657538 bytes, checksum: 05bf71663b044728a1e70b6db57b834e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-21 / This paper introduces a new variant of the Traveling Car Renter Problem, named Prizecollecting Traveling Car Renter Problem. In this problem, a set of vertices, each associated with a bonus, and a set of vehicles are given. The objective is to determine a cycle that visits some vertices collecting, at least, a pre-defined bonus, and minimizing the cost of the tour that can be traveled with different vehicles. A mathematical formulation is presented and implemented in a solver to produce results for sixty-two instances. The proposed problem is also subject of an experimental study based on the algorithmic application of four metaheuristics representing the best adaptations of the state of the art of the heuristic programming.We also provide new local search operators which exploit the neighborhoods of the problem, construction procedures and adjustments, created specifically for the addressed problem. Comparative computational experiments and performance tests are performed on a sample of 80 instances, aiming to offer a competitive algorithm to the problem. We conclude that memetic algorithms, computational transgenetic and a hybrid evolutive algorithm are competitive in tests performed / Este trabalho apresenta uma nova variante do problema do Caixeiro Alugador ainda n?o descrita na literatura, denominada de Caixeiro Alugador com Coleta de Pr?mios. Neste problema s?o disponibilizados um conjunto de v?rtices, cada um com um b?nus associado e um conjunto de ve?culos. O objetivo do problema ? determinar um ciclo que visite alguns v?rtices coletando, pelo menos, um b?nus pr?-de nido e minimizando os custos de viagem atrav?s da rota, que pode ser feita com ve?culos de diferentes tipos. ? apresentada uma formula??o matem?tica e implementada em um solver produzindo resultados em sessenta e duas inst?ncias. O problema proposto tamb?m ? objeto de um estudo algor?tmico experimental baseado na aplica??o de quatro metaheur?sticas de solu??o, representando adapta??es do melhor do estado da arte em programa??o heur?stica. Nesse trabalho tamb?m apresentamos a constitui??o de novos operadores que exploram as vizinhan?as do problema, procedimentos construtivos e adapta??es, criados especifi camente para o problema abordado. Experimentos computacionais comparativos e testes de desempenho s?o realizados sobre uma amostra de 80 inst?ncias, visando oferecer um algoritmo de solu??o competitivo para o problema. Conclui-se que algoritmos com abordagem mem?tica, transgen ?tica e evolucion?ria h?brida obtiveram resultados competitivos nos testes efetuados. Palavras-chave: Caixeiro Alugador com Coleta de Pr?mios. Metaheur?sticas. GRASP/VNS. Algoritmo Mem?tico. Transgen?tica Computacional. Computa??o Evolucion?ria

La prise de décision est une partie intégrante de notre vie quotidienne où le décideur est confronté à des problèmes composés de plusieurs objectifs habituellement contradictoires. Dans ce travail, nous traitons des problèmes d'optimisation multiobjectif dans des espaces de recherche continus ou discrets. Nous avons développé plusieurs nouveaux algorithmes basés sur les métaheuristiques hybrides évolutionnaires, en particulier sur l'algorithme MOEA/D. Nous avons proposé l'algorithme HEMH qui utilise l'algorithme DM-GRASP pour construire une population initiale de solutions de bonne qualité dispersées le long de l'ensemble des solutions Pareto optimales. Les résultats expérimentaux montrent la supériorité de toutes les variantes hybrides proposées sur les algorithmes originaux MOEA/D et SPEA2. Malgré ces bons résultats, notre approche possède quelques limitations, levées dans une version améliorée de HEMH : HEMH2 et deux autres variantes HEMHde et HEMHpr. Le Adaptive Binary DE inclus dans les HEMH2 et HEMHde a de meilleures capacités d'exploration qui pallient aux capacités de recherche locale contenues dans la HEMH, HEMH2 et HEMHde. Motivés par ces résultats, nous avons proposé un nouvel algorithme baptisé HESSA pour explorer un espace continu de recherche où le processus de recherche est réalisé par différentes stratégies de recherche. Les résultats expérimentaux montrent la supériorité de HESSA à la fois sur MOEA/D et dMOPSO. Tous les algorithmes proposés ont été vérifiés, testé et comparés à certaines méthodes MOEAs. Les résultats expérimentaux montrent que toutes les propositions sont très compétitives et peuvent être considérés comme une alternative fiable / Many real-world decision making problems consist of several conflicting objectives, the solutions of which is called the Pareto-optimal set. Hybrid metaheuristics proved their efficiency in solving these problems. They tend to enhance search capabilities by incorporating different metaheuristics. Thus, we are concerned with developing new hybrid schemes by incorporating different strategies with exploiting the pros and avoiding the drawback of the original ones. First, HEMH is proposed in which the search process includes two phases DMGRASP obtains an initial set of efficient solutions in the 1st phase. Then, greedy randomized path-relinking with local search or reproduction operators explore the non-visited regions. The efficient solutions explored over the search are collected. Second, a comparative study is developed to study the hybridization of different metaheuristics with MOEA/D. The 1st proposal combines adaptive discrete differential Evolution with MOEA/D. The 2nd combines greedy path-relinking with MOEA/D. The 3rd and the 4th proposals combine both of them in MOEA/D. Third, an improved version of HEMH is presented. HEMH2 uses inverse greedy to build its initial population. Then, differential evolution and path-relink improves these solutions by investigating the non-visited regions in the search space. Also, Pareto adaptive epsilon concept controls the archiving process. Motivated by the obtained results, HESSA is proposed to solve continuous problems. It adopts a pool of search strategies, each of which has a specified success ratio. A new offspring is generated using a randomly selected one. Then, the success ratios are adapted according to the success of the generated offspring. The efficient solutions are collected to act as global guides. The proposed algorithms are verified against the state of the art MOEAs using a set of instances from literature. Results indicate that all proposals are competitive and represent viable alternatives

O ambiente de produção abordado neste trabalho é o Job Shop Flexível (JSF), uma generalização do Job Shop (JS). O problema de programação de tarefas, ou jobs, no ambiente JS é classificado por Garey; Johnson e Sethi (1976) como NP-Difícil e o JSF é, no mínimo, tão difícil quanto o JS. O JSF é composto por um conjunto de jobs, cada qual constituído por operações. Cada operação deve ser processada individualmente, sem interrupção, em uma única máquina de um subconjunto de máquinas habilitadas. O principal critério de desempenho considerado é a minimização dos atrasos dos jobs. São apresentados modelos de Programação Linear Inteira Mista (PLIM) para minimizar o atraso total e o instante de término da última operação, o makespan. São propostas novas regras de prioridade dos jobs, além de adaptações de regras da literatura. Tais regras são utilizadas por heurísticas construtivas e são aliadas a estratégias cujo objetivo é explorar características específicas do JSF. Visando aprimorar as soluções inicialmente obtidas, são propostas buscas locais e outros mecanismos de melhoria utilizados no desenvolvimento de três meta-heurísticas de diferentes categorias. Essas meta-heurísticas são: Iterated Local Search (ILS), classificada como meta-heurística de trajetória; Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search (GRASP), meta-heurística construtiva; e Artificial Bee Colony (ABC), meta-heurística populacional recentemente proposta. Esses métodos foram selecionados por alcançarem bons resultados para diversos problemas de otimização da literatura. São realizados experimentos computacionais com 600 instâncias do JSF, permitindo comparações entre os métodos de resolução. Os resultados mostram que explorar as características do problema permite que uma das regras de prioridade propostas supere a melhor regra da literatura em 81% das instâncias. As meta-heurísticas ILS, GRASP e ABC chegam a conseguir mais de 31% de melhoria sobre as soluções iniciais e a obter atrasos, em média, somente 2,24% superiores aos das soluções ótimas. Também são propostas modificações nas meta-heurísticas que permitem obter melhorias ainda mais expressivas sem aumento do tempo de execução. Adicionalmente é estudada uma versão do JSF com operações de Montagem e Desmontagem (JSFMD) e os experimentos realizados com um conjunto de 150 instâncias também indicam o bom desempenho dos métodos desenvolvidos. / The production environment addressed herein is the Flexible Job Shop (FJS), a generalization of the Job Shop (JS). In the JS environment, the jobs scheduling problem is classified by Garey; Johnson and Sethi (1976) as NP-Hard and the FJS is at least as difficult as the JS. FJS is composed of a set of jobs, each consisting of operations. Each operation must be processed individually, without interruption, in a single machine of a subset of enabled machines. The main performance criterion is minimizing the jobs tardiness. Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) models are presented. These models minimize the total tardiness and the completion time of the last operation, makespan. New priority rules of jobs are proposed, as well as adaptations of rules from the literature. These rules are used by constructive heuristics and are combined with strategies aimed at exploiting specific characteristics of FSJ. In order to improve the solutions initially obtained, local searches and other improvement mechanisms are proposed and used in the development of metaheuristics of three different categories. These metaheuristics are: Iterated Local Search (ILS), classified as trajectory metaheuristic; Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search (GRASP), constructive metaheuristic, and Artificial Bee Colony (ABC), recently proposed population metaheuristic. These methods were selected owing to their good results for various optimization problems in the literature. Computational experiments using 600 FJS instances are carried out to allow comparisons between the resolution methods. The results show that exploiting the characteristics of the problem allows one of the proposed priority rules to exceed the best literature rule in about 81% of instances. Metaheuristics ILS, GRASP and ABC achieve more than 31% improvement over the initial solutions and obtain an average tardiness only 2.24% higher than the optimal solutions. Modifications in metaheuristics are proposed to obtain even more significant improvements without increased execution time. Additionally, a version called Disassembly and Assembly FSJ (DAFJS) is studied and the experiments performed with a set of 150 instances also indicate good performance of the methods developed.

The human gaze is pivotal in motion planning and control. Gaze is typically directed at visual target sites prior to physical interactions with them. This proactive gaze (PEG) behavior has been observed in a multitude of physical situations. However, PEG has not been examined in virtual reality (VR). Identification of PEG in VR could be helpful for digital human modeling applications and human-robot interactions. In this study we asked 10 participants to perform a pick-and-place (PAP) task in VR while we were tracking gaze behavior. Our results indicate that PEG also occurs in VR. Furthermore, the action to reach directly towards the PAP object or walk to it before reaching, results in different gaze strategies. Relocating before a reach is associated with gaze to additional sites, such as the floor and the table upon which the object was placed. / Den mänskliga blicken är avgörande för planering och kontroll av rörelse. Blicken riktas vanligtvis mot visuella mål före interaktion med dessa. Denna proaktiva blick (eng. ’proactive gaze’; PEG) har observerats i många olika slags fysiska situationer. Dock har inte PEG undersökts i virtual reality (VR). Identifiering av PEG i VR skulle kunna vara användbart för applikationer med digital mänsklig modellering och människo-robotinteraktioner. I denna studie instruerade vi 10 försöksdeltagare att utföra en s.k. pick-and-place-uppgift (PAP) i en VR-miljö medan vi registrerade deltagarnas blick. Våra resultat indikerar att PEG också förekommer i VR. Vidare leder handlingen att direkt sträcka sig efter objektet till ett annorlunda blickbeteende jämfört med att först förflytta sig innan man sträcker sig efter PAP-objektet. Vid förflyttning innan man sträcker sig efter objektet fästs blicken på ytterligare områden såsom golvet och bordet som objektet placerats på.

The continuous growth of traffic demand driven by the brisk increase in number of Internet users and emerging online services creates new challenges for communication networks. The latest advances in Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) technology make it possible to build Transparent Optical Networks (TONs) which are expected to be able to satisfy this rapidly growing capacity demand. Moreover, with the ability of TONs to transparently carry the optical signal from source to destination, electronic processing of the tremendous amount of data can be avoided and optical-to-electrical-to-optical (O/E/O) conversion at intermediate nodes can be eliminated. Consequently, transparent WDM networks consume relatively low power, compared to their electronic-based IP network counterpart. Furthermore, TONs bring also additional benefits in terms of bit rate, signal format, and protocol transparency. However, the absence of O/E/O processing at intermediate nodes in TONs has also some drawbacks. Without regeneration, the quality of the optical signal transmitted from a source to a destination might be degraded due to the effect of physical-layer impairments induced by the transmission through optical fibers and network components. For this reason, routing approaches specifically tailored to account for the effect of physical-layer impairments are needed to avoid setting up connections that don’t satisfy required signal quality at the receiver. Transparency also makes TONs highly vulnerable to deliberate physical-layer attacks. Malicious attacking signals can cause a severe impact on the traffic and for this reason proactive mechanisms, e.g., network design strategies, able to limit their effect are required. Finally, even though energy consumption of transparent WDM networks is lower than in the case of networks processing the traffic at the nodes in the electronic domain, they have the potential to consume even less power. This can be accomplished by targeting the inefficiencies of the current provisioning strategies applied in WDM networks. The work in this thesis addresses the three important aspects mentioned above. In particular, this thesis focuses on routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) strategies specifically devised to target: (i) the lightpath transmission quality, (ii) the network security (i.e., in terms of vulnerability to physical-layer attacks), and (iii) the reduction of the network energy consumption. Our contributions are summarized below. A number of Impairment Constraint Based Routing (ICBR) algorithms have been proposed in the literature to consider physical-layer impairments during the connection provisioning phase. Their objective is to prevent the selection of optical connections (referred to as lightpaths) with poor signal quality. These ICBR approaches always assign each connection request the least impaired lightpath and support only a single threshold of transmission quality, used for all connection requests. However, next generation networks are expected to support a variety of services with disparate requirements for transmission quality. To address this issue, in this thesis we propose an ICBR algorithm supporting differentiation of services at the Bit Error Rate (BER) level, referred to as ICBR-Diff. Our approach takes into account the effect of physical-layer impairments during the connection provisioning phase where various BER thresholds are considered for accepting/blocking connection requests, depending on the signal quality requirements of the connection requests. We tested the proposed ICBR-Diff approach in different network scenarios, including also a fiber heterogeneity. It is shown that it can achieve a significant improvement of network performance in terms of connection blocking, compared to previously published non-differentiated RWA and ICBR algorithms.  Another important challenge to be considered in TONs is their vulnerability to physical-layer attacks. Deliberate attacking signals, e.g., high-power jamming, can cause severe service disruption or even service denial, due to their ability to propagate in the network. Detecting and locating the source of such attacks is difficult, since monitoring must be done in the optical domain, and it is also very expensive. Several attack-aware RWA algorithms have been proposed in the literature to proactively reduce the disruption caused by high-power jamming attacks. However, even with attack-aware network planning mechanisms, the uncontrollable propagation of the attack still remains an issue. To address this problem, we propose the use of power equalizers inside the network nodes in order to limit the propagation of high-power jamming attacks. Because of the high cost of such equipment, we develop a series of heuristics (incl. Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure (GRASP)) aiming at minimizing the number of power equalizers needed to reduce the network attack vulnerability to a desired level by optimizing the location of the equalizers. Our simulation results show that the equalizer placement obtained by the proposed GRASP approach allows for 50% reduction of the sites with the power equalizers while offering the same level of attack propagation limitation as it is possible to achieve with all nodes having this additional equipment installed. In turn, this potentially yields a significant cost saving.    Energy consumption in TONs has been the target of several studies focusing on the energy-aware and survivable network design problem for both dedicated and shared path protection. However, survivability and energy efficiency in a dynamic provisioning scenario has not been addressed. To fill this gap, in this thesis we focus on the power consumption of survivable WDM network with dynamically provisioned 1:1 dedicated path protected connections. We first investigate the potential energy savings that are achievable by setting all unused protection resources into a lower-power, stand-by state (or sleep mode) during normal network operations. It is shown that in this way the network power consumption can be significantly reduced. Thus, to optimize the energy savings, we propose and evaluate a series of energy-efficient strategies, specifically tailored around the sleep mode functionality. The performance evaluation results reveal the existence of a trade-off between energy saving and connection blocking. Nonetheless, they also show that with the right provisioning strategy it is possible to save a considerable amount of energy with a negligible impact on the connection blocking probability. In order to evaluate the performance of our proposed ICBR-Diff and energy-aware RWA algorithms, we develop two custom-made discrete-event simulators. In addition, the Matlab program of GRASP approach for power equalization placement problem is implemented. / <p>QC 20120508</p>

環境惡化與經濟下行的壓力，讓中國各級政府必須尋求一條有別於過去的集約、創新、綠色的發展道路。在這種背景下，類似新能源汽車等兼具節能環保、產業轉型的一批戰略性新興產業開始興起；而地方在承接與發展這些產業時，則傾向於將產業的發展同地方的城市化相結合，採行「以產業為動力，以新城為依託，以生態為源泉」的產城融合模式。 本文通過實地田野調查對上海市嘉定區發展新能源汽車產業的案例進行研究並認為：地方政府為了應對外部發展環境的變化，選擇「把握發展主動權」引入新能源汽車產業，但其實質為把握地方不變的關鍵性資源，即土地開發權。憑藉新能源汽車所帶來的產業不確定性與「綠色共識」下發展正當性的橋接，地方政府獲得了更大的行為自主性與容錯空間，得以透過產業基地與國際示範區的建立帶動地方整體的空間轉型，進而謀取短期的土地開發利益；但產業發展的長期目標卻在這樣的過程中被推遲乃至消解。經由以上案例，本研究將揭示「產城融合」「城」大於「產」之本質，並深入討論綠色發展成為主流論述之下中國地方發展模式的轉變。 / Under the pressure of environmental deterioration and economic downturn, Chinese government have to seek to find a more intensified, innovative and environmental friendly (green) path to development, which differs from the inherent one. As a result, strategic emerging industries like New Energy Vehicles (NEVs) that bear the target of energy saving, environmental protection and industrial transformation start rising. For local governments who take main responsibility of acting, the way how they implement is to combine the industrial development with local urbanization process, which could be called as City-Industry Integration Model. This paper research the development of New Energy Vehicles in Jiading District, Shanghai Municipality and argues that in order to adapt to the changes of external conditions, local government chooses to “grasp the developmental initiative” to introduce the NEVs industry. However, the essence of the action is to grasp the changeless local key resources, which is the land development rights. Rely on the industrial uncertainty and the bridging of developmental legitimacy under Green Consensus, more autonomy and fault-tolerant space has been obtained by local government. Moreover, local officials could implement spatial transformation through the construction of industrial base and international demonstration area, and then gain short-term land development interests, which is in the cost of long-standing goal of industry booming. Overall, this research would reveal the fact that urbanization occupies a larger proportion than industrial development in the City-Industry Integration Model, and discuss the transformation of local developmental model in China under the new mainstream discourse of sustainable development.

Cette thèse s'inscrit dans le contexte de la forte augmentation du débit et de la puissance de calcul des systèmes de télécommunications. Cette augmentation entraîne une consommation d'énergie importante et réduit la durée de batterie, ce qui est primordiale pour un système embarqué. Nous proposons des mécanismes permettant de réduire la consommation d'énergie dans un système embarqué, plus particulièrement dans un terminal mobile sans fil. L'implantation efficace des algorithmes de traitement numérique du signal dans les systèmes embarqués requiert l'utilisation de l'arithmétique virgule fixe afin de satisfaire des contraintes de coût, de consommation et d'encombrement. Dans les approches classiques, la largeur des données et des calculs est considérée au pire cas lors de la détermination des spécifications afin qu'elles soient satisfaites dans tout les cas. Nous proposons une approche d'adaptation dynamique, permettant de changer la spécification en fonction de l'environnement (par exemple les conditions d'un canal de transmission) avec pour objectif de réduire la consommation d'énergie dans certaines conditions. Tout d'abord, la relation entre la puissance de bruit de quantification et le taux d'erreur binaire du système en fonction du bruit au récepteur est établie pour une chaîne de transmission QPSK. Ce résultat est appliqué dans la technique d'accès multiple par répartition de codes en séquence directe (DS-CDMA). Parmi plusieurs systèmes de télécommunications utilisant la technique DS-CDMA, nous montrons comment adapter dynamiquement la précision de calcul d'un récepteur 3G WCDMA. La conversion en virgule fixe nécessite un algorithme d'optimisation combinatoire pour l'optimisation des largeurs des opérateurs sous une contrainte de précision. La deuxième axe de ces travaux de thèse concerne l'étude d'algorithmes d'optimisation adaptés au problème de l'optimisation des largeurs de données. Nous proposons de nouveaux algorithmes pour les problèmes à une seule contrainte ou à une suite des contraintes correspondant à différents niveaux de précision pour les systèmes auto-adaptatifs. Le résultat des algorithmes génétiques multi-objectifs, sous forme d'une frontière de Pareto, permet d'obtenir la largeur correspondant à chaque niveau du bruit de quantification. Une version améliorée des algorithmes génétiques combinée avec l'élitisme et la recherche tabou est proposée. En plus, nous proposons d'appliquer GRASP, un algorithme de recherche locale stochastique permettant de trouver le résultat dans un temps plus faible en comparaison avec les algorithmes génétiques.

A wide literature of predominantly behavioural experiments that use Stimulus Response Compatibility (SRC) have suggested that visual action information such as object affordance yields rapid and concurrent activation of visual and motor brain areas, but has rarely provided direct evidence for this proposition. This thesis examines some of the key claims from the affordance literature by applying electrophysiological measures to well established SRC procedures to determine the verities of the behavioural claims of rapid and automatic visuomotor activation evoked by viewing affording objects. The temporal sensitivity offered by the Lateralised Readiness Potential and by visual evoked potentials P1 and N1 made ideal candidates to assess the behavioural claims of rapid visuomotor activation by seen objects by examining the timecourse of neural activation elicited by viewing affording objects under various conditions. The experimental work in this thesis broadly confirms the claims of the behavioural literature however it also found a series of novel results that are not predicted by the behavioural literature due to limitations in reaction time measures. For example, while different classes of affordance have been shown to exert the same behavioural facilitation, electrophysiological measures reveal very different patterns of cortical activation for grip-type and lateralised affordances. These novel findings question the applicability of the label ‘visuomotor’ to grip-type affordance processing and suggest considerable revision to models of affordance. This thesis also offers a series of novel and surprising insights into the ability to dissociate afforded motor activity from behavioural output, into the relationship between affordance and early visual evoked potentials, and into affordance in the absence of the intention to act. Overall, this thesis provides detailed suggestions for considerable changes to current models of the neural activity underpinning object affordance.

The focus of the present work is natural human like grasping, for realistic performance simulations in digital human modelling (DHM) environment. The performance simulation for grasping in DHM is typically done through high level commands to the digital human models (DHMs). This calls for a natural and unambiguous scheme to describe a grasp which would implicitly accommodate variations due to the hand form, object form and hand kinematics. A novel relational description scheme is developed towards this purpose. The grasp is modelled as a spatio-temporal relationship between the patches (a closed region on the surface) in the hand and the object. The task dependency of the grasp affects only the choice of the relevant patches. Thus, the present scheme of grasp description enables a human like grasp description possible. Grasping can be simulated either in an interactive command mode as discussed above or in an autonomous mode. In the autonomous mode the patches have to be computed. It is done using a psychological concept, of affordance. This scheme is employed to select a tool from a set of tools. Various types of grasps a user may adopt while grasping a spanner for manipulating a nut is simulated. Grasping of objects by human evolves through distinct naturally occurring phases, such as re-oreintation, transport and preshape. Hand is taken to the object ballpark using a novel concept of virtual object. Before contact establishment hand achieves the shape similar to the global shape of the object, called preshaping. Various hand preshape strategies are simulating using an optimization scheme. Since the focus of the present work is human like grasping, the mechanism which drives the DHMs should also be anatomically pertinent. A methodology is developed wherein the hand-object contact establishment is done based on the anatomical observation of logarithmic spiral pattern during finger flexion. The effect of slip in presence of friction has been studied for 2D and 3D object grasping endeavours and a computational generation of the slip locus is done. The in-grasp slip studies are also done which simulates the finger and object response to slip. It is desirable that the grasping performance simulations be validated for diverse hands that people have. In the absence of an available database of articulated bio-fidelic digital hands, this work develops a semi-automatic methodology for developing subject specific hand models from a single pose 3D laser scan of the subject's hand. The methodology is based on the clinical evidence that creases and joint locations on human hand are strongly correlated. The hand scan is segmented into palm, wrist and phalanges, both manually and computationally. The computational segmentation is based on the crease markings in the hand scan, which is identified by explicitly painting them using a mesh processing software by the user. Joint locations are computed on this segmented hand. A 24 dof kinematic structure is automatically embedded into the hand scan. The joint axes are computed using a novel palm plane normal concept. The computed joint axes are rectified using the convergence, and intra-finger constraints. The methodology is significantly tolerant to the noise in the scan and the pose of the hand. With the proposed methodology articulated, realistic, custom hand models can be generated. Thus, the reported work presents a geometric framework for comprehensive simulation of grasping performance in a DHM environment.