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The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers
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Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
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Showing 1 to 10 of 11 (0.04 seconds)| 1 |
Robotic Construction Using Intelligent ScaffoldingEnyedy, Albert J. 18 May 2020 (has links)
Construction is a complex activity that requires the cooperation of multiple workers. Every year, construction activities cause injuries and casualties. To make construction safer, new solutions could be provided by robotics. Robots could be employed not only to replace human workers, but also to make construction in harsh environments safe and cost-effective, paving the way for enhanced underwater infrastructure, deeper underground mining, and planetary colonization. In this thesis, we focus on the topic of collective construction, which involves the cooperation of multiple robots, by presenting a collective robot construction method of our own. Collective construction can be a more viable option than employing individual, complex robots, by potentially allowing the effective realization of large structures, while offering resilience through redundancy, analogous to insect colonies. Our approach offers a novel solution in the design trade-off between choosing the number of robots involved vs. the complexity of the robots involved. On the one hand, capable and complex robots are expensive, limiting the cost effectiveness of realizing large swarms which provide redundancy and increase the system’s resilience to faults. On the other hand, simple and inexpensive robots can be manufactured in large numbers and offer high redundancy, at the cost of limited individual capa bilities and lower performance. We use two types of robots: intelligent scaffolding and worker robots. The intelligent scaffolding acts as regular scaffolding, allowing the worker robots to navigate the structure they assemble, while also guiding and monitoring the construction of the structure. The worker robots move and connect scaffolding and building material while only knowing the local commands necessary to complete their task. This approach is loosely inspired by termite mounds, in which termites use the process of stigmergy in which they mark construction pellets with pheromones to affect the progress of construction, while navigating the struc ture that they build. Thanks to intelligent scaffolding, construction robots have a simple design that allows minimalist onboard computation and communication equipment. In this thesis, we produced a minimum viable prototype demonstrating this concept. Intelligent scaffolding is realized through smart blocks that can be laid and connected to each other. The smart blocks are capable of simple computation and communication once laid. The construction robot uses local navigation methods by line-following across the scaffolding and building blocks of the system. The blocks and construction robot both have a modular design, simplifying the process of manufacturing and repairs while maintaining a low cost. The robot and blocks use magnets to increase the margin of error during block manipulation and allow for the assembly and removal of scaffolding as well as its reuse between build sites. To communicate with the robot, the intelligent scaffolding blocks send local IR signals, similar to TV remote signals, when the robot is on top of them, minimizing the risk of global interference and keeping the system portable. To monitor the connectivity of the system throughout the life cycle of the structure, electrical connections run through each of the blocks, which indicate the status of the structure and can be used to diagnose the location of breaks in the structure for maintenance.
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Prédiction de l'espace navigable par l'approche ensembliste pour un véhicule routier / Characterization of the vehicle stable state domain using interval analysisDandach, Hoda 01 July 2014 (has links)
Les travaux de cette thèse porte sur le calcul d’un espace d’état navigable d’un véhicule routier, ainsi que sur l’observation et l’estimation de son état, à l’aide des méthodes ensemblistes par intervalles. Dans la première partie de la thèse, nous nous intéressons aux problèmes d’estimation d’état relevant de la dynamique du véhicule. Classiquement, l’estimation se fait en utilisant le filtrage de Kalman pour des problèmes d’estimation linéaires ou le filtrage de Kalman étendu pour les cas non-linéaires. Ces filtres supposent que les erreurs sur le modèle et sur les mesures sont blanches et gaussiennes. D’autre part, les filtres particulaires (PF), aussi connus comme Méthodes de Monte-Carlo séquentielles, constituent souvent une alternative aux filtres de Kalman étendus. Par contre, les performances des filtres PF dépendent surtout du nombre de particules utilisées pour l’estimation, et sont souvent affectées par les bruits de mesures aberrants. Ainsi, l’objectif principal de cette partie de travail est d’utiliser une des méthodes à erreurs bornées, qui est le filtrage par boites particulaires (Box Particle Filter (BPF)), pour répondre à ces problèmes. Cette méthode généralise le filtrage particulaire à l’aide des boites remplaçant les particules. A l’aide de l’analyse par intervalles, l’estimation de certains variables fortement reliées à la dynamique du véhicule comme le transfert de charge latérale, le roulis et la vitesse de roulis est donnée, à chaque instant, sous forme d’un intervalle contenant la vraie valeur simulée. Dans la deuxième partie de la thèse, une nouvelle formalisation du problème de calcul de l’espace navigable de l’état d’un véhicule routier est présentée. Un algorithme de résolution est construit, basé sur le principe de l’inversion ensembliste par intervalles et sur la satisfaction des contraintes. Nous cherchons à caractériser l’ensemble des valeurs de la vitesse longitudinale et la dérive au centre de gravité qui correspondent à un comportement stable du véhicule : pas de renversement ni dérapage. Pour décrire le risque de renversement, nous avons utilisé l’indicateur de transfert de charge latéral (LTR). Pour décrire le risque de dérapage, nous avons utilisé les dérives des roues. Toutes les variables sont liées géométriquement avec le vecteur d’état choisi. En utilisant ces relations, l’inversion ensembliste par intervalles est appliquée afin de trouver l’espace navigable de l’état tel que ces deux risques sont évités. L’algorithme Sivia est implémenté, approximant ainsi cet espace. Une vitesse maximale autorisée au véhicule est déduite. Elle est associée à un angle de braquage donné sur une trajectoire connue. / In this thesis, we aim to characterize a vehicle stable state domain, as well as vehicle state estimation, using interval methods.In the first part of this thesis, we are interested in the intelligent vehicle state estimation.The Bayesian approach is one of the most popular and used approaches of estimation. It is based on the calculated probability of the density function which is neither evident nor simple all the time, conditioned on the available measurements.Among the Bayesian approaches, we know the Kalman filter (KF) in its three forms(linear, non linear and unscented). All the Kalman filters assume unimodal Gaussian state and measurement distributions. As an alternative, the Particle Filter(PF) is a sequential Monte Carlo Bayesian estimator. Contrary to Kalman filter,PF is supposed to give more information about the posterior even when it has a multimodal shape or when the noise follows non-Gaussian distribution. However,the PF is very sensitive to the imprecision due by bias or noise, and its efficiency and accuracy depend mainly on the number of propagated particles which can easily and significantly increase as a result of this imprecision. In this part, we introduce the interval framework to deal with the problems of the non-white biased measurements and bounded errors. We use the Box Particle Filter (BPF), an estimator based simultaneously on the interval analysis and on the particle approach. We aim to estimate some immeasurable state from the vehicle dynamics using the bounded error Box Particle algorithm, like the roll angle and the lateral load transfer, which are two dynamic states of the vehicle. BPF gives a guaranteed estimation of the state vector. The box encountering the estimation is guaranteed to encounter thereal value of the estimated variable as well.In the second part of this thesis, we aim to compute a vehicle stable state domain.An algorithm, based on the set inversion principle and the constraints satisfaction,is used. Considering the longitudinal velocity and the side slip angle at the vehicle centre of gravity, we characterize the set of these two state variables that corresponds to a stable behaviour : neither roll-over nor sliding. Concerning the roll-over risk,we use the lateral transfer ratio LTR as a risk indicator. Concerning the sliding risk, we use the wheels side slip angles. All these variables are related geometrically to the longitudinal velocity and the side slip angle at the centre of gravity. Using these constraints, the set inversion principle is applied in order to define the set ofthe state variables where the two mentioned risks are avoided. The algorithm of Sivia is implemented. Knowing the vehicle trajectory, a maximal allowed velocityon every part of this trajectory is deduced.
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Public news network: digital sampling to create a hybrid media feedStenner, Jack Eric 30 September 2004 (has links)
A software application called Public News Network (PNN) is created in this thesis, which functions to produce an aesthetic experience in the viewer. The application engenders this experience by presenting a three-dimensional virtual world that the viewer can navigate using the computer mouse and keyboard. As the viewer navigates the environment she sees irregularly shaped objects resting on an infinite ground plane, and hears an ethereal wind. As the viewer nears the objects, the sound transforms into the sound of television static and text is displayed which identifies this object as representative of an episode of the evening news. The viewer "touches" the episode and a "disembodied" transcript of the broadcast begins to scroll across the screen. With further interaction, video of the broadcast streams across the surfaces of the environment, distorted by the shapes upon which it flows. The viewer can further manipulate and repurpose the broadcast by searching for words contained within the transcript. The results of this search are reassembled into a new, re-contextualized display of video containing the search terms stripped from their original, pre-packaged context. It is this willful manipulation that completes the opportunity for true meaning to appear.
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Public news network: digital sampling to create a hybrid media feedStenner, Jack Eric 30 September 2004 (has links)
A software application called Public News Network (PNN) is created in this thesis, which functions to produce an aesthetic experience in the viewer. The application engenders this experience by presenting a three-dimensional virtual world that the viewer can navigate using the computer mouse and keyboard. As the viewer navigates the environment she sees irregularly shaped objects resting on an infinite ground plane, and hears an ethereal wind. As the viewer nears the objects, the sound transforms into the sound of television static and text is displayed which identifies this object as representative of an episode of the evening news. The viewer "touches" the episode and a "disembodied" transcript of the broadcast begins to scroll across the screen. With further interaction, video of the broadcast streams across the surfaces of the environment, distorted by the shapes upon which it flows. The viewer can further manipulate and repurpose the broadcast by searching for words contained within the transcript. The results of this search are reassembled into a new, re-contextualized display of video containing the search terms stripped from their original, pre-packaged context. It is this willful manipulation that completes the opportunity for true meaning to appear.
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Histoire des relations entre Paris et ses canaux : formes, usages et représentations, 1818-1876 / History of the relations between Paris and its canals : forms, uses and representations, on 1818-1876Guével, Solenn 27 January 2017 (has links)
La recherche propose d’interroger ce qui lie et qui a pu un jour lier Paris à ses canaux, afin d’alimenter et d’élargir les réflexions actuelles sur les problématiques urbaines et sur la définition des modes et temps de constitution de la ville, soit de comprendre les liens entre ville et infrastructure.À travers l’étude de la forme du paysage et du tissu rural et urbain, des projets, des acteurs privés et publics, des activités et des usages et, enfin, des représentations, le rôle et la place tenus par les canaux parisiens, destinés au transport de marchandises et à l’adduction d’eau, sont appréhendés, permettant ainsi de saisir, dans le temps, la complexité des processus de constitution et d’évolution de l’espace urbain à Paris, révélant, à l’échelle locale et à l’échelle territoriale, au gré des questions posées, les relations entre ville et canal au XIXème siècle.Dans un premier temps, pourquoi la capitale a-t-elle besoin de canaux ? Quelles sont les conditions de leurs implantations ? Quelles sont les spécificités de cette infrastructure ? Quel est son tracé ? Comment les canaux se sont-ils surimposés aux territoires ? Quels paysages ont-ils fabriqués ? Sont-ils un embellissement et un monument pour le territoire et/ou une coupure dans les tissus existants ? Par rapport à ces questions, nous essayons de comprendre comment les canaux parisiens se sont inscrits dans le territoire.Dans un second temps, pourquoi des entrepôts sont-ils construits le long des voies d’eau ? De quels types sont-ils ? Y-a-t-il une distinction entre ceux établis à Paris et ceux réalisés à La Villette ? Quelles transformations engendrent-ils ? Quelle place tiennent-ils dans le développement industriel et commercial de la capitale ? De plus, comment le territoire s’urbanise-t-il aux abords des infrastructures ? Par rapport à ces questions, nous tentons de montrer comment la ville s’est adaptée aux canaux parisiens.Dans un troisième temps, pourquoi est-il décidé de couvrir une partie du canal Saint-Martin sous le Second Empire ? Quels sont les impacts de cette couverture sur le transport de marchandises et l’activité industrielle bordant la voie d’eau ? Comment les trames viaire et parcellaire évoluent-elles ? Des projets, liés au service de l’infrastructure et/ou de la ville, apparaissent-ils ? Alors qu’une partie du canal Saint-Martin est recouvert et que la commune de La Villette est rattachée à la capitale, pourquoi des travaux de modernisation des canaux de l’Ourcq et Saint-Denis sont-ils entrepris ? Quels aménagements sont réalisés ? Comment le territoire traversé par l’infrastructure évolue-t-il ? Par rapport à ces questions, nous essayons de mesurer comment les canaux parisiens se sont intégrés à la ville.Nous tentons donc de comprendre comment les canaux parisiens, grands ouvrages à vocation industrielle, se sont inscrits dans le territoire ; comment la ville s’est adaptée à cette infrastructure et comment cette dernière s’est intégrée à Paris. Nous essayons de montrer que de leur création à la fin du XIXème siècle (1818-1876), qu’ils servent au transport de marchandises ou à l’adduction d’eau, qu’ils soient à l’air libre ou recouverts, les canaux ont exercé une influence forte sur la formation de la ville qu’ils traversent ; ils peuvent ainsi être considérés comme des éléments fondateurs de l’espace urbain à leurs abords.Visant à construire un objet historique, en analysant la pluralité des relations entre Paris et ses canaux au cours du XIXème siècle, la thèse souhaite mener une enquête à partir de questionnements divers qui empruntent à plusieurs disciplines, s’attachant aux questions des formes, des usages et des représentations. Outil de réflexion visant à une meilleure compréhension des liens entre ville et infrastructure, elle souhaite apporter des pistes de réflexions face aux interrogations actuelles sur les possibilités de tirer profit de leur présence et sur la manière dont peuvent ou pourraient se reconstituer leurs abords / This research proposes to investigate the comprehensive set of past and present relations between Paris and its canals, in order to fuel and expand the current reflection on urban issues and the definition of the specific modes and temporalities at stake in the formation of the city, allowing one to understand the links between city and infrastructure.Through the study of a broad scope of themes, from landscape to the form of urban or rural fabric; to projects, private and public actors, acjavascript:nouvelleZone('abstract');_ajtAbstract('abstract');tivities and uses; to their representation; this study seeks to understand the role played by the canals and their place in Paris, as a means for both the transportation of merchandise and the supply of water, in order to grasp the complexity of the evolution and processes of formation of Parisian urban spaces over time, thus revealing at both local and territorial scale the relations between city and canal during the XIXth century.Firstly, we will focus on the need for canals in Paris, capital of France. What are the conditions governing their position? What is specific about this infrastructure and its layout? How are the waterways superimposed upon the urban territory, and what landscape do they generate? Are they a form of territorial embellishment and monument, and/or an incision in the existing urban fabric? With regard to these questions, we will try to understand how Parisian waterways are inscribed in this territory.Secondly, why are the warehouses built along the waterways? Of what type are they? Is there any differentiation between those established in Paris and those in La Villette? What kind of transformation are they generating? What is their place in the industrial and commercial development of the capital? Furthermore, how are the adjacent areas to the waterways urbanized? In relation to these issues, we will try to demonstrate how the city has adapted to the Parisian canals.Thirdly, why has the decision been made to cover a segment of Canal Saint-Martin during the Second Empire? How does this covering impact freight transportation and industrial activity along the waterway? How does the street systems and lot configurations evolve? Are any projects linked to this infrastructure and/or the city, coming up? Why are modernization projects for both canals of Ourcq and Saint-Denis undertaken while a length of the Saint-Martin canal is covered and the town of La Villette is annexed to Paris? What was the scope of work for these projects? How does the territory traversed by the infrastructure evolve? In this regard, we will attempt to measure how the Parisian canals were integrated to the city.We will try to understand how the Parisian canals, as large works of civil and industrial engineering, are inscribed within its territory, how the city adapts to this infrastructure and, inversely, how it adapts to the city. We will try demonstrate that, since their creation at the end of the XIXth century (1818-1876), canals have strongly influenced the urban formation of the cities from which they were excavated, whether used for the transportation of merchandise or water supply, whether open-air or covered. These canals can thus be considered as founding elements for their surrounding urban spaces.Through an analysis of the plurality of relations between Paris and its canals along the XIXth century, this thesis aims to construct an historical object. As an investigation starting from various issues borrowing from multiple disciplines, it focuses on the questions of form, use and representation. As a tool of reflexion intended to foster a greater understanding of the links between city and infrastructure, it seeks to bring new perspectives to the current issues of existing infrastructure and develop strategies, which exploit their presence within urban fabric, and the ways in which their edges and surroundings could be reconstituted
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Wetland Delineation and Section 404/401 Permitting: An Internship with Carolina Wetland ServicesJenkins, Matthew Lee 20 June 2006 (has links)
No description available.
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Komise pro kanalisování řek Vltavy a Labe v Čechách 1896 -1931 / The Commission for making the river Vltava and the river Labe in Bohemia navigable 1986 - 1931Černá, Marcela January 2014 (has links)
The Commission for making the river Vltava and the river Labe in Bohemia navigable was founded in 1896 on the basis of a decree of the ministry of interior as the first water management office to be systematically engaged in making Czech rivers navigable by the canalization method. The Commission was headed by the vice-regent of the Kingdom of Bohemia to whom the members of state's and country's curia were subordinate. The executive section was represented by the central office, composed of the technical and administrative departments. Its activities were financed by two thirds by the Austrian state, one third was paid from the Czech country's treasury. After the establishment of the independent Czechoslovak republic, both curias were dissolved and the Commission was put under the control of the ministry of public works. The president of the country's political administration was appointed as the head of the Commission. The competence of the Commission was step by step extended from the initially entrusted task of making the river Vltava and the river Labe in the division Prague - Ústí nad Labem navigable also to making the river Vltava in Prague navigable as well as to the adaptation of the Holešovice port in Prague to a modern trade port and to drawing up studies on the utilization of water...
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Wetland delineation and section 404/401 permitting an internship with Carolina Wetland Services /Jenkins, Matthew Lee. January 2006 (has links)
Thesis (M. En.)--Miami University, Institute of Environmental Sciences, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 35 [1st set of paginations]).
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Restauration d'images par temps de brouillard et de pluie : applications aux aides à la conduiteHalmaoui, Houssam 30 November 2012 (has links) (PDF)
Les systèmes d'aide à la conduite (ADAS) ont pour objectif d'assister le conducteur et en particulier d'améliorer la sécurité routière. Pour cela, différents capteurs sont généralement embarqués dans les véhicules afin, par exemple, d'avertir le conducteur en cas de danger présent sur la route. L'utilisation de capteurs de type caméra est une solution économiquement avantageuse et de nombreux ADAS à base de caméra voient le jour. Malheureusement, les performances de tels systèmes se dégradent en présence de conditions météorologiques défavorables, notamment en présence de brouillard ou de pluie, ce qui obligerait à les désactiver temporairement par crainte de résultats erronés. Hors, c'est précisément dans ces conditions difficiles que le conducteur aurait potentiellement le plus besoin d'être assisté. Une fois les conditions météorologiques détectées et caractérisées par vision embarquée, nous proposons dans cette thèse de restaurer l'image dégradée à la sortie du capteur afin de fournir aux ADAS un signal de meilleure qualité et donc d'étendre la gamme de fonctionnement de ces systèmes. Dans l'état de l'art, il existe plusieurs approches traitant la restauration d'images, parmi lesquelles certaines sont dédiées à nos problématiques de brouillard ou de pluie, et d'autres sont plus générales : débruitage, rehaussement du contraste ou de la couleur, "inpainting"... Nous proposons dans cette thèse de combiner les deux familles d'approches. Dans le cas du brouillard notre contribution est de tirer profit de deux types d'approches (physique et signal) afin de proposer une nouvelle méthode automatique et adaptée au cas d'images routières. Nous avons évalué notre méthode à l'aide de critères ad hoc (courbes ROC, contraste visibles à 5 %, évaluation sur ADAS) appliqués sur des bases de données d'images de synthèse et réelles. Dans le cas de la pluie, une fois les gouttes présentes sur le pare-brise détectées, nous reconstituons les parties masquées de l'image à l'aide d'une méthode d'"inpainting" fondée sur les équations aux dérivées partielles. Les paramètres de la méthode ont été optimisés sur des images routières. Enfin, nous montrons qu'il est possible grâce à cette approche de construire trois types d'applications : prétraitement, traitement et assistance. Dans chaque famille, nous avons proposé et évalué une application spécifique : détection des panneaux dans le brouillard ; détection de l'espace navigable dans le brouillard ; affichage de l'image restaurée au conducteur.
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“Accumulation by Dispossession” by the Global Extractive Industry: The Case of CanadaKinuthia, Wanyee 13 November 2013 (has links)
This thesis draws on David Harvey’s concept of “accumulation by dispossession” and an international political economy (IPE) approach centred on the institutional arrangements and power structures that privilege certain actors and values, in order to critique current capitalist practices of primitive accumulation by the global corporate extractive industry. The thesis examines how accumulation by dispossession by the global extractive industry is facilitated by the “free entry” or “free mining” principle. It does so by focusing on Canada as a leader in the global extractive industry and the spread of this country’s mining laws to other countries – in other words, the transnationalisation of norms in the global extractive industry – so as to maintain a consistent and familiar operating environment for Canadian extractive companies. The transnationalisation of norms is further promoted by key international institutions such as the World Bank, which is also the world’s largest development lender and also plays a key role in shaping the regulations that govern natural resource extraction. The thesis briefly investigates some Canadian examples of resource extraction projects, in order to demonstrate the weaknesses of Canadian mining laws, particularly the lack of protection of landowners’ rights under the free entry system and the subsequent need for “free, prior and informed consent” (FPIC). The thesis also considers some of the challenges to the adoption and implementation of the right to FPIC. These challenges include embedded institutional structures like the free entry mining system, international political economy (IPE) as shaped by international institutions and powerful corporations, as well as concerns regarding ‘local’ power structures or the legitimacy of representatives of communities affected by extractive projects. The thesis concludes that in order for Canada to be truly recognized as a leader in the global extractive industry, it must establish legal norms domestically to ensure that Canadian mining companies and residents can be held accountable when there is evidence of environmental and/or human rights violations associated with the activities of Canadian mining companies abroad. The thesis also concludes that Canada needs to address underlying structural issues such as the free entry mining system and implement FPIC, in order to curb “accumulation by dispossession” by the extractive industry, both domestically and abroad.
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