Mobile ad hoc networks are without centralized infrastructure, and suitable for the region that difficultly builds the basic network framework, for example, desert and ocean. The bandwidth in mobile ad hoc networks is likely to remain a scarce resource. A call request of a connection in a wireless network is blocked if there exits no bandwidth route. This blocking does not mean that the total system bandwidth capacity is less than the request, but that there is no path in which each link has enough residual unused bandwidth to satisfy the requirement. Like the routing in a datagram network, if packets of a virtual circuit can stream across multiple paths, we can select multiple bandwidth routes such that the total bandwidth can meet the requirement of a source-destination pair. Therefore, even though there is no feasible single path for a bandwidth-constrained connection, we may still have a chance to accept this one if we can find multiple bandwidth routes to meet the bandwidth constraint. In this dissertation, we propose a bandwidth-constrained routing algorithm to aggregate the bandwidth of multiple wireless links by splitting a data flow across multiple paths at the network layer. That is, it allows the packet flow of a source-destination pair to be delivered over multiple bandwidth routes with enough overall resources to satisfy a certain bandwidth requirement. Our algorithm considers not only the QoS requirement, but also the cost optimality of the routing paths to improve the overall network performance. Extensive simulations show that high call admission ratio and resource utilization are achieved with modest routing overheads. This algorithm can also tolerate the node moving, joining, and leaving. We also propose an algorithm, named efficient utilization polling (EUP), to support asynchronous data traffic at MAC layer by using the characteristics of Bluetooth technology. The algorithm uses a single bit in the payload header to carry the knowledge of queues in slaves for dynamically adapting the polling intervals for achieving the goals of high channel utilization and power conserving. In addition, we propose a differentiation mechanism, named shift-polling window (SPW). Based on EUP, the SPW differentiates the throughput from various classes, and still keeps the link utilization high and almost the same as that of the best-effort services. Extensive simulations are experimented on the behavior of the EUP and SPW by tuning the related parameters, such as polling interval, buffer size, and queue threshold level, etc., in order to verify the expectation of these methods.

This thesis presents a visual servo control scheme for a ball-and-plate system with a maze. The maze built on the plate forms obstacles for the ball and increases variety and complexity of its environment. The ball-and-plate system is a two degrees-of-freedom robotic wrist with an acrylic plate attached as the end effector. By using image processing techniques, the ball¡¦s position is acquired from the visual feedback, which was implemented with a webcam and a personal computer. A fuzzy controller, which provides dexterity of the robotic wrist, is designed to decide the slope angles of the plate to guide the ball to a designated target spot. Using the method of distance transform, the path planning based on the current position of the ball is conducted to find the shortest path toward the target spot. Besides, a relaxed path, appears to be more suitable for actual applications, is provided by the obstacle¡¦s expansion approach. Experimental results show that the presented control framework successfully leads the ball to pass through the maze and arrive at target spot. The visual servo control scheme works effectively in both stabilization and tracking control. Based on this preliminary achievement, further improvement and deeper exploration on related research topics can be carried on in the future.

This work presents a new class of algorithms that extend the domain of Navigation Among Movable Obstacles (NAMO) to unknown environments. Efficient real-time algorithms for solving NAMO problems even when no initial environment information is available to the robot are presented and validated. The algorithms yield optimal solutions and are evaluated for real-time performance on a series of simulated domains with more than 70 obstacles. In contrast to previous NAMO algorithms that required a pre-specified environment model, this work considers the realistic domain where the robot is limited by its sensor range. It must navigate to a goal position in an environment of static and movable objects. The robot can move objects if the goal cannot be reached or if moving the object significantly shortens the path. The robot gains information about the world by bringing distant objects into its sensor range. The first practical planner for this exponentially complex domain is presented. The planner reduces the search-space through a collection of techniques, such as upper bound calculations and the maintenance of sorted lists with underestimates. Further, the algorithm is only considering manipulation actions if these actions are creating a new opening in the environment. In the addition to the evaluation of the planner itself is each of this techniques also validated independently.

The purpose of this thesis is to develop a testing environment for mobile robot experiments, to examine methods for multi-robot platooning through hostile environments, and test these algorithms on mobile robots. Such a system will allow us to rapidly address and test problems that arise concerning robot swarms and consequent interactions. In order to create this hardware simulation environment a test bed will be created using ROS or Robot Operating System. This platform is highly modular and extensible for future development. Trajectory generation for the robots will use smoothing splines, B-splines, and A* search. Each method has distinct properties which will be analyzed and rated with respect to its effectiveness with regards to robotic platooning. A few issues to be considered include: Is the optimal path taken with respect to distance and threats? Is the formation of the robots maintained or compromised during traversal of the path? And finally, what sorts of compromises or additions are needed to make each method effective? This work will be helpful for choosing route planning methods in future work and will provide a large code base for rapid prototyping.

The aim for this project is to design and implement a dynamic path planningmethod for a tractor and semi-trailer vehicle. This vehicle will be in environmentwhich is simulated as a harbour, where containers and other autonomously guidedvehicles are represented as possible objects. Various physical limitations of thevehicle are taken into consideration. For this purpose, a simulator is built, where the environment is reproduced.During the simulation, the vehicle should drive towards the goal avoiding contain-ers and other vehicles, which are sensed by a detection and tracking system. Also,a case study is provided where the functionality of the proposed solution is shownin a given environment. Based on the results of the project, the vehicle computes and follows a tra-jectory towards the goal until a collision is predicted. A new alternative path iscalculated then in order to avoid the obstacle.

Mobile robots are gaining increased autonomy due to advances in sensor and computing technology. In their current form however, robots still lack algorithms for rapid perception of objects in a cluttered environment and can benefit from the assistance of a human operator. Further, fully autonomous systems will continue to be computationally expensive and costly for quite some time. Humans can visually assess objects and determine whether a certain path is traversable, but need not be involved in the low-level steering around any detected obstacles as is necessary in remote-controlled systems. If only used for rapid perception tasks, the operator could potentially assist several mobile robots performing various tasks such as exploration, surveillance, industrial work and search and rescue operations. There is a need to develop better human-robot interaction paradigms that would allow the human operator to effectively control and manage one or more mobile robots. This paper proposes a method of enhancing user effectiveness in controlling multiple mobile robots through real-time map manipulation. An interface is created that would allow a human operator to add virtual obstacles to the map that represents areas that the robot should avoid. A video camera is connected to the robot that would allow a human user to view the robot's environment. The combination of real-time map editing and live video streaming enables the robot to take advantage of human vision, which is still more effective at general object identification than current computer vision technology. Experimental results show that the robot is able to plan a faster path around an obstacle when the user marks the obstacle on the map, as opposed to allowing the robot to navigate on its own around an unmapped obstacle. Tests conducted on multiple users suggest that the accuracy in placing obstacles on the map decreases with increasing distance of the viewing apparatus from the obstacle. Despite this, the user can take advantage of landmarks found in the video and in the map in order to determine an obstacle's position on the map.

Functional materials with controllable phase transitions have been widely used in devices for information storage (e.g. hard-disk, CD-ROM, memory) and energy storage (e.g. battery, shape memory alloy). One of the important issues to design such materials is to realize the desirable phase transition processes, in which atomistic simulation can be used for the prediction of materials properties. The accuracy of the prediction is largely dependent on searching the true value of the transition rate, which is determined by the minimum energy barrier between stable states, i.e. the saddle point on a potential energy surface (PES). Although a number of methods that search for saddle points on a PES have been developed, they intend to locate only one saddle point with the maximum energy along the transition path at a time. In addition, they do not consider the input uncertainty associated with the calculation of potential energy. To overcome the limitations, in this dissertation, new saddle point search methods are developed to provide a global view of energy landscape with improved efficiency and robustness. First, a concurrent search algorithm for multiple phase transition pathways is developed. The algorithm is able to search multiple local minima and saddle points simultaneously without prior knowledge of initial and final stable configurations. A new representation of transition paths based on parametric Bézier curves is introduced. A curve subdivision scheme is developed to dynamically locate all the intermediate local minima and saddle points along the transition path. Second, a curve swarm search algorithm is developed to exhaustively locate the local minima and saddle points within a region concurrently. The algorithm is based on the flocking of multiple groups of curves. A collective potential model is built to simulate the communication activities among curves. Third, a hybrid saddle-point search method using stochastic kriging models is developed to improve the efficiency of the search algorithm as well as to incorporate model-form uncertainty and numerical errors associated with density functional theory calculation. These algorithms are demonstrated by predicting the hydrogen diffusion process in FeTiH and body-centered iron Fe8H systems.

This research is mainly about autonomously navigation of an agricultural wheeled mobile robot in an unstructured outdoor setting. This project has four distinct phases defined as: (i) Navigation and control of a wheeled mobile robot for a point-to-point motion. (ii) Navigation and control of a wheeled mobile robot in following a given path (path following problem). (iii) Navigation and control of a mobile robot, keeping a constant proximity distance with the given paths or plant rows (proximity-following). (iv) Navigation of the mobile robot in rut following in farm fields. A rut is a long deep track formed by the repeated passage of wheeled vehicles in soft terrains such as mud, sand, and snow. To develop reliable navigation approaches to fulfill each part of this project, three main steps are accomplished: literature review, modeling and computer simulation of wheeled mobile robots, and actual experimental tests in outdoor settings. First, point-to-point motion planning of a mobile robot is studied; a fuzzy-logic based (FLB) approach is proposed for real-time autonomous path planning of the robot in unstructured environment. Simulation and experimental evaluations shows that FLB approach is able to cope with different dynamic and unforeseen situations by tuning a safety margin. Comparison of FLB results with vector field histogram (VFH) and preference-based fuzzy (PBF) approaches, reveals that FLB approach produces shorter and smoother paths toward the goal in almost all of the test cases examined. Then, a novel human-inspired method (HIM) is introduced. HIM is inspired by human behavior in navigation from one point to a specified goal point. A human-like reasoning ability about the situations to reach a predefined goal point while avoiding any static, moving and unforeseen obstacles are given to the robot by HIM. Comparison of HIM results with FLB suggests that HIM is more efficient and effective than FLB. Afterward, navigation strategies are built up for path following, rut following, and proximity-following control of a wheeled mobile robot in outdoor (farm) settings and off-road terrains. The proposed system is composed of different modules which are: sensor data analysis, obstacle detection, obstacle avoidance, goal seeking, and path tracking. The capabilities of the proposed navigation strategies are evaluated in variety of field experiments; the results show that the proposed approach is able to detect and follow rows of bushes robustly. This action is used for spraying plant rows in farm field. Finally, obstacle detection and obstacle avoidance modules are developed in navigation system. These modules enables the robot to detect holes or ground depressions (negative obstacles), that are inherent parts of farm settings, and also over ground level obstacles (positive obstacles) in real-time at a safe distance from the robot. Experimental tests are carried out on two mobile robots (PowerBot and Grizzly) in outdoor and real farm fields. Grizzly utilizes a 3D-laser range-finder to detect objects and perceive the environment, and a RTK-DGPS unit for localization. PowerBot uses sonar sensors and a laser range-finder for obstacle detection. The experiments demonstrate the capability of the proposed technique in successfully detecting and avoiding different types of obstacles both positive and negative in variety of scenarios.

Στην εποχή που ζούμε, η καθημερινότητα των πολιτών, από όλες σχεδόν τις πλευρές της, από την επαγγελματική και προσωπική της διάσταση έως τον τρόπο που επιλέγει πλέον κάποιος να διασκεδάζει και να κοινωνικοποιείται, είναι σε πολύ μεγάλο βαθμό εξαρτημένη από το νευραλγικό τομέα των επικοινωνιών. Διαπιστώνει κανείς πολύ εύκολα την ήδη εδώ και δεκαετίες, τεράστια διείσδυση των επικοινωνιών σε όλους τους παραγωγικούς τομείς της κοινωνίας, στους ίδιους τους μηχανισμούς της διακυβέρνησης και της ενημέρωσης. Το τεράστιο άλμα ωστόσο, πραγματοποιείται τα τελευταία χρόνια, με την ανάπτυξη των ασύρματων επικοινωνιών και διάφορων τεχνολογιών που προκύπτουν μέσα από επίπονη και πολύχρονη έρευνα. Κινητή τηλεφωνία, ασύρματα δίκτυα, πρόσβαση σε γρήγορο internet οπουδήποτε και οποτεδήποτε, είναι τεχνολογίες που έχουν αλλάξει δραματικά και ανεπιφύλακτα προς το καλύτερο, τις ζωές όλων μας. Στη παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία με τίτλο «Διερεύνηση τεχνικών παραμέτρων για βέλτιστη σχεδίαση συστημάτων τεχνολογίας Wi-Fi:», αφού πρώτα μελετήσουμε πλήρως το πρότυπο 802.11 ή κοινώς WiFi, όσο αφορά την αρχιτεκτονική του, τη δομή του και τις διάφορες εκδόσεις του, προχωράμε σε μια μελέτη γύρω από τα θεωρητικά μοντέλα διάδοσης της ηλεκτρομαγνητικής ακτινοβολίας σε εσωτερικούς χώρους με σκοπό να εξετάσουμε στη συνέχεια ένα τέτοιο πολύπλοκο περιβάλλον και τον τρόπο που συμπεριφέρεται το πρότυπο για μια συγκεκριμένη συχνότητα. Μέσω της μοντελοποίησης και της προσομοίωσης εκτιμάμε και αξιολογούμε τους παράγοντες που επηρεάζουν τη διάδοση αλλά και τυχόν καινούρια στοιχεία που μπορεί να προκύψουν. Στο πρώτο κεφάλαιο εισάγεται ο αναγνώστης στις ασύρματες επικοινωνίες με μια σύντομη ιστορική αναδρομή και την παρουσίαση των βασικών ασύρματων συσ τημάτων σήμερα. Στο κεφάλαιο δύο παρουσιάζεται πλήρως το πρότυπο 802.11. Αναπτύσσεται η αρχιτεκτονική του, η δομή του, το φυσικό του επίπεδο με τις τεχνικές μετάδοσης των διάφορων επικρατέστερων εκδόσεων του αλλά και οι λειτουργίες του επίπεδου MAC με τις παραμέτρους του. Προχωρώντας στο τρίτο κεφάλαιο, μελετάμε τους μηχανισμούς διάδοσης και τα φαινόμενα εξασθένισης του σήματος , κυρίως όμως γίνεται εκτενής αναφορά στα μοντέλα που περιγράφουν την ηλεκτρομαγνητική διάδοση σε περιβάλλον εσωτερικού χώρου, κάθως με βάση τα μοντέλα αυτά, γίνε ται η τελική αξιόγηση του πειραματικού μέρους της εργασίας. Στο τέταρτο κεφάλαιο παρουσιάζονται οι πειραματικές μας μετρήσεις, η τοπολογία και η διαδικασία με την οποία λήφθησαν. Πραγματοποιείται σύγκριση αυτών με τις προβλέψεις βασικών θεωρητικών μοντέλων, και μέσω προσομοίωσης που πραγματοποιήθηκε στο Matlab, εκτιμάται η απόκλιση των πειραματικών τιμών από τις θεωρητικές προβλέψεις. Στο τελευταίο κεφάλαιο παραθέτουμε τα γενικά συμπεράσματα που προέκυψαν από την πειραματική διαδικασία, αξιολογούμε τους παράγοντες που συνετέλεσαν στη λήψη των αποτελεσμάτων μας και αποφαινόμαστε για το καταλληλότερο μοντέλο στο περιβάλλον που εργαστήκαμε. / Nowadays, the citizen’s daily life from both the professional and personal point of view to the way somebody chooses to be socialized and get amused, is extremely dependent on the neuralgic field of communications. It becomes evident easily to anybody, the already for decades great penetration of communications to all the production sectors into society and the mechanisms of governess and mass media. However, the tremendous evolution is realized the very last years via the development of wireless communicat ions and the corresponding technologies that arise through arduous and extensive research. Mobile telephony, wireless networks, fast internet access anywhere and anytime, are technologies that has changed drastically and unreservedly our lives to the better. In this thesis, entitled “Investigation of Technical Parameters for Optimal design of WiFi Technology Systems”, after fully studying the 802.11 protocol, commonly referred as WiFi, regarding to its architecture, its structure, and its various versions, we proceed to a study of the theoretical indoor propagation models of electromagnetic radiation, in order to examine then such a complex environment and the behavior of the protocol for a specific frequency. Through modeling and simulation, we estimate and evaluate the factors that affect the propagation, but also any potential new information that may arise. The first chapter introduces to the reader the field of wireless communications and provides a historical overview of the basic wireless communication setups. In chapter two, protocol 802.11 is fully presented. Its architecture, its structure and its physical layer with the employed transmission techniques by its various predominant versions and also the functions of the MAC layer and its parameters are described. Chapter three discusses the transmission methods and the signal attenuation effect, with emphasis on the models that describe the electromagnetic transmission in enclosed spaces, as these models are used for the evaluation of the experimental part of this thesis. Chapter four contains the experimental part of this thesis and presents the topology and the exact procedure of the measurement setup. The obtained measurements are compared to the predicted ones using existing theoretical models via simulations that performed in Matlab and the prediction error is then computed and discussed. In the last chapter, we present the general conclusions derived from the measurement procedure, we evaluate the factors that contributed to the derivation of our results and we determine the most appropriate model for the environment in which we worked.

Η θεωρία γραφημάτων είναι ένας κλάδος των μαθηματικών που έχει ευρεία πρακτική εφαρμογή. Πολυάριθμα προβλήματα που προκύπτουν σε διαφορετικές επιστήμες, όπως ψυχολογία, χημεία, βιομηχανική μηχανική, διοίκηση, μάρκετινγκ και εκπαίδευση, μπορούν να παρασταθούν ως προβλήματα από τη θεωρία γραφημάτων. / -