SYMBAD—Similarity based agents for design

This paper presents the SYMBAD (similarity based agents for design) system, exploring multi-agent aspects in an architecture company, capturing, cataloging, and communicating information produced by the team members. The main task managed by the designers is to build stands to present the image of a company, project its presence in the market and emphasize the corporate identity to all prospects. From conceptual design to the construction of a final product, a stand project passes through many hands, each one adding bits and pieces until it is completed. Reuse of materials and ideas is less feasible as design complexity increases. The processes and problems in stand projects are quite common and can be easily found in other design situations. We present an agent framework to improve process awareness in an architecture company. The agents instrument the process to produce global awareness, to facilitate reuse and optimize the process as a whole. In this paper we present the agent architecture, as well as each agent’s general functioning and reasoning rules.     

A novel ADRC‑based design for a kind of fexible aerocraft

The paper presents a novel control design, which is based on the idea of active disturbance rejection control (ADRC), for a kind of fexible aerocraft whose controlled variable cannot be measured directly. Since the original frame of ADRC cannot be directly applied, the paper puts forward a new extended state observer (ESO) and the corresponding ADRC law. In order to assign the poles of the closed-loop system to ideal positions such that the vibration can be quickly suppressed, an elastic damping term is added into feedback law. The advantages of the new ESO for efectively estimating both the rigid mode and elastic mode from the measurements are discussed. Moreover, the analysis on the stability, the relative stability and the steady state of the closed-loop system is given. Finally, the efectiveness and robustness of the proposed ADRC are verifed by simulations.     

A self-organization mining based hybrid evolution learning for?TSK-type fuzzy model design

In this paper, a self-organization mining based hybrid evolution (SOME) learning algorithm for designing a TSK-type fuzzy model (TFM) is proposed. In the proposed SOME, group-based symbiotic evolution (GSE) is adopted in which each group in the GSE represents a collection of only one fuzzy rule. The proposed SOME consists of structure learning and parameter learning. In structure learning, the proposed SOME uses a two-step self-organization algorithm to decide the suitable number of rules in a TFM. In parameter learning, the proposed SOME uses the data mining based selection strategy and data mining based crossover strategy to decide groups and parental groups by the data mining algorithm that called frequent pattern growth. Illustrative examples were conducted to verify the performance and applicability of the proposed SOME method.     

A novel control design for delayed teleoperation based on delay-scheduled Lyapunov–Krasovskii functionals

This paper addresses the controller design problem for bilateral teleoperation over unreliable networks. The stability and tracking performance analyses are presented for a novel force-reflecting emulator control scheme. The performance (stability, synchronisation, transparency) is guaranteed by H_∞ control theory and delay-scheduled Lyapunov–Krasovskii functionals (LKF), which could improve the existing stability criterion. The design is achieved by using linear matrix inequality optimisation. For the simulation, first, numerical examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness and benefits of the delay-scheduled LKF-based stability results; second, the proposed controller design solution is illustrated by various simulations and compared with other recent approaches under different working conditions, e.g. abrupt tracking motion and wall contact.     

A teaching–learning based optimization approach for economic design of X-bar control chart

Being simple to use X-bar control chart has been most widely used in industry for monitoring and controlling manufacturing processes. Measurements of a quality characteristic in terms of samples are taken from the production process at regular interval and the sample means are plotted on this chart. Design of a control chart involves the selection of three parameters, namely the sample size (n), the sampling interval (h) and the width of control limits (k). In case of economic design, these three control chart parameters are selected in such a manner that the total cost of controlling the process is the least. The effectiveness of this design depends on the accuracy of determination of these three parameters. In this paper, a new efficient and effective optimization technique named as teaching–learning based optimization (TLBO) has been used for the global minimization of a loss cost function expressed as a function of three variables n, h and k in an economic model of X-bar chart based on unified approach. In this work, the TLBO algorithm has been modified to simplify the tuning of teaching factor. A MATLAB computer program has been developed for this purpose. A numerical example has been solved and the results are found to be better than the earlier published results. Further, the sensitivity analysis using fractional factorial design and analysis of variance have been carried out to identify the critical process and cost parameters affecting the economic design.     

The algorithmic mark: A constraint‐based approach to digital printmaking

This article explores the way audiences respond to screen-based (virtual) and embodied (robotic) entities in the mixed reality terrain of the gallery space. While it would seem that physical three-dimensional objects in a gallery space, especially self-moving objects such as robots, have a distinct advantage in the reality stakes over screen images, the author suggests that there is no hard and fast distinction between how audiences respond to robotic entities and to screen-based virtual characters. It is the ability of an artwork to respond to and ‘dialogue’ with its audience—to ‘look back’ and ‘talk back’—that is the key factor in making it an engaging and believable social partner. Artists discussed include Mari Velonaki, Stelarc, Ruairi Glynn, Karolina Sobecka and Golan Levin.     

Stochastic comb-pilot design for NC-OFDM based cognitive radio system＇

NC-OFDM is a transmission mode of cognitive radio systems. The paper models and analyzes NC-OFDM stochastic process, then designs stochastic comb-pilot pattern and discusses its characteristics in detail. At the end of the paper simulation results show that channel estimation performance by Stochastic comb-pilots is better than those of conventional schemes, and prove feasibilities of the stochastic comb-pilot strategies in NC-OFDM system.     

A MICROCAD system for design of steel connections—II. Applications

A microcomputer-aided design (MICROCAD) system is presented for interactive design of connections in steel buildings made of standard rolled I-sections. Design of different connections is based on the American Institute of Steel Construction specification. Connecting elements may be plates, angles, or T-sections. Connectors may be bolts or welds. The MICROCAD system can display/plot any isometric view of the connection plus the orthographic views, i.e. front, side, and top views. Program structure and graphic algorithms for the MICROCAD system are presented in an accompanying paper. In this paper applications of the MICROCAD system for design of bolted and welded connections are presented. Different menus available to the user are discussed. Microcomputer graphics for displaying the orthographic views with dimensions and designations, and isometric views are presented. This MICROCAD system can be used effectively for practical design of connections in steel buildings     

Sliding mode control for an aerodynamic missile based on backstepping design

In order to solve the mismatched uncertainties of a class of nonlinear systems,a control method of sliding mode control (SMC) based on the backstepping design is proposed. It introduces SMC in to the last step of backstepping design to modify the backstepping algorithm. This combination not only enables the generalization of the backstepping design to be applied to more general nonlinear systems, but also makes the SMC method become effective in solving the mismatched uncertainties. The SMC based on the backstepping design is applied to the flight control system design of an aerodynamic missile. The control system is researched through simulation. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed control method.     

A strategy for service realization in service-oriented design

Recently service orientation is becoming a mainstream approach for building large scale software systems. A key requirement in service-oriented design is the de- pendability of service. It stipulates that the behavior of services is controllable. Formal models can aid in constructing software in a dependable manner. They can describe ser- vices precisely and compose them together consistently. This paper presents a strategy for service realization based on a novel layered formal model. When a service is provided or required via internet, the semantic consistency becomes critical issue. Our architecture tackles the issue by proposing a novel scheme: defining contract of a service to keep semantic information. Although service-oriented design is our prime target, the contract models, to a large extent, are independent of the framework of design and therefore ap- plicable to large scale software design in general.     

A robust anti-windup control design for electrically driven robots — Theory and experiment

A Robust Anti-Windup Control (RAWC) method is proposed for n-Degree-of-Freedom (DOF) electrically driven robots considering the actuator voltage saturation. The actuator’s saturation is fairly modeled by a smooth nonlinear function and the control design task is developed to avoid windup besides being robust against both model uncertainties and external disturbances. As a major point, the paper also takes into consideration the fact that windup phenomenon can be caused by some strong disturbances. As a result, being robust to external disturbances promises safer situation against windup. The proposed controller needs no saturation output feedback and torque’s measurement for control implementation. The analytical studies as well as the experimental results produced using MATLAB/SIMULINK External Mode Control on a 2-DOF robot manipulator driven by geared Permanent magnet DC motors prove the superiority of the proposed approach.     

Keys for successful 360° hypervideo design: A user study based on an xAPI analytics dashboard

Multimedia Tools and Applications - One of the most recent trends in the evaluation of immersive virtual environments is the incorporation of user metrics. In this article, we conduct a user study...     

Compulab—Computing for the physical sciences teaching laboratory

In this paper a general purpose microcomputer-based system is described which is designed to support small-scale experimentation in the student laboratory. It comprises a low-cost hardware interface and a generalised software user-interface. The software provides a user-driven scientific workbench tool for the collection, analysis, display and storage of experimental data. Although designed initially for the physical sciences, it also has application in the life sciences.The requirements for such a system are discussed, design criteria are established and examples are given of the application of the system to some simple experiments. Experiences in using the system with teachers and school and college students contributed significantly to the development and indicate some of the desirable features for such software.The benefits of the general-purpose computer-assisted approach to experimentation in the teaching laboratory are both financial and pedagogical. However, there is a need to revise methods of laboratory teaching if these benefits are to be realisable.     

Data mining–based hierarchical cooperative coevolutionary algorithm for TSK-type neuro-fuzzy networks design

This study proposes a data mining–based hierarchical cooperative coevolutionary algorithm (DMHCCA) for TSK-type neuro-fuzzy networks design. The proposed DMHCCA consists of two-level evolutions: the neuro-level evolution (NULE) and the network-level evolution (NWLE). In NULE, a data mining–based evolutionary learning algorithm is utilized to evolve neurons. The good combinations of neurons evolved in NULE are reserved for being the initial populations of NWLE. In NWLE, the initial population are mated and mutated to produce new structure of networks. Similar to NULE, the good neurons of evolved network in NWLE are inserted into the NULE. Thus, by interactive two-level evolutions, the neurons and structure of network can be evolved locally and globally, respectively. Simulation results using DMHCCA are reported and compared with other existing models. Application of DMHCCA to a three-dimensional (3D) surface alignment task is also described, and experimental results are presented better performance than other alignment systems.     

Continuous simulation for design flood estimation—a review

Developments of systems for continuous simulation of streamflow are traced from manual systems in the middle of the 20th century to present day computer-based systems. A profusion of different systems from very simple to very complex are in use. Systems in operational use in UK/Europe, USA, South Africa and Australia are reviewed. There are several different runoff generation processes used in these systems such as saturation overland flow, subsurface stormflow and infiltration excess. These processes demonstrate different approaches to hydrological modelling in different areas. Other differences include the use of processes such as snowmelt and transmission loss that are significant in some areas but not in others. A feature of many modern systems is the use of stochastic rainfall generators that allow for very long streamflow sequences to be generated from which long-term flood statistics can be extracted. Only a few studies have compared continuous simulation with other methods of design flood estimation, and no significant studies have been made comparing different continuous simulation systems. Most of the available systems use recorded streamflow data for calibration and there is little information available for the use of continuous simulation systems on ungauged catchments.     

De-interlacing technique based on total variation with spatial-temporal smoothness constraint

This paper introduces a new method of converting interlaced video to a progres- sively scanned video and image. The new method is derived from Bayesian framework with the spatial-temporal smoothness constraint and the MAP is done by minimizing the energy functional. The half-quadratic regularization method is used to solve the corresponding partial differential equations (PDEs). This ap- proach gives the improved results over the conventional de-interlacing methods. Two criteria are proposed in the paper, and they can be used to evaluate the per- formance of the de-interlacing algorithms.