A guided tour of asynchronous cellular automata

Research on asynchronous cellular automata has received a great amount of attention these last years and has turned to a thriving field. We survey the recent research that has been carried out on this topic and present a wide state of the art where computing and modelling issues are both represented.Comment: To appear in the Journal of Cellular Automat

Design and Implementation of a Framework for the Interconnection of Cellular Automata in Software and Hardware

There has been a move recently in academia, industry, and the consumer space towards the use of unsupervised parallel computation and distributed networks (i.e., networks of computing elements working together to achieve a global outcome with only local knowledge). To fully understand the types of problems that these systems are applied to regularly, a representative member of this group of unsupervised parallel and distributed systems is needed to allow the development of generalizable results. Although not the only potential candidate, the field of cellular automata is an excellent choice for analyzing how these systems work as it is one of the simplest members of this group in terms of design specification. The current ability of the field of cellular automata to represent the realm of unsupervised parallel and distributed systems is limited to only a subset of the possible systems, which leads to the main goal of this work of finding a method of allowing cellular automata to represent a much larger range of systems. To achieve this goal, a conceptual framework has been developed that allows the definition of interconnected systems of cellular automata that can represent most, if not all, unsupervised parallel and distributed systems. The framework introduces the concept of allowing the boundary conditions of a cellular automaton to be defined by a separately specified system, which can be any system that is capable of producing the information needed, including another cellular automaton. Using this interconnection concept, two forms of computational simplification are enabled: the deconstruction of a large system into smaller, modular pieces; and the construction of a large system built from a heterogeneous set of smaller pieces. This framework is formally defined using an interconnection graph, where edges signify the flow of information from one node to the next and the nodes are the various systems involved. A library has been designed which implements the interconnection graphs defined by the framework for a subset of the possible nodes, primarily to allow an exploration of the field of cellular automata as a potential representational member of unsupervised parallel and distributed systems. This library has been developed with a number of criteria in mind that will allow it to be instantiated on both hardware and software using an open and extendable architecture to enable interaction with external systems and future expansion to take into account novel research. This extendability is discussed in terms of combining the library with genetic algorithms to find an interconnected system that will satisfy a specific computational goal. There are also a number of novel components of the library that further enhance the capabilities of potential research, including methods for automatically building interconnection graphs from sets of cellular automata and the ability to skip over static regions of a given cellular automaton in an intelligent way to reduce computation time. With a particular set of cellular automaton parameters, the use of this feature reduced the computation time by 75%. As a demonstration of the usefulness of both the library and the framework that it implements, a hardware application has been developed which makes use of many of the novel aspects that have been introduced to produce an interactive art installation named 'Aurora'. This application has a number of design requirements that are directly achieved through the use of library components and framework definitions. These design requirements included a lack of centralized control or data storage, a need for visibly dynamic behaviour in the installation, and the desire for the visitors to the installation to be able to affect the visible movement of patterns across the surface of the piece. The success of the library in this application was heavily dependent on its instantiation on a mixture of hardware and software, as well as the ability to extend the library to suit particular needs and aspects of the specific application requirements. The main goal of this thesis research, finding a method that allows cellular automata to represent a much larger range of unsupervised parallel and distributed systems, has been partially achieved in the creation of a novel framework which defines the concept of interconnection, and the design of an interconnection graph using this concept. This allows the field of cellular automata, in combination with the framework, to be an excellent representational member of an extended set of unsupervised parallel and distributed systems when compared to the field alone. A library has been developed that satisfies a broad set of design criteria that allow it to be used in any future research built on the use of cellular automata as this representational member. A hardware application was successfully created that makes use of a number of novel aspects of both the framework and the library to demonstrate their applicability in a real world situation

Integrating virtual reality and Building Information Modeling for improving highway tunnel emergency response training

During the last two decades, managers have been applying Building Information Modeling (BIM) to improve the quality of management as well as operation. The effectiveness of applications within a BIM environment is restrained by the limited immersive experience in virtual environments. Defined as the immersive visualization of virtual scenes, Virtual Reality (VR) is an emerging technology that can be actively explored to expand BIM to more usage. This paper highlights the need for a structured methodology for the integration of BIM/VR and gives a generic review of BIM and VR in training platforms for management in infrastructures. The rationales for fire evacuation training were formed based on the review. Then, methods of configuring BIM + VR prototypes were formulated for emergency response in highway tunnels. Furthermore, a conceptual framework integrating BIM with VR was proposed to enable the visualization of the physical context in real-time during the training. The result indicated that, extended to the training system of highway management via the “hand” of BIM, the VR solution can benefit more areas, such as the cost of fire evacuation drills in highway tunnels and the tendency of accidents to occur in the emergency response

Discrete Event Simulations

Considered by many authors as a technique for modelling stochastic, dynamic and discretely evolving systems, this technique has gained widespread acceptance among the practitioners who want to represent and improve complex systems. Since DES is a technique applied in incredibly different areas, this book reflects many different points of view about DES, thus, all authors describe how it is understood and applied within their context of work, providing an extensive understanding of what DES is. It can be said that the name of the book itself reflects the plurality that these points of view represent. The book embraces a number of topics covering theory, methods and applications to a wide range of sectors and problem areas that have been categorised into five groups. As well as the previously explained variety of points of view concerning DES, there is one additional thing to remark about this book: its richness when talking about actual data or actual data based analysis. When most academic areas are lacking application cases, roughly the half part of the chapters included in this book deal with actual problems or at least are based on actual data. Thus, the editor firmly believes that this book will be interesting for both beginners and practitioners in the area of DES

Aerospace medicine and biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 331)

This bibliography lists 129 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System during December, 1989. Subject coverage includes: aerospace medicine and psychology, life support systems and controlled environments, safety equipment, exobiology and extraterrestrial life, and flight crew behavior and performance

Land-Cover and Land-Use Study Using Genetic Algorithms, Petri Nets, and Cellular Automata

Recent research techniques, such as genetic algorithm (GA), Petri net (PN), and cellular automata (CA) have been applied in a number of studies. However, their capability and performance in land-cover land-use (LCLU) classification, change detection, and predictive modeling have not been well understood. This study seeks to address the following questions: 1) How do genetic parameters impact the accuracy of GA-based LCLU classification; 2) How do image parameters impact the accuracy of GA-based LCLU classification; 3) Is GA-based LCLU classification more accurate than the maximum likelihood classifier (MLC), iterative self-organizing data analysis technique (ISODATA), and the hybrid approach; 4) How do genetic parameters impact Petri Net-based LCLU change detection; and 5) How do cellular automata components impact the accuracy of LCLU predictive modeling. The study area, namely the Tickfaw River watershed (711mi²), is located in southeast Louisiana and southwest Mississippi. The major datasets include time-series Landsat TM / ETM images and Digital Orthophoto Quarter Quadrangles (DOQQ’s). LCLU classification was conducted by using the GA, MLC, ISODATA, and Hybrid approach. The LCLU change was modeled by using genetic PN-based process mining technique. The process models were interpreted and input to a CA for predicting future LCLU. The major findings include: 1) GA-based LCLU classification is more accurate than the traditional approaches; 2) When genetic parameters, image parameters, or CA components are configured improperly, the accuracy of LCLU classification, the coverage of LCLU change process model, and/or the accuracy of LCLU predictive modeling will be low; 3) For GA-based LCLU classification, the recommended configuration of genetic / image parameters is generation 2000-5000, population 1000, crossover rate 69%-99%, mutation rate 0.1%-0.5%, generation gap 25%-50%, data layers 16-20, training / testing data size 10000-20000 / 5000-10000, and spatial resolution 30m-60m; 4) For genetic Petri nets-based LCLU change detection, the recommended configuration of genetic parameters is generation 500, population 300, crossover rate 59%, mutation rate 5%, and elitism rate 4%; and 5) For CA-based LCLU predictive modeling, the recommended configuration of CA components is space 6025 * 12993, state 2, von Neumann neighborhood 3 * 3, time step 2-3 years, and optimized transition rules

Pattern Recognition

A wealth of advanced pattern recognition algorithms are emerging from the interdiscipline between technologies of effective visual features and the human-brain cognition process. Effective visual features are made possible through the rapid developments in appropriate sensor equipments, novel filter designs, and viable information processing architectures. While the understanding of human-brain cognition process broadens the way in which the computer can perform pattern recognition tasks. The present book is intended to collect representative researches around the globe focusing on low-level vision, filter design, features and image descriptors, data mining and analysis, and biologically inspired algorithms. The 27 chapters coved in this book disclose recent advances and new ideas in promoting the techniques, technology and applications of pattern recognition

Recent Advances in Multi Robot Systems

To design a team of robots which is able to perform given tasks is a great concern of many members of robotics community. There are many problems left to be solved in order to have the fully functional robot team. Robotics community is trying hard to solve such problems (navigation, task allocation, communication, adaptation, control, ...). This book represents the contributions of the top researchers in this field and will serve as a valuable tool for professionals in this interdisciplinary field. It is focused on the challenging issues of team architectures, vehicle learning and adaptation, heterogeneous group control and cooperation, task selection, dynamic autonomy, mixed initiative, and human and robot team interaction. The book consists of 16 chapters introducing both basic research and advanced developments. Topics covered include kinematics, dynamic analysis, accuracy, optimization design, modelling, simulation and control of multi robot systems