Meta-Routing: Synergistic Merging of Message Routing and Link Maintenance

The maintenance of network connectivity is essential for effective and efficient mobile team operations. Achieving robust mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) connectivity requires a capable link maintenance mechanism especially if the network experiences expected intermittent connectivity due to a hostile environment. One applicable example of such network scenarios is multi-robot exploration for urban search and rescue (USAR). With the proliferation of these robotic networks, communication problems such as the link maintenance problem are subject to be raised quickly. Although various routing protocols for wireless ad hoc networks have been proposed, they solve the problems of message routing and link maintenance separately, resulting in additional overhead costs and long latency in network communication. Traditional routing protocols discover existing links, connect these links, find the best path and minimize the path cost. The limitation of previous routing protocols motivates us to develop a new concept of routing mechanism for a robotic network. This routing mechanism is named Meta-Routing. Meta-Routing expands current routing protocols to include not only the normal routing of packets, but also the maintenance of links in mobile agent scenarios. Thus, Meta-Routing minimizes the communication path cost and the overhead cost, the latter of which results from discovering a route, repairing a link or establishing a new communication path between nodes. This dissertation presents a method to achieve Meta-Routing by controlling robot motion based on the radio frequency (RF) environment recognition method and gradient descent method. Mobile robot controlled motion can effectively improve network performance by driving robots to favorable locations with strong links. Moreover, the gradient descent method is used in driving the robots into the direction of favorable positions for maximizing broken or failing links and maintaining network connectivity. The main accomplished goals of this thesis are summarized as follows: firstly, the Meta-Routing protocol, which integrates link maintenance into the normal message routing protocol cost function; secondly, the dissertation examines the unification of the syntax of message routing protocol and the link maintenance process through physical configuration of mobile network nodes by controlling their movement in the field; finally, the dissertation demonstrates that the utilization of the RF environment recognition and classification method improves route repair estimation for achieving link maintenance in the presented Meta-Routing protocol. The numerical experimental results demonstrate promising RF environment recognition and node controlled motion results, as well as confirm their abilities in robot movement control for link maintenance and reduction of the total path cost

Post-Westgate SWAT : C4ISTAR Architectural Framework for Autonomous Network Integrated Multifaceted Warfighting Solutions Version 1.0 : A Peer-Reviewed Monograph

Police SWAT teams and Military Special Forces face mounting pressure and challenges from adversaries that can only be resolved by way of ever more sophisticated inputs into tactical operations. Lethal Autonomy provides constrained military/security forces with a viable option, but only if implementation has got proper empirically supported foundations. Autonomous weapon systems can be designed and developed to conduct ground, air and naval operations. This monograph offers some insights into the challenges of developing legal, reliable and ethical forms of autonomous weapons, that address the gap between Police or Law Enforcement and Military operations that is growing exponentially small. National adversaries are today in many instances hybrid threats, that manifest criminal and military traits, these often require deployment of hybrid-capability autonomous weapons imbued with the capability to taken on both Military and/or Security objectives. The Westgate Terrorist Attack of 21st September 2013 in the Westlands suburb of Nairobi, Kenya is a very clear manifestation of the hybrid combat scenario that required military response and police investigations against a fighting cell of the Somalia based globally networked Al Shabaab terrorist group.Comment: 52 pages, 6 Figures, over 40 references, reviewed by a reade

Facilitating Internet of Things on the Edge

The evolution of electronics and wireless technologies has entered a new era, the Internet of Things (IoT). Presently, IoT technologies influence the global market, bringing benefits in many areas, including healthcare, manufacturing, transportation, and entertainment. Modern IoT devices serve as a thin client with data processing performed in a remote computing node, such as a cloud server or a mobile edge compute unit. These computing units own significant resources that allow prompt data processing. The user experience for such an approach relies drastically on the availability and quality of the internet connection. In this case, if the internet connection is unavailable, the resulting operations of IoT applications can be completely disrupted. It is worth noting that emerging IoT applications are even more throughput demanding and latency-sensitive which makes communication networks a practical bottleneck for the service provisioning. This thesis aims to eliminate the limitations of wireless access, via the improvement of connectivity and throughput between the devices on the edge, as well as their network identification, which is fundamentally important for IoT service management. The introduction begins with a discussion on the emerging IoT applications and their demands. Subsequent chapters introduce scenarios of interest, describe the proposed solutions and provide selected performance evaluation results. Specifically, we start with research on the use of degraded memory chips for network identification of IoT devices as an alternative to conventional methods, such as IMEI; these methods are not vulnerable to tampering and cloning. Further, we introduce our contributions for improving connectivity and throughput among IoT devices on the edge in a case where the mobile network infrastructure is limited or totally unavailable. Finally, we conclude the introduction with a summary of the results achieved

Intelligent maintenance management in a reconfigurable manufacturing environment using multi-agent systems

Thesis (M. Tech.) -- Central University of Technology, Free State, 2010Traditional corrective maintenance is both costly and ineffective. In some situations it is more cost effective to replace a device than to maintain it; however it is far more likely that the cost of the device far outweighs the cost of performing routine maintenance. These device related costs coupled with the profit loss due to reduced production levels, makes this reactive maintenance approach unacceptably inefficient in many situations. Blind predictive maintenance without considering the actual physical state of the hardware is an improvement, but is still far from ideal. Simply maintaining devices on a schedule without taking into account the operational hours and workload can be a costly mistake. The inefficiencies associated with these approaches have contributed to the development of proactive maintenance strategies. These approaches take the device health state into account. For this reason, proactive maintenance strategies are inherently more efficient compared to the aforementioned traditional approaches. Predicting the health degradation of devices allows for easier anticipation of the required maintenance resources and costs. Maintenance can also be scheduled to accommodate production needs. This work represents the design and simulation of an intelligent maintenance management system that incorporates device health prognosis with maintenance schedule generation. The simulation scenario provided prognostic data to be used to schedule devices for maintenance. A production rule engine was provided with a feasible starting schedule. This schedule was then improved and the process was determined by adhering to a set of criteria. Benchmarks were conducted to show the benefit of optimising the starting schedule and the results were presented as proof. Improving on existing maintenance approaches will result in several benefits for an organisation. Eliminating the need to address unexpected failures or perform maintenance prematurely will ensure that the relevant resources are available when they are required. This will in turn reduce the expenditure related to wasted maintenance resources without compromising the health of devices or systems in the organisation

Intelligent Energy Management with IoT Framework in Smart Cities Using Intelligent Analysis: An Application of Machine Learning Methods for Complex Networks and Systems

Smart buildings are increasingly using Internet of Things (IoT)-based wireless sensing systems to reduce their energy consumption and environmental impact. As a result of their compact size and ability to sense, measure, and compute all electrical properties, Internet of Things devices have become increasingly important in our society. A major contribution of this study is the development of a comprehensive IoT-based framework for smart city energy management, incorporating multiple components of IoT architecture and framework. An IoT framework for intelligent energy management applications that employ intelligent analysis is an essential system component that collects and stores information. Additionally, it serves as a platform for the development of applications by other companies. Furthermore, we have studied intelligent energy management solutions based on intelligent mechanisms. The depletion of energy resources and the increase in energy demand have led to an increase in energy consumption and building maintenance. The data collected is used to monitor, control, and enhance the efficiency of the system

Advancing automation and robotics technology for the Space Station Freedom and for the US economy

Described here is the progress made by Levels 1, 2, and 3 of the Space Station Freedom in developing and applying advanced automation and robotics technology. Emphasis was placed on the Space Station Freedom program responses to specific recommendations made in the Advanced Technology Advisory Committee (ATAC) Progress Report 13, and issues of A&R implementation into the payload operations integration Center at Marshall Space Flight Center. Assessments are presented for these and other areas as they apply to the advancement of automation and robotics technology for Space Station Freedom

Industry 4.0

This book shows a vision of the present and future of Industry 4.0 and identifies and examines the most pressing research issue in Industry 4.0. Containing the contributions of leading researchers and academics, this book includes recent publications in key areas of interest, for example: a review on the Industry 4.0: What is the Industry 4.0, the pillars of Industry 4.0, current and future trends, technologies, taxonomy, and some case studies (A.U.T.O 4.0, stabilization of digitized process). This book also provides an essential tool in the process of migration to Industry 4.0. The book is suitable as a text for graduate students and professionals in the industrial sector and general engineering areas. The book is organized into two sections: 1. Reviews 2. Case Studies Industry 4.0 is likely to play an important role in the future society. This book is a good reference on Industry 4.0 and includes some case studies. Each chapter is written by expert researchers in the sector, and the topics are broad; from the concept or definition of Industry 4.0 to a future society 5.0