11,134 research outputs found
Survey of Inter-satellite Communication for Small Satellite Systems: Physical Layer to Network Layer View
Small satellite systems enable whole new class of missions for navigation,
communications, remote sensing and scientific research for both civilian and
military purposes. As individual spacecraft are limited by the size, mass and
power constraints, mass-produced small satellites in large constellations or
clusters could be useful in many science missions such as gravity mapping,
tracking of forest fires, finding water resources, etc. Constellation of
satellites provide improved spatial and temporal resolution of the target.
Small satellite constellations contribute innovative applications by replacing
a single asset with several very capable spacecraft which opens the door to new
applications. With increasing levels of autonomy, there will be a need for
remote communication networks to enable communication between spacecraft. These
space based networks will need to configure and maintain dynamic routes, manage
intermediate nodes, and reconfigure themselves to achieve mission objectives.
Hence, inter-satellite communication is a key aspect when satellites fly in
formation. In this paper, we present the various researches being conducted in
the small satellite community for implementing inter-satellite communications
based on the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model. This paper also reviews
the various design parameters applicable to the first three layers of the OSI
model, i.e., physical, data link and network layer. Based on the survey, we
also present a comprehensive list of design parameters useful for achieving
inter-satellite communications for multiple small satellite missions. Specific
topics include proposed solutions for some of the challenges faced by small
satellite systems, enabling operations using a network of small satellites, and
some examples of small satellite missions involving formation flying aspects.Comment: 51 pages, 21 Figures, 11 Tables, accepted in IEEE Communications
Surveys and Tutorial
A State of the Art of Governance Literature on adaptation to climate change. Towards a research agenda
This report provides a state-of-the-art overview of governance literature on adaptation strategies. What has recent research taught us on adaptation from the perspective of governance and to what research agenda does this lead? This report is structured as followed. Firstly, it will be argued why adaptation is a matter of governance. Secondly, the research methods for the literature study will be outlined. Thirdly, the results of the literature study will portray the findings in terms of the themes and foci with, respectively, environmental studies, spatial planning and development studies, and public administration studies. Finally, a comparative analysis of these findings will lead to a research agenda for future research on governance of adaptatio
Adaptive multibeam antennas for spacelab. Phase A: Feasibility study
The feasibility was studied of using adaptive multibeam multi-frequency antennas on the spacelab, and to define the experiment configuration and program plan needed for a demonstration to prove the concept. Three applications missions were selected, and requirements were defined for an L band communications experiment, an L band radiometer experiment, and a Ku band communications experiment. Reflector, passive lens, and phased array antenna systems were considered, and the Adaptive Multibeam Phased Array (AMPA) was chosen. Array configuration and beamforming network tradeoffs resulted in a single 3m x 3m L band array with 576 elements for high radiometer beam efficiency. Separate 0.4m x 0.4 m arrays are used to transmit and receive at Ku band with either 576 elements or thinned apertures. Each array has two independently steerable 5 deg beams, which are adaptively controlled
Supporting local innovation for rural development: Analysis and review of five innovation support funds
In continents and countries such as Africa and India, huge agricultural areas are "de-facto" organic. More formalised - and knowledge intense - methods of organic agriculture has proved potential help farmers achieve better development returns from farming organic. While not commonly referred to (formally certified) as "organic", this huge agricultural sector mainly depend on farmer-knowledge intensive and local innovation systems very much of the same kind that served development of organic agriculture in the west, before agricultural universities and subsequently governments took interest in participating in developing "organic" agriculture. The aim of this study is to follow up on a World Bank workshop on innovation systems at the community level. Most of the knowledge and innovation referred to in the report relates to agriculture. By resolution, this workshop recommended that a âreview of existing innovation support funds and outline of a global mechanism to foster community level innovationsâ should be undertaken. The
study is also, in part, a response to a recent report from the World Bankâs Indigenous
Knowledge for Development Program, which calls for the establishment
of an âinnovation fund to promote successful IK practicesâ (Gorjestani, N., in
WB 2004; 45-53).
Th is desk study reviews fi ve innovation support funds (ISFs) or funding concepts:
the Indian âNational Innovation Fundâ (NIF) and its associated web of institutions;
the GTZ-funded âSmall-Scale Project Fundâ (SSPF); the NGO concept
âPromoting Local Innovation in ecologically oriented agriculture and NRMâ
(PROLINNOVA); the FAOâs project, âPromoting Farmer Innovation-Farmer Field
Schoolsâ (PFI-FFS); and the âLocal Agricultural Research Committeeâ (CIAL) in
Latin America.
Local innovations are broadly perceived as constituting a major under-utilized
potential for development and rural poverty reduction, and ISFs as contributing to realize this potential. Local innovators continue to experiment and generated
knowledge within a broad spectrum of areas, including improved mechanical
tools for agriculture, natural resource management, medicinal and agricultural
practices, and innovative ways of organizing and doing business. Th e signifi cance
of local innovators as a source of knowledge and well-adapted solutions is high
among the poorer sections of rural society, many of whom cannot aff ord, nor have
access to, relevant advisory services.
Th ere is growing recognition that a whole range of diff erent actors and organizations
are required to stimulate widespread local technological development. New
products and processes are brought into local economic and social use through
networks of organizations, which are often referred to in the abstract as the innovation
system. Th e key challenge is not perceived in terms of devising new
technologies, e.g. doing diff erent things, but in bringing about changes in how the
innovation system works, e.g. doing things diff diffff erently (Phila 2005).
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Our comparative analysis of the fi ve reviews listed above draws twelve preliminary
conclusions:
(i) NIF is globally the largest and most advanced ISF. However, although the other
four ISFs are more limited in scope and focus, they can all contribute valuable
experiences, complementary to those of NIF. In our assessment, the eff ectiveness of
investing in innovation support could be enhanced if existing complementary experiences
were exchanged and acted on in a systematic manner.
(ii) ISFs understand innovation as a matter of both processes and products, the
latter varying from hard mechanical implements to soft institutional innovations.
ISFs support both innovators and their links with public institutions and private
entrepreneurs, and groups of rural producers, as platforms for innovations and
as their links with innovators. It is our assessment that all ISFs could benefi t from a
more balanced mix of the two areas of innovation support.
(iii) ISFsâ understandings of who the innovators are varies. NIF celebrates the
qualities of individual, small-scale entrepreneurs with a proven record of being
innovative, while the remaining ISFs place their eff orts in facilitating poor rural
producers and users of innovations to learn to become âresearchersâ in their own
right. It is our assessment that supporting both types of innovator is likely to increase
the development outcomes of ISFs.
(iv) A general lesson learned by all ISFs is that innovations have to be understood
in their context. ISFs currently diff erentiate between innovations on the basis of
the types of issues they are concerned with (e.g. soil and water conservation, biological
pest management, etc.). It is our assessment that it would be useful if the ISFs
could instead distinguish between innovations in relation to (i) the relevance of formal
property rights; (ii) public/private goods; and (iii) market/non-market value.
(v) When using a âlearning selectionâ analytical framework for rural innovations
for development, the focus shifts away from simply understanding innovators
as inventors and rural producers as the users of innovations towards a focus on
how innovations are continuously improved upon through interaction between
the various actors. In our assessment, the facilitation of cycles of â learning selectionâ
involving innovators, entrepreneurs and innovative adopters is a potential area of
activity for ISFs that could contribute to scaling out use and the commercialization
of rural innovations.
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(vi) Understanding capacity development as âthe ability of an organization to
produce appropriate outputs (e.g. services and products) helps clarify the aim of
capacity development eff orts in these ISFs. ISF-supported eff orts are centered on
the one hand on building eff ective mechanisms for identifying, documenting,
vetting and promoting innovations, and on the other hand on ensuring organizational
and fi nancial sustainability.
(vii) Th e ISF funds reviewed here have a decentralized management structure
linked together by a central management unit or committee. Th e Indian NIF
has the most formalized and well-established governance structure, including a
national Governing Board that coordinates activities among the web of independent
organizations, each with diff erent functions and foci. Coordination of activities
is less visible in the case of CIAL and PFI-FFS, as most management decisions
in these organizations are taken at the farmer-group level and at the district-level
networks of these groups. Th e PROLINNOVA concept provides a refreshing mix
of centralized and decentralized decision-making management.
(viii) None of these ISFs have a comprehensive system for monitoring outcomes
and assessing the impact of support activities. Since none of the M&E systems
diff erentiates between diff erent social categories, one potential development impact
of ISF activities has not been documented. ISF documents are also unclear in their
understandings of the social and economic mechanisms through which support
for local innovations result in improved levels of well-being for poor people.
(ix) Th e review reveals a diverse picture of Innovation Scouting, from none or
implied (PROLINNOVA,) via criteria-based (SSPF), the village walks and student
scouts of the NIF, reliance on grassroots âchampionsâ and/or use of extension
workers (FFS), to the structured group innovation process encoded in the CIALs.
Th e use by NIF of students who return to their villages during their vacations to
scout for innovations seems to be a successful approach that may be replicable in
other areas where university students come from rural areas. Th e availability of
comprehensive standardized forms and criteria that the students can easily apply
has contributed to the success of this approach. An unintended side eff ect has
been changes in studentâs own attitudes to rural development.
(x) Most of the funds reviewed made few if any attempts to support any genuine
commercialization of local innovations. Th e exception is NIF, which we found
to be more advanced in this sense. NIF includes both formal and informal sector
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commercialization. While primarily focusing on innovations of a public-good
nature with a view to informal commercialization or information-sharing, NIF has
developed a proven capacity to work with innovations of a rival good or excludable
nature, in other words, those with the potential for commercialization based
on standard or sui-generis IPRs. Th e other funds focus mostly (CIAL) or almost
exclusively (FFS) on non-excludable and non-rival goods. In the latter cases, most
or all the innovations they support are likely to be of a public-good nature.
(xi) Th ree complementary forms of innovation vetting are practiced by the IFSs,
each with their merits. One of the funds reviewed rely on two separate innovation
âreviewâ committees, one âscientifi câ, and one by peers among innovators
(NIF), while another used joint experiments involving both external facilitators
and researchers (CIAL). Vetting by potential users (e.g. rural producers) is widely
practiced in PFI-FFS.
(xii) Th e approach to learning varies within the ISFs, from the highly complex
and elaborate learning programmed for at all levels, through a wide array of
instruments and forums (NIF), to a far more specifi c and scoped adult or joint
learning model (CIAL, FFS), to the rather more amorphous âcollective learningâ
envisioned by the PROLINNOVA concept.
A global innovation facility (GIF) could play a role in compiling existing documentation
of experience, initiating cross-country studies, and assisting in ensuring
that these experiences are made available and exchanged in a systematic manner
among the existing ISFs. Th e mission of such a GIF could be to enhance the effectiveness
of existing ISFs and the global expansion of activities by facilitating
institutional learning, the exchange of experience between existing ISFs and the
provision of technical assistance
Agronomy
Climate change is a serious threat to field crop production and food security. It has negative effects on food, water, and energy security due to change in weather patterns and extreme events such as floods, droughts, and heat waves, all of which reduce crop productivity. Over six chapters, this book presents a comprehensive picture of the importance of agronomy as it relates to the United Nationsâ Sustainable Development Goals. With an emphasis on the goals of Zero Hunger and Climate Change, this volume examines sustainable agronomic practices to increase crop productivity and improve environmental health
Improving adaptability and mode selection via dynamic analysis
Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2004.Includes bibliographical references (p. 83-86).A multi-mode software system contains several distinct modes of operation and a controller for deciding when to switch between modes. Even when developers rigorously test a multi-mode system before deployment, they cannot foresee and test for every possible usage scenario. As a result, unexpected situations in which the program fails or underperforms (for example, by choosing a non-optimal mode) may arise. This research aims to mitigate such problems by training programs to select more appropriate modes during new situations. The technique, called program steering, creates a new mode selector by learning and extrapolating from previously successful experiences. Such a strategy, which generalizes the knowledge that a programmer has built into the system, may select an appropriate mode even when the original programmer had not considered the scenario. We applied the technique on simulated fish programs from MIT's Embodied Intelligence class and on robot control programs written in a month-long programming competition. The experiments show that the technique is domain independent and that augmenting programs via program steering can have a substantial positive effect on their performance in new environments.by Lee Chuan Lin.M.Eng
A Systematic Survey of Control Techniques and Applications: From Autonomous Vehicles to Connected and Automated Vehicles
Vehicle control is one of the most critical challenges in autonomous vehicles
(AVs) and connected and automated vehicles (CAVs), and it is paramount in
vehicle safety, passenger comfort, transportation efficiency, and energy
saving. This survey attempts to provide a comprehensive and thorough overview
of the current state of vehicle control technology, focusing on the evolution
from vehicle state estimation and trajectory tracking control in AVs at the
microscopic level to collaborative control in CAVs at the macroscopic level.
First, this review starts with vehicle key state estimation, specifically
vehicle sideslip angle, which is the most pivotal state for vehicle trajectory
control, to discuss representative approaches. Then, we present symbolic
vehicle trajectory tracking control approaches for AVs. On top of that, we
further review the collaborative control frameworks for CAVs and corresponding
applications. Finally, this survey concludes with a discussion of future
research directions and the challenges. This survey aims to provide a
contextualized and in-depth look at state of the art in vehicle control for AVs
and CAVs, identifying critical areas of focus and pointing out the potential
areas for further exploration
Libraries in transition: evolving the information ecology of the Learning Commons: a sabbatical report
This sabbatical report studied various models in order to determine best practices for design, implementation and service of Leaning Commons, a library service model which functionally and spatially integrates library services, information technology services, and media services to provide a continuum of services to the user
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