Dynamic optimization of classification systems for adaptive incremental learning.

Tese de Doutorado, defendida na Université Du Québec, Canadian. 2010An incremental learning system updates itself in response to incoming data without reexamining all the old data. Since classification systems capable of incrementally storing, filtering, and classifying data are economical, in terms of both space and time, which makes them immensely useful for industrial, military, and commercial purposes, interest in designing them is growing. However, the challenge with incremental learning is that classification tasks can no longer be seen as unvarying, since they can actually change with the evolution of the data. These changes in turn cause dynamic changes to occur in the classification system’s parameters If such variations are neglected, the overall performance of these systems will be compromised in the future. In this thesis, on the development of a system capable of incrementally accommodating new data and dynamically tracking new optimum system parameters for self-adaptation, we first address the optimum selection of classifiers over time. We propose a framework which combines the power of Swarm Intelligence Theory and the conventional grid-search method to progressively identify potential solutions for gradually updating training datasets. The key here is to consider the adjustment of classifier parameters as a dynamic optimization problem that depends on the data available. Specifically, it has been shown that, if the intention is to build efficient Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifiers from sources that provide data gradually and serially, then the best way to do this is to consider model selection as a dynamic process which can evolve and change over time. This means that a number of solutions are required, depending on the knowledge available about the problem and uncertainties in the data. We also investigate measures for evaluating and selecting classifier ensembles composed of SVM classifiers. The measures employed are based on two different theories (diversity and margin) commonly used to understand the success of ensembles. This study has given us valuable insights and helped us to establish confidence-based measures as a tool for the selection of classifier ensembles. The main contribution of this thesis is a dynamic optimization approach that performs incremental learning in an adaptive fashion by tracking, evolving, and combining optimum hypotheses over time. The approach incorporates various theories, such as dynamic Particle Swarm Optimization, incremental Support Vector Machine classifiers, change detection, and dynamic ensemble selection based on classifier confidence levels. Experiments carried out on synthetic and real-world databases demonstrate that the proposed approach outperforms the classification methods often used in incremental learning scenarios

Symbiotic Organisms Search Algorithm: theory, recent advances and applications

The symbiotic organisms search algorithm is a very promising recent metaheuristic algorithm. It has received a plethora of attention from all areas of numerical optimization research, as well as engineering design practices. it has since undergone several modifications, either in the form of hybridization or as some other improved variants of the original algorithm. However, despite all the remarkable achievements and rapidly expanding body of literature regarding the symbiotic organisms search algorithm within its short appearance in the field of swarm intelligence optimization techniques, there has been no collective and comprehensive study on the success of the various implementations of this algorithm. As a way forward, this paper provides an overview of the research conducted on symbiotic organisms search algorithms from inception to the time of writing, in the form of details of various application scenarios with variants and hybrid implementations, and suggestions for future research directions

Adapting heterogeneous ensembles with particle swarm optimization for video face recognition

In video-based face recognition applications, matching is typically performed by comparing query samples against biometric models (i.e., an individual’s facial model) that is designed with reference samples captured during an enrollment process. Although statistical and neural pattern classifiers may represent a flexible solution to this kind of problem, their performance depends heavily on the availability of representative reference data. With operators involved in the data acquisition process, collection and analysis of reference data is often expensive and time consuming. However, although a limited amount of data is initially available during enrollment, new reference data may be acquired and labeled by an operator over time. Still, due to a limited control over changing operational conditions and personal physiology, classification systems used for video-based face recognition are confronted to complex and changing pattern recognition environments. This thesis concerns adaptive multiclassifier systems (AMCSs) for incremental learning of new data during enrollment and update of biometric models. To avoid knowledge (facial models) corruption over time, the proposed AMCS uses a supervised incremental learning strategy based on dynamic particle swarm optimization (DPSO) to evolve a swarm of fuzzy ARTMAP (FAM) neural networks in response to new data. As each particle in a FAM hyperparameter search space corresponds to a FAM network, the learning strategy adapts learning dynamics by co-optimizing all their parameters – hyperparameters, weights, and architecture – in order to maximize accuracy, while minimizing computational cost and memory resources. To achieve this, the relationship between the classification and optimization environments is studied and characterized, leading to these additional contributions. An initial version of this DPSO-based incremental learning strategy was applied to an adaptive classification system (ACS), where the accuracy of a single FAM neural network is maximized. It is shown that the original definition of a classification system capable of supervised incremental learning must be reconsidered in two ways. Not only must a classifier’s learning dynamics be adapted to maintain a high level of performance through time, but some previously acquired learning validation data must also be used during adaptation. It is empirically shown that adapting a FAM during incremental learning constitutes a type III dynamic optimization problem in the search space, where the local optima values and their corresponding position change in time. Results also illustrate the necessity of a long term memory (LTM) to store previously acquired data for unbiased validation and performance estimation. The DPSO-based incremental learning strategy was then modified to evolve the swarm (or pool) of FAM networks within an AMCS. A key element for the success of ensembles is tackled: classifier diversity. With several correlation and diversity indicators, it is shown that genoVIII type (i.e., hyperparameters) diversity in the optimization environment is correlated with classifier diversity in the classification environment. Following this result, properties of a DPSO algorithm that seeks to maintain genotype particle diversity to detect and follow local optima are exploited to generate and evolve diversified pools of FAMclassifiers. Furthermore, a greedy search algorithm is presented to perform an efficient ensemble selection based on accuracy and genotype diversity. This search algorithm allows for diversified ensembles without evaluating costly classifier diversity indicators, and selected ensembles also yield accuracy comparable to that of reference ensemble-based and batch learning techniques, with only a fraction of the resources. Finally, after studying the relationship between the classification environment and the search space, the objective space of the optimization environment is also considered. An aggregated dynamical niching particle swarm optimization (ADNPSO) algorithm is presented to guide the FAM networks according two objectives: FAM accuracy and computational cost. Instead of purely solving a multi-objective optimization problem to provide a Pareto-optimal front, the ADNPSO algorithm aims to generate pools of classifiers among which both genotype and phenotype (i.e., objectives) diversity are maximized. ADNPSO thus uses information in the search spaces to guide particles towards different local Pareto-optimal fronts in the objective space. A specialized archive is then used to categorize solutions according to FAMnetwork size and then capture locally non-dominated classifiers. These two components are then integrated to the AMCS through an ADNPSO-based incremental learning strategy. The AMCSs proposed in this thesis are promising since they create ensembles of classifiers designed with the ADNPSO-based incremental learning strategy and provide a high level of accuracy that is statistically comparable to that obtained through mono-objective optimization and reference batch learning techniques, and yet requires a fraction of the computational cost

Traveling Salesman Problem

The idea behind TSP was conceived by Austrian mathematician Karl Menger in mid 1930s who invited the research community to consider a problem from the everyday life from a mathematical point of view. A traveling salesman has to visit exactly once each one of a list of m cities and then return to the home city. He knows the cost of traveling from any city i to any other city j. Thus, which is the tour of least possible cost the salesman can take? In this book the problem of finding algorithmic technique leading to good/optimal solutions for TSP (or for some other strictly related problems) is considered. TSP is a very attractive problem for the research community because it arises as a natural subproblem in many applications concerning the every day life. Indeed, each application, in which an optimal ordering of a number of items has to be chosen in a way that the total cost of a solution is determined by adding up the costs arising from two successively items, can be modelled as a TSP instance. Thus, studying TSP can never be considered as an abstract research with no real importance

Target localization using RSS measurements in wireless sensor networks

The subject of this thesis is the development of localization algorithms for target localization in wireless sensor networks using received signal strength (RSS) measurements or Quantized RSS (QRSS) measurements. In chapter 3 of the thesis, target localization using RSS measurements is investigated. Many existing works on RSS localization assumes that the shadowing components are uncorrelated. However, here, shadowing is assumed to be spatially correlated. It can be shown that localization accuracy can be improved with the consideration of correlation between pairs of RSS measurements. By linearizing the corresponding Maximum Likelihood (ML) objective function, a weighted least squares (WLS) algorithm is formulated to obtain the target location. An iterative technique based on Newtons method is utilized to give a solution. Numerical simulations show that the proposed algorithms achieves better performance than existing algorithms with reasonable complexity. In chapter 4, target localization with an unknown path loss model parameter is investigated. Most published work estimates location and these parameters jointly using iterative methods with a good initialization of path loss exponent (PLE). To avoid finding an initialization, a global optimization algorithm, particle swarm optimization (PSO) is employed to optimize the ML objective function. By combining PSO with a consensus algorithm, the centralized estimation problem is extended to a distributed version so that can be implemented in distributed WSN. Although suboptimal, the distributed approach is very suitable for implementation in real sensor networks, as it is scalable, robust against changing of network topology and requires only local communication. Numerical simulations show that the accuracy of centralized PSO can attain the Cramer Rao Lower Bound (CRLB). Also, as expected, there is some degradation in performance of the distributed PSO with respect to the centralized PSO. In chapter 5, a distributed gradient algorithm for RSS based target localization using only quantized data is proposed. The ML of the Quantized RSS is derived and PSO is used to provide an initial estimate for the gradient algorithm. A practical quantization threshold designer is presented for RSS data. To derive a distributed algorithm using only the quantized signal, the local estimate at each node is also quantized. The RSS measurements and the local estimate at each sensor node are quantized in different ways. By using a quantization elimination scheme, a quantized distributed gradient method is proposed. In the distributed algorithm, the quantization noise in the local estimate is gradually eliminated with each iteration. Simulations show that the performance of the centralized algorithm can reach the CRLB. The proposed distributed algorithm using a small number of bits can achieve the performance of the distributed gradient algorithm using unquantized data

Adaptive multi-classifier systems for face re-identification applications

In video surveillance, decision support systems rely more and more on face recognition (FR) to rapidly determine if facial regions captured over a network of cameras correspond to individuals of interest. Systems for FR in video surveillance are applied in a range of scenarios, for instance in watchlist screening, face re-identification, and search and retrieval. The focus of this Thesis is video-to-video FR, as found in face re-identification applications, where facial models are designed on reference data, and update is archived on operational captures from video streams. Several challenges emerge from the task of recognizing individuals of interest from faces captured with video cameras. Most notably, it is often assumed that the facial appearance of target individuals do not change over time, and the proportions of faces captured for target and non-target individuals are balanced, known a priori and remain fixed. However, faces captured during operations vary due to several factors, including illumination, blur, resolution, pose expression, and camera interoperability. In addition, facial models used matching are commonly not representative since they are designed a priori, with a limited amount of reference samples that are collected and labeled at a high cost. Finally, the proportions of target and non-target individuals continuously change during operations. In literature, adaptive multiple classifier systems (MCSs) have been successfully applied to video-to-video FR, where the facial model for each target individual is designed using an ensemble of 2-class classifiers (trained using target vs. non-target reference samples). Recent approaches employ ensembles of 2-class Fuzzy ARTMAP classifiers, with a DPSO strategy to generate a pool of classifiers with optimized hyperparameters, and Boolean combination to merge their responses in the ROC space. Besides, the skew-sensitive ensembles were recently proposed to adapt the fusion function of an ensemble according to class imbalance measured on operational data. These active approaches estimate target vs. non-target proportions periodically during operations distance, and the fusion of classifier ensembles are adapted to such imbalance. Finally, face tracking can be used to regroup the system responses linked to a facial trajectory (facial captures from a single person in the scene) for robust spatio-temporal recognition, and to update facial models over time using operational data. In this Thesis, new techniques are proposed to adapt the facial models for individuals enrolled to a video-to-video FR system. Trajectory-based self-updating is proposed to update the system, considering gradual and abrupt changes in the classification environment. Then, skew-sensitive ensembles are proposed to adapt the system to the operational imbalance. In Chapter 2, an adaptive framework is proposed for partially-supervised learning of facial models over time based on facial trajectories. During operations, information from a face tracker and individual-specific ensembles is integrated for robust spatio-temporal recognition and for self-update of facial models. The tracker defines a facial trajectory for each individual in video. Recognition of a target individual is done if the positive predictions accumulated along a trajectory surpass a detection threshold for an ensemble. If the accumulated positive predictions surpass a higher update threshold, then all target face samples from the trajectory are combined with non-target samples (selected from the cohort and universal models) to update the corresponding facial model. A learn-and-combine strategy is employed to avoid knowledge corruption during self-update of ensembles. In addition, a memory management strategy based on Kullback-Leibler divergence is proposed to rank and select the most relevant target and non-target reference samples to be stored in memory as the ensembles evolves. The proposed system was validated with synthetic data and real videos from Face in Action dataset, emulating a passport checking scenario. Initially, enrollment trajectories were used for supervised learning of ensembles, and videos from three capture sessions were presented to the system for FR and self-update. Transaction-level analysis shows that the proposed approach outperforms baseline systems that do not adapt to new trajectories, and provides comparable performance to ideal systems that adapt to all relevant target trajectories, through supervised learning. Subject-level analysis reveals the existence of individuals for which self-updated ensembles provide a considerable benefit. Trajectory-level analysis indicates that the proposed system allows for robust spatio-temporal video-to-video FR. In Chapter 3, an extension and a particular implementation of the ensemble-based system for spatio-temporal FR is proposed, and is characterized in scenarios with gradual and abrupt changes in the classification environment. Transaction-level results show that the proposed system allows to increase AUC accuracy by about 3% in scenarios with abrupt changes, and by about 5% in scenarios with gradual changes. Subject-based analysis reveals the difficulties of FR with different poses, affecting more significantly the lamb- and goat-like individuals. Compared to reference spatio-temporal fusion approaches, the proposed accumulation scheme produces the highest discrimination. In Chapter 4, adaptive skew-sensitive ensembles are proposed to combine classifiers trained by selecting data with varying levels of imbalance and complexity, to sustain a high level the performance for video-to-video FR. During operations, the level of imbalance is periodically estimated from the input trajectories using the HDx quantification method, and pre-computed histogram representations of imbalanced data distributions. Ensemble scores are accumulated of trajectories for robust skew-sensitive spatio-temporal recognition. Results on synthetic data show that adapting the fusion function with the proposed approach can significantly improve performance. Results on real data show that the proposed method can outperform reference techniques in imbalanced video surveillance environments

Methods for testing of analog circuits

Práce se zabývá metodami pro testování lineárních analogových obvodů v kmitočtové oblasti. Cílem je navrhnout efektivní metody pro automatické generování testovacího plánu. Snížením počtu měření a výpočetní náročnosti lze výrazně snížit náklady za testování. Práce se zabývá multifrekveční parametrickou poruchovou analýzou, která byla plně implementována do programu Matlab. Vhodnou volbou testovacích kmitočtů lze potlačit chyby měření a chyby způsobené výrobními tolerancemi obvodových prvků. Navržené metody pro optimální volbu kmitočtů byly statisticky ověřeny metodou MonteCarlo. Pro zvýšení přesnosti a snížení výpočetní náročnosti poruchové analýzy byly vyvinuty postupy založené na metodě nejmenších čtverců a přibližné symbolické analýze.The thesis deals with methods for testing of linear analog circuits in the frequency domain. The goal is to develop new efficient methods for automatic test plan generation. To reduce test costs a minimum number of measurements as well as less computational demands are the fundamental aims. The thesis is focused on the multi-frequency parametric fault diagnosis which was fully implemented in the Matlab program. The fundamental problem consists in selection of test frequencies which can reduce the influences of measurement errors and errors caused by tolerances of well-working components. The proposed methods for test frequency selection were statistically verified by the MonteCarlo method. To improve the accuracy and reduce the computational complexity of fault diagnosis, the methods based on least-square techniques and approximate symbolic analysis were presented.

Mining a Small Medical Data Set by Integrating the Decision Tree and t-test

[[abstract]]Although several researchers have used statistical methods to prove that aspiration followed by the injection of 95% ethanol left in situ (retention) is an effective treatment for ovarian endometriomas, very few discuss the different conditions that could generate different recovery rates for the patients. Therefore, this study adopts the statistical method and decision tree techniques together to analyze the postoperative status of ovarian endometriosis patients under different conditions. Since our collected data set is small, containing only 212 records, we use all of these data as the training data. Therefore, instead of using a resultant tree to generate rules directly, we use the value of each node as a cut point to generate all possible rules from the tree first. Then, using t-test, we verify the rules to discover some useful description rules after all possible rules from the tree have been generated. Experimental results show that our approach can find some new interesting knowledge about recurrent ovarian endometriomas under different conditions.[[journaltype]]國外[[incitationindex]]EI[[booktype]]紙本[[countrycodes]]FI

Network-on-Chip

Addresses the Challenges Associated with System-on-Chip Integration Network-on-Chip: The Next Generation of System-on-Chip Integration examines the current issues restricting chip-on-chip communication efficiency, and explores Network-on-chip (NoC), a promising alternative that equips designers with the capability to produce a scalable, reusable, and high-performance communication backbone by allowing for the integration of a large number of cores on a single system-on-chip (SoC). This book provides a basic overview of topics associated with NoC-based design: communication infrastructure design, communication methodology, evaluation framework, and mapping of applications onto NoC. It details the design and evaluation of different proposed NoC structures, low-power techniques, signal integrity and reliability issues, application mapping, testing, and future trends. Utilizing examples of chips that have been implemented in industry and academia, this text presents the full architectural design of components verified through implementation in industrial CAD tools. It describes NoC research and developments, incorporates theoretical proofs strengthening the analysis procedures, and includes algorithms used in NoC design and synthesis. In addition, it considers other upcoming NoC issues, such as low-power NoC design, signal integrity issues, NoC testing, reconfiguration, synthesis, and 3-D NoC design. This text comprises 12 chapters and covers: The evolution of NoC from SoC—its research and developmental challenges NoC protocols, elaborating flow control, available network topologies, routing mechanisms, fault tolerance, quality-of-service support, and the design of network interfaces The router design strategies followed in NoCs The evaluation mechanism of NoC architectures The application mapping strategies followed in NoCs Low-power design techniques specifically followed in NoCs The signal integrity and reliability issues of NoC The details of NoC testing strategies reported so far The problem of synthesizing application-specific NoCs Reconfigurable NoC design issues Direction of future research and development in the field of NoC Network-on-Chip: The Next Generation of System-on-Chip Integration covers the basic topics, technology, and future trends relevant to NoC-based design, and can be used by engineers, students, and researchers and other industry professionals interested in computer architecture, embedded systems, and parallel/distributed systems

Evolutionary Robot Swarms Under Real-World Constraints

Tese de doutoramento em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores, na especialidade de Automação e Robótica, apresentada ao Departamento de Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores da Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de CoimbraNas últimas décadas, vários cientistas e engenheiros têm vindo a estudar as estratégias provenientes da natureza. Dentro das arquiteturas biológicas, as sociedades que vivem em enxames revelam que agentes simplistas, tais como formigas ou pássaros, são capazes de realizar tarefas complexas usufruindo de mecanismos de cooperação. Estes sistemas abrangem todas as condições necessárias para a sobrevivência, incorporando comportamentos de cooperação, competição e adaptação. Na “batalha” sem fim em prol do progresso dos mecanismos artificiais desenvolvidos pelo homem, a ciência conseguiu simular o primeiro comportamento em enxame no final dos anos oitenta. Desde então, muitas outras áreas, entre as quais a robótica, beneficiaram de mecanismos de tolerância a falhas inerentes da inteligência coletiva de enxames. A área de investigação deste estudo incide na robótica de enxame, consistindo num domínio particular dos sistemas robóticos cooperativos que incorpora os mecanismos de inteligência coletiva de enxames na robótica. Mais especificamente, propõe-se uma solução completa de robótica de enxames a ser aplicada em contexto real. Nesta ótica, as operações de busca e salvamento foram consideradas como o caso de estudo principal devido ao nível de complexidade associado às mesmas. Tais operações ocorrem tipicamente em cenários dinâmicos de elevadas dimensões, com condições adversas que colocam em causa a aplicabilidade dos sistemas robóticos cooperativos. Este estudo centra-se nestes problemas, procurando novos desafios que não podem ser ultrapassados através da simples adaptação da literatura da especialidade em algoritmos de enxame, planeamento, controlo e técnicas de tomada de decisão. As contribuições deste trabalho sustentam-se em torno da extensão do método Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) aplicado a sistemas robóticos cooperativos, denominado de Robotic Darwinian Particle Swarm Optimization (RDPSO). O RDPSO consiste numa arquitetura robótica de enxame distribuída que beneficia do particionamento dinâmico da população de robôs utilizando mecanismos evolucionários de exclusão social baseados na sobrevivência do mais forte de Darwin. No entanto, apesar de estar assente no caso de estudo do RDPSO, a aplicabilidade dos conceitos aqui propostos não se encontra restrita ao mesmo, visto que todos os algoritmos parametrizáveis de enxame de robôs podem beneficiar de uma abordagem idêntica. Os fundamentos em torno do RDPSO são introduzidos, focando-se na dinâmica dos robôs, nos constrangimentos introduzidos pelos obstáculos e pela comunicação, e nas suas propriedades evolucionárias. Considerando a colocação inicial dos robôs no ambiente como algo fundamental para aplicar sistemas de enxames em aplicações reais, é assim introduzida uma estratégia de colocação de robôs realista. Para tal, a população de robôs é dividida de forma hierárquica, em que são utilizadas plataformas mais robustas para colocar as plataformas de enxame no cenário de forma autónoma. Após a colocação dos robôs no cenário, é apresentada uma estratégia para permitir a criação e manutenção de uma rede de comunicação móvel ad hoc com tolerância a falhas. Esta estratégia não considera somente a distância entre robôs, mas também a qualidade do nível de sinal rádio frequência, redefinindo assim a sua aplicabilidade em cenários reais. Os aspetos anteriormente mencionados estão sujeitos a uma análise detalhada do sistema de comunicação inerente ao algoritmo, para atingir uma implementação mais escalável do RDPSO a cenários de elevada complexidade. Esta elevada complexidade inerente à dinâmica dos cenários motivaram a ultimar o desenvolvimento do RDPSO, integrando para o efeito um mecanismo adaptativo baseado em informação contextual (e.g., nível de atividade do grupo). Face a estas considerações, o presente estudo pode contribuir para expandir o estado-da-arte em robótica de enxame com algoritmos inovadores aplicados em contexto real. Neste sentido, todos os métodos propostos foram extensivamente validados e comparados com alternativas, tanto em simulação como com robôs reais. Para além disso, e dadas as limitações destes (e.g., número limitado de robôs, cenários de dimensões limitadas, constrangimentos reais limitados), este trabalho contribui ainda para um maior aprofundamento do estado-da-arte, onde se propõe um modelo macroscópico capaz de capturar a dinâmica inerente ao RDPSO e, até certo ponto, estimar analiticamente o desempenho coletivo dos robôs perante determinada tarefa. Em suma, esta investigação pode ter aplicabilidade prática ao colmatar a lacuna que se faz sentir no âmbito das estratégias de enxames de robôs em contexto real e, em particular, em cenários de busca e salvamento.Over the past decades, many scientists and engineers have been studying nature’s best and time-tested patterns and strategies. Within the existing biological architectures, swarm societies revealed that relatively unsophisticated agents with limited capabilities, such as ants or birds, were able to cooperatively accomplish complex tasks necessary for their survival. Those simplistic systems embrace all the conditions necessary to survive, thus embodying cooperative, competitive and adaptive behaviours. In the never-ending battle to advance artificial manmade mechanisms, computer scientists simulated the first swarm behaviour designed to mimic the flocking behaviour of birds in the late eighties. Ever since, many other fields, such as robotics, have benefited from the fault-tolerant mechanism inherent to swarm intelligence. The area of research presented in this Ph.D. Thesis focuses on swarm robotics, which is a particular domain of multi-robot systems (MRS) that embodies the mechanisms of swarm intelligence into robotics. More specifically, this Thesis proposes a complete swarm robotic solution that can be applied to real-world missions. Although the proposed methods do not depend on any particular application, search and rescue (SaR) operations were considered as the main case study due to their inherent level of complexity. Such operations often occur in highly dynamic and large scenarios, with harsh and faulty conditions, that pose several problems to MRS applicability. This Thesis focuses on these problems raising new challenges that cannot be handled appropriately by simple adaptation of state-of-the-art swarm algorithms, planning, control and decision-making techniques. The contributions of this Thesis revolve around an extension of the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) to MRS, denoted as Robotic Darwinian Particle Swarm Optimization (RDPSO). The RDPSO is a distributed swarm robotic architecture that benefits from the dynamical partitioning of the whole swarm of robots by means of an evolutionary social exclusion mechanism based on Darwin’s survival-of-the-fittest. Nevertheless, although currently applied solely to the RDPSO case study, the applicability of all concepts herein proposed is not restricted to it, since all parameterized swarm robotic algorithms may benefit from a similar approach The RDPSO is then proposed and used to devise the applicability of novel approaches. The fundamentals around the RDPSO are introduced by focusing on robots’ dynamics, obstacle avoidance, communication constraints and its evolutionary properties. Afterwards, taking the initial deployment of robots within the environment as a basis for applying swarm robotics systems into real-world applications, the development of a realistic deployment strategy is proposed. For that end, the population of robots is hierarchically divided, wherein larger support platforms autonomously deploy smaller exploring platforms in the scenario, while considering communication constraints and obstacles. After the deployment, a way of ensuring a fault-tolerant multi-hop mobile ad hoc communication network (MANET) is introduced to explicitly exchange information needed in a collaborative realworld task execution. Such strategy not only considers the maximum communication range between robots, but also the minimum signal quality, thus refining the applicability to real-world context. This is naturally followed by a deep analysis of the RDPSO communication system, describing the dynamics of the communication data packet structure shared between teammates. Such procedure is a first step to achieving a more scalable implementation by optimizing the communication procedure between robots. The highly dynamic characteristics of real-world applications motivated us to ultimate the RDPSO development with an adaptive strategy based on a set of context-based evaluation metrics. This thesis contributes to the state-of-the-art in swarm robotics with novel algorithms for realworld applications. All of the proposed approaches have been extensively validated in benchmarking tasks, in simulation, and with real robots. On top of that, and due to the limitations inherent to those (e.g., number of robots, scenario dimensions, real-world constraints), this Thesis further contributes to the state-of-the-art by proposing a macroscopic model able to capture the RDPSO dynamics and, to some extent, analytically estimate the collective performance of robots under a certain task. It is the author’s expectation that this Ph.D. Thesis may shed some light into bridging the reality gap inherent to the applicability of swarm strategies to real-world scenarios, and in particular to SaR operations.FCT - SFRH/BD /73382/201