Novel image processing algorithms and methods for improving their robustness and operational performance

Image processing algorithms have developed rapidly in recent years. Imaging functions are becoming more common in electronic devices, demanding better image quality, and more robust image capture in challenging conditions. Increasingly more complicated algorithms are being developed in order to achieve better signal to noise characteristics, more accurate colours, and wider dynamic range, in order to approach the human visual system performance levels. [Continues.

Optimisation approaches for an orienteering problem with applications to wildfire management

During uncontrollable wildfires, Incident Management Teams (ITMs) dispatch vehicles for tasks aimed at reducing the hazard to key assets. The deployment plan is complicated by the need for vehicle capabilities to match asset requirements within time-windows determined by the progression of the fire. Assignment of the response vehicles to undertake protection activities at different assets is known as the asset protection problem. The asset protection problem is one of the real-life applications of the Cooperative Orienteering Problem with Time Windows (COPTW). The COPTW is a class of problems with some important applications and yet has received relatively little attention. In the COPTW, a certain number of team members are required to collect the associated reward from each node simultaneously and cooperatively. This requirement to have one or more team members simultaneously available at a vertex to collect the reward, poses a challenging task. It means that while multiple paths need to be determined as in the team orienteering problem with time-windows (TOPTW), there is the additional requirement that certain paths must meet at some of the vertices. Exact methods are too slow for operational purposes and they are not able to handle large scale instances of the COPTW. This thesis addresses the problem of finding solutions to COPTW in times that make the approaches suitable for use in certain emergency response situations. Computation of exact solutions within a reasonable time is impossible due to the nature of the COPTW. Thus, the thesis introduces an efficient heuristic approach to achieve reliable solutions in short computation times. Thereafter, a new set of algorithms are developed to work together as components of an adaptive large neighbourhood search algorithm. The proposed solution approaches in this work are the first algorithms that can achieve promising solutions for realistic sizes of the COPTW in a time efficient manner. In addition to the COPTW, this thesis presents an algorithmic approach to solve the asset protection problem. The complexities involved in the asset protection problem are handled by a metaheuristic algorithm. The asset protection problem is often further complicated by a wind change that is expected but with uncertainty in its timing. For this situation a two-stage stochastic model is introduced for the optimal deployment of response vehicles. The model addresses uncertainty in the timing of changes in the problem conditions for the first time in the literature. It is shown that deployment plans, which improve on current practices, can be generated in operational times thus providing useful decision support in time-pressured environments. The performance of the proposed approaches are validated through extensive computational studies. The computational results show that the proposed methods are effective in obtaining good quality solutions in times that are suitable for operational purposes. This is particularly useful for increasing the tools available to IMT's faced with making deployment decisions crucial to savings lives and critical assets

Bridging the gap between theory and practice in LPV fault detection for flight control actuators

Two different approaches for fault detection,the geometric and the detection filter based methods,are compared in the paper from practical aspects,using the linear parameter-varying (LPV) framework. Presenting two designs allows a comparison of global, system level, and local component level fault detection methods with special emphasis on their relevance to aircraft industry.Practical engineering design decisions are highlighted via applying them to a high-fidelity commercial aircraft problem. The successive steps of the design, including fault modelling, LPV model generation, and LPV FDI filter synthesis, including implementation aspects, are discussed. Results are presented according to the industrial assessment perspectives phrased within the EU ADDSAFE project

Evaluation of the utility and performance of an autonomous surface vehicle for mobile monitoring of waterborne biochemical agents

Real-time water quality monitoring is crucial due to land utilization increases which can negatively impact aquatic ecosystems from surface water runoff. Conventional monitoring methodologies are laborious, expensive, and spatio-temporally limited. Autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs), equipped with sensors/instrumentation, serve as mobile sampling stations that reduce labor and enhance data resolution. However, ASV autopilot navigational accuracy is affected by environmental forces (wind, current, and waves) that can alter trajectories of planned paths and negatively affect spatio-temporal resolution of water quality data. This study demonstrated a commercially available solar powered ASV equipped with a multi-sensor payload ability to operate autonomously to accurately and repeatedly maintain established A-B line transects under varying environmental conditions, where lateral deviation from a planned linear route was measured and expressed as cross-track error (XTE). This work provides a framework for development of spatial/temporal resolution limitations of ASVs for real-time monitoring campaigns and future development of in-situ sampling technologies

Digital System Design - Use of Microcontroller

Embedded systems are today, widely deployed in just about every piece of machinery from toasters to spacecraft. Embedded system designers face many challenges. They are asked to produce increasingly complex systems using the latest technologies, but these technologies are changing faster than ever. They are asked to produce better quality designs with a shorter time-to-market. They are asked to implement increasingly complex functionality but more importantly to satisfy numerous other constraints. To achieve the current goals of design, the designer must be aware with such design constraints and more importantly, the factors that have a direct effect on them.One of the challenges facing embedded system designers is the selection of the optimum processor for the application in hand; single-purpose, general-purpose or application specific. Microcontrollers are one member of the family of the application specific processors.The book concentrates on the use of microcontroller as the embedded system?s processor, and how to use it in many embedded system applications. The book covers both the hardware and software aspects needed to design using microcontroller.The book is ideal for undergraduate students and also the engineers that are working in the field of digital system design.Contents• Preface;• Process design metrics;• A systems approach to digital system design;• Introduction to microcontrollers and microprocessors;• Instructions and Instruction sets;• Machine language and assembly language;• System memory; Timers, counters and watchdog timer;• Interfacing to local devices / peripherals;• Analogue data and the analogue I/O subsystem;• Multiprocessor communications;• Serial Communications and Network-based interfaces