The Development of Bio-Inspired Cortical Feature Maps for Robot Sensorimotor Controllers

Full version unavailable due to 3rd party copyright restrictions.This project applies principles from the field of Computational Neuroscience to Robotics research, in particular to develop systems inspired by how nature manages to solve sensorimotor coordination tasks. The overall aim has been to build a self-organising sensorimotor system using biologically inspired techniques based upon human cortical development which can in the future be implemented in neuromorphic hardware. This can then deliver the benefits of low power consumption and real time operation but with flexible learning onboard autonomous robots. A core principle is the Self-Organising Feature Map which is based upon the theory of how 2D maps develop in real cortex to represent complex information from the environment. A framework for developing feature maps for both motor and visual directional selectivity representing eight different directions of motion is described as well as how they can be coupled together to make a basic visuomotor system. In contrast to many previous works which use artificially generated visual inputs (for example, image sequences of oriented moving bars or mathematically generated Gaussian bars) a novel feature of the current work is that the visual input is generated by a DVS 128 silicon retina camera which is a neuromorphic device and produces spike events in a frame-free way. One of the main contributions of this work has been to develop a method of autonomous regulation of the map development process which adapts the learning dependent upon input activity. The main results show that distinct directionally selective maps for both the motor and visual modalities are produced under a range of experimental scenarios. The adaptive learning process successfully controls the rate of learning in both motor and visual map development and is used to indicate when sufficient patterns have been presented, thus avoiding the need to define in advance the quantity and range of training data. The coupling training experiments show that the visual input learns to modulate the original motor map response, creating a new visual-motor topological map.EPSRC, University of Plymouth Graduate Schoo

Dynamical Systems

Complex systems are pervasive in many areas of science integrated in our daily lives. Examples include financial markets, highway transportation networks, telecommunication networks, world and country economies, social networks, immunological systems, living organisms, computational systems and electrical and mechanical structures. Complex systems are often composed of a large number of interconnected and interacting entities, exhibiting much richer global scale dynamics than the properties and behavior of individual entities. Complex systems are studied in many areas of natural sciences, social sciences, engineering and mathematical sciences. This special issue therefore intends to contribute towards the dissemination of the multifaceted concepts in accepted use by the scientific community. We hope readers enjoy this pertinent selection of papers which represents relevant examples of the state of the art in present day research. [...

Microfluidics for bacterial chemotaxis

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 136-151).Bacterial chemotaxis, a remarkable behavioral trait which allows bacteria to sense and respond to chemical gradients in the environment, has implications in a broad range of fields including but not limited to disease pathogenesis, in-situ bioremediation and marine biogeochemistry. And therefore, studying bacterial chemotaxis is of significant importance to scientists and engineers alike. Microfluidics has revolutionized the way we study the motile behavior of cells by enabling observations at high spatial and temporal resolution in carefully controlled microenvironments. This thesis aims to explore the potential of microfluidic technology in studying bacterial behavior by investigating different aspects of bacterial chemotaxis on a microfluidic platform. We quantified population-scale transport parameters of bacteria using videomicroscopy and cell tracking in controlled chemoattractant gradients. Previously, transport parameters have been derived theoretically from single-cell swimming behavior using probabilistic models, but the mechanistic foundations of this up-scaling process have not been proven experimentally. The parameter estimates computed directly from single-cell swimming information showed good agreement with literature values providing the experimental verification of the upscaling from single cells to population-scale models. Furthermore, we also developed a diffusion-based microfluidic device to generate steady, arbitrarily shaped chemical gradients. Steady gradients, linear or nonlinear, are often a useful model of the bacterial microenvironment to study chemotaxis in the limit of slow patch diffusion or fast motility of free swimming bacterial cells. Observed cell distribution along the gradients showed good agreement with predictions from the bacterial transport equation, providing the first quantification of chemotaxis in steady nonlinear gradients. Also, by observing the time series of the bacterial distributions in different scaled gradients (both steady and unsteady) generated using microfluidic devices, the bacterial response was found to be invariant up to an 87-fold change in ambient chemoattractant concentration. These observations provide an explanation for the ability of bacteria to cope with a broad range of chemical concentrations and gradients in the environment, by means of a flexible sensing network that allows them to rescale their response to take maximum advantage of signals, while discounting less-informative background information. Finally, a microfluidic lattice habitat was developed to study the fate of a chemotactic bacterial population under the pressure of predation. It was observed that the demographic and spatial organization of the bacterial prey population depended on the predator-to-prey ratio as well as on the degree of heterogeneity of the habitat structure. These results represent a first step towards predator-prey microcosms and pave the way for future predator-prey metapopulation studies.by Tanvir Ahmed.Ph.D

Proceedings, MSVSCC 2012

Proceedings of the 6th Annual Modeling, Simulation & Visualization Student Capstone Conference held on April 19, 2012 at VMASC in Suffolk, Virginia

Using MapReduce Streaming for Distributed Life Simulation on the Cloud

Distributed software simulations are indispensable in the study of large-scale life models but often require the use of technically complex lower-level distributed computing frameworks, such as MPI. We propose to overcome the complexity challenge by applying the emerging MapReduce (MR) model to distributed life simulations and by running such simulations on the cloud. Technically, we design optimized MR streaming algorithms for discrete and continuous versions of Conway’s life according to a general MR streaming pattern. We chose life because it is simple enough as a testbed for MR’s applicability to a-life simulations and general enough to make our results applicable to various lattice-based a-life models. We implement and empirically evaluate our algorithms’ performance on Amazon’s Elastic MR cloud. Our experiments demonstrate that a single MR optimization technique called strip partitioning can reduce the execution time of continuous life simulations by 64%. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to propose and evaluate MR streaming algorithms for lattice-based simulations. Our algorithms can serve as prototypes in the development of novel MR simulation algorithms for large-scale lattice-based a-life models.https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/scs_books/1014/thumbnail.jp

Quantification of Ichnological, Paleoecological, Paleohydrological, and Paleoclimatological Information from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation

This dissertation takes a multifaceted approach to interpreting paleoenvironments and paleoclimate represented by the strata of the Morrison Formation (MF). The MF has been the subject of geological and paleontological investigations for well over a century, but a number of confounding factors have limited interpretations. One problem with interpreting MF ichnology is uncertainty about the sedimentary conditions under which deep dinosaur tracks were made. To solve this problem, I developed new methods to measure trace fossils, including footprints. I used multistripe laser triangulation scanning to create three-dimensional digital models of traces, from which I improved precision of traditional ichnological techniques. I also performed neoichnological experiments with elephants to collect empirical trackmaking data, to which I applied multiple regression to derive a quantitative relationship between physical trackmaking variables. Results showed that many deep sauropod tracks were created in near saturated conditions. Megafaunal track preservation was one factor taken into consideration when interpreting paleohydrology from moisture regimes represented by trace-fossil assemblages. I demonstrated the usefulness of ichnological moisture regimes by interpreting ichnocoenoses in MF avulsion deposits in the Bighorn Basin. I found a regular pattern of moisture profiles associated with crevassing that can be used to identify avulsion deposits in future ichnological studies. Ichnological moisture regimes were incorporated with other pedogenic features to develop a soil moisture index that was combined with measures of carbonate content, carbonate mineralogy, total organic carbon, and stable isotopes of carbonates and organic carbon to construct a detailed vertical profile through the MF in the Henry Mountains, Utah. This profile is useful for paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental interpretations as well as for correlation to marine isotope records. I compared the vertical profile to paleoecological patterns determined from food-web network analyses and found a possible correlation between a global shift in organic carbon isotopes and an episode of biotic turnover. I also found that MF food webs were extremely stable, a factor that may have contributed to the success of dinosaur-dominated ecosystems during the Mesozoic

On the Application of PSpice for Localised Cloud Security

The work reported in this thesis commenced with a review of methods for creating random binary sequences for encoding data locally by the client before storing in the Cloud. The first method reviewed investigated evolutionary computing software which generated noise-producing functions from natural noise, a highly-speculative novel idea since noise is stochastic. Nevertheless, a function was created which generated noise to seed chaos oscillators which produced random binary sequences and this research led to a circuit-based one-time pad key chaos encoder for encrypting data. Circuit-based delay chaos oscillators, initialised with sampled electronic noise, were simulated in a linear circuit simulator called PSpice. Many simulation problems were encountered because of the nonlinear nature of chaos but were solved by creating new simulation parts, tools and simulation paradigms. Simulation data from a range of chaos sources was exported and analysed using Lyapunov analysis and identified two sources which produced one-time pad sequences with maximum entropy. This led to an encoding system which generated unlimited, infinitely-long period, unique random one-time pad encryption keys for plaintext data length matching. The keys were studied for maximum entropy and passed a suite of stringent internationally-accepted statistical tests for randomness. A prototype containing two delay chaos sources initialised by electronic noise was produced on a double-sided printed circuit board and produced more than 200 Mbits of OTPs. According to Vladimir Kotelnikov in 1941 and Claude Shannon in 1945, one-time pad sequences are theoretically-perfect and unbreakable, provided specific rules are adhered to. Two other techniques for generating random binary sequences were researched; a new circuit element, memristance was incorporated in a Chua chaos oscillator, and a fractional-order Lorenz chaos system with order less than three. Quantum computing will present many problems to cryptographic system security when existing systems are upgraded in the near future. The only existing encoding system that will resist cryptanalysis by this system is the unconditionally-secure one-time pad encryption

UAV Formation Flight Utilizing a Low Cost, Open Source Configuration

The control of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in a swarm or cooperative team scenario has been a topic of great interest for well over a decade, growing steadily with the advancements in UAV technologies. In the academic community, a majority of the studies conducted rely on simulation to test developed control strategies, with only a few institutions known to have nurtured the infrastructure required to propel multiple UAV control studies beyond simulation and into experimental testing. With the Cal Poly UAV FLOC Project, such an infrastructure was created, paving the way for future experimentation with multiple UAV control systems. The control system architecture presented was built on concepts developed in previous work by Cal Poly faculty and graduate students. An outer-loop formation flight controller based on a virtual waypoint implementation of potential function guidance was developed for use on an embedded microcontroller. A commercially-available autopilot system, designed for fully autonomous waypoint navigation utilizing low cost hardware and open source software, was modified to include the formation flight controller and an inter-UAV communication network. A hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation was set up for multiple UAV testing and was utilized to verify the functionality of the modified autopilot system. HIL simulation results demonstrated leader-follower formation convergence to 15 meters as well as formation flight with three UAVs. Several sets of flight tests were conducted, demonstrating a successful leader-follower formation, but with relative distance convergence only reaching a steady state value of approximately 35 +/- 5 meters away from the leader