783 research outputs found

    Spartan Daily, April 21, 1988

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    Volume 90, Issue 50https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/7709/thumbnail.jp

    Applied Metaheuristic Computing

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    For decades, Applied Metaheuristic Computing (AMC) has been a prevailing optimization technique for tackling perplexing engineering and business problems, such as scheduling, routing, ordering, bin packing, assignment, facility layout planning, among others. This is partly because the classic exact methods are constrained with prior assumptions, and partly due to the heuristics being problem-dependent and lacking generalization. AMC, on the contrary, guides the course of low-level heuristics to search beyond the local optimality, which impairs the capability of traditional computation methods. This topic series has collected quality papers proposing cutting-edge methodology and innovative applications which drive the advances of AMC

    Multi-Agent Systems

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    A multi-agent system (MAS) is a system composed of multiple interacting intelligent agents. Multi-agent systems can be used to solve problems which are difficult or impossible for an individual agent or monolithic system to solve. Agent systems are open and extensible systems that allow for the deployment of autonomous and proactive software components. Multi-agent systems have been brought up and used in several application domains

    A stochastic Reputation System Architecture to support the Partner Selection in Virtual Organisations

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    In recent business environments, collaborations among organisations raise an increased demand for swift establishment. Such collaborations are increasingly formed without prior experience of the other partner\u27s previous performance. The STochastic REputation system (STORE) is designed to provide swift, automated decision support for selecting partner organisations. STORE is based on a stochastic trust model and evaluated by means of multi agent simulations in Virtual Organisation scenarios

    Systematic Analysis of Safety and Security Risks in Smart Homes

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    The revolution in Internet of Things (IoT)-based devices and applications has provided smart applications for humans. These applications range from healthcare to traffic-flow management, to communication devices, to smart security devices, and many others. In particular, government and private organizations are showing significant interest in IoT-enabled applications for smart homes. Despite the perceived benefits and interest, human safety is also a key concern. This research is aimed at systematically analyzing the available literature on smart homes and identifying areas of concern or risk with a view to supporting the design of safe and secure smart homes. For this systematic review process, relevant work in the most highly regarded journals published in the period 2016-2020 (a section of 2020 is included)was analyzed. A final set of 99 relevant articles (journal articles, book sections, conference papers, and survey papers) was analyzed in this study. This analysis is focused on three research questions and relevant keywords. The systematic analysis results and key insights will help researchers and practitioners to make more informed decisions when dealing with the safety and security risks of smart homes, especially in emergency situations.This publication was supported by Qatar University Internal Grant No. IRCC-2020-009

    The development of secure multi-agent systems

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    Collaborative autonomy in heterogeneous multi-robot systems

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    As autonomous mobile robots become increasingly connected and widely deployed in different domains, managing multiple robots and their interaction is key to the future of ubiquitous autonomous systems. Indeed, robots are not individual entities anymore. Instead, many robots today are deployed as part of larger fleets or in teams. The benefits of multirobot collaboration, specially in heterogeneous groups, are multiple. Significantly higher degrees of situational awareness and understanding of their environment can be achieved when robots with different operational capabilities are deployed together. Examples of this include the Perseverance rover and the Ingenuity helicopter that NASA has deployed in Mars, or the highly heterogeneous robot teams that explored caves and other complex environments during the last DARPA Sub-T competition. This thesis delves into the wide topic of collaborative autonomy in multi-robot systems, encompassing some of the key elements required for achieving robust collaboration: solving collaborative decision-making problems; securing their operation, management and interaction; providing means for autonomous coordination in space and accurate global or relative state estimation; and achieving collaborative situational awareness through distributed perception and cooperative planning. The thesis covers novel formation control algorithms, and new ways to achieve accurate absolute or relative localization within multi-robot systems. It also explores the potential of distributed ledger technologies as an underlying framework to achieve collaborative decision-making in distributed robotic systems. Throughout the thesis, I introduce novel approaches to utilizing cryptographic elements and blockchain technology for securing the operation of autonomous robots, showing that sensor data and mission instructions can be validated in an end-to-end manner. I then shift the focus to localization and coordination, studying ultra-wideband (UWB) radios and their potential. I show how UWB-based ranging and localization can enable aerial robots to operate in GNSS-denied environments, with a study of the constraints and limitations. I also study the potential of UWB-based relative localization between aerial and ground robots for more accurate positioning in areas where GNSS signals degrade. In terms of coordination, I introduce two new algorithms for formation control that require zero to minimal communication, if enough degree of awareness of neighbor robots is available. These algorithms are validated in simulation and real-world experiments. The thesis concludes with the integration of a new approach to cooperative path planning algorithms and UWB-based relative localization for dense scene reconstruction using lidar and vision sensors in ground and aerial robots

    Business as usual? : instituting markets for carbon credits

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    Climate change mitigation necessitates substantial alterations to patterns of worldwide economic activity, be that reduction in demand, switches to new technology or 'end-of-pipe' abatement of greenhouse gases. There are profound political, economic and ethical questions surrounding the governance of the means, rate and location of change. Within advanced capitalist economies and internationally through the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change emissions trading systems have been introduced as part of the broader neoliberal attempts to 'correct market failure' through the definition of new property rights.This thesis investigates the development, constitution and consequences of institutions for the production, exchange and consumption of credits for emissions reductions. Such credits are financial instruments awarded to organisations for putative reductions in emissions from 'business as usual'. In consumption, credits are equated with a quantity of emissions released elsewhere. The 'Instituted Economic Process' framework (Randles and Harvey, 2002) is used to distinguish the various classes of agent involved in these exchanges and identify the economic and non-economic relationships that constitute these institutions. Inspired by the economic anthropology of Karl Polanyi, this approach asks how economic activity is organised and stabilised within society without presuming that there are universal economic laws of 'the market', that there are essential properties of commodities and agents, or that all economic transfers are conducted within markets.I argue that crediting is a socially contingent process of commodification of atmospheric pollution which is both ontologically and normatively problematic. Extant institutions are shown to be precarious by appealing to neutral techno-scientific justifications but remaining reliant on subjective judgement. However, they are sufficiently consistent and credible that they persist and expand. These findings are of interest to the academic communities of political economy and environmental and economic geography, climate change policy makers and the environmental movement more broadly.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceUK Energy Research Centre (UKERC)GBUnited Kingdo
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