23,126 research outputs found
Improvements on coronal hole detection in SDO/AIA images using supervised classification
We demonstrate the use of machine learning algorithms in combination with
segmentation techniques in order to distinguish coronal holes and filaments in
SDO/AIA EUV images of the Sun. Based on two coronal hole detection techniques
(intensity-based thresholding, SPoCA), we prepared data sets of manually
labeled coronal hole and filament channel regions present on the Sun during the
time range 2011 - 2013. By mapping the extracted regions from EUV observations
onto HMI line-of-sight magnetograms we also include their magnetic
characteristics. We computed shape measures from the segmented binary maps as
well as first order and second order texture statistics from the segmented
regions in the EUV images and magnetograms. These attributes were used for data
mining investigations to identify the most performant rule to differentiate
between coronal holes and filament channels. We applied several classifiers,
namely Support Vector Machine, Linear Support Vector Machine, Decision Tree,
and Random Forest and found that all classification rules achieve good results
in general, with linear SVM providing the best performances (with a true skill
statistic of ~0.90). Additional information from magnetic field data
systematically improves the performance across all four classifiers for the
SPoCA detection. Since the calculation is inexpensive in computing time, this
approach is well suited for applications on real-time data. This study
demonstrates how a machine learning approach may help improve upon an
unsupervised feature extraction method.Comment: in press for SWS
Urban and extra-urban hybrid vehicles: a technological review
Pollution derived from transportation systems is a worldwide, timelier issue than ever. The abatement actions of harmful substances in the air are on the agenda and they are necessary today to safeguard our welfare and that of the planet. Environmental pollution in large cities is approximately 20% due to the transportation system. In addition, private traffic contributes greatly to city pollution. Further, âvehicle operating lifeâ is most often exceeded and vehicle emissions do not comply with European antipollution standards. It becomes mandatory to find a solution that respects the environment and, realize an appropriate transportation service to the customers. New technologies related to hybrid âelectric engines are making great strides in reducing emissions, and the funds allocated by public authorities should be addressed. In addition, the use
(implementation) of new technologies is also convenient from an economic point of view. In fact, by implementing the use of hybrid vehicles, fuel consumption can be reduced. The different hybrid configurations presented refer to such a series architecture, developed by the researchers and Research and Development groups. Regarding energy flows, different strategy logic or vehicle management units have been illustrated. Various configurations and vehicles were studied by simulating different driving cycles, both European approval and homologation and customer ones (typically municipal and university). The simulations have provided guidance on the optimal proposed configuration and information on the component to be used
Learning and tuning fuzzy logic controllers through reinforcements
A new method for learning and tuning a fuzzy logic controller based on reinforcements from a dynamic system is presented. In particular, our Generalized Approximate Reasoning-based Intelligent Control (GARIC) architecture: (1) learns and tunes a fuzzy logic controller even when only weak reinforcements, such as a binary failure signal, is available; (2) introduces a new conjunction operator in computing the rule strengths of fuzzy control rules; (3) introduces a new localized mean of maximum (LMOM) method in combining the conclusions of several firing control rules; and (4) learns to produce real-valued control actions. Learning is achieved by integrating fuzzy inference into a feedforward network, which can then adaptively improve performance by using gradient descent methods. We extend the AHC algorithm of Barto, Sutton, and Anderson to include the prior control knowledge of human operators. The GARIC architecture is applied to a cart-pole balancing system and has demonstrated significant improvements in terms of the speed of learning and robustness to changes in the dynamic system's parameters over previous schemes for cart-pole balancing
Novel control of a high performance rotary wood planing machine
Rotary planing, and moulding, machining operations have been employed within the
woodworking industry for a number of years. Due to the rotational nature of the machining
process, cuttermarks, in the form of waves, are created on the machined timber surface. It is
the nature of these cuttermarks that determine the surface quality of the machined timber. It
has been established that cutting tool inaccuracies and vibrations are a prime factor in the
form of the cuttermarks on the timber surface. A principal aim of this thesis is to create a
control architecture that is suitable for the adaptive operation of a wood planing machine in
order to improve the surface quality of the machined timber.
In order to improve the surface quality, a thorough understanding of the principals of wood
planing is required. These principals are stated within this thesis and the ability to manipulate
the rotary wood planing process, in order to achieve a higher surface quality, is shown. An
existing test rig facility is utilised within this thesis, however upgrades to facilitate higher
cutting and feed speeds, as well as possible future implementations such as extended cutting
regimes, the test rig has been modified and enlarged. This test rig allows for the dynamic
positioning of the centre of rotation of the cutterhead during a cutting operation through the
use of piezo electric actuators, with a displacement range of ±15Όm.
A new controller for the system has been generated. Within this controller are a number of
tuneable parameters. It was found that these parameters were dependant on a high number
external factors, such as operating speeds and runâout of the cutting knives. A novel approach
to the generation of these parameters has been developed and implemented within the
overall system.
Both cutterhead inaccuracies and vibrations can be overcome, to some degree, by the vertical
displacement of the cutterhead. However a crucial information element is not known, the
particular displacement profile. Therefore a novel approach, consisting of a subtle change to
the displacement profile and then a pattern matching approach, has been implemented onto
the test rig.
Within the pattern matching approach the surface profiles are simplified to a basic form. This
basic form allows for a much simplified approach to the pattern matching whilst producing a
result suitable for the subtle change approach. In order to compress the data levels a Principal
Component Analysis was performed on the measured surface data. Patterns were found to be
present in the resultant data matrix and so investigations into defect classification techniques
have been carried out using both KâNearest Neighbour techniques and Neural Networks.
The application of these novel approaches has yielded a higher system performance, for no
additional cost to the mechanical components of the wood planing machine, both in terms of
wood throughput and machined timber surface quality
PAC: A Novel Self-Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Controller for Micro Aerial Vehicles
There exists an increasing demand for a flexible and computationally
efficient controller for micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) due to a high degree of
environmental perturbations. In this work, an evolving neuro-fuzzy controller,
namely Parsimonious Controller (PAC) is proposed. It features fewer network
parameters than conventional approaches due to the absence of rule premise
parameters. PAC is built upon a recently developed evolving neuro-fuzzy system
known as parsimonious learning machine (PALM) and adopts new rule growing and
pruning modules derived from the approximation of bias and variance. These rule
adaptation methods have no reliance on user-defined thresholds, thereby
increasing the PAC's autonomy for real-time deployment. PAC adapts the
consequent parameters with the sliding mode control (SMC) theory in the
single-pass fashion. The boundedness and convergence of the closed-loop control
system's tracking error and the controller's consequent parameters are
confirmed by utilizing the LaSalle-Yoshizawa theorem. Lastly, the controller's
efficacy is evaluated by observing various trajectory tracking performance from
a bio-inspired flapping-wing micro aerial vehicle (BI-FWMAV) and a rotary wing
micro aerial vehicle called hexacopter. Furthermore, it is compared to three
distinctive controllers. Our PAC outperforms the linear PID controller and
feed-forward neural network (FFNN) based nonlinear adaptive controller.
Compared to its predecessor, G-controller, the tracking accuracy is comparable,
but the PAC incurs significantly fewer parameters to attain similar or better
performance than the G-controller.Comment: This paper has been accepted for publication in Information Science
Journal 201
Cursive script recognition using wildcards and multiple experts
Variability in handwriting styles suggests that many letter recognition engines cannot correctly identify some hand-written letters of poor quality at reasonable computational cost. Methods that are capable of searching the resulting sparse graph of letter candidates are therefore required. The method presented here employs âwildcardsâ to represent missing letter candidates. Multiple experts are used to represent different aspects of handwriting. Each expert evaluates closeness of match and indicates its confidence. Explanation experts determine the degree to which the word alternative under consideration explains extraneous letter candidates. Schemata for normalisation and combination of scores are investigated and their performance compared. Hill climbing yields near-optimal combination weights that outperform comparable methods on identical dynamic handwriting data
Intelligent systems in manufacturing: current developments and future prospects
Global competition and rapidly changing customer requirements are demanding increasing changes in manufacturing environments. Enterprises are required to constantly redesign their products and continuously reconfigure their manufacturing systems. Traditional approaches to manufacturing systems do not fully satisfy this new situation. Many authors have proposed that artificial intelligence will bring the flexibility and efficiency needed by manufacturing systems. This paper is a review of artificial intelligence techniques used in manufacturing systems. The paper first defines the components of a simplified intelligent manufacturing systems (IMS), the different Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to be considered and then shows how these AI techniques are used for the components of IMS
Sustainability ranking of desalination plants using Mamdani Fuzzy Logic Inference Systems
As water desalination continues to expand globally, desalination plants are continually under pressure to meet the requirements of sustainable development. However, the majority of desalination sustainability research has focused on new desalination projects, with limited research on sustainability performance of existing desalination plants. This is particularly important while considering countries with limited resources for freshwater such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as it is heavily reliant on existing desalination infrastructure. In this regard, the current research deals with the sustainability analysis of desalination processes using a generic sustainability ranking framework based on Mamdani Fuzzy Logic Inference Systems. The fuzzy-based models were validated using data from two typical desalination plants in the UAE. The promising results obtained from the fuzzy ranking framework suggest this more in-depth sustainability analysis should be beneficial due to its flexibility and adaptability in meeting the requirements of desalination sustainability
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