Multiple Vehicle Detection and Tracking in Hard Real Time

A vision system has been developed that recognizes and tracks multiple vehicles from sequences of gray-scale images taken from a moving car in hard real-time. Recognition is accomplished by combining the analysis of single image frames with the analysis of the motion information provided by multiple consecutive image frames. In single image frames, cars are recognized by matching deformable gray-scale templates, by detecting image features, such as corners, and by evaluating how these features relate to each other. Cars are also recognized by differencing consecutive image frames and by tracking motion parameters that are typical for cars. The vision system utilizes the hard real-time operating system Maruti which guarantees that the timing constraints on the various processes of the vision system are satisfied. The dynamic creation and termination of tracking processes optimizes the amount of computational resources spent and allows fast detection and tracking of multiple cars. Experimental results demonstrate robust, real-time recognition and tracking over thousands of image frames. (Also cross-referenced as UMIACS-TR-96-52

Strategic Organizational Response of an Indo-Japenese Joint Venture to Indian's Economic Liberalization

The Indian economy began its liberalization process in 1991 under the structural adjustment program of the IMF and the World Bank. The structural adjustment program required India to deregulate in a phased manner, eliminate the license regime and to open its economy to foreign capital. With the opening of the economy, the Indian market has become intensely competitive and turbulent with the entry of greater foreign participation. This paper tries to build a conceptual model of strategic response through effective human resource management policies and practices within such a market environment. The article tries to understand this phenomenon from a contingency perspective through a single detailed case-study of an Indo-Japanese Joint Venture. Several issues relating to organizational redesign, effective corporate responses like organizational redesign, professional and employee oriented modes of management and a hybrid model of Indo-Japanese HRM interventions are discussed.Liberalization; Corporate response; Organizational design; Japanese management systems; Human resource management

Shared resource control between human and computer

The advantages of an AI system of actively monitoring human control of a shared resource (such as a telerobotic manipulator) are presented. A system is described in which a simple AI planning program gains efficiency by monitoring human actions and recognizing when the actions cause a change in the system's assumed state of the world. This enables the planner to recognize when an interaction occurs between human actions and system goals, and allows maintenance of an up-to-date knowledge of the state of the world and thus informs the operator when human action would undo a goal achieved by the system, when an action would render a system goal unachievable, and efficiently replans the establishment of goals after human intervention

Replication and fault-tolerance in real-time systems

PhD ThesisThe increased availability of sophisticated computer hardware and the corresponding decrease in its cost has led to a widespread growth in the use of computer systems for realtime plant and process control applications. Such applications typically place very high demands upon computer control systems and the development of appropriate control software for these application areas can present a number of problems not normally encountered in other applications. First of all, real-time applications must be correct in the time domain as well as the value domain: returning results which are not only correct but also delivered on time. Further, since the potential for catastrophic failures can be high in a process or plant control environment, many real-time applications also have to meet high reliability requirements. These requirements will typically be met by means of a combination of fault avoidance and fault tolerance techniques. This thesis is intended to address some of the problems encountered in the provision of fault tolerance in real-time applications programs. Specifically,it considers the use of replication to ensure the availability of services in real-time systems. In a real-time environment, providing support for replicated services can introduce a number of problems. In particular, the scope for non-deterministic behaviour in real-time applications can be quite large and this can lead to difficultiesin maintainingconsistent internal states across the members of a replica group. To tackle this problem, a model is proposed for fault tolerant real-time objects which not only allows such objects to perform application specific recovery operations and real-time processing activities such as event handling, but which also allows objects to be replicated. The architectural support required for such replicated objects is also discussed and, to conclude, the run-time overheads associated with the use of such replicated services are considered.The Science and Engineering Research Council

Bracing Competition through Innovative HRM in Indian Firms: Lessons for MNEs

HRM plays a critical role and constructive role. How important is the involvement of HRM in strategy development and implementation under hyper-competitive environment? HRM occurs at all levels of organizations and increasingly, outside organizations as organizations manage relationships with external stakeholders. This article shows how innovative HRM practices are being adopted by Indian firms to brace competition in the post liberalization scenario. The article discusses the need for new skills, new policies and innovative HRM practices.HRM; Innovation; India

A Comparative Analysis of Liquidity & Profitability of Indian Car Industry

Not availabl

Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of a Distributed Real-Time Kernel for Distributed Robotics (Dissertation Proposal)

Modern robotics applications are becoming more complex due to greater numbers of sensors and actuators. The control of such systems may require multiple processors to meet the computational demands and to support the physical topology of the sensors and actuators. A distributed real-time system is needed to perform the required communication and processing while meeting application-specified timing constraints. We are designing and implementing a real-time kernel for distributed robotics applications. The kernel\u27s salient features are consistent, user-definable scheduling, explicit dynamic timing constraints, and a two-tiered interrupt approach. The kernel wi1l be evaluated by implementing a two-arm robot control example. Its goal is to locate and manipulate cylindrical objects with spillable contents. Using the application and the kernel, we will investigate the effects of time granularity, network type and protocol, and the handling of external events using interrupts versus polling. Our research will enhance understanding of real-time kernels for distributed robotics control

A Dual intepretation of Standard Constraints in Parametric Scheduling

The problem of parametric scheduling in hard real-time systems, ( in the presence of linear relative constraints between the start and execution times of tasks ) was posed in the litreature. In an earlier paper, a polynomial time algorithm is presented for the case when the constraints are restricted to be standard ( defined in paper ) and the execution time vectors belong to an axis-parallel hyper-rectangle. In this paper, we extend their results in two directions. We first present a polynomial time algorithm for the case when the execution time vectors belong to arbitrary convex domains. We then show that the set of standard constraints can be extended to include arbitrary network constraints. Our insights into the problem occur primarily as a result of studying the dual polytope of the constraint system. (Also cross-refernced as UMIACS-TR-2000-11

Coordinated scheduling for dynamic real-time systems

In this project, we addressed issues in coordinated scheduling for dynamic real-time systems. In particular, we concentrated on design and implementation of a new distributed real-time system called R-Shell. The design objective of R-Shell is to provide computing support for space programs that have large, complex, fault-tolerant distributed real-time applications. In R-shell, the approach is based on the concept of scheduling agents, which reside in the application run-time environment, and are customized to provide just those resource management functions which are needed by the specific application. With this approach, we avoid the need for a sophisticated OS which provides a variety of generalized functionality, while still not burdening application programmers with heavy responsibility for resource management. In this report, we discuss the R-Shell approach, summarize the achievement of the project, and describe a preliminary prototype of R-Shell system

Effects of the crisis on the automotive industry in developing countries : a global value chain perspective

This paper applies global value chain analysis to study recent trends in the global automotive industry. The authors pay special attention to the effects of the recent economic crisis on the industry in developing countries. The principal finding is that the crisis has accelerated pre-crisis trends toward greater importance of the industry in the South. More rapid growth of car ownership is the impetus, but the co-location and close interaction of suppliers and lead firms in this industry is an important catalyst. Opportunities to move up in the value chain for suppliers in emerging economies have proliferated and are likely to become even stronger now that an increasing number of new models are developed specifically for markets in developing countries. The co-location of assembly and parts plants in national and regional production systems has largely confined the impact of sales declines during the crisis to each country/region. In addition, the different development strategies followed by countries like Mexico, China, and India are slowly converging as their industries gain size and independence.Markets and Market Access,Microfinance,Labor Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Debt Markets