Stochastic Planning and Operation in Energy Systems

This dissertation introduces three stochastic optimization models for different energy system planning and operation problems. All three studies address the underlying uncertainties in sequential decision-making for planning or operation problems. In Chapter 2, a chance-constrained multi-stage electrification planning model is developed to help addressing the demand uncertainty in the planning process for countries with low electricity access. In Chapter 3, an adaptive two-stage stochastic energy infrastructure expansion planning model is introduced which provides cost savings compared to the two-stage model and fewer adaption times compared to the multi-stage model. In Chapter 4, the optimal distributed energy resource (DER) management problem for a prosumer in an options environment is solved by a Markov decision process (MDP). Each of these models is tested by a numerical case study and results demonstrate the effectiveness of the models.Ph.D

The application of a multimedia system to the tourist guide of the Miami International Airport

This project is to present a multimedia system designed for Miami International Airport as a tourist guide for passengers and to demonstrate the functionalities and facilities of the airport. The project is based on an inexpensive integrated and comprehensive multimedia environment. The major components of the environment consist of (1) a low cost PC 386/486 with only ISA bus and IDE hard drive, (2) a high quality and high performance add-on real-time video/audio codec board (30/25 fps for NTSC/PAL video and synchronized audio sampled at 22KHz), (3) software packages including interactive utility programs to record, playback and edit real-time video/audio source and also dynamic and static function libraries for application program development under MS window and DOS, (4) authoring tool kits to help generate multimedia applications. The significance of having such a low-cost, high performance, and integrated environment lies in its potential for an easy and large-scale deployment

COMPARISON OF ELECTROMYOGRAPHIC ACTIVITY BETWEEN ACTIVE AND PASSIVE MUSCLE TRAINING MOVEMENT

Passive Repeatedly Plyometric (PRP) training machine was developed on the scientific of neuromuscular system such as recruited more motor units, stretch reflex, storage elastic energy and so on. It used a motor to drive a cam, and the cam can control trainee's movement passively and repeatedly. So it has some advantages to control the training load, speed of muscle contraction, and length of muscle contraction during training. Some researches have demonstrated that PRP was an efficient strength training approach, and it could significantly improve strength and power than traditional weight training (Liu et ai, 2001). Moreover, Wang et al (2001) and Wen et al (2001) found out that EMG activity in PRP were significantly higher than in traditional weight training. In fact, trainee must push the bar upward with maximum strength during PRP training. So muscles of trainee accomplished isometric contraction, and then concentric and eccentric contraction passively with maximum muscle strength. In other word, the trainee's muscles should follow isokinetic contraction way during PRP training. EMG activity was unclear in this case so far. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the EMG activity among PRP with and without maximum isometric contraction during training, as well as active muscle contraction by free weight training

IDENTIFYING GAIT ASYMMETRY USING DIGITAL SENSORS

The purpose of this study was to determine which phases and kinematics were easier to identify gait asymmetry by using digital sensors. Sixteen participants were recruited in this study. The participants were requested to walk naturally under two conditions (with or without asymmetrical load). Four digital sensor sets were attached on 4 limbs to collect kinematics data. The results showed that only the AS1 of Medial-Later acceleration of upper limb on the stance phase significantly different between unloading and loading conditions; on the lower limb were AS1 of Superior-Inferior acceleration and Flex/Extension angular velocity on the swing phase. The digital sensors that attach on upper and lower limbs both can detect gait asymmetry, but the asymmetrical phase and kinematics are different on upper and lower limbs

Achievable Sum Rate Optimization on NOMA-aided Cell-Free Massive MIMO with Finite Blocklength Coding

Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA)-aided cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (CFmMIMO) has been considered as a promising technology to fulfill strict quality of service requirements for ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC). However, finite blocklength coding (FBC) in URLLC makes it challenging to achieve the optimal performance in the NOMA-aided CFmMIMO system. In this paper, we investigate the performance of the NOMA-aided CFmMIMO system with FBC in terms of achievable sum rate (ASR). Firstly, we derive a lower bound (LB) on the ergodic data rate. Then, we formulate an ASR maximization problem by jointly considering power allocation and user equipment (UE) clustering. To tackle such an intractable problem, we decompose it into two sub-problems, i.e., the power allocation problem and the UE clustering problem. A successive convex approximation (SCA) algorithm is proposed to solve the power allocation problem by transforming it into a series of geometric programming problems. Meanwhile, two algorithms based on graph theory are proposed to solve the UE clustering problem by identifying negative loops. Finally, alternative optimization is performed to find the maximum ASR of the NOMA-aided CFmMIMO system with FBC. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithms significantly outperform the benchmark algorithms in terms of ASR under various scenarios