Digital Commons Network^™

Control, Localization, And Shock Optimization Of Icosahedral Tensegrity Systems, Brett Layer

Theses and Dissertations

Exploring the design space of tensegrity systems is the basis of the work presented in this thesis. The areas explored as part of this research include the optimization of tensegrity structures to minimize the size of a tensegrity structure given payload shock constraints, and the control and locomotion of an icosahedral tensegrity system using movable masses and using an accelerometer in conjunction with leveraging geometrical knowledge of an icosahedral tensegrity system to localize the system after the system moves. In the optimization design space, a simplified model was created to represent an icosahedral tensegrity structure. This was done by assuming …

An Investigation Into The Enoughness Mindset, Ai Nhan Thi Ngo

Theses and Dissertations

The concept of enoughness was an old but forgotten concept in human history. This research reintroduced the concept to our contemporary culture as a means to deal with consumers' endless desires by exploring the enoughness concept. Contemporarily suppressed under the development of modern capitalism, an extensive mythological trace of the enoughness concept showed its existence through more than 25 centuries across cultures with four key components: reining in desires, knowing contentment, knowing when to stop, and consideration of harmony. Building upon theories of desires, this research positioned enoughness as a means to help tame consumers' endless desires that can be …

Deep Learning System Identification, Linearization And Control Of Dynamical Systems Utilizing Koopman Theory With Applications In Orbital Systems, George Mario Nehma

Theses and Dissertations

The computational and complexity burden of current linearization techniques is one that is a hinderance in the application of real world guidance, navigation and control systems. With the advancements in Deep Neural Networks, large data handling and Koopman Theory, the possibility of global linearizations of nonlinear systems is more prominent. This work demonstrates the capability of a Deep Neural Network learned Koopman operator to transform a nonlinear system into a Linear Time-Invariant system. The method presented is applied to both two purely dynamical systems and one controlled system to emphasize the ability for the technique to be applied in all …

Test And Evaluation Model For Midwater Docking Of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, Parker Baillon

Theses and Dissertations

This research created a Test and Evaluation (T&E) model for midwater Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) capture. The creation of this model will allow for a better assessment of the feasibility of midwater AUV capture. To achieve this, the T&E model was exposed to various flow conditions to assess stability. Capturing an AUV in midwater, the area below the wave-affected zone to the sea floor, has many benefits for an AUV and its mission. AUVs basing missions from a midwater dock will not be affected by wave motions. A midwater dock can be transported to any mission site and deployed with …

Spouse Violence In Case Of Police Officers In Puerto Rico: Violence In Police Families, Jorge Ismael Suarez

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was designed to explore the relationship between factors related to police work and whether these factors help predict domestic violence in a sample of officers of the Puerto Rico Police. The following factors were explored in this study: external burnout, alcohol abuse, department withdrawal, and authoritarian spillover. This study was based on a previous study by Johnson et al. (2005), which revealed that violence exposure and domestic violence among police officers are linked according to four mediation chains. The mediation chain was a model implemented by the authors to determine the influence of burnout, authoritarian spillover, alcohol …

Politics Of Being A Lover: In Art, (Space) And Kink, Rabeeha Adnan

Theses and Dissertations

Politics of being a lover: in art, (space) and kink explores my relationship with my practice through observations and stories that draw parallels with romance and kink. Narrated as love affairs turned into complex commitment, it shuffles through logics of structural power, control, and communication in the context of praxis and art institutions.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Eleven. Twelve. Thirteen. Fourteen. Fifteen. Sixteen. Seventeen. Eighteen. Twenty. Twenty-One. Twenty-One. Twenty-Three. Twenty-Four. Twenty-Five. Twenty-Six., Liza Lacroix

Theses and Dissertations

"One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Eleven. Twelve. Thirteen. Fourteen. Fifteen. Sixteen. Seventeen. Eighteen. Twenty. Twenty-one. Twenty-one. Twenty-three.Twenty-four. Twenty-five. Twenty-six." is a biographical fiction of violence toward the protagonist. Comprised of writing, audio, documentation and intervention. This text is the first iteration, and the thesis work is the second iteration of the same.

The Vanishing Discount Method For Stochastic Control: A Linear Programming Approach, Brian Hospital

Theses and Dissertations

Under consideration are convergence results between optimality criteria for two infinite-horizon stochastic control problems: the long-term average problem and the $\alpha$-discounted problem, where $\alpha \in (0,1]$ is a given discount rate. The objects under control are those stochastic processes that arise as (relaxed) solutions to a controlled martingale problem; and such controlled processes, subject to a given budget constraint, comprise the feasible sets for the two stochastic control problems.

In this dissertation, we define and characterize the expected occupation measures associated with each of these stochastic control problems, and then reformulate each problem as an equivalent linear program over a …

Analyzing The Continuum Of Control And Freedom In Intimate Relationships: A Grounded Theory, Daniel Smedley

Theses and Dissertations

Although research identifying and addressing extreme forms of control exists, all relationships experience some amount of control and some amount of the opposite of control, which is freedom. Large gaps in prevalence estimates and varied definitions of control suggest a need to better define the spectrum of control from mild to extreme forms, including looking at non-physically violent forms of coercive control. The purpose of this study was to expand knowledge of control in intimate relationships by examining the continuum of mild and extreme experiences of both control and freedom. Using constructivist grounded theory methods, the two categories of control …

Model Predictive Control For Grid Scale Pv And Battery, Sahithi Chatradi

Theses and Dissertations

Model Predictive Control (MPC) is a control technique that uses prediction data to optimize costs over a given predictive horizon. There are many papers that use this technique to optimize cost in a substantially loaded microgrid, but these techniques are not feasible for utility-scale PV+Storage facility. In this study, MPC is used to optimize the cost for a utility-scale PV+Storage facility, by adding a factor of a possible curtailment. The thesis also presents the various factors that the MPC has in that utility size grid. These factors include line losses, net yield, and curtailment.

Stabilizing Controlled Systems In The Presence Of Time-Delays, Isaac Becker Pardo

Theses and Dissertations

A dynamical system's state evolves over time, and when the system stays near a particular state this state is known as a stable state of the system. Through control methods, dynamical systems can be manipulated such that virtually any state can be made stable. Although most real systems evolve continuously in time the application of digital control methods to these systems is inherently discrete. States are sampled (with sensors) and fed back into the system in discrete-time to determine the input needed to control the continuous system. Additionally, dynamical systems often experience time delays. Some examples of time delays are …

Constrained Nonlinear Heuristic-Based Mpc For Control Of Robotic Systems With Uncertainty, Tyler James Quackenbush

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on the development and extension of nonlinear evolutionary model predictive control (NEMPC), a control algorithm previously developed by Phil Hyatt of the BYU RaD Lab. While this controller and its variants are applicable to any high degree-of-freedom (DoF) robotic system, particular emphasis is given in this thesis to control of a soft robot continuum joint. First, speed improvements are presented for NEMPC. Second, a Python package is presented as a companion to NEMPC, as a method of establishing a common interface for dynamic simulators and approximating each system by a deep neural network (DNN). Third, a method …

Data-Driven Modeling And Control Of A Two-Link Flexible Manipulator (Tlfm), Samuel Ayankoso

Theses and Dissertations

Two-link flexible manipulators (TLFMs) are used in different application domains, and their merits include lightweight, low energy consumption, high operational speed, transportability, maneuverability, and low cost. Despite the merits of TLFMs, the flexibility of the links introduces modeling and control problems. The existing mathematical modeling techniques of a TLFM, such as the assumed mode method (AMM), finite element method (FEM) and finite difference method (FDM are mathematically complex and do not accurately match the physical system dynamics. Lumped parameter method (LPM) model is a simplified model, but it is also inaccurate. Moreover, different forms of control problems are applicable to …

Intelligent Therapeutic Robot: Design, Development, And Control, Asif Al Zubayer Swapnil

Theses and Dissertations

This research contributes to developing an Intelligent Therapeutic Robot (iTbot) designed to provide therapy to patients with upper limb impairment due to stroke, injury, and other trauma. This robot aims to implement robotic rehabilitation based on principles of motor rehabilitation and Neuroplasticity. The iTbot, as developed in this research, can provide end-effector type rehabilitation exercises in various configurations, including motion in the vertical and horizontal plane. It can provide passive, active, and active-assisted rehabilitation therapies to patients with limited upper limb mobility.

The iTbot has been designed with simplicity in mind with a minimum viability approach. With a minimum amount …

Not Everyone Is Lovin' It: Work, Class And The Everyday In Al Sahel, Salam Ebeid

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores work in one of the “Big” fast food chains in Al Sahel. In this space I study how multinational ideologies/language are manifested within a local context through notions of control, discipline and power. Throughout the various thesis chapters, I try to understand how work functions with/through a specific social apparatus that is linked to work and class. How the relationships between workers unfold within this restaurant. Unpacking notion of Al Sahel Time Zone that studies different perceptions of time through Al Sahel's space. How work is felt on the body, perceived, tricked and understood by the workers …

Robust Real-Time Model Predictive Control For High Degree Of Freedom Soft Robots, Phillip Edmond Hyatt

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is focused on the modeling and robust model-based control of high degree-of-freedom (DoF) systems. While most of the contributions are applicable to any difficult-to-model system, this dissertation focuses specifically on applications to large-scale soft robots because their many joints and pressures constitute a high-DoF system and their inherit softness makes them difficult to model accurately. First a joint-angle estimation and kinematic calibration method for soft robots is developed which is shown to decrease the pose prediction error at the end of a 1.5 m robot arm by about 85\%. A novel dynamic modelling approach which can be evaluated …

An Analytic Study Of Pursuit Strategies, Mark E. Vlassakis

Theses and Dissertations

The Two-on-One pursuit-evasion differential game is revisited where the holonomic players have equal speed, and the two pursuers are endowed with a circular capture range ℓ > 0. Then, the case where the pursuers' capture ranges are unequal, ℓ₁ > ℓ₂ ≥ 0, is analyzed. In both cases, the state space region where capture is guaranteed is delineated and the optimal feedback strategies are synthesized. Next, pure pursuit is considered whereupon the terminal separation between a pursuer and an equal-speed evader less than the pursuer's capture range ℓ > 0. The case with two pursuers employing pure pursuit is considered, and …

Why We Use A New Currency: The Role Of Trust And Control In Explaining The Perception And Usage Of Bitcoin, Joseph B. Walton

Theses and Dissertations

Social media, e-commerce, global peer-to-peer technologies, and the near ubiquity of computers and smartphones allow people to interact, trust, and exchange value across traditional socio-economic control boundaries and over significant distances. Since the creation in 2008 of a new cryptographic currency system called Bitcoin, a financial technology market sector of about 250 billion USD has rapidly emerged, raising questions about the nature of currency in society and whether new types of non-national money are warranted and viable. This debate has pitted heterodox economic interests against orthodox economic interests while it has rekindled interest in theories that view money as a …

Modality, Control And Restructuring In Arabic, Yasser Albaty

Theses and Dissertations

The dissertation examines theories of modality and control with data from Standard Arabic (SA). In particular, I show that complementations of particular modal and control verbs in SA are not clausal, but smaller phrases. This challenges proposed accounts in the literature of modality in SA as well as theories of control within Minimalism. I alternatively argue for a novel account of both constructions that posits a monoclausal (i.e., restructuring) structure.

First, Chapter 2 investigates modality verbs in SA and shows that subjunctive complements of modality do not exhibit the properties of clausal complementation. I examine the syntax-semantics properties of modality …

Semantic-Based Access Control Mechanisms In Dynamic Environments, Mouiad A. Hani Al-Wahah

Theses and Dissertations

The appearance of dynamic distributed networks in early eighties of the last century has evoked technologies like pervasive systems, ubiquitous computing, ambient intelligence, and more recently, Internet of Things (IoT) to be developed. Moreover, sensing capabil- ities embedded in computing devices offer users the ability to share, retrieve, and update resources on anytime and anywhere basis. These resources (or data) constitute what is widely known as contextual information. In these systems, there is an association between a system and its environment and the system should always adapt to its ever-changing environment. This situation makes the Context-Based Access Control (CBAC) the …

Optimization-Based Spatial Positioning And Energy Management For Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Ronald Abraham Martin

Theses and Dissertations

This research applies techniques from the field of optimization to spatial positioning and energy management in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Two specific areas are treated: optimization of UAV view plans for 3D modeling of infrastructure, and trajectory optimization of solar powered high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) UAVs. Structure-from-Motion (SfM) is a computer vision technique for creating 3D models from 2D images. View planning is the process of planning image sets that will effectively model a given scene. First, a genetic algorithm based view planning approach is demonstrated. A novel terrain simulation environment is developed, and the algorithm is tested at multiple sites …

“The Testing Served Its Purpose ”: High-Stakes Testing As A Method Of Categorization And Control In Young Adult Dystopian Novels, Rebecca Lorenzo

Theses and Dissertations

In “‘The Testing Served its Purpose’: High-Stakes Testing as a Method of Categorization and Control in Young Adult Dystopian Novels,” I examine representations of high-stakes testing in the Divergent, Legend, and Testing trilogies using educational, cultural studies, and dystopian/utopian scholarship. In chapters one and two, I examine each society’s system of high-stakes testing and the ideological indoctrination and physical repression used by those in power to maintain control of the citizenry, respectively. In the third chapter, I analyze the ways in which the state’s indoctrination, coupled with an exaggerated focus on the success or failure of specific individuals, creates competition …

Dynamic Modeling And Robust Nonlinear Control Of Unmanned Quadrotor Vehicle, Amr Elhennawy

Theses and Dissertations

It is not easy to control a quadrotor due to its highly nonlinear dynamics, variable coupling and model uncertainties. The underactuation property of the quadrotor also poses another degree of complexity to the model due to the limited availability of control techniques that can be applied to underactuated systems. This thesis presents the development of mathematical modeling, control techniques, simulation and real-time testing on a developed quadrotor as an unmanned aerial vehicle. Modeling of the dynamic system of a quadrotor including the motor dynamics is carried out using Newton-Euler mechanics and state space representation is obtained. Using this model a …

Block Copolymer Control Of Nanoscale Porous Materials, Amrita Sarkar

Theses and Dissertations

The controlled fabrications of porous materials are crucial for a wide variety of uses spanning the gamut from energy applications to filtration. Despite decades of developments based upon block copolymer self-assembly there remain numerous limitations to achieve simple ends such as fully-tunable nanomaterials or well-defined macroscopic forms. For example, fundamental studies of nanostructure-performance relationships need systematic series of nanomaterials to identify the separate effects of wall and pore dimensions. Such precision control is impossible under the constraints of equilibrating systems. Persistent Micelle Templating (PMT) is rather based on kinetic control and enables robust and independent tuning of each feature. However, …

Photovoltaic Inverter Control To Sustain High Quality Of Service, Yan Chen

Theses and Dissertations

The increasing penetration of distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) generation presents both challenges and opportunities for distribution systems. The intermittent nature of solar irradiance may lead to power quality degradation. At the same time, PV inverters –if properly designed and operated– can be used to improve power quality. The goal of this dissertation is to develop power flow optimization methods for power distribution networks with high penetration of PV generation. The approaches proposed in this dissertation have been tested using the modified version of the IEEE 34-node distribution system and the IEEE 123-node distribution system, as well as the validated model …

Food Insecurity And Hypertension Prevalence, Awareness, Treatment And Control, Alexandra N. Luttrell

Theses and Dissertations

Objective: To examine the association between food insecurity and the prevalence of pre-hypertension and hypertension among U.S. adults. Additionally, this project will examine the association between food insecurity and the awareness, treatment and control (ATC) of hypertension.

Design: A cross-sectional study using data from the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011-2012 and 2013-2014 waves was deployed to examine the association between food insecurity and the prevalence and ATC of hypertension. Food security was measured by the cumulative number of affirmative responses to the 10-item U.S. Household Food Security Survey Module (HFSSM) questionnaire which were graded into four categories; …

Control Of Görtler Vortices In High-Speed Boundary Layers, Radwa Alaziz

Theses and Dissertations

Görtler vortices develop in boundary layer flows over concave surfaces due to the imbalance between centrifugal forces and the wall-normal pressure gradient. These vortices can be efficient precursors to transition in boundary layers exposed to free-stream disturbance or surface non-uniformities, because they can alter the mean flow causing the laminar flow to breakdown into turbulence. In this thesis, a control technique aimed at reducing the energy associated with Görtler vortices that develop in supersonic boundary layers is introduced and tested. The control algorithm is based on distributed blowing and suction, with sensors placed either in the flow or at the …

Dynamic Model And Control Of Quadrotor In The Presence Of Uncertainties, Courage Agho

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis considers the control of quadrotor using a linear PID control and ℒ1 adaptive control. In a justifiable concept, PID controller can be used to control a quadrotor, but in the presence of uncertainties or disturbance, the quadrotor can’t be automatically adjusted to control the changing dynamics of the quadrotor. To solve the problem associated with uncertainties, various control methodology can be used for controlling the changing dynamic of quadrotor, but in this thesis, ℒ1 adaptive control is used because it allows for fast and robust adaptation for desired transient performance in the presence of matched and unmatched uncertainties. …

Between, Kendal Nisson Bryan

Theses and Dissertations

I feel uncertain about my place in the world and it is necessary for me to discover how I am perceived by myself and by the world by exploring interior spaces. Interior spaces are both spaces of comfort, security, and permanence as well as vulnerability, uncertainty, and transcendence. My childhood home is an important drive in my work. It has caused me to think more about space and how the places we inhabit become more than just places we live in. They are places that hide our secrets, make their mark on us, and continue to live on with us …

A Qualitative Study Of Women’S Attitudes And Experiences Regarding Body Image And Disordered Eating Behaviors, Natalie Ann Kirtley

Theses and Dissertations

The current research study is responding to recent findings wherein, Fischer et al. (2013) report a risk rate based on EAT-26 scores in the range of 9.2% to 10.8% at BYU in comparison to the 15% they found reported in the literature using samples from other college campuses. Risk rates based on BSQ scores were reported in the 27.2% to 31.1% range, which was on par with a risk rate of 28.7% reported at a comparable university (Fischer et al., 2013). Fischer et al. (2013) conclude that while body shape concerns were estimated to be equal to or lower than …