Engineering Commons^™

Criticality Assessments For Improving Algorithmic Robustness, Thomas B. Jones

Computer Science ETDs

Though computational models typically assume all program steps execute flawlessly, that does not imply all steps are equally important if a failure should occur. In the "Constrained Reliability Allocation" problem, sufficient resources are guaranteed for operations that prompt eventual program termination on failure, but those operations that only cause output errors are given a limited budget of some vital resource, insufficient to ensure correct operation for each of them.

In this dissertation, I present a novel representation of failures based on a combination of their timing and location combined with criticality assessments---a method used to predict the behavior of systems …

High-Performance Testbed For Vision-Aided Autonomous Navigation For Quadrotor Uavs In Cluttered Environments, Shakeeb Ahmad

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

This thesis presents the development of an aerial robotic testbed based on Robot Operating System (ROS). The purpose of this high-performance testbed is to develop a system capable of performing robust navigation tasks using vision tools such as a stereo camera. While ensuring the computation of robot odometery, the system is also capable of sensing the environment using the same stereo camera. Hence, all the navigation tasks are performed using a stereo camera and an inertial measurement unit (IMU) as the main sensor suite. ROS is used as a framework for software integration due to its capabilities to provide efficient …