Computer Engineering Commons^™

Optimized Learning Using Fuzzy-Inference-Assisted Algorithms For Deep Learning, Miroslava Barua

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

For years, researchers in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Deep Learning (DL) observed that performance of a Deep Learning Network (DLN) could be improved by using larger and larger datasets coupled with complex network architectures. Although these strategies yield remarkable results, they have limits, dictated by data quantity and quality, rising costs by the increased computational power, or, more frequently, by long training times on networks that are very large. Training DLN requires laborious work involving multiple layers of densely connected neurons, updates to millions of network parameters, while potentially iterating thousands of times through millions of entries in a big …

Online/Incremental Learning To Mitigate Concept Drift In Network Traffic Classification, Alberto R. De La Rosa

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Communication networks play a large role in our everyday lives. COVID19 pandemic in 2020 highlighted their importance as most jobs had to be moved to remote work environments. It is possible that the spread of the virus, the death toll, and the economic consequences would have been much worse without communication networks. To remove sole dependence on one equipment vendor, networks are heterogeneous by design. Due to this, as well as their increasing size, network management has become overwhelming for network managers. For this reason, automating network management will have a significant positive impact. Machine learning and software defined networking …

Productivity And Quality Evaluation In Assembly Using Collaborative Robots, Carlos F. Manzanares Vega

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In Industry 4.0, various technologies have been applied to achieve automation for traditional manufacturing and practices. For this reason, Smart Manufacturing (SM) environments utilize collaborative robots for process optimization by integrating the Internet of Things (IoT). Cobots are equipped with sensors and/or other devices to be able to transmit data in real-time while performing their tasks. Consequently, such SM implementations improves the decision making and business development, such as supply chain and operations, by sharing real-time data from a plant operational level. The collaborative robots are also designed to safely interact and collaborate with humans to perform tasks and optimize …

Intelligent Autonomous Inspections Using Deep Learning And Detection Markers, Alejandro Martinez Acosta

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Inspection of industrial and scientific facilities is a crucial task that must be performed regularly. These inspections tasks ensure that the facilityâ??s structure is in safe operational conditions for humans. Furthermore,the safe operation of industrial machinery, is dependent on the conditions of the environment. For safety reasons, inspections for both structural integrity and equipment is often manually performed by operators or technicians. Naturally, this is often a tedious and laborious task. Additionally, buildings and structures frequently contain hard to reach or dangerous areas, which leads to the harm, injury or death of humans. Autonomous robotic systems offer an attractive solution …

Security Analysis And Implementation Of Dnp3 Multilayer Protocol For Secure And Safe Communication In Scada Systems, Isaac Monroy

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

When SCADA systems were first introduced into society, a lot of manpower was required for monitoring and controlling devices within critical infrastructures. With the increasing demand for services and growing systems, a need arose to automate the monitoring and controlling tasks. This led to introduction of networks into SCADA systems to enhance monitoring and control capabilities, that can scale with system size and requirements. But this introduction of network layer along with its advantages, also introduced a new threat surface which exposed multiple vulnerabilities within the system that can exploited to launch attacks, that led to the integration of security …

Miner-Town: Self-Driving Robotics Testbed For Vehicle-To-Grid Simulation, Carlos Adolfo Cortes Pliego

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Autonomous vehicles and Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology bring promising implications in boosting energy efficiency, helping the environment, improving our productivity, and have the potential to stabilize the grid during peak times and reduce car accidents. However, implementing and testing these complex novel technologies in the real world comes with high risks and investment. For these reasons, there is the need to research, test, and validate these theories in a compact and controlled environment at minimal cost. This thesis presents a modular autonomous vehicle testbed for the exploration of Vehicle-to-Grid and charging activities in pedestrian filled environments such as a University campus. …

Efficient Approaches To Steady State Detection In Multivariate Systems, Honglun Xu

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Steady state detection is critically important in many engineering fields such as fault detection and diagnosis, process monitoring and control. However, most of the existing methods are designed for univariate signals. In this dissertation, we proposed an efficient online steady state detection method for multivariate systems through a sequential Bayesian partitioning approach. The signal is modeled by a Bayesian piecewise constant mean and covariance model, and a recursive updating method is developed to calculate the posterior distributions analytically. The duration of the current segment is utilized to test the steady state. Insightful guidance is provided for hyperparameter selection. The effectiveness …

Development Of An Automated Electronic Prototyping System, Cesar Yahir Sanchez Zambrano

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Prototyping systems with interconnected components can be a time and resource expensive process. The process consists of three main phases (design, build and analysis) with each having their own associated cost. For the case of electronic circuits, the building phase is the costliest phase among the three, being prone to human errors which causes the circuit to fail. All three phases of the prototyping process are important. However, often a disproportionate amount of time is spent on the build phase due to the difficulty of making and troubleshooting circuits by hand. In this thesis we will discuss a system that …

Addressing Security And Privacy Issues By Analyzing Vulnerabilities In Iot Applications, Francsico Javier Candelario Burgoa

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Internet of Things (IoT) environment has been expanding rapidly for the past few years into several areas of our lives, from factories, to stores and even into our own homes. All these new devices in our homes make our day-to-day lives easier and more comfortable with less effort on our part, converting our simple houses into smart homes. This increase in inter-connectivity brings multiple benefits including the improvement in energy efficiency in our homes, however it also brings with it some potential dangers since more points of connection mean more potential vulnerabilities in our grid. These vulnerabilities bring security …

The Network Link Outlier Factor (Nlof) For Localizing Network Faults, Christopher Mendoza

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This work presents the Network Link Outlier Factor (NLOF), a data analytics pipeline for network fault detection and localization solution that consists of four stages. In the first stage, flow record throughput values are clustered in two sub-stages: using Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN) and then a novel domain-specific ThroughPut Cluster (TPCluster) technique. In the second stage, Flow Outlier Factor (FOF) scores are computed for each flow. In the third stage, flows are traced onto the network. Finally, in the fourth stage, each link is given a Network Link Outlier Factor (NLOF) score which is the ratio …

Hardware For Quantized Mixed-Precision Deep Neural Networks, Andres Rios

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Recently, there has been a push to perform deep learning (DL) computations on the edge rather than the cloud due to latency, network connectivity, energy consumption, and privacy issues. However, state-of-the-art deep neural networks (DNNs) require vast amounts of computational power, data, and energyâ??resources that are limited on edge devices. This limitation has brought the need to design domain-specific architectures (DSAs) that implement DL-specific hardware optimizations. Traditionally DNNs have run on 32-bit floating-point numbers; however, a body of research has shown that DNNs are surprisingly robust and do not require all 32 bits. Instead, using quantization, networks can run on …

Evaluating Flow Features For Network Application Classification, Carlos Alcantara

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Communication networks provide the foundational services on which our modern economy depends. These services include data storage and transfer, video and voice telephony, gaming, multimedia streaming, remote invocation, and the world wide web. Communication networks are large-scale distributed systems composed of heterogeneous equipment. As a result of scale and heterogeneity, communication networks are cumbersome to manage (e.g., configure, assess performance, detect faults) by human operators. With the emergence of easily accessible network data and machine learning algorithms, there is a great opportunity to move network management towards increasing automation. Network management automation will allow for a reduced likelihood of human …

Development Of The Payload System And Obc Microcontroller Coding For A Cubic Satellite Performing An Additive Self-Repair Experiment In Space, Eduardo Macias-Zugasti

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Additive manufacturing, which is also known as three-dimensional printing, in space is one of the most promising technologies advancing current capabilities for in-orbit space manufacturing and assembly. Additive manufacturing contributes to the reduction of cost per kilogram and number of launches, thus facilitating extraterrestrial colonization and deep-space exploration. The state of the art includes advancing efforts inside the International Space Station (ISS). However, the ISS is a controlled environment and, to the best of our knowledge, no spacecraft or satellite has performed additive manufacturing tasks in the extreme environment of outer space. In this work a 1U CubeSat named Orbital …

Compound Vision Approach For Autonomous Vehicles Navigation, Michael Mikhael

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

An analogy can be made between the sensing that occurs in simple robots and drones and that in insects and crustaceans, especially in basic navigation requirements. Thus, an approach in robots/drones based on compound eye vision could be useful. In this research, several image processing algorithms were used to detect and track moving objects starting with images upon which a grid (compound eye image) was superimposed, including contours detection, the second moments of those contours along with the grid applied to the original image, and Fourier Transforms and inverse Fourier Transforms. The latter also provide information about scene or camera …

Tram System Automation For Environmental Spectroscopy And Vegetation Monitoring, Enrique Anguiano Chavez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Spectroscopy is the science of studying the interactions of matter and electromagnetic radiation (EMR). In particular, field spectroscopy takes place in a natural environment with a natural source of EMR. The paper presents progress towards the development and automation of a tram cart system. The new system in development collects high resolution, hyperspectral images and data from a spectrometer. Alternatives for a sensor cover mechanism to provide cover for the sensors mounted while the system is not operating are discussed, analyzing and comparing the benefits and disadvantages. An implementation for a charging station in an environment isolated from the electric …

A Comprehensive And Modular Robotic Control Framework For Model-Less Control Law Development Using Reinforcement Learning For Soft Robotics, Charles Sullivan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Soft robotics is a growing field in robotics research. Heavily inspired by biological systems, these robots are made of softer, non-linear, materials such as elastomers and are actuated using several novel methods, from fluidic actuation channels to shape changing materials such as electro-active polymers. Highly non-linear materials make modeling difficult, and sensors are still an area of active research. These issues have rendered typical control and modeling techniques often inadequate for soft robotics. Reinforcement learning is a branch of machine learning that focuses on model-less control by mapping states to actions that maximize a specific reward signal. Reinforcement learning has …

Adaptive Microphone Array Systems With Neural Network Applications, Jazmine Marisol Covarrubias

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A microphone array integrated with a neural network framework is proposed to enhance and optimize speech signals derived from environments prone to noise and room reflections that cause reverberation. Microphone arrays provide a way to capture spatial acoustic information for extracting voice input from ambient noise. In this study, we utilize and analyze established signal processing methods combined with different neural network architectures to achieve denoised and dereverberated speech signal results that are comparable with their clean, anechoic versions. The first stage of the proposed system involves using datasets containing anechoic speech recordings of speech utterances and convolving them with …

Artificial Intelligence In The Assessment Of Transmission And Distribution Systems Under Natural Disasters Using Machine Learning And Deep Learning Techniques In A Knowledge Discovery Framework, Rossana Villegas

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Warming trends and increasing temperatures have been observed and reported by federal agencies, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Extreme-weather events, especially hurricanes, tornadoes and winter storms, are among the highly devastating natural disasters responsible for massive and prolonged power outages in Electrical Transmission and Distribution Systems (ETDS). Moreover, the failure rate probability of any system component under extreme-weather tends to increase in the impacted geographic area. This Dissertation proposes an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Decision Support System that can predict damage in the ETDS and allow operators to mitigate disastrous extreme weather events. The document reports the …

Dedicated Hardware For Machine/Deep Learning: Domain Specific Architectures, Angel Izael Solis

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Artificial intelligence has come a very long way from being a mere spectacle on the silver screen in the 1920s [Hml18]. As artificial intelligence continues to evolve, and we begin to develop more sophisticated Artificial Neural Networks, the need for specialized and more efficient machines (less computational strain while maintaining the same performance results) becomes increasingly evident. Though these “new” techniques, such as Multilayer Perceptron’s, Convolutional Neural Networks and Recurrent Neural Networks, may seem as if they are on the cutting edge of technology, many of these ideas are over 60 years old! However, many of these earlier models, at …

Detecting Contaminated Fiber Connectors Using Sfp Optical Power Data, Christopher A. Mendoza

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Fiber optic technology is an important part of communication networks enabling high-bandwidth transmissions over long and short distances. They do have their fair share of problems though, contamination being the biggest culprit. Contamination of fiber optic connectors can lead to serious performance degradation or even loss of signal. Detecting contaminated fiber connectors can take weeks or even months using traditional practices. There are standard cleanliness practices when dealing with optical connectors but still the problem seems to persist. This work presents an inequality to solve the detection portion of this problem. The proposed inequality uses power readings from the Small …

A New Approach To Multiplanar, Real-Time Simulation Of Physiological Knee Loads And Synthetic Knee Components Augmented By Local Composition Control In Fused Filament Fabrication, Joshua Taylor Green

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Despite numerous advances in biomedical engineering, few developments in surgical simulation have been made outside of computational models. Cadavers remain the primary media on which surgical research and simulation is conducted. Most attempts to quantify the effects of orthopedic surgical methods fail to achieve statistical significance due to limited quantities of cadaver specimen, large variations among the cadaver population, and a lack of repeatability among measurement techniques. The general purpose of the research covered in this dissertation is to develop repeatable simulation of physiological loads and develop techniques to fabricate a synthetic-based replacement of cadaver specimens. Future work applying this …

Development Of A Desktop Material Extrusion 3d Printer With Wire Embedding Capabilities, Jose Francisco Motta

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Printed circuit boards (PCB) have been widely used as a permanent solution for generating complex circuitries to power electronic devices. Over the years, PCB boards have proved to be reliable when powering electronic devices. However, when fabricating a printed circuit board, one must outsource to fabricate the boards when in prototype phase. Therefore, the risk of intellectual property theft and long lead time is an issue. The objective of this Thesis is to develop a hybrid multi-tool desktop material extrusion 3D printer that allows for easy integration (modularity) of tools to generate multi-functional 3D printed components.

The addition of an …

An Efficient Method For Online Identification Of Steady State For Multivariate System, Honglun None Xu

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Most of the existing steady state detection approaches are designed for univariate signals. For multivariate signals, the univariate approach is often applied to each process variable and the system is claimed to be steady once all signals are steady, which is computationally inefficient and also not accurate. The article proposes an efficient online method for multivariate steady state detection. It estimates the covariance matrices using two different approaches, namely, the mean-squared-deviation and mean-squared-successive-difference. To avoid the usage of a moving window, the process means and the two covariance matrices are calculated recursively through exponentially weighted moving average. A likelihood ratio …

Improving Time-Of-Flight And Other Depth Images: Super-Resolution And Denoising Using Variational Methods, Salvador Canales Andrade

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Depth information is a new important source of perception for machines, which allow them to have a better representation of the surroundings. The depth information provides a more precise map of the location of every object and surfaces in a space of interest in comparison with conventional cameras. Time of flight (ToF) cameras provide one of the techniques to acquire depth maps, however they produce low spatial resolution and noisy maps. This research proposes a framework to enhance and up-scale depth maps by using two different regularization terms: Total Generalized Variation (TGV) and Total Generalized Variation with a Structure Tensor …

The Effect Of Data Marshalling On Computation Offloading Decisions, Julio Alberto Reyes Muñoz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Computation offloading consists in allowing resource constrained computers, such as smartphones and other mobile devices, to use the network for the remote execution of resource intensive computing tasks in powerful computers. However, deciding whether to offload or not is not a trivial problem, and it depends in several variables related to the environment conditions, the computing devices involved in the process, and the nature of the task to be remotely executed. Furthermore, it comprises the optimal solution to some questions, like how to partition the application and where to execute the tasks.

The computation offloading decision problem has been widely …

Decision Making For Dynamic Systems Under Uncertainty: Predictions And Parameter Recomputations, Leobardo Valera

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In this Thesis, we are interested in making decision over a model of a dynamic system. We want to know, on one hand, how the corresponding dynamic phenomenon unfolds under different input parameters (simulations). These simulations might help researchers to design devices with a better performance than the actual ones. On the other hand, we are also interested in predicting the behavior of the dynamic system based on knowledge of the phenomenon in order to prevent undesired outcomes. Finally, this Thesis is concerned with the identification of parameters of dynamic systems that ensure a specific performance or behavior.

Understanding the …

Safety Airway For Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Using A Gas Particles Behavior Analogy, Pablo Rangel

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) implemented the Part 107 legislation to allow the flight of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) for commercial use (i.e. package deliveries, power transmission line inspections, etc.) in the National Airspace System (NAS). As a consequence of the newly introduced rules, there is an increased risk for accidents involving injured bystanders or damaged to property. The work within this document defines a UAV to UAV safety distance model that acts as a range sensor enabled "elastic bubble". The length of the UAV safety bubble contracts and expands upon changing airway wind speed conditions. It also …

Structural And Electrical Characterization Of Tin Oxide Resistive Switching, Arka Talukdar

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Resistive switching in metal oxide is a phenomenon in which the metal oxide changes its resistance upon application of electric field and thus giving two states; high resistance state (HRS) and low resistance state (LRS). Many metal oxides have been investigated however very little is known about unipolar resistive switching in SnO2 though it has shown excellent resistive switching characteristics. Defects in the material play a vital role in resistive switching of the metal oxides. In this work, the role of defects in resistive switching of SnO2 are investigated in Ti/SnO2/Au structures. Two methods were used to control the concentration …

G-Code Generation For Multi-Process 3d Printing, Callum Peter Bailey

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Since the inception of stereolithography in the 1980s, interest in 3D printing has exploded, with desktop 3D printers now commercially accessible to the general public. In recent years, next-generation multifunctional technologies have been developed, which combine 3D printing with other technologies such as wire embedding, foil embedding, CNC machining, and robotic component placement, enabling complex parts to be made on a single multifunctional machine.

However, the complexity of these integrated processes exceeds the capabilities of established design tools. To this end, this Thesis aims to develop a multi-functional design solution that can automatically generate final control code for next-generation multifunctional …

Adaptive Switched Capacitor Voltage Boost For Thermoelectric Generation, Rene A. Brito

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Thermoelectric generators (TEG) and other forms of energy harvesting often provide voltages that are not directly usable by traditional electronics as levels are too low from the TEG. While increasing the number of thermoelectric elements can ultimately increase the power output, there is a tradeoff between size and power. By implementing charge pumps, a proposed circuit technique is described that can boost the TEG output to levels that can be used for energy harvesting applications. Current voltage boost circuits for TEGs simply boost a voltage by a set amount. The proposed circuit consists of an analog chip, to provide several …