Computer Engineering Commons^™

Protecting The Infrastructure Of Michigan: Analyzing And Understanding Internet Infrastructure, Samuel Blaser, Travis Munyer, Damian Ramirez, Lester Juarez, Jackson Servant

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The Michigan Army National Guard DCOE is hoping to increase their understanding of the physical, electrical, protocol, and logical topography of internet service. In order to understand the infrastructure of the internet, information must be collected on its pieces. By studying, describing, and illustrating the infrastructure of the global internet we can develop hardening tactics, improve user training, and develop contingency plans in the case of an attack. The research is focused on where data lives, locating data centers in the region, identifying global infrastructure and who owns it, and potential for hardening. An interactive map has been created in …

Evaluation Of Lidar Uncertainty And Applications Towards Slam In Off-Road Environments, Zachary D. Jeffries

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Safe and robust operation of autonomous ground vehicles in all types of conditions and environment necessitates complex perception systems and unique, innovative solutions. This work addresses automotive lidar and maximizing the performance of a simultaneous localization and mapping stack. An exploratory experiment and an open benchmarking experiment are both presented. Additionally, a popular SLAM application is extended to use the type of information gained from lidar characterization, demonstrating the performance gains and necessity to tightly couple perception software and sensor hardware. The first exploratory experiment collects data from child-sized, low-reflectance targets over a range from 15 m to 35 m. …

Enhancing Traffic Safety In Unpredicted Environments With Integration Of Adas Features With Sensor Fusion In Intelligent Electric Vehicle Platform With Implementation Of Environmental Mapping Technology, David S. Obando Ortegon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A major objective on society is to reduce the number of accidents and fatalities on the road for drivers, and pedestrians. Therefore, the automotive engineering field is working on this problem through the development and integration of safety technologies such as advanced driving assistance systems. For this reason, this work was intended to develop and evaluate the performance of different ADAS features and IV technologies under unexpected scenarios. This by the development of safety algorithms applied to the intelligent electric vehicle designed and built in this work, through the use of ADAS sensors based on sensor fusion. Evaluation of AEB, …

Research Of Liver Solid Texture Synthesis And Mapping Method With Cuda Acceleration, Guodong Chen, Hanxin He

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: A liver solid texture synthesis and mapping method based on Computer Unified Device Architecture acceleration (CUDA) was proposed to solve the problem of the overlong time consuming within the period of synthesizing liver solid texture in traditional way. The relevance in traditional serial texture synthesis was elim inated in the new method. The work of selecting and distributing blocks of space synthesis of the liver solid texture was processed by using the parallel processing of multiple threads based on CUDA. Both the procedures of tinting the surface grid nodes of liver model and internal point set traversal in mapping …

Twitter Analysis Based On Damage Detection And Geoparsing For Event Mapping Management, Yasmeen Ali, Khaled Bahnasy, Adel El-Mahdy

Future Computing and Informatics Journal

Background: Early event detection, monitor, and response can significantly decrease the impact of disasters. Lately, the usage of social media for detecting events has displayed hopeful results. Objectives: for event detection and mapping; the tweets will locate and monitor them on a map. This new approach uses grouped geoparsing then scoring for each tweet based on three spatial indicators. Method/Approach: Our approach uses a geoparsing technique to match a location in tweets to geographic locations of multiple-events tweets in Egypt country, administrative subdivision. Thus, additional geographic information acquired from the tweet itself to detect the actual locations that …

Design Of A Robotic Inspection Platform For Structural Health Monitoring, Jason R. Soto

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Actively monitoring infrastructure is key to detecting and correcting problems before they become costly. The vast scale of modern infrastructure poses a challenge to monitoring due to insufficient personnel. Certain structures, such as refineries, pose additional challenges and can be expensive, time-consuming, and hazardous to inspect.

This thesis outlines the development of an autonomous robot for structural-health-monitoring. The robot is capable of operating autonomously in level indoor environments and can be controlled manually to traverse difficult terrain. Both visual and lidar SLAM, along with a procedural-mapping technique, allow the robot to capture colored-point-clouds.

The robot is successfully able to automate …

Metadata Management For Clinical Data Integration, Ningzhou Zeng

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

Clinical data have been continuously collected and growing with the wide adoption of electronic health records (EHR). Clinical data have provided the foundation to facilitate state-of-art researches such as artificial intelligence in medicine. At the same time, it has become a challenge to integrate, access, and explore study-level patient data from large volumes of data from heterogeneous databases. Effective, fine-grained, cross-cohort data exploration, and semantically enabled approaches and systems are needed. To build semantically enabled systems, we need to leverage existing terminology systems and ontologies. Numerous ontologies have been developed recently and they play an important role in semantically enabled …

V-Slam And Sensor Fusion For Ground Robots, Ejup Hoxha

Dissertations and Theses

In underground, underwater and indoor environments, a robot has to rely solely on its on-board sensors to sense and understand its surroundings. This is the main reason why SLAM gained the popularity it has today. In recent years, we have seen excellent improvement on accuracy of localization using cameras and combinations of different sensors, especially camera-IMU (VIO) fusion. Incorporating more sensors leads to improvement of accuracy,but also robustness of SLAM. However, while testing SLAM in our ground robots, we have seen a decrease in performance quality when using the same algorithms on flying vehicles.We have an additional sensor for ground …

Integrated Environment And Proximity Sensing For Uav Applications, Shawn S. Brackett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), or “drone” applications expand, new methods for sensing, navigating and avoiding obstacles need to be developed. The project applies an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) to a simulated quadcopter vehicle though Matlab in order to estimate not only the vehicle state but the world state around the vehicle. The EKF integrates multiple sensor readings from range sensors, IMU sensors, and radiation sensors and combines this information to optimize state estimates. The result is an estimated world map to be used in vehicle navigation and obstacle avoidance.

The simulation handles the physics behind the vehicle flight. As …

Mesh Addition Based On The Depth Image (Mabdi), Lucas E. Chavez

Mechanical Engineering ETDs

Many robotic applications utilize a detailed map of the world and the algorithm used to produce such a map must take into consideration real-world constraints such as computational and memory costs. Traditional mesh-based environmental mapping algorithms receive data from the sensor, create a mesh surface from the data, and then append the surface to a growing global mesh. These algorithms do not provide a computationally efficient mechanism for reducing redundancies in the global mesh. MABDI is able to leverage the knowledge contained in the global mesh to find the difference between what we expect our sensor to see and what …

Autonomous Android: Autonomous 3d Environment Mapping With Android Controlled Multicopters, Tate Glick Hawkersmith

Masters Theses

Autonomous robots are robotic platforms with a high degree of autonomy, programmed to perform various behaviors or tasks. They can either be semi-autonomous, only operable within the strict confines of their direct environment, or fully autonomous, capable of sensing and navigating their environments without any human interaction.

In this thesis, I focus on fully autonomous robotic platforms, specifically multicopters, controlled by an onboard Android-driven device, a widely available operating system for smartphones and tablets with over 1.4 billion active monthly users worldwide [Callaham 2015]. The main objective of this research is to create a plug and play solution for autonomous …

Localization And Mapping Of Unknown Locations And Tunnels With Unmanned Ground Vehicles, Doris Turnage

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The main goals of this research were to enhance a commercial off the shelf (COTS) software platform to support unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) exploring the complex environment of tunnels, to test the platform within a simulation environment, and to validate the architecture through field testing. Developing this platform will enhance the U. S. Army Engineering Research and Development Center’s (ERDC’s) current capabilities and create a safe and efficient autonomous vehicle to perform the following functions within tunnels: (1) localization (e.g., position tracking) and mapping of its environment, (2) traversing varied terrains, (3) sensing the environment for objects of interest, and …

Low Cost Infrared And Near Infrared Sensors For Uavs, Samuel T. Aden, James P. Bialas, Zachary Champion, Eugene Levin, Jessica L. Mccarty

Michigan Tech Research Institute Publications

Thermal remote sensing has a wide range of applications, though the extent of its use is inhibited by cost. Robotic and computer components are now widely available to consumers on a scale that makes thermal data a readily accessible resource. In this project, thermal imagery collected via a lightweight remote sensing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was used to create a surface temperature map for the purpose of providing wildland firefighting crews with a cost-effective and time-saving resource. The UAV system proved to be flexible, allowing for customized sensor packages to be designed that could include visible or infrared cameras, GPS, …

Involving Citizens Into Mapping Of Illegal Landfills And Other Civic Issues In The Czech Republic, Miroslay Kubásek, Jiři Hřebíček

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Today's smartphones can unlock the full potential of crowdsourcing and take eParticipation to a new level. Users are allowed to transparently contribute to complex and novel problem solving. Engagement of citizens is still challenging but the proliferation of smartphones with geolocation have made it easier than before. The paper introduces the environmental project called ZmapujTo.cz. This project is primarily intended to fight illegal waste dumps in the Czech Republic. The idea is to use the potential awareness of the broader public about the environmental and economic drawbacks of illegal landfills. We developed a more efficient version of the web portal …

Large Scale 3d Mapping Of Indoor Environments Using A Handheld Rgbd Camera, Brian Peasley

All Dissertations

The goal of this research is to investigate the problem of reconstructing a 3D representation of an environment, of arbitrary size, using a handheld color and depth (RGBD) sensor. The focus of this dissertation is to examine four of the underlying subproblems to this system: camera tracking, loop closure, data storage, and integration. First, a system for 3D reconstruction of large indoor planar environments with data captured from an RGBD sensor mounted on a mobile robotic platform is presented. An algorithm for constructing nearly drift-free 3D occupancy grids of large indoor environments in an online manner is also presented. This …

Mobile Robot Navigation For Person Following In Indoor Environments, Ninad Pradhan

All Dissertations

Service robotics is a rapidly growing area of interest in robotics research. Service robots inhabit human-populated environments and carry out specific tasks. The goal of this dissertation is to develop a service robot capable of following a human leader around populated indoor environments. A classification system for person followers is proposed such that it clearly defines the expected interaction between the leader and the robotic follower. In populated environments, the robot needs to be able to detect and identify its leader and track the leader through occlusions, a common characteristic of populated spaces. An appearance-based person descriptor, which augments the …

Application Of Structured Light Imaging For High Resolution Mapping Of Underwater Archaeological Sites, Chris Roman, Gabrielle Inglis, James Rutter

Christopher N. Roman

This paper presents results from recent work using structured light laser profile imaging to create high resolution bathymetric maps of underwater archaeological sites. Documenting the texture and structure of submerged sites is a difficult task and many applicable acoustic and photographic mapping techniques have recently emerged. This effort was completed to evaluate laser profile imaging in comparison to stereo imaging and high frequency multibeam mapping. A ROV mounted camera and inclined 532 nm sheet laser were used to create profiles of the bottom that were then merged into maps using platform navigation data. These initial results show very promising resolution …

Mapping And Visualizing Ancient Water Storage Systems With An Rov – An Approach Based On Fusing Stationary Scans Within A Particle Filter, William D. Mcvicker

Master's Theses

This paper presents a new method for constructing 2D maps of enclosed un- derwater structures using an underwater robot equipped with only a 2D scanning sonar, compass and depth sensor. In particular, no motion model or odometry is used. To accomplish this, a two step offline SLAM method is applied to a set of stationary sonar scans. In the first step, the change in position of the robot between each consecutive pair of stationary sonar scans is estimated using a particle filter. This set of pair wise relative scan positions is used to create an estimate of each scan’s position …

Application Of Structured Light Imaging For High Resolution Mapping Of Underwater Archaeological Sites, Chris Roman, Gabrielle Inglis, James Rutter

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

This paper presents results from recent work using structured light laser profile imaging to create high resolution bathymetric maps of underwater archaeological sites. Documenting the texture and structure of submerged sites is a difficult task and many applicable acoustic and photographic mapping techniques have recently emerged. This effort was completed to evaluate laser profile imaging in comparison to stereo imaging and high frequency multibeam mapping. A ROV mounted camera and inclined 532 nm sheet laser were used to create profiles of the bottom that were then merged into maps using platform navigation data. These initial results show very promising resolution …

Sharing And Fusing Landmark Information In A Team Of Autonomous Robots, Damian M. Lyons

Faculty Publications

A team of robots working to explore and map a space may need to share information about landmarks so as register local maps and to plan effective exploration strategies. In this paper we investigate the use of spatial histograms (spatiograms) as a common representation for exchanging landmark information between robots. Each robot can use sonar, stereo, laser and image information to identify potential landmarks. The sonar, laser and stereo information provide the spatial dimension of the spatiogram in a landmark-centered coordinate frame while video provides the image information. We call the result a terrain spatiogram. This representation can be shared …

Variable Resolution & Dimensional Mapping For 3d Model Optimization, Joseph Venezia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Three-dimensional computer models, especially geospatial architectural data sets, can be visualized in the same way humans experience the world, providing a realistic, interactive experience. Scene familiarization, architectural analysis, scientific visualization, and many other applications would benefit from finely detailed, high resolution, 3D models. Automated methods to construct these 3D models traditionally has produced data sets that are often low fidelity or inaccurate; otherwise, they are initially highly detailed, but are very labor and time intensive to construct. Such data sets are often not practical for common real-time usage and are not easily updated. This thesis proposes Variable Resolution & Dimensional …

A Synthesised Knowledge Mapping Framework To Embed A Km Strategy Using Topic Maps And Wikis: The Tao Of Wiki, Colman A.J. Mcmahon

Dissertations

Just getting started with knowledge management can be difficult enough for many organisations, however the real challenge is actually how to embed the new practices. The expression "Success is a journey, not a destination" is particularly apt for KM. This research presents findings from stakeholder analyses carried out in an Irish government agency. The agency has been on its KM journey for nearly four years and has attempted to implement a comprehensive and full-scale strategy. The findings indicate that KM practices have not yet become fully embedded in the organisation. This research uncovers some of the reasons why not. In …

C2iedm For The Gig: A Tutorial, Andreas Tolk, Charles Turnitsa, Curtis Blais

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Genetic Algorithms Approach To Learning Communication And Coordination In Simulated Robots, Chris Sotzing

Senior Scholar Papers

This project is motivated by an existing robot system for mapping unknown environments and attempts to improve its effectiveness through the use of genetic algorithms. Using a robot simulator, the mapping system is created using simulated robots and a simulated environment. The robots are controlled by a supervisor agent that makes the high-level decisions about tasks for individual robots to complete to accomplish the mapping effort. This research investigates the ability of adding a genetic algorithm learning component to the supervisor to improve its ability to coordinate the robotic agents.

Mapping Of Ecosystems In Mount Bromo Using Remote Sensing Technology, Bangun Muljo Sukojo

Makara Journal of Technology

Mapping of Ecosystems in Mount Bromo Using Remote Sensing Technology. Covered land analyses of Landsat image have been done to get ecosystem types and map in Mount Bromo region using remote sensing technology. There are nine types of ecosystems in Mount Bromo region, i.e. primary forest, secondary forest, lake, crater, sands, uncovered land, underbrush, dry-field and residence. Distribution of rock analysis has also been done by comparing the manual image interpretation with geological map. The results were coorelated with the digital image interpretation to find rock distribution map which can be useful to get the information about water reservation potencial …

Application Of Remote Sensing For Mapping Soil Organic Matter Content, Bangun Muljo Sukojo, Wahono Wahono

Makara Journal of Technology

Application of Remote Sensing for Mapping Soil Organic Matter Content. Information organic content is important in monitoring and managing the environment as well as doing agricultural production activities. This research tried to map soil organic content in Malang using remote sensing technology. The research uses 6 bands of data captured by Landsat TM (Thematic Mapper) satellite (band 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7). The research focuses on pixels having Normalized Difference Soil Index (NDSI) more than 0.3. Ground-truth data were collected by analysing organic content of soil samples using Black-Walkey method. The result of analysis shows that digital number of …