Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Embedded Chaotic Time Series: Applications In Prediction And Spatio-Temporal Classification, James R. Stright

Theses and Dissertations

The Deterministic Versus Stochastic algorithm developed by Martin Casdagli is modified to produce two new, methodologies, each of which selectively uses embedding space nearest neighbors. Neighbors which are considered prediction relevant are retained for local linear prediction, while those which are considered likely to represent noise are ignored. For many time series, it is shown possible to improve on local linear prediction with both of the new algorithms. Furthermore, the theory of embedology is applied to determine a length of test sequence sufficient for accurate classification of moving objects. Sequentially recorded feature vectors of a moving object form a training …

Work Measurement Decision Diagram Development And Application At Nasa's Kennedy Space Center, Susan L. Murray, Amanda M. Mitskevich, Joseph J. Pignatiello Jr., Timothy S. Barth, William W. Swart

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents a decision flow diagram developed at NASA's Kennedy Space Center for the selection of the appropriate work measurement methodologies for Space Shuttle processing.

Acuta Enews May 1994, Vol. 23, No. 5

ACUTA Newsletters

In This Issue

Board Report

President's message

VTEL goes to Russia

Video at Univ. of Missouri

DC at a glance

Takin' care of business

Acuta Enews April 1994, Vol. 23, No. 4

ACUTA Newsletters

In This Issue

Board report

President's message

ISDN at WVU

Book reviews

Hold down toll fraud

Takin' care of business

An Ergonomics Approach To Evaluate The Use Of Two Different Fixtures For Upholstering, Maria Luisa Roa

Masters Theses

A furniture company in West Michigan proposed an evaluation of a new fixture that will be used in a repetitive manual stapling operation.

Numerous studies reveal that activities involving repetitive wrist motions cause inflammation in the median nerve that runs through the structure of the carpal wrist, causing a cumulative disorder known as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS). This syndrome is one of the most prevalent in industrial settings and service companies.

This study investigated if the use of a new design of a fixture had an impact on operators' performances. Three-dimensional comparative analysis was used to observe operators' wrist angular …

Acuta Enews March 1994, Vol. 23, No. 3

ACUTA Newsletters

In This Issue

Board reprt

President's message

Baltimore update

Improvements at the University of Chicago

21st Century technology

Resource Library is growing

Application Of Sequential Quadratic Programming To Large-Scale Structural Design Problems, Mark A. Abramson

Theses and Dissertations

Large-scale structural optimization problems are often difficult to solve with reasonable efficiency and accuracy. Such problems are often characterized by constraint functions which are not explicitly defined. Constraint and gradient functions are usually expensive to evaluate. An optimization approach which uses the NLPQL sequential quadratic programming algorithm of Schittkowski, integrated with the Automated Structural Optimization System ASTROS is tested. The traditional solution approach involves the formulation and solution of an explicitly defined approximate problem during each iteration. This approach is replaced by a simpler approach in which the approximate problem is eliminated. In the simpler approach, each finite element analysis …

The Effective Use Of Animation In Simulation Model Validation, Christopher L. Swider

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined two animation displays moving icons, bar graphs at two presentation speeds to determine how each of these factors affected the animations ability to communicate violations of model assumptions. Subjects viewed animation displays individually and in combination at each presentation speed. Eight problem scenarios were presented to evaluate each animations ability to communicate violations of different assumptions. Each animations communication ability was measured subjectively and objectively. Subjective measures in the form of pairwise comparisons were used to calculate normalized preference ratings for each animation. objective measures included problem identification accuracy and problem time. Subjective results indicated that moving …

An Analysis Of Air Force Acquisition Engineering Officer's Perceptions Of The Adequacy Of Their Preparation For Management, Steven E. Woodruff

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine how much time Air Force acquisition engineers spend in performing management functions, how those engineers spend in performing management functions, how those engineers perceive their management training, and which types of training contribute the most to managerial competency. The results from surveys of 215 acquisition engineers assigned to ASCEN, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH and their supervisors revealed that engineers do indeed spend substantial amounts of time performing management functions. Slightly more than half the engineers reported spending at least 50 of an average workday performing management functions. Over 53 of engineers responding to …

An Air Mission Planning Algorithm For A Theater Level Combat Model, Brian J. Griggs

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes the development of an air mission planning algorithm for the Joint Staffs Future Theater Level Model FTLM. The overall problem scope was to develop an algorithm to handle major factors bearing on the combat mission planning problem while providing hook-ups for the FTLM architecture. Other aspects of the problem included finding the appropriate level of detail, developing a fast solving technique, and attempting to use existing data. The problem was handled by using some ideas from existing aircraft allocation algorithms and by adding some new techniques. The proposed air mission planning algorithm supplies the optimum degree of …

Assessing The Vulnerability Of Multi-Commodity Networks With Failing Components, Alan R. Robinson

Theses and Dissertations

This research proposes an analytical approach for assessing flow disturbance, or compromise, based on limited sampling of arc flow information in multi-commodity, or multiple origin-destination O-D, networks with failing arcs. There were three objectives established for this research. The first objective was to bound the expected flow, given the arcs fail with certain probabilities, which was accomplished by reviewing current approaches for single-commodity networks and extending the results to the multi-commodity case. The second objective was to determine the best placement of flow monitors to obtain the most accurate estimates of O-D pair volumes. This was accomplished using a multi-criteria …

A Fortran Based Learning System Using Multilayer Back-Propagation Neural Network Techniques, Gregory L. Reinhart

Theses and Dissertations

An interactive computer system which allows the researcher to build an optimal neural network structure quickly, is developed and validated. This system assumes a single hidden layer perceptron structure and uses the back- propagation training technique. The software enables the researcher to quickly define a neural network structure, train the neural network, interrupt training at any point to analyze the status of the current network, re-start training at the interrupted point if desired, and analyze the final network using two- dimensional graphs, three-dimensional graphs, confusion matrices and saliency metrics. A technique for training, testing, and validating various network structures and …

Proactive Monitoring Of Performance In Stochastic Communication Networks, John C. C. Van Hove

Theses and Dissertations

This research proposes several models for placing bounds on the expected values of some dynamic performance measures for computer communication networks with failing components. These models provide an understanding of expected network performance that is useful in the process of proactive performance monitoring and also in defining level of service agreements with network users. There were three objectives for this research. The first objective was to extend some existing models of steady-state stochastic network performance to a dynamic network flow representation in order to capture the dynamic nature of proactive monitoring. The second objective was to convert the extended absolute …

A Simulation Approach To Granite Sentry System Analysis, Marilyn J. Bauer

Theses and Dissertations

This study demonstrated the use of simulation modelling to analyze Granite Sentry system performance. The availability simulation model constructed provides a number of system performance measures as a function of component MTBFs and MTTRs. Analysis of failure data prior to model construction supported the generally accepted use of exponentially distributed failure rates and lognormally distributed repair times.

A Mean Value Analysis Heuristic For Analysis Of Aircraft Sortie Generation, Richard C. Jenkins

Theses and Dissertations

The primary objective of this study was to develop an analytical methodology based on the Mean Value Analysis algorithm that approximates the performance characteristics of a queueing network model QNM containing a fork- join queue with probabilistic branching. These performance characteristics are response time, throughput and queue length at each station. The QNM solved contains the essential features of the aircraft sortie generation process. The sensitivity of the methods accuracy to increases in server utilization was determined. The comparisons of the results of the MVA heuristic to the outputs of the Logistics Composite Model LCOM simulation indicate that the heuristics …

Analysis Of Thunder Combat Simulation Model, Timothy S. Webb

Theses and Dissertations

TAC THUNDER, or THUNDER, is a two-sided large scale computer simulation model that simulates air and ground combat, logistics, and limited airlift at the theater level. It is in use by several allied nations, major defense contractors, and various Department of Defense DoD analysis agencies. The objectives of this thesis effort were to examine the overall model variability, examine the model output for possible interrelationships, and examine the model sensitivity to input parameters. A univariate and multivariate analysis was performed to examine the first two objectives. The univariate analysis consisted of an analysis of the confidence intervals and replication requirements …

An Integer Solution Heuristic For The Arsenal Exchange Model (Aem), Daniel J. Green

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force Studies and Analyses Agency sought a method for converting the continuous solution produced by the Arsenal Exchange Model into a feasible integer solution. The current integerization method leaves weapons unused and targets uncovered and could be improved. In the method developed, the noninteger valued variables in the continuous solution are rounded down to the nearest integer to produce a truncated solution. An integer goal program is then used to reallocate the weapons and targets made available in the rounding process. The truncated solution is then combined with the solution of the integer goal program to produce a …

An Analysis Of Stopping Criteria In Artificial Neural Networks, Bruce Kostal

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this study was to decide when to terminate training of an artificial neural network ANN. In pursuit of this goal, several characteristics of the ANN were monitored throughout ANN training classification error rate of the training set, testing set, or a weighted average of the two moving average classification error rate measurements of the difference between ANN output and desired output error sum of squares, total absolute error. or largest absolute error or ANN weight changes absolute weight change, squared weight change, or relative weight change. Throughout this research, the learning rate was held constant at 0.35. …

An Rsm Study Of The Effects Of Simulation Work And Metamodel Specification On The Statistical Quality Of Metamodel Estimates, Michael K. Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

This research investigated the combined influence of simulation work and metamodel specification on the statistical quality of the estimates obtained from the resulting metamodels of the simulation data. A 9 x 2 x 2 experiment consisting of 9 cases of simulation work, 2 levels of metamodel specification, and 2 levels of design fractionation were designed for 8 different configurations of MMk queues. The only observed statistic for this experiment was the average queue length. Simulation estimates for each configurations average queue length were calculated directly from the simulation data. In addition, the metamodels were fit to the simulation data and …

An Investigation Of Simulated Annealing Applied To Structural Optimization Problems, Richard C. Mceachin

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the feasibility of using Simulated Annealing SA in structural optimization problems. The investigation involves solving benchmark structural optimization problems with an SA algorithm, and comparing its solutions to those found by four other optimizers. Overall, the analysis shows that SA has limited applicability in structural optimization. Two primary factors were found to adversely impact the performance of the SA algorithm in these problems. These factors are high dimensionality, and high levels of constraint. The difficulty involved in solving these problems with a random search increases exponentially with the number of dimensions. The number, and non-linearity, of the …

Acuta Enews February 1994, Vol. 23, No. 2

ACUTA Newsletters

In This Issue

Board report

Presidents message

What's right...what's wrong? States to develop telecommunications modernization plans

21st century technology

Capacity Of Automated Highway Systems: Effect Of Platooning And Barriers, H.-S. Jacob Tsao, Randolph Hall, Bruce Hongola

Faculty Publications

The concept of Automated Highway Systems (AHS) is based on the belief that an appropriate integration of control and communication technologies placed on the vehicle and on the highway can lead to a large improvement in capacity and safety without requiring a significant amount of additional highway right-of-way. Stemming from this belief are various conceptual scenarios for vehicle/highway automation.An AHS consists of two major components: vehicle/highway automation technology and highway operating strategy. In this paper, we study the capacity of key AHS operating scenarios.

A Finite Capacity Queue With Markovian Arrivals And Two Servers With Group Services, Srinivas Chakravarthy, Attahiru S. Alfa

Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering Publications

In this paper we consider a finite capacity queuing system in which arrivals are governed by a Markovian arrival process. The system is attended by two exponential servers, who offer services in groups of varying sizes. The service rates may depend on the number of customers in service. Using Markov theory, we study this finite capacity queuing model in detail by obtaining numerically stable expressions for (a) the steady-state queue length densities at arrivals and at arbitrary time points; (b) the Laplace-Stieltjes transform of the stationary waiting time distribution of an admitted customer at points of arrivals. The stationary waiting …

Error Recovery In Intelligent Robotic Workcells, R. D. Borchelt, Sema E. Alptekin

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This paper focuses on the requirements for achieving automated diagnosis and error recovery in a robotic assembly cell. Untended robust operation is the goal which is discussed, and the use of a knowledge-base oriented diagnostic/control system to support on-line error recovery is advocated. It is proposed that error recovery attempts should be made, not only based on information gathered by system sensors, but also by using additional cell-specific knowledge pertaining to recovery strategies. Recovery attempts are to be made even in the absence of complete diagnosis, in order to gather additional information. A control structure developed to implement this approach …

The Importance Of Considering Size Effect Along The Cutting Edge In Predicting The Effective Lead Angle For Turning, William J. Endres, Daniel Waldorf

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The concept of an effective orthogonal cutting edge in turning is considered. The orientation of this edge in the radial-longitudinal plane, as commonly modeled through an effective lead angle, is studied. The methods of effective lead angle prediction used in numerous previously developed force models are plagued with large errors over ranges of process inputs, in particular feed rate and depth of cut. Four previously developed methods of effective lead angle prediction are reviewed and compared to a new method presented here. This new method accounts for the size effect as introduced through the variation in chip thickness along the …

The Science Of Simulation Modeling, Paul Savory, Gerald Mackulak

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Many people refer to simulation model building as an “intuitive art”. This implies that modeling can only be done by a select group of highly trained creative people and thus isolates many from considering simulation as a usable tool. Model building is a science that is learned through education, training and experience. In this paper, we discuss the role of science in performing a simulation study. We illustrate the teaching of the science of simulation by discussing the simulation curriculum at Arizona State University.

Extending Simulation’S Advantages To Novice Model Builders: Intellisim Tutorial, Paul Savory, Gerald Mackulak, Jeff Cochran

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The potential benefits that discrete-event simulation offers are impeded by the high level of expertise necessary to successfully conduct a sound simulation study. As a solution, this paper introduces IntelliSIM, an intelligent simulation environment. Using this environment makes simulation more accessible to users by reducing the need for extensive experience or training. One of IntelliSIM’s key features for accomplishing this is a tutorial and training module that quickly acquaints a novice simulation user with IntelliSIM’s features and the process of performing a simulation study. This paper discusses this tutorial by explaining how IntelliSIM develops a simulation model, thus illustrating how …

Ascertaining Important Features For Industrial Simulation Environments, Gerald Mackulak, Jeffery Cichran, Paul Savory

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Recent years have witnessed the development and commercial release of multiple simulation tools, environments, and intelligent simulators. Each release seems to contain additional advanced features designed to simplify simulation use and increase the productivity of model builders. But to date, no one has addressed feature definition from the viewpoint of a simulation practitioner. This paper discusses our efforts to identify and prioritize simulation features deemed most desirable from the practitioner viewpoint. A series of three questionnaires were developed and administered to a group of qualified simulation practitioners. With results that are of interest to simulation users, researchers, and simulation software …

A Simplified Method For The Bilinear S-Z Transformation, Dan M. Scott

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

A new technique for performing the bilinear transformation of polynomials is presented. The technique is both simple to understand as well as efficient in its computer implementation. The key to the method is the way in which the successive derivatives of a particular polynomial are computed. A simple recursion formula is used which can be done either by hand, if desired, or by computer. The order of complexity of the algorithm is found to be O(n²), while storage requirements are O(n), where n is the degree of the polynomial. The new method will handle completely general …

Acuta Enews January 1994, Vol. 23, No. 1

ACUTA Newsletters

In This Issue

Board Report

Presidents message

FCC proposes regulations for toll fraud

Cruising he information superhighway

21st century technology