Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2007

Artificial Intelligence and Robotics

Institution
Keyword
Publication
Publication Type

Articles 1 - 30 of 48

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

A Unified Framework For Solving Multiagent Task Assignment Problems, Kevin Cousin Dec 2007

A Unified Framework For Solving Multiagent Task Assignment Problems, Kevin Cousin

Theses and Dissertations

Multiagent task assignment problem descriptors do not fully represent the complex interactions in a multiagent domain, and algorithmic solutions vary widely depending on how the domain is represented. This issue is compounded as related research fields contain descriptors that similarly describe multiagent task assignment problems, including complex domain interactions, but generally do not provide the mechanisms needed to solve the multiagent aspect of task assignment. This research presents a unified approach to representing and solving the multiagent task assignment problem for complex problem domains. Ideas central to multiagent task allocation, project scheduling, constraint satisfaction, and coalition formation are combined to …


A Hybrid Multi-Robot Control Architecture, Daylond J. Hooper Dec 2007

A Hybrid Multi-Robot Control Architecture, Daylond J. Hooper

Theses and Dissertations

Multi-robot systems provide system redundancy and enhanced capability versus single robot systems. Implementations of these systems are varied, each with specific design approaches geared towards an application domain. Some traditional single robot control architectures have been expanded for multi-robot systems, but these expansions predominantly focus on the addition of communication capabilities. Both design approaches are application specific and limit the generalizability of the system. This work presents a redesign of a common single robot architecture in order to provide a more sophisticated multi-robot system. The single robot architecture chosen for application is the Three Layer Architecture (TLA). The primary strength …


Tuning Tabu Search Strategies Via Visual Diagnosis, Steven Halim, Hoong Chuin Lau Dec 2007

Tuning Tabu Search Strategies Via Visual Diagnosis, Steven Halim, Hoong Chuin Lau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

While designing working metaheuristics can be straightforward, tuning them to solve the underlying combinatorial optimization problem well can be tricky. Several tuning methods have been proposed but they do not address the new aspect of our proposed classification of the metaheuristic tuning problem: tuning search strategies. We propose a tuning methodology based on Visual Diagnosis and a generic tool called Visualizer for Metaheuristics Development Framework(V-MDF) to address specifically the problem of tuning search (particularly Tabu Search) strategies. Under V-MDF, we propose the use of a Distance Radar visualizer where the human and computer can collaborate to diagnose the occurrence of …


Designing The Market Game For A Commodity Trading Simulation, Shih-Fen Cheng Nov 2007

Designing The Market Game For A Commodity Trading Simulation, Shih-Fen Cheng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we propose to design a market game that (a) can be used in modeling and studying commodity trading scenarios, and (b) can be used in capturing human traders' behaviors. Specifically, we demonstrate the usefulness of this commodity trading game in a single-commodity futures trading scenario. A pilot experiment was run with a mixture of human traders and an autonomous agent that emulates the aggregatedmarket condition, with the assumption that this autonomous agent would hint each of its action through a public announcement. We show that the information collected from this simulation can be used to extract the …


The Price Of Stability In Selfish Scheduling Games, Lucas Agussurja, Hoong Chuin Lau Nov 2007

The Price Of Stability In Selfish Scheduling Games, Lucas Agussurja, Hoong Chuin Lau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Game theory has gained popularity as an approach to analysing and understanding distributed systems with selfinterested agents. Central to game theory is the concept of Nash equilibrium as a stable state (solution) of the system, which comes with a price - the loss in efficiency. The quantification of the efficiency loss is one of the main research concerns. In this paper, we study the quality and computational characteristic of the best Nash equilibrium in two selfish scheduling models: the congestion model and the sequencing model. In particular, we present the following results: (1) In the congestion model: first, the best …


Multi-Period Combinatorial Auction Mechanism For Distributed Resource Allocation And Scheduling, Hoong Chuin Lau, Shih-Fen Cheng, Thin Yin Leong, Jong Han Park, Zhengyi Zhao Nov 2007

Multi-Period Combinatorial Auction Mechanism For Distributed Resource Allocation And Scheduling, Hoong Chuin Lau, Shih-Fen Cheng, Thin Yin Leong, Jong Han Park, Zhengyi Zhao

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We consider the problem of resource allocation and scheduling where information and decisions are decentralized, and our goal is to propose a market mechanism that allows resources from a central resource pool to be allocated to distributed decision makers (agents) that seek to optimize their respective scheduling goals. We propose a generic combinatorial auction mechanism that allows agents to competitively bid for the resources needed in a multi-period setting, regardless of the respective scheduling problem faced by the agent, and show how agents can design optimal bidding strategies to respond to price adjustment strategies from the auctioneer. We apply our …


Temporal Factors To Evaluate Trustworthiness Of Virtual Identities, Luca Longo, Pierpaolo Dondio, Stephen Barrett Sep 2007

Temporal Factors To Evaluate Trustworthiness Of Virtual Identities, Luca Longo, Pierpaolo Dondio, Stephen Barrett

Conference papers

In this paper we investigate how temporal factors (i.e. factors computed by considering only the time-distribution of interactions) can be used as an evidence of an entity’s trustworthiness. While reputation and direct experience are the two most widely used sources of trust in applications, we believe that new sources of evidence and new applications should be investigated [1]. Moreover, while these two classical techniques are based on evaluating the outcomes of interactions (direct or indirect), temporal factors are based on quantitative analysis, representing an alternative way of assessing trust. Our presumption is that, even with this limited information, temporal factors …


Scaling Ant Colony Optimization With Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning Partitioning, Erik J. Dries Sep 2007

Scaling Ant Colony Optimization With Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning Partitioning, Erik J. Dries

Theses and Dissertations

This research merges the hierarchical reinforcement learning (HRL) domain and the ant colony optimization (ACO) domain. The merger produces a HRL ACO algorithm capable of generating solutions for both domains. This research also provides two specific implementations of the new algorithm: the first a modification to Dietterich's MAXQ-Q HRL algorithm, the second a hierarchical ACO algorithm. These implementations generate faster results, with little to no significant change in the quality of solutions for the tested problem domains. The application of ACO to the MAXQ-Q algorithm replaces the reinforcement learning, Q-learning and SARSA, with the modified ant colony optimization method, Ant-Q. …


Multi-Objective Optimization For Speed And Stability Of A Sony Aibo Gait, Christopher A. Patterson Sep 2007

Multi-Objective Optimization For Speed And Stability Of A Sony Aibo Gait, Christopher A. Patterson

Theses and Dissertations

Locomotion is a fundamental facet of mobile robotics that many higher level aspects rely on. However, this is not a simple problem for legged robots with many degrees of freedom. For this reason, machine learning techniques have been applied to the domain. Although impressive results have been achieved, there remains a fundamental problem with using most machine learning methods. The learning algorithms usually require a large dataset which is prohibitively hard to collect on an actual robot. Further, learning in simulation has had limited success transitioning to the real world. Also, many learning algorithms optimize for a single fitness function, …


Parallelization Of Ant Colony Optimization Via Area Of Expertise Learning, Adrian A. De Freitas Sep 2007

Parallelization Of Ant Colony Optimization Via Area Of Expertise Learning, Adrian A. De Freitas

Theses and Dissertations

Ant colony optimization algorithms have long been touted as providing an effective and efficient means of generating high quality solutions to NP-hard optimization problems. Unfortunately, while the structure of the algorithm is easy to parallelize, the nature and amount of communication required for parallel execution has meant that parallel implementations developed suffer from decreased solution quality, slower runtime performance, or both. This thesis explores a new strategy for ant colony parallelization that involves Area of Expertise (AOE) learning. The AOE concept is based on the idea that individual agents tend to gain knowledge of different areas of the search space …


Rushes Video Summarization By Object And Event Understanding, Feng Wang, Chong-Wah Ngo Sep 2007

Rushes Video Summarization By Object And Event Understanding, Feng Wang, Chong-Wah Ngo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper explores a variety of visual and audio analysis techniques in selecting the most representative video clips for rushes summarization at TRECVID 2007. These techniques include object detection, camera motion estimation, keypoint matching and tracking, audio classification and speech recognition. Our system is composed of two major steps. First, based on video structuring, we filter undesirable shots and minimize the inter-shot redundancy by repetitive shot detection. Second, a representability measure is proposed to model the presence of objects and four audio-visual events: motion activity of objects, camera motion, scene changes, and speech content, in a video clip. The video …


Robust Local Search And Its Application To Generating Robust Schedules, Hoong Chuin Lau, Fei Xiao, Thomas Ou Sep 2007

Robust Local Search And Its Application To Generating Robust Schedules, Hoong Chuin Lau, Fei Xiao, Thomas Ou

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we propose an extended local search framework to solve combinatorial optimization problems with data uncertainty. Our approach represents a major departure from scenario-based or stochastic programming approaches often used to tackle uncertainty. Given a value 0 < ? 1, we are interested to know what the robust objective value is, i.e. the optimal value if we allow an chance of not meeting it, assuming that certain data values are defined on bounded random variables. We show how a standard local search or metaheuristic routine can be extended to efficiently construct a decision rule with such guarantee, albeit heuristically. We demonstrate its practical applicability on the Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problem with minimal and maximal time lags (RCPSP/max) taking into consideration activity duration uncertainty. Experiments show that, partial order schedules can be constructed that are robust in our sense without the need for a large planned horizon (due date), which improves upon the work proposed by Policella et al. 2004.


Proceedings Of The 18th Irish Conference On Artificial Intelligence And Cognitive Science, Sarah Jane Delany, Michael Madden Aug 2007

Proceedings Of The 18th Irish Conference On Artificial Intelligence And Cognitive Science, Sarah Jane Delany, Michael Madden

Books/Book Chapters

These proceedings contain the papers that were accepted for publication at AICS-2007, the 18th Annual Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science, which was held in the Technological University Dublin; Dublin, Ireland; on the 29th to the 31st August 2007. AICS is the annual conference of the Artificial Intelligence Association of Ireland (AIAI).


An Artificial Immune System Based Approach For English Grammar Correction, Akshat Kumar, Shivashankar B. Nair Aug 2007

An Artificial Immune System Based Approach For English Grammar Correction, Akshat Kumar, Shivashankar B. Nair

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Grammar checking and correction comprise of the primary problems in the area of Natural Language Processing (NLP). Traditional approaches fall into two major categories: Rule based and Corpus based. While the former relies heavily on grammar rules the latter approach is statistical in nature. We provide a novel corpus based approach for grammar checking that uses the principles of an Artificial Immune System (AIS).We treat grammatical error as pathogens (in immunological terms) and build antibody detectors capable of detecting grammatical errors while allowing correct constructs to filter through. Our results show that it is possible to detect a range of …


Genetic Evolution Of Hierarchical Behavior Structures, Brian G. Woolley, Gilbert L. Peterson Jul 2007

Genetic Evolution Of Hierarchical Behavior Structures, Brian G. Woolley, Gilbert L. Peterson

Faculty Publications

The development of coherent and dynamic behaviors for mobile robots is an exceedingly complex endeavor ruled by task objectives, environmental dynamics and the interactions within the behavior structure. This paper discusses the use of genetic programming techniques and the unified behavior framework to develop effective control hierarchies using interchangeable behaviors and arbitration components. Given the number of possible variations provided by the framework, evolutionary programming is used to evolve the overall behavior design. Competitive evolution of the behavior population incrementally develops feasible solutions for the domain through competitive ranking. By developing and implementing many simple behaviors independently and then evolving …


An Artificial Immune System-Inspired Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithm With Application To The Detection Of Distributed Computer Network Intrusions, Charles R. Haag, Gary B. Lamont, Paul D. L. Williams, Gilbert L. Peterson Jul 2007

An Artificial Immune System-Inspired Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithm With Application To The Detection Of Distributed Computer Network Intrusions, Charles R. Haag, Gary B. Lamont, Paul D. L. Williams, Gilbert L. Peterson

Faculty Publications

Today's signature-based intrusion detection systems are reactive in nature and storage-limited. Their operation depends upon catching an instance of an intrusion or virus and encoding it into a signature that is stored in its anomaly database, providing a window of vulnerability to computer systems during this time. Further, the maximum size of an Internet Protocol-based message requires the database to be huge in order to maintain possible signature combinations. In order to tighten this response cycle within storage constraints, this paper presents an innovative Artificial Immune System-inspired Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithm. This distributed intrusion detection system (IDS) is intended to measure …


Generating Job Schedules For Vessel Operations In A Container Terminal, Thin Yin Leong, Hoong Chuin Lau Jul 2007

Generating Job Schedules For Vessel Operations In A Container Terminal, Thin Yin Leong, Hoong Chuin Lau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

No abstract provided.


Designing An Experimental Gaming Platform For Trading Grid Resources, Danny Oh, Shih-Fen Cheng, Dan Ma, Ravi Bapna Jun 2007

Designing An Experimental Gaming Platform For Trading Grid Resources, Danny Oh, Shih-Fen Cheng, Dan Ma, Ravi Bapna

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper describes our current work in designing an experimental gaming platform for simulating the trading of grid resources. The open platform allows researchers in grid economics to experiment with different market structures and pricing models. We would be using a design science approach in the implementation. Key design considerations and an overview of the functional design of the platform are presented and discussed.


Leaf: A Learning-Based Fault Diagnostic System For Multi-Robot Teams, Balajee Kannan May 2007

Leaf: A Learning-Based Fault Diagnostic System For Multi-Robot Teams, Balajee Kannan

Doctoral Dissertations

The failure-prone complex operating environment of a standard multi-robot application dictates some amount of fault-tolerance to be incorporated into every system. In fact, the quality of the incorporated fault-tolerance has a direct impact on the overall performance of the system. Despite the extensive work being done in the field of multi-robot systems, there does not exist a general methodology for fault diagnosis and recovery. The objective of this research, in part, is to provide an adaptive approach that enables the robot team to autonomously detect and compensate for the wide variety of faults that could be experienced. The key feature …


Wide Area Search And Engagement Simulation Validation, Michael J. Marlin Mar 2007

Wide Area Search And Engagement Simulation Validation, Michael J. Marlin

Theses and Dissertations

As unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) increase in capability, the ability to refuel them in the air is becoming more critical. Aerial refueling will extend the range, shorten the response times, and extend loiter time of UAVs. Executing aerial refueling autonomously will reduce the command and control, logistics, and training efforts associated with fielding UAV systems. Currently, the Air Force Research Lab is researching the various technologies required to conduct automated aerial refueling (AAR). One of the required technologies is the ability to autonomously rendezvous with the tanker. The goal of this research is to determine the control required to fly …


Multi-Robot Fastslam For Large Domains, Choyong G. Koperski Mar 2007

Multi-Robot Fastslam For Large Domains, Choyong G. Koperski

Theses and Dissertations

For a robot to build a map of its surrounding area, it must have accurate position information within the area, and to obtain accurate position information within the area, the robot needs to have an accurate map of the area. This circular problem is the Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) problem. An efficient algorithm to solve it is FastSLAM, which is based on the Rao-Blackwellized particle filter. FastSLAM solves the SLAM problem for single-robot mapping using particles to represent the posterior of the robot pose and the map. Each particle of the filter possesses its own global map which is …


Performance Evaluation Of Ad Hoc Routing In A Swarm Of Autonomous Aerial Vehicles, Matthew T. Hyland Mar 2007

Performance Evaluation Of Ad Hoc Routing In A Swarm Of Autonomous Aerial Vehicles, Matthew T. Hyland

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the performance of three mobile ad hoc routing protocols in the context of a swarm of autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). It is proposed that a wireless network of nodes having an average of 5.1774 log n neighbors, where n is the total number of nodes in the network, has a high probability of having no partitions. By decreasing transmission range while ensuring network connectivity, and implementing multi-hop routing between nodes, spatial multiplexing is exploited whereby multiple pairs of nodes simultaneously transmit on the same channel. The proposal is evaluated using the Greedy Perimeter Stateless Routing (GPSR), …


Efficient Algorithms For Machine Scheduling Problems With Earliness And Tardiness Penalties, Guang Feng, Hoong Chuin Lau Mar 2007

Efficient Algorithms For Machine Scheduling Problems With Earliness And Tardiness Penalties, Guang Feng, Hoong Chuin Lau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we study the multi-machine scheduling problem with earliness and tardiness penalties and sequence dependent setup times. This problem can be decomposed into two subproblems—sequencing and timetabling. Sequencing focuses on assigning each job to a fixed machine and determine the job sequence on each machine. We call such assignment a semi-schedule. Timetabling focuses on finding an executable schedule from the semi-schedule via idle-time insertion. Sequencing is strongly NP-hard in general. Although timetabling is polynomial-time solvable, it can become a computational bottleneck if the procedure is executed many times within a larger framework. This paper makes two contributions. We …


Towards Efficient Planning For Real World Partially Observable Domains, Pradeep R. Varakantham Feb 2007

Towards Efficient Planning For Real World Partially Observable Domains, Pradeep R. Varakantham

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

My research goal is to build large-scale intelligent systems (both single- and multi-agent) that reason with uncertainty in complex, real-world environments. I foresee an integration of such systems in many critical facets of human life ranging from intelligent assistants in hospitals to offices, from rescue agents in large scale disaster response to sensor agents tracking weather phenomena in earth observing sensor webs, and others. In my thesis, I have taken steps towards achieving this goal in the context of systems that operate in partially observable domains that also have transitional (non-deterministic outcomes to actions) uncertainty. Given this uncertainty, Partially Observable …


Multi-Robot-Based Nanoassembly Planning With Automated Path Generation, Xiaobu Yuan, Simon X. Yang Jan 2007

Multi-Robot-Based Nanoassembly Planning With Automated Path Generation, Xiaobu Yuan, Simon X. Yang

Computer Science Publications

In this paper, a novel approach of automated multirobot nanoassembly planning is presented. This approach uses an improved self-organizing map to coordinate assembly tasks of nanorobots while generating optimized motion paths at run time with a modified shunting neural network. It is capable of synchronizing multiple nanorobots working simultaneously and efficiently on the assembly of swarms of objects in the presence of obstacles and environmental uncertainty. Operation of the presented approach is demonstrated with experiments at the end of the paper.


Actors, Objects, Contextures, Morphograms, Rudolf Kaehr Jan 2007

Actors, Objects, Contextures, Morphograms, Rudolf Kaehr

Rudolf Kaehr

Systematic and historic overview and critics of actor and object oriented programming.


From Dialogues To Polylogues, Rudolf Kaehr Jan 2007

From Dialogues To Polylogues, Rudolf Kaehr

Rudolf Kaehr

No abstract provided.


Michael Wheeler: Reconstructing The Cognitive World: The Next Step, Leslie Marsh Jan 2007

Michael Wheeler: Reconstructing The Cognitive World: The Next Step, Leslie Marsh

Leslie Marsh

Michael Wheeler is the latest in a new wave of philosophical theorists that fall within a loose coalition of anti-representationalism (or anti-Cartesianism): Dynamical –, Embodied –, Extended –, Distributed –, and Situated –, theories of cognition (DEEDS an apt acronym). Against this background, cognition for Wheeler is, or should be, a more ecumenical concept. This ecumenical approach would still be amenable to making theoretical distinctions, the central one being the notion of offline and online styles of intelligence, a distinction that makes conceptual space for another closely related notion, that of propositional knowledge (knowing that) and tacit knowledge (knowing how).


Proceedings Of The 4th Acl-Sigsem Workshop On Prepositions At Acl-2007., Fintan Costello, John D. Kelleher, Martin Volk Jan 2007

Proceedings Of The 4th Acl-Sigsem Workshop On Prepositions At Acl-2007., Fintan Costello, John D. Kelleher, Martin Volk

Conference papers

This volume contains the papers presented at the Fourth ACL-SIGSEM Workshop on Prepositions. This workshop is endorsed by the ACL Special Interest Group on Semantics (ACL-SIGSEM), and is hosted in conjunction with ACL 2007, taking place on 28th June, 2007 in Prague, the Czech Republic.


Using Computer Vision To Create A 3d Representation Of A Snooker Table For Televised Competition Broadcasting, Hao Guo, Brian Mac Namee Jan 2007

Using Computer Vision To Create A 3d Representation Of A Snooker Table For Televised Competition Broadcasting, Hao Guo, Brian Mac Namee

Conference papers

The Snooker Extraction and 3D Builder (SE3DB) is designed to be used as a viewer aid in televised snooker broadcasting. Using a single camera positioned over a snooker table, the system creates a virtual 3D model of the table which can be used to allow audiences view the table from any angle. This would be particularly useful in allowing viewers to determine if particular shots are possible or not. This paper will describe the design, development and evaluation of this system. Particular focus in the paper will be given to the techniques used to recognise and locate the balls on …