Engineering Commons^™

Vanet Applications Under Loss Scenarios & Evolving Wireless Technology, Adil Alsuhaim

All Dissertations

In this work we study the impact of wireless network impairment on the performance of VANET applications such as Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC), and other VANET applications that periodically broadcast messages. We also study the future of VANET application in light of the evolution of radio access technologies (RAT) that are used to exchange messages. Previous work in the literature proposed fallback strategies that utilizes on-board sensors to recover in case of wireless network impairment, those methods assume a fixed time headway value, and do not achieve string stability. In this work, we study the string stability of a …

Procedural City Generation With Combined Architectures For Real-Time Visualization, Griffin Poyck

All Theses

The work and research of this paper sought to build upon traditional city generation and simulation in creating a tool that both realistically simulates cities and their prominent features and also creates aesthetic and artistically rich cities using assets that combine several contemporary or near contemporary architectural styles. The major city features simulated are the surrounding terrain, road networks, individual buildings, and building placement. The tools used to both create and integrate these features were created in Houdini with Unreal Engine 5 as the intended final destination. This research was influenced by the city, town, and road networking of Ghost …

Modeling, Simulation And Control Of Microrobots For The Microfactory., Zhong Yang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Future assembly technologies will involve higher levels of automation in order to satisfy increased microscale or nanoscale precision requirements. Traditionally, assembly using a top-down robotic approach has been well-studied and applied to the microelectronics and MEMS industries, but less so in nanotechnology. With the boom of nanotechnology since the 1990s, newly designed products with new materials, coatings, and nanoparticles are gradually entering everyone’s lives, while the industry has grown into a billion-dollar volume worldwide. Traditionally, nanotechnology products are assembled using bottom-up methods, such as self-assembly, rather than top-down robotic assembly. This is due to considerations of volume handling of large …

Computation Of Risk Measures In Finance And Parallel Real-Time Scheduling, Yajuan Li

Dissertations

Many application areas employ various risk measures, such as a quantile, to assess risks. For example, in finance, risk managers employ a quantile to help determine appropriate levels of capital needed to be able to absorb (with high probability) large unexpected losses in credit portfolios comprising loans, bonds, and other financial instruments subject to default. This dissertation discusses the computation of risk measures in finance and parallel real-time scheduling.

Firstly, two estimation approaches are compared for one risk measure, a quantile, via randomized quasi-Monte Carlo (RQMC) in an asymptotic setting where the number of randomizations for RQMC grows large, but …

Tokamak 3d Heat Load Investigations Using An Integrated Simulation Framework, Thomas Looby

Doctoral Dissertations

Reactor class nuclear fusion tokamaks will be inherently complex. Thousands of interconnected systems that span orders of magnitude in physical scale must operate cohesively for the machine to function. Because these reactor class tokamaks are all in an early design stage, it is difficult to quantify exactly how each subsystem will act within the context of the greater systems. Therefore, to predict the engineering parameters necessary to design the machine, simulation frameworks that can model individual systems as well as the interfaced systems are necessary. This dissertation outlines a novel framework developed to couple otherwise disparate computational domains together into …

A Versatile Python Package For Simulating Dna Nanostructures With Oxdna, Kira Threlfall

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The ability to synthesize custom DNA molecules has led to the feasibility of DNA nanotechnology. Synthesis is time-consuming and expensive, so simulations of proposed DNA designs are necessary. Open-source simulators, such as oxDNA, are available but often difficult to configure and interface with. Packages such as oxdna-tile-binding pro- vide an interface for oxDNA which allows for the ability to create scripts that automate the configuration process. This project works to improve the scripts in oxdna-tile-binding to improve integration with job scheduling systems commonly used in high-performance computing environments, improve ease-of-use and consistency within the scripts compos- ing oxdna-tile-binding, and move …

A Simulation Framework For Traffic Safety With Connected Vehicles And V2x Technologies, Md Abu Sayed

Theses and Dissertations

With the advancement in automobile technologies, existing research shows that connected vehicle (CV) technologies can provide better traffic safety through Surrogate Safety Measure (SSM). CV technologies involves two network systems: traffic network and wireless communication network. We found that the research in the wireless communication network for CV did not interact properly with the research in SSM in transportation network, and vice versa. Though various SSM has been proposed in previous studies, a few of them have been tested in simulation software in limited extent. On the other hand, A large body of researchers proposed various communication architecture for CV …

Equations Of State For Warm Dense Carbon From Quantum Espresso, Derek J. Schauss

Theses and Dissertations

Warm dense plasma is the matter that exists, roughly, in the range of 10,000 to 10,000,000 Kelvin and has solid-like densities, typically between 0.1 and 10 grams per centimeter. Warm dense fluids like hydrogen, helium, and carbon are believed to make up the interiors of many planets, white dwarfs, and other stars in our universe. The existence of warm dense matter (WDM) on Earth, however, is very rare, as it can only be created with high-energy sources like a nuclear explosion. In such an event, theoretical and computational models that accurately predict the response of certain materials are thus very …

Development Of Reduced Order Models Using Reservoir Simulation And Physics Informed Machine Learning Techniques, Mark V. Behl Jr

LSU Master's Theses

Reservoir simulation is the industry standard for prediction and characterization of processes in the subsurface. However, simulation is computationally expensive and time consuming. This study explores reduced order models (ROMs) as an appropriate alternative. ROMs that use neural networks effectively capture nonlinear dependencies, and only require available operational data as inputs. Neural networks are a black box and difficult to interpret, however. Physics informed neural networks (PINNs) provide a potential solution to these shortcomings, but have not yet been applied extensively in petroleum engineering.

A mature black-oil simulation model from Volve public data release was used to generate training data …

Geoaware - A Simulation-Based Framework For Synthetic Trajectory Generation From Mobility Patterns, Jameson D. Morgan

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Recent advances in location acquisition services have resulted in vast amounts of trajectory data; providing valuable insight into human mobility. The field of trajectory data mining has exploded as a result, with literature detailing algorithms for (pre)processing, map matching, pattern mining, and the like. Unfortunately, obtaining trajectory data for the design and evaluation of such algorithms is problematic due to privacy, ethical, dataset size, researcher access, and sampling frequency concerns. Synthetic trajectories provide a solution to such a problem as they are cheap to produce and are derived from a fully controllable generation procedure. Citing deficiencies in modern synthetic trajectory …

Autonomous Watercraft Simulation And Programming, Nicholas J. Savino

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Automation of various modes of transportation is thought to make travel more safe and efficient. Over the past several decades advances to semi-autonomous and autonomous vehicles have led to advanced autopilot systems on planes and boats and an increasing popularity of self-driving cars. We simulated the motion of an autonomous vehicle using computational models. The simulation models the motion of a small-scale watercraft, which can then be built and programmed using an Arduino Microcontroller. We examined different control methods for a simulated rescue craft to reach a target. We also examined the effects of different factors, such as various biases …

Virtual Reality And Analysis Framework For Studying Different Layout Designs, Madison Glines

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes the tools for studying different design prototypes. The goal was to develop effective tools to study these designs using a data-driven approach. “Proof of concept” experiments were conducted, in which participants were allowed to interact with a virtual environment depicting different designs as data pertaining to their virtual location and orientation was recorded for later analysis. The designs included “flat” store racks, as opposed to racks with more varied shapes, as well as “curved” racks. Focus of the design studies was to assist in identifying optimal locations for different product types. The automated data collection mechanisms required …

A Discrete-Event Simulation Approach For Modeling Human Body Glucose Metabolism, Buket Aydas

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation describes CarbMetSim (Carbohydrate Metabolism Simulator), a discrete-event simulator that tracks the blood glucose level of a person in response to a timed sequence of diet and exercise activities. CarbMetSim implements broader aspects of carbohydrate metabolism in human beings with the objective of capturing the average impact of various diet/exercise activities on the blood glucose level. Key organs (stomach, intestine, portal vein, liver, kidney, muscles, adipose tissue, brain and heart) are implemented to the extent necessary to capture their impact on the production and consumption of glucose. Key metabolic pathways (glucose oxidation, glycolysis and gluconeogenesis) are accounted for by …

Implementation Of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Reporting Plume Cloud Concentration Values In A 3d Simulation Environment, Emily Catherine Novak

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, have the potential to vastly improve plume cloud tracking at low cost. Plume clouds can be produced from blast mining, chemical warfare, unintended man-made disasters, and natural causes. This thesis provides implementation of the capability to simulate a 3D environment in which UAVs are individually controlled and each report a plume's concentration value at a specific location. It leverages existing industry standard technologies, including the PX4 autopilot system, the Gazebo simulation environment, the Robot Operating System (ROS), and QGroundControl. The provided system integrates the existing tools with a plume model plug-in that provides simulated plume …

Full Simulation For The Qweak Experiment At 1.16 And 0.877 Gev And Their Impact On Extracting The Pv Asymmetry In The N→Δ A Transition, Hend Abdullah Nuhait

Doctoral Dissertations

The Qweak project is seeking to find new physics beyond the Standard Model. It is aimed to measure the weak charge of the proton, which has never been measured, at 4% precision at low momentum transfer. The experiment is performed by scattering electrons from protons and exploiting parity violation in the weak interaction at low four-momentum transfer.

In this experiment, two measurements were considered: which are elastic and inelastic. The elastic is to measure the proton's weak charge. In addition, the inelastic asymmetry measurement, which will extract the low energy constant dΔ. That measurement works in the neutral current …

A Predictor Analysis Framework For Surface Radiation Budget Reprocessing Using Design Of Experiments, Patricia Allison Quigley

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Earth’s Radiation Budget (ERB) is an accounting of all incoming energy from the sun and outgoing energy reflected and radiated to space by earth’s surface and atmosphere. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) Surface Radiation Budget (SRB) project produces and archives long-term datasets representative of this energy exchange system on a global scale. The data are comprised of the longwave and shortwave radiative components of the system and is algorithmically derived from satellite and atmospheric assimilation products, and acquired atmospheric data. It is stored as 3-hourly, daily, monthly/3-hourly, and monthly averages of 1°x1° …

Autonomous Driving With A Simulation Trained Convolutional Neural Network, Cameron Franke

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Autonomous vehicles will help society if they can easily support a broad range of driving environments, conditions, and vehicles.

Achieving this requires reducing the complexity of the algorithmic system, easing the collection of training data, and verifying operation using real-world experiments. Our work addresses these issues by utilizing a reflexive neural network that translates images into steering and throttle commands. This network is trained using simulation data from Grand Theft Auto V~\cite{gtav}, which we augment to reduce the number of simulation hours driven. We then validate our work using a RC car system through numerous tests. Our system successfully drive …

A Simulation-Based Layered Framework Framework For The Development Of Collaborative Autonomous Systems, Ioannis Sakiotis

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to introduce a simulation-based software framework that facilitates the development of collaborative autonomous systems. Significant commonalities exist in the design approaches of both collaborative and autonomous systems, mirroring the sense, plan, act paradigm, and mostly adopting layered architectures. Unfortunately, the development of such systems is intricate and requires low-level interfacing which significantly detracts from development time. Frameworks for the development of collaborative and autonomous systems have been developed but are not flexible and center on narrow ranges of applications and platforms. The proposed framework utilizes an expandable layered structure that allows developers to define …

Tropical Cyclone Wind Hazard Assessment For Southeast Part Of Coastal Region Of China, Sihan Li

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Tropical cyclone (TC) or typhoon wind hazard and risk are significant for China. The return period value of the maximum typhoon wind speed is used to characterize the typhoon wind hazard and assign wind load in building design code. Since the historical surface observations of typhoon wind speed are often scarce and of short period, the typhoon wind hazard assessment is often carried out using the wind field model and TC track model. For a few major cities in the coastal region of mainland China, simple or approximated wind field models and a circular subregion method (CSM) have been used …

Computational Framework For Small Animal Spect Imaging: Simulation And Reconstruction, Sang Hyeb Lee

Doctoral Dissertations

Small animal Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) has been an invaluable asset in biomedical science since this non-invasive imaging technique allows the longitudinal studies of animal models of human diseases. However, the image degradation caused by non-stationary collimator-detector response and single photon emitting nature of SPECT makes it difficult to provide a quantitative measure of 3D radio-pharmaceutical distribution inside the patient. Moreover, this problem exacerbates when an intra-peritoneal X-ray contrast agent is injected into a mouse for low-energy radiotracers.

In this dissertation, we design and develop a complete computational framework for the entire SPECT scan procedure from the radio-pharmaceutical …

Toward A Theory Of Multi-Method Modeling And Simulation Approach, Mariusz A. Balaban

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The representation via simulation models can easily lead to simulation models too simple for their intended purpose, or with too much detail, making them hard to understand. This problem is related to limitations of the modeling and simulation methods. A multi-method Modeling and Simulation (M&S) approach has the potential for improved representation by taking advantage of methods' strengths and mitigating their weaknesses. Despite a high appeal for using multiple M&S methods, several related problems should be addressed first. The current level of theoretical, methodological, and pragmatic knowledge related to a multi-method M&S approach is limited. It is problematic that there …

Modeling And Simulation Of Evacuation Plan For Hancock Stadium, Nirmal Neranjan Weerasekara

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this study is to use Modeling and Simulation of Evacuation Plan (MSEP) to support management to execute proper evacuation plan in case of emergency at Hancock Stadium in Illinois State University. Analyses of the research literature and evacuation scenarios are used to build a simulation system that will connect a description of emergency and evacuation situation with its context. It shows how an evacuation plan actually functions. The results of the study will help safety managers to understand the current situations of evacuation according to the specific simulation scenarios. The evacuation simulation is categorized according to the …

An Embodied Approach To Evolving Robust Visual Classifiers, Karol Zieba

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

From the very creation of the term by Czech writer Karel Capek in 1921, a "robot" has been synonymous with an artificial agent possessing a powerful body and cogitating mind. While the fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics have made progress into the creation of such an android, the goal of a cogitating robot remains firmly outside the reach of our technological capabilities. Cognition has proved to be far more complex than early AI practitioners envisioned. Current methods in Machine Learning have achieved remarkable successes in image categorization through the use of deep learning. However, when presented with novel …

Modeling Social Norms In Real-World Agent-Based Simulations, Rahmatollah Beheshti

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Studying and simulating social systems including human groups and societies can be a complex problem. In order to build a model that simulates humans' actions, it is necessary to consider the major factors that affect human behavior. Norms are one of these factors: social norms are the customary rules that govern behavior in groups and societies. Norms are everywhere around us, from the way people handshake or bow to the clothes they wear. They play a large role in determining our behaviors. Studies on norms are much older than the age of computer science, since normative studies have been a …

Gate Monte Carlo Simulations In A Cloud Computing Environment, Blake Austin Rowedder

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The GEANT4-based GATE is a unique and powerful Monte Carlo (MC) platform, which provides a single code library allowing the simulation of specific medical physics applications, e.g. PET, SPECT, CT, radiotherapy, and hadron therapy. However, this rigorous yet flexible platform is used only sparingly in the clinic due to its lengthy calculation time. By accessing the powerful computational resources of a cloud computing environment, GATE's runtime can be significantly reduced to clinically feasible levels without the sizable investment of a local high performance cluster. This study investigated a reliable and efficient execution of GATE MC simulations using a commercial cloud …

Design Of Cpu Simulation Software For Armv7 Instruction Set Architecture, Dillon Tellier

Computer Engineering

Simulations have long been a part of the engineering process in both the professional and academic domain. From a pedagogic standpoint, simulations allow students to explore the dynamics of engineering scenarios by controlling variables, taking measurements, and observing behavior which would be difficult or impossible without simulation. One such tool is a CPU simulator used in Cal Poly’s Computer Architecture classes; this software simulates an instruction accurate operation of a computer processor and reports statistics regarding the execution of the supplied compiled machine code. For the last several years Cal Poly’s computer architecture classes have used a previous version of …

Stochastic Modeling And Time-To-Event Analysis Of Voip Traffic, Imad Al Ajarmeh

College of Computing and Digital Media Dissertations

Voice over IP (VoIP) systems are gaining increased popularity due to the cost effectiveness, ease of management, and enhanced features and capabilities. Both enterprises and carriers are deploying VoIP systems to replace their TDM-based legacy voice networks. However, the lack of engineering models for VoIP systems has been realized by many researchers, especially for large-scale networks. The purpose of traffic engineering is to minimize call blocking probability and maximize resource utilization. The current traffic engineering models are inherited from the legacy PSTN world, and these models fall short from capturing the characteristics of new traffic patterns. The objective of this …

A Compiler-Based Framework For Automatic Extraction Of Program Skeletons For Exascale Hardware/Software Co-Design, Amruth Rudraiah Dakshinamurthy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The design of high-performance computing architectures requires performance analysis of largescale parallel applications to derive various parameters concerning hardware design and software development. The process of performance analysis and benchmarking an application can be done in several ways with varying degrees of fidelity. One of the most cost-effective ways is to do a coarse-grained study of large-scale parallel applications through the use of program skeletons. The concept of a “program skeleton” that we discuss in this paper is an abstracted program that is derived from a larger program where source code that is determined to be irrelevant is removed for …

Packet Coalescing And Server Substitution For Energy-Proportional Operation Of Network Links And Data Servers, Mehrgan Mostowfi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Electricity generation for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) contributes over 2% of the human-generated CO2 to the atmosphere. Energy costs are rapidly becoming the major operational expense for ICT and may soon dwarf capital expenses as software and hardware continue to drop in price. In this dissertation, three new approaches to achieving energy-proportional operation of network links and data servers are explored.

Ethernet is the dominant wireline communications technology for Internet connectivity. IEEE 802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) describes a Low Power Idle (LPI) mechanism for allowing Ethernet links to sleep. A method of coalescing packets to consolidate link idle …

Using Agile Software Development Practices In A Research Oriented Distributed Simulation, Douglas James Mielke

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Although sometimes controversial, agile methodologies have proven to be a viable choice for some software development projects. Projects suited to agile methodologies are those that involve new technology, have requirements that change rapidly, and are controlled by small, talented teams. Much literature about agile software development leans towards business products and non-government entities. Only a handful of literature resources mention agile software development being used in government contracts and even fewer resources mention research projects. NASA's Airspace and Traffic Operations Simulation (ATOS) is a research oriented simulation that doesn't follow the traditional business project mold. In an effort to gain …