Engineering Commons^™

Multicriteria Mission Route Planning Using A Parallel A* Search, Michael S. Gudaitis

Theses and Dissertations

The Mission Route Planning (MRP) Problem falls into the general class of multicriteria path search problems. Multiple criteria are evaluated to select an optimal aircraft mission route through a hostile environment. Criteria for distance travelled and radar exposure are combined into a single cost function for route evaluation. Radar calculations are performed dynamically. The A* search algorithm is applied to the MRP problem, and a parallel implementation is developed and tested. A unique combination of distributed OPEN lists with a global CLOSED list strategy produced fast execution times on the Paragon. Test cases for scenarios with 15 radars took less …

A Heuristic Procedure For Designing A Cellular Manufacturing System While Minimizing Makespan, Panduranga Badam

Masters Theses

This study is the first of its kind in Group Technology (GT) literature and successfully demonstrates the application of the simulation technique to analyze different alternatives for machine and part grouping problem.

This study considers several aspects such as processing time, sequence of operations, alternative routing, setup time and dynamic shop condition for machine-part grouping. The heuristic developed aims to reduce intercellular moves, setup time and makespan time of parts. It also enables the decision markers to evaluate performance measures and to choose the best alternative at every step of the machine grouping process. Two examples have been used to …

Acuta Enews December 1994, Vol. 23, No. 12

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In This Issue

Board report

President's message

George Mason University becomes "virtual campus"

Phone fraud at Salve Regina

Campus-wide network at James Madison

From ACUTA Headquarters

Implementation And Demonstration Of A Multiple Model Adaptive Estimation Failure Detection System For The F-16, Peter K. Eide

Theses and Dissertations

A Multiple Model Adaptive Estimation (MMAE) algorithm is implemented with the fully nonlinear six-degree-of-motion, Simulation Rapid-Prototyping Facility (SRF) VISTA F-16 software simulation tool. The algorithm is demonstrated to be capable of identifying flight critical aircraft actuator and sensor failures at a low dynamic pressure (20,000 ft, .4 Mach). Research included single and dual complete failures. Tuning methods for accommodating model mismatch, including addition of discrete dynamics pseudonoise and continuous measurement pseudonoise, are discussed and demonstrated. Scalar residuals within each filter are also examined and characterized for possible use as an additional failure declaration voter. Robustness to sensor failures provided by …

An Improved Heuristic For Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Crew Scheduling, Michael D. Shirley Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Creating monthly schedules for missile crews is a complex and time-consuming problem. Thousands of events must be scheduled for several hundred missile officers. The rules and regulations governing the problem are numerous, and there are currently no established measures for missile crew schedules. The scheduling software currently available only schedules a fraction of the events. The objectives of this research were to create a rule-based heuristic which could quickly produce feasible or near-feasible schedules, to make the scheduling process paperless, and to develop possible measures of effectiveness for missile crew schedules. The research was successful in each of these areas. …

An Exploration Of Technology Transfer Control: A Case Study Of Wright Laboratory, William K. West

Theses and Dissertations

Federal laboratories, system product centers, and military logistics centers are being challenged to leverage national investments in technology beyond their traditional customer base--technology transfer. Participation in domestic technology transfer is growing at an astounding rate. Additionally, the federal government has invested and continues to invest billions of dollars into active defense conversion, dual-use technology, and technology transfer. The objective of this research is to explore how one government laboratory controls its technology transfer process, in both the near and long terms. This research examines the motives for participating in technology transfer. The researcher presents several of the processes that are …

A Decision Support Model For Establishing A Plastics Recycling Program, Deven M. Dalcher

Theses and Dissertations

This research focuses on the development of a decision support model for the establishment of a plastics recycling program. The decision support model focuses on identifying the end-product uses and material specifications first. Once the end-product specifications have been identified, the recycling program can be designed. The model will provide solid waste managers an effective decision-making tool to evaluate the economic feasibility of establishing a plastics recycling program.

A Multi-Attribute-Utility-Theory Model That Minimizes Interview-Data Requirements: A Consolidation Of Space Launch Decisions, Raymond W. Staats

Theses and Dissertations

This research uses multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT) to define a mathematical representation of a decision maker's utility associated with a satellite system. While developing the survey instrument, we focused on making it simpler to administer, primarily by eliminating the use of lottery questions. These simplifications enabled us to shorten our interview with the decision maker to under two hours for a rather complex model.

Acuta Enews November 1994, Vol. 23, No. 11

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In This Issue

Board report

President's message

Institutional Excellence Award winners

NANP

Telecome helps Financial Aid at Mizzou

Managing 30 years into the future

Building Oriented Surface Generation Through Iges Specification, Jujiang Bao

Theses

This thesis focuses the use of Initial Graphics Exchange Specification to generate automatically three dimensional surfaces. Currently, different CAD systems utilize their own data formats to generate graphic databases which are not compatible with one another. Besides, most of the existing CAD systems require an interactive data input process which is very much time consuming. In order to solve above problems, an efficient algorithm has been developed in this research to automatically generate portable graphic database following ICES specifications. This portable graphic database can be adopted by different commercial CAD/CAM systems. Using the proposed method, the current design process can …

Acuta Enews October 1994, Vol. 23, No. 10

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In This Issue

Special Emphasis Toll Fraud

Board Report

President's Message

ACUTA President

On the Campus of...

DC at a glance

An Approach For Representation Of Organizational Mental Models Using System Dynamics, Jörg-Peter Theissen

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The concept of mental models has received much attention within recent years, especially within the context of organizational learning. This research is based on and departs from the Organizational Learning Process as developed by Keating, Robinson, and Clemson (1994). That process, which is based on a verbal representation of mental models, does not call forth the kind of change that is desired in Organizational Learning. This research investigates if mental models can be represented in the form of system dynamics models and inquires if this representation is beneficial to the process of Organizational Learning.

The research was designed as a …

Development Of A Knowledge-Based System For Wastewater Pipeline Rehabilitation, David Allen Reaves

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to study and develop a knowledge-based system to make decisions for the rehabilitation of wastewater pipelines. Development includes justification for the use of an expert system, data acquisition from knowledge experts, program model development, model testing, implementation and future considerations including expansion. The model is developed and implemented using an expert system shell called XIPlus ®.

This knowledge-based system is designed specifically for the Navy Public Works Center Utilities Department at Norfolk Naval Base in Norfolk, Virginia for making decisions for the rehabilitation of the 50-year-old wastewater collection system. Recent sewer collapses and a …

Analysis Of Efficiency Measures For Block Diagonal Machine-Component Charts, Hamid Seifoddini, Manocher Djassemi

Industrial Technology and Packaging

Group efficiency measures have been developed to evaluate machine-component charts for the formation of cellular manufacturing systems. In this paper the existing grouping efficiency measures will be evaluated by determining the relationship between the values of a grouping efficiency measure and the performance of the corresponding cellular manufacturing system.

Acuta Enews September 1994, Vol. 23, No. 9

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In This Issue

Board report

President's message

Just Say Yes

Developing Excellence

Conference photos

The Confident Decision Maker

Positive about Change

Information Highway

How Effective Has The Air Force Been In Eliminating Its Dependence On Ozone Depleting Chemicals?, L. Susan Willard

Theses and Dissertations

This research was undertaken to determine how effectively the Air Force had eliminated its dependence on Ozone Depleting Chemicals. The research was limited to analyzing the impact of ODCs on major acquisition programs. Results indicated existing variables which may be impeding full implementation. Also identified were lessons learned which could be applied to future environmental legislation with potential impact on acquisition programs. In- depth telephonic interviews were conducted with Program Directors responsible for the development and fielding of major Air Force acquisition programs. Analysis revealed that ODCs substantially impacted the acquisition programs to the extent that many programs had classified …

Review Of Factors Impacting Cost Benefit Analysis (Cba) For Implementing Improvements To The Air Force Technical Order System, Susan J. Bergin, Terry A. Parsons

Theses and Dissertations

This research focused on developing a Cost Benefit Analysis process for Program Managers to implement when deciding what technical order format-- paper, computerized or automated--to purchase. Factors which determined the outcome are costs life cycle cost considering technical order format qualitative issues characteristics which are benefits of a technical order format and system responsiveness time required to develop or modify a technical order in each format. A literature review revealed problems with the paper technical order format, management infrastructure, quantitative cost estimates for different formats, and different techniques which could be used for a cost benefit analysis. Structured interviews were …

Analysis Of The Jplan Exercise As An Experimental Learning Tool, Mark J. Lynch, Michael E. Washington

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to develop an effective educational tool for the Combat Logistics course offered at the Air Force Institute of Technology. The current tool being used, the JPLAN Exercise, was identified as outdated in several areas. The research focused upon four investigative questions what makes an effective educational tool, should the existing exercise be revised or replaced, which logistics principles are essential for incorporation into the educational tool, and is the updated tool significantly different from the original. To answer these questions, we conducted an extensive literature review that focused on two areas. The first area …

Relationship Between Technical Knowledge And Price-Perceived Quality In An Industrial Setting, Jeannie Helen Caicedo

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As proven by many studies, non-industrial consumers perceive price as a strong quality indicator. However, the applicability of this behavior to an industrial setting has been long questioned. It is hypothesized in this research that the levels of price-perceived quality will decrease in an industrial setting as the technical knowledge of the buyer increases. Judgement Sampling method was used to select the most appropriate sample for this study. Since engineers are particularly important influencers in the purchase decision process in organization, engineering students and professors were chosen as the study population. A survey was administered to a sample population that …

Acuta Enews August 1994, Vol. 23, No. 8

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In This Issue

Board Report

President's message

CUPA Administrative Compensation Survey

WSU partnership

Phone registration at SMSU

Optimum Symbol-By-Symbol Detection Of Uncoded Digital Data Over The Gaussian Channel With Unknown Carrier Phase, Pooi Yuen Kam, Seng Siew Ng, Tock Soon Ng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

A theory of optimum receiver design for symbol-by-symbol detection of an uncoded digital data sequence received over the Gaussian channel with unknown carrier phase is presented. Linear suppressed-carrier modulation is assumed. The work here aims at laying a conceptual foundation for optimum symbol-by-symbol detection, and rectifies existing approaches to the problem. The optimum receiver structure is obtained explicitly for an arbitrary carrier phase model, but its computational requirements are too heavy in general for any practical implementation. In one important special case, namely, the case in which the carrier phase can be treated as a constant over some K+1 symbol …

Rear Seat Belt Usage And Comfort, Kuntal Thakurta

Masters Theses

Seat belts have been shown to be effective in reducing car crash fatalities and injuries. Despite consistent evidence that seat belts when worn can provide the greatest vehicle occupant protection of all currently available occupant restraint systems, seat belt use rates remain low. The rates of occupants wearing seat belts in rear seats is much lower than front seat occupants. One of the primary causes for occupants not using seat belts in rear seats has been lack of comfort. The purpose of this thesis was to study the relationship of comfort and seat belt use in rear seats. The current …

Acuta Enews July 1994, Vol. 23, No. 7

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In This Issue

Board Report

President's message

White papers/Blue papers

Yale Telecom

The year the lights went on in Georgia

Curtin University

A Functional Architecture For Automated Highway Traffic Planning, H.-S. Jacob Tsao

Faculty Publications

In a fully automated Automated Highway System (AHS), the roadside control system and the vehicles themselves are responsible for moving the large number of vehicles safely and efficiently. Therefore, the task of operating an AHS is drastically different from and much more complex than its conventional counterpart. Resulting from a large number of design options, there exist many possible ways to operate an AHS. Each of these possible operating scenarios will support a different set of functions. A crucial task in AHS R&D is to evaluate and compare these potentially large number of different AHS operating scenarios with respect to …

Automated Manpower Rostering: Techniques And Experience, C. M. Khoong, Hoong Chuin Lau, L. W. Chew

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We present ROMAN, a comprehensive, generic manpower rostering toolkit that successfully handles a wide spectrum of work policies found in service organizations. We review the use of various techniques and methodologies in the toolkit that contribute to its robustness and efficiency, and relate experience gained in addressing manpower rostering problems in industry.

Defense Industrial Base Policy: Revisited, Michael E. Heberling

Faculty Publications

In an era of decreasing defense budgets and enemy threats, problems associated with maintaining a healthy defense industrial base have become pronounced. This article discussed defense industrial policy goals and argues that these goals may be collectively unobtainable.

A Preliminary Model For Lot Sizing In Semiconductor Manufacturing, Tali F. Carmon, Steven Nahmias

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

No abstract provided.

Acuta Enews June 1994, Vol. 23, No. 6

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In This Issue

Board report

President's message

White papers/blue papers

TFS takes aim at toll fraud

ITFS Monograph review

Lost on the Information Highway?

An Empirical Investigation Of Total Quality Management (Tqm) Effectiveness In Healthcare Organizations, Lokesh S. Basappa

Masters Theses

American hospitals are implementing quality programs to offer higher quality service at reduced cost. However, the results of these programs in many hospitals have often not met expectations.

This research analyzed the effectiveness of Total Quality Management (TQM). The objective of the study was to better understand how TQM strategies can best be applied by hospitals. An empirical survey was distributed to Michigan hospitals and an analysis was performed to meet this objective.

The survey results show that hospitals involved indirectly with quality programs haven't realized that they are implementing TQM strategies. On the other hand some hospitals say that …

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 …