Computer Engineering Commons^™

The Effects Of Using A Greedy Factor In Hexapod Gait Learning, Gary Parker, William T. Tarimo

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Various selection schemes have been described for use in genetic algorithms. This paper investigates the effects of adding greediness to the standard roulette-wheel selection. The results of this study are tested on a Cyclic Genetic Algorithm (CGA) used for learning gaits for a hexapod servo-robot. The effectiveness of CGA in learning optimal gaits with selection based on roulette-wheel selection with and without greediness is compared. The results were analyzed based on fitness of the individual gaits, convergence time of the evolution process, and the fitness of the entire population evolved. Results demonstrate that selection with too much greediness tends to …

Comparison Of A Greedy Selection Operator To Tournament Selection And A Hill Climber, Lee Graham, John Borbone, Gary Parker

Computer Science Faculty Publications

A new deterministic greedy genetic algorithm selection operator with very high selection pressure, dubbed the "Jugate Adaptive Method" is examined. Its performance and behavior are compared to thoseof a canonical genetic algorithm with tournament selection, and a random-restarting next-ascent stochastic hill-climber. All three algorithms are tuned using parameter sweeps to optimize their success rates on five combinatorial optimization problems, tuning each algorithm for each problem independently. Results were negative in that the new method was outperformed in nearly all experiments. Experimental data show the hill climber to be the clear winner in four of five test problems.

Why Fuzzy Transform Is Efficient In Large-Scale Prediction Problems: A Theoretical Explanation, Irina Perfilieva, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Tropical (Idempotent) Algebras As A Way To Optimize Fuzzy Control, Jaime Nava

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Fuzzy control is a methodology that transforms control rules (described by an expert in words of a natural language) into a precise control strategy. There exist several versions of this transformation. The main difference between these versions is in how they interpret logical connectives "and" and "or", i.e., in other words, what reasoning method a version uses. Which of these versions should we choose? It turns out that on different stages of control, different reasoning methods lead to better control results. In this paper, we describe the choice of reasoning methods that optimize control results in terms of smoothness and …

Processing Interval Sensor Data In The Presence Of Outliers, With Potential Applications To Localizing Underwater Robots, Jan Sliwka, Luc Jaulin, Martine Ceberio, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Measurements are never absolutely accurate, the measurement result X is, in general, different from the actual (unknown) values x of the corresponding quantity. In many practical problems, we only know upper bounds D on the measurement errors d = X - x. In such situations, once we know the measurement result, the only conclusion that we can make about the actual value x is that this value belongs to the interval [X - D, X + D]. There exist many efficient algorithms for processing such interval data. However, these algorithms usually assume that all the measurement results are valid. In …

Towards A "Generic" Notion Of Genericity: From "Typical" And "Random" To Meager, Shy, Etc., Ali Jalal-Kamali, Ondrej Nebesky, Michael H. Durcholz, Vladik Kreinovich, Luc Longpre

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In many application areas, it is important to study "generic" properties, i.e., properties which hold for ``typical'' examples. For example, if we know the probabilities of different events, we can consider a "random" object -- i.e., an object that, crudely speaking, does not belong to any class of "unusual" events (i.e., to any class with a small probability). In other cases, "typical" may mean not belonging to an "unusual" subset which is small in some other sense -- e.g., a subset of a smaller dimension. The corresponding notion of "typicalness" has been formalized for several cases, including the case of …

Is It Possible To Have A Feasible Enclosure-Computing Method Which Is Independent Of The Equivalent Form?, Marcin Michalak, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

The problem of computing the range [y] of a given function f(x1, ..., xn) over given intervals [xi] -- often called the main problem of interval computations -- is, in general, NP-hard. This means that unless P = NP, it is not possible to have a feasible (= polynomial time) algorithm that always computes the desired range. Instead, interval computations algorithms compute an enclosure [Y] for the desired range. For all known feasible enclosure-computing methods -- starting with straightforward interval computations -- there exist two expressions f(x1, ..., xn) and g(x1, ..., xn) for computing the same function that lead …

San Luis Obispo Transit Tracker System Back-End Server, Daryl Alan A. Dimalanta

Computer Engineering

This document gives the rationale, design process, technical implementation, testing procedures, and testing results of a back-end server used for the San Luis Obispo (SLO) Transit Tracker System. The SLO Transit Tracker System (SLOTTS) includes client software installed on mobile devices and a back-end server. The purpose of this system is to encourage SLO residents to utilize the transit system by having the client software present current bus location, navigation instructions, and bus schedule in a simple, fast, and easy to use mobile application.

Due to the limited central processing unit (CPU) and limited power supplied by the battery, route …

Estimating Probability Of Failure Of A Complex System Based On Inexact Information About Subsystems And Components, With Potential Applications To Aircraft Maintenance, Vladik Kreinovich, Christelle Jacob, Didier Dubois, Janette Cardoso, Martine Ceberio, Ildar Batyrshin

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In many real-life applications (e.g., in aircraft maintenance), we need to estimate the probability of failure of a complex system (such as an aircraft as a whole or one of its subsystems). Complex systems are usually built with redundancy allowing them to withstand the failure of a small number of components. In this paper, we assume that we know the structure of the system, and, as a result, for each possible set of failed components, we can tell whether this set will lead to a system failure. For each component A, we know the probability P(A) of its failure with …

Product Of Partially Ordered Sets (Posets), With Potential Applications To Uncertainty Logic And Space-Time Geometry, Francisco Zapata, Olga Kosheleva, Karen Villaverde

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Orthogonal Bases Are The Best: A Theorem Justifying Bruno Apolloni's Heuristic Neural Network Idea, Jaime Nava, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

One of the main problems with neural networks is that they are often very slow in learning the desired dependence. To speed up neural networks, Bruno Apolloni proposed to othogonalize neurons during training, i.e., to select neurons whose output functions are orthogonal to each other. In this paper, we use symmetries to provide a theoretical explanation for this heuristic idea.

A Web Application For Financial Trading Simulation, Li-Chiou Chen, Lixin Tao, Padma Kadiyala

Cornerstone 3 Reports : Interdisciplinary Informatics

No abstract provided.

Estimating Mean And Variance Under Interval Uncertainty: Dynamic Case, Rafik Aliev, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In many practical situations, it is important to estimate themean E and the variance V from the sample valuesx₁, ..., x_n. Usually, in statistics,we consider the case when the parameters like E and V do not change with timeand when the sample values x_i are known exactly. Inpractice, the values x_icome from measurements, andmeasurements are never 100% accurate. In many cases, we onlyknow the upper bound D_i on the measurement error. Inthis case, once we know the measured value X_i, wecan conclude that the actual (unknown) value x_i belongs …

Dynamic Fuzzy Logic Leads To More Adequate "And" And "Or" Operations, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In the traditional (static) fuzzy logic approach, we select an "and"-operation (t-norm) and an "or"-operation (t-conorm). The result of applying these selected operations may be somewhat different from the actual expert's degrees of belief in the corresponding logical combinations A & B and A \/ B of the original statements -- since these degrees depend not only on the expert's degrees of belief in statements A and B, but also in the extent to which the statements A and B are dependent. We show that dynamic fuzzy logic enables us to automatically take this dependence into account -- and thus, …

Resizable, Scalable, Concurrent Hash Tables Via Relativistic Programming, Josh Triplett, Paul E. Mckenney, Jonathan Walpole

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Presentation focusing on software synchronization, thread locking, transactional memory, and relativistic programming. Hash table algorithms are presented with examples of relativistic list insertion and removal, and related data structures. Existing approaches are compared to new methodologies and future work with relativistic data structures.

Resizable, Scalable, Concurrent Hash Tables, Josh Triplett, Paul E. Mckenney, Jonathan Walpole

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

We present algorithms for shrinking and expanding a hash table while allowing concurrent, wait-free, linearly scalable lookups. These resize algorithms allow the hash table to maintain constant-time performance as the number of entries grows, and reclaim memory as the number of entries decreases, without delaying or disrupting readers.

We implemented our algorithms in the Linux kernel, to test their performance and scalability. Benchmarks show lookup scalability improved 125x over readerwriter locking, and 56% over the current state-of-the-art for Linux, with no performance degradation for lookups during a resize.

To achieve this performance, this hash table implementation uses a new concurrent …

Auto Fall Detector, Nhut Thanh Ho

Computer Engineering

This device is named Cardea, the goddess of health in roman Mythology. The Cardea will be attached to the waist of the individual’s body to detect any falls, and will send out alarm signals to people in the surrounding area. The end goal of this project is to provide a helpful and friendly device for the elderly and their families. It is easy to maintain and dependable for long term use.

Woody: Roborodentia 2011 Robot, Felix Chung, Canh Sy, Hanson Yu

Computer Engineering

Woody is a fully autonomous robot built and designed for the 2011 Cal Poly Roborodentia competition. Woody’s goal is to score the most points in the competition by navigating the competition field, efficiently collecting ping pong balls from the racks, and shooting the balls into the goal accurately. There was no specific budget set for the project, but costs were kept low by using tools from the Computer Engineering Capstone Lab, inexpensive materials such as wood, and reusable parts from robots from previous Roborodentia competitions.

Discrete Alarm Clock, Travis Moore, Collin Barth

Electrical Engineering

The standard alarm clock, as used daily by millions worldwide, has clear room for modification and improvement.  This paper documents an implementation that rectifies many of these flaws.  Improvements include adjustable snooze length, an IR remote for ease of use, and an RF headset for discrete alarm use or potential incorporation into a device much like a hearing aid.  The processes involved in creating a digital alarm clock, as well as the obstacles met in the implementation of the enhanced design, are detailed within.

Edapts Web Application Redesign With Route Editor And Dynamic Frontend, John O'Connor, Aaron Berk

Computer Engineering

The EDAPTS (Efficient Deployment of Advanced Public Transportation Systems) system is designed to facilitate the public transportation system, making it even easier for San Luis Obispo residents and guests to use. We have upgraded the web component of the system adding a tool that makes it simple for non-programmers to add, edit, and delete routes. Furthermore, we have modified the front end web code to read from a central MySQL database containing all the route information created using the new, user-friendly tool.

Detection Of Breathing And Infant Sleep Apnea, Brian Berg

Computer Engineering

Sleep apnea is a condition where people pause while breathing in their sleep; this can be of great concern for infants and premature babies. Current monitoring systems either require physical attachment to a user or may be unreliable. This project is meant to develop a device that can accurately detect breathing through sound and issue appropriate warnings upon its cessation. The device produced is meant to be a standalone device and thus was developed as an embedded systems project on a Xilinx Spartan 6 FPGA.

Ultra-Short Baseline Acoustic Positioning System, Timothy Joel Soppet

Computer Engineering

This paper explains the design, implementation, and testing of an ultra short baseline (USBL) acoustic positioning system for the Amador Valley High School (AVHS) Robotics Club’s Barracuda Mark-X AUV. The system will be used to locate an underwater transducer beacon representing the final waypoint in an obstacle course designed for the AUVSI/ONR RoboSub international collegiate competition.

Characterization Of A Dual Acoustic Receiver System For Measuring Range And Bearing To Acoustic Tags, Victoria Campana, Justin Knight

Computer Engineering

Experiements were performed to determine the effectiveness of the Lotek RT-A Hydrophone system and if it could provide the data necessary for a particle filter to determine the location of a shark. Over the period of a few months, we tested off the Cal Poly Pier at set GPS coordinates to characterize how accurately the Lotek System can determine range and orientation. Ranges from 0-500 meters were tested with the Lotek system being in a stationary position and Lotek receiver tag being put at specified GPS coordinates. The two hydrophone rigging was then rotated a full 360 degrees to gauge …

Myrrrrr's Dice Game Android Application, Craig Leitterman

Computer Engineering

Smartphones are one the newest and fastest growing hardware platforms in recent years. The number of users playing and downloading games on the Android and iPhone application markets are growing rapidly. A majority of users including myself have been known to play common retro games such as solitaire as well as newer flash games like Angry Birds. These titles are usually “pick up and play” and provide quick entertainment while you’re waiting for the bus or in between a work break. Given the huge popularity of these applications I decided to create a dice game that I used to play …

Fault Tolerant And Flexible Cubesat Software Architecture, Greg D. Manyak

Master's Theses

The CubeSat pico-satellite is gaining popularity in both the educational and aerospace industries.  Due to a lack of experience and constrained hardware capabilities, most of the university missions have been educational in nature.  Cal Poly's project, PolySat, has gained significant experience from the launch of five CubeSats and has designed an entirely new hardware platform based on the knowledge gained from these missions. This hardware is a significant upgrade from what the previous missions used and has greatly increased the capabilities of the software, including supporting the use of the open source operating system Linux.

Leveraging the previous PolySat experience, …

Mr. Robot: A Roborodentia Contestant, Stephen Berry, Jamie Nease

Computer Engineering

Roborodentia is an annual robotics competition held during Open House at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Each year, students construct autonomous robots which compete head-to-head to score the most points. This report will give an overview of the competition and the details of our robot.

Autonomous Golf Cart Vision Using Hsv Image Processing And Commercial Webcam, John D. Fulton

Electrical Engineering

Using openCV I was able to use a store bought webcam and my laptop to build code that could detect the lane lines and the curb on the road and use them to calculate a trajectory for an autonomous vehicle to follow. The code does have some flaws, as discovered in testing, and definitely room for improvement but it still functions as a useful basis for development. Developed primarily for the Autonomous Golf Car Project at Cal Poly the principles of how it functions could be applied to other projects that want to use computer vision.

Programmable Household Led Light Fixture, Jordan Locano

Electrical Engineering

This report details the development and construction of a LED light fixture to be used for household lighting. This document details background information, design ideas, project specifications, production, assembly, testing, and conclusions involved with this project. The goals of this project is to design and build a cost-effective replacement for traditional room lighting that can perform better and last longer than traditional methods.

Autonomous Crash Avoidance System, Brian Ujiie, Gordon Woods, Joshua Miller

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Markerless Affine Region Tracking And Augmentation Using Mser And Sift, Gregory (Greg) Eddington Ii

Computer Engineering

Due to the advancements in mobile computing hardware and the inclusion of cameras in many computing platforms, augmented reality systems have become widely available. This paper presents a real-time implementation of a novel markerless augmented reality algorithm which is able to track two-dimensional affine regions without a priori information of the environment or computing a world model. The implementation consists of the MAR library; a modular software library which performs the region detection, identification, and tracking; and the Lighthouse application; a program which uses the MAR library to allow the user to augment scenes viewed from a camera. The algorithm …