Computer Sciences Commons^™

Performance Of Various Low-Level Decoder For Surface Codes In The Presence Of Measurement Error, Claire E. Badger

Theses and Dissertations

Quantum error correction is a research specialty within the area of quantum computing that constructs quantum circuits that correct for errors. Decoding is the process of using measurements from an error correcting code, known as error syndrome, to decide corrective operations to perform on the circuit. High-level decoding is the process of using the error syndrome to perform corrective logical operations, while low-level decoding uses the error syndrome to correct individual data qubits. Research on machine learning-based decoders is increasingly popular, but has not been thoroughly researched for low-level decoders. The type of error correcting code used is called surface …

Low-Cost Terrestrial Demonstration Of Autonomous Satellite Proximity Operations, Zackary R. Hewitt

Theses and Dissertations

The lack of satellite servicing capabilities significantly impacts the development and operation of current orbital assets. With autonomous solutions under consideration for servicing, the purpose of this research is to build and validate a low-cost hardware platform to expedite the development of autonomous satellite proximity operations. This research aims to bridge the gap between simulation and existing higher fidelity hardware testing with an affordable alternative. An omnidirectional variant of the commercially available TurtleBot3 mobile robot is presented as a 3-DOF testbed that demonstrates a satellite servicing inspection scenario. Reference trajectories for the scenario are generated via optimal control using the …

Laser Illuminated Imaging: Beam And Scene Deconvolution Algorithm, Benjamin W. Davis

Theses and Dissertations

Laser illuminated imaging systems deal with several physical challenges that must be overcome to achieve high-resolution images of the target. Noise sources like background noise, photon counting noise, and laser speckle noise will all greatly affect the imaging systems ability to produce a high-resolution image. An even bigger challenge to laser illuminated imaging systems is atmospheric turbulence and the effect that it will have on the imaging system. The illuminating beam will experience tilt, causing the beam to wander off the center of the target during propagation. The light returning to the detector will similarly be affected by turbulence, and …

Automated Network Exploitation Utilizing Bayesian Decision Networks, Graeme M. Roberts

Theses and Dissertations

Computer Network Exploitation (CNE) is the process of using tactics and techniques to penetrate computer systems and networks in order to achieve desired effects. It is currently a manual process requiring significant experience and time that are in limited supply. This thesis presents the Automated Network Discovery and Exploitation System (ANDES) which demonstrates that it is feasible to automate the CNE process. The uniqueness of ANDES is the use of Bayesian decision networks to represent the CNE domain and subject matter expert knowledge. ANDES conducts multiple execution cycles, which build upon previous action results. Cycles begin by modeling the current …

Comparison Of Conic Ray Tracing For Occlusion Determination On 3d Point Cloud Data, Henry Cho

Theses and Dissertations

The US Air Force has been increasing the use of automation in its weapon systems to include the remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) platforms. The RPA career field has had issues with poor pilot retention due to job stressors. For example, RPA operators spend a lot of time and attention surveilling a suspect on the ground for many hours, so adding automation to this activity could help improve pilot retention. The research problem in this thesis attempted to automate the process of observing a ground target. This thesis presents a method termed conic ray tracing for determining visibility and occlusion of …

Designing And Building A Radar Simulation Using The Entity Component System, Brennen T. Garland

Theses and Dissertations

This research explores the implementation of a "medium fidelity" radar simulation using the Entity-Component-System (ECS) architecture. The radar implemented mimics the fundamental characteristics of entities in the open-source Mixed Reality Simulation Platform (MIXR) project, supporting real-time interaction. Previous research has shown the potential benefits of using an ECS-based architecture to support improved execution performance relative to Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) approaches, thus improved real-time interaction requirements. This research implements a well-documented radar model that supports the development of soft real-time human-based interaction simulations. The radar system modeled in this research mimics the "out-of-the-box" fidelity defined in the OOP-based MIXR architecture. This …

Two Published Flight Dynamics Models Rewritten In Rust And Structures As An Ecs, Chad A. Willis

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores using the Entity-Component System (ECS) architecture to implement a Flight Dynamics Model (FDM) by re-implementing two published versions in the Rust programming language using the Specs Parallel ECS (SPECS) [1] for military simulation advancement. One FDM is based on Grant Palmers published textbook titled Physics for Game Programmers [2], and another is based on David Bourgs textbook titled Physics for Game Developers [3]. Furthermore, this thesis uses these models within an interactive flight simulator.The ECS architecture is based on the Data-Oriented Design (DOD) paradigm, where Components contain the data and the Systems implement the behavior which transforms …

Stereo Camera Calibrations With Optical Flow, Joshua D. Larson

Theses and Dissertations

Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) are currently unable to refuel mid-air due to the large communication delays between their operators and the aircraft. AAR seeks to address this problem by reducing the communication delay to a fast line-of-sight signal between the tanker and the RPA. Current proposals for AAR utilize stereo cameras to estimate where the receiving aircraft is relative to the tanker, but require accurate calibrations for accurate location estimates of the receiver. This paper improves the accuracy of this calibration by improving three components of it: increasing the quantity of intrinsic calibration data with CNN preprocessing, improving the quality …

Anomaly Detection And Encrypted Programming Forensics For Automation Controllers, Robert W. Mellish

Theses and Dissertations

Securing the critical infrastructure of the United States is of utmost importance in ensuring the security of the nation. To secure this complex system a structured approach such as the NIST Cybersecurity framework is used, but systems are only as secure as the sum of their parts. Understanding the capabilities of the individual devices, developing tools to help detect misoperations, and providing forensic evidence for incidence response are all essential to mitigating risk. This thesis examines the SEL-3505 RTAC to demonstrate the importance of existing security capabilities as well as creating new processes and tools to support the NIST Framework. …

Optimizing A Bank Of Kalman Filters For Navigation Integrity, Luis E. Sepulveda

Theses and Dissertations

Alternative navigation is an area of research which employs a variety of sensor technologies to provide a navigation solution in Global Navigation Satellite System degraded or denied environments. The Autonomy and Navigation Technology Center at the Air Force Institute of Technology has recently developed the Autonomous and Resilient Management of All-source Sensors (ARMAS) navigation framework which utilizes an array of Kalman Filters to provide a navigation solution resilient to sensor failures. The Kalman Filter array size increases exponentially as system sensors and detectable faults are scaled up, which in turn increases the computational power required to run ARMAS in areal-world …

Exploring Fog Of War Concepts In Wargame Scenarios, Dillon N. Tryhorn

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores fog of war concepts through three submitted journal articles. The Department of Defense and U.S. Air Force are attempting to analyze war scenarios to aid the decision-making process; fog modeling improves realism in these wargame scenarios. The first article "Navigating an Enemy Contested Area with a Parallel Search Algorithm" [1] investigates a parallel algorithm's speedup, compared to the sequential implementation, with varying map configurations in a tile-based wargame. The parallel speedup tends to exceed 50 but in certain situations. The sequential algorithm outperforms it depending on the configuration of enemy location and amount on the map. The …

Improving Text Classification With Semantic Information, Joshua H. White

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force contracts a variety of positions, from Information Technology to maintenance services. There is currently no automated way to verify that quotes for services are reasonably priced. Small training data sets and word sense ambiguity are challenges that such a tool would encounter, and additional semantic information could help. This thesis hypothesizes that leveraging a semantic network could improve text-based classification. This thesis uses information from ConceptNet to augment a Naive Bayes Classifier. The leveraged semantic information would add relevant words from the category domain to the model that did not appear in the training data. The experiment …

Application Of The Monte-Carlo Tree Search To Multi-Action Turn-Based Games With Hidden Information, Connor M. Pipan

Theses and Dissertations

Traditional search algorithms struggle when applied to complex multi-action turn-based games. The introduction of hidden information further increases domain complexity. The Monte-Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) algorithm has previously been applied to multi-action turn-based games, but not multi-action turn-based games with hidden information. This thesis compares several Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) extensions (Determinized/Perfect Information Monte Carlo, Multi-Observer Information Set MCTS, and Belief State MCTS) in TUBSTAP, an open-source multi-action turn-based game, modified to include hidden information via fog-of-war.

Accurate Covariance Estimation For Pose Data From Iterative Closest Point Algorithm, Rick H. Yuan

Theses and Dissertations

One of the fundamental problems of robotics and navigation is the estimation of relative pose of an external object with respect to the observer. A common method for computing the relative pose is the Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm, where a reference point cloud of a known object is registered against a sensed point cloud to determine relative pose. To use this computed pose information in down-stream processing algorithms, it is necessary to estimate the uncertainty of the ICP output, typically represented as a covariance matrix. In this thesis a novel method for estimating uncertainty from sensed data is introduced. …

Amplitude Estimation For The Large Clutter Discrete Removal Algorithm, Hannah Gjermo Chomitz

Theses and Dissertations

A large clutter discrete (LCD) is spectrally bright localized clutter that can cause a false alarm or missed target detection in space-time adaptive processing (STAP) radar data. For passive bistatic STAP, the four step LCD removal (LCDR) algorithm estimates the spatial/Doppler frequency and complex amplitude of the LCD and then removes it from the data. Once the LCD is removed from the data, homogeneous clutter suppression techniques can be used to process the data and search for targets. This research focuses on reducing the complexity of estimating the LCDs complex amplitude. This research proposes a method that directly solves for …

Unsupervised Clustering Of Rf-Fingerprinting Features Derived From Deep Learning Based Recognition Models, Christian T. Potts

Theses and Dissertations

RF-Fingerprinting is focus of machine learning research which aims to characterize wireless communication devices based on their physical hardware characteristics. It is a promising avenue for improving wireless communication security in the PHY layer. The bulk of research presented to date in this field is focused on the development of features and classifiers using both traditional supervised machine learning models as well as deep learning. This research aims to expand on existing RF-Fingerprinting work by approaching the problem through the lens of an unsupervised clustering problem. To that end this research proposes a deep learning model and training methodology to …

Enhanced Space Object Detection Without Prior Knowledge Of The Point Spread Function, Grant F. Graupmann

Theses and Dissertations

Since the point detector was created, other detection algorithms have been created that increase the probability of detection, while still keeping the same probability of false alarm. The point detector still has uses, such as when there is no prior knowledge of the point spread function (PSF). The matched filter correlator (MFC) detector is reliant on prior knowledge of the PSF. This has been an issue in cases where the PSF information is potentially inaccurate or unknown. This thesis utilizes MFC detector in a manner that it has never been used before, along with a new detection algorithm, the Pearson's …

A Cyber Threat Taxonomy And A Viability Analysis For False Injections In The Tcas, John W. Hannah

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provided background information on the Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS). Additionally, the thesis developed a threat taxonomy for TCAS, resulting in the determination that a false injection attack presents the most comprehensive risk. Moreover, the thesis presents the development of a program to determine what ranges, altitudes, and relative bearings are most vulnerable to a false injection attack. The program includes test for all requirements of a successful false injection. Furthermore, the thesis presents an analysis of results and creates threat maps as situational awareness tools. Lastly, the thesis discusses potential solutions to the false injection attack, covers …

Infiniband Network Monitoring: Challenges And Possibilities, Kyle D. Hintze

Theses and Dissertations

Within the realm of High Performance Computing, the InfiniBand Architecture is among the leading interconnects used today. Capable of providing high bandwidth and low latency, InfiniBand is finding applications outside the High Performance Computing domain. One of these is critical infrastructure, encompassing almost all essential sectors as the work force becomes more connected. InfiniBand is not immune to security risks, as prior research has shown that common traffic analyzing tools cannot effectively monitor InfiniBand traffic transmitted between hosts, due to the kernel bypass nature of the IBA in conjunction with Remote Direct Memory Access operations. If Remote Direct Memory Access …

Zhvillimi I Mikroserviseve Në Infrastrukturë Të Kontinjerizuar, Agnesa Saliaga

Theses and Dissertations

Kjo temë bazohet në aplikimin e metodologjive më të mira të punës duke përdorur veglat e përshtatshme për krijimin, testimin, versionimin dhe lansimin e ciklit të zhvillimit të një softueri dhe adaptimin e tij në mjedisin e kontinjerizuar, qoftë ai i hostuar në infrastrukturën tonë apo atë cloud.

Në këtë punim këto teknologji do të elaborohen me fokus të madh praktik, duke prezentuar zgjidhje të ndryshme për pjesë të sfidave që shfaqen. Këto sfida elaborohen specifikisht përmes veglave që do të përdoren dhe aplikacionit që do ta lansojmë.

Nga skenaret e lartëpërmendura nxirren dhe vizualizohen rezultatet të cilat mund të …

Inovacioni Evoluimi I Rrjetave Mobile 3g Deri 5g, Adelina Selimi

Theses and Dissertations

Tani jemi në një botë me ndryshime dhe inovacione të njëpasnjëshme, teknologjia është gjithnjë e më e pranishme në jetën tonë. Ky hulumtim do të ndihmoj për të njohur karakteristikat ekzistuese mobile, evolucionin e tyre me kalimin e kohës, dhe konkretisht për rrjetat mobile 3G, 4G dhe 5G. 3G e cila jep qasje në internet, fillimisht me shpejtësi të ulët të lidhjes dhe mëpas me përmirësime të pranueshme në gjenerimin e ndërmjetëm 3.5G ose HSPA. 4G teknologjia kjo IP(all-IP) e projektuar për ndërlidhje dhe përparësi të trafikut të të dhënave, dhe e cila lejon të jesh një platformë të përbashkët …

Teknologjitë E Shpërndarjes Të Rrjetit Iptv, Shkurta Hyseni

Theses and Dissertations

Çdo teknologji në ditët e sotme ka mënyrën e vet të përdorimit, mangësitë dhe përparësitë e saj. Në këtë Punim Diplome me temë Teknologjitë e shpërndarjes së rrjetit IPTV jemi munduar sado pak të shpjegojmë këtë teknologji, mënyrën e shpërndarjes dhe veçoritë e saj. IPTV në përgjithësi është një term që përdoret për dërgimin e kanaleve televizive tradicionale, filmave dhe përmbajtjet e kërkuara të videove lidhur me një rrjet privat. IPTV është teknologji përmes secilës bëhet shpërndarja e përmbajtjes mediatike, videove ose televizionit të drejtpërdrejtë duke përdorur rrjetin IP. IPTV për të funksionuar mund të përdorë internetin publik, një rrjet …

Krahasimi I Rrjetit Mobil 4g Dhe 5g, Leutrim Hasani

Theses and Dissertations

Tani jetojmë në një botë digjitale ku ndikimi teknologjik është thuajse i pashmangshëm. Kjo vlen edhe për pajisjet mobile, që në vitet e fundit kanë avancuar aq shumë sa mund të themi se kemi një kompjuter me vete gjatë gjithë kohës. Një ndihmë të madhe këtij hovi i ka dhënë edhe avancimet e rrjeteve mobile me theks të veçantë 4G dhe gjenerata e fundit 5G. Gjenerata 5G nuk është vetëm gjenerata e re në komunikimin mobil, por është një mundësi për të krijuar dhe implementuar shtëpi të mençura, qytete të mençura, avancime në mjekësi, vetura autonome dhe shumë IOT pajisje …

Analiza E Protokoleve Të Sigurisë Në Rrjetat Wan Dhe Lan, Gramos Aliu

Theses and Dissertations

Rrjeti pa tela është bërë i famshëm për shkak të përparësive të ndryshme që ka. Bazuar në këto përparësi rrjeti pa tela po ashtu përballet edhe me problemin e sigurisë.

Rrjeti pa tela po vjen duke u rritur në tërë botën për shkak të avantazheve dhe shërbimeve që i ofrojnë. Në mjedisin e rrjetit ku komunikimi po bëhet përmes rrjetit pa tela, mbrojtja e të dhënave me rëndësi është sfida më e madhe për administratorët e rrjetit. Bazuar në benificionet e mëdha të këtij lloji të rrjetit çështja kryesore është se rrjeti pa tela ofron siguri të dobët. Kompanitë dhe …

Cikli I Jetës Së Zhvillimit Të Softuerit, Entor Arifi

Theses and Dissertations

Zhvillimi i një sistemi softuerik të sukseshëm i cili i përgjigjet standardeve të kualitetit nuk është një proces i thjeshtë. Përkundrazi, planifkim dhe përkushtim i madh kërkohet për realizimin e një projekti të tillë. Një pjesë e madhe e produkteve softuerike dështojnë për arsye të keq menaxhimit dhe planifikimit jo të duhur. Ky hulumtim shqyrton ndikimin që metodologjitë si SDLC kanë në zhvillimin e produkteve softuerike. Një pjesë e hulumtimit ka të bëjë me shqyrtimin e fazave të Ciklit të Jetës së Zhvillimit të Softuerit, renditjen dhe implementimin e saktë të tyre. Pjesa tjetër ka të bëjë me një produkt …

The Transformation Process From In-Campus Classes Into Online Classes Due To Covid-19 Pandemic Situation - The Case Of Higher Education Institutions In Kosovo, Erëza Baftiu

Theses and Dissertations

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused many drastic changes in terms of traditional teaching. All the Universities of Kosovo have found the transition from teaching in class, to online classes quite challenging. Consequently, most Universities were not prepared for this adjustment and a lot of the universities before the pandemic stated that they never thought that this time would come and they would pause from classroom teaching. This study investigates the transformation of Higher Education Institution (HEI) of Kosovo from in-campus classes into online classes due to COVID-19 pandemic. Data collections were gathered from workshop and interview, resulting into qualitative data. …

Zhvillimi I Aplikacionit Për Përcjelljen E Motit I Bazuar Në Sistemin Operativ Android, Egzon Baftiu

Theses and Dissertations

Aplikacionet softuerike në përgjithësi ndërtohen për të ju përshtatur kërkesave të klientit në mënyrë që të ju mundësohet një menaxhim më i lehtë i punëve mbi të cilat veprojnë. Një nga format e zhvillimit të aplikacioneve është edhe zhvillimi i aplikacioneve mobile të bazuara në android. Në këtë temë do të krijojmë një aplikacion mobil të bazuar në sistemin operativ android që për qëllim ka shfaqjen e informatave rreth motit, ky lloj aplikacioni është i nevojshëm dhe i rëndësishëm për përdoruesit që dëshirojnë ta shikojnë temperaturën në vende të ndryshme të botës dhe posaçërisht në Kosovë. Aplikacioni ofron mundësi të …

Cloud Computing, Drilon Beqiraj

Theses and Dissertations

Cloud computing është teknologjia e gjeneratës së ardhshme. Kjo teknologji është bërë pjesë jetike për të gjithë sektorët publik dhe privatë, si dhe sektorët qeveritarë, në mënyrë që të plotësojnë kërkesat e tyre duke përfshirë një spektër të gjerë aplikimesh. Kostoja e ulët e llogaritjes në cloud dhe shkallëzimi dinamik e bën atë një nxitës të inovacionit për kompanitë, veçanërisht botën në zhvillim. Prandaj, qëllimi kryesor i punimit është trajtimi i koncepteve të ndryshme të përfshira në cloud computing, siç janë arkitektura e cloud computing, strategjitë e vendosjes, algoritmet dhe elementet e sigurisë të cloud computing. Meqenëse, teknologjia po zhvillohet …

Lorawan Device Security And Energy Optimization, John A. Stranahan Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Resource-constrained devices are commonly connected to a network and become "things" that make up the Internet of Things (IoT). Many industries are interested in cost-effective, reliable, and cyber secure sensor networks due to the ever-increasing connectivity and benefits of IoT devices. The full advantages of IoT devices are seen in a long-range and remote context. However, current IoT platforms show many obstacles to achieve a balance between power efficiency and cybersecurity. Battery-powered sensor nodes can reliably send data over long distances with minimal power draw by adopting Long-Range (LoRa) wireless radio frequency technology. With LoRa, these devices can stay active …

Deep Learning For Multi-Tissue Cancer Classification Of Gene Expressions, Tarek Khorshed

Theses and Dissertations

We contribute in saving the lives of cancer patients through early detection and diagnosis, since one of the major challenges in cancer treatment is that patients are diagnosed at very late stages when appropriate medical interventions become less effective and full curative treatment is no longer achievable. Cancer classification using gene expressions is extremely challenging given the complexity and high dimensionality of the data. Current classification methods typically rely on samples collected from a single tissue type and perform a prerequisite of gene feature selection to avoid processing the full set of genes. These methods fall short in taking advantage …