Theory and Algorithms Commons^™

Scenarioxp: A Complete Scenario-Based Testing Framework For The Exploration And Exploitation Of Autonomous Vehicle Validation Scenarios, Quentin Goss

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Today is an age of exciting emerging technology where cutting-edge research in autonomous vehicles (AVs) reduces the active human participation in driving and extends awareness beyond human limitations of perception and reaction, improving driving safety and quality of the user experience as a result. The ever-increasing complexity of these autonomous systems poses many challenges towards the validation and verification (V\&V) of these complex systems under time and resource constraints, as the use of artificial intelligence and also the intricacy of the operating environment means that these systems are also black-box and non-deterministic. Scenario-based V\&V testing of such systems, which involves …

Study Of Output And Behavior Of Llms Using Confidence Framing In Prompt Engineering, Micah Parrilla

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

While prompt engineering is pivotal for shaping Large Language Model (LLM) outputs, the impact of confidence framing on behavioral calibration remains underexplored. This study investigates the ways in which psychological framing, utilizing techniques such as capability praise, role amplification, and doubt induction, affects linguistic tone, objective accuracy, and internal calibration. A 1,080-trial experimental matrix evaluated six diverse models across factual, logical, coding, and cyber security domains. Analysis using the Kruskal-Wallis H-test revealed highly significant behavioral shifts across all measured dimensions, providing conclusive evidence that the applied frames exert a substantial influence on model performance.

The findings identify a distinct cognitive …

Robust Spacecraft Autonomy For Deep Space Exploration In Special Euclidean Group Se(3), Matthew Wittal

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Over the past half-century, humanity has gained extensive experience conducting manned spaceflight near Earth. Arguably, "near Earth" could even include the Moon — the most distant destination humans have reached. However, "near" in this work primarily refers low Earth orbit (LEO). One could argue that we have not truly left Earth since the Apollo, as spacecraft in some LEOs remain subject to atmospheric drag thus emphasizing their continued connection to Earth's immediate environment. Reflecting on this, it becomes clear that humanity has largely remained bound to Earth’s immediate vicinity since the Apollo missions reached the Moon. However, that is set …

Quantifying The Transfer Effectiveness Of An Artificial Intelligence-Based Simulator Pre-Training Program For Student Pilots, Ryan Guthridge

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

Since the airline pilot shortage was initially studied in 2016, the pilot hiring model has been significantly impacted, with airlines hiring qualified pilots at unprecedented rates. The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed this hiring rate, however it is expected that airline hiring will soon increase to a rate higher than initially expected (Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 2022). With this dynamic, certified flight instructors are often the most qualified recruits for airlines, due to the number of hours and experience they have gained in the flight training organization. In turn, certified flight instructors are in short supply for flight training organizations worldwide. …

Online Aircraft System Identification Using A Novel Parameter Informed Reinforcement Learning Method, Nathan Schaff

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This thesis presents the development and analysis of a novel method for training reinforcement learning neural networks for online aircraft system identification of multiple similar linear systems, such as all fixed wing aircraft. This approach, termed Parameter Informed Reinforcement Learning (PIRL), dictates that reinforcement learning neural networks should be trained using input and output trajectory/history data as is convention; however, the PIRL method also includes any known and relevant aircraft parameters, such as airspeed, altitude, center of gravity location and/or others. Through this, the PIRL Agent is better suited to identify novel/test-set aircraft.

First, the PIRL method is applied to …

A Nature-Inspired Approach For Scenario-Based Validation Of Autonomous Systems, Quentin Goss, Mustafa Akbas

Beyond: Undergraduate Research Journal

Scenario-based approaches are cost and time effective solutions to autonomous cyber-physical system testing to identify bugs before costly methods such as physical testing in a controlled or uncontrolled environment. Every bug in an autonomous cyber-physical system is a potential safety risk. This paper presents a scenario-based method for finding bugs and estimating boundaries of the bug profile. The method utilizes a nature-inspired approach adapting low discrepancy sampling with local search. Extensive simulations demonstrate the performance of the approach with various adaptations.

Dynamic Task Allocation In Partially Defined Environments Using A* With Bounded Costs, James Hendrickson

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The sector of maritime robotics has seen a boom in operations in areas such as surveying and mapping, clean-up, inspections, search and rescue, law enforcement, and national defense. As this sector has continued to grow, there has been an increased need for single unmanned systems to be able to undertake more complex and greater numbers of tasks. As the maritime domain can be particularly difficult for autonomous vehicles to operate in due to the partially defined nature of the environment, it is crucial that a method exists which is capable of dynamically accomplishing tasks within this operational domain. By considering …

A Comprehensive Mapping And Real-World Evaluation Of Multi-Object Tracking On Automated Vehicles, Alexander Bassett

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Multi-Object Tracking (MOT) is a field critical to Automated Vehicle (AV) perception systems. However, it is large, complex, spans research fields, and lacks resources for integration with real sensors and implementation on AVs. Factors such those make it difficult for new researchers and practitioners to enter the field.

This thesis presents two main contributions: 1) a comprehensive mapping for the field of Multi-Object Trackers (MOTs) with a specific focus towards Automated Vehicles (AVs) and 2) a real-world evaluation of an MOT developed and tuned using COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) software toolsets. The first contribution aims to give a comprehensive overview of …

W-Gun: Whale Optimization For Energy And Delay-Centric Green Underwater Networks, Rajkumar Singh Rathore, Houbing Song, Suman Sangwan, Sukriti Mazumdar, Omprakash Kaiwartya, Kabita Adhikari, Rupak Kharel

Publications

Underwater sensor networks (UWSNs) have witnessed significant R&D attention in both academia and industry due to their growing application domains, such as border security, freight via sea or river, natural petroleum production and the fishing industry. Considering the deep underwater-oriented access constraints, energy-centric communication for the lifetime maximization of tiny sensor nodes in UWSNs is one of the key research themes in this domain. Existing literature on green UWSNs are majorly adapted from the existing techniques in traditional wireless sensor network relying on geolocation and the quality of service-centric underwater relay node selection, without paying much attention to the dynamic …

Cache-Enabled In Cooperative Cognitive Radio Networks For Transmission Performance, Jiachen Yang, Houbing Song, Chaofan Ma, Jiabao Man, Huifang Xu, Gan Zheng

Publications

The proliferation of mobile devices that support the acceleration of data services (especially smartphones) has resulted in a dramatic increase in mobile traffic. Mobile data also increased exponentially, already exceeding the throughput of the backhaul. To improve spectrum utilization and increase mobile network traffic, in combination with content caching, we study the cooperation between primary and secondary networks via content caching. We consider that the secondary base station assists the primary user by pre-caching some popular primary contents. Thus, the secondary base station can obtain more licensed bandwidth to serve its own user. We mainly focus on the time delay …

Adaboost‑Based Security Level Classifcation Of Mobile Intelligent Terminals, Feng Wang, Houbing Song, Dingde Jiang, Hong Wen

Publications

With the rapid development of Internet of Things, massive mobile intelligent terminals are ready to access edge servers for real-time data calculation and interaction. However, the risk of private data leakage follows simultaneously. As the administrator of all intelligent terminals in a region, the edge server needs to clarify the ability of the managed intelligent terminals to defend against malicious attacks. Therefore, the security level classification for mobile intelligent terminals before accessing the network is indispensable. In this paper, we firstly propose a safety assessment method to detect the weakness of mobile intelligent terminals. Secondly, we match the evaluation results …

Signal Flow Graph Approach To Efficient Dst I-Iv Algorithms, Sirani M. Perera

Publications

In this paper, fast and efficient discrete sine transformation (DST) algorithms are presented based on the factorization of sparse, scaled orthogonal, rotation, rotation-reflection, and butterfly matrices. These algorithms are completely recursive and solely based on DST I-IV. The presented algorithms have low arithmetic cost compared to the known fast DST algorithms. Furthermore, the language of signal flow graph representation of digital structures is used to describe these efficient and recursive DST algorithms having (n�1) points signal flow graph for DST-I and n points signal flow graphs for DST II-IV.

A Fast Algorithm For The Inversion Of Quasiseparable Vandermonde-Like Matrices, Sirani M. Perera, Grigory Bonik, Vadim Olshevsky

Publications

The results on Vandermonde-like matrices were introduced as a generalization of polynomial Vandermonde matrices, and the displacement structure of these matrices was used to derive an inversion formula. In this paper we first present a fast Gaussian elimination algorithm for the polynomial Vandermonde-like matrices. Later we use the said algorithm to derive fast inversion algorithms for quasiseparable, semiseparable and well-free Vandermonde-like matrices having O(n2) complexity. To do so we identify structures of displacement operators in terms of generators and the recurrence relations(2-term and 3-term) between the columns of the basis transformation matrices for quasiseparable, semiseparable and well-free polynomials. Finally we …