Real-time depth camera tracking with CAD models and ICP

In recent years, depth cameras have been widely utilized in camera tracking for augmented and mixed reality. Many of the studies focus on the methods that generate the reference model simultaneously with the tracking and allow operation in unprepared environments. However, methods that rely on predefined CAD models have their advantages. In such methods, the measurement errors are not accumulated to the model, they are tolerant to inaccurate initialization, and the tracking is always performed directly in reference model's coordinate system. In this paper, we present a method for tracking a depth camera with existing CAD models and the Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm. In our approach, we render the CAD model using the latest pose estimate and construct a point cloud from the corresponding depth map. We construct another point cloud from currently captured depth frame, and find the incremental change in the camera pose by aligning the point clouds. We utilize a GPGPU-based implementation of the ICP which efficiently uses all the depth data in the process. The method runs in real-time, it is robust for outliers, and it does not require any preprocessing of the CAD models. We evaluated the approach using the Kinect depth sensor, and compared the results to a 2D edge-based method, to a depth-based SLAM method, and to the ground truth. The results show that the approach is more stable compared to the edge-based method and it suffers less from drift compared to the depth-based SLAM.

Gestao tecnologia: um estudo de caso no setor sucroalcooleiro

PEDRO, Edilson da Silva Pedro. Gestão tecnológica: um estudo de caso no setor sucroalcooleiro. 2004. 145f. Dissertaçao (Mestrado em Engenharia de Producao) - Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos, Sao Carlos, 2004.

Gestao tecnologia: um estudo de caso no setor sucroalcooleiro

PEDRO, Edilson da Silva Pedro. Gestão tecnológica: um estudo de caso no setor sucroalcooleiro. 2004. 145f. Dissertaçao (Mestrado em Engenharia de Producao) - Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos, Sao Carlos, 2004.

Proposta de metodologia para certificação hídrica de edifícios residenciais

A presente dissertação tem como objetivo a elaboração de uma proposta de certificação hídrica para edifícios residenciais existentes e em fase de projeto. O desenvolvimento desta certificação incide essencialmente na poupança de água potável nos edifícios, demonstrando que o consumo excessivo da mesma poderá traduzir-se num problema no futuro. O uso eficiente da água assume cada vez mais uma importância acrescida. Neste trabalho enumeram-se alguns países da Europa que, devido a uma má gestão da sua água ou às alterações climáticas (como por exemplo, a diminuição da precipitação), se encontram ou poderão se encontrar em “stress hídrico”. É apresentado o Programa Nacional para o Uso Eficiente da Água, fazendo-se referência aos principais objetivos do programa e às medidas propostas para redução de consumos, nomeadamente no setor urbano e em particular ao nível dos sistemas prediais e dos dispositivos em instalações residenciais. Com base nisto, são apresentados consumos e potenciais reduções com a implantação de equipamentos hidricamente eficientes e sistemas de aproveitamento de águas em algumas moradias. Após uma análise de sistemas de certificação da construção sustentável existentes, nacionais e internacionais, é apresentada uma proposta de certificação hídrica de edifícios residenciais. A proposta de certificação é apresentada com recurso a folhas de cálculo Excel.Assenta essencialmente na quantificação dos consumos dos equipamentos sanitários e cálculo do contributo dos sistemas de aproveitamento de águas, sejam cinzentas ou pluviais. À semelhança da certificação energética, a proposta de certificação hídrica faz uma comparação dos consumos da habitação em avaliação com um modelo criado de referência, propondo depois, algumas melhorias que o consumidor pode adotar para melhorar a eficiência da sua residência.

Renewable energy scenarios for South Karelia – non-industrial energy demands

Tässä diplomityössä tarkastellaan täysin uusiutuvaa energiajärjestelmää Etelä-Karjalan maakunnan alueella, mikä onkin jo tällä hetkellä Suomen uusiutuvin maakunta. Diplomityössä tarkastellaan julkisen sektorin, liikenteen ja rakennusten energian kulutusta mutta teollisuuden energiankäyttö jätetään tarkastelun ulkopuolelle. Työssä tutustutaan tämän hetken Etelä-Karjalan energiajärjestelmään ja sen perusteella tehdään referenssi-skenaario. Tulevaisuuden skenaariot tehdään vuosille 2030 ja 2050. Tulevaisuuden skenaarioissa muutos keskittyy järjestelmän sähköistymiseen ja uusiutuvien tuotantomuotojen integroimiseen järjestelmään. Sähköistyminen kasvattaa sähkönkulutusta, joka pyritään kattamaan uusiutuvilla tuotantomuodoilla, lähinnä tuuli- ja aurinkovoimalla. Liikennesektori rajataan kumipyöräliikenteeseen ja sen muutos tulee olemaan haastavin ja aikaa vievin. Muutokseen pyritään liikennepolttoaineiden tuotannolla maakunnassa sekä sähköautoilulla. Uusiutuva energiajärjestelmä tarvitsee tuotannon ja kysynnän joustoa sekä älyä järjestelmältä. Työssä tarkastellaan myös järjestelmän kustannuksia sekä työllisyysvaikutuksia.

Modelo para formação dinâmica de rede de fornecedores em empresas estendidas

Supply chains have become an important focus for competitive advantage. The performance of a company increasingly depends on its ability to maintain effective and efficient relationships with its suppliers and customers. The extended enterprise (i.e. composed of several partners) needs to be dynamically formed in order to be agile and adaptable. According to the Digital Manufacturing paradigm, companies have to be able to quickly share and disseminate information regarding planning, designing and manufacturing of products. Additionally, they must be responsive to all technical and business determinants, as well as be assessed and certified for guaranteed performance. The current research intends to present a solution for the dynamic composition of the extended enterprise, formed to take advantage of market opportunities quickly and efficiently. A construction model was developed. This construction model consists of: information model, protocol model and process model. The information model has been defined based on the concepts of Supply Chain Operations Reference model (SCOR®). In this model is defined information for negotiating the participation of candidate companies in the dynamic establishment of a network for responding to a given demand for developing and manufacturing products, in seven steps as follows: request for information; request for qualification; alignment of strategy; request for proposal; request for quotation; compatibility of process; and compatibility of system. The protocol model has been elaborated and inspired in the OSI, this model provides a framework for linking customers and suppliers, indicates a sequence to be followed, in order to selecte companies to become suppliers. The process model has been implemented by means of process modeling according to the BPMN standard and, in turn, implemented as a web-based application that runs the process through its several steps, which uses forms to gather data. An application example in the context of the oil and gas industry is used for demonstrating the solution concept.

Análisis de la percepción de seguridad en puentes peatonales: una aproximación mediante modelación híbrida

Este artículo de investigación científica y tecnológica estudia la percepción de seguridad en el uso de puentes peatonales, empleando un enfoque sustentado en dos campos principales: el microeconómico y el psicológico. El trabajo hace la estimación simultánea de un modelo híbrido de elección y variables latentes con datos de una encuesta de preferencias declaradas, encontrando mejor ajuste que un modelo mixto de referencia, lo que indica que la percepción de seguridad determina el comportamiento de los peatones cuando se enfrentan a la decisión de usar o no un puente peatonal. Se encontró que el sexo, la edad y el nivel de estudios son atributos que inciden en la percepción de seguridad. El modelo calibrado sugiere varias estrategias para aumentar el uso de puentes peatonales que son discutidas, encontrando que el uso de barreras ocasiona una pérdida de utilidad, en los peatones, que debería ser estudiada como extensión del presente trabajo.

Simulação de um sistema de tratamento de águas residuais de lamas ativadas

A modelação matemática de Estações de Tratamento de Águas Residuais (ETAR) tem sido uma ferramenta de enorme utilidade nas fases de projeto e de exploração destas estruturas de tratamento. O presente estudo teve por objetivo principal construir um modelo matemático da ETAR de Bragança, em particular do seu tratamento biológico de lamas ativadas, com vista a avaliar, compreender e otimizar o seu desempenho. A construção do modelo foi efetuada com recurso ao ambiente de simulação WRc STOAT 5.0. O processo de lamas ativadas foi descrito pelo modelo de referência ASAL3. O modelo construído foi calibrado e validado com base em dados experimentais de 2015, obtidos no âmbito do programa de controlo analítico da ETAR. O modelo foi ainda utilizado para avaliar a qualidade do efluente em resposta a alterações do caudal e composição do afluente, a alterações de condições operacionais e a outras alternativas de tratamento. O modelo mostrou-se bastante adequado na descrição da evolução mensal da qualidade do efluente final da ETAR relativamente aos parâmetros Sólidos Suspensos Totais (SST) e Carência Bioquímica de Oxigénio (CBO5), embora apresente uma tendência para os subestimar em 1,5 e 3,5 mg/L, respetivamente. Em relação ao azoto total, os valores simulados aproximaram-se dos valores reais, quando se aumentaram as taxas de recirculação interna para 400%, um fator de cerca de 4 vezes superior. Os resultados do modelo e dos cenários mostram e reforçam o bom desempenho e a operação otimizada da ETAR em relação a remoção de SST e CBO5. Em relação ao azoto total, a ETAR não assegura de forma sistemática uma eficiência elevada, mas apresenta um bom desempenho, face ao que o modelo consegue explicar para as mesmas condições operacionais. Através do estudo de cenários procurou-se encontrar alternativas de tratamento eficientes e viáveis de remoção de azoto total, mas não se identificaram soluções que assegurassem decargas de azoto abaixo dos limites legais. Os melhores resultados que se alcançaram para a remoção deste contaminante estão associados ao aumento das taxas de recirculação interna do sistema pré-anóxico existente e a uma configuração do tipo Bardenpho de quatro estágios com alimentação distribuída, em proporções iguais, pelos dois estágios anóxicos. Outras soluções que envolvam tecnologias distintas podem e devem ser equacionadas em projetos futuros que visem a melhoria de eficiência de remoção de azoto da ETAR.

Uma arquitetura de referência para o processamento distribuído de stream de dados em soluções analíticas de near real-time

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Tecnologia, Departamento de Engenharia Elétrica, 2015.

Diretrizes para o gerenciamento de riscos em contratos de obras públicas : estudo de caso da contratação integrada

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Tecnologia, Departamento de Engenharia Civil e Ambiental, 2015.

Time-Reversal Massive Multipath Effect and Bandwidth Heterogeneity

The proliferation of new mobile communication devices, such as smartphones and tablets, has led to an exponential growth in network traffic. The demand for supporting the fast-growing consumer data rates urges the wireless service providers and researchers to seek a new efficient radio access technology, which is the so-called 5G technology, beyond what current 4G LTE can provide. On the other hand, ubiquitous RFID tags, sensors, actuators, mobile phones and etc. cut across many areas of modern-day living, which offers the ability to measure, infer and understand the environmental indicators. The proliferation of these devices creates the term of the Internet of Things (IoT). For the researchers and engineers in the field of wireless communication, the exploration of new effective techniques to support 5G communication and the IoT becomes an urgent task, which not only leads to fruitful research but also enhance the quality of our everyday life. Massive MIMO, which has shown the great potential in improving the achievable rate with a very large number of antennas, has become a popular candidate. However, the requirement of deploying a large number of antennas at the base station may not be feasible in indoor scenarios. Does there exist a good alternative that can achieve similar system performance to massive MIMO for indoor environment? In this dissertation, we address this question by proposing the time-reversal technique as a counterpart of massive MIMO in indoor scenario with the massive multipath effect. It is well known that radio signals will experience many multipaths due to the reflection from various scatters, especially in indoor environments. The traditional TR waveform is able to create a focusing effect at the intended receiver with very low transmitter complexity in a severe multipath channel. TR's focusing effect is in essence a spatial-temporal resonance effect that brings all the multipaths to arrive at a particular location at a specific moment. We show that by using time-reversal signal processing, with a sufficiently large bandwidth, one can harvest the massive multipaths naturally existing in a rich-scattering environment to form a large number of virtual antennas and achieve the desired massive multipath effect with a single antenna. Further, we explore the optimal bandwidth for TR system to achieve maximal spectral efficiency. Through evaluating the spectral efficiency, the optimal bandwidth for TR system is found determined by the system parameters, e.g., the number of users and backoff factor, instead of the waveform types. Moreover, we investigate the tradeoff between complexity and performance through establishing a generalized relationship between the system performance and waveform quantization in a practical communication system. It is shown that a 4-bit quantized waveforms can be used to achieve the similar bit-error-rate compared to the TR system with perfect precision waveforms. Besides 5G technology, Internet of Things (IoT) is another terminology that recently attracts more and more attention from both academia and industry. In the second part of this dissertation, the heterogeneity issue within the IoT is explored. One of the significant heterogeneity considering the massive amount of devices in the IoT is the device heterogeneity, i.e., the heterogeneous bandwidths and associated radio-frequency (RF) components. The traditional middleware techniques result in the fragmentation of the whole network, hampering the objects interoperability and slowing down the development of a unified reference model for the IoT. We propose a novel TR-based heterogeneous system, which can address the bandwidth heterogeneity and maintain the benefit of TR at the same time. The increase of complexity in the proposed system lies in the digital processing at the access point (AP), instead of at the devices' ends, which can be easily handled with more powerful digital signal processor (DSP). Meanwhile, the complexity of the terminal devices stays low and therefore satisfies the low-complexity and scalability requirement of the IoT. Since there is no middleware in the proposed scheme and the additional physical layer complexity concentrates on the AP side, the proposed heterogeneous TR system better satisfies the low-complexity and energy-efficiency requirement for the terminal devices (TDs) compared with the middleware approach.

Empirical reference points for Bernstein’s model of pedagogic rights: Recontextualising the reconciliation agenda to Australian schooling

In this chapter we use Bernstein’s (2000) model of pedagogic rights to examine the learning experiences for non-Indigenous teachers in two reconciliation projects. In the context within which we write, reconciliation is the process of establishing a culture of mutual respect between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous Australians. In 1991, the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody linked the continuation of racism in Australian society to the weak coverage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content in the school curriculum (Reconciliation Australia 2010). Nearly two decades later, the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians issued by the council of Federal, State and Territory Ministers of Education proclaimed that curriculum should enable all students to ‘understand and acknowledge the value of Indigenous cultures and possess the knowledge, skills and understanding to contribute to, and benefit from reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians’ (MCEETYA 2008, 9). Education holds out promise not only of better life chances for Indigenous young people, but also of replacing myths with understanding and tackling prejudice and racism within the non-Indigenous population. Bernstein’s (2000) model of pedagogic rights promises some purchase on this pedagogic work by providing concepts for looking systematically at the participation of non-Indigenous teachers in education. As observed by Frandji and Vitale (Chapter 2, this volume), the model is not sufficient to achieve a democratic reality, ‘but simply provides a basis for problematizing reality and considering possibilities’.

Convergence problems in a class of model reference adaptive control systems

A class of model reference adaptive control system which make use of an augmented error signal has been introduced by Monopoli. Convergence problems in this attractive class of systems have been investigated in this paper using concepts from hyperstability theory. It is shown that the condition on the linear part of the system has to be stronger than the one given earlier. A boundedness condition on the input to the linear part of the system has been taken into account in the analysis - this condition appears to have been missed in the previous applications of hyperstability theory. Sufficient conditions for the convergence of the adaptive gain to the desired value are also given.

Unified Taxonomy for Reference Ontology of Shape Features in Product Model

This paper presents a unified taxonomy of shape features. Such taxonomy is required to construct ontologies to address heterogeneity in product/shape models. Literature provides separate classifications for volumetric, deformation and free-form surface features. The unified taxonomy proposed allows classification, representation and extraction of shape features in a product model. The novelty of the taxonomy is that the classification is based purely on shape entities and therefore it is possible to automatically extract the features from any shape model. This enables the use of this taxonomy to build reference ontology.

Investment prospects in inland capture fisheries with special reference to small reservoirs: the exclusive fishing right licence model

The paper discusses simple methods of estimating fish yield from small reservoirs and establishes 2 indices of fish yield based on: 1) the relationship between the catch per boat in artisanal commercial fish landings and the catch per unit effort in experimental gill-net survey; and also, 2) the relationship between standing crop of fish in reservoirs and catch per unit effort in experimental gill-net survey. The paper then elaborates on the methods of utilizing these simple relationships in managing small reservoirs in Nigeria based on the principle of exclusive fishing right licence with the objective of attracting investors into this viable inland fishery investment project hitherto untapped