Design and Optimization of Power Delivery and Distribution Systems Using Evolutionary Computation Techniques

Nowadays computing platforms consist of a very large number of components that require to be supplied with diferent voltage levels and power requirements. Even a very small platform, like a handheld computer, may contain more than twenty diferent loads and voltage regulators. The power delivery designers of these systems are required to provide, in a very short time, the right power architecture that optimizes the performance, meets electrical specifications plus cost and size targets. The appropriate selection of the architecture and converters directly defines the performance of a given solution. Therefore, the designer needs to be able to evaluate a significant number of options in order to know with good certainty whether the selected solutions meet the size, energy eficiency and cost targets. The design dificulties of selecting the right solution arise due to the wide range of power conversion products provided by diferent manufacturers. These products range from discrete components (to build converters) to complete power conversion modules that employ diferent manufacturing technologies. Consequently, in most cases it is not possible to analyze all the alternatives (combinations of power architectures and converters) that can be built. The designer has to select a limited number of converters in order to simplify the analysis. In this thesis, in order to overcome the mentioned dificulties, a new design methodology for power supply systems is proposed. This methodology integrates evolutionary computation techniques in order to make possible analyzing a large number of possibilities. This exhaustive analysis helps the designer to quickly define a set of feasible solutions and select the best trade-off in performance according to each application. The proposed approach consists of two key steps, one for the automatic generation of architectures and other for the optimized selection of components. In this thesis are detailed the implementation of these two steps. The usefulness of the methodology is corroborated by contrasting the results using real problems and experiments designed to test the limits of the algorithms.

Distributed models in P-Systems architectures to reduce computation time

Membrane systems are computational equivalent to Turing machines. However, their distributed and massively parallel nature obtains polynomial solutions opposite to traditional non-polynomial ones. At this point, it is very important to develop dedicated hardware and software implementations exploiting those two membrane systems features. Dealing with distributed implementations of P systems, the bottleneck communication problem has arisen. When the number of membranes grows up, the network gets congested. The purpose of distributed architectures is to reach a compromise between the massively parallel character of the system and the needed evolution step time to transit from one configuration of the system to the next one, solving the bottleneck communication problem. The goal of this paper is twofold. Firstly, to survey in a systematic and uniform way the main results regarding the way membranes can be placed on processors in order to get a software/hardware simulation of P-Systems in a distributed environment. Secondly, we improve some results about the membrane dissolution problem, prove that it is connected, and discuss the possibility of simulating this property in the distributed model. All this yields an improvement in the system parallelism implementation since it gets an increment of the parallelism of the external communication among processors. Proposed ideas improve previous architectures to tackle the communication bottleneck problem, such as reduction of the total time of an evolution step, increase of the number of membranes that could run on a processor and reduction of the number of processors.

Modulation-Mode Assignment in SVD-Aided Downlink Multiuser MIMO-OFDM Systems

Multicarrier transmission such as OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) is an established technique for radio transmission systems and it can be considered as a promising approach for next generation wireless systems. However, in order to comply with the demand on increasing available data rates in particular in wireless technologies, systems with multiple transmit and receive antennas, also called MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) systems, have become indispensable for future generations of wireless systems. Due to the strongly increasing demand in high-data rate transmission systems, frequency non-selective MIMO links have reached a state of maturity and frequency selective MIMO links are in the focus of interest. In this field, the combination of MIMO transmission and OFDM can be considered as an essential part of fulfilling the requirements of future generations of wireless systems. However, single-user scenarios have reached a state of maturity. By contrast multiple users' scenarios require substantial further research, where in comparison to ZF (zero-forcing) multiuser transmission techniques, the individual user's channel characteristics are taken into consideration in this contribution. The performed joint optimization of the number of activated MIMO layers and the number of transmitted bits per subcarrier shows that not necessarily all user-specific MIMO layers per subcarrier have to be activated in order to minimize the overall BER under the constraint of a given fixed data throughput.

Modulation-mode assignment in SVD-assisted multiuser MIMO-OFDM systems

In order to comply with the demand on increasing available data rates in particular in wireless technologies, systems with multiple transmit and receive antennas, also called MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) systems, have become indispensable for future generations of wireless systems. Due to the strongly increasing demand in high-data rate transmission systems, frequency non-selective MIMO links have reached a state of maturity and frequency selective MIMO links are in the focus of interest. In this field, the combination of MIMO transmission and OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) can be considered as an essential part of fulfilling the requirements of future generations of wireless systems. However, single-user scenarios have reached a state of maturity. By contrast multiple users’ scenarios require substantial further research, where in comparison to ZF (zero-forcing) multiuser transmission techniques, the individual user’s channel characteristics are taken into consideration in this contribution. The performed joint optimization of the number of activated MIMO layers and the number of transmitted bits per subcarrier along with the appropriate allocation of the transmit power shows that not necessarily all user-specific MIMO layers per subcarrier have to be activated in order to minimize the overall BER under the constraint of a given fixed data throughput.

Membrane Dissolution in Distributed Architectures of P-Systems

The goal of this paper is twofold. Firstly, to survey in a systematic and uniform way the main results regarding the way membranes can be placed on processors in order to get a software/hardware simulation of P-Systems in a distributed environment. Secondly, we improve some results about the membrane dissolution problem, prove that it is connected, and discuss the possibility of simulating this property in the distributed model. All this yields an improvement in the system parallelism implementation since it gets an increment of the parallelism of the external communication among processors. Also, the number of processors grows in such a way that is notorious the increment of the parallelism in the application of the evolution rules and the internal communica-tionsstudy because it gets an increment of the parallelism in the application of the evolution rules and the internal communications. Proposed ideas improve previous architectures to tackle the communication bottleneck problem, such as reduction of the total time of an evolution step, increase of the number of membranes that could run on a processor and reduction of the number of processors

Two Novel Methods For The Determination Of The Number Of Components In Independent Components Analysis Models

Independent Components Analysis is a Blind Source Separation method that aims to find the pure source signals mixed together in unknown proportions in the observed signals under study. It does this by searching for factors which are mutually statistically independent. It can thus be classified among the latent-variable based methods. Like other methods based on latent variables, a careful investigation has to be carried out to find out which factors are significant and which are not. Therefore, it is important to dispose of a validation procedure to decide on the optimal number of independent components to include in the final model. This can be made complicated by the fact that two consecutive models may differ in the order and signs of similarly-indexed ICs. As well, the structure of the extracted sources can change as a function of the number of factors calculated. Two methods for determining the optimal number of ICs are proposed in this article and applied to simulated and real datasets to demonstrate their performance.

Imaging systems application of multichannel configurations

While multichannel configurations are well established for non-imaging applications, they have not been used yet for imaging applications. In this paper we present for the first time some of multichannel designs for imaging systems. The multichannel comprises discontinuous optical sections which are called channels. The phase-space representation of the bundle of rays going from the object to the image is discontinuous between channels. This phase-space ray-bundle flow is divided in as many paths as channels there are but it is a single wavefront both at the source and the target. Typically, these multichannel systems are at least formed by three optical surfaces: two of them have discontinuities (either in the shape or in the shape derivative) while the last is a smooth one. Optical surfaces discontinuities cause at the phase space the wave front split in separate paths. The number of discontinuities is the same in the two first surfaces: Each channel is defined by the smooth surfaces in between discontinuities, so the surfaces forming each separate channel are all smooth. Aplanatic multichannel designs are also shown and used to explain the design procedure.

Fast Correction of Tiled Display Systems on Planar Surfaces

A method for fast colour and geometric correction of a tiled display system is presented in this paper. Such kind of displays are a common choice for virtual reality applications and simulators, where a high resolution image is required. They are the cheapest and more flexible alternative for large image generation but they require a precise geometric and colour correction. The purpose of the proposed method is to correct the projection system as fast as possible so in case the system needs to be recalibrated it doesn’t interfere with the normal operation of the simulator or virtual reality application. This technique makes use of a single conventional webcam for both geometric and photometric correction. Some previous assumptions are made, like planar projection surface and negligibleintra-projector colour variation and black-offset levels. If these assumptions hold true, geometric and photometric seamlessness can be achievedfor this kind of display systems. The method described in this paper is scalable for an undefined number of projectors and completely automatic.

Modulation-mode Assignment for SVD-assisted Multiuser MIMO Systems with Correlation.

Multiuser multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) downlink (DL) transmission schemes experience both multiuser interference as well as inter-antenna interference. The singular value decomposition provides an appropriate mean to process channel information and allows us to take the individual user’s channel characteristics into account rather than treating all users channels jointly as in zero-forcing (ZF) multiuser transmission techniques. However, uncorrelated MIMO channels has attracted a lot of attention and reached a state of maturity. By contrast, the performance analysis in the presence of antenna fading correlation, which decreases the channel capacity, requires substantial further research. The joint optimization of the number of activated MIMO layers and the number of bits per symbol along with the appropriate allocation of the transmit power shows that not necessarily all user-specific MIMO layers has to be activated in order to minimize the overall BER under the constraint of a given fixed data throughput.

Modulation-mode Assignment in SVD-assisted Multiuser MIMO-OFDM Systems

In order to comply with the demand on increasing available data rates in particular in wireless technologies, systems with multiple transmit and receive antennas, also called MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) systems, have become indispensable for future generations of wireless systems. Due to the strongly increasing demand in high-data rate transmission systems, frequency non-selective MIMO links have reached a state of maturity and frequency selective MIMO links are in the focus of interest. In this field, the combination of MIMO transmission and OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) can be considered as an essential part of fulfilling the requirements of future generations of wireless systems. However, single-user scenarios have reached a state of maturity. By contrast multiple users’ scenarios require substantial further research, where in comparison to ZF (zero-forcing) multiuser transmission techniques, the individual user’s channel characteristics are taken into consideration in this contribution. The performed joint optimization of the number of activated MIMO layers and the number of transmitted bits per subcarrier along with the appropriate allocation of the transmit power shows that not necessarily all user-specific MIMO layers per subcarrier have to be activated in order to minimize the overall BER under the constraint of a given fixed data throughput

Exploiting Structured Linked Data in Enterprise Knowledge Management Systems: An Idea Management Case Study

In parallel to the effort of creating Open Linked Data for the World Wide Web there is a number of projects aimed for developing the same technologies but in the context of their usage in closed environments such as private enterprises. In the paper, we present results of research on interlinking structured data for use in Idea Management Systems - a still rare breed of knowledge management systems dedicated to innovation management. In our study, we show the process of extending an ontology that initially covers only the Idea Management System structure towards the concept of linking with distributed enterprise data and public data using Semantic Web technologies. Furthermore we point out how the established links can help to solve the key problems of contemporary Idea Management Systems

An optimization method for conceptual design in engineering systems based on high order singular value decomposition

Se presenta un nuevo método de diseño conceptual en Ingeniería Aeronáutica basado el uso de modelos reducidos, también llamados modelos sustitutos (‘surrogates’). Los ingredientes de la función objetivo se calculan para cada indiviudo mediante la utilización de modelos sustitutos asociados a las distintas disciplinas técnicas que se construyen mediante definiciones de descomposición en valores singulares de alto orden (HOSVD) e interpolaciones unidimensionales. Estos modelos sustitutos se obtienen a partir de un número limitado de cálculos CFD. Los modelos sustitutos pueden combinarse, bien con un método de optimización global de tipo algoritmo genético, o con un método local de tipo gradiente. El método resultate es flexible a la par que mucho más eficiente, computacionalmente hablando, que los modelos convencionales basados en el cálculo directo de la función objetivo, especialmente si aparecen un gran número de parámetros de diseño y/o de modelado. El método se ilustra considerando una versión simplificada del diseño conceptual de un avión. Abstract An optimization method for conceptual design in Aeronautics is presented that is based on the use of surrogate models. The various ingredients in the target function are calculated for each individual using surrogates of the associated technical disciplines that are constructed via high order singular value decomposition and one dimensional interpolation. These surrogates result from a limited number of CFD calculated snapshots. The surrogates are combined with an optimization method, which can be either a global optimization method such as a genetic algorithm or a local optimization method, such as a gradient-like method. The resulting method is both flexible and much more computationally efficient than the conventional method based on direct calculation of the target function, especially if a large number of free design parameters and/or tunablemodeling parameters are present. The method is illustrated considering a simplified version of the conceptual design of an aircraft empennage.

Improving the efficiency of nondeterministic indepemndent and-parallel systems

We present the design and implementation of the and-parallel component of ACE. ACE is a computational model for the full Prolog language that simultaneously exploits both or-parallelism and independent and-parallelism. A high performance implementation of the ACE model has been realized and its performance reported in this paper. We discuss how some of the standard problems which appear when implementing and-parallel systems are solved in ACE. We then propose a number of optimizations aimed at reducing the overheads and the increased memory consumption which occur in such systems when using previously proposed solutions. Finally, we present results from an implementation of ACE which includes the optimizations proposed. The results show that ACE exploits and-parallelism with high efficiency and high speedups. Furthermore, they also show that the proposed optimizations, which are applicable to many other and-parallel systems, significantly decrease memory consumption and increase speedups and absolute performance both in forwards execution and during backtracking.

Experiments in abstract interpretation-based code certification for pervasive systems

Proof carrying code (PCC) is a general is originally a roof in ñrst-order logic of certain vermethodology for certifying that the execution of an un- ification onditions and the checking process involves trusted mobile code is safe. The baste idea is that the ensuring that the certifícate is indeed a valid ñrst-order code supplier attaches a certifícate to the mobile code proof. which the consumer checks in order to ensure that the The main practical difñculty of PCC techniques is in code is indeed safe. The potential benefit is that the generating safety certiñeates which at the same time: i) consumer's task is reduced from the level of proving to allow expressing interesting safety properties, ii) can be the level of checking. Recently, the abstract interpre- generated automatically and, iii) are easy and efficient tation techniques developed, in logic programming have to check. In [1], the abstract interpretation techniques been proposed as a basis for PCC. This extended ab- [5] developed in logic programming1 are proposed as stract reports on experiments which illustrate several is- a basis for PCC. They offer a number of advantages sues involved in abstract interpretation-based certifica- for dealing with the aforementioned issues. In particution. First, we describe the implementation of our sys- lar, the xpressiveness of existing abstract domains will tem in the context of CiaoPP: the preprocessor of the be implicitly available in abstract interpretation-based Ciao multi-paradigm programming system. Then, by code certification to deñne a wide range of safety propermeans of some experiments, we show how code certifi- ties. Furthermore, the approach inherits the automation catión is aided in the implementation of the framework. and inference power of the abstract interpretation en- Finally, we discuss the application of our method within gines used in (Constraint) Logic Programming, (C)LP. the área, of pervasive systems

A generic persistence model for CLP systems (and two useful implementations)

This paper describes a model of persistence in (C)LP languages and two different and practically very useful ways to implement this model in current systems. The fundamental idea is that persistence is a characteristic of certain dynamic predicates (Le., those which encapsulate state). The main effect of declaring a predicate persistent is that the dynamic changes made to such predicates persist from one execution to the next one. After proposing a syntax for declaring persistent predicates, a simple, file-based implementation of the concept is presented and some examples shown. An additional implementation is presented which stores persistent predicates in an external datábase. The abstraction of the concept of persistence from its implementation allows developing applications which can store their persistent predicates alternatively in files or databases with only a few simple changes to a declaration stating the location and modality used for persistent storage. The paper presents the model, the implementation approach in both the cases of using files and relational databases, a number of optimizations of the process (using information obtained from static global analysis and goal clustering), and performance results from an implementation of these ideas.