Intelligent animal fiber classification with artificial neural networks

Artificial neural networks (ANN) are increasingly used to solve many problems related to pattern recognition and object classification. In this paper, we report on a study using artificial neural networks to classify two kinds of animal fibers: merino and mohair. We have developed two different models, one extracting nine scale parameters with image processing, and the other using an unsupervised artificial neural network to extract features automatically, which are determined in accordance with the complexity of the scale structure and the accuracy of the model. Although the first model can achieve higher accuracy, it requires more effort for image processing and more prior knowledge, since the accuracy of the ANN largely depends on the parameters selected. The second model is more robust than the first, since only raw images are used. Because only ordinary optical images taken with a microscope are employed, we can use the approach for many textile applications without expensive equipment such as scanning electron microscopy.

Visual feedback control of a robot in an unknown environment (learning control using neural networks)

In this paper, a visual feedback control approach based on neural networks is presented for a robot with a camera installed on its end-effector to trace an object in an unknown environment. First, the one-to-one mapping relations between the image feature domain of the object to the joint angle domain of the robot are derived. Second, a method is proposed to generate a desired trajectory of the robot by measuring the image feature parameters of the object. Third, a multilayer neural network is used for off-line learning of the mapping relations so as to produce on-line the reference inputs for the robot. Fourth, a learning controller based on a multilayer neural network is designed for realizing the visual feedback control of the robot. Last, the effectiveness of the present approach is verified by tracing a curved line using a 6-degrees-of-freedom robot with a CCD camera installed on its end-effector. The present approach does not necessitate the tedious calibration of the CCD camera and the complicated coordinate transformations.

Global optimisation of neural networks using a deterministic hybrid approach

Selection of the topology of a neural network and correct parameters for the learning algorithm is a tedious task for designing an optimal artificial neural network, which is smaller, faster and with a better generalization performance. In this paper we introduce a recently developed cutting angle method (a deterministic technique) for global optimization of connection weights. Neural networks are initially trained using the cutting angle method and later the learning is fine-tuned (meta-learning) using conventional gradient descent or other optimization techniques. Experiments were carried out on three time series benchmarks and a comparison was done using evolutionary neural networks. Our preliminary experimentation results show that the proposed deterministic approach could provide near optimal results much faster than the evolutionary approach.

Predicting the distribution of discrete spatial events using artificial neural networks

Although the development of geographic information system (GIS) technology and digital data manipulation techniques has enabled practitioners in the geographical and geophysical sciences to make more efficient use of resource information, many of the methods used in forming spatial prediction models are still inherently based on traditional techniques of map stacking in which layers of data are combined under the guidance of a theoretical domain model. This paper describes a data-driven approach by which Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) can be trained to represent a function characterising the probability that an instance of a discrete event, such as the presence of a mineral deposit or the sighting of an endangered animal species, will occur over some grid element of the spatial area under consideration. A case study describes the application of the technique to the task of mineral prospectivity mapping in the Castlemaine region of Victoria using a range of geological, geophysical and geochemical input variables. Comparison of the maps produced using neural networks with maps produced using a density estimation-based technique demonstrates that the maps can reliably be interpreted as representing probabilities. However, while the neural network model and the density estimation-based model yield similar results under an appropriate choice of values for the respective parameters, the neural network approach has several advantages, especially in high dimensional input spaces.

Application of neural networks as an auxiliary technique in the modelling of power station

Artificial neural network (NN) is an alternative way (to conventional physical or chemical based modeling technique) to solve complex ill-defined problems. Neural networks trained from historical data are able to handle nonlinear problems and to find the relationship between input data and output data when there is no obvious one between them. Neural Networks has been successfully used in control, robotic, pattern recognition, forecasting areas. This paper presents an application of neural networks in finding some key factors eg. heat loss factor in power station modeling process. In the conventional modeling of power station, these factors such as heat loss are normally determined by experience or “rule of thumb”. To get an accurate estimation of these factors special experiment needs to be carried out and is a very time consuming process. In this paper the neural networks (technique) is used to assist this difficult conventional modeling process. The historical data from a real running brown coal power station in Victoria has been used to train the neural network model and the outcomes of the trained NN model will be used to determine the factors in the conventional energy modeling of the power stations that is under the development as a part of an on-going ARC Linkage project aiming to detail modeling the internal energy flows in the power station.

A self-learning system for identifying harmful network information

Network information identification is a “hot” topic currently. This paper designs a self-learning system using neural network algorithm for identifying the harmful network messages of both Chinese and English languages. The system segments the message into words and creates key word vector which characterizes the harmful network information. The BP algorithm is taken advantage of to train the neural network. The result of training and studying of the neural network can be applied onto many network applications based on message identification. The result of experiments demonstrates that our system has a high degree of accuracy.

The application of rough set and Kohonen network to feature selection for object extraction

Selecting a set of features which is optimal for a given task is a problem which plays an important role in a wide variety of contexts including pattern recognition, images understanding and machine learning. The paper describes an application of rough sets method to feature selection and reduction in texture images recognition. The proposed methods include continuous data discretization based on Kohonen neural network and maximum covariance, and rough set algorithms for feature selection and reduction. The experiments on trees extraction from aerial images show that the methods presented in this paper are practical and effective.

Fuzzy neural networks for control of dynamic systems

This thesis provides a unified and comprehensive treatment of the fuzzy neural networks as the intelligent controllers. This work has been motivated by a need to develop the solid control methodologies capable of coping with the complexity, the nonlinearity, the interactions, and the time variance of the processes under control. In addition, the dynamic behavior of such processes is strongly influenced by the disturbances and the noise, and such processes are characterized by a large degree of uncertainty. Therefore, it is important to integrate an intelligent component to increase the control system ability to extract the functional relationships from the process and to change such relationships to improve the control precision, that is, to display the learning and the reasoning abilities. The objective of this thesis was to develop a self-organizing learning controller for above processes by using a combination of the fuzzy logic and the neural networks. An on-line, direct fuzzy neural controller using the process input-output measurement data and the reference model with both structural and parameter tuning has been developed to fulfill the above objective. A number of practical issues were considered. This includes the dynamic construction of the controller in order to alleviate the bias/variance dilemma, the universal approximation property, and the requirements of the locality and the linearity in the parameters. Several important issues in the intelligent control were also considered such as the overall control scheme, the requirement of the persistency of excitation and the bounded learning rates of the controller for the overall closed loop stability. Other important issues considered in this thesis include the dependence of the generalization ability and the optimization methods on the data distribution, and the requirements for the on-line learning and the feedback structure of the controller. Fuzzy inference specific issues such as the influence of the choice of the defuzzification method, T-norm operator and the membership function on the overall performance of the controller were also discussed. In addition, the e-completeness requirement and the use of the fuzzy similarity measure were also investigated. Main emphasis of the thesis has been on the applications to the real-world problems such as the industrial process control. The applicability of the proposed method has been demonstrated through the empirical studies on several real-world control problems of industrial complexity. This includes the temperature and the number-average molecular weight control in the continuous stirred tank polymerization reactor, and the torsional vibration, the eccentricity, the hardness and the thickness control in the cold rolling mills. Compared to the traditional linear controllers and the dynamically constructed neural network, the proposed fuzzy neural controller shows the highest promise as an effective approach to such nonlinear multi-variable control problems with the strong influence of the disturbances and the noise on the dynamic process behavior. In addition, the applicability of the proposed method beyond the strictly control area has also been investigated, in particular to the data mining and the knowledge elicitation. When compared to the decision tree method and the pruned neural network method for the data mining, the proposed fuzzy neural network is able to achieve a comparable accuracy with a more compact set of rules. In addition, the performance of the proposed fuzzy neural network is much better for the classes with the low occurrences in the data set compared to the decision tree method. Thus, the proposed fuzzy neural network may be very useful in situations where the important information is contained in a small fraction of the available data.

Design and degradation modelling through artificial neural networks

Automotive is one of the major manufacturing industries in Australia that requires extensive reliability test for the components used in vehicles. To achieve a shorter time-to-market and a highly reliable product while reducing the amount of physical prototyping, there is a growing need for better understanding on the effect that the design parameters have on the degradation of the product. This paper presents comprehensive descriptions of applying Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to capture the relationships between design and degradation. Consequently, two models of different practical significance are created as the result of the work. The vision of the models is to be used by the testers and designers as a guideline in design evaluation, so that time-consuming and expensive iterations of the product developmental cycle can be reduced substantially. The degradation of the folding force of a mechanical system is used to illustrate our approach.

Identification and classification of animal fibres using artificial neural networks

It has been an important and challenging task to classify and evaluate the contents in wool blends. Quantitative characterisation of animal fibre scale patterns has attracted considerable attention, since it is the major evidence for identification and subsequent classification purpose. Although techniques such as imaging processing and linear demarcation functions have been used to identify unknown fibre type with some success, a more comprehensive approach is required to perform this task. In this paper, a new approach is presented, which employs non-linear demarcation functions by using an artificial neural network (ANN). Based on scale pattern features extracted by using image processing techniques the artificial neural network (ANN) model is to classify mohair and merino fibres. It is observed that the techniques developed in this work are very effective and have the potential to be applied to other animal fibres.

Chaos theory based detection against network mimicking DDoS attacks

DDoS attack traffic is difficult to differentiate from legitimate network traffic during transit from the attacker, or zombies, to the victim. In this paper, we use the theory of network self-similarity to differentiate DDoS flooding attack traffic from legitimate self-similar traffic in the network. We observed that DDoS traffic causes a strange attractor to develop in the pattern of network traffic. From this observation, we developed a neural network detector trained by our DDoS prediction algorithm. Our preliminary experiments and analysis indicate that our proposed chaotic model can accurately and effectively detect DDoS attack traffic. Our approach has the potential to not only detect attack traffic during transit, but to also filter it.

Improving prediction interval quality : a genetic algorithm-based method applied to neural networks

The delta technique has been proposed in literature for constructing
prediction intervals for targets estimated by neural networks. Quality of constructed prediction intervals using this technique highly depends on neural network characteristics. Unfortunately, literature is void of information about how these dependences can be managed in order to optimize prediction intervals. This study attempts to optimize length and coverage probability of prediction intervals through modifying structure and parameters of the underlying neural networks. In an evolutionary optimization, genetic algorithm is applied for finding the optimal values of network size and training hyper-parameters. The applicability and efficiency of the proposed optimization technique is examined and demonstrated using a real case study. It is shown that application of the proposed optimization technique significantly improves quality of constructed prediction intervals in term of length and coverage probability.

Mixed transfer function neural networks for knowledge acquistition

Modeling helps to understand and predict the outcome of complex systems. Inductive modeling methodologies are beneficial for modeling the systems where the uncertainties involved in the system do not permit to obtain an accurate physical model. However inductive models, like artificial neural networks (ANNs), may suffer from a few drawbacks involving over-fitting and the difficulty to easily understand the model itself. This can result in user reluctance to accept the model or even complete rejection of the modeling results. Thus, it becomes highly desirable to make such inductive models more comprehensible and to automatically determine the model complexity to avoid over-fitting. In this paper, we propose a novel type of ANN, a mixed transfer function artificial neural network (MTFANN), which aims to improve the complexity fitting and comprehensibility of the most popular type of ANN (MLP - a Multilayer Perceptron).

Load forecasting and neural networks : a prediction interval-based perspective

Successfully determining competitive optimal schedules for electricity generation intimately hinges on the forecasts of loads. The nonstationarity and high volatility of loads make their accurate prediction somewhat problematic. Presence of uncertainty in data also significantly degrades accuracy of point predictions produced by deterministic load forecasting models. Therefore, operation planning utilizing these predictions will be unreliable. This paper aims at developing prediction intervals rather than producing exact point prediction. Prediction intervals are theatrically more reliable and practical than predicted values. The delta and Bayesian techniques for constructing prediction intervals for forecasted loads are implemented here. To objectively and comprehensively assess quality of constructed prediction intervals, a new index based on length and coverage probability of prediction intervals is developed. In experiments with real data, and through calculation of global statistics, it is shown that neural network point prediction performance is unreliable. In contrast, prediction intervals developed using the delta and Bayesian techniques are satisfactorily narrow, with a high coverage probability.