Sharif Digital Repository

In this work we study the problem of whether all trajectories of the system ẋ=y-F(x) and ẏ=-g(x) cross the vertical isocline, which is very important for the existence of periodic solutions and oscillation theory. Sufficient conditions are given for all trajectories to cross the vertical isocline. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved  

In the present paper, some new and compact basis-free expressions are derived for representing stresses conjugate to the Lagrangean Hill's strain measures. Solving a tensor equation in the form of AX + XA = C, a rather simple general expression is obtained for the conjugate stresses in the case of distinct principal stretches. The result decomposes the conjugate stresses additively into two parts, such that one part is coaxial with the right stretch tensor while another part is orthogonal to it. An expression for the case of double-coalescent principal stretches is also obtained. As an example of the general results, simple expressions are obtained for the stress conjugate to the logarithmic... 

In this paper, an anisotropic weight function in the elliptic form is introduced for the Element Free Galerkin Method (EFGM). In the circular (isotropic) weight function, each node has one characteristic parameter that determines its domain of influence. In the elliptic weight function, each node has three characteristic parameters that are major influence radius, minor influence radius and the direction of the major influence. Using the elliptic weight function each point of the domain may be affected by a less number of nodes in certain conditions. Thus, the computational cost of the method is decreased. In addition, the dependency of the solution on the method that is used for the... 

This paper considers a project scheduling problem with the objective of minimizing resource availability costs required to execute the activities in a project by a given project deadline. The project contains activities interrelated by finish-start-type precedence relations with a time lag of zero, which require a set of renewable resources. Two metaheuristics, path relinking and genetic algorithm, are developed to tackle this problem in which a schedule is created with a precedence feasible priority list given to the schedule generation scheme. In these procedures, each new generation of solutions are created using the combination of current solutions. Comparative computational results... 

In this paper, we develop a metaheuristic procedure for solving the discrete time/resource trade-off problem in the field of project scheduling. In this problem, a project contains activities interrelated by finish-start-type precedence constraints with a time lag of zero, which require a single constrained renewable resource. Each activity has a specified work content and can be performed in different modes, i.e. with different durations and resource requirements; as long as the required work content is met. The objective is to schedule each activity in one of its modes in order to minimize the project makespan. To tackle this problem, we use a genetic algorithm in which a new method based... 

Recently, Ghanbari and Mahdavi-Amiri (Appl Math Model 34:3363–3375, 2010) gave the general compromised solution of an LR fuzzy linear system using ABS algorithm. Here, using this general solution, we solve quadratic programming problems with fuzzy LR variables. We convert fuzzy quadratic programming problem to a crisp quadratic problem by using general solution of fuzzy linear system. By using this method, the crisp optimization problem has fewer variables in comparison with other methods, specially when rank of the coefficient matrix is full. Thus, solving the fuzzy quadratic programming problem by using our proposed method is computationally easier than the solving fuzzy quadratic... 

This paper introduces a novel and practical integration of the inventory control and vendor selection problems for a manufacturing system that provides multiple products for several stores located in different places. The replenishment policy of each store is the economic order quantity under a multi-sourcing strategy in which the demand rate decreases as the selling price increases. In this strategy, the ordered quantity of each store for each product can be replenished by a set of selected vendors among all. In addition, the selected vendors can deliver the required products within a certain time window based on a soft time-window mechanism. The aim is to minimize the total system cost and... 

An approximated quadratic programming algorithm is proposed to determine a model predictive controller, which is applied to the scheduling problem. We name the algorithm Sub-optimal Model Predictive Control Scheduler (SMPCS). The SMPCS prepares a platform to guarantee end to end proportional delay in DiffServ architecture. This paper investigates the complication of SMPCS and its implementation problems in high speed routers. In order to efficiently implement the controller we admit sub-optimal results against reduction in the complexity of the optimizer. Simulation results show that the proposed approximation improves speed of the controller considerably. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg... 

The regularity problem of heat conduction equation corresponding to modeling of solidification based on the latent heat evolution approach is considered in the present study. It is shown that the corresponding PDE is actually semi-smooth, an issue that has not been taken into account explicitly in the related literature. A general smoothing (regularization) strategy is introduced to solve this problem. More specifically, the smoothed version of the effective heat capacity method is presented in this work. The presented approach is applied to model the quasi steady-state heat transfer problem in the continuous casting process. Numerical experiments demonstrate the success of the presented... 

We have applied Rosenbrock's optimization algorithm to obtain the optimized efficiency of a solar cell and its structural parameters. To obtain these parameters, we have developed a computer program for simultaneous optimization and simulation of the solar cell. We have used experimental data on the electrical and optical properties of a-Si1-xCx layers, put them into the written code and obtained the optimized parameters of this solar cell. The maximum efficiency is 6.32% which is close to one experimental result. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved  

How can we remove some interactions (generate shorter clauses) in a constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) such that it still remains satisfiable? In this paper we study a modified survey propagation algorithm that enables us to address this question for a prototypical CSP, i.e., random K -satisfiability problem. The average number of removed interactions is controlled by a tuning parameter in the algorithm. If the original problem is satisfiable then we are able to construct satisfiable subproblems ranging from the original one to a minimal one with minimum possible number of interactions. The minimal satisfiable subproblems will directly provide the solutions of the original problem. © 2006... 

For a moving camera recognizing that it has seen a place before now, is one the most important issues in the 3D reconstruction problems. In these problems, the main goal is to create a three-dimensional model from a sequence of 2D captured images during different times. That part of the scene which is rendered by a camera is often modeled by a frustum. Calculating the amount of intersection of two camera view frustums at different times can help to solve this problem. However, there are two major difficulties. First, calculating the intersection of two frustums, in general, is so complicated. And second, there are some uncertainties in the moving camera parameters over time. In this paper,... 

Cloud manufacturing as an emerging service-oriented manufacturing paradigm integrates and manages geographically distributed manufacturing resources such that complex and highly customized manufacturing tasks can be performed cooperatively. The service composition and optimal selection (SCOS) problem, in which manufacturing cloud services are optimally selected for performing subtasks, is one of the key issues for implementing a cloud manufacturing system. In this paper, we propose a new mixed-integer programming model for solving the SCOS problem with sequential composition structure. Unlike the majority of previous research on the problem, in the proposed model, the transportation between... 

Flow shop scheduling problems with sequence-dependent setup times and minimising the number of tardy jobs as the criterion (F m |prmu, S ijk |∑U j) are considered in this research. A mixed-integer linear programming model is developed for the research problem. Since the proposed research problem has been proven to be NP-hard, several meta-heuristic algorithms based on tabu search (TS) and the imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) are proposed to heuristically solve the problem. In order to find the best meta-heuristic algorithm, random test problems, ranging in size from small, medium, to large, are generated and solved by the meta-heuristic algorithms. Then, a detailed statistical... 

Measurements and sensing implementations impose certain cost in sensor networks. The sensor selection cost optimisation is the problem of minimising the sensing cost of monitoring a physical (or cyber-physical) system. Consider a given set of sensors tracking states of a dynamical system for estimation purposes. For each sensor assume different costs to measure different (realisable) states. The idea is to assign sensors to measure states such that the global cost is minimised. The number and selection of sensor measurements need to ensure the observability to track the dynamic state of the system with bounded estimation error. The main question we address is how to select the state... 

In this paper, a new approach for online reactive path generation and control of multi-agent systems is proposed. This method is based on local optimization techniques used for solving the inverse kinematic problem of redundant manipulators. Convergence of the agents' velocities to the desired values in the null-space of the primary task is guaranteed by introducing a new control law. The efficacy of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated through simulation experiments. © 2006 IEEE  

Peer-to-peer networks are beginning to form the infrastructure of future applications. One of the problems with non structured peer-to-peer networks is their scalability limitation. These networks can't contain a large number of nodes because of the large amount of traffic that they have to handle. HyperCup is a structured overlay network that solves the scalability problem for message broadcasts. This overlay broadcasts search queries throughout the entire network and all nodes receive broadcasted messages. In this paper we introduce Semantic HyperCup, an extension of HyperCup which uses semantic data to route messages and reduce overlay network traffic through search queries. © 2006 IEEE  

Key pre-distribution algorithms have recently emerged as efficient alternatives of key management in today's secure communications landscape. Secure routing techniques using key pre-distribution algorithms require special algorithms capable of finding optimal secure overlay paths. To the best of our knowledge, the literature of key pre-distribution systems is still facing a major void in proposing optimal overlay routing algorithms. In the literature work, traditional routing algorithms are typically used twice to find a NETWORK layer path from the source node to the destination and then to find required cryptographic paths. In this paper, we model the problem of secure routing using... 

In this paper a new approach to dynamics optimization of rough terrain rovers is introduced. Since rover wheels traction has a significant role in rover mobility, optimization is based on the minimization of traction at rover wheel-ground interfaces. The method of optimization chosen is Genetic Algorithm (GA) which is a directed random search technique along with the usual optimization based on directional derivatives. GA is a suitable and efficient method of optimization for nonlinear problems. The procedure is applied on a specific rough terrain rover called CEDRA-I Shrimp Rover. Dynamical equations are obtained using Kane's method. Finally, the results are verified by modeling of the... 

Control1,2 of a class of uncertain nonlinear systems which estimates unavailable state variables is considered. A new approach for robust tracking control problem of satellite for large rotational maneuvers is presented in this paper. The features of this approach include -a strong algorithm to estimate attitude, based on discrete extended kalman filter combined with a continuous extended kalman filter and attitude nonlinear model -a robust controller based on sliding-mode with perturbation estimation. The estimation result of interval kalman filtering is a sequence of interval estimates that encompasses all possible optimal attitude estimates, which the interval system may generate. The...