No other book has been published giving a single-volume introduction and survey to production planning in distributed manufacturing networks. The published literature so far includes conference proceedings only.

This book discusses the radical technological changes occurring due to Industry 4.0, with a focus on offering a better understanding of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It also presents a detailed analysis of interdisciplinary knowledge, numerical modeling and simulation, and the application of cyber-physical systems, where information technology and physical devices create synergic systems leading to unprecedented efficiency. The book focuses on industrial applications of automation and robotics. It covers recent developments and trends occurring in both computer-aided manufacturing techniques, as well as computer-aided assembly techniques. Robots using embedded systems and artificial intelligence applications are also covered. Industrial Automation and Robotics: Techniques and Applications offers theoretical results, practical solutions, and guidelines that are valuable for both researchers and those working in the area of engineering.

The application of Computational Intelligence in emerging research areas such as Granular Computing, Mechatronics, and Bioinformatics shows its usefulness often emphasized by Prof Lotfi Zadeh, the inventor of fuzzy logic and many others. This book contains recent advances in Computational Intelligence methods for modeling, optimization and prediction and covers a large number of applications. The book presents new Computational Intelligence theory and methods for modeling and prediction. The range of the various applications is captured with 5 chapters in image processing, 2 chapters in audio processing, 3 chapters in commerce and finance, 2 chapters in communication networks and 6 chapters containing other applications.

PAAMS, the International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems is an evolution of the International Workshop on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. PAAMS is an international yearly tribune to present, to discuss, and to disseminate the latest developments and the most important outcomes related to real-world applications. It provides a unique opportunity to bring multi-disciplinary experts, academics and practitioners together to exchange their experience in the development of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems.

This volume presents the papers that have been accepted for the 2009 edition. These articles capture the most innovative results and this year's trends: Assisted Cognition, E-Commerce, Grid Computing, Human Modelling, Information Systems, Knowledge Management, Agent-Based Simulation, Software Development, Transports, Trust and Security. Each paper has been reviewed by three different reviewers, from an international committee composed of 64 members from 20 different countries. From the 92 submissions received, 35 were selected for full presentation at the conference, and 26 were accepted as posters.

This volume reflects the theme of the INFORMS 2004 Meeting in Denver: Back to OR Roots. Emerging as a quantitative approach to problem-solving in World War II, our founders were physicists, mathematicians, and engineers who quickly found peace-time uses. It is fair to say that Operations Research (OR) was born in the same incubator as computer science, and it has spawned many new disciplines, such as systems engineering, health care management, and transportation science. Although people from many disciplines routinely use OR methods, many scientific researchers, engineers, and others do not understand basic OR tools and how they can help them. Disciplines ranging from finance to bioengineering are the beneficiaries of what we do - we take an interdisciplinary approach to problem-solving. Our strengths are modeling, analysis, and algorithm design. We provide a quanti- tive foundation for a broad spectrum of problems, from economics to medicine, from environmental control to sports, from e-commerce to computational - ometry. We are both producers and consumers because the mainstream of OR is in the interfaces. As part of this effort to recognize and extend OR roots in future probl- solving, we organized a set of tutorials designed for people who heard of the topic and want to decide whether to learn it. The 90 minutes was spent addre- ing the questions: What is this about, in a nutshell? Why is it important? Where can I learn more? In total, we had 14 tutorials, and eight of them are published here.

Create high-quality photorealistic renders of architectural visualizations using 3ds Max and Vray with the project-based tutorials in this book. Learn how to combine lighting and rendering options to end-up with the most realistic final renders possible at a professional level. The tutorials in this book are filled with beautiful full-color images and they teach you how to light both interiors and exteriors and daytime and nighttime scenes. Learn how to save time without sacrificing the quality of your final renders with tips and tricks on rendering with Vray - the most accurate rendering application for 3ds Max. The downloadable resources include all the project files that you need to recreate each of the projects presented within the book. Please note that this book does not support the current versions of 3ds Max and V-Ray. Topics include:

This book is the essential guide to the pedagogical and industry-inspired considerations that must shape how BIM is taught and learned. It will help academics and professional educators to develop programmes that meet the competences required by professional bodies and prepare both graduates and existing practitioners to advance the industry towards higher efficiency and quality. To date, systematic efforts to integrate pedagogical considerations into the way BIM is learned and taught remain non-existent. This book lays the foundation for forming a benchmark around which such an effort is made. It offers principles, best practices, and expected outcomes necessary to BIM curriculum and teaching development for construction-related programs across universities and professional training programmes. The aim of the book is to: Highlight BIM skill requirements, threshold concepts, and dimensions for practice; Showcase and introduce tried-and-tested practices and lessons learned in developing BIM-related curricula from leading educators; Recognise and introduce the baseline requirements for BIM education from a pedagogical perspective; Explore the challenges, as well as remedial solutions, pertaining to BIM education at tertiary education; Form a comprehensive point of reference, covering the essential concepts of BIM, for students; Promote and integrate pedagogical consideration into BIM education. This book is essential reading for anyone involved in BIM education, digital construction, architecture, and engineering, and for professionals looking for guidance on what the industry expects when it comes to BIM competency.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Automated Technology for Verification and Analysis, ATVA 2007, held in Tokyo, Japan, October 22-25, 2007.

The 29 revised full papers presented together with 7 short papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 88 submissions. The papers address theoretical methods to achieve correct software or hardware systems, including both functional and non functional aspects; as well as applications of theory in engineering methods and particular domains and handling of practical problems occurring in tools.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Cooperative Design, Visualization, and Engineering, CDVE 2007, held in Shanghai, China, September 16-20, 2007.

The papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The papers cover all current issues in cooperative design, visualization, and engineering, ranging from theoretical and methodological topics to various systems and frameworks to applications in a variety of fields.

For the past decade or so, Computational Intelligence (CI) has been an - tremely "hot" topic amongst researchers working in the ?elds of biomedicine and bioinformatics. There are many successful applications of CI in such areas ascomputationalgenomics, predictionofgeneexpression, proteinstructure, and protein-protein interactions, modeling of evolution, or neuronal systems mod- ing and analysis. However, there still are many problems in biomedicine and bioinformatics that are in desperate need of advanced and e?cient compu- tional methodologies to deal with tremendous amounts of data so prevalent in those kinds of researchpursuits. Unfortunately, scientists in both these ?elds are very often unaware of the abundance of computational techniques that could be put to use to help them analyze and understand the data underlying their research inquiries. On the other hand, computational intelligence practitioners are often unfamiliar with the particular problems that their algorithms could be successfully applied for. The separation between the two worlds is partially caused by the use of di?erent languages in these two spheres of science, but also by a relatively small number of publications devoted solely to the purpose of facilitating the exchange of new computational algorithms and methodologies on one hand, and the needs of the realms of biomedicine and bioinformatics on the other. Inordertohelp?llthegapbetweenthescientistsonbothsidesofthisspectrum, wehavesolicitedcontributionsfromresearchersactivelyapplyingcomputational intelligencetechniquestoimportantproblemsinbiomedicineandbioinformatics. The purpose of this book is to provide an overview of powerful state-of-the-art methodologiesthatarecurrentlyutilizedforbiomedicine-and/orbioinformati- orientedapplications, sothatresearchersworkinginthose?eldscouldlearnofnew methodstohelpthemtackletheirproblems. Ontheotherhand, wealsohopethat the CI community will ?nd this book useful by discovering a new and intriguing area of applications.

IMPROVE stands for "Information Technology Support for Collaborative and Distributed Design Processes in Chemical Engineering" and is a large joint project of research institutions at RWTH Aachen University. This volume summarizes the results after 9 years of cooperative research work.

The focus of IMRPOVE is on understanding, formalizing, evaluating, and, consequently, improving design processes in chemical engineering. In particular, IMPROVE focuses on conceptual design and basic engineering, where the fundamental decisions concerning the design or redesign of a chemical plant are undertaken. Design processes are analyzed and evaluated in collaboration with industrial partners.

The Second International Conference on Fuzzy Information and Engineering (ICFIE2007), built on the success of previous conferences, the ICIKE2002 (Dalian China), is a major symposium for scientists, engineers and practitioners in China as well as the world to present their latest results, ideas, developments and applications in all areas of fuzzy information and knowledge engineering. It aims to strengthen relations between industry research laboratories and universities, and to create a primary symposium for world scientists in fuzzy fields such as Fuzzy Information, Fuzzy Sets and Systems, Soft Computing, Fuzzy Engineering, Fuzzy Operation Research and Management, Artificial Intelligence, Rough Sets and Its Application, Application in Fuzzy Mathematics and Systems, etc.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Automated Technology for Verification and Analysis, ATVA 2006, held in Beijing, China in October 2006.

The 35 revised full papers presented together with abstracts of three keynote papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 137 submissions.

Computer aided design (CAD) emerged in the 1960s out of the growing acceptance of the use of the computer as a design tool for complex systems. As computers have become faster and less expensive while handling an increasing amount of information, their use in machine design has spread from large industrial needs to the small designer.

This book brings together diverse voices from across the field of sustainable human computer interaction (SHCI) to discuss what it means for digital technology to support sustainability and how humans and technology can work together optimally for a more sustainable future. Contemporary digital technologies are hailed by tech companies, governments and academics as leading-edge solutions to the challenges of environmental sustainability; smarter homes, more persuasive technologies, and a robust Internet of Things hold the promise for creating a greener world. Yet, deployments of interactive technologies for such purposes often lead to a paradox: they algorithmically "optimize" heating and lighting of houses without regard to the dynamics of daily life in the home; they can collect and display data that allow us to reflect on energy and emissions, yet the same information can cause us to raise our expectations for comfort and convenience; they might allow us to share best practice for sustainable living through social networking and online communities, yet these same systems further our participation in consumerism and contribute to an ever-greater volume of electronic waste.By acknowledging these paradoxes, this book represents a significant critical inquiry into digital technology's longer-term impact on ideals of sustainability. Written by an interdisciplinary team of contributors this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of human computer interaction and environmental studies.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Conference on Industrial Applications of Holonic and Multi-Agent Systems, HoloMAS 2007, held in Regensburg, Germany, September 3 - 5, 2007.

The 39 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 63 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on theoretical and methodological issues, algorithms and technologies, implementation and validation aspects, applications, and supply chain management.

Diffractive optical elements (DOEs) are becoming more and more widely used in a braod range of fields, including telecommunications, optical computing, consumer electronics, laser material processing and the biomedical sciences, to manipulate light through micro-optical systems. In order to get the most out of such DOEs, knowledge of the design process, fabrication, packaging in a particular system, and operation is required.

Digital Diffractive Optics discusses in detail the design and simulation of DOEs, before considering the main fabrication techniques. The increasingly important CAD/CAM tool requirements for the production of DOEs are covered, and a chapter is devoted to the crucial area of systematic fabrication error compensation. Finally, the integration and use of DOEs in a number of different systems, including various opto-electronic and opto-mechanical systems, are discussed.

Digital Diffractive Optics will be of great interest to all those involved in the fields of optical engineering and photonics. It presents a clear view of the whole process, from design to fabrication and application, without overstressing the, often complex, mathematics, and will thus be accessible to postgraduate students and those entering the field, as well as more experienced engineers and scientists.

Mastering and effective exploration of the web environment needs new ideas, adaptation of known methods as well as application of sophisticated and robust technical implementations. Among new research directions present in relation to Web applications, a remarkable place is occupied by intelligent methods defining the topic of soft computing. This edited book includes reports from the front of diverse fields of the Web: application of artificial intelligence, design, information retrieval and interpretation, user profiling, security, engineering, etc. The material has been presented at the 5th Atlantic Web Intelligence Conference a " AWICa (TM)2007 held in Fontainbleau (France) and organized by Esigetel, Technical University of Lodz, and Polish Academy of Sciences.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design, CSCWD 2006, held in Nanjing, China in May 2006.

The 76 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from about 600 submissions during two rounds of reviewing and improvement. They contain expanded versions of the papers presented at the conference and are organized in topical sections on CSCW techniques and methods, collaborative design, collaborative manufacturing and enterprise collaboration, design methods and tools, agents and multi-agent systems, Web services, semantic Web, and grid computing, knowledge management, security and privacy in CSCW systems, workflow management, and e-learning.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design, CSCWD 2005, held in Coventry, UK, in May 2005.

The 65 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions during at least two rounds of reviewing and improvement. They contain expanded versions of the papers presented at the conference and are organized in topical sections on CSCW techniques and methods, Grids and Web services, agents and multi-agent systems, ontology and knowledge management, collaborative design and manufacturing, enterprise collaboration, workflows, and other related approaches and applications.

The design of complex artifacts and systems requires the cooperation of multidisciplinary design teams using multiple commercial and non-commercial engineering tools such as CAD tools, modeling, simulation and optimization software, engineering databases, and knowledge-based systems. Individuals or individual groups of multidisciplinary design teams usually work in parallel and separately with various engineering tools, which are located on different sites, often for quite a long time. At any moment, individual members may be working on different versions of a design or viewing the design from various perspectives, at different levels of detail. In order to meet these requirements, it is necessary to have effective and efficient collaborative design environments. These environments should not only automate individual tasks, in the manner of traditional computer-aided engineering tools, but also enable individual members to share information, collaborate and coordinate their activities within the context of a design project. CSCW (computer-supported cooperative work) in design is concerned with the development of such environments.

Building Information Modelling, BIM, stellt eine neue Arbeitsweise in der Kooperation, der Steuerung und dem Management von Bauprojekten dar. Multimodelle erhoehen die Qualitat des koordinierten Zusammenarbeitens durch die Vernetzung der Informationen um eine weitere Groessenordnung. Das Buch zeigt anhand von zwei realen Projekten, wie diese Methoden eingesetzt werden koennen und welche Werkzeuge hierzu noetig sind. Band 2 geht zunachst auf die Anwendung von BIM und Multimodellen in der Baustelleneinrichtungsplanung ein und zeigt auf, wie diese neue Arbeitsmethode neue Perspektiven auch fur die Montage- und Logistiksimulation bietet und wie aus den verlinkten Informationen mit wenigen Schritten Simulationsmodelle generiert werden koennen. Es wird aufgezeigt, wie die digitale Vernetzung von Geometriedaten, Bauelementen, Kosten, Zeit und Vorgangsdaten Zusammenhange erschliesst und neue Transparenz bei Ausschreibung, Kosten- und Terminkalkulation, Disposition und Projektfortschrittsuberwachung schafft. Risikomanagement, eine weitere Anwendung, bekommt eine ganz neue Perspektive. Die Erfassung, Klassifikation und Verfolgung von Risiken kann wesentlich genauer und detaillierter erfolgen. Die Transparenz wird durch die neuen Visualisierungsmoeglichkeiten erheblich gesteigert.

The concept of CAST, computer aided systems Theory, was introduced by F. Pichler of Linz in the late 1980s to include those computer theoretical and practical developments used as tools to solve problems in system science. It was considered as the third component (the other two being CAD and CAM) that would provide for a complete picture of the path from computer and systems sciences to practical developments in science and engineering. The University of Linz organized the first CAST workshop in April 1988, which demonstrated the acceptance of the concepts by the scientific and technical community. Next, the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria joined the University of Linz to organize the first international meeting on CAST (Las Palmas February 1989), under the name EUROCAST 1989, a very successful gathering of systems theorists, computer scientists and engineers from most European countries, North America and Japan. It was agreed that EUROCAST international conferences would be organized every two years. Thus, the following EUROCAST meetings took place in Krems (1991), Las Palmas (1993), Innsbruck (1995), Las Palmas (1997), Vienna (1999), Las Palmas (2001) and Las Palmas (2003) in addition to an extra-European CAST conference in Ottawa in 1994. Selected papers from those meetings were published as Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science vols. 410, 585, 763, 1030, 1333, 1728, 2178 and 2809 and in several special issues of Cybernetics and Systems: an lnternational Journal.

Reuse in Electronic Design From Information Modelling to Intellectual Properties Peter Conradi Berlin, Germany Reuse of existing IC intellectual property blocks is currently the hot topic in electronic design automation. By cutting development time and improving designer productivity, reuse offers a faster time to market and consequently increased profitability. Conradi encompasses the fundamentals of physical system modelling, design methodologies and basic design architectures plus reuse strategies and tasks. Features include:
* Graph-oriented visualisations enabling the reader to understand the requirements of future interdisciplinary design tools
* Guidance on information modelling languages, system classification and decomposition of systems under development
* Section on reuse strategies and tasks examining the practical aspects of the technique for both analogue and digital design
* Data management and retrieval methods including the algebra of the selection process
* Comprehensive appendices covering fine-grained design representations, VLSI design standards and data model extraction of a VHDL multiplier design
This timely exposition of design capture and manipulation techniques will be a boon for postgraduate electronics students and researchers. CAD engineers and electronic designers will profit from the industry examples and the practical applications of the reuse cycle.

Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) is a $3.4 trillion industry in which documentation is the basis for the delivery of products and services. Such documentation is the currency of AEC projects and can be a complex mixture of drawings and specifications. Sharing and archiving documents requires a safe, small and smart format, a role for which Adobea (TM)s portable document format (PDF) is ideally suited. PDF has become the de facto standard for submission and distribution of these documents in government and regulatory agencies, world-wide.

AdobeA(R) AcrobatA(R) and PDF for Architecture, Engineering, and Construction is designed to appeal to the engineering mind. The book is a practical guide focusing on the applications of PDF in the solution of "engineering" problems which may arise in a number of disciplines from architecture to construction. Using real-world examples, the authors follow a project from design through build and long-term maintenance. As the sample project evolves, suitable AcrobatA(R) tools and techniques are identified and brought into play at each stage, showing readers how to personalize the context and processes to meet their own project development and management needs.

AdobeA(R) AcrobatA(R) and PDF for Architecture, Engineering, and Construction is aimed at a professional and senior student audience with levels of expertise in a variety of AEC sectors ranging from the intermediate to advanced. It will be of direct importance to anyone using ISO and IEEE standards such as the developing PDF/E (engineering) and PDF/A (Archival).

Features of the book allowing the reader to take full advantage of the power of PDF in an engineeringenvironment include:

• review tracking;
• geo-referenced drawings;
• common format CAD and configuration management;
• reduced review and approval time with better document control;
• ease of collaboration with clients and permitting agencies through common, completely searchable, document format;
• project management advice.

Additional features designed to facilitate self-teaching are:

• chapter summaries;
• an example project used throughout the book to demonstrate the use of the various PDF capabilities introduced with files which can be downloaded from the authorsa (TM) website at www.donnabaker.ca/Acrobat_for_AEC.html to keep track of the changes chapter by chapter;
• other sample projects for readers to work with, offered by industry leaders in several specialty areas;
• end-of-chapter exercises guiding the application of the knowledge gained in each chapter.

For professionals of all shades from electrical, civil and mechanical engineers to architects and construction managers.