This book presents vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs) from the their onset, gradually going into technical details, providing a clear understanding of both theoretical foundations and more practical investigation. The editors gathered top-ranking authors to provide comprehensiveness and timely content; the invited authors were carefully selected from a list of who's who in the respective field of interest: there are as many from Academia as from Standardization and Industry sectors from around the world. The covered topics are organized around five Parts starting from an historical overview of vehicular communications and standardization/harmonization activities (Part I), then progressing to the theoretical foundations of VANETs and a description of the day-one standard-compliant solutions (Part II), hence going into details of vehicular networking and security (Part III) and to the tools to study VANETs, from mobility and channel models, to network simulators and field trial methodologies (Part IV), and finally looking into the future of VANETs by investigating alternative, complementary communication technologies, innovative networking paradigms and visionary applications (Part V). The way the content is organized, with a differentiated level of technical details, makes the book a valuable reference for a large pool of target readers ranging from undergraduate, graduate and PhD students, to wireless scientists and engineers, to service providers and stakeholders in the automotive, ITS, ICT sectors.

This book develops a set of reference methods capable of modeling uncertainties existing in membership functions, and analyzing and synthesizing the interval type-2 fuzzy systems with desired performances. It also provides numerous simulation results for various examples, which fill certain gaps in this area of research and may serve as benchmark solutions for the readers. Interval type-2 T-S fuzzy models provide a convenient and flexible method for analysis and synthesis of complex nonlinear systems with uncertainties.

This monograph introduces novel responses to the different problems that arise when multiple robots need to execute a task in cooperation, each robot in the team having a monocular camera as its primary input sensor. Its central proposition is that a consistent perception of the world is crucial for the good development of any multi-robot application. The text focuses on the high-level problem of cooperative perception by a multi-robot system: the idea that, depending on what each robot sees and its current situation, it will need to communicate these things to its fellows whenever possible to share what it has found and keep updated by them in its turn. However, in any realistic scenario, distributed solutions to this problem are not trivial and need to be addressed from as many angles as possible. Distributed Consensus with Visual Perception in Multi-Robot Systems covers a variety of related topics such as: * distributed consensus algorithms; * data association and robustness problems; * convergence speed; and * cooperative mapping. The book first puts forward algorithmic solutions to these problems and then supports them with empirical validations working with real images. It provides the reader with a deeper understanding of the problems associated to the perception of the world by a team of cooperating robots with onboard cameras. Academic researchers and graduate students working with multi-robot systems, or investigating problems of distributed control or computer vision and cooperative perception will find this book of material assistance with their studies.

This textbook, now in its third edition, provides a formative introduction to the structure of matter that will serve as a sound basis for students proceeding to more complex courses, thus bridging the gap between elementary physics and topics pertaining to research activities. The focus is deliberately limited to key concepts of atoms, molecules and solids, examining the basic structural aspects without paying detailed attention to the related properties. For many topics the aim has been to start from the beginning and to guide the reader to the threshold of advanced research. This edition includes four new chapters dealing with relevant phases of solid matter (magnetic, electric and superconductive) and the related phase transitions. The book is based on a mixture of theory and solved problems that are integrated into the formal presentation of the arguments. Readers will find it invaluable in enabling them to acquire basic knowledge in the wide and wonderful field of condensed matter and to understand how phenomenological properties originate from the microscopic, quantum features of nature.

This book captures the current challenges in automatic recognition of emotion in spontaneous speech and makes an effort to explain, elaborate, and propose possible solutions. Intelligent human-computer interaction (iHCI) systems thrive on several technologies like automatic speech recognition (ASR); speaker identification; language identification; image and video recognition; affect/mood/emotion analysis; and recognition, to name a few. Given the importance of spontaneity in any human-machine conversational speech, reliable recognition of emotion from naturally spoken spontaneous speech is crucial. While emotions, when explicitly demonstrated by an actor, are easy for a machine to recognize, the same is not true in the case of day-to-day, naturally spoken spontaneous speech. The book explores several reasons behind this, but one of the main reasons for this is that people, especially non-actors, do not explicitly demonstrate their emotion when they speak, thus making it difficult for machines to distinguish one emotion from another that is embedded in their spoken speech. This short book, based on some of authors' previously published books, in the area of audio emotion analysis, identifies the practical challenges in analysing emotions in spontaneous speech and puts forward several possible solutions that can assist in robustly determining the emotions expressed in spontaneous speech.

This book gives a readable introduction to the important, rapidly developing, field of nanophotonics. It provides a quick understanding of the basic elements of the field, allowing students and newcomers to progress rapidly to the frontiers of their interests. Topics include: The basic mathematical techniques needed for the study of the materials of nanophotonic technology; photonic crystals and their applications as laser resonators, waveguides, and circuits of waveguides; the application of photonic crystals technology in the design of optical diodes and transistors; the basic properties needed for the design and understanding of new types of engineered materials known as metamaterials; and a consideration of how and why these engineered materials have been formulated in the lab, as well as their applications as negative refractive index materials, as perfect lens, as cloaking devices, and their effects on Cherenkov and other types of radiation. Additionally, the book introduces the new field of plasmonics and reviews its important features. The role of plasmon-polaritons in the scattering and transmission of light by rough surfaces and the enhanced transmission of light by plasmon-polariton supporting surfaces is addressed. The important problems of subwavelength resolution are treated with discussions of applications in a number of scientific fields. The basic principles of near-field optical microscopy are presented with a number of important applications. The basics of atomic cavity physics, photonic entanglement and its relation to some of the basic properties of quantum computing, and the physics associated with the study of optical lattices are presented.

This book offers readers an easy introduction into quantum computing as well as into the design for corresponding devices. The authors cover several design tasks which are important for quantum computing and introduce corresponding solutions. A special feature of the book is that those tasks and solutions are explicitly discussed from a design automation perspective, i.e., utilizing clever algorithms and data structures which have been developed by the design automation community for conventional logic (i.e., for electronic devices and systems) and are now applied for this new technology. By this, relevant design tasks can be conducted in a much more efficient fashion than before - leading to improvements of several orders of magnitude (with respect to runtime and other design objectives). Describes the current state of the art for designing quantum circuits, for simulating them, and for mapping them to real hardware; Provides a first comprehensive introduction into design automation for quantum computing that tackles practically relevant tasks; Targets the quantum computing community as well as the design automation community, showing both perspectives to quantum computing, and what impressive improvements are possible when combining the knowledge of both communities.

This book at hand is an appropriate addition to the field of fractional calculus applied to control systems. If an engineer or a researcher wishes to delve into fractional-order systems, then this book has many collections of such systems to work upon, and this book also tells the reader about how one can convert an integer-order system into an appropriate fractional-order one through an efficient and simple algorithm. If the reader further wants to explore the controller design for the fractional-order systems, then for them, this book provides a variety of controller design strategies. The use of fractional-order derivatives and integrals in control theory leads to better results than integer-order approaches and hence provides solid motivation for further development of control theory. Fractional-order models are more useful than the integer-order models when accuracy is of paramount importance. Real-time experimental validation of controller design strategies for the fractional-order plants is available. This book is beneficial to the academic institutes for postgraduate and advanced research-level that need a specific textbook on fractional control and its applications in srobotic manipulators. The book is also a valuable teaching and learning resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students.

This book discusses the mechanisms of electric conductivity in various ionic liquid systems (protic, aprotic as well as polymerized ionic liquids). It hence covers the electric properties of ionic liquids and their macromolecular counterpanes, some of the most promising materials for the development of safe electrolytes in modern electrochemical energy devices such as batteries, super-capacitors, fuel cells and dye-sensitized solar cells. Chapter contributions by the experts in the field discuss important findings obtained using broadband dielectric spectroscopy (BDS) and other complementary techniques. The book is an excellent introduction for readers who are new to the field of dielectric properties of ionic conductors, and a helpful guide for every scientist who wants to investigate the interplay between molecular structure and dynamics in ionic conductors by means of dielectric spectroscopy.

This book gathers the proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Mobile and Wireless Technology (ICMWT), held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in June 2017, an event that provides researchers and practitioners from both academia and industry with a platform to keep them abreast of cutting-edge developments in the field. The peer-reviewed and accepted papers presented here address topics in a number of major areas: Mobile, Wireless Networks and Applications; Security in Mobile and Wireless; Mobile Data Management and Applications; Mobile Software; Multimedia Communications; Wireless Communications; and Services, Application and Business.

This book presents an Introduction and 11 independent chapters, which are devoted to various new approaches of intelligent image processing and analysis. The book also presents new methods, algorithms and applied systems for intelligent image processing, on the following basic topics: Methods for Hierarchical Image Decomposition; Intelligent Digital Signal Processing and Feature Extraction; Data Clustering and Visualization via Echo State Networks; Clustering of Natural Images in Automatic Image Annotation Systems; Control System for Remote Sensing Image Processing; Tissue Segmentation of MR Brain Images Sequence; Kidney Cysts Segmentation in CT Images; Audio Visual Attention Models in Mobile Robots Navigation; Local Adaptive Image Processing; Learning Techniques for Intelligent Access Control; Resolution Improvement in Acoustic Maps. Each chapter is self-contained with its own references. Some of the chapters are devoted to the theoretical aspects while the others are presenting the practical aspects and the analysis of the modeling of the developed algorithms in different application areas.

System on Chip Interfaces for Low Power Design provides a top-down understanding of interfaces available to SoC developers, not only the underlying protocols and architecture of each, but also how they interact and the tradeoffs involved. The book offers a common context to help understand the variety of available interfaces and make sense of technology from different vendors aligned with multiple standards. With particular emphasis on power as a factor, the authors explain how each interface performs in various usage scenarios and discuss their advantages and disadvantages. Readers learn to make educated decisions on what interfaces to use when designing systems and gain insight for innovating new/custom interfaces for a subsystem and their potential impact.

A comprehensive examination of free electron lasers, designed to serve both as a tutorial text and a reference work to the field. Coverage includes incoherent undulator radiation, coherent emission sideband instabilities, coherent harmonic radiation and optical guiding.

This book gathers the best papers presented at the Third Italian National Conference on Sensors, held in Rome, Italy, from 23 to 25 February 2016. The book represents an invaluable and up-to-the-minute tool, providing an essential overview of recent findings, strategies and new directions in the area of sensor research. Further, it addresses various aspects based on the development of new chemical, physical or biological sensors, assembling and characterization, signal treatment and data handling. Lastly, the book applies electrochemical, optical and other detection strategies to relevant issues in the food and clinical environmental areas, as well as industry-oriented applications.

This book presents the most recent advances in the research of machines and mechanisms. It collects 54 reviewed papers presented at the XII International Conference on the Theory of Machines and mechanisms (TMM 2016) held in Liberec, Czech Republic, September 6-8, 2016. This volume offers an international selection of the most important new results and developments, grouped in six different parts, representing a well-balanced overview, and spanning the general theory of machines and mechanisms, through analysis and synthesis of planar and spatial mechanisms, linkages and cams, robots and manipulators, dynamics of machines and mechanisms, rotor dynamics, computational mechanics, vibration and noise in machines, optimization of mechanisms and machines, mechanisms of textile machines, mechatronics to the control and monitoring systems of machines. This conference is traditionally organised every four year under the auspices of the international organisation IFToMM and the Czech Society for Mechanics.

This book reflects the latest advances in nonlinear optics. Besides the simple, strict mathematical deduction, it also discusses the experimental verification and possible future applications, such as the all-optical switches. It consistently uses the practical unit system throughout. It employs simple physical images, such as "light waves" and "photons" to systematically explain the main principles of nonlinear optical effects. It uses the first-order nonlinear wave equation in frequency domain under the condition of "slowly varying amplitude approximation" and the classical model of the interaction between the light and electric dipole. At the same time, it also uses the rate equations based on the energy-level transition of particle systems excited by photons and the energy and momentum conservation principles to explain the nonlinear optical phenomenon. The book is intended for researchers, engineers and graduate students in the field of optics, optoelectronics, fiber communication, information technology and materials etc.

This book highlights recent research advances in unsupervised learning using natural computing techniques such as artificial neural networks, evolutionary algorithms, swarm intelligence, artificial immune systems, artificial life, quantum computing, DNA computing, and others. The book also includes information on the use of natural computing techniques for unsupervised learning tasks. It features several trending topics, such as big data scalability, wireless network analysis, engineering optimization, social media, and complex network analytics. It shows how these applications have triggered a number of new natural computing techniques to improve the performance of unsupervised learning methods. With this book, the readers can easily capture new advances in this area with systematic understanding of the scope in depth. Readers can rapidly explore new methods and new applications at the junction between natural computing and unsupervised learning. Includes advances on unsupervised learning using natural computing techniques Reports on topics in emerging areas such as evolutionary multi-objective unsupervised learning Features natural computing techniques such as evolutionary multi-objective algorithms and many-objective swarm intelligence algorithms

This book contributes to making urban rail transport fast, punctual and energy-efficient -significant factors in the importance of public transportation systems to economic, environmental and social requirements at both municipal and national levels. It proposes new methods for shortening passenger travel times and for reducing energy consumption, addressing two major topics: (1) train trajectory planning: the authors derive a nonlinear model for the operation of trains and present several approaches for calculating optimal and energy-efficient trajectories within a given schedule; and (2) train scheduling: the authors develop a train scheduling model for urban rail systems and optimization approaches with which to balance total passenger travel time with energy efficiency and other costs to the operator. Mixed-integer linear programming and pseudospectral methods are among the new methods proposed for single- and multi-train systems for the solution of the nonlinear trajectory planning problem which involves constraints such as varying speed restrictions and maximum traction/braking force. Signaling systems and their effects are also accounted for in the trajectory planning model.Origin-destination passenger demand is included in the model formulation for train scheduling. Iterative convex programming and efficient bi-level approaches are utilized in the solution of the train-scheduling problem. In addition, the splitting rates and route choices of passengers are also optimized from the system point of view. The problems and solutions described in Optimal Trajectory Planning and Train Scheduling for Urban Rail Transit Systems will interest researchers studying public transport systems and logistics whether from an academic or practitioner background as well as providing a real application for anybody studying optimization theory and predictive control.

The book describes developments in the crystal growth of bulk II-VI semiconductor materials. A fundamental, systematic, and in-depth study of the physical vapor transport (PVT) growth process is the key to producing high-quality single crystals of semiconductors. As such, the book offers a comprehensive overview of the extensive studies on ZnSe and related II-VI wide bandgap compound semiconductors, such as CdS, CdTe, ZnTe, ZnSeTe and ZnSeS. Further, it shows the detailed steps for the growth of bulk crystals enabling optical devices which can operate in the visible spectrum for applications such as blue light emitting diodes, lasers for optical displays and in the mid-IR wavelength range, high density recording, and military communications. The book then discusses the advantages of crystallization from vapor compared to the conventional melt growth: lower processing temperatures, the purification process associated with PVT, and the improved surface morphology of the grown crystals, as well as the necessary drawbacks to the PVT process, such as the low and inconsistent growth rates and the low yield of single crystals. By presenting in-situ measurements of transport rate, partial pressures and interferometry, as well as visual observations, the book provides detailed insights into in the kinetics during the PVT process. This book is intended for graduate students and professionals in materials science as well as engineers preparing and developing optical devices with semiconductors.

This book puts the spotlight on how a real-time kernel works using Micrium s C/OS-III as a reference. The book consists of two complete parts. The first describes real-time kernels in generic terms. Part II provide examples for the reader, using Texas Instruments EVM-EVALBOT, a small, robotic evaluation board. The board is based on the Stellaris LM3S9B92 which combines the popular ARM Cortex-M3(r) architecture with Ethernet MAC+PHY, USB OTG (On-The-Go), and I2S. Together with the IAR Systems Embedded Workbench for ARM development tools, the evaluation board provides everything necessary to enable the reader to be up and running quickly, as well as a fun and educational experience, resulting in a high-level of proficiency in a short time.

This book is written for serious embedded systems programmers, consultants, hobbyists, and students interested in understanding the inner workings of a real-time kernel. C/OS-III is not just a great learning platform, but also a full commercial-grade software package, ready to be part of a wide range of products.

C/OS-III is a highly portable, ROMable, scalable, preemptive real-time, multitasking kernel designed specifically to address the demanding requirements of today s embedded systems. C/OS-III is the successor to the highly popular C/OS-II real-time kernel but can use most of C/OS-II s ports with minor modifications. Some of the features of C/OS-III are:

Preemptive multitasking with round-robin scheduling of tasks at the same priority
Supports and unlimited number of tasks and other kernel objects
Rich set of services: semaphores, mutual exclusion semaphores with full priority inheritance, event flags, message queues, timers, fixed-size memory block management, and more. Built-in performance measurements

This book exhibits novel semiconductor black phosphorous (BP) materials that are developed beyond other 2D materials (graphene and TMDs). It accurately reviews their manufacture strategies, properties, characterization techniques and different utilizations of BP-based materials. It clarifies all perspectives alongside down to earth applications which present a future direction in the biomedical, photo, environmental, energy, and other related fields. Hence, the sections accentuate the basic fundamentals, synthesis, properties, applications, state-of-the-art studies about the BP-based materials through detailed reviews. This book is the result of commitments by numerous experts in the field from various backgrounds and expertise. It will appeal to researchers, scientists and in addition understudies from various teaches, for example, semiconductor innovation, energy and environmental science. The book content incorporates industrial applications and fills the gap between the exploration works in the lab and viable applications in related ventures.

An increasing complexity of models used to predict real-world systems leads to the need for algorithms to replace complex models with far simpler ones, while preserving the accuracy of the predictions. This three-volume handbook covers methods as well as applications. This third volume focuses on applications in engineering, biomedical engineering, computational physics and computer science.

This book discusses the design and implementation of energy harvesting systems targeting wearable devices. The authors describe in detail the different energy harvesting sources that can be utilized for powering low-power devices in general, focusing on the best candidates for wearable applications. Coverage also includes state-of-the-art interface circuits, which can be used to accept energy from harvesters and deliver it to a device in the most efficient way. Finally, the authors present power management circuits for using multiple energy harvesting sources at the same time to power devices and to enhance efficiency of the system.