This book gathers the proceedings of the Multidisciplinary International Conference of Research Applied to Defense and Security (MICRADS), held at the Eloy Alfaro Military Academy (ESMIL) in Quito, Ecuador, on May 13-15,2020. It covers a broad range of topics in systems, communication, and defense; strategy and political-administrative vision in defense; and engineering and technologies applied to defense. Given its scope, it offers a valuable resource for practitioners, researchers, and students alike.

This book provides exclusive insight into the development of a new generation of robotic underwater technologies. Deploying and using even the most simple and robust mechanical tools is presenting a challenge, and is often associated with an enormous amount of preparation, continuous monitoring, and maintenance. Therefore, all disciplinary aspects (e.g. system design, communication, machine learning, mapping and coordination, adaptive mission planning) are examined in detail and together this gives an extensive overview on research areas influencing next generation underwater robots. These robotic underwater systems will operate autonomously with the help of the most modern artificial intelligence procedures and perform environmental monitoring as well as inspection and maintenance of underwater structures. The systems are designed as modular and reconfigurable systems for long term autonomy to remain at the site for longer periods of time. New communication methods using AI enable missions of hybrid teams of humans and heterogeneous robots. Thus this volume will be an important reference for scientists on every qualification level in the field of underwater technologies, industrial maritime applications, and maritime science.

This book presents a collection of the most recent hybrid methods for image processing. The algorithms included consider evolutionary, swarm, machine learning and deep learning. The respective chapters explore different areas of image processing, from image segmentation to the recognition of objects using complex approaches and medical applications. The book also discusses the theory of the methodologies used to provide an overview of the applications of these tools in image processing. The book is primarily intended for undergraduate and postgraduate students of science, engineering and computational mathematics, and can also be used for courses on artificial intelligence, advanced image processing, and computational intelligence. Further, it is a valuable resource for researchers from the evolutionary computation, artificial intelligence and image processing communities.

This book presents the proceedings of the 30th International Conference on Robotics in Alpe-Adria-Danube Region, RAAD 2021, held in Poitiers, France, 21-23 June 2021. It gathers contributions by researchers from several countries on all major areas of robotic research, development and innovation, as well as new applications and current trends. The topics covered include: novel designs and applications of robotic systems, intelligent cooperating and service robots, advanced robot control, human-robot interfaces, robot vision systems, mobile robots, humanoid and walking robots, bio-inspired and swarm robotic systems, aerial, underwater and spatial robots, robots for ambient assisted living, medical robots and bionic prostheses, cognitive robots, cloud robotics, ethical and social issues in robotics, etc. Given its scope, the book offers a source of information and inspiration for researchers seeking to improve their work and gather new ideas for future developments.

This book comprehensively covers the important efforts in improving the quality of images in visual cryptography (VC), with a focus on cases with gray scale images. It not only covers schemes in traditional VC and extended VC for binary secret images, but also the latest development in the analysis-by-synthesis approach. This book distinguishes itself from the existing literature in three ways. First, it not only reviews traditional VC for binary secret images, but also covers recent efforts in improving visual quality for gray scale secret images. Second, not only traditional quality measures are reviewed, but also measures that were not used for measuring perceptual quality of decrypted secret images, such as Radially Averaged Power Spectrum Density (RAPSD) and residual variance, are employed for evaluating and guiding the design of VC algorithms. Third, unlike most VC books following a mathematical formal style, this book tries to make a balance between engineering intuition and mathematical reasoning. All the targeted problems and corresponding solutions are fully motivated by practical applications and evaluated by experimental tests, while important security issues are presented as mathematical proof. Furthermore, important algorithms are summarized as pseudocodes, thus enabling the readers to reproduce the results in the book. Therefore, this book serves as a tutorial for readers with an engineering background as well as for experts in related areas to understand the basics and research frontiers in visual cryptography.

This book gathers contributions from a multidisciplinary research team comprised of control engineering and economics researchers and formed to address a central interdisciplinary social issue, namely economically enabled energy management. The book's primary focus is on achieving optimal energy management that is viable from both an engineering and economic standpoint. In addition to the theoretical results and techniques presented, several chapters highlight experimental case studies, which will benefit academic researchers and practitioners alike. The first three chapters present comprehensive overviews of respective social contexts, underscore the pressing need for economically efficient energy management systems and academic work on this emerging research topic, and identify fundamental differences between approaches in control engineering and economics. In turn, the next three chapters (Chapters 4-6) provide economics-oriented approaches to the subject. The following five chapters (Chapters 7-11) address optimal energy market design, integrating both physical and economic models. The book's last three chapters (Chapters 12-14) mainly focus on the engineering aspects of next-generation energy management, though economic factors are also shown to play important roles.

The growth in RF and wireless/mobile computing devices that operate at microwave frequencies has resulted in explosive demand for integrated circuits capable of operating at such frequencies in order to accomplish functions like frequency division, phase shifting, attenuation, and isolators and circulators for antennas. This book is an introduction to such ICs, combining theory and practical applications of those devices. In addition to this combined theory and application approach, the author discusses the critical importance of differing fabrication materials on the performance of ICs at different frequencies. This is an area often overlooked when choosing ICs for RF and microwave applications, yet it can be a crucial factor in how an IC performs in a given application.
Gives reader a solid background in an increasingly important area of circuit design
Emphasis on combination of theoretical discussions with practical application examples
In-depth discussion of critical, but often overlooked topic of different fabrication material performances at varying frequencies

Advances in photonics and nanotechnology have the potential to revolutionize humanity's ability to communicate and compute. To pursue these advances, it is mandatory to understand and properly model interactions of light with materials such as silicon and gold at the nanoscale, i.e., the span of a few tens of atoms laid side by side. These interactions are governed by the fundamental Maxwell's equations of classical electrodynamics, supplemented by quantum electrodynamics. This book presents the current state-of-the-art in formulating and implementing computational models of these interactions. Maxwell's equations are solved using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) technique, pioneered by the senior editor, whose prior Artech House books in this area are among the top ten most-cited in the history of engineering. This cutting-edge resource helps readers understand the latest developments in computational modeling of nanoscale optical microscopy and microchip lithography, as well as nanoscale plasmonics and biophotonics.

This book explores several key issues in beam phase space dynamics in plasma-based wakefield accelerators. It reveals the phase space dynamics of ionization-based injection methods by identifying two key phase mixing processes. Subsequently, the book proposes a two-color laser ionization injection scheme for generating high-quality beams, and assesses it using particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. To eliminate emittance growth when the beam propagates between plasma accelerators and traditional accelerator components, a method using longitudinally tailored plasma structures as phase space matching components is proposed. Based on the aspects above, a preliminary design study on X-ray free-electron lasers driven by plasma accelerators is presented. Lastly, an important type of numerical noise-the numerical Cherenkov instabilities in particle-in-cell codes-is systematically studied.

This book provides a thorough overview of cutting-edge research on electronics applications relevant to industry, the environment, and society at large. It covers a broad spectrum of application domains, from automotive to space and from health to security, while devoting special attention to the use of embedded devices and sensors for imaging, communication and control. The book is based on the 2019 ApplePies Conference, held in Pisa, Italy in September 2019, which brought together researchers and stakeholders to consider the most significant current trends in the field of applied electronics and to debate visions for the future. Areas addressed by the conference included information communication technology; biotechnology and biomedical imaging; space; secure, clean and efficient energy; the environment; and smart, green and integrated transport. As electronics technology continues to develop apace, constantly meeting previously unthinkable targets, further attention needs to be directed toward the electronics applications and the development of systems that facilitate human activities. This book, written by industrial and academic professionals, represents a valuable contribution in this endeavor.

This book focuses on the calculus of variations, including fundamental theories and applications. This textbook is intended for graduate and higher-level college and university students, introducing them to the basic concepts and calculation methods used in the calculus of variations. It covers the preliminaries, variational problems with fixed boundaries, sufficient conditions of extrema of functionals, problems with undetermined boundaries, variational problems of conditional extrema, variational problems in parametric forms, variational principles, direct methods for variational problems, variational principles in mechanics and their applications, and variational problems of functionals with vector, tensor and Hamiltonian operators. Many of the contributions are based on the authors' research, addressing topics such as the extension of the connotation of the Hilbert adjoint operator, definitions of the other three kinds of adjoint operators, the extremum function theorem of the complete functional, unified Euler equations in variational methods, variational theories of functionals with vectors, modulus of vectors, arbitrary order tensors, Hamiltonian operators and Hamiltonian operator strings, reconciling the Euler equations and the natural boundary conditions, and the application range of variational methods. The book is also a valuable reference resource for teachers as well as science and technology professionals.

This book discusses the parametric modeling, performance evaluation, design optimization and comparative study of the high-speed, parallel pick-and-place robots. It collects the modeling methodology, evaluation criteria and design guidelines for parallel PnP robots to provide a systematic analysis method for robotic developers. Furthermore, it gathers the research results previously scattered in many prestigious international journals and conference proceedings and methodically edits them and presents them in a unified form. The book is of interest to researchers, R&D engineers and graduate students in industrial parallel robotics who wish to learn the core principles, methods, algorithms, and applications.

This book offers a tutorial on the response of materials to lasers, with an emphasis on simple, intuitive models with analytical and mathematical solutions, using techniques such as Laplace Transformation to solve most complex heat conduction equations. It examines the relationship between existing thermal parameters of simple metals and looks at the characteristics of materials and their properties in order to investigate and perform theoretical analysis from a heat conduction perspective mathematically. Topics discussed include optical reflectivity of metals at infrared (IR) wavelengths, laser-induced heat flow in materials, the effects of melting and vaporization, the impulse generated in materials by pulsed radiation, and the influence of the absorption in the blow-off region in irradiated material. Written for engineers, scientists, and graduate-level engineering and physics students, Thermal Effects of High Power Laser Energy on Materials provides an in-depth look at high energy laser technology and its potential industrial and commercial applications in such areas as precision cutting, LIDAR and LADAR, and communications. The knowledge gained from this allows you to apply spaced-based relay mirror in order to compensate laser beam divergence back to its original coherency by preventing further thermal blooming that takes place during laser beam propagation through the atmosphere. Examines the state-of-the-art in currently available high energy laser technologies; Includes computer codes that deal with the response of materials to laser radiation; Provides detailed mathematical solutions of thermal response to laser radiation.

This book provides information on digital audio watermarking, its applications, and its evaluation for copyright protection of audio signals - both basic and advanced. The author covers various advanced digital audio watermarking algorithms that can be used for copyright protection of audio signals. These algorithms are implemented using hybridization of advanced signal processing transforms such as fast discrete curvelet transform (FDCuT), redundant discrete wavelet transform (RDWT), and another signal processing transform such as discrete cosine transform (DCT). In these algorithms, Arnold scrambling is used to enhance the security of the watermark logo. This book is divided in to three portions: basic audio watermarking and its classification, audio watermarking algorithms, and audio watermarking algorithms using advance signal transforms. The book also covers optimization based audio watermarking. Describes basic of digital audio watermarking and its applications, including evaluation parameters for digital audio watermarking algorithms; Provides audio watermarking algorithms using advanced signal transformations; Provides optimization based audio watermarking algorithms.

This book studies the fundamental aspects of many-body physics in quantum systems open to an external world. Recent remarkable developments in the observation and manipulation of quantum matter at the single-quantum level point to a new research area of open many-body systems, where interactions with an external observer and the environment play a major role. The first part of the book elucidates the influence of measurement backaction from an external observer, revealing new types of quantum critical phenomena and out-of-equilibrium dynamics beyond the conventional paradigm of closed systems. In turn, the second part develops a powerful theoretical approach to study the in- and out-of-equilibrium physics of an open quantum system strongly correlated with an external environment, where the entanglement between the system and the environment plays an essential role. The results obtained here offer essential theoretical results for understanding the many-body physics of quantum systems open to an external world, and can be applied to experimental systems in atomic, molecular and optical physics, quantum information science and condensed matter physics.

This book gathers the proceedings of the International Conference on Computational Advancement in Communication Circuits and Systems (ICCACCS 2018), which was organized by Narula Institute of Technology under the patronage of the JIS group, affiliated with West Bengal University of Technology. The book presents peer-reviewed papers that highlight new theoretical and experimental findings in the fields of electronics and communication engineering, including interdisciplinary areas like Advanced Computing, Pattern Recognition and Analysis, and Signal and Image Processing. The respective papers cover a broad range of principles, techniques and applications in microwave devices, communication and networking, signal and image processing, computations and mathematics, and control. The proceedings reflect the conference's strong emphasis on methodological approaches, and focus on applications within the domain of Computational Advancement in Communication Circuits and Systems. They also address emerging technologies in electronics and communication, together with the latest practices, issues and trends.

The present book focuses on recent advances methods and applications in photovoltaic (PV) systems. The book is divided into two parts: the first part deals with some theoretical, simulation and experiments on solar cells, including efficiency improvement, new materials and behavior performances. While the second part of the book devoted mainly on the application of advanced methods in PV systems, including advanced control, FPGA implementation, output power forecasting based artificial intelligence technique (AI), high PV penetration, reconfigurable PV architectures and fault detection and diagnosis based AI. The authors of the book trying to show to readers more details about some theoretical methods and applications in solar cells and PV systems (eg. advanced algorithms for control, optimization, power forecasting, monitoring and fault diagnosis methods). The applications are mainly carried out in different laboratories and location around the world as projects (Algeria, KSA, Turkey, Morocco, Italy and France). The book will be addressed to scientists, academics, researchers and PhD students working in this topic. The book will help readers to understand some applications including control, forecasting, monitoring, fault diagnosis of photovoltaic plants, as well as in solar cells such as behavior performances and efficiency improvement. It could be also be used as a reference and help industry sectors interested by prototype development.

In "A Digital Liberia, " Darren Wilkins, an accomplished ICT Professional with more than twelve years of experience in the field of ICT, describes the impact of information and communications technology on the future of Liberia. Emerging from a fourteen-year civil war and more than 150 years of underdevelopment, poverty, and illiteracy, Liberia is presently behind the curve with respect to modern and emerging technologies. Even so, "A Digital Liberia" addresses six critical sectors in which ICT can play an important role: education, government, finance, agriculture, security, and healthcare. Wilkins delineates technologies that will bring a shift in the paradigm in the Liberian society and identifies broadband through submarine fiber optic cables located in and around Africa, along with pointing out open source, green IT, cloud computing, and mobile technologies as those technologies that enable Liberia to enter the Digital Economy. "A Digital Liberia, " one of the most optimistic approaches to a developing country's technology, represents an unprecedented effort by an African-born author to outline plan for technological development in Liberia.

This book presents how to program Single Board Computers (SBCs) for Internet of Things (IoT) rapid prototyping with popular tools such as Raspberry Pi, Arduino, Beagle Bone, and NXP boards. The book provides novel programs to solve new technological real-time problems. The author addresses programming, PCB design and Mechanical Cad design all in single volume, easing learners into incorporating their ideas as prototype. The aim of the book is to provide programming, sensors interfacing, PCB design, and Mechanical Cad design to and create rapid prototyping. The author presents the methodologies of rapid prototyping with KiCAD design and Catia software, used to create ready to mount solutions. The book covers scripting- based and drag/drop- based programming for different problems and data gathering approach.

This peer-reviewed book explores the technologies driving broadband internet connectivity in the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0). It particularly focuses on potential solutions to introduce these technologies in emerging markets and rural areas, regions that typically form part of the digital divide and often have under-developed telecommunications infrastructures, a lack of skilled workers, and geographical restrictions that limit broadband connectivity. Research shows that ubiquitous internet access boosts socio-economic growth through innovations in science and technology, with the common goal of bringing positive change to the lives of individuals. Fifth-generation (5G) networks based on millimeter-wave (mm-wave) frequency information transfer have the potential to provide future-proof, affordable and sustainable broadband connectivity in areas where previous-generation mobile networks were unable to do so. This book discusses the principles of various technologies that enable electronic circuits to operate at mm-wave frequencies. It examines the importance of identifying, describing, and analyzing technology from a purely technological standpoint, but also acknowledges and investigates the challenges and limitations of introducing such technologies in emerging markets. Presenting recent research, the book spearheads participation in Industry 4.0 in these areas.

This book documents some of the most recent advances on the physical layer of the Internet of Things (IoT), including sensors, circuits, and systems. The application area selected for illustrating these advances is that of autonomous, wearable systems for real-time medical diagnosis. The book is unique in that it adopts a holistic view of such systems and includes not only the sensor and processing subsystems, but also the power, communication, and security subsystems. Particular attention is paid to the integration of these IoT subsystems as well as the prototyping platforms needed for achieving such integration. Other unique features include the discussion of energy-harvesting subsystems to achieve full energy autonomy and the consideration of hardware security as a requirement for the integrity of the IoT physical layer. One unifying thread of the various designs considered in this book is that they have all been fabricated and tested in an advanced, low-power CMOS process, namely GLOBALFOUNDRIES 65nm CMOS LPe.

This book gathers a set of works highlighting significant advances in the areas of music and sound. They report on innovative music technologies, acoustics, findings in musicology, new perspectives and techniques for composition, sound design and sound synthesis, and methods for music education and therapy. Further, they cover interesting topics at the intersection between music and computing, design and social sciences. Chapters are based on extended and revised versions of the best papers presented during the 6th and 7th editions of EIMAD-Meeting of Research in Music, Arts and Design, held in 2020 and 2021, respectively, at the School of Applied Arts in Castelo Branco, Portugal. All in all, this book provides music researchers, educators and professionals with authoritative information about new trends and techniques, and a source of inspiration for future research, practical developments, and for establishing collaboration between experts from different fields.

Presents technologies and key concepts to produce suitable smart materials and intelligent structures for sensing, information and communication technology, biomedical applications (drug delivery, hyperthermia therapy), self-healing, flexible memories and construction technologies. Novel developments of environmental friendly, cost-effective and scalable production processes are discussed by experts in the field.