This book discusses a number of important topical technical and non-technical issues related to the global energy, environment and socio-economic developments for professionals and students directly and indirectly involved in the relevant fields. It shows how renewable energy offers solutions to mitigate energy demand and helps achieve a clean environment, and also addresses the lack of a clear vision in the development of technology and a policy to reach the mandatory global renewable energy targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stimulate socio-economic development. The book is structured in such a way that it provides a consistent compilation of fundamental theories, a compendium of current research and development activities as well as new directions to overcome critical limitations; future technologies for power grids and their control, stability and reliability are also presented.

The main purpose of this book is to provide a comprehensive treatment of the materials aspects of group-IV, III-V and II-VI semiconductor alloys used in various electronic and optoelectronic devices. The topics covered in this book include the structural, thermal, mechanical, lattice vibronic, electronic, optical and carrier transport properties of such semiconductor alloys. The book reviews not only commonly known alloys (SiGe, AlGaAs, GaInPAs, and ZnCdTe) but also new alloys, such as dilute-carbon alloys (CSiGe, CSiSn, etc.), III-N alloys, dilute-nitride alloys (GaNAs and GaInNAs) and Mg- or Be-based II-VI semiconductor alloys. Finally there is an extensive bibliography included for those who wish to find additional information as well as tabulated values and graphical information on the properties of semiconductor alloys.

OQAM/FBMC for Future Wireless Communications: Principles, Technologies and Applications introduces the concepts and key technologies of OQAM/FBMC, which has been regarded as the potential physical layer technique in future wireless communication systems. It comprises 10 chapters that provide an overview of wireless communications, introduce wireless channels, single carrier and multicarrier modulations, and three types of FBMC systems, also comparing OQAM/FBMC with OFDM. Other chapters introduce the OQAM/FBMC communication system model, the FFT implementation, CP insertion, PSD analysis, prototype filter optimization, joint PAPR reduction and sidelobe suppression, overhead reduction with virtual symbols, time and frequency domain channel estimations, block-wise SFBC for MIMO OQAM/FBMC, and much more.

This book presents some of the latest achievements in nanotechnology and nanomaterials from leading researchers in Ukraine, Europe, and beyond. It features selected peer-reviewed contributions from participants in the 5th International Science and Practice Conference Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials (NANO2017) held in Chernivtsi, Ukraine on August 23-26, 2017. The International Conference was organized jointly by the Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (Ukraine), University of Tartu (Estonia), University of Turin (Italy), and Pierre and Marie Curie University (France). Internationally recognized experts from a wide range of universities and research institutions share their knowledge and key results on topics ranging from nanooptics and nanoplasmonics to interface studies. This book's companion volume also addresses topics such as energy storage and biomedical applications.

The research book is a continuation of the authors' previous works, which are focused on recent advances in computer vision methodologies and technical solutions using conventional and intelligent paradigms. The book gathers selected contributions addressing a number of real-life applications including the identification of handwritten texts, watermarking techniques, simultaneous localization and mapping for mobile robots, motion control systems for mobile robots, analysis of indoor human activity, facial image quality assessment, android device controlling, processing medical images, clinical decision-making and foot progression angle detection. Given the tremendous interest among researchers in the development and applications of computer vision paradigms in the field of business, engineering, medicine, security and aviation, the book offers a timely guide for all PhD students, professors, researchers and software developers working in the areas of digital video processing and computer vision technologies.

Opto-mechanical Fiber Optic Sensors: Research, Technology, and Applications in Mechanical Sensing offers comprehensive coverage of the theoretical aspects of fiber optic sensors (FOS), along with current and emerging applications in the mechanical, petroleum, biomedical, biomechanical, aerospace and automotive industries. Special attention is given to FOS applications in harsh environments. Due to recent technology advances, optical fibers have found uses in many industrial applications. Various sectors are major targets for FOS's capable of measuring mechanical parameters, such as pressure, stress, strain and temperature. Opto-mechanical FOS's offer unique advantages, including immunity to electromagnetic interference, high fidelity and signal-to-noise ratio, low-loss remote sensing and small size.

This thesis describes novel devices for the secure identification of objects or electronic systems. The identification relies on the the atomic-scale uniqueness of semiconductor devices by measuring a macroscopic quantum property of the system in question. Traditionally, objects and electronic systems have been securely identified by measuring specific characteristics: common examples include passwords, fingerprints used to identify a person or an electronic device, and holograms that can tag a given object to prove its authenticity. Unfortunately, modern technologies also make it possible to circumvent these everyday techniques. Variations in quantum properties are amplified by the existence of atomic-scale imperfections. As such, these devices are the hardest possible systems to clone. They also use the least resources and provide robust security. Hence they have tremendous potential significance as a means of reliably telling the good guys from the bad.

This monograph presents new theories and methods for fixed-time cooperative control of multi-agent systems. Fundamental concepts of fixed-time stability and stabilization are introduced with insightful understanding. This book presents solutions for several problems of fixed-time cooperative control using systematic design methods. The book compares fixed-time cooperative control with asymptotic cooperative control, demonstrating how the former can achieve better closed-loop performance and disturbance rejection properties. It also discusses the differences from finite-time control, and shows how fixed-time cooperative control can produce the faster rate of convergence and provide an explicit estimate of the settling time independent of initial conditions. This monograph presents multiple applications of fixed-time control schemes, including to distributed optimization of multi-agent systems, making it useful to students, researchers and engineers alike.

This book features works from world-class experts from academia, industry, and national agencies from across the world focusing on a wide spectrum of automotive fields covering in-vehicle signal processing, driver modeling, systems and safety. The essays collected in this volume present cutting-edge studies on safety, driver behavior, infrastructure, and human-to-vehicle interfaces.

This book explains the essentials of fractional calculus and demonstrates its application in control system modeling, analysis and design. It presents original research to find high-precision solutions to fractional-order differentiations and differential equations. Numerical algorithms and their implementations are proposed to analyze multivariable fractional-order control systems. Through high-quality MATLAB programs, it provides engineers and applied mathematicians with theoretical and numerical tools to design control systems. Contents Introduction to fractional calculus and fractional-order control Mathematical prerequisites Definitions and computation algorithms of fractional-order derivatives and Integrals Solutions of linear fractional-order differential equations Approximation of fractional-order operators Modelling and analysis of multivariable fractional-order transfer function Matrices State space modelling and analysis of linear fractional-order Systems Numerical solutions of nonlinear fractional-order differential Equations Design of fractional-order PID controllers Frequency domain controller design for multivariable fractional-order Systems Inverse Laplace transforms involving fractional and irrational Operations FOTF Toolbox functions and models Benchmark problems for the assessment of fractional-order differential equation algorithms

This book presents cutting-edge research on various ways to bridge the semantic gap in image and video analysis. The respective chapters address different stages of image processing, revealing that the first step is a future extraction, the second is a segmentation process, the third is object recognition, and the fourth and last involve the semantic interpretation of the image. The semantic gap is a challenging area of research, and describes the difference between low-level features extracted from the image and the high-level semantic meanings that people can derive from the image. The result greatly depends on lower level vision techniques, such as feature selection, segmentation, object recognition, and so on. The use of deep models has freed humans from manually selecting and extracting the set of features. Deep learning does this automatically, developing more abstract features at the successive levels. The book offers a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners, students and professors in Computer Engineering, Computer Science and related fields whose work involves images, video analysis, image interpretation and so on.

When trying to solve a complex, seemingly unsolvable problem, electrical engineers sometimes just need to start at the very beginning of the problem. To arrive at a solution, they have to go back to the basics and examine the mathematical rules, laws, and formulas that are at the root of every electrical engineering problem. This is why engineers need the Mathematical Handbook for Electrical Engineers. Written by electrical engineers, specifically for electrical engineers, this valuable resource presents the most common mathematical techniques used for problem solving and computer-aided analysis. It concisely, clearly, and easily explains the essential mathematics engineers use everyday on the job, and also serves as a time-saving reference for students. Examples are taken from a wide variety of electrical engineering disciplines, including circuits, devices and systems, antennas and propagation, waveforms and signal processing, and stochastic radio engineering.

Technology has brought about the age of convenience, but at a hefty cost. As a result of a growing production demand on a global scale, adhesive bonding operations also generate a huge amount of hazardous waste. Adhesive bonding, an integral step in manufacturing across several sectors, is one of many culprits of the unprecedented overproduction and environmental burden of municipal, industrial, and hazardous waste. If a cleaner, greener bonding process is formulated, hazardous waste production can be reined in and the world can be safer. Using Lasers as Safe Alternatives for Adhesive Bonding: Emerging Research and Opportunities is a pivotal reference source that analyzes the new conditions for laser processing in the context of adhesive bonding. The book includes the results of experimental research, giving grounds to believe that laser technology has a future in the preparation of products for bonding. From this research, the book presents conclusions for eliminating poisonous chemicals, a threat to humans and the environment, and the burden of liquid and solid waste. It further outlines limitations and requirements imposed on people, such as the need to use personal protective equipment, to establish specific work procedures to ensure the safety of working with lasers, with a view to the future implementation of laser technology in manufacturing facilities. Featuring coverage of a wide range of topics including static strength, surface preparation, and beam impact, this book is ideally designed for engineers, policymakers, researchers, academicians, and students.

This book focuses on conceptual frameworks that are helpful in understanding the basics of electronics - what the feedback system is, the principle of an oscillator, the operational working of an amplifier, and other relevant topics. It also provides an overview of the technologies supporting electronic systems, like OP-AMP, transistor, filter, ICs, and diodes. It consists of seven chapters, written in an easy and understandable language, and featuring relevant block diagrams, circuit diagrams, valuable and interesting solved examples, and important test questions. Further, the book includes up-to-date illustrations, exercises, and numerous worked examples to illustrate the theory and to demonstrate their use in practical designs.

A comprehensive and interdisciplinary guide to systems engineering Systems Engineering: Principles and Practice, 3rd Edition is the leading interdisciplinary reference for systems engineers. The up-to-date third edition provides readers with discussions of model-based systems engineering, requirements analysis, engineering design, and software design. Freshly updated governmental and commercial standards, architectures, and processes are covered in-depth. The book includes newly updated topics on: Risk Prototyping Modeling and simulation Software/computer systems engineering Examples and exercises appear throughout the text, allowing the reader to gauge their level of retention and learning. Systems Engineering: Principles and Practice was and remains the standard textbook used worldwide for the study of traditional systems engineering. The material is organized in a manner that allows for quick absorption of industry best practices and methods. Systems Engineering Principles and Practice continues to be a national standard textbook for the study of traditional systems engineering for advanced undergraduate and graduate students. It addresses the need for an introductory overview, first-text for the development and acquisition of complex technical systems. The material is organized in a way that teaches the reader how to think like a systems engineer and carry out best practices in the field.

This book is based on the 18 tutorials presented during the 28th workshop on Advances in Analog Circuit Design. Expert designers present readers with information about a variety of topics at the frontier of analog circuit design, including next-generation analog-to-digital converters , high-performance power management systems and technology considerations for advanced IC design. For anyone involved in analog circuit research and development, this book will be a valuable summary of the state-of-the-art in these areas. Provides a summary of the state-of-the-art in analog circuit design, written by experts from industry and academia; Presents material in a tutorial-based format; Includes coverage of next-generation analog-to-digital converters, high-performance power management systems, and technology considerations for advanced IC design.

Simplified Design of Data Converters shows how to design and experiment with data converters, both analog-to-digital and digital to analog. The design approach here is the same one used in all of John Lenk's best-selling books on simplified and practical design. Throughout the book, design problems start with guidelines for selecting all components on a trial-value basis, assuming a specific design goal and set of conditions. Then, using the guideline values in experimental circuits, the desired results are produced by varying the experimental component values, if needed.
If you are a working engineer responsible for designing data-converters circuits, or selecting IC data converters, the variety of circuit configurations described here should generally simplify your task. Not only does the book describe converter-circuit designs, but it also covers the most popular forms of data-converter ICs available. Throughout the book, you will find a wealth of information on data-converter ICs and related components.
For all skill levels.
Tells how to design and build data-converter circuits from scratch.

This book presents recent research on the hybridization of intelligent methods, which refers to combining methods to solve complex problems. It discusses hybrid approaches covering different areas of intelligent methods and technologies, such as neural networks, swarm intelligence, machine learning, reinforcement learning, deep learning, agent-based approaches, knowledge-based system and image processing. The book includes extended and revised versions of invited papers presented at the 6th International Workshop on Combinations of Intelligent Methods and Applications (CIMA 2016), held in The Hague, Holland, in August 2016. The book is intended for researchers and practitioners from academia and industry interested in using hybrid methods for solving complex problems.

The book focuses on system dependability modeling and calculation, considering the impact of s-dependency and uncertainty. The best suited approaches for practical system dependability modeling and calculation, (1) the minimal cut approach, (2) the Markov process approach, and (3) the Markov minimal cut approach as a combination of (1) and (2) are described in detail and applied to several examples. The stringently used Boolean logic during the whole development process of the approaches is the key for the combination of the approaches on a common basis. For large and complex systems, efficient approximation approaches, e.g. the probable Markov path approach, have been developed, which can take into account s-dependencies be-tween components of complex system structures. A comprehensive analysis of aleatory uncertainty (due to randomness) and epistemic uncertainty (due to lack of knowledge), and their combination, developed on the basis of basic reliability indices and evaluated with the Monte Carlo simulation method, has been carried out. The uncertainty impact on system dependability is investigated and discussed using several examples with different levels of difficulty. The applications cover a wide variety of large and complex (real-world) systems. Actual state-of-the-art definitions of terms of the IEC 60050-192:2015 standard, as well as the dependability indices, are used uniformly in all six chapters of the book.

This book reports on the design, synthesis and characterization of new small molecule electron acceptors for polymer solar cells. Starting with a detailed introduction to the science behind polymer solar cells, the author then goes on to review the challenges and advances made in developing non-fullerene acceptors so far. In the main body of the book, the author describes the design principles and synthetic strategy for a new family of acceptors, including detailed synthetic procedures and molecular modeling data used to predict physical properties. An indepth characterization of the photovoltaic performance, with transient absorption spectroscopy (TAS), photo-induced charge extraction, and grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) is also included, and the author uses this data to relate material properties and device performance. This book provides a useful overview for researchers beginning a project in this or related areas.

This thesis develops new techniques for simulating the low-energy behaviour of quantum spin systems in one and two dimensions. Combining these developments, it subsequently uses the formalism of tensor network states to derive an effective particle description for one- and two-dimensional spin systems that exhibit strong quantum correlations. These techniques arise from the combination of two themes in many-particle physics: (i) the concept of quasiparticles as the effective low-energy degrees of freedom in a condensed-matter system, and (ii) entanglement as the characteristic feature for describing quantum phases of matter. Whereas the former gave rise to the use of effective field theories for understanding many-particle systems, the latter led to the development of tensor network states as a description of the entanglement distribution in quantum low-energy states.

This book reports on the latest advances in the study of motion control in biomimetic swimming robots with high speed and high manoeuvrability. It presents state-of-the-art studies on various swimming robots including robotic fish, dolphins and jellyfish in a unified framework, and discusses the potential benefits of applying biomimetic underwater propulsion to autonomous underwater vehicle design, such as: speed, energy economy, enhanced manoeuvrability, and reduced detectability. Given its scope, the book will be of interest to researchers, engineers and graduate students in robotics and ocean engineering who wish to learn about the core principles, methods, algorithms, and applications of biomimetic underwater robots.

This book presents selected research papers from CISC'17, held in MudanJiang, China. The topics covered include Multi-agent system, Evolutionary Computation, Artificial Intelligence, Complex systems, Computation intelligence and soft computing, Intelligent control, Advanced control technology, Robotics and applications, Intelligent information processing, Iterative learning control, Machine Learning, and etc. Engineers and researchers from academia, industry, and government can gain valuable insights into solutions combining ideas from multiple disciplines in the field of intelligent systems.

Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS) involve substituting machines capable of performing a wide and redefinable variety of tasks for machines dedicated to the performance of specific tasks. FMS can also be programmed to handle new products, thus extending the machines' life cycles. Thus they represent a change from "standardized goods produced by customized machines" to "customized goods produced by standardized machines." This volume contains new and updated material in this field, and will be of great interest to researchers, managers and students concerned with problems related to flexible manufacturing systems.