This book consists of 20 chapters in which the authors deal with different theoretical and practical aspects of new trends in Collective Computational Intelligence techniques. Computational Collective Intelligence methods and algorithms are one the current trending research topics from areas related to Artificial Intelligence, Soft Computing or Data Mining among others. Computational Collective Intelligence is a rapidly growing field that is most often understood as an AI sub-field dealing with soft computing methods which enable making group decisions and processing knowledge among autonomous units acting in distributed environments. Web-based Systems, Social Networks, and Multi-Agent Systems very often need these tools for working out consistent knowledge states, resolving conflicts and making decisions. The chapters included in this volume cover a selection of topics and new trends in several domains related to Collective Computational Intelligence: Language and Knowledge Processing, Data Mining Methods and Applications, Computer Vision, and Intelligent Computational Methods. This book will be useful for graduate and PhD students in computer science as well as for mature academics, researchers and practitioners interested in the methods and applications of collective computational intelligence in order to create new intelligent systems.

One of the most successful methodology that arose from the worldwide diffusion of Fuzzy Logic is Fuzzy Control. After the first attempts dated in the seventies, this methodology has been widely exploited for controlling many industrial components and systems. At the same time, and very independently from Fuzzy Logic or Fuzzy Control, the birth of the Web has impacted upon almost all aspects of computing discipline. Evolution of Web, Web2.0 and Web 3.0 has been making scenarios of ubiquitous computing much more feasible; consequently information technology has been thoroughly integrated into everyday objects and activities.

What happens when Fuzzy Logic meets Web technology? Interesting results might come out, as you will discover in this book. Fuzzy Mark-up Language is a son of this synergistic view, where some technological issues of Web are re-interpreted taking into account the transparent notion of Fuzzy Control, as discussed here. The concept of a Fuzzy Control that is conceived and modeled in terms of a native web wisdom represents another step towards the last picture of Pervasive Web Intelligence.

This book introduces the novel concept of a fuzzy network whose nodes are rule bases and the connections between the nodes are the interactions between the rule bases in the form of outputs fed as inputs. The concept is presented as a systematic study for improving the feasibility and transparency of fuzzy models by means of modular rule bases whereby the model accuracy and efficiency can be optimised in a flexible way. The study uses an effective approach for fuzzy rule based modelling of complex systems that are characterised by attributes such as nonlinearity, uncertainty, dimensionality and structure.The approach is illustrated by formal models for fuzzy networks, basic and advanced operations on network nodes, properties of operations, feedforward and feedback fuzzy networks as well as evaluation of fuzzy networks. The results are demonstrated by numerous examples, two case studies and software programmes within the Matlab environment that implement some of the theoretical methods from the book. The book shows the novel concept of a fuzzy network with networked rule bases as a bridge between the existing concepts of a standard fuzzy system with a single rule base and a hierarchical fuzzy system with multiple rule bases.

As technology continues to develop, certain innovations are beginning to cover a wide range of applications, specifically mobile robotic systems. The boundaries between the various automation methods and their implementations are not strictly defined, with overlaps occurring. Specificity is required regarding the research and development of android systems and how they pertain to modern science. Control and Signal Processing Applications for Mobile and Aerial Robotic Systems is a pivotal reference source that provides vital research on the current state of control and signal processing of portable robotic designs. While highlighting topics such as digital systems, control theory, and mathematical methods, this publication explores original inquiry contributions and the instrumentation of mechanical systems in the industrial and scientific fields. This book is ideally designed for technicians, engineers, industry specialists, researchers, academicians, and students seeking current research on today's execution of mobile robotic schemes.

The book puts special stress on the contemporary techniques for reasoning-based image processing and analysis: learning based image representation and advanced video coding; intelligent image processing and analysis in medical vision systems; similarity learning models for image reconstruction; visual perception for mobile robot motion control, simulation of human brain activity in the analysis of video sequences; shape-based invariant features extraction; essential of paraconsistent neural networks, creativity and intelligent representation in computational systems. The book comprises 14 chapters. Each chapter is a small monograph, representing resent investigations of authors in the area. The topics of the chapters cover wide scientific and application areas and complement each-other very well. The chapters' content is based on fundamental theoretical presentations, followed by experimental results and comparison with similar techniques. The size of the chapters is well-ballanced which permits a thorough presentation of the investigated problems. The authors are from universities and R&D institutions all over the world; some of the chapters are prepared by international teams. The book will be of use for university and PhD students, researchers and software developers working in the area of digital image and video processing and analysis.

Although recommendation systems have become a vital research area in the fields of cognitive science, approximation theory, information retrieval and management sciences, they still require improvements to make recommendation methods more effective and intelligent. Intelligent Techniques in Recommendation Systems: Contextual Advancements and New Methods is a comprehensive collection of research on the latest advancements of intelligence techniques and their application to recommendation systems and how this could improve this field of study.

Biological and other natural processes have always been a source of inspiration for computer science and information technology. Many emerging problem solving techniques integrate advanced evolution and cooperation strategies, encompassing a range of spatio-temporal scales for visionary conceptualization of evolutionary computation.

The previous editions of NICSO were held in Granada, Spain (2006), Acireale, Italy (2007), Tenerife, Spain (2008), and again in Granada in 2010. NICSO evolved to be one of the most interesting and profiled workshops in nature inspired computing.

NICSO 2011 has offered an inspiring environment for debating the state of the art ideas and techniques in nature inspired cooperative strategies and a comprehensive image on recent applications of these ideas and techniques.

The topics covered by this volume include Swarm Intelligence (such as Ant and Bee Colony Optimization), Genetic Algorithms, Multiagent Systems, Coevolution and Cooperation strategies, Adversarial Models, Synergic Building Blocks, Complex Networks, Social Impact Models, Evolutionary Design, Self Organized Criticality, Evolving Systems, Cellular Automata, Hybrid Algorithms, and Membrane Computing (P-Systems).

This book primarily illustrates the rationale, design and technical realization/verification for the cooperative guidance and control systems (CGCSs) of missile autonomous formation (MAF). From the seven functions to the five major compositions of CGCS, the book systematically explains the theory and modeling, analysis, synthesis and design of CGCSs for MAF, including bionics-based theories. Further, the book addresses how to create corresponding digital simulation analysis systems, as well as hardware in the loop (HIL) simulation test systems and flight test systems, to evaluate the combat effectiveness of MAF. Lastly, it provides detailed information on digital simulation analysis for a large range of wind tunnel test data, as well as test results of HIL system simulations and embedded systems testing.

Ambient intelligence began as a vision for the future of technology and has now become a reality. The widespread use of modern technology has quickly expanded into the use of our everyday lives. On a daily basis, we are instantly connected to people, places, ideas, and information which have led to the acceleration of knowledge. As the continuing development of new technologies becomes available, those technologies will play an integral role in the future. Pervasive and Ubiquitous Technology Innovations for Ambient Intelligence Environments is a collection of research on the subject matter of human computer interaction, ubiquitous computing, embedded systems, and other areas of study which contribute to ambient intelligence. This comprehensive reference aims to broaden the overall knowledge on ambient intelligence as it relates to the aspects of modern life.

The book "Paradigm Shift for Future Tennis" starts with revelations that make obvious the limitations of today's tennis, which does not use the laws of modern Biomechanics and Neurophysiology. The second part of the book includes a new approach to the quantum mind of a champion. It will reveal the secret weapon of Roger Federer and the blueprint of a future tennis champion. This book will expose the new tennis shot emerging from the field of sports science. It is a real weapon, which can generate a ball-speed similar to that of the first serve: the Power High-Forehand. Its aim is to generate maximal possible racket-head speed while players do not wait for the ball to bounce. This is both a tactical and psychological basis for the future tennis game. This aggressive interceptive psychology will shape the minds of future tennis champions. High racket-head speed can be achieved using the stretch-reflex, without big loops and swings. Weapons of a future tennis game will comprise of whip-like tennis serves and ground strokes, based on the stretch-reflex, and using the whole body in a fluid and integrated manner, thus manifesting a superb combination of speed and strength. Restructure your brain and apply the power of state of the art biomechanical, mathematical, medical, neural, cognitive, and quantum computational intelligence to understand the tennis of today and the future

This research volume is a continuation of our previous volume on intelligent machines. We have laid the foundation of intelligent machines in Springer SCI Series Volume 70 by including the possible and successful applications of computational intelligence paradigms in machines for mimicking the human behaviour. The present volume includes the recent advances in intelligent paradigms and innovative applications such as document processing, language translation, English academic writing, crawling system for web pages, web-page retrieval technique, aggregate k-Nearest Neighbour for answering queries, context-aware guide, recommendation system for museum, meta-learning environment, case-based reasoning approach for adaptive modelling in exploratory learning, discussion support system for understanding research papers, system for recommending e-Learning courses, community site for supporting multiple motor-skill development, community size estimation of internet forum, lightweight reprogramming for wireless sensor networks, adaptive traffic signal controller and virtual disaster simulation system. This book is directed to engineers, scientists, researchers, professor and the undergraduate/postgraduate students who wish to explore the applications of intelligent paradigms further.

Multi-Agent System (MAS) is an exciting, emerging paradigm expected to play a key role in many society-changing practices. The International Conference on Principles and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems (PRIMA) is a leading scientific conference for research on intelligent agent systems and multi-agent systems, attracting high quality, state-of-the-art research from all over the world. PRIMA'09 was the 12th in the series of PRIMA conferences and was held in Nagoya, Japan. Beside a single-track main conference, PRIMA'09 also included a number of workshops which were designed to provide a forum for researchers and practitioners to present and exchange the latest developments at the MAS frontier. This book constitutes the post-proceedings of workshops under PRIMA'09. Readers will be able to explore a diverse range of topics and detailed discussions related to a number of important themes in our ever changing world. This collection plays an important role in bridging the gap between MAS theory and practice. It emphasizes the importance of MAS in the research and development of smart power grid systems, decision support systems, optimization and analysis systems for road traffic and markets, environmental monitoring and simulation, and in many other real-world applications and publicizes and extends MAS technology to many domains in this fast moving information age.

This volume includes papers presented at IIH-MSP 2017, the 13th International Conference on Intelligent Information Hiding and Multimedia Signal Processing, held on 12-15 August 2017 in Matsue, Shimane, Japan. The conference covered topics ranging from information hiding and security, and multimedia signal processing and networking, to bio-inspired multimedia technologies and systems. This volume focuses on subjects related to multimedia security and applications, wearable computing, Internet of Things (IoT) privacy and information security, biomedical system design and applications, emerging techniques and applications, soft computing and applications, applications of image encoding and rendering, and information hiding and its criteria. Updated with the latest research outcomes and findings, the papers presented appeal to researchers and students in the corresponding fields.

This book introduces three key issues: (i) development of a gradient-free method to enable multi-objective self-optimization; (ii) development of a reinforcement learning strategy to carry out self-learning and finally, (iii) experimental evaluation and validation in two micromachining processes (i.e., micro-milling and micro-drilling). The computational architecture (modular, network and reconfigurable for real-time monitoring and control) takes into account the analysis of different types of sensors, processing strategies and methodologies for extracting behavior patterns from representative process' signals. The reconfiguration capability and portability of this architecture are supported by two major levels: the cognitive level (core) and the executive level (direct data exchange with the process). At the same time, the architecture includes different operating modes that interact with the process to be monitored and/or controlled. The cognitive level includes three fundamental modes such as modeling, optimization and learning, which are necessary for decision-making (in the form of control signals) and for the real-time experimental characterization of complex processes. In the specific case of the micromachining processes, a series of models based on linear regression, nonlinear regression and artificial intelligence techniques were obtained. On the other hand, the executive level has a constant interaction with the process to be monitored and/or controlled. This level receives the configuration and parameterization from the cognitive level to perform the desired monitoring and control tasks.

This book is a continuation of the previous volumes of our series on Advanced Computational Intelligence Paradigms in Healthcare. The recent advances in computational intelligence paradigms have highlighted the need of intelligent systems in healthcare. This volume provides the reader a glimpse of the current state of the art in intelligent support system design in the field of healthcare. The book reports a sample of recent advances in: * Clinical Decision Support Systems * Rehabilitation Decision Support Systems * Technology Acceptance in Medical Decision Support Systems The book is directed to the researchers, professors, practitioner and students interested to design and develop intelligent decision support systems.

KES International (KES) is a worldwide organisation that provides a professional community and association for researchers, originally in the discipline of Knowledge Based and Intelligent Engineering Systems, but now extending into other related areas. Through this, KES provides its members with opportunities for publication and beneficial interaction. The focus of KES is research and technology transfer in the area of Intelligent S- tems, i.e. computer-based software systems that operate in a manner analogous to the human brain, in order to perform advanced tasks. Recently KES has started to extend its area of interest to encompass the contribution that intelligent systems can make to sustainability and renewable energy, and also the knowledge transfer, innovation and enterprise agenda. Involving several thousand researchers, managers and engineers drawn from u- versities and companies world-wide, KES is in an excellent position to facilitate - ternational research co-operation and generate synergy in the area of artificial intel- gence applied to real-world 'Smart' systems and the underlying related theory. The KES annual conference covers a broad spectrum of intelligent systems topics and attracts several hundred delegates from a range of countries round the world. KES also organises symposia on specific technical topics, for example, Agent and Multi Agent Systems, Intelligent Decision Technologies, Intelligent Interactive M- timedia Systems and Services, Sustainability in Energy and Buildings and Innovations through Knowledge Transfer. KES is responsible for two peer-reviewed journals, the International Journal of Knowledge based and Intelligent Engineering Systems, and Intelligent Decision Technologies: an International Journal.

Intelligent Information Access techniques attempt to overcome the limi- tions of current search devices by providing personalized information items and product/service recommendations. They normally utilize direct or in- rect user input and facilitate the information search and decision processes, according to user needs, preferences and usage patterns. Recent devel- ments at the intersection of Information Retrieval, Information Filtering, MachineLearning,UserModelling,NaturalLanguageProcessingandHuman- Computer Interaction o?er novel solutions that empower users to go beyond single-sessionlookuptasksandthataimatservingthemorecomplexrequi- ment: "Tell me what I don't know that I need to know". Information?ltering systems,speci?callyrecommendersystems,havebeenrevolutionizingtheway information seekers?nd what they want, becausethey e?ectively prune large informationspacesandhelpusersinselectingitemsthatbestmeettheirneeds and preferences. Recommender systems rely strongly on the use of various machine learning tools and algorithms for learning how to rank, or predict user evaluation, of items. Information Retrieval systems, on the other hand, also attempt to address similar ?ltering and ranking problems for pieces of information such as links, pages, and documents. But they generally focus on the development of global retrieval techniques, often neglecting individual user needs and preferences. The book aims to investigate current developments and new insights into methods, techniques and technologies for intelligent information access from a multidisciplinary perspective. It comprises six chapters authored by part- ipants in the research event Intelligent Information Access,heldinCagliari (Italy) in December 2008.

This book explores various renewal processes in the context of probability theory, uncertainty theory and chance theory. It also covers the applications of these renewal processes in maintenance models and insurance risk models. The methods used to derive the limit of the renewal rate, the reward rate, and the availability rate are of particular interest, as they can easily be extended to the derivation of other models. Its comprehensive and systematic treatment of renewal processes, renewal reward processes and the alternating renewal process is one of the book's major features, making it particularly valuable for readers who are interested in learning about renewal theory. Given its scope, the book will benefit researchers, engineers, and graduate students in the fields of mathematics, information science, operations research, industrial engineering, etc.

This volume presents a collection of papers presented at the 15th International Symposium of Robotic Research (ISRR). ISRR is the biennial meeting of the International Foundation of Robotic Research (IFRR) and its 15th edition took place in Flagstaff, Arizona on December 9 to December 12, 2011. As for the previous symposia, ISRR 2011 followed up on the successful concept of a mixture of invited contributions and open submissions. Therefore approximately half of the 37 contributions were invited contributions from outstanding researchers selected by the IFRR officers and the program committee, and the other half were chosen among the open submissions after peer review. This selection process resulted in a truly excellent technical program which featured some of the very best of robotic research. The program was organized around oral presentation in a single-track format and included for the first time a small number of interactive presentations. The symposium contributions contained in this volume report on a variety of new robotics research results covering a broad spectrum including perception, manipulation, grasping, vehicles and design, navigation, control and integration, estimation and SLAM.

This book is devoted to the encounter and interaction of agents such as robots with other agents and describes how they cooperate with their previously unknown teammates, forming an Ad Hoc team. It presents a new algorithm, PLASTIC, that allows agents to quickly adapt to new teammates by reusing knowledge learned from previous teammates. PLASTIC is instantiated in both a model-based approach, PLASTIC-Model and a policy-based approach, PLASTIC-Policy. In addition to reusing knowledge learned from previous teammates, PLASTIC also allows users to provide expert-knowledge and can use transfer learning (such as the new Two Stage Transfer algorithm) to quickly create models of new teammates when it has some information about its new teammates. The effectiveness of the algorithm is demonstrated on three domains, ranging from multi-armed bandits to simulated robot soccer games.

"Semantic Analysis and Understanding of Human Behaviour in Video Streaming "investigates the semantic analysis of the human behaviour captured by video streaming, and introduces both theoretical and technological points of view. Video analysis based on the semantic content is in fact still an open issue for the computer vision research community, especially when real-time analysis of complex scenes is concerned."
"This book explores an innovative, original approach to human behaviour analysis and understanding by using the syntactical symbolic analysis of images and video streaming described by means of strings of symbols. A symbol is associated to each area of the analyzed scene. When a moving object enters an area, the corresponding symbol is appended to the string describing the motion. This approach allows for characterizing the motion of a moving object with a word composed by symbols. By studying and classifying these words we can categorize and understand the various behaviours. The main advantage of this approach lies in the simplicity of the scene and motion descriptions so that the behaviour analysis will have limited computational complexity due to the intrinsic nature both of the representations and the related operations used to manipulate them. Besides, the structure of the representations is well suited for possible parallel processing, thus allowing for speeding up the analysis when appropriate hardware architectures are used. A new methodology for design systems for hierarchical high semantic level analysis of video streaming in narrow domains is also proposed. Guidelines to design your own system are provided in this book."
"Designed for practitioners, computer scientists and engineers working within the fields ofhuman computer interaction, surveillance, image processing and computer vision, this book can also be used assecondary text book for advanced-level students in computer science and engineering."
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An autonomous sailboat robot is a boat that only uses the wind on its sail as the propelling force, without remote control or human assistance to achieve its mission. Robotic sailing offers the potential of long range and long term autonomous wind propelled, solar or wave-powered carbon neutral devices. Robotic sailing devices could contribute to monitoring of environmental, ecological, meteorological, hydrographic and oceanographic data. These devices can also be used in traffic monitoring, border surveillance, security, assistance and rescue. The dependency on changing winds and sea conditions presents a considerable challenge for short and long term route and stability planning, collision avoidance and boat control. Building a robust and seaworthy sailing robot presents a truly complex and multi-disciplinary challenge for boat designers, naval architects, systems/electrical engineers and computer scientists. Over the last decade, several events such as Sailbot, World Robotic Sailing Championship and the International Robotic Sailing Conference (WRSC/IRSC) and Microtransat have sparked an explosion in the number of groups working on autonomous sailing robots. Many of the challenges in building truly autonomous sailing robots still remain unsolved. These proceedings present the work of researchers on current and future challenges in autonomous sailboat development, presented at the WRSC/IRSC 2014 in Galway, Ireland, 8th - 12th September 2014.

"Introducing Spoken Dialogue Systems into Intelligent Environments "outlines the formalisms of a novel knowledge-driven framework for spoken dialogue management and presents the implementation ofa model-based Adaptive Spoken Dialogue Manager(ASDM) called OwlSpeak. The authors have identified three stakeholders thatpotentially influence the behavior of the ASDM: the user, the SDS, and a complex Intelligent Environment (IE) consisting of various devices, services, and task descriptions.
The theoretical foundation of a working ontology-based spoken dialogue description framework, the prototype implementation of the ASDM, and the evaluation activities that are presented as part of this book contribute to the ongoing spoken dialogue research by establishing the fertile ground of model-based adaptive spoken dialogue management.
Thismonograph is ideal for advanced undergraduate students, PhD students, and postdocs as well as academic and industrial researchers and developers in speech and multimodal interactive systems."

In the last decade we have seen the emergence of a new inter-disciplinary field concentrating on the understanding large networks which are dynamic, large, open, and have a structure that borders order and randomness. The field of Complex Networks has helped us better understand many complex phenomena such as spread of decease, protein interaction, social relationships, to name but a few.

The field of Complex Networks has received a major boost caused by the widespread availability of huge network data resources in the last years. One of the most surprising findings is that real networks behave very distinct from traditional assumptions of network theory. Traditionally, real networks were supposed to have a majority of nodes of about the same number of connections around an average. This is typically modeled by random graphs. But modern network research could show that the majority of nodes of real networks is very low connected, and, by contrast, there exists some nodes of very extreme connectivity (hubs).

The current theories coupled with the availability of data makes the field of Complex Networks (sometimes called Network Sciences) one of the most promising interdisciplinary disciplines of today. This sample of works in this book gives as a taste of what is in the horizon such controlling the dynamics of a network and in the network, using social interactions to improve urban planning, ranking in music, and the understanding knowledge transfer in influence networks."