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Significant improvements in module performance are possible via implementation of multi-wire electrodes. This is economically sound as long as the mechanical yield of the production is maintained. While flat ribbons have a relatively large contact area to exert forces onto the solar cell, wires with round cross section reduce this contact area considerably – in theory to an infinitively thin line. Therefore, the local stresses induced by the electrodes might increase to a point that mechanical production yields suffer unacceptably.
In this paper, we assess this issue by an analytical mechanical model as well as experiments with an encapsulant-free N.I.C.E. test setup. From these, we can derive estimations for the relationship between lay-up accuracy and expected breakage losses. This paves the way for cost-optimized choices of handling equipment in industrial N.I.C.E.-wire production lines.
In automotive parking scenario, where the curb shall be detected and classified to be traversable or not, radars play an important role. There are different approaches already proposed in other works to estimate the target height. This paper assesses and compares two methods. The first is based on Angle of Arrival (AoA) estimation of input signals of multiple antennas using the Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) principle. The second method uses the geometry in multipath propagation of the radar echo signal for one antenna input. In this work a modified method of calculation of the curb height based on the second method is proposed. The theory of approach is mathematically proved and effectiveness is demonstrated by evaluation of measurements with a 77 GHz Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar. In order to evaluate the performance of the introduced method the mean square error (MSE) is used in the proposed scenario. This method, using only one antenna input, produced up to 3.4 times better results for curb height detection in comparison with former methods.
Due to the increasing aging of the population, the number of elderly people requiring care is growing in most European countries. However, the number of caregivers working in nursing homes and on daily care services is declining in countries like Germany or Italy. This limits the time for interpersonal communication. Furthermore, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, social distancing during contact restrictions became more important, causing an additional reduction of personal interaction. This social isolation can strongly increase emotional stress. Robotic assistance could contribute to addressing this challenge on three levels: (1) supporting caregivers to respond individually to the needs of patients and residents in nursing homes; (2) observing patients’ health and emotional state; (3) complying with high hygiene standards and minimizing human contact if required. To further the research on emotional aspects and the acceptance of robotic assistance in care, we conducted two studies where elderly participants interacted with the social robot Misa. Facial expression and voice analysis were used to identify and measure the emotional state of the participants during the interaction. While interpersonal contact plays a major role in elderly care, the findings reveal that robotic assistance generates added value for both caregivers and patients and that they show emotions while interacting with them.
In previous work we [1] and other authors (e.g. [2]) have shown that agent-based systems are successful in optimizing delivery plans of single logistics companies and are meanwhile successfully productive in industry. In this paper we show that agent-based systems are particularly useful to also optimize transport across logistics companies. In intercompany optimization, privacy is of major importance between the otherwise competing companies. Some data has to be treated strictly private like the cost model or the constraint model. Other data like order information has to be shared. However, typically the amount of orders released to other companies has also to be limited. We show that our agent-based approach can be easily fine tuned to trade off privacy against the benefit of cooperation.
The transition from college to university can have a variety of psychological effects on students who need to cope with daily obligations by themselves in a new setting, which can result in loneliness and social isolation. Mobile technology, specifically mental health apps (MHapps), have been seen as promising solutions to assist university students who are facing these problems, however, there is little evidence around this topic. My research investigates how a mobile app can be designed to reduce social isolation and loneliness among university students. The Noneliness app is being developed to this end; it aims to create social opportunities through a quest-based gamified system in a secure and collaborative network of local users. Initial evaluations with the target audience provided evidence on how an app should be designed for this purpose. These results are presented and how they helped me to plan the further steps to reach my research goals. The paper is presented at MobileHCI 2020 Doctoral Consortium.
Subspace clustering aims to find all clusters in all subspaces of a high-dimensional data space. We present a massively data-parallel approach that can be run on graphics processing units. It extends a previous density-based method that scales well with the number of dimensions. Its main computational bottleneck consists of (sequentially) generating a large number of minimal cluster candidates in each dimension and using hash collisions in order to find matches of such candidates across multiple dimensions. Our approach parallelizes this process by removing previous interdependencies between consecutive steps in the sequential generation process and by applying a very efficient parallel hashing scheme optimized for GPUs. This massive parallelization gives up to 70x speedup for
the bottleneck computation when it is replaced by our approach and run on current GPU hardware. We note that depending on data size and choice of parameters, the parallelized part of the algorithm can take different percentages of the overall runtime of the clustering process, and thus, the overall clustering speedup may vary significantly between different cases. However, even
in our ”worst-case” test, a small dataset where the computation makes up only a small fraction of the overall clustering time, our parallel approach still yields a speedup of more than 3x for the complete run of the clustering process. Our method could also be combined with parallelization of other parts of the clustering algorithm, with an even higher potential gain in processing speed.
Social Haptic Communication (SHC) is one of the many tactile modes of communication used by persons with deafblindness to access information about their surroundings. SHC usually involves an interpreter executing finger and hand signs on the back of a person with multi-sensory disabilities. Learning SHC, however, can become challenging and time-consuming, particularly to those who experience deafblindness later in life. In this work, we present PatRec: a mobile game for learning SHC concepts. PatRec is a multiple-choice quiz game connected to a chair interface that contains a 3x3 array of vibration motors emulating different SHC signs. Players collect scores and badges whenever they guess the right SHC vibration pattern, leading to continuous engagement and a better position on a leaderboard. The game is also meant for family members to learn SHC. We report the technical implementation of PatRec and the findings from a user evaluation.
Loneliness, an emotional distress caused by the lack of meaningful social connections, has been increasingly affecting university students who need to deal with everyday situations in a new setting, especially those who have come from abroad. Currently there is little work on digital solutions to reduce loneliness. Therefore, this work describes the general design considerations for mobile apps in this context and outlines a potential solution. The mobile app Noneliness is used to this end: it aims to reduce loneliness by creating social opportunities through a quest-based gamified system in a secure and collaborative network of local users. The results of initial evaluations with the target audience are described. The results informed a user interface redesign as well as a review of the features and the gamification principles adopted.
Das hier vorgestellte System verbindet das neue Konzept der Peer-to-Peer-Navigation mit dem Einsatz von Augmented Reality zur Unterstützung von bettseitig durchgeführten externen Ventrikeldrainagen. Das sehr kompakte und genaue Gesamtsystem beinhaltet einen Patiententracker mit integrierter Kamera, eine Augmented-Reality-Brille mit Kamera und eine Punktionsnadel bzw. einen Pointer mit zwei Trackern, mit dessen Hilfe die Anatomie des Patienten aufgenommen wird. Die exakte Position und Richtung der Punktionsnadel wird unter Zuhilfenahme der aufgenommenen Landmarken berechnet und über die Augmented-Reality-Brille für den Chirurgen sichtbar auf dem Patienten dargestellt. Die Methode zur Kalibrierung der statischen Transformationen zwischen Patiententracker und daran befestigter Kamera beziehungsweise zwischen den Trackern der Punktionsnadel sind für die Genauigkeit sehr wichtig und werden hier vorgestellt. Das Gesamtsystem konnte in vitro erfolgreich getestet werden und bestätigt den Nutzen eines Peer-to-Peer-Navigationssystems.
Wireless sensor networks have found their way into a wide range of applications, among which environmental monitoring systems have attracted increasing interests of researchers. Main challenges for these applications are scalability of the network size and energy efficiency of the spatially distributed nodes. Nodes are mostly battery-powered and spend most of their energy budget on the radio transceiver module. In normal operation modes most energy is spent waiting for incoming frames. A so-called Wake-On-Radio (WOR) technology helps to optimize trade-offs between energy consumption, communication range, complexity of the implementation and response time. We already proposed a new protocol called SmartMAC that makes use of such WOR technology. Furthermore, it gives the possibility to balance the energy consumption between sender and receiver nodes depending on the use case. Based on several calculations and simulations, it was predicted that the SmartMAC protocol was significantly more efficient than other schemes being proposed in recent publications, while preserving a certain backward compatibility with standard IEEE802.15.4 transceivers. To verify this prediction, we implemented the SmartMAC protocol for a given hardware platform. This paper compares the realtime performance of the SmartMAC protocol against simulation results, and proves the measured values are very close to the estimated values. Thus we believe that the proposed MAC algorithms outperforms all other Wake-on-Radio MACs.
Physically Unclonable Functions (PUFs) are hardware-based security primitives, which allow for inherent device fingerprinting. Therefore, intrinsic variation of imperfect manufactured systems is exploited to generate device-specific, unique identifiers. With printed electronics (PE) joining the internet of things (IoT), hardware-based security for novel PE-based systems is of increasing importance. Furthermore, PE offers the possibility for split-manufacturing, which mitigates the risk of PUF response readout by third parties, before commissioning. In this paper, we investigate a printed PUF core as intrinsic variation source for the generation of unique identifiers from a crossbar architecture. The printed crossbar PUF is verified by simulation of a 8×8-cells crossbar, which can be utilized to generate 32-bit wide identifiers. Further focus is on limiting factors regarding printed devices, such as increased parasitics, due to novel materials and required control logic specifications. The simulation results highlight, that the printed crossbar PUF is capable to generate close-to-ideal unique identifiers at the investigated feature size. As proof of concept a 2×2-cells printed crossbar PUF core is fabricated and electrically characterized.
Printed electronics (PE) offers flexible, extremely low-cost, and on-demand hardware due to its additive manufacturing process, enabling emerging ultra-low-cost applications, including machine learning applications. However, large feature sizes in PE limit the complexity of a machine learning classifier (e.g., a neural network (NN)) in PE. Stochastic computing Neural Networks (SC-NNs) can reduce area in silicon technologies, but still require complex designs due to unique implementation tradeoffs in PE. In this paper, we propose a printed mixed-signal system, which substitutes complex and power-hungry conventional stochastic computing (SC) components by printed analog designs. The printed mixed-signal SC consumes only 35% of power consumption and requires only 25% of area compared to a conventional 4-bit NN implementation. We also show that the proposed mixed-signal SC-NN provides good accuracy for popular neural network classification problems. We consider this work as an important step towards the realization of printed SC-NN hardware for near-sensor-processing.
Sustainable chemical processes should be designed to combine the technological advantages and progress with lower safety risks and minimization of environmental impact such as, for example, reduction of raw materials, energy and water consumption, and avoidance of hazardous waste and pollution with toxic chemical agents. A number of novel eco-friendly chemical technologies have been developed in the recent decades with the help of the eco-innovations approaches and methods such as Life Cycle Analysis, Green Process Engineering, Process Intensification, Process Design for Sustainability, and others. An emerging approach to the sustainable process design in process engineering builds on the innovative solutions inspired from nature. However, the implementation of the eco-friendly technologies often faces secondary ecological problems. The study postulates that the eco-inventive principles identified in natural systems allow to avoid secondary eco-problems and proposes to apply these principles for sustainable design in chemical process engineering. The research work critically examines how this approach differs from the biomimetics, as it is commonly used for copying natural systems. The application of nature-inspired eco-design principles is illustrated with an example of a sustainable technology for extraction of nickel from pyrophyllite.
The proposed method includes identification and documentation of the elementary TRIZ inventive principles from the TRIZ body of knowledge, extension and enhancement of inventive principles by patents and technologies analysis, avoiding overlapping and redundant principles, classification and adaptation of principles to at least following categories such as working medium, target object, useful action, harmful effect, environment, information, field, substance, time, and space, assignment of the elementary inventive principles to the at least following underlying engineering domains such as universal, design, mechanical, acoustic, thermal, chemical, electromagnetic, intermolecular, biological, and data processing. The method includes classification of abstraction level of the elementary principles, definition of the statistical ranking of principles for different problem types, and specific engineering or non-technical domains, definition of strategies for selection of principles sets with high solution potential for predefined problems, automated semantic transformation of the elementary inventive principles into solution ideas, evaluation of automatically generated ideas and transformation of ideas to innovation or inventive concepts.
The paper describes the implementation of practical laboratory settings in a virtual environment. With the entry of VR glasses into the mass market, there is a chance to establish educational and training applications for displaying some teaching materials and practical works. Therefore our project focuses on the realization of virtual experiments and environments, which gives users a deep insight into selected subfields of Optics and Photonics. Our goal is not to substitute the hand on experiments rather to extend them. By means of VR glasses, the user is offered the possibility to view the experiment from several angles and to make changes through interactive control functions. During the VR application, additional context-related information is displayed. By using object recognition, the specific graphics and texts for the respective object are loaded and supplemented at the appropriate place. Thus, complex facts are supported in an informative way. The prototype is developed using the Unity Engine and can thus be exported to different platforms and end devices. Another major advantage of virtual simulations to the real situation is the high degree of controllability as well as the easy repeatability. With slight modifications, entire experiments can be reused. Our research aims to acquire new knowledge in the field of e-learning in association with VR technology. Here we try to answer a core question of the compatibility of the individual media components.
Increasing power density causes increased self-generation of harmonics and intermodulation. As this leads to violations of the strict linearity requirements, especially for carrier aggregation (CA), the nonlinearity must be considered in the design process of RF devices. This raises the demand of accurate simulation models. Linear and nonlinear P-Matrix/COM models are used during the design due to their fast simulation times and accurate results. However, the finite element method (FEM) is useful to get a deeper insight in the device's nonlinearities, as the total field distributions can be visualized. The FE method requires complete sets of material tensors, which are unknown for most relevant materials in nonlinear micro-acoustics. In this work, we perform nonlinear FEM simulations, which allow the calculation of nonlinear field distributions of a lithium tantalate based layered SAW system up to third order. We aim at achieving good correspondence to measured data and determine the contributions of each material layer to the nonlinear signals. Therefore, we use approximations circumventing the issue of limited higher order tensor data. Experimental data for the third order nonlinearity is shown to validate the presented approach.
Due to its potential in improving the efficiency of energy supply, smart energy metering (SEM) has become an area of interest with the surge in Internet of Things (IoT). SEM entails remote monitoring and control of the sensors and actuators associated with the energy supply system. This provides a flexible platform to conceive and implement new data driven Demand Side Management (DSM) mechanisms. The IoT enablement allows the data to be gathered and analyzed at requisite granularity. In addition to efficient use of energy resources and provisioning of power, developing countries face an additional challenge of temporal mismatch in generation capacity and load factors. This leads to widespread deployment of inefficient and expensive Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) solutions for limited power provisioning during resulting blackouts. Our proposed “Soft-UPS” allows dynamic matching of load and generation through a combination of managed curtailment. This eliminates inefficiencies in the energy and power value chain and allows a data-driven approach to solving a widespread problem in developing countries, simultaneously reducing both upfront and running costs of conventional UPS and storage. A scalable and modular platform is proposed and implemented in this paper. The architecture employs “WiMODino” using LoRaWAN with a “Lite Gateway” and SQLite repository for data storage. Role based access to the system through an android application has also been demonstrated for monitoring and control.
Cryptographic protection of messages requires frequent updates of the symmetric cipher key used for encryption and decryption, respectively. Protocols of legacy IT security, like TLS, SSH, or MACsec implement rekeying under the assumption that, first, application data exchange is allowed to stall occasionally and, second, dedicated control messages to orchestrate the process can be exchanged. In real-time automation applications, the first is generally prohibitive, while the second may induce problematic traffic patterns on the network. We present a novel seamless rekeying approach, which can be embedded into cyclic application data exchanges. Although, being agnostic to the underlying real-time communication system, we developed a demonstrator emulating the widespread industrial Ethernet system PROFINET IO and successfully use this rekeying mechanism.
This paper presents an extended version of a previously published Bayesian algorithm for the automatic correction of the positions of the equipment on the map with simultaneous mobile object trajectory localization (SLAM) in underground mine environment represented by undirected graph. The proposed extended SLAM algorithm requires much less preliminary data on possible equipment positions and uses an additional resample move algorithm to significantly improve the overall performance.
Towards a Formal Verification of Seamless Cryptographic Rekeying in Real-Time Communication Systems
(2022)
This paper makes two contributions to the verification of communication protocols by transition systems. Firstly, the paper presents a modeling of a cyclic communication protocol using a synchronized network of transition systems. This protocol enables seamless cryptographic rekeying embedded into cyclic messages. Secondly, we test the protocol using the model checking verification technique.
It seems to be a widespread impression that the use of strong cryptography inevitably imposes a prohibitive burden on industrial communication systems, at least inasmuch as real-time requirements in cyclic fieldbus communications are concerned. AES-GCM is a leading cryptographic algorithm for authenticated encryption, which protects data against disclosure and manipulations. We study the use of both hardware and software-based implementations of AES-GCM. By simulations as well as measurements on an FPGA-based prototype setup we gain and substantiate an important insight: for devices with a 100 Mbps full-duplex link, a single low-footprint AES-GCM hardware engine can deterministically cope with the worst-case computational load, i.e., even if the device maintains a maximum number of cyclic communication relations with individual cryptographic keys. Our results show that hardware support for AES-GCM in industrial fieldbus components may actually be very lightweight.
For the past few years Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) have emerged as key technologies for the connectivity of many applications in the Internet of Things (IoT) combining low-data rates with strict cost and energy restrictions. Especially LoRa/LoRaWAN enjoys a high visibility on today’s markets, because of its good performance and its open community. Originally LoRa was designed for operation within the Sub-GHz ISM bands for Industrial, Scientific and Medical applications. However, at the end of 2018, a LoRa-based solution in the 2.4GHz ISM-band was presented promising higher bandwidths and higher data rates. Furthermore, it overcomes the limited duty-cycle prescribed by the regulations in the ISM-bands and therefore also opens doors to many novel application fields. Also, due to higher bandwidths and shorter transmission times, the use of alternative MAC layer protocols becomes very interesting, i.e. for TDMA based-approaches. Within this paper, we propose a system architecture with 2.4GHz LoRa components combining two aspects. On the one hand, we present a design and an implementation of a 2.4GHz based LoRaWAN solution that can be seamlessly integrated into existing LoRaWAN back-hauls. On the other hand, we describe deterministic setup using a Time Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH) approach as defined in the IEEE802.15.4-2015 standard for industrial applications. Finally, measurements show the performance of the system.
Autonomous driving is disrupting the automotive industry as we know it today. For this, fail-operational behavior is essential in the sense, plan, and act stages of the automation chain in order to handle safety-critical situations on its own, which currently is not reached with state-of-the-art approaches.The European ECSEL research project PRYSTINE realizes Fail-operational Urban Surround perceptION (FUSION) based on robust Radar and LiDAR sensor fusion and control functions in order to enable safe automated driving in urban and rural environments. This paper showcases some of the key exploitable results (e.g., novel Radar sensors, innovative embedded control and E/E architectures, pioneering sensor fusion approaches, AI-controlled vehicle demonstrators) achieved until its final year 3.
We describe a prototype for power line communi- cation for grid monitoring. The PLC receiver is used to gain information about the PLC channel and the current state of the power grid. The PLC receiver uses the communication signal to obtain an accurate estimate of the current channel and provides information which can be used as a basis for further processing with the aim to detect partial discharges and other anomalies in the grid. This monitoring of the power grid takes advantage of existing PLC infrastructure and uses the data signals, which are transmitted anyway to obtain a real-time measurement of the channel transfer function and the received noise signal. Since this signal is sampled at a high sampling rate compared to simpler measurement sensors, it contains valuable information about possible degradations in the grid which need to be addressed. While channel measurements are based on a received PLC signal, information about partial discharges or other sources of interference can be gathered by a PLC receiver in the absence of a transmit signal. A prototype based on Software Defined Radio has been developed, which implements the simultaneous communication and sensing for a power grid.
The following describes a new method for estimating the parameters of an interior permanent magnet synchronous machine (IPMSM). For the estimation of the parameters the current slopes caused by the switching of the inverter are used to determine the unknowns of the system equations of the electrical machine. The angle and current dependence of the machine parameters are linearized within a PWM cycle. By considering the different switching states of the inverter, several system equations can be derived and a solution can be found within one PWM cycle. The use of test signals and filter-based approaches is avoided. The derived algorithm is explained and validated with measurements on a test bench.
This study aims to investigate the individual response concerning BRFs for AT when the mid-sole hardness underneath the rearfoot was systematically altered. We first identified FGs based on the footwear condition that minimised the risk for AT across BRFs. We then tested the FGs for differences in anthropometrics, footwear comfort, and running characteristics.
Object Detection and Mapping with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Using Convolutional Neural Networks
(2021)
Significant progress has been made in the field of deep learning through intensive research over the last decade. So-called convolutional neural networks are an essential component of this research. In this type of neural network, the mathematical convolution operator is used to extract characteristics or anomalies. The purpose of this work is to investigate the extent to which it is possible in certain initial settings to input aerial recordings and flight data of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in the architecture of a neural network and to detect and map an object. Using the calculated contours or dimensions of the so-called bounding boxes, the position of the objects can be determined relative to the current UAV location.
The applicability of characteristics of local magnetic fields for more precise determination of localization of subjects and/or objects in indoor environments, such as railway stations, airports, exhibition halls, showrooms, or shopping centers, is considered. An investigation has been carried out to find out whether and how low-cost magnetic field sensors and mobile robot platforms can be used to create maps that improve the accuracy and robustness of later navigation with smartphones or other devices.
The aim of this work is the application and evaluation of a method to visually detect markers at a distance of up to five meters and determine their real-world position. Combinations of cameras and lenses with different parameters were studied to determine the optimal configuration. Based on this configuration, camera images were taken after proper calibration. These images are then transformed into a bird's eye view using a homography matrix. The homography matrix is calculated with four-point pairs as well as with coordinate transformations. The obtained images show the ground plane un distorted, making it possible to convert a pixel position into a real-world position with a conversion factor. The proposed approach helps to effectively create data sets for training neural networks for navigation purposes.
For some years now, additive manufacturing (AM) has offered an alternative to conventional manufacturing processes. The strengths of AM are primarily the rapid implementation of ideas into a usable product and the ability to produce geometrically complex shapes. It has also significantly advanced the lightweight design of products made of plastic. So far, the strength of printed components made of polymers is previously very limited.
Recently, new AM processes have become available that allow the embedding of short and also long fibers in polymer matrix. Thus, the manufacturing of components that provide a significant increase in strength becomes possible. In this way, both complex geometries and sophisticated applications can be implemented. This paper therefore investigates how this new technology can be implemented in product development, focusing on sports equipment. An extensive literature research shows that lightweight design plays a decisive role in sports equipment. In addition, the advantages of AM in terms of individualized products and low quantities can be fully exploited.
An example of this approach is the steering system for a seat sled used by paraplegic athletes in the Olympic discipline of Nordic paraskiing. A particular challenge here is the placement and alignment of the long carbon fibers within the polymer matrix and the verification of the strength by means of Finite-Element-Analysis (FEA). In addition, findings from bionics are used to optimize the lightweight design of the steering system. Using this example, it can be shown that the weight of the steering system can be drastically reduced compared to conventional manufacturing. At the same time, a number of parts can be saved through function integration and thus the manufacturing and assembly effort can be reduced significantly.
Today, Additive Manufacturing (AM) is an important part of teaching for the education of future engineers. Therefore, a variety of approaches have been developed in recent years on how to bring the design for additive manufacturing (DfAM) into university teaching. In a detailed literature review, the advantages and disadvantages of the previous approaches are considered and analysed. Based on this, an extended approach is presented in which students analyse and optimize a given product with respect to additive manufacturing. In doing so, the students have to solve challenging tasks in optimization in product development with the help of methodical approaches and practically implement their developed solutions with state-of-the-art additive processes. To work on this task, the students have two different 3D printers at their disposal, which work with different processes and materials. Thus, the students learn to adapt the design to different manufacturing processes and to consider the restrictions of different materials. The assessment of the results from this course is done through feedback and a written survey.
This paper presents the development of an energy harvesting solution for a driven tool holder. The tool holder environment was analysed, a test stand built and the designed electromagnetic rotation harvester was evaluated. The reported harvester is based on low cost off-the-shelf components and 3D printed parts. The utilisation of SMD coils allows easy adaptation to changing parameters of the integration area. Energy harvesting in tool holders enables predictive maintenance or condition monitoring in the industrial production. These capabilities are mandatory nowadays in regards of IIoT. A reliable energy source is key for continuous monitoring. Changing batteries becomes obsolete. The results provide useful insight for future harvesters.
Correlation Clustering, also called the minimum cost Multicut problem, is the process of grouping data by pairwise similarities. It has proven to be effective on clustering problems, where the number of classes is unknown. However, not only is the Multicut problem NP-hard, an undirected graph G with n vertices representing single images has at most edges, thus making it challenging to implement correlation clustering for large datasets. In this work, we propose Multi-Stage Multicuts (MSM) as a scalable approach for image clustering. Specifically, we solve minimum cost Multicut problems across multiple distributed compute units. Our approach not only allows to solve problem instances which are too large to fit into the shared memory of a single compute node, but it also achieves significant speedups while preserving the clustering accuracy at the same time. We evaluate our proposed method on the CIFAR10 …
Transformer models have recently attracted much interest from computer vision researchers and have since been successfully employed for several problems traditionally addressed with convolutional neural networks. At the same time, image synthesis using generative adversarial networks (GANs) has drastically improved over the last few years. The recently proposed TransGAN is the first GAN using only transformer-based architectures and achieves competitive results when compared to convolutional GANs. However, since transformers are data-hungry architectures, TransGAN requires data augmentation, an auxiliary super-resolution task during training, and a masking prior to guide the self-attention mechanism. In this paper, we study the combination of a transformer-based generator and convolutional discriminator and successfully remove the need of the aforementioned required design choices. We evaluate our approach by conducting a benchmark of well-known CNN discriminators, ablate the size of the transformer-based generator, and show that combining both architectural elements into a hybrid model leads to better results. Furthermore, we investigate the frequency spectrum properties of generated images and observe that our model retains the benefits of an attention based generator.
Despite the success of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) in many computer vision and image analysis tasks, they remain vulnerable against so-called adversarial attacks: Small, crafted perturbations in the input images can lead to false predictions. A possible defense is to detect adversarial examples. In this work, we show how analysis in the Fourier domain of input images and feature maps can be used to distinguish benign test samples from adversarial images. We propose two novel detection methods: Our first method employs the magnitude spectrum of the input images to detect an adversarial attack. This simple and robust classifier can successfully detect adversarial perturbations of three commonly used attack methods. The second method builds upon the first and additionally extracts the phase of Fourier coefficients of feature-maps at different layers of the network. With this extension, we are able to improve adversarial detection rates compared to state-of-the-art detectors on five different attack methods. The code for the methods proposed in the paper is available at github.com/paulaharder/SpectralAdversarialDefense
In this work, we evaluate two different image clustering objectives, k-means clustering and correlation clustering, in the context of Triplet Loss induced feature space embeddings. Specifically, we train a convolutional neural network to learn discriminative features by optimizing two popular versions of the Triplet Loss in order to study their clustering properties under the assumption of noisy labels. Additionally, we propose a new, simple Triplet Loss formulation, which shows desirable properties with respect to formal clustering objectives and outperforms the existing methods. We evaluate all three Triplet loss formulations for K-means and correlation clustering on the CIFAR-10 image classification dataset.
The term “attribute transfer” refers to the tasks of altering images in such a way, that the semantic interpretation of a given input image is shifted towards an intended direction, which is quantified by semantic attributes. Prominent example applications are photo realistic changes of facial features and expressions, like changing the hair color, adding a smile, enlarging the nose or altering the entire context of a scene, like transforming a summer landscape into a winter panorama. Recent advances in attribute transfer are mostly based on generative deep neural networks, using various techniques to manipulate images in the latent space of the generator. In this paper, we present a novel method for the common sub-task of local attribute transfers, where only parts of a face have to be altered in order to achieve semantic changes (e.g. removing a mustache). In contrast to previous methods, where such local changes have been implemented by generating new (global) images, we propose to formulate local attribute transfers as an inpainting problem. Removing and regenerating only parts of images, our “Attribute Transfer Inpainting Generative Adversarial Network” (ATI-GAN) is able to utilize local context information to focus on the attributes while keeping the background unmodified resulting in visually sound results.
The Go programming language is an increasingly popular language but some of its features lack a formal investigation. This article explains Go's resolution mechanism for overloaded methods and its support for structural subtyping by means of translation from Featherweight Go to a simple target language. The translation employs a form of dictionary passing known from type classes in Haskell and preserves the dynamic behavior of Featherweight Go programs.
In the field of network security, the detection of possible intrusions is an important task to prevent and analyse attacks. Machine learning has been adopted as a particular supporting technique over the last years. However, the majority of related published work uses post mortem log files and fails to address the required real-time capabilities of network data feature extraction and machine learning based analysis [1-5]. We introduce the network feature extractor library FEX, which is designed to allow real-time feature extraction of network data. This library incorporates 83 statistical features based on reassembled data flows. The introduced Cython implementation allows processing individual packets within 4.58 microseconds. Based on the features extracted by FEX, existing intrusion detection machine learning models were examined with respect to their real-time capabilities. An identified Decision-Tree Classifier model was thus further optimised by transpiling it into C Code. This reduced the prediction time of a single sample to 3.96 microseconds on average. Based on the feature extractor and the improved machine learning model an IDS system was implemented which supports a data throughput between 63.7 Mbit/s and 2.5 Gbit/s making it a suitable candidate for a real-time, machine-learning based IDS.
The nonlinear behavior of inverters is mainly influenced by the interlocking and switching times of the semiconductors. In the following work, a method is presented that enables the possibility of an online identification of the switching times of the semiconductors. This information allows a compensation of the non-linear behavior, a reduction of the locking time and can be used for diagnostic purposes. First, a theoretical derivation of the method is made by considering different cases when switching of the inverter and deriving identification possibilities. The method is then extended so that the entire module is taken into account. Furthermore, a possible theoretical implementation is shown. After the methodology has been investigated with possible limitations, boundary conditions and with respect to real hardware, an implementation in the FPGA is performed. Finally, the results are presented, discussed
and further improvements are presented in an outlook.
As one result of the digital transformation in the automotive industry, new digital business models comprising software-based solutions are demanded by OEMs. To adequately meet these new requirements, automotive suppliers implement interdisciplinary roles – called Customer Solution Designers. However, due to the novelty, the Customer Solution Design research field is not yet well developed, neither in theory nor in practice. Besides giving an overview of the current state of the Customer Solution Design research field, the core of this paper is two-fold: Based on the conduction of 14 guided expert interviews with selected experts of a large German automotive supplier, we establish a uniform understanding of the Customer Solution Design role by using the Role Model Canvas (I). In addition, a case study strategy comprising two software-based projects, which are executed by a large German automotive supplier, is used to derive a common approach for Customer Solution Design in the context of an agile business framework (II).
Due to the pandemic of 2020, many teaching and research institutions are confronted with extraordinary working conditions. In order to enable empirical data collection under these special circumstances, teachers and scientists need to respond flexibly and new concepts need to be developed. This paper deals with the challenges that arise in day-to-day teaching and provides different approaches to meet these challenges. It covers quantitative surveys, remote UX-testing methods as an alternative to eye tracking studies in the lab, as well as face-to-face user experience testings under strict hygiene measures.
In an experience economy market competition in software branches is becoming more and more intense. Technical innovations, global retail practices and the multidimensional conception of experiences provide both opportunities and challenges for companies worldwide. Retailers strive for an optimized conversion rate, but poor UX still abound. Particularly Germany-based companies are less evolved in an international comparison of industrialized economies. The value of integrating users in the development process is recognized, but methodologies must carefully be incorporated into existing agile workflows. The goal of this study is to bridge the gaps between internal agency and external client and user interests. The contribution is four-fold: an overview of the current status of customer centricity in the E-Commerce branch of trade is provided (I). Based on this corpus, a methodical framework, aiming to incorporate the experience logic in UX practices within an agile project team, is presented (II). The framework is applied by a single case study - the shop relaunch of a motorbike accessory store (III). Finally, all interest groups (UX, development and project management) are incorporated in the qualitative content analysis (IV).
Offenburg university of Applied Sciences offers pre-study extracurricular preparatory courses for future engineering students in mathematics and physics. Due to pandemic restrictions, the two-week preparatory physics course preceeding winter term 2020/21 was presented as an online -only course.
Students enrolled to the course attended eight online lect ures of approximately 90 minutes duration followed by a group assignment. Both lectures and tutoring to the group assignment used a videoconference system with group sizes of 120 (lecture) and 6 (peer instruction and group assignments). The eight lectures focused on the high school physics curriculum of mechanics, electricity, thermodynamics and optics. Each lecture included four “peer instruction” questions to improve student activation. Student responses were collected using an audience response online tool.
The “peer instruction” questions were discussed by the students in online groups of six students. These groups also received written group assignments consisting of common textbook exercises and additional problems with incomplete information. To solve these problems, groups were encouraged to discuss possible solutions. The on-line course attendance was monitored and showed a characteristic exponential “decay” curve with a half-life of approximately 18 lectures which is comparable to conventional courses: Around 73% of the students enrolled in the preparatory course attended all eight lectures. In addition to the attendance, the progress of the participants was monitored by two online tests: A pre-course online test the first course day and a post -course online test on the last day.
The completion of both tests was highly recommended, but not a formal requirement for the students. The fraction of students completing the pre-course, but not the post-course test was used as an estimate for the drop-out rate of (34±3)%.
The twin concept is increasingly used for optimization tasks in the context of Industry 4.0 and digitization. The twin concept can also help small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) to exploit their energy flexibility potential and to achieve added value by appropriate energy marketing. At the same time, this use of flexibility helps to realize a climate-neutral energy supply with high shares of renewable energies. The digital twin reflects real production, power flows and market influences as a computer model, which makes it possible to simulate and optimize on-site interventions and interactions with the energy market without disturbing the real production processes. This paper describes the development of a generic model library that maps flexibility-relevant components and processes of SME, thus simplifying the creation of a digital twin. The paper also includes the development of an experimental twin consisting of SME hardware components and a PLC-based SCADA system. The experimental twin provides a laboratory environment in which the digital twin can be tested, further developed and demonstrated on a laboratory scale. Concrete implementations of such a digital twin and experimental twin are described as examples.
IoT networks are increasingly used as entry points for cyberattacks, as often they offer low-security levels, as they may allow the control of physical systems and as they potentially also open the access to other IT networks and infrastructures. Existing intrusion detection systems (IDS) and intrusion prevention systems (IPS) mostly concentrate on legacy IT networks. Nowadays, they come with a high degree of complexity and adaptivity, including the use of artificial intelligence. It is only recently that these techniques are also applied to IoT networks. In this paper, we present a survey of machine learning and deep learning methods for intrusion detection, and we investigate how previous works used federated learning for IoT cybersecurity. For this, we present an overview of IoT protocols and potential security risks. We also report the techniques and the datasets used in the studied works, discuss the challenges of using ML, DL and FL for IoT cybersecurity and provide future insights.
Modeling of Random Variations in a Switched Capacitor Circuit based Physically Unclonable Function
(2020)
The Internet of Things (IoT) is expanding to a wide range of fields such as home automation, agriculture, environmental monitoring, industrial applications, and many more. Securing tens of billions of interconnected devices in the near future will be one of the biggest challenges. IoT devices are often constrained in terms of computational performance, area, and power, which demand lightweight security solutions. In this context, hardware-intrinsic security, particularly physically unclonable functions (PUFs), can provide lightweight identification and authentication for such devices. In this paper, random capacitor variations in a switched capacitor PUF circuit are used as a source of entropy to generate unique security keys. Furthermore, a mathematical model based on the ordinary least square method is developed to describe the relationship between random variations in capacitors and the resulting output voltages. The model is used to filter out systematic variations in circuit components to improve the quality of the extracted secrets.