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This study focuses on 3D human motion recovery from a sequence of video frames by using the exemplar-based approach. Conventionally, human pose tracking requires two stages: 1) estimating the 3D pose for a single frame, and 2) using the current estimated pose to predict the pose in the next frame. This usually involves generating a set of possible poses in the prediction state, then optimizing the mapping between the projection of the predicted poses and the 2D image in the subsequent frame. The computational complexity of this approach becomes significant when the search space dimensionality increases. In contrast, we propose a robust and efficient approach for direct motion estimation in video frames by extracting dense appearance and motion features in spatio-temporal space. We exploit three robust descriptors - Histograms of Oriented Gradients, Histograms of Optical Flow and Motion Boundary Histograms in the context of human pose tracking for 3D motion recovery. We conducted comparative analyses using individual descriptors as well as a weighted combination of them. We evaluated our approach using the HumanEva-I dataset and presented both quantitative comparisons and visual results to demonstrate the advantages of our approach. The output is a smooth motion that can be applied in motion retargeting. MOE (Min. of Education, S’pore) Accepted version

The geometry of an object is formed by its surface boundary over a topological structure. In a companion paper we proposed a deformable volume model in conjunction with an isosurface evaluation in a new approach to surface boundary construction. This paper further discusses the new approach, concentrating on modeling the topological structure of objects. We propose a formal method to describe the topology of objects using a Context-Free Grammar Gpd. Such topology descriptions can be interpreted by a Push-Down Automaton Mtg to generate template objects with the desired topological structures. The template objects will be refined to match the geometry of actual objects.

The objectives of this research programme are to: 1. Establish the fundamental infrastructure - software and hardware - required to support advanced research in and application of rapid design, prototyping and tooling. 2. Facilitate research and development to solve the problems identified, including integration of the processes involved and the study of new methods for rapid prototyping and tooling. 3. Develop new applications using rapid prototyping, especially medical applications. 4. Establish the core expertise in the field and generate new knowledge and processes. 5. Produce trained personnel who can be deployed in local industry. 6. Serve as a resource centre for Singapore industries and institutions in the use of the technologies.

This project, ARC 6/94, is concerned with the technology and process development of rapid 3D object forming system and materials and process technology. Its purpose is to meet increasing demanding requirement from manufacturing industries to shorten the design-to-product cycle time and improve design and product in shorter time.

This paper discusses a method that combines 5-axis NC machining and rapid prototyping for manufacturing complex shape parts. The combination allows NC machining to deal with surfaces in a part that cannot be accessed directly by a 5-axis NC machine. It splits the part into fully accessible subparts (layers), and machines them one by one. The subparts are subsequently joined together to form the complete part.

Convex programming has played an important role in studying a wide class of applications arising from computer science, statistics, industrial engineering, and management. Moreover, the advent of big-data analytics has resulted in very large-scale structural convex programming problems, thereby necessitating the research towards devising fast numerical algorithms for solving such problems. The goal of this thesis is to propose some efficient augmented Lagrangian-based splitting methods for solving the convex programming problem, provide an in-depth study of the convergence and convergence rate properties of these algorithms, and discuss computational results that establish the efficiency of these methods. Towards this end, we first consider the linearly constrained separable convex minimization problem, whose objective function consists of the sum of m individual convex functions in the absence of any coupling variables. This work shows that a straightforward Jacobian decomposition of the augmented Lagrangian method is globally convergent if the involved functions are further assumed to be strongly convex. Furthermore, we also analyze the sublinear and linear convergence rate under some corresponding assumptions. Then, we propose a proximal partially parallel splitting method for solving separable convex optimization problems. The proposed method is a hybrid mechanism that combines the nice features of Gauss-Seidel and Jacobian decomposition methods, while simultaneously adopting the predictor-corrector strategy to ensure convergence. Furthermore, the worst-case convergence rate O(1/t) of the proposed method is obtained under both ergodic and non-ergodic conditions. The efficiency of the proposed algorithm is also demonstrated by solving several instances of the Robust PCA problem. Next, continuing in the same vein, we present a portfolio of linearized versions of this method, which can be gainfully employed when the underlying subproblems possess some structural properties, and showcase the computational effectiveness of this method on standard test instances taken from the literature. Doctor of Philosophy (MAE)

The objective of this thesis is to develop a sketching-based CAD prototype for 3D shape modeling which can effectively and efficiently convert an input sketch into a 3D geometric model. In this thesis, the work concentrates on general, planar objects reconstruction from a single view line drawing. It addresses some key problems in the optimization-based 3D reconstruction. Firstly, the basic issues in formulating the compliance function are explored under the framework of support vector machine regression (SVR). Secondly, automatic relevance determination, Bayesian framework and SVR are coupled together to form a regularity selection method. An optimal regularity set is established from the commonly used regularities. Thirdly, a hybrid intelligent 3D reconstruction system is built to handle various line drawings. Line drawings are classified into 4 classes using the technique of support vector machine multi-classification. Effective reconstruction is performed by the “reconstruction experts” which are tuned to deal with each class specifically. Finally, the issues in the topological analysis of a line drawing are investigated, especially in distinguishing manifolds from non-manifolds.The experimental results confirm that the proposed methods can reliably resolve the 3D reconstruction issues. The contribution of this research is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of 3D reconstruction with the proposed methods by applying advanced artificial intelligence techniques. DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (MPE)

Variability is the greatest enemy of a manufacturing system, which causes unstable performances and varies the productivity. This report focuses on reducing the variability and improving the performance of a semiconductor manufacturing process. Other methods to improve the performance of a semiconductor manufacturing process includes improving machine's process time, standard work of operators and other ergonomics factors; these are included in this study. A simulation model of the manufacturing semiconductor cell was created using the Arena software. It was based on actual production process data from the author's company Heptagon. To get different performances of the manufacturing system, some scenarios of variations had been applied on the simulation model. The results were used in further analysis and discussion to investigate the factors that produce the best improvement or cause the worst productivity in the manufacturing system. The author proposed a set of solutions to improve the performance of the semiconductor manufacturing system. These include improvements on number of operators, walking speed of operators, process analysis time reduction and machine modification time reduction. Master of Science (Manufacturing Systems & Engineering)

Protein complex conformation prediction is crucial for studying the biological systems and thus for drug design. However it is very hard to do the prediction because of the flexibility of the backbone and side-chains of the receptor and ligand. In our work, the “divide and conquer” scheme has been utilized for protein-protein docking, with an initial stage which focuses on generating a reasonable list of near-native candidate docking conformations, and a refinement step which aims to rank the hit within the first several positions by incorporating the protein flexibility into the docking procedure. In the initial docking stage, we present a new framework for an efficient and rigid-body docking in view of geometric complementarity. In our approach, the protein surfaces are firstly segmented into several local surface patches. Then the geometric complementarity can be determined by matching these surface patches. Based on the geometric property, we convert the geometric complementarity matching to geometric similarity comparing. During the matching process, we extract the shape feature for each surface patch, thus the geometric similarity comparing problem will be further simplified as a histogram matching problem. After finding the patch pairs with geometric complementarity, a list of docking candidates can be generated. Finally, the candidate solutions are ranked by a scoring function to filter out the near-native candidate conformations. In the refinement step, to deal with the protein flexibility and possible conformational changes during binding, many approaches have been proposed. Some of them allow some degree of overlap on the interface region and some algorithms simulate the soft docking by smoothing the protein surfaces. In our approach, we will deal with the side-chain flexibility by sampling its conformational space. This will be carried out in our future work. In this work, our major contribution is that we propose to apply an innovative three-dimensional shape descriptor, Spherical Harmonics Descriptor (SHD) in matching. The main property of SHD is rotation invariance that helps to avoid undergoing a very thorough series of rotations between each pair of surface patches. This can greatly reduce the computational cost. The experimental results illustrate the high efficiency and accuracy of our method. Master of Engineering (SCE)

Reconstructing the 3D object depicted in a line drawing consistent with human perception is an interesting and important topic in computer vision. Normally, the reconstruction process requires two main steps: topological analysis and 3D recovery. This thesis makes three novel contributions in the three steps: (1) Decomposition of the line drawing of a complex object into a collection of drawings of simple manifolds; (2) Finding the faces of the object in the drawing; (3) Reconstruction of the object in both parallel and perspective projections. The work here is restricted to drawings of planar polyhedra. The decomposition of a complex line drawing into drawings of simpler manifolds occurs at (1) non-manifold vertices, (2) along non-manifold edges and (3) across internal faces. The algorithms for the first two are simple. The decomposition across an internal face has two stages: basic decomposition and the subsequent repair. Our results show that the algorithm can deal with objects with planar faces. Reconstructing of the 3D object is much easier and much more efficient from a simpler drawing than a complex one. Knowing the faces of the object in a drawing is essential to the 3D reconstruction of the object. A new face finding algorithm much more efficient than the existing ones is presented here. This algorithm also contains two stages: decomposition and face forming. In the first stage, a line drawing is decomposed into sub-loops, which are connected but usually open sequence of edges that must belong to the same face. Faces are formed from the sub-loops in the next stage. The method has the capability to differentiate an internal face from a real one once it is formed. After obtaining the faces, the next step is to reconstruct the 3D model. Here, we present a novel, simple and direct method, the cubic corner method (CCM). A cubic corner is a trihedral vertex where the three incident edges are mutually perpendicular. The 3D coordinates of the three end vertices relative to the given vertex can be obtained analytically given the 2D coordinates of the four vertices in the drawing. The algorithm starts with a user-identified cubic corner in the drawing and uses the face information obtained previously to recover the geometry of the entire object. It works for both parallel and perspective drawings; the only difference is that, for perspective, the method needs to find the focal length first, to establish the linear relationship between a vertex on the image plane and its corresponding point on the object. The method generates accurate results for accurate drawings. For inaccurate drawings, it generates plausible results which may not be good enough. A novel hybrid method, combining CCM and the well-known optimization-based method (OBM), overcomes the problem. The optimization process in OBM requires an initial guess to the 3D object; a guess close to the final solution could improve the result of OBM significantly. In the hybrid method, CCM supplies this initial guess to OBM, which then produces a result better than either method on its own. This thesis also presents an alternative efficient method that recovers 3D objects from perspective drawings by reversing the process one uses for drawing a perspective drawing manually. The method does not require the focal length and, depending on the topology of the drawing itself, may not need the faces of the object. This is a significant advantage as face identification is not a trivial task. Future work is required to resolve some of the shortcomings in the algorithms presented in the thesis. Besides, there is a need to overcome the geometric restriction of planar polyhedra only, and extend the geometric coverage to objects that contain both planar and curved faces. Also, the ability to recover line drawings accurately opens the possibility of recovering objects in photographs, if we can extract edges accurately from photographs. This brings forth the need for a stitching algorithm that merges reconstructed results together to form the whole object as the complete view of an object normally requires multiple photographs. This can then lead to some useful applications such as the reconstruction of engineering objects accurately, without using the expensive 3D laser scanner. Much work remains before we can arrive at that. DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (MAE)

Safety Management Systems (SMS) have been the primary driver to ensure safety of personnel in the workplace and to achieve the goal of "Zero Harm", which majority of the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) operators embrace. However, people are still being seriously harmed in the workplace despite of stringent safety policies, rules, procedures and processes. This dissertation explores the integration of Human Factors (HF) with SMS to create a safer workplace and to achieve the Zero Harm goal. A comprehensive approach that encompassed the entire life cycle of an LNG facility, from its conceptualization, design, construction, to its operation and maintenance was taken. The analysis also focused on potential errors that humans may make from time to time, to minimise the consequences on harm to people, damage to assets, or polluting the environment. Due to the broadness of the subject area, this study focuses only the integration of HF and SMS in the design phase. The approach and results of this study may then be applied to the other phases of the life cycle. An in-depth review of current SMS, Incident Database and case studies was taken to identify HF issues leading and/or contributing to the incidents. It showed that up to 84% of identified root causes and accidents were attributed to Human Factors. In pursuit of the Zero Harm Goal, the implementation of a systematic approach in integrating HF and SMS into the entire Lifecycle of a new LNG facility eliminates or reduces the 84% related causes attributed to Human Factors and can potentially have a significant impact on achieving the Zero Harm Goal in the workplace and cost savings from injuries and retrofitting work. By early intervention to integrate the proposed model with each phase of the project's lifecycle, human performance is expected to improve, as the operators' specific needs with respect to the operation of the plant, equipment and systems would have been resolved. Master of Science (Human Factors Engineering)

The objective of this research is to recover 3D freeform surfaces depicted in a single line drawing, with the aim of taking conceptual design sketches and converting them into 3D models. This work is a continuation of the project “3D Surface Reconstruction from a 2D Line Drawing” (SRLD) done at Nanyang Technological University. SRLD is a system to reconstruct planar objects. The work in this thesis extends the capability of SRLD by recovering freeform shapes. In this thesis, a novel method of reconstructing freeform surface patches from 2D line drawings is introduced. The study focuses on drawings containing four edges that form the boundary of surface patches. The four edges form two pairs of opposite edges which are used as the basis of interpolation to create two sets of backbone curves. After recovering all the 3D curves of one set of backbones, a freeform surface is fitted over them. Controls are provided within the system to adjust the shape of a surface; this is a useful tool given the non-unique nature of the result. An optimization-based method for reconstructing surface patches, cylinder-like shapes and their combination with polyhedron from its projection on a drawing plane is also presented. The rough drawing is first transformed into a straight line drawing. Then, a polyhedron is rebuilt from the straight line drawing. Finally, planar objects are converted back to freeform shapes. Our implementation of the method produces results that are consistent with human perception of the curves as surfaces. Due to the inherent inaccuracies in the input, the models reconstructed are likely to be aesthetically unpleasing. A post-processing is necessary to improve these curved models aesthetically. Our work focuses on improving objects with symmetrical curved boundaries. Symmetrical curved boundaries are detected and fitted to two exactly symmetrical curves on the drawing plane. And then a planar object is reconstructed and beautified from its converted straight line drawing. Finally, curved surfaces are recovered. Experiments show that our method is able to improve shapes with planar and curved surfaces reconstructed from its projection on a drawing plane well. Doctor of Philosophy (MAE)

There is an insufficient coverage of existing strategy to cater the highly personalised nature of industrial equipment in customer's requirement and service delivery. The right after sales service strategy adoption are vital to enable industrial equipment manufacturer maintaining. its competitive advantages and delivering the best overall company performance. The objective of this dissertation project is to study, formulate a competitive after sales service strategy and system guide for industrial equipment manufacturers. A practical system guide further gives industrial manufacturer a comprehensive view in devising and assessing the most appropriate after sales strategy. Literature in general after sales and industrial equipment specific are explored. After sales strategic profile and framework, service configuration and process as well as its performance measurements system literatures are carefully analysed to establish a theoretical framework for competitive strategy in after sales service. It will be used as a reference for developing the after sales competitive strategic system guide. A survey is conducted to verify the proposed strategy and system guide relevancy to real industrial application. Questionnaires obtained from respondents of two industrial equipment manufacturers are studied and compared to the proposed strategy and system guide. The survey shows the relevancy between this study and the real industrial application. Both companies apply although not closely, the proposed system guide in devising their strategic objectives, Their after sales configuration, process and delivery show the relevancy to the proposed system guide. Future research with larger respondents across industry sectors, state-ofthe- art data testing and verification can be initiated to provide more comprehensive study. It is important to explore the new business concept to adapt to ever changing world of the service industry. Master of Science (Computer Integrated Manufacturing)

In this dissertation, research efforts had been conducted for air cargo operational defects process capturing and its timely rectification for smooth operation. Research was conducted by making field observations, interview with people working in the industry, understanding of air cargo operations and its operational issues and problems. A review of research and conference papers was also carried out. The results were consistent that a combination of network and discrete GUI system ware will greatly augment air cargo operations and enable air cargo operators to have a strong awareness of issues that can impact cargo flights. One of the other major changes is the relentless process of integrating the avionics systems, which is blurring the division between some of the functions of the flight management system and EFB. The current EFB processes information from aircraft sensors and navigation equipment. There is a graphical interface between the system and the crew who are using the equipment. Majority of the function is mostly to protect the integrity of the Flight Management System from virus contamination by the constantly updated information contained in digital charts, notices to airmen, aviation information systems, real-time weather information services, flight manuals. This also including weight and balance, performance calculation criteria and checklists. One area, which is not yet covered by the EFB in the aviation industry, is the main deck cargo handling system status display. This information is crucial to cargo airline operations due to their importance of revenue generation. The current main deck cargo handling system currently has no displays of the electrically powered units (PDU) that move the pallets of cargo. These powered drive unit facilitate movement of cargo throughout the main deck compartment. It is accomplished by two different type of PDU. First, is by power drive wheels or second, by power drive unit actuators. All of these are currently installed in the main deck floor of the airplane. The PDUs are controlled from the cargo control panels installed on the sidewalls on each side of the compartment. All of these PDU defects are recorded in paper logbook for. Due to the schedule constraint in flight transit down time, logbooks are often not recorded properly. This resulted in inaccurate PDU defect recording and in worst-case scenario, eventual cargo offloading. These are heavy losses to the cargo airline on accumulation or occurrences. One way to improve this situation will be converting these defect logbook recordings into EFB defect entries for real time defect display and monitoring via graphic user interface. Another advantage of EFB logbook is its paperless operations, which saves weight. Master of Science (Mechanical Engineering)

When humans and automation work together, the human typically takes a supervisory role and rely on the automation to complete certain tasks. However, there are times when the human supervisor cannot understand what the automation is doing. This is complicated by the fact that automation can sometimes fail, which makes the actions of the automation difficult to comprehend. This thesis presents information for calibrating operator's trust and dependence on automation for improving decision performance. The Motivation-Expectation Space (MES) representation is proposed as a tool to aid the monitoring of automation. The literature review suggested that the four components in the MES (goals, means, causes, and effects) are fundamental in how people naturally strategize decisions. The review also revealed that the MES can support most of the information requirements needed for bridging automation trust and dependence. A case study was performed to demonstrate how data obtained through a cognitive task analysis (CTA) could be translated to the MES representation. This was previously demonstrated in a petrochemical context where work constraints are limited primarily to the laws of physics (e.g. temperature). In this thesis, the translation was repeated for an in-car navigation task to gain insights in the MES application for a context with intentional constraints. The case study concluded with (1) a specific definition for each relation depicted in the MES, and (2) the design of the MES representation for an in-car navigation aid. A three group between-subject experiment was conducted to test the effectiveness of the information and orthogonal structure in the MES. The information in the MES was presented in either the orthogonal MES format or textual formats. DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (MAE)

The study aims at establishing the topological and geometrical relationships that govern the design and construction of pop-up laminar structures. It also proposes a systematic, computer-aided approach for pop-up designs. A pop-up classification model and graph representation schemes are established after a comprehensive study on the available pop-up structures. The folding and development of pop-up structures are analyzed and represented as Mountain-Valley (MV) graphs. The MV graphs illustrate relationships between layers and creases and define the boundary regions of feasible pop-up design. Topological conditions for governing the composition of the structures are also established using vertex-edge graphs. In addition, conditions for flat folding are derived after investigation into the geometry of the structures. While the graphs enable simple representation of pop-up structures without the complexity of geometric designs, the mathematical relationships permit the validation of the structures’ composition and their ability to flat fold. A modular, object-oriented software prototype has been built, and it demonstrates the creation of pop-up designs using the graph structures and the mathematical relationships developed in this research. DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (MAE)

81 p. The objective of this dissertation work is to reconstruct 3D objects from a single 2D line-drawing using the concept of cubic corner. The application of cubic corners into the algorithm enables a deterministic approach. It reduces complexity and time taken to reconstruct the model. The 3D object reconstruction from a single line drawing begins by identifying the faces, finding the cubic corner in the sketch, assuming the depth of the cubic corner to be zero, finding the other three vertices using cubic corner concept and building the model. Master of Science (Mechanical Engineering)

Rapid prototyping, system simulation, modelling, coding, testing and verification are major phases in embedded system software development process. Compilers, parsers, generators, linkers, and debuggers are tools for developers to design, verify, and test in hardware-software co-design and simulation. Choosing a right tool in a right process and methodology to develop a rapid embedded system is very important. Master of Science (Computer Integrated Manufacturing)

With the development of the global market, to produce more products in a short time, a new control system with high reliability, capacity and agility is urgently required. The traditional FPGA-based embedded control systems use a lot of software languages as well as hardware platforms, which means engineers need to be familiar with many different scripts. In addtion, an embedded system is time consuming, tedious and complex to implement. To solve these problems, a new conceptual design of embedded system code generator framework is illustrated in this dissertation. The investigation is based on the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61 499 function block standard. Impulse C is the target application language; it can be converted to the Hardware description language (HDL) which downloads to FPGA for implementation. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the extendability of IEC 61499 which can address the lower level system coding issues, thus forcing the development of embedded system solutions. The outcome shows that this framework supplies a flexible development environment that could be used together with new or existing tools within the embedded system development tool chain. Master of Science (Computer Integrated Manufacturing)

The IEC 61499 function block is an open standard for distributed control and automation. However, work related to using IEC 61499 as code generator for various programming languages is still lacking. In this dissertation, a methodology for code generation based on XML (extensible Markup Language) and EBNF (Extended Backus-Naur Form) is discussed. Along with this code generator, an intermediate XML (iXML) is proposed to generate the target codes. All the source XML and target language's EBNF are first compiled to iXML and then to the desired output language. That way it is not necessary to translate directly from one programming language to another which is a very tricky and difficult task. It could make the solution difficult to be maintained and extended. Meanwhile, iXML gives an advantage: an XML representation of a computer program is valuable information by itself: The methodology, which divides the whole code generating process into two steps, iXML generation through Graphical User Interface (GUI) and iXML parsing, has a significant feature- each step is independent from the other and both of them can be extendable for further research purpose. In the end of this dissertation, an example of converting XML codes generated from function block into SystemC language is demonstrated. Master of Science (Computer Integrated Manufacturing)

Due to the potential of wide variety of applications needed, a quick adaptation to change and turn around the operations within the manufacturing is the only key for success. As such, the main challenge of this adaptive embedded system is to perform the change in requirements quickly and retain the flexibility in software solution. This thesis discusses about past state of adaptive embedded system development platform through literature review form general conference papers. These papers are tabulated into year of publication, type of approaches, methodologies used, research contribution, type of application and others. Base on the above, the key challenge is to find and identify the technology gap between the hardware architecture of this reconfigurable system and software as the compilation tools. Further study has been carried to identify the methodology and developmental tool to be used for addressing the change of requirements with quick response. The main focus of this dissertation is to propose a rapid developmental tool that can be rapidly developed the application in response to the changing requirement dynamically using IEC 61499 standard function block tool. It could generate XML code or Java code through customize XSL model with the help of passer to convert the high level design function block into Java, C++ or System C before deploying into the embedded system. With this proposed concept, software engineer could focus on the high level design quickly using standard library of function blocks (FB). Master of Science (Computer Integrated Manufacturing)

Embedded system is one of the most important components in manufacturing system and products. It is typically developed using microprocessor, FPGA, and ASIC hardware platforms, but the common system level design tools that is suitable for manufacturing engineers are still lacking. One the other hand, IEC 61499 is now a standard for automation but it still does not address the multiple languages requirements for embedded system. The research investigates the concept and tools of IEC 61499 standard and explore the approach to design embedded system for the manufacturing industry according to this standard. First of all, we review some modem concepts for the system development and the IEC 61499 standard is studied in depth. The basic component is Function Block which is represented in XML. The concept of XML and XSL is reviewed later. Finally, a embedded system design framework is developed according to the IEC 61499 standard which can convert Function Block to HDL. Master of Science (Computer Integrated Manufacturing)

Designers commonly used 2D sketches to express their design concepts. It would be useful to directly generate the 3D model from such a sketch, and transmit this model to a CAD system for further processing. This work was proposed in NTU and a system has been deplyoed to reconstruct a freehand design sketch of a polyhedral object into the object in 3D. DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (MAE)

69 p. Over the past few years, analysis of successful manufacturing companies shows that in today's hyper-competitive business environment, supply chain efficiency is a necessary condition for survival. However, as we approach an age of super efficiency, adaptive supply chain, which has redundancies built in to withstand unpredictable shocks, are replacing traditional supply chains. Adaptive supply chain possess the flexibility to continually morph and respond to the environment in near real time without compromising on operational and financial efficiencies. The purpose of measuring the performance of Adaptive supply chain is also an important issue, which assures the continuous efficiency of adaptive supply chain. This research aims to provide a framework for measuring the performance of adaptive supply chain in the context of EMS (electronic manufacturer service) provider. This newly developed performance measurement framework will provide the EMS companies to measure and monitor their supply chain performance for competing in the market by addressing key links of supply chain, (Plan, Source, Make, Delivers Return and Customer Satisfaction). Master of Science (Computer Integrated Manufacturing)

113 p. This project deals with the establishment and analysis of the failure mode of progressive tools, used for stamping sheet metal parts, in order to facilitate the development of predictive and preventive systems. The key challenges involved in the maintenance of progressive dies are associated with the level of inventory and the type of tools used in order to prevent penalties, which are in turn associated with stock out. The determination of inventory control, maintenance schedule depends mainly on the failure mode of tools. Master of Science (Computer Integrated Manufacturing)

Confocal laser scanning microscopes have been widely employed in biology research for many years. The advancement of computer technology enables interactive visualization and quantitative analysis of volumetric confocal image datasets thus giving deep insights into cellular structures. This thesis details the computer techniques developed by the author to facilitate 3D confocal image studies. The key contributions of this work are in (1) confocal image acquisition and management, (2) 3D image processing, and (3) Virtual Reality (VR) enhanced visualization and analysis of cellular structures. DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (MAE)

156 p. Today manufacturing system needs comprehensive maintenance technology and methodology that enable the zero downtime system failure. The system breakdown impairs the cooperate objectives of manufacturing cost, product quality, new product introduction speed and environmental safety. To accomplish minimum downtime, various research has been carried out in recent years with the emphasis of preventive and predictive maintenance. Condition based maintenance is one kind of predictive maintenance system, used to detect the faults of the system only when they are occurred or likely to occur. While the underlying fault detection methodologies and techniques are becoming mature, the condition based maintenance techniques are enhanced with high level decision-making features such as diagnostics and prognostics. Master of Science

This report analyzes the design and implementation of Pacific Garment's enterprise web application. It also describes the design and implementation of a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) based application that provides mobility to user to perform quotation computation. A spreadsheet is required in the calculation of the YY (Yardage Yield) document. The YY document is represented in the structured cells with trees as the logical data structures. A module to convert from in-order into post-order mathematical formula is required in order to represent the tree data structure. The PDA-based application is developed on the .NET compact framework (that runs on Windows CE) with C# as the primary programming language. The client/server architecture is used in the implementation instead of the web based approach. XML is used as the main data representation for the local file storage and data exchange over HTTP. Master of Science (Computer Integrated Manufacturing)

160 p. Prototyping, testing and simulation are very important issues for the embedded system before implementing a system in the real world. Performing these tasks is time consuming, tedious and consuming a lot of resources since the prototypes are created manually. Rapid prototyping has become a key design methodology, allowing system designers to quickly verify systems by co-simulating hardware and software. Master of Science (Computer Integrated Manufacturing)

148 p. Understanding the sources of sustained competitive advantage has become a major area of research in strategic management. For the long term success of a firm, it must not only pay attention to its internal strength but also to the rapid changes in the marketplace. This research develops the methodology for resource-based supply chain positioning and applies it to two industry case studies with two SMEs in Singapore. Based on their feedbacks on the feasibility, usability and usefulness of the methodology, refinement is then made to the methodology. The final refined methodology can help the decision makers of firm in the industry to formulate their strategy based on both critical resources and significant activities to cope with the dynamic market changes. This methodology is intended to help SMEs in Singapore, which have various resource constraints to consider in order compete successfully in the marketplace. Nevertheless this methodology is also applicable for MNCs. Master of Science (Computer Integrated Manufacturing)

81 p. This dissertation project proposes a multi-sensors fusion technique for EDM (electro-discharge machining) process to verify electrodes. In the mould making process, inevitable human errors can arise in the identification, authentication, measurement, recording, programming and arrangement of electrodes prior to EDM process. The focus of this dissertation is to design a robust and reliable verification technique that can effectively eliminate these errors so that the performance of the EDM process can be further enhanced particularly for high value engineered moulds with complex cores and cavities. A multi-sensors fusion technique that uses a cost effective array of barcode, RFID and proximity sensors is proposed for the verification and sequence authentication of electrodes before they are loaded on an automatic tool changer ATC of an EDM machine. Master of Science (Computer Integrated Manufacturing)

86 p. The Objective of this project is to identify the strategy and the technology for a Singapore based company that will give a real paradigm shift, as it goes for globalization. The parameters that can provide the catalytic effect for the identified strategy, Mass customization and the technology, 5-axis machining are analyzed and evaluated. It aims to improve operational efficiency and productivity of the manufacturing cells by integrated manufacturing. Master of Science (Computer Integrated Manufacturing)

109 p. A prognostic is the process of predicting the future state of a system. This dissertation is aimed at tackling the current manufacturing trends on monitoring and diagnostic to achieve zero down time, also to review on various techniques used to aid the manufacturing prognostics and to find the opportunities for the future work. A literature classification scheme is suggested. A total of 174 papers from journals and international conference are classified into content and process related issues. Methodologies used in literature are categorized into conceptual, descriptive, empirical, exploratory cross-sectional and exploratory longitudinal approaches. Based on this, trend and gaps in manufacturing prognostic is explored and future research trends for automatic generation of solution are proposed. Master of Science (Computer Integrated Manufacturing)

The Customer Behaviour Model proposed in this report evaluates commercial websites based on customers' actions or behaviour. Often, sustainability of an E-venture depends on the ability of the business to retain customers for recurring purchases. The business can also use the model to identify potential problems and make critical adjustments before they show up in the sales figures. Master of Science (Computer Integrated Manufacturing)

149 p. This dissertation focuses on setting up, exploring, programming smart sensors and wireless sensor networks for condition monitoring and health management of equipment such as air conditioners. It also involved understanding the Berkeley Mote wireless sensor networks, programming the smart sensors and actual hands-on of setting up the experiments. Master of Science

The objective of this project is to develop a new MS Access tool that would guide a new process engineer in a semiconductor field (backend semiconductor packaging) to optimise the process by looking into areas of parameters, materials, machine that would help to reduce the time needed for new product introduction into the manufacturing line. Master of Science (Computer Integrated Manufacturing)

This report focuses on the computer aided dynamic simulation and motion planning of a caterpillar robot which was built by Assoc. Prof. Francis Malcolm Nickols at (NTU). This report also ascertains the dynamic capabilities of the robot by conducting motion analysis through computing motion equations. Master of Science (Computer Integrated Manufacturing)

A system has been developed in NTU that reconstructs the 3D object depicted in a 2D sketch. As the 3D model is directly reconstructed from 2D sketch, it does not have proper dimensions. This dissertation reports on the project that attempts to provide dimensions to the model. While giving the dimension, geometrical relationships within the model such as parallel and perpendicular faces and face planarity will not be disturbed. Master of Science (Computer Integrated Manufacturing)

Computerized Maintenance Management Software (CMMS) is a computerized solution to managing maintenance management needs of an organization. CMMS is using software to effectively and efficiently plan and execute tasks meant to maintain a company's operations to ensure maximum uptime of equipment critical to the production of finished goods. If implemented properly and utilized to the fullest extent it can reap many benefits for the company. Master of Science (Computer Integrated Manufacturing)

95 p. Computer numerical Control machines play a vital role in the manufacturing economy of a nation. The industrialized nations of the world have made significant progress in the area of automation in manufacturing systems, which makes them more competitive in this era of a globalized economy. Automation involves numerically controlled machines, which are mainly controlled by computers today. CNC machines are used widely to improve the manufacturing performance and also to save both time and cost. Since NC machines involve high investments, it is necessary to make them more productive to obtain a significant return on the investments. Master of Science (Computer Integrated Manufacturing)

The role of computers in manufacturing industry in India particularly in the manufacturing of automobiles is analysed systematically by means of a survey circulated to more than 900 firms in the country. The penetration of computers in every activity of a firm and the level of integration achieved are probed. Master of Science (Computer Integrated Manufacturing)

In this research work a technique is developed that approximates the straight lines, given the freehand user sketch for the lines. It further integrates the sketch input with the 3D Reconstruction program, which converts the 2D sketch input into a 3D model. Object oriented methodologies are used for designing generic tools which can be used by any existing or future sketching applications. A system design for the sketch system is suggested as a part of this work. All the existing and future research work can use this design to have an integrated sketch system which uses a system design approach. Master of Science (Computer Integrated Manufacturing)