Innovations in the area of Defence Support Systems are multi-disciplinary, cover a broad range of technologies, and could not possibly be covered within a single volume. This research book presents a sample of research as below: • On the Transition of Innovation and Technology in Defence • Inserting Innovations In-service • Classification of Battlefield Ground Vehicles based on the Acoustic Emissions • Convoy Movement Problem – An Optimization Perspective • Machine Vision Algorithms for Autonomous Aerial Refueling for UAVs using the USAF Refueling Boom Method • Motion Optimization Scheme for Cooperative Mobile Robots • An Automated Decision System for Landmine Detection and Classification The book is directed to the application engineers, research students, professors, decision makers and scientists & engineers working in defence and related areas.

Innovations in Defence Support Systems - 2 presents a sample of the state-of-art research on defence support systems. The focus of the volume is on the design and optimization of socio-technical systems and their performance in defence contexts. Conceptual and methodological considerations for the development of such systems and criteria likely to be useful in their evaluation are discussed, along with their conceptual underpinnings in total system performance analysis.

The design of most modern engineering systems entails the consideration of a good trade-off between the several targets requirements to be satisfied along the system life such as high reliability, low redundancy and low operational costs. These aspects are often in conflict with one another, hence a compromise solution has to be sought. Innovative computing techniques, such as genetic algorithms, swarm intelligence, differential evolution, multi-objective evolutionary optimization, just to name few, are of great help in founding effective and reliable solution for many engineering problems. Each chapter of this book attempts to using an innovative computing technique to elegantly solve a different engineering problem.

Complex-Valued Neural Networks have higher functionality, learn faster and generalize better than their real-valued counterparts. This book is devoted to the Multi-Valued Neuron (MVN) and MVN-based neural networks. It contains a comprehensive observation of MVN theory, its learning, and applications. MVN is a complex-valued neuron whose inputs and output are located on the unit circle. Its activation function is a function only of argument (phase) of the weighted sum. MVN derivative-free learning is based on the error-correction rule. A single MVN can learn those input/output mappings that are non-linearly separable in the real domain. Such classical non-linearly separable problems as XOR and Parity n are the simplest that can be learned by a single MVN. Another important advantage of MVN is a proper treatment of the phase information. These properties of MVN become even more remarkable when this neuron is used as a basic one in neural networks. The Multilayer Neural Network based on Multi-Valued Neurons (MLMVN) is an MVN-based feedforward neural network. Its backpropagation learning algorithm is derivative-free and based on the error-correction rule. It does not suffer from the local minima phenomenon. MLMVN outperforms many other machine learning techniques in terms of learning speed, network complexity and generalization capability when solving both benchmark and real-world classification and prediction problems. Another interesting application of MVN is its use as a basic neuron in multi-state associative memories. The book is addressed to those readers who develop theoretical fundamentals of neural networks and use neural networks for solving various real-world problems. It should also be very suitable for Ph.D. and graduate students pursuing their degrees in computational intelligence.

Innovation is the lifeline of national development. This handbook is a collection of chapters that provide techniques and methodologies for achieving the transfer of defense-targeted science and technology development for general industrial applications. The handbook shows how to translate theory and ideas into practical applications. Experts from national defense institutions, government laboratories, business, and industry contributed chapters to this handbook. The handbook also serves as an archival guide for nations, communities, and businesses expecting to embark upon science and technology transfer to industry. Included are several domestic and international case examples of practical innovation. Since the dawn of history, nations have engrossed themselves in developing new tools, techniques, and methodologies to protect their geographical boundaries. From the crude implements used by prehistorical people to very modern technologies, the end game has been the same. That is, to protect the homeland. Even in times of peace, efforts must be made to develop new machinery, equipment, processes, and devices targeted for the protection of the nation. The emergence of organized nations and structured communities facilitated even more innovative techniques of national defense. Evolution, revolution, and innovation have defined human existence for millennia. From the Ice Age to the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, and to the modern age, innovation, rudimentary as it may be in many cases, has determined how humans move from one stage to the next. This comprehensive handbook provides a clear guide on the nuances of initiating and actualizing innovation. Both the qualitative and quantitative aspects of innovation are covered in the handbook. Features: Uses a systems framework to zero in on science and technology transfer Focuses on leveraging technical developments in defense organizations for general societal applications Coalesces the transfer strategies collated from various sources and practical applications Represents a world-class diverse collection of science and technology development, utilization, and transfer Highlights a strategy for government, academia, and industry partnerships

This book presents an introduction to new and important research in the images processing and analysis area. It is hoped that this book will be useful for scientists and students involved in many aspects of image analysis. The book does not attempt to cover all of the aspects of Computer Vision, but the chapters do present some state of the art examples.

Case-based reasoning (CBR) is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) technique to support the capability of reasoning and learning in advanced decision support systems. CBR exploits the specific knowledge collected on previously encountered and solved situations, which are known as cases. In this book, we have collected a selection of papers on very recent CBR applications. These, after an in-depth analysis of their specific application domain needs, propose proper methodological solutions and give encouraging evaluation results, which have in some cases led to the commercialization step. The collected contributions demonstrate the capability of CBR to solve or handle issues which would be too difficult to manage with other classical AI methods and techniques, such as rules or models. The heterogeneity of the involved application domains indicates the flexibility of CBR, and its applicability in all those fields where experiential knowledge is (readily) available.

This edited book offers further advances, new perspectives, and developments from world leaders in the field of through-life engineering services (TES). It builds up on the earlier book by the same authors entitled: “Through-life Engineering Services: Motivation, Theory and Practice.” This compendium introduces and discusses further, the developments in workshop-based and 'in situ' maintenance and support of high-value engineering products, as well as the application of drone technology for autonomous and self-healing product support. The links between ‘integrated planning’ and planned obsolescence, risk and cost modelling are also examined. The role of data, information, and knowledge management relative to component and system degradation and failure is also presented. This is supported by consideration of the effects upon the maintenance and support decision by the presence of 'No Fault Found' error signals within system data. Further to this the role of diagnostics and prognostics is also discussed. In addition, this text presents the fundamental information required to deliver an effective TES solution/strategy and identification of core technologies. The book contains reference and discussion relative to automotive. rail, and several other industrial case studies to highlight the potential of TES to redefine the product creation and development process. Additionally the role of warranty and service data in the product creation and delivery system is also introduced. ​This book offers a valuable reference resource for academics, practitioners and students of TES and the associated supporting technologies and business models that underpin whole-life product creation and delivery systems through the harvesting and application of condition and use based data.

The experience developed by Ian McHarg represents the first attempt to base environmental planning on more objective methods. In particular, he supposed that the real world can be considered as a layer cake and each layer represents a sectoral analysis. This metaphor represents the fundamental of overlay mapping. At the beginning, these principles have been applied only by hand, just considering the degree of darkness, produced by layer transparency, as a negative impact. In the following years, this craftmade approach, has been adopted for data organization in Geographical Information Systems producing analyses with a high level of quality and rigour. Nowadays, great part of studies in environmental planning field have been developed using GIS. The next step relative to the simple use of geographic information in supporting environmental planning is the adoption of spatial simulation models, which can predict the evolution of phenomena. As the use of spatial information has definitely improved the quality of data sets on which basing decision-making process, the use of Geostatistics, spatial simulation and, more generally, geocomputation methods allows the possibility of basing the decision-making process on predicted future scenarios. It is very strange that a discipline such as planning which programs the territory for the future years in great part of cases is not based on simulation models. Sectoral analyses, often based on surveys, are not enough to highlight dynamics of an area. Better knowing urban and environmental changes occurred in the past, it is possible to provide better simulations to predict possible tendencies. The aim of this book is to provide an overview of the main methods and techniques adopted in the field of environmental geocomputation in order to produce a more sustainable development.

Recent advances in the disciplines of computer science (e.g., quantum theory, artificial intelligence), biotechnology and nanotechnology have deeply modified the structures of knowledge from which military capabilities are likely to develop. This book discusses the implications of disruptive technologies for the defence innovation ecosystem. Two complementary dimensions of the defence innovation ecosystem are highlighted: the industrial and intra-organizational. On the industrial scale, there is a shift in the ecology of knowledge underpinning the defence industrial and technological base (DITB). At the intra-organizational level, it is the actors’ practices that change and, through them, their skills and the processes by which they are acquired and transferred. In this context, the sources and legitimacy of innovation are being transformed, in turn requiring sometimes radical adaptations on the part of the various actors, including companies, military services, research communities and governmental agencies, which make up the defence innovation ecosystem.