General Layouts Research Articles

MCTS with Refinement for Proposals Selection Games in Scene Understanding.

We propose a novel method applicable in many scene understanding problems that adapts the Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) algorithm, originally designed to learn to play games of high-state complexity. From a generated pool of proposals, our method jointly selects and optimizes proposals that minimize the objective term. In our first application for floor plan reconstruction from point clouds, our method selects and refines the room proposals, modelled as 2D polygons, by optimizing on an objective function combining the fitness as predicted by a deep network and regularizing terms on the room shapes. We also introduce a novel differentiable method for rendering the polygonal shapes of these proposals. Our evaluations on the recent and challenging Structured3D and Floor-SP datasets show significant improvements over the state-of-the-art both in speed and quality of reconstructions, without imposing hard constraints nor assumptions on the floor plan configurations. In our second application, we extend our approach to reconstruct general 3D room layouts from a color image and obtain accurate room layouts. We also show that our differentiable renderer can easily be extended for rendering 3D planar polygons and polygon embeddings. Our method shows high performance on the Matterport3D-Layout dataset, without introducing hard constraints on room layout configurations.

Undirected graph representing strategy for general room layout estimation

Room layout estimation aims to predict the spatial structure of a room from a single image. Most existing methods relying on 2D cues are suitable for cuboid rooms, but non-cuboid rooms. 3D layout estimation methods can reconstruct 3D models of general rooms, but they are trained with depth information on high collection costs, consume large computation resources, and run slowly. This paper considers an undirected graph representation method of the general room layouts, which includes cuboid and non-cuboid rooms consisting of a single ceiling, a single floor, and multiple walls. To this end, we first predict the positions of the layout vertices and then use the network automatically learn the connection relationship between the vertices. The final layout is obtained through a simple layout inference post-processing algorithm. The experimental results both on cuboid and non-cuboid datasets validate the effectiveness and efficiency of our method. The code is available at https://github.com/Hui-Yao/2D-graph-layout-estimation.

Town-planning tasks and principles of restoration of urbanized territories of the Luhansk region, destroyed as a result of hostilities

The war in Ukraine has led to large-scale destruction. The scale and nature of changes in the urban planning parameters of the Luhansk region under the influence of hostilities and the restoration of urbanized territories are studied. The purpose of the study is to determine the models and principles for the restoration of urban areas affected by hostilities. Theoretical and empirical methods of system and statistical analysis, analytical comparisons, urban planning analysis were used for the study. The paper considers the quantitative and qualitative nature of the impact of destruction and the socio-demographic and economic consequences caused by them on the change in the urban planning parameters of the Luhansk region. The information base consists of literary and archival sources, cartographic materials. The analysis of urban planning tasks for the restoration of urbanized territories destroyed as a result of hostilities is carried out. It is established that the war changed certain functions of the region. The task arises to determine how the change in functions affects the transformation of the territorial typology of the use of territories. The region is at the beginning of the phase transformation of the urban form. A methodology for assessing and making urban planning decisions is proposed. The urban planning tasks and directions for the restoration of the urbanized territories of the Lugansk region, destroyed as a result of hostilities, are analyzed. From the intermediate conclusions, it is advisable to single out that the region has significantly changed its functions. The military and special nature of the use of the territories will be a priority. So, the planning frame of the territory should undergo changes. It is necessary to revise and update general layouts, regional development schemes aimed at the advanced development of programs and projects that primarily ensure the structural growth of territories. The region will experience a labor shortage. So, recovery programs will face a shortage of builders. It is advisable to create and strengthen the departments of the chief architect of the city, expand the staff, to develop current and future tasks for the development of cities.

Route Optimization in Precision Agriculture Settings: A Multi-Steiner TSP Formulation

In this work, we propose a route planning strategy for heterogeneous mobile robots in Precision Agriculture (PA) settings. Given a set of agricultural tasks to be performed at specific locations, we formulate a multi-Steiner Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) to define the optimal assignment of these tasks to the robots as well as the respective optimal paths to be followed. The optimality criterion aims to minimize the total time required to execute all the tasks, as well as the cumulative execution times of the robots. Costs for travelling from one location to another, for maneuvering and for executing the task as well as limited energy capacity of the robots are considered. In addition, we propose a sub-optimal formulation to mitigate the computational complexity by leveraging the fact that generally in PA settings only a few locations require agricultural tasks in a certain period of interest compared to all possible locations in the field. A formal analysis of the optimality gap between the optimal and the sub-optimal formulations is provided. The effectiveness of the approach is validated in a simulated orchard where three heterogeneous aerial vehicles perform inspection tasks. <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Note to Practitioners</i> —This paper aims at providing an efficient solution to PA needs by deploying a team of robots able to perform agricultural tasks at given locations in large-scale orchards. In particular, a novel general optimization problem is proposed that, given a set of mobile and possibly heterogeneous robots and a set of agricultural tasks to carry out, defines the assignment of these tasks to the robots as well as the routes to follow, while minimizing the total and the cumulative execution times of the robots. Existing approaches for route optimization in PA generally involves complete coverage of the field by one or multiple robots and do not account for maneuvering costs with general layouts of the field. We consider costs for travelling from one location to another, for executing the task and for maneuvering without any restriction on the layout of the plants as well as we take into account the limited energy capacity of the robots. We also provide a sub-optimal formulation which reduces the computational burden by relaxing the optimization of the maneuvering costs at the locations where agricultural tasks are carried out and formally derive the optimality gap. The proposed approach is flexible and can be easily adapted to any PA setting involving multiple mobile robots that are required to accomplish given tasks in an area of interest. We validate its effectiveness in a realistic simulated setup composed of three heterogeneous aerial vehicles performing inspection tasks. In future research, we aim to design algorithms to solve the proposed optimization problems in an efficient manner as well as to validate the formulations on real-world robotic platforms.

Modeling of the Variation Propagation for Complex-Shaped Workpieces in Multi-Stage Machining Processes

Variation prediction and quality control for complex-shaped workpieces in automotive and aerospace fields with multi-stage machining processes have drawn significant attention because of the widespread application and increasing diversity of these kinds of workpieces. To finish the final workpieces with complex shapes, multiple setups and operations are often applied in machining processes. However, sources of geometric error, such as fixture error, datum error, machine tool path error, and the dimensional quality of the product, interact complicatedly at different stages. These complex interactions pose significant challenges to final product error prediction and reduction. Manufacturing error prediction based on stream of variation is an effective way to control the machining quality. However, there are few integrated models that can describe the interactions among types of geometric error sources from different stages for different kinds of complex workpieces. This paper proposes a modified error prediction model to systematically capture the interactions of different error sources among different operations for complex-shaped workpieces in multi-stage machining processes. Using differential motion vectors, the connection of all key variations from machine, fixture, and workpiece is established. This modified model can not only handle general fixture layouts for complex workpieces, but also introduce machining-induced variations. Based on this model, the main error sources identification method and error compensation method are proposed. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method, engine blocks are used to be machined as an example. Compared with a machining process without a compensating strategy, the average machining error of the key feature is reduced by 80.5% after compensating for the main error sources.

Optimal Design of Fractional-Order Electrical Network for Vehicle Mechatronic ISD Suspension Using the Structure-Immittance Approach

In order to more effectively design the structure of vehicle ISD (Inerter Spring Damper) suspension system using the inerter, this paper proposed a design method using a fractional-order electrical network structure of a mechatronic inerter for fractional-order electrical network components, according to the characteristics that the external electrical network of a mechatronic inerter can simulate the corresponding mechanical network structure equivalently. First, the 1/4 dynamic model of the suspension is constructed. The improved Oustaloup filtering algorithm is used to simulate fractional calculus, and the fractional order components are simulated. Then, the simulation model of the vehicle mechatronic ISD suspension is established. In order to simplify the electrical network, one resistance, one fractional inductance and one fractional capacitance are limited in the design of the fractional electrical network at the outer end of the mechatronic inerter. The structure-immittance approach is used to obtain two general layouts of all possible structures of three elements. At the same time, the optimal fractional electrical network structure and parameters are obtained by combining the optimization algorithm. The simulation results verify the performance of the fractional ISD suspension with the optimized structure, which can provide a new idea for the structural design of a fractional-order electrical network applied in vehicle mechatronic ISD suspension.

Generating Residential Layout Based on AI in the View of Wind Environment

There is a contradiction between the high-density residential area development form and comfortable outdoor physical environment. The existing studies on wind environment of high-rise residential areas only provide the guidance for the simple general layouts, which cannot cope with the fact that most high-rise residential areas are mixed of point buildings and board buildings, and it would cost a lot of time and resources to carry out computer simulation of each layout. This paper presents a new tool, which uses the automatic optimization function of genetic algorithm and the prediction function of fully convolutional neural network to integrates three functions: the automatic generation of high-rise residential layout, the simulation of wind environment and the comparison for optimization, to learn plan scheduling and obtain the optimal solution for high-rise residential layout under specific plot ratio and plot conditions, provides guidance for today’s fast-paced architectural design.

The Impact of Town-Forming Companies on the Urban Development of Monotowns, the Case of the Perm Region

This article presents the results of the retrospective study of city planning policies in the monotowns of the Perm region. We studied the transformation of the industrial tows in the Perm region from the pre-revolutionary period up to the current times based on the archive and cartographic data, the study of city planning documents, and field research. The monotowns in the Perm region have the typical features of soviet city planning, which did not consider terrain as a factor of people’s well-being. It was only assessed from the point of view of the convenient location of plants. This led to the current problems, including the deterioration of the urban environment and the partial de-urbanization of the territories. We found out that the existing general layouts do not take into account the changes in the impact of the town-forming companies on the urban environment and generally do not satisfy the existing demands.

Optimisation of wave-power arrays without prescribed geometry over incident wave angle

This paper describes the optimisation of arrays of wave energy converters (WECs) of point absorber type. The WECs are spherical in shape and operate in heave only. Previous work is extended to an optimisation of array layouts without a prescribed geometry. The objective function is chosen as the mean of the array interaction factor over a prescribed range of incident wave angles. This formulation forces the array to perform optimally over a specified range of wave angle, without direct concern for wavelength variations. Both constrained and unconstrained WEC motions are considered, with constrained optimisations limiting device displacements to two or three times the incident wave amplitude. The increased freedom in this more general optimisation results in a 70% to 140% increase in objective function values compared to the analogous linear array optimisations. As in previous studies of this nature, unconstrained arrays tend to contain closely spaced WECs and larger displacement amplitudes, whereas constrained optimal arrays are more widely spaced. It is shown that the prescribed range of incident wave angle has a great effect on the optimal array layout, with better performance achieved for smaller ranges of wave angle due to better tuning of the array members. A previously identified trade-off in linear arrays, between performance stability to different incident wave parameters, is shown not to apply to general array layouts.

Requirements for engineering protection of structures and territories for the safe investment project implementation

The article is devoted to the problems of engineering protection of buildings, structures and territories, when organizing territory, formalising principles (conditions), in accordance with which management and construction solutions for engineering protection arrangement are admitted at the planning and design stages. An integrated approach to the engineering protection arrangement is formulated on the basis of these principles (conditions). The approach requires preparation of an engineering protection project, including general layouts, detailed and specified plans, to develop various project solutions, optimize the design process, assess the prevented damage, justify the investment and estimate the consolidated approximate cost.

A comprehensive error compensation strategy for machining process with general fixture layouts

The modeling of equivalent fixture error (EFE) in machining process has been proved to be an effective way for variation reduction. However, previously developed approaches did not describe the EFE phenomenon of workpiece deformation. This paper proposes a comprehensive EFE model that can simultaneously transform the datum errors, machine tool path error and workpiece deformation to EFE. The developed model can also describe the EFE phenomenon for general fixture layouts rather than being limited to an orthogonal 3–2-1 layout case. Based on this comprehensive error compensation strategy, the datum errors, machine tool path error and workpiece deformation can be compensated for machining process with general fixture layouts. The case studies demonstrate the model validity through the real machining experiments and also show a simple simulation process for error compensation.

Territorial planning of transport in Russia: current condition, problems and prospects of development

The paper considers the current condition and problems of territorial planning of extra-urban transport in Russia. The paper analyzes the key parameters of improving the transport system of Russia as one of the most important elements of the economic system. The main social and economic requirements for documents of territorial planning of transport in Russia at the regional level are contained in the regional standards of urban planning design. They set the time limits for maximum transport accessibility from places where people live to places where important social and economic objects and service institutions are located. The paper provides examples of the most important promising projects in the construction of extra-urban transport infrastructure. Similarities and differences between general layouts and master plans in terms of territorial planning of transport infrastructure are shown. The problems of planning transport systems of urban agglomerations are considered. Recommendations are given for changing the methodology of territorial planning of extra-urban transport in Russia.

The use of the methodology of risk assessment in the elaboration of the general layout of an urban settlement

In the framework of the solution of tasks of spatial planning and the development of territories of regions of the Russian Federation as well as during the development of general layouts of urban settlements the potential human health risk assessment has been shown to be performed. The use of health risk criteria permits to avoid the underestimation of hazards, to provide safe and favorable living conditions by means of town-planning design; to restrict the harmful impact of anthropogenic and other activities on the environment to the acceptable levels according to the criteria of population health; to use rationally the urban resources to the benefit of living and future generations.

Development of transformable reflectors of mirror space antennas

Currently, the task of designing large structures of space antennas is becoming increasingly important due to active research and development in the area of creating remote sensing and communication satellites. Designing such structures is a complicated task due to geometric features, a large number of joints, compactness requirements, as well as operating conditions of the outer space. These factors require special methods for assessing the workability of these structures. This paper presents the results of simulation and experimental studies aimed at creating transformable antenna reflectors. The results of choosing general structural layouts are considered. It is noted that the main reason for the reflector shape distortion is non-uniform heating by the solar radiation and radiation fluxes coming from the Earth. The paper presents the results of numerical modeling of temperature and stress-strain state of transformable antenna reflectors from metallic mesh sheet meeting the requirements for operating on the geostationary orbit.

Urban Green Zones Planning Concept and Ecological Functionality (Through the Example of Poltava, Ukraine)

In the article major peculiarities and problems in architectural and planning decisions concerning Poltava urban greening are represented, and ways of solving them are suggested. The town’s green zones appropriation, their ecological, town-planning, sanitary and hygienic, recreational, and in case of some of them nature-sanctuary importance is considered. Structure and economical constituents of Poltava urban green zones planning, which represents average town urban ecosystems in the central (forest-steppe) zone of Ukraine, is analyzed. Maps and figures depicting typical schemes of manufacturing, transportation structure, density of population and urban greening are provided. Outraging of acceptable concentrations in dust and formaldehyde while analyzing urban atmospheric air pollution level according to the data obtained from stationary sites, is shown. These proves importance of taking into account consideration of interdependence between levels and locating of town’s natural resources polluting sources, first of all atmospheric air, with urban territory greening planned decisions. Based on materials concerning study of green zones ecological functionality effectiveness peculiarities, the concept of Poltava urban green zones planning is suggested. Modern town architectural and planning decisions ecological aspects should be integrated into local strategies and development programs, town general lay-outs, transportation systems planning, strategy referring environmental protection, and require local self-government and state support.

Graph drawing using tabu search coupled with path relinking.

Graph drawing, or the automatic layout of graphs, is a challenging problem. There are several search based methods for graph drawing which are based on optimizing an objective function which is formed from a weighted sum of multiple criteria. In this paper, we propose a new neighbourhood search method which uses a tabu search coupled with path relinking to optimize such objective functions for general graph layouts with undirected straight lines. To our knowledge, before our work, neither of these methods have been previously used in general multi-criteria graph drawing. Tabu search uses a memory list to speed up searching by avoiding previously tested solutions, while the path relinking method generates new solutions by exploring paths that connect high quality solutions. We use path relinking periodically within the tabu search procedure to speed up the identification of good solutions. We have evaluated our new method against the commonly used neighbourhood search optimization techniques: hill climbing and simulated annealing. Our evaluation examines the quality of the graph layout (objective function’s value) and the speed of layout in terms of the number of evaluated solutions required to draw a graph. We also examine the relative scalability of each method. Our experimental results were applied to both random graphs and a real-world dataset. We show that our method outperforms both hill climbing and simulated annealing by producing a better layout in a lower number of evaluated solutions. In addition, we demonstrate that our method has greater scalability as it can layout larger graphs than the state-of-the-art neighbourhood search methods. Finally, we show that similar results can be produced in a real world setting by testing our method against a standard public graph dataset.

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT OF TOWNS IN KRASNOYARSK KRAI AT RAILWAY HUBS

The article studies small towns of the Krasnoyarsk Krai at the railway hubs (Zaozernyy, Ilanskii) with the aim to identify its further development. Insufficient conditions outflow of population, low quality of life, lack of enterprises and jobs lead to degradation of towns, which developed until the end of the 20 th century. Concept of urban development in the Krasnoyarsk Krai at the railway nodes are determined. Research results can underlie town-planning documentation, in particular, Zaozernyy and Ilanskii towns, land use and general layouts, development concept and strategy.

Novel concept of 60-120 kW at 4 K refrigerator

In the last 50 years several new large cryogenic facilities with capacities up to 150 kW at 4 K were taken in operation. This required development of new generation of refrigerators/liquefiers with capacities ranges 18-25 kW at 4 K. In order to cover the required cryogenic load, several cryogenic groups, e.g. at CERN, ITER, JLab, SLAC, have to install several refrigerators with maximal power capacities each. As an alternative, development of larger refrigerators up to 120 kW power could be an alternative to the installation of several “small” ones. In the present paper, the novel concept of 60-120 kW refrigerator is considered. The discussion of novel concept will be preceded by discussion of basic design of current “state-of-the-art” refrigerators/liquefiers as well as advanced ones using high efficient heat exchangers and turbines with expected overall thermodynamic efficiencies up to 35%. For the “state-of-the-art” design, we tried to use the standard and already proven technologies in as many as possible cases, though resent developments are also considered. In practice, the refrigerators/liquefiers are designed for the specific load, e.g. pure refrigerator, pure liquefier or somehow in between these limits; however, as the cryogenic heat load for future cryogenic facilities could be different, we tried to apply general process schemes, which could be suitable to refrigerator/liquefier working at 4 K temperature level. The general layouts, screw/turbo compressor stations, 80-300 K as well as 4-80 K boxes are considered. For the advanced design, similar components are used; however turbine and heat exchangers efficiencies are in the range of 82-85% and ca. 98%, respectively. For the novel concept, the applications of turbo compressors as well as several new process schemes of 4 K boxes are considered.

ADMINISTRATIVE PRACTICES OF PLANNING OF DEVELOPMENT OF INDUSTRIAL CITIES ARE BY REVITALIZATION OF TERRITORIES

The article analyzes the theoretical basis of urban development planning. The content and features revitilizatsiyi industrial areas. Studied foreign practice revitilizatsiyi industrial areas and facilities. Established participatory nature of planning the revitalization of industrial zones. Suggestions for improving the methodological approaches to planning revitalization Ukrainian industrial cities. Cities enter into a competition for the resources of development, specialists and others like that and force to pass to the General layouts of development of cities, strategies of development, plans of revitalization of industrial territories if not to lose competitive edges, in thereby to the outflow of specialists. Society, active habitants of city, comes forward as motive force of planning of development of cities. The vector of transformation is set by the technological modes 4 generations, that needs the change of consciousness of management, adaptivity of business, economic patriotism. The network structures of doing business, clusters of business and science, venture firms, technological parkas, business-incubators, can the organizationally-economic forms of such advancement and must come forward for self-realization of the prepared well-educated young people. Going must change cardinally near the management of revitalization on the basis of effective administration and professional approach of managers.

A comprehensive study of linear variation propagation modeling methods for multistage machining processes

Stream of variation (SoV) model is an effective tool, which can describe the dimensional variation and propagation for multistage machining processes. Compared with traditional single-stage error models considering errors from a single machining stage only, SoV model can depict the complicated interactions between different errors at different stages. This paper reviews three major linearized SoV modeling methods for multistage machining processes based on the literature published over the last two decades. These three linearized SoV modeling methods are based on differential motion vectors, equivalent fixture error, and kinematic analysis, respectively. Each method has its corresponding advantages and disadvantages. The model using differential motion vector (DMV) concept from robotics incorporates fixture-, datum-, and machining-induced variations in the multistage variation propagation for orthogonal 3-2-1 fixturing layout while the primary datum deviation is currently overlooked. The kinematic analysis method can address general fixture layouts rather than being limited to orthogonal 3-2-1 fixture layouts. The variation propagation model using the equivalent fixture error concept can directly model the process physics regarding how fixture, datum, and machine tool errors generate the same pattern on the features of the workpiece. The results of these three models with respect to an example are also given to make a comparison. Finally, a perspective overview of the future research about SoV methods is presented.