Kevin Hapeshi

A Review of Nature-Inspired Algorithms

The study of bionics bridges the functions, biological structures and organizational principles found in nature with our modern technologies, and numerous mathematical and metaheuristic algorithms have been developed along with the knowledge transferring process from the lifeforms to the human technologies. Output of bionics study includes not only physical products, but also various computation methods that can be applied in different areas. People have learnt from biological systems and structures to design and develop a number of different kinds of optimisation algorithms that have been widely used in both theoretical study and practical applications. In this paper, a number of selected nature-inspired algorithms are systematically reviewed and analyzed. Though the paper is mainly focused on the original principle behind each of the algorithm, their applications are also discussed.

An Innovative Methodology of Product Design from Nature

Nature is an information sourcebook of behaviour, function, colour and shape which can inspire visual design and invention. Studying the form and functional characteristics of a natural object can provide inspiration for product design and help to improve the marketability of manufactured products. The inspiration can be triggered either by direct observation or captured by three-dimensional (3D) digitising techniques to obtain superficial information (geometry and colour). An art designer often creates a concept in the form of a two-dimensional (2D) sketch while engineering methods lead to a point cloud in 3D. Each has its limitations in that the art designer commonly lacks the knowledge to build a final product from a 2D sketch and the engineering designer’s 3D point clouds may not be very beautiful. We propose a method for Product Design from Nature (PDN), coupling aesthetic intent and geometrical characteristics, exploring the interactions between designers and nature’s systems in PDN. We believe that this approach would considerably reduce the lead time and cost of product design from nature.

An Evaluation Model of Supply Chain Performances Using 5DBSC and LMBP Neural Network Algorithm

A high efficient Supply Chain (SC) would bring great benefits to an enterprise such as integrated resources, reduced logistics costs, improved logistics efficiency and high quality of overall level of services. So it is important to research various methods, performance indicator systems and technology for evaluating, monitoring, predicting and optimizing the performance of a SC. In this paper, the existing performance indicator systems and methods are discussed and evaluated. Various nature- inspired algorithms are reviewed and their applications for SC Performance Evaluation (PE) are discussed. Then, a model is proposed and developed using 5 Dimensional Balanced Scorecard (5DBSC) and LMBP (Levenberg-Marquardt Back Propagation) neural network for SC PE. A program is written using Matlab tool box to implement the model based on the practical values of the 14 indicators of 5DBSC of a given previous period. This model can be used to evaluate, predict and optimize the performance of a SC. The analysis results of a case study of a company show that the proposed model is valid, reliable and effective. The convergence speed is faster than that in the previous work.

3D Modelling of Biological Systems for Biomimetics

With the advanced development of computer-based enabling technologies, many engineering, medical, biology, chemistry, physics and food science etc have developed to the unprecedented levels, which lead to many research and development interests in various multi-discipline areas. Among them, biomimetics is one of the most promising and attractive branches of study. Biomimetics is a branch of study that uses biological systems as a model to develop synthetic systems. To learn from nature, one of the fundamental issues is to understand the natural systems such animals, insects, plants and human beings etc. The geometrical characterization and representation of natural systems is an important fundamental work for biomimetics research. 3D modeling plays a key role in the geometrical characterization and representation, especially in computer graphical visualization. This paper firstly presents the typical procedure of 3D modelling methods and then reviews the previous work of 3D geometrical modelling techniques and systems developed for industrial, medical and animation applications. Especially the paper discusses the problems associated with the existing techniques and systems when they are applied to 3D modelling of biological systems. Based upon the discussions, the paper proposes some areas of research interests in 3D modelling of biological systems and for Biomimetics.

A New Parameterised Feature-Based Generic 3D Human Face Model for Emotional Bio-Robots

To represent various human facial expressions is an essential requirement for emotional bio-robots. The human expressions can convey certain emotions for communications of human beings with some muscles positions and their movements. To design and develop emotional robots, it is necessary to build a generic 3D human face model. While the geometrical features of human faces are freeform surfaces with complex properties, it is the fundamental requirement for the model to have the ability of representing both primitive and freeform surfaces. This requirement makes the Non-rational Uniform B-Spline (NURBS) are suitable for 3D human face modelling. In this paper, a new parameterised feature based generic 3D human face model is proposed and implemented. Based on observation of human face anatomy, the authors define thirty-four NURBS curve features and twenty-one NURBS surface features to represent the human facial components, such as eyebrows, eyes, nose and mouth etc. These curve models and surface models can be used to simulate different facial expressions by manipulating the control points of those NURBS features. Unlike the existing individual based face modelling methods, this parameterised 3D face model also gives users the ability to use the model imitate any face appearances. In addition the potential applications of the new proposed 3D face model are also discussed. Besides emotional bio-robots, it is believed that the proposed model can also be applied in other fields such as aesthetic plastic surgery simulation, film and computer game characters creation, and criminal investigation and prevention.

Provision of Long Item Materials

Purpose: This paper shows the effects of using Minomi on the provision of long items in the plant area. In details it will be evaluated if the Minomi principle is usable for the provision of long item material at the manufacturing area and what improvements can be achieved. Definitions of the term Minomi and the term long item: The term long item is used in the logistic sector for all materials that are longer than 2.5 meters, require individually packing and have a relatively small cross section [1,2]. The term Minomi has not been clearly defined. In practise, the term Minomi is often associated with a system that does not use boxes for the material provision [3]. Findings: Through the case studies, it has been found that additional advantages can be obtained by using Minomi for the provision of long items than the other existing methods.

Optimising Body Layout Design of Limbed Machines

This paper presents our efforts to explain why mammals have large thigh muscles while insects have small ones. After a discussion of this observation a definition of body foot ratio is defined which describes how animals stand and how their legs are arranged. To investigate the mechanics, we present a closed optimum solution of the body foot ratio for a 2D two-leg walking machine. A multi-walker is used as a case for 3D general analysis, and the numerical simulation is presented. Both 2D and 3D case studies can explain the above observations of mammals and insects. These findings can also be used as a guide for the design of man-made limbed machines.