The Machine Learning (ML) paradigm offers an interesting approach for assessing various aspects related to the reliability of any system that can be represented as a network. The main idea is to employ a specific ML technique, trained on a restricted subset of data, to produce an estimate of the Structure Function. In this chapter, three ML techniques (Support Vector Machines, Decision Trees an...

In common parlance, the traditional software reliability estimation methods often rely on assumptions like statistical distributions that are often dubious and unrealistic. This paper analyzes the assumptions of traditional reliability estimation methods and further evaluates the practical viability of the predictions offered by these models in the current scenario. We further propose a novel F...

Due to low intra- and interrater reliability, perceptual voice evaluation should be supported by objective, automatic methods. In this study, text-based, computer-aided prosodic analysis and measurements of connected speech were combined in order to model perceptual evaluation of the German Roughness-Breathiness-Hoarseness (RBH) scheme. 58 connected speech samples (43 women and 15 men; 48.7 ± 1...

This paper presents initial results of a research effort that merges two approaches on Quality Management. On one hand, while working with process improvement initiatives involving defect causal analysis, the researcher were faced with the problem of measuring inter-rater reliability for a defect classification taxonomy in a software development organization. On the other hand, the researchers ...

Describes the mechanical, electronic and software design of a 10-DOF bipedal robot which has been constructed to study control, parameterisation and automatic expansion of the stability envelope of a complex real-time behaviour, namely, dynamically-balanced two-legged walking. The machine is physically complete and demonstrates reasonable reliability in movement control including dynamically-ba...

Reliability evaluation of real engineering systems is often performed using simulation tools. In general, to determine the state of the system (operating or failed) as a function of its components, it is necessary to evaluate a function that is called System Function or Structure Function (SF). In a Monte Carlo simulation system reliability is evaluated by generating at random several systems s...

As a result of technology scaling, power density of multi-core chips increases and leads to temperature hotspots which accelerate device aging and chip failure. Moreover tremendous efforts to reduce power consumption by employing low-power techniques decreases the reliability of new design generation. In this work, we first discuss the state-of-the-art methods for predicting workload dynamics a...

In the design of interlock loops for the signal exchange in machine protection systems, the choice of the hardware architecture impacts on machine safety and availability. The reliable performance of a machine stop (leaving the machine in a safe state) in case of an emergency, is an inherent requirement. The constraints in terms of machine availability on the other hand may differ from one faci...

Data mining has, over recent years, seen big advances because of the spread of internet, which generates everyday a tremendous volume of data, and also the immense advances in technologies which facilitate the analysis of these data. In particular, classification techniques are a subdomain of Data Mining which determines in which group each data instance is related within a given dataset. It is...

Machine-to-machine communications is an emerging technology that realizes a system of networks, wireless or wired, possibly distributed across the world, for transmitting events captured by low-end machines such as sensors and smart meters to high-end applications and/or personal appliances, where the events are translated into meaningful information. It embraces several major research fields i...