If we are to understand how we can build machines capable of broad purpose learning and reasoning, we must first aim to build systems that can represent, acquire, and reason about the kinds of commonsense knowledge that we humans have…

It is obvious to anyone familiar with the rules of the game of chess that a king on an empty board can reach every square. It is true, but not obvious, that a knight can reach every square. Why is…

This memo describes PROGRAMMER, a parser for natural language. It consists of a language for writing grammars in the form of programs, and an interpreter which can use these grammars to parse sentence. PROGRAMMER is one part of an integrated…

Compliant control is a standard method for performing fine manipulation tasks, like grasping and assembly, but it requires estimation of the state of contact between the robot arm and the objects involved. Here we present a method to learn a…

A method will be described for finding the shape of a smooth apaque object form a monocular image, given a knowledge of the surface photometry, the position of the lightsource and certain auxiliary information to resolve ambiguities. This method is…

Heavily used in the manufacture of integrated circuits, chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) is becoming an enabling technology for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). To reliably use CMP in the manufacturing process, designers must be able to accurately predict the CMP process and control…

Direct wafer bonding has emerged as an important technology in the manufacture of silicon-on-insulator substrates (SOI), microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), and three-dimensional integrated circuits (3D IC's). While the process is currently employed in applications such as these, a lack of knowledge…

The contribution of this thesis is to provide a tractable framework for supply chains and revenue management problems subject to uncertainty that gives insight into the structure of the optimal policy and requires little knowledge of the underlying probability distributions.…

RESUMO: O conhecimento do comportamento hidrossedimentológico de uma bacia hidrográfica é fundamental para a adequada gestão e uso de seus recursos hídricos. Este traballho objetivou realizar, a partir dos dados hidrossedimentométricos da Bacia do Rio Piquiri, um diagnóstico sobre o…

This thesis examines the relationship between moral experience and moral knowledge in contemporary analytic meta-ethics. It begins with a critical examination of the work of Michael Smith, notably his book The Moral Problem, which leaves out of consideration the notion…