A journal of IEEE and CAA , publishes high-quality papers in English on original theoretical/experimental research and development in all areas of automation

## Early Access

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, Available online  , doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911525 doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911525
Abstract:
In this paper, the problem of making an input-delay system with saturating actuators finite-time stable by virtue of digital control is investigated. A digital state feedback controller and digital observer-controller compensator are designed for two cases: when the state of the input-delay system are available or when it is unavailable. Sufficient conditions which guarantee finite-time stability of a closed-loop input-delay system are given and the proof procedure is presented in a heuristic way by constructing appropriate comparison functions. The condition can be transformed into the intersection of two curves satisfying some constraints, which reveals the relationship between designed parameters clearly. Finally, simulation results are presented to validate the method proposed in this paper.
, Available online  , doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911693 doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911693
Abstract:
It is well known that automatic speech recognition (ASR) is a resource consuming task. It takes sufficient amount of data to train a state-of-the-art deep neural network acoustic model. As for some low-resource languages where scripted speech is difficult to obtain, data sparsity is the main problem that limits the performance of speech recognition system. In this paper, several knowledge transfer methods are investigated to overcome the data sparsity problem with the help of high-resource languages. The first one is a pre-training and fine-tuning (PT/FT) method, in which the parameters of hidden layers are initialized with a well-trained neural network. Secondly, the progressive neural networks (Prognets) are investigated. With the help of lateral connections in the network architecture, Prognets are immune to forgetting effect and superior in knowledge transferring. Finally, bottleneck features (BNF) are extracted using cross-lingual deep neural networks and serves as an enhanced feature to improve the performance of ASR system. Experiments are conducted in a low-resource Vietnamese dataset. The results show that all three methods yield significant gains over the baseline system, and the Prognets acoustic model performs the best. Further improvements can be obtained by combining the Prognets model and bottleneck features.
, Available online  , doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911672 doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911672
Abstract:
Evacuation leaders and/or equipment provide route and exit information for people and guide them to the expected destinations, which could make crowd evacuation more efficient in case of emergency. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of recent advances in guided crowd evacuation. Different guided crowd evacuation approaches are classified according to guidance approaches and technologies. A comprehensive analysis and comparison of crowd evacuation with static signage, dynamic signage, trained leader, mobile devices, mobile robot and wireless sensor networks are presented based on a single guidance mode perspective. In addition, the different evacuation guidance systems that use technology automated methods of evacuation are reviewed from a system’s perspective. Future research in the area of crowd evacuation are also discussed.
, Available online
Abstract:
In this paper, we use the cycle basis from graph theory to reduce the size of the decision variable space of optimal network flow problems by eliminating the aggregated flow conservation constraint. We use a minimum cost flow problem and an optimal power flow problem with generation and storage at the nodes to demonstrate our decision variable reduction method. The main advantage of the proposed technique is that it retains the natural sparse/decomposable structure of network flow problems. As such, the reformulated problems are still amenable to distributed solutions. We demonstrate this by proposing a distributed alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) solution for a minimum cost flow problem. We also show that the communication cost of the distributed ADMM algorithm for our proposed cycle-based formulation of the minimum cost flow problem is lower than that of a distributed ADMM algorithm for the original arc-based formulation.
, Available online  , doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911690 doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911690
Abstract:
State convergence is a novel control algorithm for bilateral teleoperation of robotic systems. First, it models the teleoperation system on state space and considers all the possible interactions between the master and slave systems. Second, it presents an elegant design procedure which requires a set of equations to be solved in order to compute the control gains of the bilateral loop. These design conditions are obtained by turning the master-slave error into an autonomous system and imposing the desired dynamic behavior of the teleoperation system. Resultantly, the convergence of master and slave states is achieved in a well-defined manner. The present study aims at achieving a similar convergence behavior offered by state convergence controller while reducing the number of variables sent across the communication channel. The proposal suggests transmitting composite master and slave variables instead of full master and slave states while keeping the operator’s force channel intact. We show that, with these composite and force variables; it is indeed possible to achieve the convergence of states in a desired way by strictly following the method of state convergence. The proposal leads to a reduced complexity state convergence algorithm which is termed as composite state convergence controller. In order to validate the proposed scheme in the absence and presence of communication time delays, MATLAB simulations and semi-real time experiments are performed on a single degree-of-freedom teleoperation system.
, Available online  , doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911678 doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911678
Abstract:
In this paper, a data-driven control approach is developed by reinforcement learning (RL) to solve the global robust optimal output regulation problem (GROORP) of partially linear systems with both static uncertainties and nonlinear dynamic uncertainties. By developing a proper feedforward controller, the GROORP is converted into a global robust optimal stabilization problem. A robust optimal feedback controller is designed which is able to stabilize the system in the presence of dynamic uncertainties. The closed-loop system is assured to be input-to-output stable regarding the static uncertainty as the external input. This robust optimal controller is numerically approximated via RL. Nonlinear small-gain theory is applied to show the input-to-output stability for the closed-loop system and thus solves the original GROORP. Simulation results validates the efficacy of the proposed methodology.
, Available online  , doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911660 doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911660
Abstract:
In minimally invasive surgery, one of the main objectives is to ensure safety and target reaching accuracy during needle steering inside the target organ. In this research work, the needle steering approach is determined using a robust control algorithm namely the Integral sliding mode control (ISMC) strategy to eliminate the chattering problem associated with the general clinical scenario. In general, the discontinuity component of feedback control input is not appropriate for the needle steering methodology due to the practical limitations of the driving actuators. Thus in ISMC, we have incorporated the replacement of the discontinuous component using a super twisting control (STC) input due to its unique features of chattering elimination and disturbance observation characteristics. In our study, the kinematic model of an asymmetric flexible bevel-tip needle in a soft-tissue phantom is used to evaluate stability analysis. A comparative study based on the analysis of chattering elimination is executed to determine the performance of the proposed control strategy in real-time needle steering with conventional sliding mode control using vision feedback through simulation and experimental results. This validates the efficacy of the proposed control strategy for clinical needle steering.
, Available online  , doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911702 doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911702
Abstract:
This paper discusses the design and software-in-the-loop implementation of adaptive formation controllers for fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with parametric uncertainty in their structure, namely uncertain mass and inertia. In fact, when aiming at autonomous flight, such parameters cannot assumed to be known as they might vary during the mission (e.g. depending on the payload).Modelingg and autopilot design for such autonomous fixed-wing UAVs are presented. The modeling is implemented in Matlab, while the autopilot is based on ArduPilot, a popular open-source autopilot suite. Specifically, the ArduPilot functionalities are emulated in Matlab according to the Ardupilot documentation and code, which allows us to perform software-in-the-loop simulations of teams of UAVs embedded with actual autopilot protocols. An overview of realtime path planning, trajectory tracking and formation control resulting from the proposed platform is given. The software-inthe-loop simulations show the capability of achieving different UAV formations while handling uncertain mass and inertia.
, Available online  , doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911687 doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911687
Abstract:
The paper proposes a novel \begin{document}$H_\infty$\end{document} load frequency control (LFC) design method for multi-area power systems based on an integral-based non-fragile distributed fixed-order dynamic output feedback (DOF) tracking-regulator control scheme. To this end, we consider a nonlinear interconnected model for multi-area power systems which also include uncertainties and time-varying communication delays. The design procedure is formulated using semi-definite programming and linear matrix inequality (LMI) method. The solution of the proposed LMIs returns necessary parameters for the tracking controllers such that the impact of model uncertainty and load disturbances are minimized. The proposed controllers are capable of receiving all or part of subsystems information, whereas the outputs of each controller are local. These controllers are designed such that the resilient stability of the overall closed-loop system is guaranteed. Simulation results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. Simulation results quantify that the distributed (and decentralized) controlled system behaves well in presence of large parameter perturbations and random disturbances on the power system.
, Available online
Abstract:
Integrated circuit chips are produced on silicon wafers. Robotic cluster tools are widely used since they provide a reconfigurable and efficient environment for most wafer fabrication processes. Recent advances in new semiconductor materials bring about new functionality for integrated circuits. After a wafer is processed in a processing chamber, the wafer should be removed there as fast as possible to guarantee its high-quality integrated circuits. Meanwhile, maximization of the throughput of robotic cluster tools is desired. This work aims to perform post-processing time-aware scheduling for such tools subject to wafer residency time constraints. To do so, closed-form expression algorithms are derived to compute robot waiting time accurately upon the analysis of particular events of robots waiting for single-arm cluster tools. Examples are given to show the application and effectiveness of our proposed algorithms.
, Available online
Abstract:
Many effective optimization algorithms require partial derivatives of objective functions, while some optimization problems' objective functions have no derivatives. According to former research studies, search direction is obtained using the quadratic hypothesis of objective functions. Based on derivatives, quadratic function assumptions, and directional derivatives, the computational commonalities of numerical first-order partial derivatives, second-order partial derivatives, and numerical second-order mixed partial derivatives were constructed. Based on the coordinate transformation relation, a set of orthogonal vectors in the fixed coordinate system was established according to the optimization direction. A numerical algorithm was proposed, taking the second order approximation direction as an example. A large stepsize numerical algorithm based on coordinate transformation was proposed. Several algorithms were validated by an unconstrained optimization of the two-dimensional Rosenbrock objective function. The numerical second order approximation direction with the numerical mixed partial derivatives showed good results. The calculated amount accounts for 0.2843% of the calculated value of the second-order mixed partial derivative. In the process of rotating the local coordinate system 360°, because the objective function is more complex than the quadratic function, if the numerical direction derivative is used instead of the analytic partial derivative, the optimization direction varies with a range of 103.05°. Because theoretical error is in the numerical negative gradient direction, the calculation with the coordinate transformation is 94.71% less than the calculation without coordinate transformation. If there is no theoretical error in the numerical negative gradient direction or in the large-stepsize numerical optimization algorithm based on the coordinate transformation, the sawtooth phenomenon occurs. When each numerical mixed partial derivative takes more than one point, the optimization results cannot be improved. The numerical direction based on the quadratic hypothesis only requires the objective function to be obtained, but does not require derivability and does not take into account truncation error and rounding error. Thus, the application scopes of many optimization methods are extended.
, Available online  , doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911666 doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911666
Abstract:
Present day power scenarios demand a high quality uninterrupted power supply and needs environmental issues to be addressed. Both concerns can be dealt with by the introduction of the renewable sources to the existing power system. Thus, Automatic Generation Control (AGC) with diverse renewable sources and a modified-cascaded controller are presented in the paper. Also, a new hybrid scheme of the Improved Teaching Learning Based Optimization-Differential Evolution (hITLBO-DE) algorithm is applied for providing optimization of controller parameters. A study of the system with a technique such as TLBO applied to a Proportional Integral Derivative (PID), Integral Double Derivative (IDD) and PIDD is compared to hITLBO-DE tuned cascaded controller with dynamic load change.The suggested methodology has been extensively applied to a 2-area system with a diverse source power system with various operation time non-linearities such as Dead-band of, Generation Rate Constraint and reheat thermal units. The multi-area system with reheat thermal plants, hydel plants and a unit of a wind-diesel combination is tested with the cascaded controller scheme with a different controller setting for each area. The variation of the load is taken within 1% to 5% of the connected load and robustness analysis is shown by modifying essential factors simultaneously by ± 30%. Finally, the proposed scheme of controller and optimization technique is also tested with a 5-equal area thermal system with non-linearities. The simulation results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed controller and algorithm under a dynamically changing load.
, Available online
Abstract:
Eye center localization is one of the most crucial and basic requirements for some human-computer interaction applications such as eye gaze estimation and eye tracking. There is a large body of works on this topic in recent years, but the accuracy still needs to be improved due to challenges in appearance such as the high variability of shapes, lighting conditions, viewing angles and possible occlusions. To address these problems and limitations, we propose a novel approach in this paper for the eye center localization with a fully convolutional network (FCN), which is an end-to-end and pixels-to-pixels network and can locate the eye center accurately. The key idea is to apply the FCN from the object semantic segmentation task to the eye center localization task since the problem of eye center localization can be regarded as a special semantic segmentation problem. We adapt contemporary FCN into a shallow structure with a large kernel convolutional block and transfer their performance from semantic segmentation to the eye center localization task by fine-tuning. Extensive experiments show that the proposed method outperforms the state-of-the-art methods in both accuracy and reliability of eye center localization. The proposed method has achieved a large performance improvement on the most challenging database and it thus provides a promising solution to some challenging applications.
, Available online
Abstract:
We consider quadratic stabilization for a class of switched systems which are composed of a finite set of continuoustime linear subsystems with norm bounded uncertainties. Under the assumption that there is no single quadratically stable subsystem, if a convex combination of subsystems is quadratically stable, then we propose a state-dependent switching law, based on the convex combination of subsystems, such that the entire switched linear system is quadratically stable. When the state information is not available, we extend the discussion to designing an output-dependent switching law by constructing a robust Luenberger observer for each subsystem.
, Available online
Abstract:
By virtue of alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM), Newton-Raphson method, ratio consensus approach and running sum method, two distributed iterative strategies are presented in this paper to address the economic dispatch problem (EDP) in power systems. Different from most of the existing distributed ED approaches which neglect the effects of packet drops or/and time delays, this paper takes into account both packet drops and time delays which frequently occur in communication networks. Moreover, directed and possibly unbalanced graphs are considered in our algorithms, over which many distributed approaches fail to converge. Furthermore, the proposed schemes can address the EDP with local constraints of generators and nonquadratic convex cost functions, not just quadratic ones required in some existing ED approaches. Both theoretical analyses and simulation studies are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed schemes.
, Available online
Abstract:
The introduction of automated driving systems raised questions about how the human driver interacts with the automated system. Non-cooperative game theory is increasingly used for modelling and understanding such interaction, while its counterpart, cooperative game theory is rarely discussed for similar applications despite it may be potentially more suitable. This paper describes the modelling of a human driver’s steering interaction with an automated steering system using cooperative game theory. The distributed Model Predictive Control approach is adopted to derive the driver’s and the automated steering system’s strategies in a Pareto equilibrium sense, namely their cooperative Pareto steering strategies. Two separate numerical studies are carried out to study the influence of strategy parameters, and the influence of strategy types on the driver’s and the automated system’s steering performance. It is found that when a driver interacts with an automated steering system using a cooperative Pareto steering strategy, the driver can improve his/her performance in following a target path through increasing his/her effort in pursuing his/her own interest under the driver-automation cooperative control goal. It is also found that a driver’s adoption of cooperative Pareto steering strategy leads to a reinforcement in the driver’s steering angle control, compared to the driver’s adoption of non-cooperative Nash strategy. This in turn enables the vehicle to return from a lane-change maneuver to straight-line driving swifter.
, Available online
Abstract:
This article proposes a new distributed formation flight protocol for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to perform coordinated circular tracking around a set of circles on a target sphere. Different from the previous results limited in bidirectional networks and disturbance-free motions, this paper handles the circular formation flight control problem with both directed network and spatiotemporal disturbance with the knowledge of its upper bound. Distinguishing from the design of a common Lyaponov function for bidirectional cases, we separately design the control for the circular tracking subsystem and the formation keeping subsystem with the circular tracking error as input. Then the whole control system is regarded as a cascade connection of these two subsystems, which is proved to be stable by Input-to-State stability (ISS) theory. For the purpose of encountering the external disturbance, the backstepping technology is introduced to design the control inputs of each UAV pointing to North and Down along the special sphere (say, the circular tracking control algorithm) with the help of the switching function. Meanwhile, the distributed linear consensus protocol integrated with anther switching anti-interference item is developed to construct the control input of each UAV pointing to East along the special sphere (say, the formation keeping control law) for formation keeping. The validity of the proposed control law is proved both in the rigorous theory and through numerical simulations.
, Available online
Abstract:
This paper presents a new Long–Range Generalized Predictive Controller in the synchronous reference frame for a wind energy system Double-Fed Induction Generator based. This controller uses the state space equations that consider the rotor current and voltage as state and control variables, to execute the predictive control action. Therefore, the model of the plant must be transformed into two discrete transference functions, by means of an auto-regressive moving average model, in order to attain a discrete and decoupled controller, which makes it possible to treat it as two independent single–input single–output systems instead of a magnetic coupled multiple–input multiple–output system. For achieving that, a Direct Power Control Strategy is used, based on the past and future rotor currents and voltages estimation. The algorithm evaluates the rotor current predictors for a defined prediction horizon and computes the new rotor voltages that must be injected to controlling the stator active and reactive powers. To evaluate the controller performance, some simulations were made using Matlab/Simulink. Experimental tests were carried out with a small–scale prototype assuming normal operating conditions with constant and variable wind speed profiles. Finally, some conclusions respect to the dynamic performance of this new controller are summarized.
, Available online
Abstract:
This paper uses Gaussian interval type-2 fuzzy set theory on historical traffic volume data processing to obtain a 24- hour prediction of traffic volume with high precision. A K-means clustering method is used in this paper to get 5 minute traffic volume variation as input data for the Gaussian interval type-2 fuzzy sets which can reflect the distribution of historical traffic volume in one statistical period. Moreover, the cluster with the largest collection of data obtained by K-means clustering method is calculated to get the key parameters of type-2 fuzzy sets, mean and standard deviation of the Gaussian membership function. Using the range of data as the input of Gaussian interval type-2 Fuzzy sets leads to the range of traffic volume forecasting output with the ability of describing the possible range of the traffic volume as well as the traffic volume prediction data with high accuracy. The simulation results show that the average relative error is reduced to 8% based on the combined K-means Gaussian interval type-2 fuzzy sets forecasting method. The fluctuation range in terms of an upper and a lower forecasting traffic volume completely envelopes the actual traffic volume and reproduces the fluctuation range of traffic flow.
, Available online  , doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911651 doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911651
Abstract:
Networked control systems are spatially distributed systems in which the communication between sensors, actuators, and controllers occurs through a shared band-limited digital communication network. Several advantages of the network architectures include reduced system wiring, plug and play devices, increased system agility, and ease of system diagnosis and maintenance. Consequently, networked control is the current trend for industrial automation and has ever-increasing applications in a wide range of areas, such as smart grids, manufacturing systems, process control, automobiles, automated highway systems, and unmanned aerial vehicles. The modelling, analysis, and control of networked control systems have received considerable attention in the last two decades. The ‘control over networks’ is one of the key research directions for networked control systems. This paper aims at presenting a survey of trends and techniques in networked control systems from the perspective of ‘control over networks’, providing a snapshot of five control issues: sampled-data control, quantization control, networked control, event-triggered control, and security control. Some challenging issues are suggested to direct the future research.
, Available online
Abstract:
The stabilization problem of distributed proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers for general first-order multi-agent systems with time delay is investigated in the paper. The closed-loop multi-input multi-output (MIMO) framework in frequency domain is firstly introduced for the multi-agent system. Based on the matrix theory, the whole system is decoupled into several subsystems with respect to the eigenvalues of the Laplacian matrix. Considering that the eigenvalues may be complex numbers, the consensus problem of the multi-agent system is transformed into the stabilizing problem of all the subsystems with complex coefficients. For each subsystem with complex coefficients, the range of admissible proportional gains \begin{document}${k_{\rm{P}}}$\end{document} is analytically determined. Then, the stabilizing region in the space of integral gain (\begin{document}${k_{\rm{I}}}$\end{document}) and derivative gain (\begin{document}${k_{\rm{D}}}$\end{document}) for a given \begin{document}${k_{\rm{P}}}$\end{document} value is also obtained in an analytical form. The entire stabilizing set can be determined by sweeping \begin{document}${k_{\rm{P}}}$\end{document} in the allowable range. The proposed method is conducted for general first-order multi-agent systems under arbitrary topology including undirected and directed graph topology. Besides, the results in the paper provide the basis for the design of distributed PID controllers satisfying different performance criteria. The simulation examples are presented to check the validity of the proposed control strategy
, Available online
Abstract:
The Möller algorithm is a self-stabilizing minor component analysis algorithm. This research document involves the study of the convergence and dynamic characteristics of the Möller algorithm using the deterministic discrete time (DDT) methodology. Unlike other analysis methodologies, the DDT methodology is capable of serving the distinct time characteristic and having no constraint conditions. Through analyzing the dynamic characteristics of the weight vector, several convergence conditions are drawn, which are beneficial for its application. The performing computer simulations and real applications demonstrate the correctness of the analysis’s conclusions.
, Available online
Abstract:
The monitoring of flue gas of the thermal power plants is of great significance in energy conservation and environmental protection. Spectral technique has been widely used in the gas monitoring system for predicting the concentrations of specific gas components. This paper proposes flue gas monitoring system with empirically-trained dictionary (ETD) to deal with the complexity and biases brought by the uninformative spectral data. Firstly, ETD is extracted from the raw spectral data by an alternative optimization between the sparse coding stage and the dictionary update stage to minimize the error of sparse representation. D1, D2 and D3 are three types of ETD obtained by different methods. Then, the predictive model of component concentration is constructed on the ETD. In the experiments, two real flue gas spectral datasets are collected and the proposed method combined with the partial least squares, the background propagation neural network and the support vector machines are performed. Moreover, the optimal parameters are chosen according to the 10-fold rootmean-square error of cross validation. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can be used for quantitative analysis effectively and ETD can be applied to the gas monitoring systems. Note to Practitioners—The monitoring of the flue gas of the thermal power plants is very important and spectral technique has been widely used in the gas monitoring system for predicting the concentrations of specific gas components. However, the redundant and unrelated information of spectra lower the precision of the predictive model. This paper proposes flue gas monitoring system with ETD to deal with the complexity and biases brought by the uninformative spectral data. The predictive model of component concentration is constructed on the ETD instead of the original spectral space. The proposed method can be used for quantitative analysis effectively and ETD can be applied to the gas monitoring systems.
, Available online
Abstract:
In this paper, an open-loop PD-type iterative learning control (ILC) scheme is first proposed for two kinds of distributed parameter systems (DPSs) which are described by parabolic partial differential equations using non-collocated sensors and actuators. Then, a closed-loop PD-type ILC algorithm is extended to a class of distributed parameter systems with a non-collocated single sensor and \begin{document}$m$\end{document} actuators when the initial states of the system exist some errors. Under some given assumptions, the convergence conditions of output errors for the systems can be obtained in the sense of the \begin{document}$\lambda$\end{document}-norm. Finally, one numerical example for a distributed parameter system with a single sensor and two actuators is presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed ILC schemes.
, Available online  , doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911648 doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911648
Abstract:
The passwords for unlocking the mobile devices are relatively simple, easier to be stolen, which causes serious potential security problems. An important research direction of identity authentication is to establish user behavior models to authenticate users. In this paper, a mobile terminal APP browsing behavioral authentication system architecture which synthesizes multiple factors is designed. This architecture is suitable for users using the mobile terminal APP in the daily life. The architecture includes data acquisition, data processing, feature extraction, and sub model training. We can use this architecture for continuous authentication when the user uses APP at the mobile terminal.
, Available online
Abstract:
In networked robot manipulators that deeply integrate control, communication and computation, the controller design needs to take into consideration the limited or costly system resources and the presence of disturbances/uncertainties. To cope with these requirements, this paper proposes a novel dynamic event-triggered robust tracking control method for a one-degree of freedom (DOF) link manipulator with external disturbance and system uncertainties via a reduced-order generalized proportional-integral observer (GPIO). By only using the sampled-data position signal, a new sampled-data robust output feedback tracking controller is proposed based on a reduced-order GPIO to attenuate the undesirable influence of the external disturbance and the system uncertainties. To save the communication resources, we propose a discrete-time dynamic event-triggering mechanism (DETM), where the estimates and the control signal are transmitted and computed only when the proposed discrete-time DETM is violated. It is shown that with the proposed control method, both tracking control properties and communication properties can be significantly improved. Finally, simulation results are shown to demonstrate the feasibility and efficacy of the proposed control approach.
, Available online  , doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911645 doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911645
Abstract:
Prediction intervals (PIs) for industrial time series can provide useful guidance for workers. Given that the failure of industrial sensors may cause the missing point in inputs, the existing kernel dynamic Bayesian networks (KDBN), serving as an effective method for PIs construction, suffer from high computational load using the stochastic algorithm for inference. This study proposes a variational inference method for the KDBN for the purpose of fast inference, which avoids the time-consuming stochastic sampling. The proposed algorithm contains two stages. The first stage involves the inference of the missing inputs by using a local linearization based variational inference, and based on the computed posterior distributions over the missing inputs the second stage sees a Gaussian approximation for probability over the nodes in future time slices. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, a synthetic dataset and a practical dataset of generation flow of blast furnace gas (BFG) are employed with different ratios of missing inputs. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method can provide reliable PIs for the generation flow of BFG and it exhibits shorter computing time than the stochastic based one.
, Available online  , doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911528 doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911528
Abstract:
Structure reconstruction of 3D anatomy from bi-planar X-ray images is a challenging topic. Traditionally, the elastic-model-based method was used to reconstruct 3D shapes by deforming the control points on the elastic mesh. However, the reconstructed shape is not smooth because the limited control points are only distributed on the edge of the elastic mesh. Alternatively, statistical-model-based methods, which include shape-model-based and intensity-model-based methods, are introduced due to their smooth reconstruction. However, both suffer from limitations. With the shape-model-based method, only the boundary profile is considered, leading to the loss of valid intensity information. For the intensity-based-method, the computation speed is slow because it needs to calculate the intensity distribution in each iteration. To address these issues, we propose a new reconstruction method using X-ray images and a specimen’s CT data. Specifically, the CT data provides both the shape mesh and the intensity model of the vertebra. Intensity model is used to generate the deformation field from X-ray images, while the shape model is used to generate the patient specific model by applying the calculated deformation field. Experiments on the public synthetic dataset and clinical dataset show that the average reconstruction errors are 1.1 mm and 1.2 mm, separately. The average reconstruction time is 3 minutes.
, Available online  , doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911624 doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911624
Abstract:
This paper investigates the stability of switched systems with time-varying delay and all unstable subsystems. According to the stable convex combination, we design a state-dependent switching rule. By employing wirtinger integral inequality and Leibniz-Newton formula, the stability results of nonlinear delayed switched systems whose nonlinear terms satisfy Lipschitz condition under the designed state-dependent switching rule are established for different assumptions on time delay. Moreover, some new stability results for linear delayed switched systems are also presented. The effectiveness of the proposed results is validated by two typical numerical examples.
, Available online  , doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.191621 doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.191621
Abstract:
This paper investigates the robust relative pose control for spacecraft rendezvous and docking with constrained relative pose and saturated control inputs. A barrier Lyapunov function is used to ensure the constraints of states, so that the computational singularity of the inverse matrix in control command can be avoided, while a linear auxiliary system is introduced to handle with the adverse effect of actuator saturation. The tuning rules for designing parameters in control command and auxiliary system are derived based on the stability analysis of the closed-loop system. It is proved that all closed-loop signals always keep bounded, the prescribed constraints of relative pose tracking errors are never violated, and the pose tracking errors ultimately converge to small neighborhoods of zero. Simulation experiments validate the performance of the proposed robust saturated control strategy.
, Available online  , doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911639 doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911639
Abstract:
In this paper, a kind of lateral stability control strategy is put forward about the four wheel independent drive electric vehicle. The design of control system adopts hierarchical structure. Unlike the previous control strategy, this paper introduces a method which is the combination of sliding mode control and optimal allocation algorithm. According to the driver's operation commands (steering angle and speed), the steady state responses of the sideslip angle and yaw rate are obtained. Based on this, the reference model is built. Upper controller adopts the sliding mode control principle to obtain the desired yawing moment demand. Lower controller is designed to satisfy the desired yawing moment demand by optimal allocation of the tire longitudinal forces. Firstly, the optimization goal is built to minimize the actuator cost. Secondly, the weighted least-square method is used to design the tire longitudinal forces optimization distribution strategy under the constraint conditions of actuator and the friction oval. Beyond that, when the optimal allocation algorithm is not applied, a method of axial load ratio distribution is adopted. Finally, CarSim associated with Simulink simulation experiments are designed under the conditions of different velocities and different pavements. The simulation results show that the control strategy designed in this paper has a good following effect comparing with the reference model and the sideslip angle \begin{document}$\beta$\end{document} is controlled within a small rang at the same time. Beyond that, based on the optimal distribution mode, the electromagnetic torque phase of each wheel can follow the trend of the vertical force of the tire, which shows the effectiveness of the optimal distribution algorithm.
, Available online
Abstract:
The conventional Kalman filter is based on the assumption of non-delayed measurements. Several modifications appear to address this problem, but they are constrained by two crucial assumptions: i) the delay is an integer multiple of the sampling interval, and ii) a stochastic model representing the relationship between delayed measurements and a sequence of possible non-delayed measurements is known. Practical problems often fail to satisfy these assumptions, leading to poor estimation accuracy and frequent track-failure. This paper introduces a new variant of the Kalman filter, which is free from the stochastic model requirement and addresses the problem of fractional delay. The proposed algorithm fixes the maximum delay (problem specific), which can be tuned by the practitioners for varying delay possibilities. A sequence of hypothetically defined intermediate instants characterizes fractional delays while maximum likelihood based delay identification could preclude the stochastic model requirement. Fractional delay realization could help in improving estimation accuracy. Moreover, precluding the need of a stochastic model could enhance the practical applicability. A comparative analysis with ordinary Kalman filter shows the high estimation accuracy of the proposed method in the presence of delay.
, Available online
Abstract:
In a passive ultra-high frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) system, the recovery of collided tag signals on a physical layer can enhance identification efficiency. However, frequency drift is very common in UHF RFID systems, and will have an influence on the recovery on the physical layer. To address the problem of recovery with the frequency drift, this paper adopts a Radial Basis Function (RBF) network to separate the collision signals, and decode the signals via FM0 to recovery collided RFID tags. Numerical results show that the method in this paper has better performance of symbol error rate (SER) and separation efficiency compared to conventional methods when frequency drift occurs.
, Available online
Abstract:
In this paper, an event-triggered sliding mode control approach for trajectory tracking problem of nonlinear input affine system with disturbance has been proposed. A second order robotic manipulator system has been modeled into a general nonlinear input affine system. Initially, the global asymptotic stability is ensured with conventional periodic sampling approach for reference trajectory tracking. Then the proposed approach of event-triggered sliding mode control is discussed which guarantees semi-global uniform ultimate boundedness. The proposed control approach guarantees non-accumulation of control updates ensuring lower bounds on inter-event triggering instants avoiding Zeno behavior in presence of the disturbance. The system shows better performance in terms of reduced control updates, ensures system stability which further guarantees optimization of resource usage and cost. The simulation results are provided for validation of proposed methodology for tracking problem by a robotic manipulator. The number of aperiodic control updates is found to be approximately 44% and 61% in the presence of constant and time-varying disturbances respectively.
, Available online  , doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911534 doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911534
Abstract:
Hand gesture recognition is a popular topic in computer vision and makes human-computer interaction more flexible and convenient. The representation of hand gestures is critical for recognition. In this paper, we propose a new method to measure the similarity between hand gestures and exploit it for hand gesture recognition. The depth maps of hand gestures captured via the Kinect sensors are used in our method, where the 3D hand shapes can be segmented from the cluttered backgrounds. To extract the pattern of salient 3D shape features, we propose a new descriptor–3D Shape Context, for 3D hand gesture representation. The 3D Shape Context information of each 3D point is obtained in multiple scales because both local shape context and global shape distribution are necessary for recognition. The description of all the 3D points constructs the hand gesture representation, and hand gesture recognition is explored via dynamic time warping algorithm. Extensive experiments are conducted on multiple benchmark datasets. The experimental results verify that the proposed method is robust to noise, articulated variations, and rigid transformations. Our method outperforms state-of-the-art methods in the comparisons of accuracy and efficiency.
, Available online
Abstract:
For the complex batch process with characteristics of unequal batch data length, a novel data-driven batch process monitoring method is proposed based on mixed data features analysis and multi-way kernel entropy component analysis (MDFA-MKECA) in this paper. Combining the mechanistic knowledge, different mixed data features of each batch including statistical and thermodynamics entropy features, are extracted to finish data pre-processing. After that, MKECA is applied to reduce data dimensionality and finally establish a monitoring model. The proposed method is applied to a reheating furnace industry process, and the experimental results demonstrate that the MDFA-MKECA method can reduce the calculated amount and effectively provide on-line monitoring of the batch process.
, Available online
Abstract:
In this paper, a delay-dependent anti-windup compensator is designed for wide-area power systems to enhance the damping of inter-area low-frequency oscillations in the presence of time-varying delays and actuator saturation using an indirect approach. In this approach, first, a conventional wide-area damping controller is designed by using \begin{document}$H_{\infty}$\end{document} output feedback with regional pole placement approach without considering time-varying delays and actuator saturation. Then to mitigate the effect of both time-varying delays and actuator saturation, an add-on delay-dependent anti-windup compensator is designed. Based on generalized sector conditions, less conservative delay-dependent sufficient conditions are derived in the form of a linear matrix inequality (LMI) to guarantee the asymptotic stability of the closed-loop system in the presence of time-varying delays and actuator saturation by using Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional and Jensen integral inequality. Based on sufficient conditions, the LMI-based optimization problem is formulated and solved to obtain the compensator gain which maximizes the estimation of the region of attraction and minimizes the upper bound of \begin{document}$L_{2}$\end{document}-gain. Nonlinear simulations are performed first using MATLAB/Simulink on a two-area four-machine power system to evaluate the performance of the proposed controller for two operating conditions, e.g., 3-phase to ground fault and generator 1 terminal voltage variation. Then the proposed controller is implemented in real-time on an OPAL-RT digital simulator. From the results obtained it is verified that the proposed controller provides sufficient damping to the inter-area oscillations in the presence of time-varying delays and actuator saturation and maximizes the estimation of the region of attraction.
, Available online
Abstract:
In this paper, a video fire detection method is proposed, which demonstrated good performance in indoor environment. Three main novel ideas have been introduced. Firstly, a flame color model in RGB and HIS color space is used to extract pre-detected regions instead of traditional motion differential method, as it’s more suitable for fire detection in indoor environment. Secondly, according to the flicker characteristic of the flame, similarity and two main values of centroid motion are proposed. At the same time, a simple but effective method for tracking the same regions in consecutive frames is established. Thirdly, a multi-expert system consisting of color component dispersion, similarity and centroid motion is established to identify flames. The proposed method has been tested on a very large dataset of fire videos acquired both in real indoor environment tests and from the Internet. The experimental results show that the proposed approach achieved a balance between the false positive rate and the false negative rate, and demonstrated a better performance in terms of overall accuracy and F standard with respect to other similar fire detection methods in indoor environment.
, Available online
Abstract:
In order to increase the capacity of encrypted information and reduce the loss of information transmission, a three-dimensional scene encryption algorithm based on the phase iteration of the angular spectrum domain is proposed in this paper. The algorithm, which adopts the layer-oriented method, generates the computer generated hologram by encoding the three-dimensional scene. Then the computer generated hologram is encoded into three pure phase functions by adopting the phase iterative algorithm based on angular spectrum domain, and the encryption process is completed. The three-dimensional scene encryption can improve the capacity of the information, and the three-phase iterative algorithm can guarantee the security of the encryption information. The numerical simulation results show that the algorithm proposed in this paper realized the encryption and decryption of three-dimensional scene. At the same time, it can ensure the safety of the encrypted information and increase the capacity of the encrypted information.
, Available online
Abstract:
Miss distance is a critical parameter of assessing the performance for highly maneuvering targets interception (HMTI). In a realistic terminal guidance system, the control of pursuer \begin{document}$u$\end{document} depends on the estimate of unknown state, thus the miss distance becomes a random variable with a prior unknown distribution. Currently, such a distribution is mainly evaluated by the method of Monte Carlo simulation. In this paper, by integrating the estimation error model of zero-effort miss distance (ZEM) obtained by our previous work, an analytic method for solving the distribution of miss distance is proposed, in which the system is presumed to use a bang-bang control strategy. By comparing with the results of Monte Carlo simulations under four different types of disturbances (maneuvers), the correctness of the proposed method is validated. Results of this paper provide a powerful tool for the design, analysis and performance evaluation of guidance system.
, Available online
Abstract:
, Available online
Abstract:
Path planning and obstacle avoidance are two challenging problems in the study of intelligent robots. In this paper, we develop a new method to alleviate these problems based on deep Q-learning with experience replay and heuristic knowledge. In this method, a neural network has been used to resolve the " curse of dimensionality” issue of the Q-table in reinforcement learning. When a robot is walking in an unknown environment, it collects experience data which is used for training a neural network; such a process is called experience replay. Heuristic knowledge helps the robot avoid blind exploration and provides more effective data for training the neural network. The simulation results show that in comparison with the existing methods, our method can converge to an optimal action strategy with less time and can explore a path in an unknown environment with fewer steps and larger average reward.
, Available online  , doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911531 doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911531
Abstract:
This paper investigates the sliding mode control problem for a class of discrete-time nonlinear networked Markovian jump systems in the presence of probabilistic Denial-of-Service attacks. The communication network via which the data is propagated is unsafe and the malicious adversary can attack the system during state feedback. By considering random Denial-of-Service attacks, a new sliding mode variable is designed, which takes into account the distribution information of the probabilistic attacks. Then, by resorting to Lyapunov theory and stochastic analysis methods, sufficient conditions are established for the existence of the desired sliding mode controller, guaranteeing both reachability of the designed sliding surface and stability of the resulting sliding motion. Finally, a simulation example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed sliding mode control algorithm.
, Available online
Abstract:
Based on ACP (Artificial Systems, Computing Experiments, and Parallel Execution) methodology, parallel control and management has become a popularly systematic and complete solution for the control and management of complex systems. This paper focuses on summarizing comprehensive review of the research literature of parallel control and management achieved in the recent years including the theoretical framework, core technologies, and the application demonstration. The future research, application directions, and suggestions are also discussed.
, Available online
Abstract:
The phenomenon of mixed-mode is one of the most important characteristic of a switched delay system. If an networked control system (NCS) with network induced delays and packed dropouts (NIDs & PDs) is recast as a switched delay system, considering the effect of mixed-modes to the stability analysis is essential for an NCS. In this paper, with the help of interpolatory quadrature formula and by the average dwell time method, stabilization of NCSs using a mixed-mode based switched delay system method is investigated based on a novel constructed Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional. With Finsler's Lemma, new exponential stabilizability conditions with less conservativeness are given for the NCS. Finally, an illustrative example is provided to verify the effectiveness of the developed results.
, Available online
Abstract:
In recent years, the number of Web services has increased significantly. Web service discovery has drawn much attention with the development of Web service applications and big data analysis. Under this circumstance, traditional Web service discovery strategies cannot adequately meet high user requirements due to the efficiency and precision of service discovery is low. In order to improve the accuracy and efficiency of service discovery, a user requirement oriented Web service discovery approach based on Petri nets is proposed in this study. A data preprocessing strategy of Web service is first designed. Then, a service clustering method is proposed based on Petri nets, which can conduct service cluster head generation, service cluster composition, and service discovery. The proposed method utilizes a superior data preprocessing method. Using simulation experiments, the efficiency and precision of Web service discovery are illustrated. Finally, the application value of the approach on real Web service is discussed.
, Available online  , doi: 10.1109/JAS.2017.7510442 doi: 10.1109/JAS.2017.7510442
Abstract:
In this paper, a novel statistical manifold algorithm is proposed for position estimation of sensor nodes in a wireless network, making full use of distance information available among unknown nodes and simultaneous localization of multiple unknown nodes. To begin, a ranging model including the distance information among unknown nodes is established. With the reparameterization of the natural parameter and natural statistic, the solution problem of the ranging model is transformed into a parameter estimation problem of the curved exponential family. Then, a natural gradient method is adopted to deal with the parameter estimation problem of the curved exponential family. To ensure the convergence of the proposed algorithm, a particle swarm optimization method is utilized to obtain initial values of the unknown nodes. Experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm can improve the positioning accuracy, compared with the traditional algorithm.
, Available online  , doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911516 doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911516
Abstract:
This paper presents the development of a new robust optimal decentralized PI controller based on nonlinear optimization for liquid level control in a coupled tank system. The proposed controller maximizes the closed-loop bandwidth for specified gain and phase margins, with constraints on the overshoot ratio to achieve both closed-loop performance and robustness. In the proposed work, a frequency response fitting model reduction technique is initially employed to obtain a First Order Plus Dead Time (FOPDT) model of each higher order subsystem. Furthermore, based on the reduced order model, a proposed controller is designed. The stability and performance of the proposed controller are verified by considering multiplicative input and output uncertainties. The performance of the proposed optimal robust decentralized control scheme has been compared with that of a decentralized PI controller. The proposed controller is implemented in real-time on a coupled tank system. From the obtained results, it is shown that the proposed optimal decentralized PI controller exhibits superior control performance to maintain the desired level, for both the nominal as well as the perturbed case as compared to a decentralized PI controller.
, Available online  , doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911519 doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911519
Abstract:
This paper is concerned with a control problem of a diffusion process with the help of static mesh sensor networks in a certain region of interest and a team of networked mobile actuators carrying chemical neutralizers. The major contribution of this paper can be divided into three parts: the first is the construction of a cyber-physical system framework based on Centroidal Voronoi Tessellations (CVTs), the second is the convergence analysis of the actuators location, and the last is a novel proportional integral (PI) control method for actuator motion planning and neutralizing control (e.g. spraying) of a diffusion process with a moving or static pollution source, which is more effective than a proportional (P) control method. An optimal spraying control cost function is constructed. Then, the minimization problem of the spraying amount is addressed. Moreover, a new CVT algorithm based on the novel PI control method, henceforth called PI-CVT algorithm, is introduced together with the convergence analysis of the actuators location via a PI control law. Finally, a modified simulation platform called Diffusion-Mobile-Actuators-Sensors-2-Dimension-Proportional Integral Derivative (Diff-MAS2D-PID) is illustrated. In addition, a numerical simulation example for the diffusion process is presented to verify the effectiveness of our proposed controllers.
, Available online  , doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911522 doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911522
Abstract:
Linguistic single-valued neutrosophic set (LSVNS) is a more reliable tool, which is designed to handle the uncertainties of the situations involving the qualitative data. In the present manuscript, we introduce some power aggregation operators (AOs) for the LSVNSs, whose purpose is to diminish the influence of inevitable arguments about the decision-making process. For it, first we develop some averaging power operators, namely, linguistic single-valued neutrosophic (LSVN) power averaging, weighted average, ordered weighted average, and hybrid averaging AOs along with their desirable properties. Further, we extend it to the geometric power AOs for LSVNSs. Based on the proposed work; an approach to solve the group decision-making problems is given along with the numerical example. Finally, a comparative study and the validity tests are present to discuss the reliability of the proposed operators.
, Available online
Abstract:
In this paper, a kind of lateral stability control strategy is put forward about the four wheel independent drive electric vehicle. The design of control system adopts hierarchical structure. Unlike the previous control strategy, this paper introduces a method which is the combination of sliding mode control and optimal allocation algorithm. According to the driver's operation commands (steering angle and speed), the steady state responses of the sideslip angle and yaw rate are obtained. Based on this, the reference model is built. Upper controller adopts the sliding mode control principle to obtain the desired yawing moment demand. Lower controller is designed to satisfy the desired yawing moment demand by optimal allocation of the tire longitudinal forces. Firstly, the optimization goal is built to minimize the actuator cost. Secondly, the weighted least-square method is used to design the tire longitudinal forces optimization distribution strategy under the constraint conditions of actuator and the friction oval. Beyond that, when the optimal allocation algorithm is not applied, a method of axial load ratio distribution is adopted. Finally, CarSim associated with Simulink simulation experiments are designed under the conditions of different velocities and different pavements. The simulation results show that the control strategy designed in this paper has a good following effect comparing with the reference model and the sideslip angle \begin{document}$\beta$\end{document} is controlled within a small rang at the same time. Beyond that, based on the optimal distribution mode, the electromagnetic torque phase of each wheel can follow the trend of the vertical force of the tire, which shows the effectiveness of the optimal distribution algorithm.

IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica

• CiteScore 2018: 5.31
Rank：Top 9% (Category of Control and Systems Engineering), Top 10% (Categories of Information System and Artificial Intelligence)