Safe Motion Planning and Control Framework for Automated Vehicles with Zonotopic TRMPC

Model mismatches can cause multi-dimensional uncertainties for the receding horizon control strategies of automated vehicles(AVs).The uncertainties may lead to potentially hazardous behaviors when the AV tracks ideal trajectories that are individually optimized by the AV's planning layer.To address this issue,this study proposes a safe motion planning and control(SMPAC)framework for AVs.For the control layer,a dynamic model including multi-dimensional uncertainties is established.A zonotopic tube-based robust model predictive control scheme is proposed to constrain the uncertain system in a bounded minimum robust positive invariant set.A flexible tube with varying cross-sections is constructed to reduce the controller conservatism.For the planning layer,a concept of safety sets,representing the geometric boundaries of the ego vehicle and obstacles under uncertainties,is proposed.The safety sets provide the basis for the subsequent evaluation and ranking of the generated trajectories.An efficient collision avoidance algorithm decides the desired trajectory through the intersection detection of the safety sets between the ego vehicle and obstacles.A numerical simulation and hardware-in-the-loop experiment validate the effectiveness and real-time performance of the SMPAC.The result of two driving scenarios indicates that the SMPAC can guarantee the safety of automated driving under multi-dimensional uncertainties.

Not in Control,but Liable?Attributing Human Responsibility for Fully Automated Vehicle Accidents

Human agency has become increasingly limited in complex systems with increasingly automated decision-making capabilities.For instance,human occupants are passengers and do not have direct vehicle control in fully automated cars(i.e.,driverless cars).An interesting question is whether users are responsible for the accidents of these cars.Normative ethical and legal analyses frequently argue that individuals should not bear responsibility for harm beyond their control.Here,we consider human judgment of responsibility for accidents involving fully automated cars through three studies with seven experiments(N=2668).We compared the responsibility attributed to the occupants in three conditions:an owner in his private fully automated car,a passenger in a driverless robotaxi,and a passenger in a conventional taxi,where none of these three occupants have direct vehicle control over the involved vehicles that cause identical pedestrian injury.In contrast to normative analyses,we show that the occupants of driverless cars(private cars and robotaxis)are attributed more responsibility than conventional taxi passengers.This dilemma is robust across different contexts(e.g.,participants from China vs the Republic of Korea,participants with first-vs third-person perspectives,and occupant presence vs absence).Furthermore,we observe that this is not due to the perception that these occupants have greater control over driving but because they are more expected to foresee the potential consequences of using driverless cars.Our findings suggest that when driverless vehicles(private cars and taxis)cause harm,their users may face more social pressure,which public discourse and legal regulations should manage appropriately.

Improved STNModels and Heuristic Rules for Cooperative Scheduling in Automated Container Terminals

Improving the cooperative scheduling efficiency of equipment is the key for automated container terminals to copewith the development trend of large-scale ships. In order to improve the solution efficiency of the existing spacetimenetwork (STN) model for the cooperative scheduling problem of yard cranes (YCs) and automated guidedvehicles (AGVs) and extend its application scenarios, two improved STN models are proposed. The flow balanceconstraints in the original model are decomposed, and the trajectory constraints of YCs and AGVs are added toacquire the model STN_A. The coupling constraint in STN_A is updated, and buffer constraints are added toSTN_A so that themodel STN_B is built.As the size of the problem increases, the solution speed of CPLEX becomesthe bottleneck. So a heuristic method containing three groups of heuristic rules is designed to obtain a near-optimalsolution quickly. Experimental results showthat the computation time of STN_A is shortened by 49.47% on averageand the gap is reduced by 1.69% on average compared with the original model. The gap between the solution ofthe heuristic rules and the solution of CPLEX is less than 3.50%, and the solution time of the heuristic rules is onaverage 99.85% less than the solution time of CPLEX. Compared with STN_A, the computation time for solvingSTN_B increases by 58.93% on average.

AutoRhythmAI: A Hybrid Machine and Deep Learning Approach for Automated Diagnosis of Arrhythmias

In healthcare,the persistent challenge of arrhythmias,a leading cause of global mortality,has sparked extensive research into the automation of detection using machine learning(ML)algorithms.However,traditional ML and AutoML approaches have revealed their limitations,notably regarding feature generalization and automation efficiency.This glaring research gap has motivated the development of AutoRhythmAI,an innovative solution that integrates both machine and deep learning to revolutionize the diagnosis of arrhythmias.Our approach encompasses two distinct pipelines tailored for binary-class and multi-class arrhythmia detection,effectively bridging the gap between data preprocessing and model selection.To validate our system,we have rigorously tested AutoRhythmAI using a multimodal dataset,surpassing the accuracy achieved using a single dataset and underscoring the robustness of our methodology.In the first pipeline,we employ signal filtering and ML algorithms for preprocessing,followed by data balancing and split for training.The second pipeline is dedicated to feature extraction and classification,utilizing deep learning models.Notably,we introduce the‘RRI-convoluted trans-former model’as a novel addition for binary-class arrhythmias.An ensemble-based approach then amalgamates all models,considering their respective weights,resulting in an optimal model pipeline.In our study,the VGGRes Model achieved impressive results in multi-class arrhythmia detection,with an accuracy of 97.39%and firm performance in precision(82.13%),recall(31.91%),and F1-score(82.61%).In the binary-class task,the proposed model achieved an outstanding accuracy of 96.60%.These results highlight the effectiveness of our approach in improving arrhythmia detection,with notably high accuracy and well-balanced performance metrics.

Glaucoma drainage device implantation and cyclophotocoagulation in the management of refractory glaucoma after Descemet-stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty

AIM:To compare the surgical outcomes of glaucoma drainage device implantation(GDI)and trans-scleral neodymium:YAG cyclophotocoagulation(CPC)in the management of refractory glaucoma after Descemetstripping automated endothelial keratoplasty(DSAEK).METHODS:This retrospective study on observational case series enrolled 29 patients who underwent DSAEK and posterior anti-glaucoma surgery(15 with GDI and 14 with CPC).The main outcome measures were intraocular pressure(IOP),glaucoma surgery success rate(defined as IOP of 6–21 mm Hg without additional anti-glaucoma operation),number of glaucoma medications,endothelial graft status,and best-corrected visual acuity(BCVA).RESULTS:The mean follow-up time was 34.1 and 21.0mo for DSAEK or glaucoma surgeries,both for the GDI and CPC groups.Both groups showed significant IOP reduction after glaucoma surgery.The GDI group presented a significantly higher success rate in IOP control than the CPC group(60%vs 21.4%,P=0.03).Both procedures significantly decreased the number of glaucoma medications(P=0.03).Forty percent and 57%of cases in the GDI and the CPC group,respectively,experienced endothelial graft failure during follow-up(P=0.36).Significantly worse BCVA after surgery was observed in the CPC group but not in the GDI group.CONCLUSION:Both GDI and CPC significantly decrease IOP in eyes with glaucoma after DSAEK.GDI is preferable to CPC in refractory glaucoma cases after DSAEK,as it manifests a significantly higher success rate for IOP control,similar endothelial graft failure rate,and relatively preserves BCVA than CPC.

Automated machine learning for rainfall-induced landslide hazard mapping in Luhe County of Guangdong Province,China

Landslide hazard mapping is essential for regional landslide hazard management.The main objective of this study is to construct a rainfall-induced landslide hazard map of Luhe County,China based on an automated machine learning framework(AutoGluon).A total of 2241 landslides were identified from satellite images before and after the rainfall event,and 10 impact factors including elevation,slope,aspect,normalized difference vegetation index(NDVI),topographic wetness index(TWI),lithology,land cover,distance to roads,distance to rivers,and rainfall were selected as indicators.The WeightedEnsemble model,which is an ensemble of 13 basic machine learning models weighted together,was used to output the landslide hazard assessment results.The results indicate that landslides mainly occurred in the central part of the study area,especially in Hetian and Shanghu.Totally 102.44 s were spent to train all the models,and the ensemble model WeightedEnsemble has an Area Under the Curve(AUC)value of92.36%in the test set.In addition,14.95%of the study area was determined to be at very high hazard,with a landslide density of 12.02 per square kilometer.This study serves as a significant reference for the prevention and mitigation of geological hazards and land use planning in Luhe County.

Automated Machine Learning Algorithm Using Recurrent Neural Network to Perform Long-Term Time Series Forecasting

Long-term time series forecasting stands as a crucial research domain within the realm of automated machine learning(AutoML).At present,forecasting,whether rooted in machine learning or statistical learning,typically relies on expert input and necessitates substantial manual involvement.This manual effort spans model development,feature engineering,hyper-parameter tuning,and the intricate construction of time series models.The complexity of these tasks renders complete automation unfeasible,as they inherently demand human intervention at multiple junctures.To surmount these challenges,this article proposes leveraging Long Short-Term Memory,which is the variant of Recurrent Neural Networks,harnessing memory cells and gating mechanisms to facilitate long-term time series prediction.However,forecasting accuracy by particular neural network and traditional models can degrade significantly,when addressing long-term time-series tasks.Therefore,our research demonstrates that this innovative approach outperforms the traditional Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average(ARIMA)method in forecasting long-term univariate time series.ARIMA is a high-quality and competitive model in time series prediction,and yet it requires significant preprocessing efforts.Using multiple accuracy metrics,we have evaluated both ARIMA and proposed method on the simulated time-series data and real data in both short and long term.Furthermore,our findings indicate its superiority over alternative network architectures,including Fully Connected Neural Networks,Convolutional Neural Networks,and Nonpooling Convolutional Neural Networks.Our AutoML approach enables non-professional to attain highly accurate and effective time series forecasting,and can be widely applied to various domains,particularly in business and finance.

An Improved Bounded Conflict-Based Search for Multi-AGV Pathfinding in Automated Container Terminals

As the number of automated guided vehicles(AGVs)within automated container terminals(ACT)continues to rise,conflicts have becomemore frequent.Addressing point and edge conflicts ofAGVs,amulti-AGVconflict-free path planning model has been formulated to minimize the total path length of AGVs between shore bridges and yards.For larger terminalmaps and complex environments,the grid method is employed to model AGVs’road networks.An improved bounded conflict-based search(IBCBS)algorithmtailored to ACT is proposed,leveraging the binary tree principle to resolve conflicts and employing focal search to expand the search range.Comparative experiments involving 60 AGVs indicate a reduction in computing time by 37.397%to 64.06%while maintaining the over cost within 1.019%.Numerical experiments validate the proposed algorithm’s efficacy in enhancing efficiency and ensuring solution quality.

The future of rapid and automated single-cell data analysis using reference mapping

As the number of single-cell datasets continues to grow rapidly,workflows that map new data to well-curated reference atlases offer enormous promise for the biological community.In this perspective,we discuss key computational challenges and opportunities for single-cell reference-mapping algorithms.We discuss how mapping algorithms will enable the integration of diverse datasets across disease states,molecular modalities,genetic perturbations,and diverse species and will eventually replace manual and laborious unsupervised clustering pipelines.

Systematic Security Guideline Framework through Intelligently Automated Vulnerability Analysis

This research aims to propose a practical framework designed for the automatic analysis of a product’s comprehensive functionality and security vulnerabilities,generating applicable guidelines based on real-world software.The existing analysis of software security vulnerabilities often focuses on specific features or modules.This partial and arbitrary analysis of the security vulnerabilities makes it challenging to comprehend the overall security vulnerabilities of the software.The key novelty lies in overcoming the constraints of partial approaches.The proposed framework utilizes data from various sources to create a comprehensive functionality profile,facilitating the derivation of real-world security guidelines.Security guidelines are dynamically generated by associating functional security vulnerabilities with the latest Common Vulnerabilities and Exposure(CVE)and Common Vulnerability Scoring System(CVSS)scores,resulting in automated guidelines tailored to each product.These guidelines are not only practical but also applicable in real-world software,allowing for prioritized security responses.The proposed framework is applied to virtual private network(VPN)software,wherein a validated Level 2 data flow diagram is generated using the Spoofing,Tampering,Repudiation,Information Disclosure,Denial of Service,and Elevation of privilege(STRIDE)technique with references to various papers and examples from related software.The analysis resulted in the identification of a total of 121 vulnerabilities.The successful implementation and validation demonstrate the framework’s efficacy in generating customized guidelines for entire systems,subsystems,and selected modules.

Application of Automated Guided Vehicles in Smart Automated Warehouse Systems:A Survey

Automated Guided Vehicles(AGVs)have been introduced into various applications,such as automated warehouse systems,flexible manufacturing systems,and container terminal systems.However,few publications have outlined problems in need of attention in AGV applications comprehensively.In this paper,several key issues and essential models are presented.First,the advantages and disadvantages of centralized and decentralized AGVs systems were compared;second,warehouse layout and operation optimization were introduced,including some omitted areas,such as AGVs fleet size and electrical energy management;third,AGVs scheduling algorithms in chessboardlike environments were analyzed;fourth,the classical route-planning algorithms for single AGV and multiple AGVs were presented,and some Artificial Intelligence(AI)-based decision-making algorithms were reviewed.Furthermore,a novel idea for accelerating route planning by combining Reinforcement Learning(RL)andDijkstra’s algorithm was presented,and a novel idea of the multi-AGV route-planning method of combining dynamic programming and Monte-Carlo tree search was proposed to reduce the energy cost of systems.

Impacts of automated passenger cars on the capacity of a freeway basic section: applicability in the determination of vehicle adjustment factors in mixed traffic

The highway capacity manual(HCM)provides a formula to calculate the heavy vehicle adjustment factor(fHV)as a function of passenger car equivalent factors for the heavy vehicle(ET).However,a significant drawback is that the methodology was established solely based on human-driven passenger cars(HDPC)and human-driven heavy vehicles(HDHV).Due to automated passenger cars(APCs),a new adjustment factor(fAV)might be expected.This study simulated traffic flows at different percentages of HDHVs and APCs to investigate the impacts of HDHVs and APCs on freeway capacity by analyzing their influence on fHV and fAV values.The simulation determined observed adjustment factors at different percentages of HDHVs and APCs(fobserved).The HCM formula was used to calculate(fHCM).Modifications to the HCM formula are proposed,and vehicle adjustment factors due to HDHVs and APCs were calculated(fproposed).Results showed that,in the presence of APCs,while fobserved and fHCM were statistically significantly different,fobserved and fproposed were statistically equal.Hence,this study recommends using the proposed formula when determining vehicle adjustment factors(fproposed)due to HDHVs and APCs in the traffic stream.

Resilient and Safe Platooning Control of Connected Automated Vehicles Against Intermittent Denial-of-Service Attacks

Connected automated vehicles(CAVs)serve as a promising enabler for future intelligent transportation systems because of their capabilities in improving traffic efficiency and driving safety,and reducing fuel consumption and vehicle emissions.A fundamental issue in CAVs is platooning control that empowers a convoy of CAVs to be cooperatively maneuvered with desired longitudinal spacings and identical velocities on roads.This paper addresses the issue of resilient and safe platooning control of CAVs subject to intermittent denial-of-service(DoS)attacks that disrupt vehicle-to-vehicle communications.First,a heterogeneous and uncertain vehicle longitudinal dynamic model is presented to accommodate a variety of uncertainties,including diverse vehicle masses and engine inertial delays,unknown and nonlinear resistance forces,and a dynamic platoon leader.Then,a resilient and safe distributed longitudinal platooning control law is constructed with an aim to preserve simultaneous individual vehicle stability,attack resilience,platoon safety and scalability.Furthermore,a numerically efficient offline design algorithm for determining the desired platoon control law is developed,under which the platoon resilience against DoS attacks can be maximized but the anticipated stability,safety and scalability requirements remain preserved.Finally,extensive numerical experiments are provided to substantiate the efficacy of the proposed platooning method.

Resilient Event-Triggered Control of Connected Automated Vehicles Under Cyber Attacks

Dear Editor,This letter contributes to designing a resilient event-triggered controller for connected automated vehicles under cyber attacks,including denial-of-service(DoS)and deception attacks.To characterize the effect of DoS attacks,the effective intervals of the attack are redivided based on the sampling period.

Cardiac arrest and cardiopulmonary resuscitation in“hostile”environments:Using automated compression devices to minimize the rescuers’danger

Mechanical automated compression devices are being used in cardiopulmonary resuscitation instead of manual,“hands-on”,rescuer-delivered chest compressions.The-theoretical-advantages include high-quality non-stop compressions,thus freeing the rescuer performing the compressions and additionally the ability of the rescuer to stand reasonably away from a potentially“hazardous”victim,or from hazardous and/or difficult resuscitation conditions.Such circumstances involve cardiopulmonary resuscitation(CPR)in the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory,especially directly under the fluoroscopy panel,where radiation is well known to cause detrimental effects to the rescuer,and CPR during/after land or air transportation of cardiac arrest victims.Lastly,CPR in a coronavirus disease 2019 patient/ward,where the danger of contamination and further serious illness of the health provider is very existent.The scope of this review is to review and present literature and current guidelines regarding the use of mechanical compressions in these“hostile”and dangerous settings,while comparing them to manual compressions.

Automated decision support for Hallux Valgus treatment options using anteroposterior foot radiographs

BACKGROUND Assessment of the potential utility of deep learning with subsequent image analysis to automate the measurement of hallux valgus and intermetatarsal angles from radiographs to serve as a preoperative aid in establishing hallux valgus severity for clinical decision-making.AIM To investigate the accuracy of automated measurements of angles of hallux valgus from radiographs for further integration with the preoperative planning process.METHODS The data comprises 265 consecutive digital anteroposterior weightbearing foot radiographs.181 radiographs were utilized for training(161)and validating(20)a U-Net neural network to achieve a mean Sørensen–Dice index>97%on bone segmentation.84 test radiographs were used for manual(computer assisted)and automated measurements of hallux valgus severity determined by hallux valgus(HVA)and intermetatarsal angles(IMA).The reliability of manual and computerbased measurements was calculated using the interclass correlation coefficient(ICC)and standard error of measurement(SEM).Inter-and intraobserver reliability coefficients were also compared.An operative treatment recommendation was then applied to compare results between automated and manual angle measurements.RESULTS Very high reliability was achieved for HVA and IMA between the manual measurements of three independent clinicians.For HVA,the ICC between manual measurements was 0.96-0.99.For IMA,ICC was 0.78-0.95.Comparing manual against automated computer measurement,the reliability was high as well.For HVA,absolute agreement ICC and consistency ICC were 0.97,and SEM was 0.32.For IMA,absolute agreement ICC was 0.75,consistency ICC was 0.89,and SEM was 0.21.Additionally,a strong correlation(0.80)was observed between our approach and traditional clinical adjudication for preoperative planning of hallux valgus,according to an operative treatment algorithm proposed by EFORT.CONCLUSION The proposed automated,artificial intelligence assisted determination of hallux valgus angles based on deep learning holds great potential as an accurate and efficient tool,with comparable accuracy to manual measurements by expert clinicians.Our approach can be effectively implemented in clinical practice to determine the angles of hallux valgus from radiographs,classify the deformity severity,streamline preoperative decision-making prior to corrective surgery.

Automated writing evaluation(1995-2022):Research trends and implications

Automated writing evaluation is the use of computer programs to evaluate essays written in an educational setting.This study aims to evaluate the state of the art and the trends of automated writing evaluation research.A total of 206 automated writing evaluation-related publications published in 88 journals between 1995 and 2022 were used as the data in our study.Bibliometric methods were employed to identify the publication trends,venues for publication,productive authors,highly cited articles,seminal works,and the most frequently explored topics across the past decades.The findings show that automated writing evaluation has become a fast-growing interdisciplinary area of interest.In addition,this line of research has witnessed a growing interest in topics pertaining to the latest technology,the perception of children,the teachers’feedback,and complex tasks.Implications of our study for future research are also discussed.

Effect of a low-cost instruction card for automated external defibrillator operation in lay rescuers: a randomized simulation study

BACKGROUND:To evaluate whether a simplified self-instruction card can help potential rescue providers use automated external defibrillators(AEDs)more accurately and quickly.METHODS:From June 1,2018,to November 30,2019,a prospective longitudinal randomized controlled simulation study was conducted among 165 laypeople(18–65 years old)without prior AED training.A self-instruction card was designed to illuminate key AED operation procedures.Subjects were randomly divided into the card(n=83)and control(n=82)groups with age stratification.They were then individually evaluated in the same simulated scenario to use AED with(card group)or without the self-instruction card(control group)at baseline,posttraining,and at the 3-month follow-up.RESULTS:At baseline,the card group reached a significantly higher proportion of successful defibrillation(31.1%vs.15.9%,P=0.03),fully baring the chest(88.9%vs.63.4%,P<0.001),correct electrode placement(32.5%vs.17.1%,P=0.03),and resuming cardiopulmonary resuscitation(CPR)(72.3%vs.9.8%,P<0.001).At post-training and follow-up,there were no significant differences in key behaviors,except for resuming CPR.Time to shock and time to resume CPR were shorter in the card group,while time to power-on AED was not different in each phase of tests.In the 55–65 years group,the card group achieved more skill improvements over the control group compared to the other age groups.CONCLUSION:The self-instruction card could serve as a direction for first-time AED users and as a reminder for trained subjects.This could be a practical,cost-effective way to improve the AED skills of potential rescue providers among different age groups,including seniors.

Digital Twin-Based Automated Fault Diagnosis in Industrial IoT Applications

In recent years, Digital Twin (DT) has gained significant interestfrom academia and industry due to the advanced in information technology,communication systems, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cloud Computing (CC),and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). The main concept of the DT isto provide a comprehensive tangible, and operational explanation of anyelement, asset, or system. However, it is an extremely dynamic taxonomydeveloping in complexity during the life cycle that produces a massive amountof engendered data and information. Likewise, with the development of AI,digital twins can be redefined and could be a crucial approach to aid theInternet of Things (IoT)-based DT applications for transferring the data andvalue onto the Internet with better decision-making. Therefore, this paperintroduces an efficient DT-based fault diagnosis model based on machinelearning (ML) tools. In this framework, the DT model of the machine isconstructed by creating the simulation model. In the proposed framework,the Genetic algorithm (GA) is used for the optimization task to improvethe classification accuracy. Furthermore, we evaluate the proposed faultdiagnosis framework using performance metrics such as precision, accuracy,F-measure, and recall. The proposed framework is comprehensively examinedusing the triplex pump fault diagnosis. The experimental results demonstratedthat the hybrid GA-ML method gives outstanding results compared to MLmethods like LogisticRegression (LR), Na飗e Bayes (NB), and SupportVectorMachine (SVM). The suggested framework achieves the highest accuracyof 95% for the employed hybrid GA-SVM. The proposed framework willeffectively help industrial operators make an appropriate decision concerningthe fault analysis for IIoT applications in the context of Industry 4.0.

Stability of connected and automated vehicles platoon considering communications failures

As a form of a future traffic system,a connected and automated vehicle(CAV)platoon is a typical nonlinear physical system.CAVs can communicate with each other and exchange information.However,communication failures can change the platoon system status.To characterize this change,a dynamic topology-based car-following model and its generalized form are proposed in this work.Then,a stability analysis method is explored.Finally,taking the dynamic cooperative intelligent driver model(DC-IDM)for example,a series of numerical simulations is conducted to analyze the platoon stability in different communication topology scenarios.The results show that the communication failures reduce the stability,but information from vehicles that are farther ahead and the use of a larger desired time headway can improve stability.Moreover,the critical ratio of communication failures required to ensure stability for different driving parameters is studied in this work.