Privacy Protection in COVID Data Tracking: Textual Analysis of the Literature

The literary review presented in the following paper aims to analyze the tracking tools used in different countries during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tracking apps that have been adopted in many countries to collect data in a homogeneous and immediate way have made up for the difficulty of collecting data and standardizing evaluation criteria. However, the regulation on the protection of personal data in the health sector and the adoption of the new General Data Protection Regulation in European countries has placed a strong limitation on their use. This has not been the case in non-European countries, where monitoring methodologies have become widespread. The textual analysis presented is based on co-occurrence and multiple correspondence analysis to show the contact tracing methods adopted in different countries in the pandemic period by relating them to the issue of privacy. It also analyzed the possibility of applying Blockchain technology in applications for tracking contagions from COVID-19 and managing health data to provide a high level of security and transparency, including through anonymization, thus increasing user trust in using the apps.

Reinforcement learning based adaptive control for uncertain mechanical systems with asymptotic tracking

This paper mainly focuses on the development of a learning-based controller for a class of uncertain mechanical systems modeled by the Euler-Lagrange formulation.The considered system can depict the behavior of a large class of engineering systems,such as vehicular systems,robot manipulators and satellites.All these systems are often characterized by highly nonlinear characteristics,heavy modeling uncertainties and unknown perturbations,therefore,accurate-model-based nonlinear control approaches become unavailable.Motivated by the challenge,a reinforcement learning(RL)adaptive control methodology based on the actor-critic framework is investigated to compensate the uncertain mechanical dynamics.The approximation inaccuracies caused by RL and the exogenous unknown disturbances are circumvented via a continuous robust integral of the sign of the error(RISE)control approach.Different from a classical RISE control law,a tanh(·)function is utilized instead of a sign(·)function to acquire a more smooth control signal.The developed controller requires very little prior knowledge of the dynamic model,is robust to unknown dynamics and exogenous disturbances,and can achieve asymptotic output tracking.Eventually,co-simulations through ADAMS and MATLAB/Simulink on a three degrees-of-freedom(3-DOF)manipulator and experiments on a real-time electromechanical servo system are performed to verify the performance of the proposed approach.

Investigation of Inside-Out Tracking Methods for Six Degrees of Freedom Pose Estimation of a Smartphone in Augmented Reality

Six degrees of freedom(6DoF)input interfaces are essential formanipulating virtual objects through translation or rotation in three-dimensional(3D)space.A traditional outside-in tracking controller requires the installation of expensive hardware in advance.While inside-out tracking controllers have been proposed,they often suffer from limitations such as interaction limited to the tracking range of the sensor(e.g.,a sensor on the head-mounted display(HMD))or the need for pose value modification to function as an input interface(e.g.,a sensor on the controller).This study investigates 6DoF pose estimation methods without restricting the tracking range,using a smartphone as a controller in augmented reality(AR)environments.Our approach involves proposing methods for estimating the initial pose of the controller and correcting the pose using an inside-out tracking approach.In addition,seven pose estimation algorithms were presented as candidates depending on the tracking range of the device sensor,the tracking method(e.g.,marker recognition,visual-inertial odometry(VIO)),and whether modification of the initial pose is necessary.Through two experiments(discrete and continuous data),the performance of the algorithms was evaluated.The results demonstrate enhanced final pose accuracy achieved by correcting the initial pose.Furthermore,the importance of selecting the tracking algorithm based on the tracking range of the devices and the actual input value of the 3D interaction was emphasized.

Practical Prescribed Time Tracking Control With Bounded Time-Varying Gain Under Non-Vanishing Uncertainties

This paper investigates the prescribed-time control(PTC) problem for a class of strict-feedback systems subject to non-vanishing uncertainties. The coexistence of mismatched uncertainties and non-vanishing disturbances makes PTC synthesis nontrivial. In this work, a control method that does not involve infinite time-varying gain is proposed, leading to a practical and global prescribed time tracking control solution for the strict-feedback systems, in spite of both the mismatched and nonvanishing uncertainties. Different from methods based on control switching to avoid the issue of infinite control gain that involves control discontinuity at the switching point, in our method a softening unit is exclusively included to ensure the continuity of the control action. Furthermore, in contrast to most existing prescribed-time control works where the control scheme is only valid on a finite time interval, in this work, the proposed control scheme is valid on the entire time interval. In addition, the prior information on the upper or lower bound of gi is not in need,enlarging the applicability of the proposed method. Both the theoretical analysis and numerical simulation confirm the effectiveness of the proposed control algorithm.

Accurately tracking hypersonic gliding vehicles via an LEO mega-constellation in relay tracking mode

In order to effectively defend against the threats of the hypersonic gliding vehicles(HGVs),HGVs should be tracked as early as possible,which is beyond the capability of the ground-based radars.Being benefited by the developing megaconstellations in low-Earth orbit,this paper proposes a relay tracking mode to track HGVs to overcome the above problem.The whole tracking mission is composed of several tracking intervals with the same duration.Within each tracking interval,several appropriate satellites are dispatched to track the HGV.Satellites that are planned to take part in the tracking mission are selected by a new derived observability criterion.The tracking performances of the proposed tracking mode and the other two traditional tracking modes,including the stare and track-rate modes,are compared by simulation.The results show that the relay tracking mode can track the whole trajectory of a HGV,while the stare mode can only provide a very short tracking arc.Moreover,the relay tracking mode achieve higher tracking accuracy with fewer attitude controls than the track-rate mode.

Demagnetization Analysis and Velocity Tracking Control of In-wheel Motor

The error caused by irreversible demagnetization damages the accurate velocity tracking of an in-wheel motor in a mobile robot.A current feedforward vector control system based on ESO is proposed to compensate it for the demagnetization motor.A demagnetization mathematical model is established to describe a permanent magnet synchronous motor,which took the change of permanent magnet flux linkage parameters as a factor to count the demagnetization error in velocity tracking.The uncertain disturbance estimation model of the control system is built based on ESO,which eliminates the system error by the feedforward current compensation.It is compared with the vector control method in terms of control accuracy.The simulation results show that the current feedforward vector control method based on ESO reduces the velocity tracking error greatly in conditions of motor demagnetization less than 30%.It is effective to improve the operation accuracy of the mobile robot.

Adaptive Trajectory Tracking Control for Nonholonomic Wheeled Mobile Robots:A Barrier Function Sliding Mode Approach

The trajectory tracking control performance of nonholonomic wheeled mobile robots(NWMRs)is subject to nonholonomic constraints,system uncertainties,and external disturbances.This paper proposes a barrier function-based adaptive sliding mode control(BFASMC)method to provide high-precision,fast-response performance and robustness for NWMRs.Compared with the conventional adaptive sliding mode control,the proposed control strategy can guarantee that the sliding mode variables converge to a predefined neighborhood of origin with a predefined reaching time independent of the prior knowledge of the uncertainties and disturbances bounds.Another advantage of the proposed algorithm is that the control gains can be adaptively adjusted to follow the disturbances amplitudes thanks to the barrier function.The benefit is that the overestimation of control gain can be eliminated,resulting in chattering reduction.Moreover,a modified barrier function-like control gain is employed to prevent the input saturation problem due to the physical limit of the actuator.The stability analysis and comparative experiments demonstrate that the proposed BFASMC can ensure the prespecified convergence performance of the NWMR system output variables and strong robustness against uncertainties/disturbances.

Adaptive state-constrained/model-free iterative sliding mode control for aerial robot trajectory tracking

This paper develops a novel hierarchical control strategy for improving the trajectory tracking capability of aerial robots under parameter uncertainties.The hierarchical control strategy is composed of an adaptive sliding mode controller and a model-free iterative sliding mode controller(MFISMC).A position controller is designed based on adaptive sliding mode control(SMC)to safely drive the aerial robot and ensure fast state convergence under external disturbances.Additionally,the MFISMC acts as an attitude controller to estimate the unmodeled dynamics without detailed knowledge of aerial robots.Then,the adaption laws are derived with the Lyapunov theory to guarantee the asymptotic tracking of the system state.Finally,to demonstrate the performance and robustness of the proposed control strategy,numerical simulations are carried out,which are also compared with other conventional strategies,such as proportional-integralderivative(PID),backstepping(BS),and SMC.The simulation results indicate that the proposed hierarchical control strategy can fulfill zero steady-state error and achieve faster convergence compared with conventional strategies.

Application of three-dimensional speckle tracking technique in measuring left ventricular myocardial function in patients with diabetes

BACKGROUND Diabetic cardiomyopathy is considered as a chronic complication of diabetes mellitus(DM).Therefore,early detection of left ventricular systolic function(LVSF)damage in DM is essential.AIM To explore the use of the three-dimensional speckle tracking technique(3D-STI)for measuring LVSF in DM patients via meta-analysis.METHODS The electronic databases were retrieved from the initial accessible time to 29 April 2023.The current study involved 9 studies,including 970 subjects.We carried out this meta-analysis to estimate myocardial function in DM compared with controls according to myocardial strain attained by 3D-STI.RESULTS Night articles including 970 subjects were included.No significant difference was detected in the left ventricular ejection fraction between the control and the diabetic group(P>0.05),while differences in global longitudinal strain,global circumferential strain,global radial strain,and global area strain were markedly different between the controls and DM patients(all P<0.05).CONCLUSION The 3D-STI could be applied to accurately measure early LVSF damage in patients with DM.

Probabilistic Global Maximum Power Point Tracking Algorithm for Continuously Varying Partial Shading Conditions on Autonomous PV Systems

A photovoltaic (PV) string with multiple modules with bypass diodes frequently deployed on a variety of autonomous PV systems may present multiple power peaks under uneven shading. For optimal solar harvesting, there is a need for a control schema to force the PV string to operate at global maximum power point (GMPP). While a lot of tracking methods have been proposed in the literature, they are usually complex and do not fully take advantage of the available characteristics of the PV array. This work highlights how the voltage at operating point and the forward voltage of the bypass diode are considered to design a global maximum power point tracking (GMPPT) algorithm with a very limited global search phase called Fast GMPPT. This algorithm successfully tracks GMPP between 94% and 98% of the time under a theoretical evaluation. It is then compared against Perturb and Observe, Deterministic Particle Swarm Optimization, and Grey Wolf Optimization under a sequence of irradiance steps as well as a power-over-voltage characteristics profile that mimics the electrical characteristics of a PV string under varying partial shading conditions. Overall, the simulation with the sequence of irradiance steps shows that while Fast GMPPT does not have the best convergence time, it has an excellent convergence rate as well as causes the least amount of power loss during the global search phase. Experimental test under varying partial shading conditions shows that while the GMPPT proposal is simple and lightweight, it is very performant under a wide range of dynamically varying partial shading conditions and boasts the best energy efficiency (94.74%) out of the 4 tested algorithms.

Practical prescribed-time fuzzy tracking control for uncertain nonlinear systems with time-varying actuators faults

The paper investigates the practical prescribed-time fuzzy tracking control problem for a category of nonlinear system subject to time-varying actuator faults.The presence of unknown nonlinear dynamics and actuator faults makes achieving tracking control within a prescribed-time challenging.To tackle this issue,we propose a novel practical prescribed-time fuzzy tracking control strategy,which is independent of the initial state of the system and does not rely on precise modeling of the system and actuators.We apply the approximation capabilities of fuzzy logic systems to handle the unknown nonlinear functions and unidentified actuator faults in the system.The piecewise controller and adaptive law constructed based on piecewise prescribed time-varying function and backstepping technique method establish the theoretical framework of practical prescribed-time tracking control,and extend the range of prescribed-time tracking control to infinity.Regardless of the initial conditions,the proposed control strategy can guarantee that all signals remain uniformly bounded within the practical prescribed time in the presence of unknown nonlinear item and time-varying actuator faults.Simulation example is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.

WSN Mobile Target Tracking Based on Improved Snake-Extended Kalman Filtering Algorithm

A wireless sensor network mobile target tracking algorithm(ISO-EKF)based on improved snake optimization algorithm(ISO)is proposed to address the difficulty of estimating initial values when using extended Kalman filtering to solve the state of nonlinear mobile target tracking.First,the steps of extended Kalman filtering(EKF)are introduced.Second,the ISO is used to adjust the parameters of the EKF in real time to adapt to the current motion state of the mobile target.Finally,the effectiveness of the algorithm is demonstrated through filtering and tracking using the constant velocity circular motion model(CM).Under the specified conditions,the position and velocity mean square error curves are compared among the snake optimizer(SO)-EKF algorithm,EKF algorithm,and the proposed algorithm.The comparison shows that the proposed algorithm reduces the root mean square error of position by 52%and 41%compared to the SOEKF algorithm and EKF algorithm,respectively.

Trajectory tracking guidance of interceptor via prescribed performance integral sliding mode with neural network disturbance observer

This paper investigates interception missiles’trajectory tracking guidance problem under wind field and external disturbances in the boost phase.Indeed,the velocity control in such trajectory tracking guidance systems of missiles is challenging.As our contribution,the velocity control channel is designed to deal with the intractable velocity problem and improve tracking accuracy.The global prescribed performance function,which guarantees the tracking error within the set range and the global convergence of the tracking guidance system,is first proposed based on the traditional PPF.Then,a tracking guidance strategy is derived using the integral sliding mode control techniques to make the sliding manifold and tracking errors converge to zero and avoid singularities.Meanwhile,an improved switching control law is introduced into the designed tracking guidance algorithm to deal with the chattering problem.A back propagation neural network(BPNN)extended state observer(BPNNESO)is employed in the inner loop to identify disturbances.The obtained results indicate that the proposed tracking guidance approach achieves the trajectory tracking guidance objective without and with disturbances and outperforms the existing tracking guidance schemes with the lowest tracking errors,convergence times,and overshoots.

WiFi Indoor Positioning and Tracking Algorithm Based on Compressive Sensing and Sage-Husa Adaptive Kalman Filter

Aiming at the problem that the positioning accuracy of WiFi indoor positioning technology based on location fingerprint has not reached the requirements of practical application, a WiFi indoor positioning and tracking algorithm combining adaptive affine propagation (AAPC), compressed sensing (CS) and Kalman filter is proposed. In the off-line phase, AAPC algorithm is used to generate clustering fingerprints with optimal clustering effect performance;In the online phase, CS and nearest neighbor algorithm are used for position estimation;Finally, the Kalman filter and physical constraints are combined to perform positioning and tracking. By collecting a large number of real experimental data, it is proved that the developed algorithm has higher positioning accuracy and more accurate trajectory tracking effect.

基于SBAS-InSAR与Offset-Tracking的色东普流域灾前形变探究

利用SAR偏移量追踪(offset-tracking)技术获取冰川形变作为SBAS-InSAR的补充,采用2种技术计算2018-01~10色东普流域灾前形变,联合分析灾前形变特征及影响因素。结果表明,色东普流域冰川与沟道在2018-10-17冰崩灾害发生前已出现形变;冰川主要形变区形变趋势表现为加速-平缓-加速,7~9月形变量达到-7.69 m;沟道内堆积物长期呈下滑趋势,7月后与冰川均加速形变;气温升高是冰崩碎屑流灾害发生的主导因素。联合SBAS-InSAR与offset-tracking技术能够满足不同形变量级的监测需求,可用于冰崩灾害的早期识别与形变反演,为青藏高原地区冰崩灾害防治提供参考。

基于改进Tracktor的行人多目标跟踪算法

在多目标视频跟踪中,针对受交互遮挡等影响导致检测偏差从而致使目标身份丢失的问题,提出一种基于改进Tracktor的行人多目标跟踪算法DUTracktor。在检测框回归中设计一个动态更新模块,利用孪生网络对建议框进一步检测定位;利用时序信息增强模块更新当前帧更适合的模板,建立全局上下文关系;并通过像素相关进行特征融合,从而增强目标边缘信息和尺度信息;利用相机运动补偿和融合相似矩阵构建二级关联跟踪机制,建立检测框和轨迹更强大的关联性,提高目标跟踪的鲁棒性。在公开的MOT16数据集上进行实验测试,并与当前主流算法相比,该算法跟踪精度表现较优,具有良好的鲁棒性,FPS稳定在24帧。

BEVTrack:基于难例挖掘训练的端到端三维多目标跟踪方法

多目标跟踪已经成为自动驾驶系统中的一个关键组成部分,其目的是在连续的视频流与点云流中识别、定位并标识所有感兴趣的目标。目前三维多目标跟踪方法多依赖人工多阶段调参以保证整体跟踪性能,难以对复杂遮挡或运动进行有效建模。而现有的三维端到端多目标跟踪方法,如MUTR等,精度普遍较低。其核心原因为三维空间中的特征聚合和感知相对于二维图像更具挑战性,简单的网络难以实现复杂的三维特征聚合,并大量的噪声信息与难例信息干扰严重,影响模型的特征提取能力。针对以上问题,本文提出了一种基于难例挖掘训练的端到端多目标跟踪框架BEVTrack。针对三维特征关联问题,本文设计了基于鸟瞰图(BEV)位置编码的三维跟踪查询。通过基于BEV特征的三维跟踪查询,本文方法能够更好地将跟踪查询与实际三维特征进行有效关联,从而大幅度提升了跟踪精度。同时,模型依靠BEV数据进行特征关联,仅需轻量化的网络便可以实现快速有效的跟踪。针对数据噪声问题,本文提出了面向多目标跟踪的难例挖掘训练,通过针对检测难例与跟踪难例分别处理,训练模型去除检测错误噪声与跟踪匹配的能力,从而提升在真实场景下模型处理噪声信息与难例干扰的能力。在实验结果方面,基于Nuscenes数据集,我们进行了大量的对比实验与模型消融实验,实验结果证明本文的方法在该数据集上取得了领先的性能。

Current-Aided Multiple-AUV Cooperative Localization and Target Tracking in Anchor-Free Environments

In anchor-free environments,where no devices with known positions are available,the error growth of autonomous underwater vehicle(AUV)localization and target tracking is unbounded due to the lack of references and the accumulated errors in inertial measurements.This paper aims to improve the localization and tracking accuracy by involving current information as extra references.We first integrate current measurements and maps with belief propagation and design a distributed current-aided message-passing scheme that theoretically solves the localization and tracking problems.Based on this scheme,we propose particle-based cooperative localization and target tracking algorithms,named CaCL and CaTT,respectively.In AUV localization,CaCL uses the current measurements to correct the predicted and transmitted position information and alleviates the impact of the accumulated errors in inertial measurements.With target tracking,the current maps are applied in CaTT to modify the position prediction of the target which is calculated through historical estimates.The effectiveness and robustness of the proposed methods are validated through various simulations by comparisons with alternative methods under different trajectories and current conditions.

Cooperative Target Tracking of Multiple Autonomous Surface Vehicles Under Switching Interaction Topologies

This paper is concerned with the cooperative target tracking of multiple autonomous surface vehicles(ASVs)under switching interaction topologies.For the target to be tracked,only its position can be measured/received by some of the ASVs,and its velocity is unavailable to all the ASVs.A distributed extended state observer taking into consideration switching topologies is designed to integrally estimate unknown target dynamics and neighboring ASVs'dynamics.Accordingly,a novel kinematic controller is designed,which takes full advantage of known information and avoids the approximation of some virtual control vectors.Moreover,a disturbance observer is presented to estimate unknown time-varying environmental disturbance.Furthermore,a distributed dynamic controller is designed to regulate the involved ASVs to cooperatively track the target.It enables each ASV to adjust its forces and moments according to the received information from its neighbors.The effectiveness of the derived results is demonstrated through cooperative target tracking performance analysis for a tracking system composed of five interacting ASVs.

Tracking Control of Multi-Agent Systems Using a Networked Predictive PID Tracking Scheme

With the rapid development of network technology and control technology,a networked multi-agent control system is a key direction of modern industrial control systems,such as industrial Internet systems.This paper studies the tracking control problem of networked multi-agent systems with communication constraints,where each agent has no information on the dynamics of other agents except their outputs.A networked predictive proportional integral derivative(PPID)tracking scheme is proposed to achieve the desired tracking performance,compensate actively for communication delays,and simplify implementation in a distributed manner.This scheme combines the past,present and predictive information of neighbour agents to form a tracking error signal for each agent,and applies the proportional,integral,and derivative of the agent tracking error signal to control each individual agent.The criteria of the stability and output tracking consensus of multi-agent systems with the networked PPID tracking scheme are derived through detailed analysis on the closed-loop systems.The effectiveness of the networked PPID tracking scheme is illustrated via an example.