Prescribed Performance Tracking Control of Time-Delay Nonlinear Systems With Output Constraints

The problem of prescribed performance tracking control for unknown time-delay nonlinear systems subject to output constraints is dealt with in this paper. In contrast with related works, only the most fundamental requirements, i.e., boundedness and the local Lipschitz condition, are assumed for the allowable time delays. Moreover, we focus on the case where the reference is unknown beforehand, which renders the standard prescribed performance control designs under output constraints infeasible. To conquer these challenges, a novel robust prescribed performance control approach is put forward in this paper.Herein, a reverse tuning function is skillfully constructed and automatically generates a performance envelop for the tracking error. In addition, a unified performance analysis framework based on proof by contradiction and the barrier function is established to reveal the inherent robustness of the control system against the time delays. It turns out that the system output tracks the reference with a preassigned settling time and good accuracy,without constraint violations. A comparative simulation on a two-stage chemical reactor is carried out to illustrate the above theoretical findings.

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.

Application of Time-Tracking Platform in the Reperfusion Treatment of Patients with Acute Ischemic Stroke in Primary Hospitals

Objective To explore the application effect of time tracking platform in improving the reperfusion treatment of patients with acute ischemic stroke in primary hospitals. Methods and Results Patients with acute ischemic stroke who carried out emergency intravenous thrombolysis and arterial thrombectomy in our hospital in 2021, 2022 and 2023 were selected. The time tracking mode was implemented, and the patients were recorded at each time node of the hospital and the whole-process digital management was conducted. Compared the mean DNT (Door to Needle Time) of intravenous thrombolysis in emergency stroke patients in 2021, 2022 and 2023, the total number of hospital cases within 4.5 h of onset, the total number of thrombolysis cases within 4.5 h of onset, the number of intravenous thrombolysis in 60 minutes of acute ischemic stroke, and the number of thrombolysis cases. The results show that from 2021 to 2023 our emergency stroke patients with intravenous thrombolysis average DNT shortened year by year, to the hospital within 4.5 h after the onset of the difference is statistically significant (all P < 0.05) conclusion through the application of stroke time tracking platform, is beneficial to shorten the treatment time of each link, can effectively reduce the hospital time delay, improve the rate of thrombolysis, improve the reperfusion of stroke centers in primary hospitals.

A True-Time-Delay Array Architecture for Wideband Multi-Beam Tracking

The true-time delay(TTD)units are critical for solving beam squint and frequency selective fading inWideband Large-Scale Antenna Systems(LSASs).In this work,we propose a TTD array architecture for wideband multi-beam tracking that eliminates the beam squint phenomenon and filters out interference signals by applying a spatial filter and time delay estimations(TDEs).The paper presents a novel approach to spatial filter design by introducing a transformation matrix that can optimize the beam response in a specific direction and at a specific frequency.Using the variable fractional delay(VFD)filters,we propose a TDE algorithm with a Newton-Raphson iteration update process that corrects the arrival time delay difference between sensors.Simulations and examples have demonstrated that the proposed architecture can achieve beam tracking within 10 ms at the low signalto-noise ratio(SNR)and demodulation loss is less than 0.5 dB in wideband multi-beam scenarios.

Sliding-Mode-Based Attitude Tracking Control of Spacecraft Under Reaction Wheel Uncertainties

The attitude tracking operations of an on-orbit spacecraft with degraded performance exhibited by potential actuator uncertainties(including failures and misalignments) can be extraordinarily challenging. Thus, the control law development for the attitude tracking task of spacecraft subject to actuator(namely reaction wheel) uncertainties is addressed in this paper. More specially, the attitude dynamics model of the spacecraft is firstly established under actuator failures and misalignment(without a small angle approximation operation). Then, a new non-singular sliding manifold with fixed time convergence and anti-unwinding properties is proposed, and an adaptive sliding mode control(SMC) strategy is introduced to handle actuator uncertainties, model uncertainties and external disturbances simultaneously. Among this, an explicit misalignment angles range that could be treated herein is offered. Lyapunov-based stability analyses are employed to verify that the reaching phase of the sliding manifold is completed in finite time, and the attitude tracking errors are ensured to converge to a small region of the closest equilibrium point in fixed time once the sliding manifold enters the reaching phase. Finally, the beneficial features of the designed controller are manifested via detailed numerical simulation tests.

Time-varying Sliding Mode Controls in Rigid Spacecraft Attitude Tracking

To solve the problem of attitude tracking of a rigid spacecraft with an either known or measurable desired attitude trajectory, three types of time-varying sliding mode controls are introduced under consideration of control input constraints. The sliding surfaces of the three types initially pass arbitrary initial values of the system, and then shift or rotate to reach predetermined ones. This way, the system trajectories are always on the sliding surfaces, and the system work is guaranteed to have robustness against parameter uncertainty and external disturbances all the time. The controller parameters are optimized by means of genetic algorithm to minimize the index consisting of the weighted index of squared error （ISE） of the system and the weighted penalty term of violation of control input constraint. The stability is verified with Lyapunov method. Compared with the conventional sliding mode control, simulation results show the proposed algorithm having better robustness against inertia matrix uncertainty and external disturbance torques.

A Time Neighborhood Method for the Verification of Landfalling Typhoon Track Forecast

Landfalling typhoons can cause disasters over large regions.The government and emergency responders need to take measures to mitigate disasters according to the forecast of landfall position,while slight timing error can be ignored.The reliability of operational model forecasts of typhoon landfall position needs to be evaluated beforehand,according to the forecasts and observation of historical cases.In the evaluation of landfalling typhoon track,the traditional method based on point-to-point matching methods could be influenced by the predicted typhoon translation speed.Consequently,the traditional track evaluation method may result in a large track error even if the predicted landfall position is close to observation.The purpose of this paper is to address the above issue using a simple evaluation method of landfalling typhoon track forecast based on the time neighborhood approach.In this new method,the timing error was lessened to highlight the importance of the position error during the landfall of typhoon.The properties of the time neighborhood method are compared with the traditional method based on numerical forecast results of 12 landfalling typhoon cases.Results demonstrated that the new method is not sensitive to the sampling frequency,and that the difference between the time neighborhood and traditional method will be more obvious when the moving speed of typhoon is moderate(between 15−30 km h^(−1)).The time neighborhood concept can be easily extended to a broader context when one attempts to examine the position error more than the timing error.

Adaptive backstepping finite-time sliding mode control of spacecraft attitude tracking

This paper investigates the finite-time attitude tracking problem for rigid spacecraft. Two backstepping finite-time slid- ing mode control laws are proposed to solve this problem in the presence of inertia uncertainties and external disturbances. The first control scheme is developed by combining sliding mode con- trol with a backstepping technique to achieve fast and accurate tracking responses. To obtain higher tracking precision and relax the requirement of the upper bounds on the uncertainties, a se- cond control law is also designed by combining the second or- der sliding mode control and an adaptive backstepping technique. This control law provides complete compensation of uncertainty and disturbances. Although it assumes that the uncertainty and disturbances are bounded, the proposed control law does not require information about the bounds on the uncertainties and disturbances. Finite-time convergence of attitude tracking errors and the stability of the closed-loop system are ensured by the Lya- punov approach. Numerical simulations on attitude tracking control of spacecraft are provided to demonstrate the performance of the proposed controllers.

Backstepping tracking control for nonlinear time-delay systems

Two design approaches of state feedback and output feedback tracking controllers are proposed for a class of strict feedback nonlinear time-delay systems by using backstepping technique. When the states of system cannot be observed, the time-delay state observer is designed to estimate the system states. Domination method is used to deal with nonlinear time-delay function under the assumption that the nonlinear time-delay functions of systems satisfy Lipschitz condition. The global asymptotical tracking of the reference signal is achieved and the bound of all signals of the resultant closed-loop system is also guaranteed. By constructing a Lyapunov-Krasoviskii functional, the stability of the closed-loop system is proved. The feasibility of the proposed approach is illustrated by a simulation example.

Best tracking performance for integrator and dead time plant

The optimal tracking performance for integrator and dead time plant in the case where plant uncertainty and control energy constraints are to be considered jointly is inrestigated. Firstly, an average cost function of the tracking error and the plant input energy over a class of stochastic model errors are defined. Then, we obtain an internal model controller design method that minimizes the average performance and further studies optimal tracking performance for integrator and dead time plant in the simultaneous presence of plant uncertainty and control energy constraint. The results can be used to evaluate optimal tracking performance and control energy in practical designs.

Novel Real-Time Seam Tracking Algorithm Based on Vector Angle and Least Square Method

Real-time seam tracking can improve welding quality and enhance welding efficiency during the welding process in automobile manufacturing.However,the teaching-playing welding process,an off-line seam tracking method,is still dominant in automobile industry,which is less flexible when welding objects or situation change.A novel real-time algorithm consisting of seam detection and generation is proposed to track seam.Using captured 3D points,space vectors were created between two adjacent points along each laser line and then a vector angle based algorithm was developed to detect target points on the seam.Least square method was used to fit target points to a welding trajectory for seam tracking.Furthermore,the real-time seam tracking process was simulated in MATLAB/Simulink.The trend of joint angles vs.time was logged and a comparison between the off-line and the proposed seam tracking algorithm was conducted.Results show that the proposed real-time seam tracking algorithm can work in a real-time scenario and have high accuracy in welding point positioning.

A machine vision approach to seam tracking in real-time in PAW of large-diameter stainless steel tube

Manual monitoring and seam tracking through watching weld pool images in real-time, by naked eyes or by industrial TV, are experience-depended, subjective, labor intensive, and sometimes biased. So it is necessary to realize the automation of computer-aided seam tracking. A PAW (plasma arc welding) seam tracking system was developed, which senses the molten pool and the seam in one frame by a vision sensor, and then detects the seam deviation to adjust the work piece motion adaptively to the seam position sensed by vision sensor. A novel molten pool area image-processing algorithm based on machine vision was proposed. The algorithm processes each image at the speed of 20 frames/second in real-time to extract three feature variables to get the seam deviation. It is proved experimentally that the algorithm is very fast and effective. Issues related to the algorithm are also discussed.

Optimal tracking control for linear time-delay large-scale systems with persistent disturbances

An optimal tracking control （OTC） problem for linear time-delay large-scale systems affected by external persistent disturbances is investigated. Based on the internal model principle, a disturbance compensator is constructed. The system with persistent disturbances is transformed into an augmented system without persistent disturbances. The original OTC problem of linear time-delay system is transformed into a sequence of linear two- point boundary value （TPBV） problems by introducing a sensitivity parameter and expanding Maclaurin series around it. By solving an OTC law of the augmented system, the OTC law of the original system is obtained. A numerical simulation is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Cooperative output tracking of multi-agent systems under finite time

The cooperative output tracking problem of multi-agent systems in finite time is considered.In order to enable the agents to quickly track and converge to external system within a finite time,a novel distributed output feedback control strategy based on the finite-time state observer is designed.This distributed finite-time observer can not only solve cooperative output tracking problems when the agents can not get external system signal,but also make the systems have a faster convergence and a good robustness.The stability of the system in finite time is proved based on Lyapunov function.Numerical simulations results have been provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed protocol.

Real-time accurate hand path tracking and joint trajectory planning for industrial robots(Ⅰ)

Previously, researchers raised the accuracy for a robot′s hand to track a specified path in Car-tesian space mainly through increasing the number of knots on the path and the number of the path′s segments, which results in the heavier online computational burden for the robot controller. Aiming at overcoming this drawback, the authors propose a new kind of real-time accurate hand path tracking and joint trajectory planning method. Through selecting some extra knots on the specified hand path by a certain rule and introducing a sinusoidal function to the joint displacement equation of each segment, this method can greatly raise the path tracking accuracy of robot′s hand and does not change the number of the path′s segments. It also does not increase markedly the computational burden of robot controller. The result of simulation indicates that this method is very effective, and has important value in increasing the application of industrial robots.

A Real-time Face/Hand Tracking Method for Chinese Sign Language Recognition

This paper introduces a new Chinese Sign Language recognition (CSLR) system and a method of real time tracking face and hand applied in the system. In the method, an improved agent algorithm is used to extract the region of face and hand and track them. Kalman filter is introduced to forecast the position and rectangle of search, and self adapting of target color is designed to counteract the effect of illumination.

Tracking problem under a time-varying topology

This paper studies the multi-agent tracking problem of a third-order maneuvering target under uncertain communication environments. Each tracking agent is assumed to be a third-order system and can only use its own and neighbors＇ position, velocity, and acceleration information to design its control input. In this work, the uncertain communication environments are modelled by a finite number of constant Laplacian matrices together with their corresponding scheduling functions. Sufficient conditions for the existence of a tracking strategy have been expressed in terms of the solvability of linear matrix inequalities. Finally, a numerical example is employed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed tracking strategy.

Quality Assurance for Respiratory-Gated Radiotherapy Using the Real-Time Tumor-Tracking Radiotherapy System

Purpose: Respiratory-gated radiation therapy (RT) using the real-time tumor-tracking radiotherapy (RTRT) system is an effective technique for managing tumor motion. High dosimetric and geometric accuracy is needed;however, quality assurance (QA) for respiratory-gated RT using the RTRT system has not been reported. The purpose of this study was to perform QA for respiratorygated RT using the RTRT system. Materials and Methods: The RTRT system detected the position of the fiducial marker and radiation delivery gated to the motion of the marker was performed. The dynamic anthropomorphic thorax phantom was positioned at the isocenter using the fiducial marker in the phantom. The phantom was irradiated only when the fiducial marker was within a three-dimensional gating window of ±2 mm from the planned position. First, the absolute doses were measured using anionization chamber inserted in the phantom under the stationary, gating and non-gating state for sinusoidal (nadir-to-peak amplitude [A]: 20 - 40 mm, breathing period [T]: 2 - 4 s) and the basic respiratory patterns. Second, the dose profiles were measured using Gafchromic films in the phantom under the same conditions. Differences between dose profiles were calculated to evaluate the dosimetric and geometric accuracy. Finally, differences between the actual and measured position of the fiducial marker were calculated to evaluate the tracking accuracy for sinusoidal and basic respiratory patterns. Results: For the sinusoidal patterns, the relative doses were 0.93 for non-gating and 0.99 for gating (A = 20 mm, T = 2 s), 0.94 for non-gating and 1.00 for gating (A = 20 mm, T = 4 s), 0.55 for non-gating and 1.00 for gating (A = 40 mm, T = 4 s), respectively. For the basic respiratory pattern, the relative doses were 1.00 for non-gating and 1.00 for gating, respectively. Compared to the stationary conditions, the differences in lateral distance between the 90% dose of dose profiles were 6.23 mm for non-gating and 0.36 mm for gating (A = 20 mm, T = 2 s), 8.79 mm for non-gating and 1.73 mm for gating (A = 20 mm, T = 4 s), 18.37 mm for non-gating and 0.67 mm for gating (A = 40 mm, T = 4 s), respectively. For the basic respiratory pattern, those were 5.23 mm for non-gating and 0.35 mm for gating. The root mean square (RMS) values of the tracking error were 0.18 mm (A = 20 mm, T = 2 s), 0.14 mm (A = 20 mm, T = 4 s), and 0.21 mm (A = 40 mm, T = 4 s) for sinusoidal and 0.79 mm for the basic respiratory pattern, respectively. Conclusion: We conducted QA for respiratory-gated RT using the RTRT system. The respiratory-gated RT using the RTRT system reduced the blurring effects on dose distribution with high dosimetric and geometric accuracy.

Three-dimensional multi-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann front-tracking method for two-phase flow

We developed a three-dimensional multi-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann method for incompressible and immiscible two-phase flow by coupling with a front-tracking technique. The flow field was simulated by using an Eulerian grid, an adaptive unstructured triangular Lagrangian grid was applied to track explicitly the motion of the two-fluid interface, and an indicator function was introduced to update accurately the fluid properties. The surface tension was computed directly on a triangular Lagrangian grid, and then the surface tension was distributed to the background Eulerian grid. Three benchmarks of two-phase flow, including the Laplace law for a stationary drop, the oscillation of a three-dimensional ellipsoidal drop, and the drop deformation in a shear flow, were simulated to validate the present model.

Multi-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann front tracking method for two-phase flow with surface tension

In this paper, an improved incompressible multi-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann-front tracking approach is proposed to simulate two-phase flow with a sharp interface, where the surface tension is implemented. The lattice Boltzmann method is used to simulate the incompressible flow with a stationary Eulerian grid, an additional moving Lagrangian grid is adopted to track explicitly the motion of the interface, and an indicator function is introduced to update the fluid properties accurately. The interface is represented by using a four-order Lagrange polynomial through fitting a set of discrete marker points, and then the surface tension is directly computed by using the normal vector and curvature of the interface. Two benchmark problems, including Laplace＇s law for a stationary bubble and the dispersion relation of the capillary wave between two fluids are conducted for validation. Excellent agreement is obtained between the numerical simulations and the theoretical results in the two cases.