Multi-circular formation control with reinforced transient profiles for nonholonomic vehicles:A path-following framework

This article investigates a multi-circular path-following formation control with reinforced transient profiles for nonholonomic vehicles connected by a digraph.A multi-circular formation controller endowed with the feature of spatial-temporal decoupling is devised for a group of vehicles guided by a virtual leader evolving along an implicit path,which allows for a circumnavigation on multiple circles with an anticipant angular spacing.In addition,notice that it typically imposes a stringent time constraint on time-sensitive enclosing scenarios,hence an improved prescribed performance control(IPPC)using novel tighter behavior boundaries is presented to enhance transient capabilities with an ensured appointed-time convergence free from any overshoots.The significant merits are that coordinated circumnavigation along different circles can be realized via executing geometric and dynamic assignments independently with modified transient profiles.Furthermore,all variables existing in the entire system are analyzed to be convergent.Simulation and experimental results are provided to validate the utility of suggested solution.

A Novel Prescribed-Performance Path-Following Problem for Non-Holonomic Vehicles

The issue of achieving prescribed-performance path following in robotics is addressed in this paper,where the aim is to ensure that a desired path within a specified region is accu-rately converged to by the controlled vehicle.In this context,a novel form of the prescribed performance guiding vector field is introduced,accompanied by a prescribed-time sliding mode con-trol approach.Furthermore,the interdependence among the pre-scribed parameters is discussed.To validate the effectiveness of the proposed method,numerical simulations are presented to demonstrate the efficacy of the approach.

Finite-Time Sideslip Differentiator-Based LOS Guidance for Robust Path Following of Snake Robots

This paper presents a finite-time sideslip differentiator-based line-of-sight(LOS)guidance method for robust path following of snake robots.Firstly,finite-time stable sideslip differentiator and adaptive LOS guidance method are proposed to counteract sideslip drift caused by cross-track velocity.The proposed differentiator can accurately observe the cross-track error and sideslip angle for snake robots to avoid errors caused by calculating sideslip angle approximately.In our method,the designed piecewise auxiliary function guarantees the finite-time stability of position errors.Secondly,for the case of external disturbances and state constraints,a Barrier Lyapunov functionbased backstepping adaptive path following controller is presented to improve the robot’s robustness.The uniform ultimate boundedness of the closed-loop system is proved by analyzing stability.Additionally,a gait frequency adjustment-based virtual velocity control input is derived to achieve the exponential convergence of the tangential velocity.At last,the availability and superiority of this work are shown through simulation and experiment results.

LSTM-DPPO based deep reinforcement learning controller for path following optimization of unmanned surface vehicle

To solve the path following control problem for unmanned surface vehicles(USVs),a control method based on deep reinforcement learning(DRL)with long short-term memory(LSTM)networks is proposed.A distributed proximal policy opti-mization(DPPO)algorithm,which is a modified actor-critic-based type of reinforcement learning algorithm,is adapted to improve the controller performance in repeated trials.The LSTM network structure is introduced to solve the strong temporal cor-relation USV control problem.In addition,a specially designed path dataset,including straight and curved paths,is established to simulate various sailing scenarios so that the reinforcement learning controller can obtain as much handling experience as possible.Extensive numerical simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method has better control performance under missions involving complex maneuvers than trained with limited scenarios and can potentially be applied in practice.

Constrained Moving Path Following Control for UAV With Robust Control Barrier Function

This paper studies the moving path following(MPF)problem for fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)under output constraints and wind disturbances.The vehicle is required to converge to a reference path moving with respect to the inertial frame,while the path following error is not expected to violate the predefined boundaries.Differently from existing moving path following guidance laws,the proposed method removes complex geometric transformation by formulating the moving path following problem into a second-order time-varying control problem.A nominal moving path following guidance law is designed with disturbances and their derivatives estimated by high-order disturbance observers.To guarantee that the path following error will not exceed the prescribed bounds,a robust control barrier function is developed and incorporated into controller design with quadratic program based framework.The proposed method does not require the initial position of the UAV to be within predefined boundaries.And the safety margin concept makes error-constraint be respected even if in a noisy environment.The proposed guidance law is validated through numerical simulations of shipboard landing and hardware-in-theloop(HIL)experiments.

缺乏位置信息的视觉移动机器人leader-following编队控制

针对视觉移动机器人编队在缺乏位置信息情况下的控制问题,提出一种基于视觉的leader-following编队反馈控制方法。该方法利用leader标志物特征点在follower摄像机像平面上的坐标信息设计了观测器,对leader与follower间的相对位置进行估计,基于相对位置估计量与它们速度的关系,设计出leader-following编队反馈控制器,通过Lyapunov理论证明了闭环系统的稳定性。仿真结果表明,该控制方法能有效解决缺乏位置信息情况下视觉移动机器人编队的控制问题。

Leader-following多自主体系统时变编队跟踪控制

考虑时变时延,研究了高阶leader-following多自主体系统的分布式时变编队跟踪控制问题.针对连续高阶多自主体系统,设计了基于观测器的时变编队跟踪控制协议,通过状态变换,将系统的时变编队跟踪控制问题,转变为误差系统的稳定性问题.然后利用图论及李雅普诺夫稳定定理,研究了系统实现时变编队跟踪控制的充分条件,并且指出时变编队参考函数与时变时延无关.最后,数据仿真结果证明了所设计的协议能使follower自主体实现时变编队,并且跟踪leader自主体的轨迹.

Dual-Path Vision Transformer用于急性缺血性脑卒中辅助诊断

急性缺血性脑卒中是由于脑组织血液供应障碍导致的脑功能障碍,数字减影脑血管造影(DSA)是诊断脑血管疾病的金标准。基于患者的正面和侧面DSA图像,对急性缺血性脑卒中的治疗效果进行分级评估,构建基于Vision Transformer的双路径图像分类智能模型DPVF。为了提高辅助诊断速度,基于EdgeViT的轻量化设计思想进行了模型的构建;为了使模型保持轻量化的同时具有较高的精度,提出空间-通道自注意力模块,促进Transformer模型捕获更全面的特征信息,提高模型的表达能力;此外,对于DPVF的两分支的特征融合,构建交叉注意力模块对两分支输出进行交叉融合,促使模型提取更丰富的特征,从而提高模型表现。实验结果显示DPVF在测试集上的准确率达98.5%,满足实际需求。

Kinematics and Path Following Control of an Articulated Drum Roller

Automatic navigation of an articulated drum roller, which is an articulated steering type vehicle widely used in the construction industry, is highly expected for operation cost reduction and improvement of work effi- ciency. In order to achieve the path following control, considering that its steering system is articulated steering and two frames are articulated by an active revolute joint, a kinematic model and an error dynamic state-space equation of an articulated drum roller are proposed. Besides, a state- feedback control law based on Lyapunov stability theory is also designed, which can be proved to achieve the purpose of control by the analysis of stability. What＇s more, to evaluate the performance of the proposed method, simu- lation under the MATLAB/Simulink and experiments using positioning algorithm and errors correction at the uneven construction site are performed, with initial dis- placement error （-1.5 m）, heading error （-0.11 tad） and steering angle （-0.19 rad）. Finally, simulation and exper- imental results show that the errors and steering angle can decrease gradually, and converge to zero with time. Meanwhile, the control input is not saturated. An articu- lated drum roller can lock into a desired path with the proposed method in uneven fields.

Path Following Control of A Deep-Sea Manned Submersible Based upon NTSM

In this paper, a robust path following control law is proposed for a deep-sea manned submersible maneuvering along a predeterminated path. Developed in China, the submersible is underactuated in the horizontal plane in that it is actuated by two perpendicular thrusts in this plane. The advanced non-singular terminal sliding mode （NTSM） is implemented for the design of the path following controller, which can ensure the convergence of the motion system in finite time and improve its robustness against parametric uncertainties and environmental disturbances. In the process of controller design, the close-loop stability is considered and proved by Lyapunov＇ s stability theory. With the experimental data, numerical simulations are provided to verify the control law for path following of the deep-sea manned submersible.

Adaptive sliding-mode path following control system of the underactuated USV under the influence of ocean currents

The path-following control of the asymmetry underactuated unmanned surface vehicle(USV) under external disturbances such as unknown constant and irrational ocean currents is discussed, and an adaptive sliding-mode path-following control system is proposed, which comprises a path-variable updated law,a modified integral line-of-sight(ILOS) guidance law based on a time-varying lookahead distance and adaptive feedback linearizing controllers combined with sliding-mode technique. A more accurate USV model without the assumption of having diagonal inertia and damping matrices is first presented, aiming at improving the performance of the path-following control. Next, the coordinate transformation is adopted to decouple the sway dynamic from the rudder angle, and the path-following errors dynamics without non-singular problem are presented in the moving Frenet-Serret frame. Then, based on the cascaded theorem and the adaptive sliding-mode method, the adaptive control law of position errors and course error are designed, among which the lookahead distance and integral gain are all computed as different functions of cross-track error to estimate and compensate the sideslip angle caused by external disturbances adaptively. Finally, according to the Lyapunov and cascaded theorem, the control system proposed is proved to be uniform globally asymptotic stability(UGAS) and uniform semiglobal exponential stability(USGES) when the control objectives are all achieved. Simulation results illustrate the precision and high-quality performance of this new controller.

Inverse Optimal Control for Speed-varying Path Following of Marine Vessels with Actuator Dynamics

A controller which is locally optimal near the origin and globally inverse optimal for the nonlinear system is proposed for path following of over actuated marine crafts with actuator dynamics. The motivation is the existence of undesired signals sent to the actuators, which can result in bad behavior in path following. To attenuate the oscillation of the control signal and obtain smooth thrust outputs, the actuator dynamics are added into the ship maneuvering model. Instead of modifying the Line-of-Sight (LOS) guidance law, this proposed controller can easily adjust the vessel speed to minimize the large cross-track error caused by the high vessel speed when it is turning. Numerical simulations demonstrate the validity of this proposed controller.

Path following control of underactuated ships based on nonswitch analytic model predictive control

A path following controller is developed for underactuated ships with only surge force and yaw moment available to follow a predefined path.The proposed controller is based on nonswitch analytic model predictive control.It is shown that the optimal control law for a nonlinear path following system with ill-defined relative degree is continuous and nonsingular.The problem of ill-defined relative degree is solved.The path-following ability of the nonlinear system is guaranteed.Numerical simulations are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control law.

Robust Adaptive Path Following for Underactuated Surface Vessels with Uncertain Dynamics

A robust adaptive control strategy was developed to force an underactuated surface vessel to follow a reference path,despite the presence of uncertain parameters and unstructured uncertainties including exogenous disturbances and measurement noise.The reference path can be a curve or a straight line.The proposed controller was designed by using Lyapunov’s direct method and sliding mode control and backstepping techniques.Because the sway axis of the vessel was not directly actuated,two sliding surfaces were introduced,the first one in terms of the surge motion tracking errors and the second one for the yaw motion tracking errors.The adaptive control law guaranteed the uniform ultimate boundedness of the tracking errors.Numerical simulation results were provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed controller for path following of underactuated surface vessels.

Following Control for a UUV using Temporary Path Generation Guidance

A path following control algorithm for an unmanned underwater vehicle（UUV） using temporary path generation guidance was proposed in this paper.Owing to different initial states of the vehicle,such as position and orientation,the path following control in the horizontal plane may yield a poor performance.To deal with the negative effect induced by initial states,a temporary path generation was presented based on the relationship between the original reference path and the vehicle’s initial states.With different relative positions between the vehicle and reference path,including out of straight lines,as well as inside and outside a circle,the related temporary paths guiding the vehicle to the reference path were able to be generated in real time.The vehicle was guided to steer along the temporary path until it reached the tangent point at the reference path,where the controller was designed using the input-output feedback linearization method.Simulation results demonstrated that the proposed algorithm is effective under the three different situations mentioned above.

Serret-Frenet frame based on path following control for underactuated unmanned surface vehicles with dynamic uncertainties

The path following problem for an underactuated unmanned surface vehicle(USV) in the Serret-Frenet frame is addressed. The control system takes account of the uncertain influence induced by model perturbation, external disturbance, etc. By introducing the Serret-Frenet frame and global coordinate transformation, the control problem of underactuated system(a nonlinear system with single-input and ternate-output) is transformed into the control problem of actuated system(a single-input and single-output nonlinear system), which simplifies the controller design. A backstepping adaptive sliding mode controller(BADSMC)is proposed based on backstepping design technique, adaptive method and theory of dynamic slide model control(DSMC). Then, it is proven that the state of closed loop system is globally stabilized to the desired configuration with the proposed controller. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller.

Sliding-mode control of path following for underactuated ships based on high gain observer

A nonlinear robust control strategy is proposed to force an underactuated surface ship to follow a predefined path with uncertain environmental disturbance and parameters.In the controller design,a high-gain observer is used to estimate velocities,thus only position and yaw angle measurements are required.The control problem of underactuated system is transformed into a control of fully actuated system through adopting an improved line-of-sight(LOS) guidance law.A sliding-mode controller is designed to eliminate the yaw angle error,and provide the control system robustness.The control law is proved semi-globally exponentially stable(SGES) by applying Lyapunov stability theory,and numerical simulation using real data of a monohull ship illustrates the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed methodology.

Knowledge,perceptions,and practice towards adverse events following immunization surveillance among vaccination workers in Zhejiang province,China

Objective:To access the level of knowledge,perceptions,and practice towards adverse events following immunization(AEFI)surveillance among vaccination workers in Zhejiang province,China.Methods:This was a cross-sectional survey involving 768 vaccination workers.Data were collected using self-administered questionnaires and analyzed by using SAS 9.3 software.Knowledge,perceptions,and practice on AEFI surveillance were summarized using frequency tables.The mean±SD value was used as the cut-off for defining good(values≥mean)and poor(values<mean)knowledge,perceptions or practice.Binary logistic regression analysis was used to determine sociodemographic variables associated with knowledge,perceptions,and practice towards AEFI.Results:The proportions of good knowledge,perceptions and practice on AEFI surveillance were 78.13%,57.81%and 66.15%,respectively.Having a higher education background,longer years of experience,previous training on AEFI and≥30 years of age were factors associated with good knowledge,perceptions and practice on AEFI surveillance among vaccination workers.Conclusions:Over half of the respondents had good knowledge,perceptions and practice on AEFI surveillance work.Interventions on improving the vaccination workers’knowledge,perceptions and practice on AEFI surveillance should be considered in order to develop a more effective surveillance system.

Adaptive back-stepping control on container ships for path following

A feedback-dominance based adaptive back-stepping(FDBAB) controller is designed to drive a container ship to follow a predefined path. In reality, current, wave and wind act on the ship and produce unwanted disturbances to the ship control system.The FDBAB controller has to compensate for such disturbances and steer the ship to track the predefined(or desired) path. The difference between the actual and the desired path along which the ship is to sail is defined as the tracking error. The FDBAB controller is built on the tracking error model which is developed based on Serret-Frenet frame transformation(SFFT). In additional to being affected by external disturbances, the ship has more outputs than inputs(under-actuated), and is inherently nonlinear.The back-stepping controller in FDBAB is used to compensate the nonlinearity. The adaptive algorithms in FDBAB is employed to approximate disturbances. Lyapunov's direct method is used to prove the stability of the control system. The FDBAB controlled system is implemented in Matlab/Simulink. The simulation results verify the effectiveness of the controller in terms of successful path tracking and disturbance rejection.

PREDICTIVE CONTROL FOR OPTIMAL PATH TERRAIN FOLLOWING SYSTEM

In this paper output predictive algorithm is applied to the design of predictive controller for an optimal path terrain following system. In this way, the error of path tracking is decreased to a minimum degree simply and efficiently and the computation time for the optimal path is shortened greatly. Therefore, the real-time processing of the optimal path terrain following system is made to be very helpful.