Toward Trustworthy Decision-Making for Autonomous Vehicles:A Robust Reinforcement Learning Approach with Safety Guarantees

While autonomous vehicles are vital components of intelligent transportation systems,ensuring the trustworthiness of decision-making remains a substantial challenge in realizing autonomous driving.Therefore,we present a novel robust reinforcement learning approach with safety guarantees to attain trustworthy decision-making for autonomous vehicles.The proposed technique ensures decision trustworthiness in terms of policy robustness and collision safety.Specifically,an adversary model is learned online to simulate the worst-case uncertainty by approximating the optimal adversarial perturbations on the observed states and environmental dynamics.In addition,an adversarial robust actor-critic algorithm is developed to enable the agent to learn robust policies against perturbations in observations and dynamics.Moreover,we devise a safety mask to guarantee the collision safety of the autonomous driving agent during both the training and testing processes using an interpretable knowledge model known as the Responsibility-Sensitive Safety Model.Finally,the proposed approach is evaluated through both simulations and experiments.These results indicate that the autonomous driving agent can make trustworthy decisions and drastically reduce the number of collisions through robust safety policies.

LIFECYCLE SAFETY GUARANTEE OF STRUCTURES

The principles for lifecycle safety guarantee of engineering structures areproposed, and the conception is developed for developing the safety guarantee system by integratingthe monitoring system, analysis system and maintenance system together on the basis of multi-sensor,distribution-measurement, data fusion and digital-signal-processor (DSP) technologies as well asthree-dimensional (3D) fatigue fracture unified theory. As all the systems should work in situs andin real-time, micromation and integration are important. Damage detectability is introduced toclarify the relationship of life prediction and healthy monitoring or faulty diagnosis. The researchwork to realize the lifecycle safety guarantee system is summarized and perspectives for futureefforts are outlined.

Analysis of Interchange Exit Safety Technology

In order to improve the safety of the exit of expressway interchanges,the main problems and influencing factors of interchange exits are analyzed according to the number of traffic accidents at expressway interchange exits in China.Some suggestions and countermeasures are then put forward from the aspect of safety technology for future reference.

Discussion on the Safe and Guaranteed Access of Interchange Widening in Reconstruction and Extension of Highway

In the process of reconstruction and extension of highways,the most important thing is to ensure that the overall level of the widening of interchanges is comprehensively improved to ensure safe traffic.However,due to the heavy and difficult tasks in the widening of interchanges,higher requirements are put forward for the construction quality of the project.In the actual construction of the project,it is necessary to actively analyze and explain the specific construction of the interchange widening project to ensure that the improvement level of the interchange widening in highway reconstruction and extension project is effectively upgraded.This paper gives a detailed introduction to the main construction technology for interchange widening project,clarifies the technical points of safety and guaranteed access,and proposes corresponding safeguard measures to ensure the comprehensive upgrade of the construction quality and standard of interchange widening in highway reconstruction and extension.

Safe formation control of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles:control design and safety-stability analysis

Both safety and stability are primary performance criteria for multi-unmanned aerial vehicle(multi-UAV)systems in many coordination tasks.Existing approaches often consider safety and stability separately.It is necessary and urgent to develop a safety-stability control strategy to merge these two performance criteria.In this paper,a unified approach is developed to consider safety and stability for multi-UAV formation control.The stability criterion is represented by a Lyapunov function and safety criterion is represented by a barrier function and then a relaxed converse control Lyapunov-barrier theorem is obtained.With the help of a relaxed converse control Lyapunov-barrier function(RCCLBF),a distributed safety-stability formation control strategy is proposed for the multi-UAV system.By transforming the solution of RCCLBF to a Lyapunovlike stabilization problem,we show that the proposed formation control strategy can drive the UAVs staying within a specified safe set.Simulation results are provided to validate the proposed safety-stability formation control strategy.

Key technologies and equipment for a fully mechanized top-coal caving operation with a large mining height at ultra-thick coal seams

Thick and ultra-thick coal seams are main coal seams for high production rate and high efficiency in Chinese coal mines, which accounts for 44 % of the total minable coal reserve. A fully mechanized top-coal caving mining method is a main underground coal extraction method for ultra-thick coal seams. The coal extraction technologies for coal seams less than 14 m thick were extensively used in China. However, for coal seams with thickness greater than 14 m, there have been no reported cases in the world for underground mechanical extraction with safe performance, high efficiency and high coal recovery ratio. To deal with this case, China Coal Technology ＆ Engineering Group, Datong Coal Mine Group, and other 15 organizations in China launched a fundamental and big project to develop coal mining technologies and equipment for coal seams with thicknesses greater than 14 m. After the completion of the project, a coal extraction method was developed for top-coal caving with a large mining height, as well as a ground control theory for ultra-thick coal seams. In addition, the mining technology for top-coal caving with a large mining height, the ground support technology for roadway in coal seams with a large cross-section, and the prevention and control technology for gas and fire hazards were developed and applied. Furthermore, a hydraulic support with a mining height of 5.2 m, a shearer with high reliability, and auxiliary equipment were developed and manufactured. Practical implication on the technologies and equipment developed was successfully completed at the No. 8105 coal face in the Tashan coal mine, Datong, China. The major achievements of the project are summarized as follows： 1. A top-coal caving method for ultra-thick coal seams is proposed with a cutting height of 5 m and a top-coal caving height of 15 m. A structural mechanical model of overlying strata called cantilever beam-articulated rock beam is established. Based on the model, the load resistance of the hydraulic support with a large mining height for top-coal caving method is determined. With the analysis, the movement characteristics of the top coal and above strata are evaluated during top-coal caving operation at the coal face with a large mining height. Furthermore, there is successful development of comprehensive technologies for preventing and controlling spalling of the coal wall, and the top-coal caving technology with high efficiency and high recovery at the top-coal caving face with a large mining height. This means that the technologies developed have overcome the difficulties in strata control, top-coal caving with high efficiency and high coal recovery, and enabled to achieve a production rate of more than 10 Mtpa at a single top-coal caving face with a large mining height in ultra-thick coal seams; 2. A hydraulic support with 5.2 m supporting height and anti-rockburst capacity, a shearer with high reliability, a scraper conveyor with a large power at the back of face, and a large load and long distance headgate belt conveyor have been successfully developed for a top-coal caving face with large mining height. The study has developed the key technologies for improving the reliability of equipment at the coal face and has overcome the challenges in equipping the top-coal caving face with a large mining height in ultra-thick coal seams; 3. The deformation characteristics of a large cross-section roadway in ultra-thick coal seams are discovered. Based on the findings above, a series of bolt materials with a high yielding strength of 500-830 MPa and a high extension ratio, and cable bolt material with a 1 × 19 structure, large tonnage and high extension ratio are developed. In addition, in order to achieve a safe roadway and a fast face advance, installation equipment for high pre-tension bolt is developed to solve the problems with the support of roadway in coal seams for top-coal caving operation with a large mining height; 4. The characteristics of gas distribution and uneven emission at top-coal caving face with large mining height in ultra-thick coal seams are evaluated. With the application of the technologies of gas drainage in the roof, the difficulties in gas control for high intensive top-coal caving mining operations, known as ＂low gas content, high gas emission＂, are solved. In addition, large flow-rate underground mobile equipment for making nitrogen are developed to solve the problems with fire prevention and safe mining at a top-coal caving face with large mining height and production rate of more than 10 Mtpa. A case study to apply the developed technologies has been conducted at the No. 8105 face, the Tashan coal mine in Datong, China. The case study demonstrates that the three units of equipment, i.e., the support, shearer and scraper conveyor, are rationally equipped. Average equipment usage at the coal face is 92.1%. The coal recovery ratio at the coal face is up to 88.9 %. In 2011, the coal production at the No. 8105 face reached 10.849 Mtpa, exceeding the target of 10 Mtpa for a topcoal caving operation with large mining height performed by Chinese-made mining equipment. The technologies and equipment developed provide a way for extracting ultra-thick coal seams. Currently, the technologies and equipment are used in 13 mining areas in China including Datong, Pingshuo, Shendong and Xinjiang. With the exploitation of coal resources in Western China, there is great potential for the application of the technologies and equipment developed.

Demonstration Project of Safe and Efficient Mining Operations in Extra-thick Coal Seam

Mineable coal reserves in thick and extra-thick seams account for 44% of the total deposit in China. Fullymechanized top-coal caving technology is a new mining method of safe and efficient underground operations in extra-thick seams in China. The development of fullymechanized top-coal caving technology in China, which was successfully applied in Face 8105 in Tashan Coal Mine, Datong, Shanxi, China, is analyzed in this paper.Studies on movement pattern of top-coal and roof from fully-mechanized top caving face in 14–20 m extra-thick seams have been carried out. A series of key technologies were successfully developed, including strata control technology, equipment for high-efficient and high-recovery top caving operations, and safety guarantee technology for low gas occurrence and high gas emission. As a result, the fully-mechanized top-coal caving Face 8105, with large mining height in Tashan Coal Mine, has achieved a recovery rate of 88.9% and an average equipment operation rate of 92.1%. With coal production of 10.84 Mt in 2011,the demonstration project is a technology and equipment breakthrough for fully-mechanized top-coal caving face in extra-thick coal seams with large mining height.