Cyclic-Pursuit-Based Circular Formation Control of Mobile Agents with Limited Communication Ranges and Communication Delays

This article addresses the circular formation control problem of a multi-agent system moving on a circle in the presence of limited communication ranges and communication delays.To minimize the number of communication links,a novel distributed controller based on a cyclic pursuit strategy is developed in which each agent needs only its leading neighbour’s information.In contrast to existing works,we propose a set of new potential functions to deal with heterogeneous communication ranges and communication delays simultaneously.A new framework based on the admissible upper bound of the formation error is established so that both connectivity maintenance and order preservation can be achieved at the same time.It is shown that the multi-agent system can be driven to the desired circular formation as time goes to infinity under the proposed controller.Finally,the effectiveness of the proposed method is illustrated by some simulation examples.

Coordination of multiple mobile robots with limited communication range in pursuit of single mobile target in cluttered environment

This paper addresses the problem of coordinating multiple mobile robots in searching for and capturing a mobile target,with the aim of reducing the capture time.Compared with the previous algorithms,we assume that the target can be detected by any robot and captured successfully by two or more robots.In this paper,we assume that each robot has a limited communication range.We maintain the robots within a mobile network to guarantee the successful capture.In addition,the motion of the target is modeled and incorporated into directing the motion of the robots to reduce the capture time.A coordination algorithm considering both aspects is proposed.This algorithm can greatly reduce the expected time of capturing the mobile target.Finally,we validate the algorithm by the simulations and experiments.

ZTE Supplies Comprehensive Range of Communications Solutions for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

ZTE Corporation,a leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions,supplied a comprehensive range of

X-ray communication based simultaneous communication and ranging

To improve the link efficiency and decrease the payloads in space explorations, a novel simultaneous communication and ranging method based on x-ray communication（XCOM） is proposed in this paper. A delicate signal symbol structure is utilized to achieve simultaneous data transmission and range measurement. With the designed symbol structure, the ranging information is imbedded into the communication signal and transmitted with it simultaneously. The range measurement is realized by the two-way transmission of the range information. To illustrate the proposed method, firstly, the principle of the method is introduced and the signal processing procedure is presented. Then, the performance of the proposed method is analyzed theoretically in various aspects, including the acquisition probability, the bit error rate, the ranging jitter,etc. Besides, numerical experiments are conducted to verify the proposed method and evaluate the system performance.The simulation results show that the proposed method is feasible and that the system performance is influenced by the parameters concerning the signal symbol structure. Compared with the previous methods, the proposed method improves the link efficiency and is beneficial for system miniaturization and integration, which could provide a potential option for future deep space explorations.

IoV and Blockchain-Enabled Driving Guidance Strategy in Complex Traffic Environment

Diversified traffic participants and complex traffic environment(e.g.,roadblocks or road damage exist)challenge the decision-making accuracy of a single connected and autonomous vehicle(CAV)due to its limited sensing and computing capabilities.Using Internet of Vehicles(IoV)to share driving rules between CAVs can break limitations of a single CAV,but at the same time may cause privacy and safety issues.To tackle this problem,this paper proposes to combine IoV and blockchain technologies to form an efficient and accurate autonomous guidance strategy.Specifically,we first use reinforcement learning for driving decision learning,and give the corresponding driving rule extraction method.Then,an architecture combining IoV and blockchain is designed to ensure secure driving rule sharing.Finally,the shared rules will form an effective autonomous driving guidance strategy through driving rules selection and action selection.Extensive simulation proves that the proposed strategy performs well in complex traffic environment,mainly in terms of accuracy,safety,and robustness.

Critical Nodes Identification: A Non-Cooperative Method for Unknown Topology Information in Ad Hoc Networks

The foundation of ad hoc networks lies in the guarantee of continuous connectivity.However,critical nodes,whose failure can easily destroy network connectivity,will influence the ad hoc network connectivity significantly.To protect the network efficiently,critical nodes should be identified accurately and rapidly.Unlike existing critical node identification methods for unknown topology that identify critical nodes according to historical information,this paper develops a critical node identification method to relax the prior topology information condition about critical nodes.Specifically,we first deduce a theorem about the minimum communication range for a node through the number of nodes and deployment ranges,and prove the universality of the theorem in a realistic two-dimensional scenario.After that,we analyze the relationship between communication range and degree value for each node and prove that the greater number of nodes within the communication range of a node,the greater degree value of nodes with high probability.Moreover,we develop a novel strategy to improve the accuracy of critical node identification without topology information.Finally,simulation results indicate the proposed strategy can achieve high accuracy and low redundancy while ensuring low time consumption in the scenarios with unknown topology information in ad hoc networks.

CNR:A Cluster-Based Solution for Connectivity Restoration for Mobile WSNs

Wireless Sensor Networks(WSNs)are an integral part of the Internet of Things(IoT)and are widely used in a plethora of applications.Typically,sensor networks operate in harsh environments where human intervention is often restricted,which makes battery replacement for sensor nodes impractical.Node failure due to battery drainage or harsh environmental conditions poses serious challenges to the connectivity of the network.Without a connectivity restoration mechanism,node failures ultimately lead to a network partition,which affects the basic function of the sensor network.Therefore,the research community actively concentrates on addressing and solving the challenges associated with connectivity restoration in sensor networks.Since energy is a scarce resource in sensor networks,it becomes the focus of research,and researchers strive to propose new solutions that are energy efficient.The common issue that is well studied and considered is how to increase the network’s life span by solving the node failure problem and achieving efficient energy utilization.This paper introduces a Clusterbased Node Recovery(CNR)connectivity restoration mechanism based on the concept of clustering.Clustering is a well-known mechanism in sensor networks,and it is known for its energy-efficient operation and scalability.The proposed technique utilizes a distributed cluster-based approach to identify the failed nodes,while Cluster Heads(CHs)play a significant role in the restoration of connectivity.Extensive simulations were conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed technique and compare it with the existing techniques.The simulation results show that the proposed technique efficiently addresses node failure and restores connectivity by moving fewer nodes than other existing connectivity restoration mechanisms.The proposed mechanism also yields an improved field coverage as well as a lesser number of packets exchanged as compared to existing state-of-the-art mechanisms.

Big Wave of the Intelligent Connected Vehicles

Internet of things is deemed as the one of the great revolution after the age of Industrial Revolution.With the development of the communication technology,more and more entities are connected to the communication network and become one of the elements in the network.Over recent decades,in the area of intelligent transportation,pedestrian and transport infrastructure are connected to the communication network to improve the driving safety and traffic efficiency which is known as the ICV(Intelligent Connected Vehicle).This paper summarizes the global ICV progresses in the past decades and the latest activities of ICV in China,and introduces various aspects regarding the recent development of the ICV,including industry development,spectrum and standard,at the same time.

State estimation of connected vehicles using a nonlinear ensemble filter

The concept of connected vehicles is with great potentials for enhancing the road transportation systems in the future. To support the functions and applications under the connected vehicles frame, the estimation of dynamic states of the vehicles under the cooperative environments is a fundamental issue. By integrating multiple sensors, localization modules in OBUs(on-board units) require effective estimation solutions to cope with various operation conditions. Based on the filtering estimation framework for sensor fusion, an ensemble Kalman filter(En KF) is introduced to estimate the vehicle's state with observations from navigation satellites and neighborhood vehicles, and the original En KF solution is improved by using the cubature transformation to fulfill the requirements of the nonlinearity approximation capability, where the conventional ensemble analysis operation in En KF is modified to enhance the estimation performance without increasing the computational burden significantly. Simulation results from a nonlinear case and the cooperative vehicle localization scenario illustrate the capability of the proposed filter, which is crucial to realize the active safety of connected vehicles in future intelligent transportation.

A Multi-Mode Public Transportation System Using Vehicular to Network Architecture

The number of accidents in the campus of Suranaree University of Technology(SUT)has increased due to increasing number of personal vehicles.In this paper,we focus on the development of public transportation system using Intelligent Transportation System(ITS)along with the limitation of personal vehicles using sharing economy model.The SUT Smart Transit is utilized as a major public transportation system,while MoreSai@SUT(electric motorcycle services)is a minor public transportation system in this work.They are called Multi-Mode Transportation system as a combination.Moreover,a Vehicle toNetwork(V2N)is used for developing theMulti-Mode Transportation system in the campus.Due to equipping vehicles with On Board Unit(OBU)and 4G LTE modules,the real time speed and locations are transmitted to the cloud.The data is then applied in the proposed mathematical model for the estimation of Estimated Time of Arrival(ETA).In terms of vehicle classifications and counts,we deployed CCTV cameras,and the recorded videos are analyzed by using You Only Look Once(YOLO)algorithm.The simulation and measurement results of SUT Smart Transit and MoreSai@SUT before the covid-19 pandemic are discussed.Contrary to the existing researches,the proposed system is implemented in the real environment.The final results unveil the attractiveness and satisfaction of users.Also,due to the proposed system,the CO_(2) gas gets reduced when Multi-Mode Transportation is implemented practically in the campus.

Underwater acoustic communication and the general performance evaluation criteria

Driven by the huge demand to explore oceans, underwater wireless communications have been rapidly developed in the past few decades. Due to the complex physical characteristics of water, acoustic wave is the only media available for underwater wireless communication at any distance. As a result, underwater acoustic communication(UAC) is the major research field in underwater wireless communication. In this paper, characteristics of underwater acoustic channels are first introduced and compared with terrestrial communication to demonstrate the difficulties in UAC research. To give a general impression of the UAC, current important research areas are mentioned. Furthermore, different principal modulation-based schemes for short-and medium-range communications with high data rates are investigated and summarized. To evaluate the performance of UAC systems in general,three criteria are presented based on the research publications and our years of experience in high-rate short-to medium-range communications. These three criteria provide useful tools to generally guide the design and evaluate the performance of underwater acoustic communication systems.