Finite-time tracking control and vibration suppression based on the concept of virtual control force for flexible two-link space robot

The dynamic modeling, finite-time trajectory tracking control and vibration suppression of a flexible two-link space robot are studied. Firstly, the dynamic model of the system is established by combining Lagrange method with assumed mode method. In order to ensure that the base attitude and the joints of space robot can reach the desired positions within a limited time, a non-singular fast terminal sliding mode(NFTSM) controller is designed, which realizes the finite-time convergence of the trajectory tracking errors. Subsequently, for the sake of suppressing the vibrations of flexible links, a hybrid trajectory based on the concept of the virtual control force is developed, which can reflect the flexible modes and the trajectory tracking errors simultaneously. By modifying the original control scheme, a NFTSM hybrid controller is proposed. The hybrid control scheme can not only realized attitude stabilization and trajectory tracking of joints in finite time, but also provide a new method of vibration suppression. The simulation results verify the effectiveness of the designed hybrid control strategy.

Modeling and Finite-Time Tracking Control for Mobile Manipulators with Affine and Holonomic Constraints

This paper focuses on the problem of modeling and finite-time tracking control for mobile manipulators with affine and holonomic constraints. A reduced dynamic model is obtained by appropriately processing anne and holonomic constraints, respectively. Then finite-time tracking controllers are designed to ensure that output tracking errors of closed-loop system converge to zero in finite time while the constraint force remains bounded. Finally, detailed simulation results are provided to confirm the effectiveness of the control strategy.

Finite-time Prescribed Performance Time-Varying Formation Control for Second-Order Multi-Agent Systems With Non-Strict Feedback Based on a Neural Network Observer

This paper studies the problem of time-varying formation control with finite-time prescribed performance for nonstrict feedback second-order multi-agent systems with unmeasured states and unknown nonlinearities.To eliminate nonlinearities,neural networks are applied to approximate the inherent dynamics of the system.In addition,due to the limitations of the actual working conditions,each follower agent can only obtain the locally measurable partial state information of the leader agent.To address this problem,a neural network state observer based on the leader state information is designed.Then,a finite-time prescribed performance adaptive output feedback control strategy is proposed by restricting the sliding mode surface to a prescribed region,which ensures that the closed-loop system has practical finite-time stability and that formation errors of the multi-agent systems converge to the prescribed performance bound in finite time.Finally,a numerical simulation is provided to demonstrate the practicality and effectiveness of the developed algorithm.

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.

Label-free in-vivo classi-cation and tracking of red blood cells and platelets using Dynamic-YOLOv4 network

In-vivo flow cytometry is a noninvasive real-time diagnostic technique that facilitates continuous monitoring of cells without perturbing their natural biological environment,which renders it a valuable tool for both scientific research and clinical applications.However,the conventional approach for improving classification accuracy often involves labeling cells with fluorescence,which can lead to potential phototoxicity.This study proposes a label-free in-vivo flow cytometry technique,called dynamic YOLOv4(D-YOLOv4),which improves classification accuracy by integrating absorption intensity fluctuation modulation(AIFM)into YOLOv4 to demodulate the temporal features of moving red blood cells(RBCs)and platelets.Using zebrafish as an experimental model,the D-YOLOv4 method achieved average precisions(APs)of 0.90 for RBCs and 0.64 for thrombocytes(similar to platelets in mammals),resulting in an overall AP of 0.77.These scores notably surpass those attained by alternative network models,thereby demonstrating that the combination of physical models with neural networks provides an innovative approach toward developing label-free in-vivoflow cytometry,which holds promise for diverse in-vivo cell classification applications.

Masked Autoencoders as Single Object Tracking Learners

Significant advancements have beenwitnessed in visual tracking applications leveragingViT in recent years,mainly due to the formidablemodeling capabilities of Vision Transformer(ViT).However,the strong performance of such trackers heavily relies on ViT models pretrained for long periods,limitingmore flexible model designs for tracking tasks.To address this issue,we propose an efficient unsupervised ViT pretraining method for the tracking task based on masked autoencoders,called TrackMAE.During pretraining,we employ two shared-parameter ViTs,serving as the appearance encoder and motion encoder,respectively.The appearance encoder encodes randomly masked image data,while the motion encoder encodes randomly masked pairs of video frames.Subsequently,an appearance decoder and a motion decoder separately reconstruct the original image data and video frame data at the pixel level.In this way,ViT learns to understand both the appearance of images and the motion between video frames simultaneously.Experimental results demonstrate that ViT-Base and ViT-Large models,pretrained with TrackMAE and combined with a simple tracking head,achieve state-of-the-art(SOTA)performance without additional design.Moreover,compared to the currently popular MAE pretraining methods,TrackMAE consumes only 1/5 of the training time,which will facilitate the customization of diverse models for tracking.For instance,we additionally customize a lightweight ViT-XS,which achieves SOTA efficient tracking performance.

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.

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.

Hyperbolic Tangent Function-Based Protocols for Global/Semi-Global Finite-Time Consensus of Multi-Agent Systems

This paper investigates the problem of global/semi-global finite-time consensus for integrator-type multi-agent sys-tems.New hyperbolic tangent function-based protocols are pro-posed to achieve global and semi-global finite-time consensus for both single-integrator and double-integrator multi-agent systems with leaderless undirected and leader-following directed commu-nication topologies.These new protocols not only provide an explicit upper-bound estimate for the settling time,but also have a user-prescribed bounded control level.In addition,compared to some existing results based on the saturation function,the pro-posed approach considerably simplifies the protocol design and the stability analysis.Illustrative examples and an application demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed protocols.

Finite-Time Stabilization for Constrained Discrete-time Systems by Using Model Predictive Control

In this paper, a model predictive control(MPC)framework is proposed for finite-time stabilization of linear and nonlinear discrete-time systems subject to state and control constraints. The proposed MPC framework guarantees the finite-time convergence property by assigning the control horizon equal to the dimension of the overall system, and only penalizing the terminal cost in the optimization, where the stage costs are not penalized explicitly. A terminal inequality constraint is added to guarantee the feasibility and stability of the closed-loop system.Initial feasibility can be improved via augmentation. The finite-time convergence of the proposed MPC is proved theoretically,and is supported by simulation examples.

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.

Finite-time decentralized event-triggered state estimation for coupled neural networks under unreliable Markovian network against mixed cyberattacks

This article investigates the issue of finite-time state estimation in coupled neural networks under random mixed cyberattacks,in which the Markov process is used to model the mixed cyberattacks.To optimize the utilization of channel resources,a decentralized event-triggered mechanism is adopted during the information transmission.By establishing the augmentation system and constructing the Lyapunov function,sufficient conditions are obtained for the system to be finite-time bounded and satisfy the H∞ performance index.Then,under these conditions,a suitable state estimator gain is obtained.Finally,the feasibility of the method is verified by a given illustrative example.

FPGA and computer-vision-based atom tracking technology for scanning probe microscopy

Atom tracking technology enhanced with innovative algorithms has been implemented in this study,utilizing a comprehensive suite of controllers and software independently developed domestically.Leveraging an on-board field-programmable gate array(FPGA)with a core frequency of 100 MHz,our system facilitates reading and writing operations across 16 channels,performing discrete incremental proportional-integral-derivative(PID)calculations within 3.4 microseconds.Building upon this foundation,gradient and extremum algorithms are further integrated,incorporating circular and spiral scanning modes with a horizontal movement accuracy of 0.38 pm.This integration enhances the real-time performance and significantly increases the accuracy of atom tracking.Atom tracking achieves an equivalent precision of at least 142 pm on a highly oriented pyrolytic graphite(HOPG)surface under room temperature atmospheric conditions.Through applying computer vision and image processing algorithms,atom tracking can be used when scanning a large area.The techniques primarily consist of two algorithms:the region of interest(ROI)-based feature matching algorithm,which achieves 97.92%accuracy,and the feature description-based matching algorithm,with an impressive 99.99%accuracy.Both implementation approaches have been tested for scanner drift measurements,and these technologies are scalable and applicable in various domains of scanning probe microscopy with broad application prospects in the field of nanoengineering.

Beam Training and Tracking in mmWave Communication:A Survey

Communicating on millimeter wave(mmWave)bands is ushering in a new epoch of mobile communication which provides the availability of 10 Gbps high data rate transmission.However,mmWave links are easily prone to short transmission range communication because of the serious free space path loss and the blockage by obstacles.To overcome these challenges,highly directional beams are exploited to achieve robust links by hybrid beamforming.Accurately aligning the transmitter and receiver beams,i.e.beam training,is vitally important to high data rate transmission.However,it may cause huge overhead which has negative effects on initial access,handover,and tracking.Besides,the mobility patterns of users are complicated and dynamic,which may cause tracking error and large tracking latency.An efficient beam tracking method has a positive effect on sustaining robust links.This article provides an overview of the beam training and tracking technologies on mmWave bands and reveals the insights for future research in the 6th Generation(6G)mobile network.Especially,some open research problems are proposed to realize fast,accurate,and robust beam training and tracking.We hope that this survey provides guidelines for the researchers in the area of mmWave communications.

A Retrodirective Array Enabled by CMOS Chips for Two-Way Wireless Communication with Automatic Beam Tracking

This article proposes and demonstrates a retrodirective array(RDA)for two-way wireless communication with automatic beam tracking.The proposed RDA is enabled by specifically designed chips made using a domestic complementary metal-oxide semiconductor(CMOS)process.The highly integrated CMOS chip includes a receiving(Rx)chain,a transmitting(Tx)chain,and a unique tracking phaselocked loop(PLL)for the crucial conjugated phase recovery in the RDA.This article also proposes a method to reduce the beam pointing error(BPE)in a conventional RDA.To validate the above ideas simply yet without loss of generality,a 2.4 GHz RDA is demonstrated through two-way communication links between the Rx and Tx chains,and an on-chip quadrature coupler is designed to achieve a nonretrodirective signal suppression of 23 dBc.The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed RDA,which incorporates domestically manufactured low-cost 0.18 lm CMOS chips,is capable of automatically tracking beams covering±40with a reduced BPE.Each CMOS chip in the RDA has a compact size of 4.62 mm^(2) and a low power consumption of 0.15 W.To the best of the authors’knowledge,this is the first research to demonstrate an RDA with a fully customized CMOS chip for wireless communication with automatic beam tracking。

Automatic velocity picking based on optimal key points tracking algorithm

Picking velocities from semblances manually is laborious and necessitates experience. Although various methods for automatic velocity picking have been developed, there remains a challenge in efficiently incorporating information from nearby gathers to ensure picked velocity aligns with seismic horizons while also improving picking accuracy. The conventional method of velocity picking from a semblance volume is computationally demanding, highlighting a need for a more efficient strategy. In this study, we introduce a novel method for automatic velocity picking based on multi-object tracking. This dynamic tracking process across different semblance panels can integrate information from nearby gathers effectively while maintaining computational efficiency. First, we employ accelerated density clustering on the velocity spectrum to discern cluster centers without the requirement for prior knowledge regarding the number of clusters. These cluster centers embody the maximum likelihood velocities of the main subsurface structures. Second, our proposed method tracks key points within the semblance volume. Kalman filter is adopted to adjust the tracking process, followed by interpolation on these tracked points to construct the final velocity model. Our synthetic data example demonstrates that our proposed algorithm can effectively rectify the picking errors of the clustering algorithm. We further compare the performances of the clustering method(CM), the proposed tracking method(TM), and the variational method(VM) on a field dataset from the Gulf of Mexico. The results attest that our method offers superior accuracy than CM, achieves comparable accuracy with VM, and benefits from a reduced computational cost.

SMSTracker:A Self-Calibration Multi-Head Self-Attention Transformer for Visual Object Tracking

Visual object tracking plays a crucial role in computer vision.In recent years,researchers have proposed various methods to achieve high-performance object tracking.Among these,methods based on Transformers have become a research hotspot due to their ability to globally model and contextualize information.However,current Transformer-based object tracking methods still face challenges such as low tracking accuracy and the presence of redundant feature information.In this paper,we introduce self-calibration multi-head self-attention Transformer(SMSTracker)as a solution to these challenges.It employs a hybrid tensor decomposition self-organizing multihead self-attention transformermechanism,which not only compresses and accelerates Transformer operations but also significantly reduces redundant data,thereby enhancing the accuracy and efficiency of tracking.Additionally,we introduce a self-calibration attention fusion block to resolve common issues of attention ambiguities and inconsistencies found in traditional trackingmethods,ensuring the stability and reliability of tracking performance across various scenarios.By integrating a hybrid tensor decomposition approach with a self-organizingmulti-head self-attentive transformer mechanism,SMSTracker enhances the efficiency and accuracy of the tracking process.Experimental results show that SMSTracker achieves competitive performance in visual object tracking,promising more robust and efficient tracking systems,demonstrating its potential to providemore robust and efficient tracking solutions in real-world applications.

A finite-time fuzzy adaptive output-feedback fault-tolerant control for underactuated wheeled mobile robots systems

This paper investigates the adaptive fuzzy finite-time output-feedback fault-tolerant control (FTC) problemfor a class of nonlinear underactuated wheeled mobile robots (UWMRs) system with intermittent actuatorfaults. The UWMR system includes unknown nonlinear dynamics and immeasurable states. Fuzzy logic systems(FLSs) are utilized to work out immeasurable functions. Furthermore, with the support of the backsteppingcontrol technique and adaptive fuzzy state observer, a fuzzy adaptive finite-time output-feedback FTC scheme isdeveloped under the intermittent actuator faults. It is testifying the scheme can ensure the controlled nonlinearUWMRs is stable and the estimation errors are convergent. Finally, the comparison results and simulationvalidate the effectiveness of the proposed fuzzy adaptive finite-time FTC approach.

Efficient 2-D MUSIC algorithm for super-resolution moving target tracking based on an FMCW radar

Frequency modulated continuous wave(FMCW)radar is an advantageous sensor scheme for target estimation and environmental perception.However,existing algorithms based on discrete Fourier transform(DFT),multiple signal classification(MUSIC)and compressed sensing,etc.,cannot achieve both low complexity and high resolution simultaneously.This paper proposes an efficient 2-D MUSIC algorithm for super-resolution target estimation/tracking based on FMCW radar.Firstly,we enhance the efficiency of 2-D MUSIC azimuth-range spectrum estimation by incorporating 2-D DFT and multi-level resolution searching strategy.Secondly,we apply the gradient descent method to tightly integrate the spatial continuity of object motion into spectrum estimation when processing multi-epoch radar data,which improves the efficiency of continuous target tracking.These two approaches have improved the algorithm efficiency by nearly 2-4 orders of magnitude without losing accuracy and resolution.Simulation experiments are conducted to validate the effectiveness of the algorithm in both single-epoch estimation and multi-epoch tracking scenarios.

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.