Performance analysis of real-time and post-mission kinematic precise point positioning in marine environments

This article focuses on the performance analysis of both real-time and post-mission kinematic precise point positioning(PPP)in challenging marine environments.For this purpose,a real dynamic experiment lasting 6 h was carried out on a lake dam in?orum City of Turkey.While the kinematic test was continuing,the real-time PPP coordinates were obtained for each measurement epoch with a commercial real-time PPP(RT-PPP)service,namely the Trimble Center Point RTX.Then the post-mission PPP(PM-PPP)coordinates were calculated by using Multi-GNSS data and the Multi-GNSS Experiment(MGEX)precise products.The kinematic RT-PPP and PM-PPP results showed that the PPP coordinates were consistent with the relative solution at centimetre and decimetre level in horizontal and height components,respectively.This study implies that PPP technique is a powerful tool for highly accurate positioning in both real-time and post-mission modes,even for dynamic applications in harsh environments.

A Mixed Real-time Algorithm for the Forward Kinematics of Stewart Parallel Manipulator

Aimed at the real-time forward kinematics solving problem of Stewart parallel manipulator in the control course, a mixed algorithm combining immune evolutionary algorithm and numerical iterative scheme is proposed. Firstly taking advantage of simpleness of inverse kinematics, the forward kinematics is transformed to an optimal problem. Immune evolutionary algorithm is employed to find approximate solution of this optimal problem in manipulator＇s workspace. Then using above solution as iterative initialization, a speedy numerical iterative scheme is proposed to get more precise solution. In the manipulator running course, the iteration initialization can be selected as the last period position and orientation. Because the initialization is closed to correct solution, solving precision is high and speed is rapid enough to satisfy real-time requirement. This mixed forward kinematics algorithm is applied to real Stewart parallel manipulator in the real-time control course. The examination result shows that the algorithm is very efficient and practical.

Forward kinematics analysis of parallel manipulator using modified global Newton-Raphson method

In order to obtain direct solutions of parallel manipulator without divergence in real time,a modified global Newton-Raphson(MGNR) algorithm was proposed for forward kinematics analysis of six-degree-of-freedom(DOF) parallel manipulator.Based on geometrical frame of parallel manipulator,the highly nonlinear equations of kinematics were derived using analytical approach.The MGNR algorithm was developed for the nonlinear equations based on Tailor expansion and Newton-Raphson iteration.The procedure of MGNR algorithm was programmed in Matlab/Simulink and compiled to a real-time computer with Microsoft visual studio.NET for implementation.The performance of the MGNR algorithms for 6-DOF parallel manipulator was analyzed and confirmed.Applying the MGNR algorithm,the real generalized pose of moving platform is solved by using the set of given positions of actuators.The theoretical analysis and numerical results indicate that the presented method can achieve the numerical convergent solution in less than 1 ms with high accuracy(1×10-9 m in linear motion and 1×10-9 rad in angular motion),even the initial guess value is far from the root.

Model-based framework for multi-axial real-time hybrid simulation testing

Real-time hybrid simulation is an efficient and cost-effective dynamic testing technique for performance evaluation of structural systems subjected to earthquake loading with rate-dependent behavior. A loading assembly with multiple actuators is required to impose realistic boundary conditions on physical specimens. However, such a testing system is expected to exhibit significant dynamic coupling of the actuators and suffer from time lags that are associated with the dynamics of the servo-hydraulic system, as well as control-structure interaction （CSI）. One approach to reducing experimental errors considers a multi-input, multi-output （MIMO） controller design, yielding accurate reference tracking and noise rejection. In this paper, a framework for multi-axial real-time hybrid simulation （maRTHS） testing is presented. The methodology employs a real-time feedback-feedforward controller for multiple actuators commanded in Cartesian coordinates. Kinematic transformations between actuator space and Cartesian space are derived for all six-degrees-of- freedom of the moving platform. Then, a frequency domain identification technique is used to develop an accurate MIMO transfer function of the system. Further, a Cartesian-domain model-based feedforward-feedback controller is implemented for time lag compensation and to increase the robustness of the reference tracking for given model uncertainty. The framework is implemented using the 1/5th-scale Load and Boundary Condition Box （LBCB） located at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. To demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed methodology, a single-story frame subjected to earthquake loading is tested. One of the columns in the fraane is represented physically in the laboratory as a cantilevered steel column. For real- time execution, the numerical substructure, kinematic transformations, and controllers are implemented on a digital signal processor. Results show excellent performance of the maRTHS framework when six-degrees-of-freedom are controUed at the interface between substructures.

Development of a Microcomputer System for 3D Kinematic Simulation

Software system is developed for real-time processing of 3D graphics by Visual C + + calling functions in PpenGL under the environment of Windows NT(Windows 95). By 3D modeling after mathematics modeling automatic generation of 3D soid and real-time processing of 3D animaation are realized, and a microcomputer system is developed for real-time kinematic simulation.

A Cross-sectional Survey Assessing Carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae in a Healthy Population in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China

The carriage rate and serotype distribution of Streptococcus pneumoniae（S.pneumoniae）in a healthy population in China remains unclear.In this study,we collected the oropharyngeal swabs from513 individuals in Xinjiang,China.Real-time PCR targeting the lytA gene and 12 serotypes were assessed to identify S.pneumoniae carriage.

Low-cost experimental application of real-time kinematic positioning for increasing the benefits in cereal crops

Traditional agriculture is facing several challenges worldwide such as increased population growth,rapid forestry and urbanization,resource scarcity,climate change,environmental pollution,competition among different markets.Hence,farmers need to improve productivity in order to maintain the output level.This study attempted to evaluate the benefits of using Real-Time Kinematic(RTK)positioning in precision agriculture through a series of real measurements carried out when farming cereals.All farming management actions involved in the cereal crop process(raise fallow,plow,sow,fertilize,mow,and harvest)have been done using an automatic guidance system that has reduced costs.A reduction of 20%has been quantified in the fuel,the amount of fertilizer,the labor costs and the hours of work.Consequently,the environmental impact has been also reduced.An inexpensive system consisting of a reference base station near the field and a mobile unit mounted on the test vehicle has been installed in order to increase the benefits in cereal crops.Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS)systems including Global Positioning System(GPS),GLONASS,Galileo and Beidou have been used in the analysis.This research serves as a practical guide to implementing a low-cost guidance system to achieve best management practice.

Applying Global Positioning System Real-Time Kinematic Technology to Collection and Analysis of Rowing Information

To obtain higher accuracy of information concerning boat motion, the use of global positioning system (GPS) real-time kinematic (RTK) technology was investigated. Through RTK technology, a measurement precision of the ±1 cm range can be achieved. The research equipment included a GPS receiver and a personal digital assistant as a data control and processing unit. Real-time GPS data was captured and processed to acquire various parameters, including the boat track, velocity curve, stroke rate, and stroke distance. Using this data, the quantitative information related to rowing training can be achieved. The results are helpful for analyzing the biomechanical parameters of rowing techniques and for evaluating training efficiency.

Squat motion of a bipedal robot using real-time kinematic prediction and whole-body control

Squatting is a basic movement of bipedal robots,which is essential in robotic actions like jumping or picking up objects.Due to the intrinsic complex dynamics of bipedal robots,perfect squatting motion requires high-performance motion planning and control algorithms.The standard academic solution combines model predictive control(MPC)with whole-body control(WBC),which is usually computationally expensive and difficult to implement on practical robots with limited computing resources.The real-time kinematic prediction(RKP)method is proposed,which considers upcoming reference motion trajectories and combines it with quadratic programming(QP)-based WBC.Since the WBC handles the full robot dynamics and various constraints,the RKP only needs to adopt the linear kinematics in the robot's task space and to softly constrain the desired accelerations.Then,the computational cost of derived closed-form RKP is greatly reduced.The RKP method is verified in simulation on a heavy-loaded bipedal robot.The robot makes rapid and large-amplitude squatting motions,which require close-to-limit torque outputs.Compared with the conventional QP-based WBC method,the proposed method exhibits high adaptability to rough planning,which implies much less user interference in the robot's motion planning.Furthermore,like the MPC,the proposed method can prepare for upcoming motions in advance but requires much less computation time.

Statewide GNSS-RTN Systems: Current Practices

The applications of geospatial technologies and positioning data embrace every sphere of modern-day science and industry. With technological advancement, the demands for highly accurate positioning services in real-time led to the development of the Global Navigation Satellite System—Real-Time Network (GNSS-RTN). While there is numerous published information on the technical aspects of the GNSS-RTN technology, information on the best practices or guidelines in building, operating, and managing the GNSS-RTN networks is lacking in practice. To better understand the current practice in establishing and operating the GNSS-RTN systems, an online questionnaire survey was sent to the GNSS-RTN system owners/operators across the U.S. Additionally, a thorough review of available literature on business models and interviews with representatives of two major manufacturers/vendors of GNSS-RTN products and services were conducted. Study results revealed a great deal of inconsistency in current practices among states in the way the GNSS-RTN systems are built, operated, and managed. Aspects of the diversity in state practices involved the business models for the GNSS-RTN systems besides the technical attributes of the network and system products. The information gathered in this study is important in helping state agencies make informed decisions as they build, expand or manage their own GNSS-RTN systems.

LQG Controller Design Applied to a Pneumatic Stewart-Gough Platform

This paper is concerned with the practical application control of a pneumatically actuated Stewart-Gough platform with 6-degrees of freedom （6-DOF）. The control approach for motion control of the platform is presented using a modern control technique, namely, linear quadratic Gaussinn （LQG） with reference tracking. The LQG controller is the combination of a Kalman filter, i.e., a linear-quadratic estimator （LQE） with a linear-quadratic regulator （LQR）. The robustness of the control scheme is accessed under various load conditions, and the experimental results are shown.

Variations of Laohugou Glacier No.12 in the western Qilian Mountains, China, from 1957 to 2015

Glaciers were solid reservoirs and important water resources in western China,but they were retreating significantly in context of global warming.Laohugou Glacier No.12 was the largest valley glacier in Qilian Mountains.In this study,realtime kinematic(RTK)data,topographic map and World View-2 satellite imagery were used to measure changes in terminus,extent and volume of Laohugou Glacier No.12.Results showed that Laohugou Glacier No.12 was shrinking significantly since 1957.From1960 to 2015,the terminus reduction of Laohugou Glacier No.12 was 402.96 m(3.99%)in total,and glacier length decreased to 9.7 km from 10.1 km.Reduction of glacier area and volume were the most obvious.From 1957 to 2015,glacier area and volume decreased by 1.54 km^2(7.03%)and 0.1816 km^3,respectively.Reduction trend of terminus and area was slowing in 1950-1980s,even stable for a period in the mid-1980s,and then accelerated.Ice core analysis result and nearly meteorological station data shown an increasing trend of temperature in 1957-2015,it was a main reason of continuous retreating of Laohugou Glacier No.12.

Field testing innovative differential geospatial and photogrammetric monitoring technologiesin mountainous terrain near Ashcroft,British Columbia,Canada

This paper presents a novel approach to continuously monitor very slow-moving translational landslides in mountainous terrain using conventional and experimental differential global navigation satellite system(d-GNSS)technologies.A key research question addressed is whether displacement trends captured by a radio-frequency“mobile”d-GNSS network compare with the spatial and temporal patterns in activity indicated by satellite interferometric synthetic aperture radar(InSAR)and unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)photogrammetry.Field testing undertaken at Ripley Landslide,near Ashcroft in south-central British Columbia,Canada,demonstrates the applicability of new geospatial technologies to monitoring ground control points(GCPs)and railway infrastructure on a landslide with small and slow annual displacements(<10 cm/yr).Each technique records increased landslide activity and ground displacement in late winter and early spring.During this interval,river and groundwater levels are at their lowest levels,while ground saturation rapidly increases in response to the thawing of surficial earth materials,and the infiltration of snowmelt and runoff occurs by way of deep-penetrating tension cracks at the head scarp and across the main slide body.Research over the last decade provides vital information for government agencies,national railway companies,and other stakeholders to understand geohazard risk,predict landslide movement,improve the safety,security,and resilience of Canada’s transportation infrastructure;and reduce risks to the economy,environment,natural resources,and public safety.

Monitoring the Deformation of Cableways

One type of aerial cableway consists of a continuous cable,which works at the same time as carrying cable and drawing cable.This kind of cableway is supported by many towers,which divide the total length in linear sections.Even small deviations from the planed layout can increase the strain of the cable and the danger of derailments.The deviations of the position of the towers from the planed layout are due to local sliding or sinking of the foundation or other mechanical movements.Up to now the axis of the cableways were periodically measured by traditional methods.The goal of this project is to demonstrate the possibility of measuring the axis of a cableway with GPS techniques,while the cable is moving.The results show that the proposed measuring device provides precise results in a simple and reliable way.

Forecasts of cosmological constraints from HI intensity mapping with FAST,BINGO and SKA-I

We forecast the cosmological constraints of the neutral hydrogen(HI) intensity mapping(IM)technique with radio telescopes by assuming 1-year of observational time. The current and future radio telescopes that we consider here are Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope(FAST), Baryon acoustic oscillations In Neutral Gas Observations(BINGO), and Square Kilometre Array phase Ⅰ(SKA-Ⅰ) single-dish experiments. We also forecast the combined constraints of the three radio telescopes with Planck. We find that the 1σ errors of(w0, wa) for BINGO, FAST and SKA-Ⅰ with respect to the fiducial values are respectively,(0.9293, 3.5792),(0.4083, 1.5878) and(0.3158, 0.4622). This is equivalent to(56.04%, 55.64%) and(66.02%, 87.09%) improvements in constraining(w0, wa) for FAST and SKA-Ⅰ respectively relative to BINGO. Simulations further show that SKA-Ⅰ will put more stringent constraints than both FAST and BINGO when each of the experiments is combined with Planck measurements. The 1σ errors for(w0, wa), BINGO + Planck, FAST + Planck and SKA-Ⅰ + Planck covariance matrices are respectively(0.0832, 0.3520),(0.0791, 0.3313) and(0.0678, 0.2679) implying there is an improvement in(w0, wa) constraints of(4.93%, 5.88%) for FAST + Planck relative to BINGO + Planck and an improvement of(18.51%, 23.89%) in constraining(w0, wa) for SKA-Ⅰ + Planck relative to BINGO + Planck. We also compared the performance of Planck data plus each single-dish experiment relative to Planck alone,and find that the reduction in(w0, wa) 1σ errors for each experiment plus Planck, respectively, imply the(w0, wa) constraints improvement of(22.96%, 8.45%),(26.76%, 13.84%) and(37.22%, 30.33%) for BINGO + Planck, FAST + Planck and SKA-Ⅰ + Planck relative to Planck alone. For the nine cosmological parameters in consideration, we find that there is a trade-off between SKA-Ⅰ and FAST in constraining cosmological parameters, with each experiment being more superior in constraining a particular set of parameters.

The assembly of the Milky Way and its satellite galaxies

In recent years it has become clear that the Milky Way is an important test- ing ground for theories of galaxy formation. Much of this growth has been driven by large surveys, both photometric and spectroscopic, which are producing vast and rich catalogs of data. Through the analysis of these data sets we can gain new and detailed insights into the physical processes which shaped the Milky Way＇s evolution. This review will discuss a number of these developments, first focusing on the disk of the Milky Way, and then looking at its satellite population. The importance of surveys has not gone unnoticed by the Chinese astronomy community and in the final section we discuss a number of Chinese projects that are set to play a key role in the development of this field.

An improved GNSS ambiguity best integer equivariant estimation method with Laplacian distribution for urban low-cost RTK positioning

The integer least squares(ILS)estimation is commonly used for carrier phase ambiguity resolution(AR).More recently,the best integer equivariant(BIE)estimation has also attracted an attention for complex application scenarios,which exhibits higher reliability by a weighted fusion of integer candidates.However,traditional BIE estimation with Gaussian distribution(GBIE)faces challenges in fully utilizing the advantages of BIE for urban low-cost positioning,mainly due to the presence of outliers and unmodeled errors.To this end,an improved BIE estimation method with Laplacian distribution(LBIE)is proposed,and several key issues are discussed,including the weight function of LBIE,determination of the candidates included based on the OIA test,and derivation of the variance of LBIE solutions for reliability evaluation.The results show that the proposed LBIE method has the positioning accuracy similar to the BIE using multivariate t-distribution(TBIE),and significantly outperforms the ILS-PAR and GBIE methods.In an urban expressway test with a Huawei Mate40 smartphone,the LBIE method has positioning errors of less than 0.5 m in three directions and obtains over 50%improvements compared to the ILS-PAR and GBIE methods.In an urban canyon test with a low-cost receiver STA8100 produced by STMicroelectronics,the positioning accuracy of LBIE in three directions is 0.112 m,0.107 m,and 0.252 m,respectively,with improvements of 17.6%,27.2%,and 26.1%compared to GBIE,and 23.3%,28.2%,and 30.6%compared to ILS-PAR.Moreover,its computational time increases by 30–40%compared to ILS-PAR and is approximately half of that using TBIE.

A survey on formal specification and verification of separation kernels

Abstract Separation kernels are fundamental software of safety and security-critical systems, which provide their hosted applications with spatial and temporal separation as well as controlled information flows among partitions. The application of separation kernels in critical domain demands the correctness of the kernel by formal verification. To the best of our knowledge, there is no survey paper on this topic. This paper presents an overview of formal specification and verification of separation kernels. We first present the back- ground including the concept of separation kernel and the comparisons among different kernels. Then, we survey the state of the art on this topic since 2000. Finally, we summa- rize research work by detailed comparison and discussion.

一种基于卡尔曼滤波的RTK定位周跳探测方法

针对载波观测值的周跳问题,提出了一种基于卡尔曼滤波的周跳探测方法。该方法在逐历元递推的时候对模糊度进行实时估计,当载体的位置和速度能够比较准确地估计时,倘若出现周跳,对应模糊度的值会出现相应的变化,通过对前后历元模糊度做差即可获得周跳值及其方差值;之后使用LAMBDA方法对周跳进行固定。实验结果表明,该方法具有良好的周跳探测能力,对于静态数据在99%的情况下能正确确定周跳值,对于动态数据在80%的情况下能正确确定周跳值,且该方法的效果不受频率和周跳卫星数量影响。

多模数据融合的单频RTK算法研究与软件实现

参考开源的RTKLIB代码,基于Visual Studio 2013设计开发了支持GPS、北斗卫星导航系统(BeiDou navigation satellite system, BDS)、GLONASS、GAILIEO数据的单频实时动态(real-time kinematic, RTK)解算软件MSRTK(multiple system RTK),并用实测数据对其进行了效果测试。结果表明,多模系统单频RTK解算技术是可行的,且四系统模式的定位精度要优于单系统、双系统和三系统模式的定位精度,即多模系统的引入可以提高单频RTK算法的定位精度。这一工作为多系统单频接收机的应用提供了参考。