Optimization of Critical Systems for Robustness in a Multistate World

Critical systems are typically complex systems that are required to perform reliably over a wide range of scenarios, or multistate world. Seldom does a single system exist that performs best for all plausible scenarios. A robust solution, one that performs relatively well over a wide range of scenarios, is often the preferred choice for reduced risk at an acceptable cost. The alternative with the maximum expected utility may possess vulnerabilities that could be exploited. The best strategy is likely to be a hybrid solution. The von Neumann-Morgenstern Expected Utility Theory (EUT) would never select such a solution because, given its linear functional form, the expected utility of a hybrid solution cannot be greater than that of every constituent alternative. The continuity axiom and the independence axiom are assessed to be unrealistic for the problem of interest. Several well-known decision models are analyzed and demonstrated to be potentially misleading. The linear disappointment model modifies EUT by adding a term proportional to downside risk;however, it does not provide a mathematical basis for determining preferred hybrid solutions. The paper proposes a portfolio allocation model with stochastic optimization as a flexible and transparent method for defining choice problems and determining hybrid solutions for critical systems with desirable properties such as diversification and robustness.

Stability and Robustness Analysis of an Adaptive Algorithm for Quasi-periodic Disturbances Rejection

Winding and web transport systems are subjected to quasi-periodic disturbances of the web tension due to the eccentricity and the non-circularity of the reel and rolls. The disturbances induced by the non-circularity and eccentricity of the rolls are quasi-periodic with a frequency that varies with their rotation speed. An adaptive method of rejection of these disturbances is proposed in this paper. It is based on a phase-locked loop structure that estimates simutaneously the phase and magnitude of the perturbation and then cancels it. This algorithm can be plugged in an existing industrial controller. The stability and robustness of the algorithm are also discussed. The ability of the algorithm to reject quasi-periodic disturbances with slowly varying frequencies is shown through simulation results.

On Robustness of a Sequential Test for Scale Parameter of Gamma and Exponential Distributions

The main aim of the present paper is to study the robustness of the developed sequential probability ratio test (SPRT) for testing the hypothesis about scale parameter of gamma distribution with known shape parameter and exponential distribution with location parameter. The robustness of the SPRT for scale parameter of gamma distribution is studied when the shape parameter has undergone a change. The similar study is conducted for the scale parameter of exponential distribution when the location parameter has undergone a change. The expressions for operating characteristic and average sample number functions are derived. It is found in both the cases that the SPRT is robust only when there is a slight variation in the shape and location parameter in the respective distributions.

Robustness Study and Superior Method Development and Validation for Analytical Assay Method of Atropine Sulfate in Pharmaceutical Ophthalmic Solution

Background: The robustness is a measurement of an analytical chemical method and its ability to contain unaffected by little with deliberate variation of analytical chemical method parameters. The analytical chemical method variation parameters are based on pH variability of buffer solution of mobile phase, organic ratio composition changes, stationary phase (column) manufacture, brand name and lot number variation;flow rate variation and temperature variation of chromatographic system. The analytical chemical method for assay of Atropine Sulfate conducted for robustness evaluation. The typical variation considered for mobile phase organic ratio change, change of pH, change of temperature, change of flow rate, change of column etc. Purpose: The aim of this study is to develop a cost effective, short run time and robust analytical chemical method for the assay quantification of Atropine in Pharmaceutical Ophthalmic Solution. This will help to make analytical decisions quickly for research and development scientists as well as will help with quality control product release for patient consumption. This analytical method will help to meet the market demand through quick quality control test of Atropine Ophthalmic Solution and it is very easy for maintaining (GDP) good documentation practices within the shortest period of time. Method: HPLC method has been selected for developing superior method to Compendial method. Both the compendial HPLC method and developed HPLC method was run into the same HPLC system to prove the superiority of developed method. Sensitivity, precision, reproducibility, accuracy parameters were considered for superiority of method. Mobile phase ratio change, pH of buffer solution, change of stationary phase temperature, change of flow rate and change of column were taken into consideration for robustness study of the developed method. Results: The limit of quantitation (LOQ) of developed method was much low than the compendial method. The % RSD for the six sample assay of developed method was 0.4% where the % RSD of the compendial method was 1.2%. The reproducibility between two analysts was 100.4% for developed method on the contrary the compendial method was 98.4%.

Robustness self-testing of states and measurements in the prepare-and-measure scenario with 3 → 1 random access code

Recently, Tavakoli et al.proposed a self-testing scheme in the prepare-and-measure scenario, showing that self-testing is not necessarily based on entanglement and violation of a Bell inequality [Phys.Rev.A 98 062307(2018)].They realized the self-testing of preparations and measurements in an N → 1(N ≥ 2) random access code(RAC), and provided robustness bounds in a 2 → 1 RAC.Since all N → 1 RACs with shared randomness are combinations of 2 → 1 and 3 → 1 RACs, the3 → 1 RAC is just as important as the 2 → 1 RAC.In this paper, we find a set of preparations and measurements in the3 → 1 RAC, and use them to complete the robustness self-testing analysis in the prepare-and-measure scenario.The method is robust to small but inevitable experimental errors.

On Rotational Robustness of Shapiro-Wilk Type Tests for Multivariate Normality

The Shapiro-Wilk test (SWT) for normality is well known for its competitive power against numerous one-dimensional alternatives. Several extensions of the SWT to multi-dimensions have also been proposed. This paper investigates the relative strength and rotational robustness of some SWT-based normality tests. In particular, the Royston’s H-test and the SWT-based test proposed by Villase?or-Alva and González-Estrada have R packages available for testing multivariate normality;thus they are user friendly but lack of rotational robustness compared to the test proposed by Fattorini. Numerical power comparison is provided for illustration along with some practical guidelines on the choice of these SWT-type tests in practice.

Study of Dynamic Robustness of Servo Control System on a Water Press

The reliability and robustness of the electro-hydraulic servo control system for heavy-duty forging machine play an important role in forging processes. A mathematic model of 50 MN water press for free forging was created in this research. The dynamic robust compensator integrating with PID control method is designed and applied to the mathematical model simulation. The simulated results approved that the dynamic robust compensator application restrains interference from extra load and improves the electro-hydraulic position servo control system accuracy and stability.

Robustness Evaluation of a Novel Proton Beam Geometry for Head and Neck Patients Treated with Pencil Beam Scanning Therapy

Background: To evaluate the robustness of head and neck treatment using proton pencil beam scanning (PBS) technique with respect to range uncertainty (RU) and setup errors (SE), and to establish a robust PBS planning strategy for future treatment. Methods and Materials: Ten consecutive patients were planned with a novel proton field geometry (combination of two posterior oblique fields and one anterior field with gradient dose match) using single-field uniform dose (SFUD) planning technique and the proton plans were dosimetrically compared to two coplanar arc VMAT plans. Robustness of the plans, with respect to range uncertainties (RU = ± 3% for proton) and setup errors (SE = 2.25 mm for proton and VMAT), in terms of deviations to target coverage (CTV D98%) and OAR doses (max/mean), were evaluated and compared for each patient under worst case scenarios. Results: Dosimetrically, PBS plans provided better sparing to larynx (p = 0.005), oral cavity (p < 0.001) and contralateral parotid (p = 0.004) when compared to VMAT. CTV D98% variations were higher from SE than from RU for proton plans (-1.1% ± 1.3 % vs -0.4% ± 0.7% for nodal CTV and -1.4% ± 1.2 vs -0.4% ± 0.5% % for boost CTV). Overall, the magnitudes of variation of CTV D98% to combined SE and RU were found to be similar to the impact of the SE on the VMAT plans (-1.6% ± 1.9% vs -1.7% ± 1.4% for nodal CTV and -1.9% ± 1.6% vs -1.3% ± 1.5% for boost CTV). Compared to VMAT, a larger range of relative dose deviations were found for OARs in proton plans, but safe doses were maintained for cord (41.8 ± 3.6 Gy for PBS and 41.7 ± 3.9 Gy for VMAT) and brainstem (35.2 ± 8.4 Gy for PBS and 36.2 ± 5.1 Gy for VMAT) in worst case scenarios. Conclusions: Compared to VMAT, proton plans containing three SFUD fields with superior-inferior gradient dose matching had improved sparing to larynx, contralateral parotid and oral cavity, while providing similar robustness of target coverage. Evaluation of OAR dose robustness showed higher sensitivities to uncertainties for proton plans, but safe dose levels were maintained for cord and brainstem.

ROBUSTNESS OF OPTIMALLY ROBUST CONTROLLERS——Dedicated to the Sixtieth Birthday of Prof. You Zhao-yong

The largest robust stability radius r(P0) of a system P0 is defined as the radius of the largest ball Bmax in the gap metric centered at P0 which can be stabilized by one single controller. Any controller which stabilizes Bmax is called an optimally robust controller of P0. Any controller, regarded as a system, should have its own largest robust stability radius also. In this paper it is shown that the largest robust stability radius of any optimally robust controller of P0 is larger than or equal to r(Po). Moreover, the variation of the closed-loop transfer matrix caused by the perturbation of the system is estimated.

Benchmarking the Robustness of Cellular Up-Links in Automatic Weather Station Networks

We present a problem for benchmarking the robustness of cellular up-links, in an automatic weather station (AWS) testbed. Based on the problem, we conduct a small-scale measurement study of robustness, where the AWS is equipped with four (4) cellular modems for weather data delivery. The effectiveness of up-links is challenging because of overlapping spatial-temporal factors such as the presence of good reflectors that lead to multi-path effects, interference, network load or other reasons. We argue that, there is a strong need for independent assessments of their robustness, to perform end-to-end network measurement. However, it is yet difficult to go from a particular measurement to an assessment of the entire network. We extensively measure the variability of Radio Signal Strength (RSSI) as link metric on the cellular modems. The RSSI is one of the important link metrics that can determine the robustness of received RF signals, and explore how they differed from one another at a particular location and instant time. We also apply the statistical analysis that quantifies the level of stability by considering the robustness, referring short-term variation, and determines good up-link in comparison to weak one. The results show that the robustness of cellular up-links exists for an unpredictable period of time and lower than one could hope. More than 50% of up-links are intermittent. Therefore, we plan to extend our work by exploring RSSI thresholds, to develop a classification scheme supporting a decision whether a link is either intermittent or not. This will help in normalizing the level of stability, to design the RSSI estimation metric for the robust routing protocol in weather data networks.

Data-driven diagnosis of high temperature PEM fuel cells based on the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy: Robustness improvement and evaluation

Utilizing machine learning techniques for data-driven diagnosis of high temperature PEM fuel cells is beneficial and meaningful to the system durability. Nevertheless, ensuring the robustness of diagnosis remains a critical and challenging task in real application. To enhance the robustness of diagnosis and achieve a more thorough evaluation of diagnostic performance, a robust diagnostic procedure based on electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and a new method for evaluation of the diagnosis robustness was proposed and investigated in this work. To improve the diagnosis robustness: (1) the degradation mechanism of different faults in the high temperature PEM fuel cell was first analyzed via the distribution of relaxation time of EIS to determine the equivalent circuit model (ECM) with better interpretability, simplicity and accuracy;(2) the feature extraction was implemented on the identified parameters of the ECM and extra attention was paid to distinguishing between the long-term normal degradation and other faults;(3) a Siamese Network was adopted to get features with higher robustness in a new embedding. The diagnosis was conducted using 6 classic classification algorithms—support vector machine (SVM), K-nearest neighbor (KNN), logistic regression (LR), decision tree (DT), random forest (RF), and Naive Bayes employing a dataset comprising a total of 1935 collected EIS. To evaluate the robustness of trained models: (1) different levels of errors were added to the features for performance evaluation;(2) a robustness coefficient (Roubust_C) was defined for a quantified and explicit evaluation of the diagnosis robustness. The diagnostic models employing the proposed feature extraction method can not only achieve the higher performance of around 100% but also higher robustness for diagnosis models. Despite the initial performance being similar, the KNN demonstrated a superior robustness after feature selection and re-embedding by triplet-loss method, which suggests the necessity of robustness evaluation for the machine learning models and the effectiveness of the defined robustness coefficient. This work hopes to give new insights to the robust diagnosis of high temperature PEM fuel cells and more comprehensive performance evaluation of the data-driven method for diagnostic application.

Image Hiding with High Robustness Based on Dynamic Region Attention in the Wavelet Domain

Hidden capacity,concealment,security,and robustness are essential indicators of hiding algorithms.Currently,hiding algorithms tend to focus on algorithmic capacity,concealment,and security but often overlook the robustness of the algorithms.In practical applications,the container can suffer from damage caused by noise,cropping,and other attacks during transmission,resulting in challenging or even impossible complete recovery of the secret image.An image hiding algorithm based on dynamic region attention in the multi-scale wavelet domain is proposed to address this issue and enhance the robustness of hiding algorithms.In this proposed algorithm,a secret image of size 256×256 is first decomposed using an eight-level Haar wavelet transform.The wavelet transform generates one coefficient in the approximation component and twenty-four detail bands,which are then embedded into the carrier image via a hiding network.During the recovery process,the container image is divided into four non-overlapping parts,each employed to reconstruct a low-resolution secret image.These lowresolution secret images are combined using densemodules to obtain a high-quality secret image.The experimental results showed that even under destructive attacks on the container image,the proposed algorithm is successful in recovering a high-quality secret image,indicating that the algorithm exhibits a high degree of robustness against various attacks.The proposed algorithm effectively addresses the robustness issue by incorporating both spatial and channel attention mechanisms in the multi-scale wavelet domain,making it suitable for practical applications.In conclusion,the image hiding algorithm introduced in this study offers significant improvements in robustness compared to existing algorithms.Its ability to recover high-quality secret images even in the presence of destructive attacksmakes it an attractive option for various applications.Further research and experimentation can explore the algorithm’s performance under different scenarios and expand its potential applications.

Physics-Constrained Robustness Enhancement for Tree Ensembles Applied in Smart Grid

With the widespread use of machine learning(ML)technology,the operational efficiency and responsiveness of power grids have been significantly enhanced,allowing smart grids to achieve high levels of automation and intelligence.However,tree ensemble models commonly used in smart grids are vulnerable to adversarial attacks,making it urgent to enhance their robustness.To address this,we propose a robustness enhancement method that incorporates physical constraints into the node-splitting decisions of tree ensembles.Our algorithm improves robustness by developing a dataset of adversarial examples that comply with physical laws,ensuring training data accurately reflects possible attack scenarios while adhering to physical rules.In our experiments,the proposed method increased robustness against adversarial attacks by 100%when applied to real grid data under physical constraints.These results highlight the advantages of our method in maintaining efficient and secure operation of smart grids under adversarial conditions.

Dynamic Hypergraph Modeling and Robustness Analysis for SIoT

The Social Internet of Things(SIoT)integrates the Internet of Things(IoT)and social networks,taking into account the social attributes of objects and diversifying the relationship between humans and objects,which overcomes the limitations of the IoT’s focus on associations between objects.Artificial Intelligence(AI)technology is rapidly evolving.It is critical to build trustworthy and transparent systems,especially with system security issues coming to the surface.This paper emphasizes the social attributes of objects and uses hypergraphs to model the diverse entities and relationships in SIoT,aiming to build an SIoT hypergraph generation model to explore the complex interactions between entities in the context of intelligent SIoT.Current hypergraph generation models impose too many constraints and fail to capture more details of real hypernetworks.In contrast,this paper proposes a hypergraph generation model that evolves dynamically over time,where only the number of nodes is fixed.It combines node wandering with a forest fire model and uses two different methods to control the size of the hyperedges.As new nodes are added,the model can promptly reflect changes in entities and relationships within SIoT.Experimental results exhibit that our model can effectively replicate the topological structure of real-world hypernetworks.We also evaluate the vulnerability of the hypergraph under different attack strategies,which provides theoretical support for building a more robust intelligent SIoT hypergraph model and lays the foundation for building safer and more reliable systems in the future.

Enhancing the Robustness of Rib-Groove Filling and Strain Homogeneity in the Isothermal Forging of Titanium Alloy Multi-Rib Components

Isothermal forging stands as an effective technology for the production of large-scale titanium alloy multi-rib components.However,challenges have persisted,including die underfilling and strain concentration due to the complex material flow and heterogeneous deformation within the forging die cavity.While approaches centered on optimized billet designs have mitigated these challenges,uncertainties in process parameters continue to introduce unacceptable variations in forming accuracy and stability.To tackle this issue,this study introduced a multi-objective robust optimization approach for billet design,accounting for the multi-rib eigenstructure and potential uncertainties.The approach includes finite element(FE)modeling for analyzing the die-filling and strain inhomogeneity within the multi-rib eigenstructure.Furthermore,it integrated image acquisition perception and feed back technologies(IAPF)for real-time monitoring of material flow and filling sequences within die rib-grooves,validating the accuracy of the FE modeling.By incorporating dimensional parameters of the billet and uncertainty factors,including friction,draft angle,forming temperature,speed,and deviations in billet and die,quantitative analyses on the rib-groove filling and strain inhomogeneity with fluctuation were conducted.Subsequently,a dual-response surface model was developed for statistical analysis of the cavity filling and strain homogeneity.Finally,the robust optimization was processed using a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II(NSGA-II)and validated using the IAPF technologies.The proposed approach enables robust design enhancements for rib-groove filling and strain homogeneity in titanium alloy multi-rib components.

Adversarial Attack-Based Robustness Evaluation for Trustworthy AI

Artificial Intelligence(AI)technology has been extensively researched in various fields,including the field of malware detection.AI models must be trustworthy to introduce AI systems into critical decisionmaking and resource protection roles.The problem of robustness to adversarial attacks is a significant barrier to trustworthy AI.Although various adversarial attack and defense methods are actively being studied,there is a lack of research on robustness evaluation metrics that serve as standards for determining whether AI models are safe and reliable against adversarial attacks.An AI model’s robustness level cannot be evaluated by traditional evaluation indicators such as accuracy and recall.Additional evaluation indicators are necessary to evaluate the robustness of AI models against adversarial attacks.In this paper,a Sophisticated Adversarial Robustness Score(SARS)is proposed for AI model robustness evaluation.SARS uses various factors in addition to the ratio of perturbated features and the size of perturbation to evaluate robustness accurately in the evaluation process.This evaluation indicator reflects aspects that are difficult to evaluate using traditional evaluation indicators.Moreover,the level of robustness can be evaluated by considering the difficulty of generating adversarial samples through adversarial attacks.This paper proposed using SARS,calculated based on adversarial attacks,to identify data groups with robustness vulnerability and improve robustness through adversarial training.Through SARS,it is possible to evaluate the level of robustness,which can help developers identify areas for improvement.To validate the proposed method,experiments were conducted using a malware dataset.Through adversarial training,it was confirmed that SARS increased by 70.59%,and the recall reduction rate improved by 64.96%.Through SARS,it is possible to evaluate whether an AI model is vulnerable to adversarial attacks and to identify vulnerable data types.In addition,it is expected that improved models can be achieved by improving resistance to adversarial attacks via methods such as adversarial training.

Experimental observation of topological large-area pseudo-spin-momentum-locking waveguide states with exceptional robustness

Unlike conventional topological edge states confined at a domain wall between two topologically distinct media,the recently proposed large-area topological waveguide states in three-layer heterostructures,which consist of a domain featuring Dirac points sandwiched between two domains of different topologies,have introduced the mode width degree of freedom for more flexible manipulation of electromagnetic waves.Until now,the experimental realizations of photonic large-area topological waveguide states have been exclusively based on quantum Hall and quantum valley-Hall systems.We propose a new way to create large-area topological waveguide states based on the photonic quantum spin-Hall system and observe their unique feature of pseudo-spin-momentum-locking unidirectional propagation for the first time in experiments.Moreover,due to the new effect provided by the mode width degree of freedom,the propagation of these large-area quantum spin-Hall waveguide states exhibits unusually strong robustness against defects,e.g.,large voids with size reaching several unit cells,which has not been reported previously.Finally,practical applications,such as topological channel intersection and topological energy concentrator,are further demonstrated based on these novel states.Our work not only completes the last member of such states in the photonic quantum Hall,quantum valley-Hall,and quantum spin-Hall family,but also provides further opportunities for high-capacity energy transport with tunable mode width and exceptional robustness in integrated photonic devices and on-chip communications.

Profile Generation Methods for Reinforcing Robustness of Keystroke Authentication in Free Text Typing

We have investigated several characteristics of the keystroke authentication in Japanese free text typing, and our methods have provided high recognition accuracy for high typing skill users who can type 700 or more letters per 5 minutes. There are, however, some situations decreasing the accuracy such as long period passage after registering each user’s profile documents and existence of lower typing skill users who can type only about 500 - 600 letters per 5 minutes. In this paper, we propose new profile generation methods, profile-updating and profile-combining methods, to reinforce the robustness of keystroke authentication and show the effectiveness of them through three examinations with experimental data.

Optimization of Uncertain Structures with Interval Parameters Considering Objective and Feasibility Robustness

For the purpose of improving the mechanical performance indices of uncertain structures with interval parameters and ensure their robustness when fluctuating under interval parameters, a constrained interval robust optimization model is constructed with both the center and halfwidth of the most important mechanical performance index described as objective functions and the other requirements on the mechanical performance indices described as constraint functions. To locate the optimal solution of objective and feasibility robustness, a new concept of interval violation vector and its calculation formulae corresponding to different constraint functions are proposed. The math?ematical formulae for calculating the feasibility and objective robustness indices and the robustness?based preferential guidelines are proposed for directly ranking various design vectors, which is realized by an algorithm integrating Kriging and nested genetic algorithm. The validity of the proposed method and its superiority to present interval optimization approaches are demonstrated by a numerical example. The robust optimization of the upper beam in a high?speed press with interval material properties demonstrated the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed method in engineering.

ERROR RESPONSE AND ROBUSTNESS OF A CLASS OF MULTILAYERED PERCEPTRONS WITH THRESHOLD FUNCTIONS

In this paper, based on a stochastic mode! for inputs and weights, and in view of the disturbance of correlative and large input and weight errors, a general algorithm to obtain the output error characteristics of a class of multilayered perceptrons with threshold functions is proposed by using statistical approach. Furthermore, the formula to calculate the robustness of the networks is also given. The result of computer simulation indicates the correctness of the algorithm.