Hierarchical Controller Synthesis Under Linear Temporal Logic Specifications Using Dynamic Quantization

Linear temporal logic(LTL)is an intuitive and expressive language to specify complex control tasks,and how to design an efficient control strategy for LTL specification is still a challenge.In this paper,we implement the dynamic quantization technique to propose a novel hierarchical control strategy for nonlinear control systems under LTL specifications.Based on the regions of interest involved in the LTL formula,an accepting path is derived first to provide a high-level solution for the controller synthesis problem.Second,we develop a dynamic quantization based approach to verify the realization of the accepting path.The realization verification results in the necessity of the controller design and a sequence of quantization regions for the controller design.Third,the techniques of dynamic quantization and abstraction-based control are combined together to establish the local-to-global control strategy.Both abstraction construction and controller design are local and dynamic,thereby resulting in the potential reduction of the computational complexity.Since each quantization region can be considered locally and individually,the proposed hierarchical mechanism is more efficient and can solve much larger problems than many existing methods.Finally,the proposed control strategy is illustrated via two examples from the path planning and tracking problems of mobile robots.

Sustainable Ecosystem Management via H∞-Control Theory of Stochastic Systems

In this paper, aiming to provide accurate protocols for management of sustainable ecosystems, a design methodology of H∞-controller for hunter-prey model under exposure to exogenous disturbance and stochastic noise is presented. Along the development, solution procedure of the stochastic Hamilton-Jacobi-Isaacs equation via Successive Galerkin’s Approximation is described. Utilizing the proposed solution methodology of Hamilton-Jacobi-Isaacs equation, H∞-controller of hunter-prey model was successfully designed. Robustness and performance against exogenous disturbance of the designed H∞-controller is validated and confirmed by numerical simulations including Monte-Carlo simulation by Simulink software on MATLAB.

The Ultimate Anti-Seismic Design Method

The design mechanisms and methods of the invention are intended to minimize problems related to the safety of structures in the event of natural phenomena such as earthquakes, tornadoes, and strong winds. It is achieved by controlling the deformations of the structure. Damage and deformation are closely related concepts since the control of deformations also controls the damage. The design method of applying artificial compression to the ends of all longitudinal reinforced concrete walls and, at the same time, connecting the ends of the walls to the ground using ground anchors placed at the depths of the boreholes, transfers the inertial stresses of the structure in the ground, which reacts as an external force in the structure’s response to seismic displacements. The wall with the artificial compression acquires dynamic, larger active cross-section and high axial and torsional stiffness, preventing all failures caused by inelastic deformation. By connecting the ends of all walls to the ground, we control the eigenfrequency of the structure and the ground during each seismic loading cycle, preventing inelastic displacements. At the same time, we ensure the strong bearing capacity of the foundation soil and the structure. By designing the walls correctly and placing them in proper locations, we prevent the torsional flexural buckling that occurs in asymmetrical floor plans, and metal and tall structures. Compression of the wall sections at the ends and their anchoring to the ground mitigates the transfer of deformations to the connection nodes, strengthens the wall section in terms of base shear force and shear stress of the sections, and increases the strength of the cross-sections to the tensile at the ends of the walls by introducing counteractive forces. The use of tendons within the ducts prevents longitudinal shear in the overlay concrete, while anchoring the walls to the foundation not only dissipates inertial forces to the ground but also prevents rotation of the walls, thus maintaining the structural integrity of the beams. The prestressing at the bilateral ends of the walls restores the structure to its original position even inelastic displacements by closing the opening of the developing cracks.

Design of Retarded Fractional Delay Differential Systems Using the Method of Inequalities

Methods based on numerical optimization are useful and effective in the design of control systems. This paper describes the design of retarded fractional delay differential systems （RFDDSs） by the method of inequalities, in which the design problem is formulated so that it is suitable for solution by numerical methods. Zakian＇s original formulation, which was first proposed in connection with rational systems, is extended to the case of RFDDSs. In making the use of this formulation possible for RFDDSs, the associated stability problems are resolved by using the stability test and the numerical algorithm for computing the abscissa of stability recently developed by the authors. During the design process, the time responses are obtained by a known method for the numerical inversion of Laplace transforms. Two numerical examples are given, where fractional controllers are designed for a time-delay and a heat-conduction plants.

RELIABILITY-BASED DESIGN OF COMPOSITES UNDER THE MIXED UNCERTAINTIES AND THE OPTIMIZATION ALGORITHM

This paper proposed a reliability design model for composite materials under the mixture of random and interval variables. Together with the inverse reliability analysis technique, the sequential single-loop optimization method is applied to the reliability-based design of composites. In the sequential single-loop optimization, the optimization and the reliability analysis are decoupled to improve the computational efficiency. As shown in examples, the minimum weight problems under the constraint of structural reliability are solved for laminated composites. The Particle Swarm Optimization （PSO） algorithm is utilized to search for the optimal solutions. The design results indicate that, under the mixture of random and interval variables, the method that combines the sequential single-loop optimization and the PSO algorithm can deal effectively with the reliability-based design of composites.

A Non-Scan Testable Design of Sequential Circuits by Improving Controllability

As a method for testing a sequential circuit efficiently, a scan design is usually used. But, since this design has some drawbacks, a non-scan testable design should be discussed. The testable design can be implemented by enhancing controllability and observability. This paper discusses a non-scan testable design for a sequential circuit by only focusing the improvement of controllability. The proposed design modifies a circuit so that all the FFs can be directly controlled by primary input lines in a test mode. Experimental results show that we can get a good testability using this method.

A Pole Assignment Design Method of Process Control System for Tubular Heat Exchanger

This Paper has first studied the simplified model of tubular heat exchanger which is widely used in the industry and other field.On the basis of reference 2,a new pole assignment design method of pro-cess control system with derivative control action is found.For the above system,the method and the for-mation which calculate the feedback matrix K and gain matrix L is given,and the simulation of the system is made.

Data Driven Vibration Control:A Review

With the ongoing advancements in sensor networks and data acquisition technologies across various systems like manufacturing,aviation,and healthcare,the data driven vibration control(DDVC)has attracted broad interests from both the industrial and academic communities.Input shaping(IS),as a simple and effective feedforward method,is greatly demanded in DDVC methods.It convolves the desired input command with impulse sequence without requiring parametric dynamics and the closed-loop system structure,thereby suppressing the residual vibration separately.Based on a thorough investigation into the state-of-the-art DDVC methods,this survey has made the following efforts:1)Introducing the IS theory and typical input shapers;2)Categorizing recent progress of DDVC methods;3)Summarizing commonly adopted metrics for DDVC;and 4)Discussing the engineering applications and future trends of DDVC.By doing so,this study provides a systematic and comprehensive overview of existing DDVC methods from designing to optimizing perspectives,aiming at promoting future research regarding this emerging and vital issue.

Design of flying vehicle control system by signal to noise ratio

Presents the new concept of ″Desired to be small″ based on the basic function of vehicle flight control system for an optimal design of flying vehicle control system, and the definition of S/N ratio and calculation formula for ″Desired to be small″ dynamic characteristics, and the S/N ratio method established for design of velicle flight control systems, by which, an orthogrnal table is used to arrange test schemes, and error facters are used to simulate various interferences, and the use of S/N ratio as a design criterion to synthesise the design of dynamic and static characteristics for definition of an optimal scheme, the application of S/N ratio method to the design of a type of vehicle control system and the single run success abtained in design of control system, technical evaluation test and design finalization flight test.

Development and psychometric evaluation of the nurse behavior toward confirmed and suspected HIV/AIDS patients (NB-CSHAP) scale

There is a scarcity of literature discussing nurses’ behaviors toward caring for suspected or confirmed human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients. The development of a scale specific to measure nurses’ behaviors will allow health institutions to assess the disposition of their nurses in terms of HIV care. This study aims to present the rigors of developing and validating a reliable instrument to contextualize these nurses’ behaviors. This study utilized a sequential exploratory mixed method design to develop the NB-CSHAP scale. Thematic analysis was done on the qualitative data from the interviews with persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) from which items were selected to be included in the scale. Exploratory factor analysis was utilized to extract the factors and Cronbach’s alpha was used to assess the reliability of the instrument. Four factors were extracted and are categorized as either caring or discriminatory behaviors. These include: (1) service-oriented, (2) openhanded, (3) perceptive, and (4) discriminatory. The scale has an internal consistency of 0.73. The scale shows acceptable psychometric properties, hence can be used to assess the nurses’ behaviors in caring for confirmed or suspected HIV clients. The scale may be used by health institutions to determine the quality of the patient care provided by their nurses to clients with confirmed or suspected HIV .

Assessment of Minimizing the Environmental Functions Conflict in Buildings

Some building components are responsible for achieving more than one environmental function, these functions are usually of different requirements that can never be done by the same actions, and they are usually connected to changeable internal and external environment characteristics that vary among them. Minimizing the conflict of achieving the different environmental functions is an important challenge for all designers. Achieving a continuous thermal and optical comfort in an internal building space using the same window is an example of this challenge, as they have different requirements that may be sometimes contrary. It should be notable that there are a lot of recent technologies that may be used to find solutions for such a conflict. The Environmental Assessment Methods of Buildings appeared to set the principles of the optimum relation between buildings and their environment, they also could be used to encourage designers to reach the best environmental relations, and award them by main or additional assessment points. The research paper proposes to use the Environmental Assessment Methods of Buildings to assess the building ability of minimizing its environmental functions achievement conflict. This proposal depends on determining the inconsistency assessment items that depend on common building components to be achieved, and then determining the time periods that these items are achieved together within, to indicate the time periods without conflicting. Thus, the paper aims to raise the building environmental value in the assessment when the designer succeeds to minimize the expected conflict of the building environmental functions.

Analysis of coal pillar stability(ACPS): A new generation of pillar design software

Thirty years ago, the analysis of longwall pillar stability(ALPS) inaugurated a new era in coal pillar design.ALPS was the first empirical pillar design technique to consider the abutment loads that arise from full extraction, and the first to be calibrated using an extensive database of longwall mining case histories.ALPS was followed by the analysis of retreat mining stability(ARMPS) and the analysis of multiple seam stability(AMSS). These methods incorporated other innovations, including the coal mine roof rating(CMRR), the Mark-Bieniawski pillar strength formula, and the pressure arch loading model. They also built upon ever larger case history databases and employed more sophisticated statistical methods.Today, these empirical methods are used in nearly every underground coal mine in the US. However,the piecemeal manner in which these methods have evolved resulted in some weaknesses. For example,in certain situations, it may not be obvious which program is the best to use. Other times the results from the different programs are not entirely consistent with each other. The programs have also not been updated for several years, and some changes were necessary to keep pace with new developments in mining practice. The analysis of coal pillar stability(ACPS) now integrates all three of the older software packages into a single pillar design framework. ACPS also incorporates the latest research findings in the field of pillar design, including an expanded multiple seam case history data base and a new method to evaluate room and pillar panels containing multiple rows of pillars left in place during pillar recovery.ACPS also includes updated guidance and warnings for users and features upgraded help files and graphics.

A novel PID controller tuning method based on optimization technique

An approach for parameter estimation of proportional-integral-derivative(PID) control system using a new nonlinear programming(NLP) algorithm was proposed.SQP/IIPM algorithm is a sequential quadratic programming(SQP) based algorithm that derives its search directions by solving quadratic programming(QP) subproblems via an infeasible interior point method(IIPM) and evaluates step length adaptively via a simple line search and/or a quadratic search algorithm depending on the termination of the IIPM solver.The task of tuning PI/PID parameters for the first-and second-order systems was modeled as constrained NLP problem. SQP/IIPM algorithm was applied to determining the optimum parameters for the PI/PID control systems.To assess the performance of the proposed method,a Matlab simulation of PID controller tuning was conducted to compare the proposed SQP/IIPM algorithm with the gain and phase margin(GPM) method and Ziegler-Nichols(ZN) method.The results reveal that,for both step and impulse response tests,the PI/PID controller using SQP/IIPM optimization algorithm consistently reduce rise time,settling-time and remarkably lower overshoot compared to GPM and ZN methods,and the proposed method improves the robustness and effectiveness of numerical optimization of PID control systems.

Design method of optimal control schedule for the adaptive cycle engine steady-state performance

The alternative working modes and flexible working states are the outstanding features of an adaptive cycle engine, with a proper control schedule design being the only way to exploit the performance of such an engine. However, unreasonable design in the control schedule causes not only performance deterioration but also serious aerodynamic stability problems. Thus, in this work,a hybrid optimization method that automatically chooses the working modes and identifies the optimal and smooth control schedules is proposed, by combining the differential evolution algorithm and the Latin hypercube sampling method. The control schedule architecture does not only optimize the engine steady-state performance under different working modes but also solves the control-schedule discontinuity problem, especially during mode transition. The optimal control schedules are continuous and almost monotonic, and hence are strongly suitable for a control system, and are designed for two different working conditions, i.e., supersonic and subsonic throttling,which proves that the proposed hybrid method applies to various working conditions. The evaluation demonstrates that the proposed control method optimizes the engine performance, the surge margin of the compression components, and the range of the thrust during throttling.

An alternative practical design method for structures with viscoelastic dampers

Viscoelastic dampers（VEDs） are one of the most common passive control devices used in new and retrofit building projects which reduce the structure responses and dissipate seismic energy during an earthquake.Various methods to design this kind of dampers have been proposed based on the desired level of additional damping,eigenvalue assignment,modal strain energy,linear quadratic regulator control theories,and other approaches.In the current engineering practice,the popular method is the one based on the modal strain energy that uses the inter-story lateral stiffness as one of the main variables for damper design.However,depending on the configuration of the structure,in some cases the resulting interstory lateral stiffness can be very large.Consequently,the dampers size would also be large producing much more damping than that effectively necessary,resulting in an increase of the overall cost of the supplemental damping system and causing excessive stress on the structural elements connected to the dampers.In this paper an alternative practical design method for structures with VEDs is proposed.This method uses the inter-story shear forces as one of the main variables to accomplish the damper design compared to what was done in previous studies.Nonlinear time-history analyses were conducted on a 7-story reinforced concrete（RC） structure to check the reliability and effectiveness of the proposed method.Comparisons on the seismic performance between the structure without dampers and that equipped with VEDs were carried out.It is concluded that the proposed method results in a very suitable size of dampers,which are able to improve the performance of the structure at all levels of earthquake ground motions and satisfying the drift requirement prescribed in the codes.

Utility of Adaptive Sample Size Designs and A Review Example

Sample size can be a key design feature that not only affects the probability of a trial＇s success but also determines the duration and feasibility of a trial. If an investigational drug is expected to be effective and address unmet medical needs of an orphan disease, where the accrual period may require many years with a large sample size to detect a minimal clinically relevant treatment effect, a minimum sample size may be set to maintain nominal power. In limited situations such as this, there may be a need for flexibility in the initial and final sample sizes; thus, it is useful to consider the utility of adaptive sample size designs that use sample size re-estimation or group sequential design. In this paper, we propose a new adaptive performance measure to consider the utility of an adaptive sample size design in a trial simulation. Considering that previously proposed sample size re-estimation methods do not take into account errors in estimation based on interim results, we propose Bayesian sample size re-estimation criteria that take into account prior information on treatment effect, and then, we assess its operating characteristics in a simulation study. We also present a review example of sample size re-estimation mainly based on published paper and review report in Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency （PMDA）.

H∞-Feedback Control of Heparin-Controlled Blood Clotting Network for Cardiac Surgeries

This paper presents a solution methodology for H∞-feedback control design problem of Heparin controlled blood clotting network under the presence of stochastic noise. The formulaic solution procedure to solve nonlinear partial differential equation, the Hamilton-Jacobi-Isaacs equation with Successive Galrkin’s Approximation is sketched and validity is proved. According to Lyapunov’s theory, with solutions of the nonlinear PDEs, robust feedback control is designed. To confirm the performance and robustness of the designed controller, numerical and Monte-Carlo simulation results by Simulink software on MATLAB are provided.

Titration Method Validation of Live Vaccines against Infectious Bursal Disease

Validating a method of analysis goes through different steps, which aims at testing the normality of measurements distribution, estimating the uncertainty of the components of a measurement （i.e., accuracy and correctness）, and finally, define the control tests of non degradation of the method performances. This paper outlines the steps for validating a biological method of analysis. It involves the construction of an experimental design, a statistical model, and the preparation of an interne laboratory reference material （pilot vaccine）. The latter is used to study the impact of deviation and variation factors, in order to, optimize the analytical method, to evaluate the bias （random error）, and to calculate the uncertainty of measurement, and make the control charts. This method is applied in the titration of live viral vaccines of Gumboro disease on chicken＇s embryos fibroblasts. The experimental results show that potential influence factors related to the titration method had no significant influence on the obtained results. Taking into account these results, an operating mode has been elaborated. The finalized method proved to be faithful to standard deviation of repeatability and reproducibility of 0.21 and 0.22, respectively, with a confidence level of 95%. The calculated uncertainty of measurement is equal to 0.2, which represents the average error level of a titer. A homogeneous stock of interne laboratory reference vaccine （MRIL）, with an average titer of 5.9 log DIT 50, was produced and the control chart set in away to provide the laboratory with an important tool of control and monitoring of the viral titers evolution in time, as well as, the mastery of the validated titration method performances.

Control of Water Supply in Pipe Networks Nonlinear Case

The paper deals with control of supply in pipe networks based on so-called Dynamic Virtual Distortion Method. Making use of the analytical network model of this installation and using presented below, the so-called Virtual Distortion Method （VDM）, the control of water supply can be performed. Minimization of supply pressure in inlets to the network, subject to inequality constraints imposed on outlet pressure （in chosen nodes） is discussed. Taking advantage of pre-computed influence vectors, the real-time control strategy can be realised with small computational effort and therefore, can be managed with use of hardware-based controllers. Non-linear constitutive relation （water flow vs. pressure head） has been assumed.

Design of Industrial Quenching Processes

The method of designing industrial processes of quench cooling, in particular, the speed of the conveyor movement with regard to shape and sizes of parts to be quenched, thermal and physical properties of material and cooling capacity of quenchants has been developed. The suggested designing method and databases are the basis for the complete automation of industrial processes of quench cooling, especially for continuous conveyor lines, with the purpose of making high-strength materials. The process is controlled by infrared technique.