An Optimization Approach of IoD Deployment for Optimal Coverage Based on Radio Frequency Model

Recently,Internet of Drones(IoD)has garnered significant attention due to its widespread applications.However,deploying IoD for area coverage poses numerous limitations and challenges.These include interference between neighboring drones,the need for directional antennas,and altitude restrictions for drones.These challenges necessitate the development of efficient solutions.This research paper presents a cooperative decision-making approach for an efficient IoDdeployment to address these challenges effectively.The primary objective of this study is to achieve an efficient IoDdeployment strategy thatmaximizes the coverage regionwhile minimizing interference between neighboring drones.In deployment problem,the interference increases as the number of deployed drones increases,resulting in bad quality of communication.On the other hand,deploying a few drones cannot satisfy the coverage demand.To accomplish this,an enhanced version of a concise population-based meta-heuristic algorithm,namely Improved Particle SwarmOptimization(IPSO),is applied.The objective function of IPSO is defined based on the coverage probability,which is primarily influenced by the characteristics of the antennas and drone altitude.A radio frequency(RF)model is derived to evaluate the coverage quality,considering both Line of Sight(LOS)and Non-Line of Sight(NLOS)down-link coverage probabilities for ground communication.It is assumed that each drone is equipped with a directional antenna to optimize coverage in a given region.Extensive simulations are conducted to assess the effectiveness of the proposed approach.Results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves maximum coverage with minimum transmission power.Furthermore,a comparison is made against Collaborative Visual Area Coverage Approach(CVACA),and a game-based approach in terms of coverage quality and convergence speed.The simulation results reveal that our approach outperforms both CVACA and the gamebased schemes in terms of coverage and convergence speed.Comparisons validate the superiority of our approach over existing methods.To assess the robustness of the proposed RFmodel,we have considered two distinct ranges of noise:range1 spanning from−120 to−90 dBm,and range2 spanning from−90 to−70 dBmfor different numbers of UAVs.In summary,this research presents a cooperative decision-making approach for efficient IoD deployment to address the challenges associatedwith area coverage and achieves an optimal coveragewithminimal interference.

Analysis of Sea Surface Temperature Cooling in Typhoon Events Passing the Kuroshio Current

The aim of this study is to investigate the sea surface temperature(SST) cooling as typhoons pass the Kuroshio Current.A numerical circulation model,denoted as the Stony Brook Parallel Ocean Model(sbPOM),was used to simulate the SST,which includes four wave-induced effect terms(i.e.,radiation stress,nonbreaking waves,Stokes drift,and breaking waves) simulated using the third-generation wave model,called WAVEWATCH-Ⅲ(WW3).The significant wave height(SWH) measurements from the Jason-2 altimeter were used to validate the WW3-simulated results,yielding a root mean square error(RMSE) of less than 0.50 m and a correlation coefficient(COR) of approximately 0.93.The water temperature measured from the Advanced Research and Global Observation Satellite was applied to validate the model simulation.Accordingly,the RMSE of the SST is 0.92℃ with a COR of approximately 0.99.As revealed in the sbPOM-simulated SST fields,a reduction in the SST at the Kuroshio Current region was observed as a typhoon passed,although the water temperature of the Kuroshio Current is relatively high.The variation of the SST is consistent with that of the current,whereas the maximum SST lagged behind the occurrence of the peak SWH.Moreover,the Stokes drift plays an important role in the SST cooling after analyzing four wave-induced terms in the background of the Kuroshio Current.The sensitivity experiment also showed that the accuracy of the water temperature was significantly reduced when including breaking waves,which play a negative role in the inside part of the ocean.The variation in the mean mixing layer depth(MLD) showed that a typhoon could enhance the mean MLD in the Kuroshio Current area in September and October,whereas a typhoon has little influence on the mean MLD in the Kuroshio Current area in May.Moreover,the mean MLD rapidly decreased with the weakening of the strong wind force and wave-induced effects when a typhoon crossed the Kuroshio Current.

Intermodal Competition: Cargo Airships versus Long-Haul Trucking for Perishable Commodities

Intermodal competition changes with changes in technology, economics, and environmental concerns. Trucks and airships are generally considered not to be competitors, but this depends on the distance of haul. The tonne-kilometer cost of trucking rises much more quickly with distance than it does the cost of a cargo airship. At some distance, the two modes are direct substitutes. The costs of the Mexico-Canada refrigerated truck supply chain are compared with the costs of a 100t-lift, electrically-powered airship. The flight characteristics of the Hindenburg Zeppelin are used as a model for a modern cargo airship. The supply chain cost of trucking tomatoes is used to test the theorical proposition. The cost difference works out to about US10￠/kg (5￠/lb) advantage for trucking Mexican tomatoes to Canada. However, this cost disadvantage of the airship could be made up by their vibrationless ride, better air circulation and one-day service versus four days by truck. This alternative form of transportation could have a positive impact on worldwide north-south distribution of food. Airships can overcome trade barriers and distance to open new markets for perishable food exports. In addition, they would reduce the carbon emissions of transport. Canada imports 160,000 refrigerated truckloads of fruits and vegetables by from the southern US and Mexico. With an average driving distance of 3,000 km, these trucks emit 606,000 MT of CO2 annually. Airships powered by hydrogen fuel cells would have zero-carbon emissions. Markets are not yet incorporating the environmental advantage of airships in any freight comparison, but inevitably this will be important.

Conditional Generative Adversarial Network Enabled Localized Stress Recovery of Periodic Composites

Structural damage in heterogeneousmaterials typically originates frommicrostructures where stress concentration occurs.Therefore,evaluating the magnitude and location of localized stress distributions within microstructures under external loading is crucial.Repeating unit cells(RUCs)are commonly used to represent microstructural details and homogenize the effective response of composites.This work develops a machine learning-based micromechanics tool to accurately predict the stress distributions of extracted RUCs.The locally exact homogenization theory efficiently generates the microstructural stresses of RUCs with a wide range of parameters,including volume fraction,fiber/matrix property ratio,fiber shapes,and loading direction.Subsequently,the conditional generative adversarial network(cGAN)is employed and constructed as a surrogate model to establish the statistical correlation between these parameters and the corresponding localized stresses.The stresses predicted by cGAN are validated against the remaining true data not used for training,showing good agreement.This work demonstrates that the cGAN-based micromechanics tool effectively captures the local responses of composite RUCs.It can be used for predicting potential crack initiations starting from microstructures and evaluating the effective behavior of periodic composites.

Study on Objectives and Strategies for Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction in Transportation Industry during the 13th Five-Year Plan Period in Beijing

Facing increasing passenger and cargo transport demand and limited re-source in the 13th Five-Year period, how to make a breakthrough and substantial progress has become a key issue on planning and the Top-level Design. In this paper we judged and analyzed the current development and potential demand of the energy saving and emission reduction in Beijing traffic industry. Through application of energy and emission prediction model which based on the vehicle activity data, the development goals of “one drop, double control, and triple upgrade” have been put forward. In order to achieve the goal, “5 + 1” development strategies should be implemented, and we also proposed the thinking and recommendations on sustainable development of transportation.

Productivity Growth in the Transportation Industries in the United States: An Application of the DEA Malmquist Productivity Index

This study reviews productivity growth in the five major transportation industries in the United States (airline, truck, rail, pipeline, and water) and the pooled transportation industry from 2004 to 2011. We measure the average productivity for these eight years by state in each transportation industry and the annual average productivity by transportation industry. The major findings are that the U.S. transportation industry shows strong and positive productivity growth except that in the years of the global financial crisis in 2007, 2008, and 2010, and among the five transportation industries, the rail and water sectors show the highest productivity growth in 2011.

Energy-Efficient UAVs Coverage Path Planning Approach

Unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs),commonly known as drones,have drawn significant consideration thanks to their agility,mobility,and flexibility features.They play a crucial role in modern reconnaissance,inspection,intelligence,and surveillance missions.Coverage path planning(CPP)which is one of the crucial aspects that determines an intelligent system’s quality seeks an optimal trajectory to fully cover the region of interest(ROI).However,the flight time of the UAV is limited due to a battery limitation and may not cover the whole region,especially in large region.Therefore,energy consumption is one of the most challenging issues that need to be optimized.In this paper,we propose an energy-efficient coverage path planning algorithm to solve the CPP problem.The objective is to generate a collision-free coverage path that minimizes the overall energy consumption and guarantees covering the whole region.To do so,the flight path is optimized and the number of turns is reduced to minimize the energy consumption.The proposed approach first decomposes the ROI into a set of cells depending on a UAV camera footprint.Then,the coverage path planning problem is formulated,where the exact solution is determined using the CPLEX solver.For small-scale problems,the CPLEX shows a better solution in a reasonable time.However,the CPLEX solver fails to generate the solution within a reasonable time for large-scale problems.Thus,to solve the model for large-scale problems,simulated annealing forCPP is developed.The results show that heuristic approaches yield a better solution for large-scale problems within amuch shorter execution time than the CPLEX solver.Finally,we compare the simulated annealing against the greedy algorithm.The results show that simulated annealing outperforms the greedy algorithm in generating better solution quality.

Localized-domains staging structure and evolution in lithiated graphite

Intercalation provides to the host materials a means for controlled variation of many physical/chemical properties and dominates the reactions in metal‐ion batteries.Of particular interest is the graphite intercalation compounds with intriguing staging structures,which however are still unclear,especially in their nanostructure and dynamic transition mechanism.Herein,the nature of the staging structure and evolution of the lithium(Li)‐intercalated graphite was revealed by cryogenic‐transmission electron microscopy and other methods at the nanoscale.The intercalated Li‐ions distribute unevenly,generating local stress and dislocations in the graphitic structure.Each staging compound is found macroscopically ordered but microscopically inhomogeneous,exhibiting a localized‐domains structural model.Our findings uncover the correlation between the long‐range ordered structure and short‐range domains,refresh the insights on the staging structure and transition of Li‐intercalated/deintercalated graphite,and provide effective ways to enhance the reaction kinetic in rechargeable batteries by defect engineering.

Automatic Lane-Level Intersection Map Generation using Low-Channel Roadside LiDAR

A lane-level intersection map is a cornerstone in high-definition(HD) traffic network maps for autonomous driving and high-precision intelligent transportation systems applications such as traffic management and control, and traffic accident evaluation and prevention. Mapping an HD intersection is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and expensive with conventional methods. In this paper, we used a low-channel roadside light detection and range sensor(LiDAR) to automatically and dynamically generate a lane-level intersection, including the signal phases, geometry, layout, and lane directions. First, a mathematical model was proposed to describe the topology and detail of a lane-level intersection. Second, continuous and discontinuous traffic object trajectories were extracted to identify the signal phases and times. Third, the layout, geometry, and lane direction were identified using the convex hull detection algorithm for trajectories. Fourth, a sliding window algorithm was presented to detect the lane marking and extract the lane, and the virtual lane connecting the inbound and outbound of the intersection were generated using the vehicle trajectories within the intersection and considering the traffic rules. In the field experiment, the mean absolute estimation error is 2 s for signal phase and time identification. The lane marking identification Precision and Recall are96% and 94.12%, respectively. Compared with the satellite-based,MMS-based, and crowdsourcing-based lane mapping methods,the average lane location deviation is 0.2 m and the update period is less than one hour by the proposed method with low-channel roadside LiDAR.

Effect of Oils on SBS Modified Asphalt:Rheological Characteristics and Oxidation Aging

This study focuses on the effect of oils on rheology and oxidation aging of Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene modified asphalt(SBSMA)in the long term,after reducing one low-temperature Performance Grade(PG)of SBSMA by incorporating oils.Two oils,including corn-based bio-oil and re-refined engine oil bottom(REOB),were selected to enhance the low-temperature performance of SBSMA.All samples were subjected to Rolling Thin Film Oven(RTFO)aging and 20-h as well as 40-h Pressure Aging Vessel(PAV20 and PAV40)aging,prior to multiple stress creep recovery(MSCR),frequency sweep and Flourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FTIR)scanning.A good high-temperature performance of oil/SBS modified asphalt blends was reflected in MSCR and PG results,meanwhile non-recoverable creep compliance(Jnr)and recovery(R)were found to share a highly correlated relationship during aging progress.In addition,Glover–Rowe(G–R)parameter and phase angle master curves suggest that the improvement of cracking property mainly came from the softening effect of oils.Adding oils into SBSMA was observed to increase oxidation kinetics,but the blends with oils still exhibited better anti-oxidation aging than the base binder,mainly due to the SBS addition.Bio-oil exhibited an effect of relieving age hardening susceptibility of SBSMA.

Soil-water characteristic surface model of soil-rock mixture

The relationship between the water content or saturation of unsaturated soils and its matrix suction is commonly described by the soilwater characteristic curve(SWCC).Currently,study on the SWCC model is focused on fine-grained soils like clay and silty soils,but the SWCC model for grinding soil-rock mixture(SRM)is less studied.Considering that the SRM is in a certain compaction state in the actual project,this study established a surface model with three variables of coupling compaction degree-substrate suction-moisture content based on the Cavalcante-Zornberg soil-water characteristic curve model.Then,the influence of each fitting parameter on the curve was analyzed.For the common SRM,the soil-water characteristic test was conducted.Moreover,the experimental measurements exhibit remarkable consistency with the mode surface.The analysis shows that the surface model intuitively describes the soil-water characteristics of grinding SRM,which can provide the SWCC of soils with bimodal pore characteristics under specific compaction degrees.Furthermore,it can reflect the influence of compaction degrees on the SWCC of rock-soil mass and has a certain prediction effect.The SWCC of SRM with various soil-rock ratios have a double-step shape.With the increase in compaction degree,the curves as a whole tend toward decreasing mass moisture content.The curve changes are mainly concentrated in the large pore section.

L-Band Analysis of the Effects of Oil Slicks on Sea Wave Characteristics

The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of sea surface waves as they pass through oil slicks.The parameterized first-guess spectrum method(PFSM)theory-based wave retrieval algorithm was applied to 20 images of horizontal-horizontal(HH)polarization obtained using the phased-array L-band synthetic aperture radar(SAR)(PALSAR)on the Advanced Land Observing Satellite(ALOS-1).The images were collocated with simulations from the WAVEWATCH-Ⅲ(WW3)model in a 0.1°grid using the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts(ECMWF)reanalysis(ERA-5)winds data as the forcing field.The validation of the model-simulated significant wave height(SWH)against the measurements from the Jason-2 altimeter produced a 0.66m root mean square error(RMSE)for the SWH,with a coefficient(COR)0.74.In this sense,the WW3-simulated waves were reliable for our work.A comparison between the SAR retrieval results and the WW3 simulations was performed using the dataset for the regions without oil slicks,which produced a 0.34m RMSE for the SWH,with a COR of 0.79,which is less than a the RMSE of 0.52 m and the COR of 0.70 for the regions with oil slicks.Moreover,it was found that the SAR-derived SWHs were significantly underestimated by about 0.2m in the areas with oil slicks.This difference is probably due to the underestimation of the SAR-derived wind speeds at moderate wind speeds(i.e.,at wind speeds of greater than 5ms^(-1)).An additional analysis compared the SAR-derived wave spectra with those from the WW3 model as waves passed through the oil slicks.The interesting finding is that the wave energy at short wave lengths(about 30m)is reduced by the oil slicks,causing the movement of the dominant wave spectrum to shift to longer wave lengths(about 80 m).

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.

Development of Features for Early Detection of Defects and Assessment of Bridge Decks

Damage detection is an important area with growing interest in mechanical and structural engineering.One of the critical issues in damage detection is how to determine indices sensitive to the structural damage and insensitive to the surrounding environmental variations.Current damage identification indices commonly focus on structural dynamic characteristics such as natural frequencies,mode shapes,and frequency responses.This study aimed at developing a technique based on energy Curvature Difference,power spectrum density,correlation-based index,load distribution factor,and neutral axis shift to assess the bridge deck condition.In addition to tracking energy and frequency over time using wavelet packet transform,in order to further demonstrate the feasibility and validity of the proposed technique for bridge condition assessment,experimental strain data measured from two stages of a bridge in the different intervals were used.The comparative analysis results of the bridge in first and second stage show changes in the proposed feature values.It is concluded,these changes in the values of the proposed features can be used to assess the bridge deck performance.

Travel Patterns and Street Networks: A Novel Visualization Methodology of City-Level Traffic Flows and Network Usability

Street Networks, knitted in the urban fabric, facilitate spatial movement and control the flow of urbanization. The interrelation between a city’s spatial network and how the residents travel over it has always been of high interest to scholars. Over the years, multifaceted visualization methods have emerged to better express this travel trend from small to large scale. This study proposes a novel approach to 1) visualize city-wide travel patterns with respect to the street network orientation and 2) analyze the discrepancies between travel patterns and streets to evaluate network usability. The visualizations adopt histograms and rose diagrams to provide several insights into network-wide traffic flows. The visualization of four New York City (NYC) boroughs including Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, and Staten Island was generated for the daily traffic and the average hourly flows in the morning and evening rush hours. Then the contrasts between built-in street network topology and travel orientation were drawn to show where people travel over the network, travel demand, and finally which segments experience high or light traffic, revealing the true picture of network usability. The findings of the study provide an insight into the novel and innovative approach that can help better understand the travel behavior lucidly and assist policymakers in decision making to maintain a balance between urban topology and travel demands. In addition, the study demonstrates how to further investigate city street networks and urbanization from different diverse dimensions.

Technical Feasibility Study of Passenger Rail Service along the West Route between Las Vegas and Los Angeles

The study evaluates the feasibility of running passenger train service from Las Vegas, NV on the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR), to Barstow, on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) track, to Mojave on UPRR track again, and to Lancaster connecting Metrolink to their destinations in Southern California. In this study, the railroad infrastructure was inventoried and issues related to running the passenger service were identified. Passenger train operation was evaluated based on the Rail Traffic Controller (RTC) simulation model. The performance measures of passenger trains including travel time, overall delay and average speed are analyzed. The uncertainty in freight flow and its impact on providing the passenger service is addressed by conducting a sensitivity analysis. The conclusion is that the existing railroad infrastructure is sufficient to provide a passenger train service from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. From an operational perspective, the passenger train is not expected to influence freight trains’ performance on the existing railroads. When freight train flows are increased to 50%, the influence of passenger train service on the freight operation is still minimal. This study recommends restoring a platform at the Las Vegas Station. At the Mojave Station, special care should be given on running the passenger trains where there is no direct railroad connection from BNSF to UPRR. Platforms and walkways require construction at the Lancaster Station for transferring passengers between the Metrolink trains and X-Train. Transferring the passenger train at this station involves stopping the train on mainline and coordinating the operations between different railroads.

A Novel Network Screening Methodology for Rural Low-Volume Roads

Low-volume roads (LVRs) are an integral part of the rural transportation network providing access to remote rural areas and facilitating the movement of goods from farms to markets. These roads pose unique challenges for highway agencies including those related to safety management on the highway network. Specifically, traditional network screening methods using crash history can be effective in screening rural highways with higher traffic volumes and more frequent crashes. However, these traditional methods are often ineffective in screening LVR networks due to low traffic volumes and the sporadic nature of crash occurrence. Further, many of the LVRs are owned and operated by local agencies that may lack access to detailed crash, traffic and roadway data and the technical expertise within their staff. Therefore, there is a need for more efficient and practical network screening approaches to facilitate safety management programs on these roads. This study proposes one such approach which utilizes a heuristic scoring scheme in assessing the level of risk/safety for the purpose of network screening. The proposed scheme is developed based on the principles of US Highway Safety Manual (HSM) analysis procedures for rural highways and the fundamentals in safety science. The primary application of the proposed scheme is for ranking sites in network screening applications or for comparing multiple improvement alternatives at a specific site. The proposed approach does not require access to detailed databases, technical expertise, or exact information, making it an invaluable tool for small agencies and local governments (e.g. counties, townships, tribal governments, etc.).

Phase-field simulation of lack-of-fusion defect and grain growth during laser powder bed fusion of Inconel 718

The anisotropy of the structure and properties caused by the strong epitaxial growth of grains during laser powder bed fusion(L-PBF)significantly affects the mechanical performance of Inconel 718 alloy components such as turbine disks.The defects(lack-of-fusion Lo F)in components processed via L-PBF are detrimental to the strength of the alloy.The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of laser scanning parameters on the epitaxial grain growth and LoF formation in order to obtain the parameter space in which the microstructure is refined and LoF defect is suppressed.The temperature field of the molten pool and the epitaxial grain growth are simulated using a multiscale model combining the finite element method with the phase-field method.The LoF model is proposed to predict the formation of LoF defects resulting from insufficient melting during L-PBF.Defect mitigation and grain-structure control during L-PBF can be realized simultaneously in the model.The simulation shows the input laser energy density for the as-deposited structure with fine grains and without LoF defects varied from 55.0–62.5 J·mm^(-3)when the interlayer rotation angle was 0°–90°.The optimized process parameters(laser power of 280 W,scanning speed of 1160 mm·s^(-1),and rotation angle of 67°)were computationally screened.In these conditions,the average grain size was 7.0μm,and the ultimate tensile strength and yield strength at room temperature were(1111±3)MPa and(820±7)MPa,respectively,which is 8.8%and10.5%higher than those of reported.The results indicating the proposed multiscale computational approach for predicting grain growth and Lo F defects could allow simultaneous grain-structure control and defect mitigation during L-PBF.

Erratum to:Phase-field simulation of lack-of-fusion defect and grain growth during laser powder bed fusion of Inconel 718

The original online version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake.The reference[24]in the original online version is incorrect.The correct version is given below:Y.H.Cheng,Numerical Simulation and Experimental Research of Selective Laser Melting on Nickel Based Alloy Powder GH4169[Dissertation],North University of China,Taiyuan,2016.