This paper presents control and coordination algorithms for groups of vehicles. The focus is on autonomous vehicle networks performing distributed sensing tasks where each vehicle plays the role of a mobile tunable sensor. The paper proposes gradient descent algorithms for a class of utility functions which encode optimal coverage and sensing policies. The resulting closed-loop behavior is adaptive, distributed, asynchronous, and verifiably correct.

Coverage control for mobile sensing networks

Convex bodies: the brunn–minkowski theory

“Multivalued Analysis” is the theory of set-valued maps (called multifonctions) and has important applications in many different areas. Multivalued analysis is a remarkable mixture of many different parts of mathematics such as point-set topology, measure theory and nonlinear functional analysis. It is also closely related to “Nonsmooth Analysis” (Chapter 5) and in fact one of the main motivations behind the development of the theory, was in order to provide necessary analytical tools for the study of problems in nonsmooth analysis. It is not a coincidence that the development of the two fields coincide chronologically and follow parallel paths. Today multivalued analysis is a mature mathematical field with its own methods, techniques and applications that range from social and economic sciences to biological sciences and engineering. There is no doubt that a modern treatise on “Nonlinear Functional Analysis” can not afford the luxury of ignoring multivalued analysis. The omission of the theory of multifunctions will drastically limit the possible applications.

SET-Valued Analysis

Microgrids energy management systems: A critical review on methods, solutions, and prospects

This paper presents a test benchmark model for the evaluation of fault detection and accommodation schemes. This benchmark model deals with the wind turbine on a system level, and it includes sensor, actuator, and system faults, namely faults in the pitch system, the drive train, the generator, and the converter system. Since it is a system-level model, converter and pitch system models are simplified because these are controlled by internal controllers working at higher frequencies than the system model. The model represents a three-bladed pitch-controlled variable-speed wind turbine with a nominal power of 4.8 MW. The fault detection and isolation (FDI) problem was addressed by several teams, and five of the solutions are compared in the second part of this paper. This comparison relies on additional test data in which the faults occur in different operating conditions than in the test data used for the FDI design.

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Fault-Tolerant Control of Wind Turbines: A Benchmark Model

Some remarks upon the characteristics of the explicit representation of the MPC problem

The paper extends previous work on trajectory generation for UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) using B-spline curves to parameterize an associated flat output. Typical constraints and costs (such as those involving input bounds and trajectory length) lead to nonlinear formulations in terms of the control points weighting the B-spline curve. This complexity adversely affects the computation time and conservatism of the result. To mitigate these effects we use the Schoenberg operator to provide a quasi-interpolant of the original nonlinear functions. These improvements come at the price of an approximation error which requires a tightening of the original constraints (either from a theoretical bound or via an iterative procedure). The obtained results are exemplified over a fixed wing UAV model and they can be applied for any optimization-based trajectory planning problem.

On the application of the Schoenberg quasi-interpolant for complexity reduction in trajectory generation

This article presents a leak localization methodology based on state estimation and learning. The first is handled by an interpolation scheme, whereas dictionary learning is considered for the second stage. The novel proposed interpolation technique exploits the physics of the interconnections between hydraulic heads of neighboring nodes in water distribution networks. Additionally, residuals are directly interpolated instead of hydraulic head values. The results of applying the proposed method to a well-known case study (Modena) demonstrated the improvements of the new interpolation method with respect to a state-of-the-art approach, both in terms of interpolation error (considering state and residual estimation) and posterior localization.

Learning Dictionaries from Physical-Based Interpolation for Water Network Leak Localization

This paper presents a trajectory generation procedure for unmanned vehicles (UAVs) which makes use of the flat-output representation of the UAV model to derive the desired reference trajectory Furthermore, a corrective mechanism whose goal is to minimize the trajectory tracking error in the presence of bounded disturbances is implemented. Exploiting the flat description of the relevant states/inputs and a B-spline parametrization of the flat output, sufficient formulations for input and state magnitude constraints which involve only the B-splines' control points are given. The theoretical results are illustrated over a UAV model in simulation.

Some comments on the constrained trajectory generation for UAV systems

Smart crop monitoring is a new concept for different modern agricultural research and production management. The paper presents a hierarchical structure of data processing from the sensors used in crop monitoring. The proposed system consists in the integration of multi WSN network at ground level, a team of UAVs at aerial level, with the mission of both direct data acquisition and data collecting from WSN. The information from UAV is next transmitted to a central data analysis and interpretation via internet. To this end, a multi levels data processing structure is proposed: in field processing, fog computing processing and cloud computing processing. The design of an efficient UAV trajectory for collecting of data and obstacle avoidance and, also, a model of intelligent data processing and transmission are proposed.

Florin Stoican

Papers

Some remarks upon the characteristics of the explicit representation of the MPC problem

On the application of the Schoenberg quasi-interpolant for complexity reduction in trajectory generation

Learning Dictionaries from Physical-Based Interpolation for Water Network Leak Localization

Some comments on the constrained trajectory generation for UAV systems

Hierarchical Processing of Signals for Smart Crop Monitoring