1. Introduction. 2. Linear Algebra. 3. Linear Systems. 4. H2 and Ha Spaces. 5. Internal Stability. 6. Performance Specifications and Limitations. 7. Balanced Model Reduction. 8. Uncertainty and Robustness. 9. Linear Fractional Transformation. 10. m and m- Synthesis. 11. Controller Parameterization. 12. Algebraic Riccati Equations. 13. H2 Optimal Control. 14. Ha Control. 15. Controller Reduction. 16. Ha Loop Shaping. 17. Gap Metric and ...u- Gap Metric. 18. Miscellaneous Topics. Bibliography. Index.

/pdf/essentials-of-robust-control-3kaks6yk3h.pdf

Essentials of Robust Control

Electrical energy storage technologies for stationary applications are reviewed. Particular attention is paid to pumped hydroelectric storage, compressed air energy storage, battery, flow battery, fuel cell, solar fuel, superconducting magnetic energy storage, flywheel, capacitor/supercapacitor, and thermal energy storage. Comparison is made among these technologies in terms of technical characteristics, applications and deployment status.

http://promexico.me/Rubenius/WhitePapers/sdarticle%20(1).pdf

Progress in electrical energy storage system: A critical review

This article surveyed the major results in iterative learning control (ILC) analysis and design over the past two decades. Problems in stability, performance, learning transient behavior, and robustness were discussed along with four design techniques that have emerged as among the most popular. The content of this survey was selected to provide the reader with a broad perspective of the important ideas, potential, and limitations of ILC. Indeed, the maturing field of ILC includes many results and learning algorithms beyond the scope of this survey. Though beginning its third decade of active research, the field of ILC shows no sign of slowing down.

A survey of iterative learning control

Pedestrians follow different trajectories to avoid obstacles and accommodate fellow pedestrians. Any autonomous vehicle navigating such a scene should be able to foresee the future positions of pedestrians and accordingly adjust its path to avoid collisions. This problem of trajectory prediction can be viewed as a sequence generation task, where we are interested in predicting the future trajectory of people based on their past positions. Following the recent success of Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) models for sequence prediction tasks, we propose an LSTM model which can learn general human movement and predict their future trajectories. This is in contrast to traditional approaches which use hand-crafted functions such as Social forces. We demonstrate the performance of our method on several public datasets. Our model outperforms state-of-the-art methods on some of these datasets. We also analyze the trajectories predicted by our model to demonstrate the motion behaviour learned by our model.

/pdf/social-lstm-human-trajectory-prediction-in-crowded-spaces-wwxok9svq7.pdf

Social LSTM: Human Trajectory Prediction in Crowded Spaces

Reinforcement learning offers to robotics a framework and set of tools for the design of sophisticated and hard-to-engineer behaviors. Conversely, the challenges of robotic problems provide both inspiration, impact, and validation for developments in reinforcement learning. The relationship between disciplines has sufficient promise to be likened to that between physics and mathematics. In this article, we attempt to strengthen the links between the two research communities by providing a survey of work in reinforcement learning for behavior generation in robots. We highlight both key challenges in robot reinforcement learning as well as notable successes. We discuss how contributions tamed the complexity of the domain and study the role of algorithms, representations, and prior knowledge in achieving these successes. As a result, a particular focus of our paper lies on the choice between model-based and model-free as well as between value-function-based and policy-search methods. By analyzing a simple problem in some detail we demonstrate how reinforcement learning approaches may be profitably applied, and we note throughout open questions and the tremendous potential for future research.

/pdf/reinforcement-learning-in-robotics-a-survey-4w4397qx9i.pdf

Reinforcement learning in robotics: A survey

Broadband damping of high-precision motion stages

This paper presents the design of a semiautomated football table One side of the table is equipped with automated rods, whereas the other side has regular rods With this setup one or two human players can play against a computer controlled adversary The paper describes the design and integration of a suitable hardware setup with vision based control algorithms that control the automated rods to intercept and return the ball

The design of a semi-automated football table

Robot-assisted choroidotomy and sub-retinal bleb creation

In the design of a large adaptive deformable membrane mirror, variable reluctance actuators are used. These consist of a closed magnetic circuit in which a strong permanent magnet provides a static magnetic force on a ferromagnetic core which is suspended in a membrane. By applying a current through the coil which is situated around the magnet, this force is influenced, providing movement of the ferromagnetic core. This movement is transferred via a rod imposing the out-ofplane displacements in the reflective deformable membrane. In the actuator design a match is made between the negative stiffness of the magnet and the positive stiffness of the membrane suspension. If the locality of the influence functions, mirror modes as well as force and power dissipation are taken into account, a resonance frequency of 1500 Hz and an overall stiffness of 1000 N/m for the actuators is needed. The actuators are fabricated and the dynamic response tested in a dedicated setup. The Bode diagram shows a first eigenfrequency of 950 Hz. This is due to a lower magnetic force than expected. A Helmholtz coil setup was designed to measure the differences in a large set of permanent magnets. With the same setup the 2nd quadrant of the B-H curve is reconstructed by stacking of the magnets and using the demagnetization factor. It is shown that the values for Hc and Br of the magnets are indeed lower than the values used for the initial design. New actuators, with increased magnet thickness, are designed and currently fabricated.

/pdf/actuator-tests-for-a-large-deformable-membrane-mirror-4ue0u3tapb.pdf

Actuator tests for a large deformable membrane mirror

Conventional Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) generally provides the surgeon with an uncomfortable body posture, limited force feedback and unnatural eye-handcoordination when manipulating camera and instruments through small incisions. A masterslave system with force-feedback is being developed, since such a system can overcome the inconveniences of MIS. This paper is about the design of the slave robot for MIS in the abdomen and chest. By applying design principles on kinematically and statically determined design: hysteresis of position is minimized; and stresses, deformations and dynamical behaviour are highly predictable. This improves the reliability of the robot.

M Maarten Steinbuch

Papers

Broadband damping of high-precision motion stages

The design of a semi-automated football table

Robot-assisted choroidotomy and sub-retinal bleb creation

Actuator tests for a large deformable membrane mirror

Design of a slave robot for laparoscopic, thoracoscopic surgery