Dynamical analysis of particular classes of linear time-delay singular control systems defined over finite and infinite time interval

U disertaciji su razmatrani problemi dinamicke analize posebnih klasa singularnih sistema sa cistim vremenskim kašnjenjem prisutnim u stanju sistema, kao i njihovo ponašanje na konacnom i beskonacnom vremenskom intervalu. Pružen je presek savremenih koncepata stabilnosti, prednosti jednih nad drugima i posebno su obraeni tzv neljapunovski koncepti: stabilnost na konacnom vremenskom intervalu i koncept prakticne stabilnosti. Nadograene su osnovne definicije stabilnosti. Isrpno je izložen hronološki sistematican pregled osnovnih koncepata stabilnosti, polazeci od ljapunovske metodologije, kao osnove na kojoj se zasniva dinamicka analiza sistema. Ukazano je na istorijski razvoj i nastanak ideja i rezultata u ovoj oblasti i na taj nacin su izvedene i smernice daljih istraživanja otvorenih problema. U disertaciji su sistemi tretirani sa stanovišta dva savremena pristupa: deskriptivnog i LMI, odnosno sa pozicija linearnih matricnih nejednakosti, koja se svodi na metode konveksne optimizacije. Izvedeni su i saopšteni novi rezultati. Izložen je prilaz koji se bazira na kvaziljapunovskim funkcijama za dobijanje uslova prakticne i stabilnosti na konacnom vremenskom intervalu posebne klase singularnih sistema sa cistim vremenskim kašnjenje, u stanju sistema. Pokazano je da, polazeci od pretpostavke da agregacione funkcije ne moraju da budu odreene po znaku i da njihovi izvodi duž trajektorija sistema ne moraju da budu negativno odrreene funkcije, uz pomoc deskriptivnog prilaza se mogu dobiti novi kriterijumi za ocenu neljapunovske stabilnosti. Kombinovanjem rezultata sa ljapunovskim prilazom, izvedeni su o uslovi atraktivne prakticne stabilnosti. Drugi doprinos je odreivanje dovoljnih uslova stabilnosti na konacnom vremenskom intervalu iste klase sistema pomocu savremenih LMI metoda. Dobijeni i prezentovani rezultati imaju prakticnu primenu u savremenoj teoriji i praksi upravljanja i mogu se primeniti na sve klase proucavanih sistema, pod uslovom da su dostupni verodostojni matematicki modeli. Verifikacija rezultata je izvedena kroz numericke primereIn this thesis the problems of dynamical analysis of particular class of singular control systems with time delays are considered, as well as their behavior on finite and infinite time intervals. Emphasis has been put on the peculiar properties of singular ad descriptor systems, concerning the existence and uniqueness of the solutions, the problems of impulsive behavior, consistent initial conditions and causality of the system itself. On overview of the modern stability frameworks has been presented, starting from the classical Lyapunov ideas and extending through so called non-lyapunov concepts: finite time stability and practical stability in particular. A historical overview of ideas, concepts and results has been presented and the key contributions have been highlighted through key papers from the modern literature. This dissertation follows two main lines of research: the descriptive approach and the LMI (linear matrix inequalities) methodology, the latter being known to reduce control tasks to convex optimization problems, thus making them easily solvable by numerical computation. New results are presented. A new approach, based on lyapunov-like functions, is used in order to establish new sufficient conditions of practical and finite time interval stability of a particular class of singular time delay systems. Another new result is based on the modern LMI approach and gives new sufficient conditions for finite time stability. The obtained results are numerically verified and have great practical value, as they are easy to compute and less restrictive and conservative than their predecessors

Image Processing and Analysis for Preclinical and Clinical Applications

Radiomics is one of the most successful branches of research in the field of image processing and analysis, as it provides valuable quantitative information for the personalized medicine. It has the potential to discover features of the disease that cannot be appreciated with the naked eye in both preclinical and clinical studies. In general, all quantitative approaches based on biomedical images, such as positron emission tomography (PET), computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), have a positive clinical impact in the detection of biological processes and diseases as well as in predicting response to treatment. This Special Issue, “Image Processing and Analysis for Preclinical and Clinical Applications”, addresses some gaps in this field to improve the quality of research in the clinical and preclinical environment. It consists of fourteen peer-reviewed papers covering a range of topics and applications related to biomedical image processing and analysis

Multi-Agent Systems

A multi-agent system (MAS) is a system composed of multiple interacting intelligent agents. Multi-agent systems can be used to solve problems which are difficult or impossible for an individual agent or monolithic system to solve. Agent systems are open and extensible systems that allow for the deployment of autonomous and proactive software components. Multi-agent systems have been brought up and used in several application domains

Energy and performance-aware scheduling and shut-down models for efficient cloud-computing data centers.

This Doctoral Dissertation, presented as a set of research contributions, focuses on resource efficiency in data centers. This topic has been faced mainly by the development of several energy-efficiency, resource managing and scheduling policies, as well as the simulation tools required to test them in realistic cloud computing environments. Several models have been implemented in order to minimize energy consumption in Cloud Computing environments. Among them: a) Fifteen probabilistic and deterministic energy-policies which shut-down idle machines; b) Five energy-aware scheduling algorithms, including several genetic algorithm models; c) A Stackelberg game-based strategy which models the concurrency between opposite requirements of Cloud-Computing systems in order to dynamically apply the most optimal scheduling algorithms and energy-efficiency policies depending on the environment; and d) A productive analysis on the resource efficiency of several realistic cloud–computing environments. A novel simulation tool called SCORE, able to simulate several data-center sizes, machine heterogeneity, security levels, workload composition and patterns, scheduling strategies and energy-efficiency strategies, was developed in order to test these strategies in large-scale cloud-computing clusters. As results, more than fifty Key Performance Indicators (KPI) show that more than 20% of energy consumption can be reduced in realistic high-utilization environments when proper policies are employed.Esta Tesis Doctoral, que se presenta como compendio de artículos de investigación, se centra en la eficiencia en la utilización de los recursos en centros de datos de internet. Este problema ha sido abordado esencialmente desarrollando diferentes estrategias de eficiencia energética, gestión y distribución de recursos, así como todas las herramientas de simulación y análisis necesarias para su validación en entornos realistas de Cloud Computing. Numerosas estrategias han sido desarrolladas para minimizar el consumo energético en entornos de Cloud Computing. Entre ellos: 1. Quince políticas de eficiencia energética, tanto probabilísticas como deterministas, que apagan máquinas en estado de espera siempre que sea posible; 2. Cinco algoritmos de distribución de tareas que tienen en cuenta el consumo energético, incluyendo varios modelos de algoritmos genéticos; 3. Una estrategia basada en la teoría de juegos de Stackelberg que modela la competición entre diferentes partes de los centros de datos que tienen objetivos encontrados. Este modelo aplica dinámicamente las estrategias de distribución de tareas y las políticas de eficiencia energética dependiendo de las características del entorno; y 4. Un análisis productivo sobre la eficiencia en la utilización de recursos en numerosos escenarios de Cloud Computing. Una nueva herramienta de simulación llamada SCORE se ha desarrollado para analizar las estrategias antes mencionadas en clústers de Cloud Computing de grandes dimensiones. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que se puede conseguir un ahorro de energía superior al 20% en entornos realistas de alta utilización si se emplean las estrategias de eficiencia energética adecuadas. SCORE es open source y puede simular diferentes centros de datos con, entre otros muchos, los siguientes parámetros: Tamaño del centro de datos; heterogeneidad de los servidores; tipo, composición y patrones de carga de trabajo, estrategias de distribución de tareas y políticas de eficiencia energética, así como tres gestores de recursos centralizados: Monolítico, Two-level y Shared-state. Como resultados, esta herramienta de simulación arroja más de 50 Key Performance Indicators (KPI) de rendimiento general, de distribucin de tareas y de energía.Premio Extraordinario de Doctorado U

Fuzzy model predictive control. Complexity reduction by functional principal component analysis

En el Control Predictivo basado en Modelo, el controlador ejecuta una optimización en tiempo real para obtener la mejor solución para la acción de control. Un problema de optimización se resuelve para identificar la mejor acción de control que minimiza una función de coste relacionada con las predicciones de proceso. Debido a la carga computacional de los algoritmos, el control predictivo sujeto a restricciones, no es adecuado para funcionar en cualquier plataforma de hardware. Las técnicas de control predictivo son bien conocidos en la industria de proceso durante décadas. Es cada vez más atractiva la aplicación de técnicas de control avanzadas basadas en modelos a otros muchos campos tales como la automatización de edificios, los teléfonos inteligentes, redes de sensores inalámbricos, etc., donde las plataformas de hardware nunca se han conocido por tener una elevada potencia de cálculo. El objetivo principal de esta tesis es establecer una metodología para reducir la complejidad de cálculo al aplicar control predictivo basado en modelos no lineales sujetos a restricciones, utilizando como plataforma, sistemas de hardware de baja potencia de cálculo, permitiendo una implementación basado en estándares de la industria. La metodología se basa en la aplicación del análisis de componentes principales funcionales, proporcionando un enfoque matemáticamente elegante para reducir la complejidad de los sistemas basados en reglas, como los sistemas borrosos y los sistemas lineales a trozos. Lo que permite reducir la carga computacional en el control predictivo basado en modelos, sujetos o no a restricciones. La idea de utilizar sistemas de inferencia borrosos, además de permitir el modelado de sistemas no lineales o complejos, dota de una estructura formal que permite la implementación de la técnica de reducción de la complejidad mencionada anteriormente. En esta tesis, además de las contribuciones teóricas, se describe el trabajo realizado con plantas reales en los que se han llevado a cabo tareas de modelado y control borroso. Uno de los objetivos a cubrir en el período de la investigación y el desarrollo de la tesis ha sido la experimentación con sistemas borrosos, su simplificación y aplicación a sistemas industriales. La tesis proporciona un marco de conocimiento práctico, basado en la experiencia.In Model-based Predictive Control, the controller runs a real-time optimisation to obtain the best solution for the control action. An optimisation problem is solved to identify the best control action that minimises a cost function related to the process predictions. Due to the computational load of the algorithms, predictive control subject to restric- tions is not suitable to run on any hardware platform. Predictive control techniques have been well known in the process industry for decades. The application of advanced control techniques based on models is becoming increasingly attractive in other fields such as building automation, smart phones, wireless sensor networks, etc., as the hardware platforms have never been known to have high computing power. The main purpose of this thesis is to establish a methodology to reduce the computational complexity of applying nonlinear model based predictive control systems subject to constraints, using as a platform hardware systems with low computational power, allowing a realistic implementation based on industry standards. The methodology is based on applying the functional principal component analysis, providing a mathematically elegant approach to reduce the complexity of rule-based systems, like fuzzy and piece wise affine systems, allowing the reduction of the computational load on modelbased predictive control systems, subject or not subject to constraints. The idea of using fuzzy inference systems, in addition to allowing nonlinear or complex systems modelling, endows a formal structure which enables implementation of the aforementioned complexity reduction technique. This thesis, in addition to theoretical contributions, describes the work done with real plants on which tasks of modeling and fuzzy control have been carried out. One of the objectives to be covered for the period of research and development of the thesis has been training with fuzzy systems and their simplification and application to industrial systems. The thesis provides a practical knowledge framework, based on experience

Sensing and Signal Processing in Smart Healthcare

In the last decade, we have witnessed the rapid development of electronic technologies that are transforming our daily lives. Such technologies are often integrated with various sensors that facilitate the collection of human motion and physiological data and are equipped with wireless communication modules such as Bluetooth, radio frequency identification, and near-field communication. In smart healthcare applications, designing ergonomic and intuitive human–computer interfaces is crucial because a system that is not easy to use will create a huge obstacle to adoption and may significantly reduce the efficacy of the solution. Signal and data processing is another important consideration in smart healthcare applications because it must ensure high accuracy with a high level of confidence in order for the applications to be useful for clinicians in making diagnosis and treatment decisions. This Special Issue is a collection of 10 articles selected from a total of 26 contributions. These contributions span the areas of signal processing and smart healthcare systems mostly contributed by authors from Europe, including Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, and Netherlands. Authors from China, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Ecuador are also included