3,167 research outputs found
Neural Networks for Modeling and Control of Particle Accelerators
We describe some of the challenges of particle accelerator control, highlight
recent advances in neural network techniques, discuss some promising avenues
for incorporating neural networks into particle accelerator control systems,
and describe a neural network-based control system that is being developed for
resonance control of an RF electron gun at the Fermilab Accelerator Science and
Technology (FAST) facility, including initial experimental results from a
benchmark controller.Comment: 21 p
A Safe Reinforcement Learning driven Weights-varying Model Predictive Control for Autonomous Vehicle Motion Control
Determining the optimal cost function parameters of Model Predictive Control
(MPC) to optimize multiple control objectives is a challenging and
time-consuming task. Multiobjective Bayesian Optimization (BO) techniques solve
this problem by determining a Pareto optimal parameter set for an MPC with
static weights. However, a single parameter set may not deliver the most
optimal closed-loop control performance when the context of the MPC operating
conditions changes during its operation, urging the need to adapt the cost
function weights at runtime. Deep Reinforcement Learning (RL) algorithms can
automatically learn context-dependent optimal parameter sets and dynamically
adapt for a Weightsvarying MPC (WMPC). However, learning cost function weights
from scratch in a continuous action space may lead to unsafe operating states.
To solve this, we propose a novel approach limiting the RL actions within a
safe learning space representing a catalog of pre-optimized BO Pareto-optimal
weight sets. We conceive a RL agent not to learn in a continuous space but to
proactively anticipate upcoming control tasks and to choose the most optimal
discrete actions, each corresponding to a single set of Pareto optimal weights,
context-dependent. Hence, even an untrained RL agent guarantees a safe and
optimal performance. Experimental results demonstrate that an untrained RL-WMPC
shows Pareto-optimal closed-loop behavior and training the RL-WMPC helps
exhibit a performance beyond the Pareto-front
Weighted Maximum Likelihood for Controller Tuning
Recently, Model Predictive Contouring Control (MPCC) has arisen as the state-of-the-art approach for model-based agile flight. MPCC benefits from great flexibility in trading-off between progress maximization and path following at runtime without relying on globally optimized trajectories. However, finding the optimal set of tuning parameters for MPCC is challenging because (i) the full quadrotor dynamics are non-linear, (ii) the cost function is highly non-convex, and (iii) of the high dimensionality of the hyperparameter space. This paper leverages a probabilistic Policy Search method—Weighted Maximum Likelihood (WML)—to automatically learn the optimal objective for MPCC. WML is sample-efficient due to its closed-form solution for updating the learning parameters. Additionally, the data efficiency provided by the use of a model-based approach allows us to directly train in a high-fidelity simulator, which in turn makes our approach able to transfer zero-shot to the real world. We validate our approach in the real world, where we show that our method outperforms both the previous manually tuned controller and the state-of-the-art auto-tuning baseline reaching speeds of 75 km/h
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State-of-the-art on research and applications of machine learning in the building life cycle
Fueled by big data, powerful and affordable computing resources, and advanced algorithms, machine learning has been explored and applied to buildings research for the past decades and has demonstrated its potential to enhance building performance. This study systematically surveyed how machine learning has been applied at different stages of building life cycle. By conducting a literature search on the Web of Knowledge platform, we found 9579 papers in this field and selected 153 papers for an in-depth review. The number of published papers is increasing year by year, with a focus on building design, operation, and control. However, no study was found using machine learning in building commissioning. There are successful pilot studies on fault detection and diagnosis of HVAC equipment and systems, load prediction, energy baseline estimate, load shape clustering, occupancy prediction, and learning occupant behaviors and energy use patterns. None of the existing studies were adopted broadly by the building industry, due to common challenges including (1) lack of large scale labeled data to train and validate the model, (2) lack of model transferability, which limits a model trained with one data-rich building to be used in another building with limited data, (3) lack of strong justification of costs and benefits of deploying machine learning, and (4) the performance might not be reliable and robust for the stated goals, as the method might work for some buildings but could not be generalized to others. Findings from the study can inform future machine learning research to improve occupant comfort, energy efficiency, demand flexibility, and resilience of buildings, as well as to inspire young researchers in the field to explore multidisciplinary approaches that integrate building science, computing science, data science, and social science
A Systematic Survey of Control Techniques and Applications: From Autonomous Vehicles to Connected and Automated Vehicles
Vehicle control is one of the most critical challenges in autonomous vehicles
(AVs) and connected and automated vehicles (CAVs), and it is paramount in
vehicle safety, passenger comfort, transportation efficiency, and energy
saving. This survey attempts to provide a comprehensive and thorough overview
of the current state of vehicle control technology, focusing on the evolution
from vehicle state estimation and trajectory tracking control in AVs at the
microscopic level to collaborative control in CAVs at the macroscopic level.
First, this review starts with vehicle key state estimation, specifically
vehicle sideslip angle, which is the most pivotal state for vehicle trajectory
control, to discuss representative approaches. Then, we present symbolic
vehicle trajectory tracking control approaches for AVs. On top of that, we
further review the collaborative control frameworks for CAVs and corresponding
applications. Finally, this survey concludes with a discussion of future
research directions and the challenges. This survey aims to provide a
contextualized and in-depth look at state of the art in vehicle control for AVs
and CAVs, identifying critical areas of focus and pointing out the potential
areas for further exploration
Learning Image-Conditioned Dynamics Models for Control of Under-actuated Legged Millirobots
Millirobots are a promising robotic platform for many applications due to
their small size and low manufacturing costs. Legged millirobots, in
particular, can provide increased mobility in complex environments and improved
scaling of obstacles. However, controlling these small, highly dynamic, and
underactuated legged systems is difficult. Hand-engineered controllers can
sometimes control these legged millirobots, but they have difficulties with
dynamic maneuvers and complex terrains. We present an approach for controlling
a real-world legged millirobot that is based on learned neural network models.
Using less than 17 minutes of data, our method can learn a predictive model of
the robot's dynamics that can enable effective gaits to be synthesized on the
fly for following user-specified waypoints on a given terrain. Furthermore, by
leveraging expressive, high-capacity neural network models, our approach allows
for these predictions to be directly conditioned on camera images, endowing the
robot with the ability to predict how different terrains might affect its
dynamics. This enables sample-efficient and effective learning for locomotion
of a dynamic legged millirobot on various terrains, including gravel, turf,
carpet, and styrofoam. Experiment videos can be found at
https://sites.google.com/view/imageconddy
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