Discrete mechanics and optimal control: An analysis

The optimal control of a mechanical system is of crucial importance in many application areas. Typical examples are the determination of a time-minimal path in vehicle dynamics, a minimal energy trajectory in space mission design, or optimal motion sequences in robotics and biomechanics. In most cases, some sort of discretization of the original, infinite-dimensional optimization problem has to be performed in order to make the problem amenable to computations. The approach proposed in this paper is to directly discretize the variational description of the system's motion. The resulting optimization algorithm lets the discrete solution directly inherit characteristic structural properties from the continuous one like symmetries and integrals of the motion. We show that the DMOC (Discrete Mechanics and Optimal Control) approach is equivalent to a finite difference discretization of Hamilton's equations by a symplectic partitioned Runge-Kutta scheme and employ this fact in order to give a proof of convergence. The numerical performance of DMOC and its relationship to other existing optimal control methods are investigated

Contributions to anomaly detection and correction in co-evolving data streams via subspace learning

During decades, estimation and detection tasks in many Signal Processing and Communications applications have been significantly improved by using subspace and component-based techniques. More recently, subspace methods have been adopted in many hot topics such as Machine Learning, Data Analytics or smart MIMO communications, in order to have a geometric interpretation of the problem. In that way, the Subspace-based algorithms often arise new approaches for already-explored problems, while offering the valuable advantage of giving interpretability to the procedures and solutions. On the other hand, in those recent hot topics, one may also find applications where the detection of unwanted or out-of-the-model artifacts and outliers is crucial. To this extend, we were previously working in the domain of GNSS PPP, detecting phase ambiguities, where we found motivation into the development of novel solutions for this application. After considering the applications and advantages of subspace-based approaches, this work will be focused on the exploration and extension of the ideas of subspace learning in the context of anomaly detection, where we show promising and original results in the areas of anomaly detection and subspace-based anomaly detection, in the form of two new algorithms: the Dual Ascent for Sparse Anomaly Detection and the Subspace-based Dual Ascent for Anomaly Detection and Tracking