Maximum Entropy/Optimal Projection (MEOP) control design synthesis: Optimal quantification of the major design tradeoffs

The underlying philosophy and motivation of the optimal projection/maximum entropy (OP/ME) stochastic modeling and reduced control design methodology for high order systems with parameter uncertainties are discussed. The OP/ME design equations for reduced-order dynamic compensation including the effect of parameter uncertainties are reviewed. The application of the methodology to several Large Space Structures (LSS) problems of representative complexity is illustrated

Adaptive neural network cascade control system with entropy-based design

A neural network (NN) based cascade control system is developed, in which the primary PID controller is constructed by NN. A new entropy-based measure, named the centred error entropy (CEE) index, which is a weighted combination of the error cross correntropy (ECC) criterion and the error entropy criterion (EEC), is proposed to tune the NN-PID controller. The purpose of introducing CEE in controller design is to ensure that the uncertainty in the tracking error is minimised and also the peak value of the error probability density function (PDF) being controlled towards zero. The NN-controller design based on this new performance function is developed and the convergent conditions are. During the control process, the CEE index is estimated by a Gaussian kernel function. Adaptive rules are developed to update the kernel size in order to achieve more accurate estimation of the CEE index. This NN cascade control approach is applied to superheated steam temperature control of a simulated power plant system, from which the effectiveness and strength of the proposed strategy are discussed by comparison with NN-PID controllers tuned with EEC and ECC criterions

Tracking Cell Signals in Fluorescent Images

In this paper we present the techniques for tracking cell signal in GFP (Green Fluorescent Protein) images of growing cell colonies. We use such tracking for both data extraction and dynamic modeling of intracellular processes. The techniques are based on optimization of energy functions, which simultaneously determines cell correspondences, while estimating the mapping functions. In addition to spatial mappings such as affine and Thin-Plate Spline mapping, the cell growth and cell division histories must be estimated as well. Different levels of joint optimization are discussed. The most unusual tracking feature addressed in this paper is the possibility of one-to-two correspondences caused by cell division. A novel extended softassign algorithm for solutions of one-to-many correspondences is detailed in this paper. The techniques are demonstrated on three sets of data: growing bacillus Subtillus and e-coli colonies and a developing plant shoot apical meristem. The techniques are currently used by biologists for data extraction and hypothesis formation

Constrained entropy-based temperature control of waste heat systems

A minimum error entropy controller is developed for superheated vapour temperature control of a waste heat recovery process using Organic Rankine cycles (ORC). A nonlinear dynamic model is briefed for the ORC evaporator to capture the key dynamic characteristics of the process. Considering non-Gaussian disturbance terms, the control objective is proposed to minimize the combined entropy function and the mean value of the squared tracking errors. The controller is designed by taking into account of bounded constraints on input actions. The improved performances of the proposed method in reducing control variation and decreasing tracking error uncertainty are discussed by a comparison with standard PID control through simulation study conducted on an ORC waste heat recovery process

RBFNN-based Minimum Entropy Filtering for a Class of Stochastic Nonlinear Systems

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.This paper presents a novel minimum entropy filter design for a class of stochastic nonlinear systems which are subjected to non-Gaussian noises. Motivated by stochastic distribution control, an output entropy model is developed using RBF neural network while the parameters of the model can be identified by the collected data. Based upon the presented model, the filtering problem has been investigated while the system dynamics have been represented. As the model output is the entropy of the estimation error, the optimal nonlinear filter is obtained based on the Lyapunov design which makes the model output minimum. Moreover, the entropy assignment problem has been discussed as an extension of the presented approach. To verify the presented design procedure, a numerical example is given which illustrates the effectiveness of the presented algorithm. The contributions of this paper can be included as 1) an output entropy model is presented using neural network; 2) a nonlinear filter design algorithm is developed as the main result and 3) a solution of entropy assignment problem is obtained which is an extension of the presented framework

An EKF-Based Performance Enhancement Scheme for Stochastic Nonlinear Systems by Dynamic Set-Point Adjustment

YesIn this paper, a performance enhancement scheme has been investigated for a class of stochastic nonlinear systems via set-point adjustment. Considering the practical industrial processes, the multi-layer systematic structure has been adopted to achieve the control design requirements subjected to random noise. The basic loop control is given by PID design while the parameters have been fixed after the design phase. Alternatively, we can consider that there exists an unadjustable loop control. Then, the additional loop is designed for performance enhancement in terms of the tracking accuracy. In particular, a novel approach has been presented to dynamically adjust the set-points using the estimated states of the systems through extended Kalman filter (EKF). Minimising the entropy criterion, the parameters of the set-point adjustment controller can be optimised which will enhance the performance of the entire closed-loop systems. Based upon the presented scheme, the stochastic stability analysis has been given to demonstrate that the closed-loop tracking errors are bounded in probability one. To indicate the effectiveness of the presented control scheme, the numerical examples have been given and the simulation results imply that the designed systems are bounded and the tracking performance can be enhanced simultaneously. In summary, a new framework for system performance enhancement has been presented even if the loop control is unadjustable which forms the main contribution of this paper

Particle filter approximations for general open loop and open loop feedback sensor management

Sensor management is a stochastic control problem where the control mechanism is directed at the generation of observations. Typically, sensor management attempts to optimize a certain statistic derived from the posterior distribution of the state, such as covariance or entropy. However, these statistics often depend on future measurements which are not available at the moment the control decision is taken, making it necessary to consider their expectation over the entire measurement space. Though the idea of computing such expectations using a particle filter is not new, so far it has been applied only to specific sensor management problems and criterions. In this memorandum, for a considerably broad class of problems, we explicitly show how particle filters can be used to approximate general sensor management criterions in the open loop and open loop feedback cases. As examples, we apply these approximations to selected sensor management criterions. As an additional contribution of this memorandum, we show that every performance metric can be used to define a corresponding estimate and a corresponding task-driven sensor management criterion, and both of them can be approximated using particle filters. This is used to propose an approximate sensor management scheme based on the OSPA metric for multi-target tracking, which is included among our examples

Design and implementation of robust decentralized control laws for the ACES structure at Marshall Space Flight Center

Many large space system concepts will require active vibration control to satisfy critical performance requirements such as line-of-sight accuracy. In order for these concepts to become operational it is imperative that the benefits of active vibration control be practically demonstrated in ground based experiments. The results of the experiment successfully demonstrate active vibration control for a flexible structure. The testbed is the Active Control Technique Evaluation for Spacecraft (ACES) structure at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. The ACES structure is dynamically traceable to future space systems and especially allows the study of line-of-sight control issues