165,714 research outputs found
DyMo: Dynamic Monitoring of Large Scale LTE-Multicast Systems
LTE evolved Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (eMBMS) is an attractive
solution for video delivery to very large groups in crowded venues. However,
deployment and management of eMBMS systems is challenging, due to the lack of
realtime feedback from the User Equipment (UEs). Therefore, we present the
Dynamic Monitoring (DyMo) system for low-overhead feedback collection. DyMo
leverages eMBMS for broadcasting Stochastic Group Instructions to all UEs.
These instructions indicate the reporting rates as a function of the observed
Quality of Service (QoS). This simple feedback mechanism collects very limited
QoS reports from the UEs. The reports are used for network optimization,
thereby ensuring high QoS to the UEs. We present the design aspects of DyMo and
evaluate its performance analytically and via extensive simulations.
Specifically, we show that DyMo infers the optimal eMBMS settings with
extremely low overhead, while meeting strict QoS requirements under different
UE mobility patterns and presence of network component failures. For instance,
DyMo can detect the eMBMS Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) experienced by the 0.1%
percentile of the UEs with Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of 0.05% with only 5
to 10 reports per second regardless of the number of UEs
Hybrid solar sail and SEP propulsion for novel Earth observation missions
In this paper we propose a pole-sitter spacecraft hybridising solar electric propulsion (SEP) and solar sailing. The intriguing concept of a hybrid propulsion spacecraft is attractive: by combining the two forms of propulsion, the drawbacks of the two systems cancel each other, potentially enabling propellant mass saving, increased reliability, versatility and lifetime over the two independent systems. This almost completely unexplored concept will be applied to the continuous monitoring of the Earth’s polar regions through a pole-sitter, i.e. a spacecraft that is stationary above one pole of the Earth. The continuous, hemispherical, real-time view of the pole will enable a wide range of new applications for Earth observation and telecommunications. In this paper, families of 1-year-periodic, minimum-propellant orbits are found, for different values of the sail lightness number and distance from the pole. The optimal control problem is solved using a pseudo-spectral method. The process gives a reference control to maintain these orbits. In addition, for stability issues, a feedback control is designed to guarantee station-keeping in the presence of injection errors, sail degradation and temporary SEP failure. Results show that propellant mass can be saved by using a medium-sized solar sail. Finally, it is shown that the feedback control is able to maintain the spacecraft on-track with only minimal additional effort from the SEP thruster
Augmenting Sensorimotor Control Using “Goal-Aware” Vibrotactile Stimulation during Reaching and Manipulation Behaviors
We describe two sets of experiments that examine the ability of vibrotactile encoding of simple position error and combined object states (calculated from an optimal controller) to enhance performance of reaching and manipulation tasks in healthy human adults. The goal of the first experiment (tracking) was to follow a moving target with a cursor on a computer screen. Visual and/or vibrotactile cues were provided in this experiment, and vibrotactile feedback was redundant with visual feedback in that it did not encode any information above and beyond what was already available via vision. After only 10 minutes of practice using vibrotactile feedback to guide performance, subjects tracked the moving target with response latency and movement accuracy values approaching those observed under visually guided reaching. Unlike previous reports on multisensory enhancement, combining vibrotactile and visual feedback of performance errors conferred neither positive nor negative effects on task performance. In the second experiment (balancing), vibrotactile feedback encoded a corrective motor command as a linear combination of object states (derived from a linear-quadratic regulator implementing a trade-off between kinematic and energetic performance) to teach subjects how to balance a simulated inverted pendulum. Here, the tactile feedback signal differed from visual feedback in that it provided information that was not readily available from visual feedback alone. Immediately after applying this novel “goal-aware” vibrotactile feedback, time to failure was improved by a factor of three. Additionally, the effect of vibrotactile training persisted after the feedback was removed. These results suggest that vibrotactile encoding of appropriate combinations of state information may be an effective form of augmented sensory feedback that can be applied, among other purposes, to compensate for lost or compromised proprioception as commonly observed, for example, in stroke survivors
Sliding Mode Control of Two-Level Quantum Systems
This paper proposes a robust control method based on sliding mode design for
two-level quantum systems with bounded uncertainties. An eigenstate of the
two-level quantum system is identified as a sliding mode. The objective is to
design a control law to steer the system's state into the sliding mode domain
and then maintain it in that domain when bounded uncertainties exist in the
system Hamiltonian. We propose a controller design method using the Lyapunov
methodology and periodic projective measurements. In particular, we give
conditions for designing such a control law, which can guarantee the desired
robustness in the presence of the uncertainties. The sliding mode control
method has potential applications to quantum information processing with
uncertainties.Comment: 29 pages, 4 figures, accepted by Automatic
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