Recent advances on filtering and control for nonlinear stochastic complex systems with incomplete information: A survey

This Article is provided by the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund - Copyright @ 2012 Hindawi PublishingSome recent advances on the filtering and control problems for nonlinear stochastic complex systems with incomplete information are surveyed. The incomplete information under consideration mainly includes missing measurements, randomly varying sensor delays, signal quantization, sensor saturations, and signal sampling. With such incomplete information, the developments on various filtering and control issues are reviewed in great detail. In particular, the addressed nonlinear stochastic complex systems are so comprehensive that they include conventional nonlinear stochastic systems, different kinds of complex networks, and a large class of sensor networks. The corresponding filtering and control technologies for such nonlinear stochastic complex systems are then discussed. Subsequently, some latest results on the filtering and control problems for the complex systems with incomplete information are given. Finally, conclusions are drawn and several possible future research directions are pointed out.This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant nos. 61134009, 61104125, 61028008, 61174136, 60974030, and 61074129, the Qing Lan Project of Jiangsu Province of China, the Project sponsored by SRF for ROCS of SEM of China, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council EPSRC of the UK under Grant GR/S27658/01, the Royal Society of the UK, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany

A unified framework for solving a general class of conditional and robust set-membership estimation problems

In this paper we present a unified framework for solving a general class of problems arising in the context of set-membership estimation/identification theory. More precisely, the paper aims at providing an original approach for the computation of optimal conditional and robust projection estimates in a nonlinear estimation setting where the operator relating the data and the parameter to be estimated is assumed to be a generic multivariate polynomial function and the uncertainties affecting the data are assumed to belong to semialgebraic sets. By noticing that the computation of both the conditional and the robust projection optimal estimators requires the solution to min-max optimization problems that share the same structure, we propose a unified two-stage approach based on semidefinite-relaxation techniques for solving such estimation problems. The key idea of the proposed procedure is to recognize that the optimal functional of the inner optimization problems can be approximated to any desired precision by a multivariate polynomial function by suitably exploiting recently proposed results in the field of parametric optimization. Two simulation examples are reported to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.Comment: Accpeted for publication in the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control (2014

On general systems with randomly occurring incomplete information

In the system and control community, the incomplete information is generally regarded as the results of (1) our limited knowledge in modelling real-world systems; and (2) the physical constraints on the devices for collecting, transmitting, storing and processing information. In terms of system modelling, the incomplete information typically includes the parameter uncertainties and norm-bounded non-linearities that occur with certain bounds. As for the physical constraints, two well-known examples are the actuator/sensor saturation caused by the limited power/altitude of the devices as well as the signal quantization caused by limited bandwidth for signal propagation

Distributed estimation techniques forcyber-physical systems

Nowadays, with the increasing use of wireless networks, embedded devices and agents with processing and sensing capabilities, the development of distributed estimation techniques has become vital to monitor important variables of the system that are not directly available. Numerous distributed estimation techniques have been proposed in the literature according to the model of the system, noises and disturbances. One of the main objectives of this thesis is to search all those works that deal with distributed estimation techniques applied to cyber-physical systems, system of systems and heterogeneous systems, through using systematic review methodology. Even though systematic reviews are not the common way to survey a topic in the control community, they provide a rigorous, robust and objective formula that should not be ignored. The presented systematic review incorporates and adapts the guidelines recommended in other disciplines to the field of automation and control and presents a brief description of the different phases that constitute a systematic review. Undertaking the systematic review many gaps were discovered: it deserves to be remarked that some estimators are not applied to cyber-physical systems, such as sliding mode observers or set-membership observers. Subsequently, one of these particular techniques was chosen, set-membership estimator, to develop new applications for cyber-physical systems. This introduces the other objectives of the thesis, i.e. to present two novel formulations of distributed set-membership estimators. Both estimators use a multi-hop decomposition, so the dynamics of the system is rewritten to present a cascaded implementation of the distributed set-membership observer, decoupling the influence of the non-observable modes to the observable ones. So each agent must find a different set for each sub-space, instead of a unique set for all the states. Two different approaches have been used to address the same problem, that is, to design a guaranteed distributed estimation method for linear full-coupled systems affected by bounded disturbances, to be implemented in a set of distributed agents that need to communicate and collaborate to achieve this goal

Discrete Time Systems

Discrete-Time Systems comprehend an important and broad research field. The consolidation of digital-based computational means in the present, pushes a technological tool into the field with a tremendous impact in areas like Control, Signal Processing, Communications, System Modelling and related Applications. This book attempts to give a scope in the wide area of Discrete-Time Systems. Their contents are grouped conveniently in sections according to significant areas, namely Filtering, Fixed and Adaptive Control Systems, Stability Problems and Miscellaneous Applications. We think that the contribution of the book enlarges the field of the Discrete-Time Systems with signification in the present state-of-the-art. Despite the vertiginous advance in the field, we also believe that the topics described here allow us also to look through some main tendencies in the next years in the research area

VIVA: An Online Algorithm for Piecewise Curve Estimation Using ℓ\u3csup\u3e0\u3c/sup\u3e Norm Regularization

Many processes deal with piecewise input functions, which occur naturally as a result of digital commands, user interfaces requiring a confirmation action, or discrete-time sampling. Examples include the assembly of protein polymers and hourly adjustments to the infusion rate of IV fluids during treatment of burn victims. Estimation of the input is straightforward regression when the observer has access to the timing information. More work is needed if the input can change at unknown times. Successful recovery of the change timing is largely dependent on the choice of cost function minimized during parameter estimation. Optimal estimation of a piecewise input will often proceed by minimization of a cost function which includes an estimation error term (most commonly mean square error) and the number (cardinality) of input changes (number of commands). Because the cardinality (ℓ0 norm) is not convex, the ℓ2 norm (quadratic smoothing) and ℓ1 norm (total variation minimization) are often substituted because they permit the use of convex optimization algorithms. However, these penalize the magnitude of input changes and therefore bias the piecewise estimates. Another disadvantage is that global optimization methods must be run after the end of data collection. One approach to unbiasing the piecewise parameter fits would include application of total variation minimization to recover timing, followed by piecewise parameter fitting. Another method is presented herein: a dynamic programming approach which iteratively develops populations of candidate estimates of increasing length, pruning those proven to be dominated. Because the usage of input data is entirely causal, the algorithm recovers timing and parameter values online. A functional definition of the algorithm, which is an extension of Viterbi decoding and integrates the pruning concept from branch-and-bound, is presented. Modifications are introduced to improve handling of non-uniform sampling, non-uniform confidence, and burst errors. Performance tests using synthesized data sets as well as volume data from a research system recording fluid infusions show five-fold (piecewise-constant data) and 20-fold (piecewise-linear data) reduction in error compared to total variation minimization, along with improved sparsity and reduced sensitivity to the regularization parameter. Algorithmic complexity and delay are also considered

Advances in Spacecraft Systems and Orbit Determination

"Advances in Spacecraft Systems and Orbit Determinations", discusses the development of new technologies and the limitations of the present technology, used for interplanetary missions. Various experts have contributed to develop the bridge between present limitations and technology growth to overcome the limitations. Key features of this book inform us about the orbit determination techniques based on a smooth research based on astrophysics. The book also provides a detailed overview on Spacecraft Systems including reliability of low-cost AOCS, sliding mode controlling and a new view on attitude controller design based on sliding mode, with thrusters. It also provides a technological roadmap for HVAC optimization. The book also gives an excellent overview of resolving the difficulties for interplanetary missions with the comparison of present technologies and new advancements. Overall, this will be very much interesting book to explore the roadmap of technological growth in spacecraft systems