21,369 research outputs found
Statistical Learning for Analysis of Networked Control Systems over Unknown Channels
Recent control trends are increasingly relying on communication networks and
wireless channels to close the loop for Internet-of-Things applications.
Traditionally these approaches are model-based, i.e., assuming a network or
channel model they are focused on stability analysis and appropriate controller
designs. However the availability of such wireless channel modeling is
fundamentally challenging in practice as channels are typically unknown a
priori and only available through data samples. In this work we aim to develop
algorithms that rely on channel sample data to determine the stability and
performance of networked control tasks. In this regard our work is the first to
characterize the amount of channel modeling that is required to answer such a
question. Specifically we examine how many channel data samples are required in
order to answer with high confidence whether a given networked control system
is stable or not. This analysis is based on the notion of sample complexity
from the learning literature and is facilitated by concentration inequalities.
Moreover we establish a direct relation between the sample complexity and the
networked system stability margin, i.e., the underlying packet success rate of
the channel and the spectral radius of the dynamics of the control system. This
illustrates that it becomes impractical to verify stability under a large range
of plant and channel configurations. We validate our theoretical results in
numerical simulations
Cooperative Adaptive Control for Cloud-Based Robotics
This paper studies collaboration through the cloud in the context of
cooperative adaptive control for robot manipulators. We first consider the case
of multiple robots manipulating a common object through synchronous centralized
update laws to identify unknown inertial parameters. Through this development,
we introduce a notion of Collective Sufficient Richness, wherein parameter
convergence can be enabled through teamwork in the group. The introduction of
this property and the analysis of stable adaptive controllers that benefit from
it constitute the main new contributions of this work. Building on this
original example, we then consider decentralized update laws, time-varying
network topologies, and the influence of communication delays on this process.
Perhaps surprisingly, these nonidealized networked conditions inherit the same
benefits of convergence being determined through collective effects for the
group. Simple simulations of a planar manipulator identifying an unknown load
are provided to illustrate the central idea and benefits of Collective
Sufficient Richness.Comment: ICRA 201
Robotic Wireless Sensor Networks
In this chapter, we present a literature survey of an emerging, cutting-edge,
and multi-disciplinary field of research at the intersection of Robotics and
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) which we refer to as Robotic Wireless Sensor
Networks (RWSN). We define a RWSN as an autonomous networked multi-robot system
that aims to achieve certain sensing goals while meeting and maintaining
certain communication performance requirements, through cooperative control,
learning and adaptation. While both of the component areas, i.e., Robotics and
WSN, are very well-known and well-explored, there exist a whole set of new
opportunities and research directions at the intersection of these two fields
which are relatively or even completely unexplored. One such example would be
the use of a set of robotic routers to set up a temporary communication path
between a sender and a receiver that uses the controlled mobility to the
advantage of packet routing. We find that there exist only a limited number of
articles to be directly categorized as RWSN related works whereas there exist a
range of articles in the robotics and the WSN literature that are also relevant
to this new field of research. To connect the dots, we first identify the core
problems and research trends related to RWSN such as connectivity,
localization, routing, and robust flow of information. Next, we classify the
existing research on RWSN as well as the relevant state-of-the-arts from
robotics and WSN community according to the problems and trends identified in
the first step. Lastly, we analyze what is missing in the existing literature,
and identify topics that require more research attention in the future
Robust H∞ control for networked systems with random packet losses
Copyright [2007] IEEE. This material is posted here with permission of the IEEE. Such permission of the IEEE does not in any way imply IEEE endorsement of any of Brunel University's products or services. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to [email protected]. By choosing to view this document, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws protecting it.In this paper, the robust Hinfin control problem Is considered for a class of networked systems with random communication packet losses. Because of the limited bandwidth of the channels, such random packet losses could occur, simultaneously, in the communication channels from the sensor to the controller and from the controller to the actuator. The random packet loss is assumed to obey the Bernoulli random binary distribution, and the parameter uncertainties are norm-bounded and enter into both the system and output matrices. In the presence of random packet losses, an observer-based feedback controller is designed to robustly exponentially stabilize the networked system in the sense of mean square and also achieve the prescribed Hinfin disturbance-rejection-attenuation level. Both the stability-analysis and controller-synthesis problems are thoroughly investigated. It is shown that the controller-design problem under consideration is solvable if certain linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) are feasible. A simulation example is exploited to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed LMI approach
Prochlo: Strong Privacy for Analytics in the Crowd
The large-scale monitoring of computer users' software activities has become
commonplace, e.g., for application telemetry, error reporting, or demographic
profiling. This paper describes a principled systems architecture---Encode,
Shuffle, Analyze (ESA)---for performing such monitoring with high utility while
also protecting user privacy. The ESA design, and its Prochlo implementation,
are informed by our practical experiences with an existing, large deployment of
privacy-preserving software monitoring.
(cont.; see the paper
A review on analysis and synthesis of nonlinear stochastic systems with randomly occurring incomplete information
Copyright q 2012 Hongli Dong et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.In the context of systems and control, incomplete information refers to a dynamical system in which knowledge about the system states is limited due to the difficulties in modeling complexity in a quantitative way. The well-known types of incomplete information include parameter uncertainties and norm-bounded nonlinearities. Recently, in response to the development of network technologies, the phenomenon of randomly occurring incomplete information has become more and more prevalent. Such a phenomenon typically appears in a networked environment. Examples include, but are not limited to, randomly occurring uncertainties, randomly occurring nonlinearities, randomly occurring saturation, randomly missing measurements and randomly occurring quantization. Randomly occurring incomplete information, if not properly handled, would seriously deteriorate the performance of a control system. In this paper, we aim to survey some recent advances on the analysis and synthesis problems for nonlinear stochastic systems with randomly occurring incomplete information. The developments of the filtering, control and fault detection problems are systematically reviewed. Latest results on analysis and synthesis of nonlinear stochastic systems are discussed in great detail. In addition, various distributed filtering technologies over sensor networks are highlighted. Finally, some concluding remarks are given and some possible future research directions are pointed out. © 2012 Hongli Dong et al.This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants 61273156, 61134009, 61273201, 61021002, and 61004067, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) of the UK under Grant GR/S27658/01, the Royal Society of the UK, the National Science Foundation of the USA under Grant No. HRD-1137732, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of German
Learning and Management for Internet-of-Things: Accounting for Adaptivity and Scalability
Internet-of-Things (IoT) envisions an intelligent infrastructure of networked
smart devices offering task-specific monitoring and control services. The
unique features of IoT include extreme heterogeneity, massive number of
devices, and unpredictable dynamics partially due to human interaction. These
call for foundational innovations in network design and management. Ideally, it
should allow efficient adaptation to changing environments, and low-cost
implementation scalable to massive number of devices, subject to stringent
latency constraints. To this end, the overarching goal of this paper is to
outline a unified framework for online learning and management policies in IoT
through joint advances in communication, networking, learning, and
optimization. From the network architecture vantage point, the unified
framework leverages a promising fog architecture that enables smart devices to
have proximity access to cloud functionalities at the network edge, along the
cloud-to-things continuum. From the algorithmic perspective, key innovations
target online approaches adaptive to different degrees of nonstationarity in
IoT dynamics, and their scalable model-free implementation under limited
feedback that motivates blind or bandit approaches. The proposed framework
aspires to offer a stepping stone that leads to systematic designs and analysis
of task-specific learning and management schemes for IoT, along with a host of
new research directions to build on.Comment: Submitted on June 15 to Proceeding of IEEE Special Issue on Adaptive
and Scalable Communication Network
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