Data-driven linear decision rule approach for distributionally robust optimization of on-line signal control

We propose a two-stage, on-line signal control strategy for dynamic networks using a linear decision rule (LDR) approach and a distributionally robust optimization (DRO) technique. The first (off-line) stage formulates a LDR that maps real-time traffic data to optimal signal control policies. A DRO problem is solved to optimize the on-line performance of the LDR in the presence of uncertainties associated with the observed traffic states and ambiguity in their underlying distribution functions. We employ a data-driven calibration of the uncertainty set, which takes into account historical traffic data. The second (on-line) stage implements a very efficient linear decision rule whose performance is guaranteed by the off-line computation. We test the proposed signal control procedure in a simulation environment that is informed by actual traffic data obtained in Glasgow, and demonstrate its full potential in on-line operation and deployability on realistic networks, as well as its effectiveness in improving traffic

Exploiting timing information in event-triggered stabilization of linear systems with disturbances

In the same way that subsequent pauses in spoken language are used to convey information, it is also possible to transmit information in communication networks not only by message content, but also with its timing. This paper presents an event-triggering strategy that utilizes timing information by transmitting in a state-dependent fashion. We consider the stabilization of a continuous-time, time-invariant, linear plant over a digital communication channel with bounded delay and subject to bounded plant disturbances and establish two main results. On the one hand, we design an encoding-decoding scheme that guarantees a sufficient information transmission rate for stabilization. On the other hand, we determine a lower bound on the information transmission rate necessary for stabilization by any control policy

On the tailoring of CAST-32A certification guidance to real COTS multicore architectures

The use of Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) multicores in real-time industry is on the rise due to multicores' potential performance increase and energy reduction. Yet, the unpredictable impact on timing of contention in shared hardware resources challenges certification. Furthermore, most safety certification standards target single-core architectures and do not provide explicit guidance for multicore processors. Recently, however, CAST-32A has been presented providing guidance for software planning, development and verification in multicores. In this paper, from a theoretical level, we provide a detailed review of CAST-32A objectives and the difficulty of reaching them under current COTS multicore design trends; at experimental level, we assess the difficulties of the application of CAST-32A to a real multicore processor, the NXP P4080.This work has been partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) under grant TIN2015-65316-P and the HiPEAC Network of Excellence. Jaume Abella has been partially supported by the MINECO under Ramon y Cajal grant RYC-2013-14717.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Pollution control: targets and dynamics.

In this paper I study the e¤ects of environmental regulation which establishes upper and lower binding targets to pollution emissions. Essentially, I deal with the properties of a stochastic model of pollution control in continuous-time under emission targets and uncertainty, emphasizing dynamic nonlinearities. Inside the targets pollution behaves as if it were freely floating until it hits one of the two limits. The model provides three main results. First, I show that binding targets can affect the pollution floating even when the boundaries are currently slack. Solutions of the model show that pollution becomes an S-shaped locus of the fundamentals. Second, I show that binding targets will lead to more stable pollution rate determination within the boundaries, than free floating. Finally, stabilization of pollution is related to the growth rate and volatility of fundamentals, to the sensitivity to expected changes of pollution rate and to the credibility of the authorities in defending the pollution targets.Pollution targets, Optimal stochastic control, Uncertainty, Environmental policy.

Small noise asymptotic of the timing jitter in soliton transmission

We consider the problem of the error in soliton transmission in long-haul optical fibers caused by the spontaneous emission of noise inherent to amplification. We study two types of noises driving the stochastic focusing cubic one dimensional nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger equation which appears in physics in that context. We focus on the fluctuations of the mass and arrival time or timing jitter. We give the small noise asymptotic of the tails of these two quantities for the two types of noises. We are then able to prove several results from physics among which the Gordon--Haus effect which states that the fluctuation of the arrival time is a much more limiting factor than the fluctuation of the mass. The physical results had been obtained with arguments difficult to fully justify mathematically.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/07-AAP449 the Annals of Applied Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aap/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

High-Integrity Performance Monitoring Units in Automotive Chips for Reliable Timing V&V

As software continues to control more system-critical functions in cars, its timing is becoming an integral element in functional safety. Timing validation and verification (V&V) assesses softwares end-to-end timing measurements against given budgets. The advent of multicore processors with massive resource sharing reduces the significance of end-to-end execution times for timing V&V and requires reasoning on (worst-case) access delays on contention-prone hardware resources. While Performance Monitoring Units (PMU) support this finer-grained reasoning, their design has never been a prime consideration in high-performance processors - where automotive-chips PMU implementations descend from - since PMU does not directly affect performance or reliability. To meet PMUs instrumental importance for timing V&V, we advocate for PMUs in automotive chips that explicitly track activities related to worst-case (rather than average) softwares behavior, are recognized as an ISO-26262 mandatory high-integrity hardware service, and are accompanied with detailed documentation that enables their effective use to derive reliable timing estimatesThis work has also been partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) under grant TIN2015-65316-P and the HiPEAC Network of Excellence. Jaume Abella has been partially supported by the MINECO under Ramon y Cajal postdoctoral fellowship number RYC-2013-14717. Enrico Mezzet has been partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación postdoctoral fellowship number IJCI-2016- 27396.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Attention and Anticipation in Fast Visual-Inertial Navigation

We study a Visual-Inertial Navigation (VIN) problem in which a robot needs to estimate its state using an on-board camera and an inertial sensor, without any prior knowledge of the external environment. We consider the case in which the robot can allocate limited resources to VIN, due to tight computational constraints. Therefore, we answer the following question: under limited resources, what are the most relevant visual cues to maximize the performance of visual-inertial navigation? Our approach has four key ingredients. First, it is task-driven, in that the selection of the visual cues is guided by a metric quantifying the VIN performance. Second, it exploits the notion of anticipation, since it uses a simplified model for forward-simulation of robot dynamics, predicting the utility of a set of visual cues over a future time horizon. Third, it is efficient and easy to implement, since it leads to a greedy algorithm for the selection of the most relevant visual cues. Fourth, it provides formal performance guarantees: we leverage submodularity to prove that the greedy selection cannot be far from the optimal (combinatorial) selection. Simulations and real experiments on agile drones show that our approach ensures state-of-the-art VIN performance while maintaining a lean processing time. In the easy scenarios, our approach outperforms appearance-based feature selection in terms of localization errors. In the most challenging scenarios, it enables accurate visual-inertial navigation while appearance-based feature selection fails to track robot's motion during aggressive maneuvers.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures, 2 table