Fuzzy Feedback Scheduling of Resource-Constrained Embedded Control Systems

The quality of control (QoC) of a resource-constrained embedded control system may be jeopardized in dynamic environments with variable workload. This gives rise to the increasing demand of co-design of control and scheduling. To deal with uncertainties in resource availability, a fuzzy feedback scheduling (FFS) scheme is proposed in this paper. Within the framework of feedback scheduling, the sampling periods of control loops are dynamically adjusted using the fuzzy control technique. The feedback scheduler provides QoC guarantees in dynamic environments through maintaining the CPU utilization at a desired level. The framework and design methodology of the proposed FFS scheme are described in detail. A simplified mobile robot target tracking system is investigated as a case study to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed FFS scheme. The scheme is independent of task execution times, robust to measurement noises, and easy to implement, while incurring only a small overhead.Comment: To appear in International Journal of Innovative Computing, Information and Contro

Applications of Soft Computing in Mobile and Wireless Communications

Soft computing is a synergistic combination of artificial intelligence methodologies to model and solve real world problems that are either impossible or too difficult to model mathematically. Furthermore, the use of conventional modeling techniques demands rigor, precision and certainty, which carry computational cost. On the other hand, soft computing utilizes computation, reasoning and inference to reduce computational cost by exploiting tolerance for imprecision, uncertainty, partial truth and approximation. In addition to computational cost savings, soft computing is an excellent platform for autonomic computing, owing to its roots in artificial intelligence. Wireless communication networks are associated with much uncertainty and imprecision due to a number of stochastic processes such as escalating number of access points, constantly changing propagation channels, sudden variations in network load and random mobility of users. This reality has fuelled numerous applications of soft computing techniques in mobile and wireless communications. This paper reviews various applications of the core soft computing methodologies in mobile and wireless communications

Abstractions of stochastic hybrid systems

Many control systems have large, infinite state space that can not be easily abstracted. One method to analyse and verify these systems is reachability analysis. It is frequently used for air traffic control and power plants. Because of lack of complete information about the environment or unpredicted changes, the stochastic approach is a viable alternative. In this paper, different ways of introducing rechability under uncertainty are presented. A new concept of stochastic bisimulation is introduced and its connection with the reachability analysis is established. The work is mainly motivated by safety critical situations in air traffic control (like collision detection and avoidance) and formal tools are based on stochastic analysis

A fuzzy multiobjective algorithm for multiproduct batch plant: Application to protein production

This paper addresses the problem of the optimal design of batch plants with imprecise demands and proposes an alternative treatment of the imprecision by using fuzzy concepts. For this purpose, we extended a multiobjective genetic algorithm (MOGA) developed in previousworks, taking into account simultaneously maximization of the net present value (NPV) and two other performance criteria, i.e. the production delay/advance and a flexibility criterion. The former is computed by comparing the fuzzy computed production time to a given fuzzy production time horizon and the latter is based on the additional fuzzy demand that the plant is able to produce. The methodology provides a set of scenarios that are helpful to the decision’s maker and constitutes a very promising framework for taken imprecision into account in new product development stage

Multiobjective strategies for New Product Development in the pharmaceutical industry

New Product Development (NPD) constitutes a challenging problem in the pharmaceutical industry, due to the characteristics of the development pipeline. Formally, the NPD problem can be stated as follows: select a set of R&D projects from a pool of candidate projects in order to satisfy several criteria (economic profitability, time to market) while coping with the uncertain nature of the projects. More precisely, the recurrent key issues are to determine the projects to develop once target molecules have been identified, their order and the level of resources to assign. In this context, the proposed approach combines discrete event stochastic simulation (Monte Carlo approach) with multiobjective genetic algorithms (NSGAII type, Non-Sorted Genetic Algorithm II) to optimize the highly combinatorial portfolio management problem. In that context, Genetic Algorithms (GAs) are particularly attractive for treating this kind of problem, due to their ability to directly lead to the so-called Pareto front and to account for the combinatorial aspect. This work is illustrated with a study case involving nine interdependent new product candidates targeting three diseases. An analysis is performed for this test bench on the different pairs of criteria both for the bi- and tricriteria optimization: large portfolios cause resource queues and delays time to launch and are eliminated by the bi- and tricriteria optimization strategy. The optimization strategy is thus interesting to detect the sequence candidates. Time is an important criterion to consider simultaneously with NPV and risk criteria. The order in which drugs are released in the pipeline is of great importance as with scheduling problems