Adaptive accurate tracking control of HFVs in the presence of dead-zone and hysteresis input nonlinearities

A novel accurate tracking controller is developed for the longitudinal dynamics of Hypersonic Flight Vehicles (HFVs) in the presence of large model uncertainties, external disturbances and actuator nonlinearities. Distinct from the state-of-the-art, besides being continuity, no restrictive conditions have been imposed on the HFVs dynamics. The system uncertainties are skillfully handled by being seen as bounded “disturbance terms”. In addition, by means of back-stepping adaptive technique, the accurate tracking (i.e. tracking errors converge to zero as time approaches infinity) rather than bounded tracking (i.e. tracking errors converge to residual sets) has been achieved. What's more, the accurate tracking problems for HFVs subject to actuator dead-zone and hysteresis are discussed, respectively. Then, all signals of closed-loop system are verified to be Semi-Global Uniformly Ultimate Boundness (SGUUB). Finally, the efficacy and superiority of the developed control strategy are confirmed by simulation results.Team DeSchutte

A Novel Disturbance Observer Design for a Larger Class of Nonlinear Strict-Feedback Systems via Improved DSC Technique

A novel scheme for disturbance observer is designed for an extended class of strict-feedback nonlinear systems with possibly unbounded, non-smooth, and state-independent compounded disturbance. To overcome these problems in disturbance observer design, the typical slide mode differentiators are improved by introducing hyperbolic tangent function to make the signals smooth, and then the improved slide mode differentiators are constructively used to estimate the errors of variables in the presence of disturbances. The unbounded, non-smooth or state-independent disturbances are therefore able to be eliminated by using the estimated variable errors. Thus, the bounded or differentiable conditions for disturbance observer design are removed. Furthermore, the convergence of the new disturbance observer is rigorously proved based on Lyapunov stability theorem, and the tracking error can be arbitrarily small. Finally, the simulation results are given to validate the feasibility and superiority of the proposed approach.Team DeSchutte

Effect of pupil dilation on biometric measurements and intraocular lens power calculations in schoolchildren.

PURPOSE:To investigate the effect of pupil dilation on ocular biometric parameters and intraocular lens (IOL) power calculation in schoolchildren using the Lenstar LS 900. METHODS:One hundred forty eyes of 140 healthy schoolchildren were included in the analysis. Axial length (AL), central corneal thickness (CCT), aqueous depth (AD), anterior chamber depth (ACD), lens thickness (LT), flat keratometry (K), steep K, astigmatism, white-to-white (WTW), and iris/pupil barycenter distance were measured, before and after pupil dilation. Anterior segment length (ASL) was defined as the sum of ACD and LT, and lens position (LP) was defined as ACD plus half of the LT. The relative lens position (RLP) was defined as LP divided by AL. IOL power was calculated using the eight formulas (Hill-RBF, Barrett, Haigis, Hoffer Q, Holladay, Olsen, SRK II, and SRK/T) integrated in the Lenstar LS 900. Parameters before and after pupil dilation were compared. RESULTS:AL, AD, ACD, LT, ASL, LP, RLP, flat K, iris barycenter distance, pupil barycenter distance, and PD differed significantly after pupil dilation (P < 0.001 in all cases), as compared to before dilation. The Olsen formula demonstrated significant differences in the magnitude of astigmatism (P = 0.010) and IOL power (P = 0.003) after pupil dilation. Using the different formulas, 23.6-40.7% of participants had IOL power changes of more than 0.50 diopters, while 0.7-1.4% had IOL changes of more than 1.0 diopter after pupil dilation. CONCLUSIONS:Dilated and undilated pupil size affected the Lenstar LS 900 measurement of some ocular biometric parameters, and pupil dilation led to IOL power changes exceeding 0.50 diopters with a high percentage (from 23.6% to 40.7%) in schoolchildren, which should be noticed in clinical practice

Comparison of Anterior Segment Biometric Measurements between Pentacam HR and IOLMaster in Normal and High Myopic Eyes.

To compare the anterior chamber depth (ACD), keratometry (K) and astigmatism measurements taken by IOLMaster and Pentacam HR in normal and high myopic (HM) eyes.A prospective observational case series.Sixty-six normal eyes and 59 HM eyes underwent ACD, keratometry and astigmatism measurements with both devices. Axial length (AL) was measured on IOLMaster. The interdevice agreement was evaluated using the Bland-Altman analysis and paired t-test. The correlations between age and AL & ACD were analyzed. Vector analysis was used to compare astigmatism measurements.The ACD from IOLMaster and Pentacam HR was different for the normal group (P = 0.003) but not for the HM group (P = 0.280). IOLMaster demonstrated higher steep K and mean K values than Pentacam HR for both normal and HM groups (P<0.001 for all). IOLMaster also have higher flat K values for the HM groups (P<0.001) but were statistically equivalent with Pentacam HR for the normal group (P = 0.119) IOLMaster and Pentacam HR were different in astigmatism measurements for the normal group but were statistically equivalent for the HM group. For the normal group, age was negatively correlated with AL, IOLMaster ACD and Pentacam HR ACD (r = -0.395, P = 0.001; r = -0.715, P < 0.001; r = -0.643, P < 0.001). For the HM group, age was positively correlated with AL but negatively correlated with IOLMaster ACD and Pentacam HR ACD (r = 0.377, P = 0.003; r = -0.392, P = 0.002; r = -0.616, P < 0.001).The IOLMaster and Pentacam HR have significant difference in corneal power measurements for both normal and HM groups. The two instruments also differ in ACD and astigmatism measurement for the normal group. Therefore, a single instrument is recommended for studying longitudinal changes in anterior segment biometric measurements. Age should be considered as an influencing factor for both AL and ACD values in the normal and HM group

Corneal Astigmatism Measurements Comparison among Ray-Tracing Aberrometry, Partial Coherence Interferometry, and Scheimpflug Imaging System

Purpose. To investigate interdevice agreement among corneal topography/ray-tracing aberrometry (iTrace), partial coherence interferometry (IOLMaster), and Scheimpflug imaging (Pentacam) for the measurement of corneal astigmatism. Methods. The analysis included 90 eyes of 90 subjects without ocular disease. The main outcome measures were corneal cylinder power and axis of astigmatism. All corneal astigmatism measurements were converted to two perpendicular components by using vector analysis. Interdevice agreement was assessed using Bland–Altman analysis, paired sample t-test, and one-way analysis of variance. Results. No significant interdevice difference existed in the astigmatism magnitude, cardinal component, and oblique component (all P>0.05). On comparing iTrace wavefront and simulated keratometry (SimK) astigmatism, significant differences were observed in the astigmatism magnitude and oblique component (both P0.05). Conclusions. The iTrace, IOLMaster, and Pentacam devices could be used interchangeably for corneal astigmatism measurement. However, the measurement difference in iTrace wavefront and SimK astigmatism and Pentacam pupil 3 mm and vertex 3 mm axial astigmatism should be considered in clinic practice

Fuzzy Adaptive Prescribed Performance Fault-Tolerant Control for HFVs with Fixed-Time Convergence Guarantee

A new fixed-time fuzzy adaptive fault-tolerant control methodology is proposed for the longitudinal dynamics of hypersonic flight vehicles (HFVs) in the presence of actuator faults, uncertain dynamics, and external disturbances. In contrast with the conventional fixed-time control schemes that typically contain the fractional powers of errors in their designs, this work develops a low-complexity control structure in the sense of removing the dependence on the need of abovementioned fractional power terms by means of prescribed performance control (PPC) method. Different from the most existing PPC approaches where the initial conditions of tracking errors are required to be known, the newly proposed prescribed performance function (PPF) can relax such restrictions through choosing properly small initial values of PPF. Fuzzy logic systems (FLSs) are employed to handle unknown dynamics, and minimal learning parameter (MLP) technique is incorporated into the design for the purpose of alleviating computation burden. Closed-loop stability is rigorously proved via Lyapunov stability theory, and simulation results are eventually given to validate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy. Team DeSchutterDistributed System

Design of singularity-free fixed-time fault-tolerant control for HFVs with guaranteed asymmetric time-varying flight state constraints

This article solves the fixed-time trajectory tracking problem for hypersonic flight vehicles (HFVs) encountered with diverse actuator faults and asymmetric envelope constraints. In contrast to the state of the art, the crucial characteristics of our design lie in obviating the explosion of complexity of the conventional recursive design, and in realizing satisfactory preselected tracking qualities for flight states in the sense of guaranteeing asymmetric envelope constraints. More precisely, by exploiting the fixed-time command filters to produce certain command signals and their derivatives, a modified command-filtered control algorithm is formulated to circumvent heavy computation burden caused by repetitive derivative of intermediate control laws. A two-step control methodology is devised based on an auxiliary compensating dynamics, which is capable of compensating for the actuator faults completely without the need for prior knowledge about the lumped disturbances and the actuator faults. Time-varying asymmetric barrier Lyapunov functions are introduced to confine the flight state tracking errors within the corresponding time-varying compact sets all the time provided their initial values remain therein. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated by comparative simulation results.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Team Bart De Schutte

Negative pressure wound therapy decreases mortality in a murine model of burn-wound sepsis involving Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection.

BACKGROUND: The colonization of burn wounds by Pseudomonas aeruginosa can lead to septic shock, organ injuries, and high mortality rates. We hypothesized that negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) would decrease invasion and proliferation of P. aeruginosa within the burn wound and reduce mortality. METHODS: Thermal injuries were induced in anesthetized mice, and P. aeruginosa was applied to the wound surface for 24 h. After removing the burn eschar and debridement, the animals were subjected to either NPWT or wet-to-dry (WTD) treatment protocols. The bacterial loads on the wound surface were assessed during 7 d of treatment, as were the concentrations of inflammatory cytokines in the peripheral blood samples. Survival was monitored daily for 14 d after burn induction. Finally, samples of wounded skin, lung, liver, and kidney were collected and subjected to histopathological examination. RESULTS: Applying P. aeruginosa to the burn wound surface led to sepsis. During early stages of treatment, NPWT reduced the mortality of the septic animals and levels of P. aeruginosa within the burn wound compared with WTD-treated animals. Circulating levels of cytokines and cytoarchitectural abnormalities were also significantly reduced via NPWT. CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicate that NPWT inhibits the invasion and proliferation of P. aeruginosa in burn-wounded tissue and decreases early mortality in a murine model of burn-wound sepsis. These therapeutic benefits likely result from the ability of NPWT to decrease bacterial proliferation on the wound surface, reduce cytokine serum concentrations, and prevent damage to internal organs