A Novel Uncalibrated Visual Servoing Controller Baesd on Model-Free Adaptive Control Method with Neural Network

Nowadays, with the continuous expansion of application scenarios of robotic arms, there are more and more scenarios where nonspecialist come into contact with robotic arms. However, in terms of robotic arm visual servoing, traditional Position-based Visual Servoing (PBVS) requires a lot of calibration work, which is challenging for the nonspecialist to cope with. To cope with this situation, Uncalibrated Image-Based Visual Servoing (UIBVS) frees people from tedious calibration work. This work applied a model-free adaptive control (MFAC) method which means that the parameters of controller are updated in real time, bringing better ability of suppression changes of system and environment. An artificial intelligent neural network is applied in designs of controller and estimator for hand-eye relationship. The neural network is updated with the knowledge of the system input and output information in MFAC method. Inspired by "predictive model" and "receding-horizon" in Model Predictive Control (MPC) method and introducing similar structures into our algorithm, we realizes the uncalibrated visual servoing for both stationary targets and moving trajectories. Simulated experiments with a robotic manipulator will be carried out to validate the proposed algorithm.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figure

Adaptive Finite-Time Model Estimation and Control for Manipulator Visual Servoing using Sliding Mode Control and Neural Networks

The image-based visual servoing without models of system is challenging since it is hard to fetch an accurate estimation of hand-eye relationship via merely visual measurement. Whereas, the accuracy of estimated hand-eye relationship expressed in local linear format with Jacobian matrix is important to whole system's performance. In this article, we proposed a finite-time controller as well as a Jacobian matrix estimator in a combination of online and offline way. The local linear formulation is formulated first. Then, we use a combination of online and offline method to boost the estimation of the highly coupled and nonlinear hand-eye relationship with data collected via depth camera. A neural network (NN) is pre-trained to give a relative reasonable initial estimation of Jacobian matrix. Then, an online updating method is carried out to modify the offline trained NN for a more accurate estimation. Moreover, sliding mode control algorithm is introduced to realize a finite-time controller. Compared with previous methods, our algorithm possesses better convergence speed. The proposed estimator possesses excellent performance in the accuracy of initial estimation and powerful tracking capabilities for time-varying estimation for Jacobian matrix compared with other data-driven estimators. The proposed scheme acquires the combination of neural network and finite-time control effect which drives a faster convergence speed compared with the exponentially converge ones. Another main feature of our algorithm is that the state signals in system is proved to be semi-global practical finite-time stable. Several experiments are carried out to validate proposed algorithm's performance.Comment: 24 pages, 10 figure

Robustness of Deep Equilibrium Architectures to Changes in the Measurement Model

Deep model-based architectures (DMBAs) are widely used in imaging inverse problems to integrate physical measurement models and learned image priors. Plug-and-play priors (PnP) and deep equilibrium models (DEQ) are two DMBA frameworks that have received significant attention. The key difference between the two is that the image prior in DEQ is trained by using a specific measurement model, while that in PnP is trained as a general image denoiser. This difference is behind a common assumption that PnP is more robust to changes in the measurement models compared to DEQ. This paper investigates the robustness of DEQ priors to changes in the measurement models. Our results on two imaging inverse problems suggest that DEQ priors trained under mismatched measurement models outperform image denoisers

FLAIR: A Conditional Diffusion Framework with Applications to Face Video Restoration

Face video restoration (FVR) is a challenging but important problem where one seeks to recover a perceptually realistic face videos from a low-quality input. While diffusion probabilistic models (DPMs) have been shown to achieve remarkable performance for face image restoration, they often fail to preserve temporally coherent, high-quality videos, compromising the fidelity of reconstructed faces. We present a new conditional diffusion framework called FLAIR for FVR. FLAIR ensures temporal consistency across frames in a computationally efficient fashion by converting a traditional image DPM into a video DPM. The proposed conversion uses a recurrent video refinement layer and a temporal self-attention at different scales. FLAIR also uses a conditional iterative refinement process to balance the perceptual and distortion quality during inference. This process consists of two key components: a data-consistency module that analytically ensures that the generated video precisely matches its degraded observation and a coarse-to-fine image enhancement module specifically for facial regions. Our extensive experiments show superiority of FLAIR over the current state-of-the-art (SOTA) for video super-resolution, deblurring, JPEG restoration, and space-time frame interpolation on two high-quality face video datasets.Comment: 32 pages, 27 figure

Cassava genome from a wild ancestor to cultivated varieties

Cassava is a major tropical food crop in the Euphorbiaceae family that has high carbohydrate production potential and adaptability to diverse environments. Here we present the draft genome sequences of a wild ancestor and a domesticated variety of cassava and comparative analyses with a partial inbred line. We identify 1,584 and 1,678 gene models specific to the wild and domesticated varieties, respectively, and discover high heterozygosity and millions of single-nucleotide variations. Our analyses reveal that genes involved in photosynthesis, starch accumulation and abiotic stresses have been positively selected, whereas those involved in cell wall biosynthesis and secondary metabolism, including cyanogenic glucoside formation, have been negatively selected in the cultivated varieties, reflecting the result of natural selection and domestication. Differences in microRNA genes and retrotransposon regulation could partly explain an increased carbon flux towards starch accumulation and reduced cyanogenic glucoside accumulation in domesticated cassava. These results may contribute to genetic improvement of cassava through better understanding of its biology

The United States COVID-19 Forecast Hub dataset

Academic researchers, government agencies, industry groups, and individuals have produced forecasts at an unprecedented scale during the COVID-19 pandemic. To leverage these forecasts, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) partnered with an academic research lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to create the US COVID-19 Forecast Hub. Launched in April 2020, the Forecast Hub is a dataset with point and probabilistic forecasts of incident cases, incident hospitalizations, incident deaths, and cumulative deaths due to COVID-19 at county, state, and national, levels in the United States. Included forecasts represent a variety of modeling approaches, data sources, and assumptions regarding the spread of COVID-19. The goal of this dataset is to establish a standardized and comparable set of short-term forecasts from modeling teams. These data can be used to develop ensemble models, communicate forecasts to the public, create visualizations, compare models, and inform policies regarding COVID-19 mitigation. These open-source data are available via download from GitHub, through an online API, and through R packages

Evaluation of individual and ensemble probabilistic forecasts of COVID-19 mortality in the United States

Short-term probabilistic forecasts of the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States have served as a visible and important communication channel between the scientific modeling community and both the general public and decision-makers. Forecasting models provide specific, quantitative, and evaluable predictions that inform short-term decisions such as healthcare staffing needs, school closures, and allocation of medical supplies. Starting in April 2020, the US COVID-19 Forecast Hub (https://covid19forecasthub.org/) collected, disseminated, and synthesized tens of millions of specific predictions from more than 90 different academic, industry, and independent research groups. A multimodel ensemble forecast that combined predictions from dozens of groups every week provided the most consistently accurate probabilistic forecasts of incident deaths due to COVID-19 at the state and national level from April 2020 through October 2021. The performance of 27 individual models that submitted complete forecasts of COVID-19 deaths consistently throughout this year showed high variability in forecast skill across time, geospatial units, and forecast horizons. Two-thirds of the models evaluated showed better accuracy than a naïve baseline model. Forecast accuracy degraded as models made predictions further into the future, with probabilistic error at a 20-wk horizon three to five times larger than when predicting at a 1-wk horizon. This project underscores the role that collaboration and active coordination between governmental public-health agencies, academic modeling teams, and industry partners can play in developing modern modeling capabilities to support local, state, and federal response to outbreaks

Analytical Research on the Impact Test of Light Steel Keel and Lightweight Concrete of Composite Wall

In order to study the impact resistance of light steel keel and lightweight concrete of composite walls (LSKLCW) under low-velocity impact, four composite wall specimens were designed to conduct dynamic simulation impact tests, and the failure mode, time-history curves of strain and displacement were analyzed and studied using test equipment and a loading system. The results show that the failure characteristics of the composite wall sample were elastic–plastic. Moreover, the vertical displacement and strain at the most unfavorable collision point were linearly related to the impingement height. Furthermore, the capacity of the composite wall (such as crack resistance, elastic–plastic deformation and energy dissipation) was affected by the concrete strength and the arrangement of the light steel netting. In addition, the impact resistance of the wall was significantly improved when the concrete strength was enhanced and the light steel netting was installed. Lastly, the test results were fitted and verified through the impact force calculation model of the composite wall, and then the accuracy of the test model was analyzed. The certain experimental basis and theoretical analysis basis for the impact resistance research of the composite wall can be provided by these research results

Analytical Research on the Impact Test of Light Steel Keel and Lightweight Concrete of Composite Wall

In order to study the impact resistance of light steel keel and lightweight concrete of composite walls (LSKLCW) under low-velocity impact, four composite wall specimens were designed to conduct dynamic simulation impact tests, and the failure mode, time-history curves of strain and displacement were analyzed and studied using test equipment and a loading system. The results show that the failure characteristics of the composite wall sample were elastic–plastic. Moreover, the vertical displacement and strain at the most unfavorable collision point were linearly related to the impingement height. Furthermore, the capacity of the composite wall (such as crack resistance, elastic–plastic deformation and energy dissipation) was affected by the concrete strength and the arrangement of the light steel netting. In addition, the impact resistance of the wall was significantly improved when the concrete strength was enhanced and the light steel netting was installed. Lastly, the test results were fitted and verified through the impact force calculation model of the composite wall, and then the accuracy of the test model was analyzed. The certain experimental basis and theoretical analysis basis for the impact resistance research of the composite wall can be provided by these research results