49,313 research outputs found
VAL : automatic plan validation, continuous effects and mixed initiative planning using PDDL
This paper describes aspects of our plan validation tool, VAL. The tool was initially developed to support the 3rd International Planning Competition, but has subsequently been extended in order to exploit its capabilities in plan validation and development. In particular, the tool has been extended to include advanced features of PDDL2.1 which have proved important in mixed-initiative planning in a space operations project. Amongst these features, treatment of continuous effects is the most significant, with important effects on the semantic interpretation of plans. The tool has also been extended to keep abreast of developments in PDDL, providing critical support to participants and organisers of the 4th IPC
Validating plans with exogenous events
We are concerned with the problem of deciding the validity of a complex plan involving interacting continuous activity. In these situations there is a need to model and reason about the continuous processes and events that arise as a consequence of the behaviour of the physical world in which the plan is expected to execute. In this paper we describe how events, which occur as the outcome of uncontrolled physical processes, can be taken into account in determining whether a plan is valid with respect to the domain model. We do not consider plan generation issues in this paper but focus instead on issues in domain modelling and plan validation
Effect of time delay on feedback control of a flashing ratchet
It was recently shown that the use of feedback control can improve the
performance of a flashing ratchet. We investigate the effect of a time delay in
the implementation of feedback control in a closed-loop collective flashing
ratchet, using Langevin dynamics simulations. Surprisingly, for a large
ensemble, a well-chosen delay time improves the ratchet performance by allowing
the system to synchronize into a quasi-periodic stable mode of oscillation that
reproduces the optimal average velocity for a periodically flashing ratchet.
For a small ensemble, on the other hand, finite delay times significantly
reduce the benefit of feedback control for the time-averaged velocity, because
the relevance of information decays on a time scale set by the diffusion time
of the particles. Based on these results, we establish that experimental use of
feedback control is realistic.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Europhysics Letter
The magnetic structure of Gd_2Ti_2O_7
We attempt to solve the magnetic structure of the gadolinium analogue of
`spin-ice', using a mixture of experimental and theoretical assumptions. The
eventual predictions are essentially consistent with both the Mossbauer and
neutron measurements but are unrelated to previous proposals. We find two
possible distinct states, one of which is coplanar and the other is fully
three-dimensional. We predict that close to the initial transition the
preferred state is coplanar but that at the lowest temperature the ground-state
becomes fully three-dimensional. Unfortunately the energetics are consequently
complicated. There is a dominant nearest-neighbour Heisenberg interaction but
then a compromise solution for lifting the final degeneracy resulting from a
competition between longer-range Heisenberg interactions and direct dipolar
interactions on similar energy scales.Comment: 12 pages, 15 figure
Single and Many Particle Correlation Functions and Uniform Phase Bases for Strongly Correlated Systems
The need for suitable many or infinite fermion correlation functions to
describe some low dimensional strongly correlated systems is discussed. This is
linked to the need for a correlated basis, in which the ground state may be
postive definite, and in which single particle correlations may suffice. A
particular trial basis is proposed, and applied to a certain quasi-1D model.
The model is a strip of the 2D square lattice wrapped around a cylinder, and is
related to the ladder geometries, but with periodic instead of open boundary
conditions along the edges. Analysis involves a novel mean-field approach and
exact diagonalisation. The model has a paramagnetic region and a Nagaoka
ferromagnetic region. The proposed basis is well suited to the model, and
single particle correlations in it have power law decay for the paramagnet,
where the charge motion is qualitatively hard core bosonic. The mean field also
leads to a BCS-type model with single particle long range order.Comment: 23 pages, in plain tex, 12 Postscript figures included. Accepted for
publication in J.Physics : Condensed Matte
Precipitation detector Patent
Precipitation detector and mechanism for stopping and restarting machinery at initiation and cessation of rai
Fast Characterization of Dispersion and Dispersion Slope of Optical Fiber Links using Spectral Interferometry with Frequency Combs
We demonstrate fast characterization (~1.4 microseconds) of both the
dispersion and dispersion slope of long optical fiber links (~25 km) using dual
quadrature spectral interferometry with an optical frequency comb. Compared to
previous spectral interferometry experiments limited to fiber lengths of
meters, the long coherence length and the periodic delay properties of
frequency combs, coupled with fast data acquisition, enable spectral
interferometric characterization of fibers longer by several orders of
magnitude. We expect that our method will be useful to recently proposed
lightwave techniques like coherent WDM and to coherent modulation formats by
providing a real time monitoring capability for the link dispersion. Another
area of application would be in stabilization of systems which perform
frequency and timing distribution over long fiber links using stabilized
optical frequency combs.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, Minor changes to tex
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