Communication Protocol Design Considerations For Highway Vehicle Platoons And Enhanced Networked Robustness By Stochastic Dithers

Highway platooning of vehicles has been identified as a promising framework in developing intelligent transportation systems. By autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle control and inter-vehicle coordination, an appropriately managed platoon can potentially offer enhanced safety, improved highway utility, increased fuel economy, and reduced emission. This thesis is focused on quantitative characterization of impact of communication information structures and contents on platoon safety. By comparing different information structures which combine front sensors, rear sensors, and wireless communication channels, and different information contents such as distances, speeds, and drivers\u27 actions, we reveal a number of intrinsic relationships between vehicle coordination and communications in platoons. Typical communication standards and related communication latency and package loss are used as benchmark cases in our study. These findings provide useful guidelines for information harmonization module (IHM) design in sensor selections, communication resource allocations, and vehicle coordination. Two new weighted multi-information structure control and information data rate control are proposed. Both control methods have been validated by experimental simulation and finite element analysis, and also show a surprising improvement of communication resources usage with data rate control. The results for the proposed module are new in the literature for vehicle platoon control. A new method is introduced to enhance feedback robustness against communication gain uncertainties. The method employs a fundamental property in stochastic differential equations to add a scaled stochastic dither under which tolerable gain uncertainties can be much enlarged, beyond the traditional deterministic optimal gain margin. Algorithms, stability, convergence, and robustness are presented for first-order systems. Extension to higher-dimensional systems is further discussed. Simulation results are used to illustrate the merits of this methodology

Finite p-groups all of whose non-abelian proper subgroups are generated by two elements

AbstractIn this paper, we classify the finite p-groups all of whose non-abelian proper subgroups are generated by two elements

Experimental test of contextuality in quantum and classical systems

Contextuality is considered as an intrinsic signature of non-classicality, and a crucial resource for achieving unique advantages of quantum information processing. However, recently there have been debates on whether classical fields may also demonstrate contextuality. Here we experimentally configure a contextuality test for optical fields, adopting various definitions of measurement events, and analyse how the definitions affect the emergence of non-classical correlations. The heralded single photon state, a typical non-classical light field, manifests contextuality in our setup, while contextuality for classical coherent fields strongly depends on the specific definition of measurement events which is equivalent to filtering the non-classical component of the input state. Our results highlight the importance of definition of measurement events to demonstrate contextuality, and link the contextual correlations to non-classicality defined by quasi-probabilities in phase space.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figure

Collaborated Efforts in TI ARM M4/32Bits Microcontroller Curricula Developments and Assessments

The disappearing and lack technical supports in hardware and software of 68XXX and 80XXX microcontrollers have made the finding of the replacement an urgent issue in the academic communities. There are many new comers such as Microchip PIC, Arduino ATMEL, and Texas Instruments ARM M series to choose from, but obstacles and learning curve for the faculty to adopt the new environment with these new microcontrollers have issues to slow the process. There were efforts made with grant supports to disseminate the curricula development on PIC and Arduino microcontrollers. But, industries have suggested and expressed the needs and desire of 32 bits ARM microcontroller’s skills from engineer and technology programs graduates to fill the job markets. This article presents a preliminary study and comparison that introduce a concept of collaborated efforts among different institutions to develop the ARM curricula that aimed to fit the industry’s call for duties. These curricula development efforts are not only aim at on-campus face-to-face teaching and learning strategy but also distance hands-on learning through delivering course modules using both synchronous and asynchronous. An assessment of this jointed efforts are also part of the studies. Engineering technology focuses on both hands-on and mind-on design work and the article is to demonstrate the collaborated efforts in advanced curriculum development such as the ARM microcontroller which is the key ingredient for success. Through the development efforts and online Learning Management System (LMS) designs that make the distance delivery and cyber-enabled learning possible. These efforts not only benefit the interested faculty/teachers in better teaching and learning, but also support the students who can learn more advanced technical concepts that are needed for emerging high-tech jobs for today and in the future. Highlights of the presentation will address the following: • Research and development of the virtual classrooms and open source service server. • Design and development of the supported material. • Implementation strategies and planning for the distance hands-on approach. • Preliminary assessment of the teaching and learning. • Recommendations of potential adoption of the development. • Continuous improvement of teaching and learning in academic community