Airborne Wireless Sensor Networks for Airplane Monitoring System

In traditional airplane monitoring system (AMS), data sensed from strain, vibration, ultrasound of structures or temperature, and humidity in cabin environment are transmitted to central data repository via wires. However, drawbacks still exist in wired AMS such as expensive installation and maintenance, and complicated wired connections. In recent years, accumulating interest has been drawn to performing AMS via airborne wireless sensor network (AWSN) system with the advantages of flexibility, low cost, and easy deployment. In this review, we present an overview of AMS and AWSN and demonstrate the requirements of AWSN for AMS particularly. Furthermore, existing wireless hardware prototypes and network communication schemes of AWSN are investigated according to these requirements. This paper will improve the understanding of how the AWSN design under AMS acquires sensor data accurately and carries out network communication efficiently, providing insights into prognostics and health management (PHM) for AMS in future

A vehicle stability control strategy with adaptive neural network sliding mode theory based on system uncertainty approximation

Modelling uncertainty, parameter variation and unknown external disturbance are the major concerns in the development of an advanced controller for vehicle stability at the limits of handling. Sliding mode control (SMC) method has proved to be robust against parameter variation and unknown external disturbance with satisfactory tracking performance. But modelling uncertainty, such as errors caused in model simplification, is inevitable in model-based controller design, resulting in lowered control quality. The adaptive radial basis function network (ARBFN) can effectively improve the control performance against large system uncertainty by learning to approximate arbitrary nonlinear functions and ensure the global asymptotic stability of the closed-loop system. In this paper, a novel vehicle dynamics stability control strategy is proposed using the adaptive radial basis function network sliding mode control (ARBFN-SMC) to learn system uncertainty and eliminate its adverse effects. This strategy adopts a hierarchical control structure which consists of reference model layer, yaw moment control layer, braking torque allocation layer and executive layer. Co-simulation using MATLAB/Simulink and AMESim is conducted on a verified 15-DOF nonlinear vehicle system model with the integrated-electro-hydraulic brake system (I-EHB) actuator in a Sine With Dwell manoeuvre. The simulation results show that ARBFN-SMC scheme exhibits superior stability and tracking performance in different running conditions compared with SMC scheme

A study on objective evaluation of vehicle steering comfort based on driver's electromyogram and movement trajectory

The evaluation of driver's steering comfort, which is mainly concerned with the haptic driver–vehicle interaction, is important for the optimization of advanced driver assistance systems. The current approaches to investigating steering comfort are mainly based on the driver's subjective evaluation, which is time-consuming, expensive, and easily influenced by individual variations. This paper makes some tentative investigation of objective evaluation, which is based on the electromyogram (EMG) and movement trajectory of the driver's upper limbs during steering maneuvers. First, a steering experiment with 21 subjects is conducted, and EMG and movement trajectories of the driver's upper limbs are measured, together with their subjective evaluation of steering comfort. Second, five evaluation indices including EMG and movement information are defined based on the measurements from the first step. Correlation analyses are conducted between each evaluation index and steering comfort rating (SCR), and the results show that all of the indices have significant correlations with SCR. Then, an artificial neural network model is devised based on the aforementioned indices and its predicting performance of SCR is demonstrated as acceptable. The results reveal that it may be feasible to establish an objective evaluation approach for vehicle steering comfort

Coupling Efficiency Measurements for Long-pulsed Solid Sodium Laser Based on Measured Sodium Profile Data

In 2013, a serial sky test has been held on 1.8 meter telescope in Yunnan observation site after 2011-2012 Laser guide star photon return test. In this test, the long-pulsed sodium laser and the launch telescope have been upgraded, a smaller and brighter beacon has been observed. During the test, a sodium column density lidar and atmospheric coherence length measurement equipment were working at the same time. The coupling efficiency test result with the sky test layout, data processing, sodium beacon spot size analysis, sodium profile data will be presented in this paper

A Novel Method for Surface Defect Detection of Photovoltaic Module Based on Independent Component Analysis

This paper proposed a new method for surface defect detection of photovoltaic module based on independent component analysis (ICA) reconstruction algorithm. Firstly, a faultless image is used as the training image. The demixing matrix and corresponding ICs are obtained by applying the ICA in the training image. Then we reorder the ICs according to the range values and reform the de-mixing matrix. Then the reformed de-mixing matrix is used to reconstruct the defect image. The resulting image can remove the background structures and enhance the local anomalies. Experimental results have shown that the proposed method can effectively detect the presence of defects in periodically patterned surfaces

Shared Steering Torque Control for Lane Change Assistance: A Stochastic Game-Theoretic Approach

The challenging issue of "human-machine co-pilot" opens up a new frontier to enhance driving safety. However, driver-machine conflicts and uncertain driver/external disturbances are significant problems in cooperative steering system, which degrades the system's path-tracking ability and lowers driving safety. This paper proposes a novel stochastic game-based shared control framework to model steering torque interaction between driver and intelligent electric power steering (IEPS) system. A six-order driver-vehicle dynamic system including driver/external uncertainty is established for path-tracking. Then the affine-linear quadratic (LQ)-based path-tracking problem is proposed to model the maneuvers of driver and IEPS. Particularly, the feedback Nash and Stackelberg frameworks to the affine-quadratic problem are derived by stochastic dynamic programming (SDP). Two cases of co-pilot lane change driving scenarios are studied via computer simulation. The intrinsic relation between stochastic Nash and Stackelberg strategies are investigated based on the results. And the steering-in-the-loop (SIL) experiment reveals the potential of applying the proposed shared control framework to handle driver-IEPS conflicts and uncertain driver/external turbulence. Finally, the co-piloting experiments with human driver further demonstrate the rationality of the game-based pattern between both agents.Accepted versio

Surface Defect Target Identification on Copper Strip Based on Adaptive Genetic Algorithm and Feature Saliency

To enhance the stability and robustness of visual inspection system (VIS), a new surface defect target identification method for copper strip based on adaptive genetic algorithm (AGA) and feature saliency is proposed. First, the study uses gray level cooccurrence matrix (GLCM) and HU invariant moments for feature extraction. Then, adaptive genetic algorithm, which is used for feature selection, is evaluated and discussed. In AGA, total error rates and false alarm rates are integrated to calculate the fitness value, and the probability of crossover and mutation is adjusted dynamically according to the fitness value. At last, the selected features are optimized in accordance with feature saliency and are inputted into a support vector machine (SVM). Furthermore, for comparison, we conduct experiments using the selected optimal feature subsequence (OFS) and the total feature sequence (TFS) separately. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can guarantee the correct rates of classification and can lower the false alarm rates

Hierarchical Lateral Control Scheme for Autonomous Vehicle with Uneven Time Delays Induced by Vision Sensors

Vision-based sensors are widely used in lateral control of autonomous vehicles, but the large computational cost of the visual algorithms often induces uneven time delays. In this paper, a hierarchical vision-based lateral control scheme is proposed, where the upper controller is designed by robust H∞-based linear quadratic regulator (LQR) algorithm to compensate sensor-induced delays, and the lower controller is based on logic threshold method, in order to achieve strong convergence of the steering angle. Firstly, the vehicle lateral model is built, and the nonlinear uncertainties induced by time delays are linearized with Taylor expansion. Secondly, the state space of the system is augmented to describe such uncertainties with polytopic inclusions, which is controlled by an H∞-based LQR controller with a low cost of online computation. Then, a lower controller is designed for the control of the steering motor. According to the results of the vehicle experiment as well as the hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) experiment, the proposed control scheme shows good performance in vehicle’s lateral control task, and exhibits better robustness compared with a conventional LQR controller. The proposed control scheme provides a feasible solution for the lateral control of autonomous driving