Intention-Aware Decision-Making for Mixed Intersection Scenarios

This paper presents a white-box intention-aware decision-making for the handling of interactions between a pedestrian and an automated vehicle (AV) in an unsignalized street crossing scenario. Moreover, a design framework has been developed, which enables automated parameterization of the decision-making. This decision-making is designed in such a manner that it can understand pedestrians in urban traffic and can react accordingly to their intentions. That way, a human-like response to the actions of the pedestrian is ensured, leading to a higher acceptance of AVs. The core notion of this paper is that the intention prediction of the pedestrian to cross the street and decision-making are divided into two subsystems. On the one hand, the intention detection is a data-driven, black-box model. Thus, it can model the complex behavior of the pedestrians. On the other hand, the decision-making is a white-box model to ensure traceability and to enable a rapid verification and validation of AVs. This white-box decision-making provides human-like behavior and a guaranteed prevention of deadlocks. An additional benefit is that the proposed decision-making requires low computational resources only enabling real world usage. The automated parameterization uses a particle swarm optimization and compares two different models of the pedestrian: The social force model and the Markov decision process model. Consequently, a rapid design of the decision-making is possible and different pedestrian behaviors can be taken into account. The results reinforce the applicability of the proposed intention-aware decision-making

A robust fault detection method using a zonotopic Kaucher set-membership approach

This paper presents a robust fault detection method using a zonotopic Kaucher set-membership method. The fault detection approach is based on checking the consistency between the model and the data. Consistency is given if there is an intersection between the feasible parameter set and the nominal parameter set. To allow efficient computation the feasible set is approximated by a zonotope. Due to the usage of Kaucher interval arithmetic the results are mathematically guaranteed. The proposed approach is assessed using an illustrative application based on a well-known four-tank case study. The study shows that it is possible to detect even small errors in a noisy settingPeer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Development of a Mobile Vehicle Manipulator Simulator for the Validation of Shared Control Concepts

This paper presents the development of a real-time simulator for the validation of controlling a large vehicle manipulator. The need for this development can be justified by the lack of such a simulator: There are neither open source projects nor commercial products, which would be suitable for testing cooperative control concepts. First, we present the nonlinear simulation model of the vehicle and the manipulator. For the modeling MATLAB/Simulink is used, which also enables a code generation into standalone C++ ROS-Nodes (Robot Operating System Nodes). The emerging challenges of the code generation are also discussed. Then, the obtained standalone C++ ROS-Nodes integrated in the simulator framework which includes a graphical user interface, a steering wheel and a joystick. This simulator can provide the real-time calculation of the overall system's motion enabling the interaction of human and automation. Furthermore, a qualitative validation of the model is given. Finally, the functionalities of the simulator is demonstrated in tests with a human operators.Comment: in German languag

Automated Generation of Explicit Port-Hamiltonian Models from Multi-Bond Graphs

Port-Hamiltonian system theory is a well-known framework for the control of complex physical systems. The majority of port-Hamiltonian control design methods base on an \emph{explicit} input-state-output port-Hamiltonian model for the system under consideration. However in the literature, little effort has been made towards a systematic, automatable derivation of such explicit models. In this paper, we present a constructive, formally rigorous method for an explicit port-Hamiltonian formulation of multi-bond graphs. Two conditions, one necessary and one sufficient, for the existence of an explicit port-Hamiltonian formulation of a multi-bond graph are given. We summarise our approach in a fully automated algorithm of which we provide an exemplary implementation along with this publication. The theoretical and practical results are illustrated through an academic example

A genetic investigation of sex bias in the prevalence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Background Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) shows substantial heritability and is 2-7 times more common in males than females. We examined two putative genetic mechanisms underlying this sex bias: sex-specific heterogeneity and higher burden of risk in female cases. Methods We analyzed genome-wide autosomal common variants from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium and iPSYCH Project (20,183 cases, 35,191 controls) and Swedish populationregister data (N=77,905 cases, N=1,874,637 population controls). Results Genetic correlation analyses using two methods suggested near complete sharing of common variant effects across sexes, with rg estimates close to 1. Analyses of population data, however, indicated that females with ADHD may be at especially high risk of certain comorbid developmental conditions (i.e. autism spectrum disorder and congenital malformations), potentially indicating some clinical and etiological heterogeneity. Polygenic risk score (PRS) analysis did not support a higher burden of ADHD common risk variants in female cases (OR=1.02 [0.98-1.06], p=0.28). In contrast, epidemiological sibling analyses revealed that the siblings of females with ADHD are at higher familial risk of ADHD than siblings of affected males (OR=1.14, [95% CI: 1.11-1.18], p=1.5E-15). Conclusions Overall, this study supports a greater familial burden of risk in females with ADHD and some clinical and etiological heterogeneity, based on epidemiological analyses. However, molecular genetic analyses suggest that autosomal common variants largely do not explain the sex bias in ADHD prevalence

Limited Information Shared Control: A Potential Game Approach

This paper presents a systematic method for the design of a limited information shared control (LISC). LISC is used in applications where not all system states or reference trajectories are measurable by the automation. Typical examples are partially human-controlled systems, in which some subsystems are fully controlled by automation while others are controlled by a human. The proposed systematic design method uses a novel class of games to model human-machine interaction: the near potential differential games (NPDG). We provide a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of an NPDG and derive an algorithm for finding a NPDG that completely describes a given differential game. The proposed design method is applied to the control of a large vehicle-manipulator system, in which the manipulator is controlled by a human operator and the vehicle is fully automated. The suitability of the NPDG to model differential games is verified in simulations, leading to a faster and more accurate controller design compared to manual tuning. Furthermore, the overall design process is validated in a study with sixteen test subjects, indicating the applicability of the proposed concept in real applications.Comment: This work has been submitted to the IEEE for possible publication. Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be accessibl