Online IPA Gradient Estimators in Stochastic Continuous Fluid Models

This paper applies infinitesimal perturbation analysis (IPA) to loss-related and workload-related metrics in a class of stochastic flow models (SFM). It derives closed-form formulas for the gradient estimators of these metrics with respect to various parameters of interest, such as buffer size, service rate, and inflow rate. The IPA estimators derived are simple and fast to compute, and are further shown to be unbiased and nonparametric, in the sense that they can be computed directly from the observed data without any knowledge of the underlying probability law. These properties hold out the promise of utilizing IPA gradient estimates as ingredients of online management and control of telecommunications networks. While this paper considers single-node SFMs, the analysis method developed is amenable to extensions to networks of SFM nodes with more general topologies.     

Risk-averse stochastic optimal control: An efficiently computable statistical upper bound

In this paper, we discuss an application of the Stochastic Dual Dynamic Programming (SDDP) type algorithm to nested risk-averse formulations of Stochastic Optimal Control (SOC) problems. We propose a construction of a statistical upper bound for the optimal value of risk-averse SOC problems. This outlines an approach to a solution of a long standing problem in that area of research. The bound holds for a large class of convex and monotone conditional risk mappings. Finally, we show the validity of the statistical upper bound to solve a real-life stochastic hydro-thermal planning problem.     

Finite-time disturbance observer-based trajectory tracking control for quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle with obstacle avoidance

This paper investigates the problem of trajectory tracking control for quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in the presence of dynamic obstacles and external disturbance forces/torques. More specifically, two new sliding mode disturbance observers are firstly designed to estimate the external disturbances, in which the observation errors can converge to zero in finite time. Furthermore, utilizing the observation information, a new sliding mode surface-like variable-based position tracking control scheme and a novel nonsingular terminal sliding mode-based attitude synchronization control scheme are developed to drive the UAV tracking the reference trajectory with obstacle avoiding. Moreover, the tracking errors of the close-loop control system can converge to zero within finite time by the analyses of Lyapunov methodology. Finally, the numerical simulation results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control schemes.     

半线性抛物最优控制问题全离散插值系数有限元方法的收敛性分析

本文考虑全离散插值系数有限元方法求解半线性抛物最优控制问题,其中控制变量用分片常数函数逼近,状态变量和对偶状态变量用分片线性函数逼近.对于方程中的半线性项,先用插值系数技巧处理,再用牛顿迭代法求解.通过引入一些辅助变量和投影算子,并利用有限元空间的逼近性质,得到半线性抛物最优控制问题插值系数有限元方法的收敛性结果;数值算例结果验证了理论结果的正确性.     

Optimal Control for Multiscale Elliptic Equations with Rough Coefficients

This paper concerns the convex optimal control problem governed by multiscale elliptic equations with arbitrarily rough $L^\infty$ coefficients, which has not only complex coupling between nonseparable scales and nonlinearity, but also important applications in composite materials and geophysics. We use one of the recently developed numerical homogenization techniques, the so-called Rough Polyharmonic Splines (RPS) and its generalization (GRPS) for the efficient resolution of the elliptic operator on the coarse scale. Those methods have optimal convergence rate which do not rely on the regularity of the coefficients nor the concepts of scale-separation or periodicity. As the iterative solution of the nonlinearly coupled OCP-OPT formulation for the optimal control problem requires solving the corresponding (state and co-state) multiscale elliptic equations many times with different right hand sides, numerical homogenization approach only requires one-time pre-computation on the fine scale and the following iterations can be done with computational cost proportional to coarse degrees of freedom. Numerical experiments are presented to validate the theoretical analysis.     

A real-time monitoring approach for bivariate event data

Early detection of changes in the frequency of events is an important task in many fields, such as disease surveillance, monitoring of high-quality processes, reliability monitoring, and public health. This article focuses on detecting changes in multivariate event data by monitoring the time-between-events (TBE). Existing multivariate TBE charts are limited because they only signal after an event occurred for each of the individual processes. This results in delays (i.e., long time-to-signal), especially when we are interested in detecting a change in one or a few processes with different rates. We propose a bivariate TBE chart, which can signal in real-time. We derive analytical expressions for the control limits and average time-to-signal performance, conduct a performance evaluation and compare our chart to an existing method. Our findings showed that our method is an effective approach for monitoring bivariate TBE data and has better detection ability than the existing method under transient shifts and is more generally applicable. A significant benefit of our method is that it signals in real-time and that the control limits are based on analytical expressions. The proposed method is implemented on two real-life datasets from reliability and health surveillance.     

Terminal constrained robust hybrid iterative learning model predictive control for complex time-delayed batch processes

This work mainly addresses terminal constrained robust hybrid iterative learning model predictive control against time delay and uncertainties in a class of complex batch processes with input and output constraints. In this work, an equivalently novel extended two-dimensional switched system is first constructed to represent the process model by introducing state difference, output error and new relaxation variable information. Then, a hybrid predictive updating controller is proposed and an optimal performance index function including terminal constraints is designed. Under the condition that the switching signal meets certain conditions, the solvable problem of model predictive control is realized by Lyapunov stability theory. Meanwhile, the design scheme of controller parameters is also given. In addition, the robust constraint set is adopted to overcome the disadvantage that the traditional asymptotic stability cannot converge to the origin when it involves disturbances, such that the system state converges to the constraint set and meets its expected value. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified by controlling the speed and pressure parameters of the injection molding process.     

Resource limited event-triggered model predictive control for continuous-time nonlinear systems based on first-order hold

This paper investigates a resources-limited situation in the event-triggered model predictive control (ETMPC) for continuous-time nonlinear system with first-order hold fashion. In consideration of limited bandwidth in data transmission through wireless network under actual operation, our strategy divides the prediction horizon, and applies linear interpolation instead of zero-order hold fashion to obtain a better system performance, so that the reduction of resources and the optimization of strategy can be guaranteed. Furthermore, in actual industry processes, quadratic cost function cannot be implemented in all operations, then general cost function is adopted in this paper. Based on the first-order hold method and general cost function, the feasibility of the ETMPC algorithm and the stability of dynamical systems are analyzed. At last, a practical example is given to show the advantages of our method.     

Characterization and computation of control invariant sets for linear impulsive control systems

Impulsive control systems are suitable to describe and control a venue of real-life problems, going from disease treatment to aerospace guidance. The main characteristic of such systems is that they evolve freely in-between impulsive actions, which makes it difficult to guarantee its permanence in a given state-space region. In this work, we develop a method for characterizing and computing approximations to the maximal control invariant sets for linear impulsive control systems, which can be explicitly used to formulate a set-based model predictive controller. We approach this task using a tractable and non-conservative characterization of the admissible state sets, namely the states whose free response remains within given constraints, emerging from a spectrahedron representation of such sets for systems with rational eigenvalues. The so-obtained impulsive control invariant set is then explicitly used as a terminal set of a predictive controller, which guarantees the feasibly asymptotic convergence to a target set containing the invariant set. Necessary conditions under which an arbitrary target set contains an impulsive control invariant set (and moreover, an impulsive control equilibrium set) are also provided, while the controller performance are tested by means of two simulation examples.     

A switching-based Moving Target Defense against sensor attacks in control systems

Moving Target Defense (MTD) prevents adversaries from being able to predict the effect of their attacks by adding uncertainty in the state of a system during runtime. In this paper, we present an MTD algorithm that randomly changes the availability of the sensor data, so that it is difficult for adversaries to tailor stealthy attacks while, at the same time, minimizing the impact of false-data injection attacks. Using tools from the design of state estimators, namely, observers, and switched systems, we formulate an optimization problem to find the probability of the switching signals that increase the visibility of stealthy attacks while decreasing the deviation caused by false data injection attacks. We show that the proposed MTD algorithm can be designed to guarantee the stability of the closed-loop system with desired performance. In addition, we formulate an optimization problem for the design of the parameters so as to minimize the impact of the attacks. The results are illustrated in two case studies, one about a generic linear time-invariant system and another about a vehicular platooning problem.