Shared human–robot path following control of an unmanned ground vehicle

This paper considers the shared path following control of an unmanned ground vehicle by a single person. A passive measure of human intent is used to blend the human and machine inputs in a mixed initiative approach. The blending law is combined with saturated super-twisting sliding mode speed and heading controllers, so that exogenous disturbances can be counteracted via equivalent control. It is proven that when the proposed blending law is used, the combined control signals from both the human and automatic controller respect the actuator magnitude constraints of the machine. To demonstrate the approach, shared control experiments are performed using an unmanned ground vehicle, which follows a lawn mower pattern shaped path.     

Human–machine shared control for lane departure assistance based on hybrid system theory

To improve the human–machine cooperation of lane departure assistance system (LDAS), a human–machine shared control strategy based on hybrid system theory was proposed. By considering vehicle’s discrete and continuous states and time-varying longitudinal speed, the hybrid system was formalized as hybrid automaton, and the shared control strategy was built to govern the human–machine interaction. Robust gain-scheduling energy-to-peak method was adopted to design the assistance system controller. The D-stability of the system was also studied and guaranteed by solving the linear matrix inequality (LMI). The proposed human–machine shared control method was evaluated via the co-simulation of CarSim/Simulink and the hardware-in-loop (HIL) experiment. The results showed that the proposed approach can effectively keep the vehicle in lane and a good human–machine coordination was demonstrated.     

共用直流母线的电梯节能控制系统

电梯是使用频度较高的交通工具,每年消耗的电能是巨大的.电梯在一个上下行的运行周期中,有几乎一半的时间电梯的电机处于发电状态,这时电梯不但不需要消耗电能,而且会发出电能,传统电梯是将这部分电能经电阻白白消耗掉,从而造成了能源的浪费.为了更好地利用电机发出的电能,通过对电梯运行中能量转换过程的分析,提出了二台或多台电梯共用直流母线的节能新方式,为电梯节能控制系统的设计提供了一个选择方案.     

Secured secret sharing technique based on chaotic map and DNA encoding with application on secret image

This paper shows a secured key-based (k, n) threshold cryptography scheme, where key as well as secret data is shared among set of participants. In this scheme, each share has some bytes missing and these missing bytes can be recovered from a set of exactly k shares, but not less than k. Therefore, each share contains partial secret information which is also encrypted by DNA encoding scheme. Additionally, this paper introduces a concept, where each share information size is varied. More precisely, each share contains a different percentage of secret information and which is strongly dependent on the key. Moreover key sensitivity analysis and statistical analysis prove the robustness against different cryptanalysis attacks and thus ensures high acceptability for information security requirements.     

Markov transition model to dementia with death as a competing event

This study evaluates the effect of death as a competing event to the development of dementia in a longitudinal study of the cognitive status of elderly subjects. A multi-state Markov model with three transient states: intact cognition, mild cognitive impairment (M.C.I.) and global impairment (G.I.) and one absorbing state: dementia is used to model the cognitive panel data; transitions among states depend on four covariates age, education, prior state (intact cognition, or M.C.I., or G.I.) and the presence/absence of an apolipoprotein E-4 allele (APOE4). A Weibull model and a Cox proportional hazards (Cox PH) model are used to fit the survival from death based on age at entry and the APOE4 status. A shared random effect correlates this survival time with the transition model. Simulation studies determine the sensitivity of the maximum likelihood estimates to the violations of the Weibull and Cox PH model assumptions. Results are illustrated with an application to the Nun Study, a longitudinal cohort of 672 participants 75+ years of age at baseline and followed longitudinally with up to ten cognitive assessments per nun.     

Clairvoyance: A framework to integrate shared displays and mobile computing devices

Supporting formal and informal meetings with digital information and ubiquitous software systems every day becomes increasingly mandatory. These meetings require that the integration of devices participating in the meeting and the information flow among them should be done as seamless as possible to avoid jeopardizing the natural interactions among participants. Trying to contribute to address such a challenge, this article presents a framework that allows devices integration and smooth information flow. This framework, named Clairvoyance, particularly integrates mobile computing devices and large-screen TVs through a mobile ad hoc network, and thus it eases the implementation of shared displays intended to be used in formal and informal meetings. Clairvoyance provides a set of services through an API, which can be used to develop ubiquitous applications that support meetings in particular scenarios. The preliminary evaluation of this framework considered its usage to implement a ubiquitous system that supports social meetings among friends or relatives. According to developers, the framework is easy to use and it provided all required services for such an application. The solution obtained was then utilized by end-users in simulated meetings. The evaluation results indicate that the Clairvoyance services were suitable to support the informal meetings, and that the devices integration and information flow were transparent for the end-users.     

Research on the energy-saving and revenue sharing strategy of ESCOs under the uncertainty of the value of Energy Performance Contracting Projects

Under the uncertainty of the value of Energy Performance Contracting Projects (EPCPs), this paper develops a revenue-sharing bargaining model between an Energy Service Company (ESCO) and an Energy-Using Organization (EU). Based on the model the paper analyzes the impacts of energy prices, risk-adjusted discount rates and accidents on the ESCO’s bargaining strategies. The research shows that the greater the probability of adverse circumstances is, the higher is the revenue share (of the EU), and the more disadvantageous is the ESCO’s position in the game. Furthermore, we design a forecast–commitment contract between an ESCO and an EU and analyze the optimal product’s energy savings commitment strategy of the ESCO to cope with uncertain energy savings and contract risk. The research illustrates that by introducing penalties and commitments, the contract can eliminate the impact of the uncertain energy savings on the contract execution to a certain extent; when the EU takes a greater commitment risk, the ESCO is willing to provide a higher commitment, thus enhancing the strategy value of the bilateral relationship and reducing the contract risk. Finally, the policy recommendations about improving shared savings contract standard, third-party energy savings measurement and verification mechanism and arbitration mechanism of EPCs are provided.     

大ERP模式下电信企业推进财务共享系统建设的思考

对电信企业推进财务共享系统建设进行了研究,分析了财务共享的特点、发展趋势和电信企业管理环境,报告了大ERP给财务共享带来的变化,介绍了大ERP模式下电信企业实施财务共享的主要内容。