A mechanism based on finger-sliding behavior for designing radial menus

Human behavior about sliding their fingers on touch screens needs to be understood for the design of radial menus. For this purpose, data about the angles of finger sliding in performing radial pointing to eight predefined directions were collected. The optimal angle ranges and boundaries for these directions were then determined by the proposed mechanism. Consistent with previous research, results showed that the deviations of slide angles for the four diagonal directions were larger than that for the four orthogonal directions. Therefore, to reduce overall pointing errors, the angle ranges for the diagonal directions should be wider than that for the orthogonal directions. Based on the proposed mechanism, the total probability of pointing errors could be limited to 0.05%, compared to the error of 2.00% if the eight angle ranges were evenly divided by the radii of a regular octagon. Besides the angles, the lengths and starting points of the slides were reported and discussed along with the oblique effect, judder effect, and screen orientation. Possible applications of the proposed mechanism for dynamic and personalized radial menus are addressed. Further research would be worthwhile to examine the effects of screen orientation and the number of predefined directions on pointing performances. Moreover, extending the research to mid-air sliding gestures would be of interest and value in designing three-dimensional radial menus.Relevance to industryThe proposed mechanism could effectively enhance the accuracy of the selections through radial menus, and could be applied to the remote controls via smart handheld devices.     

Differential graphical games for H∞ control of linear heterogeneous multiagent systems

Differential graphical games have been introduced in the literature to solve state synchronization problem for linear homogeneous agents. When the agents are heterogeneous, the previous notion of graphical games cannot be used anymore and a new definition is required. In this paper, we define a novel concept of differential graphical games for linear heterogeneous agents subject to external unmodeled disturbances, which contain the previously introduced graphical game for homogeneous agents as a special case. Using our new formulation, we can solve both the output regulation and H_∞ output regulation problems. Our graphical game framework yields coupled Hamilton‐Jacobi‐Bellman equations, which are, in general, impossible to solve analytically. Therefore, we propose a new actor‐critic algorithm to solve these coupled equations numerically in real time. Moreover, we find an explicit upper bound for the overall ‐gain of the output synchronization error with respect to disturbance. We demonstrate our developments by a simulation example.     

An EWMA signed ranks control chart with reliable run length performances

During the design phase of a control chart, the determination of its exact run length properties plays a vital role for its optimal operation. Markov chain or integral equation methods have been extensively applied in the design phase of conventional control charts. However, for distribution-free schemes, due to the discrete nature of the statistics being used (such as the sign or the Wilcoxon signed rank statistics, for instance), it is impossible to accurately compute their run length properties. In this work, a modified distribution-free phase II exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA)-type chart based on the Wilcoxon signed rank statistic is considered and its exact run length properties are discussed. A continuous transformation of the Wilcoxon signed rank statistic, combined with the classical Markov chain method, is used for the determination of the average run length in the in- and out-of control cases. Moreover, its exact performance is derived without any knowledge of the distribution of sample observations. Finally, an illustrative example is provided showing the practical implementation of our proposed chart.     

Distribution-free composite Shewhart-GWMA Mann-Whitney charts for monitoring the process location

The Mann-Whitney (MW) statistic is one of the most recommended two-sample statistical tests when the assumption of normality fails to hold due to its robustness and fascinating properties especially when small sample sizes are involved. In order to improve the sensitivity of the generally weighted moving average (GWMA) monitoring scheme toward the detection of large shifts, in this paper, a new distribution-free phase II composite Shewhart-GWMA (CSG) scheme is proposed using the MW U statistic. The performance of the proposed scheme is investigated using the average run-length (ARL) and average extra quadratic loss (AEQL) values through extensive simulations. The performance of this newly proposed monitoring scheme is found to be superior when compared to numerous memory-type MW schemes (some existing and others introduced in this paper) in many situations. An illustrative example is given to demonstrate the implementation of the CSG MW U scheme using real-life data.     

A side-sensitive synthetic coefficient of variation chart

Control charts for monitoring the coefficient of variation (γ) are useful for processes with an inconsistent mean (μ) and a standard deviation (σ) which changes with μ, by monitoring the consistency in the ratio σ over μ. The synthetic-γ chart is one of the charts proposed to monitor γ, and its attractiveness lie in waiting until a second point to fall outside the control limits before a decision is made. However, existing synthetic-γ charts do not differentiate between the points falling outside the upper control limit (UCL) and lower control limit (LCL). Hence, this paper proposes a side-sensitive synthetic-γ chart, where successive nonconforming samples must either fall above the UCL or below the LCL. Formulae to compute the average run length (ARL), the standard deviation of the run length (SDRL) and expected average run length (EARL) are derived using the Markov chain approach, and the algorithms to obtain the optimal charting parameters are proposed. Subsequently, the optimal charting parameters, ARL, SDRL and EARL values for various numerical examples are shown. Comparisons show that the side-sensitive synthetic-γ chart consistently outperforms the existing synthetic-γ chart, especially for small shifts. The proposed chart also consistently outperforms the Shewhart-γ chart, while showing comparable or better performance than the Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (EWMA) chart for most shift sizes, except for very small shifts. Finally, this paper shows the implementation of the proposed chart on an industrial example.     

A multiagent‐based microgrid operation method considering charging and discharging strategies of electric vehicles

In this paper, we propose a multiagent‐based microgrid (MG) operation method considering charging and discharging electric vehicles (EVs). The proposed system consists of five types of agents: single microgrid controller agent, several load agents, several gas turbines/engine agents, several photovoltaic generation agents, and several electric vehicle agents. In the proposed method, the load balancing can be realized by suppressing sudden fluctuations in supply and demand balance due to the synchronization of charging and discharging of EVs. From the simulation results, it can be seen that the proposed multiagent system could realize the load equalization in MG.     

基于参数预标定的长行程PMLSM无传感器控制

为了解决长行程定子不连续永磁直线同步电机存在的因无法全程安装位置传感器和不同动子和定子之间的电磁参数不固定所造成的控制性能下降的难题,提出一种在每一段定子内先进行参数标定,再进行速度控制的控制系统设计。首先,在动子进入过程中,对电机进行电磁参数标定,根据标定参数对控制器参数进行调整,以达到更好的控制效果。然后,使用无位置传感器控制系统使动子快速达到设定速度值并稳定运行。实验结果表明:动子进入过程参数标定精度分别为0.002Wb和0.000 4H;无位置传感器控制中位置估计精度为0.63mm,速度收敛时间为0.45s,稳态误差为0.02m/s。基本满足永磁直线同步电机用于长行程运输的控制快速性、稳定性等要求。     

高速率通信网络下时变系统的有限时域H∞控制

针对高速率通信网络和Round-Robin（RR）协议影响下网络化时变系统的有限时域[H∞]控制问题，考虑到系统中存在乘性噪声、随机时滞和量化效应，提出了一种基于观测器的有限时域[H∞]控制器的设计方法。利用李雅普诺夫稳定性理论和线性矩阵不等式（Linear Matrix Inequality，LMI）技术得到有限时域[H∞]控制器存在的充分条件。基于锥补线性化（Cone Complementarity Linearization，CCL）方法通过求解一组递归矩阵不等式得到观测器和控制器参数。所设计的控制器保证闭环网络化时变系统在给定的时域内稳定，且满足预定的[H∞]性能指标。数值仿真验证了所提方法的有效性。     

非全日制研究生线上线下混合式教学模式研究 ——以《现代电气控制技术》为例

随着教育信息化技术的发展，线上线下混合式教学模式已成为一种趋势。为了解决非全日制研究生课堂教学召集困难、效果不佳等问题，提出了基于“互联网＋虚拟仿真技术”的线上线下混合式教学模式。本文以控制工程专业学位研究生为例，结合《现代电气控制技术》课程，探讨了线上线下混合式教学实现途径、师生互动方法、项目驱动案例教学法以及电气控制系统虚拟仿真实验平台的构建方法，切实提升非全日制研究生的培养质量。