On the construction of hierarchic models

One of the main problems in the field of model-based diagnosis of technical systems today is finding the most useful model or models of the system being diagnosed. Often, a model showing the physical components and the connections between them is all that is available. As systems grow larger and larger, the run-time performance of diagnostic algorithms decreases considerably when using these detailed models. A solution to this problem is using a hierarchic model. This allows us to first diagnose the system using an abstract model, and then use this solution to guide the diagnostic process using a more detailed model. The main problem with this approach is acquiring the hierarchic model. We give a generic hierarchic diagnostic algorithm and show how the use of certain classes of hierarchic models can increase the performance of this algorithm. We then present linear time algorithms for the automatic construction of these hierarchic models, using the detailed model and extra information about cost of probing points and invertibility of components.This research is sponsored by SKBS, a Dutch foundation that stimulates cooperation of universities, industry and business on knowledge-based systems.     

Formal probabilistic analysis of a surgical robot control algorithm with different virtual fixtures

Surgical robots are increasingly being used in operation theaters involving normal or laparoscopic surgeries. The working of these surgical robots is highly dependent on their control algorithms, which require very rigorous analysis to ensure their correct functionality due to the safety-critical nature of surgeries. Traditionally, safety of control algorithms is ensured by simulations, but they provide incomplete and approximate analysis results due to their inherent sampling-based nature. We propose to use probabilistic model checking, which is a formal verification method, for quantitative analysis, to verify the control algorithms of surgical robots in this paper. As an illustrative example, the paper provides a formal analysis of a virtual fixture control algorithm, implemented in a neuro-surgical robot, using the PRISM model checker. In particular, we provide a formal discrete-time Markov chain-based model of the given control algorithm and its environment. This formal model is then analyzed for multiple virtual fixtures, like cubic, hexagonal and irregular shapes. This verification allowed us to discover new insights about the considered algorithm that allow us to design safer control algorithms.     

自动驾驶的自适应解析模糊控制方法研究

该文在Michael等人提出的车辆系统动力学模型犤7犦的基础上进行自动驾驶的仿真研究,提出了基于模糊控制的车辆驾驶算法。通过构造自适应的解析模糊控制器,空旷道路的汽车自动驾驶问题得到了较好的解决。该控制算法具有收敛快、超调小,准确调整定位巡航速度并根据路况信息自动矫正方向、沿指定路线前进等特点。这种算法不但可以应用于车辆辅助安全驾驶系统,也可以应用于机器人的自主导航等方面。     

Dynamic Bayesian networks and variable length genetic algorithm for designing cue-based model for dialogue act recognition

The automatic recognition of dialogue act is a task of crucial importance for the processing of natural language dialogue at discourse level. It is also one of the most challenging problems as most often the dialogue act is not expressed directly in speaker’s utterance. In this paper, a new cue-based model for dialogue act recognition is presented. The model is, essentially, a dynamic Bayesian network induced from manually annotated dialogue corpus via dynamic Bayesian machine learning algorithms. Furthermore, the dynamic Bayesian network’s random variables are constituted from sets of lexical cues selected automatically by means of a variable length genetic algorithm, developed specifically for this purpose. To evaluate the proposed approaches of design, three stages of experiments have been conducted. In the initial stage, the dynamic Bayesian network model is constructed using sets of lexical cues selected manually from the dialogue corpus. The model is evaluated against two previously proposed models and the results confirm the potentiality of dynamic Bayesian networks for dialogue act recognition. In the second stage, the developed variable length genetic algorithm is used to select different sets of lexical cues to constitute the dynamic Bayesian networks’ random variables. The developed approach is evaluated against some of the previously used ranking approaches and the results provide experimental evidences on its ability to avoid the drawbacks of the ranking approaches. In the third stage, the dynamic Bayesian networks model is constructed using random variables constituted from the sets of lexical cues generated in the second stage and the results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed approaches for designing dialogue act recognition model.     

Verification of consensus algorithms using satisfiability solving

Consensus is at the heart of fault-tolerant distributed computing systems. Much research has been devoted to developing algorithms for this particular problem. This paper presents a semi-automatic verification approach for asynchronous consensus algorithms, aiming at facilitating their development. Our approach uses model checking, a widely practiced verification method based on state traversal. The challenge here is that the state space of these algorithms is huge, often infinite, thus making model checking infeasible. The proposed approach addresses this difficulty by reducing the verification problem to small model checking problems that involve only single phases of algorithm execution. Because a phase consists of a small, finite number of rounds, bounded model checking, a technique using satisfiability solving, can be effectively used to solve these problems. The proposed approach allows us to model check several consensus algorithms up to around 10 processes.     

A laboratory facility for verification of control algorithms for a group of satellites

A laboratory facility LuVeX consisting of a smooth horizontal table and models moving on its surface was developed at ZARM for adjustment of control algorithms for group motion of satellites. This paper describes the facility and implemented control algorithms for air-breathing pulsed jet engines mounted on moving models to provide their translational and rotational motion. The facility performance is proved by the results of numerical simulation of the control algorithm for the motion of a group of models along a given trajectory.     

基于ORB算法和OECF模型的快速图像拼接研究

为了增加移动机器人视觉导航中的成像范围,提出了一种基于ORB算法和OECF模型的图像拼接算法,获取的图像进行预处理后,先利用SIFT算法提取特征点,再用ORB算法获取特征点的二进制码串描述子进行匹配,而后通过投影变换模型获取参数,最后估计摄像机的光电转换函数OECF（Opto-Electronic Conversion Function）,利用Laguerre OECF模型参数对拼接图像进行色彩调整,解决了多幅图像拼接中颜色不一致的问题。实验结果表明,该算法能有效地对图像进行拼接,配准速度和拼接视觉效果和优于其他算法。     

Practical performance models of algorithms in evolutionary program induction and other domains

Evolutionary computation techniques have seen a considerable popularity as problem solving and optimisation tools in recent years. Theoreticians have developed a variety of both exact and approximate models for evolutionary program induction algorithms. However, these models are often criticised for being only applicable to simplistic problems or algorithms with unrealistic parameters. In this paper, we start rectifying this situation in relation to what matters the most to practitioners and users of program induction systems: performance. That is, we introduce a simple and practical model for the performance of program-induction algorithms. To test our approach, we consider two important classes of problems — symbolic regression and Boolean function induction — and we model different versions of genetic programming, gene expression programming and stochastic iterated hill climbing in program space. We illustrate the generality of our technique by also accurately modelling the performance of a training algorithm for artificial neural networks and two heuristics for the off-line bin packing problem.We show that our models, besides performing accurate predictions, can help in the analysis and comparison of different algorithms and/or algorithms with different parameters setting. We illustrate this via the automatic construction of a taxonomy for the stochastic program-induction algorithms considered in this study. The taxonomy reveals important features of these algorithms from the performance point of view, which are not detected by ordinary experimentation.     

Detection of hidden structures in nonstationary spike trains

We propose an algorithm for simultaneously estimating state transitions among neural states and nonstationary firing rates using a switching state-space model (SSSM). This algorithm enables us to detect state transitions on the basis of not only discontinuous changes in mean firing rates but also discontinuous changes in the temporal profiles of firing rates (e.g., temporal correlation). We construct estimation and learning algorithms for a nongaussian SSSM, whose nongaussian property is caused by binary spike events. Local variational methods can transform the binary observation process into a quadratic form. The transformed observation process enables us to construct a variational Bayes algorithm that can determine the number of neural states based on automatic relevance determination. Additionally, our algorithm can estimate model parameters from single-trial data using a priori knowledge about state transitions and firing rates. Synthetic data analysis reveals that our algorithm has higher performance for estimating nonstationary firing rates than previous methods. The analysis also confirms that our algorithm can detect state transitions on the basis of discontinuous changes in temporal correlation, which are transitions that previous hidden Markov models could not detect. We also analyze neural data recorded from the medial temporal area. The statistically detected neural states probably coincide with transient and sustained states that have been detected heuristically. Estimated parameters suggest that our algorithm detects the state transitions on the basis of discontinuous changes in the temporal correlation of firing rates. These results suggest that our algorithm is advantageous in real-data analysis.     

Data discovery algorithm for scientific data grid environment

In modern scientific computing communities, scientists are involved in managing massive amounts of very large data collections in a geographically distributed environment. Research in the area of grid computing has given us various ideas and solutions to address these requirements. Data grid mostly deals with large computational problems and provides geographically distributed resources for large-scale data-intensive applications that generate large data sets. Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks have also become a major research topic over the last few years. In a distributed P2P system, a discovery algorithm is required to locate specific information, applications, or users within the system. In this research work, we present our scientific data grid as a large P2P-based distributed system model. By using this model, we study various discovery algorithms for locating data sets in a data grid system. The algorithms we studied are based on the P2P architecture. We investigate these algorithms using our Grid Simulator developed using PARSEC. In this paper, we illustrate our scientific data grid model and our Grid Simulator. We then analyze the performance of the discovery algorithms relative to their average number of hop, success rates and bandwidth consumption.     

Modeling the efficiency of top Arab banks: A DEA–neural network approach

This study investigates the efficiency of top Arab banks using two quantitative methodologies: data envelopment analysis and neural networks. The study uses a probabilistic neural network (PNN) and a traditional statistical classification method to model and classify the relative efficiency of top Arab banks. Accuracy indices are used to assess the classification accuracy of the models. Results indicate that the predictive accuracy of NN models is quite similar to that of traditional statistical methods. The study shows that the NN models have a great potential for the classification of banks’ relative efficiency due to their robustness and flexibility of modeling algorithms. From a policy perspective, this study highlights the economic importance of encouraging increased efficiency throughout the banking industry in the Arab world.