基于交互式多模型强机动目标被动跟踪算法

研究目标跟踪精度问题,针对单站被动跟踪是非线性不可观系统,容易导致滤波器发散和估计结果的不唯一.在满足系统的可观测性条件下,提出了一种改进的Bayes框架下的次优估计交互式多模型无迹卡尔曼滤波(IMM-UKF)算法.在目标做强机动时,由于滤波残差特性变换影响IMM-UKF算法的跟踪精度,引入带有机动检测环节的交互式多模型IMM-UKF算法,在目标作强机动时改善了常规IMM-UKF算法失效状况,并提高了跟踪精度.仿真结果表明,算法具有较好的收敛速度和跟踪精度.     

基于强跟踪滤波器的交互式多模型算法

针对传统的EKF-IMM算法鲁棒性较差等问题,提出了一种基于强跟踪滤波器（STF）的交互式多模型算法。该算法通过引入强跟踪滤波器（STF）的渐消因子,实现了对滤波器增益的实时调节,从而提高了系统对机动目标的自适应跟踪能力和跟踪精度。仿真结果表明,在目标不发生机动时,该算法和EKF-IMM算法的跟踪效果相近,在目标发生强机动时,该算法在径向速度和方位角的跟踪精度要优于EKF-IMM算法;提出的算法具有更优的机动目标跟踪性能。     

一种改进的强机动目标跟踪方法

为提高目标在强机动情况下的跟踪精度,更好地实现目标跟踪,在当前统计模型和卡尔曼滤波算法的基础上提出改进的目标跟踪方法。分析了当前统计模型,归纳出在目标弱机动和强机动情况下的优点及不足。进行强机动检测,以此判断目标的机动水平;将渐消因子引入卡尔曼滤波器,减少陈旧数据的影响,充分体现当前机动状态;在算法中在线辨识各项参数,并根据机动水平自适应地调整。仿真结果表明,改进的方法在弱机动时保持了当前统计模型的跟踪性能,而在强机动时拥有更高的跟踪精度。     

基于萤火虫优化粒子滤波的新型机动目标跟踪算法

交互式多模型粒子滤波算法需要多个模型才能对强机动目标进行跟踪,并且粒子滤波的重采样会导致粒子贫化现象,针对该问题提出一种新型机动目标跟踪方法.该方法首先将萤火虫群体的吸引和移动机制引入粒子滤波;再将改进粒子滤波引入交互式多模型中,通过智能寻优的方式提高交互式多模型的跟踪精度和稳定性.实验结果表明,相对于IMM-PF,改进方法可以用更少的时间达到同等精度,提高了机动目标跟踪的效率.     

基于交互式自适应概率数据关联的目标跟踪算法

在联合交互式多模型概率数据关联思想的基础上,将自适应滤波算法应用到概率数据关联滤波器中,提出了一种适用于杂波环境机动目标跟踪的新算法-交互式自适应概率数据关联(Interactive Multiple Models Adaptive Probabilistic Data Association-IMM-APDA)算法,避免了模型选取的不确定性,扩大了机动目标的跟踪范围,实现了杂波环境中对目标较高精度的状态估计.理论分析与仿真结果验证了该算法的优越性,提高了目标跟踪精度.     

强机动目标自适应变结构多模型跟踪算法

在强机动目标跟踪领域,采用传统基于固定模型集合的交互式多模型算法需要大量模型来描述目标机动,需要巨大的计算量,并且过多模型会带来不必要的模型竞争反而降低跟踪性能.为解决它所带来的问题,提出一种自适应变结构多模型算法,采用少量与目标运动模式相关的模型,在不同时刻根据目标当前机动水平自适应调整模型参数建立新的模型集合,并对其进行滤波估计.仿真结果显示该方法能更好的匹配目标运动规律,有效降低计算复杂度,提高跟踪精度.     

基于当前统计模型的自适应强跟踪算法

由于模型参数不能自适应调整和卡尔曼滤波器固有的特点,传统的当前统计模型算法跟踪突发强机动目标时性能显著下降.本文通过采用机动检测方法并借鉴强跟踪滤波器的思想,提出了一种改进的自适应强跟踪算法.利用量测残差的统计距离将目标机动划分为不同的状态,相应调整模型参数和滤波器增益,提高机动模型和系统模式的匹配程度,增强了系统对强机动目标的跟踪能力并保持对一般机动目标良好的跟踪性能.     

跟踪机动再入飞行器的交互多模型Unscented卡尔曼滤波方法

对于目标发生机动时的再入飞行器的跟踪问题, 传统跟踪方法是采用机动模型的扩展卡尔曼滤波. 本文在提高机动目标跟踪精度的探索中做了两方面的努力, 一是在描述目标运动模型方面采用了更符合机动目标运动特性的多模型方法; 另一方面, 采用了隐含高阶精度的 Unscented 卡尔曼匹配滤波方法. 对于交互多模型 Unscented 卡尔曼滤波器在仿真中易出现数值问题, 给出了基于平方根滤波的数值鲁棒性的解决方法.     

基于IMM多传感器顺序粒子滤波跟踪机动目标算法

针对交互式多模型粒子滤波在跟踪机动目标时精度受限问题,提出一种基于交互式多模型(IMM)的多传感器顺序粒子滤波算法。采用IMM机制实现目标运动模式的确认;在合理利用单传感器量测和多传感器量测中冗余和互补信息的基础上,引入顺序重抽样方法改善粒子分布,并将改善后的粒子应用于IMM粒子滤波算法框架。仿真实验结果表明:新算法能够估计出强机动目标状态,且精度明显优于标准IMM粒子滤波算法。     

机动目标跟踪的IMM和IMMF-LS自适应滤波算法

介绍了一种跟踪机动目标的交互式多模型 (IMM)自适应滤波算法 ,并在其基础之上介绍了一种基于状态的扩充具有固定延时的平滑IMM算法 (IMMF -LS) ,分别采用了Singer模型和“当前”统计模型与CA模型进行交互运算。蒙特卡洛仿真结果表明了IMM具有明显的综合多模型的优点 ,IMMF -LS的跟踪精度明显高于IMM算法。     

Effect of body-borne equipment on injury of military pilots and aircrew during a simulated helicopter crash

Military helicopter pilots are expected to wear a variety of items of body-borne equipment during flight so as to be prepared for any situation that may arise in combat. Helicopter seats are designed to a specified weight range for an occupant with equipment. This paper investigates how distributing the equipment on the body affects injury potential during a helicopter crash. A finite element model representing a helicopter seat with a fully deformable 50th percentile Hybrid III carrying equipment was developed. The model was subjected to a standard military certification crash test. Various equipment configurations were investigated and analysed to determine its influence on the risk of injury. It was found that placing the equipment low on the torso, i.e. near the thighs, not only reduces the likelihood of injury in the lumbar, spinal region but also provides favourable results in neck and head injury risk when compared to other configurations investigated. In contrast, placing equipment high on the torso, i.e. close to the chin, increases the lumbar load and implicitly, the risk of head injury. A statistical analysis is carried out using the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test to deliver probability of loads experienced within a certain interval. This study recommends an equipment configuration that improves survivability for an occupant seated on a fixed load energy absorbing seat which is subjected to Military Standard 58095A Test 4.     

A new method for trust and reputation evaluation in the cloud environments using the recommendations of opinion leaders' entities and removing the effect of troll entities

Trust in the cloud environment is not written into an agreement and is something earned. In any trust evaluation mechanism, opinion leaders are the entities influencing the behaviors or attitudes of others, this makes them to be trustworthy, valid among other characteristics. On the other hand, trolls are the entities posting incorrect and unreal comments; therefore, their effect must be removed. This paper evaluates the trust by considering the influence of opinion leaders on other entities and removing the troll entities’ effect in the cloud environment. Trust value is evaluated using five parameters; availability, reliability, data integrity, identity and capability. Also, we propose a method for opinion leaders and troll entity identification using three topological metrics, including input-degree, output-degree and reputation measures. The method being evaluated in various situation where shows the results of accuracy by removing the effect of troll entities and the advice of opinion leaders.     

A real time experimental setup for classification of epilepsy risk levels

The objective of this paper is to analyze the performance of singular value decomposition, expectation maximization, and Elman Neural Networks in optimization of code converter outputs in the classification of epilepsy risk levels from EEG (electroencephalogram) signals. The signal parameters such as the total number of positive and negative peaks, spikes and sharp waves, their duration etc., were extracted using morphological operators and wavelet transforms. Code converters were considered as a level one classifier. Code converters were found to have a performance index and quality value of 33.26 and 12.74, respectively, which is low. Consequently, for the EEG signals of 20 patients, the post classifiers were applied across 3 epochs of 16 channels. After having made a comparative study of different architectures, SVD was found to be the best post classifier as it marked a performance index of 89.48 and a quality value of 20.62. Elman neural network also exhibits good performance metrics than SVD in the morphological operator based feature extraction method.     

Electric vehicles charging control in a smart grid: A model predictive control approach

The paper presents an event driven model predictive control (MPC) framework for managing charging operations of electric vehicles (EV) in a smart grid. The objective is to minimize the cost of energy consumption, while respecting EV drivers' preferences, technical bounds on the control action (in compliance with the IEC 61851 standard) and both market and grid constraints (by seeking the tracking of a reference load profile defined by the grid operator). The proposed control approach allows “flexible” EV users to participate in demand side management (DSM) programs, which will play a crucial role in improving stability and efficiency of future smart grids. Further, the natural MPC formulation of the problem can be recast into a mixed integer linear programming problem, suitable for implementation on a calculator. Simulation results are provided and discussed in detail.     

Effect of handle design on movement dynamics and muscle co-activation in a wrist flexion task

Arm and wrist manipulanda are commonly used as input devices in teleoperation and gaming applications, establish a physical interface to patients in several rehabilitation robots, and are applied as advanced research tools in biomechanics and neuroscience. Despite the fact that the physical interface, i.e. the handle through which the wrist/hand is attached to the manipulator, may influence interaction and movement behavior, the effects of handle design on these parameters has received little attention. Yet, a poor handle design might lead to overexertion and altered movement dynamics, or result in misinterpretation of results in research studies. In this study, twelve healthy subjects performed repetitions of a wrist flexion task against a dynamic load generated by a 1-DOF robotic wrist manipulandum. Three different handle designs were qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated based on wrist movement kinematics and dynamics, patterns of finger and wrist muscle activity, and ergonomics criteria such as perceived comfort and fatigue. The three proposed designs were further compared to a conventional joystick-like handle. Task performance as well as kinematic and kinetic parameters were found to be unaffected by handle design. Nevertheless, differences were found in perceived task difficulty, comfort and levels of muscle activation of wrist and finger muscles, with significantly higher muscle activation when using a joystick-like design, where the handle is completely enclosed by the hand. Comfort was rated high for the flat handle, adapted to the natural curvature of the hand with the fingers extended. These results may inform for the design of handles serving as physical interface in teleoperation applications, robot-assisted rehabilitation and biomechanics/neuroscience research.     

Prototyping virtual reality serious games for building earthquake preparedness: The Auckland City Hospital case study

Enhancing evacuee safety is a key factor in reducing the number of injuries and deaths that result from earthquakes. One way this can be achieved is by training occupants. Virtual Reality (VR) and Serious Games (SGs), represent novel techniques that may overcome the limitations of traditional training approaches. VR and SGs have been examined in the fire emergency context; however, their application to earthquake preparedness has not yet been extensively examined.We provide a theoretical discussion of the advantages and limitations of using VR SGs to investigate how building occupants behave during earthquake evacuations and to train building occupants to cope with such emergencies. We explore key design components for developing a VR SG framework: (a) what features constitute an earthquake event; (b) which building types can be selected and represented within the VR environment; (c) how damage to the building can be determined and represented; (d) how non-player characters (NPC) can be designed; and (e) what level of interaction there can be between NPC and the human participants. We illustrate the above by presenting the Auckland City Hospital, New Zealand as a case study, and propose a possible VR SG training tool to enhance earthquake preparedness in public buildings.     

Impact of Internet gambling on problem gambling among adolescents in Italy: Findings from a large-scale nationally representative survey

AimsThe primary aim of the present study was to understand the impact of online gambling on gambling problems in a large-scale nationally representative sample of Italian youth, and to identify and then further examine a subgroup of online gamblers who reported higher rates of gambling problems.DesignData from the ESPAD^®Italia2013 (European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs) Study were used for analyses of adolescent Internet gambling.SettingSelf-administered questionnaires were completed by a representative sample of high school students, aged 15–19 years.ParticipantsA total of 14,778 adolescent students.MeasurementsRespondents’ problem gambling severity; gambling behavior (participation in eight different gambling activities, the number of gambling occasions and the number of online gambling occasions, monthly gambling expenditure); Socio-demographics (e.g., family structure and financial status); and control variables were measured individually (i.e., use of the Internet for leisure activities and playing video games).FindingsRates of problem gambling were five times higher among online gamblers than non-online gamblers. In addition, factors that increased the risk of becoming a problem online gambler included living with non-birth parents, having a higher perception of financial family status, being more involved with gambling, and the medium preferences of remote gamblers (e.g., Internet cafes, digital television, and video game console).ConclusionsThe online gambling environment may pose significantly greater risk to vulnerable players. Family characteristics and contextual elements concerning youth Internet gambling (e.g., remote mediums) may play a key role in explaining problem online gambling among adolescents.     

Activity theory as a framework for building adaptive e-learning systems: A case to provide empirical evidence

We apply activity theory (AT) to design adaptive e-learning systems (AeLS). AT is a framework to study human’s behavior at learning; whereas, AeLS enhance students’ apprenticeship by the personalization of teaching–learning experiences. AeLS depict users’ traits and predicts learning outcomes. The approach was successfully tested: Experimental group took lectures chosen by the anticipation AT principle; whilst, control group received randomly selected lectures. Learning achieved by experimental group reveals a correlation quite significant and high positive; but, for control group the correlation it is not significant and medium positive. We conclude: AT is a useful framework to design AeLS and provide student-centered education.     

Vehicle tractive force prediction with robust and windup-stable Kalman filters

Vehicle control systems need to prognosticate future vehicle states in order to improve energy efficiency. This paper compares four approaches that are used to identify the parameters of a longitudinal vehicle dynamics model used for the prediction of vehicle tractive forces. All of the identification approaches build on a standard Kalman filter. Measurement signals are processed using the polynomial function approximation technique to remove noise and compute smooth derivative values of the signals. Experimental results illustrate that the approach using multiple Stenlund–Gustafsson M-Kalman filters (multiple robust and windup-stable Kalman filters) reaches the best performance and robustness in predicting the vehicle tractive forces.