A Study on Lateral Control of Autonomous Vehicles via Fired Fuzzy Rules Chromosome Encoding Scheme

In this paper, we propose a novel Fired Rules Chromosomes (FRC) encoding scheme for a fuzzy controller tuned by Genetic Algorithms (GA). The proposed method improves the optimization speed through the reduction of the search space. In addition, an improvement in convergence is demonstrated. The fuzzy controller optimized by the FRC scheme is employed to maintain the lateral position of an autonomous vehicle. The robustness of the controller to parameter variation is studied by Monte-Carlo analysis. Simulation and experimental studies demonstrate the performance of the lateral controller.     

Ordinal Optimization and Quantification of Heuristic Designs

This paper focuses on the performance evaluation of complex man-made systems, such as assembly lines, electric power grid, traffic systems, and various paper processing bureaucracies, etc. For such problems, applying the traditional optimization tool of mathematical programming and gradient descent procedures of continuous variables optimization are often inappropriate or infeasible, as the design variables are usually discrete and the accurate evaluation of the system performance via a simulation model can take too much calculation. General search type and heuristic methods are the only two methods to tackle the problems. However, the “goodness” of heuristic methods is generally difficult to quantify while search methods often involve extensive evaluation of systems at many design choices in a large search space using a simulation model resulting in an infeasible computation burden. The purpose of this paper is to address these difficulties simultaneously by extending the recently developed methodology of Ordinal Optimization (OO). Uniform samples are taken out from the whole search space and evaluated with a crude but computationally easy model when applying OO. And, we argue, after ordering via the crude performance estimates, that the lined-up uniform samples can be seen as an approximate ruler. By comparing the heuristic design with such a ruler, we can quantify the heuristic design, just as we measure the length of an object with a ruler. In a previous paper we showed how to quantify a heuristic design for a special case but we did not have the OO ruler idea at that time. In this paper we propose the OO ruler idea and extend the quantifying method to the general case and the multiple independent results case. Experimental results of applying the ruler are also given to illustrate the utility of this approach.

Predictive models for emission of hydrogen powered car using various artificial intelligent tools

This paper investigates the use of artificial intelligent models as virtual sensors to predict relevant emissions such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, unburnt hydrocarbons and oxides of nitrogen for a hydrogen powered car. The virtual sensors are developed by means of application of various Artificial Intelligent (AI) models namely; AI software built at the University of Tasmania, back-propagation neural networks with Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm, and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference systems. These predictions are based on the study of qualitative and quantitative effects of engine process parameters such as mass airflow, engine speed, air-to-fuel ratio, exhaust gas temperature and engine power on the harmful exhaust gas emissions. All AI models show good predictive capability in estimating the emissions. However, excellent accuracy is achieved when using back-propagation neural networks with Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm in estimating emissions for various hydrogen engine operating conditions with the predicted values less than 6% of percentage average root mean square error.     

Service bid comparisons by fuzzy ranking in open railway market timetabling

In an open railway access market, the Infrastructure Provider (IP), upon the receipts of service bids from the Train Service Providers (TSPs), assigns track access rights according to its own business objectives and the merits of the bids; and produces the train service timetable through negotiations. In practice, IP chooses to negotiate with the TSPs one by one in such a sequence that IP optimizes its objectives. The TSP bids are usually very complicated, containing a large number of parameters in different natures. It is a difficult task even for an expert to give a priority sequence for negotiations from the contents of the bids. This study proposes the application of fuzzy ranking method to compare and prioritize the TSP bids in order to produce a negotiation sequence. The results of this study allow investigations on the behaviors of the stakeholders in bid preparation and negotiation, as well as evaluation of service quality in the open railway market.     

Adaptive ILC algorithms of nonlinear continuous systems with non-parametric uncertainties for non-repetitive trajectory tracking

In this article, two adaptive iterative learning control (ILC) algorithms are presented for nonlinear continuous systems with non-parametric uncertainties. Unlike general ILC techniques, the proposed adaptive ILC algorithms allow that both the initial error at each iteration and the reference trajectory are iteration-varying in the ILC process, and can achieve non-repetitive trajectory tracking beyond a small initial time interval. Compared to the neural network or fuzzy system-based adaptive ILC schemes and the classical ILC methods, in which the number of iterative variables is generally larger than or equal to the number of control inputs, the first adaptive ILC algorithm proposed in this paper uses just two iterative variables, while the second even uses a single iterative variable provided that some bound information on system dynamics is known. As a result, the memory space in real-time ILC implementations is greatly reduced.     

Output feedback control of linear fractional transformation systems subject to actuator saturation

In this paper, the control problem for a class of linear parameter varying (LPV) plant subject to actuator saturation is investigated. For the saturated LPV plant depending on the scheduling parameters in linear fractional transformation (LFT) fashion, a gain-scheduled output feedback controller in the LFT form is designed to guarantee the stability of the closed-loop LPV system and provide optimised disturbance/error attenuation performance. By using the congruent transformation, the synthesis condition is formulated as a convex optimisation problem in terms of a finite number of LMIs for which efficient optimisation techniques are available. The nonlinear inverted pendulum problem is employed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Moreover, the comparison between our LPV saturated approach with an existing linear saturated method reveals the advantage of the LPV controller when handling nonlinear plants.     

Benchmarking stereo-derived DSMs to lidar by land cover and slope for resource development in northern Ontario,Canada

Topographic and elevation data are essential in the development of supporting infrastructure around mining sites. The de facto standard for acquiring elevation data is through light detection and ranging (lidar). The high labour and monetary cost of acquiring lidar has fostered more cost-effective approaches for creating elevation models that use stereo photogrammetry. To assess the accuracy of stereo-photogrammetry-derived elevation models and their potential application, we benchmark satellite (Worldview-2) and aircraft (South Central Ontario Orthoimagery Project; SCOOP) stereo-derived digital surface models (DSMs) against a lidar-derived DSM. Our results show that both stereo-derived DSMs have strong monotonic correlations with lidar across a range of land-cover types and slopes. The overall vertical accuracy of Worldview-2 and SCOOP DSMs are similar and do not meet the United States National Digital Elevation Program (NDEP) standards. However, accuracy assessment across land-cover types and slope categories show that specific land cover types (i.e. grass, row crops/pasture, sparse vegetation and marsh) on gently sloping terrain compare well to lidar data and meet NDEP accuracy standards. We situate the presented research in the context of northern resource development and discuss opportunities to improve the vertical accuracy of stereo-derived DSMs, for example, through unmanned aerial systems.     

Consistent color and detail transfer from multiple source images for video and images

In this paper, we propose a method to jointly transfer the color and detail of multiple source images to a target video or image. Our method is based on a probabilistic segmentation scheme using Gaussian mixture model (GMM) to divide each source image as well as the target video frames or image into soft regions and determine the relevant source regions for each target region. For detail transfer, we first decompose each image as well as the target video frames or image into base and detail components. Then histogram matching is performed for detail components to transfer the detail of matching regions from source images to the target. We propose a unified framework to perform both color and detail transforms in an integrated manner. We also propose a method to maintain consistency for video targets, by enforcing consistent region segmentations for consecutive video frames using GMM-based parameter propagation and adaptive scene change detection. Experimental results demonstrate that our method automatically produces consistent color and detail transferred videos and images from a set of source images.