Reaching a consensus in networks of high-order integral agents under switching directed topologies

Consensus problem of high-order integral multi-agent systems under switching directed topology is considered in this study. Depending on whether the agent’s full state is available or not, two distributed protocols are proposed to ensure that states of all agents can be convergent to a same stationary value. In the proposed protocols, the gain vector associated with the agent’s (estimated) state and the gain vector associated with the relative (estimated) states between agents are designed in a sophisticated way. By this particular design, the high-order integral multi-agent system can be transformed into a first-order integral multi-agent system. Also, the convergence of the transformed first-order integral agent’s state indicates the convergence of the original high-order integral agent’s state, if and only if all roots of the polynomial, whose coefficients are the entries of the gain vector associated with the relative (estimated) states between agents, are in the open left-half complex plane. Therefore, many analysis techniques in the first-order integral multi-agent system can be directly borrowed to solve the problems in the high-order integral multi-agent system. Due to this property, it is proved that to reach a consensus, the switching directed topology of multi-agent system is only required to be ‘uniformly jointly quasi-strongly connected’, which seems the mildest connectivity condition in the literature. In addition, the consensus problem of discrete-time high-order integral multi-agent systems is studied. The corresponding consensus protocol and performance analysis are presented. Finally, three simulation examples are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Methods for evaluating volunteers’ contributions in a deforestation detection citizen science project

Today, due to the availability of free remote sensing data, efficient algorithms for image classification and increased connectivity and computing power, together with international policy initiatives, such as the United Nations Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (UN-REDD), more and more countries are investing in their own national forest monitoring schemes. However, tropical forests remain under threat worldwide. Recently, a citizen science project that enables citizens around the globe to be involved in forest monitoring tasks has been proposed, called “ForestWatchers” (www.forestwatchers.net). Its main goal is to allow volunteers (many of them with no scientific training) around the globe, with their own smartphones, tablets and notebooks, review satellite images of forested regions and confirm whether automatic assignments of forested and deforested regions are correct. Inspected images are then sent to a central database where the results are integrated to generate up-to-date deforestation maps. This approach offers a low-cost way to both strengthen the scientific infrastructure and engage members of the public in science. Here, we describe the methods developed within the scope of the ForestWatchers project to assess the volunteers’ performance. These tools have been evaluated with data of two of the project’s preliminary tasks. The first, called “BestTile”, asks volunteers to select which of several images of the same area has the least cloud cover, while in the second, called “Deforestation”, volunteers draw polygons on satellite images delimiting areas they believe have been deforested. The results from more than 500 volunteers show that using simple statistical tests, it is possible to achieve a triple goal: to increase the overall efficiency of the data collecting tasks by reducing the required number of volunteers per task, to identify malicious behavior and outliers, and to motivate volunteers to continue their contributions.     

基于模型的方法在软件测试领域的应用与发展

伴随着软件在当今社会中扮演着日益重要的角色,在各类软件或系统的开发过程中,测试变得越来越重要.随着面向对象技术的广泛应用和软件测试自动化的要求,基于模型的测试(MBT)技术逐渐得到了软件开发和测试人员的认可和接受.尽管有许多国内出版物讨论了基于模型的测试技术,但还没有相关技术文章对MBT技术及工具的当前发展进行回顾与总结.文章对当前MBT技术的通用模型、测试用例生成方法、测试目标选择等MBT方法进行回顾,并对基于模型的自动化测试工具、应用实践进行了概述.最后,探讨了MBT技术的未来发展与研究方向.     

Integrated Data Management for a Fleet of Search‐and‐rescue Robots

Search‐and‐rescue operations have recently been confronted with the introduction of robotic tools that assist the human search‐and‐rescue workers in their dangerous but life‐saving job of searching for human survivors after major catastrophes. However, the world of search and rescue is highly reliant on strict procedures for the transfer of messages, alarms, data, and command and control over the deployed assets. The introduction of robotic tools into this world causes an important structural change in this procedural toolchain. Moreover, the introduction of search‐and‐rescue robots acting as data gatherers could potentially lead to an information overload toward the human search‐and‐rescue workers, if the data acquired by these robotic tools are not managed in an intelligent way. With that in mind, we present in this paper an integrated data combination and data management architecture that is able to accommodate real‐time data gathered by a fleet of robotic vehicles on a crisis site, and we present and publish these data in a way that is easy to understand by end‐users. In the scope of this paper, a fleet of unmanned ground and aerial search‐and‐rescue vehicles is considered, developed within the scope of the European ICARUS project. As a first step toward the integrated data‐management methodology, the different robotic systems require an interoperable framework in order to pass data from one to another and toward the unified command and control station. As a second step, a data fusion methodology will be presented, combining the data acquired by the different heterogenic robotic systems. The computation needed for this process is done in a novel mobile data center and then (as a third step) published in a software as a service (SaaS) model. The SaaS model helps in providing access to robotic data over ubiquitous Ethernet connections. As a final step, we show how the presented data‐management architecture allows for reusing recorded exercises with real robots and rescue teams for training purposes and teaching search‐and‐rescue personnel how to handle the different robotic tools. The system was validated in two experiments. First, in the controlled environment of a military testing base, a fleet of unmanned ground and aerial vehicles was deployed in an earthquake‐response scenario. The data gathered by the different interoperable robotic systems were combined by a novel mobile data center and presented to the end‐user public. Second, an unmanned aerial system was deployed on an actual mission with an international relief team to help with the relief operations after major flooding in Bosnia in the spring of 2014. Due to the nature of the event (floods), no ground vehicles were deployed here, but all data acquired by the aerial system (mainly three‐dimensional maps) were stored in the ICARUS data center, where they were securely published for authorized personnel all over the world. This mission (which is, to our knowledge, the first recorded deployment of an unmanned aerial system by an official governmental international search‐and‐rescue team in another country) proved also the concept of the procedural integration of the ICARUS data management system into the existing procedural toolchain of the search and rescue workers, and this in an international context (deployment from Belgium to Bosnia). The feedback received from the search‐and‐rescue personnel on both validation exercises was highly positive, proving that the ICARUS data management system can efficiently increase the situational awareness of the search‐and‐rescue personnel.     

运动目标检测中的光流扰动效应

在一些运动目标检测过程中,需要自动判断是否检测到运动目标,虽然在场景中没有出现运动目标,检测结果却错误的判断为检测到了运动目标.为了找到这个错误的根源,通过实验,发现了光流扰动效应,并且设计了光流扰动效应检测算法,清晰地检测出了光流扰动效果.接下来,通过图像二值化方式,消除了光流扰动效应,避免了运动目标误判现象,得到了理想的运动目标检测结果.研究证明在空间中存在光流扰动效应,该效应会对运动目标检测造成干扰,消除光流扰动效应,可提高了运动目标检测与判断的准确度和可靠度.     

基于三维地球的多源空间科学数据可视化管理系统的设计与实现

如何高效地组织和管理日益增长的多源海量空间科学数据、提高数据的可用性和易用性,是空间科学目前需要重点解决的技术问题。在充分分析现有空间科学数据管理技术和数据特点的基础上,提出了一种有效的系统架构,研究并利用空间关系数据库及分布式数据库技术,实现了海量异构数据的高效存储、检索与定位;研究基于三维数字地球的多层次细节展示方法、三维数据剪裁、多线程并行加载等关键技术,提高了空间科学数据的集成可视化显示与应用效率。最后设计并集成了多源空间科学数据可视化组织与管理系统,在实际工程应用中验证了设计的合理性与有效性。     

Radiometric Calibration and Validationof TG-1 Hyper-spectral Imager

TG-1,the first Chinese space laboratory module launched on 29 September 2011,has accumulated large numbers of high-resolution image data by the hyper-spectral imager.However,these images still can’t be applied to quantitative analysis because of the huge spectral and radiance difference between ground and onboard conditions.So a radiometric calibration is very necessary to correct these laboratory and on-board radiance calibration parameters for better quantitative application.This paper aims to calibrate TG-1 hyper-spectral imager using reflectance-based calibration method through performing ground calibration experiments on 3 February and 6 March 2011.Firstly,this study used the ground experiment data on 6 March to obtain each channel’s calibration correction coefficients,which were different a lot from laboratory and on-board ones,relative error in all channels are bigger than 10 percent.Then,the calibration experiment data on 3 February 2011 were used to validate the result.Results show that calibration correction coefficients improved the image accuracy,the calibration and validation experiments’ results are in good agreement.In most channels,the relative errors are less than 10 percent,except that bigger error appears in absorption channels.Therefore,this calibration experiment renewed the calibration coefficients,and improved the quantitative level of the TG radiance products.     

基于PLUTO的载荷遥操作地面控制平台设计

针对现有的载荷遥控操作模式不能适应空间科学实验需求的实际,提出使用标准控制测试语言(PLUTO语言)实现载荷控制的新模式。PLUTO是一种过程化脚本语言,能够应用于航天飞行器和有效载荷的地面测试、在轨测试与在轨运控操作,该语言能满足载荷操作的各种需求,为载荷控制人员提供有力的工具。文中以我国有效载荷在轨操控需求为出发点,同时根据PLUTO语言的特点,结合面向对象方法学、编译技术、设计模式等理念,提出一种快速实现其编译程序的技术途径,并通过原型系统验证设计的可行性。     

Design optimization of stiffened storage tank for spacecraft

Stiffened storage tank is an important structural component in spacecraft. Its structural weight is one of the key criterions in the design phase. This paper focuses on the design optimization of the structure by using finite element method, structural sensitivity analysis techniques, and sequential linear/quadratic programming aimed to reduce the structural weight. Design variables include the numbers of stiffeners, stiffeners’ section dimensions, and shell thickness distribution. Detailed finite element modeling processes are presented, which are the ways to construct the stiffener (beam orientation and offset) and shell elements and the ways to determine the analysis model and structural boundary conditions. A brief introduction to sensitivity analysis and optimization solution algorithm is also given. Main attention is paid to the studies of design optimization of the tank structure, including the selection of design cases, evaluation, and comparison of the optimal results. There are six design cases considered in the design procedures. Numerical results show that by using the above computational techniques, the structural weight is effectively reduced. In this work, MSC.Patran/Nastran is employed to construct the Finite Element Model (FEM), and JIFEX, which is developed in our group, is used to conduct the structural design optimization. JIFEX is a structural analysis and optimization software package developed by Gu and colleagues in the Dalian University of Technology Department of Engineering Mechanics. Among its many functions is the ability to analyze and optimize piezoelectric smart structures.     

一种面向任务优化的多核心星务管理系统设计

为进一步提升小卫星的数据处理能力,对星载电子系统进行了优化设计.在现有可重构星务管理系统的基础上,提出一种多核心处理器星务管理系统设计方法.结合多核心处理器特点,按照硬件资源以及任务模式对星务管理系统的传统任务划分方法进行优化,将单一处理器任务集中处理的模式分解为主、协处理器双核任务处理模式.与哈尔滨工业大学试验卫星三号星载计算机的功能对比表明,多核心可重构星务管理系统在运算速度、控制计算精度方面优于传统的星务管理系统处理方式,有能力替代现有的星载计算机成为未来微型航天器的核心.