Adaptive multi-mode switching strategy for the spherical underwater robot with hybrid thrusters

The conventional autonomous cruise and tracking system cannot transition and change its motion mode according to the underwater environment during operation, so it is of great significance to study the multi-mode switching of cruise control for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs). In this paper, a Multi-Mode Adaptive Switching (MMAS) strategy for the Spherical Underwater Robot with Hybrid Thruster (HPSUR) was proposed, which provided the possibility for the robot to choose optimal control mode according to the unpredictable operating environment. Then, the dynamic and force of the hybrid thruster are analyzed to improve the accuracy of multi-mode switching, and the MMAS strategy is developed linking the attitude adjustment and switching problems. Furthermore, a series of multi-mode switching experiments were conducted using water-jet mode, propeller mode and hybrid mode. Finally, the experimental result was discussed, which verified the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed MMAS strategy. The proposed control strategy has a certain reference value for the multi-mode switching of propulsion devices.     

Railcar reallocation optimization on water-rail network under uncertain busyness

Water-rail intermodal transportation can reduce cargo losses and transportation transferring costs. However, the imbalance between the capacity of the scheduled railway network and the large container freight demand greatly reduces operational efficiency. To minimize the total transportation cost and relocation cost, a railcar reallocation stochastic optimization model is formulated to deal with uncertain congestion in the railway network. To capture the uncertain busyness and queuing pattern, a hypercube spatial queue model is embedded in the optimization model by estimating the expected queue length and waiting time. To solve the proposed nonlinear nonconcave stochastic model, an approximate hypercube based iterative algorithm is proposed. A real-world case study is presented to show the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method. The proposed model outperforms the comparable deterministic model in the objective value. Sensitivity analyses on the ratio of the unit waiting cost and the unit travel cost for empty cars, and the total number of freight cars show the robustness of the proposed method.     

Participants matter: Effectiveness of VR-based training on the knowledge,trust in the robot,and self-efficacy of construction workers and university students

Virtual Reality (VR)-based training has gained attention from the scientific community in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry as a cost-effective and safe method that eliminates the safety risks that may impose on workers during the training compared to traditional training methods (e.g., in-person hands-on training, apprenticeship). Although researchers have developed VR-based training for construction workers, some have recruited students rather than workers to understand the effect of their VR-based training. However, students are different from construction workers in many ways, which can threaten the validity of such studies. Hence, research is needed to investigate the extent to which the findings of a VR-based training study are contingent on whether students or construction workers were used as the study sample. This paper strives to compare the effectiveness of VR-based training on university students’ and construction workers’ knowledge acquisition, trust in the robot, and robot operation self-efficacy in remote operation of a construction robot. Twenty-five construction workers and twenty-five graduate construction engineering students were recruited to complete a VR-based training for remote operating a demolition robot. We used quantitative analyses to answer our research questions. Our study shows that the results are dependent on the target sample in that students gained more knowledge, whereas construction workers gained more trust in the robot and more self-efficacy in robot operation. These findings suggest that the effectiveness of VR-based training on students may not necessarily associate with its effectiveness on construction workers.     

Excavator 3D pose estimation using deep learning and hybrid datasets

Earthwork operations are crucial parts of most construction projects. Heavy construction equipment and workers are often required to work in limited workspaces simultaneously. Struck-by accidents resulting from poor worker and equipment interactions account for a large proportion of accidents and fatalities on construction sites. The emerging technologies based on computer vision and artificial intelligence offer an opportunity to enhance construction safety through advanced monitoring utilizing site cameras. A crucial pre-requisite to the development of safety monitoring applications is the ability to identify accurately and localize the position of the equipment and its critical components in 3D space. This study proposes a workflow for excavator 3D pose estimation based on deep learning using RGB images. In the proposed workflow, an articulated 3D digital twin of an excavator is used to generate the necessary data for training a 3D pose estimation model. In addition, a method for generating hybrid datasets (simulation and laboratory) for adapting the 3D pose estimation model for various scenarios with different camera parameters is proposed. Evaluations prove the capability of the workflow in estimating the 3D pose of excavators. The study concludes by discussing the limitations and future research opportunities.     

多智能体系统协同控制与优化专刊序言

<正>0引言近年来,随着机器人技术、人工智能技术、无线通信和计算机技术的快速发展,控制系统的规模变得更大,控制任务也变得更加复杂,由此推动了多智能体系统的形成和发展.多智能体系统是由多个具有简单功能的智能体相互关联形成的网络系统,其中每个智能体具备一定的计算、通信、感知、学习和执行能力.这些智能体之间可通过信息交互协同合作完成特定的任务,也可协调解决智能体之间的矛盾和冲突.     

Measuring code maintainability with deep neural networks

The maintainability of source code is a key quality characteristic for software quality. Many approaches have been proposed to quantitatively measure code maintainability. Such approaches rely heavily on code metrics, e.g., the number of Lines of Code and McCabe’s Cyclomatic Complexity. The employed code metrics are essentially statistics regarding code elements, e.g., the numbers of tokens, lines, references, and branch statements. However, natural language in source code, especially identifiers, is rarely exploited by such approaches. As a result, replacing meaningful identifiers with nonsense tokens would not significantly influence their outputs, although the replacement should have significantly reduced code maintainability. To this end, in this paper, we propose a novel approach (called DeepM) to measure code maintainability by exploiting the lexical semantics of text in source code. DeepM leverages deep learning techniques (e.g., LSTM and attention mechanism) to exploit these lexical semantics in measuring code maintainability. Another key rationale of DeepM is that measuring code maintainability is complex and often far beyond the capabilities of statistics or simple heuristics. Consequently, DeepM leverages deep learning techniques to automatically select useful features from complex and lengthy inputs and to construct a complex mapping (rather than simple heuristics) from the input to the output (code maintainability index). DeepM is evaluated on a manually-assessed dataset. The evaluation results suggest that DeepM is accurate, and it generates the same rankings of code maintainability as those of experienced programmers on 87.5% of manually ranked pairs of Java classes.     

带有资源冲突的Seru在线并行调度算法

随着大规模定制的市场需求日趋显著,赛如生产系统(Seru production system,SPS)应运而生,逐渐成为研究和应用领域的热点.本文针对带有资源冲突的Seru在线并行调度问题进行研究,即需要在有限的空间位置上安排随动态需求而构建的若干Seru,以总加权完工时间最小为目标,决策Seru的构建顺序及时间.先基于平均延迟最短加权处理时间(Average delayed shortest weighted processing time,AD-SWPT)算法,针对其竞争比不为常数的局限性,引入调节参数,得到竞争比为常数的无资源冲突的Seru在线并行调度算法.接下来,引入冲突处理机制,得到有资源冲突的Seru在线并行调度算法,αAD-I(α-average delayed shortest weighted processing time-improved)算法,特殊实例下可通过实例归约的方法证明其竞争比与无资源冲突的情况相同.最后,通过实验,验证了在波动的市场环境下算法对于特殊实例与一般实例的优越性.     

Consumer preference analysis based on text comments and ratings: A multi-attribute decision-making perspective

With the popularity of social media, extracting consumer preferences from online consumer-generated content is of vital importance for product/service providers to develop tailored marketing strategies. However, existing approaches face difficulties analyzing consumer preferences over different attributes of alternatives (restaurants, hotels, etc.), which hinders product/service providers from comprehensively understanding consumer choice decisions. To address this issue, we solve for the consumer preferences over the attributes represented by attribute weights based on consumers’ historical data, including text comments and overall ratings. Specifically, for each comment and a corresponding rating, we first employ sentiment analysis to calculate values of the attributes, and then develop a quadratic programming model to solve for the weights. Based on a stream of a consumer’s text comments and overall ratings, we can correspondingly obtain a stream of weights indexed by the comment time. We then model this stream of weights as hesitant judgments and employ a hesitant multiplicative programming method to solve for the final weights that fit the consumer’s preferences over attributes at the highest satisficing level. In the application of recommendation, our approach not only provides insights into the consumer’s preferences but also has higher prediction power compared with some state-of-the-art methods.     

Weighted stochastic response surface method considering sample weights

Conventional stochastic response surface methods (SRSM) based on polynomial chaos expansion (PCE) for uncertainty propagation treat every sample point equally during the regression process and may produce inaccurate estimations of PCE coefficients. To address this issue, a new weighted stochastic response surface method (WSRSM) that considers the sample probabilistic weights in regression is studied in this work. Techniques for determining sample probabilistic weights for three sampling approaches Gaussian Quadrature point (GQ), Monomial Cubature Rule (MCR), and Latin Hypercube Design (LHD) are developed. The advantage of the proposed method is demonstrated through mathematical and engineering examples. It is shown that for various sampling techniques WSRSM consistently achieves higher accuracy of uncertainty propagation without introducing extra computational cost compared to the conventional SRSM. Insights into the relative accuracy and efficiency of various sampling techniques in implementation are provided as well.     

计算机硬件技术基础课程教材分析和建设

计算机硬件技术基础是普通高等教育理工科专业的一门重要计算机公共基础课。本文全面分析了2005年后出版的34本相关教材中教学内容和实验内容,以此为基础阐述了该课程在教材建设方面存在的教学定位不清晰、教学实验单一和教学内容陈旧等三个问题。结合北京理工大学在该课程上的教学实践经验,提出以实验建设为导向,"基本概念"和"基本硬件"相结合的教材组织理念,为该课程教材的进一步建设提供参考。