A job grouping approach for planning container transfers at automated seaport container terminals

This paper proposes a practical job grouping approach, which aims to enhance the time related performance metrics of container transfers in the Patrick AutoStrad container terminal, located in Brisbane, Australia. It first formulates a mathematical model of the automated container transfers in a relatively complex environment. Apart from the consideration on collision avoidance of a fleet of large vehicles in a confined area, it also deals with many other difficult practical challenges such as the presence of multiple levels of container stacking and sequencing, variable container orientations, and vehicular dynamics that require finite acceleration and deceleration times. The proposed job grouping approach aims to improve the makespan of the schedule for yard jobs, while reducing straddle carrier waiting time by grouping jobs using a guiding function. The performance of the current sequential job allocation method and the proposed job grouping approach are evaluated and compared statistically using a pooled t-test for 30 randomly generated yard configurations. The experimental results show that the job grouping approach can effectively improve the schedule makespan and reduce the total straddle carrier waiting time.     

State feedback sliding mode control without chattering by constructing Hurwitz matrix for AUV movement

This paper presents a new method to eliminate the chattering of state feedback sliding mode control (SMC) law for the mobile control of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) which is nonlinear and suffers from unknown disturbances system. SMC is a well-known nonlinear system control algorithm for its anti-disturbances capability, while the chattering on switch surface is one stiff question. To dissipate the well-known chattering of SMC, the switching manifold is proposed by presetting a Hurwitz matrix which is deducted from the state feedback matrix. Meanwhile, the best switching surface is achieved by use of eigenvalues of the Hurwitz matrix. The state feedback control parameters are not only applied to control the states of AUV but also connected with coefficients of switching surface. The convergence of the proposed control law is verified by Lyapunov function and the robust character is validated by the Matlab platform of one AUV model.     

Robust anti-sliding control of autonomous vehicles in presence of lateral disturbances

Path following control problem of autonomous vehicles is investigated, concerning both unmeasurable sliding effects and lateral disturbances which lead to some difficulties in designing autonomous control under complex environment. To deal with the sliding effects, sideslip angles are modeled and reconstructed by estimating the tire cornering stiffness, which plays important role in analyzing the sliding effects. To this end, a Luenberger-type observer is designed, which is able to identify the tire cornering stiffness adaptively even in presence of time-varying lateral disturbances. Furthermore, to guarantee high-precision guidance, a sliding mode controller is designed based on chained system theory, and this controller is shown to be robust to both the lateral disturbances and the inaccuracy of the sliding reconstruction. Simulations illustrate that the proposed methods can reconstruct the sliding angles and provide high-accuracy anti-sliding control even in presence of the time-varying lateral disturbances.     

GNSS系统接收机自主完好性监测算法

提出一种适用于多星座情况的接收机自主完好性监测算法——基于完好性指标动态分配的完好性监测算法。该算法比传统算法更能适应多星座情况下不同星座观测量属性的差异,其可用性比传统算法提高2％～3％。在多星座和双频情况下,利用该算法分析完好性监测的性能,结果表明,该算法在LPV-200完好性要求下是适用的。     

开放式系统的自治安全域模型研究

本文对开放式系统的安全域进行了讨论,对安全域之间的关系进行了阐述,针对安全域模型,结合安全域的多级安全的特点,对安全域模型进行了研究。对于开放分布式系统的多级安全域的特点,提出采用自治Ａｇｅｎｔ来实现的多域安全框架。     

Navigation system for an autonomous robot using an ocellus camera in an indoor environment

Autonomous and mobile robots are being expected to provide various services in human living environments. However, many problems remain to be solved in the development of autonomous robots that can work like humans. When a robot moves, it is important that it be able to have self-localization abilities and recognize obstacles. For a human, the present location can be correctly checked through a comparison between memorized information assuming, it is correct, and the present situation. In addition, the distance to an object and the perception of its size can be estimated by a sense of distance based on memory or experience. Therefore, the environment for robotic activity assumed in this study was a finite-space such as a family room, an office, or a hospital room. Because an accurate estimation of position is important to the success of a robot, we have developed a navigation system with self-localization ability which uses only a CCD camera that can detect whether the robot is moving accurately in a room or corridor. This article describes how this system has been implemented and tested with our developed robot.     

Valves for autonomous capillary systems

Autonomous capillary systems (CSs) are microfluidic systems inside which liquids move owing to capillary forces. CSs can in principle bring the high-performances of microfluidic-based analytical devices to near patient and environmental testing applications. In this paper, we show how wettable capillary valves can enhance CSs with novel functionalities, such as delaying and stopping liquids in microchannels. The valves employ an abruptly changing geometry of the flow path to delay a moving liquid filling front in a wettable microchannel. We show how to combine delay valves with capillary pumps, prevent shortcuts of liquid along the corners of microfluidic channels, stop liquids filling microchannels from a few seconds to over 30 min, trigger valves using two liquid fronts merging, and time a liquid using parallel microfluidic paths converging to a trigger valve. All together, these concepts should add functionality to passive microfluidic systems without departing from their initial simplicity of use. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Vehicle Teleoperation Interfaces

Despite advances in autonomy, there will always be a need for human involvement in vehicle teleoperation. In particular, tasks such as exploration, reconnaissance and surveillance will continue to require human supervision, if not guidance and direct control. Thus, it is critical that the operator interface be as efficient and as capable as possible. In this paper, we provide an overview of vehicle teleoperation and present a summary of interfaces currently in use.     

An adaptive associative memory system based on autonomous reaction between image memories

To construct a “thinking-like” processing system, a new architecture of an adaptive associative memory system is proposed. This memory system treats “images” as basic units of information, and adapts to the environment of the external world by means of autonomous reactions between the images. The images do not have to be clear, distinct symbols or patterns; they can be ambiguous, indistinct symbols or patterns as well. This memory system is a kind of neural network made up of nodes and links called a localist spreading activation network. Each node holds one image in a localist manner. Images in high-activity nodes interact autonomously and generate new images and links. By this reaction between images, various forms of images are generated automatically under constraints of links with adjacent nodes. In this system, three simple image reaction operations are defined. Each operation generates a new image by combining pseudofigures or features and links of two images. This work was presented, in part, at the Fourth International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 19–22, 1999     

Assessing the SALSA architecture for developing agent-based ambient computing applications

We have proposed the use of autonomous agents for coping with some of the challenges of creating ambient computing systems. The motivation of this research is that ambient computing environments are characterized by the distribution, reactivity, collaboration and adaptation of their artifacts, which are also characteristics attributed to software agents. To assist developers in creating the software entities of an ambient computing environment, the Simple Agent Library for Smart Ambients (SALSA) was created. The SALSA middleware and architecture enables the creation of autonomous agents reactive to the context of the ambient computing environment. SALSA agents can represent users, resources, or wrap complex system functionality of the environment. The aim of this paper is to provide evidence that SALSA facilitates the implementation of ambient computing services through autonomous agents. Unfortunately, the literature on Ubicomp development frameworks has, aside from a few exceptions, not reported experimental evaluation of their usability. The evaluations of Ubicomp development platforms have not addressed this issue since their evaluations have been mostly focused on performance and to prove feasibility. We present the results of an empirical evaluation conducted to assess the use of SALSA. This study included in-lab programming experiments and design exercises to evaluate the programming facilities provided by SALSA agents. Even though for some of the evaluation participants the use of autonomous agents as an abstraction for the development of ubiquitous computing systems was not innate, the evaluation results demonstrate that the execution model of SALSA and its facilities to implement Ubicomp systems are comprehensible.