Existence of discrete-time LQG-controllers

Existence results for the LQG-controller are investigated. An infimal Riccati equation based controller may potentially give closed loop eigenvalues on the unit circle. Assuming left and right invertibility it is shown that there exists an optimal controller if and only if the Riccati equation based controller stabilizes the closed loop system after removal of all its unobservable and uncontrollable modes. Furthermore this reduced controller is the optimal controller, and its transfer function is unique. This existence condition is a considerable simplification of the more general geometric condition recently derived by Trentelman and Stoorvogel.     

A note on a local twist estimator

For the construction of composite surfaces interpolating a given curve net a new local twist estimator was proposed recently (Farin and Hagen, 1992). Some properties of this estimator—including an explicit representation for Gaussian curvature K at the knots of the curve net—are presented in this note.     

抗几何失真的视频Hashing算法研究

文中提出了一种基于视频灰度直方图形状的Hashing算法,能有效抵抗各种常见的几何失真和视频处理操作.算法的鲁棒性原理如下:1)由于直方图的形状与像素位置无关,故基于直方图的视频Hashing算法能有效抵抗各种常见的几何攻击;2)由于在计算Hashing前对视频帧进行了平滑预处理,故算法对加噪攻击、模糊滤波、有损压缩等处理操作有很好的鲁棒性;3)由于计算Hashing前在时间轴上进行了低通滤波预处理,故算法能抵抗帧率变化、帧丢失等时域同步攻击.实验结果表明,所提出的Hashing算法有良好的唯一性和鲁棒性能.     

复杂场景实时目标检测方法

针对含有非平稳背景的复杂场景,提出一种基于空间混合高斯模型的实时目标检测方法.该方法以混合高斯模型作为颜色分布的统计框架,并在空间邻域中利用背景与前景隶属度之间的竞争确定像素的归属,提高了检测准确率;同时通过基于偏差均值的匹配判断和低权重模型的移除提升了混合高斯统计框架的性能,以实时地对运动目标进行准确的检测.实验结果表明,文中方法对非平稳背景有很好的适应能力,在检测准确率和运行效率上均优于其他检测方法.     

Improving human robot collaboration through Force/Torque based learning for object manipulation

Human–Robot Collaboration (HRC) is a term used to describe tasks in which robots and humans work together to achieve a goal. Unlike traditional industrial robots, collaborative robots need to be adaptive; able to alter their approach to better suit the situation and the needs of the human partner. As traditional programming techniques can struggle with the complexity required, an emerging approach is to learn a skill by observing human demonstration and imitating the motions; commonly known as Learning from Demonstration (LfD). In this work, we present a LfD methodology that combines an ensemble machine learning algorithm (i.e. Random Forest (RF)) with stochastic regression, using haptic information captured from human demonstration. The capabilities of the proposed method are evaluated using two collaborative tasks; co-manipulation of an object (where the human provides the guidance but the robot handles the objects weight) and collaborative assembly of simple interlocking parts. The proposed method is shown to be capable of imitation learning; interpreting human actions and producing equivalent robot motion across a diverse range of initial and final conditions. After verifying that ensemble machine learning can be utilised for real robotics problems, we propose a further extension utilising Weighted Random Forest (WRF) that attaches weights to each tree based on its performance. It is then shown that the WRF approach outperforms RF in HRC tasks.     

Comparing ANN and GMM in a voice conversion framework

In this paper, we present a comparative analysis of artificial neural networks (ANNs) and Gaussian mixture models (GMMs) for design of voice conversion system using line spectral frequencies (LSFs) as feature vectors. Both the ANN and GMM based models are explored to capture nonlinear mapping functions for modifying the vocal tract characteristics of a source speaker according to a desired target speaker. The LSFs are used to represent the vocal tract transfer function of a particular speaker. Mapping of the intonation patterns (pitch contour) is carried out using a codebook based model at segmental level. The energy profile of the signal is modified using a fixed scaling factor defined between the source and target speakers at the segmental level. Two different methods for residual modification such as residual copying and residual selection methods are used to generate the target residual signal. The performance of ANN and GMM based voice conversion (VC) system are conducted using subjective and objective measures. The results indicate that the proposed ANN-based model using LSFs feature set may be used as an alternative to state-of-the-art GMM-based models used to design a voice conversion system.     

Finite-size effects in surface tension: Thermodynamics and the Gaussian interface model

It has been suggested by Kayser that finite-size effects associated with capillary waves might play a significant role in some surface tension measurements; for capillary rise between plates a distance D apart, an effect varying as 1/D and apparently observable in measurements, was proposed. In reconsidering this problem, one must analyze the thermodynamics of finite-size corrections to surface tension. In particular, one sees that capillary rise between plates does not measure the interfacial free energy density but, rather, a derivative of the interfacial free energy with respect to a system dimension. The quantity needed to draw definite conclusions, the finite-size residual free energy, can be calculated within the harmonic or Gaussian capillary wave model in d spatial dimensions with the aid of Poisson summation techniques and should yield the correct leading asymptotic behavior. For d=3 and experimentally relevant parameter values, the results are independent of the short-wavelength cutoff needed in the model and can be checked against the theory of conformai covariance at two-dimensional critical points. It is found that the finite-size effects in capillary-rise measurements of surface tension vary as 1/D ² (with a universal coefficient) but are too small to be seen in current experiments.Invited paper presented at the Tenth Symposium on Thermophysical Properties, June 20–23, 1988, Gaithersburg, Maryland, U.S.A.     

高斯颜色模型在瓷片图像分类中的应用

由于RGB颜色空间不能很好贴近人的视觉感知,同时也缺少对空间结构的描述,因此采用兼顾颜色信息和空间信息的高斯颜色模型以获取更全面的特征,提出了一种基于高斯颜色模型和多尺度滤波器组的彩色纹理图像分类法,用于瓷器碎片图像的分类。首先将原始图像的RGB颜色空间转换到高斯颜色模型;再用正规化多尺度LM滤波器组对高斯颜色模型的3个通道构造滤波图像,并借助主成分分析寻找主特征图,接着选取各通道的最大高斯拉普拉斯和最大高斯响应图像,与特征图联合构成特征图像组用以进行参数提取;最后以支持向量机作为分类器进行学习和分类。实验结果表明,与基于灰度的、基于RGB模型的和基于RGB_bior 4.4小波的方法相比,本文方法具有更好的分类结果,其中在Outex纹理图像库上获得的分类准确率为96.7%,在瓷片图像集上获得的分类准确率为94.2%。此方法可推广应用到其他彩色纹理分类任务。     

SVD域的图像高斯噪声强度估计

精确估计图像或视频中的噪声强度对于后续的信号处理是至关重要的先决条件。通过对含噪图像的奇异值特性的研究,提出一种精确的SVD域的图像噪声强度估计算法。该算法对噪声强度估计提出了创新的解决方法:1)利用奇异值的尾部数据进行噪声强度估计,这样达到尽可能地降低图像信息对噪声估计的干扰;2)对含噪图像加入已知强度的高斯白噪声,以计算噪声估计时需要设置的与图像内容相关的参数,因此该算法可以自适应图像的结构,能够广泛地适应各种类型的图片。实验结果表明SVD域噪声强度估计算法适用于各种图片类型,而且在极大的噪声强度范围内都能够稳定精确地估计噪声强度。     

A Random Nonstationary Pulse Train Model

A simple and mathematically tractable model of a nonstationary process is developed.The process is the sum of waves where the parameters of the waves are random. Explicit expressions for the mean and autocorrelation function at each position as a function of time are obtained.In the case of infinite time, the model evolves into a stationary process. The time-frequency distribution at each position is also obtained. An explicit example is given where the initial waves are Gaussian. The case where there is dispersion in the propagation is also discussed.