An adaptive sliding mode observer based near-optimal OER tracking control approach for PEMFC under dynamic operation condition

Tracking control of oxygen excess ratio (OER) is crucial for dynamic performance and operating efficiency of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). OER tracking errors and overshoots under dynamic load limit the PEMFC output power performance, and also could lead oxygen starvation which seriously affect the life of PEMFC. To solve this problem, an adaptive sliding mode observer based near-optimal OER tracking control approach is proposed in this paper. According to real time load demand, a dynamic OER optimization strategy is designed to obtain an optimal OER. A nonlinear system model based near-optimal controller is designed to minimize the OER tracking error under variable operation condition of PEMFC. An adaptive sliding mode observer is utilized to estimate the uncertain parameters of the PEMFC air supply system and update parameters in near-optimal controller. The proposed control approach is implemented in OER tracking experiments based on air supply system of a 5 kW PEMFC test platform. The experiment results are analyzed and demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed control approach under load changes, external disturbances and parameter uncertainties of PEFMC system.     

Photophysical investigation of the formation of defect levels in P doped ZnO thin films

Zinc oxide (ZnO) offers a major disadvantage of asymmetry doping in terms of reliability, stability, and reproducibility of p-type doping, which is the main hindrance in realization of optoelectronic devices. The problem is even more complicated due to formation of various native defects in unintentionally doped n-type ZnO. The realization of p-type conductivity in doped ZnO requires an in-depth understanding of the formation of an effective shallow acceptor, as well as donor-acceptor compensation. Photophysical properties such as photoconductivity along with photoluminescence (PL) studies have unprecedentedly and effectively been utilized in this work to monitor the evolution of various in-gap defects. Phosphorus (P) doped ZnO thin films have been grown by RF magnetron sputtering under various Ar to O₂ gas ratios to investigate the effect of O₂ on the donor-acceptor compensation by comprehensive photoconductivity measurements supported by the PL studies. Initial elemental analyses indicate presence of abundant zinc vacancies (V_Zn) in O-rich ambience. The results predict that P sits in the zinc (Zn) site rather than the oxygen (O) site causing the formation of P_Zn–2V_Zn acceptor-like defects, which compensates the donor defects in P doped ZnO films. Photocurrent spectra uniquely reveal presence of more oxygen vacancies (V_O) defects states in lower O₂ flow, which gets compensated with an increase in the O₂ flow. Successive photocurrent transients indicate probable presence of more V_O in the films grown with lower O₂ flow and more V_Zn in higher O₂ flow. Overall the photosensitivity measurements clearly present that O-rich ambience expedites the formation of acceptor defects which are compensated, thereby lowering the dark current and enhancing the ultraviolet photosensitivity.     

Friction compensation controller for load varying machine tool feed drive

The load applied to a machine tool feed drive changes during the machining process as material is removed. This load change alters the Coulomb friction of the feed drive. Because Coulomb friction accounts for a large part of the total friction the friction compensation control accuracy of the feed drives is limited if this nonlinear change in the applied load is not considered. This paper presents a new friction compensation method that estimates the machine tool load in real time and considers its effect on friction characteristics. A friction observer based on a Kalman filter with load estimation is proposed for friction compensation control considering the applied load change. A specially designed feed drive testbed that enables the applied load to be modified easily was constructed for experimental verification. Control performance and friction estimation accuracy are demonstrated experimentally using the testbed.     

马尔可夫跳变线性系统最优控制的研究现状与进展

马尔可夫跳变线性系统（MJLS）是一种具有多个模态的随机系统，系统在各个模态之间的跳变转移由一组马尔可夫链来决定。MJLS模型因其在表示过程中可以产生突变而更能精确的描述实际工程应用中的系统。近年来，MJLS的最优控制问题成为了研究的热点，动态规划、极大值原理以及线性矩阵不等式等成为了解决此类问题的主流方法。本文对MJLS最优控制领域的研究现状进行了综述。分别对一般情况下、带有噪声的情况下、带有时滞的情况下以及某些特定情况下的MLJS最优控制问题的国内外研究现状进行论述。最后进行了总结并提出MJLS最优控制领域未来值得关注的研究方向。     

Adaptive compensation of persistent actuator failures of nonlinear systems

In this article, adaptive compensation designs are developed for nonlinear systems with uncertainties from the system functions and persistent actuator failures of characterizations that (i) some unknown system inputs are stuck at some unknown fixed or varying values at unknown time instants and (ii) the failure pattern always switches from one to another and the switching does not stop. Such a controlled plant is described by an uncertain time-varying nonlinear system, and some robust adaptive feedback linearization based failure compensation results are studied for closed-loop system stabilization and bounded output tracking for some specific conditions. To improve the tracking performance in the presence of persistent actuator failures, a new adaptive control scheme is developed, using the failure indicator function which contains the failure pattern and failure time in the formulation. Detailed stability and tracking performance are shown. Simulation results are shown to verify the effectiveness of the proposed adaptive actuator failure compensation method.     

Design and validation of robotic bionic eye with multiple flexible ropes parallel mechanism inspired by oculomotor law

Producing a stable and agile bionic eye for visual image acquisition in robotics is a challenging task. In this paper, we design a bionic eye with mirror-symmetric distribution and cross-connection of flexible ropes. This mechanism is based on oculomotor law and the physiological structure of the extraocular muscles (EOMs). Specifically, the basic structural parameters are determined by Listing’s law, and the unique connection of the flexible ropes can realize the functions of the recti and oblique muscles. Furthermore, to mimic the trochlea structure, a pulley mechanism is constructed to permit the free movement of the flexible ropes. Through simulation and physical experiments, it is demonstrated that the bionic eye mechanism can move with agility under the structural parameters. The experimental results indicate that the proposed bionic eye mechanism has a superior motion accuracy of 2.798 mm, which is 6.7% of the maximum motion distance, and the repeatable accuracy of the mechanism can up to 0.210 mm.     

Apparent power-law distributions in animal movements can arise from intraspecific interactions

Lévy flights have gained prominence for analysis of animal movement. In a Lévy flight, step-lengths are drawn from a heavy-tailed distribution such as a power law (PL), and a large number of empirical demonstrations have been published. Others, however, have suggested that animal movement is ill fit by PL distributions or contend a state-switching process better explains apparent Lévy flight movement patterns. We used a mix of direct behavioural observations and GPS tracking to understand step-length patterns in females of two related butterflies. We initially found movement in one species (Euphydryas editha taylori) was best fit by a bounded PL, evidence of a Lévy flight, while the other (Euphydryas phaeton) was best fit by an exponential distribution. Subsequent analyses introduced additional candidate models and used behavioural observations to sort steps based on intraspecific interactions (interactions were rare in E. phaeton but common in E. e. taylori). These analyses showed a mixed-exponential is favoured over the bounded PL for E. e. taylori and that when step-lengths were sorted into states based on the influence of harassing conspecific males, both states were best fit by simple exponential distributions. The direct behavioural observations allowed us to infer the underlying behavioural mechanism is a state-switching process driven by intraspecific interactions rather than a Lévy flight.     

Graph-based video fingerprinting using double optimal projection

A double optimal projection method that involves projections for intra-cluster and inter-cluster dimensionality reduction are proposed for video fingerprinting. The video is initially set as a graph with frames as its vertices in a high-dimensional space. A similarity measure that can compute the weights of the edges is then proposed. Subsequently, the video frames are partitioned into different clusters based on the graph model. Double optimal projection is used to explore the optimal mapping points in a low-dimensional space to reduce the video dimensions. The statistics and geometrical fingerprints are generated to determine whether a query video is copied from one of the videos in the database. During matching, the video can be roughly matched by utilizing the statistics fingerprint. Further matching is thereafter performed in the corresponding group using geometrical fingerprints. Experimental results show the good performance of the proposed video fingerprinting method in robustness and discrimination.     

Research on Circular Area Search algorithm of multi-robot service based on SOA cloud platform

Considering autonomous mobile robots with a variety of specific functions as a kind of service, when there are many types and quantities of services and the density of regional services is large, proposing an algorithm of Circular Area Search (CAS) because of the problem of multi-robot service scheduling in various areas. Firstly, Django is used as the web framework to build the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) multi-robot service cloud platform, which is the basic platform for multi-service combination. Then, the service type, the latitude and longitude and the scoring parameters of the service are selected as the service search metrics to design the CAS algorithm that based on the existing service information registered in MySQL and the Gaode Map for screening optimal service, and then providing the service applicant with the best service. Finally, the service applicant applies for the self-driving tour service as an example to perform performance simulation test on the proposed CAS algorithm. The results show that the CAS algorithm of the multi-robot service cloud platform proposed in this paper is practical compared to the global search. And compared with the Greedy Algorithm experiment, the service search time is reduced about 58% compared with the Greedy Algorithm, which verifies the efficiency of CAS algorithm.