A journal of IEEE and CAA , publishes high-quality papers in English on original theoretical/experimental research and development in all areas of automation

## Vol. 7,  No. 6, 2020

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2020, 7(6): 1465-1477. doi: 10.1109/JAS.2020.1003201
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With the increasing presence of robots in our daily life, there is a strong need and demand for the strategies to acquire a high quality interaction between robots and users by enabling robots to understand users’ mood, intention, and other aspects. During human-human interaction, personality traits have an important influence on human behavior, decision, mood, and many others. Therefore, we propose an efficient computational framework to endow the robot with the capability of under-standing the user’s personality traits based on the user’s nonverbal communication cues represented by three visual features including the head motion, gaze, and body motion energy, and three vocal features including voice pitch, voice energy, and mel-frequency cepstral coefficient (MFCC). We used the Pepper robot in this study as a communication robot to interact with each participant by asking questions, and meanwhile, the robot extracts the nonverbal features from each participant’s habitual behavior using its on-board sensors. On the other hand, each participant’s personality traits are evaluated with a questionnaire. We then train the ridge regression and linear support vector machine (SVM) classifiers using the nonverbal features and personality trait labels from a questionnaire and evaluate the performance of the classifiers. We have verified the validity of the proposed models that showed promising binary classification performance on recognizing each of the Big Five personality traits of the participants based on individual differences in nonverbal communication cues.
2020, 7(6): 1478-1488. doi: 10.1109/JAS.2020.1003351
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Pneumatic muscle actuators (PMAs) are compliant and suitable for robotic devices that have been shown to be effective in assisting patients with neurologic injuries, such as strokes, spinal cord injuries, etc., to accomplish rehabilitation tasks. However, because PMAs have nonlinearities, hysteresis, and uncertainties, etc., complex mechanisms are rarely involved in the study of PMA-driven robotic systems. In this paper, we use nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) and an extension of the echo state network called an echo state Gaussian process (ESGP) to design a tracking controller for a PMA-driven lower limb exoskeleton. The dynamics of the system include the PMA actuation and mechanism of the leg orthoses; thus, the system is represented by two nonlinear uncertain subsystems. To facilitate the design of the controller, joint angles of leg orthoses are forecasted based on the universal approximation ability of the ESGP. A gradient descent algorithm is employed to solve the optimization problem and generate the control signal. The stability of the closed-loop system is guaranteed when the ESGP is capable of approximating system dynamics. Simulations and experiments are conducted to verify the approximation ability of the ESGP and achieve gait pattern training with four healthy subjects.
2020, 7(6): 1489-1497. doi: 10.1109/JAS.2020.1003180
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In order to improve detection system robustness and reliability, multi-sensors fusion is used in modern air combat. In this paper, a data fusion method based on reinforcement learning is developed for multi-sensors. Initially, the cubic B-spline interpolation is used to solve time alignment problems of multi-source data. Then, the reinforcement learning based data fusion (RLBDF) method is proposed to obtain the fusion results. With the case that the priori knowledge of target is obtained, the fusion accuracy reinforcement is realized by the error between fused value and actual value. Furthermore, the Fisher information is instead used as the reward if the priori knowledge is unable to be obtained. Simulations results verify that the developed method is feasible and effective for the multi-sensors data fusion in air combat.
2020, 7(6): 1498-1510. doi: 10.1109/JAS.2020.1003354
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Group role assignment (GRA) is originally a complex problem in role-based collaboration (RBC). The solution to GRA provides modelling techniques for more complex problems. GRA with constraints (GRA+) is categorized as a class of complex assignment problems. At present, there are few generally efficient solutions to this category of problems. Each special problem case requires a specific solution. Group multi-role assignment (GMRA) and GRA with conflicting agents on roles (GRACAR) are two problem cases in GRA+. The contributions of this paper include: 1) The formalization of a new problem of GRA+, called group multi-role assignment with conflicting roles and agents (GMAC), which is an extension to the combination of GMRA and GRACAR; 2) A practical solution based on an optimization platform; 3) A sufficient condition, used in planning, for solving GMAC problems; and 4) A clear presentation of the benefits in avoiding conflicts when dealing with GMAC. The proposed methods are verified by experiments, simulations, proofs and analysis.
2020, 7(6): 1511-1527. doi: 10.1109/JAS.2020.1003312
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Location estimation of underwater sensor networks (USNs) has become a critical technology, due to its fundamental role in the sensing, communication and control of ocean volume. However, the asynchronous clock, security attack and mobility characteristics of underwater environment make localization much more challenging as compared with terrestrial sensor networks. This paper is concerned with a privacy-preserving asynchronous localization issue for USNs. Particularly, a hybrid network architecture that includes surface buoys, anchor nodes, active sensor nodes and ordinary sensor nodes is constructed. Then, an asynchronous localization protocol is provided, through which two privacy-preserving localization algorithms are designed to estimate the locations of active and ordinary sensor nodes. It is worth mentioning that, the proposed localization algorithms reveal disguised positions to the network, while they do not adopt any homomorphic encryption technique. More importantly, they can eliminate the effect of asynchronous clock, i.e., clock skew and offset. The performance analyses for the privacy-preserving asynchronous localization algorithms are also presented. Finally, simulation and experiment results reveal that the proposed localization approach can avoid the leakage of position information, while the location accuracy can be significantly enhanced as compared with the other works.
2020, 7(6): 1528-1541. doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911648
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The passwords for unlocking the mobile devices are relatively simple, easier to be stolen, which causes serious potential security problems. An important research direction of identity authentication is to establish user behavior models to authenticate users. In this paper, a mobile terminal APP browsing behavioral authentication system architecture which synthesizes multiple factors is designed. This architecture is suitable for users using the mobile terminal APP in the daily life. The architecture includes data acquisition, data processing, feature extraction, and sub model training. We can use this architecture for continuous authentication when the user uses APP at the mobile terminal.
2020, 7(6): 1542-1554. doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911729
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In this paper, a kind of lateral stability control strategy is put forward about the four wheel independent drive electric vehicle. The design of control system adopts hierarchical structure. Unlike the previous control strategy, this paper introduces a method which is the combination of sliding mode control and optimal allocation algorithm. According to the driver’s operation commands (steering angle and speed), the steady state responses of the sideslip angle and yaw rate are obtained. Based on this, the reference model is built. Upper controller adopts the sliding mode control principle to obtain the desired yawing moment demand. Lower controller is designed to satisfy the desired yawing moment demand by optimal allocation of the tire longitudinal forces. Firstly, the optimization goal is built to minimize the actuator cost. Secondly, the weighted least-square method is used to design the tire longitudinal forces optimization distribution strategy under the constraint conditions of actuator and the friction oval. Beyond that, when the optimal allocation algorithm is not applied, a method of axial load ratio distribution is adopted. Finally, CarSim associated with Simulink simulation experiments are designed under the conditions of different velocities and different pavements. The simulation results show that the control strategy designed in this paper has a good following effect comparing with the reference model and the sideslip angle $\,\beta$ is controlled within a small rang at the same time. Beyond that, based on the optimal distribution mode, the electromagnetic torque phase of each wheel can follow the trend of the vertical force of the tire, which shows the effectiveness of the optimal distribution algorithm.
2020, 7(6): 1555-1564. doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911627
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The stabilization problem of distributed proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers for general first-order multi-agent systems with time delay is investigated in the paper. The closed-loop multi-input multi-output (MIMO) framework in frequency domain is firstly introduced for the multi-agent system. Based on the matrix theory, the whole system is decoupled into several subsystems with respect to the eigenvalues of the Laplacian matrix. Considering that the eigenvalues may be complex numbers, the consensus problem of the multi-agent system is transformed into the stabilizing problem of all the subsystems with complex coefficients. For each subsystem with complex coefficients, the range of admissible proportional gains is analytically determined. Then, the stabilizing region in the space of integral gain and derivative gain for a given proportional gain value is also obtained in an analytical form. The entire stabilizing set can be determined by sweeping proportional gain in the allowable range. The proposed method is conducted for general first-order multi-agent systems under arbitrary topology including undirected and directed graph topology. Besides, the results in the paper provide the basis for the design of distributed PID controllers satisfying different performance criteria. The simulation examples are presented to check the validity of the proposed control strategy.
2020, 7(6): 1565-1574. doi: 10.1109/JAS.2020.1003357
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In recent years, reconstructing a sparse map from a simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) system on a conventional CPU has undergone remarkable progress. However, obtaining a dense map from the system often requires a high-performance GPU to accelerate computation. This paper proposes a dense mapping approach which can remove outliers and obtain a clean 3D model using a CPU in real-time. The dense mapping approach processes keyframes and establishes data association by using multi-threading technology. The outliers are removed by changing detections of associated vertices between keyframes. The implicit surface data of inliers is represented by a truncated signed distance function and fused with an adaptive weight. A global hash table and a local hash table are used to store and retrieve surface data for data-reuse. Experiment results show that the proposed approach can precisely remove the outliers in scene and obtain a dense 3D map with a better visual effect in real-time.
2020, 7(6): 1575-1584. doi: 10.1109/JAS.2020.1003360
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In this paper, we propose an improved torque sensorless speed control method for electric assisted bicycle, this method considers the coordinate conversion. A low-pass filter is designed in disturbance observer to estimate and compensate the variable disturbance during cycling. A DC motor provides assisted power driving, the assistance method is based on the real-time wheel angular velocity and coordinate system transformation. The effect of observer is proved, and the proposed method guarantees stability under disturbances. It is also compared to the existing methods and their performances are illustrated through simulations. The proposed method improves the performance both in rapidity and stability.
2020, 7(6): 1585-1592. doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911636
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The Möller algorithm is a self-stabilizing minor component analysis algorithm. This research document involves the study of the convergence and dynamic characteristics of the Möller algorithm using the deterministic discrete time (DDT) methodology. Unlike other analysis methodologies, the DDT methodology is capable of serving the distinct time characteristic and having no constraint conditions. Through analyzing the dynamic characteristics of the weight vector, several convergence conditions are drawn, which are beneficial for its application. The performing computer simulations and real applications demonstrate the correctness of the analysis’s conclusions.
2020, 7(6): 1593-1603. doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911720
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In a passive ultra-high frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) system, the recovery of collided tag signals on a physical layer can enhance identification efficiency. However, frequency drift is very common in UHF RFID systems, and will have an influence on the recovery on the physical layer. To address the problem of recovery with the frequency drift, this paper adopts a radial basis function (RBF) network to separate the collision signals, and decode the signals via FM0 to recovery collided RFID tags. Numerical results show that the method in this paper has better performance of symbol error rate (SER) and separation efficiency compared to conventional methods when frequency drift occurs.
2020, 7(6): 1604-1626. doi: 10.1109/JAS.2020.1003363
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In the cyber-physical environment, the clock synchronization algorithm is required to have better expansion for network scale. In this paper, a new measurement model of observability under the equivalent transformation of minimum mean square error (MMSE) is constructed based on basic measurement unit (BMU), which can realize the scaled expansion of MMSE measurement. Based on the state updating equation of absolute clock and the decoupled measurement model of MMSE-like equivalence, which is proposed to calculate the positive definite invariant set by using the theoretical-practical Luenberger observer as the synthetical observer, the local noncooperative optimal control problem is built, and the clock synchronization system driven by the ideal state of local clock can reach the exponential convergence for synchronization performance. Different from the problem of general linear system regulators, the state estimation error and state control error are analyzed in the established affine system based on the set-theory-in-control to achieve the quantification of state deviation caused by noise interference. Based on the BMU for isomorphic state map, the synchronization performance of clock states between multiple sets of representative nodes is evaluated, and the scale of evaluated system can be still expanded. After the synchronization is completed, the state of perturbation system remains in the maximum range of measurement accuracy, and the state of nominal system can be stabilized at the ideal state for local clock and realizes the exponential convergence of the clock synchronization system.
2020, 7(6): 1627-1637. doi: 10.1109/JAS.2018.7511192
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Negative selection algorithm (NSA) is one of the classic artificial immune algorithm widely used in anomaly detection. However, there are still unsolved shortcomings of NSA that limit its further applications. For example, the nonself-detector generation efficiency is low; a large number of nonself-detector is needed for precise detection; low detection rate with various application data sets. Aiming at those problems, a novel radius adaptive based on center-optimized hybrid detector generation algorithm (RACO-HDG) is put forward. To our best knowledge, radius adaptive based on center optimization is first time analyzed and proposed as an efficient mechanism to improve both detector generation and detection rate without significant computation complexity. RACO-HDG works efficiently in three phases. At first, a small number of self-detectors are generated, different from typical NSAs with a large number of self-sample are generated. Nonself-detectors will be generated from those initial small number of self-detectors to make hybrid detection of self-detectors and nonself-detectors possible. Secondly, without any prior knowledge of the data sets or manual setting, the nonself-detector radius threshold is self-adaptive by optimizing the nonself-detector center and the generation mechanism. In this way, the number of abnormal detectors is decreased sharply, while the coverage area of the nonself-detector is increased otherwise, leading to higher detection performances of RACO-HDG. Finally, hybrid detection algorithm is proposed with both self-detectors and nonself-detectors work together to increase detection rate as expected. Abundant simulations and application results show that the proposed RACO-HDG has higher detection rate, lower false alarm rate and higher detection efficiency compared with other excellent algorithms.
2020, 7(6): 1638-1648. doi: 10.1109/JAS.2019.1911531
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This paper investigates the sliding mode control (SMC) problem for a class of discrete-time nonlinear networked Markovian jump systems (MJSs) in the presence of probabilistic denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. The communication network via which the data is propagated is unsafe and the malicious adversary can attack the system during state feedback. By considering random Denial-of-Service attacks, a new sliding mode variable is designed, which takes into account the distribution information of the probabilistic attacks. Then, by resorting to Lyapunov theory and stochastic analysis methods, sufficient conditions are established for the existence of the desired sliding mode controller, guaranteeing both reachability of the designed sliding surface and stability of the resulting sliding motion. Finally, a simulation example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed sliding mode control algorithm.
2020, 7(6): 1649-1661. doi: 10.1109/JAS.2020.1003423
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In this paper, we present a tensor least square based model for sand/sandstorm removal in images. The main contributions of this paper are as follows. First, an important intrinsic natural feature of outdoor scenes free of sand/sandstorm is found that the outlines in RGB channels are somewise similar, which discloses the physical validation using the tensor instead of the matrix. Second, a tensor least square optimization model is presented for the decomposition of edge-preserving base layers and details. This model not only decomposes the color image (taken as an inseparable indivisibility) in X, Y directions, but also in Z direction, which meets the statistical feature of natural scenes and can physically disclose the intrinsic color information. The model’s advantages are twofold: one is the decomposition of edge-preserving base layers and details that can be employed for contrast enhancement without artificial halos, and the other one is the color driving ability that makes the enhanced images as close to natural images as possible via the inherent color structure. Thirdly, the tensor least square optimization model based image enhancement scheme is discussed for the sandstorm weather images. Finally, the experiments and comparisons with the state-of-the-art methods on real degraded images under sandstorm weather are shown to verify our method’s efficiency.
2020, 7(6): 1662-1674. doi: 10.1109/JAS.2020.1003426
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This paper studies the problem of optimal parallel tracking control for continuous-time general nonlinear systems. Unlike existing optimal state feedback control, the control input of the optimal parallel control is introduced into the feedback system. However, due to the introduction of control input into the feedback system, the optimal state feedback control methods can not be applied directly. To address this problem, an augmented system and an augmented performance index function are proposed firstly. Thus, the general nonlinear system is transformed into an affine nonlinear system. The difference between the optimal parallel control and the optimal state feedback control is analyzed theoretically. It is proven that the optimal parallel control with the augmented performance index function can be seen as the suboptimal state feedback control with the traditional performance index function. Moreover, an adaptive dynamic programming (ADP) technique is utilized to implement the optimal parallel tracking control using a critic neural network (NN) to approximate the value function online. The stability analysis of the closed-loop system is performed using the Lyapunov theory, and the tracking error and NN weights errors are uniformly ultimately bounded (UUB). Also, the optimal parallel controller guarantees the continuity of the control input under the circumstance that there are finite jump discontinuities in the reference signals. Finally, the effectiveness of the developed optimal parallel control method is verified in two cases.