Consensus algorithm for multiple quadrotor systems under fixed and switching topologies

The distributed leadless consensus problem for multiple quadrotor systems under fixed and switching topologies is investigated. The objective is to design protocols achieving consensus for networked quadrotors＇ positions and attitudes. Because the model of a quadrotor is a strong high-order nonlinear coupling system, the approach of feedback linearization is employed to transform the model into a group of four linear subsystems among which there is no coupling. Then, a consensus algorithm is proposed which consists of a local feedback controller and interactions from the finite neighbors under fixed undirected topologies. Especially, the problem of choosing the parameters in the consensus algo-rithm is also addressed, enlightened by the results of the robust control theory. Furthermore, it is proved that the proposed algo-rithm also guarantees the consensus under undirected switching topologies. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the pro- posed algorithm.     

EXISTENCE AND ANALYTICAL APPROXIMATIONS OF LIMIT CYCLES IN A THREE-DIMENSIONAL NONLINEAR AUTONOMOUS FEEDBACK CONTROL SYSTEM

This paper is concerned with the existence and the analytical approximations of limit cycles in a three-dimensional nonlinear autonomous feedback control system. Based on three-dimensional Hopf bifurcation theorem, the existence of limit cycles is first proved. Then the homotopy analysis method （HAM） is applied to obtain the analytical approximations of the limit cycle and its frequency. In deriving the higher-order approximations, the authors utilized the idea of a perturbation procedure proposed for limit cycles＇ approximation in van der Pol equation. By comparing with the numerical integration solutions, it is shown that the accuracy of the analytical results obtained in this paper is very high, even when the amplitude of the limit cycle is large.     

Expansion modelling of discrete grey model based on multi-factor information aggregation

This paper aims to study a novel expansion discrete grey forecasting model, which could aggregate input information more effectively. In general, existing multi-factor grey forecasting models, such as one order and h variables grey forecasting model （GM （1, h））, always aggregate the main system variable and independent variables in a linear form rather than a nonlinear form, while a nonlinear form could be used in more cases than the linear form. And the nonlinear form could aggregate collinear independent factors, which widely lie in many multi-factor forecasting problems. To overcome this problem, a new approach, named as the Solow residual method, is proposed to aggregate independent factors. And a new expansion model, feedback multi-factor discrete grey forecasting model based on the Solow residual method （abbreviated as FDGM （1, h））, is proposed accordingly. Then the feedback control equation and the parameters＇ solution of the FDGM （1, h） model are given. Finally, a real application is used to test the modelling accuracy of the FDGM （1, h） model. Results show that the FDGM （1, h） model is much better than the nonhomogeneous discrete grey forecasting model （NDGM） and the GM （1, h） model.     

New rapid transfer alignment method for SINS of airborne weapon systems

Transfer alignment is an effective alignment method for the strapdown inertial navigation system （SINS） of airborne weapon systems. The traditional transfer alignment methods for large misalignment angles alignment use nonlinear transfer align- ment models and incorporate nonlinear filtering. A rapid transfer alignment method with linear models and linear filtering for ar- bitrary misalignment angles is presented. Through the attitude quaternion decomposition, the purpose of transfer alignment is converted to estimate a constant quaternion. Employing special manipulations on measurement equation, velocity and attitude linear measurement equations are derived. Then the linear trans- fer alignment model for arbitrary misalignment angles is built. An adaptive Kalman filter is developed to handle modeling errors of the measurement noise statistics. Simulation results show feasibili- ty and effectiveness of the proposed method, which provides an alternative rapid transfer alignment method for airborne weapons.     

Self-alignment of full skewed RSINS：observability analysis and full-observable Kalman filter

Traditional orthogonal strapdown inertial navigation sys-tem （SINS） cannot achieve satisfactory self-alignment accuracy in the stationary base： taking more than 5 minutes and al the iner-tial sensors biases cannot get ful observability except the up-axis accelerometer. However, the ful skewed redundant SINS （RSINS） can not only enhance the reliability of the system, but also improve the accuracy of the system, such as the initial alignment. Firstly, the observability of the system state includes attitude errors and al the inertial sensors biases are analyzed with the global perspective method： any three gyroscopes and three accelerometers can be assembled into an independent subordinate SINS （sub-SINS）;the system state can be uniquely confirmed by the coupling connec-tions of al the sub-SINSs;the attitude errors and random constant biases of al the inertial sensors are observable. However, the ran-dom noises of the inertial sensors are not taken into account in the above analyzing process. Secondly, the ful-observable Kalman filter which can be applied to the actual RSINS containing random noises is established; the system state includes the position, ve-locity, attitude errors of al the sub-SINSs and the random constant biases of the redundant inertial sensors. At last, the initial self-alignment process of a typical four-redundancy ful skewed RSINS is simulated： the horizontal attitudes （pitch, rol ） errors and yaw error can be exactly evaluated within 80 s and 100 s respectively, while the random constant biases of gyroscopes and accelero-meters can be precisely evaluated within 120 s. For the ful skewed RSINS, the self-alignment accuracy is greatly improved, mean-while the self-alignment time is widely shortened.     

Multi-agent consensus with time-varying delays and switching topologies

The consensus problems of multi-agents with time-varying delays and switching topologies are studied. First, assume that an agent receives state information from its neighbors with fixed communication delays and processes its own state information with time-varying self-delay respectively. The state time-delay feedback is introduced into the existing consensus protocol to begenerate an improved protocol. Then a sufficient condition is derived which can make the system with time-varying self-delays achieve the consensus. On this basis, a specific form of consensus equilibrium influenced by the initial states of agents, time-delays and state feedback intensity is figured out. In addition, the multi-agent consensus is considered with time-varying topologies. Finally, simulations are presented to il ustrate the validity of theoretical results.     

Ripple-effect analysis for operational architecture of air defense systems with supernetwork modeling

In order to solve the problem that the ripple-effect analy- sis for the operational architecture of air defense systems （OAADS） is hardly described in quantity with previous modeling approaches, a supernetwork modeling approach for the OAADS is put for- ward by extending granular computing. Based on that operational units and links are equal to different information granularities, the supernetwork framework of the OAADS is constructed as a “four- network within two-layer” structure by forming dynamic operating coalitions, and measuring indexes of the ripple-effect analysis for the OAADS are given combining with Laplace spectral radius. In this framework, via analyzing multidimensional attributes which inherit relations between operational units in different granular scales, an extended granular computing is put forward integrating with a topological structure. Then the operation process within the supernetwork framework, including transformation relations be- tween two layers in the vertical view and mapping relations among functional networks in the horizontal view, is studied in quantity. As the application case shows, comparing with previous modeling approaches, the supernetwork model can validate and analyze the operation mechanism in the air defense architecture, and the ripple-effect analysis can be used to confirm the key operational unit with micro and macro viewpoints.     

Spiking neural P systems with anti-spikes and without annihilating priority as number acceptors

Spiking neural P systems with anti-spikes （ASN P systems） are variant forms of spiking neural P systems, which are inspired by inhibitory impulses/spikes or inhibitory synapses. The typical feature of ASN P systems is when a neuron contains both spikes and anti-spikes, spikes and anti-spikes wil immediately annihilate each other in a maximal way. In this paper, a restricted variant of ASN P systems, cal ed ASN P systems without anni-hilating priority, is considered, where the annihilating rule is used as the standard rule, i.e., it is not obligatory to use in the neuron associated with both spikes and anti-spikes. If the annihilating rule is used in a neuron, the annihilation wil consume one time unit. As a result, such systems using two categories of spiking rules （identified by （a, a） and （a,a^-）） can achieve Turing completeness as number accepting devices.     

Optimization approach of background value and initial item for improving prediction precision of GM（1,1） model

A combination method of optimization of the back-ground value and optimization of the initial item is proposed. The sequences of the unbiased exponential distribution are simulated and predicted through the optimization of the background value in grey differential equations. The principle of the new information priority in the grey system theory and the rationality of the initial item in the original GM（1,1） model are ful y expressed through the improvement of the initial item in the proposed time response function. A numerical example is employed to il ustrate that the proposed method is able to simulate and predict sequences of raw data with the unbiased exponential distribution and has better simulation performance and prediction precision than the original GM（1,1） model relatively.     

ROBUSTNESS OF HYBRID NEUTRAL DIFFERENTIAL SYSTEMS PERTURBED BY NOISE

This paper considers a given neutral functional system under regime switching whose solution grows at most polynomially. Can the system tolerate Brownian noise and colour noise to preserve the polynomial growth if the system is subject to another environment noise？ The answer is positive. This paper shows that environmental noise and regime switching work together to make the original neutral differential system whose solution grows at most polynomially become a new neutral functional differential system whose solution will still preserve polynomial growth. This indicates that this neutral functional differential system can tolerate small noise without losing the property of polynomial growth, which implies robustness. This paper also proves that the criterion is suitable to neutral delay system which is as a special case of functional system. Finally, two examples are given to illustrate the main theory.     

Stability of stochastic switched epidemic systems with discrete or distributed time delay

Stochastic switched epidemic systems with a discrete or distributed time delay are constructed and investigated. By the Lyapunov method and lto＇s differential rule, the existence and uniqueness of global positive solution of each system is proved. And stability conditions of the disease-free equilibrium of the systems are obtained. Numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the results.     

Distributed tracking for networked Euler-Lagrange systems without velocity measurements

The problem of distributed coordinated tracking control for networked Euler-Lagrange systems without velocity measurements is investigated. Under the condition that only a portion of the followers have access to the leader, sliding mode estimators are developed to estimate the states of the dynamic leader in finite time. To cope with the absence of velocity measurements, the distributed observers which only use position information are designed. Based on the outputs of the estimators and observers, distributed tracking control laws are proposed such that all the fol- lowers with parameter uncertainties can track the dynamic leader under a directed graph containing a spanning tree. It is shown that the distributed observer-controller guarantees asymptotical stability of the closed-loop system. Numerical simulations are worked out to illustrate the effectiveness of the control laws.     

Optimal oppor tunistic maintenance model of multi-unit systems

An opportunistic maintenance model is presented for a continuously deteriorating series system with economical de-pendence. The system consists of two kinds of units, which are respectively subjected to the deterioration failure described by Gamma process and the random failure described by Poisson process. A two-level opportunistic policy defined by three decision parameters is proposed to coordinate the different maintenance actions and minimize the long-run maintenance cost rate of the system. A computable expression of the average cost rate is established by using the renewal property of the stochastic process of the maintained system state. The optimal values of three deci- sion parameters are derived by an iteration approach based on the characteristic of Gamma process. The behavior of the proposed policy is illustrated through a numerical experiment. Comparative study with the widely used corrective maintenance policy demonstrates the advantage of the proposed opportunistic maintenance method in significantly reducing the maintenance cost. Simultane- ously, the applicable area of this opportunistic model is discussed by the sensitivity analysis of the set-up cost and random failure rate.     

Flocking of multi-robot systems with connectivity maintenance on directed graphs

Analysis and design techniques for cooperative flocking of nonholonomic multi-robot systems with connectivity maintenance on directed graphs are presented. First, a set of bounded and smoothly distributed control protocols are devised via carefully designing a class of bounded artificial potential fields （APF） which could guarantee the connectivity maintenance, col ision avoidance and distance stabilization simultaneously during the system evolution. The connectivity of the underlying network can be preserved, and the desired stable flocking behavior can be achieved provided that the initial communication topology is strongly connected rather than undirected or balanced, which relaxes the constraints for group topology and extends the previous work to more generalized directed graphs. Furthermore, the proposed control algorithm is extended to solve the flocking problem with a virtual leader. In this case, it is shown that al robots can asymptotically move with the desired velocity and orientation even if there is only one informed robot in the team. Finally, nontrivial simulations and experiments are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.     

Iterative learning based fault diagnosis for discrete linear uncertain systems

In order to detect and estimate faults in discrete lin-ear time-varying uncertain systems, the discrete iterative learning strategy is applied in fault diagnosis, and a novel fault detection and estimation algorithm is proposed. And the threshold limited technology is adopted in the proposed algorithm. Within the chosen optimal time region, residual signals are used in the proposed algorithm to correct the introduced virtual faults with iterative learning rules, making the virtual faults close to these occurred in practical systems. And the same method is repeated in the rest optimal time regions, thereby reaching the aim of fault diagnosis. The proposed algorithm not only completes fault detection and estimation for discrete linear time-varying uncertain systems, but also improves the reliability of fault detection and decreases the false alarm rate. The final simulation results verify the validity of the proposed algorithm.     

Comprehensive multivariate grey incidence degree based on principal component analysis

To overcome the too fine-grained granularity problem of multivariate grey incidence analysis and to explore the comprehensive incidence analysis model, three multivariate grey incidences degree models based on principal component analysis （PCA） are proposed. Firstly, the PCA method is introduced to extract the feature sequences of a behavioral matrix. Then, the grey incidence analysis between two behavioral matrices is transformed into the similarity and nearness measure between their feature sequences. Based on the classic grey incidence analysis theory, absolute and relative incidence degree models for feature sequences are constructed, and a comprehensive grey incidence model is proposed. Furthermore, the properties of models are researched. It proves that the proposed models satisfy the properties of translation invariance, multiple transformation invariance, and axioms of the grey incidence analysis, respectively. Finally, a case is studied. The results illustrate that the model is effective than other multivariate grey incidence analysis models.     

Fast assignment reduction in inconsistent incomplete decision systems

This paper focuses on fast algorithm for computing the assignment reduct in inconsistent incomplete decision systems. It is quite inconvenient to judge the assignment reduct directly ac-cording to its definition. We propose the judgment theorem for the assignment reduct in the inconsistent incomplete decision system, which greatly simplifies judging this type reduct. On such basis, we derive a novel attribute significance measure and construct the fast assignment reduction algorithm （F-ARA）, intended for com-puting the assignment reduct in inconsistent incomplete decision systems. Final y, we make a comparison between F-ARA and the discernibility matrix-based method by experiments on 13 Univer-sity of California at Irvine （UCI） datasets, and the experimental results prove that F-ARA is efficient and feasible.     

Response surface method using grey relational analysis for decision making in weapon system selection

A proper weapon system is very important for a na- tional defense system. Generally, it means selecting the optimal weapon system among many alternatives, which is a multiple- attribute decision making （MADM） problem. This paper proposes a new mathematical model based on the response surface method （RSM） and the grey relational analysis （GRA）. RSM is used to obtain the experimental points and analyze the factors that have a significant impact on the selection results. GRA is used to an- alyze the trend relationship between alternatives and reference series. And then an RSM model is obtained, which can be used to calculate all alternatives and obtain ranking results. A real world application is introduced to illustrate the utilization of the model for the weapon selection problem. The results show that this model can be used to help decision-makers to make a quick comparison of alternatives and select a proper weapon system from multiple alternatives, which is an effective and adaptable method for solving the weapon system selection problem.     

WHO WON THE 2008 OLYMPICS？ A MULTICRITERIA DECISION OF MEASURING INTANGIBLES

It often happens that at the end of Olympics games the medals won by more than one country are many and close in total number as in the 2008 games where China won 100 medals with many gold ones and the United States won 110 medals but with a lesser number of gold medals. The question is： Although it is often done arbitrarily, is there a way to quantify the values of gold, silver and bronze medals legitimately to resolve this concern？ This short exposition shows that there is by using the author＇s theory for the measurement of intangibles, the Analytic Hierarchy Process.