Modelling and predictive control: Enabling technologies for reconfiguration

An approach to reconfiguring control systems in the event of major failures is advocated. The approach relies on the convergence of several technologies which are currently emerging: Constrained predictive control, High-fidelity modelling of complex systems, Fault detection and identification, and Model approximation and simplification. Much work is needed, both theoretical and algorithmic, to make this approach practical, but we believe that there is enough evidence, especially from existing industrial practice, for the scheme to be considered realistic. After outlining the problem and proposed solution, the paper briefly reviews constrained predictive control and object-oriented modelling, which are the essential ingredients for practical implementation. The prospects for automatic model simplification are also reviewed briefly. The paper emphasizes some emerging trends in industrial practice, especially as regards modelling and control of complex systems. Examples from process control and flight control are used to illustrate some of the ideas.

The changing face and role of CACSD

Computer Aided Control Engineering involves three parallel streams: Simulation and modelling, Control system design (off-line), and Controller implementation. In industry the bottleneck problem has always been modelling, and this remains the case - that is where control (and other) engineers put most of their technical effort. Although great advances in software tools have been made, the cost of modelling remains very high - too high for some sectors. Object-oriented modelling, enabling truly re-usable models, seems to be the key enabling technology here. Software tools to support control systems design have two aspects to them: aiding and managing the work-flow in particular projects (whether of a single engineer or of a team), and provision of numerical algorithms to support control-theoretic and systems-theoretic analysis and design. The numerical problems associated with linear systems have been largely overcome, so that most problems can be tackled routinely without difficulty - though problems remain with (some) systems of extremely large dimensions. Recent emphasis on control of hybrid and/or constrained systems is leading to the emerging importance of geometric algorithms (ellipsoidal approximation, polytope projection, etc). Constantly increasing computational power is leading to renewed interest in design by optimisation, an example of which is MPC. The explosion of embedded control systems has highlighted the importance of autocode generation, directly from modelling/simulation products to target processors. This is the 'new kid on the block', and again much of the focus of commercial tools is on this part of the control engineer's job. Here the control engineer can no longer ignore computer science (at least, for the time being). © 2006 IEEE.

The changing face and role of CACSD

Computer Aided Control Engineering involves three parallel streams: Simulation and modelling, Control system design (off-line), and Controller implementation. In industry the bottleneck problem has always been modelling, and this remains the case - that is where control (and other) engineers put most of their technical effort. Although great advances in software tools have been made, the cost of modelling remains very high - too high for some sectors. Object-oriented modelling, enabling truly re-usable models, seems to be the key enabling technology here. Software tools to support control systems design have two aspects to them: aiding and managing the work-flow in particular projects (whether of a single engineer or of a team), and provision of numerical algorithms to support control-theoretic and systems-theoretic analysis and design. The numerical problems associated with linear systems have been largely overcome, so that most problems can be tackled routinely without difficulty - though problems remain with (some) systems of extremely large dimensions. Recent emphasis on control of hybrid and/or constrained systems is leading to the emerging importance of geometric algorithms (ellipsoidal approximation, polytope projection, etc). Constantly increasing computational power is leading to renewed interest in design by optimisation, an example of which is MPC. The explosion of embedded control systems has highlighted the importance of autocode generation, directly from modelling/simulation products to target processors. This is the 'new kid on the block', and again much of the focus of commercial tools is on this part of the control engineer's job. Here the control engineer can no longer ignore computer science (at least, for the time being). ©2006 IEEE.

Data structures and software tools for the computer aided design of control systems: a survey.

CAD software can be structured as a set of modular 'software tools' only if there is some agreement on the data structures which are to be passed between tools. Beyond this basic requirement, it is desirable to give the agreed structures the status of 'data types' in the language used for interactive design. The ultimate refinement is to have a data management capability which 'understands' how to manipulate such data types. In this paper the requirements of CACSD are formulated from the point of view of Database Management Systems. Progress towards meeting these requirements in both the DBMS and the CACSD community is reviewed. The conclusion reached is that there has been considerable movement towards the realisation of software tools for CACSD, but that this owes more to modern ideas about programming languages, than to DBMS developments. The DBMS field has identified some useful concepts, but further significant progress is expected to come from the exploitation of concepts such as object-oriented programming, logic programming, or functional programming.

Generating the Sparse Point Cloud of a Civil Infrastructure Scene Using a Single Video Camera under Practical Constraints

Automating the model generation process of infrastructure can substantially reduce the modeling time and cost. This paper presents a method to generate a sparse point cloud of an infrastructure scene using a single video camera under practical constraints. It is the first step towards establishing an automatic framework for object-oriented as-built modeling. Motion blur and key frame selection criteria are considered. Structure from motion and bundle adjustment are explored. The method is demonstrated in a case study where the scene of a reinforced concrete bridge is videotaped, reconstructed, and metrically validated. The result indicates the applicability, efficiency, and accuracy of the proposed method.

Achievements and Challenges in Recognizing and Reconstructing Civil Infrastructure

The US National Academy of Engineering recently identified restoring and improving urban infrastructure as one of the grand challenges of engineering. Part of this challenge stems from the lack of viable methods to map/label existing infrastructure. For computer vision, this challenge becomes “How can we automate the process of extracting geometric, object oriented models of infrastructure from visual data?” Object recognition and reconstruction methods have been successfully devised and/or adapted to answer this question for small or linear objects (e.g. columns). However, many infrastructure objects are large and/or planar without significant and distinctive features, such as walls, floor slabs, and bridge decks. How can we recognize and reconstruct them in a 3D model? In this paper, strategies for infrastructure object recognition and reconstruction are presented, to set the stage for posing the question above and discuss future research in featureless, large/planar object recognition and modeling.

从面向对象的遗留系统到面向服务架构的迁移方法

Migrating legacy system with web service is an effective and economic way of reusing legacy software in a SOA environment.In this paper,we present an approach for migrating a three-tie object-oriented legacy system to SOA environment.The key issue of the approach is about services identification from large numbers of classes.And we propose a bottom-up method to model the system with UML and identify services from UML then.This approach can be a reference to an auto-migrating process.

面向生物学对象的离子治癌模式的初步研究

目的： 肿瘤是当今人类生活中最危险的疾病之一。重离子和质子的Bragg峰，能使高吸收剂量区集中于肿瘤部位，从而有效地保护周围的健康组织，且在肿瘤照射区具有相对生物学效应高、修复效率低等特点，在放疗上比较理想。但是现有的离子束治疗模式仍是面向物理学对象的——即仅仅考虑离子的物理学特性和肿瘤的大小、形状等，很少从生物的有机整体考虑。本文依据生物学个体差异，进行了面向生物学对象的离子治疗模式必要性和可行性的基础研究。研究方法与结果： 1、不同剂量的重离子辐照肝癌SMMC-7721细胞后出现了细胞周期阻滞，细胞在低剂量区表现出明显的HRS/IRR 响应。 2、不同剂量重离子和X射线分别辐照小鼠全身后，其骨髓细胞周期表现出不同的分布，且等剂量重离子较X射线辐照对动物的影响更明显。 3、头部是一个重要的器官。重离子辐照小鼠头部后，小鼠骨髓、脾脏和外周淋巴细胞周期分布出现明显变化，这表明动物个体本身是一个有机统一整体，重离子辐照对动物非辐照部位具有直接的和间接的影响。 4、7.5c Gy重离子辐照正常小鼠后荷瘤，不仅没有能够抑制反而促进了肿瘤的生长，并且小鼠胸腺、脾脏、骨髓和外周淋巴细胞周期分布发生变化。另外发现雄性比雌性小鼠对低剂量重离子辐射更敏感。 5、以不同剂量重离子辐照荷瘤小鼠（S180肉瘤或H22肝癌）的实验中，随着剂量的增加，肿瘤细胞周期阻滞现象逐渐明显，同时出现免疫系统细胞周期的阻滞。这表明重离子辐照在杀死或引起肿瘤细胞凋亡的同时，在一定程度上也引起了正常组织和免疫系统的损伤。结论： 本研究通过一系列的细胞、动物学实验证明了面向生物学对象的离子治疗模式是可行的和必要的，这种模式将使离子治疗能够根据患者的个体差异，采取适合不同个体的最佳治疗方案，将可能极大的提高治愈率和患者的生存质量，是一种以人为本的治疗模式，有着很好的应用前景

用面向对象方法分析、设计、实现工业远程监控系统

较早时期的实时监控应用软件，从分析设计到代码实现，采用的都是结构化方法，有的甚至没有经过分析设计阶段，直接进行编程。也曾有过分析和设计阶段采用结构化方法，编程实现采用面向对象语言的尝试。但由于分析设计的缺陷导致在软件生命周期的维护阶段出现许多问题，如存在较多的缺陷(bug）、结构性错误、修改困难、功能扩展工作量太大等等。统一建模语言(UML)的出现是面向对象建模领域的一个里程碑，它将面向对象方法和以往的面向过程的结构化方法做了较为完善的结合，使在分析、设计、实现阶段都采用面向对象方法完成实时系统成为可能。这次在开发新系统的过程中首次尝试了采用面向对象分析设计语言（UML)和面向对象语言（MS VC++）相结合，在整个软件生命周期均采用面向对象方法和工具实现工业远程实时监控系统，在解决以上问题及优化系统性能、结构方面皆取得了很好的效果。得到了结构良好、高内聚、低藕合、容易理解、易于扩展、维护的系统。这个系统主要实现工业现场仪表的调控，数据的采集、直观图实时监控生产状况，利用电话网及计算机技术自动实现输油管线远程实时监控、统计与处理等功能。

Research on extracting method of micro-scale remote sensing information combination and application in coastal zone

973 Project of China [2006CB701305]; "863" Project of China [2009AA12Z148]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [40971224]