Decision tree-based context clustering based on cross validation and hierarchical priors

The standard, ad-hoc stopping criteria used in decision tree-based context clustering are known to be sub-optimal and require parameters to be tuned. This paper proposes a new approach for decision tree-based context clustering based on cross validation and hierarchical priors. Combination of cross validation and hierarchical priors within decision tree-based context clustering offers better model selection and more robust parameter estimation than conventional approaches, with no tuning parameters. Experimental results on HMM-based speech synthesis show that the proposed approach achieved significant improvements in naturalness of synthesized speech over the conventional approaches. © 2011 IEEE.

A condition monitoring platform using COTS wireless sensor networks - Lessons and experience

Developments in Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), wireless communication systems and ad-hoc networking have created new dimensions to improve asset management not only during the operational phase but throughout an asset's lifecycle based on using improved quality of information obtained with respect to two key aspects of an asset: its location and condition. In this paper, we present our experience as well as lessons learnt from building a prototype condition monitoring platform to demonstrate and to evaluate the use of COTS wireless sensor networks to develop a prototype condition monitoring platform with the aim of improving asset management by providing accurate and real-time information. © 2010 IEEE.

Prices need no preferences: social trends determine decisions in experimental markets for pain relief.

OBJECTIVE: A standard view in health economics is that, although there is no market that determines the "prices" for health states, people can nonetheless associate health states with monetary values (or other scales, such as quality adjusted life year [QALYs] and disability adjusted life year [DALYs]). Such valuations can be used to shape health policy, and a major research challenge is to elicit such values from people; creating experimental "markets" for health states is a theoretically attractive way to address this. We explore the possibility that this framework may be fundamentally flawed-because there may not be any stable values to be revealed. Instead, perhaps people construct ad hoc values, influenced by contextual factors, such as the observed decisions of others. METHOD: The participants bid to buy relief from equally painful electrical shocks to the leg and arm in an experimental health market based on an interactive second-price auction. Thirty subjects were randomly assigned to two experimental conditions where the bids by "others" were manipulated to follow increasing or decreasing price trends for one, but not the other, pain. After the auction, a preference test asked the participants to choose which pain they prefer to experience for a longer duration. RESULTS: Players remained indifferent between the two pain-types throughout the auction. However, their bids were differentially attracted toward what others bid for each pain, with overbidding during decreasing prices and underbidding during increasing prices. CONCLUSION: Health preferences are dissociated from market prices, which are strongly referenced to others' choices. This suggests that the price of health care in a free-market has the capacity to become critically detached from people's underlying preferences.

Antiwindup design for induction motor control in the field weakening domain

Operation of induction machines in the high-speed and/or high-torque range requires field-weakening to comply with voltage and current physical limitations. This paper presents an anti-windup approach to this problem: rather than developing an ad-hoc field weakening strategy in the high-speed region, we equip an unconstrained vector-control design with an anti-windup module that automatically adjusts the current and flux set-points so that voltage and current constraints are satisfied at every operating point. The anti-windup module includes a feedforward modification of the set point aimed at maximizing the available torque in steady-state and a feedback modification of the controller based on an internal model-based antiwindup scheme. This paper includes a complete stability analysis of the proposed solution and presents encouraging experimental results on an industrial drive. © 2012 IEEE.

Assessing boost-assist options for turbocharged engines using 1-D engine simulation and model predictive control

Delivering acceptable low end torque and good transient response is a significant challenge for all turbocharged engines. As downsized gasoline engines and Diesel engines make up a larger and larger proportion of the light-duty engines entering the market, the issue takes on greater significance. Several schemes have been proposed to improve torque response in highly boosted engines, including the use of electrical assist turbochargers and compressed air assist. In this paper we examine these methods with respect to their effectiveness in improving transient response and their relative performance along with some of the practical considerations for real world application. Results shown in this paper are from 1-D simulations using the Ricardo WAVE software package. The simulation model is based on a production light-duty Diesel engine modified to allow the introduction of compressed air at various points in the air-path as well as direct torque application to the turbocharger shaft (such as might be available from an electrical assist turbocharger). Whilst the 1-D simulation software provides a suitable environment for investigating the various boost assistance options, the overall air path performance also depends upon the control system. The introduction of boost assistance complicates the control in two significant ways: the system may run into constraints (such as compressor surge) that are not encountered in normal operation and the assistance introduces an additional control input. Production engine controllers are usually based on gain-scheduled PID control and extensive calibration. For this study, the non-linear nature of the engine together with the multiple configurations considered and the slower than real-time execution of 1-D models makes such an approach time consuming. Moreover, an ad-hoc approach would leave some doubt as to the fairness of comparisons between the different boost-assist options. Model Predictive Control has been shown to offer a convenient approach to controlling the 1-D simulations in a close to optimal manner for a typical Diesel VGT-EGR air path configuration. We show that the same technique can be applied to all the considered assistance methods with only modest calibration effort required. Copyright © 2012 SAE International.

Model based control for closed loop testing of 1-D engine simulation models

1-D engine simulation models are widely used for the analysis and verification of air-path design concepts and prediction of the resulting engine transient response. The latter often requires closed loop control over the model to ensure operation within physical limits and tracking of reference signals. For this purpose, a particular implementation of Model Predictive Control (MPC) based on a corresponding Mean Value Engine Model (MVEM) is reported here. The MVEM is linearised on-line at each operating point to allow for the formulation of quadratic programming (QP) problems, which are solved as the part of the proposed MPC algorithm. The MPC output is used to control a 1-D engine model. The closed loop performance of such a system is benchmarked against the solution of a related optimal control problem (OCP). As an example this study is focused on the transient response of a light-duty car Diesel engine. For the cases examined the proposed controller implementation gives a more systematic procedure than other ad-hoc approaches that require considerable tuning effort. © 2012 IFAC.

Climb-enabled discrete dislocation plasticity

A small strain two-dimensional discrete dislocation plasticity framework coupled to vacancy diffusion is developed wherein the motion of edge dislocations is by a combination of glide and climb. The dislocations are modelled as line defects in a linear elastic medium and the mechanical boundary value problem is solved by the superposition of the infinite medium elastic fields of the dislocations and a complimentary non-singular solution that enforces the boundary conditions. Similarly, the climbing dislocations are modelled as line sources/sinks of vacancies and the vacancy diffusion boundary value problem is also solved by a superposition of the fields of the line sources/sinks in an infinite medium and a complementary non-singular solution that enforces the boundary conditions. The vacancy concentration field along with the stress field provides the climb rate of the dislocations. Other short-range interactions of the dislocations are incorporated via a set of constitutive rules. We first employ this formulation to investigate the climb of a single edge dislocation in an infinite medium and illustrate the existence of diffusion-limited and sink-limited climb regimes. Next, results are presented for the pure bending and uniaxial tension of single crystals oriented for single slip. These calculations show that plasticity size effects are reduced when dislocation climb is permitted. Finally, we contrast predictions of this coupled framework with an ad hoc model in which dislocation climb is modelled by a drag-type relation based on a quasi steady-state solution. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Gaussian processes for POMDP-based dialogue manager optimization

A partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) has been proposed as a dialog model that enables automatic optimization of the dialog policy and provides robustness to speech understanding errors. Various approximations allow such a model to be used for building real-world dialog systems. However, they require a large number of dialogs to train the dialog policy and hence they typically rely on the availability of a user simulator. They also require significant designer effort to hand-craft the policy representation. We investigate the use of Gaussian processes (GPs) in policy modeling to overcome these problems. We show that GP policy optimization can be implemented for a real world POMDP dialog manager, and in particular: 1) we examine different formulations of a GP policy to minimize variability in the learning process; 2) we find that the use of GP increases the learning rate by an order of magnitude thereby allowing learning by direct interaction with human users; and 3) we demonstrate that designer effort can be substantially reduced by basing the policy directly on the full belief space thereby avoiding ad hoc feature space modeling. Overall, the GP approach represents an important step forward towards fully automatic dialog policy optimization in real world systems. © 2013 IEEE.

基于模糊行为分析的移动自组网入侵检测

移动自组网络是一种不需要基础设施的网络．在这种网络中，移动节点是自组织的，并且需要互相提供网络路由服务．自组网络非常容易受到攻击，特别是内部攻击．提出了一个基于模糊行为分析的入侵检测方案，以检测网络内部的路由攻击．利用邻接节点监测，通过分析节点路由行为与路由规范的偏差，发现恶意行为．在数据分析的过程中引入了模糊路由行为分析的方法，大大降低了误报率．仿真实验表明，该方案能有效地检测出路由入侵行为，而将误报率控制在一个较低的水平．

无线自组网络中基于簇结构的安全方案

无线自组网络是一种不需要基础通信设施的自组织网络，正得到越来越多的应用．当前自组网络的安全性研究正成为一个热点．对基于簇结构的自组网络进行了安全分析，并且针对存在的安全问题提出了新的安全解决方案．主要贡献在于：①提出了一个保护簇首的安全机制；②针对节点簇间漫游的安全隐患，提出一个基于请求的节点信息共享机制，并给出了相应的算法．对该方案进行了仿真实验，结果显示，该方案具有充分的可行性．与已有方案相比，该方案具有较完善的安全机制，网络性能也较好．

移动自组网中感知拓扑失配的P2P覆盖网构建

对等计算主要关注构造在应用层的虚拟覆盖网络.在上层的覆盖网络和底层的物理网络之间,通常都存在着拓扑失配.这种失配会导致P2P应用耗费相当大的通信开销.在移动自组网中,由于资源(比如带宽,电池能量等)和节点移动性的限制,拓扑失配问题变得更加严重.而已有工作对这一问题没有进行充分的研究.本文研究了移动自组网中的拓扑失配问题对非结构化P2P覆盖网中目标搜索的影响,并提出一个分布式的、能感知拓扑失配的覆盖网络构建算法D-TAOC.分析和实验表明在D-TAOC构建的拓扑失配感知的覆盖网中,P2P应用能够在较少牺牲目标搜索效率的前提下,明显地降低网络中的通信负载.

一种基于信任度的自组安全互操作方法

提出了基于信任度的自组安全互操作方法,引入信任度描述自治域和用户正确参与协作的概率.自治域对用户的信任度由二者的直接交互经验以及其他域对用户的评价共同决定,满足信任策略要求的用户允许执行角色.用户的恶意历史行为将会降低其信任度,从而影响执行角色的范围.自治域对其他域的信任度由对用户的评价与直接经验的偏差根据加权主要算法反馈更新.自治域的恶意评价影响其推荐信息的可信程度.实验结果表明,该方法能够有效地抵御欺骗和恶意行为.

移动卫星网络资源发现技术研究

资源发现技术是根据给定的资源描述，在网络中自动找到相应资源的技 术，该技术能够智能地满足网络中应用和指挥任务执行时对资源信息的需求， 并且能够为资源的管理和监控提供一定支持。 现有的资源发现技术研究主要针对地面的网格、P2P网络和移动Ad hoc 网络等。卫星网络作为一种特殊的移动网络，其中节点的星载CPU 处理能力 和存储能力都无法与地面设备相提并论。同时，由于卫星网络具有拓扑结构 动态变化、空间无线信道时延长、误码率较高等特性，使得现有的地面网络 资源发现协议不能直接应用于卫星网络，因此设计高效的卫星网络资源发现 协议将有助于促进卫星网络的复杂应用和智能控制。 本文提出了一种针对移动卫星网络的分布式资源发现协议SatRDP， 针对 卫星网络中节点的移动性、星间链路时延和不同星座组网结构等情况，设计 了协议的体系结构以及相应的分布式资源信息存储和广告策略、需求路由和 回溯策略。经过分析，SatRDP 能够更好地适应移动卫星网络，提高资源发现 成功率，节省卫星节点的存储资源，在一定程度上降低协议开销。 最后，设计了仿真实验平台，对算法进行了初步的实验，并与传统的分 布式资源发现协议 FLOOD 进行比较。实验结果表明，SatRDP 协议更适合卫 星网络环境，有更高的发现成功率、发现效率和更小的需求包开销。最后总 结并指出了移动卫星网络资源发现技术进一步的研究方向。