Additional Redundancy Research Articles

Modelling of Reliability Indicators of a Mining Plant

The evaluation and prediction of reliability and testability of mining machinery and equipment are crucial, as advancements in mining technology have increased the importance of ensuring the safety of both the technological process and human life. This study focuses on developing a reliability model to analyze the controllability of mining equipment. The model, which examines the reliability of a mine cargo-passenger hoist, utilizes statistical methods to assess failures and diagnostic controlled parameters. It is represented as a transition graph and is supported by a system of equations. This model enables the estimation of the reliability of equipment components and the equipment as a whole through a diagnostic system designed for monitoring and controlling mining equipment. A mathematical and logical model is proposed to calculate availability and downtime coefficients for different structures within the mining equipment system. This analysis considers the probability of failure-free operation of the lifting unit based on the structural scheme, with additional redundancy for elements with lower reliability. The availability factor of the equipment for monitoring and controlling the mine hoisting plant is studied for various placements of diagnostic systems. Additionally, a logistic concept is introduced for organizing preventive maintenance systems and reducing equipment recovery time by optimizing spare parts, integrating them into strategies aimed at enhancing the reliability of mine hoisting plants.

Conditions for economic efficiency of latent heat thermal energy storage systems at nuclear power plants

In conditions of uneven schedules of electricity consumption and construction of power plants using renewable energy sources, nuclear power plants will participate in regulating the unevenness of daily energy consumption. At the same time, nuclear power plants have high economic feasibility of operating with a maximum installed capacity utilization factor due to significant capital investments at a relatively low fuel price. The use of nuclear power plants to cover uneven energy consumption will reduce the possibility of a return on investment, which will only be realized with greatly inflated capacity charges. At the same time, the annual operating costs will increase significantly. A possible decrease in the economic efficiency of a nuclear power plant is due to the fact that, at the request of the system operator of the energy system, the NPP will be to reduce electricity generation during off-peak hours or sell electricity on the market at significantly lower prices. In this regard, the problem of increasing economic efficiency of nuclear power plants under conditions of uneven daily energy consumption becomes particularly relevant. The solution to the problem could be the accumulation of excess energy and its subsequent use. Previously, the authors developed a method of additional redundancy of auxiliary needs of nuclear power plants based on the use of low-power steam turbines. In the present paper, schemes for increasing efficiency of using low-power steam turbines at nuclear power plants when regulating the load unevenness in the power system using thermal energy storage systems based on the latent heat thermal energy storage are developed. The design characteristics of the accumulator as part of a nuclear power plant are determined to ensure operation of the heat storage system throughout the entire period of energy consumption. In this research, the lithium nitrate was considered as a phase change material. The technical and system conditions under which the maximum economic effect is achieved have been determined. The boundary conditions under which a return on investment is achieved are shown.

A Non-Linear Successive Approximation Finite State Machine for ADCs with Robust Performance

This work presents the detailed design of a Successive Approximation Analog to Digital Data Converter (SAR ADC) using bulk 180 nm CMOS IC technology. The focus of the study is on replacing the typical Successive Approximation Register array with a Finite State Machine. This converter features a fully differential and bipolar architecture, which leads to the logic SAR nonlinear behavior. A novel digital control logic mitigates the conversion errors through the conditions in the previous logic states. The logic scheme, in combination with a robust continuous comparator, demonstrates tolerance to Process, Voltage, and Temperature variations. The architecture does not include calibration or additional redundancies in post-layout simulations to emphasize the exclusive benefits of the new SAR logic. The proposed SAR ADC achieves a 14.07 effective number of bits with 7.04 fJ/conversion step Walden figure of merit in biomedical applications.

Advanced Innovations in Electronic Control Units: Enhancing Performance and Reliability with AI

This paper proposes a methodology for the design of electronic control unit (ECU) hardware units with increased performance and reliability. Today's vehicles are equipped with dozens of ECUs that significantly influence the system's efficiency, reliability, performance, and safety. With the increased complexity of control algorithms and the environmental constraints that automotive systems operate, the robustness and efficiency of the ECUs are of utmost importance. In this work, an approach is proposed based on combining hardware redundancy, commercial field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and artificial intelligence strategies to provide increased redundancy checks and robust control. An additional redundancy is added to the hardware architecture of the ECU to include a parallel hardware unit. The two controlling units operate in parallel. The output of each of them is compared, allowing redundancy checks in the computation of the output variable (oV) of the system. The mathematical model of the ECU depicts the governing equations of the ECU in the form of differential equations, which results in a corresponding state-space configuration. These mathematical models are encoded into the field programmable gate array (FPGA) and processed in hardware, leading to an equivalent software-based implementation. To analyze the performance of both models within the ECU, an artificial neural network (ANN)-based strategy is proposed. The ANN depicts the governing equations of the ECU in the form of differential equations encoded in the form of sigmoidal functions. To analyze the reliability of the control action in the ECU, the temperature of the system is increased, which leads to a random variation of the system parameters. The variability of the ECU parameters leads to a deviation in the computation of the oV and the corresponding control action. The robustness of the control is determined in such conditions. A control law is determined to guarantee proper control action under variations in the governing equations of the system. This control law is represented by a simple algebraic equation, which can then be cast in various control strategies, such as look-up tables or fuzzy logic controllers. Several cases are simulated to assess the performance of the proposed control law for the hardware redundancy scheme, for the ANN-based equivalent software implementation approach, and for the additional fuzzy logic controller. The simulation results are analyzed concerning the requested oV and give insight into the performance and reliability of the proposed dedicated ECU design.

Effects on the design of aeronautical fuel cell systems by inclusion of reliability requirements

The change towards carbon neutrality in air traffic involves a huge reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. This goal is beyond reach by the step wise improvement of conventional technologies. Hence, at present a solution which gains much of attraction are electric motors and electric aircraft systems in combination with fuel cells which can be run by green hydrogen. For a holistic comparison of various concepts the consideration of reliability aspects is required even at an early stage of design. In the scope of this work methods from reliability and safety engineering will be introduced and set in context of aeronautical fuel cell systems. On that basis the consequences arising by the requirement of redundancy are investigated on a system level approach. For this purpose, a model of an aeronautical fuel cell system will be set up in order to simulate a generic flight envelope at stationary points. The fuel cell system is chosen to be central-monolithic and its components are sized for the propulsion of a regional aircraft. With the aid of the system simulation, various failure scenarios are investigated from which mitigation strategies can be derived. Finally, the baseline design will be improved in terms of redundancy in order to last in a generic failure scenario. A comparison between the baseline and improved design shows that the additional redundancy comes with the cost of 4.6% weight increase and a 2.5% drop in cruise efficiency.

Round-trip hub location problem

In this paper, we introduce a novel network design for the Hub Location Problem, inspired by the round-trip structure commonly used by transport service providers. Our design integrates spoke nodes assigned to a central hub node, creating round-trips where the hub node serves as the starting point, visits all assigned spoke nodes, and returns to the hub. To enhance transportation services and provide additional redundancy, we introduce a new type of nodes called runaway nodes to the network. The motivation for this research arises from two real-life cases encountered during consultancy projects, underscoring the necessity for an optimized network design in transportation services. To address the proposed problem, we introduce a mixed-integer linear programming (MIP) mathematical model. However, due to the problem's complexity, the feasibility of the MIP model is limited to small-scale instances. To tackle medium and large-scale instances, we introduce two hyper-heuristic approaches based on reinforcement learning. These hyper-heuristic approaches harness the power of reinforcement learning to guide the selection of low-level heuristics and improve solution quality. We conduct extensive computational experiments to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed approaches. The results of our experiments affirm the efficiency of the proposed hyper-heuristic approaches, showcasing their ability to discover high-quality solutions for the Hub Location Problem.

Nefis: A network coding based flexible device-to-device video streaming scheme

Wireless device-to-device (D2D) communication has empowered efficient and convenient video sharing among neighboring devices. However, the mobility and diversity of user devices, combined with dynamically shifting channel conditions, make these processes susceptible to environmental interference. In this paper, we introduce an adaptive network coding scheme tailored for D2D raw source video streaming in the scalable video coding (SVC) format. Video frames are partitioned into equal-sized fragments and encoded into streaming packets with the addition of certain redundancy. To address the observed deficiency where decoding throughput of coded video frames is generally lower than that of the encoding operation on mobile device platforms, we introduce a parallel decoding algorithm based on LU decomposition. Furthermore, we propose a flexible adjustment mechanism, named Nefis, which dynamically adapts the network coding redundancy and stream resolution based on the statistical model established to predict current network conditions and video streaming quality. Implementation on Android platform demonstrates that Nefis reduce redundancy in bandwidth usage during streaming process and enhance resilience to network dynamics. Experimental results also conclusively demonstrate the feasibility and advantages of network coding technology in D2D streaming applications. Nevertheless, achieving these advantages requires carefully designed encoding and decoding mechanisms.

Space–time labeling diversity for distributed Goppa-coded cooperative networks over Nakagami-[formula omitted] channels

This paper proposes the novel space–time labeling diversity for the distributed Goppa-coded cooperation (STLD-DGCC) scheme over the Nakagami-q fading channel to improve the performance of the short-to-medium information block transmission. Two different Goppa codes with the same information length are deployed in the source and the relay, respectively, with the Goppa code at the relay providing additional redundancy. Meanwhile, two distinct labeling mappers of M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM) are used in the novel space–time labeling diversity (STLD) to achieve the extra diversity gain and decrease the error floor (EF) region in the Goppa coding scheme. To lower the computational complexity of the maximum likelihood (ML) detection, a near-ML reduced-complexity (RC) detection approach that compromises the system performance and the computation complexity is proposed. In addition, two novel joint decoding algorithms based on the critical signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) threshold are presented at the destination, namely the parallel algorithm and serial algorithm, to enhance the overall performance of the proposed STLD-DGCC scheme. In the case of the Nakagami-q fading model, the analytical union bound of the average bit error probability is provided, which tightly matches the Monte Carlo simulated results at high SNR. The simulation results further indicate that the proposed STLD-DGCC scheme significantly outperforms both the corresponding non-cooperative Goppa coding scheme and the DGCC scheme without the STLD technique under identical conditions. Furthermore, the performance of the STLD-DGCC scheme surpasses that of the existing transmission scheme, offering a promising candidate for further small information block communications.

Uniquely Decodable Multi-Amplitude Sequence for Grant-Free Multiple-Access Adder Channels

Grant-free multiple-access (GFMA) is a valuable research topic, since it can support multiuser transmission with low latency. This paper constructs novel uniquely-decodable multi-amplitude sequence (UDAS) sets for GFMA systems, which can provide high spectrum efficiency (SE) without additional redundancy. We give the definition of a <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">T</i> -size UDAS set, and construct two kinds of UDAS sets based on cyclic and quasi-cyclic modes. Then, we propose an UDAS-based multi-dimensional bit interleaving coded modulation (MD-BICM) transceiver, with corresponding detection algorithms, i.e., a statistic of UDAS feature based active user detection algorithm (SoF-AUD) and a multiuser detection iteration decoding algorithm. In addition, the theoretical active user error rate (AUER) and Shannon limits of the proposed system are deduced. Simulation results show that our proposed system can simultaneously support four users with an AUER of 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-5</sup> , under the condition that <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">E_b</i> / <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">N</i> <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0</sub> is 0 dB and the length of transmit block is larger than a specified value, e.g., 784, verifying the validity of the proposed UDAS sets.

Run Length Limited Error Control Codes Derived from Reed Solomon Codes

Reed Solomon codes were standardized for numerous wireless communication systems. Most practical Reed Solomon codes belong to non-binary linear block codes defined over finite fields with characteristic two. Each linear block code contains one codeword composed of all zeros. The concatenation of this and also other codewords can lead to long, theoretically even infinite, runs of equal symbols. Such long runs do not support synchronization in wireless receivers and therefore are unwanted. In this paper it is shown that extended and some appropriately shortened Reed Solomon codes constructed over finite fields with characteristic two can be transformed into Run Length Limited Reed Solomon codes. The presented method, if applicable, allows for doing it without inserting additional redundancy. Another advantage is that after the transformation, if some round conditions are fulfilled, the decoding does not have to be rebuilt.

Feasibility of Live Video Feed Transmission from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Medical Surveillance During the 2022 Montreal Marathon.

In recent years, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been increasingly used for medical surveillance purposes in mass-gathering events. No studies have investigated the reliability of live video transmission from UAVs for accurate identification of distressed race participants in need of medical attention. The aim of this study was to determine the proportion of time during which live medical surveillance UAV video feed was successfully transmitted and considered of sufficient quality to identify acute illness in runners participating in the 2022 Montreal Marathon (Canada). Four UAVs equipped with high-resolution cameras were deployed at two pre-defined high-risk areas for medical incidents located within the last 500 meters of the race. The video footage was transmitted in real-time during four consecutive hours to a remote viewing station where four research assistants monitored it on large screens. Interruptions in live feed transmission and moments with inadequate field of view (FOV) on runners were documented. On September 25, 2022, a total of 6,916 athletes ran during the Montreal Marathon and Half Marathon. Out of the eight hours of video footage analyzed (four hours per high-risk area), 91.7% represented uninterrupted live video feed with an adequate view of the runners passing through the high-risk areas. There was a total of 18 live feed interruptions leading to a total interruption time of 22 minutes and 19 seconds (median interruption time of 32 seconds) and eight distinct moments with inadequate FOV on runners which accounted for 17 minutes and 33 seconds (median of 1 minute 47 seconds per moments with inadequate FOV). Active surveillance of drone-captured footage allowed early identification of two race participants in need of medical attention. Appropriate resources were dispatched, and UAV repositioning allowed for real-time viewing of the medical response. Live video transmission from UAVs for medical surveillance of runners passing through higher risk segments of a marathon for four consecutive hours is feasible. Live feed interruptions and moments with inadequate FOV could be minimized through practice and additional equipment redundancy.

The importance of V2X simulation: An in-depth comparison of intersection control algorithms using a high-fidelity communication simulation

The rapid evolution of vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication opens doors to various control algorithms, one particular domain being intersection control. Several researchers have proposed communication-based intersection control algorithms omitting traditional traffic lights with the promise of enhanced throughput and improved traffic safety. On the other hand, the majority of these algorithms ignore the uncertainties and delays of communication and overlook new cyberattack vectors that are opened by connected traffic. The present study employs a highly detailed simulation of vehicular communication to highlight the sensitivity of different autonomous intersection control algorithms (both centralized and decentralized) to communication-related imperfections. The paper investigates five different algorithms borrowed from the literature in a comparative way. This research focuses on traffic-related parameters such as average speed, occupancy, and network throughput while also analyzing communication-related parameters (e.g., packet loss, computational demand) and considering possible attack vectors. Simulation results suggest that even the simplest control logic is sensitive to communication failures, degrading intersection throughput below traditional intersection control or even compromising traffic safety. For centralized algorithms, in the presence of noise, average speeds drop significantly, suggesting reduced intersection throughput and even gridlock for the First Come First Serve algorithm. Decentralized algorithms can be heavily affected by incoming message orders, which can lead to dangerous situations. During the simulations, multiple collisions were registered for the Monte-Carlo Tree Search algorithm. More complex algorithms that rely on accurate prediction on vehicle trajectories are more sensitive to noise and even produce accidents in the simulation. In conclusion, regardless of control architecture, the evaluated algorithms require additional fallback solutions and redundancies to retain traffic safety.

Improving error-correcting capability in DNA digital storage via soft-decision decoding.

Error-correcting codes (ECCs) employed in the state-of-the-art DNA digital storage (DDS) systems suffer from a trade-off between error-correcting capability and the proportion of redundancy. To address this issue, in this study, we introduce soft-decision decoding approach into DDS by proposing a DNA-specific error prediction model and a series of novel strategies. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach through a proof-of-concept DDS system based on Reed-Solomon (RS) code, named as Derrick. Derrick shows significant improvement in error-correcting capability without involving additional redundancy in both in vitro and in silico experiments, using various sequencing technologies such as Illumina, PacBio and Oxford Nanopore Technology (ONT). Notably, in vitro experiments using ONT sequencing at a depth of 7× reveal that Derrick, compared with the traditional hard-decision decoding strategy, doubles the error-correcting capability of RS code, decreases the proportion of matrices with decoding-failure by 229-fold, and amplifies the potential maximum storage volume by impressive 32388-fold. Also, Derrick surpasses 'state-of-the-art' DDS systems by comprehensively considering the information density and the minimum sequencing depth required for complete information recovery. Crucially, the soft-decision decoding strategy and key steps of Derrick are generalizable to other ECCs' decoding algorithms.

Innovation-saturated Koopman Kalman filter for distribution system dynamic state estimation against measurement outliers

Sensor errors, model uncertainty, changes in the surrounding environment, data loss, or malicious network attacks can all result in outliers, which can pollute the measurement process of the distribution system. In this study, to address this problem, a dynamic state estimation method for distribution systems based on innovation-saturated Koopman Kalman filter (IS-KKF) was proposed. The Koopman Kalman filter (KKF) is model-free and data-driven, and estimates nonlinear dynamics through the conventional linear Kalman filter. To make the Koopman Kalman filter robust to measurement outliers, the innovation saturation mechanism applies a saturation function to it. To correct the state estimation, this mechanism is applied to the filtering process. When outliers occur, the distorted innovation is saturated to prevent the state estimation results from being destroyed. Adaptive adjustment of the saturated boundary is a feature of this mechanism. Extensive simulations were carried out on the IEEE 118-bus test system to verify the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method can effectively reject outliers with different amplitudes, types, and continuous times, has significant computational efficiency, and does not require additional measurement redundancy.

On adding security to RLL - LDPC CCSDS codes without additional redundancy

Abstract In this paper it is presented that security can be added to three RLL LDPC codes specified by the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems codes without additional redundancy and if some round conditions are valid, this can be done without the necessity to change the encoding and decoding procedures. The concept for obtaining lightweight security could be of interest for space communication, for communication in IoT or other networks in which the nodes are resource constrained.

Feasibility of Live Video Feed Transmission from UAVs for Medical Surveillance During the 2022 Montreal Marathon

Introduction:In recent years, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been increasingly used for medical surveillance purposes in mass gathering events. No studies have investigated the reliability of live video transmission from UAVs for accurate identification of distressed race participants in need of medical attention. During the 2022 Montreal marathon, the aim of this study was to determine the proportion of data collection time during which live medical surveillance UAV video feed was successfully transmitted and considered of sufficient quality to identify acute illness.Method:Four UAVs equipped with high resolution cameras were deployed at two predefined high-risk areas for medical incidents located within the last 800m of the race. The video footage was transmitted in real-time during four consecutive hours to a remote viewing station where four research assistants monitored it on large screens. Interruptions in live feed transmission and moments with inadequate field of view on runners were documented.Results:On September 25, 2022, 8,577 athletes registered in the Montreal marathon and half marathon. Out of the eight hours of video footage analyzed (four hours per high-risk area), 91.7% represented uninterrupted live video feed with an adequate view of the runners passing through the high-risk areas. The total interruption time was 22 minutes and 19 seconds, and the field of view was considered inadequate for a total of 17 minutes and 33 seconds. Active surveillance of drone-captured footage allowed identification of two race participants in need of medical attention. Appropriate resources were dispatched, and UAV repositioning allowed for real-time viewing of the medical response.Conclusion:Live video transmission from UAVs for medical surveillance of runners passing through higher-risk segments of a marathon race for four consecutive hours is feasible. Live feed interruptions and segments with an inadequate field of view could be minimized through practice and additional equipment redundancy.

REALMS: Resilient exploration and lunar mapping system.

Space resource utilisation is opening a new space era. The scientific proof of the presence of water ice on the south pole of the Moon, the recent advances in oxygen extraction from lunar regolith, and its use as a material to build shelters are positioning the Moon, again, at the centre of important space programs. These worldwide programs, led by ARTEMIS, expect robotics to be the disrupting technology enabling humankind's next giant leap. However, Moon robots require a high level of autonomy to perform lunar exploration tasks more efficiently without being constantly controlled from Earth. Furthermore, having more than one robotic system will increase the resilience and robustness of the global system, improving its success rate, as well as providing additional redundancy. This paper introduces the Resilient Exploration and Lunar Mapping System, developed with a scalable architecture for semi-autonomous lunar mapping. It leverages Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping techniques on multiple rovers to map large lunar environments. Several resilience mechanisms are implemented, such as two-agent redundancy, delay invariant communications, a multi-master architecture different control modes. This study presents the experimental results of REALMS with two robots and its potential to be scaled to a larger number of robots, increasing the map coverage and system redundancy. The system's performance is verified and validated in a lunar analogue facility, and a larger lunar environment during the European Space Agency (ESA)-European Space Resources Innovation Centre Space Resources Challenge. The results of the different experiments show the efficiency of REALMS and the benefits of using semi-autonomous systems.

The Antifragile Radiologist

The Antifragile Radiologist

Adding RLL Properties to Four CCSDS LDPC Codes without Increasing Their Redundancy

This paper presents the construction of Run Length Limited (RLL) Error Control Codes (ECCs) from four Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) Codes specified by Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS). The obtained RLL-ECCs present a practical alternative to the CCSDS codes with pseudo-randomizers. Their advantage is that the maximal runlengths of equal symbols in their codeword sequences are guaranteed, which is not the case if the common approach with pseudo-randomizers is used. The other advantages are that no additional redundancy is introduced into encoded codewords and that the encoding and decoding procedures of the original error control CCSDS codes do not have to be modified in the following cases. In the first case if hard decoding is used and the transmission channel can be modeled as a Binary Symmetric Channel (BSC) or in the second case if soft decoding and coherent Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK) modulation is used and the appropriate transmission channel model is an Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) channel.

Assessment of the reliability of the information system for identifying mobile devices by IMEI code

This paper evaluates the reliability of the information system for identifying mobile devices by the IMEI code (International Mobile Equipment Identifier). A system for identifying mobile devices by IMEI code is presented, which includes a database that is accessible both locally and remotely. The system allows collecting, storing, and processing information about all devices imported into the country and used in the country. Indicators for calculating the reliability of the information system are selected. Only server hardware with software is considered, and communication lines or other devices connected to the server are not considered. The situation is considered when the database of IMEI-codes and the software part are located on the same equipment, additional redundancy or duplication of nodes, elements, modules are not provided. A method for calculating the reliability of the “server - software” complex is proposed and analytical expressions for calculating the reliability are developed. The obtained results indicate good reliability and fault tolerance of the developed information system.