High-level Control System Research Articles

Development and Implementation of a High-Level Control System for the Underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle VISOR3

This paper addresses the design and implementation of a high-level control system for the planning, supervision, and mission operation of the observation class remotely operated vehicle VISOR3. This work was developed following the Waterfall Model for the Software Development Life Cycle. First, a brief description of the ROV VISOR3 is made. Then, the functional and non-functional requirements, that are based on the ISO/IEC/IEEE 29148:2011 and were gathered from stakeholders, are presented. The software architecture is based on the standard ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010:2011. The implementation of the high-level control system is done by using a high-level programming environment using layers through parallel executed threads. This architecture establishes a flexible structure and guidelines that orient the implementation of future components for the mission control system of the ROV.

The parasitic manipulation of an animat’s behavior

Abstract This paper uses an analogy to parasitic zombiing in nature to show how a robot’s goal-setting and behavior can be changed. The implementation of these parasite-like mechanisms is based on the emotional and temperamental architecture of the robot’s control system. A number of possible mechanisms used by parasites to manipulate hosts’ behavior have been considered, including changes to the host’s behavioral characteristics, the direct re-ordering of behavioral responses, and the reorientation of hosts’ reactions. It was determined that each of these mechanisms can be employed using a relatively primitive and restricted set of influences or parasite control signals. This approach led us to propose several variants of a high-level control system architecture. The main assumption was that the center of mass of a robot’s control system lies on the level of basic behavioral procedures while high-level control can be realized using parasite-like methods.

Indoor low-cost localization system for controlling aerial robots

This paper presents a low-cost localization system to guide an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) in indoor flights, considering an environment with invariant texture and typical indoor illumination. The first contribution of the paper is the proposal of a system to estimate the position and orientation of the UAV, through a multi-sensor fusion scheme, dealing with data provided by a RGB-D sensor, an inertial measurement unit (IMU), an ultrasonic sensor and optical flow-based velocity estimates. A second contribution of the paper is the proposal of a high-level control system to guide the UAV in path-following tasks, involving two controllers: a kinematic one, responsible for generating reference velocities for the vehicle, and a PD one, responsible for tracking such reference velocities, thus characterizing a cascade controller. Experiments with such a localization and control systems, during which abrupt disturbances are applied, were carried out to check the effectiveness of the developed capture and control systems, whose results validate the proposed framework.

High–Level Control System for Biomimetic Autonomous Under-water Vehicle

Usually, a rough software architecture designed for a robot can be can be shortly presented in the form of layers. The lowest layer is responsible for direct control of the hardware, i.e. engines, energy system, sensors, navigation devices, etc. A next layer is a low–level control which knows how to use the hardware in order to achieve a desired state of the robot, e.g. to stay on a desired course. And the last layer, the layer which is the nearest to the human–operator, is a high–level control which decides how to use the low–level control and sometimes also individual pieces of the hardware to achieve predefined objectives. The paper describes architecture, tasks and operation of the high–level control system (HLCS) designed for Biomimetic Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (BAUV).

Data Flow Requirements for Integrating Smart Buildings and a Smart Grid through Model Predictive Control

A truly energy efficient and sustainable society requires intelligence embedded at all levels within energy production and consumption systems. The ‘smartness’ of a smart grid is wasted if major consumption locations, ranging from individual buildings to larger collection of buildings (such as campuses or cities) don’t have a comparable level of intelligence. Model predictive control (MPC) is an effective tool for integrating the smart grid with future smart buildings. Interest is growing about the need to research the application of MPC to the operation of building systems; however, full-scale MPC concepts have not made it yet into commercially available building energy management systems. Much of the prior published work uses a simplified description of building and systems performance in order to reduce computational complexity. We describe in this paper a vision for data flow and modeling developments that a future, high level control system will need. This would allow a smart building or connected campus of buildings to effectively integrate an overall operational strategy for a future time horizon of 24-48hours to minimize the energy consumption and cost, enable integration of regional renewable energy sources, and, importantly, consider human factors such as building indoor environmental quality (thermal comfort indoor air quality, etc.). This idealized data exchange and systems control network would obtain or predict data on parameters such as the real-time cost of electricity, renewable energy production, building cooling and heating loads, and current system disruptions (such as equipment maintenance). System monitoring would provide feedback for advanced features such as adaptive learning and automated fault detection and diagnostics. In addition to the idealized future system that is fully capable as described, we discuss some of the issues involved with trying to implement these concepts in older, existing building systems.

Разработка программного обеспечения для управления электроприводом в технологической системе с применением метода модельно-ориентированного программирования

The article considers the development of software for control of electric drive in a process system by applying the model-oriented programming technique. The model-oriented programming technique is based on using computer mathematics and modeling tools to develop and debug the software of microprocessor control systems. Computer models featuring the ability of receiving and transmitting data via the digital I2C and CAN bus serial interfaces and via a serial asynchronous transceiver interface are described. The developed software is used in an electric drive's microprocessor control system for implementing interactive control, for data exchange with a higher-level control system, for adjusting the parameters of corrective and control elements, and for monitoring the motion parameters and control information. It is shown that the tasks that have to be solved for setting up data exchange in elaborating software through the use of the model-oriented programming boil down to shaping data packets in transmitting information and interpreting the data packets in receiving them. The message shaping and interpreting rules are set by the communication protocol. Data packets are shaped by grouping parameters and variables in different numerical formats in a predetermined sequence. The received messages are interpreted by identifying the fields of predetermined numerical formats contained in them. The algorithm governing the use of network resources and the access of devices to it, and the features monitoring the network serviceability are all set up by using the tools available in the model-oriented programming technique. Owing to the above-mentioned circumstances, the design process is simplified to a considerable extent. The proposed graphic form of the software architecture can be used in designing various technical systems.

OPERATIONAL PLANNING OF LOCAL WORK ORGANIZATION OF RAILWAY SECTION AND JUNCTION WITH USE OF DYNAMIC MODEL OF TRANSPORTATION PROCESS

Purpose. Development of a method of operational planning of local work of railway sections and units using a dynamic model of the transportation process, which allows a high degree of certainty to plan the formation of local trains, the performance of local work, the needs of production resources for the achievement of the indicators and provide the necessary information to higher-level control system, generating operational planning transportation process at the network level. Methodology. The solution was carried out on the approaches of systems theory, methods of set theory, control theory, scheduling theory, probability theory. A definition of the dynamic model in relation to the object and subject of research. The role and function of the dynamic model in the implementation of administrative procedures - planning, management and monitoring of the transportation process. The requirements for the dynamic model, the implementation of which will ensure the availability of its implementation and the necessary level of quality simulation. The method of operational planning of local work of railway sections and units designed for inductive circuit by sequential decision tasks with progressive expansion of the domain object, and the application to achieve the designated object and subject of study. Findings. Developed a dynamic model of the transportation process is reflected to create an automated system linking train formation forecast timetable of trains on the Belarusian Railways. Analytically set heteroskedasticity residues departure time of trains on the road forecast range in the simulation using this automated system and operational planning horizon to 24 hours. This fact indicates the possibility of the effective use of this method to significantly improve the accuracy of automated scheduling. Originality. An innovative component of the work is the use of simulation methods of transportation process with simultaneous assessment of the technological risks arising within the model used. This risk assessment is inherent in the model and are constantly taken into account in the simulation in order to analyze possible options for the development of the transportation process at railway stations and nodes in operational planning of local work. Practical value. The practical orientation of the results has three main components: a dynamic model and the proposed method is adapted to existing conditions in the railway sector, which allows them to joint implementation on the basis of information-analytical operated traffic control systems; obtained scientific and practical solutions to make it possible to increase the reliability of the results of operational planning of local work of railway sections and units that have a positive impact on the performance of operational work and the general state of the financial and economic activities of the railway; the proposed method makes it possible to scale the objects and purposes of operational planning, is available for use in transport related areas of operational planning and, above all, to address the actual problems of train formation.

Functional Design of a Powered Elbow Orthosis Toward its Clinical Employment

This paper presents the design and preliminary evaluation of a novel version of the robotic elbow exoskeleton NEUROExos, designed for the in-clinic treatment of stroke survivors in acute and subacute phases. The robotic design implements a novel series elastic actuation system, a 4-degree-of-freedom (DoFs) passive mechanism for the anatomical axis alignment, and one active DoF with remote cable-driven actuation. The low-level control system allows two working modalities: a torque control and a joint position control. The high-level control system employs a finite-state machine that allows the setting and execution of these modalities during rehabilitation exercises. Preliminary pilot tests based on passive exercises, with three chronic post-stroke patients, demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed approach in assessing joint rigidity and its usability within a rehabilitation clinic.

Real-time image-content-based beamline control for smart 4D X-ray imaging.

Real-time processing of X-ray image data acquired at synchrotron radiation facilities allows for smart high-speed experiments. This includes workflows covering parameterized and image-based feedback-driven control up to the final storage of raw and processed data. Nevertheless, there is presently no system that supports an efficient construction of such experiment workflows in a scalable way. Thus, here an architecture based on a high-level control system that manages low-level data acquisition, data processing and device changes is described. This system is suitable for routine as well as prototypical experiments, and provides specialized building blocks to conduct four-dimensional in situ, invivo and operando tomography and laminography.

Development of an embedded sensor system for pneumatic artificial muscle proprioceptors

Spinal reflexes greatly contribute to the control of fast physical interactions (e.g., catching a moving ball) without the influence of higher level control systems involved in human motor control. Therefore, to realize the interactions in robots, it is a useful approach to mimic the nervous system controlling spinal reflexes. To this end, as the starting point for creating spinal reflexes, sensors that measure and encode body movements similar to human proprioceptors are needed to generate signals for the spinal reflexes. In this study, we developed artificial muscle proprioceptors to reproduce spinal reflexes in robots. In particular, we focused on pneumatic artificial muscles and designed an artificial muscle spindle and an artificial Golgi tendon organ, which were integrated with a pneumatic artificial muscle. A compact local measuring system consisting of a microcomputer and amplifiers was developed to easily install and organize the sensors.

Adaptive coordinated leader–follower control of autonomous over-actuated electric vehicles

In this paper, the leader–follower formation control problem of autonomous over-actuated electric vehicles on a highway is studied. As the autonomous over-actuated electric vehicles have the characteristics of non-linearities, external disturbances and strong coupling, a novel coordinated three-level control system is constructed to supervise the longitudinal and lateral motions of autonomous electric vehicles. Firstly, an adaptive terminal sliding high-level control algorithm is designed to compute a vector of total forces and torque of vehicles, and the stability of the high-level control system is proven via Lyapunov analysis where uniform ultimate boundedness of the closed-loop signals is guaranteed. Then, a pseudo-inverse control allocation algorithm, which can achieve fault tolerance and reconfiguration of the redundant tyre actuation system, is presented to generate the desired longitudinal and lateral tyre forces. Then, a separate low-level controller consisting of an inverse tyre model and two inner loops for each wheel is designed to achieve its desired forces. Finally, simulation results demonstrate that the proposed control system not only enhance the tracking performance, but also improve the stability and riding comfort of autonomous over-actuated electric vehicles in a platoon.

Toward Self-Manageable and Adaptive Industrial Cyber-Physical Systems With Knowledge-Driven Autonomic Service Management

An increasingly important goal of industrial automation systems is to continuously optimize physical resource utilization such as materials. Distributed automation is seen as one enabling technology for achieving this goal, in which networking controller nodes collaborate in a peer-to-peer way to form a new paradigm, namely industrial cyber-physical systems (iCPS). In order to achieve rapid response to changes from both high-level control systems and plant environment, the proposed self-manageable agent relies on the use of the service-oriented architecture (SOA) that improves flexibility and interoperability. It is enhanced by the autonomic service management (ASM) to implement software modifications in a fully automatic manner, thus achieving self-manageable and adaptive iCPS. The architecture design of the ASM is provided and integration with SOA-based execution environment is illustrated. Preliminary tests on self-management are completed using a case study of an airport baggage handling system.

Control System of a Semi-Autonomous Mobile Robot

Abstract: In this paper, a control system, which has been designed for a semi-autonomous mobile robot, is presented. The robot has been developed as a part of a teaching aid. The teaching aid is aimed at practice of a path-planning theory. The main purpose of the robot within the teaching aid is physical execution of a path-plan scheduled by a high-level control system. The execution of path-plans is required to be accomplished by the robot autonomously, hence the ‘semi-autonomous’ appellation. The robot is based on an Arduino UNO microcontroller board. The robot acquires information about his workspace via reflectance sensors, encoders, and a magnetometer sensor. Since all these sensors provide only very limited information about the workspace, all the acquired data has to be used with utmost effectiveness. Thus, processing of the sensor data and multi-sensor integration is also considered in this paper.

Operational Optimization of High Voltage Power Station Based Fuzzy Logic Intelligent Controller

This paper discusses the use of the intelligent microcontroller and also discusses the results from the simulation application of fuzzy logic theory to the control of the high voltage direct and alternation current (HVDC)& (HVAC) power station systems. The application considered their implementation in both low and high level control systems in HVDC& HVAC power station systems. The results for the fuzzy logic based controller shows many improvements compared to the conventional HVDC& HVAC control system. The fuzzy logic based controller concept was further successfully extended to high level control of optimization problems such as the power swings. Based on simulation results, HVDC and HVAC breaker design are online protection against unwanted incidents happening to the system.

Automotive real-time operating systems

Automotive embedded systems have become very complex, are strongly integrated, and the safety-criticality and real-time constraints of these systems raise new challenges. Distributed system development, short time-to-market intervals, and automotive safety standards (such as ISO 26262 [8]) require efficient and consistent product development along the entire development lifecycle. The automotive OSEK/VDX standard provides an architecture for distributed real-time units in vehicles and a language aiming in specifying the configuration of real-time OSEK operating systems. The aim of this paper is to enhance a model-driven system-engineering framework with the capability of generating OS configurations from existing high level control system information. Furthermore, to enable the possibility to update stored information from OSEK Implementation Language (OIL) files and support round-trip engineering of real-time operating system (RTOS) configurations. This enables the seamless description of automotive RTOS, from system level requirements to software implementation and therefore ensures consistency and correctness of the configuration. To that aim, a bidirectional tool bridge is proposed based on OSEK OIL exchange format files.

Aerial service vehicles for industrial inspection: task decomposition and plan execution

This work proposes a high-level control system designed for an Aerial Service Vehicle capable of performing complex tasks in close and physical interaction with the environment in an autonomous manner. We designed a hybrid control architecture which integrates task, path, motion planning/replanning, and execution monitoring. The high-level system relies on a continuous monitoring and planning cycle to suitably react to events, user interventions, and failures, communicating with the low level control layers. The system has been assessed on real-world and simulated scenarios representing an industrial environment.

Progress in standardization for ITER Remote Handling control system

An integrated control system architecture has been defined for the ITER Remote Handling (RH) equipment systems, and work has been continuing to develop and validate standards for this architecture. Evaluations of standard parts and a standard control room work-cell have contributed to an update of the RH Control System Design Handbook, while R&D activities have been carried out to validate concepts for standard solutions to ITER RH problems: the use of a standard master arm with different slave arms, the achievement of high accuracy tracking of RH operations within virtual reality, and condition monitoring of RH equipment systems.The standardization efforts have been consolidated through the development of a freely distributable software platform to support the adoption of the ITER RH standards. The RH Core System installs on top of the CODAC Core System and provides the basic platform for the development of ITER RH equipment controller applications.The standardization work has continued in the areas of RH viewing, network communication protocols, and a structured language for programming ITER RH operations. Prototyping has been done on high-level control system applications, and R&D has been carried out in the area of synthetic viewing for ITER RH. These developments will be reflected in a new version of the RH Core System to be produced during 2013.

Development of an Autonomous Formula SAE Car with Laser Scanner and GPS

This paper describes the development of a high level control system for an autonomous Formula SAE race car featuring an automotive LIDAR and fusion of a 6-DOF IMU with a consumer grade GPS. The control system is implemented as a multi-threaded C++ program with asynchronous IO, remote web interface and a comprehensive safety system. Autonomous driving is based upon recording and driving mapped waypoints with a Kalman filter used for predictive filtering of the vehicle's motion parameters while the LIDAR is used for road edge detection.

Hybrid Adaptive Control for Aerial Manipulation

This paper presents a control scheme to achieve dynamic stability in a mobile manipulating unmanned aerial vehicle (MM-UAV) using a combination of Gain scheduling and Lyapunov based model reference adaptive control (MRAC). Our test flight results indicate that we can accurately model and control our aerial vehicle when both moving the manipulators and interacting with target objects. Using the Lyapunov stability theory, the controller is proven to be stable. The simulation results showed how the MRAC is capable of stabilizing the oscillations produced from the unstable PI-D attitude control loop. Finally a high level control system based on a switching automaton is proposed in order to ensure the saftey of the aerial manipulation missions.

Managing Variable Transmittance Windowpanes by Model-Based Autonomous Control

The use of digitally activated, variable transmittance materials and artificial intelligence methods to building control will enhance the performance of buildings, and programmable components will change the traditional modes of architectural design, manufacturing and construction. In the presented key study, the architectural form and functionality of windows are revisited with a view to integrate current advances in material science, control systems engineering and human-computer interaction. The features of a building facade, involving a matrix of programmable windows that enables precise control of daylight, view and privacy in the interior of a house are discussed. Managing the variable transmittance materials of the facade by an autonomous high-level control system allows the optimization of the house performance based on real time data and the schedule of the inhabitants. Using constraint violations as a measure of success, the autonomous control of the house outperforms any existing deterministic control models.