Mechanical Engineering - Research Publications
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ItemNo Preview AvailableCoverage control of mobile sensor networks with directional sensing(AMER INST MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES-AIMS, 2022-01-01)Control design of mobile sensors for coverage problem is addressed in this paper. The mobile sensors have non-linear dynamics and directional sensing properties which mean the sensing performance is also affected by the pointing directions of the sensors. Different from the standard optimal coverage problem where sensors are assumed to be omni-directional ones, orientation angles of the directional sensors should also be controlled, other than the position control, to achieve the coverage purpose. Considering also the non-linear dynamics of the mobile sensors, new control methodology is necessarily developed for the coverage problem with directional sensors. In the approach proposed, an innovative gradient based non-smooth motion controller is designed for the mobile sensors with unicycle dynamics. With the proposed controllers, the states of sensors will always stay in an positive invariant set where the gradient of the performance valuation function is well-defined if they are initialized within this set. Moreover, the sensors' states are proved to converge to some critical point where the gradient is zero. Simulation results are provided to illustrate the performance of the proposed coverage control strategy.
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ItemFlexible mechanical metamaterials enabling soft tactile sensors with multiple sensitivities at multiple force sensing ranges(NATURE PORTFOLIO, 2021-12-16)The majority of existing tactile sensors are designed to measure a particular range of force with a fixed sensitivity. However, some applications require tactile sensors with multiple task-relevant sensitivities at multiple ranges of force sensing. Inspired by the human tactile sensing capability, this paper proposes a novel soft tactile sensor based on mechanical metamaterials which exhibits multiple sensitivity regimes due to the step-by-step locking behaviour of its heterogenous multi-layered structure. By tuning the geometrical design parameters of the collapsible layers, each layer experiences locking behaviour under different ranges of force which provides different sensitivity of the sensor at different force magnitude. The integration of a magnetic-based transduction method with the proposed structure results in high design degrees of freedom for realising the desired contact force sensitivities and corresponding force sensing ranges. A systematic design procedure is proposed to select appropriate design parameters to produce the desired characteristics. Two example designs of the sensor structure were fabricated using widely available benchtop 3D printers and tested for their performance. The results showed the capability of the sensor in providing the desired characteristics in terms of sensitivity and force range and being realised in different shapes, sizes and number of layers in a single structure. The proposed multi-sensitivity soft tactile sensor has a great potential to be used in a wide variety of applications where different sensitivities of force measurement is required at different ranges of force magnitudes, from robotic manipulation and human-machine interaction to biomedical engineering and health-monitoring.
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ItemStability and Persistent Excitation in Signal Sets(IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC, 2015-05-01)Persistent excitation (PE) conditions have been widely used to analyze stability properties of various parameter identification algorithms and to establish uniform global asymptotic stability (UGAS) for a large class of nonlinear time-varying systems. In order to generalize such conditions to a more general setting, a new PE condition is proposed with three basic ingredients: a signal set to represent a family of time functions (e.g., trajectories); a pseudo distance measure to describe the convergence; and some binary relations (e.g., state-to-output relations). Closely related to detectability, this PE condition is a necessary condition to guarantee UGAS. Under uniform global stability and an integral inequality, it becomes a sufficient condition of UGAS. A novel concept: M-pair, which aims at simplifying the checking of the PE condition, is introduced. By using M-pair, it is possible to simplify the structure of the referred signal set (in the spirit of the classic Krasovskii-LaSalle theorem) and to extend the dimension of the reference signal set (similar to the Matrosov theorem). Thus, the framework of M-pair not only unifies these well-known results, but also generates more flexibility in checking the PE conditions. When applied to nonlinear switched systems, three new tools to verify the PE condition are obtained. Finally, an example illustrates that a nonlinear time-varying switched system with arbitrary switching can be shown to be UGAS without using a common Lyapunov function.
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ItemMulti-agent source seeking via discrete-time extremum seeking control(PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, 2014-09-01)Recent developments in extremum seeking theory have established a general framework for the methodology, although the specific implementations, particularly in the context of multi-agent systems, have not been demonstrated. In this work, a group of sensor-enabled vehicles is used in the context of the extremum seeking problem using both local and global optimisation algorithms to locate the extremum of an unknown scalar field distribution. For the former, the extremum seeker exploits estimates of gradients of the field from local dithering sensor measurements collected by the mobile agents. It is assumed that a distributed coordination which ensures uniform asymptotic stability with respect to a prescribed formation of the agents is employed. An inherent advantage of the frameworks is that a broad range of nonlinear programming algorithms can be combined with a wide class of cooperative control laws to perform extreme source seeking. Semi-global practical asymptotically stable convergence to local extrema is established in the presence of field sampling noise. Subsequently, global extremum seeking with multiple agents is investigated and shown to give rise to robust practical convergence whose speed can be improved via computational parallelism. Nonconvex field distributions with local extrema can be accommodated within this global framework.
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ItemUnified frameworks for sampled-data extremum seeking control: Global optimisation and multi-unit systems(PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, 2013-09-01)Two frameworks are proposed for extremum seeking of general nonlinear plants based on a sampled-data control law, within which a broad class of nonlinear programming methods is accommodated. It is established that under some generic assumptions, semi-global practical convergence to a global extremum can be achieved. In the case where the extremum seeking algorithm satisfies a stronger asymptotic stability property, the converging sequence is also shown to be stable using a trajectory-based proof, as opposed to a Lyapunov-function- type approach. The former is more straightforward and insightful. This allows for more general optimisation algorithms than considered in existing literature, such as those which do not admit a state-update realisation and/or Lyapunov functions. Lying at the heart of the analysis throughout is robustness of the optimisation algorithms to additive perturbations of the objective function. Multi-unit extremum seeking is also investigated with the objective of accelerating the speed of convergence.
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ItemMultidimensional global extremum seeking via the DIRECT optimisation algorithm(PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, 2013-07-01)DIRECT is a sample-based global optimisation method for Lipschitz continuous functions defined over compact multidimensional domains. This paper adapts the DIRECT method with a modified termination criterion for global extremum seeking control of multivariable dynamical plants. Finite-time semi-global practical convergence is established based on a periodic sampled-data control law, whose sampling period is a parameter which determines the region and accuracy of convergence. A crucial part of the development is dedicated to a robustness analysis of the DIRECT method against bounded additive perturbations on the objective function. Extremum seeking involving multiple units is also considered within the same context as a means to increase the speed of convergence. Numerical examples of global extremum seeking based on DIRECT are presented at the end.
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ItemA non-gradient approach to global extremum seeking: An adaptation of the Shubert algorithm(PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, 2013-03-01)The main purpose of this paper is to adapt the so-called Shubert algorithm for extremum seeking control of general dynamic plants. This algorithm is a good representative of the "sampling optimization methods" that achieve global extremum seeking on compact sets in the presence of local extrema. The algorithm applies to Lipschitz mappings; the model of the system is assumed unknown but the knowledge of its Lipschitz constant is assumed. The controller depends on a design parameter, the "waiting time", and tuning guidelines that relate the design parameter and the region of convergence and accuracy of the algorithm are presented. The analysis shows that semi-global practical convergence (in the initial states) to the global extremum can be achieved in presence of local extrema if compact sets of inputs are considered. Numerical simulations for global optimization in the presence of local extrema are provided to demonstrate the proposed approach.
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ItemOn Extremum Seeking in Bioprocesses with Multivalued Cost Functions(WILEY, 2009-05-01)Finding optimal operating modes for bioprocesses has been, for a long time, a relevant issue in bioengineering. The problem is of special interest when it implies the simultaneous optimization of competing objectives. In this paper, we address the problem of finding optimal steady states that achieve the best tradeoff between yield and productivity by using nonmodel-based extremum-seeking control with semiglobal practical stability and convergence properties. A special attention is paid to processes with multiple steady states and multivalued cost functions.
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ItemOn global extremum seeking in the presence of local extrema(PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, 2009-01-01)We propose a global extremum seeking scheme which can seek the global optimal value in the presence of local extrema. It is shown that the proposed global extremum seeking scheme can converge to an arbitrarily small neighborhood of the global extremum from an arbitrarily large set of initial conditions if sufficient conditions are satisfied. A simple example illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
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ItemOn the choice of dither in extremum seeking systems: A case study(PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, 2008-05-01)We discuss how the choice of dither (excitation signal) affects the performance of extremum seeking using a benchmark situation: a static scalar map; and a simple scalar extremum seeking scheme. Our comparisons are based on the performance of the system with different dithers in terms of three performance indicators: the speed of convergence, domain of attraction and accuracy (i.e. the ultimate bound on trajectories). Our analysis explicitly shows how the dither shape affects each of these performance indicators. Our study suggests that the practitioners using extremum seeking control should consider the dither shape as an important design parameter. Computer simulations support our theoretical findings.
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