A formulation of impedance control for redundant manipulators is developed as a particular case of an optimal control problem. This formulation allows the planning and design of an impedance controller that benets from the stability and eficiency of an optimal controller. Moreover, to circumvent the high computational costs of computing an optimal controller, a sub-optimal feedback controller based on the state-dependent Ricatti equation (SDRE) approach is developed. This approach is then compared with the quadratic programming (QP) control formulation, commonly used to resolve redundancy of robotic manipulators. Numerical simulations of a redundant planar 4-DOF serial link manipulator show that the SDRE control formulation offers superior performance over the control strategy based QP, in terms of stability, performance and required control effort. / Uma formulação do controle de impedância para manipuladores redundantes é desenvolvida como um caso particular de um problema de controle ótimo. Essa formulação permite o planejamento e projeto de um controlador de impedância que se beneficia da estabilidade e eficiência de um controlador ótimo. Para evitar lidar com os elevados custos computacionais de se computar um controlador ótimo, um controlador em malha fechada sub-ótimo, baseado na abordagem das equações de Ricatti dependentes de estado (SDRE), é desenvolvido. Essa abordagem é comparada com a formulação de um controlador baseado em programação quadrática (QP), usualmente utilizado para resolver problemas de redundância em manipuladores robóticos. Simulações numéricas de um manipulador serial plano de quatro graus de liberdade mostram que o controlador baseado em SDRE oferece performance superior em relação a um controlador baseado em programação quadrática, em termos de estabilidade, performance e esforço de controle requerido do atuador.

<div>Due to recent advances in sensor technology and the exponential increase in computation power of electronic control units (ECUs) along with their increasing affordability, active safety and vehicle automation have become major trends in the commercial vehicle industry. New regulations for increased safety are also a major driver behind the industry's increased interest in that topic. As a result, being a crucial part of vehicle automation, steering systems had to be adapted to enable Active Steering. Consequently, commercial vehicle steering designers introduced the concept of torque and angle overlay using an electric motor in series with the conventional hydraulic steering system. However, despite the fact that these systems are becoming more prevalent in the market, they still suffer from inefficiencies intrinsic to the conventional hydraulic steering system still being used. These inefficiencies are a result of</div><div>flow metering losses due to the use of control valves to regulate the pump flow output, as well as inside the steering gear with the use control valves to build assistance pressure.</div><div><br></div><div><div>In this research project, we investigate the potential use of the proven pump Displacement Control (DC) technology in steering on-highway commercial vehicles. DC pumps have been shown to signicantly improve system efficiency as they allow the removal of control valves typically used to regulate </div><div>ow [1]. Instead, the displacement of the pump can be directly controlled to vary the pump's flow rate and direction,</div><div>and thus eliminating throttling losses. The DC technology has been successfully used in a steer-by-wire conguration for an articulated frame steering vehicle and has been shown to signicantly improve efficiency and productivity, as well as result in a reduction in fuel consumption [2].</div></div><div><br></div><div><div>In this work, we propose a steer-by-wire system, using DC pump technology, for on-highway commercial vehicles, and present the dierent possible congurations in which it can be implemented. Moreover, the benets and drawbacks of the steer-by-wire system are researched and identied. Subsequently, the system is designed and validated in simulation, on laboratory test setup, as well as on a test vehicle to prove its feasibility.</div></div><div><br></div><div><div>Chief among the drawbacks of the steer-by-wire system is potential failures that can lead to the complete loss of the steering function of the vehicle. As a result, different possible fail-safe mechanisms are researched from which the most suitable ones are proposed to allow the steer-by-wire system to fail safely. Moreover, two of the proposed fail-safe mechanism are implemented onto the test vehicle to prove and validate their feasibility.</div></div><div><br></div><div><div>Furthermore, an alternative way of using displacement controlled pumps for active steering is be proposed. For this concept, we investigate the possibility of actively controlling the driver's steering effort by varying the pump displacement while maintaining the mechanical link between the steering wheel and the road wheels. If successful, this method will allow for a more efficient way of providing steering assistance as it does away with the conventional control valves used to build pressure and regulate pump flow, and thus eliminating throttling losses. This method has also the advantage of having an intrinsic fail-safe mechanism with manual steering being always possible should the hydraulic or electric systems fail.</div></div>

In order to cope with system complexity and dynamic environments, modern industries are investing in a variety of sensor networks and data acquisition systems to increase information visibility. Multi-sensor systems bring the proliferation of high-dimensional functional Big Data that capture rich information on the evolving dynamics of natural and engineered processes. With spatially and temporally dense data readily available, there is an urgent need to develop advanced methodologies and associated tools that will enable and assist (i) the handling of the big data communicated by the contemporary complex systems, (ii) the extraction and identification of pertinent knowledge about the environmental and operational dynamics driving these systems, and (iii) the exploitation of the acquired knowledge for more enhanced design, analysis, monitoring, diagnostics and control. My methodological and theoretical research as well as a considerable portion of my applied and collaborative work in this dissertation aims at addressing high-dimensional functional big data communicated by the systems. An innovative contribution of my work is the establishment of a series of systematic methodologies to investigate the complex system informatics including multi-dimensional modeling, feature extraction and selection, model-based monitoring and root cause diagnostics. This study presents systematic methodologies to investigate spatiotemporal informatics of complex systems from multi-dimensional modeling and feature extraction to model-driven monitoring, fault identification and root cause diagnostics. In particular, we developed a multiscale adaptive basis function model to represent and characterize the high-dimensional nonlinear functional profiles, thereby reducing the large amount of data to a parsimonious set of variables (i.e., model parameters) while preserving the information. Furthermore, the complex interdependence structure among variables is identified by a novel self-organizing network algorithm, in which the homogeneous variables are clustered into sub-network communities. Then we minimize the redundancy of variables in each cluster and integrate the new set of clustered variables with predictive models to identify a sparse set of sensitive variables for process monitoring and fault diagnostics. We evaluated and validated our methodologies using real-world case studies that extract parameters from representation models of vectorcardiogram (VCG) signals for the diagnosis of myocardial infarctions. The proposed systematic methodologies are generally applicable for modeling, monitoring and diagnosis in many disciplines that involve a large number of highly-redundant variables extracted from the big data. The self-organizing approach was also innovatively developed to derive the steady geometric structure of a network from the recurrence-based adjacency matrix. As such, novel network-theoretic measures can be achieved based on actual node-to-node distances in the self-organized network topology.

Switched-Capacitor Converters (SCC) suffer from a fundamental power loss deficiency which make their use in some applications prohibitive. The power loss is due to the inherent energy dissipation when SCC operate between or outside their output target voltages. This drawback was alleviated in this work by developing two new classes of SCC providing binary and arbitrary resolution of closely spaced target voltages. Special attention is paid to SCC topologies of binary resolution. Namely, SCC systems that can be configured to have a no-load output to input voltage ratio that is equal to any binary fraction for a given number of bits. To this end, we define a new number system and develop rules to translate these numbers into SCC hardware that follows the algebraic behavior. According to this approach, the flying capacitors are automatically kept charged to binary weighted voltages and consequently the resolution of the target voltages follows a binary number representation and can be made higher by increasing the number of capacitors (bits). The ability to increase the number of target voltages reduces the spacing between them and, consequently, increases the efficiency when the input varies over a large voltage range. The thesis presents the underlining theory of the binary SCC and its extension to the general radix case. Although the major application is in step-down SCC, a simple method to utilize these SCC for step-up conversion is also described, as well as a method to reduce the output voltage ripple. In addition, the generic and unified model is strictly applied to derive the SCC equivalent resistor, which is a measure of the power loss. The theoretical predictions are verified by simulation and experimental results.

<p>Master thesis work at ITN (Department of Science and Technology) in the areas of A/D-construction and RF-circuit design. Major goal of project were to research suitable possibilities for implementations of direct conversion in transceivers operating in the 160MHz band, theoretic study followed by development of components in the construction environment Cadence. Suitable A/D- converter and other important parts were selected at the end of the theoretic study. Subsampling technique was applied to make A/D sample requirements more realistic to achieve. Besides lowering requirements on A/D-converter it allows a more simple construction, which saves more components than subsampling adds. Subsampling add extra noise, because of that an A/D-converter based on the RSD algorithm was chosen to improve error rate. To achieve high bit-processing rate compared to the used number of transistors, pipeline structure were selected as conversion method. The receiver was that part which gained largest attention because it’s the part which is most interesting to optimise. A/D-conversion is more difficult to construct than D/A conversion, besides there’s more to gain from eliminating mixers in the receiver than in the transmitter.</p>

Motion planning and control synthesis are challenging problems for underactuated mechanical systems due to the presence of passive (non-actuated) degrees of freedom. For those systems that are additionally not feedback linearizable and with unstable internal dynamics there are no generic methods for planning trajectories and their feedback stabilization. For fully actuated mechanical systems, on the other hand, there are standard tools that provide a tractable solution. Still, the problem of generating efficient and optimal trajectories is nontrivial due to actuator limitations and motion-dependent velocity and acceleration constraints that are typically present. It is especially challenging for manipulators with kinematic redundancy. A generic approach for solving the above-mentioned problems is described in this work. We explicitly use the geometry of the state space of the mechanical system so that a synchronization of the generalized coordinates can be found in terms of geometric relations along the target motion with respect to a path coordinate. Hence, the time evolution of the state variables that corresponds to the target motion is determined by the system dynamics constrained to these geometrical relations, known as virtual holonomic constraints. Following such a reduction for underactuated mechanical systems, we arrive at integrable second-order dynamics associated with the passive degrees of freedom. Solutions of this reduced dynamics, together with the geometric relations, can be interpreted as a motion generator for the full system. For fully actuated mechanical systems the virtually constrained dynamics provides a tractable way of shaping admissible trajectories. Once a feasible target motion is found and the corresponding virtual holonomic constraints are known, we can describe dynamics transversal to the orbit in the state space and analytically compute a transverse linearization. This results in a linear time-varying control system that allows us to use linear control theory for achieving orbital stabilization of the nonlinear mechanical system as well as to conduct system analysis in the vicinity of the motion. The approach is applicable to continuous-time and impulsive mechanical systems irrespective of the degree of underactuation. The main contributions of this thesis are analysis of human movement regarding a nominal behavior for repetitive tasks, gait synthesis and stabilization for dynamic walking robots, and description of a numerical procedure for generating and stabilizing efficient trajectories for kinematically redundant manipulators.

La mayor parte de los sistemas de comunicaciones requieren el conocimiento previo del canal, el cual se suele estimar a partir de una secuencia de entrenamiento. Sin embargo, la transmisión de símbolos piloto se traduce en una reducción de la eficiencia espectral del sistema, lo que imposibilita que se alcancen los límites predichos por la Teoría de la Información. Este problema ha motivado el desarrollo de un gran número de técnicas para la estima e igualación ciega de canal, es decir, para la obtención del canal o la fuente sin necesidad de transmitir una señal de entrenamiento. Normalmente, estas técnicas se basan en el conocimiento previo de ciertas características de la señal, tales como su pertenencia a un alfabeto finito, o sus estadísticos de orden superior. Sin embargo, en el caso de sistemas de múltiples entradas y salidas (MIMO), se ha demostrado que los estadísticos de segundo orden de las observaciones proporcionan la información suficiente para resolver el problema ciego.El objetivo de esta Tesis consiste en la obtención de nuevas técnicas para la estima e igualación ciega de canales MIMO, tanto en sistemas con redundancia espacial, como en casos más generales en los que las fuentes no presentan ningún tipo particular de estructura. De manera general, los métodos propuestos se basan en los estadísticos de segundo orden de las observaciones. Sin embargo, las técnicas se presentan desde un punto de vista determinista, es decir, los algoritmos propuestos explotan directamente la estructura de las matrices de datos, lo que permite obtener resultados más precisos cuando se dispone de un número reducido de observaciones. Adicionalmente, la reformulación de los criterios propuestos como problemas clásicos del análisis estadístico de señales, ha permitido la obtención de algoritmos adaptativos eficientes para la estima e igualación de canales MIMO. En primer lugar se aborda el caso de sistemas sin redundancia. Más concretamente, se analiza el problema de igualación ciega de canales MIMO selectivos en frecuencia, el cual se reformula como un conjunto de problemas de análisis de correlaciones canónicas (CCA). La solución de los problemas CCA se puede obtener de manera directa mediante un problema de autovalores generalizado. Además, en esta Tesis se presenta un algoritmo adaptativo basado en la reformulación de CCA como un conjunto de problemas de regresión lineal acoplados. De esta manera, se obtienen nuevos algoritmos bloque y adaptativos para la igualación ciega de canales MIMO de una manera sencilla. Finalmente, el método propuesto se basa, como muchas otras técnicas ciegas, en el conocimiento a priori del orden del canal, lo que constituye un problema casi tan complicado como el de la estima o igualación ciega. Así, en el caso de canales de una entrada y varias salidas (SIMO), la combinación de la técnica propuesta con otros métodos para la estima ciega del canal permite obtener un nuevo criterio para extracción del orden de este tipo de canalesEn segundo lugar se considera el problema de estima ciega de canal en sistemas con algún tipo de redundancia o estructura espacial, con especial interés en el caso de sistemas con codificación espacio-temporal por bloques (STBC). Específicamente, se propone una nueva técnica para la estima ciega del canal, cuya complejidad se reduce a la extracción del autovector principal de una matriz de correlación modificada. El principal problema asociado a este tipo de sistemas viene dado por la existencia de ciertas ambigüedades a la hora de estimar el canal. En esta Tesis se plantea el problema de identificabilidad de una manera general, y en el caso de códigos ortogonales (OSTBCs) se presentan varios nuevos teoremas que aseguran la identificabilidad del canal en un gran número de casos. Adicionalmente, se proponen varias técnicas para la resolución de las ambigüedades, tanto en el caso OSTBC como para códigos más generales. En concreto, se introduce el concepto de diversidad de código, que consiste en la combinación de varios códigos STBC. Esta técnica permite resolver las indeterminaciones asociadas a un gran número de problemas, y en su versión más sencilla se reduce a una precodificación no redundante consistente en una simple rotación o permutación de las antenas transmisoras.En definitiva, en esta Tesis se abordan los problemas de estima e igualación ciega de canal en sistemas MIMO, y se presentan varias técnicas ciegas, cuyas prestaciones se evalúan mediante un gran número de ejemplos de simulación. / The majority of communication systems need the previous knowledge of the channel, which is usually estimated by means of a training sequence. However, the transmission of pilot symbols provokes a reduction in bandwidth efficiency, which precludes the system from reaching the limits predicted by the Information Theory. This problem has motivated the development of a large number of blind channel estimation and equalization techniques, which are able to obtain the channel or the source without the need of transmitting a training signal. Usually, these techniques are based on the previous knowledge of certain properties of the signal, such as its belonging to a finite alphabet, or its higher-order statistics. However, in the case of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, it has been proven that the second order statistics of the observations provide the sufficient information for solving the blind problem.The aim of this Thesis is the development of new blind MIMO channel estimation and equalization techniques, both in systems with spatial redundancy, and in more general cases where the sources do not have any particular spatial structure. In general, the proposed methods are based on the second order statistics of the observations. However, the techniques are presented from a deterministic point of view, i.e., the proposed algorithms directly exploit the structure of the data matrices, which allows us to obtain more accurate results when only a reduced number of observations is available. Additionally, the reformulation of the proposed criteria as classical statistical signal processing problems is exploited to obtain efficient adaptive algorithms for MIMO channel estimation and equalization.Firstly, we consider the case of systems without spatial redundancy. Specifically, we analyze the problem of blind equalization of frequency selective MIMO channels, which is reformulated as a set of canonical correlation analysis (CCA) problems. The solution of the CCA problems can be obtained by means of a generalized eigenvalue problem. In this Thesis, we present a new adaptive algorithm based on the reformulation of CCA as a set of coupled linear regression problems. Therefore, new batch and adaptive algorithms for blind MIMO channel equalization are easily obtained. Finally, the proposed method, as well as many other blind techniques, is based on the previous knowledge of the channel order, which is a problem nearly as complicated as the blind channel estimation or equalization. Thus, in the case of single-input multiple-output (SIMO) channels, the combination of the proposed technique with other blind channel estimation methods provides a new criterion for the order extraction of this class of channels.Secondly, we consider the problem of blind channel estimation in systems with some kind of redundancy or spatial structure, with special interest in space-time block coded (STBC) systems. Specifically, a new blind channel estimation technique is proposed, whose computational complexity reduces to the extraction of the principal eigenvector of a modified correlation matrix. The main problem in these cases is due to the existence of certain ambiguities associated to the blind channel estimation problem. In this Thesis the general identifiability problem is formulated and, in the case of orthogonal codes (OSTBCs), we present several new theorems which ensure the channel identifiability in a large number of cases. Additionally, several techniques for the resolution of the ambiguities are proposed, both in the OSTBC case as well as for more general codes. In particular, we introduce the concept of code diversity, which consists in the combination of several STBCs. This technique avoids the ambiguities associated to a large number of problems, and in its simplest version it reduces to a non-redundant precoding consisting of a single rotation or permutation of the transmit antennas.In summary, in this Thesis the blind MIMO channel estimation and equalization problems are analyzed, and several blind techniques are presented, whose performance is evaluated by means of a large number of simulation examples.

Master thesis work at ITN (Department of Science and Technology) in the areas of A/D-construction and RF-circuit design. Major goal of project were to research suitable possibilities for implementations of direct conversion in transceivers operating in the 160MHz band, theoretic study followed by development of components in the construction environment Cadence. Suitable A/D- converter and other important parts were selected at the end of the theoretic study. Subsampling technique was applied to make A/D sample requirements more realistic to achieve. Besides lowering requirements on A/D-converter it allows a more simple construction, which saves more components than subsampling adds. Subsampling add extra noise, because of that an A/D-converter based on the RSD algorithm was chosen to improve error rate. To achieve high bit-processing rate compared to the used number of transistors, pipeline structure were selected as conversion method. The receiver was that part which gained largest attention because it’s the part which is most interesting to optimise. A/D-conversion is more difficult to construct than D/A conversion, besides there’s more to gain from eliminating mixers in the receiver than in the transmitter.

Daktaro disertacijos tyrimo objektai yra rezervuotos sistemos ir degradaciniai modeliai. Norint užtikrinti svarbių sistemos elementų aukštą patikimumą, naudojami jų rezerviniai elementai, kurie gali būti įjungiami sugedus šiems pagrindiniams elementams. Rezerviniai elementai gali funkcionuoti skirtinguose režimuose: „karštame“, „šaltame“ arba „šiltame“. Disertacijoje yra nagrinėjamos sistemos su „šiltai“ rezervuotais elementais. Darbe suformuluojama rezervinio elemento „sklandaus įjungimo“ hipotezė ir konstruojami statistiniai kriterijai šiai hipotezei tikrinti. Nagrinėjami neparametrinio ir parametrinio taškinio bei intervalinio vertinimo uždaviniai. Disertacijoje nagrinėjami pakankamai bendri degradacijos modeliai, kurie aprašo elementų gedimų intensyvumą kaip funkciją kiek naudojamų apkrovų, tiek ir degradacijos lygio, kuri savo ruožtu modeliuojama naudojant stochastinius procesus. / In doctoral thesis redundant systems and degradation models are considered. To ensure high reliability of important elements of the system, the stand-by units can be used. These units are commuted and operate instead of the main failed unit. The stand-by units can function in the different conditions: “hot”, “cold” or “warm” reserving. In the thesis systems with “warm” stand-by units are analyzed. Hypotheses of smooth commuting are formulated and goodness-of-fit tests for these hypotheses are constructed. Nonparametric and parametric point and interval estimation procedures are given. Modeling and statistical estimation of reliability of systems from failure time and degradation data are considered.

In doctoral thesis redundant systems and degradation models are considered. To ensure high reliability of important elements of the system, the stand-by units can be used. These units are commuted and operate instead of the main failed unit. The stand-by units can function in the different conditions: “hot”, “cold” or “warm” reserving. In the thesis systems with “warm” stand-by units are analyzed. Hypotheses of smooth commuting are formulated and goodness-of-fit tests for these hypotheses are constructed. Nonparametric and parametric point and interval estimation procedures are given. Modeling and statistical estimation of reliability of systems from failure time and degradation data are considered. / Daktaro disertacijos tyrimo objektai yra rezervuotos sistemos ir degradaciniai modeliai. Norint užtikrinti svarbių sistemos elementų aukštą patikimumą, naudojami jų rezerviniai elementai, kurie gali būti įjungiami sugedus šiems pagrindiniams elementams. Rezerviniai elementai gali funkcionuoti skirtinguose režimuose: „karštame“, „šaltame“ arba „šiltame“. Disertacijoje yra nagrinėjamos sistemos su „šiltai“ rezervuotais elementais. Darbe suformuluojama rezervinio elemento „sklandaus įjungimo“ hipotezė ir konstruojami statistiniai kriterijai šiai hipotezei tikrinti. Nagrinėjami neparametrinio ir parametrinio taškinio bei intervalinio vertinimo uždaviniai. Disertacijoje nagrinėjami pakankamai bendri degradacijos modeliai, kurie aprašo elementų gedimų intensyvumą kaip funkciją kiek naudojamų apkrovų, tiek ir degradacijos lygio, kuri savo ruožtu modeliuojama naudojant stochastinius procesus.