The study on alternative combination rules in Dempster- Shafer theory (DST) when evidences are in conflict has emerged again recently as an interesting topic, especially in data/information fusion applications. The earlier researches have mainly focused on investigating the alternative which would be appropriate for the conflicting situation, under the assumption that a conflict is identified. However, the current research shows that not only the combination rule but also the classical conflict coefficient in DST are not correct to determine the conflict degree between two pieces of evidences. Most existing methods of measuring conflict do not consider the open world situation, whose frame of discernment is incomplete. To solve this problem, a new conflict representation model to determine the conflict degree between evidences is proposed in the generalized power space, which contains two parameters: the conflict distance and the conflict coefficient of inconsistent evidences. This paper argues that only when the conflict measure value in the new representation model is high, it is safe to say the evidences are in conflict. Experiments illustrate the efficiency of the proposed conflict representation model.

This paper discusses the blind carrier frequency offset (CFO) estimation for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems by utilizing trilinear decomposition and generalized precoding. Firstly, the generalized precoding is employed to obtain multiple covariance matrices which are requisite for the trilinear model, and then a novel CFO estimation algorithm is proposed for the OFDM system. Compared with both the joint diagonalizer and estimation of signal parameters via rotational invariant technique (ESPRIT), the proposed algorithm enjoys a better CFO estimation performance. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm can work well without virtual carriers. Simulation results illustrate the performance of this algorithm.

The lattice-reduction (LR) has been developed to improve the performance of the zero-forcing (ZF) precoder in multiple input multiple output (MIMO) systems. Under the assumptions of uncorrelated flat fading channel model and perfect channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT), an LR-aided ZF precoder is able to collect the full transmit diversity. With the complex Lenstra-Lenstra-Lov´asz (LLL) algorithm and limited feedforward structure, an LR-aided linear minimum-mean-square-error (LMMSE) precoder for spatial correlated MIMO channels and imperfect CSIT is proposed to achieve lower bit error rate (BER). Assuming a time division duplexing (TDD) MIMO system, correlated block flat fading channel and LMMSE uplink channel estimator, it is proved that the proposed LR-aided LMMSE precoder can also obtain the full transmit diversity through an analytical approach. Furthermore, the simulation results show that with the quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation at the transmitter, the uncoded and coded BERs of the LR-aided LMMSE precoder are lower than that of the traditional LMMSE precoder respectively when Eb/N0 is greater than 10 dB and 12 dB at all correlation coefficients.

The feedback delay can severely affect the quality of the channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT) which is fed back from the receiver. The outdated CSIT will cause large performance loss in the transmit beamforming systems. The effect of variable feedback delay on the capacity of transmit beamforming systems over Rayleigh fading channels is studied. First, the case of fixed feedback delay is considered and a closed-form expression of system capacity is derived. Based on the results of fixed delay, the delay following certain distributions in variable delay case is assumed and the closed-form expressions of capacities are derived. The closed-form expressions show that the capacity is significantly affected by the statistical characteristics of the feedback delay. The obtained results provide an analytical insight into the effects caused by variable delay on the system capacity.

An implementation of adaptive filtering, composed of an unsupervised adaptive filter (UAF), a multi-step forward linear predictor (FLP), and an unsupervised multi-step adaptive predictor (UMAP), is built for suppressing impulsive noise in unknown circumstances. This filtering scheme, called unsupervised robust adaptive filter (URAF), possesses a switching structure, which ensures the robustness against impulsive noise. The FLP is used to detect the possible impulsive noise added to the signal. If the signal is “impulse-free”, the filter UAF can estimate the clean signal. If there exists impulsive noise, the impulse corrupted samples are replaced by predicted ones from the FLP, and then the UMAP estimates the clean signal. Both the simulation and experimental results show that the URAF has a better rate of convergence than the most recent universal filter, and is effective to restrict large disturbance like impulsive noise when the universal filter fails.

A new constant false alarm rate (CFAR) target detector for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images is developed. For each pixel under test, both the local probability density function (PDF) of the pixel and the clutter PDF in the reference window are estimated by the non-parametric density estimation. The target detector is defined as the mean square error (MSE) distance between the two PDFs. The CFAR detection in SAR images having multiplicative noise is achieved by adaptive kernel bandwidth proportional to the clutter level. In addition, for obtaining a threshold with respect to a given probability of false alarm (PFA), an unsupervised null distribution fitting method with outlier rejection is proposed. The effectiveness of the proposed target detector is demonstrated by the experiment result using the RADATSAT-2 SAR image.

The theory of compressed sensing (CS) provides a new chance to reduce the data acquisition time and improve the data usage factor of the stepped frequency radar system. In light of the sparsity of radar target reflectivity, two imaging methods based on CS, termed the CS-based 2D joint imaging algorithm and the CS-based 2D decoupled imaging algorithm, are proposed. These methods incorporate the coherent mixing operation into the sparse dictionary, and take random measurements in both range and azimuth directions to get high resolution radar images, thus can remarkably reduce the data rate and simplify the hardware design of the radar system while maintaining imaging quality. Experimentsfrom both simulated data and measured data in the anechoic chamber show that the proposed imaging methods can get more focused images than the traditional fast Fourier transform method. Wherein the joint algorithm has stronger robustness and can provide clearer inverse synthetic aperture radar images, while the decoupled algorithm is computationally more efficient but has slightly degraded imaging quality, which can be improved by increasing measurements or using a robuster recovery algorithm nevertheless

This paper analyzes the effect of waveform parameters on the joint target location and velocity estimation by a noncoherent multiple input multiple output (MIMO) radar transmitting multiple subcarriers signals. How the number of subcarriers influences the estimation accuracy is illustrated by considering the joint Cramer-Rao bound and the mean square error of the maximum likelihood estimate. The non-coherent MIMO radar ambiguity function with multiple subcarriers is developed and investigated by changing the number of subcarriers, the pulse width and the frequency spacing between adjacent subcarriers. The numerical results show that more subcarriers mean more accurate estimates, higher localization resolution, and larger pulse width results in a worse performance of target location estimation, while the frequency spacing affects target location estimation little.

A collaborative optimization model for maintenance and spare ordering of a single-unit degrading system is proposed in this paper based on the continuous detection. A gamma distribution is used to model the material degradation. The degrading decrement after the imperfect maintenance action is assumed as a random variable normal distribution. This model aims to obtain the optimal maintenance policy and spare ordering point with the expected cost rate within system lifecycle as the optimization objective. The rationality and feasibility of the model are proved through a numerical example.

Testing is the premise and foundation of realizing equipment health management (EHM). To address the problem that the static periodic test strategy may cause deficient test or excessive test, a dynamic sequential test strategy (DSTS) for EHM is presented. Considering the situation that equipment health state is not completely observable in reality, a DSTS optimization method based on partially observable semi-Markov decision process (POSMDP) is proposed. Firstly, an equipment health state degradation model is constructed by Markov process, and the control limit maintenance policy is also introduced. Secondly, POSMDP is formulated in great detail. And then, POSMDP is converted to completely observable belief semi-Markov decision process (BSMDP) through belief state. The optimal equation and the corresponding optimal DSTS, which minimize the long-run expected average cost per unit time, are obtained with BSMDP. The results of application in complex equipment show that the proposed DSTS is feasible and effective.

The capability requirements of the command, control, communication, computing, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems are full of uncertain and vague information, which makes it difficult to model the C4ISR architecture. The paper presents an approach to modeling the capability requirements with the fuzzy unified modeling language (UML) and building domain ontologies with fuzzy description logic (DL). The UML modeling constructs are extended according to the meta model of Department of Defense Architecture Framework to improve their domain applicability, the fuzzy modeling mechanism is introduced to model the fuzzy efficiency features of capabilities, and the capability requirement models are converted into ontologies formalized in fuzzy DL so that the model consistency and reasonability can be checked with a DL reasoning system. Finally, a case study of C4ISR capability requirements model checking is provided to demonstrate the availability and applicability of the method.

Task scheduling for electro-magnetic detection satellite is a typical combinatorial optimization problem. The count of constraints that need to be taken into account is of large scale. An algorithm combined integer programming with constraint programming is presented. This algorithm is deployed in this problem through two steps. The first step is to decompose the original problem into master and sub-problem using the logic-based Benders decomposition; then a circus combines master and sub-problem solving process together, and the connection between them is general Benders cut. This hybrid algorithm is tested by a set of derived experiments. The result is compared with corresponding outcomes generated by the strength Pareto evolutionary algorithm and the pure constraint programming solver——GECODE, which is an open source software. These tests and comparisons yield promising effect.

The observing failure and feedback instability might happen when the partial sensors of a satellite attitude control system (SACS) go wrong. A fault diagnosis and isolation (FDI) method based on a fault observer is introduced to detect and isolate the fault sensor at first. Based on the FDI result, the object system state-space equation is transformed and divided into a corresponsive triangular canonical form to decouple the normal subsystem from the fault subsystem. And then the KX fault-tolerant observers of the system in different modes are designed and embedded into online monitoring. The outputs of all KX fault-tolerant observers are selected by the control switch process. That can make sense that the SACS is part-observed and in stable when the partial sensors break down. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method.

It is now well known that the time-varying sliding mode control (TVSMC) is characterized by its global robustness against matched model uncertainties and disturbances. The accurate tracking problem of the mechanical system in the presence of the parametric uncertainty and external disturbance is addressed in the TVSMC framework. Firstly, an exponential TVSMC algorithm is designed and the main features are analyzed. Especially, the control parameter is obtained by solving an optimal problem. Subsequently, the global chattering problem in TVSMC is considered. To reduce the static error resulting from the continuous TVSMC algorithm, a disturbance observer based time-varying sliding mode control (DOTVSMC) algorithm is presented. The detailed design principle and the stability of the closed-loop system under the composite controller are provided. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

The purpose of this paper is the design of neural network-based adaptive sliding mode controller for uncertain unknown nonlinear systems. A special architecture adaptive neural network, with hyperbolic tangent activation functions, is used to emulate the equivalent and switching control terms of the classic sliding mode control (SMC). Lyapunov stability theory is used to guarantee a uniform ultimate boundedness property for the tracking error, as well as of all other signals in the closed loop. In addition to keeping the stability and robustness properties of the SMC, the neural network-based adaptive sliding mode controller exhibits perfect rejection of faults arising during the system operating. Simulation studies are used to illustrate and clarify the theoretical results.

Security and reliability must be focused on control systems firstly, and fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) is the main theory and technology. Now, there are many positive results in FDD for linear networked control systems (LNCSs), but nonlinear networked control systems (NNCSs) are less involved. Based on the T-S fuzzy-modeling theory, NNCSs are modeled and network random time-delays are changed into the unknown bounded uncertain part without changing its structure. Then a fuzzy state observer is designed and an observer-based fault detection approach for an NNCS is presented. The main results are given and the relative theories are proved in detail. Finally, some simulation results are given and demonstrate the proposed method is effective.

The delayed-state-derivative feedback (DSDF) is introduced into the existing consensus protocol to simultaneously improve the robustness to communication delay and accelerate the convergence speed of achieving the consensus. The frequency-domain analysis, together with the algebra graph theory, is employed to derive the sufficient and necessary condition guaranteeing the average consensus. It is shown that introducing the DSDF with the proper intensity in the existing consensus protocol can improve the robustness to communication delay. By analyzing the effect of DSDF on the closed-loop poles, this paper proves that for a supercritical-delay multi-agent system, this strategy can also accelerate the convergence speed of achieving the consensus with provided the proper intensity of the DSDF. Simulations are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.

A rational approximation method of the fractional-order derivative and integral operators is proposed. The turning frequency points are fixed in each frequency interval in the standard Oustaloup approximation. In the improved Oustaloup method, the turning frequency points are determined by the adaptive chaotic particle swarm optimization (PSO). The average velocity is proposed to reduce the iterations of the PSO. The chaotic search scheme is combined to reduce the opportunity of the premature phenomenon. Two fitness functions are given to minimize the zero-pole and amplitude-phase frequency errors for the underlying optimization problems. Some numerical examples are compared to demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy of this proposed rational approximation method.

To avoid uneven energy consuming in wireless sensor networks, a clustering routing model is proposed based on a Bayesian game. In the model, Harsanyi transformation is introduced to convert a static game of incomplete information to the static game of complete but imperfect information. In addition, the existence of Bayesian nash equilibrium is proved. A clustering routing algorithm is also designed according to the proposed model, both cluster head distribution and residual energy are considered in the design of the algorithm. Simulation results show that the algorithm can balance network load, save energy and prolong network lifetime effectively.

Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is a new heuristic algorithm which has been applied to many optimization problems successfully. Attribute reduction is a key studying point of the rough set theory, and it has been proven that computing minimal reduction of decision tables is a non-derterministic polynomial (NP)-hard problem. A new cooperative extended attribute reduction algorithm named Co-PSAR based on improved PSO is proposed, in which the cooperative evolutionary strategy with suitable fitness functions is involved to learn a good hypothesis for accelerating the optimization of searching minimal attribute reduction. Experiments on Benchmark functions and University of California, Irvine (UCI) data sets, compared with other algorithms, verify the superiority of the Co-PSAR algorithm in terms of the convergence speed, efficiency and accuracy for the attribute reduction.