Iterative learning fault-tolerant control for discrete-time nonlinear systems subject to stochastic actuator faults

This paper is concerned with an iterative learning fault-tolerant control strategy for discrete-time nonlinear systems where actuator faults arbitrarily occur. First, the stochastic faults occurring in multiplicative and additive manner are considered. Then, statistical behaviors of both faults-corrupted control signals from the actuator to the plant and faults-free ones from the iterative learning controller to the actuator are analyzed. Meanwhile, sufficient conditions of convergence for the proposed strategy are established by resorting to the time-weighted norm technique. Finally, two numerical examples are provided to illustrate the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed results. Both theoretical analysis and simulations indicate that the developed strategy is satisfactory in preserving decent tracking accuracy of the addressed systems subject to actuator faults.

The Cost of Improving the Precision of the Variational Quantum Eigensolver for Quantum Chemistry

New approaches into computational quantum chemistry can be developed through the use of quantum computing. While universal, fault-tolerant quantum computers are still not available, and we want to utilize today’s noisy quantum processors. One of their flagship applications is the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE)—an algorithm for calculating the minimum energy of a physical Hamiltonian. In this study, we investigate how various types of errors affect the VQE and how to efficiently use the available resources to produce precise computational results. We utilize a simulator of a noisy quantum device, an exact statevector simulator, and physical quantum hardware to study the VQE algorithm for molecular hydrogen. We find that the optimal method of running the hybrid classical-quantum optimization is to: (i) allow some noise in intermediate energy evaluations, using fewer shots per step and fewer optimization iterations, but ensure a high final readout precision; (ii) emphasize efficient problem encoding and ansatz parametrization; and (iii) run all experiments within a short time-frame, avoiding parameter drift with time. Nevertheless, current publicly available quantum resources are still very noisy and scarce/expensive, and even when using them efficiently, it is quite difficult to perform trustworthy calculations of molecular energies.