A Submodular Receding Horizon Control Strategy to Distributed Persistent Monitoring

This paper investigates the multi-agent persistent monitoring problem via a novel distributed submodular receding horizon control approach. In order to approximate global monitoring performance, with the definition of sub-modularity, the original persistent monitoring objective is divided into several local objectives in a receding horizon framework, and the optimal trajectories of each agent are obtained by taking into account the neighborhood information. Specifically, the optimization horizon of each local objective is derived from the local target states and the information received from their neighboring agents. Based on the sub-modularity of each local objective, the distributed greedy algorithm is proposed. As a result, each agent coordinates with neighboring agents asynchronously and optimizes its trajectory independently, which reduces the computational complexity while achieving the global performance as much as possible. The conditions are established to ensure the estimation error converges to a bounded global performance. Finally, simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Comparison of Riverbed Changes between Sediment Budget Analysis with Measured Data and River Survey: Case Application to Part of Geumgang

Sediment measurement data are utilized as basic data for various river plans and research. The aim of this study is to compare between sediment budget analysis and riverbed monitoring results. The spatial range was from the Gongju-si (Gemganggyo) station to the Buyeo-gun (Baekjegyo) station in Geumgang, and the temporal range in this study was from 2011 to 2016. The estimated change in riverbed amount using the sediment budget analysis was 2,430,243 tons for sediments loaded over six years in the section. The analyzed riverbed changes sedimentation using the riverbed monitoring method were 2,165,146 tons based on the low level and 3,055,489 tons based on the flood level. Based on the riverbed monitoring performance, the relative errors in the sediment budget analysis results through sediment measurements were 10.9% and -25.7% for the low water and flood levels, respectively.

Quadrant Mapping Artificial Lift Concept

This paper outlines a concept for monitoring performance of artificial lift performance such as electrical submersible pump (ESP), hydraulic pumping unit (HPU), sucker rod pump (SRP) and progressive cavity pump (PCP), for a large number of wells. The objective is to generate simplified monitoring performance of artificial lift with a huge number of wells on one page by creating quadrant mapping consisting of two coordinates with x axis representing pump efficiency and y axis showing pump submergence. We made a four-quadrant limit by pump efficiency (50%) and submergence (200 m). Optimum wells will show on range pump efficiency above 50% and submergence below 200 m, and 3 other quadrants are classified as artificial lift problems, well potential and sizing/design problems. By using the quadrant mapping concept, we can generate performance of artificial lift for 1500++ wells in one page, and this mapping consists of four quadrants (quadrant 1, quadrant 2, quadrant 3 and quadrant 4), quadrant 1 (Submergence above 200 meter and lifting efficiency below 50%) showing wells which have artificial lift problem, quadrant 2 (Submergence is above 200 meters and efficiency is above 50%) showing well which have potential to increased production, quadrant 3 (Submergence is below 200 meters and efficiency is above 50%) showing the optimum wells operation and quadrant 4 (Submergence is below 200 meters and efficiency is below 50%) showing the wells which required to re-sizing/re-design artificial lift. This quadrant mapping can be shown to Engineers, manager's and shareholder to show overall performance and classification detailed problems to create a troubleshooting, optimization program to increased oil production, run life artificial and result in better production performance. This mapping also helps petroleum engineers to get a better field view and create priorities and program optimization based on the quadrant mapping result and classification.

Upcycling Compact Discs for Bioelectronic Applications

Electronic waste (e-waste) is a global issue brought about by the short lifespan of electronics. Viable methods to relieve the inundated disposal system by repurposing the enormous amount of e-waste remain elusive. Inspired by the need for sustainable solutions, this study resulted in a multifaceted approach to upcycling compact discs (CDs). The once-ubiquitous plates can be transformed into stretchable and flexible biosensors. Our experiments and advanced prototypes show that effective, innovative biosensors can be developed at a low-cost. An affordable craft-based mechanical cutter allows pre-determined patterns to be scored on the recycled metal, an essential first step for producing stretchable, wearable electronics. The active metal harvested from the CDs was inert, cytocompatible, and capable of vital biopotential measurements. Additional studies examined the material’s resistive emittance, temperature sensing, real-time metabolite monitoring performance, and moisture-triggered transience. This sustainable approach for upcycling e-waste provides an advantageous research-based waste stream that does not require cutting-edge microfabrication facilities, expensive materials, and high-caliber engineering skills.

Supervision of a self-driving vehicle unmasks latent sleepiness relative to manually controlled driving

Human error has been implicated as a causal factor in a large proportion of road accidents. Automated driving systems purport to mitigate this risk, but self-driving systems that allow a driver to entirely disengage from the driving task also require the driver to monitor the environment and take control when necessary. Given that sleep loss impairs monitoring performance and there is a high prevalence of sleep deficiency in modern society, we hypothesized that supervising a self-driving vehicle would unmask latent sleepiness compared to manually controlled driving among individuals following their typical sleep schedules. We found that participants felt sleepier, had more involuntary transitions to sleep, had slower reaction times and more attentional failures, and showed substantial modifications in brain synchronization during and following an autonomous drive compared to a manually controlled drive. Our findings suggest that the introduction of partial self-driving capabilities in vehicles has the potential to paradoxically increase accident risk.

Automated Alert Failures and their Impact on Operator Performance and Trust

Despite its rapid advancement, automation remains vulnerable to system failures. The reliability of automation may impact users’ trust and how they interact with it. Additionally, the type of error can uniquely redirect user behavior. This study investigated how reliability and error type impact operator trust and monitoring performance. Participants completed a monitoring task at either 50% or 90% reliability, experiencing either misses or false alarms from an automated alert system. It was hypothesized that automation reliability would impact trust, while error type would also impact reliance and compliance behaviors. Results indicated that misses had a greater impact on monitoring performance than false alarms, while reliability did not influence performance. Trust was not influenced by reliability or error type and showed no relationship with performance measures. These results can help further clarify the way automation failures shape how humans interact with automation and inform the design of future automated systems.

New Interface To Cope With Unreliable Airspeed Indications: A Behavioral And Eye-Tracking Study.

When unreliable airspeed events occur, the pilot flying (PF) is required to fly the aircraft using the thrust and the pitch parameters that are displayed in two distanced locations of the flight deck. The Sycopaero interface was designed to limit the PF’s workload by automatically displaying thrust and pitch values specific to aircraft configuration on the Primary Flight Display. Participants performed a simulated flight scenario in which they lost airspeed information during take-off with and without the Sycopaero interface. Both behavioral and ocular results demonstrate that the Sycopaero interface significantly lowers PFs’ mental workload and improves their monitoring performance. Taken together, these results suggest that the Sycopaero interface may be an efficient solution in case of unreliable airspeed events.