Angelo Cenedese

Over the last decades, small satellites have become very appealing among the space community for their low complexity and high flexibility. Many proposed mission concepts foresee the employment of miniature spacecraft for a variety of applications, many of which are economically unfeasible with traditional vehicles. This is due to the fact that the development of miniaturized and standardized space vehicles may considerably reduce the design, manufacturing and lunch costs involved. Furthermore, the reduced unitary mass of small satellites allows launches of multiple vehicles equipped with independent functionalities, thus achieving increased flexibility and redundancy. In the future, one additional opportunity could be given by the capability to assemble spacecraft in orbit to form reconfigurable structures. This would further boost the number of possibilities in terms of applications and operations. Nevertheless, the novelty of such concept and the intrinsic complexity of its practical realization still require a considerable research effort. In fact, only few navigation and docking technologies for nano- and micro satellites have been designed and proved in relevant environment. In this framework, the authors focus on the development and validation of critical technologies for close navigation, rendezvous and docking suitable for nanosatellites.

This paper presents a laboratory experiment for the validation on a complete rendezvous, navigation and docking package compatible with the common CubeSat standard. The experiment is conducted on a low friction table, with one free moving vehicle (chaser) that approaches and docks to a fixed target interface. The test facility allows three degrees of freedom to the nanosat mock-up. The vehicle is equipped with an autonomous package that features (1) a camera-based vision system for relative navigation, (2) a set of independent electro-magnetic coils for final alignment and soft docking, (3) a single-actuator hard docking system for structural connection between the chaser and the target, (4) a dedicated electronics package for motion control and system status monitoring. The mobile platform is also equipped with a set of flat air bearing with a dedicated high-pressure pneumatic circuit for frictionless in-plane motion.

This paper describes the docking package, the CubeSat mock-up and the test facility in details, with reference to the main design considerations. Numerical simulations have been conducted to foresee the dynamical behaviour of the system and to select the appropriate control algorithm. An intensive experimental campaign aims at the validation of numerical results and at the functional verification and performance estimation for each subsystem and for the system as a whole. The numerical and experimental results are presented and compared, allowing to draw useful conclusions for the future development steps. 

In the last years, international space-related companies and agencies are manifesting great interest in on-orbit servicing. Innovative solutions to perform on-orbit operations such as refuelling, payload updating and maintenance, subsystems repairing and inspection are under study and all the new ideas and technologies under development are perceived as extremely functional and cost-effective, capable of increasing the operational lifetime of a satellite and decreasing the costs related to its complete replacement.

For these reasons, the development of an automatic, standard and reliable docking system would simplify the accomplishment of on-orbit servicing procedures. Presently, there has been an increasing interest in developing different technologies for proximity navigation and rendezvous manoeuvres but no competitive or commercial technologies are currently available to perform autonomous rendezvous and docking between small-satellites. One promising solution is represented by relative magnetic navigation, where the chaser relative position and attitude can be controlled thanks to magnetic interactions with the target vehicle.

This paper presents an overview of the PACMAN experiment: PACMAN is a technology demonstrator developed by a team of university and PhD students in the framework of ESA Education Fly Your Thesis! 2017 programme and supported by the University of Padova. The experiment has been selected for the 68^th ESA Parabolic Flight Campaign that took place in December 2017. The main goal of the project was to develop and validate in low-gravity conditions an integrated system for proximity navigation and soft-docking based on magnetic interactions, suitable for small-scale spacecraft. This has been accomplished by launching a miniature spacecraft mock-up (1U CubeSat) towards a free-floating target that generates a static magnetic field; a set of actively-controlled magnetic coils on-board the spacecraft mock-up, assisted by dedicated localization sensors, have been used to control its attitude and position relative to the target. This experimental setup allowed to study the behaviour of a miniature spacecraft subjected to controlled magnetic interactions in low-gravity conditions and to validate the theoretical/numerical models that describe such interactions.

The paper describes the experiment design, realization and execution, from the initial concept to the Parabolic Flight Campaign tests. The experiment working principle is illustrated with particular attention towards the navigation and soft-docking subsystems, and the analysis of retrieved scientific results is finally presented.

Presently, no competitive or commercial solution is currently available to perform autonomous rendezvous and docking between small-satellites. Therefore, in the last years there has been an increasing interest in developing different technologies for proximity navigation and rendezvous manoeuvres, addressing the main issues of fuel consumption and the strong impact of close range navigation subsystems on satellites mass budget and complexity. One promising solution is represented by relative magnetic navigation, where the chaser relative position and attitude can be controlled thanks to magnetic interactions with the target vehicle.

PACMAN experiment is a technology demonstrator that has been developed by a team of university and PhDs students in the framework of ESA Education Fly Your Thesis! 2017 programme and supported by the University of Padova. The experiment has been selected to fly during the 68^th ESA Parabolic Flight Campaign, currently scheduled to take place this December. The main goal of the project is to develop and validate in low-gravity conditions an integrated system for proximity navigation and soft-docking based on magnetic interactions, suitable for small-scale spacecraft. This will be accomplished by launching a miniature spacecraft mock-up towards a free-floating target that generates a static magnetic field; a set of actively-controlled magnetic coils on-board the spacecraft mock-up, assisted by dedicated localization sensors, will be used to control its attitude and position relative to the target.

The realization of PACMAN experiment will allow to study the behaviour of a miniature spacecraft subjected to controlled magnetic interactions in low-gravity conditions and to validate the theoretical/numerical models that describe such interactions.

This paper presents an overview from the concept and design of the experiment to the Parabolic Flight Campaign tests. The experiment working principle will be illustrated, along with the design and assembly phases. Particular attention will be made towards the problem solving approach. Alternatives and backup solutions are introduced as part of the lessons learned during the entire programme. Finally, the analysis of retrieved scientific results will be showed.

We consider the problem of controlling a smart lighting system of multiple luminaires with collocated occupancy and light sensors. The objective is to attain illumination levels higher than specified values (possibly changing over time) at the workplace by adapting dimming levels using sensor information, while minimizing energy consumption. We propose to estimate the daylight illuminance levels at the workplace based on the daylight illuminance measurements at the ceiling. More specifically, this daylight estimator is based on a model built from data collected by light sensors placed at workplace reference points and at the luminaires in a training phase. Three estimation methods are considered: Regularized least squares, locally weighted regularized least squares, and cluster-based regularized least squares. This model is then used in the operational phase by the lighting controller to compute dimming levels by solving a linear programming problem, in which power consumption is minimized under the constraint that the estimated illuminance is higher than a specified target value. The performance of the proposed approach with the three estimation methods is evaluated using an open-office lighting model with different daylight conditions. We show that the proposed approach offers reduced under-illumination and energy consumption in comparison to existing alternative approaches.

Recently, different communities in computer science, telecommunication and control systems have devoted a huge effort towards the design of energy efficient solutions for data transmission and network management. This paper collocates along this research line and presents a novel energy efficient strategy conceived for Ethernet networks. The proposed strategy combines the statistical properties of the network traffic with the opportunities offered by the IEEE 802.3az amendment to the Ethernet standard, called Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE). This strategy exploits the possibility of predicting the incoming traffic from the analysis of the current data flow, which typically presents a self-similar behavior. Based on the prediction, Ethernet links can then be put in a low power consumption state for the intervals of time in which traffic is expected to be of low intensity. Theoretical bounds are derived that detail how the performance figures depend on the parameters of the designed strategy and scale with respect to the traffic load. Furthermore, simulations results, based on both real and synthetic traffic traces, are presented to prove the effectiveness of the strategy, which leads to considerable energy savings at the cost of only a limited bounded delay in data delivery.

In this paper, we study the problem of real-time optimal distributed partitioning for perimeter patrolling in the context of multicamera networks for surveillance, where each camera has limited mobility range and speed, and the communication is unreliable. The objective is to coordinate the cameras in order to minimize the time elapsed between two different visits of each point of the perimeter. We address this problem by casting it into a convex problem in which the perimeter is partitioned into nonoverlapping segments, each patrolled by a camera that sweeps back and forth at the maximum speed. We then propose an asynchronous distributed algorithm that guarantees that these segments cover the whole patrolling perimeter at any time and asymptotically converge to the optimal centralized solution under reliable communication. We finally modify the proposed algorithm in order to attain the same convergence and covering properties even in the more challenging scenario, where communication is lossy and there is no channel feedback, i.e., the transmitting camera is not aware whether a packet has been received or not by its neighbors.

In this paper we study cluster synchronization in a network of Kuramoto oscillators, where groups of oscillators evolve cohesively and at different frequencies from the neighboring oscillators. Synchronization is critical in a variety of systems, where it enables complex functionalities and behaviors. Synchronization over networks depends on the oscillators’ dynamics, the interaction topology, and coupling strengths, and the relationship between these different factors can be quite intricate. In this work we formally show that three network properties enable the emergence of cluster synchronization. Specifically, weak inter-cluster connections, strong intra-cluster connections, and sufficiently diverse natural frequencies among oscillators belonging to different groups. Our approach relies on system-theoretic tools, and is validated with numerical studies.

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) can provide numerous benefits in industrial automation. By removing the cable infrastructure, the wireless architecture enables the possibility for nodes in a network to dynamically and autonomously group into clusters according to the communication features and the data they collect. This capability allows to leverage the flexibility and robustness of industrial WSNs in supervisory intelligent systems for high-level tasks, such as, for example, environmental sensing, condition monitoring, and process automation. In this paper, a clustering strategy is studied that partitions a sensor network into a nonfixed number of nonoverlapping clusters according to the communication network topology and measurements distribution: To this aim, both a centralized and a distributed algorithm are designed that do not require a cluster-head structure or other network assumptions. As a validation, these strategies are tested on a real dataset coming from a structured environment and the effectiveness of the clustering procedure is also investigated to perform anomalies detection in an industrial production process.

This paper presents a robust technique, based on Krylov-subspace method, for the reduction of large-scale state-space models arising in many electromagnetic applications in fusion machines. The proposed approach, built on the Arnoldi algorithm, aims at reducing the number of states of the system and lowering the computational effort, with a negligible loss of accuracy in the numerical solution. A detailed performance study is presented on an ITER-like machine, addressing both 2-D and 3-D problems.

The 2014–2016 JET results are reviewed in the light of their significance for optimising the ITER research plan for the active and non-active operation. More than 60?h of plasma operation with ITER first wall materials successfully took place since its installation in 2011. New multi-machine scaling of the type I-ELM divertor energy flux density to ITER is supported by first principle modelling. ITER relevant disruption experiments and first principle modelling are reported with a set of three disruption mitigation valves mimicking the ITER setup. Insights of the L–H power threshold in Deuterium and Hydrogen are given, stressing the importance of the magnetic configurations and the recent measurements of fine-scale structures in the edge radial electric. Dimensionless scans of the core and pedestal confinement provide new information to elucidate the importance of the first wall material on the fusion performance. H-mode plasmas at ITER triangularity (H??=??1 at ? N ~ 1.8 and n/n GW ~ 0.6) have been sustained at 2 MA during 5?s. The ITER neutronics codes have been validated on high performance experiments. Prospects for the coming D–T campaign and 14 MeV neutron calibration strategy are reviewed.

The control and optimization of oxygen content in wine matrices is becoming more and more important in wine production in order to guarantee their best quality. It is well known that in a first phase O2 is necessary to facilitate the development and activity of yeasts, to favor the combination of anthocyanins and color stabilization, and to help reducing the astringency of red wines. In a second phase, however, during the maturation, O2 can severely deteriorate the organoleptic characteristics of the wine. The main oenological practices commonly performed in wine cellars causes remarkable amounts of oxygen to dissolve in wine. For this reason, an instrumentation able to be used in cellars is needed to detect the amount of dissolved oxygen in the wine; as well, a plant technology is needed which is capable of eliminating excess oxygen. In this work, a new economic prototype of optical sensor for oxygen measurements in oenological matrices is developed. It is based on the sampling of the light emission of a polysulfone polymer membrane containing 5,10,15,20-Tetraphenyl-21H,23H-porphyrin platinum (II) (PtTPP). The experimental parameter used for calibration of the sensor is the life time of the PtTPP, obtained from the fitting of the emission decay profile produced by stimulation of the membrane with short pulses emitted by a 390 nm excitation LED. The membrane guarantees a linear behavior of the Stern-Volmer equation and long-lasting signal stability [1,2]. Studies on the behavior of the sensor have been performed in different environments such as air, water, synthetic wine, and also in real red and white wine samples at different temperatures from 5 ° to 20 ° C. The sensor has been suitably designed to work in food matrices and to optimize the noise signal ratio, while keeping the price of the components as low as possible. The sensor was tested for a month within a barrel of 10 m containing wine in the first fermentation phase. In particular, two equal sensors were placed at two levels of depth compared to the wine infeed level: at 0.5 and 2.5 m, respectively. The oxygen content measured during this period was always constant and equal to 0.2%. We thank Smart Future S.r.l. and the project "WOW: DEPLOYMENT OF WSAN TECHNOLOGY FOR MONITORING OXYGEN IN WINE PRODUCTS" financed by the Veneto Region ex LR 5/2001 - ex LR 9/2007.

The diffusion in Power Systems of distributed renewable energy resources, electric vehicles and controllable loads has made advanced monitoring systems fundamental to cope with the consequent disturbances in power flows; advanced monitoring systems can be employed for Anomaly Detection, Root Cause Analysis and Control purposes.

Several Machine Learning-based approaches have been developed in the past recent years to detect if a power system is running under anomalous conditions and, eventually, to classify such situation with respect to known problems.

One of the aspects that makes Power Systems challenging to be tackled, is that the monitoring has to be performed on streams of data that have a time series evolution; this issue is generally tackled by performing a features extraction procedure before the classication phase. The features extraction phase consists of translating the informative content of time series data into scalar quantities: such procedure may be a time-consuming step that requires the involvement of process experts to avoid loss of information in the making; moreover, extracted features designed to capture certain behaviors of the system, may not be informative under unseen conditions leading to poor monitoring performances.

A different type of data-driven approaches, that will be reviewed in this chapter, allow to perform classication directly on the raw time series data, avoiding the features extraction phase: among these approaches, Dynamic Time Warping and Symbolic-based methodologies have been widely applied in many application areas.

In the following, pros and cons of each approach will be discussed and practical implementation guidelines will be provided.

In the context of activity recognition, wearable devices arenowadays the preferable hardware thanks to their usability, user expe-rience and performances; at the same time, these devices present limi-tations in terms of computational capability and memory, which forcethe algorithm design to be at the same time ecient and simple. Inthis work, we adopt Symbolic Aggregate Approximation (SAX), a sym-bolic approach for information retrieval in time series data that allowsdimensionality and numerosity reduction; SAX is employed here, in com-bination with 1-Nearest Neighbor classier, to identify activity phases incontinuous repetitive activities from inertial time-series data. The pro-posed approach is validated on a public activity recognition dataset.

The problem of daylight estimation in a smart lighting system is considered. The smart lighting system consists of multiple luminaires with collocated occupancy and light sensors. Using sensor information, the objective is to attain illumination levels higher than specified values at the workspaces. We consider a training phase wherein light sensors are used at the workspaces in addition. Data from the light sensors at the ceiling and workspaces is used to estimate the mapping across the sensors. In the operational phase, the estimated mapping is used at the lighting controller to obtain an estimate of the illuminance value at the workspaces. Under the constraint that the estimated illuminance is higher than a specified target value, the controller optimizes the dimming levels of the luminaires to minimize power consumption. We evaluate the performance of the proposed approach in an open-office lighting model by considering different daylight conditions.

We address the problem of distributed unconstrained convex optimization under separability assumptions, i.e., the framework where a network of agents, each endowed with local private multidimensional convex cost and subject to communication constraints, wants to collaborate to compute the minimizer of the sum of the local costs. We propose a design methodology that combines average consensus algorithms and separation of time-scales ideas. This strategy is proven, under suitable hypotheses, to be globally convergent to the true minimizer. Intuitively, the procedure lets the agents distributedly compute and sequentially update an approximated Newton-Raphson direction by means of suitable average consensus ratios. We show with numerical simulations that the speed of convergence of this strategy is comparable with alternative optimization strategies such as the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers. Finally, we propose some alternative strategies which trade-off communication and computational requirements with convergence speed.

The problem of emergent synchronization pat-terns in a complex network of coupled oscillators has caughtscientists’ interest in a lot of different disciplines. In particular,from a biological point of view, considerable attention has beenrecently devoted to the study of the human brain as a networkof different cortical regions that show coherent activity duringresting-state. In literature, there can be found different large-scale models of resting-state dynamics in health and disease.In this context, the Kuramoto model, a classical model apt todescribe oscillators’ dynamics, has been extended to capture thespatial displacement and the communication conditions in suchbrain network. Starting from a previous work in this ?eld ,we analyze this modi?ed model and compare it with otherexisting large-scale models. In doing so, our aim is to promotea set of mathematical tools useful to better understand realexperimental data in neuroscience and estimate brain dynamics.

In  this  paper  we  address  the  average  consensus problem in a Wireless Sensor-Actor Network with the particular focus  on  autonomous  fault  detection.  To  this  aim,  we  design  a distributed  clustering  procedure  that  partitions  the  network into  clusters  according  to  both  similarity  of  measurements and communication connectivity. The exploitation of clustering techniques   in   consensus   computation   allows   to   obtain   the detection   and   isolation   of   faulty   nodes,   thus   assuring   the convergence  of  the  other  nodes  to  the  exact  consensus  value. More  interestingly,  the  algorithm  can  be  integrated  into  a Kalman filtering framework to perform distributed estimation of  a  dynamic  quantity  in  presence  of  faults.  The  proposed approach is validated through numerical simulations and tests on a real world scenario dataset.

Personal control with occupancy and daylight adaptation is considered in a lighting system with multiple luminaires. Each luminaire is equipped with a co-located occupancy sensor and light sensor that respectively provide local occupancy and illumination information to a central controller. Users may also provide control inputs to indicate a desired illuminance value. Using sensor feedback and user input, the central controller determines dimming values of the luminaires using an optimization framework. The cost function consists of a weighted sum of illumination errors at light sensors and the power consumption of the system. The optimum dimming values are determined with the constraints that the illuminance value at the light sensors are above the reference set-point at the light sensors and the dimming levels are within physical allowable limits. Different approaches to determine the set-points at light sensors associated with multiple user illumination requests are considered. The performance of the proposed constrained optimization problem is compared with a reference stand-alone controller under different simulation scenarios in an open-plan office lighting system.

In recent years, Visual Sensor Networks (VSNs) have emerged as an interesting category of distributed sensor- actor systems to retrieve data from the observed scene and produce information. Indeed, the request for accurate 3D scene reconstruction in several applications is leading to the development of very large systems and more specifically to large scale motion capture systems. When dealing with such huge amount of data from a large number of cameras it becomes very hard to make real time reconstruction on a single machine.
Within this context, a distributed approach for reconstruc- tion on large scale camera networks is proposed. The approach is based on geometric triangulation performed in a distributed fashion on the computational grid formed by the camera net- work organized into a tree structure. Since the computational performance of the algorithm strongly depends on the order in which cameras are paired, to optimize the efficiency of the reconstruction a pairing strategy is designed that relies on an affinity score among cameras. This score is computed from a probabilistic perspective by studying the variance of the 3D target reconstruction error and resorting to a normalized cut graph partitioning.
The scaling laws and the results obtained in simulation suggest that the proposed optimization strategy allows to obtain a significant reduction of the computational time.

We consider the problem of building a transitional model of an initially uncalibrated camera network. More specifically, we discuss an Hidden Markov Model (HMM) based strategy in which the model’s statespace is defined in terms of a partition of the physical network coverage. Transitions between any two such states are modeled by the distribution of the underlying Markov Process. Extending previous work in (Cenedese et al., 2010), we show how it is possible to infer the model structure and parameters from coordinate free observations and introduce a novel performance index that is used for model validation. We moreover show the predictive power of this HMM approach in simulated and real settings that comprise Pan-Tilt- Zoom (PTZ) cameras.

In this paper, we consider the problem of designing a distributed strategy to estimate the channel parameters for a generic Wireless Sensor-Actor Network. To this aim, we present a distributed least-square algorithm that complies with the constraint of transmitting only integer data through the wireless communication, which often characterizes Wireless Sensor-Actor Network embedded architectures. In this respect, we propose a quantized consensus strategy that mitigates the effects of the rounding operations applied to the wireless exchanged floating data. Moreover, the approach is based on a symmetric random gossip strategy, making it suitable for the actual deployment in multiagent networks. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm and of its implementation as an open-source application is assessed and the employment of the procedure is illustrated through the application to radio-frequency localization experiments in a real world testbed.

Technological advances and the ever-growing human quest for improving the resolution of telescope observations are motivating the design of larger and larger ground telescopes: indeed, the larger is the telescope lens diameter, the better is the diffraction limited resolution of the telescope. Unfortunately, the terrestrial atmospheric turbulence, if not properly compensated, negatively affects the telescope observations, limiting its real resolution. Adaptive Optics (AO) systems are used in large ground telescopes in order to compensate the effect of the atmosphere, and hence to make the real telescope resolution be determined by the diffraction properties of the lens.

Technological advances and the ever-growing human quest for improving the resolution of telescope observations are motivating the design of larger and larger ground telescopes: indeed, the larger is the telescope lens diameter, the better is the diffraction limited resolution of the telescope. Unfortunately, the terrestrial atmospheric turbulence, if not properly compensated, negatively affects the telescope observations, limiting its real resolution. Adaptive Optics (AO) systems are used in large ground telescopes in order to compensate the effect of the atmosphere, and hence to make the real telescope resolution be determined by the diffraction properties of the lens. AO systems exploit the measurements of wavefront sensors to estimate the current values of the atmospheric turbulence, and compensate its effect by properly adapting the shape of a set of deformable mirrors. As the size of the telescope lenses is increasing, then the size of the AO system (e.g. the number of deformable mirror actuators and the size of the wavefront sensor) is increasing as well. This causes the increase of the computational burden needed to compute a proper compensation of the effect of the atmosphere. Consequently, as the potential telescope resolution increases, the task of the AO systems becomes more challenging. Motivated by the need of providing AO solutions useful for the next generations of ground telescopes, then a number of efficient algorithms have been recently considered in the literature to solve the problems related to the AO system. This paper considers the combination of a recently proposed very efficient phase reconstruction method, namely the CuRe, with a properly defined Kalman filter in order to obtain a dynamic compensation of the atmospheric turbulence. The performance of the proposed approach is investigated in some simulations.

Turbulence simulation methods are of fundamental importance for evaluating the performance of control strategies for Adaptive Optics (AO) systems. In order to obtain a reliable evaluation of the performance a statistically accurate turbulence simulation method has to be used. This work generalizes a previously proposed method for turbulence simulation based on the use of a multiscale stochastic model. The main contributions of this work are: first, a multiresolution local PCA representation is considered. In typical operating conditions, the computational load for turbulence simulation is reduced approximately by a factor of 4, with respect to the previously proposed method, by means of this PCA representation. Second, thanks to a different low resolution method, based on a moving average model, the wind velocity can be in any direction (not necessarily that of the spatial axes). Finally, this paper extends the simulation procedure to generate, if needed, turbulence samples by using a more general model than that of the frozen flow hypothesis.

The diffusion of visual sensor networks, and in particular of smart camera networks, is motivating an increasing interest on the research of distributed solutions for several vision problems. Specifically, in this paper we propose a distributed solution to the problem of reconstructing target positions in large Motion Capture (MoCap) systems. Real time reconstruction by means of centralized procedures is practically unfeasible for very large systems, while the use of distributed computation allows to significantly reduce the computational time required for reconstruction, thus allowing the development of real time solutions.
Then the proposed distributed reconstruction procedure is optimized by exploiting information about the structure of the system: the visibility matrix states which objects in the scene are somehow measurable by a sensor (sensor-object matrix). Often, the typical localization of data from real application scenarios induces an underlying structure on the visibility matrix, that can be exploited to improve the performance of the system in understanding the surrounding environment. Unfortunately, usually these data are not properly organized in the visibility matrix: for instance, listing the sensors in a pseudo-random order can hide the underlying structure of the matrix. This paper considers the problem of recovering such underlying structure directly from the visibility matrix and designs an algorithm to perform this task.
Our simulations show that the distributed reconstruction algorithm optimized by means of the estimation of the structure of the visibility matrix allows a particularly relevant computational time reduction with respect to the standard (centralized) reconstruction algorithm.

In past years the Reversed Field Pinch RFX-mod has also been operated as a low current Tokamak to perform experiments of active control of MHD modes particularly harmful to a prospective reactor. The stabilization of m=2, n=1 mode has been achieved for 150 kA plasma currents in circular shape discharges at q(a)<2. In order to test the system capability of stabilizing such modes in improved confinement regimes, the possibility of producing D- shaped plasma discharges has been explored. Preliminary experiments were carried out in open loop in 2011. In the meantime a completely new plasma position and shape control system was designed and its performances simulated with the finite element 2D MHD equilibrium code MAXFEA. According to the simulation results, feedback control of the D- shape configuration was capable of meeting the design requirements. As a first step, the recent experimental campaign in Tokamak configuration was partially dedicated to demonstrate the possibility of a stable feedback controlled operation with an elongated plasma. In the paper the identification of the transfer function between a dedicated Field Shaping (FS) coil current distribution and the plasma elongation, the design of the control system, its implementation and successful testing are described.

Camera positioning units are widely used in surveillance and they are sometimes mounted on floating supports, e.g.
on patrolling ships or buoys. The support motion, in turn, induces an apparent motion in the image plane, which can create troubles to the image processing, especially when a specific feature must be tracked (e.g. a distant ship, getting close to a forbidden area). Low cost devices are often characterized by low frame rate and low image resolution, for which traditional image stabilization techniques usually results to be rather ineffective. Additionally, low-end camera units are usually driven by hybrid stepper motors and, being conceived to work in an harsh environment, they do not mount any optical image stabilization (OIS) system, either in the camera lenses or in the image sensor. In this paper, the image acquired by a pan–tilt camera positing unit mounted on a moving support is stabilized by exploiting the camera attitude information provided by a MEMS-based IMU with an embedded magnetometer. In particular, two independent integral control loops are designed for the pan and tilt motors in order to compensate for the yaw and pitch motions of the support. As for the roll motion, since it relates to an unavailable degree of freedom in the positioning unit, it can be compensated only on the captured image. The proposed solution is experimentally tested on a real device mounted on a moving table actuated by a 6 degrees–of–freedom pneumatic hexapod. Realistic motions are recreated by using the data recordings taken aboard of a patrolling ship and a costal buoy. Experimental results show that the proposed solution is capable of keeping the camera pointing at a fixed target with a good accuracy, thus making higher-level image processing easier and more effective.

Camera positioning units for surveillance applica- tions are often mounted on mobile supports or vehicles. In such circumstances, the motion of the supporting base affects the camera field of view, thus making the task of pointing and tracking a specific target problematic, especially when using low cost devices that are usually not equipped with rapid actuators and fast video processing units. Visual tracking capabilities can be improved if the camera field of view is preliminarily stabilized against the movements of the base. Although some cameras available on the market are already equipped with an optical image stabilization (OIS) system, implemented either in the camera lenses or in the image sensor, these are usually too expensive to be installed on low–end positioning devices.
A cheaper approach to image stabilization consists of stabilizing the camera motion using the motors of the positioning unit and the inertial measurements provided by a low–cost MEMS Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU). This paper explores the feasibility of applying such image stabilization system to a low cost pan–tilt– zoom (PTZ) camera positioning unit driven by hybrid stepper motors (HSMs), in order to aid the task of pointing and tracking of a specific target on the camera image plane. In the proposed solution, a two–level cascaded control structure, consisting of inner inertial stabilizing control loop and an outer visual servoing control loop, is used to control the PTZ unit. Several tests are carried out on a real device mounted on a moving table actuated by a 6 degrees–of–freedom pneumatic hexapod. Realistic motions are recreated by using the data recordings taken aboard of a patrolling ship.

Models typically used to simulate the influence of atmospheric turbulence on ground telescope observations are usually based on the frozen flow hypothesis. However, the frozen flow model of the atmosphere is valid at time scales of the order of tens/hundreds of milliseconds. This paper generalizes a previous model for turbulence simulation to ensure reliable tests of AO system performance in realistic working conditions. The proposed method relies on the use of two simulation models: First, the part of turbulence that shows a coherent flow at short time scales is simulated by means of a multiscale autoregressive-moving average model, which allows to efficiently simulate (with computational complexity O(n)) the coherent evolution of the turbulence. Secondly, an approach similar to that considered for dynamic textures, is used to simulate aberrations caused by processes that evolve on much longer time scales. The proposed procedure is tested on simulations.

Motivated by the increasing importance of Adap- tive Optics (AO) systems for improving the real resolution of large ground telescopes, and by the need of testing the AO system performance in realistic working conditions, in this paper we address the problem of simulating the turbulence effect on ground telescope observations at high resolution. The multiscale approach presented here generalizes that in [3]: First, a relevant computational time reduction is obtained by exploiting a local spatial principal component analysis (PCA) representation of the turbulence. Furthermore, differently from [3], the turbulence at low resolution is modeled as a moving average (MA) process. While in [3] the wind velocity was restricted to be directed along one of the two spatial axes, the approach proposed here allows to evolve the turbulence indifferently in all the directions. In our simulations the pro- posed procedure reproduces with good accuracy the theoretical statistical characteristics of the turbulent phase.

Motivated by the increasing importance of adaptive optics (AO) systems for improving the real resolution of large ground telescopes, and by the need of testing the AO system performance in realistic working conditions, in this paper we address the problem of simulating the turbulence effect on ground telescope observations at high resolution. The procedure presented here generalizes the multiscale stochastic approach introduced in our earlier paper [Appl. Opt. 50, 4124 (2011)], with respect to the previous solution, a relevant computational time reduction is obtained by exploiting a local spatial principal component analysis (PCA) representation of the turbulence. Furthermore, the turbulence at low resolution is modeled as a moving average (MA) process, while previously [Appl. Opt. 50, 4124 (2011)] the wind velocity was restricted to be directed along one of the two spatial axes, the use of such MA model allows the turbulence to evolve indifferently in all the directions. In our simulations, the proposed procedure reproduces the theoretical statistical characteristics of the turbulent phase with good accuracy.

In large ground telescopes the Adaptive Optics (AO) system aims at compensating the atmosphere effect on telescope measurements, and, the use of optimal filtering is fundamental for such task. This work is motivated by two important characteristics of new AO systems: on one hand, because of the request of very high measurement resolutions, the size of new telescopes, and of their sensors, is quickly increasing in the last decades, thus imposing to the AO systems the analysis of larger amount of data. On the other hand, the optimal filter has to be periodically updated according to temporal changes in atmosphere characteristics. Hence, it is of fundamental importance the use of computationally efficient algorithms for the update of the optimal filter gain.
This paper proposes some changes to a recently presented method for the efficient computation, in the frequency domain, of the Kalman gain for large AO systems [15]. The proposed changes, which mainly aim at correcting some issues due to the conversion spatial–frequency domain, and viceversa, allow to compute a better approximation of the optimal Kalman gain, and, consequently, significantly improve the performance of the AO system.

In current and next generation of ground tele- scopes, Adaptive Optics (AO) are employed to overcome the detrimental effects induced by the presence of atmospheric turbulence, that strongly affects the quality of data transmission and limits the actual resolution of the overall system. The analysis as well as the prediction of the turbulent phase affecting the light wavefront is therefore of paramount importance to guarantee the effective performance of the AO solution.
In this work, a layered model of turbulence is proposed, based on the definition of a Markov-Random-Field whose pa- rameters are determined according to the turbulence statistics. The problem of turbulence estimation is formalized within the stochastic framework and conditions for the identifiability of the turbulence structure (numbers of layers, energies and velocities) are stated. Finally, an algorithm to allow the layer detection and characterization from measurements is designed. Numerical simulations are used to assess the proposed procedure and validate the results, confirming the validity of the approach and the accuracy of the detection.

Following the completion in May 2011 of the shutdown for the installation of the beryllium wall and the tungsten divertor, the first set of JET campaigns have addressed the investigation of the retention properties and the development of operational scenarios with the new plasma-facing materials. The large reduction in the carbon content (more than a factor ten) led to a much lower Z_eff (1.2–1.4) during L- and H-mode plasmas, and radiation during the burn-through phase of the plasma initiation with the consequence that breakdown failures are almost absent. Gas balance experiments have shown that the fuel retention rate with the new wall is substantially reduced with respect to the C wall. The re-establishment of the baseline H-mode and hybrid scenarios compatible with the new wall has required an optimization of the control of metallic impurity sources and heat loads. Stable type-I ELMy H-mode regimes with H_98,y2 close to 1 and ?_N ~ 1.6 have been achieved using gas injection. ELM frequency is a key factor for the control of the metallic impurity accumulation. Pedestal temperatures tend to be lower with the new wall, leading to reduced confinement, but nitrogen seeding restores high pedestal temperatures and confinement. Compared with the carbon wall, major disruptions with the new wall show a lower radiated power and a slower current quench. The higher heat loads on Be wall plasma-facing components due to lower radiation made the routine use of massive gas injection for disruption mitigation essential.

Tissue engineering of autologous lung tissue aims to become a therapeutic alternative to transplantation. Efforts published so far in creating scaffolds have used harsh decellularization techniques that damage the extracellular matrix (ECM), deplete its components and take up to 5 weeks to perform. The aim of this study was to create a lung natural acellular scaffold using a method that will reduce the time of production and better preserve scaffold architecture and ECM components. Decellularization of rat lungs via the intratracheal route removed most of the nuclear material when compared to the other entry points. An intermittent inflation approach that mimics lung respiration yielded an acellular scaffold in a shorter time with an improved preservation of pulmonary micro-architecture. Electron microscopy demonstrated the maintenance of an intact alveolar network, with no evidence of collapse or tearing. Pulsatile dye injection via the vasculature indicated an intact capillary network in the scaffold. Morphometry analysis demonstrated a significant increase in alveolar fractional volume, with alveolar size analysis confirming that alveolar dimensions were maintained. Biomechanical testing of the scaffolds indicated an increase in resistance and elastance when compared to fresh lungs. Staining and quantification for ECM components showed a presence of collagen, elastin, GAG and laminin. The intratracheal intermittent decellularization methodology could be translated to sheep lungs, demonstrating a preservation of ECM components, alveolar and vascular architecture. Decellularization treatment and methodology preserves lung architecture and ECM whilst reducing the production time to 3 h. Cell seeding and in vivo experiments are necessary to proceed towards clinical translation.

In this work the design and implementation of an application to track multiple agents in a indoor Wireless Sensor Actor Network (WSAN) is proposed. We developed a tracking algorithm that falls into the category of the radio frequency localization/tracking methods, that exploit the strength of the wireless communications among fixed and mobile agents to establish the position of the mobile ones. The algorithm resorts to an Extended Kalman Filter to process the agents measurements and reach a desired level of tracking performance. The tracking application, namely Teseo, is composed by a low-level NesC management software for the agents side and a Java graphical interface provided to users connected to mobile agents. A detailed description of the operations performed by Teseo is given, accompanied both by simulations to validate the tracking algorithm and experiments on a real testbed to test Teseo.

Measurements of large ground telescopes are af- fected by the presence of the terrestrial atmospheric turbulence: local changes of the atmospheric refraction index (e.g. due to wind and temperature variations) cause a non flat surface of the wavefront of light beams incoming on the telescope, thus degrading the quality of the observed images. Adaptive Optics (AO) systems are of fundamental importance to reduce such atmospheric influence on ground telescopes and thus to obtain high resolution observations. The goal of the AO system is that of estimating and compensating the atmospheric turbulence effect by properly commanding a set of deformable mirrors.
Because of delays in the closed loop system, the Kalman filter plays an important role in ensuring an effective control perfor- mance by providing good atmosphere predictions. However, the need of periodically updating the Kalman filter gain because of changes in the atmosphere characteristics, the increase of telescopes and sensors resolutions and the high sampling rate impose quite strict restrictions to the computational load for computing the Kalman gain.
Motivated by the above considerations, some strategies have been recently considered in the system theory and astronomical communities for the efficient computation of the Kalman gain for large AO systems. Specifically, this paper presents some changes to a recently proposed procedure: the proposed approach, which exploits some results in the control theory of distributed systems, computes an approximation of the optimal gain in the frequency domain exploiting the spatial homogeneity of the system. Then, the control strategy takes advantage of some information on the turbulent phase dynamic, that is estimated from the turbulence measurements. Performances of the proposed method are investigated in some simulations.

The request for very accurate 3D reconstruction in several applications is leading to the development of very large motion capture systems. A good synchronization of all the cameras in the system is of fundamental importance to guarantee the effectiveness of the 3D reconstruction.
In this work, first, an approximation of the reconstruction error variance taking into account of synchronization errors is derived. Then, a Kalman filter approach is considered to estimate the cameras synchronization errors. The estimated delays can be used to compensate the synchronization error effect on the reconstruction of target positions. The results obtained in some simulations suggest that the proposed strategy allows to obtain a significant reduction of the 3D reconstruction error.

Mutations in the survival of motor neuron gene (SMN1) are responsible for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a fatal neuromuscular disorder. Mice carrying a homozygous deletion of Smn exon 7 directed to skeletal muscle (HSA-Cre, Smn^F7/F7 mice) present clinical features of human muscular dystrophies for which new therapeutic approaches are highly warranted. Herein we demonstrate that tail vein transplantation of mouse amniotic fluid stem (AFS) cells enhances the muscle strength and improves the survival rate of the affected animals. Secondly, after cardiotoxin injury of the Tibialis Anterior, only AFS-transplanted mice efficiently regenerate. Most importantly, secondary transplants of satellite cells (SC) derived from treated mice show that AFS cells integrate into the muscle stem cell compartment, and have long term muscle regeneration capacity indistinguishable from that of wild type-derived SC. This is the first study demonstrating the functional and stable integration of AFS cells into the skeletal muscle, highlighting their value as cell source for the treatment of muscular dystrophies.

In fusion devices, the accurate reconstruction of the boundary location and shape from magnetic diagnostics is of paramount importance for the efficient control of the plasma evolution and the safe running of the experiment. In addition to a good and consistent performance in the reconstruction, the task must be performed in real time as the input for the shape controller and more in general for the scenario optimization. To this aim, a statistical procedure for the evaluation of the reconstruction capability of different magnetic sensor sets is presented, which can drive the choice for an optimal set to be used for the reconstruction of plasma location and boundary shape during real time operation. In addition, an algorithm to approximately solve the free boundary problem and estimate the plasma shape starting from the magnetics is devised. Beyond representing a first step towards the definition of a boundary reconstruction code for plasma shape control, this tool is also used to cross validate and confirm the statistical analysis on the diagnostics.

We consider the distributed unconstrained minimization of separable convex costfunctions, where the global cost is given by the sum of several local and private costs, eachassociated to a specific agent of a given communication network. We specifically address anasynchronous distributed optimization technique called Newton-Raphson consensus. Besidehaving low computational complexity, low communication requirements and being interpretableas a distributed Newton-Raphson algorithm, the technique has also the beneficial properties ofrequiring very little coordination and naturally support time-varying topologies. In this workwe analytically prove that under some assumptions it shows local convergence properties, andcorroborate this result by means of numerical simulations.

A new boundary reconstruction procedure is presented and validated against ITER nominal equilibria. An approxima- tion of the plasma with an equivalent filamentary current model is employed, which is computed iteratively and allows to describe a wide variety of plasma current distributions (from the peaked ones, to the pedestal current ones). One of the specific features of the procedure is how the filaments are switched on and how the total current is distributed over the entire set, being the filaments independently considered: this allows more degrees of freedom to the model to adapt to particular current distributions, yielding better performances with a negligible additional computational burden. The code also implements a special points search making it well suited for both diverted (be they top or bottom x-point) and limiter configurations. In addition also the reconstruction in presence of noise has been explored.

A new boundary reconstruction procedure is presented and validated against ITER nominal equilibria. An approximation of the plasma with an equivalent filamentary current model is employed, which is computed iteratively and allows to describe a wide variety of plasma current distributions (from the peaked ones, to the pedestal current ones). One of the specific features of the procedure is how the filaments are switched on and how the total current is distributed over the entire set, being the filaments independently considered: this allows more degrees of freedom to the model to adapt to particular current distributions, yielding better performances with a negligible additional computational burden. The code also implements a special points search making it well suited for both diverted (be they top or bottom x-point) and limiter configurations. In addition also the reconstruction in presence of noise has been explored.

In this paper we study the problem of real-time optimal distributed partitioning for perimeter patrolling in the context of multi-camera networks for surveillance. The objective is to partition a given segment into non-overlapping sub-segments, each assigned to a different camera to patrol. Each camera has both physical mobility range and limited speed, and it must patrol its assigned sub-segment by sweeping it back and forth at maximum speed. Here we first review the solution for the centralized optimal partitioning. Then we propose two different distributed control strategies to determine the extremes of the optimal patrolling areas of each camera. Both these strategies require only local communication with the neighboring cameras but adopt different communication schemes, respectively, symmetric gossip and asynchronous asymmetric broadcast. The first scheme is shown to be provably convergent to the optimal solution. Some theoretical insights are provided also for the second scheme whose effectiveness is validated through numerical simulations.

In this work the design and implementation of an application to track multiple agents in a indoor Wireless Sensor Actor Network (WSAN) is proposed. The adopted embedded hardware for the network nodes is theTmote Sky, an ultra low power IEEE 802.15.4 compliant wireless device, which has become a reference in the academia for the early development of algorithms and applications for Wireless Sensor Actor Networks (WSANs). These devices are based on the TinyOS operative system and are programmed in NesC a C-derived language specifically developed for embedded systems. NesC has become indispensable for low-level management ofindividual agents while Java was chosen to provide the user with a simple and intuitive graphical interface with whom showing and coordinating the tracking.

In this work an algorithm to track multiple agents in an indoor Wireless Sensor Actor Network (WSAN) is proposed. The algorithm falls into the category of the radio frequency localization methods, since it exploits the strength of the wireless communications among nodes to establish the position of a set of mobile nodes within a network of fixed nodes placed in known locations. In this sense, a radio channel model is introduced that allows to estimate the distances among nodes to attain localization and tracking (range-based approach). Moreover, to compensate for the scant robustness of power measurements, the loss effects induced by wireless communication,the intrinsic uncertainty of unstructured environments, the algorithm resorts to an Extended Kalman Filter to process the node measurements and reach a desired level of localization performance. Finally, the design phase is validated through the implementation and the experiments on a real testbed.

In this work we consider a multidimensional distributed optimization technique that is suitable for multiagents systems subject to limited communication connectivity. In particular, we consider a convex unconstrained additive problem, i.e. a case where the global convex unconstrained multidimensional cost function is given by the sum of local cost functions available only to the specific owning agents. We show how, by exploiting the separation of time-scales principle,the multidimensional consensus-based strategy approximates a Newton-Raphson descent algorithm. We propose two alternative optimization strategies corresponding to approximations of the main procedure. These approximations introduce tradeoffs between the required communication bandwidth and the convergence speed/accuracy of the results. We provide analytical proofs of convergence and numerical simulations supporting the intuitions developed through the paper.

This paper considers the problem of simulating the turbulence effect on ground telescope observations. The approach presented here is an evolution of a recently proposed approach [3]. The main contributions with respect to [3] are: First, the Haar transform at the basis of the multiscale model in [3] is shown to be equivalent to a local PCA representation. This equivalence allows to reduce the computational complexity of the simulation algorithm by neglecting the components in the signal with lower energy. Furthermore, the simulation of nonstationary turbulence is obtained by properly changing the values of the multiscale model: Such change is eased by the invariance of the PCA spatial basis with respect to the change of turbulence statistical characteristics. The proposed approach is validated by means of some simulations.

Geometric triangulation is at the basis of the estimation of the 3D position of a target from a set of camera measurements. The problem of optimal estimation (minimizing the L2 norm) of the target position from multi-view perspective projective measurements is typically a hard problem to solve. In literature there are different types of algorithms for this purpose, based for example on the exhaustive check of all the local minima of a proper eigenvalue problem [2], or branch- and-bound techniques [3]. However, such methods typically become unfeasible for real time applications when the number of cameras and targets become large, calling for the definition of approximate procedures to solve the reconstruction problem.
In the first part of this paper, linear (fast) algorithms, computing an approximate solution to such problems, are described and compared in simulation. Then, in the second part, a Gaussian approximation to the measurement error is used to express the reconstruction error’s standard deviation as a function of the position of the reconstructed point. An upper bound, valid over all the target domain, to this expression is obtained for a case of interest. Such upper bound allows to compute a number of cameras sufficient to obtain a user defined level of position estimation accuracy.

We consider the convergence rates of two peculiar2 convex optimization strategies in the context of multi agent3 systems, namely the Newton-Raphson consensus optimization4 and a distributed Gradient-Descent opportunely derived from5 the first. To allow analytical derivations, the convergence6 analyses are performed under the simplificative assumption of7 quadratic local cost functions. In this framework we derive8 sufficient conditions which guarantee the convergence of the9 algorithms. From these conditions we then obtain closed form10 expressions that can be used to tune the parameters for11 maximizing the rate of convergence. Despite these formulae12 have been derived under quadratic local cost functions13 assumptions, they can be used as rules-of-thumb for tuning14 the parameters of the algorithms in general situations.

Nowadays, the adaptive optics (AO) system is of fundamental importance to reduce the effect of atmospheric turbulence on the images formed on large ground telescopes. In this paper the AO system takes advantage of the knowledge of the current turbulence characteristics, that are estimated by data, to properly control the deformable mirrors. The turbulence model considered in this paper is based on two assumptions: considering the turbulence as formed by a discrete set of layers moving over the telescope lens, and each layer is modeled as a Markov-Random-Field. The proposed Markov-Random-Field approach is exploited for estimating the layers’ characteristics. Then, a linear predictor of the turbulent phase, based on the computed information on the turbulence layers, is constructed. Since scalability and low computational complexity of the control algorithms are important requirements for real AO systems, the computational complexity properties of the proposed model are investigated. Interestingly, the proposed model shows a good scalability and an almost linear computational complexity thanks to its block diagonal structure. Performances of the proposed method are investigated by means of some simulations.

Simulating the turbulence effect on ground telescope observations is of fundamental importance for the design and test of suitable control algorithms for adaptive optics systems. In this paper we propose a multiscale approach for efficiently synthesizing turbulent phases at very high resolution. First, the turbulence is simulated at low resolution, taking advantage of a previously developed method for generating phase screens. Then, high-resolution phase screens are obtained as the output of a multiscale linear stochastic system. The multiscale approach significantly improves the computational efficiency of turbulence simulation with respect to recently developed methods. Furthermore, the proposed procedure ensures good accuracy in reproducing the statistical characteristics of the turbulent phase.

In this work we study the problem of unconstrained distributed optimization in the context of multi-agents systems subject to limited communication connectivity. In particular we focus on the minimization of a sum of convex cost functions, where each component of the global function is available only to a specific agent and can thus be seen as a private local cost. The agents need to cooperate to compute the minimizer of the sum of all costs. We propose a consensus-like strategy to estimate a Newton-Raphson descending update for the local estimates of the global minimizer at each agent. In particular, the algorithm is based on the separation of time-scales principle and it is proved to converge to the global minimizer if a specific parameter that tunes the rate of convergence is chosen sufficiently small. We also provide numerical simulations and compare them with alternative distributed optimization strategies like the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers and the Distributed Subgradient Method.

Since the last IAEA Conference JET has been in operation for one year with a programmatic focus on the qualification of ITER operating scenarios, the consolidation of ITER design choices and preparation for plasma operation with the ITER-like wall presently being installed in JET. Good progress has been achieved, including stationary ELMy H-mode operation at 4.5?MA. The high confinement hybrid scenario has been extended to high triangularity, lower ?^* and to pulse lengths comparable to the resistive time. The steady-state scenario has also been extended to lower ?^* and ?^* and optimized to simultaneously achieve, under stationary conditions, ITER-like values of all other relevant normalized parameters. A dedicated helium campaign has allowed key aspects of plasma control and H-mode operation for the ITER non-activated phase to be evaluated. Effective sawtooth control by fast ions has been demonstrated with ³He minority ICRH, a scenario with negligible minority current drive. Edge localized mode (ELM) control studies using external n = 1 and n = 2 perturbation fields have found a resonance effect in ELM frequency for specific q₉₅ values. Complete ELM suppression has, however, not been observed, even with an edge Chirikov parameter larger than 1. Pellet ELM pacing has been demonstrated and the minimum pellet size needed to trigger an ELM has been estimated. For both natural and mitigated ELMs a broadening of the divertor ELM-wetted area with increasing ELM size has been found. In disruption studies with massive gas injection up to 50% of the thermal energy could be radiated before, and 20% during, the thermal quench. Halo currents could be reduced by 60% and, using argon/deuterium and neon/deuterium gas mixtures, runaway electron generation could be avoided. Most objectives of the ITER-like ICRH antenna have been demonstrated; matching with closely packed straps, ELM resilience, scattering matrix arc detection and operation at high power density (6.2?MW?m^?2) and antenna strap voltages (42?kV). Coupling measurements are in very good agreement with TOPICA modelling.