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Different from most of the formation strategies where robots require unique labels to identify topological neighbors to satisfy the predefined shape constraints, we here study the problem of identity-less distributed shape formation in homogeneous swarms, which is rarely studied in the literature. The absence of identities creates a unique challenge: how to design appropriate target formations and local behaviors that are suitable for identity-less formation shape control. To address this challenge, we propose the following novel results. First, to avoid using unique identities, we propose a dynamic formation description method and solve the formation consensus of robots in a locally distributed manner. Second, to handle identity-less distributed formations, we propose a fully distributed control law for homogeneous swarms based on locally sensed information. While the existing methods are applicable to simple cases where the target formation is stationary, ours can tackle more general maneuvering formations such as translation, rotation, or even shape deformation. Both numerical simulation and flight experiment are presented to verify the effectiveness and robustness of our proposed formation strategy.

In this paper, we address the shape formation problem for massive robot swarms in environments where external localization systems are unavailable. Achieving this task effectively with solely onboard measurements is still scarcely explored and faces some practical challenges. To solve this challenging problem, we propose the following novel results. Firstly, to estimate the relative positions among neighboring robots, a concurrent-learning based estimator is proposed. It relaxes the persistent excitation condition required in the classical ones such as least-square estimator. Secondly, we introduce a finite-time agreement protocol to determine the shape location. This is achieved by estimating the relative position between each robot and a randomly assigned seed robot. The initial position of the seed one marks the shape location. Thirdly, based on the theoretical results of the relative localization, a novel behavior-based control strategy is devised. This strategy not only enables adaptive shape formation of large group of robots but also enhances the observability of inter-robot relative localization. Numerical simulation results are provided to verify the performance of our proposed strategy compared to the state-of-the-art ones. Additionally, outdoor experiments on real robots further demonstrate the practical effectiveness and robustness of our methods.

In this paper, we consider the adaptive linear quadratic Gaussian control problem, where both the linear transformation matrix of the state $A$ and the control gain matrix $B$ are unknown. The proposed adaptive optimal control only assumes that $(A, B)$ is stabilizable and $(A, Q^{1/2})$ is detectable, where $Q$ is the weighting matrix of the state in the quadratic cost function. This condition significantly weakens the classic assumptions used in the literature. To tackle this problem, a weighted least squares algorithm is modified by using random regularization method, which can ensure uniform stabilizability and uniform detectability of the family of estimated models. At the same time, a diminishing excitation is incorporated into the design of the proposed adaptive control to guarantee strong consistency of the desired components of the estimates. Finally, by utilizing this family of estimates, even if not all components of them converge to the true values, it is demonstrated that a certainty equivalence control with such a diminishing excitation is optimal for an ergodic quadratic cost function.

In this paper, a triggered Batch Least-Squares Identifier (BaLSI) based adaptive safety control scheme is proposed for uncertain systems with potentially conflicting control objectives and safety constraints. A relaxation term is added to the Quadratic Programs (QP) combining the transformed Control Lyapunov Functions (CLFs) and Control Barrier Functions (CBFs), to mediate the potential conflict. The existing Lyapunov-based adaptive schemes designed to guarantee specific properties of the Lyapunov functions, may grow unboundedly under the effects of the relaxation term. The adaptive law is designed by processing system inputs and outputs, to avoid unbounded estimates and overparameterization problems in the existing results. A safetytriggered condition is presented, based on which the forward invariant property of the safe set is shown and Zeno behavior can be excluded. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed adaptive control scheme., Comment: 11 pages, 10 fidures

In swarm robotics, confrontation including the pursuit-evasion game is a key scenario. High uncertainty caused by unknown opponents' strategies, dynamic obstacles, and insufficient training complicates the action space into a hybrid decision process. Although the deep reinforcement learning method is significant for swarm confrontation since it can handle various sizes, as an end-to-end implementation, it cannot deal with the hybrid process. Here, we propose a novel hierarchical reinforcement learning approach consisting of a target allocation layer, a path planning layer, and the underlying dynamic interaction mechanism between the two layers, which indicates the quantified uncertainty. It decouples the hybrid process into discrete allocation and continuous planning layers, with a probabilistic ensemble model to quantify the uncertainty and regulate the interaction frequency adaptively. Furthermore, to overcome the unstable training process introduced by the two layers, we design an integration training method including pre-training and cross-training, which enhances the training efficiency and stability. Experiment results in both comparison, ablation, and real-robot studies validate the effectiveness and generalization performance of our proposed approach. In our defined experiments with twenty to forty agents, the win rate of the proposed method reaches around ninety percent, outperforming other traditional methods.

Traditional methods plan feasible paths for multiple agents in the stochastic environment. However, the methods' iterations with the changes in the environment result in computation complexities, especially for the decentralized agents without a centralized planner. Although reinforcement learning provides a plausible solution because of the generalization for different environments, it struggles with enormous agent-environment interactions in training. Here, we propose a novel centralized training with decentralized execution method based on multi-agent reinforcement learning, which is improved based on the idea of model predictive control. In our approach, agents communicate only with the centralized planner to make decentralized decisions online in the stochastic environment. Furthermore, considering the communication constraint with the centralized planner, each agent plans feasible paths through the extended observation, which combines information on neighboring agents based on the distance-weighted mean field approach. Inspired by the rolling optimization approach of model predictive control, we conduct multi-step value convergence in multi-agent reinforcement learning to enhance the training efficiency, which reduces the expensive interactions in convergence. Experiment results in both comparison, ablation, and real-robot studies validate the effectiveness and generalization performance of our method.

Adaptive fuzzy control strategies are established to achieve global prescribed performance with prescribed-time convergence for strict-feedback systems with mismatched uncertainties and unknown nonlinearities. Firstly, to quantify the transient and steady performance constraints of the tracking error, a class of prescribed-time prescribed performance functions are designed, and a novel error transformation function is introduced to remove the initial value constraints and solve the singularity problem in existing works. Secondly, based on dynamic surface control methods, controllers with or without approximating structures are established to guarantee that the tracking error achieves prescribed transient performance and converges into a prescribed bounded set within prescribed time. In particular, the settling time and initial value of the prescribed performance function are completely independent of initial conditions of the tracking error and system parameters, which improves existing results. Moreover, with a novel Lyapunov-like energy function, not only the differential explosion problem frequently occurring in backstepping techniques is solved, but the drawback of the semi-global boundedness of tracking error induced by dynamic surface control can be overcome. The validity and effectiveness of the main results are verified by numerical simulations on practical examples.

Energy-based latent variable models (EBLVMs) are more expressive than conventional energy-based models. However, its potential on visual tasks are limited by its training process based on maximum likelihood estimate that requires sampling from two intractable distributions. In this paper, we propose Bi-level doubly variational learning (BiDVL), which is based on a new bi-level optimization framework and two tractable variational distributions to facilitate learning EBLVMs. Particularly, we lead a decoupled EBLVM consisting of a marginal energy-based distribution and a structural posterior to handle the difficulties when learning deep EBLVMs on images. By choosing a symmetric KL divergence in the lower level of our framework, a compact BiDVL for visual tasks can be obtained. Our model achieves impressive image generation performance over related works. It also demonstrates the significant capacity of testing image reconstruction and out-of-distribution detection., Comment: CVPR 2022

This paper investigates almost sure exponential stabilization of continuous-time Markov jump linear systems (MJLSs) under communication data-rate constraints by introducing sampling and quantization into the feedback control. Different from previous works, the sampling times and the jump times are independent of each other in this paper. The quantization is recursively adjusted on the sampling time, and its updating strategy does not depend on the switching in a sampling interval. In other words, the explicit value of the switching signal in a sampling interval is not necessary. The numerically testable condition is developed to ensure almost sure exponential stabilization of MJLSs under the proposed communication and control protocols. We also drop the assumption of stabilizability of all individual modes required in previous works about the switched systems. Moreover, we extend the result to the case of continuous-time semi-Markov jump linear systems (semi-MJLSs) via the semi-Markov kernel approach. Finally, some numerical examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed communication and control protocols., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures

Artificial neural networks have achieved great success in many fields ranging from image recognition to video understanding. However, its high requirements for computing and memory resources have limited further development on processing big data with high dimensions. In recent years, advances in quantum computing show that building neural networks on quantum processors is a potential solution to this problem. In this paper, we propose a novel neural network model named Quantum Convolutional Neural Network (QCNN), aiming at utilizing the computing power of quantum systems to accelerate classical machine learning tasks. The designed QCNN is based on implementable quantum circuits and has a similar structure as classical convolutional neural networks. Numerical simulation results on the MNIST dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of our model., Comment: Techniques need to be double checked

Fine-grained visual classification (FGVC) is challenging but more critical than traditional classification tasks. It requires distinguishing different subcategories with the inherently subtle intra-class object variations. Previous works focus on enhancing the feature representation ability using multiple granularities and discriminative regions based on the attention strategy or bounding boxes. However, these methods highly rely on deep neural networks which lack interpretability. We propose an Interpretable Attention Guided Network (IAGN) for fine-grained visual classification. The contributions of our method include: i) an attention guided framework which can guide the network to extract discriminitive regions in an interpretable way; ii) a progressive training mechanism obtained to distill knowledge stage by stage to fuse features of various granularities; iii) the first interpretable FGVC method with a competitive performance on several standard FGVC benchmark datasets.

Recently, a chaotic image encryption algorithm based on information entropy (IEAIE) was proposed. This paper scrutinizes the security properties of the algorithm and evaluates the validity of the used quantifiable security metrics. When the round number is only one, the equivalent secret key of every basic operation of IEAIE can be recovered with a differential attack separately. Some common insecurity problems in the field of chaotic image encryption are found in IEAIE, e.g. the short orbits of the digital chaotic system and the invalid sensitivity mechanism built on information entropy of the plain image. Even worse, each security metric is questionable, which undermines the security credibility of IEAIE. Hence, IEAIE can only serve as a counterexample for illustrating common pitfalls in designing secure communication method for image data., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, IEEE Access, 2018

Chaotic dynamics is an important source for generating pseudorandom binary sequences (PRNS). Much efforts have been devoted to obtaining period distribution of the generalized discrete Arnold's Cat map in various domains using all kinds of theoretical methods, including Hensel's lifting approach. Diagonalizing the transform matrix of the map, this paper gives the explicit formulation of any iteration of the generalized Cat map. Then, its real graph (cycle) structure in any binary arithmetic domain is disclosed. The subtle rules on how the cycles (itself and its distribution) change with the arithmetic precision $e$ are elaborately investigated and proved. The regular and beautiful patterns of Cat map demonstrated in a computer adopting fixed-point arithmetics are rigorously proved and experimentally verified. The results will facilitate research on dynamics of variants of the Cap map in any domain and its effective application in cryptography. In addition, the used methodology can be used to evaluate randomness of PRNS generated by iterating any other maps., Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures

This paper analyzes the security of an image encryption algorithm proposed by Ye and Huang [\textit{IEEE MultiMedia}, vol. 23, pp. 64-71, 2016]. The Ye-Huang algorithm uses electrocardiography (ECG) signals to generate the initial key for a chaotic system and applies an autoblocking method to divide a plain image into blocks of certain sizes suitable for subsequent encryption. The designers claimed that the proposed algorithm is "strong and flexible enough for practical applications". In this paper, we perform a thorough analysis of their algorithm from the view point of modern cryptography. We find it is vulnerable to the known plaintext attack: based on one pair of a known plain-image and its corresponding cipher-image, an adversary is able to derive a mask image, which can be used as an equivalent secret key to successfully decrypt other cipher-images encrypted under the same key with a non-negligible probability of 1/256. Using this as a typical counterexample, we summarize security defects in the design of the Ye-Huang algorithm. The lessons are generally applicable to many other image encryption schemes., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures

This paper proposes a chaotic map-based multicast scheme for multiuser speech wireless communication and implements it in an ARM platform. The scheme compresses the digital audio signal decoded by a sound card and then encrypts it with a three-level chaotic encryption scheme. First, the position of every bit of the compressed data is permuted randomly with a pseudo-random number sequence (PRNS) generated by a 6-D chaotic map. Then, the obtained data are further permuted in the level of byte with a PRNS generated by a 7-D chaotic map. Finally, it is operated with a multiround chaotic stream cipher. The whole system owns the following merits: the redundancy in the original audio file is reduced effectively and the corresponding unicity distance is increased; the balancing point between a high security level of the system and real-time conduction speed is achieved well. In the ARM implementation, the framework of communication of multicast-multiuser in a subnet and the Internet Group Manage Protocol is adopted to obtain the function of communication between one client and other ones. Comprehensive test results were provided to show the feasibility and security performance of the whole system., Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures in International Journal of Circuit Theory and Applications, 2017

Synchronization phenomena are of broad interest across disciplines and increasingly of interest in a multiplex network setting. Here we show how the Master Stability Function, a celebrated framework for analyzing synchronization on a single network, can be extended to certain classes of multiplex networks with different intra-layer and inter-layer coupling functions. We derive three master stability equations that determine respectively the necessary regions of complete synchronization, intra-layer synchronization and inter-layer synchronization. We calculate these three regions explicitly for the case of a two-layer network of R{\"o}ssler oscillators and show that the overlap of the regions determines the type of synchronization achieved. In particular, if the inter- or intra-layer coupling function is such that the inter-layer or intra-layer synchronization region is empty, complete synchronization cannot be achieved regardless of the coupling strength. Furthermore, for any given nodal dynamics and network structure, the occurrence of intra-layer and inter-layer synchronization depend mainly on the coupling functions of nodes within a layer and across layers, respectively. Our mathematical analysis requires that the intra- and inter-layer supra-Laplacians commute. But we show this is only a sufficient, and not necessary, condition and that the results can be applied more generally., Comment: 30 pages, 12 figures

This paper discusses the letter entitled "Network analysis of the state space of discrete dynamical systems" by A. Shreim et al. [Physical Review Letters, 98, 198701 (2007)]. We found that some theoretical analyses are wrong and the proposed indicators based on two parameters of the state-mapping network cannot discriminate the dynamical complexity of the discrete dynamical systems composed of a 1-D Cellular Automata., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures

Utilizing complex dynamics of chaotic maps and systems in encryption was studied comprehensively in the past two and a half decades. In 1989, Fridrich's chaotic image encryption scheme was designed by iterating chaotic position permutation and value substitution some rounds, which received intensive attention in the field of chaos-based cryptography. In 2010, Solak \textit{et al.} proposed a chosen-ciphertext attack on the Fridrich's scheme utilizing influence network between cipher-pixels and the corresponding plain-pixels. Based on their creative work, this paper scrutinized some properties of Fridrich's scheme with concise mathematical language. Then, some minor defects of the real performance of Solak's attack method were given. The work provides some bases for further optimizing attack on the Fridrich's scheme and its variants., Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, Signal Processing, 2017

Position scrambling (permutation) is widely used in multimedia encryption schemes and some international encryption standards, such as the Data Encryption Standard and the Advanced Encryption Standard. In this article, the authors re-evaluate the security of a typical image-scrambling encryption algorithm (ISEA). Using the internal correlation remaining in the cipher image, they disclose important visual information of the corresponding plain image in a ciphertext-only attack scenario. Furthermore, they found that the real scrambling domain--the position-scrambling scope of ISEA's scrambled elements--can be used to support an efficient known or chosen-plaintext attack on it. Detailed experimental results have verified these points and demonstrate that some advanced multimedia processing techniques can facilitate the cryptanalysis of multimedia encryption algorithms., Comment: 7 pages

Traditionally, chaotic systems are built on the domain of infinite precision in mathematics. However, the quantization is inevitable for any digital devices, which causes dynamical degradation. To cope with this problem, many methods were proposed, such as perturbing chaotic states and cascading multiple chaotic systems. This paper aims at developing a novel methodology to design the higher-dimensional digital chaotic systems (HDDCS) in the domain of finite precision. The proposed system is based on the chaos generation strategy controlled by random sequences. It is proven to satisfy the Devaney's definition of chaos. Also, we calculate the Lyapunov exponents for HDDCS. The application of HDDCS in image encryption is demonstrated via FPGA platform. As each operation of HDDCS is executed in the same fixed precision, no quantization loss occurs. Therefore, it provides a perfect solution to the dynamical degradation of digital chaos., Comment: 12 pages