Search

As autonomous vehicles (AVs) are advancing to higher levels of autonomy and performance, the associated technologies are becoming increasingly diverse. Lane-keeping systems (LKS), corresponding to a key functionality of AVs, considerably enhance driver convenience. With drivers increasingly relying on autonomous driving technologies, the importance of safety features, such as fail-safe mechanisms in the event of sensor failures, has gained prominence. Therefore, this paper proposes a reinforcement learning (RL) control method for lane-keeping, which uses surrounding object information derived through LiDAR sensors instead of camera sensors for LKS. This approach uses surrounding vehicle and object information as observations for the RL framework to maintain the vehicle's current lane. The learning environment is established by integrating simulation tools, such as IPG CarMaker, which incorporates vehicle dynamics, and MATLAB Simulink for data analysis and RL model creation. To further validate the applicability of the LiDAR sensor data in real-world settings, Gaussian noise is introduced in the virtual simulation environment to mimic sensor noise in actual operational conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photoacoustic imaging has emerged as a promising biomedical imaging technique that enables visualization of the optical absorption characteristics of biological tissues in vivo. Among the different photoacoustic imaging system configurations, optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy stands out by providing high spatial resolution using a tightly focused laser beam, which is typically transmitted through optical fibers. Achieving high-quality images depends significantly on optical fluence, which is directly proportional to the signal-to-noise ratio. Hence, optimizing the laser-fiber coupling is critical. Conventional coupling systems require manual adjustment of the optical path to direct the laser beam into the fiber, which is a repetitive and time-consuming process. In this study, we propose an automated laser-fiber coupling module that optimizes laser delivery and minimizes the need for manual intervention. By incorporating a motor-mounted mirror holder and proportional derivative control, we successfully achieved efficient and robust laser delivery. The performance of the proposed system was evaluated using a leaf-skeleton phantom in vitro and a human finger in vivo, resulting in high-quality photoacoustic images. This innovation has the potential to significantly enhance the quality and efficiency of optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plasma parameters of inductively coupled plasma system with an annular plasma source have been studied experimentally. At low pressures (about 1 mTorr), electron temperature inside the plasma source is rather high (8–13 eV) and is much greater than in the diffusion (main) chamber (4–5 eV). The plasma potential inside the source is also much higher than in the main chamber. There is a rapid drop of the electron temperature and plasma potential at the boundary between the plasma source and the main chamber. The drop of the plasma potential at the boundary (about 20 V) means the existence of a strong axial electric field, which retards the electrons inside the plasma source and accelerates the ions from the source into the main chamber. Measurements of ion energy distributions in the main chamber volume reveal the existence of ions with kinetic energies about 15 eV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel robust affine projection sign algorithm (R-APSA) through a modified criterion that consists of the Euclidean norm of the sum of the difference between the present weight vector and the previous weight vectors. Because the filter update equation of the proposed R-APSA is obtained from the modified criterion, it has robustness against the high power of measurement noises. Moreover, due to the characteristic inherent in the original APSA, the proposed R-APSA performs well even though impulsive noises occur. Simulation results verify that the proposed R-APSA attains smaller steady-state errors than the existing released algorithms. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]