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This paper proposes the energy-based controller (EC) incorporated with radical basis function (RBF) neural-network compensation (ECRBFC), which is used to swing up the Pendubot and raise it to its uppermost unstable equilibrium position. First, for the known dynamics model of the two-link arm, the EC is designed. In the EC, the singularity is successfully avoided by constructing an appropriate energy evaluation function. Second, as for the friction of the Pendubot, because of the time-varying characteristics, an accurate friction dynamics model cannot be known absolutely; thus, the RBF neural network is introduced to offset the bad effect of friction. Finally, in order to evaluate the performance of ECRBFC, the numerical simulations and the experimental results are given, and by comparing the results with that of other algorithms, it is found that ECRBFC proposed in this paper has better performance under the same conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a practical discrete-time fractional order terminal sliding mode (DFOTSM) control strategy for high-precision tracking tasks based on a linear motor. In particular, the practical parametric uncertainties involving sliding friction, uncertain payload, and disturbance in tracking tasks are considered in this paper. Combining Grünwald–Letnikov fractional order definition and terminal sliding mode technique, the proposed method synthesizes a novel DFOTSM control law to drive the sliding mode dynamics into the stable region in finite steps theoretically, even though the system is suffering from uncertainties and disturbances, and the motion on the surface can guarantee higher tracking precision than the conventional discrete-time terminal sliding surface by selecting suitable controller parameters. The theoretical analyses give out the guideline of parameter selection, and experiments are carried out on the linear-motor-based test platform to demonstrate that the proposed controller is easily implemented and can achieve high-precision tracking, fast response, and considerable robustness to uncertainties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, it has been verified by simulation results that the ability of recognizing and classifying patterns by artificial neural network can be successfully used for anti-islanding protection of distributed synchronous generators. However, since this type of protection differs from the available commercial relays, it is important to test the algorithm performance implemented in hardware. So, this paper presents a performance evaluation of the hardware implementation of an ANN-based algorithm for anti-islanding protection of distributed generators. For the evaluation process, a complete digital relay architecture is developed in LabVIEW, thus allowing its implementation in the commercial real-time platform cRIO-9025/cRIO-9018. The proposed scheme is tested under real conditions by means of the CMC-256-plus test set, as performed for conventional intelligent electronic devices. The proposed algorithm implemented in hardware shows high effectiveness, detecting all islanding conditions within 1 s, sharing the same good performance verified by computational simulations. The algorithm implementation shows robustness, as it remains blocked for other power grid disturbances, such as frequency variation in the grid utility, massive connection or load relief. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates the data-based optimal control for a class of networked industrial processes with a double-layer architecture. Without knowing the dynamics of subsystems at the device layer, the index prediction function is constructed via the input/output signals, and radial basis function neural networks. The tuning laws for the index prediction function are obtained through the optimal control strategy. Then, by treating the network-induced phenomenon as random round-trip time delay and introducing the predictive algorithm, the compensation scheme is designed at the operation layer to dynamically decompose the setpoints. Finally, two simulation examples are given to further illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed compensation strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In industry, most dynamical plants are characterized by unpredictable and hard-to-formulate factors, uncertainty, and fuzziness of information, and as a result, deterministic models usually prove to be insufficient to adequately describe the process. In such situations, the use of fuzzy approaches becomes a viable alternative. However, the systems constructed on the base of type 1 fuzzy systems cannot directly handle the uncertainties associated with information or data in the knowledge base of the process. One possible way to alleviate the problem is to resort to the use of type 2 fuzzy systems. In this paper, the structure of a type 2 Takagi–Sugeno–Kang fuzzy neural system is presented, and its parameter update rule is derived based on fuzzy clustering and gradient learning algorithm. Its performance for identification and control of time-varying as well as some time-invariant plants is evaluated and compared with other approaches seen in the literature. It is seen that the proposed structure is a potential candidate for identification and control purposes of uncertain plants, with the uncertainties being handled adequately by type 2 fuzzy sets. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes a dynamic model of permanent-magnet spherical motor (PMSM) and puts forward a dynamic decoupling control algorithm of the motor, using fuzzy controllers (FCs) and a neural network identifier (NNI). PMSM is a multivariable nonlinear system with strong interaxis couplings. A computed torque method structure is applied to PMSM. There are such uncertainties as estimated errors of the model and external perturbations, which may influence the precision of the control system. A back-propagation algorithm with additional momentum term and self-adaptive learning rate applied to feed-forward neural network can approach nonlinear functions with a learning rate adjusted online, which helps to improve training speed. In this paper, an NNI is applied to identify the uncertainties online. An adaptive-neuro-fuzzy-inference-system-based FC is applied, which has self-adaptive ability and strong robustness. Simulation results preliminarily validate that the algorithm proposed in this paper can eliminate the influences of interaxis nonlinear couplings effectively to actualize dynamic decoupling control. Furthermore, the static and dynamic performances of the control system have been improved greatly with strong robustness to uncertainties. A hypothetical microprocessor system is proposed, and simple experiments of spinning operation are carried out as a foundation for further study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a control strategy for the position and posture control of a planar four-link underactuated manipulator with a passive second link based on a back-propagation neural network (BPNN) model. First, using the differential evolution (DE) optimization algorithm, the target angles of all links are calculated. The third and fourth links are then controlled from their initial angles to zero. Next, the control process is divided into the following two steps: the control objective of the passive link is implemented in the first step, and the control objectives of the active links are implemented in the second step. In the first step, the system is reduced to a planar virtual Pendubot, a BPNN model based on the DE algorithm is trained to obtain the coupling relationship between the links of this Pendubot. This model gives the speed of the first link to move the passive link to approach the target angle. Then, a fuzzy controller is designed to indirectly control the passive link to its target angle. In the second step, the position mode of the servo controller is adopted to control all active links to their target angles. Experimental results verified the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the design and properties of an intelligent optimal control for a nonlinear flexible robot arm that is driven by a permanent-magnet synchronous servo motor. First, the dynamic model of a flexible robot arm system with a tip mass is introduced. When the tip mass of the flexible robot arm is a rigid body, not only bending vibration but also torsional vibration are occurred. In this paper, the vibration states of the nonlinear system are assumed to be unmeasurable, i.e. only the actuator position can be acquired to feed into a suitable control system for stabilizing the vibration states indirectly. Then, an intelligent optimal control system is proposed to control the motor-mechanism coupling system for periodic motion. In the intelligent optimal control system a fuzzy neural network controller is used to learn a nonlinear function in the optimal control law and a robust controller is designed to compensate the approximation error. Moreover, a simple adaptive algorithm is proposed to adjust the uncertain bound in the robust controller avoiding the chattering phenomena. The control laws of the intelligent optimal control system are derived in the sense of optimal control technique and Lyapunov stability analysis, so that system-tracking stability can be guaranteed in the closed-loop system. In addition, numerical simulation and experimental results are given to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional bipolar differential amplifiers have only a \pm 5\text-\textmV operational range with nonlinear distortion below 0.1 dB. In this paper, a linearization technique based on neural-network training algorithm is proposed to expand this 0.1-dB linear region to a much wider \pm 200\-\textmV range. Compared with the traditional and recent state-of-the-art techniques for linearization, where gain or noise performance is always being tradeoff for high linearity, the proposed technique leads to the increase in the amplifier’s gain with low noise. Another advantage of the proposed approach is that it is implemented using a simple, paralleled structure that leads to a smaller area and less power consumption than other linearization schemes. The design procedure also enables a completely customizable solution based on required linear range, ripples, and the number of available transistors. The experimental results show that the proposed linearized amplifier has a very good linearity and is capable of wide bandwidth, good gain, and low-noise performance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, an application of an adaptive differential evolution (DE) algorithm with multiple trial vectors for training artificial neural networks (ANNs) is presented. The proposed method is \DE-ANNT+, which is a DE-ANN Training (DE-ANNT) modified by adding a multiple trial vectors technique. \DE-ANNT+ allows one to train an ANN of arbitrary architectures, and it offers a nondifferentiable neuron activation function. In contrast to a basic DE algorithm, \DE-ANNT+ possesses two modifications. In \DE-ANNT+, adaptive selection of control parameters and a multiple trial vectors technique are introduced. Adaptive selection means that the number of required parameters of the algorithm is decreased. The multiple trial vectors technique increases the probability of generating a better solution because a greater number of temporary solutions is generated around the existing solutions. The \DE-ANNT+ algorithm, with these two modifications, is used for ANN training to classify the parity-p problem. The results from the obtained algorithm have been compared with results from the following algorithms: an evolutionary algorithm, a DE algorithm without multiple trial vectors, gradient training methods, such as error back-propagation, and the Levenberg-Marquardt method. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An interval type-2 fuzzy neural network (IT2FNN) control system is proposed for the precision control of a two-axis motion control system in this paper. The adopted two-axis motion control system is composed of two permanent-magnet linear synchronous motors. In the proposed IT2FNN control system, an IT2FNN, which combines the merits of an interval type-2 fuzzy logic system and a neural network, is developed to approximate an unknown dynamic function. Moreover, adaptive learning algorithms that can train the parameters of the IT2FNN online are derived using the Lyapunov stability theorem. Furthermore, a robust compensator is proposed to confront the uncertainties, including a minimum reconstructed error, optimal parameter vectors, and higher order terms in Taylor series. To relax the requirement for the value of the lumped uncertainty in the robust controller, an adaptive lumped uncertainty estimation law is also investigated. Last, the proposed control algorithms are implemented in a TMS320C32 digital-signal-processor-based control computer. From the simulated and experimental results, the contour tracking performance of the two-axis motion control system is significantly improved, and the robustness can be obtained as well using the proposed IT2FNN control system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the practical implementation of a novel fault diagnostic and protection scheme for the interior permanent-magnet (IPM) synchronous motors using wavelet packet transform (WPT) and artificial neural network. In the proposed technique, the line currents of different faulted and normal conditions of the IPM motor are preprocessed by the WPT. The second level WPT coefficients of line currents are used as inputs of a three-layer feedforward neural network. The proposed protection technique is successfully simulated and experimentally tested on the line-fed and inverter-fed IPM motors. The Texas Instrument 32-bit floating-point digital signal processor TMS320C31 is used for the real-time implementation of the proposed protection algorithm. The offline and online test results of both line-fed and inverter-fed IPM motors are given. These test results showed satisfactory performances of the proposed diagnostic and protection technique in terms of speed, accuracy, and reliability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a new algorithm with neuron-by-neuron computation methods for the gradient vector and the Jacobian matrix. The algorithm can handle networks with arbitrarily connected neurons. The training speed is comparable with the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm, which is currently considered by many as the fastest algorithm for neural network training. More importantly, it is shown that the computation of the Jacobian, which is required for second-order algorithms, has a similar computation complexity as the computation of the gradient for first-order learning methods. This new algorithm is implemented in the newly developed software, Neural Network Trainer, which has unique capabilities of handling arbitrarily connected networks. These networks with connections across layers can be more efficient than commonly used multilayer perceptron networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generation of harmonics and the existence of wave-form pollution in power system networks are important problems facing the power utilities. The determination of harmonic currents injected into a power network by a nonlinear load is complicated when the supply voltage waveform to the load is distorted by other loads and not a pure sinusoid. This paper proposes a neural network solution to this problem. A recurrent neural network trained with the backpropagation through time training algorithm is used to find a way of distinguishing between the so-called load harmonics and supply harmonics, without disconnecting the load from the network. The advantage of this method is that only waveforms of voltages and currents have to be measured. This method is applicable for both single and three phase loads and could be fabricated into a commercial instrument that could be installed in substations of large customer loads, or used as a hand-held clip on instrument. This paper is particularly useful in determining whether the utility or the customer side has a higher contribution to harmonic pollution in a network. Hence, this method would be helpful in settling utility-customer disputes over who is responsible for harmonic pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel dynamic structure neural-fuzzy network (DSNFN) via a robust adaptive sliding-mode approach to address trajectory-tracking control of an n-link robot manipulator. In the DSNFN, a five-layer neural-fuzzy network (NFN) is used to model complex processes and compensate for structured and unstructured uncertainties. However, it is difficult to find a suitable-sized NFN to achieve the required approximation error. To deal with the mentioned problem, the number of rule nodes in the DSNFN can be either increased or decreased over time based on the tracking errors, and the adaptation laws in the sense of a projection algorithm are derived for tuning all parameters of the parameterized NFN. Using DSNFN, good tracking performance could be achieved in the system. Furthermore, the trained network avoids the problems of overfitting and underfitting. The global stability and the robustness of the overall control scheme are guaranteed, and the tracking errors converge to the required precision by the Lyapunov synthesis approach. Experiments per- formed on a two-link robot manipulator demonstrate the effectiveness of our scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents system modeling, analysis, and simulation of an electric vehicle (EV) with two independent rear wheel drives. The traction control system is designed to guarantee the EV dynamics and stability when there are no differential gears. Using two in-wheel electric motors makes it possible to have torque and speed control in each wheel. This control level improves EV stability and safety. The proposed traction control system uses the vehicle speed, which is different from wheel speed characterized by a slip in the driving mode, as an input. In this case, a generalized neural network algorithm is proposed to estimate the vehicle speed. The analysis and simulations lead to the conclusion that the proposed system is feasible. Simulation results on a test vehicle propelled by two 37-kW induction motors showed that the proposed control approach operates satisfactorily. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the centralized heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) system, air handling units (AHUs) are traditionally controlled by single-loop proportional-integral-derivative (Pm) controllers. The control structure is simple, but the performance is usually not satisfactory. In this paper, we propose a cascade control strategy for temperature control of AHU. Instead of a fixed PID controller in the classical cascade control scheme, a neural network (NN) controller is used in the outer control loop. This approach not only overcomes the tedious tuning procedure for the inner and outer loop PID parameters of a classical cascade control system, but also makes the whole control system be adaptive and robust. The multilayer NN is trained online by a special training algorithm-simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation (SPSA)-based training algorithm. With the SPSA-based training algorithm, the weight convergence of the NN and stability of the control system is guaranteed. The novel cascade control system has been implemented on an experimental HVAC system. Testing results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm over the classical cascade control system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A radial-basis-function (RBF) neural-network-based fault detection system is developed for performing induction machine fault detection and analysis. Four feature vectors are extracted from power spectra of machine vibration signals. The extracted features are inputs of an RBF-type neural network for fault identification and classification. The optimal network architecture of the RBF network is determined automatically by our proposed cell-splitting grid algorithm. This facilitates the conventional laborious trial-and-error procedure in establishing an optimal architecture. In this paper, the proposed RBF machine fault diagnostic system has been intensively tested with unbalanced electrical faults and mechanical faults operating at different rotating speeds. The proposed system is not only able to detect electrical and mechanical faults, but the system is also able to estimate the extent of faults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comprehensive review of the industrial applications of artificial neural networks (ANNs), in the last 12 years. Common questions that arise to practitioners and control engineers while deciding how to use NNs for specific industrial tasks are answered. Workable issues regarding implementation details, training and performance evaluation of such algorithms are also discussed, based on a judiciously chronological organization of topologies and training methods effectively used in the past years. The most popular ANN topologies and training methods are listed and briefly discussed, as a reference to the application engineer. Finally, ANN industrial applications are grouped and tabulated by their main functions and what they actually performed on the referenced papers. The authors prepared this paper bearing in mind that an organized and normalized review would be suitable to help industrial managing and operational personnel decide which kind of ANN topology and training method would be adequate for their specific problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel neural network (NN) backstepping controller is modified for application to an industrial motor drive system. A control system structure and NN tuning algorithms are presented that are shown to guarantee stability and performance of the closed-loop system. The NN backstepping controller is implemented on an actual motor drive system using a two-PC control system developed at The University of Texas at Arlington. The implementation results show that the NN backstepping controller is highly effective in controlling the industrial motor drive system. It is also shown that the NN controller gives better results on actual systems than a standard backstepping controller developed assuming full knowledge of the dynamics. Moreover, the NN controller does not require the linear-in-the-parameters assumption or the computation of regression matrices required by standard backstepping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, harmonic pollution has worried the power engineers considerably due to the increased penetration of power-electronics-based devices in the utility grid. Monitoring of certain low-order harmonics in the power supply is more important than monitoring of the entire spectrum because, usually, these are the most significant ones. In this paper, a technique based on an adaptive wavelet neural network that is the most suitable for dominant low-order harmonic estimation is presented. The proposed method works with only half-cycle data point inputs, compared to the requirement of at least one-complete-cycle data for other estimation techniques. A simple, fast converging, and reliable learning algorithm based on back propagation is used for training of the network parameters. The proposed method is examined with a number of simulated and experimental signals. The test results confirm that the proposed method accurately estimates the dominant low-order harmonics in pragmatic situations of fundamental frequency deviation, presence of interharmonics, low signal-to-noise ratio, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Levenberg–Marquardt (LM) algorithm is a nonlinear parameter learning algorithm that converges accurately and quickly. This paper demonstrates for the first time to our knowledge, a real-time implementation of the LM algorithm on field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). It was used to train neural networks to solve the eXclusive Or function (XOR), and for 3D-to-2D camera calibration parameter estimation. A Xilinx Virtex-5 ML506 was used to implement the LMA as a hardware-in-the-loop system. The XOR function was approximated in only 13 iterations from zero initial conditions, usually the same function is approximated in thousands of iterations using the error backpropagation algorithm. Also, this type of training not only reduced the number of iterations but also achieved a speed up in excess of 3 \times 10^6 when compared to the software implementation. A real-time camera calibration and parameter estimation was performed successfully on FPGAs. Compared to the software implementation the FPGA implementation led to an increase in the mean squared error and standard deviation by only 17.94% and 8.04% respectively. The FPGA increased the calibration speed by a factor of 1.41 \times 10^6. There are a wide range of systems problems solved via nonlinear parameter optimization, this study demonstrated that a hardware solution for systems such as automated optical inspection systems or systems dealing with projective geometry estimation and motion compensation systems in robotic vision systems is possible in real time. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Radial basis function (RBF) networks have advantages of easy design, good generalization, strong tolerance to input noise, and online learning ability. The properties of RBF networks make it very suitable to design flexible control systems. This paper presents a review on different approaches of designing and training RBF networks. The recently developed algorithm is introduced for designing compact RBF networks and performing efficient training process. At last, several problems are applied to test the main properties of RBF networks, including their generalization ability, tolerance to input noise, and online learning ability. RBF networks are also compared with traditional neural networks and fuzzy inference systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a wavelet fuzzy neural network (WFNN) structure for identifying and controlling nonlinear dynamic systems. The proposed WFNN is constructed on the base of a set of fuzzy rules. Each rule includes a wavelet function in the consequent part of the rules. A training algorithm adopting a gradient descent method is employed to identify the unknown parameters in the WFNN. For the control problem, a WFNN-based predictive control (WFNNPC) law is derived via a generalized predictive performance criterion, and the control algorithm is proven to guarantee the convergence of the WFNNPC controller. The conditions of the stability analysis of the resulting control system are presented based on the Lyapunov stability theorem. Finally, the WFNN is applied in numerical simulations and experiments (identification and control of nonlinear dynamic systems and a physical positioning mechanism). The results confirm the effectiveness of the WFNN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The temperature distribution of a lithium-ion battery (LIB) belongs to a nonlinearly distributed parameter system (DPS), which is infinite dimensional in the space direction. Modeling of such systems often leads to the following challenges: time/space-coupled dynamics; time-varying dynamics; and spatial nonlinearity. For the first two challenges, Karhunen–Loève (KL) decomposition based data-driven spatiotemporal models have been widely researched and successfully applied to industrial thermal processes. However, this method is a global linear model reduction method that ignores the nonlinear properties of measurements. This will prohibit the model performance of a strong nonlinear DPS, which has strong spatial nonlinearity refers to the aforementioned third challenge. To address this problem, a local-properties-embedding-based modeling method is developed for the nonlinear DPS. First, the finite-dimensional nonlinear spatial basis functions that can be the representative of the nonlinear feature of the original space are learned by the local-properties-embedding-based method. Then, the low-dimensional representative can be derived using the time/space separation and the unknown temporal coefficients can be identified through the traditional neural learning algorithm. Finally, the spatiotemporal temperature distribution can be reconstructed by the time/space synthesis. Since the nonlinear structure feature of the spatiotemporal datasets has been considered, the proposed modeling method can be more effective than the traditional KL-based method for modeling the nonlinear DPS. Numerical simulations on the LIB showed that the proposed methods are more robust than the KL-based method in both the time direction and the space direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an automatic algorithm based an unsupervised neural network for an on-line diagnostics of three-phase induction motor stator fault is presented. This algorithm uses the alfa-beta stator currents as input variables. Then, a fully automatic unsupervised method is applied in which a Hebbian-based unsupervised neural network is used to extract the principal components of the stator current data. These main directions are used to decide where the fault occurs and a relationship between the current components is calculated to verify the severity of the fault. One of the characteristics of this method, given its unsupervised nature, is that it does not need a prior identification of the system. The proposed methodology has been experimentally tested on a 1 kW induction motor. The obtained experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, harmonic distortion in power systems is attracting significant attention. Traditional technical tools for harmonic distortion analysis using either fast Fourier transform or discrete Fourier transform are, however, susceptible to the presence of noise in the distorted signals. Harmonic detection by using Fourier transformation also requires input data for more than one cycle of the current waveform and requires time for the analysis in the next coming cycle. In this paper, an alternative method using neural network algorithm has achieved satisfactory results for fast and precise harmonic detection in noisy environments by providing only 1/2 cycle sampled values of distorted waveforms to neural network. Sensitivity considerations are conducted to determine the key factors affecting the performance efficiency of the proposed model to reach the lowest errors of testing patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new model for the pulsed neural network. In this model, the information is coded in terms of firing times of pulses that are generated by the neuron. The pulses transmit through the network and excite the dynamics of the neuron. Their synchronism is utilized to design the architecture of the neural network such that it acts as a radial basis function (RBF) network. A new network-learning algorithm is also developed for this pulsed RBF network. The RBF neurons are generated based on the feature of the training data, and the synaptic delays can be adjusted to distribute these RBF neurons in the training data space. The pulse neural network has been implemented compactly with multiplierless approach for both the forward computation and learning algorithm with a field programmable gate array board. As an application demonstration, it is extended to a nonlinear look-up table and applied to estimate the friction occurs in a precision linear stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an adaptive cerebellar-model articulation computer (CMAC) neural network (NN) control system is developed for a linear piezoelectric ceramic motor (LPCM) that is driven by an LLCC-resonant inverter. The motor structure and LLCC-resonant driving circuit of an LPCM are introduced initially. The LLCC-resonant driving circuit is designed to operate at an optimal switching frequency such that the output voltage will not be influenced by the variation of quality factor. Since the dynamic characteristics and motor parameters of the LPCM are highly nonlinear and time varying, an adaptive CMAC NN control system is designed without mathematical dynamic mode! to control the position of the moving table of the LPCM drive system to achieve high-precision position control with robustness. In the proposed control scheme, the dynamic backpropagation algorithm is adopted to train the CMAC NN online. Moreover, to guarantee the convergence of output tracking error for periodic commands tracking, analytical methods based on a discrete-type Lyapunov function are utilized to determine the optimal learning-rate parameters of the CMAC NN. The effectiveness of the proposed driving circuit and control system is verified by experimental results In the presence of uncertainties and the advantages of the proposed control system are indicated in comparison with a traditional integral-proportional position control system. Accurate tracking response and superior dynamic performance can be obtained due to the powerful online learning capability of the CMAC NN with optimal learning-rate parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proper and rapid identification of malfunctions (transients) is of premier importance for the safe operation of nuclear power plants. Feedforward neural networks trained with the backpropagation (BP) algorithm are frequently applied to model simulated nuclear power plant malfunctions. The correct identification of unlabeled transients--or transients of the "don't-know" type--have proven to be especially challenging. A novel hybrid neural network methodology is presented which also correctly classifies the unlabeled transients. From this analysis the importance for properly accommodating practical aspects such as the drift of electronics elements of a simulator, the digitization of simulated and actual plant signals, and the accumulating errors during numerical integration became obvious. Beside the feedforward neural networks trained with the BP algorithm, many other types of networks and codes were used for finding the best (sensitive and robust) algorithms. Various neural network based models were successfully applied to identify labeled and unlabeled malfunctions of the Hungarian Paks nuclear power plant simulator. The HP and probabilistic methods have been proven as the most robust against the misleading recognition of unlabeled malfunctions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An optimization algorithm is presented which effectively combines the desirable characteristics of both gradient descent and evolutionary computation into a single robust algorithm. The method uses a population-based gradient approximation which allows it to recognize surface behavior on both large and small scales. By adjusting the population radius between iterations, the algorithm is able to escape local minima by shifting its focus onto global trends rather than local behavior. The algorithm is compared experimentally with existing methods over a set of relevant test cases, and each method is ranked on the basis of both reliability and rate of convergence. For each case, the algorithm is shown to outperform other methods in terms of both measures of performance, truly making it the best of both worlds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]