This book aims to bridge the gap between control ... Book Outline. The book is structured in 12 chapters ... grids, renewable energy, robotic, trans- portation, and ...
Book Review
Intelligent Control Systems with an Introduction to System of Systems Engineering, by Thrishantha Nanayakkara, Ferat Sahin, and Mo Jamshidi, ISBN: 978-1420079241, CRC Press, 2009.
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Introduction
his book attempts to br ing together two fields that largely evolved separately despite both aiming at solving similar problems: control theory and computational intelligence. This is an area with a real-gap in the literature. We see the successful use of neural networks and fuzzy logic in building controllers for many systems including cars, washing machines, and robotics. Still, it seems, the two communities—control theory and computational intelligence—continue to speak different languages. Having a book that bridges this gap is much needed, and more importantly, is becoming essential with the emergence of a new field of science called “Systems of Systems” (SoS). This book aims to bridge the gap between control theory and computational intelligence with a focus on SoS. Book Outline
The book is structured in 12 chapters with an introduction to familiarize the reader with the topic. The first chapter discusses the layout of the book. The following eight chapters lay the foundations of eight different topics. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MCI.2010.938369
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Hussein A. Abbass University of New South Wales, AUSTRALIA
Chapter 2 discusses the elements of a classical control system where open loop systems and feedback control systems are introduced. An example of robot manipulators is used, and a worked out example of the derivation of dynamics for this system is presented. The authors conclude the chapter with a discussion of Stability and Lyapunov stability. Chapter 3 introduces Systems of Systems (SoS). The authors start the chapter with a myriad of definitions for this buzz word and explain the immaturity of the field. They also discuss the theoretical and implementation challenges facing SoS. The former includes SoS engineering, standards, architectures, simulation platforms, integration and emergence. The implementation challenges draw on a wide range of applications including space, electrical power systems grids, renewable energy, robotic, transportation, and health systems. Chapter 4 moves to the most favorable topic to many electrical engineers— filters and in particular, Kalman and particle filters.While the title of the chapter is “Observer Design and Kalman Filtering”, I found it interesting to see a sub-section on Particle filtering; a topic that some traditional Kalman filtering researchers still do not appreciate enough.
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The authors then move onto two traditional topics in computational intelligence. Fuzzy systems is covered in Chapter 5, starting with defining and explaining crisp sets, fuzzy sets, fuzzy operations, predicate logic, fuzzy logic, approximate reasoning to concluding the chapter with fuzzy control. In Chapter 6, the authors focus directly on neural networkbased control, commencing the chapter with the concept of function approximation followed by identification of dynamics of a robot manipulator. Some of the traditional issues related to neural networks such as structure and training data are discussed and the authors conclude the chapter with Cerebellar Networks. After covering control systems, SoS and computational intelligence techniques, the authors present two chapters that are key to any implementation or use of SoS. In chapter 7, SoS simulation is introduced. For any serious work in SoS, the use of simulation is paramount during the design, implementation, evolution and testing of the SoS. The focus of this introductory chapter is on discrete event simulation (DEVS) and the use of the Markup Language XML. The authors conclude the discussion with a section on agent-in-the-loop
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simulation of SoS. The following chapter attempts to put the first seven chapters into context by discussing the control of SoS. In Chapter 9, reinforcement learning and reward-based behavior adaptation are discussed. The authors started the chapter with an introduction to a number of concepts, which are embodiment, situatedness, internalmodels, policy, reward and emergence. Each of these concepts was introduced in a paragraph to make the reader aware of them. Markov processes are also introduced followed by reinforcement learning. After nine chapters of introductory materials, the authors conclude the book with three focused chapters on applications including networked group operators, robots-trained animals-humans in a humanitarian demining application and robotic swarms for mine detection system of systems.The last chapter used Ant Colony Optimization. Pros and Cons
In reviewing a book, the first question that comes to my mind is: would I buy this book if I did not get a copy for
review? After reading through the book, I would say, definitely I would have bought it if I did not get a copy. It is worth having for anyone who is embarking on working in the area of Systems of Systems and who intend to do some modeling. For a control systems engineer, the book is worth having because it is written in a language that control systems engineers would understand. System of Systems is a relatively new topic and the myriad of definitions and introductory materials available in the literature can be confusing for a mathematically-oriented control person. For someone from computational intelligence, it is important to be aware of the very rich literature of control systems. However, I would warn a computational intelligence researcher when reading the second chapter that it is written for a control systems person and not for people who did not study control. Readers who get shocked when they read in the book terms such as “Coriolis and centrifugal matrix” may just need to take a deep breath and have a look at an introductory book in control systems or simply ignore the term as
it is almost of no use to understand the rest of the book. The book can serve easily as a textbook for an introductory post-graduate course on the topic. The lectures may need to supplement the chapters with a bit more tutorials and examples. Last but not least, the book fills a real gap in the literature. As the first book that brings these topics together, the authors did a wonderful job. I anticipate and hope to see more books of this type in the market. For this book to continue being competitive in the market, the authors will need to continue improving it by unifying the presentation as some chapters switch from being mathematically-oriented to others which become more philosophical. It also reads like each chapter was written independently by one of the authors. Unifying the language, maintaining the mathematical depth at a constant level across the chapters and smoothing out the transition between chapters will continue to make future editions of this book and allow it to remain competitive in the market.
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