Collective Behavior in Complex Networked Systems under Imperfect Communication


Book Description

This book aims to explain how collective behavior is formed via local interactions under imperfect communication in complex networked systems. It also presents some new distributed protocols or algorithms for complex networked systems to comply with bandwidth limitation and tolerate communication delays. This book will be of particular interest to the readers due to the benefits: 1) it studies the effect of time delay and quantization on the collective behavior by non-smooth analytical technique and algebraic graph theory; 2) it introduces the event-based consensus method under delayed information transmission; In the meantime, it presents some novel approaches to handle the communication constraints in networked systems; 3) it gives some synchronization and control strategies for complex networked systems with limited communication abilities. Furthermore, it provides a consensus recovery approach for multi-agent systems with node failure. Also, it presents interesting results about bipartite consensus and fixed-time/finite-time bipartite consensus of networks with cooperative and antagonistic interactions.




Control over Communication Networks


Book Description

Control over Communication Networks Advanced and systematic examination of the design and analysis of networked control systems and multi-agent systems Control Over Communication Networks provides a systematic and nearly self-contained description of the analysis and design of networked control systems (NCSs) and multi-agent systems (MASs) over imperfect communication networks, with a primary focus on fading channels and delayed channels. The text characterizes the effect of communication channels on the stability and performance of NCSs, and further studies the joint impact of communication channels and network topology on the consensus of MASs. By integrating communication and control theory, the four highly-qualified authors present fundamental results concerning the stabilization of NCSs over power-constrained fading channels and Gaussian finite-state Markov channels, linear-quadratic optimal control of NCSs with random input gains, optimal state estimation with intermittent observations, consensus of MASs with communication delay and packet dropouts, and synchronization of delayed Vicsek models. Simulation results are given in each chapter to demonstrate the developed analysis and synthesis approaches. The references are comprehensive and up-to-date, enabling further study for readers. Topics covered in Control Over Communication Networks include: Basic foundational knowledge, including control theory, communication theory, and graph theory, to enable readers to understand more complex topics The stabilization, optimal control, and remote state estimation problems of linear systems over channels with fading, signal-to-noise constraints, or intermittent measurements Consensus problems of MASs over fading/delayed channels, with directed and undirected communication graphs Control Over Communication Networks provides a valuable unified platform for understanding the analysis and design of NCSs and MASs for researchers, control engineers working on control systems over communication networks, and mechanical engineers working on unmanned systems. Preliminary knowledge of linear system theory and matrix analysis is required.




Modelling, Estimation and Control of Networked Complex Systems


Book Description

The paradigm of complexity is pervading both science and engineering, le- ing to the emergence of novel approaches oriented at the development of a systemic view of the phenomena under study; the de?nition of powerful tools for modelling, estimation, and control; and the cross-fertilization of di?erent disciplines and approaches. One of the most promising paradigms to cope with complexity is that of networked systems. Complex, dynamical networks are powerful tools to model, estimate, and control many interesting phenomena, like agent coordination, synch- nization, social and economics events, networks of critical infrastructures, resourcesallocation,informationprocessing,controlovercommunicationn- works, etc. Advances in this ?eld are highlighting approaches that are more and more oftenbasedondynamicalandtime-varyingnetworks,i.e.networksconsisting of dynamical nodes with links that can change over time. Moreover, recent technological advances in wireless communication and decreasing cost and size of electronic devices are promoting the appearance of large inexpensive interconnected systems, each with computational, sensing and mobile ca- bilities. This is fostering the development of many engineering applications, which exploit the availability of these systems of systems to monitor and control very large-scale phenomena with ?ne resolution.




Soft-Ware 2002: Computing in an Imperfect World


Book Description

This was the ?rst conference of a new series devoted to the e?ective handling of soft issues in the design, development, and operation of computing systems. The conference brought together contributors from a range of relevant disciplines, including arti?cial intelligence, information systems, software engineering, and systems engineering. The keynote speakers, Piero Bonissone, Ray Paul, Sir Tony Hoare, Michael Jackson, and Derek McAuley have interests and experience that collectively span all of these ?elds. Soft issues involve information or knowledge that is uncertain, incomplete, or contradictory. Examples of where such issues arise include: – requirements management and software quality control in software engine- ing, – con?ict or multiple sources information management in information systems, – decision making/prediction in business management systems, – quality control in networks and user services in telecommunications, – traditional human rationality modeling in arti?cial intelligence, – data analysis in machine learning and data mining, – control management in engineering. The concept of dealing with uncertainty became prominent in the arti?cial intel- gence community nearly 20 years ago, when researchers realized that addressing uncertainty was an essential part of representing and reasoning about human knowledge in intelligent systems. The main methodologies that have emerged in this area are soft computing and computational intelligence.




Complex Spreading Phenomena in Social Systems


Book Description

This text is about spreading of information and influence in complex networks. Although previously considered similar and modeled in parallel approaches, there is now experimental evidence that epidemic and social spreading work in subtly different ways. While previously explored through modeling, there is currently an explosion of work on revealing the mechanisms underlying complex contagion based on big data and data-driven approaches. This volume consists of four parts. Part 1 is an Introduction, providing an accessible summary of the state of the art. Part 2 provides an overview of the central theoretical developments in the field. Part 3 describes the empirical work on observing spreading processes in real-world networks. Finally, Part 4 goes into detail with recent and exciting new developments: dedicated studies designed to measure specific aspects of the spreading processes, often using randomized control trials to isolate the network effect from confounders, such as homophily. Each contribution is authored by leading experts in the field. This volume, though based on technical selections of the most important results on complex spreading, remains quite accessible to the newly interested. The main benefit to the reader is that the topics are carefully structured to take the novice to the level of expert on the topic of social spreading processes. This book will be of great importance to a wide field: from researchers in physics, computer science, and sociology to professionals in public policy and public health.




The Handbook of Communication and Corporate Reputation


Book Description

With the latest insights from the world of communication studies into the nature of corporate reputation, this new addition to Wiley-Blackwell’s series of handbooks on communication and media reflects the growing visibility of large businesses’ ethical profiles, and tracks the benefits that positive public attitudes can bring. Serves as the definitive research collection for a fast-growing field featuring contributions by key international scholars Brings together state-of-the-art communication studies insights on corporate reputation Identifies and addresses the lacunae in the research literature Applies new theoretical frameworks to corporate reputation




Social Interaction Systems


Book Description

Social Interaction Systems is the culmination of a half century of work in the field of social psychology by Robert Freed Bales, a pioneer at the Department of Social Relations at Harvard University. Led by Talcott Parsons, Gordon W. Allport, Henry A. Murray, and Clyde M. Kluckhohn, the Harvard Project was intended to establish an integrative framework for social psychology, one based on the interaction process, augmented by value content analysis. Bales sees this approach as a personal involvement that goes far beyond the classical experimental approach to the study of groups.Bales developed SYMLOG, which stands for systematic multiple level observation of groups. The SYMLOG Consulting Group approach was worldwide as well as interactive. It created a data bank that made possible a search for general laws of human interaction far beyond anything thus far known. In his daringsearch for universal features, Bales redefines the fundamental boundaries of the field, and in so doing establishes criteria for the behavior and values of leaders and followers. Bales offers a new "field theory," an appreciation of the multiple contexts in which people live.Bales does not aim to eradicate differences, but to understand them. In this sense, the values inherent in any interaction situation permit the psychologist to appreciate the sources of polarization as they actually exist: between conservative and liberal, individualistic and authoritarian, libertarian and communitarian. Bales repeatedly emphasizes that the mental processes of individuals and their social interactions take place in systematic contexts which can be measured. Hence they permit explanation and prediction of behavior in a more exact way than in past traditions. Bales has offered a pioneering work that has the potential to move us into a new theoretical epoch no less than a new century. His work holds out the promise of synthesis and support for psychologists, sociologists, and all who work with groups and organizations of all kinds.




Control Strategies and Co-Design of Networked Control Systems


Book Description

This book presents Networked Control System (NCS) as a particular kind of a real-time distributed system (RTDS), composed of a set of nodes, interconnected by a network, and able to develop a complete control process. It describes important parts of the control process such as sensor and actuator activities, which rely on a real-time operating system, and a real-time communication network. As the use of common bus network architecture introduces different forms of uncertainties between sensors, actuators, and controllers, several approaches such as reconfigurable systems have been developed to tackle this problem. Moreover, modeling NCS is a challenging procedure, since there are several non-linear situations, like local saturations, uncertain time delays, dead-zones, or local situations, it is necessary to deal with. The book describes a novel strategy for modelling and control based on a fuzzy control approach and codesign strategies.




Complex Sciences


Book Description

I was invited to join the Organizing Committee of the First International Conference on Complex Sciences: Theory and Applications (Complex 2009) as its ninth member. At that moment, eight distinguished colleagues, General Co-chairs Eugene Stanley and Gaoxi Xiao, Technical Co-chairs János Kertész and Bing-Hong Wang, Local Co-chairs Hengshan Wang and Hong-An Che, Publicity Team Shi Xiao and Yubo Wang, had spent hundreds of hours pushing the conference half way to its birth. Ever since then, I have been amazed to see hundreds of papers flooding in, reviewed and commented on by the TPC members. Finally, more than 200 contributions were - lected for the proceedings currently in your hands. They include about 200 papers from the main conference (selected from more than 320 submissions) and about 33 papers from the five collated workshops: Complexity Theory of Art and Music (COART) Causality in Complex Systems (ComplexCCS) Complex Engineering Networks (ComplexEN) Modeling and Analysis of Human Dynamics (MANDYN) Social Physics and its Applications (SPA) Complex sciences are expanding their colonies at such a dazzling speed that it - comes literally impossible for any conference to cover all the frontiers.




Dependable Computing


Book Description

Dependable Computing Covering dependability from software and hardware perspectives Dependable Computing: Design and Assessment looks at both the software and hardware aspects of dependability. This book: Provides an in-depth examination of dependability/fault tolerance topics Describes dependability taxonomy, and briefly contrasts classical techniques with their modern counterparts or extensions Walks up the system stack from the hardware logic via operating systems up to software applications with respect to how they are hardened for dependability Describes the use of measurement-based analysis of computing systems Illustrates technology through real-life applications Discusses security attacks and unique dependability requirements for emerging applications, e.g., smart electric power grids and cloud computing Finally, using critical societal applications such as autonomous vehicles, large-scale clouds, and engineering solutions for healthcare, the book illustrates the emerging challenges faced in making artificial intelligence (AI) and its applications dependable and trustworthy. This book is suitable for those studying in the fields of computer engineering and computer science. Professionals who are working within the new reality to ensure dependable computing will find helpful information to support their efforts. With the support of practical case studies and use cases from both academia and real-world deployments, the book provides a journey of developments that include the impact of artificial intelligence and machine learning on this ever-growing field. This book offers a single compendium that spans the myriad areas in which dependability has been applied, providing theoretical concepts and applied knowledge with content that will excite a beginner, and rigor that will satisfy an expert. Accompanying the book is an online repository of problem sets and solutions, as well as slides for instructors, that span the chapters of the book.