in this paper we first describe the stochastic optimal control algorithm called ((optcon)). the algorithm minimizes an intertemporal objective loss function subject to a nonlinear dynamic system in order to achieve optimal value of control (or instrument) variables. second as an application, we implemented the algorithm by the statistical programming system ((gauss)) to determine the optimal fi...

Urban containment policies, including urban growth boundaries, urban service boundaries and greenbelts, have been extensively discussed worldwide for managing urban growth. This paper focuses on the issues associated with supporting an urban containment plan and its application in China using a planning support system. The background is that the urban containment plan has been enacted as a new ...

Ports-of-entry are critical components of the modern international supply chain infrastructure, particularly container seaports and airfreight hubs. The potential operational and economic impact resulting from their temporary closure is unknown, but is widely believed to be very significant. This paper investigates one aspect of this potential impact, focusing specifically on the use of supply ...

CIRCA is an architecture for real-time intelligent control. The CIRCA planner can generate plans that are guaranteed to maintain system safety, given certain timing constraints. To prove that its plans guarantee safety, CIRCA relies on formal verification methods. However, in many domains it is impossible to build 100% guaranteed safe plans, either because it requires more resources than availa...

The authors argue that human sequential learning is often but not always characterized by a shift from stimulus- to plan-based action control. To diagnose this shift, they manipulated the frequency of 1st-order transitions in a repeated manual left-right sequence, assuming that performance is sensitive to frequency-induced biases under stimulus- but not plan-based control. Indeed, frequency bia...

In November 2002, the Hanshin Expressway Public Corporation started the operation of a traffic simulation program called HEROINE. This report outlines the functions of HEROINE and its actual operation. The program was evaluated by comparing the estimation results against actual traffic volume data for two months from the start date of the operation. Discussion extends to possible system improve...

This paper presents results of an investigation on how supplemental viscous damping can be used to control excessive deformations in asymmetric-plan buildings. It is shown that symmetric distribution of supplemental damping devices in the building plan is not necessarily the best way to control excessive deformations in an asymmetric-plan building; a value of the damping eccentricity equal to t...

The Real-time Control System (RCS) Methodology has evolved over a number of years as a technique to capture task knowledge and organize it into a framework conducive to implementation in computer control systems. The fundamental premise of this methodology is that the present state of the task activities sets the context that identifies the requirements for all of the support processing. In par...

Robotic devices, such as rovers and autonomous spacecraft, have been successfully controlled by plan execution systems that use plans with temporal flexibility to dynamically adapt to temporal disturbances. To date these execution systems apply to discrete systems that abstract away the detailed dynamic constraints of the controlled device. To control dynamic, under-actuated devices, such as ag...

Teaching students how to test software is complicated by the absence of a simple, integrated approach for generating test plans. No single testing technique fulfils these needs, and teaching only a collection of disparate techniques makes it difficult to assign work for students. This talk presents an integrated approach for test plan generation that can be used by students in programming and s...