Thinning of antenna arrays has been a popular topic for the last several decades. With increasing computational power, this optimization task acquired a new hue. This paper suggests a genetic algorithm as an instrument for antenna array thinning. The algorithm with a deliberately chosen fitness function allows synthesizing thinned linear antenna arrays with low peak sidelobe level (SLL) while maintaining the half-power beamwidth (HPBW) of a full linear antenna array. Based on results from existing papers in the field and known approaches to antenna array thinning, a classification of thinning types is introduced. The optimal thinning type for a linear thinned antenna array is determined on the basis of a maximum attainable SLL. The effect of thinning coefficient on main directional pattern characteristics, such as peak SLL and HPBW, is discussed for a number of amplitude distributions.

Most of the existing direction of arrival (DOA) estimation algorithms are applied under the assumption that the array manifold is ideal. In practical engineering applications, the existence of non-ideal conditions such as mutual coupling between array elements, array amplitude and phase errors, and array element position errors leads to defects in the array manifold, which makes the performance of the algorithm decline rapidly or even fail. In order to solve the problem of DOA estimation in the presence of amplitude and phase errors and array element position errors, this paper introduces the first-order Taylor expansion equivalent model of the received signal under the uniform linear array from the Bayesian point of view. In the solution, the amplitude and phase error parameters and the array element position error parameters are regarded as random variables obeying the Gaussian distribution. At the same time, the expectation-maximization algorithm is used to update the probability distribution parameters, and then the two error parameters are solved alternately to obtain more accurate DOA estimation results. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified by simulation and experiment.

Lightweight convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have simple structures but struggle to comprehensively and accurately extract important semantic information from images. While attention mechanisms can enhance CNNs by learning distinctive representations, most existing spatial and hybrid attention methods focus on local regions with extensive parameters, making them unsuitable for lightweight CNNs. In this paper, we propose a self-attention mechanism tailored for lightweight networks, namely the brief self-attention module (BSAM). BSAM consists of the brief spatial attention (BSA) and advanced channel attention blocks. Unlike conventional self-attention methods with many parameters, our BSA block improves the performance of lightweight networks by effectively learning global semantic representations. Moreover, BSAM can be seamlessly integrated into lightweight CNNs for end-to-end training, maintaining the network’s lightweight and mobile characteristics. We validate the effectiveness of the proposed method on image classification tasks using the Food-101, Caltech-256, and Mini-ImageNet datasets.

In order to obtain better inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) image, a novel structure-enhanced spatial spectrum is proposed for estimating the incoherence parameters and fusing multiband. The proposed method takes full advantage of the original electromagnetic scattering data and its conjugated form by combining them with the novel covariance matrices. To analyse the superiority of the modified algorithm, the mathematical expression of equivalent signal to noise ratio (SNR) is derived, which can validate our proposed algorithm theoretically. In addition, compared with the conventional matrix pencil (MP) algorithm and the conventional root-multiple signal classification (Root-MUSIC) algorithm, the proposed algorithm has better parameter estimation performance and more accurate multiband fusion results at the same SNR situations. Validity and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated by simulation data and real radar data.

This paper investigates the distributed continuous-time aggregative optimization problem for second-order multi-agent systems, where the local cost function is not only related to its own decision variables, but also to the aggregation of the decision variables of all the agents. By using the gradient descent method, the distributed average tracking (DAT) technique and the time-base generator (TBG) technique, a distributed continuous-time aggregative optimization algorithm is proposed. Subsequently, the optimality of the system’s equilibrium point is analyzed, and the convergence of the closed-loop system is proved using the Lyapunov stability theory. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is validated through case studies on multirobot systems and power generation systems.

In the field of deep space exploration, the rapid development of terahertz spectrometer has put forward higher requirements to the back-end chirp transform spectrometer (CTS) system. In order to simultaneously meet the measurement requirements of wide bandwidth and high accuracy spectral lines, we built a CTS system with an analysis bandwidth of 1 GHz and a frequency resolution of 100 kHz around the surface acoustic wave (SAW) chirp filter with a bandwidth of 1 GHz. In this paper, the relationship between the CTS nonlinear phase error shift model and the basic measurement parameters is studied, and the effect of CTS phase mismatch on the pulse compression waveform is analyzed by simulation. And the expander error optimization method is proposed for the problem that the large nonlinear error of the expander leads to the unbalanced response of the CTS system and the serious distortion of the compressed pulse waveform under large bandwidth. It is verified through simulation and experiment that the method is effective for reducing the root mean square error (RMSE) of the phase of the expander from 18.75° to 6.65°, reducing the in-band standard deviation of the CTS frequency resolution index from 8.43 kHz to 4.72 kHz, solving the problem of serious distortion of the compressed pulse waveform, and improving the uneven CTS response under large bandwidth.

According to the measurement principle of the traditional interferometer, a narrowband signal model is established and used, however, for wideband signals or multiple signals, this model is invalid. For the problems of direction finding with interferometer for wideband signals and multiple signals scene, a frequency domain phase interferometer is proposed and the concrete implementation scheme is given. The proposed method computes the phase difference in frequency domain, and finds multi-target results with judging the spectrum amplitude changing, and uses the frequency phase difference to compute the arrival angle. Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that the proposed method effectively solves the problem of the angle estimation with phase interferometer for wideband signals, and has good performance in multiple signals scene with non-overlapping spectrum or partially overlapping. In addition, the wider the signal bandwidth, the better direction finding performance of this algorithm.

Jamming suppression is traditionally achieved through the use of spatial filters based on array signal processing theory. In order to achieve better jamming suppression performance, many studies have applied blind source separation (BSS) to jamming suppression. BSS can achieve the separation and extraction of the individual source signals from the mixed signal received by the array. This paper proposes a perspective to recognize BSS as spatial band-pass filters (SBPFs) for jamming suppression applications. The theoretical derivation indicates that the processing of mixed signals by BSS can be perceived as the application of a set of SBPFs that gate the source signals at various angles. Simulations are performed using radar jamming suppression as an example. The simulation results suggest that BSS and SBPFs produce approximately the same effects. Simulation results are consistent with theoretical derivation results.

Using the existing positioning technology can easily obtain high-precision positioning information, which can save resources and reduce complexity when used in the communication field. In this paper, we propose a location-based user scheduling and beamforming scheme for the downlink of a massive multi-user input-output system. Specifically, we combine an analog outer beamformer with a digital inner beamformer. An outer beamformer can be selected from a codebook formed by antenna steering vectors, and then a reduced-complexity inner beamformer based on iterative orthogonal matrices and right triangular matrices (QR) decomposition is applied to cancel inter-user interference. Then, we propose a low-complexity user selection algorithm using location information in this paper. We first derive the geometric angle between channel matrices, which represent the correlation between users. Furthermore, we derive the asymptotic signal to interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of the system in the context of two-stage beamforming using random matrix theory (RMT), taking into account inter-channel correlations and energies. Simulation results show that the algorithm can achieve higher system and speed while reducing computational complexity.

Solar radio burst (SRB) is one of the main natural interference sources of Global Positioning System (GPS) signals and can reduce the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), directly affecting the tracking performance of GPS receivers. In this paper, a tracking algorithm based on the adaptive Kalman filter (AKF) with carrier-to-noise ratio estimation is proposed and compared with the conventional second-order phase-locked loop tracking algorithms and the improved Sage-Husa adaptive Kalman filter (SHAKF) algorithm. It is discovered that when the SRBs occur, the improved SHAKF and the AKF with carrier-to-noise ratio estimation enable stable tracking to loop signals. The conventional second-order phase-locked loop tracking algorithms fail to track the receiver signal. The standard deviation of the carrier phase error of the AKF with carrier-to-noise ratio estimation outperforms 50.51% of the improved SHAKF algorithm, showing less fluctuation and better stability. The proposed algorithm is proven to show more excellent adaptability in the severe environment caused by the SRB occurrence and has better tracking performance.

Automatic modulation classification(AMC) is an essential technique in both civil and military applications. While deep learning has surpassed traditional methods in accuracy, distinguishing high-order modulations remain challenging. Current efforts prioritize complex network designs, neglecting the integration of deep features and tailored feature engineering to reslove high-order ambiguities. Therefore, a multi-feature extraction framework is proposed, which directly concatenates the deep feature extracted by a newly designed lightweight neural network and the proposed spectrum secondary features or de-noised high-order statistical features. The proposed features and lightweight network both demonstrate superior overall accuracy than other competing features or networks. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the feature extraction framework is also validated. The average classification accuracy on high-order modulation sets reaches 67.39% on the RadioML2018.01A dataset, increasing more than 2% compared with the other competitive networks under the framework. The results indicate the effectiveness of the proposed feature extraction framework for its representational ability by combing the deep features with the proposed domain features.

The power inversion (PI) algorithm lacks specific constraints on desired signals. Thus, the beampattern has fluctuation in all directions other than the jamming sources. This phenomenon will damage the reception of desired signals. In high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) application, the desired signal is inevitably suppressed by the PI algorithm, resulting in a deterioration to the out signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SINR). This paper proposes an improved PI algorithm based on derivative constraint. Firstly, the proposed method uses subspace projection to extract jamming-free data, the derivative constraint is imposed to the non-jamming data, and subsequently the Lagrange multiplier can be used to calculate the array weight vector. Simulation results demonstrate that, the proposed algorithm in this paper has a higher output SNR, flat gains in non-jamming directions, and applicability of high SINR than the PI algorithm, thus verifying the effectiveness of the algorithm.

In this paper, the newly-derived maximum correntropy Kalman filter (MCKF) is re-derived from the M-estimation perspective, where the MCKF can be viewed as a special case of the M-estimations and the Gaussian kernel function is a special case of many robust cost functions. Based on the derivation process, a unified form for the robust Gaussian filters (RGF) based on M-estimation is proposed to suppress the outliers and non-Gaussian noise in the measurement. The RGF provides a unified form for one Gaussian filter with different cost functions and a unified form for one robust filter with different approximating methods for the involved Gaussian integrals. Simulation results show that RGF with different weighting functions and different Gaussian integral approximation methods has robust anti-jamming performance.

Ant colony optimization (ACO) is a random search algorithm based on probability calculation. However, the uninformed search strategy has a slow convergence speed. The Bayesian algorithm uses the historical information of the searched point to determine the next search point during the search process, reducing the uncertainty in the random search process. Due to the ability of the Bayesian algorithm to reduce uncertainty, a Bayesian ACO algorithm is proposed in this paper to increase the convergence speed of the conventional ACO algorithm for image edge detection. In addition, this paper has the following two innovations on the basis of the classical algorithm, one of which is to add random perturbations after completing the pheromone update. The second is the use of adaptive pheromone heuristics. Experimental results illustrate that the proposed Bayesian ACO algorithm has faster convergence and higher precision and recall than the traditional ant colony algorithm, due to the improvement of the pheromone utilization rate. Moreover, Bayesian ACO algorithm outperforms the other comparative methods in edge detection task.

International freedom of the air (traffic rights) is a key resource for airlines to carry out international air transport business. An efficient and reasonable traffic right resource allocation within a country between airlines can affect the quality of a country’s participation in international air transport. In this paper, a multi-objective mixed-integer programming model for traffic rights resource allocation is developed to minimize passenger travel mileages and maximize the number of traffic rights resources allocated to hub airports and competitive carriers. A hybrid heuristic algorithm combining the genetic algorithm and the variable neighborhood search is devised to solve the model. The results show that the optimal allocation scheme aligns with the principle of fairness, indicating that the proposed model can play a certain guiding role in and provide an innovative perspective on traffic rights resource allocation in various countries.

The exploration of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarm systems represents a focal point in the research of multi-agent systems, with the investigation of their fission-fusion behavior holding significant theoretical and practical value. This review systematically examines the methods for fission-fusion of UAV swarms from the perspective of multi-agent systems, encompassing the composition of UAV swarm systems and fission-fusion conditions, information interaction mechanisms, and existing fission-fusion approaches. Firstly, considering the constituent units of UAV swarms and the conditions influencing fission-fusion, this paper categorizes and introduces the UAV swarm systems. It further examines the effects and limitations of fission-fusion methods across various categories and conditions. Secondly, a comprehensive analysis of the prevalent information interaction mechanisms within UAV swarms is conducted from the perspective of information interaction structures. The advantages and limitations of various mechanisms in the context of fission-fusion behaviors are summarized and synthesized. Thirdly, this paper consolidates the existing implementation research findings related to the fission-fusion behavior of UAV swarms, identifies unresolved issues in fission-fusion research, and discusses potential solutions.Finally, the paper concludes with a comprehensive summary and systematically outlines future research opportunities.

This paper introduces a hybrid configuration design to enhance the precision of satellite antenna position measurement. By fixing the circular array antenna on the antenna mounting surface and integrating coordinate system transformation relationships with interferometric direction finding (DF) and positioning technology, accurate estimation of the antenna position is ensured. This method optimizes the quality and stability of data fusion by integrating pulse parameter characteristics, satellite orbit and attitude information, as well as the field of view information from observation stations, using techniques such as maximum-ratio-combining (MRC) and orbit extrapolation. Specifically, the sampling-importance resampling particle-filtering and Kalman-filtering (SIR-PF-KF) hybrid filtering prediction technology is employed to precisely predict and correct the three-dimensional (3D) position errors of the L-array antenna. Through data processing of five to nine orbits, accurate estimation of the antenna’s 3D position is achieved, achieving an estimation accuracy of 3 μm, significantly improving the accuracy of on-orbit rapid calibration. Experimental results show that the interferometer positioning accuracy is improved from 7.9 km before antenna position correction to within 0.2 km after correction, verifying the effectiveness and practicability of this method, which aims to address issues with positioning accuracy.

To solve the problem of providing the best initial situation for terminal guidance when multiple missiles intercept multiple targets, a group cooperative midcourse guidance law (GCMGL) considering time-to-go is proposed. Firstly, a three-dimensional (3D) guidance model is established and a cooperative trajectory shaping guidance law is given. Secondly, for estimating the unknown target maneuvering acceleration, an adaptive disturbance observer (ADO) is designed, combining finite-time theory with a radial basis function (RBF) neural network, and the convergence of the estimation error is proven using Lyapunov stability theory. Then, to ensure time-to-go cooperation among missiles within the same group and across different groups, the group consensus protocols of virtual collision point mean and the inter-group cooperative consensus protocol are designed respectively. Based on the group consensus protocols, the virtual collision point cooperative guidance law is given, and the finite-time convergence is proved by Lyapunov stability theory. Simultaneously, combined with trajectory shaping guidance law, virtual collision point cooperative guidance law and the inter-group cooperative consensus protocol, the design of GCMGL considering time-to-go is given. Finally, numerical simulation results show the effectiveness and the superiority of the proposed GCMGL.

In this paper, we study the orthogonal time frequency space signal transmission over multi-path channel in the presence of phase noise (PHN) at both sides of millimeter wave (mmWave) communication links. The statistics characteristics of the PHN-induced common phase error and inter-Doppler interference are investigated. Then, a column-shaped pilot structure is designed, and training pilots are used to realize linear-complexity PHN tracking and compensation. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed scheme enables the signal to noise ratio loss to be restrained within 1 dB in contrast to the no PHN case.

In wideband noncooperative interference cancellation, the reference signals obtained through auxiliary antennas are weighted to cancel with the interference signal. The correlation between the reference signal and the interference signal determines interference cancellation performance, while the auxiliary antenna array affects the correlation by influencing the amplitude and phase of the reference signals. This paper analyzes the effect of auxiliary antenna array on multiple performances of wideband noncooperative interference cancellation. Firstly, the array received signal model of wideband interference is established, and the weight vector coupled with the auxiliary antennas array manifold is solved by spectral analysis and eigen-subspace decomposition. Then, multiple performances which include cancellation resolution, grating null, wideband interference cancellation ratio (ICR), and convergence rate are quantitatively characterized with the auxiliary antenna array. It is obtained through analysis that the performances mutually restrict the auxiliary antenna array. Higher cancellation resolution requires larger array aperture, but when the number of auxiliary antennas is fixed, larger array aperture results in more grating nulls. When the auxiliary antennas are closer to the main antenna, the wideband ICR is improved, but the convergence rate is reduced. The conclusions are verified through simulation of one-dimensional uniform array and two-dimensional nonuniform array. The experiments of three arrays are compared, and the results conform well with simulation and support the theoretical analysis.

The Global Position System (GPS) is a reliable method for positioning in most scenarios, but it falls short in harsh environments like urban vehicular scenarios, where numerous trees or flyovers obstruct the signals. This presents an unprecedented challenge for autonomous vehicles or applications requiring high accuracy. Fortunately, vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANET) offer an effective solution, where vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications are used to enhance location awareness. In V2I communications, the roadside units (RSU) transmit beacon packets, and the vehicle receives numerous packets from different RSUs to establish communication. To further improve localization accuracy, a cross-covariance matrices-alternating least square (CCM-ALS) algorithm is proposed. The algorithm relies on ALS of the CCM for obtaining the position of vehicles in V2I communications. The algorithm is highly precise compared to traditional angle of arrival (AOA) positioning and not inferior to direct position determination (DPD) approaches while being low in complexity, which is crucial for moving vehicles. The numerical results verify the superiority of the proposed method.

In this paper, we propose an improved YOLOv5-based object detection method for radar images, which have the characteristics of diffuse weak noise and imaging distortion. To mitigate the effects of noise without losing spatial information, an coordinate attention (CA) has been added to pre-extract the feature of the images, which can guarantee a better feature extraction ability. A new stochastic weighted average (SWA) method is designed to refine generalization ability of the algorithm, where the medium mean is used instead of their average value. By introducing an deformable convolution, both regular and irregular images can be proceeded. The experimental results show that the improved algorithm performs better in object detection of radar images compared with the YOLOv5 model, which confirms the effectiveness and feasibility of our model.

Fog computing has emerged as an important technology which can improve the performance of computation-intensive and latency-critical communication networks. Nevertheless, the fog computing Internet-of-Things (IoT) systems are susceptible to malicious eavesdropping attacks during the information transmission, and this issue has not been adequately addressed. In this paper, we propose a physical-layer secure fog computing IoT system model, which is able to improve the physical layer security of fog computing IoT networks against the malicious eavesdropping of multiple eavesdroppers. The secrecy rate of the proposed model is analyzed, and the quantum galaxy–based search algorithm (QGSA) is proposed to solve the hybrid task scheduling and resource management problem of the network. The computational complexity and convergence of the proposed algorithm are analyzed. Simulation results validate the efficiency of the proposed model and reveal the influence of various environmental parameters on fog computing IoT networks. Moreover, the simulation results demonstrate that the proposed hybrid task scheduling and resource management scheme can effectively enhance secrecy performance across different communication scenarios.

To address the issue of neglecting scenarios involving joint operations and collaborative drone swarm operations in air combat target intent recognition. This paper proposes a transfer learning-based intention prediction model for drone formation targets in air combat. This model recognizes the intentions of multiple aerial targets by extracting spatial features among the targets at each moment. Simulation results demonstrate that, compared to classical intention recognition models, the proposed model in this paper achieves higher accuracy in identifying the intentions of drone swarm targets in air combat scenarios.

In low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite networks, on-board energy resources of each satellite are extremely limited. And with the increase of the node number and the traffic transmission pressure, the energy consumption in the networks presents uneven distribution. To achieve energy balance in networks, an energy consumption balancing optimization algorithm of LEO networks based on distance energy factor (DEF) is proposed. The DEF is defined as the function of the inter-satellite link distance and the cumulative network energy consumption ratio. According to the minimum sum of DEF on inter-satellite links, an energy consumption balancing algorithm based on DEF is proposed, which can realize dynamic traffic transmission optimization of multiple traffic services. It can effectively reduce the energy consumption pressure of core nodes with high energy consumption in the network, make full use of idle nodes with low energy consumption, and optimize the energy consumption distribution of the whole network according to the continuous iterations of each traffic service flow. Simulation results show that, compared with the traditional shortest path algorithm, the proposed method can improve the balancing performance of nodes by 75% under certain traffic pressure, and realize the optimization of energy consumption balancing of the whole network.

To extract and display the significant information of combat systems, this paper introduces the methodology of functional cartography into combat networks and proposes an integrated framework named “functional cartography of heterogeneous combat networks based on the operational chain” (FCBOC). In this framework, a functional module detection algorithm named operational chain-based label propagation algorithm (OCLPA), which considers the cooperation and interactions among combat entities and can thus naturally tackle network heterogeneity, is proposed to identify the functional modules of the network. Then, the nodes and their modules are classified into different roles according to their properties. A case study shows that FCBOC can provide a simplified description of disorderly information of combat networks and enable us to identify their functional and structural network characteristics. The results provide useful information to help commanders make precise and accurate decisions regarding the protection, disintegration or optimization of combat networks. Three algorithms are also compared with OCLPA to show that FCBOC can most effectively find functional modules with practical meaning.

In the realm of missile defense systems, the self-sufficient maneuver capacity of missile swarms is pivotal for their survival. Through the analysis of the missile dynamics model, a time-efficient cooperative attack strategy for missile swarm is proposed. Based on the distribution of the attackers and defenders, the collision avoidance against the defenders is considered during the attack process. By analyzing the geometric relationship between the relative velocity vector and relative position vector of the attackers and defenders, the collision avoidance constrains of attacking swarm are redefined. The key point is on adjusting the relative velocity vectors to fall outside the collision cone. This work facilitates high-precision attack toward the target while keeping safe missing distance between other attackers during collision avoidance process. By leveraging an innovative repulsion artificial function, a time-efficient cooperative attack strategy for missile swarm is obtained. Through rigorous simulation, the effectiveness of this cooperative attack strategy is substantiated. Furthermore, by employing Monte Carlo simulation, the success rate of the cooperative attack strategy is assessesed and the optimal configuration for the missile swarm is deduced.

A three-dimensional path-planning approach has been developed to coordinate multiple fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) while avoiding collisions. The hierarchical path-planning architecture that divides the path-planning process into two layers is proposed by designing the velocity-obstacle strategy for satisfying timeliness and effectiveness. The upper-level layer focuses on creating an efficient Dubins initial path considering the dynamic constraints of the fixed wing. Subsequently, the lower-level layer detects potential collisions and adjusts its flight paths to avoid collisions by using the three-dimensional velocity obstacle method, which describes the maneuvering space of collision avoidance as the intersection space of half space. To further handle the dynamic and collision-avoidance constraints, a priority mechanism is designed to ensure that the adjusted path is still feasible for fixed-wing UAVs. Simulation experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Performance-based warranties (PBWs) are widely used in industry and manufacturing. Given that PBW can impose financial burdens on manufacturers, rational maintenance decisions are essential for expanding profit margins. This paper proposes an optimization model for PBW decisions for systems affected by Gamma degradation processes, incorporating periodic inspection. A system performance degradation model is established. Preventive maintenance probability and corrective renewal probability models are developed to calculate expected warranty costs and system availability. A benefits function, which includes incentives, is constructed to optimize the initial and subsequent inspection intervals and preventive maintenance thresholds, thereby maximizing warranty profit. An improved sparrow search algorithm is developed to optimize the model, with a case study on large steam turbine rotor shafts. The results suggest the optimal PBW strategy involves an initial inspection interval of approximately 20 months, with subsequent intervals of about four months, and a preventive maintenance threshold of approximately 37.39 mm wear. When compared to common cost-minimization-based condition maintenance strategies and PBW strategies that do not differentiate between initial and subsequent inspection intervals, the proposed PBW strategy increases the manufacturer’s profit by 1% and 18%, respectively. Sensitivity analyses provide managerial recommendations for PBW implementation. The PBW strategy proposed in this study significantly increases manufacturers’ profits by optimizing inspection intervals and preventive maintenance thresholds, and manufacturers should focus on technological improvement in preventive maintenance and cost control to further enhance earnings.

Exact estimation of space object attitude parameters is a great challenge. The effectiveness of conventional attitude estimation approaches based on target sizes suffers a significant reduction when occlusion exists. This paper proposes an innovative approach to estimate the attitude parameters for space objects based on inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) image sequences. The formulation for nonlinear size constraints (NSC) is developed by accounting for the characteristics of object size variation in ISAR image sequences. The multi-start framework for global optimization and the Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno (BFGS) based quasi-Newton iterative method are combined with and used for more accurate estimation of space object’s attitude parameters. Furthermore, the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) of attitude parameter estimates is derived. Comparative experiments demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method.

This paper investigates the high-performance control issues of systems affected by time-varying disturbances and measurement noise. Conventionally, active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) is a favorable control strategy to reject unknown disturbances and uncertainties. However, its control performance is limited because standard extended state observer (ESO) struggles to effectively estimate time-varying disturbances. The emergence of high-order ESO (HESO) alleviates the limitation. Unfortunately, it deteriorates the noise suppression capability when the disturbance rejection is enhanced. To tackle this challenge, an improved ADRC with cascade HESO (CHESO) is proposed. A comprehensive theoretical analysis associated with the performance of HESO is given for the first time. The presented analyses provide an intuitive understanding of the performance of HESO. Then, a novel CHESO is developed. The convergence of CHESO is proved via input-to-state stable theory. Extensive frequency domain analyses indicate that CHESO has stronger disturbance rejection and high-frequency noise attenuation performance than ESO and HESO without increasing the observer bandwidth. Comparative simulations conducted on a servo control system validate the effectiveness and preponderance of the proposed method.

Aiming at the terminal defense problem of aircraft, this paper proposes a method to simultaneously achieve terminal defense and seize the dominant position. The method employs a λ-return based reinforcement learning algorithm, which can be applied to the flight assistance decision-making system to improve the pilot’s survivability. First, we model the environment to simulate the interaction between air-to-air missiles and aircraft. Subsequently, we propose a λ-return based approach to improve the deep Q learning network (DQN), deep advantageous actor criticism (A2C), and proximity policy optimization (PPO) algorithms used to train manoeuvre strategies. The method employs an action space containing nine manoeuvres and defines the off-target distance at the end of the scene as a sparse reward for algorithm training. Simulation results show that the convergence speed of the three improved algorithms is significantly improved when using the λ-return method. Moreover, the effect of the fetch value on the convergence speed is verified by ablation experiments. In order to solve the illegal behavior problem in the training process, we also design a backtracking-based illegal behavior masking mechanism, which improves the data generation efficiency of the environment model and promotes effective algorithm training.

Bird’s-eye-view (BEV) perception is a core technology for autonomous driving systems. However, existing solutions face the dilemma of high costs associated with multi-modal methods and limited performance of vision-only approaches. To address this issue, this paper proposes a framework named “a lightweight pure visual BEV perception method based on dual distillation of spatial-temporal knowledge”. This framework innovatively designs a lightweight vision-only student model based on ResNet, which leverages a dual distillation mechanism to learn from a powerful teacher model that integrates temporal information from both image and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) modalities. Specifically, we distill efficient multi-modal feature extraction and spatial fusion capabilities from the BEVFusion model, and distill advanced temporal information fusion and spatiotemporal attention mechanisms from the BEVFormer model. This dual distillation strategy enables the student model to achieve perception performance close to that of multi-modal models without relying on LiDAR. Experimental results on the nuScenes dataset demonstrate that the proposed model significantly outperforms classical vision-only algorithms, achieves comparable performance to current state-of-the-art vision-only methods on the nuScenes detection leaderboard in terms of both mean average precision (mAP) and the nuScenes detection score (NDS) metrics, and exhibits notable advantages in inference computational efficiency. Although the proposed dual-teacher paradigm incurs higher offline training costs compared to single-model approaches, it yields a streamlined and highly efficient student model suitable for resource-constrained real-time deployment. This provides an effective pathway toward low-cost, high-performance autonomous driving perception systems.

Formation control of multiple spacecraft has attracted extensive research attention. However, achieving reliable performance under sensor failures remains a significant challenge. This paper develops an integrated framework that jointly designs distributed observers and local controllers to ensure robust formation control in the presence of external disturbances and sensor malfunctions. Treating the spacecraft formation as a single interconnected system, each spacecraft constructs a distributed observer that estimates the overall system state by incorporating both its own measurements and the predicted control information shared among the spacecraft. Based on the observer estimates, a local control law is synthesized to maintain the desired formation. Rigorous theoretical analysis and numerical simulations demonstrate that the proposed integrated approach effectively guarantees formation stability and resilience against sensor failures and disturbances.

Weakly supervised semantic segmentation (WSSS) is a tricky task, which only provides category information for segmentation prediction. Thus, the key stage of WSSS is to generate the pseudo labels. For convolutional neural network (CNN) based methods, in which class activation mapping (CAM) is proposed to obtain the pseudo labels, and only concentrates on the most discriminative parts. Recently, transformer-based methods utilize attention map from the multi-headed self-attention (MHSA) module to predict pseudo labels, which usually contain obvious background noise and incoherent object area. To solve the above problems, we use the Conformer as our backbone, which is a parallel network based on convolutional neural network (CNN) and Transformer. The two branches generate pseudo labels and refine them independently, and can effectively combine the advantages of CNN and Transformer. However, the parallel structure is not close enough in the information communication. Thus, parallel structure can result in poor details about pseudo labels, and the background noise still exists. To alleviate this problem, we propose enhancing convolution CAM (ECCAM) model, which have three improved modules based on enhancing convolution, including deeper stem (DStem), convolutional feed-forward network (CFFN) and feature coupling unit with convolution (FCUConv). The ECCAM could make Conformer have tighter interaction between CNN and Transformer branches. After experimental verification, the improved modules we propose can help the network perceive more local information from images, making the final segmentation results more refined. Compared with similar architecture, our modules greatly improve the semantic segmentation performance and achieve 70.2% mean intersection over union（mIoU） on the PASCAL VOC 2012 dataset.