This paper tackles the formation-containment control problem of fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarm with model uncertainties for dynamic target tracking in three-dimensional space in the faulty case of UAVs ’ actuator and sensor. The fixed-wing UAV swarm under consideration is organized as a “multi-leader-multi-follower” structure, in which only several leaders can obtain the dynamic target information while others only receive the neighbors’ information through the communication network. To simultaneously realize the formation, containment, and dynamic target tracking, a two-layer control framework is adopted to decouple the problem into two subproblems: reference trajectory generation and trajectory tracking. In the upper layer, a distributed finite-time estimator (DFTE) is proposed to generate each UAV ’s reference trajectory in accordance with the control objective. Subsequently, a distributed composite robust fault-tolerant trajectory tracking controller is developed in the lower layer, where a novel adaptive extended super-twisting (AESTW) algorithm with a finite-time extended state observer (FTESO) is involved in solving the robust trajectory tracking control problem under model uncertainties, actuator, and sensor faults. The proposed controller simultaneously guarantees rapidness and enhances the system ’s robustness with fewer chattering effects. Finally, corresponding simulations are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness and competitiveness of the proposed two-layer fault-tolerant cooperative control scheme.

Complex systems widely exist in nature and human society. There are complex interactions between system elements in a complex system, and systems show complex features at the macro level, such as emergence, self-organization, uncertainty, and dynamics. These complex features make it difficult to understand the internal operation mechanism of complex systems. Networked modeling of complex systems is a favorable means of understanding complex systems. It not only represents complex interactions but also reflects essential attributes of complex systems. This paper summarizes the research progress of complex systems modeling and analysis from the perspective of network science, including networked modeling, vital node analysis, network invulnerability analysis, network disintegration analysis, resilience analysis, complex network link prediction, and the attacker-defender game in complex networks. In addition, this paper presents some points of view on the trend and focus of future research on network analysis of complex systems.

With the rapid development of informatization, autonomy and intelligence, unmanned swarm formation intelligent operations will become the main combat mode of future wars. Typical unmanned swarm formations such as ground-based directed energy weapon formations, space-based kinetic energy weapon formations, and sea-based carrier-based formations have become the trump card for winning future wars. In a complex confrontation environment, these sophisticated weapon formation systems can precisely strike mobile threat group targets, making them extreme deterrents in joint combat applications. Based on this, first, this paper provides a comprehensive summary of the outstanding advantages, strategic position and combat style of unmanned clusters in joint warfare to highlight their important position in future warfare. Second, a detailed analysis of the technological breakthroughs in four key areas, situational awareness, heterogeneous coordination, mixed combat, and intelligent assessment of typical unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarms in joint warfare, is presented. An in-depth analysis of the UAV swarm communication networking operating mechanism during joint warfare is provided to lay the theoretical foundation for subsequent cooperative tracking and control. Then, an in-depth analysis of the shut-in technology requirements of UAV clusters in joint warfare is provided to lay a theoretical foundation for subsequent cooperative tracking control. Finally, the technical requirements of UAV clusters in joint warfare are analysed in depth so the key technologies can form a closed-loop kill chain system and provide theoretical references for the study of intelligent command operations.

In this paper, a comprehensive overview of radar detection methods for low-altitude targets in maritime environments is presented, focusing on the challenges posed by sea clutter and multipath scattering. The performance of the radar detection methods under sea clutter, multipath, and combined conditions is categorized and summarized, and future research directions are outlined to enhance radar detection performance for low–altitude targets in maritime environments.

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-based passive radar (GBPR) has been widely used in remote sensing applications. However, for moving target detection (MTD), the quadratic phase error (QPE) introduced by the non-cooperative target motion is usually difficult to be compensated, as the low power level of the GBPR echo signal renders the estimation of the Doppler rate less effective. Consequently, the moving target in GBPR image is usually defocused, which aggravates the difficulty of target detection even further. In this paper, a spawning particle filter (SPF) is proposed for defocused MTD. Firstly, the measurement model and the likelihood ratio function (LRF) of the defocused point-like target image are deduced. Then, a spawning particle set is generated for subsequent target detection, with reference to traditional particles in particle filter (PF) as their parent. After that, based on the PF estimator, the SPF algorithm and its sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) implementation are proposed with a novel amplitude estimation method to decrease the target state dimension. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed SPF is demonstrated by numerical simulations and preliminary experimental results, showing that the target range and Doppler can be estimated accurately.

The concept of unmanned weapon system-of-systems (UWSoS) involves a collection of various unmanned systems to achieve or accomplish a specific goal or mission. The mission reliability of UWSoS is represented by its ability to finish a required mission above the baselines of a given mission. However, issues with heterogeneity, cooperation between systems, and the emergence of UWSoS cannot be effectively solved by traditional system reliability methods. This study proposes an effective operation-loop-based mission reliability evaluation method for UWSoS by analyzing dynamic reconfiguration. First, we present a new connotation of an effective operation loop by considering the allocation of operational entities and physical resource constraints. Then, we propose an effective operation-loop-based mission reliability model for a heterogeneous UWSoS according to the mission baseline. Moreover, a mission reliability evaluation algorithm is proposed under random external shocks and topology reconfiguration, revealing the evolution law of the effective operation loop and mission reliability. Finally, a typical 60-unmanned-aerial-vehicle-swarm is taken as an example to demonstrate the proposed models and methods. The mission reliability is achieved by considering external shocks, which can serve as a reference for evaluating and improving the effectiveness of UWSoS.

Air-to-air combat tactical decisions for multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (ACTDMU) are a key decision-making step in beyond visual range combat. Complex influencing factors, strong antagonism and real-time requirements need to be considered in the ACTDMU problem. In this paper, we propose a multicriteria game approach to ACTDMU. This approach consists of a multicriteria game model and a Pareto Nash equilibrium algorithm. In this model, we form the strategy profiles for the integration of air-to-air combat tactics and weapon target assignment strategies by considering the correlation between them, and we design the vector payoff functions based on predominance factors. We propose a algorithm of Pareto Nash equilibrium based on preference relations using threshold constraints (PNE-PRTC), and we prove that the solutions obtained by this algorithm are refinements of Pareto Nash equilibrium solutions. The numerical experiments indicate that PNE-PRTC algorithm is considerably faster than the baseline algorithms and the performance is better. Especially on large-scale instances, the Pareto Nash equilibrium solutions can be calculated by PNE-PRTC algorithm at the second level. The simulation experiments show that the multicriteria game approach is more effective than one-side decision approaches such as multiple-attribute decision-making and randomly chosen decisions.

Recognition of pulse repetition interval (PRI) modulation is a fundamental task in the interpretation of radar intentions. However, the existing PRI modulation recognition methods mainly focus on single-label classification of PRI sequences. The prerequisite for the effectiveness of these methods is that the PRI sequences are perfectly divided according to different modulation types before identification, while the actual situation is that radar pulses reach the receiver continuously, and there is no completely reliable method to achieve this division in the case of non-cooperative reception. Based on the above actual needs, this paper implements an algorithm based on the recurrence plot technique and the multi-target detection model, which does not need to divide the PRI sequence in advance. Compared with the sliding window method, it can more effectively realize the recognition of the dynamically varying PRI modulation.

Long-time coherent integration (LTCI) is an effective way for radar maneuvering target detection, but it faces the problem of a large number of search parameters and large amount of calculation. Realizing the simultaneous compensation of the range and Doppler migrations in complex clutter background, and at the same time improving the calculation efficiency has become an urgent problem to be solved. The sparse transformation theory is introduced to LTCI in this paper, and a non-parametric searching sparse LTCI (SLTCI) based maneuvering target detection method is proposed. This method performs time reversal (TR) and second-order Keystone transform (SKT) in the range frequency & slow-time data to complete high-order range walk compensation, and achieves the coherent integration of maneuvering target across range and Doppler units via the robust sparse fractional Fourier transform (RSFRFT). It can compensate for the nonlinear range migration caused by high-order motion. S-band and X-band radar data measured in sea clutter background are used to verify the detection performance of the proposed method, which can achieve better detection performance of maneuvering targets with less computational burden compared with several popular integration methods.

This paper proposes the nonlinear direct data-driven control from theoretical analysis and practical engineering, i.e., unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) formation flight system. Firstly, from the theoretical point of view, consider one nonlinear closed-loop system with a nonlinear plant and nonlinear feed-forward controller simultaneously. To avoid the complex identification process for that nonlinear plant, a nonlinear direct data-driven control strategy is proposed to design that nonlinear feed-forward controller only through the input-output measured data sequence directly, whose detailed explicit forms are model inverse method and approximated analysis method. Secondly, from the practical point of view, after reviewing the UAV formation flight system, nonlinear direct data-driven control is applied in designing the formation controller, so that the followers can track the leader’s desired trajectory during one small time instant only through solving one data fitting problem. Since most natural phenomena have nonlinear properties, the direct method must be the better one. Corresponding system identification and control algorithms are required to be proposed for those nonlinear systems, and the direct nonlinear controller design is the purpose of this paper.

This paper concerns minimum-energy leader-following formation design and analysis problems of distributed multi-agent systems (DMASs) subjected to randomly switching topologies and aperiodic communication pauses. The critical feature of this paper is that the energy consumption during the formation control process is restricted by the minimum-energy constraint in the sense of the linear matrix inequality. Firstly, the leader-following formation control protocol is proposed based on the relative state information of neighboring agents, where the total energy consumption is considered. Then, minimum-energy leader-following formation design and analysis criteria are presented in the form of the linear matrix inequality, which can be checked by the generalized eigenvalue method. Especially, the value of the minimum-energy constraint is determined. An illustrative simulation is provided to show the effectiveness of the main results.

The contribution rate of equipment system-of-systems architecture (ESoSA) is an important index to evaluate the equipment update, development, and architecture optimization. Since the traditional ESoSA contribution rate evaluation method does not make full use of the fuzzy information and uncertain information in the equipment system-of-systems (ESoS), and the Bayesian network is an effective tool to solve the uncertain information, a new ESoSA contribution rate evaluation method based on the fuzzy Bayesian network (FBN) is proposed. Firstly, based on the operation loop theory, an ESoSA is constructed considering three aspects: reconnaissance equipment, decision equipment, and strike equipment. Next, the fuzzy set theory is introduced to construct the FBN of ESoSA to deal with fuzzy information and uncertain information. Furthermore, the fuzzy importance index of the root node of the FBN is used to calculate the contribution rate of the ESoSA, and the ESoSA contribution rate evaluation model based on the root node fuzzy importance is established. Finally, the feasibility and rationality of this method are validated via an empirical case study of aviation ESoSA. Compared with traditional methods, the evaluation method based on FBN takes various failure states of equipment into consideration, is free of acquiring accurate probability of traditional equipment failure, and models the uncertainty of the relationship between equipment. The proposed method not only supplements and improves the ESoSA contribution rate assessment method, but also broadens the application scope of the Bayesian network.

Autonomous cooperation of unmanned swarms is the research focus on “new combat forces” and “disruptive technologies” in military fields. The mechanism design is the fundamental way to realize autonomous cooperation. Facing the realistic requirements of a swarm network dynamic adjustment under the background of high dynamics and strong confrontation and aiming at the optimization of the coordination level, an adaptive dynamic reconfiguration mechanism of unmanned swarm topology based on an evolutionary game is designed. This paper analyzes military requirements and proposes the basic framework of autonomous cooperation of unmanned swarms, including the emergence of swarm intelligence, information network construction and collaborative mechanism design. Then, based on the framework, the adaptive dynamic reconfiguration mechanism is discussed in detail from two aspects: topology dynamics and strategy dynamics. Next, the unmanned swarms’ community network is designed, and the network characteristics are analyzed. Moreover, the mechanism characteristics are analyzed by numerical simulation, focusing on the impact of key parameters, such as cost, benefit coefficient and adjustment rate on the level of swarm cooperation. Finally, the conclusion is made, which is expected to provide a theoretical reference and decision support for cooperative mode design and combat effectiveness generation of unmanned swarm operations.

Aiming at the suppression of enemy air defense (SEAD) task under the complex and complicated combat scenario, the spatiotemporal cooperative path planning methods are studied in this paper. The major research contents include optimal path points generation, path smoothing and cooperative rendezvous. In the path points generation part, the path points availability testing algorithm and the path segments availability testing algorithm are designed, on this foundation, the swarm intelligence-based path point generation algorithm is utilized to generate the optimal path. In the path smoothing part, taking terminal attack angle constraint and maneuverability constraint into consideration, the Dubins curve is introduced to smooth the path segments. In cooperative rendezvous part, we take estimated time of arrival requirement constraint and flight speed range constraint into consideration, the speed control strategy and flight path control strategy are introduced, further, the decoupling scheme of the circling maneuver and detouring maneuver is designed, in this case, the maneuver ways, maneuver point, maneuver times, maneuver path and flight speed are determined. Finally, the simulation experiments are conducted and the acquired results reveal that the time-space cooperation of multiple unmanned aeriel vehicles (UAVs) is effectively realized, in this way, the combat situation suppression against the enemy can be realized in SEAD scenarios.

With increased dependence on space assets, scheduling and tasking of the space surveillance network (SSN) are vitally important. The multi-sensor collaborative observation scheduling (MCOS) problem is a multi-constraint and high-conflict complex combinatorial optimization problem that is non-deterministic polynomial (NP)-hard. This research establishes a sub-time window constraint satisfaction problem (STWCSP) model with the objective of maximizing observation profit. Considering the significant effect of genetic algorithms (GA) on solving the problem of resource allocation, an evolution heuristic (EH) algorithm containing three strategies that focus on the MCOS problem is proposed. For each case, a task scheduling sequence is first obtained via an improved GA with penalty (GAPE) algorithm, and then a mission planning algorithm (heuristic rule) is used to determine the specific observation time. Compared to the model without sub-time windows and some other algorithms, a series of experiments illustrate the STWCSP model has better performance in terms of total profit. Experiments about strategy and parameter sensitivity validate its excellent performance in terms of EH algorithms.

The detection of hypersonic targets usually confronts range migration (RM) issue before coherent integration (CI). The traditional methods aiming at correcting RM to obtain CI mainly considers the narrow-band radar condition. However, with the increasing requirement of far-range detection, the time bandwidth product, which is corresponding to radar’s mean power, should be promoted in actual application. Thus, the echo signal generates the scale effect (SE) at large time bandwidth product situation, influencing the intra and inter pulse integration performance. To eliminate SE and correct RM, this paper proposes an effective algorithm, i.e., scaled location rotation transform (ScLRT). The ScLRT can remove SE to obtain the matching pulse compression (PC) as well as correct RM to complete CI via the location rotation transform, being implemented by seeking the actual rotation angle. Compared to the traditional coherent detection algorithms, ScLRT can address the SE problem to achieve better detection/estimation capabilities. At last, this paper gives several simulations to assess the viability of ScLRT.

Current successes in artificial intelligence domain have revitalized interest in spacecraft pursuit-evasion game, which is an interception problem with a non-cooperative maneuvering target. The paper presents an automated machine learning (AutoML) based method to generate optimal trajectories in long-distance scenarios. Compared with conventional deep neural network (DNN) methods, the proposed method dramatically reduces the reliance on manual intervention and machine learning expertise. Firstly, based on differential game theory and costate normalization technique, the trajectory optimization problem is formulated under the assumption of continuous thrust. Secondly, the AutoML technique based on sequential model-based optimization (SMBO) framework is introduced to automate DNN design in deep learning process. If recommended DNN architecture exists, the tree-structured Parzen estimator (TPE) is used, otherwise the efficient neural architecture search (NAS) with network morphism is used. Thus, a novel trajectory optimization method with high computational efficiency is achieved. Finally, numerical results demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed method.

Considering the problem that the scattering echo images of airborne Doppler weather radar are often reduced by ground clutters, the accuracy and confidence of meteorology target detection are reduced. In this paper, a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) is proposed for meteorology target detection and ground clutter suppression with a large collection of airborne weather radar images as network input. For each weather radar image, the corresponding digital elevation model (DEM) image is extracted on basis of the radar antenna scanning parameters and plane position, and is further fed to the network as a supplement for ground clutter suppression. The features of actual meteorology targets are learned in each bottleneck module of the proposed network and convolved into deeper iterations in the forward propagation process. Then the network parameters are updated by the back propagation iteration of the training error. Experimental results on the real measured images show that our proposed DCNN outperforms the counterparts in terms of six evaluation factors. Meanwhile, the network outputs are in good agreement with the expected meteorology detection results (labels). It is demonstrated that the proposed network would have a promising meteorology observation application with minimal effort on network variables or parameter changes.

This paper proposes an optimal deployment method of heterogeneous multistatic radars to construct arc barrier coverage with location restrictions. This method analyzes and proves the properties of different deployment patterns in the optimal deployment sequence. Based on these properties and considering location restrictions, it introduces an optimization model of arc barrier coverage and aims to minimize the total deployment cost of heterogeneous multistatic radars. To overcome the non-convexity of the model and the non-analytical nature of the objective function, an algorithm combining integer line programming and the cuckoo search algorithm (CSA) is proposed. The proposed algorithm can determine the number of receivers and transmitters in each optimal deployment squence to minimize the total placement cost. Simulations are conducted in different conditions to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

In a cloud-native era, the Kubernetes-based workflow engine enables workflow containerized execution through the inherent abilities of Kubernetes. However, when encountering continuous workflow requests and unexpected resource request spikes, the engine is limited to the current workflow load information for resource allocation, which lacks the agility and predictability of resource allocation, resulting in over and under-provisioning resources. This mechanism seriously hinders workflow execution efficiency and leads to high resource waste. To overcome these drawbacks, we propose an adaptive resource allocation scheme named adaptive resource allocation scheme (ARAS) for the Kubernetes-based workflow engines. Considering potential future workflow task requests within the current task pod’s lifecycle, the ARAS uses a resource scaling strategy to allocate resources in response to high-concurrency workflow scenarios. The ARAS offers resource discovery, resource evaluation, and allocation functionalities and serves as a key component for our tailored workflow engine (KubeAdaptor). By integrating the ARAS into KubeAdaptor for workflow containerized execution, we demonstrate the practical abilities of KubeAdaptor and the advantages of our ARAS. Compared with the baseline algorithm, experimental evaluation under three distinct workflow arrival patterns shows that ARAS gains time-saving of 9.8% to 40.92% in the average total duration of all workflows, time-saving of 26.4% to 79.86% in the average duration of individual workflow, and an increase of 1% to 16% in centrol processing unit (CPU) and memory resource usage rate.

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are well suited to bearing fault classification due to their ability to learn discriminative spectro-temporal patterns. However, gathering sufficient cases of faulty conditions in real-world engineering scenarios to train an intelligent diagnosis system is challenging. This paper proposes a fault diagnosis method combining several augmentation schemes to alleviate the problem of limited fault data. We begin by identifying relevant parameters that influence the construction of a spectrogram. We leverage the uncertainty principle in processing time-frequency domain signals, making it impossible to simultaneously achieve good time and frequency resolutions. A key determinant of this phenomenon is the window function’s choice and length used in implementing the short-time Fourier transform. The Gaussian, Kaiser, and rectangular windows are selected in the experimentation due to their diverse characteristics. The overlap parameter ’s size also influences the outcome and resolution of the spectrogram. A 50% overlap is used in the original data transformation, and ±25% is used in implementing an effective augmentation policy to which two-stage regular CNN can be applied to achieve improved performance. The best model reaches an accuracy of 99.98% and a cross-domain accuracy of 92.54%. When combined with data augmentation, the proposed model yields cutting-edge results.

A system of systems (SoS) composes a set of independent constituent systems (CSs), where the degree of authority to control the independence of CSs varies, depending on different SoS types. Key researchers describe four SoS types with descending levels of central authority: directed, acknowledged, collaborative and virtual. Although the definitions have been recognized in SoS engineering, what is challenging is the difficulty of translating these definitions into models and simulation environments. Thus, we provide a goal-based method including a mathematical baseline to translate these definitions into more effective agent-based modeling and simulations. First, we construct the theoretical models of CS and SoS. Based on the theoretical models, we analyze the degree of authority influenced by SoS characteristics. Next, we propose a definition of SoS types by quantitatively explaining the degree of authority. Finally, we recognize the differences between acknowledged SoS and collaborative SoS using a migrating waterfowl flock by an agent-based model (ABM) simulation. This paper contributes to the SoS body of knowledge by increasing our understanding of the degree of authority in an SoS, so we may identify suitable SoS types to achieve SoS goals by modeling and simulation.

In engineering application, there is only one adaptive weights estimated by most of traditional early warning radars for adaptive interference suppression in a pulse reputation interval (PRI). Therefore, if the training samples used to calculate the weight vector does not contain the jamming, then the jamming cannot be removed by adaptive spatial filtering. If the weight vector is constantly updated in the range dimension, the training data may contain target echo signals, resulting in signal cancellation effect. To cope with the situation that the training samples are contaminated by target signal, an iterative training sample selection method based on non-homogeneous detector (NHD) is proposed in this paper for updating the weight vector in entire range dimension. The principle is presented, and the validity is proven by simulation results.

In the process of performing a task, autonomous unmanned systems face the problem of scene changing, which requires the ability of real-time decision-making under dynamically changing scenes. Therefore, taking the unmanned system coordinative region control operation as an example, this paper combines knowledge representation with probabilistic decision-making and proposes a role-based Bayesian decision model for autonomous unmanned systems that integrates scene cognition and individual preferences. Firstly, according to utility value decision theory, the role-based utility value decision model is proposed to realize task coordination according to the preference of the role that individual is assigned. Then, multi-entity Bayesian network is introduced for situation assessment, by which scenes and their uncertainty related to the operation are semantically described, so that the unmanned systems can conduct situation awareness in a set of scenes with uncertainty. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified in a virtual task scenario. This research has important reference value for realizing scene cognition, improving cooperative decision-making ability under dynamic scenes, and achieving swarm level autonomy of unmanned systems.

Rare labeled data are difficult to recognize by using conventional methods in the process of radar emitter recognition. To solve this problem, an optimized cooperative semi-supervised learning radar emitter recognition method based on a small amount of labeled data is developed. First, a small amount of labeled data are randomly sampled by using the bootstrap method, loss functions for three common deep learning networks are improved, the uniform distribution and cross-entropy function are combined to reduce the overconfidence of softmax classification. Subsequently, the dataset obtained after sampling is adopted to train three improved networks so as to build the initial model. In addition, the unlabeled data are preliminarily screened through dynamic time warping (DTW) and then input into the initial model trained previously for judgment. If the judgment results of two or more networks are consistent, the unlabeled data are labeled and put into the labeled data set. Lastly, the three network models are input into the labeled dataset for training, and the final model is built. As revealed by the simulation results, the semi-supervised learning method adopted in this paper is capable of exploiting a small amount of labeled data and basically achieving the accuracy of labeled data recognition.

A dimension decomposition (DIDE) method for multiple incoherent source localization using uniform circular array (UCA) is proposed. Due to the fact that the far-field signal can be considered as the state where the range parameter of the near-field signal is infinite, the algorithm for the near-field source localization is also suitable for estimating the direction of arrival (DOA) of far-field signals. By decomposing the first and second exponent term of the steering vector, the three-dimensional (3-D) parameter is transformed into two-dimensional (2-D) and one-dimensional (1-D) parameter estimation. First, by partitioning the received data, we exploit propagator to acquire the noise subspace. Next, the objective function is established and partial derivative is applied to acquire the spatial spectrum of 2-D DOA. At last, the estimated 2-D DOA is utilized to calculate the phase of the decomposed vector, and the least squares (LS) is performed to acquire the range parameters. In comparison to the existing algorithms, the proposed DIDE algorithm requires neither the eigendecomposition of covariance matrix nor the search process of range spatial spectrum, which can achieve satisfactory localization and reduce computational complexity. Simulations are implemented to illustrate the advantages of the proposed DIDE method. Moreover, simulations demonstrate that the proposed DIDE method can also classify the mixed far-field and near-field signals.

Least squares projection twin support vector machine (LSPTSVM) has faster computing speed than classical least squares support vector machine (LSSVM). However, LSPTSVM is sensitive to outliers and its solution lacks sparsity. Therefore, it is difficult for LSPTSVM to process large-scale datasets with outliers. In this paper, we propose a robust LSPTSVM model (called R-LSPTSVM) by applying truncated least squares loss function. The robustness of R-LSPTSVM is proved from a weighted perspective. Furthermore, we obtain the sparse solution of R-LSPTSVM by using the pivoting Cholesky factorization method in primal space. Finally, the sparse R-LSPTSVM algorithm (SR-LSPTSVM) is proposed. Experimental results show that SR-LSPTSVM is insensitive to outliers and can deal with large-scale datasets fastly.

In the scene of wideband radar, due to the spread of target scattering points, the attitude and angle of view of the target constantly change in the process of moving. It is difficult to predict, and the actual echo of multiple scattered points is not fully matched with the transmitted signal. Therefore, it is challenging for the traditional matching filter method to achieve a complete matching effect in wideband echo detection. In addition, the energy dispersion of complex target echoes is still a problem in radar target detection under broadband conditions. Therefore, this paper proposes a wideband target detection method based on dual-channel correlation processing of range-extended targets. This method fully uses the spatial distribution characteristics of target scattering points of echo signal and the matching characteristics of the dual-channel point extension function itself. The radial accumulation of wideband target echo signal in the complex domain is realized through the adaptive correlation processing of a dual-channel echo signal. The accumulation effect of high matching degree is achieved to improve the detection probability and the performance of wideband detection. Finally, electromagnetic simulation experiments and measured data verify that the proposed method has the advantages of high signal to noise ratio (SNR) gain and high detection probability under low SNR conditions.

To address the eccentric error of circular marks in camera calibration, a circle location method based on the invariance of collinear points and pole–polar constraint is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the centers of the ellipses are extracted, and the real concentric circle center projection equation is established by exploiting the cross ratio invariance of the collinear points. Subsequently, since the infinite lines passing through the centers of the marks are parallel, the other center projection coordinates are expressed as the solution problem of linear equations. The problem of projection deviation caused by using the center of the ellipse as the real circle center projection is addressed, and the results are utilized as the true image points to achieve the high precision camera calibration. As demonstrated by the simulations and practical experiments, the proposed method performs a better location and calibration performance by achieving the actual center projection of circular marks. The relevant results confirm the precision and robustness of the proposed approach.

This paper provides an improved model-free adaptive control (IMFAC) strategy for solving the surface vessel trajectory tracking issue with time delay and restricted disturbance. Firstly, the original nonlinear time-delay system is transformed into a structure consisting of an unknown residual term and a parameter term with control inputs using a local compact form dynamic linearization (local-CFDL). To take advantage of the resulting structure, use a discrete-time extended state observer (DESO) to estimate the unknown residual factor. Then, according to the study, the inclusion of a time delay has no effect on the linearization structure, and an improved control approach is provided, in which DESO is used to adjust for uncertainties. Furthermore, a DESO-based event-triggered model-free adaptive control (ET-DESO-MFAC) is established by designing event-triggered conditions to assure Lyapunov stability. Only when the system’s indicator fulfills the provided event-triggered condition will the control input signal be updated; otherwise, the control input will stay the same as it is at the last trigger moment. A coordinate compensation approach is developed to reduce the steady-state inaccuracy of trajectory tracking. Finally, simulation experiments are used to assess the effectiveness of the proposed technique for trajectory tracking.

The dynamic weapon target assignment (DWTA) problem is of great significance in modern air combat. However, DWTA is a highly complex constrained multi-objective combinatorial optimization problem. An improved elitist non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II (NSGA-II) called the non-dominated shuffled frog leaping algorithm (NSFLA) is proposed to maximize damage to enemy targets and minimize the self-threat in air combat constraints. In NSFLA, the shuffled frog leaping algorithm (SFLA) is introduced to NSGA-II to replace the inside evolutionary scheme of the genetic algorithm (GA), displaying low optimization speed and heterogeneous space search defects. Two improvements have also been raised to promote the internal optimization performance of SFLA. Firstly, the local evolution scheme, a novel crossover mechanism, ensures that each individual participates in updating instead of only the worst ones, which can expand the diversity of the population. Secondly, a discrete adaptive mutation algorithm based on the function change rate is applied to balance the global and local search. Finally, the scheme is verified in various air combat scenarios. The results show that the proposed NSFLA has apparent advantages in solution quality and efficiency, especially in many aircraft and the dynamic air combat environment.

Link16 data link is the communication standard of the joint tactical information distribution system (JTIDS) used by the U.S. military and North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which is applied as the opportunistic illuminator for passive radar in this paper. The time-domain expression of the Link16 signal is established, and its ambiguity function expression is derived. The time-delay dimension and Doppler dimension side peaks of which lead to the appearance of the false target during target detection. To solve the problem, the time-delay dimension and Doppler dimension side peaks suppression methods are proposed. For the problem that the conventional mismatched filter (MMF) cannot suppress the time-delay dimension side peaks, a neighborhood MMF (NMMF) is proposed. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.

In this paper, a detection method combining Cameron decomposition based on polarization scattering characteristics in sea clutter background is proposed. Firstly, the Cameron decomposition is exploited to fuse the radar echoes of full polarization channels at the data level. Due to the artificial material structure on the surface of the target, it can be shown that the non-reciprocity of the target cell is stronger than that of the clutter cell. Then, based on the analysis of the decomposition results, a new feature with scattering geometry characteristics in polarization domain, denoted as Cameron polarization decomposition scattering weight (CPD-SW), is extracted as the test statistic, which can achieve more detailed descriptions of the clutter scattering characteristics utilizing the difference between their scattering types. Finally, the superiority of the proposed CPD-SW detector over traditional detectors in improving detection performance is verified by the IPIX measured dataset, which has strong stability under short-time observation in threshold detection and can also improve the separability of feature space zin anomaly detection.

The deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG) algorithm is an off-policy method that combines two mainstream reinforcement learning methods based on value iteration and policy iteration. Using the DDPG algorithm, agents can explore and summarize the environment to achieve autonomous decisions in the continuous state space and action space. In this paper, a cooperative defense with DDPG via swarms of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is developed and validated, which has shown promising practical value in the effect of defending. We solve the sparse rewards problem of reinforcement learning pair in a long-term task by building the reward function of UAV swarms and optimizing the learning process of artificial neural network based on the DDPG algorithm to reduce the vibration in the learning process. The experimental results show that the DDPG algorithm can guide the UAVs swarm to perform the defense task efficiently, meeting the requirements of a UAV swarm for non-centralization, autonomy, and promoting the intelligent development of UAVs swarm as well as the decision-making process.

Time synchronization is one of the base techniques in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). This paper proposes a novel time synchronization protocol which is a robust consensus-based algorithm in the existence of transmission delay and packet loss. It compensates for transmission delay and packet loss firstly, and then, estimates clock skew and clock offset in two steps. Simulation and experiment results show that the proposed protocol can keep synchronization error below 2 μs in the grid network of 10 nodes or the random network of 90 nodes. Moreover, the synchronization accuracy in the proposed protocol can keep constant when the WSN works up to a month.