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Since 1950s the field of city transport modelling has progressed rapidly. The first equilibrium distribution models of traffic flow appeared. The most popular model (which is still being widely used) was the Beckmann model, based on the two Wardrop principles. The core of the model could be briefly described as the search for the Nash equilibrium in a population demand game, in which losses of agents (drivers) are calculated based on the chosen path and demands of this path with correspondences being fixed. The demands (costs) of a path are calculated as the sum of the demands of different path segments (graph edges), that are included in the path. The costs of an edge (edge travel time) are determined by the amount of traffic on this edge (more traffic means larger travel time). The flow on a graph edge is determined by the sum of flows over all paths passing through the given edge. Thus, the cost of traveling along a path is determined not only by the choice of the path, but also by the paths other drivers have chosen. Thus, it is a standard game theory task. The way cost functions are constructed allows us to narrow the search for equilibrium to solving an optimization problem (game is potential in this case). If the cost functions are monotone and non-decreasing, the optimization problem is convex. Actually, different assumptions about the cost functions form different models. The most popular model is based on the BPR cost function. Such functions are massively used in calculations of real cities. However, in the beginning of the XXI century, Yu. E. Nesterov and A. de Palma showed that Beckmann-type models have serious weak points. Those could be fixed using the stable dynamics model, as it was called by the authors. The search for equilibrium here could be also reduced to an optimization problem, moreover, the problem of linear programming. In 2013, A.V.Gasnikov discovered that the stable dynamics model can be obtained by a passage to the limit in the Beckmann model. However, it was made only for several practically important, but still special cases. Generally, the question if this passage to the limit is possible remains open. In this paper, we provide the justification of the possibility of the above-mentioned passage to the limit in the general case, when the cost function for traveling along the edge as a function of the flow along the edge degenerates into a function equal to fixed costs until the capacity is reached and it is equal to plus infinity when the capacity is exceeded.

The paper is a study of the mathematical model and kinematics of a parallel spherical manipulator. This type of manipulator was proposed back in the 80s of the last century and has since found application in exoskeletons and rehabilitation robots due to its structure, which allows imitating natural joint movements of the human body.

The Parallel Spherical Manipulator is a robot with three legs and two platforms, a base platform and a mobile platform. Its legs consist of two support links that are arc-shaped. Mathematically, the manipulator can be described using two virtual pyramids that are placed on top of each other.

The paper considers two types of manipulator configurations: classical and asymmetric, and solves basic kinematic problems for each. The study shows that the asymmetric design of the manipulator has the maximum workspace, especially when the motors are mounted at the joints of the manipulator’s links inside legs.

To optimize the parameters of the parallel spherical manipulator, we introduced a metric of usable workspace volume. This metric represents the volume of the sector of the sphere in which the robot does not experience internal collisions or singular states. There are three types of singular states possible within a parallel spherical manipulator — serial, parallel, and mixed singularity. We used all three types of singularities to calculate the useful volume. In our research work, we solved the problem related to maximizing the usable volume of the workspace.

Through our research work, we found that the asymmetric configuration of the spherical manipulator maximizes the workspace when the motors are located at the articulation point of the robot leg support arms. At the same time, the parameter $\beta_1$ must be zero degrees to maximize the workspace. This allowed us to create a prototype robot in which we eliminated the use of lower links in legs in favor of a radiused rail along which the motors run. This allowed us to reduce the linear dimensions of the robot itself and gain on the stiffness of the structure.

The results obtained can be used to optimize the parameters of the parallel spherical manipulator in various industrial and scientific applications, as well as for further research of other types of parallel robots and manipulators.

The article deals with the nonlinear boundary-value problem of hydrogen permeability corresponding to the following experiment. A membrane made of the target structural material heated to a sufficiently high temperature serves as the partition in the vacuum chamber. Degassing is performed in advance. A constant pressure of gaseous (molecular) hydrogen is built up at the inlet side. The penetrating flux is determined by mass-spectrometry in the vacuum maintained at the outlet side.

A linear model of dependence on concentration is adopted for the coefficient of dissolved atomic hydrogen diffusion in the bulk. The temperature dependence conforms to the Arrhenius law. The surface processes of dissolution and sorptiondesorption are taken into account in the form of nonlinear dynamic boundary conditions (differential equations for the dynamics of surface concentrations of atomic hydrogen). The characteristic mathematical feature of the boundary-value problem is that concentration time derivatives are included both in the diffusion equation and in the boundary conditions with quadratic nonlinearity. In terms of the general theory of functional differential equations, this leads to the so-called neutral type equations and requires a more complex mathematical apparatus. An iterative computational algorithm of second-(higher- )order accuracy is suggested for solving the corresponding nonlinear boundary-value problem based on explicit-implicit difference schemes. To avoid solving the nonlinear system of equations at every time step, we apply the explicit component of difference scheme to slower sub-processes.

The results of numerical modeling are presented to confirm the fitness of the model to experimental data. The degrees of impact of variations in hydrogen permeability parameters (“derivatives”) on the penetrating flux and the concentration distribution of H atoms through the sample thickness are determined. This knowledge is important, in particular, when designing protective structures against hydrogen embrittlement or membrane technologies for producing high-purity hydrogen. The computational algorithm enables using the model in the analysis of extreme regimes for structural materials (pressure drops, high temperatures, unsteady heating), identifying the limiting factors under specific operating conditions, and saving on costly experiments (especially in deuterium-tritium investigations).

Special actions (guerrilla, anti-guerrilla, reconnaissance and sabotage, subversive, counter-terrorist, counter-sabotage, etc.) are organized and conducted by law enforcement and armed forces and are aimed at protecting citizens and ensuring national security. Since the early 2000s, the problems of special actions have attracted the attention of specialists in the field of modeling, sociologists, physicists and representatives of other sciences. This article reviews and characterizes the works in the field of modeling special actions and counterterrorism. The works are classified by modeling methods (descriptive, optimization and game-theoretic), by types and stages of actions, and by phases of management (preparation and conduct of activities). The second section presents a classification of methods and models for special actions and counterterrorism, and gives a brief overview of descriptive models. The method of geographic profiling, network games, models of dynamics of special actions, the function of victory in combat and special actions (the dependence of the probability of victory on the correlation of forces and means of the parties) are considered. The third section considers the “attacker – defender” game and its extensions: the Stackelberg game and the Stackelberg security game, as well as issues of their application in security tasks In the “attacker – defender” game and security games, known works are classified on the following grounds: the sequence of moves, the number of players and their target functions, the time horizon of the game, the degree of rationality of the players and their attitude to risk, the degree of awareness of the players. The fourth section is devoted to the description of patrolling games on a graph with discrete time and simultaneous choice by the parties of their actions (Nash equilibrium is computed to find optimal strategies). The fifth section deals with game-theoretic models of transportation security as applications of Stackelberg security games. The last section is devoted to the review and characterization of a number of models of border security in two phases of management: preparation and conduct of activities. An example of effective interaction between Coast Guard units and university researchers is considered. Promising directions for further research are the following: first, modeling of counter-terrorist and special operations to neutralize terrorist and sabotage groups with the involvement of multidepartmental and heterogeneous forces and means, second, complexification of models by levels and stages of activity cycles, third, development of game-theoretic models of combating maritime terrorism and piracy.

The advent of laser scanning technologies has revolutionized forestry. Their use made it possible to switch from studying woodlands using manual measurements to computer analysis of stereo point images called point clouds.

Automatic calculation of some tree parameters (such as trunk diameter) using a point cloud requires the removal of foliage points. To perform this operation, a preliminary segmentation of the stereo image into the “foliage” and “trunk” classes is required. The solution to this problem often involves the use of machine learning methods.

One of the most popular classifiers used for segmentation of stereo images of trees is a random forest. This classifier is quite demanding on the amount of memory. At the same time, the size of the machine learning model can be critical if it needs to be sent by wire, which is required, for example, when performing distributed learning. In this paper, the goal is to find a classifier that would be less demanding in terms of memory, but at the same time would have comparable segmentation accuracy. The search is performed among classifiers such as logistic regression, naive Bayes classifier, and decision tree. In addition, a method for segmentation refinement performed by a decision tree using logistic regression is being investigated.

The experiments were conducted on data from the collection of the University of Heidelberg. The collection contains hand-marked stereo images of trees of various species, both coniferous and deciduous, typical of the forests of Central Europe.

It has been shown that classification using a decision tree, adjusted using logistic regression, is able to produce a result that is only slightly inferior to the result of a random forest in accuracy, while spending less time and RAM. The difference in balanced accuracy is no more than one percent on all the clouds considered, while the total size and inference time of the decision tree and logistic regression classifiers is an order of magnitude smaller than of the random forest classifier.

A two-dimensional mathematical model was developed for estimating the stresses in welded joints formed during multipass welding of multilayer steels. The basis of the model is the system of equations that includes the Lagrange variational equation of incremental plasticity theory and the variational equation of heat conduction, which expresses the principle of M. Biot. Variational-difference method was used to solve the problems of heat conductivity and calculation of the transient temperature field, and then at each time step – for the quasi-static problem of thermoplasticity. The numerical scheme is based on triangular meshes, which gives a more accuracy in describing the boundaries of structural elements as compared to rectangular grids.

In the conditions of the development of modern economy, human capital is one of the main factors of economic growth. The formation of human capital begins with the birth of a person and continues throughout life, so the value of human capital is inseparable from its carriers, which in turn makes it difficult to account for this factor. This has led to the fact that currently there are no generally accepted methods of calculating the value of human capital. There are only a few approaches to the measurement of human capital: the cost approach (by income or investment) and the index approach, of which the most well-known approach developed under the auspices of the UN.

This paper presents the assigned task in conjunction with the task of demographic dynamics solved in the time-age plane, which allows to more fully take into account the temporary changes in the demographic structure on the dynamics of human capital.

The task of demographic dynamics is posed within the framework of the Mac-Kendrick – von Foerster model on the basis of the equation of age structure dynamics. The form of distribution functions for births, deaths and migration of the population is determined on the basis of the available statistical information. The numerical solution of the problem is given. The analysis and forecast of demographic indicators are presented. The economic and mathematical model of human capital dynamics is formulated on the basis of the demographic dynamics problem. The problem of modeling the human capital dynamics considers three components of capital: educational, health and cultural (spiritual). Description of the evolution of human capital components uses an equation of the transfer equation type. Investments in human capital components are determined on the basis of budget expenditures and private expenditures, taking into account the characteristic time life cycle of demographic elements. A one-dimensional kinetic equation is used to predict the dynamics of the total human capital. The method of calculating the dynamics of this factor is given as a time function. The calculated data on the human capital dynamics are presented for the Russian Federation. As studies have shown, the value of human capital increased rapidly until 2008, in the future there was a period of stabilization, but after 2014 there is a negative dynamics of this value.

In the present paper the application of the kinetic methods to the blood flow problems in elastic vessels is studied. The Lattice Boltzmann (LB) kinetic equation is applied. This model describes the discretized in space and time dynamics of particles traveling in a one-dimensional Cartesian lattice. At the limit of the small times between collisions LB models describe hydrodynamic equations which are equivalent to the Navier – Stokes for compressible if the considered flow is slow (small Mach number). If one formally changes in the resulting hydrodynamic equations the variables corresponding to density and sound wave velocity by luminal area and pulse wave velocity then a well-known 1D equations for the blood flow motion in elastic vessels are obtained for a particular case of constant pulse wave speed.

In reality the pulse wave velocity is a function of luminal area. Here an interesting analogy is observed: the equation of state (which defines sound wave velocity) becomes pressure-area relation. Thus, a generalization of the equation of state is needed. This procedure popular in the modeling of non-ideal gas and is performed using an introduction of a virtual force. This allows to model arbitrary pressure-area dependence in the resulting hemodynamic equations.

Two test case problems are considered. In the first problem a propagation of a sole nonlinear pulse wave is studied in the case of the Laplace pressure-area response. In the second problem the pulse wave dynamics is considered for a vessel bifurcation. The results show good precision in comparison with the data from literature.

The aim of the paper is to obtain a numerical solution for linear and higher-order delay differential equations (DDEs) using the coded differential transform method (CDTM). The CDTM is developed and applied to delay problems to show the efficiency of the proposed method. The coded differential transform method is a combination of the differential transform method and Mathematica software. We construct recursive relations for a few delay problems, which results in simultaneous equations, and solve them to obtain various series solution terms using the coded differential transform method. The numerical solution obtained by CDTM is compared with an exact solution. Numerical results and error analysis are presented for delay differential equations to show that the proposed method is suitable for solving delay differential equations. It is established that the delay differential equations under discussion are solvable in a specific domain. The error between the CDTM solution and the exact solution becomes very small if more terms are included in the series solution. The coded differential transform method reduces complex calculations, avoids discretization, linearization, and saves calculation time. In addition, it is easy to implement and robust. Error analysis shows that CDTM is consistent and converges fast. We obtain more accurate results using the coded differential transform method as compared to other methods.

In this paper, we discuss the procedure for finding nominal trajectories of the planar five-link bipedal robot with point contact. To this end we use a virtual constraints method that transforms robot’s dynamics to a lowdimensional zero manifold; we also use a nonlinear optimization algorithms to find virtual constraints parameters that minimize robot’s cost of transportation. We analyzed the effect of the degree of Bezier polynomials that approximate the virtual constraints and continuity of the torques on the cost of transportation. Based on numerical results we found that it is sufficient to consider polynomials with degrees between five and six, as further increase in the degree of polynomial results in increased computation time while it does not guarantee reduction of the cost of transportation. Moreover, it was shown that introduction of torque continuity constraints does not lead to significant increase of the objective function and makes the gait more implementable on a real robot.

We propose a two step procedure for finding minimum of the considered optimization problem with objective function in the form of cost of transportation and with high number of constraints. During the first step we solve a feasibility problem: remove cost function (set it to zero) and search for feasible solution in the parameter space. During the second step we introduce the objective function and use the solution found in the first step as initial guess. For the first step we put forward an algorithm for finding initial guess that considerably reduced optimization time of the first step (down to 3–4 seconds) compared to random initialization. Comparison of the objective function of the solutions found during the first and second steps showed that on average during the second step objective function was reduced twofold, even though overall computation time increased significantly.