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This paper demonstrates the advantages of using artificial intelligence algorithms for the design of experiment theory, which makes possible to improve the accuracy of parameter identification for an elastostatic robot model. Design of experiment for a robot consists of the optimal configuration-external force pairs for the identification algorithms and can be described by several main stages. At the first stage, an elastostatic model of the robot is created, taking into account all possible mechanical compliances. The second stage selects the objective function, which can be represented by both classical optimality criteria and criteria defined by the desired application of the robot. At the third stage the optimal measurement configurations are found using numerical optimization. The fourth stage measures the position of the robot body in the obtained configurations under the influence of an external force. At the last, fifth stage, the elastostatic parameters of the manipulator are identified based on the measured data.

The objective function required to finding the optimal configurations for industrial robot calibration is constrained by mechanical limits both on the part of the possible angles of rotation of the robot’s joints and on the part of the possible applied forces. The solution of this multidimensional and constrained problem is not simple, therefore it is proposed to use approaches based on artificial intelligence. To find the minimum of the objective function, the following methods, also sometimes called heuristics, were used: genetic algorithms, particle swarm optimization, simulated annealing algorithm, etc. The obtained results were analyzed in terms of the time required to obtain the configurations, the optimal value, as well as the final accuracy after applying the calibration. The comparison showed the advantages of the considered optimization techniques based on artificial intelligence over the classical methods of finding the optimal value. The results of this work allow us to reduce the time spent on calibration and increase the positioning accuracy of the robot’s end-effector after calibration for contact operations with high loads, such as machining and incremental forming.

The most important principle of military science and border security is the principle of concentrating the main efforts on the main directions and tasks. At the tactical level, there are many mathematical models for computing the optimal resource allocation by directions and objects, whereas at the state level there are no corresponding models. Using the statistical data on the results of the protection of the US border, an exponential type border production function parameter is calculated that reflects the organizational and technological capabilities of the border guard. The production function determines the dependence of the probability of detaining offenders from the density of border guards per kilometer of the border. Financial indicators in the production function are not taken into account, as the border maintenance budget and border equipment correlate with the number of border agents. The objective function of the border guards is defined — the total prevented damage from detained violators taking into account their expected danger for the state and society, which is to be maximized. Using Slater's condition, the solution of the problem was found — optimal density of border guard was calculated for the regions of the state. Having a model of resource allocation, the example of the three border regions of the United States has also solved the reverse problem — threats in the regions have been assessed based on the known allocation of resources. The expected danger from an individual offender on the US-Canada border is 2–5 times higher than from an offender on the US-Mexican border. The results of the calculations are consistent with the views of US security experts: illegal migrants are mostly detained on the US-Mexican border, while potential terrorists prefer to use other channels of penetration into the US (including the US-Canadian border), where the risks of being detained are minimal. Also, the results of the calculations are consistent with the established practice of border protection: in 2013 the number of border guards outside the checkpoints on the US-Mexican border increased by 2 times compared with 2001, while on the American-Canadian border — 4 times. The practice of border protection and the views of specialists give grounds for approval of the verification of the model.

A critical analysis of existing approaches, methods and models to solve the problem of financial resources operational management has been carried out in the article. A number of significant shortcomings of the presented models were identified, limiting the scope of their effective usage. There are a static nature of the models, probabilistic nature of financial flows are not taken into account, daily amounts of receivables and payables that significantly affect the solvency and liquidity of the company are not identified. This necessitates the development of a new model that reflects the essential properties of the planning financial flows system — stochasticity, dynamism, non-stationarity.

The model for the financial flows distribution has been developed. It bases on the principles of optimal dynamic control and provides financial resources planning ensuring an adequate level of liquidity and solvency of a company and concern initial data uncertainty. The algorithm for designing the objective cash balance, based on principles of a companies’ financial stability ensuring under changing financial constraints, is proposed.

Characteristic of the proposed model is the presentation of the cash distribution process in the form of a discrete dynamic process, for which a plan for financial resources allocation is determined, ensuring the extremum of an optimality criterion. Designing of such plan is based on the coordination of payments (cash expenses) with the cash receipts. This approach allows to synthesize different plans that differ in combinations of financial outflows, and then to select the best one according to a given criterion. The minimum total costs associated with the payment of fines for non-timely financing of expenses were taken as the optimality criterion. Restrictions in the model are the requirement to ensure the minimum allowable cash balances for the subperiods of the planning period, as well as the obligation to make payments during the planning period, taking into account the maturity of these payments. The suggested model with a high degree of efficiency allows to solve the problem of financial resources distribution under uncertainty over time and receipts, coordination of funds inflows and outflows. The practical significance of the research is in developed model application, allowing to improve the financial planning quality, to increase the management efficiency and operational efficiency of a company.

The traditional approach to computing optimal game strategies of firms on oligopolistic markets and of indicators of such markets consists in studying linear dynamical games with quadratic criteria and solving generalized matrix Riccati equations.

The other approach proposed by the author is based on methods of operational calculus (in particular, Z-transform). This approach makes it possible to achieve economic meaningful decisions under wider field of parameter values. It characterizes by simplicity of computations and by necessary for economic analysis visibility. One of its advantages is that in many cases important for economic practice, it, in contrast to the traditional approach, provides the ability to make calculations using widespread spreadsheets, which allows to study the prospects for the development of oligopolistic markets to a wide range of professionals and consumers.

The article deals with the practical aspects of determining the optimal Nash–Cournot strategies of participants in oligopolistic markets on the basis of operational calculus, in particular the technique of computing the optimal Nash–Cournot strategies in Excel. As an illustration of the opportinities of the proposed methods of calculation, examples close to the practical problems of forecasting indicators of the markets of high-tech products are studied.

The results of calculations obtained by the author for numerous examples and real economic systems, both using the obtained relations on the basis of spreadsheets and using extended Riccati equations, are very close. In most of the considered practical problems, the deviation of the indicators calculated in accordance with the two approaches, as a rule, does not exceed 1.5–2%. The highest value of relative deviations (up to 3–5%) is observed at the beginning of the forecasting period. In typical cases, the period of relatively noticeable deviations is 3–5 moments of time. After the transition period, there is almost complete agreement of the values of the required indicators using both approaches.

The creation of a virtual laboratory stand that allows one to obtain reliable characteristics that can be proven as actual, taking into account errors and noises (which is the main distinguishing feature of a computational experiment from model studies) is one of the main problems of this work. It considers the following task: there is a rectangular waveguide in the single operating mode, on the wide wall of which a technological hole is cut, through which a sample for research is placed into the cavity of the transmission line. The recovery algorithm is as follows: the laboratory measures the network parameters (S₁₁ and/or S₂₁) in the transmission line with the sample. In the computer model of the laboratory stand, the sample geometry is reconstructed and an iterative process of optimization (or sweeping) of the electrophysical parameters is started, the mask of this process is the experimental data, and the stop criterion is the interpretive estimate of proximity (or residual). It is important to note that the developed computer model, along with its apparent simplicity, is initially ill-conditioned. To set up a computational experiment, the Comsol modeling environment is used. The results of the computational experiment with a good degree of accuracy coincided with the results of laboratory studies. Thus, experimental verification was carried out for several significant components, both the computer model in particular and the algorithm for restoring the target parameters in general. It is important to note that the computer model developed and described in this work may be effectively used for a computational experiment to restore the full dielectric parameters of a complex geometry target. Weak bianisotropy effects can also be detected, including chirality, gyrotropy, and material nonreciprocity. The resulting model is, by definition, incomplete, but its completeness is the highest of the considered options, while at the same time, the resulting model is well conditioned. Particular attention in this work is paid to the modeling of a coaxial-waveguide transition, it is shown that the use of a discrete-element approach is preferable to the direct modeling of the geometry of a microwave device.

Study of work of heating equipment is an actual issue because it allows determining optimal regimes to reach highest efficiency. At that it is very helpful to use computer simulation to predict how different heating modes influence the effectiveness of the heating process and wear of heating equipment. Computer simulation provides results whose accuracy is proven by many studies and requires costs and time less than real experiments. In terms of present research, computer simulation of heating of air tuyere of blast furnace was realized with the help of FEM software. Background studies revealed possibility to simulate it as a flat, axisymmetric problem and DEFORM-2D software was used for simulation. Geometry, necessary for simulation, was designed with the help of SolidWorks, saved in .dxf format. Then it was exported to DEFORM-2D pre-processor and positioned. Preliminary and boundary conditions were set up. Several modes of operating regimes were under analysis. In order to demonstrate influence of eah of the modes and for better visualization point tracking option of the DEFORM-2D post-processor was applied. Influence of thermal insulation box plugged into blow channel, with and without air gap, and thermal coating on air tuyere’s temperature field was investigated. Simulation data demonstrated significant effect of thermal insulation box on air tuyere’s temperature field. Designed model allowed to simulate tuyere’s burnout as a result of interaction with liquid iron. Conducted researches have demonstrated DEFORM-2D effectiveness while using it for simulation of heat transfer and heating processes. DEFORM-2D is about to be used in further studies dedicated to more complex process connected with temperature field of blast furnace’s air tuyere.

The paper considers the problem of estimating the parameters of time series described by regression models with Markov switching of two regimes at random instants of time with independent Gaussian noise. For the solution, we propose a variant of the EM algorithm based on the iterative procedure, during which an estimation of the regression parameters is performed for a given sequence of regime switching and an evaluation of the switching sequence for the given parameters of the regression models. In contrast to the well-known methods of estimating regression parameters in the models with Markov switching, which are based on the calculation of a posteriori probabilities of discrete states of the switching sequence, in the paper the estimates are calculated of the switching sequence, which are optimal by the criterion of the maximum of a posteriori probability. As a result, the proposed algorithm turns out to be simpler and requires less calculations. Computer modeling allows to reveal the factors influencing accuracy of estimation. Such factors include the number of observations, the number of unknown regression parameters, the degree of their difference in different modes of operation, and the signal-to-noise ratio which is associated with the coefficient of determination in regression models. The proposed algorithm is applied to the problem of estimating parameters in regression models for the rate of daily return of the RTS index, depending on the returns of the S&P 500 index and Gazprom shares for the period from 2013 to 2018. Comparison of the estimates of the parameters found using the proposed algorithm is carried out with the estimates that are formed using the EViews econometric package and with estimates of the ordinary least squares method without taking into account regimes switching. The account of regimes switching allows to receive more exact representation about structure of a statistical dependence of investigated variables. In switching models, the increase in the signal-to-noise ratio leads to the fact that the differences in the estimates produced by the proposed algorithm and using the EViews program are reduced.

The Lipschitz continuous property has been used for a long time to solve the global optimization problem and continues to be used. Here we can mention the work of Piyavskii, Yevtushenko, Strongin, Shubert, Sergeyev, Kvasov and others. Most papers assume a priori knowledge of the Lipschitz constant, but the derivation of this constant is a separate problem. Further still, we must prove that an objective function is really Lipschitz, and it is a complicated problem too. In the case where the Lipschitz continuity is established, Strongin proposed an algorithm for global optimization of a satisfying Lipschitz condition on a compact interval function without any a priori knowledge of the Lipschitz estimate. The algorithm not only finds a global extremum, but it determines the Lipschitz estimate too. It is known that every function that satisfies the Lipchitz condition on a compact convex set is uniformly continuous, but the reverse is not always true. However, there exist models (Arutyunova, Dulliev, Zabotin) whose study requires a minimization of the continuous but definitely not Lipschitz function. One of the algorithms for solving such a problem was proposed by R. J. Vanderbei. In his work he introduced some generalization of the Lipchitz property named $\varepsilon$-Lipchitz and proved that a function defined on a compact convex set is uniformly continuous if and only if it satisfies the $\varepsilon$-Lipchitz condition. The above-mentioned property allowed him to extend Piyavskii’s method. However, Vanderbei assumed that for a given value of $\varepsilon$ it is possible to obtain an associate Lipschitz $\varepsilon$-constant, which is a very difficult problem. Thus, there is a need to construct, for a function continuous on a compact convex domain, a global optimization algorithm which works in some way like Strongin’s algorithm, i.e., without any a priori knowledge of the Lipschitz $\varepsilon$-constant. In this paper we propose an extension of Strongin’s global optimization algorithm to a function continuous on a compact interval using the $\varepsilon$-Lipchitz conception, prove its convergence and solve some numerical examples using the software that implements the developed method.

In this article we consider min-min type of problems or minimization by two groups of variables. In some way it is similar to classic min-max saddle point problem. Although, saddle point problems are usually more difficult in some way. Min-min problems may occur in case if some groups of variables in convex optimization have different dimensions or if these groups have different domains. Such problem structure gives us an ability to split the main task to subproblems, and allows to tackle it with mixed oracles. However existing articles on this topic cover only zeroth and first order oracles, in our work we consider high-order tensor methods to solve inner problem and fast gradient method to solve outer problem.

We assume, that outer problem is constrained to some convex compact set, and for the inner problem we consider both unconstrained case and being constrained to some convex compact set. By definition, tensor methods use high-order derivatives, so the time per single iteration of the method depends a lot on the dimensionality of the problem it solves. Therefore, we suggest, that the dimension of the inner problem variable is not greater than 1000. Additionally, we need some specific assumptions to be able to use mixed oracles. Firstly, we assume, that the objective is convex in both groups of variables and its gradient by both variables is Lipschitz continuous. Secondly, we assume the inner problem is strongly convex and its gradient is Lipschitz continuous. Also, since we are going to use tensor methods for inner problem, we need it to be p-th order Lipschitz continuous ($p > 1$). Finally, we assume strong convexity of the outer problem to be able to use fast gradient method for strongly convex functions.

We need to emphasize, that we use superfast tensor method to tackle inner subproblem in unconstrained case. And when we solve inner problem on compact set, we use accelerated high-order composite proximal method.

Additionally, in the end of the article we compare the theoretical complexity of obtained methods with regular gradient method, which solves the mentioned problem as regular convex optimization problem and doesn’t take into account its structure (Remarks 1 and 2).

The problem of optimal control of traffic flow in an urban road network is considered. The control is carried out by varying the duration of the working phases of traffic lights at controlled intersections. A description of the control system developed is given. The control system enables the use of three types of control: open-loop, feedback and manual. In feedback control, road infrastructure detectors, video cameras, inductive loop and radar detectors are used to determine the quantitative characteristics of current traffic flow state. The quantitative characteristics of the traffic flows are fed into a mathematical model of the traffic flow, implemented in the computer environment of an automatic traffic flow control system, in order to determine the moments for switching the working phases of the traffic lights. The model is a system of finite-difference recurrent equations and describes the change in traffic flow on each road section at each time step, based on retrived data on traffic flow characteristics in the network, capacity of maneuvers and flow distribution through alternative maneuvers at intersections. The model has scaling and aggregation properties. The structure of the model depends on the structure of the graph of the controlled road network. The number of nodes in the graph is equal to the number of road sections in the considered network. The simulation of traffic flow changes in real time makes it possible to optimally determine the duration of traffic light operating phases and to provide traffic flow control with feedback based on its current state. The system of automatic collection and processing of input data for the model is presented. In order to model the states of traffic flow in the network and to solve the problem of optimal traffic flow control, the CTraf software package has been developed, a brief description of which is given in the paper. An example of the solution of the optimal control problem of traffic flows on the basis of real data in the road network of Moscow is given.