Control Sciences
The Journal addresses the needs of a wide community of specialists dealing with control in technical, organizational, social, economic, environmental, biological, and medical systems. The Journal audience also includes control and automation system engineers and developers as well as undergraduate and postgraduate researchers.
The Journal clearly and intelligibly explains the ideas and methods to solve control problems based on modern modeling approaches under a variable environment, incomplete or limited information, conflicting goals, and weakly structured and multiple objectives. These problems are commonly encountered in the real world.
The Journal focuses on systems analysis and general-system operation mechanisms of large-scale objects, theory and techniques of choice and decision-making in complex systems, expertise and data analysis, large-scale system models, applied mathematical control models of various systems, prediction techniques and models, applied models and methods of management in organizations and economy, and the problems of national and regional administration.
Compared to similar journals of the field, Control Sciences is remarkable for a uniform scope of modern control problems, an interdisciplinary approach, and an emphasis on the potential applicability of scientific results.
The Journal publishes original papers with new scientific results on theoretical control problems and applications, comprehensive state-of-the-art surveys of key scientific problems, conference reports of major interest, and brief communications.
The Journal is indexed in Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI) on the Web of Science platform and is recommended by the State Commission for Academic Degrees and Titles (VAK RF) for publishing the materials of candidate’s and doctoral dissertations on control, computer and information science.
No publication fees or payments are charged from the Journal authors.
Issued since 2003. English version issued since 2021.
Frequency: 6 issues per year.
Current Issue
No 1 (2024)
Surveys
RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION IN TRANSPORT APPLICATIONS
Abstract
RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) has been widely used in many areas of science and technology as well as everyday life. An intensively developing line of RFID applications is the identification of fast-moving transport objects. Despite numerous scientific articles, the latest results on the subject are poorly reflected in the existing surveys. This paper fills the gap by overviewing key publications on RFID technologies and standards and the features of signal propagation in a wireless communication channel between RFID tags and a reader. We describe related theoretical and experimental results as well as the architecture and hardware and software tools for the practical implementation of land vehicle identification systems. In addition, this survey covers publications on utilizing RFID on the base of unmanned aerial vehicles.
Control Sciences. 2024;(1):3-16
3-16
Mathematical Problems of Control
MEAN VALUES: A MULTICRITERIA APPROACH. PART III
Abstract
A new approach to defining mean values based on the ideas of multicriteria optimization was proposed and developed previously; see the papers [4] and [5]. The distances between the current point and the sample points were treated as components of a vector estimate. The conventional approach to defining mean values involves the scalarization of vector estimates: they are replaced, e.g., by the sums of their squared components. On the contrary, we proceeded from comparing vector estimates by preference. Several types of mean values corresponding to different amounts of information about preferences were considered. The properties of such mean values were investigated, and computational methods for constructing them were given. However, in the case of equally important criteria, the method turns out to be approximate and rather computationally intensive. In this paper, we present an exact and efficient numerical method for constructing a set of mean values of the specified type. The method is illustrated by a computational example.
Control Sciences. 2024;(1):17-22
17-22
COMBINED HIERARCHICAL CROSSOVER IN A GENETIC ALGORITHM FOR LAST-MILE DELIVERY: EFFICIENCY ANALYSIS
Abstract
This paper considers routing for a group of unmanned aerial vehicles within a promising last-mile delivery system. The routing problem is reduced to the bi-criteria single-depot multiple traveling salesman problem and formalized using a directed graph. Being NP-hard, this problem cannot be efficiently solved by standard exact optimization methods. Therefore, heuristic algorithms should be applied to obtain good approximate solutions in a short time. The problem is solved using NSGA-II, the widespread elitist non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm that demonstrates good results in multicriteria optimization. Some chromosome representation and crossing and mutation operators are implemented in the algorithm. A simulation software tool is presented to investigate the influence of the crossing operators used on the convergence speed of the algorithm. Finally, several genetic crossing operators (Partially-Mapped Crossover, Order Crossover, Cycle Crossover, and Combined Hierarchical Crossover) are compared in terms of efficiency.
Control Sciences. 2024;(1):23-34
23-34
Control in Social and Economic Systems
MODELING THE PROCUREMENT OF SCHOOL EQUIPMENT AND COMPETITION AMONG SUPPLIERS
Abstract
This paper is devoted to the interaction of schools and suppliers as well as the processes of competition among suppliers for public procurement. Maximizing its utility function, a school determines an optimal distribution of its budget between labor costs and the purchase of equipment. Next, different suppliers begin to compete for the equipment budget, maximizing either their profit or revenue. Depending on the market (municipal, regional, or All-Russian), the procurement processes can be described using various models, ranging from perfect competition and oligopoly to monopoly. In the case of monopoly, suppliers provide no discounts on their products; under perfect competition, suppliers reduce prices to the level of their maximum profit. New applications of several game-theoretic models to the procurement of equipment and the description of competition among suppliers are proposed.
Control Sciences. 2024;(1):35-44
35-44
CONTROL MODELS IN POWER HIERARCHIES
Abstract
This paper is devoted to the modeling of control in power hierarchies. Publications in this research area are briefly overviewed. The design principles of such models and the underlying assumptions are described. They are mathematically formalized using difference normal-form games with the information rules of Germeier games. An analytical study is carried out for a system of two-level power hierarchies as a particular case. The general problems of investigating power hierarchies are posed. One-, two-, and n-polar power hierarchies are defined, and their emergence conditions are analyzed. Illustrative examples are provided. An alternative resource competition model is considered. The system of power hierarchies is simulated for different cases, and the simulation results are compared. Conclusions are drawn, and some lines of further research are indicated.
Control Sciences. 2024;(1):43-56
43-56
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF FLOODPLAIN TERRITORIES OF REGULATED RIVERS. PART II: Designing an Effective Territory Structure Management System
Abstract
Part II of the study presents an approach to designing a sustainable management system for the environmental socio-economic systems (ESESs) of floodplain territories based on hydrotechnical projects on their hydrological regime stabilization. The general strategic development task of a floodplain ESES is formulated as a long-term constrained optimization problem of its environmental socio-economic potentials. To reduce parametric uncertainty, this problem is transformed into that of finding optimal locations for installing flood dams in floodplain channels and their adaptive operation modes during the spring releases of hydroelectric power stations (HPSs) in order to implement the target stable design-achievable complex structure of the floodplain territory that ensures socio-economic safety and the sustainable flooding of the floodplain ecosystem’s biotope. The problem is solved using an original empirical “donor-acceptor” optimization method in combination with other exact methods of optimization, expert assessment, geoinformation and numerical hydrodynamic modeling, as well as high-performance computing, the statistical analysis of natural observation data, and the results of computational experiments. The approach is applied to find the optimal locations and operation modes of flood dams that ensure the sustainable safe spring flooding of the Volga–Akhtuba floodplain territory considering the spatially heterogeneous depression effect of the Volga riverbed. This study neglects the conditions of navigation on the Volga during the spring release of the Volzhsk HPS and other hydrotechnical design aspects.
Control Sciences. 2024;(1):57-78
57-78
Control of Moving Objects and Navigation
AGGREGATION BEHAVIOR OF MOBILE ROBOTS IN A SWARM CONTROL ALGORITHM UNDER NATURAL CONSTRAINTS
Abstract
For a group of mobile robots in free space, we consider aggregation under the assumption that each robot has information about the position and course of the nearest neighbors only (without any additional information, such as the group target). This problem is the first stage of a mission carried out by a group of robots; it can be solved under certain conditions, see below. We propose a swarm control algorithm based on the metric-topological approach under maneuvering constraints. The sizes and configurations of the arenas are chosen, and initial position requirements are specified for robots. The characteristics of robots are selected, and computer simulations are conducted to evaluate the model parameters for the required directional coordination level of swarm motion without clustering and with a safe distance between robots during the entire mission.
Control Sciences. 2024;(1):79-89
79-89
CONSTRUCTINg A MAP OF LOCALLY OPTIMAL PATHS FOR A CONTROLLED MOVING OBJECT IN A THREAT ENVIRONMENT
Abstract
In some path planning problems for controlled objects, the main criterion is to reduce the integral risk of detection when moving in a threat environment with a given map of potential threats. In this paper, we construct all locally optimal paths in a 2D threat environment. The environment is represented by a fixed number of detectors whose positions are known to an evasive object. This object and the detectors are material points. The original problem is formalized as an optimal control problem and reduced to a boundary value problem based on Pontryagin’s maximum principle. The boundary value problem is solved numerically by the shooting method. The case of point-to-point transition of the evasive object with and without the path length constraint is studied, and the results of numerical simulation are provided. A parametric analysis of the problem is carried out.
Control Sciences. 2024;(1):90-102
90-102
Chronicle
31st INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON PROBLEMS OF COMPLEX SYSTEMS SECURITY CONTROL
Abstract
The conference took place in December 2023. Scientific results presented by the conference participants are briefly described below. The conference included the following sections: general theoretical and methodological issues of security support; problems of economic and sociopolitical security support; problems of information security support; cybersecurity and security aspects in social networks; ecological and technogenic security; modeling and decision-making for complex systems security control; automatic systems and means of complex systems security support. Special attention was paid to the problems of improving the effectiveness of Russia’s national security management processes in the realities of today’s world. In total, 102 authors from 41 organizations presented 72 papers at the conference.
Control Sciences. 2024;(1):103-108
103-108