In a distributed multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar for tracking moving targets, optimizing sensible selections of the transmitter–receiver pairs is crucial for maximizing the sum of signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratios (SINRs), as it directly affects the tracking accuracy. In solving the trade-off between exploitation and exploration in non-stationary channels, the optimization problem is modeled by a restless multi-armed bandits model. This paper regards the estimated SINR mean reward as the state of an arm (transceiver channel). The SINR reward of each arm is estimated based on whether it is probed. A closed loop is established between SINR rewards and the dynamic states of targets, which are estimated via the interacting multiple model-unscented Kalman filter. The combinatorial optimized selection of transmitter–receiver pairs at each time is accomplished by using the binary particle swarm optimization with the SINR index fitness function, where the index represents the upper bound on the confidence of the SINR reward. Above all, a multi-group combinatorial-restless-bandit closed-loop (MG-CRB-CL) algorithm is proposed. Simulation results for different scenarios are provided to verify the effectiveness and superior performance of MG-CRB-CL.
Underwater acoustic channels are usually sparse and have large delay spread. In this paper, super-nested array structure in the field of array signal processing is borrowed to be the pilot design of underwater acoustic OFDM systems, in order to better estimate large delay spread channels with limited number of pilots. Specifically, by constructing the pilot subcarriers’ covariance matrix and the pilot position difference, the virtual pilot on the differential co-array are employed for sparse channel estimation. In order to reduce the error between the estimated pilot subcarriers’ covariance matrix and the ideal covariance matrix, the cross-correlation matrix of pilot subcarriers is estimated in advance for interference cancellation. Then the sparse iterative covariance estimation algorithm (SPICE) is adopted to further refine the covariance matrix and improve the channel estimation performance. Simulation, pool and sea experimental results show that the proposed method can effectively estimate the large delay spread sparse channels and improve the performance of underwater acoustic OFDM systems.
The main task of image smoothing is to remove the insignificant details of the input image while preserving salient structural edges. In the fields of computer vision and graphics, image smoothing techniques are of great practical importance. In this paper, we investigate a new nonconvex variational optimization model for contrast-preserving image smoothing based on the truncated first-order rational (TFOR) penalty function. We employ an iterative numerical method that utilizes the half-quadratic minimization to effectively solve the proposed model. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed method, we compare it with some related state-of-the-art methods. Experimental results are given to show that the proposed method performs well in preserving the image contrast while maintaining the important edges and structures. We apply the proposed method on various classic image processing tasks such as clip-art compression artifact removal, detail enhancement, image denoising, image abstraction, flash and no-flash image restoration, and guided depth map upsampling.
This work presents a general framework regarding the recovery of matrices equipped with hybrid low-rank and local-smooth properties from just a few measurements consisting of linear combinations of the matrix entries. Concretely, we consider the problem of robust low-rank matrix recovery using Weighted Nuclear Norm plus Weight Total Variation (WNNWTV) minimization. First of all, based on a new restricted isometry property, we prove that the WNNWTV method possesses an error bound consisting of a low-rank approximation term, a total variation approximation term, and an observation error term. It should be noted that although there are many models considering both properties, there are very few recoverable error theories about such models. Specifically, the theoretical error bound provides an automatic mechanism to reducing regularization parameters with no need for cross-validation while keeping almost the same selection result with commonly used cross-validation technique. Subsequently, the proposed method is reformulated into a regularized unconstrained problem, and we study its optimization aspects in detail based on the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM). Extensive experiments on synthetic data and two applications, i.e. hyperspectral image recovery and dynamic magnetic resonance imaging recovery verified our theories and proposed algorithms.
Recently, image super-resolution (SR) models using window-based Transformers have demonstrated superior performance compared to SR models based on convolutional neural networks. Nevertheless, Transformer-based SR models often entail high computational demands. This is due to the adoption of shifted window self-attention following the window self-attention layer to model long-range relationships, resulting in additional computational overhead. Moreover, extracting local image features only with the self-attention mechanism is insufficient to reconstruct rich high-frequency image content. To overcome these challenges, we propose the Sliding Proxy Attention Network (SPAN), capable of recovering high-quality High-Resolution (HR) images from Low-Resolution (LR) inputs with substantially fewer model parameters and computational operations. The primary innovation of SPAN lies in the Sliding Proxy Transformer Block (SPTB), integrating the local detail sensitivity of convolution with the long-range dependency modeling of self-attention mechanism. Key components within SPTB include the Enhanced Local Feature Extraction Block (ELFEB) and the Sliding Proxy Attention Block (SPAB). ELFEB is designed to enhance the local receptive field with lightweight parameters for high-frequency details compensation. SPAB optimizes computational efficiency by implementing intra-window and cross-window attention in a single operation through leveraging window overlap. Experimental results demonstrate that SPAN can produce high-quality SR images while effectively managing computational complexity. The code is publicly available at: https://github.com/zononhzy/SPAN.
Tensor ring (TR) decomposition has made remarkable achievements in numerous high-order data processing tasks. However, the current alternating least squares (ALS)- and singular value decomposition (SVD)-based algorithms for TR decomposition, i.e., TR-ALS and TR-SVD, especially the former, are computationally expensive, making them unfriendly for large-scale data processing. This paper adopts three strategies to propose a novel fast TR decomposition algorithm: (1) Use a more efficient Lanczos bidiagonalization algorithm than SVD to generate the TR core tensors. (2) Exploit the hierarchical strategy to generate the TR core tensors in parallel. (3) Employ new reshaping and unfolding operations to reduce the dimensionality of the data used to generate TR core tensors. By incorporating these three strategies, we propose the TR-HLanczos algorithm for fast TR decomposition. This algorithm seamlessly produces the TR core tensors through the Lanczos bidiagonalization algorithm in a hierarchical manner. The effectiveness of the proposed TR-HLanczos algorithm is demonstrated through experimental results on both highly oscillatory functions and real-world datasets. For instance, when dealing with data of size , TR-HLanczos is nearly 561 times and 18 times faster than algorithms based on ALS and SVD, respectively.
The coupling effect significantly impacts Direction of Arrival (DOA) estimation. Employing coupling models to reduce this impact can be costly and sensitive to model fitting. Sparse arrays offer an effective means to mitigate coupling errors. Classical nested arrays in sparse arrays harbor numerous closely spaced sensor pairs, resulting in significant coupling errors. Traditional sparse arrays struggle to synchronize freedom degrees with coupling optimizations. Addressing these issues, this paper introduces Sparse Extended Nested Arrays (SENA). Comprising five subarrays, SENA effectively minimizes inter-element coupling by constraining sensor spacing within and between subarrays, maintaining freedom degrees. The paper derives and proves physical structure, continuous range of difference coarrays, and optimal choices for sensor count for SENA. Compared to traditional and improved sparse arrays with the same sensor count, SENA ensures higher freedom degrees with lower coupling errors, a superiority validated through experimental simulations.
The traditional unscented Kalman filters (UKFs) under the maximum correntropy criterion provide a powerful tool for nonlinear state estimation with heavy-tailed non-Gaussian noise. Nevertheless, the above-mentioned filters may yield biased estimates because the Gaussian kernel function can only handle certain types of non-Gaussian noise. Additionally, the use of statistical linearization methods can result in approximation errors when solving linear observation equations, while the system may also experience observation data loss. Therefore, a new iterative UKF with intermittent observations under the generalized maximum correntropy criterion is proposed for systems with complex non-Gaussian noise, called GMCC-IO-IUKF. Firstly, the connection between the UKF with and without intermittent observations is established by designing a coefficient matrix including intermittent observation variables, so as to derive the UKF with intermittent observations under the maximum correntropy criterion. Secondly, for the measurement update of GMCC-IO-IUKF, a nonlinear regression augmented model that can deal with both prediction and observation errors is established using the coefficient matrix and the nonlinear function. To better adapt to different types of non-Gaussian noise, the generalized Gaussian kernel function is substituted for the traditional Gaussian kernel function. Theoretically, GMCC-IO-IUKF can achieve better estimation performance by directly employing the nonlinear function and the latest iteration value. Finally, a classical target tracking model is used to evaluate the estimation performance and feasibility of our proposed GMCC-IO-IUKF algorithm. It appears from the experiment results that our proposed GMCC-IO-IUKF can not only promote estimation precision but also handle complex non-Gaussian noise flexibly.
Global navigation satellite systems reflectometry (GNSS-R) is a technique to extract information from reflecting surfaces by the reflected GNSS signals. GNSS-R has garnered increasing attention in the scientific literature due to its continuous global coverage and its superior spatial resolution. Moreover, operating in the L-band renders GNSS-R relatively immune to adverse weather conditions and affords high sensitivity to soil electrical properties. This work introduces a new approach with a dual-polarization antenna, left-hand circular polarized (LHCP) and right-hand circular polarized (RHCP), receiving the reflected signal from a sufficiently smooth surface so that all reflected energy arrives from the specular reflection point. The objective is to characterize the reflecting surface by extracting the relative permittivity and conductivity from the reflected signal. In contrast to other studies found in the literature, the reflection of the GNSS signal on different materials, including dielectric and conductive materials is considered. We derive a maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) for estimating the dielectric parameters of the reflective surface and other parameters of the reflected signal. We also derive the respective Cramer–Rao Lower Bound (CRLB) evaluating the performance of the MLE. The attained results are assessed based on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the angle of reflection of the reflected signal, which are the parameters that predominantly influence the proposed approach. Lower elevation angles, for instance, lead to higher estimation accuracy, while for reflective surfaces composed of metallic materials a higher SNR is needed to yield favorable estimation performance. Regarding dielectric materials, the estimation results are encouraging and thus enable diverse remote sensing applications by GNSS-R using the proposed setup.