US-France Collaboration: Exploratory Research on Artificial Immunity in High Speed Trains

本项目的研究目标是探索将人工免疫系统(AIS)这一新兴的计算智能学科应用于高速列车诊断领域的可行性。这项拟议的研究将促进大学D·朱尔德雅诺维奇·S教授团队之间的强有力的研究合作。德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校(UT)的N·泽赫罗尼？S教授团队和大学菲托-ST研究所的N·泽赫罗尼？S教授团队。Femto-ST代表France-ComtéElectronique Mécanique Thermique et Optique？科学和技术)。研究人员将利用UT团队在AIS启发下的诊断领域的先前成果，以及法国团队在TGV列车预测性维护领域正在进行的研究(TGV是著名的法语首字母缩写？TrainsàGrande Vitesse？？？高速列车？)。该团队将探索免疫携带者的产生和分布机制。在高速列车的各个子系统之间，以及免疫载体和被监测系统之间的相互作用机制，将导致行为异常的子系统(S)无先例地隔离。这里的“无先例”一词是指处理在设计阶段没有预见到的、不存在故障模型或训练数据的异常情况的能力。这种能力将类似于生物系统检测和分离以前从未遇到过的抗原(病毒、细菌)的能力。在该项目的最后几周，该团队将制定一项后续建议，旨在加深我们对高铁(HSR)系统中AIS范式的理解和完善。2001年，美国经济花费了超过1万亿美元来维护关键资产，其中33%以上的成本被浪费在无效的维护上(不必要的维修、错误部件的维修、缺乏备件等)。在这个项目中追求的AIS范式通过探索一种新的范式来满足这一巨大的社会需求，该范式承诺增加工程系统的弹性并改善未来的操作。处理前所未有的故障的能力将由于更有效的维护干预而减少资源浪费，以及由于更高的设备可用性而提高使用率和生产率。此外，我们对高铁的关注本身就产生了重大的广泛影响。高铁系统已经在世界各地被证明能够提高能源效率，减少排放，减少汽车交通，同时提高安全性和可靠性。对美国拟议的高铁系统进行的多项研究表明，仅在排放方面，高铁系统就有能力减少270万公吨的温室气体排放，并且只产生汽车和空中交通排放的24%(详情见提案的更广泛的影响部分)。皮埃尔？S的假说认为，高铁系统变得更加突出，甚至可能在美国流行起来，只是个时间问题。拟议的研究将对这些系统安全和具有成本效益的运行所需的科学基础作出重要贡献。建议的研究在高铁系统之外的扩展和影响存在着许多潜力。这些机会包括计算机和通信网络安全，基于产品信息的产品设计改进？S人工智能系统，人体各种系统的诊断，也许在遥远的未来，使用人工工程免疫载体(T细胞、B细胞、白细胞)增强人类免疫系统。

The research objective of this project is to explore the feasibility of utilizing the emerging computational intelligence discipline of artificial immune systems (AIS) in the realm of diagnostics in high-speed trains. The proposed research will catalyze a strong research collaboration between Prof. D. Djurdjanovic?s team at the Univ. of Texas at Austin (UT) and Prof. N. Zehrouni?s team at the FEMTO-ST Institute of the Univ. of Franche-comté in Besançon, France (FEMTO-ST stands for Franche-comté Electronique Mécanique Thermique et Optique ? Sciences et Technologies).The researchers will leverage prior achievements of the UT team in the area AIS inspired diagnostics and on-going research by the French team in the area of predictive maintenance of TGV trains (TGV is a well-known French acronym for ?Trains à Grande Vitesse? ? ?High Speed Trains?). The team will explore the mechanisms of generation and distribution of ?immunity carriers? across various subsystems of a TGV train, as well as the interaction mechanisms between the immunity carriers and the monitored system that would lead to precedent-free isolation of subsystem(s) that behave abnormally. The term precedent-free here pertains to the ability to deal with anomalies that were not foreseen during the design stage and for which fault models or training data do not exist. Such capability will be analogous to the biological systems ability to detect and isolate antigens (viruses, bacteria) that have never been encountered before. In the final weeks of the project, the team will devise a follow up proposal that will aim at deepening our understanding and perfecting the AIS paradigm in high-speed rail (HSR) systems.Broader Impacts. In 2001, the US economy spent more than $1 trillion to maintain critical assets with more than 33% of these costs being wasted on ineffective maintenance (unnecessary repairs, repairs of wrong components, lack of spare parts etc.). The AIS paradigm pursued in this project addresses this tremendous societal need by exploring a new paradigm that promises to increase the resilience and improve operation of engineering systems in the future. The ability to deal with unprecedented faults will lead to reduced waste of resources due to more effective maintenance interventions, as well as the improved usage and productivity due to higher availability of equipment. In addition, our focus in high-speed trains has a significant broad impact all by itself. HSR systems have been shown in various parts of the world to yield increased energy efficiency, decreased emissions and automobile traffic, while increasing safety and reliability. Several studies on proposed HSR systems in the US show that, on the emissions side alone, HSR systems have the capability of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2.7 million metric tons and producing only 24% of the emissions of auto and air traffic (see Broader Impacts section of the proposal for details). It is the PI?s hypothesis that it is only a matter of time before HSR systems become much more prominent, and perhaps even prevalent in the US. The proposed research will be an important contribution to the scientific basis necessary for safe and cost-effective operation of these systems. Numerous potentials exist for extension and impact of the proposed research beyond HSR systems. These opportunities include computer and communication network security, product design improvement based on information from product?s AIS, diagnostics in various systems of the human body and, perhaps in the far future, augmentation of the human immune system with artificially engineered immunity carriers (T-cells, B-cells, leukocytes).