TOPICS IN SYSTEMS ENGINEERING – serie

This book provides a simplified description of how to design an underwater swimming robot, inspired by the mechanism of the Labriform mode of fish. This style of swimming depends on the pectoral fins only as a main locomotor for movement. A unique model with fins having a concave shape allows the highest thrust force to be achieved during the power period and the lowest drag force during the recovery period, especially if the velocity values between the powering and recovery periods are manipulated.Besides the ability to swim quickly, the proposed model was also inspired by a method of maneuvering based on the principle of differential drive for two-wheel mobile robot, achieving the minimum turning radius by controlling the speed of the rowing fins.Also, by applying the technique of the diving model used by gliders, the robot achieves underwater gliding by changing the center of the body's mass. Thus, the robot obtains the ability to dive and float in a manner similar to the Sawtooth wave.All the mentioned tasks were conducted via laboratory experiments and proven to be both effective and efficient.

The book offers an overview of credit risk modeling and management. A three-step approach is adopted with the contents, after introducing the essential concepts of both mathematics and finance.Initially the focus is on the modeling of credit risk parameters mainly at the level of individual debtor and transaction, after which the book delves into counterparty credit risk, thus providing the link between credit and market risks. The second part is aimed at the portfolio level when multiple loans are pooled and default correlation becomes an important factor to consider and model. In this respect, the book explains how copulas help in modeling. The final stage is the macro perspective when the combination of credit risks related to financial institutions produces systemic risk and affects overall financial stability.The entire approach is two-dimensional as well. First, all modeling steps have replicable programming codes both in R and Matlab. In this way, the reader can experience the impact of changing the default probabilities of a given borrower or the weights of a sector. Second, at each stage, the book discusses the regulatory environment. This is because, at times, regulation can have stricter constraints than the outcome of internal models. In summary, the book guides the reader in modeling and managing credit risk by providing both the theoretical framework and the empirical tools necessary for a modern finance professional. In this sense, the book is aimed at a wide audience in all fields of study: from quants who want to engage in finance to economists who want to learn about coding and modern financial engineering.

In the nineteenth-century, fractional calculus had its origin in extending differentiation and integration operators from the integer-order case to the fractional-order case. Discrete fractional calculus has recently become an important research topic, useful in various science and engineering applications. The first definition of the fractional-order discrete-time/difference operator was introduced in 1974 by Diaz and Osler, where such operator was derived by discretizing the fractional-order continuous-time operator. Successfully, several types of fractional-order difference operators have then been proposed and introduced through further generalizing numerous classical operators, motivating several researchers to publish extensively on a new class of systems, viz the nonlinear fractional-order discrete-time systems (or simply, the fractional-order maps), and their chaotic behaviors. This discovery of chaos in such maps, has led to novel control methods for effectively stabilizing their chaotic dynamics.The aims of this book are as follows: Presenting the recent developments, trends, research solutions, applications and open problems related to fractional-order chaotic maps;;Illustrating many interdisciplinary applications, like modulization, control, circuits, security and encryption;;Including all theories associated with chaos, control and synchronization of discrete-time systems;;Providing a useful reference on the topic of fractional-order chaotic maps and their applications.;

In the early 1980s, the late luminary Tito Arecchi was the first to highlight the existence of chaos in a laser model. Since then, along with several colleagues, he developed many important lines of research in this field, such as generalized multistability, laser with injected signal, laser with delayed feedback and the worldwide accepted classification of lasers of A, B and C, depending on their typical relaxation rates. Later, chaos control and synchronization were investigated in lasers and other systems, providing innovative schemes. Very recently, in his last contribution to laser physics, the model of the laser with feedback demonstrating its universal features was revisited.This book aims to present the research activity of Prof. Arecchi and his colleagues in the domain of nonlinear dynamics of lasers, since his seminal works of 1982 till the latest. Also included is our last contribution on jerk dynamics of laser's minimal universal model and a brief history of the discovery of laser where the reader will discover or rediscover many anecdotes about it.