Recent developments in computation and sensing technology have enabled us to access a variety of data sources. In signal processing and machine learning, sparse modeling has attracted much attention as a means of processing such high-dimensional data by harnessing the sparsity of a data structure. On the other hand, the importance of distributed sparse modeling over large-scale networks has also been increasing. In this paper, we discuss the theoretical background of the distributed sparse modeling from the viewpoint of cooperative control of multiagent systems. We also consider the application of distributed sparse modeling to environmental measurement with smart sensor networks.

Phase-only correlation (POC) functions have been widely applied in many fields including signal matching to evaluate the similarity between two signals. Our group has clarified the statistical properties of POC functions assuming phase spectra to be random variables and has proposed novel approaches based on directional statistics for the statistical analysis of POC functions. In this paper, we present the statistical properties of POC functions that our group has clarified from the viewpoint of directional statistics.

Advanced Safety Vehicles such as driving assistance systems, self-driving cars, personal care robots, and collaborative operation robots should have well-designed control systems to ensure functional safety. In the near future, control systems will be implemented with AI technology. The functional safety of these control systems will be guaranteed by designing, producing, and operating in accordance with international standards such as IEC 61508. In this article commentaries on the outline, current issues, and trends in the revision of IEC 61508.

In this tutorial manuscript, we present the latest developments regarding one of the most successful wireless system standards, IEEE802.11 Wireless LAN. We focus our attention on the current 11ac amendments which brought us very high throughput transmission, and the soon-to-be finalized 11ax amendments, which will bring efficiency enhancements using orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA). The authors have had actively contributed and have proposals accepted (two for 11ac and one for 11ax). We then explore other trends in wireless LAN standardization such as the extremely high throughput amendment (11be) and wireless positioning amendment (11az).

As a key technology in ITS, location information processing has been playing a central role in many fields. In this paper, probe car information processing, especially a map-matching algorithm and a heuristic optimization algorithm for cooperation among AGV (automated guided vehicles) and human pickers.

The development and spread of autonomous equipment that acquires information from the surrounding environment, such as autonomous vehicles and drones, are in progress. In such equipment, sensors that acquire information from around the device are used, in which case the operation of the equipment relies on the information from the sensors. Therefore, if an attacker tampers with or interferes with the obtained by the sensors, there is a possiblity that the attacker can controls the equipment. It is necessary to consider the security of the data obtained from sensors in equipment that acquires external information for control. This paper gives an overview of security in the process of sensors acquiring information from the surrounding environment.