BU EE453 (Akar) Midterm 1 18/11/2008

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Name: Mehmet Akar
ID No.:
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Problem Points
#1 (25)
#2 (25)
#3 (25)
#4 (25)
Total (100)
BU EE453 (Akar) Midterm 1 18/11/2008 Page 2
Problem 1 (25 points) Does there exist a solution for the following set of linear equations?
_

_
1 1 2 1
3 2 4 1
2 0 0 2
_

_
_

_
x
1
x
2
x
3
x
4
_

_
=
_

_
0
1
2
_

_
If so, nd the minimum norm solution. If not, show that a solution does not exist.
Solution: Let A =
_

_
1 1 2 1
3 2 4 1
2 0 0 2
_

_ and b =
_

_
0
1
2
_

_. A solution exists i b R(A) (or

equivalently i rank(A)=rank([A b]). Note that b is the dierence of the rst and second
columns of A, i.e., b is in the column space of A (alternatively check that rank(A)=rank([A
b]=2). Therefore a solution exists. This can also be seen by Gaussian elimination to get
_

_
1 1 2 1
.
.
. 0
3 2 4 1
.
.
. 1
2 0 0 2
.
.
. 2
_

_
1 0 0 1
.
.
. 1
0 1 2 2
.
.
. 1
0 0 0 0
.
.
. 0
_

_
Since x
1
= 1 x
4
and x
2
= 1 2x
3
+ 2x
4
, the solution set is given by
S =
_

_
_

_
1
1
0
0
_

_
+
_

_
0
2
1
0
_

_
+
_

_
1
2
0
1
_

_
, ,
_

_
In summary, there are innitely many solutions. In order to nd the minimum norm
solution let a particular solution be x
p
= [1, 1, 0, 0]
T
and take its orthogonal projection
onto N
T
(A) = R(A
T
). Note that
1
= [2, 0, 0, 2]
T
and
2
= [1, 1, 2, 1]
T
form an orthogonal
basis for N
T
(A) = R(A
T
). Therefore, the minimum norm solution, x, is obtained as
x =
< x
p
,
1
>
<
1
,
1
>

1
+
< x
p
,
2
>
<
2
,
2
>

2
=
_

_
0.5
0
0
0.5
_

_
.
BU EE453 (Akar) Midterm 1 18/11/2008 Page 3
Problem 2 (25 points) Given
A =
_

_
1 0 0
1 0 0
0 1 1
_

_
a). (10 points) Determine the characteristic and minimal polynomials of A. Can A be
diagonalized?
Solution: Characteristic polynomial:
() = ( + 1)
2
Minimal polynomial:
() = ( + 1)
2
Since () = (), and the eigenvalue -1 has multiplicity 2, there has to be a Jordan block
of dimension 2. Therefore, A cannot be diagonalized.
b). (15 points) Compute e
At
.
Solution: Let f() = e
t
and g() =
0
+
1
+
2

2
.
Use the three equations f(0) = g(0), f(1) = g(1), and f

(1) = g

(1) to obtain

0
= 1,
1
= 2 2e
t
te
t
,
2
= 1 e
t
te
t
.
Hence,
e
At
= g(A) =
0
+
1
A +
2
A
2
=
_

_
e
t
0 0
1 e
t
1 0
1 (t + 1)e
t
1 e
t
e
t
_

_.
BU EE453 (Akar) Midterm 1 18/11/2008 Page 4
Problem 3 (25 points) Consider 5 mobile robots with (x,y) coordinates (-1,-1), (1,0),
(1,2), (2,1) and (-1,0) in the 2D plane. Suppose that we want to move the robots parallel to
the y-axis to new locations such that they form a line and the sum of the squared distances
they have to travel is minimized. Determine the new (x,y) location for the robot initially at
(-1,-1), and the total distance all the robots have to travel.
Solution: Let the initial robot positions be denoted by (x
i
, y
i
), i = 1, . . . , 5. We want
the robots to be on a line y = mx + n where m and n are to be determined such that

5
i=1
(y
i
mx
i
n)
2
is minimized.
Alternatively, obtain the least squares solution of A = b, = [m, n]
T
where
A =
_

_
x
1
1
x
2
1
x
3
1
x
4
1
x
5
1
_

_
=
_

_
1 1
1 1
1 1
2 1
1 1
_

_
, b =
_

_
y
1
y
2
y
3
y
4
y
5
_

_
=
_

_
1
0
2
1
0
_

_
Noting that A is of full column rank (rank(A)=2), we can easily obtain the least squares
solution as
=
_
m
n
_
= (A
T
A)
1
A
T
b =
_
7/12
1/6
_
.
Therefore, the rst robot is placed at (-1,-5/12).
Total distance all the robots have to travel can be computed to be 10/3.
BU EE453 (Akar) Midterm 1 18/11/2008 Page 5
Problem 4 (25 points) The rotation matrix R that is obtained by rotating a frame by
= /2 degrees about the vector k = [1/

3, 1/

3, 1/

3]
T
is given by R = e
K/2
where
K =
_

_
0 1/

3 1/

3
1/

3 0 1/

3
1/

3 1/

3 0
_

_
Determine the eigenvalues and the eigenvectors of the rotation matrix R.
Solution: Given a matrix A, we have f(A) = Tf(J)T
1
where A = TJT
1
, J is the
Jordan form. Therefore, if be an eigenvalue of A, i.e., Av = v, then f() is an eigenvalue
of f(A) with the same eigenvalue v.
Let R = e
A
with A = K and = /2 . Find the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of A.
|I A| = (
2
+
2
).
The eigenvalue,eigenvector pairs for A:
_
_
_0,
_

_
1
1
1
_

_
_
_
_,
_
_
_j/2,
_

_
e
j/3
e
j/3
1
_

_
_
_
_,
_
_
_j/2,
_

_
e
j/3
e
j/3
1
_

_
_
_
_.
The eigenvalue,eigenvector pairs for R = e
A
:
_
_
_e
0
,
_

_
1
1
1
_

_
_
_
_,
_
_
_e
j/2
,
_

_
e
j/3
e
j/3
1
_

_
_
_
_,
_
_
_e
j/2
,
_

_
e
j/3
e
j/3
1
_

_
_
_
_.