Implementations and Applications of Algorithms Based on Fractional Calculus to Engineering Problems

A special issue of Fractal and Fractional (ISSN 2504-3110). This special issue belongs to the section "Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 2150

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Digital Systems Group, National Institute for Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics, Puebla 72840, Mexico
Interests: FPGA; instrumentation; mechatronics; digital systems; fault detection; fractional order
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Electronics, National Institute for Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics, Puebla 72840, Mexico
Interests: fractional-order systems; Lyapunov stability theory; nonlinear observers and synchronization; chaos and non-conventional operators
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, the scientific community has focused its attention on using fractional calculus and differential equations as tools to develop various algorithms for signal processing and their corresponding applications, such as the development and implementation of complex algorithms associated with chaotic systems in embedded systems, which allows for the use of diverse applications and practical solutions in engineering problems.

Various research works have proven that applying fractional calculus facilitates the development of novel and more robust solutions compared to solutions with integer calculus. This enables efficient algorithms to be implemented and applied to engineering problems such as automatic control, fault detection, encryption, monitoring, intelligent systems, and image processing.  

Therefore, developing efficient algorithms based on fractional calculus is a novel engineering challenge due to several considerations such as real-time processing, quantification error, memory resources, finite word length, parallel processing, power consumption, maximum operation frequency, and bitrate, to mention a few.

This Special Issue provides a forum for presenting new and improved algorithms or techniques based on fractional calculus for applications in current engineering problems. We invite authors to contribute original research articles exploring the latest developments of fractional-order systems. Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Embedded systems;
  • Robot control;
  • Biomedical applications;
  • Autonomous vehicles;
  • Neural networks;
  • Chaotic systems;
  • Image processing;
  • Nonlinear observers;
  • Power systems;
  • Signal processing.

Dr. José de Jesús Rangel Magdaleno
Dr. Oscar Martínez-Fuentes
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Fractal and Fractional is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • fractional calculus
  • fractional-order systems
  • algorithm implementation
  • algorithm development
  • signal processing
  • image processing
  • fault detection

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

22 pages, 8053 KiB  
Article
Rolling Bearing Fault Diagnosis Based on Fractional Constant Q Non-Stationary Gabor Transform and VMamba-Conv
by Fengyun Xie, Chengjie Song, Yang Wang, Minghua Song, Shengtong Zhou and Yuanwei Xie
Fractal Fract. 2025, 9(8), 515; https://doi.org/10.3390/fractalfract9080515 - 6 Aug 2025
Viewed by 248
Abstract
Rolling bearings are prone to failure, meaning that research on intelligent fault diagnosis is crucial in relation to this key transmission component in rotating machinery. The application of deep learning (DL) has significantly advanced the development of intelligent fault diagnosis. This paper proposes [...] Read more.
Rolling bearings are prone to failure, meaning that research on intelligent fault diagnosis is crucial in relation to this key transmission component in rotating machinery. The application of deep learning (DL) has significantly advanced the development of intelligent fault diagnosis. This paper proposes a novel method for rolling bearing fault diagnosis based on the fractional constant Q non-stationary Gabor transform (FCO-NSGT) and VMamba-Conv. Firstly, a rolling bearing fault experimental platform is established and the vibration signals of rolling bearings under various working conditions are collected using an acceleration sensor. Secondly, a kurtosis-to-entropy ratio (KER) method and the rotational kernel function of the fractional Fourier transform (FRFT) are proposed and applied to the original CO-NSGT to overcome the limitations of the original CO-NSGT, such as the unsatisfactory time–frequency representation due to manual parameter setting and the energy dispersion problem of frequency-modulated signals that vary with time. A lightweight fault diagnosis model, VMamba-Conv, is proposed, which is a restructured version of VMamba. It integrates an efficient selective scanning mechanism, a state space model, and a convolutional network based on SimAX into a dual-branch architecture and uses inverted residual blocks to achieve a lightweight design while maintaining strong feature extraction capabilities. Finally, the time–frequency graph is inputted into VMamba-Conv to diagnose rolling bearing faults. This approach reduces the number of parameters, as well as the computational complexity, while ensuring high accuracy and excellent noise resistance. The results show that the proposed method has excellent fault diagnosis capabilities, with an average accuracy of 99.81%. By comparing the Adjusted Rand Index, Normalized Mutual Information, F1 Score, and accuracy, it is concluded that the proposed method outperforms other comparison methods, demonstrating its effectiveness and superiority. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

21 pages, 16644 KiB  
Article
A Time–Frequency Composite Recurrence Plots-Based Series Arc Fault Detection Method for Photovoltaic Systems with Different Operating Conditions
by Zhendong Yin, Hongxia Ouyang, Junchi Lu, Li Wang and Shanshui Yang
Fractal Fract. 2025, 9(1), 33; https://doi.org/10.3390/fractalfract9010033 - 8 Jan 2025
Viewed by 940
Abstract
Series arc faults (SAFs) pose a significant threat to the safety of photovoltaic (PV) systems. However, the complex operating conditions of PV systems make accurate SAF detection challenging. To tackle this issue, this article proposes a SAF detection method based on time–frequency composite [...] Read more.
Series arc faults (SAFs) pose a significant threat to the safety of photovoltaic (PV) systems. However, the complex operating conditions of PV systems make accurate SAF detection challenging. To tackle this issue, this article proposes a SAF detection method based on time–frequency composite recurrence plots (TFCRPs). Initially, variational mode decomposition (VMD) is employed to decompose the current into distinct modes. Subsequently, the proposed TFCRP transforms these modes into two-dimensional matrices, enabling the measurement of composite similarity between different phase states. Lastly, extra tree (ET) is utilized to fuse the fractional recurrence entropy (FRE) and the singular values extracted from the matrices, thereby achieving SAF detection. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method achieves a detection accuracy of 98.75% and can accurately detect SAFs under various operating conditions. Comparisons with different methods further highlight the advancement of the proposed method. Furthermore, the detection time of the proposed method (209 ms) meets the requirements of standard UL1699B. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop