In this article a Switching Model Predictive Attitude Controller for an Unmanned quadrotor Helicopter subject to atmospheric disturbances is presented. The proposed control scheme is computed based on a Piecewise Affine (PWA) model of the quadrotor’s attitude dynamics, where the effects of the atmospheric turbulence are taken into consideration as additive disturbances. The switchings among the PWA models are ruled by the rate of the rotation angles and for each PWA system a corresponding model predictive controller is computed. The suggested algorithm is verified in experimental studies in the execution of sudden maneuvers subject to forcible wind disturbances. The quadrotor rejects the induced wind–disturbances while performing accurate attitude tracking.
In this article, a switching Model Predictive Controller (sMPC) for a Pneumatic Artificial Muscle (PAM) is presented. The control scheme is based on a switching PieceWise Affine (PWA) system model approximation that is able to capture the high nonlinearities of the PAM, while improving the overall model accuracy, and is composed of: a) a feed-forward term regulating control input at specific reference set-points, and b) a switching Model Predictive Controller handling any deviations from the system’s equilibrium points. Extended experimental studies are being presented that prove the overall scheme’s efficiency.
A dynamic threshold generator is employed for detecting faults in λ-tuned control loops. To this end, an optimizationalgorithm for dynamic threshold generators is proposed. The a priori-information from λ-tuning is used in designing astate estimator with integral action. A dynamic threshold generator for the residual of this state estimator is derived and the optimization algorithm is applied. Simulations with measurement data from an experimental water tank setup show that the method is capable of detecting a small fault without generating false alarms.
This paper deals with estimation and control of foam level in dynamic foaming. An improved foam level estimation methodology from a microphone signal and its automatic calibration is presented. The dynamical reaction of the foam level on air lance movements is modelled using system identification. Based on the resulting mathematical model, a controller for foam level stabilisation is designed and applied to a water model, representing the LD converter process. It is shown that the foam level can be controlled using a microphone as the measurement device and air lance movement as the actuator.
This paper presents a new application software for control conguration selection of interconnected industrial processes,called ProMoVis. Moreover, ProMoVis is able to visualize process models and process layout at the physical leveltogether with the control system dynamics. The software consists of a builder part where the visual representationof the interconnected process is created and an analyzer part where the process is analyzed using dierent controlconguration selection tools.The conceptual idea of the software is presented and the subsequent design and implementation of ProMoVis isdiscussed. The implemented analysis methods are briey described including their usage and implementation aspects.The use of ProMoVis is demonstrated by an application study on the stock preparation process at SCA Obbola AB,Sweden. The results of this study are compared with the currently used control strategy.The study indicates that ProMoVis introduces a systematic and comprehensive way to perform control congurationselection. ProMoVis has been released under the Apache Open Source license.
This paper summarizes the implementation and industrial experiences of a model-based control and gas-leakage detection system in a coal injection plant. It describes how advanced control and monitoring can be implemented in an industrial environment while taking human–machine interface aspects into consideration. The operation of the advanced and the conventional concept are compared regarding evaluation data, experiences and observations of operators and maintenance personnel. It is shown that the advanced control and monitoring system improves plant performance without disturbing routines in plant operation and, moreover, is positively accepted by the plant operators.
This study considers how to efficiently manage the thermal state of data servers by provisioning their cooling airflow dynamically. It introduces a thermal network framework that is tailored to capture the temperature dynamics of the on-board thermal inertiae. On top of this modeling, it devises LeakageCooling, a novel flow provisioning controller that balances the temperature dependent leakage dissipation within the electronic chips and the power consumed by the local fans to produce the cooling airflow. The prediction capabilities of the proposed modeling and the overall control performance are assessed over several relevant experimental scenarios on an Open Compute Windmill V2 server.
This article addresses the inspection problem of a complex 3D infrastructure using multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The main novelty of the proposed scheme stems from the establishment of a theoretical framework capable of providing a path for accomplishing a full coverage of the infrastructure, without any further simplifications (number of considered representation points), by slicing it by horizontal planes to identify branches and assign specific areas to each agent as a solution to an overall optimization problem. Furthermore, the image streams collected during the coverage task are post-processed using Structure from Motion, stereo SLAM and mesh reconstruction algorithms, while the resulting 3D mesh can be used for further visual inspection purposes. The performance of the proposed Collaborative-Coverage Path Planning (C-CPP) has been experimentally evaluated in multiple indoor and realistic outdoor infrastructure inspection experiments and as such it is also contributing significantly towards real life applications for UAVs.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) equipped with visual sensors are widely used in area coverage missions. Guaranteeing full coverage coupled with camera footprint is one of the most challenging tasks, thus, in the presented novel approach a coverage path planner for the inspection of 2D areas is established, a 3 Degree of Freedom (DoF) camera movement is considered and the shortest path from the taking off to the landing station is generated, while covering the target area. The proposed scheme requires a priori information about the boundaries of the target area and generates the paths in an offline process. The efficacy and the overall performance of the proposed method has been experimentally evaluated in multiple indoor inspection experiments with convex and non convex areas. Furthermore, the image streams collected during the coverage tasks were post-processed using image stitching for obtaining a single overview of the covered scene.
In this article, a novel method for broken bars fault detection in the case of three-phase induction motors and under different payloads will be presented and experimentally evaluated. In the presented approach, the cases of a partially or full broken rotor bars is being also considered, caused by: a) drilling 4mm and 8mm out of the $13$mm thickness of the same rotor bar, and b) fully drilled (13mm) one, two and three broken bars. The proposed fault detection method is based on the Set Membership Identification (SMI) technique and a novel proposed minimum boundary violation fault detection scheme, applied on the identified motor's parameters. The system identification procedure is being carried out on the simplified equivalent model of the induction motor, during the steady-state operation (non-fault case), while at the same time the proposed scheme is able to calculate on-line the corresponding safety bounds for the identified variables, based on a priori knowledge of the measuring corrupting noise (worst case encountered). The efficiency, the robustness and the overall performance of the established fault detection scheme is being extensively evaluated in multiple experimental studies and under various time instances of faults and load conditions.
We propose a methodology for testing the sanity of motors when both healthy and faulty data are unavailable. More precisely, we consider a model-based Support Vector Classification (SVC) method for the detection of broken bars in three phase asynchronous motors at full load conditions, using features based on the spectral analysis of the stator's steady state current (more specifically, the amplitude of the lift sideband harmonic and the amplitude at fundamental frequency). We diverge from the mainstream focus on using SVCs trained from measured data, and instead derive a classifier that is constructed entirely using theoretical considerations. The advantage of this approach is that it does not need training steps (an expensive, time consuming and often practically infeasible task), i.e., operators are not required to have both healthy and faulty data from a system for checking it. We describe what are the theoretical properties and fundamental limitations of using model based SVC methodologies, provide conditions under which using SVC tests is statistically optimal, and present some experimental results to prove the effectiveness of the suggested scheme.
In this paper, the positioning of a long flexible manipulator on a moving platform is investigated. The problem is to position the gripper at a requested relative distance in front of an object with unknown location. For this purpose, the gripper is equipped with a range camera giving the distance to surrounding objects within, ∼ 1% and with a sampling rate above 1 kHz. The range measurements are used in combination with internal angle measurements from joint encoders to estimate both the flexibility in the mechanical construction and the relative distance from gripper to object. This is solved satisfactorily by an extended Kalman filter (EKF). For the motion control of the manipulator, a time-scaled feedback controller is suggested. A fast inner loop is used to damp out oscillations and reject disturbances, both from the platform and the manipulator. An outer control loop, with a lower closed-loop bandwidth, then steers the gripper, based on the range measurements, to the requested final position in front of the object. This loop assumes a stationary and rigid platform and a rigid manipulator. At this moment, only simulations of a flexible manipulator on a rigid platform have been studied. However, the results show that the flexibility can be estimated from indirect measurements of the range to the object and the joint angles. Also, good damping and disturbance rejection are achieved, as long as the bandwidth of the actuators is sufficiently high compared to the oscillation. The use of range measurements of the surrounding objects makes the positioning task very robust against an uncertain platform position.
In this article, a novel adaptive trajectory tracking controller is designed for a payload-carrying spacecraft under full state constraints. The proposed controller can tackle state-dependent uncertainties without a priori knowledge of their structures and upper bounds. The controller ensures time-varying constraints on all states and their time derivatives. The closed-loop stability of the proposed scheme is verified analytically via the Lyapunov method, and real-life experiments using a robotic testbed validated the effectiveness of the proposed adaptive controller over the state-of-the-art.
At the Boliden's concentrator in Aitik, bulk flotation constitutes an important part of the process for extracting valuable minerals from the ore. A series of flotation cells consists of five tanks connected in cascade with control valves between the tanks and a slowly varying flow of mineral slurry into the first tank. This paper deals with a comparative study of control strategies for level control in a flotation series in Aitik. The aim is to show the potential performance improvements taking into account couplings between the process state variables. Two control strategies are considered; a decoupling controller and a linear quadratic (LQ) optimal multivariable controller. Experiments with both structures show a significant enhancement of the level control performance as compared to the original SISO design.
In this paper, a new model-based engineering approach is introduced by bridging MATLAB Simulink with IEC61499 Function Block models. This is achieved by a transformation between the two block-diagram languages. The transformation supported by the developed tools sets the cornerstone of the verification and validation framework for IEC 61499 Function Blocks in closed-loop with the models of the plant. The framework also paves the way to running distributed simulations of complex hybrid (i.e., continuous-discrete) closed-loop plant-controller systems and building complex models using the efficient object instantiation techniques of IEC 61499.