Problems of control theory and control systems

18-th World Congress of International Federation on Automatic Control

(Italy, Milan, August-September 2011)

V.Yu.Rutkovskiy

Institute of Control Sciences of Russian Academy of Sciences

Profsoyuznaya, 65, Moscow, 117997, Russia

18-th World Congress was held Italy, Milano on August 29 September 2, 2011. The Congress was organized by International Federation on Automatic Control (IFAC) and supported by many organization among them <Ansaldo Energia>, <Salvagini>, <Ricerca Energetico> and others. S.Bittanti (Italy) was as the head of International Program Committee, as the members of the Committee were IFAC President A.Isidori (Italy), I.Craig (ZA), G.Dimirovski (Makedoniya) and others.

It was sent 3629 papers, the Program Committee elected 2478 papers from witch for the oral presentation - 2030 (regular papers) and others were included in interactive (poster) sessions. More than 2500 scientists from 73 countries have taken part in the Congress.

At the plenary sessions nine lectures were made by the well known scientists in the control theory and control systems.

The first lecture was delivered by Sr. P.Terwiesh (Switzerland). In the lecture it was made the estimation both statusquo and future potentials of automatic control in industry. It was discussed the control and optimization methods using practical examples. It was emphasized that nowadays the achievement of neighvoring disciplines can be used for control theory developing and number of directions for future work were outlined.

The lecture by Prof. A.Lindquist (Sweden) was devoted to the theory of robust control, estimation, image processing and systems identification. Author notes that many problems in circuit theory, power systems, robust control, signal processing, spectral estimation, statistical modeling, image processing and identification lead to a non-classical version of the moment problem reflecting the importance of rational functions in engineering applications. Although this version of the problem is nonlinear, there exists a natural, universal family of strictly convex optimization criteria defined on the convex set of particular solutions. This provides a powerful paradigm for smoothly parameterize, comparing and shaping the solutions based on various additional design criteria and enables us to establish the smooth dependence of solutions on problem data.

In the paper by P.Houpt (USA) it was considered the problem of electric power production.

The increasing penetration of renewable energy sources from wind, solar and other distributed generation has created unprecedented opportunities to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and reduce carbon emissions. At the same time, complexity results from the interaction among generation and load dynamics of industrial and residential electric use. Demand from large industrial loads, plug-in electric vehicles, smart appliances, and building energy management (HVAC&lighting) present major challenges to coordinating and optimizing for the efficient and reliable transmission and distribution of electric power in the installed grid infrastructure. In the paper it was examined some of the key controls issues that arise and look at progress in resolving them. The paper was based in part on a working session on Renewable Energy and Smart Grid (RESG) held at the , in Berchtesgaden, Germany, October 2009.

Professor C.Scherer (Germany) has devoted his paper to the problem of the regulators synthesis. He noted that for analyzing stability and performances of uncertain systems it is worth while to look back and take into consideration exiting and highly successful development of the concept of dissipation with convex optimization algorithms. The abstraction of a complex system interconnection into the standard plant setting allows handling a variety of uncertain components with different characteristics. It must be considered how these analysis tools seamlessly extend, for some problem classes, to designing centralized or gain-scheduled controllers. Author argues that future needs for controlling large-scale uncertain systems will require developing a better understanding of how system interconnection structure translates into algorithmic structure for overcoming complexity barriers.

The paper by L.Praly (France) was devoted to the state observes. Author noted, that depending on the field of applications, they are called or observers, or filters, or soft sensors, or state and data reconstructors. But all they solve the same problem: given measurements (= partial information), it is required to estimate internal variables of a dynamical system. For this they incorporate some kind of model of this system and require some kind of a priori information on these internal variables. It is considered briefly the main approaches to this problem both stochastic and deterministic.

In the paper by B.Ninness (Australia) it was considered the problem of identification. It is spoken that the field of system identification is now a mature one that has evolved over several decades. This has resulted in a suit of well studied and accepted solution techniques. While very effective, these methods have been developed with regard to computing resources that could be considered very modest relative to those available today. In the paper it is considered some opportunities for taking advantage of modern advances in computing resources for the solution of system identification problems. These resources can be characterized as offering much enhanced memory and multi-core capacity relative to what was available during the development of the field. It was illustrated how taking advantage of these advances can afford solutions to identification problems that would have previously been considered intractable.

The problem of the control for the systems with feedback at available information was considered by academician A.B.Kurzhanskiy (Russia). The author notes that the tasks of closed-loop control are at the heart of modern control theory and were investigated throughout the history of control under well-known information conditions. However rapid progress in technology generates demand in problem solutions under realistic information. Indeed the description of system models, the disturbances, the measurement outputs and other items may be incompletely or imperfectly known and the problem settings may be different from conventional. The overall control system may also be treated as being immersed into a . Many of such problems may be quite known, but are not yet theoretically approached due to mathematical difficulties and also perhaps the necessity of coordinating different mathematical and software tools within one framework. In the paper it is considered an array of such problems and the related possible solution tools.

The paper by D.B.Doman (USA) was devoted to the task of control by low-size vehicle which the author has called as Micro Air Vehicle (MAV). For realization of controlled flight it was suggested tailless flapping wing aircraft. The goal is to achieve insect-like maneuverability in such aircraft by using only flapping-wing control effectors. Because MAVs have extreme limitations on mass and volume, particular attention has been paid to minimizing the number of control actuators and the complexity of control laws. A method called has been developed and tested in simulation. This technique enables independent control of rolling, pitching, and yawing moments as well as vertical and horizontal forces, using two physical actuators. Additionally, a general framework has been developed that allows controllability to be considered at the preliminary vehicle design stage.

In the paper by Dr. K.Saga (Japan) it was considered the problem of power-train efficiency and economization increasing not only at the cost of improvement such components as engine, battery, generator and inventor but at the cost of control system perfecting.

Regular papers were classified into nine groups:

-        systems and signals;

-        design methods;

-        computers, cognition and communication;

-        mechatronics, robotics and components;

-        manufacturing and logistics systems;

-        process and power systems;

-        transportation and vehicle systems;

-        bio- and ecological systems;

-        social systems.

By this means the regular papers subjects adequately depict all tendencies of modern control theory.

The papers in which the classical tasks of the control theory are considered have attracted considerable interest. Among them were the papers devoted to the theory of optimal control, to statistical dynamics, to reliability and fault-tolerant of control systems. Many participants of the Congress have noted that this themes is new and actual always.

It is natural that many papers on theory of filtration, identification, estimation, robust and adaptive control, theory of variable-structure systems, robots, systems with learning control, intellectual systems, differential games, the theory on decentralized control, on applied task of control theory present big interest. Among the latest it is possible to note the papers devoted to the control theory by vehicles, chemical, biological and medical processes and others.

In poster papers many of modern problem of control theory were considered too.

During the work of the Congress three panel sessions have taken place. The first among them was devoted to survey of the modern control theory successes that are used in the technique and to the future development of this domain, the second one - to energy and environmental challenges in emerging regions and the third one - to preparing tomorrow's scientists and engineers for the challenges of the 21-st century.

On the last day of the Congress work it was taken place the plenary session that was devoted to the IFAC establishment by the group scientists who has served the main role for control theory development at those years. With reminiscences about the first IFAC World Congress made a speech R.Kalman, M.Thoma, J.Westcott, S. Kahne, T.Vamos.

On the Congress Closing Ceremony Quazza Medal and Nichols Medal and IFAC prizes were presented. It was announced that Dr Ian Craeg (ZA) was elected as IFAC President on the next three years. The 19-th IFAC Congress will take place in Cape Town (ZA) on 24-29 August 2014.