Designing an Intelligent Process Operation Management System. The complexity and sophistication of current generation of industrial processes, and the growing need for autonomous agents that control physical systems, motivate the need for the development of an intelligent process operation management system. In this project, the innovative integration of theories from different scientific fields (computer systems, process engineering, systems and control engineering) provides an excellent platfo ....Designing an Intelligent Process Operation Management System. The complexity and sophistication of current generation of industrial processes, and the growing need for autonomous agents that control physical systems, motivate the need for the development of an intelligent process operation management system. In this project, the innovative integration of theories from different scientific fields (computer systems, process engineering, systems and control engineering) provides an excellent platform for development of a smart data management tool, to oversee the major operational tasks within the plant and help the operators and engineers to make more informed decisions. Direct application of the techniques developed in this study to a pilot case study, could be used as a benchmark to show the potential benefits that can be gained through smart information use and data management.Read moreRead less
Coordination control of underactuated ocean vehicles for ocean forecasting. Australia is surrounded by oceans. Ocean forecasting is essential for effective and efficient operations on and within the ocean for a number of applications such as coastal zone management, military operations and scientific research. The successful completion of this project promises to put Australia in a leading position in this area. Due to the multi-disciplinary nature of this project, the project development will a ....Coordination control of underactuated ocean vehicles for ocean forecasting. Australia is surrounded by oceans. Ocean forecasting is essential for effective and efficient operations on and within the ocean for a number of applications such as coastal zone management, military operations and scientific research. The successful completion of this project promises to put Australia in a leading position in this area. Due to the multi-disciplinary nature of this project, the project development will also stimulate the development in many other areas such as new ocean vehicles, sensors and actuators, electronics and control.Read moreRead less
DEVELOPMENT OF NEW NONLINEAR CONTROLLERS FOR TRAJECTORY TRACKING AND PATH-FOLLOWING OF UNDERACTUATED OCEAN VEHICLES. Trajectory tracking control and path-following of underactuated ocean vehicles are not only of theoretical challenging but also important practice. This project is firstly to develop methodologies to design full-state feedback controllers to force the underactuated ocean vehicles including surface ships and underwater vehicles with off-diagonal terms in their system matrices to tr ....DEVELOPMENT OF NEW NONLINEAR CONTROLLERS FOR TRAJECTORY TRACKING AND PATH-FOLLOWING OF UNDERACTUATED OCEAN VEHICLES. Trajectory tracking control and path-following of underactuated ocean vehicles are not only of theoretical challenging but also important practice. This project is firstly to develop methodologies to design full-state feedback controllers to force the underactuated ocean vehicles including surface ships and underwater vehicles with off-diagonal terms in their system matrices to track reference trajectories generated by virtual vehicles, and to follow a predefined path with a desired forward speed. Secondly, we develop methods to design observers to estimate the unmeasured states (velocities) of the vehicles and incorporate with the full-state feedback controllers to have output-feedback observer-based controllers. Lastly, the proposed control design methods are extended to a certain class of underactuated mechanical systems.Read moreRead less
Complex dynamical systems: inferring form and function of interacting biological systems. Often in biology a large number of simple parts interacting according to simple rules can result in behaviour that is rich and varied. This project aims to develop the mathematics of complex systems theory to describe how such collections of simple interacting parts can form large complicated structures, and to deduce what dynamical behaviour can result.
TSuNAMi: Time Series Network Animal Modelling. Our proposal is motivated by and based upon the successful representation of time series as a network (or graph). We construct an abstract representation of a system from measurements of its changing behaviour over time. Properties of that structure (the network) then allow us to infer diagnostic information of the system. Specifically, we propose to apply this to livestock welfare during transport. By measuring the biological and environment condi ....TSuNAMi: Time Series Network Animal Modelling. Our proposal is motivated by and based upon the successful representation of time series as a network (or graph). We construct an abstract representation of a system from measurements of its changing behaviour over time. Properties of that structure (the network) then allow us to infer diagnostic information of the system. Specifically, we propose to apply this to livestock welfare during transport. By measuring the biological and environment condition of the animal we construct a network representation of that system. Geometric features of that network can then be used to infer health or duress of the subject. This proposal will develop the generic mathematical machinery to connect geometric features of the network with system behaviour. Read moreRead less
Convex optimisation for control, signal processing and communication systems. Renewable control of complex systems, signal processing, telecommunication and in general any industries interested in these applications stand to benefit from our research. In particular, the automotive and defence industries stand to benefit from the nonlinear control design aspect of the proposed project outcomes. The
telecommunications industries, on the other hand, benefit from the signal processing and communicat ....Convex optimisation for control, signal processing and communication systems. Renewable control of complex systems, signal processing, telecommunication and in general any industries interested in these applications stand to benefit from our research. In particular, the automotive and defence industries stand to benefit from the nonlinear control design aspect of the proposed project outcomes. The
telecommunications industries, on the other hand, benefit from the signal processing and communications aspects. We also build a core expertise in optimisation and its applications in Australia by training PhD students and Postdoctoral researchers. The research collaborations will cement and maintain the international linkages which will improve applied research in AustraliaRead moreRead less
A geometric theory for modern optimisation problems in control and estimation. Linear-quadratic and spectral factorisation problems play a crucial role in system and control theory as well as many important application areas. The success of the project will represent a significant advancement of state-of-the-art in these broad areas.
Improving transient performance for systems with multiple inputs/outputs. This project aims to develop and test new mathematical techniques for the improvement of transient performance in tracking control systems. The fundamental problem to be addressed will be the design of controllers to rapidly track constant and time varying target reference signals without overshooting or undershooting for multiple-input multiple-output systems/plants. These new methods aim to offer improved accuracy and sp ....Improving transient performance for systems with multiple inputs/outputs. This project aims to develop and test new mathematical techniques for the improvement of transient performance in tracking control systems. The fundamental problem to be addressed will be the design of controllers to rapidly track constant and time varying target reference signals without overshooting or undershooting for multiple-input multiple-output systems/plants. These new methods aim to offer improved accuracy and speed in many engineering applications.Read moreRead less
Modelling and estimation methods for discrete multi-dimensional systems. Multi-dimensional signal processing plays a role in a variety of application areas, ranging from remote sensing for environmental monitoring and geological mapping, to medical imaging and the automatic control of industrial processes. The success of the project will provide mathematical tools for the advancement of the state-of-the-art in these broad areas.
Cooperative control of networked systems with constraints. This project aims to address the challenge of networked systems in deploying teams of robotic agents. Control of the networked system is extremely difficult due to real world constraints imposed on each agent. This project will focus on motion constraints, equipment/capability constraints, and spatial constraints. In addition to theoretical advances, the wider scientific community will benefit directly, because the control algorithms dev ....Cooperative control of networked systems with constraints. This project aims to address the challenge of networked systems in deploying teams of robotic agents. Control of the networked system is extremely difficult due to real world constraints imposed on each agent. This project will focus on motion constraints, equipment/capability constraints, and spatial constraints. In addition to theoretical advances, the wider scientific community will benefit directly, because the control algorithms developed are expected to allow straightforward deployment of robotic teams. There are myriad applications for cooperative robotic agents, ranging from surveillance, to environmental monitoring using underwater and aerial drone formations – with an array of benefits and impacts including economic, commercial and societal. The results are intended to ensure and cement Australia’s front-line position in the current technological revolution known as “Industry 4.0”.Read moreRead less