Optimal Control Computation and Analysis of Switched Systems with State and Control Constraints. DC/DC converters are widely used in power supply systems and hybrid power systems generate cleaner energy. Achieving optimum performance in these applications has high commercial and environmental impacts. New optimal control problems for such practical problems will be formulated and new unified optimization theory and methods for these optimal control problems will be obtained. The outcomes will en ....Optimal Control Computation and Analysis of Switched Systems with State and Control Constraints. DC/DC converters are widely used in power supply systems and hybrid power systems generate cleaner energy. Achieving optimum performance in these applications has high commercial and environmental impacts. New optimal control problems for such practical problems will be formulated and new unified optimization theory and methods for these optimal control problems will be obtained. The outcomes will enhance Australia's reputation in this cutting edge research, and contribute to achieving optimal performance of high commercial and environmental value applications. It will also facilitate international collaboration, and provide an excellent opportunity for research training.Read moreRead less
A Study of Stabilisation and Optimal Control Computation of Impulsive Control Systems. Impulsive systems exhibit the phenomenon of jumps occurring at various time points along their trajectories. They arise from many applications, such as determining appropriate levels of drug administration in cancer and diabetes treatment, optimizing investment strategies in capacity expansion, and sustainable optimal forest management. This project will result in fundamental theory on stability and efficient ....A Study of Stabilisation and Optimal Control Computation of Impulsive Control Systems. Impulsive systems exhibit the phenomenon of jumps occurring at various time points along their trajectories. They arise from many applications, such as determining appropriate levels of drug administration in cancer and diabetes treatment, optimizing investment strategies in capacity expansion, and sustainable optimal forest management. This project will result in fundamental theory on stability and efficient computational algorithms and software packages for stabilizing controls and optimal controls of impulsive control problems. The outcomes will enhance Australia's reputation for leading edge research and facilitate opportunity for international collaboration. It will also provide an excellent opportunity for research training.Read moreRead less
Optimal discrete-valued control strategies: A new direction in nonlinear optimal control. The field of optimal control is concerned with finding ways to manipulate systems in the best possible manner. The latest research in optimal control focuses primarily on systems in which the input variables are continuous-valued, yet many real-world systems are controlled via discrete input variables that assume values from a finite set - such as "On/Off", "Open/Closed", "Gear 1/2/3". This project will rev ....Optimal discrete-valued control strategies: A new direction in nonlinear optimal control. The field of optimal control is concerned with finding ways to manipulate systems in the best possible manner. The latest research in optimal control focuses primarily on systems in which the input variables are continuous-valued, yet many real-world systems are controlled via discrete input variables that assume values from a finite set - such as "On/Off", "Open/Closed", "Gear 1/2/3". This project will revolutionise the field of optimal control through the development of new theory and computational tools for optimising discrete input variables in constrained nonlinear systems. The new results will be applied to solve critical problems in the areas of shale-gas extraction, chromatography, pipeline transportation, and micro-robots.Read moreRead less
Numerical Algorithms for Constructing Feedback Control Laws. Many decision making problems in engineering, finance and management are governed by optimal feedback control systems. These systems are normally too complex to be solved by conventional numerical methods. In this project, we propose to develop novel numerical algorithms for constructing feedback control laws. We will also investigate the procatical significance of these algorithms for solving real-world problems. The outcome of the pr ....Numerical Algorithms for Constructing Feedback Control Laws. Many decision making problems in engineering, finance and management are governed by optimal feedback control systems. These systems are normally too complex to be solved by conventional numerical methods. In this project, we propose to develop novel numerical algorithms for constructing feedback control laws. We will also investigate the procatical significance of these algorithms for solving real-world problems. The outcome of the project will provide efficient and accurate tools for constructing feedback laws in high dimensions.Read moreRead less
Quantum entanglement and its role in complex quantum systems. Quantum entanglement - non-classical correlations in quantum states - is the physical resource at the heart of modern applications of quantum technology, such as absolutely secure communication, and teleportation of quantum states from one location to another. This project aims to deepen our theoretical understanding of entanglement by characterizing the type and amount of entanglement present in the ground and thermal states of a ge ....Quantum entanglement and its role in complex quantum systems. Quantum entanglement - non-classical correlations in quantum states - is the physical resource at the heart of modern applications of quantum technology, such as absolutely secure communication, and teleportation of quantum states from one location to another. This project aims to deepen our theoretical understanding of entanglement by characterizing the type and amount of entanglement present in the ground and thermal states of a general physical system. These results will enable us to study the central role entanglement plays in quantum phase transitions - the change of a physical system from one state of matter to another, different, state of matter, one with a truly quantum character.Read moreRead less
Efficient Computational Methods for Constrained Path Problems. We consider a class of path design problems which arise when an object needs to traverse between two points through a specified region. The region may be a continuous space or the path may be restricted to the edges of a network. The path must optimise a prescribed criterion such
as risk, reliability or cost and satisfy a number of constraints.
Problems of this type readily arise in the defence, transport and
communication i ....Efficient Computational Methods for Constrained Path Problems. We consider a class of path design problems which arise when an object needs to traverse between two points through a specified region. The region may be a continuous space or the path may be restricted to the edges of a network. The path must optimise a prescribed criterion such
as risk, reliability or cost and satisfy a number of constraints.
Problems of this type readily arise in the defence, transport and
communication industries. In addition to efficient solution methods
for these problems the project will produce computational tools for
a wide range of related network routing problems.Read moreRead less
Aggregating Generalised Stochastic Petri Nets for improved Performance Analysis. Australia's economy is very dependent on the operation of complex man-made systems. Important examples are telecommunication networks and services (e.g. the Internet), manufacturing plants, organisational processes, military logistics and transport systems (e.g. air traffic control). The performance of these systems is critical to their success. Thus being able to predict performance before systems are implemented i ....Aggregating Generalised Stochastic Petri Nets for improved Performance Analysis. Australia's economy is very dependent on the operation of complex man-made systems. Important examples are telecommunication networks and services (e.g. the Internet), manufacturing plants, organisational processes, military logistics and transport systems (e.g. air traffic control). The performance of these systems is critical to their success. Thus being able to predict performance before systems are implemented is very important in their design. This project will develop leading-edge performance analysis techniques and tools for an important class of practical systems. There is potential to commercialise the resulting tools and methodology and to transfer the expertise to industry.Read moreRead less
Extending the scope of modular analysis for the validation of large systems. The increasing complexity of computer systems has severe implications for verification and validation, especially for critical systems (e.g. medical supervision, avionics mission systems). The standard approach is to build a formal model of the system and automatically analyse its behaviour. Such models can be captured in a modular, high-level description, but the number of states is usually so large as to preclude an ....Extending the scope of modular analysis for the validation of large systems. The increasing complexity of computer systems has severe implications for verification and validation, especially for critical systems (e.g. medical supervision, avionics mission systems). The standard approach is to build a formal model of the system and automatically analyse its behaviour. Such models can be captured in a modular, high-level description, but the number of states is usually so large as to preclude analysis. The modular analysis proposed in this project matches the analysis technique to the structure of the model. Preliminary results are promising and motivate the extension of the technique to a larger class of modular descriptions.Read moreRead less
Advanced Sweep-Line State Space Reduction Methods for Verification of Concurrent and Distributed Systems. The rigorous design and analysis of distributed systems, such as the Internet and its applications, is known to be a difficult problem. This project will develop new techniques for reducing the memory and time required for computer-aided verification of concurrent and distributed systems. The technique will be combined with other reduction techniques to increase their range of applicability. ....Advanced Sweep-Line State Space Reduction Methods for Verification of Concurrent and Distributed Systems. The rigorous design and analysis of distributed systems, such as the Internet and its applications, is known to be a difficult problem. This project will develop new techniques for reducing the memory and time required for computer-aided verification of concurrent and distributed systems. The technique will be combined with other reduction techniques to increase their range of applicability. The reduction techniques will be implemented and evaluated using important transaction protocols for electronic commerce and internet enabled wireless communications. The technique will also be applied to so called 'object-oriented' modelling languages.Read moreRead less
Complexity in Algebra and Algebra in Complexity: the role of finite semigroups and general algebra. Algebra and logic form the mathematical framework for expressing and analysing algorithms and their difficulty. We can then scientifically analyse what makes some tasks more difficult than others. This project unifies parallel areas of algebra to focus on two key topics at this interface between algebra and computational complexity. As a flow on, our work can uncover new algorithms for solving ....Complexity in Algebra and Algebra in Complexity: the role of finite semigroups and general algebra. Algebra and logic form the mathematical framework for expressing and analysing algorithms and their difficulty. We can then scientifically analyse what makes some tasks more difficult than others. This project unifies parallel areas of algebra to focus on two key topics at this interface between algebra and computational complexity. As a flow on, our work can uncover new algorithms for solving constraint problems and for the study of formal languages.
With a team of top international researchers developing new interactions between mathematics and the study of algorithms, the project will foster a culture of innovation and bring Australia into the play in this internationally competitive area.Read moreRead less