"Hardware Implementation of Model Predictive Control"
Adrian Wills, University of Newcastle, Australia
Abstract Model predictive control (MPC) is used extensively in industry. A key reason is that MPC can offer better control performance in many practical situations due, primarily, to its ability to handle system constraints. This ability comes at the expense of having to solve an optimization problem online. In many cases, this has restricted the application of MPC to systems with relatively slow or simple dynamics. At the same time, there are a growing number of applications that require MPC to run at high speed, using low power, and on embedded hardware. Two example applications that require fast sampling are discussed in the talk. A theme of the talk is to illustrate how the MPC algorithm can be implemented in FPGA or ASIC technologies.
Biographical information Adrian Wills was born in Orange, NSW, Australia in 1976. He received his B.E. (Elec.) degree from The university of Newcastle, Australia in May 1999 and his Ph.D. from The University of Newcastle, Australia in May 2003. His research interests include optimisation, model predictive control, and system identification.
Two OPTEC professors have been awarded three "Gouden Krijtjes", the yearly teaching awards given by the organization of engineering students (vtk). Prof. Lombaert was awarded the prize for the best course in civil engineering, and Prof. Diehl the prizes for the best professor and the best course in mathematical engineering (where he teaches numerical optimization). They received these awards at the yearly "proffentap" where experienced students taught them how to draft beer professionally.
