20th Simon Stevin Lecture on Optimization in Engineering
"Convex Optimization in Feedback-Control"
Carsten W. Scherer
Mathematical Systems Theory
Department of Mathematics,University of Stuttgartcarsten.scherer@mathematik.uni-stuttgart.de
flyer,
poster,
slidesAbstract
Various optimization based feedback controller synthesis problems can be translated into semi-defi nite programs that are, in turn, efficiently solvable. In this talk we survey different classes of design problems that can be subsumed to this paradigm. We put particular emphasis on providing insights into the mechanisms and system theoretic structures that underlie convexifi cation. This will be highlighted by our recent advances in the design of self-scheduled controllers based on the dissipation theory of dynamical systems. Despite all these successes we will as well address the defi ciencies of available numerical solvers and hint at the resulting research questions at the interface of optimization and control.
Biographical Information
Carsten W. Scherer received a Ph.D. degree in mathematics from the University of Wurzburg (Germany) in 1991. After six months of research at the University of Groningen (The Netherlands), the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) and Washington University (St. Louis) respectively, Dr. Scherer joined Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands) in 1993 where he held positions as an assistant and associate professor. In fall 1999 he spent a three months sabbatical as a visiting professor at the Automatic Control Laboratory of ETH Zurich. From December 2001 until February 2010 he was a full professor within the Delft Center for Systems and Control at Delft University of Technology. Since March 2010 he holds the SRC SimTech Chair Mathematical Systems Theory in theDepartment of Mathematics at the University of Stuttgart. His main research interests cover various topics in applying optimization techniques for developing new advanced controller design algorithms and their application to mechatronics and aerospace systems. Dr. Scherer acted as the chair of the IFAC technical committee on Robust Control (2002- 2008), and he has served as an associated editor for IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control (1997-1999), Automatica (2000-2006) and Systems & Control Letters; he is currently active on the editorial board of the European Journal of Control.
About the Lecture Series:
The "Simon Stevin Lecture Series on Optimization in Engineering" is set up in order to promote optimization in engineering. For this aim, every quarter of the year an outstanding international scholar is invited to report on latest progress in the development of optimization algorithms and their applications in engineering.
Simon Stevin (1548-1620) was a Flemish mathematician and engineer. Among other, he helped to advance the use of decimal fractions, was the first to explain the tides by the attraction of the moon, and discovered the hydrostatic paradox. He made numerous inventions, among them a wind propelled carriage with sails, the "land yacht", which once impressed Prince Maurice of Orange as it moved faster than horses, in around 1600 on the beach between Scheveningen and Petten. Simon Stevin was fond of promoting the use of science in daily life and in craftmanship, and translated various mathematical terms into dutch. Among other, he introduced the dutch word for mathematics, "wiskunde".
