"Predictive Control: from Stabilization to Path Following"
Rolf Findeisen, joint work with Timm Faulwasser
Abstract Predictive control for stabilization and tracking of known, time-varying reference signals is by now well understood. Several schemes that guarantee stability and performance as well as computational efficient solutions exist. In the frame of this talk we address the problem of steering a nonlinear system along a given parametrized reference path, taking input and state constraints into account. Such problems are known as path-following problems, which typically arise in vehicle and robot control, as well as in process control. We propose an efficient predictive control scheme which guarantees convergence to the state path in the presence of state and input constraints. We furthermore outline several expansions of this approach towards output-feedback path-following. The approach is underlined considering several example systems. The presented results are joint work with Timm Faullwasser.
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.
