OPTEC - K.U.Leuven Center of Excellence: Optimization in Engineering

Dear OPTEC Members and Friends,

this week is full of OPTEC events, in particular we have two guests:

1) Dr. Andrew Wynn from Imperial College and EMBOCON postdoc, who gives his talk
Tuesday July 12 at 11:00 on observers (WG1/WG3/WG5), and

2) Prof. Dr. Rolf Findeisen from Magdeburg talking
Wednesday July 13 at 14:00 on tracking MPC (WG1/Robots)

Also, two optec members publicly defend their PhDs:

3) Wilm Decre: "Optimization-based robot programming
with application to human-robot interaction", July 13, 9:30

4) Lieboud Van den Broeck: "Time optimal control of mechatronic systems through embedded optimization",
Wednesday, July 13th at 17h00, 2011, at Auditorium "De Tweede Hoofdwet" at the thermotechnical institute, room 01.02, Kasteelpark Arenberg 41, 3001 Heverlee.

5) Last, there is a tutorial ACADO course on July 14-15.

Please find the abstracts below or on http://www.kuleuven.be/optec/event

Best regards,
Moritz Diehl


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Tue 12 Jul 2011 11:00-12:00, ESAT Aud.A

"Observer design for non-linear systems with an energy preserving non-linearity."

Andrew Wynn, Imperial College London

Abstract
In this talk we will consider observer design for non-linear systems which have a particular energy preserving, or conservative, structure. Examples of systems possessing this property are the Navier-Stokes equations for fluid flow, and the non-linear PDE describing the deflections of a very flexible beam.
Two approaches towards observer design will be discussed. First, it will be shown that Semidefinite Programming may be used to effectively search for an offline observer, with can possess either local or global convergence properties. Second, Moving Horizon Estimation is discussed with respect to the non-linear systems under consideration, and is shown to exhibit improved convergence properties than the former offline observer design technique.

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Wed 13 Jul 2011 14:00-15:30, ESAT Aud.A
"Predictive Control: from Stabilization to Path Following"

Rolf Findeisen, Univ. Magdeburg

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.

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Thu 14 Jul 00:00 - Fri 15 Jul 2011 00:00, ESAT Aud.A-00.62-00.60

"OPTEC Tutorial Course on Automatic Control and Dynamic Optimization"

The course will consist of lectures, interactive
sessions, and guided computer exercises and is organized in Leuven
(Belgium). The course will introduce the basic concepts of numerical
optimization which are needed to formulate and solve optimal control as
well as model predictive control problems. A particular emphasis is put on
the software ACADO Toolkit, which will be employed within the computer
exercises.

The goal is that towards the end of the course, every participant will
understand how to formulate and solve dynamic optimization problems of
her/his own choice, so it is encouraged to think about interesting
applications of dynamic optimization even before the course starts.
Moreover, the participants will learn how to use the open-source software
ACADO Toolkit (released under the LGPL licence). The lectures and exercises
will be given by M. Diehl, B. Houska, H.J. Ferreau.

For more info: http://www.kuleuven.be/optec/ACADO2011

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