Automatic Control Group

Staff

Professors
Massimiliano Mattei	massimiliano . mattei /at/ unirc . it
Domenico Famularo	domenico . famularo /at/ unirc . it
Post Docs
Gaetano Paviglianiti	gaetano . paviglianiti /at/ unirc.it
Giovanni Artaserse	giovanni . artaserse /at/ unirc.it
PhD Students
Paolo Spanò	paolo . spano /at/ unirc.it
Valerio Scordamaglia	valerio . scordamaglia . paviglianiti /at/ unirc.it
Davide Martino	davide . martino /at/ unirc.it
Francesco Maviglia	francesco . maviglia /at/ unirc.it

Research Activities

The research activities of the Control Engineering and Automation group are mainly focused on the following topics:

Flight control and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV),
Theory and applications of Robust and H_{_∞} control,
Development of control design oriented mathematical models of complex systems,
Thermonuclear controlled fusion,
Fault Detection and Isolation
Predictive and Decentralized control

Follows a brief description of the main research activities on these topics.

Flight Control and Unmanned Air Vehicles The group worked on the control of small unmanned aircrafts in parabolic flight for microgravity experimentation, robust flight control of high performance aircrafts, innovative flight control systems of small commercial aircrafts, and fault detection and isolation of aircraft sensors and actuators. It is now working on UAVs’ flight control systems. In particular the group is responsible for the design and realization of a small scale rotor wing UAV.

RC Helicopter used for Rotor Wing UAV experiments

Small Commercial Aircraft Considered in the G.A.F.A.C.S. Project

Theory and Application of Robust and H_∞ Control The group produced new results on the stability and performance of linear systems depending on uncertain parameters. Necessary and/or sufficient conditions for stability and performance in the case of parameters with a bound on their rate of variation both in the continuous and discrete time were formulated. Also new results on the synthesis of H_∞ controllers for this class of systems were carried out. In the H_∞ control theory, LTV (Linear Time Varying) systems have been dealt with, in particular LTV uncertain systems subject to norm bounded uncertainties. Also the Singular H_∞ problem has been solved for the class of LTV systems. Results on fixed structure compensators have been given in terms of sufficient conditions involving LMIs. Finally connections between differential games and H_∞ control theory have been investigated. In particular the guaranteed cost differential games have been studied for the case of 2 and N-players.

Development of control design oriented mathematical models for complex systems. The group worked on modeling and control of many complex systems, including aircrafts, space vehicles, helicopters, tokamaks for thermonuclear fusion, wind tunnels, civil dynamic structures, electric power and air compressed systems. For these plants it was often responsible for formulating and implementing mathematical models, and finding possible simplifications in view of the control law design. Among the most important experiences in this field, the group worked on the Scirocco plant, which is a 70 MW arc heated plasma wind tunnel for testing space vehicle parts during the re-entry phase. It also worked on electromagnetic modeling of plasmas for thermonuclear controlled fusion; on the modeling of electric power and air compressed supply systems; on civil structures oscillating under seismic and wind action. It has some expertize in the modeling of aircrafts and helicopters.

Scirocco Plasma Wind Tunnel at CIRA Center

Thermonuclear Fusion. In the field of thermonuclear fusion the research group is active since 2001. It worked on the electromagnetic modeling of plasmas and the proposed modeling techniques were applied to the JET and ITER tokamaks. It also worked on the plasma scenario optimization, and on plasma shape and position control. Finally it was involved in several activities on the identification of the plasma shape and of the current profile inside the plasma.

JET and ITER Tokamaks

Fault Detection and Isolation In this field the research activities have been focused on H-infinity filters for fault detection for LPV systems depending on uncertain parameters with application to flight control, chemical reactors and robotic manipulators. Also adaptive techniques involving on-line approximators have been investigated with applications to flight control, robotics, and chemical plants.

The COMAU Smart 3S Robot used for Fault Detection Experiments

Robust Model Predictive and Decentralized Control Techniques. With the word “Model Predictive Control” it is customary to designate a family of optimization-based constrained control strategies where, at each time instant, the input moves are computed according to plant forecasts that are generated according to a model which reproduces the “possible” future behavior of the phenomenon under investigation. The research on this theme has been focused on the extension of Nominal Receding Horizon control strategies, well known in literature, to the case of uncertain discrete-time systems which can be modeled either in a polytopic (multi-model), norm-bounded (LFR) framework or may have a Linear Parameter Varying structure. Predictive methodologies based on the Reference Governor approach have been also taken into consideration for the case of Networked Systems (Power Systems) and the extension of the developed robust Receding Horizon Control strategy to the case of decentralized systems is currently under investigation.

Guidance and Navigation of Autonomous Vehicles. The group recently started a research activity on the guidance and navigation of autonomous and non-autonomous vehicles in INDOOR and OUTDOOR environments. Ultrasonic, inertial, GPS, Infrared, RFID, RF technologies are under investigation. Two of the main reserach topics are sensor fusion and decentralized algorithms for localization of team of robots with different technologies.

One of the Autonomous vehicles under development in the Automation and Control Laboratory

List of Main Publications 2003/2006

Journals and Book Chapters

[1] M. Mattei, D. Pizzimenti, F. Ricciardelli, “Passive vs. Active Mass Damper Control of Wind Excited Tall Buildings”, Engineering Structures, ISSN: 0141-0296 ,Vol. 25(9), 1199-1209, 2003.

[2] R.Albanese, G.Calabrò, M.Mattei, F.Villone, “Plasma Response Models for Current, Shape and Position Control in Jet,” ISSN: 0920-3796, Vol. 66-68, 715-718, Fusion Engineering and Design, Sept. 2003.

[3] F.Crisanti, R.Albanese, G. Ambrosino, M.Ariola, J.Lister, M.Mattei, A.Pironti, F.Sartori, F.Villone, “Upgrade of the present JET Shape and Vertical Stability Controller,” Fusion Engineering and Design., ISSN: 0920-3796, Vol. 66-68, 803-807, Sept. 2003.

[4] J. Pamelà, E.R. Solano, and EFDA-JET contributors, Overview of JET results, Nuclear Fusion, 43, pp. 1540-1554, 2003.

[5] M.Mattei, “Reply to comments on - sufficient conditions for the synthesis of H_∞ fixed order controllers,” International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control, 14(1), 83-86, 2004.

[6] M. Mattei, “An LPV approach to the robust control of a class of quasi-linear propagation processes”, Journal of Process Control, Vol 14, Issue 6, pp.651-660, Sept. 2004.

[7] R. Albanese, M. Mattei, F. Villone, “Prediction of the Growth Rates of VDEs in JET”, Nuclear Fusion. Sept. 2004

[8] M.Mattei, G.Paviglianiti, V.Scordamaglia, "Nonlinear observers with H-infinity performance for sensor Fault Detection and Isolation: a Linear Matrix Inequality design procedure", Control Engineering Practice, Vol 13/10 pp 1271-1281, 2005.

[9] F.Amato, M. Mattei, A. Pironti, “Gain Scheduled control for discrete-time systems depending on bounded rate parameters”, International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control., Vol 15, N. 11, pp.473-494, 2005.

[10] G. Ambrosino, R. Albanese, M. Ariola, A. Cenedese, F. Crisanti, G. De Tommasi, M. Mattei, F. Piccolo, A. Pironti, F. Sartori, “XSC plasma control: Tool development for the session leader,” Fusion Engineering and Design, Volume 74, Issues 1-4, November 2005, Pages 521-525.

[11] A. Portone, R. Albanese, R. Fresa, M. Mattei, G. Rubinacci and F. Villone, “Vertical stability of ITER plasmas with 3D passive structures and a double-loop control system,” Fusion Engineering and Design, Volume 74, Issues 1-4, November 2005, Pages 537-542

[12] R. Albanese, G. Ambrosino, M. Ariola, A. Cenedese, F. Crisanti, G. De Tommasi, M. Mattei, F. Piccolo, A. Pironti, F. Sartori, “Design, implementation and test of the XSC extreme shape controller in JET,” Fusion Engineering and Design, Volume 74, Issues 1-4, November 2005, Pages 627-632.

[13] A. Cenedese, R. Albanese, G. Artaserse, M. Mattei, F. Sartori and JET-EFDA Contributors, “Reconstruction capability of JET magnetic sensors,” Fusion Engineering and Design, Volume 74, Issues 1-4, November 2005, Pages 825-830

[14] F. Amato, C. Cosentino, M.Mattei, G.Paviglianiti, “A Direct/Functional Redundancy Scheme for Fault Detection and Isolation on an Aircraft,” Aerospace Science and Technology, Volume 10, Issue 4, May 2006, Pages 338-345.

[15] R.Albanese, G. Artaserse, M.Mattei, O. Tudisco, “Plasma Reconstruction in Tokamaks with Linearized Approaches”, Accettato per la pubblicazione su International Journal of Applied Electomagnetics and Mechanics, 2006.

[16] M.Mattei, V.Scordamaglia, “A Full Envelope Small Commercial Aircraft Flight Control Design using Multivariable Proportional-Integral Control,” Accepted for publication on the IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, 2006

[17] A. Casavola, D. Famularo, G. Franzè. ``A robust deconvolution procedure for fault detection and isolation of uncertain linear systems: an LMI approach'', Automatica, Vol. 41, pp. 1463-1472, 2005.

[18] A. Casavola, D. Famularo, G. Franzè. ``Embedding strategies for MPC control of nonlinear systems'', IEE Proceedings - Control Theory and Applications, Vol. 152, No. 3, pp. 285-295, 2005.

[19] A. Casavola, D. Famularo, G. Franzè. ``Robust Constrained Predictive Control of Uncertain Norm-Bounded Linear Systems'', Automatica, Vol. 40, pp. 1865-1876, 2004.

[20] A. Casavola, D. Famularo, G. Franzè. ``Predictive Control of Constrained Nonlinear Systems via LPV Linear Embeddings'',International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control, Vol.13, No. 3-4, pp 281-294, 2003.

[21] A. Casavola, D. Famularo. “MIMO l-1 optimal control problems via the polynomial equations approach“, International Journal of Control, 76: 823-835, 2003.

[22] A. Casavola, D. Famularo. “A Polynomial approach to the l-1 optimal control problem “, International Journal of Control, 150: 37-44, 2003.

[23] A. Casavola, D. Famularo, G. Franzè. ``Coordination of Networked Dynamical Systems'', LNCIS Springer volume on ”Assessment and Future Directions of Nonlinear Model Predictive Control“, in press, 2006.

Conference Papers

[24] R.Albanese, M.Mattei, G. Calabrò, F.Villone, “Unified Treatment of Forward and Inverse Problems in the Numerical Simulation of Tokamak Plasmas”, International Symposium on Applied Electromagnetics and Mechanics ISEM 2003, Versailles, France

[25] D. Pizzimenti, M.Mattei, P. Spanò, F.Ricciardelli, “Mass Damper control of wind excited tall buildings: LQR vs. H_∞ techniques”, International Conference on Wind Engineering, Lubbock 2003.

[26] F.Amato, C.Cosentino, M.Mattei, G.Paviglianiti, “An Hybrid Direct/Functional Redundancy Scheme for the FDI on a small Commercial Aircraft,” SAFEPROCESS'03, IFAC Symposium, Washington D.C., 2003.

[27] M.Mattei, V.Scordamaglia, "Flight control design using multivariable PI control with H2-Hinfinity performance", IEEE 12th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation, Kusadasi,Turkey, June 2004

[28] M.Mattei, G.Paviglianiti, V. Scordamaglia, "Nonlinear H-infinity Identity observers for sensor FDI: an application example," IEEE Conference on Mechatronics, Istanbul, Turkey, June 2004.

[29] Cenedese A., R. Albanese, G.Artaserse, M.Mattei , F. Sartori, "Reconstruction Capability of JET Magnetic Sensors," 23rd Symposium on Fusion Technology, Venice (I), 2004

[30] R. Albanese, G. Ambrosino, M. Ariola, A. Cenedese, F. Crisanti, G. De Tommasi, M. Mattei, F. Piccolo, A. Pironti, F. Sartori, F. Villone, and JET-EFDA Contributors, "Design, Implementation and Test of the XSC Extreme Shape Controller in JET," 23rd Symposium on Fusion Technology, Venice (I), 2004

[31] G. Ambrosino, R. Albanese, M. Ariola, A. Cenedese, F. Crisanti, G. De Tommasi, M. Mattei, F. Piccolo, A. Pironti, F. Sartori, F. Villone, and JET-EFDA Contributors, "XSC Plasma Control: Tool Development for the Session Leader," 23rd Symposium on Fusion Technology, Venice (I), 2004

[32] R. Albanese, R. Fresa, M. Mattei, G. Rubinacci, F. Villone, "Vertical Stability of ITER Plasma with 3D Passive Structures and a Double-Loop Control System," 23rd Symposium on Fusion Technology, Venice (I), 2004.

[32] M. Mattei; G. Paviglianiti; Managing Sensor Hardware Redundancy on a Small Commercial Aircraft with H-infinity FDI Observers, IFAC World Conference, Praha, 2005

[33] M. Mattei; G. Paviglianiti; Actuators FDI on a Small Commercial Aircraft Using Online Approximators; IFAC World Conference, Praha, 2005

[34] G. Paviglianiti, F. Caccavale, M. Mattei, F. Pierri, Sensor Fault Detection and Isolation for Robot Manipulators, IEEE Mediterranean Conference on Control and Application, MED05.

[35] R. Albanese, M. Mattei, A. Portone, G. Ambrosino, G.Artaserse, F.Crisanti, G. DeTommasi, R. Fresa, F. Sartori, F. Villone, "Magnetic Configuration Control of ITER Plasmas," 24th Symposium on Fusion Technology, Warsaw (P), 2006

[36] R.Albanese, G. Artaserse, M.Mattei, O. Tudisco, “Plasma Reconstruction in Tokamaks with Linearized Approaches”, 9th Workshop on Optimization and Inverse Problems in Electromagnetism, September 13-15, Sorrento, Italy, 2006.

[37] M. Mattei, R Albanese, G. Ambrosino, A. Portone, “Open Loop Control Strategies for Plasma Scenarios: Linear and Nonlinear Techniques for Configuration Transitions,” 45th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, San Diego, Dec. 2006

[38] M. Ariola, G. De Tommasi, M. Mattei, A. Pironti, “Graphic tools for plasma shape control design and validation,” 45th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, San Diego, Dec. 2006

[39] A. Casavola, D. Famularo, G. Franzè and E. Garone. ``An improved predictive control strategy for polytopic LPV linear systems'', 45th CDC, San Diego (CA), 2006.

[40] A. Casavola, D. Famularo, G. Franzè and M. Sorbara. ``Set-points reconfiguration in dynamical systems'', SAFEPROCESS 2006 , 6th IFAC Symposium, pp. 157-162, Beijing, PR China, 2006.

[41] A. Casavola, D. Famularo and G. Franzè. ``A predictive control strategy for Norm-Bounded LPV linear systems with bounded rates of parameter change'', CDC-ECC'05, Sevilla, Spain, 2005.

[42] A. Casavola, D. Famularo, G. Franzè and M. Sorbara. ``Supervision of Networked Dynamical Systems subject to Coordination Constraints'', Workshop on Networked Control Systems & Fault Tolerant Control, Ajaccio - Corse - France, October 6-7, 2005.

[43] A. Casavola, G. Franzè and D. Famularo. ``Coordination of Networked Dynamical Systems'', NMPC'05, Freudenstadt-Lauterbad, Germany, 2005.

[44] A. Casavola, D. Famularo, G. Franzè. ``Robust fault detection of uncertain linear systems via quasi-LMIs'', ACC'05, Portland (Oregon), 2005.

[45] A. Casavola, D. Famularo, G. Franzè. ``Output Feedback Model Predictive Control of Uncertain Norm-Bounded Linear Systems'', IFAC 2005, Prague, 2005.

[46] A. Casavola, D. Famularo, G. Franzè. ``A robust deconvolution scheme for fault detection and isolation of uncertain linear systems: an LMI approach'', IFAC 2005, Prague, 2005.

[47] A. Casavola, D. Famularo, G. Franzè. ``Robust multiple-fault detection and isolation: A gradient flow approach'', ACC04 American Control Conference, Boston, MA, USA, June 30-July 2, 2004.

[48] A. Casavola, D. Famularo, G. Franzè. ``Robust Predictive Control for Linear Systems subject to Norm-Bounded Model Uncertainty'', ECC03 - European Control Conference, 1-4 Sept. 2003, Cambridge, UK.

[49] A. Casavola, D. Famularo, G. Franzè. ``Robust fault isolation of uncertain linear systems: An LMI approach'', 5th IFAC Symposium on Fault Detection,Supervision and Safety of Technical Processes, SAFEPROCESS 2003, Washington, D.C., USA, 2003.

[50] A. Casavola, D. Famularo, G. Franzè. ``Linear Embedding vs. Direct Nonlinear MPC schemes: a case study'', ACC'03 - American Control Conference, May 2003, Denver, Colorado, USA.

[51] A. Casavola, D. Famularo, G. Franzè. ``An improved MPC Algorithm for Norm-Bounded Uncertain Linear Systems'', ACC'03 - American Control Conference, May 2003, Denver, Colorado, USA.

[52] Gaetano Paviglianiti and Francesco Pierri, Sensor Fault Detection and Isolation for Chemical Batch Reactors, IEEE Conference on Control Appication, 2006

[53] Gaetano Paviglianiti, Massimiliano Mattei, Sensor Fault Detection with Hinf Nonlinear Observers, Networked Control Systems: Tolerant to Faults, 2006

[54] V. Coccorese, R. Albanese, G. Artaserse, F. Basso, G:Calabrò, G. Chitarin, D. Marcuzzi, M. Mattei, S. Peruzzo, N. Pomaro, F. Villone, Enhancement of Magnetic Diagnostic for JET, Atti del Convegno ET2003, XIX Riunione annuale dei Ricercatori in Elettrotecnica, Perugia, 19-21 Giugno 2003.

[55] R. Albanese, G. Artaserse, G. Calabrò, E. Coccorese, M. Mattei, G. Rubinacci, F. Sartori, F. Villone, Modeling and simulation of plasma and PF circuits control system in JET, Atti del Convegno ET2003, XIX Riunione annuale dei Ricercatori in Elettrotecnica, Perugia, 19-21 Giugno 2003.

[56] R. Albanese, R. Fresa, M. Mattei, A. Portone, G. Rubinacci, F. Villone, Analisi di Stabilità verticale in ITER in presenza di strutture tridimensionali, Atti del Convegno ET2004, XX Riunione annuale dei Ricercatori in Elettrotecnica, Fisciano (SA), 16-19 Giugno 2004

[57] R. Albanese, M. Mattei F. Villone,G . Ambrosino, M. Ariola,F. Crisanti, G. de Tommasi, Y.Q. Liu, A. Pironti, A. Portone, G. Rubinacci, F. Sartori, Modellistica e Controllo di Plasma in ITER, Atti del Convegno ET2006, XXII Riunione annuale dei Ricercatori in Elettrotecnica, Torino, 15-17 Giugno 2006

[58] V. Coccorese, R. Albanese, G. Ambrosino, M. Ariola, G. Artaserse, G. De Tommasi, M. Mattei, F. Maviglia, F. Piccolo, A. Pironti, A. Quercia, G. Rubinacci, F. Villone, Modellistica, Diagnostica e Controllo del Plasma nel JET, Atti del Convegno ET2006, XXII Riunione annuale dei Ricercatori in Elettrotecnica, Torino, 15-17 Giugno 2006.