Prof Wen-Hua Chen, FIEEE, CEng, FIMechE, FIET
EPSRC Established Career Fellow
Department of Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering
Loughborough University
Loughborough, Leicestershire, UK
W.Chen@lboro.ac.uk
Title: Control Engineering in Future Highly Automated Society
Prof Sumeet S. Aphale, SMIEEE, CEng, FIET
Director - Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Mechatronic Systems Group (ARMS)
Programme Coordinator - MSc Industrial Robotics, MSc Robotics & AI
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Lead
School of Engineering
University of Aberdeen
Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
s.aphale@abdn.ac.uk
Title: Control of Nanopositioning Systems – My journey thus far!
Dr Jawhar Ghommam
College of Engineering
Sultan Quaboos University
Al Khoudh, Muscat, Oman
jawher@squ.edu.om
Title: Control of Cyberphysical Systems with Prescribed Performances under DoS Attacks
Abstract: As the backbone of critical infrastructure, Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are increasingly vulnerable to cyber threats, with Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks emerging as a prominent challenge. This talk will delve into the fundamentals of DoS attacks, which overwhelm system resources to disrupt operations, and their implications for CPS security. We will explore various modeling techniques, from random to periodic attack patterns, and their impact on system performance. Countermeasures, including adaptive detection mechanisms and resilient control strategies, will be discussed, offering insights into future-proofing CPS against such threats. Join us to uncover the evolving dynamics of DoS attacks and innovative defenses designed to protect the integrity and functionality of CPS.
Biography: Jawhar Ghommam has got his B.Sc. degree in Computer and Control Engineering from the National Institute and Applied Sciences and Technology (INSAT) in 2003 in Tunis. He has got his DEA (M.Sc.) degree from the University of Montpelier at the Laboratoire d'Informatique, Robotique et Micro-électronique (LIRMM, France) in 2004 and later on in 2008 a Ph.D in Control Engineering degree jointly from the National Engineering School of Sfax and the university of Orleans. From 2008 to 2017, he was with the National Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology, where he held a tenured Associate Professor at the Department of Physics and Instrumentation. In January 2018, he joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman. He is a member of the Control and Energy Management Lab and also an Associate Researcher at the GREPCI-Lab, Ecole de Technologie Superieure, Montreal,QC, Canada. His research interests include fundamental motion control concepts for nonholonomic/underactuated vehicle systems, nonlinear and adaptive control, intelligent and autonomous control of networked unmanned systems, team cooperation, consensus achievement, and sensor networks. He serves as a regular referee and associate editor for many international journals in the field of Control and Robotics.
Prof Yue Ma
Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT)
Beijing, China
armcynicism@bit.edu.cn
Title: Energy Management and Coordinated Control of Long-Endurance Flying Car Hybrid Power Systems
Abstract: The electrification, intelligence and three-dimensionality of transport has gradually become the industry consensus. Flying cars and electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles (eVTOLs), which are representative platforms for air-to-ground transportation, are also coming into view. The heavy-load and long-endurance flying car must employ the hybrid power system technology with the turboshaft engine as the core of the main power source, achieving high energy density of the fuel conversion of thermal energy and the rapid response, to break through the user's concern about the power mileage. However, unlike conventional aircraft, flying cars and electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles need to cope with the changing traffic conditions of urban traffic, and their power systems often operate at non-rated operating points, with frequent and large speed and load changes. The authors' team has proposed a new hybrid power system configuration that achieves regulation of the original Brayton cycle boundary with electrical power, thus ensuring fuel economy under non-rated operating conditions. Furthermore, a systematic design of whole hybrid power system is proposed, including high power density generator efficiency optimization and control. On this basis, research on intelligent energy management and coordinated control technology under the fusion mode of environmental sensing and driver behavioural decision recognition is carried out to comprehensively improve the energy conversion efficiency, power distribution effectiveness and dynamic response performance of the hybrid power system, ultimately improving the range, mobility and emission index of the vehicle, thus promoting the electrification, of transport vehicles.
Biography: Prof Yue Ma is the Distinguished Professor of Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), Beijing, China. He obtained his BEng and MSc degree in vehicle engineering from BIT in 1999 and 2002, respectively. In 2010, he obtained his PhD degree at Bristol Robotics Laboratory in University of the West of England, UK. He serves as the Deputy Director of the National Key Laboratory for Multi-Perch Propulsion Systems. He has led numerous major and key projects, published two monographs, and authored over 80 academic papers. He has received one National Technological Invention First Prize and multiple provincial and ministerial-level awards. In terms of academic roles, he serves as a member of the Electromechanical, Human, and Environmental Division of the Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics, a member of the Intelligent Aerospace Systems Professional Committee of the Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence, and a member of the Artificial Intelligence Simulation Technology Professional Committee of the Chinese Society for Simulation.
Prof Yuanyuan Zou
Department of Automation
Shanghai, China
yuanyzou@sjtu.edu.cn
Abstract: Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are complex systems that integrate computation, networks, and physical environments. They enable the coordination and performance optimization of physical systems through the seamless integration and interaction of computational units and physical objects within a networked environment. As the application scenarios for CPS continue to expand, these systems are increasingly expected to execute complex temporal logic tasks. These tasks must consider the continuous dynamic behavior of physical systems while meeting logical requirements, such as execution order and action conditions, as well as temporal requirements like duration, time points, and switching periods. The introduction of temporal logic tasks impacts the control performance of CPS. Additionally, subsystems exhibit more complex spatio-temporal coupling relationships, which also pose significant challenges to CPS coordination strategy design.
This report addresses the control challenges of CPS under temporal logic tasks, exploring effective distributed model predictive controller design and coordination strategies. It highlights recent research advancements in areas such as task reconfiguration in the presence of conflicting temporal logic tasks, as well as the design of robust distributed controllers under uncertainties. The proposed methods aim to enhance the intelligence of CPS coordination and decision-making, improving the system's ability to handle complex tasks and dynamic environments.
Biography: Yuanyuan Zou is a Professor with the Department of Automation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and has been selected for the National High-Level Talent Program's Youth Project. Her primary research focuses on optimization control for industrial systems, distributed predictive control, and related areas. She has published over 100 papers, authored an English monograph, and holds more than 10 authorized invention patents. She has led over 10 projects, including those funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Ministry of Science and Technology's key R&D programs. She has received several awards, including the First Class for Shanghai Science and Technology Progress Award and the First Class for Natural Science Prize of Chinese Association of Automation (CAA). Currently, she serves as the Secretary-General of CAA Predictive Control and Intelligent Decision-Making Committee, an Executive Committee Member of CAA Process Control Committee, and an editorial board member for journals such as IET Control Theory & Applications, Proceedings of the IMechE Part I: Journal of Systems and Control Engineering, and Digital Chemical Engineering.
Prof Wenjian Cai
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Qingdao University of Science and Technology, China
ewjcai@ntu.edu.sg
Abstract: This talk introduces the development of a novel portable temperature sensor calibrator for the field calibration of thermistors and RTDs which are the widely used sensors in process industry. Considering the factors that affect calibration end-to-end accuracy, including the temperature uniformity of liquid bath, the accuracy of reference thermometer, the resistance uncertainty of data acquisition unit, and the mathematical model of Temperature Ti (℃) vs. Resistances Ri (Ohms), several inter-related and unique control engineering techniques are applied to improve the accuracy as well as speed of calibration. The adoption of multiple temperature points rather than traditional three-point for modeling of mathematical relationship, and the least squares algorithm built in the master processor for coefficients identification, the fully automated calibrator enables the field calibration process finish within one hour with end-to-end accuracy of ±0.01℃.