Special Session on "Fault Detection, Fault Diagnosis and Fault tolerant control of real life systems" @MED 2016

/

In recent years a plethora of methods have been proposed for the problem of Fault Detection and Diagnosis (FDD) of electro-mechanical systems, employing state
of the art approaches from the fields of signal processing, artificial intelligence and
modeling, with remarkable results. In parallel to these FDD approaches, Fault-
Tolerant Control (FTC) is also emerging as a significant approach after the FDD in
order to ensure that the system will work, even under the presence of faults. 
However most of these approaches have been only tested within laboratory
settings under fully controlled experimental protocols. Therefore, their actual merit is
yet to be proven within industrial settings and in more realistic conditions while
considering, apart from the presence of noise, the computational and space limitations of an industrial environment. 

This special session intends to attract research papers that can demonstrate
the effectiveness of proposed FDD and FTC methods under real life scenarios, thus
bridging the gap between theory and practice, while bringing closer academics with
people working in the industry.

Special Session Proposers

Prof. Mohamed Benbouzid
University of Brest
Brest, France
mohamed.benbouzid@univ-brest.fr

Dr. George Georgoulas
Luleå University of Technology
Luleå, Sweden
georgios.georgoulas@ltu.se

Prof. George Nikolakopoulos
Luleå University of Technology
Luleå, Sweden
geonik@ltu.se

Special Session on "Aerial Manipulators’ Design and Control" @MED 2016

/

We are organizing a special sesson on Aerial Manipulators Design and Control at the 24th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation.

http://med2016.org/

Aerial manipulators are a new class of mobile robots characterized by a high degree of mobility and dexterity, due to their capability to fly and perform manipulation operation airborne. However, the intrinsic floating base nature of aerial manipulators give origin to problems that prevent from exploiting the full capabilities of aerial manipulators when deployed in real life applications. Among the major problems, the lack of proper disturbance rejection for the attitude of the aerial manipulator represents the bottleneck for a realistic future deployment of such technology. Unlike fixed base manipulators, when aerial manipulators are subject to external disturbances (interaction force, unpredictable wind gusts), but also when the manipulator simply performs internal motion of its joints, both the attitude and the position control of the aerial manipulator can be destabilized, leading to extreme undesired consequences for the aerial platform. This effect clearly indicates that a classical approach to both the design and the control of the aerial manipulator is not sufficient, in order to fully exploit the capabilities of an aerial manipulator.

This special session aims at attracting state of the art articles on innovative aerial manipulator’s design, from concept to testing and their control in operations involving physical interaction airborne. 

Special Session Proposers

Assistant Prof Matteo Fumagalli
(matteo@m-tech.aau.dk)
Robotics, Vision and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory,
Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering,
Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark

Prof. George Nikolakopoulos
(geonik@ltu.se)
Robotics Group
Department of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering
Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, Sweden.

Prof. Stefano Stramigioli
(s.stramigioli@utwente.nl)
Robotics And Mechatronics,
Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Matematics and Computer Science
University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands

 

New Grant acquired for the further development of motion labs for assessment of motor control among humans and robots

/

Luleå University of Technology Lab Fund has granted 1,2 milj SEK to develop LTUs motion labs. A joint application was made by the Health Sciences, HLV, and Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering, SRT, Departments. 

For further reading, please visit: http://www.ltu.se/org/hlv/Nyheter/Rorelselabb-utvecklar-matningar-och-metoder-1.129981?l=en

 

 

FETopen proposal in H2020 has been Granted - CompInnova

/

I am participating and leading the robotics activities in the FETopen project CompInnova : An Advanced Methodology for the Inspection and Quantification of Damage in Aerospace Composites and Metals using an Innovative Approach. The project has 5 partners and an overall budget of 2.5M Euros of which 500K Euros are allocated for LTU. The project duration is 42 months starting from September 2015.

CompInnova has been inspired by the innovative need for more efficient and reliable damage inspection, reducing time and cost of aircraft infrastructures, as well as maintenance-especially C and D Checks- without compromising the safety of passengers and goods transported. The CompInnova project is focused upon the development of an innovative inspection methodology, with automated and manual capabilities, for any type of composite and metallic aircraft structures. The novel structural integrity approach is comprised by three parts: a qualified Phased Array (PA) and Infrared Thermography (IRT) method attached to a mobile Vortex robot, a Damage Tolerance (DT) structural integrity assessment technique processed on a computer and an innovative repair system. 

ARTEMIS news: Robots on the rise -- one year into the R5-COP project

/
Screen Shot 2015-03-24 at 09.08.48.png

Our developments in the ARTEMIS project R5-COP in the area of UGVs and field robotics have been mentioned in the this ARTEMIS news letter. In this project LTU and SSC are building an autonomous UGV based on a Toyota Land Cruiser for the application area of search and rescue.

For further reading:

https://artemis-ia.eu/news/robots-on-the-rise-one-year-into-the-r5-cop-project.html?utm_source=ARTEMIS-IA+Newsletter+Subscribers&utm_campaign=19936dfec9-ARTEMIS_IA_Newsletter_March_20153_18_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3604c98167-19936dfec9-314929933

and 

http://r5-cop.eu/en/

Special Session on Fault Diagnosis Methods in Electric Drives

/

Induction motors from a fraction of kW up to several MWs constitute the driving force of the industry due their low cost, simple construction and robustness. However, no matter how robust the induction motors are, they can still suffer from electrical and mechanical faults that can lead to failures and production shutdowns. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to detect a fault as precisely as possible and as early as possible before culminating to a failure. Due to the fact that the Motor Current Signature Analysis (MCSA) methods, the predominant approaches for fault diagnosis, break down when dealing with non-stationary conditions or very low loading conditions, there is a constant need for new tools and novel approached that can cope with non-stationary conditions.

This special session is intended to attract research papers showing novel methods and approaches to the area of fault diagnosis in electric motors, focusing on non-stationary and variable load conditions.

Topics of interest include, without being limited to:
• Data driven fault diagnosis methods of electric motors/drives
• Model based fault diagnosis methods of electric motors/drives
• Non-stationary variable load condition monitoring of electric motors • Condition monitoring of inverter-fed motors
• Wind turbine condition monitoring 

George Georgoulas and George Nikolakopoulos

Vetenskapsrådet-Swedish Research Council Research Project in Medicine and Health Granted

/

Our application to VR entitled "New understanding of motor control and falls by novel postural sway analysis, robotics and mathematical modelling" has been granted.

The research project is a multidisciplinary combination of efforts from the areas of Physiotherapy, Motor Control, Automatic Control Systems and Robotics, with a total duration of 4 years and a total budget of 4.8M SEK. LTU is participating in the project with the Health Sciences (HLV)  and Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering (SRT) Departments.

In this call in total 180 out of 909 applications have been approved. For further reading:

http://www.vr.se/nyheterpress/nyheter2014/bidragsbeslutmedicinochhalsa2014.5.705e927a1495e3534d65d926.html

Listed No. 20 in the Top 25 Hottest Articles in Control Engineering Practice, Elsevier

/

Listed No.20 in the Top 25 Hottest Articles from April to June 2014 at Control Engineering Practice, Elsevier - Alexis, K.; Nikolakopoulos, G.; Tzes, A., "Switching model predictive attitude control for a quad rotor helicopter subject to atmospheric disturbances"

http://elsevier.dmdelivery.com/x/?S7Y1_p9ra2H4v8jW0MLS0tL4f46tkakZAAA14

H2020 Proposal AEROWORKS has been granted

/

I am co-ordinating the H2020 research proposal AEROWORKS, which has been submitted in the area of ICT and Robotics. The proposal has 10 partners and an overall budget of 5.6 Euros of which 1.0M Euros are dedicated for LTU. 

With aging infrastructure in developing-and-developed countries, and with the gradual expansion of distributed installations, the costs of inspection and repair tasks have been growing vastly and incessantly. To address this reality, a major paradigm shift is required, in order to procure the highly automated, efficient, and reliable solutions that will not only reduce costs, but will also minimize risks to personnel and asset safety. AEROWORKS envisions a novel aerial robotic team that possesses the capability to autonomously conduct infrastructure inspection and maintenance tasks, while additionally providing intuitive and user-friendly interfaces to human-operators.

The AEROWORKS robotic team will consist of multiple heterogeneous “collaborative Aerial Robotic Workers”, a new class of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles equipped with dexterous manipulators, novel physical interaction and co-manipulation control strategies, perception systems, and planning intelligence. This new generation of worker-robots will be capable of autonomously executing infrastructure inspection and maintenance works. The AEROWORKS multi-robot team will operate in a decentralized fashion, and will be characterized by unprecedented levels of reconfigurability, mission dependability, mapping fidelity, and manipulation dexterity, integrated in robust and reliable systems that are rapidly deployable and ready- to-use as an integral part of infrastructure service operations.

As the project aims for direct exploitation in the infrastructure services market, its results will be demonstrated and evaluated in realistic and real infrastructure environments, with a clear focus on increased Technology Readiness Levels. The accomplishment of the envisaged scenarios will boost the European infrastructure sector, contribute to the goal of retaining Europe’s competitiveness, and particularly impact our service and industrial robotics sector, drastically changing the landscape of how robots are utilized. 

H2020 DISIRE proposal has been granted

/

I am co-ordinating the H2020 research proposal DISIRE which has been submitted in the area of NMP and SPIRE Integrated Process Control area. The proposal has 15 partners and an overall budget of 6 Euros of which 1.6M Euros are dedicated for LTU. 

The DISIRE project has been inspired by the real existing needs of multiple industrial sectors, including the world leading industrial partners in the non-ferrous, ferrous, chemical and steel industries that are highly connected and already affiliated with the SPIRE PPP and its objectives. The overall clear and measurable objective of the DISIRE project is to evolve the existing industrial processes by advancing the Sustainable Process Industry through an overall Resource and Energy efficiency by the technological breakthroughs and concepts of the DISIRE technological platform in the field of Industrial Process Control (IPC).

With the DISIRE project the properties of the raw materials or product flows will be dramatically integrated by their transformation in a unique inline measuring system that will extend the level of knowledge and awareness of the internal dynamics of the undergoing processes taking place during transformation or integration of raw materials in the next levels of production. In this approach, the Integrated Process Control system, instead of having external experts to tune the overall processes, based on the DISIRE concept will enable the self reconfiguration of all the production lines by the produced products itself.

Specific DISIRE Process Analyzer Technology (PAT) will be able to define quality and performance requirements, that for the first time in the process industry will be able to be directly applied on the physical properties of the developed products and thus enabling the overall online and product specific reconfiguration of the control system. In this way, the whole production can be fully integrated in a holistic approach from the raw materials to the end product, allowing the multiple process reconfigurations and an optimal operation based on the product’s properties that can be generalized in a whole product production cycle being spanned in multiple cross- sectorial processes. 

Bi-Anual Best Paper Award - IET Control Theory and Applications

/

Journal "Model predictive quadrotor control: attitude, altitude and position experimental studies", K. Alexis, G. Nikolakopoulos, A. Tzes, IET Control Theory & Applications, Volume 6, issue 12, August 2012, p. 1812 - 1827.", has received the Premium Award from IET Control Theory and Applications, for recognizing the best research article published during the last two years.

Information about the prize can be located here: 

http://digital-library.theiet.org/journals/iet-cta/premium-awards

Access to the full article:

http://digital-library.theiet.org/docserver/fulltext/iet-cta/6/12/20110348.pdf?expires=1411816807&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=1366469F8ACDB3D82E56BBABBC3A71DE

Listed No.14 in the Top 25 articles in Control Engineering Practice (2014)

/

Listed No.15 in the Top 25 Hottest Articles for 2014 at Control Engineering Practice, Elsevier - Alexis, K.; Nikolakopoulos, G.; Tzes, A., "Switching model predictive attitude control for a quad rotor helicopter subject to atmospheric disturbances"

http://elsevier.dmdelivery.com/x/?S7Y1_p9ra2H4v8jW0MLS0tL4f46tkakZAAA14