ICIEMSET

"Innovative Control, Identification and Estimation Methodologies for Sustainable Energy Technologies"

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The aim of this project is to boost the knowledge, expertise and international contact-network of the young outgoing researcher in the field of systems and control, in order to foster his career and to support him in the development of stable, high-quality research and technology transfer activities at the return host, thus contributing to strengthen the research and development system at local, national and European levels. This aim will be pursued primarily via a structured three-years long program involving both theoretical and applicative, interdisciplinary research at the outgoing and return host organizations. Innovative robust control methodologies, able to cope with constrained, distributed and highly nonlinear processes, will be investigated during the two-years stay at the Center for Control, Dynamical systems and Computation of the University of California Santa Barbara, widely recognized as one of the world best research groups in this field. Such advanced control design techniques will be coupled with the innovative data-driven identification and estimation methods that the Complex Systems Modeling and Control group of Politecnico di Torino, the return host organization, has been investigating during the past 30 years, thus becoming a center of excellence in these topics. The expected theoretical outcome will be an organized set of methodologies that encompasses and links identification, estimation and control for complex uncertain systems. Among the numerous fields where such innovative techniques could be employed, the application to renewable and sustainable energy technologies will be pursued because of their actual critical importance, their relevance in the EU research roadmap and the personal interest of the researcher. In particular, the challenging problem of control of electric power grids that connect diverse kinds of generators and the breakthrough technology of high-altitude wind power using controlled airfoils will be deeply investigated.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

EU funding enabled major advances in mathematical methods for control of complex dynamical systems. Outcomes led to the first published description of control of high-altitude wind turbines supported by experimental data.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Control engineering deals with the control of complex dynamical systems. Most real control systems are non-linear. The output cannot be easily derived from several simultaneous inputs simply by knowing the output from each individual input, and the system behaviour can change dramatically depending on the various operating conditions. Engineers seek to maintain the stability and performance of these complex non-linear systems in the face of changing system parameters. Robust control theory addresses uncertainty in controller design, exploring the design space to find options insensitive to system changes.

An EU-funded scientist developed powerful new control engineering algorithms within the context of the project 'Innovative control, identification and estimation methodologies for sustainable energy technologies' (ICIEMSET). They tackle the control of complex, uncertain systems using airborne wind turbines (wind energy conversion systems that exploit the aerodynamic forces generated by wings tethered to the ground like a kite) as the test case.

The fellow developed numerous novel algorithms in the context of high-altitude wind power from controlled airfoils. The accurateness and robustness of the algorithms were tested experimentally in numerous real-world experiments employing airborne wind energy paradigms. A successful grant application enabled the fellow to further pursue experimental activities. As a result, the fellow achieved his goal of demonstrating the autonomous flight of a flexible tethered wing for at least four consecutive hours.

ICIEMSET led to publication or acceptance of 21 articles in international peer-reviewed control journals with another one in review, a book chapter and numerous conference-related publications. The control system for tethered wings developed within ICIEMSET is one of the few successful demonstrations of such a system worldwide with extensive experimental data.

Overall, ICIEMSET significantly advanced the field of robust control methodology development for non-linear dynamical systems. Project outcomes are broadly useful to scientists, designers and engineers in physics, engineering, biology and chemistry. The promise of wind energy harnessed at high altitudes is also closer to exploitation with the successful control of autonomous tethered wings or airborne wind turbines.