Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CLOVER (Robust Control, State Estimation and Disturbance Compensation for Highly Dynamic Environmental Mechatronic Systems)

Teaser

Environment-friendly technologies attract persistently considerable interest of academic sector, industry, government, and society. In particular, development of new technologies in all engineering sectors has to take into account such important factors as curb of greenhouse...

Summary

Environment-friendly technologies attract persistently considerable interest of academic sector, industry, government, and society. In particular, development of new technologies in all engineering sectors has to take into account such important factors as curb of greenhouse gas emissions and preferable use of renewable energy. As a result, a number of novel paradigms is being emerged, which require more complex approaches to the designing of eco-friendly technical objects and systems. A vivid example of such eco-friendly objects is the electric vehicle (EV) Now the process of EV development takes place with due regard for technologies of smart grids and renewable energy production. This chain Electric vehicle – Smart Grids – Renewable energy production can be considered in general as System of Systems (SoS). Because the discussed SoS includes a substantial number of mechatronic components, this allows also to speak about a concept of “System of Mechatronic Systems” (SoMS). The SoMS concept lies in the background of the CLOVER project with the main goal to offer a novel methodology in environmental mechatronic control system design relied on the multidisciplinary knowledge. This goal is being solved in the project through a set of research, innovation and technological objectives covering (i) benchmarking tool for comparative analysis of different control and estimation technique applied to SoMS, and (ii) development and real-time validation of robust controllers and observers for SoMS.

To guarantee a strong focus of the project activities on real-world problems, the CLOVER concept is based on the R&D and training in three interfacing topics: “Mechatronic chassis systems of electric vehicles”, “Mechatronic-based grid-interconnection circuitry”, and “Offshore mechatronics”, which will discover collaborative learning and production of innovative knowledge. The implementation of the project CLOVER is based on intensive staff exchange that leads to collaborative research and training between universities and industrial organizations from several European countries, Mexico, and Japan.

Work performed

The works performed can be summarized as follows.

(i) Mechatronic control systems. An important output for this project topic is a set of control techniques for mechatronics systems on a global level (so called basic controllers), which are required for further implementation on environmental mechatronic systems. Other results concern new observation and estimation tools for highly dynamic variables. The target here is to increase estimation robustness and precision with consideration of uncertainties from different time domains (steady-state, short-term, long-term) that are characteristic for CLOVER application cases as electric vehicle chassis, smart grids, and vessels / offshore systems. These activities are supplemented with the development of adaptive algorithms for disturbance attenuation and decoupling.

(ii) Real-time ECU and Hardware Implementation. The consortium participants are being realized the real-time controllers for mechatronic applications as chassis systems of electric vehicles, grid-interconnection circuitry, and offshore systems. The relevant works are done for braking, steering and stability control of electric vehicle, for an antagonistic hydraulic actuators’ demonstrator as applied to offshore applications, and for an automotive radar sensor system.

(iii) Testing procedures. The works in this topic covered development of a Co-Simulation MIL and HIL platform for virtual testing and simulation of automotive ADAS systems, experimental procedures on all-wheel drive electric vehicle demonstrator for validation of a set of vehicle dynamics controllers.

(iv) Networking activities. A strong extensive experience sharing has been carried out for such research and technological areas as use of hardware-in-the-loop test rigs by designing SoMS, real-time programming for mechatronic systems, connecting DoE testing tool with model integration platforms, estimation of unknown parameters in Smart Grid applications, advanced sliding mode control, backlash modelling and identification. Several dissemination activities of the project have been realized with the help of Technical Committee “Motion Control” of IEEE Industrial Electronics Society through organization of dedicated CLOVER sessions on renowned events as IECON 2017 and 2018 as well as IEEE AMC Workshop 2018. In addition, CLOVER participants demonstrated and used the project results in running bilateral activities with national and international collaborators from academic and industrial sectors.

Final results

The CLOVER consortium achieved a set of research and innovation outcomes providing progress vs. state-of-the-art technologies. These outcomes include in particular:
- Novel control methods and estimation tools for high dynamic SoMS applications;
- A set of a set of robust automotive and offshore systems controllers;
- A new, reduced modelling framework for designing environmental mechatronic systems;

The CLOVER project is also contributing to major objectives of the European Union in environmental-friendly technologies, research and education through:
- Targeting the environment-related engineering problems (as renewable energy production, efficient grids, customer-acceptable electric vehicles) that are of special importance not only for countries presented in the consortium but also for whole European Community;
- Contributing to the regional objectives in research and innovation, especially in context of regional policy at the European level;
- Closer cooperation and establishment of new strong ties between academic and non-academic sectors in Europe, Japan and Mexico in the field of energy-efficient mechatronic systems.

The CLOVER project objectives are also in line with innovation activities of the European OEMs and suppliers of complex mechatronic systems that gives a good base for reinforcement of the existent co-operation between the academia and industry on the European level within the field of environmental mechatronic technologies.
The CLOVER innovation targets as well as strong involvement of non-academic sector in the project are also contributing to the enhancement of the European innovation capacity in the area of hi-tech mechatronics. The CLOVER project results are going towards closing some technological gaps and proposing particular innovations for embedded systems, platforms for virtual product development and testing, and cross-domain power electronics. This contributes also to rapid adoption of environmental-friendly technologies on the EU level.

Website & more info

More info: https://clover-project.eu/.