Scientific Network

In the context of autonomous mobile robots, the application of nonlinear model predictive control (MPC) has  been proposed for different control tasks such as set-point stabilization, trajectory tracking, and path following. For these application areas the question of sufficient stability conditions can be answered with the help of additional terminal constraints and / or costs. Since these additional (artificial) ingredients are restrictive as soon as obstacles or several mobile robots are taken into account, avoiding these stability enforcing constraints is of practical interest.

Within the scientific network our goal is to develop rigorous stability guarantees that require neither terminal regions nor terminal constraints. Herein, we follow a three stage program:
First, we focus on set point stabilization for continuous time formulations as well as for the respective sampled-data implementations. Secondly, based on the obtained results, we consider path following tasks in order to enable the mobile robots to circumvent static obstacles. And last, we investigate a setting with several mobile robots. Flanking this theoretical part, we plan to implement and test the proposed MPC schemes as well as measure their performance utilizing both simulations and prototypes.

The proposed project shall establish a collaboration platform for early stage researchers working on different aspects of MPC, which will allow for identifying and fostering future joint research projects.

• Dr.-Ing. Timm Faulwasser (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland)
• M.Sc. Mech. Eng. Mohammed Mehrez (Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada)
• Dr.-Ing. Matthias Müller (Universität Stuttgart)
• Jun.-Prof. Dr. Jürgen Pannek (Universität Bremen)
• Dipl.-Math. Marleen Stieler (Universität Bayreuth)
• Prof. Dr. Karl Worthmann (Technische Universität Ilmenau)
• M.Sc. Mechatronics Mario Zanon (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg und KU Leuven, Belgium)

• Boris Houska, Assistant Professor, PhD (School of Information Science and Technology ShanghaiTech University, China)
• Dr. Frauke Oldewurtel (UC Berkeley, USA)
• Dr. Melanie Zeilinger (Empirical Inference Department, MPI for Intelligent Systems, Tübingen)

Kick-off-Meeting

Program

2nd Meeting

Program  |  Flyer

3rd Meeting

Workshop on Economic and Distributed Model Predictive Control
21st-22nd of March 2016
at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
Organizers: Timm Fraulwasser, Colin Jones, and Karl Worthmann
Program

4th Meeting

Workshop on Model Predictive Control: Real-time implementation and new applications
29-31 August 2016
at Institute for Systems Theory and Automatic Control, University of Stuttgart, Germany
Organizers: Matthias Müller and Karl Worthmann
Program

The project serves as a stage for scientific interaction between up-and-coming scientists, who are devoted to current trends in model predictive control (MPC):

• Distributed MPC of interconnected systems is concerned with automatic control of cyber physical systems. The different approaches are mainly distinguished with respect to the intensity of collaboration (level of cooperation).
• Self-tuning MPC exhibits additional flexibility and, thus, enlarges the range of potential applications. This allows for fault-tolerant control and the adaptation of the algorithm during its runtime to realize the control task.

The study and analysis of interconnected, spatially distributed or differently coupled systems opens up new perspectives, which are, e.g., essential in multi-agent systems (mobile robots), in logistics from the viewpoint of Industrie 4.0 or within the control of renewable energy systems. Within this paradigm shift <em>economic MPC</em> plays a major role. Here, the stage costs are directly taken from the respective application. Hence, set points or periodic orbits are the outcome of the optimization and not set a priori as optimization objective.
Thereby, a key objective is to build up a network to tackle joint, innovative research projects, which are both scientifical sound and applicable to industrially relevant control problems.

• Dr. Philipp Braun (University of Newcastle, Australia)
• Dr.-Ing. Timm Faulwasser (Karlsruher Institut für Technologie)
• Assistent Prof. Boris Houska, PhD (ShanghaiTech University, China)
• Prof. Dr.-Ing. Sergio Lucia (TU Berlin)
• Mohamed W. Mehrez Said, PhD (Memorial University of Newfoundland, Kanada)
• Dr.-Ing. Matthias A. Müller (Universität Stuttgart)
• Jun.-Prof. Dr. Jürgen Pannek (Universität Bremen)
• Dr.-Ing. Moritz Schulze Darup (Universität Paderborn)
• Marleen Stieler (Universität Bayreuth)
• Prof. Dr. Karl Worthmann (TU Ilmenau)
• Dr.-Ing. Mario Zanon (Chalmers University of Technology, Schweden)
• Prof. Dr. Melanie Zeilinger (ETH Zürich, Switzerland)

• Pontus Giselsson, PhD, Assistent Professor (Department of Automatic Control, Lund University, Sweden)
• Dr. Sina Ober-Blöbaum, Associate Professor (University of Oxford, UK)

5th Meeting

September 4 - 6, 2017
at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
Organizers: Boris Houska, Karl Worthmann and Mario Zanon
Program | Participants

6th Meeting

March 5 - 6, 2018
Berlin, Germany
Organizers: Timm Faulwasser, Jürgen Pannek and Marleen Stieler
Program

Meeting with Industry

• Dr.-Ing. K. D. Listmann
  (ABB Corporate Research, Ladenburg)
• Dr.-Ing. U. Münz
  (Siemens Corporate Technology, Princeton, NJ, USA)
• Dr.-Ing. M. Reble
  (BASF Advanced Process Control, Ludwigshafen)
• Dr.-Ing. M. Werling
  (BMW Research and Technology, München)

Do you want to participate?
Please contact Dr.-Ing. Timm Faulwasser