In this paper, a novel approach for tracking moving structures in multiphase flows over larger axial ranges is presented, which at the same time allows imaging the tracked structures and their environment. For this purpose, ultrafast electron beam X-ray computed tomography (UFXCT) is being extended by an image-based position control. Application is scanning and tracking of, for example, bubbles, particles, waves and other features of multiphase flows within vessels and pipes. Therefore, the scanner has to be automatically traversed with the moving structure basing on real-time scanning, image reconstruction and image data processing. In this paper, requirements and different strategies for reliable object tracking in dual image plane imaging mode are discussed. Promising tracking strategies have been numerically implemented and evaluated.

This thesis explores the possibility of using an optimal control scheme called Model Predictive Control (MPC), to control climatization systems for electric vehicles. Some components of electric vehicles, for example the batteries and power electronics, are sensitive to temperature and for this reason it is important that their temperature is well regulated. Furthermore, like all vehicles, the cab also needs to be heated and cooled. One of the weaknesses of electric vehicles is their range, for this reason it is important that the temperature control is energy efficient. Once the range of electric vehicles is increased the down sides compared to traditional combustion engine vehicles decrease, which could lead to an increase in the usage of electric vehicles. This could in turn lead to a decrease of greenhouse gas emission in the transportation sector. With the help of MPC it is possible for the controller to take more factors into consideration when controlling the system than just temperature and in this thesis the power consumption and noise are also taken into consideration. A simple model where parts of the climate system’s circuits were seen as point masses was developed, with nonlinear heat transfers occurring between them, which in turn were controlled by actuators such as fans, pumps and valves. The model was created using Simulink and MATLAB, and the MPC toolbox was used to develop nonlinear MPC controllers to control the climate system. A standard nonlinear MPC, a nonlinear MPC with custom cost functions and a PI controller where all developed and compared in simulations of a cooling scenario. The controllers were designed to control the temperatures of the battery, power electronics and the cab of an electric vehicle. The results of the thesis indicate that MPC could reduce power consumption for the climate control system, it was however not possible to draw any final conclusions as the PI controller that the MPC controllers were compared to was not well optimized for the system. The MPC controllers could benefit from further work, most importantly by applying a more sophisticated tuning method to the controller weights. What was certain was that it is possible to apply this type of centralized controller to very complex systems and achieve robustness without external logic. Even with the controller keeping track of six different temperatures and controlling 15 actuators, the control loop runs much faster than real time on a modern computer which shows promise with regard to implementing it on an embedded system.

The propulsion of the spark-ignition engine has been investigated and developed during the past century to improve driveability, minimize fuel consumption and emissions, resulting in highly engineered and computerized powertrains. Well balanced engine maps containing coordinated set-points and model-based information sharing have solved the cross-coupling between different control loops. During transitions between the operating conditions a disadvantageous transient behavior that affects the engine performance may occur. By implementing an MPC as a superior controller a nearly optimal control solution was accomplished. A digital twin of the SI engine was designed through collected measurements and system modeling. The twin made it possible to investigate and elaborate different cost functions in a simulation environment before applying the controller in real-time. By utilizing MPC together with the engine maps a strong relationship between the throttle and iVVT actuator was achieved, which removed the cross-coupling between the actuator control loops and reduced the unfavorable transient behavior.

Autonomous driving is a rapidly growing field and can bring significant transition in mobility and transportation. In order to cater a safe and reliable autonomous driving operation, all the systems concerning with perception, planning and control has to be highly efficient. MPC is a control technique used to control vehicle motion by controlling actuators based on vehicle model and its constraints. The uniqueness of MPC compared to other controllers is its ability to predict future states of the vehicle using the derived vehicle model. Due to the technological development & increase in computational capacity of processors and optimization algorithms MPC is adopted for real-time application in dynamic environments. This research focuses on using Model predictive Control (MPC) to control the trajectory of an autonomous vehicle controlling the vehicle actuators for high dynamic maneuvers. Vehicle Models considering kinematics and vehicle dynamics is developed. These models are used for MPC as prediction models and the performance of MPC is evaluated. MPC trajectory control is performed with the minimization of cost function and limiting constraints. MATLAB/Simulink is used for designing trajectory control system and interfaced with CarMaker for evaluating controller performance in a realistic simulation environment. Performance of MPC with kinematic and dynamic vehicle models for high dynamic maneuvers is evaluated with different speed profiles.

In the process industries, cooling capacity is an important enabler for the facility to manufacture on specification product. The cooling water network is an important part of the over-all cooling system of the facility. In this research a cooling water circuit consisting of 3 cooling towers in parallel, 2 cooling water pumps in parallel, and 11 heat exchangers in parallel, is modelled. The model developed is based on first principles and captures the dynamic, non-linear, interactive nature of the plant. The modelled plant is further complicated by continuous, as well as discrete process variables, giving the model a hybrid nature. Energy consumption is included in the model as it is a very important parameter for plant operation. The model is fitted to real industry data by using a particle swarm optimisation approach. The model is suitable to be used for optimisation and control purposes. Cooling water networks are often not instrumented and actuated, nor controlled or optimised. Significant process benefits can be achieved by better process end-user temperature control, and direct monetary benefits can be obtained from electric power minimisation. A Hybrid Non-Linear Model Predictive Control strategy is developed for these control objectives, and simulated on the developed first principles dynamic model. Continuous and hybrid control cases are developed, and tested on process scenarios that reflect conditions seen in a real plant. Various alternative techniques are evaluated in order to solve the Hybrid Non-Linear Control problem. Gradient descent with momentum is chosen and configured to be used to solve the continuous control problem. For the discrete control problem a graph traversal algorithm is developed and joined to the continuous control algorithm to form a Hybrid Non-Linear Model Predictive controller. The potential monetary benefits that can be obtained by the plant owner through implementing the designed control strategy, are estimated. A powerful computation platform is designed for the plant model and controller simulations. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / PhD / Unrestricted

L'autonomie est l'une des préoccupations majeures lors du développement de missions spatiales que l'objectif soit scientifique (exploration interplanétaire, observations, etc) ou commercial (service en orbite). Pour le rendez-vous spatial, cette autonomie dépend de la capacité embarquée de contrôle du mouvement relatif entre deux véhicules spatiaux. Dans le contexte du service aux satellites (dépannage, remplissage additionnel d'ergols, correction d'orbite, désorbitation en fin de vie, etc), la faisabilité de telles missions est aussi fortement liée à la capacité des algorithmes de guidage et contrôle à prendre en compte l'ensemble des contraintes opérationnelles (par exemple, saturation des propulseurs ou restrictions sur le positionnement relatif entre les véhicules) tout en maximisant la durée de vie du véhicule (minimisation de la consommation d'ergols). La littérature montre que ce problème a été étudié intensément depuis le début des années 2000. Les algorithmes proposés ne sont pas tout à fait satisfaisants. Quelques approches, par exemple, dégradent les contraintes afin de pouvoir fonder l'algorithme de contrôle sur un problème d'optimisation efficace. D'autres méthodes, si elles prennent en compte l'ensemble du problème, se montrent trop lourdes pour être embarquées sur de véritables calculateurs existants dans les vaisseaux spatiaux. Le principal objectif de cette thèse est le développement de nouveaux algorithmes efficaces et validés pour le guidage et le contrôle impulsif des engins spatiaux dans le contexte des phases dites de "hovering" du rendez-vous orbital, i.e. les étapes dans lesquelles un vaisseau secondaire doit maintenir sa position à l'intérieur d'une zone délimitée de l'espace relativement à un autre vaisseau principal. La première contribution présentée dans ce manuscrit utilise une nouvelle formulation mathématique des contraintes d'espace pour le mouvement relatif entre vaisseaux spatiaux pour la conception d'algorithmes de contrôle ayant un traitement calculatoire plus efficace comparativement aux approches traditionnelles. La deuxième et principale contribution est une stratégie de contrôle prédictif qui assure la convergence des trajectoires relatives vers la zone de "hovering", même en présence de perturbations ou de saturation des actionneurs. [...] / Autonomy is one of the major concerns during the planning of a space mission, whether its objective is scientific (interplanetary exploration, observations, etc.) or commercial (service in orbit). For space rendezvous, this autonomy depends on the on-board capacity of controlling the relative movement between two spacecraft. In the context of satellite servicing (troubleshooting, propellant refueling, orbit correction, end-of-life deorbit, etc.), the feasibility of such missions is also strongly linked to the ability of the guidance and control algorithms to account for all operational constraints (for example, thruster saturation or restrictions on the relative positioning between the vehicles) while maximizing the life of the vehicle (minimizing propellant consumption). The literature shows that this problem has been intensively studied since the early 2000s. However, the proposed algorithms are not entirely satisfactory. Some approaches, for example, degrade the constraints in order to be able to base the control algorithm on an efficient optimization problem. Other methods accounting for the whole set of constraints of the problem are too cumbersome to be embedded on real computers existing in the spaceships. The main object of this thesis is the development of new efficient and validated algorithms for the impulsive guidance and control of spacecraft in the context of the so-called "hovering" phases of the orbital rendezvous, i.e. the stages in which a secondary vessel must maintain its position within a bounded area of space relatively to another main vessel. The first contribution presented in this manuscript uses a new mathematical formulation of the space constraints for the relative motion between spacecraft for the design of control algorithms with more efficient computational processing compared to traditional approaches. The second and main contribution is a predictive control strategy that has been formally demonstrated to ensure the convergence of relative trajectories towards the "hovering" zone, even in the presence of disturbances or saturation of the actuators.[...]

Le déploiement des futurs véhicules autonomes promet d'avoir un impact socio-économique majeur, en raison de leur promesse d'être à la fois plus sûrs et plus efficaces que ceux conduits par des humains. Afin de satisfaire à ces attentes, la capacité des véhicules autonomes à planifier des trajectoires sûres et à manœuvrer efficacement dans le trafic sera capitale. Cependant, le problème de planification de trajectoire au milieu d'obstacles statiques ou mobiles a une combinatoire forte qui est encore aujourd'hui problématique pour les meilleurs algorithmes.Cette thèse explore une nouvelle approche de la planification de mouvement, basée sur l'utilisation de la notion de décision de conduite comme guide pour structurer le problème de planification en vue de faciliter sa résolution. Cette approche peut trouver des applications pour la conduite coopérative, par exemple pour coordonner plusieurs véhicules dans une intersection non signalisée, ainsi que pour la conduite autonome où chaque véhicule planifie sa trajectoire. Dans le cas de la conduite coopérative, les décisions correspondent au choix d'un ordonnancement des véhicules qui peut être avantageusement encodé comme un graphe. Cette thèse propose une représentation similaire pour la conduite autonome, où les décisions telles que dépasser ou non un véhicule sont nettement plus complexes. Une fois la décision prise, il devient aisé de déterminer la meilleure trajectoire y correspondant, en conduite coopérative comme autonome. Cette approche basée sur la prise de décision peut permettre d'améliorer la robustesse et l'efficacité de la planification de trajectoire, et ouvre d'intéressantes perspectives en permettant de combiner des approches mathématiques classiques avec des techniques plus modernes d'apprentissage automatisé. / The deployment of future self-driving vehicles is expected to have a major socioeconomic impact due to their promise to be both safer and more traffic-efficient than human-driven vehicles. In order to live up to these expectations, the ability of autonomous vehicles to plan safe trajectories and maneuver efficiently around obstacles will be paramount. However, motion planning among static or moving objects such as other vehicles is known to be a highly combinatorial problem, that remains challenging even for state-of-the-art algorithms. Indeed, the presence of obstacles creates exponentially many discrete maneuver choices, which are difficult even to characterize in the context of autonomous driving. This thesis explores a new approach to motion planning, based on using this notion of driving decisions as a guide to give structure to the planning problem, ultimately allowing easier resolution. This decision-based motion planning approach can find applications in cooperative driving, for instance to coordinate multiple vehicles through an unsignalized intersection, as well as in autonomous driving where a single vehicle plans its own trajectory. In the case of cooperative driving, decisions are known to correspond to the choice of a relative ordering for conflicting vehicles, which can be conveniently encoded as a graph. This thesis introduces a similar graph representation in the case of autonomous driving, where possible decisions -- such as overtaking the vehicle at a specific time -- are much more complex. Once a decision is made, planning the best possible trajectory corresponding to this decision is a much simpler problem, both in cooperative and autonomous driving. This decision-aware approach may lead to more robust and efficient motion planning, and opens exciting perspectives for combining classical mathematic programming algorithms with more modern machine learning techniques.

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Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Anwendung der indirekten Methoden zur automatisierten Lösung von einer bestimmten Klasse von Optimalen Steuerungsproblemen im Rahmen einer modellprädiktiven Regelung für Windenergieanlagen. In einem zweiten Teil wird der Einfluss dieser Regelungsmethode auf die Festigkeit des Triebstranges untersucht. Diese führt zu einer überproportionalen Beanspruchung und damit zu einer Reduktion der Betriebsfestigkeit. Es gilt entsprechende Randbedingungen für die der Regelung zugrunde liegenden Optimalen Steuerungsprobleme zu finden, so dass weiterhin die Energieausbeute maximiert werden kann, gleichzeitig jedoch die Beanspruchung durch die Regelung begrenzt wird.

In relation to the increasing interest in implementing smart cities, deployment of widespread wireless sensor networks (WSNs) has become a current hot topic. Among the application’s greatest challenges, there is still progress to be made concerning energy consumption and quality of service. Consequently, this project aims to explore a series of feasible solutions to improve the WSN energy efficiency for data aggregation by the WSN. This by strategically adjusting the position of the receiving base station and the packet rate of the WSN nodes. Additionally, the low-energy adaptive clustering hierarchy (LEACH) protocol is coupled with the WSN state of charge (SoC). For this thesis, a WSN was defined as a two dimensional area which contains sensor nodes and a mobile sink, i.e. a movable base station. Subsequent to the rigorous analyses of the WSN data clustering principles and system-wide dynamics, two different developing strategies, model-based and data-driven designs, were employed to develop two corresponding control approaches, model predictive control and reinforcement learning, on WSN energy management. To test their performance, a simulation environment was thus developed in Python, including the extended LEACH protocol. The amount of data transmitted by an energy unit is adopted as the index to estimate the control performance. The simulation results show that the model based controller was able to aggregate over 22% more bits than only using the LEACH protocol. Whilst the data driven controller had a worse performance than the LEACH network but showed potential for smaller sized WSNs containing a fewer amount of nodes. Nonetheless, the extension of the LEACH protocol did not give rise to obvious improvement on energy efficiency due to a wide range of differing results. / I samband med det ökande intresset för att implementera så kallade smart cities, har användningen av utbredda trådlösa sensor nätverk (WSN) blivit ett intresseområde. Bland applikationens största utmaningar, finns det fortfarande förbättringar med avseende på energiförbrukning och servicekvalité. Därmed så inriktar sig detta projekt på att utforska en mängd möjliga lösningar för att förbättra energieffektiviteten för dataaggregation inom WSN. Detta gjordes genom att strategiskt justera positionen av den mottagande basstationen samt paketfrekvensen för varje nod. Dessutom påbyggdes low-energy adaptive clustering hierarchy (LEACH) protokollet med WSN:ets laddningstillstånd. För detta examensarbete definierades ett WSN som ett två dimensionellt plan som innehåller sensor noder och en mobil basstation, d.v.s. en basstation som går att flytta. Efter rigorös analys av klustringsmetoder samt dynamiken av ett WSN, utvecklades två kontrollmetoder som bygger på olika kontrollstrategier. Dessa var en modelbaserad MPC kontroller och en datadriven reinforcement learning kontroller som implementerades för att förbättra energieffektiviteten i WSN. För att testa prestandan på dom två kontrollmetoderna, utvecklades en simulations platform baserat på Python, tillsamans med påbyggnaden av LEACH protokollet. Mängden data skickat per energienhet användes som index för att approximera kontrollprestandan. Simuleringsresultaten visar att den modellbaserade kontrollern kunde öka antalet skickade datapacket med 22% jämfört med när LEACH protokollet användes. Medans den datadrivna kontrollern hade en sämre prestanda jämfört med när enbart LEACH protokollet användes men den visade potential för WSN med en mindre storlek. Påbyggnaden av LEACH protokollet gav ingen tydlig ökning med avseende på energieffektiviteten p.g.a. en mängd avvikande resultat.