Australian Control Conference, Melbourne, 10-11 November 2011

PLENARY LECTURE 1:

Presenter: Prof. Ian R. Petersen

Title: Negative Imaginary Systems Theory in the Robust Control of Highly Resonant Flexible Structures

Abstract: This presentation will cover recent developments in the theory of negative imaginary systems and their application to the control of highly resonant flexible structures. The theory of negative imaginary ystems arose out of a desire to unify a number of classical methods for the control of lightly damped structures with collocated force actuators and position sensors including positive position feedback and integral force feedback. The key result is a stability result which shows why these methods are guaranteed to yield robust closed loop stability in the face of unmodelled spillover dynamics. Related results to be presented  connect the theory of negative imaginary systems to positive real systems theory and a negative imaginary lemma has been established which is analogous to the positive real lemma. The presentation will also recent controller synthesis results based on the theory of negative imaginary systems along with applications in the aerospace area such as the control of large space flexible structures.


Biography: Ian R. Petersen was born in Victoria, Australia. He received a Ph.D in Electrical Engineering in 1984 from the University of Rochester. From 1983 to 1985 he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Australian National University. In 1985 he joined the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy where he is currently Scientia Professor and an Australian Research Council Federation Fellow in the School of Engineering and Information Technology. He has served as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Systems and Control Letters, Automatica, and SIAM Journal on
Control and Optimization. Currently he is an Editor for Automatica. He is a fellow of the IEEE.  His main research interests are in robust control theory, quantum control theory and stochastic control theory.

PLENARY LECTURE 2:

Presenter: G. Hood

Title: Challenges for Information enabled Automation Systems

Abstract: Control systems have been consistently evolving over time with advances in processing capability in devices and controllers as well as evolution of network capability. In general process control is converging onto a common model of integrated systems.  Industries that were once supported by individual autonomous islands of automation are evolving to connected systems. At the other end of the spectrum process industries considered to be managed by highly integrated Distributed Control Systems ( DCS’s) are evolving more modular capabilities. The ability to easily integrate equipment control into higher level end to end representations is becoming an imperative for manufacturing companies in order to achieve maximum productivity from manufacturing systems. To support this evolution individual control systems face challenges of managing control activities and participating in the broader end to end process initiatives. This direction presents new challenges in terms of mapping machine control into operations management environment. A new perspective of automation management and supervision is required to realize the full potential of this approach. Systems that support machine control, supervision with inbuilt metrics that can be mapped into higher level functions are required.

The term convergence takes on a new meaning and present new challenges on hardware for automation systems including embedded communications and device architectures that leverage the capabilities of multi core processor and gate array capabilities.  A more scale-able approach to the development and management of control capabilities is required.  These approaches are in existence in parts of offerings and research however a formal integrated model that brings together these initiatives to present a formal architecture is not available.

In this talk we will give examples of control system architectures and challenges they present .  Techniques to address these problems will be outlined as well as techniques that the author is developing.  Potential areas of research / collaboration to advance this field will then be presented.

Biography: Gavan Hood has worked/been engaged in manufacturing technology for decades. He is currently a contributing member of a number of groups within the Instrument Society of America (ISA) including ISA 88, 95, 99 and 104. Gavan is also a member of OPC foundation. Gavan is currently engaged via his company Simul-Tech Pty Ltd as a manufacturing subject matter expert working with global manufacturing companies tackling the many challenges within manufacturing technology. His current focus truely spans the breadth of manufacturing. Covering the convergence of control and information systems within plants and integrating systems across the enterprise. Prior to this he was Senior Systems Architect for Rockwell Automation North America where he architected systems and direction for the corporation. He represented Rockwell Automation on standards groups and submitted a number of patents in the field of information models for manufacturing information and control systems. These architectures and designs helped Rockwell define its direction in the manufacturing control and information systems space. His architecture and manufacturing systems career is based upon training in industrial chemistry, analytical computing and education. He went on to design and develop manufacturing software and perform research into systems simulation of manufacturing operations.  His technical base extends beyond manufacturing with the direct technical leadership in the development of complex systems including in-flight entertainment systems for Sony Corp, State wide distributed gaming systems for Hilton Hotel group and Simulation software development for Systems Modeling Corp.