Two-Layered Real-Time Optimization of a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Stack

The optimal operation of a solid oxide fuel cell stack is addressed in this paper. Real-time optimization, performed at a slow time scale via constraint adaptation, is used to account for uncertainty and degradation eﬀects, while model-predictive control is performed at a faster time scale to reject process disturbances and to safely adapt the system to the specified output constraints following changes in cell power demand. To ensure that these constraints are strictly honored, a novel adaptation algorithm that uses the built-in constraint handling of quadratic programming is implemented within the model-predictive controller. An additional feature of this algorithm - its ability to adapt the feasibility region in view of uncertainty - is shown as well. Simulation results illustrate the efficacy of this approach in the solid oxide fuel cell system.

Real-time Nonlinear MPC Strategy with Full Vehicle Validation for Autonomous Driving

Jean Pierre Allamaa, Colin Neil Jones, Petr Listov

In this paper, we present the development and deployment of an embedded optimal control strategy for autonomous driving applications on a Ford Focus road vehicle. Non-linear model predictive control (NMPC) is designed and deployed on a system with hard real-time constraints. We show the properties of sequential quadratic programming (SQP) optimization solvers that are suitable for driving tasks. Importantly, the designed algorithms are validated based on a standard automotive development cycle: model-in-the-loop (MiL) with high fidelity vehicle dynamics, hardware-in-theloop (HiL) with vehicle actuation and embedded platform, and vehicle-hardware-in-the-loop (VeHiL) testing using a full vehicle. The autonomous driving environment contains both virtual simulation and physical proving ground tracks. Throughout the process, NMPC algorithms and optimal control problem (OCP) formulation are fine-tuned using a deployable C code via code generation compatible with the target embedded toolchains. Finally, the developed systems are applied to autonomous collision avoidance, trajectory tracking and lane change at high speed on city/highway and low speed at a parking environment.

2021

Real-Time Optimization of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Systems

Tafarel de Avila Ferreira

Optimization of industrial processes aims at minimizing operating cost or maximizing economic profit while respecting plant constraints. In process industry, real-time optimization (RTO) is often considered to ensure optimal plant operation and constraint satisfaction. Solid-oxide fuel-cell (SOFC) devices oxidize fuels such as hydrogen and methane to produce electric energy through electrochemical reactions at very high efficiency. To reduce the emission of carbon dioxide and the high cost of non-renewable energies, fuel cells have become popular as an alternative energy source with a wide range of applications. The optimal operation of SOFC systems, while being subjected to changing operating conditions such as variations in the electrical power demand, remains a challenging problem in the field of control and optimization. In addition, these types of devices are characterized by slow dynamics and drifts such as degradation. This motivates the use of real-time optimization for optimizing and controlling the operation of SOFC systems. The most popular RTO technique in industry is the so-called two-step approach. This approach consists in estimating the model parameters based on measurements by solving a parameter estimation problem, and computing the next operating point by solving an optimization problem using the updated model. However, this technique is highly dependent on model accuracy and tends to fail in the presence of structural plant-model mismatch. As an alternative, modifier adaptation has been developed to enforce convergence to the plant optimum even in presence of structural plant-model mismatch. Since plant optimality is often characterized by active constraints, it is possible to use a simpler version of modifier adaptation, called constraint adaptation (CA). This approach corrects the constraints in the model-based optimization problem by means of bias terms computed from the differences between the measured and predicted values of the constraints. The active plant constraintsâi.e. the intersection of the constraints where the plant opti- mum liesâfor each mode of operation is typically known from experience. Therefore, as the optimum of SOFC systems typically lies on active plant constraints, we can apply constraint adaptation. One of the drawbacks of static RTO is the fact that it is necessary to wait until the plant reaches its steady state. Since this may be inappropriate for slow processes, we propose an RTO approach that can speed up the procedure by using transient measurements combined with a dynamic tendency model. In this work, we apply constraint adaptation combined with transient measurements and a dynamic model to experimental SOFC systems. The proposed approach is applied to two SOFC systems: (i) an SOFC system with 6 cells that consists of both hardware and software components; (ii) a commercial SOFC system named BlueGEN. The results obtained are very promising. For both systems, the proposed approach can reach the power demand much faster than the time it takes for the process to settle to steady state. The optimizer is quick at finding and tracking the correct set of active constraints, thus avoiding large constraint violations. In addition, we study the effect of the RTO period on the convergence rate. Finally, we show that CA acts simultaneously as a controller and an optimizer that is able to efficiently detect and track the correct set of active constraints.

EPFL2019

Synthesis, modeling, and experimental validation of distributed robotic search

James Pugh

The work of this thesis centers around the research subject of distributed robotic search. Within the field of distributed robotic systems, a task of particular interest is attempting to locate one or more targets in a possibly unknown environment. While numerous studies have proposed and analyzed methods to accomplish this, there is currently a lack of a strong foundation of tools and techniques that can be used to facilitate the development and evaluation of different approaches to distributed robotic search. In this work, we aim to provide such a foundation through tools, methods, models, and analysis of experimentation. An often overlooked aspect of the distributed robotic research process is the development and analysis of tools and modules to be used with robotic systems. These may include plug-ins for realistic robotic simulators, software/hardware systems to track multiple mobile robots in real-time, extension boards for robotic platforms, and the robots themselves. Along with other tools developed and used for this work, we focus particularly on the development, characterization, and validation of a fast, accurate on-board system for relative positioning and communication between robots, a capability which is critical for effective distributed robotic search. Designing individual robot controllers to generate a specific group behavior is a difficult and often counter-intuitive process. A possible alternative to hand-crafting distributed search controllers is automatic synthesis using machine-learning techniques. We explore the effectiveness of using a noise-resistant version of the Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm to optimize the weights of an embedded Artificial Neural Network, allowing the robot to learn obstacle avoidance behavior (a common benchmark for robotic learning techniques); we find that this technique appears to offer superior performance as compared to the canonical approach of using Genetic Algorithms for this type of learning. A method for faster learning using distributed evaluation in a robot team is tested and is found to offer comparable performance using only a fraction of the original learning time. This technique can be used for fast, effective learning and adaptation in a distributed robotic system performing search. The process of designing and analyzing algorithms for distributed robotic systems can be greatly facilitated if models are available to describe the dynamics of the algorithm at an abstract level. Inspired by previous examples in the distributed robotic field, we work to design a model of robotic search that captures the system at different levels of abstraction, ranging from accurately recreating the details of individual robots to describing the entire system as an indivisible whole. To capture the entire search process, we model both the exploration phase, where robots cover an environment in an effort to detect traces of targets, and the localization phase, where robots use target emission sensing to navigate towards the target. The utility of our models is demonstrated by using them to develop an effective technique for the declaration phase of search, where robots decide that a target has been accurately localized and announce its position. In distributed robotics research, it is important that techniques developed with abstracted simulations and models are ultimately validated using real robotic platforms in order to verify their correctness. In that spirit, we run systematic sound search experiments using teams of up to ten real robots. These experiments utilize the tools developed throughout the research process, demonstrate the utility of our learning technique for fast search adaptation, and serve to validate our models of distributed robotic localization. In addition, they allow us to analyze and better understand the subtle dynamics of the search process, providing information which should be useful for any future work on distributed robotic search.