Controls and Control Theory Commons^™

Control, Decision-Making, And Learning Approaches For Connected And Autonomous Driving Systems With Humans-In-The-Loop, Fangjian Li

All Dissertations

By virtue of vehicular connectivity and automation, the vehicle becomes increasingly intelligent and self-driving capable. However, no matter what automation level the vehicle can achieve, humans will still be in the loop despite their roles. First, considering the manual driving car as a disturbance to the connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs), a novel string stability is proposed for mixed traffic platoons consisting of both autonomous and manual driving cars to guarantee acceptable motion fluctuation and platoon safety. Furthermore, humans are naturally considered as the rider in the passenger vehicle. A human-centered cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC) is designed to improve …

Development Of A Compliant Gripper Driven By 3 Dof Soft Robot, Derek M. Price Ii, Ricardo Ramirez, Pt Angel Tran

Symposium of Student Scholars

Industrial robots are moving toward automation, which makes it increasingly necessary to replace the functions traditionally performed by humans with robotics. Pick and place operation is a prime example of such automation. Robots that pick up and place objects mimic the human action of picking an object up and placing it in a targeted location. It has led to the development of robotic end-effectors that have a human-like feel. Grippers can be articulated in various ways depending on their application area and well-defined desired tasks. As compliant and soft links deflect more under the same load than their rigid body …

Ai Based Optimization Of Odometry Performance On Mobile Robots, Sunny Leveson Jones, Charles Koduru

Symposium of Student Scholars

Robots have become a large part of the modern world and have been used to navigate through complex environments, with various optimal speeds and pathing requirements. To improve this, we have developed an AI-based predictive pathing optimizer that takes in data regarding the requested route and implements optimal speeds. The algorithm will compare time lost to the time gained by moving at a higher velocity. This has been developed by implementing continual circular patterns onto a mobile robot, which allows for rapid analysis of both the accuracy and the speed of the cycle. This optimization is proposed to increase the …

Lyapunov-Based Economic Model Predictive Control For Detecting And Handling Actuator And Simultaneous Sensor/Actuator Cyberattacks On Process Control Systems, Henrique Oyama, Dominic Messina, Keshav Kasturi Rangan, Helen Durand

Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Faculty Research Publications

The controllers for a cyber-physical system may be impacted by sensor measurement cyberattacks, actuator signal cyberattacks, or both types of attacks. Prior work in our group has developed a theory for handling cyberattacks on process sensors. However, sensor and actuator cyberattacks have a different character from one another. Specifically, sensor measurement attacks prevent proper inputs from being applied to the process by manipulating the measurements that the controller receives, so that the control law plays a role in the impact of a given sensor measurement cyberattack on a process. In contrast, actuator signal attacks prevent proper inputs from being applied …

System Design And Control Optimization For Neurorehabilitation Exoskeleton, Rodrigo N. Ramon

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Neurorehabilitation is a comprehensive approach aimed at helping patients regain motor control after a neural injury, including spinal cord injury, stroke, or other ischemic events. Early-stage neurorehabilitation is particularly delicate due to voluntary muscular weakness and lack of motor control, presenting in the form of spasticity. Unfortunately, this period of elevated weakness is when most neural control improvement can be made through a phenomenon called brain plasticity. Early rehabilitation traditionally requires a human therapist due to the adaptive and dynamic interpretation of undesired neuromuscular events. While efforts have been made to develop devices to aid in neurorehabilitation, the considerations that …

Parameter Estimation And Charge Control In Standalone And Grid-Tied Batteries, Asadullah Khalid

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Energy storage systems are the critical components enabling an electrified future ranging from electric vehicles (EVs) to microgrid (MG) applications. With the advancements in these applications, the operational dynamics of electrochemical energy storage such as Lithium-ion batteries need to be analyzed from the lifecycle impact, cybersecurity, balancing requirements, and prognostics perspectives. These operations enable the interconnected systems to be secure, efficient, and self-adaptive while reducing greenhouse emissions.

This research aims to develop threefold solutions. The first objective of this dissertation is to analyze lifecycle impact, quantify the interconnection requirements of battery energy storage systems, and evaluate cybersecurity frameworks for battery …

Modeling And Control Of Direct-Conversion Hybrid Switched-Capacitor Dc-Dc Converters, Ziyu Xia

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Efficient power delivery is increasingly important in modern computing, communications, consumer and other electronic systems, due to the high power demand and thermal concerns accompanied by performance advancements and tight packaging. In pursuit of high efficiency, small physical volume, and flexible regulation, hybrid switched-capacitor topologies have emerged as promising candidates for such applications. By incorporating both capacitors and inductors as energy storage elements, hybrid topologies achieve high power density while still maintaining soft charging and efficient regulation characteristics. However, challenges exist in the hybrid approach. In terms of reliability, each flying capacitor should be maintained at a nominal `balanced' voltage …

Learning Robot Motion From Creative Human Demonstration, Charles C. Dietzel

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a learning from demonstration framework that enables a robot to learn and perform creative motions from human demonstrations in real-time. In order to satisfy all of the functional requirements for the framework, the developed technique is comprised of two modular components, which integrate together to provide the desired functionality. The first component, called Dancing from Demonstration (DfD), is a kinesthetic learning from demonstration technique. This technique is capable of playing back newly learned motions in real-time, as well as combining multiple learned motions together in a configurable way, either to reduce trajectory error or to generate entirely …

The Effects Of Reference-Command Preview On The Strategies That Humans Use In Command-Following Tasks, Amelia J. S. Sheffler

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical Engineering

This thesis presents results from an experiment in which 22 human subjects each interact with a dynamic system 40 times over a one-week period. For each interaction, a subject performs a command-following task, where the reference command is the same for all 22 subjects but different on each trial. The subjects are divided into 2 groups of 11 subjects. One group performs the command-following task without reference-command preview. The other group is provided with 1-s preview of the reference command. The experimental results are used to examine the effects of reference-command preview. For the group with 1-s reference-command preview, the …

Experimental Comparison Of Two Sampled-Data Adaptive Control Algorithms For Rejecting Sinusoidal Disturbances, William Grayson Woods

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical Engineering

We review two adaptive control algorithms that address the problem of rejecting sinusoids with known frequencies that act on an unknown asymptotically stable linear time-invariant system. We present modifications to the algorithms that address the problems of sensor noise and actuator saturation. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithms and compare the performance of the algorithms via numerical simulation and experimental testing.

Formation Control With Bounded Controls And Collision Avoidance: Theory And Application To Quadrotor Unmanned Air Vehicles, Zachary S. Lippay

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical Engineering

This dissertation presents new results on multi-agent formation control and applies the new control algorithms to quadrotor unmanned air vehicles. First, this dissertation presents a formation control algorithm for double-integrator agents, where the formation is time varying and the agents’ controls satisfy a priori bounds (e.g., the controls accommodate actuator saturation). The main analytic results provide sufficient conditions such that all agents converge to the desired time-varying relative positions with one another and the leader, and have a priori bounded controls (if applicable). We also present results from rotorcraft experiments that demonstrate the algorithm with time-varying formations and bounded controls. …

A Predictive Modeling Approach To Counter Failures In Heat Seal Process Verification Methods, Charles Albanese

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Most products sold today are packaged in a protective shell that involves the design of a box or wrapper. A subset of such products also adds a second layer of protection via sterilization. For both sterilized and non-sterilized products, a procedure referred to as the heat seal process creates the protective barrier from outside influence. For sterilized products, the American Society for Testing and Materials provides standards to test or verify seal strength, and this verification is normally accomplished by using a process called a Design of Experiments (DOE). The DOE method makes systematic use of powerful data collection and …

Model Predictive Control Of Energy Systems For Heat And Power Applications, Chethan Ramakrishna Reddy

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Building and transportation sectors together account for two-thirds of the total energy consumption in the US. There is a need to make these energy systems (i.e., buildings and vehicles) more energy efficient. One way to make grid-connected buildings more energy efficient is to integrate the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system of the building with a micro-scale concentrated solar power (MicroCSP) sys- tem. Additionally, one way to make vehicles driven by internal combustion engine (ICE) more energy efficient is by integrating the ICE with a waste heat recovery (WHR) system. But, both the resulting energy systems need a smart …

Study Of Electric Vehicle Smart Charging And Energy Management For Vehicle-Grid Integration Systems, Zhouquan Wu

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The emerging need of building an efficient Electric Vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure requires the investigation of all aspects of Vehicle-Grid Integration (VGI). This dissertation studies the optimal EV charging control and energy management of VGI system to address the economic benefits of EV charging customers and operation stability of distribution power grids. First of all, a centralized EV charging control method is developed under the transactive energy environment to minimize the EV charging cost and avoid the distribution power grid overloading. The quadratic programming is used to obtain optimized charging control actions. Case studies with hundreds of EVs are conducted …

Magic: The Gathering Card Virtualizer, Vincent Garbonick, Jacen C. Conlan, Jaret A. Varn

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Any well-versed Magic: The Gathering (MTG) player or collector knows how difficult it can be to keep track of all cards in their collection. Some spend hours searching for that one specific card, and others are constantly scouring the internet for how much their collection costs. However, this issue does not only affect casual fans. Resale companies spend hours a day determining the costs of cards, and tournament judges painstakingly check players’ decks to ensure they are not cheating. To assist with these struggles, the design team proposed to create the MTG Card Virtualizer. This device scans MTG playing cards …

A Formal Power Series Approach To Multiplicative Dynamic And Static Output Feedback, Venkatesh Subbarao Guggilam

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

The goal of the paper is two-fold. The first of which is to derive an explicit formula to compute the generating series of a closed-loop system when a plant, given in a Chen-Fliess series description is in multiplicative output feedback connection with another system given in Chen-Fliess series description. In addition, the multiplicative dynamic output feedback connection has a natural interpretation as a transformation group acting on the plant. The second of the two-part goal of this paper is same as the first part albeit when the Chen-Fliess series in the feedback is replaced by a memoryless map, so called …

Smart City Management Using Machine Learning Techniques, Mostafa Zaman

Theses and Dissertations

In response to the growing urban population, "smart cities" are designed to improve people's quality of life by implementing cutting-edge technologies. The concept of a "smart city" refers to an effort to enhance a city's residents' economic and environmental well-being via implementing a centralized management system. With the use of sensors and actuators, smart cities can collect massive amounts of data, which can improve people's quality of life and design cities' services. Although smart cities contain vast amounts of data, only a percentage is used due to the noise and variety of the data sources. Information and communication technology (ICT) …

Modeling Human Control Behavior In Command-Following Tasks, Sajad Koushkbaghi

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical Engineering

Humans interact with a variety of complex dynamic systems on a daily basis. However, they are often the lesser understood component of human-in-the-loop (HITL) systems. In this dissertation, we present the results of two HITL experiments to investigate the control strategies that humans use when performing command-following tasks. The first experiment is designed to investigate the control strategies that humans use to interact with nonlinear dynamic systems. Two groups of human subjects interact with a dynamic system and perform a command-following task. One group interacts with a linear time-invariant (LTI) dynamic system and the other group interacts with a Wiener …

Performance Of Sensor Fusion For Vehicular Applications, Nikola Janevski

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Sensor fusion is a key system in Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, ADAS. The perfor-
mance of the sensor fusion depends on many factors such as the sensors used, the kinematic
model used in the Extended Kalman Filter, EKF, the motion of the vehicles, the type of
road, the density of vehicles, and the gating methods. The interactions between parameters
and the extent to which individual parameters contribute to the overall accuracy of a sensor
fusion system can be difficult to assess.
In this study, a full-factorial experimental evaluation of a sensor fusion system based
on a real vehicle was performed. …

Autonomous Coffee Brewing System, Lillian Gonzalez, Landon Miller, Tyler Moff, Benjamin Vitu

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Coffee consumers want an affordable, high-quality cup of coffee that takes minimal time to brew and does not excessively contribute plastic to landfills. A fully autonomous system which utilizes whole coffee beans, water, and filters to brew coffee was designed to meet this need. This system accepts user requests which specify the brew’s portion size, water temperature, and brew strength, as well as the time which the system should begin the brewing process. Occasional maintenance to empty the system’s built-in waste receptacle or resupply the system with water, coffee beans, or filters is the only user intervention required. This report …