Control in the technical societies: a brief history

By the time control engineering emerged as a coherent body of knowledge and practice (during and just after WW2) professional engineering societies had existed for many decades. Since control engineering is an interdisciplinary branch of the profession, new sections devoted to control were quickly established within the various existing technical societies. In addition, some new bodies devoted specifically or primarily to control were established. This article, a revised version of a paper presented at the IEEE 2009 Conference on the History of Technical Societies, describes how control engineering as a distinct branch of engineering became represented in technical societies in a number of countries

Control engineering and the professional societies

By the time control engineering emerged as a coherent body of knowledge and practice (during and just after WW2) professional engineering societies had existed for many decades. Since control engineering is an interdisciplinary branch of the profession, new sections devoted to control were quickly established within the various existing technical societies. In addition, some new bodies devoted specifically or primarily to control were established. This brief paper will present in outline the history of how control engineering as a distinct branch of engineering became represented in technical societies – or their equivalent – in the USA, UK, USSR, Germany and France

Self-Evaluation Applied Mathematics 2003-2008 University of Twente

This report contains the self-study for the research assessment of the Department of Applied Mathematics (AM) of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) at the University of Twente (UT). The report provides the information for the Research Assessment Committee for Applied Mathematics, dealing with mathematical sciences at the three universities of technology in the Netherlands. It describes the state of affairs pertaining to the period 1 January 2003 to 31 December 2008

A review of convex approaches for control, observation and safety of linear parameter varying and Takagi-Sugeno systems

This paper provides a review about the concept of convex systems based on Takagi-Sugeno, linear parameter varying (LPV) and quasi-LPV modeling. These paradigms are capable of hiding the nonlinearities by means of an equivalent description which uses a set of linear models interpolated by appropriately defined weighing functions. Convex systems have become very popular since they allow applying extended linear techniques based on linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) to complex nonlinear systems. This survey aims at providing the reader with a significant overview of the existing LMI-based techniques for convex systems in the fields of control, observation and safety. Firstly, a detailed review of stability, feedback, tracking and model predictive control (MPC) convex controllers is considered. Secondly, the problem of state estimation is addressed through the design of proportional, proportional-integral, unknown input and descriptor observers. Finally, safety of convex systems is discussed by describing popular techniques for fault diagnosis and fault tolerant control (FTC).Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Energy efficiency in discrete-manufacturing systems: insights, trends, and control strategies

Since the depletion of fossil energy sources, rising energy prices, and governmental regulation restrictions, the current manufacturing industry is shifting towards more efficient and sustainable systems. This transformation has promoted the identification of energy saving opportunities and the development of new technologies and strategies oriented to improve the energy efficiency of such systems. This paper outlines and discusses most of the research reported during the last decade regarding energy efficiency in manufacturing systems, the current technologies and strategies to improve that efficiency, identifying and remarking those related to the design of management/control strategies. Based on this fact, this paper aims to provide a review of strategies for reducing energy consumption and optimizing the use of resources within a plant into the context of discrete manufacturing. The review performed concerning the current context of manufacturing systems, control systems implemented, and their transformation towards Industry 4.0 might be useful in both the academic and industrial dimension to identify trends and critical points and suggest further research lines.Peer ReviewedPreprin

Control in the Cold War: the genesis and early years of the International Federation of Automatic Control

1956 was a turning point for the emerging discipline of automatic control. The approach known as classical control had emerged from WW2 as a result of collaboration between electronics, communications and mechanical engineers, predominantly in the USA and UK, but to a lesser extent in Germany. Developments in this area in the USSR were less significant, but an important novel approach to non-linear dynamics had been researched there in a control context since the 1930s. At least eight conferences were held in Europe in 1956, including an international one in Paris in June. In retrospect, however, the seminal event was the conference in Heidelberg in September organized jointly by the two German engineering societies VDE / VDI. This drew wide international participation, including delegates from Eastern Europe and Japan; but perhaps most importantly it marked the inception of IFAC, the International Federation of Automatic Control. Prompted by the growing internationalization of control engineering, and the Cold War climate of the mid 1950s, a number of delegates to the Heidelberg conference expressed interest in establishing a new, international, association. The driving force for this initiative came from G. Ruppel (Germany), R. Oldenburger (USA) and V. Broïda (France). A meeting of 25 interested participants was held and a resolution adopted to found “an international federation of automatic control [… with] the following objectives: 1. To facilitate the interchange of information in automatic control and to promote progress in this field. 2. To organize international congresses in this field.” A provisional committee was set up which met at the offices of the VDI/VDE specialist control group in Düsseldorf in April 1957, and IFAC came into being at a meeting in Paris in September that year. The first president was the American Harold Chestnut and the Vice-Presidents were the Russian A. M. Letov and the Frenchman V. Broïda. It was also agreed that Letov would be the second president and that the first IFAC Congress would be held in Moscow in 1960 – a remarkable international collaboration given the political climate of the time. IFAC’s constitution provided for one National Member Organization (NMO) per nation state. Countries such as the USA and the UK with more than one technical society with interests in the field established new overarching NMOs such as the American and UK Automatic Control Councils. The only sticking point was Germany, whose divided status made this politically impossible, and not until 1971 were both East and West Germany allowed to be represented by separate NMOs. German interests, however, were supported from start as a result of the establishment of the IFAC secretariat initially in Düsseldorf. The 1960 IFAC Moscow Congress was a huge affair, and an important event in the development of automatic control. A number of seminal papers in the new area of modern control were presented, perhaps the most famous being Kalman’s paper on his radical approach to linear filtering and prediction. It was also an opportunity for a meeting between East and West, even though Soviet suspicion limited informal contact between Russians and international delegates. This paper will examine the early development of IFAC and the contribution it made to international collaboration in the field of automatic control during the Cold War