Static Pricing Problems under Mixed Multinomial Logit Demand

Price differentiation is a common strategy for many transport operators. In this paper, we study a static multiproduct price optimization problem with demand given by a continuous mixed multinomial logit model. To solve this new problem, we design an efficient iterative optimization algorithm that asymptotically converges to the optimal solution. To this end, a linear optimization (LO) problem is formulated, based on the trust-region approach, to find a "good" feasible solution and approximate the problem from below. Another LO problem is designed using piecewise linear relaxations to approximate the optimization problem from above. Then, we develop a new branching method to tighten the optimality gap. Numerical experiments show the effectiveness of our method on a published, non-trivial, parking choice model

Development of Economic Water Usage Sensor and Cyber-Physical Systems Co-Simulation Platform for Home Energy Saving

In this thesis, two Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) approaches were considered to reduce residential building energy consumption. First, a flow sensor was developed for residential gas and electric storage water heaters. The sensor utilizes unique temperature changes of tank inlet and outlet pipes upon water draw to provide occupant hot water usage. Post processing of measured pipe temperature data was able to detect water draw events. Conservation of energy was applied to heater pipes to determine relative internal water flow rate based on transient temperature measurements. Correlations between calculated flow and actual flow were significant at a 95% confidence level. Using this methodology, a CPS water heater controller can activate existing residential storage water heaters according to occupant hot water demand. The second CPS approach integrated an open-source building simulation tool, EnergyPlus, into a CPS simulation platform developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The NIST platform utilizes the High Level Architecture (HLA) co-simulation protocol for logical timing control and data communication. By modifying existing EnergyPlus co-simulation capabilities, NIST’s open-source platform was able to execute an uninterrupted simulation between a residential house in EnergyPlus and an externally connected thermostat controller. The developed EnergyPlus wrapper for HLA co-simulation can allow active replacement of traditional real-time data collection for building CPS development. As such, occupant sensors and simple home CPS product can allow greater residential participation in energy saving practices, saving up to 33% on home energy consumption nationally

FMI Compliant Approach to Investigate the Impact of Communication to Islanded Microgrid Secondary Control

In multi-master islanded microgrids, the inverter controllers need to share the signals and to coordinate, in either centralized or distributed way, in order to operate properly and to assure a good functionality of the grid. The central controller is used in centralized strategy. In distributed control, Multi-agent system (MAS) is considered to be a suitable solution for coordination of such system. However the latency and disturbance of the network may disturb the communication from central controller to local controllers or among agents or and negatively influence the grid operation. As a consequence, communication aspects need to be properly addressed during the control design and assessment. In this paper, we propose a holistic approach with co-simulation using Functional Mockup Interface (FMI) standard to validate the microgrid control system taking into account the communication network. A use-case of islanded microgrid frequency secondary control with MAS under consensus algorithm is implemented to demonstrate the impact of communication and to illustrate the proposed holistic approach.Comment: Proceedings of the IEEE PES ISGT Asia 2017 conferenc

On the optimization of conservation law models at a junction with inflow and flow distribution controls

The paper proposes a general framework to analyze control problems for conservation law models on a network. Namely we consider a general class of junction distribution controls and inflow controls and we establish the compactness in $L^1$ of a class of flux-traces of solutions. We then derive the existence of solutions for two optimization problems: (I) the maximization of an integral functional depending on the flux-traces of solutions evaluated at points of the incoming and outgoing edges; (II) the minimization of the total variation of the optimal solutions of problem (I). Finally we provide an equivalent variational formulation of the min-max problem (II) and we discuss some numerical simulations for a junction with two incoming and two outgoing edges.Comment: 29 pages, 14 figure

Distributed Simulation of Heterogeneous and Real-time Systems

This work describes a framework for distributed simulation of cyber-physical systems (CPS). Modern CPS comprise large numbers of heterogeneous components, typically designed in very different tools and languages that are not or not easily composeable. Evaluating such large systems requires tools that integrate all components in a systematic, well-defined manner. This work leverages existing frameworks to facilitate the integration offers validation by simulation. A framework for distributed simulation is the IEEE High-Level Architecture (HLA) compliant tool CERTI, which provides the infrastructure for co-simulation of models in various simulation environments as well as hardware components. We use CERTI in combination with Ptolemy II, an environment for modeling and simulating heterogeneous systems. In particular, we focus on models of a CPS, including the physical dynamics of a plant, the software that controls the plant, and the network that enables the communication between controllers. We describe the Ptolemy extensions for the interaction with HLA and demonstrate the approach on a flight control system simulation