Anticipating and Coordinating Voltage Control for Interconnected Power Systems

This paper deals with the application of an anticipating and coordinating feedback control scheme in order to mitigate the long-term voltage instability of multi-area power systems. Each local area is uniquely controlled by a control agent (CA) selecting control values based on model predictive control (MPC) and is possibly operated by an independent transmission system operator (TSO). Each MPC-based CA only knows a detailed local hybrid system model of its own area, employing reduced-order quasi steady-state (QSS) hybrid models of its neighboring areas and even simpler PV models for remote areas, to anticipate (and then optimize) the future behavior of its own area. Moreover, the neighboring CAs agree on communicating their planned future control input sequence in order to coordinate their own control actions. The feasibility of the proposed method for real-time applications is explained, and some practical implementation issues are also discussed. The performance of the method, using time-domain simulation of the Nordic32 test system, is compared with the uncoordinated decentralized MPC (no information exchange among CAs), demonstrating the improved behavior achieved by combining anticipation and coordination. The robustness of the control scheme against modeling uncertainties is also illustrated

Sensitivity-based multistep MPC for embedded systems

In model predictive control (MPC), an optimization problem is solved every sampling instant to determine an optimal control for a physical system. We aim to accelerate this procedure for fast systems applications and address the challenge of implementing the resulting MPC scheme on an embedded system with limited computing power. We present the sensitivity-based multistep MPC, a strategy which considerably reduces the computing requirements in terms of floating point operations (FLOPs), compared to a standard MPC formulation, while fulfilling closed- loop performance expectations. We illustrate by applying the method to a DC-DC converter model and show how a designer can optimally trade off closed-loop performance considerations with computing requirements in order to fit the controller into a resource-constrained embedded system

A Warm-start Interior-point Method for Predictive Control

In predictive control, a quadratic program (QP) needs to be solved at each sampling instant. We present a new warm-start strategy to solve a QP with an interior-point method whose data is slightly perturbed from the previous QP. In this strategy, an initial guess of the unknown variables in the perturbed problem is determined from the computed solution of the previous problem. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our warm-start strategy to a number of online benchmark problems. Numerical results indicate that the proposed technique depends upon the size of perturbation and it leads to a reduction of 30–74% in floating point operations compared to a cold-start interior-point method

Move blocking strategies in receding horizon control

Abstract — In order to deal with the computational burden of optimal control, it is common practice to reduce the degrees of freedom by fixing the input or its derivatives to be constant over several time-steps. This policy is referred to as “move blocking”. This paper will address two issues. First, a survey of various move blocking strategies is presented and the shortcomings of these blocking policies, such as the lack of stability and constraint satisfaction guarantees, will be illustrated. Second, a novel move blocking scheme, “Moving Window Blocking” (MWB), will be presented. In MWB, the blocking strategy is time-dependent such that the scheme yields stability and feasibility guarantees for the closed-loop system. Finally, the results of a large case-study are presented that illustrate the advantages and drawbacks of the various control strategies discussed in this paper

Model predictive control with dynamic move blocking

Model Predictive Control (MPC) has proven to be a powerful tool for the control of systems with constraints. Nonetheless, in many applications, a major challenge arises, that is finding the optimal solution within a single sampling instant to apply a receding-horizon policy. In such cases, many suboptimal solutions have been proposed, among which the possibility of "blocking" some moves a-priori. In this paper, we propose a dynamic approach to move blocking, to exploit the solution already available at the previous iteration, and we show not only that such an approach preserves asymptotic stability, but also that the decrease of performance with respect to the ideal solution can be theoretically bounded.Comment: 7 page

이동블록 및 잔류편차 제거 모델예측제어 기법의 최적성 향상

학위논문(박사)--서울대학교 대학원 :공과대학 화학생물공학부,2020. 2. 이종민.Model predictive control (MPC) is a receding horizon control which derives finite-horizon optimal solution for current state on-line by solving an optimal control problem. MPC has had a tremendous impact on both industrial and control research areas. There are several outstanding issues in MPC. MPC has to solve the optimization problem within a sampling period so that the reduction of on-line computational complexity is a one of the main research subject in MPC. Another major issue is model-plant mismatch due to the model based predictive approach so that offset-free tracking schemes by compensating model-plant mismatch or unmeasured disturbance has been developed. In this thesis, we focused on the optimality performance of move blocking which fixes the decision variables over arbitrary time intervals to reduce computational load for on-line optimization in MPC and disturbance estimator approach based offset-free MPC which is the most standardly used method to accomplish offset-free tracking in MPC. We improve the optimality performance of move blocked MPC in two ways. The first scheme provides a superior base sequence by linearly interpolating complementary base sequences, and the second scheme provides a proper time-varying blocking structure with semi-explicit approach. Moreover, we improve the optimality performance of offset-free MPC by exploiting learned model-plant mismatch compensating signal from estimated disturbance data. With the proposed schemes, we efficiently improve the optimality performance while guaranteeing the recursive feasibility and closed-loop stability.모델예측제어는 현재 시스템 상태에 대한 유한 구간 최적해를 도출하는 온라인 이동 구간 제어 방식이다. 모델예측제어는 피드백을 통한 공정 동특성과 제약 조건을 효과적으로 반영하는 장점으로 인해 산업 및 제어 연구 분야에 큰 영향을 미쳤다. 이러한 모델예측제어에는 몇 가지 해결되어야 할 문제가 있다. 모델예측제어에서는 샘플링 기간 내에 최적화 문제를 풀어내야 하기 때문에, 온라인 계산 복잡성의 감소가 주요 연구 주제 중 하나로 활발히 연구되고 있다. 또 다른 주요 문제는 모델에 기반한 예측을 이용하는 접근 방식으로 인해 모델-플랜트 불일치로 인한 오차를 해결해야 한다는 점이며, 모델 플랜트 불일치 또는 측정되지 않은 외란을 보상하여 잔류편차 없이 참조신호를 추적하는 연구가 활발히 이루어지고 있다. 이 논문에서는 모델예측제어에서의 온라인 최적화를 위한 계산 부하를 줄이기 위해 임의의 시간 간격에 걸쳐 결정 변수를 고정시키는 이동 블록 전략의 최적성 향상에 중점을 두었으며, 또한 잔류편차를 제거하기 위해 가장 표준적으로 사용되는 외란 추정기를 이용한 잔류편차-제거 모델예측제어 기법의 최적성 향상에 중점을 두었다. 이 논문에서는 이동 블록 모델예측제어의 최적 성능을 향상시키기 위한 두 가지 전략을 제시한다. 첫 번째 전략은 이동 블록 전략에서 일반적으로 고정된 채로 사용되는 기반 시퀀스를 상호 보완적인 두 기반 시퀀스의 선형 보간으로 대체함으로써 보다 우수한 기반 시퀀스를 제공하며, 두 번째 전략은 준-명시적 접근법을 활용하여 현재 시스템 상태에 적절한 시변 블록 구조를 온라인에서 제공한다. 또한, 잔류편차-제거 모델예측제어 기법의 최적 성능을 향상시키기 위해 추정 외란 데이터로부터 학습된 모델-플랜트 불일치 보상 신호를 온라인에서 이용하는 전략을 제안하였다. 제안된 세 가지 기법을 통해 모델예측제어의 반복적 실현가능성과 폐쇄-루프 안정성을 보장하면서 최적 성능을 효율적으로 개선 하였다.1. Introduction 1 2. Move-blocked model predictive control with linear interpolation of base sequences 5 2.1 Introduction 5 2.2 Preliminaries 9 2.2.1 MPC formulation 9 2.2.2 Move blocking 12 2.2.3 Move blocked MPC (MBMPC) 15 2.3 Move blocking schemes 16 2.3.1 Previous solution based offset blocking 17 2.3.2 LQR solution based offset blocking 18 2.4 Interpolated solution based move blocking 20 2.4.1 Interpolated solution based MBMPC 20 2.4.2 QP formulation 26 2.5 Numerical examples 29 2.5.1 Example 1 (Feasible region) 30 2.5.2 Example 2 (Performance in regulation problem) 33 2.5.3 Example 3 (Performance in tracking problem) 36 3. Move-blocked model predictive control with time-varying blocking structure by semi-explicit approach 43 3.1 Introduction 43 3.2 Problem formulation 46 3.3 Move blocked MPC 48 3.3.1 Move blocking scheme 48 3.3.2 Implementation of move blocking 51 3.4 Semi-explicit approach for move blocked MPC 53 3.4.1 Off-line generation of critical region 56 3.4.2 On-line MPC scheme with critical region search 60 3.4.3 Property of semi-explicit move blocked MPC 62 3.5 Numerical examples 70 3.5.1 Example 1 (Regulation problem) 71 3.5.2 Example 2 (Tracking problem) 77 4. Model-plant mismatch learning offset-free model predictive control 83 4.1 Introduction 83 4.2 Offset-free MPC: Disturbance estimator approach 86 4.2.1 Preliminaries 86 4.2.2 Disturbance estimator and controller design 87 4.2.3 Offset-free tracking condition 89 4.3 Model-plant mismatch learning offset-free MPC 91 4.3.1 Model-plant mismatch learning 92 4.3.2 Application of learned model-plant mismatch 97 4.3.3 Robust asymptotic stability of model-plant mismatch learning offset-free MPC 102 4.4 Numerical example 117 4.4.1 System with random set-point 120 4.4.2 Transformed system 125 4.4.3 System with multiple random set-points 128 5. Concluding remarks 134 5.1 Move-blocked model predictive control with linear interpolation of base sequences 134 5.2 Move-blocked model predictive control with time-varying blocking structure by semi-explicit approach 135 5.3 Model-plant mismatch learning offset-free model predictive control 136 5.4 Conclusions 138 5.5 Future work 139 Bibliography 145Docto

Accepting higher morbidity in exchange for sacrificing fewer animals in studies developing novel infection-control strategies.

Preventing bacterial infections from becoming the leading cause of death by the year 2050 requires the development of novel, infection-control strategies, building heavily on biomaterials science, including nanotechnology. Pre-clinical (animal) studies are indispensable for this development. Often, animal infection outcomes bear little relation to human clinical outcome. Here, we review conclusions from pathogen-inoculum dose-finding pilot studies for evaluation of novel infection-control strategies in murine models. Pathogen-inoculum doses are generally preferred that produce the largest differences in quantitative infection outcome parameters between a control and an experimental group, without death or termination of animals due to having reached an inhumane end-point during the study. However, animal death may represent a better end-point for evaluation than large differences in outcome parameters or number of days over which infection persists. The clinical relevance of lower pre-clinical outcomes, such as bioluminescence, colony forming units (CFUs) retrieved or more rapid clearance of infection is unknown, as most animals cure infection without intervention, depending on pathogen-species and pathogen-inoculum dose administered. In human clinical practice, patients suffering from infection present to hospital emergency wards, frequently in life-threatening conditions. Animal infection-models should therefore use prevention of death and recurrence of infection as primary efficacy targets to be addressed by novel strategies. To compensate for increased animal morbidity and mortality, animal experiments should solely be conducted for pre-clinical proof of principle and safety. With the advent of sophisticated in vitro models, we advocate limiting use of animal models when exploring pathogenesis or infection mechanisms