Distributed Bio-inspired Humanoid Posture Control

This paper presents an innovative distributed bio-inspired posture control strategy for a humanoid, employing a balance control system DEC (Disturbance Estimation and Compensation). Its inherently modular structure could potentially lead to conflicts among modules, as already shown in literature. A distributed control strategy is presented here, whose underlying idea is to let only one module at a time perform balancing, whilst the other joints are controlled to be at a fixed position. Modules agree, in a distributed fashion, on which module to enable, by iterating a max-consensus protocol. Simulations performed with a triple inverted pendulum model show that this approach limits the conflicts among modules while achieving the desired posture and allows for saving energy while performing the task. This comes at the cost of a higher rise time.Comment: 2019 41st Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society (EMBC

Efficient Consensus-based Formation Control With Discrete-Time Broadcast Updates

This paper presents a consensus-based formation control strategy for autonomous agents moving in the plane with continuous-time single integrator dynamics. In order to save wireless resources (bandwidth, energy, etc), the designed controller exploits the superposition property of the wireless channel. A communication system, which is based on the Wireless Multiple Access Channel (WMAC) model and can deal with the presence of a fading channel is designed. Agents access the channel with simultaneous broadcasts at synchronous update times. A continuous-time controller with discrete-time updates is proposed. A proof of convergence is given and simulations are shown, demonstrating the effectiveness of the suggested approach.Comment: Submitted to CDC 201

Transient analysis of SIRIO using RELAP5/MOD3.3 system code

The main outcome of the present paper is the feasibility analysis of SIRIO (Sistema di rimozione della Potenza di decadimento per Reattori InnOvativi) facility with conditions based on those of its reference facility. The aim of SIRIO project is to study an innovative Decay Heat Removal System (DHRS) for liquid metal reactor and advanced Light Water Reactor (LWR). Such system must ensure passive control of the power removed from the primary system in abnormal condition, and must ensure reactor cooling in both short and long term. This study present numerical simulations developed with RELAP5/MOD3.3, of two operational procedures: the first one is a steady-state and the second one is a transient phase with decay heat generation. The thermal-hydraulic model, developed with RELAP5/MOD3.3, simulates the whole facility including lines, valves, water and gas tanks, and the Molten Salts (MS) gap. Since there is not experimental data, the present paper is a pre-test study based on SIRO facility design