Linearising discrete time hybrid systems

Model-based design approaches for embedded systems aim at generating correct-by-construction control software, guaranteeing that the closed-loop system (controller and plant) meets given system level formal specifications. This technical note addresses control synthesis for safety and reachability properties of possibly nonlinear discrete-time hybrid systems. By means of a syntactical transformations that requires nonlinear terms to be Lipschitz continuous functions, we overapproximate nonlinear dynamics with a linear system whose controllers are guaranteed to be controllers of the original system. We evaluate performance of our approach on meaningful control synthesis benchmarks, also comparing it to a state-of-the-art tool

The Use of Self-Reflective Essays in Creative Writing

Many Embedded Systems are indeed Software Based Control Systems, that is control systems whose controller consists of control software running on a microcontroller device. This motivates investigation on Formal Model Based Design approaches for automatic synthesis of embedded systems control software. This paper addresses control software synthesis for discrete time nonlinear hybrid systems. We present a methodology to overapproximate the dynamics of a discrete time nonlinear hybrid system H by means of a discrete time linear hybrid system LH, in such a way that controllers for LH are guaranteed to be controllers for H. We present experimental results on control software synthesis for the inverted pendulum, a challenging and meaningful control problem. © 2012 IEEE

Optimal Personalised Treatment Computation through In Silico Clinical Trials on Patient Digital Twins

In Silico Clinical Trials (ISCT), i.e. clinical experimental campaigns carried out by means of computer simulations, hold the promise to decrease time and cost for the safety and efficacy assessment of pharmacological treatments, reduce the need for animal and human testing, and enable precision medicine. In this paper we present methods and an algorithm that, by means of extensive computer simulation-based experimental campaigns (ISCT) guided by intelligent search, optimise a pharmacological treatment for an individual patient (precision medicine). We show the effectiveness of our approach on a case study involving a real pharmacological treatment, namely the downregulation phase of a complex clinical protocol for assisted reproduction in humans

A glimpse of SmartHG project test-bed and communication infrastructure

The SmartHG project goal is to develop a suite of integrated software services (the SmartHG Platform) aiming at steering residential users energy demand in order to: keep operating conditions of the electrical grid within given healthy bounds, minimize energy costs, and minimize CO2 emissions. This is achieved by exploiting knowledge (demand awareness) of electrical energy prosumption of residential users as gained from SmartHG sensing and communication infrastructure. This paper describes such an infrastructure along with user demand patterns emerging from the data gathered from ~600 sensors installed in ~40 homes participating in SmartHG test-bed

An Integrative Approach for Model Driven Computation of Treatments in Reproductive Medicine

We present an overview of the current status of the European collaborative project PAEON. The challenge of PAEON is to provide specialists in reproductive medicine with a computerised model of the menstrual cycle under normal and various pathological conditions, which will allow them to get further insight in fertility dynamics. This model also enables the simulation of treatment protocols, which were used within in vitro fertilization. By the definition of virtual patients through biologically admissible parametrizations our approach allows not only the evaluation of a given treatment strategy in silico, but also the design and optimization of such protocols. Once a protocol is formalized in the virtual hospital, the success can be controlled by a treatment execution monitor, which works then as a clinical decision support system. All these tools will be combined in a virtual hospital environment, enabling the access to the PAEON services through the web