Industrial Control Applications

Control approaches are pervasive and they are an essential intelligent component of many advanced industrial technologies.
Over the course of the years, the automatic control group in Padova have specialized in many applicative areas where advanced methodological approaches meet with impactful applications.

In this research area the group is supported by many companies, both SMEs and multinational companies, in different industries like automotive, home appliances, HVAC, oil & gas, packaging, semiconductor manufacturing and many more

 

Homepage: http://automatica.dei.unipd.it/research/industrialcontrolapplications.html

 

People: Alessandro Beghi(contact person), Mattia Bruschetta, Angelo Cenedese, Mirco Rampazzo, Gian Antonio Susto, Stefano Vitturi, Roberto Oboe

The research activity mostly concerns the development of models and control algorithms for vehicles and vehicle components. Special emphasis is given on the use of virtual prototyping tools, including hardware- and human-in-the-loop tools. The activity is focused on four main topics:

  • Design of motorcycle control algorithms for virtual prototyping applications
  • Design of vehicle pose estimation algorithms
  • Design of motion cueing algorithms for car driving simulators
  • Control algorithms for energy management of hybrid vehicles

Homepage: http://automatica.dei.unipd.it/people/beghi/research.html

People: Alessandro Beghi (contact person)

Efficient use of energy is one of the main strategic measures not only for the conservation of fossil energy resources but also for abatement of air pollution and the slowing down of anthropogenic climate change. The requirement of primary energy to cool and to heat buildings is an important part of the overall energy consumption in Western countries, summing up to about 30% of the U.S. and European global energy consumption, due to the increasing use of air conditioning units for cooling residential and office buildings during summer. The European Commission deliberated on the energy performance of buildings (EPBD), with the Directive 2002/91/EC, which imposes several actions to achieve prudent and rational use of energy resources and to reduce the environmental impact of the energy use in buildings.
This can be accomplished by increasing both the energy performance of new and existing buildings and the efficiency of cooling/heating systems. Advanced control methodologies can be applied to HVAC system management in order to improve energy efficiency, and regulation performance.

Homepage: http://automatica.dei.unipd.it/people/beghi/research.html

People: Alessandro Beghi (contact person)

The semiconductor industry is one of the most technology-evolving and capital-intensive market sectors. The speed and effectiveness with which new products are developed have an important influence on market competitiveness. Efficient control of manufacturing operations is well recognized to be a source of competitive advantage. The research activity covers Statistical Process Control, Advanced Process Control, Run-to-Run Control, Virtual Metrology, and Predictive Maintenance issues.

Homepage: http://automatica.dei.unipd.it/people/beghi/research.html

People: Alessandro Beghi (contact person)

The research focuses on industrial communication networks, that are real-time communication systems deployed in several application contexts such as, for example, factory automation, motion control, process automation, networked control systems, building automation and automotive systems.
These specific types of networks have to cope with the tight requirements typical of the industrial scenario. Particularly, they have to provide real-time performance as well as high reliability and robustness. The main research topics are the following:

  • Real-time communication protocols design
  • Protocol modeling
  • Performance analysis
  • Practical tests on prototype systems

Homepage: http://automatica.dei.unipd.it/research.html

People: Stefano Vitturi (contact person), Angelo Cenedese