Today's society is increasingly being embedded with technology that can interact with humans in a large scale interconnected world. We refer to the contexts where this new paradigmatic societal change is happening as smart environments. Our department is working on specific smart environments:
Smart Grids: The research focuses on the modeling, estimation, control and optimization of smart energy grids in the presence of renewable energy sources and dynamic prosumers. In particular, particular emphasis is placed on the impact of unreliable communication (packet loss and random delay), clock synchronization errors, safety constraints, multiple objectives, and non-rational prosumers. Ongoing research projects are the following: Active and Reactive Power Optimization and Control, Topology Identification, Real-time parameter estimation, Distributed State Estimation and fault detection, Real-time Load scheduling.
Smart Buildings: Buildings today are complex concatenations of structures, systems and technology. Each of the components inside a building has been developed and improved, allowing to select lighting, security, heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems independently. Smart buildings use information technology during operation to connect such subsystems, so that they can share information to optimize total building performance. Modern buildings also contain complex mechanical devices, sophisticated control systems and a suite of features to improve the safety, comfort and productivity of occupants.
Ongoing specific research topics regard: Time-series analysis, Gesture recognition, Integrated control of heterogeneous devices for smart domotic applications, Personal lighting control.
Smart Factories: The classical production hierarchy in factories, which is strongly characterized by centralized control, is increasingly being replaced by a flexible, self-organized factory (Smart Factory). The Internet of Things is transforming factory control and production structures, increasing agility and flexibility in the production process.
Ongoing specific research topics regard: Predictive maintenance techniques for industrial equipment and production lines. Fault diagnosis and anomaly detection for complex industrial equipment and systems.
Homepage: http://automatica.dei.unipd.it/research.html
People: Luca Schenato (contact person), Alessandro Beghi, Ruggero Carli, Angelo Cenedese, Gian Antonio Susto, Sandro Zampieri