ACC 2017 Tutorial Sessions

The tutorial sessions at American Control Conference (ACC) address the development and/or application of state-of-the-art control approaches & theory to real-world engineering applications. A typical session starts with one 30- or 60-minute talk on the underlying theory or application area. After the lead presentation, there are usually several 20-minute talks highlighting particular aspects or applications of the topic area in further detail.

We are pleased to offer 7 tutorial sessions at ACC 2017.

WeA01 Tutorial Session on: Advanced Flow Control of Wind Farms
Speakers: Sjoerd Boersma (Delft Univ. of Tech.), Bart Matthijs Doekemeijer (Delft Univ. of Tech.), Pieter M.O. Gebraad (Siemens Wind Power A/S), Paul Fleming (National Renewable Energy Lab.), Jennifer Annoni (National Renewable Energy Lab.), Andrew Scholbrock (National Renewable Energy Lab.), Jan-Willem van Wingerden (Delft Univ. of Tech.), Jinkyoo Park (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Tech.), Lucy Y. Pao (University of Colorado Boulder), Umberto Ciri (The University of Texas at Dallas), Mario Rotea (National Science Foundation), Stefano Leonardi (The University of Texas at Dallas)
Time: 10:00am – 12:00pm, Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Location: Aspen Room

Synopsis: Within the wind energy controls community, one of the most active fields of research is wind farm controls. In wind farm controls, the wind farm or collection of wind turbines, are considered as a global control problem, and not as a set of individual and independent control problems for each wind turbine. A control strategy which is optimal for each wind turbine operating alone may not be optimal for a group of wind turbines that are co-located in a farm, as the whole wind farm needs to share the wind energy resource. In this tutorial session, we will look into control-oriented modeling and control of wind farms, where various methods to model wind farms will be discussed and how they can be applied to coordinated wind farm control. Following the tutorial, three research papers will discuss wind turbine interactions through wakes, methods for modeling the wakes, and how to apply these methods for wind farm level control to optimize power production.

WeB01 Tutorial Session on: Modeling and Control of Roll-to-Roll Manufacturing Systems
Speakers: Prabhakar R. Pagilla (Texas A&M University), Dominique Knittel (IPST - University of Strasbourg)
Time: 1:30pm – 3:30pm, Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Location: Aspen Room

Synopsis: The goal of this tutorial is to present models and control algorithms for transport of flexible materials (webs) through roll-to-roll (R2R) processing systems to perform process operations such as coating, printing, lamination, etc. R2R processing of web materials is a leading manufacturing activity in many industries, and many consumer products, such as film, foil, aircraft, automobiles, flexible displays, thin film transistors, photovoltaics, involve R2R processing somewhere in their manufacturing. The number of products that are made using roll-to-roll processing has increased significantly in the last two decades. The need for developing new and efficient R2R technologies for mass production of new products is rapidly growing, especially in the manufacture of flexible printed electronics and flexible displays. The presenters will first provide a broad overview of R2R processing systems including modeling and control related issues and fundamental elements that constitute R2R systems. This will be followed by a discussion on modeling the dynamic of behavior of moving webs, model simulations, and control strategies for efficient web transport on rollers through various processes. Finally, some open problems and challenges in emerging and new products will be highlighted and discussed.

WeC01 Tutorial Session on: Thermal and HVAC Control Systems: Challenges and Opportunities
Speakers: Andrew G. Alleyne (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), Brandon Hencey (Air Force Research Lab), John T. Wen (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), Bryan Rasmussen (Texas A&M University)
Time: 4:00pm – 6:00pm, Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Location: Aspen Room

Synopsis: Modern energy systems for mobile (e.g. vehicles) and stationary (e.g. buildings) systems operate over multiple physical domains. The thermal energy domain is a critical one to consider for ensuring maximum system performance since much of the waste energy in these systems is manifested as thermal energy. Management of thermal energy is also critical for safety of modern electrified systems since poor temperature management can greatly impact reliability and lifetimes of equipment, particularly electrified equipment. This tutorial gives an overview of the primary elements of thermal systems as well as the items that pose challenges for control systems engineers. Key challenges among these are nonlinearities and uncertainty associated with different modes of thermal transport along with complexity found in larger scale networks of thermal systems. This tutorial outlines some of the key opportunities that can be met by advanced control tools. Three detailed topic presentations provide in depth exposition of control implemented on a range of mobile and stationary systems.

ThA01 Tutorial Session on: Bio-inspired Network Dynamics and Control
Speakers: Vaibhav Srivastava (Michigan State University), Naomi Ehrich Leonard (Princeton University), Sachit Butail (Northern Illinois University), Spring Berman (Arizona State University), John Baillieul (Boston University)
Time: 9:20am – 11:20am, Thursday, May 25, 2017
Location: Aspen Room

Synopsis: To operate in complex environments, multi-agent networks, such as transportation networks, mobile sensing networks and power networks, must perform efficiently, robustly, and adaptively, despite decentralization of control and possible limitations on sensing, communication and computing. Systematic, provable design methodologies to meet all these needs are still lacking. However, a great source of inspiration is coming from the investigation and leveraging of models and mechanisms that explain the high performing collective behavior of animal groups and neuronal populations. Like engineered networks, animals in flocks, schools, herds, and swarms, as well as neuronal networks, employ decentralized strategies and experience limitations on sensing, communication, and computing. Yet these biological groups excel in tasks such as migration, foraging, and predator evasion, and they demonstrate efficiency, robustness, and adaptability in complex environments. This tutorial session focuses on investigation of collective animal behavior across species using models derived from empirical data and presents systematic approaches for translating bio-inspired decision-making mechanisms into efficient design of high performing network dynamics and control.

ThB01 Tutorial Session on: Autonomous GNC of Space Systems
Speakers: Marcus Holzinger (Georgia Institute of Technology), Anton H. J. de Ruiter (Ryerson University), Riccardo Bevilacqua (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), Efstathios Bakolas (The University of Texas at Austin), Maruthi Akella (The University of Texas at Austin)
Time: 1:30pm – 3:30pm, Thursday, May 25, 2017
Location: Aspen Room

Synopsis: Future space missions are expected to take us over large distances from Earth thereby inducing insignificant light-time delays that prevent online mission support from ground. The complex interplay between autonomy and onboard decision support systems introduce new vulnerabilities that are extremely hard to predict with existing mission analysis tools. Sensing, anticipation, adaptation, and learning processes can be generally viewed to characterize autonomy as an overarching system-level property. This tutorial session presents an overview of recent results in spacecraft formation control and swarm autonomy. The tutorial topics covered here include a review of constellation control architectures, handling actuator saturation constraints, novel concepts arising through covariance control applications, and the adoption of propellant-free space-based actuation concepts such as the use of solar radiation pressure for station-keeping geostationary satellites.

ThC01 Tutorial Session on: Vision-Based Navigation and Perception for Space Systems
Speakers: James Richard Forbes (McGill University), Renato Zanetti (NASA), Simone D'Amico (Stanford University), Manoranjan Majji (Texas A&M University)
Time: 4:00pm – 6:00pm, Thursday, May 25, 2017
Location: Aspen Room

Synopsis: Advances in microelectronics engendered commoditization of software and hardware systems, proliferating unprecedented innovation and technology development in virtually all spheres of science and engineering. Aerospace systems are not an exception and the unbridled growth as evidenced by the rapid advances in autonomy, perception, cognition, imaging, and vision technologies. While the emerging space corporations such as Space-X, Google, and Facebook represent the market pull in updating the state of practice, it is imperative that our academic and research communities remain concurrent with the bleeding edge. This tutorial session is aimed at bringing glimpses of recent advances in aerospace navigation brought about by the vision-based navigation and perception systems. Some of the specific topics discussed in this session will include optical navigation for space vehicles, monocular vision-based navigation, and VisNav for spacecraft proximity operations.

FrA01 Tutorial Session on: Autonomous Vehicles
Speakers: Reza Langari (Texas A&M University), J. Karl Hedrick (University of California at Berkeley), Swaminathan Gopalswamy (Emmeskay, Inc.), Karl Berntorp (Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs)
Time: 9:30am – 11:30am, Friday, May 26, 2017
Location: Aspen Room

Synopsis: The market for autonomous vehicles (Level 4+ autonomy, or L4+) is expected to reach $42B by 2025 (Bloomberg) and upwards of $85B by 2030. The proposed tutorial session will focus on the five key issues that are relevant in this respect, namely i) localization, ii) perception, ii) decision logic, iv) control execution as well as v) validation/verification. These issues are central to effective functioning of autonomous vehicles and remain both research topics as well as subjects of significant development effort by industry. The first presentation by Dr. Reza Langari provides an overview of the issues listed above and the outlook for future development in the relevant areas. The second presentation by Dr. Karl Hedrick will focus on the systems view of the problem and the issues of safety and security of automated vehicles within the context of intelligent transportation systems. The presentation by Dr. Swami Gopalswami focuses on the implementation aspects of automated vehicles and the role of industry in this context. The final presentation by Dr. Karl Berntorp addresses the problem of motion planning and control, a critical issue in automated vehicles. The industry panel will discuss their perspectives on these issues and present their case for further research and development in this emerging area.