IFAC Newsletter
IFAC Newsletter
The heart of IFAC are its Technical Committees. It is there that the grassroots work is done in the various technical areas which then finds its expression in the IFAC Symposia, Workshops, Conferences and, of course, the triennial IFAC World Congress. The Technical Committees are not static but constantly develop further which also requires that the scopes of the technical committees are subjected to changes and adaptations as required by developments in the respective field. To give you an overview of the activities in which IFAC currently concentrates its work we have published the scopes of all technical committees as revised and updated after the last IFAC World Congress in San Francisco in 1996. A short version follows:
Boiler Turbine Dynamics in Power Plant Control (C. Maffezoni)
Decoupling Pole Placement Control with Application to a Multi-Channel Electro-Hydraulic Servosystem (A.R. Plummer and N.D. Vaughan)
A Methodology for Impact Evaluation of Alternative Control Strategies in a Large-Scale Power Plant (A.O. Soares, A. Goncalves, R.N. Silva and J.M. Lemos)
Transient Stabilization Using Adaptive Excitation and Dynamic Brake Control (Yoke Lin Tan and Youyi Wang)
Preface to the Revised Papers from the 1995 IFAC Symposium on the Analysis, Design and Evaluation of Man-Machine Systems (MMS’95) (K. Kawai)
Conceptual Design of Multi-Human Machine Interfaces (G. Johannsen)
Telemanipulation and Telepresence (H.G. Stassen and G.F.J. Smets)
Designing Support Contexts: Helping Operators to Generate and Use Knowledge (G.A. Sundström)
Perception of Flight Information from EFIS Display (R.J.A.W. Hosman and M. Mulder)
Multilevel Organization Design: The Case of the Air Traffic Control (F. Vanderhaegen)
An Intelligent Multimedia Human Interface for Highly Automated Combined-Cycle Plants (K. Kawai)
Operator Adaptation in Process Control: A Three-Year Research Program (K.J. Vicente)
Development of an Analysis Support System for Man-Machine System Design Information (H. Yoshikawa, T. Nakagawa, Y. Nakatani, T. Furuta and A. Hasegawa)
13th IFAC Triennial World Congress (Volume E), July 1996, San Francisco, USA
13th IFAC Triennial World Congress (Volume G), July 1996, San Francisco, USA
Digital Signal Processors for Modern Control Systems (M.K. Masten and I. Panahi)
A Comparison of Input Shaping and Time-Optimal Flexible-Body Control (W. Singhose and L. Pao)
The Use of Identified Parameter Limits in a Robust Adaptive Controller (R.W. Beaven, M.T. Wright and M.I. Friswell)
Disturbance Rejection Using Output and Input Estimation. Application to the Friction Compensation of a DC Motor (W. Nuninger, B. Balaud and F. Kratz)
Dynamic Control of a Robot Arm Using CMAC Neural Networks (G. Cembrano, G. Wells, J. Sardá and A Ruggeri)
Observers for Bilinear Systems with Unknown Inputs and Application to Superheater Temperature Control (Sang Hyuk Lee, Jaesop Kong and Jin H. Seo)
Identification of Vibration Parameters in a Spacecraft Using Subspace Methods (A. Skullestad and O. Hallingstad)
Preface to the Special Section on Modelling and Control of National and Regional Economies (C. Chiarella and L. Vlacic)
The Ethics of Modelling (M.J. Rabins and C.E. Harris, Jr.)
13th IFAC Triennial World Congress (Volume H), July 1996, San Francisco, USA
13th IFAC Triennial World Congress (Volume I), July 1996, San Francisco, USA
13th IFAC Triennial World Congress (Volume J), July 1996, San Francisco, USA
H2 Optimal Controllers with Measurement Feedback for Discrete-time Systems - Flexibility in Closed-loop Pole Placement (A. Saberi, P. Sannuti, A.A. Stoorvogel)
An Efficient Order Recursive Algorithm with a Lattice Structure for Estimating Continuous-time AR Process Parameters (H. Fan)
Auto-tuning of Multivariable PID Controllers from Decentralised Relay Feedback (Q-G. Wang, B. Zou, T-H. Lee, Q. Bi)
Stability of a Bottom-heavy Underwater Vehicle (N.E. Leonhard)
Stability and Stabilization of Delay Differential Systems (J-C. Hennet, S. Tarbouriech)
Convergence of Optimal Control Problems with an H-Norm Constraint (H.P. Rotstein)
Structurally Stable Output Regulation of Nonlinear Systems (C.I. Byrnes, F. Delli Priscoli, A. Isidori, W. Kang)
SISO Controller Design to Minimize a Positive Combination of the 1 and the 2 Norms (M.V. Salapaka, P. Voulgaris, M. Dahleh)
Sequential Identification of Coulomb and Viscous Friction in Robot Drives (M.R. Elhami, D.J. Brookfield)
A Geometric Approach for Structured Systerms: Application to Disturbance Decoupling Commault, J.M. Dion, V. Hovelaque)
Gain Scheduling: From Conventional to Neuro-Fuzzy Tan, C-C. Hang, J-S. Chai)
Predictive Control Design for Large Scale Systems (M.R. Katebi, M.A. Johnson)
On the Use of Diagonal Control vs. Decoupling for Ill-conditioned Processes (O.B. Gjosaeter, B.A. Foss)
SVD Controllers for H2-, H-(infinity)-, and (mu)-optimal control Hovd, R.D. Braatz, S. Skogestad)
On Tikhonov Regularization, Bias and Variance in Nonlinear System Identification (T.A. Johansen)
Cost-smoothing in Discrete-time Linear-quadratic Control Li, C.W. Schmidt)
Global Robust Stabilization of Minimum-phase Nonlinear Systems with Uncertainty Lin)
Discrete-time Stability with Perturbations: Application to Model Predictive Control (P.O.M. Scokaert, J.B. Rawlings, E.S. Meadows)
Robust Detection Filter Design in the Presence of Time Varying System Perturbations Edelmayer, J. Boker, F. Szigeti, L. Keviczky)
System Modeling and Identification, by R. Johansson (R. Kulhavy)
Cognitive Systems Engineering, by J. Rasmussen, A.M. Pejtersen and L.P. Goodstein (J.E. Larsson)
Transient Stability of Power Systems, Theory and Practive, by M. Pavella and P.G. Murthy (G. Andersson)
Simulation Fundamentals, by B.S. Bennett (I. Troch)
Advanced Control System Design, by Bernard Friedland (E. Kreindler)
Call for Papers: Automatica Special Issue on Hybrid Systems (J.M. Schumacher)
Passivity-based Controllers for the Stabilization DC-to DC Power Converters (H. Sira-Ramirez, R. Ortega, R.A. Perez-Moreno, M. Garcia-Esteban)
A Structure-based Modeling and Control of Electric Power Systems (M.D. Ilic, X. Liu, B. Eidson, C. Vialas, M. Athans)
Continuous I/O Robust Control of SISO Time Varying Systems (Z. Qu, E.W. Kamen, J.F. Dorsey)
Stable Generalized Predictive Control with Constraints and Bounded Disturbances (J.R. Gossner, B. Kouvaritakis, J.A. Rossiter)
Minimum Energy Covariance Controllers (K.M. Grigoriadis, R.E. Skelton)
Repositioning Control of a Two-link Flexible Arm by Learning (P. Lucibello, S. Panzieri, G. Ulivi)
Minimum Entropy Control for Discrete-time Time-varying Systems (M.A. Peters, P.A. Iglesias)
Minimum Variance Prediction for Linear Time-varying Systems (Z. Li, R.J. Evans, B. Wittenmark)
Analysis of H2 and H Performance of Discrete Periodically Time-varying Controllers (C. Zhang, J. Zhang, K. Furuta)
CMAC Neural Networks for Control of Nonlinear Dynamical Systems: Structure, Stability and Passivity (S. Commuri, F.L. Lewis)
Direct Adaptive Impedance Control Including Transition Phases (C. Canudas De Wit, B. Brogliato)
Low-order Stabilization for Linear Systems (Q-G. Wang, T-H. Lee, J-B. He)
On the Discretization of LMI-synthesized Linear Parameter-varying Controllers (P. Apkarian)
Design of an Adaptive Bilinear Power System Stabilizer (F. He, M.J. Gibbard)
The H Control for Descriptor Systems: A Matrix Inequalities Approach (I. Masubuchi, Y. Kamitane, A. Ohara, N. Suda)
Strict Lyapunov Functions for Control of Robot Manipulators (V. Santibanez, R. Kelly)
Linear Time-varying System Control Based on the Inversion Transformation (M-S. Chen)
Identifiability and Persistent Excitation in Full Matrix Fraction Parameter Estimation (P.O. Arambel, G. Tadmor)
Passivity of Nonlinear Systems with Input-Output Feedthrough (G.L. Santosuosso)
Persistence of Excitation Conditions in Passive Learning Control (J.A. Farrell)
Structural Matrix Minimization Algorithm for Implicit Descriptions (M. Bonilla Estrada, M. Malabre)
Improved Relay Auto-tuning with Static Load Disturbance (J. Hyun Park, S. Whan Sung, I.-B. Lee)
Unbiased Minimum Variance Estimation for Systems with Unknown Exogenous Inputs (M. Darouach, M. Zasadzinski)
Discrete Model Reduction Preserving Bounded Realness (D. Chang Oh, H.B. Park)
Adaptive Control of Linearizable Discrete-time Systems (G.A. Gonzalez)
On the Use of Reachability Gramians for the Stabilization of Linear Periodic Systems (G. de Nicolao, S. Strada)
Angular Position Adaptive Control of a Squirrel-cage Induction Machine (M. Bonilla Estrada, O.M. Amestegut, M.I.I. Siller-Alcala, R. Galindo)
An LMI Approach to H(infinity) Controller Design for Linear Time-delay Systems (H.H. Choi, M.J. Chung)
A Subspace Method for the Computation of the GCD of Polynomials (W. Qiu, Y. Hua, K. Abed-Meraim)
Structural Interpretation of Transmission Zeros for Matrix Second Order Systems (G. Calafiore, S. Carabelli, B. Bona)
Adaptive Control, by Chang C. Hang, Tong H. Lee and Weng K. Ho (P. Ioannou)
Optimal Control Theory for Infinite Dimensional Systems, by Xunjing Li and Jiongmin Yong (R.F. Curtain)
In recent years, the interest in all aspects of real time computing has increased significantly. This is not only due to accelerated research efforts undertaken in this area, but also to an expanding worldwide market for various types of real time computing systems.
The Workshop on Real Time Programming provides an opportunity to assess the state of the art, to present new results, and to discuss possible lines of future development. Its primary focus is on software development for real time systems and real time operating systems. The IFAC/IFIP Workshop on Real Time Programming has a tradition of more than 30 years, and is now conducted annually. As a truly international event, it is held in different parts of the world. This year the meeting was held in Brazil. It was organised together with the `Sociedade Brasileira de Automatica - SBA' (Brazilian Automation Society) and the `Sociedade Brasileira de Computaçao - SBC' (Brazilian Computer Society), which are the Brazilian National Member Organisations of IFAC and IFIP, respectively.
The 25 contributed papers in these Proceedings were selected out of 52 submissions to the workshop. The contributions came from Europe, North and South America, and from the Far East: 44 from academia, 6 from industry, and 2 from government research agency. The event's primary focus was on software development and methodologies appropriate for real time systems. The eight sessions addressed the subject areas object oriented real time systems, complex real time systems, scheduling, programming languages, requirements engineering and prototyping, modeling, specification and verification. A poster session held after the opening ceremony was included in order to allow papers with marginal acceptance ratings to be presented at the workshop. This new feature of introducing posters was quite successfull.
In addition to the discussions that took place in each of these sessions and during the breaks, the Workshop devoted ample time for focussed discussions by inviting three world-class Keynote Speakers to give talks on interesting topics: Prof. Leo Motus, from Tallinn University - Estonia, gave an invited talk on the specification and verification of real time systems, Prof. David Russel, from Penn State University - USA, presented a keynote speech on Real Time Production Monitoring Systems, and Bran Selic, Vice President of Research and Technology of ObjecTime Ltd, gave a talk on the object oriented method ROOM.
As chair of the International Programme Committee we should like to thank all members of the Committee for their advice and assistance in setting up the programme. Many thanks are also due to the authors of the papers and the session chairpersons. SBA and SBC Members served in the National Organising Committee. To them we express our sincere appreciation for carrying out the local arrangements. These, the scientific programme, and the beauty of the greenish mountains area of Gramado ensured the Workshop's success.
Carlos E. Pereira and Wolfgang Halang
WRTP96 - Chairmen
Geert Jan Olsder was born in Muntendam, the Netherlands in 1944. He studied applied mathematics with minors in astronomy, mechanics and pure mathematics at Groningen University, where he obtained his M.Sc. degree in 1968 and Ph.D. degree in 1971, both with honors. The Ph.D. thesis was about time-optimal control with applications in ship manoeuvring.
From 1971 - 1981 he was employed at Twente University of Technology, from 1981 - 1983 at Hollandse Signaalapparaten, a high-tech firm based in Hengelo (the Netherlands) which, at that time, was a subsidiary of Philips. In 1983 he was appointed (full) professor of Mathematical Systems Theory at Delft University of Technology. He spent sabbatical leaves at Stanford University, department of aero- astronautics, USA (1972 - 1973), at Harvard University, department of applied sciences, USA (1979 - 1980), at INRIA (Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique) Sophia-Antipolis, France (1992 - 1993). Shorter periods were spent at USC Los Angeles (1984), Shenyang, China, P.R. (1984), Ecoles des Mines de Paris in Fontainebleau (1989), UC in Berkeley (1990). He is a consultant for the National Aerospace Laboratory, Amsterdam.
The research activities gradually moved from optimal control theory (1968 - 1975) to dynamic game theory (1973 - 1985), to filter theory (1980 - 1984), to the theory of discrete event systems (1985 onwards). He is a member of the editorial board of four international scientific journals. He has been on the program committees of various conferences. He has served IFAC in various functions. He started as Vice-Chairman of the Mathematics of Control Technical Committee during 1978 - 1981 (with Hank Kelley as Chairman), currently (1996 - 1999) he is a Council member. He is a member of IEEE and of some Dutch scientific and/or engineering organisations. The scientific output comprises about 45 papers in international scientific journals, about 40 papers in conference proceedings. He is co-author of two books (Dynamic Noncooperative Game Theory, Academic Press, 1982, revised edition 1995; Synchronisation and Linearity, an Algebra for Discrete Event Systems, Wiley, 1992).
Since 1994, Professor Olsder has been chairman of the Department of Applied Analysis, which has about 50 employees, of the faculty of Technical Mathematics and Informatics at Delft Unversity of Technology. He is the network coordinator of a European Union project within the framework of training and mobility of researchers. The theme of this project is: The algebraic approach to performance evaluation of timed discrete event systems. He has supervised about 12 Ph.D. theses and about 65 M.Sc. theses.