Student Projects

Background

The data capacity of the hard disk drive (HDD) must increase to meet the demands for data storage. As a result, we must improve the positioning accuracy of the magnetic head in the HDD for a better future.

Objective

To encourage research about magnetic-head positioning control, a benchmark problem which works with MATLAB has been released for the IFAC World Congress 2023 (see https://www.ifac2023.org/media-download/79/8d46c77a8e65ee38/). A model is given to simulate the magnetic-head positioning system used in the latest HDDs. The objective for students is to apply control synthesis techniques seen in the Advanced Control system course to beat the benchmark performance.

Requirements: Advanced Control Systems

Comment
Contact: [email protected]
Professor(s)
Alireza Karimi
Administration
Philippe Louis Schuchert

The large-scale integration of distributed power-electronic devices has rendered modern power systems difficult to be explicitly and accurately modeled through first principle or system identification. Meanwhile, the ubiquitous smart meters and smart sensors in power systems give us the access to a substantial amount of data. The behavioral approach, representing the system dynamics with trajectory data, lend itself to the data-driven analysis and control of complex power systems owing to non-parametric representation.

This project aims to design output-feedback controller for complex microgrids using behavioral approach. On top of some reasonable assumptions about noise, robust controllers and (or) optimal controllers are supposed to be designed. The performance of controllers will be validated and compared by simulation.

This project can either be a semester project or a master project.

Professor(s)
Alireza Karimi
Administration
Zhaoming Qin
ALT

The proposed project aims to analyse the dynamics of a microgrid with multiple sources, including renewables (such as solar and wind) and backup sources (such as batteries or generators). The primary objective is to develop a comprehensive understanding of the microgrid’s behaviour under varying conditions and propose an efficient control algorithm to optimise its operation. This will be achieved through real-time simulations using Simulink and MATLAB.

Comment
Assistant: Vaibhav Gupta
Professor(s)
Alireza Karimi, Vaibhav Gupta
Administration
Sandra de Best
Site
ddmac.epfl.ch, la.epfl.ch
ALT

In this project, the objective is first identify a model for a 3-Degree-Of-Freedom (3DOF) hover based on conventional techniques in system identification. To do so, first, a code to run the system using LABVIEW should be written and deployed on MyRIO.

Moreover, all the electrical connections should also become compatible for running the system.

The code for system identification should be flexible to select different excitation such as PRBS, white noise, single tone sinusoidal and sin-sweep. The second part of the project includes designing a controller using the methods of advanced control such as H-infinity and data-driven method and then applying on the device using an appropriate labview code and validate the performance.

Comment
Assistant: Vaibhav Gupta
Professor(s)
Alireza Karimi, Vaibhav Gupta
Administration
Isabelle Stoudmann Schmutz
Site
la.epfl.ch
ALT

The goal of the project is to study an application of the Koopman operator based control approach. For autonomous systems, Koopman operator theory shows that a nonlinear system can be represented as a linear system in a higher dimensional (possibly infinite dimensional) space. Thus, by lifting a nonlinear system to a higher dimensional space this approach enables the use of tools from linear systems theory for studying nonlinear systems. By using the Koopman operator approach, our goal is to obtain a linear system representation in a high dimensional space and employ linear control design techniques to control the actually nonlinear system.

The lifted system representation will be obtained in a data-driven fashion. As a result of this as well as further structural restrictions, the lifted representation never exactly captures the original system dynamics. Thus, the project will also aim for bounding these errors such that guarantees for the true closed-loop system can be provided by using robust control tools.

For now a pendulum system is considered as the application.

Skills needed:

-Advanced control systems (familiarity with frequency domain approach and robust control)

-Matlab/Simulink, LabVIEW

Comment
Contact: [email protected]
Professor(s)
Alireza Karimi
Administration
Mert Eyuboglu
Site
ddmac.epfl.ch, la.epfl.ch
ALT

In this project, the objective is to deploy a swarm of mini-hovers (Crazyflies) using ROS and a hierarchical control scheme. The drones position would be then measured using a motion capture system (OptiTrack) which would be used for swarm controls. The student would need to: 1. Design a controller synthesis procedure for low-level controls of each drone. 2. Integrate the Crazyflie into the ROS architecture. 3. Design a high-level controller for swarm dynamics.

Comment
Assistant: Gupta Vaibhav
Professor(s)
Alireza Karimi, Christophe Salzmann
Administration
Barbara Marie-Louise Frédérique Schenkel
Site
ddmac.epfl.ch, la.epfl.ch
ALT

In this project, the objective is to deploy a swarm of mini-hovers (Crazyflies) using ROS and a hierarchical control scheme. The drones position would be then measured using a motion capture system (OptiTrack) which would be used for swarm controls. The student would need to: 1. Design a controller synthesis procedure for low-level controls of each drone. 2. Integrate the Crazyflie into the ROS architecture. 3. Design a high-level controller for swarm dynamics.

Professor(s)
Alireza Karimi, Vaibhav Gupta
Administration
Barbara Marie-Louise Frédérique Schenkel
Site
ddmac.epfl.ch, la.epfl.ch
ALT

The first goal of this project is to identify a model of the Quanser Aero 2 – 2 DOF Hover using conventional system identification methods. For this, different input signals and model structures will be considered. Matlab/Simulink environment will be used for the data collection and system identification.

The second goal of the project is to design a controller and implement it on the real system. After the identification process the nonlinearity of the system will be evaluated and a proper controller design strategy will be determined accordingly. If the effect of nonlinearities are observed to be small, an LTI controller with a model based or data-driven approach can be designed. Otherwise, a nonlinear controller using the Koopman operator approach can be synthesized. The designed controllers will be implemented in Simulink and tested on the real system.

Comment
Contact: [email protected]
Professor(s)
Alireza Karimi
Administration
Mert Eyuboglu
Site
https://www.epfl.ch/labs/ddmac/student-projects/