Research | Automatic Control

Automation focuses on methods and technologies for information processing aimed at modeling, real-time automatic control, supervision, planning, and management of plants, processes, and dynamic systems in general. Such systems include, for example, industrial production processes, automation systems, machinery, robotic and mechatronic systems, mobility and transport systems and networks, energy production and distribution systems, technologies and solutions for living environments, security, smart cities, avionics and automotive systems, systems of environmental, biological, biomedical, economic, and social nature.

The approach of automation allows abstraction from the specific application domain to structural dynamic properties that can be represented through appropriate classes of mathematical models. This enables the unification of methodologies for analyzing complex dynamic systems—both artificial and natural—and designing control and management systems in a way that imbues them with intelligence, learning, robustness, reliability, and autonomy. These features ensure optimized programmed behaviors, adaptability, self-diagnosis of faults, and restoration of normal operating conditions, even without direct human intervention.

Research topics

Modeling and control of discrete-event and hybrid systems
Data-driven control systems
Robot control

Teaching activity

The group is involved in the Computer Engineering degree programs, offering both methodological courses on modeling, analysis, and control of dynamic systems, as well as application/design courses on Industrial Automation and Robotics. The educational goal is to provide Computer Engineers, at both undergraduate and graduate levels, with the necessary skills to work with industrial automation systems, where information technology is currently pervasive.