Research | Control Systems Engineering

Mission

The laboratory activities are focused in the field of industrial automation, automated warehouses, embedded systems and the optimization of logistics and healthcare systems in order to provide experimental support for the derivation of new methodologies for planning, control and development of systems of automation, logistics and material handling in a broad sense with a high degree of autonomy and flexibility.

The laboratory offers a practical and theoretical learning environment to train highly skilled engineers and researchers. It also facilitates collaborations with companies to develop joint research projects, transfer the technologies developed to the industrial sector, and promote economic growth.

Activities

Planning, control and development of automation, logistics and handling systems in a broad sense

Automation is one of the most significant application themes in industrial and information engineering. This is essentially due to the structural complexity of production systems and the multiplicity of functionalities that characterize their behavior. In particular, the problem of material handling and storage is central to manufacturing systems since they play a key role in the optimization of manufacturing systems as a whole.

The research activity focuses on the development of real-time control algorithms aimed at optimizing the performance of each material handling subsystem of an automated plant. In this regard, each local controller (based on the knowledge of the system state) must address problems such as: definition of the sequences according to the parts must be loaded into the subsystem, determination of the instants at which the parts must be loaded, choice of the routing to be associated with each part, definition of service priorities between parts that simultaneously require the use of the same resource.

The warehouse prototype installed in the laboratory allows the experimental validation of control algorithms on widely used machines, allowing the theoretical objectives of research to be combined with those of practical implementation.

Development, implementation and validation of controllers and supervisors based on discrete event models

Since the evolution of an automation system can be seen as a sequence of events that indicate the beginning and the end of activities, it is convenient to use, for the study of such systems, the methodologies provided by the theory of discrete event systems. The theory of discrete event systems is applicable to different sectors such as computer and communication networks, operating systems, management of health systems, transport and handling systems in general. The development and implementation of control algorithms on off-the-shelf control devices (programmable logic controllers or microcontrollers) for discrete event systems poses significant problems from the computational point of view.

The Speedgoat real-time target machine and the PC workstations equipped with SIMIT emulation environment allow the emulation of complex automation systems for the validation of control algorithms using the Hardware in the loop approach. The Speedgoat real-time target machine can also be used for rapid prototyping of control algorithms.

Equipment and instrumentation

1 x Speedgoat real-time target machine

1 x prototype of automated warehouse equipped with conveyor rollers and elevators controlled by 1 PLC SIMATIC 7-300 e 3 I/O remote modules SIMATIC ET 200M connected via PROFIBUS or PROFINET

3 x NxtDCSmini controllers ready to implement IEC 61499 compliant distributed control algorithms

x Matlab, SIMIT and TIA Portal-ready workstations