Nonlinear State and Parameter Estimation for Hopper Dredgers

A Trailing Suction Hopper Dredger (TSHD) is a ship that excavates sediments from the sea bottom while sailing. In situ material is excavated with a special tool called the Drag-Head, then it is hydraulically transported through a pipe to the hopper where it is temporarily stored. After the dredging is completed the collected material is...

Incremental nonlinear control of hydraulic parallel robots: An application to the SIMONA research simulator

In advanced robotic applications such as robotic locomotion, vehicle and flight simulators, and material test devices, there are higher requirements on stiffness, robustness and power ability for the mechanical structure and the actuator. Hence, it is common for such applications to use parallel manipulators and hydraulic actuators, due to their...

Online reinforcement learning control for aerospace systems

Reinforcement Learning (RL) methods are relatively new in the field of aerospace guidance, navigation, and control. This dissertation aims to exploit RL methods to improve the autonomy and online learning of aerospace systems with respect to the a priori unknown system and environment, dynamical uncertainties, and partial observability. In the...

Behaviour and Stability of Interconnected Systems: From Biological Applications to Opinion Dynamics

An interconnected system is composed of multiple well-defined self-contained subsystems that interact among them and that together create collective behaviours. We can find many examples of interconnected systems in real life. Ranging from biological systems, such as the growth and interaction of populations in diverse and spatially distributed...