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Machine learning in process systems engineering: Challenges and opportunities

Daoutidis, Prodromos (author), Lee, Jay H. (author), Rangarajan, Srinivas (author), Chiang, Leo (author), Gopaluni, Bhushan (author), Schweidtmann, A.M. (author), Harjunkoski, Iiro (author), Mercangöz, Mehmet (author), Mesbah, Ali (author)

This “white paper” is a concise perspective of the potential of machine learning in the process systems engineering (PSE) domain, based on a session during FIPSE 5, held in Crete, Greece, June 27–29, 2022. The session included two invited talks and three short contributed presentations followed by extensive discussions. This paper does not...

journal article 2024

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A review on machine learning in flexible surgical and interventional robots: Where we are and where we are going

Wu, D. (author), Zhang, R. (author), Pore, Ameya (author), Ha, Xuan Thao (author), Li, Z. (author), Herrera, Fernando (author), Kowalczyk, Wojtek (author), De Momi, Elena (author), Dankelman, J. (author), Kober, J. (author)

Minimally Invasive Procedures (MIPs) emerged as an alternative to more invasive surgical approaches, offering patient benefits such as smaller incisions, less pain, and shorter hospital stay. In one class of MIPs, where natural body lumens or small incisions are used to access deeper anatomical locations, Flexible Surgical and Interventional...

review 2024

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Model and Control of R-Soft Inverted Pendulum

Caradonna, Daniele (author), Pierallini, M. (author), Della Santina, C. (author), Angelini, Franco (author), Bicchi, Antonio (author)

Soft robots enable safe and robust operations in unstructured environments. However, the nonlinearities of their continuum structure complicate the accomplishment of classic robotic tasks, such as pick and place. In this work, we propose the R-Soft Inverted Pendulum, a Soft Inverted Pendulum (SIP) actuated only by a revolute joint at the base...

journal article 2024

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Lessons from natural flight for aviation: then, now and tomorrow

Harvey, Christina (author), de Croon, G.C.H.E. (author), Taylor, Graham K. (author), Bomphrey, Richard J. (author)

Powered flight was once a capability limited only to animals, but by identifying useful attributes of animal flight and building on these with technological advances, engineers have pushed the frontiers of flight beyond our predecessors’ wildest imaginations. Yet, there remain many key characteristics of biological flight that elude current...

journal article 2023

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Field Model Identification and Control of a Mobile Electromagnet for Remote Actuation of Soft Robots

Riccardi, A. (author), Furtado, Guilherme P. (author), Sikorski, Jakub (author), Vendittelli, Marilena (author), Misra, Sarthak (author)

The actuation of miniaturized robots through external magnetic fields has great potential for medical applications. The controllability properties of the miniaturized robots are affected by magnetic field generation modality. In this work, the magnetic field of a mobile electromagnet, notably capable to generate a desired magnetic field in...

journal article 2023

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Design for values and conceptual engineering

Veluwenkamp, H.M. (author), van den Hoven, M.J. (author)

Politicians and engineers are increasingly realizing that values are important in the development of technological artefacts. What is often overlooked is that different conceptualizations of these abstract values lead to different design-requirements. For example, designing social media platforms for deliberative democracy sets us up for...

journal article 2023

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Experimental Closed-Loop Excitation of Nonlinear Normal Modes on an Elastic Industrial Robot

Bjelonic, Filip (author), Sachtler, Arne (author), Albu-Schaffer, Alin (author), Della Santina, C. (author)

Adding elastic elements to the mechanical structure should enable robots to perform efficient oscillatory tasks. Still, even characterizing natural oscillations in nonlinear systems is a challenge in itself, which nonlinear modal theory promises to solve. Therein eigenmanifolds generalize eigenspaces to mechanical systems with non-Euclidean...

journal article 2022

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Technology as Driver for Morally Motivated Conceptual Engineering

Veluwenkamp, H.M. (author), Capasso, M. (author), Maas, J.J.C. (author), Marin, L. (author)

New technologies are the source of uncertainties about the applicability of moral and morally connotated concepts. These uncertainties sometimes call for conceptual engineering, but it is not often recognized when this is the case. We take this to be a missed opportunity, as a recognition that different researchers are working on the same kind...

journal article 2022

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Learning to run a power network with trust

Marot, Antoine (author), Donnot, Benjamin (author), Chaouache, Karim (author), Kelly, Adrian (author), Huang, Qiuhua (author), Hossain, Ramij Raja (author), Cremer, Jochen (author)

Artificial agents are promising for real-time power network operations, particularly, to compute remedial actions for congestion management. However, due to high reliability requirements, purely autonomous agents will not be deployed any time soon and operators will be in charge of taking action for the foreseeable future. Aiming at designing...

journal article 2022

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Artificial Intelligence for Automated Vehicle Control and Traffic Operations: Challenges and Opportunities

Abbink, D.A. (author), Hao, Peng (author), Laval, Jorge (author), Shalev-Shwartz, Shai (author), Wu, Cathy (author), Yang, Terry (author), Hamdar, Samer (author), Chen, Danjue (author), Xie, Yuanchang (author), Li, Xiaopeng (author), Haque, Mohaiminul (author)

This chapter summarizes the presentations of speakers addressing such issues during the Automated Vehicles Symposium 2020 (AVS20) held virtually on July 27–30, 2020. These speakers participated in the break-out session titled “Artificial Intelligence for Automated Vehicle Control and Traffic Operations: Challenges and Opportunities”. The...

book chapter 2022

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Feedback Regulation of Elastically Decoupled Underactuated Soft Robots

Pustina, P. (author), Della Santina, C. (author), De Luca, Alessandro (author)

The intrinsically underactuated and nonlinear nature of continuum soft robots makes the derivation of provably stable feedback control laws a challenging task. Most of the works so far circumvented the issue either by looking at coarse fully-actuated approximations of the dynamics or by imposing quasi-static assumptions. In this letter, we...

journal article 2022

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Cooperative ankle-exoskeleton control can reduce effort to recover balance after unexpected disturbances during walking

Bayón, Cristina (author), Keemink, Arvid Q.L. (author), van Mierlo, Michelle (author), Rampeltshammer, Wolfgang (author), van der Kooij, H. (author), van Asseldonk, Edwin H.F. (author)

BACKGROUND: In the last two decades, lower-limb exoskeletons have been developed to assist human standing and locomotion. One of the ongoing challenges is the cooperation between the exoskeleton balance support and the wearer control. Here we present a cooperative ankle-exoskeleton control strategy to assist in balance recovery after...

journal article 2022

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Auto-Resonant Detection Method for Optimized ZVS Operation in IPT Systems With Wide Variation of Magnetic Coupling and Load

Grazian, F. (author), Soeiro, Thiago B. (author), van Duijsen, P.J. (author), Bauer, P. (author)

In wireless charging systems, the H-bridge converter's switching frequency is set close to the system's natural resonance for achieving optimized zero voltage switching (ZVS). Variations to the system's natural resonance are commonly tracked by following the changes in the resonant current's polarity, i.e., current zero-crossings. The main...

journal article 2021

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At-stop control measures in public transport: Literature review and research agenda

Gkiotsalitis, K. (author), Cats, O. (author)

In this literature review, we systematically review studies on public transit control with a specific focus on at-stop measures. In our synthesis of the relevant literature, we consider three perspectives: (1) the mathematical models of the proposed methodologies; (2) their complexity; (3) their applicability in real-time operations and their...

journal article 2021

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Quadrotor Fault Tolerant Flight Control and Aerodynamic Model Identification

Sun, S. (author)

As Multi-rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or drones, are gradually becoming more popular in civilian applications, the safety of these flying machines becomes a significant concern. Such drones are powered by multiple rotors to generate lift and control torques. Hence, the failure of rotors can severely threaten their flying safety. Direct...

doctoral thesis 2020

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Sample effficient deep reinforcement learning for control

de Bruin, T.D. (author)

The arrival of intelligent, general-purpose robots that can learn to perform new tasks autonomously has been promised for a long time now. Deep reinforcement learning, which combines reinforcement learning with deep neural network function approximation, has the potential to enable robots to learn to perform a wide range of new tasks while...

doctoral thesis 2020

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Fine-tuning deep RL with gradient-free optimization

de Bruin, T.D. (author), Kober, J. (author), Tuyls, Karl (author), Babuska, R. (author)

Deep reinforcement learning makes it possible to train control policies that map high-dimensional observations to actions. These methods typically use gradient-based optimization techniques to enable relatively efficient learning, but are notoriously sensitive to hyperparameter choices and do not have good convergence properties. Gradient...

journal article 2020

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Grid sense multiple access: A decentralized control algorithm for DC grids

van der Blij, N.H. (author), Ramirez Elizondo, L.M. (author), Spaan, M.T.J. (author), Bauer, P. (author)

Due to the distributed nature of future electrical power systems, decentralized control is essential for these grids. This paper shows that converters that have identical voltage thresholds switch off simultaneously even if some could have remained operational. Therefore, inadequate system and energy utilization can occur when decentralized...

journal article 2020

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Auto-resonant Control of the H-Bridge Resonant Converter for Inductive Power Transfer Applications

Grazian, F. (author), van Duijsen, P.J. (author), Roodenburg, B. (author), Soeiro, Thiago B. (author), Bauer, P. (author)

In inductive power transfer applications that use resonant compensation networks, the commonly employed H-bridge inverter should be kept operating in soft-switching to ensure high power efficiency and low irradiated electromagnetic noise. To achieve so, the zero-crossing detection circuit for the resonant current or voltage must be fast and...

conference paper 2020

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Design and characterization of variable stiffness structural joints

Wang, Qinyu (author), Senatore, Gennaro (author), Jansen, K.M.B. (author), Habraken, Arjan (author), Teuffel, Patrick (author)

This paper presents design and characterization of a new type of structural joint which can vary its stiffness through actuation. Stiffness variation is employed to control the dynamic response of frame structures equipped with such joints. The joint is made of a shape memory polymer (SMP) core which is reinforced by an SMP-aramid composite...

journal article 2020