Mechanical Engineering - Research Publications
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ItemExtremum Seeking Methods for Online Automotive Calibration(Springer, 2014-01-01)The automotive calibration process is becoming increasingly difficult as the degrees of freedom in modern engines rises with the number of actuators. This is coupled with the desire to utilise alternative fuels to gasoline and diesel for the promise of lower CO2 levels in transportation. However, the range of fuel blends also leads to variability in the combustion properties, requiring additional sensing and calibration effort for the engine control unit (ECU). Shifting some of the calibration effort online whereby the engine controller adjusts its operation to account for the current operating conditions may be an effective alternative if the performance of the controller can be guaranteed within some performance characteristics. This tutorial chapter summarises recent developments in extremum seeking control, and investigates the potential of these methods to address some of the complexity in developing fuel-flexible controllers for automotive powertrains.
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ItemMulti-agent gradient climbing via extremum seeking control(IFAC - International Federation of Automatic Control, 2014)A unified framework based on discrete-time gradient-based extremum seeking control is proposed to localise an extremum of an unknown scalar field distribution using a group of equipped with sensors. The controller utilises estimates of gradients of the field from local dithering sensor measurements collected by the mobile agents. It is assumed that distributed coordination which ensures uniform asymptotic stability with respect to a prescribed formation of the agents is employed. The framework is useful in that a broad range of nonlinear programming algorithms can be combined with a wide class of cooperative control laws to perform extreme source seeking. Semi-global practical asymptotically stable convergence to local extrema is established in the presence of bounded field sampling noise.
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ItemOnline optimization of spark advance in alternative fueled engines using extremum seeking control(Elsevier, 2014-08-01)Alternative fueled engines offer greater challenges for engine control courtesy of uncertain fuel composition. This makes optimal tuning of input parameters like spark advance extremely difficult in most existing ECU architectures. This paper proposes the use of grey-box extremum seeking techniques to provide real-time optimization of the spark advance in alternative fueled engines. Since practical implementation of grey-box extremum seeking methods is typically done using digital technology, this paper takes advantage of emulation design methods to port the existing continuous-time grey-box extremum seeking methods to discrete-time frameworks. The ability and flexibility of the proposed discrete-time framework is demonstrated through simulations and in practical situation using a natural gas fueled engine.
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ItemMulti-agent source seeking via discrete-time extremum seeking control(PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, 2014-09-01)Recent developments in extremum seeking theory have established a general framework for the methodology, although the specific implementations, particularly in the context of multi-agent systems, have not been demonstrated. In this work, a group of sensor-enabled vehicles is used in the context of the extremum seeking problem using both local and global optimisation algorithms to locate the extremum of an unknown scalar field distribution. For the former, the extremum seeker exploits estimates of gradients of the field from local dithering sensor measurements collected by the mobile agents. It is assumed that a distributed coordination which ensures uniform asymptotic stability with respect to a prescribed formation of the agents is employed. An inherent advantage of the frameworks is that a broad range of nonlinear programming algorithms can be combined with a wide class of cooperative control laws to perform extreme source seeking. Semi-global practical asymptotically stable convergence to local extrema is established in the presence of field sampling noise. Subsequently, global extremum seeking with multiple agents is investigated and shown to give rise to robust practical convergence whose speed can be improved via computational parallelism. Nonconvex field distributions with local extrema can be accommodated within this global framework.
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ItemExtremum seeking of dynamical systems via gradient descent and stochastic approximation methods(Elsevier, 2015-06)Abstract This paper examines the use of gradient based methods for extremum seeking control of possibly infinite-dimensional dynamic nonlinear systems with general attractors within a periodic sampled-data framework. First, discrete-time gradient descent method is considered and semi-global practical asymptotic stability with respect to an ultimate bound is shown. Next, under the more complicated setting where the sampled measurements of the plant’s output are corrupted by an additive noise, three basic stochastic approximation methods are analysed; namely finite-difference, random directions, and simultaneous perturbation. Semi-global convergence to an optimum with probability one is established. A tuning parameter within the sampled-data framework is the period of the synchronised sampler and hold device, which is also the waiting time during which the system dynamics settle to within a controllable neighbourhood of the steady-state input–output behaviour.
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ItemPDE Battery Model Simplification for Charging Strategy Evaluation(IEEE Press, 2015)A safe, fast charging strategy is desired in the utilisation of rechargeable Lithium-ion batteries. Traditionally, experimental methods are used in exploring and evaluating new strategies, but these require extensive time and cost. This paper aims to establish a model-based system for quick and accurate evaluation of charging strategies. Starting from a nonlinear coupled partial differential equation (PDE) battery model that accurately captures system dynamics, simplification techniques are conducted based on the identification of separable time scales within the states. By pertinent use of a singular perturbation approach, a PDE model simplification framework containing families of simplified battery models is established. All assumptions are explicitly stated and shown to enable families of simplified models to be rigorously justified. An evaluation procedure synthesised from the simplified models and averaging theory is proposed. This procedure is implemented on several typical battery charging strategies. The benefits relative to simulation on other higher order models are assessed in terms of computational efficiency and accuracy and demonstrate significant computational savings are possible with the proposed approach.
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ItemPDE Battery Model Simplification for SOC and SOH Estimator Design(IEEE, 2015)Accurate knowledge of the battery state-of-charge (SOC) and state-of-health (SOH) is critical for optimal and safe utilisation of the battery. Although the battery system dynamics contain electrochemical, thermal, electrical, and ageing phenomena, most state estimators resort to equivalent circuit models (ECM). These models are often not accurate and are problematic for SOC estimation during an extended range of operations and do not address SOH dynamics. In this paper, starting from an initial high-fidelity Lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery model consisting of a set of partial differential equations (PDE), a recently proposed framework for PDE battery model simplification is employed and one of these obtained models is used for battery state estimation. Model order reduction techniques are then constructively applied to the simplified PDE battery model and resulted in a computationally efficient ordinary differential equation (ODE) model. Based on this obtained ODE model, an extended Kalman filter (EKF) is designed for the estimation of both SOC and SOH. Simulations over 20 cycles show the designed estimator is capable of simultaneously estimating the battery's SOC in each electrode and SOH.
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ItemMulti-time-scale observer design for state-of-charge and state-of-health of a lithium-ion battery(ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV, 2016-12-15)The accurate online state estimation for some types of nonlinear singularly perturbed systems is challenging due to extensive computational requirements, ill-conditioned gains and/or convergence issues. This paper proposes a multi-time-scale estimation algorithm for a class of nonlinear systems with coupled fast and slow dynamics. Based on a boundary-layer model and a reduced model, a multi-time-scale estimator is proposed in which the design parameter sets can be tuned in different time-scales. Stability property of the estimation errors is analytically characterized by adopting a deterministic version of extended Kalman filter (EKF). This proposed algorithm is applied to estimator design for the state-of-charge (SOC) and state-of-health (SOH) in a lithium-ion battery using the developed reduced order battery models. Simulation results on a high fidelity lithium-ion battery model demonstrate that the observer is effective in estimating SOC and SOH despite a range of common errors due to model order reductions, linearisation, initialisation and noisy measurement.
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ItemHybrid Extremum Seeking for Black-Box Optimization in Hybrid Plants: An Analytical Framework(IEEE, 2018-01-01)This paper presents an analytical framework to design and analyze hybrid extremum seeking controllers for plants with hybrid dynamics. The extremum seeking controllers are characterized by a hybrid dither generator, a hybrid Jacobian estimator, and a hybrid dynamic optimizer. This structure allows us to consider a family of novel extremum seeking controllers that have not been studied in the literature before. Moreover, the hybrid extremum seeking controllers can be applied to plants with hybrid dynamics generating well-defined response maps. A convergence result is established for the closed -loop system by using singular perturbation theory for hybrid dynamical systems with hybrid boundary layers.
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ItemA Framework for Simplification of PDE-Based Lithium-Ion Battery Models(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2016)Simplified models are commonly used in battery management and control, despite their (often implicit) limitations in capturing the dynamic behavior of the battery across a wide range of operating conditions. This paper seeks to develop a framework for battery model simplification starting from an initial high-order physics-based model that will explicitly detail the assumptions underpinning the development of simplified battery models. Starting from the basis of a model capturing the electrochemical, thermal, electrical, and aging dynamics in a set of partial differential equations, a systematic approach based on singular perturbations and averaging is used to simplify the dynamics through identification of disparate timescales inherent in the problem. As a result, libraries of simplified models with interconnections based on the specified assumptions are obtained. A quantitative comparison of the simplified models relative to the original model is used to justify the model reductions. To demonstrate the utility of the framework, a set of battery charging strategies is evaluated at reduced computational effort on simplified models.