Symmetry in Control Systems Engineering

A special issue of Symmetry (ISSN 2073-8994). This special issue belongs to the section "Engineering and Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 July 2024) | Viewed by 5872

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Informazione, Università Politecnica delle Marche, 60131 Ancona, AN, Italy
Interests: advanced process control; model predictive control; process modelling; automation; energy efficiency; steel industries; cement industries; water distribution networks; hydroelectric power plants; district heating; HVAC; process control; process monitoring; Industry 4.0
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Informazione, Università Politecnica delle Marche, 60131 Ancona, AN, Italy
Interests: advanced process control; automation; model predictive control; petri nets; discrete event systems (DESs); process modelling; energy efficiency; steel industries; cement industries; water distribution networks; hydroelectric power plants; district heating; HVAC; process control; process monitoring; Industry 4.0
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to collect contributions related to control systems engineering where symmetry properties can help in the design and analysis. Control and automation systems at different levels of automation hierarchy are among the present and the future drivers for continuous improvement in industrial and non-industrial processes. Both time-driven and event-driven (discrete event systems, DESs) formulations can help in the modelization of such processes. Continuous improvement can be targeted from different points of view, e.g., energy efficiency, process control and supervisory control. Theoretical and practical aspects will be considered in order to provide universal, robust and holistic solutions for researchers, engineers and practitioners. Both field and simulation applications are welcome, including process control, monitoring, supervision, optimization and modelling. Contributions focused on data analysis/symmetry relationships will be considered for the Special Issue.

Dr. Crescenzo Pepe
Prof. Dr. Silvia Maria Zanoli
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • symmetry
  • process control
  • advanced process control
  • model predictive control
  • real-time optimization
  • process optimization
  • energy efficiency
  • data analysis
  • discrete event systems
  • supervisory control
  • robotics
  • manufacturing processes
  • control theory
  • control and estimation
  • optimal control

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

25 pages, 1935 KiB  
Article
A Discrete-Time Queueing Model of a Bottleneck with an Energy-Saving Mechanism Based on Setup and Shutdown Times
by Wojciech M. Kempa and Iwona Paprocka
Symmetry 2024, 16(1), 63; https://doi.org/10.3390/sym16010063 - 3 Jan 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1317
Abstract
Producers are encouraged to reduce their energy consumption of manufacturing systems by applying less-energy-intensive modern technologies and advanced machine tools and operating methods at the system level. In the paper, organizational and analytical solutions are combined to model the sustainable production system. Managers [...] Read more.
Producers are encouraged to reduce their energy consumption of manufacturing systems by applying less-energy-intensive modern technologies and advanced machine tools and operating methods at the system level. In the paper, organizational and analytical solutions are combined to model the sustainable production system. Managers can study the behavior of a production system organized using energy-saving rules by changing key parameters of the input model (arrival intensity, bottleneck service rate, buffer size, setup and shutdown time) to analyze the queue size of the production system and therefore performance. A discrete-time queueing model of a single-bottleneck production line with a finite input buffer capacity is proposed. Jobs occur according to a binomial process and are processed individually, one by one, according to the natural FIFO service discipline, with a general discrete-type cumulative distribution function. The total number of jobs present in the system is bounded by a non-random fixed value N. Every time the system becomes empty, an energy-saving mechanism is started: the processing machine (server) is turned off during a geometrically distributed shutdown time. Similarly, the first job arriving into the empty system initializes a geometrically distributed setup time. Identifying renewal moments in the evolution of the model, a system of difference equations is built for the transient queue-size distribution conditioned by the state of the system at the opening. The solution is obtained explicitly in terms of probability-generating functions. In addition, the Drum-Buffer-Rope concept is proposed to reduce the energy consumption of the production line. The throughput of the production system is maximized by adjusting the time between the order arrivals and the size of the input buffer to the capacity of the bottleneck. Turning off a machine under certain conditions and slowing down non-critical machines are strategies to reduce energy consumption. A detailed illustrating numerical and simulation study of the considered model is attached as well, in which the sensitivity of the queue-size behavior to changes of the key input model parameters is investigated. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Symmetry in Control Systems Engineering)
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22 pages, 5473 KiB  
Article
A Microservices-Based Approach to Designing an Intelligent Railway Control System Architecture
by Ivaylo Atanasov, Vasil Vatakov and Evelina Pencheva
Symmetry 2023, 15(8), 1566; https://doi.org/10.3390/sym15081566 - 11 Aug 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1842
Abstract
The symmetry between customer expectations and operator goals, on one hand, and the digital transition of the railways, on the other hand, is one of the main factors affecting green transport sustainability. The European Train Control System (ETCS) was created to improve interoperability [...] Read more.
The symmetry between customer expectations and operator goals, on one hand, and the digital transition of the railways, on the other hand, is one of the main factors affecting green transport sustainability. The European Train Control System (ETCS) was created to improve interoperability between different railway signaling systems and increase safety and security. While there are a lot of ETCS Level 2 deployments all over the world, the specifications of ETCS Level 3 are under development. ETCS Level 3 is expected to have a significant impact on automatic train operation, protection, and supervision. In this paper, we present an innovative control system architecture that allows the incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) applications. The architecture features control function virtualization and programmability. The concept of an intelligent railway controller (IRC) is introduced as being a piece of cloud software responsible for the control and optimization of railway operations. A microservices-based approach to designing the IRC’s functionality is presented. The approach was formally verified, and some of its performance metrics were identified. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Symmetry in Control Systems Engineering)
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19 pages, 5379 KiB  
Article
Maintaining Symmetry in Optimal and Safe Control of the Ship to Avoid Collisions at Sea
by Józef Lisowski
Symmetry 2023, 15(5), 1016; https://doi.org/10.3390/sym15051016 - 2 May 2023
Viewed by 1535
Abstract
The aim of this study was to make a novel symmetry analysis in relation to the importance of optimizing the ship’s trajectory and safety in situations at sea where there is a risk of collision with other ships. To achieve this, the state [...] Read more.
The aim of this study was to make a novel symmetry analysis in relation to the importance of optimizing the ship’s trajectory and safety in situations at sea where there is a risk of collision with other ships. To achieve this, the state constraints in the optimization were formulated as ship domains generated by the neural network. In addition, the use of the Bellman dynamic programming method enabled the effective optimization of the ship’s safe control. The above assumptions were confirmed by the calculations of the optimal and safe ship traffic paths for the two valid agree with COLREGs states of visibility at sea and for different densities of the dynamic programming grid. Practical conclusions from the research were formulated, and a plan for further research on methods of ensuring safety in navigation was outlined. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Symmetry in Control Systems Engineering)
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