An on-site meeting is used to identify the specific problem of interest and to find
practical ways forward. The resulting study typically lasts between 1 and 3 months, and
can take the form of simulation studies or working with real systems. The study is carried
out with economic and practical factors in mind. The results of the study are used
to clearly identify operational benefits.
Case study reports are available to other ACTC members.
Rolls Royce: Control of a Gas Turbine Engine (CS01/1992)
- comparison between the original classical (lead/lag) controller
and LQG and H∞ controllers for a Pegasus Gas Turbine Engine.
British Gas: Self Tuning Control of Furnace Temperature (CS02/1992)
- the ACTC's own Self-Tuning Control Toolbox was used to interface
to and control the temperature of a gas fired box furnance through
a TCS controller. Self-tuning LQG and Self-tuning H∞ controllers
were trialled.
British Aerospace: Pitch Control of a Generic Canard Delta Fighter
Aircraft (CS03/1992) - study of application of LQG
control which gave improved stability and easier controller design
than the original controller.
British Steel: Control of Reheat Furnace (CS04/1993)
- investigation into the causes of temperature fluctuations in
a large beam reheat furnace.
British Steel: Gauge Control for Cold Rolling (CS05/1993)
- cold rolling mill modelling and application of LQG control.
Roche Products: Non-linear Model Based Control for pH (CS06/1993)
- investigated the use of Generic Model Control (GMC), a non-linear
model based method, for pH control.
Marine SIG: Design of Robust Ship Positioning Systems and Advantages
of Feedforward/Feedback Control (CS07/1995) - looks
at use of H∞ coupled with feedforward control to compensate
for wind/wave disturbances
British Aerospace: Classical versus Modern Control Design Methods
for Safety Critical Control Engineering Practice (CS08/1995)
- comparison of Classical (PID, Lead-Lag) and Robust (LQG, H∞)
control for safety critical systems, includes example applications
for pumped water supply system and flight control system of a
short take off and vertical landing aircraft.
British Steel: Multivariable
Decoupling Control of Collector Main Pressure on Coke Ovens
(CS09/1995) - multivariable pressure control using decoupled PI and H∞.
Roche Products: Roche Vitamin C Modelling Report (CS10/1995)
- modelling and investigation of future plant scenarios using
a discrete event simulation.
British Gas: NTS Maintenance Reduction (CS11/1996)
- modelling and investigation of maintenance schedules for the
gas National Transmission System.
British Petroleum: Introduction to Predictive Control with Application
to a Hydrogen Reformer (CS12/1996) - presents GPC and
LQGCP algorithms together with trials on Hydrogen Reformer comparing
existing PID, Connoisseur and the GPC algorithm developed here.
T&N Technology: Gauge
Control of Cold Rolling Mill (CS13/1996) - introductory report into cold rolling mills and gauge control.
Royal Ordnance: An Operational Planning Tool for the Royal Ordnance
Nitro-Cellulose Process (CS14/1995)
Barr & Stroud: Control of a High Resolution Laser Scanner
(CS15/1996)
Marine SIG: Implementation
Problems and Design of Ship Autopilots (CS16/1996)
Marine SIG: Advanced
and Classical Control of Non-linear Ship Positioning Systems (CS17/1996)
Royal Ordnance:
Expert System Based Training Simulator: Picrite Process Application (CS18/1997)
Unilever Research: Supply Chain Management into the Year 2000
(CS19/1998)
Corus Group:
Genetic Algorithms for System Identification (CS20/2000)
- there is also the
GA_SYSID MATLAB toolbox that can be downloaded that accompanies this case study report.
The National Grid Company:
Human Operator Error Handling Methods for Complex Systems: A State-of-the-art Survey (CS21/2001)
BAE SYSTEMS SSD:
H∞ Control for a Servo System (CS22/2001)
Thales Optronics:
Integrating Pro/ENGINEER and MATLAB with ADAMS (CS23/2001)
Alstom Energy:
Fault Diagnosis of a Simulated Industrial Gas Turbine using Identification Techniques (CS25/2002)
BAE SYSTEMS SSD:
Kalman Filter Based Sensor Fusion (CS26/2002)
MoD(N):
Study on Effect of Rudder Slew Rate on Roll Stabilisation (CS27/2004)
Visteon / NI:
Applying LabVIEW to Automotive Powertrain Control - Optimal Control of a TIVCT Engine (CS28/2005)
SELEX: Estimation of Friction Parameters (CS29/2007)
SELEX: Predictive control for NADIR problem (CS30/2007)
NI:
Modelling and Control of the Electronic Throttle (CS31/2008)