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International Rolling Mill Academy Event
A five day Rolling Mill Academy was held from 5th – 9th November 2007 at the University of Strathclyde in
Glasgow. The event was organised by Industrial Systems & Control Ltd. working with the University of
Strathclyde and was to provide members of the Applied Control Technology Consortium (ACTC) with support
in this area. However, some delegates were from outside the consortium and travelled internationally.
These academies are part of a co-operation with for example, Converteam and the Rolling Mill Event
is to be repeated annually.
A new innovation was to organise a day and a half of basic introductory material to bring some delegates
up to a common level of understanding. The remainder of the event was more focused on particular hot
and cold rolling mill design problems. Some hands-on sessions were provided during the tutorial part
of the event and the good feed back suggests that these will be increased in number for future meetings.
The interests of those attending did span a wide range of subjects and their experiences were very
different and covered a broad spectrum. The presentations reflected this diversity ranging from simple
elementary PID controller tuning to advanced predictive supervisory controls. At the same time very
practical problems in the control of steel mills were discussed including for example, non-linear
looper controls, back up roll eccentricity controls and the use of benchmarking techniques.
Most of the course concerned model based control methods, but however the use of neural networks for
modelling was also considered. The important area of fault detection and isolation was discussed
using both neural networks and model based approaches. The central problem in tandem
mills which concerns the multivariable system interactions was also of course covered in several
of the presentations. Both thickness control and flatness control were discussed at a
regulating loop level and at a supervisory system level.
The Rolling Mill Academy presentations were carefully controlled so that they would be practical and
relevant but the access to the University also ensured state of the art overviews were given and
helpful hands-on sessions were organised.
The 2008 Rolling Mill Academy is currently being planned and organised and it is likely that
it will move the focus onto subjects such as controller tuning, adaptation and also provide a
more balanced picture of both cold mill and hot mill problems. Those interested in attending
can contact Dr. Gerrit van der Molen on 0141 553 4028 to obtain information as soon as available.
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Tutorial introduction to the modelling and
control of hybrid systems
A tutorial introduction is provided to the relatively new subject of hybrid systems.
The modelling of hybrid systems is assuming ever greater importance for systems where the
combination of continuous control and with logical decision making is required. This arises in
some of the most critical operating regions where systems are under start-up, shutdown or are
undergoing major planned changes. There is recognition that separate independent design of
these functions will reduce achievable performance and cause unpredictable behaviour in
some of the most safety critical areas of operation. The introduction provided is not exhaustive
but it introduces some of the main concepts and motivates the use in applications of this
relatively new area of control design. The theoretical results are illustrated using engineering
examples.
To download this paper click here
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