Control Engineering Environment Research Articles

UltraSynth: Insights of a CGRA Integration into a Control Engineering Environment

Coarse Grained Reconfigurable Arrays (CGRAs) or Architectures are a concept for hardware accelerators based on the idea of distributing workload over Processing Elements. These processors exploit instruction level parallelism, while being energy efficient due to their simplistic internal structure. However, the incorporation into a complete computing system raises severe challenges at the hardware and software level. This article evaluates a CGRA integrated into a control engineering environment targeting a Xilinx Zynq System on Chip (SoC) in detail. Besides the actual application execution performance, the practicability of the configuration toolchain is validated. Challenges of the real-world integration are discussed and practical insights are highlighted.

The use of the Control Web in Control Engineering Education

The teaching function in the university has been under a pressure of change in the recent years. Economical, methodological, and qualitative pressures have forced educational establishments to consider their education. One response to these pressures was to study if it is possible to build such a learning environment for control engineering that combines good characteristics of the traditional and virtual environments. Such environment could help to distribute materials and could facilitate the overall communication starting from course information until student feedback. It could also make studying more efficient enabling better follow-up of studies and enabling use of interactive functions.

A Platform Neutral Computer Aided Control Engineering Environment

This paper proposes a computer aided control systems design environment based on an object-oriented component model. A document centered approach towards the process of computer-aided control systems design is taken. This paper examines current technologies for realizing such an environment which may be used platform neutrally, collaboratively and over a network.

173 The ANDECS design environment for control engineering

173 The ANDECS design environment for control engineering

The ANDECS Design Environment for Control Engineering

ANDECS belongs to the new generation of open CAE systems for computational experimenting in controlled dynamic systems simulation, analysis, and multi-objective optimization. Strict databased function modularization with neutral object-oriented data- and model interfaces allows a flexible configuration of application programs. This modularity also guarantees side-effect free functional extensions by an application programmer. Module operation can be switched any time from interactive line commands to an X-Window graphical user interface. Via macro scripts stored on database, module sequences can be operated in batch mode with automatic parameter incrementation. Function modules are available for basic mathematical methods, control methods, simulation, parameter- and trajectory optimization, and interactive visualization for result- and algorithm animation.

Symbolic mathematics in control system analysis and design

Symbolic mathematical techniques and computer algebra systems have yet to be widely applied within the field of control. The benefits they have to offer in terms of greater accuracy and clarity of solutions for system analysis and design have yet to be fully exploited. This paper discusses these benefits and the facilities required by the user to support the use of symbolic algorithms and computer algebra systems for analysis of dynamic systems. These facilities include the means to store, edit and manipulate symbolic mathematical representations of the properties of a system. The methods by which this data may be used for analytical investigation by both symbolic and numerical packages are discussed. Finally, an implementation of such facilities within an integrated graphical environment for control engineering is described.

The Making of Exces - A Software Engineering Perspective

Abstract This paper is concerned with the software engineering aspects of the development of eXCeS (Extended X-based Control Engineering workStation) - an integrated computer-aided design environment for control engineering. The requirements of such an environment are analysed and major implementation issues including modularised infrastructure, standard ‘look and feel’ and uniform and extensible data environment are discussed. The eXCeS environment takes account of each of these issues in order to provide a user interface which meets the needs of control engineers, incorporates the latest developments in user interface technology and provides a platform for a wide spectrum of software products for computer-aided control system design.

A ‘Parallel Coordinate’ Editor as a Visual Decision aid in a Multi-Objective Concurrent Control Engineering Environment

A search-based multi-objective analysis and design approach is a base-line prerequisite for Concurrent Control Engineering; e.g. a multi-disciplinary integration of control engineering methods with the data and procedures of complementary engineering disciplines in view of holistic system optimization. Search-based multi-objective analysis and design is iterative by nature and it requires decision inter-action based on trade-off analysis. Trade-off analysis involves detection of multivariate relations in multidimensional data. Multidimensional data, say of 5, 6 or higher dimensions, can be visualized by ‘parallel coordinates’. An interactive editor for parallel coordinates is implemented in a database environment to allow a designer to analyze previous design steps and thereby providing him with a decision support for possible changes in his search direction. The parallel-coordinate editor supports an interactive reduction of the dimensionality of data, selecting subsets of data, scanning data in arbitrary directions, etc. This development is along the lines of the currently evolving research area of ‘Algorithm Animation‘. Since the parallel coordinate editor is not bound to data produced by a special algorithm, it can be used for actively exploring the dynamic behavior of any computational procedure. This makes it well suited for the visual decision support of an iterative and interactive search-based design process.

A_Integral - A Graphical Problem Editor for Control Systems and Multibody Dynamics Modelling in a Concurrent Control Engineering Environment

A_InteGral2 is an active graphical problem editor with state-of-the-art graphic features for interactive dynamics modelling. It provides a common user interface for developing and handling ‘white-box models’, ‘grey-box models’, and ‘black-box models’, while working on the ANDECS®3 ‘model bus’, which is a unified modular FORTRAN 77 interface between various modelling environments and standardized (nonlinear-) system analysis modules like dynamic simulation by use of differential (-algebraic) equation solvers for event-driven variable-structure systems, equilibrium point determination, and linearization.

Computer-aided Control Engineering Environments: Architecture, User Interface, Data-base Management, and Expert Aiding

Modern CAD environments for control systems engineering have begun to support substantial functionality beyond modeling, numerical analysis, and simulation. Three major areas that have emerged in the last five years are advanced user interfaces, data-base management, and expert-systems support ("expert aiding"), In addition, there has been a steady thrust to integrate more completely the various functionalities and software that comprise computer-aided control engineering (CACE). These trends have produced CACE environments which have relatively modest improvements in numerical quality but a vastly different "feel" in terms of integration, support, and "user friendliness.The basic considerations and requirements for a CACE user interface (UI), data-base manager (DBM), and expert aicling are discussed in detail. In many cases, these will be illustrated by examples based on various CACE software suites including the new GE MEAD CACE environment; the basic thrust will be to define needs and show how these can be met. The GE MEAD Project involves the integration of powerful CACE packages under a supervisor which coordinates the execution of these packages with a modern UI, a CACE-oriented DBM, and an expert system. The user interface is designed to facilitate access to the CACE package capabilities by users with widely different levels of familiarity with the environment. The data-base manager keeps track of system models that evolve over time and associates each analysis or design result with the correct model instance. The expert system supplies the machinery for expert aiding complicated or heuristic procedures to free the user from low-level detail and tedium. This system thus exemplifies the trends mentioned above

Future design environments for control engineering

The relationship between user needs and the potential of various computing techniques to satisfy them is examined for an interactive computing environment for work in the field of automatic control. The purpose is to stimulate the discussion of research directions in this field; practical guidelines or recipes for the user are not provided. The material presented is a mixture of surveys of existing work, analyses of needs and possibilities, and proposals and conclusions for further development. Particular stress is placed on the roles of language development, interface development, on conceptual models of the design process; the relative roles of man and machine; and expert systems, and the use of intelligent search techniques.

Future Design Environments for Control Engineering

The relationship between user needs and the potential of various computing techniques to satisfy them is examined for an interactive computing environment for work in the field of automatic control. The purpose is to stimulate the discussion of research directions in this field; practical guidelines or recipes for the user are not provided. The material presented is a mixture of surveys of existing work, analyses of needs and possibilities, and proposals and conclusions for further development. Particular stress is placed on the roles of language development, and interface development; on conceptual models of the design process, the relative roles of man and machine, and expert systems; and on the use of intelligent search techniques.

Expert-aided Control Engineering Environment for Nonlinear Systems

Abstract We have been working to develop an expert-system-based environment for Computer-Aided Control engineering (CACE). Our goal is to create a high-level user interface to conventional CACE tools, with substantial capabilities in areas that are either very complicated, or that require heuristic logic or specialized knowledge, or both. So far, we have developed rule bases for linear system diagnosis, specification development, lead lag compensator synthesis, and design validation. We report here on recent research in expert-aided CAGE for nonlinear systems. Our approach is to perform extensive experimentation (using both numerical and symbolic processing) under the direction of a rule base containing “expertise” in and heuristic strategies for nonlinear CACE. The results and status of this effort are described in detail. This work represents the first phase in an iterative process; much is being learned that will be folded back into the rule base to improve the capabilities of the expert system. We should stress that our expert system is not particularly deep at this time - our present objective is to aid the user in making the most effective use of rather complicated procedures and conventional CACE software; in many instances, this simply involves “common sense”.

Computer-Aided Control Engineering Environment for Nonlinear Systems Analysis and Design

We report on recent progress in developing a computer-aided nonlinear control system analysis and design environment based on sinusoidal-input describing function (SIDF) methods. In particular, two major additions have been made to our CAD software for nonlinear controls during 1984: a simulation-based program for generating amplitude-dependent SIDF input/output models for nonlinear plants, and a frequency-domain nonlinear compensator design package. Both of these are described in detail. This software can treat very general nonlinear systems, with no restrictions as to system order, number of nonlinearities, configuration, or nonlinearity type. An overview of the application of this software to the design of controllers for a realistic, nonlinear model of an industrial robot is presented in Taylor (1984), which serves to illustrate the use of these tools. Based on the software presented here, the use of SIDF-based nonlinear control system analysis and design methods is substantially easier to carry out.