Research Activities and Projects

The Automatic Control and Robotics research group of the University of Ferrara has been involved in several research projects funded by: the European Union, within the FP7 programme; the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) within the PRIN programme in 2002, 2005 and 2007; international organizations (EADS – Astrium, ESA) and private companies (VM Motors Spa, Tetra Pak Packaging Solutions, CT Pack, Elau Systems, CNI Informatics). In particular, the Automatic Control research group of ENDIF promotes research on: Formal verification of object-oriented models for industrial automation systems and automatic PLC code generation; Motion planning and control of robotic systems; Sensorless control of electrical drives; Fault Diagnosis and Isolation (FDI) and Fault Tolerant Control (FTC) for power processes.

With reference to motion planning and control of robotic system activities, the Automatic Control research group is involved mainly in the design and implementation of motion planning algorithms for multiple arms operating in a dynamic environment. The research group also participates to the specification and implementation of robotic task supervision and to the integration between high-level (i.e. motion planning, teleoperation, coordination) and low-level (position/velocity/current loops of electrical drives) control software for robotic systems.

The Automatic Control and Robotics research group is experienced in robot control design and software development thanks to its participation to both academic and industrial research projects. In particular, the group was involved as a Third Party in the FP7 project I-SUR, primarily contributing to the WP5 “Control of the surgical actions” with the development of a collision-free motion planner for multi-arm robots, a logic-based task supervision framework and interconnection software components to integrate the high-level planning and control architecture with the control hardware developed by the ETH Zurich partner of I-SUR.

The Automatic Control and Robotics research group has been also involved in the design of fault diagnosis and fault tolerant control solutions for wind turbine and wind farm installations. The proposed award-winning solutions were applied to different wind turbine and wind park benchmarks proposed by the Dutch company kk-electronic A/S (http://www.kkwindsolutions.com/) and supported by the MathWorks Int. (www.mathworks.com). The proposed solutions were awarded with the third places at the Award Ceremonies of the International Competitions on Fault Detection and Fault Tolerant Control for Wind Turbines and Wind Farms in 2012 and 2014. The scientific results were presented during the 8th SAFEPROCESS, IFAC International Symposium on Fault Detection, Supervision and Safety for Technical Processes, Mexico City, Mexico, 29 - 31 August 2012 and the 41st IFAC World Congress, 23 - 29 August 2014, Cape Town, South Africa.

 

Relevant Projects

  1. 2013 - 2014. CCIAA/UNIFE “Road Wind” project aiming at harvesting the turbulent air flow generated by road vehicles using micro-wind turbines installed along high-density roads and highways.
  2. I-SUR (Intelligent Surgical Robotics, www.isur.eu), funded by the European Union FP7/2007-2013 (grant agreement n. 270396). Role in the project: Third Party of the coordinator partner, University of Verona, contributing to WP5 “Control of the Surgical Actions”.
  3. Technology Transfer project “New generation HMI for real-time distributed control of automation systems” of CNI Informatica Srl (SME, www.cniinformatica.it), funded by the POR-FESR 2007-2013 programme of the Italian Emilia-Romagna region. Role in the project: Main scientific supervisor, contributing to HMI development and kinematic analysis of a novel robotic manipulator for painting applications.
  4. PRIN 2008 - 2012. National Interest Research Project entitled “Design of an Diagnosis and Fault Tolerant Control Integrated Systems for Civil Unmanned Aerial Systems (CUAS)”, funded by the MIUR, Ministry of the University and Scientific Research. National coordinator, Prof. Gianni Bertoni, and local coordinator Dr. Silvio Simani.
  5. Technology Transfer project “High Performance Packaging Machine with Vision-based Guidance” of CT Pack Srl (SME, www.ctpack.com ), funded by the PRRIITT programme of the Italian Emilia-Romagna region. Role in the project: Main scientific supervisor, contributing to kinematic analysis, trajectory planning and motion control implementation for a closed-kinematic chain robotic manipulator.
  6. 2007 – 2010. Technology Transfer Project entitled: “Towards the virtual motor – thermal-fluid-dynamic modelling of advanced diesel engines via software tools, practical experiments, and test rigs” (application nr. DM28633, Art.12EMec). The project concerned the modelling the diesel engine subsystems, together with the design of the control strategies of the Electronic Control Unit. The design is oriented to the reduction of both the fuel consumptions and the pollution emissions. Cooperation among Consorzio Ferrara Ricerche (CFR), the Department of Engineering of the University of Ferrara (scientific coordinator Dr. Silvio Simani), and the local company VM Motors S.p.A, Cento (FE), Italy (www.vmmotori.it).
  7. 2006 – 2008. Regional Programme PRRIITT 2006, regarding the Industrial research, innovation and technology transfer. Project entitled: SiGeVAMA 2006 – System for the management of multipurpose vehicles with airport applications (local coordinator Dr. Silvio Simani). Laboratory for the management of the aircraft traffic, funded by the Region Emilia Romagna. The project regarded the management of multipurpose vehicle systems, with application to airports.
  8. Cooperation project with the University of Hull (UK, Prof Ron J. Patton), EADS - Astrium ESTEC (Toulouse, France, Dr. Bernard Polle) and ESA (European Aerospace Agency, Holland, Dr. Denis Fertin) with the title: “Robust Estimation for Failure Detection”, Ref: EAA.TCN.89079.ASTR. The main aim of the project was the development of a supervision module with application to the aerospace system. The system under investigation consisted of the MARS EXPRESS satellite model, which represents a distributed system, in the presence of uncertainty and disturbance. In particular, the main point was the design of a comprehensive methodology that allows the supervision, the fault detection and isolation of the gyroscopes and thrusters of the Mars Express Satellite.
  9. Joint PhD Programme with Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL), for which Dr. Marcello Bonfè of the University of Ferrara is co-supervisor of the student Enea Scioni, together with Prof. Herman Bruyninckx of KUL http://people.mech.kuleuven.be/~bruyninc/ .