CONTROL THEORY

at the Department of Control Engineering, Aalborg University

Introduction

Control theory is the science that addresses the analysis and synthesis of feedback mechanisms in dynamical systems. The field is in essence interdisciplinary since on one hand it treats dynamical systems as abstract mathematical models that are not related to any specific technology, and on the other hand it has applications in practically any industrial sector.

Increased global awareness of resource limitations, pollution problems, and increased industrial demands for cost-effectiveness due to competition has put control theory in focus as a systematic method of designing for minimal resource consumption, maximal product quality or other aspects of optimality in production processes and/or in final products.

The main research areas of the control theory group at Department of Control Engineering, are:

Selftuning and adaptive control
Control of nonlinear systems
Robust and optimal control
Control of large scale systems
Intelligent sensors

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Projects

Control theory is an integral part of basically all projects at the Department of Control Engineering, but of special interest to the control theory group are the following:

Control of welding processes
Control of piezo electrical motors
Control of Compact Disc players
Control of Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning systems
Heat pump control
Control of induction motors
Attitude control for satellites (Ørsted project). SATLAB - a full scale laboratory satellite model
Power plant control
Robust rudder-roll damping for ships
Control of wind turbines
Active damping of space structures with piezo technology

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Industrial Partners

Several of the activities of the projects mentioned above are carried out in close cooperation with a number of academic and industrial partners. Some (but not all!) of our industrial partners are: