Proceedings of the IUTAM Symposium on Optimal Guidance and Control for Autonomous Systems 2023


Book Description

This book showcases a collection of papers that present cutting-edge studies, methods, experiments, and applications in various interdisciplinary fields. These fields encompass optimal control, guidance, navigation, game theory, stability, nonlinear dynamics, robotics, sensor fusion, machine learning, and autonomy. The chapters reveal novel studies and methods, providing fresh insights into the field of optimal guidance and control for autonomous systems. The book also covers a wide range of relevant applications, showcasing how optimal guidance and control techniques can be effectively applied in various domains, including mechanical and aerospace engineering. From robotics to sensor fusion and machine learning, the papers explore the practical implications of these techniques and methodologies.




The Koopman Operator in Systems and Control


Book Description

This book provides a broad overview of state-of-the-art research at the intersection of the Koopman operator theory and control theory. It also reviews novel theoretical results obtained and efficient numerical methods developed within the framework of Koopman operator theory. The contributions discuss the latest findings and techniques in several areas of control theory, including model predictive control, optimal control, observer design, systems identification and structural analysis of controlled systems, addressing both theoretical and numerical aspects and presenting open research directions, as well as detailed numerical schemes and data-driven methods. Each contribution addresses a specific problem. After a brief introduction of the Koopman operator framework, including basic notions and definitions, the book explores numerical methods, such as the dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) algorithm and Arnoldi-based methods, which are used to represent the operator in a finite-dimensional basis and to compute its spectral properties from data. The main body of the book is divided into three parts: theoretical results and numerical techniques for observer design, synthesis analysis, stability analysis, parameter estimation, and identification; data-driven techniques based on DMD, which extract the spectral properties of the Koopman operator from data for the structural analysis of controlled systems; and Koopman operator techniques with specific applications in systems and control, which range from heat transfer analysis to robot control. A useful reference resource on the Koopman operator theory for control theorists and practitioners, the book is also of interest to graduate students, researchers, and engineers looking for an introduction to a novel and comprehensive approach to systems and control, from pure theory to data-driven methods.




The Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate


Book Description

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the leading international body for assessing the science related to climate change. It provides policymakers with regular assessments of the scientific basis of human-induced climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation. This IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate is the most comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the observed and projected changes to the ocean and cryosphere and their associated impacts and risks, with a focus on resilience, risk management response options, and adaptation measures, considering both their potential and limitations. It brings together knowledge on physical and biogeochemical changes, the interplay with ecosystem changes, and the implications for human communities. It serves policymakers, decision makers, stakeholders, and all interested parties with unbiased, up-to-date, policy-relevant information. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.




The Future of Innovation and Technology in Education


Book Description

This book explores the effective use of information and communication technology (ICT) in teaching and learning. Concept-laden and practice-driven discussions offer insights into the art and practice of employing virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), electronic devices, social networks and massive open online courses (MOOCs) in education.







IUTAM Symposium on Exploiting Nonlinear Dynamics for Engineering Systems


Book Description

This is the proceedings of the IUTAM Symposium on Exploiting Nonlinear Dynamics for Engineering Systems that was held in Novi Sad, Serbia, from July 15th to 19th, 2018. The appearance of nonlinear phenomena used to be perceived as dangerous, with a general tendency to avoid them or control them. This perception has led to intensive research using various approaches and tailor-made tools developed over decades. However, the Nonlinear Dynamics of today is experiencing a profound shift of paradigm since recent investigations rely on a different strategy which brings good effects of nonlinear phenomena to the forefront. This strategy has a positive impact on different fields in science and engineering, such as vibration isolation, energy harvesting, micro/nano-electro-mechanical systems, etc. Therefore, the ENOLIDES Symposium was devoted to demonstrate the benefits and to unlock the potential of exploiting nonlinear dynamical behaviour in these but also in other emerging fields of science and engineering. This proceedings is useful for researchers in the fields of nonlinear dynamics of mechanical systems and structures, and in Mechanical and Civil Engineering.




Conversational UX Design


Book Description

With recent advances in natural language understanding techniques and far-field microphone arrays, natural language interfaces, such as voice assistants and chatbots, are emerging as a popular new way to interact with computers. They have made their way out of the industry research labs and into the pockets, desktops, cars and living rooms of the general public. But although such interfaces recognize bits of natural language, and even voice input, they generally lack conversational competence, or the ability to engage in natural conversation. Today’s platforms provide sophisticated tools for analyzing language and retrieving knowledge, but they fail to provide adequate support for modeling interaction. The user experience (UX) designer or software developer must figure out how a human conversation is organized, usually relying on commonsense rather than on formal knowledge. Fortunately, practitioners can rely on conversation science. This book adapts formal knowledge from the field of Conversation Analysis (CA) to the design of natural language interfaces. It outlines the Natural Conversation Framework (NCF), developed at IBM Research, a systematic framework for designing interfaces that work like natural conversation. The NCF consists of four main components: 1) an interaction model of “expandable sequences,” 2) a corresponding content format, 3) a pattern language with 100 generic UX patterns and 4) a navigation method of six basic user actions. The authors introduce UX designers to a new way of thinking about user experience design in the context of conversational interfaces, including a new vocabulary, new principles and new interaction patterns. User experience designers and graduate students in the HCI field as well as developers and conversation analysis students should find this book of interest.




Learning for Adaptive and Reactive Robot Control


Book Description

Methods by which robots can learn control laws that enable real-time reactivity using dynamical systems; with applications and exercises. This book presents a wealth of machine learning techniques to make the control of robots more flexible and safe when interacting with humans. It introduces a set of control laws that enable reactivity using dynamical systems, a widely used method for solving motion-planning problems in robotics. These control approaches can replan in milliseconds to adapt to new environmental constraints and offer safe and compliant control of forces in contact. The techniques offer theoretical advantages, including convergence to a goal, non-penetration of obstacles, and passivity. The coverage of learning begins with low-level control parameters and progresses to higher-level competencies composed of combinations of skills. Learning for Adaptive and Reactive Robot Control is designed for graduate-level courses in robotics, with chapters that proceed from fundamentals to more advanced content. Techniques covered include learning from demonstration, optimization, and reinforcement learning, and using dynamical systems in learning control laws, trajectory planning, and methods for compliant and force control . Features for teaching in each chapter: applications, which range from arm manipulators to whole-body control of humanoid robots; pencil-and-paper and programming exercises; lecture videos, slides, and MATLAB code examples available on the author’s website . an eTextbook platform website offering protected material[EPS2] for instructors including solutions.




Computational Fluid Dynamics


Book Description

This textbook presents numerical solution techniques for incompressible turbulent flows that occur in a variety of scientific and engineering settings including aerodynamics of ground-based vehicles and low-speed aircraft, fluid flows in energy systems, atmospheric flows, and biological flows. This book encompasses fluid mechanics, partial differential equations, numerical methods, and turbulence models, and emphasizes the foundation on how the governing partial differential equations for incompressible fluid flow can be solved numerically in an accurate and efficient manner. Extensive discussions on incompressible flow solvers and turbulence modeling are also offered. This text is an ideal instructional resource and reference for students, research scientists, and professional engineers interested in analyzing fluid flows using numerical simulations for fundamental research and industrial applications.




Forms and Concepts for Lightweight Structures


Book Description

Covering a wide range of structural concepts and presenting both relevant theories and their applications to actual structures, this book brings together for the first time lightweight structures concepts for many different applications and the relevant scientific literature, thus providing unique insights into a fascinating field of human endeavour. Evolved from a series of graduate courses taught by the authors at the University of Tokyo, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, the University of Cambridge and the California Institute of Technology, this textbook provides both theoretical and practical insights and presents a range of examples which also provide a history of key lightweight structures since the Apollo age. This essential guide will inspire the imagination of engineers and provide an analytical foundation for all readers.