GOALI: Operational Reconfigurability of Constrained Moving-Boundary Processes through Agile Motion Planning with Application to Steel Continuous Casting

该奖项支持的研究工作旨在为具有移动边界的受控系统提供操作灵活性，例如涉及熔化和/或凝固的系统，以满足不断变化的生产需求。被称为运动规划的目标是及时生成到闭环系统的命令，后者由耦合到基于模型的反馈控制律的过程组成，以保证提供最佳产品质量的过程运动。以连铸为研究对象，研究方法是从改进过程模型入手，明确静态约束和动态约束对其行为和过程的约束，再到建立满足约束的运动规划算法。成果包括基本控制理论成果、移动边界系统的快速最优运动规划工具、纽柯钢铁公司工业连铸机的软件/硬件演示和验证、研究成果在出版物中的记录以及工程学学生教育。如果成功，本研究结果将提供广泛适用的运动规划工具，严格优化移动边界过程的操作，带来重大的经济和环境影响。应用实例包括晶体生长、固体和液体燃烧以及多种形式的熔化和凝固。例如，连铸成品率损失减少1%，每年将节省约1.5亿美元，而优化冷却条件，仅节省10%的铸钢内部能量，在再加热期间每年将节省3.5亿美元。学生研究人员将掌握并广泛传播专业知识，并将成果商业化。通过学生参与、国际合作和知识的广泛传播，研究和教育基础设施将得到显著加强。

The research effort supported by this award is aimed at providing operational flexibility of controlled systems with moving boundaries, such as those involving melting and/or solidification, to meet changing production demands. The objective, referred to as motion planning, is a timely generation of commands to the closed loop, the latter being composed of a process coupled to a model-based feedback control law, to guarantee process motions that provide optimal product quality. Focusing on continuous steel casting, the research approach is to start from the improvement of process model and clear delineation of static and dynamic constraints on its behavior and progress to creation of motion planning algorithms that satisfy the constraints. Deliverables include fundamental control-theoretic results, fast optimal motion planning tools for moving boundary systems, software/hardware demonstration and validation on an industrial caster at Nucor Steel, documentation of research results in publications, and engineering student education.If successful, the results of this research will offer widely applicable motion planning tools that rigorously optimize operation of moving boundary processes, providing significant economic and environmental impacts. Example applications include crystal growth, solid and liquid burning, and multiple forms of melting and solidification. For example, a one percent reduction in yield loss in continuous steel casting would save about $150 million per year, while optimizing cooling conditions to conserve just 10% more of the cast steel internal energy would produce $350 million per year savings during reheating. Student researchers will master and broadly disseminate expertise and commercialize the results. The research and educational infrastructure will be significantly enhanced through student involvement, international collaboration, and broad dissemination of knowledge.