Goal-Oriented Control Systems (GOCS): Disturbance, Uncertainty and Constraints

控制系统在自动化和现代工业中发挥着核心作用。通过使用反馈，控制系统被设计成在参考设定点周围调节系统输出或跟踪参考轨迹，而不管由于其操作环境而引起的干扰和变化;例如，飞机遵循指定的速度和高度，而不管阵风、风和飞机的典型变化（例如乘客数量）。控制系统的性能规范通常被定义为根据定义的参考来量化它们的行为。整个控制工程领域的分析和设计工具/方法主要是在这些规范的基础上开发和构建的。随着自动化水平的不断提高，我们正朝着目标导向的操作方向发展，在这种操作中，系统需要实现的目标是在高层次上指定的（例如，在经济或使命要求方面），而不是如何实现（例如，通过定义设定点或轨迹）。以目标为导向的操作改进了操作过程，为技术进步提供了新的机会，并降低了操作成本。目标导向控制系统（GOCS）对于实现这种类型的操作至关重要。GOCS的另一个显著差异是干扰/不确定性对设计规范的影响。传统上，控制系统的核心作用是衰减外部干扰/不确定性的影响，因为它们总是使系统偏离参考。然而，某些干扰可能有利于系统在高层次目标方面的运行。例如，原材料或环境的变化可能使化学过程更有利可图，因此不应拒绝;在紧急着陆时，应充分利用有利的风况变化，而不是拒绝风况变化，因为风况变化有助于飞机滑翔更长的时间，从而在执行强制着陆时提供更大的安全裕度。在目前的控制系统设计中，（例如，有形的、业务的、法律的）通常通过生成适当的参考来明确或隐含地考虑。然而，由于系统规范将在面向目标的操作中以高水平定义，并且控制系统必须制定如何实现规范/目标，因此必须非常仔细地指定约束，以满足安全和其他要求。某些约束难以在规范中表示，或者难以在当前控制设计中考虑约束。该奖学金将开发面向目标的控制系统的分析和设计工具，为下一代控制系统在性能规格，约束表示和问题制定方面建立统一的框架，研究其在干扰，不确定性和约束存在下的性能和其他属性，并对其应用进行基准测试。时序逻辑将被用来表示高层次的规范和广泛的复杂约束。通过将时序逻辑与控制工程中动态系统的丰富表示相结合，旨在为GOCS开发一个全新的分析和设计框架，该框架既涉及丰富的动态特性，又涉及性能和约束的复杂规范，并为信息错误、环境干扰和动态不确定性传播到高级性能规范和约束的满足提供分析工具，以及这些术语与反馈策略和受控动态的相互作用。该研究金计划是在过去25年中研究员在基于扰动的控制，模型预测控制和自动驾驶汽车方面的国际领先工作的基础上开发和建立的。该奖学金的成功完成将开辟一个目标导向控制系统的新领域，改变控制工程，并释放从低水平到高水平自动化的潜力

Control systems play a central role in automation and modern industry. By using feedback, control systems are designed to regulate system outputs around a reference setpoint or track a reference trajectory, despite disturbances and variations due to its operational environment; for example, an aircraft follows a specified speed and altitude despite gust, wind and changes typical of an aircraft (e.g. number of passengers). Performance specifications for control systems are typically defined to quantify their behaviours in terms of the defined reference. The analysis and design tools/methods across the entire area of control engineering are mainly developed and built upon these specifications. With the demand for ever increasing levels of automation, we are moving towards goal-oriented operation, where what a system needs to achieve is specified at a high level (e.g. in terms of economic or mission requirements), rather than how it is to be achieved (e.g. through defining a setpoint or trajectory). The goal-oriented operation improves the operation process, offers new opportunities for technological advances and reduces operational costs. A Goal-Oriented Control System (GOCS) is essential to enable this type of operation. Another significant difference in GOCS is the influence of disturbance/uncertainties on design specifications. Traditionally a central role of a control system is to attenuate the influence of external disturbance/uncertainties because they always divert the system away from a reference. However, certain disturbance may be good for the system operation in terms of a high-level goal. For example, changes in raw material or environment may make a chemical process more profitable so they should not be rejected; a favourable change of wind condition should be exploited, rather than rejected in an emergency landing as it helps the aircraft to glide longer, providing a larger safe margin in performing forced landing.In current control system design, constraints (e.g. physical, operational, legal) are often considered explicitly or implicitly through generating appropriate references. However, as the system specifications will be defined at a high level in goal-oriented operation and the control system must work out how to achieve the specifications/goals, constraints must be specified very carefully in order to meet safety and other requirements. Some constraints are difficult to represent in the specifications or to take into account constraints within current control design. This Fellowship will develop analysis and design tools for goal-oriented control systems, build up a unified framework for the next generation of control systems in performance specifications, constraint representation and problem formulating, investigate its performance and other properties in the presence of disturbance, uncertainties and constraints, and benchmark their applications. Temporal logic will be used to represent high level specifications and a wide range of complex constraints. By combining temporal logic with rich representation of dynamic systems in control engineering, it aims to develop a complete new analysis and design framework for GOCS that involves both rich dynamics and complex specifications in performance and constraints, and to provide analysis tools for the propagation of information errors, environmental disturbances and dynamic uncertainties into the high level performance specifications and fulfilment of constraints, and the interplay of these terms with a feedback strategy and controlled dynamics. The Fellowship programme is developed and built upon the Fellow's internationally leading work in disturbance observer-based control, model predictive control and autonomous vehicles in the last 25 years. The successful completion of the Fellowship will open a new field of goal-oriented control systems, transform control engineering and unlock the potential of moving from low levels to high levels of automation