Category: News

Congratulations to Dr. Ahsan and Dr. Hasana, who graduate on Friday....

COER, with Edinburgh Napier University, hosted an interactive workshop on wave energy converter control today at The 8th IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications (CCTA) 2024 in Newcastle, UK. Speakers included John Ringwood, Chris Guiver, Facundo Mosquera, Pedro Fornaro....

Over the last two decades, researchers have primarily focused on developing control technology to create more effective controllers, designed to manipulate the motion of Wave energy converters (WECs) aggressively, aiming to maximise their energy-harvesting capacity in an effort to minimise levelised cost of energy (LCoE). However, exaggerated WEC motion can, in the harsh ocean environment, lead to significant decreases in maintenance intervals and system reliability, leading to increases in operational costs (OpEx). The essence of the health-sensitive control problem is finding a suitable trade-off between maximising energy and minimising maintenance costs, by modulating the control law, assuming a fixed amount of capital costs (CapEx). This new paper, in Elsevier's Ocean Engineering by Amin Ziaei, Ahsan Said and John Ringwood, and supported by MaREI and the Science Foundation Ireland-funded Seachange Project, aims to define the health-sensitive control problem for WECs by reviewing current advancements in longevity analysis within the wave energy application area, as well as other pertinent areas. The obstacles and opportunities for future...

COER enjoys and benefits from welcoming a number of interns each year.  This year, Markel Aristegui from Mondragon University in the Basque Country, where he is working towards his undergraduate engineering degree, joined us for an internship with COER until June 2024. Markel's final year project focuses on the development and control of an all-electric hardware-in-the-loop simulation environment for point absorber wave energy converters.  During his time with COER, as well as developing his final year project, Markel attended a conference and gave two presentations to the COER group. On his return, he gave a presentation to his class and supervisors (rather familiar faces), while sporting some very distinguished attire!...

Control-inspired design involves leveraging control theory principles to enhance engineering systems. By using feedback control, we can create systems that adapt and self-correct to changing conditions. This innovative approach, known as Control Co-Design (CCD), focuses on redesigning dynamics and subsystem interactions for improved performance, reduced design time and cost, and increased reliability. In our recent paper, by Josefredo Gadelha da Silva, Matheus Golz, Thalita Nazaré, Marcio J. Lacerda and Erivelton Nepomuceno, and part-funded by Science Foundation Ireland, and Maynooth University's John and Pat Hume Scholarship, we reviewed 197 articles on CCD, highlighting its applications in renewable energy, vehicular and aircraft control systems, and communication systems. Our review offers a comprehensive introduction to CCD, summarizing key developments and discussing current trends and benefits. We also present a theoretical example of CCD in a Hybrid Wind-Wave Platform (HWWP), exploring the intricate interplay between aerodynamic and hydrodynamic design domains and their control challenges. We'd love to hear your feedback! https://lnkd.in/e3DQV3mq...

If you are interested in the project described below, apply before 31st May 2024 here. (job reference number 028461). The SHY Project (Seawater HYdraulic PTO using dynamic passive controller for wave energy converters), The EU Horizon SHY project is set to play a pivotal role in unlocking the potential of wave energy converters by developing key components of a seawater hydraulic power-take-off (PTO) system, coupled with an advanced control strategy, for a novel Danish wave energy converter. This dual focus aims to reduce the levelised cost of energy (LCOE) while concurrently minimising the environmental impact. The contribution from COER/MU is on the hydrodynamic modelling and control side. The SHY project consortium partners include: Technical University of Denmark (DK), OEMs FibronPipe (AT) and Leser (DE), specialist SMEs Julia F. Chozas (DK), Applied Renewables Research (UK) and Marine Systems Modelling (NL), the offshore test site Consorcio Para El Diseño, Construcción, Equipamiento y Explotación de la Plataforma Oceánica de Canarias (PLOCAN) (ES), and wave energy technology developer Wavepiston (DK & ES). This post presents significant...

We wanted to thank Damien Fay from HPE for presenting at our 2024 Seminar Series yesterday. Demian gave an interesting presentation: "A self-organizing eigenspace map for time series clustering" His talk focused on a time series clustering technique they developed as well as the underlying time series analysis techniques used which can handle non-stationary chaotic and semi-seasonal time series. He spent some time during the talk giving a tutorial on this before launching into the research which extends the theory substantially (see abstract below). This paper presents a novel time series clustering method, the self- organising eigenspace map (SOEM), based on a generalisation of the well-known self-organising feature map (SOFM). The SOEM operates on the eigenspaces of the embedded covariance structures of time series which are related directly to modes in those time series. Approximate joint diagonalisation acts as a pseudo-metric across these spaces allowing us to generalise the SOFM to a neural network with matrix input. The technique is empirically validated against three sets...

Research.com have unveiled its highly anticipated 2024 Ranking of Best Scientists in Electronics and Electrical Engineering. Among the esteemed names listed is our own Prof. John Ringwood. Securing a third place ranking in Ireland and a global ranking of #2605, Prof. Ringwood has also been honored with the Electronics and Electrical Engineering Leader Award for 2024, in recognition of his achievements in the field. The methodology employed by Research.com relies on the D-index (Discipline H-index) metric, a measure that accounts for both the productivity and impact of a scientist's publications within the domain of Electronics and Electrical Engineering. This metric considers factors such as citations, publication output, and research influence. The full ranking for Ireland showcases the diverse expertise  being pursued within the country. Such rankings not only celebrate individual achievements but also serve as a catalyst for collaboration and knowledge exchange within the scientific community....

We were delighted to welcome Wentao Shi (vice dean), Bingyong Guo, Siya Jin, Fantai Meng, and Dingnan Li from The Ocean Institute at North Western Polytechnic University in Shiaanxi, China. Who came to exchange ideas on the most recent developments in wave energy control and gave a presentation on their latest work....

The 63rd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC) will be held in Milan, Italy, from December 16th to 19th, 2024. COER Research Fellow Siyuan Zhan is co-organising a special session on 'Unconventional Control Problems in Net-Zero Carbon Systems' together with Yao Zhang, Wen-Hua Chen, and John Ringwood. To submit your paper, please visit https://lnkd.in/e2HskK8t and select 'Invited Session Paper'. Don't forget to quote the code: 872uw for the invited session. #ieeeconference #controlsystems #netzero With increasing global concerns about climate change and energy security, recent decades have witnessed substantial growth in the development of net-zero carbon systems. Control can play a critical role in enhancing functionality and/or increasing economic performance. Nevertheless, many unconventional control problems arise from net-zero carbon systems, where the primary task is not to regulate to a setpoint or track a reference signal, but to optimize high-level goals such as productivity, energy production, and energy consumption. This creates new challenges for the control community. Motivated by the above facts, this invited session is devoted to control...