pwc-archive/papers-with-abstracts huggingface dataset:
Physics-Informed Neural Networks for Nonlocal Flow Modeling of Connected Automated Vehicles
Authors: Chenguang Zhao, Huan Yu
Date: 2025-06-23 00:00:00

Connected automated vehicles (CAVs) cruising control strategies have been extensively studied at the microscopic level. CAV controllers sense and react to traffic both upstream and downstream, yet most macroscopic models still assume locality, where the desired speed only depends on local density. The nonlocal macroscopic traffic flow models that explicitly capture the ``look ahead'' and ``look behind'' nonlocal CAV dynamics remain underexplored. In this paper, we propose a Physics-informed Neural Network framework to directly learn a macroscopic non-local flow model from a generic looking-ahead looking-behind vehicle motion model, which bridges the micro-macro modeling gap. We reconstruct macroscopic traffic states from synthetic CAV trajectories generated by the proposed microscopic control designs, and then learn a non-local traffic flow model that embeds a non-local conservation law to capture the resulting look-ahead look-behind dynamics. To analyze how CAV control parameters affect nonlocal traffic flow, we conduct high-fidelity driving simulator experiments to collect human drivers' trajectory data with varying downstream and upstream visibility, which serves as a baseline for tuning CAV control gains. Our analysis validates that the learned non-local flow model predicts CAV traffic dynamics more accurately than local models, and the fundamental diagram exhibits far less scatter in the speed - density relation. We further show that the looking-ahead/looking-behind control gains mainly reshape the non-local kernels, while the macroscopic speed and non-local density relation mainly depends on the desired speed function choice of the CAV controller. Our results provide a systematic approach for learning non-local macroscopic traffic-flow models directly from generic CAV control designs.
Dynamic Hybrid Modeling: Incremental Identification and Model Predictive Control
Authors: Adrian Caspari, Thomas Bierweiler, Sarah Fadda, Daniel Labisch, Maarten Nauta, Franzisko Wagner, Merle Warmbold, Constantinos C. Pantelides
Date: 2025-06-23 00:00:00
Tasks: Model Predictive Control, parameter estimation

Mathematical models are crucial for optimizing and controlling chemical processes, yet they often face significant limitations in terms of computational time, algorithm complexity, and development costs. Hybrid models, which combine mechanistic models with data-driven models (i.e. models derived via the application of machine learning to experimental data), have emerged as a promising solution to these challenges. However, the identification of dynamic hybrid models remains difficult due to the need to integrate data-driven models within mechanistic model structures. We present an incremental identification approach for dynamic hybrid models that decouples the mechanistic and data-driven components to overcome computational and conceptual difficulties. Our methodology comprises four key steps: (1) regularized dynamic parameter estimation to determine optimal time profiles for flux variables, (2) correlation analysis to evaluate relationships between variables, (3) data-driven model identification using advanced machine learning techniques, and (4) hybrid model integration to combine the mechanistic and data-driven components. This approach facilitates early evaluation of model structure suitability, accelerates the development of hybrid models, and allows for independent identification of data-driven components. Three case studies are presented to illustrate the robustness, reliability, and efficiency of our incremental approach in handling complex systems and scenarios with limited data.
Symbolic Reduction for Formal Synthesis of Global Lyapunov Functions
Authors: Jun Liu, Maxwell Fitzsimmons
Date: 2025-06-22 00:00:00
Tasks: Design Synthesis, valid

We investigate the formal synthesis of global polynomial Lyapunov functions for polynomial vector fields. We establish that a sign-definite polynomial must satisfy specific algebraic constraints, which we leverage to develop a set of straightforward symbolic reduction rules. These rules can be recursively applied to symbolically simplify the Lyapunov candidate, enabling more efficient and robust discovery of Lyapunov functions via optimization or satisfiability modulo theories (SMT) solving. In many cases, without such simplification, finding a valid Lyapunov function is often infeasible. When strict Lyapunov functions are unavailable, we design synthesis procedures for finding weak Lyapunov functions to verify global asymptotic stability using LaSalle's invariance principle. Finally, we encode instability conditions for Lyapunov functions and develop SMT procedures to disprove global asymptotic stability. Through a series of examples, we demonstrate that the proposed symbolic reduction, LaSalle-type conditions, and instability tests allow us to efficiently solve many cases that would otherwise be challenging.
G-SEED: A Spatio-temporal Encoding Framework for Forest and Grassland Data Based on GeoSOT
Authors: Xuan Ouyang, Xinwen Yu, Yan Chen, Guang Deng, Xuanxin Liu
Date: 2025-06-22 00:00:00

In recent years, the rapid development of remote sensing, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, and IoT technologies has led to an explosive growth in spatio-temporal forest and grassland data, which are increasingly multimodal, heterogeneous, and subject to continuous updates. However, existing Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based systems struggle to integrate and manage of such large-scale and diverse data sources. To address these challenges, this paper proposes G-SEED (GeoSOT-based Scalable Encoding and Extraction for Forest and Grassland Spatio-temporal Data), a unified encoding and management framework based on the hierarchical GeoSOT (Geographical coordinate global Subdivision grid with One dimension integer on 2n tree) grid system. G-SEED integrates spatial, temporal, and type information into a composite code, enabling consistent encoding of both structured and unstructured data, including remote sensing imagery, vector maps, sensor records, documents, and multimedia content. The framework incorporates adaptive grid-level selection, center-cell-based indexing, and full-coverage grid arrays to optimize spatial querying and compression. Through extensive experiments on a real-world dataset from Shennongjia National Park (China), G-SEED demonstrates superior performance in spatial precision control, cross-source consistency, query efficiency, and compression compared to mainstream methods such as Geohash and H3. This study provides a scalable and reusable paradigm for the unified organization of forest and grassland big data, supporting dynamic monitoring and intelligent decision-making in these domains.
Distributionally robust minimization in meta-learning for system identification
Authors: Matteo Rufolo, Dario Piga, Marco Forgione
Date: 2025-06-22 00:00:00
Tasks: Meta-Learning

Meta learning aims at learning how to solve tasks, and thus it allows to estimate models that can be quickly adapted to new scenarios. This work explores distributionally robust minimization in meta learning for system identification. Standard meta learning approaches optimize the expected loss, overlooking task variability. We use an alternative approach, adopting a distributionally robust optimization paradigm that prioritizes high-loss tasks, enhancing performance in worst-case scenarios. Evaluated on a meta model trained on a class of synthetic dynamical systems and tested in both in-distribution and out-of-distribution settings, the proposed approach allows to reduce failures in safety-critical applications.
GenControl: Generative AI-Driven Autonomous Design of Control Algorithms
Authors: Chenggang Cui, Jiaming Liu, Peifeng Hui, Pengfeng Lin, Chuanlin Zhang
Date: 2025-06-14 00:00:00

Designing controllers for complex industrial electronic systems is challenging due to nonlinearities and parameter uncertainties, and traditional methods are often slow and costly. To address this, we propose a novel autonomous design framework driven by Large Language Models (LLMs). Our approach employs a bi-level optimization strategy: an LLM intelligently explores and iteratively improves the control algorithm's structure, while a Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm efficiently refines the parameters for any given structure. This method achieves end-to-end automated design. Validated through a simulation of a DC-DC Boost converter, our framework successfully evolved a basic controller into a high-performance adaptive version that met all stringent design specifications for fast response, low error, and robustness. This work presents a new paradigm for control design that significantly enhances automation and efficiency.
Bird's-eye view safety monitoring for the construction top under the tower crane
Authors: Yanke Wang, Yu Hin Ng, Haobo Liang, Ching-Wei Chang, Hao Chen
Date: 2025-06-22 00:00:00

The tower crane is involving more automated and intelligent operation procedure, and importantly, the application of automation technologies to the safety issues is imperative ahead of the utilization of any other advances. Among diverse risk management tasks on site, it is essential to protect the human workers on the workspace between the tower crane and constructed building top area (construction top) from the bird's-eye view, especially with Modular Integrated Construction (MiC) lifted. Also, the camera and Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) can capture abundant 3D information on site, which is however yet made the best use. Considering the safety protection for humans and tower cranes, we present an AI-based fully automated safety monitoring system for tower crane lifting from the bird's-eye view, surveilling to shield the human workers on the construction top and avoid cranes' collision by alarming the crane operator. The system achieved a 3D data fusion for localization of humans and MiCs by integrating the captured information from camera and LiDAR. The state-of-the-art methods were explored and implemented into our proposed software pipeline coupled with the hardware and display systems. Furthermore, we conducted an analysis of the components in the pipeline to verify the accuracy and effectiveness of the involved methods. The display and visualization on the real site proved that our system can serve as a valuable safety monitoring toolkit on site.
Non-Euclidean Enriched Contraction Theory for Monotone Operators and Monotone Dynamical Systems
Authors: Diego Deplano, Sergio Grammatico, Mauro Franceschelli
Date: 2025-06-22 00:00:00

We adopt an operator-theoretic perspective to analyze a class of nonlinear fixed-point iterations and discrete-time dynamical systems. Specifically, we study the Krasnoselskij iteration - at the heart of countless algorithmic schemes and underpinning the stability analysis of numerous dynamical models - by focusing on a non-Euclidean vector space equipped with the diagonally weighted supremum norm. By extending the state of the art, we introduce the notion of enriched weak contractivity, which (i) is characterized by a simple, verifiable condition for Lipschitz operators, and (ii) yields explicit bounds on the admissible step size for the Krasnoselskij iteration. Our results relate the notion of weak contractivity with that of monotonicity of operators and dynamical systems and show its generality to design larger step sizes and improved convergence speed for broader classes of dynamical systems. The newly developed theory is illustrated on two applications: the design of zero-finding algorithms for monotone operators and the design of nonlinear consensus dynamics in monotone multi-agent dynamical systems.
A Scenario-based Model Predictive Control Scheme for Pandemic Response through Non-pharmaceutical Interventions
Authors: Domagoj Herceg, Marco DellOro, Riccardo Bertollo, Fuminari Miura, Paul de Klaver, Valentina Breschi, Dinesh Krishnamoorthy, Mauro Salazar
Date: 2025-06-22 00:00:00
Tasks: Model Predictive Control

This paper presents a scenario-based model predictive control (MPC) scheme designed to control an evolving pandemic via non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPIs). The proposed approach combines predictions of possible pandemic evolution to decide on a level of severity of NPIs to be implemented over multiple weeks to maintain hospital pressure below a prescribed threshold, while minimizing their impact on society. Specifically, we first introduce a compartmental model which divides the population into Susceptible, Infected, Detected, Threatened, Healed, and Expired (SIDTHE) subpopulations and describe its positive invariant set. This model is expressive enough to explicitly capture the fraction of hospitalized individuals while preserving parameter identifiability w.r.t. publicly available datasets. Second, we devise a scenario-based MPC scheme with recourse actions that captures potential uncertainty of the model parameters. e.g., due to population behavior or seasonality. Our results show that the scenario-based nature of the proposed controller manages to adequately respond to all scenarios, keeping the hospital pressure at bay also in very challenging situations when conventional MPC methods fail.
Safety Certificate against Latent Variables with Partially Unidentifiable Dynamics
Authors: Haoming Jing, Yorie Nakahira
Date: 2025-06-22 00:00:00

Many systems contain latent variables that make their dynamics partially unidentifiable or cause distribution shifts in the observed statistics between offline and online data. However, existing control techniques often assume access to complete dynamics or perfect simulators with fully observable states, which are necessary to verify whether the system remains within a safe set (forward invariance) or safe actions are consistently feasible at all times. To address this limitation, we propose a technique for designing probabilistic safety certificates for systems with latent variables. A key technical enabler is the formulation of invariance conditions in probability space, which can be constructed using observed statistics in the presence of distribution shifts due to latent variables. We use this invariance condition to construct a safety certificate that can be implemented efficiently in real-time control. The proposed safety certificate can continuously find feasible actions that control long-term risk to stay within tolerance. Stochastic safe control and (causal) reinforcement learning have been studied in isolation until now. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed work is the first to use causal reinforcement learning to quantify long-term risk for the design of safety certificates. This integration enables safety certificates to efficiently ensure long-term safety in the presence of latent variables. The effectiveness of the proposed safety certificate is demonstrated in numerical simulations.
In silico evaluation of pramlintide dosing algorithms in artificial pancreas systems
Authors: Borja Pons Torres, Iván Sala Mira, Clara Furió-Novejarque, Ricardo Sanz, Pedro García, José-Luis Díez, Jorge Bondia
Date: 2025-06-21 00:00:00

Pramlintide's capability to delay gastric emptying has motivated its use in artificial pancreas systems, accompanying insulin as a control action. Due to the scarcity of pramlintide simulation models in the literature, in silico testing of insulin-plus-pramlintide strategies is not widely used. This work incorporates a recent pramlintide pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics model into the T1DM UVA/Padova simulator to adjust and validate four insulin-plus-pramlintide control algorithms. The proposals are based on an existing insulin controller and administer pramlintide either as independent boluses or as a ratio of the insulin infusion. The results of the insulin-pramlintide algorithms are compared against their insulin-alone counterparts, showing an improvement in the time in range between 3.00\% and 10.53\%, consistent with results reported in clinical trials in the literature. Future work will focus on individualizing the pramlintide model to the patients' characteristics and evaluating the implemented strategies under more challenging scenarios.
Derandomizing Simultaneous Confidence Regions for Band-Limited Functions by Improved Norm Bounds and Majority-Voting Schemes
Authors: Balázs Csanád Csáji, Bálint Horváth
Date: 2025-06-21 00:00:00

Band-limited functions are fundamental objects that are widely used in systems theory and signal processing. In this paper we refine a recent nonparametric, nonasymptotic method for constructing simultaneous confidence regions for band-limited functions from noisy input-output measurements, by working in a Paley-Wiener reproducing kernel Hilbert space. Kernel norm bounds are tightened using a uniformly-randomized Hoeffding's inequality for small samples and an empirical Bernstein bound for larger ones. We derive an approximate threshold, based on the sample size and how informative the inputs are, that governs which bound to deploy. Finally, we apply majority voting to aggregate confidence sets from random subsamples, boosting both stability and region size. We prove that even per-input aggregated intervals retain their simultaneous coverage guarantee. These refinements are also validated through numerical experiments.
Reset Controller Analysis and Design for Unstable Linear Plants using Scaled Relative Graphs
Authors: Julius P. J. Krebbekx, Roland Tóth, Amritam Das
Date: 2025-06-16 00:00:00

In this technical communique, we develop a graphical design procedure for reset controllers for unstable LTI plants based on recent developments on Scaled Relative Graph analysis, yielding an $L_2$-gain performance bound. The stabilizing controller consists of a second order reset element in parallel with a proportional gain. The proposed method goes beyond existing approaches that are limited to stable systems only, providing a well-applicable approach to design problems in practice where the plant is unstable.
A Set-valued Impact Law Approach for Modeling and Analysis of Rigid Contact Universal Joint with Clearance
Authors: Junaid Ali, Gregory Shaver, Anil Bajaj
Date: 2025-06-20 00:00:00
Tasks: Friction

This study presents a dynamic model of a universal joint (U-Joint) with radial clearance, focusing on the rigid unilateral frictional contacts at the crosspiece and yoke interfaces. Unlike previous models that neglect crosspiece inertia and interface friction, this work incorporates these effects using a set-valued impact law based on Signorini's condition with Coulomb friction, capturing the complex non-smooth dynamics introduced by radial clearance. Numerical simulations of a 2 degrees-of-freedom (DOF) shaft system reveal the critical influence of clearance on U-Joint dynamic behavior, including impact-induced oscillations, quasi-periodic motion, and chaotic dynamics, which are essential for accurate driveline modeling and real-time control in automotive, aerospace, and precision medical applications.
A tutorial overview of model predictive control for continuous crystallization: current possibilities and future perspectives
Authors: Collin R. Johnson, Kerstin Wohlgemuth, Sergio Lucia
Date: 2025-06-20 00:00:00
Tasks: Model Predictive Control

This paper presents a systematic approach to the advanced control of continuous crystallization processes using model predictive control. We provide a tutorial introduction to controlling complex particle size distributions by integrating population balance equations with detailed models of various continuous crystallizers. Since these high-fidelity models are often too complex for online optimization, we propose the use of data-driven surrogate models that enable efficient optimization-based control. Through two case studies, one with a low-complexity system allowing direct comparison with traditional methods and another involving a spatially distributed crystallizer, we demonstrate how our approach enables real-time model predictive control while maintaining accuracy. The presented methodology facilitates the use of complex models in a model-based control framework, allowing precise control of key particle size distribution characteristics, such as the median particle size $d_{50}$ and the width $d_{90} - d_{10}$. This addresses a critical challenge in pharmaceutical and fine chemical manufacturing, where product quality depends on tight control of particle characteristics.
Robust black start of an offshore wind farm with DRU based HVDC link using power synchronization control
Authors: Orcun Karaca, Ioannis Tsoumas, Mario Schweizer, Ognjen Stanojev, Lennart Harnefors
Date: 2025-06-20 00:00:00

This paper introduces a universal power synchronization controller for grid-side control of the wind turbine conversion systems in an offshore wind farm with a diode rectifier in the offshore substation of the HVDC link. The controller incorporates voltage-power droop controllers in the outer loop to enable the operation of this setup. To effectively handle the impact of large delays during black start and power ramp phases, virtual active and reactive power quantities are defined. These quantities are computed based on the current references prior to any modifications that might be needed to meet converter current and voltage limits or source constraints. Utilizing them in the outer loop ensures a balanced power sharing and a stable operation whenever the original (unmodified) current references are not realized. Case studies confirm the robustness of the proposed controller.
Evaluating the Impact of Model Accuracy for Optimizing Battery Energy Storage Systems
Authors: Martin Cornejo, Melina Graner, Holger Hesse, Andreas Jossen
Date: 2025-06-20 00:00:00
Tasks: energy trading, Model Predictive Control

This study investigates two models of varying complexity for optimizing intraday arbitrage energy trading of a battery energy storage system using a model predictive control approach. Scenarios reflecting different stages of the system's lifetime are analyzed. The findings demonstrate that the equivalent-circuit-model-based non-linear optimization model outperforms the simpler linear model by delivering more accurate predictions of energy losses and system capabilities. This enhanced accuracy enables improved operational strategies, resulting in increased roundtrip efficiency and revenue, particularly in systems with batteries exhibiting high internal resistance, such as second-life batteries. However, to fully leverage the model's benefits, it is essential to identify the correct parameters.
Opportunities for real-time process control of electrode properties in lithium-ion battery manufacturing
Authors: Noël Hallemans, Philipp Dechent, David Howey, Simon Clark, Mona Faraji Niri, James Marco, Patrick S. Grant, Stephen R. Duncan
Date: 2025-06-20 00:00:00

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have an important role in the shift required to achieve a global net-zero carbon target of 2050. Electrode manufacture is amongst the most expensive steps of the LIB manufacturing process and, despite its apparent maturity, optimised manufacturing conditions are arrived at by largely trial and error. Currently, LIB manufacturing plants are controlled to follow the fixed "recipe" obtained by trial and error, which may nonetheless be suboptimal. Moreover, regulating the process as a whole to conform to the set conditions is not widespread. Inspired by control approaches used in other film and sheet processes, we discuss opportunities for implementing real-time process control of electrode-related products, which has the potential to reduce the electrode manufacturing cost, CO2 emissions, usage of resources by increases in process yield, and throughput. We highlight the challenges and significant opportunities of implementing real-time process control in LIB electrode production lines.