Petar Andonov successfully defended his PhD thesis

Research focused on a set-based controller design approach providing the controller tuning and also certifying the control performance for an event-based non-linear system class with a switching behavior.

October 19, 2021

Our colleague Petar Andonov successfully defended his PhD thesis on the topic of “Guaranteed set-based controller design for hybrid dynamical systems”. The thesis deals systematically with guaranteeing system performance by designing a controller while considering the inherent uncertainties explicitly.

Andonov's scientific work focuses on three main topics: semi-algebraic system uncertainties, advanced control requirements, and hybrid dynamical systems. To provide a certified control performance in spite of the uncertainties, a set-based approach was tailored for the purposes of controller design. The examples that he considered cover the range from a single control loop up to plant-wide behavior. The applications vary from level control at tanks, through position control in magnetic levitation systems, safe and optimal charging of lithium-ion batteries, to guaranteed operation of discrete-manufacturing systems.

A significant scientific effort was devoted to the formulation of the desired system requirements. As these requirements are provided through a control law, they were classified into quantitative and qualitative control requirements. The quantitative requirements express system behavior that is fixed in time and contains spatial uncertainties, i.e. in the amplitude. In contrast to them, the qualitative requirements deal with temporal uncertainties, and also with conditional or relative behavior. The developed results have been verified through a series of simulations and validated in several experiments, including two Industry 4.0 projects. This first project dealt with how a "factory of the future" would operate and the new opportunities it unlocks, while the second was focused on achieving guaranteed predictive maintenance.

Before joining the Otto-von-Guericke University and the IMPRS Magdeburg, Andonov obtained his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the Technical University of Sofia in the field of control engineering. Additionally, he visited the Technical University of Dresden for a research stay during his master's program.

Entering the joint program of the IMPRS and the Otto-von-Guericke University, Petar Andonov was truly grateful for the opportunity to co-organize and participate in the soft-skill courses that are provided by the IMPRS. These courses were helpful to him to improve his presenting, teaching, management skills, and also in learning the German language. Dr. Andonov also served for 3 terms as an IMPRS board member, where he had the opportunity to support the IMPRS and his fellow PhD students.

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