The aim of the ConFlex consortium has been to train the next generation of researchers on the control of flexible structures and fluid-structure interactions, using and also contributing to the latest advances in control theory and energy-based modelling of physical systems. ConFlex’s key strength has been a research environment that brought together mathematicians and engineers to provide the 15 ESRs in the programme with a unique training environment. The 15 academics involved in ConFlex have been leading specialists in the European area, well balanced between mathematicians and engineers with expertise in control theory, complex dynamical systems, fluid dynamics, aeroelasticity, power electronics, swimming theory and marine engineering, located in the UK, France, The Netherlands, Spain, Germany and Israel. We also had 4 academic and 11 prestigious industrial partners.
The last 20 years have seen tremendous advances in the techniques used for controlling and stabilizing flexible structures that are subject to disturbances, possibly in interaction with fluid (air or water), both from the perspective of the theory (modelling, control and simulation), as well as from the perspective of technology (available sensors, processors and actuators). Applications of our research include active processor-controlled flaps that can be used to stabilize turbine blades in wind turbines, aircraft wings and other structures. We have developed the design an application of tuned mass dampers for stabilizing flexible structures. Industry needs powerful new tools for the modelling and control of complex flexible structures that provide higher efficiency or even entirely new functions.
Controlling floating platforms in the sea (for instance floating wind turbines), has been an important topic, that will be continued in a new ETN consortium funded by the EC.
Real time control design using reduced order models for beam networks with fluid structure interaction has been a successful area for the consortium, leading to important insights into applying machine learning in this field.
On the theoretical side, there have been great strides in the modelling and analysis of coupled systems, in modelling of complex structures in the port-Hamiltonian framework, in structure preserving model reduction and in the understanding and control of complex fluid-structure interactions, and in adaptive internal model based control, based on advanced mathematical tools, that are useful in the control of inverters and microgrids. These advances, coupled with capabilities of new digital signal processors, make it possible to perform simulations and apply control algorithms that are computationally demanding, and were unthinkable 20 years ago.
This ensures that European academia, research labs and industry remain globally competitive in this area of interface between mathematical modelling, systems and control theory, electrical and mechanical engineering.
