Deliverables SLICOT library What is SLICOT? The subroutine library SLICOT provides Fortran 77 implementations of numerical algorithms for computations in control and systems theory. Strong emphasis has been given to implementation robustness, numerical stability and accuracy of algorithms, computational efficiency, standardization, benchmarking. Based on BLAS and LAPACK, SLICOT provides basic tools for the analysis and design of control systems. The current version of SLICOT consists of about 400 user-callable and computational routines, covering various domains of systems and control. Almost all of these routines have associated on-line documentation. About 200 routines have associated example programs, input data and results. New routines are continuously added. Using Fortran 77 guarantees a high reusability of the software, so that SLICOT can serve as computational core for various CACSD platforms. SLICOT routines have already been linked to MATLAB and Scilab. Matlab/Scilab Gateways: SLICOT-based gateways to MATLAB and Scilab are available for several computational problems like system analysis and synthesis, structured matrix decompositions, system identification, non-linear systems simulation, model and controller reduction, robust control. The gateways for MATLAB can be directly used under WINDOWS 95/98/NT/ME/2000. Benchmarks: The SLICOT library currently contains benchmark collections for standard and generalized continuous-time and discrete-time systems models, standard and generalized Lyapunov matrix equations, algebraic Riccati matrix equations, system identification, model reduction. Many of benchmark examples provided in SLICOT originate from "real world" applications. Applications: SLICOT controls systems: control of a tractor, control of microwaves, control of a distillation column, robust control of a disk drive servo system, flight control system of the Bell 205 helicopter. SLICOT reduces models: linearized aircraft model of ATTAS, a CD-player FE model, a gasifier model, a catalytic tubular reactor, an FE model for optimal cooling of steel profiles. SLICOT identifies processes: a glass furnace, an industrial evaporator, a CD player arm. Availability: SLICOT is copyrighted freeware and is freely available for scientific (non-commercial) use. Companies who want to integrate (part of) SLICOT into their commercial software need to sign a license agreement with the International Society NICONET. End-users: Engineering students, teaching assistants, PhD students, professors at technical institutes and universities; Industrial software providers for a wide range of industries (automotive, intelligent manufacturing, process industry); Research sections in big companies; Potential barriers: SLICOT users must install the SLICOT library themselves and/or integrate the library or selected SLICOT toolboxes into their own CACSD software packages. For Scilab and Matlab, gateways (MEX files) are provided but the user needs to install them. This reduced userfriendliness might slow down the transfer of SLICOT to industry and education. Network structure and operation The project has intensified collaboration in the area of numeric in systems and control and has established a network structure between leading expert groups (the present partners from the NICONET thematic network) in the development of numerical software for systems and control. The network structure has been further consolidated through the set up of an international society, also called NICONET, under Belgian law, which represents the interests of the consortium, aims to stimulate the development of scientific programs for the disciplines of control and systems theory and promotes and supervises the dissemination of the SLICOT software. The International Society NICONET is established since September 2001. The statutes which legally form the Society have been published. License agreements are being signed with software companies i.e. The Mathworks. Any funding received through this society is used for the further development and maintenance of the SLICOT library. Activities of the Network include: - Organising workshops, tutorials and training courses on computational methods for CACSD, and systems and control in general. - Acting as information center: information on numeric in control software is disseminated via the issue of bi-annual newsletters, quarterly issued E-letters, and the maintenance and continuous update of the NICONET website and ftp site. - Maintaining and coordinating future development of the SLICOT library. In particular, a SLICOT users guide is being written, publication was foreseen in the fall of 2003. Technology transfer to industry Industrial case studies: Promotion of the SLICOT software via carefully chosen actions (website, ftp site, web computing, electronic access to all reports and newsletters, organisation of workshops and training courses) and illustrating the SLICOT performance on carefully selected industrial case studies clearly enhances the transfer of SLICOT into industry. SLICOT successfully: - Controls systems: control of a tractor, control of microwaves, control of a distillation column, robust control of a disk drive servo system, flight control system of the Bell 205 helicopter; - Reduces models: linearized aircraft model of ATTAS, a CD-player FE model, a gasifier model, a catalytic tubular reactor, an FE model for optimal cooling of steel profiles; - Identifies processes: a glass furnace, an industrial evaporator, a CD player arm. SLICOT toolboxes have been successfully applied to each of these case studies and the advantages of their use. In terms of enhanced performance, improved computational efficiency and numerical reliability have been described in detail on the NICONET website, as well as in NICONET reports. The integration of SLICOT into the CACSD package Scilab, the integration of SLICOT into Matlib and IPCOS products, the integration of the SLICOT subspace identification toolbox SLIDENT into the commercial SSM toolbox of the industrial partner LMS, as well as the integration of the SLICOT nonlinear systems toolbox with the EPANET package into the SCADA systems, developed by the industrial partner Omron, are described as separate results. End-users: Industrial software providers involved in the development of control software for a wide range of industries, in particular for intelligent manufacturing, automotive and the process industry. Also big companies with their own research section. Benefits: The industrial case studies show that integration of SLICOT software into industrial systems leads to an overall more effective exploitation of European production Technologies and enlightens the importance of a numerically reliable and efficient software suite. Industrial problems are always of high dimension, large size, dealing with complex and corrupted data, and are often ill conditioned. The industrial case studies fully demonstrate the necessity of such software tools. Potential barriers: Industrial users still need to install the SLICOT software themselves or integrate it within their own software environment, which can be a bottleneck. Therefore, future NICONET activities will focus on the development of user-friendly interfaces enabling industrial users to solve their problems directly on remote servers through web-based interfaces and GRID-based computing without the need to integrate the SLICOT software into their own CACSD environment. In addition, future activities will be concentrated on the development of a Java based graphical user-interface demonstrator which makes the advanced control strategies more accessible to industrial practitioners and enhances a better and faster integration of these intelligent tools into European production technology. Searching for OpenAIRE data... There was an error trying to search data from OpenAIRE No results available
