UNB's Instrumentation & Control Chairs' goals

UNB's Instrumentation & Control Industrial Research Chairs
Goals and Projects

Introduction and Motivation

Instrumentation & Control technology plays an important role in Canadian industry. There are two arenas in which I & C plays a prominent role: industrial process control and manufacturing and embedded I & C systems in commercial products. As examples of the first application area, process I & C systems are critical to efficient and reliable electric power production, pulp and paper making, food processing, and refining. In the second area, many consumer products contain I & C systems; one might cite the fuel and emissions controls in automobiles as well-known applications, and sophisticated ``fuzzy-logic'' I & C systems in appliances such as dish washers as a more recent example. In all of these cases, the I & C system serves to make processes or equipment more efficient, reliable, precise and functional.

Dr. James H. Taylor (Senior Chair) and Dr. Rickey Dubay (Associate Chair) provide leadership in the activities of UNB's Instrumentation & Control Industrial Research Chairs. These Chairs were established to develop programs in three areas:

Basic and applied research in Instrumentation & Control
Collaboration with and technology transfer to Canadian industry
Training of I & C engineers

A general overview of current research activity and goals in these three mission areas is provided below.

Basic and Applied Research

The research interests of the Chairs are:

Jim Taylor's project areas:
- Intelligent Control with Self-Optimization and Learning -- On-going funded projects deal with optimizing power system management (for NB Power) and improving the manufacture of semiconductor devices (for Xylaur Enterprises); preliminary investigations and proposals are being pursued in intelligent semiconductor manufacturing, food processing, manufacturing processes for automotive interiors, and healthcare delivery (with Xylaur Enterprises, Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, Lear Corporation, and Memorial University Medical School, respectively).
- Computer-Aided Control Engineering -- Projects include research in automated modelling of electro-mechanical systems, developing analysis tools for nonlinear systems, and creating an intelligent front end for a commercial distributed control implementation system (the Bailey INFI 90); in the latter effort, Phase I was supported by a major equipment grant and summer student stipend from Elsag Bailey, and Phase II is underway as of January 1998.
- Modelling and Simulation of Hybrid Systems -- We have extended MATLAB to handle systems with discontinuous dynamics (e.g., stiction and backlash) and discrete-time components (e.g., digital filters and controllers), with applications focussed on electro-mechanical systems; this software is available on Taylor's web page. Future work to extend this software to increase its generality and make it easier to use (by implementing a higher-level modelling language) is in the planning stage.
- Nonlinear Controls -- Research to develop new methods for the synthesis of fuzzy-logic controllers for nonlinear plants is nearly completed, with applications also focussing on electro-mechanical systems; we are combining frequency-domain (describing function) design with time-domain optimization to produce control systems that, despite the highly nonlinear nature of the plant, exhibit minimal sensitivity to input amplitude. Also, MATLAB-based software has been developed for assessing the stability of nonlinear control systems; this software is also available on Taylor's web page.
Industrial applications and support are currently being sought for the ``generic'' project areas above (modelling and simulation, nonlinear controls) as well as for the more established research areas. More detailed descriptions of the above projects, along with publication citations, may be found under Senior Chair's Research Activity.
Rickey Dubay's project areas:
- Intelligent model-predictive control
- Intelligent sensors (adaptive, self-interpreting, ``smart'' . . . )
- Autonomous sensors (self-calibrating, self-monitoring, self-learning . . . )
- Applications of model predictive control and smart sensors to plastics processing
Again, industrial applications and support are currently being sought for the project areas above. More detailed descriptions of the above projects, along with publication citations, may be found under Associate Chair's Research Activity.

Collaboration with Canadian Industry

The Industrial Research Chairs in Instrumentation & Control are supported and advised by an IRC Industrial Advisory Board, comprised of:

Mr. Peter Brown, Program Manager, Monenco AGRA, Inc., Mississauga, Ontario
Mr. Murray Thomas, P. Eng., Regional Manager, Elsag Bailey (Canada) Inc. Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
Mr. Donald Sinclair, Senior Engineer, Instrumentation and Control, New Brunswick Power, Fredericton
Dr. Anthony P. Binotto, Mill Manager of Irving Paper Inc., Saint John
Mr. Lee A. Danisch, P. Eng, President of Measurand Inc., Fredericton
Dr. C. Keith Scott, President, Atlantic Nuclear Services Ltd., Fredericton
Mr. Pieter Natte, President of Xylaur Enterprises Ltd., Fredericton
Mr. Gary Dalton, P. Eng., Plant Manager, Can-Am Division of Ropak Canada, Spring Hill, Nova Scotia

In addition to the cooperative and funded projects mentioned in the outline above, the Chairs will continue to pursue projects with these and other Canadian companies. An initial collaboration with Atlantic Nuclear Services is underway; so far we have installed their Plant Analysis Workbench software on several of our workstations (to serve as a platform for the development of intelligent sensor systems and smart interfaces for process control and optimization), defined a Senior Thesis project to interface PAW with the Bailey INFI 90, and contributed to an NRC IRAP proposal to obtain funding for related work. Tentative ideas have also been discussed with McCain Foods, to initiate a project to improve the quality and consistency of their french fried potato line in Florenceville; with Lear Corporation, to improve manufacturing techniques for production of materials for automotive interiors; with Husky Corp., for applications of intelligent sensors and control to plastic injection molding; and with a research group at Memorial University, in the area of aquaculture and fish processing.

Technology Transfer to Canadian Industry

We are interested in developing and offering short courses, workshops etc. for industry personnel. Possible subjects include: Intelligent Control and Instrumentation, Nonlinear Control, Modelling and Simulation, and Computer-Aided Control Engineering. Feedback from potential attendees would be very welcome -- please send enquiries and suggestions to Jim Taylor (jtaylor@unb.ca).

Training of I & C Engineers

Two thrusts are included in this mission: graduate student training within the framework of their research and industrial development projects, and course development and revision. For the graduate student training dimension, please refer to the projects described above. The course offerings in I & C Engineering have been substantially revised and extended, as follows:

ME 3703 Mechanical Engineering Measurements -- includes lectures and laboratory experiments. Drs. Figueroa (former Associate Chair) and Dubay extended this course to cover elements of intelligent and mechatronic systems. The laboratory provides an excellent exposure to advanced sensors, instrumentation, and control technology.
EE 4342 Industrial Controls was revised by Dr. Taylor to emphasize practical issues associated with sensing, actuation, control architectures, and dealing with inevitable nonlinear effects that strongly affect system performance. Substantial work is also done in process understanding, modelling and simulation. The laboratory component of this course includes using the Bailey INFI 90 system to control processes with time delay and electro-mechanical systems as well as digital control implementation on PLC and PC platforms.
ME 5653 Predictive Control and Intelligent Sensors is a new senior/graduate level course created by Dr. Dubay. The course introduces students to tools, enabling technologies, and methods that can be used to embed a degree of intelligence into any system, particularly sensor systems. The topics of signal processing, process modeling and identification, intelligent sensor design, computer interfacing, algorithm design and optimization techniques are presented. Practical design and implementation of predictive control and intelligent sensors are conducted using LabWindows CVI and MATLAB software. The issues of process controllability and observability are presented.
EE 6383 Nonlinear Control Systems given by Dr. Taylor places strong emphasis on issues, analysis methods and design approaches for practical controls engineering systems. Modelling, simulation, and analysis of uniquely nonlinear problems such as determining stability regions and limit cycle conditions are covered. Design techniques for nonlinear control systems are also presented. Particular stress is laid on visualization, developing intuition and reasoning capabilities about nonlinear effects and systems, and powerful computational techniques using the MATLAB analysis software package.
CHE 5534 System Identification for Advanced Control given by Dr. G. Bendrich, emphasizes design of experiments, time series analysis, system model identification, statistical process control, basic multivariable controls, and constrained and unconstrained optimization, all in the context of controlling industrial processes.

The undergraduate courses above, ME 3703, EE 4342 and CHE 5534, form important components of a new program or Multidisciplinary Option in I & C. This Option was developed by Drs. Taylor and Dubay, in collaboration with Dr. G. Bendrich of Chemical Engineering, and approved by the Faculty of Engineering in Fall, 1998.

Finally, we are extremely pleased to announce that the Canadian Process Control Association (CPCA) has sponsored an undergraduate scholarship for students enrolled in the Option in I & C. The first CPCA Scholarship was awarded to Miss Nicole MacDonald, a fourth-year student in Chemical Engineering.

Please note that this information is continually updated on our World Wide Web site, at http://www.ece.unb.ca/jtaylor/IRCs.html so please visit us or contact us for further information.