MSc Thesis Proposal
Distributed control for automated sorting machines
Mentors: Alina Tarau, Bart
De Schutter
Keywords: distributed control, large-scale systems, logistics
Description:
The goal of this project is to design controllers for large-scale
transportation systems like automated sorting machines and luggage
handling systems. The primary application would be automated postal
sorting machines, but other applications involving automated sorting
machines (e.g. for fruits and vegetables) or luggage handling systems
are also possible.
Figure: Automated sorting machines.
The postal automation market is evolving rapidly. In the early 1980s
postal automation was seen as the way to cope with fast growing mail
volumes, and the focus was on quality and reliability rather than
reducing costs. In the early 1990s the number of specialized
distributors grew, the new communication technologies (fax, email,
etc.) spread and some postal administrations enlarged beyond their
original sphere of operation. All these reasons highlighted the need
to achieve profitability by structural re-organization and reducing
mail processing costs, and to improve the performance of existing
services while at the same time offering new, value added services.
Hence, in the context of advanced control of state-of-the-art postal
sorting machines typical issues are coordination of the processing
units, task allocation, time scheduling, prevention of deadlocks and
buffer overflows, maximizing throughput, preventing damage of the
mail, reducing wear, minimizing costs, etc. Especially for large-scale
systems this puts high requirements on the control system
design. Furthermore, for large-scale systems distributed control (as
opposed to centralized) control is necessary. The aim of this MSc
project is therefore to design such distributed controllers for
large-scale automated sorting machines.
The MSc project will consist of various phases such literature review
on multi-agent systems and distributed control, setting-up of a case
study (using Matlab/Simulink), and development and assessment of
various dynamical controllers for the case study system.
If you are interested in selecting this project as your MSc project,
please come along or send us an email for more information.
This page is maintained by
Bart De Schutter.