Emil Levi received his Dipl. Ing. degree from the University of Novi Sad, Yugoslavia in 1982 and his MSc and the PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia in 1986 and 1990, respectively. From 1982 till 1992 he was with the Dept. of Electrical Engineering, University of Novi Sad. He joined Liverpool John Moores University, UK in May 1992, where he was promoted to a Reader in 1995 and appointed to a Full Professorship in September 2000 as Professor of Electric Machines and Drives. He served as a Co-Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Trans. on Industrial Electronics in the 2009-2013 period and as Editor-in-Chief of the IET Electric Power Applications from 2010 until 2022. Emil is currently serving as Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Trans. on Industrial Electronics (2019-2024) He is a Fellow of the IEEE and the recipient of the Cyril Veinott award of the IEEE Power and Energy Society for 2009 and the Best Paper award of the IEEE Trans. on Industrial Electronics for 2008. He is also a recipient of the European Power Electronics (EPE) Association “Outstanding Achievement Award” for 2014, “Professor Istvan Nagy Award” of the Power Electronics and Motion Control (PEMC) Council for 2018, and is a Foreign Member of the Serbian Academy of Engineering.

Abstract: Numerous countries have recently set the target for cessation of pure combustion engine car manufacturing within the next 10 to 20 years, leading to substantial acceleration of passenger vehicle electrification. The presentation will at first give an overview of the current EV market, with emphasis on the inverter power rating and dc-link voltage level. This will be followed by a survey of a multitude of different charging options and charging levels for plug-in charging, which will be the topic of the remaining part of the presentation. Wired charging of non-integrated on-board type will be examined first. Topologies of semi-integrated on-board chargers will be reviewed next, including those with integration of either the propulsion motor or the inverter in the charging process. This will be followed by some solutions that provide full integration of on-board chargers and which may become accepted in the future by EV manufacturers. All such fully integrated charger topologies involve multiphase (more than three phases) power electronic converters and machines.

Dr Wen-Hua Chen holds Professor in Autonomous Vehicles in the Department of Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering at Loughborough University, UK. Prof. Chen has a considerable experience in control, signal processing and artificial intelligence and their applications in aerospace, automotive and agriculture systems. In the last 20 years, he has been working on the development and application of unmanned aircraft and intelligent vehicle technologies, spanning autopilots, situational awareness, decision making, verification, remote sensing for precision agriculture and environment monitoring. He is a Chartered Engineer, and a Fellow of IEEE, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Institution of Engineering and Technology, UK. Prof Chen currently holds a 5-years UK EPSRC (the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) Established Career Fellowship award in developing control theory for robotics and autonomous systems.

Abstract: For a system operating in an unknown or changing environment, it is desirable to design a control system to keep it always operating at its best possible performance (i. e. in terms of productivity or efficiency). This talk introduces a new approach, namely dual control for exploitation and exploration (DCEE), to this type of self-optimisation control problems. In this framework, the control action not only drives a system moving towards a believed optimal operational condition, but also aims to reduce the uncertainty of this belief by actively exploring and learning the unknown environment. Autonomous search of the source of airborne dispersion using a robot and maximum power point tracking in solar farming are used as case studies to illustrate the proposed DCEE approach. Its link with reinforcement learning and active inference in neuroscience is also discussed.

Makoto Iwasaki received the B.S., M.S., and Dr. Eng. degrees in electrical and computer engineering from Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya, Japan, in 1986, 1988, and 1991, respectively. He is currently a Professor at the Department of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, Nagoya Institute of Technology. As professional contributions of the IEEE, he has participated in various organizing services, such as, a Co-Editors-in-Chief for IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics from 2016 to 2022, a Vice President for Planning and Development in term of 2018 to 2021, etc. He is IEEE fellow class 2015 for "contributions to fast and precise positioning in motion controller design". He has received many academic, foundation, and government awards, like the Best Paper and Technical Awards of IEE Japan, the Nagamori Award, the Ichimura Prize, and the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Japanese Minister of Education, respectively. He is also a fellow of IEE Japan, and a member of Science Council of Japan. His current research interests are the applications of control theories to linear/nonlinear modeling and precision positioning, through various collaborative research activities with industries.

Abstract: Fast-response and high-precision motion control is one of indispensable techniques in a wide variety of high performance mechatronic systems including micro and/or nano scale motion, such as data storage devices, machine tools, manufacturing tools for electronics components, and industrial robots, from the standpoints of high productivity, high quality of products, and total cost reduction. In those applications, the required specifications in the motion performance, e.g. response/settling time, trajectory/settling accuracy, etc., should be sufficiently achieved. In addition, the robustness against disturbances and/or uncertainties, the mechanical vibration suppression, and the adaptation capability against variations in mechanisms should be essential properties to be provided in the performance.
The plenary talk presents the fast and precision motion control techniques, where a 2-degrees-of-freedom (2DOF) control framework is especially handled as one of practical and/or promising approaches to improve the motion performance. Actual issues and relevant solutions for each component in the 2DOF control structure are clarified and, then one of examples, a 2DOF controller design for fast and vibration suppression positioning, is presented as an application to industrial high precision positioning devices. In this speech, especially, a practical approach of mathematical modelling and compensation for friction in the precision positioning is discussing for typical industrial manufacturing machines, e.g. laser processing machine, electronic chip placement machine, semiconductor manufacturing machine, e.tc., where a nonlinear stiff characteristic with hysteresis property of friction in the micro-displacement region can be mathematically modeled using a rheology-based rolling friction model. The friction model can be applied to analyze response variations and slow settling responses in positioning and then, an initial value compensation by mode switching control to ensure the required positioning control specifications.