Constantino Lagoa

Cesare Donati, Martina Mammarella, Fabrizio Dabbene et al.

The aim of this paper is to present a novel physics-based framework for the identification of dynamical systems, in which the physical and structural insights are reflected directly into a backpropagation-based learning algorithm. The main result is a method to compute in closed form the gradient of a multi-step loss function, while enforcing physical properties and constraints. The derived algorithm has been exploited to identify the unknown inertia matrix of a space debris, and the results show the reliability of the method in capturing the physical adherence of the estimated parameters.

Mohammadreza Chamanbaz, Fabrizio Dabbene, Constantino Lagoa

This chapter presents recent solutions to the optimal power flow (OPF) problem in the presence of renewable energy sources (RES), {such} as solar photo-voltaic and wind generation. After introducing the original formulation of the problem, arising from the combination of economic dispatch and power flow, we provide a brief overview of the different solution methods proposed in the literature to solve it. Then, we explain the main difficulties arising from the increasing RES penetration, and the ensuing necessity of deriving robust solutions. Finally, we present the state-of-the-art techniques, with a special focus on recent methods we developed, based on the application on randomization-based methodologies.

Fabrizio Dabbene, Didier Henrion, Constantino Lagoa

Many uncertainty sets encountered in control systems analysis and design can be expressed in terms of semialgebraic sets, that is as the intersection of sets described by means of polynomial inequalities. Important examples are for instance the solution set of linear matrix inequalities or the Schur/Hurwitz stability domains. These sets often have very complicated shapes (non-convex, and even non-connected), which renders very difficult their manipulation. It is therefore of considerable importance to find simple-enough approximations of these sets, able to capture their main characteristics while maintaining a low level of complexity. For these reasons, in the past years several convex approximations, based for instance on hyperrect-angles, polytopes, or ellipsoids have been proposed. In this work, we move a step further, and propose possibly non-convex approximations , based on a small volume polynomial superlevel set of a single positive polynomial of given degree. We show how these sets can be easily approximated by minimizing the L1 norm of the polynomial over the semialgebraic set, subject to positivity constraints. Intuitively, this corresponds to the trace minimization heuristic commonly encounter in minimum volume ellipsoid problems. From a computational viewpoint, we design a hierarchy of linear matrix inequality problems to generate these approximations, and we provide theoretically rigorous convergence results, in the sense that the hierarchy of outer approximations converges in volume (or, equivalently, almost everywhere and almost uniformly) to the original set. Two main applications of the proposed approach are considered. The first one aims at reconstruction/approximation of sets from a finite number of samples. In the second one, we show how the concept of polynomial superlevel set can be used to generate samples uniformly distributed on a given semialgebraic set. The efficiency of the proposed approach is demonstrated by different numerical examples.

Fabrizio Dabbene, Didier Henrion, Constantino Lagoa et al.

The aim of this paper is twofold: In the first part, we leverage recent results on scenario design to develop randomized algorithmsfor approximating the image set of a nonlinear mapping, that is, a (possibly noisy) mapping of a set via a nonlinear function.We introduce minimum-volume approximations which have the characteristic of guaranteeing a low probability of violation, i.e.,we admit for a probability that some points in the image set are not contained in the approximating set,but this probability is kept below a pre-specified threshold.In the second part of the paper, this idea is then exploited to develop a new family of randomized prediction-corrector filters.These filters represent a natural extension and rapprochement of Gaussian and set-valued filters,and bear similarities with modern tools such as particle filters.