The development of optimal control coincided with large research programmes and considerable funding in the United States and the former Soviet Union on space-related problems. There were problems, such as rocket manoeuvring with minimum fuel consumption, which could be defined as an optimisation problem. However, for the purpose of electrical engineering problems, an accurate plant model is not usually obtainable, or the model contains a high degree of uncertainties.
During his autumn / winter 2019 secondment at KU Leuven, Saman Dadjo Tavakoli closely collaborated with Jef Beerten and Sajjad Fekriasl to apply the optimal control design technique on a high voltage direct current (HVDC) system model, considering AC & DC dynamics and uncertainties related to the AC & DC network parameters. First, they derived an accurate linear model of an HVDC system. Then, they implemented two types of optimal control: (1) full-structured H infinity control system, and (2) Fixed structure H infinity control system. The purpose was to reduce the H infinity norm of the system below a certain level. The findings and results are being prepared for publication.
