Tarek Rabbani

Feed-Forward Control of Open Channel Flow Using Differential Flatness

This brief derives a method for open-loop control of open channel flow, based on the Hayami model, a parabolic partial differential equation resulting from a simplification of the Saint-Venant equations. The open-loop control is represented as infinite series using differential flatness, for which convergence is assessed. A comparison is made with a similar problem available in the literature for thermal systems. Numerical simulations show the effectiveness of the approach by applying the open-loop controller to irrigation canals modeled by the full Saint-Venant equations.

Online Homotopy Algorithm for a Generalization of the LASSO

The LASSO is a widely used shrinkage method for linear regression. We propose an online homotopy algorithm to solve a generalization of the LASSO in which the l1 regularization is applied on a linear transformation of the solution, allowing to input prior information on the structure of the problem and to improve interpretability of the results. The algorithm takes advantage of the sparsity of the solution for computational efficiency and is promising for mining large datasets.

Feed-Forward river flow control using differential flatness

The rarefaction of global water resources is a motivation for research on automation of management of water distribution systems. Large amounts of fresh water are lost due to poor management of open-channel systems. This article focuses on the management of such canals which are used to convey water from the resource (generally a dam located upstream) to a specific downstream location. Due to the fluctuations of water needs, water demand changes with time. This change in demand calls for the efficient operation of the open-channel systems to avoid overflows and to supply desired flow rates at pre-specified time instants.