Michael Short

Teesside University · School of Computing, Engineering and Digital Technologies

This paper describes a research program to develop a novel reference architecture and design philosophy for an advanced robot controller for a new generation of robots. It is suggested that a new approach to robot controller design is required in order to bring the present generation of industrial robots in line with current and foreseeable technol...

The controller area network (CAN) protocol was originally introduced for automotive applications but is now also widely used in process control and many other industrial areas. In this paper, we present a low-cost redundancy-management scheme for replicated CAN channels that helps to ensure that clocks (and, hence, tasks) on the distributed nodes r...

Environmental concerns combined with the liberalisation of the energy markets has led to the emergence of small to medium-scale decentralised generation equipment embedded within transmission and distribution networks. Commonly, such plant is operated by small to medium private enterprises and dispatched independently from centralised resources. Th...

Several popular tuning strategies applicable to Model Predictive Control (MPC) schemes such as GPC and DMC have previously been developed. Many of these tuning strategies require an approximate model of the controlled process to be obtained, typically of the First Order Plus Dead Time type. One popular method uses such a model to analytically calcu...

The Binomial distribution is often used as a good approximation for many phenomena in engineering, medical, financial, and other applications involving discrete randomness. In many situations, for the purposes of risk management it may be required to estimate and/or track the probability of occurrence of a particular type of discrete event from a d...

Call for the paper submission to the Special Session/Workshop 'Digital Technologies and Tools for Energy Efficient Manufacturing' at the IEEE ICAC 2024, Sunderland, UK

The influence of the DC infrastructure on the control of power-storage flow in micro-and smart grids has gained attention recently, particularly in dynamic vehicle-to-grid charging applications. Principal effects include the potential loss of the charge-discharge synchronization and the subsequent impact on the control stabilization, the increased...

Hybrid energy systems play a critical role in the electrification of remote dwellings. Currently, many residents in remote areas have no connection to the electricity grid and rely on standalone power systems driven by diesel generators. The integration of hybrid renewable energy sources has become an attractive solution to enhance power system cap...

High road congestion in developing countries leads to inefficient energy consumption and pollution, and dealing with such issues in cities like Bangkok is complex as per the underdeveloped transport infrastructure and typically poor and fragmented prior urban planning. In reviewing the literature, these problems are evidenced and discussed and have...

Energy produced by photovoltaic module (PVM) is poised to deliver the UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG-7) by 2030 and Net-Zero by 2050 but not until ample graduates with adequate Solar Energy Technology (SET) skills are produced by Higher education institutions (HEIs). Although PVM has witnessed significant penetration globally, the sustainab...

Multiagent reinforcement learning has proven remarkably effective at finding near-optimal solutions to complex non-linear control problems when compared to classical schemes. Such problems typically arise when considering power management problems related to advanced power distribution applications, such as micro/smart grids, smart buildings, elect...

There are significant fast paced developments within the renewable energy industry and having the ability to efficiently monitor, report and further analyse power quality during prototype testing, which can aid in accelerating the development stages more efficiently, is beneficial for both commercial and research projects alike. Due to the limitati...

The advent of technology and infrastructure for 4G/5G/6G along with IoT/Web3.0 concepts are catalyzing smart cities development and can be deployed for improving the lives of citizens and residents. A key pillar of smarter cities is the use of technology to help increase energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions and pollution. Many of the vario...

Urban areas, including Bangkok, face congestion and pollution from increasing passenger and freight transport demands. There is a need to develop smarter, more sustainable, and more efficient transportation systems to address these challenges. This paper focuses on integrating Bangkok's public transport and parcel delivery services to establish a s...

Model predictive control (MPC) is seen as a promising approach to hypersonic flight management. MPC strategies capable of handling constraints are required to predict future behaviour to optimize control actions of hypersonic flight in real time. In this paper, an MPC algorithm for hypersonic flight control is proposed and developed by using a nonl...

The emphasis and focus on energy transition towards a renewable energy-based energy system has increased, alongside the need to understand the economic feasibility of energy system development built around adaptation and implementation of renewable energy resources and smart technologies to a preexisting energy system. Likewise comes the importance...

Dear All, You are cordially invited to submit the paper to the IEEE Special Session/Worksop, 'IoT and Energy Efficient networks for the Sustainable Smart Cities' at the IEEE Smart World Congress 2023. https://lnkd.in/eKePxfij Paper submission can be done through https://lnkd.in/eSAN_BdS For paper submission, please ensure to create edas account htt...

Energy retrofit technologies can significantly reduce global energy requirements and carbon emissions and support policy makers achieve net zero targets. The installation and implementation of these technologies is mostly quite straightforward, however the assessment of their benefits and impacts across the technical, economic, and environmental do...

Intelligent energy management in renewable-based power distribution applications, such as microgrids, smart grids, smart buildings, and EV systems, is becoming increasingly important in the context of the transition toward the decentralization, digitalization, and decarbonization of energy networks. Arguably, many challenges can be overcome, and be...

Enhanced oil production can maximise yield from depleted reservoirs, and in the face of dwindling global oil reserves can reduce the need for exploratory drilling during the transition away from fossil fuels. A hybrid technique, merging a magnetic field (MF) and magnesium oxide (MgO) nanoparticles (NPs), was investigated as a potential method of en...

Electric vehicles (EV) have been the spotlight of automobile industry. Over the past few decades, major research and development are being carried out to design an optimal battery pack in order to establish an economically suitable EV model with enhanced the endurance range and by minimizing frequent charging cycles. This paper focuses on the endur...

Dear all, Submit your research articles in the area of Robotics, Intelligent Automation and Control technologies to Robotics MDPI special issue on Path Ahead for Robotics, Intelligent Automation and Control Technologies. Deadline for Manuscript submission: 25th September 2022. APC : 1800CHF Submission Link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/robotics...

We, VIT Chennai organizing 3rd International Conference on Robotics, Intelligent Automation and Control Technologies (RIACT2022) in association with Teesside University, UK and Bochum University of Applied Sciences, Germany between 23rd and 25th September 2022. Send your Abstract/Full Paper to icriact@gmail.com Organizing Chairs, Dr Daniel Schil...

A keynote presentation discussing concentration inequalities, and why (and how) they are needed in the design and analysis of some engineering and informatics applications. A look at some Theoretical results: some old inequalities, and some new ones derived over the last twelve years. A shift to focus on application areas: old and new results appli...

The move towards digitalization of the oil industry is a must for time and cost savings. All current methods for the wettability determination have a negative impact on altering the in-situ wettability, and typically require long times of determination. Our proposed methodology provides near-instant determination without altering the initial wettab...

Demand Response (DR) is a dynamic, online mechanism whereby an energy system operator or aggregator attempts to achieve a real-time shift in load energy usage from a period of high demand (peak period) to a period of lower demand (off-peak period), typically using financial or other incentives. DR is part of a wider suite of tools for static and dy...

The concept of a self-sufficient energy community within a larger, interconnected grid is becoming a practical reality as digitalisation, decentralisation and decarbonisation transform approaches to the design and operation of industrial, business, and social systems across the globe. From an electrical energy viewpoint, microgrids feature a variet...

Digital Twins play a vital role in analysing dynamic behaviour and increasing energy efficiency in an interconnected energy system. Energy consumption modelling in buildings is a fundamental part of developing a building energy digital twin, which allows the use of a virtual environment to run ‘what-if’ simulations to explore the impact of design m...

Recent estimates indicate that roughly 80% of worldwide freight is carried at sea. With shipping and cargo handling responsible for at least 2.5% of annual carbon emissions, the maritime sector poses fertile ground for carbon reductions. This paper focuses on the use of Digital Twins for analyzing and optimizing energy consumption related to cargo...

New approaches for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) with a reduced environmental footprint are required to improve recovery from mature oil fields, and when combined with carbon capture and storage (CCS) can provide useful options for resource maximisation during the net zero transition. Electrical heating is investigated as a potential EOR method in ca...

The energy transition is a complex problem that requires a comprehensive and structured approach to policymaking. Such an approach is needed to ensure that transition pathways and policies enable greener energy alternatives whilst ensuring prosperity for people living in the region and limiting environmental degradation to the local ecosystem. This...

The United Kingdom (UK) currently stands in a unique position to determine its own path through a world disrupted by digitalisation and recovering from a global pandemic. It has made firm commitments to regulatory reform, to strengthen science, technology, and innovation, and to align these commitments with the goals of industry and society. This a...

Our aim is to develop a robotic prosthetic that can replicate the functions of a human hand. To achieve the functionality, a model with 20 degrees of freedom is designed. The model consists of 18 revolute joints and 2 twisting joints. Each finger consists of 3 revolute joints and the wrist consists of 1 twisting joint. The forearm has 1 revolute jo...

The advancement in battery manufacturing has played a significant role in the use of batteries as a cost-effective energy storage system. This paper proposes an optimal charging and discharging strategy for the battery energy storage system deployed for economic dispatch and supply/demand balancing services, in the presence of intermittent renewabl...

Following the lead of the UK, many governments worldwide have now made commitments to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. This drive toward a zero-carbon economy requires many technological and social innovations, including advancement and accelerated deployment of industrial digitalization and smart grid concepts. Within the framework of th...

Preface to the Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Robotics, Intelligent Automation and Control Technologies (RIACT 2021), held virtually and facilitated by School of Mechanical Engineering at Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai, India and School of Computing, Engineering and Digital Technologies at Teesside University, UK on...

Distributed Energy Storage Systems are considered key enablers in the transition from the traditional centralized power system to a smarter, autonomous, and decentralized system operating mostly on renewable energy. The control of distributed energy storage involves the coordinated management of many smaller energy storages, typically embedded with...

VIT Chennai School of Mechanical Engineering, VIT Chennai (India) in association with School of Computing, Engineering and Digital Technologies, Teesside University (UK) are organizing a three-day Virtual International Conference on Robotics, Intelligent Automation and Control Technologies (RIACT 2021) to take place on 23 rd , 24 th and 25 th of Se...

Decarbonisation, digitalisation and decentralisation are transforming energy systems across the globe and supporting the transition to a sustainable future. Within this context, smart grids are electrical grids that include a variety of interoperable communication and control devices to optimally (or near-optimally) facilitate the production and di...

The presentation presents the progress and work conducted in my PhD research in relation to the EU Green Deal. The presentation was a part of the MSCA Green Deal Event, which took place on the 6th and 7th of July 2021; for more information and access to the presentation, please visit the following link below. https://www.msca-greendeal.eu/en/pa...

Society 5.0 represents an opportunity to transform the economy and create a digital society with the goal of long-term sustainable development and economic growth. There is a growing importance of boosting ICT as an effective and efficient means of achieving this transformation, and Target 9c of the UN Sustainable Development Goals is to 'Significa...

Heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems account for a large percentage of energy consumption in buildings. Implementation of efficient optimisation and control mechanisms has been identified as one crucial way to help reduce and shift HVAC systems’ energy consumption to both save economic costs and foster improved integration with...

This paper presents a conceptual model that describes the correlation between an urban energy system and sustainability. The model captures the complexity of the urban energy transition, and the task of achieving sustainable development needs to embrace all aspects of sustainability. This paper portrays the aspects of sustainability as four-dimensi...

Accurate prediction of the remaining useful life (RUL) in Lithium-ion Batteries (LiBs) is a key aspect of managing their health, in order to promote reliable and secure systems, and to reduce the need for unscheduled maintenance and costs. Recent work on RUL prediction has largely focused on refining the accuracy and reliability of the RUL predicti...

This chapter is concerned with the implementation and field-testing of an edge device for real-time condition monitoring and fault detection for large-scale rotating equipment in the UK water industry. The edge device implements a local digital twin, processing information from low-cost transducers mounted on the equipment in real-time. Condition m...

Energy storage is recognized as a key technology for enabling the transition to a low-carbon, sustainable future. Energy storage requires careful management, and capacity prediction of a lithium-ion battery (LIB) is an essential indicator in a battery management system for Electric Vehicles and Electricity Grid Management. However, present techniqu...

Tank level control is ubiquitous in industry. The focus of this paper is on accurate liquid level control in single tank systems which can be actuated continuously and modulation of the level setpoint is also required, for example in cascade control loops or supervisory Model Predictive Control (MPC) applications. To avoid common problems encounter...

This paper presents a decentralized informatics, optimization, and control framework to enable demand response (DR) in small or rural decentralized community power systems, including geographical islands. The framework consists of a simplified lumped model for electrical demand forecasting, a scheduling subsystem that optimizes the utility of energ...

Solving the issue of energy security for geographical islands presents a one-of-a-kind problem that has to be tackled from multiple sides and requires an interdisciplinary approach that transcends just technical and social aspects. With many islands suffering in terms of limited and costly energy supply due to their remote location, providing a sel...

Capacity markets (CM) are energy markets created to ensure energy supply security. Energy storage devices provide services in the CMs. Li-ion batteries are a popular type of energy storage device used in CMs. The battery lifetime is a key factor in determining the economic viability of Li-ion batteries, and current approaches for estimating this ar...

Nigeria is the fastest growing telecommunication market in Africa, with approximately 175 million subscribers accommodated by over 44,000 Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs), which are mostly concentrated in urban areas. As a result of increasing subscribers, all mobile network service providers are embarking in building up new BTS without considering...

Gas-Solid flow finds its application in various industries such as chemical and food processes, pharmaceuticals, automobile and power generation. The precise measurement and real-time monitoring of the flow process has garnered a lot of attention in the modern industrial era. The effective utilization, with high efficiency, of resources has compell...

The Binomial distribution is often used as a good approximation for many phenomena in engineering, medical, financial and other applications involving discrete randomness. In many situations, for the purposes of risk management it may be required to estimate and/or track the probability of occurrence of a particular type of discrete event from a da...

This paper presents a SWOT analysis of the impact of recent EU regulatory changes on the business case for energy storage (ES) using the UK as a case study. ES technologies (such as batteries) are key enablers for increasing the share of renewable energy generation and hence decarbonising the electricity system. As such, recent regulatory changes s...

The world is experiencing a fourth industrial revolution. Rapid development of technologies is advancing smart infrastructure opportunities. Experts observe decarbonisation, digitalisation and decentralisation as the main drivers for change. In electrical power systems a downturn of centralised conventional fossil fuel fired power plants and increa...

This book covers all areas of mathematical science. The contributions by the authors include combinatorics, magic polygons, degenerated magic polygons, bifurcation, oscillatory flow, matrix determinant, matrix inversion, co-factor expansion, QR decomposition, gauss elimination, polynomial division, non-preemptive EDF scheduling, code refactoring, m...

Increased deployment of intermittent renewable energy plants raises concerns about energy security and energy affordability. Capacity markets (CMs) have been implemented to provide investment stability to generators and secure energy generation by reducing the number of shortage hours. The research presented in this paper contributes to answering t...

This paper presents the development of a semi-autonomous exploration approach for Urban Search And Rescue (USAR) environments. The developed rescue robot consists of a 2-wheel drive platform with a traction system capable of traversing in various terrain within a 47-degree inclination. A 2-DOF articulated end-effector is attached to the robot, whic...

Demand response (DR) involves economic incentives aimed at balancing energy demand during critical demand periods. In doing so DR offers the potential to assist with grid balancing, integrate renewable energy generation and improve energy network security. Buildings account for roughly 40% of global energy consumption. Therefore, the potential for...

A downturn of centralised conventional fossil fuel fired power plants and increased proportion of distributed power generation adds to the already troublesome outlook for operators of low-inertia energy systems. The role of an emerging decentralised energy sector allows separation of local energy needs from major power networks. However, the divers...

Heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems account for large proportion of energy consumption in buildings. Implementation of efficient optimization and control mechanisms has been identified as one crucial way to help reduce and shift HVAC systems energy consumption to both save economic costs and foster improved integration with ren...

This poster presents the work done in the early stages of the PhD research that I am currently carrying out. The poster was present at a poster session at the International Conference on Energy and Sustainable Futures (ICESF) 2019, at Nottingham Trent University.

With ubiquitous connectivity, dramatically increased access to low-cost computational power and advances in data science, many industries worldwide are currently on the verge of a second digital revolution known as 'Industry 4.0'. The UK is no exception. This talk is concerned with the implementation and field-testing of an edge device for real-tim...

This paper is concerned with the implementation and field-testing of an edge device for real-time condition monitoring and fault detection for large-scale rotating equipment in the UK water industry. The edge device implements a local digital twin, processing information from low-cost transducers mounted on the equipment in real-time. Condition mon...

In many real-time control applications, the ability to accurately track a reference trajectory with stable, pre-specified closed-loop dynamics is highly desirable. For fixed gain control systems, the detrimental impact of jitter on performance has been relatively well studied. However, research that quantifies the possible impact of jitter on the p...

Policy and new technologies are transforming the energy landscape in the UK. Centralised control of electrical generation and unidirectional distribution have a finite part in a sustainable energy system. Subsidies have encouraged an increase in distributed resources. At the same time closure of larger fossil-fuelled power plants is reducing system...

Demand Response is the generic title given to a range of options customers have to reduce costs-or even generate profits-by changing their pattern of energy consumption. Typically this is achieved by deliberately moving consumption away from peak times or onto off-peak times. It is generally accepted that Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (...

This paper presents the development of a digital Proportional Integral Derivative (PID)-like adaptive controller and its application on Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems. The HVAC process model is often approximately described as a first-order-plus-deadtime (FOPDT) model, with process parameters which can vary with time due t...

This report establishes scenarios for demonstration of economic, environmental and social benefits of DR management through a detailed description of four DR-BOB demonstration sites. The demonstration sites are described through: - Geographical location, which determines climate conditions and types of power network; - Building parameters such as b...

The DR-BOB Project aims to demonstrate the economic and environmental benefit of demand response in blocks of buildings, and is piloting tools and techniques to achieve this at: Teesside University campus in Middlesbrough, UK, a business and technology park in Anglet, France, A hospital complex in Brescia, Italy, The campus of the Technical Univers...

In this paper the timing properties of a single switch LAN are analyzed. The analysis is based upon relatively simple iterative algorithms to analyze the duration of the synchronous busy period of a message set, assuming FIFO buffering in both the source nodes and switch are employed. In this paper, the real-time traffic (periodic and sporadic) is...

Electricity networks base their stability on the balance between electricity usage and generation. Unbalance in the electricity network results in blackouts and can escalate to systems disruption at national and multinational level. The National grids, Transmission Network Operators (TNOs) and Distribution Network Operators (DSOs) ensure the electr...

Most governments are applying financial instruments and other polices to encourage distributed renewable electricity generation (DREG). DREG is less predictable and more volatile than traditional forms of energy generation. Closure of larger fossil-fuelled power plants and rising share of DREG is reducing system inertia on energy networks such that...

Fossil fuels deliver most of the flexibility in contemporary electricity systems. The pressing need to reduce CO2 emissions requires new methods to provide this flexibility. Demand response (DR) offers consumers a significant role in the delivery of flexibility by reducing or shifting their electricity usage during periods of stress or constraint....

Research surrounding demand response (DR) is beginning to consider how blocks of buildings can operate collectively within energy networks. DR at the level of a block of buildings involves near real-time optimisation of energy demand, storage and supply (including self-production) using intelligent energy management systems with the objective of re...

Industrial automation and control systems are increasingly deployed using wireless networks in master-slave, star-type configurations which employ a slotted timeline schedule. In this paper, the scheduling of (re)transmissions to meet real-time constraints in the presence of non-uniform interference in such networks is considered. As packet losses...

Model predictive control (MPC) schemes employ dynamic models of a process within a receding horizon framework to optimize the behavior of a process. Although MPC has many benefits, a significant drawback is the large computational burden, especially in adaptive and constrained situations. In this paper, a computationally efficient self-tuning/adapt...

The DR-BOB Project aims to demonstrate the economic and environmental benefit of demand response in block of buildings for the different key actors required to bring it to market. Learn how The DR-BOB project is piloting the tools and techniques required for demand response in blocks of buildings with differing patterns of ownership, use and occupa...

In this paper, a prototype proactive decentralised demand-side electrical frequency regulation tool is proposed and evaluated. Most governments aim to meet ambitious CO2 reduction targets by applying financial instruments and other polices to encourage Distributed Renewable Energy Generation (DREG). Increasing energy demand, combined with the varia...

European governments aim to meet ambitious CO2 reduction targets by applying financial instruments and other polices to encourage Distributed Renewable Energy (DREG) uptake. Moving from large scale centralised controllable energy generation, which is largely fossil-fuelled, to small scale intermittent DREG is problematic for existing energy network...

Increased Demand Response (DR) is essential to fully exploit European power systems, which in turn is an absolute prerequisite for meeting European targets related to energy efficiency and climate change. Essentially DR involves consumers reducing or shifting their electricity usage during periods of peak electricity demand in response to time-base...

A current innovation project “Demand Response in Blocks of Buildings” (DR-BoB: www.dr-bob.eu) has integrated existing technologies into a scalable cloud based solution for Demand Response (DR) in blocks of buildings. The degree to which the DR-BoB energy management solution can increase the ability of any given site to participate in DR is dependen...

In this paper, an improved inductor simulator structure is presented, which can be configured as either grounded or floating inductor simulator with low component count. To achieve simplified structure, inductor simulator circuits are designed using a minimal number of transistors and small capacitance, rather than the complex components/modules su...

Embedded systems consist of one or more processing units which are completely encapsulated by the devices under their control, and they often have stringent timing constraints associated with their functional specification. Previous research has considered the performance of different types of task scheduling algorithm and developed associated timi...

The Controller Area Network (CAN) has become a de-facto communication protocol in automation systems over the last three decades. Some CAN networks now employ TDMA-based communication in order to help meet real-time constraints. Whilst this form of media access control brings several timeliness benefits, studies have also illustrated negative effec...

Industrial communication networks like the Controller Area Network (CAN) are often required to operate reliably in harsh environments which expose the communication network to random errors. Probabilistic schedulability analysis can employ rich stochastic error models to capture random error behaviors, but this is most often at the expense of incre...

In this paper, it is argued that some low-level aspects of the usual IEC 61850 mapping to Ethernet are not well suited to microgrids due to their dynamic nature and geographical distribution as compared to substations. It is proposed that the integration of IEEE time-sensitive networking (TSN) concepts (which are currently implemented as audio vide...

Many new demand response strategies are emerging for energy management in smart grids. Real-Time Energy Pricing (RTP) is one important aspect of consumer Demand Side Management (DSM), which encourages consumers to participate in load scheduling. This can help reduce peak demand and improve power system efficiency. The use of Intelligent Decision Su...

This report concerns business models for Energy Positive Neighborhoods (EPNs) and is based on research conducted as part of the IDEAS project. EPNs are areas in which annual energy demand is lower than annual energy supply from local renewable energy sources. Their energy infrastructures are connected to and contribute to the efficient operation an...

The use of wireless communications for real-time control applications poses several problems related to the comparatively low reliability of the communication channels. This paper is concerned with adaptive and predictive application-level strategies for ameliorating the effects of packet losses and burst errors in industrial sampled-data Distribut...