Project acronym CORNEA
Project Controlling evolutionary dynamics of networked autonomous agents
Researcher (PI) Ming CAO
Host Institution (HI) RIJKSUNIVERSITEIT GRONINGEN
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE7, ERC-2017-COG
Summary Large-scale technological, biological, economic, and social complex systems act as complex networks of interacting autonomous agents. Large numbers of interacting agents making self-interested decisions can result in highly complex, sometimes surprising, and often suboptimal, collective behaviors. Empowered by recent breakthroughs in data-driven cognitive learning technologies, networked agents collectively give rise to evolutionary dynamics that cannot be easily modeled, analysed and/or controlled using current systems and control theory. Consequently, there is an urgent need to develop new theoretical foundations to tackle the emerging challenging control problems associated with evolutionary dynamics for networked autonomous agents.
The aim of this project is to develop a rigorous theory for the control of evolutionary dynamics so that interacting autonomous agents can be guided to solve group tasks through the pursuit of individual goals in an evolutionary dynamical process. The theory will then be tested, validated and improved against experimental results using robotic fish.
To achieve the aim, I will: (1) develop a general formulation for stochastic evolutionary dynamics with control inputs, enabling the study on controllability and stabilizability for evolutionary processes; (2) introduce stochastic control Lyapunov functions to design control laws; (3) construct new classes of conditional strategies that may propagate controlled actions effectively from focal agents in multiple time scales; and (4) validate experimentally on tasks with unknown difficulties that require a group of robotic fish to evolve and adapt.
The project will result in a major advance from the conventional usage of evolutionary game theory with the systematic design to actively control evolutionary outcomes. The combination of theory with experimentation and the multi-disciplinary nature of the approach will lead to new applications of autonomous robotic systems.
Summary
Large-scale technological, biological, economic, and social complex systems act as complex networks of interacting autonomous agents. Large numbers of interacting agents making self-interested decisions can result in highly complex, sometimes surprising, and often suboptimal, collective behaviors. Empowered by recent breakthroughs in data-driven cognitive learning technologies, networked agents collectively give rise to evolutionary dynamics that cannot be easily modeled, analysed and/or controlled using current systems and control theory. Consequently, there is an urgent need to develop new theoretical foundations to tackle the emerging challenging control problems associated with evolutionary dynamics for networked autonomous agents.
The aim of this project is to develop a rigorous theory for the control of evolutionary dynamics so that interacting autonomous agents can be guided to solve group tasks through the pursuit of individual goals in an evolutionary dynamical process. The theory will then be tested, validated and improved against experimental results using robotic fish.
To achieve the aim, I will: (1) develop a general formulation for stochastic evolutionary dynamics with control inputs, enabling the study on controllability and stabilizability for evolutionary processes; (2) introduce stochastic control Lyapunov functions to design control laws; (3) construct new classes of conditional strategies that may propagate controlled actions effectively from focal agents in multiple time scales; and (4) validate experimentally on tasks with unknown difficulties that require a group of robotic fish to evolve and adapt.
The project will result in a major advance from the conventional usage of evolutionary game theory with the systematic design to actively control evolutionary outcomes. The combination of theory with experimentation and the multi-disciplinary nature of the approach will lead to new applications of autonomous robotic systems.
Max ERC Funding
1 998 933 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-05-01, End date: 2023-04-30
Project acronym DarkComb
Project Dark-Soliton Engineering in Microresonator Frequency Combs
Researcher (PI) Victor TORRES COMPANY
Host Institution (HI) CHALMERS TEKNISKA HOEGSKOLA AB
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE7, ERC-2017-COG
Summary The continuing increase in Internet data traffic is pushing the capacity of single-mode fiber to its fundamental limits. Space division multiplexing (SDM) offers the only remaining physical degree of freedom – the space dimension in the transmission channel – to substantially increase the capacity in lightwave communication systems.
The microresonator comb is an emerging technology platform that enables the generation of an optical frequency comb in a micrometer-scale cavity. Its compact size and compatibility with established semiconductor fabrication techniques promises to revolutionize the fields of frequency synthesis and metrology, and create new mass-market applications.
I envision significant scaling advantages in future fiber-optic communications by merging SDM with microresonator frequency combs. One major obstacle to overcome here is the poor conversion efficiency that can be fundamentally obtained using the most stable and broadest combs generated in microresonators today. I propose to look into the generation of dark, as opposed to bright, temporal solitons in linearly coupled microresonators. The goal is to achieve reliable microresonator combs with exceptionally high power conversion efficiency, resulting in optimal characteristics for SDM applications. The scientific and technological possibilities of this achievement promise significant impact beyond the realm of fiber-optic communications.
My broad international experience, unique background in fiber communications, photonic waveguides and ultrafast photonics, the preliminary results of my group and the available infrastructure at my university place me in an outstanding position to pioneer this new direction of research.
Summary
The continuing increase in Internet data traffic is pushing the capacity of single-mode fiber to its fundamental limits. Space division multiplexing (SDM) offers the only remaining physical degree of freedom – the space dimension in the transmission channel – to substantially increase the capacity in lightwave communication systems.
The microresonator comb is an emerging technology platform that enables the generation of an optical frequency comb in a micrometer-scale cavity. Its compact size and compatibility with established semiconductor fabrication techniques promises to revolutionize the fields of frequency synthesis and metrology, and create new mass-market applications.
I envision significant scaling advantages in future fiber-optic communications by merging SDM with microresonator frequency combs. One major obstacle to overcome here is the poor conversion efficiency that can be fundamentally obtained using the most stable and broadest combs generated in microresonators today. I propose to look into the generation of dark, as opposed to bright, temporal solitons in linearly coupled microresonators. The goal is to achieve reliable microresonator combs with exceptionally high power conversion efficiency, resulting in optimal characteristics for SDM applications. The scientific and technological possibilities of this achievement promise significant impact beyond the realm of fiber-optic communications.
My broad international experience, unique background in fiber communications, photonic waveguides and ultrafast photonics, the preliminary results of my group and the available infrastructure at my university place me in an outstanding position to pioneer this new direction of research.
Max ERC Funding
2 259 523 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-05-01, End date: 2023-04-30
Project acronym FUN-NOTCH
Project Fundamentals of the Nonlinear Optical Channel
Researcher (PI) Alex ALVARADO
Host Institution (HI) TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT EINDHOVEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE7, ERC-2017-STG
Summary "Fibre optics are critical infrastructure for society because they carry nearly all the global Internet traffic. For a long time, optical fibre systems were thought to have infinite information-carrying capabilities. With current traffic demands growing by a factor between 10 and 100 every decade, however, this is no longer the case. In fact, it is currently unknown if the installed optical infrastructure will manage to cope with these demands in the future, or if we will face the so-called ""capacity crunch"".
To satisfy traffic demands, transceivers are being operated near the nonlinear regime of the fibres. In this regime, a power-dependent nonlinear phenomenon known as the Kerr effect becomes the key impairment that limits the information-carrying capability of optical fibres. The intrinsic nonlinear nature of these fibres makes the analysis very difficult and has led to a series of unanswered fundamental questions about data transmission in nonlinear optical fibres, and nonlinear media in general. For example, the maximum amount of information that optical fibres can carry in the highly nonlinear regime is still unknown, and the design of transceivers well-suited for this regime is also completely unexplored.
In this project, the PI will answer these fundamental questions by studying the simplest nontrivial building blocks underlying optical fibres, and will give a definitive answer to the capacity crunch question. The PI will use a systematic methodology that aims at embracing nonlinear effects, consider the continuous-time channel as the correct starting point for analysis, and redesign optical transceivers from scratch, lifting all linear assumptions. The proposed methodology is in sharp contrast with current research trends, which aim at mitigating nonlinearities, and consider discrete-time models in the linear regime. Due to the central role of information transmission in modern society, the results in this project will have broad societal impact."
Summary
"Fibre optics are critical infrastructure for society because they carry nearly all the global Internet traffic. For a long time, optical fibre systems were thought to have infinite information-carrying capabilities. With current traffic demands growing by a factor between 10 and 100 every decade, however, this is no longer the case. In fact, it is currently unknown if the installed optical infrastructure will manage to cope with these demands in the future, or if we will face the so-called ""capacity crunch"".
To satisfy traffic demands, transceivers are being operated near the nonlinear regime of the fibres. In this regime, a power-dependent nonlinear phenomenon known as the Kerr effect becomes the key impairment that limits the information-carrying capability of optical fibres. The intrinsic nonlinear nature of these fibres makes the analysis very difficult and has led to a series of unanswered fundamental questions about data transmission in nonlinear optical fibres, and nonlinear media in general. For example, the maximum amount of information that optical fibres can carry in the highly nonlinear regime is still unknown, and the design of transceivers well-suited for this regime is also completely unexplored.
In this project, the PI will answer these fundamental questions by studying the simplest nontrivial building blocks underlying optical fibres, and will give a definitive answer to the capacity crunch question. The PI will use a systematic methodology that aims at embracing nonlinear effects, consider the continuous-time channel as the correct starting point for analysis, and redesign optical transceivers from scratch, lifting all linear assumptions. The proposed methodology is in sharp contrast with current research trends, which aim at mitigating nonlinearities, and consider discrete-time models in the linear regime. Due to the central role of information transmission in modern society, the results in this project will have broad societal impact."
Max ERC Funding
1 497 982 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-01-01, End date: 2022-12-31
Project acronym MUSE
Project Multi-perspective Ultrasound Strain Imaging & Elastography
Researcher (PI) Richard LOPATA
Host Institution (HI) TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT EINDHOVEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE7, ERC-2017-STG
Summary Ultrasound (US) is the modality of choice for imaging and functional measurements of the cardiovascular system due to its high spatial and temporal resolution. In recent years, the use of US has been on the rise owing to huge advancements in acquisition speed and resolution. Nevertheless, because of physical constraints, several issues —limited field-of-view, refraction, resolution and, contrast anisotropy— cannot be resolved using a single probe.
This proposal will aim at tackling these issues introducing Multi-perspective Ultrasound Strain Imaging & Elastography (MUSE). MUSE will push the frontiers of 3-D US imaging by introducing a novel, multi-perspective 3-D US system. The revolutionary system will consist of two synchronously controlled 3-D matrix arrays and advanced signal and image processing to improve geometric and functional measurements (strain, elasticity). Validation will be performed for two applications: cardiac strain imaging in patients with aortic valve stenosis (AoS) and elastography of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA).
Fusion of dual-probe data will be challenged and achieved by new algorithms, preserving important features and improving both contrast and field-of-view. Advanced 3-D processing of the raw US data will be developed for motion and strain imaging. A novel compounding technique, fusion strain imaging, will combine multi-perspective strain data to improve accuracy and precision. A comprehensive framework for system verification and validation will be built, comprising US simulations, ex vivo experiments, and in vivo pilot studies on healthy volunteers. The proposed technique will be validated in AoS and AAA patients.
Ultimately, MUSE will introduce a non-invasive, ground-breaking US platform for functional screening and follow-up, and a breakthrough in early diagnosis, clinical decision making, and risk assessment of cardiovascular disease. Moreover, MUSE has the potential to replace invasive or costly imaging modalities with US.
Summary
Ultrasound (US) is the modality of choice for imaging and functional measurements of the cardiovascular system due to its high spatial and temporal resolution. In recent years, the use of US has been on the rise owing to huge advancements in acquisition speed and resolution. Nevertheless, because of physical constraints, several issues —limited field-of-view, refraction, resolution and, contrast anisotropy— cannot be resolved using a single probe.
This proposal will aim at tackling these issues introducing Multi-perspective Ultrasound Strain Imaging & Elastography (MUSE). MUSE will push the frontiers of 3-D US imaging by introducing a novel, multi-perspective 3-D US system. The revolutionary system will consist of two synchronously controlled 3-D matrix arrays and advanced signal and image processing to improve geometric and functional measurements (strain, elasticity). Validation will be performed for two applications: cardiac strain imaging in patients with aortic valve stenosis (AoS) and elastography of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA).
Fusion of dual-probe data will be challenged and achieved by new algorithms, preserving important features and improving both contrast and field-of-view. Advanced 3-D processing of the raw US data will be developed for motion and strain imaging. A novel compounding technique, fusion strain imaging, will combine multi-perspective strain data to improve accuracy and precision. A comprehensive framework for system verification and validation will be built, comprising US simulations, ex vivo experiments, and in vivo pilot studies on healthy volunteers. The proposed technique will be validated in AoS and AAA patients.
Ultimately, MUSE will introduce a non-invasive, ground-breaking US platform for functional screening and follow-up, and a breakthrough in early diagnosis, clinical decision making, and risk assessment of cardiovascular disease. Moreover, MUSE has the potential to replace invasive or costly imaging modalities with US.
Max ERC Funding
1 998 505 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-02-01, End date: 2023-01-31
Project acronym PORTWINGS
Project Decoding the Nature of Flapping Flight by port-Hamiltonian System Theory
Researcher (PI) Stefano STRAMIGIOLI
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT TWENTE
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE7, ERC-2017-ADG
Summary Flapping flight is one of the wonders of nature and has been vastly studied by biologists and fluid dynamicists. Many artifacts that mimic biological systems have been built at different scales.
For example, we have managed to create a system that resembles the steady flapping behaviour of its biological counterpart and can fly untethered, stably up to 80 km/h in up to 5 Beaufort wind speed. This is the Robird developed at the University of Twente, which got the 2016 ERF Tech Transfer Award, and is commercially exploited by Clear Flight Solutions. Even if this technology and results are unique and recognised worldwide, we still do not fully understand flapping flight to the scientific depth needed to go even further. The Robird cannot take off on its own, cannot perch, uses symmetric flapping, steers using a number of manifolds placed on the tail and has a minimal autonomy and a restricted operation time due to power consumption. In this project I propose to gain a much deeper structured understanding of flapping flight and experimentally validate these understandings. This will be done using port-Hamiltonian (PH) system theory and its physically unifying character, which will couple fluid dynamics theory to dynamically changing surfaces and their actuation. Once models will be validated by wind tunnel tests with flow visualisation, numerical optimisation will be used to fine tune models and search for uncertain parameters. Based on these findings, artifacts will be built to validate the generated models with real systems. Based on the insight gained, a new robotic bird will be realised with unprecedented flight dexterity, able to flap asymmetrically, adapt to the flow and take off and land as birds do, in order to validate the scientific understandings.
Summary
Flapping flight is one of the wonders of nature and has been vastly studied by biologists and fluid dynamicists. Many artifacts that mimic biological systems have been built at different scales.
For example, we have managed to create a system that resembles the steady flapping behaviour of its biological counterpart and can fly untethered, stably up to 80 km/h in up to 5 Beaufort wind speed. This is the Robird developed at the University of Twente, which got the 2016 ERF Tech Transfer Award, and is commercially exploited by Clear Flight Solutions. Even if this technology and results are unique and recognised worldwide, we still do not fully understand flapping flight to the scientific depth needed to go even further. The Robird cannot take off on its own, cannot perch, uses symmetric flapping, steers using a number of manifolds placed on the tail and has a minimal autonomy and a restricted operation time due to power consumption. In this project I propose to gain a much deeper structured understanding of flapping flight and experimentally validate these understandings. This will be done using port-Hamiltonian (PH) system theory and its physically unifying character, which will couple fluid dynamics theory to dynamically changing surfaces and their actuation. Once models will be validated by wind tunnel tests with flow visualisation, numerical optimisation will be used to fine tune models and search for uncertain parameters. Based on these findings, artifacts will be built to validate the generated models with real systems. Based on the insight gained, a new robotic bird will be realised with unprecedented flight dexterity, able to flap asymmetrically, adapt to the flow and take off and land as birds do, in order to validate the scientific understandings.
Max ERC Funding
2 800 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-10-01, End date: 2023-09-30
Project acronym SENTIENT
Project SCHEDULING OF EVENT-TRIGGERED CONTROL TASKS
Researcher (PI) Manuel MAZO ESPINOSA
Host Institution (HI) TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT DELFT
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE7, ERC-2017-STG
Summary The advances in electronic communication and computation have enabled the ubiquity of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS): digital systems that regulate and control all sorts of physical processes, such as chemical reactors, water distribution and power networks. These systems require the timely communication of sensor measurements and control actions to provide their prescribed functionalities. Event-triggered control (ETC) techniques, which communicate only when needed to enforce performance, have attracted attention as a mean to reduce the communication traffic and save energy on (wireless) networked control systems (NCS). However, despite ETC’s great communication reductions, the scheduling of the aperiodic and largely unpredictable traffic that ETC generates remains widely unaddressed – hindering its true potential for energy and bandwidth savings.
To address this problem, I will take up the following scientific challenges: (1) the construction of models for ETC’s communication traffic; (2) the design of schedulers based on such models guaranteeing prescribed performance levels. To reach these goals, I will employ scientific methods at the cross-roads between theoretical computer science, control systems and communications engineering. I propose to follow a two step approach that I have recently demonstrated:
(i) modeling as timed-priced-game-automata (TPGA) the timing of communications of event-triggered control systems; and (ii) solving games over TPGAs to prevent data communication collisions and ensure prescribed performances for the control tasks.
I will produce algorithms facilitating the efficient implementation of control loops over shared communication resources and increasing the energy efficiency of wireless NCS by orders of magnitude. The advances will be demonstrated on automotive and wireless water-distribution control applications, showcasing the potential economic impact from the reduction of implementation and maintenance costs on CPSs.
Summary
The advances in electronic communication and computation have enabled the ubiquity of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS): digital systems that regulate and control all sorts of physical processes, such as chemical reactors, water distribution and power networks. These systems require the timely communication of sensor measurements and control actions to provide their prescribed functionalities. Event-triggered control (ETC) techniques, which communicate only when needed to enforce performance, have attracted attention as a mean to reduce the communication traffic and save energy on (wireless) networked control systems (NCS). However, despite ETC’s great communication reductions, the scheduling of the aperiodic and largely unpredictable traffic that ETC generates remains widely unaddressed – hindering its true potential for energy and bandwidth savings.
To address this problem, I will take up the following scientific challenges: (1) the construction of models for ETC’s communication traffic; (2) the design of schedulers based on such models guaranteeing prescribed performance levels. To reach these goals, I will employ scientific methods at the cross-roads between theoretical computer science, control systems and communications engineering. I propose to follow a two step approach that I have recently demonstrated:
(i) modeling as timed-priced-game-automata (TPGA) the timing of communications of event-triggered control systems; and (ii) solving games over TPGAs to prevent data communication collisions and ensure prescribed performances for the control tasks.
I will produce algorithms facilitating the efficient implementation of control loops over shared communication resources and increasing the energy efficiency of wireless NCS by orders of magnitude. The advances will be demonstrated on automotive and wireless water-distribution control applications, showcasing the potential economic impact from the reduction of implementation and maintenance costs on CPSs.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 941 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-02-01, End date: 2023-01-31
Project acronym SONGBIRD
Project SOphisticated 3D cell culture scaffolds for Next Generation Barrier-on-chip In vitro moDels
Researcher (PI) Maria TENJE
Host Institution (HI) UPPSALA UNIVERSITET
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE7, ERC-2017-STG
Summary The blood-brain barrier is a sophisticated biological barrier comprising several different cell types, structured in a well-defined order with the task to strictly control the passage of molecules - such as drugs against neurodegenerative diseases - from the blood into the brain. To reduce the ethical and economic costs of drug development, which in EU today uses
~10 million experimental animals every year, we must develop in vitro models of the blood-brain barrier with high in vivo correlation, as these are completely missing today.
SONGBIRD aims to achieve this with the scientific approach to
- Develop advanced microfabrication methods to handle biologically derived materials
- Structure the materials into heterogeneous 3D multi-layer suspended cell culture scaffolds
- Incorporate blood-brain barrier cells with precise control on location and order
- Integrated the 3D scaffolds into a microfluidic network as a miniaturised screening platform
The vision is to develop and validate versatile microfabrication methods to mechanically structure and physically handle soft biological materials to unlock the use of next generation animal-free barrier-on-chip models that can be used to speed up drug development, serve as screening platforms for nanotoxicology and help medical researchers to gain mechanistic insight in drug delivery. During SONGBIRD, I will focus on the blood-brain barrier due to its urgent relevance for drug development for the ageing population but the final processing tool-box will be suitable for realising in vitro models of any biological barrier in the future.
SONGBIRD is proposed to run for 60 months and will include researchers with expertise in microsystem engineering (PI), hydrogel synthesis and drug delivery. The expected output is a validated 3D barrier-on-chip model as well as a microfabrication toolbox for biological materials enabling transformation from 2D to 3D cell cultures in several other life science research areas.
Summary
The blood-brain barrier is a sophisticated biological barrier comprising several different cell types, structured in a well-defined order with the task to strictly control the passage of molecules - such as drugs against neurodegenerative diseases - from the blood into the brain. To reduce the ethical and economic costs of drug development, which in EU today uses
~10 million experimental animals every year, we must develop in vitro models of the blood-brain barrier with high in vivo correlation, as these are completely missing today.
SONGBIRD aims to achieve this with the scientific approach to
- Develop advanced microfabrication methods to handle biologically derived materials
- Structure the materials into heterogeneous 3D multi-layer suspended cell culture scaffolds
- Incorporate blood-brain barrier cells with precise control on location and order
- Integrated the 3D scaffolds into a microfluidic network as a miniaturised screening platform
The vision is to develop and validate versatile microfabrication methods to mechanically structure and physically handle soft biological materials to unlock the use of next generation animal-free barrier-on-chip models that can be used to speed up drug development, serve as screening platforms for nanotoxicology and help medical researchers to gain mechanistic insight in drug delivery. During SONGBIRD, I will focus on the blood-brain barrier due to its urgent relevance for drug development for the ageing population but the final processing tool-box will be suitable for realising in vitro models of any biological barrier in the future.
SONGBIRD is proposed to run for 60 months and will include researchers with expertise in microsystem engineering (PI), hydrogel synthesis and drug delivery. The expected output is a validated 3D barrier-on-chip model as well as a microfabrication toolbox for biological materials enabling transformation from 2D to 3D cell cultures in several other life science research areas.
Max ERC Funding
1 500 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-01-01, End date: 2022-12-31
