Dr Chris Guiver, of Edinburgh Napier University's School of Engineering and the Built Environment, has been awarded a one-year personal Research Fellowship by the Royal Society of Edinburgh in their autumn 2021 funding call.
His project is entitled "Optimal and robust methodologies for nonlinear control systems with applications to the control of renewable wave-energy converters" and is a theoretical study at the interface of mathematics and control engineering, investigating mathematical models which arise in the context of renewable wave-energy converters.
The proposal is a theoretical study at the interface of mathematics and control engineering, investigating mathematical models which arise in the context of renewable wave-energy converters. Research into wave-energy is an active area, with strong relevance for helping the UK meet its renewable energy and net zero targets. There are natural challenges associated with extracting energy from the sea, where physical experiments are expensive owing to the inherently hostile operating environment, and research in this area is still in its infancy compared to other renewable energy technologies. There is consequently much value in theoretical research which can reduce later testing costs and speed up commercialisation of wave-energy devices. The proposed research shall provide novel understanding of how to trade off robustness and optimality in extracting wave-energy from the sea.