This project is done in close cooperation with the Institute for Internal Combustion Engines and Thermodynamics at the Graz University of Technology. It deals with a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system for public transport Diesel busses. The idea of the concept is to reduce the amount of NOx in the exhaust gas with the help of ammonium. The ammonium itself is produced from a urea solution via a chemical reaction in the catalysator. The control challenge is to adjust the urea mass flow injected into the exhaust gas. The developed control strategies are tested in a standard bus equipped with a SCR system.

Goal of the project is the model-based control of heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Based on mathematical models representing the dynamic behaviour of the air handling unit-components, HVAC systems of arbitrary complexity can be modelled. Innovative control strategies can dramatically improve the performance of HVAC systems. The pilot plant of the control and measurement systems group was built by the industrial cooperation partner Fischer&Co in Graz.

With the advent of high power, high efficiency AC motors, it was possible for the printing industry to increase the printing speed. But there are some problems associated with the increased speed, maintaining the permissible amounts of tension in the paper between two stages, registration issues, etc.
A multifunctional test bench was developed in cooperation with B&R automation to simulate some of the problems associated with high speed printing and to ultimately find control strategies to solve these issues. The test bench is equipped with very advanced sensors for taking measurements like displacements, forces and vibrations. 
Many other industrial problems were also kept in mind while developing this test bench, like torsional vibrations in a shaft, coupled positioning of high inertial loads, vibrations in pick and place positioning, etc.
The control strategies and the motion strategies can be implemented in the electronic control unit, which drives the motors in the testbench, using Automation studio and code generation software. The electronic control units, the software and the hardware are the products from Bernecker und Rainer. 

In practical control applications robustness against external disturbances, variations of plant parameters and unmodelled dynamics is an indespensable requirement. Using controllers based on the concepts of variable structure systems guarantee the required robustness of the designes feedback loops. A part of this work is to study the theory of variable structure systems and to apply some selected results of this research to real world applications. Examples for the successful implementation of these concepts are throttle valve controllers and current controllers for permanent magnetic synchronous machines.

Vehicle Dynamics Control improves the vehicle's safety, agility and comfort. With integrated chassis control the chassis systems will be coordinated and new functionality can be realized. Hybrid and electric vehicles or even new chassis concepts such as E-corner modules will need new control strategies. Optimized vehicle dynamics with different chassis and drive train configurations and energy recovery are the focus of this research area.
At the chair of Control and Measurement Systems, Institute of Smart System Technologies at the University of Klagenfurt the controller design and the controller analysis (stability, disturbance rejection) is done in cooperation with an industry partner for current and future chassis systems.