Article history: Received 5 July 2011 Received in revised form 24 March 2013 Accepted 27 March 2013 Available online 8 April 2013

This paper addresses the problem of global nite-time design via dynamic output feedback. The results are obtained in the form of the so-called \separation principle", i.e., the design methods for the nite-time output feedback laws are based on nite-time state feedback laws and nite-time observers, which can be designed separately. Conditions are given to assure that the constructed output feedb...

A number of Hong Kong manufacturing companies have moved their production to the People’s Republic of China while retaining their supporting functions (such as marketing, distribution, etc.) in Hong Kong. As a consequence, their mode of operation has become more complex and demands better production planning and control (PPC). One solution is to use an information system in which all factory re...

In adaptive control design for discrete-time output-feedback nonlinear plants, the main obstacle is the lack of effective ways to design estimators for the unmeasured states and the unknown parameters. Since these quantities appear as arguments of arbitrary nonlinear functions, traditional estimation methods can not be used. To resolve this problem, we propose a new systematic methodology by wh...

This paper addresses the problem of designing adaptive output feedback VSC systems for uncertain plants. Most of it is devoted to give a state-of-the-art overview of this quite recent and potentially important technique. Connections of the new technique with standard parameter adaptive and variable structure technique are discussed. The paper also contains new results and ideas which have not y...

Designing effective adaptive e-learning systems, from a usability perspective, represents a challenge because of the complexity of adaptivity in order to meet the diverse requirements of learners. Furthermore, there is a lack of well-designed experimental evaluation of adaptive e-learning systems in general, and of their usability in particular. The aim of this paper is the presentation of an a...

Heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) is the largest consumer of electricity in commercial buildings. Consumption is impacted by group activities (e.g. meetings, lectures) and can be reduced by scheduling these activities at times and locations that minimize HVAC utilization. However, this needs to preserve occupants’ thermal comfort and be responsive to dynamic information such as n...

This paper addresses the problem of global output feedback, link position tracking control of robot manipulators. Specifically, a robust, Lyapunov-based controller is designed to ensure that the link position tracking error is globally uniformly ultimately bounded despite the fact that only link position measurements are available in the presence of incomplete model information (i.e., parametri...