João Araújo

Research Areas

PhD Project: Application-specific integrated-circuit (ASIC) for model predictive
control (MPC) targeting spectroscopic applications

Resume: 

Spectroscopy and spectrometry are integral techniques to many scientific disciplines and industrial applications. These techniques require complex experimental set-ups with many interacting parts. As such, their operation often requires frequent manual adjustments to system variables through time consuming, trial-and-error processes. Application of sophisticated automatic control strategies could boost the performance of a wide variety of instruments, while allowing researchers to focus on other experimental considerations. The proposed PhD work will investigate the design and implementation of a high-performance, hardware-based predictive control solution to be employed for control of a spectroscopic apparatus. The system model and control techniques will be implemented in an application-specific integrated-circuit, in a hybrid analog/digital architecture. The final prototype’s performance will be demonstrated in a crossed electron-molecule beam apparatus, where it will serve as the main control unit.