Workshop on Digital Control for Power Systems

Thursday Jun 22, 2017, 9:00 AM → 5:30 PM Europe/Amsterdam

Newton (ESTEC)

Arturo Fernandez (European Space Agency)

Digital Control is knocking on our door since a few years ago and, at some point, the door will be opened. New digital devices will end up entering into Space Power Systems hopefully to bring new features and system level advantages. However, as in any engineering trade off,  they will also bring new questions and new challenges.

To be ready for it, ESA has decided to organise a Workshop on Digital Control for Power Systems, to be held at ESTEC on the 22nd of June 2017.

The idea is to have some presentations in the morning showing the different views of Agencies and Industry, innovative ideas from research centres as well as state of the art digital devices.

The afternoon will be dedicated to an open discussion where everyone is invited to participate. The goal of this discussion is to answer some key questions that could help giving directions for the next steps to take. In order to focus the discussion, you can prepare a short presentation in which the proposed questions are answered. Ideally, 1 slide per question. In this way, we could put face to face the different views on the key points. Of course, you can also join the discussion without any presentation.

The detailed Timetable can be checked on the left side menu.

Please register for the workshop by filling the relevant form found in this website (form).

Registration deadline: 19th June 

Questions for the Open discussion

• Are we ready for Digital Control?

• Should Digital Control simply mock Analogue control?

• Or should we start from scratch rethinking at system level the Power System?

• What new features (enabled by Digital Control) would be more welcome?

• Which digital device do we ideally need for Space Power Systems? 

1 Welcome Introduction

Speaker: Dr Arturo Fernandez (ESA)

2 ESA view on Digital Control

Speaker: Dr Arturo Fernandez (European Space Agency)

3 CNES view on Digital Control

4 FPGA vs microcontroller comparison

Speakers: Mr Alberto Valverde (ESA), Dr Pablo Fernandez Miaja (ESA)

5 Thales-ETCA presentation

Speakers: Mr Marc Bekemans (Thales - ETCA), Mr Marc Fossion (Thales Alenia Space Belgium)

6 Airbus - Crisa presentation

Speaker: Mr Emilio Lapeña (Airbus - Crisa)

11:00 AM Coffee Break

7 FPGA and microcontroller state of the art and roadmap

Speakers: Mr Alberto Valverde (ESA), Mr David Merodio Codinachs (ESA)

8 Advanced ideas on Digital Control

Speaker: Dr Pablo Zumel (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid)

9 Advanced ideas on Digital Control

Speaker: Dr Luca Corradini (University of Padova)

1:00 PM Lunch Break

10 Open discussion

Are we ready for Digital Control? Should Digital Control simply mock Analogue control? Or should we start from scratch rethinking at system level the Power System? What new features (enabled by Digital Control) would be more welcome? Which digital device do we ideally need for Space Power Systems?

3:30 PM Coffee Break

11 Open discussion