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Nowadays, a power system failure can drastically affect the reliability and normal operation of power distribution grids. The preparation for these failure events is currently approached with post-event analysis to identify the area of the system that requires the most resources in order to prevent future failures. Nevertheless, the forecasting of such events can be useful to anticipate the failure and possibly avoid it. In this work, we employ several machine learning approaches to analyze historical failure data and predict power grid outages based on operational and meteorological data. The approach is tested with real failure data of a power distribution network in the South of Italy, demonstrating advantageous results also to determine areas requiring particular attention.

Model Predictive Control (MPC) has recently gained special attention to efficiently regulate Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems of buildings, since it explicitly allows energy savings while maintaining thermal comfort criteria. In this paper we propose a MPC algorithm for the on-line optimization of both the indoor thermal comfort and the related energy consumption of buildings. We use Fanger’s Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) as thermal comfort index, while to predict the energy performance of the building, we adopt a simplified thermal model. This allows computing optimal control actions by defining and solving a tractable non-linear optimization problem that incorporates the PMV index into the MPC cost function in addition to a term accounting for energy saving. The proposed MPC approach is implemented on a building automation system deployed in an office building located at the Polytechnic of Bari (Italy). Several on-field tests are performed to assess the applicability and efficacy of the control algorithm in a real environment against classical thermal comfort control approach based on the use of thermostats.

We present a novel energy scheduling approach under uncertain data for smart homes taking into account the presence of controllable electrical loads, renewable energy sources, dispatchable energy generators, and energy storage systems. The problem is stated as a fuzzy linear programming and is aimed at minimizing energy costs. The proposed approach allows managing the use of electrical devices, plan the energy production and supplying, and program the storage charging and discharging profiles under uncertain data. The method is validated through a literature case study showing its effectiveness in exploiting the potential of local energy generation and storage and in reducing the energy consumption costs, while limiting the peak average ratio of the energy profiles and complying with the user's energy needs.

This paper focuses on optimizing one of the most critical activities in door-to-door intermodal transportation, i.e., the containers' drayage by road. We present a technique to solve in an exact and optimal way the pick-up and delivery problem under the typical assumptions of intermodal transportation: full truck load, split delivery, clustered backhauls, and time windows. The method allows limiting the distance traveled by road, enabling to match a delivery with a pick-up request, while respecting customers' service time windows, vehicles availability, and rental needs. Thus, intermodal companies can manage vehicle routing and scheduling problems in an integrated way. The technique effectiveness is shown by a real case study.

This paper addresses a key objective of the supply chain strategic design, i.e., the optimal selection of suppliers under uncertainty. A methodology integrating the cross-efficiency Data Envelopment Analysis and the Monte Carlo approach is proposed. Their combination allows overcoming the deterministic feature of the classical cross-efficiency DEA. Moreover, we define an indicator of the robustness of the determined supplier ranking. The resulting technique allows managing the supplier selection problem while considering nondeterministic input and output data, a significant circumstance for assessing potential suppliers, with which there are no previous commercial relationships. The approach helps buyers in choosing the right partners under uncertainty and ranking them upon a multiple sourcing strategy.

This paper focuses on modelling and performance evaluation of an Intermodal Freight Transport Terminal (IFTT), the rail-road inland terminal of a leading Italian intermodal logistics company. The IFTT is regarded as a discrete event system and is modelled in a timed Petri net framework. By means of suitable performance indices, we simulate the Petri net model and evaluate the operational performance of the transport system. This allows assessing the efficiency level of the terminal and identifying its criticalities and bottlenecks. Further, the model allows evaluating different solutions to the recognized criticalities under alternative scenarios (e.g., when inflow traffic increases and congestions may occur).

This paper investigates the effects of the numerical method employed to solve the system of differential equations that characterise a closed-loop inverse kinematics (CLIK) algorithm in the discrete-time domain. The paper presents a detailed comparison between a 4th order method, namely the Runge-Kutta 4 (RK4) and the explicit Euler 1-st order method, that is the one most often used in applications. In spite of a lower complexity of the mathematical model, simulations on a 7-Degree-Of-Freedom (DOF) show that using explicit Euler produces better performance in some conditions, such as when considering a constant Cartesian reference. On the other hand, significantly lower tracking error is observed for time-varying Cartesian reference when using RK4. This method also generates smoother joint trajectories when moving through a kinematic singularity. Finally, the results suggest that the stability of the closed-loop algorithm is retained for larger gain values when using RK4.