This book presents advanced studies on the conversion efficiency, mechanical reliability, and the quality of power related to wind energy systems. The main concern regarding such systems is reconciling the highly intermittent nature of the primary source (wind speed) with the demand for high-quality electrical energy and system stability. This means that wind energy conversion within the standard parameters imposed by the energy market and power industry is unachievable without optimization and control. The book discusses the rapid growth of control and optimization paradigms and applies them to wind energy systems: new controllers, new computational approaches, new applications, new algorithms, and new obstacles.

This book highlights the potential of getting benefits from various applications of computational intelligence techniques. The present book is structured such that to include a set of selected and extended papers from the 6th IEEE International Symposium on Applied Computational Intelligence and Informatics SACI 2011, held in Timisoara, Romania, from 19 to 21 May 2011. After a serious paper review performed by the Technical Program Committee only 116 submissions were accepted, leading to a paper acceptance ratio of 65 %. A further refinement was made after the symposium, based also on the assessment of the presentation quality. Concluding, this book includes the extended and revised versions of the very best papers of SACI 2011 and few invited papers authored by prominent specialists. The readers will benefit from gaining knowledge of the computational intelligence and on what problems can be solved in several areas; they will learn what kind of approaches is advised to use in order to solve these problems. A very important benefit for the readers is an understanding of what the major difficulties are and the cost-effective solutions to deal with them. This book will offer a convenient entry for researchers and engineers who intend to work in the important fields of computational intelligence.

This book discusses control and optimization techniques in the broadest sense, covering new theoretical results and the applications of newly developed methods for PV systems. Going beyond classical control techniques, it promotes the use of more efficient control and optimization strategies based on linearized models and purely continuous (or discrete) models. These new strategies not only enhance the performance of the PV systems, but also decrease the cost per kilowatt-hour generated.

This book categorizes the wide area of data-driven model-free controllers, reveals the exact benefits of such controllers, gives the in-depth theory and mathematical proofs behind them, and finally discusses their applications. Each chapter includes a section for presenting the theory and mathematical definitions of one of the above mentioned algorithms. The second section of each chapter is dedicated to the examples and applications of the corresponding control algorithms in practical engineering problems. This book proposes to avoid complex mathematical equations, being generic as it includes several types of data-driven model-free controllers, such as Iterative Feedback Tuning controllers, Model-Free Controllers (intelligent PID controllers), Model-Free Adaptive Controllers, model-free sliding mode controllers, hybrid model-free and model-free adaptive-Virtual Reference Feedback Tuning controllers, hybrid model-free and model-free adaptive fuzzy controllers and cooperative model-free controllers. The book includes the topic of optimal model-free controllers, as well. The optimal tuning of model-free controllers is treated in the chapters that deal with Iterative Feedback Tuning and Virtual Reference Feedback Tuning. Moreover, the extension of some model-free control algorithms to the consensus and formation-tracking problem of multi-agent dynamic systems is provided. This book can be considered as a textbook for undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as a professional reference for industrial and academic researchers, attracting the readers from both industry and academia.

This book highlights the potential of getting benefits from various applications of computational intelligence techniques. The present book is structured such that to include a set of selected and extended papers from the 6th IEEE International Symposium on Applied Computational Intelligence and Informatics SACI 2011, held in Timisoara, Romania, from 19 to 21 May 2011. After a serious paper review performed by the Technical Program Committee only 116 submissions were accepted, leading to a paper acceptance ratio of 65 %. A further refinement was made after the symposium, based also on the assessment of the presentation quality. Concluding, this book includes the extended and revised versions of the very best papers of SACI 2011 and few invited papers authored by prominent specialists. The readers will benefit from gaining knowledge of the computational intelligence and on what problems can be solved in several areas; they will learn what kind of approaches is advised to use in order to solve these problems. A very important benefit for the readers is an understanding of what the major difficulties are and the cost-effective solutions to deal with them. This book will offer a convenient entry for researchers and engineers who intend to work in the important fields of computational intelligence.

Nature-inspired Optimization Algorithms for Fuzzy Controlled Servo Systems explains fuzzy control in servo systems in a way that doesn't require any solid mathematical prerequisite. Analysis and design methodologies are covered, along with specific applications to servo systems and representative case studies. The theoretical approaches presented throughout the book are validated by the illustration of digital simulation and real-time experimental results. This book is a great resource for a wide variety of readers, including graduate students, engineers (designers, practitioners and researchers), and everyone who faces challenging control problems.