Automation Engineering and Control of Complex Systems

The master degree course in Automation Engineering and Control of Complex Systems aims to provide students a deep knowledge of the fundamentals of technical as well as scientific aspects of the disciplines which characterise the field of Automation Engineering, without discarding affine and integrative subjects. The course is focussed at forming a high knowledge in students, enabling them to easily follow technological innovation in the industries as well as in public and/or private research institutes.

The course in Automation Engineering and Control of Complex Systems will be able to provide both a suitable design ability devoted to the development of traditional techniques and a capability to face with novel problems in emergent scenarios.

With respect to the other engineering profiles in the Information sector, Automation Engineer is unique for a deeper understanding of the problems in Industrial Engineering. These are not finalised to design the specific plant where the process evolves (this falls into the specific competences of the Industrial Engineers), but to the analysis, design of the automation system, of its components and of the related control laws.

Thus the course aims at the deepening of the processes and methodologies concurring to the modelling and design of control and automation systems and to their components through the acquisition of knowledge of technological processes, of the advanced design techniques, of the computer aided design.

The Automation Engineer will therefore find professional employment in enterprises dealing with automatic or robotic systems, and in those ones developing products with high technological contents, integrating computing devices, measurement, transmission and actuation components.

The overall teaching objectives of the course are to provide enough flexibility to the students to allow re-conversion among the multiple application sectors where Automation is involved, even following the peculiar technological process or the changed working conditions. To this purpose the course endow the students with analysis and design capabilities in the most innovative fields, based on the most updated instruments.

The teaching path develops giving large importance to the characterising disciplines (Automation; Converters, Electrical Machines and Electrical Drives, Mechanics Applied to Machines). In such courses the student learns and improves his knowledge on automatic systems, control, dynamic system modelling in general and in particular for electric, complex, environmental, economic systems, biologic systems and industrial processes.

Particular emphasis is given to the study abd design of mechatronic systems and industrial and service robotics. The teaching path contains a large contribution of non-characterising activities, allowing from the one side the dialog with other affine sectors (Electronics, Measurements, Computer Science) and from the other side the enlargement of the knowledge towards relevant or even emerging field (ex. Bioengineering, Biorobotics Complex Systems).

The master degree course, finally, foresees for several subjects a significant part of time devoted to practical and laboratory experiences (above all for the subjects with high design content) in such a way as to allow the student to consolidate on the field the theoretical knowledge acquired.