A Journal of IFAC, the International Federation of Automatic Control

Control Engineering Practice strives to meet the needs of industrial practitioners and industrially related academics and researchers. It publishes papers which illustrate the direct application of control theory and its supporting tools in all possible areas of automation. As a result, the journal only contains papers which can be considered to have made significant contributions to the application of advanced control techniques. It is normally expected that practical results should be included, but where simulation only studies are available, it is necessary to demonstrate that the simulation model is representative of a genuine application. Strictly theoretical papers will find a more appropriate home in Control Engineering Practice's sister publication, Automatica. It is also expected that papers are innovative with respect to the state of the art and are sufficiently detailed for a reader to be able to duplicate the main results of the paper (supplementary material, including datasets, tables, code and any relevant interactive material can be made available and downloaded from the website). The benefits of the presented methods must be made very clear and the new techniques must be compared and contrasted with results obtained using existing methods. Moreover, a thorough analysis of failures that may happen in the design process and implementation can also be part of the paper.

The scope of Control Engineering Practice matches the activities of IFAC.

Papers demonstrating the contribution of automation and control in improving the performance, quality, productivity, sustainability, resource and energy efficiency, and the manageability of systems and processes for the benefit of mankind and are relevant to industrial practitioners are most welcome.

Fields of applications in control and automation:
•Automotive Systems •Aerospace Applications •Marine Systems •Intelligent Transportation Systems and Traffic Control •Autonomous Vehicles •Robotics •Human Machine Systems •Mechatronic Systems •Scientific Instrumentation •Micro- and Nanosystems •Fluid Power Systems •Gas Turbines and Fluid Machinery •Machine Tools •Manufacturing Technology and Production Engineering •Logistics •Power Electronics •Electrical Drives •Internet of Things •Communication Systems •Power and Energy Systems •Biomedical Engineering and Medical Applications •Biosystems and Bioprocesses •Biotechnology •Chemical Engineering •Pulp and Paper Processing •Mining, Mineral and Metal Processing •Water/Gas/Oil Reticulation Systems •Environmental Engineering •Agricultural Systems •Food Engineering •Other Emerging Control Applications

Applicable methods, theories and technologies:
•Modeling, Simulation and Experimental Model Validation •System Identification and Parameter Estimation •Observer Design and State Estimation •Soft Sensing •Sensor Fusion •Optimization •Adaptive and Robust Control •Learning Control •Nonlinear Control •Control of Distributed-Parameter Systems •Model-based Control Techniques •Optimal Control and Model Predictive Control •Controller Tuning •PID Control •Feedforward Control and Trajectory Planning •Networked Control •Stochastic Systems •Fault Detection and Isolation •Diagnosis and Supervision •Actuator and Sensor Design •Measurement Technology in Control •Software Engineering Techniques •Real-time and Distributed Computing •Intelligent Components and Instruments •Architectures and Algorithms for Control •Real-time Algorithms •Computer-aided Systems Analysis and Design •Implementation of Automation Systems •Machine Learning •Artificial Intelligence Techniques •Discrete Event and Hybrid Systems •Production Planning and Scheduling •Automation •Data Mining •Data Analytic •Performance Monitoring •Experimental Design •Other Emerging Control Theories and Related Technologies

Special Issue on Development and Applications of High-order Fully Actuated System Theory
Día de Entrega: 2025-08-31

It is well-known that physical fully actuated systems (FASs) are a perfect type of systems in the sense that their controllers can be easily designed and the resulted closed-loop systems can often be made globally constant linear. A non-FAS is a system that is either a physical under-actuated system (UAS) or a system that cannot be classified into a FAS or UAS. If, by any chance, a non-FAS can be converted into a FAS, then the control design of all non-FASs can be systematically solved. However, under physical restrictions, this goal is not practical and achievable.

However, a recently significant achievement on the discovery of the mathematically generalized FAS model of dynamical systems made an important milestone toward this goal. Namely, although a non-FAS cannot be converted into a physical FAS, it can be converted into a mathematically generalized FAS. Moreover, like a physical FAS, the control of a mathematically generalized FAS can also be easily realized. Such facts and logic naturally produce the so-called FAS approach that solves control systems design based on generalized FAS models.

The FAS approach was systematically proposed and discussed recently for different topics and applications (see https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/tsys20/collections/HOFA). Due to its great advantages, it has attracted manys attentions ever since its emergence. By now, there are many papers published on the FAS approach about both FAS theory development and corresponding practical control applications, including but not limited to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), aerospace vehicles, industrial robots and manipulators, and high speed trains.

Guest editors:

    Prof. Michael V. Basin, The Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon, Mexico
    Prof. Yan Chen, Arizona State University, USA
    Prof. Guoxiang Gu, Louisiana State University, USA
    Prof. Josep M. Guerrero, Technical University of Catalonia, Spain
    Prof. Okyay Kaynak, Bogazici University, Turkey
    Prof. Ju H. Park, Yeungnam University, Kyongsan, Republic of Korea
    Prof. Jinjun Shan, York University, Canada

Special issue information:

The purpose of proposing this special issue is to further develop the FAS theory and simultaneously extend its applications. Researchers working in this field are encouraged to share latest results on both theory and applications in related fields. Survey or review papers about specific topics of the FAS theory and applications are also welcome. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

    Fully Actuated System Modeling and Control Theory
    Fuzzy Control of Fully Actuated Systems
    Fault Diagnosis and Fault Tolerant Control
    Robust Control of Fully Actuated systems
    Optimization and Decision of Fully Actuated Systems
    Predictive Control Based on Fully Actuated Systems
    Discrete Event Dynamic Systems and Hybrid Systems
    Nonlinear Control of Fully Actuated Systems
    Adaptive control and Learning Control
    Process Control of Fully Actuated Systems
    Underwater/Ground/Aerial/Aerospace Vehicle Control
    Intelligent Manufacturing and Industrial Control
    Industrial Applications of Fully Actauted Systems

Manuscript submission information:

Please note that Control Engineering Practice publishes papers which make significant contributions to the application of control techniques and are expected to contain practically relevant results based on profound theory. CEP is an applications-oriented journal. Therefore, we publish papers providing application-related information, stressing the relevance of the work in a practical industrial/applications context, with solid industrial examples rather than hypothetical ones. If only simulations have been used, these must be verified on models of real plants. The benefits must be made very clear and the new techniques must be compared and contrasted with results obtained using existing methods.

Tentative Schedule

    Submission Open Date: February 15, 2025
    Submission Deadline: August 31 2025
    Acceptance deadline: March 31, 2026

Submission Guidelines

Manuscripts should be submitted via the Control Engineering Practice online submission system (https://www.editorialmanager.com/conengprac/default.aspx) by selecting the Article Type of “VSI: High-order FAS”. All submitted manuscripts will be screened by the editorial office and peer reviewed according to the usual standards of this journal, and will be evaluated on the basis of originality, quality, and relevance to this Special Issue. Please also note the IFAC publication policy: Papers submitted to IFAC journals with prior publication in any copy righted conference proceedings must be substantially different from the conference publication. Authors should indicate in the cover letter in detail how the journal paper differs from the relevant conference paper or papers. In particular, the additional original contribution in the journal paper has to be pointed out explicitly. In the journal paper, the conference paper has to be cited and discussed as any other paper in the list of references.

Please refer to the Guide for Authors to prepare your manuscript: https://www.elsevier.com/journals/control-engineering-practice/0967-0661/guide-for-authors.

For any further information, the authors may contact the Guest Editors.

Keywords:

Fully Actuated System, modeling and control, stability and stabilization, linearization, high order

Special Issue on Fault-tolerant, robust and distributed control of hydraulic systems
Día de Entrega: 2025-08-31

Applications of controlled servo-hydraulics expanded uncounted over the last decades, encompassing classical presses and injection moulding machines, lifting and loading platforms and cranes, gas and steam turbine control, steering in aerospace vehicles and shipping, construction and forestry machinery, and others. Also, newer and demanding applications such as hydraulic actuators in wind turbines and offshore facilities on the one hand and compact integrated hybrid solutions such as electrohydrostatic actuators or digital hydraulic pumps, on the other hand, are driving forward the control developments required for fluid power processes. The associated control systems must be designed with increased requirements for fault-tolerant use and robustness against uncertain and time-varying operating conditions. Special aspects also come into play in distributed system architectures, with the relocation of sensor and actuator elements and the discrete operation of drives and components, like for example with on-off valves and digital hydraulic architectures.

The aim of this Special Issue is to bring together the advanced research studies in the field of control of hydraulic systems and their applications. Particularly invited are the latest developments and trends in the control of hydraulic components, actuators, processes and machines with an emphasis on fault-tolerant and robust design as well as distributed and hybrid (discrete and continuous) operation. Original works from industry and academia that imultaneously demonstrate the theoretical approach and the practical feasibility and applicability of the synthesis and implementation of the control technologies and algorithms will be particularly encouraged and brought into focus.

Guest editors:

Michael Ruderman
University of Agder, Norway
Email: michael.ruderman@uia.no 

Dimitrios Papageorgiou
Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
Email: dimpa@dtu.dk 

Ryo Kikuuwe
Hiroshima University, Japan
Email: kikuuwe@hiroshima-u.ac.jp 

Special issue information:

The topics to be addressed in this Special Issue include, but are not limited to:

    Robust motion control of hydraulic actuators and drives​
    Control strategies and technologies in digital hydraulics
    Robotic applications of hydraulic systems
    Dynamics modeling of hydraulic systems, including valves and pumps
    Force control and impedance control of hydraulic actuators
    Robust fault estimation and accommodation in hydraulic actuators
    Cascaded control for swift commissioning of hydraulic systems
    Model-based and data-driven fault-tolerant control of hydraulic systems in wind-turbines
    Comparative analysis of advanced controls for hydraulic systems
    Monitoring for diagnosis and compensation of faults in hydraulic actuators
    Tuning of linear and nonlinear controllers for hydraulic systems

Manuscript submission information:

Manuscripts should be submitted via the Control Engineering Practice online submission system (https://www.editorialmanager.com/conengprac/default.aspx) by selecting the Article Type of “VSI: Control of hydraulic systems”. All submitted manuscripts will be screened by the editorial office and peer reviewed according to the usual standards of this journal, and will be evaluated on the basis of originality, quality, and relevance to this Special Issue. Please also note the IFAC publication policy: Papers submitted to IFAC journals with prior publication in any copyrighted conference proceedings must be substantially different from the conference publication. Authors should indicate in the cover letter in detail how the journal paper differs from the relevant conference paper or papers. In particular, the additional original contribution in the journal paper has to be pointed out explicitly. In the journal paper, the conference paper has to be cited and discussed as any other paper in the list of references. 

In Control Engineering Practice, we publish papers which make significant contributions to the application of control techniques and are expected to contain practically relevant results based on profound theory. CEP is an applications-oriented journal. Therefore, we publish papers providing application-related information, stressing the relevance of the work in a practical industrial/applications context, with solid industrial examples rather than hypothetical ones. If only simulations have been used, these must be verified on models of real plants. The benefits must be made very clear, and the new techniques must be compared and contrasted with results obtained using existing methods.

Important Dates:

    Submission deadline: August 31, 2025
    Acceptance deadline: February 28, 2026 

Please refer to the Guide for Authors to prepare your manuscript: https://www.elsevier.com/journals/control-engineering-practice/0967-0661/guide-for-authors.

For any further information, the authors may contact the Guest Editors.

Keywords:

Control of hydraulic system, fluid power technology, servohydraulics, control valves, digital hydraulics, control of hydraulic machines, hydromechatronic actuators, robust controller design.

Special Issue on Bayesian optimization for data-driven modeling, optimization and control: Towards enhancing performance, efficiency, and sustainability in industrial, energy and biomedical systems
Día de Entrega: 2025-09-30

The availability of data and of efficient computation hardware has enabled critical systems to benefit from data-driven insights to reach better performance and accuracy. Continuously integrating optimization approaches using evolving data-driven features in industrial, biomedical, energy and mobility-related systems is becoming indispensable to reach competitive advantage and to use the provided resources more sustainably.

Common approaches for dynamic system optimization can be model-based, where one has to learn a model of the system’s dynamics which can be optimized via dynamic programming, predictive optimization, or more recently via reinforcement learning methods, or model-free, using meta-heuristic optimization methods with the help of well defined constraints. While reinforcement learning is considered as a model-free method, it often requires training in simulation, which again requires a good model of the real system. Another approach which is positioned in-between, is the class of Bayesian optimization methods, where a model of a certain performance metric is gradually learned from data-driven features measured by interacting with the system iteratively and efficiently, and performing optimization steps after each interaction. Performance and safety constraints can be successfully incorporated. While Bayesian optimization is a promising approach suitable for industrial systems, because of the reduced amount of evaluations it requires, benefiting from the probabilistic nature of the model used, it suffers from high computational load once it runs for long time periods, and it also doesn’t scale well with the number of coupled constraints or optimization variables. Moreover, in most cases, it does not provide optimiality or global solution convergence guarantees. Therefore, it often requires coupling with other approaches, or special techniques to enable it for continuous operation.

This special issue intends to collect novel Bayesian optimization approaches, methodologies, and applications, that enable data-efficient and computationally efficient optimization and tuning of industrial and personalized systems and processes, and to showcase their implementation in practice, or on high-fidelity simulators.

Guest editors:

    Prof. Dr. Alisa Rupenyan, Industrial AI group, ZHAW Centre for AI, School of Engineering, Zurich University for Applied Sciences (ZHAW), Switzerland, alisa.rupenyan@zhaw.ch
    Prof. Dr. Mohammad Khosravi, Delft Center for Systems and Control, Dept. Mechanical Engineering, TU Delft, The Netherlands, mohammad.khosravi@tudelft.nl
    Prof. Dr. Ali Mesbah, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Berkeley College of Chemistry, UC Berkeley, USA, mesbah@berkeley.edu

Special issue information:

Topics of interest to this special issue include, but are not limited to:

• Continuous optimization with Bayesian approaches
• Performance optimization with Bayesian methods for fast, large-scale systems
• Online adaptive Bayesian optimization
• Combining Bayesian optimization with control systems
• Application of Bayesian optimization in different domains (namely, energy, mobility, biomedical, and manufacturing, robotics, and other domains of interest)

Manuscript submission information:

Manuscripts should be submitted via the Control Engineering Practice online submission system (https://www.editorialmanager.com/conengprac/default.aspx) by selecting the Article Type of “VSI: Bayesian optimization”. All submitted manuscripts will be screened by the editorial office and peer reviewed according to the usual standards of this journal, and will be evaluated on the basis of originality, quality, and relevance to this Special Issue. Please also note the IFAC publication policy: Papers submitted to IFAC journals with prior publication in any copy righted conference proceedings must be substantially different from the conference publication. Authors should indicate in the cover letter in detail how the journal paper differs from the relevant conference paper or papers. In particular, the additional original contribution in the journal paper has to be pointed out explicitly. In the journal paper, the conference paper has to be cited and discussed as any other paper in the list of references. The submitted manuscripts will be immediately entering the review process and will be published when the review process is completed. In Control Engineering Practice, we publish papers which make significant contributions to the application of control techniques and are expected to contain practically relevant results based on profound theory. CEP is an applications-oriented journal. Therefore, we publish papers providing application-related information, stressing the relevance of the work in a practical industrial/applications context, with solid industrial examples rather than hypothetical ones. If only simulations have been used, these must be verified on models of real plants. The benefits must be made very clear and the new techniques must be compared and contrasted with results obtained using existing methods.

Important Dates:

• Date of expected first submission: March 1st, 2025
• Submission deadline: September 30th, 2025
• Notification of final decision: January 30th, 2026

Keywords:

Bayesian optimization, safety, decision support, data-driven optimization, autonomous systems, energy, mobility, process industry, biomedical applications

Special Issue on Control of Photonic and Quantum Systems
Día de Entrega: 2025-09-30

The last decades have significantly improved our abilities to generate, detect, and manipulate light. Since the invention of the laser, arguably one of the first genuine quantum system with widespread applications, these advances in photonic technologies have laid the foundations for contemporary quantum experiments and technology. Their unique ability to prepare and manipulate individual quantum states seemed unimaginable only a few decades ago and is expected to drive a new generation of quantum devices.

Despite this growing technological readiness and the importance of photonic and quantum systems, the need for advanced control schemes is apparent compared to other application domains where control algorithms are almost ubiquitous. Apart from the relative novelty of the field itself, one major reason might be the combination of very complex mathematical models and a high degree of uncertainty in both parameter values and model quality. However, the control engineering community has a long tradition of dealing with these challenges.

Guest editors:

Prof. Dr. Andreas Kugi
Automation and Control Institute (ACIN), TU Wien
AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
Vienna, Austria
E-mail: kugi@acin.tuwien.ac.at 

Dr. Andreas Deutschmann-Olek
Automation and Control Institute (ACIN), TU Wien
Vienna, Austria
E-mail: deutschmann@acin.tuwien.ac.at 

Prof. Dr. Pierre Rouchon
Laboratoire de Physique de l'Ecole normale supérieure
Mines Paris-PSL
Inria, ENS-PSL, Université PSL, CNRS
Paris, France
E-Mail: pierre.rouchon@minesparis.psl.eu 

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Oliver Sawodny
Institute for System Dynamics, University of Stuttgart
Stuttgart, Germany
E-mail: oliver.sawodny@isys.uni-stuttgart.de 

Special issue information:

The goal of this special issue is threefold: First, it should introduce new control challenges in photonic and quantum systems, paving the way for groundbreaking research. Second, it should advance photonic and quantum technologies by illustrating novel control solutions that can be immediately applied by researchers and engineers in this area, inspiring them to push the boundaries of their work. And finally, it should highlight this exciting application domain to a broader control audience, sparking interest and potential collaboration.

The topics of interest in this Special Issue include (but are not limited to) the following:

    Laser Beams and Pulses: Control and optimization techniques for beam forming or
    shaping of ultrafast laser pulses in the presence of uncertainties, e.g., using adaptive or learning-based control methods.
    Optical Feedback Control: Control of optical cavities, lasers, and photonic devices through feedback strategies. Stabilization and dynamic tuning of optical resonators and interferometers.
    Photonic Devices: Optimization and control to enhance, e.g., single-photon emitters or photonic integrated circuits applied in communications, sensing, or computation. Techniques for robust operation of photonic devices in noisy or uncertain environments.
    Quantum Feedback and Measurement-Based Control: Real-time feedback control of quantum systems based on continuous or discrete measurements. Applications of adaptive protocols in quantum control.
    Optimal Control of Quantum Systems: Application of optimal control techniques to achieve specific quantum operations, including gate design, state transfer, and decoherence suppression. Control strategies for high-fidelity quantum state preparation.
    Quantum Error Correction and Stabilization: Control strategies for fault-tolerant quantum computing or stabilizing logical qubits. Active error correction methods incorporating real-time feedback.
    Quantum-Optomechanical Systems: Control of systems coupling photons to mechanical degrees of freedom, such as cavity opto-mechanics.
    Quantum Metrology and Control: Applications of control theory to enhance precision and sensitivity in quantum metrology. Adaptive measurement strategies for surpassing classical limits in sensing.
    Control of Quantum Many-Body Systems: Optimization and manipulation of large, interacting quantum systems, such as cold atom gases, spin ensembles, or superconducting circuits.
    Model Identification and Simplification: Techniques for identifying accurate models from experimental data and developing reduced-order or simplified models to enable tractable analysis and control of complex photonic and quantum systems. Data-driven approaches for model discovery in photonic and quantum technologies.
    Machine Learning and AI in Photonic and Quantum Control: Application of machine learning techniques for predictive control and adaptive optimization in photonic and quantum systems. Exploration of reinforcement learning for autonomous control in quantum experiments.

Manuscript submission information:

Important Dates:

    Submission deadline: September 30, 2025
    Acceptance deadline: December 31, 2025

Authors are encouraged to notify one of the Guest Editors indicating their intention to submit a paper by March 31, 2025.

Manuscripts should be submitted via the Control Engineering Practice online submission system (Editorial Manager®) by selecting the Article Type of “VSI: Photonic and Quantum Systems”. All submitted manuscripts will be screened by the editorial office and peer reviewed according to the usual standards of this journal, and will be evaluated on the basis of originality, quality, and relevance to this Special Issue. 

Please also note the IFAC publication policy: Papers submitted to IFAC journals with prior publication in any copyrighted conference proceedings must be substantially different from the conference publication. Authors should indicate in the cover letter in detail how the journal paper differs from the relevant conference paper or papers. In particular, the additional original contribution in the journal paper has to be pointed out explicitly. In the journal paper, the conference paper has to be cited and discussed as any other paper in the list of references. 

In Control Engineering Practice, we publish papers which make significant contributions to the application of control techniques and are expected to contain practically relevant results based on profound theory. CEP is an applications-oriented journal. Therefore, we publish papers providing application-related information, stressing the relevance of the work in a practical industrial/applications context, with solid industrial examples rather than hypothetical ones. If only simulations have been used, these must be verified on models of real plants. The benefits must be made very clear, and the new techniques must be compared and contrasted with results obtained using existing methods.

Special issues – frequently asked questions
Learn more about the benefits of publishing in a special issue
Interested in becoming a guest editor? Role of a guest editor | Editors | Elsevier

Keywords:

Laser Control, Nonlinear and Adaptive Optics, Pulse Shaping, Quantum Light Sources, Coherent Control, Quantum Control, Quantum Feedack and Filtering, Quantum Error Correction, Quantum-Optomechanics, Quantum Sensing and Metrology, System Identification for Quantum and Photonic Systems, Machine Learning and AI for Quantum and Photonic Systems

Special Issue on Human-Centric Approaches for Safe Navigation of Intelligent Ground Vehicles
Día de Entrega: 2025-09-30

In recent years, intelligent ground vehicles (IGVs) have emerged as a promising solution for enhancing road safety, improving traffic efficiency, and reducing environmental impact. With rapid advancements in artificial intelligence, sensor technologies, and computational platforms, the field of intelligent vehicle planning and control has witnessed tremendous growth and innovation. Human-centric planning and control are essential to ensure these technologies not only improve vehicle performance but also prioritize the safety, comfort, and needs of human drivers and passengers.

The planning and control modules are crucial components of an intelligent vehicle, directly reflecting its intelligence and capability. Human-centric planning algorithms enable intelligent vehicles to make optimal, safety-oriented decisions and navigate through complex environments in a manner that aligns with human expectations and behaviors. Meanwhile, robust control strategies ensure the precise execution of the planned trajectory, maintaining stability and reliability even in challenging conditions such as unpredictable obstacles, or sudden changes in the driving environment. Recent advancements highlight the need for further exploration of human-centric approaches within planning and control methodologies.

This special issue aims to expand current research by focusing on human-centric planning and control mechanisms. It considers the physical dynamics of IGVs and incorporates models of human behaviors, perception, and decision-making processes. By integrating these human factors into control and planning algorithms, this issue seeks to bridge the gap between purely technical solutions and systems that can seamlessly interact with and adapt to human users, thus offering a holistic approach that differentiates it from other special issues in related areas.

Guest editors:

Dr. Anh-Tu Nguyen (Executive Guest Editor)
Associate Professor
LAMIH Research Center UMR CNRS 8201, INSA Hauts-de-France, Université Polytechnique, Hauts-de-France, France
Email: tnguyen@uphf.fr

Dr. Hamid Taghavifar
Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Industrial Engineering, Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science, Concordia University, Canada
Email: hamid.taghavifar@concordia.ca

Dr. Junmin Wang
Fletcher Stuckey Pratt Chair Professor
University of Texas at Austin, USA
Email: jwang@austin.utexas.edu

Dr. Yue Wang
Warren H. Owen – Duke Energy Professor of Engineering
Clemson University, USA
Email: yue6@clemson.edu

Special issue information:

The aim of this special issue is to provide a platform for researchers and experts from academia and industry to present their latest research findings and developments in human-centric planning and control for IGVs. We aim to showcase cutting-edge contributions that address the challenges and explore new possibilities in this field. We invite researchers to submit their original research papers and reviews that contribute to the theoretical foundations, methodologies, and applications of human-centric planning and control for IGVs. The novel contribution of this special issue lies in its focus on human-centric planning and control, which is crucial for increasing trust and acceptance of intelligent vehicle systems. This approach addresses technical challenges while also considering the psychological and social factors influencing human interaction with intelligent systems, setting this issue apart from others in the field. The topics of interest in this Special Issue include (but are not limited to) the following.

• Real-time decision-making for human-automation shared driving in complex traffic scenarios
• Learning-based obstacle detection and avoidance with human safety considerations
• Coordinated planning and control for adaptive vehicle dynamics in uncertain environments with human passengers
• Advanced estimation techniques for vehicle and human driver states in IGVs
• Integrated planning and control for IGVs with a focus on human-centric safety and comfort
• Fail-safe and fault-tolerant navigation systems for IGVs considering human factors
• Intelligent fault detection and fault-tolerant control for IGVs in human-centric contexts
• Human-machine shared planning and control for IGVs in mixed traffic scenarios
• Interfaces for seamless and intuitive human-IGV interaction
• Trust and acceptance of autonomous systems from a human perspective
• Validation and verification techniques for safety-critical driver-automation systems with human-centric focus

To align with the application-oriented nature of CEP, this SI will emphasize practical validation and real-world case studies. This focus on industrial relevance will demonstrate the applicability of human-centric control techniques across different types of intelligent ground vehicles, making the issue relevant to both academic and industrial audiences. Please note that Control Engineering Practice publishes papers which make significant contributions to the application of control techniques and are expected to contain practically relevant results based on profound theory. CEP is an applications-oriented journal. Therefore, we publish papers providing application-related information, stressing the relevance of the work in a practical industrial/applications context, with solid industrial examples rather than hypothetical ones. If only simulations have been used, these must be verified on models of real plants. The benefits must be made very clear and the new techniques must be compared and contrasted with results obtained using existing methods.

Manuscript submission information:

Manuscripts should be submitted via the Control Engineering Practice online submission system (https://www.editorialmanager.com/conengprac/default.aspx) by selecting the Article Type of “VSI: Human-centric planning and control of IGVs”. All submitted manuscripts will be screened by the editorial office and peer reviewed according to the usual standards of this journal, and will be evaluated on the basis of originality, quality, and relevance to this Special Issue. Please also note the IFAC publication policy: Papers submitted to IFAC journals with prior publication in any copyrighted conference proceedings must be substantially different from the conference publication. Authors should indicate in the cover letter in detail how the journal paper differs from the relevant conference paper or papers. In particular, the additional original contribution in the journal paper has to be pointed out explicitly. In the journal paper, the conference paper has to be cited and discussed as any other paper in the list of references.

Timeline

• First submission deadline: 30 September 2025
• Acceptance deadline: 31 December 2025

Please refer to the Guide for Authors to prepare your manuscript: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/control-engineering-practice/publish/guide-for-authors.

For any further information, the authors may contact the Guest Editors.

Keywords:

advanced control/estimation techniques; integrated planning and control algorithms; human-machine shared planning and control; intelligent ground vehicles; fail-safe and fault-tolerant navigation

Special Issue on The 23rd IFAC World Congress: Automotive Control and Transportation Systems
Día de Entrega: 2025-10-26

The 23rd International Federation of Automatic Control World Congress (IFAC WC 2026, https://ifac2026.org/fairDash.do?hl=ENG ) will be held in August 23 - 28, 2026 at Busan, Republic of Korea. This special issue is launched in connection with the IFAC WC 2026, topics: TC 7.1 Automotive Control & TC 7.4 Transportation Systems, focuses on recent advances in automotive control and intelligent transportation systems. Contributions are invited that address challenges in areas such as emerging vehicle, a propulsion, and powertrain systems, connected and automated vehicles, cooperative traffic management, and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, automatic control, optimization, real-time operations in transportation, marine system navigation, guidance and control , rail transportation modelling and control systems. Particular emphasis is placed on emerging methods that integrate model-based control with data-driven approaches, including machine learning and artificial intelligence for perception, decision-making, and predictive control. Topics of interest include reinforcement learning for driving policy optimization, neural network-based estimation, and safe deployment of AI in real-time embedded automotive systems. The issue seeks to bridge control theory with scalable implementation in safety-critical environments, highlighting innovations that enhance efficiency, sustainability, and autonomy. Researchers and practitioners are encouraged to contribute cutting-edge work that pushes the frontiers of control, autonomy, and transportation technologies.

In Control Engineering Practice, we publish papers which make significant contributions to the application of control techniques and are expected to contain practically relevant results based on profound theory. CEP is an applications-oriented journal. Therefore, we publish papers providing application-related information, stressing the relevance of the work in a practical industrial/applications context, with solid industrial examples rather than hypothetical ones. If only simulations have been used, these must be verified on models of real plants. The benefits must be made very clear and the new techniques must be compared and contrasted with results obtained using existing methods.

Guest editors:

Executive Guest Editors:

Prof. Lars Eriksson
Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
Email: larer@isy.liu.se

Prof. Tankut Acarman
Galatasaray University, İstanbul, Türkiye
Email: tacarman@gsu.edu.tr

Co-Guest Editors:

Dr. Carlos Guardiola
Polytechnic University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
Email: carguaga@upv.es

Dr. Antonio Sciarretta
IFP Energies nouvelles, Rueil Malmaison, France
Email: antonio.sciarretta@ifpen.fr

Prof. Carrie Hall
Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Email: chall9@iit.edu

Prof. Theo Hofman
Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, Netherlands
Email: t.hofman@tue.nl

Prof. Yudai Yamasaki
The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Email: yudai_y@fiv.t.u‑tokyo.ac.jp

Prof. Frank Willems
Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, Netherlands
Email: f.p.t.willems@tue.nl

Prof. Stefania Santini
University of Naples Federico II, Napoli, Italy
Email: stsantin@unina.it

Prof. Bart De Schutter
Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands
Email: b.deschutter@tudelft.nl

Prof. Mehmet Turan Soylemez
Istanbul Technical University, İstanbul, Türkiye
Email: soylemezm@itu.edu.tr

Prof. Neila Bhouri
Gustave Eiffel University, Marne-la-Vallee, Ile-de-France, France
Email: neila.bhouri@univ-eiffel.fr

Prof. Péter Gáspár
HUN-REN Hungarian Research Network, Budapest, Hungary
Email: gaspar@sztaki.hu

Prof. Jean-Philippe Lauffenburger
Université de Haute-Alsace, Mulhouse, Grand Est, France
Email: jean-philippe.lauffenburger@uha.fr

Manuscript submission information:

This special issue is exclusive for IFAC WC authors using the journal option Control Engineering Practice, TC 7.1 Automotive Control & TC 7.4 Transportation Systems. Each contributed authors will be asked to provide the PaperPlaza (PP) number when submitting the manuscript.

Manuscripts should be submitted via the Control Engineering Practice online submission system (https://www.editorialmanager.com/conengprac/default.aspx) by selecting the Article Type of “VSI: ACTS (IFAC WC 2026)”. All submitted manuscripts will be screened by the editorial office and peer reviewed according to the usual standards of this journal, and will be evaluated on the basis of originality, quality, and relevance to this Special Issue. Please also note the IFAC publication policy: Papers submitted to IFAC journals with prior publication in any copy righted conference proceedings must be substantially different from the conference publication. Authors should indicate in the cover letter in detail how the journal paper differs from the relevant conference paper or papers. In particular, the additional original contribution in the journal paper has to be pointed out explicitly. In the journal paper, the conference paper has to be cited and discussed as any other paper in the list of references. The submitted manuscripts will be immediately entering the review process and will be published when the review process is completed. 

Important Dates:

• Date of expected first submission: July 15, 2025
• Submission deadline: October 26, 2025
• Notification of final decision: April 15, 2026

Keywords:

Modeling, supervision, control and diagnosis of automotive systems.
Engine and powertrain modeling and control.
Hybrid, electric and alternative drive vehicles.
Intelligent Transportation Systems.
Modelling, simulation, and control in transportation systems.
Artificial intelligence in transportation.

Special Issue on The 23rd IFAC World Congress: Aerospace and Marine Control
Día de Entrega: 2025-10-26

The 23rd International Federation of Automatic Control World Congress (IFAC WC 2026, https://ifac2026.org/fairDash.do?hl=ENG ) will be held in August 23 - 28, 2026 at Busan, Republic of Korea. This special issue is launched in connection with the IFAC WC 2026, topics: TC 7.2 Marine Systems & TC 7.3 Aerospace.

Aerospace and marine systems operate in fluid environments, air or water or outer space, where control performance is challenged by complex dynamics, environmental disturbances, and mission-critical constraints. 

It is understood that Dynamics, Control, Navigation, Estimation and Autonomy are core topic areas in both Aerospace and Marine Control Systems Design.It is vital to be able to model and predict the motion of a vehicle, and to control that motion through proper control design, to ensure the effective functioning of vehicle systems and achieve the mission goals, even in the presence of faults.

This Special Issue invites high-quality contributions that address these topics in either the aerospace or the marine domain. The purpose is to promote innovation and cross-fertilisation by bringing together research communities working on advanced control solutions in these related fields.

In Control Engineering Practice, we publish papers which make significant contributions to the application of control techniques and are expected to contain practically relevant results based on profound theory. CEP is an applications-oriented journal. Therefore, we publish papers providing application-related information, stressing the relevance of the work in a practical industrial/applications context, with solid industrial examples rather than hypothetical ones. If only simulations have been used, these must be verified on models of real plants. The benefits must be made very clear and the new techniques must be compared and contrasted with results obtained using existing methods.

Guest editors:

Executive Guest Editors: 

Prof. Dr. Paolo Castaldi
Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
Email: paolo.castaldi@unibo.it 
Areas of Expertise: AI-based Control; Fault Diagnosis and Fault-Tolerant Control; Modelling, Identification and Control of Aerospace and Marine systems; Aerospace Applications

Prof. Dr. Andrea Monteriu
Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy
Email: a.monteriu@univpm.it 
Areas of Expertise: Autonomous Systems, Autonomous Vehicles, Fault Diagnosis and Fault-Tolerant Control, GNC, Linear Systems, Marine Control Systems, Modeling and Simulation, Nonlinear Systems, Robotics, System Identification

Co-Guest Editors: 

Prof. Dr. David Henry
University of Bordeaux, Talence, France
Email: david.henry@u-bordeaux.fr 
Areas of Expertise: Aircraft Flight Control; Transport Aircraft; LPV Systems; Reentry Vehicles; FDI and FTC of Commercial Aircraft

Dr. Thomas Jones
S-PLANE, Somerset West, South Africa
Email: jones@s-plane.com 
Areas of Expertise: Fixed Wing Aircraft; Flight Dynamic; Avionics

Prof. Dr. Chengfei Yue
Harbin Institute of technology, Shenzhen, China
Email: yuechengfei@hit.edu.cn 
Areas of Expertise: Flexible Satellite Control; Remote Sensing; Satellite Cluster; Deep space exploration

Prof. Dr. Seungkeun Kim
Chungnam National University, Daejeon, South Korea
Email: skim78@knu.ac.kr 
Areas of Expertise: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Guidance and Control; Formation Flight; Path Planning

Prof. Dr. Yongchun Xie
Beijing Institute of Control engineering, Beijing, China
Email: xieyongchun@vip.sina.com 
Areas of Expertise: Adaptive Control; Space Robot; Spacecraft Control Application

Prof. Dr. Emeritus. Ankersen Finn
European Space Research and Technology Centre, The Netherlands
Email: finn.ankersen@ieee.org 
Areas of Expertise: Satellite Orbital and Attitude Control; Spacecraft FDI; Vision Based Control

Dr. Stephane Le Menec
MBDA-SYSTEMS, Stevenage, United Kingdom
Email: stephane.le-menec@mbda-systems.com 
Areas of Expertise: Missile Guidance and Control; Evasion differential Games; Optimization; Air Defence application; Airship NGC

Prof. Dr. Balint Vanek
Institute of Computer Science and Control, Budapest, Hungary
Email: vanek@sztaky.hu 
Areas of Expertise: Drone flight Control; small UAV; safety critical missions; FTC

Prof. Dr. Nikola Mišković
University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Email: Nikola.Miskovic@fer.hr 
Areas of Expertise: Marine Robotics; Autonomous Systems; Identification

Prof. Dr. Vahid Hassani
Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway
Email: vahid.hassani@oslomet.no 
Areas of Expertise: Offshore Technology; Marine Control Systems; Ship Maneuvering and Dynamics

Prof. Dr. Giovanni Indiveri
University of Genoa, Genova, Italy
Email: giovanni.indiveri@unige.it 
Areas of Expertise: Navigation, Guidance and Control - Modelling and Identification of Marine Vehicles and Robots - State Estimation and Filtering

Prof. Dr. Vasso Reppa
Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
Email: V.Reppa@tudelft.nl 
Areas of Expertise: Autonomous Transport Systems; Fault Diagnosis and Fault-Tolerant Control

Prof. Dr. Craig Woolsey
Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, USA
Email: cwoolsey@vt.edu 
Areas of Expertise: Autonomous Aerial and Marine Vehicles; Nonlinear Guidance and Control

Manuscript submission information:

This special issue is exclusive for IFAC WC authors using the journal option Control Engineering Practice, TC 7.2 Marine Systems & TC 7.3 Aerospace. Each contributed authors will be asked to provide the PaperPlaza (PP) number when submitting the manuscript.

Manuscripts should be submitted via the Control Engineering Practice online submission system (https://www.editorialmanager.com/conengprac/default.aspx) by selecting the Article Type of “VSI: Aerospace and Marine Control (IFAC WC 2026)”. All submitted manuscripts will be screened by the editorial office and peer reviewed according to the usual standards of this journal, and will be evaluated on the basis of originality, quality, and relevance to this Special Issue. Please also note the IFAC publication policy: Papers submitted to IFAC journals with prior publication in any copy righted conference proceedings must be substantially different from the conference publication. Authors should indicate in the cover letter in detail how the journal paper differs from the relevant conference paper or papers. In particular, the additional original contribution in the journal paper has to be pointed out explicitly. In the journal paper, the conference paper has to be cited and discussed as any other paper in the list of references. The submitted manuscripts will be immediately entering the review process and will be published when the review process is completed. 

Important Dates:

• Date of expected first submission: July 10, 2025
• Submission deadline: October 26, 2025
• Notification of final decision: April 15, 2026

Keywords:

• Aerospace Control Systems
• Marine Control Systems
• Vehicle Dynamics and Navigation
• Fault Diagnosis and Fault-Tolerant Control
• Estimation and Autonomy

Special Issue on The 23rd IFAC World Congress: Smart Systems for Power, Energy and Sustainability
Día de Entrega: 2025-10-26

The 23rd International Federation of Automatic Control World Congress (IFAC WC 2026, https://ifac2026.org/fairDash.do?hl=ENG ) will be held in August 23 - 28, 2026 at Busan, Republic of Korea. This special issue is related to IFAC WC 2026, topic: TC 6.3 Smart Systems for Power, Energy and Sustainability.

The attention at the international level on emissions reduction, sustainable development, green technologies and automation/digitalisation has led to new exigencies for the planning and management of power and energy systems. The main aim of the special issue is to bring together the recent advancements on the optimization and control of power and energy systems (both from methodological and application points of view). The main topics are (but not limited to): smart grids, energy communities, smart city networks, electric vehicles, energy generation and storage, smart building, power systems, cybersecurity, distributed optimization, optimal control, machine learning, energy use in agriculture, water-energy-food nexus.

In Control Engineering Practice, we publish papers which make significant contributions to the application of control techniques and are expected to contain practically relevant results based on profound theory. CEP is an applications-oriented journal. Therefore, we publish papers providing application-related information, stressing the relevance of the work in a practical industrial/applications context, with solid industrial examples rather than hypothetical ones. If only simulations have been used, these must be verified on models of real plants. The benefits must be made very clear and the new techniques must be compared and contrasted with results obtained using existing methods.

Guest editors:

Prof. Michela Robba (Executive Guest Editor)
University of Genova, Genova, Italy
Email: Michela.robba@unige.it
Areas of Expertise: Optimization, control, smart grids, smart building, multi energy systems

Assist. Prof. Giulio Ferro
University of Genova, Genova, Italy
Email: giulio.ferro@unige.it
Areas of Expertise: distributed optimization, power systems, energy systems, optimal control

Researcher Luca Parodi
University of Genova, Genova, Italy
Email: luca.parodi@edu.unige.it
Areas of Expertise: Optimisation, electric vehicles, energy communities, polygeneration and storage

Prof. Hendrik Lens
University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
Email: hendrik.lens@ifk.uni-stuttgart.de
Areas of Expertise: power system stability, power system control, control of power generation, control of energy systems

Assoc. Prof. Damian Flynn
University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Email: damian.flynn@ucd.ie
Areas of Expertise: Power system operation, power generation control, power system stability, demand response

Prof. Raffaele Carli
Polytechnic of Bari, Bari, Italy
Email: raffaele.carli@poliba.it
Areas of Expertise: Distributed and decentralized controlOptimal control, Modeling and control of energy resources, Smart grids, Energy communities

Prof. Carlos Ocampo-Martinez
Universidad Politécnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
Email: carlos.ocampo@upc.edu
Areas of Expertise: Model predictive control, large scale systems, energy networks, process control

Prof. Ioannis Lestas
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Email: icl20@cam.ac.uk
Areas of Expertise: Control, power systems, microgrids

Prof. Zita Vale
Polytechnic of Porto, Porto, Portugal
Email: zav@isep.ipp.pt
Areas of Expertise: Artificial intelligence, demand response, electricity markets, power and energy systems, smart grids

Prof. Samuele Grillo
Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Email: samuele.grillo@polimi.it
Areas of Expertise: Power systems stability, artificial intelligence, smart grids

Dr. Antoneta Iuliana Bratcu
Grenoble Institute of Engineering and Management (Grenoble INP), Grenoble Alpes University (UGA), Grenoble, France
Email: antoneta.bratcu@grenoble-inp.fr
Areas of Expertise: control and management of energy systems, energy storage systems, power converters, real-time simulators for energy systems

Manuscript submission information:

This special issue is exclusive for IFAC WC authors using the journal option Control Engineering Practice TC 6.3 "Smart Systems for Power, Energy and Sustainability". Each contributed authors will be asked to provide the PaperPlaza (PP) number when submitting the manuscript.

Manuscripts should be submitted via the Control Engineering Practice online submission system (https://www.editorialmanager.com/conengprac/default.aspx) by selecting the Article Type of “VSI: TC 6.3 Smart-PES (IFAC WC 2026)”. All submitted manuscripts will be screened by the editorial office and peer reviewed according to the usual standards of this journal, and will be evaluated on the basis of originality, quality, and relevance to this Special Issue. Please also note the IFAC publication policy: Papers submitted to IFAC journals with prior publication in any copy righted conference proceedings must be substantially different from the conference publication. Authors should indicate in the cover letter in detail how the journal paper differs from the relevant conference paper or papers. In particular, the additional original contribution in the journal paper has to be pointed out explicitly. In the journal paper, the conference paper has to be cited and discussed as any other paper in the list of references. The submitted manuscripts will be immediately entering the review process and will be published when the review process is completed. 

Important Dates:

• Date of expected first submission: July 1, 2025
• Submission deadline: October 26, 2025
• Notification of final decision: April 15, 2026

Keywords:

Power systems, power electronics, energy community, smart cities, energy generation, storage systems, smart buildings, smart grids, electric vehicles, hydrogen systems for energy generation and storage

Special Issue on Benchmark Control Applications
Día de Entrega: 2025-10-31

Control engineering continues to evolve in a wide range of theoretical and applied directions. The recent resurgence of interest in machine learning algorithms and their intersection with control engineering has led to an explosion of algorithms and applications. This has made it difficult to benchmark and compare algorithms. Moreover, new control algorithms developed by researchers are often tested on small and illustrative but simplified numerical application examples, limiting their practical relevance for practicing control engineers and making comparisons with state-of-the-art methods difficult. Indeed, representative benchmarks and models are paramount to design and evaluate new model- and data-based controllers and to optimize them before porting them to the practical application. Finally, the systems and control community rarely shares code, making reproduction of algorithms a time consuming task.

The objective of this Special Issue is to collect a set of challenging benchmark control applications that are high-fidelity enough to be relevant for practical/industrial applications and are suitable for the control research community. These benchmarks will include reference control/system identification methods for comparative analysis.

Potential domains of interest include, but are not limited to:

    Industrial Processes
    Aviation and Space
    Automotive
    Power and Energy systems
    Mechatronic Systems

Guest editors:

Laurent Burlion (Executive Guest Editor), Aerospace control, Rutgers University, USA (contact: Laurent.burlion@rutgers.edu)
Lars Eriksson, Automotive control, Linköping University, Sweden (contact: lars.eriksson@liu.se)
Marco Forgione, Identification/Estimation, Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Switzerland (contact: marco.forgione@supsi.ch)
Bhushan Golupani, Industrial process control/data analytics /machine learning, the University of British Columbia, Canada (contact: bhushan.gopaluni@ubc.ca)
Peter Fogh Odgaard, Power systems, Goldwind Energy, Denmark (contact: odgaard@ieee.org)
Maarten Schoukens, Identification/Machine learning modeling, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands (contact: m.schoukens@tue.nl)

Special issue information:

We aim for papers in this Special Issue to provide benchmarks in various formats:

• Open-Source Simulators: Fully accessible simulators (ideally in MATLAB or Python) that can be downloaded and used to implement and test control algorithms. The underlying system dynamics may be openly available and known or included as executables and thereby hidden with unknown structure and parameters. In the latter case users can for example use the executable to generate data for system identification or other training methods in the control synthesis and evaluation.

• Model Equations with Validated Data: The dynamic equations are provided along with numerical parameter values, enabling readers to construct the benchmark in their preferred language. A reference implementation may be provided to validate that the users implemented the model correctly.

• Input/Output Trajectories: The simulator or experimental setup is not available but input/output data has been collected and can be used for system identification or machine learning modeling. This data can be divided into training and test datasets.

• Remotely Accessible Simulators or Real-Time Experiments: Remote access to realtime experimental setups or complex numerical simulators under specified conditions.

Researchers can implement and submit their controllers, and receive the resulting data. Again, the system dynamics may be known or unknown, but input-output data will be available after a submitted and executed test in the latter case.

For each benchmark, it is desirable to include:

• A nominal solution: A baseline, legacy, state-of-the-art control (or system identification) method for comparison purposes.

• Clearly defined tasks and performance criteria: Specific metrics to evaluate the performance of different algorithms for a given task. This includes a description of the known challenges that are present in the task at hand for the considered system.

• Result interpretation: Post-processing tools in the form of additional functions or scripts can be provided to facilitate analysis and visualization of simulation or experimental results. Furthermore, additional guidelines in terms of the qualitative description of the results (e.g. computing platform and time), can be provided to be able to interpret the results beyond the provided performance criteria.

• Standardized data and simulation environments: Provide the data and system simulators in a well-documented way, following good practices and standardized formats, allowing for easy accessibility of the benchmark to the users.

By providing these comprehensive benchmark applications, we hope to stimulate openness and innovation in control research that can promote the development of more practical and effective control algorithms, that practicing engineers can use as inspiration and adopt in their work flow.

Manuscript submission information:

Manuscripts should be submitted via the Control Engineering Practice online submission system (https://www.editorialmanager.com/conengprac/default.aspx) by selecting the Article Type of “VSI: Benchmark Control Applications”. All submitted manuscripts will be screened by the editorial office and peer reviewed according to the usual standards of this journal, and will be evaluated on the basis of originality, quality, and relevance to this Special Issue. Please also note the IFAC publication policy: Papers submitted to IFAC journals with prior publication in any copyrighted conference proceedings must be substantially different from the conference publication. Authors should indicate in the cover letter in detail how the journal paper differs from the relevant conference paper or papers. In particular, the additional original contribution in the journal paper has to be pointed out explicitly. In the journal paper, the conference paper has to be cited and discussed as any other paper in the list of references.

Control Engineering Practice publishes papers providing application-related information, stressing the relevance of the work in a practical industrial/applications context, with solid industrial examples rather than hypothetical ones. In this light, simulation models for the benchmarks in this special issue must be representative for and validated at the real plant under consideration. The interested authors are encouraged to read other CEP papers in the similar field to learn more about CEP’s standards and relevance to your work.

Important Dates

• Submission deadline: October 31, 2025
• Acceptance deadline: May 31, 2026

Keywords:

benchmark; high-fidelity; model-based control; data-based control; system identification