17-04-2025 - Lecture Hall E

PostDoc presentation

Navigating the Future: Towards Fully Autonomous Docking and In-Port Navigation

Javier García Martín

As the maritime sector moves toward increased automation, one of the most challenging tasks to be fully delegated to autonomous systems is docking. These operations require precise, flexible, and safe maneuvers in dynamic and often unpredictable environments such as busy ports, with changing weather conditions and unforeseen obstacles. This presentation introduces recent research on this operation, with a focus on Nonlinear Model Predictive Control based techniques. A particular emphasis is placed on Time-Instant Optimization NMPC, an approach in which the timing between control actions is part of the optimization problem itself—improving both flexibility and performance. Additionally, Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) are being implemented to guarantee safety by enforcing collision avoidance, even in the presence of moving obstacles such as other vessels.

17-04-2025 - Lecture Hall E

PostDoc presentation

Circular Value Chains for Rare Earth Elements in Electric Motors: Design Challenge and Solutions

Sina Khoshsima

The rising demand for electric vehicles determines an increasing demand of rare earth elements (REE) in high-performance magnets. As REE are critical raw materials, solutions that enhance the circularity of REE - i.e. their reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling in the related value chains – are needed. While innovative technologies are available, these solutions are still far from implementation in industry. To understand this challenge, this paper focuses on electric motors, and identifies a configuration of the electric motor’s value chain that supports the circularity of REE. Based on literature and on the authors’ experience, technologies and solutions that promise to support the circularity of REE in this circular configuration are pinpointed. The provided overview can be used in future research to support industrial implementation of circular solutions for REE in the value chain of electric motors. In future research, collaboration among different stakeholders (e.g. product designer, manufacturer, distributor, etc.) should be facilitated. The provided analysis can be used by researchers to develop systemic application-focused solutions, moreover, it can be used by industrials and policy makers to identify feasible alternatives to this holistic challenge.