Prof. Ali Zolghadri

Below a selection of some recent papers. See at here for a complete list of my publications.

• Zhang J., Combastel C., Efimov D., Zolghadri A. (2024). Robust Stability Analysis for Continuous-Time Parameter-Varying Persidskii Systems. European Control Conference, 25-28 June, 2024, Stockholm, Sweden.
• Arthur Perodou, Christophe Combastel, Ali Zolghadri (2024). Critical-time metric for risk analysis against sharp input anomalies: computation and application case study. Journal of the Franklin Institute (elsevier). Vol. 361, Issue 7, May 2024, pdf file: at here.
• Trapiello C., Combastel C., Zolghadri A. (2024). Verification of Neural Control Systems using Symbolic Zonotopes and Polynotopes. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control (under revision). Arxiv file: at here
• Wang X., Zolghadri A. (2023). Cover Attack Detection and Secure Control for Cyber Physical Systems.The 22nd IFAC World Congress, 9-14 July, Yokohama, Japan.
• Zolghadri A. (2023). Enhanced single-pilot resource management in future commercial air transport operations. 9th International Conference on Control, Decision and Information Technologies (CoDIT) (CoDIT 2023), July 3-6, Rome, Italy.
• Zolghadri A. (2023). Safety and Security Issues in Semi-autonomous Cyber-physical Systems. 27th International Conference on Circuits, Systems, Communications and Computers – IEEE CSCC, Greece, 19-22 July, 2023.
• Zolghadri A. (2022). An advisory assistance system for crew-aided flight status management in Single Pilot Operations. International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics, New York , USA, 24-28, July, 2022.
• Zolghadri A. (2022). Self-protection and anomaly detection&mitigation for aircraft systems. 26th International Conference on Circuits, Systems, Communications and Computers – IEEE CSCC, Greece, 19-22 July, 2022.

• Aubouin–Pairault B., A. Perodou, C. Combastel, A. Zolghadri (2022). Resilient tube-based MPC for Cyber-Physical Systems Under DoS Attacks. 11th IFAC Symposium on Fault Detection, Supervision and Safety for Technical Processes, Pafos, Cyprus, 7-10 June 2022.

• Goupil P., A. Zolghadri (2022). The challenge of advanced FDI algorithms for aircraft systems. 11th IFAC Symposium on Fault Detection, Supervision and Safety for Technical Processes, Pafos, Cyprus, 7-10 June 2022.
• Ifqir S., C. Combastel, A. Zolghadri, G. Alcalay, P. Goupil, S. Merlet (2022). Fault tolerant multi-sensor data fusion for autonomous navigation in future civil aviation operations. Control Engineering Practice. (June 2022). pdf file.
• Apaza-Perez W. A., C. Combastel, I. Walukiewicz, A. Muscholl, A. Zolghadri (2021). Abstraction-based control synthesis for interconnected systems using partial information. The European Journal of Control. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejcon.2021.11.001. pdf file.
• Apaza-Perez W. A., A. Girard, C. Combastel, A. Zolghadri (2021). Symbolic observer-based controller for uncertain nonlinear systems. IEEE Control Systems Letters. October 2021. Vol. 5, Issue 4. pdf file.
• Perodou A., C. Combastel, A. Zolghadri (2021). Critical-Time Analysis of Cyber-Physical Systems subject to Actuator Attacks and Faults. IEEE 60th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC). December 13-15, 2021, Austin, Texas, USA. Presentation, video of the presentation, pdf file .
• Perodou A., C. Combastel, A. Zolghadri (2021). Towards Anomaly-Tolerant Systems by Dissipation Block Synthesis. 5th International Conference on Control and Fault-Tolerant Systems (IEEE SysTol). Saint-Raphaël, France during Sept 29 – Oct 1, 2021. pdf file .
• Ifqir S., C. Combastel, A. Zolghadri (2021). Set-based Multi-Sensor Data Fusion For Integrated Navigation Systems. 5th International Conference on Control and Fault-Tolerant Systems (IEEE SysTol). Saint-Raphaël, France, Sept 29 – Oct 1, 2021. pdf (paper) – pdf (presentation).
• Ifqir S., C. Combastel, A. Zolghadri, G. Alcalay, P. Goupil, S. Merlet (2021). Multi-Sensor Data Fusion For Civil Aircraft IRS/GPS/ILS Integrated Navigation System. European Control Conference (ECC). Rotterdam, The Netherlands, June 29 – July 2, 2021. pdf .
• Apaza-Perez W. A., A. Girard, C. Combastel, A. Zolghadri (2021). Symbolic observer-based controller for uncertain nonlinear systems. American Control Conference (ACC). New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, May 26-28, 2021.

This project, officially granted in July 2023, is funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China to host high-level foreign experts. As part of this program, I am scheduled to conduct seminars/lectures and engage in meetings with Ph.D. students: see at here.

Chinese contact: Dr. Zhenhua WANG, School of Aeronautics, Harbin Institute of Technology (zhenhua.wang@hit.edu.cn).

Since the first edition in 2020, I have been regularly recognized as one of the top 2% scientists in the world across all fields and subfields of research. This distinction is conferred yearly by Stanford University (USA) and Elsevier.

October 2023: As in each year since 2020, Stanford University (USA) and Elsevier released a list that represents the most-cited scientists across all fields and subfields of research by analyzing the quality of research cited by other researchers – the World’s Top 2% Scientists. This ranking is based on the bibliometric information contained in the Scopus database, and includes more than 8 million scientists considered to be active worldwide, with 22 scientific fields and 176 subfields taken into account.

I will give a plenary talk at the 27th International Conference on Circuits, Systems, Communications and Computers (CSCC 2023) conference on Safety and Security Issues in Semi-Autonomous Cyber-Physical Systems.

COCOTIER (COncept de COckpit et Technologies Intégrées En Rupure, 2019-2023) is a collaborative project on new technologies for future intelligent cockpit in Single Pilot Operations (SPO, 2030+). The project is supported by the French Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) and coordinated by Airbus.

Budget : DGAC support : 17.3 MEuros – Total budget : 34.6 MEuros.

Partners : 14 industrial and academic partners:

• Industrial partners : Airbus (coordinator) – Dassault aviation – SAFRAN – Thales – ATR – Factem – OKTAL Synthetic Environment – Ratier Figeac – Vodea – Zodiac Aero Electric.
• Academic partners : IMS Lab (U-Bordeaux) – LAAS-CNRS  (Toulouse) – LEAD Lab (Toulouse) – ONERA (French Aerospace Lab) – ENAC (French Civil Aviation University).

IMS project managers : Prof. Ali Zolghadri and Dr. Christophe Combastel. Postdoc fellow: Sara Ifqir (2019-2021); Master students: Martin Faure (2019), Nicolas Bandet (2021).

News:

• The CC7 meeting of the project will take place on December 13, 2022 at Airbus Toulouse, France.
• The CC6 meeting of the project took place on June 06, 2022 at Airbus Toulouse, France.
• The CC5 plenary meeting (all partners) of the project took place on November 29, 2021 at Airbus, Toulouse-France. The IMS presentation during this meeting can be downloaded at here (authorized members only).
• IMS delivrables:
  
  • IMS deliverable S5.8.1.3 can be downloaded at here (authorized members only).
  • IMS deliverable S5.8.1.2 can be downloaded at here (authorized members only).
  • IMS deliverable S5.8.1.1 can be downloaded at here (authorized members only).
• Related publications:
  • Ifqir S., C. Combastel, A. Zolghadri (2021). Set-based Multi-Sensor Data Fusion For Integrated Navigation Systems. 5th International Conference on Control and Fault-Tolerant Systems (IEEE SysTol). Saint-Raphaël, France, Sept 29 – Oct 1, 2021. pdf (paper) – pdf (presentation).
  • Ifqir S., C. Combastel, A. Zolghadri, G. Alcalay, P. Goupil, S. Merlet (2021). Multi-Sensor Data Fusion For Civil Aircraft IRS/GPS/ILS Integrated Navigation System. European Control Conference (ECC). Rotterdam, The Netherlands, June 29 – July 2, 2021. pdf .
  • Ifqir S., C. Combastel, A. Zolghadri, G. Alcalay, P. Goupil, S. Merlet (2022). Fault tolerant multi-sensor data fusion for autonomous navigation in future civil aviation operations. To appear (June 2022) in Control Engineering Practice. pdf.

I have been “General Chair” of the 2^nd International Conference on Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering, 27-29 September 2021, Lyon, France. During this conference, I gave also a keynote lecture. 

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I gave a plenary talk at the 5th International Conference on Control and Fault-Tolerant Systems (IEEE SysTol) 2021. See at here.

I welcome applications for doctoral study and postdoctoral visitors in areas relevant to my research interests for working on challenging scientific projects.

Interested applicants : Possible research topics are: Reachability analysis and safety verification of neural networks — Safety and Security of Intelligent Cyber-Physical Systems: new methods and algorithms — Model-based, set-based and data-driven methods for multi-sensor data fusion in navigation systems, with application to future civil aviation operations — Fault diagnosis, fault management, autonomy and resilience issues in future aircraft systems — Symbolic methods for control of complex and non-linear systems …

I am happy also to consider students’ own proposals. If you are interested in a PhD / postdoc position, please email me.

Postdoc 2022 openings

Dr. Carlos Trapiello (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – UPC, Barcelona, Spain) received a research grant from UPC to do a one-year research stay in Bordeaux. See his CV at here.

He will work with Dr. Christophe Combastel and myself on safety and security issues in cyber-physical systems using set membership techniques.

Period : 15 January 2022 — 15 January 2023.

Postdoc 2020-2021 (closed):

Due to coronavirus outbreak, postdoc recruitment in 2020 has been delayed to fall 2020.

• The first call can be downloaded at here. This call is now closed. Dr. Arthour Perodou has been hired since Sptember 2020. See his CV at here.

• Second postdoc position is related to the COCOTIER project. This call is also closed. Dr. Sara Ifqir will be continuing one year more.

postdoc 2019 (closed):

• Sara IFQIR started on December 2, 2019 to work on the COCOTIER Project. See her CV at here.
• After a two-year postdoc position in Bordeaux supported by SysNum, Willy Alejandro Apaza Perez left IMS-lab in May 2020 for L2S-lab (Paris) to continue his research under the supervision of Dr. Antoine Girard. Good continuation Alejandro !

The Airbus A350 XWB stands as the most modern and efficient commercial jetliner globally today. Since January 2015, this aircraft has been operating worldwide with an advanced and robust model-based monitoring system onboard. This significant accomplishment is the result of a collaborative effort between my research team and Airbus, beginning in the mid-2000s, to address Fault Detection, Isolation, and Recovery (FDIR) challenges in aircraft systems. With current airworthiness certification standards in civil aviation, extremely rigorous specifications must be satisfied, not only in nominal flight regimes, but also in extreme, unusual, non-standard/off-nominal and unexpected flight conditions. The certification testifies that new systems meet all requirements set by the aviation regulatory authorities — FAA (USA) and EASA (Europe) — and that they themselves do not introduce new risks. Developing flight-proven and certified model-based monitoring systems was a complex endeavor that demanded years of dedicated research and innovation, rigorous verification and validation activities, as well as in-flight tests and continuous refinement.

Five years after the first A350 commercial flight, this note posted on the IFAC Blog and IFAC social media looks back at some lessons learnt from this amazing success story. The note has been prepared by Dr. Philippe Goupil (eXpert FDIR – A/C Control Architecture & Functions, Airbus, Toulouse – France) and myself. See also IFAC Newsletter, December 2020.

A. Zolghadri – IMS Bordeaux, France

P. Goupil – Airbus, Toulouse, France

What about the aircraft of the 2030s and beyond? In civil aviation operations, the vector is pointed toward more autonomy and intelligence in the cockpit. Future avionics will have to ensure more autonomy and must provide safety functionalities at least equivalent to those of today blended-crew task environments, while coupled to a new cockpit concept. The next leap forward will be to take one pilot out of the cockpit (Single Pilot Operations, SPO). Improved flight management in SPO requires cross-domain methods for trustworthy, robust and scalable detection and mitigation of anomalous events. An exhaustive discussion can be found in (pdf file):