An example of university/industrial collaboration: Control of steel cold rolling

Much lip service is paid to the idea of Universities collaborating with industry. There are perhaps as many modes of such collaboration as there are Universities. The paper describes an experiment in University/Industrial Collaboration in which the relationship between four partners involved was unusually close and the commitment by the University exceptionally large. The project concerned the development of an integrated computer control scheme for a 5-stand steel cold rolling mill. The four parties were a user, a supplier, the University and a government ministry who underwrote the research and development costs in the first instance. The main novelty of the arrangement has been the role of the Control Group at Imperial College, whose work on control theory modelling and design has led to the possibility of practical and advanced control systems. They were firmly associated with the management of the project under a special development contract and in the end provided the project director. The project is of some technical interest since it represents a good example of the application of advanced control ideas to a working installation. The evolution of the project is described. The experience of close collaboration between firms with an industrial commitment and a University has led to some lessons being learnt which we would be well advised to note if this mode of working is to become a permanent feature of industrial life. From the academic point of view the requirement of commercial confidentiality means that there will be delays in publication of results. The question of continuity at the end of a contract of this sort can raise problems also. None of these problems is insuperable but they need to be resolved. Not all the problems of collaboration lie on the one side of the fence. The question of contractual obligations would be a difficult one for a firm dependent on a University. However, with this project we have been demonstrating with some success that it can be worthwhile for an industrialist to resolve his problems of collaboration.