CAREER:Charting the Quantum Computing Landscape for Process Control

Control systems are critical to our ability to perform automated tasks in engineering systems. While computers have enabled increasingly sophisticated methods for automation across all US manufacturing sectors, there are many cases where these algorithms become computationally prohibitive, making it impossible to maximize system performance. An open question is whether the emerging field of quantum computing can provide a solution to these computational constraints; however, because of the unique way quantum computers carry out their computations, the safety and performance implications for control systems incorporating quantum computers currently are unknown.

This research program will develop the theory and computational tools needed to implement control systems on quantum computers. The work will provide the first comprehensive treatment of this topic with the goal of elucidating what types of algorithms quantum computer scientists should explore to create the next generation of automatic control systems.

The research will define the utility and theory of controllers implemented on quantum computers, examining the interpretability of potentially non-deterministic controller outputs, privacy issues when implementing the controllers on a quantum Cloud architecture, and computation time reduction techniques for the controllers that are specific to the quantum environment. In addition, this project will initiate a unique outreach program based on tutorials and entertaining films for teaching science through stories.

This program will engage undergraduate students across the nation and across disciplines in creating animated shorts and will involve high school students and undergraduate students in hands-on coding experiences that will serve to automate the animation development process.

This project constitutes the first comprehensive exploration of control system theory, design, and implementation using quantum computers. The research focuses on identifying the properties quantum computing algorithms must have to enable computing control actions for chemical processes. The goals of the work are to: 1) develop algorithmic implementations of current controllers (e.g., PID, Model Predictive Control) for quantum computers, with the control-theoretic conditions under which properties of a controller, such as safety/stability and performance, are maintained at acceptable levels when quantum computing algorithms are used to compute control actions; 2) develop chemical process-relevant interpretability metrics for control implemented on classical computers, and extend these to a quantum computing framework; 3) assess computation time reduction methods unique to the quantum computing context; 4) develop privacy and stability guarantees for encrypted control on quantum Cloud computers; and 5) simulate chemical processes under control actions computed by classical computers and quantum simulators (including noise).

This project will also initiate a unique outreach program, launching a “crowdsourcing” effort for tutorial and film creation that will form the foundation of the Principal Investigator's long-term outreach plan. This plan will involve undergraduates and high school students in the creation of animated shorts and codes for automating aspects of the animated short creation.

These computational tools will aid the next generation of engineers in participating in exciting the community about STEM via stories that convey aspects of engineering and present a diverse group of characters who are scientists and engineers as role models for younger students.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.