Monday (12/9), the first series of Automation Engineering Technology (TRO) Visiting Lecturer webinar activities were held. This webinar was by Prof. Dr. eng. Benyamin Kusumoputro, M.Eng., professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia. The theme of the material presented was “Development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Technology in Control Systems”. This activity was attended by students, lecturers and staff of TRO, as well as guests from outside Undip. 

The event was opened by the Head of the Department of Industrial Technology, Mr. Dr. Mohd. Ridwan, M.T., representing the Dean of the Undip Vocational College. In his remarks, the chairman of the committee for the Visiting Lecturer, Ahmad Ridlo Hanifudin Tahier, M.Si. expressed his hope that the material presented by Prof. Benyamin can be understood well by TRO students, so they can increase their knowledge and competence, especially in the field of control engineering. 

In the material presented, Prof. Benjamin explained the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the control system. This is certainly a novelty, considering that most control system models are based on mathematical equations. This mathematical model certainly has weaknesses in the assumptions used in the formulation of the model, so it is less adaptive to system changes, especially on flight controls that have various factors causing errors in the control. By using AI, the control of the UAV becomes more dynamic to system changes. The research that has been carried out by Prof. Benyamin and his team showed that the control model using artificial intelligence can read a given trajectory or trajectory, and can carry out pursuits by predicting the trajectory of the target. 

The next development of this artificial intelligence-based control system is to use Deep Learning methods, one of which is by using Long short-term memory (LSTM) which can provide better predictions and control. 

This activity is the first in a series of four webinar series Visiting Lecturer and Visiting Professor of Automation Engineering Technology study program. The second series will be held on Monday, 19 September 2022 with Mr. Yohannes Sihombing, from PT Badak LNG, an alumnus of the Automation Engineering Technology study program. It is hoped that from this activity students can gain valuable insights and experiences in the world of work. 

-DS