Xavier Litrico

Researcher
Cemagref, Unité Mixte de Recherche G-EAU
361, rue J.F. Breton, BP 5095
34196 Montpellier cedex 5
FRANCE
Tel: (+33) (0) 4 67 04 63 47
email:

News
Research interests and projects
Teaching activities
List of publications
CV

News

To appear shortly!

Research interests

I am interested in modeling and control of open channel hydraulic systems, especially irrigation canals and rivers (some of my research results are displayed here -version française ici). This field of interest is related to many others, namely: modeling of environmental systems, time-delay systems, distributed systems, robust control, nonlinear control, water sciences, etc.
I foster a engineering approach to applied research, because in many cases, application is ahead of theory. Engineers often find innovative solutions to practical problems, that have not been considered by theoretical research. This approach necessitates to listen and understand users' demands, and to be aware of recent theoretical developments that could be useful. The main job is to find theoretical justifications to practical methods, in order to improve existing methods and sometimes develop new ones.

My current research interests are:

Modeling of open channel flow: study of Saint-Venant equations (hyperbolic conservation laws), approximate modeling of open channel flow for control purposes, simplified linear and nonlinear models for rivers and canals,

Control of open channel flow: robust PI control, H infinity control, fuzzy control, performance limitations, nonlinear IMC control,

Supervision of open channel hydraulic systems: data reconciliation, observer design for fault diagnosis.

Data assimilation, river flood prediction, Viability theory.

Research projects

I am involved in the following research projects:

France-Berkeley Fund Project (2007-2008): Data assimilation and control of open channel systems.
ANR PRECODD project ALGEQUEAU (2006-2010): Modeling and control of water quality in open channels.
Ph.D. thesis of Simon Munier (supervision with Gilles Belaud from IRD): "Integrated watershed modeling for operational control of low flows".
Ph.D. thesis of Ophélie Fovet (supervision with Gilles Belaud from IRD): "Modeling and control of alguae development in an open channel".
Gignac canal experimental platform: this project concerns many scientific partners (members of the GIS Gignac) for the improvement of the real-time management of the Gignac irrigation canal. This canal, located 40 km west of Montpellier (France) irrigates an area of 3000 ha. With regional and national funds, it has been equipped with sensors, actuators, a centralized SCADA to become an experimental platform for canal control. Within this project, I participated to the supervision of two Ph.D. thesis:
- Iana Guenova's thesis on the implementation of robust decentralized control of an irrigation canal, with Didier Georges from the Laboratoire d'Automatique de Grenoble (2001-2005);
- Nadia Bedjaoui's thesis on the dynamic supervision of an irrigation canal, with Damien Koenig from the Laboratoire d'Automatique de Grenoble (2003-2006).

Past research projects

AQUASTRESS European Project: modeling and regulation of the Beni Moussa irrigation canals in Tadla, Morocco.
French-Portuguese scientific project PESSOA n° 09685UE with the Évora University (2005-2007): "Modeling and control of an experimental canal".
Regional coordinator in Languedoc-Roussillon of a Project of the Communauté de Travail des Pyrénées GERHYCO II: "Management, simulation and prediction of water resources in critical periods" (2002-2004).
ASS AQUAE INRA/Cemagref on the control of time-delay systems (2000-2003).
Project of the Communauté de Travail des Pyrénées GERHYCO I: "Optimal management of hydraulic networks" (2000-2002).
Responsible for a French-Portuguese scientific collaboration project n° 547-B4 with the Évora University (2000-2003).
Responsible for the collaboration with the Compagnie d'Aménagement des Coteaux de Gascogne on the identification and control of regulated rivers (1995-1999).

Teaching activities

ENGREF (École Nationale du Génie Rural, des Eaux et des Forêts): Coordinator for "Open-Channel Hydraulics" and "Water and Agriculture" modules (2005-2007).
ENSEEIHT (École Nationale Supérieure d'Électrotechnique, d'Électronique, d'Informatique, d'Hydraulique et des Télécommunications): Modeling and control of irrigation canals (2003-2007).

Teaching material

Teaching at ENGREF:
- X. Litrico, 2001, Modélisation et régulation automatique des systèmes barrage-rivière utilisés pour l'irrigation, Cours de l'ENGREF, 57 p.
- J.P. Baume, X. Litrico, P.O. Malaterre, P.Y. Vion, 2000, Modernisation et automatisation des canaux d'irrigation. Série Irrigation "R&E" 2000-08.
Teaching at ENSEEIHT :
- X. Litrico, P.O. Malaterre, 2006, Contrôle d'écoulements en canaux, mineure 2ème année, 142 p., polycopié de cours .

Publications

My full list of publications is available in a separate page, with access to pdf files of the preprints.

Biographical Sketch

I graduated from the École Polytechnique (Palaiseau, France) in 1993, and from the École Nationale du Génie Rural, des Eaux et des Forêts in 1995. I obtained my PhD at ENGREF in April 1999. I held a postdoctoral position at INRIA Sophia Antipolis in 1999-2000. I joined Cemagref in March 2000, as Chargé de Recherche, and I became Ingénieur du Génie Rural, des Eaux et des Forêts (IGREF) in 2003. I was Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley (Civil and Environmental Engineering Department) with Prof. Alex Bayen from August 2007 until July 2008.
Click here for a more detailed CV in pdf (version française ici). My list of publications in pdf is here.

visitors since January 2003.

Last updated June 30, 2009.