Flight control

Research focuses on the application of robust control techniques (H-infinity, mu and linear parameter varying (LPV)) for aerospace vehicles:

• Flight Control Systems (FCS)
• Fault Detection and Isolation (FDI)
• Fault Tolerant Control (FTC)
• Verification and Validation (V&V)
• Modeling: linear fractional transformation (LFT) and;
• Linear parameter varying (LPV)

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Robust and adaptive control and estimation

Within recent years, fundamental results on robust control and estimation have been developed. They address systems with nonlinearities, such as actuator nonlinearities - but specifically dynamic nonlinearities.

Within recent years, fundamental results on robust control and estimation have been developed. They address systems with nonlinearities, such as actuator nonlinearities - but specifically dynamic nonlinearities.

In particular, a set of novel adaptive algorithms have been developed which allow robust and well-designed convergence of the estimation of unknown parameters in nonlinear systems. Convergence can be exponentially fast or finite-time. The algorithms are versatile so that they can be incorporated into general state estimators and control systems.

Most recently adaptive optimal controllers have been developed which permit to solve for the controller which minimises a suitable integral cost function, e.g. energy. For this, the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation is solved online without knowledge of the plant system parameters.

In complex embedded control systems, it is futile to ad-hoc solve the integration of a multitude of controllers with multi-rate characteristics and complex control communication. A theoretical framework for the robust and optimal integration of such complex control systems has been developed together with Jaguar Land Rover.

Practical applications of these novel methods are in the area of robotics (together with the Bristol Robotics Laboratory), automotive systems (together with Jaguar Land Rover) and atomic force-microscopes (together with the Nano Science and Quantum Information Centre).