1. Automatic Control (AC) at ECE
Prof. Jianghai Hu

2. What is Control?
Use of algorithms and feedback to affect the operation of physical objects/processes of interest to achieve some desired performance
Environmental
Perturbations
User
Input
Controller
Actuator
Input
Physical Objects:
Plant, Process, System
output
Sensor

3. Example: Cruise Control
Environmental disturbances
(road condition, wind, etc.)
Controller
Desired speed
Input
Output
Measured speed
(throttle
angle u)
Sensor
(speedometer)
Display
(speed y)
Actuator (engine)
Controlled object (car)
Control Problem: to maintain car speed at a desired level

4. Example: Thermostat
Turning on/off heater/cooler to maintain the room temperature at a pre-specified level

5. Example: Robotic Arm
Control the voltage applied on the motors so that the robot hand moves along a specified trajectory (and grasps some object)

6. Examples of Control Systems
Robotics
Vehicle Control
Network Control
Process Control
Building Control
(Air) Traffic Control

7. Example: Biological Control

8. Control is Everywhere Electrical, mechanical, electromechanical sys.
Aeronautical and astronautical systems
Ecological, biological systems
Financial, economic systems
Social systems

9. What is Studied in Control
Control Theory
Linear, nonlinear control
Robust control
Adaptive control
Optimal control
Hybrid systems
Intelligent control
Stochastic control
Sliding mode control
Networked control
Control Applications
Power/energy system control
Hybrid electrical vehicles
Intelligent transportation sys.
Control of communication and network systems
Building control
Smart grids
VLSI design optimization
Biological systems
And more…
Robotics
Humanoid robots
Mobile robot sensor network
Multi-robot interaction
Human-robot interaction
Fault tolerant robotics
Healthcare robots
Learning algorithms
Image processing
Cognitive robots

10. Undergraduate Control Courses
ECE Feedback System Analysis and Design
ECE Systems Simulation and Control Laboratory
ECE Digital Control Systems Analysis and Design
ECE Introduction to Robotic Systems

11. AC Faculty in ECE Primary AC Members: Affiliated AC Members:
Balakrishnan, Ragu
DeCarlo, Ray A.
Żak, Stanislaw H.
Lee, C. S. George
Hu, Jianghai
Affiliated AC Members:
Sundaram, Shreyas
Sudhoff, Scott D.
Pekarek, Steve
Aliprantis, Dionysios

12. Current AC Research Control theory
Adaptive/Robust control (Prof. Żak, Balakrishnan)
Optimal control and optimization (Prof. Balakrishna, Żak, Decarlo, Hu)
Intelligent control (Prof. Lee, Balakrishnan, Żak)
Hybrid Control (Prof. Decarlo, Hu)
Networked systems (Prof. Sundaram, Prof. Hu)
Game theory and security of control systems (Prof. Sundaram, Prof. Hu)

13. Current AC Research Control Application
Control in Communication Networks (Prof. DeCarlo)
Numerical optimization in VLSI (Prof. Balakrishnan, Żak)
Energy efficient building control (Prof. Hu)
Social & opinion dynamics (Prof. Sundaram)
Hybrid electrical vehicle (Prof. Decarlo, Pekarek, Aliprantis)
Power and energy conversion systems (Prof. Pekarek, Sudhoff, Żak)

14. Current AC Research Robotics (Prof. Lee) Humanoid robotics
Human-robot interaction
Mobile robotic sensor networks
Healthcare robots

15. Multi-Agent Control: Flocking
A set of agents wish to cooperate to achieve certain tasks
In the above example, they all wish to circle a given point at the same altitude
Each agent can only interact with its neighbors in the network
How should the agents update their altitudes so that they all converge to a common altitude?

16. Network Science (Prof. Sundaram)
Power Grid
Internet (2006)
Research questions:
What is the structure of complex networks?
What makes them robust or vulnerable to failures and attacks?
How do we control the dynamics of these networks?
How do we model network formation?
Social Network
Mouse Gene Network
Credits: Nature, Sentinel Visualizer, University of Birmingham Distributed Systems and Networks Lab, Urban Ecoist