Location

Harris Engineering Center (HEC), RM 434
University of Central Florida
4000 Central Florida Blvd.
Orlando, Florida 32816

Faculty Members

  • Dr. Zhihua Qu
  • Dr. Marwan Simaan

Lab Director

  • Dr. Zhihua Qu

Mission: The Systems & Control Laboratory is to develop new systematic analysis/design tools and optimization/control algorithms that achieve autonomy, guaranteed performance and intelligence for cyber-physical systems. The systems under consideration are networked systems whose dynamics are complex and uncertain, whose interactions are local and intermittent as well as may be competitive, and whose operational condition and environment are highly unpredictable and changing. The specific applications include swarms of robots, tele-operation of medical robots, autonomous operation of UAVs, cooperative guidance of munitions, control of biomedical devices and systems, distributed renewable generation and smart grid. By working with industry and governmental agencies, we aim to address these comtemporary technical challenges in the fields of cyber-physical systems and networked controls.


Research Focus

Optimization and Control

  • Nonlinear systems theory: qualitative and quantitative behaviors, nonlinear optimality, nonlinear stabilizability, observability, etc.
  • Robust control, adaptive control, nonlinear optimal and near-optimal controls, and observer-based control
  • Dynamic games

Networked Systems and Autonomous Vehicles

  • Cooperative control of networked heterogeneous dynamical systems
  • Distributed estimation of topology and connectivity for networked systems
  • Optimal design of communication topologies for netwotked systems
  • Autonomous vehicles and their real-time trajectory planning in dynamically changing and uncertain environments.
  • Controls of nonholonomic dynamical systems
  • Swarming, coverage control, and other behaviors by cooperative control

Energy Systems & Smart Grid

  • Cooperative control for dispatching distributed power generation, VAR compensation and voltage stability
  • Distributed game algorithms for smart grids
  • Distributed state estimation and enhanced security using dynamically changing information topologies
  • Control of energy storage and harvesting devices

Space Systems

  • Fault tolerant control and systems for space applications
  • Intelligent life support systems and networked control
  • Tele-operation and tele-surgery
  • Heptics and force control techniques
  • Dexterous robots and vision-based controls

Guidance & Control

  • Modeling and control of aerospace systems
  • Control of flexible systems
  • Cooperative missile guidance and satellite control.

Biomedical Control

  • Modeling, control and optimization of LVADs (Left Ventricular Assist Devices)

Research Publications

Publications by the students and postdoctors supervised by Prof. Qu
Publications by the students and postdoctors supervised by Prof. Simaan


Current Members


Roland Harvey
PhD student
(supervised by Prof. Qu)
Engineering Physics from Tulane University
rharvey2@knights.ucf.edu

Towfiq Rahman
PhD student
(supervised by Prof. Qu)
BSc.EEE from Islamic University of Tech, Bangladesh
towfiqrahmanlm@gmail.com

Ranadhir Sarkar
PhD student
(supervised by Prof. Qu)
MSc.EEE from Jadavpur University, India
ranadhir.ee@gmail.com

Viswajith Siruvallur Vasudevan
PhD student
(supervised by Prof. Simaan)
MSc.Biomedical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
viswajithsv@knights.ucf.edu

Michael Rathbun
PhD student
(supervised by Prof. Qu)
B.Sc. from University of Central Florida
Rathbun.michael@knights.ucf.edu

Shahriar Talebi
PhD student
(supervised by Prof. Simaan)
B.Sc. from Sharif University of Technology
M.Sc. from University of Central Florida
shahriarta@knights.ucf.edu

Ying Xu
Postdoctor
(supervised by Prof. Qu)
PhD from Harbin Institute of Technology
Phone: 407-882-0136
ying.xu@ucf.edu

Youngjun Joo
Postdoctor
(supervised by Prof. Qu)
Ph.D. from Seoul National University
Phone: 407-967-6848
Youngjun.Joo@ucf.edu

Recent Members


Dr. Wei Lin
PhD graduate
(supervised by Profs. Qu and Simaan)
MSc.EE from Boston University
weilin0929@gmail.com

Dr. Ali Maknouninejad
PhD graduate
(supervised by Prof. Qu)
MSc.EE from UCF
alimaknouni@gmail.com

Dr. Yu Wang
PhD graduate
(supervised by Prof. Simaan)
MSc.EE from UCF
wangyu810410@knights.ucf.edu

Dr. George Faragallah
PhD graduate
(supervised by Prof. Simaan)
MSc.EE from UCF
georgef@knights.ucf.edu

Dr. Hamed Valizadehhaghi
PhD graduate
(supervised by Prof. Qu)
MSc.EE from K.N.Toosi University of Technology, Iran
h.haghi@ucf.edu

Dr. Mark G. Snyder
PhD graduate
(supervised by Prof. Qu)
MSc.EE from University of Central Florida
marksnyder93@gmail.com

Dr. Mohamed Yaseen Al Hosani
PhD graduate
(supervised by Prof. Qu)
MSc.EE from UCF
malhosani@knights.ucf.edu

Dr. Vatana An
Ph.D. graduate
(supervised by Prof. Qu)
B.Sc. Computer Engineering –
University of Florida
vatana@knights.ucf.edu

Dr. Azwirman Gusrialdi
Postdoctor
(supervised by Prof. Qu)
PhD from Technische Universitaet Muenchen
Azwirman.Gusrialdi@ucf.edu

Dr. David (Chaoyong) Li
Postdoctor
(supervised by Prof. Qu)
PhD from Harbin Institute of Technology
lcy@ieee.org
 
 

Manojreddy Gopu
MSc graduate
(supervised by Prof. Qu)
MSc.EE from Anna University, India
manojreddy@knights.ucf.edu

Loren Robinson
MSc graduate
(supervised by Prof. Qu)
BSc.EE from UCF
lrob20022002@knights.ucf.edu

Siddarth Vellakovil Rajamani
MSc graduate
(supervised by Prof. Qu)
MSc.EE from Anna University, India
siddarthvr@knights.ucf.edu
 

Acknowledgements: The research activities at the Lab have been supported by National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Defense (DoD), Department of Energy (DoE), Air Force Office of Scientic Research (AFOSR), Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Army Research Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM), Army Research Laboratory, NASA Kennedy Space Center, Harris Corporation, Lockheed Martin Corporation, L-3 Communications Coleman Aerospace, L-3 Communications Link Simulation & Training, Leidos, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), Texas Instruments, Florida High Tech Council (FHTC), Florida Space Grant Consortium (FSGC), and Florida Biomedical Engineering Partnership.