Cyber-Physical Systems & Control Laboratory

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

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.