Controls and Control Theory Commons^™

Characterization And Modeling Of Polyphase Machines And Power Conditioning Components, Nathan Lockhart

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Microgrid power configurations have become increasingly prevalent in recent power systems due to the rise of power electronic energy generation, energy storage, and the many diverse electrical demands. Microgrids offer numerous advantages over traditional power electronic networks, which rely on large rotating generators to supply power over extensive distances to multiple users. Remote power grids are particularly beneficial for smaller networks that may be isolated or have unique power requirements, often incorporating energy storage to enhance operational flexibility. Advances in power electronics, such as medium voltage DC distribution, are enhancing the reliability, redundancy, and integration capabilities of isolated microgrids.

To …

3d Perception, Mapping, And Navigation For Mobile Cobot, Tuan T. Dang

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Service robots are migrating from tightly controlled factory lines into offices, hospitals, and homes, where they must perceive, remember, and act amid people, clutter, and perpetual change. Humans solve this daily by forming compact, task-relevant “cognitive maps”: we sample just enough sensory detail to guide the moment, stitch those snapshots into a sparse topological scaffold, and continuously refine it as we move. Guided by that insight, this dissertation proposes a biologically inspired mapping framework that turns partial RGB-D observations into a hybrid temporal-spatial memory—locally metric for centimeter-scale navigation yet globally topological for room-to-building navigation. The system first distills raw depth …

Quantized Average Agreement Algorithms With Error Correction For Digraphs, Shuaib A. Mughal

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Multi-agent systems have become more and more prevalent as technology increasingly gets integrated into our daily lives. Some of these technological systems are large in size; for example, the smart grid where multiple devices are used to monitor and control different aspects of the energy grid. Another example is a team of autonomous systems deployed for a specific task. When these systems are spatially distributed, an important component of distributed algorithms is the ability for the agents to reach consensus on the global state of the system. Reaching agreement enables the spatially distributed agent make decisions or determine the next …

A Method For Ultrasound Servo Tracking For Puncture Needle, Shitong Ye, Bo Yang, Hao Quan, Shan Liu, Minyu Tang, Jiawei Tian

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Computer-aided surgical navigation technology helps and guides doctors to complete the operation smoothly, which simulates the whole surgical environment with computer technology, and then visualizes the whole operation link in three dimensions. At present, common image-guided surgical techniques such as computed tomography (CT) and X-ray imaging (X-ray) will cause radiation damage to the human body during the imaging process. To address this, we propose a novel Extended Kalman filter-based model that tracks the puncture needle-point using an ultrasound probe. To address the limitations of Kalman filtering methods based on position and velocity, our method of Kalman filtering uses the position …

Optimal Control And Structurally-Informed Gradient Optimization Of A Custom 4-Dof Rigid-Body, Brock Marcinczyk, Logan E. Beaver

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

This work develops a control-centric framework for a custom 4-DOF rigid-body manipulator by coupling a reduced-order Pontryagin’s Maximum Principle (PMP) controller with a physics-informed Gradient Descent stage. The reduced PMP model provides a closed-form optimal control law for the joint accelerations, while the Gradient Descent module determines the corresponding time horizons by minimizing a cost functional built directly from the full Rigid-Body Dynamics. Structural-mechanics reaction analysis is used only to initialize feasible joint velocities—most critically the azimuthal component—ensuring that the optimizer begins in a physically admissible region. The resulting kinematic trajectories and dynamically consistent time horizons are then supplied to …

Design Of An Active-Control Pressure Regulator For A Rocket, Seth Arkwright

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

An electronically actuated pressure-regulation valve and controller are necessary for maintaining pressure levels in a pressure-fed liquid-fueled rocket engine. Mechanical regulators are too heavy and have unacceptably high-pressure variation throughout the operation of a dynamic system like a rocket. Developing an electronic pressure regulator using a PID controller is a method by which a reliable, accurate, and lightweight flow regulator can be built for use on a rocket vehicle. This work will outline the development of flow simulations, PID controller, physical valve hardware, and initial testing.

Zips Racing Electric - Vehicle Control Unit, Ryan Stoller, Brian Glen, John Wozencraft, Tetra Engdahl

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Zips Racing Electric is a design team at the university that builds and races electric cars. The racing team wants to design a four-wheel drive system to increase performance, but the current computer on the vehicle cannot control the more complex power train. The goal of the project will be to build a hardware device that can read sensor inputs and control the torque output to each motor individually. The control device being designed will need to interface with the existing systems on the car and control regenerative breaking, torque vectoring, and other auxilliary systems on the car.

Snake Optimization Algorithm For Fractional Order Controller In Three-Area Load Frequency Regulation, Shubra Goel, Omveer Singh

ASEAN Journal on Science and Technology for Development

The transition toward renewable energy-dominated power systems have accentuated the intricacies of frequency control, necessitating advanced regulatory mechanisms. This investigation articulates a tri-zonal frequency stabilization approach, employing a hybridized controller that synergizes Fuzzy Fractional-Order PI and Tilt-Integral-Derivative methodologies. The uniqueness of this approach is further amplified by the deployment of the Snake Optimization algorithm for precise parameter tuning. Set within a conventional grid topology integrated with assorted renewable energy sources, the study evaluates the controller’s adaptability and resilience through a series of comprehensive scenario-based analyses.

Dc To Ac Voltage Source Converter Control System, Mohummad Tark Elgassier, Jordan M. Reichhardt, Brayden Richard Young

Electrical Engineering

The Voltage Source Converter Control System integrates a control system for a 2-phase half-bridge voltage source converter (VSC) utilizing a TMS320F2837xD Dual-Core Real-Time Microcontroller. VSCs are critical for the integration of power production into the power grid. They allow for accurate control over DC-AC energy conversion. Additionally with the improvement of renewable energies VSCs play a critical role in controlling the flow of these environmentally controlled and more unpredictable sources of energy. The control system regulates the output current and voltage, regulates switching patterns, and maintains power stability under varying loads. Within the control system Digital control systems, PWM generation, …

Design, Control, And Evaluation Of A Photovoltaic Snow Removal Strategy Based On A Bidirectional Dc-Dc Converter For Photovoltaic–Electric Vehicle Application, Salma Elakkad, Mohamed Hesham, Hany Ayad Bastawrous, Peter Makeen

Electrical Engineering

A novel self-heating technique is proposed to clear snow from photovoltaic panels as a solution to the issue of winter snow accumulation in photovoltaic (PV) power plants. This approach aims to address the shortcomings of existing methods. It reduces PV cell wear, resource loss, and safety risks, without the need for additional devices. A self-heating current is applied to the solar panel to melt the snow covering its surface, which is then allowed to slide off the panel due to gravity. The proposed system consists of a bidirectional DC-DC converter, which removes the snow cover by heating the solar PV …

Safety And Optimality Monitors For Learning-Enabled Systems Using Conformal Prediction, Jackson Cox

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

The use of machine learning to create data-driven plant models and controllers has led to an increased need for safety and optimality monitors for model-based systems. System plant models are subject to uncertainty due to learning constraints such as unseen data and overfitting or physical constraints such as unknown dynamics and noise. This uncertainty is detrimental to safety-critical systems and must be properly regulated. To curb this uncertainty, we create prediction sets using the guarantees provided by Conformal Prediction. With a user-specified high probability, these prediction sets contain the true plant system states for an entire prediction horizon, which we …

Theory And Algorithms To Learn, Propagate, And Exploit Uncertainty For Stochastic Optimal Control Of Dynamical Systems, Vignesh Sivaramakrishnan

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Non-Gaussian uncertainty frequently arises in learning and control problems involving stochastic dynamical systems, particularly in autonomous vehicles, UAVs, satellites, and robotics. In this dissertation, we propose a new framework that leverages characteristic functions that provides a frequency-domain representation of random variables. The dissertation is structured into three key areas. First, we address model-based stochastic optimal control for linear systems with non-Gaussian noise, demonstrating that characteristic functions can be used to enforce chance constraints and control systems toward desired distributions. Second, we explore data-driven stochastic control, utilizing empirical characteristic functions to handle systems with unknown disturbances. In addition, we derive several …

Learning To Represent Temporal Dynamics And Generative Factors For Intelligent Visual Navigation, Sahand Khoshdel

All Theses

Visual navigation systems are crucial in various applications, including autonomous driving, unmanned aerial systems (UAS), and industrial automation. For these systems to operate efficiently in dynamic environments, they must not only interpret complex surroundings but also anticipate changes over time. Temporal prediction—forecasting environmental changes like moving obstacles or shifting lighting conditions—enables navigation systems to act proactively, enhancing both safety and performance. This dissertation investigates representation learning methods both as a backbone feature extractor for RL agents as well as a proxy for systems oriented for Explainable AI (XAI). Two main projects are presented as case studies to achieve the aforementioned …

Model Reference Adaptive Control For Mobile Manipulators And Beyond, Srivatsan Srinivasan

All Dissertations

In recent years, robotics has expanded into various sectors, including manufacturing, transportation, and household services, making the integration of autonomy a critical area of research. This shift aims to ensure safety and enhance the utility of autonomous systems. Traditionally, robotic applications focused separately on mobility, like automated guided vehicles, and manipulation, such as serial-chain arms in manufacturing. Today, however, we see a merging of these capabilities in the growing field of mobile manipulator robots that combine movement with purposeful interactive functionalities.

A typical mobile manipulator is a robotic arm mounted on a wheeled base. This thesis focuses on advancing control …

Development Of A Square Wave Voltage Field-Oriented Controller For A Linear Vapor Compressor., Thomas Everson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, a novel control strategy for an inverter-driven linear compressor system is proposed in which the overall electrical losses of a coupled inverter-linear motor system are reduced through the use of a modified square wave inverter modulation scheme to minimize inverter switching losses at the expense of a modest increase in conduction losses. The controller is based on a single-phase field-oriented control strategy, and to achieve the FOC control objectives, the fundamental and dc components of the applied square wave voltage are matched to the corresponding values requested by the current controller. To validate the efficiency improvements offered …

Model-Based Navigation And Control Of Multirotor Uavs: A Machine Learning Approach, Serhat Sönmez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent decades, unmanned systems, particularly Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), have seen significant advancement and unprecedented growth in military, civilian and public domain applications. Scientists have focused on enhancing UAV navigation and control through cutting-edge technologies and support tools. UAVs find applications in many fields, except military, such as agriculture, infrastructure inspection, wildlife monitoring, search and rescue, emergency response, border protection, to name but a few relevant civilian applications. Given the faster-than-exponential increase of available computational power, learning-based algorithms have emerged as a prominent tool for (real-time) multirotor UAV navigation and control. This dissertation centers around the fusion of conventional …

Hypoxic Incubator: Improving Robustness/Reliability And Demonstrating Physiological Efficacy, Damon Dennis Tan

Master's Theses

The Microphysiological Systems Laboratory aims to develop colorectal cancer tumor models under a hypoxic environment to assess model response to pharmaceutical compounds in vitro. To perform relevant studies, researchers have attempted to use different hypoxic inducing strategies such as a nitrogen pod and hypoxic incubator to recreate in vivo physiological responses to hypoxia. However, studies would be interrupted due to incubator functionality failure. To ensure successful and physiologically relevant studies, I improved and verified the robustness and reliability of a hypoxic incubator previously designed and manufactured in the lab. Through the testing and iterating design processes, I engineered and implemented …

Measurement Automation & Measurement System Research Endowment, Brian Bivinetto, Beneda Loya, Shiron Bendrihem

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Road travel safety is always the most important issue in transportation systems. In general, several factors cause road accidents, such as human error, vehicle mechanical failure, roadway limitations (e.g. pavement, lane geometry, etc.), and inclement weather conditions. The major focus of today’s transportation developments is related to making highway transportation safer, smarter, and greener to enhance livability. Many accidents are caused when drivers lack a better understanding of the surrounding traffic conditions because the driver not only needs to control his/her vehicle but also needs to be aware of the movements of the vehicles around him/her. A driver cannot be …

Distributed Multi-Robot Localization And Coordination Framework For Mobile Robots, Dmitri Dobrynin, Indigo T. Garcia

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

This project aims to develop an experimental framework for multiple mobile robots, both in simulation and real-world hardware, using ROS 2 as the primary operating system. Utilizing TurtleBot 3 platforms, the team will establish a robust setup that enables tasks such as distributed localization, autonomous navigation, path planning, and formation control for mobile robots. Leveraging simulation environments like Gazebo, the project will replicate real-world setups in a simulated environment for testing and development. All tasks, communication, and sensor integration will be implemented using ROS 2, ensuring seamless coordination and interoperability among the robots. The project involves integrating various sensors and …

Cyberattack Detection And Handling For Neural Network-Approximated Economic Model Predictive Control, Jihan Abou Halloun, Helen E. Durand

Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Faculty Research Publications

Cyberattacks on control systems can create unprofitable and unsafe operating conditions. To enhance safety and attack resiliency of control systems, cyberattack detection strategies can be developed. Prior work in our group has sought to develop cyberattack detection strategies that are integrated with an advanced control formulation known as Lyapunov-based economic model predictive control (LEMPC), in the sense that the controller properties can be used to analyze closed-loop stability in the presence or absence of undetected attacks. In this work, we consider neural network-approximated control laws, concepts for mitigating cyberattacks on such control laws, and how these ideas elucidate concepts in …