Research Projects

Current Projects

Cable-Actuated Bio-inspired Lightweight Elastic Solar Sail (CABLESSail)

The goal of this NASA-sponsored project is to design and validate the Cable-Actuated Bio-inspired Lightweight Elastic Solar Sail (CABLESSail) concept for the attitude control of large, next-generation solar sails.  The CABLESSail concept operates using lightweight cable-driven actuation to achieve controllable elastic solar sail deformations that induce an imbalance in solar radiation pressure and generate large, scalable control torques on the solar sail in all three axes. 

Students: Keegan Bunker, Soojeong Lee, Ping-Yen Shen, Michael States,, Ryan Levendusky, Michael Dallalah

Previous Students: Nathan Raab, Niko Sexton, Austin Bodin, Chris Thacker

Funding: NASA Early Career Faculty Award

Publications:

Dissipativity-Based Control of Deployable Flexible Space Structures

The goal of this NASA-sponsored project is to develop the foundational theory for the control of large flexible space structues with on-the-fly system identification of uncertain or changing dynamics through the utilization of data-driven learning and robust control theory, specifically dissipativity theory.

Student: Logan Anderson

Funding: NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunity (NSTGRO)

Image Credit: NASA

On-the-Fly Flight Test Maneuver Optimization and Nonlinear Modeling of Hypersonic Systems

The goal of this AFOSR-sponsored project is to develop a unified testing and evaluation approach for hypersonic flight systems that involves optimizing both the design of flight test maneuvers and the extraction of reliable control-oriented models.

Students: Sze Kwan (Jason) Cheah, Erik Lehner

Collaborators: Prof. Maziar Hemati, Dennis Van Dommelen, Dr. Diganta Bhattacharjee, Amir Enayati

Funding: Air Force Office of Scientific Research, UMII-MnDRIVE Graduate Assistantship.

Publications:

Optimal and Robust Control of Hard Disk Drives

This project focuses on applying optimal and robust control theory to the analysis and design of hard disk drives.  Our goal is to improve the disturbance rejection performance of hard disk drives and ensure robustness to drive-to-drive manufacturing uncertainty.

Student: Erik Lehner

Previous Student: Manash Chakraborty

Funding: Seagate Technologies and the Center for Micromagnetics and Information Technologies (MINT).

Publications:

Image Credit: Eric Gaba

Atmoshperic Adaptation for the Control of Mars Entry Vehicles

This project focuses on identifying variations in atmospheric density in real time during a Martian entry, with the goal of using this estimate to adapt the control of the entry vehicle to minimize deviation from a nominal guidance trajectory.

Student: Robert Halverson

Collaborator: Prof. Maziar Hemati

Previous Student: Ryleigh McGiveron

Funding: DoD SMART Scholarship

Publications:

Predictive Control of a Dual-Spin Satellite with Magnetic Actuation

This project focuses on using attitude control of a CubeSat in a dual-spin-stabilized configuration using magnetic actuation, which requires only one reaction wheel and three magnetic torque rods.  Predictive control is used to maintain the satellite within a specified pointing cone, while meeting actuator limits and minimizing control effort.

Student: Robert Halverson

Collaborator: Prof. Demoz Gebre-Egziabher

Funding: DoD SMART Scholarship

Publications:

Hypersonic Configurable Unit Ballistic Experiment (HyCUBE)

This AFOSR-sponsored project is centered around the design and analysis of HyCUBE: Hypersonic Configurable Unit Ballistic Experiment.  HyCUBE is a CubeSat-like spacecraft that will perform a controlled de-orbit and re-enter Earth's atmosphere at hypersonic speed, collecting valuable aerothermodynamic data along the way.   The ARDC Lab is responsible for designing the control algorithm for the vehicle's de-orbit using drag modulation and assessing dynamic stability during the atmospheric re-entry.

Collaborators: Prof. Demoz Gebre-Egziabher, Prof. Ellen Longmire, Dr. Ioannis Nompelis, Prof. Marien Simeni

Previous Student: Alex Hayes

Funding: Air Force Office of Scientific Research, UMII-MnDRIVE Graduate Assistantship.

Publications:

Dynamic Modeling, Control, and Pose Estimation of Cable-Driven Parallel Robots

This project is concerned with cable-driven parallel robots (CDPRs), which are robotic systems where a payload/end-effector is driven by cables pulling on it (e.g., SkyCam, Arecibo Telescope).  Our work focuses on three critical aspects of CDPR research:

We are in the process of fabricating a small CDPR testbed that will be used to validate our proposed modeling, control, and pose estimation strategies. Stay tuned for developments on this testbed!

Current Students: Ryan Levendusky, Michael Dallalah, Michael States, Henry Mahnke.

Previous Students: Sze Kwan (Jason) Cheah, Vinh Nguyen, Alex Hayes, Tianxu Qin, Josh Mays, JP Heinzen, Tyler Douglas, Samir Patel, Neel Puri, Nathan Raab, Justin Dang, Jamie Lyman, Sam Prokott, Austin Bodin, Chris Thacker, Niko Sexton.

Funding: University of Minnesota, UMN Multicultural Summer Research Opportunities Program (MSROP), UMN Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), UMII-MnDRIVE Graduate Assistantship.

Publications:

A Low-Cost and Low-Risk Testbed for Control Design of Launch Vehicles and Landing Systems

This project focuses on designing and building a quadrotor-based testbed to test advanced launch vehicle controllers in a low-cost and low-risk environment.  Dynamic modeling is used to validate the similitude of the proposed testbed to a full-scale launch vehicle.

Students: James Johnson

Previous Students: Liam Elke, Will Roslansky, Keegan Bunker, Ethan Kolby

Collaborator: Prof. Demoz Gebre-Egziabher

Funding: NASA Office of STEM Engagement Fellowship

Publications:

Station Keeping of Satellites in an Areostationary Mars Orbit

This project uses model predictive control techniques to minimize the delta-v required to maintain a satellite in an Areostationary Mars Orbit at different longitudes. This work provides insight into the feasibility of maintaining Areostationary satellite constellations for communication on the Martian surface.

Students: Robert Halverson and Nathan Gall

Previous Student: Gabriel Lundin

Collaborator: Dr. Avishai Weiss

Funding: Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, UMN Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP).

Publications:

Previous Projects

Real-Time Modeling and Simulation of Space Vehicles with Fuel Slosh

The objective of this project is to develop and validate an accurate and computationally-efficient method to simulate the effects of fuel slosh on spacecraft motion. The proposed modeling method will allow for rapid testing and evaluation of spacecraft maneuvers in the presence of fuel slosh, which is an area of research in need of development as space operations become more prevalent and complex in the coming decades. Modern numerical simulation techniques will be used to derive and develop a general simulation software that can accommodate a range of mission scenarios and vehicle configurations.

Students: Liam Elke and Ping-Yen Shen

Collaborator: Prof. Demoz Gebre-Egziabher

Funding: NASA Office of STEM Engagement Fellowship, Office of the Vice President for Research - University of Minnesota.

Publications:

Extension of Robust Control Techniques for UAS Adaptive Control Systems

The goal of this project is to extend robust control techniques to be able to leverage knowledge of stochastic parameter variation.  This additional insight will provide improved performance without sacrifice to robust stability.

Student: Logan Anderson

Collaborator: Prof. Andrew Lamperski

Funding: Honeywell International

Publications:

Control of Autonomous Aerial Vehicles: A Data-Driven Approach to Bridge the Gap Between Theory and Practice

The goal of this seed grant is to derive and validate foundational theory for the control of autonomous aerial vehicles with quick, on-the-fly adaptation to failures. 

Student: Logan Anderson

Collaborator: Prof. Andrew Lamperski

Funding: University of Minnesota Institute for Informatics - MnDRIVE

Publications:

Conic-Sector-Based Aeroelastic Control

This project uses the conic sector theorem to design gain-scheduled feedback controllers for aeroelastic system, which feature challenging, nonlinear, uncertain dynamics.  Our work focuses on using the conic sector theorem to guarantee robust closed-loop input-output stability, while ensuring optimality throughout the flight envelope using a gain-scheduled approach.

Students: Logan Anderson, Jacob Brown

Funding: University of Minnesota, UMN Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP).

Publications:

Robust Trajectory Tracking Control of a Tower Crane

This project involves the dynamic modeling and passivity-based adaptive trajectory tracking control of a tower crane.  We have developed a tower crane controller that can track payload trajectories in three dimensions and is robust to substantial model uncertainty and the nonlinearities associated with three-dimensional tower crane dynamics.

Students: Ping-Yen Shen and Julia Schatz

Funding: Study grant from Chung-Cheng Institute of Technology, National Defense University, Taiwan.

Publications:

Optimal Synthesis of Strictly Negative Imaginary (SNI) Controllers

This project focuses on convex methods to optimally synthesize strictly negative imaginary (SNI) controllers.  Negative imaginary (NI) stability theory can be used to design SNI feedback controllers that robustly stabilize systems with NI properties (e.g., beams, flexible robotic systems).  Our work focused on developing optimal SNI controllers with respect to H2 and H-infinity metrics.

Student: Manash Chakraborty

Funding: University of Minnesota

Publications:

Optimal Open-Loop Output Modification

This project involved the development of techniques that modify an open-loop system to give it prescribed open-loop properties.  One example of this is parallel feedforward control, which modifies the output of the open-loop system to render it minimum phase or positive real.  Other possible approaches involve optimally combining actuators and/or sensors to ensure desired open-loop system properties. We were able to show a benefit of using parallel feedforward control for noncolocated attitude control of a spacecraft's flexible appendage.

Student: Robert Halverson

Funding: UMN Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)

Publications:

Funding Acknowledgements