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Research Projects

Control of Nanoscale Systems (Supported by Stevens New Faculty Startup Funds)

The integration of physics principles of macroscopic mechanical systems with control mechanisms and control theoretical principles has a rich history, enabling new applications and establishing new directions for research. More recently, technologies have moved into the nano-scale regime, with basic electronic, optoelectronic, sensor, mechanical, and other components enabling many new applications emerging. The application of these nano-mechanical structures will require an integration of the new physics principles for their behavior with new control theoretical principles appropriate for the new behaviors exhibited by nano-structures.

We have investigated atomic-scale friction control. While traditionally, controlling frictional properties in a desired way is achieved by chemical means, a recent idea in controlling the system mechanically by applying small perturbations to accessible elements of the sliding system was shown effective through microscopic level experiments. We have applied advanced feedback control theory to change frictional characteristics through surface sliding. We collaborate with experimental groups at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to conduct AFM experiments for verification of the developed control schemes.

  • Y. Guo, Z. Qu, Y. Braiman, Z. Zhang and Jacob Barhen, "Nanotribology and nanoscale friction: Smooth sliding and modification of frictional characteristics through feedback control", IEEE Control Systems Magazine, Special Issue on Modeling and Control of Friction, to appear, Dec. 2008.

  • Y. Guo and Z. Qu, "Control of Frictional Dynamics of A One-Dimensional Particle Array", Automatica, Vol. 44, pp. 2560-2569, 2008.

  • Y. Guo, Z. Qu, and Z. Zhang, "Lyapunov stability and precise control of the frictional dynamics of a one-dimensional particle array", Physical Review B, Vol. 73, No. 9, Paper ID 094118, 2006.

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    Cooperative Control of Multi-Agent Systems (Supported by Stevens New Faculty Startup Funds)

    The remarkable advances in networking technologies (both wired and wireless networks) are enabling a wide range of new, man-made systems based on sophisticated and low cost distributed components cooperating across low cost and high-speed data networks. Although useful cooperative behaviors have been established in these man-made systems, the full potential has not yet been met and the principles that will allow more sophisticated and robust distributed systems have yet to be fully developed. For example, is there a generalized theoretic framework that can clarify the convergence property of complex distributed cooperating systems? Is there a mission-oriented control design methodology for such? We investigate control problems facing cooperative and collective behaviors of distributed systems and use the example of distributed mobile robot systems to explore the underlying principles.

    A picture of mobile robots in the lab

    Autonomous Deployment of Service Robots in Mobile Sensor Networks (Supported by ARMY ARDEC, 2007-2008)

    Contrary to traditional “open loop”, passive sensor networks, we propose to develop a new sensor network architecture that employs multiple sensor-network-friendly service robots to implement an actuation mechanism and thus closes the loop. The service robots can provide both logistic and network services. Examples of the logistic services include 1) sensing coverage control; (2) sensor power supply and (3) sensor calibration, etc. Examples of the network services include (1) network connectivity, or topology management; (2) hierarchical routing and (3) time synchronization, etc. When these service robots are deployed together with a large quantity of sensors, the resulted active sensor network will achieve many desirable merits, such as adaptability, self healing, responsiveness and longer lifetime.

    Biomemetic Robotics (Supported by Stevens New Faculty Startup Funds)

    Snake robots have the advantages of modular reconfigurability and high terrain adaptability. Snake robots on the market are limited to remote controlled toys. There’s a great need to develop autonomous snake robots equipped with sensors for applications such as search and rescue. We design and develop prototype for a snake robot that can make motions including climbing, side winding, and rolling.

    Situation Awareness and Response using a Cooperative Multi-Robot System (Supported by ARMY ARDEC, 2006-2007)

    Centibot Patrolling Video

    Many ground military tasks can be accomplished by employment of intelligent cooperative mobile robots, such as surveillance, reconnaissance, and target acquisition. Cooperative robotic systems provide large ground coverage and can map complex environments more rapidly and completely. This project is to develop a cooperative multi-robot system with the capability of situation awareness and response to a dynamic environment. By designing a biological inspired behavior model, this multi-robot system can work in a more effective way with reduced energy of the overall system. This system can be used as a test bed for different communication systems and sensor technologies.

  • Y. Guo, M. Hohil, and S. V. Desai, “Bio-inspired Motion Planning Algorithms for Autonomous Robots Facilitating Greater Plasticity for Security Applications”, SPIE Europe Symposium on Security and Defence, Unmanned/Unattended Sensors and Sensor Networks IV, Florence, Italy, Sep. 2007.

  • Y. Guo, Y. Long and W. Sheng, "Global Trajectory Generation for Nonholonomic Robots in Dynamic Environments", Proceedings of the 2007 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Roma, Italy, April 2007.

    Previous Research can be found here