The Dynamic Systems, Control, and Robotics group in the UCSB Mechanical Engineering department maintains strong research interests in dynamic systems utilizing mechanical functions, such as vehicles, flexible structures, robotic arms, electromagnetic actuators, or fluid systems. Both experimental and theoretical work is pursued on several fronts.
Research Themes in Dynamic Systems, Control & Robotics
Current research projects in this area include:
- Dynamics and control of airplane and space structures
- Control of building structures due to earthquakes and winds
- Control of switched and discontinuous systems
- Automotive drive-train control
- Chaotic advection in fluid flows, dispersion, reaction and diffusion in chaotic flows, and volume-preserving dynamical systems
- Nonlinear geometric control theory
- Optimal boundary control of vibrating structures such as plates, composite beams, and composite beams with piezoelectric layers
In addition, Mechanical Engineering faculty efforts in control engineering are helping to build a strong and growing control activity in the College of Engineering's Center for Control, Dynamical Systems and Computation(CCDC). Facilities available to Dynamic Systems, Control, and Robotics faculty and students include the Electromechanical Systems Laboratory (Dynamics and Controls Laboratory), and the undergraduate controls and mechanics laboratories.