Overview
Prof Prathyush P Menon is Associate Professor of Control and Autonomy, at the Department of Engineering in the Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy. He is Deputy Director of the Centre for Future Clean Mobility and leads the research activities in Cooperative Robotics and Autonomus NEtworks (CRANE) lab. The research focus of the lab is on:
1. Enabling autonomy in land, air and sea
2. Decision making in pesence of uncertainty
3. Information driven planning
4. Embedding cooperation and resilience among agents/assets
He received Ph.D. in control engineering from Department of Engineering, University of Leicester, UK in 2007. From 2007 to 2008, He worked at University of Leicester as a European Space Agency (ESA) funded post-doctoral research associate (PDRA), and then as lecturer. He joined College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter in 2010. He is author of over 100 peer reviewed refereed papers in these areas, including 50 journal publications.
His research is funded by UKRI, NERC, Innovate UK, STFC, ESA-ESTEC/Industry, UKIERI and KTP. While at Exeter, he has developed strong international academic collaborations with faculties at LAAS-CNRS, University of Pavia, Univesity of Sevilla, University of Groningen, Texas A&M University, University of Texas at Arlington, University of Alabama at Huntsville, Indian Institute of Science, IIT Madras, IIT Bombay, IIIT-Delhi, ISER Bhopal, and Seoul National University.
Current research projects include:
- ERDF: Accelarated Flaoting Offshore Wind in Cornwall
- DSTL - SERAPIS SSE11: Learn to Fly
- InnovateUK: Connected Secure In Cable Control and Protection Device for Electrical Vehicle
- KTP with Lynch Motors: Design of DC Motor for Marine Drivetrain Application
- KTP with SC Group Ltd: Optionally Manned All Terrain Mobile Platform
- ESA-ESTEC and SENER Ltd: Enhanced Techniques for AOCS GNC Functional Verification
- UKRI-GCRF: Emergency Flood Planning and Management using Unmanned Aerial Systems
- UKRI-NERC: Combining Autonomous Observations and Models for Predicting and Understanding Shelf Seas
Contact me for PhD studentship in the following areas:
- Optimal in-situ ocean sampling
- Probabilistic worst-case analysis for space applications
- Teaming of UAV-UGV
- Decision making in cooperative UAS operation for Emergency response
Previous research projects include:
- Adaptive Autonomous Ocean Sampling Network (NERC & DSTL with NOC, Southampton), 2015 -
- Probabilistic Worst Case Analysis Tools, 2014 -
- Modern Attitude Control of Earth Observation Satellites With Large Flexible Elements, 2014-2015, Supported by European Space Agency (Collaboration with Astrium Ltd. UK.)
- Generic Rover Dynamics Model Framework for Autonomous Capability Development, 2013-2014, Supported by UKSA-CREST2 (Collaboration with Astrium Ltd. UK.)
- Contamination Monitoring using Mobile Sensor Networks, 2012-2014, Supported by UKIERI (Collaboration with IISc Bangalore, India)
- Integrated Guidance Navigation and Control for Mars Sample Return (AIR-GNC), 2013-2014, Supported by European Space Agency, (Collaboration with GMV, Spain) (Investigator with Prof. Bates during 2011 - March 2013)
- Robust Flight Control System Design Verification and Validation Framework (SAFE-V), 2011-2013, Supported by European Space Agency, (Collaboration with Astrium Space Transportation-France).
Research Interests:
Collective Robotics, Autonomy, Verification, Validation and Certification, Distributed Control and Estimation, Formation/Cooperative Control, Optimisation, Performance Recovery In Presence of Amplitude and Rate Saturation.
Software:
Worst Case Analysis Tools (WCAT-II) supported by European Space Agency, Contract Manager: Samir Bennani, ESTEC. ESA.
Current PhD Students:
1. Midhun Parackal Unni - Hybrid system modelling of Parkinsonian Gate
2. Ke Wang - Bayesian analysis approach to analysis of AOCS
3. Mohammad Hajkarim - Decision support for cooperative autonomy
Past PhD Students:
1. Chiara Mellucci Environmental monitoring using Single Autonomous vehicle
2. Anusha Mujumdhar: Simulation and Entropy Based Worst Case Analysis for Space Systems
3. Siyi Dong: Efficient Monte Carlo Methods for Verification of Launch Vehicle Performance
4. Nathan Owen: Gaussian Process and Polynomial Chaos Methods
5. Atul Kamath: Surrogate Assisted Optimisation-Based Worst-Case and Safety Margin Analysis Submitted 2014. Research Fellow at University of Exeter on GRDM Project. Presently R&D engineer at GE Global Research, Bangalore, India
6. Paresh Deshpande: Performance based coordination control of multi agent systems subject to time delays; Post-Doc at University of Oxford (2012) Presently at ASML Holding N.V., Netherlands.
7. Anup Das: Co-supervision (50%) Graduated in 2012; Presently Post-Doc at University of Warwick.
8. Wenfei Wang: Co-supervision (50%) Graduated in 2012; Presently Post-Doc at University of Warwick.
Academic Collaborators:
1. Debasish Ghose - IISc, Bangalore, India.
2. Animesh Chakravarthy - University of Witchita, USA.
3. Abhay A Pashilkar - National Aerospace Lab, Bangalore, India.
4. Antonella Ferrara - University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy.
3. Alexandre Seuret - LAAS, CNRS, France.
4. Matthew Turner - University of Leicester, Leicester, UK.
5. Samir Bennani - ESTEC, ESA, The Netherlands
6. Yuri Shtessel - University of Alabama, Alabama, USA.
7. Christopher Edwards - University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.
8. Dwaipayan Mukharjee - Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India.
9. P.B. Sujit - IISER, Bhopal, India.
Courses Taught:
1. Nonlinear Systems and Control (ECM 3711)
2. Systems, Series and Transformation (ECM 2707)
3. Control Engineering (ECM 2105)
Course/Workshop: A COURSE IN MARINE ROBOTICS: THEORY AND PRACTICE (27-31 Jan 2015)UK-INDIA EDUCATION AND RESEARCH INITIATIVE (UKIERI) WORKSHOP ON FORMATION, CONTROL AND ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING. EXETER, 8-9 APRIL, 2014.
Visiting Researchers:
1. Chiara Mellucci (University of Pavia): Robust Nonlinear Observers for Fault Detection in Differential Algebraic Dynamical Systems (March 2014 - September 2014)
2. Anoop Jain (IISc, Bangalore): Formation Control for Environmental Mapping (August 2013 - October 2013)
3. Dwaipayan Mukharjee (IISc, Bangalore): Cyclic Pursuit (August 2013 - October 2013)
Chiara Mellucci (started in 2016)
2. Anusha Mujumdhar: Simulation and Entropy Based Worst Case Analysis for Space Systems
3. Siyi Dong: Efficient Monte Carlo Methods for Verification of Launch Vehicle Performance
4. Nathan Owen: Gaussian Process and Polynomial Chaos Methods
Publications
Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 |
2023
- Suppa M, Hajkarim SMH, Menon PP, Ferrara A. (2023) Multi Agent Systems Learn to Safely Move Indoor Environment, 2023 62nd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), DOI:10.1109/cdc49753.2023.10383990.
- Tarra S, Mukherjee D, Menon PP. (2023) Opinion dynamics with stubborn agents over a cycle, 2023 European Control Conference (ECC), DOI:10.23919/ecc57647.2023.10178250.
- Wang K, Menon PP, Veenman J, Bennani S. (2023) Estimation of region of attraction with Gaussian process classification, European Journal of Control, volume 74, pages 100856-100856, article no. 100856, DOI:10.1016/j.ejcon.2023.100856. [PDF]
- Machado JE, Rinaldi G, Cucuzzella M, Menon PP, Scherpen JMA, Ferrara A. (2023) Online parameters estimation schemes to enhance control performance in DC microgrids, European Journal of Control, volume 74, pages 100860-100860, article no. 100860, DOI:10.1016/j.ejcon.2023.100860. [PDF]
- Skákala J, Awty-Carroll K, Menon PP, Wang K, Lessin G. (2023) Future digital twins: emulating a highly complex marine biogeochemical model with machine learning to predict hypoxia, Frontiers in Marine Science, volume 10, DOI:10.3389/fmars.2023.1058837.
- Rao DMKKV, Habibi H, Sanchez-Lopez JL, Menon PP, Edwards C, Voos H. (2023) Adaptive Super-Twisting Controller Design for Accurate Trajectory Tracking Performance of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, DOI:10.48550/arxiv.2303.11770.
- Rohith G, Devika KB, Menon PP, Subramanian SC. (2023) Sustainable Heavy Goods Vehicle Electrification Strategies for Long-Haul Road Freight Transportation, IEEE Access, volume 11, pages 26459-26470, DOI:10.1109/access.2023.3257431. [PDF]
- Unni MP, Menon PP. (2023) Modelling and analysis of Parkinsonian gait, NONLINEAR DYNAMICS, volume 111, no. 1, pages 753-769, DOI:10.1007/s11071-022-07832-6. [PDF]
2022
- Ford DA, Grossberg S, Rinaldi G, Menon PP, Palmer MR, Skákala J, Smyth T, Williams CAJ, Lopez AL, Ciavatta S. (2022) A solution for autonomous, adaptive monitoring of coastal ocean ecosystems: Integrating ocean robots and operational forecasts, Frontiers in Marine Science, volume 9, DOI:10.3389/fmars.2022.1067174.
- Majumder R, Jana S, Menon PP, Ghose D, Prusty NM, Mukherjee B, Ghosh A. (2022) Preparedness and Damage Assessment using UAVs for Management of Flood in India, 5thWorld Congress on Disaster Management, Taylor & Francis, 223-234, DOI:10.4324/9781003341956-30.
- Majumder R, Jana S, Menon PP, Ghose D, Prusty NM, Mukherjee B, Ghosh A. (2022) Cyclone Preparedness, Rescue Operations and Damage Assessment using UAVs, 5thWorld Congress on Disaster Management, Taylor & Francis, 235-244, DOI:10.4324/9781003341956-31.
- Rinaldi G, Cucuzzella M, Menon PP, Ferrara A, Edwards C. (2022) Load Altering Attacks Detection, Reconstruction and Mitigation for Cyber-Security in Smart Grids with Battery Energy Storage Systems, 2022 European Control Conference (ECC), DOI:10.23919/ecc55457.2022.9838515.
- Jana S, Majumder R, Menon PP, Ghose D. (2022) Decision Support System (DSS) for Hierarchical Allocation of Resources and Tasks for Disaster Management, Operations Research Forum, volume 3, no. 3, DOI:10.1007/s43069-022-00148-6.
- Rohith G, Koonthalakadu Baby D, Menon P, Subramanian S. (2022) An Adaptive Time-Headway Policy for Lower Energy Consumption in Autonomous Vehicle Platoons, European Control Conference 2022, Imperial College, London, Uk, 12th - 14th Jul 2022.
- Majumder R, Jana S, Menon PP, Ghose D, Prusty NM, Mukherjee B, Ghosh A. (2022) Cyclone Preparedness, Rescue Operations and Damage Assessment using UAVs, DOI:10.48550/arxiv.2203.06497.
- Parakkal Unni M. (2022) Mathematical modelling and Data Analysis for Parkinson’s Disease Gait.
- Kashyap A, Chakravarthy A, Menon PP. (2022) Detection of Cyber-Attacks in Automotive Traffic Using Macroscopic Models and Gaussian Processes, IEEE Control Systems Letters, volume 6, pages 1688-1693, DOI:10.1109/LCSYS.2021.3131259.
- Rinaldi G, Menon PP, Edwards C, Ferrara A. (2022) Sliding Mode Observer-Based Finite Time Control Scheme for Frequency Regulation and Economic Dispatch in Power Grids, IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, volume 30, no. 3, pages 1296-1303, DOI:10.1109/tcst.2021.3092186. [PDF]
- Ghanavati M, Chakravarthy A, Menon PP. (2022) Macroscopic model-based swarm guidance for a class of contaminant tracking applications, International Journal of Control, volume 95, no. 4, pages 975-984, DOI:10.1080/00207179.2020.1833250.
2021
- Kashyap A, Chakravarthy A, Menon PP. (2021) Stability Analysis of Two-Species PDE Traffic Models in Cyber-Attack Scenarios, 2021 60th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), DOI:10.1109/cdc45484.2021.9683488.
- Kashyap A, Ghanavati M, Chakravarthy A, Menon PP. (2021) PDE-based Analysis of Automotive Cyber-Attacks in Imperfect Information Scenarios, Proceedings of the American Control Conference, volume 2021-May, pages 1478-1484, DOI:10.23919/ACC50511.2021.9483440.
- Rinaldi G, Menon PP, Edwards C. (2021) Suboptimal Sliding Mode-based Heading and Speed Guidance Scheme for Boundary Tracking with Autonomous Vehicle, Proceedings of the American Control Conference, volume 2021-May, pages 2151-2156, DOI:10.23919/ACC50511.2021.9483297.
- Rinalid G, Menon P, Edwards C. (2021) Adaptive Dual-Layer Super-Twisting Sliding Mode Observers to Reconstruct and Mitigate Disturbances and Communication Attacks in Power Networks, Automatica, volume 129, article no. 109656, DOI:10.1016/j.automatica.2021.109656.
2020
- Parakkal Unni M, Menon PP, Livi L, Wilson MR, Young WR, Bronte-Stewart HM, Tsaneva-Atanasova K. (2020) Data-Driven Prediction of Freezing of Gait Events From Stepping Data, Frontiers in Medical Technology, volume 2, pages 581264-581264, DOI:10.3389/fmedt.2020.581264. [PDF]
- Parakkal Unni M, Menon PP, Wilson MR, Tsaneva-Atanasova K. (2020) Ankle Push-off Based Mathematical Model for Freezing of Gait in Parkinson’s Disease, Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, volume 8, pages 1197-1197, DOI:10.3389/fbioe.2020.552635.
- Rinaldi G, Menon PP, Edwards C, Ferrara A. (2020) Local and Wide-Area Sliding-Mode Observers in Power Systems, Studies in Systems, Decision and Control, 359-391, DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-36621-6_12.
- Salmoral G, Rivas Casado M, Muthusamy M, Butler D, Menon P, Leinster P. (2020) Guidelines for the Use of Unmanned Aerial Systems in Flood Emergency Response, Water, volume 12, no. 2, pages 521-521, DOI:10.3390/w12020521. [PDF]
- Rinaldi G, Menon PP, Edwards C, Ferrara A. (2020) Higher Order Sliding Mode Observers in Power Grids with Traditional and Renewable Sources, IEEE Control Systems Letters, volume 4, no. 1, pages 223-228, DOI:10.1109/LCSYS.2019.2923605.
2019
- Rinaldi G, Menon PP, Edwards C, Ferrara A. (2019) Variable gains decentralized super-twisting sliding mode controllers for large-scale modular systems, 2019 18th European Control Conference, ECC 2019, pages 3577-3582, DOI:10.23919/ECC.2019.8795810.
- Kashyap A, Ghose D, Menon PP, Sujit PB, Das K. (2019) UAV aided dynamic routing of resources in a flood scenario, 2019 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems, ICUAS 2019, pages 328-335, DOI:10.1109/ICUAS.2019.8798357.
2018
- Colmenarejo P, Briz J, Alcalde A, Peters T, Dubanchet V, Henry D, Menon PP, Ankersen F. (2018) Advanced GNC for in-orbit autonomous assembly of flexible vehicles - IOA-GNC, Proceedings of the International Astronautical Congress, IAC, volume 2018-October.
- Ghanavati M, Chakravarthy A, Menon P. (2018) PDE-based Analysis of Cyber-Attacks in Vehicle Swarms, Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, volume 2018-December, pages 1329-1334, DOI:10.1109/CDC.2018.8619097.
- Rinaldi G, Menon PP, Edwards C, Ferrara A. (2018) Distributed Super-Twisting Sliding Mode Observers for Fault Reconstruction and Mitigation in Power Networks, 2018 IEEE CONFERENCE ON DECISION AND CONTROL (CDC), pages 5550-5555. [PDF]
- Rinaldi G, Menon PP, Edwards C, Ferrara A. (2018) Sliding Mode Based Dynamic State Estimation for Synchronous Generators in Power Systems, IEEE Control Systems Letters, volume 2, no. 4, pages 785-790, DOI:10.1109/LCSYS.2018.2849585.
- Rinaldi G, Menon PP, Ferrara A, Edwards C. (2018) A Super-Twisting-Like Sliding Mode Observer for Frequency Reconstruction in Power Systems: Discussion and Real Data Based Assessment, Proceedings of IEEE International Workshop on Variable Structure Systems, volume 2018-July, pages 444-449, DOI:10.1109/VSS.2018.8460439.
- Ghanavati M, Chakravarthy A, Menon PP. (2018) PDE-based Swarm Control for Contaminant Tracking Applications, Proceedings of the American Control Conference, volume 2018-June, pages 937-942, DOI:10.23919/ACC.2018.8431659.
- Mellucci C, Menon PP, Edwards C, Challenor P. (2018) Oceanic Feature Boundary Mapping with an Autonomous Underwater Glider, Proceedings of the American Control Conference, volume 2018-June, pages 5338-5343, DOI:10.23919/ACC.2018.8431011.
- Jain A, Ghose D, Menon PP. (2018) Multi-vehicle formation in a controllable force field with non-identical controller gains, IET Control Theory and Applications, volume 12, no. 6, pages 802-811, DOI:10.1049/iet-cta.2017.0651.
2017
- Edwards C, Menon P, Shtessel Y. (2017) Super-Twisting Observation for a Class of Lagrangian Systems, 2017 IEEE 56TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON DECISION AND CONTROL (CDC). [PDF]
- Prathyush PM, edwards C, Mellucci C, Ferrara A. (2017) Second Order Sliding Mode Observers for Fault Reconstruction in Power Networks, IET Control Theory and Applications, DOI:10.1049/iet-cta.2017.0249.
- Ghanavati M, Chakravarthy A, Menon P. (2017) PDE-based analysis of automotive cyber-attacks on highways, Proceedings of the American Control Conference, pages 1833-1838, DOI:10.23919/ACC.2017.7963219.
- Rinaldi G, Menon PP, Edwards C, Ferrara A. (2017) Distributed observers for state estimation in power grids, Proceedings of the American Control Conference, pages 5824-5829, DOI:10.23919/ACC.2017.7963863.
- Mellucci C, Menon PP, Edwards C, Challenor P. (2017) Experimental validation of boundary tracking using the suboptimal sliding mode algorithm, Proceedings of the American Control Conference, pages 4878-4883, DOI:10.23919/ACC.2017.7963710.
- Kim JS, Menon PP, Back J, Shim H. (2017) Disturbance observer based boundary tracking for environment monitoring, Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology, volume 12, no. 3, pages 1299-1306, DOI:10.5370/JEET.2017.12.3.1299.
2016
- Deshpande P, Menon PP, Edwards C. (2016) Synthesis of Distributed Control Laws for Multi-agent Systems Using Delayed Relative Information with LQR Performance, Delays and Networked Control Systems, Springer Nature, 233-252, DOI:10.1007/978-3-319-32372-5_14.
- Mellucci C, Menon PP, Edwards C, Challenor P. (2016) Predictive oceanic features tracking with formations of autonomous vehicles, 2016 IEEE 55th Conference on Decision and Control, CDC 2016, pages 6446-6451, DOI:10.1109/CDC.2016.7799261.
- Lekka A, Turner MC, Menon PP. (2016) Anti-windup for a class of partially linearisable non-linear systems with application to wave energy converter control, IET Control Theory and Applications, volume 10, no. 18, pages 2403-2414, DOI:10.1049/iet-cta.2016.0296.
- Edwards C, Menon PP. (2016) Sparse distributed observers with nonlinear interconnections, Proceedings of the American Control Conference, volume 2016-July, pages 1882-1887, DOI:10.1109/ACC.2016.7525193.
- Mellucci C, Menon PP, Edwards C, Challenor P. (2016) Source seeking using a single autonomous vehicle, Proceedings of the American Control Conference, volume 2016-July, pages 6441-6446, DOI:10.1109/ACC.2016.7526683.
- Jain A, Ghose D, Menon PP. (2016) Achieving a desired collective centroid by a formation of agents moving in a controllable force field, 2016 Indian Control Conference, ICC 2016 - Proceedings, pages 182-187, DOI:10.1109/INDIANCC.2016.7441126.
- Edwards C, Menon PM. (2016) On Distributed Pinning Observers for a Network of Dynamical Systems, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, DOI:10.1109/TAC.2016.2546849.
- Menon PP, Edwards C, Shtessel YB. (2016) Adaptive sliding mode observation in a network of dynamical systems, International Journal of Adaptive Control and Signal Processing, volume 30, no. 8-10, pages 1465-1477, DOI:10.1002/acs.2670.
2015
- Owen NE, Challenor P, Menon PP, Bennani S. (2015) Comparison of surrogate-based uncertainty quantification methods for computationally expensive simulators, DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1511.00926.
- Mujumdar A, Menon PP, Roux C, Bennani S. (2015) Cross-Entropy Based Probabilistic Analysis of VEGA Launcher Performance, Advances in Aerospace Guidance, Navigation and Control, Springer Nature, 719-737, DOI:10.1007/978-3-319-17518-8_41.
- Owen NE, Challenor P, Menon PP, Bennani S. (2015) Comparison of surrogate-based uncertainty quantification methods for computationally expensive simulators. [PDF]
- Kamath AK, Lachat D, Watt M, Menon PP. (2015) Automated parameter tuning of a Generic Rover Dynamics Model for autonomous planetary space capability development, verification and validation of space applications, Proceedings of the American Control Conference, volume 2015-July, pages 5258-5263, DOI:10.1109/ACC.2015.7172160.
- Mellucci C, Menon PP, Edwards C, Ferrara A. (2015) Load alteration fault detection and reconstruction in power networks modelled in semi-explicit differential algebraic equation form, Proceedings of the American Control Conference, volume 2015-July, pages 5836-5841, DOI:10.1109/ACC.2015.7172254.
- Menon PP, Edwards C. (2015) Dominating neighbourhood observers for fault reconstruction, Proceedings of the American Control Conference, volume 2015-July, pages 880-885, DOI:10.1109/ACC.2015.7170845.
- Wang W, Menon PP, Bates D, Ciabuschi S, Gomes Paulino N, Di Sotto E, Bidaux A, Kron A, Salehi S, Bennani S. (2015) Verification and Validation Framework for Autonomous Rendezvous Systems in Terminal Phase, Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, volume 52, pages 625-629, DOI:10.2514/1.A32531.
2014
- Arvind A, Ghose D, Menon P. (2014) Development of a robotic platform to implement a boundary mapping algorithm, IFAC Proceedings Volumes (IFAC-PapersOnline), volume 3, no. PART 1, pages 484-490, DOI:10.3182/20140313-3-IN-3024.00165.
- Menon PP, Edwards C, Shtessel YB, Ghose D, Haywood J. (2014) Boundary tracking using a suboptimal sliding mode algorithm, Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, volume 2015-February, no. February, pages 5518-5523, DOI:10.1109/CDC.2014.7040252.
- Mujumdar A, Menon PP, Edwards C, Bennani S. (2014) Characterising the probability profile of performance degradation of a darwin satellite controller, 2014 European Control Conference, ECC 2014, pages 2514-2519, DOI:10.1109/ECC.2014.6862568.
- Menon PP, Seuret A, Edwards C. (2014) Consensus control laws with guaranteed performance in presence of fixed delays, 2014 European Control Conference, ECC 2014, pages 874-879, DOI:10.1109/ECC.2014.6862516.
- Mukherjee D, Menon PP, Ghose D. (2014) Boundary tracking using a hybrid cyclic pursuit scheme, Proceedings of the American Control Conference, pages 153-158, DOI:10.1109/ACC.2014.6859501.
- Mukherjee D, Menon PP, Ghose D. (2014) A heterogeneous cyclic pursuit based strategy for boundary tracking, IFAC Proceedings Volumes (IFAC-PapersOnline), volume 3, no. PART 1, pages 648-655, DOI:10.3182/20140313-3-IN-3024.00183.
- Jain A, Ghose D, Menon PP. (2014) Stabilization of balanced circular motion about a desired center, IFAC Proceedings Volumes (IFAC-PapersOnline), volume 3, no. PART 1, pages 656-661, DOI:10.3182/20140313-3-IN-3024.00156.
- Menon PP, Edwards C. (2014) Robust fault estimation using relative information in linear multi-agent networks, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, volume 59, no. 2, pages 477-482, DOI:10.1109/TAC.2013.2274689.
- Menon PP, Edwards C, Postlethwaite I. (2014) L
2 optimal decentralised static output feedback stabilisation of a network of dynamical systems, Systems and Control Letters, volume 64, no. 1, pages 64-71, DOI:10.1016/j.sysconle.2013.11.008.
2013
- Edwards C, Menon PP. (2013) Sparse distributed observers for a network of dynamical systems, 2013 IEEE 52ND ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON DECISION AND CONTROL (CDC), pages 4877-4882. [PDF]
- Edwards C, Alwi H, Menon PP. (2013) Applications of Sliding Observers for FDI in Aerospace Systems, 341-360, DOI:10.1007/978-3-642-36986-5_17.
- Menon PP, Edwards C. (2013) A sliding mode fault detection scheme for corrupted measurement data exchange in a network of dynamical systems, Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, pages 2852-2857, DOI:10.1109/CDC.2013.6760316.
- Seuret A, Menon P, Edwards C. (2013) LQR performance for multi-agent systems: Benefits of introducing delayed inter-agent measurements, Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, pages 5150-5155, DOI:10.1109/CDC.2013.6760698.
- Edwards C, Menon PP. (2013) Sparse distributed observers for a network of dynamical systems, Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, pages 4883-4888, DOI:10.1109/CDC.2013.6760655.
- Falcoz A, Watt M, Yu M, Kron A, Menon PP, Bates D, Ankersen F, Massotti L. (2013) Integrated control and Structure design framework for spacecraft applied to Biomass satellite, IFAC Proceedings Volumes (IFAC-PapersOnline), volume 19, no. PART 1, pages 13-18, DOI:10.3182/20130902-5-de-2040.00051.
- Deshpande P, Menon PP, Edwards C. (2013) Delayed static output feedback control of a network of double integrator agents, Automatica, volume 49, no. 11, pages 3498-3501, DOI:10.1016/j.automatica.2013.08.006.
- Menon PP, Ghose D. (2013) Boundary mapping of 3-dimensional regions, Proceedings of the American Control Conference, pages 2984-2989, DOI:10.1109/acc.2013.6580288.
- Lekka A, Turner MC, Menon PP. (2013) Full and reduced order IMC anti-windup compensators for a class of nonlinear systems with application to wave energy converter control, Proceedings of the American Control Conference, pages 4861-4866, DOI:10.1109/acc.2013.6580591.
- Menon PP, Edwards C. (2013) Distributed adaptive sliding mode observers for a network of dynamical systems, Proceedings of the American Control Conference, pages 1537-1542, DOI:10.1109/acc.2013.6580054.
- Edwards C, Menon PP, Shtessel Y, Bordetsky A. (2013) On connectivity preservation in mobile wireless multi-agent/node mesh networks, Proceedings of the American Control Conference, pages 5881-5886, DOI:10.1109/acc.2013.6580760.
- Pilloni A, Pisano A, Usai E, Menon PP, Edwards C. (2013) Decentralized state estimation in connected systems, IFAC Proceedings Volumes (IFAC-PapersOnline), volume 46, no. 2, pages 421-426, DOI:10.3182/20130204-3-FR-2033.00175.
- Das A, Menon PP, Hardman JG, Bates DG. (2013) Optimization of mechanical ventilator settings for pulmonary disease states, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, volume 60, no. 6, pages 1599-1607, DOI:10.1109/TBME.2013.2239645.
- Menon PP, Lowenberg M, Herrmann G, Turner MC, Bates DG, Postlethwaite I. (2013) Experimental Implementation of a Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion Controller with Antiwindup, JOURNAL OF GUIDANCE CONTROL AND DYNAMICS, volume 36, no. 4, pages 1035-1046, DOI:10.2514/1.59027. [PDF]
2012
- Wang W, Menon P, Bates D, Ciabuschi S, Paulino N, Sotto E, Bidaux A, Garus A, Kron A, Salehi S. (2012) Verification and Validation of Autonomous Rendezvous Systems in the Terminal Phase, AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference, DOI:10.2514/6.2012-4925.
- Wang W, Menon P, Bates D, Bidaux A, Garus A, Kron A, Charbonnel C, Ankersen F, Bennani S. (2012) An Integrated Analytical/Numerical Framework for Verification and Validation of Attitude Control Systems for Flexible Satellites, AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference, DOI:10.2514/6.2012-4844.
- Shtessel Y, Edwards C, Menon P, Cosby A, Bordetsky A. (2012) Predictive modeling and retaining connectivity for mobile wireless communication network, 2012 IEEE International Conference on Technologies for Homeland Security, HST 2012, pages 568-573, DOI:10.1109/THS.2012.6459911.
- Alwi H, Edwards C, Menon PP. (2012) Sensor fault tolerant control using a robust LPV based sliding mode observer, Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, pages 1828-1833, DOI:10.1109/CDC.2012.6426343.
- Menon PP, Ghose D. (2012) Simultaneous source localization and boundary mapping for contaminants, Proceedings of the American Control Conference, pages 4174-4179, DOI:10.1109/acc.2012.6315528.
- Deshpande P, Menon PP, Edwards C, Postlethwaite I. (2012) Sub-optimal distributed control law with H2 performance for identical dynamically coupled linear systems, IET CONTROL THEORY AND APPLICATIONS, volume 6, no. 16, pages 2509-2517, DOI:10.1049/iet-cta.2011.0582. [PDF]
- Menon PP, Edwards C, Shtessel Y. (2012) Evolving control for preserving connectivity among agents of network with non-cooperative moving agents, Proceedings of the American Control Conference, pages 2401-2406, DOI:10.1109/acc.2012.6315590.
- Kamath AK, Menon PP, Ganet-Schoeller M, Maurice G, Bennani S, Bates DG. (2012) Worst case analysis of a launcher vehicle using surrogate models, IFAC Proceedings Volumes (IFAC-PapersOnline), volume 45, no. 13 PART 1, pages 260-265, DOI:10.3182/20120620-3-DK-2025.00137.
- Kamath AK, Menon PP, Ganet-Schoeller M, Maurice G, Bennani S, Bates DG. (2012) Robust safety margin assessment and constrained worst-case analysis of a launcher vehicle, IFAC Proceedings Volumes (IFAC-PapersOnline), volume 45, no. 13 PART 1, pages 254-259, DOI:10.3182/20120620-3-DK-2025.00136.
- Edwards C, Alwi H, Menon PP. (2012) Applications of sliding observers for FDI in aerospace systems, Proceedings of IEEE International Workshop on Variable Structure Systems, pages 391-396, DOI:10.1109/VSS.2012.6163534.
2011
- Das A, Gao ZW, Menon PP, Hardman J, Bates DG. (2011) Optimization of mechanical ventilator settings, IFAC Proceedings Volumes (IFAC-PapersOnline), volume 44, no. 1 PART 1, pages 14259-14264, DOI:10.3182/20110828-6-IT-1002.02616.
- Menon PP, Edwards C. (2011) An adaptive sliding mode observer for a complex network of dynamical systems, IFAC Proceedings Volumes (IFAC-PapersOnline), volume 44, no. 1 PART 1, pages 3072-3077, DOI:10.3182/20110828-6-IT-1002.03402.
- Deshpande P, Menon PP, Edwards C, Postlethwaite I. (2011) A distributed control law with guaranteed LQR cost for identical dynamically coupled linear systems, Proceedings of the American Control Conference, pages 5342-5347, DOI:10.1109/acc.2011.5991163.
- Menon PP, Edwards C. (2011) An observer based distributed controller for formation flying of satellites, Proceedings of the American Control Conference, pages 196-201, DOI:10.1109/acc.2011.5990884.
- Kladis GP, Menon PP, Edwards C. (2011) Distributed fuzzy tracking for multi-agent systems, IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control - Proceedings, pages 798-803, DOI:10.1109/ISIC.2011.6045411.
- Deshpande P, Menon PP, Edwards C, Postlethwaite I. (2011) Formation control of multi-agent systems with double integrator dynamics using delayed static output feedback, Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, pages 3446-3451, DOI:10.1109/CDC.2011.6161074.
- Kladis GP, Menon PP, Edwards C. (2011) Cooperative tracking for a swarm of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: A distributed Tagaki-Sugeno fuzzy framework design, Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, pages 4114-4119, DOI:10.1109/CDC.2011.6161123.
- Das A, Gao Z, Menon PP, Hardman JG, Bates DG. (2011) A systems engineering approach to validation of a pulmonary physiology simulator for clinical applications, Journal of the Royal Society Interface, volume 8, no. 54, pages 44-55, DOI:10.1098/rsif.2010.0224.
2010
- Wang W, Menon PP, Paulino NMG, Di Sotto E, Salehi S, Bates DG. (2010) Worst-case analysis of autonomous rendezvous systems, IFAC Proceedings Volumes (IFAC-PapersOnline), volume 18, no. PART 1, pages 321-326, DOI:10.3182/20100906-5-jp-2022.00055.
- Paulino N, Di Sotto E, Salehi S, Kron A, Hamel JF, Wang W, Menon PP, Bates DG, Papachristodoulou A, Maier C. (2010) VVAF - Worst case & safety analysis tools for autonomous rendezvous system, AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference, DOI:10.2514/6.2010-7904.
- Menon PP, Edwards C. (2010) Fault estimation using relative information for a formation of dynamical systems, Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, pages 738-743, DOI:10.1109/CDC.2010.5717232.
- Menon PP, Edwards C. (2010) A discontinuous protocol design for finite-time average consensus, Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Control Applications, pages 2029-2034, DOI:10.1109/CCA.2010.5611237.
- Wang W, Menon PP, Bates DG, Bennani S. (2010) Robustness analysis of attitude and orbit control systems for flexible satellites, IET Control Theory and Applications, volume 4, no. 12, pages 2958-2970, DOI:10.1049/iet-cta.2009.0531.
- Menon PP, Edwards C. (2010) Static output feedback stabilisation and synchronisation of complex networks with H
2 performance, International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control, volume 20, no. 6, pages 703-718, DOI:10.1002/rnc.1474. - Herrmann G, Menon PP, Turner MC, Bates DG, Postlethwaite I. (2010) Anti-windup synthesis for nonlinear dynamic inversion control schemes, International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control, volume 20, no. 13, pages 1465-1482, DOI:10.1002/rnc.1523.
2009
- Menon PP, Edwards C. (2009) Sliding Mode Observers for Fault Detection in a Network of Linear Dynamical Systems* *The work is partially supported by an EPSRC grant, IFAC-PapersOnLine, volume 42, no. 20, pages 150-155, DOI:10.3182/20090924-3-it-4005.00026.
- Menon PP, Prempain E, Postlethwaite I, Bates D, Bennani S. (2009) An LPV loop shaping controller design for the NASA-HL-20 re-entry vehicle, AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference and Exhibit.
- Gao Z, Das A, Menon PP, Hardman JG, Bates DG. (2009) A control engineering approach to calculating optimal ventilator settings for critically-III patients under mechanical ventilation, ICCAS-SICE 2009 - ICROS-SICE International Joint Conference 2009, Proceedings, pages 206-208.
- Menon PP, Prempain E, Postlethwaite I, Bates D, Bennani S. (2009) Nonlinear worst-case analysis of an LPV controller for approach-phase of a re-entry vehicle, AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference and Exhibit, DOI:10.2514/6.2009-5638.
- Wang W, Menon PP, Bates DG, Bennani S. (2009) Verification and validation of attitude and orbit control systems for flexible satellites, AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference and Exhibit, DOI:10.2514/6.2009-5953.
- Menon PP, Edwards C, Postlethwaite I. (2009) L2 optimal decentralised static output feedback stabilisation of a network of dynamical systems, 2009 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CONTROL AND AUTOMATION, VOLS 1-3, pages 2260-2265, DOI:10.1109/ICCA.2009.5410290. [PDF]
- Menon PP, Edwards C. (2009) Decentralised static output feedback stabilisation of networks with H2 performance, Proceedings of the American Control Conference, pages 3537-3542, DOI:10.1109/ACC.2009.5160433.
- Menon PP, Edwards C, Postlethwaite I. (2009) ℒ
2 optimal decentralised static output feedback stabilisation of a network of dynamical systems, 2009 IEEE International Conference on Control and Automation, ICCA 2009, pages 2260-2265, DOI:10.1109/ICCA.2009.5410290. - Menon PP, Edwards C. (2009) Sliding mode observers for fault detection in a network of linear dynamical systems, IFAC Proceedings Volumes (IFAC-PapersOnline), volume 1, no. PART 1, pages 150-155, DOI:10.3182/20090924-3-IT-4005.0044.
- Menon PP, Edwards C. (2009) Decentralised static output feedback stabilisation and synchronisation of networks, Automatica, volume 45, no. 12, pages 2910-2916, DOI:10.1016/j.automatica.2009.09.029.
- Menon PP, Postlethwaite I, Bennani S, Marcos A, Bates DG. (2009) Robustness analysis of a reusable launch vehicle flight control law, Control Engineering Practice, volume 17, no. 7, pages 751-765, DOI:10.1016/j.conengprac.2008.12.002.
2008
- Menon PP, Herrmann G, Turner M, Lowenberg M, Bates D, Postlethwaite I. (2008) Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion Based Anti-windup - An Aerospace Application, IFAC-PapersOnLine, volume 41, no. 2, pages 14156-14161, DOI:10.3182/20080706-5-kr-1001.02400.
- Menon PP, Postlethwaite I, Bennani S, Marcos A, Bates DG. (2008) MultiobjectiveWorst-Case Analysis of a Re-Entry Vehicle Control Law, IFAC-PapersOnLine, volume 41, no. 2, pages 2532-2537, DOI:10.3182/20080706-5-kr-1001.00427.
- Menon PP, Bates DG, Postlethwaite I, Marcos A, Fernandez V, Bennani S. (2008) Worst case analysis of control law for re-entry vehicles using hybrid differential evolution, 319-333, DOI:10.1007/978-3-540-68830-3_14.
- Menon PP, Herrmann G, Turner MC, Lowenberg M, Bates D, Postlethwaite I. (2008) Dynamic wind tunnel rig implementation of nonlinear dynamic inversion based anti-windup scheme, AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference and Exhibit, DOI:10.2514/6.2008-6791.
- Menon PP, Postlethwaite I, Bennani S, Marcos A, Bates DG. (2008) Multiobjective worst-case analysis of a re-entry vehicle control law, IFAC Proceedings Volumes (IFAC-PapersOnline), volume 17, no. 1 PART 1, DOI:10.3182/20080706-5-KR-1001.1772.
- Menon PP, Herrmann G, Turner MC, Lowenberg M, Bates DG, Postlethwaite I. (2008) Nonlinear dynamic inversion based anti-windup - An aerospace application, IFAC Proceedings Volumes (IFAC-PapersOnline), volume 17, no. 1 PART 1, DOI:10.3182/20080706-5-KR-1001.1566.
- Menon PP, Edwards C. (2008) Rank constrained stabilization of complex networks, Proceedings of the American Control Conference, pages 2619-2624, DOI:10.1109/ACC.2008.4586887.
- Edwards C, Menon PP. (2008) State reconstruction in complex networks using sliding mode observers, Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, pages 2832-2837, DOI:10.1109/CDC.2008.4739375.
2007
- Menon PP, Bates DG, Postlethwaite I. (2007) Optimisation-based flight control law clearance, 259-300, DOI:10.1007/978-3-540-73719-3_12.
- Menon PP, Bates DG, Postlethwaite I. (2007) Deterministic versus evolutionary optimisation methods for nonlinear robustness analysis of flight control laws, 2007 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, CEC 2007, pages 1910-1917, DOI:10.1109/CEC.2007.4424707.
- Bates DG, Fekri S, Menon PP, Postlethwaite I. (2007) On the robustness analysis of nonlinear systems subject to time-invariant and/or time-varying uncertainty, 2007 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, CEC 2007, pages 3639-3645, DOI:10.1109/CEC.2007.4424944.
- Menon PP, Bates DG, Postlethwaite I, Marcos A, Fernandez V, Bennani S. (2007) WOrst-case analysis of flight control laws for re-entry vehicles, IFAC Proceedings Volumes (IFAC-PapersOnline), volume 17, no. PART 1, pages 317-322, DOI:10.3182/20070625-5-fr-2916.00055.
- Lowenberg MH, Menon PP. (2007) An analysable nonlinear criterion for clearance of flight control laws, Collection of Technical Papers - AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference 2007, volume 2, pages 1758-1766, DOI:10.2514/6.2007-6507.
- Menon PP, Bates D, Postlethwaite I. (2007) Nonlinear robustness analysis of flight control laws for highly augmented aircraft, Control Engineering Practice, volume 15, no. 6, DOI:10.1016/j.conengprac.2006.11.015.
2006
- Herrmann G, Turner MC, Menon P, Bates DG, Postlethwaite I. (2006) ANTI-WINDUP SYNTHESIS FOR NONLINEAR DYNAMIC INVERSION CONTROLLERS, IFAC-PapersOnLine, volume 39, no. 9, pages 471-476, DOI:10.3182/20060705-3-fr-2907.00081.
- Menon PP, Herrmann G, Turner MC, Bates DG, Postlethwaite I. (2006) General anti-windup synthesis for input constrained nonlinear systems controlled using nonlinear dynamic inversion, Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, pages 5435-5440, DOI:10.1109/cdc.2006.377291.
- Menon PP, Bates DG, Postlethwaite I. (2006) A deterministic hybrid optimisation algorithm for nonlinear flight control systems analysis, Proceedings of the American Control Conference, volume 2006, pages 333-338, DOI:10.1109/acc.2006.1655377.
- Menon PP, Bates DG, Postlethwaite I. (2006) Robustness analysis of nonlinear flight control laws over continuous regions of the flight envelope, IFAC Proceedings Volumes (IFAC-PapersOnline), volume 5, no. PART 1, pages 53-58, DOI:10.3182/20060705-3-fr-2907.00011.
- Menon PP, Bates DG, Postlethwaite I. (2006) Computation of worst-case pilot inputs for nonlinear flight control system analysis, Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, volume 29, no. 1, pages 195-199, DOI:10.2514/1.14687.
2005
- Menon PP, Bates DG, Postlethwaite I. (2005) Hybrid evolutionary optimisation methods for the clearance of nonlinear flight control laws, Proceedings of the 44th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, and the European Control Conference, CDC-ECC '05, volume 2005, pages 4053-4058, DOI:10.1109/CDC.2005.1582796.
- Menon PP, Bates DG, Postlethwaite I. (2005) Hybrid optimisation schemes for the clearance of flight control laws, IFAC Proceedings Volumes (IFAC-PapersOnline), volume 16, pages 91-96, DOI:10.3182/20050703-6-cz-1902.01976.
- Menon PP, Bates DG, Postlethwaite I. (2005) Computation of worst-case pilot inputs for clearance of flight control laws, IFAC Proceedings Volumes (IFAC-PapersOnline), volume 16, pages 79-84, DOI:10.3182/20050703-6-cz-1902.01974.
2004
- Menon PP, Kim J, Bates DG, Postlethwaite I. (2004) Improved clearance of flight control laws using hybrid optimisation, 2004 IEEE CONFERENCE ON CYBERNETICS AND INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS, VOLS 1 AND 2, pages 677-682. [PDF]
- Menon PP, Kim J, Bates DG, Postlethwaite I. (2004) Improved clearance of flight control laws using hybrid optimisation, 2004 IEEE Conference on Cybernetics and Intelligent Systems, pages 676-681.
Further information
Personal Homepage
Main research themes are:
[i] Verification, Validation and Certification,
In recent years, we have been developing specialised simulation- and optimisation-based analysis tools for tuning and validation of complex control systems. It is well known that the vast majority of the budget for any prototype design is spent in this activity. We are particularly interested in assessing the robust performance of complex realistic, industrial-standard controllers for different prototypes, mainly in the area of aerospace applications, with large numbers of uncertainties, either epistemic or aleoteric, associated with the representative model. It is imperative for the clearance of a design, to have certain identified variables - normally the control signals and variables associated with system safety in the presence of hundreds of uncertain parameters - respect certain a-priori definted limits all the time to ensure the satisfactory safe operation and thus success of the mission.
At Exeter, we develop analysis tools (Worst Case Analysis Tools: WCAT - II) to address this crucial problem, which relies on a suite of single- and multi-objective optimisation algorithms and polynomial chaos surrogate modelling. The applications/missions that we have been investigating include flight control, attitude control of satellites (for Earth observation), control laws for the European reusable launce vehicle (RLV), integrated guidance, naviation and control (GNC) of autonomous rendezvous in Mars Sample Return (MSR), and GNC of Entry, Descent and Landing Systems (EAGLE). To respect and protect the legacy controllers and models from industry, the proposed tools treat them as 'black-box' with access limited to certain input and output variables.
We are also interested in tuning the legacy controllers of a mission efficiently to suit a related but different mission, such that multiple desired objects are robustly met, and the solution is obtained in a cost-effective manner.
Industrial Collaborators:
European Space Agency, ELV, GMV, Astrium (UK/France), Thales Alenia, Scisys, NGC Canada, Deimos
[iii] Adaptive and Autonomous Environmental Sampling,
A fundamental problem in environmental sensing and monitoring is how to identify and demarcate the regions within a large-scale oceanic field where the in-situ measurements exceed a predefined threshold from regions where it does not. Moreover, to deploy effective countermeasures, or to gauge the spread of spatial phenomena, it is necessary to track the dynamically changing boundaries of these regions, as well as their sources/hot spots. Different algorithms, that require single and/or multiple agents are proposed to address this specific problem.
Lab experiments have been conducted, for e.g. five mobile robots have been used to track a contour of constant luminous intensity in distributed manner (see a sample result from experiments carried out at Mobile Robotics Lab at IISc, Bangalore)
Novel decision making schemes, developed at the University of Exeter, to track hotspots (local maxima) and to determine and track the boundary (level set) of spatial phenomena have been adapted to a wide class of adaptive autonomous ocean sampling problems involving multiple marine autonomous systems (MAS) – in particular the detection and mapping of ocean fronts and detecting the point source of a tracer release in the ocean. The methods to track an ocean front have been tested and validated in a series of desktop experiments based on simulated ocean properties obtained from using the Forecast Ocean Assimilation Model (FOAM) AMM7 system, which is an operational ocean analysis and forecast system run daily at the Met Office, UK.
We have also performed desktop experiments on point source tracer release scenarios. In this case we used simulations from NOC of the DIMES release. The Met Office, UK, provided a forecast model of oceanic features in sea surface temperature (SST) of the North West Atlantic Shelf. The dynamic, turbulence and measurement noise effects are embedded in the forecast data. Information from this large-scale model was used by the University of Exeter as a prior to build a more detailed probabilistic model, which also provided additional information about the uncertainty associated with the SST feature. This detailed probabilistic forecast model was used as the truth for a set of experiments that maximise the amount of information gained about the SST front by optimally manoeuvring the MAS in a fully autonomous mode.
[iii] Information Network Distributed Control and Estimation,
Control and stabilisation of multiple dynamical systems operated over an arbitrary information network has attracted increasing attention from various communities due to its broad range of applications such as cooperative unmanned air vehicles, formation flying of satellite systems, platoons of vehicles, sensor arrays, automated highway systems and multi-agent systems. The research problem associated with such systems is to ensure they operate in agreement i.e., in a synchronised manner, and achieve global stabilisation and performance.
The main objective is to understand and develop novel decentralised and distributed control and estimation techniques for networks of dynamical systems. Focus is to devise control laws with gauranteed performance. In specific, novel decentralized and distributed control laws for networks of dynamical systems which ensures an upper bound on the achievable H2 and L2 performance in the presence of disturbances and time invariant delays are being developed. Mainly uncertain linear systems which has a specific class of nonlinearilty in loop and interconnected linearly and/or satisfying certain conditions for a specific nonlinear class are considered. Application areas are formation of UAVs, satellites and distributed critical infrastructure networks. Graph theory combined with systems and control ideas have been exploited to obtain novel results. Exploiting the topological properties associated with the dynamic interconnection of the nodes in the network, much of the design problems for large scale complex networks are formulated as solvable convex optimisation problems, which can be solved using existing Linear Matrix Inequalities.
Another specific interest is to study the effect of delays in the relative measurements, while designing the consensus control laws. Use of artificial delays in the measurement feedback are studied. Yet another research interest is to develop effective centralised/semi-decentralised and distributed monitoring schemes for the complex networks. Principles of exisiting nonlinear sliding mode observers are extended to address the monitoring problem associated with the large scale networks of dynamical systems. Specific focus is on the distributed critical infrastructure networks. Certain graph theoretic properties of the underlying topology of the networks are exploited, and thus the synthesis of observer gains is formulated as a convex optimisation problem with very limited number of design variables (strictly of the order of a single node dynamics).
[iv] Performance Recovery in Presence of Amplitude and Rate Saturation,
Design add-on nonlinear compensators for certain class of legacy controllers to bestow nominal performance in the presence of amplitude saturation in the input signal. The proposed nonlinear antiwindup compensation scheme is implemented and tested on a 1/16 scaled BAe Hawk jet trainer wind-tunnel model, mounted in a one degree of freedom configuration, made available in Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Bristol. Wind tunnel results demonstrated the usefulness of the antiwindup schemes in preventing performance deterioration due to the input constraints and the flexibility of the proposed approach from a practical perspective. The crisp recovery of linear behaviour is observed.
Recently the methods have been extended for a class of nonlinear systems under partial nonlinear dynamic inversion control. The class of systems under consideration is assumed to be globally quadratically stable, but some of the nonlinear terms are assumed not to belong to the range space of the input distribution matrix. Several anti-windup compensators are devised and applied to a wave energy converter control system, the dynamics of which fall into the class of nonlinear systems.
[v] Intelligent Multi Vehicle Autonomy
An autonomous`self-organised controlled' multi-agent network, comprising of two classes of agent: primary mission agents and relay agents is developed. The primary mission agents have predefined tasks to execute and operate autonomously within the field of operation. Although these agents operate independently, from a mission planning perspective the base station is required to maintain contact. In order to ensure this, relay agents are employed under the direct command of the base station with the objective of maintaining connectivity. An architecture is proposed to control the relay agents in such a way that connectivity, as measured in terms of the Fiedler eigenvalue, is maximized subject to the cost of moving the relay agents. A model predictive control-like layer is used to generate a set of way-points to position the relay agents at specific places at specific instances of time to maximize connectivity. These way-points are then converted into continuous time paths for the relay agents to follow. Accurate tracking is achieved despite the presence of exogenous disturbance (e.g. wind gusts) and plant model mismatches associated with the RAs.
Main Research Supports are from UKSA, ESA, and UKIERI.
Main Industrial Collaborators are:
European Space Agency, ELV, GMV, Astrium (UK/France), Thales Alenia, Scisys, NGC Canada, Deimos