Center for Dynamics and Control of Smart Structures

CURRENT RESEARCH AREAS

1.Research on Very Small-Scale Servo Systems

Sensing and actuation devices on length scales of millimeter and smaller will be considered in large arrays, and communication and hierarchical control issues will be treated. Nonlinear problems in MEMS devices such as snap-through instabilities, hysteresis, thermal conditioning etc. will be attacked from the viewpoint of local control.

2. Modeling for Sensing and Control:

Diverse fundamental physical models of magnetoelastic and piezoelastic materials will be treated from rigorous, modern, mathematical viewpoints. Methods for reduction of nonlinear partial differential equations into low order ordinary differential equations capturing the essential physics will be developed. Methods for stability analysis, and feedback stabilization will be developed. Problems involving frequency dependent hysteresis will be attacked from rigorous physical understanding coupled with experimental characterization. The tools created here will be useful in the design of millimeter scale and larger scale actuators and sensors.

3. Systems of Embedded Micro-actuators for the Control of Flow over Airfoils and in Arrays of Microvalves

Models of fluid flow over lifting surfaces will be used to capture sufficient detail to control flow separation. Hybrid control (combining gross pitch motions with coordinated motions of microactuators) strategies will be developed. A modular ducted flow experiment will serve as a testbed. The needed MEMS sensor/actuator arrays will be fabricated using the Smart-MUMPS process at MCNC. This will enable integration of control electronics with actuators.

4. Issues in the Control of Fluids on Small Length Scales

Mechanisms of fluid transport based on (i) direct boundary actuation, (ii) thermal effects exploiting bubbles, (iii) electro-osmotic flows, (iv) streaming based on rectification of oscillatory flows, (v) electrocapillarity, and (vi) electro/magneto-rheological effects will be investigated. Fundamental mathematical analysis will be carried out.

5. The Communications Theory of Very Large-Scale Device Networks

Quantized actuator concepts needing low local bandwidth will be investigated in the formation of effective sensor-actuator networks. Tradeoffs between network bandwidth and control performance will be analyzed.

6. Numerical Methods and CAD

Numerical integrators for geometrically nonlinear models will be developed (especially for magnetostrictive materials). Tools for systematic model reduction will be developed and implemented in software based on scripting languages. Field visualization algorithms and tools will be developed, to support actuator design and optimization.

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