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Model predictive controllers use dynamics models to solve constrained optimal control problems. However, computational requirements for real-time control have limited their use to systems with low-dimensional models. Nevertheless,…
Robotic blimps, as lighter-than-air (LTA) aerial systems, offer long endurance and inherently safe operation but remain highly susceptible to wind disturbances. Building on recent advances in moving mass actuation, this paper addresses the…
Model Predictive Control (MPC) is a powerful control strategy; however, its reliance on online optimization poses significant challenges for implementation on systems with limited computational resources. One possible approach to address…
This paper presents an occupancy-predicting control algorithm for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in buildings. It incorporates the building's thermal properties, local weather predictions, and a self-tuning…
A low-order method is presented for aerodynamic prediction of wings operating at near-stall and post-stall flight conditions. The method is intended for use in design, modeling, and simulation. In this method, the flow separation due to…
Control barrier functions (CBFs) are an effective model-based tool to formally certify the safety of a system. With the growing complexity of modern control problems, CBFs have received increasing attention in both optimization-based and…
Offline learning is a key part of making reinforcement learning (RL) useable in real systems. Offline RL looks at scenarios where there is data from a system's operation, but no direct access to the system when learning a policy. Recent…
This paper presents a novel model predictive control (MPC) approach for autonomous pick-and-place between moving platforms with a hook-equipped aerial manipulator. First, for accurate and rapid modeling of the complex dynamics, a digital…
We investigate pneumatic non-prehensile manipulation (i.e., blowing) as a means of efficiently moving scattered objects into a target receptacle. Due to the chaotic nature of aerodynamic forces, a blowing controller must (i) continually…
We present a novel method for designing higher-order Control Barrier Functions (CBFs) that guarantee convergence to a safe set within a user-specified finite. Traditional Higher Order CBFs (HOCBFs) ensure asymptotic safety but lack…
Control barrier functions (CBFs) provide an effective framework for enforcing safety in dynamical systems with scalar constraints. However, many safety constraints are more naturally expressed as matrix-valued conditions, such as positive…
This paper addresses the lack of a general methodology for the controller synthesis of an optical instrument on-board a stratospheric balloon-borne platform, such as a telescope or siderostat, to meet pointing requirements that are becoming…
Recent advances in Model Predictive Control (MPC) leveraging a combination of first-order methods, such as the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM), and offline precomputation and caching of select operations, have excitingly…
We study the online robust control problem for linear dynamical systems with disturbances and uncertainties in the cost functions, with limited preview of the future disturbances and the cost functions, $N$. Our goal is to find an online…
This paper introduces a Data-Fused Model Predictive Control (DFMPC) framework that combines physics-based models with data-driven representations of unknown dynamics. Leveraging Willems' Fundamental Lemma and an artificial equilibrium…
This paper investigates joint trajectory and active beamforming design for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-enabled ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) systems under finite blocklength (FBL) transmission. Unlike conventional…
In recent years, drones have found increased applications in a wide array of real-world tasks. Model predictive control (MPC) has emerged as a practical method for drone flight control, owing to its robustness against modeling…
In reinforcement learning, an agent attempts to learn high-performing behaviors through interacting with the environment, such behaviors are often quantified in the form of a reward function. However some aspects of behavior-such as ones…
State-of-the-art model-based Reinforcement Learning (RL) approaches either use gradient-free, population-based methods for planning, learned policy networks, or a combination of policy networks and planning. Hybrid approaches that combine…
The coupling disturbance between the manipulator and the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) deteriorates the control performance of system. To get high performance of the aerial manipulator, a robust fractional order fast terminal sliding mode…