This research will focus on developing a methodology and a software tool for the design and verification of heterogeneous controllers composed of multiple simple controllers. The component controllers may operate either on different operations regions or on different time scales. The design tool will use qualitative and semiquantitative simulations of the plants and controllers as produced by the QSIM and NSIM simulators to map out possible behaviors, thus producing automatic stability proofs. (Qualitative models specify monotonic relationships between variables, while semiquantitative models specify envelopes which bound the function relating the variables.) Models of faults and disturbances will be used to test the robustness of proposed controllers, and either prove their stability or suggest modifications to the control law. This is a collaborative project with Prof. Benjamin Kuipers, Department of Computer Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas. //
