The research objective of this Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award is to explore novel control strategies for minimizing power consumption of autonomous microsystems. Microsystems are engineered devices with sub-millimeter dimensions; at this scale, many phenomena become important that are ignored in larger devices, including many energy losses in circuitry. New control strategies will dramatically reduce total energy usage by coordinating motion control with active regulation of power electronics and sensor circuitry. These strategies will be based on switching control theory, where the various components of a microsystem are regulated through proper timing of a finite number of commands. These switching commands can be implemented especially efficiently in miniaturized systems. Switching control theory will be enhanced to provide robust performance in the presence of variation in the behavior of underlying physical components, and to adapt to changing conditions over time. Deliverables will include comprehensive controller design and optimization procedures, micro-scale component modeling tools, documentation of innovations in switching control theory, experimental verification on micro-robotic testbeds, engineering student education, and interactive on-line learning tools for secondary students.
Successful realization of this research will increase understanding of fundamental trade-offs between power consumption and performance of interconnected micro-scale dynamic systems. The primary application is the control of insect-like terrestrial micro-robots, where small size dramatically limits power availability. Minimal-power control and optimization algorithms will be a major enabling step towards the creation of micro-robotic tools for emergency, health, and maintenance workers, and will have wider application to other microsystems such as unattended sensor nodes and implantable medical devices, where resource or energy conservation is critical. In the process, micro-robotics will be used as a theme for developing interactive in-class lessons and online programs teaching concepts such as work and energy to secondary students, with interactive online activities refined for broad dissemination over the Internet.
